THE NAKED SHAKESPEARE
We show that a scientific investigation into "Shakespeare" continues to pose exciting questions and present the age of the Renaissance in a new light.
Who was Shakespeare? We look at the stories and the controversy surrounding the identity of the greatest writer of all time. Over the course of the last centuries, a rumour has established itself as fact: that a merchant from Stratford-upon-Avon by the name of William Shakespeare is the author. However, no handwritten texts have survived, no letters, not even references to his writings from that time. Mark Twain, Henry James and Vladimir Nabokov did not believe that the man from Stratford was the author. 10 of the plays are set in Italy. Shakespearean research had previously assumed that the author had invented the settings of plays such as “Romeo and Juliet”, “The Merchant of Venice” and “Othello” from his wonderful imagination. This film shows that it can now be conclusively proven that the author had actually visited Verona, Milan, Pisa, Padua, Venice and Florence. This drastically reduces the number of people who could be the author as at that time only close confidantes of Queen Elizabeth I were allowed to leave the country.