Will Shakespeare

Clemence Dane's inventive drama reimagines Shakespeare not as a distant monument, but as a young husband torn between a Stratford cottage and the larger destiny calling him toward London. In the opening scenes, Anne Hathaway's anxious love collides with his guarded, poetic evasions, exposing a marriage strained by secrecy, ambition, and the ache of loving someone whose mind already lives elsewhere. Henslowe's arrival brings the glittering promise of the theatre, fame, and the Queen's favor, but also the threat of separation, jealousy, and sacrifice. As the conflict deepens, Anne confronts Shakespeare over betrayal, hidden truths, and the painful bargain that bound them together, while he wrestles with his own longing for artistic greatness. A playful, searching exchange with Mary shifts the play into imagination and invention, culminating in the creation of Romeo and Juliet and the thrill of its first performance. Yet triumph is interrupted by home: Anne returns, then her mother brings devastating news that Hamnet is gravely ill. Forced to choose at last, Shakespeare abandons his resistance and goes back to Stratford, where private grief and public genius meet. This edition has been fully restored with modern typesetting, custom cover design.