The Shakespeare Fellowship was founded in England in 1922 by Col. Bernard R. Ward to explore the authorship question. It had an international membership, with most members in the United Kingdom and the United States. Among its leaders were J. Thomas Looney, Sir George Greenwood, and the great French literary scholar, Professor Abel Lefranc.
The Fellowship published a newsletter from 1937 to 1958, containing many fascinating and important articles, providing insights into the history and growth of the Oxfordian movement. It is amazing to go back 80 or more years and read the words of our predecessors.
Although the Fellowship was the foundation of all later Oxfordian organizations, it did not focus exclusively on the Oxfordian theory launched by Looney in 1920. Greenwood, to his death in 1928, remained an uncommitted authorship skeptic and Lefranc adhered to the Derbyite theory. Eventually, however, the Fellowship became a predominantly Oxfordian group, supporting Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford, as the most likely author of the works of “Shakespeare.”
You may view or download each issue individually in pdf format by clicking on the issue number below. The contents of each issue are listed below the issue number. Numbers preceding each article indicate page numbers. (You can also access here the newsletters of the American Shakespeare Fellowship, 1939–48, an offshoot of the original British Fellowship.)
1937, January (No. 1)………….. 9 pages
(Captain Bernard Mordaunt (B. M.) Ward was the first Editor of the [English] Shakespeare Fellowship News-Letter and the main organizer of the original Shakespeare Fellowship group in England.)
1 Lt-Col. M.W. Douglas (president)—Editorial
2 Percy Allen—Shakespearean Adventures in Canada and the United States
8 Occasional Notes—Elsie Greenwood, Dr A. S. Cairncross, Percy Allen, F. L. Ranson, and E. P. Ray (Mayor of Stratford-upon-Avon 1937)
1937, March (No. 2)………….. 11 pages
1 Professor Abel LeFranc—Letter (in French)
3 Rear Admiral H.H. Holland—“M.O.A.I. DOTH SWAY MY LIFE!”: The influence of Montaigne’s Essays on Much Ado about Nothing, Romeo and Juliet, and Twelfth Night
8 Letters to the Editor: Dr A. S. Cairncross (Hamlet), Percy Allen
10 Occasional Notes: Percy Allen, Elsie Greenwood
1937, May (No. 3)………….. 11 pages
1 B. M. Ward—Two New Oxford Discoveries (Percy Allen found a manuscript at the Heralds’ College about the “Veer” family by “Persiuall Golding”. The discoveries are: 1. “Is Lord Oxford Buried in Westminster Abbey?” and 2. “Anne Cecil and the Crisis of 1576”)
4 Lt-Col. M. W. Douglas—Our President at Lavenham
5 Percy Allen—Shakespeare and Montaigne
7 Book Reviews: Les Elements Francais de ‘Peines D’Amour Perdues’ by Abel Lefranc, reviewed by Lt-Col. M. W. Douglas
9 Book Reviews (cont): The Shakespeare Problem Restated by Sir George Greenwood K.C., condensed by Elsie Greenwood, reviewed by Lt-Col. M. W. Douglas
10 Occasional Notes: Charles W. Barrell, Percy Allen, Louis T. Golding, Francis Clarke, Rear Admiral H. H. Holland
1937, July (No. 4)………. 10 pages
1 Lt-Col. M. W. Douglas—News from America (concerning an article in the Saturday Review of Literature by Charles Wisner Barrell)
6 D. F. Allen—The Annual Dinner (News)
7 M. Kirsten Goodman—Oxford-Davenant-Shakespeare
10 Occasional Notes: William Power (who was knighted)
1937, September (No. 5)…… 9 pages
1 B. M. Ward—The Earl of Oxford and the Succession Question
5 Ernest Allen—When Shakespeare Died
8 Occasional Notes: F. L. Ranson (will be editing a page in the East Anglian Magazine to the “Oxford theory”); George Frisbee—Shame of the Professors (funny article chiding the “perverters of youth” who teach that “the plays and poems of William Shakespeare were written by a man born in Stratford”)
1937, November (No. 6)……. 9 pages
1 Lt-Col. M. W. Douglas—Annual General Meeting (News)
2 News from Canada
5 News from East Anglia
6 Is Lord Oxford Buried in Westminster Abbey? (with a courteous letter from the Keeper of the Muniments and Library)
8 Obituary: J. Martin Haydon
1938, January (No. 7)…………………… 11 pages
1 Book Reviews: The Man Who was Shakespeare, by Eva Turner Clark, reviewed by B. M. Ward;
I, William Shakespeare, by Leslie Hotson, reviewed by Percy Allen
5 Correspondence: Dr Gilbert Slater (author of Seven Shakespeares), Lt-Col. M. W. Douglas, E. Morgan, F. Lingard Ranson
11 Occasional Notes: Percy Allen, Louis P. Bénézet
1938, March (No. 8)…………………….. 14 pages
1 Dr Gilbert Slater—The Rival Poet of the Sonnets
6 Book Reviews: Louis P. Bénézet—Shakspere, Shakespeare and de Vere, reviewed by Lt-Col. M. W. Douglas; R. M. Lucas—Shakespeare’s Vital Secret Known to His Queen, reviewed by Lt-Col. M. W. Douglas
