Charles nicholl the lodger shakespeare his li eet (v5 0)

Table of Contents penguin books Title Page Copyright Page Dedication List of Illustrations Preface PART ONE - ‘One Mr Shakespeare’ Chapter - The deposition Chapter - Turning forty Chapter - Sugar and gall Chapter - Shakespeare in London PART TWO - Silver Street Chapter - The house on the corner Chapter - The neighbourhood Chapter - ‘Houshould stuffe’ Chapter - The chamber PART THREE - The Mountjoys Chapter - Early years Chapter 10 - St Martin le Grand Chapter 11 - Success and danger Chapter 12 - Dr Forman’s casebook Chapter 13 - The me’nage PART FOUR - Tiremaking Chapter 14 - Tires and wigs Chapter 15 - The ‘tire-valiant’ Chapter 16 - In the workshop Chapter 17 - The underpropper PART FIVE - Among Strangers Chapter 18 - Blackfriars and Navarre Chapter 19 - Shakespeare’s aliens Chapter 20 - Dark ladies PART SIX - Sex & the City Chapter 21 - Enter George Wilkins Chapter 22 - The Miseries Chapter 23 - Prostitutes and players Chapter 24 - Customer satisfaction Chapter 25 - To Brainforde Chapter 26 - ‘At his game’ PART SEVEN - Making Sure Chapter 27 - A handfasting Chapter 28 - ‘They have married me!’ Chapter 29 - Losing a daughter Epilogue Appendix: - The Belott-Mountjoy Papers Notes Sources Index FOR MORE FROM CHARLES NICHOLL, LOOK FOR THE penguin books THE LODGER SHAKESPEARE Charles Nicholl is a historian, biographer, and travel writer His books include The Reckoning (winner of the James Tait Black Prize for biography and the Crime Writers’ Association Gold Dagger Award for nonfiction), A Cup of News: The Life of Thomas Nashe, Shakespeare and His Contemporaries (National Portrait Gallery Insights series), and Somebody Else: Arthur Rimbaud in Africa (winner of the Hawthornden Prize) His most recent book was the acclaimed biography Leonardo da Vinci: Flights of the Mind, which has been published in seventeen languages Praise for The Lodger Shakespeare “Mr Nicholl’s efforts [bear] delicious fruit The Lodger Shakespeare opens a window onto Jacobean London and the swirl of sights and sensations that surrounded Shakespeare and inevitably found their way into his plays From a mere handful of dry facts embedded in an obscure lawsuit, Mr Nicholl brings forth a gaudy, tumultuous, richly imagined world.”—William Grimes, The New York Times “[An] entertaining biographical study of Shakespeare Through imaginative use of primary source material, [Nicholl] culls the ‘secret flavours of particularity’ that distinguished a corner of London at the turn of the seventeenth century With lively readings of the plays and a nuanced portrait of their author, he capably captures ‘the simmering randiness of the age.’”—The New Yorker “The Lodger Shakespeare enhances our sense of a great dramatist’s work and world by looking at the people around him [Nicholl’s] prose moves steadily along, eschews gush, jargon and digression, and generally inspires confidence This is the voice of a man who knows his stuff A pro.” —Michael Dirda, The Washington Post “Nicholl’s narrative technique is one of exhaustive research and elegant prose; [his] take is quietly pioneering: a new lens and an unaired episode But beyond a claim to academic innovation, The Lodger Shakespeare is a brave and spotless statement on how we view W.S., and the subject of those we deem ‘great.’”—Dan Fall, The Brooklyn Rail “Nicholl takes us into Shakespeare’s life on Silver Street, the squalid underworld of medieval London Taverns that double as brothels, cantankerous pimps, ambitious prostitutes, famed quacks— it’s all here It is thrilling, and also revealing, to brush through Charles Nicholl’s expert reconstruction of the one time that the Bard’s words were actually reported.”—Vikram Johri, St Petersburg Times William Shakespeare with underpropper (see Chapter 17) 13 Subsidy roll for Aldersgate ward, 1582, listing Christopher ‘Mongey’ and his wife as tax-payers 14 ‘Mrs Monjoyes childe’ Burial entry in the St Olave’s register, 27 February 1596 15 Marie Mountjoy consults Dr Forman about missing valuables, 22 November 1597 16 Simon Forman, astrologer, physician and serial seducer 17 Henry Wood asks Forman about ‘Mari M’, 20 March 1598 18 Marie and ‘Madam Kitson’ in a jotting by Forman, c January 1598 19 A woman visiting an astrologer, from a seventeenth-century woodcut 20 A French dancer of c 1580, wearing a head-tire of the sort made by the Mountjoys 21 A lady (perhaps Lucy Harington, Countess of Bedford) costumed for the masque Hymenaei, 1606 22 Theatrical headwear in Henry Peacham’s sketch of a scene from Titus Andronicus, c 1594 23 Payments to ‘Marie Mountjoy Tyrewoman’ in Queen Anne’s household accounts, 1604-5 24 Queen Anne by Marcus Gheeraerts the Younger, c 1605-10 25 Signature of George Wilkins 26 First edition of Wilkins’s Miseries, performed by the King’s Men in c 1606 27 ‘A punk after supper’ Customers eating in a Jacobean brothel 28 The famous Southwark brothel called Holland’s Leaguer, in a woodcut of 1632 29 Tire-wearing courtesan from a painting by Isaac Oliver, c 1590-95 30 A wherry on the Thames near London Bridge, 1614 These water-taxis took playgoers across to the Globe and adulterers upriver to Brentford 31 The Three Pigeons at Brentford, owned by Shakespeare’s colleague John Lowin, seen here in a nineteenth-century engraving 32 A handfasting Detail from Gerrit van Honthorst’s Supper with Betrothal, c 1625 33 Wedding of Stephen and Mary at St Olave’s, 19 November 1604 34 Burial of Marie Mountjoy at St Olave’s, 30 October 1606 35 Register copy of Christopher Mountjoy’s will, 26 January 1620 36 Burial of Christopher Mountjoy at St Giles, Cripplegate, 29 March 1620 a All depositions and other documents in the Belott-Mountjoy suit are fully transcribed in the Appendix Quotations from them in the text are sometimes pruned of repetitious legalisms b In Nicholas’s second deposition (19 June) these computations are, more plausibly, given the other way round c In the margin beside Interrogatories 3, and are written the names, respectively, of Humphrey Fludd, William Shakespeare and George Wilkins They were expected to testify on these particular questions - but Shakespeare did not appear at the second session Interrogatory has phrasings attributed to Shakespeare by Daniel Nicholas d This entry is written in what Wallace calls a ‘flourished court-hand of Gothic-Roman very difficult to read’ I have followed his transcription and given a rather speculative translation ... MORE FROM CHARLES NICHOLL, LOOK FOR THE penguin books THE LODGER SHAKESPEARE Charles Nicholl is a historian, biographer, and travel writer His books include The Reckoning (winner of the James... But another witness in the case implies that Shakespeare s role went further than this He says the couple was ‘made sure by Mr Shakespeare , and speaks of them ‘giving each other’s hand to the hand’... Street, in Cripplegate, close to the north-west corner of the city walls This is the setting of the story which unfolds in the court proceedings - a story which involves William Shakespeare The