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'Fhe Shakespeare :7Vewsletter 'fhe Shakespeare :7Vewsletter Vo 1.35:no.4 "L et me study so, to know the thing I am fo rbid to know" Winter 2000 Shakespeare's Society opens its library, "Bad Law" establishes an EndowlTIent A journey through Two long-standing goals becon1e realities the history of through the generosity of our supporters the argUl1'lents notiler major step has been taken in the Shakespeare Oxford Society's By MarkAndreAlexander Aadvancement of Oxfordian author­ n Shakespeare, IN FA CT (1994), Irvin ship research. Leigh Matus attempts to dispose of any With several significant grantsand do­ notions that Shakespeare had a fo rmal nations already received this year, we have legalI education and used legal terms accu­ been able to take major steps within the past several months in fulfillmentof several long­ rately: standing goals of the Society: a permanent Shakespeare Oxford Society Endowment The question of his legal knowledge has Fund has been established, and the Society been most recently [sic] tackled by O. Hood has rented (in Malden, MA) space to house Phillips, aj urist, legal scholar and educator, in its library, archives and office. The library Shakespeare and the Lawyers. In the chapter, consists of book collections donated to the "Did Shakespeare have a Legal Training?" he Society over the years, with the gathered and summarized the varying opin­ CheJyle Sims, one of the Directors of the centerpiece being the Victor Crichton ions that have been handed down. The most Gertrude C. Ford Foundation, addressed Collection. reliable assessment oftheplay wright' s knowl­ For many years it had been a goal ofthe the Conference at the Saturday luncheon, edge of law, in his opinion, is that of P. S. Society's leaders to establish a national sp eaking about the life and times of Mrs. Clarkson and C. T. Warren, whose reading of office, library and archives. In 1996, the Ford and about the Ford Foundation. See Elizabethan drama revealed that about half of Board of Trustees, under the leadership of the stOJ)! on page 4. (Photo by George Shakespeare's fellows employed on the aver­ Charles Burford, adopted a long range plan age more legalisms than he did, and some of Anderson) to promote the Earl ofOxford 's authorship of them a great many more. Most of them also the Shakespeare Canon. Part of that plan exceed Shakespeare in the detail and complex­ Inside: included opening a library dedicated to ity of their legal problems and allusions, and Oxfordian research. "To Our English Terence ... " with few exceptions display a degree of accu­ racy at least no lower than his. Page 3 The Crichton Collection Clarkson and Warren's verdict is that Later in 1996, in a fundraising campaign Shakespeare's references "must be explained President's Letter coordinated by trustees Lydia Bronte and on some grounds other than that he was a Page 5 Betty Sears, the Board was able to raise the lawyer, or an apprentice, or a student of the $18,000 necessary to purchase the Victor law." (272) Crichton collection. Victor Crichton, a mem­ Pericles and the First Folio ber of the Board when he died suddenly in Though he advances an implied argu­ Page 6 1993, had served fo r many years as the ment that Shakespeare is guilty of "bad law," Chairman ofthe Membership Committee. As Mr. Matus fails to give examples, merely an Oxfordian for many years, he had col­ "Ophelia's Difference" relying on the authority ofMr. Phillips. In­ lected many fine and important works on the deed, that authority is secondhand since Mr. Page 17 authorship issue, plus numerous other works (Continued on page 9) (Continued on page 4) page 2 Winter 2000 Shakespeare Oxford Newsletter Oxfordians winning Public libraries welcotne Oxfordians the public debate Interest in the authorship debate runs high everywhere Public libraries continue to welcome branch ofthe New York Public Library. His Th e Shakespeare Qllarter�y, the journal Oxfordians who want to lecture, give classes subject was "the elusive identity of the of the Stratfordian establishment, has ad­ or lead discussion groups on the Shake­ Bard," and Th e NelV Yorker magazine car­ mitted that the Oxfordians are winning the speare authorship controversy. Invariably, ried a item on it in its upcoming events public debate. Oxfordians are surprised and gratifiedby the section. The startling admission was probably number of people who show up fo r such Other Oxfordians who have lectured or prompted by recent aliicles in Time, Hmper 's events. Shakespeare is a powerful draw. led discussion groups at public libraries Magazine and the Washington Post. Wash­ Last November PeterDick son, an Oxfor­ include Katherine Chiljin of San Francisco, ington, DC is the home of the quarterly, dian and