1. Introduction

It has long been understood by certain postmodern historians that history is not the past; it is a story about the past. Those who appreciate the difference also understand that the story we are told about the past may not necessarily be correct. Where the story came from, who told it and why, how it has grown and been embellished, are all factors that deserve consideration. Evidence does not, on its own, tell a story. Writing a history requires the interpretation of evidence, and that interpretation is never neutral. All historians come to the act of writing history from a framework of beliefs that affect both perception and understanding. Appreciating our lack of neutrality, and the mutable nature of history (as opposed to the fixed nature of The Past), histories may be re-evaluated and re-written. Occasionally a radical new vantage point will yield a very different way of regarding the traces that the past has left us to examine. Shakespeare biographies, however, are not on the whole written by historians.

The Shakespeare authorship question, despite having arisen over 150 years ago, is still considered taboo in academia; very few English literature departments tolerate even the mention of it and Shakespeare conferences have been known to specifically exclude it from discussion. Until recently, there was no need for such caveats: with Shakespeare sceptics widely dismissed as lunatic fringe conspiracy theorists, no self-respecting academic would consider it a viable research topic. Where scholars have occasionally addressed it in passing, they have tended to dismiss it out of hand. It is unthinkable that anyone other than William Shakespeare of Stratford wrote the works, goes the response. Anyone who suggests otherwise is ignorant, deluded, or some kind of snob.

Nevertheless, outside the academy, and to a smaller degree within it, Shakespeare scepticism continues to increase. The problem, from a historian’s perspective is this: there is a marked lack of primary source evidence supporting the idea that the famous glover’s son from Stratford wrote the works attributed to him. As Diana Price demonstrated in Shakespeare’s Unorthodox Biography (the first book on the subject to be published by an academic press), Shakespeare is unique, among the two dozen most well-known writers of his period, in leaving no literary paper trail. More time has been expended on researching the life of Shakespeare than on all other writers of the period put together. Over seventy documents relating to the Stratford man have been unearthed, yet they are overwhelmingly of a legal nature: they illustrate a man who bought and sold property, land, and tithes, and lent money. A neutral historian coming to the data without preconceptions would surmise that this man was a man of business, not a man of letters. Unlike every other writer of note in the Early Modern period, there is no evidence that he mixed with other writers. The documentary record suggests that he was not resident in London to the extent that is commonly assumed, that he was not known in Stratford as a writer, and that literate men of the time did not link the famous author William Shakespeare with the Stratford resident.

This book is not yet another book arguing that Shakespeare didn’t write Shakespeare, or indeed, that he did. Rather it is intended as a comprehensive, summarised compilation of the key evidence and arguments relating to the Shakespeare Authorship Question. With orthodox academics finally entering the debate (marked first by James Shapiro’s Contested Will, and then by Stanley Wells & Paul Edmondson’s Shakespeare Beyond Doubt) it has become clear that neither side fully understands the other’s position. The orthodox scholars who defend the traditional candidate in these two books fill pages listing evidence that is not in dispute: that between 1593 and 1616, the name ‘William Shakespeare’ appeared on numerous plays and poems, and that writers of the period paid tribute to a writer that published under that name. Other more critical issues, which are very much disputed (even by other orthodox scholars) are treated as settled, and hardened assumption is treated as fact. Non-Stratfordians, on the other hand, have been known to accuse other orthodox scholars of deception and protecting vested interests when it is more likely that those who are convinced that ‘Shakespeare wrote Shakespeare’ simply consider this to be established fact and any ideas to the contrary to be wishful thinking.

The purpose of this book is simply to lay out all the evidence so that anyone, coming from either side of the debate, may understand the perspectives of the other side, locate weaknesses in their (or their opponents’) argument, and identify areas for further clarification or research. I also hope it will prove a valuable resource and entry point for the open-minded and curious, who are interested in understanding why Shakespeare’s authorship is questioned, and deciding for themselves whether scepticism or at least agnosticism is justified.

Though I possess a PhD in English Literature (the focus of which was early modern literary biography and the Shakespeare authorship question), my background is in science. Science (whose own paradigms advance, in Max Planck’s famous phrase ‘one funeral at a time’) has demonstrated repeatedly that the human brain is wired to see only evidence that fits with its pre-existing beliefs. As a result, Stratfordians and non-Stratfordians alike are guilty of cherry-picking evidence, and ignoring data that doesn’t suit their thesis. The idea that Shakespeare wrote Shakespeare holds sway in the mainstream media and public consciousness chiefly because the assertions of eminent Shakespearean scholars are taken as fact. It is my hope that in creating a comprehensive repository of evidence and relevant arguments, Shakespeare studies, like medicine before it, will move from being eminence-based, to evidence-based.

