Changing The Way You Look At Things
When you change the way you look at things the things you look at change.[1]
When you change the way you look at the puzzling silence surrounding Shakespeare’s death it changes, the silence changes. This is not to say the silence proves Shakespeare committed suicide; though, it does curiously fit – with no extrapolated, “true reason” conjectures needed. Be that as it may, thus far, all that is gained by researching the practical results of a suicide death in 17th century England is to show such deaths were engulfed in silence; for good and practical reasons. That said, the silence surrounding a death by suicide in the 17th century and the weird, inexplicable silence surrounding Shakespeare’s death combine to provide the investigation with a possible foundation and a tentative lead.
Leads must be followed up and foundations – a building’s foundation, a scientific hypothesis or an investigative theory – must be tested to ensure structural integrity. In this instance, will the silence foundation – a possible suicide lead – withstand further weight of evidentiary scrutiny? Will it fall apart? Spectacularly? Though suicide could explain the silence surrounding Shakespeare’s death can anything else in the historical record confirm or refute suicide as a possible cause of death? If the foundation crumbles under the weight of other extant material – as it very well may – then a suicide hypothesis can be ruled out forthwith.
It is time to investigate the first lead in over 400 years looking into possible reasons for the silence and test the foundation; more evidentiary weight from the historical record must be added.
SDRP
[1] Max Planck (1858-1947), German theoretical physicist, Nobel Laureate.