SHAKESPEARE AND MRS. DAVENANT

SHAKESPEARE went from time to time to pass some days at New Place. Half-way upon the short journey he encountered Oxford, and at Oxford the Crown Inn, and at the inn the hostess, a beautiful, intelligent creature, wife of the worthy innkeeper, Davenant. In 1606, Mrs. Davenant was brought to bed of a son, whom they named William; and in 1644 Sir William Davenant, created knight by Charles I., wrote to Rochester: "Know this, which does honor to my mother,--I am the son of Shakespeare;" thus allying himself to Shakespeare in the same way that, in later days, M. Lucas-Montigny claimed relationship to Mirabeau.

Purchase Books about William Shakespeare

• Davenant, William - A biography of the English poet and dramatist, sometimes rumored to be the illegitimate son of William Shakespeare.
• William Davenant: Poems - An index of poems by Sir William Davenant.
• Biographical aspects of the Sonnets - Examines the worth of Shakespeare's sonnets in piecing together clues as to the nature of his romantic life.
• Greene's Jealousy of Shakespeare - As early as 1592, Shakespeare's dramatic work had excited the envy and indignation of his contemporaries, including the accomplished scholar and dramatist, Robert Greene.
• His Family and Education - Available biographical details of Shakespeare's early life.
• His Marriage and Relations with his Wife - Known facts of Shakespeare's relationship with Anne Hathaway.
• Shakespeare's Birthplace - A description of the house in which Shakespeare was born and a note on the orthography of his name.
• William Shakespeare - a biography.
• William Shakespeare - a biography.