Cloze Text - Shakespeare authorship question
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alleged= pretese -- among= tra -- argue= sostengono -- argument= tesi -- arousing= destando -- attracted= attratto -- brought up= cresciuto -- canon= opere -- centuries= secoli -- ciphers= messaggi cifrati -- claimed= sostennero -- could= poteva -- court= corte -- credit= riconoscimento -- encrypted= crittografata -- evidence= prove -- exists= esiste -- expertise= conoscenza -- explosive= esplosiva -- figures= figure -- fringe= marginale -- gifted= donò -- great= grandi -- greatest= maggiore -- humble= umili -- lacked= non aveva -- lawyer= avvocato -- lay out= esporre -- leading= principale -- less= meno -- lover= amante -- middle= metà -- official= ufficiali -- painted= dipingeva -- poetic= poetica -- praised= lodato -- proposed= proposti -- purported= preteso -- questioned= messa in dubbio -- relies= si basa -- replaced= sostituì -- rightful= legittimo -- scholars= studiosi -- season= stagione -- shield= schermare -- significant= significativo -- spawned= generato -- sponsoring= finanziando -- sporting= sportivo -- stage= teatro -- stigma= vergogna -- sublease= subaffitto -- supporting= a sostegno di -- testimony= testimonianza -- theories= teorie -- theory= teoria -- travelled= viaggiato -- true= vero -- tumblers= acrobati -- unreliable= inattendibili -- widespread= diffusa -- wrote= avesse scritto
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The Shakespeare authorship question is the argument over whether someone other than William Shakespeare of Stratford-upon-Avon wrote the works attributed to him. Anti-Stratfordians, a collective term for such theories, say that Shakespeare of Stratford was a front to shield the identity of the real author or authors, who for some reason did not want or could not accept public credit.
Although the idea has attracted much public interest, most Shakespeare scholars and literary historians consider it a fringe belief and disregard it. Shakespeare's authorship was first questioned in the middle of the 19th century, when adulation of Shakespeare as the greatest writer of all time had become widespread.
Shakespeare's biography, particularly his humble origins and obscure life, seemed incompatible with his poetic eminence and his reputation for genius, arousing suspicion that Shakespeare might not have written the works attributed to him. The controversy has since spawned a vast body of literature, and more than 70 authorship candidates have been proposed, including Francis Bacon, the 6th Earl of Derby, Christopher Marlowe, and the 17th Earl of Oxford.
Supporters of alternative candidates argue that William Shakespeare lacked the education, aristocratic sensibility, or familiarity with the royal court that they say is apparent in the works. Those Shakespeare scholars who have responded to such claims hold that biographical interpretations of literature are unreliable in attributing authorship.
Moreover, they maintain that documentary evidence for Shakespeare's authorship, title pages, testimony by other contemporary poets and historians, and official records, are the same as for any other authorial attribution of the time. No such supporting evidence exists for any other candidate, and Shakespeare's authorship was not questioned during his lifetime or for centuries after his death.
More than 70 historical figures have been nominated at one time or another as the true author of the Shakespeare canon, some less seriously than others. However, only four have attracted a significant number of followers.
The leading candidate of the 19th century was one of the great intellectual figures of Jacobean England, Sir Francis Bacon, a lawyer, philosopher, essayist and scientist. Bacon's candidacy relies upon historical and literary conjectures, as well as alleged cryptographical revelations. Baconians suggest that the great number of legal allusions in the Shakespeare canon demonstrate the author's expertise in the law.
Since Bacon was knowledgeable about ciphers, early Baconians suspected that he left his signature encrypted in the Shakespeare canon. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries many Baconians claimed to have discovered ciphers throughout the works supporting Bacon as the true author.
Since the early 1920s, the leading alternate authorship candidate has been Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford and Lord Great Chamberlain of England. Oxford followed his grandfather and father in sponsoring companies of actors, and he also patronised a company of musicians and one of tumblers at one time. Oxford was an important courtier poet, praised as such and as a playwright by George Puttenham and Francis Meres, who included him in a list of the "best for comedy among us". In 1583 he bought the sublease of the first Blackfriars Theatre and gifted it to the poet-playwright Lyly, who operated it for a season under Oxford's patronage.
