Did William Shakespeare exist?

[Alex K]

So, in other words, the body of work attributed to "Shakespeare" perhaps represents a number of unknown individuals? As it turns out, "Shakespeare" was a common name in Warwickshire during that period.

It was a joke, but actually I think it is not so likely. There was a mathematical analysis of his writings done, looking for subtle clues, and they claimed to statistically exclude several famous men as candidates for impersonating Shakespeare via their respective styles. I guess they would have noticed if "Shakespeare"'s works were by different individuals. This is speculation, but I don't find it so absurd that the historical Shakespeare collaborated closely with friends and colleagues, and that some of his works were partly a team effort. One of the reasons some people doubt that the historical Shakespeare from Stratford really wrote all that stuff by himself is his lack of formal education. To me it at least suggests that he was probably strongly influenced by others and absorbed a lot of ideas about literature and society from the writers around him.