“He was indeed honest, and of an open and free nature,” noted Ben Jonson of Shakespeare in his Timber, or Discoveries, written some time after Shakespeare had died. He “had an eXcellent phantasy, brave notions, and gentle eXpressions.” By phantasy Jonson meant imagination, the ability of the mind to form mental representations of things not actually present; and by brave notions he meant bold and wonderful concepts, ideas. These jottings are grouped under the rubric, De Shakespeare nostrati, “concerning our Shakespeare, the Shakespeare who belongs to us and to our country.”1 From Ben Jonson to Jan Kott, author of Shakespeare Our Contemporary,2 the world has been eager to claim Shakespeare as one of us.