A Chapter in the Early Life of Shakespeare
Polesworth in Arden

This 1926 book argues that Shakespeare spent his formative years at Polesworth Hall in the Forest of Arden.

Arthur Gray (Author)

9781108005579, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 20 July 2009

156 pages, 78 b/w illus.
21.6 x 14 x 0.9 cm, 0.21 kg

In this charming and thought-provoking 1926 volume, Arthur Gray, Master of Jesus College, Cambridge from 1912 to 1940, explored the possibility that William Shakespeare spent his formative years at Polesworth Hall in the Forest of Arden, perhaps serving as a page boy. The Forest of Arden once stretched from just north of Stratford-upon-Avon to Tamworth, and covered what is now Birmingham; Polesworth, near Tamworth, was the home of Sir Henry Goodere and the centre of the famed 'Polesworth Circle'. This splendid focus of creative and cultural activity would have offered the young William exposure to the finest minds, a wonderful education and valuable introductions. Sir Henry, who evidently knew John Shakespeare in Stratford, was certainly patron of many young writers and musicians, including the eminent Elizabethan poet, Michael Drayton. If Gray is correct, Drayton would have been a contemporary of Shakespeare's at Polesworth.

1. The problem stated
2. The Marlowe fiction
3. The Greenwood theory
4. The Stratford legend
5. Does Shakespeare rail? 6. William Shakespeare, gentleman
7. Concerning genius
8. Stratford fact and fable
9. The flight to London
10. Shakespeare's silence about Stratford
11. Concerning Arden
12. Of poets, patronage and pages
13. What happened in 1572
14. Polesworth
15. Shakespeare in north Warwickshire
16. Shakespeare's road to London
17. Michael Drayton
18. The Polesworth circle
19. The Gooderes
20. The sonnets
21. Southampton
22. Warwickshire scenes in Shakespeare's youth
23. The last days.

Subject Areas: Literary studies: general [DSB]