The use, by a female writer, of a male pen name. This was popular in the 18th and 19th centuries.

A male pen is a very confused female swan.

The only pens I know are those in which need to place the swine before the flu gets worse.

George Elliot used the name because female writers were suspect back in the day.
Good thing that was ‘back in the day’ because our GOG would blow a gasket today were that the case.

Queen Elizabeth wrote under the pen name, William Shakespeare.

William Shakespeare ruled under the name Queen Elizabeth, the Virgin Queen

And both of them were really Ben Jonson.

Who???

or should I say whom??

LukeJavan8 - 11 June 2009 04:20 PM

William Shakespeare ruled under the name Queen Elizabeth, the Virgin Queen

Then he put on a Scottish accent and became King James I.  Soon afterwards he wrote the Authorised Version of the Bible.

OK: you two got me to look him up.  Wish I were more fluent in writers, actors, and the like.  Never endeavored to get it all down.

Verily, you should read more than Sci-Fi.

Too old, like what I read, and there’s no need, not teaching any more. As for Ben Johnson and the Bible translation.  Hummmm:  maybe I should talk to him about elminating Paul.

I’m not suggesting Ben Jonson (a bore who makes you appeciate Shakespeare. I just like to read things that make me think.

I get enough thinking here, and teaching for years, I want to enjoy not have to do much deep thinking, just sit back and relax and be entertained.

Actually they were all the pen names of Marlow.

Tho’ it is harmless enough, at this point, I, for one, do not appreciate the advertising.

Actually they were all the pen names of Marlow.

Ah! But there is too much linguistic evidence that much of Shakespeare could bave been written only by someone who lived near Stratford.