Intro to the Shakespeare Authorship Question and Edward De Vere - Who Really Wrote Shakespeare?

An introduction to the Shakespeare Authorship Question, and the theory that Edward De Vere, the 17th Earl of Oxford, wrote Shakespeare's plays under a pseudonym.

Though some call it a conspiracy, notable thinkers from Mark Twain to Sigmund Freud have been convinced that the real Shakespeare was not the man from Stratford-Upon-Avon. Here's some of the evidence suggesting that "William Shakespeare" was actually the pen name of Edward De Vere, a notorious courtier who served Queen Elizabeth and was said by his contemporaries to have been the greatest living writer of comedies.

#shakespeare #edwarddevere #oxfordianism #shakespeareconspiracy #whowroteshakespeare #elizabethan #romeoandjuliet #controversy #authorshipquestion #hamlet #williamcecil #lordburghley #richardiii

[marywenzel]

My first exposure to the anti-Stratfordian school of thought was reading Charlie Chaplin’s autobiography circa 1993. Despite having a degree in literature and exhaustively studying the plays of Shakespeare, the question of his authorship had never once been challenged in my hearing. And then I read that upon a visit to Stratford upon Avon, and considering William Shakespeare’s abode, Chaplin made the pronouncement that it was utterly impossible for a man from such a humble place to have written this work. This was pretty rich coming from Charlie I thought, himself largely unschooled street urchin who performed onstage from toddlerhood to help support himself and his mentally fragile mother who wound up in an asylum. Charlie had a good reason to be antagonistic toward “toffs“ since he was the illegitimate and unacknowledged son of an aristocrat who had an affair with his beautiful showgirl mother. Considering how hard this life was subsequently, and the fact that he himself made a brilliant career— Groundbreaking genius work Despite poverty and obscurity… I certainly would’ve expected Chaplin to be in Will’s corner. Likewise Mark Twain, Another towering literary artist from a rustic background. John Shakespeare was a very successful businessman who was the mayor of the town. Stratford was provincial, but its grammar school was tiptop in the region, Still operating today. No student records at all prior to the 18th century survive, So there are many generations of school boys from Stratford that have no official academic records to prove they went there. When we think grammar school today, we think of elementary education, equivalent to fifth or sixth grade, but the boys at Saint Edwards school, attending from the ages of 8 to 14 For upwards of 12 hours a day were drilled in a classics education Which could be equated to the modern day undergraduate degree. Shakespeare’s parents were aspirational, and it seems highly unlikely that the son of the mayor, entitled due to his father‘s position to a free education would not have attended. If he was in fact capable of putting pen to paper and dreaming up stories out of his own head for the stage that may have been what happened, but it’s also true that there are no surviving evidences either that a teenage father who deserted his family to run away and become an itinerant actor, disappearing for 7 years and re-emerging suddenly as a playwright for a leading company in London exhibited literary inclinations during his lifetime. In fact his name wasn’t published as author of the plays until some 7 years after he died. But having been the most prolific writer for the Elizabethan stage over a 20 year career, Will of Stratford returns home to devote the last years of his life to the selling of grain and taking his neighbors to court? The only documents we have referring to this Shakespeare in his lifetime were various court documents painting him as a litigious defendant of nuisance lawsuits and that is all. He came back to purchase the largest house in the town and was a man of financial substance at his death but he seems to have turned his back entirely on any literary endeavors, leaving London suddenly and without explanation directly as it happens after the death of the 17th Earl of Oxford. Shakespeare himself would live for several more years after this so it wasn’t illness or eminent death that drove him back home to the provinces. It’s all well and good to accuse various academics of snobbery and doubting his authorship… When Sir Mark Rylance, The Shakespearean actor non-pareil, Who was the artistic Director of London’s Globe Theatre for a decade, along with his fellow thespian Sir Derek Jacobi supports the Oxfordian view, I pay attention. Are they both Judases to the true faith? Or are they in fact pointing the way to it? As a literary mystery, this is a real brain teaser.

Check out Alexander Waugh’s YT channel if you really want to go down the rabbit hole.

[EndoftheTownProductions]

Shakespeare refers to the Gunpowder Plot in Macbeth. He mentions "equivocation" and "equivocator" and this refers to the Catholic Priest Henry Garnet who was associated with the plot. There are also other allusions to the plot in the play. The date of the Gunpowder Plot was November 5, 1605. Therefore, the play Macbeth must have been completed after this date and most likely finished in mid to late 1606. Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford, died on June 24, 1604, which obviously makes it impossible for him to have written the play Macbeth which has been attributed to Shakespeare and later published in the 1623 First Folio. It is difficult to write a play after you have died and there is obviously no way for Edward to have known of the Gunpowder Plot and the trial of Henry Garnet before his death.

