LostYears1

The “Lost Years” of Shakespeare’s life are truly a mystery, with many different opinions on what really happened. The “Lost Years” were a period in Shakespeare’s life between 1585-1592. We know virtually nothing about these years because there are absolutely no written records of what happened. When Shakespeare was 21, he married Anne Hathaway, and then had three children. Then, he completely disappeared for 7 years, and all of the sudden, said by Shakespeare’s Research Center, “he was living in London as resident playwright and part owner of a theatre company.” Since these years are such a mystery, people have taken a real interest in what happened. The first theory that was thought of by Richard Davies, in 1616. He stated that Shakespeare was poaching deer and rabbits on the land of Sir Thomas Lucy. Rowe then added that Shakespeare left Stratford so that he would have to take Lucy’s punishment. The only problem with this theory is that it has no evidence to back it up, and scholars do not believe that it is true. The next theory that was presented by John Aubrey in the late 1681 was that he was a schoolmaster in the country. The source of the news was Christopher Beeston’s son. This is a very likely theory because is explains how Shakespeare got into acting. Christopher was in Shakespeare’s theatre company, the Lord Chamberlin’s Men. This also explains how Shakespeare got more education. Another likely idea was that Shakespeare, being a converted Catholic, was moved to live with his relatives to avoid any danger, and there he met some actors who saw potential in him and decided to help him out. Some more theories are that he traveled through Italy, went out to sea, was a soldier in Flanders, was a runaway butcher, and was even holding horses outside theatres in London. Even though there are many theories as to how Shakespeare spent these seven “Lost Years,” nobody truly knows what happened.

This is a picture of Shakespeare's wife Anne Hathaway.

The picture above is a map of London from around the time that Shakespeare was said to have moved there.

This is a picture of Sir Thomas Lucy and his family.

This pictures shows an idea of what The Lord Chamberlin's Men, Shakespeare's acting company, looked like.

Here is a great link that tells you all about the Lost Years.

Here is a link that gives you lots of great information about the Lost Years.