Shakespeare authorship question

The Shakespeare authorship question asks whether some works said to be William Shakespeare's were actually written by other people.^[1][2]

Oxford, Bacon, Derby, and Marlowe (clockwise from top left, Shakespeare centre) have each been proposed as the true author. (Clickable image—use cursor to identify.)

People who support this view are called anti-Stratfordians. (Shakespeare was born in Stratford-upon-Avon, England.) They say "Shakespeare of Stratford" was a fake name to hide the identity of the real author or authors, who did not want their real names to become public.^[3]

Shakespeare's authorship was first questioned in the middle of the 19th century. ^[4] At that time, there was a widespread view that Shakespeare was the greatest writer of all time.^[5]

Many books have been written about this controversy. 80 different candidates for Shakespeare's authorship have been proposed.^[6] The most-studied candidates are Francis Bacon, the 6th Earl of Derby, Christopher Marlowe, and the 17th Earl of Oxford.^[7]

Although this idea has attracted much public interest,^[8][a] all but a few^[9] Shakespeare scholars and literary historians consider it a conspiracy theory.^[10][11] Most scholars only mention the theory if they are criticizing it. For example, James Shapiro has written several books criticizing this theory.^[12]

Arguments

According to some Anti-Stratfordians, the works attributed to Shakespeare show education, aristocratic sensibility, and familiarity with the royal court that Shakespeare did not have.^[13] Shakespeare had a simple background, and the known details of his life seem incompatible with his poetic eminence and his reputation for genius, according to anti-Stratfordians.^[14]

In response, mainstream Shakespeare scholars have argued that determining authorship based on biographical information is unreliable.^[15] They say there is extensive documentary evidence showing that Shakespeare authored his works. This evidence includes title pages, testimony by other contemporary poets and historians, and official records.^[16] No direct evidence like this exists for any other candidate.^[17] Shakespeare's authorship was never questioned during his lifetime or for centuries after his death.^[18]

Anti-Stratfordians work for acknowledgment of the authorship question as a legitimate field of scholarly inquiry and for acceptance of one or another of the various authorship candidates.^[19]