ANONYMOUS—ONLY ARISTOCRATS CAN CREATE LITERATURE.

ANONYMOUS—ONLY ARISTOCRATS CAN CREATE LITERATURE. We saw the new movie Anonymous at the New Yorker festival about a month ago. After the screening, there was a discussion with the scholar James Shapiro and the director of the movie. Shapiro’s criticism of the movie was devastating. The movie is opening this week, and the advance reviews have been scathing. The movie relies on contempt for commoners as evidence that William Shakespeare could not have been the author of the plays. Shakespeare is portrayed as a buffoon. The movie has a difficult argument to make because Oxford died before a number of Shakespeare’s plays were performed. However, once you accept that Queen Elizabeth was the mother of the Earl of Oxford and later became the Earl of Oxford’s lover, it all follows….