The Shakespeare Code

Being the True Account of the Life of William Shakespeare, performed by Mr. William Beeston, Gent., and his Troop of Alchemical Spirits, at Posbrook Farm, Titchfield, Hampshire, in the Year of Our Lord, 1623.

TO READ EPISODE ONE , PLEASE CLICK:  HERE

TO READ EPISODE TWO, PLEASE CLICK: HERE

TO READ EPISODE THREE, PLEASE CLICK: HERE.

TO READ EPISODE FOUR, PLEASE CLICK: HERE.

TO READ EPISODE FIVE, PLEASE CLICK: HERE.

TO READ MORE ABOUT SHAKESPEARE THE PLAY PLEASE CLICK: HERE.

•

BEESTON

The men returned to England to find that Marlowe had been murdered in a tavern. Will feared there were those also out to get young Harry who might use his sexual tastes against him. Like his mother, Harry had a weakness for working class men…

(BEESTON opens his book of Sonnets)

(HARRY and SHAKESPEARE enter. SHAKESPEARE has been ‘lecturing’ HARRY who clearly does not want to listen. HARRY carries a vase and a bunch of lilies which he places on the table. HARRY tries to block out SHAKESPEARE’S advice by doing a flower arrangement)

SHAKESPEARE

Thy outward parts with outward praise are crowned:

But those same tongues that give thee so thy own

In other accents do this praise confound,

By seeing further than the eye hath shown;

They look into the beauty of thy mind

And that, in guess, they measure by thy deeds;

Then, churls, their thoughts (although their eyes were kind)

(SHAKESPEARE grabs a lily from HARRY’S hand)

To thy fair flower add the rank smell of weeds.

The summer’s flower is to the summer sweet,

Though to itself it only live or die:

(SHAKESPEARE snaps the lily cleaning in two and throws it away. HARRY is horrified – but SHAKESPEARE ignores him and grabs another lily)

But if that flower with base infection meet

(SHAKESPEARE bends the stem of the lily so that the whole flower droops)

The basest weed outbraves his dignity

For sweetest things turn sourest by their deeds

(SHAKESPEARE looks at HARRY’s cod-piece. HARRY, in alarm, follows his gaze down)

Lilies that fester smell far worse than weeds…

(SHAKESPEARE holds the flower to his nose – then holds his nose in mock disgust and throws the flower down)

Harry, you must stop going to bed with working class men…

HARRY

(Darkly) But, Will, you’re a working class man yourself!

(HARRY exits with what is left of his flower arrangement. SHAKESPEARE, lamely picking up the broken lilies, follows after him)

BEESTON

It was time for Harry to go to the Court of Elizabeth. Everyone thought he would be the Queen’s new favourite. But, to everyone’s astonishment, he fell in love with the lovely Elizabeth Vernon, Maid-of-Honour to Queen Elizabeth and cousin to the Earl of Essex.

Essex, to encourage these tender shoots of heterosexuality, commissioned Shakespeare to write a play. He came up with Romeo and Juliet. The aging Moon was notoriously jealous of her young Ladies-in-Waiting. And Will couldn’t resist a dig….(BEESTON reads the First Folio)

ROMEO (entering and playing out front)

‘But soft what light through yonder window breaks?

It is the East and Juliet in the sun

Arise fair sun and kill the envious moon

Who is already sick and pale with grief

That thou her maid art far more fair than she.

Be not her maid since she is envious….’

BEESTON

It was ‘Lucy is Lousy’ all over again….

(ROMEO exits)

BEESTON

The Earl of Essex had many enemies at Court. One of the most powerful was Lord Cobham…..

Essex hit on the plan of attacking one of his ancestors. This was clearly a case for Cousin Will. So it was back here, to Posbrook Farm….

(NASHE and SHAKESPEARE enter and sit  at a table)

SHAKESPEARE

(Pause)  So what was this ancestor called again?

NASHE

Sir John something or other….

SHAKESPEARE

And he was a friend of Prince Hal?

NASHE

Yes.  And an early Protestant martyr who was slowly burnt to death…

SHAKESPEARE

Mmmm….

 NASHE

Not much comic mileage in that….

(BEESTON enters with a tray with more tankards and plates.  He plonks them down on the table…)

BEESTON

More sack! And more cheese!

(There is complete, gloomy silence)

More Molly?

NASHE

WILL YOU BELT UP!

(BEESTON sits at the table, uninvited, and drinks and joins in the gloom)

SHAKESPEARE

What would Cobham really hate….?

NASHE

An attack on the family honour?

BEESTON

No point in that…..

NASHE AND SHAKESPEARE

BELT UP!!!

BEESTON

(Ignoring them as he always does) Can honour set to a leg? No: or an arm? No: or take away the grief of a wound? No. (Sips) What is honour? A word. What is in that word, honour?  Air. (Sips again…NASHE is still sunk in gloom but SHAKESPEARE begins to stare at BEESTON) Who hath it? He that died o’ Wednesday. Doth he feel it? No. Doth he hear it? No. Honour is a mere ’scutcheon: and so ends my catechism…..(BEESTON gets up to go. SHAKESPEARE jumps up and pulls him back to the table…)

SHAKESPEARE

What did you say about sherry sack this morning?

BEESTON

No idea….

SHAKESPEARE

Try to remember….

(SHAKESPEARE puts a gold coin on the table. BEESTON’S memory immediately recovers…)

BEESTON

A good-sherris sack hath a two-fold operation in it…. (During the following speech, SHAKESPEARE, standing behind BEESTON, does everything to gain NASHE’s attention. In sign language, he tries to indicate to him that they could base the character of Sir John on BEESTON. But NASHE is slow on the up-take and doesn’t know what on earth SHAKESPEARE is doing) It ascends me into the brain, dries me there all the foolish, dull and crudy vapours which environ it, makes it apprehensive and quick, forgetive, full of nimble, fiery and delectable shapes, which delivered o’er to the voice, the tongue, which is the birth, becomes excellent wit. (BEESTON has become aware of something behind him and looks round. SHAKESPEARE puts his hands behind his back, looks up into the air and whistles. BEESTON continues…) The second property of your excellent sherries is the …

SHAKESPEARE

BELT UP!!!  Now say it all again, SLOWLY….

