Who Writes this Stuff?

http://www.sonypictures.com/homevideo/anonymous/According to the records, Shakespeare died in 1616.  Seven years later (1623) two of his colleagues collected his plays and published them in the famous “First Folio.”  Ben Jonson famously wrote the forward.  The Bard and family were safely interred in his home town of Stratford Upon Avon in England and his reputation seemed safe as England’s greatest writer.  That is until about two hundred years later when the idea was first popularized that perhaps Shakespeare wasn’t that great, perhaps he wasn’t even good, perhaps he was a fraud.  Someone else wrote the plays and poems and sonnets and they were only credited to Shakespeare for any number of reasons.

 And so the authorship controversy was born.  To briefly sum up the issue, those who question the Shakespearian authorship (the “anti-Stratfordians”) believe the person who wrote those plays had to be very well educated, very well traveled, and very well connected.  The man we know as William Shakespeare was none of those.  A man of limited education, little travel and little actual court experience, he could never have written the plays.  Those who reject this idea, that is, the traditionalists reject the “anti-Stratfordian line as being elitist and point to the fact that apparently no one questioned the authorship at the time and even so great a writer as Ben Jonson was a fan.

Our exhaustive research here at Bardwatching consists of reading one book, Who Wrote Shakespeare by John Michell.  I did not purchase this book because I knew it was the definitive work on the subject.  I got it because I saw it at a used book store and thought, why not?  (According to the Amazon web site, Publisher’s Weekly called this book an “unconvincing piece of shaky scholarship.”) Regardless, I came away with the belief that the case against Shakespearian authorship is far stronger than the case for any of the other candidates (which include such luminaries of the time as Christopher Marlowe, Ben Jonson and even Queen Elizabeth herself).   Even after reading Michell’s work I was comfortable giving credit to the Bard (and by the Bard I mean the man William Shakespeare) and continuing to enjoy the plays as I had opportunity to see them.

Others would not go so gently.  One candidate for the authorship prize is Edward de Vere, the Earl of Oxford.  Those who support  (the “Oxfordians”) are a particularly vocal lot.   Coincidentally,  was Michell’s favorite choice for authorship.  Currently there is a fairly active Facebook page dedicated to proving Edward de Vere  did in fact write the plays commonly ascribed to Shakespeare.   The Oxfordian case hit the big time with the recent production of the film “Anonymous” starring Rhys Ifans as the Earl of Oxford.

 “Anonymous” is not a documentary.  I am sure that the Oxfordians would consider it fiction based on fact.  Those on the other side would probably consider it revisionist history.  We here at Bardwatching thought it was a pretty good movie. 

The Earl of Oxford, according to the film, early on showed a liking to poetry and writing.  It was a poorly kept secret among his friends and family that he had this literary side.  However it was made clear to him that writing was no way for a gentleman, especially a nobleman, to make a living.  Oxford however was determined that his words could sway the nation far more than position and/or power so he devises a way to get his “words” out.  He approaches Ben Jonson to be his living pen name.  Oxford gives the plays to Jonson, Jonson takes credit and everyone is happy.  Jonson hesitatingly agrees to present one of the plays but before he can take credit, William Shakespeare, a barely literate, and not very talented, member of the company takes credit for the play and a literary star is “born.”

The movie follows the life of de Vere through its various ups and downs.  Although it is a historical fact that de Vere was well connected, it is not necessarily proven that he was quite as connected with Queen Elizabeth as the movie suggests.  By the end of the film, de Vere passes from the scene, soon to be forgotten, while Shakespeare’s fame and reputation only grows.

 I enjoyed the film.  It’s a period piece, not unlike “Shakespeare in Love.”  (That movie, as some might recall, posits that Christopher Marlowe had a large role in the writing of the plays. Who can forget “Romeo and Ethel?”)  Will the movie convince you that de Vere actually wrote the plays?  I do not think it will.  Does it really matter?  Not to me.  To paraphrase an author who for the purposes of this paragraph shall remain anonymous, what’s in an author’s name?  A play written under any other name would sound just as sweet.