Thomas Greene
Peter Zenner
The Middle Temple. The following are pertinent points
which Paul might be interested in.
"The records show that Greene paid the standard sum of
four pounds upon joining the Inn on 2oth November, 1595,
and that he was then "bound with Messrs. John Marston
of the Bench and John, his son" (who thereby stood surety
for him in the event of arrears for 'commons' or rent)...."
[John Marston, Jnr plays a role in the 'Shakespeare' story.
It is interesting to note that he and Greene were close]
"After his call to the Bar, on 29th October, 1602, there are
certain indications that Greene was 'not around' for at least
some of the time. On four seperate occasions he was fined
20 shillings 'for absence and being out of commons' during
the preceding 'Reading' and the fact that there are no references
to him at all in the 'Minutes' of the Inn's Parliament during the
years 1609 to 1615 (inclusive) might tie in neatly with your
knowledge of his preoccupation elsewhere."
Apart from standing surety for four new members upon their
admission, there is nothing to indicate any activity by Greene
at the Middle Temple between 1603 and 1616. He countersigned
a few Bonds "His willingness an ability to do so also testifies
to at least a modicum of financial well-being".
After 1616, Greene played a fairly well documented part in the
proceedings at the Middle Temple and he rose to the position
of Master Treasurer in 1629/30.
So -- Greene became a top barrister AFTER his return to London
in 1616. The mystery remains -- what was this talented man doing
dossing at Shakspere's house in Stratford between 1603 and 1616?
Peter Zenner
+44 (0) 1246 271726
Visit my web site 'Zenigmas' at
http://www.pzenner.freeserve.co.uk
Bob Grumman
1616. The mystery remains -- what was this talented man doing
dossing at Shakspere's house in Stratford between 1603 and 1616?
A mystery only rigidniks. Nevertheless, here's a possible line
of investigation for you to follow next, Peter: survey all the
towns of the time like Stratford to determine:
a., what kind of men served as their town clerks
b., how many lawyers they had and what they did.
My vague recollection is that some superior scholars of the time
went out into the boondocks to teach, at least for a while, so
why couldn't a lawyer do the equivalent--especially if he came
from the boondocks? All this, of course, assumes that
Shakespeare of Stratford was not worth living near.
--Bob G.
-----------------------------------------------------------
Got questions? Get answers over the phone at Keen.com.
Up to 100 minutes free!
http://www.keen.com
Xr...@pxcr8.pxcr.com
> So -- Greene became a top barrister AFTER his return to London
> in 1616. The mystery remains -- what was this talented man doing
> dossing at Shakspere's house in Stratford between 1603 and 1616?
Probably clerking and lawyering.
That he stayed so many years might have something to do with
family connections.
His brother John Greene, one of Stratford's principle Burgesses,
was appointed solicitor to the Stratford Corporation in 1612.
In 1613, he was made deputy town clerk.
Rob
Bob Grumman
eye on Shakespeare?
Bob Grumman
>teaching in Stratford -- he was the TOWN CLERK. He was
>called to the bar in 1602 and yet put off his career for
>THIRTEEN YEARS by going to Stratford.
You forget, Peter, that I use a faculty called analogical
thinking. I didn't wonder if Greene taught in Stratford, as
some scholars did; I wondered if he did something in
Stratford that for lawyers would be the equivalent of what
teaching is for scholars. Town clerk might fill the bill.
>And he wasn't just "living near" Shakspere -- he was living
>WITH HIM. And he was in no great hurry to leave -- until
>Shakspere was dead. Then whoooosh; straight back to
>London. Fisheeee!!!!
How can something be fishy about which you know almost nothing
whatever? As far as I know, we don't even have the exact date
that Greene left Stratford. Aside from that, why couldn't he
have been living with Shakespeare because he liked the house, the
countryside, and the people he was living with? And why couldn't
he have left for reasons wholly unrelated to Shakespeare's death?
Or why couldn't he have decided that life is short and he'd
better start pushing his career up to the next level pretty soon
or he might not have time. There are dozens of other
possibilities.
>Here 's a question for you Bob. Greene wrote a commendatory
>verse for his pal Michael Drayton. He was obviously MUCH
>closer to Shakspere than he was to Drayton though -- so where
>is there a verse written by Greene for Shakspere?
Obviously? Just how do you know that? And why are you sure that
his friendship with Shakespeare hadn't cooled--as some who have
studied the matter think possible? Or how do you know that maybe
he happened to be in the right mood for the Drayton eulogy, but
not for one to Shakespeare (assuming he didn't write one, which
is not a given). Shakespeare himself wrote no eulogies. How do
we know that maybe he didn't like them, and Greene honored his
superstition by not writing one. Far-fetched? Sure. But just
one of so many explanations for something we can't ever come
close to being 10% sure of.
Now I've answered a question of yours. Why don't you
answer one of mine about your book: does it mention ANY
arguments against your theory? I ask because you claim to
have gotten nothing of value from the Stratfordians here whereas
I've collected all kinds of arguments against Shakespeare from
your side here--too many, in fact. So it makes me think you
don't care about arguments against your position.
