23 Dec 2019

(558) Academic attitudes toward the Shakespeare authorship question

Much ado
 about nothing New

The „Shakespeare Oxford Fellowship" Website"
 ( SOF - dedicated to investigating the Shakespeare authorship question and disseminating the evidence that Edward de Vere, the 17th Earl of Oxford (1550 – 1604), is the true author of the plays and poems published under the pseudonym “William Shakespeare ” )


published a speech of Prof. Don Rubin, York University (Canada) presented at the Shakespeare Oxford Fellowship Conference in Hartford, CT on October 19, 2019, entitled

The new field of Shakespeare.  - A Critical Look at the Work of Taylor, Leahy, Florio and de Vere

The talk declares that It will look at both this arguably under-appreciated sea-change in academic attitudes toward the whole authorship question and that John  Florio - despite significant francophone support—cannot be discussed as a Shakespeare candidate

Rubins 1min sketch of his own position (concerning Marlowe,  starting at 23min 05) was shockingly ignorant  and contradictory in that, on the one hand,  …."well argued by Marlovian Ros Barber, a „wonderful story“ …. „it has much to explain themes of exile and the appearance of Italy in so many plays“..." many of his students love to argue for Marlowe this way..". 

...but, on the other hand, ..."trouble believing it, believing  the government would go to such length to protect the life of a supposed political asset at that time, no less cooperate with that person in the secret transportation of a stage play back to England, 
....that was literally all he had to say about the Marlowe theory.

Should the Marlowe / Shakespeare authorship thesis 
 be a matter of  believe?