Why is Falstaff fat?
Neither the historical Falstaff, nor Oldcastle, as the character was first named, was ever charged with obesity.
The Shakespeare Code’s Chief Agent, Stewart Trotter, has found solid evidence that Shakespeare based the character of the fat knight on a fat Titchfield man.
Thomas Nashe, a pamphleteer and essayist (who was accused of calling William Shakespeare an ‘upstart crow’) dedicated his pamphlet Strange News to a mysterious Master William Apis Lapis…..
Scholars have unanimously taken this as a Latin code. Apis is bee, Lapis is stone, so William Apis Lapis is, in reality, William Beeston. We know he was fat, we know he loved sex and we know he loved to eat and drink. But who was he?
Chief Agent Trotter has found the answer! William Beeston lived in Titchfield. To be more precise, at Great Posbrook Farm…..
He was an intimate friend of the Southampton family so must have known William Shakespeare.
Beeston, a purveyor of wine and cider, counted among his clients (as well as Nashe) the writers Robert Green and George Peele. At Shakespeare’s request, he hid them away, with maids and alcohol to hand, at Posbrook Farm where they produced ‘Shakespeare’s’ cycle of Henry VI plays.
No wonder Nashe accused Shakespeare of ‘beautifying’ himself with other bird’s ‘feathers’.
William Beeston had an illegitimate son called Christopher who later became an actor in Shakespeare’s company.
We know that the Titchfield William Beeston was related to Christopher Beeston because of the dates of their wills. Christopher wrote his will on 4th October 1638 (with a codicil on 7th October) and William wrote his on 9th October, 1638.
THERE IS ONLY FIVE DAY’S DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE WILLS!!!
Christopher, in turn, had a son he called William. It was this William Beeston who told John Aubrey that Shakespeare had been a schoolmaster in the country.
He meant Titchfield where the school still stands at the gates of Place House.
He also told Aubrey that Shakespeare based his characters on living people. Nashe and Shakepeare between them transformed fat William Beeston of Titchfield, Hampshire, into ‘Plump Jack’ of ‘all the world’.
And they took Falstaff’s advocacy of wine from the lips of vintner Beeston himself.
Read the whole story in: The Strange Case of Mr. Apis Lapis.
How was it that “Shakespeare was entitle to help carry the canopy over the King” (at the coronation?) Mr Trotter
Dear Mr. Hicks
Shakespeare and his acting company were made Grooms of the Chamber by King James and were each given four and a half yards of red material to march in the King’s coronation procession. James was under a canopy, held up it seems not by the usual Barons of the Cinque Ports, but by ‘Pensioners, querries of the stable, and footmen’. (There is, to be honest, a conflicting account, though, that ‘8 knights’ bore the canopy over the King) The canopy, as was usual, was also taken into the Abbey: and it was probably here that Shakespare, along with other stylish grooms, held it.
He says, in Sonnet 125 : Were’t ought to me I bore the canopy/With my extern the outward honouring,/Or laid great bases for eternity,/Which proves more short than waste or ruining.’ The canopy, most scholars believe, is the coronation canopy for James. The ‘great bases for eternity’ which ‘prove more short than waste or ruining’ were the pasteboard ‘pyramids’ (obelisks) which lined the route. Shakespeare is saying this honour was nothing compared to the honour of being the lover of the third Earl of Southampton.
Hope this answer satisfies.
Stewart Trotter
I agree on Nashe accusing Shakespeare to be ‘an upstart crow’, and so on…
If this is right, as you seem to share, what to say about what Nashe writes in the Menaphon introduction about the ‘Italian pen’? Who is acting, according to Nashe, ‘in dusguised array’ as Nashe writes in the Menaphon?
P. S. I like your articles really much. Saul Gerevini.
Dear Mr. Trotter, you write: “No wonder Nashe accused Shakespeare of ‘beautifying’ himself with other bird’s ‘feathers’”, and I agree, but if you analyze carefully the quarrel between John Florio and Thomas Nashe you will find that Nashe was referring to Florio not to Shaksper the man from Stratford. This is really clear if you read Florio’s Second Fruits introduction and his letter to the reader alongside the Menaphon’s introduction written by Nashe. “Tam Marti Quam Mercurio” both in the Second Friuts and in the Menaphon introduction is a key to follow more precisely this quarrel. In this case, we should ask ourselves who Shakespeare really was. Saul Gerevini.
Ok Mr. trotter, let let us take a step back. You write that Nashe accused Shakespeare of being an up start crow. Can you tell me where and when and mainly why? Saul Gerevini.
Dear Mr. Trotter, you wrote: “William Beeston was an intimate friend of the Southampton family so must have known William Shakespeare”. Well, John Florio was an intimate friend of the Southampton family and in particular he was very intimate with Henry, the young Earl that Shakespeare portraits in his sonnets: so J. Florio must have known William Beeston. But it is not so clear how Mr. Shaksper, the actor from Stratford, could have known William Beeston since, as Mrs Stope wrote in her Southampton’s biography, there are not direct evidences that Shaksper and Southampton ever met each other. On the other side, the evidences of a direct and profound knowledge between J.F. ( John Florio, alias Johannes Factotum) and Southampton are not only striking but also really significat in relation to the real identity of William Shakespeare. Saul Gerevini.
Anyway, to be more precise, this is what Stopes writes in the introduction of her book on Southampton and Shaksper’s relationship:
“I must confess that I did not start this work for his (the Earl of Southampton) sake, but in the hope that I might find more about Shakespeare, which hope has not been satisfied.” Stopes Charlotte Carmichael.
In this the same book, Stopes reports of an intimate relationship between J. Florio and the Earl. So, J.Florio matches perfectly with Shakespeare, but the same does not happen between Shaksper and Shakespeare.Saul Gerevini.
Taken from: Stopes, C. C. (Charlotte Carmichael), 1841-1929. “The life of Henry, third earl of Southampton. Shakespeare’s patron.” Cambridge : The University press, 1922.