12 Correspondence: Dr Gilbert Slater (author of Seven Shakespeares), B. M. Ward, Ernest Allen
13 Occasional Notes: M. Charles Boissevain, George Frisbee, Bertram G. Theobald, Dr Gilbert Slater
1938, May (No. 9)………………………….. 9 pages
1 Obituary: Gilbert Slater D.Sc. (Vice-President of the Shakespeare Fellowship since 1930) by B. M. Ward
2 Lt-Col. M. W. Douglas—News from France
4 Rear Admiral H. H. Holland—Have the Ballads of Tarleton Perished?
6 Percy Allen—Shakespeare’s Coriolanus
7 Book Review: Shakspeare Rediscovered, by Clara Longworth de Chambrun, reviewed by Percy Allen
1938, July (No. 10)………………………. 11 pages
1 D. F. Allen—The Annual Dinner (News)
5 Book Review: Shakespeare in France, by M. Mathias Morhardt, reviewed by Lt-Col. M. W. Douglas
8 Percy Allen—Recent Books on the Sonnets
10 Occasional Notes: Esther Singleton, Percy Allen, J. Shera Atkinson (announcement of the Supplement)
1938, July (No. 10)–Supplement………. 8 pages
1 J. Shera Atkinson—A Criticism of Dr Leslie Hotson’s “Shakespeare Versus Shallow” (1931)
1938, September (No. 11)……………… 10 pages
1 Percy Allen—The First Anti-Stratfordian (Herbert Lawrence’s book The Life and Adventures of Common Sense [1769])
6 H. M. M. Woodard—The Stratford Monument
8 Book Review: Elizabeth and Sixtus, by H. Kendra Baker, reviewed by Percy Allen
10 Occasional Notes: James S. Cushman, Percy Allen
1938, November (No. 12)………………. 18 pages
1 Annual General Meeting
2 Book Review: The Life and Adventures of Common Sense, by Herbert Lawrence
17 How Lawrence Acquired His Information
18 Occasional Notes: F. L. Ranson
1939 (No. 13) — this issue is missing from our archives. If anyone has a copy, please contact Jim Warren, jimwarren1000@gmail.com
1939, April (No. 14)……………………… 11 pages
1 J. J. Dwyer—Had Shakespeare Read Dante?
7 Book Review: London Worthies, by William Kent
8 Percy Allen, Dr Louis P. Bénézet—News from America
9 Occasional Notes: Percy Allen, Lt-Col. M. W. Douglas
1939, April (No. 14)—Supplement…. 28 pages
1 Dr Gerald H. Rendall—Notes and Comments on “An Enquiry”
5 T. M. Aitken—A Criticism of “An Enquiry”
20 B. M. Ward—Reply to the “Refutations” of Canon Rendall and Mr Aitken, in so far as They Affect Capt. Ward
25 T. M. Aitken—Queen Elizabeth-Oxford-Son Theory
1939, July (No. 15)………………………. 11 pages
1 D. F. Allen—The Annual Dinner (News)
2 News from America (The Shakespeare Anniversary—Literature’s Greatest Mystery by Flodden W. Heron)
3 Obituary: Mr Hamet Philpot
4 Book Review: Introducing Shakespeare by Dr G. B. Harrison, reviewed by William Kent
8 Occasional Notes: Percy Allen, R. J. A. Bunnett
Style Note: Prior to 1940, the News-letters were typed in one large column, using a Courier font (old style). They were designated by number, as well as month/year. Starting with April, 1940, the layout becomes a 2-column, type-set style, with a small serif font (Century?). The News-Letter no longer uses a numerical designation.
1940, April…………………………………… 8 pages
(Percy Allen becomes the Editor of the [English] Shakespeare Fellowship News-Letter)
1 Shakespeare Fellowship News-Letter Officers
2 Minutes of the General Meeting, The Fellowship’s New Hon. Secretary (T. L. Adamson), Obituaries: Ernest Stirling Allen, Mrs Sverre Eriksen)
3 Wisner Barrell, Father C. S. deVere Beauclerk—Oxford as “Shakespeare” and the Ashbourne Portrait
4 Rear Admiral H. H. Holland—“That’s the Dog’s Name” (Romeo and Juliet)
5 Ernest Allen—Who Was Cheveril?
6 Percy Allen—Lyly’s “Endimion” and Lord Oxford
7 Anecdotes: Mr John Barrymore, Herbert Lawrence (author of Life and Adventures of Common Sense), and C. L’Estrange Ewen (author of a monograph, What Shakespeare’s Signatures Reveal)
8 Rev. H. J. Fynes-Clinton—The Falstaff Cup
8 Occasional Notes: Percy Allen, Charles Wisner Barrell (The Elizabethan Mystery Man), Dr Gerald H. Rendall, W. H. Fox
1941, April…………………………………… 4 pages
1 Col W. M. Douglas—Editorial Notes (…the committee of the Fellowship has approved of the publication of a short News-Letter…”with the object of showing that our organization is still very much alive, despite the stern and testing days through which we are living, and must yet live.”)
3 J. J. Dwyer—Patines of Bright Gold, and Fabian and Sebastian; Charles Wisner Barrell—Another Name for the Dog; Rear Admiral H. H. Holland—Who Was Cheveril?
