Focus on Der Mann

Robert Detobel reports that Germany’s Focus magazine has published a notice about Kurt Kreiler’s new Shakespeare biography, Der Mann, der Shakespeare erfund: Edward de Vere Seventeenth Earl of Oxford (The Man who Was Shakespeare: etc.) — original article in German on the web at:
http://www.focus.de/kultur/buecher/nervensaege-kleinkriminelle-und-ein-pseudonym-indizien_aid_438763.html

Below Detobel translation from FOCUS Nr. 40 (2009):

NUISANCE, PETTY CROOK AND A PSEUDONYM
CIRCUMSTANTIAL EVIDENCE
By FOCUS editor Rainer Schmitz
22.09.2009
Kurt Kreiler
THE MAN WHO INVENTED SHAKESPEARE

Who was William Shakespeare? Or more exactly: who wrote Shakespeare’s works? The question haunts the world of letters for about 200 years. Until then Shakespeare was Shakespeare, hailed from Stratford on Avon and wrote approx. 40 comedies, tragedies and historical plays which were being staged continuously all over the world. Doubts arose out of the scarcity of biographically usable data. The richness of the language and the immense learning were just considered incompatible with the bumpkin from the province. Such a work could only have been achieved by a learned member of the upper class. But who?

About 50 contemporaries have been suspected, among them Christopher Marlowe, Edmund Spenser, Ben Jonson and even Queen Elizabeth I herself. The debate now mainly turns around Edward de Vere, Earl of Oxford, the chief suspect. In his thoroughly researched biography of the Earl, Kreiler rolls up “the case” again. Though he does not submit an irrefragable proof, he presents not a little circumstancial evidence. The weightier ones have already been made public some years ago (FOCUS 32/2000). They would convince any jury court. “Shakespeare” is a pseudonym, Edward de Vere was a frequent visitor of Elizabeth I’s court; the dramas were not written for the Globe Theatre but for the English court stage.

Note: The Focus edition 32/2000 referred to in the notice above features a photo of Detobel and a discussion of his contribution to Shakespearean authorship research. A selection of Detobel’s research is available online at Robert Brazil’s Elizabethan Authors site: http://www.elizabethanauthors.com/Part-1-Ch2.pdf

SAT Gathering Nov. 15

The Shakespeare Authorship Trust will hold its “Gathering for all Authorship Hunter Gatherers: Challenging Authority” November 15, 2009 at Shakespeare’s Globe, Bankside, London. The program, hosted by Mark Rylance and Dr. William Leahy, will feature presentations by Mrs. Frieda Barker, Charles Beauclerk & Mark Rylance, Robert Nield & Joan Robinson, Claire van Kampen, and Robin Williams. Guest readers Mark Rylance & Friends – Vanessa Redgrave, Fiona Shaw, and Derek Jacobi are scheduled depending on their availability on the day of the event. For information, see:
http://www.shakespeareanauthorshiptrust.org.uk/pages/conf.htm

Detobel tranlates Mulot review of Der Mann

Robert Detobel reports that the Rheinischer Merkur (Rhineland Mercury — world news for Germany) published a review of Kurt Kreiler’s biography of Oxford, Der Mann, der Shakespeare erfand: Edward de Vere Earl of Oxford (1550-1604) (The Man who Invented Shakespeare: etc.). The review was written by German author Sibylle Mulot on September 24, 2009:
http://www.merkur.de/2009_39_Vergesst_Shakespe.37385.0.html?&no_cache=1

Detobel has provided a partial translation of the article, having left out portions of “. . . well-known retrospective, mainly on Looney.”

Robert Detobel partial translation of “Vergsst Shakespeare!” (Forget Shakespeare!) by Sibylle Mulot in the Rheinischer Merkur September 24, 2009:

BIOGRAPHIC RESEARCH / Is the world famous name of the poet from Stratford-upon-Avon but a pseudonym? Yes, Kurt Kreilers says, in an impressive study. In truth, the creator of Hamlet and and Macbeth was the Earl of Oxford, Edward de Vere.

Forget Shakespeare!
VON SIBYLLE MULOT (Note: Sibylle Mulot is a German author, born in 1959.)

