New discoveries about the Shakespeare marriage

Anne Hathaway and William Shakespeare’s marriage has long been a source of fascination. From their age difference when they wed—he was 18, she was 26 and pregnant with their first child—to Shakespeare’s will leaving Anne his second-best bed, people have speculated about the relationship.

But this past April, Shakespeare, the journal of the British Shakespeare Association, published new research from scholar Matthew Steggle of the University of Bristol about a 17th-century letter addressed to “Good Mrs Shakspaire.” The discoveries show the couple might have lived together in London at the time that Shakespeare was writing Hamlet and Othello, dispelling certain myths about their marriage.

Steggle’s article immediately captured the attention of the media, including the BBC, Guardian, New York Times, and Washington Post. We’ve excerpted some of their coverage below.

About the discovery

Steggle spent more than eight years confirming the names and places in a 17th-century letter written to “Good Mrs Shakespaire.” The fragments of the letter, which were used in the binding of a book in the Hereford Cathedral Library, were first discovered in 1978. Very little was known until now.

The New York Times reported:

“Steggle was working on a Shakespeare biography when he learned of the 1978 find, and was surprised it wasn’t better known. Technological advances allowed him to track down people mentioned in the long-ago correspondence, along with other evidence indicating that it included the playwright’s wife, he said.

“The note to Mrs. Shakespeare concerned money for a fatherless child named John, who was an apprentice, though not under the famous playwright, with the last name ‘Butte’ or ‘Butts.’ It called upon her to pay money that was most likely held in trust for him, a pledge that her husband may have undertaken, and it referred to a time when she ‘dwelt in trinitie lane,’ which Steggle now believes refers to a location in London.”

The letter had been used as wastepaper in the binding of a 1608 book by Johanne Piscator dissecting biblical texts which was printed by Richard Field, who was Shakespeare’s neighbor in Stratford and his first printer. “Given Field’s extensive known links to the Shakespeares,” Steggle believes that the fragment was likely addressed to the famous Mrs. Shakespeare, rather than a lesser-known person with a similar name.

“The stakes are high,” Steggle writes in his paper. “This letter, if it belongs to them, offers a glimpse of the Shakespeares together in London, both involved in social networks and business matters, and, on the occasion of this request, presenting a united front against importunate requests to help poor orphans.”

Laying out the evidence

The Washington Post reports:

“The story begins with a fragment of a 17th-century letter addressed to a ‘Good Mrs Shakspaire,’ concerning her husband’s dealings—likely as a trustee—for a fatherless apprentice named John Butte or Butts.

“The subject was money. Though some of the lines are lost, Steggle said that the letter essentially read, ‘Your husband owes us some money and if he doesn’t pay, you should.’

“Steggle found that a John Butts is recorded in church records, as a fatherless apprentice, in London in 1599 and 1607.

“The letter suggests the couple ‘dwelt in trinitie lane.’ There was a Trinity Lane in London at the time but not in Stratford.

“Steggle points out that the unknown author of the letter does not ask Anne to intercede with her husband, but actually to do the paying herself: like Adriana in The Comedy of Errors who undertakes to pay a debt on her husband’s behalf, even though she was previously unaware of it: ‘Knowing how the debt grows, I will pay it.’

“The analysis assumes the letter, as scrap, might have found its way—somehow—from Anne’s possession to a book binding.

“In his report, Steggle adds that ‘the handwriting expert Guillaume Coatalen has suggested to me, based on a fresh look at the handwriting and spelling of each hand, a most likely date range from around 1590 to 1620.'”

The Guardian shares some additional details:

“John Butts seems to have been serving an apprenticeship because the letter mentions ‘when he hath served his time.’ Scouring records from the period 1580 to 1650, Steggle found a John Butts, who was an apprentice, fatherless and in the care of his mother.

“He also unearthed a 1607 reference to a John Butts in the records of Bridewell, an institution whose tasks included the disciplining of unruly apprentices. A document told of ‘his disobedience to his Mother’ and that he was ‘sett to worke.’

“Steggle found John Butts in later records, placing him in Norton Folgate, outside the city walls, and living on Holywell Street (Shoreditch High Street today), home to several of Shakespeare’s fellow actors and associates.

“It was an area in which Shakespeare worked in the 1590s, first at the Theatre in Shoreditch, the principal base for the Lord Chamberlain’s Men throughout those years, and then at its near neighbour, the Curtain theatre. Shakespeare’s lifelong business partners, the Burbages, were involved in innkeeping and victualling nearby.

“Steggle said: ‘The adult John Butts, living on the same street as them, working in the hospitality industry in which they were invested … would very much be on the Burbages’ radar. So Shakespeare can be linked to Butts through various Norton Folgate contacts.'”

Researchers respond

Laurie Maguire, professor Shakespeare at the University of Oxford, told the Washington Post: “It’s a very significant piece of analysis. Very careful. Very judicious. The story it tells is very plausible, and the implications are huge.”

James Shapiro, an English professor at Columbia University and author of 1599: A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare, added, “There is no smoking gun here—but plenty of plausible evidence, connecting dots… I suspect that it will take some time for the smoke to clear and a new scholarly consensus to be arrived at. If Steggle is correct—and that this Mr. and Mrs. Shakespeare are indeed Anne Hathaway and William Shakespeare—it will overturn many accepted beliefs.”