Now is the winter of our discontent. Except, replace “winter” with “unnecessarily hot day in the first week of July,” and replace “discontent” with “crowning of Richard III about 528 years ago.” Then replace all of the silliness you just read with the entire text of Shakespeare’s Richard III. Now you’re getting somewhere.
Today is, in fact, the 528th anniversary of Richard III’s coronation in 1483. This doesn’t affect you in any way. Except that it does. Whether or not you give it much thought, history is one of the biggest sources for inspiration in many of our forms of entertainment—books, movies, and television. With the popularity of authors such as Philippa Gregory and Margaret George (just to name a couple), I’d be a little surprised if you’d never read anything historical. Do you watch shows like The Tudors? How about any of the thousands of films set in World War II? Authors have been crafting history into entertainment for probably as long as there has been language. The Iliad. QED.
All that being said, the English language’s most famous author was no exception. Shakespeare wrote about ten plays that are officially called histories, which doesn’t include plays like Julius Caesar or Antony and Cleopatra (take it up with the scholars). We hear a lot about Shakespeare’s comedies and tragedies—Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, Twelfth Night, The Taming of the Shrew—but how many of the histories can you name? (Hint: you’re doing well if you’re thinking of kings named Henry or Richard.)
Here’s another interesting fact: Have you noticed how it seems that so many movies lately become epic trilogies (or even tetralogies)? Guess whose histories include a lot of “Part II” and “Part III” action? The Hollywood sequel isn’t exactly a new idea—Shakespeare was writing three- and four-part epics 400 years ago. Nothing new under the sun, as they say. (P.S., that’s not even originally a Shakespeare line!)
| Jake Gauslow |
| Adult Services Librarian | |
| jgauslow@friscotexas.gov |
Tags: books, Frisco Public Library, historical fiction, History, Richard III, sequels, Shakespeare