(SHAKESPEARE gives BEESTON another coin and mimes writing to NASHE. The penny finally drops…)

NASHE

Aaaah….

(NASHE seizes a quill and parchment as BEESTON begins his speech again…)

BEESTON

A good sherries-sack hath a two-fold operation in it…

(NASHE writes. SHAKESPEARE gives NASHE the thumbs up and NASHE returns it…)

(BEESTON dismisses the SPIRITS)

BEESTON

And so Sir John Falstaff was born.

(BEESTON bows low). But at the height of Will’s triumph, his son, Hamnet, died, aged eleven – a boy Will had hardly known.

Will threw himself into work, booze and gambling. He was even bound over to keep the peace. He did everything except what he should have done. Grieve with his family at Stratford-upon-Avon. Instead, he pretended nothing had happened. He even turned Harry into a substitute son….

(BEESTON returns to his book of Sonnets. HARRY enters, followed by SHAKESPEARE. HARRY is stripped to the waist and carrying a proto-type football. He has clearly jus t finished a game and is wiping the sweat from his face)

SHAKESPEARE (to HARRY)

As a decrepit father takes delight

To see his active child do deeds of youth,

So I made lame by fortune’s dearest spite

(SHAKESPEARE almost breaks down. HARRY puts his arm round him and SHAKESPEARE recovers)

Take all my comfort of thy worth and truth:

(SHAKESPEARE gazes at the athletic HARRY)

For whether beauty, birth or wealth or wit,

Or any of these, or all, or more,

Entitled in thy parts do crowned sit,

I make my love engrafted to this store…..

(SHAKESPEARE puts his arm round HARRY’S waist. They exit)

BEESTON

The love between Will and Harry grew stronger. But it was never an exclusive love. Sometimes Will could be just as frisky as Harry….

(SHAKESPEARE enters, followed by HARRY, now in a shirt, brandishing a letter)

HARRY

(In a fury)  Well? Did you bonk him or didn’t you? The writer of this letter seems to think you did…. (HARRY bangs the letter down on a table. SHAKESPEARE picks it up)

SHAKESPEARE

And what’s this writer’s name?

HARRY

‘A Friend’.

SHAKESPEARE

Ha!

(SHAKESPEARE glances at the letter and realises that the game is up. He concedes…)

Alas, ‘tis true, I have gone here and there

And made myself a motley to the view,

Gored mine own thoughts, sold cheap what is most dear

Made old offences of affections new.

BEESTON

Which, being translated is: ‘Yes. I have had sex with young men while on tour.’

SHAKESPEARE

Most true it is that I have looked on truth

Askance and strangely……

BEESTON

‘I have, in fact, been lying in my teeth…’

SHAKESPEARE

….but, by all above,

These blenches gave my heart another youth

And worse essays proved thee my best of love…

BEESTON

‘But it made me feel young again. And proved to me just how much I love you….’

(SHAKESPEARE attempts to embrace HARRY – but HARRY’S having none of it)

HARRY

(bitterly ironic) Ha! Ha! Ha!

SHAKESPEARE

That you were once unkind…..

BEESTON

‘That you once played away from home….’

SHAKESPEARE

….befriends me now…

BEESTON

‘….works to my advantage….’

HARRY

Befriends you?

SHAKESPEARE

For if you were by my unkindness shaken,

As I by yours, you’ve passed a hell of time,

BEESTON

‘For if I have hurt you as much as you once hurt me, then you’ve been through hell.’

SHAKESPEARE

And I, a tyrant, have no leisure taken

To weigh how once I suffered in your crime…..

BEESTON

‘I have behaved like a monster. I should have remembered the agony you once put me through’

HARRY

(Pause) Will, you could argue your way out of ANYTHING!

(Both men smile…and SHAKESPEARE, working up to a grand finale, picks up the letter again and reads it)

SHAKESPEARE

‘A Friend’….(In an outburst of bogus moral indignation)

Why should others false adulterate eyes

Give salutation to my sportive blood?

Or on my frailties why are frailer spies,

Which in their wills count bad what I think good?

BEESTON

‘Gay is good!’

SHAKESPEARE

(Triumphantly tearing up the letter.) No. I am that I am, and they that level

At my abuses reckon up their own…..

(SHAKESPEARE folds his arms in triumph)

HARRY

(totally succumbing to SHAKESPEARE’S genius) Bravo, Cousin Will, bravo….

(BEESTON claps and the Spirits vanish)

BEESTON

The Moon sent the Earl of Essex to Ireland to crush a rebellion……..

…..but the Irish ran circles round him. He rushed back to England and burst into Moon’s morning bedchamber…..

(SPIRIT playing ESSEX rushes on and kneels down centre, eyes to the ground.  We assume Queen Elizabeth is where the audience is)

BEESTON

(Standing behind ESSEX)

Before she had risen….

(ESSEX listens with horror)

Before she had put on her make up….

(ESSEX listens with more horror)

And BEFORE SHE HAD PUT ON HER WIG!

(ESSEX finally looks up – screams at what he sees – and rushes off)

That was the end of him….

Essex and Harry tried to raise the citizens of London against the Queen….

(ESSEX and HARRY rush on down front, swords aloft in their hands, with a blood-curdling cry)

But the citizens of London didn’t want to know.

