“Good Mrs Shakspaire”

A fragment of a letter was found, written during the lifetime of William Shakespeare—addressed to "Good Mrs Shakspaire."

This letter appears to have been sent to Shakespeare's wife—Anne Hathaway.

It also refers to how she and her husband formerly lived in Trinity Lane—in London.

I invite you to read the scholarship, by Matthew Steggle. There are lots of interesting details about the life and times of Shakespeare. I applaud him for taking the time to investigate this letter fragment—which was originally discovered in 1978.

As you may know, there was no standardized spelling in Shakespeare's lifetime. His Shakespeare name was spelled any number of ways—Shakspear, Shagsper, Saxpere, Shaxbeard, etc.

The name Hamlet and Hamnet, for example, are the same name.

So, it is entirely credible that the name Shakspaire means Shakespeare—especially since the person who spelled it that way was the sender of the letter.

It is commonly believed that Shakespeare and his wife did not live together in London. That idea has been widely spread primarily by the movie, Shakespeare in Love—in which Shakespeare is unhappily married to Anne, that he has all but abandoned her in Stratford, and that he is willing to have an affair with another woman.

Does this letter prove that Anne lived in London with her husband—and that they were happily married?

Of course not. It does not prove it.

But it certainly supports that idea.

From what I have read, there has been a very serious effort to depict Shakespeare as anything other than a happily married man, who loved his wife, and who cherished his children.

When Shakespeare wrote his last will and testament, he gave with instructions to bequeath the "second-best bed" to Anne, after his death. Scholars have written how this is meant to suggest that he did not care for her.

I am not surprised that this letter fragment has been almost entirely ignored for almost fifty years. This letter does not fit with the agenda that these scholars have. They have sought to diminish Shakespeare rather than extol him.

I absolutely disagree with the popular and pervasive idea that Shakespeare and Anne did not love each other. In my series of novels, I depict a very loving and close relationship between them.

I think that this letter fragment is a great piece of evidence to support my understanding of Shakespeare.

I do have one question. Why is it assumed that the letter is addressed to Shakespeare's wife—and not his mother—Mary Shakespeare?

In my series of novels, I have already have planned to write that Mary Shakespeare would often come to London, and stay with her son, to help him manage his business affairs.

Shakespeare's father John died in 1601. It is entirely plausible that Mary would want something to do after the death of her husband. I think that it is very likely that she lived almost permanently with William after John's death. This letter appears to have been written in this period of time.

To me, it is very unlikely that Anne Hathaway would have lived in London for any serious length of time—at any point from 1590 to 1610.

She had two daughters to raise—Susanna, born 1583, and Judith, born 1585.

And, in my series of novels, Anne is in charge of running New Place—which is a very important part of the story of the life of Shakespeare.