Edward de Vere's Death and Shakespeare's Works

Edward de Vere died on June 25, 1604. Since Shakespeare's plays continued to be written and to appear after 1604, doesn't it mean that he couldn't have written them?

Yes--if`Shakespeare continued to write after 1604.

Of course, plays in which Shakespeare was part author appeared after 1604. We already knew that; several of Shakespeare's later plays were collaborations, for instance, Henry VIII with John Fletcher.

Some critics have argued that Macbeth is supposed to refer to the Gunpowder Plot of 1605, King Lear to the eclipse of 1605, and The Tempest to a letter ("the Strachey letter") of 1610, describing a shipwreck. However, these references are not conclusive.

• There was a 1601 eclipse as well as the 1605 one
• Abundant Elizabethan sources exist describing shipwrecks, and Edward de Vere himself lost a ship in the Bermudas.
• Macbeth's relevance to the Gunpowder Plot is questionable.

The more interesting evidence is what Shakespeare read, and what he didn't read.

• With the questionable exception of the Strachey letter, not a single source he used is dated later than 1603.

Shakespeare might not have stopped writing after 1604--but he seems to have stopped reading.

I've put together a list of Shakespeare's sources (by no means complete yet). You can see and discuss it at

http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=pWuCALu6zcLqRjohcbxMCbw

Please suggest yourself as a collaborator in compiling the full list! Email me to be made a collaborator; my address is sarahs web (that's all one word) at gmail dot com.

Biographical Stratford • Jonson's eulogy • Oxford's death • Biographical Oxford
Shakespeare's library • Shakespeare's travels • Shakespeare's experience
Dating the plays • Authorship timeline • "Theory of casual references"