directory
home contact

Shakespeare's Lost Years

We know very little about Shakespeare's life during two major spans of time, commonly referred to as the "lost years": 1578-82 and 1585-92. The first period covers the time after Shakespeare left grammar school, until his marriage to Anne Hathaway in November of 1582. The second period covers the seven years of Shakespeare's life in which he must have been perfecting his dramatic skills and collecting sources for the plots of his plays.

For more information, please see Four Periods of Shakespeare's Life.



How to cite this article:
Mabillard, Amanda. Shakespeare's Lost Years. Shakespeare Online. 12 Nov. 2000. < http://www.shakespeare-online.com/biography/shakespearelostyears.html >.




_______

More Resources

 Queen Elizabeth: Shakespeare's Patron
 King James I of England: Shakespeare's Patron
 The Earl of Southampton: Shakespeare's Patron
 Going to a Play in Elizabethan London

 The Shakespeare Sisterhood - A Gallery
 Worst Diseases in Shakespeare's London
 Preface to The First Folio

 Shakespeare's Pathos - General Introduction
 Shakespeare's Portrayal of Childhood
 Shakespeare's Portrayal of Old Age
 Shakespeare's Attention to Details
 Shakespeare's Portrayals of Sleep

 Publishing in Elizabethan England
 What did Shakespeare drink?
 Ben Jonson and the Decline of the Drama
 Publishing in Elizabethan England

 Alchemy and Astrology in Shakespeare's Day
 Entertainment in Elizabethan England
 London's First Public Playhouse
 Shakespeare Hits the Big Time


On Shakespeare

"It is sometimes suspected that the enthusiasm for Shakespeare's works shown by some students is a fiction or a fashion. It is not so. The justification of that enthusiastic admiration is in the fact that every increase of knowledge and deepening of wisdom in the critic or the student do but show still greater knowledge and deeper wisdom in the great poet. When, too, it is found that his judgment is equal to his genius, and that his industry is on a par with his inspiration, it becomes impossible to wonder or to admire too much." George Dawson. More on Shakespeare's genius...

More to Explore

 Shakespeare's Ancestry
 Shakespeare's Parents
 Shakespeare's Birth
 Shakespeare's Sibings

 Shakespeare's Education
 Shakespeare the Actor and Playwright
 Shakespeare's Marriage

 Shakespeare's Children
 Shakespeare's Death
 Shakespeare's Burial

 Was Shakespeare Italian?
 How Many Plays Did Shakespeare Write?
 What Did Shakespeare Look Like?

 Shakespeare's Religion
 Shakespeare's Contemporaries: Top Five Greatest
 Shakespeare's Audience: The Groundlings
 Four Periods of Shakespeare's Life

 Shakespeare's Language
 Words Shakespeare Invented
 Shakespeare's Reputation in Elizabethan England

 Shakespeare at the Globe
 Shakespeare's Impact on Other Writers
 Quotations About William Shakespeare
 Shakespeare's Boss: The Master of Revels

 Daily Life in Shakespeare's London
 Life in Stratford (structures and guilds)
 Life in Stratford (trades, laws, furniture, hygiene)
 Stratford School Days: What Did Shakespeare Read?

 Games in Shakespeare's England [A-L]
 Games in Shakespeare's England [M-Z]
 An Elizabethan Christmas
 Clothing in Elizabethan England