Shakespeare, Dickens, and Machado de Assis

Pro-Stratfordians argue that it's elitist to focus on Shakespeare's education or his background. Shakespeare had as much education as he needed through the Stratford grammar school; he read books that Richard Field loaned him; he learned about the world through studying London.

That could be. Machado de Assis, Brazil's great novelist, was the descendant of slaves; his father was a housepainter, his mother a laundress; Machado de Assis's formal education never went beyond elementary school. Charles Dickens's formal education was essentially done with by the time he was 12. Shakespeare's education was no worse than theirs. Machado de Assis and Dickens read omnivorously and had many literary friends; Shakespeare had his friends from Stratford and the theatre.

It doesn't take a fortune to be a writer.

That's not the point that Oxfordians make. The point is exactly what books Shakespeare read, who he knew, and what he saw.

And that's where the parallel breaks down.

With Machado de Assis and Dickens, there's a clear connection between their lives and their work. But Shakespeare's life and Shakespeare's works aren't as connected. It is very hard to explain how Shakespeare of Stratford read and knew and saw some of the things that Shakespeare the playwright and poet refers to:

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"