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Fulke-Greville "appears to have never heard of Shakespeare"
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Arthur Neuendorffer
Aug 28, 2016, 8:48:45 PM8/28/16
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Dom Saliani wrote in message ...
<<Another noticeable absence of records
or mention involves Fulke-Grevelle (1554-1628).
Greville was himself a poet, dramatist and a biographer.
He wrote the famous biography of Phillip Sidney (1610-12).
He also wrote two closet dramas, "Alaham" (1600) and "Mustapha" (1603).
He also wrote a sonnet sequence "Caelica" (1580-1600).
Greville left a considerable amount of correspondence
- none of which includes any mention of Shakespeare or Shaksper.
Here's the clincher. Greville was from Shaksper country - Warwickshire
and from 1606 to 1628 he held the official position
of recorder of the town of Stratford.
The Reader's Encyclopedia of Shakespeare states that this is
a position "in which he was expected to exert his influence
in high places in the interest of the town." (pg 274)>>
-------------------------------------------------------------
Morten St. George wrote:
<<So, this poet and dramatist was Recorder of the Town of Stratford from 1606 to 1628, a period that covers Shakspere’s retirement, his death in 1616, construction of his monument, and publication of the First Folio in 1623. It’s most curious that in his considerable correspondence Greville appears to have never heard of Shakespeare.
I read that besides being a poet and dramatist, Greville was Lord Chancellor of England so surely he knew members of the Privy Council including the real Shakespeare. Also noteworthy is that in his earlier years Greville was an intelligence agent who worked for Sir Francis Walsingham. It’s most curious that King James would put a hardcore spymaster in charge of the town of Stratford. Could it be that they wanted someone there who could successfully alter the civil records of Stratford as well as silence any complaints that may arise?>>
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fulke_Greville,_1st_Baron_Brooke
<<Fulke Greville, 1st Baron Brooke, de jure 13th Baron Latimer and 5th Baron Willoughby de Broke KB PC (3 October 1554 – 30 September 1628), known before 1621 as Sir Fulke Greville, was an Elizabethan poet, dramatist, and statesman who sat in the House of Commons at various times between 1581 and 1621, when he was raised to the peerage. Greville was a capable administrator who served the English Crown under Elizabeth I and James I as, successively, treasurer of the navy, *chancellor of the exchequer*, and commissioner of the Treasury,>>
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AWL Saunders wrote:
In 2007, The Master of Shakespeare by AWL Saunders proposed a 'new'
candidate; Fulke Greville, Lord Brooke (1554-1628). Greville was an
aristocrat, courtier, statesman, sailor, soldier, spymaster, literary
patron, dramatist, historian and poet. Educated at Shrewsbury, where
he met his lifelong friend Sir Philip Sidney, and Jesus College,
Cambridge. On his return to England from traveling in Europe, he
worked for Sir Francis Walsingham as an 'intelligencer' and again
traveled extensively all over Europe. He became a great favorite of
Queen Elizabeth, was Clerk to the Council of Wales, Treasurer of the
Navy and from 1614-1621 Chancellor of the Exchequer. After the death
of his father in 1606, Fulke became Recorder of Stratford-upon-Avon
and he held that post until his own death in 1628.
Greville was famous for his friendship with, and biography of Sir
Philip Sidney, and his long tempestuous love affair with Philip's
sister, Mary Herbert, Countess of Pembroke. Greville is also regarded
as a generous patron of many of the leading writers of the day
including Christopher Marlowe, Thomas Nashe, Samuel Daniel and three
Poets Laureate; Edmund Spenser, Ben Jonson and Sir William Davenant.
Greville was a member of all the leading literary circles of the day:
The Areopagus, the Wilton House Circle, The Southampton Circle, the
University Wits and The School of Night; his claim to have been the
'Master of Shakespeare' and the author of a 'lost' play called Antony
and Cleopatra.
When compared to the 'Stratfordian' profiles of William Shakespeare
from the First Folio (1623), Greville matches each 'profile'. Greville
of Stratford had a house in Henley Street, he was the friend and
patron of Ben Jonson. He had small Latin and less Greek and had built
a 'monument without a tomb' (in Collegiate Church of St. Mary,
Warwick). Greville lived in Warwick Castle on the River Avon and his
family's crest was a swan. Greville's profiles are also a match with
the standard Stratfordian 'life' of the author of the plays and poems.
He was the close friend and protégé of the Earl of Southampton. He was
the enemy of Sir Thomas Lucy of Charlecote (Judge Shallow). He
frequented Mistress Quyney's Stratford tavern (and the Bear and the
Swan). He frequented the Mermaid Tavern. He frequented Wilton House,
Essex House and Titchfield. He was the literary collaborator (and
lover) of Mary Herbert. He was the close friend and literary
collaborator of Samuel Daniel. He was the literary 'godfather' of
William Davenant. He was the friend and literary collaborator of John
Florio. He distributed propaganda for his friend the Earl of Essex. He
wrote poetry in completion with Sidney, Spenser and Daniel (Sonnets).
He was the friend and literary collaborator of Thomas Nashe. He was
the friend (and spymaster) of Marlowe. He was the close friend (and
cousin) of the Earl of Rutland. He was the close friend and
collaborator of Francis Bacon. He had literary works stolen from Kings
Place, Hackney and piratically published in 1609
-------------------------------------------------------------
Terry Ross wrote:
<<There is one earlier reference to Shakespeare as Greene's cousin in the
diary (in both Dave's and Mark's lists only Shakespeare's name is given,
not the phrase "my cousin Shakespeare"):
(1) [1614] Jovis 17 No. 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 gosp[ELL 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 and Mr Hall say they think
there will be nothyng done at all....>>
-------------------------------------------------------------
25 OCTOBER 1598 - Richard Quiney, who had arrived in London,
to plead the case at court for a reduction in the tax assessment
levied against Stratford upon Avon, addressed a letter to
"To my Loveinge good ffrende and contreymann
Mr. Wm. shackespere dlr thees:
'Loveinge contreyman, I am bolde of yow, as of a ffrende, craveinge
yowr helpe with XXX li. uppon Mr Bushell's & my securytie, or Mr
Myttens with me. Mr Roswell is nott come to London as yeate, & I have
especiall cawse. Yow shall ffrende me muche in helpeinge me out of
all the debettes I owe in London, I thank God & muche quiet my mynde,
which wolde nott be indebeted. I am nowe towardes the Courte in hope
of answer for the dispatche of my buyseness. Yow shall nether losse
creddyt nor monney by me, the Lorde wyllinge; & nowe butt perswade
yourselfe soe, as I hope, & yow shall nott need to feare, butt with
all hartie thanckefullnes I wyll holde my tyme, & content yowr
ffrende, & yf we bargaine further, yow shalbe the paiemaster
yowrselfe. My tyme biddes me hasten to an ende, & soe I committ thys
yowr care & hope of yowr helpe. I feare I shall not be backe thys
night ffrom the Courte. Haste, The Lorde be with yow, & with us all.
Amen. ffrom the Bell in Carter Lane the 25 October, 1598,
Yowrs in all kyndenes,
RICH. QUYNEY.'
------------------------------------------------
Secret Shakespeare: Studies in Theatre, Religion and Resistance
By Richard Wilson
<<Sir Edward Bushell (whose brother stood surety for a loan to Richard Quiney, and whose sister married Quiney's elder son Adrian 3 years before the younger one married Judith Shakespaere), who started out at knowsley in 1591 as a retainer of Alice Stanley. Bushell, who became Gentleman Usher to the Earl of Essex, was a cousin of the Gunpowder Plotters, the Winters.>>
------------------------------------------------
Shakespeare's Knowledge of Italy, the Classics, and the Law
by David Kathman
http://shakespeareauthorship.com/italy.html
<<Whitfield documents the surprisingly broad and strong connections between Shakespeare and dozens of Middle Templars who lived in an area extending from Stratford about eighteen miles south. These Middle Templars included Thomas Greene, Shakespeare's close friend who lived in New Place for several years; Greene's close friend Sir Henry Rainsford of Clifford Chambers; Edward Bushell, whom Richard Quiney mentioned in his famous letter to Shakespeare; William Combe, from whom Shakespeare bought 107 acres of land in 1602 and whose son married Shakespeare's daughter; and a bunch of others. Whitfield's article leaves little doubt that William Shakespeare of Stratford had a wide network of friends and acquaintances who had studied at the Middle Temple.>>
------------------------------------------------
Sir Francis Bacon
http://rictornorton.co.uk/baconfra.htm
Sir Francis Bacon's relationships--like those of his King--closely
followed the pattern of patron/favourite. More specifically, he had
a preference for young Welsh serving-men. The roll of attendants for
Bacon's household in 1618 lists a total of 75 attendants, of whom some
25 were gentlemen waiters. There was Francis Edney, who, upon Bacon's
death in 1626, received "£200 and my rich gown"; young Thomas Meautys,
who was to become Bacon's secretary-in-chief;
a Mr Bushell, "gent. usher,"
who came to the household in 1608 as a lad of fifteen, and who
remained until Bacon's death;
Edward Sherburn, groom of the chamber; and, above all,
young Tobie Matthew, who was left only a ring to the value of £30,
but who had become Sir Tobie through Bacon's efforts,
and who was well able to care for himself.
----------------------------------------------------
Epigrammes in the oldest cut, and newest fashion
Printed by V. S. for Thomas Bushell
John Weever (1599)
.......................................
The first weeke.
Epig. 13. In Rogerum Manners Rutlandia Comitem.
It's not the sea which doth our land inclose,
That makes vs mightie to withstand our foes :
Nor farmes, nor mannours, but where manners be
There stands the cittie, from foes danger free ;
If Manners then make vs our foes withstand,
MANNERS may wel be cald ROOT of the LAND.
.......................................
Epig. 14. In Crassum.
Crassus will say {T}he dogge fau{N}e[S] with his t{A}ile,
[T]o men of {W}orth h[E] writes for's be[S]t auaile :
Cra[S]su(S) thou ly[E]s(T), dogs wri[T|E) not deede[S] of men,
Then thou the dog that snarlest at my pen.
Monoceros hath strength, but hath no witte,
And therefore one home will the foole befitte :
But how can't be that he but one home haue ?
When to his neighbour Brusus two he gaue?
.......................................
Crassus will say: <= 11 =>
. {T} h -e- d -o -g -g -e -f -a -u
. {N} e [S] w -i -t -h -h -i -s -t
. {A} i _l_ e [T] o -m -e -n -o -f
. {W} o -r- t -h -h [E] w -r -i -t
. -e- s -f- o -r -s -b -e [S] t -a
. -u- a -i- l -e -C -r a [S] s u (S)
. (S) t -h- o -u -l -y [E] s (T) d
. -o- g -s- w -r -i [T](E) n -o -t
. -d- e -e- d -e [S] o -f -m -e -n
Then thou the dog that snarlest at my pen.
Monoceros hath strength, but hath no witte,
And therefore one home will the foole befitte :
But how can't be that he but one home haue ?
When to his neighbour Brusus two he gaue?
----------------------------------------------------------------
'Ch. Marl. THE TRAGICALL History of D.Faustus'
Printed by V. S. for *THOMAS BUSHELL*. (1604):
----------------------------------------------------------------
Dave Kathman informs us that:
<<There was a rather complex web of friendship and kinship extending
from Stratford some 18 miles to the south and involving some three
dozen Middle Templars, and Shakespeare was smack in the middle of this
web. His known friends who were member of the Middle Temple included
Thomas Greene and William Combe I (who sold land to Shakespeare in
1602), both of whom were lawyers by profession. But the web included
the majority of Shakespeare's other known friends in Stratford,
including Thomas Combe II, John Combe II, William Reynolds,
Anthony Nashe, John Nashe, Dr. John Hall, William Replingham, Ralph
Huband, *THOMAS BUSHELL* , Thomas Russell, and Richard Quiney; all
of these were related to or friends with at least one Middle Templar,
and
in most cases several. The details of these relationships are given in
a series of six articles by Christopher WHITFIELD published in *Notes
and Queries* in the 1960s (October 1961, pp. 364-72; April 1966, pp.
122-5; August 1966, pp.283-7; October 1966, pp. 363-9; December 1966,
pp. 443-8; April 1967, pp. 123-30). With all the connections between
William Shakespeare of Stratford and the Middle Temple, I think it's
interesting that William Shakespeare's *Twelfth Night* was performed
at the Middle Temple on February 2, 1602.>>
------------------------------------------------------------------------
<<The Lord Chancellor Bacon loved to converse with [Hobbes]. He
assisted his lordship in translating several of his essays into Latin,
one, I well remember, is that Of the Greatness of Cities. The rest I
have forgotten. His lordship was a very contemplative person, and
was wont to contemplate in his delicious walks at Gorhambury,
and dictate to Mr *THOMAS BUSHELL*, or some other of his
gentlemen, that attended him with ink and paper ready to set
down presently his thoughts. His lordship would often say that he
better liked Mr Hobbes's taking his thoughts, than any of the others,
because he understood what he wrote, which the others not
understanding, my lord would many times have a hard task
to make sense of what they wrote.>>
-----------------------------------------------------------
<<In The Winding Stair (page 148) [Daphne du Maurier] mentions
*THOMAS BUSHELL* , Francis Bacon's faithful servant for many
years. When Mrs. Pares and I last visited the Isle of Man
I got a fisherman to take me across the tide rips to
the Calf of Man, and I walked up to the hill where
I saw the remains of *THOMAS BUSHELL's* shack.
It is marked on the Ordance Survey map of the Isle of Man,
which is to be seen at Douglas. As a result I was offered an
original copy of Bacon's Historia Ventorum (History of the Winds)
which was too expensive for me then. This copy was in Douglas.
Commander Pares is broadly correct in describing *BUSHELL*
as a faithful servant, at least in length of service, except that he
accepted gifts without his master's knowledge. After Bacon's fall
from power *BUSHELL* bitterly regretted this, until his dying day.>>
.
THE WINDING STAIR FRANCIS BACON : HIS RISE AND FALL
______ -- by Daphne du Maurier 1976
http://www.sirbacon.org/windingstair.htm
--------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.georgeszirtes.co.uk/index.php?page=news
<<*THOMAS BUSHELL*: "'Twas the fashion in those dayes for Gentlemen
to have their Suites of Clothes garnished with Buttons. My Lord Bacon
was then in Disgrace, and his Man *BUSHELL* having more Buttons
than usuall on his Cloake, etc, they sayd that his Lord's breech made
Buttons and *BUSHELL* wore them: from whence he was called
*BUTTOND BUSHELL* .".>>
--------------------------------------------------------------
The Vyne Ramesses: 'Egyptian Monstrosities'
in British country house collections Apollo, April, 2003 by Tim Knox
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0PAL/is_494_157/ai_107277548
.
