The "No-Fear-of-Truth" Shakespeare
583768
I wholeheartedly agree with my own words, quoted above, from the introduction of "Ver, begin" -- and I encourage all Oxfordians to read this book and recognize that Ricardo Mena is simply writing what he plainly sees, with the courage necessary to say that the "emperor has no clothes" whether or not anyone else can see it.  One of my favorite quotes is from Chesterton, "Men can always be blind to a thing, so long as it's big enough," and that applies here.  Having the correct author of the Shakespeare works is one thing; being able to see the larger picture is quite another.  To use a proverbial metaphor, we have been laboring on the toe of the giant, unable to stand back to see that the phenomenon of "Shakespeare" is just part of a much bigger story.  Ricardo Mena is taking up that task, following the great Oxfordian scholar-writer Charles Beauclerk whose "Shakespeare's Lost Kingdom" will be seen one day as the masterpiece that it surely is.  "Vere, begin" now widens the lens even further.  Bravo!
403390
If one is going to misquote Shakespeare, one should at least make an attempt to write in iambic pentameter. This particular quote can actually be attributed to Arrigo Boito. Shakespeare wrote things like: "The course of true love never did run smooth" and "O, spirit of love, how quick and fresh art thou" or "Did my hear love 'til now? Foreswear it, sight! for I ne'er saw true beauty 'til this night" and " Doubt stars are fire; doubt that the sun doth move; doubt truth to be a liar; but never doubt that I love."

If I see this motley-minded barnacle, this villainous, tickle-brained bladder, this ill-nutured, prat-brained, pile of lark's excrement on someone's wall, I shall not rest until I have erased all signs of its existence. Would that I could meet its creator so that I might give him a sound thumping with my COMPLETE WORKS OF SHAKESPEARE.
2605478
Richard Whalen demonstrates the marriage of Edward de Vere to his works written as Shake-speare in a way that orthodox analysts are simply unable to do.  Mr. Shaksper from Stratford provides us with no background to know the facts and places that the real Shakespeare obviously knew and had experienced, as Mr. Whalen points out.

From his understanding of the Greek, his education and exposure to rare books, and his experiences (real, not contrived) in Scotland, we are given a new understanding of Macbeth's real motivations (and misgivings) in a way that other writers so often miss.

This annotation of Macbeth does so in such a stunning fashion that it is hard to see how an adherent of the Stratford man could deny Whalen's references with a straight face.

One really sees Macbeth in a different light after reading this book.

Thank you Mr. Whalen
1228090
This play within the play sees the ghosts of Richard III and his wife Anne summoned up on stage by their fool to try and stop the umpteenth performance of the slanderous shakesperean play on the last Plantagenet king in our modern times.

They will manage to show the truth about how their relationship developed and about Richard's deeds in general, but the audience in this case will still prefer Shakespeare's version because the words employed in it are so powerful that it makes the play more entertaining than the actual truth. Yet, Richard will at least be able to take the opportunity to speak the words he could not use with his wife just before she died and show her the truth about his unconditional and undying love for her.

