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    Review of PLAYERS: THE MYSTERIOUS IDENTITY OF WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE by Bertram Fields

    Regan Books, March 2005

    Review by Cathy Richard Dodson (see her website)

    If you haven't taken an English literature course in the last twenty years or so, the fact that the identity of William Shakespeare is in question may come as something of a surprise. Questions about Shakespeare's identity have been around for a lot longer than that, however. In Players, Bertram Fields takes a close look at the evidence by breaking it into two categories. First, he takes us into the known facts about the life of "the man from Stratford" and second, we're given a look at those centered around "the man we know as Shakespeare." Early on it becomes apparent there's strong evidence pointing that these two men may not have been the same person.

    If Shakespeare wasn't Shakespeare though, who was Shakespeare, and who was the "man from Stratford?" Fields unravels the story through a look at the poems, plays, and history of the period, and little by little leads us into the lives of several potential candidates, including Christopher Marlowe, another famous playwright, Edward de Vere, the Earl of Oxford, Francis Bacon, and even Queen Elizabeth, to name a few of the candidates! Fields explains why each person might or might not have been the "real" Shakespeare, and finally concludes the book with his own personal theory about Shakespeare's identity.

    I found this book fascinating and relatively easy to follow, considering Fields spends a fair amount of time early in the book reviewing the history and background of the characters of this period. His theory makes good sense, but in the end really only leaves you wondering if any evidence will ever come to light to tell us the truth about this age-old mystery!

    Three Stars

    Reviewed 7/24/05

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