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Which Shakespeare was Shakespeare?

The very silly film director Roland Emmerich is currently making a film called "Anonymous," based on the even sillier theory that Shakespeare couldn't have written his own plays, and that they must have been done by a sophisticated London nobleman or some such person, such as Edward de Vere, the Earl of Oxford.

Actually, the theory I prefer is that Shakespeare's plays were written, not by Shakespeare, but by another man who had the same name and also was born in Stratford in 1564. But I digress.

To find any credence in an Edward de Vere-style theory, you must be, not only prone to accepting implausible conspiracies, but entirely clueless about art, artists, and creativity. If Shakespeare's plays had no known author and the question were what sort of person must have written them, the historically known William Shakespeare would exactly fit the prototype that I'd expect. Ambitious outlander, self-educated with a few rough edges, prone to innovate because he hadn't been in the center early enough to imbibe orthodoxy instead of making it up for himself, and so forth. A well-educated, well-connected London nobleman is absolutely the last sort of person one could imagine ever having written Shakespeare's plays.

Same reason, by the way, that the Beatles were more creative, original, and inspired than the Rolling Stones.

Full post as published by Start Making Sense on April 30, 2010 (boomark / email).