LostYears5

===** WHAT ARE “THE LOST YEARS” OF SHAKESPEARE’S LIFE? WHAT ARE THE THEORIES BEHIND WHERE SHAKESPEARE WAS AND WHAT HE WAS DOING IN HIS LOST YEARS? WHY ARE THESE YEARS SO IMPORTANT? AND WHY ARE THEY SUCH A MYSTERY? **=== Answer prepared by:Molly M William Shakespeare is a mystery to many, but why is he such a mystery? The answer is the years 1578-1592, years known as the lost years. In these years there is no documentary of who Shakespeare was or what he was doing. Splitting the lost years in two, the first part is 1578-1582, and the second part is between 1582-1592. The lost years have numerous of thoughts to what really happened that they all cannot be said in this paper but the important ones will.

The first part of the lost years is from 1578-1582, this is very strait forward and most historians have a pretty good idea on what happened. This is the part where Shakespeare evidently left school and got married to Anne Hathaway. We can tell Shakespeare left school because of his father’s fortune had declined and he was behind on his taxes, so Shakespeare left school to go help his father and family out. Historians are not sure what job Shakespeare did, to raise money to help his father, but the best guess is that he took up the family business. Shakespeare was at the time we can guess he was rather a Glover, who makes fine leather gloves, or a Whittawer, who makes saddles harnessed. Another job Shakespeare’s father knew how to do was lend money, which was a very dubious occupation. So we can assume that Shakespeare took up the job of lending money and could do it very well. After that part of his life information became even harder to find. Every historian needs to make an educated guess on what Shakespeare did. To guess historians went to Shakespeare’s plays they found that there is a lot of knowledge that went into the plays and Shakespeare had to get it somewhere. So taking an educated guess is that Shakespeare must have learned astronomy, the law, seamanship, and military matter during this time period. They also think he must have visited Italy during this time because most of his plays are based in that place and through out the rest of his life there is no records of him departing to Italy. Something that we do know is that in 1582, the end of the first section of the lost years is that he got married to Anne Hathaway, his wife that he would have the rest of his life. The second section gets slightly clearer, but when new stuff is found there comes even more question.

This period is much trickier then the last. In this time period people know that he left Stratford for London. We also know he begins his famous career in the arts and became successful. The first important moment in this period is that Shakespeare left his home is Stratford and moved to London. There are many different theories on why he moved, but the two main ideas are what I will explain. One-reason historians believe that Shakespeare left his home because he is believed to have been caught pouching a deer on the grounds of Sir Richard Lucy. First of all poaching is the “illegal practice of trespassing on another’s property to hunt or steal game without the landowners permission,” taken from the dictionary. Now Nicholas Rowe said he caught Shakespeare doing this act but later the story of him poaching was proven false. It is still believed that Shakespeare did hunt but in deer parks and rabbit warrens, not illegally though. In Shakespeare’s plays we see a great deal of hunting or talk about it, this is the part where historian gets the idea that he hunted in is life. Still Shakespeare never mentioned the word poaching as an importance to a play. There is only one play that ever says something that means poaching; it was in the playmedia type="youtube" key="3SLRMNAGArs" height="194" width="306" align="left" //The Merry Wives of Windsor//. Even though the word is never said in the play the phrase “ to take game or fish illegally” is said in act one. He also puts poaching in a metaphor used for an usurpation of a person’s control over other forms of property. Now thinking back to poaching or hunting it was not done to find meals or something, but it showed social privilege and control over the English landscape. So even though this has been proven wrong it is still a thought on what could have happened. Another idea on why Shakespeare moved to London was to go and work in the theater with the Queen’s Men. The most proof that historians have is in 1592, Shakespeare was spoken about in a pamphlet; it talked about how he was a play writer and actor. Now the question comes up to how Shakespeare got so famous. The most believed theory is that a man named Robert Greene, who wrote about romance, tragedies, songs, and plays. When he died his publisher Henry Chettle put some words of Robert in a pamphlet in the year 1592. Some of the words in the writing attacked Shakespeare and because of how embittered and vitriolic, Henry was forced to print a retract on the pamphlet. The two words that explained Shakespeare was “upstart crow.” These two words made Shakespeare known and famous. Still there are some documents of what Shakespeare did in the second part of the lost years, like his kids. First we know that there first kid Susanna, was baptized on May 26, 1583. Then on February 2, 1585 Shakespeare’s kids Hamnet and John were baptized. That is about it for the second half, there is some much to learn about these years because of all the ideas people has, but these are the most common ones. The lost years are very opinionated and have many ideas on what could have happened in that time period. The very hard part is that Shakespeare has no living direct descendents, so there is no one to tell us stories that may have been passed down. Still historians have a pretty good idea on what has happen. The lost years are always going to be a mystery and without a document to tell us it will stay that way forever.

Biography that explains lostyears and more with eggs. Bryson, Bill. Shakespeare peare the world as stage. New York, New York: DK Publishing inc, 2007. Print.
 * media type="youtube" key="8A6ck_jPgFg" height="224" width="358" Works Cited **

Chrisp, Peter. Shakespeare. New York, New York: DK Publishing inc, 2002. Print.

Ingreen, Robert, and Michel Rosen. Shakespeare His Work & His World. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Candle Wick Press, 2006. Print.

Laroque, Francois. //The Age of Shakespeare//. Abrams, New York: Abrams, inc, 1993. Print.

Love, Mark. "Robert Greene attacks Shakespeare." //In Search of Shakespeare//. PBS, 2003. Web. 20 Mar 2010. .

Pressley, J. M. "The Mystery Between Stratford and London." //Shakespeare's "Lost Years"//. The Shakespeare Resource Center, January 8, 2010. Web. 17 Mar 2010. .

Theis, Jeffrey. "The ill kill'd deer: poaching and social order in 'The Merry Wives of Windsor'." //Texas Studies in Literature and Language// March 22, 2001 : n. pag. Web. 18 Mar 2010. .