The Shakespeare Authorship Question: Much Ado About Who Wrote the Plays

“I am not what I am,” wrote William Shakespeare (1564–1616) in not one but two plays. These words are spoken by the scheming Iago in Othello (1603–04) and by the disguised Viola in Twelfth Night (1600–02). For some, the implications of duplicity and obscured identity in the line could well apply to its author—and thereby hangs a tale. Skepticism about Shakespeare having actually written the plays attributed to him has persisted for more than a century, originated by lack of documentation and inadequacies in the historical record and perpetuated by cultural fascination. If Shakespeare did not write the plays, who did? The debate centers on alternate theories proposing that Shakespeare was a front for the real dramatist (or dramatists).

“O, what may man within him hide”: The anti-Stratfordian case

The authorship of the plays was seriously challenged in the 18th and 19th centuries, although it has been suggested that doubt may have arisen as early as during Shakespeare’s lifetime. “Anti-Stratfordian” theory argues against Shakespeare as the playwright based on the facts of his early life. Shakespeare was born in Stratford-upon-Avon to John Shakespeare, who engaged in a variety of trades, and Mary Arden. He was likely schooled locally, studying Latin and classical writers such as Ovid and Virgil. He did not progress to university, and he married Anne Hathaway when he was 18. Nothing is known of him between 1585 and 1592, referred to as the “lost years,” until his name began to emerge in London theater records.

In the next several years Shakespeare wrote tragedies, comedies, and historical plays, set variously in England and abroad (often Italy and France). He created an array of remarkable and incredibly disparate characters—Hamlet, paralyzed by indecision; Lady Macbeth, undone by her own ambition; Falstaff, by turn charismatic, comedic, and corrupt; and Lear, driven to insanity by the consequences of his pride and folly. The plays are set in locations as varied as courts, forests, battlefields, and even the realm of faerie. Anti-Stratfordians contend that Shakespeare never gained the experience or education that would have allowed him to produce a body of work of such depth and diversity. The richness of language in the plays also suggests a higher level of learning than Shakespeare is believed to have received.

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Anti-Stratfordians point to the absence of manuscripts in Shakespeare’s hand and to the discrepancies in the six signatures thought to be Shakespeare’s. These spell his name variously as Shaxberd, Shaxpere, Shakespear, and Shake-speare. The lack of documents written by Shakespeare is underscored by the contrasting evidence that Shakespeare was business-minded. He had filed at least one lawsuit to recover money owed to him (by an apothecary in his hometown). He is also believed to have been fairly wealthy, and he owned property in London as well as in and around Stratford-upon-Avon.

Additional arguments in the case against Shakespeare include the fact that there are no attestations from his family and contemporaries in Stratford-upon-Avon on his success as a writer, the lack of eulogies upon his death, and the absence of any mention of manuscripts and documents in his will (noted for its infamous bequest of the second-best bed to Anne Hathaway).

“What’s in a name”: Alternate Shakespeares

Could Shakespeare have been an alias or a false front for the real author? Prominent anti-Stratfordian and American writer Delia Bacon believed that the plays, written in the collaborative world of the Elizabethan stage, were the works of a group of authors. Other critics of Shakespeare have proposed an assortment of candidates as the likely writer (some of these are included in the group-author theory). Foremost of these are:

• Edward de Vere, earl of Oxford, a poet of some note, and influential patron of the theater. His claim is supported by an anti-Stratfordian faction known as the Oxfordians, who believe that his poems resemble Shakespeare’s early plays. However, he died in 1604, before about a dozen plays were written, including Macbeth (1606–07), King Lear (1605–06), and The Tempest (1611).
• Francis Bacon, lawyer, philosopher, statesman, writer, and King James I’s lord chancellor. Baconian theory holds that he possessed the learning and intellectual capacity required to compose works encompassing the intricacies of history, politics, and culture. He died in 1626, outliving Shakespeare by a decade.
• Christopher Marlowe, celebrated poet and playwright and Shakespeare’s most important predecessor in English drama. Marlowe was killed at age 29 in a tavern brawl in 1593, but Marlovian theory proposes that he faked his death and continued writing. In 2016 Marlowe was co-credited as the writer of Henry VI, Part 1 (1589–92), Part 2 (1590–92), and Part 3 (1590–93) in an edition of the New Oxford Shakespeare (one of several modern anthologies of Shakespeare’s works).
• William Stanley, earl of Derby, widely traveled nobleman, and patron of the theater (indeed, he had his own group of actors called Derby’s Men). The Derbyite argument is based on alleged allusions made during Stanley’s lifetime to his supposed literary career. These references include a document written in 1599 that describes him as “busied only in penning comedies for the common players.”

Some anti-Stratfordians offer a different perspective: that the real author was a woman. The favorite candidate is Mary Herbert (née Sidney), the highly educated and accomplished countess of Pembroke. She was instrumental in gathering around her the Wilton Circle, a group of leading literary lights such as Edmund Spenser and Ben Jonson. The poet Emilia Lanier (or Lanyer; née Bassano) has also been proposed as a possible alternative. Lanier may have had a connection with Shakespeare’s acting company, the Lord Chamberlain’s Men, and it has been suggested that she may also have been Black or mixed race, although evidence is scarce.

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“To thine own self be true”: The Stratfordian defense

The most probable candidate for the true author is, however, Shakespeare himself. Mainstream scholarship largely rejects speculation about the playwright’s identity because Shakespeare’s name appears on some 50 extant documents and because he was mentioned by several contemporaries, notably Jonson. The First Folio, the first edition of the collected plays, provides the strongest evidence of Shakespeare having been Shakespeare, so to speak. Edited by John Heminge and Henry Condell, who acted in Shakespeare’s company, it was published in 1623 as Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories & Tragedies and contained a forward by Jonson identifying the portrait on the title page as that of Shakespeare. Jonson also famously made several references to Shakespeare, praising him as “not for an age but for all time” and “Sweet Swan of Avon” but also criticizing his “small Latin and less Greek.” Supporters also deny that Shakespeare’s repute as a writer was unknown in his hometown, citing, among other evidence, the publication in 1593 of his poem “Venus and Adonis,” which was produced by Richard Field, a contemporary from Shakespeare’s school days in Stratford-upon-Avon.

In the end, “the play’s the thing,” as Hamlet reminds us. Whether or not one is persuaded of Shakespeare’s authorship or disputes it, there is no contesting the genius of the playwright’s art.