This play moved me deeply the first time I read it and made me cry in the end on second reading. I hope someone will eventually find the courage and the funds to bring it on stage, in the meantime you can at least read it: the lines are so well thought of, Richard and the actors on stage will come up to your mind vividly as if they were in front of you.
731375
Deep knowledge of Shakespeare's plays and sonnets, and a thorough familiarity with the people and mores of the time, combine in Charles Beauclerk's consistently interesting, often riveting, tale of what was really going on with, and between, the two giant figures of 16th century England.  This is the best explanation of many Shakespearean mysteries that I have encountered.  In these pages the odd pieces are put together and the questions answered plausibly, although the realities revealed can be disconcerting, even shocking to some readers.
  Over the years, my reading of the plays and sonnets led to a conflict between admiration for the author's extraordinary command of language, and considerable puzzlement over some really strange, inexplicable references. There was also puzzlement over the dramatic overreaction of so many of the principal characters in the plays, reactions that went far beyond what the plots required.  The sonnets especially were highly personal and thus often mysterious.  These extremely personal and highly emotional themes were not credible as being merely the product of the writer's imagination.
  Curious about the strange disconnect between the life of the purported writer and the extensive knowledge of a broad range of topics only familiar to highly educated, well travelled people in what was certainly not an age of opportunity for the masses, I also noted that doubt about authorship was espoused by a range of notable writers, actors, and others (Freud, for example), and now several US Supreme Court Justices (who we can believe are keen for evidence to support their beliefs). Combined with my own study, this persuaded me that indeed the plays were the work of someone other than Will Shakspere of Stratford upon Avon.  There were still the questions about topical "in" remarks and allusions, and the intense, often needless, suffering of the characters.  What person could have had both the knowledge and the attitude to write these works?
  Virginia Woolf's observation that "every secret of a writer's soul, every experience of his life, every quality of his mind, is written large in his works .." is not just a condition that took shape in the 19th century, however much this romantic age may have emphasized the personal.  It's inevitable that because a writer is a certain sort of person with a certain sort of knowledge and a certain individual emotional makeup, that all this will somehow be manifest in his writings
  It's time for a paradigm shift in our understanding of Shakespeare, and thus of his works, and here's a book to further this more complete new understanding.
823726
The literary scholar and psychoanalyst Bronson Feldman's book comes along at a propitious time, when the Oxfordian cause he did much to advance is rapidly gaining in credibility and support. Graham Bradshaw famously said `Hamlet can seem [to be] an actual person who somehow has been caught inside a play' (quoted by Harold Bloom in&nbsp;<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Shakespeare-The-Invention-of-the-Human/dp/157322751X/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human</a>, p. 401). Feldman's book elucidates who this `actual person' is. Building on the work of Looney and other Oxfordians, Feldman (1914-1982) attempted to reconstruct in detail the events in Edward de Vere's life that shaped this highly autobiographical play. The book serves as a superb antidote to such toxically misleading works as Stephen Greenblatt's&nbsp;<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Will-in-the-World-How-Shakespeare-Became-Shakespeare/dp/039332737X/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Will in the World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare</a>. Where Greenblatt just makes it up as he goes along in telling Shakespeare's `story,' Feldman persuasively linked Hamlet with a wealth of documented facts about de Vere's life and emotional conflicts. Roughly a third of Feldman's 108 references are to manuscripts and to archival records of State Papers, a reflection of his painstaking scholarship. The publication of Feldman's book is an encouraging sign of the growing acceptance of Looney's 1920 Oxfordian authorship hypothesis.

We all owe Feldman a large debt of gratitude for withstanding enormous pressure to relinquish his `heretical' opinions. Freud's stature lends significant credibility to the Oxfordian authorship claim. Stratfordians are well aware of this, and they have made repeated attempts to undermine the legitimacy of Freud's opinions in this matter. Regrettably, psychoanalysts have used their professional skills not to deepen our understanding of the implications of de Vere's authorship, but instead to `analyze' the ostensible psychopathology that led Freud astray about Shakespeare.

Feldman read Hamlet  as a roman  clef, and he offered many keys to unlock the secrets of the actual people who are depicted (and often lambasted) in it. For example, he viewed Claudius as a composite figure who alludes not only to de Vere's step-father Lord Burghley, but also to Robert Dudley, who won control of de Vere's inheritance when his father died. `It would not have been unreasonable for de Vere to have entertained the suspicion of foul play in the death of his father ...nor to have written a play about his suspicions, casting Dudley in the role of the usurper, King Claudius' (65). Such a formulation is consistent with Feldman's emphasis on de Vere having `converted the death of Hamlet's father from butchery done in the open at a feast [in his sources] to a crafty assassination in solitude' (67).

 What did Feldman bring from psychoanalysis to his reading of Hamlet? Most significantly, he believed that knowing the identity of its author matters, in contrast with traditional Stratfordians who, when confronted with incontrovertible evidence against their man, ask `What difference does it make who the author was??' The identity of the author matters a great deal, because psychoanalysts' cumulative clinical experience fully vindicates Freud's theory of psychic determinism. That is, every human action, thought, feeling, and creative endeavor is influenced by a range of conscious and unconscious psychological conflicts, based on that individual's unique life experiences, fantasies, and ways of coping with core neurotic conflicts.

 Feldman's book on Hamlet deserves a wide readership. His friends who had it re-published deserve our deepest thanks. I hope it will encourage the many people who love Hamlet to investigate the Oxfordian authorship hypothesis.

For more on psychoanalysis and Shakespeare, see www dot oxfreudian dot com.
949705
All of the no fear Shakespear books are a  must when required to read Shakespeare for class.  There is little benefit to providing an output to society by reading the Shakespeare entire novels.  Fictional novel reading is too over emphasized in schools with little benefit to a student out in the real world trying to find a job that will be compensated for benefiting society.
684960
This is the play where Henry IV squashes the Percy rebellion but himself becomes ill and dies.  So, Price Hal becomes King Henry V and this leads to the next play of that name.
The wonderful Falstaff is also on glorious display.  This is also the play with the famous tavern scene (Act II, Scene IV) that can be read endlessly with new enjoyment.
Everyone has his or her own take on Falstaff and his treatment at the hands of Henry V, but I dislike it even though I understand it.  Prince Hal and his transformation into Henry V is not someone I admire a lot.  Nor is Falstaff's manner of living, but his wit is so sharp and his intelligence so vast that it is easy to still delight in him.
But, you certainly don't need me to tell you anything about Shakespeare.  Like millions of other folks, I am in love with the writing.  However, as all of us who read Shakespeare know, it isn't a simple issue.  Most of us need help in understanding the text.  There are many plays on words, many words no longer current in English and, besides, Shakespeare's vocabulary is richer than almost everyone else's who ever lived.  There is also the issue of historical context, and the variations of text since the plays were never published in their author's lifetime.
For those of us who need that help and want to dig a bit deeper, the Arden editions of Shakespeare are just wonderful.
-Before the text of the play we get very readable and helpful essays discussing the sources and themes and other important issues about the play.