David Kathman
I could have told you all this and more without your bothering
to ask the Middle Temple librarian. Here is the paper I gave at
the SAA this year on Shakespeare and Thomas Greene. It gives pretty
much all that is known about Greene, from various sources. (I have
omitted the appendix containing Greene's long poem, since I've
posted it before.)
Dave Kathman
dj...@ix.netcom.com
**********************
Shakespeare, Thomas Greene, and the Middle Temple
SAA 2000, Montreal
David Kathman
dj...@ix.netcom.com
The question of William Shakespeare's legal training (or lack of it)
has been a contentious one for well over a century. Many readers of
Shakespeare's plays and poems have been struck by the number of legal
allusions they contain, and by Shakespeare's apparent familiarity with
legal terms and proceedings. However, there has been much disagreement
over whether this familiarilty could have been gleaned by reading and
observation, or whether Shakespeare must have worked in the legal
profession at some point.
Quite a few commentators -- many of them, not coincidentally,
lawyers themselves -- have concluded that Shakespeare must have had
some sort of formal training in the law. Edmond Malone first suggested
in 1790 that Shakespeare may have worked in the office of a country
lawyer before moving to London, and later commentators have suggested
that Shakespeare might also have worked in a lawyer's office in London,
or that he may have worked as a lawyer himself. One problem with this
scenario is that there is no concrete evidence that Shakespeare ever
had any legal employment, so that such theories must remain in the
realm of speculation.
In fact, Baconians and other anti-Stratfordians have often used
this combination -- the lack of evidence for Shakespeare's legal
training, combined with a conviction that the author of Shakespeare's
plays must have had such training -- as a misguided form of "evidence"
against Shakespeare's authorship of the plays. Mark Twain is a good
example. In his humorous (but apparently sincere) essay "Is Shakespeare
Dead?," Twain argued that the legal allusions in Shakespeare's plays
are so extensive and detailed that they betray the hand of a practicing
lawyer. Only someone steeped in the law on a daily basis, Twain claimed,
could allude to it so accurately. In the absence of explicit evidence
that Shakespeare had legal training, Twain refused to believe that
Shakespeare could have written the plays. [note 1]
But at least one recent commentator has pointed out that Twain's
own words elsewhere betray the flaw in his logic. Twain's novel
Pudd'nhead Wilson has a lawyer as its protagonist, and contains trial
scenes and much legal discussion, all of it apparently accurate.
The "Whisper to the Reader" preceding the novel explains how this
came to be: Twain submitted his book to "exhausting revision and
correction by a trained barrister," who worked with the author until
the legal discussions were completely accurate. Daniel J. Kornstein
notes that this completely undercuts Twain's argument in "Is Shakespeare
Dead?": "Why, we might justifiably ask, could not Shakespeare have
done the same thing as Twain did, and submit his legal allusions to
a lawyer friend from the Inns of Court for vetting and correction?"
[note 2].
In fact, we have documentary evidence that Shakespeare had
lawyer friends, evidence which has been surprisingly neglected by
biographers. One of these friends, Thomas Greene, was one of the
Bard's closest associates in Stratford as well as being a peripheral
member of the London literary scene. In this paper I will outline
this evidence and suggest what it might mean for Shakespeare's
knowledge of the law. I will also discuss Greene's only published
poem, a tribute to King James which exhibits interesting similarities
to Shakespeare's A Lover's Complaint.
Shakespeare's Biographical Connections to the Law
--------------------------------------------
As noted above, we have no concrete evidence that Shakespeare
ever worked in a lawyer's office, though the documentary lacuna of
the Lost Years has naturally invited speculation. However, we do
have documentary evidence of Shakespeare's involvement in a number
of legal proceedings -- in fact, a large proportion of the surviving
biographical records are legal ones. [note 3] This fact has led
many observers to conclude, quite reasonably, that Shakespeare could
have picked up a good deal of legal knowledge over the years in the
course of buying property and appearing in court. Some have also
speculated that Shakespeare's known legal experiences may have
influenced his choice of topic material for his plays. [note 4]
But in addition to specific legal records, there is also a
considerable body of evidence associating Shakespeare with lawyers
socially. Probably the best known of these is Francis Collins,
who drew up Shakespeare's much-studied will and also served as his
attorney when he purchased a share of tithes in 1605. Collins was
apparently on friendly terms with Shakespeare, who named him an
overseer of the will and bequeathed him 13 pounds, six shillings
and eightpence. Collins was also on friendly terms with Thomas
Greene, the main subject of this paper and a fellow lawyer who
lived in Stratford at the same time in the first years of the
17th century. Collins and Greene both witnessed Thomas Combe's
will in 1608, and Collins succeeded Greene as Stratford town clerk
in 1617. Also, Collins had been at Clement's Inn with Thomas'
brother John Greene, who was also a Stratford resident and an
acquaintance of Shakespeare. [note 5] It is perhaps significant
that Shakespeare's Justice Shallow was once a member of Clement's
Inn (cf. 2 Henry IV, III.ii.14 in the Riverside edition).
