Derbyite theory of Shakespeare authorship

The Derbyite theory of Shakespeare authorship is the view that William Stanley, 6th Earl of Derby (1561–1642), was the true author of the works of William Shakespeare. Derby is one of several individuals who have been claimed by advocates of the Shakespeare authorship question to be the true author of Shakespeare's works.

The theory was first proposed in 1891, and was taken up predominantly by French writers in the mid-twentieth century.

Mainstream scholarship dismisses all alternative candidates for authorship of the works, but accepts that Shakespeare sometimes worked in collaborations with other professional playwrights such as George Peele and John Fletcher. Some mainstream writers have taken the view that Derby may have had links to Shakespeare. Some of the Derbyite arguments about Love's Labour's Lost and A Midsummer Night's Dream have also been integrated into mainstream scholarship.^[1]