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 MORE ABOUT SHAKESPEARE THE PLAY PLEASE CLICK: HERE.

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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.

Read Full Post »

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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(Note: It is good to read Shakespeare’s Destruction of Thomas Kyd: Part One  and Shakespeare’s Destruction of Thomas Kyd: Part Two first)

In ‘The Destruction of Thomas Kyd. Part Two’ The Shakespeare Code posed the question:

If, between 1590 and 1592, William Shakespeare and Thomas Kyd were working for separate ‘Lords’, how could they have collaborated on Arden of Feversham and Edward III?

This Post will provide the answer…….

ANOTHER FIRST FOR THE SHAKESPEARE CODE……

……often imitated…..

……sometimes plagiarised…..

BUT NEVER EQUALLED!!!

The Shakespeare Code admits, with some shame, that up to now……..

……….on one subject……..

IT HAS FOLLOWED THE OPINION OF MODERN SCHOLARS!!!

Up to now it had accepted the theory that Thomas Kyd’s ‘Lord’ and patron was…….

…..almost certainly Ferdinando, Lord Strange…….

 .

…..as Charles Nicholl……..

………writes in the new Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.

 But, following Sir Brian Vickers’ brilliant new work with computers…

 ……..the Agents of The Code now believe………

……..along with older scholars like Frederick Boas and Arthur Freeman…..

……..that Kyd’s ‘certain lord’  was……

 ……..Henry Radclyffe, 4^th Earl of Sussex…..

 

 ……Warden and Captain of the town, castle and isle of Portsmouth…….

The first evidence of a link between Kyd and the Sussex family can be found in 1586….

In August of that year, Henry, Lord Sussex was busy rooting out a Catholic conspiracy against Elizabeth in the Portsmouth area….

….including the off-shore waters…..

The Southampton Papist, Chiddiock Tychbourne……..

…….was hanged drawn and quartered the following month….

……a spectacle which even revolted an Elizabethan crowd…..

[The Queen was disappointed, though……

She had asked her Privy Council to dream up an even more painful death for Tychbourne.

Lord Burghley had opined that hanging, drawing and quartering was quite painful enough…..]

Kyd supported Henry Sussex’s campaign against the Hampshire Papists by composing his Verses of Praise and Joy written upon Her Majesty’s Preservation…….

 In this he ‘answers’ Tychbourne’s poem, written on the eve of his execution….

My prime of youth is but a frost of cares,

My feast of joy is but a dish of pain….

…..with….

Thy prime of youth is frozen with thy faults,

Thy feast of joy is finished with thy fall….

This support of an unpopular execution suggests a link between Kyd and the Earl of Sussex…..

Henry’s dead brother, Thomas, the third Earl of Sussex……

……had been Lord Chamberlain, in charge of the entertainment at Elizabeth’s court……

….. and the Sussex family had first given their name to a group of players in 1572.

Thomas Sussex had been the bitter enemy of Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester…..

……a.k.a. ‘The Bear’……

……of whom Sussex said when he was dying in 1583…..

…..no-one knows the beast as I do….

The hatred between the two men had been high-lighted by their patronage of rival playing companies….

Leicester’s Men got the upper hand at Court as Leicester had the ear…….

 …….and more…….

……..of the Queen…….

Sussex’s Men became famous for touring…….

……..with a circuit that covered the whole South of England and the Midlands and Norfolk……

Leicester’s Men inevitably presented plays that favoured the status quo…..

…..after all, Leicester WAS the status quo…

…….and the plays were ear-marked for performance before Elizabeth.

The plays of Sussex’s Men were aimed at the general public….

…..so had to be more adventurous and popular……..

……and often featured murders, suicides and rapes…

Kyd’s plays – like King Leir – were sometimes  patriotic…….

…….but there was a dark, anarchic, existential side to him……

…….a side which resonated with popular taste….

In the early 1580’s Kyd was in his twenties……..

