Anne Whateley facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Anne Whateley
This portrait was once thought to show Anne Whateley. Now, most people believe it's a painting of the poet Girolamo Casio by Giovanni Boltraffio.
Born	supposed to be 1561 Temple Grafton, Warwickshire, England
Died	supposed to be 1600 (aged 39) Warwickshire, England
Occupation	alleged nun, poet, muse
Literary movement	English Renaissance

Anne Whateley is a name linked to William Shakespeare. Some people believe she was the woman Shakespeare planned to marry before he wed Anne Hathaway. However, most experts think Anne Whateley never actually existed. They believe her name appeared in a marriage document by mistake.

Even so, a few writers who study Shakespeare think she was a real person. They see her as a rival to Anne Hathaway for Shakespeare's love. Anne Whateley has also appeared in stories and plays about Shakespeare. Some even call her "the first of the Shakespearean Dark Ladies," a mysterious woman mentioned in Shakespeare's poems.

Was Anne Whateley Real?

The Marriage Document Mystery

The idea of Anne Whateley comes from a record found in the city of Worcester. This record, from November 27, 1582, says that a marriage license was given for "Wm Shaxpere and Annam Whateley de Temple Grafton." This means William Shakespeare and Anne Whateley were allowed to marry in the village of Temple Grafton.

But the very next day, two friends of the Hathaway family, Fulk Sandells and John Richardson, signed a financial guarantee. This guarantee was for the wedding of "William Shagspere and Anne Hathwey." This makes things confusing: did Shakespeare plan to marry two different Annes?

What Experts Thought at First

When the Whateley record was found in the late 1800s, people tried to explain it. At first, some thought "Whateley" might just be another last name for Anne Hathaway. One idea was that Anne Hathaway used a different name to keep her marriage secret. This was because she was already expecting a baby.

Other ideas included Anne Hathaway possibly having a stepfather named Whateley, or even being married to a Mr. Whateley before Shakespeare. But none of these ideas fit with other known facts about Anne Hathaway.

Clerical Error or Two Annes?

The names of Shakespeare and Whateley in the note from the Worcester register.

In 1898, Sidney Lee wrote about the Whateley note in his book A Life of William Shakespeare. He suggested that the "William Shakespeare" who was going to marry Whateley might be a different person. He pointed out that many people named William Shakespeare lived in the Worcester area.

Later, in 1905, Joseph William Gray wrote a detailed argument. He believed the name Whateley was simply a mistake made by the person writing the record. He found that the same writer was also recording other legal cases involving people named Whateley. This could have led to the error.

However, some writers disagreed. In 1909, Frank Harris argued that there weren't two William Shakespeares. He insisted that the documents showed Shakespeare was involved with two different women. Harris believed Shakespeare intended to marry Anne Whateley. But when this became known, Anne Hathaway's family supposedly made him marry her instead, because she was expecting a child. Harris thought Shakespeare disliked his wife and that this difficult marriage pushed him to become a great writer.

Some biographers, like Ivor Brown and Anthony Burgess, agreed with Harris. They saw Anne Whateley as Shakespeare's true love. Ivor Brown even thought she was the "Dark Lady" from Shakespeare's famous sonnets.

What Most Scholars Believe Now

Today, most experts agree with Joseph William Gray. They believe the name Whateley was "almost certainly the result of clerical error." It might have happened because the clerk was also writing about a church matter that mentioned someone named Whateley.

Even though there was a Whateley family in the area, no other proof has ever been found that an Anne Whateley existed in Temple Grafton or nearby. Also, later research has not found records of any other William Shakespeares of marriageable age in the Worcester area. This makes Sidney Lee's idea of two different William Shakespeares less likely.

Authorship Ideas and Stories

Who Wrote Shakespeare's Plays?

After Frank Harris's ideas, some people made even more imaginative claims about Anne Whateley. The most dramatic idea was that she was the real author of Shakespeare's famous plays and poems.

William Ross, in his 1939 book The Story of Anne Whateley and William Shaxpere, claimed that Whateley was a nun. He said she was Shakespeare's "lover and partner in their spiritual union." Ross believed she was born in 1561 and was the daughter of a famous sailor, Anthony Jenkinson. He claimed she lived a quiet life among nuns when she met Shakespeare. They fell in love, and she was about to leave the order to marry him. But then, Anne Hathaway revealed she was expecting a baby.

