10 Hlffieare

T A |illiam Shakespeare was christened on Wednesday, l/ \/ April 26, 1564, in the town of Stratford-on-Avon, Y Y some 90 miles northwest of London. On November 27,1582, at age eighteen he obtained a license to marry Anne Whateley of nearby Temple Graftory but a bond for 40 pounds the next day names the bride as Anne Hathaway of Stratford. She was probably Agnes Hathaway, the daughter of Richard Hathaway, who was buried the previous September and who left her a dowry of twenty nobles. From the gravestone of Shakespeare's wife we know that she was born in 1556 and so was eight years older than her husband. Her first child, Susanna, was christened on May 26 of 1583, so that she was already with child at the time of her marriage. Two years later, in February 1585 she gave birth to twins, a boy and a girf named Hamnet and Judith Shakespeare. At the time of his marriage William Shakespeare's father was a poor man, and William himself was not much better off. His wife's marriage portiory about eight thousand dollars in today's money, was probably a factor in his decision to marry. So, at age 20, Shakespeare already had a wife and three children to support. This is the man that Greene called

153 1.54 g Louis Ule

"Shakescene" in Green's Groatsworth of Wit, the famous actor and playwright of that name. ln Groatsworth of Wif Greene provided us with a wealth of information, not all of it flattering, about Shakespeare. The pamphlet is therefore often dismissed as the report of an envi- ous man. But it was not in Greene's nafure to be envious. Nashe did once accuse him of lyitrA calling his Groatsutorth a "scald lying trivial pamphlet," but he was then defending himself from the chaige of authorship, as well as rising to the defense of Marlowe after Greene, urging him to repentance, had exposed him as an atheist. The dates of events in the life of Shakespeare mentioned in Groatsworth of Wit, depend on the date of the first meeting between Greene and Shakespeare. It could not have been later than the year 1591 and, if so, based on Greene's statement that Shakespeare "for seven years space was absolute Inter- preter to the puppets," we see that Shakespeare was no more than twenty years old when he was already a performer. Greene tumed to writing plays only after meeting William Shakespeare. Greene speaks of writing aplay, very likely Al- phonsus, King of Aragon, in 1588, hence his meeting with Shakespeare took place during this year or before. Seven years before theo in L581, Shakespeare, at age 17,began his career as a puppeteer. A William Shakeshafte, usually thought to be Shakespeare, is mentioned as an unemployed actor in Lanca- shire in a will dated 3 August 1581. Puppeteering would be excellent preparation for a career on the stage. To maintain steady employment Shakespeare would have found it neces- sary to travel, to acquire a stock of puppets and dramatic material, to advertise his perforrnances, to rent stalls at coun- try fairs and to hire assistants. Shakespeare's circuit seems to have been north of Stratford- on-Avon: Leigh in Lancashire (where Shakeshafte is men- tioned), nearby Manchester (suggested by the ballad, Fair Em, the Miller's Daughter of Manchester, wlich Shakespeare di- rected Robert Wilson to use as a plot for Fair Em) and Coven- try (from Greene's allusion n Qutp to Shakespeare wearing a Coventry hat). Shakespeare essentially put on a one-man show, one that did not require a script and which relied on improvisation and the burlesque of popular ballads. He would entertain by reciting extemporaneous verse, as did Robert Wilsoru and it was probably Wilson, Shakespeare and Christopher Marlowe (1. 564-L 607 ) g 155

