William Shakespeare, one of the most read and greatest playwrights of the world was born on 23rd April 1564 and presumably he passed away on 23 April 1616, as the available records indicate. Still he keeps the entire cultural world captivated with his 37 dramas, 154 sonnets and other writings with great art and excellent substance having highly educative and cathartic content.
Today, we are rather amused to think that the great Bard of Avon took about two hundred years to reach the receptive hearts of Bengal. But once he reached he made an unshakable seat in Bengal with his immense inspiration, intuitive wisdom and profound cultural content. On the occasion of his birth and death anniversary let us pay our homage to him as he is as much ours as he is of England.
Although most of the eminent writers of the world visited Shakespeare's abode in Stratford-upon Avon and endorsed their comments on the wall, the courtyard of the house accommodates only one statue, and that is of Rabindranath Tagore, the Bard of Bengal. His tributary sonnet on Shakespeare is inscribed below the bust in original Bengali along with its English translation.
The moment we see Tagore's statue and his sonnet on the playwright in Shakespeare's house in Stratford we feel our stronger emotional bond with the Bard of Avon who is never bound by time and place and is of all the time and place. Keshab Sen rightly said, "He is as much of Bengal as he is of England."
What made Shakespeare so dear to us is not difficult to decipher. We Bengalis are highly emotional, imaginative, culture concerned and fascinated by intuitive wisdom which are amply provided in Shakespeare's tragedies, comedies, tragic-comedies and history plays. Once they reached us through the English education curriculum of the British colonists in Bengal they became dear to our heart.
These have been regularly read, staged and translated into Bengali right from the 18th century. Moreover Shakespeare has sounded much of our traditional wisdom like, "All the worlds' a stage,/ And all the men and women merely players;/ They have their exits and their entry...." Whenever we need to explain mob psychology behind electoral waves we invariably refer to the immediate impact of the speeches of Brutus and Antony in Julius Caesar and Lady Macbeth's obsessive compulsive disorder of washing hands teaches us clearly about the psychic ailment.
Being a creature and creator of his age like any other great writer Shakespeare significantly deviated from the classical norms of playwriting in substance and form with intense romanticism which attracted the educated young Bengal. Moreover, driven by renaissance humanism Shakespeare highlighted that much more than Nemesis, character is destiny and catastrophe enters through tragic flaw in the characters which can even be excess of virtue as in the case of Hamlet who explained, "Thus conscience does make cowards of us all; / And thus the native hue of resolution / Is sicklied o'er the pale cast of thought, / And enterprises of great pitch and moment, / With this regard, turn their currents awry / And lose the name of action."
In fact, in many ways Shakespeare's Hamlet represents Bengali intellectuals --philosophical, introspective and wavering- always torn by the tug of war of two opposites. He is spellbound by an intense appreciation of life, "What a piece of work is man! How noble in reason, how infinite in faculty....in action how like an angel, in apprehension how like a god--the beauty of the world, the paragon of animals."
At the same time he feels, "this goodly frame, the earth seems to me a sterile promontory...And yet, to me, what is the quintessence of dust? Man delights not me. No, nor women neither...". On the one hand a deep engagement with life, on the other, a melancholic alienation amid absurdity, which as per T S Eliot is lacking in objective correlative as he stated in his essay on Hamlet from sordid realistic point of view. But this happens to be the malady of us as well.
In Julius Caesar he says, "The fault, dear Brutus is not in our stars, /But in ourselves, that we are underlings."(Act 1 Scene ii). But Shakespeare had seen so much of the enigma of life that he never allowed us to derive any conclusion on his philosophy. So in King Lear he writes, "As flies to wanton boys are we to th' gods, / They kill us for their sport."(King Lear, Act IV Scene I).
During the time of Bengali renaissance in 19th century the volatile socio-political scenario sought great refuge in Shakespeare's negative capability. As the sway of religion was declining and a sense of national identity was fast emerging Shakespeare provided an ideal resort. Even his Desdemona was taken as an ideal of Indian womanhood.
Proper entry of Shakespeare had been through the syllabus of the Hindu College where the great four tragedies Hamlet, Macbeth, King Lear and Othello used to be taught by the legendary professors like Derozio and Richardson who induced intense love for poetry and Shakespeare into the veins of the students. Richardson's dramatic presentation enthralled the students like Michael Madhusudan and kept them mesmerised throughout life with love for Shakespeare.
