Pipe dreams can explain just about anything. One may be proved correct some day. Just look at the falacious 'histories' we have on many folk songs and nursery rhymes. As for shakespeare, I've alway thought that Mark Twain (another pseudonym) got it about right when he said Shakespeare's works were written by another man of the same name.

I got a surprise when I was working at the Folger Shakespeare library. The prolific S. Schoenbaum seemed to be the only researcher that was working on Shakespeare. Subject matter ran from ancient Irish hill forts through subject matter of works published by 16th century English printer/publishers, to 16th century lute music. The coffee room (officially the Founders Room) has the largest collection of old Shakespeare portraits in the world. It's well nigh impossible that any of the painters ever saw Shakespeare.