This research paper takes a look at the controversy surrounding the validity of Shakespearean authorship. I must tell you that before performing this research, I had no idea that this topic was such a debate in the world of literature. My goal in writing this paper is to hopefully bring some insight and knowledge to those who read it. Who was the man we call William Shakespeare? William Shakespeare was a man who wrote more than 36 world-famous dramas portraying the range and depth of human nature.

Surprisingly, we know very little about the man who created these ramas, a man often referred to as the greatest literary genius in history. Shakespeare did not in his own day inspire the mysterious adoration that afterward came to surround his Shakespeare was born in Stratford-upon-Avon in April of 1564, the son of a glover. When he was 18 years old he married Anne Hathaway and they had 3 children by the time he was 21.

There are a number of references to Shakespeare as an actor and author by those who would have known him. However, there is not a single word of the plays or the poems that is definitely in Shakespeare’s handwriting. There are only six remaining legal documents containing his signature, which I might ad contain different Since the mid 19th century, a large group of disbelievers have argued that someone other than the Stratford man created the poems and plays presented as the works of William Shakespeare.

Since 1856 there have been 17 different proposed substitutes for Shakespeare including the Earl of Oxford, Sir Francis Bacon, Christopher Marlowe, the Earl of Derby, the Earl of Rutland, Sir Walter Raleigh and even Queen Assuming that Shakespeare of Stratford did not write the plays, Charlton Ogburn, uthor and scholar, believes that a well educated man by the name of Edward de Vere, Earl of Oxford fits the description as the author. The author who wrote Richard III, and Hamlet had a vocabulary in excess of 20,000 words, and also had a first hand knowledge of the customs of the Danish Court and of French and Italian cities.

He used more than 100 musical terms as well as the names of 200 plants. There is no documentation that William Shakespeare had access to this type of information. Shakespeare may never have left the southeast of England. Oxford on the other hand, had traveled to Paris, Venice and other foreign countries It has been implied that William Shakespeare from rural Stratford was humble, much too limited, too uneducated and far too common to have had the capability to write most of the plays containing such advanced vocabulary and worldly knowledge. Shakespeare’s first six published plays appear with no author names.

Mr. Ogburn’s explanation of the use of Shakespeare’s name is that the Earl’s noble rank and closeness to the throne did not allow him to be known as the author. His works would ave been subject to more harsh censorship than if written by a common man. So, Edward de Vere found a willing stand in; William Shakespeare, who pretended to be the author. Ogburn points out that the name William Shakespeare was not alluded to in print until 1598. The only recorded mention of him in his lifetime by anyone in the world of letters was by a man called Ben Jonson.

The most difficult obstacle to clear in considering Ogburn’s candidate, is the insistence that the author of the plays must have been a nobleman simply because of the plays treatment of kings and nobles and high life in general. Nearly all of Shakespeare’s theatrical contemporaries were middle class men. Other authors, even far lesser ones than Shakespeare, a man who is thought of as the greatest creative genius of all times, can convincingly capture lives, scenes and experiences other than the ones they were born to.

Many authors have stated that what writers write about is themselves. But what Shakespeare tells us of himself in his plays and sonnets, of his background, interest and character is completely different from Shakespeare as he appears on the record. There are questions surrounding Shakespeare’s last will and testament. Shakespeare left a very detailed will down to listing pieces of furniture. Some ask why there is no mention of leaving his plays to anyone. From my observation it was common for an acting company to own the dramas that it produced.

Shakespeare like other playwrights of his time, had no plays to leave to his heirs. There is not convincing evidence that the Stratford man did not write the plays, but if he didn’t the most convincing substitute would have to be Ogburn’s choice. Despite 200 years of scholarly attempts to establish the Stratford man’s credentials, doubts of the author’s identity will not go away. The very abundance of candidates proposed in substitution for William Shakespeare of Stratford defines the difficulties a growing number of people find in accepting his authorship.

