So, we have plays that were improved upon and passed around to various theatrical groups for sixty odd years before a mature editor homogenized the 36 best plays into the first folio. It is still a work of genius. So who was this editor?
This was an eye-opening lecture for me. Sackville wasn't on my radar at all. All Ms. Feldman's points hooked up nicely with Shakespeare. I did get confused with her references to William of Stratford as Shakespeare instead of Shakspere. Often, I didn't know who she was talking about. Overall, a fantastic talk, extending the realm of qualified Shakespeare candidates as well cross references to other Elizabethans including how Shakspere was involved, though I still find it difficult to believe that Shakspere could write at all. The plethora of spellings of his name even makes it hard to believe that he was literate at all - if he could read, it would seem he would have settled on the spelling of his name..
I'm afraid the myth you're referring to, that Shaksper/Shakspere was one person, and Shakespeare another is pounded into wet diarrhoea by a record in the case of Bellot v Mountjoy. Here LONDON Shakespeare's name and address are recorded as 'William Shakespeare gent Stratford upon Aven (sic) in the county of Warwick. What a clever pseudonym. It can give evidence in court and book lodgings for itself in Silver Street. It also received a bequest from actor Augustine Philips. Hope the pseudonym spent the money wisely.
