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CULTURE
Shakespeare's Plays Were Written By A Jewish Woman
Here's eight kinds of proof Amelia Bassano was the real Bard by John Hudson, March 13, 2008
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shakespeare john hudson dark lady amelia bassano
 
Shakespeare:
looks worried
For hundreds of years, people havequestioned whether William Shakespeare wrote the plays that bear his name. Themystery is fueled by the fact that his biography simply doesn't match the areas of knowledge and skill demonstrated in theplays. Nearly a hundred candidates have been suggested, but none of them fit much better. Now a new candidate named Amelia Bassano Lanier—the so-called 'Dark Lady' of the Sonnets and a member of an Italian/Jewishfamily—has been shown to be a perfect fit. Here are eight reasons thatare sure to convince you:
1. The Most Musical Plays in the World
The plays contain nearly 2000 musical references, use 300 different musical terms, and referto a 5th century manuscript on recorder playing. None of Mr.Shakespeare's friends or associates were professional musicians, sohow could he have developed this practical musical knowledge? Onthe other hand, Amelia's family were the Court recorder troupe andaround 15 of her closest relatives were professional musicians. In fact,one of them was the leading composer for the Shakespearean plays.
 
 
2. Spoken Hebrew 
Although in late sixteenth century Englandabout 30 scholars were studying written Hebrew, none of themactually spoke Hebrew. Spoken Hebrew was used only amongEuropean Jews, as a commercial language, to keep their informationsecure. How, then, was Mr. Shakespeare able to make the Hebrew puns or include examples of Hebrew transliteration identified by Israeli scholar Florence Amit? Or incorporate several quotations fromThe Talmud along with reference to Maimonides? Or integrate theexamples of spoken Hebrew, seen, for instance, in
 All's Well That  Ends Well 
? Amelia's family was Jewish, living as Marranos with members of theLupo family, who were imprisoned for their faith.
3. Feminism
Theplays depict strong female characters who play music and read Ovid, but Mr. Shakespeare kept his daughters illiterate. Amelia, however, was educated at Court and raised in the household of the early English feminist Catherine Willoughby, Duchess of Suffolk, and herdaughter Susan Bertie, the Dowager Countess of Kent. This explains why 
Taming of the Shrew
references a book that was the standardmanual for training girls at Court in etiquette, and why other playsrefer to Margaret of Navarre's
 Heptameron
, the most popular book among court ladies. Finally Amelia's own poetry draws on thefeministChristine of Pisan, whose work is used in three of the playsand nowhere else in English literature of the period.
4. Italian
There would have been no way for Mr. Shakespeare tolearn Italian in Stratford-upon-Avon, but the plays show that theauthor was fluent in Italian, made Italian puns, and read Dante,Tasso, Cinthio, Bandello, and others in the original language. TheBassano family came from Venice. As their surviving letters show,
 
they spoke and wrote fluent Italian.
Who's That Girl?:
oh, just the artist formerly known as Shakespeare
 
5. Major Poet
None of the otherpotential candidates who have beenput forward is a major poet. But Amelia Bassano certainly is. She was amajor experimental poet and the first woman to publish a book of originalpoetry in England. That poetry includes a 160 line poem thatresembles a masque (a dramaticentertainment similar to opera, popular in England in the 16th and17th centuries, in which masked performers represented mythologicalor allegorical characters) about the descent of the chariot of Juno.Bassano's masque-like poem resembles the masque about the descentof Juno's chariot in
The Tempest 
. Her final poem includes unusualclusters of words that are also found in
 Midsummer Night's Dream
.
6. Her Names in the Plays
One of the most popular names in theplays is Emilia (in various spellings). Why should Mr. Shakespearehave liked this name so much? In
Titus Andronicus
there arecharacters oddly called Emillius and Bassianus. Why are they there?But most importantly between 1622-1623, when Mr. Shakespeare waslong dead, someone made changes to the
Quarto of Othello
toassociate the standard image of the great poet—the swan who dies tomusic—with Emilia, and to give her the "willow" song to repeat.Moreover, the swan appears in
 King John
associated with John's son,and in
 Merchant of Venice
associated with Bassanio. The author of 
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Not so that none of the other candidates put forward are major poets. Christopher Marlowe was a major poet - and what's more, a major poet who wrote in the same style as "Shakespeare".

reply04 / 10 / 2010
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