![\"\"](\"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/Cant-read.jpg\")
<\/a>Just a friendly reminder that there\u2019s a special birthday coming up at the end of this week, on Saturday, April 23rd<\/sup>.\u00a0 No, don\u2019t worry that you only have a few shopping days left, he\u2019s virtually impossible to shop for, plus . . . he\u2019s dead.\u00a0 Coincidently, he died on his birthday in 1616.\u00a0 Yes, it\u2019s my old friend, William Shakespeare<\/strong>.\u00a0 OK, he\u2019s really not my old friend, I\u2019m old, but not that old!\u00a0 Like most of us, I was introduced to \u2018The Bard\u2019<\/strong> in high school.\u00a0 I remember sleeping through class, as English teacher, Miss O\u2019Brien, droned on about a guy who, I think, sold deer meat, called \u2018The Merchant of Venison\u2019<\/strong>.\u00a0 I clearly wasn\u2019t paying much attention during most of my high school years.\u00a0 That fact was recently brought to my attention on a Zoom call with a number of my former high school classmates, a few weeks ago.\u00a0 Our former student body president, Billy Dale Hall<\/strong>, who was on the call and reads our blog, said, in a most respectful way, something like, \u201cI\u2019m surprised that you write a blog, could you even write in high school?\u201d \u00a0OK, maybe it wasn\u2019t that respectful, but to his point, I could barely read<\/em> in high school.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/Viola-Chapman.jpg\")
<\/a>Dr. Viola Chapman<\/p><\/div>\n
Fast forward to Westminster College<\/strong> where I was fortunate enough to \u2018have\u2019 to take a literature class from a Dr. Viola Chapman <\/strong>(Yes, in this photo she looks a bit like Norman Bates’ mother, but she was a really good teacher); fortunately, I had discovered a love of reading a year or so earlier, and in her class, I was learning to recognize and appreciate good literature.\u00a0 Before I graduated, I had taken every class in English and American literature that Dr. Chapman taught, and ended up with a minor in English.\u00a0 I was particularly drawn to Shakespeare because she made him so interesting.\u00a0 Thank you, Viola!!<\/p>\n After reading most of Shakespeare\u2019s plays and sonnets and visiting his house in Stratford-upon-Avon, England<\/strong> (he wasn\u2019t home), I started reading things about how Shakespeare didn\u2019t write Shakespeare\u2019s plays and speculations about who might have.\u00a0 Why, you ask, would anyone question the authenticity of William Shakespeare as the greatest writer in modern history?\u00a0 Here\u2019s a few bullets:<\/p>\n There\u2019s more, but I think you get the drift here.\u00a0 Those who have followed this \u2018cold case\u2019 for any length of time, know many of the likely suspects who might have or could have written Shakespeare\u2019s plays.\u00a0 My favorite is Christopher Marlowe<\/strong>, not because I think he\u2019s definitely the one that wrote the plays, but because he has the most intriguing story.<\/p>\n Marlowe or Shakespeare\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Who really wrote Shakespeare’s plays?<\/p><\/div>\n Marlowe was born in the same year as Shakespeare, 1564, but supposedly died at the age of 29, around the same time that Shakespeare started to write his plays. One theory is that Marlowe was a spy in Queen Elizabeth I\u2019s secret service<\/strong> and his death, in a bar room fight, was faked to save his life and put him under cover.\u00a0 After he went into hiding on \u2018the continent\u2019, he continued writing and sending his work to an actor\/playwright broker in London named William Shakespeare.\u00a0 \u00a0Pledged to keep Marlowe\u2019s identity a secret, Shakespeare submitted the plays with his own name on them.\u00a0 \u00a0It is also speculated that \u2018Slick Willie\u2019 <\/strong>collected plays from others who were high in the queen\u2019s court and didn\u2019t want to put their name on anything that might have jeopardized their position or their life!<\/p>\n For the lay person, the reading about \u2018who wrote Shakespeare\u2019s plays\u2019<\/strong> may be more interesting than the plays themselves, and for those of us who who even care about this, we hope that some day a ‘Rosetta Stone’<\/strong> will be discovered that will solve this mystery once and for all.\u00a0 In the mean time, our birthday boy, William Shakespeare, enjoyed a great life and an even greater after-life.\u00a0 So I guess, All\u2019s Well That Ends Well!<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Bob Sparrow Just a friendly reminder that there\u2019s a special birthday coming up at the end of this week, on Saturday, April 23rd.\u00a0 No, don\u2019t worry that you only have a few shopping days left, he\u2019s virtually impossible to … read more\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/Marlowe-Shakespeare.jpg\")
<\/a>