I read that in the late 1500's, the 17th Earl of Oxford wrote exquisite sonnets up until his 21st birthday and never, apparently, wrote another word after that event.

In his day, members of the aristocracy simply did not write poems, plays or other forms of non-fiction.    (I don't know if it was actually illegal, but those Brits would know the code and never disobey it).

And it would seem from details in the plays, that Bill Shakespear knew an awful lot about the history of the Earl of Oxford and his family, but very little indeed about his own life.

Now, if the good Earl was writing lots of stuff which he couldn't himself publish, he would need a front man to act as some sort of surrogate.

Which would explain why an ill-educated ingrate got the credit and the real author was happy to continue writing without upsetting the establishment.

This link gateway to MASSES of shakespeare stuff explains it far better than I ever could.

Here's just one example of many, many tantalising hints:

" ... every word doth almost tell my name ..." Sonnet 76

This line much more sense if the writer of the line was deVere (17th Earl of Oxford), for then the word EVERy and the name dEVERe have sufficient matching letters to be close enough to almost tell the name.

I think you will be amazed at the number of distinguished members of the literary and academic world who now accept that deVere did indeed write most of the plays and sonnets attributed to Bill.