Declaration of Reasonable Doubt facts for kids

The Declaration of Reasonable Doubt is an online petition. It asks people to support the idea that there's a real question about who wrote William Shakespeare's plays. This question is called the Shakespeare authorship question. The petition wants this topic to be studied seriously by universities.

Famous actors Derek Jacobi and Mark Rylance gave the petition to William Leahy from Brunel University. This happened on September 8, 2007, in Chichester, England. It was after a play called I Am Shakespeare, which was about who Shakespeare really was. Mark Rylance played the main character.

By April 23, 2016, which was 400 years after Shakespeare's death, 3,348 people had signed the petition. This included 573 people who said they were current or former university professors. By December 2022, the total number of signatures reached 5,128.

Many experts who study Shakespeare and literature are doubtful about the petition. They mostly don't believe that "Shakespeare" was a fake name for someone else. They say that questioning Shakespeare's authorship based on how many people sign is like using a trick in logic. This trick is called "appeal to popularity" or "appeal from false authority."

Important public figures have signed the declaration. These include U.S. Supreme Court Justices John Paul Stevens and Sandra Day O'Connor. They signed at special events to get attention for the petition.

People Who Doubted Shakespeare's Identity

The Declaration of Reasonable Doubt lists many important people from the 1800s and 1900s. These people, according to the petition, had doubts about William Shakespeare's identity. Here are some of them:

Famous Writers and Thinkers

• Mark Twain (1835–1910): This famous American writer felt that most of Shakespeare's life story was made up. He said it was like "an Eiffel Tower of artificialities" built on very few facts.
• Henry James (1843–1913): An American novelist, he felt "haunted" by the idea that "the divine William" (Shakespeare) was "the biggest and most successful fraud ever."
• Walt Whitman (1819–1892): This American poet believed that only someone from a powerful, noble background could have written Shakespeare's works. He thought it must be "some born descendant and knower."
• William James (1842–1910): A well-known psychologist and philosopher, he found it strange that so little was known about Shakespeare's life. He felt that visiting Stratford, Shakespeare's hometown, made him more open to other ideas about who wrote the plays.
• Sigmund Freud (1856–1939): A very famous psychologist, he stated, "I no longer believe that... the actor from Stratford was the author of the works that have been ascribed to him."
• Clifton Fadiman (1904–1999): A noted intellectual and editor, he became convinced by arguments against Shakespeare's traditional authorship. He believed many others would agree.
• Mortimer J. Adler (1902–2001): The chairman of the Encyclopædia Britannica editors, he pointed out that Shakespeare's own signatures looked like "illiterate scrawls." He thought universities should be more open to discussing the mystery of Shakespeare's identity.

Actors and Directors

• Sir Tyrone Guthrie (1900–1971): An important Anglo-Irish theater director, he was the first Artistic Director of the Stratford Festival of Canada.
• Sir Charles Chaplin (1889–1977): The famous silent film actor and director believed that Shakespeare's humble beginnings didn't match the aristocratic feel of his plays. He thought whoever wrote them "had an aristocratic attitude."
• Sir John Gielgud (1904–2000): A respected actor, he signed a petition asking for a full investigation into who wrote Shakespeare's works.

Historians and Judges

• Hugh Trevor-Roper (1914–2003): This historian found the evidence that William Shakespeare of Stratford wrote the plays to be "weak and unconvincing."
• Harry Blackmun (1908–1999): An Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, he felt that the arguments for the Earl of Oxford being the author were "very strong – almost fully convincing."
• Lewis F. Powell Jr. (1907–1998): Another Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, he said he never thought the man from Stratford wrote the plays. He noted there was no clear proof Shakespeare ever left England or had a formal education.

Others with Doubts

• George Greenwood (1850–1928): A lawyer and the first president of the Shakespeare Fellowship, an organization that questioned Shakespeare's authorship.
• Paul Nitze (1907–2004): A high-ranking U.S. government official, he believed the arguments for the Earl of Oxford being the author were "overwhelming."
• Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston (1784–1865): A British Prime Minister, he reportedly said he was glad to see "the explosion of the Shakespeare illusions."
• William Yandell Elliott (1896–1979): A Harvard professor and advisor to several U.S. presidents, he supported the idea that the Earl of Oxford wrote the plays.

People Added with Notes

Some names were added to the list with special notes because their views were not always clear or changed over time:

• Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882): This American essayist is on the list with a quote that seems to suggest doubt. However, Emerson himself did not actually doubt Shakespeare's authorship. A note was added to his name in 2015 to clarify this.
• Orson Welles (1915–1985): The famous film director was included based on one comment where he said he thought the Earl of Oxford wrote Shakespeare. But in other interviews, Welles said he believed Shakespeare of Stratford wrote the plays. His listing was updated to show that he wasn't always an "anti-Stratfordian" (someone who doubts Shakespeare's authorship).

Changes Made in 2015

In 2015, the group behind the Declaration of Reasonable Doubt made some changes to their list of doubters. This was because some people questioned why certain names were included.

They removed two names and added two others. They also added the special notes to the entries for Ralph Waldo Emerson and Orson Welles, as mentioned above.

• Charles Dickens (1812–1870): The famous English novelist was originally on the list. This was based on a quote that was not complete and was misunderstood as him doubting Shakespeare.
• Leslie Howard (1893–1943): This actor was included because of lines he spoke in a 1941 movie called "Pimpernel" Smith.

Both Dickens and Howard were removed from the main list. However, their entries can still be found online on the "past doubters" section of the website, with a note saying they were "Removed from Past Doubters list." The two new names added to the main list were Hugh Trevor Roper and George Greenwood.