How Did the Shakespeare Authorship Fight First Start?

Who first asked, "Who Wrote Shakespeare?"

First, I want to thank everyone who attended the Zoom podcast: “The Dark Lady: Revealed.” I was quite pleased with the turnout and the response. I will soon publish a small book on the subject so people have a chance to review the arguments and evidence in greater detail. And of course, I will publish chapters of that book here for paid subscribers.

Also, an upcoming post will answer the question, “Why Are There So Many Authorship Candidates?” But before I explain that, I should address the question as to why there’s even a Shakespeare authorship question at all. The following is an adapted repost of an article from last year:

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In the centuries-old battle over the authorship of Shakespeare’s plays, conventional scholars and their skeptical counterparts have created two different narratives about when and how the debate first began. On the one side, orthodox scholars reasonably contend that no one ever doubted Shakespeare’s authorship of the plays that bear his name till hundreds of years after he died. It was not until the mid-nineteenth century, they contend, that the snobbery of the Victorian era enticed a few eccentrics to declare it impossible that a poor glover’s son could have written such masterpieces. Not true, the anti-Stratfordians retort, doubts about authorship can be traced back to the 1590s during Shakespeare’s first years in London.

Which side is right?