Saturday, April 3, 2010

Hero or Hoax

The March 27th issue of "The Economist" reviews James Shapiro's book, "Contested Will: Who Wrote Shakespeare?" http://www.economist.com/culture/displaystory.cfm?story_id=15767439

Nonie Sharpe sent me a copy, with the last words of the review underlined in black pen: "Beyond that is imagination. In essence, that's what the book is about." Yes, and the author would like to think it's Shakespeare's imagination he's lauding, but it's his own. He partakes liberally of the endless ability of Stratfordian supporters to imagine the impossible. The real author, the Earl of Oxford, did not need so much imagination--he had data, first-hand observations, and access to the people and books that permeate Shakespeare's world.

Most interesting to me in the short review is this tidbit, "Bacon and Looney developed their theories in a spirit of religious doubt, and in the throes of their own personal crises." As though that disqualifies their theories! You'd have to erase a lot of civilization if we couldn't advance, test, or produce evidence in support of any theory that was developed in a spirit of religious doubt or during a personal crisis.