Emilia Lanier theory of Shakespeare authorship: Difference between revisions

[[File:Nicholas Hilliard 010.jpg|thumb|Portrait miniature of an unknown woman, possibly Emilia Lanier Bassano, c. 1590, by [[Nicholas Hilliard]]<ref name="V&A">{{cite web |title=An Unknown Woman |url=https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O1070380/an-unknown-woman-portrait-miniature-nicholas-hilliard/ |publisher=[[Victoria and Albert Museum]] |access-date=5 September 2024 |date=1590}}</ref>]]

The '''Emilia Lanier theory of Shakespeare authorship''' contends that the English poet [[Emilia Lanier]] ({{née|Aemilia Bassano}}; 1569–1645) is the [[Shakespeare authorship question|actual author]] of at least part of the plays and poems traditionally attributed to [[William Shakespeare]]. As is the case with the [[List of Shakespeare authorship candidates|dozens of other candidates]] suggested to be the author of Shakespeare's works, this idea is not accepted by the large majority of Shakespeare scholars.<ref name="The International Journal of Literary Humanities 2018">{{cite journal |last1=Kauffman |first1=Paul |title=The Woman behind William Shakespeare and Simon Forman: The Creativity of Emilia Bassano-Lanier Explained |journal=The International Journal of Literary Humanities |date=2018 |volume=16 |issue=2 |pages=15–31 |doi=10.18848/2327-7912/CGP/v16i02/15-31 |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/326357977_The_Woman_behind_William_Shakespeare_and_Simon_Forman_The_Creativity_of_Emilia_Bassano-Lanier_Explained326357977}}</ref><ref name="The Globe and Mail 15 January 2010" /><ref name="The Atlantic - The editors" />

In 2008, John Hudson, scholar and theatre producer, introduced the idea that Lanier wrote the [[Shakespeare bibliography|works of Shakespeare]] in 2008.<ref name="The International Journal of Literary Humanities 2018" /><ref name="The Oxfordian 2009">{{cite web |last1=Hudson |first1=John |title=Amelia Bassano Lanier: A New Paradigm |url=https://shakespeareoxfordfellowship.org/wp-content/uploads/Oxfordian2009_Hudson_Bassano.pdf |publisher=[[The Oxfordian]] |access-date=5 September 2024 |date=2009}}</ref><ref name="The Forward 23 May 2008">{{cite news |last1=Honig Friedman |first1=Rebecca |title=Was the Bard a Beard? |url=https://forward.com/culture/13424/was-the-bard-a-beard/ |access-date=5 September 2024 |work=[[The Forward]] |date=23 May 2008 |language=en}}</ref> Hudson findsfound similarities between the works of Shakespeare and Lanier's poetry book ''[[Salve Deus Rex Judaeorum]]''. He also noted her educated background and cosmopolitan upbringing as support of the idea.<ref name="The International Journal of Literary Humanities 2018" /><ref name="The Forward 23 April 2018" /> Her family included several musicians, and Hudson arguesargued that musical references in Shakespeare's plays areoccur three times as manyoften as in comparable works.<ref name="The Globe and Mail 15 January 2010">{{cite news |last1=Posner |first1=Michael |author1-link=Michael Posner (journalist) |title=Was Shakespeare a woman? |url=https://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/was-shakespeare-a-woman/article1207502/?page=all |access-date=5 September 2024 |work=[[The Globe and Mail]] |date=15 January 2010 |language=en-CA}}</ref>

