Product Description

Winner of the BBC Four / Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction 2006.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #5727 in Books
• Published on: 2006-04-06
• Binding: Paperback
• 464 pages

Jonathan Bate, Sunday Telegraph
One of the few genuinely original biographies of Shakespeare.

Sam Leith, Spectator
An excellent book… Shapiro deserves whoops of applause.

David Lister, Independent
Deliciously vivid… Shapiro weaves a tantalising narrative.

Customer Reviews

Seminal year, seminal study
1599 was a particularly eventful Elizabethan year. It witnessed, among other things, the building of the Globe, Essex's beleaguered campaign in Ireland, the phoney ('invisible') Spanish Armada and endless speculation about the ageing Queen's successor. Shapiro chooses to put this year in the spotlight not just because of its historical richness but because it was, he suggests, the decisive year in Shakespeare's development as a writer. Here, he is in agreement with Frank Kermode who, in 'Shakespeare's Language' (2000), reaches a similar conclusion.

'1599' is a book with many virtues, not least of which is a readability and accessibility that make it ideal for both general and student reading. It has pace, structure and a wonderfully lucid and engaging style. It is particularly interesting when making assertions that seem unlikely. We all know that Shakespeare wrote 'romantic' comedies, unlike the 'realistic' ones of Jonson, Middleton et al. But Shapiro tells us, on the basis of its historically informed details, that As You Like It - one of the author's four plays of that year, he thinks - possesses a new and occasionally gritty realism. As well as its cross-dressing, sylvan setting, pastoral singing and happy ending, the satirical voices of Touchstone and Jaques exploit the vogue for malcontented social criticism created by Jonson's 'humour' play of 1599. And he thinks it no coincidence that Rosalind should enter the forest of Arden disguised as a soldier, many of whom would have been seen disconsolately returning home from the ill-fated Irish campaign that summer.

Shapiro makes the excellent point that we need to look beyond printed material to get a fuller idea of Shakespeare's sources - beyond the likes of Holinshed, Plutarch and Lodge, in other words. Elizabethan culture was largely oral/aural and only rarely literary, resulting in prodigious and retentive memories. The most famous preacher of the day was Lancelot Andrewes, who gave the Lenten sermon at Richmond Palace in 1599, where Shakespeare just happened to be performing for the court. By chance, Andrewes's text has survived, enabling Shapiro to identify verbal echoes between it and some of the opening exchanges in Henry V.

Admittedly, one reason why Shapiro is so convincing may be his tendency to present supposition as fact. 'Shakespeare was caught up in writing As You Like It pretty clearly by late summer 1599...' And a few pages later, 'The first role he would create for Armin would be Touchstone.' Yet it is by no means certain that Shakespeare hadn't already written AYL in 1598 (as the new Arden editor of the play, Juliet Dusinberre, 2004, believes probable) or that the role of Touchstone wasn't in fact played by Kemp before his imminent departure from the Chamberlain's Men, as Dusinberre argues.

But Shapiro's ideas are at the very least plausible as well as intriguing. He tells us, for example, that before turning to the theatre Robert Armin had trained as a goldsmith - whose professional emblem was a touchstone! Whether a fortunate coincidence or an in-joke used to reconstruct the history of the Chamberlain's Men there's ultimately no telling, but it is a fascinating detail characteristic of an outstanding book. '1599' represents an innovative and highly successful approach to Shakespeare studies.

Brilliant
Shapiro has done a brilliant job of painting a picture of London in 1599, the year that Shakespeare wrote Henry V, Julius Caesar, As You Like It and started on Hamlet, going through as many surviving books and documents from that year as possible, mooring his narrative quite firmly in what facts we have, frank about the extent to which he is speculating when he does.

For those who are not London residents (maybe even for those who are) the first interesting page is the very first, with a map of London in 1599. There's a bit of cognitive dissonance at seeing Whitehall and Westminster so far outside the old city limits. And while I knew that the Tower roughly marked one end of the City, I didn't realise that St Paul's marked pretty much the other end. Even by Pepys' day, sixty years later, a lot of the West End had been built over. Shakespeare's generation must have been the last for whom Lincoln's Inn Fields really were fields.

Ireland also looms heavily in the story. Here you had a seemingly unending overseas conflict pitting English soldiers against bitter and successful insurgents, to the point that the government as a whole was becoming deeply discredited by its failure to win and the waste of money and soldiers.

Original take on life and times
This is a detailed take on the life, times and works of William Shakespeare, which, originally and to its eternal credit, focuses on one year of a productive life, the year in which he wrote "Hamlet", amongst other things. Shakespeare is put into his artistic, religious and historical context.

While the research put into this book is prodigious, it does not weigh the book down; it is perfectly accessible to the layman, and provides an interesting counterpoint to Bill Bryson's recent effort. Both authors are unafraid to admit the paucity of the source materials available and are perfectly happy to acknowledge the impossibility of any form of academic certainty. How refreshing.