Is William Shakespeare Really William Shakespeare?

Listen to the whole interview:
http://www.wnyc.org/shows/lopate/episodes/2010/04/19/segments/153618
Shakespeare scholar James Shapiro explains when and why so many people began to question whether Shakespeare wrote the plays attributed to him, and examines the history of the controversy, what it means, why it matters, and how it has persisted. In Contested Will: Who Wrote Shakespeare? he looks at how the questions of whether Shakespeare wrote his plays are fundamental questions about literary genius and about the relationship between life and art.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• wnyc
• leonard
• lopate
• william
• shakespeare
• james
• shapiro
• contested
• will
• history
• literature

[likebox2]

The best parallel is Robert Rich and Dalton Trumbo. Already in 1593, Ros Barber discovered that there were doubts about the author of Venus and Adonis. Shakespeare was obviously written by Marlowe, and the fact that this clown can't recognize it makes him incompetent to write about either Shakespeare or Marlowe, and he should not be teaching at university.

[MsTexasOne]

he compares Mozart, Chaucer, et al to Shakespeare. There was documentation and WITNESSES to Mozart writing, Chaucer et al. There has yet to surface ANY evidence of Stratford Will writing anything other than his chicken scratch signature. Even DeVere left behind books and poetry. Lets not even mention all of the close connections DeVere had to people who were supposedly close to Shakespeare. (e.g. Golding, Lyly, Earl of Southhampton etc etc etc)

[rockhammer85]

Strafordian's always get so passionate and personal. So much for being cool-headed, objective scholars. Methinks they're afraid of something. Probably that small thing called The Truth. In some ways you can't blame them for getting tense. It would probably be hell for them to find out that they'd wasted their lives basing their theories of the plays and it's author on the wrong man. Imagine a lifetime spent writing BS! Then again...they've already been doing that anyway.

[Almuric7]

And after Shakespeare died not one of his contemporaries said a word or wrote anything about him - until 7 YEARS later when Francis Bacon finally did. There's more than I've listed here (not least, no manuscripts in his own hand) and William Shakespeare has more puzzling differences to his contemporaries past and present than any other practitioner in any other field of the arts, I take the point in this video though. Also, before Christopher Marlowe died, there was nothing by "Shakespeare".

[Almuric7]

Come on, there are loads of points with Shakespeare - his own granddaughter said he wasn't a poet, he didn't mention the burning down of his Globe theater, he never went to see the damage. He was untraceable by the authorities as a tax evader (the biggest playwright of the day owning the Globe in London???) His original effigy was depicted by 2 different artists as a grain merchant. He didn't attend Grammar school, or College, he had no literary items in his will.