Tom Regnier - Did Shakespeare Really Write Shakespeare? (Gable Stage, introduced by Joseph Adler)

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Although English professors are adamant that a glover’s son from a rural English town was the author of such plays as Hamlet, King Lear, and A Midsummer Night's Dream, over the years many people have proposed that someone else, such as Francis Bacon, Christopher Marlowe, or the Earl of Oxford, must have written the plays. Is there any basis to these theories, and will they ever go away?
Tom Regnier delivered this presentation on the Shakespeare Authorship Question on April 11, 2016, at the Gable Stage Theatre in the historic Biltmore Hotel, Coral Gables, Florida. Award-winning director Joseph Adler, the Producing Artistic Director of Gable Stage, introduced Tom. A Q&A session followed the presentation.
Tom thanks Joe Adler and Gable Stage for allowing him to present this material at the theater. Tom dedicates this presentation to the memory of Marzi Kaplan, his teacher at University of Miami School of Law, who encouraged him to pursue his interest in this subject.
The late Tom Regnier was an attorney in southern Florida who earned his J.D. summa cum laude at University of Miami School of Law, where he taught for many years as an adjunct professor, and his LL.M. at Columbia Law School, where he was a Harlan F. Stone Scholar. He passed away on April 14, 2020. For more on his remarkable life, see ShakespeareOxfordFellowship.org/regnier-life.
Learn more at shakespeareoxfordfellowship.o....
For many more resources on the Shakespeare Authorship Question, visit us at shakespeareoxfordfellowship.org.

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28 апр 2016

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Комментарии : 98

@martincarden 4 года назад

Such a brilliant talk that I watch again and again. So sad Tom Regnier that you are no longer with us (A COVID casualty April 2020) - rest in peace and this (among so much else) will be your monument - our ever-living Tom. Love to you and yours and well wishing wisheth I to all in these somewhat mad times of lockdown worldwide.

@squareleg5757 Год назад

Well said. What a loss. RIP, our "Ever Living Tom".

@chrisekstrom4614 Год назад

A fine presentation of the Case for Oxford. Bravo & R.I.P. 🇺🇸✝️🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

@markgardner4426 2 года назад

RIP Tom and thank you for all you did. COVID took another one of those who added so much to understanding and knowledge.

@Northcountry1926 Год назад

Rest in Peace Sir, I hope you are chatting with Edward as We watch your brilliant presentation !

@duncanmckeown1292 Год назад

One interesting fact which brings in the Minerva/Shakespeare name connection is the fact that de Vere attended the Gray's Inn law school where the students were expected to put on plays for recreation and declamation practice. The cast of actors were called "Minerva's Men"!

@soltron1324 9 месяцев назад

"Oh! how shall my verse, great Bacon, eulogize thee and thy labors, Built for all ages, and born of Minerva and thy matchless genius?"

@joegawne1601 4 года назад

His delivery was great. Loved this.

@cgwaldmanauthorfrancisbaco5320 4 года назад

I am sorry to hear of his passing.

@DorothyJanetoo 5 лет назад

Such a great presentation. I am an Oxfordian and loved your very cogent and easy to follow lecture. Thank you!

@davidw.montague5376 3 года назад

This upload is a gem. Bravo to that engaging and convincing overview. Those two books were charmingly amicably redistributed. That's good people. And the most heroic of all the authorship question heroes (the envelope please)? J. Thomas Looney. Thank you, sir. He was correct all along. And three cheers for all the similarly heroically detail-oriented Oxfordians, Hank Whittemore, Alexander Waugh, Diana Price, Bonner Cutting just to name a handful of many. Fabam frigus to the growing body of well gathered details. Say how now to a singularly feasible and well defined portrait of the artist. Not that the Stratfordian franchise is likely to concede defeat. Still, it does seem like a bit of a doneth deal. Good for the talented Edward de Vere and his dedicated friends, family and fans. And good for us. Therefore don't be too hard on the Stratford man. He admirably performed one of the best roles that could ever be bestowed upon a player.

@stevenhershkowitz2265 4 года назад

Rest in peace Mr. Regnier.

@willshaw6405 4 года назад

This amazing mind just succumbed to corona virus...RIP Tom.

