As he gloats throughout his book, Bill Bryson goes further than other Shakespeare biography writers when it comes to discussing unpopular facts and beliefs concerning William Shakespeare. He discusses several topics that I have not come across in my first two times studying Shakespeare. Had I not read this book, I would not have realized how many men were homosexual during his time period, the fact that Shakespeare copied various other authors, and the challenges of show business.
Homosexuality is often something that we associate with today’s society. As it turns out, several men’s sexualities were questionable, including multiple men that are mentioned in the book. At the beginning of two of Shakespeare’s works, he writes two lengthy and flattering dedications to an H.W., which has been suggested to be Henry Wriothesley. Apart from Shakespeare, Wriothesley had a couple of other questionable relationships with other men (87). Showering someone with compliments isn’t always done in a flirtatious manner. However, it certainly raises some eyebrows. Bill Bryson also talks about King James’ questionable behaviors. Bryson states, “... he excited dismay at court by nibbling handsome young men while hearing the presentations of his ministers” (134). This is
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Bryson gives an example of a passage Shakespeare took from another writer and put it almost word for word in Henry IV, Part 2 (101). Back then there were no copyright infringements since the works of others was considered common property (99). This is logical since they barely kept any records at all (25). I was slightly disappointed to find out that Romeo and Juliet was based on another author’s work (100). However, I realized that the reason that we remember Shakespeare's name and not the other guy’s name is because Shakespeare’s version of the story was a thing of beauty, something that people wanted to