English schoolteacher J. Thomas Looney was the first to lay out a comprehensive case for Oxford's authorship, identifying personality characteristics in Shakespeare's works, especially Hamlet, that painted the author as an eccentric aristocratic poet, a drama and sporting enthusiast with a classical education who had travelled extensively to Italy.
After his "Shakespeare Identified" was published in 1920, Oxford rapidly replaced Bacon as the most popular alternative candidate. Oxford's purported use of the "Shakespeare" pen name is attributed to the stigma of print, a convention that aristocratic authors could not take credit for writing plays for the public stage.
Another motivation given is the politically explosive "Prince Tudor theory" that the youthful Oxford was Queen Elizabeth's lover; according to this theory, Oxford dedicated "Venus and Adonis", "The Rape of Lucrece", and the "Sonnets" to their son, England's rightful Tudor Prince Henry Wriothesley, who was brought up as the 3rd Earl of Southampton.
Although the idea has attracted much public interest, most Shakespeare scholars and literary historians consider it a fringe belief and disregard it. Shakespeare's authorship was first questioned in the middle of the 19th century, when adulation of Shakespeare as the greatest writer of all time had become widespread.
Shakespeare's biography, particularly his humble origins and obscure life, seemed incompatible with his poetic eminence and his reputation for genius, arousing suspicion that Shakespeare might not have written the works attributed to him. The controversy has since spawned a vast body of literature, and more than 70 authorship candidates have been proposed, including Francis Bacon, the 6th Earl of Derby, Christopher Marlowe, and the 17th Earl of Oxford.
Supporters of alternative candidates argue that William Shakespeare lacked the education, aristocratic sensibility, or familiarity with the royal court that they say is apparent in the works. Those Shakespeare scholars who have responded to such claims hold that biographical interpretations of literature are unreliable in attributing authorship.
Moreover, they maintain that documentary evidence for Shakespeare's authorship, title pages, testimony by other contemporary poets and historians, and official records, are the same as for any other authorial attribution of the time. No such supporting evidence exists for any other candidate, and Shakespeare's authorship was not questioned during his lifetime or for centuries after his death.
More than 70 historical figures have been nominated at one time or another as the true author of the Shakespeare canon, some less seriously than others. However, only four have attracted a significant number of followers.
The leading candidate of the 19th century was one of the great intellectual figures of Jacobean England, Sir Francis Bacon, a lawyer, philosopher, essayist and scientist. Bacon's candidacy relies upon historical and literary conjectures, as well as alleged cryptographical revelations. Baconians suggest that the great number of legal allusions in the Shakespeare canon demonstrate the author's expertise in the law.
Since Bacon was knowledgeable about ciphers, early Baconians suspected that he left his signature encrypted in the Shakespeare canon. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries many Baconians claimed to have discovered ciphers throughout the works supporting Bacon as the true author.
Since the early 1920s, the leading alternate authorship candidate has been Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford and Lord Great Chamberlain of England. Oxford followed his grandfather and father in sponsoring companies of actors, and he also patronised a company of musicians and one of tumblers at one time. Oxford was an important courtier poet, praised as such and as a playwright by George Puttenham and Francis Meres, who included him in a list of the "best for comedy among us". In 1583 he bought the sublease of the first Blackfriars Theatre and gifted it to the poet-playwright Lyly, who operated it for a season under Oxford's patronage.
English schoolteacher J. Thomas Looney was the first to lay out a comprehensive case for Oxford's authorship, identifying personality characteristics in Shakespeare's works, especially Hamlet, that painted the author as an eccentric aristocratic poet, a drama and sporting enthusiast with a classical education who had travelled extensively to Italy.
After his "Shakespeare Identified" was published in 1920, Oxford rapidly replaced Bacon as the most popular alternative candidate. Oxford's purported use of the "Shakespeare" pen name is attributed to the stigma of print, a convention that aristocratic authors could not take credit for writing plays for the public stage.
Another motivation given is the politically explosive "Prince Tudor theory" that the youthful Oxford was Queen Elizabeth's lover; according to this theory, Oxford dedicated "Venus and Adonis", "The Rape of Lucrece", and the "Sonnets" to their son, England's rightful Tudor Prince Henry Wriothesley, who was brought up as the 3rd Earl of Southampton.