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Poor Naked Wretches: Shakespeare’s Working People
Disputing the notion that William Shakespeare scorned the rabble, an illuminating look at the complex working people of his plays.
Was Shakespeare a snob? Poor Naked Wretches challenges the idea that one of the greatest writers of the English language despised working people, showing that he portrayed them with as much insight, compassion, and purpose as the rich and powerful. Moreover, working people play an important role in his dramatic method. Stephen Unwin reads Shakespeare anew, exploring the astonishing variety of working people in his plays, as well as the vast range of cultural sources from which they were drawn. Unwin argues that the robust realism of these characters, their independence of mind, and their engagement in the great issues of the day, make them much more than mere comic relief. Compassionate, cogent, and wry, Poor Naked Wretches grants these often-overlooked figures the dignity and respect they deserve.
Was Shakespeare a snob? Poor Naked Wretches challenges the idea that one of the greatest writers of the English language despised working people, showing that he portrayed them with as much insight, compassion, and purpose as the rich and powerful. Moreover, working people play an important role in his dramatic method. Stephen Unwin reads Shakespeare anew, exploring the astonishing variety of working people in his plays, as well as the vast range of cultural sources from which they were drawn. Unwin argues that the robust realism of these characters, their independence of mind, and their engagement in the great issues of the day, make them much more than mere comic relief. Compassionate, cogent, and wry, Poor Naked Wretches grants these often-overlooked figures the dignity and respect they deserve.
304 pages, Hardcover
Published September 26, 2022
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December 7, 2022
'Poor Naked Wretches' is not the usual Shakespearean criticism. It does not focus on individual plays, and nor does it consider the normal movers and shakers - the Hamlets, Lears, Romeos and Henrys - that tend to occupy the scholarship. Instead, Stephen Unwin provides in-depth analysis of the little people as they appear across Shakespeare's works, the gravediggers, cannon-fodder, friars and players, who are so frequently overlooked. His aim is simple: to show that these characters are equally as intriguing and complex as the more familiar protagonists, and furthermore to unveil both the Tudor and Shakespeare's own attitudes to working people.
Unwin's strength is that he comes from a theatrical background, spending years working to bring these people to life on the stage, and he brings this experience to bear heavily in his book. Throughout its pages, the reader gets the sense that each example, each paragraph, is based on decades of discussions, trials and errors. It is obvious that he knows the plays inside-out, not just as texts to be examined but as living breathing entities that, when performed, represent all of the varying shades of humanity. His familiarity with the Bard can at times lead him to forget that not everyone is as knowledgeable, however, and his arrangement of the book - by trade or social role (peasants, maids, soldiers, criminals, etc), rather than by play - can make it hard to follow. To my shame, I am not as familiar with, for example, 'Coriolanus' as I should be, and so I might not immediately grasp the character or situation to which he's referring. Some exposition would have been nice. Nevertheless, his appreciation of the genius of Shakespeare is palpable and contagious; his love of the theatre equally so.
Because 'Poor Naked Wretches' is above all a work of literary criticism (and something of an inspiration to actors), its history can let it down. Rather than the particular facts (although I have been unable to trace and verify a few), it is the framework in which they are presented: the unquestioning assumption that class war led to civil war (even the anachronistic use of terms such as 'class'), and the arguing within a Marxist structure make this new book feel as if it was published fifty years ago.
This is a shame, because Unwin has actually got some fantastic things to say and points to make. Thankfully coming down against a Marxist interpretation of Shakespeare, he points out that the playwright had astounding powers of observation and used these to capture the everyday life of working people in a way that no other contemporary managed. Shakespeare's plays provide a wonderful glimpse into the past, and directors and actors would be wise to see the characters as fully formed people who could have been picked off the streets of early Stuart London. In a time when Romeo is far too frequently being turned into a gun-toting trust fund baby - a particular bugbear of mine - it is refreshing to find a director who is knowledgeable about and sympathetic to Shakespeare's original characters, in all their diverse forms and glory.
Unwin's strength is that he comes from a theatrical background, spending years working to bring these people to life on the stage, and he brings this experience to bear heavily in his book. Throughout its pages, the reader gets the sense that each example, each paragraph, is based on decades of discussions, trials and errors. It is obvious that he knows the plays inside-out, not just as texts to be examined but as living breathing entities that, when performed, represent all of the varying shades of humanity. His familiarity with the Bard can at times lead him to forget that not everyone is as knowledgeable, however, and his arrangement of the book - by trade or social role (peasants, maids, soldiers, criminals, etc), rather than by play - can make it hard to follow. To my shame, I am not as familiar with, for example, 'Coriolanus' as I should be, and so I might not immediately grasp the character or situation to which he's referring. Some exposition would have been nice. Nevertheless, his appreciation of the genius of Shakespeare is palpable and contagious; his love of the theatre equally so.
Because 'Poor Naked Wretches' is above all a work of literary criticism (and something of an inspiration to actors), its history can let it down. Rather than the particular facts (although I have been unable to trace and verify a few), it is the framework in which they are presented: the unquestioning assumption that class war led to civil war (even the anachronistic use of terms such as 'class'), and the arguing within a Marxist structure make this new book feel as if it was published fifty years ago.
This is a shame, because Unwin has actually got some fantastic things to say and points to make. Thankfully coming down against a Marxist interpretation of Shakespeare, he points out that the playwright had astounding powers of observation and used these to capture the everyday life of working people in a way that no other contemporary managed. Shakespeare's plays provide a wonderful glimpse into the past, and directors and actors would be wise to see the characters as fully formed people who could have been picked off the streets of early Stuart London. In a time when Romeo is far too frequently being turned into a gun-toting trust fund baby - a particular bugbear of mine - it is refreshing to find a director who is knowledgeable about and sympathetic to Shakespeare's original characters, in all their diverse forms and glory.
Displaying 1 of 1 review