(Their swords fall limply by their sides)

Essex was beheaded. (ESSEX jerks his head forwards and exits) Harry was imprisoned in the Tower (OFFICER, from behind, claps his hand on HARRY’S shoulder and leads him off) Stripped of his title, his lands and his money, Harry fell desperately ill…

(BEESTON exits behind his screen)

SHAKESPEARE

(Entering in black, looking like Hamlet)

Tired with all these for restful death I cry:

As to behold desert a beggar born,

And needy nothing trimm’d in jollity

And purest faith unhappily forsworn

And gilded honour shamefully misplaced,

And maiden virtue rudely strumpeted,

And right perfection wrongfully disgrac’d,

And strength by limping sway disabled,

And art made tongue-tied by authority,

And folly, doctor-like, controlling skill,

And simple truth miscalled simplicity

And captive good attending captain ill:

Tir’d with all these, from these I would be gone

Save that to die, I leave my love alone….

(Exit)

BEESTON

(Poking his head out from behind the screen) Once more, Will had to get out of town. But before he left, he wrote one more love poem to the dying Harry…

(Emerges in full alchemical gear)

An alchemical poem…..

(BEESTON bangs his staff against the ground. Music. The bubbling limbeck rises straight up into the air and disappears. This time it is the burning furnace itself which hovers round the room and settles in the middle…Flames start to rise from its top as BEESTON intones by heart, like a priest…)

Love and constancy is dead;

Phoenix and the Turtle fled

In a mutual flame from hence….

(The fire from the furnace rises higher and higher, and the two birds can be seen, entwined, in its flames. SPIRITS, drawn by the magical light, start to emerge from the shadows and look on in wonder)

SPIRIT ONE

So they lov’d, as love in twain

Had the essence but in one

Two distincts, division none;

Number there in love was slain…

SPIRIT TWO

Hearts remote, yet not asunder;

Distance, and no space was seen

‘Twixt this turtle and his queen;

But in them it were a wonder….

SPIRIT THREE

So between them love did shine

That the turtle saw his right

Flaming in the Phoenix sight;

Either was the other’s mine….

SPIRIT FOUR

Beauty, truth and rarity,

Grace in all simplicity,

Here, enclos’d, in cinders lie…..

(The flame from the furnace begins to die down and the two birds disappear)

ALL SPIRITS

(Merging with the shadows again)

Death is now the Phoenix nest….

And the turtle’s loyal breast

To eternity doth rest…..

BEESTON

(By the dying light of the furnace)

Truth may seem but cannot be;

Beauty brag, but ‘tis not she

Truth and beauty buried be.

To this urn let those repair

That are either true or fair:

For these dead birds sigh a prayer…..

(BEESTON wipes away a tear as the fire hovers on extinction. He exits behind the screen. The fire dies away entirely. BEESTON emerges, changed from out of his magus’s robes and holding a lighted candle)

BEESTON

I think we could all do with a drink.  (To the audience) Now what’ll you have?

BEESTON serves drinks in the…

INTERMISSION

TO READ EPISODE SEVEN, CLICK: HERE.

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Dear Subscribers,

The Shakespeare Code has re-issued Episode 5 of Our Cousin Will in a bolder, larger type-face.

CLICK: HERE.

We hope to post the whole play over the Summer Break.

In the meantime, Tom and I and all the Code Agents are hot-footing it down to Dorset for field work on our AMAZING new project…….

WILLOBIE HIS AVISA DECODED!!!

Our findings will STAGGER the world of Shakespearean scholarship……

‘Bye now,,,,,

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Being the True Account of the Life of William Shakespeare, performed by Mr. William Beeston, Gent., and his Troop of Alchemical Spirits, at Posbrook Farm, Titchfield, Hampshire, in the Year of Our Lord, 1623.

TO READ EPISODE ONE , PLEASE CLICK:  HERE

TO READ EPISODE TWO, PLEASE CLICK: HERE

TO READ EPISODE THREE, PLEASE CLICK: HERE.

TO READ EPISODE FOUR, PLEASE CLICK: HERE.

TO READ MORE ABOUT SHAKESPEARE THE PLAY PLEASE CLICK: HERE.

•

BEESTON

Emilia became pregnant and was married off ‘for colour’. Will returned to Titchfield and Harry….

(Music continues. HARRY enters.  SHAKESPEARE enters and kneels in front of him, but HARRY raises SHAKESPEARE to his feet and embraces him. NASHE enters and sees this. SHAKESPEARE and HARRY walk off)

There was a problem in all this for Will and Harry….(COUNTESS MARY  enters)

Mother Mary! (MARY sits and does needlework) Will wasn’t exactly fulfilling his job description…

(NASHE crosses over to MARY, bows, kneels to her) Nashe felt obliged to tell Mary what he had seen. (NASHE whispers in MARY’s ear. MARY looks horrified. NASHE whispers again) And one or two things that he hadn’t. (MARY looks even more horrified. NASHE exits) Mary summoned Will….

(SHAKESPEARE enters and kneels in front of MARY. BEESTON opens First Folio)

MARY

 Do you love my son?

SHAKESPEARE

Your pardon noble mistress?

 MARY

Love you my son?

SHAKESPEARE

Do you not love him, madam?

MARY

Go not about. My love hath in’t a bond,

Whereof the world takes note. Come, come, disclose

The state of your affection, for your passions

Have to the full appeach’d.

SHAKESPEARE

Then I confess

Here on my knees, before high heaven and you,

That before you, and next unto high heaven,

I love your son. My dearest madam,

Let not your hate encounter with my love,

For loving where you do….

BEESTON

Will then reminded Mary that, when she was younger, she herself had been in love with someone she shouldn’t have been….

SHAKESPEARE

…..but if yourself

Whose aged honour cites a virtuous youth,

Did ever in so true a flame of liking,

Wish chastely and love dearly, that your Diane

Was both herself and love – o then give pity

To him whose state is such that cannot choose….

(A pause. MARY reddens, then raises SHAKESPEARE to his feet and kisses him on the cheek. She is accepting him into the family)

MARY

Cousin Will….

(Exit together)

BEESTON

To celebrate Mother Mary’s acceptance of their love, Harry and Will travelled to Europe, with Tom, as ever, in tow…They were meant to be spying for Harry’s great friend, the Earl of Essex. But three more hopeless spies it would be hard to imagine. (Enter SHAKESPEARE, HARRY and NASHE) They travelled to Spain….

(Entering) ATTENDANT 1

His Majesty will see you now, sir….

(HARRY and SHAKESPEARE follow ATTENDANT 1 off)

NASHE

(White-faced) No-one must ever know we visited Philip of Spain…

(NASHE follows the others)

BEESTON

And they travelled to Italy….

 (Entering) ATTENDANT 2

His Holiness will see you now, sir…

(HARRY and SHAKESPEARE follow ATTENDANT 2 off)

NASHE

(Even more white-faced) No-one must ever know we visited (mouths) the Pope….

(NASHE follows the others)

BEESTON

This visit to Europe transformed Will….(Music) At the Court of Philip II  he saw two paintings by Titian….(BEESTON pulls the easel to a central position – and places a painting on it) One was the randy ‘Venus and Adonis’.

(SHAKESPEARE enters and stares at the painting in wonder)

SHAKESPEARE

‘Even as the sun with purple-coloured face

Had ta’en his last leave of the weeping morn,

Rose cheek’d Adonis hied him to the chase;

Hunting he lov’d, but love he laugh’d to scorn.

Sick-thoughted Venus makes amain unto him,

And like a bold-fac’d suitor ’gins to woo him….’

(BEESTON whisks away ‘Venus and Adonis’)

BEESTON

And the other was the terrifying ‘Rape of Lucrece’…

(BEESTON places ‘The Rape of Lucrece’ on the easel)

SHAKESPEARE

(Altering his tone and his manner completely)

‘He shakes aloft his Roman blade

Which like a falcon towering in the skies,

Coucheth the fowl below with his wings’ shade,

Whose crooked beak threats, if he mounts, he dies:

So under his insulting falchion lies

Harmless Lucretia, marking what he tells

With trembling fear, as fowl hear falcon’s bells…’

(BEESTON places an illustration of the obelisk at Rome over ‘The Rape of Lucrece’. It has an immediate effect on SHAKESPEARE who crosses himself and kneels in prayer. HARRY enters, sees the obelisk, also crosses himself and kneels in prayer)

BEESTON (adopting a pious tone)

At Rome, Harry and Will venerated the obelisk that the Pope had set up in front of St. Peter’s.

It was the last thing St. Peter saw before he was crucified….

(BEESTON whisks away the easel, breaking the mood of piety)  Allegedly!

(The SPIRITS playing HARRY and SHAKESPEARE are furious at BEESTON’S blasphemy. More and more they are BECOMING the parts they are playing. It looks as though they are about to rebel – but BEESTON quells them with a snap of his fingers)

BEESTON

 Then the men travelled through the rest of Italy via network of canals…..

 (BEESTON returns to First Folio)

HARRY

(Getting a sudden idea) I have it full….

We have not yet been seen in any house,

Nor can we be distinguished by our faces

For man or master. Then it follows thus:

Thou shalt be master in my stead,

I will some other be, some Florentine,

Some Neapolitan, or meaner man of Pisa.

‘Tis hatch’d, and shall be so. Will, at once

Uncase thee, take my coloured hat and cloak….

(They do so)

SHAKESPEARE

Sith it your pleasure is,

And I am tied to be obedient –

For so your mother charged me at our parting

‘Be serviceable to my son’ quoth she,

Although I think ’twas in another sense –

I am content to be Southampton

Because so well I love Southampton….

And besides, this might prove a good device for a play….

(SHAKESPEARE and HARRY exit)

 TO READ EPISODE SIX, PLEASE CLICK: HERE.

Read Full Post »

Being the True Account of the Life of William Shakespeare, performed by Mr. William Beeston, Gent., and his Troop of Alchemical Spirits, at Posbrook Farm, Titchfield, Hampshire, in the Year of Our Lord, 1623.

TO READ EPISODE ONE , PLEASE CLICK:  HERE

TO READ EPISODE TWO, PLEASE CLICK: HERE

TO READ EPISODE THREE, PLEASE CLICK: HERE.

TO READ MORE ABOUT SHAKESPEARE THE PLAY PLEASE CLICK: HERE.

•

BEESTON

…………And stay she did. With all her court. And with all her soldiers. She had a beautiful musician with her….the dark-skinned Emilia Bassano…

(Enter EMILIA, with  black, wiry hair. She sits and plays a lute)

…mistress to the Queen’s randy old cousin, Lord Hunsdon.

He paid her £40 a year for her services…

(To BEESTON, £40 a year is a fantastic sum…SHAKESPEARE enters and gazes at EMILIA)

Will wanted to find out if £40 gave Hunsdon exclusive rights.

(BEESTON opens First Folio and reads…)

SHAKESPEARE (approaching EMILIA, who continues to play)

Did not I dance with you in London once?

EMILIA (a cockney girl)

Did I not dance with you in London once?

SHAKESPEARE

I know you did.

EMILIA

How needless was it then to ask the question.!

SHAKESPEARE

You must not be so quick.

EMILIA

‘Tis long of you to spur me with such questions.

SHAKESPEARE

Your wit’s too hot, it speeds too fast, ‘twill tire.

EMILIA

Not till it leave the rider in the mire.

SHAKESPEARE

What time of day?

EMILIA

The hour that fools should ask.

(She puts down her lute and puts on a mask)

SHAKESPEARE

Now fair befall (sees EMILIA’S mask) your mask.

EMILIA

 Fair fall the face it covers.

SHAKESPEARE

And send you many lovers.

EMILIA

Amen, so you be none….

SHAKESPEARE

(After a pause, in which he can’t think of anything to say) Nay then will I be gone.

(SHAKESPEARE exits – then EMILIA, with another infatuated man to add to her list, exits as well)

BEESTON (looking up from First Folio)

Shakespeare was ’ooked… (Looks back at book)

SHAKESPEARE (re-entering with parchment and pen)

O! And I forsooth in love!

I that have been love’s whip!

A very beadle to a humorous sigh: a critic,

Nay, a night-watch constable,

A domineering pedant o’er the boy…

What I love? I sue? I seek a wife?

A woman that is like a German clock,

Still a re-pairing, ever out of frame,

And never going aright, being a watch:

But being watch’d that it may still go right.

A whitely wanton with a velvet brow

With two pitch balls stuck in her face for eyes,

Aye, and by heaven, one that will do the deed,

Though Argus were her Eunuch and her guard…

(BEESTON closes book with a bang)

BEESTON

The Plague was raging in London, so Emilia stayed on at Titchfield. Will started writing sonnets to her instead of Harry…

(SHAKESPEARE sits and writes. HARRY approaches him quietly from behind and peers over his shoulder. SHAKESPEARE senses he is there and looks round.  He quickly turns the page over so that HARRY cannot read it)

HARRY(delighted)

It’s another Sonnet, Will.  I saw it. (Sitting) Read it to me. (Anticipating SHAKESPEARE’s excuse) I don’t care if it’s not finished….

SHAKESPEARE

(Reddening, reads) My (hesitates) master’s eyes are….nothing like the sun….

(HARRY looks startled)

Coral is far more red than his lips red,

If snow be white, why then his breasts are dun;

(Trailing off) If hairs be wires, black wires grown on his head…..

HARRY

(In a fury) Breasts? Black wires? (Snatching sonnet from SHAKESPEARE) HER breasts! HER head! (EMILIA enters) Will, you’re not writing to me – you’re writing to that dreadful….(SHAKESPEARE indicates to HARRY that EMILIA has entered. HARRY turns to look at her)

EMILIA

(Curtsying beautifully) Good day, m’Lord….

(HARRY bows stiffly and exits. EMILIA crosses and gazes rapturously after HARRY, glancing surreptitiously back at SHAKESPEARE to make sure he’s noticing)

BEESTON

Emilia liked to play hard to get….

SHAKESPEARE

(Turning EMILIA around) Tell me thou lov’st elsewhere; but in my sight

Dear heart, forbear to glance thy eye aside…

What need’st thou wound with cunning, when thy might

Is more than my o’er pressed defence can hide….

(Looking into EMILIA’S eyes) Thine eyes I love, and they, as pitying me,

Knowing thy heart torments me with disdain,

Have put on black, and loving mourners be,

Looking with pretty ruth upon my pain…..

 (SHAKESPEARE starts to hug EMILIA closely.)

Will’t thou, whose will is large and spacious

Not once vouchsafe to hide my will in thine?

(He holds her even closer)

Shall will in others seem right gracious

And in my will no fair acceptance shine…..

(EMILIA breaks away…SHAKESPEARE pursues her)

He rises at thy name and points out thee

As his triumphant prize, proud of this pride:

He is contented thy poor drudge to be,

To stand in thy affairs, fall by thy side…..

(He pulls EMILIA to him and tries to make love to her. EMILIA pushes him away…)

EMILIA

Get lost, baldy!

(EMILIA runs off.  SHAKESPEARE, recovering, muses to himself…)

SHAKESPEARE

Then will I swear beauty herself is black

And all they foul that her complexion lack…..

BLACK IS BEAUTIFUL……

(SHAKESPREARE exits)

BEESTON

Will asked Harry to plead his love-suit with Emilia. Now Harry wanted to hurt Will in any way he could. And, for Emilia, a rich, handsome, young aristocrat, however gay, was better than an aging playwright. So, to Will’s horror, Harry started an affair with Emilia….

SHAKESPEARE

(Entering and sitting) Two loves I have of comfort and despair

Which like two spirits do suggest me still:

The better angel is a man right fair…..

(Enter HARRY – stands near to SHAKESPEARE)

The worser spirit, a woman coloured ill.

(Enter EMILIA, standing some distance away from SHAKESPEARE)

To win me soon to hell my female evil

Tempteth my better angel from my side….

(EMILIA approaches HARRY and kisses him. She then takes him away from SHAKESPEARE’S side)

And would corrupt my saint to be a devil,

Wooing his purity with her foul pride…

(EMILIA starts to make violent and graphic love to HARRY…They exit)

And whether that my angel be turned fiend

Suspect I may, yet not directly tell;

But being both from me both to each friend….

I guess one angel in another’s….

(SHAKESPEARE, overcome with sexual jealousy, cannot finish what he was to say. He exits)

 BEESTON

Will left Titchfield and went on tour again. He had to admit that the loss of Harry meant more to him than the loss of Emilia….

(SHAKESPEARE enters)

SHAKESPEARE (writing)

That thou ha’st her it is not all my grief

And yet it may be said I loved her dearly…

That she hath thee is of my wailing chief

A loss in love that touches me more nearly….

BEESTON

Will, finally, told Harry that he loved him…

SHAKESPEARE

(Writing. Music beneath.) Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?

(He looks up – and we can see he is thinking ‘No!’)

Thou art more lovely and more temperate.

Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May

And winter’s lease hath all too short a date….

Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines…

And often is his gold complexion dimm’d,

And every fair, from fair, sometime declines,

By chance, or nature’s changing course untrimm’d….

But thy eternal summer shall not fade,

Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest….

Nor shall death brag thou wander’st in his shade,

When in eternal lines to time thou growest….

So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,

So long lives this, (holding up the Sonnet)

…and this gives life to thee….

To Read Episode Five, please click: HERE!

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TOM HAGGARD…..

……. the celebrated West London mystic and recluse…….

…… recently astounded the world by getting married.

To celebrate the event, he wrote a poem…….

……. and asked The Shakespeare Code if we would like to publish it……

LIKE TO???

A new poem from Haggard is a literary event of international magnitude……

…….especially after nearly half a century of silence.

The Code feels honoured……

 …….and humbled……

……..to have been chosen.

AN OLDER BRIDEGROOM TO HIS YOUNGER BRIDE

Silver turns my golden shaft

As ‘What has been’ dwarfs ‘What’s to be’…

But as we down our wedding draught,

(Shampers – stabilised by tea)

I make the vow men cannot make

While blood’s commotion stirs and mars:

To hold you till we both awake

And take our walk among the stars…

Copyright: Tom Haggard, June 2013.

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In Fiftieth Position:

 ‘Twelfth Night’ Decoded: Introduction.

 

In Forty-Ninth Position:

 The Royal Shakespeare Company endorses The Shakespeare Code.

In Forty-Eighth Position:

 The Earl of Southampton and Trixie the Cat: Part Two.

In Forty-Seventh Position:

 Don Armado: Thomas Nashe’s revenge on Sir Walter Raleigh.

In Forty-Sixth Position:

 Simon Callow endorses the Titchfield Theory – AGAIN!

In Forty-Fifth Position:

 The Appointment of Karen Gledhill, F.S.C.

In Forty-Fourth Position:

 Britain and America affirm their Special Relationship.

 

In Forty-Third Position:

 Trixie the Cat’s Guide to Shakespeare’s ‘Birthday Sonnets’.

In Forty-Second Position:

 Shakespeare’s Italian ‘Mistakes’.

In Forty-First Position:

 The Earl of Southampton and Trixie the Cat: Part Four.

To read the TOP TEN POSTS (as recorded on 23rd April, 2013), please click: HERE.

To read the TOP TWENTY POSTS, please click: HERE.

To read the TOP THIRTY POSTS, please click: HERE.

To read the TOP FORTY POSTS, please click: HERE.

Coming soon…….

‘THE BEST OF THE REST’

A ‘Trix’n’Tom’ Special……..

on The Shakespeare Code’s FAMOUS SOFA…..

 

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In Fortieth Position:

 Why Falstaff is Fat.

In Thirty-Ninth Position:

 The Shakespeare Code.

In Thirty-Eighth Position:

 Shakespeare in Italy, 1593. The Ttitian Connection.

In Thirty Seventh Position:

 Shakespeare: the Play.

In Thirty-Sixth Position:

 Simon Callow endorses The Shakespeare Code.

In Thirty-Fifth Position:

 Charlotte Mitchell, 23rd July,1926 – 2nd May, 2012.

In Thirty-Fourth Position:

 ‘Twelfth Night’ Decoded.

In Thirty-Third Position:

 Shakespeare was a Schoolmaster in the Country: TITCHFIELD.

In Thirty-Second Position:

The Third Earl of Southampton as Sir Andrew Aguecheek.

In Thirty-First Position:

 Why did Shakespeare write the Sonnets?

 

To read the TOP TEN POSTS (as recorded on 23rd April, 2013), please click: HERE.

To read the TOP TWENTY POSTS, please click: HERE.

To read the TOP THIRTY POSTS, please click: HERE.

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Are the Brothers and Sisters of The Shakespeare Code EVER satisfied?

The answer is NO!!!

And that is why they are such a joy to write for…….

No sooner had the Agents released The Code’s Top Twenty Posts, but you were all clamouring for the……

TOP THIRTY!!!

So here they are……

In Thirtieth Position:

 The First Performance of ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ in 1594.

 

In Twenty-Ninth Position:

 The Earl of Southampton and Trixie the Cat: Part Three.

In Twenty-Eight Position:

 The Earl of Southampton and Trixie the Cat: Part One.

In Twenty-Seventh Position:

 The Earl of Essex as Orsino.

 

In Twenty-Sixth Position:

 Queen Elizabeth, Incest and Sadism.

In Twenty-Fith Position

 Richard III: The Queen’s Men Revisited.

 In Twenty-Fourth Position:

  The Witches in ‘Macbeth’: Part One.

In Twenty-Third Position:

 Sir Andrew Aguecheek.

 

 

In Twenty-Second Position:

 ‘Macbeth’ Decoded: Shakespeare in Scotland.

In Twenty-First Position:

 Feste the Clown as Thomas Nashe.

To find out which Posts made it to the TOP TWENTY……

……click: HERE!

And which to the TOP TEN…..

……click: HERE!

To read the TOP FORTY POSTS…..

…….click: HERE!

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Note: It’s best to read ‘Shakespeare’s Destruction of Thomas Kyd’: Parts One,  Two and Three first.

This Post is a continuation of the Series.

A GROATS-WORTH OF WITTE 

The Story thus far……

A Groats-worth of Witte was a pamphlet printed in 1592………

…….. which claimed to be …..

……..written before [its writer, Robert Greene’s] death and published at his dying request…..

It was no such thing……

It was written by his University friend, Thomas Nashe……

……..who used the cover of the dead writer’s name to attack William Shakespeare as an……..

……..upstart crow, beautified with our feathers……

i.e. a plagiarist of other men’s work…..

……..INCLUDING NASHE’S OWN!!!

Nashe desperately wanted acknowledgment for his contribution to Shakespeare’s plays…..

…….acknowledgment that Shakespeare was clearly unwilling to give….

See: Shakespeare’s Destruction of Thomas Kyd Part Two 

The Story continues…..

‘Nashe-Greene’ writes…..

O that I might intreat your rare wits [Thomas Nashe, Christopher Marlowe’s and George Peele’s] to be employed in more profitable courses: and let those Apes [Thomas Kyd and Shakespeare] imitate your past excellence, and never more acquaint them with your admired invention [never share your brilliant ideas with them] Seek you better Masters: for it is pity men of such rare wits [like you, Nashe, Marlowe and Peele] should be subject to the pleasures of such rude grooms [Kyd and Shakespeare]

The ‘rude grooms’, had become ‘Nashe-Greene’s’ ‘Masters’ because they now both enjoyed aristocratic patronage…..

Shakespeare was with the Southampton family at Titchfield…..

And Kyd with the Sussex family at Portsmouth….

ONLY TWELVE MILES APART!

