The Private Life of William Shakespeare

Lena Cowen Orlin (Professor of English, Georgetown University)

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English

Oxford University Press
04 November 2021

Literature, Poetry & Criticism; Literary studies: c 1500 to c 1800; Shakespeare studies & criticism

A new biography of William Shakespeare that explores his private life in Stratford-upon-Avon, his personal aspirations, his self-determination, and his relations with the members of his family and his neighbours.

The Private Life of William Shakespeare tells the story of Shakespeare in Stratford as a family man. The book offers close readings of key documents associated with Shakespeare and develops a contextual understanding of the genres from which these documents emerge. It reconsiders clusters of evidence that have been held to prove some persistent biographical fables. It also shows how the histories of some of Shakespeare's neighbours illuminate aspects of his own life. Throughout, we encounter a Shakespeare who consciously and with purpose designed his life. Having witnessed the business failures of his merchant father, he determined not to follow his father's model. His early wedding freed him from craft training to pursue a literary career. His wife's work, and probably the assistance of his parents and brothers, enabled him to make the first of the property purchases that grounded his life as a gentleman. With his will, he provided for both his daughters in ways that were suitable to their circumstances; Anne Shakespeare was already protected by dower rights in the houses and lands he had acquired. His funerary monument suggests that the man of 'small Latin and less Greek' in fact had some experience of an Oxford education. Evidences are that he commissioned the monument himself.

By: Lena Cowen Orlin (Professor of English Georgetown University)
Imprint: Oxford University Press
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 240mm, Width: 160mm, Spine: 30mm
Weight: 1g
ISBN: 9780192846303
ISBN 10: 0192846302
Pages: 448
Publication Date: 04 November 2021
Audience: Professional and scholarly , Undergraduate
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

Introduction: 26 April 1564 1: 23 January 1577: Shakespeare's Father 2: 28 November 1582: Shakespeare's Wedding 3: 4 May 1597: Shakespeare's Home 4: 25 March 1616: Shakespeare's Will 5: 25 April 1616: Shakespeare's Monument List of Abbreviations Appendix I. Shakespeare in the West Midlands Appendix II. The Quiney Papers Appendix III. Shakespeare's Last Will Appendix IV. Shakespeare's Earlier Will Appendix V. The 'Shakespeare Type' of Funerary Monuments Appendix VI. Shakespeare Documented

Lena Cowen Orlin is Professor of English at Georgetown University, former Executive Director of the Folger Institute at the Folger Shakespeare Library, and past Executive Director of the Shakespeare Association of America. She is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, a Trustee of the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, Chair of the Board of Governors of the New Variorum Shakespeare, a general editor of the Oxford Shakespeare Topics series and the Arden Shakespeare State of Play series, and member of the editorial boards of Shakespeare Studies and Shakespeare Survey. Among her many publications are Locating Privacy in Tudor London and The Bedford Shakespeare.

Reviews for The Private Life of William Shakespeare

The great and lasting result of her labors is how punishingly she demolishes shoddy claims and biased inferences that have distorted our understanding of Shakespeare's life....it reads like a detective story in which a skilled investigator returns to a cold case...detailed and dazzling...[an] impressive and valuable book, a biography that will lead many to revise their classroom lectures. * James Shapiro, New York Times *