Are the various spellings of "Shakespeare" significant?

William Shakespeare is known as "a man who wrote plays to please a theatrical company and audiences, acted in grease-paint on the stage with other actors, shared management responsibilities, made purchases, and retired in prosperity to a sleepy provincial town" (Schoenbaurn 184). Although many believe that the answers to the controversy over Shakespeare's authorship lie within the questions of the chronological order of his works, the background of his works, or his education, I maintain that the only true conclusion lies within his name itself. Furthermore, I contend that the spellings of the name are irrelevant to the question of authorship.

Supporters of the Seventeenth Earl of Oxford base all their claims on circumstantial evidence. Those claims lack credibility and substantiation. However interesting their claims may sound, not one of those claims can establish beyond all doubts that de Vere was the author of the world-famed plays, sonnets, and poems. Therefore, Shakespeare, however secretive of his personal life, remains the man to whom all credit is due.

--Kyle Kramer

Sources:

Chambers. E. K. William Shakespeare: A Study of the Facts and Problems. 1930.

Halliwell-Phillips, J. O. Outlines of the Life of Shakespeare. 9th edition. 1890.

Kathman, David. "William Shakespeare: Biography." National Public Radio, 1997.

Schoenbaum, S. Shakespeare's Lives. New edition. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1991.

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