The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 16.0872 Wednesday, 4 May 2005
From: Elliott Stone <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date: Tuesday, 3 May 2005 21:04:34 -0400
Subject: Shakespeare Biography
I was having lunch with a friend yesterday who told me that he was
preparing to give a talk to his students on the life of Shakespeare. He
told me that he had decided to look into Stephen Greenblatt's WILL IN
THE WORLD to see if there were some new takes on the subject that he
might include in his lecture. He told me that he was distressed to find
how many times that credibility had been lent to matters over which
there was genuine doubt.
He decided to count what he called "mustabeens". The use of terms like
"it is probable (or possible)", "doubtless", "would seem", and "highly
likely". He found that these terms appeared approximately 412 times or
more than one per page of the main text (line count-830)!
I suggested that he might be better off sticking with Sam Schoenbaum.
Best,
Elliott H. Stone
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