Table of Contents
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. Nicholls 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 dramatists work and world by looking at the people around him. [Nicholls] 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
Nicholls 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 Shakespeares life on Silver Street, the squalid underworld of medieval London. Taverns that double as brothels, cantankerous pimps, ambitious prostitutes, famed quacksits all here.... It is thrilling, and also revealing, to brush through Charles Nicholls expert reconstruction of the one time that the Bards words were actually reported.Vikram Johri, St. Petersburg Times
William Shakespeare with underpropper (see Chapter 17)
In memory of
Jan Farrell
and
Mary Ensor
Every contact leaves traces...
Edmond Locard, Manuel de Technique Policire, 1923
List of Illustrations
Frontispiece. Engraved portrait of Shakespeare by Martin Droeshout (second state). Title-page illustration from Mr William Shakepeares Comedies, Histories & Tragedies [the First Folio], 1623.
Map. The Agas map of London, c. 1561. Copyright Guildhall Library, London.
1. Shakespeares deposition at the Court of Requests, 11 May 1612 (PRO REQ 4/1/4). Copyright The National Archives.
2. Jacobean law-court. Seventeenth-century woodcut reproduced in The Roxburghe Ballads, ed. William Chappell and J. W. Ebsworth (The Ballad Society, 1871-91).
3. Witness-list for the Belott-Mountjoy suit, May 1612 (PRO REQ 1/199). Copyright The National Archives.
4. Signatures of Daniel Nicholas, William Eaton, Noel Mountjoy and Humphrey Fludd, May-June 1612 (PRO REQ 4/1/4). Copyright The National Archives.
5. The Wallaces at the Record Office, c. 1909. Papers of Charles William Wallace, Huntington Library, San Marino, Calif. (Box 15 B 37).
6. Detail from the Agas map, c. 1561. Copyright Guildhall Library, London.
7. The Coopers Arms, Silver Street, c. 1910. From Harpers Monthly Magazine, Vol. 120, March 1910. Photo: Huntington Library, San Marino, Calif.
8. St Giles, Cripplegate, after the bombs, 1941. Pen, ink and wash drawing by Dennis Flanders. Guildhall Library Print Room, Flanders Collection (258/GIL Q4768985). Copyright Estate of the artist.
9. Plaque on the site of St Olaves, Silver Street. Photo: the author.
10. John Banister at Barber-Surgeons Hall, 1580. Glasgow University Library (Hunter MS 364 Top v 14, fol. 59). Photo: The Bridgeman Art Library.
11. Title-page illustration from Thomas Dekker, Dekker his Dreame (1620).
12. Le Cousturier by Jean LeClerc, c. 1600. Bibliothque Nationale, Paris. Photo: Archives Charmet/The Bridgeman Art Library.
13. Extract from the subsidy roll for Aldersgate ward, 1582 (PRO E179/251/16, fol. 24). Copyright The National Archives.
14. Mrs Monjoyes childe. Burial register of St Olaves, Silver Street, 27 February 1596. Guildhall Library (MS 6534, fol. 106). Copyright Guildhall Library, London.
15. Marie Mountjoy visits Simon Forman, 22 November 1597 (Bodleian, Ashmole MS 226, fol. 254v). Copyright Bodleian Library, University of Oxford.
16. Engraved portrait of Simon Forman, eighteenth century. Photo: Smithsonian Institution Library, Washington DC.
17. Henry Wood visits Forman, 20 March 1598 (Bodleian, Ashmole MS 195, fol. 15V). Copyright Bodleian Library, University of Oxford.
18. Marie Mountjoy and Madam Kitson in Formans casebook, c. January 1598 (Bodleian, Ashmole MS 226, fol. 310V). Copyright Bodleian Library, University of Oxford.
19. A woman visiting an astrologer. Seventeenth-century woodcut reproduced in The Roxburghe Ballads, ed. William Chappell and J. W. Ebsworth (The Ballad Society, 1871-91).
20. An unknown woman in a ballet costume, c. 1580, French school (Chateaux de Versailles et de Trianon). Copyright Photo RMN-Franck Raux.
21. A lady (perhaps Lucy Harington, Countess of Bedford) costumed as a Power of Juno, attributed to John de Critz the elder, c. 1606. Woburn Abbey. By kind permission of His Grace the Duke of Bedford and the Trustees of the Bedford Estates.
22. A scene from Titus Andronicus by Henry Peacham, c. 1594. Longleat House, Warminster, Wilts (Portland Papers 1, fol. 159V). By kind permission of the Marquess of Bath.
23. Extract from Queen Annes household accounts, 1604-5 (PRO SC 6/JAS1/1646, fol. 29r). Copyright The National Archives.
24. Detail from a portrait of Queen Anne by Marcus Gheeraerts the younger, c. 1605-10. Woburn Abbey. By kind permission of His Grace the Duke of Bedford and the Trustees of the Bedford Estates.
25. Signature of George Wilkins, 19 June 1612 (PRO REQ 4/1/4). Copyright The National Archives.
