Alias Shakespeare: Solving the Greatest Literary Mystery of All TimeFree Press, 1997 - 311 էջ Who wrote Shakespeare's plays? Today, the long-standing and impassioned debate about the so-called authorship question is perceived by Shakespearean scholars as the preserve of eccentrics and cranks. But in this contrarian work of literary detection, author Joseph Sobran boldly reopens this debate and allows the members of Shakespeare's vast contemporary public to weigh all the evidence and decide for themselves. An enormous shelf of biographical scholarship has grown up over the past 300 years around the "Swan of Avon". But what are these histories based on? Revealing that no more than a handful of fragmentary documents attest to Shakespeare's existence - and virtually none which link him to the plays themselves - Sobran delightfully debunks this elaborate egalitarian myth concocted in equal parts of speculation, wishfulness, and fantasy. More importantly, Sobran shows how many questions the myth leaves unanswered: How could a provincial actor from Stratford gain such an intimate knowledge of court life? How could he know so much of classical authors and not own a single book? How could he write compromising love sonnets to his social superior, the powerful Earl of Southampton? How could he know so much of Italy, a place he never visited? Why was there no notice of the famous writer's death in 1616? Why, in short, does Shakespeare remain such an obscure and shadowy figure? Methodically demolishing the case for "Mr. Shakspere", Sobran shows it is highly implausible that he wrote the poems and plays we know as The Works of William Shakespeare. Other candidates exist, of course, including Ben Jonson, Christopher Marlowe, and Francis Bacon. Sobran dispenses with these claimants, then sets forth the startlingly persuasive case for Edward de Vere, the seventeenth Earl of Oxford. Oxford was a widely traveled, classically educated member of the Elizabethan court. A swashbuckling spendthrift, he swung high and low in the eyes of his peers. Having spent most of his fortune on adventures in Italy and elsewhere on the Continent - like Hamlet he was captured by pirates in the English Channel - he fell into disrepute for reasons that included rumors about his homosexuality. Still he topped many lists of the best Elizabethan poets at the time, even ranking above Edmund Spenser and Sir Philip Sidney. He was an avid book collector, and a love of the literary arts ran in his family. His uncle not only pioneered the sonnet form that came to be known as Shakespearean, he also translated the English edition of Ovid that indisputably guided Shakespeare's pen. More strikingly, Oxford was the ward of Lord Burghley - the man widely acknowledged as the model for the character Polonius in Hamlet. Ultimately, Sobran shows us why a disgraced nobleman such as Oxford would have sought solace in the anonymity of writing pseudonymous plays and poetry. |
From inside the book
Արդյունքներ 12–ի 1-ից 3-ը:
Էջ 48
... remained the standard for most of the eighteenth century ; Samuel Johnson had little to add and merely reprinted Rowe's account in his own 1765 edition of the plays . Rowe's biography was only gradually picked apart by later scholarship ...
... remained the standard for most of the eighteenth century ; Samuel Johnson had little to add and merely reprinted Rowe's account in his own 1765 edition of the plays . Rowe's biography was only gradually picked apart by later scholarship ...
Էջ 98
... may have sensed the truth . Walt Whitman spoke of certain facts about Shakespeare which remained “ dim and elusive . . . tantalizing and half suspected — suggesting explanations that one dare not put into 98 Alias Shakespeare.
... may have sensed the truth . Walt Whitman spoke of certain facts about Shakespeare which remained “ dim and elusive . . . tantalizing and half suspected — suggesting explanations that one dare not put into 98 Alias Shakespeare.
Էջ 199
... he would apply for a title and coat of arms . Yet however prominent he became in Stratford , he remained obscure in London , where he left few traces and seems to have frustrated even the tax The Sonnets Revisited 199.
... he would apply for a title and coat of arms . Yet however prominent he became in Stratford , he remained obscure in London , where he left few traces and seems to have frustrated even the tax The Sonnets Revisited 199.
Բովանդակություն
The Authorship Debate | 1 |
THE SHAKESPEARE MYTH | 17 |
The Life of Mr Shakspere | 19 |
Հեղինակային իրավունք | |
13 այլ բաժինները չեն ցուցադրվում
Common terms and phrases
Adonis Anne appears assume authorship bear become believe biographers Burghley called century common course court dating daughter dead death dedicated desire died doth doubt Earl early Elizabeth Elizabethan English evidence eyes fact Folio give Hamlet hand hath heart Henry hope interest Italy John Jonson King known later least less letter literary live London Lord Lucrece marry mean mention Meres mind muse nature never Oxford phrase plays playwright poems poet poet's praise probably published queen question readers reason records refers Richard says scholars seems sense Shake Shakespeare Shakspere shows Sonnets Southampton speak speare story Stratford suggests sweet tears tells thee things Thomas thou thought truth universal Venus Vere verse William Shakespeare writing written wrote young youth