Browse history interactively← Previous editContent deleted Content addedVisualWikitextInline

Revision as of 21:26, 18 December 2006 edit71.79.160.3 (talk) →Authorship doubters← Previous edit		Latest revision as of 17:03, 31 October 2024 edit undoGråbergs Gråa Sång (talk | contribs)Autopatrolled, Extended confirmed users, Pending changes reviewers57,450 edits Undid revision 1254556164 by Bird244 (talk) cite a decent independent source that noticed and bothered to write about it.Tag: Undo
Line 1:		Line 1:
			{{Short description|Fringe theories that Shakespeare's works were written by someone else}}
	] (1623), the first collected edition of Shakespeare's plays]]
			{{Use shortened footnotes|date=September 2020}}
			{{Use British English|date=December 2021}}
			{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2020}}
			<imagemap>
	From 1593 to 1637, a number of plays and poems were published under the name 'William Shakespeare' or, in many cases, hyphenated as 'Shake-Speare'. The company that performed most of these plays, the Lord Chamberlain's Men (later called the King's Men), also included an actor of that name. This actor and playwright has been identified with a William Shakespeare who was born in Stratford-upon-Avon in 1564.<ref> Irvin Leigh Matus, ''Shakspeare, in Fact'' (London: Continuum, 1999) </ref>
			Image:ShakespeareCandidates1.jpg|thumb|alt=Portraits of Shakespeare and four proposed alternative authors|], ], ], and ] (clockwise from top left, Shakespeare centre) have each been proposed as the true author.
			poly 1 1 105 1 107 103 68 104 68 142 1 142 ]
			poly 107 1 214 1 214 143 145 142 145 104 107 104 ]
			rect 68 106 144 177 ]
			poly 1 144 67 144 67 178 106 179 106 291 1 290 ]
			poly 145 143 214 143 214 291 108 291 107 179 144 178 ]
			</imagemap>
			The '''Shakespeare authorship question''' is the ] that someone other than ] of ] wrote the works attributed to him. Anti-Stratfordians—a collective term for adherents of the various alternative-authorship theories—believe that Shakespeare of Stratford was a front to shield the identity of the real author or authors, who for some reason—usually social rank, state security, or gender—did not want or could not accept public credit.<ref>{{Harvnb|Prescott|2010|p=273}}: {{"'}}Anti-Stratfordian' is the collective name for the belief that someone other than the man from Stratford wrote the plays commonly attributed to him."; {{Harvnb|McMichael|Glenn|1962|p=56}}.</ref> Although the idea has attracted much public interest,<ref>{{Harvnb|Shapiro|2010|pp=2–3 (3–4)}}.</ref>{{efn|The UK and US editions of {{harvnb|Shapiro|2010}} differ significantly in pagination. The citations to the book used in this article list the UK page numbers first, followed by the page numbers of the US edition in parentheses.}} all but a few Shakespeare scholars and literary historians consider it a ], and for the most part acknowledge it only to rebut or disparage the claims.<ref>{{Harvnb|Kathman|2003|p=621}}: "...antiStratfordism has remained a fringe belief system"; {{Harvnb|Schoenbaum|1991|p=450}}; {{Harvnb|Paster|1999|p=38}}: "To ask me about the authorship question ... is like asking a palaeontologist to debate a creationist's account of the fossil record."; {{Harvnb|Nelson|2004|pp=149–51}}: "I do not know of a single professor of the 1,300-member Shakespeare Association of America who questions the identity of Shakespeare ... antagonism to the authorship debate from within the profession is so great that it would be as difficult for a professed Oxfordian to be hired in the first place, much less gain tenure..."; {{Harvnb|Carroll|2004|pp=278–9}}: "I have never met anyone in an academic position like mine, in the Establishment, who entertained the slightest doubt as to Shakespeare's authorship of the general body of plays attributed to him."; {{Harvnb|Pendleton|1994|p=21}}: "Shakespeareans sometimes take the position that to even engage the Oxfordian hypothesis is to give it a countenance it does not warrant."; {{Harvnb|Sutherland|Watts|2000|p=7}}: "There is, it should be noted, no academic Shakespearian of any standing who goes along with the Oxfordian theory."; {{Harvnb|Gibson|2005|p=30}}: "...most of the great Shakespearean scholars are to be found in the Stratfordian camp..."</ref>
	Around one hundred and fifty years after ]'s death in ], doubts began to be expressed by some scholars about the authorship of the plays and poetry attributed to him. The terms '''Shakespearean authorship''', and '''the Shakespeare authorship question''' normally refer to the debates inspired by these doubters, who consider the works to have been written by another playwright using Shakespeare's name.
			Shakespeare's authorship was first questioned in the middle of the 19th century,<ref name="Bate 1998 73">{{Harvnb|Bate|1998|p=73}}; {{Harvnb|Hastings|1959|p=486}}; {{Harvnb|Wadsworth|1958|pp=8–16}}; {{Harvnb|McCrea|2005|p=13}}; {{Harvnb|Kathman|2003|p=622}}.</ref> when ] as the ] had become widespread.<ref>{{Harvnb|Taylor|1989|p=167}}: By 1840, admiration for Shakespeare throughout Europe had become such that ] "could say without hyperbole" that {{"'}}Shakspeare is the chief of all Poets hitherto; the greatest intellect who, in our recorded world, has left record of himself in the way of literature.{{'"}}</ref> Shakespeare's biography, particularly his humble origins and ], seemed incompatible with his poetic eminence and his reputation for genius,<ref name="shapiro87">{{Harvnb|Shapiro|2010|pp=87–8 (77–8)}}.</ref><ref>{{Harvnb|Holmes|1866|p=7}}</ref> arousing suspicion that Shakespeare might not have written the works attributed to him.<ref>{{Harvnb|Bate|2002|p=106}}.</ref> The controversy has since spawned a vast body of literature,<ref>{{Harvnb|Shapiro|2010|p=317 (281)}}.</ref> and ] have been proposed,<ref name="gross39">{{Harvnb|Gross|2010|p=39}}.</ref> the most popular being ]; ]; ]; and ].<ref>{{Harvnb|Shapiro|2010|pp=2–3 (4)}}; {{Harvnb|McCrea|2005|p=13}}.</ref>
	In academia, the terms can also refer to less contentious debates about what exactly Shakespeare wrote in the collaborative world of the Elizabethan theatre: for information on these debates, see ] and ].
			Supporters of alternative candidates argue that theirs is the more plausible author, and that William Shakespeare lacked the education, aristocratic sensibility, or familiarity with the royal court that they say is apparent in the works.<ref>{{Harvnb|Dobson|2001|p=31}}: "These two notions—that the ] represented the highest achievement of human culture, while William Shakespeare was a completely uneducated rustic—combined to persuade Delia Bacon and her successors that the ]'s title page and preliminaries could only be part of a fabulously elaborate charade orchestrated by some more elevated personage, and they accordingly misread the distinctive literary traces of Shakespeare's solid ] visible throughout the volume as evidence that the 'real' author had attended ] or ]."</ref> Those Shakespeare scholars who have responded to such claims hold that biographical interpretations of literature are unreliable in attributing authorship,<ref>{{Harvnb|Bate|1998|p=90}}: "Their favorite code is the hidden personal allusion ... But this method is in essence no different from the cryptogram, since Shakespeare's range of characters and plots, both familial and political, is so vast that it would be possible to find in the plays 'self-portraits' of, once more, anybody one cares to think of."; {{Harvnb|Love|2002|pp=87, 200}}: "It has more than once been claimed that the combination of 'biographical-fit' and cryptographical arguments could be used to establish a case for almost any individual ... The very fact that their application has produced so many rival claimants demonstrates their unreliability." {{Harvnb|Shapiro|2010|pp=304–13 (268–77)}}; {{Harvnb|Schoone-Jongen|2008|p=5}}: "in voicing dissatisfaction over the apparent lack of continuity between the certain facts of Shakespeare's life and the spirit of his literary output, anti-Stratfordians adopt the very Modernist assumption that an author's work must reflect his or her life. Neither Shakespeare nor his ] operated under this assumption."; {{Harvnb|Smith|2008|p=629}}: "...deriving an idea of an author from his or her works is always problematic, particularly in a multi-vocal genre like drama, since it crucially underestimates the heterogeneous influences and imaginative reaches of creative writing."</ref> and that the convergence of ] used to support Shakespeare's authorship—title pages, testimony by other contemporary poets and historians, and official records—is the same used for all other authorial attributions of his era.<ref>{{Harvnb|Wadsworth|1958|pp=163–4}}: "The reasons we have for believing that William Shakespeare of Stratford-on-Avon wrote the plays and poems are the same as the reasons we have for believing any other historical event ... the historical evidence says that William Shakespeare wrote the plays and poems."; {{Harvnb|McCrea|2005|pp=xii–xiii, 10}}; {{Harvnb|Nelson|2004|p=162}}: "Apart from the First Folio, the documentary evidence for William Shakespeare is the same as we get for other writers of the period..."</ref> No such ] exists for any other candidate,<ref>{{Harvnb|Love|2002|pp=198–202, 303–7}}: "The problem that confronts all such attempts is that they have to dispose of the many testimonies from Will the player's own time that he was regarded as the author of the plays and the absence of any clear contravening public claims of the same nature for any of the other favoured candidates."; {{Harvnb|Bate|1998|pp=68–73}}.</ref> and Shakespeare's authorship was not questioned during his lifetime or for centuries after his death.<ref>{{Harvnb|Bate|1998|p=73}}: "No one in Shakespeare's lifetime or the first two hundred years after his death expressed the slightest doubt about his authorship."; {{Harvnb|Hastings|1959|pp=486–8}}: "...no suspicions regarding Shakespeare's authorship (except for a few mainly humorous comments) were expressed until the middle of the nineteenth century".</ref>
			Despite the scholarly consensus,<ref>{{Harvnb|Dobson|2001|p=31}}; {{Harvnb|Greenblatt|2005}}: "The idea that William Shakespeare's authorship of his plays and poems is a matter of conjecture and the idea that the 'authorship controversy' be taught in the classroom are the exact equivalent of current arguments that ']' be taught alongside ]. In both cases an overwhelming scholarly consensus, based on a serious assessment of hard evidence, is challenged by passionately held fantasies whose adherents demand equal time."</ref> a relatively small<ref>{{Harvnb|Price|2001|p=9}}: "Nevertheless, the skeptics who question Shakespeare's authorship are relatively few in number, and they do not speak for the majority of academic and literary professionals."</ref> but highly visible and diverse assortment of supporters, including prominent public figures,<ref name="Nicholl 2010 3">{{Harvnb|Nicholl|2010|p=3}}.</ref> have questioned the conventional attribution.<ref>{{Harvnb|Nicholl|2010|p=3}}; {{Harvnb|Shapiro|2010|p=2 (4)}}.</ref> They work for acknowledgement of the authorship question as a legitimate field of scholarly inquiry and for acceptance of one or another of the various authorship candidates.<ref>{{Harvnb|Shapiro|2010|pp=246–9 (216–9)}}; {{Harvnb|Niederkorn|2005}}.</ref>
	==Overview==		==Overview==
			The arguments presented by anti-Stratfordians share several characteristics.<ref>{{Harvnb|Prescott|2010|p=273}}; {{Harvnb|Baldick|2008|pp=17–18}}; {{Harvnb|Bate|1998|pp=68–70}}; {{Harvnb|Wadsworth|1958|pp=2, 6–7}}.</ref> They attempt to disqualify William Shakespeare as the author and usually offer supporting arguments for a substitute candidate. They often postulate some type of ] that protected the author's true identity,<ref>{{Harvnb|Matus|1994|p=15 note}}.</ref> which they say explains why no documentary evidence exists for their candidate and why the historical record supports Shakespeare's authorship.<ref>{{Harvnb|Wells|2003|p=388}}; {{Harvnb|Dobson|2001|p=31}}: "Most observers, however, have been more impressed by the anti-Stratfordians' dogged immunity to documentary evidence"; {{Harvnb|Shipley|1943|p=38}}: "the challenger would still need to produce evidence in favour of another author. There is no such evidence."; {{Harvnb|Love|2002|p=198}}: "...those who believe that other authors were responsible for the canon as a whole ... have been forced to invoke elaborate conspiracy theories."; {{Harvnb|Wadsworth|1958|p=6}}: "Paradoxically, the skeptics invariably substitute for the easily explained lack of evidence concerning William Shakespeare, the more troublesome picture of a vast conspiracy of silence about the 'real author', with a total lack of historical evidence for the existence of this 'real author' explained on the grounds of a secret pact"; {{Harvnb|Shapiro|2010|p=255 (225)}}: "Some suppose that only Shakespeare and the real author were in the know. At the other extreme are those who believe that it was an open secret".</ref>
	]
			Most anti-Stratfordians suggest that the ] exhibits broad learning, knowledge of foreign languages and geography, and familiarity with ] and ] ] and politics; therefore, no one but a highly educated individual or court insider could have written it.<ref>{{Harvnb|Bate|2002|pp=104–5}}; {{Harvnb|Schoenbaum|1991|pp=390, 392}}.</ref> Apart from literary references, critical commentary and acting notices, the available data regarding ] consist of mundane personal details such as ]s of his ], marriage and death, tax records, lawsuits to recover debts, and real estate transactions. In addition, no document attests that he received an education or owned any books.<ref>{{cite book |last=Kells |first=Stuart |date=2019 |title=Shakespeare's Library: Unlocking the Greatest Mystery in Literature |publisher=Counterpoint |page=Introduction |isbn=978-1640091832}}: "Not a trace of his library was found. No books, no manuscripts, no letters, no diaries. The desire to get close to Shakespeare was unrequited, the vacuum palpable."</ref> No personal letters or literary manuscripts certainly written by Shakespeare of Stratford survive. To sceptics, these gaps in the record suggest the profile of a person who differs markedly from the playwright and poet.<ref>{{Harvnb|Shipley|1943|pp=37–8}}; {{Harvnb|Bethell|1991|pp=48, 50}}; {{Harvnb|Schoone-Jongen|2008|p=5}}; {{Harvnb|Smith|2008|p=622}}: "Fuelled by scepticism that the plays could have been written by a working man from a provincial town with no record of university education, foreign travel, legal studies or court preferment, the controversialists proposed instead a sequence of mainly ] alternative authors whose philosophically or politically occult meanings, along with their own true identity, had to be hidden in codes, cryptograms and runic obscurity."</ref> Some prominent public figures, including ], ], ], ], ], ], ] and ], have found the arguments against Shakespeare's authorship persuasive, and their endorsements are an important element in many anti-Stratfordian arguments.<ref name="Nicholl 2010 3"/><ref>{{cite magazine |last=Foggatt |first=Tyler |date=July 29, 2019 |title=Justice Stevens's Dissenting Shakespeare Theory |url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/08/05/justice-stevens-dissenting-shakespeare-theory |magazine=The New Yorker }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last=Steerpike |date=1 May 2014 |title=The great Shakespeare authorship question |url=https://blogs.spectator.co.uk/2014/05/was-william-shakespeare-william-shakespeare/ |work=The Spectator |access-date=October 1, 2019 |archive-date=2 October 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191002042416/https://blogs.spectator.co.uk/2014/05/was-william-shakespeare-william-shakespeare/ |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{Harvnb|Wells|2023|p=135}}
	===Why question Shakespeare?===
			</ref>
	Admirers of Shakespeare's works are often disappointed by the lack of available information about the author. In "Who Wrote Shakespeare" (1996), John Mitchell notes "The known facts about Shakespeare's life ... can be written down on one side of a sheet of notepaper." He cites ]'s satirical expression of the same point in the section "Facts" in "Is Shakespeare Dead" (1909).
			At the core of the argument is the nature of acceptable evidence used to attribute works to their authors.<ref>{{Harvnb|Nelson|2004|p=149}}: "The Shakespeare authorship debate is a classic instance of a controversy that draws its very breath from a fundamental disagreement over the nature of admissible evidence."; {{Harvnb|McCrea|2005|pp=165, 217–8}}; {{Harvnb|Shapiro|2010|pp=8, 48, 112–3, 235, 298 (8, 44, 100, 207, 264)}}.</ref> Anti-Stratfordians rely on what has been called a "rhetoric of accumulation",<ref>{{Harvnb|Schoone-Jongen|2008|pp=6, 117}}.</ref> or what they designate as ]: similarities between the characters and events portrayed in the works and the biography of their preferred candidate; literary parallels with the known works of their candidate; and literary and hidden allusions and ] codes in works by contemporaries and in Shakespeare's own works.<ref>{{Harvnb|Schoenbaum|1991|pp=405, 411, 437}}; {{Harvnb|Love|2002|pp=203–7}}.</ref>
			In contrast, academic Shakespeareans and literary historians rely mainly on direct documentary evidence—in the form of ] attributions and government records such as the ] and the ]—and contemporary testimony from poets, historians, and those players and playwrights who worked with him, as well as modern ]. Gaps in the record are explained by the low survival rate for documents of this period.<ref>{{Harvnb|Callaghan|2013|p=11}}: "It is a 'fact' that the survival rate for early modern documents is low and that Shakespeare lived in a world prior to the systematic, all-inclusive collection of data that provides the foundation of modern bureaucracy."</ref> Scholars say all these converge to confirm William Shakespeare's authorship.<ref>{{Harvnb|Shapiro|2010|pp=253–95 (223–59)}}; {{Harvnb|Love|2002|p=198}}.</ref> These criteria are the same as those used to credit works to other authors and are accepted as the standard ] for authorship attribution.<ref>{{Harvnb|Wadsworth|1958|pp=163–4}}; {{Harvnb|McCrea|2005|pp=xii–xiii, 10}}; {{Harvnb|Nelson|2004|p=149}}.</ref>
	For example, there are large gaps in the historical record of his life; there are no surviving letters written by him; his detailed will mentions no books, plays, poems or writings of any kind; he expressed no direct opinions about his art; and almost nothing is known about his personality. Much can be inferred about him from his writings, but the lack of concrete information leaves him an enigmatic figure.
			==Case against Shakespeare's authorship==
	Conventional scholars agree that the lack of information about Shakespeare is disappointing, but find it unsurprising given the passage of time, and given that the lives of middle-class people were not recorded as fully as those of politicians and the aristocracy. They also note that information about Elizabethan theatre practitioners is fragmentary, and that a similar scarcity of information is the case with other period playwrights.
			Little is known of Shakespeare's personal life, and some anti-Stratfordians take this as circumstantial evidence against his authorship.<ref>{{Harvnb|Crinkley|1985|p=517}}.</ref> Further, the lack of biographical information has sometimes been taken as an indication of an organised attempt by government officials to expunge all traces of Shakespeare, including perhaps his school records, to conceal the true author's identity.<ref>{{Harvnb|Matus|1994|p=47}}: "...on the mysterious disappearance of the accounts of the highest immediate authority over theatre in Shakespeare's age, the ]s of the Household. Ogburn imagines that these records, like those of the Stratford grammar school, might have been deliberately eradicated 'because they would have showed how little consequential a figure Shakspere cut in the company.{{'"}}</ref><ref>{{Harvnb|Matus|1994|p=32}}: "Ogburn gives voice to his suspicion that the school records disappeared because they would have revealed William's name did not appear among those who attended it."</ref>
			===Shakespeare's background===
	Anti-Stratfordians do not simply find the scarcity of information about Shakespeare disappointing: they find it remarkable. They assert that the available information about Shakespeare's life offers no proof that he was able to write the works attributed to him. They further suggest that other, better-recorded figures of the period are more likely candidates for the authorship, and claim that Shakespeare was simply a frontman for the true author who wished to remain anonymous.
			].]]
			Shakespeare was born, brought up, and buried in ], where he maintained a household throughout the duration of his career in London. A ] of around 1,500 residents about {{convert|100|mi}} north-west of London, Stratford was a centre for the slaughter, marketing, and distribution of sheep, as well as for hide tanning and wool trading. Anti-Stratfordians often portray the town as a cultural backwater lacking the environment necessary to nurture a genius and depict Shakespeare as ignorant and illiterate.<ref>{{Harvnb|Schoenbaum|1991|p=6}}; {{Harvnb|Wells|2003|p=28}}; {{Harvnb|Kathman|2003|p=625}}; {{Harvnb|Shapiro|2010|pp=116–7 (103)}}; {{Harvnb|Bevington|2005|p=9}}.</ref>
			Shakespeare's father, ], was a glover (glove-maker) and town official. He married ], one of the ] of ], a family of the local ]. Both signed their names with a mark, and no other examples of their writing are extant.<ref>{{Harvnb|Wells|2001|p=122}}.</ref> This is often used as an indication that Shakespeare was brought up in an illiterate household. There is also no evidence that Shakespeare's two daughters were literate, save for two signatures by ] that appear to be "drawn" instead of written with a practised hand. His other daughter, ], signed a legal document with a mark.<ref>{{Harvnb|Schoenbaum|1987|p=295}}.</ref> Anti-Stratfordians consider these marks and the rudimentary signature style evidence of illiteracy and consider Shakespeare's plays, which "depict women across the social spectrum composing, reading, or delivering letters," evidence that the author came from a more educated background.<ref>{{Harvnb|Daybell|2016|p=494}}</ref>
	===Conventional view===
	The conventional view is that Shakespeare was born in ] in ]. He then moved to ] and became a ], a ], an ], and sharer (part-owner) of the favoured acting company called the ] (later the ]), which owned the ] and the ] in ]. He divided his time between London and Stratford, and retired there in ] before his death in ]. Shakespeare's name appears on the title pages of fourteen of the fifteen works published during his lifetime. In 1623, after the death of most of the proposed candidates, his plays were collected for publication in the ] edition.
			Anti-Stratfordians consider Shakespeare's background incompatible with that attributable to the author of the Shakespeare canon, which exhibits an intimacy with court politics and culture, foreign countries, and ] sports such as ], ], ], and ].<ref>{{Harvnb|Price|2001|pp=213–7, 262}}; {{Harvnb|Crinkley|1985|p=517}}: "It is characteristic of anti-Stratfordian books that they make a list of what Shakespeare must have been—a ], a lawyer, a traveler in Italy, a ], a falconer, whatever. Then a candidate is selected who fits the list. Not surprisingly, different lists find different candidates."</ref> Some find that the works show little sympathy for upwardly mobile types such as John Shakespeare and his son and that the author portrays individual commoners comically, as objects of ridicule. Commoners in groups are said to be depicted typically as dangerous mobs.<ref>{{Harvnb|Bethell|1991|p=56}}.</ref>
	This actor is further identified by the following evidence: Shakespeare of Stratford left gifts to actors from the London company in his will; the man from Stratford and the author of the works share a common name; and that commendatory poems in the ] First Folio of Shakespeare's works refer to the "Swan of Avon" and his "Stratford monument".<ref>For a full account of the documents relating to Shakespeare's life, see Samuel Schoenbaum, ''William Shakespeare: A Compact Documentary Life'' (OUP, 1987)</ref> Conventional scholars assume that the latter phrase refers to the ] in ], Stratford, which refers to Shakespeare as a writer (comparing him to ] and calling his writing a 'living art'), and was described as such by visitors to Stratford as far back as the ].<ref>Kathman, David. . ''The Shakespeare Authorship Page''.</ref>
			===Education and literacy===
	From the above evidence, the conventional view is that Shakespeare's plays were written by William Shakespeare of Stratford, who left his home town and became an actor and playwright in London.
			{{See also|William Shakespeare's handwriting}}
			{{Annotated image
			|alt=Six signatures, each a scrawl with a different appearance
			|caption=Shakespeare's six surviving signatures have often been cited as evidence of his illiteracy.
			|image=Shakespeare sigs collected.png
			|width=285 |height=320 |image-width = 200 |image-left=5 |image-top=0
			|annotations =
			{{Annotation|165|8|''Willm Shakp''<br />'']'' deposition, 12 June 1612|font-size=10}}
			{{Annotation|165| 65|''William Shakspēr''<br />Blackfriars Gatehouse<br />conveyance, March 1613|font-size=10}}
			{{Annotation|165|120|''Wm Shakspē''<br />Blackfriars mortgage<br />11 March 1616|font-size=10}}
			{{Annotation|165|170|''William Shakspere''<br />Page 1 of will<br />(from 1817 engraving)|font-size=10}}
			{{Annotation|209|220|''Willm Shakspere''<br />Page 2 of will|font-size=10}}
			{{Annotation|209|255|''William Shakspeare''<br />Last page of will<br />25 March 1616|font-size=10}}
			}}
			The absence of documentary proof of Shakespeare's education is often a part of anti-Stratfordian arguments. The free ] in Stratford, established 1553, was about half a mile (0.8 kilometres) from Shakespeare's boyhood home.<ref>{{Harvnb|Baldwin|1944|p=464}}.</ref> ] varied in quality during the Elizabethan era, and there are no documents detailing what was taught at the Stratford school.<ref>{{Harvnb|Ellis|2012|p=41}}</ref> However, grammar school curricula were largely similar, and the basic Latin text was standardised by royal decree. The school would have provided an intensive education in ] grammar, the ], and ] at no cost.<ref>{{Harvnb|Baldwin|1944|pp=164–84}}; {{Harvnb|Cressy|1975|pp=28–9}}; {{Harvnb|Thompson|1958|p=24}}; {{Harvnb|Quennell|1963|p=18}}.</ref> The headmaster, ], and the instructors were ] graduates.<ref>{{Harvnb|Honan|2000|pp=49–51}}; {{Harvnb|Halliday|1962|pp=41–9}}; {{Harvnb|Rowse|1963|pp=36–44}}.</ref> No student registers of the period survive, so no documentation exists for the attendance of Shakespeare or any other pupil, nor did anyone who taught or attended the school ever record that they were his teacher or classmate. This lack of documentation is taken by many anti-Stratfordians as evidence that Shakespeare had little or no education.<ref>{{Harvnb|Bethell|1991|p=48}}.</ref>
			Anti-Stratfordians also question how Shakespeare, with no record of the education and cultured background displayed in the works bearing his name, could have acquired the extensive vocabulary found in the plays and poems. The author's vocabulary is calculated to be between 17,500 and 29,000 words.<ref>{{Harvnb|Nevalainen|1999|p=336}}.</ref>{{efn|The low figure is that of Manfred Scheler. The upper figure, from Marvin Spevack, is true only if all word forms (''cat'' and ''cats'' counted as two different words, for example), compound words, emendations, variants, proper names, foreign words, ] words, and deliberate ]s are included.}} No letters or signed manuscripts written by Shakespeare survive. The appearance of Shakespeare's six surviving authenticated<ref>{{Harvnb|Schoenbaum|1981|p=93}}.</ref> signatures, which they characterise as "an illiterate scrawl", is interpreted as indicating that he was illiterate or barely literate.<ref>{{Harvnb|Nelson|2004|p=164}}: "...most anti-Stratfordians claim that he was not even literate. They present his six surviving signatures as proof."</ref> All are written in ], a style of handwriting common to the era,<ref name="Dawson 1966 9">{{Harvnb|Dawson|Kennedy-Skipton|1966|p=9}}.</ref> particularly in play writing,<ref>{{Harvnb|Ioppolo|2010|pp=177–183}}</ref> and three of them utilize ]s to abbreviate the surname.<ref name="Dawson 1966 9"/>
	===Authorship doubters===
	For authorship doubters, evidence that Shakespeare of Stratford was merely a front man for an anonymous playwright arises from several sources: perceived ambiguities and missing information in the historical evidence supporting Shakespeare's authorship; the assertion that the plays require a level of education (including knowledge of foreign languages) greater than that which Shakespeare is known to have possessed; evidence suggesting the author was deceased while Shakespeare of Stratford was still living; perceived doubts of his authorship expressed by his contemporaries; plays that he appeared to be unavailable or unable to write; coded messages apparently hidden in the works that identify another author; and perceived parallels between the characters in Shakespeare's works and the life of the favored candidate.jiop
			===Name as a pseudonym===
	==Terminology==
			{{See also|Spelling of Shakespeare's name}}
	===Stratfordians and anti-Stratfordians===
			]
	Those who question whether William Shakespeare of Stratford-upon-Avon was the author of Shakespeare's plays call themselves ''anti-Stratfordians''. Those who have no such doubts are referred to as ''Stratfordians''. "Stratfordians" themselves view the question of authorship as settled, and thus do not use a name for themselves.
			In his surviving signatures William Shakespeare did not spell his name as it appears on most Shakespeare title pages. His surname was spelled inconsistently in both literary and non-literary documents, with the most variation observed in those that were written by hand.<ref>{{Harvnb|Kathman (1)}}.</ref> This is taken as evidence that he was not the same person who wrote the works, and that the name was used as a ] for the true author.<ref>{{Harvnb|Barrell|1940|p=6}}: "The main contention of these anti-Stratfordians is that 'William Shakespeare' was a pen-name, like '],' '],' and '],' which in this case cloaked the creative activities of a master scholar in high circles".</ref>
			Shakespeare's surname was hyphenated as "Shake-speare" or "Shak-spear" on the title pages of 15 of the 32 individual ] (or ''Q'') editions of Shakespeare's plays and in two of the five editions of poetry published before the ]. Of those 15 title pages with Shakespeare's name hyphenated, 13 are on the title pages of just three plays, '']'', '']'', and '']''.{{efn|For '']'', (] (1598), Q3 (1598), Q4 (1608), and Q5 (1615). For '']'', (Q2 (1598), Q3 (1602), Q4 (1605), Q5 (1612), and Q6 (1622). For '']'', (Q2 (1599), Q3 (1604), Q4 (1608) and Q5 (1613)}}<ref>{{Harvnb|Matus|1994|p=28}}.</ref> The hyphen is also present in one ] and in six literary ]s published between 1594 and 1623. This hyphen use is construed to indicate a pseudonym by most anti-Stratfordians,<ref>{{Harvnb|Shapiro|2010|p=255 (225)}}.</ref> who argue that fictional descriptive names (such as "Master Shoe-tie" and "Sir Luckless Woo-all") were often hyphenated in plays, and pseudonyms such as "Tom Tell-truth" were also sometimes hyphenated.<ref>{{Harvnb|Price|2001|pp=59–62}}.</ref>
	===Terms for adherents to specific candidates===
	Those anti-Stratfordians who identify ], ], or ] as the author of Shakespeare's plays are commonly referred to as Baconians, Oxfordians, and Marlovians, respectively.
			Reasons proposed for the use of "Shakespeare" as a pseudonym vary, usually depending upon the social status of the candidate. Aristocrats such as Derby and Oxford supposedly used pseudonyms because of a prevailing "]", a social convention that putatively restricted their literary works to private and courtly audiences—as opposed to commercial endeavours—at the risk of social disgrace if violated.<ref>{{Harvnb|Saunders|1951|pp=139–64}}; {{Harvnb|May|1980|p=11}}; {{Harvnb|May|2007|p=61}}.</ref> In the case of commoners, the reason was to avoid prosecution by the authorities: Bacon to avoid the consequences of advocating a more ],<ref>{{Harvnb|Smith|2008|p=621}}: "The plays have to be pseudonymous because they are too dangerous, in a climate of ] and monarchical control, to be published openly."</ref> and Marlowe to avoid imprisonment or worse after faking his death and fleeing the country.<ref>{{Harvnb|Schoenbaum|1991|pp=393, 446}}.</ref>
	===Shakspere vs. Shakespeare===
	There was no standardised spelling in Elizabethan England, and throughout his lifetime Shakespeare of Stratford's name was spelled in many different ways, including "Shakespeare." Anti-Stratfordians conventionally refer to the man from Stratford as "Shakspere" (the name recorded at his baptism) or "Shaksper" to distinguish him from the author "Shakespeare" or "Shake-speare" (the spellings that appear on the publications) who they claim has a different identity. They point out that most references to the man from Stratford in legal documents usually spell the first syllable of his name with only four letters, Shak- or sometimes Shag- or Shax-, whereas the dramatist's name is consistently rendered with a long "a" as in "Shake".<ref>Justice John Paul Stevens "The Shakespeare Canon of Statutory Construction" UNIVERSITY of PENNSYLVANIA LAW REVIEW (v.140: no. 4, April 1992) </ref>Stratfordians are hostile to this convention, because it implies that the Stratford man and the playwright always spelled their names differently, though they did not.<ref>David Kathman, . ''The Shakespeare Authorship Page''.</ref> Because the 'Shakspere' convention is controversial, this article uses the name 'Shakespeare' throughout.
			{{clear}}
	==Common arguments used by all anti-Stratfordians==
	Although there are several different factions with anti-Stratfordian thought, supporting different candidates, certain arguments are common to all factions.
			===Lack of documentary evidence===
	===Shakespeare's education===
			]" from his 1616 collected works is taken by some anti-Stratfordians to refer to Shakespeare.]]
	====Literacy====
			Anti-Stratfordians say that nothing in the documentary record explicitly identifies Shakespeare as a writer;<ref>{{Harvnb|Matus|1994|p=26}}.</ref> that the evidence instead supports a career as a businessman and real-estate investor; that any prominence he might have had in the London theatrical world (aside from his role as a front for the true author) was because of his money-lending, trading in theatrical properties, acting, and being a shareholder. They also believe that any evidence of a literary career was falsified as part of the effort to shield the true author's identity.<ref>{{Harvnb|Shapiro|2010|pp=116–7 (103–4)}}.</ref>
	]
	] in a court case (1612) 2. Small signature from the seal-ribbon of a ] document regarding property in Blackfriars (1613). 3. Small signature from the seal-ribbon of a ] document regarding the same property (1613).4. Decayed small signature from the first page of Shakespeare's will (1616). 5. From the second page of the will. 6. "By me William Shakspeare" from the third page of the will.]]
			Alternative authorship theories generally reject the surface meaning of Elizabethan and Jacobean references to Shakespeare as a playwright. They interpret contemporary satirical characters as broad hints indicating that the London theatrical world knew Shakespeare was a front for an anonymous author. For instance, they identify Shakespeare with the literary thief Poet-Ape in ]'s poem of the same name, the socially ambitious fool Sogliardo in Jonson's '']'', and the foolish poetry-lover Gullio in the university play ] (performed c. 1601).<ref>{{cite book |last=Frazer |first=Robert |date=1915 |title=The Silent Shakespeare |url=https://archive.org/details/silentshakespear00frazrich |location=Philadelphia |publisher=William J. Campbell |page=}}</ref> Similarly, praises of "Shakespeare" the writer, such as those found in the ], are explained as references to the real author's pen-name, not the man from Stratford.<ref>{{Harvnb|McCrea|2005|pp=21, 170–1, 217}}.</ref>
	Some anti-Stratfordians remark on the fact that '''Shakespeare's father and his wife seem to have been illiterate''', since they made marks on official documents instead of signing their names. His daughter Judith did the same, suggesting that Shakespeare may not have taught her to write (as was normal for middle-class women in the ]).{{fact}} However, his other daughter, Susannah, was able to sign her name.<ref>S. Schoenbaum, ''William Shakespeare: A Documentary Life'' (New York: OUP, 1975), p. 234.</ref>
			===Circumstances of Shakespeare's death===
	Stratfordians assert that Shakespeare himself was clearly literate, since several signatures survive and it was necessary for actors to be able to read.{{fact}} Anti-Stratfordians point out that there are '''no surviving letters from Shakespeare to his wife''', his children, his business associates or anyone else. They maintain it would only be logical for a man of Shakespeare's writing ability to compose numerous letters, and given the man's supposed fame they find it remarkable that not one letter, or record of a letter, has survived.{{fact}}
			Shakespeare died on 23 April 1616 in Stratford, leaving a signed will to direct the disposal of his large estate. The language of the will makes no mention of personal papers, books, poems, or the 18 plays that remained unpublished at the time of his death. In an ], the will mentions monetary gifts to fellow actors for them to buy ]s.<ref>{{Harvnb|Price|2001|pp=146–8}}.</ref>
			]
	====Education====
			Any public mourning of Shakespeare's death went unrecorded, and no eulogies or poems memorialising his death were published until seven years later as part of the ] in the First Folio of his plays.<ref>{{Harvnb|Matus|1994|pp=166, 266–7}}, cites James Lardner, "Onward and Upward with the Arts: the Authorship Question", ''The New Yorker'', 11 April 1988, p. 103: "No obituaries marked his death in 1616, no public mourning. No note whatsoever was taken of the passing of the man who, if the attribution is correct, would have been the greatest playwright and poet in the history of the English language."; {{harvnb|Shapiro|2010|p=243}}.</ref>
	Anti-Stratfordians often note that there is no evidence that Shakespeare possessed the education required to have written the plays. The orthodox position is that Shakespeare was entitled to attend the ] in Stratford until the age of fourteen, where he would have studied the Latin poets, and possibly playwrights such as ].{{fact}} The records of pupils at the school have not survived, so it cannot be proven whether Shakespeare attended or not<ref>Germaine Greer "Past Masters: Shakespeare" (Oxford University Press 1986, ISBN 0-19-287538-8) pp1-2</ref>.
			] think that the phrase "our ever-living Poet" (an epithet that commonly eulogised a deceased poet as having attained immortal literary fame), included in the dedication to ] that were published in 1609, was a signal that the true poet had died by then. Oxford had died in 1604, five years earlier.<ref>{{Harvnb|Bate|1998|p=63}}; {{Harvnb|Price|2001|p=145}}.</ref>
	There is no evidence that Shakespeare attended a ], although this was not unusual among Renaissance dramatists.{{fact}} Orthodox scholars assume that Shakespeare was partly self-educated.{{fact}} A commonly cited parallel is his fellow dramatist ], a man whose origins were humbler than Shakespeare's, who rose to become court poet. Like Shakespeare, Jonson never completed and perhaps never attended university, and yet he became a man of great learning (later being granted an honorary degree from both ] and ]).
			] in Stratford consists of a demi-figure effigy of him with pen in hand and an attached plaque praising his abilities as a writer. The earliest printed image of the figure, in ]'s ''Antiquities of Warwickshire'' (1656), differs greatly from its present appearance. Some authorship theorists argue that the figure originally portrayed a man clutching a sack of grain or wool that was later altered to help conceal the identity of the true author.<ref>{{Harvnb|Price|2001|p=157}}; {{Harvnb|Matus|1991|p=201}}.</ref> In an attempt to put to rest such speculation, in 1924 ] published a painting of the monument that had been executed before the 1748 restoration, which showed it very similar to its present-day appearance.<ref>{{Harvnb|Spielmann|1924|pp=23–4}}.</ref> The publication of the image failed to achieve its intended effect, and in 2005 Oxfordian ] proposed that the monument was originally built to honour John Shakespeare, William's father, who by tradition was a "considerable dealer in wool".<ref>{{Harvnb|Vickers|2006|p=17}}.</ref>
	The parallel with Jonson has been questioned,{{fact}} since there is clearer evidence for Jonson's self-education than for Shakespeare's. Several books owned by Ben Jonson have been found signed and annotated by him<ref>Ridell, James, and Stewart, Stanley, The Ben Jonson Journal, Vol. 1 (1994), p.183; article refers to an inventory of Ben Jonson's private library</ref> but no book has ever been proved to have been owned or borrowed by Shakespeare. In addition, Jonson had access to a substantial library with which to supplement his education.<ref>Riggs, David, Ben Jonson: A Life (Harvard University Press: 1989), p.58.</ref> One possible source for Shakespeare's self-education has been suggested: David Kathman has pointed out that many of the sources for his plays may have been sold at the shop of the printer ], a fellow Stratfordian of Shakespeare's age.<ref>David Kathman, 'Shakespeare and Richard Field'. ''''.</ref>However, there is no concrete evidence to support this new theory.
			{{clear}}
	Stratfordians note that Shakespeare's works have not always been considered to require an unusual amount of education: Ben Jonson's tribute to Shakespeare in the 1623 ] states that his plays were great even though he had "small Latin and less Greek". And it has been argued that a great deal of the classical learning he displays is derived from one text, ]'s '']'', which was a set text in many schools at the time.<ref>Jonathan Bate, ''Shakespeare and Ovid'' (Clarendon Press, 1994) <!---Page refs. needed---></ref>However, this explanation does not counter the argument that the author also required a knowledge of foreign languages, modern science and the law.<ref>Anderson, Shakespeare by Another Name, 2004</ref>
	===Shakespeare's will===		==Case for Shakespeare's authorship==
			Nearly all academic Shakespeareans believe that the author referred to as "Shakespeare" was the same William Shakespeare who was born in Stratford-upon-Avon in 1564 and who died there in 1616. He became an actor and shareholder in the ] (later the ]), the ] that owned the ], the ], and exclusive rights to produce Shakespeare's plays from 1594 to 1642.<ref>{{Harvnb|Bate|1998|p=20}}.</ref> Shakespeare was also allowed the use of the ] "]" after 1596 when his father was granted a ].<ref name="montague123">{{Harvnb|Montague|1963|pp=123–4}}.</ref>
	William Shakespeare's will is long and explicit, listing the possessions of a successful bourgeois in detail. However, anti-Stratfordians find it notable that the will makes no mention at all of personal papers, letters, or books (books were rare and expensive items at the time) of any kind. In addition, no early poems or manuscripts, plays or unfinished works are listed, nor is there any reference to the shares in the Globe Theatre that the Stratford man supposedly owned, shares that would have been exceedingly valuable.
			Shakespeare scholars see no reason to suspect that the name was a pseudonym or that the actor was a front for the author: contemporary records identify Shakespeare as the writer, other playwrights such as ] and ] came from similar backgrounds, and no contemporary is known to have expressed doubts about Shakespeare's authorship. While information about some aspects of Shakespeare's life is sketchy, this is true of many other playwrights of the time. Of some, next to nothing is known. Others, such as Jonson, Marlowe, and ], are more fully documented because of their education, close connections with the court, or brushes with the law.<ref>{{Harvnb|Matus|1994|pp=265–6}}; {{Harvnb|Lang|1912|pp=28–30}}.</ref>
	In particular, anti-Stratfordians note at the time of Shakespeare's death, 18 plays remained unpublished, and yet none of them are mentioned in his will (this contrasts with Sir Francis Bacon, both of whose wills refer to work that he wished to be published posthumously<ref>Spedding, James, ''The Life and Letters of Francis Bacon'' (1872), Vol.7, p.228-30 ('And in particular, I wish the Elogium I wrote ''in felicem memoriam Reginae Elizabethae'' may be published')</ref>). Anti-Stratfordians find it unusual that Shakspeare did not wish his family to profit from his unpublished work or was unconcerned about leaving them to posterity. They do not think it probable that Shakespeare (assuming he wrote them) would have submitted all the manuscripts that he wrote to the King's Men as the individual and the company were separate entities.
			Literary scholars employ the same ] to attribute works to the poet and playwright William Shakespeare as they use for other writers of the period: the historical record and ],<ref>{{Harvnb|Wadsworth|1958|pp=163–4}}; {{Harvnb|Murphy|1964|p=4}}: "For the evidence that William Shakespeare of Stratford-on-Avon (1564–1616) wrote the works attributed to him is not only abundant but conclusive. It is of the kind, as ] puts it, 'which is ordinarily accepted as determining the authorship of early literature.{{'"}}; {{Harvnb|Nelson|2004|p=149}}: "Even the most partisan anti-Stratfordian or Oxfordian agrees that documentary evidence taken on its face value supports the case for William Shakespeare of Stratford-upon-Avon ... as author of the poems and plays"; {{Harvnb|McCrea|2005|pp=xii–xiii, 10}},</ref> and they say the argument that there is no evidence of Shakespeare's authorship is a form of fallacious logic known as '']'', or argument from silence, since it takes the absence of evidence to be evidence of absence.<ref>{{Harvnb|Shipley|1943|pp=37–8}},</ref> They criticise the methods used to identify alternative candidates as unreliable and unscholarly, arguing that their subjectivity explains why at least as many as 80 candidates<ref name="gross39"/> have been proposed as the "true" author.<ref>{{Harvnb|Dawson|1953|p=165}}: "...in my opinion it is the basic unsoundness of method in this and other works of similar subject matter that explains how sincere and intelligent men arrive at such wild conclusions"; {{Harvnb|Love|2002|p=200}}; {{Harvnb|McCrea|2005|p=14}}; {{Harvnb|Gibson|2005|p=10}}.</ref> They consider the idea that Shakespeare revealed himself autobiographically in his work as a cultural ]: it has been a common authorial practice since the 19th century, but was not during the Elizabethan and Jacobean eras.<ref>{{Harvnb|Shapiro|2010|p=305 (270)}}; {{Harvnb|Bate|1998|pp=36–7}}; {{Harvnb|Wadsworth|1958|pp=2–3}}; {{Harvnb|Schoone-Jongen|2008|p=5}}.</ref> Even in the 19th century, beginning at least with ] and ], critics frequently noted that the essence of Shakespeare's genius consisted in his ability to have his characters speak and act according to their given dramatic natures, rendering the determination of Shakespeare's authorial identity from his works that much more problematic.<ref>{{Harvnb|Bate|1963|pp=259–60}}; {{Harvnb|Morita|1980|pp=22–3}}.</ref>
	Orthodox scholars consider this argument to be based on a mistaken understanding of the ownership of work in the English Renaissance theatres. As was the normal practice at the time, once he had submitted his work, Shakespeare's plays were owned jointly by the members of the ] of which he was a shareholder, the ].<ref> G. E. Bentley, ''The Profession of Dramatist in Shakespeare's Time: 1590-1642'' (Princeton: Princeton UP, 1971)<!---page reference needed---></ref> Indeed, it was two of his fellow shareholders - ] and ] - who published the plays after his death, as they explain in their dedicatory epistle to the 1623 ].
			===Historical evidence===
	It is not certain what the ownership status of an unperformed play by Shakespeare would have been - but it is also not certain that any of Shakespeare's plays were unperformed.
			]'' (O5, 1616).]]
			The historical record is unequivocal in ascribing the authorship of the Shakespeare canon to a William Shakespeare.<ref>{{Harvnb|Martin|1965|p=131}}.</ref> In addition to the name appearing on the title pages of poems and plays, this name was given as that of a well-known writer at least 23 times during the lifetime of William Shakespeare of Stratford.<ref>{{Harvnb|Murphy|1964|p=5}}.</ref> Several contemporaries corroborate the identity of the playwright as an actor,<ref>{{Harvnb|McCrea|2005|pp=3–7}}.</ref> and explicit contemporary documentary evidence attests that the Stratford citizen was also an actor under his own name.<ref>{{Harvnb|Martin|1965|p=135}}.</ref>
			In 1598, ] named Shakespeare as a playwright and poet in his '']'', referring to him as one of the authors by whom the "English tongue is mightily enriched".<ref>{{Harvnb|Montague|1963|pp=93–4}}; {{Harvnb|Loomis|2002|p=83}}.</ref> He names twelve plays written by Shakespeare, including four which were never published in quarto: '']'', '']'', '']'', and '']'', as well as ascribing to Shakespeare some of the plays that were published anonymously before 1598—'']'', '']'', and '']''. He refers to Shakespeare's "sugred Sonnets among his private friends" 11 years before the publication of the ].<ref>{{Harvnb|Loomis|2002|p=85}}; {{Harvnb|Montague|1963|pp=93–4}}.</ref>
	===Shakespeare's class===
			] was granted ] in 1596, which in 1602 was unsuccessfully contested by ], who identified Shakespeare as a "player" (actor) in his complaint.]]
	Anti-Stratfordians argue that a provincial glovemaker's son who resided in Stratford until early adulthood would be unlikely to have written plays that deal so personally with the activities, travel and lives of the nobility. The view is aptly summarized by Charles Chaplin: "In the work of greatest geniuses, humble beginnings will reveal themselves somewhere, but one cannot trace the slightest sign of them in Shakespeare Whoever wrote had an aristocratic attitude."{{fact}} Orthodox scholars respond that the glamorous world of the aristocracy was a popular setting for many plays in this period. They add that numerous English Renaissance playwrights, including ], ], ], ] and others wrote about the nobility despite their own humble origins. {{fact}}
