The Problem
Shakespeare’s burial is recorded in Stratford’s parish register on 25 April 1616. We do not know the cause of Shakespeare’s death.
– Shakespeare Birthplace Trust
Is this because Shakespeare’s death has been fully researched and investigated and such researched investigation has yielded less than satisfactory answers? Is it because his death hasn’t heretofore been researched or investigated fully – or at all? A combination thereof?
It is the Project’s opinion the statement ‘we do not know the cause of Shakespeare’s death’ is because his death has not been investigated adequately or competently. Heretofore, no one has apparently been interested in asking, and researching with any seriousness or depth, the following question: why no contemporaneous record has survived documenting Shakespeare’s death or cause thereof? Repeated by scholars, researchers, tour guides and everybody else is the same old, tired refrain: ‘we just don’t know.’
To that end, it might not be unreasonable to state heretofore Shakespeare’s death has never been fully examined, fully. As nature abhors a vacuum, so too does the Project. The time had long arrived for someone – anybody – to start the research; SDRP answered the call. And in so answering, the Project can do no better than being mindful of Peter Alexander’s first sentence in his Introduction of his seminal 1951 work The Tudor Edition of William Shakespeare, The Complete Works, p. ix: “It is still true in the study of Shakespeare that ‘the dispersion of error is the first step in the discovery of truth.’”
___________________________
Why has so much been written about William Shakespeare? Why is he the most studied author, or for that matter, maybe one of the most studied and researched persons of all time? Why is his birthplace in Stratford-upon-Avon a multi-million dollar tourist and academic industry? Why do his nifty little plays matter? Why Shakespeare?
It might have something to do with the fact he is the greatest writer of words. Ever. Shakespeare is heart-swooning lines of poetry, gut-wrenching lines of pain, genius stacked on brilliance; he’s life and death, jealousy and forgiveness, love with passion, hate with lust, verse with virtue, porn with prose, redemption and revenge; he’s fools with wisdom, kings with less; he’s wit ever writ. His words, music, without notes. Or, to quote John Dryden in 1668, Shakespeare “had the largest and most comprehensive soul…when he describes any thing, you more than see it, you feel it too.”[1] Shakespeare is, simply, the world’s greatest wordsmith.
The Folger Shakespeare Library, in Washington, DC – holder of the world’s largest Shakespeare collection – is home for approximately 277,000 pieces of literature. The collection not only includes Shakespeare works and books about Shakespeare’s life but it also includes thousands of pieces of literature created in – or writ about – the English early modern period. Not one is a contemporaneous written account of, nor a later researched piece dedicated to, Shakespeare’s death or cause thereof. When Shakespeare died on 23 April 1616 no one said a thing; it is puzzling.[2]
The historical record accurately shows Shakespeare wrote or co-wrote 38 plays and had a hand in 2 more. The historical record also accurately reveals many Shakespeare references during his lifetime: municipal records, local letters, court records, literary acknowledgements and references writ about Shakespeare and his writing by other playwrights. And then, when he died…nothing. Silence. It was as if the 11th Commandment was duly passed on his death and promulgated thusly: Thou Shalt Henceforth Nor Voice Nor Write Of Shakespeare Under Pain Of Excommunication and/or Confiscation Of Thy Worldly Goods. And just like that, poof, the record goes dry. Thus, the Project can make its first Investigative Finding:
IF – The reason why modernity has no contemporaneous account of Shakespeare’s death is because none were written.[3]
Might there be a logical reason why no contemporaneous comment on his death exists? And from that reason can a possible cause of death be objectively determined? Prior to investigating reasons for the silence, a quick look at the two currently-held beliefs as to Shakespeare’s cause of death provides some background.
[1] John Dryden (1631-1700), Of Dramatick Poesie an Essay, (London: 1668).
[2] As noted, Shakespeare’s burial was recorded in Holy Trinity Church’s burial register contemporaneously with his passing; the entire entry dated 1616 April 25 reads thusly: Will. Shakspere, gent. And, there are prefatory, elegic comments – i.e., a poem or short written piece lamenting someone’s death –acknowledging Shakespeare’s death written in 1623 – seven years after his death – in William Shakespeare, Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies Published According to the true Originall Copies (London: Printed by Isaac Jaggard and Ed. Blount, 1623.), aka, The First Folio, hereinafter, the Folio. Unless otherwise noted all elegic comments and excerpts from Shakespeare’s plays are taken from The Tudor Edition of William Shakespeare The Complete Works, ed. Peter Alexander (Collins, 1951), hereinafter identified as Works.
[3] Throughout the Project’s investigation there are instances when enough evidence – or lack thereof – provide sufficient information to make various Investigative Findings. These findings vary in strength: some are unassailable, some are not quite as strong. Be that as it may, the Project only made a Finding if the evidence met the minimum standard of ‘on a balance of probabilities.’ Meaning, in the opinion of the Project, the Investigative Findings are more than a possibility, but a likely probability; and sometimes, certain.