{"id":146,"date":"2026-04-08T16:27:32","date_gmt":"2026-04-08T15:27:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.stourbend.com\/?p=146"},"modified":"2026-04-08T16:33:34","modified_gmt":"2026-04-08T15:33:34","slug":"1599-and-all-that-the-particular-and-the-universal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.stourbend.com\/?p=146","title":{"rendered":"\u20181599\u2019 and all that \u2013 the particular and the universal"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><a href=\"https:\/\/donnordbergwriting.substack.com\/p\/1599-and-all-that-the-particular?r=364aso\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"493\" height=\"537\" src=\"https:\/\/www.stourbend.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1599.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-147\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.stourbend.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1599.jpg 493w, https:\/\/www.stourbend.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1599-275x300.jpg 275w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 493px) 100vw, 493px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>The critical success of the film and of Maggie O\u2019Farrell&#8217;s novel, <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/4aGyQJ9\"><em>Hamnet<\/em><\/a>, was the spur.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Several years ago, I bought James Shapiro\u2019s 2006 Ballie Gifford award-winning book <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/40zGqiG\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><em>1599: A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare<\/em><\/a>, planning to make time to read it, someday, maybe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Now, I have read and <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/open.substack.com\/pub\/donnordbergwriting\/p\/hamnet-and-shh-dont-mention-it-attend\">written about the novel <em>Hamnet<\/em><\/a> and found there an imagined version of the domestic half of the Shakespeare family\u2019s story. It was a tale in which William is largely absent and the telling of it didn\u2019t even mention his name. Time to read about the other half.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Shapiro (2005) tells a good story, bursting with facts that even many Shakespeare scholars may never have heard. It reads like good history. Its analysis of Shakespeare\u2019s writing illuminates the craft. It\u2019s a good read, but beyond that, it has a mission.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>More from:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><a href=\"https:\/\/donnordbergwriting.substack.com\/p\/1599-and-all-that-the-particular?r=364aso\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"864\" height=\"205\" src=\"http:\/\/www.stourbend.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/DNwriting-banner.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-140\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.stourbend.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/DNwriting-banner.png 864w, https:\/\/www.stourbend.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/DNwriting-banner-300x71.png 300w, https:\/\/www.stourbend.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/DNwriting-banner-768x182.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 864px) 100vw, 864px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The critical success of the film and of Maggie O\u2019Farrell&#8217;s novel, Hamnet, was the spur. Several years ago, I bought James Shapiro\u2019s 2006 Ballie Gifford award-winning book 1599: A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare, planning to make time to read it, someday, maybe. Now, I have read and written about the novel Hamnet &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.stourbend.com\/?p=146\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">\u20181599\u2019 and all that \u2013 the particular and the universal<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-146","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-don-nordberg-is-on-writing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stourbend.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stourbend.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stourbend.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stourbend.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stourbend.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=146"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.stourbend.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":148,"href":"https:\/\/www.stourbend.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146\/revisions\/148"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stourbend.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=146"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stourbend.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=146"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stourbend.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=146"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}