The Shakespeare Fellowship was the name used by an organisation devoted to the Shakespeare authorship question. Originally it sought to represent all alternatives to the mainstream consensus that William Shakespeare authored the plays attributed to him, but it later became strongly identified with Oxfordian theory: promoting Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford, as the true author of the works of Shakespeare. The original organisation is now known as "The Shakespearean Authorship Trust".
George Greenwood (top) and J. Thomas Looney, founders of the Shakespeare Fellowship.
Oxfordian theory of Shakespeare authorship
The Oxfordian theory of Shakespeare authorship contends that Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford, wrote the plays and poems of William Shakespeare. While historians and literary scholars overwhelmingly reject alternative authorship candidates, including Oxford, public interest in the Oxfordian theory continues. Since the 1920s, the Oxfordian theory has been the most popular alternative Shakespeare authorship theory.
Edward de Vere, the 17th Earl of Oxford, is the most popular alternative candidate for the author behind the alleged pseudonym, Shakespeare. Unknown artist after lost original, 1575; National Portrait Gallery, London.
Looney's Shakespeare Identified (1920) began the modern Oxfordian movement and made Oxford the most popular anti-Stratfordian candidate.
J. Thomas Looney, founder of the Oxfordian theory, as a young man
Title page of the first quarto King Lear, one of 12 plays scholars say were written after Oxford's death in 1604. Oxfordians say that no direct evidence exists that any of the plays were composed after 1604.
