Shakespeare and Stratford (1)

Twenty questions for believers

Francis Carr

Next Wednesday, April 23, St George's Day, is the official birthday of William Shakespeare, acknowledged to be the greatest figure in the annals of English literature, and yet one whose origins and life are in several important particulars mysterious. Even the note on Shakespeare that appears in the programme for the centenary season of the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon, which opened last week, inevitably uses such phrases as "we can be fairly sure that" and "he perhaps" and "some say" and "it is quite likely that", although in other respects the brief `biography' is more positive than many sceptics would regard as justified or justifiable. Such sceptics doubt specifically whether the man Shakspere, who was born at Stratford in 1564 — and died there, aged fifty-two, as a landowner and tradesman — was indeed the poet and dramatist who is honoured as Shakespeare. It is a controversy that fascinates each succeeding generation of scholars and 'literary detectives'. The Spectator believes its readers will be interested in the kind of questions that are asked by the sceptics and are posed here by Francis Carr of the Shakespeare Action Committee — and in the way they are answered by the Shakespearian scholar and historian, A. L. Rowse.

1. In spite of the most painstaking research, which has been going on for the past 100 years, we still have no letter written by Shakespeare, the one giant of Elizabethan poetry and drama. The letters of dedication prefixed to Venus and Adonis and Lucrece• show a practised, courtly hand in letter writing. So does Macbeth's letter to his wife. Many letters from Elizabethans are still extant, but no one has even mentioned a letter written by Shakespeare. How do you account for this complete absence of evidence?

2. We could surely have expected a pupil or master, contemporary with the young Shakespeare, to mention the budding 'myriad-minded' boy, with his phenomenal intellect and memory. But, if he did go to a school, it seems he made no impact there at all. Would you admit that William's attendance at school is only an assumption?

3. Professor Schoenbaum, in A New Companion to Shakespearian Studies (1971), states: "The date of Shakespeare's birth is not known." In Literature and Locality, by John Freeman (Cassell, 1963) we read: "There is no evidence that Shakespeare was educated at the grammar school at Stratford." Professor Hood Phillips, in Shakespeare and the Lawyers (Methuen, 1972) has said that "no record of Shakespeare's marriage has been found." And, according to the Cambridge History of English Literature, "We are by no means certain of the identity of Shakespeare's wife." No name was placed on the gravestone, supposedly his, in the Stratford Parish Church, and it carries no mention of authorship. And Professor Trevor-Roper, in Past and Future magazine (January 1964), has pointed out that "not a single tribute was paid to Shakespeare at his death."

Do you agree with these admissions? If so,, wouid you not agree that it is strange that a man, well-known as a playwright and an actor in his own lifetime, made such a minuscule impact on his fellow men? We know far more about Ben Jenson, Kit: Marlowe and John Donne.

4. Stratford-on-Avon is not mentioned once in any of the thirty-seven Shakespeare plays. Birmingham is never mentioned, nor is Leamington, Droitwich or Nuneaton. Warwick is briefly mentioned twice, and War wickshire only three times,.but without any description. The author of these plays obviously had no desire to mention any Warwickshire village by name. As for the

forest of Arden, he has the intelligent Touchstone in As You Like it saying, "Ay,

now I am in Arden; the more fool I. When I was at home, I was in a better place; but travellers must be content." What evidence is there in the plays themselves that the author was a Warwickshire man? Is there any passage which clearly refers only to that part of the country?

5. Halliwell-Phillips examined the records of forty-six towns in which companies of actors performed, including Stratford. He found not a single mention of Shakespeare. Is Shakespeare included in the cast list of

any play? Is the legend that he acted as the ghost in Hamlet perhaps symbolic, suggesting that in real life he was not the real author?

6. There are today in existence twenty-nine plays in manuscript, written between 1590 and 1642. Nineteen of them are in the British Museum. These include plays by Shakespeare's contemporaries: Heywood, Mas singer, Ford, Beaumont, Gascoigne and Greville. Is not the absence of a Shakespeare play in manuscript a disturbing fact?

7. Shakespeare was not mentioned once either by Henslowe or by Alleyn. Philip Henslowe, the manager of four theatres in Shakespeare's day, kept a business diary. In it he lists twenty-three contemporary play wrights and the amounts he paid them; but he does not mention Shakespeare. Yet he produced at least four of the early Shakespeare plays. Edward Alleyn also left his memoirs. They contain the names of all the leading actors and dramatists of Shakespeare's time. But he also does not mention Shakespeare even once. Is this not, for some important reason, deliberate omission?

