Mary Bassano

Emilia Lanier (née Aemilia Bassano; 1569–1645) was an English writer and poet during the Elizabethan period. Her 1611 volume Salve Deus Rex Judaeorum (Hail, God, King of the Jews) has been seen as protofeminist. She has a strong claim to be one of the first commercially-published women poets writing in the English language. Lanier was a contemporary of William Shakespeare, and attempts have been made to identify her with Shakespeare's "Dark Lady" or even with Shakespeare himself. These ideas ha…