They heavy lifting is done on the forthcoming New Shakespeare Allusion Book, but due to technical issues with typesetting the book is still forthcoming.
The two-volume, 980 page+ Allusion Book, written by myself and Alexander Waugh, aims to be the most complete and definitive study of the earliest Shakespeare allusions (1584-1786) ever compiled.
It reproduces, analyzes, and reinterprets — including doing a literature review and complete comprehensive bibliographical data on — 206 allusions to Shakespeare. It demolishes the accepted interpretation of allusions long-assumed to constitute unproblematic endorsements of Stratfordian belief. They are nothing of the kind.
In copious detail in over two hundred examples the book instead confirms that early modern writers were quite aware that “Shakespeare” was a pseudonym. Many even knew the identity of the real author.
Here’s a sample of the kind of visual evidence the book contains:
Here’s the Table of Contents of both volumes
Click for more on the Allusion book.
October 18, 2022 at 7:13 pm
Where can you get Allusion?
November 26, 2022 at 5:07 pm
Please explain your question. Do you mean “Were can one get the Shakespeare Allusion book,” the answer is that it is not yet available.
December 13, 2022 at 12:09 am
Hi, any update on a publication date?
December 26, 2022 at 5:59 pm
Coming. . . The production has taken months longer than anticipated.
January 10, 2023 at 11:22 pm
The production has been long delayed due complications. At this stage I am reluctant to offer any predictions. The book will first be printed in a very limited run for purposes of final corrections and marketing. When that happens there will be about twenty copies made only, so if you are anxious to get one please communicate your intent and reasoning of why you should get one. If it is then purchased, as we hope and expect, by a third party publisher, there will be another delay before the book is available for the general market. In the interim I recommend recent videos by Alexander and my own recent and forthcoming essays that are based on the research that went into the Allusion Books.
One of those articles is “Triumphal Numbers and the ‘Stigma of Print’: Michael Drayton’s Encomium to Shakespeare in Agincourt . It shows the application of techniques of esoteric writing in Drayton’s only utterance about Shakespeare surviving in the historical record, despite the fact that both men were prominent Warwickshire dramatist-poets. You can find it in The Oxfordian 24: https://shakespeareoxfordfellowship.org/the-oxfordian/. Would love to discuss those findings with you.
December 10, 2023 at 4:55 am
Greetings Professor Stritmatter,
I am very excited to get my hands on this!
December 10, 2023 at 11:54 pm
Thanks for your enthusiasm. The production has been delayed but is still moving forward.
June 26, 2024 at 2:34 pm
Prof. Stritmatter: I, like so many others, am really looking forward to the publication of this remarkable work. May we still have hopes to see it in print sometime soon?
Cary Jennings
Fort Worth TX
July 24, 2024 at 7:12 pm
Prof. Stritmatter: I think I perhaps understand part of the difficulties in getting this publication completed. I just learned the heartbreaking news of Mr. Waugh’s passing after a long illness.
December 1, 2024 at 10:05 am
I am also anticipating the publication of this book. I realize that the burdens and responsibilities are immense. I believe in you, and I wish you the best. This tremendous effort deserves to receive all the support that it needs in order to bring it to publication.