The myth behind 'The Shakespeare Myth': Contemporary reports, 1592-1640

This article seeks to recover the original 'Shakespeare Myth', which emerges in three waves. In the first, early critics used a biographical method to reconstruct the man, whose plays form the highest authority for value in a national imperial culture. In the second, theorists used 'cultural materialism' to debunk this myth. In the third, critics now are using a bibliographical method to challenge the revisionist model by transposing the conversation from 'the man of the theater' to 'the literary author'. This third wave receives support from contemporary reports (1592-1640). They present The Shakespeare Myth as a myth of authorial fame.