Shakespeare beyond Doubt: Evidence, Argument, Controversy by Paul Edmondson (PDF)

Description

Did Shakespeare write Shakespeare? The authorship question has been much treated in works of fiction, film and television, provoking interest all over the world. Sceptics have proposed many candidates as the author of Shakespeare’s works, including Francis Bacon, Christopher Marlowe and Edward De Vere, the seventeenth Earl of Oxford. But why and how did the authorship question arise and what does surviving evidence offer in answer to it? This authoritative, accessible and frequently entertaining book sets the debate in its historical context and provides an account of its main protagonists and their theories. Presenting the authorship of Shakespeare’s works in relation to historiography, psychology and literary theory, twenty-three distinguished scholars reposition and develop the discussion. The book explores the issues in the light of biographical, textual and bibliographical evidence to bring fresh perspectives to an intriguing cultural phenomenon.

User’s Reviews

Editorial Reviews: Review “This excellent collection, edited by Paul Edmondson and Stanley Wells, assumes that it is possible to engage with the doubters in an honest, honourable, and constructive dialogue. The book features a rich array of nineteen essays, with an afterword by James Shapiro …” Around the Globe Magazine”… a most useful volume …” The New Criterion”The range of evidence, from dialect, through manuscript analysis, to stagecraft, makes it a wonderfully rounded introduction to the period, as well as to the playwright.” The Times Literary Supplement”The achievement here is substantial. Edmondson and Wells have curated an impressive collection that leaves few stones unturned and sets out a weighty case that defies easy rebuttal.” Cahiers Élisabéthains”All the essays are brief and accessible. Often summarising their own groundbreaking research, the contributors accomplish a two-fold task: they expose the feebleness of the anti-Shakespeareans’ contentions and simultaneously provide accounts of the most recent developments in various branches of Shakespeare studies, whose scope and interest go well beyond the authorship question.” Laura Talarico, Memoria di Shakespeare: A Journal of Shakespearean Studies”The volume’s distinguished editors, Paul Edmondson and Stanley Wells, have assembled a tight volume that both addresses the questions at the heart of the so-called authorship controversy and discusses the phenomenon in critically sophisticated ways.” Curtis Perry, SEL: Studies in English Literature 1500–1900 Book Description Did Shakespeare write Shakespeare? This authoritative collection of essays brings fresh perspectives to bear on an intriguing cultural phenomenon. About the Author Dr Paul Edmondson is Head of Research and Knowledge and Director of the Stratford-upon-Avon Poetry Festival for The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust. His publications include: Twelfth Night: A Guide to the Text and Its Theatrical Life, and (co-authored with Stanley Wells), Shakespeare’s Sonnets, Coffee with Shakespeare, and Shakespeare Bites Back (an e-book about the Shakespeare Authorship Discussion, published in October 2011). His other publications include work on Shakespeare and the Brontës, the poetry of Shakespeare and Christopher Marlowe, and the musicality of Shakespeare’s words. He is curator of 60minuteswithShakespeare.com, The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust’s response to the authorship debate. He is also a priest in The Church of England.Stanley Wells, CBE, is Honorary President and Former Chairman of the Trustees of Shakespeare’s Birthplace, Emeritus Professor of Shakespeare Studies of the University of Birmingham, and Honorary Emeritus Governor of the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, of which he was for many years Vice-Chairman. He was for nearly twenty years the editor of the annual Shakespeare Survey, and writes for The New York Review of Books and many other publications. He has edited The New Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare Studies and is General Editor (with Gary Taylor) of The Complete Oxford Shakespeare. His most recent books are Shakespeare For All Time; Looking for Sex in Shakespeare; Shakespeare and Co., and Is It True What they Say About Shakespeare?. His Shakespeare, Sex, and Love was published in 2010. Read more

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐Why would you want to read a book which proves the earth is round?One reason would be to understand the mentality of people who stubbornly argue that the world is flat. Another might be to expand your general knowledge. If an astronomer really set his or her mind to explaining how we know that the earth is round, in the course of listening to the explanations you would learn a lot about history, geology, astronomy, physics and mathematics.This is a book about the belief that someone other than Shakespeare wrote the plays of Shakespeare. Some eighty people have been proposed as possible authors of Shakespeare’s plays. In order to accept that one of them was the real author, you have to believe that there was an elaborate 16th century conspiracy designed to fool people, and that this conspiracy was so meticulously carried out that almost everyone since Shakespeare’s time has been fooled. Some of the theories posit that there are secret codes in the plays revealing the real author.Almost all scholars think this is nonsense. They usually just ignore the proponents of these ideas, just as sensible people ignore those who think the moon landing was faked, or that that “humanity is actually under the control of shape-shifting alien reptiles,” to use Wikipedia’s words (Wikipedia has a long list of conspiracy theories).One of the editors of “Shakespeare Beyond Doubt”, Stanley Wells, recently wrote his own book about the people who question Shakespeare’s authorship. I read that book because I was interested in why people are drawn to conspiracy theories. Although Wells does not for a minute believe that anyone other than Shakespeare wrote his plays, he was sympathetic to the deluded people who do. (My review of Wells’ book can be read on Amazon.com).Why then, another book on the subject? No one would waste time proving that humanity is not actually under the control of shape-shifting alien reptiles. But in the case of Shakespeare, the reason seems to be that the cranks were making headway. People keep showing up at Stratford asking the tour guides for information about who really wrote Shakespeare’s plays. Two universities have established programs to examine the evidence that someone other than Shakespeare wrote his plays, and one American Supreme Court justice thinks that there is reasonable doubt about the matter.Then a film came out based on the premise that Shakespeare was not the author of his plays. This seems to have frightened the real scholars. Things had gone too far. It would be like astronomers discovering that if they did not do something fast they would have to spend a lot of time explaining to laymen that the world is not flat.My motivation for reading this book was to get a sense of why people like conspiracy theories. This book gave me at least one idea. The first person to come out with an authorship theory was Delia Bacon (1811-1859), who thought that Francis Bacon and others wrote Shakespeare’s plays. One of the contributors to this volume thinks that Delia Bacon could have a been a fine scholar if women had been treated fairly, but since she was denied the possibility of becoming a scholar, she found solace in sniping at scholars from the sidelines.Aside from this essay, however, the book did not really help me understand why conspiracies appeal to people. This is probably best studied as a general problem in social-psychology, not necessarily related to Shakespeare. But I got other things from the book.One chapter I liked was a list of all the documentary evidence we have that Shakespeare was indeed the author of his own plays. There is a great deal of it. Another chapter was about how little we know about any author of the period, including Shakespeare. This chapter talks about what kinds of sources were preserved, and why, and how the kinds of sources which come down to us shape our view of history.This is a common theme in historiography, but there were specific examples in this book about Shakespeare. For instance, since much of what has come down to us about Shakespeare is from legal records about business, it is tempting to think of Shakespeare as a businessman rather than a playwright. Another chapter talks about how several of Shakespeare’s plays were in fact collaborations, and how we can try to tell who wrote what.