Tarleton that Marlowe had in mind when he wrote of "riming mother-wits." Shakespeare's account to Greene of his early hardships agrees with what we know of him at the time of his marriage: "What though the world once went hard with me, when I was fain to carry my playing fardle a-footback; Tempora mu- tantur..." That is, when he first started puppeteering, he could not afford to ride but had to carry his equipment from town to town on his back. But, as he says, "temport mutlntur," times change, and he now estimates his net worth at f,200. At the time of his meeting with Greene, this whole wealth was his "very share in playing apparel". Shakespeare's early financial success was not due as much to his income from puppeteering or from acting, as in acting as broker for costumes after the run of a play. During a plague Shakespeare could acquire these for a fraction of their cost if any monthly interest pay- ment was missed. Shakespeare may have had a direct financial motive in writ- ing plays or commissioning them to be written. Playing ap- parel must be stored and protected from moths, weather, rats, and theft. It depreciates as an investment and brings no inter- est. Should a play fold and the actors sell ou! it would be- hoove Shakespeare to procure another play that could use his old costumes. Most actors had little interest in retaining possession of their playing apparel but Shakespeare, with his experience as a puppeteer, would be in the habit of keeping them and know also that it is just a matter of time before they could be used again. It would be cheaper for him to create dramatic material to fit the properties at hand, than to con- stantly change puppets and costumes. We conclude that at an early age Shakespeare made his living as a puppeteer. His financial activities, of which we have some records, were a nafural outgrowth of his theatrical contacts. It would be natural for him to expand his theatrical pawn-broking to make loans of money to people other than actors. Thus, William Shakespeare sued one John Clayton in Cheapside for seven pounds he lent him in May 1592. Shake- speare also bought plays and acted in plays written by other writers, and the explanation is that Shakespeare early realized that it takes more than costumes and actors to put on a paying performance. He accordingly treated playbooks as a capital investment.Th"y were his and they earned money. According 156 ? Louis Ule to Greene, Shakespeare was in the habit of employing scholars to write plays and readily admitted that actors " getby schol- ars their whole living." Shakespeare was himself a writer, for he tells Greene: "I was a country Author, passing at a moral" and he gives the names of two of them: The Moral of Man's Wit, and The Dia- logue of Diaes. Shakespeare boasts to Greene, "fot'twas I that penned them," implying that Greene may have seen them acted. When Greene describes Shakespeare as having an ungra- cious voice, Shakespeare takes exception and lists the roles he had played and ior which he was as famous as any actor of his time. These roles were, as Greene remembered them: Delphrigus, in an unnamed play; the King of the Fairies, in an unnamed play; a role in The Twelae Labors of Hercules, a play; and the devil in three scenes of the play Highway to Heaaen The role of Delphrigus is mentioned by Thomas Nashe in his preface to Greene's Menaphon:

Sundry other sweet Gentlemen I do know, that have vaunted their pens in private devices and tricked up a com- pany of taffeta fools with their feathers whose beauty, if our Poets had not peecte (tricked up) with the supply of their periwigs, they might have anticked it until this time up and down the country with the King of Fairies, and dined every day at the pease porridge ordinary with Delphrigus.

Nashe is saying that if sundry sweet Gentlemery such as Robert Greene, did not write plays for the actors they would still be playing The King of the Fairies and eating at the cheapest ordinaries (restaurants) with the actor, William Shakespeare, who played Delphrigus. Shakespeare further tells Greene that he can "serve to make a pretty speech," and, after delivering two lines of doggerel he asks him: "Was not this pretty for a plain rime extempore?" Imprecise caricature rather than devastating precision might better describe Greene's version of these lines, but we may conclude, in any case, that Shakespeare considered himself an able actor, speaker and extemporaneous poet.