8. In 1635 Cuthbert Burbage, who had owned the Globe Theatre with his brother Richard, presented a petition to William, Earl of Pembroke, the Lord Chamberlain, the survivor of the 'Incomparable Pair of Brethren' to whom the First Folio of the Shakespeare Plays was dedicated. In this document he requested that his rights to the Globe be respected. He set out a full account of the theatre, and the part played in its history by the Burbage family, saying "to ourselves we joined these deserving men Shakespeare, Hemings, Condall, and others." He also wrote that at Blackfriars they had "men players which were Hemings, Condall, Shakespeare, etc." The Burbages obviously knew who the real author was. If it was Shakespeare, why did not Burbage strengthen his case by giving William what you would call his correct description? 9. In the British Museum there is a work in manuscript which could be described as a Shakespearian notebook. It consists of ninety-three folio pages in Bacon's handwriting, recording phrases and sentences, hundreds of which appear in the Shakespeare plays. This book ended in 1594; all the plays were published later. Would you not regard this manuscript as being of the greatest significance, if it contained one reference to William Shakespeare of Stratford?.

10. In Alnwick Castle there is the document known as the Northumberland Manuscript. Bacon's name is on the cover, and on it are listed the contents (which are now missing). In this list we see, under the heading "by ffrauncis William Shakespeare," "Richard II" and "Richard III." Also, lower down the page, the writer tried out various spellings — Sh, Shak, Shakspe and Shakespeare. There are nine different spellings of 'William Shakespeare' in the space of two square inches. And over the line mentioning Frauncis William Shakespeare is written, "essaies by the same author." If this' document pointed towards, rather than away from Stratford, would you not regard it as an important piece of evidence? This sheet is headed "Mr. ffrauncis Bason,/of Tribute or giving what is due." These last three words explain why the authorship of the Shakespeare plays should be finally determined.

11. What importance do you attach to the following quotations?

(a) "The most prodigious wit that ever I knew of my nation is of your lordship's name, though he be known by another." — Sir Tobie Matthew in a letter to Francis Bacon.

(b) "I have, though in a despised weed (costume), procured the good of all men." — A prayer by Francis Bacon.

(c) "Was ever another of nobler genius, of greater enterprise, or richer eloquence, of ampler mental range? Who of loftier soul exists unravelling nature and art? Why should 1 mention each separate work? A portion lies buried." — Robert Ashley, from Manes Verulamiani, a collection of obituary poems dedicated to Bacon, published in 1626.

12. William Shakespeare, dying in 1616, could not have made any alterations in the 1619 Quartos or the 1623 Folio edition of the plays. Yet after the 1619 edition of The Merry Wives of Windsor, 1,018 new lines were added, and one entire scene, for the final 1623 edition. After the 1619 edition of Henry VI Part 2, 1,139 new lines were added, and 2,000 old lines were retouched. In Henry

VI Part 3, 906 new lines were added, and a great number of old lines were altered. In King John in the 1622 edition, 1,000 new lines were added, and one entire new scene, and much of the dialogue was re-written. 193 new lines were added to the 1622 edition of Richard III, and 160 new lines added to the 1622 edition of Othello. Bacon was alive in 1623. Could he, or someone else, have played any part in the final, definitive production of the Folio?

13. Professor Trevor-Roper, in Past and Future magazine (January 1964), gave it as his opinion that, judging from the plays alone, "Shakespeare was an unquestioning aristocrat. A cultured, sophisticated aristocrat — such is the outward character revealed by his works." And you yourself, in the Times, on October 12, 1973, said that ''this is what Shakespeare's nature truly was — aristocratic in its taste and values." Is there a single detail among the known facts of William's life that shows any quality that could be called aristocratic?

14. The last decade of the sixteenth and the first decade of the seventeenth centuries, we are told, were the most prolific years of Shakespeare's life. How many plays, do you think, were written by him in those twenty years? And how many plays do you think he had written — and received payment for — by 1597, when he was rich enough to buy the largest house in Stratford? The average payment for a play at that time was only £3 or £4.

15. Shakespeare's will has been very carefully examined, and it has been found that a pen-knife has been used for erasure. The name of one beneficiary has been scratched out, and over it has been written "Hamlett Sadler," the name of one of the witnesses, one must suppose, since Hamnet Sadler was a witness — but he was able to spell his Christian name correctly when writing it at the foot of the document. There is also an extra line inserted in the text, "to my fellowes John Hemynge, Richard Burbage and Henry Cundell 26/6 a peece to buy them rings." Apart from these names, is there anything in Shakespeare's will that shows that he was in any way interested in authorship, drama, or any literary activity? He mentions not a single book. Are we to deduce from this that he possessed no books? Is there any other author, in any country, who has left a will so devoid of reference to literature?

16. Neither Shakespeare's daughter, Susanna Hall, nor his grand-daughter Lady Barnard, who left no children, ever made any mention of William's authorship of the plays. In view of the general lack of evidence from other sources, is this silence not a serious weakness in the argument that William is the author?

17. The first eight Shakespeare plays did not have any author's name on them. How many authors at that time had their plays published anonymously? Could the reason for this anonymity be that the author did not want his name known?

18. Is there any other playwright, who became famous in his lifetime, in the last four centuries, about whom we know as little as we know about Shakespeare?

19. Is it really surprising that the man whose birth date, death date, place of education and marriage, and whose wife's maiden name are all supposed, is now thought by many to be merely the supposed author of the plays?

20. It is immoral for an organisation, or a town, to live on the earnings of a possibly unjustified reputation. Do you agree?