Final Verdict on Shakespeare

Warning, this episode contains strong language Genius, Genius. Genius Yeah. Welcome to Evil Genius. I'm Russell Cane. Imagine the cast of Taowi if they'd read T.S Elliot's The Wasteland. These fragments I have shred against my ruins, at the end of the day I could turn around and say to you April is the coolest month. I'm a Dava. Now this isn't some highebrow book show where we close read the symbolic use of Eaphora in the writing of WB Yates. This is a good read if none of the guests were literate And they've been thrown out of a bottomless brunch before the recording. No offense, Steven Bay. I was going say that That is me. Each week we take a prominent dead legend and reveal a series of unfortunate events about their lives. Now if you heard series of unfortunate events and thought I know I've read that book. Congratulations, Stehven. You might enjoy this episode. At the end of that debate, my panel were going to have to vote one way or the other. Avil. or genius at today's legend probably the most famous writer in history after various gods One Hit Wonders. His cultural contributions are up there with the hunter gatherers in the Levant inventing the concept of farming and then after that probably Bice Gills Wanabe nineteen ninety six To some, he's Britain's greatest ever cultural export after Liz Truss. To others. To others, he's the reason so many kids give up English lit in year eleven. It is of course William Shakespeare, my panel today, Steve Bouger Kate Checker. And Stephen Bailey. Hello. You're also poli. Myi Pry. welcome Haven't? Now at the time this goes out, it would have been announced that my midlife crisis has taken on such traumatic proportions that I will be featuring in a Shakespeare play this year. Really. But I won't be doing something sensible like playing bottom. in the midsummer night stream I will be playing Romeo in Romeo and Juliet. Yeahaged pathetic fuck up Romeo. I think that's perfect, Casting. Thank you. Yeah. Yeah, No, that was a compliment. Have you ever been in any place? People never blam about this, but when I was a kid and we went to the local youth club, there was the Annie play Annie, the musical. Imagine you' playing Annie? Well I I had ginger curly here. My dad was like Jokes, Steh. I think we all just instantly saw it. I didn't get Annie. You did Annie. Really? Yeah, I imagine you' We were very ahead of our time considering everyone thinks we're thick there. True. Yeah H been in any plays? I did a lot of plays at school. but I went to all boys schools, so it really limited what plays were able to be done. Not according to Shakespeare, wouldn't it? Wow, didn't We weren't that progressive in Bishop Stortford. We did twelve Agry men like three times, I think. Yeah,ed Lord of the Flies did that a few times Was that production or was that just break time? Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, that was just us hugging out. Ever been tempted to tread the boards as a kid? Yeah, I did I was in the trolls was ar. prrimary school play. Did you have to put your hair? A they the ones with L the pencil topper trolls? Yeah. No, naked, but with like the hair straight up. It was very subversive. No, I didn't do that. But I was the princess in that And then I got kidnapped by some sort of Kremlin. I don't know. So was that? And then I was in a midsummer night's dream. Oh, which part did you play? But one of the fairies, It was one of those adult amateur dramatic societies. So you were The Brad F Not Puck, which is the best fairy. Yes. We were just there was like four small roll fairies. You were like a non verbal fairy. Yes. I think That's what I become when I have a to on the old weed pen. You can really campaign silent. Right, William Shakespeare. Now I've tried to do William Shakespeare several times in Eenans. Do You you know what the pushback is? We don't know enough about his life. So we have really unleashed our top team on this to get a biography together of what we absolutely know certain. He was born on the twenty third of april fifteen sixty four and was the oldest son of John and Mary Arden, Shakespeare. That's where the Arden Shakespeare, which is a publisher of Shakespeare comes from Aden His mother was the daughter of a prosperous farmer and his father was a glove maker, wall dealer, tanner, money lender, ale taster, all round wheeler, dump dum dp. No income tax. no. He wasnt a dell boy Hford John Shakespeare became highigh bayist of Stratford. That's how excellent the weed was back then. And the family could afford to send Will and his brothers to the local grammar school where he would have been stuck for ten hours a day, six days a week, learning Latin, rhetoric and classical literature. And I say bring back grammar schools to Dover. I think they've actually got them. Yeah thats Yeah yeah ye. But around fifteen seventy six the family's fortunes nosedived. John was prosecuted for illegal money lending, fined for piling up massive heaps of manure outside his house, and was forced to mortgage his wife's inheritance to take William out of school when he was fourteen. and just to think that time next year he could have been a millionaire. In fifteen eighty