WAS SHAKESPEARE A WOMAN?
The author does not come to a conclusion, had she it would have been splashed around the world with headlines sending academics scurrying throughout the tunnels of Ivory Towers.
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Theories that others wrote the corpus of work attributed to William Shakespeare (who was born in Stratford-upon-Avon in 1564 and died in 1616) emerged in the mid-19th century. Assorted comments by his contemporaries have been interpreted by some as suggesting that the London actor claimed credit for writing that wasn’t his. But more than two centuries passed before alternative contenders began to be promoted—Francis Bacon; Christopher Marlowe; and Edward de Vere, the 17th earl of Oxford, prominent among them. * They continue to have champions, whose fervor can sometimes border on fanaticism. In response, orthodox Shakespeare scholars have settled into dogmatism of their own. Even to dabble in authorship questions is considered a sign of bad faith, a blinkered failure to countenance genius in a glover’s son. The time had come, I felt, to tug at the blinkers of both camps and reconsider the authorship debate: Had anyone ever proposed that the creator of those extraordinary women might be a woman? Each of the male possibilities requires an elaborate theory to explain his use of another’s name. None of the candidates has succeeded in dethroning the man from Stratford. Yet a simple reason would explain a playwright’s need for a pseudonym in Elizabethan England: being female.
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This article caused me to subscribe to the Atlantic, a subscription I maintain to this day.
I like their writing and articles but hate the paywall.
Wasn't it true back then that all the actors were men, even the female parts.
Yes.
If you wish, I'll post the entire article.
The link actually let me see it.
Good, at this font size it would take 12+ pages.
Considering that William Shakespeare was a known established Elizabethan playwright with a birthdate and birth place, a family and friends, a date of death and a grave it is hard to believe that anyone else is really responsible for the distinctly stylized writing which have long been credited to his catalogue...
WAS SHAKESPEARE A WOMAN?
No, but "Thomas" was Viola.
Gwyneth Paltrow won a very well deserved Oscar for that performance by the way.
It’s so weird how “scholars” put so much effort in trying to prove that William Shakespeare was actually someone other than who he obviously was. Do we indulge such nonsense with any other person in history? Only the enthusiasm for JFK conspiracies seems to rival this bizarre hobby.
IMO if Shakespeare was a woman then Jane Austen was a man.
Jane was born 160 years after Will, culture changed.
And more than 2 centuries after that, the culture concerning sexual identity appears to be changing again.
That's a whole different set of diapers.
Taking the progression into consideration, I'm glad I won't be around a couple of centuries from now.