Poll: William Shakespeare, did he exist?

[SnippyWings]

He totally existed!

The plays can't have been written by different writers, they all have a special touch

EDIT: Oh, right:

Welcome to the Escapist!
We'll make sure you enjoy your stay.
Just don't go into the basement.
Never go into the basement.

now I really want to go into the basement...

but seriously?
even wikipedia knows he exsisted!

 

[dthvirus]

There was one scene from Macbeth involving Hecate chanting something that a few believe was not written by Shakespeare because it was written in such a childish rhyming scheme.

But yeah, the man was real, and the man was awesome.

 

[TheSuperSonic1]

If it was in an episode of Doctor Who it must be ture

 

[TheNamlessGuy]

DELETED

 

[Colour Scientist]

He existed but most of his ideas were...borrowed to say the least. There's a version of Othello that predates Shakespeare with the main difference being Desdemona's name is Disdemona. I shit you not.

 

[Idlemessiah]

He did exist, we have enough evidence to prove that. Whether he actually wrote his plays is still debated, though I believe that he did.

And for the record, we did land on the moon and Jesus also did exist.

Welcome to the Escapist! I hope you enjoy your stay with us.
Please ignore the body under the stairs and Doug, the troll outside. There some things you may want to look [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/9.116827] at [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/18.112832] before you continue to post. Have fun!

Can i feed Doug?

If you want, nobody else does.

And theres a reason for that.
Feed him if you like, but mind you might loose your fingertips.

OT: I'm hoping this is a joke thread. You can't seriously believe that he didnt exist?

 

[DND Judgement]

There are a group of people in the world who argue that William was an imagination

and these people are called idiots..

 

[Buizel91]

*facepalm*

this...
honestly just when i think the people of earth cant get any more weirder...

 

[AkJay]

There are a group of people in the world who argue that William was an imagination

There's also a group of people who believe the Earth is flat...

 

[DaMan1500]

Are you retarded?

 

[Ekonk]

He never existed. Literary culture was only developed a century ago. All the culture throughout history was written at the beginning of last century and attributed to mythical historic figures by a cabal of historians, librarians and English teachers, for the sole purpose of a trading commodity with highly literate Aliens. Shakespeare, The Iliad, the Bible, all works of fiction created and planted throughout history, as the Aliens cared naught for anything that did not carry historical significance. In return, we got the first computers and vague instructions for the Internet, which were implemented as soon as our top linguists were able to translate Alien text.

You're a funny man, Aardvark.

 

[Outlaw Torn]

In centuries to come, philosophers will debate whether Michael Jackson ever existed.

 

[comadorcrack]

Yeah, He did exist, and there are people who suggest that he had all his work written by this other guy, but... there wrong. Shakespeare wrote ganks of stuff, he Wrote Ring around the roses in a pub with people watching him...

 

[Lenny Magic]

He did once, but then I killed him... -.-

 

[Go Fighting In The War Room]

No. He never did. He is in fact a story created from the land of wind and ghosts.


But Sherlock Holmes exsisted! He's the father of Professor Layton!

[sub]And welcome to the Escapist, hope you enjoy your stay. Just avoid the asylum group. They will eat your soul[/sub]

 

[Ramen n' MaltLiquor]

I read somewhere once that John Dee the 16th century English philosopher/mathematician/well he did pretty much everything. Wrote the plays and published them under Shakespeare's name and that Shakesspeare was functionally illiterate. Whether or not any of these theories about who wrote the works of The Bard are the truth will probably never be known.

I do like the idea of John Dee writing them he's a much more compelling character than Shakesspeare

[EDIT] disregard that I apparently mistook John Dee for Francis Bacon. mmmmmmmmmmm... bacon

 

[Slash Dementia]

There are theories that his writings were of someone else, but he did exist and I think he did write his own stuff. Who knows, though.

 

[era81]

Yes, But I do recall fearing some time ago that William Shakespear may have been a pen name.

 

[Mantonio]

This thread makes me angry. Both as a Shakespeare fan and a English student.

Of course he bloody well existed.

 

[silver wolf009]

Please tell me this is a joke, ofcourse he bloody lived, they even know where he was born and a lot about his life .

Actually they are guessing when he was born, we known his baptismal record, we are infering, that because most children were baptised 3 days after they were born we infer that was when he was born