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Shakespeare did not become famous until late in his life and few details are known about his early life. Although no attendance records remain, it is believed that he attended Stratford-Upon-Avon Grammar School, where he would have received a sound education in the Latin and Greek classics, reflected in many of his plays. The social class from which he came could be described as wealthy tradesmen. His father, John Shakespeare, was a glove-maker who became mayor of Stratford-upon-Avon despite almost certainly being a Roman Catholic (in the early part of the reign of Elizabeth I, penalties against Catholics were light and often not imposed). His mother, Mary Arden, the daughter of a farmer, was certainly Catholic. William Shakepeare himself knew many of the Warwickshire Catholic gentry who later led the Gunpowder Plot to overthrow King James VI. Shakespeare himself did not adhere publicly to the Roman religion and it is not known if, like many Catholics, he practised it in private.<ref> ''In Search of Shakespeare'', by Michael Wood. BBC Books, 2003.</ref> There are few pictures of him but his near-contemporary as a playwright, Ben Jonson, stated that the famous engraving by Martin Droeshout, shown on this page, was a good likeness.

[[File:Shakespeare f. Reuters.jpg|thumb]]Several writers who knew Shakespeare, including Ben Jonson, attest to his authorship in the ''First Folio'', a collection of his plays published in 1623. There is no indication that this claim was controversial, either at the time or for another 200 years. <ref>Shapiro, James, ''[https://books.google.ca/books/about/Contested_Will.html?id=4j4UqFnb4AoC Contested Will: Who Wrote Shakespeare?]'' (2011)</ref> Shakespeare and the other Elizabethan writers were gradually eclipsed by a new generation of playwrights led by Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher. After Samuel Johnson reissued Shakespeare's plays in 1765, there was renewed interest in the bard, a phenomenon called "bardology." Although researchers discovered Shakespeare's will and several other personal documents, the reading public remained dissatisfied with the amount biographical information available. By the 1840s, Shakespeare discoveries began to dry up and it became apparent that there was no trove of correspondence waiting to be uncovered. In 1857, American author Delia Bacon wrote a book arguing that Shakespeare was a fraud and the real author of his work was Sir Francis Bacon (no relation). This book kicked off the "Shakespeare authorship controversy," which continues to this day. Various late 19th century figures took up Bacon's cause, including Ignatius Donnelly, Mark Twain, Sigmund Freud, and Helen Keller. After 1920, the focus of attention shifted from Bacon to the Earl of Oxford as a possible author of the Shakespeare canon.

In the 1990sAlthough researchers discovered Shakespeare's will and several other personal documents, computer style analysis at popular biographies published in the early 19th century stressed the contrast between Shakespeare Clinic at Claremont College in California established that Shakespeare had a writing style that is distinct from that of Bacon, Oxford, 's fame and other Elizabethan authorshow little biographical information was known.<ref>ElliottMcCarter, Ward E. Y.; Valenza, Robert J.Jeremy, "[http://ericquery.ednytimes.govcom/gst/fullpage.html?idres=EJ571023 And Then There Were None: Winnowing the Shakespeare Claimants9406E6DB113EF931A35756C0A9669D8B63 A Question of Authorship]", ''Computers and the Humanities''New York Times, v30 n3 p191-245 1996. For a summaryMay 2, see [http://www.shakespeareauthorship.com/ox6.html here].2010</ref> Oxford's claim to Alternative theories of authorship was comprehensively debunked by further style tests published in 2004.<ref>Elliott, Ward E.Y., concerning Homer and Robert Jthe Gospels also emerged at around this time. ValenzaIn 1857, "[http://www.academia.edu/612631/Oxford_by_the_Numbers_What_Are_the_Odds_That_the_Earl_of_Oxford_Could_Have_Written_Shakespeares_Poems_and_Plays Oxford by the Numbers: What Are the Odds That the Earl of Oxford Could Have Written American author Delia Bacon wrote a book arguing that Shakespeare's Poems was a fraud and Plays?]. "The odds that either could have written theother’s real author of his work are much lower than the odds of getting hit by lightningwas Sir Francis Bacon (no relation).This book kicked off the "</ref> HoweverShakespeare authorship controversy, Oxford " which continues to receive enormous attention and was the subject of a 2011 movie by Roland Emmerich called ''Anonymous'this day. Various late 19th century figures took up Bacon's cause, including Ignatius Donnelly, Mark Twain, Sigmund Freud, and Helen Keller.

