The theory that they were written by a nobleman named de Vere was originated by a man named J. T. Looney ( the name probably doesn't help things.) Apparently O'Connor feels the same way, but wouldn't commit herself; though that's okay, because Stevens was happy to do it for her... (I'm really, really trying hard to forget that these people practically make laws) However though Scalia might be right in assuming that Stevens "aristocratic" bias, it is still not as large as a potential "populist" bias supporting Shakespeare's authorship. Seriously who's going to buy the idea that some Earl wrote these plays? Of course Harold Bloom (who's apparently some sort of literary god) thinks that De Vere's :..pale lyrics suggest that he could not write his way out of a paper bag."1
How you're supposed to figure out any of this out without devoting a lifetime to it, I don't know; considering that his story ideas were popular tales that had been circulating before eitherof them were born (sometimes for centuries.) I don't know why I posted this, except that I think it's funny --- I'm probably biased because I'm very frightened that these people (and de facto legislators) help run the country. It's like a socially acceptable upper-class and highly rarefied thing that appeals to those who might be conspiracy theorists had they been born with a slightly different socioeconomic status.
To be fair, I remember reading an argument that they were all written by Marlowe, and besides a having to construct a conspiracy which framed his death in 1593 it was pretty rational.
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1. From the Best Poems of the English Language, 1st Edition, pg 98 (where he also calls Sir Raleigh -- who was actually a decent poet -- a "walking poem")
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