The question of the Shakespeare authorship came before a court of law for the first and only time in 1964 in England . Mr. Justice Wilberforce, the presiding Judge, found that the evidence in favor of the Stratford man “is quantitatively slight” and that “there is a number of difficulties in the way of the traditional ascription”. Towards the end of this research I had to ask myself does it matter who William Shakespeare was? The world should be grateful that his works carried on.

What difference could it possibly make to find out the man who wrote Romeo and Juliet was not named William Shakespeare. It obviously matters a great deal to those who consider his works to be man’s highest achievement in literature. After all, academic careers have been built on the premise that the Stratford man wrote these plays. It seems to be a matter of elementary justice that the man responsible for the tremendous achievement should receive the credit for it. There is also a great interest in knowing about the kind of an who could have written as William Shakespeare did.

We do know that Shakespeare was at least a shareholder in the Globe Theater and No one before or since has so enriched the English language with new words. The number of words he used once and never used again comes to 50 percent more than are used in the entire Old Testament in the King James translation. In conclusion, I would like to say that it was very interesting to find out that one man contributed so much to the English language. Shakespeare introduced words and phrases never before known to man.

Wherever we go today, we just can’t seem to get away from him. He is in movies, in the theater, even on TV. Whether modernized or back in Elizabethan times, his influence is everywhere in the things we use for our entertainment. We think we know who he really was and what his life was all about. He almost seems immortal in our eyes. Who was William Shakespeare? Who was this man we still have placed on a pedestal almost four thousand years after he lived? Was he really the man that Hollywood glamorized?

Shakespeare’s life, work and controversies come together to form our beliefs of who this great writer really is. William Shakespeare is clouded with mystery. He was born in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England in 1564. “Although his exact birth date is not know, there is a record of his baptism on April 26, 1954” (Kay 13). “His date of birth would have fallen shortly before that day is traditionally considered to be April 23, 1954” (Campbell and Quinn 755). He was born to John Shakespeare and his wife, Mary Arden and was the oldest of three sons.

He also had four sisters. “Little is known of Shakespeare’s early life, although it is likely that he received an education at the good local grammar school” (Lawall 2110). Other than that, there really is not much known about Shakespeare’s youth. The next concrete piece of evidence about Shakespeare’s life is his marriage to Anne Hathaway in November 1582, when he was just eighteen years old. It was a marriage of inconvenience. Anne was eight years older than he was and pregnant at the time so they had no choice but to marry.

Their first daughter, Susanna, was born in 1583 and twins Hamnet and Judith were born in 1585. Shakespeare is said to have felt trapped by this marriage. Soon after he left for London. That is where he stayed until he returned to Stratford in 1610 for the last few years of his life. “Shakespeare died April 23, 1616, the same day as his supposed birth and was buried in the chancel of Holy Trinity Church April 25” (Gray 1). It is not know exactly when Shakespeare arrived in London. It is speculated to be sometime around 1591. It is here that Shakespeare the actor came to be known.

The first evidence of Shakespeare appearing on stage was in 1594 with Lord Chamberlain’s Men. “It is also not known when he started writing for sure, but he rapidly established himself as an actor and scriptwriter, probably freelance, working for several theater troops” (Kay 141). His first official publication appeared in 1593 while all of the theaters were closed for the plague. This was Venus and Adonis, which will be discussed later. The most information we have about Shakespeare is the plays and poems he has written. His plays are probably the best well known.

His imagination was stirred greatly by a wide range of theatrical models such as mystery plays, ancient drama and the drama of the generations immediately preceding him” (Kay 43). The histories and tragedies almost always claim at some level to be true, to be based on real events. His comedies often stress fictional situations and proclaim their relation to literary traditions. The first recorded play written by Shakespeare is thought to be Two Gentlemen of Verona. Love’s Labour’s Lost was the first script to have Shakespeare’s name printed on it as the author in 1598.

Some of his more memorable plays include Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, Macbeth, and Taming of the Shrew. When all of Shakespeare’s plays were written cannot be exactly pinned down. Researchers have only been able to estimate the dates from the records of performances of the plays or of someone discussing them in writing. Shakespeare wrote thirty-eight plays in all. Many of the plays have been made into movies. They are set in either Elizabethan England or in contemporary times. Most recently there was 10 Things I Hate About You, an updated version of Taming of the Shrew set in an American high school in 1998.

