Yesterday was a major day in British publishing - at least, as far as I am concerned. Troubador Publishing of Leicester, UK brought out my two latest novels: Who Really Wrote Shakespeare and Two Bullets in Sarajevo.
The Shakespeare book (ebook only for now) is a detective-style novel about how four English university academics set out on a self-imposed quest to see if the works we attribute to the Bard were really written by him. They sift through all the evidence and check out if Marlowe, the Lords of Oxford, Rutland or Derby wrote these works using Shakespeare, a known Elizabethan actor, as a pseudonym.
They also investigate if a woman, maybe even his wife, Anne Hathaway, had a hand, or were Macbeth, Hamlet and Twelfth Night etc. really written by a team of dramatists? Suitably enough, while spending a weekend at Stratford-upon-Avon at the end of their trail, our sleuths do arrive at a conclusion. However, I'm not going to tell you what it is here.
Two Bullets in Sarajevo tells the true story about one of the most important assassinations in history: the assassination of the Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife in Sarajevo in June 1914. According to many historians, this murderous action was the match that lit the conflagration of the First World War.
Sarajevo however is different from most WW1 novels. It concentrates on the personalities of Gavrilo Princip and his fellow assassins and the reasons why they carried out this dreadful deed. This novel also contains a love story - how the outwardly gruff and forbidding archduke fought against the rigid protocols of the Austrian court for six years in order to marry his beautiful wife-to-be, Sophie.
Both books are available as ebooks and Sarajevo is also in print format. (Troubador Publishing, UK ISBN: 978-1-78589-160-1)
Read and enjoy!
Today, Saturday April 23rd 2016 is the 400th
anniversary of the death of William
Shakespeare.
Today, St. George's Day, and also possibly Shakespeare's 52nd birthday (if he was indeed born on April 23 1564) is the 400th anniversary of the Bard's death. As with the rest of his biographical details, we know very little about the circumstances of his death. For example, what did he die of? who was present when it happened - his wife? his kids? his friends?
Holy Trinity Church, Stratford, by the Avon where WS was
baptised and later buried.
One oft-quoted version says that Shakespeare and his two fellow writers and friends, Michael Drayton and Ben Jonson "had a merry meeting and it seems drank too hard for Shakespeare died of a fever there contracted." However, even though this account was written by the local vicar and family friend, John Ward, it was written up fifty years after WS's demise.
Inside Holy Trinity Church. WS's grave is straight ahead, his
bust, high up on the left.
In contrast to this, a modern ocular surgeon says that if you study WS's left eye carefully in the iconic Droeshout portrait, you will see that WS died of a form of ocular cancer.
One of the most well-known aspects of Shakespeare's death is his will. We know he made changes to it in March 1616, one month earlier. According to Bill Bryson in Shakespeare, the Bard was not well at the time and the signatures that appear in the will were obviously written with a very shaky hand. Bryson adds that the will also shows signs of confusion.
WS grave next to those of his family
This is probably the most famous will ever written, especially as it includes the clause about his leaving his 'second best bed' to his wife, Anne Hathaway. This was not because he was particularly mean, but because the first best bed was the one reserved for visitors. The second best bed was the bed in which he and Anne enjoyed their hours of marital bliss. Clearly the second best bed would have meant more to her than the visitors' bed. (We hope).
Record of WS's death in Hoy Trinity Church
In addition, no books to be bequeathed are mentioned in this will. Those who claim that WS was not the author of Macbeth, Troilus and Cressida etc, happily point to this fact. However, it should be remembered that when WS wrote his will, books and similar chattels were not mentioned in will as specific items. They were all lumped together with other 'minor' household effects.
One of WS's shaky signatures on his will
Today, this will is stored in Britain's National Archives at Kew, London. However, as part of the memorial events about WS's death, the will is on public display at Somerset House, London until May 29th 2016 at a special exhibition at Somerset House, London.
Somesrset House poster
Shakespeare left 350 pounds (about 87,000+ pounds at today's value) and four houses and their contents and much land. His major bequests were to his sister and her children. He also left ten pounds (considered generous at the time) for the poor of Stratford-upon-Avon and twenty shillings to his godson and other amounts to friends. He left 26 shillings each to three fellow actors and friends: John Heminge, Henry Condell (the compilers of the First Folio) and Richard Burbage. They were instructed to use this money to make memorial rings. The remainder of his property Will willed (I couldn't resist that one) to his two daughters, Judith and Susanna, Susanna receiving the larger share.
Bloggist & writer David Lawrence-Young with friend at Somerset
House exhibition, February 2016
The full detailed list was probably destroyed fifty years later in the Great Fire of London, 1666.