@staffanborjesson6182 3 года назад

Why are there only about 450 likes? This is excellent!

@katiess9708 2 года назад

I thought the same!

@robynstgeorge3794 5 лет назад

Thank you for such a clear presentation Tom. I love your clarity, humour and content. I am wondering if anyone has done a direct analysis of the Oxford biographical parallels in the plays, (as you are discussing around 50min mark) and shown that these parallels are unique to the Shakespeare plays and not found in any of the sources that the writer may have drawn from. Therefore unique to Oxford’s experience... and VERY unlikely and too coincidental to have been added by the Stratford man.

@robertpoen5383 5 лет назад

The most coherent and supported hypothesis I've come across so far. Thank you Mr. Regnier.

@andrewbanas3036 4 года назад

An excellent presentation.

@6deste 7 месяцев назад

Such a wonderful presentation. God bless Tom

@rickakashockshockey9151 5 лет назад

Excellent presentation!

@sebastianverney7851 6 месяцев назад

Fascinating. Extremely lucid talk. And so convincing.

@AwareLife 4 года назад

Excellent presentation. Thank you, and some great leads to other studies. Recently converted. I love good British detective stories... even if from across the Pond.

@mstexasg6243 4 года назад

Wonderful and very thorough presentation. The one bit of evidence above all others,for me, that Stratford was NOT the author of the plays is the Essex rebellion. EVERYONE associated with the production of Richard II that fateful evening was either arrested or at the very least taken in for questioning. The company that performed the play did all they could to distance themselves from the rebellion as they wanted to escape Essex's fate. Augustine Phillips was questioned by authorities why not the Stratford man? Curious.

@johnmonk6342 4 года назад

Well done. I love it. Now I know why my Shaxper professor protested so much, too much! She knew! She must have known and was simply protecting a long standing "fact." Think of the consequences, world wide, should the academy be forced to admit to such an incredible escapade. Leads one to consider the possibility of other, perhaps many other "inventions" maintained within the academy involving long established "fact." I can think of a few other s h a k y areas of inquiry right off.

@72Yonatan 3 года назад

It's probably not true that the Saxons and the Angles both invaded England and killed off the existing population. More likely that the language that they brought with them was adopted by the indigenous people. The Norman Viking invaders brought French language with them.

@zeerust2000 5 лет назад

Everyone loves a mystery. Especially one that shows the intellectual establishment to be flawed.

@MsFaust1987 3 года назад

This was masterly. Regardless of who the author is, no one should begrudge others asking questions about it. Wouldn't everyone want to ensure that they got the right man? Opinions of the plays, and especially of the sonnets, are invariably based on presumptions about the author himself. As the quote by the professor at the end suggests, a mistake in the author's identification can only hinder achieving the best possible understanding of his art. This talk was based on critical thinking, common sense and healthy skepticism. The same cannot often be said of the Stratfordian approach. It is indeed guilty of ad hominem attacks, as well as dismissals that are nothing more than dodges, and all the conjecture of which it accuses others.

@radwilly1770 5 лет назад

What an excellent presentation. Stratfordians have no evidence!

@72Yonatan 3 года назад

Stratfordians have only got faith, and evidence does not disturb that.

@PeterSmith-bj4ml 6 месяцев назад

What utter rubbish. It's the other way round. Oxford was dead when many of the plays were written. And the First Folio.makes it clear as crystal that it was Shakespeare of Stratford upon Avon who wrote most of the plays and collaborated in some. Some of the stuff he lists has been explained many times. No mention of Books or manuscripts in his Will?? Wills of that time rarely did, they had separate inventories which were clearly lost. No evidence if education. Johnson a bricklayers son, Marlowe similarly from an uneducated background. Etc etc. Same old debunked stuff.

@futurez12 4 года назад

Writing Shakespeare's works was considered idle frivolity? I'd love that society to see what people do in their free time nowadays. 😁

@72Yonatan 3 года назад

It was a prejudice maintained by many aristocratic circles back in the day. Snob culture appeal. Today such an attitude doesn't exist, so we find it odd.

@vlastakadric4206 Год назад

What a nice and clever man He was 😢.

