In Search of Shakespeare: "The Duty of Poets" and "For All Time"

Engraving of William Shakespeare from the First Folio of year 1623

Join us for parts 3 and 4 of 4 for as Shakespeare's life comes into public focus and turmoil.

In Search of Shakespeare: The Duty of Poets and For All Time air Friday, April 15 from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. on WXXI World (cable 524/DT21.2). 

In Episode Three of his historical detective story, Michael Wood uncovers Shakespeare's rise to fame and fortune in Elizabethan London, and the disasters in life and love which marked his path to greatness. In his late thirties, pursuing his own path between the extremes, Shakespeare had hit on the true duty of poets: "to speak what we feel, not what we ought to say."

In the final episode of his historical detective story, Michael Wood uncovers the story of Shakespeare's life in the "New Age" of King James I. We discover Shakespeare's neighborhood in Londonwhere he lived with a French Huguenot family - and played a fascinating part in the marriage of their daughter. Wood visits the present Queen's robe makers - Ede and Ravenscroft - and finds evidence for Shakespeare's role in the royal coronation. Finally Wood follows Shakespeare back to Warwickshire, where we hear the story of his death and the riddle of his will, with its strange bequest to his wife Anne of the second best bed. Thus concludes the story of an Elizabethan life, but says Wood, Shakespeare's story - and the search for him - continues!