For more than 200 years after his death, no one questioned the authorship of Shakespeare's plays and sonnets. But in the late 1800s some people began to wonder how this genius managed, which led to suspicions of identity. One argument being that someone of William Shakespeare's limited worldly knowledge would preclude him from understanding the machinations behind the characters in his plays.
The first (but certainly not only) suggestion for who wrote Shakespeare's plays was Francis Bacon. The most recent candidate in ascendancy is Edward de Vere.
The idea that a common man could not understand the intricacies of the human condition at any level of wealth is a bit insulting to all us commoners.
4 comments:
From the Devil's Advocate department: If the son of an illiterate glove-maker, who may or may not (as we have no evidence of it) have ever gone to school himself can produce the greatest works of literature ever written, then why should I pay taxes to fund public schools to teach underclass citizens?
Not everyone can be a jean-ee-us, you know. Some of us need the skooling.
Of course, most people who question Shakespeare's authorship sound like they want to see his Hawaiian birth certificate or something.
All right, I admit it. I wrote Shakespeare's plays. Sorry. I just wanted some attention.
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