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| - __noeditsection__ The Shakespeare Authorship Debate is the controversy about whether the works traditionally attributed to William Shakespeare of Stratford-upon-Avon were actually composed by another writer, a group of writers, or indeed an infinite amount of monkeys with an infinite amount of typewriters. Like all absurd conspiracy theories, it has a thriving and unquestioning following, but has been dismissed at large by most academic Shakespeare scholars. It should be pointed out however, that those scholars' jobs depend upon the fact that Shakespeare did write all those masterpieces, so their evidence can seen to be self-serving. Those who question the attribution believe that "William Shakespeare" was a pen name used by the true author, authors or monkeys to keep the writer's identity
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| abstract
| - __noeditsection__ The Shakespeare Authorship Debate is the controversy about whether the works traditionally attributed to William Shakespeare of Stratford-upon-Avon were actually composed by another writer, a group of writers, or indeed an infinite amount of monkeys with an infinite amount of typewriters. Like all absurd conspiracy theories, it has a thriving and unquestioning following, but has been dismissed at large by most academic Shakespeare scholars. It should be pointed out however, that those scholars' jobs depend upon the fact that Shakespeare did write all those masterpieces, so their evidence can seen to be self-serving. Those who question the attribution believe that "William Shakespeare" was a pen name used by the true author, authors or monkeys to keep the writer's identity secret. Despite the fact that title pages, official records and testimony of various sane people mostly support the mainstream view, interest in the authorship debate continues to grow, particularly among independent scholars, internet users, conspiracy nuts and people who know nothing about Shakespeare's life and works. Ironically, more is probably known about Shakespeare than any other playwrights of the period.
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