Maria Puente, USA TODAY
10-26-11
http://www.usatoday.com/life/movies/news/story/2011-10-26/who-wrote-shakespeare-anonymous/50945374/1
This is not a trick question: Who wrote Shakespeare?
By now, you'd think this is a settled matter. But you'd be so wrong.
On Friday a Hollywood director skilled at blowing up stuff onscreen is set to blow up 400 years of Shakespeare scholarship with Anonymous, a $30 million period-costume drama/thriller that traduces everything the high priests of the cult of Shakespeare have taught for centuries about the Bard from Stratford-upon-Avon.
Anonymous is about Elizabethan-era political scheming over the royal succession. The intrigue is set against the claim that the author of the most hallowed plays and poems in the English language was not the barely educated commoner William Shakespeare, about whom we know virtually nothing.
Instead, it was Edward de Vere, the 17th Earl of Oxford (played by Rhys Ifans), the highly educated, well-traveled aristocrat with royal connections, who penned "To be or not to be" and all the other deathless lines we know as Shakespeare. Why hide his authorship? Because high-born types of the era did not mess about in rowdy theaters during the rise of the art-fearing Puritans.
"It's the first film suggesting that Shakespeare wasn't Shakespeare," says James Shapiro, Shakespeare scholar at Columbia University and author of Contested Will: Who Wrote Shakespeare?
Screenwriter John Orloff, an American who worked 20 years on the script, says it's one of the few films about the power of the written word. "Did Shakespeare write the plays? There's a valid argument that he did, but an even more valid argument that he didn't. And if not him, then who?"
In Anonymous, Will Shakespeare (Rafe Spall) is a semi-literate drunken actor from a country village who weasels his way into attaching his name to Oxford's plays and then shamelessly hogs all the applause. Oxford dies (in 1604, before some of the latest plays were supposedly written) with no one but Ben Jonson (Sebastian Armesto), a rival playwright/poet to Shakespeare, in the know about what happened and why.
This notion is infuriating enough to many. But the real shocker in the movie is that the "Virgin Queen'' Elizabeth I (Vanessa Redgrave as the dying queen and Redgrave's daughter Joely Richardson as the young queen) not only wasn't a virgin but may have committed incest. Somewhere, Tudor spin doctors are shouting in their graves. In fact, the shouting over Anonymous is in full roar.
Shapiro has taken to the op-ed pages of the Los Angeles Times and The New York Times to denounce Anonymous. British historian Simon Schama was scathing in The Daily Beast, calling the film an "idiotic misunderstanding of history."
"I've been to dinner parties where people screamed at me," Orloff says. "It's fascinating how upset people get, but it shows how Shakespeare really is alive in our culture."
Scholars are outraged
The English are especially upset. "I feel like a heretic of the Middle Ages," jokes director Roland Emmerich, the German-born disaster maestro (Independence Day, 2012) who is defending the movie at book fairs, colleges and debating clubs.
"How many movies are discussed at the Oxford Union or the English Speaking Union?" Emmerich says, laughing.
Emmerich, who knew little about the authorship debate, was "flabbergasted'' to learn that scores of famous, smart people do not believe the man from Stratford wrote the plays, including: Mark Twain, Charles Dickens and Sigmund Freud; British Shakespearean actors such as Derek Jacobi (he's in Anonymous); and at least three U.S. Supreme Court justices.
Historians, Shakespeare scholars and theater directors are the most outraged, Emmerich says, because they have the most to lose if it becomes even more widely believed that what has been taught about Shakespeare is all a lot of hooey.
"People say, 'How dare you!' but my movie clearly states I'm telling you a different, darker story," Emmerich says. "It's one possible alternative."
But it's not, says an exasperated Shapiro, who has examined the history of the authorship question and the long list of others (more than 50) put forward as the "real" Shakespeare. He worries that American audiences unschooled in history but all too familiar with conspiracy theories will believe the story Anonymous tells.
"It's another sign in our culture about the ways in which conspiracy thinking is winning the day, and it's tough to combat," he says.
The Oxfordians are numerous and organized, with websites and annual conferences and an online "Declaration of Reasonable Doubt About the Identity of William Shakespeare" petition that already has thousands of signatures.
The debate matters
"We are hoping this becomes more of a legitimate issue, that more people devote scholarly attention to the facts," says Richard Joyrich, president of the U.S.-based Shakespeare Oxford Society.
But does it really matter? "Shakespeare matters, so this debate matters," says Michael Witmore, director of the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C., a center of Stratfordian scholarship.
"If it's a story about what we might believe if we wanted to, that's the realm of fiction, and people have every right to live in the world of fiction. But don't say it isn't fiction."
Michael Kahn, artistic director of Washington's Shakespeare Theatre Co., says that any movie that even talks about Shakespeare is probably good for those who do it.
"Whoever wrote (the plays) was a genius," he says. Then he adds, puckishly: "And maybe the movie will help sell tickets for our Much Ado About Nothing (opening in November)."
But why a movie now? Why not? The comedy/fantasy Shakespeare in Love was a huge success in 1998, says Daniel Wright, an Oxfordian and director of the Shakespeare Authorship Research Centre at Concordia University in Portland, Ore. "Don't expect Anonymous to be any more truthful than Love, but it touches on an issue for which there is an as-yet-undiscovered truth, so it will prompt people to pursue," Wright says.
The few known facts about Shakespeare could be "printed on the back of a postcard," Wright says.
This vacuum has always been a problem but particularly in the modern era, when so much stock is placed in the relationship between the writer's experience and his work.
