John Aubrey, an antiquary and biographer, wrote a series of short biographies between 1669 and 1696. They were published with the title Brief Lives and are a mixture of speculation, gossipy anecdotes and interesting observations. One of his biographies was based on what gossip he could find out about Shakespeare: I have heard Sir […]Continue reading
When the Gunpowder Plot was discovered in 1605, Shakespeare’s playing company, the King’s Men, were out of London on tour in the provinces. They had undertaken lengthy tours during outbreaks of the plague in London in the early 1600s, and in 1605 they were again on tour. Despite being absent from London, the Gunpowder Plot […]Continue reading
Henry Wriothesley, third Earl of Southampton, was a young and wealthy nobleman courted by writers who needed a rich and influential patron in early modern England. Wriothesley was a great patron of the arts and also, it seems, was interested in playing and playgoing. Rowland White wrote about him to Sir Robert Sidney in […]Continue reading
Shakespeare may have been inspired by the visit of the Moroccan ambassador to Elizabeth I as he created the ‘noble Moor’ in Othello. The Moroccan king’s ambassador, Abd al-Wahid bin Messaoud bin Mohammed al-Annuri, and his party arrived in Dover on this day in 1600. They travelled to the queen’s court in London and stayed […]Continue reading
John Shakespeare was buried in Stratford-upon-Avon on 8 September 1601 after becoming an influential and important member of the town. He had moved to Stratford-upon-Avon with his wife, Mary, in 1551. He worked as a glover and become a well-known member of the Stratford town council. When his eldest son William was four years […]Continue reading
Susanna and her husband, Dr John Hall, filed a lawsuit for slander against John Lane at the Consistory Court at Worcester on this day in 1613. The twenty-three-year-old Lane had accused Susanna, who was thirty-one years old at the time, of committing adultery with a haberdasher named Rafe Smith. He also claimed that she had […]Continue reading
A play with the title Love’s Labour’s Won is thought to be one of the lost plays of Shakespeare. We know that a play with this title existed during Shakespeare’s lifetime, but unfortunately there are no records of the play in performance and no script of the play that has survived. A manuscript dated […]Continue reading
In October 1608, Shakespeare stood as godfather to William Walker, the son of one of the bailiffs in Stratford-upon-Avon. Earlier that year, Henry Walker had presided over a court case in which Shakespeare sued John Addenbrooke for the sum of £6. Shakespeare became his son’s godfather during a ceremony at Holy Trinity Church a few […]Continue reading
During Shakespeare’s lifetime, players were required to operate under the patronage of noblemen who would request permission for their company of players to perform at different towns and cities outside London. A warrant, signed by the Duke of Lennox on 14 October 1604, is an example of such a request. It is addressed to ‘all […]Continue reading
Lord Burghley, Secretary of State under Elizabeth I, wrote a short manual for his son as he set off on his youthful travels to France. It was titled Memorial for Thomas Cecil (1561) and was full of detailed advice regarding his spiritual welfare, his clothing and his behaviour: If you offend in forgetting of […]Continue reading