-In the text of the play we get as authoritative a text as exists with helpful notes about textual variations in other sources.  We also get many many footnotes explaining unusual words or word plays or thematic points that would likely not be known by us reading in the 21st century.
-After the text we get excerpts from likely source materials used by Shakespeare and more background material to help us enrich our understanding and enjoyment of the play.
However, these extras are only available in the individual editions.  If you buy the "Complete Plays" you get text and notes, but not the before and after material which add so much!  Plus, the individual editions are easier to read from and handier to carry around.
3389508
Shakespeare was one of the greatest - if not THE GREATEST playwrights of all time. His work in terms of literary merit is comparable only to the St James Version of the Bible. His understanding  and portrayal of the human condition  surpasses almost all other writers. Hence we all study him. But Shakespeare is not easy. His magnificent language is complex - for a start he writes in verse. That is why this book is so necessary because it helps with the understanding of his work. Because there's a lot  to take in; the plot the characterisation , the imagery, the themes, the sub-plot etc. Marchette Chute summaries  beautifully the most important aspects of each of his plays . Thus we  discover that 'Measure for Measure ' in one of the most brilliant of Shakespeare's comedies - but the laughter is bitter.' (Pg 88) Ah- so that's  why I didn't know it was a comedy!
Macbeth 'is one of the greatest tragedies 'swift as night and dark as split blood' - there's lots of darkness and blood in Macbeth - we've all experienced the opening scene when the three witches await him, We've  all quivered at the words:
'Fair is foul and foul is fair
Hover through the fog and filthy air/ The scene is set with those chilling words. We know he is about to show us some of the worst of humanities traits, greed, ambition, cruelty, madness, temptation, pride.
Chutes triumph is that she makes  accessible the great man's work.
4526608
There is a certain religious passion to the arguments that people make for the case that William Shakespeare was not the author of the Shakespearean plays.  While I have never found their arguments convincing - I regard it as a major defect, for example, that the Earl of Oxford died years before the last plays were written - I have wondered why this is a matter of such passionate concern to some people.

Shapiro's very fine book, Contested Will, explains the reasons for this and advances a very convincing argument that modern skeptics give too little credit to the power of an author's imagination and creativity.  This seems to be a bias that has little basis in fact.

In the last part of the book, the authoir presents a summary of the evidence for the proposition that Shakespeare did, in fact, write the Shakespearean plays.  While I doubt this will convince any skeptics, I thought the author made a good case that the traditional attribution is entirely reasonable.

This is a wonderful work of scholarship, both interesting and not too technical for a general audience.
1271047
No Fear Shakespeare is one of my favorite series of Shakespeare adaptations. I like how it displays the modern text side-by-side with the original, and that the modern translations are fairly accurate. I recommend this series to my students who need a little extra help deciphering that "old" language. :)
1654940
The unequaled genius on English shows his command of the language and human pathos with this tragedy. No Fear is a great help for the kids because it provides the original language next to the modernized on the opposite page. If the student can't penetrate too many allusions or jumbled grammar forced into iambic pentameter, he peeks across the page for the simple meaning. With this version, we have the unadulterated beauty of Shakespeare, and the kids don't have to roll their eyes that the bard is impenetrable. My students at [...] enjoyed it.
4252194
Well, I like this book. So I won't give you a lengthy diatribe against it, nor will I apply the much-overused and misguided argument that those who think Oxford wrote Shakespeare are just snobs - that it's all about who had the money and education and noble blood blah blah blah. Basically, in Shakespeare by Another Name the argument against the man from Stratford is relegated to the introduction, and it does not reek of snobbery at all. For those agnostic readers, I tell you, the truth is, there are (and always have been) really sketchy and scant connections between Will Shakespeare of Stratford and the Shakespeare canon. Mr. Anderson spells that out pretty convincingly in the intro. The rest of the book is all for the Earl of Oxford. All about his interesting, conflicted, creative, theatrical life - all about his life's connection after connection after connection to the canon of Shakespeare. And, yes, while Oxford's extensive education enters into it, it's those personal, emotional connections to the works that got me thinking. That's what works for me - Oxford's personal story. Granted, I am not (yet) totally convinced that Oxford was Shakespeare, but I found myself close to believing it. And the mystery of it all kept me very intrigued.

