A Myth of Shakespeare (eBook)

The English author and literary critic Charles Walter Williams is the author of the play "A Myth of Shakespeare". The play features a mythical Shakespeare as the main character as he interacts with the characters of his better known plays such as, 'A Midsummer Night's Dream', 'Love's Labour Lost', 'The Merchant to Venice', 'Romeo and Juliet', 'King Henry IV', 'Antony and Cleopatra', among others. Williams explains, "The following verse was written, at the suggestion and largely on the plan of Mr. A. C. Ward, of the City Literary Institute, for a Shakespeare festival; the first part for the afternoon performance, the second for the evening. Its purpose therefore is only to provide a momently credible framework for representative scenes and speeches from the Plays. It does not pretend to be an episodical play, after Mr. Drinkwater's model, and here and there—especially in the scenes relating to the Court—it allows itself a freedom of anachronism which its title may excuse. It contains no thesis of Shakespeare's life, character, or genius, except that he was a born poet and working dramatist. The scenes included were intended, quite mythically, to represent barely possible incidents in his life, passages read to or by his friends, or performances in his theatre…"