			In the rigid ] of Elizabethan England, William Shakespeare was entitled to use the honorific "gentleman" after his father's death in 1601, since his father was granted a coat of arms in 1596.<ref>{{Harvnb|Gurr|2004|p=60}}.</ref> This honorific was conventionally designated by the title ] or its abbreviations "Mr." or "M." prefixed to the name<ref name="montague123" /> (though it was often used by principal citizens and to imply respect to men of stature in the community without designating exact social status).<ref>{{Harvnb|Stevenson|2002|p=84}}.</ref> The title was included in many contemporary references to Shakespeare, including official and literary records, and identifies William Shakespeare of Stratford as the same William Shakespeare designated as the author.<ref>{{Harvnb|Montague|1963|pp=71, 75}}.</ref> Examples from Shakespeare's lifetime include two official ]. One is dated 23 August 1600 and entered by ] and ]:
			{{blockquote|Entred for their copies vnder the handes of the wardens. Twoo bookes. the one called: ]. Thother ]: Wrytten by mr Shakespere. xij d<ref>{{Harvnb|Montague|1963|p=71}}; {{Harvnb|Loomis|2002|p=104}}.</ref>}}
	Anti-Stratfordians further argue that the plays show a detailed understanding of politics, the law and foreign languages that would have been impossible to attain without an aristocratic or university upbringing. Orthodox scholars respond that Shakespeare was an upwardly mobile man: his company regularly performed at court and he thus had ample opportunity to observe courtly life. In addition, his theatrical career made him wealthy {{fact}} and he eventually acquired a ] for his family and the title of gentleman, like many other wealthy middle class men in this period. Against this argument is the fact that it took Ben Jonson (who had a similar low class to Shakespeare) 12 years from his first play to obtain noble patronage from Prince Henry for his commentary ''The Masque of Queens'' (1609). Anti-Stratfordians thus express doubt that Shakespeare could have obtained the Earl of Southampton's patronage for one of his first published works, the long poem ''Venus and Adonis'' (1593).
			The other is dated 26 November 1607 and entered by ] and John Busby:
	In ''The Genius of Shakespeare'', Jonathan Bate points out that the class argument is reversible: the plays contain details of lower-class life in which aristocrats might have little knowledge. Many of Shakespeare's most vivid characters are lower class or associate with this milieu, such as ], ], ], ], etc.<ref name=Bate>''Bate, Jonathan, <i>The Genius of Shakespeare'' (London, Picador, 1997)<!---page reference--></ref> Anti-Stratfordians assert that while the authors depiction of nobility was highly personal and multi-faceted, his treatment of the peasant class was quite different, including comedic and insulting names (Bullcalfe, Elbow, Bottom, Belch), often portrayed as the butt of jokes or as an angry mob.<ref>Ogburn, The Mysterious William Shakespeare, 1984</ref>
			{{blockquote|Entred for their copie under thandes of Sr ] knight & Thwardens A booke called. Mr William Shakespeare his historye of ] as yt was played before the ] at ] vppon ] at Christmas Last by his maiesties servantes playinge vsually at the ] on the Banksyde vj d<ref>{{Harvnb|Montague|1963|p=71}}; {{Harvnb|Loomis|2002|p=174}}.</ref>}}
	It has also been noted{{fact}} that in the ], Shakespeare was not thought of as an expert on the court, but as a 'child of nature' who "Warble his native wood-notes wild" as ] put it in his poem ''l'Allegro''. Indeed, ] wrote in ] that the playwrights ] "understood and imitated the conversation of Gentlemen much better" than Shakespeare, and in ] wrote of Elizabethan playwrights in general that "I cannot find that any of them had been conversant in courts, except Ben Jonson."
			This latter appeared on the title page of '']'' Q1 (1608) as "M. William Shak-speare: ''HIS'' True Chronicle Historie of the life and death of King L<small>EAR</small> and his three Daughters."<ref>{{Harvnb|Loomis|2002|p=183}}.</ref>
	===Hyphenation of the name "Shake-Speare"===
	Anti-Stratfordians also question the historical hyphen often appearing in the name “Shake-speare”, which they believe indicates the use of a pseudonym.<ref>Charlton Ogburn, The Mystery of William Shakespeare, 1983, pgs 87-88 </ref> Stratfordians respond that the hyphened version was not consistent and that the hyphen was merely misplaced, so the issue should be discounted. Charlton Ogburn states that there is no reason the hyphen should be consistent, and noting, it was always used by other writers or publishers and not the poet himself (he did not use it in his personal dedications of his two long narrative poems).
			Shakespeare's social status is also specifically referred to by his contemporaries in Epigram 159 by ] in his ''The Scourge of Folly'' (1611): "To our English ] Mr. Will: Shake-speare";<ref>{{Harvnb|Loomis|2002|p=209}}.</ref> Epigram 92 by ] in his ''Runne and A Great Caste'' (1614): "To Master W: Shakespeare";<ref>{{Harvnb|Montague|1963|p=98}}; {{Harvnb|Loomis|2002|p=233}}.</ref> and in historian ]'s list of "Our moderne, and present excellent Poets" in his ''Annales'', printed posthumously in an edition by Edmund Howes (1615), which reads: "M. Willi. Shake-speare gentleman".<ref>{{Harvnb|Loomis|2002|p=238}}.</ref>
	Ogburn also points out that of the “32 editions of Shakespeare’s plays published before the ] of ] in which the author was named at all, the name was hyphenated in fifteen – almost half.” It was also hyphenated in ''A Lovers Complaint'', on the title page of the Sonnets, and in two of the four dedicatory poems in the First Folio. Further, it was hyphenated by John Davies in the famous poem references the poet as “Our English Terence”, by fellow playwright John Webster, and by the epigrammatist of ] who wrote, “Shake-speare, we must be silent in they praise…” Ogburn concludes, “the hyphenation was frequent, not occasional, and clearly conscious and purposed, not “misplaced”.<ref>Charlton Ogburn, The Mystery of William Shakespeare, 1983, pgs 87-88 </ref>
			After Shakespeare's death, Ben Jonson explicitly identified William Shakespeare, gentleman, as the author in the title of his eulogy, ], published in the First Folio (1623).<ref>{{Harvnb|Montague|1963|pp=77–8}}.</ref> Other poets identified Shakespeare the gentleman as the author in the titles of their eulogies, also published in the First Folio: ] by ] and ] by ].<ref>{{Harvnb|Nelson|2004|p=155}}: "Throughout the First Folio, the author is called 'Mr.' or 'Maister,' a title exactly appropriate to the social rank of William Shakespeare."</ref>
	Even a limited survey of 16th- and 17th-century texts, however, shows that proper names that are compounds of common words, like "Newcastle" or "Oldcastle," are spelled either with or without hyphens, randomly. The same text, the same author, can employ both, with no discernible pattern. The early texts of the play '']'' demonstrate this clearly.<ref>http://www.shakespeareauthorship.com/name1.html#4</ref> Oxfordians respond that in the case of Shake-speare, the use of the hyphen was not random or occasional and did, in fact, follow a noticeable pattern.
	===Comments by contemporaries===		===Contemporary legal recognition===
			Both explicit testimony by his contemporaries and strong circumstantial evidence of personal relationships with those who interacted with him as an actor and playwright support Shakespeare's authorship.<ref>{{Harvnb|Taylor|Loughnane|2017|pp=417–20}}.</ref>
	Comments on Shakespeare by Elizabethan literary figures can be read as expressions of doubt about his authorship.
			] about the same time he listed him as one of the great poets of his time.]] The historian and antiquary ] served as Deputy Master of the Revels from 1603 and as ] from 1610 to 1622. His duties were to supervise and censor plays for the public theatres, arrange court performances of plays and, after 1606, to license plays for publication. Buc noted on the title page of ''George a Greene, the Pinner of Wakefield'' (1599), an anonymous play, that he had consulted Shakespeare on its authorship. Buc was meticulous in his efforts to attribute books and plays to the correct author,<ref>{{Harvnb|Eccles|1933|pp=459–60}}</ref> and in 1607 he personally licensed ''King Lear'' for publication as written by "Master William Shakespeare".<ref>{{Harvnb|Shapiro|2010|pp=254–5 (224–5)}}; {{Harvnb|Nelson|1998|pp=79–82}}.</ref>
	] had a contradictory relationship with Shakespeare. He regarded him as a friend - saying "I loved the man"<ref>Jonson, ''Discoveries 1641,'' ed. G. B. Harrison (New York: Barnes & Noble, 1966), p. 28.</ref> - and wrote fulsome tributes to him in the First Folio. However, Jonson also wrote that Shakespeare was too wordy: commenting on the Players' commendation of Shakespeare for never blotting out a line, Jonson wrote "would he had blotted a thousand" and that "he flowed with that facility that sometimes it was necessary he should be stopped."<ref>Jonson, ''Discoveries 1641,'' ed. G. B. Harrison (New York: Barnes & Noble, 1966), p. 28.</ref> In the same work, he scoffs at a line Shakespeare said "in the person of Caesar" (presumably on stage): "Caesar never did wrong but with just cause", which Jonson calls "ridiculous",<ref> Jonson's ''Discoveries 1641,'' ed. G. B. Harrison (New York: Barnes & Noble, 1966), p. 29. </ref> and indeed the text as preserved in the First Folio carries a different line: "Know, Caesar doth not wrong, nor without cause / Will he be satisfied" (3.1). Jonson ridiculed the line again in his play ''The Staple of News'', without directly referring to Shakespeare. Some anti-Stratfordians interpret these comments as expressions of doubt about Shakespeare's ability to have written the plays.<ref>Dawkins, Peter, The Shakespeare Enigma (Polair: 2004), p.44</ref>
			In 1602, ], the ], accused Sir ], the ], of elevating 23 unworthy persons to the ].<ref>{{Harvnb|Schoenbaum|1987|p=231}}.</ref> One of these was Shakespeare's father, who had applied for arms 34 years earlier but had to wait for the success of his son before they were granted in 1596.<ref>{{Harvnb|Schoenbaum|1987|pp=227–8}}.</ref> Brooke included a sketch of the Shakespeare arms, captioned "Shakespear ye Player by Garter".<ref>{{Harvnb|Schoenbaum|1987|pp=231–2}}; {{Harvnb|Matus|1994|p=60}}.</ref> The grants, including John Shakespeare's, were defended by Dethick and ] ], the foremost antiquary of the time.<ref>{{Harvnb|Schoenbaum|1987|p=232}}.</ref> In his ''Remaines Concerning Britaine''—published in 1605, but finished two years previously and before the Earl of Oxford died in 1604—Camden names Shakespeare as one of the "most pregnant witts of these ages our times, whom succeeding ages may justly admire".<ref>{{Harvnb|Pendleton|1994|p=29}}: "...since he had, as Clarenceux King, responded less than three years earlier to Brooke's attack on the grant of arms to the father of 'Shakespeare ye Player' ... Camden thus was aware that the last name on his list was that of William Shakespeare of Stratford. The Camden reference, therefore, is exactly what the Oxfordians insist does not exist: an identification by a knowledgeable and universally respected contemporary that 'the Stratford man' was a writer of sufficient distinction to be ranked with (if after) ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], and ]. And the identification even fulfils the eccentric Oxfordian ground-rule that it be earlier than 1616."</ref>
	In ]'s posthumous publication ''Greene's Groatsworth of Wit'' (1592; published, and possibly written, by fellow dramatist ]) a dramatist labelled "Shake-scene" is vilified as "an upstart Crowe beautified with our feathers", along with a quotation from '']''. The orthodox view is that Greene is criticizing the relatively unsophisticated Shakespeare for invading the domain of the university-educated playwright Greene.{{fact}} Some anti-Stratfordians claim that Greene is in fact doubting Shakespeare's authorship.<ref>Dawkins, Peter, The Shakespeare Enigma (Polair: 2004), p.47</ref>
	In Greene's earlier work ''Mirror of Modesty'' (1584), the dedication mentions "Ezops Crowe, which deckt hir selfe with others feathers" referring to ]'s fable (the Crow, the Eagle, and the Feathers) against people who boast they have something they do not.
			===Recognition by fellow actors, playwrights and writers===
	In ]'s satirical poem '']'' (1598), Marston rails against the upper classes being 'polluted' by sexual interactions with the lower classes. Seasoning his piece with sexual metaphors, he then asks:
			]'' (3rd ed., 1612)]]
	:Shall broking pandars sucke Nobilitie?
			Actors ] and ] knew and worked with Shakespeare for more than 20 years. In the 1623 First Folio, they wrote that they had published the Folio "onely to keepe the memory of so worthy a Friend, & Fellow aliue, as was our <span style="font-variant: small-caps;">Shakespeare</span>, by humble offer of his playes". The playwright and poet Ben Jonson knew Shakespeare from at least 1598, when the Lord Chamberlain's Men performed Jonson's play '']'' at the ] with Shakespeare as a cast member. The Scottish poet ] recorded Jonson's often contentious comments about his contemporaries: Jonson criticised Shakespeare as lacking "arte" and for mistakenly giving ] a coast in '']''.<ref>{{Harvnb|McCrea|2005|pp=17–9}}.</ref> In 1641, four years after Jonson's death, private notes written during his later life were published. In a comment intended for posterity (''Timber or Discoveries''), he criticises Shakespeare's casual approach to playwriting, but praises Shakespeare as a person: "I loved the man, and do honour his memory (on this side Idolatry) as much as any. He was (indeed) honest, and of an open, and free nature; had an excellent fancy; brave notions, and gentle expressions&nbsp;..."<ref>{{Harvnb|Shapiro|2010|pp=272–3 (239–40)}}.</ref>
	:Soyling fayre stems with foule impuritie?
	:Nay, shall a trencher slaue extenuate,
	:Some ''Lucrece'' rape?". And straight magnificate
	:Lewd Jovian Lust? Whilst my satyrick vaine
	:Shall muzzled be, not daring out to straine
	:His tearing paw? No gloomy Juvenall,
	:Though to thy fortunes I disastrous fall.
	There is a tradition that the satirist Juvenal became 'gloomy' after being exiled by Domitian having lampooned an actor that the emperor was in love with.<ref>Davenport, Arnold, (Ed.), The Scourge of Villanie 1599, Satire III, in ''The Poems of John Marston'' (Liverpool University Press: 1961), pp.117, 300-1</ref> So Marston's piece could be taken as being directed at an actor, and as questioning whether such a lower class "trencher slave" is extenuating (making light of) "some ] rape". One interpretation is that it refers to '']'', with Shakespeare depicted as a "broking pandar" (procurer), implicitly questioning his credentials to "sucke Nobilitie", that is, attract the ]'s patronage of him.
			In addition to Ben Jonson, other playwrights wrote about Shakespeare, including some who sold plays to Shakespeare's company. Two of the three ] produced at ], near the beginning of the 17th century mention Shakespeare as an actor, poet, and playwright who lacked a university education. In ''The First Part of the Return from Parnassus'', two separate characters refer to Shakespeare as "Sweet Mr. Shakespeare", and in ''The Second Part of the Return from Parnassus'' (1606), the anonymous playwright has the actor ] say to the actor ], "Few of the university men pen plays well&nbsp;... Why here's our fellow ''Shakespeare'' puts them all down."<ref>{{Harvnb|McCrea|2005|pp=7, 8, 11, 32}}; {{Harvnb|Shapiro|2010|pp=268–9 (236–7)}}.</ref>
	===The idea of secret authorship in Renaissance England===
	In support of the possibility of Shakespeare as 'frontman', anti-Statfordians point to contemporary examples of Elizabethans discussing anonymous or pseudonymous publication by persons of high social status. ] in his book ''The Schoolmaster'' refers to his belief that two plays attributed to the Roman dramatist Terence were secretly written by "worthy Scipio, and wise Lælius", because the language is too elevated to have been written by "a seruile stranger" such as Terence.<ref></ref> Describing contemporary writers, the dramatist and pamphleteer ] wrote that "others ... which for their calling and gravity being loth to have any profane pamphlets pass under their hands, get some other Batillus to set his name to their verses."<ref>Greene, Robert, Farewell to Folly (1591)</ref> (Batillus was a minor poet in the reign of Augustus Caesar).
			An edition of '']'', expanded with an additional nine poems written by the prominent English actor, playwright, and author ], was published by ] in 1612 with Shakespeare's name on the title page. Heywood protested this piracy in his ''Apology for Actors'' (1612), adding that the author was "much offended with M. Jaggard (that altogether unknown to him) presumed to make so bold with his name." That Heywood stated with certainty that the author was unaware of the deception and that Jaggard removed Shakespeare's name from unsold copies even though Heywood did not explicitly name him indicate that Shakespeare was the offended author.<ref>{{Harvnb|McCrea|2005|p=191}}; {{Harvnb|Montague|1963|p=97}}.</ref> Elsewhere, in his poem "Hierarchie of the Blessed Angels" (1634), Heywood affectionately notes the nicknames his fellow playwrights had been known by. Of Shakespeare, he writes:
	===Evidence in the poems===
			::Our modern poets to that pass are driven,
	Both orthodox scholars and anti-Stratfordians have used Shakespeare's sonnets as evidence for their positions.
			::Those names are curtailed which they first had given;
			::And, as we wished to have their memories drowned,
			::We scarcely can afford them half their sound. ...
			::Mellifluous ''Shake-speare'', whose enchanting quill
			::Commanded mirth or passion, was but ''Will''.<ref>{{Harvnb|Shapiro|2010|p=271 (238)}}; {{Harvnb|Chambers|1930|pp=218–9}}.</ref>
			Playwright ], in his dedication to '']'' (1612), wrote, "And lastly (without wrong last to be named), the right happy and copious industry of M. ''Shake-Speare'', M. ], & M. ''Heywood'', wishing what I write might be read in their light", here using the abbreviation "M." to denote "Master", a form of address properly used of William Shakespeare of Stratford, who was titled a gentleman.<ref>{{Harvnb|Shapiro|2010|p=270 (238)}}.</ref>
			In a verse letter to Ben Jonson dated to about 1608, ] alludes to several playwrights, including Shakespeare, about whom he wrote,
	Orthodox scholars assert that the opening lines of Sonnet 135 are strong evidence against any alternate author, or at least any not named William:
			::... Here I would let slip
	: Whoever hath her wish, thou hast thy ''Will'',
			::(If I had any in me) scholarship,
	: And ''Will'' to boot, and ''Will'' in overplus;
			::And from all learning keep these lines as clear
	: More than enough am I that vex thee still,
			::as Shakespeare's best are, which our heirs shall hear
	: To thy sweet will making addition thus. (the italics and capitalisation are those of the original text)
			::Preachers apt to their auditors to show
	The italicised puns on Shakespeare's name continue in Sonnet 136 which concludes "And then thou lovest me, for my name is ''Will''".
			::how far sometimes a mortal man may go
			::by the dim light of Nature.<ref>{{Harvnb|Shapiro|2010|p=271 (238–9)}}; {{Harvnb|Chambers|1930|p=224}}; {{Harvnb|Nicholl|2008|p=80}}.</ref>
			===Historical perspective of Shakespeare's death===
	In any case, imaginative works can be playful and imaginative, so the use of the name "Will" proves that the writer either:
			]
	:a) was named William and wanted to create a poetic conceit based on Will/will; or
			The ], erected in Stratford before 1623, bears a plaque with an inscription identifying Shakespeare as a writer. The first two Latin lines translate to "In judgment a Pylian, in genius a Socrates, in art a Maro, the earth covers him, the people mourn him, Olympus possesses him", referring to ], ], ], and ]. The monument was not only referred to in the First Folio, but other early 17th-century records identify it as being a memorial to Shakespeare and transcribe the inscription.<ref>{{Harvnb|Kathman (3)}}; {{Harvnb|McMichael|Glenn|1962|p=41}}.</ref> Sir William Dugdale also included the inscription in his ''Antiquities of Warwickshire'' (1656), but the engraving was done from a sketch made in 1634 and, like other portrayals of monuments in his work, is not accurate.<ref>{{Harvnb|Price|1997|pp=168, 173}}: "While Hollar conveyed the general impressions suggested by Dugdale's sketch, few of the details were transmitted with accuracy. Indeed, Dugdale's sketch gave Hollar few details to work with ... As with other sketches in his collection, Dugdale made no attempt to draw a facial likeness, but appears to have sketched one of his standard faces to depict a man with facial hair. Consequently, Hollar invented the facial features for Shakespeare. The conclusion is obvious: in the absence of an accurate and detailed model, Hollar freely improvised his image of Shakespeare's monument. That improvisation is what disqualifies the engraving's value as authoritative evidence."</ref>
	:b) was not named William and wanted to create a poetic conceit based on the pretense that he was.
			Shakespeare's will, executed on 25 March 1616, bequeaths "to my fellows John Hemynge ] and Henry Cundell 26 ] 8 ] apiece to buy them rings". Numerous public records, including the royal patent of 19 May 1603 that ]ed the King's Men, establish that Phillips, Heminges, Burbage, and Condell were fellow actors in the King's Men with William Shakespeare; two of them later edited his collected plays. Anti-Stratfordians have cast suspicion on these bequests, which were ], and claim that they were added later as part of a conspiracy. However, the will was proved in the ] of the ] (]) in London on 22 June 1616, and the original was copied into the court register with the bequests intact.<ref>{{Harvnb|Kathman (2)}}.</ref>
	While Oxfordians contend that a nobleman would not have wanted to be known as a playwright, orthodox scholars point out that this argument does not apply to poetry, which was a skill expected of an Elizabethan courtier. Poems such as Shakespeare's '']'' or '']'', long narrative works on classical subjects, were a prestigious and respectable form of composition, unlike 'merely popular' plays. Oxfordians respond that the contents of the Sonnets, as well as the narrative poems, touched on matters of personal and political scandal which positively required the adoption of a ''nom de plume'' by the author. They cite Sonnet 76 as clear evidence of the author's confession of the need for such a ruse:
			] was the first poet to mention in print the deaths of Shakespeare and Francis Beaumont in his 1620 book of poems ''The Praise of Hemp-seed''.<ref>{{Harvnb|Kathman (4)}}.</ref> Both had died four years earlier, less than two months apart. Ben Jonson wrote a short poem "To the Reader" commending the First Folio engraving of Shakespeare by ] as a good likeness. Included in the prefatory ]s was Jonson's lengthy eulogy "To the memory of my beloved, the Author Mr. William Shakespeare: and what he hath left us" in which he identifies Shakespeare as a playwright, a poet, and an actor, and writes:
	: Why write I still all one, ever the same,
	: And keep invention in a noted weed,
	: That every word doth almost tell my name,
	: Showing their birth, and where they did proceed?
			::Sweet Swan of Avon! what a sight it were
	Orthodox scholars find it significant that both of Shakespeare's major poetic works, the narrative poems and the sonnets, were published immediately after periods in which the theatres had been closed by an outbreak of ]. This pattern, it is suggested, is more consistent with composition by a professional dramatist looking for an alternate source of income than an anonymous nobleman composing coincidentally during a theatre closing.
			::To see thee in our waters yet appear,
			::And make those flights upon the banks of Thames,
			::That so did take Eliza, and our James!
			Here Jonson links the author to Stratford's river, the ], and confirms his appearances at the courts of ] and ].<ref>{{Harvnb|Matus|1994|pp=121, 220}}.</ref>
	==Candidates and their champions==
	{{main|List of people theorised to have written Shakespeare}}
			] wrote the elegy "To the Memorie of the Deceased Authour Maister W. Shakespeare" in the 1623 First Folio, referring to "thy Stratford Moniment". Living four miles from Stratford-upon-Avon from 1600 until attending Oxford in 1603, Digges was the stepson of Thomas Russell, whom Shakespeare in his will designated as overseer to the executors.<ref>{{Harvnb|Kathman|2013|p=127}}</ref><ref>{{Harvnb|Bate|1998|p=72}}.</ref> ] wrote an elegy entitled "On Mr. Wm. Shakespeare" sometime between 1616 and 1623, in which he suggests that Shakespeare should have been buried in ] next to ], Beaumont, and Spenser. This poem circulated very widely in manuscript and survives today in more than two dozen contemporary copies; several of these have a fuller, variant title "On Mr. William Shakespeare, he died in April 1616", which unambiguously specifies that the reference is to Shakespeare of Stratford.<ref>{{Harvnb|McCrea|2005|p=9}}; {{Harvnb|Bate|2002|pp=111–2}}.</ref>
	===History of alternative attributions===
	The first direct statements of doubt about Shakespeare's authorship were made in the ], when unorthodox views of Shakespeare were expressed in two allegorical stories. In ''The Life and Adventures of Common Sense'' (]) by Herbert Lawrence, Shakespeare is portrayed as a ''"shifty theatrical character ... and incorrigible thief"''.<ref> John Michell "Who Wrote Shakespeare" ISBN 0-500-28113-0</ref> In ''The Story of the Learned Pig'' (]) by an anonymous author described as ''"an officer of the Royal Navy,"'' Shakespeare is merely a front for the real author, a chap called "Pimping Billy."
			===Evidence for Shakespeare's authorship from his works===
	Around this time, ], a ] clergyman and scholar, was researching a biography on Shakespeare. He travelled extensively around Stratford, visiting the libraries of country houses within a radius of fifty miles looking for records or correspondence connected with Shakespeare or books that had been owned by him. By ], Wilmot had become so appalled at the lack of evidence for Shakespeare that he concluded he could not be the author of the works. Wilmot was familiar with the writings of ] and formed the opinion that he was more likely the real author of the Shakespearean canon. He confided this to one James Cowell. Cowell disclosed it in a paper read to the ] in ] (Cowell's paper was only rediscovered in ]).
			Shakespeare's are the most studied secular works in history.<ref>{{Harvnb|Eaglestone|2009|p=63}}; {{Harvnb|Gelderen|2006|p=178}}.</ref> Contemporary comments and some textual studies support the authorship of someone with an education, background, and life span consistent with that of William Shakespeare.<ref>{{Harvnb|McCrea|2005|pp=105–6, 115, 119–24}}; {{Harvnb|Bate|2002|pp=109–10}}.</ref>
			] at Stratford-upon-Avon]]
			Ben Jonson and Francis Beaumont referenced Shakespeare's lack of classical learning, and no extant contemporary record suggests he was a learned writer or scholar.<ref>{{Harvnb|McCrea|2005|pp=64, 171}}; {{Harvnb|Bate|1998|p=70}}.</ref> This is consistent with ] blunders in Shakespeare, such as mistaking the ] of many classical names, or the anachronistic citing of ] and ] in '']''.<ref>{{Harvnb|Lang|1912|pp=43–4}}.</ref> It has been suggested that most of Shakespeare's classical allusions were drawn from ]'s ''Thesaurus Linguae Romanae et Britannicae'' (1565), since a number of errors in that work are replicated in several of Shakespeare's plays,<ref>{{Harvnb|Willinsky|1994|p=75}}.</ref> and a copy of this book had been bequeathed to Stratford Grammar School by John Bretchgirdle for "the common use of scholars".<ref>{{Harvnb|Velz|2000|p=188}}.</ref>
	]'' in ].]]
			Later critics such as ] remarked that Shakespeare's genius lay not in his erudition, but in his "vigilance of observation and accuracy of distinction which books and precepts cannot confer; from this almost all original and native excellence proceeds".<ref>{{Harvnb|Johnson|1969|p=78}}.</ref> Much of the learning with which he has been credited and the omnivorous reading imputed to Shakespeare by critics in later years is exaggerated, and he may well have absorbed much learning from conversations.<ref>{{Harvnb|Love|2002|p=81}}: "As has often been pointed out, if Shakespeare had read all the books claimed to have influenced him, he would never have had time to write a word of his own. He probably picked up many of his ideas from conversation. If he needed legal knowledge it was easier to extract this from Inns-of-Court drinkers in the Devil Tavern than to search volumes of precedents."</ref><ref>{{Harvnb|Nosworthy|2007|p=xv}}: "we should beware of assuming Shakespeare's wholesale dependence on books. The stories, to any educated Elizabethan, were old and familiar ones".</ref> And contrary to previous claims—both scholarly and popular—about his vocabulary and word coinage, the evidence of vocabulary size and word-use frequency places Shakespeare with his contemporaries, rather than apart from them. Computerized comparisons with other playwrights demonstrate that his vocabulary is indeed large, but only because the canon of his surviving plays is larger than those of his contemporaries and because of the broad range of his characters, settings, and themes.<ref>{{Harvnb|Craig|2011|pp=58–60}}.</ref>
	These reports were soon forgotten {{fact}}. However, Bacon would emerge again as the most popular alternative candidate in the ] when, at the height of ], the "authorship question" was popularised. Many 19th century doubters, however, declared themselves agnostics and refused to endorse an alternative. The American populist poet ] gave voice to this skepticism when he told Horace Traubel, "I go with you fellows when you say no to Shaksper : that's about as far as I have got. As to Bacon, well, we'll see, we'll see."<ref></ref> Since the ], the most popular candidate has been ], whose case was put forward by ] in ], and ] in ]. The poet and playwright ] has also been a popular candidate. Many other candidates have been suggested but have failed to gather large followings.
			Shakespeare's plays differ from those of the ] in that they avoid ostentatious displays of the writer's mastery of Latin or of ], with the exceptions of co-authored early plays such as the ''Henry VI'' series and ''Titus Andronicus''. His classical allusions instead rely on the Elizabethan grammar school curriculum. The curriculum began with ]'s Latin grammar ''Rudimenta Grammatices'' and progressed to ], ], ], ], ], ], ], and ], all of whom are quoted and echoed in the Shakespearean canon. Almost uniquely among his peers, Shakespeare's plays include references to grammar school texts and ], together with caricatures of schoolmasters. ''Titus Andronicus'' (4.10), '']'' (1.1), '']'' (5.1), '']'' (2.3), and '']'' (4.1) refer to Lily's ''Grammar''. Shakespeare also alluded to the ] that children attended at age 5 to 7 to learn to read, a prerequisite for grammar school.<ref>{{Harvnb|McCrea|2005|pp=62–72}}.</ref>
	]
			] and Shakespeare]]
			Beginning in 1987, ], who was sympathetic to the Oxfordian theory, and Robert J. Valenza supervised a continuing stylometric study that used computer programs to compare Shakespeare's stylistic habits to the works of 37 authors who had been proposed as the true author. The study, known as the Claremont Shakespeare Clinic, was last held in the spring of 2010.<ref>{{Harvnb|The Shakespeare Clinic|2010}}.</ref> The tests determined that Shakespeare's work shows consistent, countable, profile-fitting patterns, suggesting that he was a single individual, not a committee, and that he used fewer relative clauses and more hyphens, ], and ] than most of the writers with whom he was compared. The result determined that none of the other tested claimants' work could have been written by Shakespeare, nor could Shakespeare have been written by them, eliminating all of the claimants whose known works have survived—including Oxford, Bacon, and Marlowe—as the true authors of the Shakespeare canon.<ref>{{Harvnb|Elliott|Valenza|2004|p=331}}.</ref>
			Shakespeare's style evolved over time in keeping with changes in literary trends. His late plays, such as ''The Winter's Tale'', '']'', and ], are written in a style similar to that of other Jacobean playwrights and radically different from that of his Elizabethan-era plays.<ref>{{Harvnb|Shapiro|2010|p=288 (253)}}.</ref> In addition, after the King's Men began using the Blackfriars Theatre for performances in 1609, Shakespeare's plays were written to accommodate a smaller stage with more music, dancing, and more evenly divided acts to allow for trimming the candles used for stage lighting.<ref>{{Harvnb|Shapiro|2010|pp=283–6 (249–51)}}.</ref>
	===Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford===
	{{Main|Oxfordian theory}}
	<!---This is a SUMMARY: detailed additions should be placed in the long article on 'Oxfordian theory'--->
	The most popular latter-day candidate is ]. This theory was first proposed by ] in ], whose work persuaded ], ], ], and many other early 20th-century intellectuals {{fact}}. The theory was brought to greater prominence by ]'s ''The Mysterious William Shakespeare'' (]), after which Oxford rapidly became the favored alternative to the orthodox view of authorship. Advocates of Oxford are usually referred to as ''Oxfordians''.
			In a 2004 study, Dean Keith Simonton examined the correlation between the thematic content of Shakespeare's plays and the political context in which they would have been written. He concludes that the consensus play chronology is roughly the correct order, and that Shakespeare's works exhibit gradual stylistic development consistent with that of other artistic geniuses.<ref>{{Harvnb|Simonton|2004|p=203}}.</ref> When backdated two years, the ] yield substantial correlations between the two, whereas the ] display no relationship regardless of the time lag.<ref>{{Harvnb|Simonton|2004|p=210}}: "If the Earl of Oxford wrote these plays, then he not only displayed minimal stylistic development over the course of his career (Elliot & Valenza, 2000), but he also wrote in monastic isolation from the key events of his day."</ref><ref>{{Harvnb|Simonton|2004|p=210, note 4}}: "For the record, I find the traditional attribution to William Shakespeare of Stratford highly improbable ... I really would like Edward de Vere to be the author of the plays and poems ... Thus, I had hoped that the current study might strengthen the case on behalf of the Oxfordian attribution. I think that expectation was proven wrong."</ref>
	Oxfordians base their theory on what they consider to be multiple and striking similarities between Oxford's biography and numerous events in Shakespeare's plays. Oxfordians also point to the acclaim of Oxford's contemporaries regarding his talent as a poet and a playwright; his closeness to ] and Court life; underlined passages in his Bible that they assert correspond to quotations in Shakespeare's plays;<ref></ref> parallel phraseology and similarity of thought between Shakespeare's work and Oxford's remaining letters and poetry (Fowler 1986); his extensive education and intelligence, and his record of travel throughout Italy, including the sites of many of the plays themselves.<ref>Ogburn, The Mystery of William Shakespeare, 1984, pg 703)</ref>
			Textual evidence from the late plays indicates that Shakespeare collaborated with other playwrights who were not always aware of what he had done in a previous scene. This suggests that they were following a rough outline rather than working from an unfinished script left by an already dead playwright, as some Oxfordians propose. For example, in '']'' (1612–1613), written with ], Shakespeare has two characters meet and leaves them on stage at the end of one scene, yet Fletcher has them act as if they were meeting for the first time in the following scene.<ref>{{Harvnb|Shapiro|2010|pp=293–4 (258–9)}}.</ref>
	Supporters of the orthodox view would dispute most if not all of these contentions. For them, the most compelling evidence against Oxford is that he died in ], whereas they contend that a number of plays by Shakespeare may have been written after that date. Oxfordians, and some conventional scholars, respond that orthodox scholars have long dated the plays to suit their own candidate, and assert that there is no conclusive evidence that the plays or poems were written past Oxford's death in 1604. For a dating of Shakespeare's plays according to the Oxfordian theory, see ].
			==History of the authorship question==
	Some orthodox scholars also consider Oxford's published poems to bear no stylistic resemblance to the works of Shakespeare{{fact}}. Oxfordians counter that argument by pointing out that the published Oxford poems are those of a very young man, and as such are juvenilia. They support this argument by citing parallels between Oxford's poetry and Shakespeare's early play, '']''.<ref>Fowler, 1986</ref>
			{{Main|History of the Shakespeare authorship question}}
	===Sir Francis Bacon===		===Bardolatry and early doubt===
			{{See also|Reputation of William Shakespeare}}
	{{main|Baconian theory}}
			Despite adulatory tributes attached to his works, Shakespeare was not considered the world's greatest writer in the century and a half following his death.<ref>{{Harvnb|Shapiro|2010|p=30 (29)}}.</ref> His reputation was that of a good playwright and poet among many others of his era.<ref>{{Harvnb|Shapiro|2010|pp=30–3 (29–32)}}.</ref> ]'s plays dominated popular taste after the theatres reopened in the ] in 1660, with Ben Jonson's and Shakespeare's plays vying for second place. After the actor ] mounted the ] in 1769, Shakespeare led the field.<ref>{{Harvnb|Finkelpearl|1990|pp=4–5}}.</ref> Excluding a handful of minor 18th-century ] and ] references,<ref>{{Harvnb|Friedman|Friedman|1957|pp=1–4}} quoted in {{Harvnb|McMichael|Glenn|1962|p=56}}; {{Harvnb|Wadsworth|1958|p=10}}.</ref> there was no suggestion in this period that anyone else might have written the works.<ref name="Bate 1998 73"/> The authorship question emerged only after Shakespeare had come to be regarded as the English ] and a unique genius.<ref>{{Harvnb|Schoenbaum|1991|pp=99–110}}.</ref>
	] is often cited as a possible author of Shakespeare's plays.]]
			By the beginning of the 19th century, adulation was in full swing, with Shakespeare singled out as a transcendent genius, a phenomenon for which ] coined the term "]" in 1901.<ref>{{Harvnb|Wells|2003|p=329}}.</ref> By the middle of the century his genius was noted as much for its intellectual as for its imaginative strength.<ref>{{Harvnb|Taylor|1989|p=167}}.</ref> The framework with which early 19th century thinkers imagined the English Renaissance focused on kings, courtiers, and university-educated poets; in this context, the idea that someone of Shakespeare's comparatively humble background could produce such works became increasingly unacceptable.<ref>{{Harvnb|Dobson|2001|p=38}}.</ref><ref name="shapiro87" /> Although still convinced that Shakespeare was the author of the works, ] expressed this disjunction in a lecture in 1846 by allowing that he could not reconcile Shakespeare's verse with the image of a jovial actor and theatre manager.<ref>{{Harvnb|Wadsworth|1958|p=19}}: "The Egyptian verdict of the Shakspeare Societies comes to mind; that he was a jovial actor and manager. I can not marry this fact to his verse."</ref> The rise of ], which challenged the authorial unity of ]'s ] and the historicity of the ], also fuelled emerging puzzlement over Shakespeare's authorship, which in one critic's view was "an accident waiting to happen".<ref>{{Harvnb|Dobson|2001|p=31}}.</ref> ]'s investigation of ], which shocked the public with its scepticism of the historical accuracy of the Gospels, influenced the secular debate about Shakespeare.<ref>{{Harvnb|Shapiro|2010|pp=83–9 (73–9)}}.</ref> In 1848, ] endeavoured to rebut Strauss's doubts about the ] by applying the same techniques satirically to the records of Shakespeare's life in his ''Historic Doubts Respecting Shakespeare, Illustrating Infidel Objections Against the Bible''. Schmucker, who never doubted that Shakespeare was Shakespeare, unwittingly anticipated and rehearsed many of the arguments later offered for alternative authorship candidates.<ref>{{Harvnb|Gross|2010|p=40}}; {{Harvnb|Shapiro|2010|pp=86–9 (76–9)}}.</ref>
	In ], ] put forth the claim that the author of Shakespeare's plays was Sir ], a major scientist, philosopher, courtier, diplomat, essayist, historian and successful politician, who served as Solicitor General (]), Attorney General (]) and ] (]).
			===Open dissent and the first alternative candidate===
	Smith was supported by ] in her book ''''(]), in which she maintains that Shakespeare was in fact a group of writers, including Francis Bacon, Sir ] and ], for the purpose of inculcating a philosophic system, for which they felt that they themselves could not afford to assume the responsibility. She professed to discover this system beneath the superficial text of the plays. Constance Mary Fearon Pott (1833-1915) adopted a modified form of this view, founding the Francis Bacon Society in 1885, and publishing her Bacon-centred theory in ''Francis Bacon and his secret society'' (1891).<ref></ref>
			] was the first writer to formulate a comprehensive theory that Shakespeare was not the writer of the works attributed to him.]]
			Shakespeare's authorship was first openly questioned in the pages of ]'s '']'' (1848). Hart argued that the plays contained evidence that many different authors had worked on them. Four years later Dr. Robert W. Jameson anonymously published "Who Wrote Shakespeare?" in the '']'', expressing similar views. In 1856 ]'s unsigned article "William Shakspeare and His Plays; An Enquiry Concerning Them" appeared in '']''.<ref>{{Harvnb|Wadsworth|1958|pp=21–3, 29}}.</ref>
			As early as 1845, Ohio-born Delia Bacon had theorised that the plays attributed to Shakespeare were actually written by a group under the leadership of Sir Francis Bacon, with ] as the main writer.<ref>{{Harvnb|Churchill|1958|p=38}}.</ref> Their purpose was to inculcate an advanced political and philosophical system for which they themselves could not publicly assume responsibility.<ref>{{Harvnb|Shapiro|2010|pp=97–8, 106–9 (87, 95–7)}}.</ref> She argued that Shakespeare's commercial success precluded his writing plays so concerned with philosophical and political issues, and that if he had, he would have overseen the publication of his plays in his retirement.<ref>{{Harvnb|Glazener|2007|p=331}}.</ref>
	Since Bacon commented that play-acting was used by the ancients "as a means of educating men's minds to virtue,"<ref>Bacon, Francis, ''Advancement of Learning'' 1640, Book 2, xiii</ref> another view is that Bacon acted alone and left his moral philosophy to posterity in the Shakespeare plays (e.g. the nature of good government exemplified by Prince Hal in ''Henry IV, Part 2''). Having outlined both a scientific and moral philosophy in his ''Advancement of Learning'' (1605) only Bacon's scientific philosophy was known to have been published during his lifetime (''Novum Organum'' 1620).
			Francis Bacon was the first single alternative author proposed in print, by William Henry Smith, in a pamphlet published in September 1856 (''Was Lord Bacon the Author of Shakspeare's Plays? A Letter to Lord Ellesmere'').<ref>{{Harvnb|Shapiro|2010|pp=119–20 (105–6)}}.</ref> The following year Delia Bacon published a book outlining her theory: ''The Philosophy of the Plays of Shakspere Unfolded''.<ref>{{Harvnb|McCrea|2005|p=13}}.</ref> Ten years later, ] published the 600-page ''The Authorship of Shakespeare'' supporting Smith's theory,<ref>{{Harvnb|Halliday|1957|p=176}}.</ref> and the idea began to spread widely. By 1884 the question had produced more than 250 books, and Smith asserted that the war against the Shakespeare hegemony had almost been won by the ] after a 30-year battle.<ref>{{Harvnb|Schoenbaum|1991|p=404}}.</ref> Two years later the Francis Bacon Society was founded in England to promote the theory. The society still survives and publishes a journal, ''Baconiana'', to further its mission.<ref>{{Harvnb|Hackett|2009|p=164}}.</ref>
	Supporters of Bacon draw attention to similarities between specific phrases from the plays and those written down by Bacon in his wastebook, the Promus,<ref>British Library MS Harley 7017; transcription in Durning-Lawrence, Edward, Bacon is Shakespeare (1910)</ref> which was unknown to the public for a period of more than 200 years after it was written. A great number of these entries are reproduced in the Shakespeare plays often preceding publication and the performance dates of those plays. Bacon confesses in a letter to being a "concealed poet"<ref>Lambeth MS 976, folio 4</ref> and was on the governing council of the Virginia Company when William Strachey's letter from the Virginia colony arrived in England which, according to many scholars, was used to write ''The Tempest'' (see below).
			These arguments against Shakespeare's authorship were answered by academics. In 1857 the English critic ] published ''William Shakespeare Not an Impostor'', criticising what he called the slovenly scholarship, false premises, specious parallel passages, and erroneous conclusions of the earliest proponents of alternative authorship candidates.<ref>{{Harvnb|Schoenbaum|1991|p=403}}.</ref>
	Orthodox scholars are unconvinced by the Bacon theory. They question where Bacon could find the time to write 37 plays, and 154 sonnets, and act in many of these plays whilst leading a well-documented double life as a public official. Furthermore orthodox scholars feel the claim that Bacon authored Shakespeare’s poetry suffers from the fact that Bacon’s poetry is abrupt and stilted unlike Shakespeare's, and note that Shakespeare discusses legal concepts and terms far more abstractly than Bacon.{{fact}}
			{{clear}}
	===Christopher Marlowe===
	{{main|Marlovian theory}}
	<!---This is a SUMMARY: detailed additions should be placed in the long article on 'Marlovian theory'--->
	] has been cited as a possible author for Shakespeare's works.]]
	The gifted playwright and poet ] has been a popular candidate even though he was apparently dead when most of the plays were written. A case for Marlowe was made as early as ], but the creator of the most detailed theory of Marlowe's authorship was ], an American journalist whose book on the subject, '']'', was published in ].
			===Search for proof===
	According to history, Marlowe was killed in ] by a group of men including ], a servant of Lord Walsingham, Marlowe's patron. A theory has developed that Marlowe, who may have been facing an impending death penalty for heresy, was saved by the faking of his death with the aid of his patron's brother, the spymaster ], and that he subsequently wrote the works of Shakespeare.<ref></nowiki> Christopher Marlowe's Authorship of the Works attributed to William Shakespeare'. ''John Baker's New and Improved Marlowe/Shakespeare Thought Emporium'' (2002). Accessed 13 April, 2006.]</ref>
			] constructed a "cipher wheel" that he used to search for hidden ] he believed Francis Bacon had left in ].]]
			In 1853, with the help of Ralph Waldo Emerson, Delia Bacon travelled to England to search for evidence to support her theories.<ref>{{Harvnb|Wadsworth|1958|pp=34–5}}.</ref> Instead of performing archival research, she sought to unearth buried manuscripts, and unsuccessfully tried to persuade a caretaker to open Bacon's tomb.<ref>{{Harvnb|Shapiro|2010|pp=113–4 (100–1)}}; {{Harvnb|Wadsworth|1958|pp=34–5}}.</ref> She believed she had deciphered instructions in Bacon's letters to look beneath Shakespeare's Stratford gravestone for papers that would prove the works were Bacon's, but after spending several nights in the ] trying to summon the requisite courage, she left without prising up the stone slab.<ref>{{Harvnb|Schoenbaum|1991|pp=391–2}}.</ref>
			Ciphers became important to the Baconian theory, as they would later to the advocacy of other authorship candidates, with books such as ]'s ''The Great Cryptogram'' (1888) promoting the approach. Dr. ] constructed a "cipher wheel", a 1,000-foot strip of canvas on which he had pasted the works of Shakespeare and other writers and mounted on two parallel wheels so he could quickly collate pages with key words as he turned them for decryption.<ref name="wadsworth57">{{Harvnb|Wadsworth|1958|p=57}}; {{Harvnb|Schoenbaum|1991|p=412}}; {{Harvnb|Hackett|2009|pp=154–5}}.</ref> In his multi-volume ''Sir Francis Bacon's Cipher Story'' (1893), he claimed to have discovered Bacon's autobiography embedded in Shakespeare's plays, including the revelation that Bacon was the secret son of Queen Elizabeth, thus providing more motivation to conceal his authorship from the public.<ref name="wadsworth57" />
	Supporters of Marlovian theory also point to stylometric tests and studies of parallel phraseology, which seem to prove how "both" authors used similar vocabulary and a similar style. <ref></nowiki>. ''John Baker's New and Improved Marlowe/Shakespeare Thought Emporium'' (2002). Accessed 13 April, 2006.]</ref> <ref></nowiki> Christopher Marlowe's Authorship of the Works attributed to William Shakespeare'. ''John Baker's New and Improved Marlowe/Shakespeare Thought Emporium'' (2002). Accessed 13 April, 2006.]</ref>.
			]'' on the 1916 trial of Shakespeare's authorship. From left: George Fabyan; Judge Tuthill; Shakespeare and Bacon; ].]]
	Orthodox scholars find the argument for Marlowe's faked death unconvincing. They also find Marlowe's and Shakespeare's writing very different, and attribute any similarities to the popularity and influence of Marlowe's work on subsequent dramatists such as Shakespeare.