@edmund184 Год назад

I once overheard Stanley Wells talking to someone in The Shakespeare Hotel, Stratford upon Avon. He was saying the latest theory was that the plays were far more collaborations than previously thought. The body of work is so substantial that ascribing it to anyone else does not explain the mystery of the 38 works that have come down to us.

@AndreaRKent 2 года назад

Dear Lord, what a loss! Inconceivable.

@Chihyininlondon 2 года назад

Great presentation! I enjoy the humor as well as the passion from the author.

@waggishsagacity7947 9 месяцев назад

I have started the entertaining quest for the author of the 36 plays as an agnostic: I was open to any and all arguments to sway me to one or the other side. At the moment I have begun to seriously doubt that William Shakspear [of Stratford Upon Avon] was the author of any of them. For this, I thank Tom Regnier very much for an outstanding lecture and an exceptional evenhandedness . I have a few doubts about the Earl of Oxford, but many significant doubts about the Stratfordian man. One argument, for example, that moved me to the Oxfordian camp was the matter of the signatures and the spelling of his own name. There's no way to merely sweep this under a rug. Another was the10 item questionnaire with ZERO references to "Shakespeare of Avon." And finally (for the sake of brevity) the matter of the Stratfordian's education, or rather lack of proof thereof. I trust inspiration to a degree, but knowledge is still key to erudition. For me it has been --before Google showed up on the scene-- but Google enhanced my ability to acquire knowledge significantly. Whoever wrote the 36 plays didn't have Google (I oddly believe) but surely he must have had access to many tomes and writings that he referred to for knowledge (ironically, like the 4 churches of San Pietro in Verona, which one Stratfordian, unbelievably declared was a invention!). Thanks Tom Regnier: I think I'll sleep better tonight.

@FilmFloozy 3 года назад

Excellent!

@romanclay1913 Год назад

Sonnet 76: "EVERy word doth almost tell my name." Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford

@Jeffhowardmeade 10 месяцев назад

"And then thou lovest me for my name is Will." Sonnet 136.

@joecurran2811 Год назад

Great talk.

@antwan37 4 года назад

The likelihood of the Stratford man being Shakespeare the playwright is the same as that of an abstemious virgin to be the author of "Casanova's memoirs".

@christiantaylor1195 3 года назад

Came here as a Calvin Hoffman Marlovian: very interesting and informative presentation.

@padraigosuilleabhain6511 Год назад

Looney is corruption of Irish language surname '(Ó) Luanaigh' = 'son/ grandson of champion' . Thank you for your presentation.

@nicojam7191 9 месяцев назад

Excellent

@mrdanforth3744 4 года назад

"The sweet swan of Avon" why has no one noticed that the swan is mute. The only bird that never sings. Legend has it that the swan sings only when it is dying this is called the "swan song". So the sweet swan was mute and did not sing until his death, like William Shakespeare who "sang" in his First Folio. This looks like a sly literary joke giving away the Shakespeare hoax and no one but me has gotten the joke in 400 years.

@wynnsimpson 4 года назад

Methinks Mr. Danforth that your point is well taken and persuasive.

@WickedFelina 2 года назад

Tom mentioned Prince Philip having his mind changed. Sadly, his son and next king, heads the Stratfordian side.

@artartzineonline6926 2 года назад

This was a very entertaining lecture. On November 2021 the novel "La Bestia" was awarded "El Premio Planeta" ( a very prestigious literary prize in Spain ) to its author Carmen Mola. Carmen Mola had written three other best selling books of the same genre, and had become the 'Agatha Christie' of Spain. When 'La Bestia' won the prize, its author was not there to receive it. Instead, three men: Jorge Díaz, Agustín Martínez y Antonio Mercero, showed up. The three men were the contributing authors writing under the pseudonym "Carmen Mola." I preface my comment with this anecdote to introduce the theory of multiple authors. Not that authorship of the plays, at this point, would make much difference. We have the works ( that have influenced generations of writers, speakers, playwrights, and... even lawyers..) THAT , I should think, is what matters the most. After all: “What's in a name? That which we call a rose/ By any other name would smell as sweet.”

@brianforbes8325 4 года назад

Tom Regnier convinced me beyond a reasonable doubt that the 17th Earl of Oxford wrote the plays.

@Jeffhowardmeade 4 года назад

If he hadn't been the only lawyer in the room, he'd have had his wit handed to him. There's a reason juries are supposed to hear both sides of the story.

