William Shakespeare (National Portrait Gallery), in the famous Chandos portrait, artist and authenticity unconfirmed.

The sexuality of William Shakespeare has been questioned numerous times over the years. Even though he married Anne Hathaway and had three children, circumstantial evidence (such as in Shakespeare's sonnets and plays) suggests he had affairs with other women or may have taken an erotic interest in men. The suggestion of Shakespeare's other female lovers has been given a good deal of scholarly and public interest, while the possibility of a non-heterosexual Shakespeare has historically been controversial given his iconic status. That said, no reliable direct evidence for any of these claims has been discovered. Image File history File links Shakespeare. ... Image File history File links Shakespeare. ... The National Portrait Gallery is an art gallery in central London which was opened in 1856. ... The Chandos portrait, popularly believed to depict William Shakespeare (in a 20th century reproduction) The Chandos portrait is one of the most famous of the portraits that may depict William Shakespeare (1564–1616). ... Sexual orientation refers to the direction of an individuals sexuality, usually conceived of as classifiable according to the sex or gender of the persons whom the individual finds sexually attractive. ... Wikipedia does not yet have an article with this exact name. ... Anne Hathaway (1556 – August 6, 1623) was the wife of William Shakespeare. ... Title page from 1609 edition of Shake-Speares Sonnets Dedication page from The Sonnets SHAKE-SPEARES SONNETS, or simply The Sonnets, is a collection of poems in sonnet form written by William Shakespeare that deal with such themes as love, beauty, politics, and mortality. ... Sir John Gilberts 1849 painting: The Plays of William Shakespeare, containing scenes and characters from several of William Shakespeares plays. ... Look up icon in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

Shakespeare's married life

As with many aspects of Shakespeare's life, there is little direct evidence with regards to Shakespeare's sexuality aside from the fact that he was married to Anne Hathaway and fathered three children. Circumstantial evidence suggests Shakespeare's wedding to Hathaway was hurried because she was already pregnant. Evidence for this is that their first child, Susanna, was born six months after the marriage ceremony on May 26, 1583. In addition, a marriage license was issued for the couple after only one reading of their intent to marry (the reading was normally done three times in order to give local residents a chance to voice any legal or other objections to the marriage).^[1] is the 146th day of the year (147th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1583 was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar or a common year starting on Tuesday of the Julian calendar. ...

Shakespeare probably initially loved Hathaway, speculation supported by an early addition to one of his sonnets (Sonnet 145), where he played off Anne Hathaway's name and said she saved his life (writing "'I hate' from hate away she threw/And saved my life, saying 'not you.'").^[2] However, after only three years of marriage Shakespeare left his family and moved to London, possibly because he felt trapped by Hathaway.^[3] Other evidence to support this belief is that he and Anne were buried in separate (but adjoining) graves and, as has often been noted, Shakespeare's will makes no specific bequeath to his wife aside from "the second best bed with the furniture". This may seem like a slight, but many historians contend that the second best bed was typically the marital bed, while the best bed was reserved for guests. The law at the time also stated that the widow of a man was automatically entitled to a third of his estate, so Shakespeare did not need to mention specific bequests in the will. However, even if this does suggest that Shakespeare was cold toward his wife, nothing is thereby proven about his sexuality. Synopsis This sonnet is unique in the collection, because it is written in iambic tetrameters, instead of pentameters. ...

Sexual identities

Possible affairs with women

While in London, Shakespeare may have had affairs with different women. One anecdote along these lines is provided by a law student named John Manningham, who wrote in his diary that Shakespeare had a brief affair with a woman during a performance of Richard III.^[4]

Manningham stated that:

"Upon a time when Burbage played Richard the Third there was a citizen grew so far in liking with him, that before she went from the play she appointed him to come that night unto her by the name of Richard the Third. Shakespeare, overhearing their conclusion, went before, was entertained and at his game ere Burbage came. Then, message being brought that Richard the Third was at the door, Shakespeare caused return to be made that William the Conqueror was before Richard the Third."^[5]

While this is one of the few surviving contemporary anecdotes about Shakespeare, scholars are skeptical of its validity^[6] (although the anecdote may have helped inspire the 1998 film Shakespeare in Love).^[7] Still, the anecdote suggests that at least one of Shakespeare's contemporaries (Manningham) believed that Shakespeare was heterosexual, even if he wasn't "averse to an occasional infidelity to his marriage vows."^[7] Shakespeare in Love is an award-winning 1998 romantic comedy film. ...

