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.
Babe Ruth was black, because he had a wide nose.
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.
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!
Urban legend.
Mark Twain: “Shakespeare didn’t write any of his plays. It was someone with the same name.”
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.
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.
Hmmmm...I wonder what this Jewish authoress had in mind as the "true meaning" of Shylock in "The Merchant of Venice?"
ROFLOL..... ok
This is going to throw a *major* wrench into their gears.
I guess they didn't realize that he was a lesbian...
Only an “expert” could believe something as silly as this.
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.
*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.
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.
Not a “man.” Actually a mutant tapir.
“It is I, Hamlet the Danish Girl.”
Red Dwarf Ping!
Please add me to the list!
Thank you in advance
8^)
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.shtml2) 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=26213) 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.htm4) 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
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.shtml2) 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=26213) 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.htm4) 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
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