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S H a K E S P E a Re in Stratford and London: Ten Eyewitnesses Who

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S H a K E S P E a Re in Stratford and London: Ten Eyewitnesses Who The Shakespeare Oxford Society’s 50th Anniversary Anthology Newsletter Fall 2002/2005 S h a k e s p e a re i n Stratford and Another of Camden’s books was R e - London: Ten Eyewitnesses maines Concerning Britain, a series of essays on English history, English names and the Who Saw Nothing English language that he published in 1605. Camden wrote poetry himself, and in the sec- by Ramon Jiménez tion on poetry, he referred to poets as “God’s own creatures.” He listed eleven English poets and playwrights who he thought would be T is well-known that the first references in admired by future generations––in other print that seemed to connect Wi l l i a m words, the best writers of his time (287, 294). IShakespeare of Stratford-upon-Avon to the Among the eleven were six playwrights, in- playwright William Shakespeare appeared in cluding Jonson, Chapman, Drayton, Daniel, the first collection of his plays—the First Fo- Marston, and William Shakespeare. lio, seven years after his death. On the other Two years later, in 1607, Camden pub- hand, we can identify at least ten people who lished the sixth edition of his Britannia, which personally knew the William Shakespeare of by then had doubled in size because of his this Warwickshire town, or met his daughter, extensive revisions and additions. He arranged Susanna. At least six of them, and possibly all the book by shire or county, with his descrip- of them, were aware of plays and poems pub- tion of each beginning in the pre-Roman peri- lished under the name of one of the country’s od and extending to contemporary people and leading playwrights, William Shakespeare. All events. With Camden’s interests and previous ten left us published books, poems, letters, work in mind, it is surprising to find that in this notebooks, or diaries, some of which referred 1607 edition, and in his subsequent editions, in directly to events or people in Stratford. Yet the section on Stratford-upon-Avon, he des- none of these nine men and one woman––it is cribed this “small market-town” as owing “all fair to call them eyewitnesses––left any hint its consequence to two natives of it. They are that they connected the playwright with the John de Stratford, later Archbishop of Canter- person of the same name from the town of bury, who built the church, and Hugh Clopton, Stratford-upon-Avon. later mayor of London, who built the Clopton William Camden bridge across the Avon” (2.445). In the same paragraph, Camden called attention to George William Camden was the most eminent Carew, Baron Clopton, who lived nearby and historian and antiquary of the Elizabethan age, was active in the town’s affairs. and was deeply involved in the literary and There is no mention of the well-known intellectual world of his time. He knew Philip poet and playwright, William Shakespeare, Sidney, was a valued friend of Michael Dray- who was born and raised in Stratford-upon- ton, and is said to have been a teacher of Ben Avon, whose family still lived there, and who Jonson. His most famous work was Britannia, by this date had returned there to live in one of a history of England first published in Latin in the grandest houses in town. Elsewhere in 1586. It was translated, and frequently reprint- Britannia, Camden noted that the poet Philip ed, and he revised it several times before his Sidney had a home in Kent. We know he was death in 1623. familiar with literary and theatrical aff a i r s 74 Ramon Jiménez “Shakespeare in Stratford and London: Ten Eyewitnesses Who Saw Nothing” because he was a friend of the poet and play- William Camden had another occasion to wright Michael Drayton (Newdigate 95), and come in contact with the Shakespeares. In the he noted in his diary the deaths of the actor summer of 1600, when the famous Sir Thomas Richard Burbage and the poet and playwright Lucy died, Camden bore Lucy’s coat of arms Samuel Daniel in 1619.1 He made no such in the procession and conducted the funeral at note on the death in April 1616 of William Charlecote, only a few miles from Stratford- Shake-speare of Stratford-upon-Avon. upon-Avon (Malone 2:556). Thomas Lucy It might be suggested that Camden was knew the Shakespeares also. When he was unfamiliar with the Warwickshire area, and Justice of the Peace in Stratford-upon-Avon, wasn’t aware that one of the leading play- John Shakespeare was brought up before him wrights of the day lived in Stratford-upon- more than once. John may even have attended Avon. But could this be true? In 1597 Queen Lucy’s funeral, but it