@bryan.h.wildenthal 3 года назад

@@Jeffhowardmeade It would have been enjoyable to see a Stratfordian (lawyer, English professor, or otherwise) try to debate my late friend Tom. It's Tom's opponent who would likely have had his (ahem) handed to him. There's a reason why Stratfordians have been consistently shy about stepping forward to debate authorship doubters and Oxfordians: Their arguments don't hold up well and they generally haven't done their homework on the issue.

@brianforbes8325 2 года назад

@@bryan.h.wildenthal Thanks for the moral support. You are very privileged to have known and been friends with Mr. Regnier, and I was also saddened to learn of his death in 2020. He clearly was an outstanding lecturer, and he must have been an outstanding trial attorney as well.

@MrMartibobs 4 года назад

Here is the reference in Wikipedia to the writings of Dr John Hall Writings Hall prepared two notebooks of his case notes with the intention that they be published. They were purchased and translated from Latin by James Cooke (1614-1688), a surgeon.[3] He published them in 1657, 22 years after Hall's death, as Select observations on English bodies, or Cures both empericall and historicall performed upon very eminent persons in desperate diseases. The earliest case, in Stratford, dates from 1611, making it almost certain that Hall lived and worked in Stratford from at least the time of his marriage. The first notebook still survives, but the original manuscript of the second notebook has been lost. Not diaries. Case notes. CASE NOTES ... and wow. He ... doesn't mention his father in law? In his case notes? This is so very very surprising. Oh how incredibly surprising. Surprise surprise. Oh, I am beside myself with surprise.

@Baskerville22 4 года назад

I've read 3 books about Edward de Vere as the writer of "Shakespeare's" works - Mark Anderson's 'Shakespeare by Another Name' the best - and found the case for de Vere to be overwhelmingly persuasive. and the case against "the Stratford man" equally persuasive. The fact that my surname is "de Vere" played no part in my conclusions...:)

@AAwildeone 3 года назад

To me Anderson's work is still a major practically unchallengeable touchstone. Especially the details about the Earl's European tour, the Venice section is just so vivid and detailed and packed with too many parallels to be coincidence.

@MultiSirens 3 года назад

A most interesting argument! By the way, R.I.P, a brilliant mind gone too soon! That being said: devils advocate, but as a writer without a formal education, one writes often times about things you know or want to know? Also, how many times have actors wanted to rewrite scenes because they couldn’t find inspiration? Sigh! And have you ever been drawn and quartered? This was the fate waiting for anyone who opposed or challenged the powers that reigned? We are not all Voltaire who risked his life, literally too often! And of course the argument for the supporters? Pay untoCesars what is Cesar’s? In other words million of pounds have been spent already building up this myth? Let them have it! Also don’t forget people were much more “religious “ than they are now, I have always felt “ Shakespeare” , studied Job, who was the first dramatist, “oh that my words were written with iron pen etc! A brilliant argument well researched! X

@lukesters7234 3 года назад

Thank you Sir for your wonderful insight.

@bokhans 3 года назад

RIP Tom

@carloparcelli9212 3 года назад

Mr. Regnier said there is no paper trail on Shakespeare because of the inherent political dangers this would involve. This would suggest questions of authorship might arise because Shakespeare took a guarded position when writing the works. Also, Shakespeare's plays were not in the main supportive of the Tudors.

@christopherbataluk8148 4 месяца назад

"There is no contemporary reference to Shakespeare's writing....you mean aside from the writings of Francis Mere, Ben Johnson and number other contemporaries discuss Shakespeare the writer.

@ronthered138 10 месяцев назад

I heard a joke once that in academic circles the arguments are so vicious because the stakes are so low. I am just a dog-face that likes the plays. To find out that Shakespeare did not write some/any of the work attributed to him would only add interest, I think. How can there be any real-life skin in this game? I would find the truth incredibly fascinating, whatever the truth might be. "Keep an open mind, but not so open that your brains fall out."