4 T. M. Aitken, W. Stechow—The Ashbourne Portrait
4 Percy Allen—Comment by The Editor
1942, April…………………………………… 4 pages
1 Percy Allen—Important Notice (“They do not feel justified, for obvious reasons, in asking members to continue regular subscriptions during the war period, but would be grateful for any voluntary…donations…”) and Editorial Notes
2 Percy Allen, J. T. Looney, Gerald Mann—How Lord Oxford Paid His Way; Rear Admiral H. H. Holland—Shake-Spear 1573-1593
3 Charles Wisner Barrell—Our American Branch; James Laver—Nostradamus, or the Future Foretold; J. J. Swyer—The Vere Motto; Percy Allen—Melford Hall and Shakespeare
4 Percy Allen—Mr. Charles Boissevain and H. R. Lenormand; Mr. Osbert Sitwell on Shakespeare
1942, October……………………………….. 4 pages
1 Percy Allen—Editorial Notes
2 C. Wisner Barrell—Sir Edward Vere; Hesketh Pearson—The Life of William Shakespeare
3 Hilaire Belloc—Elizabethan Commentary; Alan Bland—Peele’s “Sonnet” on Oxford (1590)
4 Percy Allen—Francis Bacon as Shakespeare
1943, May……………………………………. 4 pages
1 Percy Allen—Editorial Notes
2 C. Wisner Barrell—Shakespeare’s Own Secret Drama
3 Percy Allen—Shakespeare’s Sonnet 134; Brooke House, Hackney, Damaged (“Members…will be sorry to hear that Lord Oxford’s mansion, Brook House, Hackney, where he died in 1604, has been seriously damaged during a German raid….the Elizabethan portion of the house has been almost wholly destroyed.”); Long Melford Derived from Mill Ford (letter).
4 Percy Allen—Peele’s Verses in Polyhymnus (II), Bacon and “The Group”
1943, October……………………………….. 4 pages
1 Percy Allen—Editorial Notes
2 Alfred Hart—Stolne and Surreptitious Copies; R. L. Eagle—Shakespeare-New Views for Old
3 J. J. Dwyer—A Note on the Authorship of Lucrece
4 Percy Allen—The Tempest, Who were the Dark Lady and Fair Youth of the Sonnets?
1944, May……………………………………. 8 pages
1 Percy Allen—Editorial Notes
2 Percy Allen—John Thomas Looney (1870–1944) Biographical Sketch (Looney died January 17, 1944)
4 Percy Allen—The Symbolism of Pericles and Winter’s Tale
5 J. J. Dwyer—Elizabethan Miniatures
6 Percy Allen—The Elizabethan Mind; Dr Gerald H. Rendall—Shakespeare in Essex and East Anglia
7 Percy Allen—Twelfth Night and Massinger’s Believe As You List; H. Cutner—A Note on John M. Robertson.
8 Percy Allen—Francis Bacon’s Share in the Shakespeare Folio of 1623
1944, October……………………………….. 4 pages
1 Percy Allen—Editorial Notes
2 Dr Gerald H. Rendall—Timon of Athens
3 Phyllis Carrington—The Folger Shakespeare Memorial Library
4 Rear Admiral H. H. Holland—Pigrogromitus of the Vapians (Twelfth Night)
1945, May……………………………………. 4 pages
1 Percy Allen—Editorial Notes
2 Obituary: Reverend Canon Gerald H. Rendall, Frederick Bligh Bond
3 Book Review: Shakespeare’s History Plays by E. M. W. Tillyard, reviewed by J. J. Dwyer
4 Percy Allen—The Group-Theory and some Modern Intellectuals
1945, November……………………………. 6 pages
1 Percy Allen—Editorial Notes (discusses the General Meeting), Obituary—Capt. Bernard Mordaunt (B. M.) Ward
2 Rear Admiral H. H. Holland—Tarlton and Shakespeare
4 Percy Allen—Oxford as the Water-Bearer
5 William Kent—An American Myth Maker
6 Capt. B. R. Saunders—A Note on the Origin of “Venus and Adonis”
1946, March…………………………………. 8 pages
1 (Vacant)—Editorial Notes: Extraordinary General Meeting (Mr Percy Allen offered his resignation upon learning of “…strong and widespread opposition” to his plan to publish a book about his “…many spiritualistic séances” while seeking “…a solution to the mystery of the authorship by psychic means.” “After a brief debate, all the members present, with one exception, voted for the acceptance of Mr Allen’s proffered resignation…”; Abstracts and Brief Chronicles; Otto Kurz—Shakespeare and the Shaven Hercules
2 Henry Lawrence, J. J. Dwyer—Honest Ben Jonson
3 Dr H. M. M. Woodward—The Second “Brains Trust”
4 Public Debate—Oxfordians v. Baconians; Dr G. B. Harrison—Elizabethan Plays and Players
5 Book Review: The Fictitious Shakespeare Exposed by Edward D. Johnson, reviewed by William Kent
6 Rear Admiral H. H. Holland—Shakespeare and Contemporary Plays (part 1)
7 J. Shera Atkinson—The Shakespeare Monument
1946, September……………………………. 8 pages
1 J. J. Dwyer—Editorial Notes (Annual General Meeting); Abstracts and Brief Chronicles; Brains Trust–At John o’London’s Literary Circle
2 J. J. Dwyer—“The Rival Poet” of the Sonnets—A Discussion; William Kent—A Walking Encyclopaedia; Wider Publicity for the Oxford Case; Dr H. M. M. Woodward—In Honour of the Discoverer (In honor of the late J. T. Looney)
3 Percy Allen—An Oxfordian at Stratford-on-Avon; J. Shera Atkinson—The Third “Brains Trust”; The Times—A Shakespeare “Find” (“A bound copy of nine Shakespearean quartos of 1619 had been found in the library of Girsby Manor, Lincoln…”
4 Book Reviews: À La Decouverte de Shakespeare by Professor Abel Lefranc, reviewed by J. J. Dwyer. The Political Characters of Shakespeare by John Palmer, reviewed by J. J. Dwyer
6 Rear Admiral H. H. Holland— Shakespeare and Contemporary Plays (part 2)
7 H. Cutner—The Stratford Monument Again
8 Shakespeare’s London–A Topographical Argument (fascinating article about John Stow’s Annals of England [1592], discussing perfumed gloves and the Earl of Oxford)
1947, March…………………………………. 8 pages
1 J. J. Dwyer—Editorial Notes; Annual General Meeting (in Sept 1946); Abstracts and Brief Chronicles; Katharine Eggar—Who Wrote “The Tempest”?
