The McGuffin

Finished 'Will in the World,' last night. Stephen Greenblatt (thank you Adam Gopnik) conjures up Shakespeare's world, gives us a sense of the man, and the times in which he lived. He puts the plays in a 'context,' which doesn't 'explain' anything, but makes them resonate in new ways. Greenblatt like Shakespeare, uses his imagination to create a world based on documentary evidence, myth, poetry and speculation.

Greenblatt accuses Shakespeare of 'raising the dead.' Othello, Lear, Hamlet, Macbeth; these characters come to us from a distant past (they were already past in Shakespeare's time) fully-formed, conjured by the playwright, re-animated by the actors (Shakespeare was a performer too). Playwright as: conjurer, magician.

Greenblatt tells us that sometimes Shakespeare seems to peek out from behind one of his masks, and as a 'for instance,' he mentions, Iago; and I was pleased because that's exactly how I felt when I recently saw 'Othello.' Iago is the villian who manipulates the other characters, he propels the plot forward, he steps outside events, he comments to the audience. Iago's speech examining reason and passion appeals directly to the audience, draws us into his conspiracy. This is exactly the role of the playwright.

Greenblatt suggests one of the reasons for the enduring appeal of the plays (besides the magnificent burst of poetic beauty) is that so much is 'not explained.' Why does Iago hate Othello? Why does Hamlet pretend to be mad? Why does Lear test his daughters love? Do the witches drive Macbeth to murder? There is a 'strangeness in the ordinary.' So, anyway, might as well end with the Bard himself: 'we are such stuff as dreams are made on, and our little life is rounded with sleep.'