Having probably all but retired to Stratford, it may seem strange that Shakespeare continues to be active in playwrighting and the concerns of the King’s Men. ‘Henry VIII’ was written and performed in 1613 and is one of the few Shakespeare plays that we are pretty sure of the year it was written and performed due to a number of a events. But I will come to those events later. Let’s first go back to the 1612 and look at the context in which Shakespeare collaborated on this play with John Fletcher.
When Shakespeare and Fletcher sat down in September of 1612 to think about a new play for the 1613 season, the concept of a play based on the life of Henry VIII probably raised its head again. This project had probably been thought about and discarded a number of times over the years by Shakespeare and at each point the royal subject matter and more specifically the fact that Henry VIII was the father of Queen Elizabeth I (and Queen Elizabeth I was a cousin to Mary Queen of Scots who was James I of England’s mother) made the subject matter too contentious. But Shakespeare probably thought that the histrionic nature of some of the masque balls and plays at court meant that this is a project that had finally reached its time. He may have even seen masques portraying King Henry VIII and Elizabeth I without repercussions. So Shakespeare went back to re-read and consult Holinshed's ‘Chronicles’ and decided that a history play that spanned about 20 years of Henry VIII’s reign was probably timely. He would avoid the trial and beheading of Anne Boleyn but he decided that plenty of less sensitive political intrigue (like the charges of treason against the Duke of Buckingham) could be included.
When William Shakespeare came back from Stratford in early 1613, he probably had a plot outline and a number of speeches drafted. When Shakespeare and John Fletcher met again in March, they would both start working in earnest throughout March and April of 1613 to complete a draft of ‘The Famous History of the Life of King Henry the Eight’. Sometime in May, the last salt was added to the pages of the 'King Henry' master script and copy writers would have set to copying out the pages they were designated (no one copy writer was normally given more than a dozen scenes or two or three character parts to write out for fear of theft).
At the beginning of June 1613, the actors were given their parts and worked their way through the play. On Friday 28th, ‘Henry VIII’ probably premiered to audiences to a rousing reception with its grand pageantry, well-known characters and even a live canon which was used in the performance.
As the sun rose on the hexagonal shadow of the Globe on Saturday June 29th, ‘Henry VIII’ was to have its most memorable performance and its last at the original Globe (although a performance would take place of the play on June 29th 1628 in the new rebuilt Globe Theatre).
From an hour or two after sunrise at 5am, stalls of all sorts would have started to set up outside the Globe and beside where the punts crossed the river to arrive on the south bank of the Thames. Around 9am the red flag would have been raised above the towers of the Globe Theatre to tell people that a History play was to be performed later that day and soon after, boys would have been sent out with flyers telling audiences that today’s play would indeed be another performance of ‘The Famous History of the Life of King Henry the Eight’. Around 12 noon, when they heard the church bells chime from Southwark Cathedral, the actors, musicians and stage helpers would wander over to the theatre and start climbing the stairs to the third storey of the tiring house where the dressing rooms, costume store and props room were housed.
John Lowin, Richard Burbage and Robert Gough probably arrived latest at about 2pm after drinking most of the night celebrating John Lowin’s triumph as Henry VIII the previous day. They would check the sundial near the back entrance and because it was a sunny day, they would have a fair idea that they had an hour to go until their performance.
At around 2.30pm the groundlings would have started to drift into the theatre, each dropping their penny in the box as they moved into the Globe Theatre. A stage hand boy would check the sundial one more time just after this before climbing the stairs to start to get the actors down ready for the play’s opening. A final visit was probably made up the stairs to get Richard Burbage who probably started the play with his Prologue speech. Little did they all know that about 15-25 minutes into this performance, at either the beginning of Act I Scene ii (when John Lowin entered as Henry VIII for the first time in this performance) or during the masque scene at Cardinal Wolsey's house in Act 1 Scene iv when King Henry VIII arrives, that the canon set off to herald his arrival as King Henry VIII, would set fire to the thatch roof and send them all running for their lives as the Globe Theatre, built in 1599 and the centrepiece for over 1000 performances of some 120 plays, would burn to the ground.
