Who was Shakespeare?

By: Jaspyn McNeil

Introduction• William Shakespeare (April 23,1564 – April 23,1616) was

an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language. His surviving works consist of 38 plays, 154 sonnets, two long narrative poems, and several other poems. His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright. Shakespeare was born and raised in Stratford-upon-Avon. At the age of 18, he married Ann Hathaway, who bore him three children: Susanna, and twins Hamnet and Judith. Between 1585 and 1592, he began a successful career in London as an actor, writer, and part owner of a playing company called the Lord Chamberlain's Men, later known as the King's Men. He appears to have retired to Stratford around 1613, where he died three years later. Few records of Shakespeare's private life survive, and there has been considerable speculation about such matters as his physical appearance, sexuality, religious beliefs, and whether the works attributed to him were written by others ……………………

What is the Shakespeare authorship

problem?• The Shakespeare authorship question is the ongoing debate, first recorded in the early 18th century, about whether the works attributed to William Shakespeare of Stratford-upon-Avon were actually written by another writer, or a group of writers. Some ask how could he learn French, Italian, Latin and Greek that provided the source material for his plays? At the village school he attended he would have only learned a little Greek and some Italian. Never having become a member of Gray's Inn or attended Cambridge or Oxford, how did the man from Stratford gain the knowledge the plays reveal of law and medicine? Never having been at sea, how did he gain the knowledge the plays reveal of navigation? Never having traveled there, how did he gain the first-hand experience of Renaissance Italy the plays so clearly reveal? Perhaps “Shakespeare” did not possess the learning these plays exhibit, but others of his time did. None of these assumptions and questions can’t be proven either way due to the lack of concrete evidence in the time period.

Major Candidates for Authorship

• Christopher "Kit" Marlowe (baptised 26 February 1564 – 30 May 1593) was an English dramatist, poet and translator of the Elizabethan era. The foremost Elizabethan tragedian next to William Shakespeare, he is known for his blank verse, his overreaching protagonists, and his own mysterious and untimely death assassination.

• Francis Bacon, 1st Viscount St Alban KC (22 January 1561 – 9 April 1626), son of Nicholas Bacon by his second wife Anne (Cooke) Bacon, was an English philosopher, statesman, scientist, lawyer, jurist, and author. He served both as Attorney General and Lord Chancellor of England. Although, his political career ended in disgrace when he was killed by his own scientific experiment. After his death all of his works were extremely influential the everyone he left behind.

Cont.• William Stanley the 6th Earl of Derby, possessed

the education, extensive European travel, knowledge of foreign languages, involvement with the theatre and literature, and familiarity with life in court necessary for authorship of the canon.

• Fulke Greville, was a courtier, statesman, sailor, soldier, spy, literary patron, dramatist and poet. He was educated at Cambridge and worked for Francis Walsingham as a spy, traveling throughout Europe. After the death of his father in 1606 Greville became Recorder of Stratford-upon-Avon, a post he held until his death in 1628.

• Edward deVere the 17th Earl of Oxford, was patron of a number of writers, he also knew Latin, English and Italian and is the most looked up candidate for the authorship problem.

People who you may know that have commented on

the Shakespeare authorship problem• Mark Twain :“We are The Reasoning Race, and

when we find a vague file of chipmunk tracks stringing through the dust of Stratford village, we know by our reasoning powers that Hercules has been along there. I feel that our fetish is safe for three centuries yet.” From Is Shakespeare Dead?

• Charles Dickens : “It is a great comfort, to my way of thinking, that so little is known concerning the poet. The life of Shakespeare is a fine mystery, and I tremble every day lest something should turn up.”

• Charlie Chaplin :“In the work of the greatest geniuses, humble beginnings will reveal themselves somewhere but one cannot trace the slightest sign of them in Shakespeare… Whoever wrote [Shakespeare] had an aristocratic attitude.”

History of Doubts surrounding the authorship

of Shakespeare’s Works• 1785 - Rev. James Wilmot, D.D. attributed authorship to Sir Francis Bacon, Lord

Verulam.• 1848 - In The Romance of Yachting by Joseph C. Hart, a former American consul at

Santa Cruz, provides Considerable anti-Stratfordian opinion. Favors Jonson as probable author of Shakespeare’s plays.