 ……..and The Code believes he cut his dramatic teeth on touring plays for the Sussex Men…..

When Thomas Sussex died, Elizabeth seized her chance….

She did not appoint his brother, Henry, as Lord Chancellor…….

……. but, with the aid of spy-master, Sir Francis Walsingham –

……..formed the Queen’s Men….

………twelve of them in number – the largest company in the land……

………who were to be paid more than any other actors…….

……… and wear the Queen’s prestigious red livery….

But…….

……and this was a big ‘but’……..

……their brief was to present plays that  promoted the greatness of Elizabeth….

……EVEN IN PLAYS THAT WERE SET BEFORE HER REIGN!!!…..

(They solved the problem by endowing some of the characters with miraculous gifts of prophecy)

See: All the Queen’s Men.

Elizabeth also stole the Sussex Men’s big star, Richard Tarleton……

…..a stand-up comic who made the Queen cry with laughter……..

…. and from whose wit no courtier, however powerful, was safe….

Sir Walter Raleigh……

…….with his vanity and ruthless ambition….

……was a particular butt of Tarleton’s jokes….

By the second half of the 1580’s, William Shakespeare……..

……..Kyd’s ‘lodging-mate’ and friend…….

……..was touring the Midlands with Lord Strange’s Men…..

We know from the satirical play Histrio-Mastix that Kyd the…….

….stately scrivener…….

……had helped………

……tie up a knot of knaves together……

i.e. helped Shakespeare set up  a touring acting company……

……..The Politician Players……

But, when ‘Caesar’ Shakespeare was running a company, there was only room for one boss…..

So Kyd needed another platform….

He needed Henry, 4^th Earl of Sussex, to revive the fortunes of his dead brother’s ‘Men’…..

Hence Kyd’s support for Henry Sussex when he was chasing South Coast Catholics…

So when EVERYONE’s theatrical fortunes drooped after Armada…….

(see: Shakespeare the Movie.)

…….Kyd joined the Sussex household…..

……where Earl Henry had a seventeen year old son, Robert……

…….who was in need of a tutor……

Just as Shakespeare joined the Southampton household…..

……. where Countess Mary ALSO had a seventeen year old son, Harry…..

…..who was ALSO in need of a tutor……

The Southampton family was based in Titchfield……

And the Sussex family was based in Portsmouth……

Titchfield is only twelve miles away from Portsmouth….

……less than half a day’s ride….

So Kyd and Shakespeare continued their collaboration…..

…..in Hampshire…..

…..from 1590 – 1592…

….and produced, as we have seen, Arden of Feversham and Edward III…..

AND MUCH, MUCH MORE!!!

●

In its next Post………

……..’Shakespeare’s Destruction of Thomas Kyd. Part Four’…….

………The Code will continue to decode the pamphlet, A Groatsworth of Witte…..

TO ASTOUNDING EFFECT!!!

THIS PAMPHLET IS PROBABLY THE GREATEST KEY TO THE STORY OF SHAKESPEARE’S LIFE.

TO READ IT, PLEASE CLICK: HERE!

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Yes, Brothers and Sisters of The Shakespeare Code……..

……in an act of sublime……

……..other-worldly…….

….. synchronicity…..

…at 4.45 p.m…..

……..on this 23rd April, 2013……….

……St. George’s Day…..

 

…….traditionally Shakespeare’s Birthday………

……..we have just received our……

ONE HUNDRED THOUSANDTH VIEW!!!

To Celebrate, we shall now announce our Top Ten Posts….

OF ALL TIME!!!

In Tenth Position:

Prophesies made by Stewart Trotter which have come true!

In Ninth Position:

The Appointment of Poet Eddie Linden, F.S.C. to a Code Fellowship. 

In Eight Position:

The Macbeths as Queen Elizabeth I. 

 

In Seventh Position:

Malvolio as Sir Walter Raleigh.

In Sixth Position:

Macbeth: the Political Backdrop.

