What a great two weeks! (Again!)

What a busy couple of weeks it’s been! We have seen wonders here in London, beginning with a stirring performance of Hamlet at the Young Vic Theatre in Southwark. (That’s pronounced “suth-ick” for those of you who may be wondering.) A brilliant performance by Michael Sheen as Hamlet, a great set – the show takes place in an insane asylum – with terrific scenes and a surprise ending that will literally make you gasp. Incredible stuff.

We also got back twice to the British Library, where Maria did her genealogy thing and I did the Shakespeare thing, enjoying every moment of it – including our foray into “Eat Street” behind the Kings Cross/St. Pancras Station for great street food, including NYC hot dogs and really good Mexican burritos. Yum.

Classes are going very well, although I am trying to make more time for my end-of-semester projects so they don’t bog me down at Christmas.(They are due mid-January and are 100% of my grade.) I have made a good start on all of them, fortunately, and have even begun some in-depth research on the subject of my MA Thesis, a proposed system for examining all the evidence in the Shakespeare authorship controversy. That is an exciting prospect, but I must do the coursework well too, so it is a motivation for me to complete that as soon as possible. My instructors seem pleased with my work so far, though, and that’s good.

This weekend was amazing. Saturday night we had a traditional British Christmas dinner with the BFI Group, Brunel international students, which was really fun and tasty too. We started with the traditional Christmas crackers (packages that blow up as you pull them apart, and have small gifts, jokes, and/or candy inside). Then we had turkey and dressing and vegetables for the meal, and Christmas pudding cake and mince pies for dessert. Lots of fun, and Maria and I sat next to students from China, Croatia, and Iran.  In fact, today (Tuesday), we are having Farzad, Elahe, and Masheed over to our apartment for a special meal. Spanish/Mexican cuisine, i.e., Maria’s famous chicken enchiladas and Spanish fried rice. Also her fabulous home-made salsa, although without the smoke flavoring, since they don’t have that here. Yumm –O!

The most amazing part of the last two weeks for me has been the first public showing of a new documentary film at The Globe called “Last Will. And Testament” last Sunday. Maria and I were privileged to be in the small (100 person) audience as Mark Rylance introduced the film-makers and the panel of experts. We saw the film in three ‘acts’ and at every break we discussed what we had seen with experts who had appeared in the film, including Diana Price, Roger Stritmatter, and my Professor, Bill Leahy, who is the head of the Programme here and a respected scholar in the authorship issue, too. It was really well done. The film, after disposing of the man from Stratford-Upon-Avon as a possible authorship candidate most convincingly, goes on to postulate that other candidates should be considered, choosing to focus on Edward DeVere, the 17^th Earl of Oxford as the leading candidate. There are powerful arguments here against the Stratford man and for DeVere, but I invite all of my readers to think for themselves and read all sides. The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust has been really nasty about this as the authorship issue is highlighted in the recent film Anonymous, so please read both sides before you decide. There is also a Statement of Reasonable Doubt available should you wish to sign it. I will include the links below. Be aware that David Kathman and James Shapiro are pretty nasty in their comments, and have been for some time. I am leaning to Oxford, but remain convinced that I am not informed enough to make a decision on the issue. Perhaps one day!

We had a great Sunday Night Dinner at Wagamama’s – although I did not get the Toffee Ginger Cheesecake with the caramel chili sauce this time, it was still delicious! Another great time here in London!

Thanks for reading!

The Shakespeare Authorship Trust site:

http://www.shakespeareanauthorshiptrust.org.uk/

The Shakespeare Authorship site:

http://shakespeareauthorship.com/

The Shakespeare Oxford Society (U.S.)

http://www.shakespeare-oxford.com/

The Mary Sidney home page, which features a book written by my friend and professor next semester, Robin Williams:

http://www.marysidneysociety.org/

The British Library and American Hot Dogs

Hello, everyone! It's been a busy two weeks here in London, and there are several highlights we'd like to share with you.

I have had a hectic two weeks of classes and research, but lots of fun and discovery. We both discovered the wonder of the British Library this past week, and have returned to find even more amazing things.

My instructor for the Research Methodologies Course, Dr. Elizabeth Evenden, was the chief bibliographer for the Holinshed Chronicles Project last year before an illness forced her to concede the honor to a colleague. She is a magnificent source for the British Library, and took us on a learning tour of the facility. Maria and I both secured our Reader's Passes, which enables us to enter and use all of the Rare Book Rooms in the library. Liz had already "reserved" the 1577 (original) edition of Holinshed's Chronicles, the enormous history source from which Shakespeare created plays such as Macbeth and King Lear, and we got to learn how to treat a rare text by handling it (carefully!) and reading it ourselves. We were also trained on how to discover the watermarks on ancient paper using a special light behind the page, and other amazing things as well, and are now "trained bibliographers" able to access all texts,available in the Britsih Library. Next month, we get to read from a First Folio.

I have now studied from original quartos of King Lear (1619), Titus Andronicus (1607), and many others, as well as the original copies of Palladis Tamia, Greene's Groatsworth of Wit. It feels incredible to hold history in your hands, my friends. When Maria and I walked into the rare Book Room, we both knew we had died and gone to heaven. We still feel that way after our second visit on Friday. Maria, while looking for extinct peerages in the Humanities Room, found a six-volume called Segar Baronagium Genealogicum, with every English peerage and full family history listed in it. Since she traces her family line back through several of these lines, it is truly a providential find for her personally. If anybody out there thinks they're related to royalty, or wants to trace their lineage (in any country), Maria is unquestionably the person to find that information for you! E-mail her at genealogy@wam-enterprises.com for more information. Her clients are astounded at the "finds" she makes: not only information, but records and pictures are out there of your relatives, so just let her know you're interested!

We wandered down King's Boulevard behind Kings Cross Station (Harry Potter's Hogwarts train left from Platform 9 and3/4 there!) also. Known as Eat Street on Wed-Thur-Fri, the vendors there have some amazing things to eat. We decided to go with the Big Apple Hotdogs...His sign said "If you find a better dog anywhere, I'll eat my cat!" OMG...amazing dogs, next week I'm going for the BBQ ribs. Saw the film Anonymous again last night too -- it's incredibly good the second time, too! Actually, even better the second time...!

Oh yes, our New Year's Eve plans are set. We're seeing Mark Rylance in Jerusalem that night, then (possibly) seeing him after the show! We will see Mark, Vanessa Redgrave, and several friends on Sunday November 28 at the Globe Theatre for a special screening of a new film Last Will and Testament, followed by a panel discussion with leading Shakespearean scholars, including my professor Bill Leahy, our friends Roger Stritmatter, and Charles Beauclerk, who we hosted in Sacramento during his CA visit many years ago. Wally is really looking forward to meeting Diana Price, since he is working on a model for evaluating evidence relating to the Shakespeare authorship question, and Diana is the authority on that subject! Should be fun!

Thanks for reading! More later!