Friday, June 05, 2009

My Five Best People Who Possibly Never Lived

http://myfivebest.com/?p=366

When I saw this was tagged Shakespeare, I assumed that the author would drop in Romeo or Hamlet or somebody.

Nope, he’s talking about Shakespeare himself.

9 comments:

Jimm said...

Thanks for reading my post! Great blog you have here. I'll be posting more on Shakespeare in the coming days/weeks.

Willshill said...

Possibly never LIVED? What will the anti-Stratfordians think of next? :)

leo said...

The anti-Stratfordians' judgment hath fled to brutish beasts.

Duane Morin said...

To be fair, in the article, he's describing the position that "the single entity known as Shakespeare, who is thought to have written the works, may have been fictional." In other words supporting the "multiple authors" theory.

catkins said...

And so Ben Jonson was a liar?

Willshill said...

I too have used that very argument--to no avail. It's never been explained to my satisfaction as to exactly why it makes no dent; either he was "in on" this vast conspiracy, or... it just doesn't seem to matter...somehow... :)

Marie Merkel said...

catkins said:

"And so Ben Jonson was a liar?"

And a forger as well. :) The Tempest sure helped to take Edward Oxenford's name off the table!!!

What could have been his motive? Jonson certainly knew Shakespeare, both the author and the man, so his word carries weight. But what do those words really say? His poetry proves him a master of cunning ambiguity: if you want rabbits, he's got rabbits; if you like ducks, it quacks right along.

Have you read Poetaster? Or Satiromastix, claimed by Dekker?

Duane Morin said...

What have I started? :) Maybe I should host my own Shakespeare conference!

Welcome to the blog, Marie!

Marie said...

Thanks, Duane.

Too bad you missed the Symposium. Shall I put your name on our mailing list for the next? :)