Oberon Shakespeare Study Group

Exciting news for Oberon to kick off the New Year! Not only is our first meeting next Thursday evening, January 17, but our guest speaker will be Mr. Charles Adams Kelly of Howland Research in Ann Arbor, author of Echoes and Shadows in the Texts of Shakespeare's Hamlet , a new study of the first editions of Hamlet . Mr. Kelly will tell us about his research into the issue of whether the First Quarto of Hamlet is a pirated edition, an unauthorized text, or whether it represents a legitimate development, such as an early draft, of that great play. His presentation will offer further impetus to our Hamlet project. Advance reports by Linda Theil and Richard Joyrich, who have met Mr. Kelly, are enthusiastic. This promises to be an evening of fascinating discussion. Please make sure it is on your schedule. Doors open at 6:45 at the Farmington Community Library , Room B. The library is on 12 Mile Rd. between Orchard Lake Road and Farmington Road. Hope your holiday was joyous and that yo...

Dear Oberon, I am pleased to report that Thursday's meeting featuring herbalist Lonnie Morley discussing Shakespeare's herbal imagery as a clue to the author's identity was a huge success. Ms. Morley brought insight into the important role of herbs and flowers in Shakespeare's plays and poems. She has agreed to post a shortened version of her talk on our Oberon blog, so please stay tuned. If you are interested in Shakespeare, you will be very interested in Morley's treatment of this key topic. In addition, Ms. Morley is a staunch supporter of the view that Edward de Vere authored the works of Shakespeare. After all, he grew up in the home of his ward, Sir William Cecil, Lord Burghley, whose gardens were among the most magnificent in all Elizabethan England and whose master gardener, with whom young de Vere was surely well acquainted, wrote a compendium on herbs of such authority that it is still in use today. Shakespeare shows a remarkable familiarity with herbs, fl...

Charles Adams Kelly of Howland Research in Ann Arbor, Michigan will read from his new -- April 2007 -- book, Echoes & Shadows in the Texts of Shakespeare's Hamlet at 7 p.m. Thursday, October 25 at Shaman Drum bookstore, 315 S. State Street, Ann Arbor, Michigan. You can order Kelly's work from Shaman Drum in Ann Arbor or from Amazon.com . Kelly says: Echoes & Shadows is a concise but dense re-examination of a range of evidence that tends to challenge the accepted notion of the 1st Quarto of Hamlet as a bad quarto, an unauthorized abridgment. The author advances the scholarly perspective of two significant areas of evidence, and provides a convincing indication that the planned textual analysis will further support the theory of Q1 Hamlet as an earlier authorized text. The Howland website provides sample pages and illustrations from the book. Kelly's analysis tools are available free for research purposes from the website .