AN ANNOUNCEMENT FROM TRIXIE THE CAT
On Wednesday, 7th May, 2014, The Shakespeare Code registered its……
ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY THOUSANDTH VIEW!!!
To Honour the event, Your Cat has compiled a new….
….TOP TWENTY ALL TIME POSTS…..
…….AND HERE THEY ARE!!!
1.
Still way out in the lead is……..
‘Just how Gay was the Third Earl of Southampton’
……an exploration of William Shakespeare’s…….
……. fifteen year gay affair……..
….(1590 to 1605)….
……..with Henry Wriothesley, the Third Earl of Southampton……
……a Post that was tweeted by the ineffable Stephen Fry….
……producing THOUANDS UPON THOUSANDS of Views….
The Code draws largely on Shakespeare’s Sonnets for its information…..
….complex, coded poems, with which……
……. in William Wordsworth’s words…..
Shakespeare unlocked his heart…..
2.
‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream Decoded’
HURTLING up the charts is….
……our redical new interpretation of ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’.
……which argues that the play was a commission from the lovely, widowed….
……Mary Browne, Second Countess of Southampton….
….the mother of Shakespeare’s boyfriend…..
….to celebrate her wedding, in 1594, at Copt Hall in Essex…….
……. to Sir Thomas Heneage….
….an old lover of Queen Elizabeth….
…..AND A PROTESTANT!!!
(Mary, as Brothers and Sisters of The Code well know, was a committed Catholic…….
…..often in trouble with the Privy Council for harbouring renegade priests.)
Shakespeare had to write a play that would please both Papists and Proddies….
……the supporters of Mary Queen of Scots….
…..who’d had her head chopped off six years previously…..
…..and the supporters of Queen Elizabeth…..
…..who was still very much alive….
‘Decoding ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ is still a work in progress…..
…..but in the light of the subject’s OVERWHELMING popularity….
…..WORLD WIDE…
…….THE CODE INTENDS TO PUBLISH A SCENE BY SCENE ANALYSIS OF THE PLAY IN THE COMING YEAR!!!
3.
Shakespeare in Titchfield. A Summary of the Evidence.
In 1590, The Code argues, Shakespeare went to live in Titchfield, Hampshire…..
…..as a ‘fac totum’ for the Southampton household….
…as an entertainer and playwright….
….as a teacher in the local Grammar School…..
….and as a lover of the teenage Harry Southampton….
(not to mention the beautiful, mixed race courtesan and musician…….
….. Aemilia Lanyer…..
…..the Dark Lady of the Sonnets)
This Post draws on the topography of Titchfield….
….and references in the sonnets and plays to REAL PEOPLE….
….to show that many of the early plays were acted in the Hall and Grounds of Place House…
…….and that aristocrats……
….including FEMALE aristocrats…..
….. like Lady Penelope Rich….
……played in the entertainments along with professional actors…..
….. like Shakespeare.
4.
6,000 VIEWS AND THE APPOINTMENT OF MAGGIE OLLERENSHAW!
…..to a Code Fellowship!!!
Maggie Ollerenshaw, F.S.C….
…..is a.k.a. Wavy Mavis from the WORLD RENOWNED T.V. sitcom Open All Hours….
…..which was revived last Christmas…..
This Post includes Your Cat’s now CLASSIC interview with Maggie……
……in which she lays bare her soul to her Feline Friend.
5.
Viola’s ‘Willow Cabin’ Speech De-Coded.
….relates Viola’s SUBLIME from ‘Twelfth Night’……..
……to an incident at Tilbury during the Armada…..
…..when English noblemen were happy to camp out in ‘willow cabins’…..
…….in the fields and beaches…..
…..to show their love for their Queen……
…shown here in armour on horseback.
6.
‘Macbeth’ Decoded. Part Four. The Witches (II)
…….argues that ‘Macbeth’ was first performed…
NOT when King James came to the English throne…
BUT in Queen Elizabeth’s reign…..
……in SCOTLAND…..
….. in 1599…..
….at Holyrood House….
(on the very spot where he had ‘examined’ the notorious Berwick witches)
……to encourage him to join the Essex rebellion….
….and seize the throne of England from Elizabeth.
