Shakespeare authorship question

• 1. Origins of Doubt and Bardolatry

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  In 1840, Thomas Carlyle declared William Shakespeare the chief of all poets hitherto. This sweeping adulation created a cultural dissonance that fueled the initial authorship controversy. By the middle of the century, admiration for Shakespeare throughout Europe had become so intense that his humble origins seemed incompatible with his poetic eminence. The idea that someone from Stratford-upon-Avon could produce such works became increasingly unacceptable to early nineteenth-century thinkers. They focused on kings, courtiers, and university-educated poets as the only possible authors of great literature. Ralph Waldo Emerson expressed this disjunction in an 1846 lecture by stating he could not marry the fact of Shakespeare being a jovial actor to his verse. David Strauss's investigation into the biography of Jesus shocked the public with its skepticism of historical accuracy. This secular debate influenced the questioning of Shakespeare's authorship. Samuel Mosheim Schmucker applied these skeptical techniques to Shakespeare's records in 1848. His work, Historic Doubts Respecting Shakespeare, unwittingly anticipated arguments later offered for alternative candidates.

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• 2. Anti-Stratfordian Arguments and Candidates

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  Delia Bacon theorized in 1845 that plays attributed to Shakespeare were written by a group under Sir Francis Bacon. Walter Raleigh was named as the main writer within this conspiracy. Their purpose was to inculcate an advanced political system they could not publicly assume responsibility for. Francis Bacon emerged as the first single alternative author proposed in print by William Henry Smith in September 1856. By 1884, the question had produced more than 250 books. The Francis Bacon Society was founded two years later to promote the theory. Other candidates began receiving attention by the end of the nineteenth century. Wilbur G. Zeigler published It Was Marlowe: A Story of the Secret of Three Centuries in 1895. He argued Christopher Marlowe survived his death in 1593 to write the plays. Thomas Corwin Mendenhall wrote Did Marlowe write Shakespeare? in February 1902. Karl Bleibtreu advanced Roger Manners, 5th Earl of Rutland, in 1907. J. Thomas Looney's Shakespeare Identified (1920) made Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford, the top claimant. More than 80 authorship candidates have been proposed since then.

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• 3. Documentary Evidence and Historical Records

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  Francis Meres named Shakespeare as a playwright and poet in Palladis Tamia in 1598. He referred to twelve plays written by Shakespeare including four never published in quarto. Ben Jonson explicitly identified William Shakespeare, gentleman, as the author in the First Folio title page in 1623. John Heminges and Henry Condell stated they published the Folio to keep the memory of their friend alive. The historian Sir George Buc licensed King Lear for publication as written by Master William Shakespeare in 1607. Ralph Brooke accused Sir William Dethick of elevating unworthy persons to gentry in 1602. One of these was Shakespeare's father who had applied for arms thirty-four years earlier. Camden defended Shakespeare's right to bear heraldic arms about the same time he listed him as one of the great poets. His Remaines Concerning Britaine was published in 1605 but finished two years previously. The monument to Shakespeare bears an inscription identifying him as a writer. It was erected before 1623 and transcribed in early seventeenth-century records. No public mourning marked his death in 1616 until seven years later.

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• 4. Stylometry and Modern Scientific Analysis

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  Ward Elliott and Robert J. Valenza supervised a continuing stylometric study beginning in 1987 known as the Claremont Shakespeare Clinic. They used computer programs to compare Shakespeare's stylistic habits to works of thirty-seven authors proposed as true author. Tests determined Shakespeare's work shows consistent, countable profile-fitting patterns suggesting he was a single individual. The results eliminated all claimants whose known works have survived including Oxford, Bacon, and Marlowe. Dean Keith Simonton examined correlation between thematic content and political context in a 2004 study. He concluded mainstream chronology is roughly correct and exhibits gradual stylistic development consistent with other artistic geniuses. Alternative chronologies proposed by Oxfordians display no relationship regardless of time lag. If Edward de Vere wrote these plays, he displayed minimal stylistic development over his career. His late plays such as The Winter's Tale are written in style similar to Jacobean playwrights. This differs radically from Elizabethan-era plays. Textual evidence indicates Shakespeare collaborated with other playwrights who were not always aware of what he had done. In The Two Noble Kinsmen Fletcher has characters act as if meeting for first time following scene.

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