2 Marjorie Bowen (lecture)—Why I Believe that the Seventeenth Early of Oxford wrote the plays of Shakespeare
3 Percy Allen—Shakespeare on East Anglia (Cymbeline)
4 William Kent—Shakespeare’s London
5 W. Ringland Roberson—Queen Elizabeth and Her Turk; H. Cutner—Portraits of Shakespeare
6 Personal (J. J. Dwyer resigns as Editor of the News-Letter); Old and New (various quotes); Rear Admiral H. H. Holland—Much Ado About Nothing and The Shepherd’s Calendar.
8 William Kent—Orthodox Ineptitude
1947, September……………………………. 8 pages
1 Rear Admiral H. H. Holland, Dr H. M. M. Woodward—Editorial Notes: Birthplace Celebrations (in Stratford); The Stratfordian Retreat
3 William Kent—The Shakespeare Fellowship’s Pamphlet
4 H. Cutner, Dr Gilbert Slater—Alias William Shakespeare
5 J. S. A.—Oxfordians Debate with Miss Neill
6 J. S. A.—Heretics’ Week, Stratford-on-Avon
7 Sir Henry Lawrence—The Shakespeare Mystery
1948, April…………………………………… 8 pages
1 William Kent—Editorial Notes; Obituary—Dr H. M. Woodward.
2 William Kent, E. D. Johnson—A Libel on Stratford? The Stratford Monument (and the Dugdale Society)
3 Herbert Cutner—Priestley Plays the Priest; Edgar Innes Fripp—A Monument to a Myth
4 William Kent—A New Theory of the Sonnets; The Shakespeare Fellowship’s Pamphlet
5 William Kent—Apology to America (concerning surplus copies of Captain Ward’s book, Seventeenth Earl of Oxford); Reports of Meetings; Mr. J. B. Priestley Enters the Arena
6 William Kent, Gwynneth M. Bowen—Sir Christopher Hatton as Shallow; Sir Henry Lawrence—The Shakespeare Mystery II
7 Gerald William Phillips—The Importance of the Sonnets
8 Gems of Mythology: (various quotes)
1948, September……………………………. 8 pages
1 William Kent—Editorial Notes; Oxfordians—What of the Night?
2 William Kent—A Canon Without Courage; The Shakespeare “Birthplace”
3 William Kent—Sir William Dugdale; F. Lingard Ranson—Lavenham; Rear Admiral H. H. Holland—Shakespeare’s Topical References to His Own Plays
4 William Kent—The Shakespeare Circle
6 Herbert Cutner—Are We Progressing?
7 William Kent—Dickens and Shakespeare
8 Gems of Mythology: (various quotes)
1949, March…………………………………. 8 pages
1 William Kent—Notices (Shakespeare “Birthplace”, a Battle of Stratford Spurs)
2 William Kent—The Pusillanimity of the Professors
3 William Kent—Baconian Barks; The Stratford Monument
4 William Kent—Misapplied Quotations; The Shakespeare Biographers; What of 1950? (…to celebrate the 400th anniversary of the birth of Edward de Vere); The Play’s the Thing; Truth
5 Herbert Cutner—The Shakespearean “Birthplace”
6 Gerald William Phillips—Did Edward de Vere Make a Private Marriage?
7 Katherine Eggar—Methinks I See My Father
8 William Kent—Meetings
1949, September……………………………. 8 pages
[Note: this issue is missing 2 pages. If anyone has a copy, please contact Jim Warren, jimwarren1000@gmail.com]
1 William Kent—Notices (Annual General Meeting); Editorial Notes (Physician Heal Thyself, A Winter’s Campaign)
2 Ernest Rhys—The Birthplace
4 Dr Gerald H. Rendall, Lt-Col. M. W. Douglas—Shakespeare’s Sonnets and Edward de Vere
5 Major N. B. Hunter—The Earls and Shakespeare
6 Missing page 6
7 Missing page 7 [from page 8, we see there is an article by T. M. Aitken—title unknown.]
8 Salvadore de Madariagaon Hamlet; Gems of Mythology: (various quotes)
1950, April…………………………………. 10 pages
1 William Kent—Notices (Quatercentenary Meeting)
2 Looney Again (Re-issue of J. T. Looney’s book has a new introduction by William McFee, who writes, “…‘Shakespeare’ however, has long ceased to be a ‘writer’ in the ordinary sense for the British. It would not be an exaggeration to say that at present he occupies, in the conventional Englishman’s mind, a position midway between a tutelary deity and a solar myth. To question the Bard’s work, or to cast doubt on his credentials is bad form, akin to eating peas with a knife or wearing brown shoes with a morning coat.”; William Kent—Still They Run
3 William Kent—Cambridge for Oxford? William Kent—The Enemy Fainteth; Rear Admiral H. H. Holland—April 22nd, 1950 (a sonnet for Oxford’s birthday); Lt-Col. M. W. Douglas—Praeterita
