Emilia Bassano

Laura Miller explores the life of Emilia Bassano, born on the eastern edge of the City of London in 1569. She was the daughter of Baptiste Bassano, a migrant musician who had travelled from Venice to play at the court of Queen Elizabeth I.

In recent years it has been suggested that Emilia may have been ‘The Dark Lady’, the mysterious woman who inspired William Shakespeare to write some of his finest sonnets. Emilia was not just a muse, she became the first published female poet in England in 1611. Laura takes us through Emilia's life and her struggle to make herself heard.

#CelebratingCityWomen #OurCityTogether #VisittheCityfromHome

[myopinion-ab]

Amelia 's story would make an interesting movie

[TheRealest]

Inspired Shakespeare? More accurately, she WAS Shakespeare!🎭

[marilinmoy]

Very interesting! Thank you for sharing it. Greetings from Argentina!

[msi]

The last name of the mother of my fiancé is Lanier. Love learning about all this. Her child was a distant relative of Queen Elizabeth I, and the great grand nephew of Anne Boleyn.

[stephenjablonsky]

She must have been a fascinating lady. She stands today as a viable candidate for recognition as the Bard. Of course, the world would be turned upside down if she receives the crown, so let's just stick with all those pretty pictures of Old Will that have no basis in fact.

[TomorrowisYesterday]

Emilia Bossano WAS Shakespeare, silly! She published her plays under his name because they wouldn’t be taken seriously coming from a woman!

[AbrahamFarrell]

You mentioned her father's nationality but not her mother. What was her mother's nationality ?

[Definitelynotabot]

Well did she or didn't she write his works

[timunderwood]

If Amelia wrote some of the plays it will make them more enjoyable for me. I always thought the plays were female in expression. This always made the plays unpleasant for me to follow along with. The dialogue didn't seem to be "gay" either. It always seemed to be "mockingly" female.

[realteawithsandy]

Shakespeare was illiterate. Aelia was a black woman