The argument against the man from Stratford comes down to that tiresome English obsession: class snobbery.
The Oxfordians say Shakespeare didn't have the education, the class connections or the life and travel experiences to have been the author of plays and poems that suggest knowledge of history and politics, foreign languages and places — all of which Oxford possessed.
"I don't believe great art comes just from pure imagination — it also comes from life experience and a lot of pain," Emmerich says.
Still, the filmmakers are primarily entertainers. Anonymous has plenty of sword fights and rebel battles, velvet gowns and collar ruffs, muck in the streets and great, gushing gobs of Shakespeare declaimed on a re-created Globe stage.
"We set out to make an enjoyable, tense film," says Orloff. "The framing device is a reminder that it's a play, a piece of drama. If we fail at that, who cares about anything else?"
Showing posts with label William Shakespeare. Show all posts
Showing posts with label William Shakespeare. Show all posts
Saturday, November 5, 2011
Saturday, September 17, 2011
Top 10 Possible Authors For The Works of Shakespeare
Evan Andrews
Friday, September 2, 2011
http://www.toptenz.net/top-10-possible-authors-for-the-works-of-shakespeare.php
Despite William Shakespeare’s status as a literary giant, a small but vocal group of scholars, playwrights, actors, and conspiracy theorists have long argued that he is not the true author of his plays. Even though the vast majority of Shakespeare scholars have rejected it, this theory has become increasingly prominent since the 1980s, and has even inspired an upcoming film called Anonymous. Adherents of the alternate author theory point to Shakespeare’s humble origins, lack of formal education, and the murkiness of his historical record as evidence that the Bard was incapable of the genius that can be found in his work. Not only that, but they frequently nominate candidates — some of them quite famous — as the true author. The following are ten of the most notable possible authors of the works of Shakespeare, along with explanations of why some think they might be the greatest writer you’ve never heard of.
10. Sir Fulke Greville
A recent Shakespeare candidate, Fulke Greville was an English noble and politician who also nurtured a talent for poetry and drama. He was the close friend and biographer of Sir Philip Sidney — one of the towering literary figures of his time — and spent a good portion of his life in court with Queen Elizabeth, for whom he served as a judge, a soldier, and even a spy.
Evidence for Authorship
The argument for Greville’s authorship is based around an obscure quote from his biography, which says that he wanted “to be known to posterity under no other notions than of Shakespeare’s master.” This strange statement caused scholars to begin seriously considering Greville as a candidate for being the “true author,” and the more he was researched the more evidence was uncovered. Greville was well known for his writing skill, and his position as a court spy had taken him all over Europe. This would have given him the knowledge and perspective to write Shakespeare’s foreign-set plays. His life also has eerie parallels with Shakespeare. Both men lived in Stratford on Avon — perhaps even on the same street — and both had many of the same friends and acquaintances. The biographical similarities are so striking, in fact, that many have come to argue that “Shakespeare” the historical figure was actually Fulke Greville, who used the name as a pseudonym in order to write plays while still maintaining his position as a noble.
9. Emilia Lanier
Several of the candidates proposed have been women, and of these the mysterious Emilia Lanier is one of the most famous. Born Emelia Bassano, she was married to a court musician, but spent several years as the mistress to the first cousin of Queen Elizabeth. Although the details of her life are incomplete, Lanier is remembered today for being one of the first professional female poets in England.
Evidence for Authorship
Lanier’s lover was a patron of the arts, so she would have been acquainted with the theater and possibly William Shakespeare himself. Originally, she was considered by many to be the inspiration for several of Shakespeare’s famous love poems, particularly the more risqué “Dark Lady” sonnets. This theory has recently been expanded to argue that Lanier is responsible for all of Shakespeare’s work, and that she used Shakespeare as a front to make it appear as though her plays were written by a man. Evidence includes specific and unusual clusters of words that seem to only appear in Lanier’s work and plays like A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and certain plot points that exist in both Shakespeare plays and in Lanier’s book of poetry, Salve Deux Rex Judaeorum. In several cases, Lanier’s biography also lines up with content in Shakespeare’s plays, and different versions of her name are used as character names throughout the Shakespeare canon, which some claim she included as hints that she was the true author.
8. The Group Theory
Since the 1800s, a popular Shakespeare authorship theory has been that the plays were not the work of one writer but rather a syndicate of different playwrights with a concerted agenda. According to the theory, this group merely used the figure of William Shakespeare as a front for the release of its collective writings. (Shakespeare and his Friends at the Mermaid Tavern by John Faed.)
Evidence for Authorship
Analysis of Shakespeare’s work has often revealed a vast breadth of style and technique, which some argue is far too complex for the plays to only be the work of one man. A number of different group candidates have been proposed, including Mary Sidney, Francis Bacon, and even Sir Walter Raleigh, all of whom have been put forth as possible leaders of the Shakespeare syndicate. One of the earliest group theory studies proposed that Bacon and Raleigh used Shakespeare’s work as a way to advance a particular political system in the popular culture. Proponents of the idea point out that in the Elizabethan era it was not unusual for plays and other forms of fiction to be co-written by multiple authors. For them, the amount of knowledge that the writer of Shakespeare’s plays held on everything from religion and science to court history and law is simply too sprawling to have come from the mind of one person.