An eye-witness account of the Globe Theatre fire on June 29th,
1613 written by Sir Henry Wotton in a letter dated July 2, 1613 describes the
fire in the following words:
"... I will entertain you at the present with what happened this week at the Banks side. The King's players had a new play called All is True, representing some principal pieces of the reign of Henry the Eighth, which set forth with many extraordinary circumstances of pomp and majesty even to the matting of the stage; the knights of the order with their Georges and Garter, the guards with their embroidered coats, and the like: sufficient in truth within awhile to make greatness very familiar, if not ridiculous. Now King Henry making a Masque at the Cardinal Wolsey's house, and certain cannons being shot off at his entry, some of the paper or other stuff, wherewith one of them was stopped, did light on the thatch, where being thought at first but idle smoak, and their eyes more attentive to the show, it kindled inwardly, and ran round like a train, consuming within less than an hour the whole house to the very ground. This was the fatal period of that virtuous fabrick, wherein yet nothing did perish but wood and straw, and a few forsaken cloaks; only one man had his breeches set on fire, that would perhaps have broyled him, if he had not by the benefit of a provident wit, put it out with a bottle of ale."
When the Globe Theatre burnt down on June 29th 1613, it
was the end of an era. Shakespeare already was probably spending more time at
Stratford upon Avon than in London and his investments in the country and in
London were reaping him rewards so the burning of the Globe was not so much a
financial blow (it was rebuilt and re-opened the next year in 1614) but a
psychological one. It probably felt like the end of an era for Shakespeare.
With the belief (at least amongst the actor's of the company) that the play
‘Henry VIII’ might be a bit jinxed, the actors of the King’s Men moved back
over to the Blackfriars Theatre to probably do reruns of ‘The Tempest’ and ‘The
Winter’s Tale’ while Shakespeare parked himself in the lodgings he owned in the
Blackfriars’ Priory and started work with John Fletcher on what was to become his
last play, ‘The Two Noble Kinsmen’.
After seeing Richard Edwarde's adaptation of ‘The Knight’s Tale’
from Chaucer’s ‘The Canterbury Tales’, Shakespeare probably thought that he and
Fletcher could whip up a better version with some original twists in no time at
all. With the weather heating up, Shakespeare and Fletcher probably set
themselves the task of writing the play by the end of July so that they could
have the play premiere on the Blackfriars Theatre stage in mid-August. Even for
Shakespeare and Jacobean playwrights, this was a cracking pace.
It would seem that many of the first scenes of each Act of ‘The
Two Noble Kinsmen’ have Shakespeare’s touch all over them, so it is not
unlikely that Shakespeare would have burnt the candle late at night and have
one or two scenes written for Fletcher in the morning. Fletcher probably then
took these scenes back to his lodgings and would take a few days to write up
the rest of the scenes for the Act before he would bring them back to
Shakespeare for revision and pick up Shakespeare’s opening scenes for the next
Act. After about three weeks of this process, the play was virtually complete
and handwritten copies of individual actor’s parts were probably copied off the
originals (locked in Shakespeare’s lodgings) by Shakespeare and Fletcher
themselves and one or two trusted copy-writers. Around the first week in
August, the actors would have started to rehearse their parts in the mornings
(since many would be playing in afternoon performances) and by mid-August 1613,
‘The Two Noble Kinsmen’ would have premiered at the Blackfriars Theatre.
The Prologue of ‘The Two Noble Kinsmen’, informs the audience that the play is based on a story from Chaucer. The play opens with a scene where three queens come to petition King Theseus and Queen Hippolyta of Athens to take revenge for the deaths of their husbands by King Creon of Thebes, who will also not allow the proper burial of the three queens husbands.
“We are three, Queenes, whose Soveraignes fell before
The wrath of cruell Creon; who endured
The Beakes of Ravens, Talents of the Knights,
And pecks of Crowes, in the fowle fields of Thebs.
He will not suffer us to burne their bones,
To urne their ashes, nor to take th' offence
Of mortall loathsomenes from the blest eye
Of holy Phoebus, but infects the windes
With stench of our slaine Lords. O pity, Duke:
Thou purger of the earth, draw thy feard Sword
That does good turnes to'th world; give us the Bones
Of our dead Kings, that we may Chappell them;
And of thy boundles goodnes take some note
That for our crowned heades we have no roofe,
Save this which is the Lyons, and the Beares,
And vault
to every thing.”
