Shakespeare

[Hawkman]

Does Gwynneth make W'm Sh'ksp'r' follow her far-from-delectable macrobiotic diet?

I think I can answer that question. Our Bill was particularly fond of a basket of deep-fried parsnips at his local, The George at Southwark. He also enjoyed washing them down with warm beer while Burbage quoted his own lines at him, at least until John Dee turned up and threatened to turn him into a toad, well, both he and Burbage actually. The full story can be read on this very website

[qimissung]

Dearest Gwynneth,

I find that I have writers' block (or is it writer's block?) and am in need of the "divine inspiration" only you can provide. Can we meet tonight? Marlowe continues to annoy me with his petty ghostwriting tactics. When will he grow up? I have employed my Aunt S. as a proofreader, but, despite her diligence, she can't catch all of the "errors". Let's face it: Christopher Marlowe is a pain in the Coriolanus.

Yours Always;

W'm Sh'k'sp'r'

Thank you, ecurb. This is one of those things that's funny all day, like a piece of hard candy tucked into your cheek. It just keeps on giving.

[Ecurb]

Thanks, although I'm not sure if AuntShecky's late night TV comparison is a compliment or an insult. The "Coriolanus" pun was cribbed from Cole Porter's "Brush up Your Shakespeare" number in "Kiss me Kate". Here's a link: http://www.stlyrics.com/lyrics/kissm...hakespeare.htm

[The Atheist]

Anyone else find it not very strange Oscar hasn't come back to defend his position?

[Lokasenna]

Anyone else find it not very strange Oscar hasn't come back to defend his position?

His profile says that he is banned... not that he was particularly good at defending his position in the first place...

[Emil Miller]

It is a pity that Oscar resorted to personal insults and thereby ended his participation on LitNet. This thread's subject is of particular interest to literary minded folk, as has been shown in past submissions to LitNet, and will always be a source of entertainment for members and non-members alike. That is until someone can prove, not beyond reasonable doubt, but beyond all doubt that Shakespeare did write the plays.

[MorpheusSandman]

False evidence is no evidence at all, but if you want to continue the discussion, I suggest a new thread.

Here: http://www.online-literature.com/for...14#post1256114

[The Atheist]

His profile says that he is banned... not that he was particularly good at defending his position in the first place...

That is a shame. I liked the way anyone disagreeing with him was immediately not worth talking to.

It is a pity that Oscar resorted to personal insults and thereby ended his participation on LitNet. This thread's subject is of particular interest to literary minded folk, as has been shown in past submissions to LitNet, and will always be a source of entertainment for members and non-members alike. That is until someone can prove, not beyond reasonable doubt, but beyond all doubt that Shakespeare did write the plays.

Bingo!

You're absolutely right that the thread will stay alive. I quite frequently see people bumping threads from many years ago, so you can bet people will be weighing in on this issue from time to time.

( I like your Dubbya sig quote - must be the only smart thing he ever said.)

[HSPS]

That is until someone can prove, not beyond reasonable doubt, but beyond all doubt that Shakespeare did write the plays.

That really can't be done considering the nature of this case, but it's reasonable enough to assume that William Shakespeare of Stratford wrote the plays. (The Stratfordian position is at least much more consistent than the anti-Stratfordian position in that we can agree on who we think wrote the plays.)

[Emil Miller]

( I like your Dubbya sig quote - must be the only smart thing he ever said.)

I imagine that Dick Cheney wrote the speech for him because here's what happened when he was left him to his own devices.

http://youtu.be/UbX35BLgJq4

That really can't be done considering the nature of this case, but it's reasonable enough to assume that William Shakespeare of Stratford wrote the plays. (The Stratfordian position is at least much more consistent than the anti-Stratfordian position in that we can agree on who we think wrote the plays.)

I agree but as long there is a doubt, and one that is expressed by many influential people, speculation as to the authorship of the plays will continue.

[AuntShecky]

Thanks, although I'm not sure if AuntShecky's late night TV comparison is a compliment or an insult. The "Coriolanus" pun was cribbed from Cole Porter's "Brush up Your Shakespeare" number in "Kiss me Kate". Here's a link: http://www.stlyrics.com/lyrics/kissm...hakespeare.htm

Yeah, a compliment to your off-the-wall humor a la Craig Ferguson, but now that I think of it, the networks as well as cable are still stuck in the least common denominator mind-set and hence dismiss cerebral humorists as "too hip for the room." (Maybe I'll use that excuse next time anybody asks why I never broke through.)

[Nick Capozzoli]

To get back to the original question of whether or not Shakespeare was the author of the plays and poems published under his name, we need to ask ourselves, "who else could have written them?" Several candidates have been proposed (Marlowe, Bacon, et al.), but the problem is that the quality of Shakespeare's work is so overwhelmingly brilliant that it's difficult, to the point of impossibility, to believe that some other known Elizabethan writer could have written his stuff. I don't see anything in the works of other contemporary authors that comes anywhere near to the sustained mastery of language that we get from the collected work of Shakespeare.

I really think that much of the motivation behind the Anti-Stratfordians is a prejudicial elitist disbelief that a middle-class individual without an advanced education could be capable of such brilliant literature. Harold Bloom discussed this in an essay about Freud's Anti-Stradfordian views. In Bloom's opinion, Dr. Freud just could not accept that someone with Shakespeare's social and educational background could possibly display such great insight into the human psyche as Shakespeare did. I think that Bloom is spot on.

[Emil Miller]

I didn't consciously seek out this video, I was looking at one about the countryside around Stratford on Avon and this was listed in the side section. Apart from being very funny, it sure calls into question Shakespeare's authorship of the plays.


http://youtu.be/cJ72Ew1ujlk