7. Roger Manners, 5th Earl of Rutland
A noble who supposedly studied under Francis Bacon, Roger Manners was the 5th Earl of Rutland, a county in the English midlands. Manners was a patron of the arts who was renowned for his keen intellect. He attended both Oxford and Cambridge, travelled widely throughout Europe, and corresponded with many of the scholars and thinkers of the day.
Evidence for Authorship
Like many of the other candidates, Manners possessed the education, skill, and perspective to have written plays and poems of a very high quality. Even more interesting, the Earl, his wife Elizabeth Sidney, and a small group of friends were known to publish writings under various assumed and supposedly “common” names for their own amusement. Manners in particular was known to have been a prolific writer, but he only published under pseudonyms. This, along with the fact that Shakespeare’s writing ceased as soon as Manners and his wife died, have led many to argue that the two acted in concert to produce the plays and then published them anonymously.
6. William Stanley, 6th Earl of Derby
An English nobleman with a penchant for playwriting, William Stanley served as the 6th Earl of Derby from 1594 until his death in 1642. He is best known for the travels he undertook as a young man, which saw him spend time in France, Italy, Russia, Greenland, and Egypt.
Evidence for Authorship
The Early of Derby was first proposed as a Shakespeare authorship candidate in 1891, when an archivist uncovered letters from a Jesuit spy that described Stanley as being “busy penning plays for the common players.” According to most “Derbyite” theory, passages in plays like “Love’s Labour’s Lost” are too steeped in French and European history not to have been written by someone who was intimately familiar with the goings on of the court. The well-travelled Stanley can be placed in France and Italy around the time when these pivotal events took place, and his position as a noble would’ve meant he was privy to key events that may have inspired scenes in the plays of Shakespeare. Meanwhile, characters in other Shakespeare plays have been connected to certain real life acquaintances of William Stanley, among them the occultist John Dee, who many say is the inspiration for the character of Prospero in The Tempest. According to proponents of the Earl of Derby’s authorship, the real William Shakespeare was merely a front man through whom the plays were released. Stanley was the true author, but was unable to attach his name to his work out of fear that being a published, commercial writer would sully his reputation as a nobleman.
5. Mary Sidney Herbert, Countess of Pembroke
In the late 1500s and early 1600s, perhaps only Queen Elizabeth was a more educated and influential woman than Mary Sidney Herbert. Born into a powerful family, Herbert was a true renaissance woman. She was fluent in several languages and was an expert in medicine, law—even falconry. Most of all, she was skilled at writing and translating plays and poetry. She is best known today for founding the Wilton Circle, an important literary group, and for being one of the first women in England to publish a play.
Evidence for Authorship
Mary Sidney Herbert is certainly the most popular female candidate. She had the background, intelligence, and desire to create writing on the level of Shakespeare, and her social position as a woman gave her a perfect motive: at the time, no lady would have been allowed to have her plays performed in the theater. Scholars agree that Shakespeare was aware of her work, and may have even used her The Tragedie of Antonie as a template for his play Antony and Cleopatra. With this in mind, many have argued that the notion that she wrote Shakespeare’s plays herself is not that far-fetched. Another crucial piece of evidence concerns Shakespeare’s famous love sonnets, some of which tell of an affair with a younger man who was himself seeing a dark-eyed, dark-haired woman. A similar story is documented in Mary Sidney’s personal life, which has led some to argue the sonnets are autobiographical. Scholars have long noted feminine touches and voice in the work of Shakespeare. Those who believe in Mary Sidney’s candidacy would say it was because the author was in fact a woman.
4. Sir Henry Neville
Of the sixty-plus candidates for the “true author,” Sir Henry Neville is one of the newest and most popular additions. The nobleman and politician was educated at Oxford, traveled throughout Europe, and even served for some time as the English ambassador to France. While he was known to be a skilled writer and scholar, most of his professional life was spent as a member of parliament. He was imprisoned in the Tower of London in 1601 for playing a minor role in a failed uprising against Queen Elizabeth, but was released when James I ascended to the throne.
Evidence for Authorship
Most if not all of the proposed alternate authors have biographies that dovetail with characters, settings, and story lines in Shakespeare plays. But it has been argued that Neville’s life lines up almost perfectly. Neville can be placed in the setting of many Shakespeare plays around the time they were written, and he had the knowledge of the languages and the law that would have been needed to write in the kind of detail that is exhibited in the plays. Examinations of his writing style have found remarkable similarities with Shakespeare, and a document bearing Neville’s seal has been found on which the signature “William Shakespeare” is written several times, as though someone were practicing it. While scholars have often been puzzled why Shakespeare’s work suddenly became darker and more tragic in the early 1600s, proponents of Neville’s authorship argue it was because of Neville’s depression at having been imprisoned and stripped of his wealth and political standing.
3. Christopher Marlowe
In the Elizabethan era, playwright Christopher Marlowe was second only to William Shakespeare in fame—but many claim that he actually composed plays for the both of them. He is perhaps best known for his controversial play Doctor Faustus, and for his mysterious death at the age of 29. Little is known about Marlowe, and there are accounts that he was, among other things, a professional spy and counterfeiter.
Evidence for Authorship
According to Marlovians, the group who assert Marlowe to be the true author, the young poet did not actually die at the age of 29. Rather, he faked his own death and went on writing plays that were passed off as the work of William Shakespeare. Marlowe has long been agreed to be a major influence on the work of Shakespeare, and some believe that the similarities between their writing styles are too precise to ignore. In fact, computer analysis of Shakespeare and Marlowe’s writing has failed to find significant differences between the two. Not only would Marlowe have had the proper education and background to write Shakespeare’s plays, but Shakespeare’s first published work came no less than thirteen days after Marlowe’s supposed death. Elements of Marlowe’s life show up in countless places in Shakespeare’s plays, and many claim that hidden ciphers and anagrams within the works give hints that Marlowe is the true author. While it rests on some dubious assertions, the Marlovian theory is one of the oldest Shakespeare authorship arguments. It has even inspired a literary prize, which promises a hefty bounty to anyone who can provide hard evidence that Marlowe was Shakespeare.
2. Sir Francis Bacon
Sir Francis Bacon was one of the first “true authors” proposed by the “Anti-Stratfordians”—the blanket term used to refer to those who doubt Shakespeare’s authorship—in the 19th century. Bacon was a British writer, lawyer, politician, and philosopher who was a key figure in the scientific revolution. He was one of the major thinkers on empiricism, the branch of philosophy that asserts all knowledge is gained through the senses. His dedication to experimentation and procedural investigation led many to call him the father of the scientific method.
Evidence for Authorship
Those who believe Bacon wrote Shakespeare have pointed to everything from his personal letters to similarity in writing style, textual analysis, autobiographical similarities, and even supposed cryptographic passages hidden within the plays. Bacon was an expert on the law, and many have pointed to the many legal references in Shakespeare’s plays—references a man of Shakespeare’s education shouldn’t have known — as proof that Bacon was the true author. Most of all, Bacon was simply the preeminent thinker and writer of his day. As one scholar has suggested, “had the plays come down to us anonymously…we could have found no one of that day but Francis Bacon to whom to assign the crown.”
1. Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford
The 17th Earl of Oxford, Edward de Vere was a nobleman, poet, and champion jouster who spent his early life as a ward of Queen Elizabeth. He received an excellent education before serving in the House of Lords and then traveling to France and Italy. He spent most of his life as a regular fixture in the Queen’s court, but he also distinguished himself as a patron of the theater and as a lyrical poet.
Evidence For Authorship
In recent years, Edward de Vere has become the most popular candidate for being the true author of the works of Shakespeare. Not only was the Earl of Oxford often praised for his exquisite poetry and plays, but also he was deeply entrenched in the theatre scene in London. He was known for secrecy with regard to his writing — no plays written under his name have survived—which many say makes him the perfect candidate for being a “suppressed author.” “Oxfordians” point to de Vere’s travels and his position as a courtier as proof that he would have had all the reference he needed to write about nobility and royalty as they are depicted in the plays of Shakespeare. They have also studied his biography closely and found many parallels between his life in court and characters and events in Shakespeare. Since so much of the content of the plays is satirical, de Vere also had a perfect motive for wanting to remain anonymous. Some scholars have claimed that the language employed by de Vere in personal writings is remarkably similar to that of Shakespeare, and they point to a Latin grammar document referenced in Shakespeare that contains the sentence “Edwardus is my proper name” as being a possible hint from de Vere. Meanwhile, it was de Vere’s family that financed the publication of the first folio of Shakespeare’s writing in 1623. Perhaps most interesting of all, although Shakespeare lived twelve years past de Vere’s death, he remained silent on certain contemporary topics — most notably scientific breakthroughs and politics — in his later work. For Oxfordians, this suggests those plays had already been written by de Vere prior to his death.
Friday, September 2, 2011
http://www.toptenz.net/top-10-possible-authors-for-the-works-of-shakespeare.php
Despite William Shakespeare’s status as a literary giant, a small but vocal group of scholars, playwrights, actors, and conspiracy theorists have long argued that he is not the true author of his plays. Even though the vast majority of Shakespeare scholars have rejected it, this theory has become increasingly prominent since the 1980s, and has even inspired an upcoming film called Anonymous. Adherents of the alternate author theory point to Shakespeare’s humble origins, lack of formal education, and the murkiness of his historical record as evidence that the Bard was incapable of the genius that can be found in his work. Not only that, but they frequently nominate candidates — some of them quite famous — as the true author. The following are ten of the most notable possible authors of the works of Shakespeare, along with explanations of why some think they might be the greatest writer you’ve never heard of.
10. Sir Fulke Greville
A recent Shakespeare candidate, Fulke Greville was an English noble and politician who also nurtured a talent for poetry and drama. He was the close friend and biographer of Sir Philip Sidney — one of the towering literary figures of his time — and spent a good portion of his life in court with Queen Elizabeth, for whom he served as a judge, a soldier, and even a spy.
Evidence for Authorship
The argument for Greville’s authorship is based around an obscure quote from his biography, which says that he wanted “to be known to posterity under no other notions than of Shakespeare’s master.” This strange statement caused scholars to begin seriously considering Greville as a candidate for being the “true author,” and the more he was researched the more evidence was uncovered. Greville was well known for his writing skill, and his position as a court spy had taken him all over Europe. This would have given him the knowledge and perspective to write Shakespeare’s foreign-set plays. His life also has eerie parallels with Shakespeare. Both men lived in Stratford on Avon — perhaps even on the same street — and both had many of the same friends and acquaintances. The biographical similarities are so striking, in fact, that many have come to argue that “Shakespeare” the historical figure was actually Fulke Greville, who used the name as a pseudonym in order to write plays while still maintaining his position as a noble.
9. Emilia Lanier
Several of the candidates proposed have been women, and of these the mysterious Emilia Lanier is one of the most famous. Born Emelia Bassano, she was married to a court musician, but spent several years as the mistress to the first cousin of Queen Elizabeth. Although the details of her life are incomplete, Lanier is remembered today for being one of the first professional female poets in England.
