An Oxfordian triumph.(Editorial)

Anonymous sets the cat among the pigeons.

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First, it's a marvelous movie, made with all the skill director Roland Emmerich is famous for, and enriched with great performances by Vanessa Redgrave (Queen Elizabeth I), Rhys Ifans (Edward de Vere) and Sebastian Armesto (Ben Jonson). The story is well told, cutting back and forth between the young de Vere (played by Jamie Campbell Bower) and Princess Elizabeth (Joelly Richardson), and their later years, when they confront the consequences of their youthful passion.

Yes, the plot embraces the "Prince Tudor" hypothesis, by which Henry Wriothesely, third Earl of Southampton, is the illegitimate offspring of Oxford and the Queen, but the …