Post by coldenhaulfield on Mar 29, 2017 23:37:59 GMT
Mar 29, 2017 23:17:33 GMT @weirdraptor said:
Antistratfordians have to rely on speculation about what they think the "real" author should have been like, because they can't produce one historical fact to bolster their refusal to accept who that author actually was. No matter how they try to ignore it or explain it away, the historical record (all of it) establishes William Shakespeare of Stratford-upon-Avon as the author of the works traditionally attributed to him. He left no paper trail. Not a single poem or letter or play has ever been found in his own hand. We have just six shaky signatures. His will mentions no books, plays or anything else to suggest the balding Stratford businessman was also a writer.
His personality, love interests, movements are all a total mysery. The documents relating to his life are all of a legal nature. Nobody ever recognised Shakespeare as a writer during his lifetime and when he died, in 1616, no one seemed to notice. Not a single letter refers to the great author’s passing at the time.
His personality, love interests, movements are all a total mysery. The documents relating to his life are all of a legal nature. Nobody ever recognised Shakespeare as a writer during his lifetime and when he died, in 1616, no one seemed to notice. Not a single letter refers to the great author’s passing at the time.
Stanley Wells, in his Stratford office, sighs at having to repeat all the points he’s made over the years about Shakespeare’s identity. For him, there is no mystery: “Yes, there are gaps in the records, as there are for most non-aristocratic people. We do, however, have documentary records and there’s lots of posthumous evidence. There’s evidence in the First Folio, the memorial in the church here in Stratford, the poem by William Basse referring to him, all of it stating that Shakespeare of Stratford was a poet,” he says.
But if that’s the case what about the £40,000 mock trial – easy money, surely? “Public debates are an exercise of forensic skill rather than an intellectual scholarly exercise. So no, we are not going to debate or take their money. I would hope we have more dignity.”
What would settle this question for good? “I would love to find a contemporary document that said William Shakespeare was the dramatist of Stratford-upon-Avon written during his lifetime,” says Wells. “There’s lots and lots of unexamined legal records rotting away in the national archives; it is just possible something will one day turn up. That would shut the buggers up!”
The doubters, meanwhile, are busy writing and convening. Among them is the actor Mark Rylance, a trustee of the Shakespeare Authorship Trust (founded in 1922), which has just had a conference on the authorship question at the Globe Theatre. Indeed, heresy seems to be spreading. Brunel University now even has a course on the authorship and one survey shows that 17% of American literature professors think there is room for reasonable doubt about Shakespeare’s identity. Even in the States, you probably wouldn’t find 17% of biology professors doubting evolutionary theory.
The battle continues. Alexander Waugh and a phalanx of combative Shake-sceptics are already looking forward to hosing cold water over the 400th anniversary of the Bard’s death in 2016. “The Stratfordians have been trying to pretend we don’t exist for a long time, but now they’re running scared,” says Waugh. “As Mahatma Gandhi said, ‘First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, and then you win.’ We’ve got to the fight bit.”
But if that’s the case what about the £40,000 mock trial – easy money, surely? “Public debates are an exercise of forensic skill rather than an intellectual scholarly exercise. So no, we are not going to debate or take their money. I would hope we have more dignity.”
What would settle this question for good? “I would love to find a contemporary document that said William Shakespeare was the dramatist of Stratford-upon-Avon written during his lifetime,” says Wells. “There’s lots and lots of unexamined legal records rotting away in the national archives; it is just possible something will one day turn up. That would shut the buggers up!”
The doubters, meanwhile, are busy writing and convening. Among them is the actor Mark Rylance, a trustee of the Shakespeare Authorship Trust (founded in 1922), which has just had a conference on the authorship question at the Globe Theatre. Indeed, heresy seems to be spreading. Brunel University now even has a course on the authorship and one survey shows that 17% of American literature professors think there is room for reasonable doubt about Shakespeare’s identity. Even in the States, you probably wouldn’t find 17% of biology professors doubting evolutionary theory.
The battle continues. Alexander Waugh and a phalanx of combative Shake-sceptics are already looking forward to hosing cold water over the 400th anniversary of the Bard’s death in 2016. “The Stratfordians have been trying to pretend we don’t exist for a long time, but now they’re running scared,” says Waugh. “As Mahatma Gandhi said, ‘First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, and then you win.’ We’ve got to the fight bit.”