who is shakespeare?
For many years there has been a dispute as to the true authorship of the plays attributed to "William Shakespeare." The orthodox view, of course, is that they were written by a man named William Shakspere (sic) who was born in 1564 in the small town of Stratford-on-Avon and died there in 1616. However, skeptics claim that the known facts concerning William Shakspere make it exceeding unlikely that he was the true author. (These skeptics include many prominent writers and intellectuals, such as Mark Twain, Sigmund Freud, and Henry James.)In the nineteenth century (when relatively little research had been done on the question) most of those who doubted that Shakspere was the author of the plays suspected that the true author was the famous philosopher (and politician) Francis Bacon. However, that has changed as additional information has surfaced: Nowadays, most of those who doubt that the plays were written by the Stratford man believe that they were written by Edward de Vere, the 17th Earl of Oxford.
Some of the arguments presented by Ogburn against Shakspere's authorship are:He did not, during his lifetime, claim to be the author. ) The plays, however, were obviously written by a well-educated man, with a excellent knowledge of classical literature and mythology. For additional, up-to-date information, one should consult the Shakespeare-Oxford Society (website address: http://www. This suggests that the playwright -- whoever he was -- was using a pseudonym. During the years in which the plays were being presented, no one in London made any mention of personally meeting with the author, William Shakespeare, or seeing him in the flesh, or corresponding with him in any way whatsoever. , in the year 3000) it is generally acknowledged that the attribution of the plays to Shakspere was a hoax. ve presentation of the arguments in favor of De Vere's authorship of the plays (and against Shakspere's) can be found in the excellent book, The Mysterious William Shakespeare, by Charlton Ogburn. (He never attended any college, and in fact there is no real evidence that he attended the Stratford Grammar School. None of his friends or neighbors in Stratford ever referred to him as a playwright, poet, or literary figure of any sort. (That book is available from Amazon.
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