Hammerschmidt-Hummel, Hildegard 1944–

PERSONAL:

Born 1944.

ADDRESSES:

Agent—MGA, 190 Shaftesbury Ave., London WC2H 8JL, England. E-mail—h.hammerschmidt-hummel@t-online.de.

CAREER:

Writer, Shakespeare scholar, and educator. University of Mainz, Mainz, Germany, professor of English literature and culture. Served as head of the Shakespeare Picture Archive, Mainz, 1982-2005.

WRITINGS:

Das historische Drama in England (1956-1971): Erscheinungsformen un Entwicklungstendenzen (title means "The Historical Drama in England (1956-1971): Its Form and Developmental Tendencies"), Humanitas (Frankfurt am Main, Germany), 1972.

Die Importgüter Der Handelsstadt London Als Sprach-und Bildbereich des elisabethanischen Dramas (title means "The Import Commodities of the City of London and Their Impact on the Life-Style, Language, and Dramatic Literature of Elizabethan England"), Winter (Heidelberg, Germany), 1979.

(With Modris Eksteins) Nineteenth-Century Germany: A Symposium, G. Narr (Tübingen, Germany), 1983.

Die Shakespeare-Illustrationen des Frankfurter Malers Victor Müller im Städelschen Kunstinstitut: Unbekannte Zeichnungen und Entwürfe zu Shakespeares Dramen (title means "The Shakespeare Illustrations of the Frankfurt Painter Victor Mueller in the Staedeslsches Kunstinstitut: Unknown Drawings and Sketches to Shakespeare's Plays"), Akademie der Wissenschaften und der Literatur (Mainz, Germany), 1990.

Die Traumtheorien des 20. Jahrhunderts und die Träume der Figuren Shakespeares: Mit einem Abriss philosophischer und Literarischer Traumauffassungen von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart (title means "Twentieth-Century Dream Theories and the Dreams of Shakespeare's Characters: With a Survey of Philosophical and Literary Dream Concepts from Ancient Times to the Present"), C. Winter (Heidelberg, Germany), 1992.

Annette oder Die Landschaft unseres inneren Lebens (title means "Annette or The Landscape of Our Inner Life"), R.G. Fischer (Frankfurt am Main, Germany), 1992.

Das Geheimnis um Shakespeares "Dark Lady": Dokumentation einer Enthullung (title means "The Secret Surrounding Shakespeare's ‘Dark Lady’: Documentation of the Uncovering of a Mystery"), Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft & Primus (Darmstadt, Germany), 1999.

Die verborgene Existenz des William Shakespeare: Dichter und Rebell im katholischen Untergrund (title means "The Hidden Life of William Shakespeare: Poet and Rebel in the Catholic Underground"), Herder (Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany), 2001.

Die Shakespeare-Illustration (1594-2000): Bildkünstlerische Darstellungen zu den Dramen William Shakespeares: Katalog, Geschichte, Funktion und Deutung. Mit Künstlerlexikon, Klassifizierter Bibliographie und Registern (title means "Shakespearean Illustrations, 1594 to 2000: The Work of Artists on Shakespeare's Plays: Catalogue, History, Function and Interpretation, including a Dictionary of Artists, a Classified Bibliography and Indexes"), three volumes, Harrassowitz (Wiesbaden, Germany), 2003.

William Shakespeare: Seine Zeit, Sein Leben, Sein Werk, Philipp von Zabern (Mainz am Rhein, Germany), 2003, published as The Life and Times of William Shakespeare, 1564-1616, Chaucer Press (London, England), 2007.

Die authentischen Gesichtszüge William Shakespeares: Die Totenmaske des Dichters und Bildnisse aus drei Lebensabschnitten, G. Olms (New York, NY), 2006, published as The True Face of William Shakespeare: The Poet's Death Mask and Likenesses from Three Periods of His Life, Chaucer Press (London, England), 2006.

SIDELIGHTS:

Hildegard Hammerschmidt-Hummel is a writer and educator based at the University of Mainz, in Germany, where she serves as a professor of English literature and culture. Hammerschmidt-Hummel is also a dedicated Shakespeare scholar who has studied the iconic playwright and poet throughout her academic career. Her deep interest in the Bard was sparked when she first read Macbeth while a student at school, noted a biographer on her home page. She has spent more than a decade researching Shakespeare's life and background, in the process applying scientific and forensic techniques to questions surrounding such factors as his physical appearance, the meaning behind some of his works, and his whereabouts during a seven-year period during which he was unaccounted for by historians, the meaning behind many of his works, and the true identity of his mistress, the "dark lady" of the sonnets.

Hammerschmidt-Hummel commenced her studies of English literature in 1967 under the tutelage of Horst Oppel, a well-known Shakespeare scholar, noted the home page biographer Kurt Otten. Upon Oppel's death in 1982, Hammerschmidt-Hummel became the head of the noted Shakespeare Illustration Archive, in Mainz, attached to the University of Mainz and the Academy of Sciences and Literature. This archive holds an extensive photographic collection of paintings, drawings, etchings, sculptures, and other visual memorabilia relating to Shakespeare. Here, Hammerschmidt-Hummel had her first scholarly triumphs. She was able to establish the genuineness and true history of the so-called Darmstadt Shakespeare death mask and to prove the authenticity of three other portraits of Shakespeare. She also attracted a great deal of attention and controversy when she offered an answer to the mystery of the seven "lost" years of Shakespeare's life, 1585 to 1592. Scholars had found it difficult to account for the Bard's whereabouts during those years, but Hammerschmidt-Hummel suggested that her research into relevant new sources indicated that John and Mary Shakespeare would have sent their son William to the first Catholic English College on the continent at Douai (later Reims). These new sources also revealed that the Catholic Shakespeare fled England in 1585 because he had been offending against English religious laws for years, as well as to secretly visit Rome.

