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Was the Bard a Beard?
A Scholar Argues That Shakespeare Was a Jewish Woman
IMPOSTER? Hudson argues that Shakespeare was no Shakespeare.
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More in Arts & CultureAmateur Shakespearologist John Hudson is not the first to question whether the actor William Shakespeare was actually the author of the body of work we’ve come to know as his, but Hudson is the first to suggest that the true author was a Jewish woman named Amelia Bassano Lanier. Of Italian descent, Bassano lived in England as a Marrano and has heretofore been known only as the first woman to publish a book of poetry (“Salve Deus Rex Judaeorum” in 1611) and as a candidate for “the dark lady” referred to in the sonnets.
Hudson is the first to argue that she’s the true author of those sonnets.
He is so convinced of Bassano’s authorship that he formed a theater company, The Dark Lady Players, to bring out, through performance, the true meanings of the plays as, he argues, Bassano intended them.
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. (For more details, visit www.darkladyplayers.com.)
And Hudson’s no charlatan. Holding numerous degrees from various prestigious academic institutions, in a range of specialties from Shakespeare and dramaturgical theory to sociology and anthropology, Hudson has spent most of his career as a cognitive scientist, restructuring the communications industry and inventing new industry models — exactly what he is now doing with Shakespeare. So prepare to rethink everything you learned in your high-school English classes.
Rebecca Honig Friedman, who blogs at jewess.canonist.com, recently caught up with Hudson for a chat.
Rebecca Honig Friedman: In your mind, is this the hugest literary hoax ever pulled off or the worst example of a man stealing a woman’s glory?
John Hudson: I don’t think this is a hoax. It is a stratagem she used to get her work published, as many other women have done, by having their work published under a man’s name. In Elizabethan London, women could not write original literature at all, let alone plays, so this was her only option.
RHF: So do you consider it a triumph on Bassano’s part?
J.H.: The example I use is that of the Pharos Lighthouse of Alexandria. In order that his name might be known, the architect Sostratus had his name carved on the stone base, then covered over with a piece of plaster with a dedication to the king. In time the plaster fell away, revealing the architect’s name. Amelia’s strategy was to leave behind a preposterous case for William Shakespeare, which has now fallen away, revealing the true creator who is now at last visible.
RHF: How much knowledge of Jewish texts was Bassano likely to have as a Marrano and a woman?
J.H.: There was only one Talmud known in England, in the Westminster Cathedral library; however, talmudic teaching was also oral, so individual quotes could have been transmitted that way. There are several quotes from the Pirke Avot, which was available as a standalone volume in Latin, as was the Zohar.
There were women scholars at the time, including one who was a distant relative of the Bassanos: Donna Ana (Reyna) de Nasi continued her mother’s vision and support for Torah scholarship, and in her 50s set up a printing press at Belvedere Palace that published a dozen Hebrew books from 1592 to 1599, including an allegorical drama and a talmudic treatise.
RHF.: Why would Bassano have written sonnets about herself as “the dark lady”?
J.F.: The Sonnets have several voices, and the so-called dark lady sonnets are written to herself in the third person, describing a woman whose cheek is gray and whose breasts are dun.
RHF.: We are told that Shakespeare’s works are timeless. But your staging of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” and the upcoming “As You Like It” puts a specific, time-bound spin on the plays. Are you not damaging their appeal — even their genius — in some way?
JH: Some directors anachronistically set the plays at the North Pole or in outer space or in a Mafia village. They therefore destroy and suppress the allusions that the plays contain and make them impossible to discern. I understand why directors who do not understand the plays might resort to such misleading devices. But they should do so no longer, and should use their staging to reveal what the author really meant.
RHF: Many actors seem to enjoy the fact that Shakespeare was an actor, too. Does the idea that Bassano has written the plays change that aspect of their appeal?
J.H.: All the world is a stage, and this was especially true at the Elizabethan court, where courtiers were constantly creating and performing meta-theatrical dramas to persuade the queen about various issues. This is where the author learned his or her highly developed sense of theater, and as a Marrano passing in a Christian society, she had to act every moment of her life.
