Oberon Shakespeare Study Group

In a comment about a 2005 Emma Kirkby/Fretwork CD titled, William Byrd: Consort Songs , a Sept. 26, 2010 post at Harper's Magazine blog attributes the Elizabethan poem, "My mind to me a kingdom is" -- often attributed to Sir Edward Dyer (1550-1607) -- to Edward de Vere, Earl of Oxford (1550-1604). J. Thomas Looney in his 1921 edition of The Poems of Edward de Vere ascribed the poem to Oxford. The Harper's post is titled:   Oxford -- My Mind to Me a Kingdom Is.  The un-named poster says of the Oxford poem: This poem is one of the true masterpieces of the Elizabethan era, understandable on many levels: as a sanctuary of conscience, as a statement of Calvinist precepts, as a dissertation on contentment, as a praise of the powers of imagination and invention. William Byrd’s setting of the Oxford poem is one of the finest English art songs of the Elizabethan era. A number of excellent recordings exist, but there is as yet nothing posted to YouTube. Of the recordings, the...

At last night's Oberon meeting incoming Shakespeare Oxford Society president Richard Joyrich reported that Richard Paul Roe had been named Oxfordian of the Year 2010 at the joint Shakespeare Fellowship/Shakespeare Oxford Society 2010 joint annual conference.  A delegation from the conference had traveled to Roe's home in Pasadena, California to make the presentation previous to the public announcement at the conference banquet September 19, 2010 that Roe was unable to attend. On April 9 this year Roe was honored when the Shakespeare Authorship Research Center at Concordia University in Portland, Oregon was named the Richard Paul and Jane Roe Shakespeare Authorship Research Centre. The center director, Daniel Wright, PhD, said: The gifts bestowed by this revered colleague and his wife, in sums totaling almost half a million dollars, have gone far to make the institutionalization of the Shakespeare authorship inquiry — in a permanent, academic, and non-politica...

Christina Radish interviewed Anonymous screenwriter John Orloff on Collider.com today. Orloff explained his interest in the Shakespeare authorship question and described the filming of Roland Emmerich's  Anonymous  in Germany this spring: Yeah, I was on the set the whole time. It was an incredibly moving thing. I first learned about the issue 20 years ago, so to see this thing that I started to think about 20 years ago, take shape with an incredible group of actors and technical crew and Roland [Emmerich], it was really quite moving for me to see it come together. We had this amazing cast, and I’m really excited about it.   Orloff gives a lot of insight into the background of the film; the interview is fascinating to an authorship agnostic. Source:  http://www.collider.com/2010/09/22/anonymous-interview-john-orloff-screenwriter/

Oberon founder and Shakespeare Oxford Society Vice President Richard Joyrich, M.D. was elected by the SOS board to serve as president of the organization at the joint Shakespeare Fellowship/Shakespeare Oxford Society  annual conference in Ashland, Oregon this weekend. Superlative in every way, Joyrich is a brilliant choice. Congratulations, Richard!

Matt Goldberg reported September 14 on Collider.com that Sony moved the release date of Roland Emmerich's film, Anonymous : Sony has moved Roland Emmerich’s  Anonymous  from March 25, 2011 to September 23, 2011.  The period-drama is based on the controversial notion that Edward de Vere, the 17th Earl of Oxford, wrote the plays that were attributed to  William  Shakespeare .

Several Oberon members are heading west this week to attend and present at the annual Shakespeare Fellowship/Shakespeare Oxford Society conference in Ashland, Oregon. The conference was heralded in the local press with an article by reviewer Bill Varble that appeared today in the Ashland Daily Tidings and the Mail Tribune.   Varble said: On a day in mid May of 1575, a powerful 25-year-old English nobleman named Edward de Vere landed in Venice in northern Italy. One of the foremost cultural and mercantile cities in the world, Venice would be the young man's base for almost a year and a half of travels, after which he would return to England, where, according to some, he spent the rest of his years producing the works of Shakespeare. Read the entire article, "Who wrote Shakespeare? "  at: http://www.dailytidings.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100914/NEWS02/9140309 09/22/10 NOTE: A syllabus of the SF/SOS 2010 conference in Ashland, Oregon is available at http://www.sh...

The  Shakespearean Authorship Trust  -- headed by chairman Mark Rylance -- in collaboration with  Brunel University  will hold a one-day conference at Shakespeare's Globe in London from 11 a.m. go 6 p.m. Sunday, November 28, 2010. The topic of the gathering is  "Shakinomics: Building bridges in Shakespeare studies" . The group defines  Shakinomics   as:  making new connections in Shakespeare studies with particular reference to the cultural capital of Shakespeare; the Shakespeare industry, heritage, tourism, authority, and authorship issues. The bringing together of and mutual respect for knowledge produced by academics, independent scholars, actors, directors, film makers, biographers, and creative writers in the field of Shakespeare studies. Brunel's Dr. William Leahy will host guest speakers: Prof. Willy Maley of Glasgow University  Dr. Sean Gaston of Brunel University Prof. William Rubenstein of Aberwstwyth University Charles Beauc...

University of Warwick doctoral researcher Peter Kerwin -- in his blog The Shakespeare Apocrypha , one of the Warwick Blogs written by students and staff of the University of Warwick -- engaged in a lengthy discussion of Shakespeare authorship with alternate-authorship advocate Howard Schumann responding to Kerwin's Aug. 24, 2010 blog post announcing his July 29, 2010 publication of an article titled "Knowing Will Too Well" in the University of Warwick's  Knowledge Centre  online magazine . In his 23:32, August 28, 2010 comment responding to Schumann, Kerwin said: The purpose of the [Knowledge Center] article was not to prove that Shakespeare of Stratford wrote the plays, which frankly I don’t care about either way, but to point out that the essential grounds for doubt are flawed, and that creative biography is in many ways to blame, and that the debate cannot be resolved on these terms. Earlier that day at 14:28, Aug. 28, 2010 Kirwin had commented to Schumann: Your ...