BiblioShakespeare

Enter Three Witches - Caroline B. Cooney

2009-11-15T11:11:00.001-05:00

****1/2 - I really enjoyed this spooky retelling of Shakespeare's Scottish play - particularly where Cooney incorporates quotes as part of the dialogue. I enjoyed seeing the action from several characters' points of view. I did think the resolution was rather abrupt and not nearly as climactic as it should have been.

Soldiers are gathering throughout Scotland, preparing for a great battle against the traitor who stands against the much-loved King Duncan, but nothing prepared Lady Mary for the news that her own father was a traitor to the crown and that her betrothed was killed in battle. Now Mary fears for her own life, especially as she slowly comes to realize the depths her guardians Lord and Lady MacBeth are willing to plumb in order to satisfy their cravings for power. Mary is trapped in a castle with nothing to warn her who not to trust except the pricking of her thumbs…

Enter Three Witches was a creepy atmospheric story set in gloomy castles among the fog-ridden bogs of Scotland crawling with witches demanding sacrifice and eager to share ominous portends of things to come. And mixed up in the middle of the intrigues of Shakespeare's Scottish play are fourteen-year-old Mary whose rich inherited lands make her a tantalizing matrimonial prize and Banquo's son Fleance whose need to prove himself keeps landing him in difficult situations. I really liked these two main characters (especially Fleance) and enjoyed reading the sections told from their point of view. Mary in particular is resourceful and brave, and she never felt unrealistic to me.

But however much I liked Mary, and for all the Shakespeare quotes sprinkled throughout, I felt that the most climactic bits of the play (Birnam Wood marching on Dunsinane; the final battle) were given only fleeting treatment in the book which seemed a shame. But the rich background Cooney gives the characters of the original play (and those that she adds) make for a compelling read - and one that had me reaching for my copy of Shakespeare as the author exhorts at the end.

I would definitely recommend Enter Three Witches for those struggling to get into Shakespeare's play - of for those that want a creepy Gothic young adult book to curl up with on a dreary day.

Henry IV, Part 1 on Audio

2009-08-31T12:01:00.001-04:00

I listened to Henry IV Part 1 by William Shakespeare over this past weekend. a 3 cd set goes by pretty quickly on a 90 mile each way trip. I'm glad i picked this one up.

Henry IV Part 1 is a history play. It has one of the best comedic characters ever written: Sir John Falstaff. I'm not sure how he got the Sir as he seems to be more a brigand. Henry, called Harry or Hal, is the heir apparent to King Henry IV. He is something of a prodigal son; he parties and drinks and carouses with unsavory characters. Falstaff appears to be his best friend. King Henry's former friends and confidante's have rebelled against him for various reasons, led by the Earl of Northumberland and his son Henry Percy, also called Harry or Hotspur. King Henry calls his men to fight: Prince Hal swears to redeem himself by earning glory in combat; Falstaff does his best to take care of himself.

The production was fantastic. I immediately added Part 2 onto my library request list. You don't just get different people for each part, you hear glasses clinking, swords ringing, horses galloping. People get out of breath and burb and drink. I can't recommend the Arkangel production enough.

Taming of the Shrew- John Mutford's 3rd Review

2009-08-24T21:16:00.001-04:00

A friend of mine recently told me that she acted in The Taming of The Shrew in her theatre days and because of that it's one of her favourites. Knowing nothing about the play, when it was time to read another Shakespeare play I chose it. I wasn't far in before I had to ask, "you didn't find it all offensive?"

For those in the dark, as I was, the "shrew" is in fact a woman named Kate and the "taming" is a series of emotionally cruel treatments that results in her taking a subordinate position to her husband. If he decides to call the sun the moon, then Kate, too, will call the sun the moon. And it's a comedy.

It turns out that my friend's theatre troupe did as many modern reproductions do: they made Kate's transformation disingenuous. They didn't change any lines per se (though some do), but had the actress deliver them sarcastically.
When Kate lectures the other women at the end, for instance, that men are superior and women must obey, a few simple eye-rolls and the right tone suggest to an audience that she has not been converted at all.

Whether or not Shakespeare intended it this way (I personally think he intended it the misogynistic way), I doubt a modern performance could get away with doing otherwise. But the question remains: does it work?

I'd have to see it performed, and performed well, to pass judgement, but I'm very skeptical. The play oozes cruelty; from the opening framework which targets the lower class, to the play-at-large which targets women, everything is done for laughs. The insults are Shakespearean, and thus should be amusing and witty, but it was hard for me to enjoy myself when some of the characters were being treated so poorly, and without any really nice characters to balance it out. I'll grant, for instance, that Kate wasn't a nice person at the beginning. Had Shakespeare made Petruchio, her husband, a likable character and the victim of Kate's mean behaviour, a reader might be able to at least view Petruchio's later treatment of her as revenge. Not that it would condone cruelty since two wrongs don't make a right, as the saying goes, but at least there'd be some sense of vindication.

On another note, it was only after searching up the play online that I learned it was the basis behind Heath Ledger's Ten Things I Hate About You. I can't say I had any interest in seeing it before, but now I'm a bit curious. Have you seen it?

(Cross posted at The Book Mine Set).

2009-06-14T15:05:00.000-04:00

I got through a history! with a bit of help from wikipedia, i finished up Antony and Cleopatra today. The basic plot is that Antony is a Roman leader who has been in Egypt. He's in love with Cleopatra, Egypt's queen. Duty calls him back to Rome, where Octavius, the future first emperor of Rome, needs his help in war against Pompey. To try to seal the alliance, Antony marries Octavius' sister Octavia. Cleopatra doesn't like that very much. Antony and Octavius make a truce with Pompey. Then Antony comes back to Rome because Octavius breaks the truce and Antony doesn't want to be involved anymore. Then Octavius makes war on Egypt.

The history plays are more difficult for me. I found this one to be easier than the various English King plays but i did need a bit of help with the battles. The wikipedia summary of the plot made the sea battle debacles make sense. I knew the Roman history from college and my own general interest reading.

I'm not sure how i feel about this play. Who am i supposed to be rooting for? Cleopatra varies between girlish and petty to strong and noble. Antony seems really wishy washy. He loves Cleopatra when things are good but hates her when things are bad. Octavius is power hungry and not very relatable. I give this one a 4/7. I wouldn't mind seeing it live.

Review: The Sonnets - Warwick Collins

2009-05-27T12:23:00.003-04:00

*** - I love Shakespeare, and the sonnets are some of my favorites - heartfelt and beautiful, caught up in emotional turmoil. We once used certain sonnets as monologues in an acting class - there's just so much to them. Unfortunately here, I never got swept up in the emotions Shakespeare was writing about - the narration seemed detached.

Warwick Collins' The Sonnets explores Shakespeare's life while he was writing his beautiful sonnets. The sonnets are often cited as the most autobiographical of Shakespeare's work, and here Collins rearranges and weaves them together to form a narrative about Shakespeare's love triangle with his patron the Earl of Southampton and the mysterious dark lady.

I loved the premise - using the sonnets as a basis for a historical novel about Shakespeare's life and loves is a brilliant idea and could really serve to infuse him with emotional life rather than the focus on the playhouse that most Shakespearean novels take. That said, I'm not sure the format wholly works here. In trying to let the sonnets speak for themselves by including so many of them, Collins doesn't give us much of his own interpretation of Shakespeare's emotions - which is problematic in a novel told in the first person. His Shakespeare seems overly detached from the world he inhabits - a characteristic often remarked upon by his patron, but which doesn't seem quite right given the deep conflicting emotions shown in his sonnets.

The method of incorporating the sonnets is also a bit awkward - even jarring. Often times they are introduced with a quick statement that Shakespeare has spent the night 'at his board'. Then the first two quartets (or so) are quoted, then the poem is taken over by one of his patrons reading aloud. This is very effective as a scene transition on film, but on the page it seemed strange and affected - particularly since it happened over and over again.

Writing about Shakespeare is difficult. Writing from Shakespeare's point of view is even more so. There are sections where I thought Collins succeeded admirably. On p. 72, a snippet of conversation:

"Thou art a flatterer."
"No better and no worse."

sounds just like the sort of rejoinder the playwright would come up with - it even scans. And further on that page there are sentences that flow in (almost) iambic pentameter:

"Inside the sullen gloom, his rooms were a scholar's den, with manuscripts piled high on chests and chairs."

Sections like this just sound RIGHT. They sound like something that could come from Shakespeare's quick mind. But all too often, I found myself as detached as Shakespeare was depicted. Partially this was due to differences in interpretation - Collins depicts Shakespeare's love for Southampton as ironic and chaste. I'm not sure I agree with either assessment. But mostly I think it was because Collins' reimagining in The Sonnets didn't offer enough emotional context to bring the poems to life in a new and different way.

Shakespeare's Face - Book Review

2009-04-12T07:01:00.019-04:00

Shakespeare's Face
By Stephanie Nolen
Alfred Knopf Canada
2002
Stephanie's website
LARGE Sanders Portrait on the right

I thought it timely to read this book after the most recent portrait was discovered. (see the large Sanders Portrait link above. The Cobbes portrait is on the left).

But since the Cobbes Portrait has now been identified as actually being Sir Thomas Overbury, then the Sanders Portrait may still be in the running.

This was an excellent book to read. There are some chapters written by Stephanie Nolen and others by other experts who have written about this portrait and why it may or may not be Shakespeare. Stephanie writes about how she discovered the portrait, and she tells the story of the Sanders family who owned the portrait and how it came to be in Canada. Stephanie describes all the testing that was done. Most of it was done by the Canadian Conservation Institute in Ottawa.

The Sanders portrait was painted in 1603 - the year 1603 is painted at the top right hand corner. The wood, and the paint are all dated to the Elizbethan era or before so it is from the right time. The label on the back is the big questions. Since the painting was done in 1603 (Shakespeare would have been 39 that year) there is alabel affixed to the back that states year of birth and year of death, so the label at least was not attached at the time the painting was done. It was attached sometime after Shakespeare died in 1616. This alone is suspicous and may mean that the painting was NOT painted in 1603.

Some of the chapters in this book are written by the experts. Some of them are a little dry, as only experts can be. Other experts chapters are interesting.

The last chapter has summaries by the experts on who they think the portrait may be of. All of them say that this is NOT a portrait of William Shakepeare, because it is so different from the Droeshout print from the first Folio. Only one expert offers a plausible guess as to who the man in the portrait may be.

In 1603, William Shakespeare was aged 39. In that same year, his future writing partner John Fletcher, was just 24. He does have light coloured hair and a receding hairline. This portrait does look more like a young man of 24, and not so much of a man about to turn 40.

Here is another recent review of this same book.

So do YOU think this portrait is of a 39 year old or a 24 years old??

Timon of Athens- John Mutford's 2nd Review

2009-04-04T23:13:00.004-04:00

This is the first Shakespearean play I've read since coming back from seeing his birthplace, the Globe reproduction and his grave. I was wondering how those experiences would affect my reading and while it did provide a little more perspective, I don't think it affected my enjoyment one way or the other.

During the tour of his birthplace, our tour guide briefly mentioned how William's father John had gone bankrupt. In the play, Timon also goes bankrupt. I wondered if Timon shared any personality traits with the bard's father.

Timon basically doesn't know how to hang onto his cash. Surrounded by flatterers and false friends, he ends up giving away everything he has. When his creditors come calling, Timon sends out requests to all those he's helped in the past but, to his bitter surprise, none return the favour. He goes from being a wealthy philanthropic lord to a bankrupt misanthropist, running away from his debts and reviled society to live in a cave. However, at the cave Timon discovers gold. Will he hold onto his wealth this time?

Not at all. Timon gives it all away once again. However, this time it's out of hatred, not love. He hands it out to whores to spread disease, to a banished military captain who plans vengeance on Athens, and the rest to an artist, a poet, and a little left over to some senators who come to visit.
Apparently he's as disillusioned with money as he is humanity.

My first feeling toward Timon was that he was an idiot. One of my faults with the play was the lack of explanation of how a man this stupid and careless with money would have had any to begin with. He has extraordinary luck to happen upon the stash of gold, then blows his one chance to get back on his feet. Unforgivable?

Maybe. Maybe not. The cynical side of me thinks that his disillusionment, especially with money, might have led to the wisest decision of all: getting rid of it. Wishing venereal disease on his fellow countrymen? Well, I don't condone that.

It's a more obscure play but I quite enjoyed it.

(Cross-referenced at the Book Mine Set and The Obscure Challenge.)

About that new Shakespeare Portrait

2009-03-24T16:30:00.018-04:00

The Cobbe Portrait from 2 weeks ago, said to be that of Shakespeare.

Well the truth is out at last.

The Jacobean painting from the family collection of art restorer Alec Cobbe was thought to be the bard because it closely resembled the engraving in Shakespeare's First Folio. It is also noticeably similar to another painting believed to be the playwright owned by the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, DC.

Dr Tanya Cooper, the sixteenth-century curator at the National Portrait Gallery in London, believes the portrait bears a greater likeness to Sir Thomas Ovebury. She told The Times: “if anything, both works, the Folger and Cobbe portraits, are more likely to represent the courtier Sir Thomas Overbury".

This means the Folger library in Washington DC has been deliberately committing a fraud for a number of years, by showing a picture claiming it to be Shakespeare. BUT they could not be bothered to pay a little money for an airfare and actually go visit the National Gallery in UK and see for themselves that their portrait is a fraud.

This portrait of Sir Thomas Overbury is in the National Gallery of England.

The Cobbe family claimed their picture to be Shakespeare because it was the same as the picture in the Folger library. That is an error that an amateur art historian might make. BUT NOT for a professional library like the Folger.

Sir Thomas Overbury (1581 - September 15, 1613) was the son of Nicholas Overbury, of Bourton-on-the-Hill, and was born at Compton Scorpion, near Ilmington, in Warwickshire.

He was also an English poet and essayist, and the victim of one of the most sensational crimes in English history.

Just look at those dates. Overbury was born 16 years after Shakespeare and would have been aged 32 when he died. Remember how I remarked that the portrait did not look like a man of 46 years in that era? I was right.

And now experts believe the elaborate lace collar and gold embroided doublet are too grand for the playwright. Which is exactly what I said!!!!

According to the BBC, the Jansson Portrait of Shakespeare, which was painted in 1610, is also considered to be that of Sir Thomas Overbury, and not Shakespeare.

Painted around 1610, (the Jannson) work emerged as a compelling candidate as a life portrait of Shakespeare in the later 18th Century. Now, however, the sitter is believed to be the courtier and author Sir Thomas Overbury (1581-1613), while Cornelis Janssen (1593-1661) is no longer accepted as the artist.

How interesting that the Cobbe picture was also painted in 1610. Would Shakespeare have been able to afford to commission TWO portraits of himself in the same year? I seriously doubt it.

So, what does all this mean? Well I personally think this whole mess means that the Sanders portrait found in Canada is most likely still the only true likeness of William Shakespeare. Cobbe portrait on the left, Sanders portrait on the right. I must read the book.

Shakespeare: The World As Stage

2009-03-17T13:21:00.003-04:00

Yesterday I read Shakespeare: The World As Stage by Bill Bryson. In this very small book, Bryson says he sums up all the real facts that we have about Shakespeare. There aren't many. We know the date he was christened but not the exact date of birth. We know when he married, how many legitimate children he had, what property he bought and sold, but not the first performance dates of the majority of his plays or what order his sonnets should be in. And we know almost nothing about his personality. Bryson tries to avoid extrapolating Shakespeare's personality and character from the text of the plays but he does talk about other analyses that do have some validity. He mentions the reason that Shakespeare had to know some Italian is because a few of his plays are cribbed from Italian works that had not been translated to English.

