The ‘bardolatory’ Shakespeare

Learn some insights into the bard’s writing style and its enduring popularity. For more Shakespeare, try these Amazon affiliate links:
Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Leather-bound Classics)
Shakespeare in a Divided America: What His Plays Tell Us About Our Past and Future
Hamlet
The Food of Love: Songs, Dances, and Fancies for Shakespeare

Watch the Hartiverse video about Shakespeare here: https://youtu.be/iyDb2W-JNsk

Poet and playwright William Shakespeare left a legacy that includes 38 plays, two long narrative poems, 154 sonnets and many other poems. Almost all of his plays have been translated into nearly every language and performed throughout the world.

Shakespeare preferred the poem style known as blank verse. Scholars consider him the master of the form. He used iambic pentameter in his poetic work which means that his words normally don’t rhyme, constitute ten syllables to a line, and are recited with a stress on every second syllable. It’s also interesting to note that the blank verse he used in his early poetic forms is fairly different from the form he used in his later plays, showing his evolution as a writer honing his craft. However whether the poem is older or newer, his sentences start, pause and finish at the end of lines, keeping the reader or viewer of his stage productions involved throughout the performance.

Shakespeare tempered his blank verse with cadence. The variation he used brings a new strength and malleability to the poetry used in his plays. There are many instances of this from Julius Caesar to Hamlet. Looking at an extract taken from Hamlet, you can see how Shakespeare used blank verse to convey the excitement of Hamlet’s mind. This is from Hamlet, Act 5, Scene 2, Verses 4 through 8.

“Sir, in my heart there was a kind of fighting
That would not let me sleep. Methought I lay
Worse than the mutines in the bilboes. Rashly—
And prais’d be rashness for it—let us know
Our indiscretion sometimes serves us well.”

The practical working of the theatre and Shakespeare’s poetic genius go hand in hand. Most of the themes of his stories were inspired by classical sources such as Dante, Petrarch and others. Shakespeare integrated vigorous adaptations of the plot to the ancient themes. He also integrated subplot techniques to help explore as many sides of a life situation as possible. He so skillfully crafted the chronology of events that every subplot makes a direct link back to the main plot. Aristotelian idealization of a plot is at work in many of Shakespeare’s plays.

Shakespeare was greatly admired for being a poet and dramatist at the same time during his lifetime, but it was after the 18th century when his popularity really soared.

Shakespeare’s work was much beloved during the Romantic Age. His work fascinated the Victorians and George Bernard Shaw to the extent that the Victorians expressed appreciation of Shaw’s work as “bardolatory.” Such remarks can be seen from different people from different ages and shows us the importance and popularity of the bard’s work throughout the history of English literature.

Hopefully you enjoyed this small insight into Shakespeare and the impact of his work, as it continues to be performed annually worldwide and adapted to TV and movies. Please give the video a thumbs up and subscribe to the channel. Fare thee well, lads and lasses!

jamiehart

Content creator and Chewbacca cosplayer.

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