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De Vere Society steps up

The De Vere Society in the UK has issued a statement repudiating the "Prince Tudor" theory of Shakespeare authorship speculation that promotes the concept that Queen Elizabeth I was Shakespeare-contender Edward deVere's mother and that she gave birth to Henry Wriothesley by deVere. The idea that this notion might be given credence by the Roland Emmerich film, Anonymous, due out September 30, 2011, has concerned some Shakespeare authorship skeptics on both sides of the Atlantic who believe the idea brings disrepute to authorship inquiry. An article on The De Vere Society website dated May 2011 and titled "Anonymous film release", says:

. . . though the Society welcomes all who have an interest in what is known as the “Shakespeare Authorship Question”, it seeks to maintain rigorous academic quality and avoid the illogical, unfounded speculation that afflicts some aspects of Shakespeare scholarship.In particular, the Society considers that the following items do not meet those standards, have no validity, and are irrelevant to the question of the real Shakespeare’s identity.
  • The part of the film “Anonymous” which tries to link the Shakespeare Authorship Question with the possibility that Queen Elizabeth had one or more adulterous relationships that resulted in the birth of Edward de Vere and/or the Third Earl of Southampton,
  • Publications which, in denial of logic and evidence, propagate such notions,
  • Publications, including this film, that appear to base the concept of Edward de Vere being the writer Shakespeare on such notions.
Sources:
Nina Green's Phaeton: http://www.oxford-shakespeare.com/documents.html
Gary Goldstein, Managing Editor of Brief Chronicles: http://www.briefchronicles.com/ojs/index.php/bc/index.php
The De Vere Society: http://www.deveresociety.co.uk
IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1521197/

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