The Group's Name has been Tweaked, Again.

The group name has again been tweaked to “Edward de Vere, Shakespeare and Tudor Topics”.  Queen Elizabeth I and her Court will continue to be every bit as much a featured topic.

The "Edward de Vere, Shakespeare and Elizabethan Topics" Facebook group was created in order to learn and to enjoy the culture and history within which the works of Shakespeare were written.  Also to learn and enjoy that culture and history for its own sake.

It could only be the case that the majority of posts would not contain specific references to Shakespeare.  In fact, The Bard is necessarily only one of the many subjects discussed.  Great as he was, his world was vastly bigger than he.

So often, however, contemporary information and debates about Shakespeare and his works involve major errors for the fact that the presenter is largely or entirely ignorant of the context within and from which he wrote.  It is necessary to know Shakespeare’s times in order to understand his works.  Yet there are few places on the Internet that expressly seek to fill this need for context.

What better way to do so than to just share interesting and entertaining posts that address the playwright and his times without any particular effort to “teach” anything.  Let the posts go where they may (so long as they were on topic and civil) and slowly Shakespeare’s works will have more and more context for more and more readers.  This applies equally to context for the reign of Queen Elizabeth I and English history in general.

So then, the page has been much more about the period (roughly) from 1533-1623 in English culture and history than Shakespeare per se.  That is to say from the date of Queen Elizabeth I’s birth to the year of Shakespeare’s First Folio but without requiring that the two historical figures be the sole subject of all or even the majority of posts.  Most posts quite have properly turned out to be about Tudor culture in general — about the context within which the two figures, and all the English people, lived.  The members have made the choice collectively as to how often Shakespeare or the Authorship Question are properly mentioned. 

Over the past few months, however, as I have expanded my own work on the Internet to include all of ancient, medieval and Tudor times, I have slowly decided it is proper to expand the context, within which Elizabeth ruled and Shakespeare wrote, to the entire Tudor era.  While medieval times are also fascinating, I wanted to keep the general idea of the page the same — context for the reign and the works.  Therefore, difficult though the limitation was to adopt, I settled on a new range for the "Edward de Vere, Shakespeare and Tudor Topics" Facebook group of 1485-1623 — that is to say, roughly from the ascension of Henry VII, the first Tudor monarch, to the English throne, to the date of Shakespeare’s First Folio.  I also intend to open up the topics to cover the entire Western world during the period in question. 

This being the case, the group name has again be tweaked, this time to “Edward de Vere, Shakespeare and Tudor Topics”.  Queen Elizabeth I and her Court will continue to be every bit as much a regular topic.

Also over the past year, I have started a Facebook group specifically about Shakespeare Authorship: the “Edward De Vere was Shake-speare Group”  This group is being developed as a space specifically and solely to address/debate the Authorship issue.  Almost all posts have been my own until the group builds membership and  member posts.  The group has just gone over 100 members and I invite anyone who is interested to join and to post.  It is the affiliated group to the Edward de Vere was Shakespeare: at long last the proof Facebook book page dedicated to my first book on the subject.

Also, as members have begun to post advertisements for their Shakespeare and Tudor related products, it has become necessary to write Advertising Guidelines for the pages.  These guidelines allow posting occasional adverts but not only adverts.  One can not only posts ads.  If you wish to post ads you must also post non-commercial posts at least at the same rate.  The guidelines will necessarily be subject to change as prevailing conditions change.

So then, I look forward to another year of fascinating and entertaining posts ahead.  If you know of any friends who might also enjoy becoming members of the group I hope you will invite them to join us.

Should you have any questions please do not hesitate to ask.  Any suggestions, please do not hesitate to offer them up.

So then, post lots of interesting stuff!!!!  I look forward to seeing where things go!!!!


Also at Virtual Grub Street:

• Check out the Medieval Topics Article Index for many more articles about this fascinating time.
• Check out the English Renaissance Article Index for many more articles and reviews about this fascinating time.