Not nearly as witty or labyrinthine as I've come to expect of Bryson (see his A Short History of Nearly Everything if you doubt his abilities or wonder what his style, well-honed, can do) it also doesn't come as much of a surprise, considering the scholastic-industrial complex that has been built -- and maintained -- around the Bard.
After all, barring the discovery of the manuscripts (gasp!), a 7th authenticated signature, or another copy of the First Folio, what is there left for the amateur to uncover? What connection could possibly be drawn that hasn't already been the subject of 2 dissertations and 3 self-published crackpots?
Not much.
So in Shakespeare: The World as Stage the main task Bryson sets for himself is to burnish the standing of Shakespeare as... well... Shakespeare. A difficult task, as he repeatedly points out, since so little is known of Shakespeare's life in the first place. Many qualifications, disabusing of false notions (before settling on the "reasonable" assumptions), an acceptance of uncertainty, and a final settling of accounts with the anti-Stratfordians.
There are, of course, little bits and pieces that are delightful. My favorite, by far, is the use of "foul papers" for rough drafts. That's a keeper, like hoelweg.
And it is a pleasant enough diversion. But a little less than I had... expected? Or perhaps hoped for.
The volume is one in the "Eminent Lives" series of Harper Collins -- which is itself a rip-off of the excellent "Penguin Lives" series. What I want to know is why neither of these publishers can seem to put together webpages devoted to these series (instead of just shilling us off to the "sales annex")?!?
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