Shakespeare's authorship under controversy as 'Hamnet' competes for Oscars

William Shakespeare, the man, the myth, the legend, has been an intriguing figure for centuries. With the release of Maggie O’Farrell’s Hamnet movie adaptation, the Elizabethan playwright’s life has seemingly attracted revived interest.

While the movie, which explores Shakespeare’s rarely known personal life, has been competing for the Oscars, Irene Coslet published a historic work which makes some controversial claims about the dramatist.

Coslet’s book, The Real Shakespeare, challenges Shakespeare’s authorship, claiming that all the literary works attributed to his name are not originally produced by him.

The book sparked a debate all over the internet, with people challenging the ideas on both sides of the argument.

Coslet argues that the Hamlet writer allegedly stole many of his plays from a female writer, Emilia Bassano, who was one of his contemporaries.

Bassano was reportedly a black woman, and has been theorised to be the “Dark Lady” some of Shakespeare’s sonnets are inspired by.

The conspiracy theory is not the first, as the playwright has been accused of plagiarism, or publishing his other contemporaries’ works under his name many times throughout history.

However, the definitive answer to the question would never be confirmed, but the legendary poet’s life will regardless remain intriguing.

The movie, starring Jessie Buckley as Shakespeare’s wife Agnes Hathaway, Joe Alwyn as her brother Bartholomew, and Paul Mescal as Shakespeare himself, is a strong Oscar contender this year with eight nominations.