Crollalanza theory of Shakespeare authorship Crollalanza theory of Shakespeare authorship The Crollalanza theory of Shakespeare's identity posits that Shakespeare was an Italian called Michelangelo Florio a.k.a. "Crollalanza", whose mother's family name is variously given as Crollalanza or Scrollalanza ("shake-speare"). He is said to have emigrated to England where he became (or at least was responsible for the works attributed to) William Shakespeare supposedly of Stratford-upon-Avon. First proposed in the 1920s, at which time it was associated confusingly with the idea that the Elizabethan linguistic scholar John Florio or his father (another Michelangelo Florio) was involved in creating Shakespeare's works, the Crollalanza hypothesis has gone through
The Plays of William Shakespeare The Plays of William Shakespeare The Plays of William Shakespeare was an 18th-century edition of the dramatic works of William Shakespeare, edited by Samuel Johnson and George Steevens. Johnson announced his intention to edit Shakespeare's plays in his "Miscellaneous Observations on Macbeth" (1745), and a full "Proposal" for the edition was published in 1756. The edition was finally published in 1765. In the "Preface" to his edition, Johnson justifies trying to determine the original language of the Shakespearean plays. To benefit the reading audience, he added explanatory notes to various passages. Later editors followed Johnson's lead and sought to determine