Evidence for Authorship
Lanier’s lover was a patron of the arts, so she would have been acquainted with the theater and possibly William Shakespeare himself. Originally, she was considered by many to be the inspiration for several of Shakespeare’s famous love poems, particularly the more risqué “Dark Lady” sonnets. This theory has recently been expanded to argue that Lanier is responsible for all of Shakespeare’s work, and that she used Shakespeare as a front to make it appear as though her plays were written by a man. Evidence includes specific and unusual clusters of words that seem to only appear in Lanier’s work and plays like A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and certain plot points that exist in both Shakespeare plays and in Lanier’s book of poetry, Salve Deux Rex Judaeorum. In several cases, Lanier’s biography also lines up with content in Shakespeare’s plays, and different versions of her name are used as character names throughout the Shakespeare canon, which some claim she included as hints that she was the true author.
8. The Group Theory
Since the 1800s, a popular Shakespeare authorship theory has been that the plays were not the work of one writer but rather a syndicate of different playwrights with a concerted agenda. According to the theory, this group merely used the figure of William Shakespeare as a front for the release of its collective writings. (Shakespeare and his Friends at the Mermaid Tavern by John Faed.)
Evidence for Authorship
Analysis of Shakespeare’s work has often revealed a vast breadth of style and technique, which some argue is far too complex for the plays to only be the work of one man. A number of different group candidates have been proposed, including Mary Sidney, Francis Bacon, and even Sir Walter Raleigh, all of whom have been put forth as possible leaders of the Shakespeare syndicate. One of the earliest group theory studies proposed that Bacon and Raleigh used Shakespeare’s work as a way to advance a particular political system in the popular culture. Proponents of the idea point out that in the Elizabethan era it was not unusual for plays and other forms of fiction to be co-written by multiple authors. For them, the amount of knowledge that the writer of Shakespeare’s plays held on everything from religion and science to court history and law is simply too sprawling to have come from the mind of one person.
7. Roger Manners, 5th Earl of Rutland
A noble who supposedly studied under Francis Bacon, Roger Manners was the 5th Earl of Rutland, a county in the English midlands. Manners was a patron of the arts who was renowned for his keen intellect. He attended both Oxford and Cambridge, travelled widely throughout Europe, and corresponded with many of the scholars and thinkers of the day.
Evidence for Authorship
Like many of the other candidates, Manners possessed the education, skill, and perspective to have written plays and poems of a very high quality. Even more interesting, the Earl, his wife Elizabeth Sidney, and a small group of friends were known to publish writings under various assumed and supposedly “common” names for their own amusement. Manners in particular was known to have been a prolific writer, but he only published under pseudonyms. This, along with the fact that Shakespeare’s writing ceased as soon as Manners and his wife died, have led many to argue that the two acted in concert to produce the plays and then published them anonymously.
6. William Stanley, 6th Earl of Derby
An English nobleman with a penchant for playwriting, William Stanley served as the 6th Earl of Derby from 1594 until his death in 1642. He is best known for the travels he undertook as a young man, which saw him spend time in France, Italy, Russia, Greenland, and Egypt.
Evidence for Authorship
The Early of Derby was first proposed as a Shakespeare authorship candidate in 1891, when an archivist uncovered letters from a Jesuit spy that described Stanley as being “busy penning plays for the common players.” According to most “Derbyite” theory, passages in plays like “Love’s Labour’s Lost” are too steeped in French and European history not to have been written by someone who was intimately familiar with the goings on of the court. The well-travelled Stanley can be placed in France and Italy around the time when these pivotal events took place, and his position as a noble would’ve meant he was privy to key events that may have inspired scenes in the plays of Shakespeare. Meanwhile, characters in other Shakespeare plays have been connected to certain real life acquaintances of William Stanley, among them the occultist John Dee, who many say is the inspiration for the character of Prospero in The Tempest. According to proponents of the Earl of Derby’s authorship, the real William Shakespeare was merely a front man through whom the plays were released. Stanley was the true author, but was unable to attach his name to his work out of fear that being a published, commercial writer would sully his reputation as a nobleman.
5. Mary Sidney Herbert, Countess of Pembroke
In the late 1500s and early 1600s, perhaps only Queen Elizabeth was a more educated and influential woman than Mary Sidney Herbert. Born into a powerful family, Herbert was a true renaissance woman. She was fluent in several languages and was an expert in medicine, law—even falconry. Most of all, she was skilled at writing and translating plays and poetry. She is best known today for founding the Wilton Circle, an important literary group, and for being one of the first women in England to publish a play.
Evidence for Authorship
Mary Sidney Herbert is certainly the most popular female candidate. She had the background, intelligence, and desire to create writing on the level of Shakespeare, and her social position as a woman gave her a perfect motive: at the time, no lady would have been allowed to have her plays performed in the theater. Scholars agree that Shakespeare was aware of her work, and may have even used her The Tragedie of Antonie as a template for his play Antony and Cleopatra. With this in mind, many have argued that the notion that she wrote Shakespeare’s plays herself is not that far-fetched. Another crucial piece of evidence concerns Shakespeare’s famous love sonnets, some of which tell of an affair with a younger man who was himself seeing a dark-eyed, dark-haired woman. A similar story is documented in Mary Sidney’s personal life, which has led some to argue the sonnets are autobiographical. Scholars have long noted feminine touches and voice in the work of Shakespeare. Those who believe in Mary Sidney’s candidacy would say it was because the author was in fact a woman.
