Aemilia Lanyer As Shakespeare’s Co-author

221 Pages·2022·6.671 MB·English

by  Mark Bradbeer

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Routledge Studies in Shakespeare
O
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A
U
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H AEMILIA LANYER AS
O
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SHAKESPEARE’S CO-AUTHOR
Mark Bradbeer
Aemilia Lanyer as
Shakespeare’s Co-Author
This book presents original material which indicates that Aemilia Lanyer –
female writer, feminist, and Shakespeare contemporary – is Shakespeare’s
hidden and arguably most significant co-author. Once dismissed as the
mere paramour of Shakespeare’s patron, Lord Hunsdon, she is demon-
strated to be a most articulate forerunner of #MeToo fury.
Building on previous research into the authorship of Shakespeare’s
works, Bradbeer offers evidence in the form of three case studies which sig-
nal Aemilia’s collaboration with Shakespeare. The first case study matches
the works of “George Wilkins” – who is currently credited as the co-author
of the feminist Shakespeare play Pericles (1608) – with Aemilia Lanyer’s
writing style, education, feminism and knowledge of Lord Hunsdon’s secret
sexual life. The second case-study recognizes Titus Andronicus (1594), a
play containing the characters Aemilius and Bassianus, to be a revision
of the suppressed play Titus and Vespasian (1592), as authored by the
unmarried pregnant Aemilia Bassano, as she then was. Lastly, it is argued
that Shakespeare’s clowns, Bottom, Launce, Malvolio, Dromio, Dogberry,
Jaques, and Moth, arise in her deeply personal war with the misogynist
Thomas Nashe. Each case study reveals new aspects of Lanyer’s feminist
activism and involvement in Shakespeare’s work, and allows for a deeper
analysis and appreciation of the plays.
This research will prove provocative to students and scholars of
Shakespeare studies, English literature, literary history, and gender studies.
Mark Bradbeer is a retired research nurse with a publication record pre-
dominantly in the biomedical sciences. Since retiring, he has published on
various Early Modern authorship issues such as the 1593 Dutch Church
Libel and Shakespeare’s History plays. He lives in Australia.
Routledge Studies in Shakespeare
Shakespeare’s Military Spouses and Twenty-First Century Warfare
Kelsey Ridge
Dramaturgies of Love in Romeo and Juliet
Word, Music, and Dance
Jonas Kellermann
The Shakespeare Multiverse
Fandom as Literary Praxis
Valerie M. Fazel and Louise Geddes
Shakespeare’s Returning Warriors – and Ours
Alan Warren Friedman
Shakespeare’s Influence on Karl Marx
The Shakespearean Roots of Marxism
Christian A. Smith
Shakespeare and Happiness
Kathleen French
Shakespeare and Emotional Expression
Finding Feeling through Colour
Bríd Phillips
Aemilia Lanyer as Shakespeare’s Co-Author
Mark Bradbeer
Shakespeare’s Law
Mark Fortier
For more information about this series, please visit: https://www.routledge.
com/Routledge-Studies-in-Shakespeare/book-series/RSS
Aemilia Lanyer as
Shakespeare’s Co-Author
Mark Bradbeer
First published 2022
by Routledge
4 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group,
an informa business
© 2022 Mark Bradbeer
The right of Mark Bradbeer to be identified as author of this work
has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical,
or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including
photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or
retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks
or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and
explanation without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog record has been requested for this book
ISBN: 978-1-032-11720-1 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-032-11721-8 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-003-22120-3 (ebk)
DOI: 10.4324/9781003221203
Typeset in Sabon LT Std