The True Face of William Shakespeare: The Poet's Death Mask and Likenesses from Three Periods of His Life, originally published in German as Die authentischen Gesichtszüge William Shakespeares: Die Totenmaske des Dichters und Bildnisse aus drei Lebensabschnitten, aroused great interest and controversy among the worldwide Shakespeare community. In what the Times Literary Supplement reviewer Peter Beal called a "well-illustrated and handsomely produced book," Hammerschmidt-Hummel presents evidence which she believes proves the authenticity of a number of portraits of Shakespeare. These include the Chandos portrait, the Flower portrait, the Davenant terra cotta bust, and the Darmstadt Shakespeare death mask. These paintings and sculptures, Hammerschmidt-Hummel notes, provide definitive proof of Shakespeare's appearance at several different points in his life. She even uses the portraits to reach a conclusion about the cause of his death: a swelling on Shakespeare's left upper eyelid suggests "Mikulicz Syndrome, a disorder of the tear glands symptomatic of chronic sarcoidosis," Beal stated.

Hammerschmidt-Hummel bases her conclusions on the application of modern forensic investigation and identification techniques borrowed from the German Federal Bureau of Criminal Investigation. They include "detailed comparison of photographic images, including electronic blending, montage, superimposition, and three-dimensional computer reconstructions, as well as X-rays and laser scanning techniques," Beal reported. "Over the years, this German equivalent of the FBI has developed reliable scientific methods of identifying suspects on the basis of even vague photographs, in spite of aging or disguises," remarked a reviewer on the Shakespeare Society of the Low Countries Web site. "Presented with photo-graphs of the various images of Shakespeare, the crime fighters came to the conclusion that, with a high degree of probability, all of them depicted the same person," the reviewer continued. "In so far as these findings are accepted by the scholarly community, and they do seem convincing, Hammerschmidt-Hummel has indeed contributed to our knowledge of Shakespeare's biography," the review concluded.

Hammerschmidt-Hummel is also the author of in-depth studies of individual works by Shakespeare. In Das Geheimnis um Shakespeares "Dark Lady": Dokumentation einer Enthullung, for example, she uses a number of textual clues, paintings, and other resources to suggest the long-pondered identity of the "Dark Lady" of Shakespeare's sonnets. She finds pertinent symbolism in a portrait of the "Persian Lady," an unidentified Elizabethan-era woman dressed in a garish costume. She connects the text of a sonnet within the painting to the symbolism, which includes a stag, a motto, a tree, and the Persian Lady herself. She further identifies the sonnet as having been written by Shakespeare. Other textual and visual evidence leads Hammerschmidt-Hummel to the conclusion that the Persian Lady is, in fact, the mysterious Dark Lady; that she is represented as being pregnant; and that the father of the child is not the Dark Lady's husband, but Shakespeare himself. On the matter of the Dark Lady's actual identity, Hammerschmidt-Hummel again applies forensic comparison techniques to conclude that she was Elizabeth Vernon, one of the Queen's ladies-in-waiting and the wife of Henry Wriothesley, the Earl of Southampton. Hammerschmidt-Hummel recounts a troubled history of Vernon's life, including a premarital pregnancy, scorn and imprisonment by the Queen, and a difficult married life. Again using image comparison techniques, Hammerschmidt-Hummel suggests that Vernon's daughter, Penelope, bore a greater resemblance to Shakespeare than to Wriothesley. In the end, the Shakespeare Society of the Low Countries Web site reviewer concluded that Hammerschmidt-Hummel's comprehensive theory about the Dark Lady stands as "an attractive idea that should be judged on its artistic merit rather than on its historical veracity."

Hammerschmidt-Hummel told CA: "The most surprising thing I have learned as a writer is that it is still possible to discover new and exciting source material most relevant to the life, time, and literary production of William Shakespeare, enabling us to solve many of the mysteries surrounding this icon of world literature."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Anglistik, September, 2004, Kurt Otten, October 30, 2007, review of William Shakespeare: Seine Zeit, Sein Leben, Sein Werk.

New Scientist, October 30, 2007, "Mystery of ‘Missing’ Shakespeare Portrait."

Reference & Research Book News, November, 2006, review of The True Face of William Shakespeare.

Religion and the Arts, 2004, review of William Shakespeare.

Renaissance Bulletin, April, 2006, Peter Milward, review of The True Face of William Shakespeare, p. 61; April, 2008, Peter Milward, review of The Life and Times of William Shakespeare, 1564-1616, pp. 55-56.

Theatre Research International, October, 2007, Michael Patterson, review of The True Face of William Shakespeare, p. 327.

Times Literary Supplement, April 18, 2007, Peter Beal, "The True Face of Shakespeare?," review of The True Face of William Shakespeare.

ONLINE

Chaucer Press—International Publishers Market,http://www.internationalpubmarket.com/ (April 10, 2008), author profile.

Hildegard Hammerschmidt-Hummel Home Page,http://www.hammerschmidt-hummel.de (April 10, 2008).

Life and Times of William Shakespeare Web site,http://www.shakespearelifeandtimes.com/ (April 10, 2008).

Shakespeare Society of the Low Countries Web site,http://shakespeare.let.uu.nl/ (April 10, 2008), "In Search of the Dark Lady," review of Das Geheimnis um Shakespeares "Dark Lady": Dokumentation einer Enthullung.