Use the Internet information
linked below to answer the basic questions of who? what? where? when?
why? and how? Be creative in
exploring the information so that you answer these questions as fully and
insightfully as you can.
1. What is the Shakespeare authorship problem?
Shakespeare’s authorship problem is that his works could not have been
composed by him but Edward de Vere
2. What literary, cultural, and political figures doubt that Shakespeare was
the sole author of the work?
Charlie Chaplin
Charles Dickens
Malcom X
Delia Bacon
Helen Keller
3. Make a chronological history of the doubts that surround the authorship of
the Shakespearean canon.
1728 - Publication of Captain Goulding's Essay
Against Too Much Reading suggests Jonson as probable author of Shakespeare's plays.
1852 - August issue of Chambers' Edinburgh Journal had an article called, 'Who
Wrote Shakespeare" where the author says that Shakespeare should have
"kept a poet."
1856 - Bacon is proposed as author of Shakespeare's plays in Putnam's which
contained "Shakespeare and His Plays: An Inquiry Concerning Them" by
Delia Bacon.
1920 - J. Thomas Looney, Br evolved the theory that Edward de Vere wrote Shakespeare’s play. Loony explains this in his book "Shakespeare"
1922 - The Shakespeare Fellowship, an organization devoted to research on the Shakespearean authorship, is formed.
4. Now do the same for the doubts surrounding the Stratfordian attribution.
There is no evidence during the lifetime of Shakepere of Stratford (1564-1616) which either speaks of
the author of the Shakespearean works as having come from
5. Consider the logic/illogic
of each position and evaluate the effectiveness of each argument.
It can be illogical to say that Shakespeare did not write his own work
because there is not enough evidence to state that he did not.
6. Make a list of the six contenders for the authorship question. Then add to
each as much significant evidence that is presented.
- Edward de Vere
- Christopher Marlowe
- Shakespeare
-Francis Bacon
-Queen Elizabeth I
-
WHO WROTE SHAKESPEARE?
Use the Internet information
linked below to answer these questions specifically related to WHO WROTE
SHAKESPEARE?:
1. Find other candidates not already discovered in the background section and
list why they should be considered as contenders.
Francis Bacon, Queen Elizabeth I, William Stanley, Roger Manners, and
Christopher Marlowe
2. What is the controversy that surrounds Shakespeare's bust and its inscription as it applies to Sir Francis Bacon?
It bears an inscription, perhaps written by himself. This bust and the engraving is prefixed to the First Folio edition of his plays (1623), his folio my not be written by him but by Sir Francis Bacon.
3. What did Mark Twain have
to say about the debate issue?
We are The
Reasoning Race, and when we find a vague file of chipmunk tracks stringing
through the dust of Stratford village, we know by our reasoning powers that
Hercules has been along there.
4. Why should the Marlowe spy
theory be reviewed?
It is questioned if
Marlowe survived for an unspecified number of years to write
plays but, it seems like not enough evidence from which to hang an authorship
theory.
5. How has technology, most
notably the computer, made its presence known in this controversy?
Technology has made it self present by a wonderful way to research the topic and make the information more accessible to the public.
6. What type of logic/illogic
is used to support these claims?