April 2, 2004

The Religion of Shakespeare

To the Editor:

David Scott Kastan describes "Was Shakespeare a Catholic?" as "a new question" ("A Geraldo Approach to the Mystery of Shakespeare," The Review, February 6). Not exactly. "Was Shakespeare a Roman Catholic?" is the title of an essay by Philip Henry Stanhope, the fifth Earl Stanhope, who died in 1875.

Steven Botterill Associate Professor of Italian Studies Associate Dean Undergraduate Division College of Letters and Science University of California Berkeley,