Wednesday, November 09, 2011

Shakespeare Authorship: Big Questions

Some big questions associated with Shakespeare authorship, once answered, might alter the course of future study. In terms of the works generally attributed to Shakespeare . .
  1. Why has it taken so long to establish authorship1 definitively?2
  2. Where is the supporting documentation that typically establishes authorship?3
  3. Does the name "William Shake-speare" (and its variants) have any significance?
  4. Why the focus on Italy in the works?4
  5. Why so few references to God, Christianity, or any aspect of the divine in the works?

1. Has there been any sort of official effort to divert authorship investigation?
2. Authorship theories based on speculation and conjecture, without definitive proof, do not qualify as establishment of actual authorship.
3. Diana Price does a comparative analysis of "literary papers trails" for Shakespeare and two dozen of his contemporaries to show what we have to confirm authorship of other Elizabethan authors--and lack here--in her Shakespeare's Unorthodox Biography: New Evidence of an Authorship Problem.
4. So many of the plays set in Italy, commedia dell'arte style, iambic pentameter, sonnet style, etc.

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