Ross thought Anne Whateley wrote the sonnets as gifts for Shakespeare. He believed they told the story of her special connection with him. In this theory, Anne Hathaway is the "Dark Lady" of the sonnets, and Shakespeare himself is the "Fair Youth." Ross suggested their close friendship continued even after Shakespeare married Hathaway. He also claimed Whateley wrote A Lover's Complaint to show Anne Hathaway's feelings.

Ross had less to say about the plays. But he suggested Whateley probably wrote them to help Shakespeare earn a living. He called it a "collaboration," with Shakespeare playing a "passive" role. Ross saw Shakespeare as a talented writer, but Whateley as the true "genius."

Other Wild Theories

Ross's ideas were further developed by his friend W.J. Fraser Hutcheson in his 1950 book Shakespeare's Other Anne. Hutcheson agreed that Whateley's father was Jenkinson. He even claimed her real name was Elizabeth Anne Beck. He said she used the name Whateley because of the family she grew up with.

Hutcheson suggested that after Shakespeare married Hathaway, Anne Whateley was heartbroken and went to Italy. There, she gained the knowledge that later appeared in Shakespeare's plays set in Italy. He also claimed to have found a portrait of Whateley, painted by Sofonisba Anguissola.

However, neither Ross nor Hutcheson provided real documents to support their theories. Ross based his ideas on his own interpretations of poems. Hutcheson claimed to find secret messages in texts and pictures. The portrait Hutcheson identified as Whateley is now widely believed to be of a different person, Girolamo Casio, and was painted by Giovanni Antonio Boltraffio, not Anguissola.

Some people who believe others wrote Shakespeare's works have used the Anne Whateley story. They often use it to make Shakespeare look bad, suggesting he was not a good person. They argue that this means he couldn't have written such great poetry. For example, Robert Frazer, who thought the Earl of Derby wrote the plays, claimed Shakespeare actually married Whateley, not Hathaway.

Anne Whateley in Stories and Plays

Anne Whateley has also appeared in many fictional stories and plays about Shakespeare. In these, she is usually shown as Shakespeare's true love, while Anne Hathaway is often portrayed as less appealing.

In Hubert Osborne's 1917 play The Good Men Do, Anne Hathaway and Anne Whateley meet after Shakespeare's death. Hathaway is shown as mean and spiteful, while Whateley is noble. Both women suggest that Shakespeare's life as an actor and playwright was not good. Whateley even says he would have avoided this "shameful profession" if he had married her.

Ivor Brown also wrote a play, William's Other Anne (1947). In this play, Shakespeare returns from London to meet Anne Whateley eight years after their broken engagement. Anne is about to marry a strict schoolmaster. Shakespeare and Anne make up, and Shakespeare helps save his father from financial trouble caused by Anne's angry mother. This play was even shown on BBC television in 1953.

Anne Whateley is mentioned in Robert Nye's 1998 novel Late Mister Shakespeare. In this book, an old actor who knew Shakespeare wonders if Anne Whateley really existed. She also appears in Graeme Johnstone's 2005 novel The Playmakers. Here, she is an innocent girl with a "sweet nature" and "perfect figure." She is heartbroken when she finds out William has made Hathaway pregnant. The story says Anne and William were soulmates who planned to work together. Anne dies, and her memory stays with Shakespeare throughout his life. He goes to London and becomes a public face for Christopher Marlowe's plays.

In Karen Harper's 2008 novel Mistress Shakespeare, Anne Whateley is the main character. Again, she is Shakespeare's true love. She tells her life story as the dark-skinned daughter of a Stratford businessman and an Italian acrobat. In the book, she and Shakespeare have a secret "handfast" marriage. While Hathaway and her children stay in Stratford, Anne secretly lives a parallel married life with Shakespeare in London. She inspires many of his works and shares his feelings and experiences.

Images for kids

• 

  This portrait was once thought to show Anne Whateley. Now, most people believe it's a painting of the poet Girolamo Casio by Giovanni Boltraffio.

• 

  The names of Shakespeare and Whateley in the note from the Worcester register.