2 - Shakespeare’s Life, Times, and Stage

Summary

Pride of place in this year’s review must undoubtedly go to Samuel Schoenbaum’s William Shakespeare: A Documentary Life. Schoen-baum laid the groundwork for this biography in his earlier book, Shakespeare’s Lives (enthusiastically reviewed in Survey 25, 1972), where he examined the gradual growth of knowledge about Shakespeare over the centuries, and gave us many fascinating sidelights into the history of Shakespearian scholarship. It was inevitable that he should go on to produce a biography of his own, and the result is a handsome and sumptuously-produced volume, though perhaps somewhat awkward to handle because of its sheer size and weight.

The most striking feature of the book is its wealth of facsimiles of early documents. There are more than two hundred, and they include legal documents of all kinds, private letters and journals, title-pages and quotations from books, and reproductions of prints and engravings. What distinguishes this collection from the conventional kind of illustrated biography is Schoenbaum's concern for authenticity and relevance; nothing is included simply because it is picturesque or typical of the age.