Two academics have stepped into the never-ending "Did Shakespeare really write Shakespeare" debate with a new book claiming that the "real" William Shakespeare was Henry Neville, a man who most people have never heard of.
Academics Brenda James and Professor William Rubinstein have recorded their findings in a new book in which they make the case for Neville, a Tudor politician, diplomat and landowner whose life span matched that of Shakespeare almost exactly.
The authenticity of Shakespeare, author of dozens of sonnets and plays still performed today, has been argued over since the 19th century, with Francis Bacon, Christopher Marlowe and even Queen Elizabeth I among proposed alternatives.
James, a Briton, says she stumbled upon the new contender Neville while decoding the Dedication to Shakespeare's Sonnets, which led her to identify Neville as the author of the plays.
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James said a notebook written by Neville while locked in the Tower of London around 1602 contained detailed notes which ended up in Henry VIII first performed several years later.
His experience in the tower, where he faced execution for his part in a plot to overthrow the queen, would also explain the shift in 1601 from histories and comedies to the great "Shakespearian" tragedies.
He was learnt, travelled around Europe and was a close friend of the Earl of Southampton to whom the Shakespeare sonnets are believed to be dedicated.
Not all Shakespeare experts are so sure.
"Given the amount of documentation showing William Shakespeare of Stratford-upon-Avon wrote the plays one can only suppose that the conspiracy theorists are in it for the money they can make out of peddling their bizarre wares," said Roger Pringle, director of the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust.
Ann Thompson, professor of English at King's College London and an editor on the Arden Shakespeare series, has not read the new book The Truth Will Out: Unmasking the Real Shakespeare, but has her doubts.
One of the chief reasons given by James and Rubinstein for doubting Shakespeare's authorship is his lack of formal education and familiarity with the ways of the court.
"It is snobbery, basically," Thompson told Reuters. "People think you would have to have a university education at least to write as he does."
