The Right-Wing Crusade Against Shakespeare

For more than a century, a small but persistent faction has argued that Edward de Vere, the Earl of Oxford and a prominent courtier of the Elizabethan age, is the real author of the works attributed to William Shakespeare. “Oxfordians” deny that William Shakespeare—a man of humble birth, limited means, and modest education—could have written the plays published under his name. They regard the high-born, well-traveled, and consummately cultured de Vere as a far more credible candidate.