Bryson devotes a chapter to the "other author" theories and i have to say he's pretty convincing that Shakespeare wrote Shakespeare. Apparently there was no controversy at all until the 1850's when an American woman, Delia Bacon, wrote a book implying that Francis Bacon wrote the Shakespeare plays. She came up with this idea by traveling to Bacon's hometown and picking up mental vibes. Ugh. He writes about the various conspiracies that would have to be in place for others besides Shakespeare to write the plays.

Overall this book is a nice overview of what we know, or don't know, about Shakespeare.

New Shakespeare Portrait Found

2009-03-10T11:34:00.013-04:00

One of the books I was planning to read for this Shakespeare Challenge is called Shakespeare's Face about the Sanders portrait found in Canada.

But today there is news that another new portrait has been identified and has been claimed to now be THE DEFINITIVE portrait of Shakespeare.

The first thing I said to myself when I saw this portrait was - too upper class. Just look at the neck collar. Only the rich wore those and Shakespeare was NOT rich.

And at aged 46 - I would have thought that in that era Shakespeare looked a lot older than this person does. This fellow has a full head of hair. The Droushout portrait from the First Folio shows a definite receding hairline, making the man look older.

In fact I think it's Henry Wriothesley. He does have a moustache as well. You cannot see the long hair that Wriosthesley had. But then, with such a dark background, you cant tell if this fellow has any hair either.

It is interesting that the family who held onto this portrait for so many generations, was distantly related to the Wriothesley Family. And now conveniently they wish to cash in in these hard economic times.

The portrait has been in the Cobbe family for generations. The family is distantly related to Shakespeare's only known literary patron, Henry Wriothesley, the third Earl of Southampton.

Another possibility is Sir Henry Neville - who is one of the possible candidates to be the author of the plays.

Will in the World by Stephen Greenblatt

2009-03-09T12:59:00.003-04:00

Much of the life of William Shakespeare is a mystery. He carefully did not keep a diary nor send love letters to his wife. Shakespeare, the prolific writer who, in just over 50 years wrote an almost unbelievable number of remarkable poems and plays, did not leave many personal details of his life beyond public records (which are spotty 400 years later). There was not a market for biographies of famous playwrights in the 1600s, and many details of his life were not written down until he was long gone.

Yet, in Will in the World, Stephen Greenblatt attempts to explain Shakespeare’s life by reading what he did write: his plays. In a truly remarkable way, Greenblatt ties the Bard’s life into the context of Victorian England by visiting the context of his plays.

Despite being an English major, I am not very familiar with most of Shakespeare’s work, let alone his life. I found Greenblatt’s look at Shakespeare’s life through his plays be utterly fascinating. Even if none of the suppositions Greenblatt provides were true, understanding the cultural context of the plays will help me in my future studies of the plays. I loved this “literary” biography, and I’d highly recommend it to those interested in the cultural context of the Bard.

A more detailed review of Will in the World is on Rebecca Reads. This is my first read for the 2009 BiblioShakespeare challenge.

Manga Shakespeare: Macbeth

2009-02-28T10:28:00.003-05:00

By the pricking of my thumbs,
Something wicked this way comes.

Manga Shakespeare: Macbeth is the very first Manga book I've ever read, and I enjoyed the experience. I've known very little about graphic novels or Manga, but I'm learning! And I do love Shakespeare in any form, and especially love his MACBETH. Before moving to 2nd grade after my medical leave of absence, I taught 6th grade for 16 years, and our 6th grade classes performed an abbreviated version of The Scottish Play every spring. It's the thing I miss most about my grade level change. So it was a pleasure to read another version of the play, and experience it in a whole new way.

The world of Manga is quite fascinating. There are visual traditions and things I don't completely understand yet (MacDuff had 4 arms, for instance, and the story was set in a post-apocalyptic future), but I know that there was always a real fascination and passion for it with some of my students, so I am curious to read more and learn about it. I am also pleased that the Manga Shakespeare books introduce readers, many of them young, to the plays in a way they can enjoy. The language is intact although abbreviated, and "reading" a Manga or graphic novel version of the story should probably be called "experiencing" the book because it is much closer to a performance of the play because of the interaction of the words and the graphic art.

Will - Book Review

2009-02-07T09:01:00.015-05:00

Will
By Grace Tiffany
Berkeley Publishing 2004

For those of you reading this blog, you should know by now, that I do not accept the premise that William, the man from Stratford, actually wrote the plays.

But this novel is written in a very believeable way that explains how William got to know all about those European places that are mentioned in the plays, without having lived there himself.

This novel covers William from the time he got Anne Hathaway pregnant and was forced to marry her, to the time he left London and retired back to Stratford. Roughly between 30 and 40 years.

It explains how William was educated. Mostly by the local school masters in Latin, but William learnt his greek from reading greek books at his great-uncle's library. Remember, William's mother Mary Arden was of a minor noble family. Mary's uncle Edward Arden was beheaded for suspicion of being a Papist (or a Catholic - which he was) before William was 20. Arden's head was stuck on a pole in London for a few years.

After William and Anne Hathaway were married, because she was in the family way, William took off for London.

One of the first people William met in London was Kit Marlowe. There was competition between them. Originally William began writing conversations in a new manner - quick repartee between characters rather than long monologues. Kit stole the concept from William and used it for one of his plays. William was most upset. They didn't speak for a number of years, until Kit was killed in a Deptford tavern.

Then William was taken to the Earl of Southampton's house, where Henry Wriothesley (the Earl) took a fancy to him. The word is never mentioned but the book implies that Henry was either homosexual or trans-sexual. He liked to dress up in women's clothing. He was eventually married off to a woman he didnt particularly like, but he did want to seem to look normal. Henry commanded William to write him some poems, so William wrote his sonnets praising Henry. Henry promised to keep them safe and to not publish them.

While he was at Henry's house, William met Emilia, a young and unhappy Italian noblewoman who was married to an English nobleman. William pumped this women for information about life in the Italian nobility, and they slept together as well. This is supposedly how William learnt so much about Italy.

William had originally had been working for Kit's group of players, but after they fell out, William moved to a new group where he got a job as a bit part actor and started seriously writing plays. Henry Wriothesley had plenty of money which he loaned to William to enable to William to write his plays. Eventually the players began producing and performing Will's plays.

Some years later Emilia published the sonnets. She told William she had found them amongst Henry's books and had copied them.

The novel mentions Henslow, Babbage, Cuminge, and Ben Jonson and all those other names associated with William Shakespeare. William also gets to meet Queen Elizabeth, the Scottish King James, the poet John Donne and even Pocahantas. (Did Pocahantas really go to England?)

If you did not know about the controversy over whether or not William actually wrote the plays, you would actually beleive this story entirely, and be convinced that William Shakespeare from Stratford did write those plays.

I enjoyed this story much more than I thought I would. I had tried to read Tiffany's earlier book, My Father had a Daughter some time ago, but for some reason, I just couldnt get into that one.

This is my first book for the Shakespeare challenge.

John's First Play Down! (The Winter's Tale)

2009-01-26T22:54:00.003-05:00

I was really enjoying the first part of Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale with its emphasis on jealousy. Leontes, King of Sicilia, tries to convince his friend Polixenes, King of Bohemia, to visit a little longer. When Leontes is unsuccessful in his plea, he casually asks his wife Hermione to try. Without much effort, she convinces Polixenes to stay, sparking suspicions from Leontes. Quickly his suspicions deteriorate into a rage, leading Polixenes to flea and Leontes to throw his pregnant wife (whom he now believes to be carrying Polixenes baby) in prison. Meanwhile, practically everyone tries to convince him of his wife's innocence.

Up to this point it's an intense piece of psychodrama. As Shakespeare goes, it's probably one of his more accessible plays, plus it's a theme as relevant today as it was then no matter in what class or country one lives. What made Leontes suddenly snap? Did he always have jealous tendencies but they just now awakened? Was there some festering issue between him and Polixenes that finally came to the fore? The play could have explored this angle but Shakespeare chose not to delve into the past. How low would Leontes sink? It could have been fun, in a morbid sense, to watch his demise. However, his realization that he's erred comes quite early in the play, at which point the play takes a 90 degree turn in a different direction.

The latter half of the play, 16 years later, becomes a love story between Perdita (the daughter of Leontes and Hermione) and Florizel (Polixenes' son). It's not that I couldn't have enjoyed a love story, but I found the earlier jealousy story much more compelling. Plus, I found some of the characters in the second half (particularly Autolycus) quite annoying.

Compared with the other Shakespeare plays that I've read, the first three acts of The Winter's Tale ranks up there with my favourites. However, with the sudden switch in tone and plot, leaving a latter half that was just mediocre, I felt disappointed overall.

(Cross posted at The Book Mine Set)

Nashville Area Production

2009-01-19T20:18:00.002-05:00

So if anyone is going to be in/around Nashville, TN in the next couple weeks the Nashville Shakespeare Festival is producing a great version of Richard III. I went last Friday evening and the crowd was pretty decent for only the second performance. Set in a vaudeville theater, the play was very different than some i've seen before. The couple of histories i've seen were straight Renaissance-style productions. In this though, the messengers are telegram girls, the two princes tapdance their way to the Tower of London and the men swill martinis! I enjoyed the change. There was a little dancing and singing but it wasn't a really a musical. The Troutt theater on Belmont's campus is a great venue; it used to be a church and has beautiful woodwork and marble. The play runs through Feb 1st and i highly recommend it.

Kathrin's Shakespeare picks

2009-01-15T18:09:00.002-05:00

I'm so sorry, but I completely forgot to post my list of books to read for the challenge here! I haven't decided on all 6 books I'll be reading yet, but here's a tentative list:

1) Shakespeare's Sonnets
2) William Shakespeare: Hamlet
3)
4)
5)
6)

An Introduction to Shakespeare

2009-01-05T21:29:00.003-05:00

(photo by Katie Claypool)

My fellow blogger, Mental Multivitamin, introduced me to Harold Bloom's term "bardalotry:"

...the worship of Shakespeare, ought to be even more a secular religion than it already is. The plays remain the outward limit of human achievement: aesthetically, cognitively, in certain ways morally, even spiritually. They abide beyond the end of the mind's reach; we cannot catch up to them. Shakespeare will go on explaining us, in part because he invented us....

So, as one who practices bardalotry ... I'm always looking for good books on Shakespeare, and also for good books to introduce Shakespeare to young people, and I recently stumbled across a very nice series. I was slightly familiar with author, Marchette Chute, because my second grade students memorize and recite one of her little poems as one of their monthly poem projects. But as I was looking for books to choose for Historia's 2009 Shakespeare Reading Challenge, I ran into her again. Her series is very nice, for young and old alike, introducing them to Shakespeare, his worlds, and his plays! While snowbound last week, I read her book, An Introduction to Shakespeare, and enjoyed it. It's an old Scholastic paperback, geared for middle school and above, and the blurp on the back cover made me chuckle. It says the book is "A great grade booster you'll really enjoy. Score some extra points in class -- and add new meaning and excitement to your assigned reading. Journey back in time with this lively book that brings to life the world of William Shakespeare -- the greatest playwright who ever lived!"

I didn't find it lively, but I was very interested in all the information she packed into this small volume, and how easy it was to read and understand. She was very respectful of her audience, and wrote with great warmth. I learned a lot about Shakespeare that I didn't previously know, and I think this would be an excellent book to use as part of an introductory class. She wrote numerous other books, two of which I now plan to read for Historia's reading challenge:

*The Worlds of Shakespeare
*Stories From Shakespeare

From the ending to An Introduction to Shakespeare:

Among all Shakespeare's contemporaries, it was John Heminges and Henry Condell who had the greatest faith in the future. They were convinced that the reputation of their "friend and fellow" would be safe if only his work could be made available to the ordinary reading public.

...It is not our province, who only gather his works and give them to you, to praise him. It is yours that read him ... Read him, therefore; and again and again; and if then you do not like him, surely you are in manifest danger not to understand him. And so we leave him to other of his friends, whom, if you need, can be your guides; if you need them not, you can lead yourselves and
others. And such readers we wish him.
--John Heminges and Henry Condell

Their wish was answered. It was such readers he got, and no other writer in the world's history has been loved by so many people or has given so much happiness.

This was a very nice book to read to begin my Shakespeare Reading Challenge.
(Cross-posted at A Fondness For Reading)

Ragdoll - Shakespeare by Bill Bryson

2009-01-03T17:41:00.000-05:00

Here's my first book for the challenge -- originally posted over at My Tragic Right Hip.

Years ago when I worked at History Television, I wrote a series of articles about Shakespeare. For a few weeks, I was obsessed by the Shakespeare question and read a pile of books both for and against the Bard's "real" identity. I've seen Shakespeare in Love about a million times and even wrote an article for the now-defunct Chicklit.com (I wish I had a copy of it to share; it was a fun article to write) about the differences between the writer's life and how he was portrayed in the film, tying everything back into the research that I did for my job at the time. Needless to say, I think I'm more obsessed with the idea of all the controversy around Shakespeare's identity than I am by the man's work. Is that a bad thing? And let me just say for the record that I believe, as does Bill Bryson, that Shakespeare was the author of his work, not Francis Bacon or any number of other writers put forth in the years since his death and ultimate canonization.

Part of the Eminent Lives series, Bill Bryson's excellent Shakespeare: The World as Stage contextualizes the little known facts of the Bard's life into a compact and utterly readable package. As Bryson continually reminds us, there are very few known facts of Shakespeare's life: the date of his baptism, his marriage, the number of children he had, how many signatures exist (6), his will, etc. The rest is conjecture, scholars over the years uncovering new evidence, failing to prove their theories, and wishful thinking. What Bryson does so ingeniously is fill in his own spaces with interesting bits of history from the time period, padding Shakespeare's life with surrounding information, giving the reader a spirit of the age rather than trying to pull a biography from thin air. He addresses the Shakespeare question toward the end of the book, and I enjoyed reading about the interesting characters who contributed to seemingly never-ending debate.

I have to admit that I found the chapter about the plays themselves a little dry, but then he grabbed me again by making the point that part of Shakespeare's lasting impression on literature goes so far beyond the plays. So much of the language we use today, so many expressions that hadn't been used before are attributed to him, parts of our speech that we take so for granted that we barely give a thought to the fact that he wrote "be cruel to be kind." The book is full of information that could give anyone an edge should they end up on Jeopardy faced with a Shakespeare category, but it also has a grand sense of humour and a calm approach to sifting through what must have been miles upon miles of scholarship. By the nature of the lack of information about Shakespeare's life, it must have been hard to write a biography about him, but I think that Bryson's done a smashing job of it: a little Tom Stoppard, a little The Professor and the Madman, and a lot of what Bryson does so very well, write history so that it's engaging, interesting and utterly compelling.

NEW CHALLENGE STARTS TODAY

2009-01-01T14:55:00.011-05:00

The new challenge starts today and goes for 365 days.
This challenges ends on December 31st - 2009.

You can read anything about or related to Shakespeare - fiction or non fiction, straight bio or authorship debate. You can read the plays and sonnets as well. AND you need to read 6 books within 12 months.

For those of you who are contributors, you can either post your review here, or post a review on your own blog and post a link to it here.

GOOD LUCK

2008-12-29T09:01:00.003-05:00

NEW SHAKESPEARE CHALLENGE FOR 2009

I am going to host a new Shakespeare challenge using the exact same rules as the last challenge.

The rules are simple - you can read anything about or related to shakespeare - fiction or non fiction, straight bio or authorship debate - and you can read the plays and sonnets as well.

This time instead of 6 months, I'm going to make this one 12 months (a whole year) and you need to read 6 books instead of 4. That way you read an average of 1 book every 2 months. That shouldn't be too hard.

