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The text of a lecture delivered in the chapter house of Exeter Cathedral on 23 April 2015.
There is much rhetoric flung about these days by supporters and denigrators of William Shakespeare. Did he write the plays and poems that bear his name – or were they the work of another renaissance genius, such as Marlowe or Bacon? Or was it the earl of Oxford? Or a whole committee of intellectuals? Such is the range of possible authorships put forward that members of the public can be forgiven for being bewildered. Why is there so much doubt when the first folio of Shakespeare’s works clearly has his name on the cover?
But of all the questions that arise from the Shakespeare authorship debate, one is more perplexing than any other. Why does neither camp apply the sort of analysis that professional historians are able to apply to the question? Indeed, in any other debate about sixteenth century events, historians would be summoned in droves. But when it comes to Shakespeare, everybody feels he or she is at liberty to proceed without professional historical input – from literary scholars to amateur sleuths. Everyone seems ready to take on the mantle of a historical expert – regardless of their training, expertise or knowledge. It is rather as if, through simply being keen to dispute a point of law, everyone reckons themselves master of the rolls.
Dr Mortimer sees this as a curious problem, with negative repercussions on all sides. In this lecture he applies a professional historical methodology and demonstrates what direct evidence there is for the authorship and what is merely circumstantial. But his conclusion is just the first half of a powerful speech that demands greater rigour and discipline in history generally – and for society to act more responsibly towards understanding its own past.
- Sales Rank: #957892 in eBooks
- Published on: 2015-04-23
- Released on: 2015-04-23
- Format: Kindle eBook
Most helpful customer reviews
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful.
Suffers from a blind spot regarding the 'apocryphal' Shakespeare plays and 'bad quartos'
By Sabrina Feldman
Dr. Mortimer’s book is generally clear, well-written, and well-argued, but it suffers from a major blind spot: his failure to notice the problem posed by the ‘apocryphal’ Shakespeare plays and Shakespearean ‘bad quartos.’ Take, for instance, the plays A Yorkshire Tragedy, ascribed to “W. Shakespeare” in 1608, and The London Prodigall, ascribed to “William Shakespeare” in 1605. According to Dr. Mortimer, in both these cases the “ascription of authorship was just a printer’s or bookseller’s ploy.” How did Dr. Mortimer come to this conclusion? Why is he so willing to ignore the direct historical evidence that William Shakespeare wrote these plays in favor of an unproven fantasy involving supposedly fraudulent printers and/or booksellers, many of whom (according to the implications of his unsubstantiated theory) conspired to trick the London public into believing that William Shakespeare wrote a series of works he didn’t actually write over a span of decades?
There’s an old Stratfordian joke that goes like this: “Shakespeare’s plays weren’t actually written by Shakespeare. They were written by some other guy named Shakespeare.” The funny thing is, there could very well have been “some other guy named Shakespeare.” According to title page evidence and other usually reliable forms of authorship evidence, this other William Shakespeare wrote, adapted, or co-authored around a dozen surviving plays: The Taming of A Shrew, The Troublesome Reign of King John, Fair Em, Locrine, Mucedorus, The Merry Devil of Edmonton, Thomas Lord Cromwell, The Puritan, The London Prodigal, A Yorkshire Tragedy, The Birth of Merlin, and perhaps Double Falsehood (originally titled Cardenio). These plays are usually assigned to the “Shakespeare Apocrypha,” but they were evidently accepted as authentic Shakespeare plays by William’s contemporaries and near-contemporaries even though they weren’t printed in the First Folio. The “other Shakespeare” was also credited with writing six or so Shakespearean ‘bad quartos,’ shorter and poetically inferior adaptations of six or more canonical plays (Henry VI Part Two, Henry VI Part Three, Romeo and Juliet, Henry V, Richard III, Hamlet, and perhaps Pericles and Henry VI Part One). There are no contemporary records indicating that anyone other than William Shakespeare wrote these apocryphal plays and bad quartos, at least as a co-author or play reviser.
