1. What is the Shakespeare authorship problem? Shakespeare’s main authorship problem is discussing whether or not Shakespeare wrote his work or not. The believers that Shakespeare did indeed write his own work have no exact proof of this. 2. What literary, cultural, and political figures doubt that Shakespeare was the sole author of the work? There are many people who doubt Shakespeare’s writing. Literature professionals such as; Walt Whitman, Henry James, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Mark Twain, Sigmund Freud, Orson Welles, and John Gielgud have doubted his writings. As for as culture goes Mark Rylance, who is an are director, and Shakespearean actors such as Michael York, Kenneth Branagh, and Derek Jacobi have also doubted his work. Even Matrix star Keanu Reeves has had doubts saying he is an oxford scholar supported to this issue. 3. Make a chronological history of the doubts that surround the authorship of the Shakespearean canon. 1728 - Publication of Captain Goulding's Essay Against Too Much Reading in which he comments on the background Shakespeare would require for his historical plays and suggests that Shakespeare probably had to keep "one of those chuckle-pated Historians for his particular Associate...or he might have starvd upon his History." Goulding tells us that he had this from "one of his (Shakespeare's) intimate Acquaintance." 1769 - Publication of The Life and Adventures of Common Sense, an anonymous allegory which describes a profligate Shakespeare casting "his Eye upon a common place Book, in which was contained, an Infinite Variety of Modes and Forms, to express all the different Sentiments of the human Mind, together with Rules for their Combinations and Connections upon every Subject or Occasion that might Occur in Dramatic Writing..." 1785 - Rev. James Wilmot, D.D. attributed authorship to Sir Francis Bacon, Lord Verulam. 1786 - The Story of the Learned Pig , an anonymous allegory by an "Officer of the Royal Navy," in which The Pig describes himself as having variously been a greyhound, deer, bear and a human being (after taking possession of a body) who worked as horseholder at a playhouse where he met the "Immortal Shakespeare" who's he reports didn't "run his country for deer-stealing" and didn't father the various plays, Hamlet, Othello, As You Like It, The Tempest , and Midsummer's Night Dream. Instead the Pig confesses to be author. 1848 - In The Romance of Yachting by Joseph C. Hart, a former American consul at Santa Cruz, provides Considerable anti-Stratfordian opinion. Favors Jonson as probable author of Shakespeare's plays. 1852 - August issue of Chambers' Edinburgh Journal contained an anonymous article, 'Who Wrote Shakespeare" The author suggests that Shakespeare "kept a poet." 1856 - Bacon is proposed as author of Shakespeare's plays in Putnam's Monthly (January issue) which contained "Shakespeare and His Plays: An Inquiry Concerning Them" by Delia Bacon, an American bearing no family relationship to Francis Bacon. 1857 - Publication of The Philosophy of the Plays of Shakespeare Unfolded, a book by Delia Bacon in which she considers the possibility of several authors. Nathanial Hawthorne helped Delia Bacon publish this book, for which he contributed a preface. 1891/92 - James Greenstreet, a British archivist, in a series of essays in The Genealogist, proposed that William Stanley, 6th Earl of Derby was author of the Shakespeare plays. 1892 - Our English Homer listed several writers as a group who were responsible for writing Shakespeare's works: Marlowe, Greene, Peele, Nashe, Lodge, Bacon and others. 1895 - It Was Marlowe: A Story of the Secret of Three Centuries, a novel by Wilbur Ziegler, proposed that Marlowe, Raleigh, and the Earl of Rutland were authors of the Shakespearean canon. 1903 - Henry James in a letter to Miss Violet Hunt says "I am 'a sort of' haunted by the conviction that the divine William is the biggest and most successful fraud ever practised on a patient world." 1908 - Sir George Greenwood, scholar and Member of Parliament, exposed the major arguments and scholarship against the Stratford man as author of the Shakespearean canon in his book, The Shakespeare Problem Restated, the first in a series of volumes that Sir George devoted to the subject. 