1
00:00:00,015 --> 00:00:03,048
This video is sponsored by Incogni

2
00:00:07,028 --> 00:00:09,568
"Life's but a walking shadow,

3
00:00:09,654 --> 00:00:11,422
"a poor player.

4
00:00:11,492 --> 00:00:14,890
"That struts and frets his hour
upon the stage."

5
00:00:15,520 --> 00:00:18,090
"And then is heard no more."

6
00:00:18,970 --> 00:00:24,065
"It is a tale, told by an idiot, 
full of sound and fury."

7
00:00:25,065 --> 00:00:27,431
"Signifying nothing."

8
00:00:30,127 --> 00:00:33,918
Despite being arguably
the most famous writer of all time,

9
00:00:33,968 --> 00:00:37,359
William Shakespeare is still a widely 
misunderstood figure.

10
00:00:37,699 --> 00:00:39,995
Today, Shakespeare is often viewed

11
00:00:40,025 --> 00:00:42,688
as the property of the cultural elite

12
00:00:42,698 --> 00:00:47,050
and his work is often approached
out of obligation rather than desire.

13
00:00:47,449 --> 00:00:49,865
And yet Shakespeare's plays

14
00:00:49,905 --> 00:00:55,077
were written first and foremost
to entertain audiences of all kinds,

15
00:00:55,458 --> 00:00:58,885
they are full of humour, 
slapstick, and clever word play

16
00:00:58,961 --> 00:01:02,213
- and have a deep simpathy
for ordinary people

17
00:01:02,263 --> 00:01:06,294
and the heartache, beauty, 
joy, and pain of human life.

18
00:01:07,601 --> 00:01:10,152
They are also hugely popular
all over the world

19
00:01:10,228 --> 00:01:13,486
and have been translated
into more than 100 languages.

20
00:01:13,866 --> 00:01:17,813
Shakespeare has had more impact
on the English language and culture

21
00:01:18,230 --> 00:01:20,227
than any other writer.

22
00:01:20,287 --> 00:01:22,651
And it all started with one book,

23
00:01:22,671 --> 00:01:25,373
assembled by two
of his friends and colleagues,

24
00:01:25,383 --> 00:01:27,566
and published in 1623,

25
00:01:27,644 --> 00:01:30,304
seven years after Shakespeare's death.

26
00:01:30,414 --> 00:01:33,779
Without this book, we may have lost
so much of his work

27
00:01:33,817 --> 00:01:37,942
- as 18 out of the 36 plays
included in the first folio

28
00:01:37,942 --> 00:01:39,949
had never been published before,

29
00:01:40,019 --> 00:01:44,311
including Julia Caesar, 
The Tempest, and Macbeth.

30
00:01:44,693 --> 00:01:46,799
If it were not for this book,

31
00:01:46,879 --> 00:01:51,418
Shakespeare might be considered
just another Elizabethan writer.

32
00:01:51,604 --> 00:01:54,501
Many of his plays
are about Kings or nobility,

33
00:01:54,551 --> 00:01:58,455
but Shakespeare always wrote
about the human being beneath the crown.

34
00:01:58,940 --> 00:02:02,895
Likewise, he would not want to be seen
as a one-of-a-kind "genius",

35
00:02:02,927 --> 00:02:06,815
but instead he would want us
to try and understand him as a man,

36
00:02:06,915 --> 00:02:11,096
a person with feelings, flaws
and contradictions.

37
00:02:11,409 --> 00:02:15,404
Just as his character,
Richard II wishes, when he says:

38
00:02:17,134 --> 00:02:22,261
"throw away respect, tradition,
form and ceremonious duty."

39
00:02:23,806 --> 00:02:26,228
"For you have but mistook me
all this while."

40
00:02:27,901 --> 00:02:30,390
"I live with bread like you,

41
00:02:32,220 --> 00:02:33,759
"feel want,

42
00:02:35,046 --> 00:02:38,490
"taste grief, need friends,

43
00:02:41,320 --> 00:02:42,497
"subjected.

44
00:02:42,557 --> 00:02:44,581
"How can you say to me I am a King."

