Shakespeare

Stratford-Upon-Avon in William’s Time

In the sixteenth century Stratford was a small town of about 3,000-5,000 people, nestled in a curve of the Avon river in Warwickshire. Most of its citizens earned their living farming or by supplying farmers with the goods they needed. It was essentially a market town, where milkmaids, shepherds and farmers came to sell their goods, or spend a few coins.
The river Avon ran through the outskirts of the town, spanned by the Clopton bridge which had been built by Sir Hugh Clopton. He had been one of Stratford’s famous sons, who had become Lord Mayor of London in 1491.
The town was run by essentially as its own corporation headed by the town council. The council was made of fourteen burgesses, William’s father became one in 1560. It was a position of some responsibility in the town. They met daily, and had many important tasks. They heard petitions, made sure the streets were kept clear, and insured that weights and measures were accurate. The council also kept an eagle eye on the weights and measures, and ensured that everyone paid their dues. One of John Shakespeare’s first jobs was as official beer taster!

Will’s Parents and Ancestors

John Shakespeare (????- 1601) was the child of yeoman farmers. He moved into Stratford proper to earn his living as a glover. This meant he was skilled in both leatherworking and whittawering. The latter was the smelly business of curing and processing fine leather to make the elegant ladies gloves and purses. He did however have other business interests. He seems to have traded in wool and other general farm products. He bought a house in Henley Street, which was conveniently near the market and it was probable that the shop was attached as this, as was the usual practice. His rise in fortune was rapid for by 1557 he had purchased the neighbouring house and garden as well.
John’s success was complete when he reached the position of burgess at a surprisingly young age. But by 1576, when his son William was about 14, John’s fortunes took an unfortunate turn. No one is exactly sure of the nature of this financial crisis, but he was certainly not the only one. The number of poor in Warwickshire at the time was nearly half the population. In any event he was forced to sell or mortgage the land that both he and his wife Mary had inherited. It was only the success of his son in London that allowed him to recover some of the standing he had enjoyed in his earlier days.

England in the Renaissance

Some very interesting snippets that may make you look at William a little differently.
Even domestic travel was exceedingly difficult. Each village had a responsibility to look after its own poor, and were exceedingly unhappy to pick up any vagrants from the road. So in order to travel you need money AND a license. Actual laws existed against those who had no good reason to travel.
Travelling to other countries meant getting permission from the monarch to do so.
Women on the whole wore no undergarments- but men did! It was thought in women it would incite fire in the loins.
Quite frankly it stank! Not only was bathing infrequent, clothes were seldom cleaned, but men urinating in the corner of a room or in a chimney hardly rare. Then there was the fact that most houses had a refuse heap building up outside, and its probably best not to even think how London smelt. No wonder heavy perfumes were the order of the day!
The water was dangerous to drink at the best of times- so ale or wine (depending on your class) was the safest option. It was drunk right from breakfast, so in fact our ancestors were probably slightly tipsy more often than not.
Getting sick (which probably happened quite often) was a bad idea. For example the cure for asthma was to drink wine in which woodlice had been seeped..
Another thing to avoid was getting into trouble. Not only was capital punishment meted out for murder, but also (in a variety of ways) for stealing. In 1590, with a population of only 5 million, England had 800 hangings.
So you can see that William lived in far more violent, dangerous times than you might think. And not having the benefit of class when he first started off, it was surprising he survived to write anything at all…

Childhood

William Shakespeare was baptised on the 26th April 1564, and as it was the custom for children to be taken to the church for this only a few days after birth, April 23rd has been traditionally held as his actual birthday. It also fits rather nicely for an English bard to be born on St. George’s Day.
His father, as a rising star in Stratford was probably all to concerned to see his son educated well. In the 1560s Stratford’s town council had appointed a school master to the King’s new School. A boy’s education probably began at about 5. Latin was still very important to learn, and they would have studied the classics such as Ovid and Cisero, all by rote learning of course, and from there moving onto their own translations. Perhaps the young Shakespeare harboured dreams of going onto university- but all that was denied him, when his father fell on hard times, and he undoubtedly had to leave off his education.