1910 - Bacon Is Shakespeare by Sir Edwin Durning-Lawrence (New York, John McBride Co.) cited arguments that Bacon is Shakespeare and that the following are distinguished men who perceived "the truth respecting the real authorship of the Plays:" --Lord Palmerston, British statesman, 1784-1865. --Lord Houghton, British statesman, 1809-1885 (better known as Richard Monckton Milnes). -- Samuel Taylor Coleridge, British critic and poet, 1772-1834 --John Bright, British statesman, 1811-1889 ("Any man that believes that William Shakespeare of Stratford wrote Hamlet or Lear is a fool.") --Ralph Waldo Emerson, American philosopher and poet, 1803-1882 --John Greenlief Whittier, American poet, 1807-1892 ("Whether Bacon wrote the wonderful plays or not, I am quite sure the man Shakspere neither did nor could.") --Dr. W. H. Furness, eminent American scholar and father of the editor of the Variorum, 1802-1891 ("I am one of the many who have never been able to bring the life of William Shakepeare and the plays of Shakespeare within planetary space of each other.") --Mark Twain, American author and humorist, 1835-1910 --Prince Otto von Bismarck, 1815-1898 1915 - The Derbyite theory, suggesting that William Stanley, 6th Earl of Derby was the true author behind the Shakespeare name, was revived by Robert Fraser in The Silent Shakespeare. 1919 - Abel Lefranc, a French scholar, also supports the Derbyite theory in his Sous le Masque de "William Shakespeare": William Stanley, VI Comte de Derby. 1920 - J. Thomas Looney, British schoolmaster and scholar, evolved the theory of Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford as author in his book, "Shakespeare" Identified in Edward de Vere, the Seventeenth Earl of Oxford. 1922 - The Shakespeare Fellowship, an organization devoted to research on the Shakespearean authorship, is formed with honorary president Sir George Greenwood, and officers including J. T. Looney, Colonel B. R. Ward (father of the biographer of Edward de Vere) and Abel Lefranc. 1926 - Sigmund Freud adopts J. Thomas Looney's theory on the 17th Earl of Oxford. (One of Freud's teachers, Theodor Meynert, had believed in Bacon as the true author.) Freud later confirmed this advocacy in 1935 with the revision of his Autobiographical Study. 1930 - Canon Gerald Rendall, Gladstone professor of Greek at Liverpool's University College, publishes Shakespeare Sonnets and Edward de Vere --another book that influenced Sigmund Freud. 1930 - Eva Turner Clark publishes a book, Shakespeare's Plays in the Order of Their Writing, which proposes that the 17th Earl of Oxford wrote the plays and at a much earlier date than supposed. 1943 - Alden Brooks advocates the candidacy of Sir Edward Dyer as author in his book, Will Shakspere and the Dyer's Hand. 1952 - Dr. A. W. Titherley, onetime dean of the faculty of science at the University of Liverpool wrote Shakespeare's Identity in which he tried to establish the Derbyite theory through a series of scientific formulas. 1955 - Calvin Hoffman in his book, The Murder of the Man Who Was "Shakespeare", reawakened interest in the theory that Christopher Marlowe was author of Shakespeare's plays. 1956 - George Elliot Sweet's Shakespeare the Mystery presents the case for Queen Elizabeth as author. 1957 - present Incorporation of the Shakespeare Oxford Society. From its inception (originally as the Shakespeare Fellowship in the l930s) a stream of publications in the form of books, newsletters, and journals advanced the evidence for Edward de Vere's authorship of the Shakespeare canon. Noted writers: Charlton and Dorothy Ogburn, Charlton Ogburn, Jr., Charles Wisner Barrell, Louis Benezet, Gelett Burgess, Ruth Loyd Miller, Dr. A. Bronson Feldman. 1962 - Historian Hugh Trevor-Roper in Realites ( Nov. 1962) says, "One-hundredth part of the labor (expended on Shakespeare's curriculum vitae) applied to one of his insignificant contemporaries would be sufficient to produce a substantial biography." 1964 - Justice Wilberforce in a court case in England brought by the heirs of the deceased Evelyn May Hopkins, challenging the validity of her gift to the Francis Bacon Society, Inc., gave an opinion in favor of Miss Hopkins' intentions, indicating that "the evidence in favour of Shake-speare's authorship is quantitatively slight. It rests positively, in the main, on the explicit statements in the First Folio of 1623 and on continuous tradition; negatively on the lack of any challenge to this ascription at the time." He goes on to say that the noted English historian, Professor Trevor-Roper also considers that the case for William Shakespeare rests on a narrow balance of evidence and that new material could upset it" 1975 Reprint publication of Looney's Shakespeare Identified (edited by Ruth Loyd Miller) from Minos Publishing. 