Coalition aims to expose Shakespeare by Delia Cruceru

A group of artists and scholars are debating that Shakespeare wasn't really Shakespeare. They formed a coalition named the Shakespeare Authorship Coalition and they don't believe that the Bard wrote all the plays and sonnets that made him famous around the world. The group has about 300 members, with members like two of Britain's most distinguished Shakespearean actors, Sir Derek Jacobi and Mark Rylance, the original artistic director of the new Globe Theatre. They launched a formal 'Declaration of Reasonable Doubt' about the identity of the Bard of Stratford-upon-Avon signed by 300 people and to provoke an academic debate. "I don't think anybody could do it on their own," said Jacobi, in reference to Shakespeare's 37 plays and 154 sonnets. The coalition says that the real author of the writings may be various writers such as Christopher Marlowe, Francis Bacon or the Earl of Oxford, Edward de Vere. They say that Shakespeare was born in 1500 in an illiterate lower-class household, pleading that it would be very hard to acquire detailed knowledge of language, the upper classes, an expertise in mathematics, history and law, and obscure references to places outside of England. "An author writes about his own experiences, his own life and personalities," Jacobi said. Twenty famous doubters from the past are on the coalition's list, including famous actors or writers such as Mark Twain, Orson Welles, Sir John Gielgud and Charlie Chaplin.

related story: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070908/ap_on_re_eu/britain_shakespeare_debate;_ylt=AqRyH2Gq84w1BAEaZW1f8ues0NUE

by Delia Cruceru for PocketNews (http://pocketnews.tv)

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