New Book Almost Convinces Author That He Was Right

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 15, Issue 10, 15 March 1950, Page 6

New Book Almost Convinces Author That He Was Right

\ \ Although it has not yot arrived at Whakatane a new book on Shakespeare, “The Seven Missing Years” by Sir Duff Cooper has been received favourably in a number of place 9 where it has been released so far. In this work Sir Duff has set himself the task of solving the mystery of Shakespeare’s life between 1585, when he was last heard of in Sratford-on-Avon, a young man in trouble and 1592 when the curtain rises again to reveal him a playwright of established repute. , Sir Duff Cooper supposes that Will “went for a soldier.” Or rather Sir Duff begins by supposing, and then marshals so much circumstantial evidence to prove the theory that, as he admits in the last chapter, he almost convinces himself. In Sergeant Shakespeare he argues with a wealth of quotation and much elegance of style that Shakespeare was “continually reverting to the military theme” in his plays “as some men revert to their days at school or university, wherever they were happiest.” And the “Sergeant”? Well, the argument for non-commissioned rank is more speculative, but it is all very entertaining indeed; and like all good books about ..-Shakespeare this one Sends you back to reading him.