4. Sir Henry Neville
Of the sixty-plus candidates for the “true author,” Sir Henry Neville is one of the newest and most popular additions. The nobleman and politician was educated at Oxford, traveled throughout Europe, and even served for some time as the English ambassador to France. While he was known to be a skilled writer and scholar, most of his professional life was spent as a member of parliament. He was imprisoned in the Tower of London in 1601 for playing a minor role in a failed uprising against Queen Elizabeth, but was released when James I ascended to the throne.
Evidence for Authorship
Most if not all of the proposed alternate authors have biographies that dovetail with characters, settings, and story lines in Shakespeare plays. But it has been argued that Neville’s life lines up almost perfectly. Neville can be placed in the setting of many Shakespeare plays around the time they were written, and he had the knowledge of the languages and the law that would have been needed to write in the kind of detail that is exhibited in the plays. Examinations of his writing style have found remarkable similarities with Shakespeare, and a document bearing Neville’s seal has been found on which the signature “William Shakespeare” is written several times, as though someone were practicing it. While scholars have often been puzzled why Shakespeare’s work suddenly became darker and more tragic in the early 1600s, proponents of Neville’s authorship argue it was because of Neville’s depression at having been imprisoned and stripped of his wealth and political standing.
3. Christopher Marlowe
In the Elizabethan era, playwright Christopher Marlowe was second only to William Shakespeare in fame—but many claim that he actually composed plays for the both of them. He is perhaps best known for his controversial play Doctor Faustus, and for his mysterious death at the age of 29. Little is known about Marlowe, and there are accounts that he was, among other things, a professional spy and counterfeiter.
Evidence for Authorship
According to Marlovians, the group who assert Marlowe to be the true author, the young poet did not actually die at the age of 29. Rather, he faked his own death and went on writing plays that were passed off as the work of William Shakespeare. Marlowe has long been agreed to be a major influence on the work of Shakespeare, and some believe that the similarities between their writing styles are too precise to ignore. In fact, computer analysis of Shakespeare and Marlowe’s writing has failed to find significant differences between the two. Not only would Marlowe have had the proper education and background to write Shakespeare’s plays, but Shakespeare’s first published work came no less than thirteen days after Marlowe’s supposed death. Elements of Marlowe’s life show up in countless places in Shakespeare’s plays, and many claim that hidden ciphers and anagrams within the works give hints that Marlowe is the true author. While it rests on some dubious assertions, the Marlovian theory is one of the oldest Shakespeare authorship arguments. It has even inspired a literary prize, which promises a hefty bounty to anyone who can provide hard evidence that Marlowe was Shakespeare.
2. Sir Francis Bacon
Sir Francis Bacon was one of the first “true authors” proposed by the “Anti-Stratfordians”—the blanket term used to refer to those who doubt Shakespeare’s authorship—in the 19th century. Bacon was a British writer, lawyer, politician, and philosopher who was a key figure in the scientific revolution. He was one of the major thinkers on empiricism, the branch of philosophy that asserts all knowledge is gained through the senses. His dedication to experimentation and procedural investigation led many to call him the father of the scientific method.
Evidence for Authorship
Those who believe Bacon wrote Shakespeare have pointed to everything from his personal letters to similarity in writing style, textual analysis, autobiographical similarities, and even supposed cryptographic passages hidden within the plays. Bacon was an expert on the law, and many have pointed to the many legal references in Shakespeare’s plays—references a man of Shakespeare’s education shouldn’t have known — as proof that Bacon was the true author. Most of all, Bacon was simply the preeminent thinker and writer of his day. As one scholar has suggested, “had the plays come down to us anonymously…we could have found no one of that day but Francis Bacon to whom to assign the crown.”
1. Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford
The 17th Earl of Oxford, Edward de Vere was a nobleman, poet, and champion jouster who spent his early life as a ward of Queen Elizabeth. He received an excellent education before serving in the House of Lords and then traveling to France and Italy. He spent most of his life as a regular fixture in the Queen’s court, but he also distinguished himself as a patron of the theater and as a lyrical poet.
Evidence For Authorship
In recent years, Edward de Vere has become the most popular candidate for being the true author of the works of Shakespeare. Not only was the Earl of Oxford often praised for his exquisite poetry and plays, but also he was deeply entrenched in the theatre scene in London. He was known for secrecy with regard to his writing — no plays written under his name have survived—which many say makes him the perfect candidate for being a “suppressed author.” “Oxfordians” point to de Vere’s travels and his position as a courtier as proof that he would have had all the reference he needed to write about nobility and royalty as they are depicted in the plays of Shakespeare. They have also studied his biography closely and found many parallels between his life in court and characters and events in Shakespeare. Since so much of the content of the plays is satirical, de Vere also had a perfect motive for wanting to remain anonymous. Some scholars have claimed that the language employed by de Vere in personal writings is remarkably similar to that of Shakespeare, and they point to a Latin grammar document referenced in Shakespeare that contains the sentence “Edwardus is my proper name” as being a possible hint from de Vere. Meanwhile, it was de Vere’s family that financed the publication of the first folio of Shakespeare’s writing in 1623. Perhaps most interesting of all, although Shakespeare lived twelve years past de Vere’s death, he remained silent on certain contemporary topics — most notably scientific breakthroughs and politics — in his later work. For Oxfordians, this suggests those plays had already been written by de Vere prior to his death.
