The Lodger Shakespeare: His Life on Silver Street (45 page)

b. Petition of Stephen Belott, 20 March 1621 [hlro PO/JO/10/1/16, item 5]

To the right noble Assemblie the upper house of Parlament The humble peticon of Stephen Bellott sometime servant to one Monjoye Gould wyredrawer: sworne before the right hono
^ble
the Assemblie of the upper house of parlyament the 20
^th
daie of march 1620 [i.e. 1621]

Humblie shewing that the petioconer hath for many years gotten his living by the art of working gold and silver thredd, and thereby onlie mainteyned his wife and children.

That about twoe yeares since Mr ffowles under collor of his patent sent out Ireland his pursevant whoe did forciblie enter into the peticoners house and going up into an upper roome where the chamber doore was lockt, the said Ireland did violentlie breake open the said door & tooke out of the chamber the peticoners mill the onlie instrument of his living, and caried away the same to Mr ffowles whoe doth hitherto deteine the same, whereby the peticoner his wife & children are utterlie undone. he humblie beseecheth your honorable consideracons of their wronge. And that the peticoner may have recompense for the same as yor honors shall think meet. And he shall dailie praie &c

stephen bellott

c. Will of Stephen Belott, 25 July 1646 [TNA Pro Prob 11/99, fol. 227]

In the name of God Amen I Stephen Belott of the Bowleing Alley neere Long Lane in the parish of Sepulchers without Newgate London Tyer maker: Being at this present Sick in body but of Sound and perfectt memorie, Lawd and praise be therfore giuen to Almightye God, Calling to minde my yeares and my infirmities, The ffrailtie of this Transitorie life and the vncertentye of the hower of death: doe make and Ordaine this my last will and Testament: And first and Principallie I Commend my Soule into the handes of Almightie God my Creator, Hopeing and Stedfastlie beleeuing that by and through the Meritts of the death and passion and pretious blood shedd vppon the Crosse of Jesus Christ, his onely Sonne and my alone Sauiour and Redeemer, I haue and shall haue full and ffree Remission Pardon and fforgiuenes of all my Sinns and Offences; And to be saued vnto life euerlasting./ My body I Committ to the earth from whence it came to be decentlie buried, in assured Hope of the Resurrection thereof at the Gennerall Judgement day vnto life eternall: And touching such worldly goods and Estate as it hath pleased God of his greatt goodness and mercie to blesse me withall, I doe hereby giue deuise and bequeath the same in manner and forme following: That is to say, Inprimis whereas my late brother Master John Belott, late of the Citty of Harlem in Holland ffrench Schoolemaster deceased, in and by his last will and Testament beareing date the Third day of October, Anno Domini One Thousand six hundred ffortie and Twoe, hath giuen left and bequeathed vnto me the said Stephen Belott, the Summe of Nyne hundred Gilders, Being fowerscore and Tenn poundes English: To be paid after the decease of my sister in lawe Mistris Maijlie van Regemuorter late wife of my said brother Master John Belott deceased, As in and by his said Last will and Testament more at lardge doth and may appeare: And which said Legacie or summe of Nyne Hundred Gilders I haue Constituted authorized and appointed the Elders and deacons of the ffrench Reformed Church in Harlem, for the vse and behoofe of me my Executors and Administrators, to Aske Leauy sue for recouer and receaue the same, of and against the heires Executors and Administrators of my said sister in lawe Mistris Maijlie van Reemuorter after her decease As in and by the said writeing of deputation (Relation thereto being had) more at lardge doth and may appeare; And now my will and minde is, And I doe hereby will deuise and dispose the said Legacic of Nyne hundred Gilders being in English fowerscore and Tenn poundes in manner following: And first I giue and bequeath vnto my daughter Ann now the wife of William Haier wyer drawer, the somme of Twentie poundes thereof: Item I giue and bequeath vnto my daughter Jane now the wife of ffrancis Ouering, Glouer, the like Summe of Twentye poundes thereof: Item I giue and bequeath vnto my daughter Easter now the wife of Christopher Baytes, other Twentie poundes thereof: Item I giue and bequeath vnto my loueing wife Thomazine Belott Twentie poundes more thereof; And the other Tenn poundes my will is shalbe for the satisfieing of That Tenn poundes which I borrowed and receaued of my said sister in lawe Mistris Maijlie van Regemuater when I was with her in Harlem: Item I giue and bequeath vnto the poore of the Reformed Church in Harlem the summe of fforty shillings; And my will and desire is, That my loueing wife Thomazine Belott, and my daughter

