[John Whitworth]

Has anyone thought of doing it the other way about, listing all the things that Shakespeare didn't know, like that Bohemia doesn't have a sea coast, that Macbeth ruled successfully for eighteen years, that Romans didn't wear nightcaps or have clocks, Cleopatra couldn't play billiards, stuff like that? And he never quotes stuff in Latin, whereas Marlowe does it all the time.

Not a particularly educated man then, rather someone who picks things up, in many ways self-educated. No university for him.

[Chris O'Carroll]

But I find it extremely inspiring to think of a woman as the true author of Shakespeare, turning patriarchal literary history on its head and forever, completely and entirely, justifying the value of women writers.

As I've said before, Mary, I find that not only uninspiring, but actually anti-feminist. Women writers do not need a bogus Shakespeare authorship theory justify their value. Their value justifies itself. Women writers are not upstart crows who need to be beautified with pilfered feathers. They are accomplished artists in their own right.

[Orwn Acra]

I would agree with Chris that feminism doesn't need Shakespeare. And anyway, how many times does Emily Dickinson throw a glove at Shakespeare's feet and win the ensuing duel? Shakespeare is for everyone, and turning him gay or into a woman or a scholar wins points for no one's team.

Those who believe Shakespeare was not Shakespeare are snobbish and classist. They believe, based on their own insecurities and limitations, that a rather "uneducated" man could not be a genius. But genius needs no logic and certainly no formal education.

[Mary Meriam]

I'm glad you feel that women are accomplished artists, Chris. That has not been the prevailing attitude.

[Richard Meyer]

What Chris and Orwn said.

All this "Who-really-wrote-Shakespeare?" stuff has everything do with political or
social or cultural agendas and little or nothing to do with literature.

[Rick Mullin]

What Orwn said.

[Chris O'Carroll]

You're absolutely right, Mary, that women in the arts have had to contend with a whole lotta prevailing bad attitude. Same deal for women in science. But it would be a serious mistake to argue that we could completely and entirely justify the value of women scientists by asserting that Isaac Newton or Albert Einstein was really a woman.

[Jerome Betts]

John, W.S. does include Latin tags etc in his plays, particularly the early ones like Titus Androncus, e.g. Act IV, Sc 2 , Integer vita scelerisque purus/Non eget Mauri iaculis nec arcu which is a verse in Horace Chiron says he knows well having ,read it in the Grammar long ago', as no doubt had Shakespeare.

[John Whitworth]

But he doesn't do it very often. And that's a very well-known tag that every schoolboy knows. Even me.

[Skip Dewahl]

Who knows, perhaps old Shack was simply one out of the many hopefuls who had innate "possibilities" (Oh, and an infallible memory, of course):

http://absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=237066