Shakespeare, the Evidence: Unlocking the Mysteries of the Man and His Work

Wilson theorizes that glover John Shakespeare, the Bard's father, was a member of a Catholic underground movement, and that William, too, secretly harbored Catholic sympathies. The slender evidence cited for this hypothesis includes a spiritualized last will, presumably John's, discovered in 1757 but quickly lost, as well as the playwright's purchase in 1613 of Blackfriars Gatehouse, a clandestine Catholic gathering place. Wilson (Jesus: The Evidence) proposes Ferdinando Stanley, Lord Stranges, as the mystery patron behind Shakespeare's Henry VI/Richard II tetralogy. Will, in this scenario, would have observed political intrigue close-up at Stanley's court, thus explaining how a low-born actor rapidly became familiar with high style and the ways of the world. There is virtually no hard evidence to back up this theory. Nevertheless, through his own indefatigable sleuthing and his lucid synthesis of the research of previous scholars, Wilson has produced an intriguing, richly illustrated, surprisingly full-bodied biography, which plunges readers into Shakespeare's turbulent milieu and provides an autobiographical or historic context for most of his plays. (Dec.)