SHAKESPEARE'S "LESSE GREEK"

Despite important evidence, orthodox scholars have ruled out Shakespeare's ability to read Greek. Implying the matter is closed, they tell people Shakespeare relied on few translated Greek writers, and read none in the original. They suggest that, on the contrary, the Greek classics were important to Shakespeare, and that he read them in Greek. One of J.A.K. Thomson's tasks is to place as many limits on Shakespeare's knowledge as possible, proving thereby that because Shakespeare relied on a relatively small fund of classical knowledge, the plays were written largely by one man. This argument was vital in his day; scholars were finding evidence of an alarmingly erudite Shakespeare in the plays, and could align it with his biography only by proposing that the canon had many authors.