Shakespeare a fraud????

Evanescence · #1 09-09-2007

Looks like another whacky conspiracy theory......500 yrs old...

Or is it?

Coalition Aims to Expose Shakespeare
By D'ARCY DORAN,AP
Posted: 2007-09-09 08:53:56
(Sept. 8) -- The bard, or not the bard, that is the question.

Some of Britain's most distinguished Shakespearean actors have reopened the debate over whether William Shakespeare, a 16th century commoner raised in an illiterate household in Stratford-upon-Avon, wrote the plays that bear his name.

Acclaimed actor Derek Jacobi and Mark Rylance, the former artistic director of Shakespeare's Globe Theater in London, unveiled a "Declaration of Reasonable Doubt" on the authorship of Shakespeare's work Saturday, following the final matinee of "I am Shakespeare," a play investigating the bard's identity, in Chichester, southern England.

A small academic industry has developed around the effort to prove that Shakespeare, a provincial lad, could not have written the much-loved plays, with their expertise on law, ancient and modern history and mathematics.

The "real" author has been identified by various writers in the past as Christopher Marlowe, Francis Bacon, or the Earl of Oxford, Edward de Vere.

"I subscribe to the group theory. I don't think anybody could do it on their own," Jacobi said. "I think the leading light was probably de Vere, as I agree that an author writes about his own experiences, his own life and personalities."

The declaration put forward by the Shakespeare Authorship Coalition - signed online by nearly 300 people - aims to provoke new research into who was responsible for the plays, sonnets and poems attributed to the writer.

Jacobi and Rylance presented a copy of the document to William Leahy, head of English at Brunel University in west London and head of the first graduate program in Shakespeare Authorship Studies, which begins this month.

The document says there are no records that any William Shakespeare received payment or secured patronage for writing. And it adds that although documents exist for Shakespeare, all are nonliterary.

It also points to his detailed will, in which Shakespeare famously left his wife "my second best bed with the furniture," as containing no clearly Shakespearean turn of phrase and mentioning no books, plays or poems.

The declaration names 20 prominent doubters of the past, including Mark Twain, Orson Welles , Sir John Gielgud and Charlie Chaplin .

It argues there are few connections between Shakespeare's life and his alleged works, but they do show a strong familiarity with the lives of the upper classes and a confident grasp of obscure details from places like Italy.

"It's a legitimate question, it has a mystery at its center and intellectual discussion will bring us closer to that center," Leahy said. "That's not to say we will answer anything, that's not the point. 'It is, of course, to question.'"

HotWireD · #2 09-09-2007

3-D, or not 3D, that is the question
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The guitars and drums of outrageously good music,
Or to post comments against a sea of weirdoes in the Loons threads.,
And by opposing the Loons lampoon them? To throw food: to post smileys;
No more; and by a ‘post reply’ to say we end
The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks
Of fellow boardies who need a prayer or helping hand;
Devoutly to be wish'd. To post, to sleep;
To sleep: perchance to dream of the current events/hot topics: ay, there's the rub;

Shakespeare's not ded

Jason · #3 09-09-2007

Quote:

Originally Posted by HotWireD

3-D, or not 3D, that is the question
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The guitars and drums of outrageously good music,
Or to post comments against a sea of weirdoes in the Loons threads.,
And by opposing the Loons lampoon them? To throw food: to post smileys;
No more; and by a ‘post reply’ to say we end
The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks
Of fellow boardies who need a prayer or helping hand;
Devoutly to be wish'd. To post, to sleep;
To sleep: perchance to dream of the current events/hot topics: ay, there's the rub;

Bravo!

*applauds*

Valpo · #4 09-09-2007

Are conspiracy theories frauds?

now there's a conspiracy for ya

HotWireD · #5 09-09-2007

Quote:

Originally Posted by Valpo

Are conspiracy theories frauds?

now there's a conspiracy for ya

I have a sneaking suspicion that most conspiracy theories are conspiracies too!

Great minds think alike

Evanescence · #6 09-09-2007

HotWireD · #7 09-10-2007

Quote:

Originally Posted by Evanescence

Ha - got ya, you and your conspiracy theories.

