Will Shakespeare: All is True

About this book

This revolutionary work contends that Shakespeare was one of the most documented figures of all time: that he was regarded as a legend in his own time: and that this legend was recorded by the other leading playwrights in a series of works written throughout Shakespeare's career. This unique dramatic record also featured other leading figures of the time, with the controversial figure of the Earl of Oxford very prominent. The contrast between Oxford and Shakespeare is very much on display, with a tension between them. Dealing with two periods in the career, All is True commences with a startling reinterpretation of the so-called ‘Poetomachia’ plays of 1599, revealing a much greater involvement by Shakespeare. Written by an independent researcher, All is True contends that there were nearly twenty plays that focused on Shakespeare at various phases of his career, these works having been written by writers whose concentration on Shakespeare had a documentary intention. Using Ben Jonson’s mainly unused description of Shakespeare, the inquiry juggles with the differences between The Actor and The Sonnet Writer. In a new emphasis, the Actor is seen as essential to the writer. The second part of the inquiry outlines Shakespeare’s earliest years in London, these years seen as very active, concerning a Shakespeare who was regarded as a born achiever, from the time of first appearance in London. There is an outlining of Shakespeare's early development as a playwright, with some of the Shakespeare Apocrypha receiving treatment as early work that preceded the canon plays. The usually overlooked Robert Greene emerges with a much greater role in relation to Shakespeare and the Age. The reasons for his hostile outlook towards Shakespeare are revealed. Marlowe, and his role as the turning point artist of the epoch, is examined in relation to the various other influences of the 1580s time, in what was The Age of Euphues. Other greatly featured contemporaries include Jonson, Dekker, Marston, Hunsdon, Sir Edward Dyer, and The Young Man of the Sonnets. There is a surprising confirmation of the identity of The Dark Lady. Overall, this entirely new view of Shakespeare as a legend in his own lifetime claims to have located the real Shakespeare as his life exists in his own plays, in accordance with the accompanying powerful theatrical-documentary record from his own day. Not formally a biography, All is True outlines an emotional life history of the artist that connects the life of the author to the plays, as never before.