Shakespeare:Fact Or Fiction Essay, Research Paper
“Shakespeare: Fact Or Fiction?” Was the man we know as Shakespeare really
the author ofthe “Shakespearean Works”? We know little about the man called
Shakespeare, Did he really write
the plays, or is he just a man that got confused within history?
(Sobran 44) There is not even a
correct spelling of this mans name, Some of the spellings include
Shakspere, Shakespeare, And
Shaxpere. Shakespeare, Is it the man, Or is it another? (Hayes 1D)
Shakespeare is both fact and fiction, he was no concern until
nearly two hundred years
after he perished, and there is still no definite or probably will there
ever be a conclusion to this
mystery. (Sobran 44) There is another man that can be attributed with the
works of”Shakespeare”, His name is Edward DeVere, the 17th Earl of Oxford.
(Bethell 47) The man known as Shakespeare does not fit perfectly into the
necessary criteria to
determine the author of these works. Thomas Looney invented a series of
criteria that had to be
filled, in order to be a possible candidate for the authorship of the
Shakespearean works. To have
all the knowledge that is portrayed in the works, the author must have
accomplished many things.
These including a superior education, from what we know of “Shakespeare”,
this was not a
possibility.(Bethell 46) We do not even know if Shakespeare has ever
written anything in his life,
Nor do we know that he was paid for writing these works. The man
Shakespeare does not evenmake a claim that he is the author.(Bethell 50)
He may not have been able to write the simplest thing of all, His own
name.(Hayes
Its not how little we know about Shakespeare that causes confusion
and difficulty, Its the
things that we do know about this man that cause the confusion and
difficulty. We know
Shakespears father, a glover, could not write. When he signed documents,
he simply made an “X”
, This is why it is beleived that Shakespeare could not write also,
Because he probably did not
attend school therefore his education was passed down from his father.
(Bethell 48) We do know much more about the man Edward DeVere. We know that
because deVere
was a nobleman, he could not have his name written upon his writings
because he would be
considered of a lower class. The plays contain a sense of hate towards
some of the noblemen of
that time period, which also point the authorship towards DeVere. (Hayes
1D) When DeVere was
a young man, he spent a lot of time in Italy and Europe, This could
explain the great detail used in
the Shakespearean plays of Venice, and other European locations.(Sobran
45) The sonnets have
never been able to fit into Shakespears life, On the other hand they fit
into DeVere’s life well.(Sobran 45)
There are facts that lean both ways in this age old mystery of
authorship, Though the
Strafordian man does not fit into the story very well, He may have some
advantages that the
Oxfordian man may not. DeVere on the other hand, has mostly every fact
pointing towards him as
the valid author for the “Shakespearean” works, From his education, to his
experiences, to his
travel. The Oxfordian seems to come out on top. Shakespeare: Stratforidan,
or DeVere?