Who Really Wrote Shakespeare?

It can't be, you know, Shakespeare, can it? The Guardian reviews a book that highlights the various theories of authorship and asks Shakespearean actors and directors of today what they think.

From the piece...

All we know for certain is that Shaxpere, Shaxberd, or Shakespear, was born in Stratford in 1564, that he was an actor whose name is printed, with the names of his fellow actors, in the collected edition of his plays in 1623. We know that he married Anne Hathaway, and died in 1616, according to legend, on his birthday, St George's Day. The so-called "Stratfordian" case for Shakespeare rests on these, and a few other facts, but basically, that's it.

Into this vacuum, a bizarre fraternity, including Mark Twain, Charlie Chaplin, Orson Welles and Sigmund Freud, have projected a "Shakespeare" written by a more obviously accomplished writer: Edward de Vere (the 17th earl of Oxford), Sir Francis Bacon and the playwright Christopher Marlowe, to name the leading contenders in a field that also includes Sir Walter Raleigh, John Donne and even Elizabeth, the Virgin Queen herself.

This is the delusional world that Shapiro has chosen to explore in Contested Will. He justifies his investigation with an assertion of scholarly daring – "this subject remains virtually taboo in academic circles" – and claims that his interest is less in what people think about the authorship question, more why they think it. "My attitude", he goes on, "derives from living in a world in which truth is too often seen as relative and in which mainstream media are committed to showing both sides of every story."

And, speaking of Shakespeare? Has a lost Shakespeare play been found? Yes.