			Perhaps because of Francis Bacon's legal background, both mock and real jury trials figured in attempts to prove claims for Bacon, and later for Oxford. The first mock trial was conducted over 15 months in 1892–93, and the results of the debate were published in the Boston monthly ''The Arena''. Ignatius Donnelly was one of the ]s, while ] formed part of the defence. The 25-member jury, which included ], ], and ], came down heavily in favour of William Shakespeare.<ref>{{Harvnb|Wadsworth|1958|pp=55–6}}.</ref> In 1916, Judge Richard Tuthill presided over a real trial in Chicago. A film producer brought an action against a Baconian advocate, ]. He argued that Fabyan's advocacy of Bacon threatened the profits expected from a forthcoming film about Shakespeare. The judge determined that ciphers identified by Fabyan's analysts proved that Francis Bacon was the author of the Shakespeare canon, awarding Fabyan $5,000 in damages. In the ensuing uproar, Tuthill rescinded his decision, and another judge, Frederick A. Smith, dismissed the case.<ref>{{Harvnb|McMichael|Glenn|1962|p=199}}; {{Harvnb|Wadsworth|1958|pp=74–5}}; {{Harvnb|Niederkorn|2004|pp=82–5}}.</ref>
			In 1907, Owen claimed he had decoded instructions revealing that a box containing proof of Bacon's authorship had been buried in the ] near ] on the ]'s property. His dredging machinery failed to retrieve any concealed manuscripts.<ref>{{Harvnb|Shapiro|2010|pp=144–5 (127)}}; {{Harvnb|Wadsworth|1958|pp=63–4}}.</ref> That same year his former assistant, ], financed by George Fabyan, likewise travelled to England. She believed she had decoded a message, by means of a ], revealing that Bacon's secret manuscripts were hidden behind panels in ] in ].<ref>{{Harvnb|Shapiro|2010|p=144 (127)}}; {{Harvnb|Wadsworth|1958|p=64}}.</ref> None were found. Two years later, the American humorist ] publicly revealed his long-held anti-Stratfordian belief in '']'' (1909), favouring Bacon as the true author.<ref>{{Harvnb|Shapiro|2010|pp=149–58 (130–9)}}.</ref>
	]
			In the 1920s ] became convinced that Bacon had willed the key to his cipher to the ]. He thought this society was still active, and that its members communicated with each under the aegis of the Church of England. On the basis of cryptograms he detected in the sixpenny tickets of admission to Holy Trinity Church in Stratford-upon-Avon, he deduced that both Bacon and his mother were secretly buried, together with the original manuscripts of Shakespeare's plays, in the Lichfield ] in ]. He unsuccessfully petitioned the ] to allow him both to photograph and excavate the obscure grave.<ref>{{Harvnb|Wadsworth|1958|pp=80–4}}.</ref><ref>{{Harvnb|Schoenbaum|1991|pp=422–5}}</ref> Maria Bauer was convinced that Bacon's manuscripts had been imported into ], in 1653, and could be found in the Bruton Vault at ]. She gained permission in the late 1930s to excavate, but authorities quickly withdrew her permit.<ref>{{Harvnb|Wadsworth|1958|pp=88–9}}; {{Harvnb|Garber|1997|p=8}}.</ref> In 1938 Roderick Eagle was allowed to open the tomb of ] to search for proof that Bacon was Shakespeare, but found only some old bones.<ref>{{Harvnb|Wadsworth|1958|p=86}}.</ref>
	===Sir Henry Neville===
	The most recent candidate is Sir ], a contemporary Elizabethan English diplomat who was a distant relative of Shakespeare. In ''The Truth Will Out'', published in ], authors Brenda James, a part-time lecturer at the ], and Professor William Rubinstein, professor of history at the ], argue that Neville's career placed him in the locations of many of the plays about the time they were written and that his life contains parallels with the events in the plays.
			===Other candidates emerge===
	In particular, James and Rubinstein argue that the history plays do not promote the ruling ], as is commonly stated, but instead covertly support the ] cause; Neville, as a descendant of the ] dynasty, could not be known as the author. They also claim that newly-discovered documents written by Neville while in the ] contain detailed notes which later ended up in '']''. Neville could have arranged for his distant relative Shakespeare to act as front man.<ref></ref>
			By the end of the 19th century other candidates had begun to receive attention. In 1895 ], an attorney, published the novel ''It Was Marlowe: A Story of the Secret of Three Centuries'', whose premise was that Christopher Marlowe did not die in 1593, but rather survived to write Shakespeare's plays.<ref>{{Harvnb|Schoenbaum|1991|p=446}}; {{Harvnb|Zeigler|1895|pp=v–xi}}.</ref> He was followed by ] who, in the February 1902 issue of '']'', wrote an article based upon his stylometric work titled "Did Marlowe write Shakespeare?"<ref>{{Harvnb|Chandler|1994}}</ref> ], a German literary critic, advanced the nomination of ], in 1907.<ref>{{Harvnb|Wadsworth|1958|pp=106–10}}.</ref> Rutland's candidacy enjoyed a brief flowering, supported by a number of other authors over the next few years.<ref>{{Harvnb|Campbell|1966|pp=730–1}}.</ref> Anti-Stratfordians unaffiliated to any specific authorship candidate also began to appear. ], a British barrister, sought to disqualify William Shakespeare from the authorship in ''The Shakespeare Problem Restated'' (1908) but did not support any alternative authors, thereby encouraging the search for candidates other than Bacon.<ref>{{Harvnb|Greenwood|1908}}; {{Harvnb|Wadsworth|1958|pp=99–100}}.</ref> ] published ''The Baconian Heresy: A Confutation'' in 1913, refuting the contention that Shakespeare had expert legal knowledge by showing that legalisms pervaded Elizabethan and Jacobean literature.<ref>{{Harvnb|Robertson|1913}}; {{Harvnb|Vickers|2005}}.</ref> In 1916, on the three-hundredth anniversary of Shakespeare's death, ], the long-time editor of '']'', wrote a widely syndicated front-page feature story supporting the Marlovian theory and, like Zeigler, created a fictional account of how it might have happened.<ref>{{Harvnb|Wall|1956|pp=293–4}}.</ref> After the First World War, Professor ], an authority on French and English literature, argued the case for William Stanley, 6th Earl of Derby, as the author based on biographical evidence he had gleaned from the plays and poems.<ref>{{Harvnb|Wadsworth|1958|pp=101–2}}.</ref>
			]'s ''Shakespeare Identified'' (1920) made Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford, the top authorship claimant.]]
	===Others===
			With the appearance of ]'s ''Shakespeare Identified'' (1920),<ref>{{Harvnb|Looney|1920}}.</ref> Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford, quickly ascended as the most popular alternative author.<ref name="may222">{{Harvnb|May|2004|p=222}}.</ref> Two years later Looney and Greenwood founded the ], an international organisation to promote discussion and debate on the authorship question, which later changed its mission to propagate the Oxfordian theory.<ref>{{Harvnb|Shapiro|2010|p=218 (192)}}.</ref> In 1923 Archie Webster published "Was Marlowe the Man?" in ''The National Review'', like Zeigler, Mendenhall and Watterson proposing that Marlowe wrote the works of Shakespeare, and arguing in particular that the Sonnets were an autobiographical account of his survival.<ref>{{Harvnb|Webster|1923|pp=81–6}}; {{Harvnb|Wadsworth|1958|p=155}}.</ref> In 1932 ] announced the discovery of a manuscript that appeared to establish ] as the earliest proponent of Bacon's authorship,<ref>{{Harvnb|Nicoll|1932|p=128}}.</ref> but recent investigations have identified the manuscript as a forgery probably designed to revive Baconian theory in the face of Oxford's ascendancy.<ref>{{Harvnb|Shapiro|2010|pp=11–4, 319–20 (11–3, 284)}}.</ref>
	Other candidates proposed include ]; ]; ]; or ] (sometimes with his wife Elizabeth, daughter of Sir ], and her aunt ], Countess of Pembroke, as co-authors); the Irish rebel, William Nugent; and at least fifty others, including ] (based on a supposed resemblance between a portrait of the Queen and the engraving of Shakespeare that appears in the First Folio). ] argued that Shakespeare was actually ].<br>
			Another authorship candidate emerged in 1943 when writer ], in his ''Will Shakspere and the Dyer's hand'', argued for Sir ].<ref>{{Harvnb|Brooks|1943}}.</ref> Six years earlier Brooks had dismissed Shakespeare as the playwright by proposing that his role in the deception was to act as an Elizabethan "play broker", ]ing the plays and poems on behalf of his various principals, the real authors. This view, of Shakespeare as a commercial go-between, was later adapted by Oxfordians.<ref>{{Harvnb|Wadsworth|1958|pp=135, 139–42}}.</ref> After the Second World War, Oxfordism and anti-Stratfordism declined in popularity and visibility.<ref>{{Harvnb|Shapiro|2010|pp=228–9 (200–1)}}.</ref> Copious archival research had failed to confirm Oxford or anyone else as the true author, and publishers lost interest in books advancing the same theories based on alleged circumstantial evidence. To bridge the evidentiary gap, both Oxfordians and Baconians began to argue that hidden clues and allusions in the Shakespeare canon had been placed there by their candidate for the benefit of future researchers.<ref>{{Harvnb|Shapiro|2010|pp=220–1 (194)}}.</ref>
	Delia Bacon's view that the plays were the work of a ] rather than one individual has also been revived. ] (penname of Violet Mary Firth) and other students of the ] have argued that Shakespeare and many of his contemporaries were in a ] interested in ], ] and ].
			To revive interest in Oxford, in 1952 Dorothy and ] published the 1,300-page ''This Star of England'',<ref>{{Harvnb|Ogburn|Ogburn|1952}}.</ref> now regarded as a classic Oxfordian text.<ref name="wadsworth127">{{Harvnb|Wadsworth|1958|p=127}}.</ref> They proposed that the "fair youth" of the sonnets was ], the offspring of a love affair between Oxford and the Queen, and that the "Shakespeare" plays were written by Oxford to memorialise the passion of that affair. This became known as the "]", which postulates that the Queen's illicit offspring and his father's authorship of the Shakespeare canon were covered up as an Elizabethan state secret. The Ogburns found many parallels between Oxford's life and the works, particularly in '']'', which they characterised as "straight biography".<ref>{{Harvnb|Hackett|2009|p=167}}.</ref> A brief upsurge of enthusiasm ensued, resulting in the establishment of the Shakespeare Oxford Society in the US in 1957.<ref>{{Harvnb|Shapiro|2010|p=228 (201)}}.</ref>
	Following suggestions by Arab writers that the plays, especially ], demonstrated knowledge of Arabic and Islamic culture, the nineteenth century Arab scholar Ahmad Faris al-Shidyaq (1804-87) suggested that Shakespeare or his family were originally Arabic, and that the name is a corruption of the ] ''Shaykh Zubair''.<ref>Ghazoul, Ferial J, "The Arabization of Othello", ''Comparative Literature'', Winter 1998</ref> The theory was referred to in a speech by ]n leader ]. Some sources suggest that the reference was a joke, others that it was serious.<ref></ref>
			In 1955 Broadway press agent ] revived the Marlovian theory with the publication of ''The Murder of the Man Who Was "Shakespeare"''.<ref>{{Harvnb|Schoenbaum|1991|p=445}}.</ref> The next year he went to England to search for documentary evidence about Marlowe that he thought might be buried in his literary patron ]'s tomb.<ref>{{Harvnb|Wadsworth|1958|p=153}}.</ref> Nothing was found.
	=='''Common arguments debated within anti-Stratfordianism'''==
	Some sources of evidence cause debate not only between conventional scholars and anti-Stratfordians, but also between the different factions of anti-Stratfordian thought, because the result of the debate favours one candidate over another.
			A series of critical academic books and articles held in check any appreciable growth of anti-Stratfordism, as academics attacked its results and its methodology as unscholarly.<ref>{{Harvnb|Shapiro|2010|p=229 (202)}}.</ref> American ] ] and ] won the ] Literary Prize in 1955 for a study of the arguments that the works of Shakespeare contain hidden ciphers. The study disproved all claims that the works contain ciphers, and was condensed and published as ''The Shakespearean Ciphers Examined'' (1957). Soon after, four major works were issued surveying the history of the anti-Stratfordian phenomenon from a mainstream perspective: ''The Poacher from Stratford'' (1958), by ], ''Shakespeare and His Betters'' (1958), by Reginald Churchill, ''The Shakespeare Claimants'' (1962), by H. N. Gibson, and ''Shakespeare and His Rivals: A Casebook on the Authorship Controversy'' (1962), by George L. McMichael and Edgar M. Glenn. In 1959 the '']'' published a series of articles and letters on the authorship controversy, later anthologised as ''Shakespeare Cross-Examination'' (1961). In 1968 the newsletter of The Shakespeare Oxford Society reported that "the missionary or evangelical spirit of most of our members seems to be at a low ebb, dormant, or non-existent".<ref>Quoted in {{Harvnb|Shapiro|2010|pp=228–9 (201)}}.</ref> In 1974, membership in the society stood at 80.<ref>{{Harvnb|Shapiro|2010|p=230 (202)}}.</ref>
	=== The 1604 Problem===
	Oxfordian scholars have cited examples they say imply that the writer of the plays and poems was dead prior to 1609, when Shake-Speare’s Sonnets first appeared with the words “our ever-living Poet” on the title page. They note that the words “ever-living” rarely, if ever, refer to someone who is actually alive.<ref>Miller/Looney, Volume 2, pgs 211-214</ref> Further, some scholars cite 1604 as the year that Shakespeare “mysteriously” stopped writing.<ref> Anderson, Shakespeare by Another Name, 2005, pgs 400-405</ref> If either proposition proved true, it would be extremely awkward for orthodox Stratfordian scholars, as Shakespeare of Stratford lived until 1616 and there would have been no reason from him to give up a lucrative career at the height of his (alleged) fame. Researchers also cite at least one contemporary document that strongly implies that Shakespeare, the shareholder in the Globe Theatre, was dead prior 1616, when the Stratford man died.
			===Authorship in the mainstream media===
	Regarding dates of publication, Mark Anderson, in “Shakespeare by Another Name” stresses the following: from 1593-1603 “the publication of Shake-speare’s plays appeared at the rate of 2 per year. Then, in 1604, Shake-speare fell silent” and stopped publication for almost 5 years. Anderson also states “the early history of reprints …also point to 1604 as a watershed year,” and noting that during the years of 1593-1604, when an inferior or pirated text was published, it was typically followed by a genuine text that was “newly augmented” or “corrected”. Anderson summarizes, “After 1604, the “newly correct(ing) and augment(ing) stops. Once again, the Shake-speare enterprise appears to have shut down”. Anderson also notes that while Shakespeare made reference to the latest scientific discoveries and events right through the end of the 16th century, “yet Shakespeare is mute about science after De Vere’s (Oxford’s) death in 1604”. Anderson cites, among other examples, that neither a spectacular supernova that appeared in October of 1604, nor Kepler’s revolutionary 1609 study of planetary orbits, cause even a mention in all of Shakespeare’s works.<ref>Anderson, Shakespeare by Another Name, 2005, pgs 400-405</ref>
			The freelance writer ], elected president of The Shakespeare Oxford Society in 1976, promptly began a campaign to bypass the academic establishment; he believed it to be an "entrenched authority" that aimed to "outlaw and silence dissent in a supposedly free society". He proposed fighting for public recognition by portraying Oxford as a candidate on equal footing with Shakespeare.<ref>{{Harvnb|Shapiro|2010|pp=230–3 (202–5)}}.</ref> In 1984 Ogburn published his 900-page ''The Mysterious William Shakespeare: the Myth and the Reality'', and by framing the issue as one of fairness in the atmosphere of conspiracy that permeated America after ], he used the media to circumnavigate ] and appeal directly to the public.<ref>{{Harvnb|Shapiro|2010|pp=232–3 (204–5)}}.</ref> Ogburn's efforts secured Oxford as the most popular alternative candidate. He also kick-started the modern revival of the Oxfordian movement by adopting a policy of seeking publicity through moot court trials, media debates, television, and other outlets. These methods were later extended to the Internet, including ].<ref>{{Harvnb|Bethell|1991|p=47}}; {{Harvnb|Gibson|2005|pp=48, 72, 124}}; {{Harvnb|Kathman|2003|p=620}}; {{Harvnb|Schoenbaum|1991|pp=430–40}}; {{Harvnb|Shapiro|2010|pp=229–49 (202–19)}}.</ref>
	Regarding dates of composition, Oxfordians note the following: In 1756, in “Memoirs of the Life and Writings of Ben Jonson”, W.R.Chetwood concludes that on the basis of performance records “at the end of the year of , or the beginning of the next, tis’ supposed that took his farewell of the stage, both as author and actor.” In 1874, German literary historian Karl Elze dated both ''The Tempest'' and ''Henry VIII'' – traditionally labeled as Shakespeare’s last plays – to the years 1603-04.<ref>Karl Elze, Essays on Shakespeare, 1874, pgs 1-29, 151-192 </ref> In addition, on dating of ''Henry VIII'', the majority of 18th and 19th century scholars, including notables such as Samuel Johnson, Lewis Theobald, George Steevens, Edmund Malone, and John Halliwell-Phillipps, all placed the composition of ''Henry VIII'' to before 1604.<ref>Mark Anderson "Shakespeare by Another Name", 2005, pgs 403-04</ref> And in the 1969 and 1977 Pelican/Viking editions of Shakespeare’s plays, Alfred Harbage argues that MacBeth, Timon of Athens, Pericles, King Lear and Antony and Cleopatra, all traditionally regarded as “late plays,” were composed no later than 1604.<ref>Alfred Harbage, The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, 1969</ref> For a dating of Shakespeare's plays according to the Oxfordian theory, see ].
			]'s ''Minerva Britanna'' (1612) has been used by Baconians and Oxfordians alike as coded evidence for concealed authorship of the Shakespeare canon.<ref name="ross">].</ref>]]
	===Cryptograms===
			Ogburn believed that academics were best challenged by recourse to law, and on 25 September 1987 three ] of the ] convened a one-day ] at the ], to hear the Oxfordian case. The trial was structured so that literary experts would not be represented, but the burden of proof was on the Oxfordians. The justices determined that the case was based on a conspiracy theory and that the reasons given for this conspiracy were both incoherent and unpersuasive.<ref>{{Harvnb|Shapiro|2010|pp=242–3 (212–3)}}.</ref> Although Ogburn took the verdict as a "clear defeat", Oxfordian columnist ] thought the trial had effectively dismissed any other Shakespeare authorship contender from the public mind and provided legitimacy for Oxford.<ref>{{Harvnb|Shapiro|2010|pp=234–6 (206–8)}}.</ref> A retrial was organised the next year in the United Kingdom to potentially reverse the decision. Presided over by three ], the court was held in the ] in London on 26 November 1988. On this occasion Shakespearean scholars argued their case, and the outcome confirmed the American verdict.<ref>{{Harvnb|Shapiro|2010|pp=236–7 (208–9)}}.</ref>
	Followers of esoteric faiths have traditionally been attracted to the authorship question by the hope of finding hidden messages in the Shakespeare canon. Most of the cryptograms they claim to have found have been attributed to Sir Francis Bacon, relying on the fact that he had a first-hand knowledge of government cipher methods.<ref>Jardine, Lisa, and Stewart, Alan, Hostage to Fortune, The Troubled Life of Sir Francis Bacon (Hill and Wang: 1999), p.55</ref>
			Due in part to the rising visibility of the authorship question, media coverage of the controversy increased, with many outlets focusing on the ] theory. In 1989 the ] television show ] broadcast "The Shakespeare Mystery", exposing the interpretation of Oxford-as-Shakespeare to more than 3.5 million viewers in the US alone.<ref>{{Harvnb|Shapiro|2010|p=238 (209)}}.</ref> This was followed in 1992 by a three-hour ''Frontline'' teleconference, "Uncovering Shakespeare: an Update", moderated by ]<ref>{{Harvnb|Shapiro|2010|p=238 (209–10)}}.</ref> In 1991 '']'' published a debate between Tom Bethell, presenting the case for Oxford,<ref name="Bethell1991">{{Harvnb|Bethell|1991}}.</ref> and ], presenting the case for Shakespeare.<ref>{{Harvnb|Matus|1991}}.</ref> A similar print debate took place in 1999 in '']'' under the title "The Ghost of Shakespeare". Beginning in the 1990s Oxfordians and other anti-Stratfordians increasingly turned to the Internet to promulgate their theories, including creating several articles on Misplaced Pages about the candidates and the arguments, to such an extent that a survey of the field in 2010 judged that its presence on Misplaced Pages "puts to shame anything that ever appeared in standard resources".<ref>{{Harvnb|Shapiro|2010|pp=246–8 (216–8)}}.</ref>
	], a U.S. ], ] author, and ] theorist, wrote ''The Great Cryptogram'' (]), in which he claimed to have found encoded messages in the plays attributing authorship to Francis Bacon&mdash;encoded messages that Donelly alone could discern, however.
			On 14 April 2007 the Shakespeare Authorship Coalition issued an ], the ], coinciding with ]'s announcement of a one-year Master of Arts programme in Shakespeare authorship studies (since suspended). The coalition intended to enlist broad public support so that by 2016, the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's death, the academic Shakespeare establishment would be forced to acknowledge that legitimate grounds for doubting Shakespeare's authorship exist, a goal that was not successful.<ref>{{Harvnb|Shapiro|2010|pp=248–9 (218–9)}}; {{Harvnb|Hackett|2009|pp=171–2}}.</ref> More than 1,200 signatures were collected by the end of 2007, and as of 23 April 2016, the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's death and the self-imposed deadline, the document had been signed by 3,348 people, including 573 self-described current and former academics. On 22 April 2007, '']'' published a survey of 265 American Shakespeare professors on the Shakespeare authorship question. To the question of whether there is good reason to question Shakespeare's authorship, 6 per cent answered "yes", and 11 percent "possibly". When asked their opinion of the topic, 61 per cent chose "A theory without convincing evidence" and 32 per cent chose "A waste of time and classroom distraction".<ref>{{Harvnb|Niederkorn|2007}}.</ref>
	The 19th-century authorial debate placed great emphasis on discerning authorial ]s in Shakespeare's works. ] examined Bacon's "bi-lateral cipher" (in which two ]s were used as a method of encoding) and announced that Bacon was not only the author of the Shakespearean works but also the eldest child of ], the product of a secret marriage. However, only Ms. Gallup could reliably distinguish between the "two" fonts.
			In 2010 ] surveyed the authorship question in ''Contested Will: Who Wrote Shakespeare?'' Approaching the subject sociologically, Shapiro found its origins to be grounded in a vein of traditional scholarship going back to ], and criticised academia for ignoring the topic, which was, he argued, tantamount to surrendering the field to anti-Stratfordians.<ref>{{Harvnb|Shapiro|2010|pp=4, 42 (5, 39)}}.</ref> Shapiro links the revival of the Oxfordian movement to the cultural changes that followed the ] that increased the willingness of the public to believe in governmental conspiracies and cover-ups,<ref>{{Harvnb|Shapiro|2010|pp=231–2, 239–41 (203–4, 210–2)}}.</ref> and Robert Sawyer suggests that the increased presence of anti-Stratfordian ideas in popular culture can be attributed to the proliferation of ] since the ].<ref>{{Harvnb|Sawyer|2013|pp=28–9}}.</ref>
	A common example of a word which looks like an encrypted message of some kind is the word '']'', used in '']''. Its significance is that it can, among many other anagrams, be rearranged into "<small>HI LUDI F. BACONIS NATI TUITI ORBI</small>", translated by Sir Edwin Durning-Lawrence as "These plays, F. Bacon's offspring, are preserved for the world". Unfortunately for those seeing more than an unusual word, it had been used (though rarely) by other writers before Shakespeare. ''Honorificabilitudo'' appears in a Latin charter of ], and occurs as ''honorificabilitudinitas'' in ]. Dante cites ''honorificabilitudinitate'' as a typical example of a long word in '']'' II. vii. Thomas Nashe used the word in 1599 (cited by the Oxford English Dictionary; see ]). It also occurs in '']'' (1549), and in ]'s play '']'' (1605).
			In September 2011, '']'', a feature film based on the ] variant of the Oxfordian theory, written by ] and directed by ], premiered at the ]. De Vere is portrayed as a literary ] who becomes the lover of ], with whom he sires Henry Wriothesley, 3rd Earl of Southampton, only to discover that he himself may be the Queen's son by an earlier lover. He eventually sees his suppressed plays performed through the front man, William Shakespeare, who is portrayed as an opportunistic actor and the movie's comic foil. Oxford agrees to Elizabeth's demand that he remain anonymous as part of a bargain for saving their son from execution as a traitor for supporting the ] against her.<ref>{{Harvnb|Syme|2011}}</ref>
	A Shakespeare-related cryptogram is supposedly present in ] of the ]. The 46th word from the beginning of the psalm is "shake"; the 47th word from the end of the psalm, counting backwards, is "spear" (if one omits the final "]" of the Psalm, this is the 46th word counting backwards). In contrast, in the Bishops' Bible (published in 1568, when Shakespeare was four years old) '"shake" is 47 words from the beginning and "spear" 48 from the end. In the ] (1560), the numbers are 47 and 45. In ]'s translation of the psalm, which appeared in the Book of Common Prayer of the 1540s, the numbers are 46 and 48. This is supposed by some to be cryptographic evidence that Shakespeare had a hand in writing the King James Bible. It has also been claimed that similar hidden cryptograms, supporting both Shakespeare's<ref></ref> and Marlowe's<ref></ref> authorship, can be found in the Sonnets.
			Two months before the release of the film, the ] launched a campaign attacking anti-Stratfordian arguments by means of a web site, ''60 Minutes With Shakespeare: Who Was William Shakespeare?'', containing short audio contributions recorded by actors, scholars and other celebrities,<ref>{{Harvnb|Smith|2011}}.</ref> which was quickly followed by a rebuttal from the Shakespeare Authorship Coalition.<ref>{{Harvnb|Edmondson|2013|pp=233, 278.}}</ref> Since then, Paul Edmondson and ] have written a short e-book, ''Shakespeare Bites Back'' (2011),<ref>{{harvnb|Edmondson|Wells|2011}}</ref> and edited a longer book of essays by prominent academic Shakespeareans, ''Shakespeare Beyond Doubt'' (2013), in which Edmondson says that they had "decided to lead the Shakespeare Authorship Campaign because we thought more questions would be asked by our visitors and students because of ''Anonymous'', because we saw, and continue to see, something very wrong with the way doubts about Shakespeare's authorship are being given academic credibility by the Universities of Concordia and Brunel, and because we felt that merely ignoring the anti-Shakespearians was inappropriate at a time when their popular voice was likely to be gaining more ground".<ref>{{Harvnb|Edmondson|2013|p=229.}}</ref>
	Whether or not a "message" has intentionally been placed in a piece of text must depend on the economics of type-setting it, the degree of flexibility in interpreting the concealed letters, the inner logic of the message, and whether or not the cryptographer had a strong enough motive for concealment.
			==Alternative candidates==
	===The Strachey letter===
			{{Main|List of Shakespeare authorship candidates}}
	The 'Strachey letter' is a document that has become important since the early 20th century in several theories due to the fact that many conventional scholars regard it as an inspiration and source for Shakespeare's play '']''. The document is a letter, allegedly written in 1610, from ] to a "noble lady" associated with Virginia Company, which describes the shipwreck of the ''Sea Venture'' on ]. The letter was not published until 1625, but may have circulated in manuscript copies before then. <ref> Gayley, C.M., ''Shakespeare and the Founders of American Liberty,'' 1917. </ref> However, by the 1970's, the importance of the Strachey letter began to be challenged even by traditional Shakespearean scholars. Kenneth Muir believed "the extent of verbal echoes of the (Bermuda] pamphlets has, I think, been exaggerated."<ref>The Sources of Shakespeaere's Plays (1978)</ref> Muir then cites 13 thematic and verbal parallels beween ''The Tempest'' and St. Paul's account of his shipwreck at Malta.<ref>Acts of the Apostles, chapters 27-28</ref>
			While more than 80 historical figures have been nominated at one time or another as the true author of the Shakespearean canon,<ref name="gross39" /> only a few of these claimants have attracted significant attention.<ref>{{Harvnb|Gibson|2005|p=10}}.</ref> In addition to sole candidates, various "group" theories have also achieved a notable level of interest.<ref>{{Harvnb|Gibson|2005|pp=18–9, 72–6}}.</ref>
	If the letter was a source for ''The Tempest'', it is harmful to Oxfordian theory, as it would mean the play must have been written after the Earl of Oxford's death. However, a significant trend in 21st century scholarship has begun to question the theory that Shakespeare depended on the Strachey letter in writing ''The Tempest''. According to New Cambridge editor David Lindley <ref>Lindley,David "Re/Kermode, Tempest References" </ref>, While "the Strachey letter is a ''possible'' source for ''The Tempest'', it is not a ''necessary'' source, in the way that Ovid or Montaigne both are." Oxfordian scholars agree with Lindley, and have recently pointed to the possible importance of much earlier sources, in particular ]'s ''The Decades of the New Worlde Or West India'' (])<ref>], ed. ''The Tempest'' (London: Methuen, 1958), pp. xxxii-xxxiii.</ref> and ]'s ''Naufragium'' (The Shipwreck) (]),<ref>Geoffrey Bullough, ''Narrative and Dramatic Sources of Shakespeare'' (1975), vol. 8, p. 334-9.</ref> and point to new research that shows these early sources supply more convincing parallels than the 'Strachey' wording and imagery.<ref>Lynne Kositsky and Roger Stritmatter, </ref>
			===Group theories===
	Oxfordians also note that Richard Hakluyt’s 1600 ''Voyages, Navigations, Traffiques and Discoveries of the English Nation'' records an eyewitness account by a Captain Henry May of the shipwreck of the Edward Bonaventure in Bermuda in 1593. This ship, it turns out, was at one point owned by the Earl of Oxford himself: a 1582 letter from the explorer Martin Frobisher to the Earl of Leicester states that Oxford “bares me in hand he wolle beye the Edwarde Boneaventar” <ref>Miller/Looney, ''Shakespeare Identified'', Vol. I p. 449</ref>
			Various group theories of Shakespearean authorship were proposed as early as the mid-19th century. Delia Bacon's ''The Philosophy of the Plays of Shakespeare Unfolded'' (1857), the first book focused entirely on the authorship debate, also proposed the first "group theory". It attributed the works of Shakespeare to "a little clique of disappointed and defeated politicians" led by Sir ] which included Sir Francis Bacon and perhaps ], ], and Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford.<ref>{{Harvnb|Shapiro|2010|p=107 (95)}}; {{harvnb|Holderness|2013|p=7}}.</ref>
			]'s ''The Seven Shakespeares'' (1931) proposed that the works were written by seven different authors: Francis Bacon, Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford, Sir Walter Raleigh, William Stanley, 6th Earl of Derby, Christopher Marlowe, ], and ].<ref>{{Harvnb|Hoffman|1960|pp=vii–ix}}.</ref> In the early 1960s, Edward de Vere, Francis Bacon, Roger Manners, William Herbert and Mary Sidney were suggested as members of a group referred to as "The Oxford Syndicate".<ref>{{Harvnb|Gibson|2005|pp=72–6}}.</ref> Christopher Marlowe, ] and ] have also been proposed as participants. Some variants of the group theory also include William Shakespeare of Stratford as the group's manager, broker and/or front man.<ref>{{Harvnb|Gibson|2005|pp=18–9, 25, 27, 90}}.</ref>
	Baconians find the Strachey letter significant, because Francis Bacon was on the governing council of the Virginia colony in 1609. Some claim that the Strachey letter was kept secret from non-council members, citing the council's instructions to Governor ] as he set out for Virginia in 1609: "You must take especial care what relacions come into England and what lettres are written and all thinges of that nature may be boxed up and sealed and sent to first of the Council here".<ref>Swem, E.G., (Ed.), "The Three Charters of the Virginia Company of London," in Jamestown 30th Anniversary Historical Booklets 1-4 (1957), pp.55-69</ref> It is open to interpretation whether or not the council had a policy of maintaining confidentiality after the letter was read. Conventional scholars assume that Shakespeare was able to read the letter because a number of his acquaintances were on the board of the Virginia Company, or were friendly with board members.<ref>C. M. Gayley, ''Shakespeare and the Founders of Liberty in America'' (1917)</ref>
	=== Raleigh's execution ===		===Sir Francis Bacon===
			{{Main|Baconian theory of Shakespeare authorship}}<!---This is a SUMMARY: detailed additions should be placed in the article on 'Baconian theory of Shakespeare authorship'--->
	James Spedding, the Victorian editor of Bacon's works, suggested that lines in ''Macbeth'' appear to refer to Sir ]'s execution, which occurred two years after Shakespeare of Stratford's death and 14 years after the Earl of Oxford's.<ref>Spedding, James, ''Life and Letters of Francis Bacon'', Vol.6, p.372</ref> The lines in question are spoken by Malcolme about the execution of the "disloyall traytor / The Thane of Cawdor" (1.2.53)<!---Line references to a specific edition are needed as they can change from edition to edition--->:
			]
	::''King''. Is execution done on Cawdor?
			The leading candidate of the 19th century was one of the great intellectual figures of Jacobean England, ], a lawyer, philosopher, essayist and scientist. Bacon's candidacy relies upon historical and literary conjectures, as well as alleged cryptographic evidence.<ref>{{Harvnb|Wadsworth|1958|pp=23–4}}.</ref>
	::Or not those in Commission yet return’d?
	::''Malcolme''. My Liege, they are not yet come back,
	::But I have spoke with one that saw him die :
	::Who did report, that very frankly hee
	::Confess’d his Treasons, implor’d your Highnesse Pardon
	::And set forth a deepe Repentance:
	::Nothing in his Life became him,
	::Like the leaving it. He dy’de,
	::As one that had been studied in his death,
	::To throw away the dearest thing he ow’d,
	::As ‘twere a carelesse Trifle.(1.4.1)
	Several sources had remarked on Raleigh’s frivolity in the face of his impending execution<ref> Williams, Norman Lloyd, ''Sir Walter Raleigh'' (Eyre and Spottiswoode: 1962), p.254 (The Dean of Westminster wrote to Sir John Isham: 'when I began to encourage him against the fear of death, he seemed to make so light of it that I wondered at him …')</ref><ref>Spedding, James, ''Life and Letters of Francis Bacon'', Vol.6, p.373 (footnote: Dudley Carelton wrote '… he knew better how to die than to live; and his happiest hours were those of his arraignment and execution.')</ref> and the assertion that ‘ are not yet come back’ could refer to the fact that his execution was swift (it took place the day after his trial for treason).<ref>Stow, John, ''Annales, or Generall Chronicle of England'' (London: 1631), p.1030</ref> Holinshed, the main source for ''Macbeth'', mentions 'the thane of Cawder being condemned at Fores of treason against the king'<ref>Holinshed, Raphael, ''Chronicles'', Vol. V: Scotland (1587), p.170</ref> without further details about his execution, so whoever wrote the lines in the play has gone beyond the original source. A reference to Rayleigh's execution in Shakespeare would be particularly advantageous to the ] because Sir Francis Bacon was one of the six Commissioners from the Privy Council appointed to examine Raleigh's case.<ref>Spedding, James, ''The Life and Letters of Francis Bacon'', Vol. 6, (1872), p.356</ref>
			Bacon was proposed as sole author by William Henry Smith in 1856 and as a co-author by Delia Bacon in 1857.<ref>{{harvnb|Churchill|1958|pp=34–5, 70–4}}</ref> Smith compared passages such as Bacon's "Poetry is nothing else but feigned history" with Shakespeare's "The truest poetry is the most feigning" ('']'', 3.3.19–20), and Bacon's "He wished him not to shut the gate of your Majesty's mercy" with Shakespeare's "The gates of mercy shall be all shut up" ('']'', 3.3.10).<ref>{{Harvnb|Shapiro|2010|pp=119–20 (105–6)}}; {{Harvnb|Halliday|1957|p=175}}.</ref> Delia Bacon argued that there were hidden political meanings in the plays and parallels between those ideas and Bacon's known works. She proposed him as the leader of a group of disaffected philosopher-politicians who tried to promote republican ideas to counter the despotism of the Tudor-Stuart monarchies through the medium of the public stage.<ref>{{Harvnb|Schoenbaum|1991|pp=387, 389}}.</ref> Later Bacon supporters found similarities between a great number of specific phrases and aphorisms from the plays and those written by Bacon in his ], the ''Promus''. In 1883, Mrs. Henry Pott compiled 4,400 parallels of thought or expression between Shakespeare and Bacon.<ref>{{Harvnb|Wadsworth|1958|p=41}}; {{Harvnb|Gibson|2005|pp=151–71}}; {{Harvnb|Halliday|1957|p=177}}.</ref>
	However, more than one Elizabethan traitor put on a brave show for their execution. In ], ] suggested that the speech was an allusion to the death of the ] in ] (a date that does not conflict with Shakespeare's or Oxford's authorship): "The behaviour of the ''thane of Cawdor'' corresponds in almost every circumstance with that of the unfortunate ], as related by ], p. 793. His asking the Queen's forgiveness, his confession, repentance, and concern about behaving with propriety on the scaffold are minutely described."<ref>George Steevens's 1793 edition of Shakespeare, quoted in ''A New Variorum Edition of Shakespeare: Vol. 2: Macbeth'', ed. Horace Howard Furness (Philadelphia: Lipincott, 1873), p. 44.</ref> As Steevens notes, Essex was a close friend of Shakespeare's patron, the ].
			In a letter addressed to ], Bacon closes "so desireing you to bee good to concealed poets", which according to his supporters is self-referential.<ref>{{Harvnb|Gibson|2005|p=57}}; {{Harvnb|Wadsworth|1958|p=36}}.</ref> Baconians argue that while Bacon outlined both a scientific and moral philosophy in '']'' (1605), only the first part was published under his name during his lifetime. They say that his moral philosophy, including a revolutionary politico-philosophic system of government, was concealed in the Shakespeare plays because of its threat to the monarchy.<ref>{{Harvnb|Halliday|1957|p=174}}.</ref>
	Most editors of ''Macbeth'' simply assume the speech to be fictional and not a deliberate allusion to a specific event.
			Baconians suggest that the great number of legal allusions in the Shakespeare canon demonstrate the author's expertise in the law. Bacon became ] in 1596 and was appointed ] in 1613. Bacon also paid for and helped write speeches for a number of entertainments, including ]s and ]s, although he is not known to have authored a play. His only attributed verse consists of seven ]s, following ].<ref>{{Harvnb|Halliday|1957|p=176 note}}.</ref>
	===Geographical knowledge===
	Some anti-Stratfordians believe that the plays must have been written by a well-travelled man, as many of them are set in ]an countries. Orthodox scholars respond that numerous plays of this period by other playwrights are set in foreign locations and Shakespeare is thus entirely conventional in this regard. In addition, in many cases Shakespeare did not invent the setting, but borrowed it from the source he was using for the plot.
			Since Bacon was knowledgeable about ciphers,<ref>{{Harvnb|Bacon|2002|pp=318, 693}}.</ref> early Baconians suspected that he left his signature encrypted in the Shakespeare canon. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries many Baconians claimed to have discovered ciphers throughout the works supporting Bacon as the true author. In 1881, C. F. Ashmead Windle, an American, claimed she had found carefully worked-out jingles in each play that identified Bacon as the author.<ref>{{Harvnb|Wadsworth|1958|pp=42–50}}.</ref> This sparked a cipher craze, and probative cryptograms were identified in the works by Ignatius Donnelly,<ref>{{Harvnb|Wadsworth|1958|pp=53–7}}.</ref> Orville Ward Owen, ],<ref>{{Harvnb|Wadsworth|1958|pp=62–4}}.</ref> and Dr. Isaac Hull Platt. Platt argued that the Latin word '']'', found in ''Love's Labour's Lost'', can be read as an anagram, yielding ''Hi ludi F. Baconis nati tuiti orbi'' ("These plays, the offspring of F. Bacon, are preserved for the world.").<ref>{{Harvnb|Ruthven|2001|p=102}}.</ref>
	Even outside of the authorship question, there has been debate about the extent of geographical knowledge displayed by Shakespeare. Some scholars argue that there is very little topographical information in the texts (nowhere in ''Othello'' or the ''Merchant of Venice'' are Venetian canals mentioned). Indeed, there are apparent mistakes: for example, Shakespeare refers to ] as having a coastline in '']'' (the country is landlocked) and in '']'' he suggests that a journey from ] to Northern ] would pass through ].
			===Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford===
	Answers to these objections have been made by other scholars (both orthodox and anti-Stratfordian). It has been noted that ''The Merchant of Venice'' demonstrates some knowledge of the city: it uses the local word, ''traghetto'', for the Venetian mode of transport (printed as 'traject' in the published texts<ref>See John Russell Brown, ed. ''The Merchant of Venice'', Arden Edition, 1961, note to Act 3, Sc.4, p.96</ref>). One explanation for Bohemia having a coastline is the author's awareness that the kingdom of ] at one time stretched to the Adriatic.<ref>See ], ed. '']'', Arden Edition, 1962, p. 66</ref> Oxfordians find it significant that the Earl of Oxford was travelling in the Adriatic region during the brief span of time in which Bohemia did in fact have a coastline.
			{{Main|Oxfordian theory of Shakespeare authorship}}<!---This is a SUMMARY: detailed additions should be placed in the article on 'Oxfordian theory'--->
			]
			Since the early 1920s, the leading alternative authorship candidate has been ] and ] of England. Oxford followed his grandfather and father in sponsoring companies of actors, and he had patronised a company of musicians and one of tumblers.<ref>{{Harvnb|Nelson|2003|pp=13, 248}}.</ref> Oxford was an important courtier poet,<ref>{{Harvnb|May|1991|pp=53–4}}.</ref> praised as such and as a playwright by ] and Francis Meres, who included him in a list of the "best for comedy amongst us". Examples of his poetry but none of his theatrical works survive.<ref>{{Harvnb|Nelson|2003|pp=386–7}}.</ref> Oxford was noted for his literary and theatrical patronage. Between 1564 and 1599, 33 works were dedicated to him, including works by ], ], ] and ].<ref>{{Harvnb|May|1980|pp=8–}}.</ref> In 1583 he bought the sublease of the ] and gave it to the poet-playwright Lyly, who operated it for a season under Oxford's patronage.<ref>{{Harvnb|Smith|1964|pp=151, 155}}.</ref>
			Oxfordians believe certain literary allusions indicate that Oxford was one of the most prominent "suppressed" ] and/or ]ous writers of the day.<ref>Austin, Al, and Judy Woodruff. The Shakespeare Mystery. PBS, Frontline, 1989.</ref> They also note Oxford's connections to the London theatre and the contemporary playwrights of Shakespeare's day, his family connections including the patrons of Shakespeare's ], his relationships with ] and Shakespeare's patron, the ], his knowledge of Court life, his private tutors and education, and his wide-ranging travels through the locations of Shakespeare's plays in France and Italy.<ref>{{Harvnb|Bethell|1991|pp=46, 47, 50, 53, 56, 58, 75, 78}}.</ref> The case for Oxford's authorship is also based on perceived similarities between Oxford's biography and events in Shakespeare's plays, sonnets and longer poems; perceived parallels of language, idiom, and thought between Oxford's letters and the Shakespearean canon; and the discovery of numerous marked passages in Oxford's Bible that appear in some form in Shakespeare's plays.<ref>{{Harvnb|Shapiro|2010|p=214}}.</ref>
	Anti-Stratfordians assume that the above information could only be obtained from first-hand experience of the regions under discussion; they thus argue that the author of the plays must have been a diplomat, aristocrat or politician. Orthodox scholars believe that this information could easily have been picked up in London from books or from conversations.
			The first to lay out a comprehensive case for Oxford's authorship was J. Thomas Looney, an English schoolteacher who identified personality characteristics in Shakespeare's works—especially ''Hamlet''—that painted the author as an eccentric aristocratic poet, a drama and sporting enthusiast with a classical education who had travelled extensively to Italy.<ref>{{Harvnb|Schoenbaum|1991|pp=431–2}}.</ref> He discerned close affinities between the poetry of Oxford and that of Shakespeare in the use of motifs and subjects, phrasing, and rhetorical devices, which led him to identify Oxford as the author.<ref name="may222" /> After his ''Shakespeare Identified'' was published in 1920, Oxford replaced Bacon as the most popular alternative candidate.<ref>{{Harvnb|Wadsworth|1958|p=121}}; {{Harvnb|McMichael|Glenn|1962|p=159}}; {{Harvnb|Shapiro|2010|p=239 (210)}}.</ref>
	Conversely, conventional scholars claim that Shakespeare's plays contain several colloquial names for flora and fauna that are unique to the ] area, for example ']' in '']''<ref>; Warwickshire dialect is also discussed in ], ''The Genius of Shakespeare'' OUP, 1998<!---Page reference needed--->; and in Wood, M., ''In Search of Shakespeare'', BBC Books, 2003, pp. 17-18.</ref>; these names seem to suggest that the plays must have been written by a Warwickshire native. Oxfordians point out that the Earl of Oxford owned a manor house in ], although records show that he leased it out in ] and sold it in ].<ref>Irvin Leigh Matus, ''Shakespeare in Fact'' (1994)<!---Page ref needed---></ref>
			Oxford's purported use of the "Shakespeare" pen name is attributed to the stigma of print, a convention that aristocratic authors could not take credit for writing plays for the public stage.<ref>{{Harvnb|Bethell|1991|p=47}}.</ref> Another motivation given is the politically explosive "]" that the youthful Oxford was Queen Elizabeth's lover; according to this theory, Oxford dedicated '']'', '']'', and the ''Sonnets'' to their son, England's rightful ], Henry Wriothesley, who was brought up as the 3rd Earl of Southampton.<ref name="wadsworth127" />
	==Further reading==
	===Orthodox / neutral===
	*], ''Players: The Mysterious Identity of William Shakespeare'' (2005)
	*H. N. Gibson, ''The Shakespeare Claimants'' (London, 1962). (An overview written from an orthodox perspective).
	* E.A. Honigman: ''The Lost Years'', 1985.
	*John Michell, ''Who Wrote Shakespeare?'' (London: Thames and Hudson, 1999). ISBN 0-500-28113-0. (An overview from a neutral perspective).
	*], ''Shakspeare, in Fact'' (London: Continuum, 1999). ISBN 0-8264-0928-8. (Orthodox response to the Oxford theory).
	* Ian Wilson: ''Shakespeare - The Evidence'', 1993.
	* Scott McCrea: "The Case for Shakespeare", (Westport CT: Praeger, 2005). ISBN 0-275-98527-X.
	* Bob Grumman: "Shakespeare & the Rigidniks", (Port Charlotte FL: The Runaway Spoon Press, 2006). ISBN 57141-072-4 {{Please check ISBN|57141-072-4 (too short)}}.
			Oxfordians say that the dedication to the sonnets published in 1609 implies that the author was dead prior to their publication and that 1604 (the year of Oxford's death) was the year regular publication of "newly corrected" and "augmented" Shakespeare plays stopped.<ref>{{Harvnb|Bethell|1991|p=61}}.</ref> Consequently, they date most of the plays earlier than the standard chronology and say that the plays which show evidence of revision and collaboration were left unfinished by Oxford and completed by other playwrights after his death.<ref>{{Harvnb|Schoenbaum|1991|pp=433–4}}; {{Harvnb|Shapiro|2010|p=294 (258)}}.</ref>
	===Oxfordian===
	*], ''"Shakespeare" By Another Name'' (2005).
	*Al Austin and Judy Woodruff, ''The Shakespeare Mystery'', 1989 Frontline documentary. . (Film about the Oxford case.)
	*J. Thomas Looney, ''Shakespeare Identified in Edward de Vere, Seventeenth Earl of Oxford'' (London: Cecil Palmer, 1920). . (The first book to promote the Oxford theory.)
	*Charlton Ogburn Jr., ''The Mysterious William Shakespeare: The Man Behind the Mask.'' (New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1984). (Influential book that criticises orthodox scholarship and promotes the Oxford theory).
	*Diana Price, ''Unorthodox Biography: New Evidence of An Authorship Problem'' (Westport, Ct: Greenwood, 2001). . (Introduction to the supposed evidentiary problems of the orthodox tradition).
	===Baconian===		===Christopher Marlowe===
			{{Main|Marlovian theory of Shakespeare authorship}}
	* N. Cockburn, ''The Bacon Shakespeare Question'', private publication 1998 (A barrister's overview of the evidence)
			] (1564–1593)]]
	* Peter Dawkins: ''The Shakespeare Enigma'', Polair Publ., London 2004, ISBN 0-9545389-4-3 (engl.)
	* Amelie Deventer von Kunow, (1924)
	* Penn Leary, , (n.d.)
			The poet and dramatist ] was born into the same social class as Shakespeare—his father was a cobbler, Shakespeare's a glove-maker. Marlowe was the older by two months, and spent six and a half years at ]. He pioneered the use of ] in Elizabethan drama, and his works are widely accepted as having greatly influenced those of Shakespeare.<ref>{{Harvnb|Logan|2007|p=8}}</ref> Of his seven plays, all but one or two were first performed before 1593.
	===Rutlandian===
	* Karl Bleibtreu: ''Der Wahre Shakespeare'', Munich 1907, G. Mueller
	* Lewis Frederick Bostelmann: ''Rutland'', New York 1911, Rutland publishing company
	* Celestin Demblon: ''Lord Rutland est Shakespeare'', Paris 1912, Charles Carrington
	* Pierre S. Porohovshikov (Porokhovshchikov): ''Shakespeare Unmasked'', New York 1940, Savoy book publishers
	* Ilya Gililov: ''The Shakespeare Game: The Mystery of the Great Phoenix'', New York : Algora Pub., c2003., ISBN 0-87586-182-2 , 0875861814 (pbk.) - most recent study of the Rutland theory.
