Mistress Shakespeare
by Karen Harper
November 2010 Book Pick

Book Club Discussion: Interview with Karen Harper, author of Mistress Shakespeare

I read in your Author's Note that some of the basic facts about Anne are true. I desperately want your whole story to be Will and Anne's history! I'm sure you've been asked this question, but I'm dying to hear it first-hand, how did you come up with such a beautiful life and love story for Will and Anne Whatley?

I admit I write what is called faction, a mingling of fact and fiction. I research my topics extensively, including trips to England. (Well, someone's got to do it!) I studied and taught Shakespeare for years, and always felt there was a woman who inspired some of this greatest characters and plots. And it was evidently not his wife, Anne Hathaway. Granted, he, like others of his day, often "borrowed" basic story lines from other sources, but he always put his own wonderful spin on them with strong, sassy women characters. Also, although he has several "unknown events" periods in his life, a lot is known about the Bard of Avon. Since he is registered as being betrothed to Anne Whatley as well as Anne Hathaway (and they are listed as coming from different towns, so it was probably not a 'slip of someone's pen,) I went looking for a mysterious woman and found Anne. As my Author's Note says, I found evidence of her woven through Will's life as well as in the plays.

In a way, the research for this novel, one of my favorite I've ever written, turned into a detective story. If Will left Anne Hathaway his "second best bed" in his will, who got the first best bed? Who did he cleverly arrange would get his London property when he died, because it wasn't Anne H. Clues led to his indeed being betrothed to, and possibly wedded to, Anne Whatley.

One other thing on this: I resent that some scholars claim a rural man without a university education could not have written such brilliant poems and plays. I believe, under the right circumstances and inspiration he could indeed. After all, the inventive genius Thomas Edison came out of little Milan, Ohio, was thrown out of elementary school because he "couldn't learn." His mother taught him at home and no doubt is greatly to be thanked for fostering his ambition and imagination. I believe Anne Whatley was that inspiration for Shakespeare.

Mistress Shakespeare interview with Karen Harper

Book Club Discussion: Interview with Karen Harper, author of Mistress Shakespeare

Can you tell us a little bit more about Will's marriage to Anne Hathaway? Was it really as awful as it seems? Regardless of how close to the truth you have come about Will's true love being elsewhere, did he have an agreement with his wife to live a separate life in London?

The Shakespeare/Hathaway marriage is one of the mysteries of Will's life. He provided well for her and the children--and after all, they had three children, so they occasionally had a meeting of bodies if not minds. Books have been written defending Anne H. and chastising her. My view of their marriage is one of many, but I believe it makes sense and fits with what we do know about them. One thing I didn't emphasize in the novel is that Will's famous inscription on his grave curses anyone who moves his bones. In other words, he did not want his body moved later to lie next to his wife who was not to be buried with him, which is highly unusual.

Mistress Shakespeare interview with Karen Harper

Book Club Discussion: Interview with Karen Harper, author of Mistress Shakespeare

There were times when I would get angry with Anne Whatley for continuing to hold her heart for Will only; however, those times were short-lived because I felt their love transcended all else. She really was his muse. Do you believe that she is as much the root of his success as is his writing ability?

One thing I would never suggest is that Anne (or anyone else) but one great mind--William Shakespeare's of Stratford-Upon-Avon--wrote the plays. That's why I have her in more of a secretarial role to him as well as his inspiration. The identity of "The Dark Lady" of his poems also can fit Anne W., although much has been written on other women this might have been. And one note about her holding her heart for Will-at least she lived her own life when he was away, had her own business, her own friends, her own pursuits. I would have thought much less of my heroine had she just moped around when they were apart. She would not have been the strong woman he loved had she come alive only for the times he was with her.

Mistress Shakespeare interview with Karen Harper

Book Club Discussion: Interview with Karen Harper, author of Mistress Shakespeare

The idea of plays being written for various noblemen as well as the Queen's court is interesting. Tell us a little but more about why this was necessary. When did this practice end?

