With the latest Hollywood movie questioning whether the great English bard William Shakespeare even wrote his greatest literary works, is it now high-time to separate the fact from the fiction of who really is William Shakespeare?
By: Ringo Bones
As the move Anonymous – directed by Roland Emmerich – hit the theaters back in September 2, 2011, tenured Shakespearean scholars and university professors are up in arms over the historical accuracy and authenticity of the latest Hollywood “polemic” of their Golden Goose, but is there a shred of truth that Shakespeare might not be the real author of his works?
Emmerich’s opus sure casts a worm of doubt over what all of us accept as the history’s official view of Shakespeare. According to the movie and indeed some few iconoclastic schools of thought is that the true author of William Shakespeare’s most beloved literary works was none other than Edward de Vere The Earl of Oxford and seen by history as the illegitimate son of Queen Elizabeth I . And there was indeed a credible shred of historical evidence that Edward de Vere really wrote the literary works that most of us attribute to Shakespeare, and the Earl of Oxford was even aided and abetted by Dr. Samuel Johnson, the inventor of the modern definitive English dictionary.
A growing number of historians now start to believe that Edward de Vere, The Earl of Oxford, could indeed have been the true author of Shakespeare’s works because William Shakespeare did not possess the requisite life experience to write those works given that Shakespeare is – according to the Earl of Oxford’s believers - only a second-rate actor who could not have amassed enough wealth to travel in person to Italy to witness the turbulent romance of Romeo and Juliet and the dealings of the Merchant of Venice among other things.
According to Edward de Vere’s “fans”, the only probable reason why the Earl of Oxford had allowed William Shakespeare to become the “author” of his brilliant literary works is that during much of the reign of Queen Elizabeth, the Earl of oxford was actively involved in a plot to overthrow the queen and sees that the only possible way for his brilliant literary works to be published and enjoyed by folks across merry old England is by assigning all of it as the work of the stage actor named William Shakespeare. Unfortunately, tenured Shakespearean scholars and college professors seem to perceive the idea as mere “Hollywood Hokum”.
Showing posts with label Dr. Samuel Johnson. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Dr. Samuel Johnson. Show all posts
Monday, September 26, 2011
Monday, March 30, 2009
Did Modern English Started with William Shakespeare?
His works were credited as the starting point of the Modern English era, but does William Shakespeare truly deserve as the benchmark of the start of Modern English?
By: Vanessa Uy
It is now widely accepted that Beowulf is the definitive benchmark that defined the time period of the Old English era, while Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales is a prime example of a Middle English work of literature. And Edmund Spenser’s the Faerie Queene is acknowledge by some scholars the last great work of the Middle English period. While William Shakespeare’s works – acknowledge by some as the beginning of the Modern English period – has it’s share of detractors professing to facts supporting that Shakespeare’s works can’t truly be defined as Modern English. But first, a brief definition on what constitutes Old, Middle, and Modern English.
Webster’s dictionary defines Old English as the language of the English people from the time of the earliest documents in the 7th Century to about 1100, or any form of English of any period before Modern English. While Middle English is defined as the English in manuscripts of the 12th to 15th Centuries – also often defined as the transition period between Old English and Modern English. While Modern English is defined as a form of English having the characteristics of the present or most recent period of development of the English language.
The controversy whether the literary works of William Shakespeare can truly be described as belonging to the Modern English era was put forth by scholars who based their evidence of the contrary via archival first drafts of Shakespeare’s works. Noting that Shakespeare more often than not lacked a consistent spelling of some oft used English words. Even citing that Shakespeare spelled these words according to his creative whim. Which will do him no favors for the literate scholars and scribes at the time trying to record his literary works for posterity.
Scholars who subscribe to this point of view – or school of thought – ascribe the true origin of Modern English to Dr. Samuel Johnson, the author of the first definitive English dictionary. Dr. Samuel Johnson might as well be as good a candidate for being credited for the invention of Modern English, because of his authorship of the first truly definitive English dictionary. Which means that from that point on there now exist benchmarks and ground-rules on how to properly spell English words in accordance to a well-defined set of rules. Rather than spelling them according to whomever bard-come-lately’s creative whim. Sadly, the “creative molestation” of the now formalized Modern English language didn’t end with William Shakespeare’s whimsical, idiosyncratic and sometimes deliberate misspellings.
By: Vanessa Uy
It is now widely accepted that Beowulf is the definitive benchmark that defined the time period of the Old English era, while Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales is a prime example of a Middle English work of literature. And Edmund Spenser’s the Faerie Queene is acknowledge by some scholars the last great work of the Middle English period. While William Shakespeare’s works – acknowledge by some as the beginning of the Modern English period – has it’s share of detractors professing to facts supporting that Shakespeare’s works can’t truly be defined as Modern English. But first, a brief definition on what constitutes Old, Middle, and Modern English.
Webster’s dictionary defines Old English as the language of the English people from the time of the earliest documents in the 7th Century to about 1100, or any form of English of any period before Modern English. While Middle English is defined as the English in manuscripts of the 12th to 15th Centuries – also often defined as the transition period between Old English and Modern English. While Modern English is defined as a form of English having the characteristics of the present or most recent period of development of the English language.
The controversy whether the literary works of William Shakespeare can truly be described as belonging to the Modern English era was put forth by scholars who based their evidence of the contrary via archival first drafts of Shakespeare’s works. Noting that Shakespeare more often than not lacked a consistent spelling of some oft used English words. Even citing that Shakespeare spelled these words according to his creative whim. Which will do him no favors for the literate scholars and scribes at the time trying to record his literary works for posterity.
Scholars who subscribe to this point of view – or school of thought – ascribe the true origin of Modern English to Dr. Samuel Johnson, the author of the first definitive English dictionary. Dr. Samuel Johnson might as well be as good a candidate for being credited for the invention of Modern English, because of his authorship of the first truly definitive English dictionary. Which means that from that point on there now exist benchmarks and ground-rules on how to properly spell English words in accordance to a well-defined set of rules. Rather than spelling them according to whomever bard-come-lately’s creative whim. Sadly, the “creative molestation” of the now formalized Modern English language didn’t end with William Shakespeare’s whimsical, idiosyncratic and sometimes deliberate misspellings.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
