Oxfordian Theory of Shakespeare Authorship - Oxfordian Citation of Mainstream Scholars

Oxfordian Citation of Mainstream Scholars

Although most Oxfordians accuse mainstream academics of rejecting their theory only because they have a vested interest in maintaining the status quo, they often cite the work of individual scholars to create the appearance of widespread agreement on an issue, even when the opinion in question is more widely considered eccentric or outdated. The great volume of literature on Shakespeare makes it easy for Oxfordians to find mainstream scholars who have expressed opinions favourable to their theory.

For example, many 18th- and 19th-century scholars, including Samuel Johnson, Lewis Theobald, George Steevens, Edmond Malone, and James Halliwell-Phillipps, placed the composition of Henry VIII prior to 1604, as they believed Elizabeth's execution of Mary, Queen of Scots (the then king James I's mother) made any vigorous defence of the Tudors politically inappropriate in the England of James I. Oxfordians cite these sources to place the composition of the play within Oxford's lifetime. In the case of Macbeth, mainstream scholar A. R. Braunmuller, in the New Cambridge edition, finds the post-1605 arguments for the play inconclusive, and argues only for an earliest date of 1603.

They also note that in 1756, in Memoirs of the Life and Writings of Ben Jonson, William Rufus Chetwood concludes on the basis of performance records "at the end of the year of, or the beginning of the next, 'tis supposed that took his farewell of the stage, both as author and actor.". In 1874, German literary historian Karl Elze dated both The Tempest and Henry VIII—traditionally labeled as Shakespeare's last plays—to the years 1603–04.