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Shakespeare's Sonnets:
"The Monument" Changes the Paradigm
The verses of SHAKE-SPEARES SONNETS were written for "eyes not yet created" in posterity. THE MONUMENT by Hank Whittemore shows how the Sonnets contain "the living record" of an unacknowledged prince with "true rights" of succession to Queen Elizabeth I.
This story is recorded within a 100-sonnet central sequence of an elegant "monument" of verse for Henry Wriothesley, Third Earl of Southampton, to whom "Shakespeare" dedicated his works. The main story begins on the night of the Essex Rebellion of February 8, 1601 and it concludes with Elizabeth's funeral on April 28, 1603, when King James of Scotland became King James I of England and the Tudor dynasty officially ended.
The Sonnets record that Southampton was held hostage in the Tower until Principal Secretary Robert Cecil engineered the succession of James without him...
""I, my sovereign, watch the clock for you ... And all those beauties whereof now he's King are vanishing, or vanished out of sight ... Thus have I had thee as a dream doth flatter: In sleep a King, but waking no such matter."
NEW REVIEW - By Janet Hamilton for MyShelf.com:
"Not to put too fine a point upon it, not only has Hank Whittemore shaken the spear of scholarship at Shakespeare’s authorship, but his huge and stunning masterpiece has shaken this reviewer with new vision and insight..."
Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford (1550-1604) was forced by Cecil to vote to condemn Essex and Southampton to death. Oxford recorded his painful ordeal by writing to the younger earl:
"Though thou repent, yet I have still the loss.
The offender's sorrow lends but weak relief
To him that bears the strong offence's cross."
THE MONUMENT is a 930-page edition of Shakespeare's Sonnets presenting all the 154 sonnets analyzed line-by-line, with each sonnet summarized and paraphrased according to a new biographical and historical context.
"Ideational Change: Why is it so Difficult?"
By Dr. Paul Altrocchi
The winners wrote the official history. Oxford agreed to bury the truth that he was the father of Southampton and had adopted the pen name "Shakespeare" to publicly support him. Henry Wriothesley had to give up any claim to the throne, but Oxford compiled "the living record" of him preserved in the "monument" of SHAKE-SPEARES SONNETS:
"Your name from hence immortal life shall have,
Though I, once gone, to all the world must die...
Your monument shall be my gentle verse,
Which eyes not yet created shall o'er-read."
"Hank Whittemore has written the most important book on Shakespeare's Sonnets in 400 years. He has discovered that the 100 sonnets forming the central block of the collection have a strict calendar correspondence to events associated with the Essex Rebellion of 1601, specifically to the trial, imprisonment, and later release of the Earl of Southampton..." -- Dr. Charles V. Berney, Founding President The Shakespeare Fellowship
NEW: Visit the Website of William J. Ray and enjoy all his writings including his essays on the life and work of Edward de Vere, along with his insights into the Sonnets and THE MONUMENT.
Oxford records the sacrifice of his own identity to save Henry Wriothesley from execution and gain his freedom. With Cecil retaining his power behind the throne, the new monarch released Southampton from his "confined doom" in the Tower:
Not mine own fears nor the prophetic soul
Of the wide world dreaming on things to come
Can yet the lease of my true love control,
Supposed as forfeit to a confined doom.
Sonnet 107
Southampton arranged for Richard II (and its deposition scene) to be staged at the Globe, to rouse support for removing Cecil from his control over Elizabeth. The revolt collapsed by nightfall, when Southampton and Essex were placed in the Tower facing virtually certain execution. Edward de Vere shared in the disgrace and blame:
"All men make faults, and even I in this,
Authorizing thy trespass with compare..."
Increasing numbers of students, inspired by bold teachers, are exploring the SHAKESPEARE AUTHORSHIP QUESTION. In this regard we salute the faculty and students of CHARLES W. FLANAGAN HIGH SCHOOL in Pembroke Pines, Florida, and invite you to visit this website being developed by Ralph A. Bucci, World Literature Instructor:
 MAKING THE CROOKED STRAIGHT
An Internet WebQuest on THE MONUMENT by Hank Whittemore
And we applaud THE SHAKESPEARE RESOURCE CENTER for highlighting and exploring "The Great Authorship Debate"
"Briefly, Whittemore's theory is that all 154 sonnets are in authorial order, that nearly all were written or rewritten in the last three years of Oxford's life, that they are addressed to the Fair Youth (Southampton) and the Dark Lady (Queen Elizabeth), and they are concerned almost exclusively with the politics and aftermath of the Essex Rebellion -- its purpose, its disastrous failure, the treason trial, Southampton's death sentence, his eventual release from prison and pardon, the poet's observations on their shared guilt and shared shame over Southampton's 'crime,' the poet's bittersweet advice and admonitions on how his son should now live his 'second' life, and finally -- in the Dark Lady sequence -- his bitter (without the sweet) rage at their mutual betrayal by Elizabeth. It's all politics, mixed in with the personal views of the writer and expressed through the grand language and philosophy we all know as 'Shakespearean'."
William Boyle, Founding Editor, Shakespeare Matters
Newsletter of the Shakespeare Fellowship
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