The Believe that William Shakespeare wrote the Works Attributed to Him

It was found in a survey by Education Life, that the overwhelming majority of Shakespearean professors believe that William Shakespeare of Stratford-on-Avon wrote the works attributed to him, and do not believe there is a strong argument disproving his authorship (Niederkorn 1). This conclusion comes from numerous sources and pieces of evidence, one of the most important being the First Folio, the complete collection of Shakespeare’s works published in 1623. The First Folio gives essential information about the identity of the author, a name, face, date of death, and hometown, and informs the public that that he was an actor whom at least two earls knew of. It also provides identification from the author's peers, establishing that Shakespeare did in fact write the plays (McCrea 6). William Shakespeare of Stratford-Upon-Avon is accredited to the works because that is the name that appears on print versions of his works, and no proof exists currently to indicate that anyone else in the age was called "William Shakespeare." A multitude of others in the time period give Shakespeare credit for his works, and no one ever attributed them to anyone else, at least at that time, the same type of evidence used to credit playwrights and poets from the same time period. Also consistent with the time period is the subject of Shakespeare’s works. Though, Anti-Stratfordians point to the lack of similarities between Shakespeare’s life and works, but his audience was London, not Stratford, so he centered his works on things that would be familiar to his audience and interest them. Laws against works concerning current issues made it dangerous to write about current events, and as his peers were constantly arrested, and he nearly was, too, placing h...

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Massie, Allan. "Shakespeare Authorship Fantasists Don't Understand How Plays Are Written." The Telegraph [London] 25 Oct. 2011, Culture: n. pag. The Telegraph. Web. 14 Feb. 2014. .

McCrea, Scott. The Case for Shakespeare: The End of the Authorship Questions. Westport, CT: Praeger, 2005. Print.

Niederkorn, William S. "Shakespeare Reaffirmed." The New York Times [New York] 22 Apr. 2007, Education Life: n. pag. The New York Times. Web. 16 Feb. 2014. .

Shapiro, James. "Hollywod Dishonors the Bard." The New York Times [New York] 16 Oct. 2011: n. pag. The New York Times. Web. 14 Feb. 2014.