# Did Shaksper write the Sonnets? \[edited title\]

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-shaksper-write-the-sonnets-edited-title/536631>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [April 19, 2010, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-shaksper-write-the-sonnets-edited-title/536631 "2010-04-19T15:39:03Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 28

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**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\
**Post date:** [April 20, 2010, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-shaksper-write-the-sonnets-edited-title/536631/28 "2010-04-20T14:03:18Z")

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> [@septimus](#):
>
> Just to be clear: you’re agreeing that the Sonnets seems “bizarre” compared with what is known about Shaksper?

[This is what I get for posting late at night.] _I deny the bizarrity._ There is a lot we don’t know about the sonnets: we’re not sure about their subjects or intended audience. But I’m denying the conclusion you are attempting to draw from this.

To quote from the article in the OP:

> [@](#):
>
> Oxfordians, on the other hand, believe that Shakespeare’s works reflect Shakespeare’s life and personality; in other words, Oxfordians believe that Shakespeare’s works are subjective and personal.

What this essentially comes down to is “Shakespeare must have experienced the things he wrote about,” which is an enormous assumption. You haven’t convinced anybody to make it.

> [@](#):
>
> I hope to present some serious arguments _that will be judged on their merits_.

Then please get around to it already!

> [@APB](#):
>
> Er, actually hundreds of writers, most of them lawyers, have argued that Shakespeare must have had some legal experience. [Daniel Kornstein’s _Kill all the lawyers?_ has a good - and suitably sceptical - discussion of that whole Shakespeare-as-scrivener tradition](http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=gh8iA6IeNNkC&pg=PA227&lpg=PA227&dq=shakespeare+scrivener&source=bl&ots=KjH4VVGu7_&sig=pWh3QKQHjVDAuVBYU8uZ3MNL3xs&hl=en&ei=RXjNS4ebNtPD_gbp54meAQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4&ved=0CA4Q6AEwAw#v=onepage&q=shakespeare%20scrivener&f=false).

I was not familiar with that theory.

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