SHAKESPEARE’ SECRET Read Online Free PDF

working on. They had ornate crimson script curling across them.
    â€œThose are pretty,” she said.
    â€œThank you. They’re for the opening reception of that Hamlet exhibit your father’s been talking about.” Her mother glanced out the window. “Speak of the devil.”
    Hero heard the sound of her father’s car in the driveway. A minute later he came through the door, scattering car keys and loose change right in front of her.
    He ruffled her hair. “Hello, ladybird! How was the day?”
    â€œFine,” Hero answered promptly, hoping to cut off further questions. She thought of Mrs. Roth’s comment about her father’s job. “Hey Dad,” she said. “Mrs. Roth told me the guy who sold us the house was really interested in what you do. You know, that you study Shakespeare and everything. She said it’s why he sold the house to us.”
    â€œMrs. Roth?” Her father looked at her blankly.
    â€œThe lady next door.”
    â€œOh, right. Well, yes, that’s true. It’s an odd connection, isn’t it? The wife’s relationship to Edward de Vere, of all people.”
    Now it was Hero’s turn to look blank. “What do you mean? Who’s Edward de Vere?”
    Her mother clucked in mock disapproval. “You girls never pay attention to your father. He told youabout this when we went through the house after the closing.”
    â€œHe did?” Hero had no recollection of any story about an Edward de Vere. But her father often digressed into long-winded literary lectures that she and Beatrice were in the habit of ignoring.
    â€œIndeed I did,” her father protested. “Edward de Vere, the seventeenth Earl of Oxford, the man who might be Shakespeare. Ring a bell?”
    The Earl of Oxford did vaguely ring a bell. But what did he have to do with Shakespeare, or with the Murphys for that matter? “Tell me again,” Hero said.
    Her father pulled a chair away from the table and sat down next to her. He ran his hand over the short scruff of his beard and leaned forward intently. “Apparently, Arthur Murphy’s late wife was a descendant of Edward de Vere, the Elizabethan courtier whom some believe is the real author of Shakespeare’s plays and sonnets. The secret Shakespeare. There’s no proof, of course, but there are some intriguing clues.”
    Hero looked at him, puzzled. “I don’t get it. Why does anybody think Shakespeare didn’t write his own plays?”
    â€œWell, let’s see. Three things, really. First, William Shakespeare was a humble merchant. He had nomore than a grammar-school education and wasn’t worldly or well-traveled as far as we know. Yet the plays depend on a vast knowledge of many subjects-literature, history, law, and geography—not to mention specific details of royal life.”
    â€œCouldn’t he have learned about those things from books?” Hero asked.
    â€œIt’s possible, but the point is, he wasn’t an educated man. He was an ordinary businessman, without the library or other resources of a wealthier person. Then there’s the second reason: When Shakespeare died, there were no obituaries or public homages paid to him. Think of that: a man now considered the greatest playwright of the English language and whose work was deservedly popular in its own time. He died quietly praises unsung.”
    â€œWhat’s the third reason?” Hero asked.
    Her father tapped the edge of the table with his fingertips. “That’s the most interesting of all. Shakespeare left behind no collection of books, no manuscripts of his plays or verses, no documents in his own handwriting that link him to the literature. It’s very strange. Other Elizabethan playwrights and poets kept extensive libraries of their own and other writers’ material. Actually, only six signatures inShakespeare’s hand exist. They’re quite primitive and show