Former KU professor speaks on Shakespeare's true identity

Cristina De'Armas / The Bulletin

Albert W. Burgstahler speaks about cryptic messages, revealing Shakespeare’s real name.

Albert W. Burgstahler discussed several pieces of cryptological evidence that William Shakespeare was actually a man named Edward de Vere at the Honors Program Tuesday evening. Burgstahler has been studying the true identity of Shakespeare for nearly 10 years.

“Edward de Vere was the son of the 16th Earl of Oxford, a distinguished family in England from the time of Norman the Conqueror,” Burgstahler said. “Their family was very active at that time for producing plays at their castle and so forth. So he had that experience. He was also trained by an expert scholar in language. His tutoring in languages and literature was enormous.”

De Vere helped produce plays at court and was an active traveler. He is known to have written plays, but the names of the plays are unknown. Burgstahler believes those plays are the ones we consider to be Shakespeare’s.

John Thomas Looney first suggested that Edward de Vere was the true author of Shakespeare’s plays in the 1920s. Burgstahler discussed clues hidden in Shakespeares’ sonnets. Out of 154 sonnets by Shakespeare, 99 contain an “EOX” symbol that can be found using cryptology.

According to Brugstaher, the “EOX” means “Earl of Oxford.” Burgstahler discussed how Henry Peacham, in his “Compleat Gentlemen” never mentions a William Shakespeare as a great author of the time. However, he does mention Oxford.

Burgstahler encouraged students to think beyond the classroom and to question things they are taught.

“When you’re a student, don’t just stop at the textbook,” Burgstahler said. “Realize that there are interesting questions that ought to be looked at. Be willing to search and explore. Dare to be brave, so to speak, to come up with an idea, but check it out… try to get your facts straight and try to see if your ideas really fit.”

Students found the lecture insightful and many said they would explore the subject more on their own.

“I think it’s probably one of the most convincing arguments that I’ve heard thus far-that Shakespeare isn’t Shakespeare,” said Aubrey Rice, freshman English literature major and member of the Honors Program. “It would mean that Shakespeare was far less of a genius than he is put out to be. If he learned all of this stuff ahead of time, then he’s just very well versed in his craft. It sounds like a viable option to look into, and it’s certainly pretty interesting for English majors.”

Many faculty members also found the lecture to be interesting.

“I found his talk fascinating and ingenious,” said William Clamurro, Spanish professor and Honors Program director. “When I studied Shakespeare as an undergraduate, we really dealt with more or less an intrinsic textbook criticism and not in the historical and biographical approaches…What’s really interesting, over the argument of the authorship, is the personalities involved. What was the 17th Earl of Oxford really like? What was Shakespeare really like? He’s a mysterious guy. He’s the names we’ve attached to these [pieces].”

According to Burgstahler, there were several reasons for de Vere to conceal his true identity, including the content of the plays, the possible embarrassment of the Crown, the scandals of Oxford’s life and the Prince of Tudor theory.

At the end of the lecture, Burgstahler allowed the audience to try cryptology for themselves. He also held a question and answer session. Burgstahler is a retired chemistry professor from the University of Kansas.