/lit/ - Literature

>>3863990

Shakespeare.

We all know that Shakespeare, the actor, did not write Shakespeare. Who really did, the cultured people know, was the extremely wealthy, cultured, noble, beautiful and brave Earl of Oxford (who also had an affair with the queen).

What people do not know is that De Vere, the Earl of Oxford, had a black slave from Africa, with the same age as him, and who have been sold, even as a child, to the family. De Vere's father allowed the young black boy to have access to a large and generous library, and the boy grew up among the books, at the same time serving as a Pageboy for De Vere.

When De Vere discovered the talent of the young black man he allowed him to see his works staged under the condition that these were published under the name of an actor, Mr. Shakespeare.

Where do you think that those sonnets praising the color black comes? And why Othello is portrayed as strong, noble and brave despite its color? And all that imagery of yellow sands, of oceans, of forests, of deserts?

Shakespeare was black, gentlemen: he was a son of Africa.

I want to discuss this brilliant article written by Joseph Epstein, entitled “Who Killed Poetry”. Judging by the quality of many poems posted here on /lit/, and by the manifestations of their authors, I think that the slap on the face of this particularly witty article will be a healthy thing. Poetry today is, in general, mediocre, and it’s a genre of literature that almost nobody reads. That makes me very sad, since as a playwright who writes in blank and rimed verse (and also in prose) poetry is a enormous part of my life.
So, here is the link to the article: http://buoy.antville.org/static/buoy/files/epstien.pdf
I will quote some excerpts of it to try to give you guys a taste. But I urge the ones here who really like poetry to read this article, and then come back here to discuss it. I don’t now how many posts it will take to quote al the excerpts that I selected, so I will open every post with the phrase “OP – Epstein Article”.

Ask a graduate student focusing entirely on Shakespeare and very knowledgeable about the subject anything

Do you think if we knew more about Shakespeare's life we might value his work to a lesser extent?

By no means denying him genius, but would we still place him above Dante, Joyce, Tolstoy, what have you.

Do you think that knowing of Shakespeare's life would even illuminate that much? He does seem like the one writer who could really make his presence unknown...but maybe that's just because we don't know his life?

wtf is up wit dis bull shitt???

Hey /lit/, I'm trying to read a lot of Shakespeare this year, and I just want to know which of the histories are especially worth reading