The worldwide renowned poet and playwright, William Shakespeare, has been the subject controversy for many years. He is a highly contested man and there have been many disputes over the authorship of his plays. Many people, such as myself, firmly believe that Shakespeare is a pseudonym for Edward Devere, the 17th Earl of Oxford. Others however, remain convinced that William Shakespeare did in fact write the works attributed to the man William Shakespeare. It is my job today to convince you people otherwise.

"...the man from Stratford seems to have nothing to justify his claim, whereas Oxford has almost everything" (Niederkorn 3). In 1920, the Shakespearean professor Thomas Looney was the first person to identify Edward Devere as the author of Shakespeare's plays. After studying and teaching Shakespeare for many years, he realized how inconceivable it was that the man Shakespeare could have written those plays...