Since the mid-19th century, there has been a small but vocal sect of scholars who question the legitimacy of Shakespeare's authorship of the works attributed to him. They claim he couldn't have had the command of the language present in his work because of his relatively humble background, and often attribute all or parts of his writings to the likes of Christopher Marlowe (pictured at right), Sir Francis Bacon, and many, many others. Shakespearean scholars argue that no one questioned Shakespeare's authorial legitimacy in his own time, and that because so little is known about his life, there are plenty of years unaccounted for in which he could have gained the knowledge necessary to write the way that he did. Despite this, to this day the question of the true authorship of Shakespeare's work persists in the minds of some. Below is a short video explaining some of the alternative authorship theories that have been presented over the years: