I found an article about one of (or perhaps the most) famous Tudor writers today. It focuses on the school of thought that “Shakespeare” might have not been William Shakespeare. I don’t know if I give much credence to this, but it is interesting to read!

This particular article raises a woman to the position of “Shakespeare,”  explaining that Amelia Bassano Lanier, a converso(clandestine Jew) and the illegitimate daughter of an Italian-born, Elizabethan court musician might have been it! The evidence is interesting, including that she was Shakespeare’s “dark lady of the sonnets” and that “she wrote the sonnets about herself; as with the plays, Shakespeare was simply a front used to hide her identity.” The author also adds the “prevalence of musical and northern Italian references in the plays, and even possible smatterings of Hebrew.” The article offers a lot of other possible bits of evidence as well as gives a nice mini-biography of Bassano. The article also offers a nice list of other “contenders.” I really enjoyed this article, whether I believe it or not!

Here’s the link.

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