Shakespeare
What win I, if I gain a thing I seek? A dream, a breath, a froth of fleeting joy. Who buys a minute’s mirth to wail a week? Or sells eternity to get a toy?
William Shakespeare is a character in Neil Gaiman’s Sandman comics. He is based on the historical playwright of the same name. His story in Sandman combines fiction with some historical facts. For example, the real William Shakespeare did write two plays entitled A Midsummer Night’s Dream and The Tempest respectively, and the content of these plays is accurately described in the series. However, the circumstances behind the writing of the plays is perhaps invented for the series.
William Shakespeare appears in 3 issues of Sandman, and these issues form a loose trilogy of which the chosen topic of this post is the middle chapter. We will walk through all three of Shakespeare’s appearances to get a more complete picture.
Men of Good Fortune
I would give anything to have your gifts. Or more than anything to give men dreams, that would live on long after I am dead.
Shakespeare is introduced in Sandman #13, “Men of Good Fortune”. Art by Michael Zulli and Steve Parkhouse; lettering by Todd Klein; coloring by Robbie Busch; edited by Art Young and Karen Berger.
This story is mainly dedicated to Hob Gadling, the man who decided that death was a mug’s game and that he would keep on living. Dream first meets Hob in 1389, and they agree to meet at the same tavern on that date every hundred years. Hob is one of my favorite characters in this series, and this is one of my favorite issues. I would love to talk about it in more detail, and one day might. For today, issue 19 is my focus.
What’s relevant to that focus is their 3rd meeting, in 1589, when Will Shaxberd is present, talking with the playwright Kit Marlowe. Shaxberd’s desire (or dream) is to write great plays as Marlowe does.
Kit Marlowe is also based on an historical figure. Another playwright and poet, known, for example, for “The Tragical History of the Life and Death of Doctor Faustus”, a play based on an old legend in which a doctor trades his soul for power in a pact with the devil. It seems to be this play that Shaxberd and Marlowe are discussing. This conversation foreshadows Shakespeare’s own arc in this series, and the doubts that will plague him in the series’ final chapter.
The historical Marlowe and Shakespeare were both successful London playwrights at the same time, and likely met each other. It is not clear that the historical figures were friends, or that they had met prior to Shakespeare’s own writings gaining success. There are longstanding theories that they are in fact the same person, but this seems to be snobbish delusion unsubstantiated by historical fact.
Dream overhears Shaxberd’s excited ramblings to Marlowe. “I would give anything to have your gifts. Or more than anything to give men dreams, that would live on long after I am dead. I’d bargain, like your Faustus, for that boon.”
Dream introduces himself.
“Are you Will Shaxberd?”
“Aye, sir. Have we met?”
“We have. But men forget, in waking hours.”
“I heard your talk, Will. Would you write great plays? Create new dreams to spur the minds of men? Is that your will?”
“It is.”
“Then let us talk.”
With that, the issue jumps forward a hundred years in its story, and we will jump forward 6 issues to continue our discussion.
A Midsummer Night’s Dream
And, as imagination bodies forth the forms of things unknown, the poet’s pen turns them to shapes, and gives to airy nothing a local habitation and a name.
We come at last to my intended subject, Sandman #19; colored by Steve Oliff; lettered by Todd Klein; assistant editor Tom Peyer.
July 23, 1593. Four years after his fateful encounter in an inn, Will Shekespear and his troupe travel along a road. His son Hamnet accompanies him. One of his actors, Kemp, has an idea for a jest in which he sits on a pork pie. His idea is rejected; to make the audience laugh is not enough reason to include something.
Shekespear meets his benefactor for the second time on Midsummer’s Eve. They are to perform his new play on Wendel’s Mound, by the Long Man of Wilmington, in East Sussex.
Richard Burbage is Will’s leading man. Also an historical figure, Burbage is one of the most famous actors of his time. Burbage is unimpressed by the play they are about to perform; he prefers the great tragedies.
Gaiman is a wordsmith and thus able to make it so his characters don’t speak plainly unless he wishes them to. Where most might refer to an opening, Dreams speaks of the “unclosing of a portal”.
