What will you ask William Shakespeare if you interviewed him?

[mic19]

I recently wrote a blog called,WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE, A HOT JOURNALIST, AND A TERRIBLE INTERVIEW! I am just wondering, what you would ask if you were to interview the master playwright?

[JBI]

I wouldn't, Much is lost "knowing" Shakespeare - better to not "know" him and to try and guess - the mystery is part of the experience.

[chrisvia]

Though I largely lean toward the thinking JBI posited, I would ask, "Who is the Dark Lady?"

[kev67]

I would ask him if he wrote any stuff after he retired and moved back to Stratford upon Avon. If so, did he bury it in a jar somewhere for safekeeping. If so, where.

[Poetaster]

I would like to ask him if he ever felt pressured to write to conform, or he had any ideas he really wished he could have brought out but couldn't.

[sandy14]

Is Elizabeth the first Richard II?

[Emil Miller]

I would ask if he were the author of the plays and,if so, what his favourite might be.

[ennison]

I'd ask him why he left his second-best bed to his wife.

[sandy14]

I'd ask him why he left his second-best bed to his wife.

What a great question. I'd never of thought of that one in a million years.

[luhsun]

For a lark, (i apologise to the threadstarter but it may give a fun twist to shakespeare) the obsessive hamlet in me would ask "to ask or not to ask, that is the question.."
Richard III would imperiously raise his hand desperately "a question, a a question, my kingdom for a question" on why shakespeare maligned him.

[mortalterror]

I'd ask him a series of questions about how he writes and what his opinions are about various authors. How does he start a play, plot, characters, dialogue? Does he flesh out the story first or does he just begin writing? Who are his models and what does he think is the most important part of writing? I'd ask for his opinions on Chaucer, Spenser, Wyatt, Ben Johnson, Marlowe, Kyd, Dekker, Fletcher, Beaumont, Sidney, Middleton, and Nashe. If he was familiar with Italian literature I'd ask what he thought of Dante, Petrarch, Boccaccio, Ariosto, and Tasso. Since he knew French I could as him about Montaigne, Rabelais, and Ronsard. What are the best things for a writer to know? What kind of education should a writer have? What kind did he have? Did he write Tom O' Bedlam? What are his favorite songs? Where there any subjects he wanted to write about but for one reason or another didn't? Many of his works are based in Latin originals so what were his thoughts on Plutarch, Terence, Virgil, Plautus, Ovid, Horace, Cicero, Lucan, Livy, Tacitus, etc.?