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Read a Q&A with Karen Harper:

Q. Mistress Shakespeare is a combination of extensive research and imaginative speculation. What sources did you use? How does Anne’s life compare to real accounts of life in Elizabethan England?

Over the three decades I have studied and written about Elizabeth Tudor, her court and country, I have gathered quite a collection of books on Tudor culture and personalities. Some of my earliest research books include Pictures from English History (1883), Henry VIII (1929) by Francis Hackett and Life in Elizabethan Days (1930). I have a great selection of books spanning the years, including several very recent biographies of Shakespeare, dated 2003 – 2005. (The latter are listed in the Author’s Note at the end of the novel.)

Anne’s life compares to actual life in Elizabethan England as closely as scholars can determine and as I can make it. Fortunately, the English of that day wrote journals and books, everything from herbals to their wills and lists of their household goods. The queen’s possessions, health, and writings and speeches are very well documented, but so are the lives of courtiers and even some commoners.

Read the prologue of Mistress Shakespeare:

Prologue

LONDON, FEBRUARY 10, 1601

When I opened my door at mid-morn and saw the strange boy, I should have known something was wrong. I'd been on edge for three days, not only because of the aborted rebellion against the queen, but because Will and I were at such odds over it—and over our own relationship.

"You be Mistress Anne Whateley?"

My stomach knotted. The boy was no street urchin but was well attired and sported a clean face and hands. "Who wants to know?" I asked as he extended something to me. He must have a missive saying someone was ill. Or dead. Or, God save us, arrested.

"'Tis a tie from a fine pair of sleeves meant for you with other garments too, once adorning Her Majesty's person," he recited in a high, singsong voice as he placed a willow-green velvet ribbon laced with gold thread in my hand. In faith, it was beautiful workmanship.

"Didn't want me carrying all that through the streets," he added.

"'Tis all waiting for you at the Great Wardrobe nearby."

"I know where that is, lad, but have you not mistook me for another? I have naught to do with the queen's wardrobe."

"Three figured brocade gowns, two fine sleeves with points and ribbon ties, a butterfly ruff and velvet cloak for the Lord Chamberlain's players to use at the Globe Theatre. Since they be busy today, I am to fetch you to receive the garb."

Of late certain nobles had given me donated garments to pass on to Will's fellows. I'd done many things for the players behind the scenes, as they put it. I'd once helped with costumes, and that at court too. In the disastrous performance but three days ago, I'd held the book and prompted the players. I'd copied rolls for Will and his fellows as well as taken his dictation. Many knew I had helped to provide the fine cushions that padded the hard wooden seats beneath the bums of earls and countesses who graced the expensive gallery seats at the Globe. So mayhap the word was out that I was the Jack—or Jill—of all trades at the Globe.

Yet things from the queen's wardrobe? It was said she had more than two thousand gowns, so I supposed she could spare a few. The Shakespeare and Burbage company had performed before the court both at Whitehall and Richmond, but after the catastrophe of the Essex Rebellion, three days ago, Her Grace was donating personal pieces to them? Surely, she had heard that they had staged Will's Richard II, a play some whispered had intentionally incited the rebellion against her throne.