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Shakespeare Day 2021

Permanence from plague

Published : Monday, 26 April, 2021 at 12:00 AM  Count : 972
Chinmay Prasun Biswas
Chinmay Prasun Biswas

Chinmay Prasun Biswas

Talent is always irresistible. It flourishes anywhere and everywhere, even in isolation. These words are very much applicable to that person who wrote -
"All the world's a stage,                                                                                                         And all the men and women merely players;                                                                      They have their exits and their entrances;                                                                                 And one man in his time plays many parts,"                                                                              (As You Like It, Act II, Scene VII)

He is none other than that great playwright William Shakespeare who entered (was baptised) into the stage of the world on 26th April, 1564 on the backdrop of plague and within an atmosphere of death.
Going back to England of 1564 we can visualize that a young couple John and Mary of Stratford-on-Avon lost their two children during the bubonic plague. To protect their 3 month old son William they locked themselves inside their home and closed windows, allowing no one to enter. They somehow managed to save their first son (third child) William Shakespeare whose life was marked by the first terrible Elizabethan plague of 1563-64.

Lord Mayor of London prohibited performance of plays in February 1564 because of plague. Probably it was the first ban imposed on staging plays. England was ravaged by outbreak of devastating plague since 14th century that continued till 1750 (severe in 1720). Medical science informs that black plague was a disease that swept through Europe before and after Shakespeare's life. The Elizabethans had no idea that plague was an infection resulting from the bite of infected fleas living on rats and infected others whoever came in contact with it. Though the origin was unknown, they used some quack medicines as preventive that yielded no result.

During outburst of black plague Globe Theatre and other places of public entertainment were forcibly closed intending to restrict the spread of this deadly disease. Amid killer plague during lifetime Shakespeare was highly fortunate to survive but lost his sisters Joan and Margaret (just babies), Anne (7) and his brother Gilbert. The most tragic loss was death of his only son Hamlet just at 11. During 1585 - 87 bubonic plague was dreadfully active in different places of England. Shakespeare appeared on the theatre world of London at such a time when Christopher Marlowe (senior to him by just two months), Robert Green, George Pain, Thomas Nash were strongly reigning there. In spite of that Shakespeare was gradually gaining popularity but just then, i.e.in 1592 severe plague appeared as an obstacle.  
 
After 15thstaging of Henry VI in 1593 theatres of London were facing threat of being closed sine die. Actors, musicians, dressers, caretakers and others were under financial hardship. Almost all Londoners were trying to flee away towards countryside to escape plague and just then outsider (as he was not a Londoner) Shakespeare appeared as a poet from Stratford. The result was Venus and Adonis, an erotic pastoral poem published in 1593. Probably it was Shakespeare's first publication that narrates the story of acute one sided love of Venus (the goddess of love) for Adonis, an exquisitely handsome young man who preferred hunting to love and her attempt to seduce him. In this poem plague has been referred to just once.

Some days later, when situation was nearing to normal, after the first staging of Titus Andronicus in Rose Theatre, all theatres were reopening gradually, Shakespeare joined Chamberlain Theatre. Already he earned fame. Now sound footing and financial fortune were added to it. Writing and staging of plays, creative gossiping at Mermaid Tavern with Ben Jonson, John Donne, Fletcher were going on but again plague outbroke in 1603 and he had to come back to Stratford. More than 30,000 Londoners diedof plague in 1604 and the Privy Council decided to shut down theatres because those were considered as hotspots for spreading plague.

Shakespeare's players lowered flag on the Globe theatre to half mast, locked the doors and were sheltered in their homes hoping and praying that plague would spare them and their families. Then Shakespeare was living at Silver Street in old London. Fortunately, this area escaped the worst ravage of plague but city authority employed stern measures to prevent infection of plague. Red crosses were painted on the doors of contaminated houses to identify plague affected houses. To prevent erasing the mark permanent oil based paint was used. In every home people were afraid of their neighbours and being terrified locked themselves inside just what we have to do now to prevent corona virus.

Shakespeare wrote King Lear, Macbeth and Anthony and Cleopatraduring 1605 and 1606. Again plague broke out in London in 1606 but this time Shakespeare wasn't isolated inside his house. He took The King's Men, his troop of players, for a tour of towns and countryside where clutch of plague didn't reach. However, staging plays for small country audiences didn't appear encouraging to Shakespeare in comparison to busy atmosphere of London and in the famous Globe Theatre. He kept himself busy with writing plays that resulted in some of the most beautiful and profound plays in his career. As found in these plays fear of plague always existed with Shakespeare and his audiences. In Antony and Cleopatra one Roman soldier worries that he will lose a fight "like the token'd pestilence / Where death is sure" - Probably it was plague.

Terrible plague of 1606 tragically snatched lives of many of those young actors who made theatres of London popular. Many experienced actors who worked for what were called the "Boy 6768 Companies" of young men had passed away. Their untimely deaths marked the end of theatre tradition old London. Shakespeare then hired a new troupe of senior actors and in 1608 and started performing in the Blackfriars Theatrein London anticipating that smaller gathering might reassure theatre lovers that probability of spreading plague was less likely from fewer people.

The Winter'sTale is one of the most famous plays written for Black friars Theatre. Shakespeare's plays speak of the terrible situation under plague and the sufferings of living in quarantine and lockdown with optimism that conditions would improve and future must be better. Shakespeare utilized his prolonged quarantine time in writing some of the world's most beautiful plays. Today, his legacy can inspire us to attempt to fill our lockdown days with creativity and transform our fears into hopes, as well as works. Plague is a determinant in the consequence of Romeo and Juliet. That memorable dialogue of Friar John in reply to Friar Lawrence's question -

"And finding him, the searchers of the town,                                                               Suspecting that we both were in a house                                                                          Where the infectious pestilence did reign,                                                                         Sealed up the doors and would not let us forth.                                                                       So that my speed to Mantua there was stayed."    
(Act- V Scene-II)  
 
Many scholars believe that plague, though tormented his personal and working career, created circumstances that reinforced Shakespeare's talent. From birth till death (23rd April, 1616) he was haunted by plague, lost his near ones (sisters, brother, son), friends and theatre colleagues. Amid such terrible situation he himself survived miraculously and worked continuously that has placed him on a seat of permanence, beyond the limited range of Globe Theatre to the vast stage of the globe.
The writer is a former Commissioner of Taxes












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