THE
SHAKESPEARE
MYSTERY
THE
SHAKESPEARE
MYSTERY
Many people have denied that Shakespeare wrote Shakespeare. Candidates for the "real" author have ranged from Francis Bacon to Queen Elizabeth. Currently, Edward de Vere, the Seventeenth Earl of Oxford, is the leading contender for the Bard's throne.
Students were free to investigate any aspect of the Shakespeare-de Vere mystery that interested them. For this web page, each student prepared a short abstract of his or her research. These abstracts are linked below in a question-and-answer format. Most of the abstracts conclude with a brief bibliography of the sources that the author found most useful.
Two notes about vocabulary are in order. First, "Stratfordians" are those who argue that William Shakespeare is the Bard, while "Oxfordians" support Edward de Vere. Second, the abstracts observe a distinction between the spellings "Shakspere" and "Shakespeare." "Shakspere" refers to the man who was born in Stratford-upon-Avon; "Shakespeare" refers to the author of the plays and poems. Stratfordians, of course, are confident that this is an empty distinction.
William Shakspere
Does Ben Jonson prove that William Shakspere was William Shakespeare?
Was Shakspere educated enough to write Shakespeare's plays and poems?
Was Shakspere educated enough to write Shakespeare's plays and poems?
Do Shakspere's signatures suggest that he was illiterate?
Edward de Vere
Did Edward de Vere write Shakespeare's plays and poems?
Does de Vere's biography support the notion that he was Shakespeare?
How could de Vere be Shakespeare if he died before many of the plays were first published or performed?Sonnets and a Play
What clues do the sonnets offer about Shakespeare's identity?
What clues do the sonnets offer about Shakespeare's identity?
What does Hamlet tell us about Shakespeare's identity?
What's in a name?
If de Vere wrote the plays, why didn't he use his own name?
Are the various spellings of "Shakespeare" significant?
What is the significance of the name "Shake-speare"?
Final Thoughts
Might the plays have been the product of a collaboration?
Can we know who wrote Shakespeare?
Can we know who wrote Shakespeare?
Does it matter who wrote Shakespeare?
Click here to go to the Home Page for the Pilot Program of Spring 1998
Click here to go to the General Education Pilot Program Home Page
Last modified March 25, 2003