The Well Runs Dry - May 29, 2002
The current issue of The Bookseller, with its list of forthcoming books, and its half yearly publication, The Buyers' Guide, paint a bleak future. Only one published book on Shakespeare, "After Shakespeare', is mentioned. In September, Stanley Wells is bringing out one more book, 'Shakespeare For All Time'. The steady stream of Stratford mythology is rapidly drying up. There is nothing surprising here. When belief evaporates, the first evidence of this trend is found in the book shops.
When a general realises that defeat is inevitable, he has to decide on the next step. How is he going to break the news to the rank and file, who still believe in victory? Some time elapses before he makes a move. The first tell-tale sign of crisis is his silence. If the silence is prolonged, that is a clear indication that dispute is raging behind closed doors. The choices are few surrender, counter-attack or continued ineffective defiance.
Disputes are now going on in every English department at our universities. The professors know how weak their position is. The recent Shakespeare biographies have done nothing to prevent the impending collapse. Publishers, booksellers and the general public are waiting for the next step in this extraordinary catastrophe.
The Impending Crisis - April 17 2002
What really is going on in Stratford? Not just in the RSC, with the Prince of Wales, Michael Gambon, and Sheridan Morley outraged by the plans of Adrian Noble and Sinead Cusack, who want to build a Shakespeare Village at Stratford and demolish the theatre there, demanding £100 million for the scheme.
A far more serious crisis is building up, a crisis which the Establishment in this country finds even more embarrassing. Who wrote the Shakespeare plays?
What evidence is there for this analysis? Here are some indications of impending meltdown?
1. In the last year the steady flow of books about Shakespeare has dwindled to a trickle.
2. Not one biography of Shakespeare written in the last five years has made money. All of then have received only muted praise. Professor Katherine Duncan-Jones' biography, "ungentle Shakespeare", in which she pours scorn on Shakespeare, the man, was described by Professor Stanley Wells as "patchy".
3. THE IMPACT OF THE INTERNET. No longer do we have to rely on academics' books which give only the limited amount of information provided by other academics. The field is now wide open, giving us access to all the information available, not just the facts about the man of Stratford. Anything not directly connected with the known facts about Shakespeare - Rosicrucian and Neoplatonic teaching, contemporary philosophy - is treated with scant attention.
4. Magazines which usually contain articles about Shakespeare in their April issues each year, now exclude all mention of his name. On the 23rd April there is no mention of Shakespeare in any programme on BBC1, BBC2, ITV, Channel 4, or in any Radio broadcast.