It’s quite the claim!
Arguably the greatest English language writer and one of the most pre-eminent dramatists was in fact a “black Jewish woman”, a new book has suggested.
According to the book, William Shakespeare was a black woman and the truth of his authorship was hidden.
It claims that it was hidden by centuries of “Western-centric and Eurocentric ideology”, while the author says that the poet was a cosmopolitan woman with a “multicultural identity”.
In the new book, titled The Real Shakespeare, this woman is identified as the historical figure Emilia Bassano, a poet with connections to the Tudor court.
The book claims that Bassano used the “Shakespeare” pen-name and wrote the canon of plays, only for her work to be stolen by an uneducated interloper from Stratford-upon-Avon.
Then, it says, the interloper whom the world now knows as William Shakespeare, was revered by posterity as the idea of a “white” genius was preferred to a black female playwright.
The author of the book, Irene Coslet, is a feminist historian. She claims that Emilia Bassano’s skin, whom she identifies as the Bard, was lightened by portraitists.
“If Shakespeare was a female of colour, this would draw attention to issues of peace and justice in society”, she told The Telegraph.
“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?”, she added.
During his lifetime, Shakespeare’s own authorship was never doubted, while his fierce rival Ben Johnson hailed him as a genius “for all time”.
Some writers have suggested Bassano may be the inspiration for the “Dark Lady” addressed in Shakespeare’s sonnets.
On the other hand, the long-standing scepticism is based on doubt that Shakespeare, a man from provincial England with little formal education, was able to ascend to the level of a literary genius with an enormous breadth of knowledge.
The legitimacy of Shakespeare’s authorship has been questioned by a few scholars, as Ms Coslet’s thesis, released by Pen and Sword books, echoes this scepticism.
“Historians have not managed to explain how the Stratford man, a semi-illiterate moneylender, managed to gain such a level of erudition”, it states.
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.
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