			The Marlovian theory argues that Marlowe's documented death on 30 May 1593 was faked. ] and others are supposed to have arranged the faked death, the main purpose of which was to allow Marlowe to escape trial and almost certain execution on charges of subversive ].<ref>{{Harvnb|Schoenbaum|1991|pp=445–6}}.</ref> The theory then argues that Shakespeare was chosen as the front behind whom Marlowe would continue writing his highly successful plays.<ref>{{Harvnb|Bate|1998|p=132}}.</ref> These claims are founded on inferences derived from the circumstances of his apparent death, stylistic similarities between the works of Marlowe and Shakespeare, and hidden meanings found in the works and associated texts.
	===Academic authorship debates===
	*Jonathan Hope, ''The Authorship of Shakespeare's Plays: A Socio-Linguistic Study'' (Cambridge University Press, 1994). (Concerned with the 'academic authorship debate' surrounding Shakespeare's collaborations and apocrypha, not with the false identity theories).
			Marlovians note that, despite Marlowe and Shakespeare being almost exactly the same age, the first work linked to the name William Shakespeare—''Venus and Adonis''—was on sale, with Shakespeare's name signed to the dedication, 13 days after Marlowe's reported death,<ref>{{Harvnb|Schoenbaum|1987|p=131}}.</ref> having been registered with the Stationers' Company on 18 April 1593 with no named author.<ref>{{Harvnb|Prince|2000|p=xii}}.</ref> Lists of verbal correspondences between Marlowe's and Shakespeare's work have also been compiled.<ref>{{Harvnb|Schoenbaum|1991|pp=446–7}}.</ref>
	==Notes==
	<div class="references-small">
	<references/>
	<!--READ ME!! PLEASE DO NOT JUST ADD NEW NOTES AT THE BOTTOM. See the instructions above on ordering. -->
	</div>
			Marlowe's candidacy was initially suggested in 1892 by T. W. White, who argued that Marlowe was one of a group of writers responsible for the plays, the others being Shakespeare, ], ], ], ] and ].<ref name="Churchill 1958 44">{{harvnb|Churchill|1958|p=44}}.</ref> He was first proposed as the sole author of Shakespeare's "stronger plays" in 1895 by ].<ref>{{Harvnb|Schoenbaum|1991|p=446}}.</ref> His candidacy was revived by Calvin Hoffman in 1955 and, according to Shapiro, a recent surge in interest in the Marlowe case "may be a sign that the dominance of the Oxfordian camp may not extend much longer than the Baconian one".<ref>{{Harvnb|Shapiro|2010|p=247 (217)}}.</ref>
	==External links==
	===Orthodox===
	*
	**
	* (includes several articles defending the orthodox position)
	** , from ''Atlantic Monthly'', 1991
	* Shakespeare As Autodidact
	* Brief overview of the rise of anti-Stratfordianism.
	* Brief overview.
	* Several articles and detailed sceptical reviews of anti-Stratfordian material
			{{clear}}
			===William Stanley, 6th Earl of Derby===
			{{Main|Derbyite theory of Shakespeare authorship}}
			]
			], was first proposed as a candidate in 1891 by James Greenstreet, a British archivist, and later supported by Abel Lefranc and others.<ref>{{Harvnb|Wadsworth|1958|p=101}}.</ref> Greenstreet discovered that a Jesuit spy, George Fenner, reported in 1599 that Derby "is busye in penning commodyes for the common players".<ref>{{Harvnb|Gibson|2005|pp=91–2}}; {{Harvnb|Shapiro|2010|p=215 (189)}}.</ref> That same year Derby was recorded as financing one of London's two children's drama companies, ]; he also had his own company, Derby's Men, which played multiple times at court in 1600 and 1601.<ref>{{Harvnb|Schoone-Jongen|2008|pp=106, 164}}.</ref> Derby was born three years before Shakespeare and died in 1642, so his lifespan fits the consensus dating of the works. His initials were W. S., and he was known to sign himself "Will", which qualified him to write the punning "Will" sonnets.<ref>{{Harvnb|Shapiro|2010|p=215 (190)}}.</ref>
			Derby travelled in continental Europe in 1582, visiting France and possibly ]. ''Love's Labour's Lost'' is set in Navarre and the play may be based on events that happened there between 1578 and 1584.<ref>{{Harvnb|Lefranc|1918–19|pp=2, 87–199}}; {{Harvnb|Wilson|1969|p=128}}; {{Harvnb|Londré|1997|p=327}}.</ref> Derby married ], whose maternal grandfather was ],<ref>{{Harvnb|McCrea|2005|p=145}}.</ref> thought by some critics to be the basis of the character of Polonius in ''Hamlet''. Derby was associated with ], and his brother ], Earl of Montgomery and later 4th Earl of Pembroke, the "Incomparable Pair" to whom William Shakespeare's First Folio is dedicated.<ref>{{Harvnb|Gibson|2005|p=274}}.</ref> When Derby released his estates to his son ] around 1628–29, he named Pembroke and Montgomery as trustees. Derby's older brother, ], formed a group of players, the ], some of whose members eventually joined the King's Men, one of the companies most associated with Shakespeare.<ref>{{Harvnb|McCrea|2005|p=144}}.</ref>
	===Marlowe===
	*
	*(website for a TV documentary)
	* (collection of articles, documents and links)
	*
	* (a sceptical review of a Marlovian book)
	*
			{{clear}} <!-- Please leave the "clear" tag at the end of this section -->
	===Other candidates===
	* - Website for a book on Mary Sidney's authorship
			==In fiction==
	* (original Russian text)
			] played ] in the 2011 film '']'']]
	* - Website for a book on Sir Henry Neville's authorship
			Like many of Shakespeare's works, the Shakespeare authorship question has also entered into fiction of various genres. An early example is Zeigler's 1895 novel '']''.<ref>{{harvnb|Hope|Holston|2009}}</ref>
	* (promotes the Earl of Derby)
	*
			Apart from the 2011 Oxfordian film ''Anonymous'', other examples include ]'s 2001 play '']'',<ref>{{harvnb|Brustein|2006}}.</ref> ]'s 2016 ] '']'',<ref>{{harvnb|Dugdale|2016}}; {{harvnb|Low|2018}}.</ref> and the 2020 ] '']'', based on the works of ].<ref>{{harvnb|Polo|2020}}.</ref> Modern novels include ]'s 2018 children's book ''WhatsHisFace''<ref>{{harvnb|Morgan|2019}}</ref> and ]'s 2024 ''By Any Other Name''.<ref>{{harvnb|Singh|2024}}.</ref>
			==Notes==
			===Footnotes===
			{{notelist}}
			===Citations===
			{{Reflist|colwidth=30em}}
			==References==
			{{Refbegin|30em}}
			* {{Cite book
			|title = Francis Bacon: The Major Works
			|editor-last = Vickers
			|editor-first = Brian
			|editor-link = Brian Vickers (literary scholar)
			|last = Bacon
			|first = Francis
			|author-link = Francis Bacon
			|publisher = ]
			|series = Oxford World's Classics
			|year = 2002
			|isbn = 978-0-19-284081-3
			|url = https://books.google.com/books?id=QJ6vZ6CSXvUC
			|access-date = 2 March 2011
			}}
			* {{Cite book
			|title = The Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms
			|last = Baldick
			|first = Chris
			|publisher = Oxford University Press
			|year = 2008
			|isbn = 978-0-19-920827-2
			|url = https://books.google.com/books?id=mp0s9GgrafUC
			|access-date = 10 January 2011
			}}
			* {{Cite book
			|title = William Shakespere's Small Latine & Lesse Greeke
			|last = Baldwin
			|first = T. W.
			|publisher = ]
			|location = ]
			|year = 1944
			|oclc = 654144828
			|url = http://durer.press.illinois.edu/baldwin/
			|access-date = 2 April 2012
			|url-status = dead
			|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20120303012918/http://durer.press.illinois.edu/baldwin/
			|archive-date = 3 March 2012
			}}
			* {{Cite journal |title = Identifying Shakespeare: Science in the Shape of Infra-red Photography and the X rays Brings to Light at Last the Real Man Beneath the Surface of a Series of Paintings of the Bard
			|last = Barrell
			|first = Charles Wisner
			|author-link = Charles Wisner Barrell
			|journal = ]
			|publisher = ]
			|volume = 162
			|issue = 1
			|date = January 1940
			|pages = 4–8, 43–45
			}}
			* {{Cite book
			|title = The Genius of Shakespeare
			|last = Bate
			|first = Jonathan
			|author-link = Jonathan Bate
			|publisher = Oxford University Press
			|year = 1998
			|isbn = 978-0-19-512823-9
			|url = https://archive.org/details/geniusofshakespe0000bate
			|url-access = registration
			|access-date = 20 December 2010
			}}
			* {{Cite book
			|title = Shakespeare's Face: Unraveling the Legend and History of Shakespeare's Mysterious Portrait
			|last = Bate
			|first = Jonathan
			|editor-last = Nolen
			|editor-first = Stephanie
			|chapter = Scenes from the Birth of a Myth
			|publisher = ]
			|year = 2002
			|pages =
			|isbn = 978-0-7432-4932-4
			|chapter-url = https://books.google.com/books?id=Ck4HsjjC0SgC&pg=PA103
			|access-date = 2 March 2011
			|url = https://archive.org/details/shakespearesface00nole/page/103
			}}
			* {{Cite book |title = John Keats
			|last = Bate
			|first = Walter Jackson
			|author-link = Walter Jackson Bate
			|publisher = Belknap Press of Harvard University Press
			|year = 1963
			|oclc = 291522
			}}
			* {{Cite journal
			|title = The Case for Oxford (and Reply)
			|last = Bethell
			|first = Tom
			|author-link = Tom Bethell
			|journal = ]
			|date = October 1991
			|pages = 45–61, 74–78
			|volume = 268
			|issue = 4
			|url = https://www.theatlantic.com/past/docs/unbound/flashbks/shakes/beth.htm
			|access-date = 16 December 2010
			|issn = 1072-7825
			}}
			* {{Cite book |title = Shakespeare: The Seven Ages of Human Experience
			|last = Bevington
			|first = David Martin
			|author-link = David Bevington
			|publisher = ]
			|year = 2005
			|isbn = 978-1-4051-2753-0
			}}
			* {{Cite book |title = Will Shakespere and the Dyer's Hand
			|last = Brooks
			|first = Alden
			|author-link = Alden Brooks
			|publisher = ]
			|year = 1943
			}}
			* {{cite book
			|title=Millennial Stages: Essays and Reviews, 2001–2005
			|last1=Brustein
			|first1=Robert Sanford
			|author1-link=Robert Brustein
			|year=2006
			|publisher=Yale University Press
			|isbn=978-0-300-13536-7
			|pages=121–122
			|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2nP1QrGHQPsC
			}}
			* {{Cite book
			|title = Who Was William Shakespeare?: An Introduction to the Life and Works
			|last = Callaghan
			|first = Dympna
			|publisher = Wiley-Blackwell
			|year = 2013
			|isbn = 978-0-470-65846-8
			|url = https://books.google.com/books?id=65DmTg6OD7QC
			|access-date = 7 April 2013
			}}
			* {{Cite book |title = A Shakespeare Encyclopedia
			|editor-last = Campbell
			|editor-first = Oscar James
			|publisher = ]
			|location = London
			|year = 1966
			}}
			* {{Cite journal |title = Reading the 1592 Groatsworth Attack on Shakespeare
			|last = Carroll
			|first = D. Allen
			|journal = Tennessee Law Review
			|publisher = Tennessee Law Review Association
			|year = 2004
			|volume = 72
			|issue = 1
			|pages = 277–94
			|issn = 0040-3288
			}}
			* {{Cite book |title = William Shakespeare: A Study of Facts and Problems
			|last = Chambers
			|first = E. K.
			|author-link = E. K. Chambers
			|publisher = ]
			|year = 1930
			|volume = II
			|isbn = 978-0-19-811774-2
			}}
			* {{Cite journal |title = Marlowe: A Hoax by William Taylor
			|last = Chandler
			|first = David
			|journal = ]
			|publisher = ]
			|volume = 41
			|issue = 2
			|date = June 1994
			|pages = 220–22
			|doi = 10.1093/nq/41-2-220
			| issn=0029-3970}}
			* {{Cite book |title = Shakespeare and His Betters: A History and a Criticism of the Attempts Which Have Been Made to Prove That Shakespeare's Works Were Written by Others
			|last = Churchill
			|first = Reginald Charles
			|publisher = ]
			|location = London
			|year = 1958
			}}
			* {{Cite journal |title = Shakespeare's Vocabulary: Myth and Reality
			|last = Craig
			|first = Hugh
			|journal = ]
			|publisher = ]
			|volume = 62
			|issue = 1
			|year = 2011
			|pages = 53–74
			|issn = 1538-3555
			|doi = 10.1353/shq.2011.0002
			|s2cid = 192242159
			}}
			* {{Cite book |title = Education in Tudor and Stuart England
			|series = Documents of modern history
			|last = Cressy
			|first = David
			|author-link = David Cressy
			|year = 1975
			|publisher = ]
			|isbn = 978-0-7131-5817-5
			}}
			* {{Cite journal |title = New Perspectives on the Authorship Question
			|last = Crinkley
			|first = Richmond
			|journal = ]
			|publisher = ]
			|volume = 36
			|issue = 4
			|year = 1985
			|pages = 515–22
			|issn = 1538-3555
			|doi = 10.2307/2870328
			|jstor = 2870328
			}}
			* {{Cite journal |title = Review: ''This Star of England''. by Dorothy Ogburn; Charlton Ogburn
			|last = Dawson
			|first = Giles E.
			|journal = Shakespeare Quarterly
			|publisher = Folger Shakespeare Library
			|volume = 4
			|issue = 2
			|year = 1953
			|pages = 165–70
			|issn = 1538-3555
			|doi = 10.2307/2866177
			|jstor = 2866177
			}}
			* {{Cite book |title = Elizabethan Handwriting, 1500–1650
			|last1 = Dawson
			|first1 = Giles E.
			|last2 = Kennedy-Skipton
			|first2 = Laetitia
			|publisher = ]
			|year = 1966
			}}
			* {{Cite book
			|title = The Oxford Handbook of the Age of Shakespeare
			|last = Daybell
			|first = James
			|editor-last = Smuts
			|editor-first = R. Malcolm
			|chapter = Gender, Writing, Technologies, and Early Modern Epistolary
			|publisher = Oxford University Press
			|year = 2016
			|pages = 493–511
			|isbn = 978-0-199-66084-1
			|chapter-url = https://books.google.com/books?id=WdodDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA493
			}}
			* {{Cite book |chapter = Authorship Controversy
			|title = Oxford Companion to Shakespeare
			|series = Oxford Companions to Literature
			|last = Dobson
			|first = Michael
			|editor1-last = Dobson
			|editor1-first = Michael
			|editor2-last = Wells
			|editor2-first = Stanley
			|publisher = Oxford University Press
			|year = 2001
			|pages = 30–31
			|isbn = 978-0-19-811735-3
			}}
			*{{cite news
			|last = Dugdale
			|first = John
			|title = How close were Marlowe and Shakespeare?
			|work = ]
			|date = 28 October 2016
			|url = https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2016/oct/28/brush-up-marlowe
			|access-date = 31 May 2021
			}}
			* {{Cite book
			|title = Doing English
			|last = Eaglestone
			|first = Robert
			|series = Doing... Series
			|publisher = ]
			|location = London, New York
			|year = 2009
			|isbn = 978-0-415-49673-5
			|url = https://books.google.com/books?id=83ip5aoiLGsC
			|access-date = 10 January 2011
			}}
			* {{Cite book |title = Thomas Lodge and Other Elizabethans
			|last = Eccles
			|first = Mark
			|editor-last = Sisson
			|editor-first = Charles Jasper
			|chapter = Sir George Buc, Master of the Revels
			|publisher = ]
			|year = 1933
			|pages = 409–506
			}}
			* {{Cite book
			|title = Shakespeare Bites Back
			|last1 = Edmondson
			|first1 = Paul
			|last2 = Wells
			|first2 = Stanley
			|publisher = The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust
			|year = 2011
			|url = http://bloggingshakespeare.com/shakespeare-bites-back-free-book
			|access-date = 26 June 2013
			|archive-date = 22 December 2014
			|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20141222014628/http://bloggingshakespeare.com/shakespeare-bites-back-free-book
			|url-status = dead
			}}
			* {{Cite book
			|chapter = 'The Shakespeare establishment' and the Shakespeare authorship discussion
			|title = Shakespeare Beyond Doubt: Evidence, Argument, Controversy
			|last = Edmondson
			|first = Paul
			|editor1-last = Wells
			|editor1-first = Stanley
			|editor2-last = Edmondson
			|editor2-first = Paul
			|publisher = Cambridge University Press
			|year = 2013
			|pages = 225–35
			|isbn = 978-1-107-60328-8
			|url = https://books.google.com/books?id=DdjhN1wO6tYC
			}}
			* {{Cite journal
			|title = Oxford by the Numbers: What Are the Odds That the Earl of Oxford Could Have Written Shakespeare's Poems and Plays?
			|last1 = Elliott
			|first1 = Ward E. Y.
			|author-link = Ward Elliott
			|last2 = Valenza
			|first2 = Robert J.
			|journal = Tennessee Law Review
			|publisher = Tennessee Law Review Association
			|year = 2004
			|volume = 72
			|issue = 1
			|pages = 323–452
			|url = https://heinonline.org/HOL/Page?handle=hein.journals/tenn72&id=339&collection=journals&index=
			|access-date = 2 March 2011
			|issn = 0040-3288
			}}
			* {{Cite book
			|title = The Truth about William Shakespeare: Fact, Fiction and Modern Biographies
			|last = Ellis
			|first = David
			|publisher = ]
			|year = 2012
			|isbn = 978-0-7486-4666-1
			|url = https://books.google.com/books?id=TYpvAAAAQBAJ
			}}
			* {{Cite book
			|title = Court and Country Politics in the Plays of Beaumont and Fletcher
			|last = Finkelpearl
			|first = Philip J.
			|publisher = ]
			|year = 1990
			|isbn = 978-0-691-06825-1
			|url-access = registration
			|url = https://archive.org/details/courtcountrypoli0000fink
			}}
			* {{Cite book |title = The Shakespearean Ciphers Examined
			|last1 = Friedman
			|first1 = William F.
			|last2 = Friedman
			|first2 = Elizebeth S.
			|publisher = Cambridge University Press
			|year = 1957
			|isbn = 978-0-521-05040-1
			}}
			* {{Cite book
			|title = Shakespeare's Ghost Writers: Literature as Uncanny Causality
			|last = Garber
			|first = Marjorie
			|author-link = Marjorie Garber
			|publisher = Routledge
			|year = 1997
			|isbn = 978-0-415-91869-5
			|url = https://books.google.com/books?id=9EsYy1TZkUwC
			|access-date = 20 December 2010
			}}
			* {{Cite book
			|title = A History of the English Language
			|last = Gelderen
			|first = Elly van
			|publisher = ]
			|location = Amsterdam
			|year = 2006
			|isbn = 978-90-272-3236-6
			|url = https://books.google.com/books?id=ndiYMpZNdMIC
			|access-date = 10 January 2011
			}}
			* {{Cite book
			|title = The Shakespeare Claimants
			|series = Routledge Library Editions{{snd}}Shakespeare
			|last = Gibson
			|first = H. N.
			|publisher = Routledge
			|year = 2005
			|orig-year = 1962
			|isbn = 978-0-415-35290-1
			|url = https://books.google.com/books?id=W7HEMEsGiVUC
			|access-date = 20 December 2010
			}}
			* {{Cite journal |title = Print Culture as an Archive of Dissent: Or, Delia Bacon and the Case of the Missing Hamlet
			|last = Glazener
			|first = Nancy
			|journal = ]
			|publisher = ]
			|volume = 19
			|issue = 2
			|date = Summer 2007
			|pages = 329–49
			|doi = 10.1093/alh/ajm009
			|s2cid = 145277884
			}}
			* {{Cite journal
			|title = Shakespeare Doubters
			|last = Greenblatt
			|first = Stephen
			|author-link = Stephen Greenblatt
			|journal = ]
			|date = 4 September 2005
			|url = https://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/04/opinion/l04shakespeare.html
			|access-date = 20 December 2010
			}}
			* {{Cite book
			|title = The Shakespeare Problem Restated
			|last = Greenwood
			|first = George
			|author-link = George Greenwood
			|publisher = ]
			|location = London
			|year = 1908
			|url = https://archive.org/details/shakespeareprobl00greeuoft
			|access-date = 13 December 2010
			|oclc = 65308100
			}}
			* {{Cite journal
			|title = Denying Shakespeare
			|last = Gross
			|first = John
			|author-link = John Gross
			|journal = ]
			|publisher = Commentary
			|volume = 129
			|issue = 3
			|date = March 2010
			|pages = 38–44
			|url = http://www.commentarymagazine.com/article/denying-shakespeare/
			|access-date = 2 March 2011
			|format = subscription required
			|issn = 0010-2601
			}}
			* {{Cite book
			|title = Playgoing in Shakespeare's London
			|last = Gurr
			|first = Andrew
			|author-link = Andrew Gurr
			|publisher = Cambridge University Press
			|year = 2004
			|isbn = 978-0-521-54322-4
			|location = Cambridge, United Kingdom
			|url = https://books.google.com/books?id=7CMwPTM1Ca0C
			|access-date = 15 September 2020
			}}
			* {{Cite book
			|title = Shakespeare and Elizabeth: The Meeting of Two Myths
			|last1 = Hackett
			|first1 = Helen
			|publisher = Princeton University Press
			|year = 2009
			|isbn = 978-0-691-12806-1
			|location = Princeton and Oxford
			|url = https://books.google.com/books?id=NC3jdR7R4JoC
			|access-date = 20 December 2010
			}}
			* {{Cite book |title = The Cult of Shakespeare
			|last = Halliday
			|first = Frank E.
			|author-link = F. E. Halliday
			|publisher = ]
			|oclc = 394225
			|year = 1957
			}}
			* {{Cite book |title = The Life of Shakespeare
			|last = Halliday
			|first = Frank E.
			|publisher = ]
			|oclc = 353820
			|year = 1962
			}}
			* {{Cite journal |title = Shakspere Was Shakespeare
			|last = Hastings
			|first = William T.
			|journal = ]
			|publisher = ]
			|volume = 28
			|year = 1959
			|pages = 479–88
			|issn = 0003-0937
			}}
			* {{Cite book
			|title = The Murder of the Man Who Was "Shakespeare"
			|last = Hoffman
			|first = Calvin
			|url = https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/muchado/readings/hoffman.html
			|publisher = Julian Messner
			|location = New York
			|year = 1960
			|orig-year = First published 1955
			|access-date = 28 February 2013
			}}
			* {{cite book
			|title=The Shakespeare Controversy: An Analysis of the Authorship Theories, 2d ed
			|last1=Hope
			|first1=Warren
			|last2=Holston
			|first2=Kim
			|author1-link=Warren Hope
			|date=2009
			|publisher=McFarland
			|isbn=978-0-7864-3917-1
			|page=64
			|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yOixVf5DG-IC&pg=PA64
			}}
			* {{Cite book
			|title = Shakespeare Beyond Doubt: Evidence, Argument, Controversy
			|last = Holderness
			|first = Graham
			|author-link = Graham Holderness
			|editor1-last = Edmondson
			|editor1-first = Paul
			|editor2-last = Wells
			|editor2-first = Stanley
			|chapter = The unreadable Delia Bacon
			|publisher = Cambridge University Press
			|year = 2013
			|pages = 5–15
			|isbn = 978-1-107-60328-8
			|url = https://books.google.com/books?id=DdjhN1wO6tYC
			}}
			*{{Cite book
			|title = The Authorship of Shakespeare
			|last = Holmes
			|first = Nathaniel
			|publisher = ]
			|year = 1866
			|location = New York
			|url = https://archive.org/details/authorshipofsh00holm
			|page =
			}}
			* {{Cite book
			|title = Shakespeare: A Life
			|last = Honan
			|first = Park
			|author-link = Park Honan
			|publisher = Oxford University Press
			|location = Oxford
			|year = 2000
			|url = https://books.google.com/books?id=22OPG8qUNkQC
			|isbn = 978-0-19-282527-8
			}}
			* {{Cite book
			|title = A New Companion to English Renaissance Literature and Culture
			|last = Ioppolo
			|first = Grace
			|editor-last = Hattaway
			|editor-first = Michael
			|chapter = Early modern handwriting
			|publisher = John Wiley & Sons
			|year = 2010
			|volume = 1
			|pages = 177–89
			|isbn = 978-1-444-31902-6
			|chapter-url = https://books.google.com/books?id=ir--jdx7ldgC&pg=PA177
			}}
			*{{Cite book |title = Dr. Johnson on Shakespeare
			|series = Penguin Shakespeare Library
			|last = Johnson
			|first = Samuel
			|author-link = Samuel Johnson
			|editor-last = Wimsatt
			|editor-first = William Kurtz Jr.
			|editor-link = William Kurtz Wimsatt
			|chapter = Preface
			|publisher = Penguin Books
			|location = Harmondsworth
			|year = 1969
			|pages = 57–143
			|oclc = 251954782
			}}
			* {{Cite web
			|title = The Spelling and Pronunciation of Shakespeare's Name
			|last = Kathman (1)
			|first = David
			|url = http://shakespeareauthorship.com/name1.html
			|work = The Shakespeare Authorship Page
			|publisher = David Kathman and Terry Ross
			|access-date = 17 December 2010
			}}
			* {{Cite web
			|title = Shakespeare's Will
			|last = Kathman (2)
			|first = David
			|url = http://shakespeareauthorship.com/shaxwill.html
			|work = The Shakespeare Authorship Page
			|publisher = David Kathman and Terry Ross
			|access-date = 17 December 2010
			}}
			* {{Cite web
			|title = Seventeenth-century References to Shakespeare's Stratford Monument
			|last = Kathman (3)
			|first = David
			|url = http://shakespeareauthorship.com/monrefs.html
			|work = The Shakespeare Authorship Page
			|publisher = David Kathman and Terry Ross
			|access-date = 17 December 2010
			}}
			* {{Cite web
			|title = Why I Am Not an Oxfordian
			|last = Kathman (4)
			|first = David
			|url = http://shakespeareauthorship.com/whynot.html
			|work = The Shakespeare Authorship Page
			|publisher = David Kathman and Terry Ross
			|access-date = 8 February 2010
			}}
			* {{Cite book
			|chapter = Shakespeare and Warwickshire
			|title = Shakespeare Beyond Doubt: Evidence, Argument, Controversy
			|last = Kathman
			|first = David
			|editor1-last = Wells
			|editor1-first = Stanley
			|editor2-last = Edmondson
			|editor2-first = Paul
			|publisher = Cambridge University Press
			|year = 2013
			|pages = 121–32
			|isbn = 978-1-107-60328-8
			|url = https://books.google.com/books?id=DdjhN1wO6tYC
			}}
			* {{Cite book |chapter = The Question of Authorship
			|title = Shakespeare: an Oxford Guide
			|series = Oxford Guides
			|editor1-last = Wells
			|editor1-first = Stanley
			|editor2-last = Orlin
			|editor2-first = Lena Cowen
			|last = Kathman
			|first = David
			|publisher = Oxford University Press
			|year = 2003
			|pages = 620–32
			|isbn = 978-0-19-924522-2
			}}
			* {{Cite book
			|title = Shakespeare, Bacon, and the Great Unknown
			|last = Lang
			|first = Andrew
			|author-link = Andrew Lang
			|publisher = Longmans, Green, and Co
			|year = 1912
			|url = https://books.google.com/books?id=c3QLAAAAIAAJ
			|access-date = 28 December 2019
			}}
			* {{Cite book |title = Sous le masque de "William Shakespeare": William Stanley, Vie comte de Derby
			|last = Lefranc
			|first = Abel
			|author-link = Abel Lefranc
			|publisher = Payot & cie
			|location = Paris
			|year = 1918–19
			|oclc = 501970
			}}
			* {{Cite book
			|title = Shakespeare's Marlowe: The Influence of Christopher Marlowe on Shakespeare's Artistry
			|last = Logan
			|first = Robert
			|publisher = ]
			|location = ]
			|year = 2007
			|isbn = 978-0-7546-5763-7
			|url = https://archive.org/details/shakespearesmarl0000loga
			|url-access = registration
			|access-date = 13 February 2011
			}}
			* {{Cite book
			|chapter = Elizabethan Views of the 'Other': French, Spanish and Russians in ''Love's Labour's Lost''
			|title = Love's Labour's Lost: Critical Essays
			|series = Shakespeare Criticism
			|volume = 13
			|last = Londré
			|first = Felicia Hardison
			|editor-last = Londré
			|editor-first = Felicia Hardison
			|publisher = Routledge
			|year = 1997
			|pages = 325–43
			|isbn = 978-0-8153-0984-0
			|chapter-url = https://books.google.com/books?id=E4vHMEMdbvIC
			|access-date = 20 December 2010
			}}
			* {{Cite book
			|title = William Shakespeare: A Documentary Volume
			|editor-last = Loomis
			|editor-first = Catherine
			|series = ]
			|volume = 263
			|publisher = ]
			|location = Detroit
			|year = 2002
			|isbn = 978-0-7876-6007-9
			|url = https://books.google.com/books?id=K8wUAQAAIAAJ
			|access-date = 2 March 2011
			}}
			* {{Cite book
			|title = "Shakespeare" Identified in Edward De Vere, the Seventeenth Earl of Oxford
			|last = Looney
			|first = J. Thomas
			|author-link = J. Thomas Looney
			|publisher = ]
			|location = New York
			|year = 1920
			|url = https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_B004AAAAIAAJ
			|access-date = 14 December 2010
			}}
			* {{Cite book
			|title = Attributing Authorship: An Introduction
			|last = Love
			|first = Harold
			|publisher = Cambridge University Press
			|year = 2002
			|isbn = 978-0-521-78948-6
			|url = https://books.google.com/books?id=EBAUdyBN_6kC
			|access-date = 20 December 2010
			}}
			*{{cite news
			|last = Low
			|first = Valentine
			|title = Mark Rylance ridiculed by upstarts over comedy of errors
			|work = ]
			|date = 11 September 2018
			|url = https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/mark-rylance-ridiculed-by-upstarts-over-comedy-of-errors-23px93t5z
			|access-date = 31 May 2021
			}}
			* {{Cite book |title = Was Shakespeare Shakespeare? A Lawyer Reviews the Evidence
			|last = Martin
			|first = Milward W.
			|publisher = ]
			|location = New York
			|year = 1965
			|oclc = 909641
			}}
			* {{Cite news
			|title = The Case for Shakespeare
			|last = Matus
			|first = Irvin L.
			|author-link = Irvin Leigh Matus
			|work = Atlantic Monthly
			|date = October 1991
			|volume = 268
			|issue = 4
			|pages = 64–72
			|issn = 1072-7825
			|url = https://www.theatlantic.com/past/docs/unbound/flashbks/shakes/matus.htm
			|access-date = 16 December 2010
			}}
			* {{Cite book
			|title = Shakespeare, IN FACT
			|last = Matus
			|first = Irvin L.
			|publisher = ]
			|year = 1994
			|url = https://books.google.com/books?id=0hgUFj3aucsC
			|isbn = 978-0-8264-0624-8
			}}
			* {{Cite book
			|chapter = Tudor Aristocrats and the Mythical "Stigma of Print"
			|title = Renaissance Papers
			|last = May
			|first = Steven W.
			|editor1-last = Deneef
			|editor1-first = Leigh A.
			|editor2-last = Hester
			|editor2-first = Thomas M.
			|publisher = Southeastern Renaissance Conference
			|url = http://shakespeareauthorship.com/stigma.html
			|access-date = 2 March 2011
			|volume = 1993
			|year = 1980
			|pages = 11–18
			}}
			* {{Cite book
			|title = The Elizabethan Courtier Poets: The Poems and Their Contexts
			|last = May
			|first = Steven W.
			|publisher = ]
			|year = 1991
			|isbn = 978-0-8262-0749-4
			|url-access = registration
			|url = https://archive.org/details/elizabethancourt0000mays
			}}
			* {{Cite journal |title = The Seventeenth Earl of Oxford as Poet and Playwright
			|last = May
			|first = Steven W.
			|journal = Tennessee Law Review
			|publisher = Tennessee Law Review Association
			|year = 2004
			|volume = 72
			|issue = 1
			|pages = 221–54
			|issn = 0040-3288
			}}
			* {{Cite book |chapter =Early Courtier Verse: Oxford, Dyer, and Gascoigne
			|title = Early Modern English Poetry: A Critical Companion
			|last = May
			|first = Steven W.
			|editor1-last = Cheney
			|editor1-first = Patrick
			|editor2-last = Hadfield
			|editor2-first = Andrew
			|editor3-last =Sullivan, Jr.
			|editor3-first = Garrett A.
			|publisher = Oxford University Press
			|year = 2007
			|pages = 60–67
			|isbn = 978-0-19-515387-3
			}}
			* {{Cite book
			|title = The Case for Shakespeare: The End of the Authorship Question
			|last = McCrea
			|first = Scott
			|publisher = ]
			|year = 2005
			|isbn = 978-0-275-98527-1
			|url = https://books.google.com/books?id=c95vhdF1qiYC
			|access-date = 20 December 2010
			}}
			* {{Cite book |title = Shakespeare and His Rivals: A Casebook on the Authorship Controversy
			|last1 = McMichael
			|first1 = George L.
			|last2 = Glenn
			|first2 = Edgar M.
			|publisher = Odyssey Press
			|year = 1962
			|oclc = 2113359
			}}
			* {{Cite book |title = The Man of Stratford – The Real Shakespeare
			|last = Montague
			|first = William Kelly
			|publisher = Vantage Press
			|year = 1963
			|oclc = 681431
			}}
			* {{cite journal |title = WhatsHisFace
			|last1=Morgan
			|first1=Amanda
			|journal=Children's Book and Media Review
			|year=2019
			|volume=40
			|issue=12
			|url=https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=7254&context=cbmr
			|access-date=2 September 2024
			|issn=2572-4479
			}}
			* {{Cite book |title = ], 3 vols
			|last = Morita
			|first = Sōhei
			|author-link = Morita Sōhei
			|volume = 1
			|publisher = ]
			|year = 1980
			|oclc = 39729914
			}}
			* {{Cite journal
			|title = Thirty-six Plays in Search of an Author
			|last = Murphy
			|first = William M.
			|journal = Union College Symposium
			|year = 1964
			|volume = 3
			|issue = 3
			|pages = 4–11
			|url = https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shakespeare/reactions/murphyarticle.html
			|access-date = 20 December 2010
			}}
			* {{Cite journal |title = George Buc, William Shakespeare, and the Folger ''George a Greene''
			|last = Nelson
			|first = Alan H.
			|journal = Shakespeare Quarterly
			|publisher = Folger Shakespeare Library
			|volume = 49
			|issue = 1
			|year = 1998
			|pages = 74–83
			|doi = 10.2307/2902208
			|issn = 0037-3222
			|jstor = 2902208
			}}
			* {{Cite book
			|title = Monstrous Adversary: The Life of Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford
			|last = Nelson
			|first = Alan H.
			|publisher = ]
			|year = 2003
			|isbn = 978-0-85323-678-8
			|url = https://books.google.com/books?id=WcfiqlOjEKoC
			|access-date = 20 December 2010
			}}
			* {{Cite journal |title = Stratford Si! Essex No!
			|last = Nelson
			|first = Alan H.
			|year = 2004
			|journal = Tennessee Law Review
			|publisher = Tennessee Law Review Association
			|volume = 72
			|issue = 1
			|pages = 149–69
			|issn = 0040-3288
			}}
			* {{Cite book
			|chapter = Early Modern English Lexis and Semantics
			|title = The Cambridge History of the English Language: 1476–1776
			|last = Nevalainen
			|first = Terttu
			|editor-last = Lass
			|editor-first = Roger
			|publisher = Cambridge University Press
			|year = 1999
			|volume = 3
			|pages = 332–458
			|isbn = 978-0-521-26476-1
			|chapter-url = https://books.google.com/books?id=CCvMbntWth8C&pg=PA332
			|access-date = 2 March 2011
			}}
			* {{Cite book
			|title = The Lodger: Shakespeare on Silver Street
			|author-link = Charles Nicholl (author)
			|last = Nicholl
			|first = Charles
			|year = 2008
			|publisher = Penguin Books
			|isbn = 978-0-14-102374-8
			|url-access = registration
			|url = https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780143114628
			}}
			* {{Cite news |title = Yes, Shakespeare Wrote Shakespeare
			|last = Nicholl
			|first = Charles
			|work = ]
			|issue = 5586
			|date = 21 April 2010
			|pages = 3–4
			}}
			* {{Cite news |title = The First Baconian
			|last = Nicoll
			|first = Allardyce
			|author-link = Allardyce Nicoll
			|work = Times Literary Supplement
			|date = 25 February 1932
			|issue = 1569
			|page = 128
			|issn = 0307-661X
			}}
			* {{Cite journal |title = Jumping O'er Times: The Importance of Lawyers and Judges in the Controversy over the Identity of Shakespeare, as Reflected in the Pages of the ''New York Times''
			|last = Niederkorn
			|first = William S.
			|year = 2004
			|journal = Tennessee Law Review
			|publisher = Tennessee Law Review Association
			|volume = 72
			|issue = 1
			|pages = 67–92
			|issn = 0040-3288
			}}
			* {{Cite news
			|title = The Shakespeare Code, and Other Fanciful Ideas from the Traditional Camp
			|last = Niederkorn
			|first = William S.
			|journal = The New York Times
			|date = 30 August 2005
			|url = https://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/30/books/30shak.html
			|access-date = 20 December 2010
			}}
			* {{Cite news
			|title = Shakespeare Reaffirmed
			|last = Niederkorn
			|first = William S.
			|journal = The New York Times
			|date = 22 April 2007
			|url = https://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/22/education/edlife/shakespeare.html
			|access-date = 20 December 2010
			}}
			* {{Cite book |title = Cymbeline
			|editor-last = Nosworthy
			|editor-first = J. M.
			|publisher = The Arden Shakespeare
			|year = 2007
			|origyear =1955
			|isbn = 978-1-903-43602-8
			}}
			* {{Cite book
			|title = This Star of England
			|last1 = Ogburn
			|first1 = Charlton
			|last2 = Ogburn
			|first2 = Dorothy
			|author-link1 = Charlton Greenwood Ogburn
			|publisher = ]
			|year = 1952
			|location = New York
			|url = http://www.sourcetext.com/sourcebook/Star/toc.htm
			|access-date = 16 December 2010
			|oclc = 359186
			|url-status = dead
			|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110717083810/http://www.sourcetext.com/sourcebook/Star/toc.htm
			|archive-date = 17 July 2011
			}}
			* {{Cite magazine
			|title = The Sweet Swan
			|last = Paster
			|first = Gail Kern
			|magazine = ]
			|date = April 1999
			|url = http://www.harpers.org/archive/1999/04/0060465
			|access-date = 2 March 2011
			|format = subscription required
			|pages = 38–41
			}}
			* {{Cite book |chapter = Shakespeare in Popular Culture
			|title = The New Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare
			|last = Prescott
			|first = Paul
			|editor1-last = De Grazia
			|editor1-first = Margreta
			|editor2-last = Wells
			|editor2-first = Stanley
			|author-link = Stanley Wells
			|publisher = Cambridge University Press
			|year = 2010
			|pages = 269–84
			|isbn = 978-0-521-71393-1
			}}
			* {{Cite journal |title = Irvin Matus's ''Shakespeare, IN FACT''
			|last = Pendleton
			|first = Thomas A.
			|journal = Shakespeare Newsletter
			|publisher = ]
			|volume = 44
			|issue = Summer
			|year = 1994
			|pages = 21, 26–30
			|issn = 0037-3214
			}}
			*{{cite web
			|last=Polo
			|first=Susana
			|title=The newest Sandman comic is chasing the true identity of Shakespeare in the best way
			|website=]
			|date=5 August 2020
			|url=https://www.polygon.com/comics/2020/8/5/21354541/sandman-shakespeare-dc-comics-g-willow-wilson-dreaming-waking-hours
			|access-date=31 May 2021
			}}
			* {{Cite journal |title = Reconsidering Shakespeare's Monument
			|last = Price
			|first = Diana
			|journal = ]
			|publisher = Oxford University Press
			|year = 1997
			|volume = 48
			|issue = 190
			|pages = 168–82
			|issn = 1471-6968
			|doi = 10.1093/res/XLVIII.190.168
			}}
			* {{Cite book
			|title = Shakespeare's Unorthodox Biography: New Evidence of an Authorship Problem
			|last = Price
			|first = Diana
			|publisher = Greenwood Press
			|year = 2001
			|isbn = 978-0-313-31202-1
			|url-access = registration
			|url = https://archive.org/details/shakespearesunor0000pric
			}}
			* {{Cite book |title = The Poems
			|editor-last = Prince
			|editor-first = F.T.
			|publisher = The Arden Shakespeare
			|year = 2000
			|isbn = 978-1-903436-20-2
			}}
			* {{Cite book |title = Shakespeare: The Poet and His Background
			|last = Quennell
			|first = Peter
			|author-link = Peter Quennell
			|publisher = ]
			|location = London
			|year = 1963
			|oclc = 19662775
			}}
			* {{Cite book
			|title = The Baconian Heresy: A Confutation
			|last = Robertson
			|first = John M.
			|author-link = John M. Robertson
			|publisher = H. Jenkins
			|location = London
			|year = 1913
			|url = https://archive.org/details/baconianheresyco0000robe
			|oclc = 2480195
			|access-date = 13 December 2010
			}}
			* {{Cite web
			|title = Oxfordian Myths: The Oxford Anagram in Minerva Britanna
			|last = Ross
			|first = Terry
			|url = http://shakespeareauthorship.com/peachmb.html
			|work = The Shakespeare Authorship Page
			|publisher = David Kathman and Terry Ross
			|access-date = 17 December 2010
			}}
			* {{Cite book |title = William Shakespeare: A Biography
			|last = Rowse
			|first = A. L.
			|author-link = A. L. Rowse
			|publisher = ]
			|location = New York
			|year = 1963
			|oclc = 352856
			}}
			* {{Cite book
			|title = Faking Literature
			|last = Ruthven
			|first = K.K.
			|publisher = Cambridge University Press
			|location = Cambridge
			|year = 2001
			|isbn = 978-0-521-66965-8
			|url = https://books.google.com/books?id=70QxwcZTN3kC
			|access-date = 5 January 2011
			}}
			* {{Cite journal |title = The Stigma of Print: A Note on the Social Bases of Tudor Poetry
			|last = Saunders
			|first = J. W.
			|journal = Essays in Criticism
			|publisher = Oxford University Press
			|volume = 1
			|issue = 2
			|date = April 1951
			|pages = 139–64
			|issn = 1471-6852
			|doi = 10.1093/eic/I.2.139
			}}
			* {{Cite journal |title = Biographical Aftershocks: Shakespeare and Marlowe in the Wake of 9/11
			|last = Sawyer
			|first = Robert
			|journal = Critical Survey
			|publisher = ]
			|volume = 25
			|issue = 1
			|date = Spring 2013
			|pages = 19–32
			|doi=10.3167/cs.2013.250103
			}}
			* {{Cite news
			|title=Shakespeare: Actor. Playwright. Social Climber.
			|last=Schuessler
			|first=Jennifer
			|journal=]
			|date=29 June 2016
			|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/30/theater/shakespeare-coat-of-arms.html
			|access-date=10 January 2021
			}}
			* {{Cite book |title = William Shakespeare: Records and Images
			|last = Schoenbaum
			|first = S.
			|author-link = Samuel Schoenbaum
			|publisher = Oxford University Press
			|year = 1981
			|isbn = 978-0-19-520234-2
			}}
			* {{Cite book
			|title = William Shakespeare: A Compact Documentary Life
			|last = Schoenbaum
			|first = S.
			|author-link = Samuel Schoenbaum
			|publisher = Oxford University Press
			|year = 1987
			|edition = Revised
			|url = https://books.google.com/books?id=-6VS_J9lVlYC
			|isbn = 978-0-19-505161-2
			}}
			* {{Cite book
			|title = Shakespeare's Lives
			|last = Schoenbaum
			|first = S.
			|edition = 2nd
			|publisher = Oxford University Press
			|year = 1991
			|url = https://books.google.com/books?id=0zZc7VFGNtMC
			|isbn = 978-0-19-818618-2
			}}
			* {{Cite book
			|title = Shakespeare's Companies: William Shakespeare's Early Career and the Acting Companies, 1577–1594
			|series = Studies in Performance and Early Modern Drama
			|last = Schoone-Jongen
			|first = Terence G.
			|publisher = Ashgate Publishing
			|year = 2008
			|isbn = 978-0-7546-6434-5
			|url = https://books.google.com/books?id=WbhRwG1MR_cC
			|access-date = 20 December 2010
			}}
			* {{Cite web
			|title = The Shakespeare Clinic: Students to Report on Latest Findings in Continuing Authorship Question
			|author = The Shakespeare Clinic
			|work = Press release
			|publisher = ]
			|location = Claremont, Calif.
			|date = 22 April 2010
			|url = https://www.cmc.edu/news/the-shakespeare-clinic-students-to-report-on-latest-findings-in-continuing-authorship-question
			|access-date = 19 August 2015
			}}
			* {{Cite book
			|title = Contested Will: Who Wrote Shakespeare?
			|last = Shapiro
			|first = James
			|author-link = James S. Shapiro
			|publisher = US edition: Simon & Schuster
			|year = 2010
			|url = https://books.google.com/books?id=W8KtHtT3jNYC
			|access-date = 14 January 2011
			|isbn = 978-1-4165-4162-2
			}}
			* {{Cite book
			|chapter = Anti-Shakespeare Theories
			|title = Dictionary of World Literature
			|editor-last = Shipley
			|editor-first = Joseph T.
			|publisher = ]
			|location = New York
			|year = 1943
			|pages = 37–38
			|edition = 1st
			|chapter-url = https://books.google.com/books?id=AlUVAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA37
			|access-date = 2 March 2011
			|oclc = 607784195
			}}
			* {{Cite journal |title = Thematic Content and Political Context in Shakespeare's Dramatic Output, with Implications for Authorship and Chronology Controversies
			|last = Simonton
			|first = Dean Keith
			|journal = Empirical Studies of the Arts
			|publisher = Baywood Publishing
			|volume = 22
			|issue = 2
			|year = 2004
			|pages = 201–13
			|doi = 10.2190/EQDP-MK0K-DFCK-MA8F
			|s2cid = 143289651
			|issn = 1541-4493
			}}
			* {{Cite journal
			|title = Shakespeare's plays were written by a woman, says Jodi Picoult
			|last = Singh
			|first = Anita
			|journal = ]
			|date = 25 May 2024
			|url = https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/05/25/shakespeare-did-not-write-plays-woman-did-says-jodi-picoult/
			|access-date = 26 May 2024
			|issn = 0307-1235
			}}
			* {{Cite news
			|title = Shakespeare Birthplace Trust launches authorship campaign
			|last = Smith
			|first = Alistair
			|work = The Stage
			|date = 1 September 2011
			|url = http://www.thestage.co.uk/news/newsstory.php/33376/shakespeare-birthplace-trust-launches
			|access-date = 13 May 2011
			}}
			* {{Cite journal |title = The Shakespeare Authorship Debate Revisited
			|last = Smith
			|first = Emma
			|author-link = Emma J. Smith
			|journal = Literature Compass
			|publisher = ]
			|volume = 5
			|issue = April
			|year = 2008
			|pages = 618–32
			|doi = 10.1111/j.1741-4113.2008.00549.x
			}}
			* {{Cite book |title = Shakespeare's Blackfriars Playhouse: Its History and Design
			|last = Smith
			|first = Irwin
			|publisher = New York University Press
			|year = 1964
			|isbn = 978-0-8147-0391-5
			}}
			* {{Cite book |title = The Title-Page of the First Folio of Shakespeare's Plays
			|last = Spielmann
			|first = M(arion) H(arry)
			|author-link = Marion Spielmann
			|publisher = ]
			|year = 1924
			}}
			* {{Cite book
			|title = Praise and Paradox: Merchants and Craftsmen in Elizabethan Popular Literature
			|last = Stevenson
			|first = Laura Caroline
			|publisher = ]
			|year = 2002
			|isbn = 978-0-52-152207-6
			|url = https://books.google.com/books?id=lU8-e0eofQ8C
			}}
			* {{Cite book
			|title = Henry V, War Criminal?: and Other Shakespeare Puzzles
			|last1 = Sutherland
			|first1 = John
			|author-link = John Sutherland (author)
			|last2 = Watts
			|first2 = Cedric T.
			|publisher = Oxford University Press
			|year = 2000
			|isbn = 978-0-19-283879-7
			|url = https://books.google.com/books?id=M_QGoTWMmMgC
			|access-date = 16 February 2011
			}}
			* {{cite news
			|title = People Being Stupid About Shakesp... or Someone Else
			|last = Syme
			|first = Holger
			|date = 19 September 2011
			|publisher = Dispositio
			|url = http://www.dispositio.net/archives/date/2011/09
			|access-date = 4 February 2012
			|archive-date = 2 February 2014
			|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20140202120746/http://www.dispositio.net/archives/date/2011/09
			|url-status = dead
			}}
			* {{Cite book
			|title = Reinventing Shakespeare: A Cultural History, from the Restoration to the Present
			|last = Taylor
			|first = Gary
			|author-link = Gary Taylor (scholar)
			|publisher = Weidenfeld & Nicolson
			|location = New York
			|year = 1989
			|isbn = 978-1-55584-078-5
			|url = https://books.google.com/books?id=V08gAQAAIAAJ
			|access-date = 12 November 2011
			}}
			* {{Cite book
			|chapter = The Canon and Chronology of Shakespeare’s works
			|title = The New Oxford Shakespeare: Authorship Companion
			|series = Oxford Companions to Literature
			|last1 = Taylor
			|first1 = Gary
			|author-link1 = Gary Taylor (scholar)
			|last2 = Loughnane
			|first2 = Rory
			|editor1-last = Taylor
			|editor1-first = Gary
			|editor1-link = Gary Taylor (scholar)
			|editor2-last = Egan
			|editor2-first = Gabriel
			|publisher = Oxford University Press
			|year = 2017
			|pages = 417–601
			|chapter-url = https://books.google.com/books?id=eYQLDgAAQBAJ&pg=PA435
			|isbn = 978-0-192-51760-9
			}}
			* {{Cite book
			|chapter = Shakespeare's Ovid in the Twentieth Century: a Critical Survey
			|title = Shakespeare's Ovid: the Metamorphoses in the Plays and Poems
			|last = Velz
			|first = John W
			|editor-last = Taylor
			|editor-first = Albert Booth
			|publisher = Cambridge University Press
			|year = 2000
			|pages = 181–97
			|isbn = 978-0-521-77192-4
			|chapter-url = https://books.google.com/books?id=k0RtKj1T2lEC&pg=PA181
			|access-date = 26 May 2011
			}}
			* {{Cite book |title = Schools in Tudor England
			|last = Thompson
			|first = Craig R.
			|publisher = ]
			|location = Washington, D. C.
			|year = 1958
			}}
			* {{Cite news |title = Idle Worship
			|last = Vickers
			|first = Brian
			|author-link = Brian Vickers (literary scholar)
			|work = Times Literary Supplement
			|date = 19 August 2005
			|issue = 5342
			|page = 6
			}}
			* {{Cite news |title = The face of the Bard?
			|last = Vickers
			|first = Brian
			|work = Times Literary Supplement
			|date = 30 June 2006
			|issue = 5387
			|page = 17
			}}
			* {{Cite book
			|title = The Poacher from Stratford: A Partial Account of the Controversy over the Authorship of Shakespeare's Plays
			|last = Wadsworth
			|first = Frank
			|author-link = Frank W. Wadsworth
			|publisher = ]
			|year = 1958
			|url = https://archive.org/details/poacherfromstrat00wads
			|url-access = registration
			|access-date = 28 January 2011
			|isbn = 978-0-520-01311-7
			}}
			* {{Cite book
			|title = Henry Watterson, Reconstructed Rebel
			|last = Wall
			|first = Joseph Frazier
			|publisher = Oxford University Press
			|year = 1956
			|url = https://archive.org/stream/henrywattersonre007688mbp#page/n9/mode/2up
			|access-date = 18 February 2012
			}}
			* {{Cite news
			|title=Was Marlowe the Man?
			|last=Webster
			|first=Archie W.
			|work=]
			|volume=LXXXII
			|date=September 1923
			|pages=81–86
			|url=http://www2.prestel.co.uk/rey/webster.htm
			|access-date=20 December 2010
			|url-status=dead
			|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101002115317/http://www2.prestel.co.uk/rey/webster.htm
			|archive-date=2 October 2010
			}}
			* {{Cite book
			|chapter = Education
			|title = Oxford Companion to Shakespeare
			|series = Oxford Companions to Literature
			|last = Wells
			|first = Stanley
			|author-link = Stanley Wells
			|editor1-last = Dobson
			|editor1-first = Michael
			|editor2-last = Wells
			|editor2-first = Stanley
			|publisher = Oxford University Press
			|chapter-url = https://books.google.com/books?id=tRajFq8EnEEC&pg=PA122
			|year = 2001
			|pages = 122–24
			|isbn = 978-0-19-811735-3
			}}
			* {{Cite book
			|title = Shakespeare: For All Time
			|last = Wells
			|first = Stanley
			|publisher = Oxford University Press
			|year = 2003
			|isbn = 978-0-19-516093-2
			|url = https://books.google.com/books?id=XMrZrA1vomQC
			|access-date = 20 December 2010
			}}
			* {{Cite book
			|title=What Was Shakespeare Really Like?
			|last=Wells
			|first=Stanley
			|publisher=Cambridge University Press
			|year=2023
			|isbn=978-1009340373
			|url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/what-was-shakespeare-really-like/80C460B174EBD8C1D1460E38E80EE078
			}}
			* {{Cite book
			|title = Empire of Words: the Reign of the OED
			|last = Willinsky
			|first = John
			|year = 1994
			|publisher = Princeton University Press
			|isbn = 978-0-691-03719-6
			|url = https://archive.org/details/empireofwordsrei00will
			|url-access = registration
			|access-date = 26 May 2011
			}}
			* {{Cite book
			|title = Love's Labour's Lost
			|series = The Cambridge Dover Wilson Shakespeare
			|editor-last = Wilson
			|editor-first = J. Dover
			|editor-link = J. Dover Wilson
			|publisher = Cambridge University Press
			|year = 1969
			|orig-year = First published 1923
			|edition = 2nd
			|isbn = 978-0-521-07542-8
			|url = https://books.google.com/books?id=GQ89AAAAIAAJ
			|access-date = 20 December 2010
			}}
			* {{Cite book
			|title = It Was Marlowe: A Story of the Secret of Three Centuries
			|last = Zeigler
			|first = Wilbur Gleason
			|publisher = ]
			|year = 1895
			|url = https://archive.org/details/itwasmarloweast00zeiggoog
			|access-date = 13 December 2010
			|oclc = 228707660
			}}
			{{Refend}}
			==External links==
			<!-- NOTE: DO NOT add sites advertising books. They will be deleted as spam. -->
			* {{snd}}a collection of information by David Kathman and Terry Ross
			* {{snd}}a collection of essays concerning specific claims
			* {{snd}}essay by Michael L. Hays
			* {{snd}}essays and information by ]
			* {{snd}}a collection of links to information and research by Alan H. Nelson
			* {{snd}}an organisation dedicated to promoting the Shakespeare authorship question
			* {{snd}}an organisation with the aim of legitimising the Shakespeare Authorship issue in academia
			* by Joe Nickell. '']'' 35.6, November–December 2011.
			<!-- NOTE: DO NOT add sites advertising books. They will be deleted as spam. -->
	]		{{Shakespeare authorship question}}
			{{Shakespeare}}{{Falsification of history}}{{Conspiracy theories}}{{Authority control}}{{Featured article}}
	]		{{DEFAULTSORT:Shakespeare Authorship Question}}
			]
	]
			]
			]
			]
			]
			]

