Samuel Schoenbaum (1927–1996)

Since nobody else has attempted a review of this culmination of Samuel Schoenbaum's life work, I'll submit a few comments.
Suffice it to say that SS has written an exhaustive and sometimes exhausting survey and analysis of the whole gamut of attempts to present an accurate biography of Shakespeare. SS meticulously demolishes myths and acknowledges new genuine discoveries. He lays out the stories of the forgers, William-Henry Ireland and John Payne Collier. He gives careful, balanced attention to all the major antiquarians and scholars, usually with his own devastating comments. (A typical example when commenting on the writing of Edgar I Fripp, "--- his book breaks down into bits and pieces - 163 chapters in all. It is rather as though a gifted miniaturist found himself confronted with the task of decorating the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.") I could almost apply his description of E. K. Chambers's writing to himself: "His prose style exquisitely matches his needs: at its best concise, disdaining floridity, without eloquence but enlivened by occasional flashes of caustic wit..."
He ends by recalling the three great scholars: Edmond Malone in the 18th century, James Halliwell-Phillipps in the 19th, and E.K. Chambers in the early 20th, while noting that none of them wrote a narrative life. He ends, "Meanwhile, Shakespeare endures."… (mehr)