 

In Fifth Position:

Macbeth: The Witches.

In Fourth Position:

A Midsummer Night’s Dream Decoded.

In Third Position:

The Appointment of Maggie Ollerenshaw, F.S.C. to a Code Fellowship.

In Second Position:

Shakespeare in Titchfield: a Summary of the Evidence.

 

And The Shakespeare Code’s All Time Favourite…….

In the Number One Position…..

Just how Gay was Henry Wriothesley, the Third Earl of Southampton?

 

The Numbers for this last Post were considerably helped by the great Stephen Fry….

He tweeted Mr. Ken Groves, who lives in the  ‘Old Schoolhouse’ in Titchfield…….

 

………saying:

V. keen we know of Bard’s gay affair….

This resulted in 3997 Views of this Post…..

….. in a SINGLE DAY!!!

Thanks, Stephen…

And Thank You, Brothers and Sisters of The Code…..

…….who will know that the ideas for this blog were first advanced in……..

…….Stewart Trotter’s 2002 book,  Love’s Labour’s Found…..

 

…….including the theory that Shakespeare was a schoolmaster in Titchfield….

(See Chapters Five and Six of the book: ‘Saints and Sinners’ and ‘The Place Where’)

or,

 Shakespeare was a schoolmaster in the country: Titchfield!

‘Local historian’ Groves…….

…….who in 1999 dismissed the whole idea of Shakespeare in Titchfield as…

a completely uncorroborated but pleasant legend

 …….has been corroborating the ‘schoolmaster’ idea in the National Press…..

However, in the MailOnline he adds a romantic fantasy all of his own making…..

Sometimes when I’m lying in bed I look up and think how marvellous it is to see the same beams as Shakespeare…..

Dream on, Ken!

Shakespeare  died in 1616….

IN VINCULIS INVICTUS!!!

To read The Shakespeare Code’s TOP TWENTY POSTS….

….please click: HERE!

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 A Trixie Special

 

One of the late Margaret Thatcher’s most famous statements was:

U turn if you want to. The Lady’s not for turning……

As Brothers and Sisters of The Shakespeare Code well know, The Lady’s Not for Burning is the title of a play by Christopher Fry – a play which our Chief Agent, Stewart Trotter, directed when he was Artistic Director of  The Northcott Theatre in Exeter….

 

But of greater interest is the fact that the man who wrote Thatcher’s speeches, Sir Ronald  Millar……

 

……was a playwright himself…….

……one of whose shows, Robert and Elizabeth…

 …….a preposterous musical version about the love affair between Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett……

…….Stewart had directed at the prestigious Chichester Festival……

Stewart helped Sir Ronald revise the work over several days at the High Tory Whites Club in St. James…..

……..a club that started off as a coffee and gambling house…….

……..and is now the home of The Conservative Party…..

In the course of  working and eating together, Sir Ronald told Stewart (who is yet to be knighted) the following amazing story……

●

When I started out as a writer…..

……I was very left-wing.  But, like everyone else, I became disillusioned with the Labour Party…..

……and especially disillusioned with the shifty Harold Wilson…..

……who only smoked his pipe when he was being photographed

……(he was a closet cigar and brandy man)

One night I got drunk as a guest at Whites……

…….and lambasted the Tory M.P.s……

You’re hopeless you lot! Hopeless! You CANNOT COMMUNICATE!

The following day I got a call from Tory H.Q……

……inviting me to…..

 show them how to do it…..

I was so touched by their modesty that I went to see them……

……and was introduced to Ted Heath…..

Initially I loathed him…..

His first comment was…..

So what’s it to be today?  Care and compassion?

And he rocked with mocking laughter…..

……his shoulders famously shaking…….

But I decided to give it a go and started writing his speeches…..

BUT  NEVER , EVER FOR MONEY…..

That way, I could stay independent….

But Margaret brought Ted down…..

She was the only one who would tell him, to his face, where to get off…..