Greene does not belittle Shakespeare's knowledge of Latin, Christopher Marlowe (1 564-L 607 ) g 1.57 but rather shows Shakespeare respectful of Greene's univer- sity education by his diffidence in using a common Latin ex- pression: tempora mutantur. But Shakespeare's un-self- concious use of the expression ex tempore shbws that he had used it often before in connection with his act. The windmill in Greene's Groatsworth wlich Shakespeare hoped to buy may be explained by the fact that William Shakespeare was a retailer of corn and malt. Greene says that Shakespeare "lodged him at the Town's end in a house of retail." It was probably Shakespeare's place of business where he stored his grain, playing apparel and other pawns, and where he put Greene up for the night while he himself went to better lodgings. Outside Bishopsgate in Fynnesburie Field there were several windmills for grinding corn which may have led Shakespeare to think of expanding his grain business by becoming a miller. Greene's Groatsutorth of Wit yields a modest list of Shake- speare's early literary efforts: two titles and some doggerel. The titles are: The Moral of Man's Wit, and The Dialogue of Diaes. The doggerel consists of the lines: "The people make no estimatiorL of morals teaching education." In an attempt to enlarge this list we may examine Shakespeare's plays, those he bought, for additions he may have made. We know that Greene attacked the author of Fair Em and that this play ap- pears in a book called "Shakespeare, Volume 1." Shakespeare who hired Robert Wilson to write it may have added a scene or two of his own in a style distinguishable from the original. Two plays of Greene's were published shortly after his death under almost identical circumstances, both without Greene's name and both printed by Thomas Creede. The first play, Selimus, is anonymous, and the second one, Locrine, states on the title page that it was "Newly set forth, overseen and corrected by W. S." Since the theaters were closed due to the great plague it would be natural for Shakespeare to realize some profit by selling them, and there was no obligation on his part to identify the author. Considering Greene's last at- tack on Shakespeare, it would have been indeed generous of him to do so. The announcement "newly set forth, overseen and corrected by W. S." is reason to hope that William Shake- speare did indeed make some additions to these plays to en- hance their value before selling them. The play, Fair Em, may be quickly dismissed. There is no 1.58 g Louis Ule evidence of interpolation by anyone, including Shakespeare, even for comic relief. Either Shakespeare was satisfied with it or he thought it beyond hope of improvement. There is some evidence that Robert Wilsoru the probable author of the play, wrote a part especially for William Shakespeare. The principal character is William the Conqueror, Duke of Saxonp whose speeches seem to be a bit more pretentious than the others. Although the title of the play mentions "with the love of William the Conquerot," William is in love, not with Fair Em, but with Blanche, the daughter of the King of Denmark. Three of William's speeches in the first scene begin preten- tiously with the word ".*"i

Ah, good my Lords, misconster not the cause;... Ah, Marques Lubeck, in thy power it lies... Ah, Marques, thy words bring heaven unto my soul...

That the character William the Conqueror was played by William Shakespeare is supported by the following entry in |ohn Manningham's diary:

13 March 1601... Upon a time when Burbadge played Richard IIl was a citizen grew so far in liking with him, that before she went from the play she appointed him to come that night unto her by the name of Richard the Third. Shakespeare, overhear- ing their conclusiory went before, was entertained, and at his game ere Burbadge came. Thery message being brought that Richard the Third was at the door, Shakespeare caused retum to be made that William the Conqueror was before Richard the Third. Shakespeare's name, William...

In the first half of 1,594 the London printer, Thomas Creede, was involved in the publication of eight plays, four of them by Robert Greene. Three of these plays were registered on }day 1.4,1594. On this same May 14 five plays were registered by the printer, Adam Islip. Of these last five plays one is by Robert Greene, and one by Greene's erstwhile collaborator, George Peele. The circumstances strongly suggest that some acting company had suddenly decided to sell their stock of plays. Two of these plays are associated with the Queen's mery which had disbanded about this time. Since all but one Christopher Marlowe (1- 564-1 607 ) g 159

of Greene's plays were involved in this wholesale transactiory and since Robert Greene is known to have written plays for Shakespeare, we may conclude that it was Shakespeaie's com- pany that was involved. We may further conclude that, until its dispersal in'1594, Shakespeare was associated with the Queen's company. The extent of this wholesale dumping of plays is borne out by the fact that no one printer could buy them all. Thus, eight of them are registered in one day to the printers Thomas Creede and Adam Islip. If we include the plays Alphonsus, King of Aragon artd Orlando Furioso written by Robert Greene for the Queen's company and printed by Thomas Creede, fourteen plays in all were sold. The players, or Shakespeare, would sell only the inferior of their plays, for, once published, a play could be performed by other companies. In any case, we may have at least a partial catalogue of Shakespeare's plays in 1594. These plays would be:

'1. Selimus, printed in 1594. 2. Alphonsus, King of Aragon. Printed by Thomas Creede in 1599. 3. Looking Glass for London, Stationers' Registers entry on March 5,'1.594. On the title page we read: "Printed by Thomas Creede, and are to be sold by William Barley, at his shop in Gratious streete, 1594." 4. The Famous Victories of Henry the Fifth. Stationers' Regis- ters entry on May 14,1594. Printed by Thomas Creede in 1595. 5. lames the Fourth. Stationers' Registers entry on May 14, 1594. Printed by Thomas Creede in 1598. 6. The Pedler's Prophecie. Stationers' Registers entry on May 1.4,1594. This play was printed in 1595 by Thomas Creede to be sold by William Barley at his shop in Gratious streete. 7. Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay. This and the next four items were all entered in the Stationers' Register on May 14,1594, under the name Adam Islip, which is crossed out and re- placed by Edward White. 8. Daaid and Bathseba, by George Peele. This play was printed by Adam Islip in 1599. 9. Robin Hood and Little lohn, a lost play. '1.0. Leir, printed in 1505. '1,'1,. Menaechmi. Stationers' Registers entry: June L0, 1594. 1.60 e Louis UIe