Possible evidence of other affairs are that twenty-six of Shakespeare's Sonnets are love poems addressed to a married woman (the so-called "Dark Lady"). Title page from 1609 edition of Shake-Speares Sonnets Dedication page from The Sonnets SHAKE-SPEARES SONNETS, or simply The Sonnets, is a collection of poems in sonnet form written by William Shakespeare that deal with such themes as love, beauty, politics, and mortality. ...

Possible affairs with men

For the Elizabethans, what is today termed homosexual or bisexual was more likely to be recognised as simply a sexual act, rather than a sexual orientation. Just as today however, it is possible there was a spectrum of individual responses: from those engaging in homosexual acts who considered it irrelevant to their persona and simply a variation of both lust and love, to those who believed it marked them out as different. Sodomy was a crime in the period, but Phillip Stubbs in Anatomie of Abuses (1583), Edward Guilpin in Skialetheia (1598), and Michael Drayton in The Moone-Calfe (1605), all noted the prevalence of "sodomites" at theatres, which does imply a recognised group. A homosexual subculture which identified itself as separate, and which was centred around the Molly house, certainly existed in London by the mid-seventeenth century, and may well have existed in Shakespeare's time. (See History of Homosexuality). The Elizabethans are a student-founded, student-led a cappella group at Williams College. ... François Elluin, Sodomites provoking the wrath of God, from Le pot pourri de Loth (1781). ... In the eighteenth century, homosexuality in England was illegal, punishable by execution. ... The History of Sexuality is also the title of a book, by Michel Foucault. ...

With regard to Shakespeare's sexuality, no direct evidence exists to support the view that he was bisexual; all theories along these lines, as with the theories of his heterosexual affairs, come from an analysis of Shakespeare's plays and sonnets.

Sexuality in the Sonnets

Shakespeare's sonnets are the principal evidence for his attraction to men. The poems were initially published, perhaps without his approval,^[8] in 1609. One hundred and twenty-six of them appear to be love poems addressed to a beautiful young man (known as the "Fair Youth", and often assumed to be the same person as the enigmatic 'Mr W.H.', dedicatee of the sonnets). The identity of this figure (if he is indeed based on a real person) has been much debated; the most popular candidates are Shakespeare's patrons, the Earl of Southampton and the Earl of Pembroke, both of whom were considered handsome in their youth; another theory, set out most notably by Oscar Wilde in a short story, holds that puns in the sonnets point to a boy actor called Willie Hughes as the beloved (there is no other evidence for the existence of such a person and Wilde's theory is avowedly fictional).^[9].The potential relationship between Shakespeare and WH is examined in the comic play "To W.H." by Stuart Draper. // Events April 4 – King of Spain signs an edit of expulsion of all moriscos from Spain April 9 – Spain recognizes Dutch independence May 23 - Official ratification of the Second Charter of Virginia. ... The Fair Lord is the unnamed young man to whom Shakespeares sonnets 1–126 are addressed. ... Henry Wriothesley, 3rd Earl of Southampton, 1603, in the Tower, atrributed to John de Critz. ... For other persons named William Herbert, see William Herbert (disambiguation). ... Oscar Fingal OFlahertie Wills Wilde (October 16, 1854 – November 30, 1900) was an Irish playwright, novelist, poet, and author of short stories. ... William Hughes is one potential candidate for the Fair Youth of Shakespeares Sonnets. ... To W.H. is a play that examines the potential Sexuality of William Shakespeare and the identity of W.H. who has been referred to a number of times in Shakespeares work, the play was written by Stuart Draper, directed by Anton Krause and played in The Hobgoblin in... Stuart B Draper is an actor, playwright and director. ...