45
00:03:04,194 --> 00:03:06,386
"All the world's a stage,

46
00:03:06,883 --> 00:03:09,619
"And all the men and women merely players;

47
00:03:10,290 --> 00:03:12,901
"They have their exits
and their entrances;

48
00:03:12,901 --> 00:03:15,986
"and one man in his time
plays many parts."

49
00:03:16,396 --> 00:03:20,618
William Shakespeare was born
in 1564 in Stratford-upon-Avon,

50
00:03:20,720 --> 00:03:23,544
then a small unexceptional town.

51
00:03:23,744 --> 00:03:25,806
William went to a grammar school

52
00:03:25,866 --> 00:03:28,567
where he learned Classics 
like Ovid and Plutarch,

53
00:03:28,607 --> 00:03:31,731
whose work he would later
draw upon in his plays.

54
00:03:31,847 --> 00:03:34,347
Unlike other dramatists of his time,

55
00:03:34,397 --> 00:03:37,072
Shakespeare did not attend University.

56
00:03:37,102 --> 00:03:41,115
In 1582 William married 
a farmer's daughter called Anne Hathaway.

57
00:03:41,485 --> 00:03:45,141
He was only 18 on his wedding day
while Anne was 26

58
00:03:45,223 --> 00:03:48,332
- she was also pregnant
with their first child.

59
00:03:48,682 --> 00:03:51,626
The couple had three children together,

60
00:03:51,646 --> 00:03:55,075
a daughter called Susanna,
and then twins Judith and Hamnet.

61
00:03:55,153 --> 00:03:57,585
His family would remain in Stratford

62
00:03:57,585 --> 00:04:00,412
while he moved to London
to pursue his dreams.

63
00:04:00,476 --> 00:04:04,723
And by 1592 Shakespeare was
a well-known actor on the London stage.

64
00:04:08,295 --> 00:04:11,041
Shakespeare co-founded his Theatre Company

65
00:04:11,041 --> 00:04:12,671
"The Lord Chamberlain's men"

66
00:04:12,721 --> 00:04:16,117
which would later be called
"The King's Men", in 1594,

67
00:04:16,181 --> 00:04:18,771
and began writing plays
for them to perform.

68
00:04:18,851 --> 00:04:21,713
At first he wrote 
history plays and comedies.

69
00:04:21,976 --> 00:04:24,966
The London audience
flocked to the history plays

70
00:04:25,038 --> 00:04:28,374
of which there are ten
that cover English history

71
00:04:28,414 --> 00:04:30,983
from the 12th to the 16th century.

72
00:04:31,003 --> 00:04:33,292
In the same way Shakespeare's comedies

73
00:04:33,292 --> 00:04:35,826
have some dark themes
and tragic situations,

74
00:04:35,886 --> 00:04:38,451
and the tragedies have some comic moments,

75
00:04:38,513 --> 00:04:40,074
the Shakespeare history plays

76
00:04:40,127 --> 00:04:43,089
are not just about history
with a capital H.

77
00:04:43,279 --> 00:04:46,230
"Is this a dagger which I see before me?"

78
00:04:46,320 --> 00:04:49,490
They are first and foremost human dramas.

79
00:04:49,580 --> 00:04:51,177
In fact they are the source

80
00:04:51,177 --> 00:04:53,830
of some of Shakespeare's
most memorable characters,

81
00:04:53,894 --> 00:04:58,774
including the flamboyant, camp,
verbose, and vain Richard II.

82
00:04:58,954 --> 00:05:01,954
"With mine own tears I wash away my balm."

83
00:05:02,064 --> 00:05:04,289
"With mine own hands,
I give away my crown.

84
00:05:04,449 --> 00:05:07,104
"With mine own tongue
deny my sacred state."

85
00:05:07,334 --> 00:05:10,467
The fiery and impetuous
young Knight Hotspur

86
00:05:11,172 --> 00:05:13,448
"Yea, on his part I'll empty
all these veins,

87
00:05:13,448 --> 00:05:15,880
"and shed my dear blood
drop by drop on the dust."

88
00:05:15,880 --> 00:05:18,070
"But I will lift the downtrodden Mortimer

89
00:05:18,070 --> 00:05:20,176
"as high in the air
as this unthankful king."