---

Latest revision as of 17:03, 31 October 2024

Fringe theories that Shakespeare's works were written by someone else

The Shakespeare authorship question is the argument that someone other than William Shakespeare of Stratford-upon-Avon wrote the works attributed to him. Anti-Stratfordians—a collective term for adherents of the various alternative-authorship theories—believe that Shakespeare of Stratford was a front to shield the identity of the real author or authors, who for some reason—usually social rank, state security, or gender—did not want or could not accept public credit. Although the idea has attracted much public interest, all but a few Shakespeare scholars and literary historians consider it a fringe theory, and for the most part acknowledge it only to rebut or disparage the claims.

Shakespeare's authorship was first questioned in the middle of the 19th century, when adulation of Shakespeare as the greatest writer of all time had become widespread. Shakespeare's biography, particularly his humble origins and obscure life, seemed incompatible with his poetic eminence and his reputation for genius, arousing suspicion that Shakespeare might not have written the works attributed to him. The controversy has since spawned a vast body of literature, and more than 80 authorship candidates have been proposed, the most popular being Sir Francis Bacon; Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford; Christopher Marlowe; and William Stanley, 6th Earl of Derby.

Supporters of alternative candidates argue that theirs is the more plausible author, and that William Shakespeare lacked the education, aristocratic sensibility, or familiarity with the royal court that they say is apparent in the works. Those Shakespeare scholars who have responded to such claims hold that biographical interpretations of literature are unreliable in attributing authorship, and that the convergence of documentary evidence used to support Shakespeare's authorship—title pages, testimony by other contemporary poets and historians, and official records—is the same used for all other authorial attributions of his era. No such direct evidence exists for any other candidate, and Shakespeare's authorship was not questioned during his lifetime or for centuries after his death.

Despite the scholarly consensus, a relatively small but highly visible and diverse assortment of supporters, including prominent public figures, have questioned the conventional attribution. They work for acknowledgement of the authorship question as a legitimate field of scholarly inquiry and for acceptance of one or another of the various authorship candidates.

Overview

The arguments presented by anti-Stratfordians share several characteristics. They attempt to disqualify William Shakespeare as the author and usually offer supporting arguments for a substitute candidate. They often postulate some type of conspiracy that protected the author's true identity, which they say explains why no documentary evidence exists for their candidate and why the historical record supports Shakespeare's authorship.

Most anti-Stratfordians suggest that the Shakespeare canon exhibits broad learning, knowledge of foreign languages and geography, and familiarity with Elizabethan and Jacobean court and politics; therefore, no one but a highly educated individual or court insider could have written it. Apart from literary references, critical commentary and acting notices, the available data regarding Shakespeare's life consist of mundane personal details such as vital records of his baptism, marriage and death, tax records, lawsuits to recover debts, and real estate transactions. In addition, no document attests that he received an education or owned any books. No personal letters or literary manuscripts certainly written by Shakespeare of Stratford survive. To sceptics, these gaps in the record suggest the profile of a person who differs markedly from the playwright and poet. Some prominent public figures, including Walt Whitman, Mark Twain, Helen Keller, Henry James, Sigmund Freud, John Paul Stevens, Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh and Charlie Chaplin, have found the arguments against Shakespeare's authorship persuasive, and their endorsements are an important element in many anti-Stratfordian arguments. At the core of the argument is the nature of acceptable evidence used to attribute works to their authors. Anti-Stratfordians rely on what has been called a "rhetoric of accumulation", or what they designate as circumstantial evidence: similarities between the characters and events portrayed in the works and the biography of their preferred candidate; literary parallels with the known works of their candidate; and literary and hidden allusions and cryptographic codes in works by contemporaries and in Shakespeare's own works.

In contrast, academic Shakespeareans and literary historians rely mainly on direct documentary evidence—in the form of title page attributions and government records such as the Stationers' Register and the Accounts of the Revels Office—and contemporary testimony from poets, historians, and those players and playwrights who worked with him, as well as modern stylometric studies. Gaps in the record are explained by the low survival rate for documents of this period. Scholars say all these converge to confirm William Shakespeare's authorship. These criteria are the same as those used to credit works to other authors and are accepted as the standard methodology for authorship attribution.

Case against Shakespeare's authorship

Little is known of Shakespeare's personal life, and some anti-Stratfordians take this as circumstantial evidence against his authorship. Further, the lack of biographical information has sometimes been taken as an indication of an organised attempt by government officials to expunge all traces of Shakespeare, including perhaps his school records, to conceal the true author's identity.

Shakespeare's background

Shakespeare was born, brought up, and buried in Stratford-upon-Avon, where he maintained a household throughout the duration of his career in London. A market town of around 1,500 residents about 100 miles (160 km) north-west of London, Stratford was a centre for the slaughter, marketing, and distribution of sheep, as well as for hide tanning and wool trading. Anti-Stratfordians often portray the town as a cultural backwater lacking the environment necessary to nurture a genius and depict Shakespeare as ignorant and illiterate.

Shakespeare's father, John Shakespeare, was a glover (glove-maker) and town official. He married Mary Arden, one of the Ardens of Warwickshire, a family of the local gentry. Both signed their names with a mark, and no other examples of their writing are extant. This is often used as an indication that Shakespeare was brought up in an illiterate household. There is also no evidence that Shakespeare's two daughters were literate, save for two signatures by Susanna that appear to be "drawn" instead of written with a practised hand. His other daughter, Judith, signed a legal document with a mark. Anti-Stratfordians consider these marks and the rudimentary signature style evidence of illiteracy and consider Shakespeare's plays, which "depict women across the social spectrum composing, reading, or delivering letters," evidence that the author came from a more educated background.

