Shakespeare was a Woman?

     Shakespeare is well known as one of the greatest poets and play writes of all-time, and certainly one of the most influential. But how much of what we think is his work is actually somebody else’s? This question is often referred to as the “authorship question.” Did Shakespeare write all of what we think he did? Or has this conspiracy been held true for 450 years?

     One theory which is very common is the Oxfordian theory, who oppose the Stratfordians.  The people who consider themselves Stratfordians believe in Shakespeare as a writer, while the Oxfordians believe that we have been lied to throughout history. Oxfordians believe that a man named Edward de Vere of Oxford (1550-1604) wrote many of the plays Shakespeare claimed for his own. Many of the arguments made by the Oxfordians are based upon simple facts about Edward—the fact that he has a multilingual education, he has traveled abroad to places which later become settings of Shakespeare’s plays, his academic achievements, etc. All of which would lead him to be considered a more intelligent man and more fit for play writing and being a poet. Aside from Edward’s inside connection to the theater and people who ran it, the Oxfordians also point to the content of Shakespeare’s play, and how it matches up almost perfectly with events from Edward’s biography. There are plenty of the same idioms and play-on-words in both artists’ works, and personal events of Edward’s later described in detail in Shakespeare’s sonnets and poems. Perhaps the most bizarre similarity between these two is the fact that there are multiple quotations straight from Edward’s personal bible that can be found throughout Shakespeare’s plays. The last point made by Oxfordians to state their point, is the death years of the two men. Edward died in 1604, and Shakespeare died in 1609. Which seems pretty normal, with nothing suspicious. But after doing more research, you can find that 1604 was the year that Shakespeare stopped publishing new material at the same rate he was, and experienced a huge drop off in his production.

     Another theory which serves to prove the lack of truth behind Shakespeare's legacy is the case of Christopher Marlowe. Marlowe and Shakespeare were born just two months apart, and lived in the same town, and wrote for the same theaters. Shakespeare had been "born" as an author the same year that Marlowe had supposedly died. He was killed by a man (who he was later found to have a very good relationship with) after he was put on bail for being an atheist and committing treason. He was granted bail for a few days until he would be brought back and executed, but the judge was beat to it. Or so he was lead to believe. The similarities between Marlowe's work and Shakespeare's work are so precise and often, it would be hard to tell one from the other. To add to the list of weird coincidences, Henry VI, Shrew, and Titus Andronicus were all attributed to Marlowe until the early 1900's, when they became considered some of Shakespeare's finest works. Throughout almost all of the sonnets written by Shakespeare after Marlowe's death, you can see many direct quotes from Marlowe's previous works, as with his plays. Not to mention the seemingly recurring input of pretending to be dead and resurrection in Shakespeare's plays. There have been too many known coincidences for the followers of this conspiracy to think any other way. 

     After gathering all of this data, I have come to believe that all of these thought of conspiracies are just thought up. I do not know how to explain all of these coincidences, but there are a lot that can be easily rebutted. For example, all of the similarities can be explained by pointing out that Shakespeare was a huge fan of these writers, in which case they had influenced his work a lot. But that is just what I have gathered after a lot of research. So after all of this information, do you think that the Oxfordian theory, the Marlowe theory, or neither is the real truth? Also, why do you think if any of this was true, would it be covered up and disguised by an uneducated man from a infamous artist's background?

"Oxfordian Theory." Princeton University. Princeton University, 05 July 2008. Web. 01 Oct. 2014.

PBS. "In Search Of Shakespeare." PBS. PBS, n.d. Web. 29 Sept. 2014.

"Christopher Marlowe." Christopher Marlowe. The Shakespeare Authorship Trust, n.d. Web. 29 Sept.           2014.