#93 Thurs (9/22/22) - Equinox (Shakespeare authorship question)

Spent a lot of time looking at the Question of Authorship of the Shakespeare plays.

Derek Jacobi and Mark Rylance are part of an effort to open discussion about it and have collected signature online at The Declaration of Reasonable Doubt. 

There is a lot of compelling evidence that Edward de Vere, the 17th Earl of Oxford is the true author.  Many of his biographical elements line up very well with the specifics of many of the Shakespeare plays and sonnets.

Rewatched the outstanding film Anonymous which presents a fictionalized account of the possibilities and helped conjecture why Oxford would actively avoid taking credit and why he might have hired a frontman. Introduces Ben Jonson into the story and why he and two other actors were crucial in getting the First Folio published 7 years after Will Shakspur's death.

One curious thing is that Oxford's tutor Laurence Nowell was the holder/owner of the only manuscript copy of Beowulf in existence at that time. Oxford most likely would have seen it. There are some clear linkages between Beowulf and Hamlet. It is exceedingly unlikely that Will Shakspur could have come across it.  Found a book at the Internet Archive that was written in 1921 by Winstanley where many of the sources of Hamlet were examined. Polonius based on is William Cecil, undoubtedly - Cecil was Oxford's guardian from the age of 12 when his father died. 

Watched an excellent and enjoyable documentary called Nothing is Truer than Truth, which laid out a lot of the evidence that suggests the Earl of Oxford.

Another documentary on BBC Timeline was a three part series about a Norwegian church organist who has examined the First Folio and found many links to Francis Bacon and the Rosy Cross. It felt like watching the Davinci Code and was captivating. Explored the grave marker in Stratford and its curious inscription/portrait, among other things. 

The Beowulf angle led me to re-watch the films Beowulf and Grendel (2006) starring Gerard Butler as Beowulf and Stellan Skarsgaard as Hrothgar. Then the 13th Warrior with Antonio Banderas, written by Michael Critchton.  Discovered a 2016 series called Beowulf: Return the Shield-lands, which is watchable but in no way accurate at all.


 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

#48 Mon (8/8/22) - Los cuatro ciclos (The Four Cycles) by Jorge Luis Borges (El oro de los tigres, 1972)

Found this piece in the usual place and proceeded to translate and examine it.  It was not in any of my previous translated editions, although it has a familiar feel, touching as it does upon so many of the favored topics and references; Illiad and Odyssey, myths of Ragnarök , Anglo-Saxon poetry, Sir Gawain, Jason and the Golden Fleece, the Simurgh, Captain Ahab and Kafka, Odin and Christ.  In so doing I followed (forged?) the links to Rosetti's Troy Town and Yeats' Leda and the Swan.  I found out about the Game of the Gods (tafl) recounted in the Voluspa (which also has a long roll call of familiar dwarfs, including Gandalf), and the castrated Phrygian fertility god, Attis.  I veered then back into Beckford's Vathek, and found out about the Sultan Moulay Ismail ibn Sharif of Morocco , one of the true inspirations for the cruel Caliph Vathek.  In the same edition, Beckford wrote about his dream and described some of his travels in letters (hilarious!).  I ...
Read more

Borges - VIÑETAS CARDINALES DE BUENOS AIRES (1927)

  VIÑETAS CARDINALES DE BUENOS AIRES NORTE Almacén rosadito de los que a mí me gustan . La luna entera, encima . La luna oronda, dura . El almacén — de tierno — una mejilla . SUR Ésta, que no es mi tierra , porque no quiere darme ni un querer ni otra pena , cuida en los verdes patios, cedrón y caña de ámbar… ¡Lo bien que yo sabría merecerla! ESTE El viento zamarrea las esquinas tembleques del Paseo de Julio . En la noche rotosa, los compadritos muertos le apuntalan los muros . OESTE El callejón final con su poniente . Inauguración de la pampa . Inauguración de la muerte .   * Inicial , Buenos Aires, Año 3, Nº 11, febrero de 1927.   ======================================== CARDINAL VIGNETTES OF BUENOS AIRES NORTH A pinkish store of the kind I like. The full moon, above. The plump, hard moon. The store - so tender - a cheek. SOUTH This land, which is not mine, because it refuses to give me either love or another sorrow, tends in the green patios, lemon verbena and amber can...
Read more

#45 Fri (8/5/22) - [OW] The word must have been in the beginning a magic symbol

"La palabra habría sido en el principio un símbolo mágico, que la usura del tiempo desgastaría. La misión del poeta sería restituir a la palabra, siquiera de un modo parcial, su primitiva y ahora oculta virtud. Dos deberes tendría todo verso: comunicar un hecho preciso y tocarnos físicamente, como la cercanía del mar" J.L.Borges en Prólogo a "La Rosa Profunda" (1975)   “The word must have been in the beginning a magic symbol, which the usury of time wore out. The mission of the poet should be to restore to the word, at least in a partial way, its primitive and now secret force. All verse should have two obligations: to communicate a precise instance and to touch us physically, as the presence of the sea does." J.L. Borges in Prologue to "La rosa profunda" (1975) (SP, 343-345, A.R.)   The passage continues in the next line; I have here an example from Virgil:   sunt lacrimae rerum et mentem mortalia tangunt   After providing two more examples, he ...
Read more