Let me explain the title a little. "Soupçon" is a French term, the favourite of the chef community. It refers to that special pinch (eh, 'punch', too) which adds a unique flavour to the concoction
Our column, which extends that metaphor, is going to be a cornucopia of 'wise saws' about literature (more the varieties, the better), related fields, humanities and the arts. It would be an immense help for those preparing for the NET/SET/JRF kind of competitive examinations. May be, the aspirants might want me to do much more along these lines. Let us see! Yet, for sure, the not-so-literary, non-specialist reader, too, would enjoy these details!
Soupçon I. ii Shakespeare and the Dis-ease
Yes, like the Corona confinement in the twenty-first century, twice was Shakespeare's career curtailed due to a deadly 'dis-ease'.
The first of these closures is closer to the notorious "lost years". Yes, Shakespeare's life leaves a lot to imagination, beginning with the exact date of his birth. Yet the "lost years" are truly apocryphal.
As this is the first week of our attempt, no quizzes, no MCQ's this week. Instead let us share information.
The "lost years" refer to the seven years hitch, 1585 to 1592, that is, after his twins' baptism to his certain emergence as a London playwright. There are not any definitive records. Instead, there are all sorts of 'his-stories' ranging from run-away activities such as poaching to duties as (h)ostler, for instance.
Yet, by this time, he was an all-in-one wizard, that is, an actor, a playwright, and a shareholder in the theater company called 'Lord Chamberlain's Men'. The 'dis-ease' was, in brief, a financial calamity.
By then, he had to his credit comedies and histories such as "Comedy of Errors", "Richard III" and the three parts of "Henry VI". As the histories dissected weak, corrupt regimes, it was clear that the Tudor dynasty was indirectly being praised n promoted.
In other words, such was Shakespeare's stage success in these early years that in 1592 itself, the unhappy year of the 'dis-ease', he was viciously trolled. How? By whom? Let us learn the details by and by. Suffice it, for the time being, to say that those 'dis-ease' days, too, were indeed tough!
Pratima Agnihotri Pune
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