Alleged Bard Discovery: Is It Much Ado About Nothing?

One day after a British professor claimed that an obscure poem glued to a manuscript in the Huntington Library collection may be the work of William Shakespeare, skeptical scholars around the world are unleashing a torrent of questions.

Oxford University professor Peter Levi reportedly will hold a press conference in London on Monday to explain why he believes the 17th-Century poet and playwright authored the two pages of untitled verse. That same day, the work--62 lines in 14 stanzas--is scheduled to be published in booklet form by Macmillan Publishers Ltd.

“Even if he’s absolutely dead right about the thing, it will be controversial from now until the end of time,” predicted William Schaefer, a UCLA English professor. “There will be people to scream, ‘Hogwash!’ and others who say there is an element of truth in it.”

Conclusion Challenged

In Britain, experts who claim to have seen the work began challenging Levi’s conclusion almost as soon as the news began to spread Thursday.

“While the verses are rather better than some previous alleged Shakespeare finds and while Peter Levi has a good ear for poetry, the hand of Shakespeare can be no more than a remote possibility,” said professor A. L. Rowse, who has written extensively on the poet-playwright.

American scholar Gary Taylor, who spawned a similar controversy in 1985 when he claimed a love poem found in the Oxford University library was also written by Shakespeare, called Levi’s contention “ambiguous.”

“It’s going to take a lot more evidence than I could come up with . . . before anyone is going to be convinced,” said Taylor of the English faculty at Catholic University in Washington. After three years, the sometimes furious debate over Taylor’s claim shows no sign of abating.

“The man might be right but proving it is right is another thing,” Taylor said. “I don’t see any evidence that convinces me yet.”

The only “physical clue” to the authorship of the Huntington verses are a set of initials scrawled at the bottom of the second page of parchment. Even with that, said Huntington curator Sara Hodson, “there’s dispute about what the initials are.”

Disagreement on Initial

The first two letters clearly are W and S but the third could be an H, K or R. Even if the letter was certified as H, scholars say the signature could be Shakespeare’s or a number of other writers. Few samples of the Bard’s handwriting have been identified and even those are open to scholarly debate.

Taylor, who made his own controversial find while compiling material for the Oxford edition of the “Complete Works” of Shakespeare, said the manuscript of his discovery actually included the poet’s name.

“That’s a crucial distinction,” he said. “This manuscript doesn’t say it’s by Shakespeare. It’s by someone with certain initials. Other people have those initials too.”

Reason for Decision

That uncertainty, he said, was the reason editors chose not to include the verses in the “Complete Works.” Instead, Taylor said, it is listed in a companion volume as one of many poems deserving a closer look.

The handwritten stanzas are glued to the back of a 20-page manuscript of a play by John Marston, a Shakespeare contemporary. Apparently, the verses were meant to be spoken the same day the play was presented.

Marston’s play was scripted as entertainment for the 17th-Century dowager Countess of Derby, and each stanza of the attached verse, which was to be recited as gifts were given, is headed by names of real people. Lady Derby’s is among the names.

Part of the collection of the San Marino library for more than 70 years, the fragile manuscript has been studied numerous times because of the possible link to Shakespeare. Until now, no one has taken the speculation further than conjecture, however, and that, too, has scholars wary.

“The fact that this thing has been looked at by scholars over many, many years . . . certainly makes me suspicious,” UCLA’s Schaefer said.

In attempting to authenticate authorship, scholars typically look at handwriting, paper, ink and other external evidence to place the document in a certain time and place. Beyond that, they search for more subjective clues, trying to match language, images, rhythms and rhymes.

Science, Intuition

“In other words, it’s a mixture of scientific and intuitive,” explained Barbara Mowat, director of academic programs for the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington and the editor of Shakespeare Quarterly.

“If all those things check out, I think people would be very pleased,” Mowat said.

Like others, Mowat is eagerly awaiting the evidence to back Levi’s claim. “One of the things that still amazes me is the kind of excitement that is created when somebody finds something they think Shakespeare wrote that wasn’t known before,” Mowat said.

“I just hope that every year something like this comes up,” quipped English professor Schaefer. “It’s a lot more interesting to read about than Kuwaiti hijackings.”