Is this Really William Shakespeare? Many claim that this famous drawing is fake!
They are so great, in fact, that they shaped the language itself. Before Shakespeare, English was spoken in hundreds of dialects often not mutually intelligible. Because of Shakespeare, the writing system became uniform.
However, a controversy which has existed and apparently even existed in his lifetime was: Who wrote Shakespeare?
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Is this Really William Shakespeare? Many claim that this famous drawing is fake! |
She went to his grave at night with shovel in hand, but the British authorities, in furtherance of the scheme or conspiracy to hide the fact that there was no Shakespeare, stopped her from digging him up.
One reason why she felt so strongly that there were no bones in the grave was that, by all accounts, Shakespeare only went to a few years of grammar school. As a school teacher herself, she felt that school was important and that it was impossible that the greatest writer in the history of the English language almost never went to school.
An additional factor was that the tombstone of Shakespeare specifically states that under no circumstances should this grave be dug up. His tombstone reads: "Good frend for Jesus sake forebeare, To digg the dust enclosed heare. Blese be ye man that spares the stones, And curst be he that moves my bones."
Why would a gravestone possibly contain such an injunction? The answer must be that, in reality, there are no bones in that grave.
Further evidence that Shakespeare did not write Shakespeare: The exact date of his birth is unknown. Few documents or verifiable sources of Shakespeare's life exist, much fewer than would be expected of such a prominent figure. Originals of none of his manuscripts have survived. Not one document exists giving evidence of anyone ever seeing him. Not even his own family ever referred to him as a famous playwright.
Finally, there was a good reason for the real author of the works of Shakespeare to keep his identity a secret. The plays of Shakespeare are highly political. Many of them are veiled attacks on the monarchy and the king. Had King James known who the author was, he would have lost his head.
Indeed, one person who is thought of as having possibly been the author of Shakespeare’s works is Sir Walter Raleigh, who died that way.
Scholars in England do not claim that Shakespeare wrote Shakespeare. Rather, what they say is: What difference does it make? The works exist. Somebody must have written them. The important thing is that we have them today and can read and enjoy them.
Still, there is the question: If Shakespeare did not write Shakespeare, who did? I have a thought on this. Although this question has been hotly debated for more than 200 years, all of the proposed authors of Shakespeare have been men. About 80 candidates, all men, have been suggested, and one by one they have each been eliminated.
I believe that the true author of Shakespeare was a woman. In general, women make better writers than men. This is a proven generic fact. It arises because communication is much more important for the survival of a woman than it is for a man. There are many known historical cases of famous authors whose works were actually written by their wives or daughters.
One reason why most male candidates for being the author of Shakespeare can be eliminated is that they either died too soon or died too late. However, if we consider women, there are an almost unlimited number of possible candidates, because in those times so little was known about them, and so many lived a life span which would have given them time to write all of Shakespeare.
A good place to start would be Elizabeth Vere. It so happens that she was the daughter of Edward de Vere (17th Earl of Oxford), who is considered to be a possible author of Shakespeare, and she was also the wife of William Stanley (Sixth Earl of Derby), who is another leading candidate for being the author of Shakespeare. Why has not Elizabeth Vere herself been considered as the possible author of all of Shakespeare?
Sam Sloan