After the summer of 1613, Shakespeare perhaps only visited London a couple of times over the next two and a half years. From the “poor player” who made about £35 for the year, he ended his life in comfortable retirement with probably a healthy income from houses, land, tithes (rents on fields and common land), grain storage, the family wool businesses and storage and also some money would come from his share in the King’s Men and some money would come in from his plays. All of this would add up to about £2000 a year when the average wage was about £75.
English playwright Edward Bond’s image in his 1973 play ‘Bingo – Scenes of Money and Death’ of Shakespeare spending his last days getting money from the new land enclosures in Warwickshire and drinking with visitors from London like his fellow playwrights Ben Jonson and John Fletcher, his poet friend Michael Drayton and his acting buddies John Heminges and Henry Condell, is probably not too far from the truth. He had blown away much of this before his death, since he seemed to have only about £500 on his death bed (including 40 pounds to buy rings for his friends and about 5 pounds for funeral expenses including a stone covering for his grave which was engraved), 3 houses, 3 tenements, plates, crockery, two beds and a sword. That is unless Shakespeare’s riches were hidden from the taxman and had already been shared between family and friends by then.
We know that he visited his son-in-law John Hall (who was married to William Shakespeare’s daughter Susanna) from October until November 1614 in London. This probably related to an accusation which John Lane made of adultery against Susanna and the subsequent defamation case brought against John Lane that saw him found guilty of defamation and excommunicated from the local church and the local Stratford community.
Sometime late in January 1616, Shakespeare called to his house his lawyer Francis Collins, to dictate to him an important document. This draft was not completed and so on March 25th, 1616, Shakespeare summoned Francis Collins again to his house, along with Julyus Shawe, John Robinson, Hamnet Sadler and Robert Whattcott. Shakespeare’s last piece of writing was dictated to Francis Collins, witnessed by Shawe, Robinson, Sadler and Whattcott and signed by Will’s now shaky hand. It was not a sonnet, nor a long narrative poem nor a play. It was neither comedy or history or tragedy. It had no profound and poetic thoughts, no characterization, metaphors and imagery. It had very little punctuation and no paragraphing. It was Will Shakespeare’s last will and testament which read as follows:
“In the name of god Amen I William Shackspeare, of Stratford upon Avon in the countrie of Warr., gent., in perfect health and memorie, God be praysed, doe make and ordayne this my last will and testament in manner and forme followeing, that ys to saye, ffirst, I comend my soule into the hands of God my Creator, hoping and assuredlie beleeving, through thonelie merites, of Jesus Christe my Saviour, to be made partaker of lyfe everlastinge, and my bodye to the earth whereof yt ys made. Item, I gyve and bequeath unto my [sonne and] daughter Judyth one hundred and fyftie poundes of lawfull English money, to be paid unto her in the manner and forme foloweng, that ys to saye, one hundred poundes in discharge of her marriage porcion within one yeare after my deceas, with consideracion after the rate of twoe shillings in the pound for soe long tyme as the same shalbe unpaied unto her after my deceas, and the fyftie poundes residwe thereof upon her surrendring of, or gyving of such sufficient securitie as the overseers of this my will shall like of, to surrender or graunte all her estate and right that shall discend or come unto her after my deceas, or that shee nowe hath, of, in, or to, one copiehold tenemente, with thappurtenaunces, lyeing and being in Stratford upon Avon aforesaied in the saied countrye of Warr., being parcell or holden of the mannour of Rowington, unto my daughter Susanna Hall and her heires for ever. Item, I gyve and bequeath unto my saied daughter Judith one hundred and fyftie poundes more, if shee or anie issue of her bodie by lyvinge att thend of three yeares next ensueing the daie of the date of this my will, during which tyme my executours are to paie her consideracion from my deceas according to the rate aforesaied; and if she dye within the saied tearme without issue of her bodye, then my will us, and I doe gyve and bequeath one hundred poundes thereof to my neece Elizabeth Hall, and the fiftie poundes to be sett fourth by my executours during the lief of my sister Johane