Is Shakespeare The True

To Be or Not to Be: Is Shakespeare the True Author? Before this project, I had always thought that Shakespeare was a real person, and the true author of all the works under the name. I only learned for the first time this year that there is even speculation that Shakespeare is not the true author. I was honestly really surprised because Shakespeare is such a well - known author. Going into this project, I had no idea which side I was on, mostly because I knew nothing about the Anti- Stratfordian argument. Since there are so many different theories about this topic, I was not completely sure where to start researching or which theories to research in depth. The first site I used was the “News” section of Penn State University’s website. I find the article reliable because uses direct quotes from a professor in an english department. I find the website reliable because it is from a reputable university Patrick Cheney, professor of english and comparative literature at Penn State, says that the Anti-Stratfordian theories are no more than theories. Cheney seems set in his opinion, saying “...not a single reputable scholar I know has the least doubt that William Shakespeare of Stratford-upon-Avon wrote the plays and poems ascribed to him." One of the most used arguments by Anti-Stratfordians is that Shakespeare did not have a good enough education to be writing plays with the language he used. Cheney debunks this argument by saying Shakespeare had an amazing education in Stratford grammar schools, and he had access to many books while growing up. Professor Cheney also notes that many of the plots of Shakespeare’s plays come from books. Anti-Stratfordians also say that there is no way Shakespeare should have been able to accurately depict royal courts in foreign lands, considering the fact he was a commoner, but Cheney says he could have easily recreated a foreign country from history in the books he read. Also, Shakespeare was a part of a royal acting group and could have encountered royal courts. Lastly, the most popular theory, that Edward de Vere, Earl of Oxford wrote the plays attributed to Shakespeare, also has falsities according to Cheney. He says that some of Shakespeare’s works were produced years after de Vere’s death, such as The Tempest. Overall, Patrick Cheney thinks challenging Shakespeare’s authorship is a modern idea, because no one challenged his authorship until two hundred years after his death. Next, I found another article that is on the Stratfordian side on Forbes. Forbes is a trusted website and magazine that has been around for a while. The author of this article is Alex Knapp who is on the Forbes staff. The author of this article also mentions a book he read that helped him write this article, called Contested Will. The first thing Knapp talks about is Shakespeare’s signatures on all of his works. Even though this may seem as if it doesn’t prove anything, it was actually unusual in Shakespeare’s time. The fact that Shakespeare’s name was on all of his plays …show more content…
It was written by Keir Cutler on the Shakespeare Oxford Fellowship website. This website is reliable because it is dedicated to Shakespeare and researching the topic of true authorship. First, Cutler says that there is no evidence to prove that William Shakespeare was a writer, only an actor. All there was was a few, almost illegible signatures on his plays and other works. Cutler also says that since Shakespeare didn’t get anything past grammar school education, that he should not have had such a vast vocabulary. The author also points out all the well-known people who are also Anti-Stratfordians such as Mark Twain, Charles Dickens and more. In Shakespeare’s will, there is not a single book, manuscript, play or anything that indicates he was a writer. Shakespeare’s works also had many different languages in them, and Cutler says that Shakespeare could not have known so many languages because he hardly ever left England and he did not have much education. There is also many other possible candidates, the most popular being Christopher Marlowe, Francis Bacon and Edward de Vere. In conclusion, Cutler believes that Shakespeare did not have enough education and experience to have been writing the way he