Shakespeare Authorship Controversy Quiz

Answer: False

According to David Kathman, "The amount and type of evidence linking William Shakespeare of Stratford with the works attributed to him is extremely comparable to the parallel evidence for virtually any contemporary of his, and in most cases is much better." (See http://shakespeareauthorship.com/ox3.html.) We do have only six surviving signatures of Shakespeare. However, we do not have many surviving documents containing the signatures--let alone the writings--of other playwrights either. We have only one signature from Marlowe, for instance, and none at all from Webster.

Answer: True

He is in the cast list for "Every Man In His Humour."

Answer: Stratfordians

The majority of scholars believe that Shakespeare really wrote the plays attributed to him, but some have suggested others for the role. Francis Bacon and the Earl of Oxford are the strongest contenders.

Answer: Oxfordians

Edward de Vere was the Earl of Oxford, hence the name Oxfordians. The Shakespeare Oxford Society was incorporated in 1957 in order to research, discuss, and support this view.

Answer: Shakespeare of Stratford died before "The Tempest" was written

Actually, it is Oxford who died before the last plays were written--at least if we base the chronology on when the plays were produced and performed. Oxford died in 1604, and "The Tempest" was produced as late as 1611. Oxfordians argue that the plays were written before de Vere's death and produced later.

Answer: False

He did not, but Stratfordians do not consider this at all suspicious, since the company, and not he, would have owned them.

Answer: True

Those who protest Shakespeare's authorship find this very odd. Stratfordians, however, do not, since it was not common to mention one's library in one's will. Francis Bacon did not mention his either.

Answer: True

Heminges and Condell introduced the First Folio, attributing the plays at that time to Shakespeare.

Answer: Ben Jonson

In an introduction to a book entitled "The Mysterious William Shakespeare," (by Charlton Ogburn) Blackmun said, "If I had to cast my vote . . . it would be for the Oxfordians." Mark Twain questioned Shakespearean authorship in his essay "Is Shakespeare Dead?" Emerson said he could not "marry" the facts of Shakespeare's common life as a "jovial actor" to his verse. James referred to the "divine William" as "the biggest and most successful fraud ever practiced on a patient world." Ben Jonson is the only contemporary of Shakespeare on the list, and he credited Shakespeare with authorship of the plays.

These quotes are drawn from "The Shakespeare Authorship Page" at http://www.shakespeare-oxford.com.

Answer: Renaissance courtiers were forbidden to publish poetry

"The Shakespeare Authorship Page" claims that a prohibition against publishing poetry was the "unwritten code of the court." Shakespeare's plays were quite popular in his own day, and no one seems to have thought the sonnets were the work of a homosexual, so these are not reasons advanced for de Vere's failure to take credit.