• Reviewing James Shapiro's Contested Will (2010), Sir Stanley Wells wrote: "Those in search of the risible will find the story of the Oxfordian movement no less rewarding than that of Baconianism" ("Plotting Against the Stratford Man", The New York Review of Books, 27 May 2010).
But what if it turns out, as it just possibly might, that William Shakespeare of Stratford was not the author of the plays ascribed to him? There is a theory, advanced by reputable scholars, seriously and, in my opinion, plausibly, that Shakespeare merely lent his name as a cover for the literary activities of another person, perhaps the Earl of Oxford. If, by some terrible chance, this theory should be proved, then straightway Stratford's tourist business would dwindle. It would become just one more, and honestly not one in the first ten, of England's picturesque small towns.
What It Means
This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets "But what if it turns out, as it just possibly might, that William Shakespeare of Stratford was not the author of the plays ascribed to him? There is a theory, advanced by reputable scholars, seriously and, in my opinion, plausibly, that Shakespeare merely lent his name as a cover for the literary activities of another person, perhaps the Earl of Oxford. If, by some terrible chance, this theory should be proved, then straightway Stratford's tourist business would dwindle. It would become just one more, and honestly not one in the first ten, of England's picturesque small towns." in the context of "Tyrone Guthrie "Threat of Newness to Old Stratford", The New York Times Magazine (April 22, 1962), pp. 12, 60–61.
• Reviewing James Shapiro's Contested Will (2010), Sir Stanley Wells wrote: "Those in search of the risible will find the story of the Oxfordian movement no less rewarding than that of Baconianism" ("Plotting Against the Stratford Man", The New York Review of Books, 27 May 2010)." to mean that wisdom is timeless.
