Was Shakespeare Real or Not
Who is the man behind the mask? That is a question that many have asked. The mask that I am referring to is that of William Shakespeare. The authorship question has been pondered since the 1780s, when the Reverend James Wilmot spent four wasted years trying to link Shakespeare to the works attributed to him. Many potential candidates along with several completely random names have been proposed as the "real" author of the plays and sonnets we relate to William Shakespeare. Several leading candidates include the Earl of Oxford, the Earl of Southampton, Francis Bacon, and a few others have been suggested, although less of a thought has been given to them. One idea suggests that the name Shakespeare was really the hyphenated pseudonym "William Shake-speare." A popular belief is that Shake-speare is in reference to Athena, who had the nickname Spear Shaker. This also leads to the pseudonym idea because one of Athena's powers was that she could be invisible. Others have also pointed out that the spear could serve also as a dual purpose. The spear is also another way to describe a pen. So, what better pen name in a time when writers were highly criticized then the invisible Spear Shaker or Shak
Another piece of literature that fuels the authenticity debate is the bible. Within the context of Hamlet, Edward de Vere's Bible presents some compelling evidence. For instance, in Act 3 Scene 3, as Hamlet happens upon a praying King Claudius, the prince notices that he can revenge his father's murder. However, Hamlet quickly realizes that Claudius' soul will go to heaven if the king is killed at the altar. Hamlet contrasts this situation with that of his father's murder: "He took my father grossly, full of bread." According to Anderson, "The words 'full of bread' have long been recognized by Shakespeare scholars of all persuasions as a reference to the Bible, specifically to Ezekiel chapter 16, verse 49. And over a span of more than 300 verses in the book of Ezekiel, Edward de Vere marks only one: Ezekiel 16:49." Another interesting study was just completed in 1999. It was done on Edward de Vere's heavily marked and annotated Geneva Bible. "More than one fourth of the 1,066 highlighted passages appear in Shakespeare's writings-phrases like 'weaver's beam' and 'I am that I am' and unusual names like 'Achitophel.' In addition, 29 of the playwright's 66 most prominent biblical allusions are also marked." (Satchell) In a time when the plays and writings of Shakespeare were tremendously popular, and when authors left many references in their writings to the works themselves, not a single person in the age of Shakespeare directly addresses the actual identity of the author. Nobody we know of ever corresponded with Shakespeare, and in an age of books, no record, not even Shakspere's will, ever points to his owning or using a single book. Nobody relates the gentleman from Stratford to the works of Shakespeare or even suggests he was a writer at all. Another interesting twist is handwriting. Only six examples of the man's handwriting have been found. All of them were signatures on legal documents and as Gilbert Slater said, "The difficulty of identification is enhanced by the fact that the handwriting of the signatures itself varies greatly, so much so that some doubt still remains as to whether they are all autographs, and they are not sufficiently legible to preclude difference of opinion with regard to spelling." (93) There has been a lot of research now in to the topic of who Shakespeare really was. In a time when writers were imprisoned and mutilated for committing "literary excesses or violating political correctness", many wrote anonymously. For this reason a pen name such as Shakespeare would without a doubt be necessary. Due to the lack of evidence supporting the man known as Shakspere as being an educated man, it is hard for me to credit the expansive works to him. In addition, it is hard to overlook the many coincides that occurred in Edwa
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Approximate Word count = 1889
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page double spaced)
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