We know that in 1660 Shakespeare's elder daughter Susanna married John Hall, a successful physician. They set up home in what is now called Hall's Croft, in Stratford-upon-Avon. They had a daughter, Elizabeth, an only child. Five years later, when Susanna was thirty, she was publicly slandered by a young gentleman, John Lane (or Jack, as I call him), second son of the well-heeled family of Alveston Manor. We know that Susanna brought a charge of defamation against him in the diocesan court at Worcester Cathedral, which is how we have the exact wording of the slander, from the court archive. Jack Lane claimed that Susanna Hall "had the runinge of the reynes and had been naught with Rafe Smith at John Palmer".

We know that Rafe Smith was a haberdasher and hatter of Sheep Street, Stratford. He was, more than likely, a friend of the Halls, since his uncle, Hamnet Sadler, was closely associated with Susanna's father. John Palmer was a cousin of Smith's with a house in Stratford. Jack Lane was twenty-three when he defamed Susanna. We know that he also later libelled the vicar of Holy Trinity and was sued for riot and charged with drunkenness by the churchwardens.

We know that Vicar-General Goche presided over the court in Worcester Cathedral and is thought to have been a puritan. Bishop Parry we know to have been a man celebrated for his sermons at James's Court, not a supporter of the puritanical tendency. Doctor Hall certainly was of that tendency. He is on record as calling for firm church discipline, but he was no bigot. He treated Catholics...and he married Susanna who had once been on the list for not receiving the sacrament at Holy Trinity Church. (This could have carried the stigma of leaning towards Rome.)

As for Susanna's character, what little else we know is from the epitaph on her tomb, close to Shakespeare's.

We have a goldmine of information on Hall as a doctor since he left behind a unique case book. As you will find, I have raided it frequently.

But in the end the play was never intended as historical documentary. It was the pain of moral dilemma detectable behind this small handful of facts that drew me to write it.

Peter Whelan

It just happens that John Hall's father had a house in Acton and Shakespeare may have stayed there. Anyway, Peter Whelan thinks he did.