“The most effective of all the deceptions that were introduced to try to convince [Shakespeare fans] that he was definitely our William Shakspere, namely the change to his name, became entrenched around 1916, the tercentenary of Shakspere’s death. It was then that orthodox scholars … began to [air-brush the name ‘Shakspere’] out of existence. In all new publications it would be replaced by Shakespeare, while every Shakspere family tree … became the Shakespeare family tree. By this technique, people would eventually believe the Shaksperes of Stratford were really called Shakespeare and doubts about this would be met with astonishment and incomprehension… anyone who had a name vaguely like Shakspere would … be converted by orthodox scholars to a 'Shakespeare', and our William Shakspere would disappear as a man in his own right.
The Man Who Was Never Shakespeare: The Theft of William Shakspere’s Identity, by A.J. Pointon (Parapress, 2011).“This airbrushing … was a good trick. It allowed students and the general public to be told that nobody could doubt that “Shakespeare” wrote the plays of “Shakespeare”, and it allowed anybody who … raised a doubt about the authorship of Shakespeare’s plays, however reputable a scholar he or she might be, to be treated as a moron who thought that 'Shakespeare' did not write his own plays. Such is the power of brainwashing (9-10).”
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