Innholdsfortegnelse for Shakespeare i History Extra

The panel Why do we seem to know so little about Shakespeare’s private life? Michael Dobson: I think ‘seem’ is the operative word here. In terms of his financial arrangements, provision for his family, baptism, marriage certificate, addresses, will, and other legal and economic matters, we know a great deal – far more than we know about most other people of the period. But we don’t have Shakespeare’s own musings about it because he isn’t an autobiographical writer: he leaves his characters free to be themselves instead of using them as vehicles for editorialising or navel-gazing. “The Sonnets may suggest that the poet was attracted to a young man and another woman in London” René Weis René Weis: We know rather more about Shakespeare than is commonly assumed, and there is…

London in Shakespeare’s time, from the 1580s until the 1610s, was a large and growing metropolis, lively and prosperous. But rather than being just one city, it consisted of three distinct parts: the City of London itself, Westminster and Southwark. London was the commercial city on the north side of the Thames, with a busy port. Upstream was Westminster, the focus of the political nation; it encompassed the principal royal palace, the court and the meeting place of parliament, with all the functions of government and the courts of law. On the south side of the Thames, Southwark was larger than some provincial cities; from 1556 it was administered with the City of London as its 26th ward. The river frontage on the north side of the Thames ran from…

Mention Shakespeare, and most of us think immediately of the Globe and other similar outdoor playhouses. But the playwright and his company were well used to performing under cover – inside the old Banqueting House at Whitehall, at legal inns, and in any number of different venues on tour. As early as 1596 the Burbage family was anxious to secure a ‘private’ indoor venue in the wealthy Blackfriars neighbourhood, more exclusive and comfortably appointed than the public theatres (not to mention more flexible dramatically), but were blocked by irate residents. The company finally moved into the Blackfriars in 1608, and it became Shakespeare’s regular winter space – the intimate candlelit theatre for which most of his late plays were written.…

Henry V launched his August 1415 invasion of Normandy during the long contest for the throne of France between French and English rulers known as the Hundred Years’ War. The seeds of that conflict were sown when the French king Charles IV died in 1328. Edward III of England was the nearest male relative (his mother, Isabella, was Charles’s sister). Yet the French, hardly keen to be ruled by an Englishmen, chose Philip, Count of Valois, who reigned as Philip VI. Though initially accepting Philip, in 1340 Edward declared himself king, partly in response to Philip’s seizure of English landholdings in Aquitaine. Edward defeated Philip at the battle of Crécy in August 1346. In 1356 the Black Prince, Edward’s son, captured Philip’s successor, John II, at Poitiers, forcing the French…

The life and afterlife of Henry VI 1422 Henry V’s son becomes king of England and France as Henry VI. The new king is less than a year old 1431 In May, the English burn at the stake Joan of Arc, who had taken up arms against their occupation of France. Later that year, Henry is crowned king of France in Paris 1445 Henry marries Margaret of Anjou who, according to Shakespeare, possessed a “tiger’s heart, wrapped in a woman’s hide” 1450 The English are defeated at Formigny. All of Lancastrian Normandy falls to the French. Jack Cade’s rebels occupy London 1453 Gascony is lost. Henry goes temporarily insane and the Duke of York becomes protector. The king’s son, Edward of Westminster, is born 1455 The Duke of York kills…

1 THE BIG QUESTIONS Shakespeare How do we know when he was born? It seems that England’s greatest poet first appeared on the world’s stage on the feast day of England’s patron saint: St George’s Day, Sunday 23 April 1564. The parish register of Holy Trinity Church, Stratfordupon-Avon, records Shakespeare’s baptism on 26 April. According to the Book of Common Prayer, babies had to be baptised either on the next saint’s day after their birth or on the following Sunday. In baby Shakespeare’s case, the next saint’s day, just two days later, was St Mark’s Day, commemorating the patron saint of Venice. However, Elizabethan folk superstition considered this day to be unlucky, so Shakespeare was baptised after morning or evening prayer on the following day. For corroborative evidence that Shakespeare…

