Wes Phillips

It's time for a new round of "Shakespeare debunking," arguing that the son of an illiterate laborer could never have written works so full of science, history, legal shenanigans, and aristocratic mores—that it must have been a cabal, one that included at least a few nobles.

I'm no scholar, but Shakespeare was a player—and, even though actors were disreputable in Elizabethan England, I'm sure the successful ones had huge networks of friends and acquaintances, including aristocrats, scientists, lawyers, and foreigners. It was that kind of an age.

Then there's that tricky question of voice. I'm no Shakespeare, but I am a writer, and you can't convince me that the bard's canon was written by a committee.

My wife's theory—and the only alternate explanation I might even consider—is that Shakespeare's plays were written by another writer: One named William Shakespeare.