Shakespeare: A Life (70 page)

Authors: Park Honan

Tags: #General, #History, #Literary Criticism, #European, #Biography & Autobiography, #Great Britain, #Literary, #English; Irish; Scottish; Welsh, #Europe, #Biography, #Historical, #Early modern; 1500-1700, #Entertainment & Performing Arts, #Performing Arts, #History & Criticism, #Shakespeare, #Theater, #Dramatists; English, #Stratford-upon-Avon (England)

BOOK: Shakespeare: A Life

6.66Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub

Read Book Download Book

NOTES

Unless otherwise stated, the place of publication is London. In
addition to short play-titles, the following abbreviations are used in
the notes:

Bearman	Robert Bearman, Shakespeare in the Stratfbrd Records ( Stratford-upon-Avon, 1994)
Diary	Henslowe's Diary , ed. R. A. Foakes and R. T. Rickert ( Cam- bridge, 1961)
EKC, Facts	E. K. Chambers, William Shakespeare: A Study of Facts and Problems , 2 vols. ( Oxford, 1930)
EKC, Stage	E. K. Chambers, The Elizabethan Stage , 4 vols. ( Oxford, 1923)
Gurr, Companies	Andrew Gurr, The Shakespearian Playing Companies ( Oxford, 1996)
Lost Years	E. J. Honigmann A, Shakespeare: The 'Lost Years' ( Manches- ter, 1985)
M∧A	Minutes and Accounts of the Corporation of Stratford-upon- Avon and Other Records 1333-1620 vols. i-iv, 1553-1592, ed. Richard Savage and Edgar I. Fripp ( Oxford, 1921-30); vol. v, 1593-1598, ed. Levi Fox (Hertford, 1990)
ME	Mark Eccles, Shakespeare in Warwickshire ( Madison, Wis., paperback edn., 1963)
MS BL	Manuscripts in the British Library , London
MS Bodleian	Manuscripts in the Bodleian Library , Oxford
MS Edinburgh	Manuscripts in the library of the University of Edinburgh
MS Folger	Manuscripts in the Folger Shakespeare Library , Washington, DC
MS Lancs.	Manuscripts in the Lancashire Record Office , Preston
MS Oxford	Manuscripts in the Oxford City Archives
MS SBTRO	Council-books, wills, and other manuscript records at the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust Records Office , Stratford-upon- Avon
PRO	Public Record Office , London
SR	Stationers' Register
SS, DL .	S Schoenbaum, William Shakespeare: A Compact Documen- tary Life ( Oxford, rev. edn., 1987)
Worcs.	Worcester County Record Office

-425-

I. Birth

1.	John Leland, Itinerary , ed. Lucy Toulmin Smith ( 1907-10), ii. 48.
2.	The parish and manor had been extensive. In the 13th century the name Old Stratford distinguished the chief manor from its various hamlets such as Shottery, Bishopton, Welcombe, Dodwell, and Drayton. In later times, 'Old Stratford'came to be applied to an area around the church including the street known as Old Town. A document purporting to be a grant by Berhtwulf, King of the Mercians, gives the monastery of Ufera Stretford to the diocesan church of Worcester in AD 84.5 In 872 Waerferth, Bishop of Worcester, leased land belonging to the monastery partly in order to pay tribute money to the Vikings; W. de Gray Birch, Cartularium Saxonicum ( 1885-93), nos. 450, 533, 534. The last bishop to possess the manor transferred it in 154 to John Dudley, Earl of Warwick.
3.	For Stratford and county history -- our knowledge of both improves almost year by year -- I have found of special use M∧A (and other council reports at the Birthplace Records Office), Robert Bearman Stratford-upon-Avon: A History of its Streets and Buildings (Nelson, Lancs., 1988) and Records ( Stratford-upon-Avon, 1994), the papers of the Dugdale and Stratford-upon-Avon societies, and, among older works, Levi Fox The Borough Town of Stratford-upon-Avon ( Stratford-uponAvon, 1953), Sidney Lee Stratford-on-Avon: From the Earliest Times to the Death of William Shakespeare ( 1902), and Philip Styles entry on the borough in The Victoria History of the County of Warwick ( 1904-69), iii. 221-82.
4.	Foxe's book, in its first ( 1563), expanded second ( 1570), or in a later edition, was often chained in Elizabethan churches. But it was costly and the law did not require every parish to have it.
5.	For the will of "John bretchegyrdle Clercke Vicar of Stretford" ( 20 June 1565) and inventory, see E. I. Fripp, Shakespeare Studies Biographical and Literary ( Oxford, 1930), 23-31.
6.	Eliz. I, 19 Sept. 1560, and her comments in 1561.
7.	See the pulpit evidence cited in R. L. Greaves, Society and Religion in Elizabethan England ( Minneapolis, 1981).
8.	And in other spellings in MS SBTRO, BRU 2/1 .
9.	MȧA i. p. xlix.
10.	It is probable that she died in 1559 or 1560, when the town's register was badly kept.
11.	J. H. Bloom, Shakespeares Church ( Stratford-upon-Avon, 1902); and Clifford Davidson , The Guild Chapel Wall Paintings at Stratford-upon-Avon ( New York, 1988). The old verses are faintly visible; I modernize the couplet's spelling.
12.	MS SBTRO, "Burialls", 14. Mar. 1564.

