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Robert Cornfield

In Search of the Elusive Bard: The Plays Are Still the Thing

Shakespeare’s biographers are mesmerized by the misfit of the scant records of his life and the continuing power of his plays. No biography has found the right join of personality and achievement, and recent ones only add more wrinkles by proposing Shakespeare as a secret Catholic; merely a contributor to the collective authorship of theatrical Read More

Call Me Will, Forsooth: The Bard as Ordinary Guy

Will in the World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare, by Stephen Greenblatt. W.W. Norton, 430 pages, $26.95.

The records of Shakespeare’s life aren’t skimpy: There are deeds and court entries, real estate and town papers, his will, reports of performances of his plays, even an accepted example of his handwriting. From tributes in the original collection Read More