The Project Gutenberg EBook of Shakespeare's Lost Years in London,
1586-1592, by Arthur Acheson

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Title: Shakespeare's Lost Years in London, 1586-1592

Author: Arthur Acheson

Release Date: February 3, 2008 [EBook #24500]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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SHAKESPEARE'S LOST YEARS IN LONDON

1586-1592

SHAKESPEARE'S LOST YEARS IN LONDON

1586-1592

Giving new light on the pre-Sonnet period; showing the inception of
relations between Shakespeare and the Earl of Southampton and displaying

JOHN FLORIO

AS

SIR JOHN FALSTAFF

BY

ARTHUR ACHESON

AUTHOR OF "SHAKESPEARE AND THE RIVAL POET"
"MISTRESS DAVENANT, THE DARK LADY OF THE SONNETS", ETC.

NEW YORK
BRENTANO'S
1920

_All rights reserved_

TO MY SONS

ARTHUR MURRAY ACHESON

AND

ALEXANDER G. ACHESON

I DEDICATE THIS VOLUME

"The purpose of playing, whose end, both at the first and now, was, and
is, to hold, as 'twere, the mirror up to nature; to show virtue her own
feature, scorn her own image, and the very age and body of the time his
form and pressure."

_Hamlet_, Act III. Scene ii.

CONTENTS

CHAP. PAGE

I. INTRODUCTORY 1

II. THE STRATFORD DAYS, 1564-1586 19

III. SHAKESPEARE, THE BURBAGES, AND EDWARD ALLEYN,
1586-1591 38

IV. SHAKESPEARE AND THE EARL OF PEMBROKE'S COMPANY,
1591-1594 72

V. SHAKESPEARE AND THE SCHOLARS, 1588-1592 90

VI. THE POLITICAL PURPOSE OF _KING JOHN_, 1591-1592 131

VII. INCEPTION OF THE FRIENDSHIP BETWEEN SHAKESPEARE
AND THE EARL OF SOUTHAMPTON, 1591-1594 150

VIII. JO