Henry Wriothesley, 3rd Earl of Southampton:
Shakespeare's patron at twenty one years of age, one candidate for the "Fair Lord" of the sonnets.

The only explicit references to sexual acts and to physical lust occur in the Dark Lady sonnets, which unambigously state that the poet and the – equally mysterious – Lady are lovers. Nevertheless, there are numerous passages in the sonnets addressed to the Fair Lord that have been read as expressing desire for a younger man.^[10] In Sonnet 13, he is called "dear my love", and Sonnet 15 announces that the poet is at "war with Time for love of you." Sonnet 18 asks "Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate," and in Sonnet 20 the narrator calls the young man the "master-mistress of my passion." The poems refer to sleepless nights, anguish and jealousy caused by the youth. In addition, there is considerable emphasis on the young man's beauty: in Sonnet 20, the narrator theorizes that the youth was originally a woman whom Mother Nature had fallen in love with and, to resolve the dilemma of lesbianism, added a penis ("pricked thee out for women's pleasure"), an addition the narrator describes as "to my purpose nothing." In some sonnets addressed to the youth, such as Sonnet 52, the erotic punning is particularly intense: "So is the time that keeps you as my chest, Or as the wardrobe which the robe doth hide, To make some special instant special blest, By new unfolding his imprisoned pride." A complex relationship is hinted at in Sonnet 20: the narrator tells the youth to sleep with women, but to love only him: "mine be thy love and thy love's use their treasure"; some have inferred from this line that Shakespeare ruled out sexual relations despite his love for the youth. Image File history File links Download high resolution version (481x746, 77 KB) Summary Miniature of Henry Wriothesley, 3rd Earl of Southampton, 1594. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (481x746, 77 KB) Summary Miniature of Henry Wriothesley, 3rd Earl of Southampton, 1594. ... Henry Wriothesley, 3rd Earl of Southampton, 1603, in the Tower, atrributed to John de Critz. ... The Fair Lord is the unnamed young man to whom Shakespeares sonnets 1–126 are addressed. ... Synopsis Sonnet 13 is the first of the procreation sonnets to contain a declaration of love. ... [edit] Synopsis Shakespeares Sonnet 15, a procreation sonnet, is a reflection on the destruction of Time and Decay, and its effect on the young man to whom the sonnet is addressed. ... This article or section does not cite any references or sources. ... [edit] See also Shakespeares sonnets [edit] External links Analysis CliffsNotes Shakespeares 154 Sonnets Categories: | | ... Mother Nature is a mythical personification of nature. ... This article is about homosexual women, not inhabitants of the Greek island of Lesbos A lesbian (lowercase L) is a homosexual woman. ... [edit] See also Shakespeares sonnets [edit] External links Analysis CliffsNotes Shakespeares 154 Sonnets Categories: | | ... For other uses, see Pun (disambiguation). ...

Not everyone has interpreted these passages as sexual, as they can be explained as referring to intense platonic friendship, rather than sexual love. In the preface to his 1961 Pelican edition, Douglas Bush writes, Platonic love in its modern popular sense is an affectionate relationship into which the sexual element does not enter, especially in cases where one might easily assume otherwise. ... For other uses, see Friendship (disambiguation). ... Year 1961 (MCMLXI) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ...

"Since modern readers are unused to such ardor in masculine friendship and are likely to leap at the notion of homosexuality… we may remember that such an ideal, often exalted above the love of women, could exist in real life, from Montaigne to Sir Thomas Browne, and was conspicuous in Renaissance literature". ^[11]

Bush cites Montaigne, who distinguished male friendships from "that other, licentious Greek love" ^[12], as evidence for a platonic interpretation of the Sonnets. Michel Eyquem de Montaigne (February 28, 1533 - September 13, 1592) was an influential French Renaissance writer, generally considered to be the inventor of the personal essay. ... Sir Thomas Browne (October 19, 1605 - October 19, 1682) was an English author of varied works that disclose his wide learning in diverse fields including medicine, religion, science and the esoteric. ... Renaissance literature refers to European literature that began in Italy and spread throughout Europe during the seventeenth century. ... Pederastic courtship scene Athenian black-figure amphora, 5th c. ...

