The Programme Note for ‘The Seven Ages of Shakespeare’ – which runs at St. Margaret’s Theatre, Titchfield, from 20th September to 25th – performances at 7.30 p.m. except for Saturday 24th September and Sunday 25th September when matinees only will be played at 2.30 p.m.
How ‘The Seven Ages of Shakespeare’ came to be written.
It is often said that we know nothing about William Shakespeare…….
……but the fact is we know more about him than any person who has ever lived.
He wrote 154 Sonnets which trace every emotion and every thought he had from the age of sixteen to the age of 45 – seven years before his death.
But – and it’s a big ‘but’ – he did not publish his Sonnets in chronological order. He published according to subject matter. Basically the Sonnets are in two piles: ‘his’ and ‘hers’.
‘His’ are basically about ‘the lovely boy’ – who the vast majority of scholars take to be Henry Wriothesley, the Third Earl of Southampton (Harry Southampton) Shakespeare’s patron and subsequent lover…..
…..and ‘hers’……
……about the famous ‘Dark Lady of the Sonnets’ who A. L. Rowse named in 1976 as Amelia Bassano/Lanyer, a mixed race Jewish musician, courtesan, poet and teacher who converted to Christianity following a dream.
Apart that is, from one Sonnet written to Anne Hathaway, which plays upon her name……
Even the two piles in themselves are not in chronological order – but we can trace certain dates. The first seventeen poems were written to celebrate Harry Southampton’s seventeenth birthday in 1590 – and were most likely commissioned Mary Browne, Second Countess of Southampton…….
……in an attempt to get her gay teenage son interested in girls.
Sonnet 107 records the death of Queen Elizabeth, the accession of King James VI and I and Harry’s release from the Tower of London in 1603.
Sonnet 126 – the final sonnet in the first ‘pile’ – is Shakespeare’s poisonous farewell to Harry and makes coded reference to the birth of Harry’s son in 1605.
As background research to ‘The Seven Ages of Shakespeare’ I put the Sonnets into what I believe is their order of composition – and for this I drew on history. We may not know exactly what Shakespeare was doing – but we know what Harry was doing, week by week!
As well as the Sonnets, we have the things that were written ABOUT Shakespeare in his lifetime – very little of it flattering – by the writers Robert Greene, Thomas Nashe and Ben Jonson. The theme they return to again and again is Shakespeare’s ‘plagiarism’ of other contemporary authors – meaning themselves.
The play addresses this issue head on: it is cast in the form of a confessional. Shakespeare is allowed out of Purgatory for a single day to ‘fess up’.
It is my belief that all this information points to a clear, coherent story which the play itself will tell. It is up to you, the audience, to decide if I’ve got it right!
And indeed whether Shakespeare goes to Heaven…
Stewart Trotter
P.S. The aristocratic branch of the Wriothesley family pronounced their surname Ryosely. We know this from the Titchfield Parish Register. The un-aristocratic branch settled for Risley – and sometimes spelt it that way.
The Shakespeare Code 
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