Did Shakespeare write Shakespeare?

[Scott Nelson]

Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, right. I forgot there was one of those philosopher types who did it before. Descartes, or someone. Delia Bacon? When did he/she live? Donnelly wrote his treatise in the 1880s.

[Cogidubnus]

Shackspear wrote Shakespeare...(like all from his era he couldn't spell his name consistently), but he wrote like a dream...shame that nearly all we know of his plays is shaded by the subsequent recollections of his friends from the Kings Players, Hemynges, Burbage and Cundell...to whom he left funds for memorial rings in his will (and Burbage died in 1619, about 4 years before the first edition was published)...

The trouble with Shakespeare's plays is that they're mostly rammed down your throat at an unduly early age, by schoolmasters who couldn't really give a damn, and accept only the traditional examiners interpretations of their meaning...I was very lucky in that at my grammar school the head of the English department was an enthusiast who'd published on the playwright and the Elizabethan theatre...even so I would contend that you will never really understand one of the bards plays until you've seen it performed on stage by an intelligently led company...

Superb stuff...

Dave

[jason_c]

Ignacious Donnelly started that nonsense. Shakespeare not only wrote Shakespeare, he read and spoke it as well.

It's the first I'd heard of Mr. Donnelly. Did he question the authorship before Delia Bacon? Or were they contemporaries?

[Robert]

Shakespeare wrote Shakespeare. But he did not write "Lady Don't Fall Backwards."

[Scott Nelson]

Ignacious Donnelly started that nonsense. Shakespeare not only wrote Shakespeare, he read and spoke it as well.

[lynn cates]

Shakespeare

Hello Jason. I don't think Shakespeare wrote Shakespeare; instead, I believe that Shakespeare was written by a different bloke with the same name.

Seriously, I think Shakespeare wrote Shakespeare. He was a man who made a few historical blunders (eg, Agamemnon discussing Aristotle) but had an unparalleled insight into human nature.

Cheers.
LC

[jason_c]

Are there any Shakespeare doubters here on casebook?

Personally, I believe Shakespeare wrote Shakespeare. It is an interesting subject however. Are there an Oxfordians, Marlowevians or Baconites on here? I'd like to read the opinions of other casebook posters.