Haven’t previous generations been quite happy with the Stratford man?
No – there is a strong and continuous tradition of doubt about him, stretching back to the time when the plays were first published. Much of this is described by Charlton Ogburn ( The Mysterious William Shakespeare ). During the past two hundred years, many people have decided that the name “Shakespeare” must have been a pseudonym, and have tried to identify the true author. A major candidate was Francis Bacon, and there have theories in favor of Rutland, Derby, Marlowe and a host of others. Stratfordians ridicule the sheer magnitude of alternative authors that have been proposed; but they overlook their unifying element, namely: why have so many found reason to question the identity of Western literature’s greatest creative figure? It is an heretical idea. There has never been an authorship controversy surrounding other great literary figures: – Swift, Pope, Milton, Joyce, Woolf, Chaucer or Dante. If sensible people can maintain that there is one about Shakespeare, then it is folly to
