Intimacies with Marlowe, entanglements in London with the mysterious dark lady, the probable fathering of an illegitimate son -- the mysteries of Shakespeare's personal life have proven tantalisingly obscure. In Shakespeare Revealed, acclaimed authority, Rene Weis, brings the man and his milieu to the fore in a compelling reassessment. Breaking with tradition, he reveals how the works themselves contain a rich seam of clues about Shakespeare's life, from his heretical dalliances with Catholicism to his grief at the death of his son Hamnet. If there is a code in his writing, Shakespeare always intended it to be broken. This striking re-reading is consolidated by scrupulous archival research. Through reconstruction of records of the age, Rene Weis builds a colourful picture of Shakespeare's daily life: the bustling market town of Stratford, the spellbinding forests of Warwickshire, the pell-mell of London's theatres. Above all he reanimates Shakespeare's social scene: Stratford's family affairs and neighbourly disputes and a dangerous London scene, peopled with shady spies, informers and torturers.

Author Biography

Rene Weis is a world authority on Shakespeare. He has edited King Lear 'Longman' and Henry IV Part 2 'Oxford' and has published widely on Shakespeare. He is currently working on a new edition of Romeo and Juliet for the Arden Shakespeare. He lives in London and teaches at UCL. He has previously written two critically acclaimed biographies: Criminal Justice and The Yellow Cross.