On the Shakespeare sexuality question, it has often struck me that the first 20 or so sonnets are weird on nonsexual grounds -- namely, that a man's interest in another man's having children is usually somewhat remote. WS seems quite passionate about it. The sonnets could almost have been commissioned by the young man's family in order to move him towards the altar.
Also noteworthy is that Shakespeare created a whole gallery of brilliant and sympathetic women characters (and some villains) which I believe could not have come from the pen of Marlowe, a more evidently gay guy.
These are not points in an argument, just observations.
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