{"id":3972,"date":"2026-01-27T14:09:33","date_gmt":"2026-01-27T14:09:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bangbizarre.com\/index.php\/2026\/01\/27\/book-claims-william-shakespeare-was-a-black-jewish-woman\/"},"modified":"2026-01-27T14:09:34","modified_gmt":"2026-01-27T14:09:34","slug":"book-claims-william-shakespeare-was-a-black-jewish-woman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bangbizarre.com\/index.php\/2026\/01\/27\/book-claims-william-shakespeare-was-a-black-jewish-woman\/","title":{"rendered":"Book claims William Shakespeare was a 'black Jewish woman'"},"content":{"rendered":"

2026-01-27 14:09:32<\/b>
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A new book has claimed that William Shakespeare was a “black Jewish woman”.

\nThe theory is laid out in The Real Shakespeare, by feminist historian Irene Coslet, who argues that centuries of “Western-centric and Eurocentric ideology” concealed the true author of the Shakespearean canon.

\nAccording to the book, the real Bard was Emilia Bassano, a poet with close ties to the Tudor court.

\nCoslet claims Bassano, who moved in elite and cosmopolitan circles, adopted the pen-name “Shakespeare” and wrote the plays and sonnets later attributed to the Stratford actor.

\nHer work, the author argues, was then taken by an “uneducated interloper” whose rise was more palatable to posterity than that of a woman of colour.

\nCoslet told The Telegraph: “If Shakespeare was a female of colour, this would draw attention to issues of peace and justice in society.”

\nShe added: “What if women had a pivotal role and a civilising impact in history, but they have been silenced, belittled and erased from the dominant narrative? What would a paradigm shift reveal about ourselves?”

\nBassano, the book says, was Jewish and Moorish, with family links to Venice, giving her a “multicultural identity” that better explains the breadth of knowledge in the plays.

\nShe was also the mistress of Henry Carey, Elizabeth I\u2019s Lord Chamberlain and patron of the Lord Chamberlain\u2019s Men – the very troupe associated with Shakespeare\u2019s success.

\nSome scholars have previously suggested she inspired the “Dark Lady” of the sonnets.

\nCoslet argues historians have “not managed to explain how the Stratford man, a semi-illiterate moneylender, managed to gain such a level of erudition,” adding that Bassano\u2019s background fits the canon far better.

\nThe book also claims there are hidden messages in the plays reflecting her life, and that portraits showing her as light-skinned were altered to match Elizabethan beauty ideals.

\nAuthorship doubts are not new. Rivals such as Christopher Marlowe and noblemen including Edward de Vere have long been proposed.

\nYet during his lifetime, Shakespeare\u2019s authorship was unquestioned, with Ben Jonson praising him as a genius “for all time”.

\nMainstream scholars continue to reject alternative theories, maintaining that Shakespeare was born in Stratford in 1564, educated at grammar school, active in London theatre by 1592, and dead by 1616 – nearly three decades before Bassano\u2019s death in 1645.

\nWhether radical revision or historical fantasy, the book has once again ensured that the question of who wrote Shakespeare will not be laid to rest.
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