Hank Whittemore and the Living Record of Shakespeare's Sonnets

[@StarShippCaptain]

Dear Hank, You are a Wonderful Man, who has made a Lasting Legacy: Your own Monument-To the Sonnets and its subjects: Edward De Vere, Southampton, and the Dark Lady Queen. Thank You. (And Thank You to the Host.)

[@markhughes7927]

30:13 So glad to have found the work of this extraordinarily gifted researcher. As undergraduate in 1978 - neglected much needful revision for final exams in two faculties poring over and annotating the sonnets. Got nowhere! but knew that there was a beast lurking in the waters! And - now - what a monster!❤ Bob Meyer a great interviewer…

[@markalexander6655]

Thanks, Bob and Hank. Hank, what a pleasure to hear your Sonnets origin story. Always a pleasure when you have a new book. Thank you. You’ll always be in my ranking of the top ten Oxfordians.

[@shakespearestreason]

Thanks so much, Mark. You are right up there, too!

[@Richard-hv5hh]

As a photographer myself and the nephew of Rosalind Franklin it's really nice to see Hank so inspired by Photo 51. I am also an Oxfordian and find the Shakespeare authorship question utterly fascinating. I certainly will buy his book.

[@richardwaugaman1505]

We know that your aunt Rosalind Franklin deserves far more credit for the discovery of the double helix.

[@Richard-hv5hh]

@@richardwaugaman1505 Richard that's kind of you. I can say something from my families point of view. My father, Sir Roland, is still alive and so is her sister Jennifer. I think they have been thrilled at the honour and recognition Rosalind has received around the world. She was so modest that no one in the family really knew how important her contribution was to DNA research. Interestingly her gravestone refers to her later work in virus research and does not mention DNA at all! So we do feel she has had huge recognition and that rather like Solieri, Watson has had to keep on living and being diminished whilst her star shines brightly! I wonder if he regrets being so callous to his colleagues in writing his famous book!

[@AngelEagle44]

The sonnets have always seemed like a poetic diary to me. "Where every word doth say my name" e-ver-y.

[@willshaw6405]

The anagram "Every word doth almost tell my name.." = E(d)word Ver As close to a smoking gun as we'll ever have.

[@MrMartibobs]

@@willshaw6405 Of course it is. You are definitely NOT deluded. Every time someone uses the word 'every' it is a reference to the 17th Earl. That's only common sense. I know for a fact that every time I write the word 'every' it's a coded reference to Edward de Vere. This is so obvious I scarcely need to say it.

[@varkony60]

Hank's pioneering The Monument is the single most important achievement in the SAQ field. It's a special pleasure for me to reinforce in more ways, even to augment, his results. Thank you, Hank.

[@StarShippCaptain]

"I thought, I have to give this [obsession] up!" Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha!! Not possible!

[@padraigosuilleabhain6511]

Inspiring...thanks and congratulations on wonderful scholarship and discovery

[@alainaaugust1932]

Watching a wide assortment of KZbin Oxford videos, I cannot say which one was of a scholar relating that the 1609 publication was for 100 copies. Those were swiftly ordered confiscated. Some copies obviously escaped. A hundred years later the Sonnets were republished. So we have them. Your concept, Hank, accords with and explains this timeline. Hope you may cross paths with that scholar. I vaguely recall it was a woman who dug in libraries and old manuscripts, etc. Brilliant.

[@AngelEagle44]

I loved this book. It put the "nail in the coffin" for who actually wrote the Shake-Speare works. It is phenomenal! A great read, Everything makes sense.

[@SAVANNAHEVENTS]

Bravo again. I am amazed by the insightful and illuminating way in which you conduct these research based, intuitive interviews. Brings out the best and then some.

[@AngelEagle44]

I want the book!

[@markhughes7927]

45:24 ‘ it cannot not-be true’……like Fuller’s mathematics (‘Synergetics’) like Thiering’s exposition of how ‘pesher’ works in the N.T. (p.s. you sold an extra copy.)

[@mississaugataekwondo8946]

I love this conversation and have ordered the book. I hope to see if there is any discussion of sonnet 134 to assess if the he is thine is a statement that Henry de Vere is Wriothesley's son by either Penelope Rich or Elizabeth Trentham

[@EndoftheTownProductions]

Sonnet 136 refers to the author of the sonnets: "My name is Will."

[@philiphavey]

I far less than 900 pages, I would offer the William Kye’s revising his father ‘s sonnet series written to dying Edward VI. The father, Thomas Kyes, was the Lord Gate Keeper to four Tudor monarchs until he married Mary Grey whom was in the line of royal i hesitance.

[@avlasting3507]

If Henry Wriothesley was EdV's son, how then could he have seriously considered marrying Elizabeth Vere, his half sister?

[@Alacrates]

I'm not sure about this theory as a whole, but I'm definitely considering it About Southampton and Elizabeth Vere, in Dorothea Dickerman's interview on the Don't Quill the Messenger podcast, "Begin at the Beguine", she makes the argument that Elizabeth Vere wasn't actually de Vere's daughter. Dickerman's takes the subtext of Venus & Adonis as being about Southampton's true parentage, and the Rape of Lucrece as about Elizabeth Vere's parentage. I can't describe her whole argument here, I definitely recommend listening to that podcast... Dickerman doesn't rely solely on literary evidence, but includes some compelling historical details...

[@vetstadiumastroturf5756]

Incest was a common thing among European Aristocracy. Intermarriage was the easiest way to keep power in the family. Shakespeare writes about incest in at least four plays.

[@rooruffneck]

In this interview do they make clear that his theory is that South Hampton was the child of Oxford and the Queen?

[@shakespearestreason]

maybe not clear enough -- but that is the theory

[@willshaw6405]

Best explanation yet for these peculiar and uniquely personal poems. Hank's "theory", like Looney's, will be proven stronger with the passage of time. It would have even been a better story if Hank or Bob had related the conventional theories of what the sonnets were all about (fair youth gay affair, sharing the dark lady etc). Put in that perspective, Hank's theory falls gracefully into place, gilded in common sense, and supported strongly by events.

[@joecurran2811]

​@@willshaw6405Also, Venus and Adonis is about bastardry. It's a way to keep his line, through his own DNA