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Shakespeare Birthplace Trust launches campaign to lay authorship question to rest

The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust has fired up a campaign to tackle head-on the conspiracy theories that William Shakespeare of Stratford-upon-Avon was not the true author of the plays which bear his name. The charity has lined up 60 actors, writers and scholars to answer the big questions about Shakespeare in 60 seconds each. Stephen Fry, Margaret Drabble, Simon Callow and Michael Holroyd are among the speakers on the new audio web site, 60 Minutes with Shakespeare, launched on 1 September.

60 Minutes with Shakespeare is the first phase of the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust’s campaign to stake out Shakespeare’s rightful place in history, ahead of a new Hollywood film, Anonymous, scheduled for international release on 28 October.  Directed by Roland Emmerich, Anonymous is an Elizabethan conspiracy tale which portrays the Earl of Oxford, Edward de Vere (Rhys Ifans) as the author of the famous works, with William Shakespeare (Rafe Spall) as an inarticulate buffoon.

Dr Paul Edmondson, Head of Learning & Research at the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, said, “There is a mass of historical fact which you have to ignore if you want to believe any of the conspiracy theories about the authorship of Shakespeare’s works.  There is no secret, no code that needs breaking, but Anonymous is set to stir up the debate which has spiralled since Shakespeare’s authorship was first questioned in 1856.   We are setting out the stall for William Shakespeare of Stratford.  60 Minutes with Shakespeare offers perspectives from 60 different voices –including Roland Emmerich’s - so people can listen and make their own minds up.”

Dr Edmondson and Professor Stanley Wells, Honorary President of the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, will be holding a live online conference on the 60 Minutes with Shakespeare site (visit www.bloggingshakespeare.com) at 4pm British Summer Time on 1 September.  Next month they will also publish an e-book dealing with the authorship question, and the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust will launch a free digital course, Getting to Know Shakespeare.  

 

Authorship questions in a nutshell:

• Alternative nominees for authorship of Shakespeare’s works were not suggested until the 1850s when American Delia Bacon (no relation) proposed Francis Bacon as one of a committee of writers behind Shakespeare’s works – a decade after the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust was founded.

• The debate snowballed.  By 1884 there were 255 items published.  By 1949, 4500 items.  In 2011 ‘Shakespeare Authorship Debate’  generates 585,000 results on Google.

• To date, over 70 alternative authors have been suggested, ranging from Queen Elizabeth 1 to Daniel Defoe.  Key contenders include:

• Edward de Vere, Earl of Oxford: died 1604.  Shakespeare died in 1616 and many of his works were written and performed after the Earl’s demise.  The Earl was not proposed as a candidate until C20th.

• Christopher Marlowe: died 1593, yet his record in Poet’s Corner  in Westminster Abbey carries a question mark, although the coroner’s report survives.

• Francis Bacon: philosopher, politician and statesman whose prose reveals a totally different writer to Shakespeare

• Alternative candidates are usually university educated or aristocrats, the assumption being that a country boy educated at grammar school (King Edwards School in Stratford-upon-Avon) could not have written the plays.  Shakespeare’s works show knowledge of both country and courtly life gleaned through sources available to him and through his own experience as a glover’s son in Stratford and in the premier Royal theatre company.

• Shakespeare’s name is on the title page of 30 play editions.  He is cited as a writer by 14 contemporaries. The inscription on Shakespeare’s monument in Holy Trinity Church erected soon after he died refers to Shakespeare as a writer and compares him to Socrates and Virgil.  The First Folio of 1623 bears Shakespeare’s name, mentions the Stratford monument, and includes tributes to him from friends, colleagues, and other writers.

 

Ends.

For further information, please contact:

Shakespeare Birthplace Trust                               

Lynn Beddoe – PR Manager                                         

Direct line: 01789 207134                                  

Mobile: 07887 661770                           

Email: lynn.beddoe@shakespeare.org.uk                

Web: www.shakespeare.org.uk

 

Notes to editors:

The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust is the world’s leading charity in promoting the works, life and times of William Shakespeare.  It offers a unique Shakespeare centred experience with outstanding archive and library collections, inspiring educational and literary event programmes and five wonderful houses all directly relating to Shakespeare.

As an independent charity we receive no public subsidy or direct government funding. We depend entirely on income generated through our supporters: our visitors, volunteers, donors and Friends.