Kevin Gilvary - The Fictional Lives of Shakespeare

The Fictional Lives of Shakespeare

Modern biographies of William Shakespeare abound; however, close scrutiny of the surviving records clearly show that there is insufficient material for a cradle to grave account of his life, that most of what is written about him cannot be verified from primary sources, and that Shakespearean biography did not attain scholarly or academic respectability until long after Samuel Schoenbaum published William Shakespeare A Documentary Life in 1975.

This study begins with a short survey of the history and practice of biography and then surveys the very limited biographical material for Shakespeare.

Although Shakespeare gradually attained the status as a national hero during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, there were no serious attempts to reconstruct his life. Any attempt at an account of his life or personality amounts, however, merely to biografiction.

Modern biographers differ sharply on Shakespeares apparent relationships with Southampton and with Jonson, which merely underlines the fact that the documentary record has to be greatly expanded through contextual description and speculation in order to appear like a Life of Shakespeare.

Kevin Gilvary received his Ph.D. in English Literature from Brunel University London in 2015. He also holds a BA and MA in Classics as well as an MA in Applied Linguistics from the University of Southampton. He taught at Barton Peveril College in Hampshire, UK, for twenty years.

Routledge Studies in Shakespeare

For a full list of titles in this series, please visit www.routledge.com.

19 Shakespeares Asian Journeys
Critical Encounters, Cultural Geographies, and the Politics of Travel
Edited by Bi-qi Beatrice Lei, Poonam Trivedi, and Judy Celine Ick

20 Shakespeare, Italy, and Transnational Exchange
Early Modern to the Present
Edited by Enza De Francisci and Chris Stamatakis

21 Shakespeare and Complexity Theory
Claire Hansen

22 Women and Mobility on Shakespeares Stage
Migrant Mothers and Broken Homes
Elizabeth Mazzola

23 Renaissance Ecopolitics from Shakespeare to Bacon
Rethinking Cosmopolis
Elizabeth Gruber

24 Shakespeares Lost Playhouse
Eleven Days at Newington Butts
Laurie Johnson

25 Shakespeares Hamlet in an Era of Textual Exhaustion
Edited By Sonya Freeman Loftis, Allison Kellar, and Lisa Ulevich

26 Shakespeares Suicides
Dead Bodies That Matter
Marlena Tronicke

27 The Fictional Lives of Shakespeare
Kevin Gilvary

First published 2018
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2018 Taylor & Francis

The right of Kevin Gilvary to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
CIP data has been applied for.

ISBN: 978-0-8153-9443-3 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-351-18607-0 (ebk)

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Quotations of the works of Shakespeare are taken from Stanley Wells & Gary Taylor, eds. (1986) William Shakespeare: the Complete Works. Oxford: Clarendon Press.

The following abbreviations are used:

Plates 2.4, 2.6, 2.7 and 6.1 are used by permission of the Folger Shakespeare Library under a Creative Commons by SA license. Other images by the author.

This book is the outcome of many years of study, which resulted in my doctorate being awarded at Brunel University London in 2015. I owe a special debt of gratitude to my supervisor, Bill Leahy for overseeing my research, and to Sean Gaston, Tom Betteridge, and Philip Tew of the School of English & Humanities. Emma Jolly gave me constant help throughout my studies. I have also been grateful for advice from Ros Barber, Bob Griffin, and Steve Rollins, and in particular Bob Bearman of the Shakespeare Centre Library and Archive at Stratford-upon-Avon.

I myself learned a considerable amount from many speakers who gave papers at conferences held in London, Stratford-upon-Avon, (especially at the Shakespeare Institute), Washington D.C., and Ashland Oregon. The efficient staff at the British Library, the Bodleian Library, The National Archives, the London Metropolitan Archives, the Shakespeare Centre Library and Archive at Stratford-upon-Avon, Southampton University Library, the Hampshire Archives, the Hampshire Public Libraries, and the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington have all greatly assisted my research. The editorial team at Routledge under Michelle Salyga have been particularly helpful and understanding.