'Let it alone, thou fool; it is but trash.'
The Tempest IV.1
Authored by 'Sallust': One of the positive sides to radical feminist historical scholarship is the opportunity to learn about revelations that might otherwise have gone unnoticed. The latest is that William Shakespeare was a “black Jewish woman” according to a new book covered in the Telegraph.
Who knew? The book, The Real Shakespeare, is by Irene Coslet. She expounds her theory on a blog page of the London School of Economics:
A new piece of research evidence that I outline in my upcoming book shows that Shakespeare was not a man, but a woman: a black woman, Anglo-Venetian, of Moroccan descent, and covertly Jewish, named Emilia Bassano (London, 1569-1645). She was the daughter of a Venetian Court musician. Following the passing of her father when she was seven, Bassano was fostered into a noble household in England, where she received a high level of education. She spent her youth at the English Court as a favourite of Queen Elizabeth I before she was banished and forced into an unwanted marriage in 1592. She published a feminist theology poem, Salve Deus Rex Judaeorum, in 1611. She has been associated with Shakespeare since the 1970s, when the historian Alfred Leslie Rowse of Oxford found evidence that Bassano was the mistress of the patron of Shakespeare’s acting company.
The reason for why Emilia Bassano’s contribution has been overlooked, says Coslet, is that “substantial scientific or literary contributions made by women are constantly overlooked. … The pattern is so common that it could be regarded more as the rule than an exception.”
Of course!
Back to the Telegraph which summarises some of the book’s key content:
Bassano, it is claimed, used the pen-name “Shakespeare” and wrote the Shakespearean canon of plays, only for her work to be stolen by an uneducated interloper from Stratford-upon-Avon.
This interloper, whom we now know as William Shakespeare, was then revered by posterity because the idea of a “white” genius was preferred to a black female playwright, the book argues.
Of course, Occam’s Razor would argue that the simplest explanation is always likely to be the correct one, in this case that William Shakespeare was the William Shakespeare who wrote the plays.
One slight problem is that a portrait of Emilia Bassano, on the book’s cover, shows a white woman. But that is easily explained – her skin was deliberately lightened by painters.
Coslet told the Telegraph:
“If Shakespeare was a female of colour, this would draw attention to issues of peace and justice in society.”
She added: “What if women had a pivotal role and a civilising impact in history, but they have been silenced, belittled and erased from the dominant narrative?
“What would a paradigm shift reveal about ourselves? Such a reflection challenges us to reconsider our understanding of society.”
Coslet’s publisher Pen & Sword, well-known for publishing literally anything submitted to it, has no doubts about the credibility of the hypothesis, says the Telegraph:
It claims that scholars have been “unable to explain why” Shakespeare was able to incorporate influences of various cultures in his work, as a humble man from Warwickshire.
On the other hand, the book argues, the Jewish and multi-racial Bassano embodied a “diverse identity” that would give her the necessary expertise.
The book claims that she was a Jew and a Moor – a person of north African origin – with family ties to the cosmopolitan Venice of the 16th century.
This argument concludes that “English-speaking world has a mother with a multi-cultural identity”, and that Bassano was the “mother of a civilisation”.
The Telegraph reminds us of the conventional thinking about the Bard.
Shakespeare, in the consensus view of scholars, was born in Stratford in 1564 to a glove-maker. He attended the local grammar school, and at the age of 18 married the 26 year-old Anne Hathaway.
By 1592 he was being mentioned as part of the London theatre scene. Shakespeare died in 1616, well before Bassano, who died in 1645.
Interesting then that Bassano managed to write no more plays in the 29 years after the thief who stole her pen name died.
The Telegraph has another piece, by Philip Womack, refuting Coslet’s theory, called ‘No, Shakespeare wasn’t a black woman‘, linking to a longstanding tradition of coming up with different candidates for Shakespeare:
We know, with certainty, that William Shakespeare wasn’t even slightly a woman, or black. He was a white bloke from [Warwickshire], of yeoman stock. You might as well try to argue that the sun was, in fact, cold. Why does this madness continue?
In short:
What rubbish and what offal, when it serves for the base matter to illuminate.
Julius Caesar I.3
The Telegraph’s coverage of Coslet’s book is worth reading in full.
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