Orthodoxy Affirmed

Rather than reply to the essay of my friend Richard Waugaman point by point, I will try to explain why I as an “orthodox” academic remain unconvinced by doubts of William Shakespeare's authorship of the poems and plays traditionally ascribed to him.

First, the chronology of Shakespeare's life (1564-1616) is a neat match for poems and plays published under his name. The earliest attributed poem in print, Venus and Adonis , appeared when Shakespeare was about 29. Next came The Rape of Lucrece . Both poems were printed by Richard Field, also from Stratford-upon-Avon. Two plays, Titus Andronicus and part of the Henry VI trilogy, were published in 1594, without Shakespeare's name attached. Beginning in 1598, more and more plays were published with the name William Shakespeare on the title page, including Richard II, Richard III, Love's Labor's Lost; later Hamlet , King Lear , and Troilus and Cressida and Pericles , to name only a few. In 1623, 7 years after Shakespeare's death in 1616, John Heminges and Henry Condell, two of the three professional “fellowes” he remembered in his will, published the famous First Folio, including all plays normally attributed to the playwright except Pericles. With respect to its composition, no Shakespeare poem or play has ever been dated later than the 1616 death of its author.

Second, Shakespeare's dates perfectly match known facts of his theatrical career. From his early thirties, he was a leading member of the Lord Chamberlain's company, as demonstrated by a payment he received, with two other players, in March 1595 for company performances over the 1594 Christmas season. In 1599, he became the lead purchaser of the Globe playhouse site on Bankside. Ben Jonson named him among “Principall Comoedians” or “Principall Tragoedians” for the first performances of Every Man Out of his Humor in 1598 and Sejanus in 1603. He is the second of nine royal servants, all players, named in the 1603 warrant which created the King's Men playing company. “