Sunday, May 2, 2010
Was Shakespeare's ghost writer ... Shakespeare?
http://www.cnn.com/2010/SHOWBIZ/books/04/26/shakespeare.battle/
Was Shakespeare's ghost writer ... Shakespeare?
By Todd Leopold, CNN
April 26, 2010
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
Author of new "Contested Will" wrote book to go through -- and debunk -- anti-Stratford theories
Because of holes in record, much not known about William Shakespeare the person
Some question the Bard's authorship of plays, poems; "so much is at stake"
(CNN) -- To most people, the literary debate over who wrote the works of William Shakespeare would appear to be much ado about nothing. After all, the play's the thing, right? What does it matter who wrote it?
To James Shapiro, however, it matters a great deal.
The Columbia University professor and Shakespeare scholar spent 15 years working on his 2005 book, "A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare: 1599." The work exhaustively details a key year in the Bard's career, when he wrote "Henry V" and "Julius Caesar" and became the man thought of as history's greatest English-language dramatist.
And yet he couldn't convince the doubters, who believe that the name "William Shakespeare" is a front for the real author.
"I thought I did a damned good job showing that it could only have been Shakespeare who wrote the plays we attributed to him," he said. "And I naively thought, that will slow people down who think that Shakespeare didn't write Shakespeare. And they kind of stepped around it.
"And I thought, I have to stop and really address this."
The result is Shapiro's new book, "Contested Will." In it, Shapiro chronicles the history of the anti-Stratfordian movement, which has believed that any number of people -- the essayist Francis Bacon, the nobleman the Earl of Oxford, Walter Raleigh, Christopher Marlowe -- wrote the plays ascribed to the glovemaker's son from Stratford-upon-Avon, born 446 years ago. It's a theory that has attracted some famous minds -- including Mark Twain and Sigmund Freud -- and will soon be coming to the screen as Roland ("2012") Emmerich's latest film, "Anonymous."
To the anti-Stratfordians, Shakespeare -- who left behind, by modern standards, relatively little in the way of personal records -- was too unworldly, too unromantic (in his will, he famously left his widow his "second best bed"), too ordinary to have written some of the greatest plays and poems known to man. It's a theory Shapiro roundly rejects. He says that modern audiences are reading Shakespeare through modern sensibilities, believing that the author's work is autobiographical -- which was not the case in Shakespeare's day.
"We read today anachronistically -- we expect to find things in books that were written 400 years ago that people writing 400 years ago would not have put in those books," he says. "But the plays of Shakespeare and his contemporaries were not [autobiographical]. ... They made stuff up based on stories they read."
The distinction is important, he adds.
"Part of the authorship question is about trying to find whose life you can line up with the life of the author of the plays. Oxfordians will say, hey, our guy had three daughters and was captured by pirates. Your guy had two daughters and was never captured by pirates. Therefore, our guy has a greater likelihood to have written the plays. And that way madness lies, because then you end up with 50 or 60 contenders."
Naturally, Oxfordians disagree. Shapiro's book has been wounded in its Amazon rankings by reviewers who don't believe Shapiro's thesis and criticized by anti-Stratfordian websites.
"I do think there is an authorship question," says Michael Egan, a retired English professor who edits the Oxfordian, the journal of the Shakespeare Oxford Society. Though he considers himself a Stratfordian, he says he's "open-minded" about the issue and criticizes Shapiro for some of the arguments in "Contested Will."
"The case for Oxford derives from the fact that almost everything we know about Shakespeare of Stratford doesn't seem connectible to the author of the plays," he says. "It's that gap between what we could infer about the author, and what we know about Shakespeare of Stratford, which has raised the questions."
It's a battle that has, as Shapiro records, been filled with partisan rhetoric and bad blood since it began a little more than 200 years ago. Twain, for example, wrote a short book on the subject; his contemporary, Henry James, also questioned Shakespeare's authorship. Others have created elaborate codes or sought biographical parallels. The Stratfordians stand by their proof; the anti-Stratfordians fill in the gaps.
In that respect, the battle over Shakespeare has much in common with other disputes. Kathy Olmsted, a history professor at the University of California-Davis and the author of "Real Enemies: Conspiracy Theories and American Democracy," observes that, in American history, conspiracy theories have often arisen from a perceived lack of information.
"When people don't have that information or can't get it, they like to sort of speculate on what the real story is," she says. "People see those blank spots and they want to fill them in."
And in for a penny, in for a pound, she adds: "It becomes like a religion. People who believe in these theories really get invested in them, and they don't want to account for evidence that doesn't fit their thesis."
Which is why, for Shapiro, it's so important to establish that Shakespeare wrote Shakespeare.
"So much is at stake in Shakespeare. In the great game of capture the literary flag, this is it," he says. "If you can say something about Shakespeare, you can say something about how English literature and literature in general works."
He's particularly leery about Emmerich's film, which is in production and stars Vanessa Redgrave, Rhys Ifans and Derek Jacobi -- the latter a noted Shakespeare doubter.
"It's going to be a disaster movie for people who teach Shakespeare," he says. "In the great rock-paper-scissor of movie and book, movie beats book."
Still, he's hopeful that "Contested Will" will have an impact. "You can't win that battle. But I can wage it, at any rate."
Nevertheless, he's ready to put the Baconians, Oxfordians, Marlovians and other anti-Stratfordians behind him.
"I can't wait to get back to Shakespeare and writing a book. I actually get smarter wrestling with Shakespeare's words -- it's very thrilling," he says. "But spending five years thinking about people's fantasies did not make me smarter at all. ... Was it worth it? Probably. As long as the next book goes well."
