Authorship Threadwatch
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Article: The Guardian view on Shakespeare’s 400th anniversary: the play’s the thing. Editorial. The editor signals the beginning of a notable year for Shakespeare. Half-hearted Oxfordians try to throw in the towel after 4 days, dodge big issues, avoid talking about poetry, Wags tries out the word 'allonymous' and some newish voices try and take Waugh's Avona out for another outing.
Summary: Made cautious, no doubt by their recent leathering in the ALA thread, the regulars were more reticent in this thread, especially when the subject of Oxford's verse cropped up with a neat comparison of the rambling Loss of Good Name to line and a half from Lear. 13 of Shakespeare's words distilling the essence of loss get the job done better, smarter and far more memorably. Dropped like a skipload of hot bricks. There was a lot of heartsearching on Shakesvere about their poor performance in this thread.
No Stritmatter on display though Alexander Waugh took a potshot or two from distance. On the whole, big issues were avoided while minor points and issues that some Oxfordians regard as undecided were aired instead. The issue of Avona's claim to be Hampton Court came up and went nowhere again. Junior Debsoc Newbie, cc1234 called one commenter's 'written by space alien' argumentum ad absurdum, failing to realise that space aliens are MORE probable alternative candidates than Oxford.
The main feature, however, was the number of abandoned sub-threads suggesting a malaise in the Oxfordian camp.
On the positive side, Amelia Lanier made a brief appearance. On the negative side, the newbies wouldn't put the broken toys down
FINAL SCORE
Oxfordian evidence presented: 0
Oxfordian toys permanently broken: 0
Oxfordian Verbiage intended to distract: 2.2Mb.
Link: http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree....