Primrose Road

While I'm hardly one to agree with an "Oxfordian," I've got to admit that Mark Anderson, author of an Oxford-as-Shakespeare bio, is, well, right when he says that it's "rather bizarre" that a free class offered at the New York Public Library requires:

"1. A conviction that the plays of Shakespeare were written by Shakespeare. 2. A belief that the works of Shakespeare constitute one of the cornerstones of world literature."

It's likely that the NYU professor who heads up this program didn't intend to convey a notion of Shakespeare-as-faith, but, in, my view, she unfortunately did. Since the 1970s (at least), many scholars have rejected Bardolatry in favor of history-grounded explorations of Early Modern authorship, and have rejected the "cornerstone of world literature"/universality view in favor of historical contingency and ideological critique.

And besides, how could one have a "conviction that the plays of Shakespeare were written by Shakespeare" prior to studying his works and Early Modern culture?