Who wrote the works attributed to Shakespeare?
Since the mid-19th century, some writers have proposed that the works credited to William Shakespeare were actually written by someone else. This ledger sets out what the contemporary documentary record and later scholarship say about the authorship.
6 established, 0 disputed, 1 debunked, 0 unresolved. We do not pick an answer; the evidence places each claim. How we decide
14 citations from 10 independent sources - 4 echo the same voices and count once. Graded B1-D1.
Added 3 Jul 2026 - updated 9 Jul 2026
What the four states mean
- Establishedsupported, uncontested
- Disputedcredible sources disagree
- Debunkedrefuted by the evidence
- Unresolvedno settled answer
Established 6supported, uncontested
The plays and poems were published and recorded under William Shakespeare's name during his lifetime; in 1598 Francis Meres named a dozen of the plays as his, and scholarship treats this as the same kind of documentary evidence used for any author of the era.▰▰▰▱▱ likely2 points
Supports- the sweete wittie soule of Ouid liues in mellifluous & hony-tongued Shakespeare, witness his Venus and Adonis, his Lucrece, his sugred Sonnets among his priuate friendsFrancis Meres, Palladis Tamia (1598), via Shakespeare Documented (Folger Shakespeare Library) primary
- Shakespeare, among the English, is the most excellent in both kinds for the stageThe Shakespeare Authorship Question - Shakespeare Birthplace Trust analysis
No one is known to have questioned Shakespeare's authorship during his lifetime or for about two centuries afterward; the first published doubt was Delia Bacon's 1857 book, which argued the works had been issued under an assumed name.▰▰▰▱▱ likely2 points
Supports- For more than two hundred years after William Shakespeare's death, no one doubted that he had written his plays.James Shapiro, Contested Will: Who Wrote Shakespeare? (Simon & Schuster, 2010) analysis
- published under an assumed nameDelia Bacon, The Philosophy of the Plays of Shakspere Unfolded (1857) primary
Several plays in the canon are documented or accepted as collaborations: The Two Noble Kinsmen's 1634 title page names John Fletcher and Shakespeare as joint authors, and attribution scholarship assigns parts of Timon of Athens to Thomas Middleton and of Pericles to George Wilkins.▰▰▰▱▱ likely2 points
Supports- Written by the Worthies of their time; Mr. John Fletcher, and Mr. William Shakspeare. Gent.The Two Noble Kinsmen, first quarto title page (1634) - Internet Shakespeare Editions primary
- Some attribution scholars have identified Thomas Middleton as Shakespeare's collaborator on the play, but others, equally expert in this narrow field of study, have rejected this claim.Authorship of Timon of Athens - Folger Shakespeare Library analysis
The man buried at Stratford is identified as the author: his funerary monument in Holy Trinity Church praises him as a writer, and Leonard Digges' poem in the 1623 First Folio ties the book's author directly to 'thy Stratford monument.'▰▰▰▱▱ likely2 points
Supports- When that stone is rent / And time dissolves thy Stratford monument, / Here we alive shall view thee still.Leonard Digges, To the Memory of the Deceased Author, Master W. Shakespeare - poem in the First Folio (1623), Wikisource primary
- Stay Passenger, why goest thou by so fast / Read if thou canst whome envious Death hath plac't / Within this monument, Shakspeare: with whome / Quick nature dy'd whose name doth deck his Tombe / far more then cost, sith all yat hee hath writt / Leaves living Art but page to serve his witt.Shakespeare's Stratford funerary monument (before 1623), transcribed by John Weever c.1619, via Shakespeare Documented (Folger) primary
The 1623 First Folio, assembled by Shakespeare's fellow actors John Heminge and Henry Condell, presents the collected plays as his and carries a commendatory eulogy by Ben Jonson, who knew him.▰▰▱▱▱ likely2 points
Supports- we pray you do not envie his Friends, the office of their care, and paine, to haue collected & publish'd themFirst Folio (1623), To the Great Variety of Readers, by John Heminge and Henry Condell - Wikisource facsimile primary
- Soul of the age! The applause, delight, the wonder of our stage,Ben Jonson, To the Memory of My Beloved the Author, Mr. William Shakespeare - eulogy in the First Folio (1623), Wikisource facsimile primary
Christopher Marlowe, another proposed author, was killed on 30 May 1593, as recorded by the coroner's inquest of 1 June 1593, before most of the Shakespeare canon was written.▰▰▱▱▱ likely2 points
Supports- on the thirtieth of May in the aforesaid thirtyfifth year, at the aforesaid Detford StrandCoroner's inquest into the death of Christopher Marlowe (1 June 1593), via The Marlowe Society primary
- of which mortal wound the aforesaid Christopher Morley then & there instantly diedCoroner's inquest into the death of Christopher Marlowe (1 June 1593), via The Marlowe Society primary
Debunked 1refuted by the evidence
Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford, the leading alternative candidate, secretly wrote the works attributed to Shakespeare. He died in 1604, before roughly a dozen of the plays are dated, and contemporary writers treat him and Shakespeare as different men.Refuted by
Meres, who seemed to know everybody in the London literary world, is quite clear that they're different people from Shakespeare.
refuted1 against2 pointsThe claim rested on- Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford, wrote the plays and poems of William Shakespeare.Oxfordian theory of Shakespeare authorship - Wikipedia summary
Refuted by- Meres, who seemed to know everybody in the London literary world, is quite clear that they're different people from Shakespeare.The Shakespeare Authorship Question - Shakespeare Birthplace Trust analysis
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