Re: Edward Dowden' daughter's JAPES
neufer
>> _Thirty-Six Plays in Search of an Author_ by William M. Murphy
>>http://tinyurl.com/296qhc
>> <<(1) A belief in conspiracy. Most anti-Stratfordians believe
>> that there is a vast conspiracy of silence by the members
>> of what they call the "Stratford Establishment."
nordicskiv2 <David.L.W...@Dartmouth.edu> wrote:
>
> Such a bizarre belief is manifestly untenable
> -- our vast conspiracy is anything but silent!
Oh...just shut up, Dave!
>> In May, 1956, twenty-two Oxfordians,
>> including nine lawyers, took a half-page ad in The Shakespeare
>> Newsletter to berate members of the Establishment for refusing to give
>> their case a fair hearing. The fact is, of course, that their case has
>> been heard, thoroughly explored, and found without merit. The modern
>> conspiracy is simply a counterpart of the earlier one in which the
>> Stratfordian Shakespeare connived with Bacon
>> (or Oxford, or Dyer, or Derby)
nordicskiv2 <David.L.W...@Dartmouth.edu> wrote:
>
> ...or Queen Elizabeth...or Neville...or Greville...
Or Cruella De Vil?
>> to keep the Real Author unknown. The fact that the conspiracy
>> was so beautifully managed that no records were left to betray
>> it to later generations is additional proof of its existence.
nordicskiv2 <David.L.W...@Dartmouth.edu> wrote:
>
>> (2) An extreme hatred of an imaginary enemy. Th[E] enemy,
>> of course, is William Shakespeare of Stratford-o[N]-Avon.
nordicskiv2 <David.L.W...@Dartmouth.edu> wrote:
>
> Indeed, one of the more demented anti-Stratfordians persists in
> calling Shakespeare an illiterate boob, a clear case of the pot
> calling the kettle black.
>> (3) The invention of new logical systems to provide d[E]sired answers
>> that fail to be revealed by older and mor[E] widely accepted ones.
>> Here the Ogburns and their crew a[R]e supreme examples. But we
>> should not fail to acknowled[G]e their debt to Ignatius Donnelly
>> and his ciphers, nor for[E]go a word of praise for Mrs. Ashmead
>> Windle a[N]d Alden Brooks for their splendid gifts.
nordicskiv2 <David.L.W...@Dartmouth.edu> wrote:
>
> It wouldn't do to forget the contributions of Percy Allen either.
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<<In London in the 1940s a man named Percy Allen, overwhelmed by grief
at the death of his brother, sought out the renowned psychic of the
day, Hester Dowden. Through Dowden’s primary connection to the dead—an
ancient Athenian named Johannes—Allen spoke at length to his recently
deceased brother. Astounded by Dowden’s occult talents, Allen decided
that she could assist him professionally as well: Allen, president of
the Shakespeare Fellowship—a group that believed the Earl of Oxford
was the author of Shakespeare’s plays—returned to Dowden and asked her
to summon the spirit of the Earl of Oxford, or Shakespeare, or Francis
Bacon. Dowden—fortuitously enough the daughter of a Shakespeare
scholar
—managed to summon all three, and they confirmed that Oxford was
indeed the man. Oxford was even generous enough to relay a few
unpublished verses. Allen ecstatically published his discussions and
findings in Talks With Elizabethans in 1947. This was not the first
time Dowden had precipitated a book’s publication: Alfred Dodd’s The
Immortal Master, in which the ghost of Francis Bacon assures Dodd of
his own claim to Shakespeare’s oeuvre, was released in 1943.>> -
Contested Will: Who Wrote Shakespeare? by James Shapiro
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http://www.answers.com/topic/hester-dowden
<<Hester Dowden (1868-1949) was the *daughter of a Shakespeare
scholar* Prof. Edward Dowden (3 May 1843 – 4 April 1913) whose
biographical/critical concepts in connection with Shakespeare are
played with by Stephen Dedalus in the library chapter
of James Joyce's Ulysses.
Hester was a professional medium whose psychic development
was marked by the successive appearance of five spirit personalities:
[J]ohannes, [A]stor, [P]eter, [E]yen, and [S]hamar.
...................................................................................
_ John Galsworthy's _The Burning Spear_ Chapter 1
"No facts; what they want is ginger. Yes, Mr. *JAPES* ?"
............................................
[JAPES] *JAPE* , n. A *JEST* ; a trick.
*JAPE* , v. i. [Prob. from the same source as gab,influenced by F.
japper to yelp.] To jest; to play tricks; to jeer. [Obs.] Chaucer.
*JAPE* , v. t. To mock; to trick. Chaucer.
...............................
_____ The Pardoner's Tale
"Tell us some mirth of japes* right anon." *jokes
By this gaud* have I wonne year by year *jest, trick
A hundred marks, since I was pardonere.