[Iamfaithrowley]

Are you related to Edward de Vere? I am related to him. He’s my 13th great grandfather. I’ve heard he was a murderer and a rapist lol. I’ve also heard that he is actually secretly Shakespeare 😂

[australianmade]

What did it for me is the link to the pirate attack. It’s a small detail but it’s a lynchpin in my opinion

[heartofjesusdj]

The fact that those involved in the Essex rebellion were noblemen and some of them were executed, ought to give people pause to question why the commoner, William Shaksper wasn’t arrested, tortured and executed for writing “treasonous” plays.

[PaulGTerry]

I agree, whole-heartedly
And maybe one day
Everyone will see it that way.

[sonofculloden]

Brilliant presentation - it’s also the truth.

[chinchin]

William shaksper won't be arrested because nobody would be related the players in the Oxford's circle. Also according to J T Looney, the 3rd earl of Southampton paid William Shaksper one thounsand pound in 1609 as a. ftront man when the sonnets of William Shake-Speare were publishrd

[mayaradoczy]

I am not a scholar, but I am a very curious life-long reader, who was always uneasy about the guy from Stratford, First I saw the Frontline program in the mid 2000's---and then, while I was brushing up on my German one night on YouTube (Easy German)--YouTube suggested I might like a lecture by Alexander Waugh----and my life completely changed! I love listening to lectures and interviews. I think the most recent Blue Boar Tavern (Essex Rebellion part 2) really explained the danger that Southampton was in (and we know why). I wish this recent understanding could be turned into a series. And the last Blue Boar, which you were in, gives me hope that young people will be seeing your presentations on Tic Tock and

[mayaradoczy]

I LOVE what you are doing! Helping younger people to understand the Authorship Question is very important. I love your clarity and your engaging presentations! Thank you! I'm going to post this on my FB page. I have two friends who will not even consider Edward deVere.

[verak]

What about the wreck of the Sea Venture in 1609 referenced in The Tempest which was five years after de Vere died.

[romanclay]

Sonnet 76: “That EVERy word doth almost tell my name.”
de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford

[BradBaley]

I don't know why this hasn't been expressed, or thought of, but ''William Shakespeare'' And ''Edward De Vere'' both rhyme and are 4 syllables.

What is even more interesting is that William and Edward both mean Protector. (Edward means Guardian Protector, William means Resolute Protector)
What's even more interesting and more weird than that is Devere means ''Of the fishing place''
And Shakespeare is sometimes attributed to mean ''shaking a spear'' or fishing.

Edward De Vere's nick name was Spear Shaker. . I just thought I'd throw these thoughts out there in case someone reads this and sees the connections between the words.


I think this means more than anything else, since William Shakespeare is a pseudonym, all William Shakespeare could have done is leave us some clues in his name, and I think he left enough to take these all into consideration.

This could've been the way of him leaving in pieces of the puzzle for people in the future, for future discovery.

[irhamhamdan]

So there is a chance that Shakespeare is the first industry plant??? 😂

[shakespearestreason]

Beautiful job! Great jabs and left hooks!

[bpier]

What a great analogy questioning how likely it would have been for people to hear and praise Mozart's new music ... but no one ever having met him!

[tomditto]

Here's another hint that Hamlet was written by de Vere. His brother-in-law, Thomas Cecil, was spied on in Paris when he was a student. The throwaway scene with Reynaldo where Polonius instructs him how to spy on Laertes can been understood as a further indictment of Oxford's guardian/uncle. Thing is, this was not public information. You had to be on the inside of this family to have heard about it.

[Eudaimonia]

Who had the bright idea to ask Phoebe Nir to become a SOF contributor? After watching a few of her videos in which a madly gurning hyperactive presenter (I assume this is Phoebe herself) is demonstrating what pressured speech sounds like by talking extremely fast and swallowing syllables, I realised just how fast the SOF has fallen.

Evidence-based statements appear to no longer be de rigueur. Phoebe sets out to present convinced and also tentative Oxfordians with blatant falsehoods. But why?
There is so much to be said for Edward de Vere's potential identity as Shakespeare, however, it does not help him or the SOF to present inaccuracies and wild claims that can easily be disproved. It is also striking how little this person knows about the plays and their context and meaning, and how little about the Elizabethan England that generated them.

I do understand that the SOF requires funding and needs to attract new Oxfordian believers, however, Phoebe Nir's American crusade of assigning a distorted, re-imagined Shakespeare an identity she does not understand, will not convince those who favour proper research, evidence-based discourse and a thorough grasp of British history, language and culture. All three are missing when it comes to this contributor.

SOF, please reconsider your choices before you lose the support of serious patrons. You are beginning to look embarrassingly lowbrow.

[ronroffel]

Thanks for adding your voice to those who are aware of who really wrote the celebrated plays and poems.

[Demosophist]

The most convincing case I've read was John Hudson's case for the author having been Amelia Lanier, and her "muse" was the assassinated Christopher Marlowe. Hudson even provides the reason why Marlowe was assassinated, and how Amelia picked up his message and incorporated it into her plays. But to understand it you have to understand a literary device called "typology".