Why Shakespeare was drawn to water

The director of the British Council in Cairo, Paul Smith is in Mumbai to talk about the fascinating link between William Shakespeare's work and waterbodies

What is it about William Shakespeare that attracts men named Paul Smith? While one -- currently director with the British Council in Cairo -- intends to discuss the playwright's fascination with water bodies at a lecture this evening, the other, a fashion designer, once produced T-shirts featuring classic Shakespearian characters.


A performance of Shakespeare's King Lear, directed by Jean Francois Sivadier in 2007 at the 61st Avignon Theatre Festival

"Though I've not met him, we do have bizarre connections," the former Smith admits in an email chat. "We must be Shakespearean twins, separated in one of those shipwrecks."

The lecture in question -- which always has an aspect of the sea or shipping as its theme -- is titled Full Fathom Five, a phrase that originates in Ariel's song from The Tempest. Interestingly, it's also where the phrase "sea change" originates from. Smith aims to show how Shakespeare was influenced by oceans that were explored by Europeans in the late 16th and early 17th century. Discoveries at sea passed into the metaphor of much of the playwright's work. When did he first notice this, we ask. "I think any lover of Shakespeare, on first encountering The Tempest, immediately realises the elemental power the sea plays in this essentially final play," he replies.

Smith is more than qualified to talk about Shakespeare's work. He read English Literature at Cambridge, taught at New Delhi's St. Stephen College for a couple of years before pursuing doctoral studies in Renaissance Literature. When asked what it is about the bard's work he has found most surprising, he refers to the "total modernity of it -- especially as he is a dramatist, not a writer, so his work lives though real people in present-time performance. Those who can "relax" with Shakespeare -- that is, not assume he is awesome and forbidding -- will find him their greatest solace, friend and mentor."

What makes Shakespeare so compelling centuries after his death is, to begin with, his sheer rags-to-riches story. Born in a provincial town with no independent wealth, family connections or a university education, he rose, surprisingly quickly, to the post of world's greatest playwright. We ask Smith how attitudes to his work have changed, if at all, in India. "I have found that Indian audiences continue to love Shakespeare," he replies, "because their culture, their religion, their philosophy allows them to submit to the power of the present, which is inherent in every Shakespeare performance."

New Historicism, a school of literary theory born in the 1980s, aims to understand a literary work through its historical context and, simultaneously, to understand cultural history through literature. Paul Smith's lecture may or may not employ it, but those in attendance will certainly see Shakespeare in a whole new light -- which is always a good thing.

Paul Smith delivers the Vasant J Sheth Memorial Lecture today at 7 pm at Rangaswar Hall, fourth floor, Yashwantrao Chavan Auditorium, near Mantralaya, Nariman Point.