The Great Authorship Question: William Shakespeare or Edward de Vere

The Great Authorship Question: William Shakespeare or Edward de Vere?

Austin William Mitchell

Metropolitan State University of Denver

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Abstract

Who is the true author of the works attributed to William Shakespeare? This controversy has been researched for years and within the last twenty years there has been a lot of evidence that points to Edward de Vere, the Seventeenth Earl of Oxford as the true author. Some of the evidence includes connections throughout his life, relationships with other writers and actors, clues hidden within the works, and encryptions a writer named Ben Jonson. There are a lot of counter arguments that are for William Shakespeare himself. The ones that will be discussed are the works being published after Edward de Vere's death, Shakespeare's Education, the fact he had a share of the Globe Theater, the Stratford Monument, and the First Folio dedication from Ben Jonson.

English: Collage of the 4 alternative candidates f...

Portrait of Edward de Vere - 17th Earl of Oxford -...

English: Anne Vavasour, who in 1580 was appointed ...

Together these arguments and counterarguments will bring the truth to the surface.

Keywords: Authorship Controversy, William Shakespeare, Edward de Vere,

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The Great Authorship Question: William Shakespeare or Edward de Vere?

Introduction

"To be or not to be?" This is one of the most famous questions to have been asked in all of literature. There are a lot of theories about the works attributed to William Shakespeare. The most famous theory is that Shakespeare is not the true author of the works. Around 1769 Herbert Lawrence wrote The Life and Adventures of Common Sense. (Milner, 2012). This book is the first documented resource to the questioning of the works attributed to Shakespeare. According to Milner, Herbert stated that William Shakespeare is not the true writer of the works. He mentioned Christopher Marlowe and Francis Bacon as two...