RHF: Your theory adds a new layer to the manipulation of gender roles in Shakespeare’s plays, doesn’t it?
J.H.: Yes, the Shakespearean plays have more examples of women characters dressing up as men than in the whole of the English theater up to that point. Now we know why.
Comments
Don't you guys heave anthing better to do than publish ridiculous claims about who wrote Shakespeare's plays?
When Amelia Bassano Lanier as a Marrano was the authoresness of the plays, what´s about "The Merchant of venice"?
I do find the cross dressing very interesting indeed, however, I'm not sure I understand where Shakespeare the man would have fit into this theory. Was he in collusion with her? It's not like she created an identity out of thin air for herself, I mean Shakespeare was a real man who did act in these plays, so how did he feel about a woman using his name to write under?
As a very good writer and the author of 'The Merchant of Venice'-too bad she didn't live today, she would have been a perfect writer for The Forward.
And what about Shylock and the Merchant of Venice?
Not only did the Dark Lady write the plays hitherto believed to be authored by one W. Shakespeare, but she also wrote the Bible under her nom de plume and left secret proof of it. Just look at Psalm 46 (King James version.) The 46th word from the beginning is "shake," and the 46th word from the end is "spear." What more proof could anyone want?
Oh, please - so, now the jews are taking credit for Shakespeare, unbelievable gall and chutzpah.
btw, Marranos are not and were not ever "of Italian descent"
I don't know about this, but it's interesting. As an actor I got to tell you that there is tons and tons of antisemitic banter in Shakespeare: look at THE MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR, for example.
I think that Mr. Hudson may have been reading a bit of Faye Kellerman: THE QUALITY OF MERCY perhaps?
And as for the person who said that you can't be an Italian Jew and be a Marrano. Oh yes you can...since Spanish Jewry fled back and forth to Italy all the time to escape The Inquisition. I am of Italian, Spanish and Portuguese as well as other Sephard and Ashkenaz heritage. This is a very well known fact.
John Hudson is apparently unaware of the logical rule of thumb called Occam's Razor. Otherwise he'd recognize that the true author of Shakespeare's plays is more likely Francis Bacon, or the Earl of Oxford, or the Jesuit Order, or even Queen Elizabeth 1 herself.:-)
Inference is an important tool to utilize when doing research. Sometimes conclusions drawn from inference of that which is "factually" agreed upon has led to consistent and verifiable conclusions. Until such consistent and verifiable conclusions are achieved, the material in question must,of necessity, be treated as provisional. Mr. Hudson speaks of Bassano in terms that suggest a degree of knowledge and certainty that is not provided in his interview. One question comes readily to mind, given Shakespeare's prodigious body of work, it seems reasonable that his contemporaries would have asked who and where is this person. I find it unreasonable to believe that, given the last statement, that Bassano could have remained completely anonymous, unless Mr. Hudson is suggestion that "Shakespeare" pretended to be the author of the works in question. If Mr. Hudson is correct in his assumptions, it seem to me there are many gap in his arguments that must be filled. I am very pleased that Mr. Hudson has approached this subject in a scholarly and informed manner. He deserves an equally informed response.
Shakespeare was not the only person to use cross-dressing. Playwrights of the period in other European countries used cross-dressing. It gave women in the plot a freedom they could not enjoy otherwise. Since the parts were played by men, it adds a frisson of sex and humor, from the perspective of the audience who KNEW that women would not act this way in real life.
On the question of the allegory in Merchant of Venice I refer readers to the excellent 2008 draft paper by Markel 'The name Balthasar', which shows how Portia's allegorical identities operate. Obviously beneath the surface level,at the allegorical level, the play is not anti-Semitic. Quite the reverse in fact. But it has to be read--like many major works of Renaissance literature--as an allegory.
The term Marrano it is of course Spanish. It is usually used interchangeably with Converso. There were numbers of Marranos in Italy in the 17th century, most notably the Nasi family, with whom the Bassanos were intermarried. Interested readers should consult Andree Aelion Brooks "The Woman who defied kings;the life and times of Dona Gracia Nasi—a Jewish leader during the Renaissance".