The true purpose and origins of the Long Man of Wilmington have long been a mystery to scholars. Here, we learn the truth. The Long Man guards the door to the Realms of Faerie.
We see now the premise of this tale. It is the first performance of a famous Shakespearian play, and the first audience will be the very ones whose lives inspired it: the fair folk.
Dream greets Auberon of Dom-Daniel and Lady Titania. An entourage of strange beings follows, garbed in everything from leaf to light. Auberon refers to Dream as Shaper. Puck the hobgoblin stands at their side ready with clever barbs.
Dream seems unoffended. “It is a fool’s prerogative to utter truths that no one else will speak.” Later in the series, Sandman will have less kind words for Merv Pumpkinhead and his insults.
The play begins. The actors show some nervousness, the playwright in particular. The audience display mixed reactions. The play’s benefactor is very disinclined to any show of emotions, but you nonetheless get a sense that he too is nervous. It’s important to him that today turn out well.
Hermia and Lysander are young lovers who have run off together, but she is pursued by Demetrius, whom she has been ordered to marry by Theseus, Duke of Athens. Helena also follows them, for she loves Demetrius. Meanwhile, Bottom and his craftsmen are rehearsing the tragic story of Pyramus and Thisbe to perform at the Duke's wedding.
Titania is impressed by Shekespear’s son and looks forward to meeting him. Dream explains the terms of the arrangement he and Will had come to. Shekespear’s part of the bargain was to write two plays specifically requested by Dream. A Midsummer Night’s Dream is the first of them. We will learn soon what the second play is. Dream expresses his part of the bargain as giving Shekespear “…what he thinks he most desires”. Again, interesting choice of words.
The actor playing Titania is not dressed in the elegant finery of the true Queen, a fact Titania surely notices.
Oberon and Titania quarrel, so Oberon has Puck secure a love potion for a trick on Titania. Oberon takes pity on Helena's plight and orders Puck to dose Demetrius as well.
Hamnet speaks of his father, how rarely he sees him. He bemoans how distant his father is even when they are together. Will seems to care more about the stories than his family.
Puck offers an insight that Lord Auberon will be slower to grasp.
There is a mixup most comical. Puck mistakes Lysander for Demetrius. The love potion causes Lysander to love Helena and Titania to love Bottom, whose head has been transformed into an ass.
Auberon feels he should be displeased with the portrayal of himself, but he is not. During the interval, he compliments Shekespear on the play. Burbage asks Auberon for coin for their troubles; perhaps a poor choice on his part. And Puck spies a chance for mischief. What if Puck were to replace Dick Cowley, the actor who plays Puck?
Shaper offers his thanks to Shekespear and his compliments. “It will last,” he says. This point seems rather important to him.
We learn a little more of the bargain. The two plays Shekespear owes were both meant to celebrate dreams. The final will be written at the end of his career.
It is then that Shaper carelessly informs Shekespear of his friend Marlowe’s death. We saw previously that the two were friends, when Will was jealous of Marlowe’s gifts, and inspired to bargain like Marlowe’s Faustus. Shaper’s callousness about it all reminds Shekespear what his benefactor truly is, and he proclaims that he half-regrets their bargain.
In the background, Titania speaks to Hamnet of the Realms of Faerie of which she is Queen. She seems to be enticing him to this place where it is forever summer’s twilight.
Auberon informs Shaper that the world has changed and his people can no longer visit this realm. Titania reminds Shaper he is always welcome in Faerie. He says he may one day visit. His words are ominous. His final visit to Faerie will mean his doom.
Hamnet attempts to talk to his father about what Titania had said. Will ignores him, too focused on Puck, and what he believes to be Cowley’s acting. But what Hamnet seeks to tell him is important. For he will die in three years, aged eleven.
Peaseblossom is excited when his character shows up, despite his concerns the character is nothing like him. Skarrow reminds Peaseblossom the character is not him. They all agree Peaseblossom needs to be quiet so they can watch the show.
We now get to a key moment. Titania watches the play while Shaper tries to unburden his conscience to her. He is uncertain that the bargain he made was fair to Shekespear. She pays him little attention, or at least gives off that appearance.
