1
The Shakespeare Industry
12 October 2020
1297 words
Assignment 5
Creative Reception
What is meant by bardolatry? Who coined that term?
Bardolatry is a term that was coined by G.B. Shaw. Bardolatry, according to the OED,
is the “[w]orship of the ‘Bard of Avon’, i.e. Shakespeare” (“Bardolatry”).
Shakespeare’s words were, by some people, seen as sacred, similar to how Christians
regard the words of the bible, and if you were to change or add to them, it could be
seen as sacrilege. Shakespeare and his works could, in some regard, be seen as a
museum piece that must be preserved and kept as is, and thus, should not be changed.
The term bardolatry fit with the Romantic view of Shakespeare as the natural poet. The
Romantics believed that the authors should be original and not make works based on
other literary works; jut like Shakespeare, who supposedly wrote things down perfectly
and never had to change his writing.1
Can a modern staging of a Shakespeare play be faithful to the original—if so,
how? If not, why not?
A modern staging of a Shakespearean play is rarely faithful to the original. The
Merchant of Venice was never the same after World War II, as the anti-semitic element
of the play was now more prevalent than ever. Every word in every sentence of the
plays means something in the present context, which may be very different from what
it used to mean or represent. On top of that, there have been plenty of new innovations,
namely that women used to not be able to act but now they are and there used to be no
1 All information retrieved from Franssen. “Shakespeare and the Creative Writer.”
, 2
backdrops but now there are. The only way you could do it as true to Shakespeare as
possible is to act on a bare stage, but even then the way someone performs and
interprets the way a line is meant to be spoken can be very different from what
Shakespeare might have intended.2
Name two major innovations in acting generally and thus in Shakespeare
productions brought in by the Restoration. How did each of them affect the
practice of adapting Shakespeare’s plays?
The first innovation was that women were now allowed on the English stage. Now that
actresses were allowed, they did not need boy actors anymore to play the female roles.
This led to an increase in demand for more female characters, and therefore, the
demand for female actresses grew as well. The second innovation was the invention of
a backdrop. Shakespeare had originally written his plays to be performed on a bare
stage, where the acting is fluent. But now that backdrops were used you had to re-write
the play to have longer scenes to allow enough time to change the setting.3
Who is Jan Kott? What does he mean when he calls Shakespeare our
“contemporary”?
Jan Kott was a Polish professor who called Shakespeare ‘our contemporary’.
Shakespeare ‘our contemporary’ refers to the idea that Shakespeare is somehow
universal, and therefore he must also be our contemporary, as he speaks of our
concerns. Shakespeare’s universality makes sure that his works are always topical
again and have direct political relevance to the events of our time. Kott was a Polish
dissident, living in Poland, and he realised that the Communist regime could never
2 All information retrieved from Franssen. “Shakespeare and the Creative Writer.”
3 All information retrieved from Franssen. “Shakespeare and the Creative Writer.”
The Shakespeare Industry
12 October 2020
1297 words
Assignment 5
Creative Reception
What is meant by bardolatry? Who coined that term?
Bardolatry is a term that was coined by G.B. Shaw. Bardolatry, according to the OED,
is the “[w]orship of the ‘Bard of Avon’, i.e. Shakespeare” (“Bardolatry”).
Shakespeare’s words were, by some people, seen as sacred, similar to how Christians
regard the words of the bible, and if you were to change or add to them, it could be
seen as sacrilege. Shakespeare and his works could, in some regard, be seen as a
museum piece that must be preserved and kept as is, and thus, should not be changed.
The term bardolatry fit with the Romantic view of Shakespeare as the natural poet. The
Romantics believed that the authors should be original and not make works based on
other literary works; jut like Shakespeare, who supposedly wrote things down perfectly
and never had to change his writing.1
Can a modern staging of a Shakespeare play be faithful to the original—if so,
how? If not, why not?
A modern staging of a Shakespearean play is rarely faithful to the original. The
Merchant of Venice was never the same after World War II, as the anti-semitic element
of the play was now more prevalent than ever. Every word in every sentence of the
plays means something in the present context, which may be very different from what
it used to mean or represent. On top of that, there have been plenty of new innovations,
namely that women used to not be able to act but now they are and there used to be no
1 All information retrieved from Franssen. “Shakespeare and the Creative Writer.”
, 2
backdrops but now there are. The only way you could do it as true to Shakespeare as
possible is to act on a bare stage, but even then the way someone performs and
interprets the way a line is meant to be spoken can be very different from what
Shakespeare might have intended.2
Name two major innovations in acting generally and thus in Shakespeare
productions brought in by the Restoration. How did each of them affect the
practice of adapting Shakespeare’s plays?
The first innovation was that women were now allowed on the English stage. Now that
actresses were allowed, they did not need boy actors anymore to play the female roles.
This led to an increase in demand for more female characters, and therefore, the
demand for female actresses grew as well. The second innovation was the invention of
a backdrop. Shakespeare had originally written his plays to be performed on a bare
stage, where the acting is fluent. But now that backdrops were used you had to re-write
the play to have longer scenes to allow enough time to change the setting.3
Who is Jan Kott? What does he mean when he calls Shakespeare our
“contemporary”?
Jan Kott was a Polish professor who called Shakespeare ‘our contemporary’.
Shakespeare ‘our contemporary’ refers to the idea that Shakespeare is somehow
universal, and therefore he must also be our contemporary, as he speaks of our
concerns. Shakespeare’s universality makes sure that his works are always topical
again and have direct political relevance to the events of our time. Kott was a Polish
dissident, living in Poland, and he realised that the Communist regime could never
2 All information retrieved from Franssen. “Shakespeare and the Creative Writer.”
3 All information retrieved from Franssen. “Shakespeare and the Creative Writer.”