4 Percy Allen—Much Ado About Nothing—A Burlesque of the Oxford-Howard-Arundel Quarrel
6 J. Shera Atkinson—Polonius
7 William Kent—Nothing But Leaves
9 Wally Gill—On the Shake-Speare Sonnets (poem); William Kent, Helena Normanton—The Debate
10 Rear Admiral H. H. Holland—“Sergeant Shakespeare”; Gems of Mythology: (various quotes)
1950, September……………………………. 9 pages
1 William Kent—Notices (Annual General Meeting); A Real Oxford Movement!
2 William Kent—Another Busy Professor!
4 William Kent—The Plight of the Professors.
5 William Kent—Popular Fallacies; Dr Abraham Feldman; J. Shera Atkinson—Comments on Dr Leslie Hotson’s “Shakespeare’s Sonnets Dated, and Other Essays”
7 William Kent—The B.B.C. Talk (Giles E. Dawson on the “same old lines”)
9 R. Ridgill Trout—A Pound of Flesh
1951, April…………………………………… 8 pages
1 William Kent—Notices; Editor’s Notes (Shakespeare and the Encyclopaedists)
2 William Kent—Meetings (Annual General Meeting)
3 Hilda Amphlett—Was Shakespeare an Essex Man?
4 Gerald William Phillips—A Defense of Dr Hotson’s Dating of Sonnet 17
6 Percy Allen—King Lear in Relation to French History; Abraham Feidman—Greene’s Groatsworth of Wit
7 Herbert Cutner—Provincial Dialect in Shakspere’s Day
8 Letters to the Editor: R. Ridgill Trout; Gem of Mythology: (a quote)
1951, September……………………………. 9 pages
1 William Kent—Notices; Editorial Notes (More and More Leaves)
4 William Kent—Progress in the Press; Still Busy!
5 William Kent—Dr J. R. Mez; Stands Stratford Where It Did? Open Forum; The Shakespeare Trial
6 Clifford Leech—Hall’s Chronicle and Shakespeare; Shakespeare Fellowship Dinner (Annual)
7 Herbert Cutner—Shakespeare of London
8 Capt. B. R. Saunders—The Scales of Justice
1952, March……………………………….. 10 pages
1 William Kent—Notices; Meetings (Annual General Meeting)
3 William Kent—Editorial Notes (Abuse No Argument; Why Not Shakespeare? Oxford/Shaksper Debate at Stratford-on-Avon)
4 William Kent—Cecil Palmer; More Mythology.
5 William Kent—More Anti-Stratfordian Converts (Gilbert Frankau); Soowtherne’s Tribute (a 1584 book Pandora, with a poem that mentions “Devere”); Beading the Baconians; Shots by the Editor
6 Hilda Amphlett—Nicholas Hilliard an Edward de Vere
7 William Kent—The Library
8 Letters to the Editor: Kathleen Le Riche, Gerald William Phillips; Just a Little Coincidence
9 Dr John Richard Mez—News from Switzerland; Hilda Amphlett—A Suggestion (de Vere in Padua)
10 New Pamphlets: Gwynneth Bowen—Shakespeare’s Farewell, reviewed by Dr John Richard Mez; Katharine E. Eggar—Shakespeare in his True Colours; The Fellowship Study Group
1952, September………………………….. 12 pages
1 William Kent—Notices; Meetings
2 William Kent—Editorial Notes (The Blind Eye, New Recruits); Herbert Cutner—Thomas Looney on the Defensive
3 Dr John Richard Mez—George Gascoigne (“…astounding book…by William Kittle…”)
4 Hilda Amphlett—Oxford and the ‘Faerie Queene’
6 Book Review: Derby as Shakespeare (Shakespeare’s Identity) by A. W. Titherley, reviewed by Gwynneth Bowen.
7 J. Shera Atkinson—The Lord Great Chamberlain England
8 Book Review: Cloak of Folly by Burke Boyce, reviewed by J. Shera Atkinson.
9 Kathleen Le Riche—The “Shakespeare” Country
10 Letters to the Editor: Kathleen Le Riche (Nicholas Hilliard and Edward de Vere, Shakespeare’s Farewell)
11 Letters to the Editor (cont): H. H. Holland (Shake-speare and Montaigne), S. A. van Lunteren (Earl’s Colne and Colme-kill)
12 Letters to the Editor (cont): Franck L. Schoell, T. L. Adamson
1953, April…………………………………. 12 pages
1 Kathleen Le Riche—Portraits of Edward de Vere (dark images of the Welbeck, the Albans and the Hilliard “Man clasping a hand from a cloud” portraits)