90
00:05:20,216 --> 00:05:22,666
or the conniving 
machiavellian Richard III,

91
00:05:22,666 --> 00:05:24,137
a power hungry character

92
00:05:24,137 --> 00:05:27,483
whose hunchbacked form symbolised
his crooked morality:

93
00:05:31,662 --> 00:05:34,393
"Now is the winter of our discontent

94
00:05:34,673 --> 00:05:39,746
"made glorious summer
by this son of York."

95
00:05:41,645 --> 00:05:46,222
The histories are as much about people,
their lives, relationships, and feelings,

96
00:05:46,362 --> 00:05:49,071
than they are about the story of a nation.

97
00:05:49,571 --> 00:05:52,175
Shakespeare was primarily a storyteller

98
00:05:52,205 --> 00:05:54,312
and like popular entertainment today,

99
00:05:54,342 --> 00:05:57,046
the plays sometimes
deviate from historical facts

100
00:05:57,046 --> 00:05:59,788
for the purpose of dramatic effect.

101
00:05:59,808 --> 00:06:02,894
Richard III was not the villain
Shakespeare made him out to be,

102
00:06:02,924 --> 00:06:05,045
but it suited Tudor propaganda

103
00:06:05,137 --> 00:06:08,150
- as did Shakespeare's version
of "The War of the Roses",

104
00:06:08,390 --> 00:06:11,112
and in Richard II he has the King

105
00:06:11,142 --> 00:06:14,192
the same age 
as his wife Isabella of Valois,

106
00:06:14,258 --> 00:06:19,712
whereas the real Richard II was 29
when he married the 7-year-old Isabella.

107
00:06:19,802 --> 00:06:22,149
After the early histories and comedies,

108
00:06:22,199 --> 00:06:25,398
Shakespeare started 
to move towards tragedies.

109
00:06:25,458 --> 00:06:29,772
The period follows the death
of Shakespeare's 11-year-old son Hamnet,

110
00:06:29,817 --> 00:06:32,887
(the twin of Judith) who died in 1596,

111
00:06:32,887 --> 00:06:35,666
which must have been 
on Shakespeare's mind

112
00:06:35,683 --> 00:06:38,077
when writing the late comedy
"Twelfth Night",

113
00:06:38,152 --> 00:06:40,510
a play about Viola and Sebastian,

114
00:06:40,622 --> 00:06:43,402
twins who were separated
during a wild storm

115
00:06:43,402 --> 00:06:45,542
but are eventually reunited.

116
00:06:45,722 --> 00:06:48,761
We can only imagine
how Shakespeare desperately wished

117
00:06:48,822 --> 00:06:51,681
his own twins could also be reunited.

118
00:06:52,241 --> 00:06:54,784
Then five years later in 1601,

119
00:06:54,784 --> 00:06:57,991
his beloved father John Shakespeare 
also passed away,

120
00:06:58,041 --> 00:07:02,059
and around this time we get
one of his greatest tragedies, Hamlet,

121
00:07:02,109 --> 00:07:05,123
about a son grieving for his father.

122
00:07:05,423 --> 00:07:07,805
"I am thy father's spirit,

123
00:07:07,875 --> 00:07:11,441
"doomed for a certain term
to walk the night."

124
00:07:11,700 --> 00:07:13,793
It begins with Hamlet's declaration

125
00:07:13,793 --> 00:07:17,643
that he is experiencing a grief
that he cannot express.

126
00:07:17,823 --> 00:07:20,355
The entire play sees Hamlet
trying to verbalise

127
00:07:20,385 --> 00:07:22,808
what is going on inside his head,

128
00:07:22,828 --> 00:07:24,660
or,as he says,

129
00:07:24,710 --> 00:07:27,387
"he must unpack his heart with words".

130
00:07:27,397 --> 00:07:30,230
As a character, Hamlet is seen
as a a turning point

131
00:07:30,270 --> 00:07:35,012
towards a new level of psychological
and emotional realism in theatre,

132
00:07:35,272 --> 00:07:38,588
and its themes such as
indecision and inaction,

133
00:07:38,688 --> 00:07:40,872
the corrupting influence of power,

134
00:07:40,966 --> 00:07:43,552
and the complexities of the human psyche,

135
00:07:43,572 --> 00:07:46,350
continue to resonate
with modern audiences.

