2014 Authorship Conference Announced - Madison WI

The 2014 Shakespeare Authorship Conference will be held in Madison WI

 Sept 11-14, 2014.  

Hail Eris!

Conference Details 

Oxford's Toad Licking Fetish.

While rereading Ogburn's "The Mysterious William Shakespeare", I came across the rather odd reference in "As You Like It" to, what appears to be, Toad Licking.

The speech of Duke Senior, Opening act III is quoted in full.


Act II. Scene I.


The Forest of Arden.


Enter DUKE Senior, AMIENS, and other Lords, like Foresters.

Duke S. Now, my co-mates and brothers in exile,
Hath not old custom made this life more sweet 4
Than that of painted pomp? Are not these woods
More free from peril than the envious court?
Here feel we but the penalty of Adam,
The seasons’ difference; as, the icy fang 8
And churlish chiding of the winter’s wind,
Which, when it bites and blows upon my body,
Even till I shrink with cold, I smile and say
‘This is no flattery: these are counsellors 12
That feelingly persuade me what I am.’
Sweet are the uses of adversity,
Which like the toad, ugly and venomous,
Wears yet a precious jewel in his head; 16
And this our life exempt from public haunt,
Finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks,
Sermons in stones, and good in every thing.
I would not change it.

The following excerpt is from Time Magazine. In the middle of discussing the wonders of Pharmacology, the author mentions our Bard...

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,882154-3,00.html
"
Toad Juice. In Eli Lilly's Indianapolis drug laboratories where he directs pharmacological research. Dr. Ko Kuei Chen, Johns Hopkins graduate, applied himself to finding out what there is in folk medicine which helps Chinese cure toothache, sinusitis and mouth sores with applications of dried toad venom and which made Shakespeare note: "Sweet are the uses of adversity, which like the toad, ugly and venomous, wears yet a precious jewel in his head (As You Like It). From glands located behind the eyes of 7,500 U. S., German, Jamaican, Uruguayan, South African, Chinese and Japanese toads. Dr. Chen extracted potent drugs (adrenalin, cholesterol, ergosterol, and two digitalis-like substances) which modern scientific medicine considers indispensable. Apparently toads do not use these potent drugs in their own economies. When Dr. Chen removed the glands from several toads, they seemed as well as ever, pursued their proper business of bug hunting. Prospective toad farmers should note that a toad produces only one crop of drugs. The extirpated glands do not grow back.


Now, of the 16 times the Bard uses the word "Toad" in the works, most convey the sense of poison, or ugliness. But wait, yonder comes Juliet in Act 2:

Some say the lark and loathed toad change eyes,
 O, now I would they had changed voices too!
 Since arm from arm that voice doth us affray,
 Hunting thee hence with hunt's-up to the day,
 O, now be gone; more light and light it grows.

Change Eyes?
Hmmmmmm.

And who could forget....

Macbeth..Act 4, Scene 1

First Witch Round about the cauldron go;
 In the poison'd entrails throw.
 Toad, that under cold stone
 Days and nights has thirty-one
 Swelter'd venom sleeping got,
 Boil thou first i' the charmed pot.

The Best Resource for Toad Licking Info seems to be:
http://www.erowid.org/archive/sonoran_desert_toad/LaLaw.htm

"Of course the licking myth is newspaper hype -- it is the venom that is active, and it is smoked." - Shulgin

PLANETS OF MISHAP

EDWARD DE VERE APRIL 12, 1550 4:29 P.M. (GMT) S.T.-6.03 NATAL CHART
QUICK EXPLANATION/ OVERVIEW:
SUN: 1-47' TAURUS IN THE 8TH HOUSE
MOON: 12-0' PICSES IN THE 6TH HOUSE
VENUS: 10-2' GEMINI IN THE 9TH HOUSE
MERCURY: 24-6' ARIES IN THE 7TH HOUSE
MARS: 16-47' PISCES IN THE 6TH HOUSE
JUPITER: 29-43' TAURUS IN THE 8TH HOUSE
SATURN: 9-29' AQUARIUS IN THE 5TH HOUSE
URANUS: 0-5' LIBRA IN THE 1ST HOUSE
NEPTUNE: 5-54' TAURUS IN THE 8TH HOUSE
PLUTO: 27-48' AQUARIUS IN THE 5TH HOUSE

AIR 6
EARTH 3
WATER 2
FIRE 1


more info to come later...

