William Shakespeare
The Development of Shakespeare's Stratford
Conjectures for Shakespeare in Titchfield
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William Shakespeare wrote only two dedications in his life. Both were attached to long narrative poems Venus and Adonis (1592-1593) – an erotic and funny tale in which Venus pursues the unwilling Adonis and The Rape of Lucrece (1593-1594) – a tragic tale of rape and suicide. Both dedications, addressed to a same single man, Henry Wriothesley, The Earl of Southampton and Baron of Titchfield, suggest that Shakespeare was in Titchfield from 1592 to 1594 under the patronage of Henry Wriothesley.
A letter from Henry Wriothesley, written in 1592, was signed by him but penned by another hand. This hand is identical to a portion of the manuscript of The Play of Sir Thomas More, identified as “Hand D”, the hand of Shakespeare as suggested by Richard Simpson in 1871.
The image of the spear in the Shakespeare's family coat of arms could have been a play on the family name but the image of the falcon could have been inspired by the Wriothesley's family coat of arms, declaring the intimate relationship between Shakespeare and Wriothesley at Titchfield.
References were made to "The Parke" and "The Place" in Love's Labour's Lost, both clearly shown in the 1610 map of Titchfield suggest that Shakespeare was in Titchfield when writing the play.