'Shakespeare'; 'A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare': Straight Out of Stratford - New York Times

by John Simon
TIME was when we knew little about the life of Shakespeare. Like the good Victorian he was, Tennyson exulted: 'The less you know about a man's life, the better. I thank God day and night that we know nothing about Shakespeare.' Like the true skeptic he was, Mark Twain jeered that writing a biography of Shakespeare was like reconstructing a brontosaurus skeleton from 'nine bones and 600 barrels of plaster of Paris.'