two aged eighteen, Shakespeare had married Anne Hathaway. I loved her in Devil Wares Pradder. was I was got say. Isasn't she amazing? It was a sty was her best wor. I think ye. She was twenty six and already three months pregnant naughty boy. Their daughter, Susanna was born in fifteen eighty three, followed by twins Hamnet and Judith This is my favourite fun fact we've unearthed in this whole process. You would think it'd be something meaningful about literature It was that spelling had not been standardized back then. So on Will and Anne's marriage license, his surname is Selt Shakesspeare. I mean that's if she was already pregnant, that's correct. was just as like that's been. The verb and the noun of that name. She has been Shakespeare, ye Then came the so called lost yearsars. From fifteen eighty five to fifteen ninety two in his early to mid twenties, Shakespeare vanished from the record. It's not that suspicious really is it? I spent most of my twenties bouncing between the benefits offffice and Iyenppa. We know that he left Stratford by fifteen ninety two and there are loads of theories as to why He may have been caught poaching deer. What an idiot everyone knows, Pann Frid is October a Venison launch. He may also have been working for his dad's business in London or he may have joined a troup of traveling plays, we just don't know where he was How did you spend your lastost years in your twenties? I went to Berlin. Did you? Yeah. Partying, working, traveling. I I grew up in like I had a lot of small town friends. no offense to small town people, but they all decided to get married in their twenties and I have no kids. And I was like, o fuck this for a laugh. So I just went to Berlin. I just took a one way flight and then that was it and then I lived in Berlin for four years.ow. four years. You haven' gotone laugh because I'm guessing Stay's answ.. I moved. What you guess into Hartford. away from the shop school. I tell you what, Hartford It's literally the capital of Harfordshire Har's got a lot going on actually. No, I sorry. I actually moved to Manchester and a big smoke. takeake that bing. I' anything. I didn't do any partying though. I did I did stand up and bounced around the The to the Working Men's clubs of Oldham. That's. while my friends went to phone parties. it was a bad choice, actually terrible choice. I should' haveone to Berlin. Stephven, in your twenties you I went to the phone parties. I were so good at partying. I'm still good at it now. And I went to Berlin with my first boy friendriend who's now straight and married to a woman. You're more known as the converter, aren't you Stephen? I am. That's what happened. What convert I' the only gay men that can turn gay men straight Wow! And so I had all this drama going on. I need you. There are so many gay men I'd love to be with. I don't want to keep turning them all. That's the one. Yeah. It works out well for Wins. didn't. Thank you very much. I it's my old gay life. Im a graduate dressed. I'm a graduate of Stehven's twelve week Dick program This I went to Dick Anonymous actuallyually start. You don't know what it says about me. Dick Anonymous is like there a lot of things in the gay community. That was a lot of the clubs I was in Berlin Dickonymous. Lots of holes and lots of walls. It was a great time. Whatould you recommend? Now we don't know how he spent his lost years, but we do know that by fifteen ninety two, Shakespeare was in London London in the fifteen nineties was filthy, fast growing, dangerous, but if you were suited to it, it was really exciting as well. The population had doubled in fifty years. Life expectancy was twenty five. So it's quite old, isn't it Glasgow Po, I think there's something in that. I'm not opposed to like wrapping things up. Yeah get out. I think the NHS should have a cut off after which they're long. Yeah Oh my goodness. is. I think it's so long. It's never ending peopleople are really old My God. you would have loved it because it was plague outbreaks repeatedly. It's killing all the people. That's what we We had a plague outbreak had our own And unfortunately we vaccinated all of the people. We knew what to do this time. Yeah. There were bodies iling up, crime was astronomical, everyveryone carried a dagger. So no change there, according to reform. too reach the playhouses of Southwk where Shakespeare worked, you had to cross London Bridge where traitors' heads were tarred and displayed on spikes I'd wake you up in the morning Nowadays if you cross London Bridge it's five hundred Pz and an oligs daughter doing a cell. But for all the death and violence, London would have been absolutely buzzing too. It was truly multicultural, teeming with new forms of entertainment like cockfighting, silence, drinking, and the inevitable bar fights that go with it. There was bear baiting and a roaring sex trade and theater. It's the same as Southend today with slightly less chlamydia And theatre really was subversive in anti establishment. There were plays about gay kings, murderous tyrants, and men who sold their souls to the devil. On stage, working class men and boys could dress convincingly as kings and women showing class and gender as