Making it in the Big Smoke

Whatever occupied Will’s time in Stratford, it is likely that this time cannot have been easy for him. His writing talents would hardly have proven useful in a small town, and perhaps the dip in the family fortunes, gave him pause to consider other avenues.
Travelling players must have seemed to have been sent by heaven. Each year bought troupes of players to Stratford. Dressed in the livery of the nobleman that patronised them, but none the less reliant totally on what they could make from their shows, these troupes performed where ever they could find an audience: at the great country houses of the rich, or at the humble village festival. Will must have certainly worried at this enormous leap into the unknown, but took an opportunity when it was presented. In the 1580s four companies alone were recorded as having played in Stratford. Will could of course have travelled to London himself, but this was by far the safer option.
London in Shakespeare’s time was the fastest growing city in Europe, a hustling bustling centre where the playhouses were one of the many attractions. And Will became one of its success stories. Whenever he arrived there, he was by 1592 enough of a success to attract the notice of Robert Greene in his infamous pamphlet, where he attacked Will as ‘an upstart crow’. So within a mere four or five years, from the birth of his twins, the bard had made his mark. Those intervening years can’t have been easy. Low on funds, practically all of his earnings as a player must have gone into paper- which was hideously expensive, and there was always the constant threat of the closure of the theatres. But since Queen Elizabeth was a great fan of their productions, they were mostly secure. The only real disruptions happened during major outbreaks of the plague. This was when the players once more would take to the road- or perhaps William was able to get back to Stratford and his family.
Much has been made of the small size of Will’s family, only three children in the Renaissance period was almost ridiculous when infant mortality was so high. Indeed William’s son Hamnet was not to survive into his teens. William and Anne may not have had a passion filled marriage, but they both stuck by each other. He made her one of the most respected women in Stratford, and she managed his interests ably.
In any case by 1593 Will’s reputation had increased with the publication of his long poem Venus and Adonis- every gallant or would be gallant devoured it. It was imitated and quoted, and had run into sixteen editions by 1640.
William had also secured himself a wealthy patron. Henry Wriothesley, Earl of Southampton was the epitome of spoiled aristocracy. He duelled, gambled, rebelled and seduced one of the Queen’s ladies. He along with the infamous Dark Lady became the subject of many of William’s poems.
Shakespeare meanwhile set to writing and performing for The Chamberlain’s Men. This company, along with the competing Admiral’s Men, was set up in 1592. The Chamberlain’s Men had John Burbage as backer, a theatre in Shoreditch, and of course their greatest asset- Will’s writing. The system by which it ran was remarkably modern. Eight sharers, invested and took part shares in the profits. Obviously it was a system that was efficient and flexible as the company grew and succeeded for the next forty eight years.
The founding members were the Burbages (father/actor, son/actor), Shakespeare (actor/playwright), Bryan (actor), Heminges (actor/financial manager), Kemp (actor/clown), Philips (musician), Pope(actor/clown) and Sly (actor).
They were destined for success, but by 1596 the theatre they were in was about to lose its lease. They shifted to Blackfriars theatre, but the residents complained about the disturbance, and had the players banned! This would have been an utter disaster for the Company- had it not been for a bold, and incidentally illegal move. On 28 December 1598, while the rest of the city was cold and enmeshed in the festive season, the Burbages ordered workmen to ‘reappropriate’ the Shoreditch theatres timbers and move them across the river for their new construction. This was technically theft from the owners- but the Company was desperate.
However even after this act of crime, the players did not have enough ready cash to furnish their theatre- four of the sharers in the company agreed to put up the money and thus each owned a portion of what was to become a VERY successful playhouse.
Will now had a finger in many financial pies- and it would pay off very nicely for him. Shakespeare was not, unlike many other artistic types, to end his days in poverty.
The theatre was named ‘the Globe’. It was large enough to hold three thousand, and a much better size for the actors too. Props were not so nearly restricted, and Will’s plays were now written to make the most of this benefits.
It must have been a good time for our hero, full of both pressure and excitement, when all the world seemed ripe and ready for the taking. His company were rich and popular. Will’s younger brother Edmund followed him to London and pursued his own career as a player. Tragically he died in 1607 at the age of 27.
Of course previous to this was a death that affected Will’s, and every other English person’s life. Queen Elizabeth relinquished her grip on life and rule in 1602. The Tudor age had ended, and the Stuart under James I had begun. James was a different man, obsessed with the perceived horror of witchcraft, Will wrote Macbeth to pander to those tastes.. plus James was descended from Malcolm- the ‘true’ king. It was the beginning of his cluster of great tragedies, which still touch us with their insight into the human psyche.
Shakespeare must have been working hard, day and night, as actor, playwright and shareholder. From 1600-1609 just look at what he wrote Hamlet, Twelfth Night, Othello, King Lear, Measure for Measure, All’s Well that End’s Well, Timon of Athens, and MacBeth. Hamlet alone would have immortalised him, but the shear quality AND volume of his work sets him apart. Hard to imagine that he ever suffered from writers block! And he also seems to have acted in many of them as well, mainly now in the kingly roles- like Hamlet’s father.
In 1608, the shareholders finally got their hands back on the Blackfriars playhouse, and then the success must have seemed even greater. Now they had TWO playhouses to fill. They could now play in the open air Globe in summer and the Blackfriars over winter. Blackfriars was also more attractive to the fashionable rich, rather than the more cosmopolitan clientele of the Globe.
Shakespeare wrote one play specifically for the new theatre. The Tempest takes advantage of the Blackfriars consort of musicians, and the more elaborate stage areas. It was also probably written from his semi-retirement in Stratford. In 1613, Will probably ended his career and life in London, when the Globe was burnt down. During Henry VIII a canonshot set the theatre’s thatched roof alight. Although the second Globe was rebuilt in 1614 its doubtful Will returned to it.

Bowing Out

Playwrights roles had changed, now there was a need to seek royal patronage, but not for our hero. Will had made enough money to be able to retire to Stratford, where he had a significant amount of property. His eldest daughter, Susanna had married well to a local physician John Hall, and had given Will a little granddaughter. His younger daughter Judith married a slightly disreputable local wine seller.
Shakespeare was sick for most of the winter of 1615/1616, and died on 16 April 1616. But none of his line survived outside of the seventeenth century. With the death of his granddaughter Elizabeth, his direct descendants were all gone. But of course he left more to us than we can ever truly appreciate. His depth of understanding of the human spirit transcends time.