<<Almost all the early Egyptian relics in England were brought back
by travellers. George Sandys (1578-1644) who was in Egypt in 1610,
described how 'mummes' could 'be bought for dollars apeece at the
Citie'. He failed to buy one, but speaks of 'little models of stone or
metall; some of the shape of men ... with the heads of sheepe,
haulkes, dogs, &c. others of cats, beetles monkies and such like. Of
these I brought away divers with me. Sandys, the son of Edwin Sandys,
Archbishop of York, shared the same name as the family who had owned
The Vyne since the early fourteenth century, and who sold it to the
Chutes in 1653. It is tempting to associate 'The Vyne Ramesses' with
this early visitor to Egypt, particularly since we know that Sandys
gave some of the little bronzes he collected to John Tradescant's
Museum at Lambeth. However, Sandys' family came from Hawkshead in
Lancashire, and any connexion with their Hampshire namesakes at The
Vyne seems distant. More significant is the fact there is no evidence
to suggest that George Sandys did bestow this heavy and distinctive
sculpture upon The Vyne, where its presence is unlikely to have gone
unremarked for long. Then as now, Egyptian artefacts were sufficiently
unusual as to be valuable gifts. Charles I's queen, Henrietta Maria
(1609-69) gave a mummy, esteemed 'a great raritie', to
*THOMAS BUSHELL* (1594-1674) in 1635, and he proudly
displayed it in the grotto he created at Enstone, near Woodstock
in Oxfordshire. John Aubrey saw it many years later, but noted
that 'the dampness of the place has spoiled it with mouldinesse'.
.
By far the most important early country house collection of Egyptian
sculptures was that assembled by Thomas Herbert, 8th Earl of Pembroke
(1656-1733), at Wilton House, Wiltshire between 1690 and 1730, where
it formed but part of a much greater collection of Greek and Roman
antiquities. Pembroke's Greco-Roman sculpture was mainly bought in
Italy, but in the early 1700s he also acquired items in Paris from the
famous collection of Cardinal Mazarin. These included Egyptian pieces,
amongst them 'Two Statues in black Marble, out of the ruins of the
Palace in Egypt, in which the Viceroys of Persia lived many years
after Cambyses returned to Persia, from the conquest of Egypt', set
in niches outside the house. Inside, the 'White Marble Table Room'
contained a statue of Isis with 'Osiris, her husband, in a Coffin
open ... with a great Multitude of Hieroglyphicks quite round the
bottom and behind the statue'. Elsewhere in the house were displayed,
alongside many Roman pieces, 'Cleopatra with Caesarion, her son by
Julius Caesar, sucking on her lap', and a 'Sesostris, the head is of
red Egyptian Granite; the bust part is of the White Egyptian Granite;
the head is adorned with a tiara, after the Egyptian form, and has a
peculiar liveliness; it was found amongst the pyramids'.
.
But the Egyptian sculptures at Wilton were unusual, and most
contemporary collectors of Greco-Roman marbles would have considered
such works barbarous and unpleasing. John Woodward, in his 'Of the
wisdom of the ancient Egyptians', which was written at some time
before his death in 1728, summed up the prevailing view of Egyptian
sculpture: 'They really aimed at something that was hideous, deformed
and monstrous; a beast, or a fowl, with the head or face of a man; the
head of a dog, or some other brute, of an hawk, or the like, upon a
human figure ... They seem to have affected what was ugly and
irregular, as much as the Greeks, the Romans, and others, who had
something of spirit and genteel fancy, did what was handsome, well-
proportioned, beautiful, and like nature'. Mummies were even more
revolting: Woodward warned 'I myself saw here a mummy, brought
formerly out of Egypt, that, after it had been for some time in our
more humid air, began to corrupt and grow mouldy, emitted a foetid
& cadaverous scent, and in conclusion putrified & fell to pieces.'>>
--------------------------------------------------------------
Christopher Marlowe, Dedication to Mary Countess of Pembroke
.
. TO THE MOST ILLUSTRIOUS NOBLE LADY,
. ADORNED WITH ALL GIFTS BOTH OF MIND
. AND BODY, MARY COUNTESS OF PEMBROKE
.
Delia born of a LAUREL-crowned race, TRUE sister
of Sidney the bard of Apollo, fostering parent of letters,
to whose immaculate embrace VIRTUE,
outraged by the assault of barbarism and ignorance,
flieth for reFUGE, as once Philomela from the Thracian tyrant;
Muse of the Poets of our time,
. and of all most happily burgeoning wits;
--------------------------------------------------------------
. *NOBLE LAUREL*
__ {anagram}
. *ELEANOR BULL* (widow)
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Christopher Marlowe, Dedication to Mary Countess of Pembroke
.
. ILLUSTRISSIMAE HEROINAE OMNIBUS ET
. ANIMI ET CORPORIS DOTIBUS ORNATIS
. SIMAE, MARIAE PENBROKIAE COMITISSAE
.
Laurigera stirpe prognata Delia;
Sydnaei vatis Apollinei genuina soror;
Alma literatum parens, ad cuius immaculates amplexus,
con-FUGIT virtus, barbarici et ignorantiae impetu violata,
ut olim a Threi-cio Tyranno Philomela;
Poetarum nostri temporis, ingeniorumque
. omnium foelicissime pullulantium, Musa;
-----------------------------------------------------------
http://home.att.net/~mleary/baco1.htm
.
An interesting discovery of Baconian
Thomas Penn Leary is the *BACON* acrostic in
'Ch. Marl. THE TRAGICALL History of D.Faustus'
Printed by V. S. for *THOMAS BUSHELL*. (1604):
.
_____ N ow will I make an ende immediately.
[ME]. O what will not I do to obtaine his soule?
[FA]u. C onsummatum est , this Bill is ended,
_____ A nd Faustus hath bequeath'd his soule to LUCIFER.
_____ B ut what is this inscription on mine arme?
.
______________ *Homo FUGE*
--------------------------------------------------------------
<<FUGE like Gr. pheugein, with inf. (mostly poet.),
to avoid doing something, to *OMIT* ,
forbear, beware, = OMITtere, caVERE>>
-----------------------------------------------------------------
<<Remember to peruse Shakespeare's plays; and bee much
VERsED in them, that I may not bee ignorant in that matter.
Whether Dr. Heylin does well, IN RECKONING up the dramatick poets
which have been famous in England, to *OMIT* Shakespeare.>>
.
. -- WARD, (r)EVERE(n)D JOHN, 1648-78, Diary.
-------------------------------------------------------------
The KEY word *FUGE* marking the start/end of the BACON
acrostic was given much significance in Bacon's own
. (1623) Advancement of Learning:
.
http://fly.hiwaay.net/~paul/bacon/advancement/book6ch1.html
.
"Bi-literarie Alphabet. Say the interior Letter be *FUGE* . Now
to the interiour letter, which is Biliterate, you shall fit a biformed
exteriour letter, which shall answer the other, letter for letter,
and afterwards set it downe. Let the exteriour example be,
.
. Manere te volo donec venero.
. aabab baabb aabba aabba
. _ F __ U __ G __ E
.
<<A short Latin cover text meaning "Do not go until I come"
deciphers as a message of the opposite advice: "FLEE">>
--------------------------------------------------------------------
. *OMETTRAI* : French for *WILL OMIT*
. *MERITATO* : Italian for *DEsERVED*
. *AMORETTI*
----------------------------------------------------------------
Was "AMORETTI" (1595) written to Spenser's wife (Elizabeth Boyle)
or to the DEsERVED author himself "MERITATO"?
------------------------------------------------------------
Shakespeares POEMS (1640) To the Reader.
http://www.library.upenn.edu/etext/furness/poems/00a.html
.
<<I have beene somewhat solicitus to bring this forth to
the perfect view of all men; and in so doing, glad to
be serviceable for the continuance of glory to the
DE(s)ERVED Author in these his Poems. I.B.>>
-----------------------------------------------------------
SONNET II "AMORETTI" (1595) by EDMUND SPENSER
.
But if in presence of that fairest proud
thou chance to come, fall lowly at her feet:
and with meek humbless and afflicted mood,
PARDON for thee, and grace for me intreat.
Which if she grant, then live and my love cherish,
if not, die soon, and I WITH THEE WILL PERISH.
------------------------------------------------------
FAUSTUS. I, *JOHN FAUSTUS* , OF WITTENBERG,
. Doctor, by these present, do give both body and soul
. To LUCIFER Prince of the East,
. and his minister Mephistophilis;
......................................................................
. King Henry IV, Part i Act 2, Scene 4
.
*JOHN FALSTAFF* : a plague of sighing and grief!
. it blows a man up like a *BLADDER* .
. There's villanous news abroad: here was
. Sir John Bracy from your father;
. you must to the court in the morning.
. That same mad fellow of the north, PERCY,
. and he of Wales, that gave Amamon
. the bastinado and *MADE LUCIFER* cuckold
--------------------------------------------------------------------
___________ *MADE LUCIFER*
______________ {anagram}
___________ *EMARICDULFE*
------------------------------------------------------------
<<[ *EMARICDULFE* author] E.C. & Shakespeare use identical
phrases, including these: "GOLDEN SLUMBER," "sweet repose",>>
.
. The Mystery of *EMARICDULFE*
(Reprinted from SOBRAN'S, January 1998, pp. 5-6)
.
<<While browsing through a couple of poetry anthologies,
I ran across a few sonnets, author unknown, from an
Elizabethan sonnet cycle oddly titled *EMARICDULFE* ,
published in 1595. I was already sure that the Earl of Oxford,
better known as "William Shakespeare," had written
the lovely sonnet published under the mythological name
"Phaeton" in 1591; could he have written these too?
.
The style, though erratic, was sufficient. But there also were
details that had close matches in the Shakespeare works.
The more I studied the poems, the more Shakespearean
parallels I found. Eventually I identified more than 200 -
- five per sonnet, or one every three lines!
.
Number 24 of the 40 sonnets is the most vivid & interesting example:
.
1. Oft have I heard *HONEY-TONGU'D ladies speak,
2. Striving their amorous courtiers to enchant,
3. And from their *NECTAR LIPS such SWeet words* break,
4. As neither art nor heavenly skill did want.
5. But when Emaricdulfe gins to discourse,
6. Her words are more than well-tun'd harmony,
7. And every sentence of a greater force
8. Than Mermaids' song, or Sirens' sorcery;
9. And if to hear her speak, Laertes' heir
10. The wise Ulysses liv'd us now among,
11. From her sweet words he could not stop his ear,
12. As from the Sirens' and the Mermaids' song;
13. And had she in the Sirens' place but stood,
14. Her heavenly voice had drown'd him in the flood.
.
. Obviously *EMARICDULFE* is a code name.>>
---------------------------------------------------------
"Thomas Greene, alias Shakspere" was buried
in Stratford-upon-Avon on March the 6th, 1590.
-------------------------------------------------------------
No one would be stupid enough to trust much less to pay off an
illiterate Stratford boob. William Shaksper the actor, in fact, only
existed on paper. Thomas Greene of Middle Temple was the only real
person who lived in New Place at the time and, as Town Clerk of
Stratford from 1603 to 1617, Greene had the means, motive and
opportunity to doctor the Town Records (including Will's will, of
course) to make it appear that there was a real illiterate Stratford
boob. (Presumably, it was hoped that smart people in the future would
recognize that an illiterate Stratford boob couldn't possibly have
written the works; thereby softening Oxford's Faustian bargain.)
------------------------------------------------------
http://shakespeareauthorship.com/friends.html wrote:
<<[Thomas Greene] was living in New Place in 1609 and possibly for
some time before, and in his diary he refers affectionately to "my
cosen Shakespeare" numerous times around 1614. Three of his children
were born in Stratford, and he named two of them "William" and "Anne,"
most likely after Shakespeare and his wife. Who was Thomas Greene? He
was the son of Thomas Greene Sr., mercer, of Warwick, who in his will
of 1590 left eighty pounds and a gray mare to Thomas Jr. In 1595
Thomas entered the Middle Temple (one of the four Inns of Court, the
equivalent of law schools); his sureties (kind of like sponsors) were
John Marston Junior and Senior, the future playwright and his father.
In 1601 he accompanied Richard Quiney to London on Stratford business,
where they tried unsuccessfully to see the Attorney General, Sir
Edward Coke. (Coke was preoccupied because the Essex rebellion had
just happened.) Greene was a close friend of Michael Drayton, the
poet, and in 1603 he wrote a sonnet to Drayton which appeared in The
Barons' Wars; in the same year he wrote a poem in honor of King James
called A Poets Vision and a Princes Glorie. Drayton, in turn, later
wrote an elegy for Sir Henry Rainsford, Greene's good friend and
fellow Middle Templar who he often mentions affectionately in the
same diary where he mentions Shakespeare. Some of Greene's papers
managed to survive at Stratford, and they include Latin verses
and some English jottings about the nature of love.
Greene's literary endeavors (at least those that were published)
seem to have been confined to the period 1602-1603, when he was in
London finishing up his formal studies at the Middle Temple. He was
called to the Bar of the Middle Temple in October 1602, and in August
of the following year he was appointed Steward (later called Town
Clerk) of Stratford. He held this position for the next 14 years,
during which time he negotiated a new town charter (in 1610), bought a
lease of tithes (in 1609, as Shakespeare had done in 1605), and was
heavily involved in the enclosure controversy of 1614-19, during which
he wrote his famous diary in which he mentions Shakespeare. In 1617 he
resigned his post and sold his house for 240 pounds and his tithes for
400 pounds, though he complained that he should have gotten more
because of his long service to the town. He became a Reader at the
Middle Temple in 1621, Master of the Bench in 1623, and Treasurer
in 1629. He died in Bristol in 1640.>>
-----------------------------------------------------------
> Will at wr...@mindspring.com wrote:
>>
>> A "mark" in English law is a seal, and it can convey more significance
>> than even a signature. Depending upon how the document is drawn, it
>> may require both name and seal. Even in the United States in modern
>> times seals were, if not required for certain types of documents,
>> preferred. In Pennsylvania a SQUIGGLE 1/8 of an inch long was found
>> by the State Supreme Court to be a "seal" authenticating a signature.
>> The document that bears Judith's "mark" could have been drawn up by
>> the scrivener with the names of the parties already written-in.
>> Judith may have been asked merely to seal it with a mark. This could
>> be a reflection on her literacy or not., or this could have been the
>> established practice at the law firm. I've never seen the entire
>> document. Were there witnesses and how were their names entered? AND,
>> She may also have had failing eyesight and requested it done that way.
.................................................................
Rob Zigler wrote:
>
> IIRC, Judith put her mark to the document when she was in her
> twenties. Another woman, Lettice Greene(wife of Thomas Greene,
> Shakespeare's "cousin"), signed the document.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
http://genforum.genealogy.com/cgi-bin/print.cgi?greene::1130.html
<<Thomas Greene, son of Thomas Greene and Isabel Lingen, married
Lettice Tutt of West Meane, Southampton by whom he had six children
including an Anne (b. 1604) and a William (b. 1608). He is also the
same Thomas Greene who contributed a commentary poem to the 1603
edition of Michael Drayton's _The Baron's Wars_. Lived in Stratford.
Family was descended from the "Tamworth" Greenes. Apprentice to the
Law in the "Middle Temple" 1623. Lived for a while in Bristow.>>
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Paul Crowley wrote:
> Maybe we should consider the lawyer, THOMAS GREENE,
> the Stratman's 'cousin' who wrote a long (and not bad)
> poem when he was at Inns of Court (around 1600).
