Editing William Shakespeare (section)

==Speculation==
===Authorship===
<!-- This is a SUMMARY. Please don't add new information or details here, but instead at the main article [[Shakespeare authorship question]]! -->
{{Main|Shakespeare authorship question}}
Around 230 years after Shakespeare's death, doubts began to be expressed about the authorship of the works attributed to him.{{sfn|Shapiro|2010|pp=77–78}} Proposed alternative candidates include [[Francis Bacon]], [[Christopher Marlowe]], and [[Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford]].{{sfn|Gibson|2005|pp=48, 72, 124}} Several "group theories" have also been proposed.{{sfn|McMichael|Glenn|1962|p=56}} All but a few Shakespeare scholars and literary historians consider it a [[fringe theory]], with only a small minority of academics who believe that there is reason to question the traditional attribution,{{sfn|The New York Times|2007}} but interest in the subject, particularly the [[Oxfordian theory of Shakespeare authorship]], continues into the 21st century.{{sfn|Kathman|2003|pp=620, 625–626}}{{sfn|Love|2002|pp=194–209}}{{sfn|Schoenbaum|1991|pp=430–440}}

===Religion===
{{Main|Religious views of William Shakespeare}}
Shakespeare conformed to the official state religion,{{efn|For example, [[A.L. Rowse]], the 20th-century Shakespeare scholar, was emphatic: "He died, as he had lived, a conforming member of the Church of England. His will made that perfectly clear—in facts, puts it beyond dispute, for it uses the Protestant formula."{{sfn|Rowse|1988|p=240}}}} but his private views on religion have been the subject of debate. [[Shakespeare's will]] uses a Protestant formula, and he was a confirmed member of the [[Church of England]], where he was married, his children were baptised, and where he is buried.

Some scholars are of the view that members of Shakespeare's family were Catholics, at a time when practising Catholicism in England was against the law.{{sfn|Pritchard|1979|p=3}} Shakespeare's mother, [[Mary Shakespeare|Mary Arden]], certainly came from a pious Catholic family. The strongest evidence might be a Catholic statement of faith signed by his father, [[John Shakespeare]], found in 1757 in the rafters of his former house in Henley Street. However, the document is now lost and scholars differ as to its authenticity.{{sfn|Wood|2003|pp=75–78}}{{sfn|Ackroyd|2006|pp=22–23}} In 1591, the authorities reported that John Shakespeare had missed church "for fear of process for debt", a common Catholic excuse.{{sfn|Wood|2003|p=78}}{{sfn|Ackroyd|2006|p=416}}{{sfn|Schoenbaum|1987|pp=41–42, 286}} In 1606, the name of William's daughter Susanna appears on a list of those who failed to attend Easter [[Eucharist|communion]] in Stratford.{{sfn|Wood|2003|p=78}}{{sfn|Ackroyd|2006|p=416}}{{sfn|Schoenbaum|1987|pp=41–42, 286}}

Other authors argue that there is a lack of evidence about Shakespeare's religious beliefs. Scholars find evidence both for and against Shakespeare's Catholicism, Protestantism, or lack of belief in his plays, but the truth may be impossible to prove.{{sfn|Wilson|2004|p=34}}{{sfn|Shapiro|2005|p=167}}

===Sexuality===
<!-- This is a SUMMARY. Please don't add new information or details here, but instead at the main article [[Sexuality of William Shakespeare]]! -->
{{Main|Sexuality of William Shakespeare}}

[[File:Shakespeare's family circle.jpg|thumb|Artistic depiction of the Shakespeare family, late 19th century]]

Few details of Shakespeare's sexuality are known. At 18, he married 26-year-old [[Anne Hathaway (wife of Shakespeare)|Anne Hathaway]], who was pregnant. Susanna, the first of their three children, was born six months later on 26 May 1583. Over the centuries, some readers have posited that Shakespeare's sonnets are autobiographical,{{sfn|Lee|1900|p=55}} and point to them as evidence of his love for a young man. Others read the same passages as the expression of intense friendship rather than romantic love.{{sfn|Casey|1998}}{{sfn|Pequigney|1985}}{{sfn|Evans|1996|p=132}} The 26 so-called [[Dark Lady (Shakespeare)|"Dark Lady"]] sonnets, addressed to a married woman, are taken as evidence of heterosexual liaisons.{{sfn|Fort|1927|pp=406–414}}

===Portraiture===
{{Main|Portraits of Shakespeare}}
No written contemporary description of Shakespeare's physical appearance survives, and no evidence suggests that he ever commissioned a portrait. From the 18th century, the desire for authentic Shakespeare portraits fuelled claims that various surviving pictures depicted Shakespeare.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/shaa_2/hd_shaa_2.htm|first=Constance C.|last=McPhee|title=Shakespeare Portrayed|publisher=[[Metropolitan Museum of Art]]|date=May 2017|access-date=16 April 2024|archive-date=10 September 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230910160150/https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/shaa_2/hd_shaa_2.htm|url-status=live}}</ref> That demand also led to the production of several fake portraits, as well as misattributions, re-paintings, and relabelling of portraits of other people.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.cbsnews.com/news/shakespeare-portrait-is-a-fake/|title=Shakespeare Portrait Is A Fake|work=[[CBS News]]|date=22 April 2005|access-date=16 April 2024|archive-date=19 April 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210419034826/https://www.cbsnews.com/news/shakespeare-portrait-is-a-fake/|url-status=live}}</ref>{{sfn|Schoenbaum|1981|p=190}}

Some scholars suggest that the [[Droeshout portrait]], which [[Ben Jonson]] approved of as a good likeness,{{sfn|Cooper|2006|pp=48, 57}} and his [[Shakespeare's funerary monument|Stratford monument]] provide perhaps the best evidence of his appearance.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2021/mar/19/shakespeare-grave-effigy-believed-to-be-definitive-likeness|first=Dalya|last= Alberge|title='Self-satisfied pork butcher': Shakespeare grave effigy believed to be definitive likeness|work=[[The Guardian]]|date=19 March 2021|access-date=16 April 2024}}</ref> Of the claimed paintings, art historian [[Tarnya Cooper]] concluded that the [[Chandos portrait]] had "the strongest claim of any of the known contenders to be a true portrait of Shakespeare". After a three-year study supported by the [[National Portrait Gallery, London]], the portrait's owners, Cooper contended that its composition date, contemporary with Shakespeare, its subsequent provenance, and the sitter's attire, all supported the attribution.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2006/mar/02/arts.books|first=Charlotte|last=Higgins|title=The only true painting of Shakespeare - probably|work=[[The Guardian]]|date=2 March 2006|access-date=15 April 2024}}</ref>