Phase 1 - Background: Something for Everyone

1. What is the Shakespeare authorship problem?

The Shakespeare authorship problem is that people have claimed that he didn't write his work and that he stole it from other people and made it his own. This would mean that Shakespeare wasn't the greatest play write of all time and all of his works would mean nothing.

2. What literary, cultural, and political figures doubt that Shakespeare was the sole author of the work?

People like: Walt Whitman, Henry James, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Mark Twain, Sigmund Freud, Orson Welles, and even Keanu Reeves doubted that Shakespeare did all of his own work.

3. Make a chronological history of the doubts that surround the authorship of the Shakespearean canon.

1728 - Publication of Captain Goulding's Essay Against Too Much Reading in which he comments on the background Shakespeare would require for his historical plays and suggests that Shakespeare probably had to keep "one of those chuckle-pated Historians for his particular Associate...or he might have starvd upon his History." Goulding tells us that he had this from "one of his (Shakespeare's) intimate Acquaintance."

1769 - Publication of The Life and Adventures of Common Sense, an anonymous allegory which describes a profligate Shakespeare casting "his Eye upon a common place Book, in which was contained, an Infinite Variety of Modes and Forms, to express all the different Sentiments of the human Mind, together with Rules for their Combinations and Connections upon every Subject or Occasion that might Occur in Dramatic Writing..."

1785 - Rev. James Wilmot, D.D. attributed authorship to Sir Francis Bacon, Lord Verulam.

1786 - The Story of the Learned Pig , an anonymous allegory by an "Officer of the Royal Navy," in which The Pig describes himself as having variously been a greyhound, deer, bear and a human being (after taking possession of a body) who worked as horseholder at a playhouse where he met the "Immortal Shakespeare" who's he reports didn't "run his country for deer-stealing" and didn't father the various plays, Hamlet, Othello, As You Like It, The Tempest , and Midsummer's Night Dream. Instead the Pig confesses to be author.

1848 - In The Romance of Yachting by Joseph C. Hart, a former American consul at Santa Cruz, provides Considerable anti-Stratfordian opinion. Favors Jonson as probable author of Shakespeare's plays.

1852 - August issue of Chambers' Edinburgh Journal contained an anonymous article, 'Who Wrote Shakespeare" The author suggests that Shakespeare "kept a poet."

1856 - Bacon is proposed as author of Shakespeare's plays in Putnam's Monthly (January issue) which contained "Shakespeare and His Plays: An Inquiry Concerning Them" by Delia Bacon, an American bearing no family relationship to Francis Bacon.

1857 - Publication of The Philosophy of the Plays of Shakespeare Unfolded, a book by Delia Bacon in which she considers the possibility of several authors. Nathanial Hawthorne helped Delia Bacon publish this book, for which he contributed a preface.

1890-1892 - James Greenstreet, a British archivist, in a series of essays in The Genealogist, proposed that William Stanley, 6th Earl of Derby was author of the Shakespeare plays.

4. Now do the same for the doubts surrounding the Stratfordian attribution.

There is no reference during Shakespeare’s life that speaks of the author of the Shakespearean works as having come from Stratford.   In the list of Stratford Worthies of 1605 the inference is that it did not occur to Camden that the author, Shakespeare, and the Stratford man were the same person.  The author of Shakespeare's works had to have been familiars with a wide body of knowledge and there is no evidence that William Shakespeare of Stratford had access to that kind of information.  In the Stratford man's will there is no mention of books, library, manuscripts, or any literary interest. 

5. Consider the logic/illogic of each position and evaluate the effectiveness of each argument.

The logic part of the people saying that Shakespeare didn't write his stuff is someone what true but not completely because they say that the people, who belief someone did it, say and support the facts of the person they belief wrote it but there is always something wrong because it is not similar to the play Shakespeare wrote. The illogic part is that most of them did not die at the time that Shakespeare died and they wrote different play at different times.

6. Make a list of the six contenders for the authorship question. Then add to each as much significant evidence that is presented.

Edward de Vere: educated and well-traveled nobleman of Queen Elizabeth I

Francis Bacon: an undisputed man of letters, produced voluminous output of his own.

Christopher Marlowe: stabbed to death in a tavern brawl in 1593.

William Stanley: had a university education, extensive European travel, knew foreign languages, he was involve in theatre and literature. 

Earl of Derby: collaboration in some of the "late" dramas

Thomas Middleton: wrote in many genres, including tragedy, history and city comedy.

Phase 2 - Looking Deeper from Different Perspectives

De Vere

1. Many authorities have made claims that De Vere more than anyone is most closely related to being the author of the Shakespearean collection. Why?

The reason that De Vere is considered the most likely author of Shakespeare is because due to the style literary analysists have been able to tell that the works most likely came from an Elizabethan courtier. Also the poets of De Vere have a very strong similarity to those of Shakespearean works.

2. What are some of the coincidental connections between the Earl of Oxford and Shakespeare? Are these connections strong enough to support Oxfordian Claims?

Both the Earl and Shakespeare were acquaintances of Elizabeth and both seemed to be extensively educated. Also the earl and Shakespeare had similar backgrounds leading to coincidences. These are not strong enough to support Oxfordian's claims.

3. What problems exist between the authorship of the Shakespearean poems and plays?

One of the major problems that says De Vere could not have wrote Shakespeare is that he died years before the last Shakespeare play was written.

4. What similarities exist between DeVere's writing and Shakespeare's writing? (consider style and structure)

Although there are only a few similarities those similarities are that they both wrote and were famous for many sonnets and that they both wrote in rhythm.

5. What type of logic/illogic is used to support the Oxfordian claims?

Some of the fallacies surrounding whether De Vere wrote Shakespeare are absurd. One such  fallacy is how De Vere was dead before the last play was written. That is a huge fallacy in itself.