a performance so modern. Even today's Shakespeare's plays ask you to massively suspend your disbelief which is why I will be performing a romantic lead. I think you've been too hard do you seself for this? You've always been my romantic lead since we've met. Stehven stop it. No, you told you you will cast for Mercuo like everyone else. I still have to aud this show The theatre caught Shakespeare's attention early doors. After starting at the very bottom as a stagehand, he worked his way up to becoming a fully fledged actor in the Lord Chamberlain's men and began writing In the early fifteen nineties, he probably played minor roles in his own plays too. Now no one can quite agree which was the first play, but one that seems to have made a name for him was Titus Andronicus, do you know this play? It's all about cannibalism and mutilation really shocking and gory. And the speculation is that this was like a new young writer flexing his muscles, L how shocking my material is And then he went on and wrote that Henry VI trilogy so that balanced that out On But his success did inspire envy The theatre scene was dominated by the wits, aristocratic, university educated young men like Christopher Marlow and Robert Greene. In fifteen ninety two, when Shakespeare was twenty eight, Robert Green famously wrote a pamphlet attacking Shakespeare and calling him an upstart crow, The implication being that Shakespeare was getting ideas above his station. Well radio four Howd you like my voice? It's still like that though, isn't it? in a way? where you have ideas above your station and Does anyone want to read my play? Yeah. I've got one. It's about canandalism. It's ye. I mean it's plagiarized, but it's about Titus Andronic hse. I was gonna say Titus, it's a different character ' so going to work None of them do. None of that actually happens. It's all part of my therapy or patent. feel like I have an ad you're not even here. You ever get any professional jealousy? everver had a rival in Work, life? Yeah. I get I've never had like a serious rival in comedy, but someone told me recently that someone else thinks I'm their nemesis and Wh, who? I't know their name. I'll tell you afterward. Give us the initial. But it was so funny becausecause I was like having a drink with a comedian friend and they were like, oh, and so says you're comedy nemesis And I but this is a dick move and I shouldn't say it out loud because they don't like it when black women to assert like you said, but she's not good enough at stand up to be my nemesis. Drop the mag. Drop the mag someone drop the mag. She's not good enough to be my nemesis. She's not on my level. also now just Ashes. you bont her to the. I do that thing An I can't focus now. all I'm thinking about is through this person is Have you ever had any r? Romantic, professional j.ave ever been like really jeous? Oh I'm jealous all the time of everyone. I think in comedy it's hard yeah, I used to get very jous. I'm better now I'm more en, but like back when my friends like peers were doing really you know, when they sudden get famous theyre out of nowhere and you're like why you know like my friend, one of my bestates is Igan Sterling and he just suddenly got very, very famous with Love Island. And that happened previously, didn't it Yeah Tonight. Yeahing And his life just changed like overnight and hed ring me up going, I'm going to Hollywoody' birthday party. I' like, cool man I've still got no windows in my bedroom, you. Our lives became very different. and very hard. But you know, I'm very happy from now. Yeah. haveave you experienced romantic jealousy any aren't? You stunling as well, actually. No The jealousy didn't put him off though, and over the following few years he wrote prolifically, including Richard III, The Comedy of Eerrors. Everyone was a fan, including the Ryals, bothoth Queen Elizabeth I and her successor James honored his company with royal patronage. Sadly, royal patronage isn't worth quite as much these days, although. My own trh, the Mount Batten players have justcured've just secured a residency in Thailand, so His success spawned riches and Shakespeare bought one of the largest houses in Stratford. He also invested in land and applied for and received a coat of arms for his father, reclaiming his family's lost status. But fifteen ninety six also brought devastation. His only son Hamnett died aged eleven It such a good film, wouldn't it? I should do something with that. But By fifteen ninety nine, his company built the Globe Theatre on Bankside, seating around a thousand spectators, It stood amid bare pits and brothels, high art in a red light district. It's a bit like me trying to do jokes about enlightenment playwrights around this lot By the time he retired to Stratford around sixteen eleven, Shakespeare was effectively a multimillionaire in modern terms. He died on the twenty third of april sixteen sixteen, his birthday aged fifty two, which is obviously anciently old for the time. That shows how wealth he was. Seven years after his death, two fellow actors published the first folio, preserving thirty six of his plays without it We'd have lost Macbeth, twelfth night the Tempestter and more. Now