In the beginning was the suspicion. The trader and sometime player of Stratford-upon-Avon was illiterate. That’s the upshot after decades of frenetic research. Possibly he could write his name? Six scrawls on six deeds show him as “Shaksper”, then as “Shakspere” or “Shakspear”….

Therefore, Shakespeare admirers for a long time consider “Will Shaksper” from Stratford-upon-Avon to be a front and the poet’s name “William Shakespeare“ a pseudonym. Since 1850 Shakespeare research has split. The partisans of “the Man of Stratford“, in their majority middle-class professors, fight tooth and nail against the doubters of the theory of the miraculous petty bourgeois. Did not the name “William Shakespeare” appear on the title-pages of the first printed plays? Not really. Actually the name read “William Shake-speare” with a hyphen, a hint in those times that it was “a telling pseudonym”. This was first overlooked, then denied. Granted, it cannot be proved that Shakespeare went to school. But– in Stratford there was a Grammar School! How many things could he have learned there! Granted, he never left England, but how many things could he have seen there, had he been there! The great genius was just an unlearned petty bourgeois, basta. The petty trader had to be a genius because of the big business, the millions of visitors, pilgriming each year to their hero in Stratford or what they imagined him to be, at stake were festivals, world fame, uniqueness.

. . .

In 1920 Looney found the needle in the haystack . . .

In Germany it was possible to be informed on de Vere’s war adventures, his politic quarrels, his engagement in the theatre … since 1995 when Walter Klier for the first time summarized Looney’s findings. Ten years later the US author Mark Anderson presented old and new “evidence“ and came to the conclusion that Shakespeare was “one of the most autobiographical authors that ever were“.

Now a new, comprehensive book has appeared from the pen of the long-standing German Shakespeare researcher Kurt Kreiler, a historical-biographical-stylistical analysis provided with new findings and concentrating on de Vere’s cultural tradition, his individuality and his poetic art. A homage, also suitable as initial reading, to the “master of poetical self-reflection“, the artist of love rhetorics, a soul-knowing tragedian and an illusionsless illusionist. Reasonable doubts that de Vere is Shakespeare are no longer possible. But no really good myth will ever proceed from thence: the man is too complicated, his life already too well investigated, not appropriate as projection surface. Good myths ought to be simple, incredible and homely.

Kurt Kreiler: Der Mann, der Shakespeare erfand. Insel Verlag, Frankfurt 2009. 600 Seiten, 29,80 Euro. Mark Anderson:Shakespeare by Another Name. The Life of Edward De Vere, Earl of Oxford, The Man Who Was Shakespeare. Gotham Books, NY 2005. 640 Seiten.

Note from Robert Detobel October 5, 2009:
The largest part of the (Rheinischer Merkur) review was not a review of Kreiler’s book but a retrospect of the Oxfordian case, mainly with reference to Looney. I translated the opening lines, the references to Klier and Anderson and, finally the last (and only) paragraph on Kreiler’s book. It was, however, a clear statement in favor of Oxford.

London Globe celebrates Rowe

De Vere Society Secretary Richard Malim reports that Shakespeare’s Globe in London will hold a series of events to celebrate the 300th anniversary of the first biography of Shakespeare published in 1709 by Nicholas Rowe.

The kick-off event is a one-day symposium on the function and critical value of Shakespeare biographies titled, “Shakespeare: from Rowe to Shapiro” to be held 10 a.m. – 6 p.m. November 28, 2009 at the Nancy Knowles Lecture Theatre, Shakespeare’s Globe, 21 New Globe Walk, Bankside, London.

Speakers will include Stanley Wells, Michael Caines, Brian Cummings, Andrew Dickson, Helen Hackett, Graham Holderness, Andrew Murphy, Rene Weis, Richard Wilson, and James Shapiro.

“Should be fun, if questions are allowed,” Malim said.

Also included in the series of events:
On December 1 “Searching for Shakespeare” documentary film maker Michael Wood will speak, and on December 9 The Reckoning author Charles Nicholl will speak. For more information, see:
http://www.shakespeares-globe.org/globeeducation/publicevents/shakespearebiography/