2 William Kent—Notices; Editorial Notes (obituary for Marjorie Bowen; The “News Chronicle” and “Shakespeare”
3 William Kent—A Magnus Opus; Notes and Queries (John de Vere, Lord Wakehurst; Shakespeare Bibliographies)
4 William Kent—Another Shakespeare Portrait! Meetings (Annual General Meeting)
5 Kathleen Le Riche—A Portrait of Shakespeare?
6 Book Reviews: This Star of England by Dorothy and Charlton Ogburn, reviewed by Percy Allen and Dr John Richard Mez (discusses the ‘Prince Tudor’ theory proposed by the Ogburns)
8 Book Reviews (cont): This Star of England by Dorothy and Charlton Ogburn, reviewed by Gerald William Phillips (his review refutes the ‘Prince Tudor’ theory with dates/letters)
9 Book Reviews (cont): Lord Oxford and the Shakespeare Group by Lt-Col. M. W. Douglas, reviewed by T. M. Aitken; The Life and Times of Edward Alleyn by G. L. Hosking, reviewed by Herbert Cutner
10 T. C. H.—E.O. (sonnet for Oxford); Professor Abel LeFranc (obituary by G. L.); Frank L. Schoell—The Sense of Shakespeare’s Sonnets
11 Letters to the Editor: Gwynneth Bowen (Shakespeare’s Farewell), Christy Ann Kittle
1953, September………………………….. 13 pages
1 William Kent—Notices; Editorial Notes (Save Shakespeare’s Avon; Miss Diana Neil and Mr. Alan Keen)
2 Book Review: Lord Oxford and the Shakespeare Group by Lt-Col. M. W. Douglas, reviewed by Philip Drew
3 Edward D. Johnson—A Shakespeare Quiz; William Kent—A New Member, Another Convert, Shakespeare Statues
4 William Kent—Annual Dinner, Other Events; Kathleen Le Riche—The Third Earl of Southampton
6 Herbert Cutner—Professor Abel Le Franc on Oxford; R. L. Eagle—Was Shakspere Illiterate?
8 Book Review: Edward de Vere in Holland (Achter het Mombakke) by P. H. van Moerkerken, reviewed by S. A. van Lunteren; J. Shera Atkinson—The Manor of Billesley
10 Herbert Cutner—More Proofs for Shakspere of Stratford? Dr John Richard Mez—Informative Booklets (Elizabethan Miniatures, The Golden Ass, Sous le Masque de Molière)
11 S. A. van Lunteren—Lord Macaulay and Looney’s Methods; Letters to the Editor: Hilda Amphlett (Nicholas Hilliard’s Miniature), F. L. Nichols (The Virgin Queen), A. W. Titherley (Two Gentlemen of Verona), H. H. Holland (Diana in the Fountain)
12 (Quotes)— Sir George Greenwood, Henry James (his famous quote, “…the biggest and most successful fraud ever practiced on a patient world.”, Professor William James
1954, April…………………………………. 15 pages
1 Hilda Amphlett (Editor William Kent indisposed)—Notices (The Annual Dinner, The Library, Proposed Visit to Hatield House); Meetings
2 Hilda Amphlett—Editorial Notes (Members’ Activities, Overseas Members)
3 Book Review: The Borough Town of Stratford-upon-Avon by Levi Fox, reviewed by William Kent
4 William Kent—The Aristocratic Look
5 Hilda Amphlett—Mrs. Theodora Phipot (obituary); Brook House, Hackney (Members visited the dilapidated house, called King’s Place when Edward de Vere lived there.)
6 Kathleen Le Riche—Hackney Tudor (letter); Gwynneth Bowen—Sir Edmund Chambers (obituary); Katharine E. Eggar—Turbervile’s Tragical Tales
8 H. S. Shield—De Shakespeare Nostrati
9 Kathleen Le Riche—Shakespeare’s Anniversary
10 Ruth M. D. Wainewright—Some Comments on an Early Dedication to de Vere
11 Kathleen Le Riche—Oxford Junior Encyclopedia
12 Letters to the Editor: Dorothy Ogburn, Francis L. Nichols, Gwynneth Bowen, Kathleen Le Riche, Gerald William Phillips, H. K. Kennedy-Skipton, Dr John Richard Mez
1954, September………………………….. 13 pages
1 Gwynneth Bowen/T. L. Adamson (Editor William Kent still indisposed)—Notices; Editorial Notes (“Peterborough” Again, The Library, Sir Walter Maxwell Scott [obituary], The Annual Dinner)
3 Other Meetings; Ruth M. D. Wainewright—Shakespeare’s Sonnets
4 Book Reviews: Two Books on “Shakespeare”–Shakespeare Survey 7 by Cambridge University Press “…containing articles all written by experts in their particular fields…”); The Annotator by Alan Keen and Roger Lubbock, both reviewed by Herbert Cutner
6 S. A. van Lunteren—Shakespeare A Paris and Measure for Measure
7 Gwynneth Bowen—The Wounded Name
8 Kathleen Le Riche—The Portrait of John de Vere, the Sixteenth Earl of Oxford (there is a poor black & white reproduction of the painting [on additional page 8A])
9 C. A. Greer—The Famous Victories of Henry V; Dr John Richard Mez—Gascoigne and de Vere (Was “George Gascoigne” a pen-name used by Edward de Vere?)
