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Historical The Shakespeare-Cervantes Code by David Yuhas $14.95 / Columbine / 2004 "The best book ever on Shakespeare or Cervantes," the author claims in an endearingly hubristic back-cover blurb. Whether the book lives up to the assertion is another matter. Yuhas is among that group that believes that the real William Shakespeare was Edward de Vere, the 17th Earl of Oxford. In The Shakespeare-Cervantes Code, this assertion is taken for granted. Yuhas' point is that the plays Hamlet, Othello, Love's Labors Lost, and The Tempest are coded messages to various people regarding the geopolitical divisions of the world. Hamlet, specifically, is an elaborate coded apology to Miguel de Cervantes for having failed to keep his end of the bargain in a pact the two made in 1575 for the conquest of German Saxony. De Vere, Yuhas assures us, had plans to become duke, then king, then Roman emperor in the grand tradition. Cervantes likewise responds in code in Don Quixote de la Mancha! Yuhas' essay is divided into five chapters, corresponding to Shakespeare's four plays and Cervantes' novel, and the chapters are organized in a "who's who" (Thus, Hamlet "is" DeVere as Shakespeare, Horatio "is" Cervantes, Claudius "is" Henry VII, etc.)The plays and novel are thus secret transmissions that apparently could not be made in plain language, but were understood by their intended recipients, while the thousands of other readers and playgoers were moved and entertained without understanding the true message of the works. Yet Yuhas is so passionate in his belief that one cannot help but be swept up in his logic. Wait; did I say "logic?" Often the writing is more like disjointed rambling. For instance, Yuhas writes about Desdemona, Othello's bride "'Desdemona' means 'possessed by demons,' and Elizabeth's failure to take possession of Flanders in the 16th century led in the 20th century to the forfeit of three quarters of a million soldiers in Flanders Fields." Huh? A similar comparison between Elizabeth and Princess Diana later in the book likewise seems pointless. Yuhas' description of the ins and outs of 16th-century royal intrigue is thorough and fascinating. It takes a great leap of the imagination, however, to re-interpret the enduring literature of the time to reflect the vagaries of the contemporary political situation, even if one accepts the controversial position that De Vere was really William Shakespeare. This is not to say The Shakespeare-Cervante Code is without merit. Yuhas' book is certainly a provocative read, one that anybody interested in the Shakespeare debate will want to take a look at. —Charles Rammelkamp

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