Before getting into the details of Thomas Greene's life,
though, I want to put his friendship with Shakespeare into a broader
context. Greene was a member of the Middle Temple, one of the
four Inns of Court, the centers of legal education. As it turns
out, Thomas Greene was one of a disproportionate number of
Elizabethan and Jacobean Middle Templars who hailed from an area
extending from Stratford nearly 20 miles to the south. Leslie
Hotson noted Shakespeare's connection to some Middle Templars more
than 50 years ago [note 6], but it was left to Christopher Whitfield,
in a series of articles in Notes and Queries in 1966, to show how
extensive were Shakespeare's connections to a group of Middle
Templars who hailed from Stratford and the area immediately to
the south. [note 7] These men formed a surprisingly extensive
and complex web kinship and friendship. The following examples
do not exhaust the connections uncovered by Whitfield:
• In 1602 Shakespeare bought land from William Combe of Stratford,
who entered the Middle Temple in 1571, became a Reader there in 1594,
and had chambers there all his life. William Combe was the patriarch
of the Combe family, with which Shakespeare had many dealings.
William's nephew John, who was co-owner of the land sold to Shakespeare,
bequeathed money to the poet in his will of 1614. Both of William's
great-nephews and ultimate heirs eventually followed him to the
Middle Temple: William in 1602, and his brother Thomas in 1608.
• When William Combe entered the Middle Temple, he succeeded to
the chambers of Edward Bushell of Broad Marston near Clifford
Chambers, a few miles south of Stratford. Bushell had entered
the Middle Temple in 1567, but after a few years he apparently
retired to his estate in the country. Edward Bushell and his
brother Thomas both wealthy, and Thomas is most likely the "Mr.
Bushell" who Thomas Quiney refers to as a possible surety in his
famous letter to Shakespeare.
• Edward Sheldon of Beoley, Worcestershire entered the Middle
Temple in 1580, following in the footsteps of his father Ralph,
who had entered in 1556. Edward Sheldon's sister Elizabeth married
Sir John Russell, the brother of Shakespeare's friend and overseer
Thomas Russell, and he was related more distantly to many of the
others mentioned by Whitfield, including William Combe. In 1628,
his son William Sheldon possessed a copy of the Shakespeare First
Folio (the Burdett-Coutts copy, now in the Folger).
• Thomas Brace of Rushock, Worcestershire, who entered the Middle
Temple in 1583, had an even more direct connection to Shakespeare's
friend Thomas Russell. The Brace and Russell familes had long
been friendly. In fact, Thomas Brace's father Francis had courted
Anne Digges, the mother of Leonard Digges of First Folio fame,
before she married Thomas Russell.
• William Barnes of Talton, Worcestershire entered the Middle
Temple in 1566, just two years after Shakespeare's birth, and
became a respected justice of the peace in Stratford and its
environs for many years. His connections to Shakespeare are
numerous and varied. He was the stepfather and close friend of
Sir Henry Rainsford of Clifford Chambers, who was married to Anne
Goodere, the inspiration for Michael Drayton's Idea. Through
Rainsford, Barnes was a friend of Drayton, the Combe family,
Shakespeare's son-in-law Dr. John Hall, and Shakespeare's friend
Thomas Greene. He also knew several more of Shakespeare's known
Stratford friends and associates, such as William Reynolds and
William Replingham.
• Sir Henry Rainsford himself was also a member of the Middle
Temple, having entered in 1594 under the sponsorship of his
stepfather William Barnes. His wife Anne Goodere (whose cousin
Henry had been a Middle Templar) was celebrated by Michael Drayton
as "Idea" in a series of poems over many years, and Rainsford and
Drayton became close friends, with Drayton spending many summers
in Clifford Chambers, a few miles south of Stratford. Rainsford
was also a close friend of the Combe family and of Thomas Greene.
• George Bonner of Campden, Gloucestershire entered the Middle
Temple in 1591, and became a practicing barrister after being
called to the bar in 1602. He was a cousin of William Combe
(our first entrant above), and was actively involved in the
Stratford enclosure controversy of 1614-17. From Thomas Greene's
diary of that controversy, it becomes clear that Bonner knew
both Greene (who had been called to the bar from the Middle Temple
a few months after Bonner) and Dr. John Hall.
Whitfield's articles detail many more relationships of kinship
and friendship between these and other Middle Templars, but this
recitation should be enough to show how extensive was this social
network of which Shakespeare was a part. The final three entrants
in the list were all closely connected with Thomas Greene, who
was also a fellow Middle Templar as well as a close friend of
William Shakespeare. With that background, let us turn to a
discussion of Greene himself, his poetic friends, and his literary
ambitions.
Thomas Greene in London and Stratford
----------------------------------
Thomas Greene was probably born in the early 1570s (his younger
brother John was born about 1575), the eldest of three sons of Thomas
Greene of Warwick, mercer, and Isabel Lingen. [note 8] The Greenes
were Puritans; the elder Thomas supported the Puritan Job Throckmorton
of Hasely for Parliament in 1586, and as we shall see below, the younger
Thomas was later cited for recusancy. The father died in 1590, leaving
Thomas eighty pounds and a gray mare. Soon afterwards Thomas went
to London and entered Staple Inn, where he began his study of the law,
and on 20 November 1595, he entered the Middle Temple. His sureties
were John Marston, Master of the Bench, and his son John Marston, the
future satirist and dramatist, who had entered three years earlier.
