What if shakespeare didnt exist

Crime writer MJ Trow, author of the Inspector Lestrade novels, is the latest writer to be attracted by the circumstances of Marlowe's death.

In it Trow writes of contract killers and cover-ups stretching right to the top of the Tudor hierarchy. It's certainly true that the man reported to have killed Marlowe was pardoned by the queen 28 days later. But some feel that this obsession with conspiracies has detracted from Marlowe's talents.

But even without that Marlowe's work stands on its own. It's just that he also had this wonderful, exciting life. Did Shakespeare even exist? Marlowe was definitely a writer and a spy. His fans believe he also faked his death and wrote many of the plays now credited to the Bard of Avon. First proposed in by J. But until hard evidence surfaces linking his plays to someone else, the man with the strongest claim to the plays of William Shakespeare appears to be…William Shakespeare.

This includes the printed copies of his plays and sonnets with his name on them, theater company records and comments by contemporaries like Ben Jonson and John Webster. But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! But did Shakespeare actually write the works attributed to his name?

Modern-day historians believe that some of his works may have been partially written in tandem with others. They also note that none of the letters and business documents that survive give any hint of Shakespeare as an author, let alone a one famous during his lifetime. Instead, the written records detail more mundane transactions, like his pursuits as an investor and real estate collector.

Why was their no public mourning for him when he died? And why does his will, which listed a number of gifts to family and friends, not include a single book from what would presumably be an extensive library? For those who firmly believe that Shakespeare was the true author of his plays, the Anti-Stratfordians are simply choosing to ignore the facts. In fact, Tudor officials responsible for ascertaining authorship of plays attributed several works to Shakespeare, Jonson and others, including actors who had performed his plays, paid tribute to him in the years following his death and even helped arrange publication of his works.

Francis Bacon was one of the earliest alternatives put forward, beginning in the midth century. A graduate of Cambridge, Bacon was highly accomplished. What would settle this question for good? That would shut the buggers up! The doubters, meanwhile, are busy writing and convening. Among them is the actor Mark Rylance, a trustee of the Shakespeare Authorship Trust founded in , which has just had a conference on the authorship question at the Globe Theatre.

Indeed, heresy seems to be spreading. The battle continues. Alexander Waugh and a phalanx of combative Shake-sceptics are already looking forward to hosing cold water over the th anniversary of the Bard's death in How to Defuse the Population Bomb. Culture Shakespeare Books Literature Campaign. Unlimited access ad free. Newsweek magazine delivered to your door Unlimited access to Newsweek.