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Shakespeare's Invention by W.S. Gent
Paperback
Literary CriticismBritish History
Publisher Price: $24.95
ISBN13: 9781964075112
Publisher: Comite Press
Published: May 30 2026
Pages: 322
Weight: 0.95
Height: 0.67 Width: 6.00 Depth: 9.00
Language: English
Shakespeare's Invention by W.S. Gent. is the story of the most extraordinary collaboration in literary history. Edward Somerset, 4th Earl of Worcester, was the life-long patron of William Sterrell, the poet and playwright whom we know as Shakespeare. Completely ignored by Shakespeare scholars, Worcester was responsible for the magnificent ceremonies and entertainments of the Court of King James, from the 1604 coronation procession to the marriage of Princess Elizabeth Stuart in 1613. Always at his side was his brilliant confidante, William Sterrell, formerly a professor of philosophy at Oxford University.
Sterrell has been essentially unknown to history. Hundreds of his highly literate letters dating from 1591 to 1626 survive but were heretofore inaccessible because they were under pseudonyms or in unfamiliar archives in Vienna.
As an agent for overseas Catholics from his earliest days, Sterrell had multiple encounters with government officials that made it impossible for him to publish in his own name. After a failed undercover foreign mission in 1591-93, he published Venus and Adonis using Shakespeare's name. The poem elegantly mocked Queen Elizabeth's infatuation with the young Earl of Essex.
This first book on Sterrell's career explores the genesis of Venus and Adonis and closely examines Alls Well that Ends Well. Alls Well is an autobiographical meditation on the failed mission that led Sterrell to embrace the life of a court playwright and on his close relationship with his patron, Worcester.
The book examines the Shakespeare authorship question in depth and has an extended analysis of William Shakespeare's 1616 will.
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