To be, or not to be... a great bard

I've just caught a bit of the news.

Apparently a new film is coming out that suggests William Shakespeare wasn't really the author of his famous works, but rather someone else wrote it all.

Apparently, there is great fallout over this. There's been protests in Stratford on Avon, and "scholars" are up in arms about it all.

Some posh lady has just been insulting us all by saying that we're all ignorant these days anyway and rubbish claims like this just distort history further.

The question on my mind is this: Why does it matter? Will the world change drastically if it someone manages to conclusively prove whether or not Bill was the great bard? Do our jobs, our livelihoods, or lives depend on it?

If a rose were known by any other name, would it not be as thorny?

 

This stuff isn't new, Clueless. There are those who think that Christopher Marlowe didn't come to a sticky end over a bar bill, but went on to become Shakespeare. Others insist that Francis Bacon was the bard. We know so little about Shakespeare's life that one could fill in the blanks with all kinds of stories.

I don't think it really matters. Either the body of work is worthwhile, or it isn't. But it is interesting and it gives academics something to argue about.

 

Random useless bit of information for you;

Shakespeare wasn't allowed in any Public House in England.








































He was Bard.

 

Shakespeare in anagrams, Monty Python:D

 

For a modern take on the bard, I recommend The Skinhead Hamlet. WARNING: not for the easily offended. It's full of treetreetreetreetreetreetreetree.

The Skinhead Hamlet

 

rhys ifan was on the one show last night...im looking forward to seeing it

 

The media have got rather excited over the film, but the conspiracy theories have abounded for centuries!
The film claims it was Edward DeVere, 17th Earl of Oxford wot wrote it all.



Part of the evidence being that DeVere did apparently once kill a man by poking him through the arras with a sword.
And of course he would have had more access to Courtly gossip and tales than a jobbing actor.

We were presented with the multiple authors/ DeVere/ Bacon theses at school. Made not a jot of difference to our enjoyment (or otherwise) of the plays or termly trips to Stratford.
On one occasion before a performance we attended a workshop with Mark Rylance, a proponent of this theory who happens to be in this film.

Front Row gave the film a rather lukewarm reception, less to do with the premise though, than with the execution.