Posted on 05/28/2008 4:21:43 AM PDT by CarrotAndStick
JERUSALEM: Shakespeare was actually a Jewish woman who had disguised to get her work published in Elizabethan London where original literature from women was not acceptable, an expert has contended.
The woman, Amelia Bassano Lanier Bassano, was of Italian descent and lived in England as a Marrano. She has been known only as the first woman to publish a book of poetry ( Salve Deus Rex Judaeorum in 1611) and as a candidate for "the dark lady" referred to in the sonnets, daily Ha'aretz reported.
The theory rests largely on the circumstances of Bassano's life, which John Hudson, an expert in Shakespeare, contends matches much better to the content of Shakespeare's work.
The researcher has also identified technical similarities between the language used in Bassano's known poetry and that used in Shakespeare's verse.
The conginitive scientist has located several clues in the text like recently noted Jewish allegories and the statistically significant appearance of Amelia Bassano Lanier's various names in the plays, which he says point to her as the only convincing candidate as the author of Shakespeare's work.
When asked if this is the biggest literary hoax ever pulled off or the worst example of a man stealing a woman's glory, the researcher dubbed it a "stratagem".
"I don't think this is a hoax. It is a stratagem she used to get her work published, as many other women have done, by having their work published under a man's name. In Elizabethan London, women could not write original literature at all, let alone plays, so this was her only option", Hudson said in an interview published in Ha'aretz .
"The example I use is that of the Pharos Lighthouse of Alexandria. In order that his name might be known, the architect Sostratus had his name carved on the stone base, then covered over with a piece of plaster with a dedication to the king. In time the plaster fell away, revealing the architect's name", Hudson said.
"Amelia's strategy was to leave behind a preposterous case for William Shakespeare, which has now fallen away, revealing the true creator who is now at last visible", the cognitive scientist added.
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.
Hudson holds numerous degrees from various prestigious academic institutions, in a range of specialties from Shakespeare and dramaturgical theory to sociology and anthropology.
He has spent most of his career as a cognitive scientist, restructuring the communications industry and inventing new industry models, exactly what he is now doing with Shakespeare.
My father is a Shakespeare expert and I know he doesn’t believe this drivel!
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I guess this explains why Ben Jonson called Shakespeare "sweet swan of Avon"... oh wait, no it doesn't... |
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ophelia_(character)
[snip] A possible historical source for Ophelia is Katherine Hamlet, a young woman who fell into the Avon river and died in December 1579. Though it was eventually concluded that she had overbalanced while carrying some heavy pails, rumors that she was suffering from a broken heart were considered plausible enough for an inquest to be conducted into whether her death was a suicide. It is possible that Shakespeare - sixteen at the time of the death - recalled the romantic tragedy in his creation of the character of Ophelia. [end]
(Katherine HAMLET? Gee, the story must have been known all over Italy. A man with the same name as Shakespeare’s father hanged himself in a nearby town, in the same general time frame)
Could be Shakespeare knew this woman and published some of her works for her. He obtained material from many sources and reworked it for his performance company, in which he was one of the actors.
DAVE: --only everything's ... opposite?
DEBBIE: Oh, I don't know if everything's opposite. It seems like that.
DAVE: So you come from a female-orientated society?
DEBBIE: Well, it's not exactly female-orientated anymore, not since the sixties. You know, the equal-rights-for-men marches. You know, they burned their jockstraps and all that.
DAVE: Stop!
DEBBIE: Haven't you read "The Male Eunuch" by Jeremy Greer?
DAVE: So, your history is parallel to ours as well? So, hang on... erm, who was the first person on the moon?
DEBBIE: Nellie Armstrong.
LISTER: NELLIE Armstrong? So... who wrote Hamlet?
ARLENE: (Entering with ARNOLD) Will Shakespeare.
DAVE: Ah, so he was a bloke.
DEBBIE: No, she was a woman. Wilma Shakespeare.
ARLENE: Yeah, she wrote all the greats: "Racheal the Third," "The Taming of the Shrimp."
An epic battle on Homer’s gender
The Australian | July 03, 2006 | Dalya Alberge (The London Times)
Posted on 07/02/2006 7:46:38 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1659530/posts
Oh my achin’ silliness. They’ve gone too far.
(I somehow knew the Avon Lady had a masculine ring....)
If you prick me, do I not bleed?
Actually a fairly sympathetic portrayal for the time, I believe. Just as ol’ ‘Will’ wrote as if he were a big-time feminist: lots of valorous ladies overcoming the limitations of their social roles.
I had not seen your post on Homer, but this discussion has been going on for at least 25 years in college circles. Pfui!
AFAIK, Samuel Butler started the Homer was a woman discussion, around 100 years ago. :’)
The idea that Shakespeare didn’t write Shakespeare arose in a nutty book around 1850 I think, and the arguments haven’t improved with age. :’)
Actually, there is some interesting evidence that makes this a very credible argument. My guess is that it’s probably true.
There is no logic to the claim, no matter how “they” spin it. Some folks just aren’t happy until they become the epitome of stupidity.
Well I’m an expert too and this woman is FOS. Revisionist history will continue until all vestiges of Western Culture is obliterated & demeaned or We stand up and say enough and GFY.
I believe that it began with a descendent of one of the people suspected of being the “real” Shakespeare. And of course, for many people, it’s simply an intellectual snob’s argument. Shakespeare wasn’t educated well enough to be so talented, you see. Humph.
Romeo's mother didn't think Juliet was good enough for him.
Macbeth went into his father's business and his wife drove him crazy.
When Petruchio met Katharina, he is heard to remark: "Funny, you don't look Shrewish..."
Nevis, actually.
Why don’t we ask, “Who was not Shakespeare?” Modern scholarship will throw everything but the kitchen sink at you in hopes that something sticks (to mix metaphors). Because nobody at the time had ever recorded seeing Shakespeare write anything he will always be a mystery, and the fact that people have not seen him work also remains a mystery. If only there could be something from Marlowe or Johnson such as, “That scribbler Shakespeare writing such dreck, looting every good idea from the past as his own, writing about that infernal prince Hamlet who we all know to be a parody of Bacon and his Ophelia as that sluttish trollop bar maid that dotes on him at the tavern... why can’t he just give it up! He has a very poor muse. The stuff will never last the coarse of time.”
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