Starts January 1st 2009
Ends December 31st 2009

The reason I am doing this is...
1 - because I picked up a biography of Christopher Marlow in November and that got me reminiscing about Shakespeare, and
2 - I did not finish the last challenge and it was my own challenge. This time I have to finish it.

Also there are several bloggers names still listed as contributors.
If you want to do this challenge again, then just tell me and do nothing further until January 1st when it starts.
If you want your name to be removed, send me an email and tell me, and I will remove it.
And if you want to do this challenge and you did not do the last one - then send me an email and I will send you an invite.

Robin's List

2008-12-01T19:28:00.004-05:00

(All the World's A Stage, by James C. Christensen)

I'm so excited to be participating in this 2009 challenge! Here's the list of books I'd like to read for it. I'm also planning on reading, listening to, and watching King Lear for this challenge. My husband and I like to take on a new play each year, and experience it in as many different forms as possible. We did that last year with The Tempest, the year before with A Midsummer Night's Dream, so in 2009 it will be King Lear. I'm looking forward to seeing what everyone will be reading, and to reading the many reviews! Thanks, Historia!

1. Shakespeare's Wife, by Germaine Greer
2. Shakespeare Sketchbook, by Renwick St. James; artwork by James C. Christensen
3. Shakespeare Alive!, by Joseph Papp
4. A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare: 1599, by James Shapiro
5. Introduction to Shakespeare, by Marchette Chute
6. Shakespeare, by Anthony Burgess

Lynda's list

2008-11-16T20:35:00.004-05:00

Hi
Thanks for inviting me to join this challenge.

My list is as follows:
1 Roman Shakespeare: Warriors, Wounds and Women (Feminist Readings of Shakespeare) by Coppelia Kahn
2 Shakespeare's Wife by Germaine Greer
3 Shakespeare Revealed: A Biography by Rene Weis
4 Shakespeare and Renaissance Politics (Arden Critical Companion) by Andrew Hadfield
5Shakespeare's English Kings: History, Chronicle and Drama by Peter Saccio
6 Shadowplay: The Hidden Beliefs and Coded Politics of William Shakespeare by Clare Asquith

I also intend to read:
7 Henry IV, Part 1
8 Henry IV, Part 2
9 Henry V
10 Henry VI, Part 1
11 Henry VI, Part 2
12 Henry VI, Part 3

2008-11-15T20:53:00.002-05:00

What a great site, Historia! Thanks for hosting such a fun challenge!

This is what I had in mind for this challenge - to read 12 plays by the bard as follows:

January, 2009 - The Tempest
February, 2009 - Two Gentlemen of Verona
March, 2009 - Merry Wives of Windsor
April, 2009 - Twelfth Night
May, 2009 - Measure for Measure
June, 2009 - Much Ado About Nothing
July, 2009 - A Midsummer Night's Dream
August, 2009 - Love's Labour's Lost
September, 2009 - The Merchant of Venice
October, 2009 - As You Like It
November, 2009 - All's Well That Ends Well
December, 2009 - The Taming of the Shrew

Jan (in Edmonds) http://jottingsfromjan.blogspot.com

Books I want to read for the 2009 Challenge

2008-11-09T09:47:00.003-05:00

I was not able to complete the 2008 Shakespeare challenge. So I will be trying to read these books next year for the 2009 Challenge.

Shakespeare's Face - by Stephanie Nolen
Shakespeare & Co - by Stanley Wells
Alias Shakespeare - by John Sobran
History Play - by Rodney Bolt
A Year in the life of William Shakespeare - by James Shapiro
Shakespeare by Another Name - by Mark Anderson
Shakespeare the Biography - by Peter Ackroyd
The Great Shakespeare Fraud - by Patricia Pearce

What is the Reduced Shakespeare Company

2008-06-30T16:32:00.002-04:00

4 minutes
Thanks to Shakespeare Geek for this clip.

Shakespeare Challenges ends today.

2008-06-30T16:10:00.005-04:00

Today is the last day of the Shakespeare Challenge. Thank you all for joining and participating.

I personally did not finish my challenge. I had too many other things happening in my life, and probably too many other challenges as well. But I am glad that others made better progress than I did. If there is any interest, I might run this again next year, but we will see.

I have picked up a few more books on Shakespeare.
One is called Alias Shakespeare by John Sobran, who seems to support the theory that Edward de Vere (Oxford) was the true author of the sonnets and plays.
Another is Shakespeare the Biography by Peter Ackroyd.

William Shakespeare's Sonnets

2008-06-28T19:19:00.001-04:00

When I started this, I began to note the sonnets I really liked, but stopped in the 70s because I realized I liked almost all of them and the list was too long. While I can not relate to the emotions of some of them, there are many variations in this book. There are themes of not just love but of time, change, politics, desire, death, and much more. I found the theme of time and change to the be the most interesting. Maybe it's because I am a romantic, but the poetry worked for me on a lot of levels. These are words to be read aloud, as is usually the case for poetry. I was enchanted and moved. I have always liked Shakespeare, but I think this may be one of the works I love most from him. I did wonder a lot about Shakespeare the man when reading this. I am not so overwrought with questions about the identity, but I wonder his exact mind when he wrote this. Were they for someone? When did he write this? In any case, I am glad we have these beautiful words left. I would very much love to own a copy of these sonnets to cherish and read over and over again. Classic.

Shakespeare: The World as Stage

2008-06-28T03:20:00.003-04:00

Shakespeare: The World as Stage
by Bill Bryson

I listened to this book on CD during a recent trip. It is a short history of Shakespeare and his times read by the author. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Mr. Bryson is honest right from the beginning. He shares that he wrote this biography not because the world needed another book about Shakespeare but because it is part of a series. He states up front that there is a great deal we don't know about the Bard and his time in history. His work is for the lay scholar, the person like myself who wants to know about Shakespeare and his times but doesn't want to spend a lifetime in study. I don't need to know all the authorship debate or what in his life influenced him to write which play when. I want more than a morsel but not a college level class. This book fit my needs perfectly.

Bryson appears to have done a good deal of work. He lays out some of the main thoughts about certain areas, like the order the plays are believed to have been written in (no two scholars agree), then reminds the reader (or listener) about the lack of evidence to support any viewpoint. When he has an opinion to share he follows it with a brief explanation. The final chapter that deals with the authorship debate and where it stems from was interesting and I tend to agree with him. Why challenge Shakespeare as the author when there is no substantial evidence for or against and the circumstantial evidence is stronger for his being the author than for anyone else, especially when you consider where the challenge stemmed from?

I'm glad I listened to this one. I can recommend it happily.

Sarah Smith's Chasing Shakespares

2008-06-17T00:15:00.001-04:00

This is my last pick for the Shakespeare Reading Challenge, getting my fourth read in with just half a month to go. Too bad I had to end on such a disappointing note.

Chasing Shakespeares is the story of a Shakespeare scholar who may have found proof that the bard was not who we've been led to believe.

That the man behind all those brilliant plays and sonnets was not, in actuality, William Shakespeare is not a new theory. I thought for a while that I even cared. Credit Smith for curing me of that notion.

On her website, one paragraph describing this particular novel begins, "In a literary adventure reminiscent of the Da Vinci Code..." Blame Smith for making me appreciate Dan Brown a little more.

First off, the Da Vinci Code is a novel about conspiracy theories. Chasing Shakespeares is not. A conspiracy theory indicates there is someone or group still trying to conceal the truth. A tacked on enemy in Chasing Shakespeares might have added some much needed excitement. Instead, Smith tacks on a love story.

How truly boring were the the up-speaking Posy and the f-word spouting Joe Roper; lovers who were, of course, from opposite sides of the track. But even more unfortunate than the annoying characters was the transparency of Smith's desire to turn the book into a movie. There are film references all over the place: "'You know,' she said, 'we could get rich. We could write a book about finding the letter. Give lectures. And that's just the beginning. The book. The movie from the book. I want,' she thought, 'Spielberg to direct the movie. Ben Affleck and Cate Blanchett to play us.'"
Okay, she might get Affleck on board.

Smith also seems to be under the impression that a revelation about Shakespeare's identity would cause mass riots:

"'You know you're going to have to take a stand on Oxford and stop caring what people say about you. Because like half the world is going to think you're Charles Manson for not believing in Shakespeare.'"

Granted, the two quotes I've used as examples above are both spoken by Posy and some readers might be inclined to say these grandiose statements are of a character's and not Smith's own delusions. Possibly. But the Hollywood-style cheese doesn't end there.

Last week Debbie and I watched Kevin Spacey in The Life of David Gale. There's one particular scene in which we were subjected to this Please-can-I-have-another-Oscar speech:

"'We spend our whole life trying to stop death. Eating, inventing, loving, praying, fighting, killing. But what do we really know about death? Just that nobody comes back. Then there comes a point - a moment - in life when your mind outlives its desires, its obsessions, when your habits survive your dreams, and when your losses... Maybe death is a gift.'"

Chasing Shakepeares is full of such lame attempts. Over and over again she makes references to God being a librarian. Likewise she runs a Twain quote about lightning bugs into the ground. Spacey's speech was bad enough, imagine if he made it in every other scene.

In Chasing Shakespares Smith tried way too hard. But not to write a good book.

(Cross-posted at The Book Mine Set)

PlayShakespeare

2008-06-09T21:55:00.006-04:00

I received an email today asking if I was interested in moving this Shakespeare blog to the PlayShakespeare website.

Here are the rules. On reading the rules, they require an update every day or at least several times a week. Obviously I cannot commit to that high frequency so I will decline. I like being able to post what I want to write about Shakespeare, when I want to, and it doesnt matter too much if a few weeks go by. It also help that some challenge readers are posting their books on this blog as well - thank you John, Pamela and Athena.

So I think I will decline their gracious offer, but I will bookmark the site. It looks very interesting. It has all the plays wriiten out in full (which is very useful. And it even has a few plays I am not familiar with.

Sir Thomas More is one, and Two Noble Kinsman is another. I have a vague idea that this was another name for the Cardenio play - I am not sure about that. There is no mention of Edmund Ironsides - a play I have in book form, but which most Shakespeare scholars reject as not being one of the bards. There is also a play listed called Edward III - another one I am not familiar with. I don't recall Shakespeare ever writing a play about any king named Edward. None of these four plays are listed in the First Folio. Which is probably why they are unknown.

And I just found another interesting website. Hudson Shakespeare Theater Company based in Weehawken, New Jersey.

The Tempest review by Athena

2008-06-01T13:37:00.001-04:00

Considered by many scholars as the last play written solely by Shakespeare, I found the Tempest an interesting mix of genres. While other plays are more obvious about their genres (be it tragedies, comedies, or romance/coms), this is considered a romance. While the romance of Miranda and Ferdinand does feature in a couple of scenes, I would not consider it a romance as compared to Romeo and Juliet. It is comedic, but also very subdued and serious at parts. Prospero is very manipulative; he seems to be in control of everything, even the courtship between his daughher Miranda and Ferdinand. There are images and themes of colonialism, servitude, and slavery, even in the romantic scenes between the lovers. Indeed, Prospero's control of the events in the play are even meta especially in regards to the ending where he asks the audience to applause. The island's magic and phantasmagorias can be viewed as a play within a play. I did not warm towards Prospero early on because he did not seem like a real character in the play, more a conniving puppet master moving characters toward his goal. He controls how one views the past and how the outcome will be. I think about Neil Gaiman's Sandman series interpretation of Shakespeare as he wrote The Tempest. A reflective, older man who has spent his life connected to the themes of stage, dreams, imagination and creation, moving characters and stories around, but keenly aware like Prospero at the twilight of his life.

Athena of aquatique.net

DId Christopher Marlowe fake his death?

2008-06-01T08:32:00.003-04:00

John Penry the Welsh Martyr

On May 29th in 1593, a Welsh divine with a poor impression of the Church of England was hustled off from dinner to be strung up for sedition.

Dismayed by the poor quality of pastors in his native Wales — men of poor character, poor education, and poor command of Welsh — John Penry was one of many calling for a reformed Episcopal clergy. Critiques of his type formed the germ of the Puritan movement already underway, which would blossom after his death.

Penry would have been around to see all that if he hadn’t hacked off the realm’s chief vicar by running a salty underground press, most notably publishing the pseudonymous Martin Marprelate.

The Oxford man dodged the law for a good three years in the Scottish reaches, until he couldn’t resist moving to London, where (fittingly) a local clergyman recognized him.

The mere draft — nasty, but uncirculated — of a petition sufficed for the condemnation on grounds of sedition, and the annoyed Archbishop had the pleasure of inking his John Hancock on the Welshman’s death warrant.

Penry seems to have had a few friends in high places and some hope of cheating the executioner; he must have been taken by surprise when the sheriff burst in during the late afternoon this day to haul him immediately to a gallows at St. Thomas a Watering — unannounced, the better to keep attendance down,* with the prisoner denied the customary parting speech.

But was Penry’s ill turn a boon to the world of literature?

The day after Penry’s execution, star English playwright Christopher Marlowe was killed in a fray whose timing some find a bit suspicious.

Some enthusiasts think Marlowe faked his death and went on to write Shakespeare under a pen name. And if he did that, his confederates would have needed a body to pass off as Marlowe’s … the body, perhaps, of a man of Marlowe’s age and class who’d just been hanged a couple of miles up the road.

The Truth Will Out Book Review

2008-06-01T07:47:00.008-04:00

The Truth Will Out - Unmasking the Real Shakespeare
By Brenda James & William Rubenstein
Regan (Harper Collins) 2006

This book is somewhat scholarly and academic to read. But it is still very interesting. And it gives all the proof that Shakespeare was just a frontman for the real author. Although Shakespeare was very well paid.

The real author was related to Shakespeare through his mother Mary Arden. The real man had a cousin whose mother was from the Arden family.

There is absolutely NO proof whatsoever that William Shakespeare ever travelled to Europe. BUT the real author knew the languages and the traditions and customs of those countries. He also obviously knew the cities of which he wrote. The real author had to have travelled to Europe and spent some time there.

Other names put forward as the Real Author include
Edward de Vere (Earl of Oxford - but he died in 1604 which was earlier than Shakespeare),
Sir Francis Bacon (but only by codes found in the plays - codes can be made to fit anything and to say anything).
Kit Marlow (he was killed in a bar brawl in 1593 and is said to have faked his death and moved to Europe - see next post) and lastly
Sir Philip Sidney or his sister Lady Mary Sidney. Philip wrote the Psalms as poems but didnt finish them all before he died. Mary completed her brothers project. But there is no proof that either of them wrote the plays.

But now that I have read The Truth Will Out, I am convinced that this man was the real author. He had the advantages that the other names mentioned did not. This man was NOT of the nobility, although he was descended from nobility. He was not an Earl or a Duke, although he was knighted as a Sir. He spent two years in France as Ambassador for England. He also spent two years in the Tower of London for his involvement in the Essex Rebellion. After he was released from the Tower, his plays became the darker tragedies (there were no more comedies written after 1601).

This man's name was Sir Henry Neville.

Here is some of the evidence from this book.

Neville names himself (covertly) in Shakespeare’s Sonnets.

Sir Henry’s birth and death dates (1564 - 1615) are virtually identical to those of his pseudonymic front-man, William Shakespeare.

The chronology of the plays meshes with the emergence of Neville’s life events

Sir Henry had many reasons to hide his identity - his political work, family inheritance, even his life, would have been endangered, had he been discovered. So Neville never published anything under his own name; yet he was sought out by his contemporaries - including Beaumont and Fletcher and King James I - for advice on their own writing. Neville must therefore have been a ‘concealed’ writer.

