Introducing Shakespeare: A Graphic Guide - Nick Groom, Piero 2013

The Oxford Controversy — and Looney Tunes

But the most enduring counterclaim to Bacon has been Edward de Vere, Earl of Oxford (1550-1604) — a theory first advanced by one J. Thomas Looney (sic!) and supported by Freud. Not simply courtly, worldly and educated like Bacon, Oxford was an aristocrat, and Looney emphasized the aristocracy inherent in Shakespeare. He won considerable support.

THE OXFORDIAN THEORIES ARE CERTAINLY AS LAUGHABLE AS THE BACONIAN THEORIES, BUT WORSE, THEY ARE SNOBBISH AS WELL. THERE HAVE EVEN BEEN SHOW TRIALS IN WHICH THE STRATFORD MAN IS SUED BY OXFORD …

Although in at least one case this did serve to raise money for the Globe Theatre project. Anyway, Oxford died in 1604 and so the claim cannot be seriously sustained, because several plays make allusions to contemporary events occurring after that date.

Although it has to be said that the majority of these ridiculous authorship claims are made by amateur American “scholars”, it does appeal to the English sense of class superiority as well. Sir Charles Spencer Chaplin judged that…

I’M NOT CONCERED WITH WHO WROTE THE WORKS OF SHAKESPEARE … BUT I HARDLY THINK IT WAS THE STRATFORD BOY. WHOEVER WROTE THEM HAD AN ARISTOCRATIC ATTITUDE.