Ros Barber

1.1 The Authorship Question Summarised

For anyone unfamiliar with the Shakespeare authorship question, I have included a summary of the debate.

History

  • Doubts that William Shakspere of Stratford-upon-Avon wrote the works attributed to him were first expressed openly in the 1850s. Some scholars say veiled doubts were expressed in the 16th century.
  • Famous doubters include Sigmund Freud, Mark Twain, Henry James, Walt Whitman, Orson Welles, Sir Derek Jacobi and Mark Rylance.
  • Those who believe Shakespeare of Stratford wrote the works are called ‘Stratfordians’. Those who doubt it are called ‘anti-Stratfordians’ or ‘non-Stratfordians’.

Stratfordians say

  • Doubt about Shakespeare’s authorship is due to snobbery: not wanting to believe a working-class grammar school boy could write works of genius.
  • In his lifetime, many of the plays were published with his name on them, and writers of the period paid tribute to the genius of William Shakespeare.
  • The Shakespeare authorship question is a conspiracy theory, and has recently gained ground only because of the popularity of conspiracy theories generally.
  • Those who doubt Shakespeare’s authorship are deniers of historical evidence; deniers of truth.

Non-Stratfordians say

  • William Shakespeare of Stratford did not leave behind any books, manuscripts, letters or other evidence usually associated with having been a writer; unlike other successful writers of the era.
  • There are many anomalies in the Shakespeare evidence that don’t fit with his being the author of the works attributed to him.
  • No-one who knew him personally – including a published poet who lived in his house and kept a diary – left any evidence they considered him a writer.
  • His name is on the ‘Shakespeare’ plays, but it was also published on plays and poems by others. The evidence points to him being a play-broker, not a writer.

1.2 Nominal Coincidence

Both sides in this debate occasionally have to appeal to coincidence. When one’s opponent appeals to ‘coincidence’ it can naturally be very frustrating, and it can be tempting to wonder what the odds might be that such a coincidence could occur. However perplexing and inexplicable, coincidence is nevertheless a real phenomenon. Its existence is amply illustrated, in the case of Shakespeare, by the following fascinating examples, both linked to coincidences of name.

1.2.1 Shakespearean Drownings

The following two drownings have been put forward as ‘models for Ophelia’:

  • In 1569, Jane Shaxpere drowned while picking flowers (just as Ophelia would do, some thirty years later, in Hamlet) twenty miles from Stratford-upon-Avon.1
  • On 17 December 1579, Katherine Hamlett was drowned in the River Avon (at Tiddington, just over a mile East of Stratford-upon-Avon).2

But the fact there are two possible models suggests what we have is coincidence. Even more so when you take into account a further drowning, six months before that of Katherine Hamlet:

  • On 6 July 1579, one William Shakespeare (of Warwick, 9 miles from Stratford-upon-Avon) drowned while bathing in the River Avon.3

The fact is that

  • death by drowning was one of the most common deaths in the period.4
  • Both Hamlet(t)/Hamnet and Shakespeare/Shaxpere were fairly common names.5

1.2.2 Arden, Black Will and Shakebag

The anonymous play Arden of Faversham, first published in 1592, has three characters named Arden, Black Will, and Shakebag. By stylometry, scholars have attributed the middle portion of this play to William Shakespeare.6 Using a different method, another scholar attributed the play to Thomas Kyd.7 Christopher Marlowe has also been suggested as the author, since his father came from Ospringe (one mile from Faversham) and the play bears stylistic similarities to his other plays.8 Whoever the author may have been, what is striking is the combination of names that appear to point to William Shakspere of Stratford:

  • The villains are called Black Will and Shakebag.
  • They are hired by Mrs Arden to murder Mr Arden.
  • Arden was the maiden name of Will Shakspere’s mother.

But the play is based on a real murder that took place on 14 February 1551 in Faversham, and all the names were in place in the historical record by the time William Shakspere was 13.

  • The real life couple were indeed called Arden (Thomas and Alice).
  • The real life murderers were Black Will and George Loose-bagg.9
  • The story featured in the 1577 edition of Holinshed’s Chronicles, where the name Loose-bagg was changed to Shakebag.10

Therefore, no matter who wrote Arden of Faversham, the combination of these three names in the play has nothing whatsoever to do with Will Shakspere, son of Mary Arden. The names are simply historically accurate. Two of the names came from a historical event before his birth and the third was altered to become more like his many years before he was involved in the theatre scene. It is another example of coincidence.