I stande like a clerk in my pulpit,
And when the lewed* people down is set, *ignorant
I preache so as ye have heard before,
And telle them a hundred japes* more. *jests, deceits
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<<Hester Dowden was later known for her experiments in automatic
writing. Her first circle was formed during the winter of 1914. At the
second or third sitting an entity calling himself "Peter Rooney" made
his appearance. He claimed to be an Irish American who had spent most
of his life in jail. Rooney committed suicide by throwning himself
under a tramcar in Boston. Reportedly Sir William Barrett made
inquiries and found inconsistencies in the tale. Rooney was questioned
at a subsequent séance and admitted that he had lied because he had no
desire to communicate his real name. He claimed to have been
interested in psychical research during his life and wished to assist
investigations now. He introduced many features to the séance,
initiated blindfold sittings on the Ouija board, and tried experiments
in telepathy. Eyen claimed to have been an Egyptian priest in the
temple of Isis in the reign of Rameses II. He was attracted to the
medium by a piece of cerecloth in which his mummy was wrapped. Astor,
the third control, professed to be the guide of Geraldine Cummins,
with whom Dowden often sat. She was chiefly interested in the
activities of Cummins and clairvoyance and prophecies. Shamar, the
fourth control was a Hindu. She claimed to be the medium's spirit
guide, Eyen being "the guide of her astral." She sent communications
from living persons who were asleep or drowsy. Johannes was the latest
development as a spirit guide. He claimed to have lived 200 years
before Christ and studied in the Alexandrian Library. He gave
philosophical teachings that were similar to the Neoplatonic
philosophy of Plotinus (205-270 C.E.). H. Dennis Bradley became
convinced of the reality of Johannes as an independent personality as
a result of a direct voice sitting with the medium George Valiantine
in February 1924. Reportedly Bradley had many sittings with Dowden and
later developed automatic writing himself. He could not keep pace with
the terrific speed of the communications from Johannes, although he
wrote in shorthand. Leaving his hand limp, he discovered that he could
write at an infinitely quicker pace and without exhaustion. Of the
existence of the first four controls, Barrett, in his introduction to
Mrs. H. Travers-Smith's book Voices from the Void (1919), states, "I
am strongly disposed to consider many of them as distant psychic
entities and not in all cases mere phases of the personality of the
automatist."
The author Lennox Robinson and Rev. Savell Hicks were sitting with
Dowden when this message came through: "Pray for Hugh Lane." Then, on
being asked who was speaking: "I am Hugh Lane; all is dark" came
through. Shortly after, it continued: "It is Sir Hugh Lane, drowned.
Was on board the Lusitania." At that moment boys were selling the
evening newspapers in the street. Robinson ran out. When he came back
he pointed to the name of Sir Hugh Lane in the story of the disaster,
reported for the first time. The communications from Sir Hugh Lane
described the scene on the Lusitania: "Panic. Boats lowered. Women
went first. Lost in an overcrowded boat, fell over. Lost all memory
until I saw a light at the sitting." The medium knew Sir Hugh Lane
personally but had heard that he had gone to America before the
sinking of the Lusitania. On her way home that day Dowden saw posters:
"Lusitania reported sinking" but had no personal interest in the news
as she knew no one on board. Lane continued to come through
in séances afterward and wanted several of his wishes
communicated to his executors.
In a similar instance, the following message was spelled out rapidly:
"Ship sinking; all hands lost. William East overboard. Women and
children weeping and wailing—sorrow, sorrow, sorrow." The newspaper
stop press was heard being called out in the street. The medium bought
a paper. It contained the news that the Titanic had gone down. She
believed that the name William East was incorrect and that it must
have been William Stead. Dowden later served as the amanuensis
for The Life Eternal, supposedly written by Stead
from the spirit world in 1933.
Reportedly Dowden channeled several romantic scripts: descriptions of
King Arthur's Round Table and of the missionary journeys of St. Philip
the Evangelist. When she sat with Frederick Bligh Bond, a group of
Glastonbury monks came through and recited details of the burial of
abbey relics in 1080. Cummins's writing mediumship developed in her
sittings. The communications often referred to the future. Events in
her life were sometimes foretold years ahead. Her first book, Voices
from the Void (1919), contains an account of her own experiences. Her
second volume, Psychic Messages from Oscar Wilde (1923), was featured
in the Daily News, on July 27, 1923. The article claimed he gave
criticisms of many writers. Of George Bernard Shaw, he writes: "I had
a kindly feeling for poor Shaw. He had such a keen desire to be
original that it moved my pity. He was without any sense of beauty or
even a sense of the dramatic side of life. And yet there was the
passionate yearning to be a personage, to force his person on the
world, to press in, in spite of the better taste of those who went
before him. I have a very great respect for his work. After all, he is
my fellow-countryman. We share the same misfortune in that matter. I
think Shaw may be called the true type of pleb. He is so anxious to
prove himself honest and outspoken that he utters a great deal more
than he is able to think. He is ever ready to call upon his audience
to admire his work, and his audience admires it from
sheer sympathy with his delight."
The Oscar Wilde script was produced in cooperation with psychical
researcher S. G. Soal (also an automatist), who held the pencil.
He later wrote a critical reflection upon his experience.>>
-----------------------------
Art Neuendorffer