(31) Adolf Eichmann or Shakespeare . the Banality of the "Evil" or the "Biedermann" (honest man)?

The weird concept 

of the "Banality of the Bard"

T.

Tobias Döring                    William  Shakspere                       Adolf Eichmann

Tobias Döring, Professor of English Literature, University of Munich, President of the German Shakespeare Society , in two different reviews in the FAZ (20/10/11) and in the FAZ(12/20/11), concerning Shake-speare, used the concept and headline of
            

"The Banality of the Bard"

Tobias Döring obviously must have attached importance to convey his credo of the "Banality of Shakespeare", meaning the conventionality of an ordinary citizen of the province, and not a noble, intellectual, world-traveled man.

Hannah Arendts German
book "Eichmann in Jerusalem
or- of
"The Banality of Evil"

(30) The German Shakespeare Society never felt the need to discuss the authenticity of its "Name patron"?

What would change for the Society 

if  the author of "Romeo and Juliet" or "Hamlet" had a pseudonym and was not the man from Stratford but Christopher Marlowe?

The German Shakespeare Society (DSG) has no  doubt on William Shakespeare of Stratford as the author of Hamlet or Macbeth. It holds all the authorship theories  according to present knowledge for untenable.

In a few paragraphs in the FAQ section  [Frequently Asked Questions] the society  puts  the authorship issue aside and concisely excludes any reasonable doubt on the Stratford man as their "name patron".

Reminiscent to a collective repression mechanism, the society denies in a few sentences, a nearly 200-year history of global intellectual debate of the reasons, which produced about 5,000 books that have dealt with the question of the real author.

For well-understood reasons  the company feels no need to explain  the key points of the debate.-
The society states that although none of the theories according to present knowledge are acceptable, they nevertheless remain  highly interesting because they would allow conclusions about the cultural desires of the time.
 . 
Basic question: What would change for the company if it turned out that the author of "Romeo and Juliet" or "Hamlet" was not the man from Stratford but Christopher Marlowe, who took "Shakespeare" as one of his many pseudonyms    ?
.

(29) The president Tobias Dörings judgment... : Shakespeare in his total banality--part 2

Is it really the Banality of the Bard, 

which makes the problem of all the Shakespeare's biographies?

Tobias Döring, Professor of English Literature, LMU-Munich,  is President of the illustrious "German Shakespeare Society".(2015)

His review  in the  FAZ (20.10.11) "The banality of the bard"  on  Armin Spenser’s novel "Shakespeare" contained  the same title words as his review of the film "Anonymous", 2 weeks ago ("The banality of the bard, or as you like") (FAZ 12.20.11)

He obviously attached great importance to convey his credo of the "Banality of Shakespeare" to the world....

 

Döring  (FAZ - Excerpt , free translation from German):
The impression that we could hardly evidence of Shakespeare's life, is often circulated but false. The opposite is true. But all the documents relating to the unsophisticated staid citizens from the Middle English Province, who became involved in various legal disputes, are so far away from how we prefer to think of a great poet, that the historical tradition disappoints us. For real estate matters, it does not need a genius. It is the banality of the Bard, which makes the problem of all the Shakespeare's biographies.

How could there be such a frightening "mundane" perspective of the present President of the "German Shakespeare Society" ?
I see only one plausible explanation: ........ He preferred not to deal with the [almost religious] dogma

              "Shakespeare (Stratford) = Shakespeare (Author of the plays)

and not to question it : This would have required the basic premise of a scientist, wanting to pursue contradictions, questions and doubts and to solve the countless problems, connected with Shakespeare's authorship ..

(28) Mark Twains last book "Is Shakespeare dead" partly staged!

How quickly experts take the naive faith

 in assurances of authors ?

Mark Twain's last book "Is Shakespeare Dead???" with the subtitle: "From My Autobiography" was published about a year before his death (1909)

In this emotional satirical "commitment", he explains his belief that William Shakspeare of Stratford could not have been the author of the plays. He made it clear how quickly experts take the naive faith in assurances of authors

 Listen to  the Canadian actor Keir Cutler, who has implemented Twain's last book in a brilliant theater version....

---

https://youtu.be/cJ72Ew1ujlk

(27) Christopher Schmidt : the elegant solution of an alleged Shakespeare expert?

