8-4Authorship

//This Question was Prepared by Annie R.// Authorship Controversy Many have believed that Shakespeare really didn’t write “his” plays, someone else did but he still got all the credit. According to the Shakespeare Authorship Page, “Many books and articles have been written arguing that someone other than William Shakespeare, the glover's son from Stratford-upon-Avon, wrote the plays and poems published under his name. There exist sincere and intelligent people who believe there is strong evidence that Edward de Vere, Seventeenth Earl of Oxford, was the author of these plays and poems.” The only site on the internet dedicating counting claims that someone other then William Shakespeare wrote his plays was when the authorship page began 12 years ago.

Many have been trying to find more and more evidence to figure this out. The website, __Shakespeare Literature__ found information such as “The most obvious evidence that William Shakespeare wrote the works attributed to him is that everyone at the time said he did: he was often praised in writing as a poet and playwright, he was named as the author of many of the works while he was alive, and seven years after his death the First Folio explicitly attributed the rest of the works to him.” They have also found other evidence from the weBsite, __Shakespeare Literature__, such as, “More than half a century before Schwartz, Oxfordian Charles Wisner Barrell wrote another article for //Scientific American//, in which he attempted to use X-rays to show that the so-called "Ashbourne Portrait" often taken to be of Shakespeare, is actually a painted-over portrait of the Earl of Oxford.” Also Shakespeare has signed many of his works, which are obvious proven are his, but still many don’t have a signature but he still gets all the credit for something that might not even be his.

People have been arguing and discussing this problem for a while now, yet it is still unsolved. Many have looked at all his plays and poems and they still find that the evidence, which exists, is "circumstantial".

Cites Used:  Landmark, Lindsey. "General Characteristics of the Renaissance." //Renaissance//. March 29, 2009. English Department, Brooklyn College.. 21 Apr 2009 .

Ward, Brian. Epidemic . first. New York City : Dorling Kindersley Publishing, 2000 Print.