When books are thought of, it's usually by the author. The author comes up with the ideas for the plot, storyline, characters,etc. But with shakespeare, that's seems to be a different case. Throughout the past couple of years, there has been something known as the “Authorship Debate”. People seem to be coming up with theories that Shakespeare himself, didn't write the play, but someone else. During that era, if you were of high standing, you weren't allowed to write without facing some sort of prejudice. Many people believe that someone of high standings wrote it and Shakespeare took credit for it, with the high standing person's permission, so they wouldn't get bite by the bug. There are countless theories of who the writer might actually be but the main suspects are Shakespeare himself, Edward de Vere, Sir Francis Bacon, Christopher Marlowe, William Stanley, Roger Manners, Sir Walter Raleigh and Mary Sidney Herbert.
The first to be presumed the writer is Shakespeare himself. William Shakespeare was an actor in the troupe or company that performed William Shakespeare's plays. On May 16, in 1903, the troupe was licensed as the King's Men. On that list was William Shakespeare and his fellow members (How).In Ben Jonson's 1616 folio of Works, he listed all the actors of each play. In 1598, “Will Shakespeare” was listed for Every Man in His Humor. When Shakespeare bought the Blackfriar Greenhouse, John Hemmnyg was the trustee for the buying, stating that William Shakespeare Stratford-upon-Avon, was the one who bought the house. William Shakespeare was also noted as a poet when in 1615, Edmund Howes published a list of “Our moderne, and present excellent Poets” in John Stow's Annales, “M. Willi. Shakespeare gentlemen” was listed on ...
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...http://absoluteshakespeare.com/trivia/authorship/authorship_de_vere.html. Absoluteshakespeare.com, 2005. Web. 17 February 2014.
“From Edward D. Johnson: “The Shaksper Illusion,” chapter: “Francis Bacon's Promus”. http://www.sirbacon.org/links/notebook.html. N.p, n.d. Web. 17 February, 2014.
Jamieson, Lee. “Who was Edward de Vere? Could Edward de Vere be the Real Shakespeare?” http://shakespeare.about.com/od/authorshipdebate/a/Edward_de_Vere.html. About.com, 2014. Web. 17 February 2014.
Reedy, Tom and David Kathman. “How We Know that Shakespeare Wrote Shakespeare: The Historical Facts”. http://shakespeareauthorship.com/howdowe.html. J.M. Pressley and the Shakespeare Resource Center, 1 January 2014. Web. 17 February, 2014.
“Summary of Baconian Evidence for Shakespeare Authorship”. http://www.sirbacon.org/links/evidence.html. N.p, n.d. Web. 17 February, 2014.
Scene 1 of Act 4 is certainly one of the most visually impacting and intriguing scenes of the entire play. This strong effect is attained by the sequential presentation of mysterious images and a close reference to evil throughout the whole scene. On stage, the visual (the actions and apparitions) and audible (the speech and sound effects as the thunder) factors engulf the entire scene in an atmosphere of wickedness.
Next, Shakespeare had also impacted many other writers at his time and still to this day. He influenced the writers in many ways. Many others have used phrases from Shakespeare's work for their own titles or for own novels they write. The authors thought his work was so unique they wanted to use some of it for their work. There have been dozens of movies based on Shakespeare and his work. The first one was in 1899 and since then many authors have made a movie about him (Mabillard). Many writers are inspired by Shakespeare and his work. His stories surpass time and culture which is a reason to why authors continue to adapt his work. An author named John Keats wrote a poem he would keep Shakespeare's works next to him for influence (Acevedo).
Although Shakespeare was known to be a talented writer, there seems to be many things that have inspired Shakespeare to write this play. King Lear, for example, it mainly based of King Leir, a legendary king of the Britons, which was accounted by Geoffrey of Monmouth in Historia Regum Britanniae in 1135. However, the play King Lear seems to be influenced and inspired by many historical events and lawsuits occurred in Britain at the time it was written.
William Shakespeare wrote the play that may have also influenced and inspired him to write. At
In another attempt to find evidence to confirm or deny that Shakespeare authored his plays, who else could have written the plays must be considered. To illustrate, Steven Dutch writes, “Bacon Fra...
Francis Bacon is the most likely candidate. He fits the time period, had the power, writting background and a secret hierarchy group of literary writers. Francis Bacon was born in 1561 and he died in 1626. The first Folio of Shakespear was released in 1623. The first play was written around 1589-1591. This puts Bacon within the time period to be responsible for the plays. Unlike Shakespeare or Edward de vere. Shakespeare died in 1616 and the highly edited folio was released 7 years after the death of Shakespeare. Similarly Edward de Vere died in 1604 and was not around to do the extensive editing that had taken place by the time of the first folio. If it was edited by others who were not in charge of the plays I concede that this would have been Plagiarism and disrespecting an authors work shortly after their deaths. Whom I believe they respected and would not have done unless they were a part of the work.
