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Hollywood Dishonors the Bard [ review of stupid Roland Emmerich movie ]
New York Times ^ | October 16, 2011 | James Shapiro

Posted on 10/18/2011 6:50:16 PM PDT by SunkenCiv

Roland Emmerich's film "Anonymous," which opens next week, "presents a compelling portrait of Edward de Vere as the true author of Shakespeare's plays." That's according to the lesson plans that Sony Pictures has been distributing to literature and history teachers in the hope of convincing students that Shakespeare was a fraud. A documentary by First Folio Pictures (of which Mr. Emmerich is president) will also be part of this campaign.

So much for "Hey, it's just a movie!"

The case for Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford, dates from 1920, when J. Thomas Looney, an English writer who loathed democracy and modernity, argued that only a worldly nobleman could have created such works of genius; Shakespeare, a glover's son and money-lender, could never have done so. Looney also showed that episodes in de Vere's life closely matched events in the plays. His theory has since attracted impressive supporters, including Sigmund Freud, the Supreme Court justice Antonin Scalia and his former colleague John Paul Stevens, and now Mr. Emmerich.

But promoters of de Vere's cause have a lot of evidence to explain away, including testimony of contemporary writers, court records and much else that confirms that Shakespeare wrote the works attributed to him. Meanwhile, not a shred of documentary evidence has ever been found that connects de Vere to any of the plays or poems. As for the argument that the plays rehearse the story of de Vere's life: since the 1850s, when Shakespeare's authorship was first questioned, the lives of 70 or so other candidates have also confidently been identified in them. Perhaps the greatest obstacle facing de Vere's supporters is that he died in 1604, before 10 or so of Shakespeare's plays were written.

(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...


TOPICS: History; Science; Travel
KEYWORDS: art; godsgravesglyphs; rolandemmerich; williamshakespeare
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1 posted on 10/18/2011 6:50:24 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
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To: SunkenCiv
"What fools these mortals be!"

Lamh Foistenach Abu!
2 posted on 10/18/2011 7:00:52 PM PDT by ConorMacNessa (HM/2 USN, 3/5 Marines RVN 1969 - St. Michael the Archangel defend us in Battle!)
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To: SunkenCiv

I also suspect that Edward de Vere was Jack the Ripper.


3 posted on 10/18/2011 7:01:45 PM PDT by JoeDetweiler
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To: nickcarraway; decimon; AdmSmith; AnonymousConservative; Berosus; bigheadfred; Bockscar; ColdOne; ...

 GGG managers are SunkenCiv, StayAt HomeMother & Ernest_at_the_Beach
Just adding to the catalog, not sending a general distribution.

To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list.


4 posted on 10/18/2011 7:01:50 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (It's never a bad time to FReep this link -- https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/)
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To: JoeDetweiler

He also was the real assassin of JFK. And piloted the Titanic right on into that iceberg.


5 posted on 10/18/2011 7:03:43 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (It's never a bad time to FReep this link -- https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/)
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To: SunkenCiv

Brush up your Shakespeare!


6 posted on 10/18/2011 7:05:58 PM PDT by jaz.357 (The race is not always to the swift, nor the battle to the strong,)
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To: SunkenCiv

Just watched an in depth presentation on English history and the professor noted that there are allegations being made that Shakespeare was not the author of the works which are attributed to him. The professor said there is proof from other writers, and he listed a few of them, that published at the time that Shakespeare did, and indeed. Shakespeare did exist and write those plays.

This is nothing but Marxist tripe to discredit Western Civilization and freedom and Capitalism. They are trying to destroy Christianity and the Natural Family—then they destroy the two pillars that made Western Civilization the most independent and free cultures which threw out government tyrannies.

One way to destroy culture is to destroy and marginalize all the heroes—esp. for the children. It is Shakespeare’s turn to be dragged into their sewer.


