Saturday, January 26, 2013

Walter Raleigh Wrote Shakespeare?


Could plays attributed to William Shakespeare actually have been written by a group led by Francis Bacon, with Walter Raleigh as the main writer? That's a possibility posited in 1845 by Delia Bacon, the first notable writer to put forth a comprehensive alternative theory of Shakespeare authorship.

Bacon argues the purpose of this arrangement was to advance a political and philosophical system without publicly assuming responsibility for such.1

First claim of sole authorship . . 

Australian George S. Caldwell first claimed Raleigh's sole authorship in 1877 with his pamphlet "Is Sir Walter Raleigh the Author of Shakespeare's Plays and Sonnets?" U.S. senator and historian Albert J. Beveridge supported Raleigh's case in a speech presented in the mid-1890s.

Definitive claim . .

In 1914, Shakspere and Sir Walter Ralegh made U.S. author Henry Pemberton, Jr.'s "definitive claim" to Raleigh authorship of Shakespeare works.2

His book3 presented "evidence" that had led him to "connect the name of the great Ralegh with the Shakspere plays and poems,"4 evidence that he believed consisted "in a series of topical allusions in these works" that "refer directly to Sir Walter's career, and are substantiated by the known facts in his biography."

To Pemberton, Raleigh had "written into his dramas his character and attainments," portraying "therein his environment and, to a considerable degree, his life-story as a courtier, statesman, mariner, discoverer, and prisoner in the Tower."5

Careful study . .

Sir Walter Raleigh (c. 1552–1618)
Beginning in 1905 with "a careful study of the Shakspere plays and poems", Pemberton was determined "to be restricted by no preconceived theory of authorship", letting the evidence instead take him where it might. As he states in his preface:
"If the evidence showed William Shakspere to be the author, well and good. If it showed Francis Bacon to be the author, again well and good. And if it indicated someone other than these as author — still well and good."
This "method of inquiry", what he called an "inductive study of the works in question", he had been accustomed to "in the study of physical sciences" involving . .
". . the proposition that the investigation should be entirely neutral towards so-called authority, that it should be pursued without any regard for the antiquity of that authority, or the conservative interests supporting it."

1. Churchill, Reginald Charles (1958). Shakespeare and His Betters: A History and a Criticism of the Attempts Which Have Been Made to Prove That Shakespeare's Works Were Written by Others. London: Max Reinhardt.
2. "Who Really Wrote Shakespeare's Plays? Sir Walter Raleigh - About the controversy over who really wrote Shakespeare's plays, supporters and arguments for and against Sir Walter Raleigh" reprinted from "The People's Almanac" by David Wallechinsky and Irving Wallace; 1975-1981.
3. Remainder of title: "EDITED AFTER THE AUTHOR'S DEATH BY SUSAN LOVERING PEMBERTON FROM AN UNFINISHED MANUSCRIPT, WITH KINDLY REVISION BY HER HUSBAND'S FRIEND CARROLL SMYTH"
4. Ralegh is considered the proper spelling of his surname by many.
5. Pemberton, Jr., Henry, Shakspere and Sir Walter Ralegh: Including Also Several Essays Previously Published in The New Shakspeareana; 1914; J. B. Lippincott Company, Philadelphia and London.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

The 1914 book by Pemberton, which can be read free on-line with Google books, leaves no doubt at all that Sir Walter Raleigh wrote the plays. The book reads like a good civil trial, leaving no stone unturned. Thank you Sir WR!!!

Unknown said...

I don't think the Raleigh idea is correct due to the fact that Queen Elizabeth 1 imprisoned Raleigh in the tower for impregnating and marrying one of her Maids of Honor. She was furious. Raleigh wrote his famous poem 'Ocean to Cynthia' (check it out) to counter Elizabeth while imprisoned. The poem depicted her as an aging fickle, unstable female ruler thus enraging the Queen even more and I posit that she wanted damage control. The year is 1593 (the plague is rampant) and I posit the Queen procured the services of William Shakespeare (who ever that person was in her court) to handle the damage control which prompted him to write Richard III, a play that erases any doubt about the righteousness and vigor of the Tudor throne. People think Richard III is about the failings of a corrupt ruler but its really a hit-piece against the House of Lancaster that idolizes and cements the history of the House of Tudor coming to the rescue with a resounding righteous civil war victory, in quite Lickety-split fashion too. (Fear not, I have and will keep you SAFE in these troubled times. I am not an unstable, fickle female). Shit was hitting the fan for everyone in 1593 and propaganda to bolster her image was everything. The timing of these events is revealingly interesting.