Mary Sidney will have her revenge on Avon

http://marysidney.blogspot.com/
http://www.marysidney.com/

Robin Williams has written a great book on the authorship debate claiming that Mary Sidney, wrote the Shaxper cannon. I haven't read the book yet, but it is on the list, and on the bedtable.

Shakespeare Authorship Conference 2006

About a year ago we ventured down the proverbial rabbit hole of "The Authorship Question." What's the question," you ask? "Of course William Shakespeare (a.k.a. Shaksper, Shaxper, Shagsper, etc.,) from Stratford-upon-Avon wrote the plays that have come to be known as the greatest literary accomplishment of all time... Right?" Well, maybe, but the evidence sure doesn't support the notion very well. Even Mark Twain (as well as many other noteworthy people) wrote about the absurdity of believing that The Stratford Man wrote the illustrious works, citing an extensive list of reasons for this position. (i.e., There are no known manuscripts with his name attributed to them - quite unheard of even back then. ) Many other authors have been examined as to their candidacy for authorship, including Francis Bacon, and even Queen Elizabeth I herself... Currently the most qualified seems to be Edward de Vere, The 17th Earl of Oxford.




Thus, we found ourselves wanting to attend a conference where we could confer with "Oxfordians" and possibly have a bit more light shed on the subject... And, since we are book dealers, and do have about 800 Shakespeare-related books, we thought "why not sell books there as well?" So, we packed it all up & shipped ourselves off to Ann Arbor MI , where we were so graciously received (& rewarded) by all present.



We also attended The Tempest with The Royal Shakespeare Company (and Patrick Stewart as Prospero) which had a very unusual (and somewhat modernized) production. When I met Mr. Stewart he told me that I would probably never see another production like it, and I would tend to believe him. (Btw, he's been performing with the RSC since 1958.) In any case, he was as wonderful in person as he was on the stage, which, in my humble opinion, was outrageously spectacular in every way.

He participated in a panel at the Conference, but was careful to opine that after reading some of Oxford's early works (from his teen years, btw), felt that it was an open and shut case that Oxford couldn't have been the author, as the writing was "pretty bad." As he was leaving someone gave him a copy of Mark Anderson's book "Shakespeare by Another Name." No doubt if he does read it, his opinion might be altered, or at least questioned... Guess we'll have to wait to find out the outcome. In any case, we don't hold it against him either way. We can agree on at least this: The works speak for themselves, regardless of who wrote them...
Here are some links on the subject of The Authorship Question, if you'd like to find out more... The last one "Is Shakespeare Dead" is an enacted monologue from the writing of Mark Twain, performed by Keir Cutler. In a word: WOW!

http://www.shakespearebyanothername.com

http://www.shakespeare-oxford.com/

http://www.shakespearefellowship.org/

http://www.deverestudies.org/index.cfm

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7004942638729319523&q=is+shakespeare+dead

Intro: Or why the Rake Smoked the Swan of his Feathers

This Blog seeks to provide an open space for the discussion of the Shakespeare Autorship question from a Discordian Point of View. If you would like to contribute, please drop a comment, and we can add you as a poster.

This blog does not endorse and canidate, but seeks to explore all possible eigenstates of potential authorial permutations. Particular focus will be made on Edward De VEre, 17th Earl of Oxford, the RougueJester Coutier Poet of Elizabethan England.



We begin with Sonnet 76

Why is my verse so barren of new pride,
So far from variation or quick change?
Why with the time do I not glance aside
To new-found methods and to compounds strange?
Why write I still all one, ever the same,
And keep invention in a noted weed,
That every word doth almost tell my name,
Showing their birth and where they did proceed?
O, know, sweet love, I always write of you,
And you and love are still my argument;
So all my best is dressing old words new,
Spending again what is already spent:
For as the sun is daily new and old,
So is my love still telling what is told.


and the first homework assignment....

Trance, art and literature: testing for hallucinogens
J. Francis Thackeray
http://antiquity.ac.uk/ProjGall/thackeray/index.html

Hail Eris@!