Picture of an
approximation of
William Shakespeare's New Place
William Shakespeare and
Stratford-upon-Avon
THE SUCCESS OF WILLIAM
SHAKESPEARE
By 1596 William
Shakespeare was a real success
He had found a
Patron in the Henry Wriothesley who was the Third Earl of
Southampton
He had had his
poems published by his Stratford friend Richard Field -
Venus and Adonis was published in 1593 to critical acclaim
and financial reward
He was mingling
with the Literary elite. He belonged to the Friday Street
Club and met with the most famous authors, playwrights and
poets of the era including Ben Jonson, Francis Beaumont,
John Fletcher. John Donne, Robert Herrick, John Selden and
Sir Walter Raleigh
He belonged to
the most important acting troupe in England, the
Chamberlain's men
His stake in the
Globe Theatre earned him 10% of the profits - given the
number of productions and audience size this was a large
amount of money
He acted in the
presence of Queen Elizabeth I
William
Shakespeare had been granted permission to display a
coat-of-arms and was entitled to put "gentleman" after
his
name
He worked as an
actor, a playwright and a poet - he had become rich and
successful!
He was going to
invest in his home town of Stratford-upon-Avon and look
after his family
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE PURCHASES
NEW PLACE IN STRATFORD-UPON-AVON
In 1597 on May
4th William Shakespeare purchased New Place, the second
largest house in Stratford for the sum of £60
He also
purchased two cottages and two barns in Stratford-upon-Avon
New Place was an
impressive building, made of brick, with a courtyard at the
front, and barns, spacious gardens and orchards at the rear
The property was
such a size that he would have certainly had servants
including a gardener. The household was run by his wife Anne
The picture at
the top of the page is an approximation of what New Place
would have looked like
In 1598 William
is mentioned as among the chief holders of corn and malt in
Stratford so we know that despite his career in London he
was still clearly a man of some importance in Stratford
Shakespeare and
other members of the acting company financed the building of
the Globe Theatreand became entitled to a 'cut' of the
profits
In 1602
Shakespeare bought land and an estate in Stratford for £320
- it consisted of 107 acres in the open fields of Old
Stratford, together with a farm-house, garden and orchard,
and 20 acres of pasture