Anti-Stratfordians consider Shakespeare's background incompatible with that attributable to the author of the Shakespeare canon, which exhibits an intimacy with court politics and culture, foreign countries, and aristocratic sports such as hunting, falconry, tennis, and lawn-bowling. Some find that the works show little sympathy for upwardly mobile types such as John Shakespeare and his son and that the author portrays individual commoners comically, as objects of ridicule. Commoners in groups are said to be depicted typically as dangerous mobs.

Education and literacy

See also: William Shakespeare's handwriting Willm Shakp
Bellott v. Mountjoy deposition, 12 June 1612 William Shakspēr
Blackfriars Gatehouse
conveyance, March 1613 Wm Shakspē
Blackfriars mortgage
11 March 1616 William Shakspere
Page 1 of will
(from 1817 engraving) Willm Shakspere
Page 2 of will William Shakspeare
Last page of will
25 March 1616 Shakespeare's six surviving signatures have often been cited as evidence of his illiteracy.

The absence of documentary proof of Shakespeare's education is often a part of anti-Stratfordian arguments. The free King's New School in Stratford, established 1553, was about half a mile (0.8 kilometres) from Shakespeare's boyhood home. Grammar schools varied in quality during the Elizabethan era, and there are no documents detailing what was taught at the Stratford school. However, grammar school curricula were largely similar, and the basic Latin text was standardised by royal decree. The school would have provided an intensive education in Latin grammar, the classics, and rhetoric at no cost. The headmaster, Thomas Jenkins, and the instructors were Oxford graduates. No student registers of the period survive, so no documentation exists for the attendance of Shakespeare or any other pupil, nor did anyone who taught or attended the school ever record that they were his teacher or classmate. This lack of documentation is taken by many anti-Stratfordians as evidence that Shakespeare had little or no education.

Anti-Stratfordians also question how Shakespeare, with no record of the education and cultured background displayed in the works bearing his name, could have acquired the extensive vocabulary found in the plays and poems. The author's vocabulary is calculated to be between 17,500 and 29,000 words. No letters or signed manuscripts written by Shakespeare survive. The appearance of Shakespeare's six surviving authenticated signatures, which they characterise as "an illiterate scrawl", is interpreted as indicating that he was illiterate or barely literate. All are written in secretary hand, a style of handwriting common to the era, particularly in play writing, and three of them utilize breviographs to abbreviate the surname.

Name as a pseudonym

See also: Spelling of Shakespeare's name

In his surviving signatures William Shakespeare did not spell his name as it appears on most Shakespeare title pages. His surname was spelled inconsistently in both literary and non-literary documents, with the most variation observed in those that were written by hand. This is taken as evidence that he was not the same person who wrote the works, and that the name was used as a pseudonym for the true author.

Shakespeare's surname was hyphenated as "Shake-speare" or "Shak-spear" on the title pages of 15 of the 32 individual quarto (or Q) editions of Shakespeare's plays and in two of the five editions of poetry published before the First Folio. Of those 15 title pages with Shakespeare's name hyphenated, 13 are on the title pages of just three plays, Richard II, Richard III, and Henry IV, Part 1. The hyphen is also present in one cast list and in six literary allusions published between 1594 and 1623. This hyphen use is construed to indicate a pseudonym by most anti-Stratfordians, who argue that fictional descriptive names (such as "Master Shoe-tie" and "Sir Luckless Woo-all") were often hyphenated in plays, and pseudonyms such as "Tom Tell-truth" were also sometimes hyphenated.

Reasons proposed for the use of "Shakespeare" as a pseudonym vary, usually depending upon the social status of the candidate. Aristocrats such as Derby and Oxford supposedly used pseudonyms because of a prevailing "stigma of print", a social convention that putatively restricted their literary works to private and courtly audiences—as opposed to commercial endeavours—at the risk of social disgrace if violated. In the case of commoners, the reason was to avoid prosecution by the authorities: Bacon to avoid the consequences of advocating a more republican form of government, and Marlowe to avoid imprisonment or worse after faking his death and fleeing the country.

Lack of documentary evidence

Anti-Stratfordians say that nothing in the documentary record explicitly identifies Shakespeare as a writer; that the evidence instead supports a career as a businessman and real-estate investor; that any prominence he might have had in the London theatrical world (aside from his role as a front for the true author) was because of his money-lending, trading in theatrical properties, acting, and being a shareholder. They also believe that any evidence of a literary career was falsified as part of the effort to shield the true author's identity.

Alternative authorship theories generally reject the surface meaning of Elizabethan and Jacobean references to Shakespeare as a playwright. They interpret contemporary satirical characters as broad hints indicating that the London theatrical world knew Shakespeare was a front for an anonymous author. For instance, they identify Shakespeare with the literary thief Poet-Ape in Ben Jonson's poem of the same name, the socially ambitious fool Sogliardo in Jonson's Every Man Out of His Humour, and the foolish poetry-lover Gullio in the university play The Return from Parnassus (performed c. 1601). Similarly, praises of "Shakespeare" the writer, such as those found in the First Folio, are explained as references to the real author's pen-name, not the man from Stratford.

Circumstances of Shakespeare's death

Shakespeare died on 23 April 1616 in Stratford, leaving a signed will to direct the disposal of his large estate. The language of the will makes no mention of personal papers, books, poems, or the 18 plays that remained unpublished at the time of his death. In an interlineation, the will mentions monetary gifts to fellow actors for them to buy mourning rings.

Any public mourning of Shakespeare's death went unrecorded, and no eulogies or poems memorialising his death were published until seven years later as part of the front matter in the First Folio of his plays.

Oxfordians think that the phrase "our ever-living Poet" (an epithet that commonly eulogised a deceased poet as having attained immortal literary fame), included in the dedication to Shakespeare's sonnets that were published in 1609, was a signal that the true poet had died by then. Oxford had died in 1604, five years earlier.

Shakespeare's funerary monument in Stratford consists of a demi-figure effigy of him with pen in hand and an attached plaque praising his abilities as a writer. The earliest printed image of the figure, in Sir William Dugdale's Antiquities of Warwickshire (1656), differs greatly from its present appearance. Some authorship theorists argue that the figure originally portrayed a man clutching a sack of grain or wool that was later altered to help conceal the identity of the true author. In an attempt to put to rest such speculation, in 1924 M. H. Spielmann published a painting of the monument that had been executed before the 1748 restoration, which showed it very similar to its present-day appearance. The publication of the image failed to achieve its intended effect, and in 2005 Oxfordian Richard Kennedy proposed that the monument was originally built to honour John Shakespeare, William's father, who by tradition was a "considerable dealer in wool".

Case for Shakespeare's authorship

Nearly all academic Shakespeareans believe that the author referred to as "Shakespeare" was the same William Shakespeare who was born in Stratford-upon-Avon in 1564 and who died there in 1616. He became an actor and shareholder in the Lord Chamberlain's Men (later the King's Men), the playing company that owned the Globe Theatre, the Blackfriars Theatre, and exclusive rights to produce Shakespeare's plays from 1594 to 1642. Shakespeare was also allowed the use of the honorific "gentleman" after 1596 when his father was granted a coat of arms.

Shakespeare scholars see no reason to suspect that the name was a pseudonym or that the actor was a front for the author: contemporary records identify Shakespeare as the writer, other playwrights such as Ben Jonson and Christopher Marlowe came from similar backgrounds, and no contemporary is known to have expressed doubts about Shakespeare's authorship. While information about some aspects of Shakespeare's life is sketchy, this is true of many other playwrights of the time. Of some, next to nothing is known. Others, such as Jonson, Marlowe, and John Marston, are more fully documented because of their education, close connections with the court, or brushes with the law.

Literary scholars employ the same methodology to attribute works to the poet and playwright William Shakespeare as they use for other writers of the period: the historical record and stylistic studies, and they say the argument that there is no evidence of Shakespeare's authorship is a form of fallacious logic known as argumentum ex silentio, or argument from silence, since it takes the absence of evidence to be evidence of absence. They criticise the methods used to identify alternative candidates as unreliable and unscholarly, arguing that their subjectivity explains why at least as many as 80 candidates have been proposed as the "true" author. They consider the idea that Shakespeare revealed himself autobiographically in his work as a cultural anachronism: it has been a common authorial practice since the 19th century, but was not during the Elizabethan and Jacobean eras. Even in the 19th century, beginning at least with Hazlitt and Keats, critics frequently noted that the essence of Shakespeare's genius consisted in his ability to have his characters speak and act according to their given dramatic natures, rendering the determination of Shakespeare's authorial identity from his works that much more problematic.

Historical evidence

The historical record is unequivocal in ascribing the authorship of the Shakespeare canon to a William Shakespeare. In addition to the name appearing on the title pages of poems and plays, this name was given as that of a well-known writer at least 23 times during the lifetime of William Shakespeare of Stratford. Several contemporaries corroborate the identity of the playwright as an actor, and explicit contemporary documentary evidence attests that the Stratford citizen was also an actor under his own name.

In 1598, Francis Meres named Shakespeare as a playwright and poet in his Palladis Tamia, referring to him as one of the authors by whom the "English tongue is mightily enriched". He names twelve plays written by Shakespeare, including four which were never published in quarto: The Two Gentlemen of Verona, The Comedy of Errors, Love's Labour's Won, and King John, as well as ascribing to Shakespeare some of the plays that were published anonymously before 1598—Titus Andronicus, Romeo and Juliet, and Henry IV, Part 1. He refers to Shakespeare's "sugred Sonnets among his private friends" 11 years before the publication of the Sonnets.

In the rigid social structure of Elizabethan England, William Shakespeare was entitled to use the honorific "gentleman" after his father's death in 1601, since his father was granted a coat of arms in 1596. This honorific was conventionally designated by the title "Master" or its abbreviations "Mr." or "M." prefixed to the name (though it was often used by principal citizens and to imply respect to men of stature in the community without designating exact social status). The title was included in many contemporary references to Shakespeare, including official and literary records, and identifies William Shakespeare of Stratford as the same William Shakespeare designated as the author. Examples from Shakespeare's lifetime include two official stationers' entries. One is dated 23 August 1600 and entered by Andrew Wise and William Aspley:

Entred for their copies vnder the handes of the wardens. Twoo bookes. the one called: Muche a Doo about nothinge. Thother the second parte of the history of kinge henry the iiijth with the humors of Sr John ffalstaff: Wrytten by mr Shakespere. xij d

The other is dated 26 November 1607 and entered by Nathaniel Butter and John Busby:

Entred for their copie under thandes of Sr George Buck knight & Thwardens A booke called. Mr William Shakespeare his historye of Kynge Lear as yt was played before the kinges maiestie at Whitehall vppon St Stephans night at Christmas Last by his maiesties servantes playinge vsually at the globe on the Banksyde vj d

This latter appeared on the title page of King Lear Q1 (1608) as "M. William Shak-speare: HIS True Chronicle Historie of the life and death of King LEAR and his three Daughters."

Shakespeare's social status is also specifically referred to by his contemporaries in Epigram 159 by John Davies of Hereford in his The Scourge of Folly (1611): "To our English Terence Mr. Will: Shake-speare"; Epigram 92 by Thomas Freeman in his Runne and A Great Caste (1614): "To Master W: Shakespeare"; and in historian John Stow's list of "Our moderne, and present excellent Poets" in his Annales, printed posthumously in an edition by Edmund Howes (1615), which reads: "M. Willi. Shake-speare gentleman".

After Shakespeare's death, Ben Jonson explicitly identified William Shakespeare, gentleman, as the author in the title of his eulogy, "To the Memory of My Beloved the Author, Mr. William Shakespeare and What He Hath Left Us", published in the First Folio (1623). Other poets identified Shakespeare the gentleman as the author in the titles of their eulogies, also published in the First Folio: "Upon the Lines and Life of the Famous Scenic Poet, Master William Shakespeare" by Hugh Holland and "To the Memory of the Deceased Author, Master W. Shakespeare" by Leonard Digges.

Contemporary legal recognition

Both explicit testimony by his contemporaries and strong circumstantial evidence of personal relationships with those who interacted with him as an actor and playwright support Shakespeare's authorship.

The historian and antiquary Sir George Buc served as Deputy Master of the Revels from 1603 and as Master of the Revels from 1610 to 1622. His duties were to supervise and censor plays for the public theatres, arrange court performances of plays and, after 1606, to license plays for publication. Buc noted on the title page of George a Greene, the Pinner of Wakefield (1599), an anonymous play, that he had consulted Shakespeare on its authorship. Buc was meticulous in his efforts to attribute books and plays to the correct author, and in 1607 he personally licensed King Lear for publication as written by "Master William Shakespeare".

In 1602, Ralph Brooke, the York Herald, accused Sir William Dethick, the Garter King of Arms, of elevating 23 unworthy persons to the gentry. One of these was Shakespeare's father, who had applied for arms 34 years earlier but had to wait for the success of his son before they were granted in 1596. Brooke included a sketch of the Shakespeare arms, captioned "Shakespear ye Player by Garter". The grants, including John Shakespeare's, were defended by Dethick and Clarenceux King of Arms William Camden, the foremost antiquary of the time. In his Remaines Concerning Britaine—published in 1605, but finished two years previously and before the Earl of Oxford died in 1604—Camden names Shakespeare as one of the "most pregnant witts of these ages our times, whom succeeding ages may justly admire".

Recognition by fellow actors, playwrights and writers

Actors John Heminges and Henry Condell knew and worked with Shakespeare for more than 20 years. In the 1623 First Folio, they wrote that they had published the Folio "onely to keepe the memory of so worthy a Friend, & Fellow aliue, as was our Shakespeare, by humble offer of his playes". The playwright and poet Ben Jonson knew Shakespeare from at least 1598, when the Lord Chamberlain's Men performed Jonson's play Every Man in His Humour at the Curtain Theatre with Shakespeare as a cast member. The Scottish poet William Drummond recorded Jonson's often contentious comments about his contemporaries: Jonson criticised Shakespeare as lacking "arte" and for mistakenly giving Bohemia a coast in The Winter's Tale. In 1641, four years after Jonson's death, private notes written during his later life were published. In a comment intended for posterity (Timber or Discoveries), he criticises Shakespeare's casual approach to playwriting, but praises Shakespeare as a person: "I loved the man, and do honour his memory (on this side Idolatry) as much as any. He was (indeed) honest, and of an open, and free nature; had an excellent fancy; brave notions, and gentle expressions ..."

In addition to Ben Jonson, other playwrights wrote about Shakespeare, including some who sold plays to Shakespeare's company. Two of the three Parnassus plays produced at St John's College, Cambridge, near the beginning of the 17th century mention Shakespeare as an actor, poet, and playwright who lacked a university education. In The First Part of the Return from Parnassus, two separate characters refer to Shakespeare as "Sweet Mr. Shakespeare", and in The Second Part of the Return from Parnassus (1606), the anonymous playwright has the actor Kempe say to the actor Burbage, "Few of the university men pen plays well ... Why here's our fellow Shakespeare puts them all down."

An edition of The Passionate Pilgrim, expanded with an additional nine poems written by the prominent English actor, playwright, and author Thomas Heywood, was published by William Jaggard in 1612 with Shakespeare's name on the title page. Heywood protested this piracy in his Apology for Actors (1612), adding that the author was "much offended with M. Jaggard (that altogether unknown to him) presumed to make so bold with his name." That Heywood stated with certainty that the author was unaware of the deception and that Jaggard removed Shakespeare's name from unsold copies even though Heywood did not explicitly name him indicate that Shakespeare was the offended author. Elsewhere, in his poem "Hierarchie of the Blessed Angels" (1634), Heywood affectionately notes the nicknames his fellow playwrights had been known by. Of Shakespeare, he writes:

Our modern poets to that pass are driven,

Those names are curtailed which they first had given;

And, as we wished to have their memories drowned,

We scarcely can afford them half their sound. ...

Mellifluous Shake-speare, whose enchanting quill

Commanded mirth or passion, was but Will.

Playwright John Webster, in his dedication to The White Devil (1612), wrote, "And lastly (without wrong last to be named), the right happy and copious industry of M. Shake-Speare, M. Decker, & M. Heywood, wishing what I write might be read in their light", here using the abbreviation "M." to denote "Master", a form of address properly used of William Shakespeare of Stratford, who was titled a gentleman.

In a verse letter to Ben Jonson dated to about 1608, Francis Beaumont alludes to several playwrights, including Shakespeare, about whom he wrote,

... Here I would let slip

(If I had any in me) scholarship,

And from all learning keep these lines as clear

as Shakespeare's best are, which our heirs shall hear

Preachers apt to their auditors to show

how far sometimes a mortal man may go

by the dim light of Nature.

Historical perspective of Shakespeare's death

The monument to Shakespeare, erected in Stratford before 1623, bears a plaque with an inscription identifying Shakespeare as a writer. The first two Latin lines translate to "In judgment a Pylian, in genius a Socrates, in art a Maro, the earth covers him, the people mourn him, Olympus possesses him", referring to Nestor, Socrates, Virgil, and Mount Olympus. The monument was not only referred to in the First Folio, but other early 17th-century records identify it as being a memorial to Shakespeare and transcribe the inscription. Sir William Dugdale also included the inscription in his Antiquities of Warwickshire (1656), but the engraving was done from a sketch made in 1634 and, like other portrayals of monuments in his work, is not accurate.

Shakespeare's will, executed on 25 March 1616, bequeaths "to my fellows John Hemynge Richard Burbage and Henry Cundell 26 shilling 8 pence apiece to buy them rings". Numerous public records, including the royal patent of 19 May 1603 that chartered the King's Men, establish that Phillips, Heminges, Burbage, and Condell were fellow actors in the King's Men with William Shakespeare; two of them later edited his collected plays. Anti-Stratfordians have cast suspicion on these bequests, which were interlined, and claim that they were added later as part of a conspiracy. However, the will was proved in the Prerogative Court of the Archbishop of Canterbury (George Abbot) in London on 22 June 1616, and the original was copied into the court register with the bequests intact.

John Taylor was the first poet to mention in print the deaths of Shakespeare and Francis Beaumont in his 1620 book of poems The Praise of Hemp-seed. Both had died four years earlier, less than two months apart. Ben Jonson wrote a short poem "To the Reader" commending the First Folio engraving of Shakespeare by Droeshout as a good likeness. Included in the prefatory commendatory verses was Jonson's lengthy eulogy "To the memory of my beloved, the Author Mr. William Shakespeare: and what he hath left us" in which he identifies Shakespeare as a playwright, a poet, and an actor, and writes:

Sweet Swan of Avon! what a sight it were

To see thee in our waters yet appear,

And make those flights upon the banks of Thames,

That so did take Eliza, and our James!

Here Jonson links the author to Stratford's river, the Avon, and confirms his appearances at the courts of Elizabeth I and James I.

Leonard Digges wrote the elegy "To the Memorie of the Deceased Authour Maister W. Shakespeare" in the 1623 First Folio, referring to "thy Stratford Moniment". Living four miles from Stratford-upon-Avon from 1600 until attending Oxford in 1603, Digges was the stepson of Thomas Russell, whom Shakespeare in his will designated as overseer to the executors. William Basse wrote an elegy entitled "On Mr. Wm. Shakespeare" sometime between 1616 and 1623, in which he suggests that Shakespeare should have been buried in Westminster Abbey next to Chaucer, Beaumont, and Spenser. This poem circulated very widely in manuscript and survives today in more than two dozen contemporary copies; several of these have a fuller, variant title "On Mr. William Shakespeare, he died in April 1616", which unambiguously specifies that the reference is to Shakespeare of Stratford.

Evidence for Shakespeare's authorship from his works

Shakespeare's are the most studied secular works in history. Contemporary comments and some textual studies support the authorship of someone with an education, background, and life span consistent with that of William Shakespeare.

Ben Jonson and Francis Beaumont referenced Shakespeare's lack of classical learning, and no extant contemporary record suggests he was a learned writer or scholar. This is consistent with classical blunders in Shakespeare, such as mistaking the scansion of many classical names, or the anachronistic citing of Plato and Aristotle in Troilus and Cressida. It has been suggested that most of Shakespeare's classical allusions were drawn from Thomas Cooper's Thesaurus Linguae Romanae et Britannicae (1565), since a number of errors in that work are replicated in several of Shakespeare's plays, and a copy of this book had been bequeathed to Stratford Grammar School by John Bretchgirdle for "the common use of scholars".

Later critics such as Samuel Johnson remarked that Shakespeare's genius lay not in his erudition, but in his "vigilance of observation and accuracy of distinction which books and precepts cannot confer; from this almost all original and native excellence proceeds". Much of the learning with which he has been credited and the omnivorous reading imputed to Shakespeare by critics in later years is exaggerated, and he may well have absorbed much learning from conversations. And contrary to previous claims—both scholarly and popular—about his vocabulary and word coinage, the evidence of vocabulary size and word-use frequency places Shakespeare with his contemporaries, rather than apart from them. Computerized comparisons with other playwrights demonstrate that his vocabulary is indeed large, but only because the canon of his surviving plays is larger than those of his contemporaries and because of the broad range of his characters, settings, and themes.

Shakespeare's plays differ from those of the University Wits in that they avoid ostentatious displays of the writer's mastery of Latin or of classical principles of drama, with the exceptions of co-authored early plays such as the Henry VI series and Titus Andronicus. His classical allusions instead rely on the Elizabethan grammar school curriculum. The curriculum began with William Lily's Latin grammar Rudimenta Grammatices and progressed to Caesar, Livy, Virgil, Horace, Ovid, Plautus, Terence, and Seneca, all of whom are quoted and echoed in the Shakespearean canon. Almost uniquely among his peers, Shakespeare's plays include references to grammar school texts and pedagogy, together with caricatures of schoolmasters. Titus Andronicus (4.10), The Taming of the Shrew (1.1), Love's Labour's Lost (5.1), Twelfth Night (2.3), and The Merry Wives of Windsor (4.1) refer to Lily's Grammar. Shakespeare also alluded to the petty school that children attended at age 5 to 7 to learn to read, a prerequisite for grammar school.

Beginning in 1987, Ward Elliott, who was sympathetic to the Oxfordian theory, and Robert J. Valenza supervised a continuing stylometric study that used computer programs to compare Shakespeare's stylistic habits to the works of 37 authors who had been proposed as the true author. The study, known as the Claremont Shakespeare Clinic, was last held in the spring of 2010. The tests determined that Shakespeare's work shows consistent, countable, profile-fitting patterns, suggesting that he was a single individual, not a committee, and that he used fewer relative clauses and more hyphens, feminine endings, and run-on lines than most of the writers with whom he was compared. The result determined that none of the other tested claimants' work could have been written by Shakespeare, nor could Shakespeare have been written by them, eliminating all of the claimants whose known works have survived—including Oxford, Bacon, and Marlowe—as the true authors of the Shakespeare canon.

Shakespeare's style evolved over time in keeping with changes in literary trends. His late plays, such as The Winter's Tale, The Tempest, and Henry VIII, are written in a style similar to that of other Jacobean playwrights and radically different from that of his Elizabethan-era plays. In addition, after the King's Men began using the Blackfriars Theatre for performances in 1609, Shakespeare's plays were written to accommodate a smaller stage with more music, dancing, and more evenly divided acts to allow for trimming the candles used for stage lighting.

In a 2004 study, Dean Keith Simonton examined the correlation between the thematic content of Shakespeare's plays and the political context in which they would have been written. He concludes that the consensus play chronology is roughly the correct order, and that Shakespeare's works exhibit gradual stylistic development consistent with that of other artistic geniuses. When backdated two years, the mainstream chronologies yield substantial correlations between the two, whereas the alternative chronologies proposed by Oxfordians display no relationship regardless of the time lag.

Textual evidence from the late plays indicates that Shakespeare collaborated with other playwrights who were not always aware of what he had done in a previous scene. This suggests that they were following a rough outline rather than working from an unfinished script left by an already dead playwright, as some Oxfordians propose. For example, in The Two Noble Kinsmen (1612–1613), written with John Fletcher, Shakespeare has two characters meet and leaves them on stage at the end of one scene, yet Fletcher has them act as if they were meeting for the first time in the following scene.

History of the authorship question

Main article: History of the Shakespeare authorship question

Bardolatry and early doubt

See also: Reputation of William Shakespeare

Despite adulatory tributes attached to his works, Shakespeare was not considered the world's greatest writer in the century and a half following his death. His reputation was that of a good playwright and poet among many others of his era. Beaumont and Fletcher's plays dominated popular taste after the theatres reopened in the Restoration Era in 1660, with Ben Jonson's and Shakespeare's plays vying for second place. After the actor David Garrick mounted the Shakespeare Stratford Jubilee in 1769, Shakespeare led the field. Excluding a handful of minor 18th-century satirical and allegorical references, there was no suggestion in this period that anyone else might have written the works. The authorship question emerged only after Shakespeare had come to be regarded as the English national poet and a unique genius.

By the beginning of the 19th century, adulation was in full swing, with Shakespeare singled out as a transcendent genius, a phenomenon for which George Bernard Shaw coined the term "bardolatry" in 1901. By the middle of the century his genius was noted as much for its intellectual as for its imaginative strength. The framework with which early 19th century thinkers imagined the English Renaissance focused on kings, courtiers, and university-educated poets; in this context, the idea that someone of Shakespeare's comparatively humble background could produce such works became increasingly unacceptable. Although still convinced that Shakespeare was the author of the works, Ralph Waldo Emerson expressed this disjunction in a lecture in 1846 by allowing that he could not reconcile Shakespeare's verse with the image of a jovial actor and theatre manager. The rise of historical criticism, which challenged the authorial unity of Homer's epics and the historicity of the Bible, also fuelled emerging puzzlement over Shakespeare's authorship, which in one critic's view was "an accident waiting to happen". David Strauss's investigation of the biography of Jesus, which shocked the public with its scepticism of the historical accuracy of the Gospels, influenced the secular debate about Shakespeare. In 1848, Samuel Mosheim Schmucker endeavoured to rebut Strauss's doubts about the historicity of Christ by applying the same techniques satirically to the records of Shakespeare's life in his Historic Doubts Respecting Shakespeare, Illustrating Infidel Objections Against the Bible. Schmucker, who never doubted that Shakespeare was Shakespeare, unwittingly anticipated and rehearsed many of the arguments later offered for alternative authorship candidates.

Open dissent and the first alternative candidate

Shakespeare's authorship was first openly questioned in the pages of Joseph C. Hart's The Romance of Yachting (1848). Hart argued that the plays contained evidence that many different authors had worked on them. Four years later Dr. Robert W. Jameson anonymously published "Who Wrote Shakespeare?" in the Chambers's Edinburgh Journal, expressing similar views. In 1856 Delia Bacon's unsigned article "William Shakspeare and His Plays; An Enquiry Concerning Them" appeared in Putnam's Magazine.

As early as 1845, Ohio-born Delia Bacon had theorised that the plays attributed to Shakespeare were actually written by a group under the leadership of Sir Francis Bacon, with Walter Raleigh as the main writer. Their purpose was to inculcate an advanced political and philosophical system for which they themselves could not publicly assume responsibility. She argued that Shakespeare's commercial success precluded his writing plays so concerned with philosophical and political issues, and that if he had, he would have overseen the publication of his plays in his retirement.

Francis Bacon was the first single alternative author proposed in print, by William Henry Smith, in a pamphlet published in September 1856 (Was Lord Bacon the Author of Shakspeare's Plays? A Letter to Lord Ellesmere). The following year Delia Bacon published a book outlining her theory: The Philosophy of the Plays of Shakspere Unfolded. Ten years later, Nathaniel Holmes published the 600-page The Authorship of Shakespeare supporting Smith's theory, and the idea began to spread widely. By 1884 the question had produced more than 250 books, and Smith asserted that the war against the Shakespeare hegemony had almost been won by the Baconians after a 30-year battle. Two years later the Francis Bacon Society was founded in England to promote the theory. The society still survives and publishes a journal, Baconiana, to further its mission.

These arguments against Shakespeare's authorship were answered by academics. In 1857 the English critic George Henry Townsend published William Shakespeare Not an Impostor, criticising what he called the slovenly scholarship, false premises, specious parallel passages, and erroneous conclusions of the earliest proponents of alternative authorship candidates.

Search for proof

In 1853, with the help of Ralph Waldo Emerson, Delia Bacon travelled to England to search for evidence to support her theories. Instead of performing archival research, she sought to unearth buried manuscripts, and unsuccessfully tried to persuade a caretaker to open Bacon's tomb. She believed she had deciphered instructions in Bacon's letters to look beneath Shakespeare's Stratford gravestone for papers that would prove the works were Bacon's, but after spending several nights in the chancel trying to summon the requisite courage, she left without prising up the stone slab.

Ciphers became important to the Baconian theory, as they would later to the advocacy of other authorship candidates, with books such as Ignatius L. Donnelly's The Great Cryptogram (1888) promoting the approach. Dr. Orville Ward Owen constructed a "cipher wheel", a 1,000-foot strip of canvas on which he had pasted the works of Shakespeare and other writers and mounted on two parallel wheels so he could quickly collate pages with key words as he turned them for decryption. In his multi-volume Sir Francis Bacon's Cipher Story (1893), he claimed to have discovered Bacon's autobiography embedded in Shakespeare's plays, including the revelation that Bacon was the secret son of Queen Elizabeth, thus providing more motivation to conceal his authorship from the public.

Perhaps because of Francis Bacon's legal background, both mock and real jury trials figured in attempts to prove claims for Bacon, and later for Oxford. The first mock trial was conducted over 15 months in 1892–93, and the results of the debate were published in the Boston monthly The Arena. Ignatius Donnelly was one of the plaintiffs, while F. J. Furnivall formed part of the defence. The 25-member jury, which included Henry George, Edmund Gosse, and Henry Irving, came down heavily in favour of William Shakespeare. In 1916, Judge Richard Tuthill presided over a real trial in Chicago. A film producer brought an action against a Baconian advocate, George Fabyan. He argued that Fabyan's advocacy of Bacon threatened the profits expected from a forthcoming film about Shakespeare. The judge determined that ciphers identified by Fabyan's analysts proved that Francis Bacon was the author of the Shakespeare canon, awarding Fabyan $5,000 in damages. In the ensuing uproar, Tuthill rescinded his decision, and another judge, Frederick A. Smith, dismissed the case.

In 1907, Owen claimed he had decoded instructions revealing that a box containing proof of Bacon's authorship had been buried in the River Wye near Chepstow Castle on the Duke of Beaufort's property. His dredging machinery failed to retrieve any concealed manuscripts. That same year his former assistant, Elizabeth Wells Gallup, financed by George Fabyan, likewise travelled to England. She believed she had decoded a message, by means of a biliteral cipher, revealing that Bacon's secret manuscripts were hidden behind panels in Canonbury Tower in Islington. None were found. Two years later, the American humorist Mark Twain publicly revealed his long-held anti-Stratfordian belief in Is Shakespeare Dead? (1909), favouring Bacon as the true author.

In the 1920s Walter Conrad Arensberg became convinced that Bacon had willed the key to his cipher to the Rosicrucians. He thought this society was still active, and that its members communicated with each under the aegis of the Church of England. On the basis of cryptograms he detected in the sixpenny tickets of admission to Holy Trinity Church in Stratford-upon-Avon, he deduced that both Bacon and his mother were secretly buried, together with the original manuscripts of Shakespeare's plays, in the Lichfield Chapter house in Staffordshire. He unsuccessfully petitioned the Dean of Lichfield to allow him both to photograph and excavate the obscure grave. Maria Bauer was convinced that Bacon's manuscripts had been imported into Jamestown, Virginia, in 1653, and could be found in the Bruton Vault at Williamsburg. She gained permission in the late 1930s to excavate, but authorities quickly withdrew her permit. In 1938 Roderick Eagle was allowed to open the tomb of Edmund Spenser to search for proof that Bacon was Shakespeare, but found only some old bones.

Other candidates emerge

By the end of the 19th century other candidates had begun to receive attention. In 1895 Wilbur G. Zeigler, an attorney, published the novel It Was Marlowe: A Story of the Secret of Three Centuries, whose premise was that Christopher Marlowe did not die in 1593, but rather survived to write Shakespeare's plays. He was followed by Thomas Corwin Mendenhall who, in the February 1902 issue of Current Literature, wrote an article based upon his stylometric work titled "Did Marlowe write Shakespeare?" Karl Bleibtreu, a German literary critic, advanced the nomination of Roger Manners, 5th Earl of Rutland, in 1907. Rutland's candidacy enjoyed a brief flowering, supported by a number of other authors over the next few years. Anti-Stratfordians unaffiliated to any specific authorship candidate also began to appear. George Greenwood, a British barrister, sought to disqualify William Shakespeare from the authorship in The Shakespeare Problem Restated (1908) but did not support any alternative authors, thereby encouraging the search for candidates other than Bacon. John M. Robertson published The Baconian Heresy: A Confutation in 1913, refuting the contention that Shakespeare had expert legal knowledge by showing that legalisms pervaded Elizabethan and Jacobean literature. In 1916, on the three-hundredth anniversary of Shakespeare's death, Henry Watterson, the long-time editor of The Courier-Journal, wrote a widely syndicated front-page feature story supporting the Marlovian theory and, like Zeigler, created a fictional account of how it might have happened. After the First World War, Professor Abel Lefranc, an authority on French and English literature, argued the case for William Stanley, 6th Earl of Derby, as the author based on biographical evidence he had gleaned from the plays and poems.

With the appearance of J. Thomas Looney's Shakespeare Identified (1920), Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford, quickly ascended as the most popular alternative author. Two years later Looney and Greenwood founded the Shakespeare Fellowship, an international organisation to promote discussion and debate on the authorship question, which later changed its mission to propagate the Oxfordian theory. In 1923 Archie Webster published "Was Marlowe the Man?" in The National Review, like Zeigler, Mendenhall and Watterson proposing that Marlowe wrote the works of Shakespeare, and arguing in particular that the Sonnets were an autobiographical account of his survival. In 1932 Allardyce Nicoll announced the discovery of a manuscript that appeared to establish James Wilmot as the earliest proponent of Bacon's authorship, but recent investigations have identified the manuscript as a forgery probably designed to revive Baconian theory in the face of Oxford's ascendancy.

Another authorship candidate emerged in 1943 when writer Alden Brooks, in his Will Shakspere and the Dyer's hand, argued for Sir Edward Dyer. Six years earlier Brooks had dismissed Shakespeare as the playwright by proposing that his role in the deception was to act as an Elizabethan "play broker", brokering the plays and poems on behalf of his various principals, the real authors. This view, of Shakespeare as a commercial go-between, was later adapted by Oxfordians. After the Second World War, Oxfordism and anti-Stratfordism declined in popularity and visibility. Copious archival research had failed to confirm Oxford or anyone else as the true author, and publishers lost interest in books advancing the same theories based on alleged circumstantial evidence. To bridge the evidentiary gap, both Oxfordians and Baconians began to argue that hidden clues and allusions in the Shakespeare canon had been placed there by their candidate for the benefit of future researchers.

To revive interest in Oxford, in 1952 Dorothy and Charlton Ogburn Sr. published the 1,300-page This Star of England, now regarded as a classic Oxfordian text. They proposed that the "fair youth" of the sonnets was Henry Wriothesley, 3rd Earl of Southampton, the offspring of a love affair between Oxford and the Queen, and that the "Shakespeare" plays were written by Oxford to memorialise the passion of that affair. This became known as the "Prince Tudor theory", which postulates that the Queen's illicit offspring and his father's authorship of the Shakespeare canon were covered up as an Elizabethan state secret. The Ogburns found many parallels between Oxford's life and the works, particularly in Hamlet, which they characterised as "straight biography". A brief upsurge of enthusiasm ensued, resulting in the establishment of the Shakespeare Oxford Society in the US in 1957.

In 1955 Broadway press agent Calvin Hoffman revived the Marlovian theory with the publication of The Murder of the Man Who Was "Shakespeare". The next year he went to England to search for documentary evidence about Marlowe that he thought might be buried in his literary patron Sir Thomas Walsingham's tomb. Nothing was found.

A series of critical academic books and articles held in check any appreciable growth of anti-Stratfordism, as academics attacked its results and its methodology as unscholarly. American cryptologists William and Elizebeth Friedman won the Folger Shakespeare Library Literary Prize in 1955 for a study of the arguments that the works of Shakespeare contain hidden ciphers. The study disproved all claims that the works contain ciphers, and was condensed and published as The Shakespearean Ciphers Examined (1957). Soon after, four major works were issued surveying the history of the anti-Stratfordian phenomenon from a mainstream perspective: The Poacher from Stratford (1958), by Frank Wadsworth, Shakespeare and His Betters (1958), by Reginald Churchill, The Shakespeare Claimants (1962), by H. N. Gibson, and Shakespeare and His Rivals: A Casebook on the Authorship Controversy (1962), by George L. McMichael and Edgar M. Glenn. In 1959 the American Bar Association Journal published a series of articles and letters on the authorship controversy, later anthologised as Shakespeare Cross-Examination (1961). In 1968 the newsletter of The Shakespeare Oxford Society reported that "the missionary or evangelical spirit of most of our members seems to be at a low ebb, dormant, or non-existent". In 1974, membership in the society stood at 80.

Authorship in the mainstream media

The freelance writer Charlton Ogburn Jr., elected president of The Shakespeare Oxford Society in 1976, promptly began a campaign to bypass the academic establishment; he believed it to be an "entrenched authority" that aimed to "outlaw and silence dissent in a supposedly free society". He proposed fighting for public recognition by portraying Oxford as a candidate on equal footing with Shakespeare. In 1984 Ogburn published his 900-page The Mysterious William Shakespeare: the Myth and the Reality, and by framing the issue as one of fairness in the atmosphere of conspiracy that permeated America after Watergate, he used the media to circumnavigate academia and appeal directly to the public. Ogburn's efforts secured Oxford as the most popular alternative candidate. He also kick-started the modern revival of the Oxfordian movement by adopting a policy of seeking publicity through moot court trials, media debates, television, and other outlets. These methods were later extended to the Internet, including Misplaced Pages.

Ogburn believed that academics were best challenged by recourse to law, and on 25 September 1987 three justices of the Supreme Court of the United States convened a one-day moot court at the Metropolitan Memorial United Methodist Church, to hear the Oxfordian case. The trial was structured so that literary experts would not be represented, but the burden of proof was on the Oxfordians. The justices determined that the case was based on a conspiracy theory and that the reasons given for this conspiracy were both incoherent and unpersuasive. Although Ogburn took the verdict as a "clear defeat", Oxfordian columnist Joseph Sobran thought the trial had effectively dismissed any other Shakespeare authorship contender from the public mind and provided legitimacy for Oxford. A retrial was organised the next year in the United Kingdom to potentially reverse the decision. Presided over by three Law Lords, the court was held in the Inner Temple in London on 26 November 1988. On this occasion Shakespearean scholars argued their case, and the outcome confirmed the American verdict.

Due in part to the rising visibility of the authorship question, media coverage of the controversy increased, with many outlets focusing on the Oxfordian theory. In 1989 the Public Broadcasting Service television show Frontline broadcast "The Shakespeare Mystery", exposing the interpretation of Oxford-as-Shakespeare to more than 3.5 million viewers in the US alone. This was followed in 1992 by a three-hour Frontline teleconference, "Uncovering Shakespeare: an Update", moderated by William F. Buckley, Jr. In 1991 The Atlantic Monthly published a debate between Tom Bethell, presenting the case for Oxford, and Irvin Leigh Matus, presenting the case for Shakespeare. A similar print debate took place in 1999 in Harper's Magazine under the title "The Ghost of Shakespeare". Beginning in the 1990s Oxfordians and other anti-Stratfordians increasingly turned to the Internet to promulgate their theories, including creating several articles on Misplaced Pages about the candidates and the arguments, to such an extent that a survey of the field in 2010 judged that its presence on Misplaced Pages "puts to shame anything that ever appeared in standard resources".

On 14 April 2007 the Shakespeare Authorship Coalition issued an Internet petition, the "Declaration of Reasonable Doubt About the Identity of William Shakespeare", coinciding with Brunel University's announcement of a one-year Master of Arts programme in Shakespeare authorship studies (since suspended). The coalition intended to enlist broad public support so that by 2016, the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's death, the academic Shakespeare establishment would be forced to acknowledge that legitimate grounds for doubting Shakespeare's authorship exist, a goal that was not successful. More than 1,200 signatures were collected by the end of 2007, and as of 23 April 2016, the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's death and the self-imposed deadline, the document had been signed by 3,348 people, including 573 self-described current and former academics. On 22 April 2007, The New York Times published a survey of 265 American Shakespeare professors on the Shakespeare authorship question. To the question of whether there is good reason to question Shakespeare's authorship, 6 per cent answered "yes", and 11 percent "possibly". When asked their opinion of the topic, 61 per cent chose "A theory without convincing evidence" and 32 per cent chose "A waste of time and classroom distraction".

