Is Shakespeare Dead?
Is Shakespeare Dead? is a short, semi-autobiographical work by American humorist Samuel Clemens, better known as
Mark Twain. It explores the controversy
over the authorship of the
The original publication spans only 150 pages, and the formatting leaves roughly half of each page blank. The spine is thread bound. It was published in April of 1909 by Harper & Brothers, twelve months before Mark Twain's death.
Summary
In the book, Clemens clearly states his opinion that Shakespeare of Stratford was not the author of the the canon, and lends tentative support to the Baconians. The book opens with a scene from his early adulthood, where he was trained to be a steamboat pilot by an elder who often argued with him over the controversy.
Clemens's argument rests on the following points:
- That little was known about Shakespeare's life, and the bulk of his biographies were based on conjecture.
- That a number of eminent British barristers and judges found Shakespeare's plays permeated with precise legal thought, and that the author could only have been a veteran legal professional.
- That in contrast, Shakespeare of Stratford had never held a legal position or office, and had only been in court over petty lawsuits late in life.
- That small towns lionize and celebrate their famous authors for generations, but this had not happened in Shakespeare's case. He described his own fame in Hannibal as a case in point.
Clemens drew parallels and analogies from the pretensions of modern religious figures and commentators on the nature of Satan. He compared the believers in Shakespeare to adherents of ersatz prophets like Mary Baker Eddy. He then went on to make flagrant attacks against their collective character, after condemning them for doing the same to the Baconites. While this hypocrisy was tongue in cheek, the tone was hardly dispassionate.
|
Part of a series on the |
|
|---|---|
| Theories | Oxfordian theory · Baconian theory · Marlovian
theory Chronology of Shakespeare's plays – Oxfordian |
| Candidates | Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford · Francis Bacon · Christopher Marlowe · William Stanley, 6th Earl of Derby · Edward Dyer · Henry Neville · Roger Manners, 5th Earl of Rutland · Mary Sidney |
| Theorists and supporters | J. Thomas Looney · Charlton Ogburn · Irvin Leigh Matus · James Wilmot · Calvin Hoffman · James Wilde, 1st Baron Penzance · George Greenwood · Mark Twain |
| Works by Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) | |
|---|---|
| Novels: |
General Washington's Negro Body-Servant • My Late Senatorial Secretaryship • The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today • The Adventures of Tom Sawyer • 1601: Conversation, as it was by the Social Fireside, in the Time of the Tudors • The Prince and the Pauper • Adventures of Huckleberry Finn • A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court • The American Claimant • Tom Sawyer Abroad • Pudd'nhead Wilson • Tom Sawyer, Detective • Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc • A Double Barrelled Detective Story • Edmund Burke on Croker and Tammany • A Dog's Tale • The $30,000 Bequest and Other Stories • A Horse's Tale • The Mysterious Stranger • No. 44, The Mysterious Stranger |
| Short stories: | |
| Short story collections: |
Sketches New and Old • A True Story and the Recent Carnival of Crime • Punch, Brothers, Punch! and other Sketches • Merry Tales • The £1,000,000 Bank Note and Other New Stories • Mark Twain's (Burlesque) Autobiography and First Romance • Letters from the Earth |
| Essays: | |
| Non fiction: |
The Innocents Abroad • Memoranda (monthly column) • Roughing It • Old Times on the Mississippi • A Tramp Abroad • Life on the Mississippi • Following the Equator • What Is Man? • Is Shakespeare Dead? • Queen Victoria's Jubilee • Mark Twain's Autobiography • Mark Twain's Notebook • King Leopold's Soliloquy • The Private History of a Campaign That Failed • Mark Twain's Weapons of Satire: Anti-Imperialist Writings on the Philippine-American War • The Bible According to Mark Twain: Writings on Heaven, Eden, and the Flood |
This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)
