A lot out of little

Precious little is known about the life of William Shakespeare, which makes Bill Bryson the ideal person to write Shakespeare's biography. This he did in 2007 with Shakespeare: The World as Stage, part of the Eminent Lives series of brief biographies of notable individuals.

Bryson has had a successful career writing brilliantly not just about his various subjects but about an array of more-or-less related subjects, anything that takes his fancy, in other words. Thus when he writes a chapter called "The Lost Years: 1585-1592," a period in which nothing at all is known about Shakespeare's life, Bryson can stretch it to 20 pages, and it is as interesting as any other chapter in this book.

Because so little is known about the great writer, the entire book is more about his times than his life. What was London theater like during that period of history? What were other poets and playwrights doing? What was Queen Elizabeth up to? Even, how much beer did people drink at that time? Bryson lets us know.

This being Bryson, the short book is full of wonderful trivia. There were so many beheadings in London at that time that there was actually an official position called Keeper of the Heads to keep track of where all those heads were mounted for public viewing. Piccadilly got its name from the piccadills, or exotic ruffs common on clothing at that period in history. A theater box office is so called because playgoers then actually put their coins in a box, which was later taken to an office where the money was counted. Eton students were sometimes beaten if they didn't use tobacco, for tobacco was then thought to fight off the plague.

As for Shakespeare, he does manage to make it into his own biography, even if there is more speculation than actual fact. Most of what we do know is based on a few public records and the literature he left behind. And the fact that we still have his plays is something of a miracle, for very few of the plays performed during that period, when the theater was immensely popular, survive. Bryson makes quick work out of claims that someone other than Shakespeare wrote Shakespeare.

Shakespeare wasn't even the most popular or most highly regarded playwright of his day. His stature grew over the centuries after his death. He is now so prominent that countless volumes have been written about him, and like this one, they all consist of more speculation than fact.