Christopher Schmidt's impressive 

circular reasoning

Christopher Schmidt, (he unexpectedly died in 2018) journalist of the arts section of the Süddeutsche Zeitung (SZ) was interviewed by the " Deutsche Welle" on the occasion of the film "Anonymous" , as an expert on the Shakespeare authorship question and Shakespeare's education:

http://www.dw.de/popups/mediaplayer/contentId_6657337_mediaId_15526504

Schmidt:[Translation]"...the  learning of Shakespeare was quite  sufficient to write these pieces, he was not learned "immeasurably"  but he was just gifted with a boundless imagination ...   and all other theories have also just  considerable difficulties ...….

Therefore William Shakespeare from Stratford is still the safest candidate as author of the famous plays, even if he possessed no academic education ...(11 Nov.2011)

Where did Christopher Schmidt get his knowledge of Shakespeare's education? Does he mean the person from Stratford, (no sources of [school] education do exist), or does he regard the education deducted from the author's  plays? .... thus, from a poet who possessed (according to many experts)  the most universal learning of his time? For Schmidt both must undoubtedly have been the same ....

Isn't this "vicious circle response" of Schmidt  the most elegant solution, to get rid of the problem  which was dealt in this show?

(26) the irritating question mark related to the "true" Shakespeare (alias Marlowe)

Stanley Wells: 

"...trying to prove that Marlowe wrote Shakespeare.... is  absolute nonsense, of course"

The Marlowe Society campaigned for decades  for its hero to be included alongside  Shakespeare, Chaucer and others in Poet's Corner in Westminster Abbey. -

Finally 2002 a small diamond-shaped window was installed bearing Marlowe's life data 1564 - ?1593. 

To many Shakespeare experts the question mark in front of  Marlowe's date of death was a calculated insult.

Stanley Wells wrote  2002: . 

"It's quite obviously there[the question mark] because the Marlowe Society is in part  dedicated to trying to prove that Marlowe wrote Shakespeare. It's  absolute nonsense, of course."


Lately in his Book "Shakespeare bites back"(p.21/22)  Stanley Wells increased his attacks: The Marlovíans had duped the Dean and Chapter of the Westminster Abbey:

... succeeded in duping the Dean and Chapter of Westminster Abbey who, in 2002, misguidedly allowed themselves to be advised by people who want to believe that Christopher Marlowe wrote Shakespeare..... In doing so they flew in the face of a mass of unimpugnable evidence. 

(25) Shakespeare was Shakespeare : a tauto-logical failure:

Nobody would ask :  "Why Winston Churchill was Winston Churchill ?"

Many who do not feel  able to question Shakspere as the author of  Shakespeare's  canon, suffer from a  "logical" fallacy. It consists of a circular argument ("circular reasoning"), which occurs when the assumption to be proved is included as  proved and thus a premise to conclusion is derived from itself. 

Examples:
Shakespeare wrote a dedication to  Henry Wriothesly, the Earl of Southampton in his epic poem "Venus and Adonis", indicating that Southampton was the patron of Shakspeare from Stratford. The construct of  an identity between  a poet Shakespeare  and  the  person from Stratford  Shakspere is tacitly assumed, although this is yet to test. A speculation is presented as fact.

Such circular reasonings were used in the authorship debate in excess:
Shakespeare's comprehensive education requires, for example, that he must have visited the school in Stratford. But there is no evidence that the person from Stratford Shakspere has ever attended school, nor that he could ever write fluently. A question, put to the test, is from the outset accepted,  because "a necessary precondition".

You probably would comment the question: "Do you know the great literary works of Joseph Conrad?"  by asking : do you mean Józef  Konrad (Korzeniowski) ? -

With Shakespeare, this question seems to be resolved. Nobody would ask: "do you mean William Shakspere, the merchant from Stratford?  

(24) The Shakespeare Authorship question is a chimera.

German Shakespeare expert Sabine Schülting 

recognizes the authorship question as a figment

Sabine Schülting

Prof. Sabine Schülting, Shakespeare Expert, Berlin , Chief Editor of the  Shakespeare Yearbook for the German Shakespeare Society,  gave an interview with "n-tv", a German TV news channel and was asked, why the endless debate about Shakespeares authorship never  comes to an end.

She replied (translation):   "because the ideal of an author,  who wrote timeless world-ranking literature, could not be  reconciled with the unattractive son of a glover from Stratford, because creativity in arts is still tied to the social status, and high culture and simple conditions exclude themselves...