The Bengalis famous for cultural activities first set up their own playhouse Hindu Theatre in 1831 where the performance of the first night began with selected scenes from Julius Caesar. Commercial playhouses staged Othello in 1875, Macbeth in 1893 etc. Staging of Shakespeare in both Bengali and in English continued to be a tradition in Bengal till date. Late poet Sayad Shamsul Haq's rendering of Hamlet is being enacted regularly in Dhaka.
Translation of Shakespeare into Bengali began with the efforts of an Englishman C Monkton, a student of Fort William College who translated The Tempest in 1809. In 1853 Harishchandra Ghosh translated The Merchants of Venice under the title Bhanumati Chittabilas. It was more an adaptation than translation as the writer took ample liberty with the original text. The poet Hemchandra Ghosh adapted The Tempest as Nalini Basanta (1879). Nabinchandra Sen translated A Midsummer Night's Dream as Nidagh Nishiter Swapna. Girishchandra Ghosh's translation of Macbeth and staging was wonderful and attracted the British as well.
Vidyasagar translated Comedy of Errors as Bhrantibilas in 1870 which has later on been filmed also with favourite actors like Uttam Kumar. Dinabandhu Mitra translated The Merry Wives of Windsor as Nabin Tapaswini. Julius Caesar translated by Jyotirindranath Tagore was widely acclaimed by all critics. Even Rabindranath Tagore translated some portion of Macbeth. Shakespeare's works, and tales from Shakespeare were first published in Bengali by Basumati Sahitya Mandir.
Apart from the stage popular dramas Shakespeare's sonnets have been translated retaining the tone, temper and grandeur by Sudhindranath Dutta and Vishnu Dey in their own different ways. Both of them being extraordinary poets have shown originality in translating the sonnets.
Impact of Shakespeare on Bengali writers and literature is too great to estimate. Bankimchandra used to read Shakespeare almost every day while writing Kapalkundala and he quoted quite a few passages from Shakespeare as sub-titles to strike the keynote. In his Rajani he made a detailed discussion on the tragic heroes of Shakespeare. Dramatist Girishchandra was influenced by Shakespeare's handling of ghosts and supernaturalism in his semi-historical plays.
His translation and enactment of Macbeth enthralled audience even from the British. Tagore showed Shakespearean influence in his Bisarjan, Raja O Rani etc. But the writer who was influenced most by Shakespeare was D.L.Roy who literally seized his literary grandeur and atmosphere. In his Sajahan utterances of the old king invariably reminds us of King Lear and his redemption.
The study of Shakespeare led to some fruitful criticism as well. Bankimchandra discussed excellence and achievements of Bhababhuti and Shakespeare, and Kalidas and Shakespeare. Unique comparison among Shakuntala, Miranda and Desdemona is revealing indeed. Rabindranath Tagore repeatedly referred to Shakespeare to illustrate his points in his literary essays.
On the occasion of Shakespeare's 4th birth centenary Calcutta University published Calcutta Essays on Shakespeare covering various aspects of Shakespeare's impact on Indian literature and culture. Utpal Dutta has deliberated in detail about Shakespeare's social consciousness in a voluminous book 'Shakespearer Samajchetana'.
Shakespeare's influence on our education, culture, literature, stage, films has always remained an immense inspiration, apt education and profound source of creativity. Through his great tragedies, wittiest comedies, dark comedies, sweet sonnets, memorable speeches or relevant quotations he has continued to remain alive with us.
Here we find a writer who encompasses the whole gamut of human experiences and insight into character. Love for Shakespeare has not been diminished in academic curriculum, playhouses or research works. We have seen tremendous impact of him in Bangladesh during enactment of Hamlet by Royal Shakespeare Company in recent past.
With updated costume and characters he is being more and more attractive in Bengal and seen in contemporary context. We too feel like Matthew Arnold, "Others abide our question. Thou art free./ ....All pains the immortal spirit must endure./All weakness that impairs, all grieves that bow./Find their sole voice in that victorious brow."
The writer is a columnist
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