IOSR Journal Of Humanities And Social Science (IOSR-JHSS) Volume 23, Issue 1, Ver. 8 (January. 2018) PP 38-41 e-ISSN: 2279-0837, p-ISSN: 2279-0845. www.iosrjournals.org DOI: 10.9790/0837-2301083841 www.iosrjournals.org 38 | Page Shakespeare in the Dock: A Cross-Examination of His Works Md Iqbal Hosain Assistant Professor, Department of English Language and Literature International Islamic University Chittagong, Bangladesh Abstract: The paper deals with the controversies concerning Shakespeare and his works. After the death of Shakespeare, unending debates over his authorship, person and the works create confusion among the readers of the world. First of all, the paper discusses the literature related to the textual problems; secondly, it discusses the problems concerning his authorship of the plays, and thirdly, it brings out an extensive analysis of the thematic and structural symmetry between Shakespeare‘s works and those of his predecessors and contemporaries. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Date of Submission: 11-01-2018 Date of acceptance: 26-01-2018 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I. PROBLEMS OF SHAKESPEAREAN PLAYS Curiosity endless centers round Shakespeare and his works since his departure from the globe, but authentic sources are hardly found to explore the various horizons of the maestro of English Literature. The information we have about Shakespeare and his personal profile is now-a-days debated. Many scholars have come up with their detective methodologies to explore the real information about his life and works and at the same time they intend to break the riddle created among the readers through various confusing logics prevail in the society. During his lifetime, we did not have any play published. Seven years after his death, an anthology of his plays was published by one of his friends. This is known as The First Folio comprising thirty six plays. But the first Folio and Quartos are full of errors, obscurities and possible corruptions.(Johnson 1765). The textual problems and confusions basically derive from the anomalies and discrepancies between the Quartos and the First Folio. Quartos are the small books published during staging the plays. The nineteen quartos are also commonly published with other plays in the First Folio comprising thirty six plays. But there are gulf of difference between the texts of the two versions. Heminge and Condell demand that texts of the First Folio are authentic, perfect and represent the original copies of Shakespeare. These two editors of the F1 also claimed that they are presenting to the readers the true copies ―cured and perfect of their limbs and …..absolute in their numbers as he perceived them‖. They also complained in the preface that people have been deceived with presumably piratical and surreptitious, stale and injurious texts of Shakespeare‘s plays. (Sinha, 1993, p186). But the twentieth century researchers refuted the claims of F1 editors that they have printed their plays from Shakespeare‘s manuscripts with autograph is completely false and baseless. The F1 was not founded on Shakespeare‘s own manuscripts that disappeared by 1623 or much earlier. About seventeen or nineteen plays are based upon the Quartos. If they found the original manuscripts, they had not to depend on the Quartos. And the other eighteen or seventeen plays which had no Quartos are based on the play-house copies which had been undergoing all the vicissitudes of the green-room for a dozen of years since the author‘s retirement from the stage. Grierson says, ―The stage version was no longer Shakespeare‘s plays as he wrote it, but as it had been revised by some enterprising dramatist in the service of the King‘s Players.‖ Macbeth as it published in the Folio is not the exact play of Shakespeare. It was revised and refurbished to meet the demand of the stage and fashion. (Sinha1993, p186) This controversy regarding the texts makes the readers skeptical of valid authorship of Shakespeare. II. ENIGMA CENTERS ROUND SHAKESPEARE Shakespeare is a mysterious playwright. There is no absolute parameter by which we can be sure that all these plays were written by Shakespeare himself. No letters or house hold commodities used by Shakespeare are found till now by which we can at least justify his writings. Even we do not know how he wrote his name or designation. The spelling of his name is found different in various files and documents. The spelling ‗Shakespeare‘ is most familiar with us but there are many other spellings found such as ‗Shakspere‘, ‗Shake - Speare‘, ‗Shaksper‘, ‗Shakespeere‘, ‗Shakespea‘, ‗Shagsper‘, Sha xberrd etc.(Christiansen 2003). All these names create confusion in the mind of readers that the man familiar as Shakespeare by name and Shakespeare was born in Stratford-Upon-Avon are not the same person. Freud, (75): "Incidentally, in this meantime, I stopped to believe that the author of Shakespeare‘s works was the man of Stratford."