136
00:07:46,790 --> 00:07:49,914
This work was a revelation, 
and after Hamlet,

137
00:07:49,934 --> 00:07:53,336
Shakespeare entered 
a great middle period of his career,

138
00:07:53,366 --> 00:07:57,647
in which he wrote some of his
most monumental and powerful tragic plays,

139
00:07:57,687 --> 00:08:00,578
including King Lear and Othello.

140
00:08:00,738 --> 00:08:02,492
Othello has been described

141
00:08:02,492 --> 00:08:06,104
as "the most painfully exciting
and most terrible of these tragedies".

142
00:08:06,634 --> 00:08:09,440
It has an explosive and melodramatic plot,

143
00:08:09,533 --> 00:08:13,313
as well as a particularly
grandiose and musical poetry.

144
00:08:13,716 --> 00:08:17,580
The story tells of a racial outsider 
turned military hero,

145
00:08:17,667 --> 00:08:20,023
who is tricked by the evil Iago,

146
00:08:20,093 --> 00:08:22,017
and ends up being eaten alive

147
00:08:22,081 --> 00:08:25,776
by what is referred to as 
"the green-eyed monster of jealousy",

148
00:08:25,780 --> 00:08:28,619
and killing his wife Desdemona.

149
00:08:28,679 --> 00:08:31,184
The tragic Othello kills himself,

150
00:08:31,224 --> 00:08:34,301
in order to take responsibility
for killing Desdemona,

151
00:08:34,341 --> 00:08:36,900
and in his dying soliloquy recognizes

152
00:08:36,900 --> 00:08:40,784
that it is his pursuit of love
that has led to his undoing.

153
00:08:42,641 --> 00:08:45,125
"Then must you speak of one

154
00:08:45,218 --> 00:08:49,247
"that loved not wisely but too well,

155
00:08:50,342 --> 00:08:54,254
"Of one not easily jealous 
but, being wrought,

156
00:08:55,074 --> 00:08:57,810
"perplexed i the extreme..."

157
00:09:01,010 --> 00:09:04,423
At the start of the Elizabethan period,
theatres were not popular,

158
00:09:04,484 --> 00:09:07,201
and actors were seen
as little more than beggars

159
00:09:07,210 --> 00:09:10,498
and writers earned even less than actors.

160
00:09:10,538 --> 00:09:13,277
But by the end of it, 
theatre was thriving,

161
00:09:13,287 --> 00:09:15,022
as was Shakespeare.

162
00:09:15,112 --> 00:09:17,589
It became mass market entertainment:

163
00:09:17,639 --> 00:09:20,133
a fast-moving money-making business,

164
00:09:20,173 --> 00:09:23,355
and Shakespeare was
one of its biggest successes,

165
00:09:23,395 --> 00:09:27,371
earning more money from his work
than virtually all of his contemporaries.

166
00:09:27,761 --> 00:09:30,384
Theatre was popular with all classes.

167
00:09:30,414 --> 00:09:32,625
The "Lord's rooms" were the best seats,

168
00:09:32,657 --> 00:09:35,333
and despite seeing the back
of the actor's heads,

169
00:09:35,373 --> 00:09:38,096
they were able to hear
every word of the play

170
00:09:38,126 --> 00:09:40,457
above the noise of the audience.

171
00:09:40,527 --> 00:09:44,083
The galleries had wooden seats
but were covered in case it rained.

172
00:09:44,423 --> 00:09:46,521
The poor known as the "Groundlings",

173
00:09:46,531 --> 00:09:50,080
paid a penny to stand very close
to the action on stage.

174
00:09:50,440 --> 00:09:54,580
During the height of summer, 
the Groundlings were also referred to

175
00:09:54,590 --> 00:09:57,505
as "the stinkards" for obvious reasons.

