Clare Asquith, the Countess of Oxford and Asquith is a British independent scholar and author of Shadowplay: the Hidden Beliefs and Coded Politics of William Shakespeare, which has posited that Shakespeare was a covert Catholic whose works contain coded language which was used by the Catholic underground, particularly the Jesuits, in Reformation-era England, but also appealed to the monarchy in a plea for toleration.
Career
Her book was the first to note the existence of the code as a subtext in Shakespeare. Her work was hailed by some, including the Catholic writer Piers Paul Read as "dramatic, important" and "painstaking scholarship". She has lectured on Shakespeare in both the United Kingdom and North America.
Politics
lieutenant was, however, reviewed unfavourably by Doctor David Womersley, Professor of English Literature at Oxford University, who deemed it "a ridiculous book".
