The Case Is Altered: Brecht's Use of Shakespeare

Abstract

Poet, dramatist, shrewd businessman, notorious magpie who borrowed and made better the work of others—the description fits both William Shakespeare and Bertolt Brecht. Artistic and even biographical similarities shared by the two authors have often been mentioned, usually in search of praise for Brecht. Shakespeare, who once made comic use of Pythagoras's opinion 'that the soul of our grandam might happily inhabit a bird,' would surely have been amused by the Observer's obituary for Brecht which called him 'the nearest equivalent to Shakespeare ever to appear anywhere—indeed, if one believed in the transmigration of souls, one would be tempted to think that he was Shakespeare reborn.' The German dramatist, who himself fought long and hard against what he perceived as the comforting fiction of heaven, would doubtless have also been amused at finding his life judged Shakespeare's final reward, for Brecht's own attitude towards Shakespeare was quite inconsistent.