When did William Shakespeare leave to go to London?



A seven-year gap in Shakespeare’s biography – between 1585 and 1592 – is another source of frustration to historians. At some point in this period, Shakespeare moved from Stratford-upon-Avon to London, where he emerges, in 1592, as a successful actor and playwright.

Why did William Shakespeare move to London?

By oral tradition, it was reported that Shakespeare poached deer from Sir Thomas Lucy’s estate, the nearby Charlecote Park. It was said that he fled to London in order to escape punishment.

How long did Shakespeare travel to London?

He would have walked to London. This is thought to be the route he would have taken. Historians and scholars think that, leaving early every morning from wherever he slept at night, walking briskly across fields and if they were not too muddy, roads, it would have taken him six days.

Where did Shakespeare move to in 1592?





London

By 1592, he was in London as an actor and a dramatist. During his years in London, Shakespeare maintained his links with Stratford-upon-Avon. His wife and children continued to live there, although his son Hamnet died in 1596.

When did Shakespeare move to London and start writing plays?

Shakespeare’s reputation was established in London by 1592. It was during this time that Shakespeare wrote his earliest plays, including Henry VI Part 1, Henry VI Part 2, Henry VI Part 3, The Two Gentlemen of Verona, and Titus Andronicus, though it is often debated which of these plays was actually the first.

When did Shakespeare first appear in London?

1592





By 1592, aged 28, Shakespeare was in London and already established as both an actor and a dramatist. He is first mentioned as a man of the theatre by the poet and dramatist Robert Greene, in Greenes, Groats-Worth of Witte published that year.

Why are the years between 1585 to 1592 called the lost years?

But regarding the man himself, there is a gap in the timeline scholars have constructed – a seven-year period during which we know nothing at all about where he was and what he was doing, although there is much, unsupported, conjecture about it. Those years have been labeled ‘the lost years.

What was London like in 1599?

London was a bustling, overcrowded city. In 1599, a Swiss visitor said, “one simply cannot walk along the streets for the crowds”. Another visitor called the crowded streets “dark and narrow”. The dark attracted thieves and the overcrowding brought disease.

How long did it take Shakespeare to travel from Stratford to London?

The carrier ‘Greenaway’ regularly – who lived opposite the Shakespeares on Henley Street – regularly went up and down the byways and the highways from Stratford to London. It took about three days, if you did it quickly; four if you did it more comfortably, perhaps.