Hi orda,
I've read a little bit about this over time. But the evidence for Shakespeare being Shakespeare is much stronger, in my view. You have to read the Stratfordian side of the argument to make an informed judgement between the two. That Shakespeare was Shakespeare remains the scholarly consensus view. Doesn't make it right, but it tells you something about what the most informed people believe.
De Vere certainly had the sort of documented life one might wish for a person of Shakespeare's outputs. Unfortunately, we don't know so much about Shakespeare's own life and we simply rely upon his work.
Bottom line for me is that I am sure someone - and especially his close associates - would have rumbled the fakery during Shakespeare's life if he was an oaf pretending to De Vere's pen.
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