> Dave Kathman posted it here about a year ago.
> The verse on the tomb is still far below his standard,
> but maybe he just dashed it off in a hurry.
> Art N maintains that once the Stratman was dead,
> Greene's assignment in Stratford was over. He quickly
> wound up his affairs and got back to London, where he
> had a successful career. The fact that such a bright
> young man should have rotted in the boondocks for
> so long, would support Art's theory.
---------------------------------------------------------------
1603: Middle Templar THOMAS GREENE appointed
Steward (later called Town Clerk) of Stratford.
Greene held this position for the next 14 years,
----------------------------------------------------------------
<<Thomas Greene's Diary records scraps of Shakespeare's talk during
a crisis over land enclosure. He and his brother John, who was also
active at Stratford, were called to the bar; John was a lawyer of
Clements Inn. From the Middle Temple, Greene had been solicitor
of the Stratford Corporation, before he served from 1603 to 1617
as borough steward (by patent) and as town clerk. While
waiting for a house, he had noted in September 1609,
'I mighte stay another yeare at New Place'.>>
. - p.384 _Shakespeare a life_ by Park Honan
....................................................
(d) [1609, Sept. 9. Extract from Memorandum of Thomas Greene on delay
in delivery to him of a house by George Browne (Misc. Doct. xii. 103),
given by H.P. ii. 378.]
"He doubted whether he might sowe his garden, untill about my 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."
(c) [1614, Nov. 17 to 1615, Sept. 5. Extracts from memoranda of
Thomas Greene, pr. in facs. and transcript by E. J. L. Scott in
C. M. Ingleby, Shakespeare and the Enclosure of Common Fields
at Welcombe (1885):
(1) "[1614.] Jovis 17 No. 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. . . ."
(3) "23 Dec. 1614. A Hall. L(ett)res wrytten one to Mr Manneryng
another to Mr Shakspeare with almost all the com(panyes) hands
to eyther: I alsoe wrytte of myself to my Cosen Shakespeare the
Coppyes of all our oathes m(a)de then alsoe a not of the
Inconvenyences wold gr(ow) by the Inclosure. . . ."
---------------------------------------------------------------------
A certain Margaret Wheelar had become pregnant by Quiney nine months
before, and this sexual conduct suddenly became evident a month after
the wedding. Wheelar & child died and were buried on March 15, 1616.
On March 26, with the lawyer, THOMAS GREENE, Will's former lodger, as
prosecuting counsel, Quiney confessed in court that he had had "carnal
intercourse with the said Wheelar" and was sorry. He had good reason
for being genuinely sorry for, the day before the trial, Shakespeare
had altered his will drastically, much reducing poor Judith's
expectation; she was punished for her match. Thomas had to do public
penance. He appeared in the parish church on three successive Sundays
at the end of which time William Shakespeare was to be dead!
Thomas had married into the Shakespeare family without producing
his share of the marriage settlement of one hundred pounds in land.
Later, he was to be fined for swearing and
for allowing drunkenness on his premises.
------------------------------------------------------------------
<<[Among Thomas Greene's fellow students at the Middle Temple]
there was *John MANNINGham* , the now-famous diarist who described
a performance of *Twelfth Night* in the Middle Temple hall on
February 2, 1602 and told a bawdy anecdote about Shakespeare
and Richard Burbage. Manningham knew *GREENE* ,
and quotes him in his diary for February 5, 1603:
.
"There is best sport always when you put a woman on the case.">>
.
Greene was called to the bar that summer, after which he moved
to Stratford (where he had already represented the town
in some business matters) and became town clerk.>>
. - p.384 _Shakespeare a life_ by Park Honan
--------------------------------------------------------
_Elizabethan Review_ article by Warren Hope
_Lear's Cordelia, Oxford's Susan, and Manningham's Diary_
. http://www.jmucci.com/ER/articles/lear.htm
.......................................................
<<Nelson drew attention to a couplet recorded in the Diary of
*John MANNINGham* of the Middle Temple 1602-3 that was used
as part of a courtly entertainment before the Queen in the
summer of 1602. Ladies of the court drew lots and each gift
was accompanied by a couplet. Manningham recorded the verses
along with the names of the ladies who received them and
the nature of the accompanying gifts. Manningham wrote:
.
. Blank: LA[DY] Susan Vere
.
*NOTHING's your lott* , that's more then CAN be told
. For *NOTHING* is more precious then gold.
.
Susan Vere is the recipient of a priceless gift one that
is both *more then CAN be told* & *more precious then gold*
a very special kind of *NOTHING* indeed. The couplet is in fact
a riddle, awarding Susan Vere an inexpressible & precious gift
that merely appears to be *NOTHING* . What could that be?
.
. A look at the text of King Lear unravels the riddle.
.
In the first scene of King Lear, the scene that precipitates the
action of the play, a kind of drawing of lots take place. Lear divides
his kingdom and announces the "dowers" or dowries to be awarded to his
three daughters. He gives equal portions of the realm to Goneril and
Regan and their respective husbands, Albany and Cornwall. He reserves
the largest portion of the kingdom for his youngest daughter, the
unmarried Cordelia. To be awarded this portion, she is to declare
publicly her love for her father in terms that will please him
no doubt by renouncing marriage in her father's lifetime.
The dialogue, beginning with the words of Lear, runs:
.
. what CAN you say to draw
. A third more opulent than your sisters?
.
. Speak.
.
Cordelia: *NOTHING, my lord*
.
Lear: *NOTHING* ?
.
Cordelia: *NOTHING* .
.
Lear: *NOTHING WILL come of NOTHING*
---------------------------------------------------------
1614 (Diary of Thomas Greene; November 17)
. "Shakspeare" (handwritten; Thomas Greene)
. (EKC II, 142; facs. SS, 233, and SS2, 76)
.............................................................
November 17, 1603 - Sir Walter Raleigh goes on trial for treason.
.......................................................
. November 17
.
St. Hugh's Day. His friends after his death made shoemaker
tools from his bones. Hence he is the patron of cobblers.
On this day in 3 BCE, according to early Christian theologian
Clement of Alexandria (ca.155-ca.220), Jesus Christ was born.
Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester was born on this day in 1533.
Queen Mary I, the daughter of Henry VIII & Catherine of Aragon,
died on this day in 1558, having ruled five years and done her
best to kill Protestantism in England. Her persecution of the
Church of England led to the deaths of men such as Archbishop
Cranmer, Bishop Latimer, Hugh Ridley, and others.
Nov. 17, 1603 - Sir Walter Raleigh goes on trial for treason.
Nov. 17, 1633 - Richard III was performed for
. the Queen's birthday at St. James. by The King's Men
............................................................
November 17 deaths:
1302 - St. Gertrude the Great (b. 1256)
1494 - Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, Italian philosopher (b. 1463)
1558 - Mary I of England (b. 1516)
1558 - Reginald Cardinal Pole, Archbishop of Canterbury (b. 1500)
1562 - Antoine de Bourbon, father of Henry IV of France (b. 1518)
-----------------------------------------------------
Pierce's Supererogation, or *A NEW pRAISE* of the Old Ass.
by Gabriel Harvey (1593)
__ *NASHE* , the APE of *GREENE* ;
__ *GREENE* , the APE of Euphues;
__ Euphues, the APE of *ENVIE* ,
the 3 famous maumets of the press, and my 3 notorious
feudists, draw *ALL in a YOKE* , but some scholars excel
their masters, and some lusty blood will do more at
a deadly pull than two or three of his *YOKE-fellows* .
-----------------------------------------------------
1603: Middle Templar THOMAS *GREENE* appointed
Steward (later called Town Clerk) of Stratford.
*GREENE* held this position for the next 14 years,
-----------------------------------------------------
. ... the best for Comedy amongst vs bee,
.
_ Edward Earle of Oxforde,
.
_ Doctor Gager of Oxforde,
_ Maister Rowley once a rare Scholler of learned Pembrooke Hall,
_ Maister Edwardes one of her Maiesties Chappell,
_ eloquent and wittie Iohn Lilly,
_ Lodge,
_ Gascoyne,
......................
_ *GREENE* ,
_ *Shakespeare* ,
_ *THOMAS NASH* ,
......................
_ Thomas Heywood,
_ Anthony Mundye OUR BEST PLOTTER,
_ Chapman,
_ Porter,
.
_ *WILSON, HATHWAY* , and Henry Chettle.
--------------------------------------------------------
. 'I HATE' from *HATE away* SHE threw,
. And sav'd my life, saying 'not you'
*If others have their WILL Ann HATH a way - Joyce's ULYSSES*
.
. "That I do *WASTE* with others' love,
. *that HATH myself in HATE* - E.O.
.
http://www3.telus.net/oxford/oxfordspoems.html#toppoems
---------------------------------------------------
http://tinyurl.com/28fore8
<<The following passage is found in Epistle, by Thomas *NASHE* ,
prefixed to *GREENE's* Arcadia, which was published in 1589: --
"I will turn back to my first text of studies of delight,
. and talk a little in friendship with a few of our
trivial translators. It is a common practice now-a-days,
amongst a sort of shifting companions that run through
ev[E]ry art an[D] thrive b[Y] none, to l[E]ave the t[R]ade of
NOVERINT* , whereto they were born, and busy themselves with the
endeavours of art, that could scarcely Latinize their neck-verse if
they should have need ; yet English Seneca, read by candle-light,
yields many good sentences, as Hood is a leggar, and so *FORTH* ;
and if you intreat him FAIR, in a frosty morning,
*he WILL afFORD you whole Hamlets* ;
I should say handfuls of tragical speeches.
But grief ! Tempus edax rerum what is that will last always ?
The sea exhaled by drops will in continuance be dry; and
Seneca, let blood, line by line, and page by page,
at length must needs die to our stage.">>
................................
___ <= 8 =>
. e v [E] r y a r t
. a n [D] t h r i v
. e b [Y] n o n e t
- o l [E] a v e t h
- e t [R] a d e o f
[E.DYER] 8 ( Sir [E]dward [DYER] )
-------------------------------------------------------
_The Choice of Valentines_ by Thomas *NASHE*
.
Why Si[R], quoth she[E], if that be [Y]ou{R} deman[D|E},
Come, la{Y|E] me a Go{D}s-penni{E} in *MY HAND* ;
...................................................
___ <= 8 =>
. S i[R]q u o t h
. s h e[E]i f t h
_ a t b e[Y]o u{R}
. d e m a n[D|E}C
_ o m e l a{Y|E]m
. e a G o{D}s p e
. n n i{E}i n *MY HAND* ;
......................................
[E.DYER] -9 {E.DYER} -7
Chance of TCV having crossed [E.DYER]'s ~ 1 in 160,000
..................................................
<<In 1943 Alden Brooks proposed Sir [E]dward [DYER]
as a candidate in the Shakespearean authorship
question in his book Will Shakspere & the DYER'S HAND.>>
..................................................
_______ Sonnet 111
Thence *COMES* it that *MY NAME* receiues a brand,
And almost thence my nature is subdu'd
To what it workes in, like the *DYERS HAND* ,
Pitty me then, and wish *I wERE REnU'DE* ,
------------------------------------------------
(d) [1609, Sept. 9. Extract from Memorandum of Thomas Greene on delay
in delivery to him of a house by George Browne (Misc. Doct. xii. 103),
given by H.P. ii. 378.]
"He doubted whether he might sowe his garden, untill about my 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."
(c) [1614, Nov. 17 to 1615, Sept. 5. Extracts from memoranda of Thomas
Greene, pr. in facs. and transcript by E. J. L. Scott in C. M.
Ingleby, Shakespeare and the Enclosure of Common Fields at Welcombe
(1885). Of the four original leaves f. 1 is now among the Wheler MSS.
and fF. 2-4 in Misc. Doct. xiii. 27: all are at the B.P. (Cat. 37).
Stopes, Env. 86, points out that pp. 6 and 7 are transposed by error
in the facs. and transcript, disordering the entries for 1615.]
(1) [1614.] Jovis 17 No. 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. . . .
(3) 23 Dec. 1614. A Hall. L(ett)res wrytten one to Mr Manneryng
another to Mr Shakspeare with almost all the com(panyes) hands to
eyther: I alsoe wrytte of myself to my Cosen Shakespeare the Coppyes
of all our oathes m(a)de then alsoe a not of the Inconvenyences
wold gr(ow) by the Inclosure. . . .
------------------------------------------------------------
Who was William Shakespeare?
by Carl O. Nordling
http://www.carlonordling.se/shakespeare/2.html
<<Shakespeare's Hamlet appears just as appropriate today, as it was
when it came into being about 400 years ago. The play can be performed
in a thousand of ways; the part of Hamlet himself can be created in a
million guises. Every new production invites discussion. Sometimes the
question arises: How would Shakespeare have liked this special
production, this special creation of Hamlet? And behind this question
another: Was the character of Prince Hamlet really created "from
nothing" by a man who had never experienced the machinations around
the throne, the compulsion to act, or his own inadequacy to fulfill a
given task?
It is well known that William Shakespeare was the son of a burgess
from Stratford-upon-Avon, an ordinary small town in Warwickshire. He
was born in 1564 and died in 1616, at the age of 52. He earned his
living as an actor in London, and did some real estate business.
Eventually he became fairly rich. He died as a wealthy house-owner in
the Stratford of his childhood.
Nothing sensational has been reported about his private life. As far
as we know, he experienced neither more nor less in his life than any
other man. But as the author of Hamlet he must certainly have had some
fountain to scoop from. Also, how do we know that he actually did
write Hamlet? After all, more ghostwriters have been imputed to him
than to any other author through the ages.
How do we know, as a rule, that a certain person has written a work
that bears his name? The most convincing evidence is, of course, an
extant manuscript in the same handwriting as his or her private
letters, etc. Unfortunately, there are only three autographed pages of
a manuscript left by Shakespeare. These constitute an addition to a
play of disputed authorship, called Sir Thomas More. The play is
unfinished, which is probably the reason why it has survived as a
manuscript rather than as printed copy. Several hands are involved in
the pages of the play proper. These appear as fair copy contrary to
the addition that is definitely a rough copy written and amended by
the author himself. The literary style of the addition is
unmistakably that of Shakespeare.
In order to prove that Shakespeare from Stratford and the author of
the addition is one and the same person, we would need some private
letters by the former. Unfortunately, he has left us no letters at
all. All that we have are six signatures, and signatures are not
comparable to common text. An additional obstacle is the disparity in
time. The play Sir Thomas More was probably written in the 1590's and
all the signatures are from the years 1612-1616. They are all
somewhat abortive, on top of all.
