Last night I watched Anonymous, a movie that dramatizes the theory that Edward de Vere, Earl of Oxford was the person who authored the most famous plays and sonnets of the Elizabethan era, using an actor by the name of William Shakespeare as his cover. It asserts that Shakespeare was barely literate and didn't have the educational background that would have enabled him to write the way that he did. Furthermore, it shows that playwright Christopher Marlowe, one of the "University Wits," wasn't too bright himself.
No one questioned the authorship of "William Shakespeare" until the mid-1800s. Why? Who knows? For over 400 years Shakespeare's had this mythic aura around him. We're not exactly sure when he was born (we assume it was April 23 judging by baptismal practices and records of the time); and we're not exactly sure when he died (we know it was around the time of his birthday, so make it convenient and say that he died on his birthday). Other playwrights of the time were university-educated at Oxford or Cambridge and although they were successful in their own right, none achieved the prominence of Shakespeare, who had merely a grammar school education.
If you ask me for my humble opinion, I think a number of people find it hard to believe that there are true human prodigies that live among us. Maybe Shakespeare didn't come from an aristocratic family, and maybe he wasn't university-educated. Sure, the odds of someone with his background producing plays and poems with such skill are slight but not impossible. There are always exceptions of wit and talent.
One thing that we absolutely do know for certain about Shakespeare: his writing has touched upon the whole range of human emotion, transcending time and place, thriving for over four centuries. Let's focus more on the writing and less on the person. After all, the play's the thing.
Authentically yours from the perch.
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