In 1895, a book by Wilbur G. Zeigler argued that English playwright [[Christopher Marlowe]] was the author of Shakespeare's plays.<ref>Zeigler, Wilbur G., ''It Was Marlowe'' (1895)</ref> While Marlowe's style is closer to Shakespeare's than that of almost all other suggested candidates,<ref>Shakespeare's ''Henry VI'' is written in a style similar to that of Marlowe's, so the two authors may have collaborated. See "[http://www.jstor.org/stable/30200393?&Search=yes&searchText= List Marlowe&searchText=Christopher&list=hide&searchUri=%2Faction%2FdoBasicSearch%3FQuery%3DChristopher%2BMarlowe%26fromHomePage%3Dtrue%26acc%3Don%26wc%3Don%26fc%3Doff&prevSearch=&item=1&ttl=5330&returnArticleService=showFullText&seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents Tamburlaine Stalks ''Henry VI'']" by Thomas Merriam.</ref> he suffers the disadvantage of having died in 1593 when Shakespeare's writing career was just beginning.<ref>Marlowe worked as an intelligence agent for Thomas Walsingham, Queen Elizabeth's spymaster. Walsingham may have had Marlowe murdered for fear that his involvement with atheism would make both of them notorious.[http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/3647398/Who-killed-Christopher-Marlowe.html] The murderer was later pardoned by the queen. See the [http://marlowe-shakespeare.blogspot.com/ The Marlowe-Shakespeare Connection] for various wildly implausible faked death theories.</ref> In 1920, English author J. Thomas Looney suggested that the Earl of Oxford wrote the plays . Looney argued that Oxford's travels in Europe and aristocratic life at the English court made him a more plausible author than an untitled glover's son. Since the 1920s, Looney's theory has been dominate among Shakespeare skeptics.<ref>[http://oxford-shakespeare.com/ The Oxford Authorship Site]</ref> In 1996, computer style analysis at the Shakespeare Clinic at Claremont College in California compared Shakespeare's writing to that of a corpus of twenty-six Elizabethan authors, including Bacon, Marlowe and Oxford. Ten style criteria were used to test the corpus, including use of relative clauses and the use of hyphenated compound words. Shakespeare's writing was found have a style distinct from that of every other author in the study. The authors were ranked according to how similar their styles were to that of Shakespeare. Oxford scored 22nd of the 26 claimants.<ref>Ward Elliott and Robert Valenza, "[http://shakespeareauthorship.com/elval.html Was the Earl of Oxford the true Shakespeare? A Computer-aided analysis]" (1991)<br/>Elliott and Valenza, "[http://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ571023 And Then There Were None: Winnowing the Shakespeare Claimants]", ''Computers and the Humanities'', v30 n3 p191-245 1996. For a summary, see [http://www.shakespeareauthorship.com/ox6.html here].<br/>Elliott and Valenza, "[http://www.academia.edu/612631/Oxford_by_the_Numbers_What_Are_the_Odds_That_the_Earl_of_Oxford_Could_Have_Written_Shakespeares_Poems_and_Plays Oxford by the Numbers: What Are the Odds That the Earl of Oxford Could Have Written Shakespeare's Poems and Plays?]. (2004) "The odds that either could have written the other’s work are much lower than the odds of getting hit by lightning."</ref> Shakespeare's ''[[The Tempest]]'' (1610) is believed to have been inspired by the experience of George Somers, who was shipwrecked in Bermuda in 1610. Oxford died in 1604, making him an implausible author, at least for this play. Despite these style and chronological difficulties, Oxford's claim continues to receive enormous attention.<ref>[https://doubtaboutwill.org/ The Shakespeare Authorship Coalition]</ref> It was the subject of a 2011 movie by Roland Emmerich called ''Anonymous''. == List of plays<ref>[http://absoluteshakespeare.com/trivia/bibliography/bibliography.htm Bibliography]</ref> ==

[[categoryCategory:Poets]]