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- Most modern scholars reject the claims of Anti-Stratfordians, citing historical and documentary evidence as sufficient proof that Shakespeare of Stratford really is the author of the plays and poems that bear his name.
www.sparknotes.com/shakespeare/life-and-times/historical-context/literary/authorship-controversy/William Shakespeare's Life and Times: Authorship Controversy ...
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People like Christopher Marlowe and, indeed, a variety of aristocrats, Lord Bacon, the Earl of Oxford, have been proposed as the true author of Shakespeare. But the intriguing thing about Meres is that he does mention Christopher Marlowe, Francis Bacon, the Earl of Oxford, elsewhere as writers.
- When Did Shakespeare Die
Shakespeare’s family line came to an end with the death of...
- When Did Shakespeare Die
Oxford, Bacon, Derby, and Marlowe (clockwise from top left, Shakespeare centre) have each been proposed as the true author. The Shakespeare authorship question is the argument that someone other than William Shakespeare of Stratford-upon-Avon wrote the works attributed to him.
- Where’s The Paper Trail?
- Why The “Vertiginous” Gap in Historical Records?
- Why only Cryptic Posthumous Hints?
- Why Did Family and Friends Never Suggest He Was A Writer?
- Why The Deafening Silence When He died?
- Why Did Shakespeare Authorship Doubts Arise So early?
- Will’s Will: Another Shoe That Doesn’T Fit?
- The “Star of Poets” Could Barely Sign His Own Name?
- The Creator of Portia Failed to Educate His Own Daughters?
- How Can We Explain The Total Mismatch Between The Works and The Alleged Author?
Despite hundreds of years of exhaustive research, no one has found a single letter written by Shakspere to anyone (in most surviving personal records, that or some variation is how his name is spelled — not “Shakespeare” or “Shake-speare,” the almost uniform spelling in the published works). Nor has anyone found any book Shakspere owned, any letter...
During Shakspere’s lifetime, references to the author “Shakespeare” are basically impersonal. Some don’t even use the name, but just allude cryptically to works like Venus and Adonis. Many references imply “Shakespeare” is a pen name — that the author is hidden in some way (see #6 on early doubts). By contrast, the documents we have relating person...
The first suggestions linking the author to Stratford-upon-Avon were published seven years after Shakspere’s death in the 1623 First Folio. The Folio, and the monument in Stratford’s Holy Trinity Church, are both full of puzzling oddities raising questions about the author’s identity. Ben Jonson wrote two prefatory poems in the Folio (one shown abo...
At least ten eyewitnesses who knew Shakspere or his family, and who left behind significant writings, never mentioned he was a writer. Shakspere’s son-in-law, Dr. John Hall, kept a journal in which he wrote of the “excellent poet” and Warwickshire native Michael Drayton. But Hall, among at least ten eyewitnesses with personal knowledge of Shakspere...
In an age of copious eulogies, the reaction to Shakspere’s death in 1616 was eerie silence. Jonson’s non-reaction (see #4) is the strangest example. Compare the flood of grief and eulogies for Shakspere’s fellow actor Richard Burbage, said to eclipse the mourning for Queen Anne when she and Burbage died in 1619. Yet we’re supposed to believe this s...
Authorship doubts arose more than 30 years before the First Folio. Dozens of writings raising questions about the author’s identity were published for decades before Shakspere’s death in 1616. The authorship question thus did notfirst arise (as often falsely claimed) in the 19th century. The authorship debate began right away when these works were ...
Shakspere’s will, despite its detailed disposal of household items, makes no mention of books (not even a family Bible), manuscripts, desks, musical instruments, or anything suggesting literary, artistic, or intellectual interest. He cruelly disinherited his wife of more than 30 years, leaving her only his “second-best bed,” at odds with the theme ...
The only accepted specimens of Shakspere’s handwriting are six tortured, almost illegible signatures. An expert with no stake in the authorship dispute has declared they were written by different people. Some may have been signed on his behalf. Read more about how scholars have interpreted these clumsy markings and take a look for yourself:
Shakspere did not bother to educate his daughters. Like his parents, they were apparently illiterate — in stark contrast to the highly educated young women in many Shakespeare plays, including Portia in The Merchant of Venice; Miranda, tutored by her father Prospero in The Tempest; and Helena, whose learning and skill as a healer save the king’s li...
The documented life of Shakspere of Stratford is jarringly inconsistent with the plays and poems of Shakespeare. The Stratford man was a middle-class social climber, yet the works express contempt for the attitudes necessary for success in his social milieu. They reflect, instead, an unmistakably aristocratic viewpoint, as Walt Whitman recognized (...
There is little strong evidence that suggests he wrote Shakespeare’s plays, but some believe there are references in both the plays and sonnets to de Vere’s life, as well as a series of codes in the writing that implicate the Earl as the author to those in the know.
Jul 15, 2015 · Shakespeare’s supporters—known as Stratfordians—emphasize the fact that the body of evidence that does exist points to Shakespeare, and no one else, as the author of his works.
- Sarah Pruitt
- 5 min
Joseph Hall (1574–1656) is claimed to have been an early authorship doubter. The overwhelming majority of mainstream Shakespeare scholars agree that Shakespeare's authorship was not questioned during his lifetime or for two centuries afterward.
Why do scholars and famous authors and celebrities doubt that the man from Stratford could have written the Shakespeare canon? The Shakespeare Authorship Roundtable can help you to find out.