-426-

2. Mother of the Child

1.	M∧A i. 103, 5 Oct. 1560.
2.	[bid. iv. 96.
3.	Some Trussells left Billesley; one Thomas Trussell (among several of the same name) did well at the law at Stratford and once drew up an inventory with John Shakespeare ( 21 Aug. 1592).
4.	Citing his 'youngste dowghter Marye' first among his children, in his will of 24 Nov. 1556, Robert Arden leaves her the land at 'Asbyes' in Wilmcote and the crop growingon it. She inherited even more, such as valuable reversionary shares in Snitterfield property.
5.	MS SBTRO, ER 30/1-2 . She wrote neatly on the deed, but scrawled her mark on the much narrower parchment bond. (The deed measures 57.5 X 30 cm., and the bond 37X13-5 Cm.)
6.	EKC, Facts , i. 12-13.
7.	Ibid. ii. 1-2 .
8.	ME 19-22 .
9.	Hilda Hulme, "Shakespeare of Stratford", Review of English Studies , 10 ( 1959), 24.,
10.	M∧A iii. 25.
11.	Leeds Barroll summarizes what has been learned, in an era of microbiology, about forms and symptoms of bubonic and pneumonic plague in modern epidemics, in Politics, Plague, and Shakespeare's Theater ( Ithaca, NY, 1991), ch. 3.
12.	This follows the 'old tale' ( Much Ado , 1. i. 203-4) in Halliwell-Phillipps's version, but variants exist.
13.	Cf. Book of Days , ed. R. Chambers ( 2 vols., 1864), i. 332.
14.	Phillip Stubbes describes the ideal of courtesy within a household in A perfect Pathway to Felicitie ( 1592), and I have found especially useful on Tudor notions of decorum Lacey Baldwin Smith "Style is the Mail", in J. F. Andrews (ed.), Shakespeare , 3 vols. ( New York, 1985), i. 201-14.
15.	EKC, Facts , ii. 20.
16.	MS SBTRO, ER 30/1 ,
17.	Eleven painted cloths are numbered, but only one is assessed (at 26 s. 8 d. ), at his inventory on 9 Dec. 1556.
18.	Richard Mulcaster, The First Part of the Elementarie which Entreateth. . . of our English tung ( 1582; facsimile, Menston, UK, 1970), 25-6.

3. John Shakespeare's Fortunes

1.	'Thaccompt of Willm tylor & Willm Smythe Chamburlens made by John Shakspeyr y ^e, xv ^tday of february in y ^eeight yere of. . . lady elyzabeth' ( 1566; MS at Stratford). This is transcribed in M∧A i. 148-52, but p. 149 n. 1 is not quite clear as to

-427-

the length of his service. The dates matter, if only because his ability to read sums has been questioned. Council elections were held within a few days of St Michael's feast (29 Sept.). Elected as one of the two chamberlains for two years on 3 Oct. 1561, John Shakespeare also served as a director of accounts that were passed in halls on 21 Mar. 1565 (for 1563-4.) and on 15 Feb. 1566 (for 1564-5). His senior colleague, John Taylor, supervised the report for 1561-2; even so, John Shakespeare did some chamberlaincy work for at least three years and four months. The council's last recorded debt to him, of 7 s. 3 d., is marked on 12 Jan. 1568 as paid. The official copies of these reports are in the hand of the town clerk, Richard Symons.
2.	MS SBTRO , 3 Sept. 1567.
3.	M∧A ii. 14 and 41.
4.	Timon , iv. i.
5.	ME 8.
6.	See Nora Leyland and J. E. Troughton, Glovemaking in West Oxfordshire: The Craft and its History (Woodstock, 1974.); I have also found helpful, on the craft in the Midlands, D. C. Lyes, The Leather Glove Industry of Worcester ( Worcester, 1973), and, for glovers turned wool-dealers, Peter J. Bowden, The Wool Trade in Tudor and Stuart England ( 1962).
7.	Cf. W. G. Hoskins, "Harvest Fluctuations and English Economic History, 1480-1619", Agricultural History Review , 12 ( 1964.), 28-46.
8.	Act Books for Stratford parish, which are in the Kent County Archives Office; they cover parts of 1590-1616 and 1622-4.. See E. R. C. Brinkworth, Shakespeare and the Bawdy Court ( 1972), 121, 128, 134-6, 166.
9.	ME 39.
10.	M∧A ii. p. xxi.
11.	Itinerary [c. 1540].
12.	Since Lucy was well known to the borough council, it is of interest that the 'players' sponsored at Charlecote were performing in WS's youth. The Coventry wardens record in 1584 a payment of 10s. to 'Sir Thomas Lucies players' ( Coventry Record Office ).
13.	David Thomas summarizes the evidence, now at the PRO, in Shakespeare in the Public Records ( 1985).
14.	Musshem is called 'yoman' and John Shakespeare 'whyttawer' at Easter term 1573 (Common Pleas); M∧A ii. 70.
15.	Evidently, eleven big-fleeced Midlands sheep yielded a tod (28 lb.) of wool, and Peter Temple, a mid-16th-century sheep farmer at Burton Dassett, paid 21 s. for a tod at Stratford. As Roger Pringle points out in ' John Shakespeare: Principal Craft of Glovemaking' (typescript), the Old Shepherd's son seems to reflect these figures in mythical Bohemia: 'Let me see. Every'leven wether tods [every eleven rams yield a tod], every tod yields pound and odd shilling [or 21 s. ].' ( Winter's Tale , IV. iii. 31-2.) Moreover, the shepherds in Act IV appear to be authentic, whereas Greene's pastoral people do not.

