Will the REAL Shakespeare Please Stand Up?

There’s been a heated debate for years about whether William Shakespeare actually wrote all the plays and sonnets that have been attributed to him. Some critics claim the plays and sonnets were actually written by Christopher Marlowe, Sir Francis Bacon, Ben Johnson, William Stanley, Edward de Vere, or one of more than sixty other possibilities. Some even believe that Shakespeare’s wife did the writing and creating. If you’re a casual enjoyer of Shakespeare’s plays or sonnets, you might not care a whit as to who actually penned these great works of literature. As a big fan of the bard, however, it’s important to me. That’s why I’ve done extensive research on the topic of whether the man known as William Shakespeare is the real author of some of the best known literary works in the world. I’ve also applied some good ol’ common sense to a few of the arguments used by the anti-Stratfordian group. I’ll share my thoughts with you here and counter some of the most popular arguments.

William Shakespeare probably wrote or co-wrote forty plays, and in his lifetime, no one doubted his authorship - that began in the nineteenth century. Although the Shakespeare debate started in the 1800s, it has enjoyed a vigorous resurgence lately because of the Anonymous movie. The Anonymous film, a 2011 release, suggests that William Shakespeare was a fraud and that his plays were actually written by the 17^th Earl of Oxford, Edward de Vere. According to the script, de Vere was Queen Elizabeth’s lover, and they had a son together. Because of his position, the only way the nobleman could have his works published was to do so under another’s name or as an anonymous author. William Shakespeare, an illiterate actor, claims the works as his creations. The queen threatens to kill the son she had with Edward de Vere unless de Vere agrees to never claim authorship of the plays attributed to Shakespeare. The belief by some that the Earl of Oxford wrote the Shakespearean plays is genuine. Referred to as the Oxfordian theory, this idea first emerged in 1920.

Shakespeare was too young

Shakespeare was born in 1564. Historians disagree about which play was written first, but many believe it was Henry VI, Part One, perhaps written as early as 1589 and soon followed by the other parts of Henry VI, along with Richard III. That would have made Will 25 years old at the time. Some critics claim that a writer that young couldn’t have written such masterpieces. I think this is an empty argument. Look at other great writers who were as young or even younger than Shakespeare when they created some of their greatest works.

Take Christopher Marlowe, for example. He and Shakespeare were born the same year, and both became famous playwrights and poets. Marlowe wrote one of his most popular plays, Tamburlaine the Great, before 1587, which meant he had to have been younger than 23 years old at the time. And Tamberlaine wasn’t his first play. Another of Shakespeare’s contemporaries and fellow playwright and poet, Ben Johnson, was only 25 when he began his serious writing career.

For the anti-Stratfordians who site Shakespeare’s youth as evidence that he wouldn’t have been capable of such word mastery, how do they explain the poets of English romanticism? Wordsworth and Coleridge published Lyrical Ballads in 1798, when Wordsworth was 28 and Coleridge was 26 – and these two men laid the very foundation for romanticism! And what about the second generation of English romantic poets – Byron, Shelley, and Keats? They were all very young when they wrote some of their most famous verse. John Keats, one of my favorite poets, died at the age of 25, and at the time of his death, some of his poems had already been in publication for at least four years. Keats wrote the beautiful “Ode on a Grecian Urn” when he was just 23 years old.

Shakespeare wasn’t educated

Some anti-Stratfordians reason that the works attributed to William Shakespeare had to have been penned by an educated man – one who had attended college. Shakespeare didn’t go to college. As a boy, he most likely attended a grammar school near his home in Stratford-upon-Avon, named King’s New School, where he would have been instructed in Latin, logic, and classical literature.

A closer look into Shakespeare’s plays, however, reveals the work of someone without a college education. The great literary critic, Dr. Samuel Johnson, believed that the bard’s writing genius came not from formal education, but from his “vigilance of observation and accuracy of distinction, which books and precepts cannot confer.”

Shakespeare got much of his “education” on the streets of London. He met scores of people there, and probably based many of his characters on real people with whom he had come in contact. Also, it’s important to realize that there’s evidence in some of Shakespeare’s plays that they weren’t written by a man who had a college education. Several historical mistakes and anachronisms can be found – ones that wouldn’t have been made by an educated writer.

Shakespeare was a commoner

Some of the anti-Stratfordians don’t believe a commoner would have been capable of writing such masterpieces. I’ve often wondered if this theory weren’t some holdover from the neoclassical period, when literature was written by and for the upper class. Shakespeare’s father was a local government official, and later, due to his son’s fame, he was granted a coat of arms and William was given the title of “Master” or “Mr.”

But how does William Shakespeare’s commoner status help prove that he didn’t pen his plays and sonnets? Just take a look at other famous writers who came from humble beginnings: Christopher Marlowe, Charles Dickens, Daniel Defoe, Chaucer, and my all-time favorite poet, Thomas Hardy.

Shakespeare’s contemporaries

I think some of the most convincing evidence that William Shakespeare did actually write the plays and sonnets that have always been attributed to him come from the Bard’s contemporaries. He’s mentioned as a playwright, an actor, and/or a poet by famous men like Ben Johnson, Leonard Digges, John Heminges, Francis Meres, John Davies of Hereford, John Stow, and others.

Ben Johnson is especially important here. He left behind notes about his friendship with William Shakespeare. In these notes, Johnson says he loves Shakespeare as a person, but he criticizes some of the playwright’s works and cites mistakes made by Shakespeare in some of his plays. Ben Johnson knew William Shakespeare personally – as an actor and as a writer. I think that alone is pretty darn good evidence that we already know who the real Shakespeare was.