William Shakespeare vs Robert Burns: Writers go head to head for first time

Academic conference 'The Two Bards: Burns and Shakespeare' will consider the work of the English and Scottish icons

Robert Burns was known to quote William Shakespeare in his letters, including lines from ‘Romeo and Juliet’, pictured (Getty)

They have long been acknowledged as the national bards of England and Scotland, their mastery of language ensuring that their legacies are still celebrated centuries after their deaths. Now William Shakespeare and Robert Burns are going head to head at last in what is believed to be the first-ever academic conference to consider the work of both men.

The life of Robert Burns is celebrated every year in Scotland in January (Getty)

Staged on 16 January, nine days before Burns Night and in the year that the UK will mark 400 years since Shakespeare’s death, the event will shine a light on how the bard of Stratford-upon-Avon influenced the work of Scotland’s most famous poet. It will also examine the two men’s roles in the development of English and Scottish national identities, a much-debated subject in the wake of 2014’s independence referendum.

Shakespeare’s work is known to have played an important role in the education of Burns, who is likely to have seen his plays in local theatres. He made frequent references to the playwright in his letters to friends, quoting lines from Othello and Romeo and Juliet.

His 1786 poem “A Winter Night” was also directly inspired by King Lear and, according to one famous anecdote, as a young boy he was so moved and shocked by the violence in Titus Andronicus that he suggested the play should be burnt.

“Throughout Burns’ life he returns to Shakespeare, who is one of the cornerstones of his reading,” said Professor Gerard Carruthers, Francis Hutcheson chair of Scottish literature at the University of Glasgow and one of the conference’s organisers. “He goes back to him because he finds it profound and inspirational.”

2016 will mark the 400 year anniversary of Shakespeare’s death (Getty)

The one-day conference, called The Two Bards: Burns and Shakespeare, will be held at the Robert Burns Birthplace Museum in Alloway, Ayrshire, and will feature presentations from historians and some of the foremost scholars of both writers, including Professor Michael Dobson, director of the Shakespeare Institute at the University of Birmingham.

Professor Carruthers said the conference would challenge the idea that the writers were the property of their home countries. “At its worst, you do get this chauvinism among some Scots who say ‘Burns is our writer, let’s forget about Shakespeare’,” he said. “Meanwhile, people down south and elsewhere are sometimes put off Burns, thinking he’s hard and inaccessible, but in fact he isn’t.”

“In a non-political way, I’d say let’s be British about it and celebrate the fact that they’re both great writers. The life of Burns is celebrated every year in Scotland in January, but his work is also regularly performed and reinterpreted.”

Professor Carruthers said that although studying Shakespeare and seeing his plays was now usually regarded as a lofty pursuit, in his lifetime he was regarded as a “local poet” who wrote in the vernacular – much like Burns.

“Both were outsiders, but both were also simply brilliant users of the English language,” he said. “Ultimately, that’s what earns them their status.”