Shake/s/peare

The French, it has been said, admired Shakespeare and claimed him their own, arguing that he was born in France and was christened Jacques-Pierre, and the silent “s” remained as a sounded consonant in Shakespeare. This is a fanciful notion initiated by none other than Sigmund Freud, according to his biographer Ernest Jones (1953-57).

In Amy Freed’s 2001 play “The Beard of Avon,” a young man from Stratford-upon-Avon, inspired by the touring players, goes to London to be an actor and is hired as a silent spear shaker, and eventually finds his talent in doctoring plays to be put on stage, and starts writing his own plays under the pseudonym Shake-Spear as well as serve as a ghost-writer for amateur playwrights at Queen Elizabeth’s court. I like this conceit.