Did Shakespeare really write those plays?

Aadel...such a long time!

Solid evidence? No. I don't believe any such evidence will ever exist. The problem lays in the knowledge we don't have about Shakespeare.

The most favorable evidence of Shakespeare actually having written the plays himself comes from the lack of any charges, in his own time by his own contemporaries, that he did not write them. There is also the fact, which is well documented, that neither Bacon nor Oxford (the two most often put forward as the authors) were associated with the actors of the Company nor involved with the production of the plays. To me, that is rather compelling evidence.

There is also the solid fact that over 200 years passed after his death before there was any speculation at all about the authorship of the plays.

Many point to a supposed anagram in the play Love's Labours Lost..."honorificabilitudinitatibus." supposed to be an anagram claiming that Bacon wrote the play. In actuality, it is a dative singular conjugation of a real medieval Latin word. Dante used it not once, but several times, in his writing. Compelling evidence that the anagram theory is wrong.

Laheira is right on the mark when she cites Greene's criticism of Shakespeare. Greenes editor, publishing a volume of his work after Greene's death, goes to great pains to apologize in the preface he prepared. To my mind ample proof of the popularity, status, ability and powerful friends and patrons of Shakespeare.

So, no evidence turns out to be quite a body of evidence....not against but for the authorship actually belonging to Shakespeare.

I don't have any of the evidence in front of me, but based on several university courses on Shakespeare and the opinions of my professors who also are published authors on the subject - there is no substantial evidence AGAINST Shakespeare's authorship. It's mostly just conspiracy theories.

Of course, there are several versions of each play and if I remember correctly the people who compiled his works may have made a few corrections or changes. But overall Shakespeare is the author of his plays according to most scholarly works I've encountered.

Shakespeare wrote his very own performs. people who propose the thought they have been written by ability of somebody else are delusional. they have no info that any one different than William Shakespeare wrote those performs.

I believe he did. Theres a reason Shakespheare is so well- known, and it's not because he's a fraud! It's because he's a genius when it comes down to knowledge of human behaviour and the human mind... So many people have studied humans and concluded what he had already known centuries ago!

The mans as much a legend as Da Vinci, so admire him, don't question him!

Quote:

>>Evidence that the great Bard wrote his plays.

The earliest proof that William did indeed write 37 plays was Robert Greene’s criticism of the Bard in his Groatsworth of Wit, Bought with a Million of Repentance which attacked Shakespeare for having the nerve to compete with him and other playwrights in 1592 . Robert Greene made this quite clear by calling him "an upstart crow". This criticism was placed with the Stationers’ Registrar on the 20th of September, 1592.

Proof that William was an actor comes from his own performances before Queen Elizabeth herself in 1594 and evidence of William's interest in theatre comes from the Bard's name being listed in 1594 and 1595 as a shareholder (part owner) of the Lord Chamberlain’s Company, a theatre company.

The Bard's reputation as a poet is again confirmed in 1598, when Francis Meres attacked him as being "mellifluous" and described his work as honey-tongued, "sugared sonnets among his private friends" in his own Palladis Tamia of 1598.

William's theatre presence is again confirmed by his name being recorded as one of the owners of the Globe theatre in 1599 and on May the 19th, 1603, he received a patent, titling him as one of the King’s Men (previously called the Chamberlain’s men) and a Groom of the Chamber by James I, the then King of England. This honour made William a favorite for all court performances, earned each King’s man extra money (30 pounds each for a performance in 1603 alone) and made the Bard's name one rather above reproach. Macbeth which celebrates King James I ancestor Malcolm, is considered to have been written in part as appreciation for the King’s patronage. And as a potent form of royalist propaganda (it warned of the dangers of killing a King appointed like James, by God).<< Taken from: http://absoluteshakespeare.com/trivia/biography/sh...

An additional source:

http://web.cn.edu/kwheeler/shake_did_write_plays.h...

I've never actually heard that theory, but I do believe he wrote themselves. It seems to big of a secret to be silenced over centuries.