by KnowledgeWorks Global Ltd.
Contents
List of figures vii
List of tables viii
Acknowledgements ix
1 Shakespeare’s Patron and Female Friend 1
Part I
Collaboration Case Study #1: A Late Romance 15
2 Shakespeare’s Friends and The Go-Between,
Humphrey Fludd 17
3 The Early Feminist Poet, Aemilia Lanyer 23
4 Miseries of Enforced Marriage 31
5 Conceiving Lanyer as Shakespeare’s Collaborator 39
6 Conceiving Lanyer as Shakespeare’s Dark Lady 50
7 Glimpses of Shakespeare’s Love Triangle 55
Part II
Collaboration Case Study #2: Rewriting Rape 61
8 The Rape of Lucrece, and Willobie His Avisa 63
9 Locrine and Edward III 72
vi Contents
10 The Goth Queen Tamora/Attava 78
11 Deconstructing Titus Andronicus 82
12 Reconstructing Titus and Vespasian 94
Part III
Collaboration Case Study #3: Immortalizing An Ass 109
13 A Collaboration to Satirize A Nashe 111
14 Two Asses in The Comedy of Errors 129
15 Two Asses in As You Like It 142
16 The Rise of Mar-Prelate 152
17 The Reckoning for Mar-Prelate 167
Part IV
A Woman’s Imagining 179
18 Venus and Adonis and Two Noble Kinsmen 181
19 “Manly Genius”? 197
Index 201
Figures
12.1 Genealogy/Conceptual Layers of the Titus and Vespasian Plot 96
16.1 Walsingham, Marlowe, and Mar-prelate 156
Tables
1.1 The Tudor Heritage of Lord Browne and Henry Wroseley 2
1.2 In Praise of Willobie His Avisa, Hexameton to the Author 8
5.1 Music and Silk Embroidery in Choruses of Pericles 43
8.1 Cantos of Willobie His Avisa
(With Corrected, Arabic Numbering) 63
8.2 Comparison of the Willobie His Avisa’s Suitors,
D.B. with W.S., and D.H with H.W. 64
8.3 A Comparison of Texts on “Virtue & Beauty”
(Capitalized Initials as in Original) 68
8.4 Comparison of Rape of Lucrece (1594)
and Lipsius’ Politicks (1594/5) 70
9.1 Works Concerning Rape and Associated
With Shakespeare 73
10.1 Comparison of the Play and Prose History
of Titus Andronicus 79
11.1 Henslowe’s Diary for Rose Theatre Performances
of “Titus,” 1592–159410 83
11.2 Early Versions Compared With Titus Andronicus 86
12.1 Shakespeare’s Master-Touches
on Titus Andronicus 95
13.1 Immortalizing the Ass of Thomas Nashe 115
15.1 The Wounded Deer Scene in As You Like It Compared
With the Deer Allegory in Nashe’s Pierce Penniless 144
16.1 Pamphlets Associated With the Martin
Mar-Prelate Campaign 159
Acknowledgements
Shakespeare has unplumbed depths. Making sense of “art made tongue-
tied by authority” (Sonnet 66), can take time and effort. Research builds
on other people’s efforts and I have tried to acknowledge the work of many
people throughout this book. Some influences can be harder to nail down
in the Internet Age; even before he published in print, John Hudson’s web-
site on Lanyer was a big influence. His research and the many questions he
raised, set me on the path to this book. A constant companion during the
long study, has been Nina Green’s huge trove of online and searchable Early
Modern publications.
My former collaborator in research, the late John Casson had a wonder-
ful charm with which he drew together an unorthodox online community
of scholars and students of Shakespeare, and it is a posthumous gift from
him that these people are still vitally in touch with me today. Of them,
I particularly thank John Marsden, Ken Feinstein and Bruce Leyland,
all with radically different approaches, who have given helpful advice on
drafts of this work. Bruce, in particular, gave a detailed critique of the final
manuscript and I must here apologize to his family for stealing so much of
his time.
Needless to say, I thank my own family, Viviane, Garth and Marcus
for their patience and support, and my brothers, Graham, Godwin and
Jamie who have been my sounding-boards. Jamie, in particular, has been
my ever-patient mentor, and his library has been my “little academy”. I
thank him for his enthusiasm, his advice and his many reviews of this work
in development. But for him, this book would not have happened.
This book’s flaws are all my own.