Essay about The Shakespeare Authorship Debate

Lastly, The director of Anonymous states that there are no educational records or any other records connecting to Shakespeare. It is nearly impossible to gain the amount of knowledge Shakespeare had with out going to school. There are no records to prove that Shakespeare ever attended the Stratford grammar school, yet the work of who really wrote these plays shows extensive knowledge about medicine, astronomy, art, music, military, law, philosophy, and activities such as royal tennis and falconry (Ten reason). It is unbelievable for one to know all that without even a trace of school. This suggests that some one else wrote the plays because Shakespeare does not have the education and knowledge to do so. Likewise, it is strange how one knows so much about foreign countries without ever leaving their country. Shakespeare’s records show that he has never left

Sir Francis Bacon is the next suspect. Sir Francis Bacon was an advanced thinker as well as someone of high standing. During the Elizabethan Era, if someone was of high standing and social class, they were so noble that they had no reason to partake in anything revolving the theater, which was beneath them. That being said, it was supposedly it is one of the reasons why he would become anonymous if he was to post anything. The main evidence people use to prove that he was in fact the write was his book Promus. According to Summary of Baconian Evidence for Shakespeare Authorship, the only Shakespeare notebook, which is a collection of words, phrases and sentences, is actually Promus written by Francis Bacon himself. Promus was written between the years of 1594-1956, whereas all of Shakespeare's plays and poems were written in the 1600's. In most of Shakespeare's plays, there were some words, phrases, even sentences used. For example, in Henry V, Act 3, Scene 7, the line “A fool's bolt is soon shot.” is also in Promus. Another one, for example, is in not only one but four plays. In Merry Wives of Windsor Act 3, Scene 4, Henry IV, Act 2, Scene 2, The Taming of the Shrew Act 1, Scene 1 and the Winter's, Tale Act 1,Scene 2, the

Others also say that there was little evidence left behind about his childhood and later his career as a playwright and poet in London (Goode 9-10). Many scholars that studied Shakespeare?s plays found evidence that whoever wrote the plays must have been the best educated man of his time with knowledge on horsemanship, biology, falconry, astronomy, law, botany, several languages like Italian, French, and Latin, and many other subjects that a common man without much formal education would not poses (Lardner 7).

In 1564, a man was born by the name of William Shakespeare. He was born to a poor family, was given little education, and had no interaction with sophisticated society. Thirty-eight plays and over 150 sonnets are not attributed to this ignorant man. Those who believe that Shakespeare was the author have no definitive proof but instead point to Hamlet’s declaration: "The play’s the thing(Satchell 71)." The true author, however, lies hidden behind he name of Shakespeare. Edward de Vere the premier Earl of Oxford is not only considered a great poet in history, but he may also be the great playwright who concocted the sonnets and plays which are now attributed to William Shakespeare of Stratford, England.

The large body of work attributed to William Shakespeare shows education, experience, creativity, and wisdom far beyond what many people are willing to accept came from a single author. Due to the scarcity of facts surrounding Shakespeare’s life, speculation arouse about whether or not he actually wrote his works became more common. In the mid-1800s ideas about other authors were brought forward. However, these theories have little sustenance, and it is likely that the entire body of work attributed to Shakespeare in fact belonged to Shakespeare himself.

They proposed many other claimants to the Shakespearean works but the most popular was Edward de Vere. I can understand why many of people’s opinions are this way because there is just so much evidence that Oxford could have authored them, but there is still just as much evidence that Shakespeare did write them. From personal knowledge, we all know that we don’t have many documentations nor knowledge of Shakespeare’s life. But after analyzing and putting pieces together of the actual minimal bits of information we DO have, in the end, they all point towards Shakespeare and Shakespeare only. All the websites I looked at contained many convincing and reasonable points from both sides of the argument but the following evidence is what proved to me, that Shakspeare indeed, did write Shakespeare. I learned that Shakespeare went to an excellent grammar school to learn Latin, in which is precisely needed for creating the plays and sonnets we have today. We understand that although there were many ways he wrote his name, still a nobleman like de Vere or Bacon couldn’t have presented their works like that. Also the fact that Shakespeare was known to do collaborations with other lowly playwrights because it was common in that era, proves that the wealthy nobles could never have collaborated with average

