Final Blog Post (Video)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKXQbIBt9C8

I am posting this video because it is simply hilarious, but also and mainly because I think it shows the collaboration that must have went into the work of each of Shakespeare’s plays. Shakespeare the man has become a legend that no other author has been able to supersede. What most of us forget is that he did not reach this status alone. He worked with an entire company of actors who during the process of performing must have discussed the changing of lines or speeches that are now immortalized in Shakespeare’s folio. It’s crazy to think that some of the most famous words ever written could have been someone else’s ideas but it does sound more realistic. After all, a whole troop of actors and writers are better than one. If nothing else it is ridiculously funny to think about a group of actors drunk in some pub in London fighting over lines.



The other issue that is brought up in the video is the fact that Shakespeare was a successful play write that was out to make money. In order to make money he had to appeal to his audience and sometimes pander to the will of the masses. While there is nothing wrong with this, it does take some of the romance out of the myth that is Shakespeare. I am not trying to say that the man didn’t have integrity, but it is always interesting to think if there are other motives for writing. We have already seen this pandering when it came to impressing King James when Shakespeare presented his lineage in Macbeth. We also know that Shakespeare wrote an entire play for his popular character Falstaff mainly because his presence would fill the Globe. I’m not trying to portray Shakespeare as a bad guy, after all the man was just trying to make a living. I just think that there are more realistic views of him. He was brilliant and along with his acting troop made some of the most profound works to ever grace the written page. That being said it is still important to remember that Shakespeare was a man, a human being with faults.