This year the Shakespeare session in April was well-attended on Zoom and featured readings from the Plays, the Sonnets, and one of his long poems, The Rape of Lucrece. In addition, we had two gifted singers, Thommo and Geetha, who gave a beautiful rendition of Sonnet 31, which was recorded and is included in this blog. This session was a lovely bouquet for William Shakespeare on his 457th birthday.
William Shakespeare’s statue on Henley Street, Stratford-upon-Avon
In the past year we have come across new discoveries about Shakespeare which are worth setting down. The Shakespeare grave effigy by Nicholas Johnson in Holy Trinity church in Stratford-upon-Avon is now believed to be a definitive likeness, commissioned by WS during his lifetime. The evidence gathered by Prof. Lena Cowen Orlin, professor of English at Georgetown University buttresses this. See:
Did you know that William Shakespeare carved his name into the wooden panelling of the Tabard Inn in Southwark, London, alongside the names of Ben Jonson, Richard Burbage and others? This came to light in a podcast by the Folger Shakespeare Library under the title Shakespeare and The Tabard Inn. See:
https://www.folger.edu/shakespeare-unlimited/tabard-inn
William Shakespeare carved his name into the wooden panelling of the Tabard Inn in Southwark
The reference to it was spotted in Edinburgh University Library by Martha Carlin, Professor of History at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. See:
https://shakespearedocumented.folger.edu/resource/document/shakespeare-roisterer-tabard-inn
Shakespeare was long thought to be a solo artist but he collaborated to a fair degree. In fact, five of his ten last plays involved collaborators. At the beginning of his career, and especially at the end, he had many who worked with him, although it is his name that stands on the famous First Folio Edition of 1623, brought out seven years after his death. It contains 36 of his plays.
First Folio Edition of Shakespeare's Plays
Ben Jonson’s commentary on the picture engraver Droeshout, is on the left, the most famous words being:
As well in brass, as he has hit
His face; the print would then surpass
All that was ever writ in brass:
The text was collated by two of Shakespeare's fellow actors and friends, John Heminge and Henry Condell, who edited it and supervised the printing. They appear in a list of the 'Principall Actors' who performed in Shakespeare's plays, alongside Richard Burbage, Will Kemp and Shakespeare himself. See:
https://www.bl.uk/collection-items/shakespeares-first-folio
Shakespeare’s income came not from the sale of his plays but his investment with others in a joint-stock company of actors who performed the plays at the Globe Theatre, or delivered command performances for a fee at the royal court. Shakespeare invested in the Globe Theatre when it was rebuilt after a fire, and later in the Blackfriars Theatre. He retired a wealthy man, and went back to Stratford-upon-Avon, where he had bought several properties.
Swan by the river Avon with Trinity Church in the background