She was also asked, why it is clear to her as anglistic professor, that the authorship question is a chimera , she replied, that our knowledge about Shakespeare   is high enough,  because of

• historical documents , 
• his career as actor,
• his shareholder position in a theatre group,
• his activities as a dramatist  
• the contemporary reports about him
• his name on contemporous quartos of his plays

All of this sounds plausible at first glance, yet on closer inspection does not meet at any point to the facts ...

How could it happen that all the german Shakespeare experts recognizes the authorship question unisono as a figment?

(23) Shakespeare and the amazing blinkers of British Researchers

Why the scientists did not mention 

with a single word  the centuries-old Shakespeare 

(literary) authorship problem?

Dr Jayne Archer and Professors Richard M. Turley and Howard Thomas of the University of Aberystwyth in North Wales reported  at the Hay Festival of Literature and the Arts about their award-winning results (s.Video).
They showed that Shakspere from Stratford bought food like  wheat  and barley, hoarded and sold malt during times of food shortages at a profit over a period of 15 years. Shakspere combined legal and illegall activities and became the largest property owner in his hometown. 

The findings should 

highlight the (unexpected) contrast in aspects of Shakespeare’s personality.

How could it happen that the scientists did not mention with any word  or at least discuss the centuries-old Shakespeare authorship hypothesis  which assumes, that Shakspere (Stratford) and Shakespeare ( the author of  the plays) were not identical and that the Stratford business dealer  gave his name as a  frontman  to mask the  concealed  endangered Poet-Genius..( Marlowe)  (See HOME)

---

(22) Ros Barber: Shakespeare authorship , an absolute Taboo

...I discovered, when I started researching the novel, 

that it's completely Taboo!

Ros Barber, PhD. English writer, was recently awarded for her literary debut of a fictional novel, "The Marlowe Papers' [in verses(!)] with the Desmond Elliott Prize.

The novel weaves the historical and literary facts about Christopher Marlowe in her fictional story. She is convinced that Christopher Marlowe was the true author of Shakespeare's works.

In an interview with the BBC she spoke candidly about on what an absolute taboo topic she had, unknowingly, taken in the context of her research with Marlowe.

"One of the things that fascinated me most, was to discover,

when I started researching the novel, that it's completely taboo". 

Early on she was aware that - if she  would have made ​​no research as a writer for her fictional story, but would have occurred as a scientist, she would never have got an access  permit  to Englich universities to conduct research on this topic.

"It was made ​​very clear to me that if I was not researching it in order to write a work of fiction, I would not be allowed to research it at a British university at all"

(21) The evil argument of Sir Stanley Wells (part 1)

If it could have been so many (Shakespeare authorship candidates),

 then it will be, nobody did.

One of the most common and yet evil argument used by experts against the Shakespeare authorship debate is to point to the number of envisaged candidates, which is so absurdly high.

The argument is:  If it could have been so many, then it will be, nobody did.

Stanley Wells

                                                                    
Sir Stanley Wells, Shakspeare expert and long-time chairman of the multi-million dollar "Shakespeare Birtplace Trusts" puts this in an interview with Swiss TV (SF1-(Video start at 16.58.min)

"The very idea that so many people have been suggested as the author of Shakespeares works in itself to me is enough to show that it is a mad idea, its just crazy !!!" (click Blog 200!)

(20) Is there really a "Banality of Shakespeare, the Bard?

President of the German Shakespeare Society Prof. Tobias Döring

 supports the thesis of the "Banality of the Bard" 

Thomas Looney                Tobias Döring

The President of the German Shakespeare Society Prof. Tobias Döring wrote on the occasion of Roland Emmerichs Film start "Anonymus"  a review  in der FAZ Oktober 12, 2011 , entitled  "The Banalitay of the Bard. He tried to explain the basic error of Thomas Looney (Creator of the  Oxford-Theory in "Shake- speare Identified"  1920)

Döring wrote that Thomas Looney  would do a "circular reasoning" by assuming the curriculum vitae of Shakespeare's exceptional personality of the court must have served as a model for his work. Only the religious worship of Shakespeare since the 18th century had led to the authorship debate, in  which   only a false ("noble-bred", educated, religious excessive) Shakespeare could testify to the ("trivial") truth of Shakespeare ; But the Bard, Shakespeare, basically was a man of the "banal" middle class and  therefore  compatible with the man from Stratford.  Dörings opinion is congruent with that of  Stanley Wells, the longtime chairman of the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust in Stratford.  Wells expressed his opinion  in a  televised interview 2009  (SF1 Switzerland, second part, from min 17th) as a counterposition to Kurt Kreiler: Why do people feel the need to question that Shakespeare wrote Shakespeare? There  are many reason for it, one is snobbery. I think that would mean that  people would have  preferred to believe that these great works were  written by an aristocrat rather than by a person of fairly humble origin  in Stratford ".

