The front page of the February 11 issue of the Santa Barbara News-Press features a huge picture of Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford, above the fold with the caption, “TO BE OR NOT TO BE . . . THAT’S NORMALLY THE QUESTION.’ Under that is a picture of the Stratford man with the caption, “BUT IS HE OR ISN’T HE IS NOW A GROWING QUESTION.” The accompanying article by Marilyn McMahon, a former high school English/Shakespeare teacher, features Bryan H. Wildenthal, law professor and Shakespeare Oxford Fellowship Vice President, who will deliver a presentation on the Shakespeare Authorship Question at 1:30 p.m on Saturday, February 16, 2019 at the Karpeles Manuscript Library Museum, 21 W. Anapamu St., Santa Barbara, California. In the interview Professor Wildenthal gave a preview of his talk:
I will cover three major points in my talk – why should we doubt that William Shakespeare of Stratford on Avon was the author of the plays and sonnets, who was Edward de Vere and why is he plausible as an alternative author and I’ll delve into some facets of de Vere’s life that show up in the plays.
Professor Wildenthal noted the strong possibility that Hamlet is autobiographical due to the resemblances between Polonius and Sir William Cecil, who was Edward de Vere’s father-in-law, and between Ophelia and de Vere’s first wife, Anne Cecil. “Another example,” he said, “is that de Vere’s personal copy of the Bible has underlined passages that have a shocking correlation with Biblical references in the works of Shakespeare.”
Norman Cohan, Director of the Santa Barbara (main) branch of the Karpeles Libraries, attended the SOF’s 2018 conference in Oakland. Professor Wildenthal thanks Mr. Cohan for helping make this presentation possible and SOF PR Director Steven Sabel for his work in getting local publicity for the talk.