Harte, and the use and proffitt thereof cominge shalbe payed to my saied sister Jone, and after her deceas the saied l.li.12 shall remaine amongst the children of my saied sister, equallie to be divided amongst them; but if my saied daughter Judith be lyving att thend of the saied three yeares, or anie yssue of her bodye, then my will ys, and soe I devise and bequeath the saied hundred and fyftie poundes to be sett our by my executours and overseers for the best benefitt of her and her issue, and the stock not to be paied unto her soe long as she shalbe marryed and covert baron [by my executours and overseers]; but my will ys, that she shall have the consideracion yearelie paied unto her during her lief, and, after her ceceas, the saied stocke and consideracion to be paied to her children, if she have anie, and if not, to her executours or assignes, she lyving the saied terme after my deceas. Provided that yf suche husbond as she shall att thend of the saied three years be marryed unto, or att anie after, doe sufficientlie assure unto her and thissue of her bodie landes awnswereable to the porcion by this my will gyven unto her, and to be adjudged soe by my executours and overseers, then my will ys, that the said cl.li.13 shalbe paied to such husbond as shall make such assurance, to his owne use. Item, I gyve and bequeath unto my saied sister Jone xx.li. and all my wearing apparrell, to be paied and delivered within one yeare after my deceas; and I doe will and devise unto her the house with thappurtenaunces in Stratford, wherein she dwelleth, for her naturall lief, under the yearlie rent of xij.d. Item, I gyve and bequeath unto her three sonnes, William Harte, ---- Hart, and Michaell Harte, fyve pounds a peece, to be paied within one yeare after my deceas [to be sett out for her within one yeare after my deceas by my executours, with thadvise and direccions of my overseers, for her best frofitt, untill her mariage, and then the same with the increase thereof to be paied unto her]. Item, I gyve and bequeath unto [her] the saied Elizabeth Hall, all my plate, except my brod silver and gilt bole, that I now have att the date of this my will. Item, I gyve and bequeath unto the poore of Stratford aforesaied tenn poundes; to Mr. Thomas Combe my sword; to Thomas Russell esquier fyve poundes; and to Frauncis Collins, of the borough of Warr. in the countie of Warr. gentleman, thirteene poundes, sixe shillinges, and eight pence, to be paied within one yeare after my deceas. Item, I gyve and bequeath to [Mr. Richard Tyler thelder] Hamlett Sadler xxvj.8. viij.d. to buy him a ringe; to William Raynoldes gent., xxvj.8. viij.d. to buy him a ringe; to my dogson William Walker xx8. in gold; to Anthonye Nashe gent. xxvj.8. viij.d. [in gold]; and to my fellowes John Hemynges, Richard Brubage, and Henry Cundell, xxvj.8. viij.d. a peece to buy them ringes, Item, I gyve, will, bequeath, and devise, unto my daughter Susanna Hall, for better enabling of her to performe this my will, and towards the performans thereof, all that capitall messuage or tenemente with thappurtenaunces, in Stratford aforesaid, called the New Place, wherein I nowe dwell, and two messuages or tenementes with thappurtenaunces, scituat, lyeing, and being in Henley streete, within the borough of Stratford aforesaied; and all my barnes, stables, orchardes, gardens, landes, tenementes, and hereditamentes, whatsoever, scituat, lyeing, and being, or to be had, receyved, perceyved, or taken, within the townes, hamletes, villages, fieldes, and groundes, of Stratford upon Avon, Oldstratford, Bushopton, and Welcombe, or in anie of them in the saied countie of Warr. And alsoe all that messuage or tenemente with thappurtenaunces, wherein one John Robinson dwelleth, scituat, lyeing and being, in the Balckfriers in London, nere the Wardrobe; and all my other landes, tenementes, and hereditamentes whatsoever, To have and to hold all and singuler the saied premisses, with theire appurtenaunces, unto the saied Susanna Hall, for and during the terme of her naturall lief, and after her deceas, to the first sonne of her bodie lawfullie yssueing, and to the heires males of the bodie of the saied first sonne lawfullie yssueinge; and for defalt of such issue, to the second sonne of her bodie, lawfullie issueing, and to the heires males of the bodie of the saied second sonne lawfullie yssueinge; and for defalt of such heires, to the third sonne of the bodie of the saied Susanna lawfullie yssueing, and of the heires males of the bodie of the saied third sonne lawfullie yssueing; and for defalt of such issue, the same soe to be and remaine to the