The anti-Stratfordians, who contend that William Shakespeare did not write the plays attributed to him, have proposed several alternate candidates as the true author. These include Edward de Vere (earl of Oxford), lawyer and statesman Francis Bacon, dramatist Christopher Marlowe, and William Stanley (earl of Derby). Some critics of Shakespeare have theorized that the author of the plays was a woman, either Mary Herbert (née Sidney; countess of Pembroke) or poetess Emilia Lanier (or Lanyer; née Bassano). However, mainstream scholarship believes that Shakespeare did write the plays.
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