INTRODUCTION

No other author has had such an impact on the cultural life of a nation, or indeed the world, as William Shakespeare. His plays remain staples of the theatrical repertoire, in English and in translation and have inspired works in other media, from paintings of beloved characters to entire operas. His 154 sonnets, most written to an unidentified ‘fair youth’ or a ‘dark lady’, are bywords for the poetic expression of love. Turns of phrase coined by him are so embedded in the English language that most of us don’t even realise that he invented them. The course of true love never did run smooth. Neither a borrower nor a lender be. All the world’s a stage. All that glitters is not gold.

What’s so great about Shakespeare? First of all, we still speak the language Shakespeare wrote in. Some of his vocabulary is a little unfamiliar to twenty-first century readers, and some of his grammar can be a bit upside down and back to front, as he shoehorns his dialogue into strict lines of iambic pentameter. Essentially however, he writes in an English that is still comprehensible today. Compare him with Geoffrey Chaucer, author of the celebratedCanterbury Tales, who was living and working two hundred years before Shakespeare; those Tales are foundational works of English Literature, but quite difficult to read in the original medieval text.

Shakespeare shaped the way that the English see themselves, and the way the world sees England. He is still a central attraction for tourists visiting Great Britain. He also has much to say about England’s relationship with the other countries that are now part of the British Isles. By the time Shakespeare was born Wales had long been a principality of England; and Wales and Welshmen are frequently a source of comedy in his plays (1 March).

Ireland had historically been an enemy of England, and it is hard to find a good word about the Irish in the Shakespearean canon. Shakespeare lived to see the union of the English and Scottish crowns under James VI of Scotland and I of England, and his tone towards ‘north Britain’ changes notably after the event. Scotland had always been an enemy of England – and worse than that, an ally of England’s other old enemy France. But after James – who was of Scottish descent – ascended the throne, Shakespeare’s tone softens. InMacbeth, written after James became king, the Scots are honourable warriors and only Macbeth himself is a villain.

A fine volley of words, gentlemen, and quickly shot off.

The Two Gentlemen of Verona | Act II, scene 4

It is still possible, not only to read Shakespeare, but to be dazzled by his virtuosity with words. He can be richly descriptive: many of his plays use introductory speeches or prologues to set the scene with such vivid imagery that the audience is transported to another place and time (23 March). This so-called ‘suspension of disbelief’ is vital for the performance of theatre; theatregoers to a production of Hamlet know perfectly well that they’re not on the battlements of Elsinore Castle in Denmark, and that the characters they’re watching are only actors, and that it’s not really a ghost emerging from the fog. They prete