A corner in the Folger Library’s year-old museum nods to the Shakespeare Authorship Question.

“When workmen strive to do better than well,
They do confound their skill in covetousness;
And oftentimes excusing of a fault
Doth make the fault the worse by the excuse,
As patches set upon a little breach
Discredit more in hiding of the fault
Than did the fault before it was so patch’d.”
King John, IV.ii

In a display case at the Folger, under a wall plaque discussing white supremacy in Shakespearean culture and next to a letter from Mark Twain considering Francis Bacon as the author, is the bible of Edward de Vere, the 17th Earl of Oxford. The exhibition card reads in part, “One reason ‘Oxfordians’support Oxford’s authorship is because handwritten notes and markings in this Bible are similar to language in Shakespeare’s plays.”

On a recent visit to the Folger, Dorothea Dickerman took the photos below. She also overheard a Folger docent informing a group of school-age children that “Some people think Shakespeare didn’t write Shakespeare because he didn’t go to college. They think Queen Elizabeth wrote the plays, or . . . what’s his name . . . . that other poet . . . just a minute, ummm . . . oh, yes, Christopher Marlowe. But we know it is Shakespeare because his life is reflected in the plays.”

As the Bard says, making excuses for a fault can make it appear to be even worse, like a patch meant to hide or discredit it drawing attention to it instead.