A history lesson

As promised yesterday, it is time to read Shakespeare. A few people know this about me, I make it a goal to read one Shakespeare play a year. A couple of reasons why: it makes me at least sound cultured, it is a completely non-engineer thing to do, and as the years go by I find that I am understanding it more and more. This year I’m reading Titus Andronicus, which has cannibalism in it. Now that would have been fun reading in high school.

But what I really want to do is write something about Shakespeare that is absolutely true. I’m not making up a word of what follows. I’ve read the research and visited Stratford-upon-Avon and have seen it with my own eyes. And I really wish I had been told this story when I was first made to read the plays in high school.

Most people know the story of Shakespeare’s wife, Anne Hathaway. Who in the will was given his second best bed, which has made its way into lore. And you might even remember that he had a daughter named Judith who ended up marrying one of the actors in his troupe. But you never hear of his son, who died at the age of eleven. But in reality everyone has heard of his son, whose name was…

Hamnet

Check any history of Shakespeare’s life. His son Hamnet dies in 1596. Hamlet is first performed four years later. The greatest character in all of his writings, the one with the most lines, the greatest speeches, and the most endearing story is tied to the life story of the writer himself. But you never hear this fact and I still don’t know why.

People are taught Shakespeare but they never really get to see the man. He’s not a human being when you learn about him in high school, he’s just this machine chugging out play after play in a language that looks like English but really isn’t. But knowing of Hamnet changes this, he’s a father who has lost a son. A father looking for a way to bring immortality to his son’s name. And he does it by writing the greatest play in the English language. That is the story that schoolchildren should learn.

There is one other part to the story. When Hamnet died Shakespeare was just a playwright, he wasn’t Shakespeare yet. So while Shakespeare and his wife and Judith are all buried inside the chapel in Stratford in a place of honor, Hamnet was buried outside the church with the location of the grave lost to history. I stood there a few years back, looking out upon all of these headstones with all of the carvings on them worn away by age knowing that somewhere out there was his lost son. And I just had these feelings of sadness and respect and awe flow over me. Through his gift and his effort Shakespeare was able to bring someone born four hundred years later and an ocean away to his gravesite to remember his life and his family and his work. Whenever you feel that what you do in life is insignificant and that nothing you do will ever make a difference, remember that. You can always change the world, you just need the courage to try.