The Marstons were from Coventry, and both had dealings with Stratford
at various times. The elder Marston acted as counsel for the town
in a 1590 lawsuit, and the Stratford records preserve a letter to
the younger Marston, dated 24 February 1615/16, asking for his help
finding certain conveyances in his late father's records. [note 9]
Greene settled in to his law studies at the Middle Temple as the
chambermate of Oliver Style, who was later to become Sherriff of London.
In 1598, Greene and Style gave surety for the admittance of George
Thorpe, a former classmate of Greene's from Staple Inn who hailed from
Waunswell, Gloucestershire, and in 1600 Greene and John Burgoyne gave
surety for the admittance of Rowley Ward, from Barford, Warwickshire.
These were the first of many incoming Middle Templars sponsored by
Greene over the next three decades, all of them from Gloucestershire
and Warwickshire. [note 10] In October 1602, Greene was called to
the bar and became an Utter Barrister, entitling him to practice
law and teach the students at the Middle Temple.
Concurrently with his studies at the Middle Temple, though,
we find Greene becoming involved in the affairs of Stratford-upon-Avon
when the law terms were not in session. In 1596 he had been cited
by the Bishop of Worcester as a Puritan recusant, and Edgar Fripp
suggests that it was around this time that he moved from Warwick
to Stratford. [note 11] In 1598 he was mentioned by Abraham Sturley
in a letter to Shakespeare's friend Richard Quiney, and in 1601 he
was in London with Quiney on Stratford business. The two men
attempted to see Attorney General Sir Edward Coke in order to get
favorable tax treatment for the town, but Coke was unavailable
because the Essex rebellion had just happened. In August 1603,
ten months after becoming an Utter Barrister, Greene was appointed
town clerk of Stratford, after which he moved there permanently
to handle his new responsibilities.
During the years he lived in Stratford, Greene became very
involved in town affairs, serving as town clerk for 14 years and
coming to know all of the important people of the village. Among
these important people was William Shakespeare, who apparently
became one of Greene's close friends. Greene had married Lettice
Chandler (nee Tutt) of West Meon, Hampshire (whether before or
after he came to Stratford is unclear), and the couple's first
two children, born in Stratford, were Anne (1603/4) and William
(1607/8). We cannot be sure that these children were named after
Shakespeare and his wife, but the possibility has intrigued
biographers. In any case, in his capacity as town clerk, Greene
drew up several documents in 1608-9 in the Court of Record suit
Shakespeare v. Addenbrooke [note 12]. By this time Greene was
living in Shakespeare's house, New Place, as the following
passage from Greene's memorandum of 9 September 1609 makes clear:
He doubted whether he might sowe his garden, untill about
about goinge to the Terme. (seeing I could gett noe carryages
to help me here with tymber) I was content to permytt yt without
contradiccion & the rather because I perceyued I mighte stay
another yere at newe place. [note 13]
The "he" in this passage is George Browne, from whom Greene was
negotiating to buy St. Mary's House, near both New Place and
the church. The deal was completed the following year, and
by 1611 Greene had moved out of New Place. It is not clear how
long he had been living there, but the fact that he shared
Shakespeare's house (premably with his wife and children) means
that the two families must have been close.
In 1609, Greene purchased a lease of the Stratford tithes
from Humphrey Colles, a fellow Middle Templar, making him a
fellow tithe-owner with Shakespeare. [note 14] In 1611, Greene,
Shakespeare, and Richard Lane were the plaintiffs in a Chancery
suit designed to protect their tithe investments. It was Greene's
status as a tithe-owner which involved him in the enclosure
controversy of 1614-17, which led him to keep the famous "Diary"
in which he mentions his "cosen Shakespeare". The details of
the enclosure controversy need not concern us here, but the
Diary entries are most interesting for the light they shed on
Greene's relationship with Shakespeare. [note 15]..The earliest
entry to mention Shakespeare is that for 17 November 1614, in
which Greene writes:
At my Cosen Shakspeare commyng yesterday to towne I went
to see him howe he did he told me that they assured him they
ment to inclose noe further then to gospell bushe & so vpp
straight (leavyng out part of the dyngles to the ffield) to
the gate in Clopton hedge & take in Salisburyes peece: and
that they meane in Aprill to servey the Land & then to gyve
satisfaccion & not before & he & Mr Hall say they think there
will be nothyng done at all... [note 16]
On 23 December Greene relates how he had written a letter to
"my Cosen Shakespeare" regarding the controversy, and again
on 11 January 1615 he mentions "my cosen Shakpeare". The
term "cousin" may or may not have meant that the men were
literally blood relatives, but in any case it reveals a close
and affectionate relationship between them. [note 17]
The relationship between Greene and Shakespeare is significant,
though its significance has often been missed or glossed over
by biographers. Many biographies of Shakespeare mention Greene
only in passing, in the context of his enclosure Diary; Park
Honan's recent biography is one which goes into a little more
detail about Greene, nothing that he was an attorney at the
Middle Temple. [note 18] But Greene's friendship with Shakespeare
takes on a new light when we realize that he was himself a published
poet, with other poet friends beside the Bard. [note 19] The
Middle Temple, with which Greene had such a long association,
was a hotbed of literary activity. Shakespeare's many and varied
ties with the Middle Temple extend not just to his Stratford
associates, but to his literary associates in London. Thomas
Greene, it turns out, was a member of both groups, and his one
major published poem has some interesting relationships to
Shakespeare's works which have not, to my knowledge, been noted before.
