Anne Shakespeare: What’s all the fuss about?

The “fuss” is because there are a number of doubts raised about the real author is Anne Shakespeare, not William Shakespeare. This centres on the lack of a literary paper trail linking William to any of the genres under the heading of “works” and include the plays, poems and Sonnets. While there are many paper trails linking William to business transactions, the same cannot be said for any literary paper trails. It is quite right for proponents of William as author to point to several extant mentions of William linking him to such things as dedications, poems, plays (the last one having the monumental link to the First Folio), one could be forgiven for wondering what the “fuss” is about! It is true and correct that here we have what would seem like a literary paper trail, and it has been these links between William and the plays and poems especially that his whole reputation rests on. Surprisingly though, when we turn to the Sonnets we cannot actually point to the title page (for example) to find any mention that these sonnets are the product of anyone named William Shake-speare, nor is there any attribution that they are the Sonnets by William Shake-speare. The only attribution is to someone called “Shake-speare”. William does get a gig, but it is as the author of A Lover’s Complaint, a rather droll response to the Sonnets.

The frieze at the top of the title page of the 1609 Quarto version of the Sonnets depicts what we will find explained in sonnet 144, “Two loves I have of comfort and dispaire” The “comfort” turns out to be William, while the “dispaire” is none other than the so called dark lady of the sonnets, the lady that William was having an affair with. And in the frieze, who is it that is caught between these two “loves”? Why, none other than the true author of the entire Sonnets, Anne Shake-speare, William’s wife.

More to come.