Once more up to the breech good friends....

This excellent, clear and well-written exposition on the subject of the authorship of the Shakespearean corpus is a good introduction to the holy war raging between the academicians and readers of common sense. In this holy war, the Academicians have much to lose, namely their claim to the priesthood itself. If it becomes general knowledge and common opinion that the plays and poems are not by one Wm Shakspere (or Shaxper) of Stratford-upon-Avon many scholarly reputations will crumble to dust and their possessors will be unmasked as intellectual fools. Well, perhaps tools. If fools is too harsh. Misguided and blind to heterodoxy.

 

Alias Shakespeare by Joseph Sobran. Admirably clear and well organized this book will introduce the new ever reader to the holy war. It is, of course, a brief for Edward de Vere, the 17th Earl of Oxford and a convincing one. I do not think of anything here which is not in Ogburn but what is here is complete enough and cogent enough as an introduction. And a welcome one too, to rejoin the battle.

Those points not emphasized or left in bas relief are mainly cavils. I like my arguments always to note the signature implied in the line from the sonnets--"Every word doth speak my name..." or E. VERy word doth speak my name... If the gentle reader thinks this overly ingenious he (she) (it) is perhaps unaware of the poem Ann Vavasor's Echo ("Oh heavens! Who was the first that bred in me this fever? Vere...") Of course Sobran notes her (or his) poem. Other material of interest is Oxford's poems (under his own name). Though the case made for these is faint and would benefit from the techniques used in Who was Junius?

Click on the book cover to go to amazon.com to order the book.

See: The Mysterious William Shakespeare by Charlton Ogburn.

See: The Riddle of Shakespeare's Sonnets.