Others choose a more traditional approach Romeo and Juliet. That story was also modernized in a 1996 version that used Shakespeare’s language but was set to gang violence in the future. Not only was Shakespeare a poet, but he was also a playwright. “As mentioned before, his first poem Venus and Adonis was published in 1593 during the plague” (Kay 144). It was dedicated to Sir Henry Wriothesley, the Earl of Southampton. It is a tale of love, lust and the classic romantic chase. Instead of the usual boy-chases-girl routine, the beautiful and desirous Venus pursues the young and disinterested Adonis.

The more vigorously she chases, the harder he pulls away. His other poem was The Rape of Lucrece. Venus and Adonis was not the only work that Shakespeare dedicated to the Earl. “From the spring of 1592 to March in 1605, William Shakespeare wrote 154 sonnets, or short, songlike poems. These sonnets are probably the only published work of Shakespeare’s that had any personal meaning to him. They are written from Shakespeare’s perspective, and are sort of like letters from the bard to a friend of his, Sir Henry Wriothesley, the Earl of Southampton” (McMahon 1). “Sonnets 127 to 154, are the “dark lady” sonnets.

None of these appear to have to do with the Earl, but instead are Shakespeare’s praise of some unidentified women who he seemed to be very much in love with” (McMahon 4-5). The sonnets were well known by 1598, but were not published until 1609. They were probably the only works Shakespeare published that had personal meaning to him. Like any famous figure, Shakespeare also had his share of controversy. Although, none of it ever surfaced while he was alive. The biggest debate was over authorship. Did Shakespeare really exist and write his own work or was there someone else behind Shakespeare?

There has been a lot of research on the life of a man named Gulielmus Shaksper. He was a poor man born in Stratford-upon-Avon in 1564. Shakespeare’s considers his characters to be his best work royalty. Shaksper on the other hand was nearly illiterate. There is no record of anyone having met, seen or talked to a man he identified as Shakespeare the writer. Even the Earl of Southampton never met him despite all of the letters and dedication of sonnets and poems. On the other hand, it appears that the Earl bought Shaksper’s cooperation to pretend to be Shakespeare for one thousand pounds.

Out of all the evidence for each argument, the strongest piece of evidence shows that Shakespeare’s plays were written too early to be credited to Shaksper and were the work of an older man. There can be no doubt that Shakespeare compounds two very different men. The next controversy deals not with Shakespeare’s life or works, but of a young man who forged some of Shakespeare’s work. In 1795, an eighteen-year-old named William Henry Ireland was able to fool people into believing he held some of Shakespeare’s original works and writings.

These included legal deeds, promissory notes, letters to and from Shakespeare, and a “lost” tragedy called Vortigern. People actually believed that these were Shakespeare’s documents, even the educated public and some of the leading scholars and critics of the day. William Henry was mainly driven by his desire to please his father, Samuel Ireland. He was trying to make himself be seen as the next young bard and every as a true descendent of Shakespeare artistically and genealogically. After Vortigern was laughed off the stage, William Henry was forced to confess to the forgeries of Shakespeare in 1796.

He published many confessions. He also went on to write other books under a pseudonym, but was never able to achieve the fame that he wanted. What is it about Shakespeare that makes people cling to the thought of his? greatness? Even Hollywood seems to hold him up as an amazing person. The movie Shakespeare in Love shows him as a romantic struggling with writer’s block until a beautiful girl of noble blood comes into his life. It shows him as being Romeo while Viola is his Juliet and all the while he is writing the play. It does show his flaws but only to add to the drama of the plot of this movie.

The love affair with Shakespeare, or the myth of Shakespeare, has to be that people want to believe that someone who came for so little could actually achieve such great success. Shakespeare’s life, work and controversies come together to form our beliefs of who this great writer really was. It does not seem to matter when the controversies are brought up or the fact that we know so little about him. People still love the man who can entertain them almost four thousand years after his death. And he will always remain on that pedestal that he was placed on all of those years ago.