Greene's A Poet's Vision and its literary context
---------------------------------------------
It is no secret to literary historians that the Middle Temple,
like all the Inns of Court, was a very literary place. Its primary
purpose was to prepare young men to practice law, but it was also
a society where these young men made connections and learned the
social graces, including poetry. [note 20] During the time that
Thomas Greene was studying there, quite a few poets and playwrights
whose names are well-known to posterity were there as well. These
include John Marston (admitted 1592), who as we have seen acted
as Greene's surety in 1595; Edward Sharpham (admitted 1594);
John Webster (admitted 1598); and John Ford (admitted 1602).
As it turns out, all four of these men were strongly influenced
by the works of Shakespeare, which, given Shakespeare's connections
to the Middle Temple, is perhaps no coincidence. [note 21]
But there are more explicit connections to be found between
Shakespeare and the Middle Temple, quite apart from the social
ones we have been looking at. The best-known of these connections
is John Manningham, the Middle Templar whose diary from 1602 and
1603 is a treasure trove for Elizabethan historians. As all
students of Shakespeare know, Manningham recorded a performance
of Twelfth Night at the Middle Temple on 2 February 1602, and a
month later, on 13 March, he recorded a now-famous racy anecdote
about Shakespeare and Burbage. Whether this anecdote reflects
personal knowledge of Shakespeare is an open question, but
Manningham certainly knew Thomas Greene, for on 5 February 1603
he jotted down an aphorism which Greene had told him: "There
is best sport always when you put a woman in the case". [note 22]
Greene must have been present at the performance of Twelfth Night,
and it is pleasant to imagine him relaying the racy story about
his friend Shakespeare to Manningham.
But Greene himself had literary ambitions, which were realized
in the spring of 1603. In addition to Marston and Shakespeare,
Greene was friendly with Michael Drayton. While not a member
himself, Drayton knew many Middle Templars, most notably his friend
Sir Henry Rainsford. When Drayton's The Barons Warres was published
in 1603, it contained the following commendatory poem by Greene:
[note 23]
To M. Michael Drayton
What Ornaments might I devise, to fit
Th'aspiring height of thy admired Spirit?
Or what faire Garland worthy is to sit
On thy blest Browes, that compasse in all Merit?
Thou shalt not crowned be with common Bayes,
Because it is for thee a Crowne too low,
Apollo's Tree can yeeld thee simple praise,
It is too dull a Vesture for thy Brow;
But with a Wreathe of Starres, shalt thou be crown'd,
Which when thy working Temples doe sustaine,
Will like the Spheares be ever moving round,
After the royall Musike of thy Braine:
Thy Skill doth equall Phoebus, not thy Birth:
He to Heaven gives Musike, thou to Earth.
Of far more interest to us, however, is Greene's other
literary work, a 328-line allegorical poem called A Poet's Vision
and a Prince's Glory [STC 12311], registered for publication on
16 April 1603 and presumably printed soon afterward. This was
one of the many poetic tributes to King James published in the
months after Queen Elizabeth's death, but it has a number of
unusual features. (I have provided a transcription of the poem
in Appendix 2, with line numbers added for easy reference.)
Greene's poem is virtually unique among the avalanche of tributes
in that it made no mention of Queen Elizabeth -- the only other
exception being Drayton's The Majestie of King James. [note 24]
Green explicitly alludes in lines 195-6 to Samuel Daniel and
Drayton ("worthy Delia" and "sweet Idaea") as two of the few
contemporary poets worth reading. He was apparently familiar
with Drayton's poem to James as well as The Owle, written around
the same time, since Drayton's modern editors have noted
similiarities between these works and Greene's poem. [note 25]
More intriguing is the possibility that Greene was familiar
with Shakespeare's A Lover's Complaint, which was probably
written around this time but was not to be published for another
six years. Most recent scholarly work on this poem has concluded
that it was written in the early years of the 17th century,
perhaps begun around 1603 and then completed shortly before its
publication in 1609. [note 26] Reading Shakespeare's and Greene's
poems together, one is struck by certain similarities. Both
take the form of a complaint, with the narrator sitting on a hill
to listen to the tale of a woman sitting by a river. This situation
was rather conventional in the complaint genre [note 27], but
Greene's use of the complaint genre for a poem welcoming the new
king is highly unusual. I have not yet done an exhaustive study
of vocabulary, but several of the unusual words from the opening
lines of Shakespeare's poem are also found in Greene's -- for
example, "peeped" (line 14 in Shakespeare, 55 in Greene) and
"commixed" (line 28 in Shakespeare, 225 in Greene). Even more
interesting is the fact that the poems are almost exactly the
same length -- 329 lines for Shakespeare, 328 for Greene. This
is as close as it is possible to get, given the rhyme schemes
of the two poems (7-line stanzas of rime royal for Shakespeare,
couplets for Greene). I am not aware of any particular significance
to this length, and one it tempted to believe that the similarity
is intentional.
