Habicht to Sicinius , 02.11.13
From Harvey’s oration to the Earl of Oxford:
“For a long time past Phoebus Apollo has cultivated thy mind in the arts. English poetical measures have been sung by thee long enough. Let that Courtly Epistle — more polished even than the writings of Castiglione himself — witness how greatly thou dost excel in letters. I have seen many Latin verses of thine , yea, even more English verses English verses are extant; thou hast drunk deep draughts not only of the Muses of France and Italy, but hast learned the manners of many men, and the arts of foreign countries. It was not for nothing that Sturmius himself was visited by thee; neither in France, Italy, nor Germany are such cultivated and polished men. O thou hero worthy of renown, throw away the insignificant pen, throw away bloodless books, and writings that serve no useful purpose, now must the sword be brought into play, now is the time, now is the time for thee to sharpen the spear and to handle great engines of war.”
You write, “‘put away your feeble pen' is a fairer translation.” I understand this fits your purpose. But to me it is no more than an intolerable distortion of words. Harvey says that writings and books serve no useful purpose. He does not say “throw away thy or your insignificant pen”. At least you should offer an explanation for your interpretation. If you think you don’t need it, I am afraid most other people will need it. So for the sake of your credibility…
John Savage 04.11.13
When I was younger I discovered
"Bacon is Shakespeare" by Sir Edward Durning-Lawrence, which bases
its thesis largely on an astonishing series of cryptograms and coincidences and
hidden messages on title-pages - fascinating stuff, still mind-blowing. But a
few years ago a friend persuaded me of the superior claims of Edward de Vere.
The question resolves itself into two parts: 1) Could Shaksper have written the
plays, etc? Read Tony Pointon, "The Man Who Was Never Shakespeare",
and you will never again believe that he could. 2). So who did, if Shaksper
didn't?. Read Mark Anderson, "'Shakespeare' by Another Name";
Edward Holmes, "Discovering
Shakespeare", and Charlton Ogburn, "The Mysterious William
Shakespeare", and you will find it very difficult to believe that Edward
de Vere is not the author.
The problem for Stratfordians is
that many of them have written books about Shaksper and cannot renege from
their situation; also, what would happen to Stratford and the whole Shakespeare
tourist industry if Shaksper were thrown from his pedestal? Think about it.
Heidi Hill Tobin 04.11.13
Mr. Savage,
I enjoyed your posting and you are
right, “The problem for Stratfordians
is that many of them have written
books about Shaksper and cannot renege from
their situation.” I have seen the
proof
in the pudding. I am a high school
teacher and recently saw the
film, “Last Will. and Testament”.
These
very books to which you refer,
earning
their writers thousands of dollars,
were
revealed in this fabulous film.
Naturally, I have shared this film with my
English department colleagues who
are using the film as a teaching guide for
educating students about the real
‘Shakespeare’ in English Literature classes. My teaching colleagues have no
problem with
this. Thank you for enlightening us!
Heidi Hill Tobin
Alexander Waugh, 04.11.13
You are a
very brilliant and enlightened teacher. I wish they were all like you. Good
luck and best wishes, Alexander
Mike Gordon , 04.11.2013
Dear Roger, re your point 3, and coincidental to your later comment that I should retreat to my library, I've been reading Hector Boece's Historia Scotorum. There are three copies. One belonged to William Cecil and another to Thomas Randolph. Their marginalia in Book XII dealing with Macbeth is fascinating. I'm also reading an extremely rare first edition of John Bellenden's translation of Boece. All in conjunction with Holinshed 1577 (a first edition) and the 1587 facsimile. The results of this research will be published in an article entitled Attour Macbeth. I'll let you know when it's done because it's apparent to me that WS not only read Latin very well, but that he had enormous perspicacity in the way he edited and adapted the history. BTW, reading Bellenden is akin to a foreign language. Attour is an old Scots word and even though I'm a Scot..I had to ask! See if you can track it down.