In 2010 James S. Shapiro surveyed the authorship question in Contested Will: Who Wrote Shakespeare? Approaching the subject sociologically, Shapiro found its origins to be grounded in a vein of traditional scholarship going back to Edmond Malone, and criticised academia for ignoring the topic, which was, he argued, tantamount to surrendering the field to anti-Stratfordians. Shapiro links the revival of the Oxfordian movement to the cultural changes that followed the Watergate conspiracy scandal that increased the willingness of the public to believe in governmental conspiracies and cover-ups, and Robert Sawyer suggests that the increased presence of anti-Stratfordian ideas in popular culture can be attributed to the proliferation of conspiracy theories since the 9/11 attacks.

In September 2011, Anonymous, a feature film based on the "Prince Tudor" variant of the Oxfordian theory, written by John Orloff and directed by Roland Emmerich, premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival. De Vere is portrayed as a literary prodigy who becomes the lover of Queen Elizabeth, with whom he sires Henry Wriothesley, 3rd Earl of Southampton, only to discover that he himself may be the Queen's son by an earlier lover. He eventually sees his suppressed plays performed through the front man, William Shakespeare, who is portrayed as an opportunistic actor and the movie's comic foil. Oxford agrees to Elizabeth's demand that he remain anonymous as part of a bargain for saving their son from execution as a traitor for supporting the Essex Rebellion against her.

Two months before the release of the film, the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust launched a campaign attacking anti-Stratfordian arguments by means of a web site, 60 Minutes With Shakespeare: Who Was William Shakespeare?, containing short audio contributions recorded by actors, scholars and other celebrities, which was quickly followed by a rebuttal from the Shakespeare Authorship Coalition. Since then, Paul Edmondson and Stanley Wells have written a short e-book, Shakespeare Bites Back (2011), and edited a longer book of essays by prominent academic Shakespeareans, Shakespeare Beyond Doubt (2013), in which Edmondson says that they had "decided to lead the Shakespeare Authorship Campaign because we thought more questions would be asked by our visitors and students because of Anonymous, because we saw, and continue to see, something very wrong with the way doubts about Shakespeare's authorship are being given academic credibility by the Universities of Concordia and Brunel, and because we felt that merely ignoring the anti-Shakespearians was inappropriate at a time when their popular voice was likely to be gaining more ground".

Alternative candidates

Main article: List of Shakespeare authorship candidates

While more than 80 historical figures have been nominated at one time or another as the true author of the Shakespearean canon, only a few of these claimants have attracted significant attention. In addition to sole candidates, various "group" theories have also achieved a notable level of interest.

Group theories

Various group theories of Shakespearean authorship were proposed as early as the mid-19th century. Delia Bacon's The Philosophy of the Plays of Shakespeare Unfolded (1857), the first book focused entirely on the authorship debate, also proposed the first "group theory". It attributed the works of Shakespeare to "a little clique of disappointed and defeated politicians" led by Sir Walter Raleigh which included Sir Francis Bacon and perhaps Edmund Spenser, Lord Buckhurst, and Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford.

Gilbert Slater's The Seven Shakespeares (1931) proposed that the works were written by seven different authors: Francis Bacon, Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford, Sir Walter Raleigh, William Stanley, 6th Earl of Derby, Christopher Marlowe, Mary Sidney, Countess of Pembroke, and Roger Manners, 5th Earl of Rutland. In the early 1960s, Edward de Vere, Francis Bacon, Roger Manners, William Herbert and Mary Sidney were suggested as members of a group referred to as "The Oxford Syndicate". Christopher Marlowe, Robert Greene and Thomas Nashe have also been proposed as participants. Some variants of the group theory also include William Shakespeare of Stratford as the group's manager, broker and/or front man.

Sir Francis Bacon

Main article: Baconian theory of Shakespeare authorship

The leading candidate of the 19th century was one of the great intellectual figures of Jacobean England, Sir Francis Bacon, a lawyer, philosopher, essayist and scientist. Bacon's candidacy relies upon historical and literary conjectures, as well as alleged cryptographic evidence.

Bacon was proposed as sole author by William Henry Smith in 1856 and as a co-author by Delia Bacon in 1857. Smith compared passages such as Bacon's "Poetry is nothing else but feigned history" with Shakespeare's "The truest poetry is the most feigning" (As You Like It, 3.3.19–20), and Bacon's "He wished him not to shut the gate of your Majesty's mercy" with Shakespeare's "The gates of mercy shall be all shut up" (Henry V, 3.3.10). Delia Bacon argued that there were hidden political meanings in the plays and parallels between those ideas and Bacon's known works. She proposed him as the leader of a group of disaffected philosopher-politicians who tried to promote republican ideas to counter the despotism of the Tudor-Stuart monarchies through the medium of the public stage. Later Bacon supporters found similarities between a great number of specific phrases and aphorisms from the plays and those written by Bacon in his waste book, the Promus. In 1883, Mrs. Henry Pott compiled 4,400 parallels of thought or expression between Shakespeare and Bacon.

In a letter addressed to John Davies, Bacon closes "so desireing you to bee good to concealed poets", which according to his supporters is self-referential. Baconians argue that while Bacon outlined both a scientific and moral philosophy in The Advancement of Learning (1605), only the first part was published under his name during his lifetime. They say that his moral philosophy, including a revolutionary politico-philosophic system of government, was concealed in the Shakespeare plays because of its threat to the monarchy.

Baconians suggest that the great number of legal allusions in the Shakespeare canon demonstrate the author's expertise in the law. Bacon became Queen's Counsel in 1596 and was appointed Attorney General in 1613. Bacon also paid for and helped write speeches for a number of entertainments, including masques and dumbshows, although he is not known to have authored a play. His only attributed verse consists of seven metrical psalters, following Sternhold and Hopkins.

Since Bacon was knowledgeable about ciphers, early Baconians suspected that he left his signature encrypted in the Shakespeare canon. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries many Baconians claimed to have discovered ciphers throughout the works supporting Bacon as the true author. In 1881, C. F. Ashmead Windle, an American, claimed she had found carefully worked-out jingles in each play that identified Bacon as the author. This sparked a cipher craze, and probative cryptograms were identified in the works by Ignatius Donnelly, Orville Ward Owen, Elizabeth Wells Gallup, and Dr. Isaac Hull Platt. Platt argued that the Latin word honorificabilitudinitatibus, found in Love's Labour's Lost, can be read as an anagram, yielding Hi ludi F. Baconis nati tuiti orbi ("These plays, the offspring of F. Bacon, are preserved for the world.").

Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford

Main article: Oxfordian theory of Shakespeare authorship

Since the early 1920s, the leading alternative authorship candidate has been Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford and Lord Great Chamberlain of England. Oxford followed his grandfather and father in sponsoring companies of actors, and he had patronised a company of musicians and one of tumblers. Oxford was an important courtier poet, praised as such and as a playwright by George Puttenham and Francis Meres, who included him in a list of the "best for comedy amongst us". Examples of his poetry but none of his theatrical works survive. Oxford was noted for his literary and theatrical patronage. Between 1564 and 1599, 33 works were dedicated to him, including works by Arthur Golding, John Lyly, Robert Greene and Anthony Munday. In 1583 he bought the sublease of the first Blackfriars Theatre and gave it to the poet-playwright Lyly, who operated it for a season under Oxford's patronage.

Oxfordians believe certain literary allusions indicate that Oxford was one of the most prominent "suppressed" anonymous and/or pseudonymous writers of the day. They also note Oxford's connections to the London theatre and the contemporary playwrights of Shakespeare's day, his family connections including the patrons of Shakespeare's First Folio, his relationships with Queen Elizabeth I and Shakespeare's patron, the Earl of Southampton, his knowledge of Court life, his private tutors and education, and his wide-ranging travels through the locations of Shakespeare's plays in France and Italy. The case for Oxford's authorship is also based on perceived similarities between Oxford's biography and events in Shakespeare's plays, sonnets and longer poems; perceived parallels of language, idiom, and thought between Oxford's letters and the Shakespearean canon; and the discovery of numerous marked passages in Oxford's Bible that appear in some form in Shakespeare's plays.

The first to lay out a comprehensive case for Oxford's authorship was J. Thomas Looney, an English schoolteacher who identified personality characteristics in Shakespeare's works—especially Hamlet—that painted the author as an eccentric aristocratic poet, a drama and sporting enthusiast with a classical education who had travelled extensively to Italy. He discerned close affinities between the poetry of Oxford and that of Shakespeare in the use of motifs and subjects, phrasing, and rhetorical devices, which led him to identify Oxford as the author. After his Shakespeare Identified was published in 1920, Oxford replaced Bacon as the most popular alternative candidate.

Oxford's purported use of the "Shakespeare" pen name is attributed to the stigma of print, a convention that aristocratic authors could not take credit for writing plays for the public stage. Another motivation given is the politically explosive "Prince Tudor theory" that the youthful Oxford was Queen Elizabeth's lover; according to this theory, Oxford dedicated Venus and Adonis, The Rape of Lucrece, and the Sonnets to their son, England's rightful Tudor Prince, Henry Wriothesley, who was brought up as the 3rd Earl of Southampton.

Oxfordians say that the dedication to the sonnets published in 1609 implies that the author was dead prior to their publication and that 1604 (the year of Oxford's death) was the year regular publication of "newly corrected" and "augmented" Shakespeare plays stopped. Consequently, they date most of the plays earlier than the standard chronology and say that the plays which show evidence of revision and collaboration were left unfinished by Oxford and completed by other playwrights after his death.

Christopher Marlowe

Main article: Marlovian theory of Shakespeare authorship

The poet and dramatist Christopher Marlowe was born into the same social class as Shakespeare—his father was a cobbler, Shakespeare's a glove-maker. Marlowe was the older by two months, and spent six and a half years at Cambridge University. He pioneered the use of blank verse in Elizabethan drama, and his works are widely accepted as having greatly influenced those of Shakespeare. Of his seven plays, all but one or two were first performed before 1593.

The Marlovian theory argues that Marlowe's documented death on 30 May 1593 was faked. Thomas Walsingham and others are supposed to have arranged the faked death, the main purpose of which was to allow Marlowe to escape trial and almost certain execution on charges of subversive atheism. The theory then argues that Shakespeare was chosen as the front behind whom Marlowe would continue writing his highly successful plays. These claims are founded on inferences derived from the circumstances of his apparent death, stylistic similarities between the works of Marlowe and Shakespeare, and hidden meanings found in the works and associated texts.

Marlovians note that, despite Marlowe and Shakespeare being almost exactly the same age, the first work linked to the name William Shakespeare—Venus and Adonis—was on sale, with Shakespeare's name signed to the dedication, 13 days after Marlowe's reported death, having been registered with the Stationers' Company on 18 April 1593 with no named author. Lists of verbal correspondences between Marlowe's and Shakespeare's work have also been compiled.

Marlowe's candidacy was initially suggested in 1892 by T. W. White, who argued that Marlowe was one of a group of writers responsible for the plays, the others being Shakespeare, Greene, Peele, Daniel, Nashe and Lodge. He was first proposed as the sole author of Shakespeare's "stronger plays" in 1895 by Wilbur G. Zeigler. His candidacy was revived by Calvin Hoffman in 1955 and, according to Shapiro, a recent surge in interest in the Marlowe case "may be a sign that the dominance of the Oxfordian camp may not extend much longer than the Baconian one".

William Stanley, 6th Earl of Derby

Main article: Derbyite theory of Shakespeare authorship

William Stanley, 6th Earl of Derby, was first proposed as a candidate in 1891 by James Greenstreet, a British archivist, and later supported by Abel Lefranc and others. Greenstreet discovered that a Jesuit spy, George Fenner, reported in 1599 that Derby "is busye in penning commodyes for the common players". That same year Derby was recorded as financing one of London's two children's drama companies, Paul's Boys; he also had his own company, Derby's Men, which played multiple times at court in 1600 and 1601. Derby was born three years before Shakespeare and died in 1642, so his lifespan fits the consensus dating of the works. His initials were W. S., and he was known to sign himself "Will", which qualified him to write the punning "Will" sonnets.

Derby travelled in continental Europe in 1582, visiting France and possibly Navarre. Love's Labour's Lost is set in Navarre and the play may be based on events that happened there between 1578 and 1584. Derby married Elizabeth de Vere, whose maternal grandfather was William Cecil, thought by some critics to be the basis of the character of Polonius in Hamlet. Derby was associated with William Herbert, 3rd Earl of Pembroke, and his brother Philip Herbert, Earl of Montgomery and later 4th Earl of Pembroke, the "Incomparable Pair" to whom William Shakespeare's First Folio is dedicated. When Derby released his estates to his son James around 1628–29, he named Pembroke and Montgomery as trustees. Derby's older brother, Ferdinando Stanley, 5th Earl of Derby, formed a group of players, the Lord Strange's Men, some of whose members eventually joined the King's Men, one of the companies most associated with Shakespeare.

In fiction

Like many of Shakespeare's works, the Shakespeare authorship question has also entered into fiction of various genres. An early example is Zeigler's 1895 novel It was Marlowe: a Story of the Secret of Three Centuries.

Apart from the 2011 Oxfordian film Anonymous, other examples include Amy Freed's 2001 play The Beard of Avon, Ben Elton's 2016 sitcom Upstart Crow, and the 2020 fantasy comic book The Dreaming: Waking Hours, based on the works of Neil Gaiman. Modern novels include Gordon Korman's 2018 children's book WhatsHisFace and Jodi Picoult's 2024 By Any Other Name.

Notes

Footnotes

1. The UK and US editions of Shapiro 2010 differ significantly in pagination. The citations to the book used in this article list the UK page numbers first, followed by the page numbers of the US edition in parentheses.
2. The low figure is that of Manfred Scheler. The upper figure, from Marvin Spevack, is true only if all word forms (cat and cats counted as two different words, for example), compound words, emendations, variants, proper names, foreign words, onomatopoeic words, and deliberate malapropisms are included.
3. For Richard II, (Q2 (1598), Q3 (1598), Q4 (1608), and Q5 (1615). For Richard III, (Q2 (1598), Q3 (1602), Q4 (1605), Q5 (1612), and Q6 (1622). For Henry IV, Part 1, (Q2 (1599), Q3 (1604), Q4 (1608) and Q5 (1613)

Citations

1. Prescott 2010, p. 273: "'Anti-Stratfordian' is the collective name for the belief that someone other than the man from Stratford wrote the plays commonly attributed to him."; McMichael & Glenn 1962, p. 56.
2. Shapiro 2010, pp. 2–3 (3–4).
3. Kathman 2003, p. 621: "...antiStratfordism has remained a fringe belief system"; Schoenbaum 1991, p. 450; Paster 1999, p. 38: "To ask me about the authorship question ... is like asking a palaeontologist to debate a creationist's account of the fossil record."; Nelson 2004, pp. 149–51: "I do not know of a single professor of the 1,300-member Shakespeare Association of America who questions the identity of Shakespeare ... antagonism to the authorship debate from within the profession is so great that it would be as difficult for a professed Oxfordian to be hired in the first place, much less gain tenure..."; Carroll 2004, pp. 278–9: "I have never met anyone in an academic position like mine, in the Establishment, who entertained the slightest doubt as to Shakespeare's authorship of the general body of plays attributed to him."; Pendleton 1994, p. 21: "Shakespeareans sometimes take the position that to even engage the Oxfordian hypothesis is to give it a countenance it does not warrant."; Sutherland & Watts 2000, p. 7: "There is, it should be noted, no academic Shakespearian of any standing who goes along with the Oxfordian theory."; Gibson 2005, p. 30: "...most of the great Shakespearean scholars are to be found in the Stratfordian camp..."
4. ^ Bate 1998, p. 73; Hastings 1959, p. 486; Wadsworth 1958, pp. 8–16; McCrea 2005, p. 13; Kathman 2003, p. 622.
5. Taylor 1989, p. 167: By 1840, admiration for Shakespeare throughout Europe had become such that Thomas Carlyle "could say without hyperbole" that "'Shakspeare is the chief of all Poets hitherto; the greatest intellect who, in our recorded world, has left record of himself in the way of literature.'"
6. ^ Shapiro 2010, pp. 87–8 (77–8).
7. Holmes 1866, p. 7
8. Bate 2002, p. 106.
9. Shapiro 2010, p. 317 (281).
10. ^ Gross 2010, p. 39.
11. Shapiro 2010, pp. 2–3 (4); McCrea 2005, p. 13.
12. Dobson 2001, p. 31: "These two notions—that the Shakespeare canon represented the highest achievement of human culture, while William Shakespeare was a completely uneducated rustic—combined to persuade Delia Bacon and her successors that the Folio's title page and preliminaries could only be part of a fabulously elaborate charade orchestrated by some more elevated personage, and they accordingly misread the distinctive literary traces of Shakespeare's solid Elizabethan grammar-school education visible throughout the volume as evidence that the 'real' author had attended Oxford or Cambridge."
13. Bate 1998, p. 90: "Their favorite code is the hidden personal allusion ... But this method is in essence no different from the cryptogram, since Shakespeare's range of characters and plots, both familial and political, is so vast that it would be possible to find in the plays 'self-portraits' of, once more, anybody one cares to think of."; Love 2002, pp. 87, 200: "It has more than once been claimed that the combination of 'biographical-fit' and cryptographical arguments could be used to establish a case for almost any individual ... The very fact that their application has produced so many rival claimants demonstrates their unreliability." Shapiro 2010, pp. 304–13 (268–77); Schoone-Jongen 2008, p. 5: "in voicing dissatisfaction over the apparent lack of continuity between the certain facts of Shakespeare's life and the spirit of his literary output, anti-Stratfordians adopt the very Modernist assumption that an author's work must reflect his or her life. Neither Shakespeare nor his fellow Elizabethan writers operated under this assumption."; Smith 2008, p. 629: "...deriving an idea of an author from his or her works is always problematic, particularly in a multi-vocal genre like drama, since it crucially underestimates the heterogeneous influences and imaginative reaches of creative writing."
14. Wadsworth 1958, pp. 163–4: "The reasons we have for believing that William Shakespeare of Stratford-on-Avon wrote the plays and poems are the same as the reasons we have for believing any other historical event ... the historical evidence says that William Shakespeare wrote the plays and poems."; McCrea 2005, pp. xii–xiii, 10; Nelson 2004, p. 162: "Apart from the First Folio, the documentary evidence for William Shakespeare is the same as we get for other writers of the period..."
15. Love 2002, pp. 198–202, 303–7: "The problem that confronts all such attempts is that they have to dispose of the many testimonies from Will the player's own time that he was regarded as the author of the plays and the absence of any clear contravening public claims of the same nature for any of the other favoured candidates."; Bate 1998, pp. 68–73.
16. Bate 1998, p. 73: "No one in Shakespeare's lifetime or the first two hundred years after his death expressed the slightest doubt about his authorship."; Hastings 1959, pp. 486–8: "...no suspicions regarding Shakespeare's authorship (except for a few mainly humorous comments) were expressed until the middle of the nineteenth century".
17. Dobson 2001, p. 31; Greenblatt 2005: "The idea that William Shakespeare's authorship of his plays and poems is a matter of conjecture and the idea that the 'authorship controversy' be taught in the classroom are the exact equivalent of current arguments that 'intelligent design' be taught alongside evolution. In both cases an overwhelming scholarly consensus, based on a serious assessment of hard evidence, is challenged by passionately held fantasies whose adherents demand equal time."
18. Price 2001, p. 9: "Nevertheless, the skeptics who question Shakespeare's authorship are relatively few in number, and they do not speak for the majority of academic and literary professionals."
19. ^ Nicholl 2010, p. 3.
20. Nicholl 2010, p. 3; Shapiro 2010, p. 2 (4).
21. Shapiro 2010, pp. 246–9 (216–9); Niederkorn 2005.
22. Prescott 2010, p. 273; Baldick 2008, pp. 17–18; Bate 1998, pp. 68–70; Wadsworth 1958, pp. 2, 6–7.
23. Matus 1994, p. 15 note.
24. Wells 2003, p. 388; Dobson 2001, p. 31: "Most observers, however, have been more impressed by the anti-Stratfordians' dogged immunity to documentary evidence"; Shipley 1943, p. 38: "the challenger would still need to produce evidence in favour of another author. There is no such evidence."; Love 2002, p. 198: "...those who believe that other authors were responsible for the canon as a whole ... have been forced to invoke elaborate conspiracy theories."; Wadsworth 1958, p. 6: "Paradoxically, the skeptics invariably substitute for the easily explained lack of evidence concerning William Shakespeare, the more troublesome picture of a vast conspiracy of silence about the 'real author', with a total lack of historical evidence for the existence of this 'real author' explained on the grounds of a secret pact"; Shapiro 2010, p. 255 (225): "Some suppose that only Shakespeare and the real author were in the know. At the other extreme are those who believe that it was an open secret".
25. Bate 2002, pp. 104–5; Schoenbaum 1991, pp. 390, 392.
26. Kells, Stuart (2019). Shakespeare's Library: Unlocking the Greatest Mystery in Literature. Counterpoint. p. Introduction. ISBN 978-1640091832.: "Not a trace of his library was found. No books, no manuscripts, no letters, no diaries. The desire to get close to Shakespeare was unrequited, the vacuum palpable."
27. Shipley 1943, pp. 37–8; Bethell 1991, pp. 48, 50; Schoone-Jongen 2008, p. 5; Smith 2008, p. 622: "Fuelled by scepticism that the plays could have been written by a working man from a provincial town with no record of university education, foreign travel, legal studies or court preferment, the controversialists proposed instead a sequence of mainly aristocratic alternative authors whose philosophically or politically occult meanings, along with their own true identity, had to be hidden in codes, cryptograms and runic obscurity."
28. Foggatt, Tyler (29 July 2019). "Justice Stevens's Dissenting Shakespeare Theory". The New Yorker.
29. Steerpike (1 May 2014). "The great Shakespeare authorship question". The Spectator. Archived from the original on 2 October 2019. Retrieved 1 October 2019.
30. Wells 2023, p. 135
31. Nelson 2004, p. 149: "The Shakespeare authorship debate is a classic instance of a controversy that draws its very breath from a fundamental disagreement over the nature of admissible evidence."; McCrea 2005, pp. 165, 217–8; Shapiro 2010, pp. 8, 48, 112–3, 235, 298 (8, 44, 100, 207, 264).
32. Schoone-Jongen 2008, pp. 6, 117.
33. Schoenbaum 1991, pp. 405, 411, 437; Love 2002, pp. 203–7.
34. Callaghan 2013, p. 11: "It is a 'fact' that the survival rate for early modern documents is low and that Shakespeare lived in a world prior to the systematic, all-inclusive collection of data that provides the foundation of modern bureaucracy."
35. Shapiro 2010, pp. 253–95 (223–59); Love 2002, p. 198.
36. Wadsworth 1958, pp. 163–4; McCrea 2005, pp. xii–xiii, 10; Nelson 2004, p. 149.
37. Crinkley 1985, p. 517.
38. Matus 1994, p. 47: "...on the mysterious disappearance of the accounts of the highest immediate authority over theatre in Shakespeare's age, the Lord Chamberlains of the Household. Ogburn imagines that these records, like those of the Stratford grammar school, might have been deliberately eradicated 'because they would have showed how little consequential a figure Shakspere cut in the company.'"
39. Matus 1994, p. 32: "Ogburn gives voice to his suspicion that the school records disappeared because they would have revealed William's name did not appear among those who attended it."
40. Schoenbaum 1991, p. 6; Wells 2003, p. 28; Kathman 2003, p. 625; Shapiro 2010, pp. 116–7 (103); Bevington 2005, p. 9.
41. Wells 2001, p. 122.
42. Schoenbaum 1987, p. 295.
43. Daybell 2016, p. 494
44. Price 2001, pp. 213–7, 262; Crinkley 1985, p. 517: "It is characteristic of anti-Stratfordian books that they make a list of what Shakespeare must have been—a courtier, a lawyer, a traveler in Italy, a classicist, a falconer, whatever. Then a candidate is selected who fits the list. Not surprisingly, different lists find different candidates."
45. Bethell 1991, p. 56.
46. Baldwin 1944, p. 464.
47. Ellis 2012, p. 41
48. Baldwin 1944, pp. 164–84; Cressy 1975, pp. 28–9; Thompson 1958, p. 24; Quennell 1963, p. 18.
49. Honan 2000, pp. 49–51; Halliday 1962, pp. 41–9; Rowse 1963, pp. 36–44.
50. Bethell 1991, p. 48.
51. Nevalainen 1999, p. 336.
52. Schoenbaum 1981, p. 93.
53. Nelson 2004, p. 164: "...most anti-Stratfordians claim that he was not even literate. They present his six surviving signatures as proof."
54. ^ Dawson & Kennedy-Skipton 1966, p. 9.
55. Ioppolo 2010, pp. 177–183
56. Kathman (1).
57. Barrell 1940, p. 6: "The main contention of these anti-Stratfordians is that 'William Shakespeare' was a pen-name, like 'Molière,' 'George Eliot,' and 'Mark Twain,' which in this case cloaked the creative activities of a master scholar in high circles".
58. Matus 1994, p. 28.
59. Shapiro 2010, p. 255 (225).
60. Price 2001, pp. 59–62.
61. Saunders 1951, pp. 139–64; May 1980, p. 11; May 2007, p. 61.
62. Smith 2008, p. 621: "The plays have to be pseudonymous because they are too dangerous, in a climate of censorship and monarchical control, to be published openly."
63. Schoenbaum 1991, pp. 393, 446.
64. Matus 1994, p. 26.
65. Shapiro 2010, pp. 116–7 (103–4).
66. Frazer, Robert (1915). The Silent Shakespeare. Philadelphia: William J. Campbell. p. 116.
67. McCrea 2005, pp. 21, 170–1, 217.
68. Price 2001, pp. 146–8.
69. Matus 1994, pp. 166, 266–7, cites James Lardner, "Onward and Upward with the Arts: the Authorship Question", The New Yorker, 11 April 1988, p. 103: "No obituaries marked his death in 1616, no public mourning. No note whatsoever was taken of the passing of the man who, if the attribution is correct, would have been the greatest playwright and poet in the history of the English language."; Shapiro 2010, p. 243.
70. Bate 1998, p. 63; Price 2001, p. 145.
71. Price 2001, p. 157; Matus 1991, p. 201.
72. Spielmann 1924, pp. 23–4.
73. Vickers 2006, p. 17.
74. Bate 1998, p. 20.
75. ^ Montague 1963, pp. 123–4.
76. Matus 1994, pp. 265–6; Lang 1912, pp. 28–30.
77. Wadsworth 1958, pp. 163–4; Murphy 1964, p. 4: "For the evidence that William Shakespeare of Stratford-on-Avon (1564–1616) wrote the works attributed to him is not only abundant but conclusive. It is of the kind, as Sir Edmund Chambers puts it, 'which is ordinarily accepted as determining the authorship of early literature.'"; Nelson 2004, p. 149: "Even the most partisan anti-Stratfordian or Oxfordian agrees that documentary evidence taken on its face value supports the case for William Shakespeare of Stratford-upon-Avon ... as author of the poems and plays"; McCrea 2005, pp. xii–xiii, 10,
78. Shipley 1943, pp. 37–8,
79. Dawson 1953, p. 165: "...in my opinion it is the basic unsoundness of method in this and other works of similar subject matter that explains how sincere and intelligent men arrive at such wild conclusions"; Love 2002, p. 200; McCrea 2005, p. 14; Gibson 2005, p. 10.
80. Shapiro 2010, p. 305 (270); Bate 1998, pp. 36–7; Wadsworth 1958, pp. 2–3; Schoone-Jongen 2008, p. 5.
81. Bate 1963, pp. 259–60; Morita 1980, pp. 22–3.
82. Martin 1965, p. 131.
83. Murphy 1964, p. 5.
84. McCrea 2005, pp. 3–7.
85. Martin 1965, p. 135.
86. Montague 1963, pp. 93–4; Loomis 2002, p. 83.
87. Loomis 2002, p. 85; Montague 1963, pp. 93–4.
88. Gurr 2004, p. 60.
89. Stevenson 2002, p. 84.
90. Montague 1963, pp. 71, 75.
91. Montague 1963, p. 71; Loomis 2002, p. 104.
92. Montague 1963, p. 71; Loomis 2002, p. 174.
93. Loomis 2002, p. 183.
94. Loomis 2002, p. 209.
95. Montague 1963, p. 98; Loomis 2002, p. 233.
96. Loomis 2002, p. 238.
97. Montague 1963, pp. 77–8.
98. Nelson 2004, p. 155: "Throughout the First Folio, the author is called 'Mr.' or 'Maister,' a title exactly appropriate to the social rank of William Shakespeare."
99. Taylor & Loughnane 2017, pp. 417–20.
100. Eccles 1933, pp. 459–60
101. Shapiro 2010, pp. 254–5 (224–5); Nelson 1998, pp. 79–82.
102. Schoenbaum 1987, p. 231.
103. Schoenbaum 1987, pp. 227–8.
104. Schoenbaum 1987, pp. 231–2; Matus 1994, p. 60.
105. Schoenbaum 1987, p. 232.
106. Pendleton 1994, p. 29: "...since he had, as Clarenceux King, responded less than three years earlier to Brooke's attack on the grant of arms to the father of 'Shakespeare ye Player' ... Camden thus was aware that the last name on his list was that of William Shakespeare of Stratford. The Camden reference, therefore, is exactly what the Oxfordians insist does not exist: an identification by a knowledgeable and universally respected contemporary that 'the Stratford man' was a writer of sufficient distinction to be ranked with (if after) Sidney, Spenser, Daniel, Holland, Jonson, Campion, Drayton, Chapman, and Marston. And the identification even fulfils the eccentric Oxfordian ground-rule that it be earlier than 1616."
107. McCrea 2005, pp. 17–9.
108. Shapiro 2010, pp. 272–3 (239–40).
109. McCrea 2005, pp. 7, 8, 11, 32; Shapiro 2010, pp. 268–9 (236–7).
110. McCrea 2005, p. 191; Montague 1963, p. 97.
111. Shapiro 2010, p. 271 (238); Chambers 1930, pp. 218–9.
112. Shapiro 2010, p. 270 (238).
113. Shapiro 2010, p. 271 (238–9); Chambers 1930, p. 224; Nicholl 2008, p. 80.
114. Kathman (3); McMichael & Glenn 1962, p. 41.
115. Price 1997, pp. 168, 173: "While Hollar conveyed the general impressions suggested by Dugdale's sketch, few of the details were transmitted with accuracy. Indeed, Dugdale's sketch gave Hollar few details to work with ... As with other sketches in his collection, Dugdale made no attempt to draw a facial likeness, but appears to have sketched one of his standard faces to depict a man with facial hair. Consequently, Hollar invented the facial features for Shakespeare. The conclusion is obvious: in the absence of an accurate and detailed model, Hollar freely improvised his image of Shakespeare's monument. That improvisation is what disqualifies the engraving's value as authoritative evidence."
116. Kathman (2).
117. Kathman (4).
118. Matus 1994, pp. 121, 220.
119. Kathman 2013, p. 127
120. Bate 1998, p. 72.
121. McCrea 2005, p. 9; Bate 2002, pp. 111–2.
122. Eaglestone 2009, p. 63; Gelderen 2006, p. 178.
123. McCrea 2005, pp. 105–6, 115, 119–24; Bate 2002, pp. 109–10.
124. McCrea 2005, pp. 64, 171; Bate 1998, p. 70.
125. Lang 1912, pp. 43–4.
126. Willinsky 1994, p. 75.
127. Velz 2000, p. 188.
128. Johnson 1969, p. 78.
129. Love 2002, p. 81: "As has often been pointed out, if Shakespeare had read all the books claimed to have influenced him, he would never have had time to write a word of his own. He probably picked up many of his ideas from conversation. If he needed legal knowledge it was easier to extract this from Inns-of-Court drinkers in the Devil Tavern than to search volumes of precedents."
130. Nosworthy 2007, p. xv: "we should beware of assuming Shakespeare's wholesale dependence on books. The stories, to any educated Elizabethan, were old and familiar ones".
131. Craig 2011, pp. 58–60.
132. McCrea 2005, pp. 62–72.
133. The Shakespeare Clinic 2010.
134. Elliott & Valenza 2004, p. 331.
135. Shapiro 2010, p. 288 (253).
136. Shapiro 2010, pp. 283–6 (249–51).
137. Simonton 2004, p. 203.
138. Simonton 2004, p. 210: "If the Earl of Oxford wrote these plays, then he not only displayed minimal stylistic development over the course of his career (Elliot & Valenza, 2000), but he also wrote in monastic isolation from the key events of his day."
139. Simonton 2004, p. 210, note 4: "For the record, I find the traditional attribution to William Shakespeare of Stratford highly improbable ... I really would like Edward de Vere to be the author of the plays and poems ... Thus, I had hoped that the current study might strengthen the case on behalf of the Oxfordian attribution. I think that expectation was proven wrong."
140. Shapiro 2010, pp. 293–4 (258–9).
141. Shapiro 2010, p. 30 (29).
142. Shapiro 2010, pp. 30–3 (29–32).
143. Finkelpearl 1990, pp. 4–5.
144. Friedman & Friedman 1957, pp. 1–4 quoted in McMichael & Glenn 1962, p. 56; Wadsworth 1958, p. 10.
145. Schoenbaum 1991, pp. 99–110.
146. Wells 2003, p. 329.
147. Taylor 1989, p. 167.
148. Dobson 2001, p. 38.
149. Wadsworth 1958, p. 19: "The Egyptian verdict of the Shakspeare Societies comes to mind; that he was a jovial actor and manager. I can not marry this fact to his verse."
150. Dobson 2001, p. 31.
151. Shapiro 2010, pp. 83–9 (73–9).
152. Gross 2010, p. 40; Shapiro 2010, pp. 86–9 (76–9).
153. Wadsworth 1958, pp. 21–3, 29.
154. Churchill 1958, p. 38.
155. Shapiro 2010, pp. 97–8, 106–9 (87, 95–7).
156. Glazener 2007, p. 331.
157. Shapiro 2010, pp. 119–20 (105–6).
158. McCrea 2005, p. 13.
159. Halliday 1957, p. 176.
160. Schoenbaum 1991, p. 404.
161. Hackett 2009, p. 164.
162. Schoenbaum 1991, p. 403.
163. Wadsworth 1958, pp. 34–5.
164. Shapiro 2010, pp. 113–4 (100–1); Wadsworth 1958, pp. 34–5.
165. Schoenbaum 1991, pp. 391–2.
166. ^ Wadsworth 1958, p. 57; Schoenbaum 1991, p. 412; Hackett 2009, pp. 154–5.
167. Wadsworth 1958, pp. 55–6.
168. McMichael & Glenn 1962, p. 199; Wadsworth 1958, pp. 74–5; Niederkorn 2004, pp. 82–5.
169. Shapiro 2010, pp. 144–5 (127); Wadsworth 1958, pp. 63–4.
170. Shapiro 2010, p. 144 (127); Wadsworth 1958, p. 64.
171. Shapiro 2010, pp. 149–58 (130–9).
172. Wadsworth 1958, pp. 80–4.
173. Schoenbaum 1991, pp. 422–5
174. Wadsworth 1958, pp. 88–9; Garber 1997, p. 8.
175. Wadsworth 1958, p. 86.
176. Schoenbaum 1991, p. 446; Zeigler 1895, pp. v–xi.
177. Chandler 1994
178. Wadsworth 1958, pp. 106–10.
179. Campbell 1966, pp. 730–1.
180. Greenwood 1908; Wadsworth 1958, pp. 99–100.
181. Robertson 1913; Vickers 2005.
182. Wall 1956, pp. 293–4.
183. Wadsworth 1958, pp. 101–2.
184. Looney 1920.
185. ^ May 2004, p. 222.
186. Shapiro 2010, p. 218 (192).
187. Webster 1923, pp. 81–6; Wadsworth 1958, p. 155.
188. Nicoll 1932, p. 128.
189. Shapiro 2010, pp. 11–4, 319–20 (11–3, 284).
190. Brooks 1943.
191. Wadsworth 1958, pp. 135, 139–42.
192. Shapiro 2010, pp. 228–9 (200–1).
193. Shapiro 2010, pp. 220–1 (194).
194. Ogburn & Ogburn 1952.
195. ^ Wadsworth 1958, p. 127.
196. Hackett 2009, p. 167.
197. Shapiro 2010, p. 228 (201).
198. Schoenbaum 1991, p. 445.
199. Wadsworth 1958, p. 153.
200. Shapiro 2010, p. 229 (202).
201. Quoted in Shapiro 2010, pp. 228–9 (201).
202. Shapiro 2010, p. 230 (202).
203. Shapiro 2010, pp. 230–3 (202–5).
204. Shapiro 2010, pp. 232–3 (204–5).
205. Bethell 1991, p. 47; Gibson 2005, pp. 48, 72, 124; Kathman 2003, p. 620; Schoenbaum 1991, pp. 430–40; Shapiro 2010, pp. 229–49 (202–19).
206. Ross (Oxfordian Myths).
207. Shapiro 2010, pp. 242–3 (212–3).
208. Shapiro 2010, pp. 234–6 (206–8).
209. Shapiro 2010, pp. 236–7 (208–9).
210. Shapiro 2010, p. 238 (209).
211. Shapiro 2010, p. 238 (209–10).
212. Bethell 1991.
213. Matus 1991.
214. Shapiro 2010, pp. 246–8 (216–8).
215. Shapiro 2010, pp. 248–9 (218–9); Hackett 2009, pp. 171–2.
216. Niederkorn 2007.
217. Shapiro 2010, pp. 4, 42 (5, 39).
218. Shapiro 2010, pp. 231–2, 239–41 (203–4, 210–2).
219. Sawyer 2013, pp. 28–9.
220. Syme 2011
221. Smith 2011.
222. Edmondson 2013, pp. 233, 278.
223. Edmondson & Wells 2011
224. Edmondson 2013, p. 229.
225. Gibson 2005, p. 10.
226. Gibson 2005, pp. 18–9, 72–6.
227. Shapiro 2010, p. 107 (95); Holderness 2013, p. 7.
228. Hoffman 1960, pp. vii–ix.
229. Gibson 2005, pp. 72–6.
230. Gibson 2005, pp. 18–9, 25, 27, 90.
231. Wadsworth 1958, pp. 23–4.
232. Churchill 1958, pp. 34–5, 70–4
233. Shapiro 2010, pp. 119–20 (105–6); Halliday 1957, p. 175.
234. Schoenbaum 1991, pp. 387, 389.
235. Wadsworth 1958, p. 41; Gibson 2005, pp. 151–71; Halliday 1957, p. 177.
236. Gibson 2005, p. 57; Wadsworth 1958, p. 36.
237. Halliday 1957, p. 174.
238. Halliday 1957, p. 176 note.
239. Bacon 2002, pp. 318, 693.
240. Wadsworth 1958, pp. 42–50.
241. Wadsworth 1958, pp. 53–7.
242. Wadsworth 1958, pp. 62–4.
243. Ruthven 2001, p. 102.
244. Nelson 2003, pp. 13, 248.
245. May 1991, pp. 53–4.
246. Nelson 2003, pp. 386–7.
247. May 1980, pp. 8–.
248. Smith 1964, pp. 151, 155.
249. Austin, Al, and Judy Woodruff. The Shakespeare Mystery. PBS, Frontline, 1989.
250. Bethell 1991, pp. 46, 47, 50, 53, 56, 58, 75, 78.
251. Shapiro 2010, p. 214.
252. Schoenbaum 1991, pp. 431–2.
253. Wadsworth 1958, p. 121; McMichael & Glenn 1962, p. 159; Shapiro 2010, p. 239 (210).
254. Bethell 1991, p. 47.
255. Bethell 1991, p. 61.
256. Schoenbaum 1991, pp. 433–4; Shapiro 2010, p. 294 (258).
257. Logan 2007, p. 8
258. Schoenbaum 1991, pp. 445–6.
259. Bate 1998, p. 132.
260. Schoenbaum 1987, p. 131.
261. Prince 2000, p. xii.
262. Schoenbaum 1991, pp. 446–7.
263. Churchill 1958, p. 44.
264. Schoenbaum 1991, p. 446.
265. Shapiro 2010, p. 247 (217).
266. Wadsworth 1958, p. 101.
267. Gibson 2005, pp. 91–2; Shapiro 2010, p. 215 (189).
268. Schoone-Jongen 2008, pp. 106, 164.
269. Shapiro 2010, p. 215 (190).
270. Lefranc 1918–19, pp. 2, 87–199; Wilson 1969, p. 128; Londré 1997, p. 327.
271. McCrea 2005, p. 145.
272. Gibson 2005, p. 274.
273. McCrea 2005, p. 144.
274. Hope & Holston 2009
275. Brustein 2006.
276. Dugdale 2016; Low 2018.
277. Polo 2020.
278. Morgan 2019
279. Singh 2024.

