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Oregon Road Conditions & Cams Email Story to a Friend September 29, 2005 ‘Shakespeare by Another Name’ helps fuel Oxfordian view By BILL VARBLE Mail Tribune When Mark Anderson came to the authorship question — that is, who wrote the works attributed to William Shakespeare? — he thought it would make a good feature story. It did more. "Shakespeare by Another Name," (Gotham Press, $32.50), Anderson’s literary biography of Edward de Vere, has just been published. The 598-page book links the life of de Vere, the 16th Earl of Oxford, to themes, places and characters in the works usually attributed to a William Shakspere of Stratford-on-Avon. It’s being hailed as a landmark by Oxfordians, the self-assigned name for those who believe de Vere wrote the Shakespeare Canon. Anderson plans a signing at 7:30 tonight at Bloomsbury Books. Starting at 1 p.m., Oxfordians will gather in Ashland for four days of scholarly presentations, renaissance music and play-going as the Shakespeare Oxford Society and the Shakespeare Fellowship present the Ashland Authorship Conference. "The table is set," says organizer Dr. Earl Showerman. "The feast is about to begin." About 100 are expected to attend, staying at the Ashland Springs Hotel and taking in "Richard III," "Twelfth Night" and a viewing of the First Folio (a 1623 edition of the plays) at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. Advertisement The identity of the author of the plays and poems has been argued for centuries. Among those who have argued on behalf of de Vere and/or against Shakspere have been Henry James, Mark Twain, Sigmund Freud, Walt Whitman, Orson Welles, Sir Derek Jacoby, Kenneth Branagh and others. The academic establishment remains mostly Stratfordian. In the view of the orthodox camp, the Oxfordians are a fringe group. "I’m skeptical," says K. Silem Mohammad, who teaches Shakespeare at Southern Oregon University. "There tends to be a wildly speculative, at its worst ... conspiracy theory," he says. "But it shouldn’t be so quickly discounted. A lot of the evidence is convincing, and I don’t think any of it is compelling." Anderson says he came to the authorship question in the mid-1990s. He’d earned a master’s degree in physics and become a freelance writer. Then he discovered de Vere and his case. "I thought if the theory were correct it would be evident in DeVere’s story," he says. "If it clashed repeatedly, then it’s wrong." He started research in the libraries of Massachusetts and did research in London, Essex, Paris, Padua and other sites from the Canon. "What I found was new perspectives that the theory of de Vere-as-Shakespeare lent to these works of literature," he says. "It’s amazing how de Vere’s life parallels the plays. They are, I think, autobiographical in ways that haven’t been thoroughly appreciated." For example, Oxfordians have long noted that de Vere, like Hamlet, was captured by pirates returning to England from France, and stripped naked. But consider, Anderson says, an encounter de Vere had in France with Duke Casimir, a German prince just seven years his senior. Anderson believes the meeting foreshadowed Hamlet’s encounter with Fortinbras in "Hamlet" in which the Dane watches the other’s troop parade by. In Anderson’s view the actual event underscored for de Vere that, by his nature, as with Hamlet, he would never become the great warrior and political force to which his birth entitled him. The author of "Hamlet" had a wealth of sources to draw from, but the rueful moment with parading troops appears in none of them. Anderson says de Vere, who is known to have supported companies of actors, was forced to conceal his identity because of politics when he lost favor with Queen Elizabeth and peopled his plays with persons and themes from her court. "We have an overwhelming amount of circumstantial evidence," he says. "Cases are won on less every day. "We do not have the smoking gun. But when almost every one of the plays links up with facts and times and people from de Vere’s life, you have to reach a threshold. "Genius can explain creative flights of imagination, but not how he knew Venice like the back of his hand." De Vere traveled and lived in Italy, where many of the plays are set. He ran up debt with the city’s money-lenders ("The Merchant of Venice"), had jealous rages at his wife that led to both self-doubts ("Othello," "The Winter’s Tale") and mockery ("The Comedy of Errors"). An affair led to street fighting ("Romeo and Juliet"). Anderson acknowledges that those who haven’t heard of the authorship question sometimes lump Oxfordians with UFO or Bigfoot believers or get angry at the mention of Oxford’s name. "I’ve seen it before and will again," he says. "There’s an emotional connection to the conventional story." Mohammad agrees, and extends the observation. "If I woke up one morning and it were proved beyond a doubt (that de Vere wrote Shakespeare), I would walk through the halls with glee at all the scholars jumping out the windows," he says. "I wouldn’t be surprised either way. What amuses me is all the investment on both sides." Ashland conference set The Ashland Authorship Conference takes place from 1 to 5 p.m. today and 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday, Saturday and Sunday at the Ashland Springs Hotel in Ashland. Registration is $25 per day, but students will be admitted free. For a schedule, visit shakespearefellowship.org. Highlights include Mark Anderson’s book talk at 7:30 tonight at Bloomsbury Books; OSF actors James Newcomb and Robin Goodrin-Nordli in a discussion at 8:30 a.m. Saturday; OSF actors Linda K. Morris and Michael Elich in a panel at 8:30 a.m. Sunday; a talk by Newcomb at 1 p.m. Sunday on the role of Richard III; and writer Michael L. Hays on Shakespeare and chivalric romance at 9:15 a.m. Friday. For more on Anderson see shakespearebyanothername.com, a site which includes feedback from people of all persuasions. For more on the Oxford movement visit the shakespeare-oxford.com site. Reach reporter Bill Varble at 776-4478 or e-mail �Shakespeare by Another Name� helps fuel Oxfordian view ">[email protected] . Mail Tribune Home | Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life | Opinion AP News | Archives | Site Map | Community | Classified Copyright © 1997-2005 Mail Tribune, Inc. All rights reserved. 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