One question that necessarily attends the Shakespeare authorship question asks: was the true author of the Shakespeare canon the only writer to protect his identity by using a stand-in, as Oxford used William Shakspere of Stratford? I believe that the answer to this is “no, he was not the only one.” In searching for “the real Shakespeare” I have found anomalies in the biographies of other authors of the period that I feel are just too similar to those found in the Stratford biography to be coincidental.
These biographies share with Shakespeare’s such traits as:
- no evidence of a university education, or, if there is one, the kind afforded a sizar, one who got his degree by working for the college in the kitchen, dining hall, etc.;
- no evidence of a literary background as revealed in contemporary documents;
- a biography that shows no artistic traits or connections;
- financial and social problems stemming from their religious affiliation;
- long dry spells (in William’s case, his “early retirement”);
- no memorials after death;
Other traits such as:
- few or only a single work published in his name;
- spells of military service or colonizing that take him overseas;
- reports of misbehavior and malfeasance, time spent incarcerated;
- peculiar alterations in style, some “Shakespearean,” others less so;
- no recorded death; merely a disappearance from the record.
Among the writers whose biographies show various combinations of these anomalies are: Richard Edwards, Arthur Brooke, Arthur Golding, Edmund Spenser, Barnabe Riche, George Pettie, John Lyly, Robert Greene, Anthony Munday, Thomas Kyd, Thomas Nashe, Thomas Watson, and John Webster.
Arousing our curiosity even further is the fact that these writers-without-bios are matched by a handful of Court writers-without-works, men––and one woman––who have been remarked upon, both by contemporaries and by modern biographers, for their reputations as writers, yet for whom few or no works have survived.
Although Oxford is the leading figure in this respect, as we see in the quote from the 1589 Arte of Poesie, commented upon by at least two other contemporaries (Webbe and Meres), also important are the young Francis Bacon, who published nothing (under his own name) until he was thirty-five, Sir Walter Raleigh, whose writing is surrounded by mystery, and the mature Mary Sidney, Countess of Pembroke, who published nothing (under her own name) after she was thirty-five. These four have all been noted by their biographers as probable authors of much more than has been attributed to them. In matching them with the sizars, recusants, and rascals who were willing or forced to trade their identities for cash or some other consideration, we will uncover the truth about “Shake-spear” and much else about the period that is exciting and new.
One of the most important factors in any intellectual study is the creation of a theory that defines the case in language both as broad and as succinct as possible. It takes time to arrive at a statement on which all engaged in the study can agree. There are many false starts at the beginning, and as time progresses, the wording will change as the problems come to be seen from different angles than as first perceived. The first authorship theory went no further than that William of Stratford could not have written the plays. This we might call, per Einstein, “The Special Theory of Authorship.” A host of variants did little more than add that they were written by Sir Francis Bacon (or Marlowe, or Derby, etc.) and, finally, by Edward de Vere. (Those added since may well have played some part in the story, but not through their writing, and certainly not as Shakespeare.)
As theories develop, they are often forced to include more phenomena than was at first thought relevant. Thus the ancient theory that the earth was bounded by a giant river was superceded by the theory that the oceans clung to an earth that was round and suspended in space, a theory that surfaced when enough persons had noticed that ships disappeared over the horizon little by little, suggesting that they slipped over a bulge of some sort. When the round earth was eventually accepted as proven by Magellen and others who circumnavigated the globe, it ceased to be a theory and became a fact.
Just so I propose that the authorship theory now be expanded to include the other 16th- and early 17th-century authors whose biographies show anomalies similar to that of the orthodox Shakespeare. Just as new information from sea captains forced a change in the theory of the earth’s shape, so information relating to all the authors of this period is transforming the way we should be asking our questions. Again per Einstein, we offer the following
General Theory of Authorship
Due to social constraints and politics, writers connected with the English Court in the 16th and early 17th centuries used a variety of ruses, including anonymity, pseudonyms and stand-ins, to hide their identities when publishing their own works. They did so in order that they would be able to use the commercial Stage and Press to express themselves, to speak openly on political and social issues, and to adopt personae that would otherwise be denied them by laws and social mores. Thus the authorship trail in many areas has been purposefully blurred, some more than others depending on the status of the individual and the social/political stakes involved for him/her.
Researchers must keep in mind that, although some of the problems they face may arise from the natural obfuscations of Time, others may be purposeful. To keep these in context, they must therefore regard with suspicion all records that could have been susceptible to falsification or destruction, foremost among them the names and dates on title pages of works of the imagination and the content of their dedications. Suspicious records must be supported by evidence that could not have been fabricated before they can be taken at face value.
Some progress has been made in these regards, as shown in the essays and articles here, but much remains to be done.
