A Will in the World by Stephen Greenblatt p 1-86

The first two chapters of this book have been dense but still enjoyable. I may have been more interested in reading a book that tries to prove that William Shakespeare did not really write all the plays attributed to him, but this one is fine for now. In this book, Stephen Greenblatt makes an attempt to prove that Shakespeare did write what he is credited with. He does this by speculating many points since very few tangible records of Shakespeare's life exist. There aren't any manuscripts of his plays.

So far Greenblatt has spent most of the book discussing Shakespeare's father, John. John Shakespeare was a baliff, sheriff, and altogehter respected man in his town of Stratford. He even got elected to be the villiage ale-tester, which according to Greeenblatt was a very respected position. I think I would have been good at that, but enough about me.

Eventually John Shakespeare loses his fortune and his place in society, and his son William makes many attempts to restore it. The main way he does this is to apply for a family crest. During Shakespeare's time, there was a big division between the gentiles and the peasants, and one way to prove a family's standing was with a crest. William Shakespeare, after he becomes an actor of repute in London, applies for a crest for his family, but it later gets regected.