Publisher's Synopsis
This a short biography, a primer for students who know little about Shakespeare. It uses an unusual literary device to teach. A sort of play. With characters in Shakespeare's family, and his fellow players in London. All is based on facts as we know them. No movie "Anonymous" here, that is, fantasy. The dialogue is of my own imagination and modern in tone, but there are no contra indications, i.e., nothing that you have to suspend your disbelief ab out. In other words, it works as a teaching tool. There are also the usual: tables, a map of the Stratford area, and a few short essays, one about Shakespeare's family, and one about the so-called "Authorship Question". The author's main hope that the Primer will present Shakespeare in a light he is not usually seen in: that is, as a simple human being who was blessed with an incredible literary power and grasp of human nature. He was not a god, as he was though of by some in the 19th century, nor was he an illiterate boob, or a simple money-lender. He wrote the plays that bear his name, and the facts in this book will leave very little doubt in any student's mind who considers it reasonably.
