Shakespeare's Notes in Oxford's Hand? Roger Stritmatter at the Blue Boar Tavern 

Dr Stritmatter has a remarkable mind. It is always a thrill to hear him talking on the subject of William Shakespeare's identity.

As Jonathan said, many Elizabethans were annotating their Bibles. However, when I persuaded Ohio State's scholar Beth Quitslund to examine Oxford's Bible at the Folger, she told me in her extensive research, she'd never seen so many annotations in an early modern Bible.

Roger is one of the most important--and modest--members of the post-Stratfordian movement.

Congratulations to our Dutch colleague Jan Scheffer for helping Roger and Shelly make this important discovery!

Thanks, Ladies and Gentlemen, for this Presentation! Hoorah for Edward DeVere!

Brilliant discussion. Thanks!

Excellent meeting of the Blue Boar Tavern! I will be playing it back many times to get the details----Stritmatter has done some amazing work------thank you!

Also good colloquy between Jonathan and Roger about the Annotator's ability to spot, and condense with clarity, a series of actions or characterizations (Cleopatra's suicide, the conspirators' influence on Brutus's character) that will make for dramatic Shakespearean "moments."

Thank you for another fascinating Blue Boar Tavern session. Dr. Stritmatter's work is invaluable in solving the authorship mystery. As he says, forensic analysis trumps provenance in all cases. Of course, Stratfordians will dismiss or ignore his evidence and claim their man merely had access to those books with de Vere's annotations in them and then incorporated what he found in the plays. But they cannot answer the obvious question: how would he have gotten access to a nobleman's private library? This proves once again how absurd the Stratfordian narrative is and how powerful the Oxfordian theory has become. I can't wait for his book to come out. Well done, everyone.

I've been waiting for this one with Roger! Love this show!

Wow! More please! I can't stand waiting.

Roger, Congratulations! This is history in the making re: the authorship question. This is the smoking gun we have all been hoping for, if it is borne out

Thanks so much for this video and for Dr Stritmatter’s new research direction. Exciting & promising, and creeping into established, respected methods in (gasp) academic scholarship. Well done!

This NAILS it! BRAVO!

This is such incredible research!

Great discussion.

Speaking of large margins, the margins of Oxford's Geneva Bible have been trimmed, sadly, losing as much as half an inch on some pages. Who knows what marginalia may be lost!

Excellent expert testimony for someone like me who is an Edward De Vere fan.

Thanks for a great discussion.

Great question from Alex and response from Roger. If I guess correctly, an expensive book with quality information would be enhanced, not devalued by careful, thoughtful annotation. Are the Elizabethans the direct ancestors of recent educators who say we never truly own a book till we've written margin notes?

If you have trouble understanding any words, check out the excellent transcript!

I wonder if de Vere made any annotations in the Herodotus volume which is now in the possession of SOF.

👍thumbs up !

The talk of handwriting styles reminded me of the Mira Calligraphiae Monumenta. I know it's unrelated to overall topic but it's such a beautiful manuscript I couldnt help mentioning it for those that havent seen it. Getty has it scanned and online.

What does the evidence support? How about a group effort over several decades with a final unifying voice revising it into perfection in 1622-1623. If this unifying voice also did some previous editing on the Quarto editions then there should be some evidence of the progression of his style of writing. Would it be so bad if the playwrights were not really all that good without an absolutely brilliant editor/reviser to homogenize the hodgepodge of plays into the singular voice of William Shakespeare in the runup to the publication of the First Folio. Bacon was alive and may have done some minor editing in the margins, but not much else. Otherwise we are left with all of the best versions of the plays lying around unpublished for 20 years and no identical copies anywhere to be found before the publication date of 1623. Does the model of the evolution of the First Folio need need to be revised in kind? It is highly unlikely that you will find a Lords handwriting outside of marginalia where plays are concerned. Good show.

So, you accept Will of Stratford could write! 21:26. Thanks very much for this admission.

Roger Stritmatter: you could have lived in Shaxpere's day, and bought books for him. Too bad, he would not have been able to read them.

Roger; I have had this burning question for sometime: What in God's name is the Folgers doing with Edward DeVere's Bible? Do they believe he was in fact the true identity of the Canon.....

"Despite 400 years of searching, no letters, manuscripts, plays, poems, notes or marginalia exist in Will of Stratford’s handwriting . . ." Other than the Hand D material in Sir Thomas More. The identification of that hand as Shakespeare's is stronger than Roger's theory here.

"anoon scalis felden fro hise iyen resseyuede siyt." Wycliffe Bible. c1370 Acts 9:18: Oxfords new Nom de Plume - "The Audley End Annotator" Bonners' comments, on the poly vocal & linguistic versatlity aspects of the marginalia with a severe descant of the single English annotation, was cut short and not further elaborated by Roger which was unfortunate as it sounded very promising in the shortlisting of such persons whom were of such a calibre. The fluidity of the Annotators internal discourse, Roger alludes to as per his example relating to the incitement of Brutus, again goes without proper disambiguation of "Thou sleeps awake". The Matrix level nature of Brutas' deluded perception of his existence is wholely in context with Shakespeares form. As well the voice of the Bard echos in "Cleopatras' Blush" at what "properties she has not revealed" Deos passage charged with the passion the liaison they would share. Very sensual! the scribes retort would seem confirm that sentiment in that her "Purchase back" winks at her charms. Titilating wordplay for a Bawdy yet courtly riposte. The provenance of the tomes being tallied and their eventual custody, should it be delineated as Roger suggests, perhaps having its first sojourn in the tower with Essex & Southhampton would be fine fodder for further and fulsome fulminations. Congratulations Roger! Tenacity worthy of a Calydonian Boar! Lay on Meleager! Yon Stratfordians will yet play Ancaeus in the scene.

Once again, the sort of compelling evidence that, all things being equal, Shakespeare scholars should be drooling over, but instead will tie themselves into knots to ignore.

I used to follow this until they gave out an award for Oxfordian of the year with a copy of a portrait of the Earl of Ormond misattributed as Oxford.