{"id":4692,"date":"2015-06-16T07:03:50","date_gmt":"2015-06-16T11:03:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateofshakespeare.com\/?page_id=4692"},"modified":"2015-06-16T07:06:40","modified_gmt":"2015-06-16T11:06:40","slug":"mrs-shakespeare-opening-scene","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/stateofshakespeare.com\/?page_id=4692","title":{"rendered":"Mrs. Shakespeare: Opening Scene."},"content":{"rendered":"

Mrs Shakespeare. \u00a0 William Shakespeare. \u00a0Act 1, Scene 1<\/strong><\/p>\n

This text is used in our interview with Irene Kelleher<\/a>.<\/p>\n

(A woman \u2013 Will \u2013 is writing in her diary with a quill.)<\/i><\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

22nd<\/sup>\u00a0April.<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

When I first revealed to other people that I was William Shakespeare reincarnated, they laughed. They\u2019d always come up with the same ridiculous comments:<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cBut you\u2019re a woman?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Well, I\u2019d hardly come back\u00a0identical.\u00a0<\/i>If I return as a baldy little bloke with a goatee, that\u2019s not reincarnation \u2013 that\u2019s an encore.\u00a0Then again, how do we know I wasn\u2019t a woman in my first life?\u00a0Maybe I was a cross dressing transvestite, like Rosalind, Portia, Julia, Viola and just about every other woman in the Complete Works of Me.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWell,\u201d\u00a0<\/i>they say next,\u00a0\u201cif you\u2019re Shakespeare, how come you don\u2019t write brilliant plays?\u201d<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

I tell them about the reincarnated Jesus who once asked:\u00a0what do you expect: miracles?<\/i>\u00a0And anyhow, I can remember getting slagged off in my first life as a young upstart crow. But then later generations saw things very differently. So it means\u00a0nothing<\/i>\u00a0that my masterpieces of this century are getting terrible reviews. \u00a0I know in a couple of hundred years my more recent history plays like:\u00a0Hitler the First\u00a0<\/i>and\u00a0Charles the Third (Not),<\/i>\u00a0will be seen as classics.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

My psychiatrist Henry, keeps asking me how I know I\u2019m a great playwright, when all the reviews of my work point to the contrary. He even quotes the newspapers to me:<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

(Will\u00a0takes on the role of an Austrian\u00a0psychiatrist)<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cWhere was it now … Ah, yes … Hmmm\u2026\u00a0\u201cNever in my life have I sat through a farce quite so bad as The Merry Wives of Henry the Eighth. I laughed my head on..\u201d\u00a0<\/i>\u2026\u00a0(Henry chuckles<\/i>) … Gut ya. Gut …\u00a0Oh. Look. Here is another newspaper. What does this one say I wonder?\u00a0\u201c…The comedy: Titus Androgynous by a woman writer named William Shakespeare would appear to be a joke in every respect except that it is not\u00a0remotely funny\u2026\u201d\u00a0<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

Yet \u2013 as I tell Henry frequently \u2013 if I\u2019m not a reincarnated Shakespeare, how come I can remember every detail of my past life? Even Anne seducing me beside a brook in Arden, the bank on which we lay, a bed of wild thyme, oxlips and nodding violets. The dress she plucked off over her head was brown, and there was a wart on her knee.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mrs Shakespeare. \u00a0 William Shakespeare. \u00a0Act 1, Scene 1 This text is used in our interview with Irene Kelleher. (A woman \u2013 Will \u2013 is writing in her diary with a quill.) 22nd\u00a0April. When I first revealed to other people that I was William Shakespeare reincarnated, they laughed. They\u2019d always come up with the same<\/p>\n [...]<\/a>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-4692","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry","post-seq-1","post-parity-odd","meta-position-line-bottom","fix"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\n","aioseo_head_json":{"title":"Mrs. Shakespeare: Opening Scene. | The State of Shakespeare","description":"Mrs Shakespeare. William Shakespeare. Act 1, Scene 1 This text is used in our interview with Irene Kelleher. (A woman \u2013 Will \u2013 is writing in her diary with a quill.) 22nd April. When I first revealed to other people that I was William Shakespeare reincarnated, they laughed. They\u2019d always come up with the same","canonical_url":"https:\/\/stateofshakespeare.com\/?page_id=4692","robots":"max-image-preview:large","keywords":"","webmasterTools":{"google-site-verification":"UA-28965856-1","p:domain_verify":"d36dfa872cf08cb1686a0c207bca81df","miscellaneous":""},"schema":null,"og:locale":"en_US","og:site_name":"The State of Shakespeare","og:type":"website","og:title":"Mrs. Shakespeare: Opening Scene. | The State of Shakespeare","og:description":"Mrs Shakespeare. William Shakespeare. Act 1, Scene 1 This text is used in our interview with Irene Kelleher. (A woman \u2013 Will \u2013 is writing in her diary with a quill.) 22nd April. When I first revealed to other people that I was William Shakespeare reincarnated, they laughed. They\u2019d always come up with the same","og:url":"https:\/\/stateofshakespeare.com\/?page_id=4692","fb:admins":"100001614971768","og:image":"https:\/\/stateofshakespeare.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/stateofshakes_600x600.jpg","og:image:secure_url":"https:\/\/stateofshakespeare.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/stateofshakes_600x600.jpg","og:image:width":600,"og:image:height":600,"twitter:card":"photo","twitter:site":"@stateofshakespe","twitter:title":"Mrs. Shakespeare: Opening Scene. | The State of Shakespeare","twitter:description":"Mrs Shakespeare. William Shakespeare. Act 1, Scene 1 This text is used in our interview with Irene Kelleher. (A woman \u2013 Will \u2013 is writing in her diary with a quill.) 22nd April. When I first revealed to other people that I was William Shakespeare reincarnated, they laughed. They\u2019d always come up with the same","twitter:image":"https:\/\/stateofshakespeare.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/stateofshakes_600x600.jpg"},"aioseo_meta_data":{"post_id":"4692","title":null,"description":null,"keywords":null,"keyphrases":null,"primary_term":null,"canonical_url":null,"og_title":"","og_description":"","og_object_type":"website","og_image_type":"default","og_image_url":null,"og_image_width":null,"og_image_height":null,"og_image_custom_url":null,"og_image_custom_fields":null,"og_video":"","og_custom_url":null,"og_article_section":"","og_article_tags":"","twitter_use_og":false,"twitter_card":"photo","twitter_image_type":"default","twitter_image_url":null,"twitter_image_custom_url":null,"twitter_image_custom_fields":null,"twitter_title":null,"twitter_description":null,"schema":{"blockGraphs":[],"customGraphs":[],"default":{"data":{"Article":[],"Course":[],"Dataset":[],"FAQPage":[],"Movie":[],"Person":[],"Product":[],"ProductReview":[],"Car":[],"Recipe":[],"Service":[],"SoftwareApplication":[],"WebPage":[]},"graphName":"","isEnabled":true},"graphs":[]},"schema_type":null,"schema_type_options":null,"pillar_content":false,"robots_default":true,"robots_noindex":false,"robots_noarchive":false,"robots_nosnippet":false,"robots_nofollow":false,"robots_noimageindex":false,"robots_noodp":false,"robots_notranslate":false,"robots_max_snippet":null,"robots_max_videopreview":null,"robots_max_imagepreview":"large","priority":null,"frequency":null,"local_seo":null,"breadcrumb_settings":null,"limit_modified_date":false,"ai":null,"created":"2021-01-04 18:36:21","updated":"2026-04-03 02:07:14","seo_analyzer_scan_date":null},"aioseo_breadcrumb":"

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