Two Sides to Every Story: Christopher Columbus - Hero or Brute?

Christopher Columbus: Hero or Brute

I have wanted to write this post for over a month now after having a conversation with a coworker about Christopher Columbus, however I decided to wait for much better timing – and what could be better than Columbus Day! This post is designed to look at the two sides of the mythic man of Christopher Columbus – was he this hero who “found” America and should be celebrated every October? or was there more to this man than meets the eye? There are two distinct versions of Columbus – the one we celebrate and the one that we do not learn about even in history classes.

Hero of Myth

Columbus Discovers America

The man we celebrate is the one who persevered to get this expedition to the Indies funded by the Spanish monarchs, sailed his three ships across a lethal Atlantic Ocean, and who ultimately found the island of Hispanola (thinking it was the Indies) and claimed it for Spain. He is celebrated as a great explorer and someone whom we should remember with a day off from work or school.  He is the man of our "Creation Story".


Brute

Spread of Disease and Sickness

When we look a little closer at the real contributions of Columbus and his voyages we get to the grittier side. He didn’t really discover America – explorers had been dropping by for a long time before he arrived. He brought widespread death and destruction to the native populations from diseases, enforced slavery, and other brutal changes brought to their island. It is also believed that he was not even well liked by his own crews.


So how do we rectify these two very different men? If any of you are teachers, do you teach Columbus in class, and if so how? I’m just curious (when I was in grade school it was all celebrations and learning the rhymes and stories of the Nina, Pinta, and Santa Maria sailing across the ocean to discover America. I think the only other thing I got was in high school when we had a new history teacher who actually talked of bringing over small pox). Does it make sense that we have a national holiday to celebrate the contributions of Columbus? We currently only have federal holidays that celebrate individuals in honor of Martin Luther King Jr. and Christopher Columbus – should we maybe substitute someone in place of Columbus to celebrate with an individual day? Who would you suggest?

If you are interested in a book that examines how textbooks teach about Columbus, you should check out Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong by James Loewen. He has a great chapter on Columbus and his voyages. This was one of the things that prompted this post. I do think that Columbus is someone that we should certainly teach about, however I think that we should give a better rounded lesson.





Copyright © 2011 by The Maiden’s Court

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Two Sides to Every Story: William Shakespeare v. Alternate Authors

William Shakespeare v. Alternate Authors

When a discussion of Shakespeare arises, at some point the theory that someone else wrote some (or all) of his works will surface. While the majority of Shakespeare academics discount the theory that it was someone other than Shakespeare, that fact that it is still pervasive indicates it should be addressed. Below we will explore some of the different possibilities of who might have written his works – as well as some of the evidence to support that it was none other than the Bard himself.

William Shakespeare

Of course the majority of people believe that William Shakespeare did indeed write his novels. Other people in Shakespeare’s time also believed in the identity of William Shakespeare. He was cited several times by other poets within their writings as a person of note in the genre. Even in his death he looked out for several of the other actors from the King’s Men – who starred in many plays with him. There is also evidence in the way he wrote his plays that support him as the true author – he wasn’t a highly educated man and his plays were not written for the highly educated. His writing avoids many of the stylistic methods that noble writers used and he frequently made errors when referring to classical events.

Interestingly enough, a study, The Claremont Shakespeare Clinic, was conducted from 1987 to 2010 by a person who was sympathetic to the idea that someone other than the Bard wrote his plays. This study used a computer model to compare Shakespeare’s writing style to the styles of numerous possible Shakespeare writers. The ultimate result of these tests suggests the plays were written by one person and eliminated all of the other possible authors. The stylistic evidence that they used included: he used fewer relative clauses and more hyphens, feminine endings, and run-on lines than most of the writers with whom he was compared.

Alternate Authors

Since the idea that some or all of his works were not written by 1 person, over 70 alternatives have been brought up. Some of these potential authors are ridiculous while 4 others are considered in more depth. These 4 are: Sir Francis Bacon, Edward de Vere, Christopher Marlowe, and William Stanley.

Sir Francis Bacon – Bacon was brought up as a potential Shakespeare in 1856 – more than 200 years after Shakespeare’s death. The biggest evidence in support of Bacon is that there are many similar sentences and phrases in both Shakespeare’s and Bacon’s works. They also suggest that there are many legal references in the plays and supports the theory of Bacon because he was a lawyer. They also suggested that ciphers hidden within the plays support Bacon as the author – the word honorificabilitudinitatibus supposedly translates to the Latin phrase meaning – “These plays, the offering of F. Bacon, are preserved for the world”.

Edward de Vere – This theory came to popularity in the 1920’s. Those that support de Vere’s claim suggest that events that occur in Shakespeare’s plays are indicative of events in de Vere’s life – particularly in Hamlet. They also state that there are over 1,500 anagrams of the name E. Vere within Shakespeare’s works. The biggest downfall to this theory is that 10 of the Shakespeare works came out after de Vere died and supporters say that these works were really written at a different date that usually attributed to them.

Christopher Marlowe – The idea of Marlowe being the author or a co author was suggested in 1884. He came from the same social background and was very close in age to Shakespeare. To support this theory it must be believed that Marlowe faked his death in 1593. He then wrote under the name of Shakespeare to avoid being collared for atheism. There are stylistic similarities between the two authors and hidden meanings in his works. Shakespeare’s first play, Venus and Adonis went on sale just shortly after Marlowes death.

William Stanley – Stanley was raised as a potential author in 1891. Derby was known to pen some plays and his initials were also W.S. Several of the people that he was known to associate with and events in his life are believed to alluded to in plays – William Cecil (Hamlet), events in Navarre (Love’s Labour’s Lost), and William Herbert and Philip Herbert (who First Folio was dedicated to).


Have you heard any of these theories? What do you think of them – do they hold water for you? For me, Shakespeare is Shakespeare.





Copyright © 2011 by The Maiden’s Court

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