Of course, such sponsorship came down to money for the poets/playwrights and fame and publicity for their sponsors. Perhaps it's a bit like a writer getting an advance of funds today to live on while writing a book. Yet, we have no direct equivalent to this situation. Today, the second Queen Elizabeth may order a command performance or she may go to a debut of a film, but that is a far different thing. I believe this patronage survived the Puritans' closing down the theatres as dens of iniquity and was picked up again by the later Stuarts--after that, perhaps such a practice didn't fit the "German Georges" or the strict Victorians. Great question, though. If anyone can add information to this, they should post it on this site or my website, www.karenharperauthor.com.

Mistress Shakespeare interview with Karen Harper

Book Club Discussion: Interview with Karen Harper, author of Mistress Shakespeare

I wholeheartedly believe that this situation could indeed be part of William Shakespeare's history. The one small thing that rings untrue is that Anne Whatley never became pregnant. Why and how didn't she?

I have Anne remark about this herself in the story. She wonders why she never "caught a child" from Will. However, as we know from life today, there are some women who do not conceive--and it is one of several reasons Anne feels an affinity to the childless queen. I wanted to concentrate on Anne and Will's relationship. Also, Anne's barrenness stands in contrast to her friend Jennet, who lost so many babies-a common occurrence then, as Catherine of Aragon, Henry VIII's first wife, illustrates. I did slip in a mention that in mid-life Will had a fever which a physician called measles, and that can make a man impotent. In my research on his life, I remember reading that one of Jennet's younger children when an adult tried to claim that his father was Will Shakespeare (long after Will's death), but I think he was making it up for fame and fortune--a con man.

Mistress Shakespeare interview with Karen Harper

Book Club Discussion: Interview with Karen Harper, author of Mistress Shakespeare

You are a writer of many genres! Tell us a little bit about your contemporary mystery fiction, as well as any other historical fiction you've written.

Since we're on the subject of Tudor-era fiction, I'll mention those first. I have been a Tudormanic for years and have also written The Last Boleyn (the story of Anne's sister Mary, published 20 years before Philippa Gregory's The Other Boleyn Girl. We two authors see Mary's story very differently.) Also I've written The Queen's Governess, about Elizabeth's "foster mother," Kat Ashley, who has a great story of her own. The Irish Princess will be out next February in time for St. Patrick's Day. I've also written The First Princess of Wales, who was the wife of the Black Prince, with a Medieval setting. I had to laugh that one woman huffily returned that book to a Barnes & Noble in Naples, Florida because "Princess Diana was not in the book at all!"

As for my contemporary fiction, I write romantic suspense for Mira Books, fourteen books so far, most recently Down River, set in Alaska, and Deep Down, set in Appalachia. (These are not a series. I do have a printable list of my novels on my website.) I have written a series set in Ohio Amish country, which I know well. These, which are being re-released beginning in August, are Dark Road Home, Dark Harvest and Dark Angel. I have just written book #1 of a new Amish trilogy which will debut next year.

Of course, I'm ready to start another historical novel, this one set at the very beginning of the Tudor period, at the bridge between the Medieval world and the English Renaissance. King Henry VIII is only age 12, Prince of Wales, at the end of the story. The story focuses on a famous mystery. The heroine is a wax carver and chandler in London, one who also carves wax effigies of royalty for their tombs--a strange practice! Unlike many authors who begin with character or plot, I begin with a setting I love and build the story from there. As famous British author P.D. James once told me, "If the setting seems real, the other characters will too."

This alternating between writing historical and contemporary novels means I need to have a "brain transplant" between books. Each genre demands a different culture, voice, vocabulary, even sentence structure. However, I do love writing in both past and present. I take my readers into a culture that they may not know much about: Appalachian, Alaskan, Amish--or even my beloved Tudor England.

Mistress Shakespeare interview with Karen Harper