Mistress Shakespeare (44 page)

I have tried not to take liberties with history, although I have Marlowe’s plays performed at times slightly different from what some sources claim.
Tamburlaine the Great
was probably first performed in 1587 instead of early 1588, and by the Lord Admiral’s Men at the Rose.
Doctor Faustus
was most likely performed in the early 1590s instead of 1588.

I am indebted for help in having the entire marriage bond for my study to John France, Senior Microfiler/Digitiser, County Hall, Worcestershire Record Office, Worcester, Worcestershire, United Kingdom. At the writing of this note, part of the bond is available for viewing on the website
http://home.att.net/~mleary/positive.htm
.

Over the centuries, certain scholars have stood up for the possibility that there was a second Anne in Will Shakespeare’s life.
The Man Shakespeare
(1909) by Frank Harris gives an extensive array of reasons supporting Anne Whateley; a 1917 play,
The Good Men Do
, by Hubert Osborne hangs its plot on his belief in the dual Annes. Other writers and historians, such as Ivor Brown and Anthony Burgess in his 1970 critical studies on Shakespeare, make a case for the second Anne. I agree, relying as much on what seemed to be missing from Will’s relationship with Anne Hathaway as with the research on Will’s life on which I base this story. Will could well have had another wife.

I have studied the Elizabethan period for many years; wrote my master’s degree thesis about one of Shakespeare’s plays,
All’s Well That Ends Well
; and have written numerous novels set in that period, including a nine-book historical mystery series with Queen Elizabeth I herself as the amateur sleuth. I have been to London and Stratford-Upon-the-Avon many times, always concentrating on Elizabethan events and sites. When I taught British literature at the high school level, I helped organize an Elizabethan festival in which the students played many parts. In short, for some reason, I am drawn to the Tudor era and its fascinating people.

Of the many books on Shakespeare’s life that I have read as background and inspiration before I wrote Anne Whateley’s story, three were of special help to me:
Shakespeare: The Biography
, by Peter Ackroyd
; Shakespeare
, by Michael Wood (which was also an excellent Public Broadcasting miniseries); and
Will in the World
, by Stephen Greenblatt. Many people interpret the Bard of Avon’s life differently with, as the playwright himself said, “infinite variety.”

Of my many books on Elizabeth Tudor, I leaned most heavily on Alison Weir’s
The Life of Elizabeth I
.

Such minor things in this novel as the portrait of the playwright as a young man and the W.S. signet ring with the lover’s knot do exist. Now in the possession of the John Ryland University Library in Manchester, England, the painting is usually called the Grafton Portrait because it was found in a home in Temple Grafton. I like to imagine that Susannah Hall, after her mother died, gave it back to Anne Whateley. The ring was discovered in 1810 in a field close to Holy Trinity churchyard; it is in the possession of the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust in Stratford.

Also, it is fact that a young Stratford woman named Katherine Hamlett drowned in the Avon in 1580, leaving her milk pail on the bank. Of such small details are big stories made.

Sadly, the Globe and Blackfriars theatres were pulled down in 1644 and 1655, respectively, so that tenement buildings could be erected. But, of course, the Globe was rebuilt in modern times and Shakespeare’s plays live on there and in many other venues. And so, although this novel is fiction, the pieces that support the story are as factual as research and serious speculation can make them.

Despite my years of research in the Elizabethan era, I especially noted several fascinating and surprising truths while writing this novel. Marriage in “the old days” was often delayed until a person’s mid-twenties, and a surprising proportion never wed, including several of Shakespeare’s brothers. Illegitimacy rates were quite low because what we would call “shotgun marriages” were common—again a statistic with which Will Shakespeare was personally involved. Also my reading reminded me how many Elizabethans died early, not only as infants but as young people. I have not exaggerated the death toll of the Shakespeares or the Davenants. People were middle-aged at thirty, and someone like the queen who lived to be seventy was quite remarkable.

Although we do not live in an age where youth and health are “brief candle[s]” and radish poultices are used to cure ills, perhaps we should yet be reminded to use well our “hour upon the stage.”

 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

A former college instructor and high school English teacher, Karen Harper writes contemporary suspense as well as historical novels. Karen and her husband love to travel both in the United States and abroad and, when at home, divide their time between Columbus, Ohio, and Naples, Florida. For additional information, please visit
www.karenharperauthor.com
.