Oberon Shakespeare Study Group

Raymond McDaniel introduced Charles Adams Kelly before Kelly's presentation of his book, Echoes and Shadows in the Text of Shakespeare's Hamlet at Shaman Drum Bookshop in Ann Arbor on October 25. I thought the introduction was so beautiful (and so evocative of the mystery of the received word) that I asked McDaniel if we could publish it here. He graciously gave his permission. I hope his words will serve as a delicious incentive for you to attend Charles Adams Kelly's appearance at our Oberon meeting -- 7 p.m., January 17 at the Farmington Community Library . In addition to hosting the reading series at Shaman Drum Bookshop , Raymond McDaniel writes for Fence magazine's The Constant Critic and teaches at the University of Michigan. He is the author of Murder (a violet). His second book of poetry, Saltwater Empire , is forthcoming from Minneapolis based Coffee House Press . Here is what he said on October 25: Good evening and welcome. Thank you for coming out tonight...

Yesterday two members of Oberon, Susan Nenadic and myself, went to the Ann Arbor District Library to hear director Jeff Myers and some of his cast talk about the Ann Arbor Civic Theater's upcoming production of A Midsummer Night's Dream , to be presented November 15-18 at the Lydia Mendelsosohn Theater. (Information on times and tickets at www.a2ct.org ). Mr. Myers has decided to adapt the play (while keeping 75-80% of the original text) with an eye towards Arabian or Islamic culture, pointing out that the original play (although not really historical) is set in Athens during the "Golden Age" of Theseus, whereas later in world history the "cultural capital of the world" had shifted to Arabia and particularly Baghdad. Mr. Myers is setting his adaptation in Baghdad at around 800 AD. While retaining most of the original text, he has changed references to locations and has changed the names of the characters to reflect Islamic culture. Thus, instead of Oberon ...

Dear Oberon, I am pleased to report that Thursday's meeting featuring herbalist Lonnie Morley discussing Shakespeare's herbal imagery as a clue to the author's identity was a huge success. Ms. Morley brought insight into the important role of herbs and flowers in Shakespeare's plays and poems. She has agreed to post a shortened version of her talk on our Oberon blog, so please stay tuned. If you are interested in Shakespeare, you will be very interested in Morley's treatment of this key topic. In addition, Ms. Morley is a staunch supporter of the view that Edward de Vere authored the works of Shakespeare. After all, he grew up in the home of his ward, Sir William Cecil, Lord Burghley, whose gardens were among the most magnificent in all Elizabethan England and whose master gardener, with whom young de Vere was surely well acquainted, wrote a compendium on herbs of such authority that it is still in use today. Shakespeare shows a remarkable familiarity with herbs, fl...

In a message dated 10/21/2007 12:23:48 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time, Derran Charlton wrote: Tom Hunter, and Phaeton: Miss Eggar often addressed the Shakespearean Authorship Society re Edward de Vere and Ferdinando Stanley. The Shakespearean Authorship Society (formerly the Shakespeare Fellowship, founded in 1922) publications No.3 (Spring 1960) and No.5 (Spring 1961), together with her Oxfordian pamphlets, refer. Miss K. Eggar, A.R.A.M., was a distinguished Vice-President of the Society, alongside Miss Hilda Amphlett, T.L. Adamson, Sir John Russell and William Kent, F.S.A. The Hon. Secretary was Miss Gwynneth M. Bowen. I am fortunate to own several annotated Oxfordian books and pamphlets ex libris Gwynneth. The President of the Society was Christmas Humphreys, Q.C. Quote from Miss Eggar`s talk to The Shakespearean Authorship Society, 26th November, 1960: "Miss Eggar drew attention to the significant fact that the "poet" Shakespeare only comes into existence as the man, Edw...

