Khaberni - A new book has sparked a wide wave of controversy in literary and academic circles, after it claimed that the most famous playwright in history, William Shakespeare, was not the man known from Stratford, but a black woman named Emilia Bassano.
According to the "Daily Mail", the book "The Real Shakespeare" by feminist researcher and literary historian Erin Coslett, a graduate of the London School of Economics, presents a hypothesis that Bassano is the real author of the works attributed to Shakespeare, and that she wrote the plays and poems under the pseudonym Shakespeare.
According to the author, the theory says that Shakespeare was not the man historically known, but rather a woman named Emilia Bassano, who used the name William Shakespeare, and describes the man as an educationally limited individual from Stratford-upon-Avon, considering that the society at the time preferred the image of a white genius over acknowledging a black woman as a writer.
Coslett points out that Emilia Bassano was an educated poetess connected to the Tudor court, and the mistress of Henry Carey, the Lord Chamberlain and patron of the Lord Chamberlain's Men, a theatrical company that was later associated with Shakespeare. Some researchers also believe she might be the "Dark Lady" immortalized in Shakespeare’s famous sonnets.
A Historical Lie
The book argues that Bassano's cultural background and knowledge explain the linguistic and philosophical depth of Shakespeare's works, based on her Jewish origins and connections with the Mediterranean world and Venice, unlike Shakespeare, who only received limited education.
The author states: "Historians have failed to explain how a semi-illiterate man from Stratford was able to acquire such an immense level of knowledge," and the book claims that images of Bassano, showing her with lighter skin, might have been deliberately lightened, in compliance with the beauty standards of the time.
Although the book’s author admits that this theory challenges the academic consensus, she asserts that reconsidering Shakespeare's identity opens a wider discussion about marginalizing women and minorities in literary history.
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It is worth noting that this is not the first time the theory that Shakespeare is not the true author of his works has been proposed, as they were previously attributed to other figures, notably Christopher Marlowe. However, the overwhelming majority of researchers still affirm that Shakespeare was born in 1564 in Stratford and died in 1616, about thirty years before the death of Emilia Bassano.
