[PW] ? Quote About Shakespeare (Quotation Query #644)

[Karen Weiss]

I did a Google Books search with the terms "shakespeare's plays were  
written" "same name" and the earliest citation I found was Archbold,  
William Arthur Jobson.  Bengal Haggis:  the Liighter Side of Indian  
Life, Scholartis Press, 1928, p. 117.

The excerpt reads, "... that is to say, I have not been quite sure  
whether Shakespeare's plays were written by Shakespeare or by another  
man—or woman—of the same name. ..."

Using search terms shakespeare someone "same name" I came up with the  
following in Google Books:

FWIW, Mark Twain is said to have quipped that the works of Shakespeare  
were either written by Shakespeare or by someone else with the same  
name.  This is from Mozart in Revolt....by David Schroeder, Yale  
University Press, 1999, p. 59.

In Shakespeare: The Seven Ages of Human Experience by David M.  
Bevington the author says the Twain attribution cannot be verified.

There is further information in Nigel Rees, Brewer's Famous Quotations:  
  5000 Quotations and the Stories Behind Them, Sterling, 2006, p. 6.   
The quote is attributed to Alphonse Allais, French humorist (1854-1905)  
by Miles Kingston, from memory.  Evidently the saying was originally  
about Homer.

Karen Weiss

On May 19, 2007, at 4:55 AM, Fred Shapiro wrote:

>
> I am trying to find out about the origins of a quotation something like
> "Shakespeare's plays were really written by someone else with the same
> name."  Can anyone supply any information pointing to early  
> appearances of
> this quotation?
>
> Fred Shapiro
>
>
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