Sidney is a logical suspect. The most educated woman in England after Elizabeth I, she gathered leading writers about her in a sort of literary salon dedicated to elevating English literature. Sidney-as-bard would explain why Shakespeare wrote love sonnets to a younger man (her purported lover). It would clarify why the first collection of Shakespeare’s plays was dedicated to the earls of Pembroke and Montgomery (her sons). And it would explain Ben Jonson’s phrase “sweet swan of Avon.” She had two estates on the River Avon–and her personal symbol was the swan. Case closed? Hardly. But Williams adds to the perennial intrigue.