176
00:09:57,525 --> 00:10:01,304
They ate, drank, cheered and booed 
during the performances,

177
00:10:01,327 --> 00:10:04,109
and demanded the play
had to entertain them

178
00:10:04,202 --> 00:10:06,364
- and Shakespeare did entertain them,

179
00:10:06,434 --> 00:10:08,490
using themes that had broad appeal

180
00:10:08,490 --> 00:10:12,528
- love, death, ambition, power, and fate.

181
00:10:13,249 --> 00:10:16,055
Mixing clever word play 
and intellectual jokes

182
00:10:16,075 --> 00:10:20,215
with crude innuendos,
low humour and slapstick.

183
00:10:21,691 --> 00:10:23,377
"This is old Ninny's tomb?"

184
00:10:31,247 --> 00:10:33,258
Contrary to what many people think,

185
00:10:33,348 --> 00:10:35,665
Shakespeare had a very commercial side.

186
00:10:35,665 --> 00:10:37,633
He was a theatreowning businessman,

187
00:10:37,653 --> 00:10:41,207
and he wrote to entertain audiences
and to earn money.

188
00:10:41,527 --> 00:10:44,903
As he suggested in the epilogue
of his late play The Tempest,

189
00:10:44,983 --> 00:10:47,859
he wanted to give audiences a good time

190
00:10:47,859 --> 00:10:50,148
he wanted to please people.

191
00:10:50,418 --> 00:10:54,018
"Gentle breath of yours
my sails must fill

192
00:10:54,118 --> 00:10:57,928
"or else my project fails,
which was to please."

193
00:11:02,668 --> 00:11:05,145
In this fast-paced marketplace,

194
00:11:05,185 --> 00:11:07,860
the trend was not for writing
new plays from scratch,

195
00:11:07,890 --> 00:11:11,225
instead the norm was for playwrights
to adapt stories

196
00:11:11,275 --> 00:11:13,356
that were already well known.

197
00:11:13,406 --> 00:11:15,831
Before Shakespeare wrote his plays,

198
00:11:15,931 --> 00:11:18,614
there already existed a play
identical to Hamlet,

199
00:11:18,634 --> 00:11:22,028
and one that was
actually called "King Leir",

200
00:11:22,080 --> 00:11:24,883
both of which were written
by Thomas Kidd.

201
00:11:25,113 --> 00:11:29,779
The "Winters Tale" takes its plot
from a popular book at the time Pandosto,

202
00:11:29,865 --> 00:11:33,330
while Romeo and Juliet 
was already well known in England

203
00:11:33,380 --> 00:11:35,143
from Arthur Brook's poem,

204
00:11:35,183 --> 00:11:37,279
which tells the exact same story.

205
00:11:37,329 --> 00:11:40,662
But it is what Shakespeare
does with his sources

206
00:11:40,702 --> 00:11:42,824
that makes him Shakespeare.

207
00:11:42,840 --> 00:11:46,278
For example, in the earlier version
of the Romeo and Juliet story,

208
00:11:46,278 --> 00:11:49,342
whenJuliet kisses Romeo after he has died,

209
00:11:49,372 --> 00:11:52,059
his mouth is described
as being "cold as stone",

210
00:11:52,129 --> 00:11:54,212
whereas in Shakespeare's play,

211
00:11:54,242 --> 00:11:56,940
Juliet kisses the mouth of Romeo and says:

212
00:11:57,299 --> 00:11:58,976
"Thy lips are warm."

213
00:12:00,826 --> 00:12:03,590
This ingenious, but tiny change,

214
00:12:03,670 --> 00:12:08,427
emphasises that Romeo has just died
seconds before Juliet wakes up,

215
00:12:09,120 --> 00:12:11,274
making the kiss both more tragic,

216
00:12:11,324 --> 00:12:13,921
as well as more intimate and sensual,

217
00:12:13,921 --> 00:12:17,693
as Juliet feels with her lips 
Romeo's dwindling body heat.

218
00:12:19,069 --> 00:12:23,163
Many of Shakespeare's plays
have sources from classical history

219
00:12:23,193 --> 00:12:26,895
— like Julius Caesar, Anthony and Cleopatra,
and Coriolanus,

220
00:12:27,022 --> 00:12:29,529
"I come to bury Caesar, 
not to praise him" —

221
00:12:29,889 --> 00:12:32,252
while another major source for Shakespeare

222
00:12:32,312 --> 00:12:35,743
was a volume of English History
called "Holinshead's Chronicles".