All these similarities do not prove anything, but they do
suggest some form of influence -- either Greene had read Shakespeare's
poem in manuscript, or Shakespeare read Greene's poem. Given the
close relationship between the two men, neither scenario would be
surprising. Perhaps further research will reveal other similarities
between Greene's poem and Shakespeare's works of the early 17th
century. In any case, I suggest that this poem may be a hitherto
unnoticed link between Greene and Shakespeare, showing that the two
men had a literary as well as a personal relationship.
Epilogue
William Shakespeare died on 23 April 1616, and was buried in
Stratford. Less than one year later, on 8 April 1617, Thomas
Greene resigned after 13 years as town clerk, and after experiencing
some difficulty in selling his house, he left Stratford and moved
to Bristol. After receiving part of the money for the house, he
arranged for the rest to be delivered "to mr Hall at Newplace"
[note 28]; even after Shakespeare's death, New Place was the
household Greene trusted most in Stratford. Freed from his former
Stratford duties, Thomas Greene became active in the Middle Temple
once more, being chosen Reader in 1621, Master of the Bench in
1623, and Treasurer in 1629. In 1621, during his term as Reader,
his son William -- perhaps named after Shakespeare -- was admitted
to the Middle Temple with no fee. He made his will in 1640 and
died the same year, leaving money to his son, three daughters,
one son-in-law, two grandchildren, and his wife Lettice. Thomas
Greene died an old man, surrounded by his family, and we may
reasonably suppose that he lived a full and satisfying life.
Because he happened to be friends with one of the greatest and
most famous writers in history, he has been rescued from oblivion,
and I hope this paper has done a small part to restore him to
life as a living, breathing figure. I also hope that I have
persuaded the reader that Shakespeare's relationship with the
Middle Temple, and with Thomas Greene in particular, was close
enough that the legal knowledge displayed in his plays should
be a mystery no longer.
Notes
-----
1. Mark Twain, Is Shakespeare Dead? (1910).
2. Daniel J. Kornstein, Kill All the Lawyers? Shakespeare's Legal
Appeal (1994), 232.
3. Shakespeare bought several pieces of property over the years
(New Place in 1597, a cottage on Chapel Lane and 107 acres of
land in 1602, the Blackfriars Gatehouse in 1613); he purchased
a share of the Globe theater in 1599; and he purchased a share
of the Stratford tithes in 1605. For all of these purchases he
signed legal documents which must have made him familiar with
quite a bit of contract and property law, if he was not already.
In addition, Shakespeare was personally involved in several less
important legal proceedings which nevertheless brought him into
contact with other aspects of the law. In 1596 he was named in
a petition for sureties of the piece, part of a dispute apparently
involving the Swan theater; in 1612 he was called as a key witness
in the Bellott v. Mountjoy lawsuit; and he was a plaintiff in
several minor lawsuits in both Stratford and London. Shakespeare
was also named in the lawsuit Shakespeare v. Lambert, where his
father was the plaintiff; for the significance of this suit, see
note 4 below.
4. Kornstein suggests (pp. 16-17) that the case of Shakespeare v.
Lambert, in particular, had a strong influence on Shakespeare's
thinking on matters of inheritance. In this suit, John Shakespeare
(William's father) sued his brother-in-law Edmund Lambert in an
attempt to recover 44 acres of land which Lambert had seized on
a legal technicality arising from a contract between the two men.
William Shakespeare would have eventually inherited this land,
but Lambert prevailed after years of lawsuits, effectively stealing
Shakespeare's inheritance. Kornstein believes that Shakespeare
became "obsessed" with this suit, and that it influenced his
attitudes toward legal technicalities (most prominently in The
Merchant of Venice) and matters of inheritance (in many of the
plays, most prominently King Lear and Hamlet).
5. Mark Eccles, Shakespeare in Warwickshire (1961), 118, 129-30.
John Greene served as trustee for Shakespeare's Blackfriars
gatehouse in 1617/18 on behalf of Susanna Hall, and he was also
an attorney for Shakespeare's friends Hamnet Sadler and Thomas Russell.
6. Leslie Hotson, "Love's Labour's Won," in Shakespeare's Sonnets
Dated and Other Essays (1949), pp. 37-56, especially pp. 44-46.
Hotson's observations have perhaps not received as much attention
as they deserved, since they were made in the context of an argument
(that Troilus and Cressida was the "Loves Labours Won" mentioned
by Francis Meres in 1598) which has found little favor with later
commentators.
7. Christopher Whitfield, "Some of Shakespeare's Contemporaries
at the Middle Temple", Notes and Queries, April 1966, 122-5;
August 1966, 283-7; October 1966, 363-9; December 1966, 443-8.
The following summary is adapted from the voluminous information
provided by Whitfield.
8. My primary sources for the following biographical sketch of
Greene are Whitfield's article, cited in note 7 above (pp. 445-6);
Mark Eccles, Shakespeare in Warwickshire, 127-30; and Edgar Fripp,
Master Richard Quyny (1924), 154-6, 176-86.