This play was printed by Thomas Creede in L595 'to be sold by William Barley at his shop in Gratious streete.' 12. Richard the Third. Stationers' Registers entry on June 19, 1594 and printed by Thomas Creede in'1.594. 13. Locrine. Stationers' Registers entry on July 20,'1.594, to Thomas Creede. 'I-.4. Orlando Furioso. Stationers' Registry entry on December 7, 1.593. Printed in'1.594 by fohn Danter for Cuthbert Burbie.

Of these fourteen plays, seven are known to have been acted by the Queen's company, namely: Selimus, the Famous Victories of Henry the Fifth, the Pedler's Prophecie (because the most likely author is Robert Wilsory playwright and actor for the Queen's company), Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay, Leir, the Trngedie of Richard the lll, and Orlando Furioso. On May 8,1594, the pawnbroker Philip Henslowe recorded in his diary that he lent his nephew Francis Henslowe L5 pounds "to lay down for his share to the Queen's players when they broke and went into the country to play." Thus Shakespeare was only one of several bidders, including Fran- cis Henslowe, who bought out the Queen's men stock of play- ing apparel and playbooks. This is supported by the fact that one of the plays was later published under his initials, namely Locrine, and that Louine, Selimus, andlames theFourth, all plays by Robert Greene, have comic additions which are the work of a single hand. Thus, whether Shakespeare acquired or had merely retained ownership of these plays, he embellished them with his own material before selling them to the print- ers. After the publication of Venus and Adonis under his name tn'J594, Shakespeare was under pressure to write and publish more of the same. He had on hand a stock of poems and plays, his own property, many of whose authors he no longer remembered. Having added his own material to the plays of Greene, he published two of them immediately: Looking Glass an . Selimus. Lodge was still alive, so Looking Glass was pub- lished with Lodge and Greene as authors. Selimus, a play by Robert Greene with comic additions by Shakespeare, was published anonymously.lames the Fourth, one of Greene's bet- ter plays, with comical interpolations by Shakespeare, was published much later, in 159& with fulIcredit to Greene and none to Shakespeare. Louine, also a play by Greene, but to which Shakespeare added very considerable material, making Christopher Marlowe (1564-1 607 ) g 161 it practically two plays in one, was published in 1595 without credit to Greene, but with Shakespeare's initials W.S. Few playgoers would recognize Selimus as a play by Robert Greene, but recognize at once that Bullithrumble was a char- acter created by William Shakespeare. Only a close associate of Greene, most likely Nashe, familiar with his writings, would have suspected the truth and objected that

Greene, gave the ground, to all who wrote upon him, Nay more. The men that so eclipsed his fame, Purloined his plumes. Can they deny the same?

It is in the play Selimus that we come uPon the first clear addition or interpolation to a play by Robert Greene' Immedi- ately after the climax in this "most lamentable history", whgn Selimus has poisoned his father, the king, a clown by the name of Bullithrumble makes his entry. The interpolated scene follows.

Enter Bullithrumble, the shepherd running in haste, and laughing to himself.

Bulli, Ha, ha, ha married, quoth you? Marry, and Bul- lithrumble were to begin the world again,I would set a tap abroach and not live in daily fear of the breach of my wife's ten commandments. I'll you what, I thought myself as proper a fellow at wasters as any in all our village and yef when my wife begins to play clubs trump with me, I am fain to sing:

What hap had I to marry a shrew, For she hath given me many a blow, And how to please her, alas, I do not know. From morn to even her tongue ne'er lies, Sometime she laughs, sometime she cries; And I can scarce keep her talons from my eyes. When from abroad I do come iry "Sir knave," she cries, "where have you been?" Thus please or displease, she lays it on my skin. Then do I crouch, then do I kneel, And wish my cap were furred with steel, To bear the blows that my poor head doth fell.'. 162 g Louis Ule

I'll tell you what. This morning, while I was making me rcady, she came with a holly wand and so blest my shoulders that I was fain to run through a whole Alphabet of faces! Now, at the last, seeing she was so cramuk with me, I began to swear all the criss-cross row over, beginning at Great A, little a, till I came to w, x, y. And, snatching up my sheephook and my bottle and my bag like a desperate fellow ran away, and here now I'll sit down and eat my meat.

