Bible

Twain and Bible references

Mark Twain, without any doubt, is the Oxfordians' favourite humorist. Ironic then that his most famous epigram, "there's lies, damn lies and statistics" should turn out to be so handy in undermining their only claim to academic credibility. Ironic also that Twain was actually quoting Disraeli, a humorist who aimed right between the eyes.

Twain was perfectly happy to aim over the head. He preceded his quotation with the subtler, funnier and yet more mordant "Figures often beguile me, particularly when I have the arranging of them myself". Which gets right to the heart of the matter when it comes to Oxfordian claims of success in arranging Shakespeare's Bible references to fit Oxford's Bible marks.

A copy of the Geneva Bible in the Folger Library containing 550 marked passages has long been identified as belonging to the library of Edward De Vere. Supporters of De Vere's candidature for the authorship of Shakespeare's work have mostly (though not all) fallen behind Roger Stritmatter who jumped at the chance of examining a genuine De Vere artefact, hoping to make the first evidence-based claims for its owner's authorship of Shakespeare's works.

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2. The Dissertation

Bible

“The life of Shakespeare is a fine mystery...  I tremble every day lest something should ‘turn up’.”—Charles Dickens  On his website, called Shak-speare's Bible, Professor… go to article

7. The Dataset

Bible

Our dataset includes Naseeb Shaheen's most recent list of just under 3,500 bible references. Professor Shaheen died in 2009 but even a small acquaintance with his work establishes his authority. We have used David Kathman's count… go to article

Apocrypha

Bible

What about Oxford’s own scriptural interests? Surely somewhere in the plod and dribble of his writing—what Stritmatter calls “the breathtaking mellifluence of [his] early poems ... and the Ciceronian peal of his prose correspondence… go to article

3. Annotators and their marks

Bible

There are 31,102 verses in the Geneva Bible, including The Apocrypha. There are 550 marked passages which add up to around 975-1100 marked verses depending on how carefully you count. Prepared by English Reformers in exile in Geneva… go to article

4. Unjustified claims

Bible

Simpsons. Lesson in Art Forgery with Max von Sydow. Having looked at the possible identities of the annotators, it's time to look at the distribution of the marks they made in the Folger's Geneva Bible. Oxfordian hopes rest on the… go to article

8. Leklywhodes

Bible

Whilst clearly not Stritmatter's starting place, building tables is how Cornelius began his survey of Marlowe's biblical references and is surely how any serious surveyor would begin. If there is a relationship between the dataset… go to article

6. Marlowe and Control Data

Bible, Marlowe

Trying for some indirectly generated credibility, Stritmatter conducts an exercise in sensitivity analysis in Appendix E, boldly labelled "Control Data". He flounders around trying to improve the validity of his probability claims by… go to article

All’s Well That Ends Well

Bible

All the references contained in a single play, All's Well That Ends Well. The Reference Finder will produce lists and links of marks in individual plays (or books of the Bible). The density of matches, or lack thereof, is… go to article

6. Marlowe and Control Data

Bible, Marlowe

Trying for some indirectly generated credibility, Stritmatter conducts an exercise in sensitivity analysis in Appendix E, boldly labelled "Control Data". He flounders around trying to improve the validity of his probability claims by… go to article

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