Richard III (play) "Hamlet" is shorter than its Quarto counterpart. The play is often abridged; for example, certain peripheral characters are removed entirely. In such instances, extra lines are often invented or added from elsewhere in the sequence to establish the nature of characters' relationships. A further reason for abridgment is that Shakespeare assumed that his audiences would be familiar with his "Henry VI" plays and frequently made indirect references to events in them, such as Richard's murder of Henry VI or the defeat of Henry's wife, Margaret. "House of York" "House of Lancaster" "Woodville family" "Richard III's group" "Earl of Richmond's group"
Joan Shakespeare is ultimately rejected because of her sex. She becomes pregnant, is abandoned by her partner and commits suicide. A teenage Joan appears in Laurie Lawlor's novel "The Two Loves of Will Shakespeare" (2006), in which she is presented as an aspirant poet who resents the restrictions placed on her as a woman. She writes sonnets, one of which her brother plagiarises. She is in love with Richard Field, but he pursues Anne Whateley. In "Shakespeare's Will", Vern Thiessen's speculative biographical play about Anne Hathaway, Joan is a "bitch" who is constantly interfering in Anne's life. Joan Shakespeare Joan Shakespeare (baptised