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Sweet Swan of Avon: Did a Woman Write Shakespeare?

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While I neither profess to be a scholar on the subject of the Shakespeare authorship question, nor am I particularly well versed on the goings-on of the Elizabethan era, I have been fascinated for decades with the ongoing debate of who wrote Shakespeare.

When I earned my degree in English literature, university professors young and old tenaciously voiced their opinions concerning the credibility someone other than the man William Shakespeare actually wrote the plays and sonnets that we so carelessly attribute to WS today. (I say carelessly because of the widespread disagreement that exists regarding his life and what we've been taught). In short, it was a fascinating classroom debate. Students and instructors alike would argue for and against the possibility that WS was anything more than what we can prove today: an actor and litigious property owner with illiterate daughters who divorced his wife and left her his second-best bed in his will.

Robin P. Williams avoids pontificating that William Shakespeare is not the author of the works (despite the fact that no one can prove WS had a higher education, including an ability to read or write in French, Latin, and Italian--quite necessary because all but three plays are based on original literary works written in these three languages; nor does the name William Shakespeare appear in any of the extensive royal court registries, including the omission of even a single piece of handwritten manuscript!). On the contrary, in Sweet Swan of Avon: Did a Woman Write Shakespeare?, Williams provides one of the most exciting and socially volatile books ever on this subject by NOT debunking William Shakespeare, per se, but rather by EDUCATING readers about a woman who I suspect most have never heard of before, and who deserves recognition of her spectacular literary accomplishments.

It is the unfolding of such historical information Williams provides regarding Mary Herbert Sidney, the Countess of Pembroke, that one must recognize that for all the missing pieces of information, including the outrageously generous speculation that WS somehow learned his wealth of knowledge embedded in the works by "meeting people who shared their stories" (which of course cannot be proven), isn't it worth merely ASKING the question: Couldn't someone else have written these works?

Of course someone else could have written the works. Anyone documented in history as having spent a single day among the aristocracy... or who spoke more than one language... or who had an education that extended beyond public grade school is, in fact, more capable of having contributed the greatest works in the English language than our beloved William Shakespeare. The point is that once we examine the life of Mary Herbert Sidney, not only is her well-documented life vastly more in tune to the subject matter of the plays and sonnets than is William Shakespeare's, but also hers is a life that once copious significant facts are unveiled, one discovers enough historical overlap between Mary and William that behooves a closer investigation.

Sweet Swan of Avon is this investigation; it is not a trial, nor is it meant to be. For all the hundreds of years we've been told stories about the man William Shakespeare--from downright lies to conjecture to poorly stated facts--there is a woman named Mary Sidney who has been grossly overlooked by historians as a profound contributor to the literary annals, and now thanks to Robin P. Williams, her story is finally being told. Whether Mary's story is the story behind the Shakespearean cannon remains to be seen, but her story inarguably deserves to be told and celebrated because of her undeniable accomplishments--known, unknown, and just unfolding.

I heard Robin P. Williams discuss her book on a radio show and was very intrigued. I read it and was completely convinced before the end of the first chapter. What nailed it for me? William Shakespeare's mother, father, wife and 2 of his 3 children were illiterate. There is no way that the author of Shakespeare would allow his children to sign their name with an X. The other thing that sold me was the simple fact that writers write best about what they know. The plays and sonnets are basically the life and times of Mary Herbert Sidney-- she's related to 2/3 of the characters in the history plays. But that is only the beginning. If nothing else, this book introduces you to an amazing figure in English history and literature. To think that the greatest writer of the English language is (or could be) a woman-- a mother, a sister, a daughter, a wife-- just blows me away. And as a woman reading the sonnets, for the first time they made complete sense. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Robin Williams (the writer, not the movie star) does a fine job of showing why it is very possible that Mary Sydney actually authored many of the best Shakespearean works. I was a skeptic, but the more I read, the more I began to think it quite feasible. We probably will never really know who wrote which works, but this book is very thought-provoking and interesting. Also, it is beautifully constructed, as befits a book on such a beloved topic.

Just yesterday, while at the Kennedy Center, I told a woman to read this book. Before that, I told a work colleague to read this book. Then I told all my work colleagues to read this book. Then I started telling friends and family to read this book. Then, I began telling strangers to read this book. This is what brings me here.

After reading this eye-opening and fascinating book, I am certain of one thing: William Shakespeare did NOT write the plays that the majority of people have until now attributed to him. He absolutely did not.

So the question then becomes, who did actually write those plays and why do so anonymously? Some believe that the author of the works was Edward de Vere, or Christopher Marlowe, or William Stanley, or even Francis Bacon. All interesting candidates in their own rights.

What is odd though is the nagging question of why any of those individuals would need to conceal their identity and not become known to the public as the author of the "Shakespearean" works. The answer, of course, is that they really didn't need to.

Enter Mary Sidney.

