# Shakespeare Co-Wrote 17 Plays, None with Oxford **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 26, 2016, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shakespeare-co-wrote-17-plays-none-with-oxford/769747 "2016-10-26T02:55:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2016, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shakespeare-co-wrote-17-plays-none-with-oxford/769747/1 "2016-10-26T02:55:58Z")
The latest edition of the [New Oxford Shakespeare](https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2016/oct/23/christopher-marlowe-credited-as-one-of-shakespeares-co-writers?utm_source=fark&utm_medium=website&utm_content=link&ICID=ref_fark) will show that Shakespeare co-wrote 17 of 44 plays. 44 plays? Yes, he’s now credited with co-writing _Arden of Faversham_ in 1592. In other breaking news, Christopher “Kit” Marlowe did not write Shakespeare’s plays - but he did write \*with \*Shakespeare, all three parts of _Henry VI_. > [@](#): > > Decisions have been swayed by a complex jigsaw of different kinds of evidence. The researchers believe that computerised textual analysis is now so sophisticated that they can even distinguish between Shakespeare writing under Marlowe’s influence and Marlowe writing alone. Maybe now we can end the tedious conspiracy theory that Shakespeare didn’t write Shakespeare. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2016, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shakespeare-co-wrote-17-plays-none-with-oxford/769747/2 "2016-10-26T03:44:10Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > Maybe now we can end the tedious conspiracy theory that Shakespeare didn’t write Shakespeare. Yes, all conspiracy theories can be ended with logic and reasoning. No conspiracy theory can possibly survive a careful analysis of fact. ---
**Author:** ![AppallingGael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b9bd4f/32.png) [@AppallingGael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AppallingGael)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2016, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shakespeare-co-wrote-17-plays-none-with-oxford/769747/3 "2016-10-26T03:47:23Z")
The myth is blown all the more up if he had a cowriter. After all, what would it matter if the playwright and poet we know as “William Shakespeare” were actually Christopher Marlowe, Edward de Vere, Francis Bacon or Seweryn Kłosowski on his birth certificate? He’d still be Shakespeare, regardless of whether he knew the tenderloin from the brisket. ---
**Author:** ![Fuzzy\_wuzzy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a8b319/32.png) [@Fuzzy\_wuzzy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fuzzy_wuzzy)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2016, 8:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shakespeare-co-wrote-17-plays-none-with-oxford/769747/4 "2016-10-26T08:22:27Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > The latest edition of the [New Oxford Shakespeare](https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2016/oct/23/christopher-marlowe-credited-as-one-of-shakespeares-co-writers?utm_source=fark&utm_medium=website&utm_content=link&ICID=ref_fark) will show that Shakespeare co-wrote 17 of 44 plays. 44 plays? Yes, he’s now credited with co-writing _Arden of Faversham_ in 1592. > > In other breaking news, Christopher “Kit” Marlowe did not write Shakespeare’s plays - but he did write \*with \*Shakespeare, all three parts of _Henry VI_. > > Maybe now we can end the tedious conspiracy theory that Shakespeare didn’t write Shakespeare. That’s interesting about Arden of Faversham. I do still slightly mistrust claims of Shakespeare apocrypha. It’s just too tempting to attribute certain plays to Shakespeare ahead of fellow Elizabethan hacks. Previous software eggheads have been burnt over this very issue. ---
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2016, 10:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shakespeare-co-wrote-17-plays-none-with-oxford/769747/5 "2016-10-26T10:34:10Z")
Yeah, been reading the articles. Fascinating how little we know about Shakespeare. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2016, 12:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shakespeare-co-wrote-17-plays-none-with-oxford/769747/6 "2016-10-26T12:15:10Z")
It’s not surprising. Theater is a collaborative art; a playwright doesn’t just sit down and write. Sections might need to be added to allow for set changes; others might need to be cut due to the logistics of production. (“The Third Murderer has smallpox; we’ll have to do without him.”) That’s one thing the Shakespeare conspiracy people don’t understand: the playwright is in the theater as the play is being rehearsed. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2016, 1:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shakespeare-co-wrote-17-plays-none-with-oxford/769747/7 "2016-10-26T13:32:53Z")
> [@WordMan](#): > > Yeah, been reading the articles. Fascinating how little we know about Shakespeare. The biographical facts would fit on a single sheet of paper with good margins and room for a fancy title. Everything else is inference and extrapolation… and as you say, that’s fascinating. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2016, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shakespeare-co-wrote-17-plays-none-with-oxford/769747/8 "2016-10-26T14:41:19Z")
> [@](#): > > It’s not surprising. Theater is a collaborative art; a playwright doesn’t just sit down and write. Sections might need to be added to allow for set changes; others might need to be cut due to the logistics of production. (“The Third Murderer has smallpox; we’ll have to do without him.”) Or if one actor and/or his role proves especially popular, you might re-write some scenes to give him more stage time. ---
**Author:** ![Totenfeier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/4bbf92/32.png) [@Totenfeier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Totenfeier)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2016, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shakespeare-co-wrote-17-plays-none-with-oxford/769747/9 "2016-10-26T15:30:42Z")
> [@AppallingGael](#): > > The myth is blown all the more up if he had a cowriter. After all, what would it matter if the playwright and poet we know as “William Shakespeare” were actually Christopher Marlowe, Edward de Vere, Francis Bacon or Seweryn Kłosowski on his birth certificate? He’d still be Shakespeare, regardless of whether he knew the tenderloin from the brisket. That’s what I have always maintained; I told students that the plays were either written by William Shakespeare, or by someone of the same name. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2016, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shakespeare-co-wrote-17-plays-none-with-oxford/769747/10 "2016-10-26T15:57:04Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > Yes, all conspiracy theories can be ended with logic and reasoning. No conspiracy theory can possibly survive a careful analysis of fact. I think you just might be sarcastic here. Hint. So was I.