Shakespeare and Emilia
Author: Peter Bassano
Publisher:
Published: 2021-12-17
Total Pages: 237
ISBN-13:
DOWNLOAD EBOOKEmilia Bassano was identified as the Dark Musical Lady of the Shakespeare Sonnets by A.L.Rowse in 1973. This book presents previously unpublished evidence to prove that Rowse's identification was correct. Emilia, an early feminist poet and musician, was the daughter of the youngest of six Venetian brothers, all professional musicians, brought to London by HenryVIII in 1540 to ensure a musical wedding for Anne of Cleves. Peter Bassano, the author and a descendent of Emilia's uncle, Anthony, suggests that Shakespeare was the father of Emilia's son, Henry. Shortly after the child's birth in May 1593 Shakespeare took a trip to Northern Italy with three of Emilia's musician cousins travelling through towns well known to Shakespeare lovers as the setting of his early plays. The book does not agree with the views of John Hudson and Peter Matthews that Emilia wrote the Shakespeare canon. He believes that Shakespeare was Shakespeare but that Emilia was hugely influential on Shakespeare's writing, particularly in his outspoken heroines. He suggests that Emilia and Shakespeare met at Bisham Abbey when Emilia had written and performed in the entertainment to welcome the Queen. Bassano believes that A Lover's Complaint published as an appendix to the Sonnets, is entirely appropriate and relates to three protagonists that he identifies in the main text. He identifies Emilia as the author of two additional works, the text for William Byrd's 1589 Songs of Sundrie Natures and 1592 masque, Speeches to Welcome the Queen to Bisham. There are strong concordances with Shakespeare's works and Emilia's. One of her sonnets in the Byrd collection, 'Of Gold all burnished like the sun' was parodied by Shakespeare in the famous Sonnet 130 'My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun'. The conclusions in this book are diametrically opposed to the conclusions in the 2020 book by Paul Edmondson and Stanley Wells, All the Sonnets of Shakespeare. The author makes the suggestion that Tennessee Williams is a descendant of Shakespeare.
