Two Current Theories
There are two current theories that attempt to explain how Shakespeare died. After thoroughly investigating each neither theory holds up; nor does either theory satisfactorily explain the silence around Shakespeare’s death.
The Merry Meeting
In 1663, approximately fifty years – 47 to be exact – after Shakespeare’s death, the historical record reveals its first and only comment about Shakespeare’s possible cause of death when vicar John Ward[1] jots in his diary, barely in passing, that
Shakespear Drayton and Ben-Jhonson had a merry meeting and itt seems drank too hard for Shakespear died of a feavour there contracted[2]
This is all the world has commenting on Shakespeare’s possible cause of death – a diary notation from a vicar approximately fifty years after the event. But for the vicar’s passing comment some fifty years after the fact there wouldn’t be a single recorded comment in the historical record about Shakespeare’s cause of death – contemporaneously recorded or otherwise. Think about that.
This view, based on Vicar Ward’s diary entry, has it Shakespeare died of a fever contracted after drinking too hard during a merry meeting with fellow dramatists Ben Jonson and Michael Drayton. No scholar lends this theory credence while, of course, leaving open the possibility anything is possible. Schoenbaum,[3] [4] Bate,[5] Honan[6] and Potter,[7] for various reasons, all think the diary entry lacks veracity and strains credibility; the Project agrees.
Interestingly, no scholar commenting on the merry meeting seems to have done a deep dive into the diary as a whole. As best the Project can determine previous scholarship lands more on the side of opinion only after reading the entries related to Shakespeare as opposed to researching Ward, deconstructing his personality and looking at his non-Shakespeare entries. That said, notwithstanding the opinion of previous scholarship tends to land on the side of ‘legend’ and is a correct opinion the Project felt it was important to investigate the diary further. Parts of the Project’s more in-depth analysis of Ward’s diary are posted under the heading The Merry Meeting.
Furthermore, it is important to keep in mind both Jonson and Drayton kept up letter writing campaigns with various other poets and playwrights during this time period; there is nothing in the historical record indicating either of them told/wrote to anybody about this alleged night of revelry they spent with Shakespeare just before he died. Therefore, if the three of them got drunk and Shakespeare died as a result thereof neither of the other two party-goers said anything. Which is odd because both Drayton and Jonson were gossips, self-promoters and letter writers – especially Jonson.
The space the merry meeting has commanded in the scholarsphere – fanciful space, it might be added – is not unlike the space given to the authorship question: out of the blue – decades or centuries after the fact – an idea surfaces, from somewhere, and ends up riding the wind for hundreds of years and sneaks into the conversation with zero supporting evidence. It is important to remember just because someone says something is so, doesn’t make it so. Just because someone said they won an election doesn’t make it so. Regardless, the evidence suggesting Shakespeare died of a fever contracted after drinking too hard is a 23 word diary entry written 47 years post-death.
Illness Not Connected To Drinking
The second potential cause of death that has gained traction amongst scholars is the incredibly weak conjecture positing Shakespeare died of illness sans the fevered hangover. The evidence put forth for this opinion is twofold: 1) in the spring of 1616 other people in Stratford died due to a circulating illness[8] and 2) a possible shaky signature on Shakespeare’s will – thereby maybe suggesting an infirm signature hand was due to illness.[9] Differing signatures on a document suggesting Shakespeare may have caught the same illness others caught is the foundation some researchers have combined to extrapolate he succumbed to sickness not due to drinking.
One of the biggest errors of modern Shakespearean scholarship – if not the biggest error – has been the focussed, extrapolated conjecture that a shaky signature was due, and only due, to illness and not, say, a broken hand, or poor writing instrument, or poor substrate underlying the document or perhaps a muscular condition or one hundred other reasons. Shakespeare might have been ill prior to his death; but might, doesn’t make it so. However, equally as possible is the fact he might have been as healthy as an eight year old horse. Such a flimsy conjecture, based on a possible shaky signature, that illness caused Shakespeare’s death was ripe for examination. More of the Project’s illness research is found at Alleged Illness.
Notwithstanding illness of some sort has seemingly won the most popular alleged cause of Shakespeare’s death propounded by scholars who have thought about it, it is still the measured words of Shakespeare Birthplace Trust which seems to have summed up the correct, current state of knowledge: ‘we do not know the cause of Shakespeare’s death.’
But why? Neither view – a fevered hangover or other illness – would seemingly induce the silence that surrounded Shakespeare’s death. But maybe that’s just the way it was in 17th century England. Maybe deaths in general weren’t commented on save the notation in a church register. Perhaps it’s not an oddity. Surely, that will point to the answer, the truth of the question, i.e., it was a societal trend, a cultural practice not to comment contemporaneously on a death. The Project decided to research death in 17th century England.
[1] John Ward (1629-1681), vicar Holy Trinity Church, Stratford-upon-Avon, 1662-1681.
[2] Folger MS V.a. 292, Fol 150r, John Ward Diaries, vol. 9, ca. 1662-1663, Folger Shakespeare Library. A semi-diplomatic transcription of selections from John Ward Diaries, vol. 9, from the Folger Digital Image Collection, edited by Emily Fine, Mary Hardy, Tobias Hrynick, Timothy Lundy, Kirsten Mendoza, Colin Rydell, Jenny Smith, Margaret Smith, and William Thompson.
[3] S. Schoenbaum, William Shakespeare: A Compact Documentary Life (Oxford University Press, 1977), 296.
[4] S. Schoenbaum, Shakespeare’s Lives (Oxford University Press, 1991), 78-79.
[5] Jonathan Bate, Soul of the Age: A Biography of the Mind of William Shakespeare (Random House, 2009), 404-405.
[6] Park Honan, Shakespeare: A Life (Oxford University Press, 1998), 406.
[7] Lois Potter, The Life of William Shakespeare A Critical Biography (Wiley Blackwell, 2012), 407.
[8] Honan, A Life, 406.
[9] Schoenbaum, A Compact Documentary Life, 297.