Other people who were born or died on April 23rd
BORN
1775 J.M.W.Turner, artist
1791 James Buchanan, 15th US president
1891 Sergei Prokofiev, composer
1899 Vladimir Nabokov, writer
1928 Shirley Temple, actor
1936 Roy Orbison, pop-singer & writer
1940 Lee Majors, actor
DIED
1616 Miguel Cervantes, writer (on the same day that WS died!)
1850 William Wordsworth, poet
1915 Rupert Brooke, poet
1975 William Hartnell, first 'Dr. Who' actor
1986 Otto Preminger, film director& producer
1998 James Earl Ray, assassin of Martin Luther King
2005 John Mills, actor
WS by Picasso, 1964
Finally, I think it is right to allow Shakespeare himself to have a few words to say about death. Here is a list (not complete) about what he had to day about it.
Golden lads and girls must,
As chimney-sweepers, come to dust. (Cymbeline, IV.2)
The dread of something after death -
The undiscovered country from whose bourne
No traveller returns. (Hamlet III,1)
Death as the psalmist saith, is certain to all: all shall die.
(2 Henry IV. III,2)
Death, a necessary end,
Will come when it will come. (Julius Caesar, II,2)
He that cuts off twenty years of life
Cuts off so many years of fearing death. (Julius Caesar, III,1)
Cry woe, destruction, ruin and decay;
The worst is death, and death will have his day.
(Richard II, III,2)
He that dies pays all debts. (The Tempest, III,2)
Comments and reactions will be appreciated, either on Facebook or at: wsdavidyoung@gmail.com
Next time I will continue with my regular WS ABC blog.
ACTORS & ACTING
Some of WS's most memorable words are about actors and acting:
All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women are merely players:
They have their exits and their entrances;
And one man in his time plays many parts. (As You Like It II.7)
and
Speak the speech, I pray you, as I pronounced it to you,
trippingly on the tongue; but if you mouth it, as many of your players do, I had as lief the town-crier spoke my lines.
(Hamlet III.2)
and
Like a dull actor now
I have forgot my part and I am out,
Even to a full disgrace. (Coriolanus V.3)
and my favourite
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more. (Macbeth V.6)
A 1596 drawing of the Globe by Johannes de Witt.
As mentioned in the previous blog, acting was not a respected profession. All of the actors were male as women were not allowed on the stage. The actors fell into two groups: young boys before their voices broke played the female roles while the older men played the remaining parts. The boy actors were apprentices and were taught their craft by the older actors.
All the actors had to be very versatile. In several plays they might be called on to play a soldier at the beginning of a play or a lord or servant at the end.
Since actors were not deemed reputable (often seen by the authorities as vagabonds and crooks), they organised themselves into acting companies under the patronage of an aristocrat or even King James I. Some of the most well-known companies included the Admiral's Men who were the main rivals to Shakespeare's Company and the Lord Chamberlain's Men (later the King's Men). Edward Alleyn was the Admiral's Men's leading actor and Richard Burbage was his rival in the King's Men.
Other famous actors of the day included John Hemmings and Henry Condell (who later compiled the First Folio of WS's plays in 1623) Augustine Phillip, Richard Armin and Richard Crowley.
There were also several Children's companies of actors, such as, Children of the King's Revels, a short-lived company formed in c.1606. This company was formed by a syndicate which included the poet Michael Drayton. Another company was called Children of St. Paul's which was based at St. Paul's Cathedral Grammar School, while a third company was known as the Children of Windsor. In Hamlet (II.2) WS refers to these Children's companies when Hamlet asks:
What, are they children? Who maintains 'em?
How are they escoted {financially supported} Will they pursue the qualities no longer than they can sing? Will they not say afterwards, if they should grow themselves to common players...
The acting companies most important expense was the costumes. Costumes were known as 'apparel' and they were to be as magnificent as possible, especially for regal and aristocratic roles. Sometimes lords etc. donated their cast off clothes to the theatre where they would be lovingly looked after, repaired and stored by the 'tiremen' (attiremen).
Actors had to be able to think on their feet as they had little time to rehearse as the turnover of plays was extremely fast. The theatre manager, Philip Henslowe (acted by Philip Rush in Shakespeare in Love) noted that there would have been a new play almost every day and that he was producing up to 23 plays at any one time. A good actor would have to remember the lines of 20-30 plays.
A typical actor's day meant that he woke up at dawn, ate breakfast and went to the theatre. He would then have to learn any special scenes, e.g. fights and make sure he had all his props and his costume(s). Performances would take place at 2 o'clock in the afternoon, the best time to catch the daylight.
Then after the Grand Finale the actor would make sure he was ready for the next day's play and rehearse until the evening when it would become too dark to continue. Then he would retire with the rest of the company to a nearby tavern to drink and gossip and then to bed.
