Winkler lights the match

by Linda Theil

When asked by an interviewer why all the experts disagree with her on the legitimacy of the Shakespeare authorship question, journalist and author Elizabeth Winkler calmly replied, "You've asked the wrong experts." *

With that simple declaration Winkler exploded the topic of Shakespearean authorship forever.

Anti-Stratfordians need no smoking gun, no convincing narrative, no reason who, how, when, or why because within the works lies the unassailable argument: Shakespeare's knowledge.

Ask the lawyers.

Ask the psychologists.

Ask the librarians.

Ask the historians.

Ask the dramaturges.

Ask the mathematicians.

Ask the Greek scholars.

Ask the physicists.

Ask the astronomers.

Ask the courtiers.

Ask the bibliophiles.

Ask the Italians.

Ask the French.

Ask the Russians.

Ask the English.

Ask everyone.

Current academic agreement on a bevy of Shakespearean collaborators springs from an unspoken awareness of how much assistance the Stratfordian presumptive would have needed to create the works.

In a 2020 article for the International Journal of Applied Analytical Studies, Richard M. Waugaman, MD opined:

In 2012, [Honorary president of the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, Sir Stanley] Wells claimed that “Shakespeare was not all that learned.” But evidence of Shakespeare's exceptional learning keeps mounting, as past skepticism is being refuted with examples of his deep knowledge of many languages and subjects. He was a true Renaissance man. For example, the Arden series of “Dictionaries” demonstrates Shakespeare's close familiarity with medicine, music, plants, religion, political and economic theory, and many other specialized subjects. A highlight of the series is Stuart Gillespie's 2016 Shakespeare's Books, an incomplete listing of some 200 writers whose works influenced Shakespeare.

. . . Wells illustrates the tendency to dumb down Shakespeare, so that the putative author, his ostensible education, and his life experience better fit the evidence.

Won't work ever again.

Ka-boom.

*July 30, 2023 K. Sharpe's SOF Bookclub Zoom presentation

Naylor 1896

Waugaman named Oxfordian of the Year 2021

by Linda Theil Waugaman taking his first selfie in his home office in Potomac Maryland The Shakespeare Oxford Fellowship named Richard Waugaman, MD, Oxfordian of the Year 2021 at their annual conference on October 9, 2021. Waugaman is a clinical professor of psychiatry on the faculty of Georgetown University, a training and supervising analyst emeritus with the Washington Psychoanalytic Institute, and is in private practice of psychiatry and psychoanalysis in Potomac, Maryland. For over a decade Waugaman has published extensively on the topic of Shakespeare authorship including work in journals outside the normal reach of the subject such as Psychoanalytic Quarterly , the International Journal of Psychoanalytic Studies , and Contemporary Psychoanalysis . He has presented on the topic before such diverse venues as the International Psychoanalytic Congress, the New Directions Conference, the Shakespeare Association of America, the American Shakespeare Center, and the Cosmos Club in ...

What's a popp'rin' pear?

James Wheaton reported yesterday in the Jackson Citizen Patriot that the Michigan Shakespeare Festival high school tour of Romeo and Juliet was criticized for inappropriate content -- " So me take issue with sexual innuendoes in Michigan Shakespeare Festival’s High School Tour performances of ‘Romeo & Juliet’" : Western [High School] parent Rosie Crowley said she was upset when she heard students laughing about sexual content in the play afterwards. Her son didn’t attend the performance Tuesday because of another commitment, she said. “I think the theater company should have left out any references that were rated R,” Crowley said. “I would say that I’ve read Shakespeare, and what I was told from the students, I’ve never read anything that bad.” She said she objected to scenes that involved pelvic thrusting and breast touching and to a line in which Mercutio makes suggestive comments to Romeo after looking up the skirt of a female. The problem with cutting out...

“Shakespeare’s Shylock and The Merchant of Venice” by Showerman and Delahoyde presented at Folio: Seattle Athenaeum Tuesday

Earl Showerman, MD and Michael Delahoyde, PhD at Folio: Seattle Athenaeum, March 13, 2018 by guest correspondent Tom Townsend March 14, 2018 Two Shakespearean scholars, Earl Showerman, MD and Michael Delahoyde, PhD discussed critical topics about Shakespeare’s impressive work The Merchant of Venice . Dr. Showerman discussed a real person, Gaspar Ribiero, as the likely model for Shylock; Dr. Delahoyde showcased the need to view different perspectives in Merchant. These presentations took place Tuesday, March 13, 2018 at Folio: The Seattle Athenaeum where approximately 50 people attended. These conversations are timely because The Seattle Shakespeare Company is producing Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice March 20-April 15, 2018. Showerman’s thesis: Ribiero is Shylock Earl Showerman clearly presented many excellent reasons why Gaspar Ribiero, a Sixteenth-century, Portuguese Jew living in Venice — and forced to convert to Christianity — could likely be the...

Oberon Shakespeare Study Group

Search This Blog