John Y’s Musings from the Middle: The Real Shakespeare Controversy

The real Shakespeare controversy.

For centuries, commentators have debated whether Shakespeare really wrote Shakespeare’s literary works.

The recently released movie, Anonymous, which I saw last week, examines the evidence in depth and comes to some interesting conclusions.

Perhaps it was Christopher Marlowe.

Perhaps it was someone else.

But I’ve decided there is an even a bigger and more profound way of asking the question:

“Should it even matter if Shakespeare wrote Shakespeare since most individuals who claim to have read Shakespeare, really haven’t read Shakespeare— and are only pretended to?”

When I was asked in college what Shakespeare plays I had read, I answered Macbeth, Hamlet, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, King Lear, Romeo and Juliet, and Othello.

But that wasn’t true. I had seen the movies for those plays with the exception of King Lear, which I read. But even with Lear much of my reading was done by relying on Cliff Notes.

So, until we get to the bottom of whether people who claim they have read Shakespeare are real people who have actually read Shakespeare (and aren’t just pretending to), we should hold off investigating the authorship question altogether.

And remember, “To thine own self be true.”

I love that quote from Cliff Notes.