Born in Stratford-upon-Avon in 1564, William Shakespeare is at once
instantly recognizable and an enigma. As one writer notes, "There seems to
have been a curious lack of recognition of his gifts in his own time, and
few of his contemporaries left any record of knowing him 'or even having
looked upon him.' Moreover, he left no library or manuscripts after his
death - at least none are mentioned in his will" (Goode 9). In fact, there
are few records regarding Shakespeare the man and his life, and virtually
none that point to his authorship of the many plays and sonnets credited to
There are only six copies of his apparent signature, all on legal
documents, where the name may have been written by a lawyer or clerk.
Of the seventy-five known contemporary documents in which Shakespeare
is named, not one concerns his career as an author. Most are legal and
financial documents which depict him as a particularly cold,
rapacious, and successful local businessman and property developer
Dozens of scholarly reports have looked at Shakespeare and his life, and
come up lacking in documentation that the man actually wrote anything, let
alone the many works credited to his name. One researcher notes,
According to Oxfordians (and to proponents of other `Shakespeares'),
the William of Stratford was an actor, playbroker, and businessman who
was manifestly incapable of writing the plays attributed to him, but
whose actual role was to serve as a front man and producer of the
plays, lending his name to them because their real author, a nobleman
or high official, could not write directly under his own name for the
Much research has been done into Shakespeare's early life, and many critics
contend the man William Shakespeare was simply not educated enough to write
the works credited to him. Scholars argue the author would need ...