THE 'SHAKSPERE' MASK
Why the cover-up?
To those who believe there’s no mystery, the man born Gulielmus Shakspere in Stratford-Upon-Avon, 1564, wrote the greatest literary works in western history. This is what we were all taught in school and believers in this traditional view are called Stratfordians. (Gulielmus is Latin for William. But that hard ‘a‘ of ‘Shak‘ (with no ‘e’ after it to soften the sound into ‘Shake‘) is the way the Stratford man’s name was pronounced in Warwickshire at the time, where Shaksper or Shakspere was quite a common surname).
Actor/playwright Keir Cutler lays out the case for why William Shakespeare could not have been the person who wrote the famous works attributed to him. You might ask, along with him, “Why was I never told this?”
Alan discusses the important role that William Shakespeare plays in the cover up, and how the cover-up can be viewed as an allegory for the human journey we all experience.
As you will learn by playing THE GAME we know very little about the man. He was minimally educated (if at all), and never traveled outside of England (though many of the plays are set in Italy and betray first-hand knowledge of the locations and customs of the time). We know he was a grain dealer who, in 1598, was prosecuted for hoarding grain and price-gouging the locals during a famine. (A little hard to reconcile with the man who wrote: “The quality of mercy is not strained. It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven.”) We do know he sued his neighbors for mere shillings and pence but was wanted in London for back taxes and couldn’t be found. When he died (supposedly the most beloved celebrity of the age) nobody noticed. There were no outpourings of grief in the streets of London. No eulogies from fellow poets. The rest was… silence.
There’s a lot to uncover in this mystery and you can easily get lost in the morass of opinions, pro and con, all over the internet. But don’t worry… you don’t have to! I’ve taken my 16 years’ research and distilled it down into THE GAME so you can enjoy the thrill of discovering it all in bite-sized chunks – in the most easy-to-understand sequence – and still have a life!
(You’re welcome.) Stay tuned!
If you feel so inspired, please consider adding your name to the Declaration Of Reasonable Doubt at: www.DoubtAboutWill.org. You’ll be in very good company.