Topic I: Can the real William Shakespeare please stand up?

i. Why is William Shakspere of Stratford-upon-Avon an unlikely candidate for the authorship of Shakespeare’s works?

Shakspere of Stratford belonged to the working class, which made him unable to have access to resources such as education, libraries or capacity for abstract thought which are very important for an author to produce extraordinary pieces of work. The most common working class education, which usually only lasted to the age of 11, merely included woodwork and metalwork. This was obviously not enough to equip Shakspere of Stratford with the superb knowledge of foreign languages, politics, law and science as evident in Shakespeare’s works.

Geographical knowledge is in the city of Venice. Moreover, William Shakespeare showed that he knew Jews bleed when they were pricked, which is something not known to most of the British population, and Shakspere was just any other commoner. Therefore, there was little chance that he knew such a fact.

This is another factor to prove that William Shakspere of Stratford-upon-Avon is an unlikely candidate for the authorship of Shakespeare’s works. As we can all see from Shakespeare’s works, he had a wide knowledge on foreign countries and their landscapes. This shows that the works had to be written by a knowledgeable and well-travelled person. A perfect example would be in The Merchant of Venice, where information of the city is in vast amounts. The Merchant of Venice has many precise and accurate descriptions of the canals, castles and Jewish ghettoes.

There is also a conspiracy theory that William Shakespeare was just a pseudonym. The hyphenation of “Shake-Speare" on many title pages are cited as evidence for this theory, since hyphens were common for pseudonyms in Elizabethan times. Examples of such oft-hyphenated names include Tom Tell-truth, which is clearly a made up name, Cuth-Bert-Curry-Knave, whose name has an absurd amount of hyphens, and of course, the famous writer of letters; Hyphen McHyphenson, whose very name is a reference to hyphens. Therefore, many claim that William Shakespeare is just a pseudonym.

ii. Who are the possible candidates?

There are many possible candidates. The more popular and substantial ones are Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford, Sir Francis Bacon and Christopher Marlowe.

Sir Francis Bacon has been a traditional favourite among the anti-Stratfordians, a term used to describe those who do not believe that Shakspere of Stratford is William Shakespeare, and holds a high place on the list of potential candidates.
William Henry Smith was the first to propose Bacon as the author in 1856. Comparing passages of the two such as Bacon's "Poetry is nothing else but feigned history" with Shakespeare's "The truest poetry is the most feigning" (As You Like It, 3.3.19–20), and Bacon's "He wished him not to shut the gate of your Majesty's mercy" with Shakespeare's "The gates of mercy shall be all shut up" (Henry V, 3.3.10), he concluded that there were many parallels in their ideas. In 1883, Mrs. Henry Pott edited Bacon's Promus and found 4,400 parallels of thought or expression between Shakespeare and Bacon. Therefore, these made Sir Francis Bacon is one very likely candidate of William Shakespeare’s works. However, Bacon also produced a lot of his own works. Therefore, it is hard to think of why he would have spare time to produce quality work attributed to William Shakespeare, since he produced his own quality work as well.

Although Christopher Marlowe is only two months older than Shakespeare, Marlowe is recognized by scholars as the primary influence on Shakespeare's work. Unlike the rest of the candidates, he established a high level of playwriting ability, and also died under mysterious circumstances. This went hand in hand with conspiracy theories. Marlovians, a term used to describe those who support Christopher Marlowe as the true author of William Shakespeare’s works, trust that the fake death was to allow Marlowe to escape trial and almost certain execution on charges of subversive atheism. The theory then argues that Shakespeare was chosen as the front behind whom Marlowe would continue writing his highly successful plays. Such claims are based on inferences derived from the circumstances of his apparent death, stylistic similarities between the works of Marlowe and Shakespeare, and hidden meanings found in the works and associated texts. Another fact that Marlovians note is that the first work linked to the name William Shakespeare, Venus and Adonis, was on sale just 13 days after Marlowe’s apparent death. Furthermore, the book has been registered with the Stationers' Company on 18 April 1593 with no named author. Therefore, Christopher Marlowe is definitely another possible candidate for William Shakespeare’s works.

Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford, more commonly known as just Oxford, is another probable candidate. The argument that Oxford is the true author is based on historical inferences, literary parallels, and the belief that the plots and characters portrayed in the plays reflect his personal experiences. Schoolteacher J. Thomas Looney was the first to lay out a comprehensive case for Oxford's authorship.He identified personality characteristics in William Shakespeare's works, especially Hamlet, that depicted the author as an eccentric aristocratic poet, a drama and sporting enthusiast with a classical education who had travelled to Italy. In addition, the poetry of Oxford and that of Shakespeare are very similar in terms of the way they use motifs and subjects, their phrasing, and the rhetorical devices which they use After Looney's Shakespeare Identified was published in 1920, Oxford rapidly overtook Bacon to become the most popular alternative candidate, and remains so to this day.

iii. Who is the most likely candidate for the authorship of Shakespeare’s works? Provide reasons to support your view.

Although most people feel that Oxford is the most likely candidate for Shakespeare’s works, I prefer to support Christopher Marlowe as the most likely candidate, and not Oxford nor Bacon.

I have this view as I feel that there are too many factors pointing towards Christopher Marlowe as the author of Shakespeare’s works. Marlowe’s apparent death theory had the biggest impact on me, as I feel that this theory is very reasonable and realistic. To escape trial, the most common acts to do is to either flee the country or create another identity. As shown by this theory, Marlowe chose to create another identity for himself and be William Shakespeare in order to continue producing quality work for the public.

In addition, the publishing of the first book of Shakespeare, Venus and Adonis, makes me want to believe that Marlowe is the true author more. Just 13 days after Marlowe’s apparent death, Venus and Adonis was published. Moreover, the book was registered before Marlowe’s death without a named author. At that time, Marlowe may have already known that he is charged for subversive atheism, but still have not decided on a pen name yet, thus leaving it empty for the time being. Then, during the period of after registering and before publishing, Marlowe would have thought of a pen name to use and the name was William Shakespeare.

These are my views. What are yours?

References:
http://uncyclopedia.wikia.com/wiki/Shakespeare_Authorship_Debate/
http://www.bardweb.net/debates.html/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shakespeare_authorship_question#Alternative_candidates/

More questions to consider:
a. What specific skills/knowledge must the real playwright of TMOV have possessed in order to write the play?

The real playwright would have to know the environment of Venice and Belmont very well in order to provide accurate descriptions of these two places in the play. Moreover, the real playwright has to be very clear about the real discriminatory acts the Christians carry out on the Jews as well as the jobs the Jews were limited to. In addition, the real playwright of The Merchant of Venice has to have a good grasp of Middle English and have to be very fluent in his phrasing and choice of words as well as the rhetoric devices used. The real playwright has to be very familiar with Law as there are many references to the use of law throughout the play.

b. Among the above skills/knowledge, what was William Shakspere of Stratford-upon-Avon lacking in?

In my opinion, the knowledge that William Shakspere of Stratfod-upon-Avon lacked is the knowledge of the environment in Venice and Belmont. Shakspere of Stratford belonged to the working class, and that would greatly limit the amount of knowledge he knows about the world. Also, he would not have been able to afford to go to Venice and Belmont to look at their scenery since he belonged to the working class.

Shakspere may also lack the awareness of the use of law. Since he came from the working class, he would not have access to information of Law, which was a very important part in the play, as seen from the climax of the story – the court scene.