7.
‘Macbeth’ Decoded. Part Two. The Political Backdrop…
8.
Twelfth Night Decoded: Part Four. Malvolio as Sir Walter Raleigh.
The Code argues that ‘Twelfth Night’ was staged in 1601 as an attempt to appease the Queen…..
….who was furious with the Earl of Essex for abandoning his post in Ireland…
…..and even more furious whenhe burst into her bedchamber at Nonesuch Palace….
….before she had time to put on her make-up!!!
Essex is presented sympathetically as the love-sick Orsino…..
…..and Essex’s great rival…..
……Sir Walter Raleigh…..
……UNSYMPATHETICALLY as the upstart Malvolio….
9.
‘Macbeth’ Decoded. Part Five. The Macbeths as Queen Elizabeth…
The Macbeths kill their royal guest and usurp the throne of Scotland…..
Queen Elizabeth had killed HER royal guest….
….King James’s mother….
Mary Queen of Scots….
….and as far as Catholics were concerned….
HAD USURPED THE THRONE OF ENGLAND!!!
10.
A Trilogy about Shakespeare…..
……in a series of stunning visual images……
…..which shows how the Bard’s life became……
……. inextricably woven…….
…. with those of the Earls of Essex and Southampton
…..how Shakespeare earned Queen Elizabeth’s disfavour…..
…. by being associated with the Essex rebellion against her….
….and being in a gay relationship wit h the Earl of Southampton…..
…and how he came back into favour when bisexual King James ascended the English throne.
11.
50,000 VIEWS AND FIFTEEN NEW COUNTRIES!!!
This includes UNCANNILY ACCURATE predictions that…..
…… Stewart Trotter has made…..
…including the prophesy that Sir Nicholas Hytner……
…….. would run the Royal National Theatre……
……before he had directed a single professional play!!!
At that Tony Blair was a psychopath….
……even before he took office.
Trotter attributes this astonishing gift….
…..to his HIGH ROMANY BLOOD…..
…….but looking again at the flakey photo of Blair….
YOU DIDN’T NEED ROMANY BLOOD TO MAKE THE PREDICTION!!!
12.
Why did William Shakespeare write the Sonnets?
This Post began life as an article for the Actors Centre in London….
‘An Actors’ Guide’ to Shakespeare’s Sonnets…..
…..but is useful to ANYONE with an interest in the Bard.
13.
Twelfth Night Decoded: Part Three. Sir Toby Belch as George, Lord Hunsdon.
George, Lord Hunsdon was Queen Elizabeth’s boozy, gormandising cousin……
…… with whom she’d had an enormous row.
(He’d said she was too old to ride on a horse)
He was at the first night of ‘Twelfth Night’ and is the model for Sir Toby Belch.
14.
Twelfth Night Decoded: Part One. Olivia as Queen Elizabeth.
Olivia is the mistress of the household after the death of her father and brother.
Malvolio wants to take over and control her…..
Elizabeth became Queen of England after the death of her father and her brother….
Sir Walter Raleigh wants to take over and control her….
15.
……of our reclusive Chief Agent….
……STEWART TROTTER….
….whom we see up a coconut tree in Papua….
He has been up one sort of tree or another all his life…
16.
This covers Shakespeare’s ‘retirement’ to Stratford….
…and the burst of new life he got from his relationship with his daughter, Susanna.
17.
The Dedication to ‘Shakespeare’s Sonnets’ Decoded…..
…….which reveals that the Dedication to the Sonnets is a coded reference to Shakespeare’s THEN EX-BOYFRIEND….
…..Henry Wriothesley, Third Earl of Southampton.
Southampton dropped the Bard in 1605….
….when he finally produced a son and heir.
(He wanted to hid his gay side from his son)
Shakespeare’s bitter, murderous anger at this rejection was to fuel Sonnet 126…
……and much of the misanthropy in parts of ‘King Lear’……
18.
‘Richard III’ Decoded: Part One. ‘All the Queen’s Men…’
……argues that the character of King Richard……
…..a.k.a. the Boar…..
…..is a coded attack on the recently deceased,
……Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester…
….lover of Queen Elizabeth, poisoner of rivals, wife slayer, adulterer, murderer and bigot…..
