http://www.samsloan.com/shakespe.htm No, not really.  I just thought it was funny, given the whole new “Authorship Coalition” thing.  This “proof” showed up in my feeds today.  I can’t really tell, since the argument is all over the place, but I think his argument is that there can’t even have been such a person as Shakespeare – most of the piece is about how surely there’s nothing but a bag of rocks buried in Shakespeare’s grave.   Ummm….isn’t that one of the points not being questioned?  There certainly was a Shakespeare, we have loads of records to prove it, including his will and signature.  The question is whether that guy wrote the plays. The author of this particular piece believes that “the true author of Shakespeare was a woman. In general, women make better writers than men. This is a proven generic fact.”  I think perhaps that a woman should have written his article for him :).

http://www.doubtaboutwill.org/ Ok, the authorship question is no stranger here.  The link above is the home of “the Declaration of Reasonable Doubt About the Identity of William Shakespeare“, and it’s about to get very popular.  You see, Derek Jacobi (and others) have also signed it.  Surely it says something when one of the most well known Shakespearean actors of the day signs such a document? It is important to read what’s actually being said, though.  These are not a bunch of loonies saying “Bacon did it!” or “It was de Vere, you morons!”  Instead, these are people who are simply acknowledging that there is room for doubt.  It’s up to each person individually to decide how much doubt they have.  The site itself, for instance, says clearly that “we doubt that he [the man from Stratford] was the author of the works.”  So that’s the position they’re coming from.  I would take the opposite stance, namely that the lack of evidence does not change my opinion that he did, even if I’m willing to admit that there is room for doubt. I like the way Jacobi put it.  “I subscribe to the group theory,” he said.  “I don’t think anybody could do it on their own.” And later, “I think the leading light was probably deVere as I agree that an author writes about his own experience, his own life and personalities.”  An interesting development indeed!  It’s a public document.  Would you sign it?

http://www.aslshakespeare.com Ok, that’s pretty cool.  Shakespeare in sign language.  Why not?  The site is actually more than that, it’s an educational site with character sheets, scene synopsis(es?) and so on.  The only play that seems covered is Twelfth Night.  But there is most definitely video showing people acting out Shakespeare and signing at the same time.  Impressive!

Ok, my regular readers I think are following this story.  I’ve taken to singing Sonnet 18 to my girls, 5 and 3, as a lullaby.  They seem to dig it, and the other day my 5yr old even said, “Daddy I’m not remembering the words because we don’t sing it enough.”  Fair enough! So tonight I’m putting them to bed, I sing them the song, and in she starts with the questions.  “Why did Shakespeare write this?” “Well, he was writing it for someone who he thought was just the most perfect angel he had ever seen, you see, and he was trying to think of something that he could write about that was as beautiful as this person.” “Because he loved her.” “Absolutely, he loved her more than you can imagine.” (It is worth noting here, for the curious, that my 3yr old decided to lick my arm.  “Why are you doing that?” I ask her.  “You don’t lick people, you give people kisses.” “I’m a llama!” she said. “Oh, I’m sorry, I didn’t realize you were being a llama.  Do llama’s lick people?” “Yes!” “Got it.  Continue.”) “What was her name?” asked my 5yr old, more on topic. “It’s a mystery, nobody knows!  He never says her name in the poem, so we don’t know what her name was.” “What’s it about?” “Well, you know how sunny summer days are just the most awesome, happy thing in the whole world?  He thinks, hmmm, maybe I should compare her to a summer day.  But then he thinks, well you know, sometimes it’s cloudy outside, and that’s no fun, and sometimes even when the sun is out sometimes it’s too too hot, and that’s no fun either, so maybe comparing her to a summer day isn’t such a good idea after all, because she’s better than that.” “Maybe he could compare her to a flower?” Pause. “You know, that’s a very good question.  He actually wrote a lot of these poems, you know.  This is just one.  He wrote over a hundred and fifty of them.  And I’ll bet that in one of them he compared her to a flower.  I’ll find out, ok?” “Ok.” “I’m serious.” “I know you are, Daddy.” And, here we are.  My 5 yr old has put the question to me, did Shakespeare write any sonnets comparing his beloved to a flower?  I’m not versed enough in all 154 to know the answer off the top of my head.  Help? (To truly appreciate these stories, oh new readers, you have to dig the scene.  We’re in the bedroom of my 3yr old.  Who is named Elizabeth, who I tend to call Elizabethan because I think it’s cool.  For her first birthday I actually wrote her her own sonnet, which is framed and hanging on her wall.  She has no idea what it is, which I’m cool with.  Right now she’s pretending to be a llama.  But one day she’ll understand this whole Shakespeare / sonnet thing, and I’ll point it out to her and she’ll be able to say, “I have my own?“)  

Continuing on the theme of our friend who considers it a lifetime milestone to read the complete works of you know who, let me ask you this:  If not all, then which would you skip?  Which plays are you going to recommend that your friend not even bother with?  After all, we’re not kidding ourselves to think that every play is another Hamlet or Lear, are we? I’m gonna throw “King John” out.  If it’s not a Henry or a Richard, I don’t hear anybody quoting it and I don’t see anybody performing it.  So other than getting the “big picture” of the histories as a whole, what else does this one bring to the reader?  The casual reader is interested in getting some value out of Shakespeare’s particular contribution, not a history lesson that they could have gotten from any text book.