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Did Shakespeare actually write all his plays?

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Robert Williams , writing his plays, answered

No.  Far from it.  He was an avid reader, and was also taught Latin at  school, so had a very good sound education. He was not a good actor, and so was encouraged to write, by others such as Christopher Marlowe, and so began to 'contribute'  to ongoing plays. A line here, a word there, etc, until he felt able to write a play on his own . He has been called a plagiarist, that is, one who takes the ideas of others for his own work, but, they all  'took' from each other.  Marlowe for instance, 'stole' Dr Faustus from a German author in 1583! Shakespeare's first offering, was probably something along the lines of a comedy, as that gave him room to examine humanity to the extent  he wanted to.  Experts argue over his first work, to this day! However, it is generally recognised that it was one of the 'Henry VI' plays. This was written after Shakeapeare consulted at least two documents. Raphael Holinsheads 'Chronicle', and  Edward Hall's 'Chronicle'. Few of the plays attributed to Shakespeare, were originally by him.


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Yo Kass
Yo Kass commented
Very interesting answer! I understand that many writers of that time borrowed plotlines or "re-wrote" older plays I guess in a similar way to how music artists these days 'cover' each other's songs... but when it comes to the actual text, can we conclude that it is originally Shakespeare's? Or would he have re-used lines from the original too?
Robert Williams
Robert Williams commented
Very probably! There are lines copied almost freestyle, from Holinshead, in the Henry VI plays. Shakespeare also copied blatantly from Marlowe "Ye shades of Asia, that travel but 20 miles a day" is from Tamberlaine, paraphrased by Shakespeare in his history plays. Hoewever, a most famous line, from Webster's Duchess of Malfi, "Cover her face, mine eys dazzle" had been used in at least three plays before Webster turned up!

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