(19) Daryl Pinksen: Shakespeare, the front of Marlowe

Why the founder of the International Marlowe Society 

early has entombed all his first promising initiatives?

Daryl Pinksen , a canadian researcher and  author of the book  "Marlowe's Ghost " argues in an interview with the australian filmmaker Michael Rubbo (<-- Video interview), that the late works of Christopher Marlowe cannot be  distinguished from the early works of Shakespeare in terms of style, structure, content  etc.

For Pinksen there are only two possible explanations:

a) Shakespeare must have plagiarized from Marlowe extensively or b) Shakspeare was a frontman for Marlowe.  .

 Pinksen opts for the solution b)  .

(18) Why the unfairness in the Feuilleton of the Süddeutsche Zeitung ?

Why Christopher Schmidt  discussed the Marlowe theory 

but did neither mention the name of the author 

nor the title of the book?

The journalist Christopher Schmidt (who recently died unexpectedly )    led a full-page interview in the Feuilleton of the Süddeutsche Zeitung in 2011 with todays best known german Shakespeare translator Frank Günther (deceased october 2020) and asked him  on a recent book about the Marlowe theory of a Munich neurologist? (s.Faksimile)

 It is noticeable that Mr. Christopher Schmidt
*  did neither mention the name of the author nor the title of this book
*  did  accept  Günthers disparagement  of the book
*  and  gave large room to Günters bizarre theory of the QUEEN  as Shakspeares  most likely candidate
   
What is the most plausible interpretation for Schmidts  bizarr journalistic approach not to identify author and title related to a main topic of his article in the Süddeutsche Zeitung? 

(17) Höfele : Shakespeare doubters have lost their balance Höfele part2

English Professor  for English language and literature in Munich 

declares [Anti-Stratfordians] as mutated "ghost searchers", "deviant visionaries" or "Spökenkiekers"  

Andreas Höfele, Professor  for English language and literature in Munich, former President of the German Shakespeare Society dealt in a lecture (2003) on the skeptics, who feel not able to recognize William Shakespeare  from Stratford  as the author of the works.   - His presentation revealed that he considers the doubters as a category of people who seek a playground for hunting the non existent ghost.

Because of his lack of doubt (identical to most academic experts)  he never felt it necessary to do some own investigations on unsolved scientific authorship questions. In his synopsis, he formulated vividly that ..... those who search for him [Shakspere] have  mutated into "ghost searchers", "deviant "visionaries" or "Spökenkiekers"  These minds  ......have lost their balance.... 

May it be that doubters have not lost, but not yet found their balance?
Since the main impetus for a Sciencist is doubt, you will not call HÖFELE a scientist,  but  perhaps a medicre  novelist ?

(16) Why "the informant" does not mention Shakespeare's name? - Höfele part 1

Anglistic professor wrote a novel "The Spy" 

with a core issue of Marlowes assassination

Andreas Höfele, Anglistic Professor in Munich, former president of the German Shakespeare Society,  wrote a historical novel "The spy,"[the informant] set in  London of the late 16th century. One of its core issue  is "Marlowe and his assassination." 

From the available historical sources Höfele constructs novel-like the fictional story, as Marlowe on May 30, 1593 was murderd: all historical figures are mentioned with their real names citing historical documents literally. In Deptford, near London Marlowe is lured into a trap and murdered by three informants of Walsingham and Essex "Pooley, Frizer and Skeres" under covert directory of Richard Bancroft the later bishop of London (1597)

The gifted poet Marlowe, of the same age than Shakespeare, is plastically drawn in his diversity and magnitude.  At the end of the novel , Shakespeare's last journey traveling home by coach back to Stratford [1611? / 13?]  is described  in a strange way, without naming Shakespeare (but  identifiable)

Translation from German:  He [Shakespeare] was not happy, hardly any work was done, he was worried about the next, he made himself the fear of failure to worry about the next, always uncertain at the mercy of the public,   ,  any success increased the fear of failure. Only the purchase of land [in Stratford] had subdued the fear . Estates were the only ones that gave security   the only security  in the world..  Piece by piece he had bought it together. He could go on the field and say : the pasture there is my Prince of Denmark, or: this slope of the hedge down to the creek :  Macbeth..   London ... Never again!.  In the  small world of his prosperity he would spend his days., The storms of life caught  -a gentleman. He was on target. House, yard, trees, fields gathered around him 
 .....
Is it conceivable that  one of the must renowned  academic  german Shakespeare experts  presents the greatest literary poet genius  as a  "Biedermann", who finally moved into his personal safety of its real estate holdings in Stratford?

