Shakespeare Authorship Controversy

2882 Words12 Pages
The Shakespeare Authorship Controversy Historians and scholars since the time of the Renaissance have questioned the authorship of Shakespeare’s works. This controversy surfaced mainly because it is so hard to believe that a man who led such an ordinary life could be the genius who is known as the world’s greatest poet and playwright today. Ralph Waldo Emerson summed up this controversy in one quote, “I cannot marry this fact to his verse. Other admirable men have led lives in some sort of keeping with their thought; but this man, in wide contrast.” The entire reasoning behind William Shakespeare's claim to the authorship is based upon inference and speculation. Because of the lack of evidence to give any one person the title of Shakespeare,…show more content…
A strong educational background is therefore needed. It is also necessary that the author be fluent, or at least familiar, in many languages, such as French, Italian, Latin and Greek. This is a valid point because almost all of the Shakespearean plays are based upon or stemmed from another author’s work, many of which were not translated to English yet (Bethel 50). Some examples of this are Hamlet, which was taken from the French Histoires Tragiques; the French dialogue contained in Henry V; Othello, which was based on the Italian Hecatommithi; and both The Rape of Lucrece and The Comedy of Errors had not been translated into English at this point in time (50). The works also depicts an author who was knowledgeable in both Latin and Greek (50). The point also must be made that the author shouldn’t have only been knowledgeable in foreign languages, but also have access to the literature from which so much has been derived. It is also necessary that the Shakespearean author have much knowledge of foreign lands. Of course, much of this information could be found in books, but there are some instances, such as the specific places mentioned in The Merchant of Venice, which strongly suggest that the author had been there to experience it for himself (58). This draws the conclusion that the author had great knowledge of foreign lands and traveled quite
Open Document