SHAKESPEARE ÆNIGMA: TO BE OR NOT TO BE

What if Shakespeare’s plays were never written by Shakespeare, but by a young Italian poet, born in London, named John Florio?

The Director Stefano Reali wrote a book about it, “Shakespeare Ænigma,” which he presented on the 1st of February 2024 in the Teatro Sala Umberto in Rome.

The author shared with the public the story about the true (hidden for over four centuries) identity of the greatest playwright of all time. A work of research and study perpetuated for 10 long years, that of Stefano Reali, who was able to translate into the drafting of a masterpiece of contemporary literature that can make sprout the awareness of a truth that no one has ever known—or wanted—to tell.

But how did Stefano Reali think to tell such a complex story?

He claimed to have always been impressed by the greatness of an author like William Shakespeare. He began to have doubts about his authorship and for this reason he began to study, to document himself, even comparing himself with the archives of Geneva and Rome. From there, he discovered that there were other truths, well known all over the world for 250 years, but they had never been contested. This official truth intrigued him more and more, giving birth to the desire to write a book.
The book offers us the vision of a London of 1500 as an autonomous city, which distances itself from the Church of Rome, almost Enlightenment, in which there is freedom of expression and thought. And it was in this context that the intellectuals decided to create the most beautiful masterpieces of literature. John Florio, the son of one of the greatest Italian scholars of the Renaissance—and a friend of Pietro d’Aretino and the painter Tiziano Vecellio—Michelangelo Florio, decided to return to his native city at the age of 20, where public theatres were becoming increasingly famous. London was the only exception in Europe! Now the city was hungry, eager for plots, and John Florio understood that he could make money from it.

John Florio’s Portrait

But how did we know that Shakespeare was not the author of the plays? Stefano Reali gives us 5 reasons:

1. Shakespeare never got his middle school license (for writing what he signed there needed a classical culture).

2. In the 19 dramas set in Italy, there is a rich quote of place names, proper names, proverbs, even of naval distances. So only those who had been to Italy could know these details.

3. In the works emerges a deep knowledge of the procedures of the rulers, which Shakespeare did not have, who, although he had a great talent in bringing people to the theater, was semi-illiterate and therefore was not admitted to the courts.

4. Shakespeare’s life was very flat. In fact, there is no evidence in the biographical documents of the sufferings and sorrows that we find in his dramas.

5. Moreover, he left us nothing, neither letters nor prefaces nor autographs. We have only a few signatures on commercial contracts.

John Florio and William Shakespeare

That of John Florio is the story of a writer who hid behind the name of William Shakespeare, his entrepreneur. However, Florio had great ambitions: he was not enough to have involved the people by inserting a subplot that ran simultaneously with the plot, but he also aspired to win the approval of the aristocratic classes, inventing another subplot, which is the philosophical-existential, secondary characters.

And so with this ingenious invention, John Florio starts a real revolution, not only because he managed to find a meeting point between the bourgeois class and the aristocratic class, but above all because he laid the foundations for the development of modern English. Until then, the English language was barbaric, it was limited to 8000 words, but John Florio gradually enriched it with neologisms and words from different languages, including Italian.

There’s a reason we haven’t gotten his name yet. Florio had a great opportunity to reveal the authorship of Shakespeare’s works, but he could not save his life. The staging of his “Richard II” was the spark that fueled the revolt of nobles and people against Queen Elizabeth. To save himself from being beheaded, he had to deny in front of the queen and consequently to the whole world that he was the author of that drama and all the other works.

This forced choice cost him his life. He lost his self-esteem, lost it to his family, fell into depression and died of plague, buried in a mass grave. Even the grave didn’t have his name.

It is a story that for a long time had no voice, and for this reason, I hope that the recognition not given then will be returned at least in part with this book.

Today's Blogger

Hello, I'm Beatrice Scifoni, a liceo classico student and an 18-year-old enthusiast with a passion for exploring new horizons and discovering diverse cultures. From a you

ng age, I've been interested in travelling and connecting with people from around the world.

In my spare time I work as a tour guide at the Monastery of San Benedetto in Subiaco, where I find joy in sharing the rich history and cultural heritage with visitors. However, my most cherished experiences come from the lasting friendships I've made with individuals from various nationalities during my time at a NATO military base in Belgium.

I’m glad to be part of Let’s Blog Staff and I hope you’ll enjoy following my posts!