Here’s why I’m a devout Shakespearean

I believe the Second Coming has already come, and occurred in Elizabethan England.

The title page from an antique book of the plays of Shakespeare

While religious Jews await the Messiah, Christians think he has already visited and await a Second Coming. Previously he came as the son of a Middle Eastern carpenter. But his reappearance? Who knows. Many true believers truly believe he’ll reveal himself in the US, truly God’s Own Country, perhaps as a president or an electric car tycoon. Clearly both Don and Elon see themselves as messianic.

But I believe the Second Coming has already come, and occurred in Elizabethan England. Instead of a sermon on the mount he mounted the stage as a playwright and an actor-manager. Yes, him. The greatest dramatist – indeed the greatest writer – in human history. A man who shaped the English language. Consciously or not, we quote him constantly. I write these words as a devout Shakespearean: a member of a religion, a cult, that worships William Shakespeare.

His words are clearly divinely inspired; no mere mortal could weave such magic. His plays make Christ’s parables seem lacklustre. Miracles occurred every day at his Globe Theatre, and twice on Sundays. Until King James banned Sabbath performances.

Jesus was born in a manger 2025 years ago. The bard? In Stratford-upon-Avon in 1564. And both died young – William was just 52. Jesus was famously resurrected, while William is forever resurrected on stage and screen. And like Jesus he has his betrayers, Doubting Thomases who blasphemously claim that Shakespeare didn’t write Shakespeare.

King James, who took over as William’s patron after Elizabeth I’s death, had good taste at least in literature. The King James Version of the Good Book is his great memorial. But to me the Bible is the writing of the Bard. In the beginning there was the word and there are not better words than Will’s. It’s enough to make this atheist believe in God. Take Hamlet’s famous soliloquy, for example. It fills me with a sense of the numinous. “To be or not to be?” The most profound of questions.

There’s some evidence that Shakespeare was a secret Catholic, when that was a very dangerous thing. He was always tap-dancing on the scaffold – and giving to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s. Thus, Macbeth is said to have been written to placate King James, who had an obsession with the supernatural. Hence the witches in that play, a drama about the dangers of regicide.

Apparently Jimmy loved it, and effectively pardoned Will’s daughter who was in trouble with the religious authorities. But read the plays, the comedies and tragedies for yourself, and keep company with John Bell’s company – or at least with something inspired by Will, like West Side Story.

Having survived dangerous times for religious beliefs, having survived the plague, having survived the burning down of his beloved Globe, Shakespeare survives the centuries as effortlessly as da Vinci. His works are worshipped around the burning globe (pun intended), performed on stages from Moscow to Milwaukee. Let us meet and honour him at Stratford-upon-Avon. No need for a passport. There’s a Stratford on the Avon River, 232km east of Melbourne. The question to be discussed? To be or not to be.