Welcome back to White Rose of Avalon, my Darlings. For today’s Femme Fatale Friday blog post, I am discussing Amelia Bassano, the Elizabethan poet often thought to be the Dark Lady of Shakespeare’s Sonnets.
Now, I first want to clear up any confusion about her name. You see, Amelia Bassano was born in a time when spelling was not yet standardized, so you will see her name spelled in various ways. According to the article about her on Poetry Foundation, she was baptized Aemlia Bassano on January 27, 1569, after being born to a Court Musician at the Elizabethan Court. She is also known as Aemila Lanyer (also spelled Lanier), as that was her married name. However, you will also see her name spelled Amelia (as I did in the title) or Emilia. I will use Amelia, as the most common modern spelling, for consistency throughout this post.
No matter the spelling, it is assured that you are discussing the same woman because her backstory remains the same. She was born the daughter of Court Musician, Baptist Bassano, who was said to have been a native of Venice, and his common-law wife, Margaret Johnson. Even after her father’s death when she was only seven, Amelia grew up in Elizabethan Court circles and was, for a time, raised in the household of Susan Bertie, Countess of Kent. Amelia’s mother died when she was eighteen, and Amelia had already attracted the favor of Henry Carey, first Lord Hudson (and Elizabeth’s Lord Chamberlain). Amelia would remain his Mistress for several years, and he was very fond of her. It is even believed that he resented that she was married off to Alphonso Lanyer, who was like her father, a Court Musician, in 1592, when she became pregnant by the Lord Chamberlain. This was a common practice with Mistresses of high-powered men, to give the child a legitimate father in the husband of the lady, while protecting the reputation of the high-powered man who had actually fathered the child. So, her son Henry was the child of Henry Carey. But Amelia would also have a daughter named Odillya, fathered by her husband in 1598.
In 1597, Amelia caught the eye of Simon Forman, who was an Astrologer at the Court. However, his attempts to seduce her proved fruitless, for though she was friendly with him, she did not seek to consummate the relationship. Of course, her most well-known claim to fame is that she is believed to have been Shakespeare’s Dark Lady, the woman who inspired several of his sonnets. This is largely due to the belief that she could have met Shakespeare when he was a member of the theatre company The Lord Chamberlain’s Men and the fact that her father, being from Venice, could have given her a darker complexion than other women at Court, but there is no way to corroborate this claim. Yet she is still always the first name that comes to mind when we think of Shakespeare’s Dark Lady!
Amelia Layner (nee Bassano) would go on to publish the collection of poetry titled Salve Deus Rex Judæorum. This was a largely unheard-of thing for a woman of her day to do, but her husband’s name being within the work, stating that she was his wife, gave her some leave to write what she wanted. Amelia’s religious poems have left her in good company, with the likes of Mary Sidney, who continued the works left by her brother. In fact, another thing that Amelia Layner (nee Bassano) and Mary Sidney have in common is that they are both women who have been discussed in Anti-Stratfordian circles as possibly being the true author!
That leads me into the final part of this post: Was Amelia Shakespeare’s Muse, or was she Shakespeare? For those who do not know, to be Anti-Stratfordian is to believe that the man from Stratford-upon-Avon, who was named William Shakespeare, was not the true author of the plays and sonnets. This debate is often called the authorship question, and it is rooted in the belief that the man from Stratford did not have the intelligence, schooling, or experience (especially where travel is concerned) to have authored the plays. There are many layers to this theory, and many reasons that so many lovers of the Bard, myself included, do not believe that he could have written the works attributed to him. However, I will note only a few here. Firstly, the plays show a great deal of knowledge of foreign locations, especially in Italy, that one would have a hard time gaining without having traveled there (or knowing someone who did), and there is no evidence to suggest that William Shakespeare ever traveled abroad. Secondly, the man from Stratford was the simple son of a glove-maker, turned actor, with little to no formal education, making the thought that he would have authored such works that included literally inventing words hard to believe. Finally, it is widely believed that William Shakespeare’s own daughters were illiterate. Now, while it was common for the day for many, especially women, to not know how to read or write, I find it hard to believe that the most famous author of the English language would not make sure his children could!
With just these few examples, you can see why so many wonder about the true authorship of the plays and sonnets. Of course, there is also the fact that there is very little in the way of an actual paper trail, like notes or original manuscripts in the handwriting of William Shakespeare. So, with all of this being said, let’s look at why many believe that Amelia Lanyer (nee Bassano) was the true author.
It is quite obvious that, having lived amongst the nobility, she was well-educated and even had an entire poetry collection published during her lifetime. She was also the daughter of a man who was originally from Venice, giving credence to the assertion that the author was intimately familiar with Italy. Her connections at Court also made it plausible that she could have known William Shakespeare, which could lead to her asking him to take credit for her works. Finally, as a woman, she would have known that writing works that contained such violence and sexuality would not be well-received. This is especially true given that this was a time when women could not even act on stage, let alone write plays! At the end of the day, I think that she is one of the most likely candidates for authorship. Other famous examples of possible authors are Edward de Vere (the Earl of Oxford), the playwright Christopher Marlowe, Mary Sidney, and Sir Francis Bacon. It should also be noted that there is the thought that the plays may have been penned by more than one author, which states that any combination, or all of these people, deserve credit. In any case, I have truly come to believe over the years that Shakespeare did not pen the plays himself!
I hope you have enjoyed reading this analysis of Amelia Bassano as Shakespeare’s Dark Lady and possibly the true author. As a sidenote, this post was largely inspired by my recent re-read of The Book of Magic by Alice Hoffman, where she not only credits Amelia Bassano as the author of the fictional Grimoire The Book of the Raven, but also as the true author. It makes my heart soar to know that in the Practical Magic series, canonically, Shakespeare was truly Amelia Bassano. What are your thoughts about the potential that the man from Stratford did not write the plays? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!
Note on Image: The image at the top of the post is a portrait by Nicholas Hilliard, believed to be Amelia Lanyer (nee Bassano). I found the art on https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emilia_Lanier.
LINK TO AVALONIAN ROSE FAERY MYSTERIES PATREON: patreon.com/AvalonianRoseFaeryMysteries
Further Reading
- https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/aemilia-lanyer
- https://iamemiliabassano.wordpress.com/who-was-emilia-bassano/
- https://poemanalysis.com/definition/anti-stratfordian/