Hudson published a book on the subject in 2014, ''Shakespeare's Dark Lady: Amelia Bassano Lanier, The Woman Behind Shakepeare's Plays?''<ref name="JTA 6 September 2024">{{cite news |last1=Sher |first1=Abby |title=Was Shakespeare Actually This Jewish Woman? |url=https://www.jta.org/jewniverse/2016/was-shakespeare-actually-this-jewish-woman |access-date=8 September 2024 |work=[[Jewish Telegraphic Agency]] |date=6 September 2024}}</ref><ref name="The Forward 23 April 2018">{{cite news |last1=Rogovoy |first1=Seth |title=The Secret Jewish History of William Shakespeare |url=https://forward.com/culture/399482/the-secret-jewish-history-of-william-shakespeare/ |access-date=8 September 2024 |work=[[The Forward]] |date=23 April 2018 |language=en}}</ref> Renaissance literature scholar Kate Chedgzoy said in 2010 that "The myth of Aemilia Lanyer as [[Dark Lady (Shakespeare)|Shakespeare’s Dark Lady]] both testifies to our continuing cultural investment in a fantasy of a female Shakespeare, and reveals some of the anxieties about difference that haunt canonical [[Renaissance literature]]."<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Chedgzoy |first1=Kate |title=Remembering Aemilia Lanyer |journal=Journal of the Northern Renaissance |date=2010 |volume=1 |issue=1 |page= |url=http://www.northernrenaissance.org/remembering-aemilia-lanyer/ |access-date=9 April 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170809133717/http://www.northernrenaissance.org/remembering-aemilia-lanyer/|archive-date=9 August 2017}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Professor Kate Chedgzoy |url=https://www.ncl.ac.uk/elll/people/profile/katechedgzoy.html |publisher=[[Newcastle University]] |access-date=28 September 2024}}</ref> By 2020, several novels with Lanier as a character had included Hudson's ideas.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Buffey |first1=Emily |title=The Mask of Shakespeare's 'Dark Lady': Fictional Representations of Aemilia Lanyer in the Twenty-First Century Historical Novel. |journal=[[Early Modern Literary Studies]] |date=2020 |volume=21 |issue=2 |url=https://link-.gale-com.wikipedialibrary.idm.oclc.orgcom/apps/doc/A659642616/AONE?u=wikipedia&sid=bookmark-AONE&xid=01f016ab}}</ref> David McInnis, professor in English and Theatre Studies, said that "The idea that she was known to all these people and that some elaborate conspiracy of virtually everyone of significance in London in the 17th century would 'cover-up' her supposed authorship of Shakespeare's plays is ridiculous."<ref name="Australian Associated Press 28 September 2020">{{cite news |title='Amelia Bassano' did not write Shakespeare's plays |url=https://www.aap.com.au/factcheck/amelia-bassano-did-not-write-shakespeares-plays/ |access-date=27 September 2024 |work=[[Australian Associated Press]] |date=28 September 2020 |language=en}}</ref>

A 2019 essay by reporter Elizabeth Winkler in ''[[The Atlantic]]'' argued that Shakespeare could have been a woman, and offered Lanier as a candidate, referencing Hudson. Winkler speculated that Lanier and poet [[Mary Sidney]], and perhaps others, could have written Shakespeare's work together.<ref name="The Atlantic 10 May 2019">{{cite news |last1=Winkler |first1=Elizabeth |title=Was Shakespeare a Woman? |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2019/06/who-is-shakespeare-emilia-bassano/588076/ |access-date=8 September 2024 |work=[[The Atlantic]] |date=10 May 2019 |language=en}}</ref> ''The Atlantic'' noted that the essay had increased interest in Lanier's life and contemporary women's literary contributions, as well as "generated dissent, most notably the argument that the piece did not pay sufficient attention to the scholarly consensus that any case for anyone other than Shakespeare is conjectural."<ref name="The Atlantic - The editors" /> Winkler commented in 2023 on the reactions to the essay that she had never been attacked like that as a writer. The reactions inspired her to write the book ''[[Shakespeare Was a Woman and Other Heresies]]'' (2023).<ref name="The Guardian 27 June 2023">{{cite news |last1=Smith |first1=David |title='It was shocking': the author under attack for doubting Shakespeare |url=https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2023/jun/27/elizabeth-winkler-shakespeare-was-woman-author |access-date=27 September 2024 |work=[[The Guardian]] |date=27 June 2023}}</ref>