@bastianconrad2550 7 лет назад

I enjoyed Tom Regniers talk. But consider that the Shakespeare authorship problem must be divided into 2 distinct levels, a relatively easy first level and a clearly more complicated second level. The first level concerns the knowledge and arguments, bright Non-Stratfordian people , such as Tom Regnier, gained, that William Shakspeare [Stratford] by no means can have been the author of Shakespeare's Canon, because of too many unsurmountable arguments. Tom Regnier deals with this first level. After a century of intellectual dispute and debate, it seems, however, necessary not to stop anymore at, [or even deal], with the first level (as Tom regnier does) since a half way solution is counter-productive: Its about time to enter the arena for the second level and „argue convincingly“ for a final candidate. Tom Regnier didn’t touch the second level but answered to a question( „Is it possible that the plays were written by more than one person?... that he „thinks that most of it was written by one person , and that this person was Oxford“.) Since long I am wondering why Oxfordians believe their candidate has the best cards. Is that really true? Make your own opinion. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Z7VeQ7OER14.html ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Oi7nFkhbDjM.html ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-cWWyZaUKPmw.html

@MrMartibobs 4 года назад

No problem. Like many playwrights of the time, Shakespeare was a child of the prosperous middle class. He was lucky enough to get a grammar school education, and turned out to be good with words. So ... what precisely is the 'problem'?

@clarkianperez241 4 года назад

What a Shakespearean speaker

@11spiritwarrior 7 месяцев назад

Mark Twain pseudonym adopted by Samuel Clemens. That doesn’t diminish this presentation. Just a fact check.

@lifeofasinglekazakh 3 года назад

Why don't people look at Rutland theory? Roger Manners the Earl of Rutland also lived in Italy, his nickname was Shake spear, he studied in Padua with two Danes: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, he went to Denmark in 1603, he died in 1612 and that makes his case stronger than Oxford timewise cause we know it's the weakest point of the Oxford theory and a handwritten piece of the Twelfth night was found in Rutlands' household in 1930's by the Soviet Shakespeare researcher Porokhovschikov. However, I'm an adamant supporter of the saying: I prefer the authority of the truth over the truth of authority. So if truth ever found I'd go with that. I personally figure that Marlowe, Oxford, Derby and Rutland altogether with Shaksper wrote these works, why not?

@annalisette5897 4 года назад

The information in this video is very persuasive but criticisms in other places argue strongly against it. There seems to be some small indication that Shakespeare the actor collaborated with one or two others to produce the masterpieces. On the other hand it seems his background would not lend itself to such writings. So I wonder if William Shakespeare was a genius, something like a savant, who had an extraordinary gift for writing?

@72Yonatan 3 года назад

Savants exist and the problem is that this description does not fit what we know (evidence, not imagination) about the grain merchant of Stratford on Avon. He was and remained illiterate his entire life. The writer of the plays of Shakespeare had a high level of legal education, and had traveled to Italy, and was fluent in Greek and Latin, and had studied the works of ancient writers. He also used biblical passages concerned with various themes, although he had no formal training in the Hebrew bible in its original, nor any familiarity with Jewish learning or the Jewish people.

@surferles589 11 месяцев назад

Mark Twain was the pseudonym for Samuel Celements - his real name

@Jeffhowardmeade 10 месяцев назад

A fact which was well known and remarked upon by many during his lifetime, including by himself.

@warrengwonka2479 9 месяцев назад

And everyone knows that Twain is Clemens … making it obvious that Tom regards Shake-Speare to be a pen name.

@johnsmith-eh3yc 4 месяца назад

Though twain didnt write plays for a theatre part owned by another guy called mark twain who also acted in said plays. And twains works were not published under the name master mark twain, gentleman, giving the precise social rank of the writer

@timothymeehan181 6 месяцев назад

“It matters not WHO wrote the plays of Shakespeare. It matters only THAT they were written….” Can I get an AMEN?!? 🙏🎭😎

@johnsmith-eh3yc 5 месяцев назад

No not really. No one except lunes think deVere or Bacon or a woman or anyone else than Shakespeare wrote the plays. However he was a specific Englishman of a specific time that happened to be the greatest literary genius of all time. The authorship question is largely one of anglophobia encouraged by self loathing Englishmen.

@MrMartibobs 4 года назад

Oxford was a celeb. People knew what he was up to. He was the Kanye West of his day. Or to put it another way 'what great ones do, the less will prattle of. In other words .... his life was up for grabs. Any writer could use it for plotting points. Get it? If there ARE parallels, then it doesn't mean that HE is the one who's inserting them into plays and poems.