Those whose life and breath depends on the man from Stratford being Shakespeare may not be able to take this compelling case for Oxford. I guess all those connections might shake some foundations. But for the rest of the world, I recommend this book.
1470145
Youtube "Amelia Bassano Lanier as Shakespeare"... Shakespeare's ghost writer was a Jewish woman writing in a land where being Jewish was a death sentence...

This production does an outstanding job capturing Shakespeare's writer's agenda while acceding to the overwhelmingly antisemitic spirit of the age.

The actors are tremendous.

Of course by shortening the play, much of the cryptic anti-Christian message is lost.  See Shakespeare's Secret Messiah by Atwill for more information.
4279056
An academic approach to Shakespeare, his life, his works and Elizabethan life in general. And it contains one of the best arguments Ive seen debunking the conspiracy theorists who refuse to believe that Shakespeare wrote Shakespeare. For many reasons an indispensable book.  If you go to my blog at richnovotney.com I can recommend a bunch of other Shakespeare-related books, all available at Amazon.
1253667
Grace Tiffany's WILL is a solid testimony to the rising and flourishing of one of the greatest playwright and poetry in history. The legend of a master began in the library of Will's recusant uncle, whose collection ranged from Ovid's Metamorphoses to Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, greatly enthralled the school-aged Shakespeare. Uncle Edward's adamant denial of the Protestant and his audacious refusal to the Queen's Protestant faith had ineluctably, and inveterately imbued in Shakespeare the staunch conviction to speak against the absurdity of monarchy.

The time was 1588 in London, a dark and grim period in which a plague decimated the city at the backdrop of an imminent war. The Catholic Spain, without its stupendous fleet and navy power, threatened to sail its gunboats up the Thames. Struggling Puritans and papists dared to defy the Protestant Queen Elizabeth who relentlessly executed her enemies and pinned their heads on the pikes of London Bridge to rot. With an amazing gift of words and iambic meter, Shakespeare deftly deflected his mocking against the Queen to his poetry, which he embellished with parodies, nuanced words and satires couched in rich metaphor. It was with the pulchritude of poetry's doubleness and roundness that Shakespeare's jests against the reign was left unnoticed, though many of the lines were no less provocative than the incendiary jests spun by the seditionist. Even if the Queen herself might have sensed that he hovered just out of her sight and whispered those lines to her beneath his breath, she found no evidence of treason in his plays.

The making of a master did not come about without a catch. Whether it was really flesh that had intervened, Shakespeare's tight grip of his dream took a toll on his marriage. Anne was plaintively sure that he did not love her when the plague closed the theaters in London and he never came home to Stratford, but instead went to Southampton to write poetry for earl Henry Wriothesley. His prolonged absence from home put as much a strain on his marriage as in his relationship with three children. His beloved son Hamnet, who had always drawn and held his gaze during his brief stay, died in a mishap that sprang from the child's longing for his father. His daughter Judith, who bore the guilt of the death of her brother, yearned to say the verse in order to seek redemption from her father through speaking on a stage. Midsummer's Night Dream yet again shows the playwright's success is fueled by his private tragedy.

Shakespeare's tour-de-force in writing and his gifts in probing his audience won his a fellowship of players, a band of brothers. This blessing inevitably also invited jealousy, rivalry and feud. The baby-faced Christopher Marlowe was one perfect example. He snobbishly jeered at Shakespeare's lack of a university education and stigmatized him as being a mere dishlicker of learning. A thieving knave on Marlowe's part enraged Shakespeare and caused them to be at enmity with one another. Marlowe had the effrontery to steal Will's tit-for-tat idea and used it in his own play. He even buried bribed Philip Henslowe, owner of the Rose Theater, not to show any of Will's plays to the players. Was it not for the phenomenal success of Henry VI, Will's two comedies that were buried at the bottom of a pile of scripts would never be performed at the Rose.

WILL is well-researched, well-written, engrossing, and beguiling novel of a master in the making during a turbulent time. It is a testimony to how indefatigably a man followed his heart to fulfill his dream with an indomitable passion. He took minor parts when suddenly asked, stayed around the theater to watch the plays even when he wasn't. When he played he completely melted into his part and left no vestige of him. He had a knack to grab accurately and pull his audience's heartstring. WILL enlivens the life of London during Shakespeare's time and etches a portrait of a man whose public success of his plays is fueled by his private tragedy.
3189402
If you are a fan of Shakespeare, or simply a fan of Mystery & Deception, you will find this book an entertaining read.  For decades there have been questions about the "real" writer of 'Shakespeare' and this short book will only add to the intrigue and possibly lead you in search of more.