Who was Shakespeare?

[Zip Goshboots]

I'm about to do my second paper on why I don't think the works attributed to Shakespare were actually written by him. I have researched this topic for two years now, have read nine of Shakespare's plays, and the complete works of the person I believe did in fact write them.
Does anybody have any thoughts? Who could it be? Francis Bacon? Sir Walter Raleigh? Ben Jonson? Thomas Kyd?
I think I know. I'd like the thoughts of the others on this board. I know a certain faction is absolutely positive that it was Tom Izzo, but I'm going to head that one off at the pass and say it is almost impossible that The Izzo could have done it.
Try it with no "googling" first. Then do your research. It's all over the net, so it would not be a difficult task to come up with some tasty alternatives.
I'll be monitoring the discussion, and chiming in with hints every now and then as to who and why I think it is who it is.

[DennyMcLain]

Who the fuck is Shakespere? Is he a rapper?

[JS]

I'm about to do my second paper on why I don't think the works attributed to Shakespare were actually written by him. I have researched this topic for two years now, have read nine of Shakespare's plays, and the complete works of the person I believe did in fact write them.
Does anybody have any thoughts? Who could it be? Francis Bacon? Sir Walter Raleigh? Ben Jonson? Thomas Kyd?
I think I know. I'd like the thoughts of the others on this board. I know a certain faction is absolutely positive that it was Tom Izzo, but I'm going to head that one off at the pass and say it is almost impossible that The Izzo could have done it.
Try it with no "googling" first. Then do your research. It's all over the net, so it would not be a difficult task to come up with some tasty alternatives.
I'll be monitoring the discussion, and chiming in with hints every now and then as to who and why I think it is who it is.

I believe he was the true author and was a true person. I have several editions of his complete works, which keep on being added to, so perhaps there are few works attributed to him that were not his. I am hardly an expert however so you may be right, I don't know. However One piece of evidence that makes me believe he was real are the events of the Guy Fawkes conspiracy. Shakespeare was believed to be in on it, however to deflect attention from himself he wrote MacBeth to appease King James. Ghost writers need not fear real events if people do not know who they are, people knew who Shakespeare was. He feared that if he didn't deflect attention from himself and his family great harm could come there way.

Walter Raleigh, isn't plausible IMO he was busy frying bigger fish and by the time the later works attributed to Shakespeare were published he was at the mercy of various justice systems 15-18 long years before his execution.

Kyd was dead too early to fit your postulate, there were a lot events in the later work that ran parallel to that era in England, stuff that was beyond mere coincidence.

I know of the Bacon Cipher, but that seems a little too Oliver Stone for my liking. Bacon was a man of philosophy and science, he was too well regarded in those fields to have the need to hide his artistic side if there was one. He was rather pompous, not the type of person who would hide from acclaim.

I am familiar with Ben Johnson but not as well as I could be, but if there was truth to falsity of Shakespeare my money would be on him.

FYI to all wondering, I am a nerd, I have a massive library in my office.

[Uncle Mxy]

Honestly, the question of "Who was Shakespeare?" seems pointless. Everyone who might have been Shakespeare has been studied as exhaustively as if they -were- Shakespeare. At best, it's a Trivial Pursuit answer, something which causes people who might've otherwise written some great plays or other works to obsess about "the master". Speaking of which, here's Shakespeare's picture if it helps you in your quest:

[Glenn]

Try it with no "googling" first. Then do your research. It's all over the net, so it would not be a difficult task to come up with some tasty alternatives.

I Googled it, I just couldn't resist.

Never would have guessed that William Shakespeare was actually Nipsey Russell.

[Zip Goshboots]

Great thoughts, JS.
Glenn: Nipsey Russell. Could be. I'm going to have to check his bio to see exactly what year he was born.
JS: Right with Kyd and Jonson. One of the most formidable foes of those who think Shakespeare did not write his own stuff is literary critic Harold Bloom. Try, if interested, two books by him: "Genius", and "Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human".
I have ruled out Bacon or Raliegh long ago. I agree that Bacon was more a philosopher and science writer than anything.
As for the Guy Fawlkes conspiracy, I hadn't heard anything about a possible Shakespeare connection. Shakespeare seems to have been real careful about staying away from politics and religion. What is odd is that all of the play writers from that era at some time or another found themselves in trouble with the English government. Thomas Kyd was tortured over something he either wrote or was supposed to know who wrote it. He gave information up on one man.
Shakespeare himself had obstacles to overcome if he were to emerge as the writer of the greatest literature (at least until Tupac Shakur came along) we have ever seen.
He came from an illiterate family; never left Stratford-on-Avon as a child; never left England; it is noted that his own family (his wife and children) were illieterate. Shakespeare had only a cursory education not heavily based in Latin studies, let alone the other languages he wrote in (French and Italian). He never went beyond elementary school in terms of education.
As for MacBeth, it is generally accepted that the author of that story actually knew the King of Scotland.
Let's focus on the fact that Shakespeare was a virtual unknown commodity, and had nothing published before 1593.

[Zip Goshboots]

Moxie:
The question of whether or not Shakespeare is Shakespeare is important in light of the fact that this literature means what it means to not only the world, but to England. Shakespeare is consdered to be the author of the "Secular Bible". It is the same as the Christian pictures of Jesus as a blond haired white man with blue eyes. What the fuck? he was from the Middle East!
Well, Shakespeare means that much to the English. he is their heritage, the diner of their culture, the man who created, or was a large part of, their mythological lore. How on Earth could he have been a criminal, a homosexual, and possessor of many other various, nefarious characteristics?

[Fool]

Pfft. They've always got King Arthur. And the whole "the sun never sets" era. And Oasis.

[Zip Goshboots]

Don't forget Led Zeppelin.

[Zip Goshboots]

Dammit Glenn!
The paper is due Tuesday, so when I began doing my research last night at 10:00, I thought I had it figured out!
Now, you have raised the distinct possibility that Nipsey Russell has been fooling all of us for 400 years! That fucker!