Whenever it happens to be impossible to prove authorship by comparing
specimens of handwriting one has to try indirect clues. A seemingly
obvious clue is the name "William Shakespeare" printed on the front
page of the book containing the text of Hamlet. This name is also to
be found in the parish register of Stratford-upon-Avon (albeit spelled
a little bit differently). Unfortunately, the name William Shakespeare
was not unique in England at the time. It was not quite as common as
John Smith but common enough. In a certain group of 26 actors there
were five Williams. According to the Encyclopædia Britannica the
surname Shakespeare was "extremely widespread" in London at the time
when the plays were published. So there could well have been several
men in London bearing the name William Shakespeare. Today, if a
dramatist is called Eugene O'Neill or Moss Hart, he will hardly risk
any confusion with namesakes. But if he is called George Kaufman, it
would be recommendable to put in an extra letter somewhere in the
name, or in between, like George S. Kaufman, for instance. This would
distinguish the dramatist George Kaufman from most other men called
George Kaufman. (I have made use of the same device to distinguish
myself from Carl Nordling, Professor of Physics at Uppsala
University.)
It looks like the dramatist Shakespeare did almost the same thing.
Instead of the usual spelling Shakspere, he inserted an extra e and an
extra a in the name as it was printed on the front pages of the books.
It became Shakespeare. This gives us reason to reserve the name
Shakespeare when referring to our friend as a dramatist. Referring to
the actor--whether identical or not--we shall call him Shakspere, just
as his contemporaries did.
Obviously, the longer spelling was used already in the 17th century as
the name of the author, a pen name so to speak (sometimes in the form
Shake-speare). The ordinary, "everyday" name of this author may have
been Shakspere, but it could equally well have been, let us say, Bacon
or Rutland or anything. It is a fact that the name William Shakespeare
appeared on the front page of e.g. the plays Sir John Oldcastle in
1600, London Prodigal in 1605 and Yorkshire Tragedy in 1608. No
literary historian asserts that the author's real name was either
Shakespeare or Shakspere in these cases. Obviously, pen names were
used occasionally, then as now.
Incidentally, it has been documented that even the name Shakspere (in
this shorter form) was used as an alias in those days. The fact is
that according to extant sources, a certain "Thomas Greene, alias
Shakspere" was buried in Stratford-upon-Avon on March the 6th, 1590.
Consequently, the name William Shakespeare does not prove at all that
the author of Hamlet is identical with the actor from Stratford--
contrary to the usual conception.
Many dramatists in the times of Shakespeare earned a little money by
selling play manuscripts to theatre managers or publishers. It is
rather obvious that the actor Shakspere must have moonlighted in order
to become as rich as he did. One would therefore expect to find some
extant notes about his receiving money for plays bearing the name
William Shakespeare. A great number of authors are mentioned in the
diary of theatre manager Philip Henslowe. The latter has noted the sum
of money that each author got for a manuscript called so and so.
Surprisingly enough, only one of Shakespeare's plays is mentioned in
the diary. This is the play Troylus and Cressida, and those who
pocketed the money for it were Thomas Dekker and Henry Chettle--not
Shakspere!
There is no documentary evidence at all that Shakspere, with his gift
for business, ever got a fee from anyone. His name occurs only
sparingly in the extant documents. Those who knew him personally have
not left a word about his authorship. A distant relative of his by
name Thomas Greene (related to Greene alias Shakspere) mentions the
actor as "my cousin Shakspere". Fellow actor Augustine Phillips
bequeaths in 1605 something to "my fellow William Shakespeare".
University-trained Stratfordian Abraham Sturley mentions the actor in
a letter as "our countryman Mr. Shaksper", and in a report of court
proceedings we find the formulation "one Mr. Shakespere". It seems
like none of these writers knew anything at all about their friend's
spare-time job as a dramatist.
There is only one rather obscure reference to a certain "Shake-scene"
implying that an actor so nicknamed might also be a dramatist. The
reference occurs in a posthumous lampoon by a certain Robert Greene,
but there is nothing to indicate that Greene had known Shakspere
personally. What Greene believed is of course no evidence for the
actual facts.
Says the Encyclopædia Britannica about all this: "There is a fair
number of contemporary allusions to him (i.e. Shakspere) as a writer."
How many make "a fair number"? One? The statement as it stands is
certainly not fair to the reader. It is downright misleading.
If there had been a number of books among the property left by
Shakspere after his death, and these books had contained sources of
some of Shakespeare's plays, then this would have indicated an actor-
author identity. But in the actor's will we find not a single book
mentioned.
The settings of the plays could have revealed quite a lot about the
author, if the author had chosen to use places in Stratford, back-
stage localities in London theaters or something similar. But in all
the 37 plays we find no such settings.
Also the plot of some play could have constituted strong evidence, if
only we had known something about the happenings and complications
that Shakspere experienced during his life. But no other complication
is known other than the fact that he at age 18 was forced to marry a
pregnant girl eight years his senior. This theme is not used in any of
the plays.
Shakespeare's plays are on the whole written in the "Oxford English"
of the period, i.e. the language used by university-trained writers.
It is, however, quite natural that a dramatist will use a number of
colloquial words that do not normally occur in print. These words
often belong to geographically limited regions. Such words as bairn
'child', keek 'peep', loch 'lake' and rowan 'mountain ash' are typical
examples of this phenomenon. Robert Burns can be assigned to Scotland
just by means of certain words that he uses (and, indeed, emphasizes),
such as auld 'old', syne 'since', rig 'stook', brig 'bridge' etc. Even
the 16th century poet Edmund Spenser has left traces of the Lancashire
dialect in his works, although this was only the vernacular of his
parents, he himself being born in London.
In Shakespeare's language the expected traces of a dialect typical for
the Midlands and specifically for Warwickshire are almost totally
lacking. Instead, I have found so many more words belonging to the
dialect that looms in the poems by Spenser, i.e. the dialect spoken in
the counties of Lancashire, Cheshire and Yorkshire. In the following,
we are going to refer to this dialect as the Northern Dialect (or
Yorkish for short). I have found that two thirds of the round about
150 dialectal words in Shakespeare are such that are not used outside
the three counties mentioned. Among the remaining words there is a
group with a wider geographical dispersion and another group
containing words that are used exclusively in Scotland and the
northernmost part of England. The frequency of the dialectal words is
usually between three and ten words per 10,000 running words in the
plays. The striking exception is the part of Hamlet in Hamlet with
no less than 30 Yorkish words in his lines of about 10,000 words.
Finally, let us suppose that we could point out that the Shakespearian
plays ceased to appear simultaneously with the death of William
Shakspere in 1616. That would constitute a relatively strong evidence
of identity, in the absence of more conclusive proof. However, even
this last chance eludes us. New plays ceased to appear years before
1616, but when the seventh edition of Richard III was published in
1623, the text was not identical with that of the sixth edition of
1622. About 2,000 minor changes had been made but twelve printer's
errors from 1622 had escaped correction. This indicates that the 1622
edition (or at least some part of it) had been used as a draft for the
1623 edition. Furthermore, the latter contains almost 200 new lines in
Shakesperian style.
It seems that it is impossible to prove that William Shakspere from
Stratford-upon-Avon was the author of Shakespeare's plays and poems.
All our attempts so far have ended in the casting of a shadow over the
actor's copyright instead of establishing it.
The identity between Shakspere and Shakespeare was introduced in 1623
with the publishing of the comprehensive volume called the First
Folio. This was seven years after the death of the actor, and even his
widow had died by then. Who could know at this juncture with any
certainty what Shakspere had done--or perhaps not done--in the
nocturnal seclusion of his chamber? Obviously, the editors and
publishers of the 1623 edition could not guarantee that Shakspere had
written the content. Therefore the First Folio is no real proof. It
just marks the beginning of the identification that has come to be one
of the postulates of Shakespearian studies.
This means that the notion of the actor's authorship has ever since
been a starting point for the research, not something that might
eventually be the result of thorough study. Such postulates (or
axioms) are not uncommon in various disciplines. Five hundred years
ago the thesis claiming the earth as the solid center of the universe
was a matter of course. It was not to be proven or called into
question. The cosmology of to day similarly postulates the Big Bang as
the origin of everything--again without any real proof. In order to be
maintained the postulates need consensus, which can be achieved either
by a superior authority or by group pressure. A Galileo Galilei
(1564-1642) or a Hannes Alfvén (1908-1994) who questions
cosmological dogmas gets house arrest or is reduced to silence.
The same practice applies to literary history as well. In order to
sustain the "Stratford postulate" it was necessary to hush up the
books by the distinguished French literary historian Abel Lefranc
(1863-1952). In four volumes published 1918, 1945 and 1950 he produced
evidence indicating a person other than Shakspere as the author of
the world-famous dramas. To this day, none of his books have been
translated into English. In an other essay we will deal more
with the old theory of Professor Lefranc.>>
------------------------------------------------
Art Neuendorffer
Dom Saliani wrote in message ...
<<Another noticeable absence of records
or mention involves Fulke-Grevelle (1554-1628).
Greville was himself a poet, dramatist and a biographer.
He wrote the famous biography of Phillip Sidney (1610-12).
He also wrote two closet dramas, "Alaham" (1600) and "Mustapha" (1603).
He also wrote a sonnet sequence "Caelica" (1580-1600).
Greville left a considerable amount of correspondence
- none of which includes any mention of Shakespeare or Shaksper.
Here's the clincher. Greville was from Shaksper country - Warwickshire
and from 1606 to 1628 he held the official position
of recorder of the town of Stratford.
The Reader's Encyclopedia of Shakespeare states that this is
a position "in which he was expected to exert his influence
in high places in the interest of the town." (pg 274)>>
-------------------------------------------------------------
Morten St. George wrote:
<<So, this poet and dramatist was Recorder of the Town of Stratford from 1606 to 1628, a period that covers Shakspere’s retirement, his death in 1616, construction of his monument, and publication of the First Folio in 1623. It’s most curious that in his considerable correspondence Greville appears to have never heard of Shakespeare.
I read that besides being a poet and dramatist, Greville was Lord Chancellor of England so surely he knew members of the Privy Council including the real Shakespeare. Also noteworthy is that in his earlier years Greville was an intelligence agent who worked for Sir Francis Walsingham. It’s most curious that King James would put a hardcore spymaster in charge of the town of Stratford. Could it be that they wanted someone there who could successfully alter the civil records of Stratford as well as silence any complaints that may arise?>>
-------------------------------------------------------------
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fulke_Greville,_1st_Baron_Brooke
<<Fulke Greville, 1st Baron Brooke, de jure 13th Baron Latimer and 5th Baron Willoughby de Broke KB PC (3 October 1554 – 30 September 1628), known before 1621 as Sir Fulke Greville, was an Elizabethan poet, dramatist, and statesman who sat in the House of Commons at various times between 1581 and 1621, when he was raised to the peerage. Greville was a capable administrator who served the English Crown under Elizabeth I and James I as, successively, treasurer of the navy, *chancellor of the exchequer*, and commissioner of the Treasury,>>
-------------------------------------------------------------
AWL Saunders wrote:
In 2007, The Master of Shakespeare by AWL Saunders proposed a 'new'
candidate; Fulke Greville, Lord Brooke (1554-1628). Greville was an
aristocrat, courtier, statesman, sailor, soldier, spymaster, literary
patron, dramatist, historian and poet. Educated at Shrewsbury, where
he met his lifelong friend Sir Philip Sidney, and Jesus College,
Cambridge. On his return to England from traveling in Europe, he
worked for Sir Francis Walsingham as an 'intelligencer' and again
traveled extensively all over Europe. He became a great favorite of
Queen Elizabeth, was Clerk to the Council of Wales, Treasurer of the
Navy and from 1614-1621 Chancellor of the Exchequer. After the death
of his father in 1606, Fulke became Recorder of Stratford-upon-Avon
and he held that post until his own death in 1628.
Greville was famous for his friendship with, and biography of Sir
Philip Sidney, and his long tempestuous love affair with Philip's
sister, Mary Herbert, Countess of Pembroke. Greville is also regarded
as a generous patron of many of the leading writers of the day
including Christopher Marlowe, Thomas Nashe, Samuel Daniel and three
Poets Laureate; Edmund Spenser, Ben Jonson and Sir William Davenant.
Greville was a member of all the leading literary circles of the day:
The Areopagus, the Wilton House Circle, The Southampton Circle, the
University Wits and The School of Night; his claim to have been the
'Master of Shakespeare' and the author of a 'lost' play called Antony
and Cleopatra.
When compared to the 'Stratfordian' profiles of William Shakespeare
from the First Folio (1623), Greville matches each 'profile'. Greville
of Stratford had a house in Henley Street, he was the friend and
patron of Ben Jonson. He had small Latin and less Greek and had built
a 'monument without a tomb' (in Collegiate Church of St. Mary,
Warwick). Greville lived in Warwick Castle on the River Avon and his
family's crest was a swan. Greville's profiles are also a match with
the standard Stratfordian 'life' of the author of the plays and poems.
He was the close friend and protégé of the Earl of Southampton. He was
the enemy of Sir Thomas Lucy of Charlecote (Judge Shallow). He
frequented Mistress Quyney's Stratford tavern (and the Bear and the
Swan). He frequented the Mermaid Tavern. He frequented Wilton House,
Essex House and Titchfield. He was the literary collaborator (and
lover) of Mary Herbert. He was the close friend and literary
collaborator of Samuel Daniel. He was the literary 'godfather' of
William Davenant. He was the friend and literary collaborator of John
Florio. He distributed propaganda for his friend the Earl of Essex. He
wrote poetry in completion with Sidney, Spenser and Daniel (Sonnets).
He was the friend and literary collaborator of Thomas Nashe. He was
the friend (and spymaster) of Marlowe. He was the close friend (and
cousin) of the Earl of Rutland. He was the close friend and
collaborator of Francis Bacon. He had literary works stolen from Kings
Place, Hackney and piratically published in 1609
-------------------------------------------------------------
Terry Ross wrote:
<<There is one earlier reference to Shakespeare as Greene's cousin in the
diary (in both Dave's and Mark's lists only Shakespeare's name is given,
not the phrase "my cousin Shakespeare"):
(1) [1614] Jovis 17 No. 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 gosp[ELL 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 and Mr Hall say they think
there will be nothyng done at all....>>
-------------------------------------------------------------
25 OCTOBER 1598 - Richard Quiney, who had arrived in London,
to plead the case at court for a reduction in the tax assessment
levied against Stratford upon Avon, addressed a letter to
"To my Loveinge good ffrende and contreymann
Mr. Wm. shackespere dlr thees:
'Loveinge contreyman, I am bolde of yow, as of a ffrende, craveinge
yowr helpe with XXX li. uppon Mr Bushell's & my securytie, or Mr
Myttens with me. Mr Roswell is nott come to London as yeate, & I have
especiall cawse. Yow shall ffrende me muche in helpeinge me out of
all the debettes I owe in London, I thank God & muche quiet my mynde,
which wolde nott be indebeted. I am nowe towardes the Courte in hope
of answer for the dispatche of my buyseness. Yow shall nether losse
creddyt nor monney by me, the Lorde wyllinge; & nowe butt perswade
yourselfe soe, as I hope, & yow shall nott need to feare, butt with
all hartie thanckefullnes I wyll holde my tyme, & content yowr
ffrende, & yf we bargaine further, yow shalbe the paiemaster
yowrselfe. My tyme biddes me hasten to an ende, & soe I committ thys
yowr care & hope of yowr helpe. I feare I shall not be backe thys
night ffrom the Courte. Haste, The Lorde be with yow, & with us all.