book reviewer for Th e Washingto11 CA, Grace Cali ofPeterborough, NH, Chuck which is published by the Folger Shake­ Post, gave his lecture "Unmasking the Bard" Berneyof Watertown, MA, Isabel Holden speare Library and George Washington attheArlington Public Library in Virginia. of Northampton, MA, Richard Whalen of Nearly 60 attended the lechlre, and the lively Truro, MA,Ken Kaplan ofPerkasie , PA (see University. Question & Anwser session afterwards ex­ the entry under "Pennsylvania" in Oxford­ It came in a long, thoughtful review of tended the event to about two hours. ian News, page 14, for more about Kaplan), Joseph Sobran's book, Alias Shakespeare, Dickson had library copies of pertinent and Tina Hamilton of Brielle, NJ (see her in which the reviewer admitted that the books on display and distributed a bibliog­ letter on page 21). establishment "is losing the public debate raphy of key works. Dickson has also lec­ Oxfordians who think they might like to over the authorship question." The journal's tured at the Library of Congress. talk at a public library can call or write any editor agreed in her comment page, adding In January Oxfordian Paul Streitz of of the above or the newsletter editor for that she finds it "infuriating." Darien, CT, spoke at the mid-Manhattan ideas on how to set up a successful event. The reviewer was Professor Alan H. Nelson ofthe University ofCal ifornia-Ber­ Obituaries keley, a generally genial critic ofthe Oxfor­ dian view who is not shy about debating the Howard Bloch Tal Wilson question in person and on the Internet. 1937-2000 1919-2000 Predictably, he finds much to fault in Sobran's argument for the 17th Earl of Ox­ Howard W. Bloch, ofFailfaxStation, VA, Talmadge Gartley Wilson, of Bodega ford as the true author. And as usual, he a professor of economics at George Mason Bay, CA, a long-time member ofthe Shake­ skirts the core issues to dwell on details, University and co-author of an article in the speare Oxford Society and the Shakespeare chapter by chapter, even to the point of current Oxfordian journal, died on January Authorship Roundtable in Los Angeles, counting typographical errors. 25th at the age of 63. A member of the died in March at age 80. In the course of his critique he also Shakespeare Oxford Society for several years, lt was 17 years ago that Wilson encoun­ lapses into the usual Stratfordian hedging he used his expertise in statistics to help tered the authorship theory, after reading with "perhaps or perhaps not," "it is not analyze the conventional dating of Charlton Ogburn's Merrill 's MallI"Gliders impossible," "he may have been but then he Shakespeare's plays. and then exploring Ogburn's other writing. After much reading and research on his may not have been." All to defend the Born in Germany, Bloch graduated from Duke University andreceived his Ph.D from own, Wilson settled on a dual theory of the supposed credentials of the Stratford man. Princeton University in 1964. authorship (Oxford and his son-in-law the From his doggedly Stratfordian point of Bloch and Winston C. Chow, Ph.D, a Earl ofDerby). view, Nelson finds much to criticize in statistician with the U.S. Naval Space Com­ In the course of his authorship shldies Sobran's book, and at times his frustration mand, assisted W. Ron Hess ofTemple Hills, over these years, Wilson translated two is evident. Nevertheless, he praises Sobran MD, in the writing of "Shakespeare'sDates: French books on Derby (by Lambin and as "a first-rate communicator" skillful with Their Effects on Stylistic Analysis" in the LeFranc). He was a regular at all the SOS a "deft turn of phrase," who in chapter five 1999 Oxfordian. conferences and Roundtable events, up wrote "one of the more readable ofpartisan Hess said that while Bloch was not sure until the 1999 SOS Conference in Boston, biographies." who the author of Shakespeare was he was where his absence was noted by other Nelson knows the case for Oxford better quite sure that he was not the man from conference regulars. than most Shakespeare professors, so Ox­ Stratford. Wilson, a native of Hawaii, served in fordians can be encouraged that he thinks "He was gravitating more and more to­ WWII as a pilot in theArmy Air Corps, and the Oxfordians are winning the public de­ ward our Oxfordian cause," said Hess, "so was a prisoner ofwar in the German camps. bate. An analysis of Nelson's review, much so that he and I developed a number of He held a BA and MA in English from Sobran's reply to it, and some fu rther obser­ collaborative efforts, but the firstwas fated Claremont-Pomona College. vations on Prof. Nelson will be featured in to be our last. He will be missed by his fa mily He is survived by his children, Kathy, the Spring 2000 newsletter.
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