Glimmerglass Opera near Cooperstown, New York will devote its 2008 Festival Season to musical works inspired by Shakespeare. Here is a note from their announcement: Glimmerglass Opera will stage its 34th Festival Season July 5–August 24, 2008, “If music be the food of love, play on!” Four new productions with links to Shakespeare will be presented on a set resembling an Elizabethan theater: Porter's Kiss Me, Kate , Handel's Giulio Cesare in Egitto , the American fully-staged premiere of Wagner's Das Liebesverbot (inspired by Shakespeare's Measure for Measure), and Bellini's I Capuleti e i Montecchi . Additionally, Glimmerglass will present two concert performances of Felix Mendelssohn's Complete Incidental Music to A Midsummer Night's Dream . Click here to subscribe now to Glimmerglass Opera's 2008 Festival Season .

The following is a play-by-play from Oberon founder and SOS board member Richard Joyrich on the Carmel, CA SOS/SF joint conference on Oct 5-8, 2007 (adapted from a series of E-mails). Carmel, Day 1 Wish you were here! But since you're not, I will begin my daily report of the goings-on here at the Carmel Shakespeare Authorship Conference. We're off to a great start. But I do have to mention that I am still getting compliments from people about how good last year's Ann Arbor Conference was. Virginia told me that she is already missing all the help given to her last year by Rosey, Sue, Linda, and others in registering people and selling books. There were four talks this afternoon. Earl Showerman started us out with another of his marathon run-throughs of Shakespeare's use of Greek sources. However, this time he actually finished on time! And he covered four plays instead of only two as he did last year! He pointed out that, although scholars (read Stratfordians, of course)...

When I was putting together my notes for the labyrinth party, I came across an intriguing citation from the Journal of the Royal Musical Association. I had been trying to find information about Oxford's interest in music and Katharine Emily Eggar's 1934 paper, "The Seventeenth Earl of Oxford as Musician, Poet, and Controller of the Queen's Revels" sounded exciting. The Eggar citation from the Journal of the Royal Musical Association is available online, but I was unable to get access so I asked my local library, the Howell Carnegie District Library , to get it for me. They got a copy of the article from Michigan State University. I also got a list of Eggar citations from Google Scholar Beta. Tom Hunter, meanwhile, found that Eggar's papers are held at the University of London Libary from the Archives Hub Here is the citation: Papers of Katherine Emily Eggar Held at: University of London Library Reference and contact details: GB 96 MS 987 Title: Papers ...

From Shakespeare Authorship Coalition Chairman John Shahan (published with permission): Due to the spectacular success of the recent Declaration signing event in Chichester, the SAC needs to coordinate more closely with our U.K. affiliates. Therefore, the next signing deadline has been pushed back one week to Sunday, October 21, and the next update of the signatories list has been pushed back two weeks to October 29. If you signed after the last update on July 2, your name will not appear on the list on our website until then. If you know of any doubters who haven't yet signed, you have an extra week to recruit. Just tell them to visit our website at http://www.doubtaboutwill.org/ . BTW, if you will be in the U.K. during November, you may want to check out the John Silberrad Memorial Lectures on the Shakespeare Authorship Issue at Shakespeare's Globe Theatre in London. Co-sponsored by the Shakespearean Authorship Trust (SAT) and Brunel University, the series kicks off on Novemb...

Charles Adams Kelly of Howland Research in Ann Arbor, Michigan will read from his new -- April 2007 -- book, Echoes & Shadows in the Texts of Shakespeare's Hamlet at 7 p.m. Thursday, October 25 at Shaman Drum bookstore, 315 S. State Street, Ann Arbor, Michigan. You can order Kelly's work from Shaman Drum in Ann Arbor or from Amazon.com . Kelly says: Echoes & Shadows is a concise but dense re-examination of a range of evidence that tends to challenge the accepted notion of the 1st Quarto of Hamlet as a bad quarto, an unauthorized abridgment. The author advances the scholarly perspective of two significant areas of evidence, and provides a convincing indication that the planned textual analysis will further support the theory of Q1 Hamlet as an earlier authorized text. The Howland website provides sample pages and illustrations from the book. Kelly's analysis tools are available free for research purposes from the website .

Cymbeline runs through November 11, 2007 at the Chicago Shakespeare Theater on Navy Pier. The production is directed by the theater's artistic director Barbara Gaines and features Larry Yando and Chaon Cross. Their new production of Othello runs February 3 through April 6, 2008.