EVERYBODY IS SHAKESPEARE

For some, the most difficult thing of all to swallow is the utter and glorious banality of the fact that William Shakespeare really, truly and genuinely was William Shakespeare: a writer of some accomplishment and felicity of expression who did not leave much in the way of likenesses  or letters or laundry lists behind him.

After almost 200 years of attempts to identify the “real” Shakespeare, the list of pretenders has grown pretty extensive. Not least extensive in the sense that one of them, Daniel Defoe, lived long enough to see in the eighteenth century. However, since no one can ever be really, truly and genuinely sure we offer you, below, the complete roster.

Just to be on the safe side.

Lancelot Andrewes

Sir Francis Bacon

Sir Thomas Bodley

Lord Buckhurst

Robert Burton

Robert Cecil, Earl of Salisbury

Henry Chettle

Samuel Daniel

Daniel Defoe

Thomas Dekker

Sir Francis Drake

Michael Drayton

Sir Edward Dyer

Elizabeth I

Michele Agnolo Florio

Robert Greene

Thomas Heywood

Ben Jonson

Thomas  Lodge

Roger Manners, Earl of Rutland

Christopher Marlowe

Thomas Middleton

Thomas More

Anthony Munday

Thomas Nashe

Lord Paget

George Peele

Countess of Pembroke

Endymion Porter

Sir Walter Ralegh

William Shakespeare

Sir Anthony Sherley

Edmund Spenser

William Stanley, Earl of Derby

Edward de Vere, Earl of Oxford

John Webster