Abusive emails, public insults and even the prospect of death threats - who'd have thought Shakespeare aficionados had it in them?
The debate as to whether the plays of the Bard really were written by William Shakespeare is being stirred again this week by the release of the film anonymous. It contends that the works were penned by the 17th Earl of Oxford, Edward De Vere - and both sides of the argument are suffering for their beliefs.
Members of the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, which supports the traditional view that their hero was the true author, and the Shakespeare Authorship Trust, leading the arguments for various alternative authors, have each seen sudden increases in insults - albeit well-written ones - from fanatics of the opposite persuasion.
Dr Bill Leahy, head of English at Brunel University and a believer that some of the plays were collaborations, said: "I've had an upsurge in hate mail, to the extent I'm half-expecting a death threat. It's that extreme."
The traditionalists are also suffering. "It's a topic where passions run high," said Lynn Beddoe of the Birthplace Trust. "I have received some quite abusive emails, as have my colleagues. As with many conspiracy theories, there's not a lot of rationale to them, and it's all about people's belief systems."
