In December's Quadrant, Salvatore Babones mooted the theory that the Bard was actually Kit Marlowe, reports of whose death may well have been premature. William Rubinstein begs to differ. While agreeing Shakespeare was not the author of the works that bear his name, his pick, based on what would otherwise be a series of remarkable coincidences and overlapping circles, is Sir Henry Neville
Before dismissing those who dispute the Swan of Avon's authorship, consider why their arguments are so widely believed. The purported Bard had no education beyond the basic, yet his plays reference around 500 works, some in foreign languages, and eyewitness descriptions of Italian towns. Simply put, the known facts don't mesh with the evolution of his supposed works