Italy and the Bard
From Mr Christopher H. Dams Sir: Professor McWilliam asserts, as a refu- tation of the Oxfordian case (Letters, 20 May), that 'the playwright [Shakespeare] knew absolutely nothing about Dante'. This is an assumption, without foundation in evi- dence. There is no mention of Chaucer either in Shakespeare; are we therefore to infer that our greatest poet knew nothing of his greatest predecessor in English? The facts are these: that the Italian plays show great familiarity with social and topo- graphical details of northern Italian life; that even some of the playwright's 'mis- takes' regarding, for example, navigation on the waterways of the Po valley are now being shown to be correct; that Edward de Vere did travel in Italy and, on his return, was lampooned as the Italian Earl; that there is no record that Shakespeare of Stratford ever left these shores.
The professor's jocular suggestion that `Shakespeare dropped in from another galaxy' is hardly funnier than the belief, to which he apparently subscribes, that the playwright came from Stratford-upon-Avon.
Christopher H. Dams New Orchard House, Long Sutton, Somerset
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