PROVING  SHAKESPEARE

Contents

Introduction     xiii

One        The Monumental Truth      1

            A Concise History of the Stratford Monument (2)   The Monument Reveals Its Secret (10)   Jonson’s Latin Distich (37)   The Final Secret? (40)

Two       Reinterpreting Shakespeare    48

            Birth Date Uncertain (50)   A Dubious Education (51)   A Marriage of Uncertainties (55)   The Lost Years (58)   Greene’s Groats-worth of Wit (66)   Venus & Adonis and The Rape of Lucrece (83)  

               Four Years of Silence (91)   Recalled to Life (112)   Shakespeare Resurgent (120)   Early Retirement (142)   Last Will and Testament (160)   Ignored Demise (165)

Three   Thomas Thorpe’s Cryptogram     176

            The Six-Two-Four Key (178)   Henry Wriothesley Revealed (184)   Vere’s Epigram (187)   The Only Begetter (192)

Four     What the Sonnets Tell     200

            The Fair Youth (202)   Self-Revelatory Lines (233)   The Rival Poet (246)   The Dark Lady (256)

Five        A Shameful Cover-up     264

            The Forgers (265)   Special Privileges (267)   A Matter of Public Concern (272)   The Solution (277)   The Allonym and its Effect on History (283)   An Alternative Theory (289)
               

Six          Plays Sketched From Life     294

            The Dating Dilemma (294)   The Tempest (296)   Henry V (306)   The Merchant of Venice (308)   All’s Well That Ends Well (314)   The Merry Wives of Windsor (324)   Henry VIII (333)

                Hamlet (336)   The Winter’s Tale (345   The Taming of The Shrew (349)
               

Seven     Backdating Titus Andronicus     353

            Time and the Shakespeare Canon (353)   The Titus Manuscript (356)   Tracing the Play’s History (357)   Dating the Titus Manuscript (360)   Identifying Henry Peacham (366)

                The Errors of Orthodoxy (368)   Comparing Hands (372)   The Manuscript’s Dialogue (378)   Summary (382

Eight     The First Folio’s Deceptive Tributes    385

            An Unexpected Death (385)   Jonson’s Rise to Prominence (387)   Introducing Heminges and Condell (389)   Contributors to the First Folio (403)   The Droeshout Engraving (408)

                Jonson’s Ambiguity (414)   Peripheral Ambiguities (425)
               

Nine      Sweet Swan of Wilton’s Avon     435

            The Cornerstones of Fundamentalist Belief (435)   Wilton House (439)   Death and Insolvency (441)   Introducing Nashe and Spenser (443)   By Royal Command (447)

                Much Ado about Nothing (455)   Instating Oxford at the Avon (458)
               

Ten        Debunking Stylometric ‘Proofs’    467

            The Problem of Titus Andronicus (467)   Mendenhall’s Problem (468)   The Matthews – Merriam Theory (469)   The Elliott – Valenza Theory (471)   The Sonnets’ Place in Stylometric Tests (483)
              

                Appendix A : ELS Decryption Made Simple (487)   Appendix B : Alternative Grilles (490)   Appendix C : Proof By Contradiction (491)
               
               
            Bibliography (494)   References (499)   Index (515)  

INTRODUCTION