Was Anne Shakespeare a feminist?

If we are speaking of Anne Shakespeare, the real author of the works, the answer is: Yes. On the other hand, the short answer is: No. That is a no if we are speaking of William Shakespeare (the assumed author of the works).

William was perhaps the least feminist author, judging by his only known poem, that quite bizarre “pastoral” known as A Lover’s Complaint. One can be forgiven for attributing to him the title of feminist because we have been conditioned over 400 years to believe that he is the author. Rather embellished portraits of him in such unreal films as Shakespeare in Love, only try and spin him as some love god, when we should be viewing him as perhaps a perpetrator of domestic violence the form of both psychological and coercive control usually administered by him through his womanising, philandering and many affairs as well as his continual seeking from Anne expressions of her love and praise for him (very much evident through her Sonnets).

On the other hand, Anne is a feminist par excellence; a feminist in the tradition of resisting male patriarchy, of highlighting women’s oppression under male dominance and of continuing to demonstrate pride in being a woman (in other words, not letting “the bastards win”!). Just one (of many examples drawn from the sonnets) can be found in sonnet 141, where Anne sets out both her resistance to William and in maintaining her dignity and pride in the face of his unfaithfulness,

In faith I doe not love thee with mine eyes,
For they in thee a thousand errors note,
But 'tis my heart that loves what they dispise,
Who in dispight of view is pleased to dote.
Nor are mine eares with thy toungs tune delighted,
Nor tender feeling to base touches prone,
Nor taste, nor smell, desire to be invited
To any sensuall feast with thee alone:
But my five wits, nor my five sences can
Diswade one foolish heart from serving thee,
Who leaves unswai'd the likenesse of a man,
Thy proud hearts slave and vassall wretch to be:
          Onley my plague thus farre I count my gaine,
          That she that makes me since, awards me paine.

Without undertaking a long analysis of the whole sonnet it is instructive to note what Anne is speaking of. The sonnet is a response to William, something that he has asked Anne along the lines of "Do you still love me?" (perhaps knowing that Anne is aware of his infidelity). And Anne's response is that she does not love him with her 'eyes', or her 'ears, her 'young', nor does she want to engage with him in any 'sensuall feast' with him. None of these constraints on her can stop her, however, from dissuading her 'foolish heart' from continuing to love him. This is even after she has listed all of the things that she should take notice of regarding him and that should stop her from loving him; but, nothing is going to stop her heart from doing so. Even though William has obviously broken their marriage vows (see sonnet 152), Anne continues to love him, knowing all of what he has done to her through his infidelities.

What we can say about Anne is that while she continued to love William, regardless of his faults, she also continued to pursue a feminist line of argument. Anne, tied to William both through marriage and her love for him, continued to champion women's issues such as marriage, love, equality, women's right to speak (and to be heard) through her plays and poems.

More to come.