“any woman born with a great gift in the sixteenth century would certianly have gone crazed, shot herself, or ended her days in some lonely cottage outside the village, half witch, half wizard, feared and mocked at.” from Shakespeare’s Sister

I think that these woman genuises might have been smart enough to find a man willing enough to let her use his name to publish her work. I know there are examples of this but I’m not smart enough to remember them. I just hope that not all of these women of the sixteenth century went insane with fury because of the inequalities. But Woolf does have a point. I remember studying Shakespeare in one class and it was mentioned that some believe he did recieve help from a female writer for some of his work. Here’s a link to someone else’s blog :

http://blog.guykawasaki.com/2006/07/the_sweet_swan_.html

And the book he talks about:

http://www.amazon.com/Sweet-Swan-Avon-Woman-Shakespeare/dp/0321426401