…..a.k.a. The Bear…
19.
Twelfth Night Decoded: Part Two. Feste the Clown as Thomas Nashe.
Tom Nashe, The Code believes, was Shakespeare’s regular collaborator…..
(Tom wrote the dreadful gags)
In ‘Twelfth Night’ – to gain the forgiveness of the Queen whom he’d offended – he played Feste the jester….
…..in an attempt to make Her Majesty laugh…..
20.
Trixie the Cat’s Guide to The Sonnets: (2) The Birthday Sonnets.
This is Your Cat’s argument that the first 17 Sonnets of Shakespeare were written….
….to a commission from Mary Southampton…..
…..to celebrate Harry Southampton’s seventeenth birthday…..
…..and to try to get him interested in girls!!
But as Brothers and Sisters of The Code well know….
…..THE SCHEME SERIOUSLY MISFIRED!!!
•
Well, that’s The Code’s current TOP TWENTY…..
…..and quite enough from Your Cat.
She will hand you over to our dishy new agent, Tom ‘X’….
…..who has been looking through the Posts that DIDN’T make it into the Top Twenty …..
Stand by for….
TOM’S HOT TIPS!!!
‘Bye, now….
•
Ta, Trix.
The first thing to be said, Bruvs and Sorellas,
…..is that many of these Top Twenty Posts have the most Views…….
…. because they have been there the longest!!!
Hovering just outside the Top Twenty are wonderful Posts like…….
The Earl of Southampton and Trixie the Cat
….which decodes this highly enigmatic painting of Trixie and Gay Harry…..
Queen Elizabeth had died and Harry was hoping to become King James’s….
……FIRST ENGLISH BOYFRIEND!!!
But he was still imprisoned in the Tower of London….
…as a traitor to the late Queen Elizabeth..
….while the Countess of Pembroke’s sons were rushing North….
…hoping to be the first to jump into King James’s bed!!!
Gay Harry solved the problem in a flash!
He sent the King a wooing portrait…..
…..offering his ‘hand in marriage’ to the King…..
…….along with a couple of highly flattering Sonnets from Will….
This story is also told in the dazzling……
The great SIMON CALLOW……
….was kind enough to read an early draft of and pronounced it…..
a delight…..
The distinguished actor director and teacher , ANDREW JARVIS….
…took part in a read-through of the play in London and wrote to Stewart Trotter…
I think your play is wonderful. I thought it read absolutely beautifully – and it was a joy to be part of….
THE PERFORMING RIGHTS, WORLD-WIDE, ARE NOW AVAILABLE.
TRANSLATION RIGHTS ARE ALSO AVAILABLE
To read Stewart’s review of Simon Callow’s…..
…… glorious biography of Charles Dickens….
……click: HERE
After the review was published, Simon wrote to Stewart…..
You certainly got it!
Also I’d like to draw the attention of Bruvs and Sorellas to….
……which traces the influence of Titian’s Paintings……
…..’Venus and Adonis’ and ‘The Rape of Lucrece’….
….on Shakespeare’s poems of the same name…
(Shakespeare even uses the same COLOURS in his two poems that Titian uses in his paintings)
These Posts also show that the obelisk in front of St. Peter’s in Rome…..
……and the brass orb that once surmounted it……
……also make coded appearances in the Sonnets….
Shakespeare made a secret journey to the Continent in 1593…..
….accompanied by Harry Southampton and Tom Nashe…
The distinguished Shakespearean scholar, Prof. Roger Prior…..
……using completely different criteria to The Code…..
…..ALSO argues that Shakespeare visited Italy……
IN THE VERY SAME YEAR!!!
A Post destined for greatness is….
How Shakespeare’s Dark Lady found God
….which shows how Aemilia Lanyer……
…..a beautiful young musician and courtesan…..
……and proto feminist…..
……became the mistress of Shakespeare and Gay Lord Harry…..
……as well as Old Lord Hunsdon….
…..wrote a scandalous attack on ALL her lovers under the pen-name of a man…..
(See: Willobie his Avisa Decoded)
…..then converted from Judaism to Christianity….
BUT CHRISTIANITY OF A HIGHLY IDIOSYNCRATIC…..
