The Shakespeare Code

An Important Statement from Trixie the Cat

Brothers and Sisters of The Shakespeare Code!

Your Cat brings you the most important news for Shakespeare Scholarship this Century!

In September 2021, Lord Montagu, Fourth Baron of Beaulieu….

…was given permission to open the spectatcular tomb of the Southampton family in St. Peter’s Church, Titchfield!

In attendance was the Revd Susan Allman….

….who had been Priest-in-Charge at St. Peter’s Church…..

…..and returned to bless the proceedings.

The Shakespeare Southampton Legacy Trust reported that:

The Southampton monument is supported by a vaulted Tudor passage running its entire length to the north. Access to the Wriothesley vault was re-established through the original acces point on the chapel floor near the organ. Access involved lifting one stone slab that was fully re-instated upon completion.

There are three recumbent figures in alabaster on the tomb.

On the top is Jane, first Countess of Southampton….

[Photo: Ross Underwood]

To her right lies her husband Thomas Wriothesley, First Earl of Southampton…

[Photo: Ross Underwood]

…..and to her left her handsome son, Henry, Second Earl of Southampton….

[Photo: Ross Underwood]

Henry was married to Mary, Second Countess of Southampton, née Browne….

…..who was daughter of Anthony Browne, First Viscount Montagu…..

…….England’s leading Roman Catholic.

On the side of the tomb is depicted, kneeling in prayer, the young Henry Wriothesley – Third Earl of Southampton….

…..known as ‘Harry Southampton’ – the son of Mary, Second Countess of Southampton and Henry, Second Earl of Southampton.

A St. Peter’s Church tomb was commissioned by Henry, Second Earl. But when he died in 1581, his orders were not carried out by his widow.

He wanted a tomb for his father Thomas and mother Jane – and a tomb for himself…..

A SINGLE TOMB!

This was intended to be a direct insult to his wife Mary – who he believed had commited adultery with a lower-class person – a charge she swore in a letter to her father, Viscount Montague – was untrue.

But she added:

He may blame me of folly, but never justly condemn me of fault.

The ‘folly’ The Shakespeare  Code believes, was to fall in love.

Mary disregarded her husband’s wishes – and ordered a single tomb – the one we have now – thirteen years later in 1594.

That was also the year her son – Harry Southampton – came of age and might have his own ideas about the family tomb….

For the Second Earl had snatched little Harry at the age of six away from his mother – and taught him to hate her – and, it seems to hate all women.

Mary confessed to her father her husband had made her so unhappy that she wanted to die…..

…..but in a way she was glad he had been so horrible to her because it meant she could forget him all the sooner.

BUT….

…in her will she asked to be interred…..

as near as may be unto the body of my honorable and dearly beloved Lord and Husband, the Late Earl of Southampton.

So what had happened?

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE!

We believe at The Shakespeare Code that in 1590 Shakespeare took up residence in Titchfield – as part of the Southampton family entourage.

Among his duties was tutoring Harry Southampton and Mary Southampton commissioned Shakespeare to write 17 sonnets on Harry’s seventeenth birthday to persuade him to get married.

However, the sonnets had the reverse effect……

Harry and Shakespeare became long-term lovers.

In 1594 Mary Southamton also re-married, and we believe she commissioned Shakespeare to write an entertainment to celebrate the wedding…

But Shakespeare – a Roman Catholic like Mary and her son – and indeed her dead husband the Second Earl – believed that the spiritual discord of Mary’s first marriage needed to be healed before the second could prosper.

For Elizabethan Catholics, the Fairy World – with its blessing,benedictions and enchantments – had become a substitute for Roman Catholicism….

…indeed, Bishop Richard Corbett – who would have been twelve years old when the play was written – went so far as to observe that, though Fairies had been seen in the reign of Queen Mary, they had not been seen in the reigns of Elizabeth or James….

By which we note that fairies were of the old profession/Their songs were Ave Maries/Their dances were procession.

The ‘old profession’ was the ‘Old Faith’.

With all this in mind, Shakespeare set about writing….

A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM

The Fairy Protagonists – Oberon the King….

…..and Titania the Queen…..

…like Mary Southampton….

……and the Second Earl…..

…..are in a fight over a little boy……

….like the fight over the young Harry Southampton……

Also Titania suffers the ‘folly’ of falling in love with an ass…..

The contention between the Fairy King and Queen creates disorder in the seasons in the play….

…..and in real life the summer of 1594 was the coldest and wettest anyone could recall…

But order is restored when Oberon and Titania fall back in love…

…and dance together….

……and the fairies bless the house, not with holy water, but with field dew….

Shakespeare by writing the play has reconciled the souls of Mary and the Second Earl.

He has performed the role of a Priest.

Whether Mary’s wish was honoured – to be interred ‘as near as may be’ to the body of her dead first husband…..

…..or whether her body had even been interred in the tomb…..

……will be revealed by Lord Montagu in Titchfield on Monday night…..

Your Cat will certainly be there!

Swooning at his Lordship’s feet….

So watch out all Church Mice…..

Your Cat wouldn’t miss this for the world!!!

‘Bye, now…