223
00:12:38,203 --> 00:12:40,199
Whereas now we might feel

224
00:12:40,199 --> 00:12:42,539
that we don't want
the plot "spoiled" for us,

225
00:12:42,539 --> 00:12:45,919
most of Shakespeare's audiences knew
how the story would end up.

226
00:12:46,239 --> 00:12:48,464
In the case of Romeo and Juliet,

227
00:12:48,524 --> 00:12:51,686
we are told in the prologue 
exactly what will happen:

228
00:12:51,946 --> 00:12:55,202
"A pair of star-cross'd lovers
take their life."

229
00:12:55,452 --> 00:12:57,530
Shakespeare asks you, as the audience,

230
00:12:57,570 --> 00:13:00,750
to submerge yourselves
in the "imagined world" fully,

231
00:13:00,819 --> 00:13:02,856
as in the Winter's Tale

232
00:13:02,856 --> 00:13:06,407
before a statue of Leontes' 
dead wife Hermione comes to life,

233
00:13:06,467 --> 00:13:08,463
Shakespeare says to his audiences:

234
00:13:08,523 --> 00:13:11,639
"It is required you do awake your faith".

235
00:13:11,916 --> 00:13:14,480
In other words, suspend your disbelief.

236
00:13:18,241 --> 00:13:21,752
The first folio organised
Shakespeare's plays into three categories:

237
00:13:21,762 --> 00:13:24,153
Comedies, Histories and Tragedies.

238
00:13:24,393 --> 00:13:28,243
But within those categories
there is always a cross fertilisation

239
00:13:28,283 --> 00:13:30,398
of seriousness and triviality,

240
00:13:30,448 --> 00:13:32,396
darkness and light.

241
00:13:32,416 --> 00:13:35,621
It is the breadth of feelings
expressed in Shakespeare's plays

242
00:13:35,631 --> 00:13:38,213
that is so astonishing,

243
00:13:38,233 --> 00:13:40,012
and in his works we can always see

244
00:13:40,032 --> 00:13:43,621
his willingness to embrace
the contradictory aspects of life.

245
00:13:43,631 --> 00:13:47,034
In some of Shakespeare's greatest works
such as King Lear

246
00:13:47,084 --> 00:13:50,354
he creates scenes
of unbelievable tenderness and love

247
00:13:50,374 --> 00:13:53,849
as well as the darkest depths
of despair and rage.

248
00:13:54,129 --> 00:13:57,059
Or in Twelfth Night,
when a very funny prank

249
00:13:57,079 --> 00:13:59,244
which has the audience in stitches

250
00:13:59,244 --> 00:14:02,610
quickly turns
to intense psychological manipulation,

251
00:14:02,670 --> 00:14:05,515
ending with a dark promise from Malvolio:

252
00:14:05,745 --> 00:14:07,643
"I'l be revenged..."

253
00:14:10,133 --> 00:14:13,532
"on the whole pack of you."

254
00:14:14,478 --> 00:14:16,175
In Titus Andronicus,

255
00:14:16,175 --> 00:14:19,553
Shakespeare expertly weaves
gore and black humour,

256
00:14:19,563 --> 00:14:22,617
as when the main character Titus
serves Tamora,

257
00:14:22,657 --> 00:14:25,782
her own dead sons baked into a pie!

258
00:14:26,064 --> 00:14:27,971
It is so gory and violent,

259
00:14:28,041 --> 00:14:30,223
that it almost becomes perversely comic

260
00:14:30,283 --> 00:14:33,164
through the use of insane melodrama.

261
00:14:34,404 --> 00:14:38,419
"Why, there they are,
both baked in this pie."

262
00:14:38,539 --> 00:14:41,642
"Whereof their mother daintily hath fed,

263
00:14:41,642 --> 00:14:44,733
"Eating the flesh
that she herself hath bred."

264
00:14:44,953 --> 00:14:46,750
"'tis true, 'tis true!

265
00:14:46,960 --> 00:14:49,539
"Witness my knife's sharp point."

