Shakespearean Authorship Contreversy: Is it justified?

[Huayna Capac357]

I was reading about sonnets on wikipedia (because I could) and I saw an article on the Shakespearean Authorship Contreversy. I wanted to know what the WH posters, who are often knowledgeable people not very susceptible to conspiracy theories, think about this. Thank you.

 

[LightSpectra]

I was reading about sonnets on wikipedia (because I could) and I saw an article on the Shakespearean Authorship Contreversy. I wanted to know what the WH posters, who are often knowledgeable people not very susceptible to conspiracy theories, think about this. Thank you.

Lots of intellectually respectable people follow the Oxfordian theory, so it isn't some insane fringe opinion.

 

[sydhe]

Thinking it's Christopher Marlowe is just nutty, unless you believe he faked his death and hid in a cellar for twenty years.

 

[holy king]

i dont know, but i liked that shakespeare in love movie.

 

[Dachs]

i dont know, but i liked that shakespeare in love movie.

Actually, I did too.

 

[North King]

Shakespeare is one of the best documented figures of the 16th Century. People just like being contrary.

 

[negZero]

Zheng He is the real writer.

Moderator Action: Infraction for spam/troll/threadjacking. - KD
Please read the forum rules: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=422889

 

[BananaLee]

Yeah, Zheng He's the man. Him and his homies wrote Chaucher too

Moderator Action: Same as above. - KD
Please read the forum rules: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=422889

 

[Camikaze]

Although it is an extremely poor reason, I would say that William Shakespeare was William Shakespeare due sheerly to the fact that I have never ever even heard speculation otherwise, before now. As I say, poor reasoning. But I would expect that I would have at least heard something about it if there was a very serious question over the authorship.

 

[Marcillac]

Thinking it's Christopher Marlowe is just nutty, unless you believe he faked his death and hid in a cellar for twenty years.

His death is similar to that story of Hiram Abiff of Freemasonry fame.

W. Shakespeare was barely able to write his own name. To think that he posessed knowledge about history, geography or philosophy is absurd. I bet my money on Francis Bacon and his followers.

 

[Dachs]

W. Shakespeare was barely able to write his own name. To think that he posessed knowledge about history, geography or philosophy is absurd.

Surely an exaggerated slander of a man that the contemporary Davies called 'our English Terence'!

 

[JonathanStrange]

Christopher Marlowe. However, as Woody Allen said "If Marlowe wrote Shakespeare’s works, who wrote Marlowe’s?" Others think it was either Alexander Pope or Pope Alexander. I suspect Elizabeth I myself.

 

[Arwon]

Bill Bryson's assessment is good enough for me.

The Shakespeare authorship controversy is nutty.

 

[LightSpectra]

W. Shakespeare was barely able to write his own name. To think that he posessed knowledge about history, geography or philosophy is absurd. I bet my money on Francis Bacon and his followers.

The reason why the Oxfordian theory is the most popular is because there are so many parallels between Oxford's personal life, and notes he's written, with Shakespearian plays. And the fact that the year he died was when Shakespeare's plays started being published very irregularly.

 

[Padma]

Probably the best overall "debunking" of the Oxfordian theory can be found here.

 

[Plotinus]

Although it is an extremely poor reason, I would say that William Shakespeare was William Shakespeare due sheerly to the fact that I have never ever even heard speculation otherwise, before now. As I say, poor reasoning. But I would expect that I would have at least heard something about it if there was a very serious question over the authorship.

Come on, surely everyone has heard it said that Francis Bacon was Shakespeare.

I think it was Patrick Moore who said that it's perfectly clear that Shakespeare's plays were written not by William Shakespeare but by someone else of the same name, which pretty much sums it up in my opinion. Shakespeare has had such a mystique about him since the eighteenth or nineteenth centuries that this sort of thing is inevitable, but while it's not quite in conspiracy theory territory, it's a decidedly minority view.

 

[MagisterCultuum]

I think it was Patrick Moore who said that it's perfectly clear that Shakespeare's plays were written not by William Shakespeare but by someone else of the same name...

Doesn't that mean that they were written by William Shakespeare, but we just have some (most?) details of his biography wrong?




Apparently, there are several years in which no one can find any documentation of William Shakespeare, but there is documentation of a Bill Shakestaff where Shakespeare was supposed to be whom many believe to be the same man.

 

[Camikaze]

Come on, surely everyone has heard it said that Francis Bacon was Shakespeare.

Well, I'm no Shakespeare scholar. And it has never been mentioned in school. Although now that I've thought about it for a day, I do vaguely remember someone mentioning something to me about Francis Bacon. But someone mentioning something to me isn't a very reliable source.

 

[Earthling]

Well I least I had heard of the controversy, and not just on Wikipedia. I say Shakespeare was a time traveler. There's a line in Hamlet that refers to Donkey Kong.

Spoiler funny :

Unpeg the basket on the house's top.
Let the birds fly, and, like the famous ape,
To try conclusions, in the basket creep,
And break your own neck down.

Spoiler :

This is one of those conspiracy theories that I'm ever so slightly iffy on. Still say it's Shakespeare but I wouldn't be blown out of the water if some real evidence came up otherwise. Bacon/Oxford may have decent cases, I certainly wouldn't think any others, but I'm really no expert.

 

[lovett]

Christopher Marlowe. However, as Woody Allen said "If Marlowe wrote Shakespeare’s works, who wrote Marlowe’s?" Others think it was either Alexander Pope or Pope Alexander. I suspect Elizabeth I myself.

Marlowe wouldn't be caught dead writing Romeo & Juliet.