Amen. ffrom the Bell in Carter Lane the 25 October, 1598,
Yowrs in all kyndenes,
RICH. QUYNEY.'
------------------------------------------------
Secret Shakespeare: Studies in Theatre, Religion and Resistance
By Richard Wilson
<<Sir Edward Bushell (whose brother stood surety for a loan to Richard Quiney, and whose sister married Quiney's elder son Adrian 3 years before the younger one married Judith Shakespaere), who started out at knowsley in 1591 as a retainer of Alice Stanley. Bushell, who became Gentleman Usher to the Earl of Essex, was a cousin of the Gunpowder Plotters, the Winters.>>
------------------------------------------------
Shakespeare's Knowledge of Italy, the Classics, and the Law
by David Kathman
http://shakespeareauthorship.com/italy.html
<<Whitfield documents the surprisingly broad and strong connections between Shakespeare and dozens of Middle Templars who lived in an area extending from Stratford about eighteen miles south. These Middle Templars included Thomas Greene, Shakespeare's close friend who lived in New Place for several years; Greene's close friend Sir Henry Rainsford of Clifford Chambers; Edward Bushell, whom Richard Quiney mentioned in his famous letter to Shakespeare; William Combe, from whom Shakespeare bought 107 acres of land in 1602 and whose son married Shakespeare's daughter; and a bunch of others. Whitfield's article leaves little doubt that William Shakespeare of Stratford had a wide network of friends and acquaintances who had studied at the Middle Temple.>>
------------------------------------------------
Sir Francis Bacon
http://rictornorton.co.uk/baconfra.htm
Sir Francis Bacon's relationships--like those of his King--closely
followed the pattern of patron/favourite. More specifically, he had
a preference for young Welsh serving-men. The roll of attendants for
Bacon's household in 1618 lists a total of 75 attendants, of whom some
25 were gentlemen waiters. There was Francis Edney, who, upon Bacon's
death in 1626, received "£200 and my rich gown"; young Thomas Meautys,
who was to become Bacon's secretary-in-chief;
a Mr Bushell, "gent. usher,"
who came to the household in 1608 as a lad of fifteen, and who
remained until Bacon's death;
Edward Sherburn, groom of the chamber; and, above all,
young Tobie Matthew, who was left only a ring to the value of £30,
but who had become Sir Tobie through Bacon's efforts,
and who was well able to care for himself.
----------------------------------------------------
Epigrammes in the oldest cut, and newest fashion
Printed by V. S. for Thomas Bushell
John Weever (1599)
.......................................
The first weeke.
Epig. 13. In Rogerum Manners Rutlandia Comitem.
It's not the sea which doth our land inclose,
That makes vs mightie to withstand our foes :
Nor farmes, nor mannours, but where manners be
There stands the cittie, from foes danger free ;
If Manners then make vs our foes withstand,
MANNERS may wel be cald ROOT of the LAND.
.......................................
Epig. 14. In Crassum.
Crassus will say {T}he dogge fau{N}e[S] with his t{A}ile,
[T]o men of {W}orth h[E] writes for's be[S]t auaile :
Cra[S]su(S) thou ly[E]s(T), dogs wri[T|E) not deede[S] of men,
Then thou the dog that snarlest at my pen.
Monoceros hath strength, but hath no witte,
And therefore one home will the foole befitte :
But how can't be that he but one home haue ?
When to his neighbour Brusus two he gaue?
.......................................
Crassus will say: <= 11 =>
. {T} h -e- d -o -g -g -e -f -a -u
. {N} e [S] w -i -t -h -h -i -s -t
. {A} i _l_ e [T] o -m -e -n -o -f
. {W} o -r- t -h -h [E] w -r -i -t
. -e- s -f- o -r -s -b -e [S] t -a
. -u- a -i- l -e -C -r a [S] s u (S)
. (S) t -h- o -u -l -y [E] s (T) d
. -o- g -s- w -r -i [T](E) n -o -t
. -d- e -e- d -e [S] o -f -m -e -n
Then thou the dog that snarlest at my pen.
Monoceros hath strength, but hath no witte,
And therefore one home will the foole befitte :
But how can't be that he but one home haue ?
When to his neighbour Brusus two he gaue?
----------------------------------------------------------------
'Ch. Marl. THE TRAGICALL History of D.Faustus'
Printed by V. S. for *THOMAS BUSHELL*. (1604):
----------------------------------------------------------------
Dave Kathman informs us that:
<<There was a rather complex web of friendship and kinship extending
from Stratford some 18 miles to the south and involving some three
dozen Middle Templars, and Shakespeare was smack in the middle of this
web. His known friends who were member of the Middle Temple included
Thomas Greene and William Combe I (who sold land to Shakespeare in
1602), both of whom were lawyers by profession. But the web included
the majority of Shakespeare's other known friends in Stratford,
including Thomas Combe II, John Combe II, William Reynolds,
Anthony Nashe, John Nashe, Dr. John Hall, William Replingham, Ralph
Huband, *THOMAS BUSHELL* , Thomas Russell, and Richard Quiney; all
of these were related to or friends with at least one Middle Templar,
and
in most cases several. The details of these relationships are given in
a series of six articles by Christopher WHITFIELD published in *Notes
and Queries* in the 1960s (October 1961, pp. 364-72; April 1966, pp.
122-5; August 1966, pp.283-7; October 1966, pp. 363-9; December 1966,
pp. 443-8; April 1967, pp. 123-30). With all the connections between
William Shakespeare of Stratford and the Middle Temple, I think it's
interesting that William Shakespeare's *Twelfth Night* was performed
at the Middle Temple on February 2, 1602.>>
------------------------------------------------------------------------
<<The Lord Chancellor Bacon loved to converse with [Hobbes]. He
assisted his lordship in translating several of his essays into Latin,
one, I well remember, is that Of the Greatness of Cities. The rest I
have forgotten. His lordship was a very contemplative person, and
was wont to contemplate in his delicious walks at Gorhambury,
and dictate to Mr *THOMAS BUSHELL*, or some other of his
gentlemen, that attended him with ink and paper ready to set
down presently his thoughts. His lordship would often say that he
better liked Mr Hobbes's taking his thoughts, than any of the others,
because he understood what he wrote, which the others not
understanding, my lord would many times have a hard task
to make sense of what they wrote.>>
-----------------------------------------------------------
<<In The Winding Stair (page 148) [Daphne du Maurier] mentions
*THOMAS BUSHELL* , Francis Bacon's faithful servant for many
years. When Mrs. Pares and I last visited the Isle of Man
I got a fisherman to take me across the tide rips to
the Calf of Man, and I walked up to the hill where
I saw the remains of *THOMAS BUSHELL's* shack.
It is marked on the Ordance Survey map of the Isle of Man,
which is to be seen at Douglas. As a result I was offered an
original copy of Bacon's Historia Ventorum (History of the Winds)
which was too expensive for me then. This copy was in Douglas.
Commander Pares is broadly correct in describing *BUSHELL*
as a faithful servant, at least in length of service, except that he
accepted gifts without his master's knowledge. After Bacon's fall
from power *BUSHELL* bitterly regretted this, until his dying day.>>
.
THE WINDING STAIR FRANCIS BACON : HIS RISE AND FALL
______ -- by Daphne du Maurier 1976
http://www.sirbacon.org/windingstair.htm
--------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.georgeszirtes.co.uk/index.php?page=news
<<*THOMAS BUSHELL*: "'Twas the fashion in those dayes for Gentlemen
to have their Suites of Clothes garnished with Buttons. My Lord Bacon
was then in Disgrace, and his Man *BUSHELL* having more Buttons
than usuall on his Cloake, etc, they sayd that his Lord's breech made
Buttons and *BUSHELL* wore them: from whence he was called
*BUTTOND BUSHELL* .".>>
--------------------------------------------------------------
The Vyne Ramesses: 'Egyptian Monstrosities'
in British country house collections Apollo, April, 2003 by Tim Knox
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0PAL/is_494_157/ai_107277548
.
<<Almost all the early Egyptian relics in England were brought back
by travellers. George Sandys (1578-1644) who was in Egypt in 1610,
described how 'mummes' could 'be bought for dollars apeece at the
Citie'. He failed to buy one, but speaks of 'little models of stone or
metall; some of the shape of men ... with the heads of sheepe,
haulkes, dogs, &c. others of cats, beetles monkies and such like. Of
these I brought away divers with me. Sandys, the son of Edwin Sandys,
Archbishop of York, shared the same name as the family who had owned
The Vyne since the early fourteenth century, and who sold it to the
Chutes in 1653. It is tempting to associate 'The Vyne Ramesses' with
this early visitor to Egypt, particularly since we know that Sandys
gave some of the little bronzes he collected to John Tradescant's
Museum at Lambeth. However, Sandys' family came from Hawkshead in
Lancashire, and any connexion with their Hampshire namesakes at The
Vyne seems distant. More significant is the fact there is no evidence
to suggest that George Sandys did bestow this heavy and distinctive
sculpture upon The Vyne, where its presence is unlikely to have gone
unremarked for long. Then as now, Egyptian artefacts were sufficiently
unusual as to be valuable gifts. Charles I's queen, Henrietta Maria
(1609-69) gave a mummy, esteemed 'a great raritie', to
*THOMAS BUSHELL* (1594-1674) in 1635, and he proudly
displayed it in the grotto he created at Enstone, near Woodstock
in Oxfordshire. John Aubrey saw it many years later, but noted
that 'the dampness of the place has spoiled it with mouldinesse'.
.
By far the most important early country house collection of Egyptian
sculptures was that assembled by Thomas Herbert, 8th Earl of Pembroke
(1656-1733), at Wilton House, Wiltshire between 1690 and 1730, where
it formed but part of a much greater collection of Greek and Roman
antiquities. Pembroke's Greco-Roman sculpture was mainly bought in
Italy, but in the early 1700s he also acquired items in Paris from the
famous collection of Cardinal Mazarin. These included Egyptian pieces,
amongst them 'Two Statues in black Marble, out of the ruins of the
Palace in Egypt, in which the Viceroys of Persia lived many years
after Cambyses returned to Persia, from the conquest of Egypt', set
in niches outside the house. Inside, the 'White Marble Table Room'
contained a statue of Isis with 'Osiris, her husband, in a Coffin
open ... with a great Multitude of Hieroglyphicks quite round the
bottom and behind the statue'. Elsewhere in the house were displayed,
alongside many Roman pieces, 'Cleopatra with Caesarion, her son by
Julius Caesar, sucking on her lap', and a 'Sesostris, the head is of
red Egyptian Granite; the bust part is of the White Egyptian Granite;
the head is adorned with a tiara, after the Egyptian form, and has a
peculiar liveliness; it was found amongst the pyramids'.
.
But the Egyptian sculptures at Wilton were unusual, and most
contemporary collectors of Greco-Roman marbles would have considered
such works barbarous and unpleasing. John Woodward, in his 'Of the
wisdom of the ancient Egyptians', which was written at some time
before his death in 1728, summed up the prevailing view of Egyptian
sculpture: 'They really aimed at something that was hideous, deformed
and monstrous; a beast, or a fowl, with the head or face of a man; the
head of a dog, or some other brute, of an hawk, or the like, upon a
human figure ... They seem to have affected what was ugly and
irregular, as much as the Greeks, the Romans, and others, who had
something of spirit and genteel fancy, did what was handsome, well-
proportioned, beautiful, and like nature'. Mummies were even more
revolting: Woodward warned 'I myself saw here a mummy, brought
formerly out of Egypt, that, after it had been for some time in our
more humid air, began to corrupt and grow mouldy, emitted a foetid
& cadaverous scent, and in conclusion putrified & fell to pieces.'>>
--------------------------------------------------------------
Christopher Marlowe, Dedication to Mary Countess of Pembroke
.
. TO THE MOST ILLUSTRIOUS NOBLE LADY,
. ADORNED WITH ALL GIFTS BOTH OF MIND
. AND BODY, MARY COUNTESS OF PEMBROKE
.
Delia born of a LAUREL-crowned race, TRUE sister
of Sidney the bard of Apollo, fostering parent of letters,
to whose immaculate embrace VIRTUE,
outraged by the assault of barbarism and ignorance,
flieth for reFUGE, as once Philomela from the Thracian tyrant;
Muse of the Poets of our time,
. and of all most happily burgeoning wits;
--------------------------------------------------------------
. *NOBLE LAUREL*
__ {anagram}
. *ELEANOR BULL* (widow)
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Christopher Marlowe, Dedication to Mary Countess of Pembroke
.
. ILLUSTRISSIMAE HEROINAE OMNIBUS ET
. ANIMI ET CORPORIS DOTIBUS ORNATIS
. SIMAE, MARIAE PENBROKIAE COMITISSAE
.
Laurigera stirpe prognata Delia;
Sydnaei vatis Apollinei genuina soror;
Alma literatum parens, ad cuius immaculates amplexus,
con-FUGIT virtus, barbarici et ignorantiae impetu violata,
ut olim a Threi-cio Tyranno Philomela;
Poetarum nostri temporis, ingeniorumque
. omnium foelicissime pullulantium, Musa;
-----------------------------------------------------------
http://home.att.net/~mleary/baco1.htm
.
An interesting discovery of Baconian
Thomas Penn Leary is the *BACON* acrostic in
'Ch. Marl. THE TRAGICALL History of D.Faustus'
Printed by V. S. for *THOMAS BUSHELL*. (1604):
.
_____ N ow will I make an ende immediately.
[ME]. O what will not I do to obtaine his soule?
[FA]u. C onsummatum est , this Bill is ended,
_____ A nd Faustus hath bequeath'd his soule to LUCIFER.
_____ B ut what is this inscription on mine arme?
.
______________ *Homo FUGE*
--------------------------------------------------------------
<<FUGE like Gr. pheugein, with inf. (mostly poet.),
to avoid doing something, to *OMIT* ,
forbear, beware, = OMITtere, caVERE>>
-----------------------------------------------------------------
<<Remember to peruse Shakespeare's plays; and bee much
VERsED in them, that I may not bee ignorant in that matter.
Whether Dr. Heylin does well, IN RECKONING up the dramatick poets
which have been famous in England, to *OMIT* Shakespeare.>>
.
. -- WARD, (r)EVERE(n)D JOHN, 1648-78, Diary.
-------------------------------------------------------------
The KEY word *FUGE* marking the start/end of the BACON
acrostic was given much significance in Bacon's own
. (1623) Advancement of Learning:
.
http://fly.hiwaay.net/~paul/bacon/advancement/book6ch1.html
.
"Bi-literarie Alphabet. Say the interior Letter be *FUGE* . Now
to the interiour letter, which is Biliterate, you shall fit a biformed
exteriour letter, which shall answer the other, letter for letter,
and afterwards set it downe. Let the exteriour example be,
.
. Manere te volo donec venero.
. aabab baabb aabba aabba
. _ F __ U __ G __ E
.
