Shakespeare's Changeling

Literature & Fiction

synopsis

Synopsis

Charged in 1616 by the Earls of Pembroke and Montgomery to edit a folio of Shakespeare plays, writer Ben Jonson races against time to find the missing manuscripts by seeking out his former nemesis in Stratford. Can William Shaxper's deathbed confession reveal the mysteries of the Shakespeare authorship that could threaten the throne of King James I?

bio

Author Biography

I am an author and educator who believes that writers create within the context of their own experience. By helping students connect the real Shake-speare with his life and works, we enable them to see relationships in their own learning, thinking and writing. Was there more than one Shake-speare, or was he really Lord Oxford, a known writer of his time forced to hide behind his distant kinsman, a grain merchant from Stratford? Not sure? Read my controversial novel and think about it.

website

Author Insight

Shaxper's Deathbed Confession

Will Shaxper of Stratford died on April 23, 1616 - and yet the mythology of his authorship lives on! Most of the "facts" about his life and supposed authorship of the Shakespeare plays are historical fiction themselves. There is no proof that Shaxper ever attended his local school - no evidence of his honing his literary skills - no record of his library or ownership of books of any kind - no record of travel to Italy, or of his having met the Queen, or of his ever having gone to war. But Lord Oxford did all those things and more. Hey! Don't you have to know HOW to do something in order to be able to DO it?

Book Excerpt

Shakespeare's Changeling

“I am prepared to acknowledge your unique contribution to Lord Oxford’s work in our folio,” Jonson bargained. “After all, you were his most faithful confidante.”

“More important than his wives, his lovers, his children or his beloved Queen,” Shaxper added. “I guarded his darkest secrets, any one of which could have toppled the nation when he was angry; and oh, he was angry so often! I always managed to calm him down and remind him that our secret work on behalf of England was more important.”

“God’s blood, he needed no reminder of that from the likes of you. Your audacity makes my head spin.”

“Very well, Jonson; spin this – to hell with you and the Herberts and your Shake-speare folio. I won’t summon my man, but I’ll not say another word. I’ll take my secrets to the grave.”

Shaxper folded his arms and pursed his lips like a spoiled child. “Forgive me,” Jonson pleaded anxiously, realizing he’d gone too far.

He gently grasped Shaxper by the shoulders and looked into his eyes. “I was wrong to offend you, sir. After all these years, you do deserve a proper hearing for everything you suffered as Lord Oxford’s front man. I’m sure it would lighten your spirit to reveal those secrets, even to an old fire-eater like me. Let’s close the rift between us. Perhaps it would mend your ailing heart to bring you to some confession of your true state, as it were.”

“Yes, a deathbed confession would ease my mind,” Shaxper said. “But I must warn you – the truth will be far more burdensome than you think.”

Jonson ignored the warning. He sat down to listen and visualized the manuscripts drifting closer.