Shakespeare's Dark Lady, written by John Hudson, published by Amberley Publishing, 2014.

There has been speculation for centuries as to who was the true author of Shakespeare's plays. The debate, if not endorsing William Shakespeare, has primarily focused on Christopher Marlowe, Sir Francis Bacon, Sir Walter Raleigh, Queen Elizabeth, or the Earl of Oxford, but, John Hudson, the author of Shakespeare's Dark Lady, convincingly argues it is time to focus on someone else entirely. That someone is Amelia Bassano Lanier. In 1610, Amelia Bassano Lanier published Salve Deus which was the first book of poetry ever to be published by a woman. But it wasn't until 1973 that A.L. Rowse, an established Shakespearean scholar, identified Amelia as the 'dark lady' of Shakespeare's sonnets. What was the connection?

In 1539, Amelia's father, Baptista Bassano, was invited to move from Italy to London to perform with the court musicians of Henry VIII. Baptista and his common-law English wife, Margaret Johnson, were the parents of Amelia Bassano. After the death of her parents, seven year old Amelia was adopted by Susan Bertie, the Dowager Countess of Kent. It was the Countess of Kent who arranged for Amelia's classical education and introduced her to the "uppermost echelons of English society." Once she attained the age of consent, Amelia became the mistress of Lord Henry Hunsdon, the illegitimate son of Henry VIII and the man in charge of the English theatre. It was through her relationship with Lord Hunsdon that Amelia met not only William Shakespeare, but also Christopher Marlowe who later became her lover.

In 1592, Amelia became pregnant, was exiled from the court, and entered into an arranged marriage with her cousin, Alphonso Lanier. Her baby boy, Henry, was born in January, 1593. On May 30, 1593, Christopher Marlowe was "allegedly" killed in a barroom brawl.
An alternative explanation was that Marlowe was assassinated because of his heretical beliefs. The unresolved question is to what extent Amelia was influenced by Marlowe and vice-versa. Shortly thereafter Amelia fled to Venice to "escape the plague" inflicting London. When she returned to London in 1594, Lord Hunsdon made arrangements through the Lord Chamberlain's Men to produce her plays with the assistance of Mr. Shakespeare acting as "Amelia's play broker."

It has only been since the 1970s that Amelia Bassano Lanier has begun to emerge from the shadows. After creating an exhaustive Knowledge Map of Candidates, the author, John Hudson, has concluded that Amelia "is an exact biographical fit" for the role. What John Hudson has done is use a variety of techniques, including an analysis of "coded meanings," "literary signatures," "religious allegories," and "strategies of indirection" to reveal Amelia's secret identity which she deliberately concealed because she understood that being "a religious satirist in Elizabethan London was very unusual –and risky." Her concerns were aggravated by the fact that she was Jewish.

Shakespeare's Dark Lady is a stunning book. Its importance to the world of Shakespearean studies—and Elizabethan history—cannot be underestimated.