Mary Clare Asquith, Countess of Oxford and Asquith ( née Pollen; 2 June 1951) is an English

independent scholar A scholar is a person who pursues academic and intellectual activities, particularly academics who apply their intellectualism into expertise in an area of study. A scholar can also be an academic, who works as a professor, teacher, or researche ...

and author of ''Shadowplay: the Hidden Beliefs and Coded Politics of William Shakespeare'', in which she posited that Shakespeare was a covert Catholic, whose works contain coded language used by the Catholic underground, particularly England's

Jesuits , image = Ihs-logo.svg , image_size = 175px , caption = ChristogramOfficial seal of the Jesuits , abbreviation = SJ , nickname = Jesuits , formation = , founders = ...

, 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.Vanessa Thorp
Shakespeare was a political rebel who wrote in code, claims author
''The Guardian'', 28 August 2005. Retrieved 6 November 2011.

Works

Asquith's work was hailed by some, including the Catholic writer

Piers Paul Read Piers Paul Read FRSL (born 7 March 1941) is a British novelist, historian and biographer. He was first noted in 1974 for a book of reportage, '' Alive: The Story of the Andes Survivors'', later adapted as a feature film and a documentary. Read ...

, as "dramatic, important" and "painstaking scholarship". However, it was poorly reviewed by Dr David Womersley, Professor of English Literature at

Oxford University Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to th ...

, who deemed it "a ridiculous book". 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 poems '' Venus and Adonis'' and ''

The Rape of Lucrece ''The Rape of Lucrece'' (1594) is a narrative poem by William Shakespeare about the legendary Roman noblewoman Lucretia. In his previous narrative poem, '' Venus and Adonis'' (1593), Shakespeare had included a dedicatory letter to his patron, ...

.'' This was reviewed favorably by Michael Thomas Barry in the ''New York Journal of Books'', as "a must read for anyone interested in the study and interpretation of Shakespearian era politics or literary criticism," but unfavorably by James Shapiro in the ''New 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." 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 in

Soviet dissident Soviet dissidents were people who disagreed with certain features of Soviet ideology or with its entirety and who were willing to speak out against them. The term ''dissident'' was used in the Soviet Union in the period from the mid-1960s until ...

plays while her husband served as a diplomat in

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 millio ...

during the Cold War, and were first published in ''The Shakespeare Newsletter'' and The ''

Times Literary Supplement ''The Times Literary Supplement'' (''TLS'') is a weekly literary review published in London by News UK, a subsidiary of News Corp. History The ''TLS'' first appeared in 1902 as a supplement to '' The Times'' but became a separate publication ...

''.

Personal life

Lady Oxford was born Mary Clare Pollen, as the eldest of the five children of the architect

Francis Pollen Francis Anthony Baring Pollen, FRIBA (7 December 1926 – 4 November 1987) was an English architect who designed, amongst other significant buildings, Worth Abbey in West Sussex. He was born in London on 7 December 1926 and educated at Down ...

(1926–1987) and Marie Therese Sheridan (later Viscountess Sidmouth, wife of the 7th peer).Profile at thePeerage.com
She lives in

Somerset ( en, All The People of Somerset) , locator_map = , coordinates = , region = South West England , established_date = Ancient , established_by = , preceded_by = , origin = , lord_lieutenant_office =Lord Lieutenant of Somerset , lord_ ...

with her husband, the former diplomat

Raymond Asquith, 3rd Earl of Oxford and Asquith Raymond Benedict Bartholomew Michael Asquith, 3rd Earl of Oxford and Asquith, (born 24 August 1952), is a British former diplomat and hereditary peer. Styled Viscount Asquith until he succeeded to his father's peerage titles on 16 January 2 ...

, whom she married in 1978. They have five children.

Selected works

*''Shadowplay: The Hidden Beliefs and Coded Politics of William Shakespeare'' (

Hachette Book Group Hachette Book Group (HBG) is a publishing company owned by Hachette Livre, the largest publishing company in France, and the third largest trade and educational publisher in the world. Hachette Livre is a wholly owned subsidiary of Lagardère Gr ...

, 2005) *''Shakespeare and the Resistance: The Earl of Southampton, the Essex Rebellion, and the Poems that Challenged Tudor Tyranny'' (Hachette Book Group, 2018)

References

External links

Shakespeare was a political rebel who wrote in code, claims author
Vanessa Thorpe, ''

The Observer ''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. It is a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' and '' The Guardian Weekly'', whose parent company Guardian Media Group Limited acquired it in 1993. First published in 1791, it is the ...

'', 28 August 2005 {{DEFAULTSORT:Asquith, Clare 1951 births Living people Clare British writers Oxford and Asquith English Roman Catholics People from Somerset Place of birth missing (living people) Clare Shakespearean scholars Independent scholars