<<A short Latin cover text meaning "Do not go until I come"
deciphers as a message of the opposite advice: "FLEE">>
--------------------------------------------------------------------
. *OMETTRAI* : French for *WILL OMIT*
. *MERITATO* : Italian for *DEsERVED*
. *AMORETTI*
----------------------------------------------------------------
Was "AMORETTI" (1595) written to Spenser's wife (Elizabeth Boyle)
or to the DEsERVED author himself "MERITATO"?
------------------------------------------------------------
Shakespeares POEMS (1640) To the Reader.
http://www.library.upenn.edu/etext/furness/poems/00a.html
.
<<I have beene somewhat solicitus to bring this forth to
the perfect view of all men; and in so doing, glad to
be serviceable for the continuance of glory to the
DE(s)ERVED Author in these his Poems. I.B.>>
-----------------------------------------------------------
SONNET II "AMORETTI" (1595) by EDMUND SPENSER
.
But if in presence of that fairest proud
thou chance to come, fall lowly at her feet:
and with meek humbless and afflicted mood,
PARDON for thee, and grace for me intreat.
Which if she grant, then live and my love cherish,
if not, die soon, and I WITH THEE WILL PERISH.
------------------------------------------------------
FAUSTUS. I, *JOHN FAUSTUS* , OF WITTENBERG,
. Doctor, by these present, do give both body and soul
. To LUCIFER Prince of the East,
. and his minister Mephistophilis;
......................................................................
. King Henry IV, Part i Act 2, Scene 4
.
*JOHN FALSTAFF* : a plague of sighing and grief!
. it blows a man up like a *BLADDER* .
. There's villanous news abroad: here was
. Sir John Bracy from your father;
. you must to the court in the morning.
. That same mad fellow of the north, PERCY,
. and he of Wales, that gave Amamon
. the bastinado and *MADE LUCIFER* cuckold
--------------------------------------------------------------------
___________ *MADE LUCIFER*
______________ {anagram}
___________ *EMARICDULFE*
------------------------------------------------------------
<<[ *EMARICDULFE* author] E.C. & Shakespeare use identical
phrases, including these: "GOLDEN SLUMBER," "sweet repose",>>
.
. The Mystery of *EMARICDULFE*
(Reprinted from SOBRAN'S, January 1998, pp. 5-6)
.
<<While browsing through a couple of poetry anthologies,
I ran across a few sonnets, author unknown, from an
Elizabethan sonnet cycle oddly titled *EMARICDULFE* ,
published in 1595. I was already sure that the Earl of Oxford,
better known as "William Shakespeare," had written
the lovely sonnet published under the mythological name
"Phaeton" in 1591; could he have written these too?
.
The style, though erratic, was sufficient. But there also were
details that had close matches in the Shakespeare works.
The more I studied the poems, the more Shakespearean
parallels I found. Eventually I identified more than 200 -
- five per sonnet, or one every three lines!
.
Number 24 of the 40 sonnets is the most vivid & interesting example:
.
1. Oft have I heard *HONEY-TONGU'D ladies speak,
2. Striving their amorous courtiers to enchant,
3. And from their *NECTAR LIPS such SWeet words* break,
4. As neither art nor heavenly skill did want.
5. But when Emaricdulfe gins to discourse,
6. Her words are more than well-tun'd harmony,
7. And every sentence of a greater force
8. Than Mermaids' song, or Sirens' sorcery;
9. And if to hear her speak, Laertes' heir
10. The wise Ulysses liv'd us now among,
11. From her sweet words he could not stop his ear,
12. As from the Sirens' and the Mermaids' song;
13. And had she in the Sirens' place but stood,
14. Her heavenly voice had drown'd him in the flood.
.
. Obviously *EMARICDULFE* is a code name.>>
---------------------------------------------------------
"Thomas Greene, alias Shakspere" was buried
in Stratford-upon-Avon on March the 6th, 1590.
-------------------------------------------------------------
No one would be stupid enough to trust much less to pay off an
illiterate Stratford boob. William Shaksper the actor, in fact, only
existed on paper. Thomas Greene of Middle Temple was the only real
person who lived in New Place at the time and, as Town Clerk of
Stratford from 1603 to 1617, Greene had the means, motive and
opportunity to doctor the Town Records (including Will's will, of
course) to make it appear that there was a real illiterate Stratford
boob. (Presumably, it was hoped that smart people in the future would
recognize that an illiterate Stratford boob couldn't possibly have
written the works; thereby softening Oxford's Faustian bargain.)
------------------------------------------------------
http://shakespeareauthorship.com/friends.html wrote:
<<[Thomas Greene] was living in New Place in 1609 and possibly for
some time before, and in his diary he refers affectionately to "my
cosen Shakespeare" numerous times around 1614. Three of his children
were born in Stratford, and he named two of them "William" and "Anne,"
most likely after Shakespeare and his wife. Who was Thomas Greene? He
was the son of Thomas Greene Sr., mercer, of Warwick, who in his will
of 1590 left eighty pounds and a gray mare to Thomas Jr. In 1595
Thomas entered the Middle Temple (one of the four Inns of Court, the
equivalent of law schools); his sureties (kind of like sponsors) were
John Marston Junior and Senior, the future playwright and his father.
In 1601 he accompanied Richard Quiney to London on Stratford business,
where they tried unsuccessfully to see the Attorney General, Sir
Edward Coke. (Coke was preoccupied because the Essex rebellion had
just happened.) Greene was a close friend of Michael Drayton, the
poet, and in 1603 he wrote a sonnet to Drayton which appeared in The
Barons' Wars; in the same year he wrote a poem in honor of King James
called A Poets Vision and a Princes Glorie. Drayton, in turn, later
wrote an elegy for Sir Henry Rainsford, Greene's good friend and
fellow Middle Templar who he often mentions affectionately in the
same diary where he mentions Shakespeare. Some of Greene's papers
managed to survive at Stratford, and they include Latin verses
and some English jottings about the nature of love.
Greene's literary endeavors (at least those that were published)
seem to have been confined to the period 1602-1603, when he was in
London finishing up his formal studies at the Middle Temple. He was
called to the Bar of the Middle Temple in October 1602, and in August
of the following year he was appointed Steward (later called Town
Clerk) of Stratford. He held this position for the next 14 years,
during which time he negotiated a new town charter (in 1610), bought a
lease of tithes (in 1609, as Shakespeare had done in 1605), and was
heavily involved in the enclosure controversy of 1614-19, during which
he wrote his famous diary in which he mentions Shakespeare. In 1617 he
resigned his post and sold his house for 240 pounds and his tithes for
400 pounds, though he complained that he should have gotten more
because of his long service to the town. He became a Reader at the
Middle Temple in 1621, Master of the Bench in 1623, and Treasurer
in 1629. He died in Bristol in 1640.>>
-----------------------------------------------------------
> Will at wr...@mindspring.com wrote:
>>
>> A "mark" in English law is a seal, and it can convey more significance
>> than even a signature. Depending upon how the document is drawn, it
>> may require both name and seal. Even in the United States in modern
>> times seals were, if not required for certain types of documents,
>> preferred. In Pennsylvania a SQUIGGLE 1/8 of an inch long was found
>> by the State Supreme Court to be a "seal" authenticating a signature.
>> The document that bears Judith's "mark" could have been drawn up by
>> the scrivener with the names of the parties already written-in.
>> Judith may have been asked merely to seal it with a mark. This could
>> be a reflection on her literacy or not., or this could have been the
>> established practice at the law firm. I've never seen the entire
>> document. Were there witnesses and how were their names entered? AND,
>> She may also have had failing eyesight and requested it done that way.
.................................................................
Rob Zigler wrote:
>
> IIRC, Judith put her mark to the document when she was in her
> twenties. Another woman, Lettice Greene(wife of Thomas Greene,
> Shakespeare's "cousin"), signed the document.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
http://genforum.genealogy.com/cgi-bin/print.cgi?greene::1130.html
<<Thomas Greene, son of Thomas Greene and Isabel Lingen, married
Lettice Tutt of West Meane, Southampton by whom he had six children
including an Anne (b. 1604) and a William (b. 1608). He is also the
same Thomas Greene who contributed a commentary poem to the 1603
edition of Michael Drayton's _The Baron's Wars_. Lived in Stratford.
Family was descended from the "Tamworth" Greenes. Apprentice to the
Law in the "Middle Temple" 1623. Lived for a while in Bristow.>>
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Paul Crowley wrote:
> Maybe we should consider the lawyer, THOMAS GREENE,
> the Stratman's 'cousin' who wrote a long (and not bad)
> poem when he was at Inns of Court (around 1600).
> Dave Kathman posted it here about a year ago.
> The verse on the tomb is still far below his standard,
> but maybe he just dashed it off in a hurry.
> Art N maintains that once the Stratman was dead,
> Greene's assignment in Stratford was over. He quickly
> wound up his affairs and got back to London, where he
> had a successful career. The fact that such a bright
> young man should have rotted in the boondocks for
> so long, would support Art's theory.
---------------------------------------------------------------
1603: Middle Templar THOMAS GREENE appointed
Steward (later called Town Clerk) of Stratford.
Greene held this position for the next 14 years,
----------------------------------------------------------------
<<Thomas Greene's Diary records scraps of Shakespeare's talk during
a crisis over land enclosure. He and his brother John, who was also
active at Stratford, were called to the bar; John was a lawyer of
Clements Inn. From the Middle Temple, Greene had been solicitor
of the Stratford Corporation, before he served from 1603 to 1617
as borough steward (by patent) and as town clerk. While
waiting for a house, he had noted in September 1609,
'I mighte stay another yeare at New Place'.>>
. - p.384 _Shakespeare a life_ by Park Honan
....................................................
(d) [1609, Sept. 9. Extract from Memorandum of Thomas Greene on delay
in delivery to him of a house by George Browne (Misc. Doct. xii. 103),
given by H.P. ii. 378.]
"He doubted whether he might sowe his garden, untill about my 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."
(c) [1614, Nov. 17 to 1615, Sept. 5. Extracts from memoranda of
Thomas Greene, pr. in facs. and transcript by E. J. L. Scott in
C. M. Ingleby, Shakespeare and the Enclosure of Common Fields
at Welcombe (1885):
(1) "[1614.] Jovis 17 No. 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. . . ."
(3) "23 Dec. 1614. A Hall. L(ett)res wrytten one to Mr Manneryng
another to Mr Shakspeare with almost all the com(panyes) hands
to eyther: I alsoe wrytte of myself to my Cosen Shakespeare the
Coppyes of all our oathes m(a)de then alsoe a not of the
Inconvenyences wold gr(ow) by the Inclosure. . . ."
---------------------------------------------------------------------
A certain Margaret Wheelar had become pregnant by Quiney nine months
before, and this sexual conduct suddenly became evident a month after
the wedding. Wheelar & child died and were buried on March 15, 1616.
On March 26, with the lawyer, THOMAS GREENE, Will's former lodger, as
prosecuting counsel, Quiney confessed in court that he had had "carnal
intercourse with the said Wheelar" and was sorry. He had good reason
for being genuinely sorry for, the day before the trial, Shakespeare
had altered his will drastically, much reducing poor Judith's
expectation; she was punished for her match. Thomas had to do public
penance. He appeared in the parish church on three successive Sundays
at the end of which time William Shakespeare was to be dead!
Thomas had married into the Shakespeare family without producing
his share of the marriage settlement of one hundred pounds in land.
Later, he was to be fined for swearing and
for allowing drunkenness on his premises.
------------------------------------------------------------------
<<[Among Thomas Greene's fellow students at the Middle Temple]
there was *John MANNINGham* , the now-famous diarist who described
a performance of *Twelfth Night* in the Middle Temple hall on
February 2, 1602 and told a bawdy anecdote about Shakespeare
and Richard Burbage. Manningham knew *GREENE* ,
and quotes him in his diary for February 5, 1603:
.
"There is best sport always when you put a woman on the case.">>
.
Greene was called to the bar that summer, after which he moved
to Stratford (where he had already represented the town
in some business matters) and became town clerk.>>
. - p.384 _Shakespeare a life_ by Park Honan
--------------------------------------------------------
_Elizabethan Review_ article by Warren Hope
_Lear's Cordelia, Oxford's Susan, and Manningham's Diary_
. http://www.jmucci.com/ER/articles/lear.htm
.......................................................
<<Nelson drew attention to a couplet recorded in the Diary of
*John MANNINGham* of the Middle Temple 1602-3 that was used
as part of a courtly entertainment before the Queen in the
summer of 1602. Ladies of the court drew lots and each gift
was accompanied by a couplet. Manningham recorded the verses
along with the names of the ladies who received them and
the nature of the accompanying gifts. Manningham wrote:
.
. Blank: LA[DY] Susan Vere
.
*NOTHING's your lott* , that's more then CAN be told
. For *NOTHING* is more precious then gold.
.
Susan Vere is the recipient of a priceless gift one that
is both *more then CAN be told* & *more precious then gold*
a very special kind of *NOTHING* indeed. The couplet is in fact
a riddle, awarding Susan Vere an inexpressible & precious gift
that merely appears to be *NOTHING* . What could that be?
.
. A look at the text of King Lear unravels the riddle.
.
In the first scene of King Lear, the scene that precipitates the
action of the play, a kind of drawing of lots take place. Lear divides
his kingdom and announces the "dowers" or dowries to be awarded to his
three daughters. He gives equal portions of the realm to Goneril and
Regan and their respective husbands, Albany and Cornwall. He reserves
the largest portion of the kingdom for his youngest daughter, the
unmarried Cordelia. To be awarded this portion, she is to declare
publicly her love for her father in terms that will please him
no doubt by renouncing marriage in her father's lifetime.
The dialogue, beginning with the words of Lear, runs:
.
. what CAN you say to draw
. A third more opulent than your sisters?
.
. Speak.
.
Cordelia: *NOTHING, my lord*
.
Lear: *NOTHING* ?
.
Cordelia: *NOTHING* .
.
Lear: *NOTHING WILL come of NOTHING*
---------------------------------------------------------
1614 (Diary of Thomas Greene; November 17)
. "Shakspeare" (handwritten; Thomas Greene)
. (EKC II, 142; facs. SS, 233, and SS2, 76)
.............................................................
November 17, 1603 - Sir Walter Raleigh goes on trial for treason.
.......................................................
. November 17
.
St. Hugh's Day. His friends after his death made shoemaker
tools from his bones. Hence he is the patron of cobblers.
On this day in 3 BCE, according to early Christian theologian
Clement of Alexandria (ca.155-ca.220), Jesus Christ was born.
Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester was born on this day in 1533.
Queen Mary I, the daughter of Henry VIII & Catherine of Aragon,
died on this day in 1558, having ruled five years and done her
best to kill Protestantism in England. Her persecution of the
Church of England led to the deaths of men such as Archbishop
Cranmer, Bishop Latimer, Hugh Ridley, and others.
Nov. 17, 1603 - Sir Walter Raleigh goes on trial for treason.
Nov. 17, 1633 - Richard III was performed for
. the Queen's birthday at St. James. by The King's Men
............................................................