@Jerrspero 3 года назад

True, but time and again the parallels have been shown to be coincidences, not actual parallels, common experiences, etc.

@wynnsimpson 4 года назад

I am a devoted Oxfordian. One question that I can't find an answer to is this: Who benefitted financially from the publication of the First Folio?

@Jeffhowardmeade 4 года назад

The publisher, and the surviving members of the King's Men, who owned many of the previously unpublished plays. The publisher sold the rights nine years later to another publisher who printed the second edition. Apparently it was still thought to be a good investment.

@bryan.h.wildenthal 3 года назад

Good question. It's not clear anyone did. It was a very expensive publication that may have been a money-loser. The more interesting question is who funded it in the first place? Maybe Oxford's son-in-law (and the son-in-law's brother, also once sought as a husband to another Oxford daughter), the two "incomparable brethren" (wealthy and powerful noblemen) to whom it was dedicated? When the Folger Shakespeare Library did their "Folio Tour" in 2016 with big colorful wall panels about its historical background, they completely censored out that connection. Also, laughably, failed even to mention Ben Jonson! Defenders of the traditional view don't want to deal with the implications of all Ben's ambiguous and cryptic allusions.

@72Yonatan 3 года назад

@@bryan.h.wildenthal Maybe Johnson was jealous? Maybe he intended to obscure the author for other reasons.

@MrMartibobs 4 года назад

"which apparently he wrote himself" This should have a form with a box labelled 'insert evidence here'. Pen names are common. But what you claim is that Oxford actually pretended to BE someone else. He could easily have picked an anonymous name. Many did at the time. But no, he takes the identity of a real person. weird.

@72Yonatan 3 года назад

Shake-speare is the nom de plume. The name of the grain merchant from Avon is Shakspere. It's not another man's name.

@Jeffhowardmeade 2 года назад

@@72Yonatan That's funny. When the College of Heralds and King James (and many others) wrote his name down, they spelled it Shakespeare. Wonder why.

@matthajba1075 4 года назад

I thought Athene was the goddess of wisdom and war and of the city Athen. Not the goddess of art and music. That would be Apollo.

@Jerrspero 3 года назад

There are many such little flaws sprinkled through this.

@bryan.h.wildenthal 3 года назад

Athena was viewed during the Renaissance as a patron of art and theatre. Her connection to Athens is also significant: the ancient home of Greek theatre. Remember, we're talking about how she was viewed during the English Renaissance. It's not a theology debate about what Greeks believed.

@72Yonatan 3 года назад

@@bryan.h.wildenthal Thanks for your clarification.

@carloparcelli9212 3 года назад

On the one hand Mr. Regnier said men like De Vere would not associate themselves with something as low and vulgar as the theater, and then practically in the next breath lists De Vere's deep involvement with the theatre including two acting companies and a playhouse. Huh?

@bryan.h.wildenthal 3 года назад

There's a difference between aristocrats patronizing theatre companies or buying shares in some theatres (like Blackfriars), and being known to be directly involved in the actual acting or writing of plays. It's a well-known fact that many aristocrats (not just Oxford) patronized acting companies, etc. Yet the "stigma of print" is also well-documented at the time, mentioned for example in "The Arte of English Poesie" (1589). The best article on the subject is by Diana Price. Google "diana price mythical myth of the stigma of print."

@TheIrishLoaf Год назад

Venus and Adonis (Shakespeare poem) was published in 1593 by Richard Field, who, like Shakespeare, was from Stratford and lived down the street from him.

@Jeffhowardmeade 10 месяцев назад

And also right around the corner from him in Blackfriars. Field also published The Rape of Lucrece and The Phoenix and the Turtle. In other words, everything we know Shakespeare intentionally published, he had published by a guy he grew up with.

@BAFREMAUXSOORMALLY 4 года назад

Did Shakespeare Really Write Shakespeare? Stupid question! Of course, Shakespeare wrote Shakespeare, but the real issue is that Shakespeare was not a REAL person, just a PSEUDONYM! Simple logic, King James did not hire "Shakespeare" to join the team that translated the Bible! BAFS