Home > Shakespearean Criticism > The Authorship Controversy - Other Claimants: Bacon And Marlowe

1. Printable Version
2. Download PDF
3. Cite this Page
4. Tweet This

OTHER CLAIMANTS: BACON AND MARLOWE

H. N. Gibson (essay date 1962)

SOURCE: "The Case For Francis Bacon," in The Shakespeare Claimants: A Critical Survey of the Four Principal Theories Concerning the Authorship of the Shakespearean Plays, Methuen & Co. Ltd., 1962, pp. 48-71.

[In the following essay, Gibson examines the basis of the case for Francis Bacon as the author of the plays and poems and then proceeds to highlight the weaknesses of Baconian theories.]

The Baconians were not only the originators of the great Shakespearean controversy; they also devised the pattern for it that all the other schools of thought have followed.¹ This pattern consists of four sections—(1) arguments for the rejection of William Shakspere as author; (2) arguments for the recognition of some other candidate as author; (3) reasons for the long concealment of the identity of the new claimant; and (4) reasons for the former ascription of the...

Join eNotes

The above is a free excerpt. Get total access to this content with the:

eNotes Pass

1. Introduction
2. Overview
3. The Case For Shakespeare
4. The Case Against Shakespeare: Anti-Stratfordian Arguments
5. William Shakespeare Vs. Edward De Vere, Earl Of Oxford
6. Other Claimants: Bacon And Marlowe
7. The "New" Poems: "Shall I Die?"
8. The "New" Poems: "The Funeral Elegy
9. Further Reading
10. Copyright