William Shakespeare

Who: Born April 1564, son of glover John Shakespeare, later alderman and bailiff of Stratford, and landowner's daughter Mary Arden. Married Ann Hathaway in November, 1582; the couple had three children. Went to London in late 1580s as a traveling player (actor), later joined the Lord Chamberlain's Company, the capital's leading theater troupe. Name appears on the title pages of poems and plays from 1593's "Venus and Adonis," a narrative poem published by Stratford native Richard Field and dedicated to the Earl of Southampton, to "Pericles" and "Troilus and Cressida," published in 1609. Semi-retired from London life ca. 1610. Died April 23, 1616.

Why: Name is on all the earliest quarto editions; was an actor in the company that performed the plays attributed to William Shakespeare. Authorship remained unchallenged until 1785, when Rev. James Wilmot's study naming Bacon was published.

Why not: Was the child of illiterate parents and had illiterate children. Never traveled outside England. Scholars question whether he had access to the elite circles described with such familiarity in his plays.

Read: "Ungentle Shakespeare: Scenes From His Life" by Katherine Duncan-Jones (2001); "Shakespeare: A Life" (2000) by Park Honan

"To draw no envy, Shakespeare, on thy name. Am I thus ample to thy book and fame; While I confess thy writings to be such As neither man nor muse can praise too much.''
-- Ben Jonson

Edward De Vere

Who: Born April 2, 1550. Became 17th Earl of Oxford upon death of his father in 1562; made royal ward and lived with William Cecil, later Lord Burghley (Secretary of State, and from 1573, Lord Treasurer). Married Anne Cecil in 1571; traveled to Italy and France. Began publishing lyrics in 1576. After death of wife in 1588, commenced a life of retirement. In 1590, proposals were made that de Vere's daughter Elizabeth marry Henry Wriothesley, Earl of Southampton, to whom Shakespeare's sonnets are believed to be dedicated. Re-emerged into public life for trial of fellow aristocrats earls of Essex and Southampton. Died 1604.

Why: Possessed qualities scholars have detected in Shakespeare texts, including: classical education, Roman Catholic leanings and sympathy for the House of Lancaster in the War of the Roses. Literary output dwindled during years of seclusion -- a period that began shortly before Shakespeare's first plays were published. In a copy of the Bible believed to have belonged to De Vere, many passages echoed in Shakespeare's plays are underlined. Today, the leading "alternative Shakespeare" candidate.

Why not: Ten Shakespeare plays conventionally dated after de Vere's death.

Read: "Shakespeare's Unorthodox Biography: New Evidence of an Authorship Problem" by Diana Price (2001); "The Mysterious William Shakespeare" by Charlton Ogburn (1984)

"The man from Stratford seems to have nothing to justify his claim, whereas Oxford has almost everything."
-- Sigmund Freud

Christopher Marlowe

Who: Born 1564, son of a shoemaker and a clergyman's daughter. A scholar at King's School, Canterbury, then at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. "Tamburlaine" performed late 1580s; "Dr. Faustus" composed ca. 1588-92; "Edward II" entered in Stationer's Register July 6, 1593. Involved in government espionage; also part of an unorthodox philosophy circle around Sir Walter Raleigh. In May 1593, identified by playwright Thomas Kyd, who was tortured fort he information, as the owner of an atheistic treatise found in Kyd's room. Stabbed to death in a Deptford tavern the same month, supposedly in a brawl.

Why: First master of Elizabethan blank-verse drama, dubbed the "mighty line" by Ben Jonson. Death coincides with the appearance of the first Shakespeare works; supporters argue that his murder was staged, and that he escaped to continental Europe and wrote them from there -- Hamlet's line paraphrased in the headline above, they say, reflects Marlowe's musings from exile on his unacknowledged authorship.

Why not: Died before Shakespeare published so much as a line of a play, according to historical record.

Read: "The Murder of the Man Who Was Shakespeare" by Calvin Hoffman (1955)

See: "Much Ado About Something," a new film from documentary maker Michael Rubbo ("Waiting for Fidel") recently shown to acclaim at the Toronto International Film Festival

"I am haunted by the conviction that the divine William is the biggest and most successful fraud ever practiced on a patient world."
-- Henry James

Francis Bacon

Who: Born Jan. 22, 1561; son of Sir Nicholas Bacon, Lord Keeper of the Great Seal, and Lady Anne Bacon, nephew of Lord Burghley. A child prodigy educated privately, nicknamed "baby Solomon" by Queen Elizabeth I. Entered Trinity College, Cambridge in April 1573, at age 12; commenced study of law at Gray's Inn, June 1576. Traveled to France in September 1576, returned to England upon father's death in March 1579. Began associating with aristocracy and mixed with university poetry and philosophy circles, but met little success in securing financial patronage from the queen. Became M.P. in 1581, served for 36 years. Came under protection of Earl of Essex in 1591, but Essex was executed in 1604. Prospered after authoring papers of state affairs and appointed in 1618 to the position of Lord Keeper held by his father -- but dramatically fell from grace in 1621 on charges of bribery. Wrote "The New Atlantis" during brief imprisonment in the Tower of London. Died April 9, 1626, after catching a chill while burying a hen in snow to test experimental theories of refrigeration.

Why: Cryptogram codes in Shakespeare texts supposedly indicate authorship. Thematic links between writings and Shakespeare's works.

Why not: Other scholars have demonstrated that you could find "encryption" for just about anything in the Shakespeare canon.

Read: "Who Wrote Shakespeare" by John Mitchell (1996)

"I only BELIEVED Bacon . . . wrote Shakespeare . . .I was welded to my faith, I was theoretically ready to die for it."
-- Mark Twain