De Vere as Shakespeare

The question may be met with chagrin by traditionalists, but the identity of the Bard is not definitely decided. During the 20th century, Edward de Vere, the most flamboyant of the courtier poets, a man of the theater and literary patron, became the leading candidate for an alternative Shakespeare.
This text presents the controversial argument for de Vere’s authorship of the plays and poems attributed to Shakespeare, offering the available historical evidence and moreover the literary evidence to be found within the works. Divided into sections on the comedies and romances, the histories and the tragedies and poems, this fresh study closely analyzes each of the 39 plays and the sonnets in light of the Oxfordian authorship theory. The vagaries surrounding Shakespeare, including the lack of information about him during his lifetime, especially relating to the “lost years” of 1585–1592, are also analyzed, to further the question of Shakespeare’s true identity and the theory of de Vere as the real Bard.

William Farina is a retired real estate consultant for the federal government, now living in Evanston, Illinois. He has written books on Arthurian legend, early Christianity, the American Civil War, Shakespeare and baseball.

William Farina
Foreword by Felicia Hardison Londré
Format: softcover (7 x 10)
Pages: 280
Bibliographic Info: notes, bibliography, index
Copyright Date: 2006
pISBN: 978-0-7864-2383-5
eISBN: 978-0-7864-8343-3
Imprint: McFarland

Acknowledgments      vi

Foreword by Felicia Hardison Londré      1

Introduction      5

Part One: Comedies and Romances

1. The Tempest      19

2. The Two Gentlemen of Verona      25

3. The Merry Wives of Windsor      30

4. Measure for Measure      34

5. The Comedy of Errors      40

6. Much Ado About Nothing      44

7. Love’s Labor’s Lost      49

8. A Midsummer Night’s Dream      54

9. The Merchant of Venice      60

10. As You Like It      66

11. The Taming of the Shrew      72

12. All’s Well That Ends Well      77

13. Twelfth Night      t82

14. The Winter’s Tale      88

15. Cymbeline      93

16. Pericles      98

Part Two: Histories

17. King John      105

18. Richard II      110

19. Henry IV, Part I      115

20. Henry IV, Part II      120

21. Henry V      125

22. Henry VI, Part I      131

23. Henry VI, Part II      135

24. Henry VI, Part III      140

25. Richard III      145

26. Henry VIII      151

Part Three: Tragedies and Poems

27. Troilus and Cressida      159

28. Coriolanus      164

29. Titus Andronicus      168

30. Romeo and Julie      t173

31. Timon of Athens      179

32. Julius Caesar      184

33. Macbeth      189

34. Hamlet      195

35. King Lear      201

36. Othello      207

37. Antony and Cleopatra      213

38. Venus and Adonis      219

39. The Rape of Lucrece      223

40. The Sonnets      227

Conclusion      237

Notes      241

Bibliography      263

Index      265

Winner, Award for Scholarly Excellence—Concordia University (Portland)
“a handy guide”—Rocky Mountain Review of Language & Literature.