Why Höfele did not include  Shakespeare's name in his book in contrast to all other contemporary real "people?    -     Didn't he dare to do so?

(15) The true Shakespeare: Marlowe's unsubstantial death:

      Marlowe's "unsubstantial  murder" : 

a factual contemporary Conspiracy!  

No conspiracy theory!

A conspiracy is based on deception by definition, but not necessarily on lower moral motives. The term "conspiracy theory", however,  has always a negative connotation, since  deception and secrecy are seen as their breeding ground.

This has been part of  Marlowe's (alias Shakespeare's) doom . Marlowe's life-saving corresponded to a plot, but not necessarily to a conspiracy. It was neither an intrigue nor a collusion to commit a crime.

It was an appointment on the part of the Crown to a not legally conformant, but morally justifiable act in the interest of a life-saving  of the greatest                                                       English poet Genius......

(14) Gelferts doubtlessness about Shakespeare!

     "Shakespeare  not an "intellectual"  

but from a rural middle-class",  

Hans-Dieter  Gelfert, Professor Emeritus FU Berlin, wrote  a book about  „Shakespeare"  (C.H.Beck Wissen 2000 , Second edition 2014). 

There he states that it would be difficult to imagine  Marlowe's figures  „Tamburlaine“ and „Faustus“ in  Shakespeare , since ...

...Shakespeare  was not an "intellectual"  but from a rural middle-class, without Marlowe's  elitist ethos .


Thus alleged truths are proclaimed from legends of so-called Shakespeare experts that seal the authorship problem finally and uncontradicted.

Do Gelferts certainties  really correspond to the truth?

(13) A unique difficulty preventing "400 years of collective intelligence" to unravel the Shakespeare authorship riddle.

Fermat's  and   Shakespeare's conjectures. -

Parallels ??

Keeping in mind that for hundreds of years, there is a unique Shakespeare authorship problem,

this inevitably leads to the question of how such a unique situation could arise and why it could not be solved until today.

 One can postulate with considerable plausibility, that there has to be a unique difficulty which prevented "400 years of collective intelligence" to unravel the mystery. The unusual problem is reminiscent of the hundreds of years of attempts to prove

Fermat's conjecture

  (see  picture, the french Mathematician Pierre de Fermat).

During the centuries the world was convinced that there must be a solution!  The solution was finally found in 1994  it  required hundreds of years and a about 100  pages.
It tells us that some  assumptions can not be proven more simple. You may  transfer this analogy to the solution of the conjecture of the equation

                    Shakespeare [playwright]  ≠  Shakespeare [Stratford]
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(12) Shakespeare and the Authorship :The Holocaust and the NYT

A repudiation of Shakespeare amounts 

to a "non-recognition of the Holocaust"

______________

                                                                    William Niederkorn

You may not expect in which dimensions  the controversy over Shakespeare's authorship continues to work until the 21th century: There was the proposal by William Niederkorn in the New York Times of 30 August 2005  to integrate our extended  knowledge and research of the Shakespeare authorship problems into future academic curricula on Shakespeare

NYT, 30.August 2005 Niederkorn  ...On both sides of the authorship controversy, the arguments are  conjectural. Each case rests on a story, and not on hard evidence.  Either side, or both, might eventually be proved wrong. Meanwhile, and  it could be a very long meanwhile, perhaps an eternal  meanwhile, things  will continue as they are . Or perhaps not. What if authorship studies were made part of the standard Shakespeare curriculum? 


The Harvard professor and Shakespeare expert Stephen Greenblatt expressed his outrage in a response letter to the "New York Times" Sept.5, 2005: A repudiation of the Stratford man would amount to a "non-recognition of the Holocaust,"

NYT, 5.Sept.2005 Greenblatt   »In both cases an overwhelming scholarly consensus, based on a serious assessment of hard  evidence ,is challenged by passionately held  fantasies whose adherents demand equal time. The demand seems harmless  enough until one reflects on its implications. Should claims that the Holocaust did not occur also be made part of the standard curriculum?«


Postscriptum: Meanwhile "Master Degrees" on the Shakespeare Authorship problem have been established at the  Brunuel Unversity London  and the Portland University ,Oregon/USA