About Arlene Schulman Expertise I have loved Shakespeare all my life, and as a Stage Director and Actor for over twenty-five years I have had the opportunity to study his work in intimate detail. I would be happy to share my knowledge of his plays. I can also help with acting Shakespeare, working with blank verse, character development, script analysis and interpretation. I don`t have as much knowledge in the area of his sonnets, but I can help to understand their meaning and language. I also have some knowledge of his life and of the Globe theatre where he performed his plays, as well as the Royal Shakespeare Company and his birthplace of Stratford-upon-Avon, and can point you in the direction of some wonderful websites on the subjects as well.
Experience
Organizations SSDC - associate member The Shakespeare Institute (MA Candidate - "Shakespeare & Theatre)
Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas
The Shakespeare Association of America
Shakespeare - John Hall's account of Shakespeare's death.
Expert: Arlene Schulman - 6/14/2009
Question Dear Ms. Schulman,
I happened upon an entry attributed to you regarding
Shakespeare's son-in-law, the physician John Hall's diary
entry regarding the death of Shakespeare.
I had never heard of this before and a web search failed to
reveal the source.
Do you recall where you got this? It's a detailed
description and sounds like an extant verbatim quote. I am
surprised that I was unaware of it.
Sincerely,
Daryl Pinksen
Answer Hi Daryl,
I do have the source of that quotation, although since the book lists no bibliography I have no way of verifying its original source.
It was included, as a direct quote, on page 15 of the "Essential Shakespeare Handbook" by Leslie Dunton-Downer and Alan Riding. They wrote:
"The only records of his illness linki it to festivities at the wedding. A year after his death, Dr. Hall suggested his father-in-law drank too much at the wedding, "sweated in a hot room, walked out hatless and cloakless" and caught a chill."
Those words, "sweated in a hot room, walked out hatless and cloakless" were in quotes, although the specific source was not given. I may have assumed a diary, although I don't remember writing those exact words. As a quote, one assumes some written source - diary, letter, journal or such.
However, in my fairly extensive Shakespeare library, other sources seem to indicate that Dr. Hall's journals began in 1617 and therefore did not include any information on his treatment of his father-in-law, although most assume that he did tend him at the end. So the source of this particular quote, since it was not referenced, seems to be, indeed, somewhat ephemeral at the moment. Perhaps I will try to contact the publishers or authors of The Essential Shakespeare Handbook" to see if they can give me their source, since now I, too, am curious as to where they found it.
Some 50 years later Dr. John Ward, the vicar of Stratford from 1662-1681, wrote what he had heard, that "Shakespeare, Drayton, and Ben Jonson, had a merry meeting, and it seems drank too hard for Shakespeare died of a fever there contracted." That is usually considered to be the earliest reference to Shakespeare's death and is quoted in a number of accounts, including the above mentioned book, as well as "Will in the World" by Stephen Greenblatt.
Others attribute Shakespeare's death to typhoid fever or, it has been suggested by some, to tertiary syphillis (common at the time), or some other wasting illness. The truth is that we do not know, and all of these, without documentary evidence, is speculative.
Thank you for bringing the lack of source material for this quote to my attention. Now you've got me curious too...