There are of course those rumors that Dream and Titania have something of a history together, but we will not engage in such untoward speculation here. The Queen keeps her own counsel, and it is none of our affair.
After much confusion and quarreling, Oberon sets everything right. The right couples are now all together. Theseus declares both couples will be married with his own wedding ceremony to Hippolyta.
Shaper tries to explain his reasoning for tonight. It is his gift to Faerie for all the amusement the fair folk have afforded him. He knows that through a play that will endure, their names will endure. The fey have left our world, but Auberon and Titania are not forgotten.
Auberon does not fully appreciate the gift. He notes that the events related in the play are inaccurate, that this diversion is pleasant, but not true.
Shaper responds, and his response is perhaps the perfect centerpiece for Neil Gaiman’s entire career. “Things need not have happened to be true…”
Bottom and his crew perform at the wedding. Their ineptitude transforms the tragic play into a comedy.
The audience departs; the play finishes.
The next day, the actors wake, wondering if it was all a dream. Burbage’s gold is yellow flowers. Hamnet dreamed of a lady who would take him with her to a distant land. Shekespear dismisses this as foolish fancies.
Puck may not have returned to Faerie. He may still be loose on Earth.
The Tempest
We are such stuff as dreams are made on, and our little life is rounded with a sleep.
Sandman #75, “The Tempest”. The final issue of Sandman. Letters by Todd Klein; colors by Daniel Vozzo and Digital Chameleon; inks by Charles Vess; pencilling duties split up amongst Vess, John Ridgway, Bryan Talbot and Michael Zulli.
We come across Shakespeare writing his final play, The Tempest, when his daughter Judith comes to warn him of a storm. While the last play had been a gift for Auberon and Titania, this one is for Dream himself.
Despite the storm, Shakespeare makes his way to an inn. The innkeeper defends his honor, based on some good he had done for her late husband. Her version of events is not quite factual, but it’s what she prefers to believe. Two sailors enter and ask the patrons for a penny a piece to view the corpse of a dead Indian they have brought with them.
We see Shakespeare’s interactions with Ben Johnson, based on another historical figure, a contemporary playwright, one whose work Gaiman seems less impressed by. They talk of Will’s strained relationship with his wife. They talk of writing. And Shakespeare speaks of how ready he is to put down the pen.
We then see Shakespeare and his daughter. Shakespeare is adding a scene with two drunken sailors into his play. Judith confesses that she wished her father had any other profession, one where he would have been around. She talks of how jealous she was of the summer Hamnet got to spend with her father, and how their mother would weep while he was away.
Something has gone quite wrong in Shakespeare’s relationship with his wife over the years. The conflict seems to be between practicality and dreams: whether to write plays or chop firewood.
Dream visits Shakespeare to see how the play is going. Shakespeare claims Dream has changed, but Dream dismisses the notion. Perhaps he only seems different because his appearance reflects the person he is talking to. It has been 17 years since their last meeting, years which seem to have taken a toll on Shakespeare.
Shakespeare begins to express his doubts as to what Dream is, as to what manner of creature he has bargained with. A devil? He knows his inspiration comes not from God, as it should. He places these concerns into Prospero. He will have Prospero break his staff and renounce his magic, in the hopes that he may yet be saved from damnation.
Upon completing the play, Dream takes Will to his parlor for a drink of wine. Will speaks of how the characters of The Tempest reflect himself. They travel a dark path, and Shakespeare hears the beating of mighty wings. They speak of how plays mirror reality, and the ways in which they do not.
Shakespeare drinks of a wine given to him by a gypsy girl his first month in London, who also gave him a kiss. He talks with Dream of their bargain. Shakespeare is reminded of the words he spoke in his youth, how this was what he wanted. He wonders now if it was worth it. Dream offers a glimpse of what might have been instead.
Shakespeare speaks of how plays have invaded every aspect of his life. How he experienced everything as a writer. Love, death… all experience became fodder for his craft.
Shakespeare tries to understand why The Tempest is the play that Dream wanted. Why a comedy and not a tragedy?
Shakespeare awakens, writes an epilogue to his play, and puts down his pen.
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