1984 Publication of Charlton Ogburn's The Mysterious William Shakespeare results in a burst of new interest in the authorship that continues today 1987 The Moot Court Debate in Washington DC presided over by three sitting Justices of the US Supreme Court. Two of the three justices (Blackmun and Stevens), while voting for Shaksper of Stratford on narrow legal grounds, express their great interest in the issue and later express opinions that Edward de Vere may very well be the true Shakespeare. 1989 Broadcast on PBS' Frontline of The Shakespeare Mystery further increases awareness and interest in the authorship debate. 1994- The new technology of the Internet provides electronic forums and electronic publishing for the Shakespeare Oxford Society to reach increasing numbers of people, especially students, around the world. 1995 A Shakespeare Oxford Society Home Page and a new electronic magazine (The Ever Reader) are started on the World Wide Web, bringing the authorship resources and news of the debate to a global audience. Teachers at both the high school and college level increasingly have class assignments on the authorship debate and use the Internet as a primary resource for up-to-date information. 1997 The Edward de Vere Studies Conference is founded by Dr. Daniel L. Wright (Head, Department of English) at Concordia University (Portland, Oregon). 4. Now do the same for the doubts surrounding the Stratfordian attribution. Shakespeare, alone of all the great writers in Western civilization, is unique in the enigma he presents. Despite two hundred years of scholarly attempts to establish the Stratford man's credentials, doubts of the author's identity simply won't go away. The very multitude of candidates proposed in substitution for William Shakspere (or Shaxper) of Stratford defines the difficulties a growing number of people find in accepting his authorship. The reason is that as Henry James said, "The facts of Stratford do not 'square' with the plays of genius...": -There is no reference during the lifetime of Shakepere of Stratford (1564-1616) which either speaks of the author of the Shakespearean works as having come from Stratford or speaks of the Stratford man as being an author. (The first indication that the author of Shakespeare's plays came from Stratford appears, ambiguously, in the prefatory materials of the 1623 First Folio.) -In an age of copious eulogies, none was forthcoming when William Shakspere died in Stratford. William Camden in his book Remaines had praised the author "Shakespeare", but in his Annals for the year 1616 Camden omits mention of the Stratford man's death. Also, in the list of Stratford Worthies of 1605 Camden omits the Stratford man's name, even though Camden had previously passed on Shakspere's application for a family coat of arms. (The inference is that it did not occur to Camden that the author, "Shakespeare", and the Stratford man were the same person.) The first memorial verse to "Shakespeare" appears in the 1623 Folio. -There is no mention in the documents of the time of a Shakespeare's, or a Shakspere's, intimate acquaintance with the inner court circles as has been implied by such contemporaries as Ben Jonson, later seventeenth-century commentators such as John Ward, the author's dedications to the Earl of Southampton of two poems, and internal evidence from Shakespeare's works. -The author of Shakespeare's works had to be familiar with a wide body of knowledge for his time --on such subjects as law, music, foreign languages, the classics, and aristocratic manners and sports. There is no documentation that William Shakspere of Stratford had access to such information. -Despite evidence of Shakspere's unspecified connection with the theater, documentation of any career as an actor is conspicuously absent. For example, there is no record of any part he may have played, and only two posthumous traditions to bit parts. Contrary to all this, the 1623 Folio lists 'William Shakespeare" at the head of "...the Principall Actors in all these Playes." Since the hint that the author came from Stratford is also made here for the first time, the dubiousness of the one claim should make us suspect the other as well. -In the Stratford man's will, noteworthy for its detailed disposition of household furniture, there is no mention of books, library, manuscripts, or of any literary interest. Indeed, the only theatrical connection there appears as an interlined bequest to three actors. -The only specimens of William Shakspere's handwriting to come down to us are six almost illegible signatures, each formed differently from the others, and each from the latter period of his life (none earlier than 1612). Three of these signatures are on his will, one is on a deposition in someone else's breach of promise case, and two are on property documents. None of these has anything to do with literature. The first syllable, incidentally, in all these signatures is spelled "Shak", whereas the published plays and poems consistently spell the name "Shake". -There is no evidence that William Shakepere had left Stratford for London before 1585 (with the birth of his twins). This 1585 date is providing a great difficulty as more commentators find earlier dates for the composition of certain plays and poems. 