Oberon Shakespeare Study Group

Robert Brazil's childhood friend and publisher, Jefferson Foote, announced that Brazil's unpublished manuscript, Angel Day, the English Secretary, and the Seventeenth Earl of Oxford , is now available as a paperback from Amazon. The Amazon.com description of Angel Day, etc. says: . . . In this volume, Robert Brazil reports his research into the life of Angel Day and The English Secretary' s broad influence on Elizabethan writers, including Shakespeare. Day was the English Secretary -- to Edward de Vere, the 17th Earl of Oxford, to whom every edition was dedicated. Brazil shows evidence that the two men worked together to produce the book, Day being the loyal, practical conduit for the erratic co-contributions of an eccentric genius. Upon learning of Brazil's death in 2010, and with the approval of Brazil's family, Foote undertook to publish Brazil's lifework beginning with Edward DeVere and the Shakespeare Printers that Foote published in 2012 under t...

by Linda Theil Neue Shake-speareGesellschaft (New Shakespeare Society) board member Hanno Wember of Hamburg, Germany reports that Kurt Kreiler’s new book, Edward de Vere, Earl of Oxford -- The Thriftless Threadwhich Pampered Beauty Spins , was released by leading German publisher Suhrkamp/Insel on November 11, 2013. The book features commentary and translation into German of the poems of Edward de Vere (1550-1604). “The book - although in German - is bilingual concerning the poems. Interested people can at least read the poems in the original language,” Wember said. “ Suhrkamp/Insel is is one of the leading German publishing houses in literature.” Wember translated two paragraphs from the publisher’s webpage from German into English to give a sense of the content of Kreiler’s book about de Vere’s poems: Edward de Vere, Earl of Oxford Der zarte Faden, den die Schönheit spinn (“The thriftless thread which pamper’d beauty spins”) One Hundred Poems Edited and translated by ...

Richard Whalen announced the second edition of his Oxfordian edition of Macbeth has been issued by Llumina Press. The book is available from Llumina and Amazon. Whalen said:  I hope you'll be intrigued . . . by this new interpretation. The introduction is entirely new, the line notes are much expanded and other sections incorporate new material. . . .  The new interpretation refers to Macbeth's ambition or lack of it. His tragic flaw is not his "overweening ambition" as the Stratfordians would have it. That's not in the play. To the contrary, he exhibits a surprising lack of ambition. This interpretation of Macbeth's character reveals different reactions to what is going on around him and explains his actions, some of which Stratfordian commentators find puzzling. This is the principal difference from the first edition. Whalen said he is looking into the possibility of producing an electronic verson of the book, but is running into difficulty with formatti...

Sir Derek Jacobi in PBS series Shakespeare Uncovered, Richard II episode by Linda Theil In a new six-part PBS series, Shakespeare Uncovered, elucidating the glories of the Bard’s plays, Sir Derek Jacobi “ . . . sets the fur flying”, as he says in his one-hour segment on the play, Richard II , by advocating Edward de Vere  as the author of the work known under the pseudonym William Shakespeare. The Richard II segment aired February 1, 2013 on PBS stations and is available on DVD and for viewing online from the Shakespeare Uncovered site at http://www.pbs.org/wnet/shakespeare-uncovered/video/richard-ii-with-derek-jacobi/ Retired humanities professor James Norwood of St. Paul, Minnesota has given Oberon permission to publish his commentary on the Shakespeare Uncovered series that Norwood originally posted to the late Robert Brazil’s private authorship discussion list, Elizaforum. Professor Norwood taught a course on the topic of Shakespeare authorship at the University...

Lamberto Tassinari Christopher Innes, David Prosser, Don Rubin, Michel Vais, Keir Cutler, Mark Anderson This past weekend Linda Theil and I represented Oberon at an Authorship Conference at York University in Toronto. This conference was organized by Professor Donald Rubin of the Theatre Department at York University as a culmination of a semester long seminar he taught at that university over the winter (more on this course in a later post). The conference was very enjoyable. Don Rubin was an excellent host and I was glad to meet him again (he had been at the Joint SOS/SF conferences in Houston and Washington). The conference began at 11:00 on Saturday with some opening remarks by Professor Rubin, in which he described how he became interested in the Authorship Question after reading Mark Anderson’s Shakespeare By Another Name and how he was very happy to have taught a course on the subject (over some objections by fellow faculty members at the University). Many, if...

