Search results
The Oxfordian is the peer-reviewed journal of the Shakespeare Oxford Fellowship, a non-profit educational organization that conducts research and publication on the Early Modern period, William Shakespeare and the authorship of Shakespeare’s works. Founded in 1998, the journal offers
The Oxfordian theory of Shakespeare authorship holds that Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford, wrote the plays and poems traditionally attributed to William Shakespeare. Though most literary scholars reject all alternative authorship candidates, including Oxford,[1] popular interest in the Oxfordian theory continues.[2]
People also ask
What do people think about Shakespeare's authorship question?
What is the most popular alternative authorship theory?
How does Shakespeare relate to Oxford's life?
Is Oxford a Shakespearean poem?
The Pages of The Oxfordian are open to all sides of the Authorship Question Shakespeare Wrote Shakespeare David Kathman or the vast majority of Shake-speare scholars, there is no ‘au-thorship question’; they agree that the works of William Shake-speare were written by William Shake-speare of Stratford-upon-Avon (allow-
Abstract. This article examines the different kinds of authorship in relation to William Shakespeare; who wrote Shakespeare; what kind of author Shakespeare was; and the Shakespeare canon. It is hard to exaggerate the cultural prestige that is invested in Shakespeare as an author.
- Where’s The Paper Trail?
- Why The “Vertiginous” Gap in Historical Records?
- Why only Cryptic Posthumous Hints?
- Why Did Family and Friends Never Suggest He Was A Writer?
- Why The Deafening Silence When He died?
- Why Did Shakespeare Authorship Doubts Arise So early?
- Will’s Will: Another Shoe That Doesn’T Fit?
- The “Star of Poets” Could Barely Sign His Own Name?
- The Creator of Portia Failed to Educate His Own Daughters?
- How Can We Explain The Total Mismatch Between The Works and The Alleged Author?
Despite hundreds of years of exhaustive research, no one has found a single letter written by Shakspere to anyone (in most surviving personal records, that or some variation is how his name is spelled — not “Shakespeare” or “Shake-speare,” the almost uniform spelling in the published works). Nor has anyone found any book Shakspere owned, any letter...
During Shakspere’s lifetime, references to the author “Shakespeare” are basically impersonal. Some don’t even use the name, but just allude cryptically to works like Venus and Adonis. Many references imply “Shakespeare” is a pen name — that the author is hidden in some way (see #6 on early doubts). By contrast, the documents we have relating person...
The first suggestions linking the author to Stratford-upon-Avon were published seven years after Shakspere’s death in the 1623 First Folio. The Folio, and the monument in Stratford’s Holy Trinity Church, are both full of puzzling oddities raising questions about the author’s identity. Ben Jonson wrote two prefatory poems in the Folio (one shown abo...
At least ten eyewitnesses who knew Shakspere or his family, and who left behind significant writings, never mentioned he was a writer. Shakspere’s son-in-law, Dr. John Hall, kept a journal in which he wrote of the “excellent poet” and Warwickshire native Michael Drayton. But Hall, among at least ten eyewitnesses with personal knowledge of Shakspere...
In an age of copious eulogies, the reaction to Shakspere’s death in 1616 was eerie silence. Jonson’s non-reaction (see #4) is the strangest example. Compare the flood of grief and eulogies for Shakspere’s fellow actor Richard Burbage, said to eclipse the mourning for Queen Anne when she and Burbage died in 1619. Yet we’re supposed to believe this s...
Authorship doubts arose more than 30 years before the First Folio. Dozens of writings raising questions about the author’s identity were published for decades before Shakspere’s death in 1616. The authorship question thus did notfirst arise (as often falsely claimed) in the 19th century. The authorship debate began right away when these works were ...
Shakspere’s will, despite its detailed disposal of household items, makes no mention of books (not even a family Bible), manuscripts, desks, musical instruments, or anything suggesting literary, artistic, or intellectual interest. He cruelly disinherited his wife of more than 30 years, leaving her only his “second-best bed,” at odds with the theme ...
The only accepted specimens of Shakspere’s handwriting are six tortured, almost illegible signatures. An expert with no stake in the authorship dispute has declared they were written by different people. Some may have been signed on his behalf. Read more about how scholars have interpreted these clumsy markings and take a look for yourself:
Shakspere did not bother to educate his daughters. Like his parents, they were apparently illiterate — in stark contrast to the highly educated young women in many Shakespeare plays, including Portia in The Merchant of Venice; Miranda, tutored by her father Prospero in The Tempest; and Helena, whose learning and skill as a healer save the king’s li...
The documented life of Shakspere of Stratford is jarringly inconsistent with the plays and poems of Shakespeare. The Stratford man was a middle-class social climber, yet the works express contempt for the attitudes necessary for success in his social milieu. They reflect, instead, an unmistakably aristocratic viewpoint, as Walt Whitman recognized (...
“Shakespeare wrote Shakespeare, as if it is a ma” thematical proof that he did and that all who doubt are victims of delusion. But if one uses the Stratford man’s real name as he himself wrote it, which was . Shakspere, and opposes this with the name on the title pages, the corrected version must
Since the publication of Charlton Ogburn Jr.'s The Mysterious William Shakespeare: the Myth and the Reality in 1984, the Oxfordian theory, boosted in part by the advocacy of several Supreme Court justices, high-profile theatre professionals, and some academics, has become the most popular alternative authorship theory.
