Do you think that Shakespeare is a real person, someone else, a group of people...?

Question

There are a lot of different views on the reality of Shakespeare. What do all of you think?

Answer 1

I answered your (similar) question when you asked it in "Books and Authors" so I'm sure you've read the response (or was it a rant?)

Shakespeare is a real person, yes, but I don't think that "William Shakespeare" the actor from stratford on Avon wrote the plays of Shakespeare - I think they were written by Edward De Vere, the 17th Earl of Oxford.

You guys can check out my answer in the other category (I went on and on.) if you're interested, here's the link to the shakespeare oxford society; pretty interesting.

here's a quote:
"I think Oxford wrote Shakespeare. If you don’t agree, there are some awfully funny coincidences to explain away…”
-Orson Welles

Answer 2

That question has made many interesting cable TV programs about the mystery of Shakespeare. No one knows what he looks like, because he was never painted. I believe he was a real person, who worked at the Globe Theatre in London and grew up in Stratford upon Avon, yet I doubt if he was able to write with such genius and indepth knowledge of the royal families, since Shakespeare was a commoner with only an eight-grade education. His work could have been a joint effort like the King James Bible that was written during Shakespeare's time. Shakespeare even had a hand in writing a part of the King James's bible. Maybe those who joined to write the bible decided to collaborate on plays and give Shakespeare the credit. Who knows?

Answer 3

Shakespeare was a real person indeed he did often get help and inspiration for his works from history and collaborators such as Ben Johnson but William did pretty much all of the work fits his personality to be a bit of a perfectionist with so much at stake.

It's very possible one person could create all of those stories and poems and plays i mean look at Stephen King, Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, Andrew Lloyd Weber, Edgar Allen Poe, etc.

He did manage a successful private theater during the Elizabethan age and wrote many plays and poems notice after his death his troupe faded into obscurity. All of the conspiracy theories about Shakespeare can be shot down by looking at a simple timeline of his life.

Answer 4

Shakespeare was a real person, I think the person that you mean is Homer, the author of the Odyssey. There is some debate over if he was a group of people, a woman writing under a man's name because the attitude of the time was that women didn't write, and there are more.

Answer 5

I think originally it was introduced as a means of curbing offensive language, However, the cranks and loonies hijacked it all to the extent that we now have a load of clumsy, meaningless verbiage and gobbledegook. I read recently that so called 'elitism' is now being targeted. A town council has banned the use of Latin tags on the grounds that the peasantry won't understand. We are not talking about scholarly Latin tags here but basic Latin terms that have been incorporated into our language for centuries. Phrases such as et cetera (usually etc I know) but these boneheads have decided it's too difficult so staff must use 'and so on' instead'. If they really think the general public is so thick how do they think the public is going to understand their communications which are full of so much incomprehensible PC lingo? No wonder they have to employ so many translators! Ah well, Per Ardua Asbestos!

Answer 6

The plays of Shakespeare were not written by Shakespeare. They were written by another man with the same name.

Answer 7

William Shakespeare is a real person so I only see him as one.

Answer 8

a lot of people say that shakespeare was actually a differnet guy. the real shakespeare was just some lowly townsman while the man who put shakespeare's name on his works was actually named Edward something. they say he did this beacause he was realated to the queen and at the time, it was bad for one's image if they were a playwright.

Answer 9

None of those plays was written by Shakespeare. They were all written by another man of the same name.

Answer 10

Maybe it's the romantic in me, but I think that he was one man. Maybe some works that were very similar to his were swallowed up and called "Shakespeare's" but I do believe that there was a brilliant writer.