
How ‘Sherlock of the library’ cracked the case of Shakespeare’s identity - sambeau
https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2017/jan/08/sherlock-holmes-of-the-library-cracks-shakespeare-identity
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drjohnson
This is interesting, but what specifically did she discover? The article is
confusingly written and never makes it clear what the "smoking gun" actually
is.

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stingrae
I think the core discovery is when Shakespeare from Stratford gets linked to
Shakespeare the player, making her think that these two are the same person.

> "When “Shakespeare the Player” found himself on this list, his campaign for
> social advancement seemed in jeopardy. A bitter row broke out at court
> between two factions. Shakespeare himself became an object of ridicule.
> Another rival, Ben Jonson, in his satire Every Man out of his Humour, poked
> fun at him as a rustic buffoon who pays £30 for a ridiculous coat of arms
> with the humiliating motto “Not Without Mustard”."

"Not Without Mustard" being a reference to Shakespeare of Stratfords request
that his family motto be "not without right."

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DashRattlesnake
To be even clearer: it sounds like there was never any clear documentation
directly linking "William Shakespeare, the guy from Stratford-upon-Avon" and
"William Shakespeare, actor and playwright," and this opened up a window for
speculation (by well known people and others) that these were actually
different people. Heather Wolfe found the needed documentation in an old court
case, proving that Shakespeare is actually Shakespeare:

> It’s at this point in the story that Wolfe discovered “the smoking gun”. In
> the Brooke-Dethick feud, it becomes clear that “Shakespeare, Gent. from
> Stratford” and “Shakespeare the Player” are the same man. In other words,
> “the man from Stratford” is indeed the playwright. Crucially, in the long-
> running “authorship” debate, this has been a fiercely contested point. But
> Wolfe’s research nails any lingering ambiguity in which the Shakespeare
> deniers can take refuge.

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klenwell
> Heather Wolfe found the needed documentation in an old court case, proving
> that Shakespeare is actually Shakespeare.

This is what I sorta inferred from the article. The author says there was a
smoking gun but I didn't see where it went off.

What did Wolfe's research uncover? A previously overlooked court document
hidden in the archives of the Folger Library in Washington DC?

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Pigo
I was pretty interested in reading this until the first paragraph slapped me
with some tired narrative.

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gozur88
Holy crap. What is wrong with these people?

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emodendroket
Every couple years somebody else comes out of the woodwork with a new theory
about who Shakespeare was. We just don't know a lot about the guy and there's
not we can do about it.

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mcphage
Except this is an article about someone who did something about it, and thus
we now know more about the guy.

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astrobase_go
Reads article about the identity of Shakespeare, still doesn't know the
identity of Shakespeare.

But seriously, if you need a tl;dr search for "It's at this point," read that
paragraph, and note that what she found was that Shakespeare was a real man,
not the pen name of someone else.

That's the discovery. Save yourself 20mins of reading a poorly-written
article.

[EDIT: spelling.]

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pvg
There's never been any serious question that Shakespeare was a real person.
There's been a long-running and largely silly 'controversy' about the
authorship of his works. This discovery just takes away another toehold the
'Shakespeare authorship controversy' people cling to.