Neville was a well-connected politician, and a close friend of Southampton (dedicatee of The Sonnets). Additionally, the Shakespeares tried to prove a connection between William’s mother, Mary Arden, and the Ardens of Park Hall (Warwickshire), to whom Sir Henry was related by marriage. Neville’s grandfather owned the house in which Mary Arden was born.

Neville had access to restricted sources witnessed in the plays: e.g. the documents of his Plantagenet and other ancestors including John of Gaunt in Richard II, Warwick the King Maker in Henry VI parts II & III, and King Duncan of Scotland in Macbeth. As an officer in the Virginia Company, he was able to use a private letter as a source for The Tempest.

Neville was multi-lingual, (some sources used for the plays were only available in French/Italian/Greek/Spanish etc, which we have no reason to believe Shakespeare knew.)

Neville became French Ambassador at just the time the French-based Henry V was written.

1601 marks an abrupt change in the plays from histories/comedies to the great tragedies. In 1601 Neville was in the Tower - under threat of execution for his part in the Essex Uprising.

The Northumberland Manuscript, discovered in 1867, has Neville’s name and ‘family motto poem’ at the top, plus repeated practising of William Shakespeare's signature lower down.

In 1623, the writer Ben Jonson was involved in putting Shakespeare's name on the First Folio edition of the Plays. Jonson was then employed by a college in London associated with the Neville family. There is an extensive document (written) by Jonson suggesting he knew about the 'front man' arrangement and that he helped promote the fiction of Shakespeare's authorship at the behest of the Nevilles.

The character Falstaff was partly based on Neville himself. Falstaff was initially going to be called 'Oldcastle', an antonymic pun on Neville's (‘New Town’ or ‘New Villa’) name.

Neville was an international trader: this is reflected in The Merchant of Venice and The Comedy of Errors. Neville resided on the Continent (1578 - 1583). Research also proves that he had overwhelming reasons, during those years, to visit the Jewish Ghetto in Venice, and Elsinore (Denmark) in pursuit of his newly-inherited iron and ordnance business.

‘Steel’ is mentioned 74 times in the works; ‘iron’ 48 times; ‘cannons’, and ‘ordnance’ 30 times. The name ‘Touchstone’ (As You Like It ) is metallurgical too. Other such specialised terms - e.g. ‘dross’, ‘unaneal’d’ - are also present. Neville is the only person to combine this knowledge with all other ‘Shakespearean’ attributes. He was an aristocrat/merchant hybrid by ancestry: his father was a ‘royal’ Neville and his mother a ‘merchant’ Gresham. The Neville family business was making weapons.

Neville was the first Englishman to receive forward knowledge about the Count Orsino and his possible visit to the English Court. Only he had time to write Orsino into Twelfth Night.

Neville - unusually for his time - majored in Astronomy at Oxford. Knowledge of Astronomy is present in some of the plays. The Copernican concept of ‘infinite space’ (mentioned in Hamlet) was totally unknown outside of specialised circles in England at the time.

Don Freeman: Will's Quill (John Mutford's 3rd Pick For The Shakespeare Challenge)

2008-05-27T10:59:00.002-04:00

The Shakespeare Challenge comes to a close at the end of June and I'm way behind. What better time to add in a picture book?

Most people know Don Freeman from the classic Corduroy. Before Corduroy was branded and lower quality books "based on the Don Freeman creation" flooded the market, Freeman was acknowledged as a great children's author and illustrator. His Fly High, Fly Low was even a Caldecott Honor Book.

Will's Quill (or How A Goose Saved Shakespeare) was given to my kids as a Christmas gift and I'll admit being a bit skeptical at first. The illustrations, while detailed and well-done, weren't overly vibrant. And the story of a goose saving Shakespeare by offering up his feathers as quills didn't seem overly exciting. Yet my kids were drawn to it.

Really, I shouldn't have been surprised. I loved Corduroy and A Pocket For Corduroy when I was a child and though we like to focus on "how the world has changed" kids today don't need stories that go 110 km/hr with puns in every other sentence, nor do their books need to resort to cheap sentimentality in order to be "nice." Freeman excelled with gentle books.

There are laughs in Will's Quill. At one point the goose Willoughby Waddle gets doused with dirty water and vegetable scrapings thrown down from a window. But perhaps the most uproarious moment comes when Willoughby misunderstands that a play is being performed and attempts to rescue Shakespeare from a duelling scene by biting his opponent on the seat of his breeches.

Willoughby Waddle has come from the country to make himself useful in the city. He soon finds out that life in Londontown is rougher and more hectic than he'd anticipated but, just as the indignities start to pile up, a kind stranger by the name of William Shakespeare offers him a hand. Determined to pay back his kindness, Willoughby searches over the city for him and finally discovers a way. On the back of the book Shakespeare is quoted as saying, "How far that little candle throws his beam/ So shines a good deed in a naughty world." A fine message that could have become the Pay It Forward of children's books, but Freeman prevents it from being overly saccharine with just the right balance of humor and plot.

And of course as an added bonus, children are introduced to Shakespeare as a historical figure. They won't walk away experts on the bard but they'll learn that he lived in Londontown and wrote well-respected plays that were performed at the Globe. This introduction is a brief one, but wrapped in a tale that kids seem to enjoy, might be remembered a little better than a book that sets out to teach his biography to kids.

(Cross-posted at The Book Mine Set)

I'm So Proud of Myself

2008-05-26T20:26:00.002-04:00

I did it. I finished the challenge - my very first. I didn't finish three of the books I had in my list but I read three others.

The Lodger Shakespeare: His Life on Silver Street by Charles Nicholl
The story of Shakespeare's life in the neighborhood where he lived from 1603-1605, as seen in relation to the home of his landlords - the Mountjoys, French Huguenot immigrants in the clothing trade. The details are remarkable and give a wonderful picture of life in Shakespeare's London and environs.
Will in the World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare by Stephen Greenblatt
Another excellent non-fiction book that shows the correlation between events in Shakespeare's time that he may or may not experienced, but which appear to have influenced his plays.
The Book of Air and Shadows: A Novel by Michael Gruber
This was a complicated but well organized and well written novel. An unknown play about Mary Queen of Scots may have been written by Shakespeare - under the impression he was doing King James a favor. Told from the point of view of an attorney and a would-be film maker, the story leads the reader through numerous twists trying to determine what is real and what is fake. In the end, the loose ends are tied up and connections that need to be made are and others that didn't need to be made are still a bit tenuous.

I went into more detail on my blog about both the books I read and the ones I didn't finish.

I really appreciate Historia's sponsorship of this challenge. It encouraged me to read more on The Bard and gave me a framework to concentrate on. I plan on continuing to read more Shakespeare since there are so many books out there. And I'll revisit the plays. Thanks Historia.

New Shakespeare Author

2008-05-21T07:08:00.003-04:00

Remember I posted a comment a while ago about Amelia Bassano possibly being the real Shakespeare? Well here is the first play she wrote - which will be performed at the Midtown International Theatre Festival in NYC in July.

she wrote
As You Like It; The Big Flush (classic/experimental)
by Amelia Bassano Lanier a.k.a. William Shakespeare
directed by Stephen Wisker MFA
presented by John Hudson & Jenny Greeman
featuring: The Dark Lady Players, Workshop Production
Non Equity
http://www.darkladyplayers.com
Running time; 1 Hour 30 minutes

A Jewish toilet joke written using double allegories-this adaptation highlights the two characters called Jaques/Jakes (Elizabethan for toilet), and the character whose pocket watch identifies him as Sir John Harrington, the inventor of the flush toilet!

What are they, a dunghill, and many references to excrement doing in this play? Why does As You Like It end with Jaques warning that Noah's flood is coming? Why are there other flood references, like Hercules cleansing the Augean stables of manure? Why does Touchstone go off to the ark with Audrey, who is named after St Ethelreda, the woman who was saved from a flood? Could this be the Last Day?

What exactly is this strange 'forest' with its many peculiar features? The author has left us clues! Guess what actually was surrounded by a 'circle', was a 'temple', turned into a 'desert', where everyone was starving, where there was a massacre of 'greasy citizens', people were hung on trees, where a 'lodge' was indeed burnt, and where there was a real 'Roman Conqueror'? Yes indeed, this detailed description fits only one historical circumstance-the siege of Jerusalem by the Romans 66-70C.E.! The play was written as a satirical allegory against Vespasian Caesar, the Roman conqueror of the Jews, who appears as the satanic Duke Senior. At the end, both he and his children (Titus and Domitian Caesar, who also make an allegorical appearance in the play), will be flushed away in an act of fantastic comic revenge by the English Jewish poet Amelia Bassano- who is the basanos or Touchstone, a misunderstood poet like Ovid--- wearing her allegorical disguise of the inventor of the toilet!

The Dark Lady Players, one of the world's most experimental Shakespeare companies, bring scholarship alive! They perform the allegorical level of the Shakespearean plays to show that they were written as Jewish revenge literature. This workshop production will demonstrate the validity of the latest of the top ten theories to be accepted by the Shakespearean Authorship Trust, that the plays were written by England's only Jewish poet the so-called 'Dark Lady', Amelia Bassano Lanier (1569-1645). To watch an extract from a forthcoming documentary go to http://www.darkladyplayers and click on Watch Video. Look for forthcoming article, perhaps on 19 May, in the Globe &Mail. A national and international tour for 2008/9 is being planned.

Show times for As You Like It; The Big Flush are as follows;

Sunday 20 July at 4.30pm
Saturday 26 July at 3.45pm
Sunday 3 August at 7.30pm
For tickets contact 212-279-4200 or www.ticketcentral.com
We are part of the Midtown International Theatre Festival in NYC
www.midtownfestival.org

About the Director; STEPHEN WISKER is an English Theatre director who received a MFA in Directing Shakespeare from the University of Essex and trained at the Royal National Theatre's Studio Directors Course. He has been the Shakespeare teacher for Atlantic Acting School/ NYU Tisch School of the Arts. New York Shakespeare directing credits include Something Is Rotten on W37th: A Modern Adaptation of Shakespeare's Hamlet at The Zipper Theater and The Tempest at The Belt Theatre. Recent productions in Europe include: Love's Mistress at Shakespeare's Globe, Shakespeare e Il Gentil Sesso at the Edinburgh Festival, Antony and Cleopatra at the Birmingham School of Acting, an all-female Julius Caesar at The Man in The Moon, and Pyramus and Thisbe, a devised piece with an international cast, at the Actors Centre which was performed at the Edinburgh Festival. He first came to New York in 2002 to direct two World Premieres: Charles Evered's Adopt A Sailor and J. Dakota Powell's Exodus at the Brave New World Festival: New York Theatre Responds to 9-11 on Broadway, and directed the Spring 2005 production of Can't Pay! Won't Pay! at the Loft. Before moving to New York Stephen taught Shakespeare at the Actor's Centre in London. A devotee of clowning, self-conscious theatricality, and non-traditional casting, his work explores storytelling with physical as well as verbal language.

Much Ado About Nothing: John Mutford's 2nd Pick For The Shakespeare Challenge

2008-05-02T21:48:00.002-04:00

Of all the movie genres, I probably dislike romantic comedies the most. It's not a guy thing; I'm not opposed to love stories. However, romantic comedies tend to have an unbelievable love story and typically aren't funny. Yes, I can think of a few exceptions, but even those can't convince me to even consider going to see Made of Honor and the like.

Much Ado About Nothing was almost doomed from the get-go. And before you Shakespeare goons start with the "the man was a genius" argument, I'll quickly point out the mistaken identities, the eavesdropping, and the faked death near the end of this play. I hate to always come back to Three's Company when I refer to ridiculous situations, but again, it felt like such an episode.

But since I actually enjoyed Three's Company, I questioned why Much Ado About Nothing wasn't doing it for me. Was it too over the top? Perhaps. But then his tragedies are pretty over the top, and I like those. When half a cast is wiped out with brutal murders and suicides, it's really no more authentic than Don Pedro dressing up at a masquerade ball, pretending to be Claudio, and wooing Hero on his behalf.

Eventually I came around on it a little. It was a farce. It was entertaining. The love-hate chemistry of Benedick and Beatrice was good for a few witty chuckles. However, it still felt like Shakespeare just didn't seem to put the same care into this one. Most of the characters (except for the aforementioned Beatrice and Benedick) were flat and unconvincing. Hardly any time was spent on their motivations and some of the cast, such as Don Pedro and Claudio, seemed virtually indistinguishable from one another. Contrast this to the soul searching Hamlet or the guilt-ridden Macbeth. Or perhaps I just need a bit of blood-- maybe it is a guy thing after all.

The Soundtrack:
1. (You're The Devil) In Disguise- Elvis Presley
2. Jigs: Eavesdropper's/Both Meat and Drink/Off We Go- Great Big Sea
3. Your Cheatin' Heart- Hank Williams
4. I Hope I Don't Fall In Love With You- Tom Waits
5. It All Turns To Gold- Popa Chubby

More Authorship Debate Books

2008-05-01T21:17:00.003-04:00

I have 2 months to read 3 books about Shakespeare to finish my own challenge. I have recently purchased several books covering the Authorship debate, so I will be reading these.

Three of these books claim that the REAL authors were Christopher Marlowe, Sir Henry Neville or Edward De Vere (Duke of Oxford).

Christopher Marlowe

Sir Henry Neville

Edward De Vere (Duke of Oxford)

Othello

2008-04-28T23:27:00.001-04:00

It has been a few years since I read a Shakespeare play. While I have reread one since high school, I have not taken time to read one on my own. I actually miss being taught Shakespeare especially the tragedies where there is so much going on. Othello has high drama, and at first, I liked the Othello character because he seemed innocent, honest, and devoted, but since this is a Shakespearean tragedy, he also has to be in some way foolish and/or mad. He believes too easily that Desdemona is cheating on him; he has some self-hatred and doubt about his love for her as well. The play is rather chaotic with its deceptive machinations by Iago and uncontrolled end, not to mention the narrative's time issues. Once Othello stops loving Desdemona and thinking the worse of her, it really is the climax and all order seems to go out the door in the scenes that follow:

Excellent wretch! Perdition catch my soul,
But I do love thee! and when I love thee not,
Chaos is come again.
--Othello, III.iii

Everyone seems to be contradictory or double-sided. Iago is obviously not honest. Othello has integrity and strength in public life or batle, but can not control his jealous and violent rage. Emilia is oblivious to Iago's nature, but seems to be aware of gender relations and disparities. Desdemona is both faithful and submissive, but at times, independent and lively. Iago is annoying. He's manipulative, calculating, and is a bit of a loon really. He does all this because he is jealous of Othello; jealousy drives many of the characters in this play. I feel sorry for all those caught in Iago's web of lies: Othello, Desdemona, Cassio, and even poor stupid Roderigo. Why does he even listen to Iago in the first place? The end left me dissatisfied. Even more than other Shakespeare tragedies I've read. Maybe it's because we do not even see Iago die, but he does not repent or even any suffer weakness. I doubt I will reread this play as much as Hamlet or even King Lear, but I think it would be fantastic to see as a play form. The play is wonderfully dramatic with its jealous and violent characters.

Crossposted from Aquatique.

Review: Much Ado About Nothing

2008-04-27T01:40:00.012-04:00

Much Ado About Nothing
by William Shakespeare
crossposted at Educating Petunia

Ah, Shakespearean rapture! How pleasing is thy sound. How tantalising thy taste. How did I abide so long without thee?

I've just finished Much Ado About Nothing and again name Shakespeare the master. The wickedness of Don John; the nobility of Benedick; the purity of Hero; the redemption of Claudio. It is all too marvellous.

"How much better is it to weep at joy than to joy at weeping!"