I think you aught to learn all of Shakespeare's stories off by heart and then go back in time and find out if there really isn't a Shakespeare. Then, if there is no Shakespeare, you could write them all down from memory and then there would be. A Shakespeare, that is. It would be you.

Hang on - just been looking in an old Shakespeare book - I think he is wearing a tin foil cap...

Andi · #8 09-10-2007

rofl

No THAT is funny!!

Evanescence · #9 09-10-2007

Quote:

Originally Posted by HotWireD

Ha - got ya, you and your conspiracy theories.

I think you aught to learn all of Shakespeare's stories off by heart and then go back in time and find out if there really isn't a Shakespeare. Then, if there is no Shakespeare, you could write them all down from memory and then there would be. A Shakespeare, that is. It would be you.

Hang on - just been looking in an old Shakespeare book - I think he is wearing a tin foil cap...

Where's the antenna???????

freakysoccer · #10 09-10-2007

Quote:

Originally Posted by HotWireD

3-D, or not 3D, that is the question
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The guitars and drums of outrageously good music,
Or to post comments against a sea of weirdoes in the Loons threads.,
And by opposing the Loons lampoon them? To throw food: to post smileys;
No more; and by a ‘post reply’ to say we end
The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks
Of fellow boardies who need a prayer or helping hand;
Devoutly to be wish'd. To post, to sleep;
To sleep: perchance to dream of the current events/hot topics: ay, there's the rub;

Shakespeare's not ded

wonderful! i love it!

HotWireD · #11 09-10-2007

Quote:

Originally Posted by Evanescence

Where's the antenna???????

He He

kiwisongbird · #12 09-11-2007

Shakespeare...

Mmm, he's been a topic of my life lately as well... the homeschool group were going to do Midsummer Night's Dream, then changed to Romeo and Juliet - now some of the parents are not coping with that so we are in the throes of trying to decide between Love's Labours Lost, Much Ado About Nothing or um some other random play!!!

oops, I forgot, you know the one about the two servants and the two masters and they're all twins and they all get mixed up but it all works out in the end...

I think people should leave the bard alone - what will it achieve if it is proved that someone else or some other people wrote the plays etc... why is it a concern... at least it's not some bunch of silly people who don't even know about him that are saying it... but I think we should just leave him alone - haven't these guys seen the movie Shakespeare in Love? That tells the history ok I think (oh yeah, I'm just being dumb)

hey HotWire - I must say your rendition from Hamlet, brought tears to my eyes... you even had lilt right and everything - I'm tempted to get our Complete Works and have a go myself...

... but soft what light through yonder window breaks...

it is MY LORD and HE IS A CONSUMING FIRE....

um, well, not quite the same...

Evanescence · #13 09-11-2007

Quote:

Originally Posted by kiwisongbird

Shakespeare...

Mmm, he's been a topic of my life lately as well... the homeschool group were going to do Midsummer Night's Dream, then changed to Romeo and Juliet - now some of the parents are not coping with that so we are in the throes of trying to decide between Love's Labours Lost, Much Ado About Nothing or um some other random play!!!

oops, I forgot, you know the one about the two servants and the two masters and they're all twins and they all get mixed up but it all works out in the end...

I think people should leave the bard alone - what will it achieve if it is proved that someone else or some other people wrote the plays etc... why is it a concern... at least it's not some bunch of silly people who don't even know about him that are saying it... but I think we should just leave him alone - haven't these guys seen the movie Shakespeare in Love? That tells the history ok I think (oh yeah, I'm just being dumb)

hey HotWire - I must say your rendition from Hamlet, brought tears to my eyes... you even had lilt right and everything - I'm tempted to get our Complete Works and have a go myself...

... but soft what light through yonder window breaks...

it is MY LORD and HE IS A CONSUMING FIRE....

um, well, not quite the same...

I like...

"Koo, Koo Ka choo, I am the walrus..."

- Lennon/McCartney

kiwisongbird · #14 09-11-2007

um, is that with or without a foil helmet????