问答题 Literary detectives have uncovered many facts about William Shakespeare. Still, the most important question of all remains: Did he really write the Shakespeare plays? Sir Francis Bacon, Christopher Marlowe, and the Earl of Southampton (Shakespeare’s patron), and even Queen Elizabeth herself have at times been suspected of writing them. The sheer volume of Shakespeare’s work—37 plays, 154 sonnets, 2 other poems, and an elegy (挽歌) —has led to suggestions that " William Shakespeare " was actually several people, not one. The strongest current debate is between groups known as the Oxfordians and the Stratfordians. Oxfordians say that Edward de Vere, the 17th Earl of Oxford, wrote the plays under the pen name William Shakespeare. Stratfordians say that the works were all written by William Shakespeare, an actor known to have been born at Stratford in 1564. The challenge for both sides is to produce solid evidence. So far. neither side has come ud with much.