-428-

16	SS, DL 38
17	The 'Seconde Certificat' of recusancy (c. Sept. 1592) rewords the wardens' first text (c. Mar. 1592); F. W. Brownlow, "John Shakespeare's Recusancy: New Light on an Old Document'", Shakespeare Quarterl , 40 ( 1989), 186-91. M & A iv. 149, 161.
18	Bowden, The Wool Trade , 135-6.
19	M&A iii. 24.
20	Ibid. 170 .
21	EKC, Facts , ii. 247.

4. To Grammar School

1	Levi Fox, The Early History of King Edward VI School, Stratford-upon-Avon , Dugdale Society Occasional Papers 29 ( Oxford, 1984), 16-17; EKC, Facts , ii. 264. In formal local records, the King's New School appears for example as 'the free scole' ( 1565), 'the free schole' ( 1624), and 'the Kynges ffree Schoole' ( 1614).
2	MS SBTRO, BRU 7/1. Written in ink (now badly faded) on the flap of the rent roll of 10 Jan. 1561.
3	Bequeathed in 1565.
4	Leicester's school statutes, approved in 1574, are transcribed in M. C. Cross, The Free Grammar School of Leicester ( Leicester, 1953); see also J. W. Binns, Intellectual Culture in Elizabethan and Jacobean England: The Latin Writings of the Age ( Leeds, 1990), pp. xvii and 2-4.
5	William Lily, A Shorte Introduction of Grammar ( 1567).
6	"Of Scholemasters'", in A Booke of certaine Canons ( 1571), sig. D1 ^v.
7	Sententiae Pueriles . . . per Leonardum Culman ( 1639), 1-9; C. G. Smith, Shakespeare's Proverb Lore ( Cambridge, Mass., 1968), and G. V. Monitto, Shakespeare and Culmann Sententiae Pucriles ', Notes and Queries , 230 ( 1985), 30-1.
8	Loeb edn.
9	On Shakespeare's schooling I have found of special use T. W. Baldwin basic William Shakspere's Small Latine & Lesse Greeke , 2 vols. ( Urbana, Ill., 1944) and four works which, in different ways, expand on Baldwin's research: V. K. Whitaker, Shakespeare's Use of Learning ( San Marino, Calif., 1953); Emrys Jones, The Origins of Shakespeare ( Oxford, 1977); A. F. Kinney, Humanist Poetics ( Amherst, Mass., 1986); and Binns, Intellectual Culture .
10	This is to judge from biblical allusions in the plays, a topic illuminated by Richmond Noble's Shakespeare's Biblical Knowledge and Use of the Book of Common Prayer as Evemplified in the Plays of the First Folio ( 1935), as well as by Naseeb Shaheen Biblical References in Shakespeare's Tragedies ( Newark, Del., 1987) and Biblical References in Shakespeare's History Plays ( Newark, Del., 1989).
11	Alexander Nowell, A Catechisme, or first Instruction and Learning of Christian Religion , trans. T. Norton ( 1571), sigs. C4, E3 ^r-v.

-429-

Other books

Charity For Nothing: The Virtues Book III by A.J. Downey

My Heart Lingers (A Hearts of Misty Mesa Story): BWWM Interracial Romance by Boddie, Brandi

The Fall of the Imam by Nawal el Saadawi

Her Druid Desire (The Amber Druid Series) by Leger, Trish F

Necessity by Brian Garfield

Fighting For Her Dragon by Julia Mills

The Lereni Trade by Melanie Nilles

Across the Universe by Raine Winters

Red Right Hand by Levi Black

To Probe A Beating Heart by Wren, John B