SHAKESPEARE’S LIFE KEY HISTORICAL EVENTS 1564 The baptism of ‘Gulielmus filius Johannes Shakspere’ (William, son of John Shakespeare) in Holy Trinity Church, Stratford-upon-Avon, is recorded in the parish records on 26 April 1564. Though his birthday is traditionally celebrated on 23 April (Saint George’s Day), there’s no concrete evidence that he was born on that date. William was one of eight children, the eldest son of John, a glover; his mother Mary (neé Arden) hailed from a rich farming family. 1567 Mary, Queen of Scots, (pictured left) is forced to abdicate the throne. The following year, she flees to England and throws herself on the mercy of her cousin (and great rival) Elizabeth I who, rather than offering protection, imprisons her. In 1569, a group of Catholic nobles in the…

Shakespeare’s London was a bustling, teeming, rapidly growing metropolis that was by far the largest and richest city in the British Isles, and one of the biggest in Europe. It was the centre of government, the law and the church, the focus of politics and culture. London was an international powerhouse, a great commercial city with a broad and developing economy comprising a range of manufacturing and service trades, members of the professions, a body of skilled and semi-skilled workers, and a lucrative trade in luxury goods for courtiers and wealthy citizens. With growth came overcrowding, shoddy building and high mortality rates, which reached shocking levels during the periodic outbreaks of plague. Yet London attracted an endless stream of people who were absorbed into its diverse communities and economic structures.…

Perhaps the third purpose-built playhouse raised in London, the Curtain was erected in 1577 just steps away from the Burbage-run Theatre, and helped to make insalubrious, overcrowded Shoreditch the haunt of London’s early theatregoers. Smaller than the Globe, the Curtain nonetheless staged the world-spanning dramas of Marlowe as well as Thomas Kyd’s bloodthirsty The Spanish Tragedy, and later may have hosted performances of Titus Andronicus and Romeo and Juliet, while the Burbage family was waiting for the Globe to be finished. Unlike nearly every other Elizabethan playhouse, the Curtain was still apparently going strong as late as 1625, into the era of Charles I.…

THE THEATRICAL ENTREPRENEUR John Heminges (1556-1630) The apprentice grocer who left the West Midlands to tread the boards – and helped finance the most famous Elizabethan theatre of them all The growth of Shakespeare’s company, and the theatre in which many of his plays were first performed, depended on investors such as John Heminges. Born in Droitwich, Worcestershire, he apprenticed as a grocer from the age of 12, then turned his business skills towards theatrical entrepreneurship. By 1590 he had married Rebecca Knell, with whom he had 14 children by 1613. Heminges became a prominent member of Lord Strange’s Men and in 1594, with Shakespeare, was among the founding shareholders of the Lord Chamberlain’s Men, probably investing between £50 and £80. In 1599 he contributed to the founding of the…

1. Tyranny Richard’s act of fatal hubris is to seize Bolingbroke’s inherited lands. The real Richard lost the faith of his people for just this reason. By taking the Lancaster estates for himself, he overrode the first duty of medieval kingship: to uphold justice and protect his subjects’ property. Shakespeare understood this well. 2. Self-pity Richard had a tendency to feel hard done by, failing to understand at times of constitutional crisis that his subjects were often trying to correct failings with his government, rather than making personal attacks on him. Shakespeare perhaps exaggerates his maudlin nature, but it has some basis in truth. 3. Magnificence Richard loved majesty and the idea of being a quasi-divine, all-powerful king. Shakespeare gives us a glimpse of him in this mode at the…

1 Henry's speech 24 October, afternoon Henry’s army arrived at Agincourt to find the French blocking his route to Calais. He expected the French to give battle that day, and he drew up his men into battle formation. Chronicle accounts tell us that Henry gave his pre-battle speech and that other preparations were made at this point. His soldiers confessed their sins and made ready to fight. But the French did not attack: they were still waiting for more troops to arrive. They had missed their chance to attack Henry before he had the opportunity to archer-strong army. 2 Preparing for battle Night of 24-25 October Henry prepared for the next day by sending out scouts to survey the ground and discussing with his commanders how best to deploy his…

