© Gunnar Tómasson

31 December 2015

Foreword by Sir Derek Jacobi

An actor faces almost constant criticism – all the more so when one advocates that Edward de Vere [alias Oxenford] wrote under the pen name “Shakespeare.” Some of the more popular accusations today include charges of the wildest eccentricity, outrageous snobbery, and downright heresy. It’s pointless, of course, to engage these unbecoming personal attacks. Fortunately, serious academic debate is triumphing while orthodoxy continues its retreat behind a façade of mind-numbing vilification. Herein, dear reader, you will find a book that performs the important, often fraught, always contentious, but necessary service of turning the spotlight full on the breathtaking discrepancies and shining anomalies in the accepted version of the creation of the Shakespeare canon.

So what does the Shakespeare authorship controversy mean for the poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage? It means, in brief, that we happy few have the opportunity at last to make contact with the original fount of thought and reason, to comprehend the hand that wrote, the eye that saw, the brain that forged, the heart that conceived, and the being that transformed a monumental life into an immortal corpus of literature.

An actor’s instincts and the evidence of a growing body of research convinces me that de Vere was – along with being a scholar, patron, and author par excellence – an actor. The troupe kept by Edward de Vere’s father had influenced his early childhood. De Vere’s own troupe had nurtured those interests, and acting and stagecraft became intrinsic in his talents. Hence the precise and very special observation of the mechanics and meaning of the world of the theater are everywhere expressed in the plays, often as instinctive comments on various serious topics.

In ”Shakespeare”  by Another Name, Mark Anderson demonstrates the intense intellectual energy and attention to factual detail that are required to unravel what, to honest minds, is an obvious mystery. ”Shakespeare”  by Another Name presents the logical, valid, and excitingly precise arguments for recognizing that de Vere, like all writers, drew from his own experience, interests, accomplishments, education, position, and talents, and that he invested his writing with universal truths, emotional reality, and recognizable humanity drawn from his own unique life. Just as de Vere uses theatrical phrase and metaphor naturally and easily, so, too, his wide-ranging education and ingrained knowledge of many subjects flow effortlessly through his writing. Contrast this with the lack of any evidence which places a pen in the hand of William of Stratford (except, of course, on a dubious monument!).

The great excitement of this seminal work is the precise relationship of how much of himself de Vere put into his characters. This book, with fascinating specificity, suits “the action to the word, the word to the action.” Innumerable unusual circumstances find expression in his plays and poems. ”Shakespeare”  by Another Name is one of the very best whodunnits you will ever read.

The game’s afoot!

Sir Derek Jacobi

London

February 2005

© Mark Kendall Anderson, Gotham Books, 2005

I. Edward Oxenford’s Imperfect Booke

(Letter to Robert Cecil)

511378

  20324 = My very good brother,  yf my helthe hadd beene to my mynde

37283 = I wowlde have beene before this att the Coorte as well to haue giuen yow thankes

30742 = for yowre presence at the hearinge of my cause debated as to have moued her M

33515 = for her resolutione. As for the matter, how muche I am behouldinge to yow

22506 = I neede not repeate but in all thankfulnes acknowlege,

27362 = for yow haue beene the moover & onlye follower therofe for mee &

33035 = by yowre onlye meanes I have hetherto passed the pykes of so many adversaries.

32759 = Now my desyre ys. Sythe them selues whoo have opposed to her M ryghte

30507 = seeme satisfisde, that yow will make the ende ansuerabel to the rest

28912 = of yowre moste friendlye procedinge. For I am aduised, that I may passe

22634 = my Booke from her Magestie yf a warrant may be procured

21532 = to my Cosen Bacon and Seriant Harris to perfet yt.

25516 = Whiche beinge doone I know to whome formallye to thanke

16614 = but reallye they shalbe, and are from me, and myne,

23196 = to be sealed up in an aeternall remembran&e to yowreselfe.

32307 = And thus wishinge all happines to yow, and sume fortunat meanes to me,

33324 = wherby I myght recognise soo diepe merites, I take my leave this 7th of October

11101 = from my House at Hakney 1601.

20273 = Yowre most assured and louinge Broother

    7936 = Edward Oxenford

511378

II. Alias Stratfordian Will Shakspere

(Holy Trinity Church, Stratford)

129308

  19949 = STAY PASSENGER WHY GOEST THOU BY SO FAST

22679 = READ IF THOU CANST WHOM ENVIOUS DEATH HATH PLAST

24267 = WITH IN THIS MONUMENT SHAKSPEARE: WITH WHOME

20503 = QUICK NATURE DIDE WHOSE NAME DOTH DECK YS TOMBE

20150 = FAR MORE THEN COST: SIEH ALL YT HE HATH WRITT

  21760 = LEAVES LIVING ART BUT PAGE TO SERVE HIS WITT

129308

III. Alias Author’s Deformed First Heir

(Dedication Venus and Adonis, 1593)

378541

    9987 = TO THE RIGHT HONORABLE

20084 = Henrie Vvriothesley, Earle of Southampton,

8814 = and Baron of Titchfield.

21943 = Right Honourable, I know not how I shall offend

23463 = in dedicating my vnpolisht lines to your Lordship,

25442 = nor how the worlde vvill censure mee for choosing

25266 = so strong a proppe to support so vveake a burthen,

17161 = onelye if your Honour seeme but pleased,

13387 = I account my selfe highly praised,

18634 = and vowe to take aduantage of all idle houres,

23217 = till I haue honoured you vvith some grauer labour.

23437 = But if the first heire of my inuention proue deformed,

15796 = I shall be sorie it had so noble a god-father:

12970 = and neuer after eare so barren a land,

16690 = for feare it ield me still so bad a haruest,

17417 = l leaue it to your Honourable suruey,

18884 = and your Honor to your hearts content,

27199 = vvhich I wish may alvvaies answere your ovvne vvish,

17766 = and the vvorlds hopefull expectation.

11662 = Your Honors in all dutie,

    9322 = William Shakespeare

378541

IV. Perfecting Deformed Heire

(Saga Amlóði/Hamlet)

3529

2429 = Amlóði

1000 = Advent of Christianity in Iceland, Year 1000 A.D.

   100 = The End – Book Perfected

3529

II + III + IV = 129308 + 378541 + 3529 = 511378

***

The Noble God-Father

    9987 = TO THE RIGHT HONORABLE

20084 = Henrie Vvriothesley, Earle of Southampton,

8814 = and Baron of Titchfield.

The Workes of William Shakespeare

(Title of First folio, 1623)

  16746 = The Workes of William Shakespeare,

17935 = Containing all his Comedies, Histories, and

13106 = Tragedies: Truly set forth

16008 = according to their first Originall.

Noble God-Father

    1000 = Light of the World

Book Perfected

      751 = Edda

104431

Noble God-Father’s Book

(Uppsalabók – Edda)

    8542 = Bók þessi heitir Edda.

35891 = Hana hevir saman setta Snorri Sturlo son eptir þeim hætti, sem hér er skipat.

28763 = Er fyrst frá ásum ok Ymi þar næst skalldskap ok heiti margra hluta.

  31235 = Síþaz Hatta tal er Snorri hevir ort um Hak Konung ok Skula hertug.

104431

***

Calculator for converting letters to cipher values is at:

http://www.light-of-truth.com/ciphersaga.htm