The Shakespeare Code puts the life, loves and writing of William Shakespeare…
…….into a POLITICAL CONTEXT!!!
It is read by the Brothers and Sisters of The Code – an informal group of intellectually curious men and women….
……. drawn from at least ONE HUNDRED AND SIXTY different nations!
(Please see The Shakespeare Code salutes the Nations!)
People who have been helpful to The Shakespeare Code, either by their words or actions, are inscribed on The Code’s coveted Roll of Honour.
So far they include (in no particular order):
5. Simon Callow
6. Greg Doran
7. Jane Howell
10. Alan Samson
11. Martin Green
12. Dr. James Kelly
13. Michael Hentges (see below)
14. Peter Ackroyd
The highest accolade The Shakespeare Code can offer is a Fellowship. This is awarded for outstanding service to The Code and bestows upon the recipient the inalienable right to place the designated letters F.S.C. after his or her name.
So far there are six Fellows…
1. Janet St.John-Austen F. S. C.
4. Maggie Ollerenshaw F. S. C.
5. Charles Sharman-Cox F. S. C.
The Shakespeare Code is compiled by ‘The Agents’ – a crack team of scholar athletes led by
Chief Agent Stewart Trotter
…and the self-styled ‘Miss Moneypenny of the feline world’….
TRIXIE THE CAT!
Trixie first came to the attention of The Code by appearing in a portrait with the Third Earl of Southampton at Boughton House….
But the majority of posts are based onTrotter’s subsequent researches and those of The Code’s necessarily anonymous secret Agents.
The Code argues that Shakespeare, far from being a self-made man, relied heavily on the help of others, particularly the aristocratic, Roman Catholic family, the Southamptons….
…..Mary Browne, second Countess of Southampton….
…..and her wayward, gay, teenage son, Henry Wriothesley, third Earl of Southampton…
The Agents believe Shakespeare became part of the Southampton entourage and lived for a number of years at Titchfield in Hampshire, where he also worked as a local schoolmaster….
Plays were often performed as household entertainments at Place House …..
The women’s parts were taken by real women, as they were in Progress entertainments performed for Queen Elizabeth.
(It was only later, the Agents believe, that the plays were re-cycled for the general public, with boys taking the parts of women).
The Shakespeare Code argues that Shakespeare naturally reflected the political, religious and philosophical interests of his paymasters. So he finally ran into conflict with the Queen when the Earls of Southampton and Essex challenged her authority.
Many of Shakespeare’s plays are so politically subversive they had to be written in code.
It is this code which the Agents of The Shakespeare Code (aided by Trixie the Cat) endeavour to crack.
The Code also argues that Thomas Nashe….
….. collaborated with Shakespeare as his gag-writer.
We know FOR CERTAIN that Nashe collaborated with Ben Jonson….
….and Christopher Marlowe…..
Nashe’s name even appears on the frontispiece of Marlowe’s Dido Queen of Carthage….
So why shouldn’t Nashe have collaborated with William Shakespeare as well?
Nashe died in 1601.
After that Shakespeare wrote no more great comedies..
Martin Green, the eminent Shakespeare scholar, writes,
Everyone who writes about Shakespeare has the need to fill in, in some reasonable way, the great gaps in our knowledge of Shakespeare’s personal and professional life and reasonable surmises filling in the gaps are entitled to consideration so long as they are presented as surmises. But [The Code’s] interpretations of various passages in Shakespeare’s plays and poems struck me as being not surmises but, for the most part, extraordinarily acute insights…..I am very, very impressed.
[Martin Green is the author of The Labyrinth of the Sonnets and Wriothesley’s Roses, brilliant books which draw on documents never quoted from before.]
If you are new to The Shakespeare Code, it is best to start with…..
Or you might like to try the three talks the Chief Agent gave at Grosvenor Chapel in Mayfair, London, W.1.: Shakespeare, Love and Religion, Parts One, Two, and Three. They give a chronological overview of the life and work of Shakespeare.
After that it’s best to read The Shakespeare Code followed by The Lost Years.
Hi Stewart,
My name is Michael Hentges.
I’m a Canadian writer, currently in the early stages of research and layout of a fictional “Shakespeare project”. During said research, I tripped over a reference to Love’s Labour’s Found in Ackroyd’s “Shakespeare, The Biography.” Was intrigued and ordered your book. LLF arrived a few days back and I confess to devouring it in one single, greedy sitting. Didn’t bother taking notes – I was too driven to keep reading because, essentially, your book arrives at pretty much the same destination that my gut instincts have been guiding me towards for some time now.
Anyway, I’d like to take a moment to simply acknowledge what strikes me as a truly ground-breaking contribution to the “accumulated pile” of Shakespeare-themed biography. I’m by no means in perfect agreement with everything you propose. Would, in fact, argue select points with some vehemence. But I do believe that Love’s Labour’s Found contains numerous missing “puzzle pieces” towards solving the mystery of Shakespeare’s life in the early 1590s. Beyond the above, your book simply resonates. In a deep and truthful way. And, cursed as I may be with an artistic sensibility, I’m inclined to trust this kind of resonance implicitly.
Furthermore: I appreciate contemplating, for a change, the input of a seasoned theatre professional. So much of the debate regarding W. S. has, historically, been hijacked by scholars and, with all due respect: asking an academic to “reasonably conjecture” vis a vis the daily activities of a consummate theatre artist is akin to trusting a psychiatric nurse to diagnose the life expectancy of a 1959 Austin Healy. I mean, you could, but…wouldn’t the opinion of a certified mechanic be more appropriate? Just saying…
Am curious: I can barely find a single reference or mention re: Love’s Labour’s Found anywhere on the net. Was there a critical response back in 2002? And, if not: why? Am baffled!
More questions: the Grosvenor Chapel lecture series you refer to in your Shakespeare Code Blog. Did you ever present parts two and three? Do you plan on publishing them? Is your research ongoing?
…umh, it has just struck me that the above barrage of questions could be misconstrued as pushy and downright rude. If so, I apologize. My current state of excitement is not unlike that of a three month old Labrador Retriever with a really precious stick drooping from its maw.
And, on that note, perhaps I should get back to work now…
Best,
Michael Hentges
Dear Michael,
Can I thank you, publicly, for your response to my work. It has inspired me to develop this blog.
If anyone has anything to say about what I say, please do respond. I would like this blog to be a debating chamber.
Good wishes, and again, Michael, thank you for your enthusiasm. We need it in England!
Dear Stewart,
You are more than welcome to use my comments on your blog in any way you choose. If said comments have “inspired”, ’tis a fair return for the jolt of energy your work has injected into my own research. And that, in a nutshell, is how our world ought to function in the first place.
I am more than happy to partake in a public debate via the blog. Some insights, however, I’d prefer to discuss in a more private setting (via email) since said insights will likely form the spine of the book I hope to write. And I remain, at this point, a trifle protective of said material.
An unrelated sidebar to your recent Falstaff posts: I’ve often thought that Shakespeare’s choice of the name “Falstaff” was an interesting way to re-brand the venerable Sir Oldcastle…
Shake-Spear… Fal-Staff… Given William’s fondness for penis jokes, I suspect he was sending his newly-appointed patron a wry acknowledgment of the latter’s superior political “virility”. Then again, I may just have too much time on my hands…
Best,
Michael
I wanted to ask if you were the Stewart Trotter who in 1972 published an article on ‘The Black Actor in Britain’ in Plays and Players?
Yes. I’d just returned from teaching at the University of Isfahan in Iran when I wrote the article. S.
I am truly excited by this site. We need to keep the love of our literary heritage going and that is what you are doing. If folks are not inspired by you, then there is no hope.
Hi Stewart
This is a thank-you note, 55 years late.
In 1967 I was in the lower-sixth at Southend-on-Sea High School for Boys and saw your production of King Lear, with you also in the title role. Most of what I saw and heard went over my adolescent head, but a seed had been sown.
By my mid-twenties I had begun to read the western canon voraciously, deliberately choosing a work by Shakespeare for every fourth read. My devotion to Shakespeare quickly slipped up through the gears from routine to habit to compulsion to addiction. For 40 years I worked in corporate life, with vacations spent trekking in the great mountain ranges of the world, but each day woke up an hour earlier than necessary, and went to bed an hour later than wise, to create time to read.
On retirement at age 60, I took the English tripos at Wolfson College, Cambridge, and my devotion to Shakespeare was deepened and enriched by peer stimulus, expert input, historical context and structure. My library now includes a full, ceiling-high (and overflowing) bookcase of critical studies and appraisals.
I am so grateful for your efforts in 1967; they lead me to a richer life, though a smaller bank balance, than I could have foreseen!
Recently, I met up with John Lyall, who told me about ‘The Shakespeare Code’, which, astonishingly I had never heard of. You can now count on me as a dedicated follower. A million ‘likes’ from me!
Have started to work my way through the essays on the website. No one critical viewpoint exhausts a literary work of course, but each adds insight and contributes to an overall, multi-faceted understanding. Keep going …. and, again, many thanks.
Warm Regards
Paul Aliker
PS: A couple of years ago I became an empty nester and downsized. I actually began the discussion of my plans with my 3 kids with the words “Know that we have divided in three our kingdom, And tis our fast intent … etc.” They fell about … pretty much like Lear’s kids!
Dear Paul, thank you so much for your kind note. John L. had told me about your fantastic achievement. How lucky we were to have such a great English Deprtment at Southend High – and it’s clearly borne ‘Shakespearean fruit in you! I think John L. has given you my e-mail. Why not drop me a line so we can talk more privately? Best wishes, Stewart.