On first glance, the biggest challenge when arguing that Thomas North wrote Shakespeare’s orginal plays is making the case for Thomas North as any sort of playwright in the first place.
North’s place in English literature has, for the last 400 years, been solely off the back of his three major translations. In particular, the influence of his Plutarch’s Lives on the three Roman plays has been accepted since the late 1700s, but he has never been documented as having written in drama himself.
This is due more to of a lack of attention rather than lack of evidence, though – follow the links below to learn about the voluminous empirical evidence, all recently uncovered, for Thomas North as playwright and poet, not just translator. Included in the links below is a look at an early references to Shakespeare’s plays, long before Shakespeare’s versions were published or performed, as well as a look at the quality of North’s prose which needed little to no adaptation for the stage.
Also worth checking out is the ‘Frequently Asked Questions’ page that you can find in the top banner.