Clare Asquith

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Clare Asquith, Viscountess Asquith (b. 1951) is an independent scholar and author of Shadowplay: The Hidden Beliefs and Coded Politics of William Shakespeare, [1] which posits that Shakespeare may have been a recusant Catholic whose works contain code which was used by the Catholic underground, particularly the Jesuits, in Reformation England, but also appealed to the monarchy in a plea for toleration. Asquith's book was the first to note the existence of the code as a subtext in Shakepeare.[2] Her controversial work was hailed early on by some, including by leading Catholic thinker Piers Paul Read as "dramatic, important" and "painstaking scholarship".[3]

She has lectured on Shakespeare in both the UK and North America. Her ideas about sixteenth-century code were first raised while observing coded messages in Russian dissident plays while her husband served as a diplomat in Moscow during the cold war and were first published in The Shakespeare Newsletter and The Times Literary Supplement.

[edit] Personal life

Asquith was born Mary Clare Pollen, eldest daughter of Anthony Baring Pollen (1926-1987), by his wife Marie Therese Sheridan (later Viscountess Sidmouth, wife of the 7th peer).[4] She lives in Somerset, England with her husband, former diplomat Raymond Asquith, Viscount Asquith (whom she married in 1978) and their five children.



[edit] External links

[edit] References

  1. ^ [1] Shadowplay: The Hidden Beliefs and Coded Politics of William Shakespeare, Public Affairs, 2005
  2. ^ Thorpe, Vanessa Shakespeare was a political rebel who wrote in code, claims author Guardian August 28, 2005
  3. ^ Thorpe, Vanessa Shakespeare was a political rebel who wrote in code, claims author Guardian August 28, 2005
  4. ^ Genealogy for "Mary Clare Pollen" from the Peerage database. [2]
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