The Countess of Oxford and Asquith | |
|---|---|
| Born | Mary Clare Pollen (1951-06-02)2 June 1951 (age 74) United Kingdom |
| Occupations |
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| Known for | Shakespearean Research |
| Notable work | Shadowplay: the Hidden Beliefs and Coded Politics of William Shakespeare |
Mary Clare Asquith, Countess of Oxford and Asquith (néePollen; 2 June 1951) is an Englishindependent scholar and author ofShadowplay: the Hidden Beliefs and Coded Politics of William Shakespeare,[1] in which she posited that Shakespearewas a covert Catholic, whose works contain coded language used by the Catholic underground, particularly England'sJesuits, but also appealed to the monarchy for toleration. Her book was the first to claim the existence of such a code as a subtext in Shakespeare.[2]
Asquith's work was hailed by some, including the Catholic writerPiers Paul Read, as "dramatic, important" and "painstaking scholarship".[2]
Her second book,Shakespeare and the Resistance: The Earl of Southampton, the Essex Rebellion, and the Poems that Challenged Tudor Tyranny, follows the same themes as her first, focusing on the poemsVenus and Adonis andThe Rape of Lucrece. This was reviewed favorably by Michael Thomas Barry in theNew York Journal of Books, as "a must read for anyone interested in the study and interpretation of Shakespearian era politics or literary criticism,"[3] but unfavorably by James Shapiro in theNew York Review of Books: "Asquith blithely ignores every fact that might qualify or undermine her claims. And because she prosecutes her case so skillfully, there's no way for general readers to distinguish solid arguments from fantastic ones."[4]
Asquith has lectured on Shakespeare in the UK and in North America. Her ideas on the 16th-century code were first raised while observing coded messages inSoviet dissident plays while her husband served as a diplomat inMoscow during theCold War,[5] and were first published inThe Shakespeare Newsletter and TheTimes Literary Supplement.[citation needed]
Lady Oxford was born Mary Clare Pollen, as the eldest of the five children of the architectFrancis Pollen and Marie Therese Sheridan (later Viscountess Sidmouth, wife of the7th peer). She lives inSomerset with her husband, the former diplomatRaymond Asquith, 3rd Earl of Oxford and Asquith, whom she married in 1978. They have five children.
