Authorship
Main article: Shakespeare authorship question
Around 150 years after Shakespeare's death, doubts began to emerge about the authorship of the works attributed to him.[174] Proposed alternative candidates include Francis Bacon, Christopher Marlowe, and Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford.[175] Several "group theories" have also been proposed.[176] Only a small minority of academics believe there is reason to question the traditional attribution,[177] but interest in the subject, particularly the Oxfordian theory of Shakespeare authorship, continues into the 21st century.[178]Religion
Main article: Shakespeare's religion
Some scholars claim that members of Shakespeare's family were Catholics, at a time when Catholic practice was against the law.[179] Shakespeare's mother, Mary Arden, certainly came from a pious Catholic family. The strongest evidence might be a Catholic statement of faith signed by John Shakespeare, found in 1757 in the rafters of his former house in Henley Street. The document is now lost, however, and scholars differ on its authenticity.[180] In 1591, the authorities reported that John had missed church "for fear of process for debt", a common Catholic excuse.[181] In 1606, William's daughter Susanna was listed among those who failed to attend Easter communion in Stratford.[181] Scholars find evidence both for and against Shakespeare's Catholicism in his plays, but the truth may be impossible to prove either way.[182]Sexuality
Main article: Sexuality of William Shakespeare
Few details of Shakespeare's sexuality are known. At 18, he married the 26-year-old Anne Hathaway, who was pregnant. Susanna, the first of their three children, was born six months later on 26 May 1583. However, over the centuries readers have pointed to Shakespeare's sonnets as evidence of his love for a young man. Others read the same passages as the expression of intense friendship rather than sexual love.[183] At the same time, the twenty-six so-called "Dark Lady" sonnets, addressed to a married woman, are taken as evidence of heterosexual liaisons.[184]Portraiture
Main article: Portraits of Shakespeare
There is no written description of Shakespeare's physical appearance and no evidence that he ever commissioned a portrait, so the Droeshout engraving, which Ben Jonson approved of as a good likeness,[185] and his Stratford monument provide the best evidence of his appearance. From the 18th century, the desire for authentic Shakespeare portraits fuelled claims that various surviving pictures depicted Shakespeare. That demand also led to the production of several fake portraits, as well as misattributions, repaintings and relabelling of portraits of other people.[186][187]
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