To paraphrase Dr. Mortimer’s own words, applied to this problem rather than that of who wrote the canonical Shakespeare plays, “when we consider the possibility that someone other than William Shakespeare of Stratford-upon-Avon wrote the apocryphal plays and ‘bad quartos,’ we find a dearth of direct evidence. All the direct evidence points to William Shakespeare as the author. No document indicates that another author was wholly responsible for any single play, let alone the whole set of some 18-odd works. It is purely on stylistic and literary grounds that scholars have argued he didn’t write them. There is no direct evidence that William didn’t write the apocryphal Shakespeare plays and bad quartos. All the direct evidence points in one direction, and none of it indicates any other author. It is as simple as that.”
Why was the Stratford actor credited in his lifetime, and for many decades afterwards, with writing two separately authored bodies of work? One possible—even obvious—explanation is that two different men were writing under the same name. In other words, William Shakespeare might have been both a legitimate playwright and a front man for the true Bard.
In addition to failing to adequately address the direct evidence that William Shakespeare wrote or adapted many apocryphal Shakespeare plays and ‘bad quartos,’ the other major flaw in Dr. Mortimer’s book is that he fails to inform readers of the vast array of specialized knowledge possessed by the author of the Shakespeare canon regarding Italian geography and customs, the Italian language, Italian dramatic forms, French, Greek, the law, aristocratic sports, people and events associated with the early Elizabethan court from the 1560s to the 1580s, nautical terms, and many other topics.
7 of 10 people found the following review helpful.
Another dabbler
By Amazon Customer
I started to write a lengthy comment on what is wrong with paper but after 10 minutes I can see that it would take another couple hours to show how he's so wrong on so many points. Anyone who thinks this is an excellent introduction can't be very familiar with the debate, or is intentionally promoting it for its propaganda value. There was no new argument that he presented and every argument he did present has been refuted or shown to be but just one hypothesis or interpretation. I'm not suggesting that no one read it. It does give a pretty good argument, but only for the one-sided pro-Stratfordian point of view. He does not seem to be at all familiar with evidence for any alternative candidate. He thinks that their adherents are motivated only by 'Loyalty', as if there is no evidence for any of them. He is so extremely ignorant on this. He doesn't mention the historical work of Diana Price "Shakespeare's Unorthodox Biography" nor the new collection and fair examination of both sides of the evidence by Ros Barber. For a historian of his credentials this is really pathetic. It looks like he merely dabbled in it and wrongly assumed that his supposed superior judgement would be so apparent that he wouldn't need to do the hard work of wide and deep reading and talking with experts from the non-Stratfordian side. It reminds me how back in 2009 Michael Shermer wrote an article for Scientific American on the topic. It seemed that because he respects science and is an editor of Skeptic magazine that he then believed he must also have superior insight, reasoning powers, and judgement compared to everyone else who thinks differently. And that, therefore, he didn't need to actually spend hardly any time reviewing all the evidence and arguments. He too made many errors in judgement that were pointed out to him but he wouldn't address them nor did he bother to try and learn from those who have spent a great many years of research on this topic. They should both know better. And that is the main reason I'm giving this only one star. Anyone, who wants to fairly understand the evidence and arguments needs to read a lot more than what terribly little Ian Mortimer or Shearer had read, AND especially needs to read much of the non-Stratfordian literature AND talk with their most knowledgeable proponents.
11 of 16 people found the following review helpful.
Another nail in the coffin for Stratford denialism.
By PB
Dr. Mortimer's lecture is an excellent introduction to the Shakespeare authorship debate that cuts through the nonsense. He demonstrates that there is no real historical question about the authorship of the works attributed to William Shakespeare. Mortimer emphasizes the need to use good historical practices and direct, not circumstantial evidence. Compare Dr. Mortimer's thesis with that of leading Oxfordian Steve Steinburg: http://www.amazon.com/Shakespeare-Puzzles-Hidden-Autobiography-Edward/dp/1507576420
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