266
00:14:49,589 --> 00:14:52,552
Indeed, the bounds
of the comic and tragic genre

267
00:14:52,562 --> 00:14:55,253
were being tested in Elizabethan theatre

268
00:14:55,263 --> 00:14:59,266
and Shakespeare was at the forefront
of this theatrical revolution.

269
00:14:59,639 --> 00:15:02,307
Pioneering, particularly
in his later plays,

270
00:15:02,383 --> 00:15:04,618
the genre of "tragi-comedy",

271
00:15:04,846 --> 00:15:08,078
Shakespeare's tragi- comic way
of looking at the world,

272
00:15:08,108 --> 00:15:10,899
is best demonstrated in the Winter's Tale,

273
00:15:11,309 --> 00:15:13,922
a play where
the good-hearted man Antigonus,

274
00:15:13,922 --> 00:15:16,161
is mauled to death by a bear,

275
00:15:17,191 --> 00:15:19,125
a fundamentally tragic event,

276
00:15:19,145 --> 00:15:21,267
which becomes simultaneously comic

277
00:15:21,267 --> 00:15:25,078
when a man in a bear costume 
chases Antigonus across the stage.

278
00:15:25,898 --> 00:15:30,091
It is also an opportunity for Shakespeare
to give us a rare stage Direction:

279
00:15:30,684 --> 00:15:33,017
"Exit pursued by a bear".

280
00:15:33,517 --> 00:15:36,240
This tragi-comic death
is followed immediately

281
00:15:36,303 --> 00:15:38,606
by the discovery of a newborn child.

282
00:15:39,126 --> 00:15:41,518
It is a classic Shakespearean moment,

283
00:15:41,558 --> 00:15:44,423
in which despair and hope rub shoulders,

284
00:15:44,484 --> 00:15:48,918
and tragedy switches suddenly
into the hopefulness of comedy.

285
00:15:49,358 --> 00:15:53,409
In a noisy open air theatre, 
with so many distractions,

286
00:15:53,420 --> 00:15:57,826
Shakespeare was a master
at keeping the audience engaged,

287
00:15:58,186 --> 00:16:01,739
and his plays show us the truth
again and again

288
00:16:01,834 --> 00:16:04,826
- that life can be
both silly and sorrowful,

289
00:16:04,896 --> 00:16:07,376
tragic and comic at the same time.

290
00:16:11,016 --> 00:16:14,894
On New Year's Eve in 1607, 
Shakespeare's brother Edmund died,

291
00:16:14,931 --> 00:16:18,319
followed by Shakespeare's nephew
only a few months later.

292
00:16:18,883 --> 00:16:22,902
Both deaths occurred during
a significant outbreak of he plague in London,

293
00:16:22,952 --> 00:16:26,436
when Shakespeare returned
to Stratford-upon-Avon to write.

294
00:16:26,486 --> 00:16:29,474
Shakespeare's daughter Susanna, 
married the same year,

295
00:16:29,538 --> 00:16:32,429
and was soon pregnant
with his first grandchild.

296
00:16:32,479 --> 00:16:36,590
This tumultuous year with its sad deaths
and happy announcements,

297
00:16:36,659 --> 00:16:40,117
precipitated a surprising change
in Shakespeare's career.

298
00:16:40,510 --> 00:16:43,983
It was around this time
he turned to magic.

299
00:16:45,075 --> 00:16:48,616
"If this be magic let it be an art.

300
00:16:48,616 --> 00:16:50,452
"Lawful as eating."

301
00:16:51,097 --> 00:16:52,668
His final four works:

302
00:16:52,718 --> 00:16:56,670
Cymbeline, The Winter's Tale, 
Pericles, and the Tempest,

303
00:16:56,670 --> 00:16:58,508
all drew on magic.

304
00:16:59,468 --> 00:17:03,829
They are sentimental works with characters
looking for a way to return home,

305
00:17:03,948 --> 00:17:07,098
and be reunited with their loved ones.

306
00:17:07,383 --> 00:17:12,588
In much the same way, Shakespeare had, 
when he returned to Stratford-upon-Avon.

307
00:17:16,223 --> 00:17:19,303
Shakespeare died in 1616, aged 52.