⭐When I looked for this book at Amazon (US), after seeing it mentioned on a CUP flyer, I was mildly surprised to see that 16 reviews averaged barely two-and-a-half stars. So I looked at the breakdown of the reviews, with the following striking result: 1-star: 8 reviews; 3-stars: 1 review; 4-stars: 2 reviews; 5-stars: 3 reviews.Quite a spread! On digging further,I found all the negative reviews were from convinced authorship sceptics, whereas positive reviews were from supporters of the conventional view. Unsurprising, perhaps, but what did strike me was the fundamentalist, almost religious, fervour of the sceptics in denouncing (word chosen with care) not only the book but the authors themselves. Here are some quotes culled from different reviews:”The Distinguished Liars””Just Awful””… utter stupidity …””The Dunghill of Academia””A Travesty of Scholarship”How can the Shakespeare authorship controversy generate such anger? The play’s the thing and the identity of the author is surely secondary. Such ad hominem vitriol made me think for a moment I had strayed unintentionally into reviews posted by Creationists about a new Dawkins book!Then I looked at Amazon UK. The 16 reviews break down thus: 1-star: 5 reviews; 2-stars: 3 reviews; 3-stars: 1 review; 4-stars: 3 reviews; 5-stars: 4 reviews.A slightly better average of three stars with alignment for and against fairly similar to that on the US site, but less polarized and with noticeably less venom. Why that difference should be I have no idea.But how do I rate the book? Well, I confess I was never impressed by the sceptical case. Perhaps it’s not surprising the book assembles what seem to me quite solid reasons, backed up by serious research, for continuing to assume that Will from Stratford was the author. It would take a smoking gun to convince me otherwise. Sceptics may take this as my being bamboozled by an establishment conspiracy to conceal the truth.Once again, I am reminded of the Creation/Evolution controversy, where a vocal minority claim there is a conspiracy by the scientific establishment to silence dissent.(There – two hornets’ nests stirred up in one post! Do I get a cigar?)So I found the book useful and agree with the authors’ conclusions but I do have a couple of criticisms.First, the authors’ impatience (exasperation even), understandable and expressed permissibly in the Introduction, runs on through much of the book. The tone in a number of places is too personal.Second, far too much effort is expended on demolishing a number of what are recognized to be fictional approaches to the subject. The most egregious example is the lengthy critique of Roland Emmerich’s “Anonymous”. A couple of paragraphs, at most, would have sufficed to demolish what little relevance this mediocre film may have.So – only three stars.

⭐Lovely edition. Well worth reading.

⭐Food for thought

⭐If anyone was stupid enough to think Shakespeare did not write the plays then this book should convince them once and for all that they are wrong.

⭐Illuminating, thought provoking and very well sourced “Shakespeare Beyond Doubt” sets a landmark in the field of one of the greatest wars in literary history. Did Shakespeare write Shakespeare? The ambitious goal of Prof Stanley Wells and John Edmondson is to offer a conclusive answer to an offensivo take that comes from the Eighteenth Century. The book includes multi-discplinary analyses on the subject by reputed authors, particular chapters devoted to those more mentioned candidates as would-be authors, like Marlowe, De Vere and Bacon, and a priceless account of the most hillarious attemps to prove the eventual fake, through cryptograms or Da Vinci Code style anecdotes. The book represents the Shakesperian view, Stratford based, and it will sure become a source for those who want to find an answer to Anonymous. Along with James Shapiro Contested Will, is a formal argumentation for a contention that went beyond time.

⭐A subject i have always been fascinated by, even though i have never ‘picked a side’ as it were. I found the book very informative, intelligently written, as one would expect from such an eminent historian as Professor Wells. By using professional, academic historians from around the world, one finds oneself been drawn into the ’cause’ regardless of personal conviction or beliefs, this is a book that will help get the conversation flowing at a private dinner party or in the staff room of any college and university. This is one book i’m glad to have purchased.

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