ffourth [sonne], ffyfth, sixte, and seaventh sonnes of her bodie lawfullie issueing, one after another, and to the heires males of the bodies of the bodies of the saied fourth, fifth, sixte, and seaventh sonnes lawfullie yssueing, in such manner as yt ys before lymitted to be and remaine to the first, second, and third sonns of her bodie, and to theire heires males; and for defalt of such issue, the said premisses to be and remaine to my sayed neece Hall, and the heires males of her bodie lawfullie yssueinge; and for defalt of such issue, to my daughter Judith, and the heires males of her bodie lawfullie issueinge; and for defalt of such issue, to the right heires of me the saied William Shackspeare for ever. Item, I gyve unto my wief my second best bed with the furniture, Item, I gyve and bequeath to my saied daughter Judith my broad silver gilt bole. All the rest of my goodes, chattel, leases, plate, jewels, and household stuffe whatsoever, after my dettes and legasies paied, and my funerall expenses dischardged, I give, devise, and bequeath to my sonne in lawe, John Hall gent., and my daughter Susanna, his wief, whom I ordaine and make executours of this my last will and testament. And I doe intreat and appoint the saied Thomas Russell esquier and Frauncis Collins gent. to be overseers hereof, and doe revoke all former wills, and publishe this to be my last will and testament. In witness whereof I have hereunto put my [seale] hand, the daie and yeare first abovewritten.”
On either Friday April 22nd or Saturday April 23rd 1616, Michael Drayton and Ben Jonson arrived from London and either took William Shakespeare out to celebrate his 52nd birthday or had considerable alcohol delivered by cart from the local tavern to Will's house. Then as the Vicar of the Holy Trinity Church in Stratford relates in his diary:
"Shakespeare, Drayton, and Ben Jonson had a merry meeting and it seems drank too hard, for Shakespeare died of a fever there contracted."
Another possible cause of Shakespeare’s death could have been Typhus, since a new outbreak seemed to happen in Stratford around this time. C. Martin Mitchell, uses the death mask made of Shakespeare, his will and last signatures to conclude that Shakespeare died of cerebral hemorrhage or apoplexy.
William Shakespeare probably died in his own bed on his 52nd birthday on Saturday April 23rd 1616 late in the evening. His own son-in-law John Hall, who was a doctor, probably pronounced him officially dead. I do not know exactly why Shakespeare left his “second best bed" to his wife but I would like to think that this was their matrimonial bed and rich in sentimental significance. On Monday April 25th, probably around 11 am since this was the custom at this time of year, William Shakespeare was buried in the chancel of the Holy Trinity Church in Stratford. A stone slab with engraving covering was probably added a few days later when the carving was completed. It is Shakespeare’s final epitaph and it includes a final curse to those who wish to disturb the remains of William Shakespeare:
“Good frend for Iesvs sake forbeare,
To digg the dvst encloased heare.
Bleste be ye man yt spares thes stones,
And cvrst be he yt moves my bones.”
The final words should rest with William Shakespeare himself who once gave the character of the melancholic Jacques in ‘As You Like It’, the following now famous ‘seven ages of man’ speech:
“All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players:
They have their exits and their entrances;
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages. At first the infant,
Mewling and puking in the nurse's arms.
And then the whining school-boy, with his satchel
And shining morning face, creeping like snail
Unwillingly to school. And then the lover,
Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad
Made to his mistress' eyebrow. Then a soldier,
Full of strange oaths and bearded like the pard,
Jealous in honour, sudden and quick in quarrel,
Seeking the bubble reputation
Even in the cannon's mouth. And then the justice,
In fair round belly with good capon lined,
With eyes severe and beard of formal cut,
Full of wise saws and modern instances;
And so he plays his part. The sixth age shifts
Into the lean and slipper'd pantaloon,
With spectacles on nose and pouch on side,
His youthful hose, well saved, a world too wide
For his shrunk shank; and his big manly voice,
Turning again toward childish treble, pipes
And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all,
That ends this strange eventful history,
Is second childishness and mere oblivion,
Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.”