See: Shakespeare’s Destruction of Thomas Kyd: Part Three.

Kyd and Shakespeare were now in a position to HIRE writers like Greene and Nashe to research and help write entertainments for them….

……entertainments which would appeal to their highly educated, sophisticated employers….

‘Nashe-Greene’, to avoid libel writs……

…… invents a character called ‘Roberto’…….

…..who keeps changing his identity….

Sometimes ‘Roberto’ is a character in a fairy story……

……..a scholarly young man who despises his father’s money-dealing….

Sometimes he is ‘Shakespeare’…….

……..especially when he gets involved with the courtesan ‘Lamilia’

[Code for ‘Amelia Basanno’, Shakespeare’s ‘Dark Lady’ of the Sonnets]

Sometimes he is Robert Greene himself……

…….as he most certainly is by the end of the pamphlet……

………where ‘Nashe-Greene’ writes:

Here gentlemen break I off Roberto’s speech; whose life in most part agreeing with mine, [Shakespeare Code italics] found one self punishment as I have done. Hereafter suppose me the same Roberto…..

Long before this statement, though, the ‘reader-in-the-know’ would have recognised that ‘Roberto’ is often Greene himself…..

……..especially in the episode where ‘Roberto’, the scholar, is shown bewailing his poverty…..

……. and is overheard by a smartly dressed ‘Gentleman’….

……who offers either to….

…….procure [Greene] profit……

[Greene was always hard-up]

……..or bring [him] pleasure……

[Greene was a NOTORIOUS drunk and womaniser who had died after a surfeit of ‘Rhenish’ (white) wine and pickled herring]

…..the rather for that suppose you are a scholar, and pity it is men of learning should live in lack….

[It was taken for granted that scholars were poor]

The Gentleman offers Roberto [Greene] a way out for…….

 ………men of my profession get by scholars their whole living…..

He then confesses…

……..I am a player……

THE ‘GENTLEMAN’ IS WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE!!!

Roberto [Greene] says:

I took you rather for a Gentleman of great living, for if by outward habit men should be censured, I tell you, you would be taken for a substantial man….

[Mary, Countess of Southampton, had taken a shine to Shakespeare and given him smart clothes to wear as part of the Southampton entourage…..

Later in in 1592, Nashe was again to satirise Shakespeare in EXACTLY THE SAME WAY as the……

…… very richly attired…..

…….Sol – the Sun -in Sommer’s Last Will and Testament…….

……a saucy upstart Jack……

……who nightly…..

……descends to Thetis lap……

Thetis was a sea-nymph……

…….and is code for the beautiful Mary, Countess of Southampton……..

…….whose stately home in Titchfield was near a river …….

…….and only three miles away from the sea itself…..

 After Sol’s……

 ……scapes in Thetis lap…..

….doubled is the swelling of his looks…..

…..as he…..

…..overloads his car with orient gems

And reins his fiery horses with rich pearls……

[i.e. rips off the Countess of Southampton as a reward for sleeping with her]

He terms himself the God of Poetry…..

The Countess of Southampton’s son, Henry Wriothesley, was to take over where his mother left off.

He gave Shakespeare a staggering love-gift of £1,000]

See: Just how gay was the Third Earl of Southampton?

The Player in Groats-worth of Witte confirms that he is indeed a man of substance and…..

 …….where I dwell…….

…..[in Titchfield]

….reputed able at my proper cost to build a Windmill….

[A reference to the play The Fair Em in which Valingford, played by Shakespeare, falls in love with Em, the beautiful Maid of the Mill.]

The Gentleman/Player/Shakespeare then goes on to explain that he was once a humble touring actor…

What though the world once went hard with me, when I was fain to carry my playing fardle [luggage] on footback….

[i.e. when he toured the Midlands, playing with his acting company, under the protection of Ferdinando, Lord Strange]

The Player continues….

……it is otherwise now; for my very share in playing apparel will not be sold for two hundred pounds….

[£1,000 in our money]

Truly (said Roberto) [Greene] ‘tis strange that you should so prosper in that vain practice [acting] for that it seems to me your voice is nothing gracious….

[Another reference to Shakespeare’s Midlands accent……

 ……which to Southern ears can sound flat and nasal……..

…….and to Shakespeare’s performance in Edmund Ironside as……

…….. the fatal crow……

……..the villain Edricus, with his…….

…….horrid voice……..]

The Player ripostes:

 ‘I mislike your judgement: why I am as famous for Delphrigus and the King of Fairies, as ever was any of my time…

[Another reference by Nashe to the part of Delphrigus, in which Shakespeare enjoyed success…….

…….and the proto-Oberon ‘Fairy King’ role in which Shakespeare also distinguished himself……..

……but which Nashe claimed was created by Greene]

See: Shakespeare’s Destruction of Thomas Kyd: Part One.

The Player continues…..

…….The twelve labours of Hercules have I terribly thundered on the stage……..

[Just as Bottom intends to do when he offers to play……

 …….Ercles rarely or a part to tear a cat in….]

…….. played three scenes of the Devil on the High Way to Heaven….

[A religious play, inspired by Shakespeare’s mentor at St. Giles, Cripplegate, the Revd Robert Crowley]

Have ye so? (said Roberto [Greene]) then I pray you pardon me.

Nay more (quoth the Player [Shakespeare]) for ‘twas I that penned the Moral of Man’s Wit……

[A morality play, inspired again by Crowley]

…….the Dialogue of Dives…….

[A parable play, inspired yet again by Crowley. Dives, according to Christ, was the rich man who went to Hell and Lazarus was the poor man who went to Heaven]

…..I can serve to make a pretty speech, for I was a country Author….

[This refers BOTH to Shakespeare’s home town, Stratford-upon-Avon AND Shakespeare’s fascination with sex. ‘Nashe-Greene’ is employing the same ‘cunt-ry’ pun that Hamlet uses with Ophelia:

…Do you think I meant country matters?]