Another explanation is that the poems are not autobiographical but fiction, so that the narrator of the Sonnets should not be simplistically identified with Shakespeare himself. Nevertheless, many readers and scholars take the "I" of the Sonnets to be Shakespeare, not least because this first-person narrator declares "my name is Will" (136), as well as punning on the name "Will" elsewhere. Many readers consider the Sonnets to be the closest we can get to Shakespeare's own voice, as opposed to the voices of the characters in his plays.^{[citation needed]} Cover of the first English edition of 1793 of Benjamin Franklins autobiography. ... For other uses, see Fiction (disambiguation). ...

Despite these alternative interpretations, numerous readers throughout the past four centuries have been disturbed by the poems' apparent homoeroticism. In 1640, John Benson published a second edition of the Sonnets in which he changed most of the pronouns from masculine to feminine so that readers would believe nearly all of the sonnets were addressed to the Dark Lady. Benson’s modified version soon became the best-known text, and it was not until 1780 that Edmund Malone re-published the sonnets in their original forms. ^[13] Events December 1 - Portugal regains its independence from Spain and João IV of Portugal becomes king. ... John Benson was a British publisher known for a historically important publication of miscellaneous poems by William Shakespeare in 1640. ... 1780 was a leap year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar). ... Edmond Malone (October 4, 1741 - April 25, 1812), was an Irish Shakespearean scholar and editor of the works of William Shakespeare. ...

The question of the sexual orientation of the Sonnets was first openly articulated in 1780, when George Steevens, upon reading Shakespeare's description of a young man as his "master-mistress" remarked, "it is impossible to read this fulsome panegyrick, addressed to a male object, without an equal mixture of disgust and indignation". ^[14] Other English scholars, dismayed at the possibility that their national hero might have been a "sodomite", concurred with Samuel Taylor Coleridge's comment, around 1800, that Shakespeare’s love was "pure" and in his sonnets there is "not even an allusion to that very worst of all possible vices." ^[15] Robert Browning, writing of Wordsworth's assertion that "with this key [the Sonnets] Shakespeare unlocked his heart," famously replied, "If so, the less Shakespeare he!" George Steevens (May 10, 1736 - January 22, 1800), was an English Shakespearean commentator. ... Samuel Taylor Coleridge (October 21, 1772 – July 25, 1834) (pronounced ) was an English poet, critic, and philosopher who was, along with his friend William Wordsworth, one of the founders of the Romantic Movement in England and one of the Lake Poets. ... // ON MAY 5 1853 MR.FADER HAD SEX WITH A MAN NAME MR WIEN THEN THEY HAD SON NAMEDMRS COTURE AND MR MANOOGIAN WENT INTO MRS HASKELLS OFFICE NAKED AND DANCED AROUND AND MASTERBATED ON HER CHEST AND SHE LICKED IT OFF THEN THEY HAD ORAL SEEX WITH NAPLOEAN OF...

Critics in Continental Europe were also surprised. In 1834, a French reviewer asked, "He instead of she?… Can I be mistaken? Can these sonnets be addressed to a man? Shakespeare! Great Shakespeare? Did you feel yourself authorized by Virgil’s example?"^{[citation needed]} alluding to the Roman poet known for his pederastic verse. Year 1834 (MDCCCXXXIV) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian Calendar (or a common year starting on Monday of the 12-day slower Julian calendar). ... For other uses, see Virgil (disambiguation). ...

