The name William Shakespeare is synonymous with greatness and everlasting literary legacy – who in this world is not familiar with the tragic love story of Romeo and Juliet, the enigmatic character of Hamlet, the madness of King Lear, and dozens of other memorable figures who have entered the canon of playwriting. His works have transcended their original stories and have become the subject of college theses, academy-award winning films, seemingly endless volumes of comparative criticism, and so much more. The collective feeling of Shakespeare we all have is one of reverence, respect, and love for his timeless stories.
Yet beneath the surface of the accolades, praise, and worldwide recognition is a great question that will always loom over his legacy – was Shakespeare actually a hoax? What we do know is that many, many critics actually believe he is the greatest hoax in all of Western literature. True, the name Shakespeare and those works credited to him will always be forever linked, and there will never be a definitive way to attribute his plays to another author.
Still, it is worth examining the legitimacy of his authorship – there are many, many convincing reasons to believe that Shakespeare was indeed a hoax, that either a single person or many people actually wrote all of the plays normally attributed to William Shakespeare.
We examine the 10 most convincing reasons below:
10. Convincing Proof of His Illiteracy Exists
A Definitive Text Doubting the Authenticity of Shakespeare’s Authorship, Via Amazon.com
Shakespeare grew up in a household in the town known as Stratford-Upon-Avon, a household where no one really knew how to write. The family would sign official papers with a mark and not with a name, which could be an indication of illiteracy. Even further, in this critical and definitive text devoted to the subject of Shakespearean authorship, author Frank Davis is shown as proving William Shakespeare was indeed illiterate, showing that every single recorded and known signature of Shakespeare was completely jumbled up scribble that bared no resemblance to the spelling of his actual name. Do you think the greatest, most clever author of all time could have difficulty spelling his own name? Doesn’t seem plausible to me.
9. No Contemporaneous Authors Acknowledged His Death
In his lifetime, it is true that some other actors and writers acknowledged the author known as “Shakespeare.” However, according to Cornell Emeritus Professor Donald Hayes in his essay Social Network Theory and Shakespeare, it appears that no one wrote about Shakespeare at the time of his death, minus some privately circulated literary tributes that have since been lost. Curious, since he was a well-performed playwright back in his day. Of course, he had not yet achieved the immortal fame that comes along with the word “Shakespeare” today, but you would think that someone would have written about Shakespeare’s death. But instead, it took seven years for someone to write a published poem about Shakespeare’s death. How curious!
8. He Likely Had Little to No Education
Photo by brewbooks Via Flickr Creative Commons
There is no documentary proof at all of Shakespeare’s education that currently exists, or if he had one, he dropped out around the age of 13. Although a basic grammar school existed within a mile of Shakespeare’s home, there is not even a single shred of remotely conclusive proof that Shakespeare himself ever attended the school. Also, there is not one pupil who claimed to have ever recorded the fact that they were classmates with William Shakespeare. What if you went to school with a famous playwright, or someone of significant cultural worth – wouldn’t you tell others that you went to school with said person?
7. Shakespeare Could Not Have Actually Known Such Intimate Details About Italy
Shakespeare’s Guide to Italy Via Amazon.com
There is a book that has proved that nearly every single Italian reference in the works of Shakespeare, including things as obscure as the inland waterway systems of Northern Italy described in Shakespeare’s Two Gentlemen In Verona, is completely accurate to the T. How can a man who spent most of his time in England who was possibly illiterate be able to describe, in virtuosic detail, the minutia of Italian geography and culture?
Based completely on the first page, I have to say this is all pretty poor research. First, we have several copies of Shakespeare’s signature. The reason they don’t all read the same is because spelling was not standardized until the 1800s. In addition, his household would have been educated because every middle-class subject in Stratford-Upon-Avon would have attended grammar school. Shakespeare was not as famous during his day, so there is no reason to think that one of his middle class peers would have recorded going to school with him, even if we were to have all of his fellow (again middle class and thus irrelevant) students’ works.
As to Shakespeare’s knowledge of Italy, he was missing for several years. Perhaps he traveled there? Alternatively, perhaps he spoke to people from Italy or simply read about it.
A number of writers wrote about Shakespeare during his life. Did they all conspire to do this?
I can’t even go on.
Glad you can’t brother because not one sentence was accurate, obvious speculation. There is no extant record of anybody going to the Stratford Grammar School because the records were lost by fire in the next century. Yes there are ‘several’ Shakspere signatures, (6), none alike, no letter alike, not practiced signatures, impossible to have come from a literate man who wrote a million words. Standardized spelling has nothing to do with it. Writers proudly flourished their individual articulate signatures. This was nothing of the sort. The obvious conclusion, illiterate, but don’t tell. What a backlash from the faithful. The title-page name Shakespeare was fabulously famous in “his” day since Venus and Adonis went through repeated editions, playbook were pirated, Shakspere himself the main offender according to Jonson in “On Poet-Ape”. No reason for his classmates to give anecdotes? There is not one remembrance of Shakspere on record, except his son in law reporting he had died the previous day. Missing for several years, must have gone to Italy. For what? The writer Shakespeare knew the palaces and monuments, the French and Italian royal customs and events of the early 1570’s the years de Vere was in Italy. Every city he visited ended up in a Shakespeare play. Yes, many writers, overt dozen wrote about “Shakespeare”, always in an impersonal formulaic way that shows signs of ambiguous communication, as Jonson wrote to the effect, “he would not have wanted me to speak his name.” Keep dreaming. That is what the status quo fable relies on, a consummation devoutly to be wished.
pretty convincing…
this was terrible!!!!!!!!!
OMG! Again Shakesreare identity problem