Bard Bits: Shaking the Bacon
Shakespeare. An enigma in my mind when I found out he was a rooted fixture in our English curriculum. He was just a name since I had never encountered a play or a sonnet during my formative schooling and was only vaguely aware that he wrote Romeo and Juliet, which I watched in the theatre in junior high. I had doubts about this English guy from Stratford. Who was he? If I had to teach his plays I needed to understand his background. The problem being is that the more I researched, the less credible Shakespeare became. Not much is known about his childhood, less about his schooling, and then there are those missing years before becoming cited as an “upstart crow.”
However, over time I uncovered more information, learned more than the standard school fare of Romeo and Juliet and Julius Caesar and decided Shakespeare was amazing. I converted to a Bardinator and earned the reputation as the Shakespeare Lady at school.
Then my world rocked.
I learned there were those who did not believe Shakespeare wrote all those plays, sonnets, and penned 1,700 words into use. I learned of the Baconians and the Stratfordians (and a couple of other theory players). I watched the documentaries. I became irritated. I even became outraged (eh–more like really, really annoyed). I found it incredulous that people spent time decoding Shakespeare’s work to find anagrams, cryptic messages, and the like in order to prove/disprove Shakespeare’s authenticity.
I finally had to step away. I finally took on the David Tennant approach:
What about you?
A. Yes, Shakespeare wrote everything.
B. No, Shakespeare’s authorship is one of those mystery conspiracies.
C. Sorry, I suffer from Shakespism (hives at the mention of his name)
Pam Webb 
To quote a great blog “I don’t think Bacon wrote the works associated with William Shakespeare. And I don’t think the Earl of Oxford wrote them. In fact, I don’t think anyone wrote them. Have you read Hamlet? That shit writes itself.”
That said, absolutely Shakespeare writ them.
Early AI, obviously.
Clearly.
Yes, I’m with David too. Shakespeare–whoever he was–was simply the greatest master/poet/word-conjurer the English language has ever had.
Yes, let’s sit back and enjoy the show and forget about the rolling credits.
Seriously Pam,
Now, just for a moment let’s examine in real detail just one of the many myths or rather fallacies about our Will Shakespere of Stratford-upon-Avon, namely that he was born and died on St. George’s Day, the 23rd April. Seriously folks, I’m no mathematician but the chances of anyone being born on England’s national festival in any one year and then at some future date, presumably the end of an average life span for the time, another mathematical variable has got to be around 365 million to one! Biographers and chroniclers of William Shakespeare’s life still incorrectly list his birth date and day of death as the 23rd of April (St. George’s Day) eg: Chamber’s Book of Days, Brewer’s Phrase & Fable, A Shakespeare Miscellany etc). Moreover, they sometimes enlarge upon this fundamental error by comparing Shakespeare to other celebrities who were born or died on the 23rd April, eg: Miguel Cervantes apparently died on the 23rd April, Spanish Gregorian time. This means that this basic discrepancy means that Shakespeare was actually born on the 2nd-3rd of May. That means that, according to Chamber’s Book of Days, that Shakespeare was actually born on “Holy Rood Day”(Christ’s Cross was discovered in AD 326 by St. Helena), at the same time as Niccolo Machiavelli was born and the same time that the Gunpowder conspirator and Catholic priest Henry Garnet, (well known for his tendency for equivocation) had died or rather been executed. Chamber’s does not list anyone else as having been born and dying on the same day. They are in error largely because England still used the Julian calendar which was some 10-11 days behind that of other parts of Europe, such as Spain, Italy and France who had adopted the Gregorian calendar. In advertising the general rule is if you’re going to tell a lie which is likely believable then it is better to tell a lie that is so outrageous, such a big fib that it could never be disproved or for that matter rejected as false! Now tell me whether you think this piece of biographical propaganda is true or false? The myth or legend of a “simple youth” who by dint of perseverance, self-reliance and ingenuity succeeds by becoming the greatest illustrious poet and playwright the world has ever known is more akin to the “American Dream”. To cast doubt on this ludicrous assertion is to deny the working class a “universal hero” to aspire to, applaud and to admire. Finally, the fact often quoted by “quackademics” that he was born and actually died on St. George’s Day is to perpetuate, without correctly dating, the Anglo-Saxon myth or legend grounding him forever in English culture as a “bucolic literary saint”. All this “pseudo-mallarkey” being peddled by Stratfordians despite the fact that England actually employed the Julian calendar during Shakespeare’s lifetime and right up until 1752. This means that he was actually born some eleven days after St. George’s day and similarly would have died eleven days after the celebrations on that Saint’s day making his birth and death hardly as memorable or significant by some strange coincidence.
Who Was William Shakespeare?
A Literary Genius or Fraud?
Just a few examples on my site supporting the Earl of Oxford and denying the “Stratford Shakspeare” any faith! That’s like saying Dick Whittington was a poor Shropshire lad who made good in London:
Dick Whittington & Shakspere
We are all entitled to our own beliefs. Thanks for your input, Leonidas. The big question is whether you enjoy the works produced.