The Form of Apology and Satisfaction

[Arthur Neuendorffer]

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_Shirley

<<Sir [A]nthony [SHERLE]y (1565-1635) was an English
traveller, whose imprisonment in 1603 by King James I
caused the English House of Commons to assert one of
its privileges--freedom of its members from arrest--in a
document known as _The Form of Apology and Satisfaction_.

He was the second son of Sir Thomas Shirley, and his brothers,
Robert Shirley and Thomas Shirley, were also much-travelled.

Educated at the University of Oxford, Anthony Shirley gained some
military experience with the English troops in the Netherlands and
also during an expedition to Normandy in 1591 under Robert Devereux,
2nd Earl of Essex, who was related to his wife, Frances Vernon;
about this time he was knighted by Henry of Navarre
(Henry IV of France), an event which brought upon him
the displeasure of his own sovereign and a short imprisonment.

In 1596, he conducted a predatory expedition along the western coast
of Africa and then across to Central America, but owing to a mutiny
he returned to London with a single ship in 1597. In 1598, he led
a few English volunteers to Italy to take part in a dispute over the
possession of Ferrara; this, however, had been accommodated when he
reached Venice, and he decided to journey to Persia with the twofold
object of promoting trade between England and Persia and of stirring
up the Persians against the Turks. He obtained money at Constantinople
and at Aleppo, and was very well received by the Shah, Abbas the
Great, who made him a Mirza, or prince, and granted certain trading
and other rights to all Christian merchants.

Then, as the Shah's representative, he returned to Europe and visited
Moscow, Prague, Rome, and other cities, but the English government
would not allow him to return to his own country. Two members of his
expedition returned to London, where they published the anonymous
pamphlet The True Report of Sir Anthony Shirley's Journey, which,
additionally spurred by the actor *Will Kempe's* meeting with
Sir Anthony in Rome, evoked two references to "the Sophy"--
the Shah-- in Shakespeare's Twelfth Night (1601-02).

For some time he was in prison in Venice, and in 1605, he went to
Prague and was sent by Rudolph II, Holy Roman Emperor on a mission
to Morocco; afterwards he went to Lisbon and to Madrid, where he was
welcomed very warmly. The King of Spain appointed him the admiral
of a fleet which was to serve in the Levant, but the only result of
his extensive preparations was an unsuccessful expedition against
the island of Mitylene. After this he was deprived of his command.
Shirley, who was a count of the Holy Roman Empire,
died at Madrid some time after 1635.

Shirley wrote an account of his adventures, Sir Anthony Sherley: his
Relation of his Travels into Persia (1613), the original manuscript
of which is in the Bodleian Library at Oxford. There are in existence
five or more accounts of Shirley's adventures in Persia, and the
account of his expedition in 1596 is published in Richard Hakluyt's
Voyages and Discoveries (1809-1812). See also The Three Brothers;
Travels and Adventures of Sir Anthony, Sir Robert and Sir Thomas
Sherley in Persia, Russia, Turkey and Spain (London, 1825);
EP Shirley, The Sherley Brothers (1848), and
the same writer's Stemmata ROWana (1841, again 1873).
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___________ Sonnet 117

ACcuse me thus, th[A]t I haue scanted all,
Wherein I should your great de[S]erts repay,
Forgot vpon your dearest love to call,
W[H]ereto al bonds do tie me day by day,

That I haue frequ[E]nt binne with vnknown mindes,
And giuen to time {Y}ou[R] own{E} deare p{U}rchas'd {R}ight,
Th{A}t *I haue HOYSTED SAI(L)E to a(L) the w(I)ndes*
(W)hich should transport me farth[E]st from your sight.
............................................
__________ <= 42 =>

. ACcusemethu s th [A] tIh a u esca n t eda l lW h ereinI s ho
. uldyourgrea t de [S] ert s r epay F o rgo t vp o nyourd e ar
. estlovetoca l lW [H] ere t o albo n d sdo t ie m edayby d ay
. ThatIhauefr e qu [E] ntb i n newi t h vnk n ow n mindes A nd
. giuentotime{Y}ou [R] own{E}d eare p{U}rch a sd{R}ightTh{A}tI
. hauehoysted s ai (L) eto a(L)thew(I)n des(W)hi c hshoul d tr
. ansportmefa r th [E] stf r o myou r s igh t

[A.SHERLE.] 42
............................................
____ <= 6 =>

{Y} o u [R] o w
n {E} d e a r
e p {U} r c h
a s' d {R} i g
h t, T h {A} t
I h a u e {H}
O Y S T E D
S A I (L) E t
o a (L) t h e
w (I) n d e s
(W) h i c h

(WILL) -5
{HARUEY} -7
............................................
Booke both my wilfulnesse and errors downe,
And on iust proofe surmise, accumilate,
Bring me within the leuel of your frowne,
But shoote not at me in your wakened hate:

Since my appeale saies I did striue to prooue
The constancy and virtue of your love.
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_Leir

<<Some commentators have argued that King Leir was printed in 1605
to take advantage of the attention drawn by Shakespeare's similar
play -- which would mean that Shakespeare's Lear was being acted
in 1605. Yet "a remarkable historical parallel" provided
"a topical reason" for the publication of Leir, and perhaps
also for Shakespeare's interest in the story c. 1605.

Brian Annesley was an elderly former follower of Queen Elizabeth,
a wealthy Kentishman with three daughters: Grace (married to
Sir John *Wildgose* ), Christian (the wife of William Sandys,
3rd Baron Sandys), and the youngest, the unmarried *CORDELL*.
In 1603, Grace *Wildgose* tried to have her father declared
senile and incompetent to manage his estate.
..........................................
. King Lear > Act II, scene IV

Fool: Winter's not gone yet,
. if the *wild-geese* fly that way.
. Fathers that wear rags
. Do make their children blind;
. But fathers that bear bags
. Shall see their children kind.
..........................................
*CORDELL* wrote to Robert Cecil, 1st Earl of Salisbury to protest her
older sister's action, and otherwise supported her father against his
eldest daughter. Brian Annesley died in July 1604; *CORDELL* Annesley
successfully defended her father's last will and testament,
which left most of the family property to *CORDELL*.

One of the executors of the will was a Sir William Harvey; he was
a veteran of the 1588 campaign against the Spanish Armada and the
third husband of the Dowager Countess of Southampton, the mother
of Shakespeare's patron Henry Wriothesley, 3rd Earl of Southampton.
(Harvey is also one of the many proposed candidates for the
"W. H." of Shakespeare's sonnets.) Once the Dowager Countess
died in 1607, Harvey married *CORDELL* Annesley.>>
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Art Neuendorffer