Did william shakespeare write all the plays he was supposed to?

Answer 1

William Shakespeare certainly wrote plays. Some plays we know he wrote all by himself. Some we know (like The Two Noble Kinsmen) or suspect (like Pericles and Henry VIII) he wrote in collaboration with John Fletcher. But for sure he wrote at least part of the 36 plays in the first folio plus Pericles and the Two Noble Kinsmen.

Beyond that we cannot be so certain. Some people claim that Shakespeare wrote Edward III, a contemporary anonymous play. Other unattributed plays of the time have from time to time been attributed to Shakespeare. We just cannot be sure.

Even shortly after Shakespeare's lifetime two plays were attributed to him in 1619 which are now not believed to be his: Sir John Oldcastle and A Yorkshire Tragedy.

As for the suggestion that Shakespeare wrote no plays at all, but that his plays were really written by Oxford, Bacon, Queen Elizabeth, Doctor Who or someone else, the simple answer is that such ideas are fiction.