Claudio, a young soldier just returned victorious from battle, falls in love with the virtuous Hero. His friend, Prince Don Pedro, woos her for him behind a mask at a ball, winning her hand but also giving the Prince's jealous and villainous brother, Don John, an opportunity to cause mischief. Meanwhile, Claudio's other devoted friend, Benedick, who has sworn off marriage and brags of his fortitude in avoiding the wiles of the fairer sex, is to be the butt of a joke; he is to be fooled into thinking Hero's cousin, Beatrice, a woman set against marriage as much as he, is secretly in love with him. Likewise, Beatrice is to believe that Benedick pines away for her. But while this young love is blossoming, there is a much more sinister scene being hatched.

This is most certainly a comedy but it also has some very dramatic moments. I must critique honestly, I was left a little dizzy from the abrupt switches from humour to drama and back to humour again. I loved it all but sometimes the jokes seemed out of place when hearts are being broken and death has intruded. It seems inappropriate to laugh at such times. But then one has to remember that this is a play, meant to be performed. There are pauses in between lines. There are intermissions here and there. It is not as abrupt as it is in written form.

"When I said I would die a bachelor, I did not think I should live till I were married."

My favorite character was Benedick. He is so confident in his views, even as they contradict from one moment to the next, but he recognises innocence despite the appearance of contrary evidence presented by questionable characters. And the idiotic Dogberry made me laugh out loud. "Oh that I had been writ down an ass!" Too funny.

I leave you with this piece of art I found depicting the most dramatic scene from the play, Hero's accusation. The line at the bottom is spoken by her father, Leonato.

Shakespeare's Plays Were Written By A Jewish Woman

2008-04-25T18:06:00.005-04:00

Thanks to Shakespeare Geek (see sidebar) for this article.

Here's eight kinds of proof Amelia Bassano was the real Bard

For hundreds of years, people have questioned whether William Shakespeare wrote the plays that bear his name. The mystery is fueled by the fact that his biography simply doesn't match the areas of knowledge and skill demonstrated in the plays. Nearly a hundred candidates have been suggested, but none of them fit much better. Now a new candidate named Amelia Bassano Lanier—the so-called 'Dark Lady' of the Sonnets and a member of an Italian/Jewish family—has been shown to be a perfect fit. Here are eight reasons that are sure to convince you...

See the link above for the 8 reasons why she (might be) the author.

I don't know anything about this at all, I have never heard of Amelia Bassano. I just report whatever I find on the authorship debate. Although I might do a litle research.

If you are wondering why I havent blogged here for a while - there are 2 reasons.

1 Is that I got a new job, and
2 I havent read any new shakespeare books in the last 2 months for this challenge. I have 2 months to go to read 3 books. I better get cracking. How can I not complete my own challenge. (GASP!!). Because I am too busy reading for everyone else's challenges. (LOL)

What Patrick Stewart Does for Fun

2008-04-25T17:45:00.005-04:00

Thanks to Shakespeare Geek (see sidebar) for this article.

CNN Interview with Patrick Stewart

Patrick Stewart is best known as Captain Jean-Luc Picard on the USS enteroprise ion the Sci-fi Tv series Star Trek, The Next Generation. STTNG is in fact my most favourite of all the Star Trek series. And Picard - being a french man - was my favourite captain, and character. I also liked Data as well.

This recent article is a pretty good biography of Patrick, and covers the fact that he is a huge Shakespeare fan, and that Shakespeare was his means of living, his bread and butter. Now Patrick is much more well known for Star Trek and The X-Men.

Happy Birthday William Shakespeare

2008-04-25T17:41:00.001-04:00

Apparently it was Shakespeare's birthday on April 23rd. I missed it by 2 days. Oh dear. He would have been 444 years old, if he was still alive.

Shakespeare - Roman Plays Symposium

2008-04-25T17:29:00.003-04:00

I have not blogged here for 2 months. Thats bad.

However, I have been asked to post a notice of a new Shakespeare Symposium happening in Washington DC on Saturday May 10th (in 2 weeks).

Here is the release.

SHAKESPEARE THEATRE COMPANY ANNOUNCES
ROMAN REPERTORY SYMPOSIUM

A Discussion Series Exploring Shakespeare’s Roman Plays

WASHINGTON, D.C. – In conjunction with its rotating repertory productions of Antony and Cleopatra and Julius Caesar, the Shakespeare Theatre Company presents a Roman Repertory Symposium in the Forum of Sidney Harman Hall (610 F Street, NW) on Saturday, May 10. The symposium explores Shakespeare’s Roman plays and their settings and includes discussions on Roman Repertory in Performance, Conspiracies in Shakespeare’s Rome, Rome as Metaphor, and The Private Lives of Public Citizens through the Lens of “Antony and Cleopatra.”

Directors David Muse and Michael Kahn, notable scholars Robert Miola and Sara Munson Deats, and International Spy Museum Director Peter Earnest will lead panel discussions. James Shapiro, author of 1599: A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare, will give the closing key note address. Tickets for the general public are $20 and $15 for STC subscribers, seniors, military and students. To reserve a space at Symposium events, visit ShakespeareTheatre.org or call the Box Office at 202.547.1122.

Symposium Sponsor
The Roman Repertory Symposium is sponsored by The Aspen Institute. Founded in 1950, The Aspen Institute is an international nonprofit organization dedicated to fostering enlightened leadership and open-minded dialogue. Through seminars, policy programs, conferences and leadership development initiatives, the Institute and its international partners seek to promote nonpartisan inquiry and an appreciation for timeless values. The Institute is headquartered in Washington, D.C., and has campuses in Aspen, Colorado, and on the Wye River near the shores of the Chesapeake Bay in Maryland. Its international network includes partner Aspen Institutes in Berlin, Rome, Lyon, Tokyo, New Delhi, and Bucharest, and leadership initiatives in Africa, Central America, and India. The Shakespeare Theatre Company has previously collaborated with The Aspen Institute in 2005 by presenting A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Institute’s 2005 Ideas Festival in Colorado.

SYMPOSIUM EVENTS
• The Roman Repertory in Performance (10 a.m. – 11 a.m.). Join STC Artistic Director Michael Kahn, Associate Artistic Director David Muse and a guest artist in conversation about producing Shakespeare’s Roman plays, Julius Caesar and Antony and Cleopatra.
-more-
• Conspiracies in Shakespeare and Beyond (11:15 a.m.– 12:15 p.m.). Join International Spy Museum Director Peter Earnest and Bob Goldberg, Director, Tanner Humanities Center, University of Utah.
• The Private Lives of Public Citizens through the Lens of “Antony and Cleopatra” (12:30 p.m.-1:30 p.m.). Join Scholar Sara Munson Deats in conversation with commentator Ken Adelman. This panel features a performance by members of the STC acting company.
• Break for Lunch from 1:30p.m. until 2:30 p.m. (lunch is not provided)
• Rome as Metaphor (2:30p.m. - 3:30 p.m.). Join Professor Robert Miola in conversation with Hunter Ripley Rawlings III.
• Closing key note by James Shapiro, author of 1599: A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare. (3:30p.m.- 4:30 p.m.)

About the Shakespeare Theatre Company
The Shakespeare Theatre Company’s innovative approach to Shakespeare and other classic playwrights has earned it the reputation as the nation’s premier classical theatre company. By focusing on works with profound themes, complex characters and poetic language written by Shakespeare, his contemporaries and the playwrights he influenced, the Company’s artistic mission is unique among theatre companies: to provide vital, groundbreaking, thought-provoking, vibrant and eminently accessible theatre in a uniquely American style. The Company annually produces eight mainstage plays in its two downtown theatres and one free play in Rock Creek Park’s Carter Barron Amphitheatre. Artistic Director Michael Kahn has led the organization for 21 years, establishing the company as “the nation’s foremost Shakespeare company” (The Wall Street Journal) and “the best classical theatre in the country, bar none” (The Christian Science Monitor). For more information about the Shakespeare Theatre Company and its artistic and educational programs, visit ShakespeareTheatre.org.

For more information, please contact

Lauren Beyea
Publicist
Shakespeare Theatre Company at the Harman Center for the Arts
516 8th Street SE, Washington , D.C. 20003
T: 202.547.3230 ext. 2314
F: 202.547.0226
LBeyea@ShakespeareTheatre.org

Shakespeare: The World as Stage by Bill Bryson review by Athena

2008-02-17T14:54:00.003-05:00

I listened to the audiobook. It's quite a short book about Shakespeare, but it covers many details and the lack there of of William Shakespeare's life. Bill Bryson is an author I've liked for years, and he is consistently an informative and shrewd writer. This was my first time reading a book of Shakespeare's life, but I've been aware of the debates of the doubts of his identity, sexuality, genius, etc. What Bryson sought out to do in the book is to avoid speculation that seems to run rampant among scholars and other biographies about Shakespeare. He evaluates and summarises the small amount of real information about Shakespeare we have at present. The book is a good as a brush up on the Elizabethan and early Jacobite eras. I learned quite a bit about the evolution of the human language, people, dress, and cities of the time. Bryson avoids making any big and blanket statements about the kind of man Shakespeare was, but he does shoot down theories about the idea that William Shakespeare was actually Bacon/ Marlowe/ Earl of Oxford/ your mother, etc. He also provides insights from historians and scholars either directly interviewing them or referencing their work. I think it is a really good introduction to Shakespeare that can provide grounding for further scholarly study about the man and the myth. A quick and recommended read. Crossposted from my blog aquatique.net.

The Lodger Shakespeare on Silver Street

2008-02-12T23:32:00.007-05:00

A new book has just arrived on the book shelevs.
The Lodger: Shakespeare on Silver Street
By Charles Nicholl. There is a short video interview of Mr Nicholl at the bottom of the page.

One Mr Shakespeare that laye in the house...
In 1612 Shakespeare gave evidence at the Court of Requests in Westminster – it is the only occasion his spoken words are recorded. The case seems routine – a dispute over an unpaid marriage-dowry – but it opens up an unexpected window into the dramatist’s famously obscure life-story. Some eight years earlier, we learn, Shakespeare was lodging in the house of a French immigrant family, the Mountjoys, in the Cripplegate area of London. And while there he was called on by his landlady to ‘persuade’ the family’s former apprentice to marry their daughter.

Charles Nicholl applies a powerful biographical magnifying glass to this fascinating but little-known episode in Shakespeare’s life. Marshalling evidence from a wide variety of sources, including previously unknown documentary material on the Mountjoys, he conjures up a detailed and compelling description of the circumstances in which Shakespeare lived and worked, and in which he wrote such plays as Othello, Measure for Measure and King Lear. Nicholl also throws new light on the puzzling story of Shakespeare’s collaboration with the hack-author and brothel-keeper George Wilkins.

In this subtle and atmospheric exploration of Shakespeare at forty, we see him not from the viewpoint of literary greatness, but in the humdrum and very human context of Silver Street, where to the maid of the house he was merely ‘one Mr Shakespeare’, renting the room upstairs. In The Lodger, one of the celebrated literary detectives of our day has created something all too rare – a fresh and original book about Shakespeare.

The Third Part of King Henry The Sixth- John Mutford's 1st Pick for The Shakespeare Challenge

2008-02-12T12:10:00.000-05:00

I have a pretty rigid cycle of reading to which I've dedicated myself:

1. A Canadian novel
2. A non-Canadian novel
3. Non-fiction (from anywhere)
4. alternate between a book of the Bible or a Shakespeare play
(all the while working through a book of poetry)

My wife teases that I'm way to anal about it, but I've grown accustomed to the cycle by now, and for the most part, find that it has more flexibility than it first appears.

Anyway, when I first saw this challenge, I thought "no problem." Afterall, every 8th book I read is one of Shakespeare's plays anyway. Then I got bogged down in a couple 400+ page books and I've already missed a month of the challenge.

Finally though I've gotten around to reading the third part of King Henry the Sixth, and this marks my first of four plays for the Shakespeare challenge. I've treated the parts as three separate plays and my first two reviews appear here and here. This is my review of the third part as it appeared on The Book Mine Set:

Classy cover, don't you think?

Shakespeare was one of those rare breeds to make the third installment of a trilogy the best.

Unlike the first two parts, the third seems more streamlined. The plot still revolves around challenges to King Henry's throne, but all the subplots of earlier have pretty much subsided. Instead there seems to be much more interest in exploring themes of male roles in the family, especially in terms of inheritance and power.

Not to make it entirely a masculine story, Queen Margaret almost steals the show once again with her wickedness. After giving the Duke of York the news that his son has been murdered, she offers him a napkin stained with the son's blood to wipe away his tears. Then she has the duke decapitated and sticks his head upon the gates of York so that "York may overlook the town of York."

While that last line might seem like a throwaway, really not all that clever when you consider he was only named the Duke of York after the town, making the wordplay not all that playful, it was clever as a symbol. While Margaret is delighting in her own sinfulness, Shakespeare seemed to be toying with the idea of a sinister, or at least doomed, reflection. Fathers pass down legacies of revenge to their sons, brothers plot against one another, all the while having the same blood. He takes this up more blatantly later on in the play having two briefly appearing characters simply named A Son That Has Kill'd His Father and A Father That Has Kill'd His Son.

While the King Henry The Sixth trilogy ends here, I'm relieved for the first time that there'll be more to the story. King Richard the Third takes up where this one left off (fortunately with Queen Margaret still alive and kicking).

The Soundtrack:
1. Hand Me Down World- The Guess Who
2. Off With Your Head- Sleater-Kinney
3. Evil Woman- Electric Light Orchestra
4. Brother Down- Sam Roberts
5. Kings and Queens- Aerosmith

Shakespeare's Global Globe

2008-02-09T11:13:00.000-05:00

Shakespeare's Global Globe

This just came over the ex-Libris Mailing list. You DO need the latest FLASH to see this.
I have an old version of IE which is blocking me, but I have no problem using Mozilla Firefox browser.

I am pleased to announce the launch of a new website -- Shakespeare's
Global Globe (www.orbismundi.org) -- that provides an instantaneous
visualization of all self-reporting readers of Shakespeare's plays on
the planet, viewable by region, genre and play. Upon arrival at the
site, visitors are asked to indicate which Shakespeare play they are
currently reading and where they are on the planet. The site then
locates that reader and play at a particular point on the globe, which
remains illuminated for two weeks. Site visitors can also explore
what other readers of Shakespeare are doing in different cities,
regions or continents using a range of display options.

The site was designed to explore regional reading habits in an
informal way, with an emphasis on ease of use and intelligibility. It
can be accessed from any location where there is an internet
connection, and the map of global readers is constantly updated, so
users can see new readers appearing on the map in realtime.

Please do take time to visit the site and, of course, if you are
reading a Shakespeare play at the moment, please go ahead and place a
digital pin on the global map!

This seems to be based out of Carnegie Mellon University in USA.

Shakespeare's Influence

2008-01-27T08:11:00.000-05:00

Shakespeare also invented many of the most-used expressions in our language. Bernard Levin skillfully summarizes Shakespeare's impact in the following passage from The Story of English:

If you cannot understand my argument, and declare "It's Greek to me", you are quoting Shakespeare;

if you claim to be more sinned against than sinning, you are quoting Shakespeare;

if you recall your salad days, you are quoting Shakespeare;

if you act more in sorrow than in anger, if your wish is father to the thought, if your lost property has vanished into thin air, you are quoting Shakespeare;

if you have ever refused to budge an inch or suffered from green-eyed jealousy, if you have played fast and loose, if you have been tongue-tied, a tower of strength, hoodwinked or in a pickle, if you have knitted your brows, made a virtue of necessity, insisted on fair play, slept not one wink, stood on ceremony, danced attendance (on your lord and master), laughed yourself into stitches, had short shrift, cold comfort or too much of a good thing, if you have seen better days or lived in a fool's paradise - why, be that as it may, the more fool you, for it is a foregone conclusion that you are (as good luck would have it) quoting Shakespeare;

if you think it is early days and clear out bag and baggage, if you think it is high time and that that is the long and short of it, if you believe that the game is up and that truth will out even if it involves your own flesh and blood, if you lie low till the crack of doom because you suspect foul play, if you have your teeth set on edge (at one fell swoop) without rhyme or reason, then - to give the devil his due - if the truth were known (for surely you have a tongue in your head) you are quoting Shakespeare;

even if you bid me good riddance and send me packing, if you wish I were dead as a door-nail, if you think I am an eyesore, a laughing stock, the devil incarnate, a stony-hearted villain, bloody-minded or a blinking idiot, then - by Jove! O Lord! Tut, tut! for goodness' sake! what the dickens! but me no buts - it is all one to me, for you are quoting Shakespeare.

