“What's in a Name?”

“What’s in a name?” asks Juliet, observing: “That which we call a rose / By any other word would smell as sweet.” ¹ What is in a name? The name of William Shakespeare has exerted a powerful force in the development of Western culture for over four hundred years now. Shakespeare’s plays have been produced and transformed in many media over the centuries, enabling not only countless dramatic performances and film productions in the twentieth century alone, but also numerous other “reimaginings,” from poems and novels, paintings and operas, to video games and Web sites. ² Confronted with this plethora of imaginative engagements with Shakespeare’s plays, one might be tempted to ask, “Will the real William Shakespeare please stand up?”