HISTORY’S CONSPIRACY THEORIES by Tammy Gagne STORY LIBRARY
1 Shakespeare Didn’t Write His Own Plays 37 Number of plays that Shakespeare is said to have written William Shakespeare is known in history as a famous playwright Not much is known about his life Some people have claimed that other people wrote Shakespeare’s plays No one has been able to prove or disprove the conspiracy theories about Shakespeare William Shakespeare is one of the best-known playwrights in history Three of his most famous plays are Romeo and Juliet Hamlet and Macbeth But some people believe that Shakespeare didn’t write them Shakespeare was born in England around 1564 He was an 4 actor and a playwright He married had children and owned property He became famous in the London theater world He died in 1616 Not much else is known about his life Some conspiracy theories claim that Edward de Vere wrote
MORE THAN ONE AUTHOR One theory says that many people wrote Shakespeare’s plays In 1848 an American named Joseph C Hart wrote a book about this theory In 1856 Delia Bacon wrote an article about it This has become one of the more popular beliefs among conspiracy theorists Shakespeare’s plays De Vere was the 17th Earl of Oxford An earl is a British nobleman Many of Shakespeare’s plays are about kings queens and other royalty Some people think a common man like Shakespeare wouldn’t know about such things But someone like de Vere would Other theories say Sir Francis Bacon wrote the plays Still others say it was another playwright Christopher Marlowe Or they say it was a different earl William Stanley No one yet has been able to prove that Shakespeare didn’t write his plays But no one has been able to prove he wrote them either Edward de Vere Sir Francis Bacon Christopher Marlowe William Stanley 5