(Bernard Levin. From The Story of English. Robert McCrum, William Cran and Robert MacNeil. Viking: 1986).

The English language owes a great debt to Shakespeare. He invented over 1700 of our common words by changing nouns into verbs, changing verbs into adjectives, connecting words never before used together, adding prefixes and suffixes, and devising words wholly original. At the below SOURCE is a chart listing some of the words Shakespeare coined, hyperlinked to the play and scene from which it comes. When the word appears in multiple plays, the link will take you to the play in which it first appears.

Source

If you are looking for more words invented by Shakespeare be sure to read the wonderful book Coined By Shakespeare by Jeffrey McQuain and Stanley Mallessone. Each entry in the book comes with a history of the word.

My First Book for the Challenge

2008-01-26T23:05:00.000-05:00

I've finished my first book for the challenge and put the review on my blog. It wasn't on my list - I stumbled across it on the New Books shelf at the library. Interred with Their Bones by Jennifer Lee Carrell is a murder mystery linked to the possible discovery of a work by Shakespeare that was rumored to exist but had been lost. The concept was intriguing, the execution less than satisfying to me.

I'm half way through Will in the World, How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare and I've found it more interesting and a better read.

Lots of Laughs

2008-01-24T16:03:00.000-05:00

My review of The Taming of the Shrew is up at my blog, Educating Petunia.

Of course, the humor of the play is undeniable. The lesson that goes along with it is eloquently put at the end by Katherine, whether you agree with what she says or not. I had a great time with it.

Me and Shakespeare - Herman Gollob - Book Review

2008-01-08T18:58:00.001-05:00

I read my first Shakespeare book for the Challenge. Me and Shakespeare.

44 Fascinating Things about Shakespeare

2008-01-07T21:09:00.000-05:00

There's this blogger who recently finished reading 592 pages of Shakespeare the Autobiography by Peter Ackroyd. Never mind that there is NOT 592 pages worth of documentary evidence for Shakespeare's life, Peter Ackroyd certainly does well to make the attempt.

Now I haven't read this biography yet, but in the meantime, this fellow I mentioned, has just finished reading it, and he has listed 44 Fascinating things about Shakespeare that he didn't know. It might be possible that you don't know them either.

The challenge begins!

2008-01-03T16:39:00.000-05:00

The Chicago Public Library recently started offering on-line downloads of audio books, and I came across Shakespeare's Greatest Hits Volume I. There are four plays: Romeo & Juliet, Twelfth Night, MacBeth, and A Midsummer Night's Dream.

Unfortunately, after years of literature study, the idea of parking myself on the couch with a volume of plays is tragically uninteresting to me. But listening to the plays while ironing and doing the other mundane household tasks has been fun. Plays were meant to be enacted, so naturally, it is far more interesting to listen to actors read them. The plays are abridged, but I think this volume, authored?/edited?/directed? by Bruce Coville, loses nothing. I recommend these as a supplement to anyone's Shakespeare readings.

Pamela's Shakespeare List

2008-01-01T19:05:00.000-05:00

Pamela's Shakespeare list
Pamela - If you check your dashboard, you will see that you can actually post to the Shakespeare blog directly just like your own blog (thats because you are a member).

Therefore you can link directly from this blog back to your original post where you list your books. I've done this one for you, but when you finished reading the books, you might want to post your own reviews.

Shakespeare Challenge now STARTED

2008-01-01T18:54:00.000-05:00

A Reminder that the SHAKESPEARE Challenge has now started. It runs from today until June 31st. You need to read 4 (four) books about Shakespeare. This can include the plays and the sonnets.

Reminder that the SHAKESPEARE Challenge starts January 1st.

2007-12-25T09:19:00.000-05:00

A Reminder that the SHAKESPEARE Challenge starts January 1st and runs for 6 months. You need to read 4 (four) books about Shakespeare. This can include the plays and the sonnets. If you wish to join this blog, please send me an email, and I will send you an invite.

Shakespeare in the Movies

2007-12-06T21:40:00.000-05:00

There was a comment left on this blog recently that says this. Did anyone see the announcement that the BBC will be filming all of Shakespeare's plays (again)? So I went looking and found two interesting articles about Shakepeare in the Movies.

One is that the above comment is correct. The BBC is indeed planning to film new versions of all 37 plays - again.

The other item of news I found is that The Merchant of Venice has been available as a movie (since 2002) filmed by Maoris, starring Maoris and spoken in the Maori language. Maori is the second official language of New Zealand - my country of origin. Although I dont speak it at all.
Tahi Rua Toru Wha. (1-2-3-4)

But there's no need to worry that you wont understand it. It has been subtitled for English, Spanish and Italian audiences. (How interesting that it has not been subtitled in French).

ARDEN - The World of Shakespeare

2007-12-04T22:21:00.000-05:00

This is a virtual World of Shakespeare, that was an experiment that seems to have either failed, or did not live up to expectations. I found this through Shakespeare Geek. It's an online virtual game about Shakespeare's world called ARDEN. The designers blog recently posted the following.

In short, lots of Shakespeare. It’s also rather boring, as I’ve said before. We failed to design a gripping game experience. As several of our playtesters said, Where are the monsters? -- a good question to ask of any serious-games initiative. We do have monsters, Shakespearean ones even, but they are out in the woods somewhere, not part of the main game experience.

No monsters is a big problem for our larger goal, which is to use virtual worlds to run experiments. No monsters means no fun, no fun means no people, and no people means no experiment. Back to the drawing board. We are taking our experience with Arden I and putting it into “Arden II: London's Burning," conceived entirely as a game.

I am releasing Arden I to the public now for two reasons. First, there continues to be tremendous interest in the basic idea of building a virtual world at a university for the purpose of research and education. Arden I splashes lovingly cold water on the face of anyone who dreams about that. The research and education part is easy, as you can see here. You can also see that fun is not so easy. The second reason to release is to encourage other people to build on what we started. If you want to take a traditionally-conceived Shakespeare world and make it fun, please do. I think it would be cool to see where others would go with it.

Did Shakespeare have a rival?

2007-12-02T08:23:00.000-05:00

I checked the weekend Books sections of the newspapers like I always do, and discovered an interesting article in todays Toronto Star. This article is about a playwright called Thomas Middleton.

Who is the `other Shakespeare’? By Philip Marchand

A portrait of playwright Thomas Middleton, a contemporary of Shakespeare. A contemporary who excelled at bawdy comedies and gory tragedies alike, Thomas Middleton is about to be `inserted into modern culture'

William Shakespeare is not just a poet, he is The Poet. He's so famous that even people who can barely sign their own names would hoot at you if you thought Shakespeare was a basketball player.

But now he has a rival.

Unless you've taken a course in Renaissance drama at university, you may not know the name of this rival. He was a contemporary of Shakespeare, a fellow playwright who doctored some of Shakespeare's scripts – he cut Macbeth, in the view of some scholars, trimmed bits of long-winded Shakespearean dialogue, made it more intense.

He was also a modern man who chronicled the dirty politics and cruel sex and the struggle for survival in the London of his time, in language much closer to our own spoken English.

You can read him now in a 2,016-page Oxford edition entitled Thomas Middleton: The Collected Works. Gary Taylor, one of the two general editors of this huge volume, 20 years in the making, was also a general editor of Oxford's 1986 edition of Shakespeare's Complete Works, which came in at 1,432 pages. By my math, Middleton gets 584 more pages than Shakespeare. That's fair. Shakespeare took up all the oxygen in the English-language, poetic-drama universe for 400 years. Time to give Middleton his space on the bookshelf.

Read the rest of the article..

I also found a mention of this story here.

Here is an example of Middleton's verse.

The Bloody Banquet

The title of this tragedy by Thomas Middleton and Thomas Dekker "draws attention to the final scene of this play, in which the Tyrant compels his wife, the young Queen Thetis, to publicly eat the corpse of her lover, Tymethes," writes Julia Gasper. (And you thought the Saw movies were gruesome.)

The play's "transgression of certain boundaries of `good taste' – an ironic phrase, in this context – is surely as deliberate as that of, say, Oscar Wilde's Salome."

Tyrant
She did from her own ardour undergo
Adulterous baseness with my professed foe.
Her lust strangely betrayed, I ready to surprise them,
Set on fire by the abuse, I found his life
Cunningly shifted by her own dear hand
And far enough conveyed from my revenge.
Unnaturally she first abused my heart,
And then prevented my revenge by art.
Yet there I left not. Though his trunk were cold,
My wrath was flaming, and I exercised
New vengeance on his carcass, and gave charge
The body should be quartered and hung up. `Twas done.
This as a penance I enjoined her to:
To taste no other sustenance, no nor airs,
Till her love's body be consumed in hers ...

King
Alas, poor lady!
It makes me weep to see what food she eats.
I know your mercy will remit this penance.

Tyrant
Never, our vow's irrevocable, never.
The lecher must be swallowed rib by rib.
His flesh is sweet; it melts, and goes down merrily.
... There is my jealousy flown.
O happy man, 'tis more revenge to me
Than all your aims: I have killed my jealousy.

Excerpted from Thomas Middleton: The Collected Works, general editors Gary Taylor and John Lavagnino. Published by Oxford University Press.

I've never heard of Thomas Middleton before. How interesting.

More websites

2007-11-29T14:07:00.000-05:00

More New websites about the Authorship debate.

Shakespeare Life and Times
Shakespeare, Marlowe and Hamlet

I am actually looking for more information about Mary Sidney Herbert and her family as well as her writings. I have not decided for or against her yet. I can't really do that until the Shakespeare Challenge starts and I can actually read some books.

Was the Bard a Woman?

2007-11-27T22:40:00.000-05:00

Have discovered yet another possible author for the Shakespeare plays, and some new books as well. This new author may be well known to some of you, but not to me. I just found her tonight.

BOOKS
The Truth Will Out: Unmasking the Real Shakespeare (Hardcover)
by Brenda James (Author), William Rubinstein (Author)
About Sir Henry Neville
-----------------------------------------------------
Sweet Swan of Avon: Did a Woman Write Shakespeare?
By Robin P. Williams
About Mary Sidney Herbert Countess of Pembroke
Website - Mary Sidney
Blog - Robin Williams Blog
-----------------------------------------------------
Tiger's Heart in Woman's Hide: Volume 1
by Fred Faulkes
Trafford Publishing
ISBN 1-4251-0739-7
Prices US$21.70, C$24.95, EUR17.82, £12.48
Website - Tiger Heart Chronicles

Naively drawn into the question of Shakespeare's authorship, a librarian gathers together the poet's documentary history. He is shocked to discover Elizabethans already knew what and who.

By relating what the bedrock documents of history have to tell us, we can determine that the question of Shakespeare’s authorship arose the moment the poet’s hand was first noticed in 1592 and remained a ‘newsworthy’ matter throughout the period. The record further indicates that Mary Sidney was the best prepared and best positioned to do what Shakespeare would do but that she, as a woman, was barred. But from the beginning it is clear that the poet’s contemporaries understood Mary Sidney to be the force behind the pen.
------------------------------------------------------
Mary Sidney Herbert - Wikipedia
------------------------------------------------------
Shakespeare's Unorthodox Biography: New Evidence of an Authorship Problem
(Contributions in Drama and Theatre Studies)
by Diana Price
------------------------------------------------------

Shakespeare by Another Name

2007-11-23T16:27:00.001-05:00

WOW, Today I received an email from Mark Anderson, author of the book Shakespeare by Another Name. He was extending an invitation for me and my readers (blog and challenge) to join an IM chat about his book next year - in March 2008.

Mr Anderson's book advocates the theory that Edward de Vere was the real author of the Plays, precisely because most of the biographical details found in the plays, more closely fit Edward de Vere's life, not Will Shakespeare's.

I'm the author of one of the books on your Shakespeare Challenge list -- "Shakespeare" By Another Name -- and would like to extend an offer to you and your blog's readers to set up a time for a one- or two-hour long IM chat, say, halfway through the challenge in March sometime. [...] We can set up a public IM chat room that you and I and your blog's readers and my blog's readers could join in on at that time.

If anyone is interested in joing an IM (Instant Messaging) chat with Mr Anderson in March next year, please email me, or leave a comment, so I can arrange a date.

Mr Anderson's Blog is here.

Desda - Desda - Desdemona

2007-11-23T12:03:00.000-05:00

I'm testing this out. Have never embedded a video before.
This is a musical version of Othello by the Kids from FAME.
I loved that program - even if it was over 20 years ago. Hey it works.

Master of Shakespeare & Shakespeare Geek

2007-11-23T09:10:00.001-05:00

I came across another possible Shakespeare author contender today. Master of Shakespeare, better known as Fulke of Greville.

Fulke Greville was an aristocrat, courtier, statesman, sailor, soldier, spymaster, literary patron, dramatist, historian and poet. He was educated at Shrewsbury and Jesus College, Cambridge. He worked for Sir Francis Walsingham as an ‘intelligencer’ where he traveled extensively throughout Europe. He became a great favorite of Queen Elizabeth, was Clerk to the Council of Wales, Treasurer of the Navy, and from 1614-1621 he was Chancellor of the Exchequer.

After the death of his father in 1606, Fulke became Recorder of Stratford-upon-Avon and he held that post until 1628. Greville was famous for his friendship with, and biography of Sir Philip Sidney, and his long tempestuous love affair with Philip’s sister, Mary Herbert, Countess of Pembroke.

I have also found a new Shakespeare blog called Shakespeare Geek. Makes very interesting reading. He is an IT programmer, has three young children, and his favourite play seems to be King Lear. He is also teaching his kids ALL the plays and sonnets. The Geek has found a LOT of stuff about Shakespeare. For example, he found Shakespeare in (American) Sign Language. Well he is a geek after all. I hope he doesn't mind my adding some of the more interesting links to my sidebar.

And lastly I have found the Holy Grail of Shakespeare (at least my Holy Grail anyway). The Shakespeare Apocrypha (again thanks to Shakespeare Geek) which lists all plays claimed to have been written by Shakespeare, but there is no definite proof.

My books for the Shakespeare Challenge

2007-11-22T13:57:00.000-05:00

Shakespeare by another Name - by Mark Anderson
Shakespeare's Face - by Stephanie Nolen
Shakespeare & Co - by Stanley Wells
Shakespeare The World as Stage - by Bill Bryson
Shakespeare the Man - by A.L. Rowse
History Play - by Rodney Bolt
A Year in the life of William Shakespeare - by James Shapiro
Me and Shakespeare - by Herman Gollob

This challenge starts January 1st, 2008, and runs for 6 months. You need only read 4 books about or pertaining to Shakespeare, including the Plays and the Sonnets if you wish. The above list are those books that I plan on reading. I do not know which four I will read - that depends on my moods and time constraints.

Shakespeare and Marlow

2007-11-14T08:31:00.001-05:00

I have found a few new Websites and Books with some very interesting ideas about Christopher Marlow.

