Definition
A general term for the belief that someone other than William Shakespeare wrote the plays attributed to him. The chief candidates for the authorship of the plays have been Sir Francis Bacon, the 17th-century essayist and philosopher; the dramatist Christopher Marlowe; and Edward de Vere, 17th earl of Oxford. Bacon's candidacy was advanced as early as 1769 and was supported in the 19th century by Mark Twain among others. The supporters of Marlowe are not deterred by the fact that Marlowe was murdered in 1593, a year in which Shakespeare was just beginning his career; they have argued that Marlowe's death was staged and that he continued to live abroad, conveying the plays to Shakespeare's company through an intermediary. The most popular recent candidate has been the earl of Oxford, whose claim, like Marlowe's, is considerably undermined by Oxford's death in 1604; many of Shakespeare's greatest plays were written after that date.
The assumption shared by most anti-Stratfordians is that Shakespeare, a commoner with only a grammar school education, could not have written these great plays, a position that exhibits a touching faith in the virtues of the aristocracy.
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