Academic Freedom and the Shakespeare Authorship Question | Michael Dudley

For nearly 200 years, the identity of the author of the “Shake-Speare” plays and poems has been debated in hundreds of books and thousands of articles. Despite this enduring public fascination, however, the Shakespeare Authorship Question remains one of the academy’s most intractable taboos – rarely taught and aggressively suppressed, with authorship skeptics (known as anti-Stratfordians) routinely vilified as conspiracy theorists and compared to flat-earthers and Holocaust deniers.

Join HxA Member and academic librarian Michael Dudley who argues that scholarly humility, creative inquiry and viewpoint diversity in this debate can enrich Shakespeare studies – and the humanities in general.

#shakespeare #shakespeareauthorship #highereducation

[EndoftheTownProductions]

John Heminges, Henry Condell, and Richard Burbage, three actors of The Lord Chamberlain's Men, a famous acting company that included William Shakespeare, were given money by William Shakespeare of Stratford in his Last Will and Testament in 1616. Two of these actors, John Heminges and Henry Condell, were responsible for having 36 of Shakespeare's plays published in the First Folio in 1623. Ben Jonson's eulogy in the First Folio clearly praises Shakespeare as a great writer and refers to him as the “Sweet Swan of Avon.” This obviously designates Shakespeare as from Stratford upon Avon. Furthermore, Jonson states that "thy writings to be such, /As neither Man, nor Muse, can praise too much." Heminges and Condell also praise Shakespeare as a writer, stating that "he thought, he uttered with that easinesse, that wee have scarse received from him a blot in his papers. But it is not our province, who onely gather his works, and give them you, to praise him." These are "his works" and "his papers" that they are publishing. He is clearly presented as the writer of these works in the First Folio. The Last Will and Testament of William Shakespeare of Stratford clearly connects him with the 1623 First Folio through Heminges and Condell and it is clear that Shakespeare is presented as the author of the plays.

[keircutler]

Excellent presentation. Hopefully, the Stratfordians will watch this and learn from it!

[michaelrg]

Very well argued, thank you.
I have just discovered there is a similar but much more recent theory in a tiny corner of music history: Anna-Magdalena Bach was the actual composer of the cello suites and Well Tempered Clavier... you can imagine the outrage that musicologists are being sent into!!

[philiphavey]

William Kyes was the son of the Gatekeeper for Queen Kathrine, King. Henry VIII and one of the heiresses to the English throne, Mary Grey. Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth .
Both he and his father fell into disfavor over the Kyes-Grey wedding and the son’s own birth, which was in 1564 along with Shakespeare, Neville and others. The matter of Kyes’ birth had to be hidden, yet he, as a legitimate prince, he had to be well educated for an undefined place in the future.
William Stanley was born two years earlier and prove to be such a loose cannon that his family paid for him to stay out of the country starting in 1585 and, in order to kill two birds with one stone, William Kyes was sent to accompany the disruptive disruptive.
In 1593, a man returned to England claiming to be “William Stanley” after seven years of w.angering, but this man was the younger William Kyes rather than Kyes’ second cousin William Stanley.with a strong Tudor features beneath his beard.
This would be an absolute wild conjecture if “William Stanley” did not have to sue his family for recognition.
I will not include all of the fine points, but the younger “Stanley” won his suite along with “his” father players the Lord Chamberlain’s Men after they spent a few years under “”Stanley’s” older brother.
William Shakespeare, whom doubly was a group, of nobles, both male and female who were centered around Edward DeVere with “William Stanley” their only purported go between.
Again, when I have more space, I will explain how the invisible and nonexistent Shakespeare so ably stayed out of sight.

[billycaspersghost]

What is "The Academy" you refer to?

[ottarvendel]

A good list of arguments. Comparision of group denying historical fact is maybe not that bright in this context.

[peterrichards]

Oh for heaven's sakes. The problem with most all such arguments like these is that they concentrate on their own best evidence, but ignore the other side's best evidence. I'm amazed at how much evidence people are willing to ignore in order to claim 'it's so obvious' that Shakespeare didn't write the plays. The authorship question is completely legit, and extremely interesting as well, as no matter what, there's a mystery as to how the plays or the genius-insight for them came into being. It's like the ultimate mystery, but with only limited evidence which fades away in time.

[philipparker]

the Earl of Southampton family name is pronounced like “Rizley” ✌️

[bluecheese]

Thanks for the informative video )
War - wick - shire 😂 I know English place names are understandably a challenge for Americans. As best as I can convey it is correctly pronounced ‘Worrick-shuh’

[bastianconrad]

the main problem is:: Oxfordians (such as michael dudley) have an even stronger believe system, they rarely dare to mention the name Marlowe.. and what about me, as a Marlowian? why I am convinced, that Marlowe has by far the strongest arguments? real science has to to establish (instead of a believe system, I propose) the SYMPAC, (SYstem of Most Plausible Authorship Candidate)....or AWHyP (authorship working hyopothesis Platform) etc etc

[Anthropomorphic]

This is tricky. Similar observations could probably be made about academia's "suppression" of ancient alien theories; and despite probably having more popular support than anti-Stratfordianism, most would probably say that it's fine for academics to not teach that particular controversy. This isn't to say that anti-Stratfordianism is equivalent to ancient aliens, but rather that this presentation alone probably isn't enough to say that Stratfordian academics are acting unjustly.

[susanehrlich]

A person's life is reflected in his writing. It is important to know who the true author is. Ogburn's book proves to me it was Edward DeVere. Looney's book adds more evidence. Events that occur in the plays happened in DeVere's life.

[rainblaze.]

Shakespeare was more than one man. A product of many minds and life experiences. They done a sonic survalince on his grave and found only a single womans skull for god sake

[gallus]

"It doesn't seem consequential who Shakespeare was, or even that there was a Shakespeare. What would we possibly do with this information?" Really? Would a Christian, discovering that Wotan was the 'One true God' in His first Advent and Mohamed His third, have no consequence either? I wonder if 5 million visitors to Stratford would be as keen to make a second visit, and others a first. That we have the author's works is most important but there are many reasons to want to know who he was.

[randygault]

It doesn't seem consequential who Shakespeare was, or even that there was a Shakespeare. What would we possibly do with this information? It's fair enough to label Shakespeare biographies as fiction. It's dismaying if this isn't already the case. To the degree these fantasists are publicly-funded, I point people to the debt and ask whether it was worth it.