The controversy continued in the 20th Century. By 1944, the Variorum edition of the Sonnets contained an appendix with the conflicting views of nearly forty commentators. C.S. Lewis wrote that the sonnets are "too lover-like for ordinary male friendship" (although he added that his sonnets were still not the poetry of "full-blown pederasty") and that he "found no real parallel to such language between friends in the 16th century literature."^[16] In 1964 Ingram and Redpath also argued that there may have been no carnal relationship between the poet and the Fair Youth: "the relationship was one of profound and at times agitated friendship, which involved a certain physical and quasi-sexual fascination emanating from the young Friend and enveloping the older poet, but did not necessarily include pederasty in any lurid sense."^[17] (19th century - 20th century - 21st century - more centuries) Decades: 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s The 20th century lasted from 1901 to 2000 in the Gregorian calendar (often from (1900 to 1999 in common usage). ... Year 1944 (MCMXLIV) was a leap year starting on Saturday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Clive Staples Lewis (November 29, 1898 – November 22, 1963), commonly referred to as C. S. Lewis, was an author and scholar. ... Pederasty or paederasty (literally boy-love, see Etymology below) refers to an intimate or erotic relationship between an adolescent boy and an adult male outside his immediate family. ... The decade of years from 1500 to 1509, inclusive. ... For other uses, see Literature (disambiguation). ... Also Nintendo emulator: 1964 (emulator). ...

Sexuality in the plays

Some readers have found similar evidence in Shakespeare's plays ^{[citation needed]}. The most often-cited evidence is several comedies, including Twelfth Night and As You Like It, which contain comic situations in which a woman poses as a man, a device that exploits the fact that in Shakespeare's day women's roles were played by boys. While the situations thus presented are heterosexual in terms of the story, the stage image of same-sex wooing and kissing may well have been titillating to those of a homosexual orientation, and while other dramatists occasionally used the same device, Shakespeare seems to have had an exceptional preference for it, using it in five of his plays. Sir John Gilberts 1849 painting: The Plays of William Shakespeare, containing scenes and characters from several of William Shakespeares plays. ... Twelfth Night has at least three meanings: Twelfth Night (holiday), celebrated by some Christians Twelfth Night, or What You Will, a comedic play by William Shakespeare Twelfth Night (band), a progressive rock band This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share... Walter Deverell,The Mock Marriage of Orlando and Rosalind, 1853 William Shakespeares As You Like It is a pastoral comedy written in 1599 or early 1600. ... Heterosexuality is a sexual orientation characterized by esthetic attraction, romantic love or sexual desire exclusively for members of the opposite sex or gender, contrasted with homosexuality and distinguished from bisexuality and asexuality. ...

The unexplained melancholy of Antonio in The Merchant of Venice is explained by some critics (for example Isaac Asimov in his Guide to Shakespeare) as caused by unrequited love for his young friend Bassanio; his self-sacrificing spirit then makes him help Bassanio find a wife. The relationship has been interpreted as a sexual/mentoring relationship between an adult male and a young man in which the adult helps his lover in the transition to adulthood, a relationship that culminates in helping him find a wife ^{[citation needed]}. The text of the play neither confirms nor denies these interpretations. Antonio is the title character in Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice. ... Shylock and Portia (1835) by Thomas Sully The Merchant of Venice is one of William Shakespeares best-known plays, written sometime between 1596 and 1598. ... Isaac Asimov (January 2?, 1920?[1] – April 6, 1992), IPA: , originally Исаак Озимов but now transcribed into Russian as Айзек Азимов) was a Russian-born American Jewish author and professor of biochemistry, a highly successful and exceptionally prolific writer best known for his works of science fiction and for his popular science books. ... Unrequited love is love that is not reciprocated, even though reciprocation is usually deeply desired. ...

