A forthcoming book argues that William Shakespeare was not the true author of the works attributed to him, claiming instead that the plays and poems were written by a black Jewish woman of Moroccan descent.
Feminist historian and LSE graduate Irene Coslet makes the case in her upcoming publication, ‘The Real Shakespeare: Emilia Bassano Willoughby’, that a woman named Emilia Bassano was the real figure behind the famous literary canon.
According to Coslet, Bassano was born in London in 1569 to a Venetian court musician. Following her father’s death when she was seven, she was fostered into an English noble household where she received a high level of education. Bassano spent her youth at the English Court as a favourite of Queen Elizabeth I before being banished and forced into an unwanted marriage in 1592. She published a feminist theology poem, Salve Deus Rex Judaeorum, in 1611.
The theory that Bassano authored Shakespeare’s works was first proposed by John Hudson in 2013. Hudson suggested that because women in the Early Modern period were prohibited from writing drama and acting, and were generally restricted from publishing literature, Bassano adopted a pen name to continue writing.
Coslet states that she adds new empirical evidence to this theory in her book. She argues that recovering such identities from history is essential for building an equal society.
The historian draws on the work of theorist Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, who argued that history has been narrated by white men while female and black identities have been suppressed. Coslet contends that attributing Western heritage only to white men perpetuates inequality.
Bassano has been linked to Shakespeare since the 1970s, when Oxford historian Alfred Leslie Rowse found evidence suggesting she was the mistress of the patron of Shakespeare’s acting company.
Coslet also references the ‘Matilda effect’, a term coined by Margaret W. Rossiter in 1993 to describe the pattern of women’s contributions being overlooked or attributed to men across various fields.
The book, ‘The Real Shakespeare: Emilia Bassano Willoughby’, is scheduled for publication on 30 January.
