Shakespeare: A Life

In the last ten years, virtually every previously known fact about Shakespeare has been modified by new research. Park Honan draws on this new information to dramatically alter our perceptions of the actor, poet, and playwright.

Here is virtually all that can be factually known or reasonably speculated about Shakespeare's life. Readers will find a vivid picture of what Shakespeare's childhood might have been like in the small English town of Stratford, which had but a dozen streets in 1560. We meet his father, John Shakespeare, the glovemaker of Henley Street, who rose to the office of High Bailiff and Justice of the Peace before he was beset by financial difficulties. There is a fascinating portrait of London and of the life of an Elizabethan actor (a neophyte Shakespeare may have had to learn as many as a hundred small parts per season). Honan casts new light on the young poet's relationships--his early courtship of Anne Hathaway, their marriage, his attitudes to women such as Jennet Davenant, Marie Mountjoy, and his own daughters--illuminating Shakespeare's needs, habits, passions, and concerns. The author shows in fresh detail that Shakespeare was well acquainted with violent crime and murder in daily life. And he also examines the world of the playing companies--the power of patronage, theatrical conditions, and personal rivalries--to reveal the relationship between the man and the writing.

Park Honan's Shakespeare casts new light on a complex and fascinating life, illuminating Shakespeare's extraordinary development into the greatest dramatist of his or any age.

A narrative of Shakespeare's life using new information to alter the reader's perceptions of the actor, poet and playwright and his development as an artist.

A wealth of material about one of the most famous playwrights, actors, and poets casts new light on a complex and fascinating life, illuminating his extraordinary development into the greatest dramatist of his or any age. A 1999 "New York Times" Notable Book of the Year. 34 halftones.

Park Honan is Emeritus Professor at the School of English, University of Leeds. He has written biographies of Jane Austen, Matthew Arnold, and Robert Browning, and lives in the United Kingdom.

Preface

Illustrations

Part I: A Stratford Youth

1. Birth

Mother of the Child

3. John Shakespeare's Fortunes

4. To Grammar School

5. Opportunity and Need

6. Love and Early Marriage

Part II: Actor and Poet of the London Stage

7. To London and the Amphitheatre Players

8. Attitudes

9. The City in September

10. A Patron, Poems, and Company Work

11. A Servant of the Lord Chamberlain

12. New Place and the Country

Part III: The Maturity of Genius

13. South of Julius Caesar's Tower

14. Hamlet's Questions

15. The King's Servants

16. The Tragic Sublime

Part IV: The Last Phase

17. Tales and Tempests

18. A Gentleman's Choices

Notes

Appendix A: The families of Arden and Shakespeare

Appendix B: Descendants of Shakespeare's nephew Thomas Hart (b. 1605) down to the sale of the Birthplace in 1806

Appendix C: A note on the Shakespeare biographical tradition and sources for his life

Index