See also

• William Shakespeare
• Shakespeare's life
• Elizabethan era
• Shakespeare's reputation
• Shakespeare's plays
• Shakespeare's sonnets
• Anne Hathaway (Shakespeare's wife)
• Shakespeare's Late Romances
• Chronology of Shakespeare plays
• Shakespeare's England
• Shakespeare movies

Wikipedia does not yet have an article with this exact name. ... William Shakespeare (National Portrait Gallery), in the famous Chandos portrait, artist and authenticity unconfirmed. ... Elizabethan redirects here. ... This article or section includes a list of works cited or a list of external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks in-text citations. ... Sir John Gilberts 1849 painting: The Plays of William Shakespeare, containing scenes and characters from several of William Shakespeares plays. ... Title page from 1609 edition of Shake-Speares Sonnets Dedication page from The Sonnets SHAKE-SPEARES SONNETS, or simply The Sonnets, is a collection of poems in sonnet form written by William Shakespeare that deal with such themes as love, beauty, politics, and mortality. ... Anne Hathaway (1556 – August 6, 1623) was the wife of William Shakespeare. ... The late romances, often simply called the romances, are a grouping of William Shakespeares later plays, including Pericles, Prince of Tyre, Cymbeline, The Winters Tale, and The Tempest. ... The precise chronology of Shakespeares plays as they were first written and performed is impossible to determine, as there is no authoritative record and many of the plays were performed many years before they were published. ... Elizabeth ushers in Peace and Plenty. ... This article needs to be wikified. ...

References

Additional reading

• The Chiastic Shakespeare
• Last Will and Testament of William Shakespeare [sic]
• Keevak, Michael. Sexual Shakespeare: Forgery, Authorship, Portraiture (Detroit: Wayne State Univ. Press, 2001)
• Alexander, Catherine M.S., and Stanley Wells, editors. Shakespeare and Sexuality (Cambridge, Eng.: Cambridge Univ. Press, 2001)
• Hammond, Paul. Figuring Sex Between Men from Shakespeare to Rochester (Oxford, Eng.: Oxford Univ. Press, 2002)
• Smith, Bruce R. Homosexual Desire in Shakespeare's England: A Cultural Poetics (Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press, 1991; reissued with a new preface, 1994)
• Pequigney, Joseph. Such Is My Love: A Study of Shakespeare's Sonnets (Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press, 1985) [the most sustained case for homoeroticism in Shakespeare's sonnets]

	William Shakespeare and his works
General information	Biography | Style | influence | Reputation | Religion | Sexuality | Shakespearean Authorship Question
Tragedies	Antony and Cleopatra | Coriolanus | Hamlet | Julius Caesar | King Lear | Macbeth | Othello | Romeo and Juliet | Timon of Athens | Titus Andronicus | Troilus and Cressida
Comedies	All's Well That Ends Well | As You Like It | The Comedy of Errors | Cymbeline | Love's Labour's Lost | Measure for Measure | The Merchant of Venice | The Merry Wives of Windsor | A Midsummer Night's Dream | Much Ado About Nothing | Pericles, Prince of Tyre | The Taming of the Shrew | The Tempest | Twelfth Night | The Two Gentlemen of Verona | The Two Noble Kinsmen | The Winter's Tale
Histories	King John | Richard II | Henry IV, Part 1 | Henry IV, Part 2 | Henry V | Henry VI, part 1 | Henry VI, part 2 | Henry VI, part 3 | Richard III | Henry VIII
Poems	Sonnets | Venus and Adonis | The Rape of Lucrece | The Passionate Pilgrim | The Phoenix and the Turtle | A Lover's Complaint
Apocrypha and Lost Plays	Edward III | Sir Thomas More | Cardenio (lost) | Love's Labour's Won (lost) | The Birth of Merlin | Locrine | The London Prodigal | The Puritan | The Second Maiden's Tragedy | Richard II, Part I: Thomas of Woodstock | Sir John Oldcastle | Thomas Lord Cromwell | A Yorkshire Tragedy | Fair Em | Mucedorus | The Merry Devil of Edmonton | Arden of Faversham | Edmund Ironside | Vortigern and Rowena
Other play information	Shakespeare's plays | Shakespeare in performance | Chronology of Shakespeare plays | Oxfordian chronology | Shakespeare on screen | BBC Television Shakespeare | Titles based on Shakespeare | List of characters A-K · L-Z | Problem Plays | List of historical characters | Ghost characters