http://action.publicbroadcasting.net/kuer/posts/list/15802.page Public Action Here are a few inconvenient facts Oxfordians prefer to overlook:
The English language during the sixteenth and early seventeenth century was extremely fluid; many people wrote spelled their names differently, including Queen Elizabeth I and Sir Walter Raleigh. Some writers used the fluidity of the English language to create amazing works of art. See Sir Edmund Spensers' The Faerie Queen for one of the finest examples of using miscellaneous spellings to create a profound piece of art.
This is a conspiracy theory. Like all good conspiracy theories, this would require a number of people to keep their mouths shut. People today can't seem to do it, and people back then weren't any different. Naturally the chances of someone slipping up and saying something increases with the number of people involved in the conspiracy. In this case we're talking about the entire population of London. Umm yeah...sure. These people thought that Hamlet and Romeo and Juliet would live forever and they had to protect the "true identity" at all costs. I don't think so. The good people of London had their hands full dealing with real issues like plagues, other diseases, famine, putting food on their tables, and maybe hiding their religion from other people who might turn them in for not being Protestant.
As for Shakespeare's education, there's a book out there called Shakespeare's Latin and Greek (probably not the exact title). It's two or three very thick volumes. I would wager there are classics professors who didn't receive as intensive an education in those topics as Shakespeare received. Incidentally, about the time Shakespeare would've been attending the school in Stratford, it had a number of wealthy patrons who were making sure those boys were receiving a very fine education for country lads.
I could go on and on about this topic, but I'm sure some people find it tedious. But, for those who are a bit more curious, here's a link to get you started: http://shakespeareauthorship.com
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