Monday, May 03, 2004

Biography
Will was forty years old today four hundred years ago. The Guardian suggests that by this age he was past his prime and seeking to collaborate: "About the time he turned 40, the once cockily independent Shakespeare had begun collaborating again. As John Jowett's superb new Oxford edition of Timon of Athens shows, that play was probably written in 1605, and Thomas Middleton wrote about a third of it. After Middleton, Shakespeare collaborated with Wilkins (Pericles), then John Fletcher (Cardenio, All is True, The Two Noble Kinsmen). In each case, an older man who had not had a hit in years teamed up with a young man who had just written a hit play, or several hit plays. Those young men did not need Shakespeare. He needed them. They had the juice. He didn't."
Related: World Takes to Stage for Shakespeare's Birthday

Labels:


posted 10:26 PM | link |

Post a Comment



Interactive
The William Shakespeare Weblog is looking for contributions. If you want to comment or follow-up on something which has been mentioned or you have something which you think might of interest to readers please get in touch. We would particularly like to hear from anyone connected with a production of one of Will's plays for a prospective diary feature. Above all else Shakespeare's words are as relevant now as then and its important for this weblog to reflect that.
posted 09/05/2004 | link | email

(c) Stuart Ian Burns 2004

contributors welcome

[archive]



You can see more of Shakespeare's World @ The Open Directory Project at dmoz.org


This page is powered by Blogger. Isn't yours?


Site Meter