how this show works. we have envelopes. Now which Shakespeare, this is going to be particularly surprising because every envelope will have in it some sort of surprise that confirms the genius we all believe Shakespeare had, I'm assuming. O it might take another turn Who has envelope number one? Me Stehven no Prhee, open thy envelope, thine Envelope O by Stephen Bailey. He revolutionized the English language, invented the modern imagination, and he did it all from humblish beginnings. Yes. Now many, many people posit Shakespeare as the best writer of all time. I mean, they clearly haven't read the DaVinci code anyway. Whether or not that's true He's certainly the best known writer ever to have lived. And I thought, is that a bit like Western bias by me, but he is just every continent, every language, every country. So let's start with language. It's thought that Shakespeare introduced over seventeen hundred words and countless idioms that are still widely used today. Do anyone know any Shakespeare phrases that you use not realizing they're from Shakespeare? Oh I don't know. I turn a blind eye to your ignorance? Y, please. The blind eye was one of them at.ind eye Turning a blind eye It's Greek to me, that's one of his. Vanished into thin air. that phrase completely made up by here. Playing fast and loose, tongue tied, fur play in a pickle In a pickle. I thought that was like thought up in the Nauies or something. Yeah. Good riddents Fesh and blood you' my flesh and blood For goodness sake's one of his Early days. That's prolific. Yeah, you wouldn't think he's done all this, would you? Thank you very much That's Rickie Jo. As luck would have it. Green eyed monster. heart on your sleeve, the world, your oyster, it just goes on and on. But like when he first wrote these words, did he have to explain what they meant? I think in context, it's like when great when you've g a great joke on stage and you've done a made up comedic they're like that That sef expplature now. Yeah. Like win, like win. during the Colleen Rooney and Wag, Christie hes like what does it mean? Explain everyone know that exactly what it meant and it was a new word. Yeah. I did that over and over and over again There were less words then though. Yeah I mean, you had more to play with. Some could argue that's why English is such bel looved language around the world. It's rich. I mean you put that many ingredients and that many concepts into a langage. It crazy. He didn't just invent phrases, He invented words as well that we just didn't have before Aiction didn't exist. Hoodwinked, cold blooded Fashionable swagger. He just made them up Swagger Swagger. Sometimes his requirements were pragmatic so For example, in Romeo and Julet, for example the word comfortable didn't fit. he needed ten syllables. So he turned it into uncomfortable and everyone's like, Ohh, you could just put un in the front and it makes a new word. That the kind of thing. George I would have words about that in nineteen eighty four. Not as many words. No. may anyone tried to coin in haveave you ever a jazzle who did a J jazz? for J jazzle? That was definitely to. I tried to get Brooks it going Brooklyn left. Brookslyn or Bex it would have worked. It would' have been greatay. C on. I try to push my own nickname, you know, because everyone calls me bouge and I wanted people to call me the Mighty Bougge, but in You can't push your own name. It doesn't work. I you guys It caught on in whereere and Hodeston N per they were push them through to hardart C and push those huntingon But Master of Wds can't explain his stature. What was radical was what he did with character and The biggest Shakespeare scholar is probably Harold Bloom, is his big American literary critic? I think die quite recently. He went so far to argue that Shakespeare invented the modern personality by creating characters that had unparalleled inwardness and self reflection, the likes of which had never been seen before in literature So Hamlet, for example, is a play all about hesitating, but he doesn't hesitate. He analyzes his own hesitation. That had never been done before. So he would say, I'm going to move that glass. Why did I move that glass? Why did I think about it? And I did do a soliloquy about it? That was radical, that was new Macbeth doesn't just desire power, he stages arguments with himself about the nature of ambition and consequence. His characters debate with themselves more than me in front of a fridge trying to work out the macros in a muller yoga. Have I got the calories left? the guns Even his contemporaries recognized that he was an uncommon genius. Ben Johnson, a friend of Shakespeare's another playwright wrote that he was of an age but for all time. and that came true. To this day he remains the most performed playwright in the world. His plays are staged every year across continents, languages and political systems. Now Emma Smith, who iss a scholar. She reckons it's because of his gappiness. Now if you think about his comedians Really, really good jokes or observations leave space where the audience interprets before they laugh. They put the final ingredients together. So he did that with his characters, that never