The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 16.1615 Monday, 26 September 2005
[1] From: Susanne Greenhalgh <
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Date: Saturday, 24 Sep 2005 18:56:56 +0100
Subj: RE: SHK 16.1606 BBC Shakespeare This Autumn
[2] From: Ben Alexander <
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Date: Saturday, 24 Sep 2005 19:02:02 +0100
Subj: Re: SHK 16.1606 BBC Shakespeare This Autumn
[1]-----------------------------------------------------------------
From: Susanne Greenhalgh <
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Date: Saturday, 24 Sep 2005 18:56:56 +0100
Subject: 16.1606 BBC Shakespeare This Autumn
Comment: RE: SHK 16.1606 BBC Shakespeare This Autumn
With reference to Jim Blackie's queries I should point out that the
information I gave about the programmes was copied from the BBC press
releases. The novelist William Boyd is the author of the drama "A Waste
of Shame", and he presumably has his own reasons for pursuing the
theories he does in his fictional version. No doubt there will be some
press coverage and interviews with Boyd nearer the screenings
(particularly as there's quite a buzz around Shakespeare biography at
present, with Peter Ackroyd's just out), and I'll alert list members to
these as and when I spot them.
May I also take the opportunity to remind anyone interested and in the
vicinity, that both Kate McLuskie and Emma Smith will be talking about
biographies of Shakespeare at the "Renaissance Lives" Conference, Centre
for Research in Renaissance Studies, Roehampton University, London, on
22 October. Further details available at
http://www.roehampton.ac.uk/renaissance/
Susanne Greenhalgh
[2]-------------------------------------------------------------
From: Ben Alexander <
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Date: Saturday, 24 Sep 2005 19:02:02 +0100
Subject: 16.1606 BBC Shakespeare This Autumn
Comment: Re: SHK 16.1606 BBC Shakespeare This Autumn
Dear Jim,
The Sonnets were written under a pseudonym, and are the poetical
correspondence of two lovers, Mary Fitton, Sonnets 1-126, and her lover,
William Herbert, Earl Pembroke, 127-152. Mary's sonnets are in sequence
and span 1598-1605 (or thereabouts), William's were interspersed during
the same period. My book, The Darling Buds of Maie (Amazon), explains
everything in detail - all based on fact. Mary Fitton WAS the Dark Lady
of the Sonnets because of the history of the relationship she had with
men, her character, and the allusions to LLL which the two lovers would
have watched together soon after they first met. She was not dark, but
she was tall and had distinctive grey eyes. [Rosalind, Olivia & Venus].
This story is corroborated by Mary Sidney Wroth in her massive work
"Urania", which I read after publishing.
I have spent a long time trying to prove myself wrong before publishing
and since then I started to try to understand the plays. My conclusion
is that the plays were probably new years' gifts from the Pembrokes, to
the monarchs (Elizabeth & James) and that in 1621 the brothers, William
& Philip Herbert, brought the plays together in a Folio as a way of
commemorating their mother, Mary Sidney's, 60th birthday. Unfortunately
she died and the printing was suspended for a year. This is the theory I
have about the FF, and it is a theory, but it is one where ALL the facts
fit.
When I saw that the Warwickshire man's will had been doctored to
included the bequests to the three London actors, I began to suspect
something and my immediate thought was there was another Stratford on
another Avon. There is! The place is called Stratford Sub Castle and it
is near Salisbury on the Wiltshire Avon. In the village is a house
called Mawarden Court which was owned by the same William Herbert. Mary
Sidney, his mother and sister to Sir Philip Sidney, probably lived here
at some time while Wilton Hall was being built. Certainly, Philip
Herbert lived here for 15 years with his wife, Susan de Vere, daughter
of Edward Earl of Oxford.
The exceptional quality of most of the plays is probably due to the
demands of the audience, which was the Court, itself, during the
Christmas / New Year holidays. It makes sense now to consider that teams
of dramatists took established stories and crafted them into plays that
would delight a highly intelligent and probably inebriated Court. I
think it is a bit much to believe that one man could have done it all.
If people want to believe this, let them.
I had a wager with my wife before we visited William Shakespeare's
birthplace two week's ago that a copy of the will would not be on
display. I was wrong, only the third page with its signature was shown.
The doctoring of the will was on the second page. If the Shakespeare
Trust has not got the confidence to show all three pages of the will,
especially the important bequest that links the Bard with the London
stage, then do we have any right to believe in the integrity of what
academics have taught us?
Sincerely,
Ben Alexander
www.maryfitton.com
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