# Stratford or Oxford? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [November 11, 1999, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stratford-or-oxford/16967 "1999-11-11T22:27:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Edward\_J\_Cunningham](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/c89c15/32.png) [@Edward\_J\_Cunningham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Edward_J_Cunningham)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 1999, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stratford-or-oxford/16967/1 "1999-11-11T22:27:00Z")
Who wrote Shakespeare’s plays? My money’s on Stratford. **LET THE DEBATE BEGIN!** * * * “I’m not bad, I’m just drawn that way…” –Jessica Rabbit, **Who Framed Roger Rabbit** ---
**Author:** ![WallyM7](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/b5e925/32.png) [@WallyM7](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WallyM7)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 1999, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stratford-or-oxford/16967/2 "1999-11-11T22:31:00Z")
I think it was a guy named Shakespeare. * * * This space for rent. ---
**Author:** ![pluto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f08c70/32.png) [@pluto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pluto)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 1999, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stratford-or-oxford/16967/3 "1999-11-11T23:33:00Z")
Nope. Not gonna touch it. I didn’t know people got so exercised about it. I thought it was kinda fun, but it seems to be one of those politics/religion things. Not with a ten-foot pole. [whisper] But it was Oxford! [/whisper] No, really. Having re-read the Stratford papers I come away marvelling at how hard it is to disprove a negative. (Lest I be misunderstood – I mean it’s difficult to _disprove_ that William Shakespeare did _not_ write the plays. So the Oxfordians or Baconians or Marlovites who don’t want to be convinced will remain unconvinced in spite of _any_ evidence the Stratfordians put forward.) Even substantial documentary evidence can be explained away if you try hard enough. At some point, in order to believe _anything_ you have to accept someone’s evaluation of the evidence. If you are convinced before you begin that one of two mutually exclusive propositions is true then you just believe the evidence you like and disbelieve the contrary. ## So I will take my hasty, lightly-held opinions and drift slowly off into the sunset and let those who a) know or b) care carry on the debate. “Vandelay!! Say Vandelay!!” ---
**Author:** ![tracer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tracer/32/20578_2.png) [@tracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tracer)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 1999, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stratford-or-oxford/16967/4 "1999-11-12T00:46:00Z")
Personally, I don’t believe there _was_ a single person who used the pen name “William Shakespeare”. I believe that this was a pen name used by the Globe Theater Company’s staff writers, collectively. My evidence comes from the fact that this sounds like a neato-keen theory. And you can’t prove me wrong! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![DrFidelius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drfidelius/32/3447_2.png) [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 1999, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stratford-or-oxford/16967/5 "1999-11-12T00:49:00Z")
[obscure Python sketch] I wrote Shakespeare’s plays, and my wife and I collaborated on the Sonnets. [/obscure Python sketch] ---
**Author:** ![Nixon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/5fc32e/32.png) [@Nixon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nixon)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 1999, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stratford-or-oxford/16967/6 "1999-11-12T13:45:00Z")
I’m quite impressed that members of the SD board are not taken in by the specious nature of the Oxford/Bacon/whomever arguments. When I first looked into this debate, I had no preconceptions on who wrote what. Unfortunately, the Oxford camp provides more invective, psuedo-science, outright frauds, more than whiff or paranoia (something I know a bit about), and a humourous reliance on hidden messages, than real evidence or a real argument. Their basic premise is not historically implausible. For example, many intelligent people, for some time, actually believed that Stephen Foster really wrote the folk songs he collected and published or that Matthew Brady actually photographed all of the Civil War photos produced by his studio. The first key to a real argument would be a document from the 16th or 17th century that questioned Will of Stratford’s authorship. None exists. Until something turns up…case closed. ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 1999, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stratford-or-oxford/16967/7 "1999-11-12T23:33:00Z")
I swear to God I am not going back into this. When this issue came up before on this board, I had no idea the emotional attachment people put into their beliefs on how wrote some four hundred year old plays. You’d think we were arguing that William Shakespeare founded the NRA and was performing abortions on his weekends off. My advice to everyone is that you go back and read the original thread and decide for yourself if you want to resurrect this monster. I myself am going to run away and hide now. ---
**Author:** ![metroshane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/aeb1de/32.png) [@metroshane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/metroshane)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 1999, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stratford-or-oxford/16967/8 "1999-11-12T23:41:00Z")
Well, Cliff ('s notes) wrote 'em. * * * We live in an age that reads to much to be wise, and thinks too much to be beautiful–Oscar Wilde ---
**Author:** ![Big\_Iron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e36b37/32.png) [@Big\_Iron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Big_Iron)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 1999, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stratford-or-oxford/16967/9 "1999-11-14T22:27:00Z")
[[I swear to God I am not going back into this. When this issue came up before on this board, I had no idea the emotional attachment people put into their beliefs on how wrote some four hundred year old plays. You’d think we were arguing that William Shakespeare founded the NRA and was performing abortions on his weekends off. My advice to everyone is that you go back and read the original thread and decide for yourself if you want to resurrect this monster. I myself am going to run away and hide now.]] Mike King I’m with you, Mike, the heat generated by this seemingly dry topic is truly astounding – suffice it to say that both positions are far from frivolous. ---
**Author:** ![tracer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tracer/32/20578_2.png) [@tracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tracer)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 1999, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stratford-or-oxford/16967/10 "1999-11-16T00:52:00Z")
Big Iron wrote: > [@](#): > > suffice it to say that both positions are far from frivolous. Which two positions? That Shakespeare founded the NRA, or that he performed abortions on his weekends off? 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Sake\_Samurai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bc79bd/32.png) [@Sake\_Samurai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sake_Samurai)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 1999, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stratford-or-oxford/16967/11 "1999-11-16T03:15:00Z")
There’s no way in Hell that Shakespeare wrote all that is attributed to him, and there’s no way in Hell anyone else did either. * * * Hell is Other People. ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 1999, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stratford-or-oxford/16967/12 "1999-11-24T17:00:00Z")
I thought we’d resolved this one. You see, there’s this infinite number of monkeys, sitting in front of an infinite number of typewriters… 😃