been done before. you were sort of didactically told what to think That's why you can set like much ado about nothing in sixteenth century Messina. You could put it in the Napoleon Lic Wars, you could put it in nineteen forties, Britain, Revolutionary Mexico. and it finds new meaning every time. That's why I'm pitching Cymboline Sitting all by one at Chelmsford two. It's going to do a lot. Shakespeareill is room for his audience to both project and interpret. there's no finger wagging or telling the audience what to think And know it feels like we're doing that on stage, but really good stand up, ironically finger wags and you walk away haaving your own conversations about what you heard, I think Let's take Iargo, the villain from Othello. He's considered to be the first literary depiction of a psychopath He ruthlessly manipulates gaslights, deceives those around him, convinces Othello that his wife is cheating on him to the point where Othello strangles her to death. But you can read it multiple ways. Othello is amoor he's North African, right? So you could read as racist, or you could read it that he's fueled by professional jealousy. But Shakespeare never ever Pidon points it He leaves open to interpretation that is so unsettling and brilliant I mean, I had to study a fellow for Gisha C, and I actually don't appreciate that he left it up so much because it meant there was a huge amount of debate and work. every time I had to write an essay about Yago. Human motives aren't tidy, are they? you listen to like criminals or the things that's going on in the press at the moment and we're like he did that because of that. And I was taling to Lindsey about the other night, it's never that simple Also, no one thinks they're bad, do they? Like no one thinks they're doing a bad. No think they're doing a good thing. everyone's good and bad. and I guess the yaga was like that. Yeah That's what I should have said on my JiousC. I said that. Ver much to have such a different life if you said that. I'd have done so well. You might have been hosting the show. Notorious BUJ. omething like that. Yeah, That'd be good Shakespeare was less interested in telling audiences what to think and what he demonstrated was how thought itself unfolds. That's why he's lasted yet screw being involved in tedious moral certainty. Anway weve got the vote coming later and it will be evil or genius Envelope number two. a very problematic Shakespearean name that way. You know that Taming of the shrew, one of the most problematic placeays. P What do have we got? love taming the An envelope two Thank you He was a seedy, ruthless, self interested Yeah. Here we are. is boyfriend? this is I was gonna say, aren't they are? Oh they And that's how we I don't think anyone who gets that successful is a bit of a knob. Yeah. Be I just don you can get that successful without being. I hope Ian doesn't listen to this. We don't listen to each other's work. Shakespeare lived and wrote during a period. didn't know this. It was called the Little Iice Age because it was unusually cold weather for a period of time. there was heavy rain, there was poor harest food shortages. These were one of many harsh realities that Shakespeare and his contemporaries faced. But the way Shakespeare responded to this precariousness was morally dubious, to say the least. in Warwickshire over a fifteen year period and against a backdrop of horrific famine. Shakespeare bought grain. malt and barley cheaply and sold it all at massively overinflated prices to the poor, some of whom own neighbours. So he was a sort of wheaty bite tolette I respect people that own land. I would love land. I think I'd be a really great evil Yeah. D't back. I think so. I should have married my high school boyfriend. He owned a farm. Well, he didn't own a farm. he was sixteen, but, you know His parents ownself. I know only lives on the farm now. I've made such a mistake in my life. I reallyally have made. Is that when you went to Berlim? Yeah, I left him. I was like, I'm gonna to be like a strong fun, independent woman. That's not worked out. And now you're releasase I've not even milked you yet, come back. I think we're old schools who marry for love schools. I should have married to him and I could' have been one of those tradwives on TikTok making sour dough in the cottsw worldld, are't? Yeah, getting funded by the Mormon Church as well I'd have been just so happby beautiful children running around imagine Shakespey was your landlord though. R William. In fifteen ninety eight, he was actually prosecuted for hoarding grain in a time of shortage of rampan. You never hear about this. This is on the legal record he did this Listen, we're not just talking a bit of extra Lu role during lockdown. He used his financial power to take advantage of a situation where people were faced with death by starvation Jane Archer, a Shakespearean scholar, said, there was another side to Shakespeare besidide the brilliant playwright, a ruthless businessman who did all he could to maximize profits at others' expenses and exploit the vulnerable. And crucially, Shakespeare didn't need to do this. This was made all the more cruel and strange by the fact that around