Shakespeare, The Secret Rebel

Catholic Educator's Resource ^ | August 1, 2005 | Robert Mason Lee

[Sans-Culotte]

So how does this connect to the current, widely-held view that the Shakespeare canon was written by Edward de Vere, the poet and nobleman, rather than the uneducated Will Shakespere? De Vere wasn't a closet Catholic, was he?

IMO, any study of Shakespeare that covers anything other than the plays themselves, and their historical background is a waste of time.

We've gone from Shakespeare the great playwright and actor, to Shakespeare-was-Francis Bacon, to Shakespeare-was-a-homo (it's right there, in the sonnets), to Shakespeare-was-the-Earl of Oxford (it's right there, in the sonnets), and now Shakespeare-the-Great-Closet Catholic-playwright(it's right there in his plays).

Textual study can reveal all sorts of secret meanings if one wants ot look for them and find them. Basically, someone who may or may not have been named Shakespeare, wrote the greatest plays in the English language. End of story.

[Billthedrill]

Henry VIII had the abbey razed, its priceless fixtures destroyed, and its abbot, Richard Whiting, hanged, disembowelled, and boiled — in that order.

OK, Hank was just a little cranky there.

There are numerous references to contemporary political affairs in Shakespeare, particularly in the history plays, and some of them aren't particularly subtle. One that is, IMHO, is the character of Shylock in the Merchant of Venice. He's a Jew, yes, but the issues of his progeny's marriage out of religion were fairly rare in Elizabethan England...for Jews, that is, but not for Catholics.

An intriguing case. It will be fun to see what the author has made of it.

[thoughtomator]

Next fad, Shakespeare-wrapped-in-tinfoil.

[siunevada]

So how does this connect to the current, widely-held view that the Shakespeare canon was written by Edward de Vere, the poet and nobleman, rather than the uneducated Will Shakespere?

Or Marlowe.

I haven't read the book, so have no idea if she even touches on that. I would imagine she would be in the opposite camp. Shakespeare's family and associations indicate he was more middle class than unlettered peasant. I think there is some documentary evidence that Will attended elementary school in Stratford.

His father was on the town council for years, I believe he was a glove maker, a merchant. The town council position went by the wayside during the time period of the religious turmoil. I think the father's last will still exists and there's some indication in it that he remained Catholic.

I believe as a young man Will worked as a secretary for a nobleman. In a notoriously resistant county. The nobleman may have even been a well-known Catholic, I don't remember.

I just can't imagine when all this was going on that the Catholics turned to each other and said, "Well, that's it, lads. It was a good thousand years but it's all over now." Going underground, the catacombs and all that, is part of their heritage. Witness China today. And when they went they must have made some attempts to maintain what little they could of education outside the officially recognized institutions for their young people.

When the laws changed centuries later and they slowly emerged they weren't grunting troglodytes.

[siunevada]

Basically, someone who may or may not have been named Shakespeare, wrote the greatest plays in the English language. End of story.

I think someone posted an article about the first Shakespeare being performed in Afghanistan in years and the audience loving it. I think the plays can touch on some deep truths about the human condition. That's why they prompt such curiosity about how they came into existence. "How did he do that?"

We're human beings, after all. Searching for the truth and speculating about the nature of reality might be beyond our conscious control. Why does a two year old ask, "Why?"

[Capriole]

Actually we have no documentation for any formal education for William Shakespeare. The only three facts we have about his life, prior to the publication of Venus and Adonis in 1593 are his birth, his marriage, and his fatherhood, at age 21. The rest is conjucture of the kind that Shakespeare theorists love to engage in. It's really difficult to understand how this magnificent literary mind burst into full flower at the age of 30--more than halfway to the grave, back then--with no prior record of writing. He might have had an underground education of some sort, yes, and learned to keep accounts and write his name. But in an age where books were seldom owned by ordinary people and there were no public libraries, no bookmobiles, no Borders, it's hard to imagine how he could have acquired the knowledge shown in the plays and poems attributed to his pen.

I adore Marlowe as well, and for a long time favored him as the author, but recently some computer analysis of his words and Shakespeare's shows that he did not write the Shakespeare canon. Too bad.

[siunevada]

Actually we have no documentation for any formal education for William Shakespeare.

Good enough. I'm relying on fading memories of that TV show The Search for Shakespeare.

[Tax-chick]

LOL! I drop books in the sink sometimes.

I'll check for the book in the library, sounds interesting.

[KC Burke]

I will have to chime in that Will in the World is a great study of what we know and what we suspect. The author does a great job of speculating, and proposing reasonable assumptions without portraying such thought as more than sensible theory. He reaches toward explaining the background of most of the speculative work of others and debunking some while supporting others. I recommend it.

[siunevada]

I will have to chime in that Will in the World is a great study of what we know and what we suspect.

And I went and peeked at Michael Wood's article on the PBS website.

No documentary evidence for Will in school. Documentary evidence that his father, John, was an alderman and mayor of Stratford. Son of the mayor goes to school? Seems reasonable.

And I made a mistake on the last will. It's his grandfather's will, not his father's.

[Junior]

I've always loved Shakespeare for the sex and the violence, the double entendres (Mercutio's dying words, for instance), and the humor.

Basically, he wrote rip-roarin' good stories.

[SunkenCiv]

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