The Shakespeare Code

(Note: It is good to read Shakespeare’s Destruction of Thomas Kyd: Part One  and Shakespeare’s Destruction of Thomas Kyd: Part Two first)

In ‘The Destruction of Thomas Kyd. Part Two’ The Shakespeare Code posed the question:

If, between 1590 and 1592, William Shakespeare and Thomas Kyd were working for separate ‘Lords’, how could they have collaborated on Arden of Feversham and Edward III?

This Post will provide the answer…….

ANOTHER FIRST FOR THE SHAKESPEARE CODE……

……often imitated…..

……sometimes plagiarised…..

BUT NEVER EQUALLED!!!

The Shakespeare Code admits, with some shame, that up to now……..

……….on one subject……..

IT HAS FOLLOWED THE OPINION OF MODERN SCHOLARS!!!

Up to now it had accepted the theory that Thomas Kyd’s ‘Lord’ and patron was…….

…..almost certainly Ferdinando, Lord Strange…….

 .

…..as Charles Nicholl……..

………writes in the new Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.

 But, following Sir Brian Vickers’ brilliant new work with computers…

 ……..the Agents of The Code now believe………

……..along with older scholars like Frederick Boas and Arthur Freeman…..

……..that Kyd’s ‘certain lord’  was……

 ……..Henry Radclyffe, 4^th Earl of Sussex…..

 

 ……Warden and Captain of the town, castle and isle of Portsmouth…….

The first evidence of a link between Kyd and the Sussex family can be found in 1586….

In August of that year, Henry, Lord Sussex was busy rooting out a Catholic conspiracy against Elizabeth in the Portsmouth area….

….including the off-shore waters…..

The Southampton Papist, Chiddiock Tychbourne……..

…….was hanged drawn and quartered the following month….

……a spectacle which even revolted an Elizabethan crowd…..

[The Queen was disappointed, though……

She had asked her Privy Council to dream up an even more painful death for Tychbourne.

Lord Burghley had opined that hanging, drawing and quartering was quite painful enough…..]

Kyd supported Henry Sussex’s campaign against the Hampshire Papists by composing his Verses of Praise and Joy written upon Her Majesty’s Preservation…….

 In this he ‘answers’ Tychbourne’s poem, written on the eve of his execution….

My prime of youth is but a frost of cares,

My feast of joy is but a dish of pain….

…..with….

Thy prime of youth is frozen with thy faults,

Thy feast of joy is finished with thy fall….

This support of an unpopular execution suggests a link between Kyd and the Earl of Sussex…..

Henry’s dead brother, Thomas, the third Earl of Sussex……

……had been Lord Chamberlain, in charge of the entertainment at Elizabeth’s court……

….. and the Sussex family had first given their name to a group of players in 1572.

Thomas Sussex had been the bitter enemy of Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester…..

……a.k.a. ‘The Bear’……

……of whom Sussex said when he was dying in 1583…..

…..no-one knows the beast as I do….

The hatred between the two men had been high-lighted by their patronage of rival playing companies….

Leicester’s Men got the upper hand at Court as Leicester had the ear…….

 …….and more…….

……..of the Queen…….

Sussex’s Men became famous for touring…….

……..with a circuit that covered the whole South of England and the Midlands and Norfolk……

Leicester’s Men inevitably presented plays that favoured the status quo…..

…..after all, Leicester WAS the status quo…

…….and the plays were ear-marked for performance before Elizabeth.

The plays of Sussex’s Men were aimed at the general public….

…..so had to be more adventurous and popular……..

……and often featured murders, suicides and rapes…

Kyd’s plays – like King Leir – were sometimes  patriotic…….

…….but there was a dark, anarchic, existential side to him……

…….a side which resonated with popular taste….

In the early 1580’s Kyd was in his twenties……..

 ……..and The Code believes he cut his dramatic teeth on touring plays for the Sussex Men…..

When Thomas Sussex died, Elizabeth seized her chance….

She did not appoint his brother, Henry, as Lord Chancellor…….

……. but, with the aid of spy-master, Sir Francis Walsingham –

……..formed the Queen’s Men….

………twelve of them in number – the largest company in the land……

………who were to be paid more than any other actors…….

……… and wear the Queen’s prestigious red livery….

But…….

……and this was a big ‘but’……..

……their brief was to present plays that  promoted the greatness of Elizabeth….

……EVEN IN PLAYS THAT WERE SET BEFORE HER REIGN!!!…..

(They solved the problem by endowing some of the characters with miraculous gifts of prophecy)

See: All the Queen’s Men.

Elizabeth also stole the Sussex Men’s big star, Richard Tarleton……

…..a stand-up comic who made the Queen cry with laughter……..

…. and from whose wit no courtier, however powerful, was safe….

Sir Walter Raleigh……

…….with his vanity and ruthless ambition….

……was a particular butt of Tarleton’s jokes….

By the second half of the 1580’s, William Shakespeare……..

……..Kyd’s ‘lodging-mate’ and friend…….

……..was touring the Midlands with Lord Strange’s Men…..

We know from the satirical play Histrio-Mastix that Kyd the…….

….stately scrivener…….

……had helped………

……tie up a knot of knaves together……

i.e. helped Shakespeare set up  a touring acting company……

……..The Politician Players……

But, when ‘Caesar’ Shakespeare was running a company, there was only room for one boss…..

So Kyd needed another platform….

He needed Henry, 4^th Earl of Sussex, to revive the fortunes of his dead brother’s ‘Men’…..

Hence Kyd’s support for Henry Sussex when he was chasing South Coast Catholics…

So when EVERYONE’s theatrical fortunes drooped after Armada…….

(see: Shakespeare the Movie.)

…….Kyd joined the Sussex household…..

……where Earl Henry had a seventeen year old son, Robert……

…….who was in need of a tutor……

Just as Shakespeare joined the Southampton household…..

……. where Countess Mary ALSO had a seventeen year old son, Harry…..

…..who was ALSO in need of a tutor……

The Southampton family was based in Titchfield……

And the Sussex family was based in Portsmouth……

Titchfield is only twelve miles away from Portsmouth….

……less than half a day’s ride….

So Kyd and Shakespeare continued their collaboration…..

…..in Hampshire…..

…..from 1590 – 1592…

….and produced, as we have seen, Arden of Feversham and Edward III…..

AND MUCH, MUCH MORE!!!

●

In its next Post………

……..’Shakespeare’s Destruction of Thomas Kyd. Part Four’…….

………The Code will continue to decode the pamphlet, A Groatsworth of Witte…..

TO ASTOUNDING EFFECT!!!

THIS PAMPHLET IS PROBABLY THE GREATEST KEY TO THE STORY OF SHAKESPEARE’S LIFE.

TO READ IT, PLEASE CLICK: HERE!