November 17 deaths:
1302 - St. Gertrude the Great (b. 1256)
1494 - Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, Italian philosopher (b. 1463)
1558 - Mary I of England (b. 1516)
1558 - Reginald Cardinal Pole, Archbishop of Canterbury (b. 1500)
1562 - Antoine de Bourbon, father of Henry IV of France (b. 1518)
-----------------------------------------------------
Pierce's Supererogation, or *A NEW pRAISE* of the Old Ass.
by Gabriel Harvey (1593)
__ *NASHE* , the APE of *GREENE* ;
__ *GREENE* , the APE of Euphues;
__ Euphues, the APE of *ENVIE* ,
the 3 famous maumets of the press, and my 3 notorious
feudists, draw *ALL in a YOKE* , but some scholars excel
their masters, and some lusty blood will do more at
a deadly pull than two or three of his *YOKE-fellows* .
-----------------------------------------------------
1603: Middle Templar THOMAS *GREENE* appointed
Steward (later called Town Clerk) of Stratford.
*GREENE* held this position for the next 14 years,
-----------------------------------------------------
. ... the best for Comedy amongst vs bee,
.
_ Edward Earle of Oxforde,
.
_ Doctor Gager of Oxforde,
_ Maister Rowley once a rare Scholler of learned Pembrooke Hall,
_ Maister Edwardes one of her Maiesties Chappell,
_ eloquent and wittie Iohn Lilly,
_ Lodge,
_ Gascoyne,
......................
_ *GREENE* ,
_ *Shakespeare* ,
_ *THOMAS NASH* ,
......................
_ Thomas Heywood,
_ Anthony Mundye OUR BEST PLOTTER,
_ Chapman,
_ Porter,
.
_ *WILSON, HATHWAY* , and Henry Chettle.
--------------------------------------------------------
. 'I HATE' from *HATE away* SHE threw,
. And sav'd my life, saying 'not you'
*If others have their WILL Ann HATH a way - Joyce's ULYSSES*
.
. "That I do *WASTE* with others' love,
. *that HATH myself in HATE* - E.O.
.
http://www3.telus.net/oxford/oxfordspoems.html#toppoems
---------------------------------------------------
http://tinyurl.com/28fore8
<<The following passage is found in Epistle, by Thomas *NASHE* ,
prefixed to *GREENE's* Arcadia, which was published in 1589: --
"I will turn back to my first text of studies of delight,
. and talk a little in friendship with a few of our
trivial translators. It is a common practice now-a-days,
amongst a sort of shifting companions that run through
ev[E]ry art an[D] thrive b[Y] none, to l[E]ave the t[R]ade of
NOVERINT* , whereto they were born, and busy themselves with the
endeavours of art, that could scarcely Latinize their neck-verse if
they should have need ; yet English Seneca, read by candle-light,
yields many good sentences, as Hood is a leggar, and so *FORTH* ;
and if you intreat him FAIR, in a frosty morning,
*he WILL afFORD you whole Hamlets* ;
I should say handfuls of tragical speeches.
But grief ! Tempus edax rerum what is that will last always ?
The sea exhaled by drops will in continuance be dry; and
Seneca, let blood, line by line, and page by page,
at length must needs die to our stage.">>
................................
___ <= 8 =>
. e v [E] r y a r t
. a n [D] t h r i v
. e b [Y] n o n e t
- o l [E] a v e t h
- e t [R] a d e o f
[E.DYER] 8 ( Sir [E]dward [DYER] )
-------------------------------------------------------
_The Choice of Valentines_ by Thomas *NASHE*
.
Why Si[R], quoth she[E], if that be [Y]ou{R} deman[D|E},
Come, la{Y|E] me a Go{D}s-penni{E} in *MY HAND* ;
...................................................
___ <= 8 =>
. S i[R]q u o t h
. s h e[E]i f t h
_ a t b e[Y]o u{R}
. d e m a n[D|E}C
_ o m e l a{Y|E]m
. e a G o{D}s p e
. n n i{E}i n *MY HAND* ;
......................................
[E.DYER] -9 {E.DYER} -7
Chance of TCV having crossed [E.DYER]'s ~ 1 in 160,000
..................................................
<<In 1943 Alden Brooks proposed Sir [E]dward [DYER]
as a candidate in the Shakespearean authorship
question in his book Will Shakspere & the DYER'S HAND.>>
..................................................
_______ Sonnet 111
Thence *COMES* it that *MY NAME* receiues a brand,
And almost thence my nature is subdu'd
To what it workes in, like the *DYERS HAND* ,
Pitty me then, and wish *I wERE REnU'DE* ,
------------------------------------------------
(d) [1609, Sept. 9. Extract from Memorandum of Thomas Greene on delay
in delivery to him of a house by George Browne (Misc. Doct. xii. 103),
given by H.P. ii. 378.]
"He doubted whether he might sowe his garden, untill about my 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."
(c) [1614, Nov. 17 to 1615, Sept. 5. Extracts from memoranda of Thomas
Greene, pr. in facs. and transcript by E. J. L. Scott in C. M.
Ingleby, Shakespeare and the Enclosure of Common Fields at Welcombe
(1885). Of the four original leaves f. 1 is now among the Wheler MSS.
and fF. 2-4 in Misc. Doct. xiii. 27: all are at the B.P. (Cat. 37).
Stopes, Env. 86, points out that pp. 6 and 7 are transposed by error
in the facs. and transcript, disordering the entries for 1615.]
(1) [1614.] Jovis 17 No. 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. . . .
(3) 23 Dec. 1614. A Hall. L(ett)res wrytten one to Mr Manneryng
another to Mr Shakspeare with almost all the com(panyes) hands to
eyther: I alsoe wrytte of myself to my Cosen Shakespeare the Coppyes
of all our oathes m(a)de then alsoe a not of the Inconvenyences
wold gr(ow) by the Inclosure. . . .
------------------------------------------------------------
Who was William Shakespeare?
by Carl O. Nordling
http://www.carlonordling.se/shakespeare/2.html
<<Shakespeare's Hamlet appears just as appropriate today, as it was
when it came into being about 400 years ago. The play can be performed
in a thousand of ways; the part of Hamlet himself can be created in a
million guises. Every new production invites discussion. Sometimes the
question arises: How would Shakespeare have liked this special
production, this special creation of Hamlet? And behind this question
another: Was the character of Prince Hamlet really created "from
nothing" by a man who had never experienced the machinations around
the throne, the compulsion to act, or his own inadequacy to fulfill a
given task?
It is well known that William Shakespeare was the son of a burgess
from Stratford-upon-Avon, an ordinary small town in Warwickshire. He
was born in 1564 and died in 1616, at the age of 52. He earned his
living as an actor in London, and did some real estate business.
Eventually he became fairly rich. He died as a wealthy house-owner in
the Stratford of his childhood.
Nothing sensational has been reported about his private life. As far
as we know, he experienced neither more nor less in his life than any
other man. But as the author of Hamlet he must certainly have had some
fountain to scoop from. Also, how do we know that he actually did
write Hamlet? After all, more ghostwriters have been imputed to him
than to any other author through the ages.
How do we know, as a rule, that a certain person has written a work
that bears his name? The most convincing evidence is, of course, an
extant manuscript in the same handwriting as his or her private
letters, etc. Unfortunately, there are only three autographed pages of
a manuscript left by Shakespeare. These constitute an addition to a
play of disputed authorship, called Sir Thomas More. The play is
unfinished, which is probably the reason why it has survived as a
manuscript rather than as printed copy. Several hands are involved in
the pages of the play proper. These appear as fair copy contrary to
the addition that is definitely a rough copy written and amended by
the author himself. The literary style of the addition is
unmistakably that of Shakespeare.
In order to prove that Shakespeare from Stratford and the author of
the addition is one and the same person, we would need some private
letters by the former. Unfortunately, he has left us no letters at
all. All that we have are six signatures, and signatures are not
comparable to common text. An additional obstacle is the disparity in
time. The play Sir Thomas More was probably written in the 1590's and
all the signatures are from the years 1612-1616. They are all
somewhat abortive, on top of all.
Whenever it happens to be impossible to prove authorship by comparing
specimens of handwriting one has to try indirect clues. A seemingly
obvious clue is the name "William Shakespeare" printed on the front
page of the book containing the text of Hamlet. This name is also to
be found in the parish register of Stratford-upon-Avon (albeit spelled
a little bit differently). Unfortunately, the name William Shakespeare
was not unique in England at the time. It was not quite as common as
John Smith but common enough. In a certain group of 26 actors there
were five Williams. According to the Encyclopædia Britannica the
surname Shakespeare was "extremely widespread" in London at the time
when the plays were published. So there could well have been several
men in London bearing the name William Shakespeare. Today, if a
dramatist is called Eugene O'Neill or Moss Hart, he will hardly risk
any confusion with namesakes. But if he is called George Kaufman, it
would be recommendable to put in an extra letter somewhere in the
name, or in between, like George S. Kaufman, for instance. This would
distinguish the dramatist George Kaufman from most other men called
George Kaufman. (I have made use of the same device to distinguish
myself from Carl Nordling, Professor of Physics at Uppsala
University.)
It looks like the dramatist Shakespeare did almost the same thing.
Instead of the usual spelling Shakspere, he inserted an extra e and an
extra a in the name as it was printed on the front pages of the books.
It became Shakespeare. This gives us reason to reserve the name
Shakespeare when referring to our friend as a dramatist. Referring to
the actor--whether identical or not--we shall call him Shakspere, just
as his contemporaries did.
Obviously, the longer spelling was used already in the 17th century as
the name of the author, a pen name so to speak (sometimes in the form
Shake-speare). The ordinary, "everyday" name of this author may have
been Shakspere, but it could equally well have been, let us say, Bacon
or Rutland or anything. It is a fact that the name William Shakespeare
appeared on the front page of e.g. the plays Sir John Oldcastle in
1600, London Prodigal in 1605 and Yorkshire Tragedy in 1608. No
literary historian asserts that the author's real name was either
Shakespeare or Shakspere in these cases. Obviously, pen names were
used occasionally, then as now.
Incidentally, it has been documented that even the name Shakspere (in
this shorter form) was used as an alias in those days. The fact is
that according to extant sources, a certain "Thomas Greene, alias
Shakspere" was buried in Stratford-upon-Avon on March the 6th, 1590.
Consequently, the name William Shakespeare does not prove at all that
the author of Hamlet is identical with the actor from Stratford--
contrary to the usual conception.
Many dramatists in the times of Shakespeare earned a little money by
selling play manuscripts to theatre managers or publishers. It is
rather obvious that the actor Shakspere must have moonlighted in order
to become as rich as he did. One would therefore expect to find some
extant notes about his receiving money for plays bearing the name
William Shakespeare. A great number of authors are mentioned in the
diary of theatre manager Philip Henslowe. The latter has noted the sum
of money that each author got for a manuscript called so and so.
Surprisingly enough, only one of Shakespeare's plays is mentioned in
the diary. This is the play Troylus and Cressida, and those who
pocketed the money for it were Thomas Dekker and Henry Chettle--not
Shakspere!
There is no documentary evidence at all that Shakspere, with his gift
for business, ever got a fee from anyone. His name occurs only
sparingly in the extant documents. Those who knew him personally have
not left a word about his authorship. A distant relative of his by
name Thomas Greene (related to Greene alias Shakspere) mentions the
actor as "my cousin Shakspere". Fellow actor Augustine Phillips
bequeaths in 1605 something to "my fellow William Shakespeare".
University-trained Stratfordian Abraham Sturley mentions the actor in
a letter as "our countryman Mr. Shaksper", and in a report of court
proceedings we find the formulation "one Mr. Shakespere". It seems
like none of these writers knew anything at all about their friend's
spare-time job as a dramatist.
There is only one rather obscure reference to a certain "Shake-scene"
implying that an actor so nicknamed might also be a dramatist. The
reference occurs in a posthumous lampoon by a certain Robert Greene,
but there is nothing to indicate that Greene had known Shakspere
personally. What Greene believed is of course no evidence for the
actual facts.
Says the Encyclopædia Britannica about all this: "There is a fair
number of contemporary allusions to him (i.e. Shakspere) as a writer."
How many make "a fair number"? One? The statement as it stands is
certainly not fair to the reader. It is downright misleading.
If there had been a number of books among the property left by
Shakspere after his death, and these books had contained sources of
some of Shakespeare's plays, then this would have indicated an actor-
author identity. But in the actor's will we find not a single book
mentioned.
The settings of the plays could have revealed quite a lot about the
author, if the author had chosen to use places in Stratford, back-
stage localities in London theaters or something similar. But in all
the 37 plays we find no such settings.
Also the plot of some play could have constituted strong evidence, if
only we had known something about the happenings and complications
that Shakspere experienced during his life. But no other complication
is known other than the fact that he at age 18 was forced to marry a
pregnant girl eight years his senior. This theme is not used in any of
the plays.
Shakespeare's plays are on the whole written in the "Oxford English"
of the period, i.e. the language used by university-trained writers.
It is, however, quite natural that a dramatist will use a number of
colloquial words that do not normally occur in print. These words
often belong to geographically limited regions. Such words as bairn
'child', keek 'peep', loch 'lake' and rowan 'mountain ash' are typical
examples of this phenomenon. Robert Burns can be assigned to Scotland
just by means of certain words that he uses (and, indeed, emphasizes),
such as auld 'old', syne 'since', rig 'stook', brig 'bridge' etc. Even
the 16th century poet Edmund Spenser has left traces of the Lancashire
dialect in his works, although this was only the vernacular of his
parents, he himself being born in London.
In Shakespeare's language the expected traces of a dialect typical for
the Midlands and specifically for Warwickshire are almost totally
lacking. Instead, I have found so many more words belonging to the
dialect that looms in the poems by Spenser, i.e. the dialect spoken in
the counties of Lancashire, Cheshire and Yorkshire. In the following,
we are going to refer to this dialect as the Northern Dialect (or
Yorkish for short). I have found that two thirds of the round about
150 dialectal words in Shakespeare are such that are not used outside
the three counties mentioned. Among the remaining words there is a
group with a wider geographical dispersion and another group
containing words that are used exclusively in Scotland and the
northernmost part of England. The frequency of the dialectal words is
usually between three and ten words per 10,000 running words in the
plays. The striking exception is the part of Hamlet in Hamlet with
no less than 30 Yorkish words in his lines of about 10,000 words.
Finally, let us suppose that we could point out that the Shakespearian
plays ceased to appear simultaneously with the death of William
Shakspere in 1616. That would constitute a relatively strong evidence
of identity, in the absence of more conclusive proof. However, even
this last chance eludes us. New plays ceased to appear years before
1616, but when the seventh edition of Richard III was published in
1623, the text was not identical with that of the sixth edition of
1622. About 2,000 minor changes had been made but twelve printer's
errors from 1622 had escaped correction. This indicates that the 1622
edition (or at least some part of it) had been used as a draft for the
1623 edition. Furthermore, the latter contains almost 200 new lines in
Shakesperian style.
It seems that it is impossible to prove that William Shakspere from
Stratford-upon-Avon was the author of Shakespeare's plays and poems.
All our attempts so far have ended in the casting of a shadow over the
actor's copyright instead of establishing it.