Was Shakespeare's ghost writer ... Shakespeare?
By Todd Leopold, CNN
April 26, 2010
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
Author of new "Contested Will" wrote book to go through -- and debunk -- anti-Stratford theories
Because of holes in record, much not known about William Shakespeare the person
Some question the Bard's authorship of plays, poems; "so much is at stake"
(CNN) -- To most people, the literary debate over who wrote the works of William Shakespeare would appear to be much ado about nothing. After all, the play's the thing, right? What does it matter who wrote it?
To James Shapiro, however, it matters a great deal.
The Columbia University professor and Shakespeare scholar spent 15 years working on his 2005 book, "A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare: 1599." The work exhaustively details a key year in the Bard's career, when he wrote "Henry V" and "Julius Caesar" and became the man thought of as history's greatest English-language dramatist.
And yet he couldn't convince the doubters, who believe that the name "William Shakespeare" is a front for the real author.
"I thought I did a damned good job showing that it could only have been Shakespeare who wrote the plays we attributed to him," he said. "And I naively thought, that will slow people down who think that Shakespeare didn't write Shakespeare. And they kind of stepped around it.
"And I thought, I have to stop and really address this."
The result is Shapiro's new book, "Contested Will." In it, Shapiro chronicles the history of the anti-Stratfordian movement, which has believed that any number of people -- the essayist Francis Bacon, the nobleman the Earl of Oxford, Walter Raleigh, Christopher Marlowe -- wrote the plays ascribed to the glovemaker's son from Stratford-upon-Avon, born 446 years ago. It's a theory that has attracted some famous minds -- including Mark Twain and Sigmund Freud -- and will soon be coming to the screen as Roland ("2012") Emmerich's latest film, "Anonymous."
To the anti-Stratfordians, Shakespeare -- who left behind, by modern standards, relatively little in the way of personal records -- was too unworldly, too unromantic (in his will, he famously left his widow his "second best bed"), too ordinary to have written some of the greatest plays and poems known to man. It's a theory Shapiro roundly rejects. He says that modern audiences are reading Shakespeare through modern sensibilities, believing that the author's work is autobiographical -- which was not the case in Shakespeare's day.
"We read today anachronistically -- we expect to find things in books that were written 400 years ago that people writing 400 years ago would not have put in those books," he says. "But the plays of Shakespeare and his contemporaries were not [autobiographical]. ... They made stuff up based on stories they read."
The distinction is important, he adds.
"Part of the authorship question is about trying to find whose life you can line up with the life of the author of the plays. Oxfordians will say, hey, our guy had three daughters and was captured by pirates. Your guy had two daughters and was never captured by pirates. Therefore, our guy has a greater likelihood to have written the plays. And that way madness lies, because then you end up with 50 or 60 contenders."
Naturally, Oxfordians disagree. Shapiro's book has been wounded in its Amazon rankings by reviewers who don't believe Shapiro's thesis and criticized by anti-Stratfordian websites.
"I do think there is an authorship question," says Michael Egan, a retired English professor who edits the Oxfordian, the journal of the Shakespeare Oxford Society. Though he considers himself a Stratfordian, he says he's "open-minded" about the issue and criticizes Shapiro for some of the arguments in "Contested Will."
"The case for Oxford derives from the fact that almost everything we know about Shakespeare of Stratford doesn't seem connectible to the author of the plays," he says. "It's that gap between what we could infer about the author, and what we know about Shakespeare of Stratford, which has raised the questions."
It's a battle that has, as Shapiro records, been filled with partisan rhetoric and bad blood since it began a little more than 200 years ago. Twain, for example, wrote a short book on the subject; his contemporary, Henry James, also questioned Shakespeare's authorship. Others have created elaborate codes or sought biographical parallels. The Stratfordians stand by their proof; the anti-Stratfordians fill in the gaps.
In that respect, the battle over Shakespeare has much in common with other disputes. Kathy Olmsted, a history professor at the University of California-Davis and the author of "Real Enemies: Conspiracy Theories and American Democracy," observes that, in American history, conspiracy theories have often arisen from a perceived lack of information.
"When people don't have that information or can't get it, they like to sort of speculate on what the real story is," she says. "People see those blank spots and they want to fill them in."
And in for a penny, in for a pound, she adds: "It becomes like a religion. People who believe in these theories really get invested in them, and they don't want to account for evidence that doesn't fit their thesis."
Which is why, for Shapiro, it's so important to establish that Shakespeare wrote Shakespeare.
"So much is at stake in Shakespeare. In the great game of capture the literary flag, this is it," he says. "If you can say something about Shakespeare, you can say something about how English literature and literature in general works."
He's particularly leery about Emmerich's film, which is in production and stars Vanessa Redgrave, Rhys Ifans and Derek Jacobi -- the latter a noted Shakespeare doubter.
"It's going to be a disaster movie for people who teach Shakespeare," he says. "In the great rock-paper-scissor of movie and book, movie beats book."
Still, he's hopeful that "Contested Will" will have an impact. "You can't win that battle. But I can wage it, at any rate."
Nevertheless, he's ready to put the Baconians, Oxfordians, Marlovians and other anti-Stratfordians behind him.
"I can't wait to get back to Shakespeare and writing a book. I actually get smarter wrestling with Shakespeare's words -- it's very thrilling," he says. "But spending five years thinking about people's fantasies did not make me smarter at all. ... Was it worth it? Probably. As long as the next book goes well."
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