Anonymous, the Shakespeare Thing!

I went to see the film “Anonymous” which I thoroughly enjoyed. As I was preparing to leave the cinema I overheard two men speculating on whether Derek Jacobi or the other stars actually believed that someone else other than William Shakespeare wrote Shakespeare’s works. I love it when a film provokes discussion, it doesn’t happen often. The debate over the authorship of Shakespeares plays is not a new one and over the years academics have postulated several alternative authors, this film presents an entertaining drama which should be treated as such.

Whoever wrote them the plays of Shakespeare represent the high point of English literature, written at a time when, had they not been written then, there was a wealth of writers – Marlowe, Johnson, Donne – whose names would have sprung readily to mind, but who tend to be overshadowed by Shakespeare’s incomparable brilliance. It must have been an amazing time to be alive.

I don’t much care who wrote Shakespeare’s plays, as I said to the men discussing the film. “It is not important who wrote them, what is important is that they were written!”