There were no
documented facts about the life of William Shakespeare
between leaving school in 1578 and marrying Anne Hathaway in
1582! This time is therefore referred to as the First Lost
Years
The Second Lost
Years - Between 1582 and 1592 there were only four
documented facts about William Shakespeare
2 Entries for the Baptism of
his children in 1583 and 1585
In 1589 a court
documents name William Shakespeare and his parents in a land
dispute
In 1592 he is
referred to in a very famous pamphlet called the
'Groatsworth of Wit' ( a Groat was a coin worth a small
amount of money)
With such little
documented evidence of the life of William Shakespeare the
period between 1578 and 1592 is therefore called the LOST
YEARS
THE FIRST LOST YEARS (1578 -
1582)
This is the
period between William Shakespeare leaving school and
marrying Anne Hathaway
We know quite a
lot about William's father - John Shakespeare and can piece
together the events surrounding the Shakespeare family and
how these events affected the life of William during the
First Lost Years
In 1578 John
Shakespeare's fortune was in decline and he became behind
with his taxes. William had to leave school to help his
father and the family
We do not know
what occupation was undertaken by William! But it is
probably safe to assume that at some time he helped with the
family business - trading in malt, corn, wool and leather.
His occupation would have been a Glover and Whittawer (the maker
of saddles, harnesses and fine leather
gloves)
His father was
also a money lender ( a very dubious occupation ) - William
Shakespeare was known to operate as a money lender when he
moved from Stratford to London so we can assume that William
would have learnt about this area of his father's business!
Now the real
guesswork has to start! The plays of William Shakespeare
required a significant knowledge of Astronomy and the Law,
Seamanship and Military matters, not to mention of Italy
where many of his plays are based. Because of this scholars
have debated that experience of these matters must have been
obtained during the Lost Years. We therefore have a
collection of different opinions of the occupations that
William Shakespeare might have followed during his Lost
Years:
A Sailor or
Soldier
A Law clerk
A Teacher
We do know that
in 1582 he married to Anne Hathaway as there is documented
proof of this
THE SECOND LOST YEARS (1582 -
1592)
We now reach the
second part of William Shakespeare's Lost Years
What do we have
proof of?
In 1582 William
married Anne Hathaway
On May 26th 1583
William's first child, Susanna, was baptised - six months
after her parent's marriage - must have caused a real
scandal in the family!
On February 2
1585 William Shakespeare's twins, Hamnet and Judith, were
baptised
In 1589 William
Shakespeare was named, with his parents, in a legal action
against a neighbour called John Lambert over a dispute over
some land in Wilmcote (a village near Stratford-upon-Avon)
In 1592 he is
referred to in a very famous pamphlet, written by an author
called Robert Greene, which was called the 'Groatsworth of
Wit' in which Robert Greene attacks the actor William
Shakespeare as an "upstart crow"!
We also know
that on March 3 1592 , the London Acting troupe called
Lord Strange's Men produced Henry VI Part 1 at the Rose
Theatre. It is therefore assumed that William Shakespeare
probably wrote this famous play together with Parts 2 and 3
between 1590 and 1592
Not a lot of
documented evidence and information! But we definitely know that he was
in Stratford-upon-Avon in 1589 and that he had to moved to
London by 1592!
WHY DID SHAKESPEARE MOVE FROM
STRATFORD-UPON-AVON TO LONDON?
There is
speculation that William might have offended Sir Richard
Lucy by poaching a deer on his grounds and had to leave
Stratford to avoid prosecution ( No documented evidence
supports this theory).
But it is
reasonable to assume that there must have been a strong
reason to leave his wife, children and family to follow the
life of an actor in London ( In Elizabethan times actors
were classed as low-lives )
There are many
mysteries which surround the life of William Shakespeare -
the Lost Years are the first of many!
William
Shakespeare - The Lost Years' (1578 - 1592)
