On the contrary, most scholars state with absolute certainty that William Shakspere of Stratford was the man who wrote all those plays and poems. I can only conclude that they cling to this most unlikely notion because they have too much to lose professionally by giving credence to alternative theories. Although this is a diversion from the main topic of this thread I'd like to add that I have looked into some of these alternative theories (some of them crazy) over many decades and for what it's worth have come to believe that "The Works of William Shakespeare" is the product of different authors often working in collaboration but that the predominant author , i.e. the "real" William Shakespeare, was William Stanley , 6th. Earl of Derby, known to be a playwright but also a composer of music with published work to his credit.
I cannot agree with Ralph Moore that the question of the authorship of Shakespeare's works makes no difference to what we have because, along with the works themselves, we have numerous "biographies" of Shakespeare that consist of ninety-nine percent speculation - "supposings" "must have beens" " probables" - that build up a picture of a character who never existed in actuality but only in the minds of those who write such works and those who read them. Many assumptions about the works are made based on the notion that these biographical assumptions are true. Ralph, himself, writes of Shakespeare's day to day experiences but, with respect, even if we accept the Stratford man as the author we don't know what his day to day experiences or, indeed, his personal beliefs were.
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