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The Oxfordian theory of Shakespeare authorship contends that Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford, wrote the plays and poems of William Shakespeare. While historians and literary scholars overwhelmingly reject alternative authorship candidates, including Oxford, public interest in the Oxfordian theory continues. Since the 1920s, the Oxfordian theory has been the most popular alternative Shakespeare authorship theory.
William Shakespeare was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon". His extant works, including collaborations, consist of some 39 plays, 154 sonnets, three long narrative poems, and a few other verses, some of uncertain authorship. His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright. Shakespeare remains arguably the most influential writer in the English language, and his works continue to be studied and reinterpreted.
Thomas Middleton was an English Jacobean playwright and poet. He, with John Fletcher and Ben Jonson, was among the most successful and prolific of playwrights at work in the Jacobean period, and among the few to gain equal success in comedy and tragedy. He was also a prolific writer of masques and pageants.
Delia Salter Bacon was an American writer of plays and short stories and Shakespeare scholar. She is best known for her work on the authorship of Shakespeare's plays, which she attributed to social reformers including Francis Bacon, Sir Walter Raleigh and others.
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The Globe Theatre was a theatre in London associated with William Shakespeare. It was built in 1599 at Southwark, close to the south bank of the Thames, by Shakespeare's playing company, the Lord Chamberlain's Men. It was destroyed by fire on 29 June 1613. A second Globe Theatre was built on the same site by June 1614 and stayed open until the London theatre closures of 1642. As well as plays by Shakespeare, early works by Ben Jonson, Thomas Dekker and John Fletcher were first performed here.
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Sir Andrew Jonathan Bate, CBE, FBA, FRSL, is a British academic, biographer, critic, broadcaster, scholar, and occasional novelist, playwright and poet. He specializes in Shakespeare, Romanticism and Ecocriticism. He is Foundation Professor of Environmental Humanities in a joint appointment of the College of Liberal Arts, the School of Sustainability and the Global Futures Laboratory at Arizona State University, as well as a Senior Research Fellow at Worcester College in the University of Oxford, where he holds the title of Professor of English Literature. Bate was Provost of Worcester College, Oxford, from 2011 to 2019. From 2017 to 2019 he was Gresham Professor of Rhetoric in the City of London. He was knighted in 2015 for services to literary scholarship and higher education.
The Marlovian theory of Shakespeare authorship holds that the Elizabethan poet and playwright Christopher Marlowe was the main author of the poems and plays attributed to William Shakespeare. Further, the theory says Marlowe did not die in Deptford on 30 May 1593, as the historical records state, but that his death was faked.
The Shakespeare Fellowship was the name used by an organisation devoted to the Shakespeare authorship question. Originally it sought to represent all alternatives to the mainstream consensus that William Shakespeare authored the plays attributed to him, but it later became strongly identified with Oxfordian theory: promoting Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford, as the true author of the works of Shakespeare. The original organisation is now known as "The Shakespearean Authorship Trust".
Note: In compliance with the accepted terminology used within the Shakespeare authorship question, this article uses the term "Stratfordian" to refer to the position that William Shakespeare of Stratford-upon-Avon was the primary author of the plays and poems traditionally attributed to him. The term "anti-Stratfordian" is used to refer to the theory that some other author, or authors, wrote the works.
Sir Edwin Durning-Lawrence, 1st Baronet was a British lawyer and Member of Parliament.
The spelling of William Shakespeare's name has varied over time. It was not consistently spelled any single way during his lifetime, in manuscript or in printed form. After his death the name was spelled variously by editors of his work, and the spelling was not fixed until well into the 20th century.
The Shakespeare authorship question is the argument that someone other than William Shakespeare of Stratford-upon-Avon wrote the works attributed to him. Anti-Stratfordians—a collective term for adherents of the various alternative-authorship theories—believe that Shakespeare of Stratford was a front to shield the identity of the real author or authors, who for some reason—usually social rank, state security, or gender—did not want or could not accept public credit. Although the idea has attracted much public interest, all but a few Shakespeare scholars and literary historians consider it a fringe theory, and for the most part acknowledge it only to rebut or disparage the claims.
Roger A. Stritmatter is a Professor of Humanities at Coppin State University and the former general editor of Brief Chronicles, a delayed open access journal covering the Shakespeare authorship question from 2009 to 2016. He was a founder of the modern Shakespeare Fellowship, an organization that promotes Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford, as the true author of the works of William Shakespeare. He is one of the leading modern-day advocates of the Oxfordian theory of Shakespeare authorship, and has been called the “first professional Oxfordian scholar”.
Frances Wilson is an English author, academic, and critic.
Katherine Rundell is an English author and academic. She is the author of Rooftoppers, which in 2015 won both the overall Waterstones Children's Book Prize and the Blue Peter Book Award for Best Story, and was short-listed for the Carnegie Medal. She is a Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford and has appeared as an expert guest on BBC Radio 4 programmes including Start the Week, Poetry Please, Seriously.... and Private Passions.
1599: A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare is a 2006 book by James S. Shapiro about the life of William Shakespeare in the year 1599. 1599 was the year Shakespeare finished writing Henry V, and wrote Julius Caesar and As You Like It. In addition to detailing Shakespeare's life, Shapiro "delv[es] into evocative details of social, political, and artistic life in London in 1599."
References
- ↑ "James Shapiro". Front Row. March 26, 2010. BBC Radio 4. Retrieved January 18, 2014.
- ↑ 'Shakespeare' Wins Samuel Johnson Prize [ dead link ], Washington Post/AP, June 14, 2006.
- ↑ Nye, Robert (July 2005). "'Shakespeare's Annus Mirabilis".
- ↑ Esquire columnist Stephen Marche at 'Wouldn’t It Be Cool if Shakespeare Wasn’t Shakespeare?,' in The New York Times Magazine , 21 October 2011.p.2: "If you want to read the definitive treatment, there is James Shapiro’s more recent Contested Will, although that book is nearly as absurd as its subject, because using a brain like Shapiro’s on the authorship question is like bringing an F-22 to an alley knife fight."
- ↑ James Tait Black Memorial Prize
- ↑ Peterson, Tyler (March 2, 2016). "James Shapiro Wins 9th Annual Sheridan Morley Prize for Theatre Biography".
- ↑ "The King & the Playwright: A Jacobean History". BBC. Retrieved April 26, 2012.
- ↑ Shaffi, Sarah (27 April 2023). "James Shapiro wins Baillie Gifford anniversary prize with 'extraordinary' Shakespeare biography 1599". The Guardian. Retrieved 30 April 2023.
- ↑ "James Shapiro's 1599: A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare wins…". Baillie Gifford Prize. Retrieved 30 April 2023.
- ↑ Chautauqua Institution: James Shapiro Archived January 18, 2006, at the Wayback Machine , July 15, 2002.
