The majority of people agree that it was the actor from Stratford who wrote
the plays and poems attributed to Shakespeare. But also, the majority of
people have not looked very closely into the history. For many years, some
people have doubted, from what we know of the actor's life, that he would
have been able to write the plays and poems, and may therefore have served
as a 'front' for a hidden author, or collaborated more extensively than
we imagine. Suggestions of other authors and doubt actually begins during
Shakespeare's life. Today, exactly how the plays were crafted is by no means
agreed and whoever you believe wrote the plays, the authorship enquiry yields
much provocative research into their craft and meaning. If you are wondering
why there is a question in the first place, I would recommend you reading
the Declaration of Reasonable Doubt at www.DoubtAboutWill.org.
I have been surprised again and again by the strength of emotion this historical question
raises. As an actor of 30 years experience playing Shakespeare, I have been
assisted by scholars, professional and amateur, no two of whom imagine the
same author, even when they agree upon the name! The plays have been my
living and I would dearly love to know how such wonders of nature were created,
especially as we know for certain they are the invention of an inspired
human being working alone and with others. An understanding of the creation
could reveal a creative process most beneficial to modern drama and society
as a whole. But whether the enquiry yields a definite solution or not is
perhaps not essential, for me the enquiry illuminates Shakespeare's world
of renaissance society and theatrical writing. As Henry Miller wrote, “One's
destination is never a place but rather a new way of looking at things.”
I hope our website helps you find what you are looking for and maybe something
you are not looking for.
Mark Rylance
Chairman of the Shakespearean Authorship Trust
For an introduction to the whole question:
Who Wrote Shakespeare? by John Michell
(Thomas and Hudson Ltd, 1996)
For an introduction as to why there is a question:
Shakespeare's Unorthodox Biography by Diana Price
(Greenwood Press, 2000)
Shakespeare's
Unorthodox Biography