Did William Shakespeare Actually Exist?

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Thoughty2 (Arran) is a British YouTuber and gatekeeper of useless facts. Thoughty2 creates mind-blowing factual videos, on the weirdest, wackiest and most interesting topics about space, physics, tech, politics, conspiracy theories, and opinion.
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Writing: Steven Rix
Editing: Matt Murray / Ocular Visuals

[melsterifficmama]

If his father was a very good glover, he might have attracted a clientele of nobles who needed special occasion gloves for their various sports and pursuits such as the falconry, hunting, polo and the like.

[bigblue]

Actually there is evidence that Shakespeare did write his own plays. Ben Jonson, a contemporary dramatist of Shakespeare's, was a close friend and great admirer of Shakespeare and his work. And wrote about his admiration. So, yes he did write his own plays.

The problem with these people is just out and out snobbery. They cannot believe that anyone but the well to do with a university education could be the author of these plays.

But this snobbery extended to more modern times. During the 60s one British music teacher said that that John Lennon and Paul McCartney could not have written their songs because their level of education was not high enough and therefore Brian Epstein their manager must have written the music because he went to a public school. This idea collapse in 1967 when Epstein died but Lennon and McCartney still wrote songs.

[PartialDemon]

The son of a glover eh? Who exactly could afford to have luxury items like gloves made for them back then? One of the main things needed for falconry? A good glove. William may not have been a noble but his father's job would have put him in contact with the upper class society.

[pvuccino]

What always amazed me about Shakespeare was not his lack of education, but the fact that he wrote so many lengthy masterpieces in such a short amount of time. So I always thought he had some kind of team working for him, like other great Renaissance artists. (Leonardo Da Vinci, Michelangelo etc.)

[Simmer]

To be Shakespeare, or not to be Shakespeare; that is the question.

[eliza]

*Plot twist: William really wrote all of those but he has an alien friend that taught him everything*

[LiMCRiMZ]

"the greatest writer"
"Swagger"
Something doesn't add up here.

[patricianunes]

Anne Boleyn sometimes spelt her surname Bullen. In Shakespeare’s day spelling wasn’t formalised.

[henryespinosa]

I used keeps for hair loss and as a consequence suffered a severe allergic reaction. My whole face swelled so much that my left eye was completely shut, and I constantly itched on my scalp that I constantly scratched. I had to endure such a mishap for a couple of weeks though it seemed at the time as an eternity. If you do buy keeps I think it would be wise to try a small portion of your arm and test the product before using it on your head.

[some______guy]

QI summarized it perfectly: they couldn't handle someone not posh writing this, so they came up with a silly conspiracy

[Killdroid]

Anyone else notice that when he said “fifth Abraham Lincoln” he had “4. Abraham Lincoln” on screen instead though.

[sk-erlb]

Man has haters 400 year After his life, that's how good he was 💯💯💯

[justamanofculture]

To celebrate Shakespeare's birthday this year, McDonalds are launching a new burger...
...called the McBeth.

[weaselwardance]

0 mins: Did Shakespeare exist?

20 mins: Yeah he probably did, but who knows...

[mortalmage]

What if William Shakespeare is actually just a character he made up about himself

[furryblue]

We must remember, literacy was rare and phonetics were widely used by scribes. Finding a name spelt in multiple ways is extremely common. I have a copy of a marriage certificate from my family in the 1800's. Our surname is spelt 5 different ways on the single page.
There were other ways to learn writing than a formal education in those days.

[thomasdarby]

There remains the possibility, of course, that William Shakespeare did indeed have a brilliant mind, for plots, drama, and staging... but, because he was illiterate, had to employ the services of one or more "ghost writers, " who wrote down Sir William's essays, sonnets and plays in a word-for-word fashion as the bard himself dictated them. And thus the ideas were indeed his; whoever placed those ideas on paper was irrelevant.

[GameHammerCG]

“How could a man of such humble origins possibly become a playwright who coined 1700 new words?!”
“Well, he wasn’t exactly noble born and kind of had to make it up as he went... and it shows in his need to fabricate words when he didn’t know the ones he needed?”

[carlharmeling]

The reason for the Shakespeare denial crowd is that he was not a learned academic but only had about a 9th grade education. They can stand the idea that one of the greatest writers in the English language never went to college. Nor did Picasso graduate from art school. Higher education ruins creativity. How about Michael Faraday?

[xNDx]

This channel goes from fact-checking one video to straight history channel at 4 am on the next.