Puzzle of child-death ‘link’ to Shakespeare heroine

A coroner’s report shows Jane Shaxspere drowned aged two-and-a-half while picking corn marigolds 20 miles from Stratford-upon-Avon in 1569, when the playwright would have been aged about five.

The discovery led to speculation that Jane could have been his younger cousin, and that her story inspired the death of the flower-loving Ophelia character in Hamlet, who drowned after falling into a brook.

The inquest jury recorded a “misfortune” verdict on Jane’s death, which happened at the mill pond at Upton Warren, Worcestershire.

Project leader Steven Gunn, of Oxford University’s Faculty of History, said: “It was quite a surprise to find Jane Shaxspere’s entry in the coroners’ reports – it might just be a coincidence, but the links to Ophelia are certainly tantalising.”

Emma Smith, of Oxford’s Faculty of English Language and Literature, said: “Even if Jane Shaxspere were not related to the playwright, the echo of their names might well have meant that this story stuck in his mind.

“It’s a good reminder that, while Shakespeare’s plays draw on well-attested literary sources, they also often have their roots in gossip, the mundane, and the domestic detail of everyday life.

“It’s interesting to think of Ophelia combining classical and Renaissance antecedents with the local tragedy of a drowned girl.”

Dr Gunn has also discovered more slapstick causes of death which he felt could have provided “material for Laurel and Hardy or Monty Python’s upper-class twit of the year”.

He said: “One man shot himself in the head while trying to get out the arrow stuck in his longbow and another fell into a cesspit while relieving himself.

“At least three people were killed by performing bears – one bear’s value is listed as a princely 26 shillings and four pence.

“One unlucky man was standing in a garden on the edge of Coventry when a maypole fell over. It missed him and hit the city wall – but his narrow escape turned to disaster when a stone fell off the city wall, hit him on the head and killed him.

“Some of the records ask more questions than they answer - one man crushed his testicles while playing a ‘Christmas game’ and a Scottish man is recorded as dying after offering to demonstrate a pastime popular in his country which seems to have involved lying down and being tied up.”

The project, which is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council, will last for four years.