Actors were not given the full script but only their own specific parts and its cues. This was done in order to prevent the actors selling the plays to a rival company. Actors also went on tours around the provinces. This was especially so when the plague hit London, as it did several times during Shakespeare's time and the authorities ordered the theatres to be closed.
In the next blog, I will deal with the play "All's Well That Ends Well." Comments appreciated on this and any other blog at:
wsdavidyoung@gmail.com
Actors in the Elizabethan theatre were not well-paid and neither were they members of a respected profession. It was no coincidence that the 'Globe' and 'Rose' theatres were situated on the south bank of the River Thames near the "dodgy" areas of Elizabethan London, areas beyond the juristdiction of the City fathers. Actors were seen by the authorities as vagrants and troublemakers. Young Thomas Elizabethan did not come home and proudly tell his parents that he wished to become an actor. That is, not if he wanted to receive a thick ear from his irate father, or worse still, a thrashing.
Document proving that Shakespeare was himself an actor
Because of the sordid reputation (earned or not) that actors had, women were not allowed to appear on the stage until after the Restoration in 1660 when Charles II had returned to England after his European exile. This meant that the women's parts were played by young boys whose voices hadn't yet broken. Once this had happened, these young actors then played male parts or left the stage.
Document showing that Shakespeare was on the theatre's payroll as a dramatist
These young boy actors had to be very talented if they were to play such taxing roles as Lady Macbeth or major speaking roles as Cleopatra or Rosalind in As You Like It. This last role must have been extremely difficult for the boy chosen to play it. He had to play a woman, Rosalind, who disguises herself as a man, Ganymede. Ganymede then has to help Orlando (the man Rosalind is really in love with) practise his wooing techniques by pretending that he, Ganymede, is Rosalind. In short, the boy playing Rosalind has to pretend to be a man playing at being a woman.
In the 16th century, actors travelled from town to town looking for audiences to pay them and suitable places where they could put on their plays. There were no permanent purpose built theatres. It is possible that the arriving in Stratford-upon-Avon of a travelling acting company was the spark that lit WS's interest in the theatre.
Actors in a swordfight,. The (pig or sheep's) blood is in a small sack inside the actor-victim's shirt ready to be punctured.
Shakespeare's 'Globe' (Shakespeare's because he was one of the theatre's shareholders) was built in 1598/99 and Philip Henslowe's nearby 'Rose' theatre came into existence ten years earlier. James Burbage's 'Theatre' near Shoreditch was built in 1576 and its nearby rival, Henry Laneman's 'Curtain' was established the same year.
Picture showing how a decapitated head was shown on stage. Naturally the table would be covered to hide this theatrical trick.
The plays, which were usually shown at two o'clock in the afternoon were often crude and violent and the acting companies had to compete with other violent forms of entertainment such as bear-baiting. The 'Globe' and the 'Rose' were situated very near the bear-pit on the south bank.
The most famous and well-loved Elizabethan actor was Richard Tarlton. He was a member of the Queen's Men company and even wrote plays himself. He played in an early non-Shakespearean version of Henry V and also played the original Yorick in Hamlet. It was said that he had only to appear on the stage and not say or do anything to make the whole audience burst out into noisy applause.
Richard Tarlton
Edward Alleyn was another well-known actor who became so popular and rich that towards the end of his life he founded Dulwich College in south London. At some point later in his acting career he had a major dispute with Shakespeare's acting company. As a result he left to work in the rival Admiral's company based at the 'Rose' theatre.
Edward Alleyn
Another famous actor was William Kempe. He was one of the twenty-six 'Principall Actors' in WS's plays and like Tarlton also had a hand in writing plays as well, probably with another dramatist. From contemporary documents, we know that Kempe played Dogberry in Much Ado About Nothing and Peter in Romeo and Juliet. At one point he left England, but returned in 1601 after acting in Italy and Germany. One of his most famous feats was to dance all the way from Norwich to London.
William Kempe dancing, accompanied by drum and fife
The third most famous, but serious actor actor was WS's friend, Richard Burbage. Like Kempe, he was one of the original twenty-six 'Principall Actors' and he was the son of James Burbage, the owner-builder of the 'Theatre' near Shoreditch. It is said that WS had Richard Burbage in mind when he wrote the parts for Malvolio in Twelfth Night, Richard III, Hamlet, Othello and King Lear.
Richard Burbage
A popular story about Richard Burbage and WS says that one night Burbage saw WS leaving a young lady's house, a lady who Burbage himself was interested in. When Burbage accosted WS, the latter replied, "Don't you know your history? William (the Conqueror) comes before Richard (III)."
