Straight Swan of Avon

SIR – Further to Leslie Albiston’s exemplary refutation of the assertion that Shakespeare was homosexual (Letters, July 27), it may be inquired why none of his contemporaries (several of them critically hostile to him both as man and writer) thought even to insinuate the accusation. Nor (for what it may be worth) can it plausibly be shown that any character in his plays is homosexually inclined.

One is reminded of the canard that Richard Coeur-de-lion was likewise homosexual. He died in 1199, but the accusation (on no evidence worth the name) was first levelled in 1948. Nikolai Tolstoy

Southmoor, Berkshire