7 posted on 10/18/2011 7:06:12 PM PDT by savagesusie
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To: ConorMacNessa

LOL!

“What’s to be thought of him? does the rumour hold for true, that he’s so full of gold?”


8 posted on 10/18/2011 7:06:21 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (It's never a bad time to FReep this link -- https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/)
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To: SunkenCiv; onedoug
Photobucket
9 posted on 10/18/2011 7:08:15 PM PDT by stylecouncilor (Some minds are like soup in a poor restaurant...better left unstirred.-PG Wodehouse)
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To: SunkenCiv

“I’ve known Shakespeare, and sir, you are no Shakespeare!”


10 posted on 10/18/2011 7:10:35 PM PDT by Revolting cat! (Let us prey!)
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To: SunkenCiv

11 posted on 10/18/2011 7:11:32 PM PDT by JoeProBono (A closed mouth gathers no feet)
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To: SunkenCiv

Do aliens land or the world end? What about pre-Egyptians? Sounds like Much Ado about Nothing to me.


12 posted on 10/18/2011 7:13:13 PM PDT by MadJack ("Patience is bitter, but its fruit is sweet." (Afghan proverb))
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To: savagesusie

This kinda weird conspiracy theorist attack on Shakespeare has been going on since the mid-19th c or before. Not a peep or suspicion out of ANYONE prior to that, and every extant source sez he wrote his own plays (he collaborated with more than one well-known and prolific, younger playwrite near the end of his career; of “Cardenio”, only one scene and the musical scoring survives), and no one is known to have made any claims against him prior to that time. Whatever it may have become in the current times, this conspiracy theory began as an puff of elistist snobbery, but penned by someone who was not the least part of the elite.


13 posted on 10/18/2011 7:16:56 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (It's never a bad time to FReep this link -- https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/)
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To: Revolting cat!

Every inch a king, though.


14 posted on 10/18/2011 7:25:59 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (It's never a bad time to FReep this link -- https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/)
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To: stylecouncilor; JoeProBono; MadJack

:’)


15 posted on 10/18/2011 7:33:55 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (It's never a bad time to FReep this link -- https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/)
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To: savagesusie

Not all of them.

No one could call Joseph Sobran a Marxist. He used to write for National Review. He died in 2010.

Here’s his book: http://www.amazon.com/Alias-Shakespeare-Joseph-Sobran/dp/0684826585

http://www.sobran.com/oxfordlibrary.shtml


16 posted on 10/18/2011 7:52:59 PM PDT by vladimir998
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To: SunkenCiv

The debate about “who actually wrote” Shakespeare’s plays has been going on in both serious academic circles and in silly places almost as long as the plays have been in existence, and the answer is still “probably Shakespeare.”

But who knows, and does it really matter? The plays can be enjoyed for themselves alone.


17 posted on 10/18/2011 8:54:33 PM PDT by Jack Hammer
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To: Jack Hammer

Shakespeare’s authorship was never in any doubt (and it still isn’t) until the past 150 years or thereabouts, someone with a last name (escapes me at the moment) even more amusing than “Looney”. Shakespeare and Marlowe never got disconnected from their respective works, unlike Kyd, who died after a little visit from the Queen’s torturers or something, anyway, he’d written “Spanish Tragedy”, a hugely popular play. Its authorship was lost in fairly short order (perhaps as a consequence of the Great Fire of London, when a lot of things went up in smoke) and it wasn’t rediscovered for a couple of centuries.


18 posted on 10/18/2011 9:21:06 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (It's never a bad time to FReep this link -- https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/)
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To: Jack Hammer

Thank you for the amplification.


19 posted on 10/18/2011 10:32:17 PM PDT by Jack Hammer
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To: SunkenCiv

They are not helped by the fact that de Vere was not a talented writer. None of the known writings of De Vere suggest he could have written Shakespeare’s plays or poetry.


20 posted on 10/19/2011 1:31:07 AM PDT by nickcarraway
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