If the Daily Mail, The Sun or Newsday had existed in the days of yore, the headline would probably have read something like this:
Caesar's Successor Loses All for Love of
Egyptian Queen Who Commits Suicide.
Queen Cleopatra's body found with asp in bra.
The story so far:
Mark Antony, Caesar's successor is out to expand the Roman Empire when he is ensnared by the beauty of Cleopatra, the Queen of Egypt. He waits around in Egypt until he is recalled to Rome by the threat of civil war and the death of his abandoned wife, Fulvia. His quarrel with Octavius Caesar is patched up by Antony marrying Octavia's sister, Octavia. Peace is made with Pompey, a Roman rebel, but then Octavius reneges on the deal and attacks Pompey.
Liz Taylor and Richard Burton in the 1963 epic film
Antony, who has returned to Cleopatra in the meanwhile, prepares to fight at the battle of Actium where he is defeated. Deserted by his best friend, Enobarbus and hearing of a false report of Cleopatra's death, Antony stabs himself. His wounded body is brought to Cleopatra and he dies in her arms. To avoid the shame of defeat and being publicly displayed as a prominent prisoner-of-war, Cleopatra commits suicide by causing herself to be bitten by a poisonous snake.
Cleopatra at the Battle of Actium
Antony and Cleopatra was probably written in 1606-7. WS's major source was Plutarch's Lives which had been translated into English by Sir Thomas North in 1579. The original story spanned several decades so WS, as usual compacted various scenes and events to fit into his play.
The play generally sticks closely to North's translation, but Enobarbus and Cleopatra's attendants are figments of WS's imagination. This play may be seen as an historical continuation of Julius Caesar, the action happening soon after the Roman leader's assassination.
This play is the last of WS's tragedies and its most famous lines include:
"My salad days,
When I was green in judgement."
and
"Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale
Her infinite variety."
"WORDS, WORDS, WORDS"
In addition, Cleopatra is the second 'wordiest' female character in WS's plays. She speaks 622 lines as opposed to Rosalind in As You Like It who speaks 668. Cleopatra's lover, Antony, is also a wordy character and speaks 766 lines.
Cleopatra's role is so exciting and demanding, perhaps even more so than Lady Macbeth and Desdemona, that many actresses have turned it down. The great tragedienne, Sarah Siddons (1755-1831) refused to play this part, saying she would hate herself if she didn't play it "as it ought to be played."
Finally, let a famous writer and an actors have the last word:
Agatha Christie:
To me, Cleopatra has always been an interesting problem. Is 'Antony and Cleopatra a great love story? I do not think so."
Sir Laurence Olivier:
I never really thought a lot about Antony - as a person, that is, I mean, really, he's an absolute twerp, isn't he?
&&&&&&&&&&
Next entry in the Shakespeare ABC: Actors (Elizabethan).
For comments, please write to: wsdavidyoung@gmail.com or on Facebook. Thank you.
Ariel - a "tricksy, delicate and dainty" spirit who, in The Tempest, is tied to the magician, Prospero, though the latter's magical powers.
In the play, Ariel has been confined in a cloven pine for twelve years by Sycorax the witch. The spirit directs a masque of other spirits for Miranda (Prospero's daughter and the name of my old Mitsubishi) and her lover, Ferdinand. Ariel also baits Trinculo, Stephano and Caliban, a savage and deformed slave, and sets spiritual hounds on them.
As Ariel helps Prospero on with his ducal robes, he sings the famous song, Where the bee sucks" in anticipation of his freedom. He also awakes the ship's crew from their entranced sleep and leads them to Prospero's cell. Finally, before being 'released to the elements,' he ensures a calm homeward journey.
Critics have associated the ethereal Ariel with the element, Air, and Caliban with the Earth. He can do everything:
To swim, to dive into the fire: to ride
On the curl'd clouds...(Act I, sc. ii)
The Tempest which was probably WS's penultimate play written in 1610-1611. It also contains WS's 'retirement speech' - "Now my charms are all o'erthrown."
According to Jerry Brotton in the BBC History Magazine (April 2016), the play contains several 'colonial elements which may have been connected with the English fleet being shipwrecked in Bermuda on their way to the new American colony in Jamestown, Virginia.
In 1613, this play was performed in front of King James I, a keen lover of the theatre in connection with his daughter's marriage to Frederick, the Elector of Hanover. This may explain the line when Prospero calls for a "contract of true love to celebrate" the forthcoming nuptials.
Another perhaps less well-known use of the name. Ariel, was for a heavy British motor-bike, the Ariel Square Four. This classic machine was made in Birmingham from 1931-1959 and its 1000 cc engine produced 40 bhp at 5,800 rpm.Unfortunately, due to competition from faster and lighter Japanese bikes and problems with its engine overheating, the Ariel became a historical artefact.
