Shakespearian Authorship

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Shakespearian Authorship

• The Debate Continues

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Documenting Shakespeare

• Baptized April 26, 1564suggesting he was born
  April 23.
• Son (one of 8 kids) of John a well documented
  man.
• Married Anne Hathaway Nov. 28, 1582. Bill is 18,
  Anne is 26and pregnant.
• Greenes upstart crow review published 1592.
• Shakespeares will.
• From there, the works and Globe documents are
  plenty.

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Kill Bill Volume 1 The 7 Arguments Against

• The Spelling Argument
• The Illiteracy Argument
• The Will Argument
• The Reputation Argument
• The Personal Records Argument
• The Eulogy Argument
• The Past Tense Argument

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The Spelling Argument
Literary References Hand- Total Printed
written Shakespeare 120 108 12 Shake-speare
21 21 0 Shakspeare 10 5 5 Shaxberd 4 0
4 Shakespere 3 0 3 Shakespear 3 1 2
Shak-speare 2 2 0 Shakspear 2 0 2
Shakspere 1 0 1 Shaksper 1 0 1 Schaksp.
1 0 1 Shakespheare 1 1 0 Shakespe 1 0
1 Shakspe 1 0 1 with first 'e' 149 (87)
131 (95) 18 (55) w/o first 'e' 22 (13) 7 (5)
15 (45)

• William Shakespeare the great playwright and
  William Shaksper were different men. William
  Shaksper lived in Stratford. This suggests that
  William Shakespeare could not have been the man
  who came from Stratford.
• The evidence for this is weak however and the two
  so-called personalities may arise from the
  generally poor literacy of the time.

5
The Education Argument.

• This is based on the idea that only an aristocrat
  could have captured the essence of Royal courts,
  Italy and law (Merchant of Venice).
• One of his best friends, Richard Field, had a
  large book collection. Field grew up on the very
  same street (Henley Street in Stratford) and
  later went on to become a bookseller and
  publisher in London. Shakespeare had access to
  these books.
• The Stratford Free School was incorporated in
  1553, but did not record students until 1700.
• Furthermore, his depiction of courts and
  aristocratic life were so inaccurate even by
  Elizabethan standards that they could not
  possibly be written by an aristocrat such as the
  often proposed Edward De Vere, the seventeenth
  Earl of Oxford.

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The Illiteracy Argument.

• There is very circumstantial evidence that
  William's father and daughter Judith could
  neither read or write (her only recorded writing
  is an X on her marriage certificate).
• Further proof comes from anecdotal evidence that
  the few (6?) signature's of the Bard that remain
  today only show a poor scrawl, spelled
  Shakspeare, only in official documents hardly
  representative of a major literary figure.
• There are no manuscripts of Shakespeare's plays
  (maybe three pages) in his own writing many of
  his counterparts left behind a legacy of notes
  and scrawls related to their work.

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The Will Argument

• Supporting this argument is the curious omission
  of any manuscripts in his will surely he would
  have bequeathed them to someone.
• Unless they were considered property of the
  Globe. Note that his partners published the
  first Complete Works.

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The Reputation Argument.

• This contends that the Bard could not have
  written 37 plays and 154 sonnets for a very good
  reason he was a businessman, not a poet and
  playwright.
• Evidence for this is the fact that he was known
  in Stratford as a businessman not a playwright. A
  monument erected in his name similarly depicted
  him holding a sack not a pen which would not
  indicate his career as a playwright.
• However the Bard performed his plays in London
  not Stratford and given that few people truly
  traveled beyond their villages in this time, the
  playwright's reputation as a businessman might
  represent his greater visibility as a landowner
  to those who knew him in Stratford.

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No Personal Records Argument.

• There is no definitive record of Shakespeare of
  Stratford (1564-1616) being directly credited
  with writing the plays and sonnets credited to
  him.
• Seven years after the Bard's death was he
  directly credited as the author of 37 plays and
  154 sonnets in the 1623 First Folio.
• There is only proof that he co-owned The Globe
  and was part of The Lord Chamberlains men (In
  The First Folio).
• No indication is given to suggest how often he
  acted with this troupe nor independent proof that
  he wrote the plays credited to him. Tradition
  suggests he played two minor roles including King
  Hamlets ghost but these are only tradition, not
  fact.

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The Eulogies Argument

• Shakespeare received none when he died in 1616,
  in Stratford.
• Suggests he could not have been the influential
  playwright Stratfordian's claim him to be.
• The first such memorial dedication occurred in
  the First Folio of 1623.

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The Past Tense Argument

• William Barksted's 1607 poem Mirrha, refers to
  Shakespeare in the past tense.
• This suggests William must have died before this
  date, therefore he could not have written
  anything after that.
• Stratfordian's maintain however that this
  analysis ignores Barksteds common use of the
  past tense in his poetry.

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Kill Bill Volume 2 The Players

• Edward DeVere, 17th Earl of Oxford
• Sir Francis Bacon, Philosopher and Writer
• Christopher Marlowe, Playwright
• Sir Walter Raleigh, Explorer (with help from
  Bacon)
• Queen Elizabeth I

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Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford

• This contemporary of Shakespeare has been
  strongly advanced since the 1930s as the true
  author of Shakespeare's plays.
• A well-educated and well-traveled nobleman of
  Queen Elizabeth I's court, whose life seems to
  parallel with material from the playsfor
  instance, noting similarities between Polonius of
  Hamlet and the Earl's guardian, William Cecil.
• The Earl of Oxford apparently stopped his
  literary pursuits at an early age. The reason he
  stopped writing Unwritten rule that nobles do
  not write, they rule.
• Theory Edward de Vere used the pen name William
  Shakespeare.
• Problem with this theory deVere DID write and
  publish under his own nameas did other so-called
  nobles of the time.

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Francis Bacon, Philosopher and Writer

• Bacon proponents point toward Bacon's learning,
  his correspondences and memoirs (most notably,
  his notebook, Promus), as well as ciphers and
  other coincidences.
• Although Bacon was an undisputed man of letters,
  his style and expression vary greatly from that
  of Shakespeare's works.
• Bacon also produced such a voluminous output of
  his own, it's hard to conceive of him finding
  spare time enough to produce the quality output
  of work attributed to the Bard.

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Christopher Marlowe, Playwright

• Marlowe would be the ultimate ghost writer, as he
  was stabbed to death in a tavern brawl in 1593.
• However, there are those that say Marlowe really
  didn't die according to some, he was actually an
  occasional spy in the employ of the Crown. This
  eventually necessitated a fake death, after which
  Marlowe went on for an undetermined number of
  years penning poetry and plays under the nom de
  plume of Shakespeare.
• And you thought James Bond was talented. Marlowe,
  Chris Marlowe. 001. License to Quill.

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Other Candidates

• Sir Walter Raleigh Had plenty of time when
  between ports. Saw many lands. Was a friend of
  both Bacon and QE1.
• Queen Elizabeth I Staunch arts supporter.
  Already criticized for no husband or child.
  Writing unbecoming of a queen? Especially
  politically charged writing?
• Team Shakespeare A collaborative effort from
  London playwrights.

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The DEBATE continues

• Kill Bill?
• Shakespeare In Love?
• The Accuser Burden of Proof
• The Defense Cast Doubt

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Sources

• Bardweb.net
• Shakespeareauthorship.com