A terrific SHAKESPEARE Myth:
There were no authorship doubters before 1850!
Whenever so-called orthodox Shakespeare experts (→ "Stratfordians") are asked about their opinion on the "true" Shake-speare, they declare with certainty
that until the middle of the nineteenth century nobody doubted the authorship of the person from Stratford.
That's totally wrong!!While it is true that the modern-day authorship controversy and related →"doubts" began then, experts ignore many examples of writers who have expressed their doubt about Shakespeare's identity already during Shakespeare's own time.
Doubts were expressed soon after the initial appearance of the name Shakespeare on two published Poems "Venus &Adonis" (1593) and "Lucrece" (1594).
They continued during his lifetime and for decades after the publication of the First Folio, summarized in →"The true Shakespeare: Christopher Marlowe?' (Chapter 4)
You have to be aware, that contrary to widely held beliefs the names of quite a number of contemporary doubters were no real persons but Pseudonyms of the poet Genius (like →Barnfield, →Basse , →Breton, →Bodenham, John Davies→ 1 → 2, →Drayton, →Griffin, →Markham, →Wither and many more), sometimes they were masking names of living or deceased persons like Shakespeare [Stratford], →Tobie Matthew, →→Robert Southwell, →Thomas Overbury. Often they signed on a title page or sheet with "Ignoto", "Anonymous" or "Initials of his Name(s)" [like C.M. ,W.K. ,W.C. ,W.S. etc.etc.]
This seems far-fetched and utopian at first glance, but the →number of arguments -[Summary-]) is overwhelming and unsurmountable. see Wildenthal's Video!
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Bryan H. Wildenthal – Early Shakespeare
