WILL TOO POWERLESS

posted by James Reel

    In my post about the English consortium questioning the authorship of Shakespeare’s plays, I overlooked the main implication of this set of questions: “The 287-strong Shakespeare Authorship Coalition says it is not possible that the bard's plays—with their emphasis on law—could have been penned by a 16th century commoner raised in an illiterate household.
    “It asks why most of his plays are set among the upper classes, and why Stratford-upon-Avon is never referred to in any of his plays.”
    This tells us everything we need to know—not about Shakespeare, but about his doubters. It’s all about class! A poorly educated commoner (actually, we know nothing about Shakespeare’s education) couldn’t possibly be a literary genius, could he? Perhaps if the English could ever shake off their class consciousness, they would someday be able to make worthwhile inquiries.