The identity between Shakspere and Shakespeare was introduced in 1623
with the publishing of the comprehensive volume called the First
Folio. This was seven years after the death of the actor, and even his
widow had died by then. Who could know at this juncture with any
certainty what Shakspere had done--or perhaps not done--in the
nocturnal seclusion of his chamber? Obviously, the editors and
publishers of the 1623 edition could not guarantee that Shakspere had
written the content. Therefore the First Folio is no real proof. It
just marks the beginning of the identification that has come to be one
of the postulates of Shakespearian studies.
This means that the notion of the actor's authorship has ever since
been a starting point for the research, not something that might
eventually be the result of thorough study. Such postulates (or
axioms) are not uncommon in various disciplines. Five hundred years
ago the thesis claiming the earth as the solid center of the universe
was a matter of course. It was not to be proven or called into
question. The cosmology of to day similarly postulates the Big Bang as
the origin of everything--again without any real proof. In order to be
maintained the postulates need consensus, which can be achieved either
by a superior authority or by group pressure. A Galileo Galilei
(1564-1642) or a Hannes Alfvén (1908-1994) who questions
cosmological dogmas gets house arrest or is reduced to silence.
The same practice applies to literary history as well. In order to
sustain the "Stratford postulate" it was necessary to hush up the
books by the distinguished French literary historian Abel Lefranc
(1863-1952). In four volumes published 1918, 1945 and 1950 he produced
evidence indicating a person other than Shakspere as the author of
the world-famous dramas. To this day, none of his books have been
translated into English. In an other essay we will deal more
with the old theory of Professor Lefranc.>>
------------------------------------------------
Art Neuendorffer
Morten St. George
Sep 6, 2016, 1:28:02 PM9/6/16
to
On Sunday, August 28, 2016 at 8:48:45 PM UTC-4, Arthur Neuendorffer wrote:
>
> The same practice applies to literary history as well. In order to
> sustain the "Stratford postulate" it was necessary to hush up the
> books by the distinguished French literary historian Abel Lefranc
> (1863-1952). In four volumes published 1918, 1945 and 1950 he produced
> evidence indicating a person other than Shakspere as the author of
> the world-famous dramas. To this day, none of his books have been
> translated into English. In an other essay we will deal more
> with the old theory of Professor Lefranc.>>
> ------------------------------------------------
> Art Neuendorffer
Rather than keep everyone in suspense, I think you should have mentioned that Lefranc supported the candidacy of William Stanley. Since the Stratfordians effectively own and control the English publishing industry, it can hardly be surprising that they refuse to publish Lefranc's brilliant investigations and findings, granted that Stanley is such a strong candidate (see my "William Stanley as Shakespeare" post).
>
> The same practice applies to literary history as well. In order to
> sustain the "Stratford postulate" it was necessary to hush up the
> books by the distinguished French literary historian Abel Lefranc
> (1863-1952). In four volumes published 1918, 1945 and 1950 he produced
> evidence indicating a person other than Shakspere as the author of
> the world-famous dramas. To this day, none of his books have been
> translated into English. In an other essay we will deal more
> with the old theory of Professor Lefranc.>>
> ------------------------------------------------
> Art Neuendorffer
In contrast, the Stratfordian publishers have no qualms about printing books that support the candidacy of the Earl of Oxford because it is hard to imagine a more horrendous candidate: a vile and violent aristocrat who died of old age before most of the plays were ever written. People are so appalled by the ludicrousness of the Oxford candidacy that they quickly retreat to supporting Shakspere. Needless to say, to help their own ludicrous candidate, the Stratfordians make strenuous efforts to equate anti-Stratfordianism with Oxfordianism.
In brief, the Oxfordians are outright crackpots, but the Stratfordians are pure evil. William Stanley wrote the plays!
Arthur Neuendorffer
Sep 6, 2016, 3:42:50 PM9/6/16
to
Morten St. George wrote:
<<In brief, the Oxfordians are outright crackpots, but the Stratfordians are pure evil. William Stanley wrote the plays!TO>>
Sticks & STONEs
So...what did you think about Rollett's book?
Art Neuendorffer
<<In brief, the Oxfordians are outright crackpots, but the Stratfordians are pure evil. William Stanley wrote the plays!TO>>
Sticks & STONEs
So...what did you think about Rollett's book?
Art Neuendorffer
Dennis
Sep 6, 2016, 10:21:54 PM9/6/16
to
Suppressing Oxford's Fame/Drowned in Lethe:
Fulke Greville (Recorder of Stratford-upon-Avon), _Life of Sidney_:
...Neither am I (for my part) so much in love with this life, nor believe so little in a better to come, as to complain of God for taking him [Sidney], and such like exorbitant worthyness from us: fit (as it were by an Ostracisme) to be divided, and not incorporated with our corruptions: yet for the sincere affection I bear to my Prince, and Country, my prayer to God is, that this Worth, and Way may not fatally be buried with him; in respect, that both before his time, and since, experience hath published the usuall discipline of greatnes to have been tender of it self onely; making HONOUR a triumph, or rather TROPHY OF DESIRE, set up in the eyes of Mankind, either to be worshiped as Idols, or else as Rebels to perish under her glorious oppressions. Notwithstanding, when the pride of flesh, and power of favour shall cease in these by death, or disgrace; what then hath time to register, or fame to publish in these great mens names, that will not be offensive, or infectious to others? What Pen without blotting can write the story of their deeds? Or what Herald blaze their Arms without a blemish? And as for their counsels and projects, when they come once to light, shall they not live as noysome, and loathsomely above ground, as their Authors carkasses lie in the grave? So as the return of such greatnes to the world, and themselves, can be but private reproach, publique ill example, and a fatall scorn to the Government they live in. Sir Philip Sidney is none of this number; for the greatness which he affected was built upon true Worth; esteeming Fame more than Riches, and Noble actions far above Nobility it self.
**************************************
Jonson figured as suppressing Fame:
Cartwright, William, Jonsonus Virbius
...Blest life of Authors, unto whom we owe
Those that we have, and those that we want too:
Th'art all so good, that reading makes thee worse,
And to have writ so well's thine onely curse.
Secure then of thy merit, thou didst hate
That servile base dependance upon fate:
Successe thou ne'r thoughtst vertue, nor that fit,
Which chance, and TH'AGES FASHION DID MAKE HIT;
*Excluding those from life in after-time*,
Who into Po'try first brought luck and rime:
Who thought the peoples breath good ayre: sty'ld name
What was but noise; and getting Briefes for fame
Gathered the many's suffrages, and thence
Made commendation a benevolence:
THY thoughts were their owne Lawrell, and did win
That best applause of being crown'd within..
********************
Ruling Shakespeare's Wit:
Jonson, on Shakespeare
He was (indeed) honest, and of
an open, and free nature: had an excellent
fancy; brave notions, and gentle expressions:
wherein he flowed with that facility, that
sometime it was necessary he should be
STOP'D: sufflaminandus erat; as Augustus said
of Haterius. His wit was in his own power;
would the *RULE* of it had been too.
************************************************
Ruling Shakespeare's Wit:
From To the Deceased Author of these Poems (William Cartwright)
Jasper Mayne
For thou to Nature had'st joyn'd Art, and skill.
In Thee Ben Johnson still HELD SHAKESPEARE'S QUILL:
A QUILL, *RUL'D* by sharp Judgement, and such Laws,
As a well studied Mind, and Reason draws.
Thy Lamp was cherish'd with suppolied of Oyle,
Fetch'd from the Romane and the Graecian soyle. (snip)
***********************************
Grreville, __A Dedication to Sir Philip Sidney_
“I conceived an Historian was bound to tell nothing but the truth, but to tell all truths were both justly to wrong, and offend not only princes and States, but to blemish, and stir up himself, the frailty and tenderness, not only of particular men, but of many Families, with the spirit of an Athenian Timon.”
*********************************
Hurled head-long out of London:
The Art of Forgetting - Disgrace and Oblivion in Roman Political Culture
Harriet I. Flower
...Memory sanctions, then, take shape against the background of a natural state of oblivion, as constructed in the Roman imagination of the day. In the sense that they were designed to prevent or remove the commemorative strategies specific to the Roman community, their function is analogous to that of exile, which drove the unworthy citizen outside the territory of the city, into a place that was not Roman. Like the exile, a citizen subject to memory sanctions was denied honorific commemoration within the city's own memory space. In such a rich cultural context, memory sanctions, especially in Rome, did not have a single meaning or purpose but were complex and often contradictory, both in conception and implementation. they corresponded to the evolving memory world of Rome, in all its manifestations. Moreover, any particular sanction or erasure would always have taken on its meaning within its own particular milieu, a historical context that is often lost to us. Memory sanctions often appear to float freely between the extremes of oblivion and disgrace, in a dynamic memory space shaped in part by shame and silence, but in part also by vituperation and ongoing debate about the merits or vices of the deceased.
**********************************************
Nicole
Morten St. George
Sep 6, 2016, 10:56:02 PM9/6/16
to
On Tuesday, September 6, 2016 at 3:42:50 PM UTC-4, Arthur Neuendorffer wrote:
>
> So...what did you think about Rollett's book?
I nearly tossed that book into the garbage around page 11 when Rollett pointed to an imperfection in Shakespeare’s clothing (from the First Folio depiction of him) as proof that William Stanley was Shakespeare. Until then, I didn’t think anyone could be a bigger crackpot than Mr. Looney.
>
> So...what did you think about Rollett's book?
But now I’m glad I held on to that book: the front cover provides a high resolution reproduction of the Stanley portrait. To understand why this could be important, please see the return question that I posed to you in the William Stanley as Shakespeare thread.
Arthur Neuendorffer
Sep 7, 2016, 7:22:59 PM9/7/16
to
Arthur Neuendorffer wrote:
>
> So...what did you think about Rollett's book?
>
> So...what did you think about Rollett's book?
Morten St. George wrote:
<<I nearly tossed that book into the garbage around page 11 when Rollett pointed to an imperfection in Shakespeare’s clothing (from the First Folio depiction of him) as proof that William Stanley was Shakespeare.>>
Rollett pointed to an imperfection in Shakespeare’s doublet (from the First Folio depiction of him) as proof it was all a joke:
<<I nearly tossed that book into the garbage around page 11 when Rollett pointed to an imperfection in Shakespeare’s clothing (from the First Folio depiction of him) as proof that William Stanley was Shakespeare.>>
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gCQt4pOMUqc
---------------------------------------------
Morten St. George wrote:
<<But now I’m glad I held on to that book: the front cover provides a high resolution reproduction of the Stanley portrait.>>
In other words:
<<But now I’m glad I held on to that book: the front cover provides a high resolution reproduction of the Stanley portrait.>>
you are too ignorant to appreciate codes & ciphers:
---------------------------------------------------------
SIR HUGH EVANS: What is *LAPIS*, William?
.
WILLIAM PAGE: *A STONE*.
.
SIR HUGH EVANS: And what is '*A STONE*,' William?
.
WILLIAM PAGE: A pebble.
.
SIR HUGH EVANS: No, it is 'LAPIS:'
..........................................................
The original 'St(a)nley' name was 'St(o)n(e)ley'
..........................................................
*STONE*, n. [OE. *STON*, *STAN*; akin to OS. & OFries. *STEN*,
D. *STEEN*, G. stein, Sw. *STEN*, Dan. *STEEN*, Gr. a pebble.]
..................................................................
http://www.brooklynrail.org/2013/02/books/shake-speare-fission
http://www.brooklynrail.org/article_image/image/10639/niederkorn-web1.jpg
.
ees[ST(e)NLEY]eee : Prob. ~ 1 in 2,300,000
------------------------------------------------
Art Neuendorffer
Morten St. George
Sep 7, 2016, 9:35:05 PM9/7/16
to
On Wednesday, September 7, 2016 at 7:22:59 PM UTC-4, Arthur Neuendorffer wrote:
> In other words:
> you are too ignorant to appreciate codes & ciphers:
> ---------------------------------------------------------
> SIR HUGH EVANS: What is *LAPIS*, William?
> .
> WILLIAM PAGE: *A STONE*.
> .
> SIR HUGH EVANS: And what is '*A STONE*,' William?
> .
> WILLIAM PAGE: A pebble.
> .
> SIR HUGH EVANS: No, it is 'LAPIS:'
> ..........................................................
> The original 'St(a)nley' name was 'St(o)n(e)ley'
> ..........................................................
> *STONE*, n. [OE. *STON*, *STAN*; akin to OS. & OFries. *STEN*,
> D. *STEEN*, G. stein, Sw. *STEN*, Dan. *STEEN*, Gr. a pebble.]
> ..................................................................
Sorry, Art, but I have little confidence in ciphers of this type. You should converse with Jim F. who shares your interest in this field. Besides, even if such codes and ciphers were to satisfy me and you, they are unlikely to satisfy the outside world which has to be the ultimate objective.
I was hoping that you would examine and comment on the cover of Rollett's book since you seem to be in possession of it. I am only able to distinguish Minerva Athena with her spear (on Stanley's cameo medallion) in Rollett's high resolution reproduction of the Stanley portrait, not in the portraits available on the Internet. Note that, even so, you might need a magnifying glass to fully visualize the spear.
The matter is relevant because from the very beginning some anti-Stratfordians have claimed that Shake-speare is only a pen name derived from Minerva Athena (goddess of the arts) shaking her spear.
> Arthur Neuendorffer wrote:
>
> Rollett pointed to an imperfection in Shakespeare’s doublet (from the First Folio depiction of him) as proof it was all a joke:
Well, I'll confess that I mainly just looked at Rollett's drawings, which quickly discouraged a detailed reading of his text. I simply don't think that an imperfection in Shakespeare's doublet can be taken as "proof" of anything.
>
> Rollett pointed to an imperfection in Shakespeare’s doublet (from the First Folio depiction of him) as proof it was all a joke:
> In other words:
> you are too ignorant to appreciate codes & ciphers:
> ---------------------------------------------------------
> SIR HUGH EVANS: What is *LAPIS*, William?
> .
> WILLIAM PAGE: *A STONE*.
> .
> SIR HUGH EVANS: And what is '*A STONE*,' William?
> .
> WILLIAM PAGE: A pebble.
> .
> SIR HUGH EVANS: No, it is 'LAPIS:'
> ..........................................................
> The original 'St(a)nley' name was 'St(o)n(e)ley'
> ..........................................................
> *STONE*, n. [OE. *STON*, *STAN*; akin to OS. & OFries. *STEN*,
> D. *STEEN*, G. stein, Sw. *STEN*, Dan. *STEEN*, Gr. a pebble.]
> ..................................................................
I was hoping that you would examine and comment on the cover of Rollett's book since you seem to be in possession of it. I am only able to distinguish Minerva Athena with her spear (on Stanley's cameo medallion) in Rollett's high resolution reproduction of the Stanley portrait, not in the portraits available on the Internet. Note that, even so, you might need a magnifying glass to fully visualize the spear.
The matter is relevant because from the very beginning some anti-Stratfordians have claimed that Shake-speare is only a pen name derived from Minerva Athena (goddess of the arts) shaking her spear.
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