Shakespeare was a woman: Expert

PTI via, The Times of India ^ | 28 May, 2008 | PTI

[Straight Vermonter]

Babe Ruth was black, because he had a wide nose.

[Straight Vermonter]

What passes for scholarship these days is disgraceful.

The problem, from my perspective, is that there is not a whole lot new to say about many topics in literature and humanities. To get heard above the background noise you have to say something crazy.

[9YearLurker]

Yes, I know the Shakespeare one’s been around at least since the ‘60s, probably a lot earlier. But the Bacon theory seemed as prevalent as the woman one on that. Still, that the Shakespeare-woman theory predates the dreadful Women’s Studies departments may say something for it.

Hadn’t heard about Homer before!

[Straight Vermonter]

Urban legend.

[MoochPooch]

Mark Twain: “Shakespeare didn’t write any of his plays. It was someone with the same name.”

[Straight Vermonter]

...for many people, it’s simply an intellectual snob’s argument. Shakespeare wasn’t educated well enough to be so talented, you see.

This is very common, historically, in Europe. If a commoner should rise to power or prominence then he must secretly have noble blood or he must be the bastard child of the king or similar arguments.

[Salamander]

Didn’t homosexuals try to claim him as “one of their own”, a while back?

This is going to throw a *major* wrench into their gears.

[Bernard Marx]

He is so convinced of Bassano's authorship that he formed a theater company, The Dark Lady Players, to bring out, through performance, the true meanings of the plays as, he argues, Bassano intended them.

Hmmmm...I wonder what this Jewish authoress had in mind as the "true meaning" of Shylock in "The Merchant of Venice?"

[Dustbunny]

ROFLOL..... ok

[null and void]

Didn’t homosexuals try to claim him as “one of their own”, a while back?

This is going to throw a *major* wrench into their gears.

I guess they didn't realize that he was a lesbian...

[Antoninus]

Big deal. Ben Franklin was actually a very rare bipedal walrus.

Actually, I think the works of Shakespeare were actually written by his identical twin brother who, coincidentally, was also named William.

[joebuck]

Only an “expert” could believe something as silly as this.

[wildbill]

There is a cottage industry of academics who profess to find and expose the ‘true author’ of Shakespeare’s works.

While numerous alternative candidates have been proposed, major claimants have included Francis Bacon, Christopher Marlowe, Sir Henry Neville, William Stanley (6th Earl of Derby) and Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford.

With a Master’s in Literature, I’ve read these theories with some interest. All of the above have better credentials and are more plausible in my opinion than the Dark Lady theory.

[Salamander]

*snicker*

Disregarding either wild-eyed theory, I thought it was “proven beyond a shadow of a doubt” that Sir Francis Bacon actually wrote all Willy’s stuff.

Poor Bard.
Even dead, some folks’ll never leave a body alone.

[ThanhPhero]

In that time there were still many crypto Catholics among the upper and middle classes in England. One did not advertise one’s Catholic faith unless one was ready to be killed in a most unpleasant manner.

[ThanhPhero]

Not a “man.” Actually a mutant tapir.

[firebrand]

“It is I, Hamlet the Danish Girl.”

[The SISU kid]

Red Dwarf Ping!

Please add me to the list!

Thank you in advance

8^)

[KayEyeDoubleDee]

I don't have time to go into this in detail, but a few points:

1) Cromwell did not invite the Jews to return to England until 1656, almost a century after this English/Italian "Jewess" was born [although she might have had a little bit of Jewish blood in her]:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/judaism/history/350.shtml

2) From what I can tell, this woman wasn't any sort of "Jewess" to begin with:

http://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=2621

3) Given that she lived until 1645, and that even the Stratfordian timeline has Shaksper writing all of his plays by 1611-1614, this would mean that [even by the Stratforidian timeline] she suddenly went silent and wrote nothing for the final 30 years of her life:

http://shakespeare.palomar.edu/timeline/final.htm

4) It's going to be very, very difficult to come up with a reading of the sonnets which would allow for them to have been written from a female perspective.

5) On the other hand, any information which can give us some insight into the identity of the Dark Lady, or of Sobran's Emaricdulfe [EMARICDVLFE], would be most exciting:

http://www.sobran.com/emar.shtml

[KayEyeDoubleDee]

I don't have time to go into this in detail, but a few points:

1) Cromwell did not invite the Jews to return to England until 1656, almost a century after this English/Italian "Jewess" was born:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/judaism/history/350.shtml

2) From what I can tell, this woman wasn't any sort of "Jewess" to begin with [although she might have had a little bit of Jewish blood in her]:

http://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=2621

3) Given that she lived until 1645, and that even the Stratfordian timeline has Shaksper writing all of his plays by 1611-1614, this would mean that [even by the Stratforidian timeline] she suddenly went silent and wrote nothing for the final 30 years of her life:

http://shakespeare.palomar.edu/timeline/final.htm

4) It's going to be very, very difficult to come up with a reading of the sonnets which would allow for them to have been written from a female perspective.

5) On the other hand, any information which can give us some insight into the identity of the Dark Lady, or of Sobran's Emaricdulfe [EMARICDVLFE], would be most exciting:

http://www.sobran.com/emar.shtml