Richard Waugaman, MD , has emerged in the past decade as a primary proponent of research into the Shakespeare authorship query. When the  clinical professor of psychiatry at  Georgetown University School of Medicine was invited to deliver the  2012   Frieda Fromm-Reichmann Lecture he chose as his topic,  " A  Refugee from Chestnut Lodge Receives Asylum at the  Folger Shakespeare Library: New Discoveries about the  Authorship of Shakespeare’s Works”. In his presentation, Waugaman described -- among other issues -- his work on connections between the Sternhold and Hopkins Whole Book of Psalms and Shakespeare's work. He also discussed the psychological ramifications of Stratfordian resistance to Shakespeare authorship research. Waugaman's research is available at his website, The Oxfreudian , where a video of his Fromm-Reichman lecture will be linked when it becomes available. A transcript of his lecture is presented after the jump at th...

In an interview titled "Roland Emmerich talks Shakespeare . . ."  with Jeremey Gingrich published this month at Flix 66, Roland Emmerich said attacks  by the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust and by Contested Will author James Shapiro  against his Shakespeare authorship film, Anonymous , hurt the film's attendance. According to Gingrich, Emmerich said: It hurt. Because it made smart people not want to see the film. These guys are famous people. The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust is very powerful in England and Jim Shapiro is kind of your typical New York intellectual, and they were very smart how they handled this film in discrediting the film. And when you look at the reviews, you'll notice most were reviewing the [authorship] theory and not the film. The film opened to disappointing box office last fall, and was released by Sony Pictures Home Entertainment on DVD, Blu-Ray, and iTunes this week. Despite impressive CGI and extraordinary performances by Vanessa Redgrave...

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...

Oxford and the queen from Roland Emmerich's Anonymous Mark Anderson, author of "Shakespeare" by Another Name , reported today on his ShakesVere Facebook page that media notice of Roland Emmerich's Anonymous (Was Shakespeare a Fraud?) is heating up with the film's debut at the Toronto International Film Festival this week. Like Oberon's Richard Joyrich in yesterday's review here, film critic Bill Goodykoontz touted Anonymous  as one of ten potential Oscar candidates at the Toronto International Film Festival this week. "And if you want to get a jump on the Oscars race, obviously that's an option. Here are 10 movies that seem to have a pretty good chance at securing Oscar nominations in major categories," Goodykoontz said at AZ Central and other media outlets Wednesday. "Anonymous -- 'Who really wrote Shakespeare's plays?' is a popular parlor-game question for English majors from way back (I know, as I was one, and ...

Actor and playwright Keir Cutler premiered a new, one-act play June 11, 2011 at the Montreal Fringe Festival 2011 . The two-man show, Teaching Hamlet , with Culter and Brett Watson will run through June 19, 2011 at Fire Station No. 14 in Montreal. The show was mentioned yesterday in an article titled "Montreal Fringe Festival: Even eccentrics are as good as their word" by Pat Donnelly in the Montreal Gazette. Donnelly said: Teaching Hamlet: Keir Cutler's latest variation on the wacky Shakespearean professor theme pits the Oxfordians (those who believe Edward de Vere, the 17th Earl of Oxford, wrote the Complete Works) against the Stratfordians (those who believe Shakespeare wrote his own plays). A fanatic Oxfordian scholar (Cutler) lures a young actor (Brett Watson), currently starring in Hamlet, into his studio to record a pro-Oxfordian video for cash. He claims the board of directors of his organization is watching from the control booth. What ensues is an intell...

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...

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...

The cover article of Reform Judaism Magazine's summer 2010 issue, "Unmasking Shakespeare: Were the Greatest Works of Western Literature Written by a Woman?" by Michael Posner is a discussion of the Shakespearean authorship claim of Amelia Bassano Lanier. The following open letter from Richard Joyrich to readers of the RJM article addressing the Lanier claim and the Shakespeare authorship question. Dear readers, I would like to make some comments regarding the article which appears in the recent issue of Reform Judaism on the “true identity” of Shakespeare being Amelia Bassano Lanier. As the article correctly states there is indeed a growing number of people who are dissatisfied with the “traditional” attribution of the plays and poems written under the name “William Shakespeare” (frequently “William Shake-Speare” perhaps indicating a pseudonym) to William Shaksper (this is the way it is always spelled on legal documents) of Stratford-upon-Avon for many reasons (...