Walter Raleigh Wrote Shakespeare?

Could plays attributed to William Shakespeare actually have been written by a group led by Francis Bacon, with Walter Raleigh as the main writer? That's a possibility posited in 1845 by Delia Bacon, the first notable writer to put forth a comprehensive alternative theory of Shakespeare authorship.

Bacon argues the purpose of this arrangement was to advance a political and philosophical system without publicly assuming responsibility for such.¹

First claim of sole authorship . . 

Australian George S. Caldwell first claimed Raleigh's sole authorship in 1877 with his pamphlet "Is Sir Walter Raleigh the Author of Shakespeare's Plays and Sonnets?" U.S. senator and historian Albert J. Beveridge supported Raleigh's case in a speech presented in the mid-1890s.

Definitive claim . .

In 1914, Shakspere and Sir Walter Ralegh made U.S. author Henry Pemberton, Jr.'s "definitive claim" to Raleigh authorship of Shakespeare works.²

His book³ presented "evidence" that had led him to "connect the name of the great Ralegh with the Shakspere plays and poems,"⁴ evidence that he believed consisted "in a series of topical allusions in these works" that "refer directly to Sir Walter's career, and are substantiated by the known facts in his biography."

To Pemberton, Raleigh had "written into his dramas his character and attainments," portraying "therein his environment and, to a considerable degree, his life-story as a courtier, statesman, mariner, discoverer, and prisoner in the Tower."⁵

Careful study . .

Sir Walter Raleigh (c. 1552–1618)

Beginning in 1905 with "a careful study of the Shakspere plays and poems", Pemberton was determined "to be restricted by no preconceived theory of authorship", letting the evidence instead take him where it might. As he states in his preface:

"If the evidence showed William Shakspere to be the author, well and good. If it showed Francis Bacon to be the author, again well and good. And if it indicated someone other than these as author — still well and good."

This "method of inquiry", what he called an "inductive study of the works in question", he had been accustomed to "in the study of physical sciences" involving . .

". . the proposition that the investigation should be entirely neutral towards so-called authority, that it should be pursued without any regard for the antiquity of that authority, or the conservative interests supporting it."

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1. Churchill, Reginald Charles (1958). Shakespeare and His Betters: A History and a Criticism of the Attempts Which Have Been Made to Prove That Shakespeare's Works Were Written by Others. London: Max Reinhardt.
2. "Who Really Wrote Shakespeare's Plays? Sir Walter Raleigh - About the controversy over who really wrote Shakespeare's plays, supporters and arguments for and against Sir Walter Raleigh" reprinted from "The People's Almanac" by David Wallechinsky and Irving Wallace; 1975-1981.
3. Remainder of title: "EDITED AFTER THE AUTHOR'S DEATH BY SUSAN LOVERING PEMBERTON FROM AN UNFINISHED MANUSCRIPT, WITH KINDLY REVISION BY HER HUSBAND'S FRIEND CARROLL SMYTH"
4. Ralegh is considered the proper spelling of his surname by many.
5. Pemberton, Jr., Henry, Shakspere and Sir Walter Ralegh: Including Also Several Essays Previously Published in The New Shakspeareana; 1914; J. B. Lippincott Company, Philadelphia and London.