ME AND MARK TWAIN....
Did you know that I share something in common with the great American writer Mark Twain?
Can you work out what it might be? (No rude answers please!)
Well, as a further clue, I also share this same thing with Charles Dickens and Charlie Chaplin. Got it yet?
Well, Sigmund Freud and Malcolm X felt the same. As did Sir John Gielgud!
Yip - we all agree that the so-called Bard of Avon, William Shakespeare, was NOT the author of those famous plays and sonnets! Just reading another book about the Shakespearean authorship, it's a perennial topic of interest to me and whilst one can argue that it makes no difference to the quality of the work, it IS a great detective story.
Ever been to Stratford-upon-Avon? It's a lovely place, very touristy though! A lot of money to be made from tourists, mind you. If you go Holy Trinity Church, as I have, and to the spot where "the Stratford man" lies buried, you will see a memorial to him. But guess what? It was changed. I attach the original image of the memorial (No clue to ANY Literary achievements!)and then the altered one. I wonder why it was so dramatically altered, by whom, and why? Is it possible that our Greatest ever writer was in fact NOT the man from Stratford and that the idea that he was is the most colossal fraud in the history of the written word?
David Vance
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I've been to Stratford several times and have done the tourist trail round the town. You've obviously read a lot on the possible identity of the playwight and you're convinced it wasn't the Stratford man. Maybe there's more evidence to be discovered which will settle it one way or the other.
As you say, it doesn't detract from the genius of the works, whoever wrote them.
After this period of time we may never know for sure.
According to unconfirmed reports, your posts are dictated by an elderly Protestant missionary in a remote section of China that the Communists never bothered to take over and transcribed by ex-Nike factory employees. The articles are then sent to India for translation (Adrian's seminary is a front for a translating facility). From there they are shipped directly to NI in boxes marked "Bibles" where they are opened and inspected by a group of devoted Orangemen followers wearing Margaret Thatcher masks (to hide their identity from each other) and placed in random order on your desk for physical input into the computer.
Ah, but here's the thing which disproves your theory. Letters in my confirmed handwriting have been found. As you know, the Bard left..erm..nothing. Not a scrap, not a letter, nothing. Some say he could not write!!
As I recall the Bard left his wife his second best bed in his Will, which always struck me as the funniest bequest in history.
He did indeed leave "his second best bed" to his wife, (Wonder what happened his best bed?) But of those famous manuscripts - not a letter, not a scrap. Not a word. How odd.
I ask the following questions:
if Shakespeare wasn't the author of the works attributed to him, than who?
Why would all of these masterpieces be attributed to Shakespeare if he didn't write them?
Has anybody ever proved that he didn't write them?
Applying Occam's razor - it seems to me that Shakespeare is the author.
I passionately believe that Edward de Vere, the Earl of OXFORD, was the author of the plays and sonnets. To gain an insight into this issue - go visit this site and retain an open mind. Shaksper - the Stratford man (sic) was NOT the author of the plays.
http://www.shakespeare-oxford.com/
So where did the most comfortable one go to? And when we are at it, where did all those manuscripts go? I mean, not one original page has been ever found? Perhaps they were hidden in bed number one.
Here's another one for you.
Go to the Bible. Psalm 46.
The 46th word from the beginning is Shake and the 46th word from the end if spear. A mathematical coincidence. They say that he (De Vere) had a role in tidying up the KJ Bible you know......!!!!