308
00:17:19,470 --> 00:17:22,564
Despite the seeming suddenness
of the playwright's death,

309
00:17:22,624 --> 00:17:25,164
his later plays - written years earlier -

310
00:17:25,164 --> 00:17:27,127
appear to be the work of a writer

311
00:17:27,127 --> 00:17:30,911
oddly aware of the imminence 
of his own passing.

312
00:17:30,981 --> 00:17:34,309
In his final solo 
authored play, "The Tempest",

313
00:17:34,389 --> 00:17:37,819
the protagonist Prospero,
here played by a woman,

314
00:17:37,829 --> 00:17:40,799
is aware that he is approaching
the end of his life,

315
00:17:40,871 --> 00:17:43,406
and plans to return home to die.

316
00:17:43,686 --> 00:17:46,207
"And thence retire me to my Milan,

317
00:17:47,711 --> 00:17:49,752
"where every third thought

318
00:17:51,038 --> 00:17:52,854
"shall be my grave."

319
00:17:53,654 --> 00:17:55,462
And in "The Winter's Tale",

320
00:17:55,482 --> 00:17:59,626
a world weary Camillo also makes plans
to go home to die.

321
00:18:00,196 --> 00:18:02,868
"It is fifteen years 
since I saw my country.

322
00:18:02,968 --> 00:18:05,719
"Though I have for the most part
been aired abroad,

323
00:18:05,911 --> 00:18:08,306
"I desire to lay my bones there."

324
00:18:08,886 --> 00:18:11,464
And Shakespeare's bones were laid "there"

325
00:18:11,493 --> 00:18:13,887
- in his hometown of Stratford-upon-Avon,

326
00:18:13,987 --> 00:18:17,464
once a small, unremarkable town.

327
00:18:18,184 --> 00:18:19,917
Now, thanks to him,

328
00:18:20,007 --> 00:18:22,649
one of the most visited places on the planet.

329
00:18:26,659 --> 00:18:28,625
And now a word from my sponsor.

330
00:18:28,765 --> 00:18:31,188
If you've ever signed up
for a loyalty card

331
00:18:31,188 --> 00:18:33,576
and then you suddenly get random emails,

332
00:18:33,662 --> 00:18:35,784
or you Google "great books explained"

333
00:18:35,784 --> 00:18:38,080
and then you get endless spam emails

334
00:18:38,080 --> 00:18:41,678
about online bookstores or new books
you're not interested in,

335
00:18:41,708 --> 00:18:43,229
it's because these companies

336
00:18:43,229 --> 00:18:46,620
are selling our information
to data brokers and advertisers.

337
00:18:47,160 --> 00:18:50,545
Our personal information
is being sold or published online

338
00:18:50,565 --> 00:18:54,045
every time we fill in a form
or open a new account

339
00:18:54,325 --> 00:18:56,722
- without us even knowing about it.

340
00:18:56,742 --> 00:18:59,549
The thing is, by law these data brokers

341
00:18:59,549 --> 00:19:02,709
have to delete 
your personal information if you ask.

342
00:19:03,209 --> 00:19:07,020
But who's got the time to send 
hundreds of emails to data brokers?

343
00:19:07,050 --> 00:19:10,786
INCOGNI who is sponsoring this video, 
does all that for you.

344
00:19:10,866 --> 00:19:14,034
They contact the data brokers 
on your behalf

345
00:19:14,104 --> 00:19:16,988
and request that your information
is removed from their list,

346
00:19:17,008 --> 00:19:19,720
and when your name is removed 
they tell you.

347
00:19:19,784 --> 00:19:24,334
All you do is create an account
and let Incogni work on your behalf.

348
00:19:24,664 --> 00:19:27,949
I've done it and now
I'm getting next to no spam

349
00:19:27,979 --> 00:19:31,146
and even better 
no unknown callers on my phone.

350
00:19:31,216 --> 00:19:35,506
And the first 100 people to use "BOOKS"
at the link below

351
00:19:35,516 --> 00:19:38,613
will get 60% off of Incogni.

352
00:19:38,679 --> 00:19:41,632
Thanks for listenin