this time Shakespeare wrote Coriolanus which depicts a horrific food shortage in Rome so he's emotionally and psychologically engaging. torture of these emotions whilst like doing badies did yees. I think this is so familiar though. I think people do this now Like they they they put out there the right thing and then they're being little toe rags in the background. Yeah. Shakespeare wrote this play against the backdrop of the sixteen oh seven food riots, which was sparked by landowners prioriting increased profit margins over growing food, causing a drastic shortage and widespread hunger. So while Shakespeare was exacerbating and exploiting a famine He was also flogging a play about the very phenomenon. poor while he did it D don't if anyone caught my two thousand nine show, I've just shut on your doorstep, please buy tickets. It' clearly seen businessman when he was alive too. The original monument that was erected just after his death, he was originally holding not a pen but a bag of grain.ow. what wouldd your statue look like, Kate, in your hometown? What is your hometown? Rff and Nven Wh from even Weilcher? Is that? Yeah Right You made a choice not to sound like this. No. Hometown be like Brab upon E then What if they gave me a statue Yeah. I don't think they'd give me a statue to be honest. They gave that we got one bse, we got a gold postbx. So maybe gold to try and rival the postbox. Maybe naked. Yeah Make a gold statue. Well make a gold statue. I quite like that one where that boy's, you know, holding that dolphin's fin, you know? No. By Chelsea Bridge. I dont want have mushrooms at the weekend. By Chelsea Bridge, you know? No, I'm from Denton. Okay. So maybe something like that, like riding a leopard or something I like that I have good luck being in that state. I would just be me sound on my own in the corner. I'm not talking to any or something that'd be. Also my hometown is CharlieXX is from my hometown. so I'm just that'd be so luck so low down the list. Small statue inst stance in Mount Fitchard. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I could have one just by the Wit Schmidt and Stance the airport. W I don't go road or something No, I'd beond denton. But I will say they've already got my picture up in a toilet in the localon? Oh yes. yes I'm part of a colleage of people that have made it good and same side. Okay, carry on. His lawyers would frequently trase people who owed him insignificant sums. So he's super wealthy, but if someone owed him a few shillings he sue them for late payment. Legal was a request. Shakespeare was a ruthless businessman I also might have been a bit of a gangster A lot of bographers suggest Shakespeare's first boss made just as much money running brothels as he did producing plays. Then in fifteen ninety six, a writ showed that Shakespeare and his new boss had been making death threats against a rival The document named Shakespeare, his boss and the rival and was basically used as a way to let Shakespeare and his boss know the courts were ono them And if they did actually kill the man they'd been threatening, they wouldn't get away with it. So Violence, threat, even the possibility of murder was not below Shakespeare by any means. No I loved it. It was a bit rough Also you I always hear that Shakespeare wasn't one person and it was like loads of different people writing the plays Yeah. and it was all accredited to him So's maybe's just a businessman who didn't write anything. the his work.gin in the beginning, he was definitely on the first Henry the sixth b but he came on as like a staff writer. that's why it Yeah. And then they werere like, Oh your scenes got the biggest round of applause. Do you want to do a few more scenes on Henry V sixth partart two? And by Henry V sixth partart three, he's like just let me handle it. and it's like applause breaks all over the shop And towards the end maybe when he was a bit infirm maybe some were sketched in, but most of that evidence has been refuted. I mean, I was listening to Trevor Nunn speak about this. and it was this o it was this person, but The way he writes about working class people about poverty ab, that is someone who has lived it. You can just tell. It's like when a toory politician tries to talk about you can make spaghetti bolognaise for five p if you just tried. You haven't tried, have you? No feeling in the right inside. Shakespeare because he was renting to some of those people Yeah E exactly. Well that's what's even weirder is when someone who was working class and had nothing becomes an abuser of their You know, but hur people hur people, Stephen. Well, I was just gonna to say that actually people do forget where they come from, because and I think that's proven time and time again, because sometimes we talk about it like working class people don't get successful. Buts that's not the true fact. they do But they forget where they come from, and then that's why it is only eight percent because they don't bring a team with them. Whereas someone like Cambridge, the whole foot lightights take each other We don't do that because you're so scrappy to get through the door. You're like, I need to keep it. I've never had Yeah. You