Are we really to believe
that the most favorized Shakespeare authorship candidate
(Edward de Vere, The Earl of Oxford ) was such a mediocre poet and plagiarist ? -
Oxfordian Richard Waugaman, in 2011 wrote an interesting article about Marlowe's influence on Shakespeare's works in "Shakespeare matters": He demonstrated - line by line - that nearly every line of Shakespeare's Sonnet 80 echoes words and phrases in Christopher Marlowe's poem "Hero and Leander (printed 1598 for the first time) s. also Blog 332. and Video below
Since Waugaman believes that the real (true) Shakespeare is Edward de Vere (17th Earl of Oxford), he interpretes the multiple contextual parallels as a principal example of the Rival Poets Poem [Marlowe] that "engendered such intense admiration and jealousy in de Vere".
I learned that one of Leander’s speeches (I:199-294) contains a hundred lines with many striking parallels with the first 17 Sonnets of Shakespeare. (as noted by previous scholars).
Waugaman's falsely concludes : "The borrowings illustrate the
mutual literary influence of de Vere and Marlowe on each other."
Should we really believe that Shakespeare (if he was Edward de Vere ) was such a mediocre poet, plagiarist and literary theft?
