As you might guess from some of what I occasionally post on this blog, I am a bit of a Shakespeare fan. And I am both fascinated by and appalled by the theories that the plays were not written by Shakespeare.
Ben Elton, in writing a recently broadcast episode of Upstart Crow (a sitcom about Shakespeare), has dealt with the authorship theories very effectively. He has an episode where Shakespeare’s nemesis Robert Greene plots, along with Sir Francis Bacon and the Earl of Oxford, to murder Kit Marlowe, as the first step in creating doubt about the authorship. His cunning plan is that future generations are to believe that Marlowe has faked his death, and in fact is hiding out and writing the plays for Shakespeare. He also assigns roles to Bacon and Oxford, so that they too are to become candidates for authorship.
It is a just too funny episode, in a series which gets better with each passing season.
In passing, I will mention that some of the early advocates for the alternative authorship theories include Delia Bacon, who lived out her life in an insane asylum, and a chap unfortunately named Looney.
Lost For Words! 