On cross-dressing, yes of course it was a literary device used by other writers. The point is the extent of its usage by the author of the Shakespearean canon. This however is a very minor point. Any substantive discussion should be about the literary similarities, the swan signatures, and the biographical fit on the Hebrew, Italian, Music etc. Please see the extract from the forthcoming documentary at www.darkladyplayers.com
On the Sonnets, they provide various biographical information about the author, that they are poor and despised, outcast, and will have a common grave (Sonnets 37, 111 and 29). The only authorship candidate who these remarks fit is Amelia Bassano Lanier, who is buried in Clerkenwell, still in an unmarked grave, despite being England's first major woman poet--the first to publish a book of poetry under her own name.
Regarding Janet Falk's point about European practice I refer her to Pamela A. Brown and Peter Parolin 'Women Players in England 1500-1600;Beyond the All-Male Stage'. It is not exhaustive but shows that women acted on stage in many parts of Europe. Women even acted in England up until Tudor times, when the practice arose for legal reasons of having boy players play women, and this did not change until the 1630s.
"Marrano" is a derogative term used by the Spanish to describe Conversos, Jews who secretly practiced Judaism after Christian conversion? Hudson doesn't claim to be more than an amateur.
Yes Sylvia is correct. As is well known "Marrano" was originally an insulting term used by the Spanish to describe Conversos, Jews who secretly practiced Judaism after Christian conversion. The point I was making however is the plays use Marrano/Converso literary conventions My professional training is in literary analysis of Shakespeare, and in the sociology of culture--not in Jewish history--so I have used reputable sources such as Constance Hubbard Rose Alonso Nunez de Reinoso; The Lament of a Sixteenth Century Exile (1971), Yirmiyahu Yovel ‘Marranos in a Mask and a World without Transcendence; Rojas and La Celestina’ in Spinoza and Other Heretics, and Manuel de Costa Fontes The Art of Subversion in Inquisitorial Spain.
Hudson says that the Merchant of Venice is not anti-Semetic, but must be read as an allegory. Okay, but in every other instance of the term "Jew" in the canon it is used as a slur, for example:
"Even a Jew would have cried" Two Gentlemen of Verona "If I do not love her, I am a Jew" Much Ado About Nothing
Couple that with the fact, that no one has ever explained why any of these alternate authors had to hide their identity to write the Sonnets.
The alternate-author idea just creates so many more problems than it answers. Generally, the anti-Shakespeare argument is that he didn't have the education to write the plays, but why haven't our universities produced another Shakespeare in the past 400 years?
Oy, yet another well-intentioned academic positing a far-fetched theory. Can't we let the man lie in his (very modest) grave? The litmus test for this - and all other such theories regarding the "true" identity of the bard - is to simply read the poetry of the person whose identity is being claimed to be the true author. The caliber of the mind, the presence of the spirit and the wit of the words give away such pucillanimous claims every time. I've yet to read her poetry, but when I do, rest assured, there will be no revelations. It won't hold up, and thus, neither will the theory.
Years ago, my father Herbert Israel Fredman told me of reading The Forward advertisement of a Shakespeare play. Hamlet bei Shakespeare, iberzetsun auf Yiddish und farbesern
Roughly, Hamlet by Shakespeare, translated into Yiddish and improved. Nice.
I find it amazing that people can not accept the fact that it is possible that Amelia Bassano Lanier wrote the plays that Shakespere took full credit for..It was a time of mysogyny and anti-semitism what was Amelia supposed to do if she wanted to see her works performed? I salute the courage of John Hudson and respect his research..I just wish people would be more open minded when it comes to believing that a Jewish woman was capable of being the person responsible for the classics...
He makes a good case on the video - it is rare for a monolingual person to have such command as S. had - normally it's multilingual people who are able to understand the breadth and depth of an acquired language because the multilingualism makes physical changes to the brain, broadening its capacity for insight.
The way we are going eventually every living person in the 1590-1613 world is going to be put forth as author of Shakespeare's works. And as usual the suspected author tried to hide behind Shakespeare's name, but left secret clues in the texts so people could figure it out. Yawn!