What's in a name?

I couldn't help but notice the release of Roland Emmerich's new film, Anonymous. The movie, which opens today, deals with the question of authorship of Shakespeare's plays and posits that Edward de Vere, the 17th Earl of Oxford, is the true playwright. This theory is almost universally acknowledged as nonsense, and more than a few scholars and critics have pointed out that the film is so unbelievable that it actually serves to undermine its purported champion's cause.

As I understand it, the assumption underlying the so-called Oxfordian theory is that an uneducated man like William Shakespeare could never have written such dizzyingly complex plays as are attributed to him. Notwithstanding the flimsiness of that argument in the first place, I find it far more compelling to ask how Edward de Vere, who died in 1604, could have written more than half a dozen of Shakespeare's plays from beyond the grave.

Conspiracy theorists will exist no matter where you turn, and I'm not deeply offended on intellectual grounds by Anonymous (which, incidentally, I have no plans to see). But I just can't quite see the appeal of making a movie like this one; who would want to go see it? Wouldn't it be far more satisfying to spend time in the real Shakespeare than speculating about who else might have (but didn't) pen the works? I have enjoyed many of Emmerich's other offerings--especially Independence Day and The Patriot--and I suppose only time and box office receipts will tell if his directorial star power will outweigh such a ridiculous premise. As my college Shakespeare professor put it, "New evidence can always surface. But until it does, who wrote Shakespeare's plays? William Shakespeare."

In other news, we had our first snowfall yesterday here in Enfield (and across the Twin States, it seems). It didn't snow much--maybe an inch and a half--but I'm sure there will be plenty more where that came from. The next storm is already predicted for tomorrow. I'm just not sure I'm ready for summer to be over yet, let alone fall!