….POLITICAL AND EROTIC NATURE……
Also of profound interest is…..
……which catalogues all the changes Shakespeare made to the original ‘historical’ story…..
…..and the old play of King Leir…..
…..which the Chief Agent argues was an early collaboration between Shakespeare and Thomas Kyd…..
…AND WHICH HAS A HAPPY ENDING!!!
Stewart traces the influence of Catholic thought on Shakespeare after the disappointment…..
….. (to Catholics at least!)….
…….of the botched Armada invasion.
This was one of Stewart’s celebrated ‘Grosvenor Chapel Talks’….
……which originally formed the basis for The Shakespeare Code….
Anyone seeking a summary of The Code’s FUNDAMENTAL IDEAS about Shakespeare….
…..should read the three Talks entitled….
Shakespeare, Love and Religion
…..which puts Shakespeare’s work into the context of history, philosophy and theology….
Adventurous Bruvs and Sorellas will also be interested in…..
The Strange Case of Mr. Apis Lapis
…..which argues that Sir John Falstaff….
…..was based on William Beeston….
(Apis = Bee, Lapis = Stone, Apis Lapis = Beeston(e))
…of Great Posbrook Farm in Titchfield….
(See: Why Falstaff is Fat)
William, The Code argues, had an illegitimate son…
….the actor Christopher Beeston who acted for a time in Shakespeare’s company….
…. who first told John Aubrey that….
Shakespeare was a schoolmaster in the Country – Titchfield
….an idea first advanced in 2002 by Stewart Trotter in his ground breaking….
……which the Director of the Royal Shakespeare Company, Greg Doran….
……was kind enough to describe as….
exquisite
And which has received praise from….
The ideas formed the basis of a brilliant T.V. documentary by Carol White for ‘Meridian……
(Please click : http://www.mellingwhite.co.uk/ Then press the ‘ARTS’ button)
The lovely Trix is currently working flat out on…..
The Story of Elizabeth, Essex and the Ring
…..which proves that an old romantic myth is true…..
Elizabeth really DID give the Earl of Essex a ring…..
….with the understanding that if he sent it back to her she would protect him…..
WHATEVER THE CIRCUMSTANCES!!!
As he was awaiting execution, he slipped the ring to a boy…..
WHO, BY MISTAKE, SLIPPED IT DIRECTLY INTO THE HANDS OF HIS ENEMIES!!!
Trix promises another dazzling Post on the subject……
…..VERY SOON.
Bruvs and Sorellas who LOVE theatre gossip…….
…..will LOVE….
It is a HILARIOUS account of what it was like act in Weekly Rep in England in the ‘Sixties….
…..and comes from a book Stewart compiled last year with Code Fellow, Charles Sharman-Cox, F.S.C….
……which has a forward by Southend Girl Dame Helen Mirren…..
…..and is called….
(See: Critics heap praise on ‘Tales from the Palace Theatre’)
Finally, for those fascinated by British politics….
…….and also fascinated by Margaret Thatcher….
The Men who made Margaret Thatcher
This draws on…..
….. TOP SECRET information……
….. which Thatcher’s late speech writer, playwright Ronnie Millar…..
….passed on to Stewart as they worked at the High Tory watering hole, White’s Club…..
….on the script for a Chichester Festival revival of Ronnie’s musical….
‘Robert and Elizabeth’
And speaking of Stewart Trotter it’s time for me to sign off now…..
Our Chief Agent is about to reminisce ….
See ya ’round…..
Bruvs and Sorellas…..
•
Thanks, Tom.
And again, welcome to The Code….
We would also like to welcome a NEW COUNTRY to our ranks…..
UZBEKISTAN
This brings the number of participating countries to…..
ONE HUNDRED AND NINETY ONE!!!
See: The Shakespeare Code Salutes the Nations
One of the capitals of Uzbekistan is, of course…..
……the fabled and fabulous…..
SAMARKAND….
…..Uzbekistan’s entry to The Code is particularly timely…..
….. for reasons I shall now reveal….
•
WILSON KNIGHT REMEMBERED
Between 1980-5, I was Artistic Director of the Northcott Theatre in Exeter.
I got to know the great Shakespearean scholar…..
