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Shakespeare. Is he myth or reality?
The life of the great playwright William Shakespeare
has remained poorly studied. So the question was
raised if he was real at all!
According to the official sources, William
Shakespeare was born on the 23rd of April in
1564. But is it probably just biographers’ fiction?
Although stories about the Shakespeare’s
childhood and his youth are full of colorful
moments, science does not account them to be
faithful. And we know nothing about the school
years of William.
It is known only that on the 27th of
November in 1582 William was married.
His wife was eight years older. Soon they
had a daughter and the twins. There is
nothing about the next 8 years of his life, so
this period was called the "lost years“.
Finally there is no historical
evidence that William
Shakespeare received indeed
primary education! There is
no single piece of paper,
written with his hand, any
books were not found in his
library, which the playwright
certainly had to have. And the
most important fact about
Shakespeare as a poet is that
there is no mention of
contemporaries of him! As if
no one in England has ever
seen the writer !
And one more thing, when Shakespeare
died in Stratford, no one in England said a
word! The only response to the death of the
genius was a note in Stratford parish register.
Although in those days it was usual to write
the elegies about the death of poets and to
publish them in commemorative books.
Shakespeare’s phenomenon has recently
appeared. There is a rumor in British press
that the poet was Italian. The documents was
allegedly found affirming that Shakespeare
was born in Sicily, and his name was
Michelangelo Krolalantsa. Then, fleeing from
the Inquisition, he moved to England and
changed his name.
But in 1920 the
Englishman Thomas
Looney drew a sensational
inference from the analysis
of Shakespeare's works
that the author could well
be Edward de Vere, the
seventeenth Earl of
Oxford. The main
argument was the amazing
similarity of biographical
facts and ideas in private
correspondence with the
plots of Shakespeare's
plays.
Edward de Vere, unlike William
Shakespeare, the son of illiterate
parents, was born in a literary
family. His father was a
playwright John Bale patronized
a theater. His uncle was Henry
Howard, the fifth Earl of Surrey,
who
invented poetic form of English
sonnet.
In 1975, the Encyclopedia Britannica
actually stated officially supporting the
hypothesis that Edward de Vere was the
most likely candidate for the authorship
of Shakespeare's plays."
Although it is unknown who was
Shakespeare indeed and who wrote the
plays more than four centuries ago, the
tragedies, comedies and historical notes
are still alive anyway, exciting and
shocking the imagination of readers and
viewers. The great mystery of the Great
Bard has all chances to remain unsolved.
Thanks for your attention!