seems likely that William Elizabeth had appointed Camden to the post of was too busy to go. During 1600, seven or Clarenceaux King of Arms, one of the two offi- eight of William Shakespeare’s plays were cials in the College of Arms who approved printed for the first time and, according to most applications for coats of arms. Two years later, orthodox scholars, in the summer of 1600 he John Shakespeare, William’s father, applied to was hurrying to finish up Hamlet. the College to have his existing coat of arms So, even though William Camden revered impaled, or joined, with the arms of his wife’s poets, had several poet friends, and wrote poet- family, the Ardens of Wilmcote (Chambers ry himself, even though he knew the Shake- 2:18-32). Some writers have asserted that speares, father and son, and even though he William Shakespeare himself made this appli- mentioned playwrights and poets in his books cation for his father, but there is no evidence of and in his diary, he never connected the Shake- that. What is likely is that William paid the fee speare he knew in Stratford-upon-Avon with that accompanied the application. the one on his list of the best English poets. The record shows that Camden and his colleague William Dethick approved the mod- Michael Drayton ification that John Shakespeare sought. How- ever, in 1602 another official in the College Another eyewitness is the poet and drama- brought a complaint against Camden and De- tist Michael Drayton, who was born and raised thick that they had granted coats of arms im- in Warwickshire, only about twenty-five miles properly to twenty-three men, one of whom from Stratford-upon-Avon. It is hard to imag- was John Shakespeare. Camden and Dethick ine that Michael Drayton was unaware of defended their actions, but there is no record of Shakespeare. The two were almost exact con- the outcome of the matter. The coat of arms, temporaries. They both wrote sonnets, and minus the Arden impalement, later appeared on many critics have even found the influence of the monument in Holy Trinity Church. Be- Shakespeare in Drayton’s poetry (Campbell cause of this unusual complaint, Camden had 190-1). Also, they both wrote plays that ap- good reason to remember John Shakespeare’s peared about the same time on the London application, and it is very probable that he had stage in the late 1590s. In fact, in 1599 Dray- met both father and son. At the least, he knew ton, along with Anthony Munday, Robert who they were and where they lived. Wilson, and Richard Hathaway, wrote a play, 75 The Shakespeare Oxford Society’s 50th Anniversary Anthology Newsletter Fall 2002/2005 Sir John Oldcastle, that was supposed to be a the early 1600s until his death in 1631 he made response to Shakespeare’s plays about Falstaff frequent visits to their home at Cliff o r d (Chambers 1:134). Chambers, sometimes staying all summer. In 1612 Drayton published the first part of The Shakespearean scholar Charlotte Poly-Olbion, a poetical description of Eng- Stopes was certain that Shakespeare would land, and a county-by-county history that in- have been “an honored guest” at the Rainsford cluded well-known men of every kind. In it home because of the family’s literary interests were many references to Chaucer, to Spenser, (1907, 206), although there is no record of such and to other English poets. But in his section a visit. But even if Shakespeare may never on Warwickshire, Drayton never mentioned have visited the Rainsfords, Dr. John Hall, the S t r a t f o r d - u p o n - Avon or Shakespeare, even man who married Shakespeare’s daughter cer- though by 1612 Shakespeare was a well- tainly did. Hall was the Rainsford’s family known playwright. It seems that Drayton doctor and once treated Drayton for a fever, never connected the writer to the William probably at the Rainsford home. The doctor Shakespeare he must have known in Stratford. made a record of it in his case book, and even How do we know he knew him? Many noted that Drayton was an excellent poet (Lane supporters of the Stratford theory think so. Sa- 40-1). Hall’s treatment for the fever was a muel Schoenbaum wrote that it is “not implau- spoonful of “syrup of violets,” but Drayton sible” that Drayton and Shakespeare, and Ben recovered anyway. Jonson as well, had that “merry meeting” re- Another reason that Drayton must have ported in the 1660s by John Ward, the vicar of been aware of a playwright named Shake- Stratford-on-Avon (Schoenbaum 296). In fact, speare was that in 1619, Sir John Oldcastle, more than one scholar has found evidence that the play Drayton had written with three others, Michael Drayton was the “Rival Poet” of the was printed by William Jaggard and Thomas sonnets.
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