The Player continues……

…… for seven years space [ i.e. from 1583] [I] was absolute interpreter [writer and director] to the puppets [actors]. But now my almanac is out of date…..

[‘I, and my Crowley-inspired plays, have become unfashionable.’…….

…….ALL plays and ALL actors became unfashionable at the time of the time of the  Armada Invasion.]

The Player,  like Posthast in Histrio-Mastix….

…….like Bottom in A Midsummer Night’s Dream…

…..AND like Shakespeare with his friends in the Bear Tavern in Stratford upon Avon….

…..goes on to improvise some lines of verse…

The people make no estimation

Of moral’s teaching education’

Was not this pretty for a plain rhyme extempore? If ye will ye shall have more. 

Roberto replies:

Nay it’s enough.….but how mean ye to use me?

‘Why sir, in making plays’, said the other [Shakespeare] ‘for which ye shall be well paid, if you will take the pains.

[Well paid with the Countess of Southampton’s money!]

Roberto [Greene] perceiving no remedy, thought best in respect of his present necessity, to try his wit and went with him willingly: who lodged him at the Town’s end in a house of retail….

[Posbrook Farm….

…….. just outside Titchfield, owned by William Beeston, Nashe’s ‘Mr. Apis-Lapis’…….

………which was as famous for ‘retailing’ girls as it was for retailing cheese and cider]

There, by conversing with bad company…..

[Beeston’s three ‘maids’]

 ……he [Roberto] grew A Malo in peius, [from bad to worse] falling from one vice to another….

It was at Posbrook Farm – now called Great Posbrook Farm –  that Greene, Nashe, Shakespeare and Kyd collaborated on the Henry VI trilogy……

…….when they weren’t otherwise engaged…..

(See: The Strange Case of Mr. Apis Lapis)

●

Nashe fooled nobody……

EVERYONE knew he was the real author of Greene’s Groats-worth of Witte…..

Shakespeare fell into a fury…….

……..as did Marlowe……

Nashe published an immediate denial:

A scald, trivial, lying pamphlet, called Greene’s Groats-worth of Witte is given out to be of my doing. God never have care of my soul, but utterly renounce me, if the least word or syllable in it proceeded from my pen or if I were any way privy to the writing or printing of it. I am the plague’s prisoner in the country as yet…[Titchfield]

Even the publisher of the pamphlet, Henry Chettle, followed suit in December:

With neither of them that take offence [Marlowe and Shakespeare] was I acquainted, and with one of them [Marlowe] I care not if I ever be: the other [Shakespeare] whom at that time I did not so much spare, as since I wish I had, for that I have moderated the heat of living writers, and might have used my own discretion (especially in such a case, the Author being dead), that I did not, I am as sorry , as if the original fault had been my own fault, because my self have seen his [Shakespeare’s] demeanour  no less civil than he excellent in the qualities he professes…….

Chettle then goes on to explain the real reason he is apologising to Shakespeare…..

Besides, divers of worship [The Countess and Earl of Southampton] have reported his uprightness of dealing which argues his honesty, and his facetious grace in writing, which approves his art.

Shakespeare had clearly been pulling his aristocratic strings…..

But Shakespeare needed Nashe as much as Nashe needed Shakespeare…..

By March of the following year (1593) a reconciliation had been forged……..

………and Shakespeare, Nashe and Southampton made a secret visit to Europe as spies for the Earl of Essex…..

………who had just been appointed to the Privy Council….

See: Shakespeare in Italy.

[Note: Prof. Roger Pryor also argues that Shakespeare was in Italy in 1593, using entirely different criteria]

But the three men returned to England…….

……..utterly changed……

……..to find an England utterly changed as well……

To discover how, stay tuned to The Shakespeare Code…….

…….YOUR STATION OF THE STARS……

To read more ‘Background’ Posts to A Midsummer Night’s Dream…..

….please click: HERE

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The Top Ten is all very well…….

…….cry Brothers and Sisters of The Code……..

…… from the four corners of the globe……

……..we want THE TOP TWENTY!!!

The Shakespeare Code will ALWAYS listen intently to the requests of its fans……

…..so here are THE TOP TWENTY POSTS OF ALL TIME!!!

(as recorded on St. George’s day, 23rd April, 2013)

In Twentieth Position:

 ‘Macbeth’ Conclusion and Witch Finale

 

In Nineteenth Position:

 Shakespeare the Movie: II

 

In Eighteenth Position:

 The Dedication to Shakespeare’s Sonnets Decoded

In Seventeenth Position:

 Stewart Trotter’s Biography

In Sixteenth Position

 ‘Twelfth Night Decoded: Olivia as Queen Elizabeth

In Fifteenth Position:

 Shakespeare the Movie: III

In Fourteenth Position:

 ‘Richard III’ Decoded: All the Queen’s Men

In Thirteenth Position:

 ‘Twelfth Night Decoded: Sir Toby Belch as George, Lord Hunsdon 

In Twelfth Position

 Viola’s ‘Willow Cabin’ Speech Decoded

In Eleventh Position:

 Shakespeare the Movie: I

For the TOP TEN POSTS…..

Please click: HERE!!!

For the TOP THIRTY POSTS…..

Please click: HERE!!!

A PLEA FROM TRIXIE THE CAT

Brothers and Sisters of The Code,

For many months, the story of my ENTIRELY INNOCENT relationship with Henry Wriothesley, the Third Earl of Southampton……..

……headed the polls of The Shakespeare Code….

But there has been RUMOUR-MONGERING in the Village of Tirchfield……

RUSTIC CATOPHOBES have been implying there was……..

…… SOMETHING UNHEALTHY……..

 ……..in my relationship with GAY YOUNG HARRY….

So our story has quietly slipped out of the Top Twenty…….

I urge all fair-minded Brothers and Sisters of The Code….

READ THE STORY OF OUR FRIENDSHIP……

….. AND JUDGE FOR YOURSELVES…..

by clicking: HERE!

‘Bye, now……

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