Maurice Jules Abel Lefranc (27 July 1863 – 26 November 1952) was a historian of French literature, expert on Rabelais, and the principal advocate of the Derbyite theory of Shakespeare authorship.

After studying at the École Nationale des Chartes, where he wrote a thesis on the history and organization of the town of Noyon until the end of the 13th century (1886).

[1] In 1904, on the death of Émile Deschanel, Chair of Modern French Literature at the Collège de France, Lefranc successfully competed for the position against Ferdinand Brunetière, who was considered anti-scientific and overly influenced by religious doctrines.

By this time, he was considered as an important historian and philologist, whose work on John Calvin, Marguerite de Navarre and François Rabelais was authoritative.

Lefranc developed the theory after James H. Greenstreet first suggested it in the 1890s, following his discovery of a letter which stated that Derby was "busy in penning comedies for the common players".