The Renaming of Benton Hall would make a great play or musical.

Juliet:

‘Tis but thy name that is my enemy;
Thou art thyself, though not a Montague.
What’s Montague? It is nor hand, nor foot,
Nor arm, nor face, nor any other part
Belonging to a man. O, be some other name!
What’s in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet;
So Romeo would, were he not Romeo call’d,
Retain that dear perfection which he owes
Without that title. Romeo, doff thy name,
And for that name which is no part of thee
Take all myself.

What’s in a name? That which we call a shrew By any other name…would sting as deep.

Ed Ray, and the OSU History Team, have painted themselves into the Proverbial Corner, as no one has painted oneself before. So painted is Oregon State University, it appears there is no way out. Ah! That is the rub. You have done what so many have sought to do! This achievement will go down in history! Congratulations! For years to come students of  semantics will study ‘The Naming That Binds’. Patriots who train to become FBI and CIA agents will study ‘The Ed Ray Blunder’. Need I say Putin and his Troll Farm Wizards, are already weaponizing this Blunder in order to trap their enemies in what imprisoned Merlin! However, there are several ways out! (Drats!)

Senator Thomas Hart Benton, like Aaron Burr, was a believer in dueling. Benton and Andrew Jackson had a famous duel. I have found evidence that my famous great grandfather may have written a Shakespearean Play, if not all them! I am giving the Four Historians of the Apocalypse an opportunity to investigate this possibility, and produce a paper on my theory. While OSU scholars study away, I suggest a play and musical be produced about the Renaming of Benton Hall. Indeed, I suggest a three way competition!

There will be three teams. Team one will be made up of People of Color. Team two, will be All White, which is a term in itself. Team three will be put together by Putin. You know who will try to come in as Team Four, but, we have heard enough about him. No one has hogged the stage – like that guy!

John Wilson wrote ‘The Art of Rhetoric’. More than one scholar has surmised The Bard was steeped in the knowledge of Rhetoric. Let Wilson’s Art be our guide. Maybe, if the results of this contest, is worthy enough, we will be invited to perform ‘The Renaming of the Shrew’ at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. The three titles will be as such:

The Renaming of the Shrew – the Musical

The Renaming of the Shrew – the Play

The Renaming of the Shrew – the Mind Game

Let us Oregonians show the world we have –  The Right Stuff!

John Presco

Copyright 2019

Did Thomas Wilson inspire Shakespeare? I suspect the clergy were steeped in the art of rhetoric that was taught and practiced at court. They might have put on plays as learning tools. Thomas Wilson would be wanting his sons and grandsons to master rhetoric. Rev, John Wilson may have been using rhetoric in his sermons, which put him at loggerheads with the Quakers who were preaching in Plain English. This would explain why the Wilson family was installed at Windsor and Buckingham palace. They represented the English Renaissance, that was the enemy of the Catholic Habsburgs and Mary Queen f Scots who drove the English Renaissance into exile where they came in contact with radical ideas.

https://www.bl.uk/shakespeare/articles/rhetoric-power-and-persuasion-in-julius-caesar

The Duchess of Suffolk was close to Thomas Wilson, and the De Vere family who had an acting troupe. It has been suggested De Vere wrote Shakespeare’s plays. But I suspect he was the façade, the front man, who owned a stage, a forum for the radicals who now took over Parliament. How many children of the gentry attended these plays, they able to follow the lesson, while the undedicated were delighted with the spectacle. The Oxford Men added a bawdiness for the masses. I suspect Erasmus Webb played a role? That so little is known about Shakespeare’s life, indicates there were folks in high places behind the curtain as William took his bows. If some of them were heads of the Church and members of Parliaments, you would not want this known. It was dangerous. Many people ended up in a dungeon. This was a Masked Ball. This is a – School!

https://constitutioncenter.org/blog/settling-scores-the-duels-of-our-forefathers

https://rosamondpress.com/2019/03/06/thomas-wilson-shakespear-rhetoric/

https://rosamondpress.com/2019/04/02/the-art-of-rhetoric-by-thomas-wislon/

https://rosamondpress.com/2019/04/01/a-rose-among-the-woodwoses/