10 William Kent—Leaves from the Editor’s Notebooks (Books in Elizabethan Times)
11 Letters to the Editor: J. and E. Dooley, Kathleen Le Riche, Gwynneth Bowen
1955, Spring……………………………….. 14 pages
1 SFN Editorial Board—Notices; Editorial Notes (Mr William Kent resigns as Editor; Back-numbers of News-Letter Wanted); Meetings
2 Gwynneth Bowen—Autobiography in Measure for Measure; Capt R. Ridgill Trout—Oxford and his Forebears; William Kent—The Stratfordian Case Examined
3 Ruth M. D. Wainewright—The Poems of Edward de Vere; Katharine Eggar—Our Debt to Ben Jonson; Francis W. Steer—English History in the Saleroom (The author attended the first of it’s kind, “manorial lordship” auction, at which ancient paperwork, some dating back to the 1500’s, was sold to the highest bidder. Those individuals could, potentially claim the titles and some additional documentation, although no property was attached. Steer concludes that he hopes the “new owners will see to it that the records of past generations…will be preserved for posterity…”
5 Hilda Amphlett—Willobie His Avisa
7 T. L. Adamson—Shakespeare and Oxford in the Lecture Room
8 Edward de Vere (S. A. van Lunteren)—A Translation of Horace
9 J. W. R.—The Court of Chivalry, Gwynneth Bowen—Falstaff, Tarlton and “The Famous Victories”
10 (New) Book Reviews: Who Was Shakespeare? by Hilda Amphlett, reviewed by Olive H. Browning; The First Night of Twelfth Night by Leslie Hotson, reviewed by Georges Lambin/Katharine E. Eggar
12 T. L. Adamson—The Renaissance Man of England (revised and condensed version of This Star of England by Dorothy and Charlton Ogburn); Notices
13 Letters to the Editor: Gerald William Phillips, Gwynneth Bowen
14 Study Group Meetings; Considered Trifles; Sayings of the Week: “Human beings are very difficult to unconvince.” Dr Sherwood Taylor, Director of the Science Museum, Kensington, UK (1955)
1955, Autumn…………………………….. 12 pages
1 SFN Editorial Board—Contents; Advance Notices; Annual Dinner
2 Christmas Humphreys—Open Meetings (Who Wrote Shakespeare?—A Lawyer Enquires)
3 Work of the Study Group; Editorial Notes
4 Report on Shakespeare Scholarship
5 Gwynneth Bowen—Chronology in the Melting Pot
6 Katharine E. Eggar—Anthony Munday’s “John A Kent”
7 Dr John Richard Mez—The Poet with a Speare (discussing “George Gascoigne” as Edward de Vere)
8 Katharine E. Eggar—Brook House, Hackney (A group visits Brook House, known as King’s Place when Edward de Vere lived there, before it was demolished. There are details of a wall mural discovered, “…pronounced to be late 15th or early 16th century work…showing…two figures at the Eastern end of the North wall which are shown facing East against a background of Tudor roses in a diaper setting. The larger, standing figure, carries the double Patriarchal Cross and crossed keys associated with the Patriarch of Jerusalem…. The smaller, kneeling figure wears a monkish habit.”)
9 Ruth M. D. Wainewright—The Spanish Romances and “The Tempest”; I. Gretton—Shakespeare and The General
10 (New) Book Reviews: Ben Jonson of Westminster by Marchette Chute, reviewed by Herbert Cutner; Shakespeare Unmasked by Pierre S. Porohovshikov (reprint), reviewed by J. Shera Atkinson;
11 Letters to the Editor: S. A. van Lunteren, William Kent, Dr John Richard Mez
1956, Spring……………………………….. 12 pages
1 Contents; an image (dark) of the painting “Venus and Adonis” by Giulio Romano
2 Hilda Amphlett—Shakespeare and the Palazzo del Té
3 SFN Editorial Board—Notices
4 T. L. Adamson—Reports of Meetings; Christmas Humphreys—The President’s Cross-Examination
5 A. J. Evans—The Magic Circle (the idea that the plays were “the product of a Group”); Gwynneth Bowen—The Banished Duke (Who is the Banished Duke of As You Like It?)
6 Richard Southern—The Elizabethan Theatre; Editorial Notes (The Dublin Shakespeare Society, Lecture on Lord Oxford at Leys School Cambridge, The Veers of Kensington, Shakespeare’ Italy [“Kathleen Le Riche gave a talk…some discoveries she and her husband made at the Archivi in each city last summer concerning the sojourn there of Lord Oxford during 1575-6.”])
7 Gwynneth Bowen—Coronation Sonnet
9 H. S. Shield—The Names of the King and Queen in “A Midsummer Night’s Dream; (New) Book Reviews: Shakespeare by C. J. Sissons, reviewed by T. L. Adamson
10 (New) Book Reviews (cont): The Man Who Was Shakespeare by Calvin Hoffmann, reviewed by Katharine E. Eggar; The Shaking Spear by Brian Flynn, reviewed by N. Loosely; Ruth M. D. Wainewright—Shakespeare–Lord Oxford or Lord Derby?
11 Obituary: Helen Atkinson; Letters to the Editor: J. Shera Atkinson (Who Was Shakespeare?), Chas. J. Bailey, Terence N. Goodall, H. S. Shield (Lord Oxford’s Settlement)
12 Letters to the Editor (cont): Willaim McFee (Marlowe as Stratfordian Decoy), A. W. Titherley (Patience Perforce), Dr John Richard Mez (mis-spelled as “Metz”)
1956, Autumn…………………………….. 12 pages
1 SFN Editorial Board—Notices; Annual Dinner
2 Ruth M. D. Wainewright—Reports of Meetings; Katharine E. Eggar—Lord Oxford and the Players’ Company
3 G. W. Rudyerd—Editorial Notes; Gwynneth Bowen—Freud and Shakespeare
4 Rex Clements—Shakespeare as Mariner
8 Hilda Amphlett—Edward II at Stratford-by-Bow; Book Review: Shakespeare’s Magic Circle by A. J. Evans, reviewed by Herbert Cutner
10 Book Review: Shakespeare Survey 9 by the Cambridge University Press, reviewed by Katharine E. Eggar; Letters to the Editor: J. Shera Atkinson (Coronation Sonnet), Kathleen Le Riche (Shakespeare and the Palazzo del Té)
11 Dr John Richard Mez—Kingdom and Grave (Edward de Vere’s poem, Were I a King)
12 Obituary: Francis L. Nichols, Gerald William Phillips, Miss E. R. Monteath
1957, Spring……………………………….. 12 pages
1 SFN Editorial Board—Notices; Editorial Notes
2 Reports of Meetings; T. L. Adamson—The Plays of Christopher Marlow; Gwynneth Bowen—The Upstart Crow
3 John W. Russell—Debate–Oxford v. Derby (A. J. Evans, Ruth M. D. Wainewright, Gwynneth Bowen, T. L. Adamson)
4 Hilda Amphlett, Kathleen Le Riche—Journey Through Shakespeare’s Italy (on her travels thru northern Italy); Outside Lectures (South Place Ethical Society)
5 Outside Lectures (discussing lectures given at the following: London Society, Marlowe Society, Aberdeen, Dublin Shakespeare Society, Massachusetts Historical Society)
6 Ruth M. D. Wainewright—Phycological Relationships in Hamlet And the Authorship Question
7 R. Ridgill Trout—Bees and Honey (concerning “…the greatest of all English herbalists, John Gerrard, superintendent of the great garden of Cecil House, in the Strand, which reached down to the Thames.”)
