Oberon Shakespeare Study Group

The Shakespeare Authorship Coalition announced today that the SAC and twelve anti-Stratfordian groups have endorsed a rebuttal to  the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust's "Sixty Minutes with Shakespeare" initiative launched to counter interest in the Shakespeare authorship question generated by Roland Emmerich's film,  Anonymous .  Oberon Shakespeare Study Group vice-chair and Shakespeare Oxford Society President Richard Joyrich, MD is among the anti-Stratfordian scholars who participated in the SAC project. Joyrich authored the anti-Stratfordian rebuttal to  the SBT's Question 18: What was Shakespeare's social status?, originally answered for the Stratfordians by SBT  Representative Trustee from the University of London, Rene Weis: William Shakespeare was the son of a successful yeoman glover who had served a term as mayor of Stratfordupon-Avon. Through his mother Mary Arden, Shakespeare may have been related to the ancient Arden family  of Park Hall. In 15...

Historian Mike Dash made the case for "William Shakespeare, Gangster" on his weblog, A Blast from the Past , and on the Past Imperfect weblog of Smithsonian.com  November 7, 2011. Dash discussed the dearth of historical data on William Shakespeare and, with evidence described in Leslie Hotson's 1931 book   Shakespeare Versus Shallow , made a case for Shakespeare as a thug. Dash concluded: That Will Shakespeare was somehow involved in the low-life rackets of Southwark seems, from Hotson’s evidence, reasonably certain. Whether he remained involved in them past 1597, though, it is impossible to say. He certainly combined his activities as one of Langley’s henchmen with the gentler work of writing plays, and by 1597 was able to spend £60—a large sum for the day—on purchasing the New Place, Stratford, a mansion with extensive gardens that was the second-largest house in his home town. It is tempting to speculate, however, whether the profits that paid for such an opulent r...

Journalist Mark Anderson announced on his SBAN weblog yesterday that the e-book edition of his iconic Shakespeare by Another Name (Gotham Books/Penguin Group USA, 2005) is now available on the Internet from e-publisher Untreed Reads and other bookesellers. According to Anderson's post, the new edition includes: SBAN's cover featuring a new bust of Edward de Vere supervised by Ben August and sculpted by Paula Slater (as  chronicled on this blog ).  An introductory chapter called "The Argument" that succinctly encapsulates the case for Edward de Vere as "Shakespeare" and addresses arguments against the Oxfordian camp put forward in James Shapiro's recent book Contested Will .  A new images section A new appendix addressing the recent media frenzy over the "Cobbe Portrait of Shakespeare" A new appendix concerning the movie  Anonymous  and the questions it raises over the "Prince Tudor" hypotheses -- i.e. concerning claims of on...

Georgetown University professor of psychology Richard Waugaman, MD, reviewed Rolland Emmerich's Shakespeare authorship film, Anonymous , for Roger Stritmatter's Shake-Speare's Bible weblog yesterday in an essay titled "Not unanimous on Anonymous". Waugaman's knowledge of the authorship issue, his insight into the forces contributing to the controversy, and his lucid writing style make reading his essay a necessary pleasure. Waugaman said: Psychoanalysts are in a unique position to elucidate the psychology of literary anonymity and pseudonymity. The evidence suggests that keeping one’s authorship secret helps promote what Keat’s called Shakespeare’s “negative capability”—keeping his own identity in the background as he created hundreds of utterly convincing characters. . . . When I am told that Oxfordians are simply unable to admit they’re wrong, I point out that every Oxfordian I know started as a Stratfordian, until they looked into the matter more deepl...

Hanno Wember of the Shake-speare Today website reports from Germany that major media in Germany has responded to Roland Emmerich's Shakespeare authorship film, Anonymous : Film release was Thursday [in Germany]. All major German (Austrian / Swiss) newspapers, magazines, many broadcast and TV-stations and an uncounted number of smaller media respond to the film [ Anonymous ]. Among them Frankfurter Allgemeine, Suddeutsche Zeitung, Frankfurter Rundschau, Die Welt, Neue Zuricher Zeitung, Financial Times Deutschland, Berliner Zeitung, Berliner Morgenpost, Der Tagespiegel, Salzburger Nachrichten, Wiener Zeitung, Die Zeit, Der Spiegel, Focus, Stern, SWr, NDr, RTL . . . -- m any with full-page articles, some even twice or thrice this week.  During the last week we have posted 30 links on our webpage , but this is only one third or even less of the full number:  http://shake-speare-today.de/index.57.0.1.html .  The vast majority welcomed the film, taking the authorship questio...

In the November 2011 edition of Interview Magazine , Royal Young talks to Hilary Roe Metternich about her father's book  The Shakespeare Guide to Italy: Retracing the Bard's Unknown Travels  by John Paul Roe. The Shakespeare Guide to Italy was released this week by Harper Perennial.  In the Interview article titled "Hilary Roe on the Bard of Verona" , Young opens the door to Roe's life and work: Though Richard Paul Roe passed away in 2010, in a Shakespearean twist, his daughter Hilary Roe Metternich, a Greek and Roman scholar, helped him publish it posthumously. We spoke with Hilary about her father's own complex persona, from studying chemistry to flying bombers over Naples to cracking Shakespeare, why he had his doubts, and how he set out to prove them. Young asked Metternich about her position on the topic of the Shakespeare authorship. She replied with a laugh:  Well, of course, I am going to agree with my father. The person who wrote these plays ha...

Dear Oberon,   It's time for another Oberon meeting! Yes, I know that we just had one two weeks ago, but it must be so. The meeting will be this coming Thursday at the Farmington Hills Library on 12 Mile Road at 6:45 PM.   This will be the final time we will be meeting at this location (unless someone who lives or works in Farmington Hills will step up and commit to being present at EVERY meeting), so don't miss your chance to participate in a historic occasion (it will be like the last game at Tiger Stadium, well, maybe not).   Tom Townsend will be reprising the excellent presentation he did at the recent Joint Conference in Washington, DC on  Romeo and Juliet . Trust me, after seeing this presentation you will never look at this play the same way again.   We will discuss our plans for meeting in the future (now that we are temporarily homeless). I will, of course, keep all of you informed of any decisions (although it would be better if you w...

Christopher Paul reports that his review of  Shakespeare's Lost Kingdom  by Charles Beauclerk has been translated into German by the Neue Shake-speare Gesellschaft (New Shake-speare Society) for the current edition of the  NEW SHAKE-SPEARE JOURNAL :  Christopher Paul, "Shakespeares verlorenes Königreich,"  NEUES SHAKE-SPEARE JOURNAL  New Series 2 (2011), 13-31. The German-language review is available on-line in PDF format at  http://shake-speare-today.de/ front_content.php?idart=568 . Paul's original English version of the review was published in  Brief Chronicles  II (2010, Print Edition), 244-57, available on the  Brief Chronicles  website ( http://www.briefchronicles. com/ojs/index.php/bc/index.php ) at  http://www.briefchronicles. com/ojs/index.php/bc/article/ view/73. From the review: The underlying theme of Beauclerk’s book is based upon two separate Prince Tudor (PT) theories, over which Oxfordians a...