This article deals with the ways and means of hating Shakespeare. It assesses the cultural stakes attached to such a hatred through an analysis of Anonymous (Roland Emmerich, 2011), a film that turns Shakespeare into a simple nom de plume and apparently supports the theory that Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford, actually wrote the corpus of plays. The film, however, is less a defence of the Oxfordian theory than a study in the importance of anonymity, which prevails over the more traditional concept of identity. The film’s original perspective confronts the romantic Shakespeare depicted in Shakespeare in Love (John Madden, 1998) with a more political vision of the playwright. The film thus argues that the author of Shakespeare’s plays, even without bearing the name “Shakespeare”, advocates a type of drama likely to counter the powers that be, and ultimately becomes the anachronistic defender of what is today called “freedom of speech”. The mask of anonymity, therefore, enables political commitment to exist onstage but also permits shared access to the cultural capital attached to the name “Shakespeare”.