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=Welcome to the 2009-10 Shakespeare Compendium! =

===Each 8th grade English class prepared its own Shakespeare Compendium. Click on the links listed in the navigation menu to the left to explore that class's work. === ===For more information on Shakespeare and the 8th graders' studies of Shakespearean England, visit Mrs. Barth's wiki. === ===You can also follow Mrs. Barth's 2008 trip to Stratford-upon-Avon and London at her blog. ===

Shakespeare in the News
The authorship controversy rages on! Is someone else behind Shakespeare's plays? Read this recent Wall Street Journal article, "The Shakespeare Whodunit" by Alexandra Alter published in the April 2, 2010 WSJ, and find out what a Columbia University professor thinks. There's even a movie in the works!  Here's an article about the movie being made about the authorship controversy -- from the director of //2012 // . Ugh! Click here to read "Alas, Poor Shakespeare" by James Shapiro in the LA Times. 

A lost Shakespeare play discovered? Click here to read the article: Centuries later, lost Shakespeare 'found'?

Stolen Shakespeare?! An antiques dealer is accused of having stolen a rare **FIRST FOLIO** from the Durham University library in December 1998. When he took it to the Folger Shakespeare Library recently to verify its authenticity, the librarians quickly realized that the priceless volume he had in his possession was stolen. Here's another article: Man held over theft of Shakespeare first folio.

April 23rd is both the day William Shakespeare was born (in 1564) and died (in 1616). Want some ideas on how to celebrate this important date? Check out this link a student submitted: [|"5 Ways to Celebrate Shakespeare's Birthday"]

Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens is an Oxfordian! According to [|the article "Justice Stevens Renders an Opinion on Who Wrote Shakespeare's Plays," published in the April 18-19, 2009 Wall Street Journal]Justice Stevens believes evidence shows that Shakespeare did not write everything attributed to him, but rather 17th Earl of Oxford Edward de Vere did! Oxfordians believe that "only a nobleman could have produced writings so replete with intimate depictions of courtly life and exotic settings far beyond England" (Bravin A1), so Shakespeare, son of a working-class glover from Stratford, could never have written such rich and complex works. [|Check out the related blog entry from Wall Street Journal online.]

[|An article in the New York Times looks at a death mask created in 1616 and asks, is it William Shakespeare'?] "Is a death mask found in a ragpicker's shop in 1842 that of William Shakespeare? The British weekly New Scientist says the mask, bearing the date 1616 and the high forehead, prominent nose and beard associated with Shakespeare, could be, Agence France-Presse reported" (Van Gelder).

[[image:8th-grade-english:NewShakespeare.jpg align="left" caption="NewShakespeare.jpg"]]
**A new portrait of Shakespeare has been discovered!**

"Portrait of Shakespeare Unveiled, 399 Years Late" by Robert Mackey Published: March 9, 2009A Shakespeare scholar unveiled a painting today in London that he claims was made during the Bard's lifetime -- the first such likeness known to exist. [|Click here to go to the article.]

"Unique portrait of Shakespeare unveiled" Published: Mon Mar 9, 2009 [|Click here to go to the article.]


 * [[image:8th-grade-english:TheTheatreSite.jpg align="left" caption="TheTheatreSite.jpg"]]The site of The Theatre, the first theatre Shakespeare worked at and the forerunner to The Globe, has been found. //Dream// was performed at this site! The timbers of //this site// were the ones that Shakespeare and his friends supposedly pushed across the frozen Thames to build The Globe.**

"Shakespeare's first theatre found" Published: Monday, March 9, 2009 [|Click here to go to the article.]

"Shakespeare's lost theatre uncovered..." Published: 09 Mar 2009 [|Click here to go to the article.]