Shakespeare & Us

Why have people speculated over the years that Shakespeare's works must have really been the product of someone else?

Because many people have had trouble believing that a man who was poor, the son of a glovemaker, who had little formal education, could have written plays that demonstrated a facility in portraying the lives of people from all parts of society, from nobles to jesters, to drunks, thieves, military men, clerics, whores, musicians and working people. It seemed hard to believe that a man of limited means who never traveled that much himself could write convincingly of places he had not been to, and of events that were over centuries before he was born as well as those set in the time in which he lived.

It was a feat that many modern authors cannot match up to, when you consider how insightfully he depicted the subtle inner workings as well as the outward actions of people. Even today, his plays are well received and draw hearty laughs as well as gasps of horror and jolts of irony, as rich in value and pertinent to current events as they were when they were first performed. Directors are still mining his work for fresh material or remaking his material with their own twist to make new movies. Contemporary authors still find inspiration for new work from reading his writing, and seeing performances of his plays. Musicians still create new music to use with his plays, or inspired by his plays and poetry.

Not only his plays, but his poems, are still among those most admired and most quoted in the English language. His wit, wisdom and profound heartfelt renderings of relationships still dazzle audiences and readers all over the world.

Why was it so hard to believe he did all this?

Because he used his abilities to do far more than the average person. He far outperformed and outproduced what anyone expected of a man of his rank in society. He showed us how much one man can create, if he puts his mind to it. And, by the way, no one has ever proven that he was not the author of his work. All of that is just speculation and theory.

We also have the ability to do far more than what we usually do, or what people expect of us.