Nearing the end of a long weekend packed tightly with academic lectures, performances and exhibitions, one would undoubtedly expect to be met with weary faces, tired ears and impenetrable brains. And while there was no doubt that the King’s Shakespeare Festival Weekend had been a roaring success, the Sunday 6pm slot was never going to be an easy endeavour.

For anyone feeling the emotional - or physical - effects of Shakespeare surplus, the prospect of sitting through an hour lecture about Shakespeare’s will may well have induced nightmarish visions of clinical early modern legalities and palaeographical fine-tooth combing. But the prospect of sitting in an intimate lecture hall to listen to renowned Yale Professor and Shakespearian David Kastan? Well, that’s enough to make anyone rub their eyes and ears, sit up straight and don their thinking caps once again.

And there was not a single weary face, tired ear or impenetrable brain in sight.

Kastan’s charisma is contagious. The enthusiasm and zealousness with which he speaks is unparalleled, and his comical interjections made for not only an academically fascinating lecture, but a hilarious one too. Reflecting on the materials in the current ‘By me William Shakespeare’ exhibition at Somerset House, Kastan opened, and ended, with the question of ‘who is Shakespeare?’ Confusing, perhaps, to those of us know him as ‘the greatest writer in the English language and the world’s pre-eminent dramatist’ (as eloquently put by Wikipedia). But what Kastan was really getting at was the fact that despite reading, watching and appreciating Shakespeare throughout most of our lives, and regarding Shakespeare as Shakespeare – the man and playwright that we, and Wikipedia, perceive him to be – that has not always been the case.

Kastan mapped the disappearance and reappearance of Shakespeare, kindly and humorously into terms that we, mere Shakespeare enthusiasts, would understand: fashion. Reflecting back onto the 17^th and 18^th century, he demonstrated, perhaps to the horror of a few audience members, that Shakespeare has in fact not always been Shakespeare. There were times when he was merely remembered by people attempting to make his works ‘better’. Shocking, naturally, but also immensely thought provoking as it brings to light the awful truth that we do not much about Shakespeare as a man, or about how he has been perceived throughout history.

Kastan triumphantly demonstrated the importance of Shakespeare’s will with regards to helping us understand who he was, what he and his relationships were like (during which he relayed numerous entertaining examples of early modern family feuds documented in wills), and why he remains our esteemed national poet. Yet he also ingeniously proposed that ‘who Shakespeare is’ has always, and will continue to be, by us. He is part of our will, and its importance stems from our desire to know. And, frankly, that is why Kastan has always, and will continue to be, a phenomenal lecturer, academic and asset to the world of Shakespearian study.