Any clue about the life of William Shakespeare usually excites scholars, but a piece of trial had been overlooked for decades. Now, a new analysis of that neglected document seems to break a longtime narrative on the bad marriage of the Bardo.
Shakespeare was 18 years old in 1582 when he married Anne Hathaway, daughter of a family friend in Stratford-Upon-Avon who was in the mid-1920s and pregnant. For centuries, it was thought that the writer left his wife and children behind for a literary life in London, trying to avoid “the humiliation of domestic feuds”, as an influential essayist of the 19th century said.
This vision of Shakespeare's wife as a “distant footprint” suitable for scholars who thought that “Shakespeare was too interesting to be a married boy,” said Matthew Steggle, a professor of literature at the University of Bristol in England, in an interview. The perception was supported by the fact that Shakespeare had left her “second best bed” in her will.
But the new research of Stegle, published on Thursday in the Shakespeare magazine, suggests that the writer was not detached from his wedding after everything.
The suggestion lies in a fragment of a 17th century letter that turns to a “Mrs Shakspaire”, found in the constraint of a book published in 1608. The existence of the letter was noted in 1978 by an amateur historian, but had a minimal attention, even after the book was unlimited in 2016, revealing what seemed to be part of a response from Shakespeare, Mr. Stegle, Mr. Stegle, Mr. Stegle, Mr. Stegle, Mr. Stegle, Mr. Stegle, Mr. Stegle, Mr. Stegge, Mr. Stegge, Mr. Stegle, Mr. Stegle, Mr. Stegle, Mr. Stegle, Mr. Stegle.
He was working on a biography of Shakespeare when he learned of the 1978 discovery and it was surprised that he was not better known. The technological progress allowed him to trace the people mentioned in the longtime correspondence, together with other tests that indicate that he included the playwright's wife, he said.
If the letter was really addressed to THE Mrs. Shakespeare, rather than a less known person with a similar name, “is obviously remarkable,” said Stegle. Not only does it give some contacts of previously unknown Shakespeare, but also offers new clues about their relationship and even suggests that Mrs. Shakespeare has lived for a while in London with her husband.
If Hathaway lived in London, he probably returned to Stratford when he received the letter, probably around 1607, even if not necessarily because his husband wanted independence, according to Mr. Stegle.
He proposes in his document that “there is an obvious reason to avoid London in 1603-4, namely the bad wave of plague”. In addition, the next arrival of Shakespeares' first grandson after the marriage of the 1607 of his daughter Susanna “would certainly be a good time” for Hathaway who was based in Stratford.
Steggle suggests that Mrs. Shakespeare's movements should be reconsidered with an eye for her “possible absences from London rather than her perpetual absence”.
The note to Mrs. Shakespeare concerned money for a father without father named John, who was an apprentice, although not under the famous playwright, with the surname “Butte” or “Butts”. He invited her to pay money that most likely was held in confidence for him, a commitment that his husband could have undertaken, and referred to a time when “he lived in Trinitie Lane”, that Mr. Stegle now believes refers to a position in London.
The book that held the letter was a text from 1608 printed by Richard Field, originally from Stratford who was associated, near and first Shakespeare printer, according to Mr. Stegge. WastePaper was commonly used in the binding of the book and “the vast well -known connections of Field to Shakespeares”, the discovery of their family documents in a work that published indicates that she was probably faced to the famous Mrs. Shakespeare, said Stegle. In particular, the answer, which seems to come to her, seems “organized, professional and rather sarcastic”, he added.
As for John Butts, the child in the letter, his name appeared in a record of 1607 of an institution governing the disobedient apprentices, among other documents, and Mr. Stegge said that his surname arose in the extended personal network of Shakespeare “.
“The stakes are high,” writes Stegle in his newspaper. “This letter, if it belongs to them, offers a look at the Shakespeares together with London, is involved in social networks and commercial issues and, on the occasion of this request, presenting a united front against important requests to help the poor orphans.”
His discoveries give a little weight to the feminist readings of Shakespeare's life and a tendency of pop culture, as seen in the famous musical of the stage “& Juliet”, as well as in the acclaimed novel “Hamnet”, to rethink the marriage and the role of Hathaway in it.
In the musical, Hathaway arrives in London from Stratford to participate in a performance of “Romeo & Juliet” and annoys her husband by suggesting an alternative ending in which Juliet does not die. The novel depicts the couple's complex relationship and their shared pain for the death of the child.
Like those reinterpretations, the letter of four centuries undermines long -standing life on the life of the playwright. For Shakespeare biographers “who favor the narration of the” disastrous marriage ” – and even those who do not do it – the document” should be a horrible and difficult problem “, concludes the document of Mr. Stegle.