ILLUSTRATES Icarus Yuji
Over the past 100 years, more than 4,500 books and articles have claimed that William Shakespeare, the Englishman from Stratford-upon-Avon who lived between 1564 and 1616, was not the author of works attributed to him. See some arguments
1) “To be or not to be, that is the question”
One of the first to raise the controversy was James Wilmot, an Oxford scholar who lived near Stratford-upon-Avon, hometown of the “bard”. In 1785, he looked for evidence to prove Shakespeare’s authorship, but found no trace. His “study”, which sparked the doubts of many people, would have been published by his colleague James Cowell, in 1805
2) “All that glitters is not gold”
The more than 40 plays and 154 sonnets show a vast knowledge in different areas, such as politics, geography and Latin – and Shakespeare would have spent only five or six years in school, according to historians. In addition, the works use more than 29,000 different words, a vocabulary larger than that of dictionary of English at the time
3) “There are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamed of in your philosophy”
Defenders of this thesis consider it more plausible that Shakespeare was a pseudonym used by more educated people, such as the philosopher, scientist and politician Francis Bacon, or Christopher Marlowe, a playwright murdered at age 29. There are those who say that his death was faked and he continued writing, under the name of Shakespeare
4) “My kingdom for a horse”
Records indicate that the playwright began writing at the age of 23. For skeptics, it’s hard to believe that he already had, at that age, the life and experience necessary to create such complex plots. That’s because, until he was 18, he lived in Stratford, a small town, where he spent most of his time working with his father, a manufacturer of gloves
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5) “Jealousy is a monster with green eyes”
Intellectuals such as filmmaker Charles Chaplin, psychologist Sigmund Freud and writer Charles Dickens have already declared support for the theory (check out other famous supporters at doubtaboutwill.org). The most accepted alternative among them is that the real author would be Edward de Verethe 17th Earl of Oxford, who would have experienced events similar to those described in the plays
6) “The rest is silence”
One of Shakespeare’s few recognized documents is his testament, which is three pages long but makes no reference to his private life or his literary work – let alone his previously unpublished pieces, published after his death. The document also does not mention the share of society he had at the Globe Theater, the stage on which they were staged. Hamlet It is King Lear
7) “What has no remedy, is remedied”
There are no original manuscripts of his plays – nor his calligraphy it’s known. In several of the author’s first publications, the name underwent variations in spelling, such as Shake-Speare (something like «shaking a spear»), which would be a pseudonym in reference to Greek mythology or even evidence of collective authorship.
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ON THE OTHER HAND…
Fake document may have started the rumor
– Recent studies indicate that the Cowell manuscript, which sparked the controversy, is a forgery, probably made by Olivia Serres, Wilmot’s biographer
– The spelling of the name was of little relevance in documents that were handwritten and depended a lot on the subjective interpretation of the scribe
– The numerous academic studies on Shakespeare prove that he existed – and he really was a genius, especially in the psychological elaboration of his characters
– The Earl of Oxford died in 1604, long before Shakespeare’s major works were written
– It was also common for a playwright to be inspired by another or even to write with four or more hands. When a text was sold to a theater company, it no longer belonged to the authors.
SOURCES How Shakespeare Became Shakespeareby Stephen Greenblatt, and Who Wrote Shakespeare?, by James Shapiro; Shakespeare Brazil Institute, Stanford University and website Shakespeare Authorship
CONSULTANCY Ronaldo Marin, professor at Unicamp with a doctorate on William Shakespeare