Of course, another flaw with making the claim “we know nothing about Shakespeare’s life” is that virtually every other playwright of the era between 1580 and 1640 has just as little, if not less (it took until 1976 before anyone figured out anything about John Webster).
This has been pretty well debunked. I used to think it was at least plausible, but at least one earlier English bible (I don’t know about you, but I was errantly taught that the King James was the first English bible in high school) has the same pattern - I think it’s the Great bible (ca. 1540).
True. But it’s still a pretty striking coincidence.
Me, I prefer the theory put forth on SCTV. Both Shakespeare and Francis Bacon co-wrote the plays. It was a promo for one of their shows “Shake and Bake” Damned silly and damned funny.