5. Consider the logic/illogic of each position and evaluate the effectiveness of each argument. There are to good arguments in this. There is so much information against what Shakespeare wrote especially in De Vere’s case. There are parallels to plots and parallels to what happened in De Vere life to the plays. The fact that it is known that Shakespeare did borrow his ideas from other stories could be a big hint that he didn’t write this. It could go either way though how could someone as famous as William Shakespeare be a big fraud. This is very hard to cover up and so many people believed him to be the writer including the queen of England. 6. Make a list of the six contenders for the authorship question. Then add to each as much significant evidence that is presented. William Shakespeare However not sure if education because no school records Edward de Vere Well educated; aristocrat; penchant for poetry Sir Francis Bacon Mark Twain believed Bacon was Shakespeare Author, lawyer, scientist, statesmen Roger Manners Had friends w/ some of the names found in the plays Danish connection Christopher Marlowe Professional author and proven playwrite William Stanley Coat of arms has an eagle – “man of eagle” reffered to in plays Phase 2 MARLOWE WROTE SHAKESPEARE Use the Internet information linked below to answer these questions specifically related to MARLOWE WROTE SHAKESPEARE: 1. What association to Shakespeare is presented by the Marlowe Society that leads one to believe that Christopher Marlowe's death is associated with Shakespeare's writings? Marlowe as the founder of English drama and the perfecter of dramatic blank verse. Without Marlowe as guide and leader, Shakespeare and the other Elizabethan poets and dramatists would not have achieved the reputation they enjoy today. There are, however, serious doubts about the record of Marlowe's death at Deptford in 1593, doubts recognised by the question-mark in the Marlowe memorial window unveiled in Poets' Corner of Westminster Abbey on 11 July 2002. 2. What role did the British government play in Marlowe's death? At the end of May 1593, Christopher Marlowe, England's top poet-dramatist of the day, stood accused of atheism, blasphemy, heresy, illicit coining, treachery and treason. The punishment for such alleged crimes included being boiled alive, burning at the stake, or being hanged, drawn (i.e. disemboweled) and quartered. He was, in other words, in deep trouble.(fakes his own death to get away) 3. Was Marlowe really a heretic? Marlowe was done in because of his heresy. Shortly after Marlowe's death, a document, written a short time before by Richard Baines, surfaced. In it, Baines claimed that Marlowe had uttered various blasphemies, the most serious of which denied the divinity of Christ. Ten days before Marlowe's appearance before authorities, Marlowe's fellow playwright, Thomas Kyd, was arrested and tortured until he confessed that heretical documents found in his chamber were written by Marlowe when the two had shared quarters in 1591. It is believed that Marlowe's summons before the Privy Council a few weeks before he was murdered was based on these accusations, as well as other unspecified evidence that Marlowe was a heretic. 4. What similarities exist between Marlowe's writing and Shakespeare's writing? (consider style and structure) If one rereads Marlowe's plays, one is struck by the absence of plot, the two-dimensionality of the characters, and the almost simplistic moral presentation of the plays. With the exception of some moments of soaring poetry, and, in Edward II, a few scenes of dramatic power, Marlowe's plays are not comparable in quality to even the earliest and least popular of Shakespeare's plays 5. What type of logic/illogic is used to support these claims? Marlowe was at Cambridge University with the young Earl of Southampton. He was accused of heresy, the blackest crime on the calendar, just a month before the name "William Shakespeare" first appeared in print, dedicating Venus and Adonis to Southampton.