Bardolatry
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Bardolatry is a term that refers to the worship of Shakespeare. The term derives from George Bernard Shaw's coinage "Bardolator" of 1901. The words "Bardolator" and "Bardolatrist" both refer to one who is a member of the religion of Bardolatry.
The stance of Bardolatry has in itself existed since the mid-18th century. Samuel Johnson referred to Shakespeare's work as "a map of life". Most Bardolators do not only accept Shakespeare as one of the greatest, if not the greatest, writer that ever lived, but as a mortal god. Bardolatry recognizes Shakespeare as the supreme intellect, the great psychologist, and the most faithful portrayer of the human condition and experience.
Many Bardolators stress the importance of reading Shakespeare to attain a more comprehensive understanding of his work, even though his plays were originally written for the theater. In addition, Bardolatry often embraces the notion of the true reality of the characters of Shakespeare, regarding them as "real people" in the sense that they have altered the consciousness and modes of perception of not only readers, but most people in any western literate culture.
Many beliefs of Bardolatry go directly against formal, conservative literary criticism; the latter often ascribes Shakespeare's eminence merely to historical significance and claims that the social climate of Elizabethan England was the reason for the composition of Shakespeare's plays, whereas Bardolators, along with other schools of literary thought, insist that Shakespeare's universalism exists simply because of his own mind. In addition, formal academics confine Shakespeare's men and women to the page and regard them as open to the moralist criticism of the reader; Bardolators regard Shakespeare's greatest characters as far more intelligent than the average reader or playgoer, and thus those who read or see Shakespeare must endeavor to learn from them.
Notable Bardolators include Samuel Johnson, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, William Hazlitt, and Harold Bloom.
The general philosophy of Bardolatry can also be associated with that of Romanticism and Aestheticism.