8 Kathleen Le Riche—Marlow and the Sonnets
9 I. Gretton—The Recusants in “Love’s Labour’s Lost”
10 Book Review: The Shakespeare First Folio, It’s Bibliographical and Textual History by W. W. Greg, reviewed by Gwynneth Bowen
11 Obituary: Lt-Col. Montagu W. Douglas, by T. M. Aitken; Letters to the Editor: Gwynneth Bowen (Coronation Sonnet)
12 Letters to the Editor (cont): Capt. B. R. Saunders (Edward Bonaventure) [NOTE: sadly, this page is dark & hard to read]
1957, Autumn…………………………….. 12 pages
1 SFN Editorial Board—Notices; News and Notes; Honest Doubt (extracts from an article by F. Murray-Todd of Tasmania. “After a gallant attempt to defend the case for William Shakespeare (or Shaksper) of Stratford, …says “If the whole thing was a hoax it was an exceedingly skilful one.”
2 Reports of Meetings; Katharine E. Eggar—Shakespeare and the Earl of Southampton (a paper by Captain R. Ridgill Trout, a genealogist of some renown)
3 Ruth M. D. Wainewright—Have A Go; M. H. R.—The Annual Dinner
4 Ruth M. D. Wainewright—The Study Group; Additions to the Library
5 Georges Lambin—Shakespeare in Milan; Editor’s Note (includes letters to Burghley concerning Oxford)
6 H. L. Senior—Strange Omissions (concerning “Shakespeare’s” death)
8 Hubert H. Holland—The Fore-Horse to a Smock (also a Notice about the author’s death since sending this article)
9 Book Reviews: Shakespeare’s Sources (I) Comedies and Tragedies by Kenneth Muir, reviewed by Gwynneth Bowen
10 Book Reviews (cont): To A Lady. The Songs and Sonnets of the Earl of Surrey edited by Douglas Geary, reviewed by Ruth M. D. Wainewright
11 Book Reviews (cont): Elizabethan Quintet by Denis Meadows, reviewed by Katharine E. Eggar; Obituary: Rear-Admiral H. H. Holland
12 Letters to the Editor: R. C. Churchill, J. Shera Atkinson, Capt. B. R. Saunders, Gwynneth M. Bowen
1958, Spring……………………………….. 12 pages
1 SFN Editorial Board—Notices; News and Notes; The Shakespeare Fellowship Trust (bequeathed by Lt-Col Montagu W. Douglas)
2 Reports of Meetings (the Annual General Meeting); Katharine E. Eggar—What We Learn of de Vere from Shakespeare’s Fools and Clowns
3 Commander Martin Pares—The Case for Francis Bacon; Gwynneth Bowen—The Troublesome Reign of John
4 David Freedman—Astrology in Shakespeare’s Plays; In Memoriam: J. Shera Atkinson, Thomas Aitken
5 Captain R. Ridgill Trout—Elizabeth and the Catholics
6 Gwynneth M. Bowen—Shakespeare and the Trussells of Billesley
7 Book Reviews: Shakespearean Ciphers by Dr and Mrs William F. Friedman, reviewed by J. S. A.
9 Book Reviews (cont): Shakespeare. A Portrait Restored by Clara Longworth reviewed by Ruth M. D. Wainewright
11 Letters to the Editor: Georges Lambin, Gwynneth M. Bowen, H. S. Shield
1958, Autumn…………………………….. 12 pages
1 SFN Editorial Board—Notices; News and Notes; News from America
2 Ruth M. D. Wainewright—Reports of Meetings (All’s Well and the Authorship Question); H. S. Shield—Classical Clues in Shakespeare’s Plays
3 T. L. Adamson—Lord Oxford and Plutarch; Gwynneth M. Bowen—The Annual Dinner
4 Gwynneth M. Bowen—Shakespeare’s Early Style
6 The Late Rear-Admiral H. H. Holland—The Bells of St. Bennet
7 A. W. Titherley—On the Poem Signed I.M.S. (Second Folio)
8 T. L. Adamson—Memoir of Mr. J. Shera Atkinson, LL.B.; Judge Gordon Clark
9 Book Reviews: Shakespeare and His Betters by R. C. Churchill, reviewed by William Kent
10 Book Reviews (cont): A Pictorial Biography, and The Cult of Shakespeare by F. E. Halliday reviewed by Herbert Cutner
11 Letters to the Editor: Herbert Cutner (On Speculating), H. L. Senior
