Hares Speak of Shakespeare – kirsten harris art

Last winter I became interested in The Shakespeare Authorship Question thanks to Alexander Waugh’s You Tube presentations. Having been turned off Shakespeare at school, I was amazed to find myself enthralled. Alexander Waugh (and others) have produced compelling evidence that indicate Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford to be the most likely author, or leader of a team of writers, working for Elizabeth 1, published under the name William Shake-speare.

Whether you think ‘Shakespeare wrote Shakespeare’ and any question about authorship is ‘a load of nonsense’, as a couple of very dear friends to whom I mentioned I was writing this article eloquently expressed to me, I think that a good place to start is to acknowledge that there is indeed an authorship question. A lot of very clever people question the man from Stratford story.

I have a passion for symbolism, encouraged studying art history in the 80’s under the brilliant tutelage of Turner expert Dr David Hill. Having been taught to look, it seemed a no-brainer to me that the 400 year old headpiece of Shake-speares Sonnets was loaded with symbolism. I was astonished when Alexander Waugh told me that to his knowledge this was the first time in 400 years anyone had pointed this out or attempted to analyse the image.

The following is the result of very many enjoyable hours research, which also including attempting to paint the header in oils in order to better understand the art work. It has been fascinating. A massively heartfelt ‘thank you’ to Alexander Waugh for both inspiring and encouraging me to write up my thoughts, and then editing my overlong article and making me sound brainier than I really am.

And lastly, I love the timing, this has been published at the tail end of the year of the rabbit as hares speak of Shakespeare.

For simplicity, I have photographed the pages from the recently published De Vere Society Newsletter (Vol 31, No. 1, Winter 2024).

I hope you enjoy the article.

Kirsten

www.kirstenharrisart.co.uk

For more information on the authorship question – www.deveresociety.co.uk