Undoubtedly, William Shakespeare was a great theater actor, whose career started in London, around the year 1590. He is credited to be the author of 39 plays (comedies, histories, and 4 tragedies), 154 sonnets, 3 poems, and various other verses. Nevertheless, since the 18th century, there are many, reliable doubts about the authorship of the cited works. Literary analysts have confirmed that those works are the results of a blending of various, different styles. Possibly, the writings are kinds of authorized chronicles of live performances, during which Shakespeare largely employed improvisation schemes. In the Renaissance, something similar happened in the matter of painting: the recognized painter didn’t paint anything, and exclusively was a director of the material contributions of a number of collaborators, disciples, and so on. I let scholars deepen the topic of authorship, and I humbly summarize a surprising conclusion: possibly, the greatest writer of all times didn’t write anything. Why have I decided to post on the blog a page dedicated to William Shakespeare? Because no cultural personality has been more influential in the field of music than Shakespeare himself. Of course, only grotesque, mysterious, and devilish aspects are suitable to the blog. Thus, here you can’t find a Shakesperean study, but only a short list of uncommon biographical data.
13 of Shakespeare’s plays are set in Italy, and experts say that Italian literature influenced one-third of his entire production. For what I think, the reported facts have convinced some biographers of the reliability of the author’s sexual relationship with a boy. In effect, at the time in Italy there was a large tolerance of homosexuality, as a reverberation of classical values, related to ancient Greece and ancient Rome. Nevertheless, Shakespeare was married and had a daughter, and a pair of twins. Strangely, Shakespeare’s wife was namesake of an American actress born in Brooklyn, Mrs. Anne Hathaway, who has become popular for the film “The Devil Wears Prada”. Even if there are many portraits of the bard from Stratford-upon-Avon, there are no descriptions of his physical aspect, and he never commissioned, or authorized, a portrait of himself. It means that there is no evidence of the validity, or fidelity, of what can be observed from paintings.
Apart from the huge literary legacy, the incredible modernity of Shakespeare resides on: having evidenced the tragic effects of incommunicability; a dramatic irony about the inevitable loneliness of human beings; the definition of ecstasy as any intense emotion; the large usage of techniques very suitable to the internet era, such as imagery, soliloquy, and metaphor. Inexplicably and sadly, while William Shakespeare loved Italy and Italian culture, Italians are among the worst connoisseurs of Shakespeare’s language, the British English. Although I’m attempting to improve my English, I know I’m too much old for truly excellent results. Yes, in case we Italians would like to become fluent at English, we should start to study and to practice English during childhood, and never stop in doing that. In conclusion, I promise that this isn’t the last page of the blog dedicated to William Shakespeare. Coming to music, I recorded a mash-up by mixing samples taken from two tracks, that are very Shakesperean, such as Mel Brooks – to be or not to be (1983), and Kid Creole and the Coconuts – agony … ecstasy (1987).
File name is “Mel Brooks & Kid Creole Vs Max Look DJ – Shakesperean shake (end of March 2025)”, length about 5’50”, rhythm at 108,5 BPM. Well, the mash-up can’t improve your English, but I think it’s funny to be danced.
