Shakespeare Beyond Doubt: Evidence, Argument, Controversy

Cambridge University Press, 4/18/2013
EAN 9781107603288, ISBN10: 1107603285

Paperback, 298 pages, 22.6 x 15.2 x 1.8 cm
Language: English

Did Shakespeare write Shakespeare? The authorship question has been much treated in works of fiction, film and television, provoking interest all over the world. Sceptics have proposed many candidates as the author of Shakespeare's works, including Francis Bacon, Christopher Marlowe and Edward De Vere, the seventeenth Earl of Oxford. But why and how did the authorship question arise and what does surviving evidence offer in answer to it? This authoritative, accessible and frequently entertaining book sets the debate in its historical context and provides an account of its main protagonists and their theories. Presenting the authorship of Shakespeare's works in relation to historiography, psychology and literary theory, twenty-three distinguished scholars reposition and develop the discussion. The book explores the issues in the light of biographical, textual and bibliographical evidence to bring fresh perspectives to an intriguing cultural phenomenon.

General introduction Paul Edmondson and Stanley Wells
Part I. Sceptics
Introduction to Part One Paul Edmondson and Stanley Wells
1. The unreadable Delia Bacon Graham Holderness
2. The case for Bacon Alan Stewart
3. The case for Marlowe Charles Nicholl
4. The life and theatrical interests of Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford Alan H. Nelson
5. The unusual suspects Matt Kubus
Part II. Shakespeare as Author
Introduction to Part Two Paul Edmondson and Stanley Wells
6. Theorizing Shakespeare's authorship Andrew Hadfield
7. Allusions to Shakespeare to 1642 Stanley Wells
8. Shakespeare as collaborator John Jowett
9. Authorship and the evidence of stylometrics MacDonald P. Jackson
10. What does textual evidence reveal about the author? James Mardock and Eric Rasmussen
11. Shakespeare and Warwickshire David Kathman
12. Shakespeare and school Carol Chillington Rutter
13. Shakespeare tells lies Barbara Everett
Part III. A Cultural Phenomenon
Did Shakespeare Write Shakespeare?
Introduction to Part Three Paul Edmondson and Stanley Wells
14. 'This palpable device'
authorship and conspiracy in Shakespeare's life Kathleen E. McLuskie
15. Amateurs and professionals
regendering Bacon Andrew Murphy
16. Fictional treatments of Shakespeare's authorship Paul Franssen
17. The declaration of reasonable doubt Stuart Hampton-Reeves
18. 'There won't be puppets, will there?'
'Heroic' authorship and the cultural politics of Anonymous Douglas M. Lanier
19. 'The Shakespeare establishment' and the Shakespeare authorship discussion Paul Edmondson
Afterword James Shapiro
A selected reading list Hardy M. Cook.

Advance praise: 'Until now no book has provided the comprehensive evidence necessary to satisfy those 'Reasonable Doubters'.' James Shapiro, Columbia University, and author of Contested Will: Who Wrote Shakespeare?