Silver and tin...

[nineweaving]

Twenty-five years and day.  Last night, I uncovered an ancient photocopy of the New Yorker article on mad Oxfordians that set me off on quarter-century rampage of glee and wrath.   The "irk in the oystershell," as I said of another tale.  And I did in the end get a story from it, though perhaps not a pearl.  If it is one, black and baroque.

...and

Comments

[kalimac]

My biggest grudge against the Earl of Oxford is for bearing that title, and thus forcing me to remember that "mad Oxfordians" refers to the authorship question and not to nutty professors from the university on the Isis.

[nineweaving]

Truly said.

I think his name lends a specious glamour to a nasty piece of work. There are far fewer proponents of say, the Earl of Rutland or Lord Buckhurst.

Nine

[nightspore]

I am fond of C. S. Calverley's "Earl of Asterisk and Mr. Blank" (he does not propose them as candidates for the authorship of Shakespeare, but one may as well, since the idea seems to be to find a wild card to trump the real person).

[nineweaving]

Did he borrow from Byron?

And all in turn may follow in their rank,
The Earl of-Asterisk-and Lady-Blank;
Sir-Such-a-one-

Nine

[lauradi7]

I first encountered the Oxfordians earlier than that, at a regional convention of Ricardians (whom you may think mad as well, but R III is not my choice for the killer of the Little Princes).

[nineweaving]

At least there's an actual historical question there, though I am wary of arguments from character.

Nine