Oxfordian theory of Shakespeare authorship

The argument

Oxfordians champion Edward De Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford as the strongest candidate for the authorship of William Shakespeare’s plays. Oxfordians believe that Shakespeare's lack of education and humble social status means he is unlikely to have written the works attributed to him. Shakespeare's work includes knowledge of languages, the classics, political theory, and history, which suggest they may have been written by a high born and educated gentlemen, like De Vere. De Vere was also connected to the theatre world and known to secretly write some plays and poems in his lifetime. He traveled extensively throughout Europe, to many locations that are settings in Shakespeare's plays. This has lead Oxfordian scholars to present extensive biographical links between Shakespeare's work and De Vere's life story. In particular, many examples of biographical links can be seen in Shakespeare's play, Hamlet, which strengthens the Oxfordian authorship theory.

Premises

Counter-arguments

Stratfordians are scholars who agree with the theory Shakespeare of Stratford was the author of the work accredited to him. There is evidence that Shakespeare was a highly sought after writing partner who collaborated with many other playwrights. In particular, dramatist John Fletcher was known as a frequent collaborator of Shakespeare's, co-writing plays such as All is True, Henry VIII, The Two Noble Kinsmen and the lost Cardenio. If Shakespeare was known to collaborate with a team of playwrights, who knew Shakespeare was Shakespeare, the Earl of Oxford can't take authorship for Shakespeare's work.

Rejecting the premises

[Rejecting P1] The premise misstates both what the plays require and what Shakespeare had. An Elizabethan grammar-school education was heavily classical; the classical material in the plays largely tracks translations then available in English; and the geographical and political detail contains errors an aristocratic traveller would have been unlikely to make. The underlying assumption — that a glover's son could not have written them — is a claim about social class rather than a piece of evidence. [Rejecting P2] De Vere died in 1604, before King Lear, Macbeth, Antony and Cleopatra, The Tempest and the late collaborations were written, several drawing on sources published after that date. Writing verse and travelling in Europe were common among the educated in any case, and establish opportunity at most, not authorship. [Rejecting P3] Biographical parallel is a weak instrument. Parallels can be found for many candidates across a body of work this large, and the same method has been used to nominate Bacon, Marlowe and others in turn. The documentary record runs the other way: contemporaries named Shakespeare as the author, he was paid as a sharer in his company, and he co-wrote plays with John Fletcher and others who knew whom they were writing with.