Internet Shakespeare Editions


The "lost years"

A street in Warwick. Photograph Roberta Livingstone

Because nothing certain is known of Shakespeare in the years between 1585 and 1592, the period is rife with speculation. Was Shakespeare a sailor, a soldier, a law clerk or a country school teacher? Did he go to one of the larger towns nearby -- like Warwick*, pictured here -- to further one of these careers?

One famous legend has Shakespeare fleeing Stratford for London after being caught poaching deer; another has him beginning his theatrical career minding horses before the playhouses.


  1. A neighbouring town

    Warwick is a day's walk from Stratford, and was the economic and administrative centre of Warwickshire. Shakespeare may well have come here on first leaving his home. This street in Warwick shows the hospital, with the castle in the distance. It is virtually unchanged since Shakespeare's day.