Summary

Chapter 5 – Foster explains how frequently Shakespeare pops up again and again in culture back through the centuries. Even in the modern era, Shakespeare is frequently referenced or reformatted, from the Ronald Reagan-hosted Wild West retelling of “Taming of the Shrew” to the “Romeo and Juliet” retellings in “West Side Story” and the modern day setting in the Leonard DiCaprio version of the 1990s. In the 1991 novel “A Thousand Acres”, Jane Smiley reformats “King Lear”. A lot of lines from Shakespeare’s plays have become common-sense dictums and phrases used in daily conversations and pop culture, such as “To thine own self be true” and “To be, or not to be, that is the question.” Quoting Shakespeare does sound smart, Foster consents, but there is more to it than that. Shakespeare’s works seem to fit in all times and in all places and...