There are many theories about the true identity of Shakespeare. A new one (at least, new to me) is that Shakespeare was actually a Jewish woman named Amelia Bassano Lanier. This argument is made by John Hudson, author of a forthcoming biography of Bassano (who was the first woman to publish a book of poetry in England).
Haaretz reports:
The theory rests largely on the circumstances of Bassano's life, which Hudson contends match, much better than William Shakespeare's did, the content of "Shakespeare's" work. But Hudson has also identified technical similarities between the language used in Bassano's known poetry and that used in "Shakespeare's" verse. And he has located clues in the text - recently noted Jewish allegories and the statistically significant appearance of Amelia Bassano Lanier's various names in the plays - that he says point to her as the only convincing candidate for the author of Shakespeare's work.
Hudson offers a summary of his theory in an article he posted on Jewcy.com,
"Shakespeare's Plays Were Written By A Jewish Woman." Hudson also maintains a site,
darkladyplayers.com, where he goes into more details about his theory.
If it turned out that Shakespeare really was a woman, that would top
Pope Joan for Most Outrageous Case of Gender Concealment Ever. However, I'm sure that mainstream Shakespeare historians are going to resist accepting Hudson's theory.
Comments
Mr. Voles: That is correct. I wrote all his plays and my wife and I wrote his sonnets.
Game Show Host: Mr Voles, these plays are known to have been performed in the early 17th century. How old are you, Mr Voles?
Mr. Voles: 43.
Game Show Host: Well, how is it possible for you to have written plays performed over 300 years before you were born?
Mr. Voles: Ah well. This is where my claim falls to the ground. There's no possible way of answering that argument, I'm afraid. I was only hoping you would not make that particular point, but I can see you're more than a match for
me!
Game Show Host: Mr Voles, thank you very much for coming along.
Mr. Voles: My pleasure.
What came to mind for me is "A rose by any other name would smell as sweet".
You're welcome.
So there.
Wasn't that an Alan Moore story in 2000AD?
A historian goes back to prove Shakespeare really did write his plays, only to find Shakespeare is totally illiterate. So he writes out the plays from memory, signs them in Shakespeare's name and returns to the present only to realise that this means that (a) he wrote Shakespeare's plays, and (b) since he did so from memory having read the complete works passed down to us from history, in fact no-one wrote Shakespeare's plays!
http://www.bibliobuffet.com/book-brunch-columns-322/1304-anyone-but-shakespeare-062010