9. Eccles, Shakespeare in Warwickshire, 138-9.
10. Charles Henry Hopwood, ed., Minutes of Parliament of the
Middle Temple (1904), 360, 382, 402.
11. Fripp, Master Richard Quyney, 156.
12. E. K. Chambers, William Shakespeare: A Study of the Facts
and Problems (1930), vol. 2, pp. 114-8. Chambers notes that
Sidney Lee was probably wrong in supposing that Greene drew up
the documents as Shakespeare's attorney, since these were part
of his duties as clerk of the court.
13. Chambers, William Shakespeare, vol. 2, p. 96.
14. The Stratford Corporation noted the following year that Greene
"standeth secretlie scandalized and uniustly sklaundred bie
unknowen aucthores, That he hath hearetofore deceaved and dealt
evillie with us in buyinge of one Humfrie Coles esquier and
intereste in tithes the inheritance wheareof is in us." But the
Corporation said that the charges were false, and that Greene
"for his fidelitie and endevors in our behalfes allwaies used
us verie well." (Eccles, Shakespeare in Warwickshire, 129)
15. Samuel Schoenbaum, William Shakespeare: Records and Images
(1981), contains a very thorough discussion of the enclosure
controversy, including a facsimile and transcription of Greene's
diary.
16. Chambers, William Shakespeare, vol. 2, 142-3.
17. It has so far not been possible to trace a definite blood
relationship between Greene and Shakespeare, but there have been
some attempts. A Thomas Greene alias Shakespeare had died in
Stratford in 1590, and Fripp (Master Richard Quyny, 155) suggests
that this was the cousin of our Thomas Greene's father. Fripp
further suggests that the wife of our Thomas Greene's great-grandfather
John Greene, of Burton near Haseley, may have been the sister of
William Shakespeare's paternal grandfather Richard Shakespeare of
Snitterfield. This is all highly speculative, and a relationship
will probably never be established conclusively given the fragmentary
nature of the records, but the possibility that Greene and Shakespeare
were actually related cannot be ruled out by any means.
18. Park Honan, Shakespeare: A Life (1999), 384.
19. In addition to the published poetry by Greene which I discuss
in the next section, his papers at Stratford contain a manuscript
Latin poem written around Christman 1614. This poem is transcribed
and discussed briefly by Edgar Fripp, Shakespeare's Stratford
(1928), 60.
20. Philip J. Finkelpearl, John Marston of the Middle Temple:
An Elizabethan Dramatist in His Social Setting (1969), has a good
discussion of the milieu of the Middle Temple in Marston's (and
Shakespeare's) time.
21. R. C. Horne ("Two Unrecorded Contemporary References to
Shakespeare," Notes and Queries (June 1984), 218-20) points out
that a 1605 poem called The Strange Fortune of Alerane or My
Ladies Toy, by "H.M. of the Middle Temple," (STC 17135) contains
an explicity reference to Shakespeare's Lucrece immediately
after a reference to the 1594 poem Willobie His Avisa, thought
by many to allude to Shakespeare. The allusion shows that
Shakespeare was well known to Middle Templars with even slight
literary ambitions.
22. Robert Parker Sorlien, ed., The Diary of John Manningham
of the Middle Temple, 1602-1603 (1976), 172. The account of
Twelfth Night is on p. 48 in Sorlien's edition, and the
anecdote about Shakespeare and Burbage is on p. 75.
23. J. William Hebel, ed. The Works of Michael Drayton (1941),
vol. 2, p. 6.
24. Hebel, The Works of Michael Drayton, vol. 5, p. 53.
25. Hebel, The Works of Michael Drayton, vol. 5, p. 55, 180.
26. See, for example, MacD. P. Jackson, Shakespeare's A Lover's
Complaint: Its Date and Authenticity (1965); A. K. Hieatt,
T. G. Bishop, and E. A. Nicholson, "Shakespeare's Rare Words:
'Lover's Complaint', Cymbeline, and Sonnets", Notes and Queries
(June 1987), 219-24; and Katherine Duncan-Jones, ed.,
Shakespeare's Sonnets (1997), 92.
27. John Kerrigan, ed., The Sonnets and A Lover's Complaint
(1986), 391, points out the particular similarity of
Shakespeare's poem to Spenser's The Ruines of Time (1591).
28. Eccles, Shakespeare in Warwickshire, 129.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Appendix 1
Thomas Greene's will (abstract courtesy of Rick Abrams)
Thomas Greene of the Middle Temple, London
Will: 1641 PCC 88 Evelyn
Soul to God; body "to the earthe to bee buryed in Christian
buryall where it shall seeme best to my Executors with as
little charge as may bee"; bequest to the "Collegiat or Cathedral
of Trinity Bristoll"; to "the poore of the hospitall of St Johns
Church in Bristoll". To my son William "40 shillings to make
him a ringe"; ditto to my son Gifford. To my Daughter his [i.e.
Gifford's] wife; to my daughter Holloway; to my daughter
Margarett; to my Grandchild Thomas Holloway; to my Grandchild
Humfrey Holloway; to "my foure clerkes which shall at my Death
serve me"; "to my Maid Servant dwellinge with me at the tyme
of my Death"; the rest to "Lettice my moste Deare & Loving wife
being sorry that I have no more than I have to so good a woman.
