Shakespeare’s notorious bequest of his “second-best bed” to his wife, Anne, has become, for scholars, a proxy for something much more substantial about their prized subject. Was the author of such large-minded poetry a decent man or not? Did poetic genius coincide with human kindness and generosity? Did the designation of the bed recall a shared intimacy, or deliver another calculated rejection? For Katherine Duncan-Jones, who has died aged 81, it was most definitely the latter.
Her revisionist biography, Ungentle Shakespeare: Scenes from a Life (2001), looked askance at “a writer among writers, a man among men”. His works would transcend history, but not their author, whose misogyny, social climbing and snobbery were impeccably documented.
