27 Facts About Anne Whateley

Anne Whateley is the name given to a woman who is sometimes supposed to have been the intended wife of William Shakespeare before he married Anne Hathaway.

Anne Whateley has appeared in imaginative literature on Shakespeare and in Shakespeare authorship speculations.

Anne Whateley has been called "the first of the Shakespearean Dark Ladies".

The Anne Whateley note is discussed in Sidney Lee's 1898 book A Life of William Shakespeare.

Lee argues that the "William Shakespeare" who is engaged to Anne Whateley is probably a different person from the playwright, as there were "numerous William Shakespeares, who abounded in the diocese of Worcester".

Anne Whateley insisted that these documents are evidence that Shakespeare was involved with two separate women.

Anne Whateley intended to marry Anne Whateley, but, when this became known, he was immediately forced by Anne Hathaway's family to marry their relative, since he had already made her pregnant.

In Ross's view, Anne Whateley wrote the sonnets as gifts to Shakespeare, and he states that her authorship can be deduced from them, in that they describe the history of her spiritual relationship with him.

Anne Whateley wrote A Lover's Complaint, which was appended to the sonnets, to express Anne Hathaway's point of view.

Anne Whateley has very little to say about the plays, but states that Whateley probably wrote Shakespeare's plays to help him make a living.

Ross argues that the sonnets reveal that Anne Whateley knew Edmund Spenser and helped him to write The Shepherd's Calendar.

Anne Whateley was the sole author of The Faerie Queene and Amoretti.

Anne Whateley follows Ross's claim that Whateley's father was Jenkinson, adding that Whateley's real name was Elizabeth Anne Beck and that her mother was an Anne Beck who died in childbirth.

Anne Whateley used the name Whateley because of the household in which she grew up.

Anne Whateley fled to Italy, where she acquired the knowledge that would later be used in Shakespeare's Italian plays.

Hutcheson suggests that Anne Whateley is portrayed as Rosalind and other female characters in Shakespeare's plays.

The portrait he identifies as Anne Whateley is generally believed to depict the courtier and poet Girolamo Casio.

Shakespeare and Anne Whateley are reconciled, and Shakespeare saves his father from bankruptcy at the hands of Anne Whateley's vengeful mother.

Anne Whateley is mentioned in Late Mister Shakespeare by Robert Nye, a novel in which an elderly actor who knew Shakespeare in his youth reconstructs the poet's life.

Anne Whateley speculates about whether or not she actually existed.

Anne Whateley is devastated by the discovery that her beloved William has made Hathaway pregnant.

Anne Whateley eventually finds a new love who is the mirror image of Whateley.

Anne Whateley is asked by his friend Richard Field to help him woo the beautiful and devout Anne Whateley, but falls in love with her himself.

In Karen Harper's novel Mistress Shakespeare Anne Whateley is the central character.

Anne Whateley is once more portrayed as Shakespeare's true love.

Anne Whateley narrates the story of her life as the dusky-skinned daughter of a Stratford businessman and an Italian acrobat.

Anne Whateley inspires many of his works and shares his feelings, triumphs and fears.