      Abstract:  The debate over the legitimacy of the authorship of Shakespearean works has been disputed for centuries. While many scholars have held beliefs that Shakespeare's works have been written by figures such as Christopher Marlowe, Francis Bacon, William Stanley, and others, the most heated debate today is between William Shakespeare and Edward DeVere, the Earl of Oxford. Each side of this debate has many followers, the Stratfordians, or those who claim Shakespeare to be the true author, and the Oxfordians who believe that true credit should go to DeVere. My paper, far from being a complete analysis of the possibilities of Shakespearean authorship, attempts to summarize and rationalize the

The very first thing to notice, is the fact that, yes there isn’t much evidence for Shakespeare, but guess what,

William Shakespeare, by far one of the greatest playwrights of all time, is clouded with controversy. Rumors run rampant that he was nothing more than a non de plume for someone who wished to keep the anonymity of his identity. There have been names such as Edward De Vere the 17th Earl of Oxford, Sir Francis Bacon, even Queen Elizabeth herself was among those thought to be the true writer of the plays and poems.

The Shakespeare name is known by almost everyone. The true identity of the great writer is still a mystery. There isn’t a single picture to portray the true identity of Shakespeare. When you look at the pictures they are different and resemble someone else. We know that he was a well educated business man, knowledgeable in the law and Royalty just for starters. The man credited with the works doesn’t poses these qualities. Over the years, more people ask the same question, who was the true Shakespeare?

This quandary is led by the concept of the unrefined man from the Avon (Hastings 479). One of the first arguments that is ever presented against Shakespeare's authorship is his upbringing. It is argued that a peasant from Stratford could have never accomplished such great achievements and could never have acquired such fame (Friedman 1). Furthermore, "The author, it is argued, was a learned and cultivated poet-dramatist, probably a member of the nobility" (Hastings 480). Moreover, the man from Stratford was "an ignorant and illiterate actor, an 'unlettered peasant,' and an 'ignorant boor,'" who has apparently only sent one letter, and perhaps unsure about how to spell his own name. There is even a possibility that Shakespeare did not write English (Friedman 1).

For many centuries, there has been a controversy over whether or not Shakespeare wrote his plays himself or whether another author wrote the works and gave him the credit. Shakespeare (1564-1616) is recorded to have written 37 plays and 154 sonnets, but the authorship of Shakespeare’s work has been disputed. There is valid reason to believe that Francis Bacon is the genuine author behind Shakespeare’s name. Bacon’s similar high status, numerous travels, and the Baconian theory are valuable reasons that give evidence to Bacon possibly being the author.

The most controversial and subjective argument stems from the apparent wealth of knowledge possessed by the Shakespearean author. Throughout the plays and sonnets, he makes numerous classical allusions. Oxfordians claim that the Shakespeare from Stratford (usually referred to as Shakspere in the debates) could not have possessed the necessary knowledge to draw upon these sources. Tom Bethell, another noted Oxfordian, writes that “Shakspere is not known to have attended Stratford grammar school … [and] if he was a pupil, he probably was not one for long” (Bethell). However, respected Stratfordian Irvin Matus argues that no records of anyone attending the school exist before the 1800’s (Matus). He also notes that Ben Jonson, a contemporary of Shakespeare’s and a revered playwright, did not have “much more than a few years of rudimentary schooling” and that there are no attendance records for Jonson’s school before 1715 (Matus). On his comprehensive Stratfordian website, David Kathman asserts that “Shakespeare’s classical knowledge, while impressive by our standards, was

Few writers have managed to enter the world-wide public consciousness as well as Shakespeare; everyone knows his name and can terribly misquote his plays. Yet, for all his popularity, many of his critics have called him unlearned, saying his plays are entertaining but shallow. These same critics often point at the many inconsistencies of his writing, claiming that Shakespeare was not trying to convey anything but witticisms and beautiful sounds. Of course, even his harshest detractors acknowledge his plays and sonnets have influenced the world's literature on a scale that is intimidating; every writer of his era stood in his shadow, and modern literature stands on his

Very little is known about literature's most famous playwright. We know that the King's New Grammar School taught boys basic reading and writing. We assume William attended this school since it existed to educate the sons of Stratford but we have no definite proof. Likewise a lack of evidence suggests that William, whose works are studied universally at Universities, never attended one himself!