Shakespeare Killed Five Children?

[AuntPollyGrey]

On Jeremy Vine this morning they were discussing if artwork, .performances etc of those convicted of certain crimes should be ignored/destroyed etc. They were mainly discussing Rolf Harris& Gary Glitter . the Jeremy piped up 'But what about Shakespeare -He killed five children and no one has stopped reading and performing his plays! Schocked I've tried researching if he did actually kill 5 children but have found nothing..andy ideas? did Jeremy mean in Shakespeares plays five children are killed ( if so that's a pretty lame comparison to Rolf Harris and Co). Or did the great Bard actually commit filicide?

[AuntPollyGrey]

please ignore all mistakes above I'm ham-fisted today -too hot!

[jim360]

I'm equally flummoxed, for what little that's worth.

[AuntPollyGrey]

Jim did you hear him say that about Shakespeare or are you just trying to be sarcastic at my post? I suffer from RA and sometimes my fingers go places on the keyboard they shouldn't. :-)

[jim360]

I'm equally flummoxed by the suggestion that Shakespeare killed five children.

[jno]

that would absolutely be news to historians if true. Were they supposed to have been his own children, or just kids making too much noise on the streets of Southwark?

[AuntPollyGrey]

Oh I'm glad I'm not the only one then. Perhaps someone can find the show and post the clip. I reckon it must have been between 10.30 - 11.00 as I was having my morning coffee.

[jim360]

I should add that I didn't see the show, and I wouldn't pick up on typos when they've already been acknowledged.

[Arksided]

I watched Jeremy Vine myself but had/have no idea if true or not.

[Canary42]

I studied the Bard at (Open) University and did not come across this allegation. Vine's not someone I'd listen to with any degree of belief anyway.

I'm not familiar with all Shakespeare's plays but I guess Vine's five could be Tamora's 2 sons in Titus Andronicus, the 2 Princes in the Tower in Richard III, and MacDuff's son in Macbeth. But of course in Henry V the French murdered all the boys in the English Camp. so it's a lot more than five that Shakespeare's "killed".

[andres]

There will be lots of famous people in the past who have murky pasts but because we don't know about them, we still buy their works of art, books ,play their music etc. It's a case of ---'What the eye doesn't see, the heart doesn't grieve.'

[ladybirder]

That makes sense Canary,

[andres]

Shakespeare wrote some of his plays during a lockdown because of the Black Death. If you read up about this on Wikipaedia it gives a lot of informaton on the deaths of his children.

[ABerrant]

The question he posed was along the lines of "IF Shakespeare killed five children, would his plays still be performed?"

[Peter Pedant]

part of the plan to titus andronicus

Titus has them restrained, cuts their throats and drains their blood into a basin held by Lavinia. Titus morbidly tells Lavinia that he plans to "play the cook", grind the bones of Demetrius and Chiron into powder, and bake their heads.

I did Hannah Arendt and Melvyn Barge
so got a better deal I think

[Peter Pedant]

titus andronicus is around 1594
and was vay popular for its topical violence

fell out of fashion when Revenge Plays fell out of favour

so yes they did stop performing them on grounds of taste

[Hopkirk]

Different times

[Mamyalynne]

Thanks ABerrant for clearing it up.