Shakespeare conspiracy theorist and former Monkees music director Alan Green’s daydream belief that Bard’s manuscripts hidden in Holy Trinity altar
A SHAKESPEARE conspiracy theorist is holding a lengthy prayer vigil while hoping to make some mega discoveries about the Bard’s ‘true identity’.
Alan Green styles himself as a cryptanalyst – an expert in deciphering coded messages.
His ‘discoveries’ include his belief that The Sonnets title page, published in 1609, reveals the geographical co-ordinates of the Great Pyramid.
British-born, but now living in America, Mr Green arrived in Stratford last weekend and says he is here to the end of June to hold “a prayer vigil at Shakespeare’s church for several hours a day, six days a week in hopes of bringing public attention to Shakespeare’s last wishes and having them honoured”.
Mr Green’s thinking is that canny old Shakespeare stuffed important documents, including original manuscripts, into a large cavity in the altar stone of Holy Trinity.
Furthermore Mr Green says he has “scientific proof”, after doing a covert radar scan of the altar stone in 2011. He confesses he did the scan “during a performance of his musical, BARD, presented for the church elders and a small congregation. The images of the stone’s interior conclusively authenticate that something is hidden inside.”
Green added: “We have the scientific proof! All that’s required is the Will... to answer Shakespeare’s final prayer!”
A press statement issued to the Herald attempts to clarify why Shakespeare would feel the need to hide his stash, Holy Grail-like, in the altar stone: “But why did Shakespeare have objects hidden in the altar stone? By deciphering the codes that Shakespeare placed in his monument, gravestone and sonnets dedication, Green found that Shakespeare was a recusant Catholic who hid his true faith for fear of brutal reprisals from King James’ Protestant regime. His whole family could have faced torture should he have been given a Catholic Mass vigil at his funeral. The Bard’s only hope of salvation was to confess his Catholic faith in secret, and what better way to do that than to hide proof within his own church’s Catholic altar stone.”
He continued: “By investigating the ancient relic more closely – and in full view of the world’s media – the cloud of doubt that has hung over the orthodox story for centuries will finally either vindicate the Stratford man or discover the hidden person behind the mystery.”
Scientific images purporting to be the scanned altar stone show a hollow area have been shared with the Herald. But what Green would really like to do is “non-destructively” crack open the altar stone.
“At that point the church would hopefully disclose to the world the nature of the hidden contents and a new, scientific level of truth about Shakespeare will dawn for his millions of fans and scholars world-wide,” enthused Mr Green.
Alas for Mr Green this approach is proving to be resistible for the church – although they do confess to knowing about some beguiling documents buried in Holy Trinity – a Victorian time capsule.
Rev Patrick Taylor told the Herald: “It has been a pleasure to welcome Alan Green to Holy Trinity church and we are appreciating his prayerful presence.
“The current high altar was put in place in 1891, after an ancient altar slab (thought to date from around 1150AD) was found in the South Aisle of the church during restoration work. It had been buried there for over 300 years, since the destruction of stone altars took place during the Reformation in the early 16th century (that is, before Shakespeare was born). When the ancient slab was placed on its new base, a leaden box containing an account, on parchment, of its discovery and the names of various officials at the time was deposited within the altar. As far as we are aware this ‘time capsule’ remains there to this day, but there are no plans to disturb what is the most sacred part of the church, in order to take a look.”
Curiously, in a previous life Mr Green was a music director, working with The Monkees among other artists. Perhaps there are just not enough ‘Daydream Believers’ in Stratford for his liking.
