NOw that wasn’t nice. I am a Shakespear fan. My point is it has no affect on what effect the literature brings to individuals. At least it should not.
You're right. After I posted I realized that your comment could be taken a different way and my comment was mean. I agree that this type of historical footnote should have no influence on the appreciation of Shakespeare. Just re-reading the line "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day" one can see this man's genius and it doesn't really matter whom he was addressing.
On the other hand it should not be necessary to lie about the past and make it fit some ideal that does not accord with the known facts.
I don't even know that much about literature. I was a math major. But I knew I was right about this. Shakespeare lived so long ago that most of the facts of his life are a mystery. But his writing is there for all to see. One thing that is clear from this thread is that a lot of people who make dogmatic statements about Shakespeare's writing know even less about it than me.