I was recently talking to some old high school classmates and was reminded of how one of our English teachers told our class that William Shakespeare was a pen name and that all of the work credited to him was actually written by Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford. Her main pieces of evidence were that William Shakespeare’s signature on his will looked “illiterate” and that in Hamlet, the titular character >!was captured by pirates which was “clearly” based on when de Vere was also captured by pirates.!< Our class was reading Othello at the time. Looking into it now, I see that alternative Shakespeare authorship theories are somewhat popular but are considered a fringe theory by academics.
Does anyone else have similar stories about high school English teachers’ hot takes backed by dubious evidence or no evidence at all?
by ZookeepergameGood962
3 Comments
My English teacher told us the same thing but also that he was having an affair with the Queen or something, and that’s why he had to use a pen name. Also that the pen name is like “shake a spear” at the elite??? I don’t really remember, but I don’t think she super believed it. She just had seen a documentary about it the night before and thought it was “interesting” and “made some good points.”
My English teacher tried to tell us that Shane was a parable about Jesus. I think we laughed him down.
I also will always treasure the English teacher who wanted us all to discuss, in Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner, “what was wrong with the MC that he had no school spirit” 🙄😂
My grade 12 English teacher told us that Hamlet doesn’t succeed because he doesn’t get God on his side.
He mispronounced words all the time and dug in his heels if corrected or questioned.
(He also said some horribly homophobic things, so a real charmer all around).
I ended up winning a government award for English and they sent him a prize too ‘for teaching me so well’, and I’m still mad about it 30 years later.