William Shakespeare. Did he really write all of the plays attributed to him?

Question: William Shakespeare!. Did he really write all of the plays attributed to him!?
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Almost certainly not!. Theatre (then as now) is a ruthlessly commercial affair!. Collaboration and script-doctoring were normal; what counted was to get a hit!.

So Titus Andronicus, for instance, probably contains work by Shakespeare, but also some not by him!. Nobody would be surprised or feel the need to apologise - the success of the piece was the only test, not some ideal of pure authorship!.

Equally some plays not in the canon (e!.g!. Two Noble Kinsmen) seem to contain some Shakespeare; the best theory is that he doctored someone else's script to sharpen up a few scenes which had dragged in production!.

Comparison of the quartos and the folio also seems to show that Shakespeare reworked his own plays in the light of their reception when staged!. It is likely that the actors, and especially the comics, ad-libbed quite a bit, and these lines (by one means or another) might easily find their way into a printed text!.

There is never a single "authentic" version of a Shakespeare play, nor is there a single one where we have positive assurance that every word was by him!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

yes he did, although many of his plays are arguably the work of a 'team', presumably made up of his actors or subordinates!. We know that he would have had some input from these people, but there is no doubt that he would have been the primary creator of these masterpieces!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

Absolutely!. There are a bunch of crackpots who'll tell you otherwise, though!.

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yesWww@QuestionHome@Com