The
Shakespeare Adventure
is a new site that we hope any number of Shakespeare enthusiasts
and other interested Net surfers will find of some interest.
It is based, first and foremost, on the foundation that the 17th
Earl of Oxford, Edward de Vere, was the true author of the Shakespeare
Canon. This "Shakespeare authorship" issue has been
around for several centuries, and over the past 15 years has
gained many new adherents, in part because of Charlton Ogburn's
1984 The Mysterious William Shakespeare and in part because
of the awesome power of the Internet to disseminate information.
But while the debate rages on in various national media publications,
across various web sites and discussion groups on the Net, and
even now in some high school and college classrooms, there are
many of us involved in this debate who long ago understood that
the circumstantial evidence against the Stratford story is overwhelming,
and that the circumstantial evidence in favor of Oxford as the
true Shakespeare (in fact, as a real-world Hamlet) is equally
overwhelming.
During
these last 15 years the wide range of experience and belief within
the Oxfordian movement has resulted in some tensions between
two schools of thought: 1)should it be our mission to continue
to spread the word and to convince the Establishment of Oxford's
authorship first---and only then pursue the larger truths
and meanings of his authorship of the Shakespeare Canon---or
2) can we do both: spread the word/convince the Establishment
and at the same time explore the larger meaning of Oxford's
authorship? For years these tensions within the Oxfordian movement
have resulted in some intense internecine battles, since some
of the theories about the true motives behind the Shakespeare
mystery and Oxford's true role in the Elizabethan world are,
to put it bluntly, unsettling to many.
Given
such a state of affairs, we have decided that a separate web
site---devoted exclusively to the proposition that Oxford was
Shakespeare and just what the heck does that mean for all of
us---is necessary. So, here at The Shakespeare Adventure
we will be getting into just what Oxford's concealed authorship
means for our understanding of history, for how history is written,
and ultimately we hope, for understanding how the world works.
Obviously, for those who believe the Shakespeare authorship debate
is pointless, for those who believe that anyone other than Oxford
was Shakespeare, and for those who think Oxford's being Shakespeare
doesn't really change much else in our thinking about Shakespeare,
history or politics, there will be little here to hold your interest.
But not to worry ...it's a big, big web out there, with something
for everyone.
As part
of this new adventure, then, we not only accept that Oxford was
Shakespeare, but we also accept as a given the political nature
of this entire Shakespeare story and all its related sub-stories
under both Elizabeth I and her successor James I. Man is, above
all else, a political animal (Aristotle), and as we also know,
"all politics are local." (Tip O'Neill, Congressman
from Massachusetts). If you choose to join us on this trip, you
will find that we adventurers will be traveling where many dare
not go ...into some of the more exotic and unsettling theories
about how and why the Shakespeare authorship mystery came into
being, and also into some of the more exotic theories about the
development of early Renaissance western culture (e.g. Freemasons,
Rosicrucians, the School of Night, John Dee and friends, alchemy,
astronomy, conspirarcy, etc. etc.). This was the world in which
the true Shakespeare (i.e. Oxford) lived and wrote, and there
is little doubt in our minds that an intellect such as his was
in touch with everything happening around him. Even the stuffiest
of mainstream Shakespeareans would agree that he was in touch
with everything---they just don't have a clue as to how, or why.
So please,
if you want some new adventures in your life, check out the true
Shakespeare story, and join us in revisting and rethinking centuries
of history. You'll love it.
For openers,
check out Hank Whittemore's essay "The
politics of massacres, the need for intelligence" (which
appears in the premier issue (Fall 2001) of Shakespeare Matters,
the newsletter of The
Shakespeare Fellowship). With a taking-off point of the September
11th World Trade Center attacks in NYC, Whittemore makes an intriguing
case for how little things have changed in four centuries as
he reviews the young Shakespeare's reaction to similar religious/political
turmoil in the 1570s.
Also check
out Charles Boyle's essay on the political nature of Twelfth
Night ("Allowed
Fools: Notes on an Elizabethan Twelfth Night", available at
The Ever Reader site), and also William Boyle's 1998 Shakespeare
Oxford Newsletter article on the Jacobean politics surrounding
the publication of the First Folio in 1623 ("Shakespeare's
Son on Death Row?" ---also available on The Ever
Reader site)
Enjoy.
The Shakespere Adventure is a private
enterprise, owned and operated by Touchstone Enterprises. All
contents copyright 2002-2005. Send questions and comments to
the webmaster: wboyle@tiac.net