''The magazineAtlantic'' also published comments on Winkler's piece by other writers.<ref name="The Atlantic - The editors">{{cite news |title=Shakespeare and Company |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2019/06/was-shakespeare-woman-responses/590851/ |access-date=26 September 2024 |work=[[The Atlantic]] |date=8 June 2019 |language=en}}</ref> Shakespearean [[James S. Shapiro]] rejected the idea of Lanier's authorship as one of many similar ideas, saying that "it doesn’t follow that because Shakespeare wrote insightfully about women he was one, any more than it does that because Shakespeare saw so penetratingly into the minds of homicides like Macbeth and Claudius he was a murderer, too."<ref name="The Atlantic Shapiro">{{cite news |last1=Shapiro |first1=James |author1-link=James S. Shapiro |title=Shakespeare Wrote Insightfully About Women. That Doesn’tDoesn't Mean He Was One. |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2019/06/shakespeare-was-not-woman/590794/ |access-date=8 September 2024 |work=[[The Atlantic]] |date=8 June 2019 |language=en}}</ref> Academic Phyllis Rackin said that while she was absolutely certain that women were involved in writing many plays performed in Shakespeare's theater, she was not convinced that there was another "true author" of his works.<ref name="The Atlantic Rackin">{{cite news |last1=Rackin |first1=Phyllis |title=The Hidden Women Writers of the Elizabethan Theater |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2019/06/shakespeares-female-contemporaries/590392/ |access-date=8 September 2024 |work=[[The Atlantic]] |date=8 June 2019 |language=en}}</ref> Biographer [[David Ellis (biographer)|David Ellis]] said that while Lanier hardly has a "pole position" among Shakespeare authorship candidates, she has an advantage over [[Christopher Marlowe]] and [[Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford|Edward de Vere]] in that she didn't die several years before Shakespeare.<ref name="The Atlantic Ellis">{{cite news |last1=Ellis |first1=David |author1-link=David Ellis (biographer)|title=The Logical Gymnastics of Shakespeare Biography |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2019/06/shakespeares-life-story-is-mostly-speculation/590386/ |work=[[The Atlantic]] |date=8 June 2019 |language=en}}</ref>

Author Mark Bradbeer argues that several of Shakespeare’s works were co-authored by Lanier.<ref name="Countercurrents.org 2022">{{cite web |last1=Polya |first1=Gideon |title=Review: "Aemilia Lanyer As Shakespeare's Co-Author": Radical Feminist Literary Revision |url=https://countercurrents.org/2022/06/review-aemilia-lanyer-as-shakespeares-co-author-radical-feminist-literary-revision/ |publisher=[[Countercurrents.org]] |access-date=27 September 2024 |date=3 June 2022}}</ref> He also suggests that Lanier wrote under other pen-names, including [[Henry Willobie]] and [[George Wilkins]].<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Peterson |first1=Brice |title=Aemilia Lanyer as Shakespeare's Co-author |journal=Early Modern Women: An Interdisciplinary Journal |date=1 March 2024 |volume=18 |issue=2 |pages=356–359 |doi=10.1086/727454 |access-date=}}</ref>

According to author [[Jodi Picoult]], Lanier is a good candidate because Shakespeare could not have written "[[Protofeminism|proto-feminist]]" characters, and in his time "people in theatre knew that William Shakespeare was a catch-all name for a lot of different types of authors." Picoult was inspired by Winkler's essay, and wrote a novel on the premise of Lanier-as-Shakespeare, the 2024 ''By Any Other Name''.<ref name="The Daily Telegraph 25 May 2024">{{cite news |last1=Singh |first1=Anita |title=Shakespeare’sShakespeare's plays were written by a woman, says Jodi Picoult |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/05/25/shakespeare-did-not-write-plays-woman-did-says-jodi-picoult/ |access-date=5 September 2024 |work=[[The Daily Telegraph]] |date=25 May 2024}}</ref> Novelist [[Gareth Roberts (writer)|Gareth Roberts]] said that the idea is a great device for a novel, and that "If this was all the jolly wheeze that Picoult suggests, it was a hell of an elaborate and time-consuming one. It also relies heavily on the ability of actors and writers to refrain from spilling the juiciest of gossip."<ref name="The Spectator 29 May 2024">{{cite news |last1=Roberts |first1=Gareth |author1-link=Gareth Roberts (writer) |title=Shakespeare wasn’twasn't a woman |url=https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/shakespeare-wasnt-a-woman/ |access-date=5 September 2024 |work=[[The Spectator]] |date=29 May 2024}}</ref>

