Primrose Road

To sum up: In arguing that that "orthodox scholars claim that there is no room for doubt that Mr. Shakspere wrote the plays and poems traditionally attributed to him," the Declaration of Reasonable Doubt About The Identity of William Shakespeare sets up a Straw Man: in actuality, scholars do not claim that there is no room for doubt, but rather understand that "authorial identity" meant something entirely different (if it meant anything at all) in the Elizabethan and Jacobean eras.

For an excellent critique of the anti-Stratfordian "evidence" that doesn't resort to ad hominem attacks (well, except maybe in the case of Delia Bacon, but ...), see Bill Bryson's article in London's Sunday Times.

A few points brought up by other bloggers:

(1) It's really not that unlikely that a glovemaker's son would write plays, because Marlowe's father was a shoemaker, and Jonson's and Middleton's fathers were bricklayers.

(2) The "Declaration" claims that Shakespeare's will does not refer to his plays, and "contain[s] no clearly Shakespearean turn of phrase." So, The Playgoer asks,

"Yes, if you were a great playwright, wouldn't your checkbook be more alliterative? Your customer service accounts have better story arcs?"

(3) But leaving his wife his "second-best bed" was kind of 'Shakespearean', no?

(4) If we accept Sir Derek Jacobi's idea that "an author writes [only, he implies] about his own experience, his own life and personalities," Judeopundit asks, then are we to also assume that "de Vere was a Venetian Jew, a mythical ancient British king with three daughters, and a Moorish general?"

Here's to straw men, conspiracy theories, burden of proof, and invisible pink elephants in the room.