Related:
The Real Shakespeare's Birthplace And Why It Matters.
Sir Derek Jacobi and Mark Rylance discuss The Declaration of Reasonable Doubt.
How Shakespeare Was Erased: Edward de Vere's 3 Burials.
Katherine Chiljan – The First Folio Fraud.
Michael Dudley — The Bard Identity: Becoming an Oxfordian.
James Warren — J. Thomas Looney: An Unknown Fighter.
Shakespeare's Childhood Tutor.
Alexander Waugh: Edward de Vere & Marlowe, Lyly, Kyd. 'BAND OF BROTHERS'.
Alexander Waugh - George Vertue Knew ...
The Other Candidate For Shakespeare's True Authorship: Sir Thomas North.
Why Shakespearean Trained Actors Are The Best.
Why did the Earl of Oxford conceal his real identity when writing his plays?
It is entirely possible that Edward de Vere wanted to conceal his Norman ancestry and let his remarkable plays speak for themselves, without the baggage of history and identity.
Maybe his aim was to better unify the English nation in the voice of a national poet with a stark, English sounding name. If this was his wish then history proved him correct. Shakespeare has a special ring to it. De Vere is too French. It's also harder to remember.
Or maybe he wanted to conceal his identity for reasons relating to court politics. Since the very nature of his plays were political maybe he felt the need to create distance from his life at court for reasons of personal survival. Hence the use of a pseudonym.
And his task was no ordinary feat. He had a grand project in mind when penning these plays. Shaping a national consciousness in a religiously charged Europe required significanct political intelligence, knowledge of history, and access to government institutions.
Whatever speculation is true, is it right to go against established history and reveal Shakespeare's real identity? Or has enough time passed that the truth should come out? What difference would it make today whether Shakespeare was a high lord instead of a simple peasant? Is England's national mythology so fragile that it can't rewrite the history of its greatest playwright in the light of new, documentative evidence?