There’s no doubt about it: Stratford-upon-Avon is Shakespeare’s town. From Hathaway Tea Rooms to Bard’s Walk, every building, every street, it seems, wants to stake a claim to Stratford’s most famous son. But the town’s most celebrated landmark is the 16th-century half-timbered house where William Shakespeare was born in 1564, and where he lived until his midtwenties. Standing on Henley Street, in the heart of Stratford, the house has been a site of pilgrimage for millions of Shakespearelovers since the early 18th century. “Shakespeare’s Birthplace is a major piece of the jigsaw puzzle that connects him to the town,” says Dr Paul Edmondson, head of research and knowledge at the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust. “For a poet and playwright whose works have been translated into hundreds of languages, we would love…

William Shakespeare died 400 years ago. Yet the characters, scenes and phrases he created remain vividly alive, being read, performed, translated, studied and adapted across ever more territories – places of which Shakespeare himself knew nothing. It’s obvious, then, that the writer’s world extends far beyond the mere life and times of William Shakespeare. To understand this expansive impact we need to grasp some sense of the inner world of his imagination, and of his works’ extensive role in history since their author’s death, in cultures far beyond his own homeland. Imaginary worlds A long and rich tradition of historical scholarship has been dedicated to revealing the connections between the Shakespeare canon and the period during which it was composed. But there has always been something counter-intuitive about approaching these…

William Shakespeare was born in April 1564 and died, 52 years later, in 1616 – a lifetime that bridged the Elizabethan and Jacobean eras. Historians often describe the period as ‘early modern’ in order to convey the convergence of powerful historical forces that turned a medieval country into a ‘modern’ society. But just what kind of society was the one in which Shakespeare lived? A literary critic might turn to his plays for the answer, but a look at social and cultural history, examining life in Elizabethan and Jacobean England more generally, provides a broader and more detailed background to his work. It is worth noting that Shakespeare lived in an era of unusually intense change. Ideas of self, of medicine and personality, of religion and spirituality, of politics and…

HENRY VI, PART1 England bleeds again The military reversals dramatised in Henry VI, Part 1 would have been all too familiar to Shakespeare’s audience In the early 1590s an exciting young playwright called William Shakespeare burst onto the Elizabethan theatre scene with three popular plays about the Lancastrian king Henry VI (1421–71) and the civil discord that eventually culminated in the accession of the Yorkist Richard III in 1483. The cycle catalogues the young king’s weakness and how, as Shakespeare wrote later in Henry V, “so many had the managing” of his state that “they lost France and made his England bleed.” The action in Henry VI, Part 1 is driven by the wars in France and the contrast between the heroic Lord John Talbot (c1387–1453) and the French warrior…

On 30 June 1399, Henry of Bolingbroke stepped ashore at Ravenspur on the Humber, ostensibly to recover his inheritance. It was a daring move. Just nine months earlier Henry had been banished from England by his cousin King Richard II. Then, in March 1399, Richard had seized the great Lancastrian duchy from under Henry’s nose following the death of the latter’s father, John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster. When Richard unwisely sailed to Ireland in May, Henry seized his chance with characteristic boldness. No army of invasion accompanied him, just a handful of servants and fellow exiles. Barely had Henry landed, however, than Lancastrian retainers and disaffected nobles, chafing under Richard’s predatory rule, flocked to his banner. Support for the king evaporated and, on returning from Ireland, Richard was cornered…

“We few, we happy few, we band of brothers.” These nine words from Shakespeare’s Henry V are among the best known in the great playwright’s canon. Yet they are also seriously misleading. For, as King Henry prepared to do battle with his French foes at Agincourt more than 600 years ago, he did so not with a hopelessly outnumbered force – as Shakespeare’s description of the battle would have us believe – but with an army of around 8,500 men. That army had numbered close to 12,000 when Henry led it across the Channel in mid-August, making it the largest sent to France since Edward III’s invasion 70 years earlier. The English king was hellbent on conquering Normandy – and he was not about to fail through a lack of…