Joan Shakespeare
Encyclopedia
Joan Shakespeare was the sister of William Shakespeare
.
Joan was Shakespeare's younger sister, named after her parents' deceased first-born child. She married a hatter
named William Hart with whom she had four children, William (1600-39), Mary (1603-7), Thomas (1605-61), and Michael (1608-18).
Joan's husband, William, died in April 1616, and was buried 17 April, a week before William Shakespeare died. In his will her brother left her a legacy of £20 and granted her the right to live in the western part of the double family house on Henley Street in Stratford for a nominal yearly rent of one shilling. She continued to reside there for the remainder of her life, dying at the age of 77.
Her son William never married. Her other descendants via Thomas lived in Stratford until 1806.
, Virginia Woolf
created a character, "Judith Shakespeare", supposed to be Shakespeare's sister. In fact Judith
was his daughter. It is unknown whether this was a mistake or a deliberate conflation of the two women. In her story Shakespeare's sister is denied the education of her brother despite her obvious talent as a writer. When her father tries to marry her off, she runs away to join a theatre company but is ultimately rejected because of her sex. She becomes pregnant, is abandoned by her partner and commits suicide.
A teenage Joan appears in Laurie Lawlor's novel The Two Loves of Will Shakespeare (2006), in which she presented as an aspirant poet who resents the restrictions placed on her as a woman. She writes sonnets, one of which her brother plagiarises. She is in love with Richard Field
, but he pursues Anne Whateley
. In Shakespeare's Will, Vern Thiessen
's speculative biographical play about Anne Hathaway
, Joan is a "bitch" who is constantly interfering in Anne's life.
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...
.
Joan was Shakespeare's younger sister, named after her parents' deceased first-born child. She married a hatter
Hatter
A hatter is a person engaged in hatmaking.Hatter also may refer to:*The Hatter, a fictional character in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland* Luton Town F.C., team a.k.a. "The Hatters"* Stockport County F.C., team a.k.a. "The Hatters"...
named William Hart with whom she had four children, William (1600-39), Mary (1603-7), Thomas (1605-61), and Michael (1608-18).
Joan's husband, William, died in April 1616, and was buried 17 April, a week before William Shakespeare died. In his will her brother left her a legacy of £20 and granted her the right to live in the western part of the double family house on Henley Street in Stratford for a nominal yearly rent of one shilling. She continued to reside there for the remainder of her life, dying at the age of 77.
Her son William never married. Her other descendants via Thomas lived in Stratford until 1806.
In literature
In her essay A Room of One's OwnA Room of One's Own
A Room of One's Own is an extended essay by Virginia Woolf. First published on 24 October 1929, the essay was based on a series of lectures she delivered at Newnham College and Girton College, two women's colleges at Cambridge University in October 1928...
, Virginia Woolf
Virginia Woolf
Adeline Virginia Woolf was an English author, essayist, publisher, and writer of short stories, regarded as one of the foremost modernist literary figures of the twentieth century....
created a character, "Judith Shakespeare", supposed to be Shakespeare's sister. In fact Judith
Judith Quiney
Judith Quiney , née Shakespeare, was the youngest daughter of William Shakespeare and Anne Hathaway. She married Thomas Quiney, a vintner of Stratford-upon-Avon. The circumstances of the marriage, including Quiney's misconduct, may have prompted the rewriting of Shakespeare's will...
was his daughter. It is unknown whether this was a mistake or a deliberate conflation of the two women. In her story Shakespeare's sister is denied the education of her brother despite her obvious talent as a writer. When her father tries to marry her off, she runs away to join a theatre company but is ultimately rejected because of her sex. She becomes pregnant, is abandoned by her partner and commits suicide.
A teenage Joan appears in Laurie Lawlor's novel The Two Loves of Will Shakespeare (2006), in which she presented as an aspirant poet who resents the restrictions placed on her as a woman. She writes sonnets, one of which her brother plagiarises. She is in love with Richard Field
Richard Field (printer)
Richard Field was a printer and publisher in Elizabethan London, best known for his close association with the poems of William Shakespeare, with whom he grew up in Stratford-upon-Avon.-Life and career:...
, but he pursues Anne Whateley
Anne Whateley
Anne Whateley is the name of a woman who is sometimes supposed to have been the intended wife of William Shakespeare before he married Anne Hathaway. Most scholars believe that Whateley never existed, but that her name in a document concerning Shakespeare's marriage is merely a clerical error...
. In Shakespeare's Will, Vern Thiessen
Vern Thiessen
Vern Thiessen is a Canadian playwright.Born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Thiessen studied at the University of Winnipeg and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts. He later attended the University of Alberta, where he obtained a Master of Fine Arts degree.Thiessen currently lives in Edmonton, Alberta and was...
's speculative biographical play about Anne Hathaway
Anne Hathaway (Shakespeare)
Anne Hathaway was the wife of William Shakespeare. They were married in 1582. She outlived her husband by seven years...
, Joan is a "bitch" who is constantly interfering in Anne's life.
Ancestry
External links
- LIN VAN HEKLin Van HekLin Van Hek is an Australian writer, member of the Society of Women Writers and is the co-founder of a literary-music group called Difficult Women.Van Hek was born in Melbourne but lived in Europe and India for some years...
of Difficult WomenDifficult WomenDifficult Women is a literary-folk music cabaret created in 1992, in Melbourne, Australia, by Lin Van Hek and Joe Dolce and has been performing internationally for 15 years....
reads 'Shakespeare's Sister' in Audio section. http://www.sonicbids.com/epk/epk.aspx?epk_id=60893