"Was Shakespeare a Woman?" Topic

…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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Oh, of course! Shakespeare MUST have been a woman, and a woman of color (sort of) at that, because he can empathize with women and minorities. But, really, it can't have been Bassano unless she was also English (to pick up the Old English bits of MacBeth) had read law (for the courtroom scenes and legalese) and done a hitch in the Army (for the military background.)

UNLESS, of course, you can pick up these things by reading and listening and using imagination. And if people can do that, why exactly do we not stick with the only person to whom the plays were attributed at the time? How about the only candidate who was a sharer and player in the company which performed the plays?

Yes, yes. I know: Shakespeare mentioned no books in his will--or his first best bed, come to that. My guess? When word went out that he was retiring back to Stratford, everyone Will had borrowed a book from stopped by his lodgings and got it back before he skipped town. After that, packing was easy. It's not a great theory, but it beats one that has the plays written by someone with no connection with the theatrical company which performed them, using Shakespeare's name when most plays were published anonymously anyway.

No. Next theory, please.

It's a solid thesis.

Rob I like your style

"Was Shakespeare a Woman?"

The clothing styles back then were …weird. So, not hard to think that…

;-)

No. *sigh*

Ideas are like farts, many are best kept to yourself or you will embarrass yourself.

Of all the daft ideas I have ever heard, this one takes the biscuit.

No

I see I failed to point out that according to the article above, Bassano was a New Woman, defying all the traditions and ideology of the era, and a fair bit of contemporary theology. But her name wasn't on the plays, not because it was actually illegal, like being an actress, but because--well, it just wasn't done. Might have embarrassed the family or something.

There used to be a thing called "internal consistency." Or have I reverted to a previous century again?

To get accepted in curriculum with all the right points, including the now defunct ridicule, this Person, must be a transgender , somewhat coloured, possibly slightly disbled, genius.
At least we have Joan of arc, whose avtivities on several matters remain dubious, happily filling some of the right slots. And with Brexit, even more so.
To be thus or not safely thus…

No

Yeah, but she didn't write Francis Bacon's plays.

Ron

Wikipedia:

Betteridge's law of headlines is an adage that states: "Any headline that ends in a question mark can be answered by the word no."

Strange how this comes up when we have a Woman's movement.
Surprised it isn't a movie yet!

You do realize that William Shakespeare and his wife Anne Hathaway had three children and birth / death records are available

Susanna Hall born 1583, died 1649, Twins, Judith Quinney born 1585 died 1662 and Hamnet Shakespeare born 1585 died 1596 9age 11)

'Yeah, but she didn't write Francis Bacon's plays.'

But perhaps she wrote Frances Bacon's plays, eh ?

Apparently Shakespeare was anyone but a man named William Shakespeare…

Yes, William Shakespear was indeed a male man. That is not in question.

The question is, did he write all of the works that are attributed to him. There is no definitive answer, but there are good supporting reasons to raise the question. If he did not write some or all of them, then yes it is quite plausible that one or more women did.

Just last century, we had numerous folks writing for film while others took the credit because the authors were banned. In 1986, the Writers Guild began restoring proper writing credit where it could be confirmed. Quite a few films were not written by the person whose name appeared on the screen, as real as those people were who provided cover for the actual writers.
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In an age when women were barred from writing, they would need an actual living male type person to take the credit for their work.

Joan of Arc…actually a male.

Shakspere/Shakspeare/Shakespear or however it may have been spelt was real and did write the plays. The main reason his identity is doubted is due to the typical English class snobbery, he was too lowly for the upper class twits to accept.