• 1891/92 - James Greenstreet, a British archivist, in a series of essays in The Genealogist, proposed that William Stanley, 6th Earl of Derby was author of the Shakespeare plays.

• 1892 - Our English Homer listed several writers as a group who were responsible for writing Shakespeare’s works: Marlowe, Greene, Peele, Nashe, Lodge, Bacon and others.

• 1987 The Moot Court Debate in Washington DC presided over by three sitting Justices of the US Supreme Court. Two of the three justices (Blackmun and Stevens), while voting for Shaksper of Stratford on narrow legal grounds, express their great interest in the issue and later express opinions that Edward de Vere may very well be the true Shakespeare.

• 1989 Broadcast on PBS’ Frontline of The Shakespeare Mystery further increases awareness and interest in the authorship debate.

• 1994- The new technology of the Internet provides electronic forums and electronic publishing for the Shakespeare Oxford Society to reach increasing numbers of people, especially students, around the world.

• 1995 A Shakespeare Oxford Society Home Page and a new electronic magazine (The Ever Reader) are started on the World Wide Web, bringing the authorship resources and news of the debate to a global audience. Teachers at both the high school and college level increasingly have class assignments on the authorship debate and use the Internet as a primary resource for up-to-date information.

Cont.• 1908 - Sir George Greenwood, scholar and Member of

Parliament, exposed the major arguments and scholarship against the Stratford man as author of the Shakespearean canon in his book, The Shakespeare Problem Restated, the first in a series of volumes that Sir George devoted to the subject.

• 1922 - The Shakespeare Fellowship, an organization devoted to research on the Shakespearean authorship, is formed with honorary president Sir George Greenwood, and officers including J. T. Looney, Colonel B. R. Ward (father of the biographer of Edward de Vere) and Abel Lefranc.

• 1943 - Alden Brooks advocates the candidacy of Sir Edward Dyer as author in his book, Will Shakspere and the Dyer’s Hand.

• 1943 - Alden Brooks advocates the candidacy of Sir Edward Dyer as author in his book, Will Shakspere and the Dyer’s Hand.

Cont.• 1957 – present Incorporation of the

Shakespeare Oxford Society. From its inception (originally as the Shakespeare Fellowship in the l930s) a stream of publications in the form of books, newsletters, and journals advanced the evidence for Edward de Vere’s authorship of the Shakespeare canon. Noted writers: Charlton and Dorothy Ogburn, Charlton Ogburn, Jr., Charles Wisner Barrell, Louis Benezet, Gelett Burgess, Ruth Loyd Miller, Dr. A. Bronson Feldman.

• 1984 Publication of Charlton Ogburn’s The Mysterious William Shakespeare results in a burst of new interest in the authorship that continues today

• 1997 The Edward de Vere Studies Conference is founded by Dr. Daniel L. Wright (Head, Department of English) at Concordia University (Portland, Oregon).

Conclusion• There are a number of theories surrounding the

authorship of Shakespeare’s plays, but most are based on one of the following three ideas:

1. The William Shakespeare of Stratford-upon-Avon and the William Shakespeare working in London were two separate people. They have been falsely connected by historians.

2. Someone called William Shakespeare did work with Burbage’s theater company, but did not write the plays. Shakespeare was putting his name to plays given to him by someone else.

3. William Shakespeare was a pen name for another writer – or perhaps a group of writers.

• These theories have sprung up because the evidence surrounding Shakespeare’s life is insufficient – not necessarily contradictory.

Conclusion (Cont.)• The following reasons are often cited as evidence that

Shakespeare didn’t write Shakespeare : • The will of the world’s greatest writer did not itemize any

books. • Shakespeare did not have the university education required

to write with such knowledge of the classics (although he would have been introduced to the classics at school in Stratford-upon-Avon.)

• There is no record of Shakespeare ever attending Stratford-upon-Avon grammar school (however, school records were not kept back then)

• When Shakespeare died, none of his contemporary writers made tribute to him (although references were made during his lifetime)

• Exactly who wrote under the name of William Shakespeare and why they needed to use a pseudonym is unclear. Perhaps the plays were written to instill political propaganda? Or to hide the identity of some high-profile public figure? The world shall never know!!!!!!!!!