The Reading Challenge Group discussion

Has anyone heard of the theory that Shakespeare of Stratford wasn't the one who really wrote the famous plays? I came across this theory last night and I have to say I don't know what to think about it. Has anyone else heard of the theory?

https://doubtaboutwill.org/

I have heard of this. I think it has been questioned for years.

I actually read a book that plays off of this The Shakespeare Manuscript

I've heard about it before, yeah. The site itself vouches to the fact that they're not taken seriously, and that they're seen as tinfoil-hat-wearing, fringe theorists, by scholars, i.e. people who have access to sources your Regular Joe does not.

I find the claim that three dozen Shakespeare scholars have signed the petition particularly funny. There are how many Shakespeare scholars in the world? His works are hardly a minor interest in English Studies. Any college or university (with an English Lit department, anyway) worth its salt will have one Shakespeare expert, at least. It's like claiming we should take into consideration that vaccines are the cause of autism because two doctors agree with Jenny McCarthy.

At any rate, it might be worth looking into, write a paper or three hundred on its likelihood or falsehood. This is why I want to be a researcher, your job is actually to look into the issue of whether a guy who's been 400 years dead, wrote or didn't write some works. I love it.

Edit: Although, honestly, I find it hard to believe that 300 works haven't been written about the subject yet. I'm no Shakespeare scholar, so I can't cite titles, but again, English studies is all about writing papers looking into this sort of thing. I'm sure the theory has been looked into and cast aside for lack of proof, and it's probably not enough for this group.

How odd, I was having this exact discussion with my houstmate not so long ago! I think what's really interesting (and I should go on record as saying that Shakespeare is a god to me, I adore him) is that, if it is true, would it make any difference? The work which we label as 'Shakespeare's' is phenomenal, profound, beautiful, even life-changing. Would it cease to be so if we found out it was written by somebody with a different name? Or if (more likely) it was a collaborative effort of the whole theatrical troop?

In the words of the Bard himself (or themselves), 'What's in a name? that which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet;'

That's very true Jude, a good point. :)

I personally believe that they were written by multiple people, and that Shakespeare, while definitely a contributing writer, was mostly the face of the company. Kind of like a late night TV host's jokes are written by various comedic writers, but if we didn't know that, the host would get credit for them.

I don't see that it matters much either way, but then again, I've never been one to idolize him. It would be a shame if he's been getting so much praise all these centuries for his genius if it was somebody else who did all the work.

I don't think it matters either but I think it is interesting to hear what the theories are.

I personally feel that until time travel is perfected so that scholars can ask the subjects of their study directly, we will never TRULY know who actually wrote things that were done 1,2,3 or more hundreds of years ago. I don't really see the need to prove or disprove information from so long ago that no one living personally knew them and could vouch for it. I think our eyes need to be focused on authors of today and future generations. Of course, that's just my opinion.

That's a great point, Kat. We can never really know anything 100%.

For ease of continued discussion, I'm going to move this thread to the Specific Book/Author Discussion folder.