Joseph Sobran writes about the central thesis to his new book Alias Shakespeare, namely that the Sonnets provide the key evidence that the author of the Shakespeare Canon cannot be the Stratford man, and must be, among all the various claimants, Edward de Vere; and further, that the homosexual relationship revealed in the Sonnets explains the reason for covering up the true authorship.
Charlton Ogburn, Jr. responds to Sobran’s “Shakespeare’s Disgrace” by noting that the homosexual theory doesn’t measure up either to Oxford’s known life, or to what is revealed of the author in all the Shakespeare plays. He considers instead that the controversial alternate theory to the relationship between Shakespeare/Oxford and Southampton (i.e. that they may have been family) is more likely to explain the authorship mystery and the need for preserving his mature works under the “Shake-speare” pseudonym.
Joseph Sobran based his 1997 book Alias Shakespeare on his Oxfordian reading of the Sonnets, and he re-states here what he said in his book: the Sonnets are indeed an “Achilles’ heel” for Stratfordians, since any acceptance of their reality virtually blows the Stratford actor out of the water as their author.
A Flawed Life of Oxford by Joseph Sobran Alan H. Nelson, Monstrous Adversary: The Life of Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford (Liverpool University Press, 2003).
by Joseph Sobran This article was first published in the January 1996 newsletter of the De Vere Society. Sobran included the substance of his findings
Author Joseph Sobran responds to Prof. Alan Nelson’s Fall 1999 Shakespeare Quarterly review of Alias Shakepseare. Incredibly, in this review Nelson — even as he attempts to scuttle Sobran’s work — concedes that Oxfordians are “winning the public battle” in the authorship debate. SQ, in publishing Nelson’s late review of a 1997 book, was apparently attempting to stem the Oxfordian tide. Sobran, in rebutting SQ and Nelson, may have, in turn, sunk their boat.
The Shakespeare Oxford Fellowship (SOF) is pleased to offer five reviews of Professor Alan H. Nelson’s book, Monstrous Adversary: The Life of Edward de Vere,
