Shakespeare wanted to be remembered as poet

HEAD OF the English Department of Rabindra Bharati University (Kolkata) Prof. Amitav Roy said that Shakespeare wanted to be remembered as a poet rather than a play writer.

HEAD OF the English Department of Rabindra Bharati University (Kolkata) Prof. Amitav Roy said that Shakespeare wanted to be remembered as a poet rather than a play writer.

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He was speaking in ‘Prof. V. Rai memorial lecture’ on ‘Shakespeare on stage: New interpretations and ‘idea of intertextuality’ at arts faculty auditorium in Banaras Hindu University here on Tuesday. The English department of arts faculty has organised the lecture.

Prof. Roy, also Professor of Shakespeare Chair at Rabindra Bharati University, said that no doubt Shakespeare was the greater play writer, but Shakespeare never knew this fact while writing plays.

He said that Shakespeare was not very possessive about his plays. “Rather Shakespeare was very careful in publication of his poems and sonnets,” he said.

He termed Shakespeare as a practicing professional popular play writer.

“He was under tremendous pressure to support his theatre group and he had to work mainly for money,” he said, adding, “Play writers were not given the status of professionally accepted people at that time and we can say that the time was not conducive for play writers.”

“As a very good professional play writers, Shakespeare had to use ‘masala’ to draw a larger number of audience to the theatre”, he said, adding, “Violence, mellow drama and sex made the basis of Shakespeare’s dramas.”

He said that the popularity of Shakespeare can be understood well with the fact that as many as 7 books and 50 articles publishes on Shakespeare each day across the globe.

Noted scholar of English and former Vice-Chancellor of the Mahatma Gandhi Kashi Vidyapeeth, Prof. RP Singh presided over the lecture.