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Interviews | December 1, 2009

A Meaty Tale: The Powells.com Interview with Julie Powell

1 comment By Megan

Julie Powell charmed readers with Julie and Julia, in which she chronicled her quest to cook, in one year, every recipe out of Julia Child's... Continue »

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1. 
   $17.49 Sale Hardcover add to wish list

   Cleaving: A Story of Marriage, Meat, and Obsession

   Julie Powell

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OneMansView, January 7, 2009

Provides factual perspective

The author has written a slim and cautionary book concerning what is factually known about William Shakespeare, including a critical look at opinions regarding various aspects of his life that have been perpetrated based on either questionable extrapolations or, worse, wishful or agenda-driven thinking. Only church documents, legal proceedings, and a few mentions by contemporaries give small hints as to his affairs. There are not even unambiguous details concerning his appearance. As the author states, Shakespeare left behind no written documents; only his signature appears a few times. One can only speculate from his poems and plays as to his basic thinking and personality. A written record of his plays exists primarily due to the very diligent efforts of two of his fellow troupe members who compiled most of his plays for publication in 1623, seven years after his death. Even they had to rely upon memory and variety of fragmentary remnants of his work, producing approximations in some cases.

The author examines Shakespeare in the context of the late sixteenth century during the reign of Elizabeth, an unusually tolerant monarch for the times, especially considering that England had transformed from being Catholic to Protestant over the last half of the 1500s. Although theaters and the production of plays flowered during the reigns of Elizabeth and James I, the times were harsh. Disease, especially plagues, and filth were rampant. Plagues closed theaters for a year or two most every decade. The openness of theater attendance scarcely concealed a highly stratified society as indicated by sumptuary laws regarding clothing, regulations concerning who could eat what, and the ability to pay fines for avoiding Anglican church attendance. Even general movement was restricted with the locking of London’s gates and the forbidding of travel at night. The author sprinkles in a few interesting bits like the desirability of having blackened teeth from massive sugar consumption, the bleaching of skin by rich women, or the fact, in these highly religious times, that forty percent of brides were pregnant at the time of marriage.

This book really makes little effort at evaluating individual works of Shakespeare, be it plays, sonnets, or narrative poems. It’s really not even known specifically when and in what order most of his work was produced or, in a few cases, if different titles refer to the same piece. The author notes that of 230 plays that have survived from that era, fifteen percent of those are Shakespeare’s, a very fortunate situation. In a time in which printed materials became far more available piquing interest in written words, Shakespeare was quite an innovator in the use of language. He seems to have been the first user of over 2000 words that are now part of the English language, as well as the coiner of numerous phrases that are widely used today. Interestingly, apparently lifting plot ideas and even entire passages from other author’s plays was entirely acceptable in that time.

Perhaps this book does fill a needed void. Separation of facts, though certainly few in number, from speculation is not to be sneezed at. Furthermore, it shows Shakespeare was not infallible. He could write totally incomprehensible passages; he did get his geography mixed up; and anachronisms are found in many of his plays. The book gives some factual perspective on one of the greatest writers in English language history, who benefited from living and working in an era of creativity that lasted only a few decades.

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