Shakespeare and Marlow says that Shakespeare and Marlow co-authored the play of Hamlet, and there is a new edition of Hamlet that shows this collaboration.

Peter Zenner (The Phoenix) in England has an intriguing new idea. That Kit Marlowe did not exist at all, and that Kit Marlowe was somehow mixed up with a man named Christopher Morley. However it seems Christopher Morley was not his real name either. His real name was William Pierce. Peter Zenner says he has written a book describing this triage - The Shakespeare Invention - where he reveals that the 'Invention' consisted of three men -- the author, the actor and the man whose name they purloined.

Marlow/Shakespeare School of Thought By John Baker. This is an amateur website that brings together a large number of links about Marlow. Some very interesting pages too. Such as the following.

Primary Documents for Marlow
What really happened in 1593

And lastly I found an article from the New York Times dated January 2005, about Christopher Marlow.

Books about Marlow

The World of Christopher Marlow. By David Riggs.

A Review of The World of Christopher Marlow

History Play: The Lives and Afterlives of Christopher Marlowe By Rodney Bolt (2004)

Shakespeare Thy Name is Marlow, By David Rhys Williams. (1966) Williams was a Unitarian Minister.

Shakespeare Theatre Washington DC

2007-11-05T08:35:00.001-05:00

The Shakespeare Theatre in Washington DC has a Mini-Marlow festival coming up later this month. Two of Christopher Marlow's plays will be performed.

Edward II
by Christopher Marlowe
directed by Gale Edwards
10/27/2007 - 1/6/2008

Tamburlaine
by Christopher Marlowe
adapted and directed by Michael Kahn
10/30/2007 - 1/6/2008

Also a Marlow Symposium will be held on November 10th. More details can be seen here.

I am mentioning this because I personally believe that Marlow survived the brawl at the tavern, in which he was supposedly killed in 1593, and fled to Europe where he continued to write the plays that have been attributed to Shakespeare.

Update on the challenge

2007-11-04T17:55:00.000-05:00

New people interested in joining.

Gautami Tripathy
Sherrie W
A Book in the Life
David Blixt
Wormauld

Yes David, Dante & Shakespeare together in a novel is fine.

Interred with their Bones - Review

2007-10-23T14:21:00.000-04:00

This is a new novel I picked up recently. I know the Shakespeare challenge has not started yet, but I just wanted to link to my review as I really really enjoyed this novel.

Interred with their Bones

Shakespeare Challenge Participants & new books

2007-10-16T19:12:00.000-04:00

Here is the list of people (so far) who are planning to do this challenge.

3M
Ex-Libris
Shannan's Books
Callista
Susan
Naida
Historia

The 1599 book that someone mentioned is called "A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare, by James Shapiro, although my copy of the book has this cover.

And I just received from Harper Collins today, Bill Bryson's new book called Shakespeare - The World as Stage. It's not due to be released until next week (October 23rd) so I might read it early, just to help generate good sales.

Another good suggestion was left in the comments. One new book to try is "The Shakespeare Diaries: A Fictional Autobiography, by J. P Wearing." This is actually a mixture of fact and fiction with fascinating insights and conjectures. This also seems to be an English book, not North American. In Canada, (Toronto & Montreal) you might want to look for it at Nick Hoares.

Shakespeare Challenge

2007-10-02T20:30:00.000-04:00

This challenge is about William Shakespeare. Your challenge (if you choose to accept it) is to read 4 (four) books about Shakespeare. Not just the plays but anything about him.

You can read fiction, non-fiction, anything that supports his being the author, anything that does not support him being the author. If you want to read the plays and/or the sonnets, that's fine too.

This challenge will run for 6 months, from January 1st to June 30th, 2008. Crossovers are acceptable.

If anyone wants to join this blog, please email Historia with your email address, and I will send you an invite.

Edmund Ironside, Shakespeare's Face and other musings

2007-10-02T14:54:00.000-04:00

Went shopping today and picked up 2 very interesting books about Shakespeare. And I have found a new website. Elizabethan Authors.

I have finally been able to purchase a copy of the book Shakespeare's Face, by Stephanie Nolen. This book is about the discovery and research on the Sanders Portrait.

Has anyone ever heard of a play called Edmund Ironside? This book Shakespeare's Edmund Ironside The Lost Play was published around 1986 by Eric Sams.

E.B. Everitt and Eric Sams have argued that this play is perhaps Shakespeare's first drama. According to Sams, Edmund Ironside "contains some 260 words or usages which on the evidence of the Oxford English Dictionary were first used by Shakespeare himself.... Further, it exhibits 635 instances of Shakespeare's rare words including some 300 of the rarest." However, this argument has failed to convince the majority of Shakespearian scholars. [Wikipedia]

And back in April, some nice person left a comment that suggested that I read the book The Mysterious [William] Shakespeare by Charlton Ogburn - all 890 pages of it. First I have to find it. Here's an interview with Mr Ogburn before he died.

Just a reminder that you can see the 6 supposedly authentic Shakespeare signatures here.

So Who was Shakespeare?

Actors question Bard's authorship

2007-09-18T12:35:00.000-04:00

Interesting article Re Shakespeare's Authorship - courtesy of Bibliothecary

September 9th, 2007
BBC News

Actors question Bard's authorship

Actors including Sir Derek Jacobi and Mark Rylance have launched a debate over who really wrote the works of William Shakespeare. Almost 300 people have signed a "declaration of reasonable doubt", which they hope will prompt further research into the issue.

"I subscribe to the group theory. I don't think anybody could do it on their own," Sir Derek said.

The group says there are no records of Shakespeare being paid for his work. While documents do exist for Shakespeare, who was born in Stratford-upon-Avon in 1564, all are non-literary. In particular, his will, in which he left his wife "my second best bed with the furniture" contains none of his famous turns of phrase and it does not mention any books, plays or poems.

Illiterate household

The 287-strong Shakespeare Authorship Coalition says it is not possible that the bard's plays - with their emphasis on law - could have been penned by a 16th Century commoner raised in an illiterate household.

The group asks if one man alone could have come up with his works
It asks why most of his plays are set among the upper classes, and why Stratford-upon-Avon is never referred to in any of his plays.

"How did he become so familiar with all things Italian so that even obscure details in these plays are accurate?" the group adds.

Conspiracy theories have circulated since the 18th Century about a number of figures who could have used Shakespeare as a pen-name, including playwright Christopher Marlowe, nobleman Edward de Vere and Francis Bacon.

"I think the leading light was probably de Vere as I agree that an author writes about his own experience, his own life and personalities," Sir Derek said.

The declaration, unveiled at the Minerva Theatre in Chichester, West Sussex, also names 20 prominent doubters of the past, including Mark Twain, Orson Welles, Sir John Gielgud and Charlie Chaplin.

'Legitimate question'

A copy was presented to Dr William Leahy, head of English at London's Brunel University and convenor of the first MA in Shakespeare authorship studies, to be launched later this month.

"It has been a battle of mine for the last couple of years to get this into academia," Dr Leahy said.

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

The Latest Shakespeare News

2007-08-29T06:43:00.000-04:00

Apologies for the long Silence. I had brain surgery in July and am still recovering. Here are some new found stories about Shakespeare.

New Book - Shakespeare's Wife London UK August 20, 2007

The Grafton Portrait is NOT William Shakespeare October 2005

Shakespeare Authorship Studies Conference

2007-05-12T08:52:00.000-04:00

I found a very interesting Shakespeare website this week. Shakespeare Authorship Studies Conference. From the Concordia University in Portland Oregon. Here are the Conference Details. It was held in April 2007.

Studies that advance our understanding of other writers of the time, e.g., George Peele, Robert Greene, Francis and Anthony Bacon, Christopher Marlowe, Ben Jonson, Edmund Spenser, Thomas Kyd, et al are featured as well.

Guess which name is not listed as other? Because it is appears to be the main area of study.
Edward De Vere - otherwise known as the 17th Earl of Oxford.

PLAYERS - The Mysterious Identity of William Shakespeare - BOOK REVIEW

2007-04-30T06:29:00.000-04:00

Work in Progress Blog is watching In Search of Shakspeare on PBS. I havent seen this series yet - mainly because I do not have time or the inclination to sit down and watch TV. The WIP Blog mentions that much of the TV program is based on probablities, possiblities and assumptions.

I am finding that all the books about Shakespeare are written in the same way. Right now I have just finished reading Players by Bertram Fields, who is a Lawyer. Fields is writing from a lawyers point of view and uses ONLY the evidence. And he says the evidence seems to point to there being two men. Shakespeare the playwright, and the Stratford man or the man from Stratford.

He uses phrases such as "this story does not fit the evidence", "we cannot assume", "we do not know the source", "William may have done this", "dates of performance are not conclusive", "we cannot draw any firm conclusion" and so on.

It does get somewhat tedious in having Fields mention the "proof" in each chapter, and then stating all the evidence that indicates why it is not the Stratford man, which means each chapter ends up with no proof.

By the end of the book Fields can only conclude that there were at least 2 men involved, possibly more, with the Stratford men as a front. However he cannot name the playright with any certainty. Fields does admit that in his opinion, the real Shakespeare is Oxford, and Oxford's son-in-law Stanley who continued the charade after Oxford died in 1604.

The evidence does seem to fit.

New edition of the First Folio

2007-04-27T06:39:00.000-04:00

There is an article in the Guardian (UK) about a new edition of the First Folio published this year by Andrew Dickson, and a new Biography of the Bard as well.

First Folio - Guardian Newspaper

Sunday April 22, 2007
The Observer

All lovers of England's greatest writer will be repaid handsomely by investing in a new complete works and a forensic biography, says Robert McCrum

Shakespeare Revealed: A Biography, by Rene Weis. John Murray £25, pp444

William Shakespeare: Complete Works, edited by Jonathan Bate and Eric Rasmussen. RSC/ Macmillan £30, pp2,482

[cont]

Interesting Photos

2007-04-25T20:29:00.000-04:00

On the left is the Shakespeare Memorial at Southwark (where the Globe theatre was located) in London, UK.

On the right is a troupe of dancers wearing Elizabethan costumes.
They dance in the style of the Elizabathan and Renaissance eras.

Shakespeare Birthday Celebrations - Folger Library

2007-04-25T19:07:00.000-04:00

William Shakespeare was supposedly born on April 23 and definitely christened on April 26, 1564. April 23rd is also St George's day and St George was the patron saint of England. Which is probably why it has been stated (but NOT proven) that Shakespeare was born on April 23rd.

The fact that Shakespeare also died on April 23rd, to me, is somewhat suspicious. I would not be at all surpised if young William was several months old, possibly even 6 months old (making him born in 1563) when he was baptised. It was not unusual at all for parents to have several children baptised at the same time. It was very common for children to not be baptised until they were 2 or 3 or even 4 years old.

Anyway this week is the 443rd anniversary of Shakespeare's birth. The Folger Library in Washington DC is celebrating its 75th birthday by having an OPEN HOUSE on Sunday (April 29th) from Noon to 4pm.

It’s the one day of the year when the Folger Reading Room is open to everyone for free. And there is birthday cake for everyone!!!

Free children's activities including the following;
Shakespearean fortune-telling;
quill pen writing;
brooch-making;
felt pendant-making;
potpourri-making;
ivy garland-making;
and other Elizabethan crafts.
Plus Elizabethan games.

Other Activities include -
Renaissance music, song, and dance throughout the Folger.
Stories of life in sixteenth-century England.
Shakespeare lovers performing their own bit in "Spontaneous Shakespeare."
Folger Secondary School Shakespeare Festival performances.
Tours of the Reading Rooms and the Elizabethan Garden.
The Reading Rooms feature sixteenth-century tapestries, paintings from scenes of the Bard’s plays, and the famed "Seven Ages of Man" stained glass window.
The Elizabethan Garden features an herb garden with plants popular in Shakespeare’s time and mentioned in his plays.
Mementos for sale at the Folger Shop.

The Woolpack Man

2007-04-22T19:47:00.000-04:00

This page shows proof that William Shakespeare was a primarily a wool merchant and not a play wright. Yes he was a small time actor in London, but when he was in Stratford, he was known as a wool merchant.

The Original Covers

2007-04-20T06:42:00.000-04:00

The First Folio Cover 1623

The Original Sonnets 1609

More portraits of Shakespeare and some family history too

2007-04-17T23:05:00.000-04:00

I found 2 more portraits of Shakespeare.

The Old Player and the Soest portraits of Shakespeare

This site also has some very interesting genealogical research. Just read down the Sitemap and see the high lights. Also here is the HOME button. For the record, there are several interesting pages branching off from the Sitemap main pages.

One of those interesting pages is the Documents page. These documents are the FACTS (proof) of the poet's life. He was in London living as an actor. Then he went back to Stratford and lived like a well off gentleman. But he certainly didn't ACT like a gentleman. He took anyone to court that he could wring more money out of, and he deliberately chose not to pay back the debts his wife took out.

Another page shows the accepted genealogy of William Shakespeare. Is it still correct? That is the question. Here is a PDF page that says Richard Shakespeare was not William's grandfather.

Source documents are the basic building blocks of genealogy. One must always work backwards moving from what is known, to what is unknown. You cannot prove your grandparents are really your grandparents without at least four documents as proof - namely your birth certificate, your parents marriage certificate and both of your parents birth certificates. OK, make that 3 documents since a marriage certificate is not totally necessary. But since it does name the bride & grooms parents - it is very useful.

Another new theory about Shakespeare

2007-04-15T20:21:00.000-04:00

Most debates about Shakespeare involve the matter of the real author of the plays. This is based on Shakespeare supposedly being a poor uneducated small-town man, who could not afford to travel to Europe. Therefore someone else who was rich and wealthy and who could afford to travel to Europe, actually wrote the plays, and paid Shakespeare to be the front man.

I found another book that mentions a completely different theory that also seems to fit the facts. And those facts seem to indicate that Shakespeare was actually a spy. He was also apparently quite wealthy in Stratford (supposedly a grain merchant) and yet he played the part of a struggling actor in London.

The Shakespeare Conspiracy

The Shakespeare Secret

What did Shakespeare really look like?

2007-04-15T15:26:00.000-04:00

I purchased a new book last week. Called History Play.
It's an alternative biography of the playright Christopher Marlowe. It develops a hypothesis that Marlow was not killed in 1593, but instead went into exile in Europe, and wrote all those plays that are currently attributed to Shakespeare.

I obviously have not read this book yet, but even the back cover says that much of this is conjecture. Appendix 2 shows how computer face-aging technology can age Marlow's face from age 21 through 28 and 36 to age 40. Interestingly enough, that last portrait looks very similar to the Chandos portrait of Shakespeare.

Anyway I went looking for other portraits of Shakespeare. I found a few rather interesting pages on the topic. Just a note about the Sanders portrait which was discovered in 2001. Apparently a number of scholars are saying that they do not believe it to be Shakespeare.

A New Shakespeare Portrait

Pictures of William Shakespeare

The Sanders Portrait

The Sanders Portrait 2

Also a 2005 news item that says the Flowers portrait of Shakespeare (which has an inscription of 1609 on it) has actually been dated to the early 1800s.

Chrome yellow paint, dating from around 1814, had been found embedded in the portrait.
"We now think the portrait dates back to around 1818 to 1840, exactly the time when there was a resurgence of interest in Shakespeare's plays,"

And lastly I came across some facts and trivia about life in Elizabethan times.
Please note that this is a PDF file.

Shakespeare Trivia

The Shakespeare Debate

2007-04-12T07:42:00.000-04:00

Also I am currently reading Players by Bertram Fields (A lawyer who represents most of todays rich & famous in Hollywood). I found a transcript of an interview he did on CNN with Larry King.