There is more of the same. The source for the character Bullithrumble may have been one of Shakespeare's own pup- pets. Alden Brooks constmes the word thrumble to mean to heap up gain. Bully means darling. Bullithrumble is an ap- pealing combination of cupidity, good nature'and resource- fulness, ever ready with a song and a line of humorous patter, an ideal character for a ventriloquisfs dummy. In poring over Shakespeare's contributions to Greene's plays, one may discover distinguishing traits of Shakespeare's work. Shakespeare, in his portions, uses rather full stage di- rections in contrast to mere cues used by other dramatists. Much of Shakespeare's material appears to be autobiographi- cal. A man, whose wife a few years before had presented him with a pair of twins, could well boast, as does Bullithrumble, that he had seventeen cradles rocking. Shakespearg who at eighteen had married a much older woman with clild, could well repent:"Ha, ha ha married, quoth you? Marry and Bul- lithrumble were to begrn the world again, I would set a tap abroach and not live in daily fear of the breach of my wives ten commandments [finger nails]." Bullithrumble reminds us also of the host of the Garter in the play Merry Wiaes of Windsor who is so fond of the word bully, saying bully-rook, bully Hercules, bully Hector, bully stale, bully hght, and bully Sir ]ohn. And when Bullithrum- ble says: "...a society of puddings, did you mark that well used metaphor7..." it sounds like the host of the Garter Inn saying: "I will entertain Bardolph; he shall draw, he shall tap. Said I well, bully Hector?" and "My hand, bully; thou shalt have egress and regress;-said I well?" Greene's play Locrine was published as "Newly set forth, overseen and corrected by W.S." Baldwin Maxwell says of this play's title: Christopher Marlowe (L 564-L 607 ) g 16s

This title is repetitive and misleading and, despite its length, quite inadequate, making no reference to the events of the last two acts, which, in the play as in all earlier versions of the Locrine story, are recognized as the really eventful happenings in Locrine's reign: ...The latest event in the play referred to in the title is the defeat of the Huns, which takes place in Act III, while the death of Albanact, given surprising emphasis in the title, occurs well before the end of Act IL That so inapt and inadequate a title could have been prepared by the author of the play himself can be credible only if it were his original intentiorL perhaps soon abandoned, to present the story in two separate plays."

The additions to the play by William Shakespeare are con- siderable. Shakespeare adds four clowns and a female comic. These additions are woven into the play with some skill, an improvement over Fair Em. Following is a sample:

Enter Strumbo, aboae, in a gown with ink and paper in his hand, saying:

Strum. Either the four elements, the seven planets, and all the particular stars of the pole Antastick, are adversative against me, or else I was begotten and born in the wane of the MoorL when everything as Lactantius in his fourth book of Consultations do say, goeth asward. Ay, masters, ay, you may laugtu but I must weep. You may joy, but I must sorrow, shedding salt tears from the watery fountains of my most dainty fair eyes, along my comely and smooth cheeks, in as great plenty as the water runneth from the buckingtubs or red wine out of the hogsheads. For trust me, gentlemen and my very good friends, and so forth, the little god, nay, the desper- ate god Cuprit with one of his vengeable birdbolts, hath shot me unto the heel, so, not only, but also, (oh fine phrase), I burn, and I burn a, in love, in love, and in love a. Ah, Strumbo, what hast thou seen? Not Dina with the Ass Tom? Yea with these eyes thou hast seen her, and therefore pull them ou! for they will work thy bale. Ah, Strumbo, hast thou heard? Not the voice of the Nightingale, but a voice sweeter than hers. Ye+ with these ears thou hast heard it, and therefore cut them off, for they have caused thy sorrow. Nay, Stmmbo, kill thy- self, drown thyself, hang thyself, starve thyself! Oh, but then