Comments on: Stanley Wells on Shakespeare

By: Elaine Mary Dutton

Elaine Mary Dutton — Thu, 06 May 2010 12:26:24 +0000

The obvious test of a newly discovered portrait is its history or pedigree. Without a pedigree, the great collector of Shakespearian relics, J. O. Halliwell-Phillipps, would not look at any article. One noted scholar, Dr. F. J. Furnivall, refused to consider any portrait that could not be traced to the Stratfordian actor’s family or intimate friends.

Portraits of the sixteenth and seventeenth century were as unreliable as royal favours. When the publisher wanted a portrait to embellish a book to make it sell, he applied to the poor engraver who was usually applying his trade in an attic, to create one. Sometimes engravers used old plates, altering or substituting faces as they thought best. In Abraham Wivell’s Inquiry of 1827, he takes the authority of Ireland (the father of the infamous Shakespearean forger William-Henry) on how many portraits examined by him were to be stated as originals.

So strong has this obsession of portraying alleged portraits of the Bard become, that moral considerations and elementary honesty must go by the board to save the wreck of the good ship called The Stratford Case. For us, in digging up the truth, it might be, as Bolton Corney had stated, “the more eminent the man whose course of life prompts our curiosity, the more earnest is our desire to establish those particulars on conclusive evidence. This instinctive desire needs no apology.”

By: Literateur

Literateur — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 22:20:17 +0000

I cannot help thinking that is more an indication on the worrying quality of U.S. Supreme Court Judges…

This court finds the defendant ‘Not Guilty’ because I don’t believe that someone who didn’t go to university can mastermind a terrorist operation. Court dismissed.

By: John Shahan

John Shahan — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 16:49:01 +0000

Anyone who would like to understand why so many prominent people, now including six U.S. Supreme Court Justices, have expressed doubt that William of Stratford was the true author of the works that have come down to us in his name can easily do so by reading the “Declaration of Reasonable Doubt About the Identity of William Shakespeare” at the website of the Shakespeare Authorship Coalition at: http://www.DoubtAboutWill.org.

John M. Shahan
SAC Chairman