CNN interview April 16, 2005

And then Bert Fields, the high-powered entertainment lawyer who's repped everyone from Tom Cruise to Steven Spielberg. Now he's trying to get to the bottom of a 400-year old controversy.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KING: We now welcome to LARRY KING LIVE one of my favorite people. He is also my attorney, just for the record, Bert Fields, widely regarded as one of the most prominent entertainment attorneys in the world, author of a terrific new book "Players: The Mysterious Identity of William Shakespeare." Bert has written novels, wrote another book called "Royal Blood," which was a terrific read. Are you a Shakespearian freak?

BERT FIELDS, ENTERTAINMENT ATTY: No, not really. I'm a history freak.

KING: What led you into this?

FIELDS: I was always curious about whether or not the guy from Stratford really wrote all those poems and plays, because he had almost no education, sixth grade education at best. He could barely write his name. We have six shaky signatures by the guy and yet, the fellow who wrote the poems and plays, spoke French, Italian, Greek and Latin, had great knowledge of legal terminology, naval...

KING: So you're saying it's obvious it wasn't him.

FIELDS: I'm not saying it's obvious but I'm saying...

KING: ... a good indication.

FIELDS: I'm saying it's pretty likely. The guy who wrote the plays had three times the vocabulary of anybody who was alive at the time. It is just -- it's very difficult to conceive of the guy from Stratford who, as far as we know, had never been out of England, knowing all these things. How do you know about foreign cities and foreign customs and etiquette in court?

KING: As you trace it back, was this a tough investigation?

FIELDS: I don't think it was tough. It was a lot of fun doing it. I enjoyed that. The British were great.

KING: getting over there, right.

FIELDS: Oh, yeah. I thought they would be resentful of an American taking on an English icon. They weren't at all. They were just terrific. I went to the College of Arms in Queen Victoria Street. I said, I'd like to look at William Shakespeare's application for a coat of arms. And they said, oh yeah, sure, bring down this box and set it in front of me, there the original documents and the guy says, will you excuse me. I have to go the men's room. And he's leaving me with these multi-billion dollar documents.

KING: Well, what do we know of the bard?

FIELDS: Well, we know, you got to separate the bard who wrote the poems and plays.

KING: And what do know of the man known as the bard?

FIELD: The Stratford guy?

KING: Yes, the Stratford guy.

FIELDS: He was born in '64, 1564. He went to the local grammar school we think. We don't think he finished.

KING: No biography of him?

FIELDS: Oh, there are dozens of biographies, but most of them talk about the guy who wrote the poems and plays and assume that it was the guy from Stratford. If you just look at what we know about the guy from Stratford, born in 1564, probably went to grammar school, got married because his wife was pregnant. She was eight years older than he was. After three years of marriage and three kids, left her, went to London for 12 years and went on the stage, became an actor. Then later in life went back to Stratford and did a lot of kind of petty selfish things. That's one of the problems you have is this guy didn't behave like the fellow who wrote those marvelous plays. He was very litigious. He sued people for a pound and 15 shillings. He hoarded grain so he could up the price at the time of great shortage. He just did all kinds of...

KING: Was he wealthy?

FIELDS: He was more wealthy than you would think an actor would be and yet if you look, there is no record of his ever being paid as a playwright.

KING: No.

FIELDS: No. He did plays for a guy named Henslow (ph) who kept meticulous records of every playwright he ever paid. There is not any record of this guy being paid.

KING: Then it's obvious, how did he get famous? How did he...

FIELDS: Well, it isn't obvious because no one will really ever be able to prove it, one way or another. T.S. Eliot said the best you could hope for in talking about Shakespeare is to be wrong in some new and different way, because you can never prove it. How did, why did this happen? It was not done for a nobleman or an aspiring politician like Francis Bacon.

KING: It wasn't Francis Bacon.

FIELDS: Well it could have been Francis Bacon. It could have been Oxford. It could have been Christopher Marlow. Some people say it was Queen Elizabeth. I don't think so. Wouldn't it be (UNINTELLIGIBLE) to think so. A nobleman or an aspiring politician like Bacon could not write for the public theater. Public theater was disreputable, officially frowned upon.

KING: Low class.

FIELDS: Yeah, you couldn't do it. So a guy like Oxford would write plays for his friends, couldn't do it for the public theater, but if he could find a young, venal actor from Stratford who would pretend that these were his plays and pay him a little money to do this, that would be fine.

KING: And you investigate all this mysterious identity. How old was Shakespeare when he died?

FIELDS: He was 52. That was old in those days.

KING: He did not live a long life by today's...

FIELDS: By today's standard no...

KING: Was he acclaimed in his time?

FIELDS: Oh yes and that's one of the curious things. By the time the Stratford guy died, William Shakespeare, the poet and playwright, was famous and yet when the Stratford guy died, there was no mention that the great Shakespeare had died. Why?

KING: Why?

FIELDS: Because maybe he wasn't the great Shakespeare. How could they not mention that he died? And yet there's nothing, not a word. When other authors died, there are huge, huge outpourings.

KING: Why didn't the person who was writing it, once the acclaim occurred, take credit?

FIELDS: Because it still wasn't done to write for the theater. If you're the Earl of Oxford, you don't want to be famous for writing for the theater.

KING: The Earl of Oxford doesn't want to be known as the guy who wrote "Hamlet."

FIELDS: That's right. He does not. He's doesn't mind if a couple of friends know. He likes that. That's good for his ego, but he can't publicly be known as the guy who writes for the theater. In the case of Christopher Marlowe, there's even a better reason. Christopher Marlowe was wanted. If they found the papers that were attributed to him and were heretical, were blasphemous, he was probably going to be burned at the stake and all of a sudden, he gets into a fight over a check in a restaurant (UNINTELLIGIBLE) and gets killed in this fight. He's with three buddies and all of sudden he's buried. They had a coroner's inquest. It's all covered up. Maybe Christopher Marlowe went to Italy and wrote Shakespeare, maybe.

KING: ...didn't die.

FIELDS: ... didn't die at all. That's one theory.

KING: We'll be right back with more of Bert Fields. The book is "Players: The Mysterious Identity of William Shakespeare." We'll be right back with Bert Fields.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KING: His previous book was "Royal Blood," Richard III and the Mystery of the Princesses." It's the Richardian book of the year award from the Richardian Society. And now he brings this attorney's approach to history in "Players: The Mysterious Identity of William Shakespeare." His name is Bert Fields. He's renowned throughout the entertainment industry. Do you think it may have been two people?

FIELDS: I think it was two people. I think that the basic author, who was a man of enormous learning, widely traveled, a sense of great humanity and a sensitivity, wrote a first draft, maybe a second draft, turned the play over to the front, who was the guy from Stratford and I think the guy from Stratford, who know a lot about the stage. He was a great realist, would say, hey, boss. This don't play. We got to change the ending here in let's say "Merchant of Venice." He said, we're going to make fun of the Jew at the end. You can't just let this guy go and so they added that he has to convert to Christianity, Shylock. When Portia, who makes that great speech about the quality of mercy is not strained and then immediately after, she merciless to Shylock. I think that the Stratford guy added that at the end, the conversion because that would play. The audience loved it.

KING: How did Shakespeare handle his fame?

FIELDS: Well, if you're talking about the Stratford guy...

KING: The Stratford guy. You can him in the book, the Stratford guy.

FIELDS: Well, because if you don't, you get confused. Many people who have written books on the subject say, keep talking about the things that Shakespeare did and they assume they were done by the Stratford man. But...

KING: The Stratford man is the puppet here.

FIELDS: Well, that's the theory. The theory is...

KING: What theory?

FIELDS: Well, as I say, I can't prove it, no one will ever prove it. No one will ever prove the other. But it's just what I think is more logical than not and I think that he went around -- he applied for a coat of armed as I told you, because he wanted to be a gentleman. If you have a coat of arms, then you could be called gentleman and after that, he was William Shakespeare, gentleman and he had a model, not without right and Ben Johnson, who was very funny guy, put on a shoe in which he made fun of Shakespeare and he had a pompous guy to update a coat of arms with the motto not without mustard. And Shakespeare knew this was for him and I suspect he was somewhat upset.

KING: Did the Stratford guy marry?

FIELDS: The Stratford guy married very early in life. I think that's when he left his wife after three years of marriage and went on to live in London, came back to Stratford at the very end, not at the very end, a few years before the end and I guess went back to his wife.

KING: Stories that he might have been the real writer, gay?

FIELDS: Yes. I say yes, not that was definitely gay, but it's a real issue. If you read the sonnets, he's writing to a beautiful young man and he says you're the master, mistress of my passion. Can I compare thee to a summer's day, things like that, which is not -- I don't say that to you when we meet or at least they don't know about it. So many people believe he was gay. Oscar Wilde believed he was gay, but Oscar Wilde was gay.

KING: How great a writer was whoever wrote this?

FIELDS: Incredible. I think he's...

KING: No one in his league.

FIELDS: No one in his league. I think you take those plays and the more I read them, the more I thought, this guy is just amazing.

KING: And we use his language all the time and we're not even knowing it.

FIELDS: All the time.

KING: Shakespeare's quoted every day and in everyday language.

FIELDS: Every day. In court I use it all the time, all the time. There's a wonderful story about a southern trial lawyer who quotes from Shakespeare and says to the jury, the Bible say and he gives a quote from Shakespeare and his friend, who was visiting from New York said, hey, that's Shakespeare. That's not the Bible. And the trial lawyer said, listen, I know my juries and I'm not going to tell them it's Shakespeare.

KING: Do you have two lives Bert.

FIELDS: At least.

KING: You're a lawyer by day, writer by night.

FIELDS: Writer by night.

KING: How do -- with all your clients and as busy as you are, how do you get the time?

FIELDS: I do it mostly weekends, vacations and occasional trips to London to do the research. I just love it and it's a hobby.

KING: Working on another one?

FIELDS: I'm about to start.

KING: On?

FIELDS: Television interviewers.

KING: What fascinates you about Richard III, Shakespeare? Why?

FIELDS: Mysteries -- they're historical mysteries. Remember Richard III, there was a big mystery. Did he kill his nephews in the tower of London? Was he this hunchbacked withered guy and so I wanted to find out if he really was and I paced the tower of London, did all kinds of stuff like that. But solving the mystery is part of the fun. As far as why English, because it's my basic language and I would hate to try and do research in French, because my French really extends to French plumbing and eating.

KING: Is it true that the actors have said, you can never really play Shakespeare? I mean you can attempt to. You can't master it.

FIELDS: I think people can master it. What's interesting about it is the really great rolls have so much room for interpretation. You take a role like Shylock. We were talking before. I mean Shylock has been played all the way from a monster.

KING: (UNINTELLIGIBLE)

FIELDS: hugely sympathetic guy and you can read all...

KING: The same language.

FIELDS: The same language, the same words, the same lines and everything but you can interpret those lines in different ways and that's what's great about Shakespeare.

KING: Bert, it's an honor having you with us.

FIELDS: A pleasure to be with you Larry.

KING: The book is "Players: The Mysterious Identity of William Shakespeare," written by one of the best lawyers there is, Bert Fields. It's published by Regan Books. More after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

Theatrebooks and Shakespeare

2007-04-12T05:56:00.000-04:00

Welcome to TheatreBooks Online

TheatreBooks was established in 1975 by Leonard McHardy and John Harvey, who met while working in one of Toronto's "alternate" theatres. The store soon became a mecca for theatre professionals, students and ardent fans.

I live in Toronto, and have just discovered this website. I didnt even know such a shop existed. I must find some time & some spare cash to go check out the shop.

In the meantime you can browse their shelves.

Shakespeare Books from Theatrebooks

Books about the Life & Times of Shakespeare from Theatrebooks

Shakespeare & Marlow

2007-04-11T20:20:00.000-04:00

Have added a number of new links to the Sidebar. While I was searching out & reading these links, I started thinking more about the possibility that Kit Marlowe might have been Shakespeare. Which is why I have added some Marlow links to the Sidebar.

I must read my Shakespeare books, and find a few books about Christopher Marlow.
I know very little about him & his plays.

Who was the real William Shakespeare?

2007-04-08T10:05:00.000-04:00

I'll bet you're asking - Who do I think wrote those Plays? I have not yet made up my mind who the author is. Here's another post I wrote a while ago from BiblioHistoria.

I can tell you who I don't think it is, and that is Francis Bacon. If ciphers were the ONLY way one can determine an author, then all the authors determined by this method, IMO, would be faked. Some years ago, a book called "The Bible Code" was published. I briefly looked through it, but when I saw that several pages were nothing but number grids with certain numbers circled, I put the book down and have never read it to date. I have been of the mind that ciphers are not very accurate because one can make a cipher or a number grid read anything they want it to say. You can choose every second letter, every 3rd letter, every 5th or 15th letter, even every 22nd letter (or any other sequence you like) and you can make the cipher say whatever you want. I do not consider that to be scientific or accurate. The Case for Francis Bacon being the playwright depends on ciphers as proof.

Another Website about the Shakespeare authorship debate, has some interesting points on why de Vere/Oxford is not the author. Unfortunately, IMO there is insufficient proof to rule Oxford out despite this specific site saying that the proof was adequate. This site tends to accept that just because Oxford was not listed as being there, therefore he was NOT there.

As I have been told over and over again, you cannot prove a negative, and just because a persons name is not mentioned on a list - does NOT mean they were NOT there. A name on a list only proves that they were there - which is called positive proof.

Who wrote Shakespeare?

2007-04-08T09:23:00.000-04:00

I mentioned a while ago that I was interested in writing a Bibliography about the Shakespeare Authorship debate. After a bit of surfing this morning, (and having purchased a few more books on the subject over the last 2 weeks) I've decided that I want to do this bibliography online. I'm not going to advertise this - not much anyway. Just some links between my 3 blogs (BiblioHistoria, HistoriaBooks & BiblioShakespeare).

Here's the original post from BiblioHistoria.

I had a real bad experience with Shakespeare in High School. Apart from seeing the Olivia Hussey film version of Romeo and Juliet, the one and only Shakespeare play I studied during 3 years of English classes was Macbeth. At the same time, I also had a very boring History teacher as well. All she ever did was to hand out purple inked (mimeographed) lists of dates and events and told us to memorise them for the exams. So by the time I left HS, I hated Macbeth, I hated History and I hated Shakespeare. That was over 20 years ago.

I have since discovered the wonders of History. Especially the glorious History of the Elizabethan Golden era, and now I read anything I can, about the people of that era. Which is why I'm happy to read about Shakespeare and Marlowe, but I'm still somewhat reluctant to read the actual plays.

I have of course seen a few Shakespeare plays done as movies over the last 20 years. Movies such as Clair Danes & Leonardo's version of Romeo and Juliet, Keanu Reeves, Denzel Washington and Emma Thompson in Much Ado about Nothing. And both recent versions of Hamlet - the long one and the short one. Being a visually oriented person, I much prefer the movies to the written script. The visuals and context make it much easier to understand the script.

Without planning to do so, I have recently acquired 3 books about the mysterious identity of William Shakespeare.

A novel called Chasing Shakespeares by Sarah Smith (2003 trade paperback)
A First Edition of Players by Bertram Fields ( 2005 Regan Books)
"Shakespeare" by Another Name by Mark Anderson (2005 Gotham Books)

I think I will start collecting books about Shakespeares authorship. And maybe write a bibliography of books supporting and questioning Shakespeares qualifications as a playwright. It's an intriguing subject, and I love mysteries. Especially since I don't remember hearing anything about this controversy back in High School. Do they teach the students these days that Shakespeare may not be who everyone thinks he was? That he may possibly not be the real author? I doubt it. That would be thinking "outside of the box". And schools are not designed for that type of education.