Will the real Will please stand up? Literary Affairs A renowned Shakespearean debunks all those theories challenging the Bard's authorship

In response, Columbia University Shakespeare scholar James Shapiro took a dive into the history of anti-Stratfordians, those Shakespeare deniers, and resurfaced with Contested Will: Who Wrote Shakespeare? Shapiro is author of one of the most exciting books on Shakespeare it's been my pleasure t...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published inToronto star
Main Author Hans Werner Hans Werner is a frequent contributor to these pages
Format Newspaper Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Toronto, Ont Torstar Syndication Services, a Division of Toronto Star Newspapers Limited 09.05.2010
Subjects
Bacon, Delia
Bacon, Francis
Shapiro, James
Online AccessGet full text

Cover

More Information
Summary:In response, Columbia University Shakespeare scholar James Shapiro took a dive into the history of anti-Stratfordians, those Shakespeare deniers, and resurfaced with Contested Will: Who Wrote Shakespeare? Shapiro is author of one of the most exciting books on Shakespeare it's been my pleasure to review, 2005's A Year in the Life of Shakespeare: 1599, and Contested Will doesn't disappoint expectations. It's an adventure through a parallel universe peopled with strange, obsessional characters, fuelled by fascinating glimpses into the droller enthusiasms of the late and great, which their biographers were too embarrassed to explore. [Mark Twain] caught the bug. It seems he'd had it in for Shakespeare ever since his days as an apprentice river boat pilot, when his boss - a Shakespeare nut - relentlessly recited the bard's lines at him. (One can sympathize.) [Helen Keller] caught it from Twain, her friend. Meantime, a dizzying whirl of cryptographic activity tried to decode the lost, radically republican Sir [Francis Bacon] manifesto that [Delia Bacon] had said was encrypted in Shakespeare's plays. The enterprise spluttered out with World War I. Shapiro, of course, has no doubt about who Shakespeare was, and deftly shows up the deniers' less-than-perfect knowledge of the nuts and bolts of Shakespeare's theatre, its practices and development. He also reminds us that looking for a writer's life experience in his work is a mug's game. Besides, attempts to find alternates based on more suitable life experience denies the very thing we most admire Shakespeare for: his imagination.
ISSN:0319-0781