G. Wilson Knight…..
He had retired to Exeter and lived in a house near the theatre.
Richard, as he was known, was a practising spiritualist….
….and would regularly communicate with the spirit of Shakespeare…..
…..as would his classicist brother, Jackson Knight, with Virgil…
It was in fact Jackson Knight who first came to my attention when I was a schoolboy……
….at the notorious Southend High School for Boys…..
We were construing some Latin lines from the First Book of the Aeneid…..
(working class grammar school boys DID those sort of things then!)
Fronte sub adversa scopulis pentibus antrum
Intus aquae dulces, vivoque sedilia saxo
Nympharum domus
….a literal translation of which might run….
Under the opposite front a cave is formed of pendant rocks, within which are fresh springs, and seats of living stone, the cool recess of nymphs.
‘What’ we asked our teacher ‘did Virgil mean by…..
Seats in the living rock…..
Without turning a hair, our young classics master replied:
Stalagmites. The spirit of Virgil appeared to Jackson Knight and told him so…..
The spirit of Shakespeare also used to appear to Wilson Knight…..
Sometimes he liked Richard’s books…..
And sometimes he didn’t!!!
Richard would attend all the Dress Rehearsals of my Shakespearean productions…..
He would enter from a side door in the auditorium which led directly to the outside….
….so he would always make his entry in a blaze of light….
…..then sit in the very first row and stare intently at the stage…..
….before the action had even begun!
Afterwards he would send me very useful, practical notes….
…indeed he used to give Shakespeare recitals himself, clad only in a jock-strap.
Here he is giving his Richard III….
One morning I came into my office to find a pile of books on my desk…….
…..books with the most wonderful titles…..
The Wheel of Fire
The Imperial Theme
The Crown of Life
The Mutual Flame
It was the complete collection of Richard’s Shakespearean criticism….
…. which he had inscribed and left as a gift to me…
I would walk him back to his home when he came to see a production at the theatre…….
……and we spent many late nights drinking his favourite tipple….
…..the ghastly….
….Bailey’s Whisky Cream…
No subject of conversation was taboo….
…and one night I asked him, if he were to die next week….
(He was a spiritualist, remember, so death held no terror for him)
…..which two plays would he most like to see?
Nothing by Shakespeare, he admitted.
He’d had enough of the Bard by then…..
He wanted to see R.C. Sheriff’s shattering First World War play….
Journey’s End…
…and James Elroy Flecker’s pervy Middle Eastern Romance….
Hassan.
(Here is the Procession of Protracted Death!)
Richard died while I was still in office…..
…and I had the privilege of hosting his Memorial Celebrations at the Northcott Theatre.
My company, which was performing ‘Twelfth Night’ at the time….
(To read B. A. Young’s review, click: HERE)
…..performed the closing pages of ‘Hassan’ in his honour…..
…and it is appropriate to quote the great words here….
WE TAKE THE GOLDEN ROAD TO SAMARKAND
We are the Pilgrims, master; we shall go
Always a little further: it may be
Beyond that last blue mountain barred with snow,
Across that angry or that glimmering sea,White on a throne or guarded in a cave
There lives a prophet who can understand
Why men were born: but surely we are brave,
Who take the Golden Road to Samarkand.Sweet to ride forth at evening from the wells
When shadows pass gigantic on the sand,
And softly through the silence beat the bells
Along the Golden Road to Samarkand.We travel not for trafficking alone;
By hotter winds our fiery hearts are fanned:
For lust of knowing what should not be known
We make the Golden Journey to Samarkand.
The line….
For lust of knowing what should not be known…..
…..could well sum up Richard….
…..and it could certainly sum up The Shakespeare Code….
It is YOUR CURIOSITY……
……Brothers and Sister’s of The Code……
…….that keeps this blog so gloriously afloat…..
And I am deeply grateful.
YOU ARE THE WILSON KNIGHTS OF THE FUTURE!!!
S. T.
The Shakespeare Code 
Hi! Love the Blog. However, that’s a portrait of Walsingham, not Heneage, at the beginning.
Dear bal837 Absolutely right! The real Heneage is now on display. Thank you for your kind comment – and eagle eyes! Best wishes, Stewart.