And her I make my whole and sole Executrix of this my last Will"
(w) Ben: Tibbott, William Bullocke.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Gary Kosinsky
"Peter Zenner" <pe...@pzenner.freeserve.co.uk> wrote:
>I finally got a reply to my queries from the librarian at
>The Middle Temple. The following are pertinent points
>which Paul might be interested in.
>
Isn't it interesting that we have records for a minor
Elizabethan official such as Greene, yet when it comes to
a political power-broker such as Zenner's Marlowe we don't
have a word.
--
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Gary Kosinsky gk...@vcn.bc.ca
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Peter Zenner
>My vague recollection is that some superior scholars of the time
>went out into the boondocks to teach, at least for a while, so
>why couldn't a lawyer do the equivalent--especially if he came
>from the boondocks? All this, of course, assumes that
>Shakespeare of Stratford was not worth living near.
Your vague recollection has forgotten that Greene was not
teaching in Stratford -- he was the TOWN CLERK. He was
called to the bar in 1602 and yet put off his career for
THIRTEEN YEARS by going to Stratford.
And he wasn't just "living near" Shakspere -- he was living
WITH HIM. And he was in no great hurry to leave -- until
Shakspere was dead. Then whoooosh; straight back to
London. Fisheeee!!!!
Here 's a question for you Bob. Greene wrote a commendatory
verse for his pal Michael Drayton. He was obviously MUCH
closer to Shakspere than he was to Drayton though -- so where
is there a verse written by Greene for Shakspere?
Peter Zenner
Peter Zenner
>Now I've answered a question of yours. Why don't you
>answer one of mine about your book: does it mention ANY
>arguments against your theory?
Every other book on 'Shakespeare' offers the cases for other
candidates. If you want a general book on the various theories
then I suggets that you read 'Who Wrote Shakespeare', by John
Michell. He offers a very good overview. I have concentrated on
Marlowe and have put forth the reasons why it was him. My
thought was that the only way to prove whether or not Marlowe
died on May 30th, 1593, was to see if there was any evidence
that he was alive after that date. That is my book -- if you are
looking for a different book, then you should look elsewhere.
An alternative title could have been 'Christopher Marlowe: The
Shakespeare Years', as that is all that concerned me at the time.
>I ask because you claim to
>have gotten nothing of value from the Stratfordians here whereas
>I've collected all kinds of arguments against Shakespeare from
>your side here--too many, in fact. So it makes me think you
>don't care about arguments against your position.
If, at any point during the three years that I spent on it, I had found
any PROOF that I was on the wrong track, I would have dropped it.
It was not a thing that I had to do. It was not my profession and not
my intention to make it such. As I have explained, I made a few
suppositions and set out to see if they could be true. They were
and I was hooked.
So far, another nine months after the publication of the book, I
have had nothing but OPINION to counter the story that I have told
there -- and now there is more. I no longer BELIEVE that I have the
true story, I KNOW that I have it.
I may make odd mistakes regarding the plays and poems etc. but
the basic story is there -- and the baffling puzzles that have foxed
Stratfordian thinking have solved themselves through knowing that
story. (I even think that my assertation that the "canopy" was part of
a monument has been accepted in certain quarters!)
Thomas Greene was not mentioned in my book -- but he will be in
the second edition. Paul Crowley made me look more closely at
the Chandos portrait and that resulted in my realising that it was
a self portrait of Marlowe. Not the result that Paul would have
wanted but I may not have spotted it without him making me look.
John Baker made me doubt Charles Nichol and so I took a look
at Arbella Stuart and found that Marlowe's initials are on a painting
of her that was made during the period that it was suspected that
he might have been her tutor at Hardwick Hall. Yes, I have picked
up bits and bobs since joining in with hlas -- but they have not altered
the story that is in the book.
I am constantly looking out for more proof, more links, etc., as I
want the story to be as complete as I can make it. You are right,
I don't really care about arguments because I know what I have
got. But I shall argue anyway -- it's fun! :-)
Peter Zenner
> Isn't it interesting that we have records for a minor
>Elizabethan official such as Greene, yet when it comes to
>a political power-broker such as Zenner's Marlowe we don't
>have a word.
Why Gary? What had Greene done to be wiped from the
records? When did he have to go into exile and live under
different names? When was he supposed to be dead but
wasn't?
If you want to take the p--s, then you can p--s off with it!
Peter Zenner
are right, it would have saved a bit of time had you done
it before. You didn't mention the fines that Greene had
to pay for his absences, though, and the fact that he
was not even mentioned in the minutes between 1609
and 1615 (inclusive) indicates that he was away and
not just for the odd day as Paul thought. I am happy
to have had a reply to my queries and it only cost me
a phone call.
You said
>in 1612 he was called as a key witness
>in the Bellott v. Mountjoy lawsuit;
and I disagree. He made a written deposition (probably
to Greene as he was handy) and that showed that he
knew nothing that would have any bearing on the outcome
of the Belott (sic, sorry Dave!) -Mountjoy suite -- and because
of that he was NOT called as a witness, key or otherwise.