In 1564, a man was born by the name of William Shakespeare. He was born to a poor family, was given little education, and had no interaction with sophisticated society. Thirty-eight plays and over 150 sonnets are not attributed to this ignorant man. Those who believe that Shakespeare was the author have no definitive proof but instead point to Hamlet’s declaration: "The play’s the thing(Satchell 71)." The true author, however, lies hidden behind he name of Shakespeare. Edward de Vere the premier Earl of Oxford is not only considered a great poet in history, but he may also be the great playwright who concocted the sonnets and plays which are now attributed to William Shakespeare of Stratford, England.
Shakespeare’s plays and sonnets are big contributors to today's literature, but we still don't know the truth about who actually wrote them. There is many conspiracy theories that suggest William Shakespeare didn't actually write his plays, some believe William Stanley, Christopher Marlowe, or Edward de Vere may have have just used William Shakespeare as a pen name. Each theory has good points but they also all have parts that are not possible and don't make sense. What theory is true may never be answered due to the fact that the events happened so many years ago and there isn't much documentation from shakespeare's time.
Perhaps the reason that Shakespeare’s works have not been attributed to any other man would attest to the fact that scholars are not willing to accept the implications that the man celebrated to be the world’s most ingenious literary figure is not, in fact, who he was thought to be. However, the search for evidence leading to the true author will continue out of the ethical implications that credit must be given to the true author of the world’s greatest literature.
Although William Shakespeare is considered to be one of the most revered and well-renowned authors of all time, controversy surrounds the belief that he actually produced his own literary works. Some rumors even go so far as to question the reality of such a one, William Shakespeare, brought on by paralleling the quality of his pieces with his personal background and education. With such farfetched allegations, it persuaded others to peek into the person we all are taught to learn as “Shakespeare”, but who is actually the person behind these genius works of literary promise and enlightenment? To some, Shakespeare is as much accredited to his works as frequently as you see his name placed. To others, Shakespeare is a complex enigma into which we the people are supposed to unravel; the true author behind a falsely-given pseudonym. The debate pertaining to the true authorship of William Shakespeare’s works are still questioned in today’s society.
Ludowyk, E. F. C. Understanding Shakespeare. London, N.W.: The Syndics of the Cambridge University Press, 1962. Print.
The works of Shakespeare are some of the most respected in English literature. They have set the standard for all the great writers who followed. Although these works have been attributed to William Shakespeare of Stratford, they could have been written by anyone. The definite authorship of a work is always uncertain, but these works are particularly contested. There are those who believe someone besides Shakespeare of Stratford wrote the works, while others believe his identity, as a whole, is a conspiracy. Clearly the author of a work is important, but some wonder if knowing the author’s identity is really worth all the fuss. The works of Shakespeare will still reign at the top of English literature no matter who wrote them. Therefore, the question of authorship may not even be relevant.
Ever since the author's background has been questioned, scholars and other people have debated over who wrote the famous plays and sonnets that have the name William Shakespeare signed on them. Many alternative candidates have been presented, such as Edward de Vere, the 17th Earl of Oxford. However, these people do not have strong or valid arguments to support their theories. Based on biographical evidence, Shakespeare, not Edward de Vere, most likely wrote Shakespearean works. The arguments for other candidates like de Vere are not strong enough to show that Shakespeare did not write Shakespearean works.
Stratfordians believe that William Shakespeare was the true writer of many great plays like Hamlet, Macbeth, and Othello. This belief may be true, but there are many pieces of opposing evidence showing that he did not actually write these plays or poems. From the lack of information about his life, to his lack of education, there is almost no true reason that he could have written such amazing plays. There are many pieces of evidence showing that an earl named Edward De Vere wrote these plays. De Vere was a well educated nobleman with a degree from Oxford University. He had knowledge of the places most plays were set, and had a perfectly wide enough range of knowledge to be able to have written these plays. Because playwriting was considered
From the works of William Shakespeare and Edmund Spenser it is clear that some similarities are apparent, however the two poets encompass different writing styles, as well as different topics that relate to each other in their own unique ways. In Shakespeare’s “Sonnet 18” and Spenser’s “Sonnet 75”, both poets speak of love in terms of feelings and actions by using different expressive views, allowing the similar topics to contain clear distinctions. Although Edmund Spenser’s “Sonnet 75” and William Shakespeare’s “Sonnet 18” relate in the sense that love is genuine and everlasting, Spenser suggests love more optimistically, whereas Shakespeare focuses on expressing the beauty and stability of love.