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a_t_rainTFW someone posts exciting new research in your academic field, and all you can think is "oh shit, what is this about to do to my WIP?"
(Not a whole lot, as it turns out; I've read a preprint, and the author's theory of the case is that Anne Shakespeare is in London with her husband around 1599-ish, is present as a witness when he makes certain promises regarding John Butts, and later, around 1607, an unidentified friend of Butts writes to her and pleads with her to give Butts some amount of money that William has apparently refused to pay. There's something written in different handwriting on the back of the letter; it's very fragmentary, and may be something completely unrelated, but if it is Anne's reply, it appears to be a "no." She also seems likely to have been back in Stratford by this time, which would explain why she's apparently unaware of whatever has recently passed between her husband and the writer, but also has access to her husband's money. So she really doesn't have to have stayed in London all that long, and I already had her coming for a visit in 1600 and basically acting as Will's Stratford business agent the rest of the time, so ... yay?
The author seems to have considered, and rejected, the hypothesis that this might be a hitherto-unknown wife of Edmund Shakespeare, which was actually my very first thought when I read the news articles, and which would leave me with much bigger plot and characterization problems.
He also seems to kinda-want them to be a small-scale Macbeth and Lady Macbeth, conspiring together to cheat a poor orphan, but Butts evidently grew into a rather ill-behaved young man. I can see William having perfectly reasonable reservations about handing over a large sum of money to someone who seemed likely to squander it, and the letter-writer then sending an emotionally loaded appeal to Anne under the impression that she would be a softer touch. As always, a bit of a Rorschach test!)
(Not a whole lot, as it turns out; I've read a preprint, and the author's theory of the case is that Anne Shakespeare is in London with her husband around 1599-ish, is present as a witness when he makes certain promises regarding John Butts, and later, around 1607, an unidentified friend of Butts writes to her and pleads with her to give Butts some amount of money that William has apparently refused to pay. There's something written in different handwriting on the back of the letter; it's very fragmentary, and may be something completely unrelated, but if it is Anne's reply, it appears to be a "no." She also seems likely to have been back in Stratford by this time, which would explain why she's apparently unaware of whatever has recently passed between her husband and the writer, but also has access to her husband's money. So she really doesn't have to have stayed in London all that long, and I already had her coming for a visit in 1600 and basically acting as Will's Stratford business agent the rest of the time, so ... yay?
The author seems to have considered, and rejected, the hypothesis that this might be a hitherto-unknown wife of Edmund Shakespeare, which was actually my very first thought when I read the news articles, and which would leave me with much bigger plot and characterization problems.
He also seems to kinda-want them to be a small-scale Macbeth and Lady Macbeth, conspiring together to cheat a poor orphan, but Butts evidently grew into a rather ill-behaved young man. I can see William having perfectly reasonable reservations about handing over a large sum of money to someone who seemed likely to squander it, and the letter-writer then sending an emotionally loaded appeal to Anne under the impression that she would be a softer touch. As always, a bit of a Rorschach test!)