Other women suggested as authors forof Shakespeare's work include [[Elizabeth I]],<ref>{{cite book |last1=Hackett |first1=Helen |title=Shakespeare and Elizabeth: The Meeting of Two Myths |date=5 April 2009 |publisher=Princeton University Press |isbn=978-0-691-12806-1 |url=https://books.google.secom/books?id=NC3jdR7R4JoC&redir_esc=y |language=en}}</ref> Shakespeare's wife [[Anne Hathaway (wife of Shakespeare)|Anne Hathaway]],<ref>{{Cite book|last=Churchill|first=Reginald C.|title=Shakespeare and His Betters: A History and a Criticism of the Attempts Which Have Been Made to Prove That Shakespeare's Works Were Written by Others|publisher=M.Reinhardt|year=1958|url=https://archive.org/details/shakespearehisbe0000chur|page=54}}</ref> speculated intended wife [[Anne Whateley]],<ref>{{cite book |last1=McMichael |first1=George L. |last2=Glenn |first2=Edgar M. |title=Shakespeare and His Rivals: A Casebook on the Authorship Controversy |date=1962 |publisher=Odyssey Press |pages=145–146 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KlDQAAAAMAAJ |language=en}}</ref> [[Mary, Queen of Scots]],<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Elliott|first1=Ward E. Y.|author-link=Ward Elliott|last2=Valenza|first2=Robert J.|title=Oxford by the Numbers: What Are the Odds That the Earl of Oxford Could Have Written Shakespeare's Poems and Plays?|journal=[[Tennessee Law Review|The Tennessee Law Review]]|publisher=Tennessee Law Review Association|year=2004|volume=72|pages=323–452|url=http://www.cmc.edu/pages/faculty/welliott/UTConference/Oxford_by_Numbers.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110205211106/http://www.cmc.edu/pages/faculty/welliott/UTConference/Oxford_by_Numbers.pdf|archive-date=2011-02-05}}</ref> [[Anne Whateley]]<ref>{{cite book |last1=McMichael |first1=George L. |last2=Glenn |first2=Edgar M. |title=Shakespeare and His Rivals: A Casebook on the Authorship Controversy |date=1962 |publisher=Odyssey Press |pages=145-146 |url=https://www.google.se/books/edition/Shakespeare_and_His_Rivals/KlDQAAAAMAAJ?hl= |language=en}}</ref> and Mary Sidney.<ref name="The Atlantic 10 May 2019" />

*{{cite book |last1=Hudson |first1=John |title=Shakespeare's Dark Lady: Amelia Bassano Lanier The Woman Behind Shakepeare's Plays? |date=2014 |publisher=[[Amberley Publishing]] |isbn=978-1-4456-2166-1 |url=https://wwwbooks.google.secom/books/edition/Shakespeare_s_Dark_Lady/GdyZDwAAQBAJ?hlid=sv&gbpv=0GdyZDwAAQBAJ |language=en}}

*{{cite book |last1=Bradbeer |first1=Mark |title=Aemilia Lanyer as Shakespeare’sShakespeare's Co-Author |date=2022 |publisher=[[Taylor & Francis]] |isbn=978-1-000-56721-2 |url=https://wwwbooks.google.secom/books/edition/Aemilia_Lanyer_as_Shakespeare_s_Co_Autho/RZVeEAAAQBAJ?hlid=sv&gbpv=0RZVeEAAAQBAJ |language=en}}