complexity. And, in the comedies particularly, a darkening of mood.
In 1610, at the height of his career (and still in his forties) Shakespeare, now wealthy, retired from London to live as a gentleman in his native Stratford, proudly displaying his family coat of arms. Alas, he did not live long. He died in 1616, probably of typhus – although a popular (and improbable) legend suggests alcohol as the cause of his premature demise.
The towering achievement of Shakespeare's art are the four tragedies: Macbeth , King Lear , Hamlet and Othello . Their greatness, too, is coloured by the ever darkening cloud of gloom that hangs over Shakespeare's late period, possibly the effect of having lost his only son, Hamnet, in 1596. Take, for example, Macbeth's final soliloquy, as he realises he faces his final battle:
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player,
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.
It's wonderfully complicated. Here is an actor telling us – as Shakespeare says elsewhere – that the world is a stage: just like the Globe. That bleak negativity of the last word (‘nothing’), which hits the ear like a door slamming, is echoed in the most tragic of the tragedies when the aged Lear – himself on the brink of death – comes on stage carrying the corpse of his beloved daughter, Cordelia, in his arms:
And my poor fool is hang'd! No, no, no life!
Why should a dog, a horse, a rat, have life,
And thou no breath at all? Thou'lt come no more,
Never, never, never, never, never!
The five-times repeated word would, in other contexts, be wholly banal, banal, banal, banal, banal. The dreadful climax of King Lear it is so powerful that the greatest Shakespearian critic we have had, Samuel Johnson, could not bear to watch the scene in the theatre nor read it on the page.
Is Shakespeare the greatest writer of the English-speaking world? Indubitably. But he is not, taken in the round, the easiest, or the most comfortable. That, of course, is part of the greatness.
CHAPTER 8
The Book of Books
T HE K ING J AMES B IBLE
Although we do not automatically think of it as literature, nor is it normally read in that spirit, the King James Bible is the most-read work in the English literary canon. (The word ‘canon’, incidentally, comes from the Roman Catholic Church's catalogue of ‘works which ought to be read’. The Church also drew up a stricter catalogue of books which must not be read – the Index Librorum Prohibitorum .)
The King James Bible (KJB) is still, worldwide, the most popular version of the Bible. Every American motel has one, in the bedside drawer, thanks to the indefatigable Gideons Society. But it's not simply the fact that it is so easily come by. What has made the KJB a Bible of first choice is that it is so wonderfully written. It was first published in 1611 – around the same time as Shakespeare's great tragedies. It, like them, stands as an example of the English language at its highest pitch of eloquence, subtlety and beauty. It can be admired for that reason, even by those who are not religious, or even atheists. There have been many other translations of the Bible – some, admittedly, are more accuratethan the KJB and more up-to-date in their vocabulary. But the KJB, uniquely, is the one version that has universally been valued for its expression. And that expression – even more than Shakespeare's – has soaked into our own expression and, it could be argued, even our ways of thinking.
What is meant by the ‘literary quality’ of the KJB is easier shown than described. Compare the following lines – they are among the best known in the New Testament and come from the Lord's Prayer, as set down by Matthew. The first is from the KJB, the second from one of the most recent American translations of the Gospels.
Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come.
In 1610, at the height of his career (and still in his forties) Shakespeare, now wealthy, retired from London to live as a gentleman in his native Stratford, proudly displaying his family coat of arms. Alas, he did not live long. He died in 1616, probably of typhus – although a popular (and improbable) legend suggests alcohol as the cause of his premature demise.
The towering achievement of Shakespeare's art are the four tragedies: Macbeth , King Lear , Hamlet and Othello . Their greatness, too, is coloured by the ever darkening cloud of gloom that hangs over Shakespeare's late period, possibly the effect of having lost his only son, Hamnet, in 1596. Take, for example, Macbeth's final soliloquy, as he realises he faces his final battle:
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player,
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.
It's wonderfully complicated. Here is an actor telling us – as Shakespeare says elsewhere – that the world is a stage: just like the Globe. That bleak negativity of the last word (‘nothing’), which hits the ear like a door slamming, is echoed in the most tragic of the tragedies when the aged Lear – himself on the brink of death – comes on stage carrying the corpse of his beloved daughter, Cordelia, in his arms:
And my poor fool is hang'd! No, no, no life!
Why should a dog, a horse, a rat, have life,
And thou no breath at all? Thou'lt come no more,
Never, never, never, never, never!
The five-times repeated word would, in other contexts, be wholly banal, banal, banal, banal, banal. The dreadful climax of King Lear it is so powerful that the greatest Shakespearian critic we have had, Samuel Johnson, could not bear to watch the scene in the theatre nor read it on the page.
Is Shakespeare the greatest writer of the English-speaking world? Indubitably. But he is not, taken in the round, the easiest, or the most comfortable. That, of course, is part of the greatness.
CHAPTER 8
The Book of Books
T HE K ING J AMES B IBLE
Although we do not automatically think of it as literature, nor is it normally read in that spirit, the King James Bible is the most-read work in the English literary canon. (The word ‘canon’, incidentally, comes from the Roman Catholic Church's catalogue of ‘works which ought to be read’. The Church also drew up a stricter catalogue of books which must not be read – the Index Librorum Prohibitorum .)
The King James Bible (KJB) is still, worldwide, the most popular version of the Bible. Every American motel has one, in the bedside drawer, thanks to the indefatigable Gideons Society. But it's not simply the fact that it is so easily come by. What has made the KJB a Bible of first choice is that it is so wonderfully written. It was first published in 1611 – around the same time as Shakespeare's great tragedies. It, like them, stands as an example of the English language at its highest pitch of eloquence, subtlety and beauty. It can be admired for that reason, even by those who are not religious, or even atheists. There have been many other translations of the Bible – some, admittedly, are more accuratethan the KJB and more up-to-date in their vocabulary. But the KJB, uniquely, is the one version that has universally been valued for its expression. And that expression – even more than Shakespeare's – has soaked into our own expression and, it could be argued, even our ways of thinking.
What is meant by the ‘literary quality’ of the KJB is easier shown than described. Compare the following lines – they are among the best known in the New Testament and come from the Lord's Prayer, as set down by Matthew. The first is from the KJB, the second from one of the most recent American translations of the Gospels.
Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come.
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