So people rallied behind her……,

…….even though she wasn’t – in those days at least – a powerful speaker in the Commons.

When she became Leader of the Party I assumed it would be curtains for me…..

Margaret and Ted couldn’t stand one another…..

But I was in my Notting Hill flat one morning when the phone rang….

It was the Deputy Leader, Willie Whitelaw….

What are you doing now Ronnie?

I’m just about to go out….

No you’re not. I’m coming over….

And come he did, with a sheath of papers in his hands…..

Now sit down and read this. It’s Margaret’s first speech to conference tomorrow.

So I sat down and read the whole thing…..

What do you think?’

It’s dreadful! Who wrote it?

She did. Now you’re going to.

But I hardly know her…..

Doesn’t matter….

Does she know you’re here?

No.

But she might not want to do it….

Oh she’ll do it, Ronnie. We’ll see to that….

So I spent the rest of the day at the typewriter………

…….turning myself into Margaret Thatcher…..

…….and turning Margaret Thatcher into me….

Then a taxi called for me. Then a helicopter….

Then by the evening Willie was ushering me into Margaret’s hotel suite…….

She and Denis……

……..were sitting on the sofa.

She clearly had no idea what was about to happen.

Willie told her straight that her speech was no good and that she must deliver mine.

Margaret looked aghast as Willie handed her my speech…..

But she read each page carefully, then handed it to Denis, who read it after her.

When she came to the end she said:

I’ve no idea which one to do…..

You must do Ronnie’s’, said Denis.

And that was that….

I directed her for several hours….

……as though she was an actress in one of my plays…..

Then she went to bed to grab a few hours of sleep….

The next morning I called on her. 

She was wearing a stunning blue dress……

……..and standing up.

She clearly didn’t want to crease the dress by sitting down.

She asked me to sit down and put the speech in my lap……

She had a couple of questions, she said, about delivery.

Then she knelt by my side and pointed to words in the script……

It was one of the most thrilling experiences I have ever had….

The woman had an energy about her that electrified you….

Then she got up, impatient for it all to begin.

I knew it would be a triumph….

She was behaving like a Diva….

●

 Stewart has his own Thatcher story to tell……

A couple of years after Robert and Elizabeth I had another brush with the Tory party.

A charming grandee…….

……..whose father had produced Ivor Novello shows, ice-shows, and Ivor Novello on Ice shows…..

……..bought the rights to my rock version of Carmen,  Carmen Latina……

www.carmenlatina.com

………which has just finished a run in Poland…..

………and is now again available for production world-wide.

In the course of trying to set a West End run of the show, he showed me a secret tape……

………..and made me promise I would never reveal the contents……..

……….of Margaret Thatcher rehearsing a speech!

But as she has now passed on, I feel I can lift the embargo……

She had been over to America to see her great pal, Ronald Reagan…..

……….and he had shown her his new toy……

A plastic lectern you could see through…..

……….and so the audience could see you……..

……….onto which a speech could be projected which was visible to the speaker……

……….but invisible to the audience…..

Thatcher was wild to try it out……

And the grandee’s tape was of the technical rehearsal…….

Now ‘technicals’, as they are called in the theatre, are calculated to bring out the worst in even the most pleasant of performers….

The attention is on machines and other people rather than you……

And there are long, long waits…..

Thatcher stood behind the magic lantern……

And waited and waited and waited.

Not for a second did she show any annoyance…….

And spoke to the technicians throughout with utter courtesy and utter respect……

So her staff adored her…….

And so did Ronnie…….

The one time I went to his very dusty flat…….

(he had clearly taken to heart Quentin Crisps’s advice that you should never sweep your floors)

…….I saw a bottle of champagne in pride of place……….

……..unopened, and as dusty as everything else……

The reason?

Propped up against it was a card with a hand-written message……

From Margaret…..

●

‘Bye now…..

© Stewart Trotter and Trixie the Cat, 12th April, 2013

 

 

 

 

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