Links

New England Shakspeare Oxford Library Catalog

Shakespeare Fellowship Discussion Forum

FAQ

Timeline

The Shakespeare Adventure

Oxford is Shakespeare: any questions?

This page under construction (last updated 11/17/05)


Visions and revisions of 16th and 17th century history

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