can't drag everyone else with you through the door. Yeah. So I can see sometimes part I mean, obviously if he's done all that horrific stuff, then it's not that great. But I can see the part of going I've got this, I need to keep all this because I don't want to go back to that. because like you're saying, if we know what it was like to live in that. Yeah yeah we grew up on food banks and I never want to go back to that Yeah. well. I think that'. I've not been funny today, but I've been very smart. I comp this to one of the news quizzes. thank you. Envelope number three God I got three. He was a monumentally craped usband and father Yeah. Can I just say also this bpaper just has my name and then says He was a monumentally crap husband and father. Well, I'm glad someone was brave enough. For most of his adult life, we know Shakespeare lived and worked in London while his wife An Hathaway amazing and interstellar. and their children, they remained in Stratford upon Avon Now the journey from London to Stratford was between three and four days. That is slightly quicker than it is if you take the Avanti train now, but it's still a long time By moving away, Shakespeare chose a different, almost completely separate life, although mind you, with three small children who hasn't been tempted to stay in the travel lodge, watching Clarkson's farm over and over while taking weed off a dropper. That's not something I would do. In fifteen ninety six, you never would stay in a travel lodge. No mate. try to just connect with my people there In fifteen ninety six, Anne and William's son Hamnet tragically died aged eleven. The more I think about that, that is just such a plot for her Possibly it was the plague We don't know for sure, but it's very unlikely Shakespeare made it back before Hamnet even died let alone his funeral, and Shakespeare did not return to Stratford permanently for another fifteen years In sixteen oh five, Guy Fawkes and his fellow Catholics hatched a plan to blob the houses of Parliament a plot. We all know how that went. they were hung, drawn and quuter, went wrong. But what fewer people know is the unlikely connection to Shakespeare's family Plotters like Shakespeare were from Warwickshire, and one of the masterminds, John Catesby, was a close family friend of Shakespeare's dad, and Will himself known as a regular of the London Tavern where the plot was hatched. Now, it's highly unlikely he was involved. With their connection to both Warwickshire and the Incriminating London pub, Shakespeare and his family suddenly all looked pretty suss and being Suss was no joke because King James was out for blood and disaster struck. Susanna, Shakespeare's daughter, she wound up on the list of recusants. so that's someone under suspicion of being a Catholic sympathizer. And where were Shakespeare while all this was happening? In London writing and rehearsing, notot in Stratford with his family. So lucky for Susanna, her name disappeared from the list, but there's no evidence he gave a solitary toss For such a prominent figure Very little is known for sure about Shakespeare This means one of the things we have to rely on is legal records. Every we spoke about today is in the record, right? The juiciest of these records is Shakespeare's will and he was mean He left his wife, his second best bed. Seriously. Now some scholars have pointed out this could simply have referred to their marital bed and that the best bed was reserved for guests, but he left actual money to his fellow players Nothing to his wife. Wow. And overall's the second best bed? the bed that isn't quite as good as the first best bed.ough it reads as more affectionate towards the people he's working with than his own wife had Do you think the W is an appropriate place to make a joke? Shes snored.. If you were gonna to make a joke in your will, what would you do? I'd maybe invite someone to the W reading who actually gets nothing. so they just have to sit there. Just leave me in I mean, on Sterling show today. But I just think we finally they're sat there, they' waiting, they're th,h it's going'm gonna be last sumer's big's coming and then they should have to leave with nothing But I that somemer I don't know. I've always worked a voice recorder in my coffin Do you know where it's me talking being like, ennjoy the Praw rings at the buffet? and being like, Oh it's still with us. I don't know, that's what I would do. I mean Anthing would you like? I do conditions because I'd like to be taxi dermied. Really? Yes. No, you wouldn't. Why? Painted gold and put up in the towns. Don't you think I should be taxi dermied Like a stuffed chicken. Like a stuffed human. Is illegal to taxi demise a human or not? Yeah, I think so. Is it? Now we all asked to produer at the same time and all our heads. how pathetic that the thing that's interested us most is can as ecgotistical comedians. It's not leegal, no, you can I'm sorry. Well then then even funnier a joke because Id say you only get the money on condition I get stuffed and then I get the m your joke O they do it and they get arrested Yeah, how much are you willing to risk it? Will you move to a different country where you can stuff a human, you know? It's not a sense I thought I'd hit today, Kate, but I'm glad I've received it. And what about his fidelity? Now the sonnets complicate things. There's the fair youth, an unnamed young man of intense devotion. A lot of his sonnet, the ones that really fire where you believe he's like he's h in one hand, dic in the other. They're to men. Just like it touch you. Yeah. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Stunning. There's intense devotion to the Dark lady, described as having black wires for hair and d skin Now scholars have built entire industries on whether these poems reflect real affairs with men, maybe with a woman of colour, or are they just literary exercises? You're not living with your wife, you're going to be having affairs. Yeah, but yeah, off course you are. off course Of course that's normal. And he was very famous. There' always ye ye. And also, don't you think your best jokes come from like the truth? And so I always think the best art comes from the truth. So I definitely think he was definitely And also in his picture on Wikipedia, he's got a little earring Which does Oh yeah. That means good, does it? Well, in the nineties if you went to Benadome and came out with one, you would definitely ye. Frosted tip when. My dad you haven't checked to see whether it's right ear though It's hard to know with a portrait if they would have done it like a mirror.ar selfy orr would they'd have flipped you around. Right here is the gay one. Yeah, right here, right here. Also I liked it because she's older than him She's like eight years older than him, and I think that's a really nice it's really nice to see a famous man not marry a woman much younger than. Just have affairs with them instead. Yes. and young man. So you're right. He was so he was so famous. His DM's would have been an absolutely going on He Yeah. We don't know what she was up to. Yeah No. An Hathaway was probably tearing up in Coventry pop worldorld every single night kid Yeah. whichich Anne Halathaway Yeah. So towards the end we get King Leah right? And Leah Hows, I've taken too little care of this. Some critics hear that line as Shakespeare's own fear that he'd taken too little care of his family while chasing success If Leah's reconciliation with Cordelia was anything to go by, perhaps he was haunted by the possibility that he got it wrong We've had all our grreay area debate, but the beauty of evil genius is what we do now. We have to decide. Steve Bujer being notorious B UJ It's a notorious BG It's a BG. That's even better. even better. Yeah, that could get all the way to Nazing. P notorious bug. It does sound notorious bug. Notorious bug. Yeah That's the issue. stopps Shakespeare. I think evvil. I think the. Yeah, genuinely. I think the land I'm in the Shakespeare industry, I need you not to fuck this up I think anyone associated with Shakespeare is evil. think everyone who works on hispl is evil. I'm not saying he wasn't very smart and you know progressive and you know made up some good words, but I think fundamentally. He was not a nice man and I don't want to be his friend. Bailey help me out I think he's a genius, mainly because I'm evil and want to play Juliet. No. I think Jul Romeo and Julia, Oh my god, we would be so cute. I think what he was achieved is undeniable. I think there are so many like husbands out there that are having an affairs, maybe with gay earrings, maybe with gay men. And I can only respect that. Kate, you as your first hiney virginus unfortunately on the literally the most towering figure we've ever done. in a DNA of British culture and world R you have to decide. Well,nology,es. The current political climate I'm gonna go for. I don't think harding Grain is nice. and I want that to be very known. but I do think genius And I think because I am here for a bisexual icon. of the path Yes. and that's what he gives me And yes, and I think sometimes very creative people get famous and then their accountant does evil stuff in their name. Okay, well, we have voted. William Shakespeare is not unanimously But he is a genius. Thank you so much to my guests, Steve Boujer. You can see him under multiple nicknames in various Hampsshire towns. Fug's life is trending in Corby Steve Bougier, K Checker and Stehen Baile, thank you. If you want to be notified as soon as new episodes drop, make sure you're subscrib to EvilGenus on BBC Sounds and have pushed notifications turned on ye, so fast. faster than a young William Shakespeare abandoning his young family and buggering off literally to London to follow his deeply held dream of Becoming a Wankker landlord. Goodbye Hi, I'm Phil Wang and this is a podcast podcast trailer for a different podcast than this podcast that you've listened to or are going to listen to. But nonetheless, I'm talking about another podcast that you should also definitely listen to The podcast I'm talking about is Comedy of the Week, which takes choice episodes from BBC sitcoms, sketch shows, podcasts, and panel shows, including my own show on Speakool, and puts them all into one podcast. Maybe I'll trail this podcast on that podcast. Wh's to say? I'll do what I like. Listen to Comedy of the Week now on BBC Sounds