She,on the other hand, would have HAD to conceal her identity as an author of plays, as females at that time were not allowed to write/publish anything other than translations of the bible and/or eulogies.

Robin Williams provides us readers extremely compelling evidence that the author of the Shakespearean plays was actually Mary Sidney, the Duchess of Pembroke.

Read this book. Look at the clearly laid out and presented FACTS, and decide for yourself.

You will not regret this journey of enlightenment and discovery.

"Shakespeare" indeed! More like Sidney...Mary Sidney - The Sweet Swan of Avon.

I read this book soon after reading Brenda James' two books suggesting Henry Neville as an authorship candidate ("The Truth Will Out" and "Henry Neville and the Shakespeare Code") and was struck by how the evidence intertwines for both of these recently proposed candidates. They were related, knew each other, and points made in the books could apply to each of them.

"Sweet Swan" provides a succinct summary of evidence in the debate as well as a useful timeline I find myself refering to again and again as I continue my research on the subject. Anyone interested in the Authorship Question will find this book an invaluable resource as well as a fascinating addition to the debate. And I find myself wondering why we all don't know a lot more about Mary Sidney. She was an amazing woman whether she was really Shakespeare or not!

It has probably been thirty years since Atlantic magazine published a lengthy and fascinating study of the Authorship Question. Since that time, I have casually followed the arguments. The NYT had a nice debate going for a while at a book opinion page. The unabridged audio versions of Greenblatt's and Bryson's books were interesting but not convincing, and the Oxfordian arguments did not quite fit. By the same token, the Stratfordian accusations of elitism have become a tiresome mask for the obvious shortcomings in Shakespeare's education, training and behavior. The James book on Henry Neville was interesting but similarly thin on useful facts and connections. Parenthetically, looking back at the book on Henry Neville, one can find Mary Sidney appearing in his extended family tree, and perhaps the authors of the Neville theorem were on the right track, anyway. Back in the 1970s, Jacob Bronofski hosted a BBC series and wrote a companion volume entitled "Connections", in which he argued if I recall correctly that each advance in knowledge was not the result of a great flash of revelation, but rather was the next step forward by a new thinker working with the existing knowledge base. It is hard to see how Shakespeare the man could have written the plays unless he knew the wealth and mass of literature on which so many of the plays are based. This book about Mary Sidney is a remarkable marshaling of the facts, connections and evidence upon which each reader can reach a conclusion. The book to my mind solves the authorship question. It is well written and constructed, concise and readable. The substance of the book makes the conclusion obvious. I have made a superficial look for other books which might respond and contradict the authorship of Mary Sidney. I have not found one. To the prior reviewer who mentions unidentified contradictions, please tell us what they are. If this book is not being seriously studied by full time Shakespeare scholars, then academia should be explaining why. I very rarely take the time to review books, and the fact that I have done so in this instance is one indication of my high regard for the book. It is simply brilliant, and I highly recommend this book to every serious and casual student of the "Shakespeare" canon.

Robin P. Williams presents a wealth of research in an interesting and readable format. Whether you are interested in the Elizabethan era, Shakespeare, the history of English Literature or reading to stimulate your thought processes this story fits the "bill". Ms. Williams brings the era of Shakespeare to life in a way that makes you feel like a guest at the party - observing the myriad of *goings on* that have become history - while inviting one to question the history of the era and particularly the authorship of the works of Shakespeare. Connect the dots for yourself and enjoy an interesting process while doing so.

"Sweet Swan of Avon" is a superbly written life of Mary Sidney, which very convincingly presents the case which I have never seen before, to reveal the author of Shakespeare. The book demonstrates her extraordinary creativity and talents, her familial and historical links to the plays with side-by-side comparisons, her connections with all the sources of the plays, her life linked to the first 13 sonnets. I now much prefer the evidence in support of Sidney to the detailed case made by the Charlton Osburn, "The Mysterious William Shakespeare," for the Earl of Oxford.

Williams provides stimulating evidence and inference that Mary Sidney, Countess of Pembroke, surviving sister of poet Philip Sidney and mother of two very powerful men in the Court of James I, MAY have written works attributed to Shakespeare. She makes an expecially strong case for Mary Sidney's authorship of the Sonnets, addressed--in her view--to her brother, to her lover in later life, and then to the "dark lady," a person she suspected had an affair with her own companion. Sound crazy that a woman was Shakespeare? Well, just look and see the portrait of Mary Sydney with a swan motif, of a woman who had been addressed as a "sweet swan" along the river "Avon" in her lifetime. The Shakespeare First Folio of 1623 was dedicated to her two sons, William and Philip, who may have bankrolled its publication.

This excellent book covers all the bases (or nearly all). It cannot truly answer the question: Who wrote Shakespeare's plays? But, the only things missing from this tightly reasoned thorough exposition are actual documents proving the identity of the Bard.
Sweet Swan of Avon makes a forceful argument that Mary Sidney is the true author, and refutes categorically arguments in favor of others. A must read for any student of Shakespeare.