William Shakespeare: A Life of Drama (1996) is the Arts and Entertainment attempt to get at Shakespeare the man. What is actually known about William Shakespeare could be written in tiny printing on a note card. So this documentary takes the time-honoured approach of using the poet’s works to expand the meagre details of his life. In doing so, it makes a reasonably good argument that William had a loveless marriage, that he may have had love affairs with the Earl who was his patron and with a Dark Lady, that the death of his only son, Hamnet, shook him profoundly, and that towards the end of his playwriting career, he always had his two daughters on his mind. Commentators are careful to put in the appropriate qualifiers—“I believe . . .”, “probably,” “ it would seem that . . .” and so on. The biography is fairly safe and middle of the road, which is excellent if you are a relative newcomer to Shakespeare.
It is also quite accurate, which is refreshing. I noticed only three errors. First, the film notes that William was baptized on April 26, 1564 and then needlessly claims that means he was born on April 23 because Elizabethans always baptized their children three days after birth. Actually, Shakespeare scholars know that Elizabethans tried to baptize their kids within a week, the sooner the better because the plague and infant deaths were common. Scholars can even spot who started this birthday claim, when. If my poor memory serves me well, it was a fellow in 1756 who was pressed for an answer and thought three days was about right. More substantially, the film claims that Shakespeare sank or swam on the strength of his word. While it is true that Elizabethans said, “Let’s go and hear a play, “ it is also true that the costumes (not the sets) were a big deal. It was not unusual for Henslowe at The Rose to spend more on a king’s costume than he paid the playwright for the play. Also, although it is rather harmless to sprinkle the film with portraits of Shakespeare, it should probably be noted that none of them is of Shakespeare except one, and that engraving was made after his death. All in all, with Shakespeare raising so many passions and crank theories, A Life of Drama steers a safe middle course without being boring.