References

• Bacon, Francis (2002). Vickers, Brian (ed.). Francis Bacon: The Major Works. Oxford World's Classics. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-284081-3. Retrieved 2 March 2011.
• Baldick, Chris (2008). The Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-920827-2. Retrieved 10 January 2011.
• Baldwin, T. W. (1944). William Shakespere's Small Latine & Lesse Greeke. Urbana: University of Illinois Press. OCLC 654144828. Archived from the original on 3 March 2012. Retrieved 2 April 2012.
• Barrell, Charles Wisner (January 1940). "Identifying Shakespeare: Science in the Shape of Infra-red Photography and the X rays Brings to Light at Last the Real Man Beneath the Surface of a Series of Paintings of the Bard". Scientific American. 162 (1). University of Chicago Press: 4–8, 43–45.
• Bate, Jonathan (1998). The Genius of Shakespeare. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-512823-9. Retrieved 20 December 2010.
• Bate, Jonathan (2002). "Scenes from the Birth of a Myth". In Nolen, Stephanie (ed.). Shakespeare's Face: Unraveling the Legend and History of Shakespeare's Mysterious Portrait. Free Press. pp. 103–25. ISBN 978-0-7432-4932-4. Retrieved 2 March 2011.
• Bate, Walter Jackson (1963). John Keats. Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. OCLC 291522.
• Bethell, Tom (October 1991). "The Case for Oxford (and Reply)". Atlantic Monthly. 268 (4): 45–61, 74–78. ISSN 1072-7825. Retrieved 16 December 2010.
• Bevington, David Martin (2005). Shakespeare: The Seven Ages of Human Experience. Wiley-Blackwell. ISBN 978-1-4051-2753-0.
• Brooks, Alden (1943). Will Shakespere and the Dyer's Hand. Charles Scribner's Sons.
• Brustein, Robert Sanford (2006). Millennial Stages: Essays and Reviews, 2001–2005. Yale University Press. pp. 121–122. ISBN 978-0-300-13536-7.
• Callaghan, Dympna (2013). Who Was William Shakespeare?: An Introduction to the Life and Works. Wiley-Blackwell. ISBN 978-0-470-65846-8. Retrieved 7 April 2013.
• Campbell, Oscar James, ed. (1966). A Shakespeare Encyclopedia. London: Methuen.
• Carroll, D. Allen (2004). "Reading the 1592 Groatsworth Attack on Shakespeare". Tennessee Law Review. 72 (1). Tennessee Law Review Association: 277–94. ISSN 0040-3288.
• Chambers, E. K. (1930). William Shakespeare: A Study of Facts and Problems. Vol. II. Clarendon Press. ISBN 978-0-19-811774-2.
• Chandler, David (June 1994). "Marlowe: A Hoax by William Taylor". Notes and Queries. 41 (2). Oxford University Press: 220–22. doi:10.1093/nq/41-2-220. ISSN 0029-3970.
• Churchill, Reginald Charles (1958). Shakespeare and His Betters: A History and a Criticism of the Attempts Which Have Been Made to Prove That Shakespeare's Works Were Written by Others. London: Max Reinhardt.
• Craig, Hugh (2011). "Shakespeare's Vocabulary: Myth and Reality". Shakespeare Quarterly. 62 (1). Johns Hopkins University Press: 53–74. doi:10.1353/shq.2011.0002. ISSN 1538-3555. S2CID 192242159.
• Cressy, David (1975). Education in Tudor and Stuart England. Documents of modern history. St. Martin's Press. ISBN 978-0-7131-5817-5.
• Crinkley, Richmond (1985). "New Perspectives on the Authorship Question". Shakespeare Quarterly. 36 (4). Folger Shakespeare Library: 515–22. doi:10.2307/2870328. ISSN 1538-3555. JSTOR 2870328.
• Dawson, Giles E. (1953). "Review: This Star of England. by Dorothy Ogburn; Charlton Ogburn". Shakespeare Quarterly. 4 (2). Folger Shakespeare Library: 165–70. doi:10.2307/2866177. ISSN 1538-3555. JSTOR 2866177.
• Dawson, Giles E.; Kennedy-Skipton, Laetitia (1966). Elizabethan Handwriting, 1500–1650. W. W. Norton.
• Daybell, James (2016). "Gender, Writing, Technologies, and Early Modern Epistolary". In Smuts, R. Malcolm (ed.). The Oxford Handbook of the Age of Shakespeare. Oxford University Press. pp. 493–511. ISBN 978-0-199-66084-1.
• Dobson, Michael (2001). "Authorship Controversy". In Dobson, Michael; Wells, Stanley (eds.). Oxford Companion to Shakespeare. Oxford Companions to Literature. Oxford University Press. pp. 30–31. ISBN 978-0-19-811735-3.
• Dugdale, John (28 October 2016). "How close were Marlowe and Shakespeare?". The Guardian. Retrieved 31 May 2021.
• Eaglestone, Robert (2009). Doing English. Doing... Series. London, New York: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-49673-5. Retrieved 10 January 2011.
• Eccles, Mark (1933). "Sir George Buc, Master of the Revels". In Sisson, Charles Jasper (ed.). Thomas Lodge and Other Elizabethans. Harvard University Press. pp. 409–506.
• Edmondson, Paul; Wells, Stanley (2011). Shakespeare Bites Back. The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust. Archived from the original on 22 December 2014. Retrieved 26 June 2013.
• Edmondson, Paul (2013). "'The Shakespeare establishment' and the Shakespeare authorship discussion". In Wells, Stanley; Edmondson, Paul (eds.). Shakespeare Beyond Doubt: Evidence, Argument, Controversy. Cambridge University Press. pp. 225–35. ISBN 978-1-107-60328-8.
• Elliott, Ward E. Y.; Valenza, Robert J. (2004). "Oxford by the Numbers: What Are the Odds That the Earl of Oxford Could Have Written Shakespeare's Poems and Plays?". Tennessee Law Review. 72 (1). Tennessee Law Review Association: 323–452. ISSN 0040-3288. Retrieved 2 March 2011.
• Ellis, David (2012). The Truth about William Shakespeare: Fact, Fiction and Modern Biographies. Edinburgh University Press. ISBN 978-0-7486-4666-1.
• Finkelpearl, Philip J. (1990). Court and Country Politics in the Plays of Beaumont and Fletcher. Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0-691-06825-1.
• Friedman, William F.; Friedman, Elizebeth S. (1957). The Shakespearean Ciphers Examined. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-05040-1.
• Garber, Marjorie (1997). Shakespeare's Ghost Writers: Literature as Uncanny Causality. Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-91869-5. Retrieved 20 December 2010.
• Gelderen, Elly van (2006). A History of the English Language. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. ISBN 978-90-272-3236-6. Retrieved 10 January 2011.
• Gibson, H. N. (2005) . The Shakespeare Claimants. Routledge Library Editions – Shakespeare. Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-35290-1. Retrieved 20 December 2010.
• Glazener, Nancy (Summer 2007). "Print Culture as an Archive of Dissent: Or, Delia Bacon and the Case of the Missing Hamlet". American Literary History. 19 (2). Oxford University Press: 329–49. doi:10.1093/alh/ajm009. S2CID 145277884.
• Greenblatt, Stephen (4 September 2005). "Shakespeare Doubters". The New York Times. Retrieved 20 December 2010.
• Greenwood, George (1908). The Shakespeare Problem Restated. London: John Lane. OCLC 65308100. Retrieved 13 December 2010.
• Gross, John (March 2010). "Denying Shakespeare" (subscription required). Commentary. 129 (3). Commentary: 38–44. ISSN 0010-2601. Retrieved 2 March 2011.
• Gurr, Andrew (2004). Playgoing in Shakespeare's London. Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-54322-4. Retrieved 15 September 2020.
• Hackett, Helen (2009). Shakespeare and Elizabeth: The Meeting of Two Myths. Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0-691-12806-1. Retrieved 20 December 2010.
• Halliday, Frank E. (1957). The Cult of Shakespeare. Duckworth. OCLC 394225.
• Halliday, Frank E. (1962). The Life of Shakespeare. Penguin Books. OCLC 353820.
• Hastings, William T. (1959). "Shakspere Was Shakespeare". The American Scholar. 28. Phi Beta Kappa Society: 479–88. ISSN 0003-0937.
• Hoffman, Calvin (1960) . The Murder of the Man Who Was "Shakespeare". New York: Julian Messner. Retrieved 28 February 2013.
• Hope, Warren; Holston, Kim (2009). The Shakespeare Controversy: An Analysis of the Authorship Theories, 2d ed. McFarland. p. 64. ISBN 978-0-7864-3917-1.
• Holderness, Graham (2013). "The unreadable Delia Bacon". In Edmondson, Paul; Wells, Stanley (eds.). Shakespeare Beyond Doubt: Evidence, Argument, Controversy. Cambridge University Press. pp. 5–15. ISBN 978-1-107-60328-8.
• Holmes, Nathaniel (1866). The Authorship of Shakespeare. New York: Hurd and Houghton. p. 7.
• Honan, Park (2000). Shakespeare: A Life. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-282527-8.
• Ioppolo, Grace (2010). "Early modern handwriting". In Hattaway, Michael (ed.). A New Companion to English Renaissance Literature and Culture. Vol. 1. John Wiley & Sons. pp. 177–89. ISBN 978-1-444-31902-6.
• Johnson, Samuel (1969). "Preface". In Wimsatt, William Kurtz Jr. (ed.). Dr. Johnson on Shakespeare. Penguin Shakespeare Library. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books. pp. 57–143. OCLC 251954782.
• Kathman (1), David. "The Spelling and Pronunciation of Shakespeare's Name". The Shakespeare Authorship Page. David Kathman and Terry Ross. Retrieved 17 December 2010.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
• Kathman (2), David. "Shakespeare's Will". The Shakespeare Authorship Page. David Kathman and Terry Ross. Retrieved 17 December 2010.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
• Kathman (3), David. "Seventeenth-century References to Shakespeare's Stratford Monument". The Shakespeare Authorship Page. David Kathman and Terry Ross. Retrieved 17 December 2010.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
• Kathman (4), David. "Why I Am Not an Oxfordian". The Shakespeare Authorship Page. David Kathman and Terry Ross. Retrieved 8 February 2010.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
• Kathman, David (2013). "Shakespeare and Warwickshire". In Wells, Stanley; Edmondson, Paul (eds.). Shakespeare Beyond Doubt: Evidence, Argument, Controversy. Cambridge University Press. pp. 121–32. ISBN 978-1-107-60328-8.
• Kathman, David (2003). "The Question of Authorship". In Wells, Stanley; Orlin, Lena Cowen (eds.). Shakespeare: an Oxford Guide. Oxford Guides. Oxford University Press. pp. 620–32. ISBN 978-0-19-924522-2.
• Lang, Andrew (1912). Shakespeare, Bacon, and the Great Unknown. Longmans, Green, and Co. Retrieved 28 December 2019.
• Lefranc, Abel (1918–19). Sous le masque de "William Shakespeare": William Stanley, Vie comte de Derby. Paris: Payot & cie. OCLC 501970.
• Logan, Robert (2007). Shakespeare's Marlowe: The Influence of Christopher Marlowe on Shakespeare's Artistry. Hampshire: Ashgate Publishing. ISBN 978-0-7546-5763-7. Retrieved 13 February 2011.
• Londré, Felicia Hardison (1997). "Elizabethan Views of the 'Other': French, Spanish and Russians in Love's Labour's Lost". In Londré, Felicia Hardison (ed.). Love's Labour's Lost: Critical Essays. Shakespeare Criticism. Vol. 13. Routledge. pp. 325–43. ISBN 978-0-8153-0984-0. Retrieved 20 December 2010.
• Loomis, Catherine, ed. (2002). William Shakespeare: A Documentary Volume. Dictionary of Literary Biography. Vol. 263. Detroit: Gale Group. ISBN 978-0-7876-6007-9. Retrieved 2 March 2011.
• Looney, J. Thomas (1920). "Shakespeare" Identified in Edward De Vere, the Seventeenth Earl of Oxford. New York: Frederick A. Stokes. Retrieved 14 December 2010.
• Love, Harold (2002). Attributing Authorship: An Introduction. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-78948-6. Retrieved 20 December 2010.
• Low, Valentine (11 September 2018). "Mark Rylance ridiculed by upstarts over comedy of errors". The Times. Retrieved 31 May 2021.
• Martin, Milward W. (1965). Was Shakespeare Shakespeare? A Lawyer Reviews the Evidence. New York: Cooper Square Press. OCLC 909641.
• Matus, Irvin L. (October 1991). "The Case for Shakespeare". Atlantic Monthly. Vol. 268, no. 4. pp. 64–72. ISSN 1072-7825. Retrieved 16 December 2010.
• Matus, Irvin L. (1994). Shakespeare, IN FACT. Continuum Publishing. ISBN 978-0-8264-0624-8.
• May, Steven W. (1980). "Tudor Aristocrats and the Mythical "Stigma of Print"". In Deneef, Leigh A.; Hester, Thomas M. (eds.). Renaissance Papers. Vol. 1993. Southeastern Renaissance Conference. pp. 11–18. Retrieved 2 March 2011.
• May, Steven W. (1991). The Elizabethan Courtier Poets: The Poems and Their Contexts. University of Missouri Press. ISBN 978-0-8262-0749-4.
• May, Steven W. (2004). "The Seventeenth Earl of Oxford as Poet and Playwright". Tennessee Law Review. 72 (1). Tennessee Law Review Association: 221–54. ISSN 0040-3288.
• May, Steven W. (2007). "Early Courtier Verse: Oxford, Dyer, and Gascoigne". In Cheney, Patrick; Hadfield, Andrew; Sullivan, Jr., Garrett A. (eds.). Early Modern English Poetry: A Critical Companion. Oxford University Press. pp. 60–67. ISBN 978-0-19-515387-3.
• McCrea, Scott (2005). The Case for Shakespeare: The End of the Authorship Question. Greenwood Publishing Group. ISBN 978-0-275-98527-1. Retrieved 20 December 2010.
• McMichael, George L.; Glenn, Edgar M. (1962). Shakespeare and His Rivals: A Casebook on the Authorship Controversy. Odyssey Press. OCLC 2113359.
• Montague, William Kelly (1963). The Man of Stratford – The Real Shakespeare. Vantage Press. OCLC 681431.
• Morgan, Amanda (2019). "WhatsHisFace". Children's Book and Media Review. 40 (12). ISSN 2572-4479. Retrieved 2 September 2024.
• Morita, Sōhei (1980). Natsume Sōseki, 3 vols. Vol. 1. Kōdansha Gakujutsu Bunko. OCLC 39729914.
• Murphy, William M. (1964). "Thirty-six Plays in Search of an Author". Union College Symposium. 3 (3): 4–11. Retrieved 20 December 2010.
• Nelson, Alan H. (1998). "George Buc, William Shakespeare, and the Folger George a Greene". Shakespeare Quarterly. 49 (1). Folger Shakespeare Library: 74–83. doi:10.2307/2902208. ISSN 0037-3222. JSTOR 2902208.
• Nelson, Alan H. (2003). Monstrous Adversary: The Life of Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford. Liverpool University Press. ISBN 978-0-85323-678-8. Retrieved 20 December 2010.
• Nelson, Alan H. (2004). "Stratford Si! Essex No!". Tennessee Law Review. 72 (1). Tennessee Law Review Association: 149–69. ISSN 0040-3288.
• Nevalainen, Terttu (1999). "Early Modern English Lexis and Semantics". In Lass, Roger (ed.). The Cambridge History of the English Language: 1476–1776. Vol. 3. Cambridge University Press. pp. 332–458. ISBN 978-0-521-26476-1. Retrieved 2 March 2011.
• Nicholl, Charles (2008). The Lodger: Shakespeare on Silver Street. Penguin Books. ISBN 978-0-14-102374-8.
• Nicholl, Charles (21 April 2010). "Yes, Shakespeare Wrote Shakespeare". The Times Literary Supplement. No. 5586. pp. 3–4.
• Nicoll, Allardyce (25 February 1932). "The First Baconian". Times Literary Supplement. No. 1569. p. 128. ISSN 0307-661X.
• Niederkorn, William S. (2004). "Jumping O'er Times: The Importance of Lawyers and Judges in the Controversy over the Identity of Shakespeare, as Reflected in the Pages of the New York Times". Tennessee Law Review. 72 (1). Tennessee Law Review Association: 67–92. ISSN 0040-3288.
• Niederkorn, William S. (30 August 2005). "The Shakespeare Code, and Other Fanciful Ideas from the Traditional Camp". The New York Times. Retrieved 20 December 2010.
• Niederkorn, William S. (22 April 2007). "Shakespeare Reaffirmed". The New York Times. Retrieved 20 December 2010.
• Nosworthy, J. M., ed. (2007) . Cymbeline. The Arden Shakespeare. ISBN 978-1-903-43602-8.
• Ogburn, Charlton; Ogburn, Dorothy (1952). This Star of England. New York: Coward-McCann. OCLC 359186. Archived from the original on 17 July 2011. Retrieved 16 December 2010.
• Paster, Gail Kern (April 1999). "The Sweet Swan" (subscription required). Harper's Magazine. pp. 38–41. Retrieved 2 March 2011.
• Prescott, Paul (2010). "Shakespeare in Popular Culture". In De Grazia, Margreta; Wells, Stanley (eds.). The New Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare. Cambridge University Press. pp. 269–84. ISBN 978-0-521-71393-1.
• Pendleton, Thomas A. (1994). "Irvin Matus's Shakespeare, IN FACT". Shakespeare Newsletter. 44 (Summer). University of Illinois at Chicago: 21, 26–30. ISSN 0037-3214.
• Polo, Susana (5 August 2020). "The newest Sandman comic is chasing the true identity of Shakespeare in the best way". Polygon. Retrieved 31 May 2021.
• Price, Diana (1997). "Reconsidering Shakespeare's Monument". The Review of English Studies. 48 (190). Oxford University Press: 168–82. doi:10.1093/res/XLVIII.190.168. ISSN 1471-6968.
• Price, Diana (2001). Shakespeare's Unorthodox Biography: New Evidence of an Authorship Problem. Greenwood Press. ISBN 978-0-313-31202-1.
• Prince, F.T., ed. (2000). The Poems. The Arden Shakespeare. ISBN 978-1-903436-20-2.
• Quennell, Peter (1963). Shakespeare: The Poet and His Background. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson. OCLC 19662775.
• Robertson, John M. (1913). The Baconian Heresy: A Confutation. London: H. Jenkins. OCLC 2480195. Retrieved 13 December 2010.
• Ross, Terry. "Oxfordian Myths: The Oxford Anagram in Minerva Britanna". The Shakespeare Authorship Page. David Kathman and Terry Ross. Retrieved 17 December 2010.
• Rowse, A. L. (1963). William Shakespeare: A Biography. New York: Harper & Row. OCLC 352856.
• Ruthven, K.K. (2001). Faking Literature. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-66965-8. Retrieved 5 January 2011.
• Saunders, J. W. (April 1951). "The Stigma of Print: A Note on the Social Bases of Tudor Poetry". Essays in Criticism. 1 (2). Oxford University Press: 139–64. doi:10.1093/eic/I.2.139. ISSN 1471-6852.
• Sawyer, Robert (Spring 2013). "Biographical Aftershocks: Shakespeare and Marlowe in the Wake of 9/11". Critical Survey. 25 (1). Berghahn Books: 19–32. doi:10.3167/cs.2013.250103.
• Schuessler, Jennifer (29 June 2016). "Shakespeare: Actor. Playwright. Social Climber". The New York Times. Retrieved 10 January 2021.
• Schoenbaum, S. (1981). William Shakespeare: Records and Images. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-520234-2.
• Schoenbaum, S. (1987). William Shakespeare: A Compact Documentary Life (Revised ed.). Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-505161-2.
• Schoenbaum, S. (1991). Shakespeare's Lives (2nd ed.). Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-818618-2.
• Schoone-Jongen, Terence G. (2008). Shakespeare's Companies: William Shakespeare's Early Career and the Acting Companies, 1577–1594. Studies in Performance and Early Modern Drama. Ashgate Publishing. ISBN 978-0-7546-6434-5. Retrieved 20 December 2010.
• The Shakespeare Clinic (22 April 2010). "The Shakespeare Clinic: Students to Report on Latest Findings in Continuing Authorship Question". Press release. Claremont, Calif.: Claremont McKenna College. Retrieved 19 August 2015.
• Shapiro, James (2010). Contested Will: Who Wrote Shakespeare?. US edition: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 978-1-4165-4162-2. Retrieved 14 January 2011.
• Shipley, Joseph T., ed. (1943). "Anti-Shakespeare Theories". Dictionary of World Literature (1st ed.). New York: Philosophical Library. pp. 37–38. OCLC 607784195. Retrieved 2 March 2011.
• Simonton, Dean Keith (2004). "Thematic Content and Political Context in Shakespeare's Dramatic Output, with Implications for Authorship and Chronology Controversies". Empirical Studies of the Arts. 22 (2). Baywood Publishing: 201–13. doi:10.2190/EQDP-MK0K-DFCK-MA8F. ISSN 1541-4493. S2CID 143289651.
• Singh, Anita (25 May 2024). "Shakespeare's plays were written by a woman, says Jodi Picoult". The Daily Telegraph. ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 26 May 2024.
• Smith, Alistair (1 September 2011). "Shakespeare Birthplace Trust launches authorship campaign". The Stage. Retrieved 13 May 2011.
• Smith, Emma (2008). "The Shakespeare Authorship Debate Revisited". Literature Compass. 5 (April). Blackwell Publishing: 618–32. doi:10.1111/j.1741-4113.2008.00549.x.
• Smith, Irwin (1964). Shakespeare's Blackfriars Playhouse: Its History and Design. New York University Press. ISBN 978-0-8147-0391-5.
• Spielmann, M(arion) H(arry) (1924). The Title-Page of the First Folio of Shakespeare's Plays. Oxford University Press.
• Stevenson, Laura Caroline (2002). Praise and Paradox: Merchants and Craftsmen in Elizabethan Popular Literature. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-52-152207-6.
• Sutherland, John; Watts, Cedric T. (2000). Henry V, War Criminal?: and Other Shakespeare Puzzles. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-283879-7. Retrieved 16 February 2011.
• Syme, Holger (19 September 2011). "People Being Stupid About Shakesp... or Someone Else". Dispositio. Archived from the original on 2 February 2014. Retrieved 4 February 2012.
• Taylor, Gary (1989). Reinventing Shakespeare: A Cultural History, from the Restoration to the Present. New York: Weidenfeld & Nicolson. ISBN 978-1-55584-078-5. Retrieved 12 November 2011.
• Taylor, Gary; Loughnane, Rory (2017). "The Canon and Chronology of Shakespeare's works". In Taylor, Gary; Egan, Gabriel (eds.). The New Oxford Shakespeare: Authorship Companion. Oxford Companions to Literature. Oxford University Press. pp. 417–601. ISBN 978-0-192-51760-9.
• Velz, John W (2000). "Shakespeare's Ovid in the Twentieth Century: a Critical Survey". In Taylor, Albert Booth (ed.). Shakespeare's Ovid: the Metamorphoses in the Plays and Poems. Cambridge University Press. pp. 181–97. ISBN 978-0-521-77192-4. Retrieved 26 May 2011.
• Thompson, Craig R. (1958). Schools in Tudor England. Washington, D. C.: Folger Shakespeare Library.
• Vickers, Brian (19 August 2005). "Idle Worship". Times Literary Supplement. No. 5342. p. 6.
• Vickers, Brian (30 June 2006). "The face of the Bard?". Times Literary Supplement. No. 5387. p. 17.
• Wadsworth, Frank (1958). The Poacher from Stratford: A Partial Account of the Controversy over the Authorship of Shakespeare's Plays. University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-01311-7. Retrieved 28 January 2011.
• Wall, Joseph Frazier (1956). Henry Watterson, Reconstructed Rebel. Oxford University Press. Retrieved 18 February 2012.
• Webster, Archie W. (September 1923). "Was Marlowe the Man?". National Review. Vol. LXXXII. pp. 81–86. Archived from the original on 2 October 2010. Retrieved 20 December 2010.
• Wells, Stanley (2001). "Education". In Dobson, Michael; Wells, Stanley (eds.). Oxford Companion to Shakespeare. Oxford Companions to Literature. Oxford University Press. pp. 122–24. ISBN 978-0-19-811735-3.
• Wells, Stanley (2003). Shakespeare: For All Time. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-516093-2. Retrieved 20 December 2010.
• Wells, Stanley (2023). What Was Shakespeare Really Like?. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1009340373.
• Willinsky, John (1994). Empire of Words: the Reign of the OED. Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0-691-03719-6. Retrieved 26 May 2011.
• Wilson, J. Dover, ed. (1969) . Love's Labour's Lost. The Cambridge Dover Wilson Shakespeare (2nd ed.). Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-07542-8. Retrieved 20 December 2010.
• Zeigler, Wilbur Gleason (1895). It Was Marlowe: A Story of the Secret of Three Centuries. Donohue & Henneberry. OCLC 228707660. Retrieved 13 December 2010.

External links

• The Shakespeare Authorship Page – a collection of information by David Kathman and Terry Ross
• Oxfraud: The Man Who Wasn't Hamlet – a collection of essays concerning specific claims
• "The Shakespeare Authorship Question: E Pluribus Unum" – essay by Michael L. Hays
• All Things Shakespeare – essays and information by Irvin Leigh Matus
• Shakespeare Authorship Pages – a collection of links to information and research by Alan H. Nelson
• The Shakespearean Authorship Trust – an organisation dedicated to promoting the Shakespeare authorship question
• The Shakespeare Authorship Coalition – an organisation with the aim of legitimising the Shakespeare Authorship issue in academia
• "Did Shakespeare Write 'Shakespeare'? Much Ado About Nothing" by Joe Nickell. Skeptical Inquirer 35.6, November–December 2011.

v t e Shakespeare authorship question
A series on alternative authorship theories for the works of William Shakespeare
Overview	History of the Shakespeare authorship question Shakespeare attribution studies Is Shakespeare Dead? Declaration of Reasonable Doubt
Theories	Baconian Crollalanza Derbyite Florio Lanier Marlovian Nevillean Oxfordian Prince Tudor Shaykh Zubayr
Candidates	List of Shakespeare authorship candidates Francis Bacon Emilia Lanier Christopher Marlowe Henry Neville William Stanley Edward de Vere
Proponents	Joseph Adler Mark Anderson Babette Babich Delia Bacon Ros Barber Charles Wisner Barrell Charles Beauclerk Alden Brooks Charles Champlin Jeffery Donaldson Ignatius L. Donnelly Bert Fields George Greenwood Joseph C. Hart Calvin Hoffman Derek Jacobi Richard Kennedy Abel Lefranc J. Thomas Looney Sandra Day O'Connor Charlton Ogburn Charlton Greenwood Ogburn John Orloff Orville Ward Owen John Denham Parsons Prince Philip Michael Rubbo William Rubinstein Mark Rylance Henry Seymour Joseph Sobran John Paul Stevens Roger Stritmatter Mark Twain Bernard Mordaunt Ward Alexander Waugh Walt Whitman James Wilde Robin Williams (writer)

v t e William Shakespeare
Plays	Comedies All's Well That Ends Well As You Like It The Comedy of Errors Cymbeline Love's Labour's Lost Measure for Measure The Merchant of Venice The Merry Wives of Windsor A Midsummer Night's Dream Much Ado About Nothing Pericles, Prince of Tyre ✻ The Taming of the Shrew The Tempest Twelfth Night The Two Gentlemen of Verona The Two Noble Kinsmen ✻ The Winter's Tale Tragedies Antony and Cleopatra Coriolanus Hamlet Julius Caesar King Lear Macbeth Othello Romeo and Juliet Timon of Athens Titus Andronicus Troilus and Cressida Histories King John Edward III ✻ Richard II Henry IV 1 2 Henry V Henry VI 1 ✻ 2 3 Richard III Henry VIII ✻ Early editions Quarto publications First Folio Second Folio Related Problem plays Late romances Henriad Characters A–K L–Z Ghost character Chronology Performances Settings Scenes
Poems	Shakespeare's sonnets comparison to Petrarch A Lover's Complaint The Phoenix and the Turtle The Rape of Lucrece Venus and Adonis
Apocrypha	Plays Arden of Faversham The Birth of Merlin Cardenio ✻† Double Falsehood Edmund Ironside Fair Em Locrine The London Prodigal Love's Labour's Won † The Merry Devil of Edmonton Mucedorus The Puritan The Second Maiden's Tragedy Sejanus His Fall Sir John Oldcastle Sir Thomas More ✻ The Spanish Tragedy Thomas Lord Cromwell Thomas of Woodstock Ur-Hamlet † Vortigern and Rowena A Yorkshire Tragedy Poems The Passionate Pilgrim To the Queen
Life and works	Birthplace Bibliography Complete Works Translations Coat of arms Collaborations Editors English Renaissance theatre Globe Theatre Handwriting Lord Chamberlain's Men/King's Men The Theatre Curtain Theatre Music New Place Portraits Religious views Sexuality Spelling of his name Stratford-upon-Avon Style Will Grave
Legacy	Attribution studies Authorship question Bardolatry Festivals Gardens Influence Memorials Screen adaptations Shakespeare and Star Trek Shakespeare's influence on Tolkien Works titled after Shakespeare Institutions Folger Shakespeare Library Shakespeare Quarterly Royal Shakespeare Company Royal Shakespeare Theatre Shakespeare Birthplace Trust Shakespeare's Globe (replica) Shakespeare Institute
Family	Anne Hathaway (wife) Susanna Hall (daughter) Hamnet Shakespeare (son) Judith Quiney (daughter) Elizabeth Barnard (granddaughter) John Shakespeare (father) Mary Arden (mother) Gilbert Shakespeare (brother) Joan Shakespeare (sister) Edmund Shakespeare (brother) Richard Shakespeare (grandfather) John Hall (son-in-law) Thomas Quiney (son-in-law)
✻ Shakespeare and other authors † Lost Category

v t e Historical negationism
Denialism Disinformation Knowledge falsification Pseudohistory school textbook controversies Rationalization Victim blaming
Genocide denial / denial of mass killings and atrocities	Armenian genocide Atrocities against Indigenous peoples Bosnian genocide Cambodian genocide Genocide of Serbs during WWII Croatian Misplaced Pages Holodomor Katyn massacre Khojaly massacre Nanjing Massacre U.S. cover-up of Japanese war crimes Rohingya genocide Rwandan genocide Denial of the 7 October attacks Holocaust Austria victim theory Clean Wehrmacht Rommel / Speer myth Italians, the good people Trivialization Double genocide theory Vichy syndrome Sonderaktion 1005
Other whitewashing of governments	Cuba de ayer Czechoslovak myth Denial of state terrorism in Argentina Driftwood theory Ferdinand Marcos apologism Lost Cause of the Confederacy Dunning School Negationism of the military dictatorship of Brazil [pt] / Chile Neo-Stalinism Operation Legacy (UK)
Other manifestations	Allah as a lunar deity Ancient astronauts Ancient Egyptian race controversy Antiquization Book burnings list Censorship of Great Zimbabwe Christ myth theory Dacianism Damnatio memoriae Destruction of cultural heritage Islamic State Saudi Arabia Gaza Strip Lebanon Myth of English aid [es] Izbrisani Khazar hypothesis LGBT erasure Like sheep to the slaughter Myth of the golden exile Phantom time hypothesis / New chronology Western Pseudohistory Theory Shakespeare authorship question Territorial losses of Thailand Azerbaijan Destruction of Armenian heritage Cemetery in Julfa Nakhchivan [ru] Nizami Ganjavi Western Azerbaijan Germany Borussian myth Myth of Langemarck [de] Stab-in-the-back myth Israel / Palestine Denial of the 7 October attacks Nakba denial Temple denial There was no such thing as Palestinians Russia Allegations of genocide in Donbas All-Russian nation On the Historical Unity of Russians and Ukrainians Soviet Union Censorship of images Denial of Crimean Tatars Turkey Denial of Kurds History Thesis Sun Language Theory United States 1776 Commission Irish slaves myth Vietnam stab-in-the-back myth
Organizations	Adelaide Institute ASİMKK Centre for the Study of the Causes of the War CODOH Dalit Voice FactCheckArmenia.com Gesellschaft zur Rechtlichen und Humanitären Unterstützung HIAG Iğdır Genocide Memorial and Museum Institute for Armenian Research Institute for Historical Review Nippon Kaigi Turkish Historical Society United Daughters of the Confederacy Zeitgeschichtliche Forschungsstelle Ingolstadt
Publications	A Town Betrayed A Verdade Sufocada The Birth of a Nation Coverage of the Hillsborough disaster by The Sun Did Six Million Really Die? Falsifiers of History Flatline Folk og Land A History of the Palestinian People (2017) Hitler Diaries The Hoax of the Twentieth Century I Am More Than a Wolf Whistle Jasenovac – istina Journal of Historical Review Leuchter report The Other Side: The Secret Relationship Between Nazism and Zionism The Ottoman Lieutenant Report about Case Srebrenica
Conferences	International Conference to Review the Global Vision of the Holocaust
Publishing houses	Arndt Verlag J.J. Fedorowicz Publishing Munin Verlag Nation Europa Verlag
Legal status	Statute law Austria Belgium France Germany Case law R v Zundel (1992) Lehideux and Isorni v France (1998) Irving v Penguin Books Ltd (2000) Perinçek v. Switzerland (2013) International law Additional Protocol to the Convention on Cybercrime Right to truth
Related	Historical fiction Historical revisionism Historical misconceptions Accusation in a mirror Ash heap of history Censorship Cherry picking Conspiracy theories False attribution Furtive fallacy Genocide justification Propaganda
Category

v t e Conspiracy theories
List of conspiracy theories
Overview Core topics Antiscience Cabals deep state éminence grise power behind the throne Civil / Criminal / Political conspiracies Conspiracy Crisis actors Deception Dystopia Espionage Global catastrophe scenarios Hidden message Pseudohistory Pseudoscience Secrecy Secret societies Urban legends and myths Psychology Attitude polarization Cognitive dissonance Communal reinforcement Confirmation bias Denialism Locus of control Manipulation Mass psychogenic illness moral panics Paranoia Psychological projection
Astronomy and outer space 2012 phenomenon Nibiru cataclysm Ancient astronauts Apollo Moon landings Flat Earth Hollow Earth Hollow Moon Reptilians UFOs Alien abduction Area 51 Black Knight satellite Cryptoterrestrial / Extraterrestrial / Interdimensional hypothesis Dulce Base Estimate of the Situation (1948) Lake Michigan Triangle MJ-12 Men in black Nazi UFOs Die Glocke Project Serpo Hoaxes Dundy County (1884) Maury Island (1947) Roswell (1947) Twin Falls (1947) Aztec, New Mexico (1949) Southern England (1967) Ilkley Moor (1987) Gulf Breeze (1987–88) Alien autopsy (1995) Morristown (2009)
Deaths and disappearances Assassination / suicide theories Zachary Taylor (1850) Louis Le Prince (1890) Lord Kitchener (1916) Tom Thomson (1917) Władysław Sikorski (1943) Benito Mussolini (1945) Adolf Hitler (1945) Subhas Chandra Bose (1945) Johnny Stompanato (1958) Marilyn Monroe (1962) John F. Kennedy (1963) Lee Harvey Oswald (1963) Lal Bahadur Shastri (1966) Harold Holt (1967) Martin Luther King Jr. (1968) Robert F. Kennedy (1968) Salvador Allende (1973) Aldo Moro (1978) Renny Ottolina (1978) Pope John Paul I (1978) Airey Neave (1979) Olof Palme (1986) Zia-ul-Haq (1988) GEC-Marconi scientists (1980s–90s) Turgut Özal (1993) Vince Foster (1993) Kurt Cobain (1994) Yitzhak Rabin (1995) Diana, Princess of Wales (1997) Alois Estermann (1998) Nepalese royal family (2001) Yasser Arafat (2004) Benazir Bhutto (2007) Osama bin Laden (2011) Hugo Chávez (2013) Seth Rich (2016) Alejandro Castro (2018) Jeffrey Epstein (2019) Chan Yin-lam (2019) Sushant Singh Rajput (2020) John McAfee (2021) Accidents / disasters Mary Celeste (1872) RMS Titanic (1912) Great Kantō earthquake (1923) Lynmouth Flood (1952) Dyatlov Pass (1959) Lost Cosmonauts (1950s–60s) JAT Flight 367 (1972) United Air Lines Flight 553 (1972) South African Airways Flight 295 (1987) Khamar-Daban (1993) MS Estonia (1994) TWA Flight 800 (1996) EgyptAir Flight 990 (1999) Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 (2014) Other cases Joan of Arc (1431) Yemenite children (1948–54) Elvis Presley (1977) Jonestown (1978) Body double hoax Paul McCartney Avril Lavigne Vladimir Putin Melania Trump
Energy, environment Agenda 21 California drought manipulation Climate change denial false theories Free energy suppression HAARP Red mercury
False flag allegations USS Maine (1898) RMS Lusitania (1915) Reichstag fire (1933) Pearl Harbor (1941) USS Liberty (1967) Lufthansa Flight 615 (1972) Widerøe Flight 933 (1982) KAL Flight 007 (1983) Mozambican presidential jet (1986) Pan Am Flight 103 (1988) Oklahoma City bombing (1995) 9/11 attacks (2001) advance knowledge WTC collapse Madrid train bombing (2004) London bombings (2005) Smolensk air disaster (2010) Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 (2014) Denial of the 7 October attacks (2023)
Gender and sexuality Alpha / beta males Anti-LGBTQ anti-gender movement Chemicals drag panic gay agenda gay Nazis myth HIV/AIDS stigma United States Homintern Lavender scare Recruitment Grooming litter box hoax Transvestigation Finger pinching GamerGate Ideology in incel communities Larries / Gaylors Satanic panic Soy and masculinity
Health 5G misinformation Anti-vaccination autism MMR Thiomersal in chiropractic misinformation Aspartame Big Pharma Chemtrails COVID-19 Ivermectin lab leak vaccines turbo cancer in Canada / Philippines / United States Ebola Electronic harassment Germ theory denialism GMOs HIV/AIDS denialism origins theories oral polio AIDS hypothesis Lepers' plot Medbeds SARS (2003) Water fluoridation Pont-Saint-Esprit mass poisoning
Race, religion and/or ethnicity Bhagwa Love Trap CERN ritual hoax COVID-19 and xenophobia Freemasons French Revolution [fr] Gas chambers for Poles in Warsaw (1940s) German POWs post-WWII Priory of Sion Product labeling Halal Kosher Tartarian Empire War against Islam White genocide Antisemitic Andinia Plan Blood libel Cohen Plan Doctors' plot during the Black Death Epsilon Team George Soros Holocaust denial Trivialization International Jewish conspiracy Committee of 300 Cultural Bolshevism / Jewish Bolshevism Żydokomuna Judeo-Masonic plot The Protocols of the Elders of Zion World War II Z.O.G. Judeopolonia Killing of Jesus Kalergi Plan New World Order Rothschilds Stab-in-the-back myth Christian / Anti-Christian Anti-Catholic Jesuits Popish Plot Vatican Bible Giuseppe Siri Islamophobic Counter-jihad Bihar human sacrifice Eurabia Great Replacement Love jihad Proposed "Islamo-leftism" inquiry Trojan Horse scandal Genocide denial / Denial of mass killings Armenian Bangladesh Bosnian Cambodian The Holocaust Holodomor Nanjing Rwandan Sayfo Serbs during WWII
Regional Asia India Cow vigilante violence Greater Bangladesh Pakistan Jinnahpur Philippines Tallano gold South Korea Finger-pinching Thailand Finland Plot Americas (outside the United States) Argentina Andinia Plan Canada Avro Arrow cancellation Leuchter report Peru Casa Matusita Venezuela Daktari Ranch affair Golpe Azul Middle East / North Africa In the Arab world 10 agorot Cairo fire Kissinger Plan in Lebanon Israel-related animal theories Iran Western-backed Iranian Revolution Israel Pallywood Russia Alaska payment Dulles' Plan Golden billion Petrograd Military Organization Rasputin Ukraine bioweapons Turkey 2016 coup attempt Ergenekon Operation Sledgehammer Gezi Park protests Sèvres syndrome Üst akıl Other European Euromyth Georgia Global War Party Ireland German Plot Italy Itavia Flight 870 Lithuania Statesmen Roman Republic First Catilinarian conspiracy Spain Mano Negra affair Sweden Lilla Saltsjöbadsavtalet UK Clockwork Orange plot Elm Guest House Harold Wilson Voting pencil United States Barack Obama citizenship religion parentage "Obamagate" / Spygate Biden–Ukraine Black helicopters CIA and JFK CIA assistance to bin Laden Clinton body count Cultural Marxism Election denial movement FBI secret society FEMA camps Georgia Guidestones Jade Helm 15 Montauk Project Philadelphia Experiment Pizzagate The Plan Project Azorian QAnon Pastel incidents Saddam–al-Qaeda Sandy Hook (2012) Springfield pet-eating hoax Trump–Ukraine "Vast right-wing conspiracy" Vietnam War POW/MIA issue / Stab-in-the-back myth 2020 election Italygate "Pence Card" Maricopa County ballot audit Stop the Steal
Other Dead Internet theory NESARA/GESARA New Coke Phantom time / New chronology Shadow government claims Bilderberg Illuminati synarchism Shakespearean authorship Pseudolaw Admiralty law Freeman on the land movement Redemption movement Sovereign citizens Strawman theory Tax protesters Satirical Acre Bielefeld Birds Aren't Real Li's field Ted Cruz–Zodiac Killer meme
See also Argument from ignorance Conspiracy Encyclopedia Conspiracy fiction Conspirituality Dogma pseudoskepticism Falsifiability Fringe science Historical negationism Online youth radicalization Paranormal Prejudice hate speech Radicalization Science by press conference Superstition

Categories:

• Shakespeare authorship question
• Literature controversies
• Conspiracy theories in the United Kingdom
• Fringe theories
• Theatre controversies
• Pseudohistory