Jane Oueringe shall goe over togeather vnto Harlem in Holland; and there receaue and bring over the said moneys at such time and when as the same shall become due and payable after the decease of my said sister in lawe; And my will and minde is that my said loueing wife and my said three daughters shall be at, beare and allow euery one of them fower and equall parte portion and share towards the charges and expences of their Journey and trauelling ouer vnto Harlem, and for and about the recouering Changeing Transporting and returning and bringing ouer the said monies to deuide the said moneys to and amongst my said wife and my Three daughters equallie for the satisfieing of their said seuerall Legacies (euery one of them beareing and allowing an equall ffowerth parte of all expences and Chardges of fetching and bringing ouer the same as aforesaid according to the true meaneing of this my last Will and Testament; The rest and residue of all and singuler my Goods, Chattells Houshould stuffe Apparrell Bedding Lynnen Wollen, Brasse Pewter Bonds Bills, writings Specialties debtes Ready monyes and all other my goods and estate whatsoeuer vnbequeathed (My debtes and legacies paid and my ffunerell expences dischardged) I doe fully and freely giue and bequeath vnto my said loueing wife Thomazine Belott whome I make and ordaine my full and sole Executrix of this my last Will and Testament; desireing her to execute and performe the same in and by all things according to my true intent and meaning herein before specified and declared; And I doe hereby Reuoke and disanull all former and other Wills by me at any time heretofore made; And I doe pronounce and declare this and none other to stand and be my last Will and Testament: In Witnes whereof I the said Stephen Belott to this my last Will and Testament (Contained in fower sheets of Paper) haue sett my hand and Seale, The fiue and Twentieth day of July Anno Domini One thousand six hundred ffortie six: And in the twoe and twentieth yeare of the Raigne of our Soueraig Lord King Charles &c

Par moy Etiene Belot.

Sealed and Subscribed by the Testator, and acknowledged Published and declared to stand and be his last Will and Testament in the presence of vs Roger Goude: Richard Gill Scr./

Notes

PART ONE: ‘
ONE MR SHAKESPEARE
’

1. The deposition

1
. The last letter looks like a
p
, possibly in the modified form which stands for Latin
per
, thus giving ‘Shakp[er]’. But this seems to garble the name rather than merely abbreviate it: the middle
s
is a constant in all known variant spellings (except where
ks
is written
x
, as in ‘Shaxper’, etc). The other signatures are two relating to his purchase of the Blackfriars Gatehouse (conveyance, 10 March 1613, Guildhall Library; mortgage-deed, 11 March 1613, BL Egerton MS 1787); and three on his will, 25 March 1616 (PRO Prob 1/4). On various spurious autographs see SRI 93-109.

2
. A comparable text is the reported conversation about land-enclosures in the diary of Thomas Greene, Stratford town clerk, 17 November 1614: ‘My cosen Shakespeare . . . told me that they assured him they ment to enclose noe further then to Gospell Bushe [etc]’ (SRI no. 37). But this is more a précis than a recording of what Shakespeare said. His will doubtless relates to oral instructions but cannot usefully be called a record of his spoken words.

3
. Izaak Walton,
Life of Sir Henry Wotton
(1651), in
Lives
(1956), 120-21. The
bon mot
was recorded ‘at his first going ambassador into Italy’, i.e. in 1604. A clown’s punning reply to the question ‘Does Master Scarberow lie here?’ (Wilkins 1607, A2v) may be a feeble reminiscence of the exchange in
Othello
.

4
. For the earlier finds (Keyser v Burbage et al., Court of Requests, February 1610; Ostler v Heminges, King’s Bench, October 1615; Witter v Heminges and Condell, Court of Requests, April 1619) see Wallace 1910b, EKC 2.52-71.

5
. Schoenbaum 1970, 645-56.

6
. Wallace 1910a, 490.

7
. Huntington Library, San Marino, Calif., Wallace Papers Box 11, Envelope 27; Schoenbaum 1970, 650-51.

8
. Both submissions describe Belott’s marriage (19 November 1604) as ‘about five yeares past’. However, Noel Mountjoy’s deposition (23 June 1612) refers to a meeting with Belott ‘about a yere since, wch he thinketh is neere about or since this suyte began’. With a little stretching these approximations meet to suggest a date around late 1610 or early 1611 for the initiation of the suit.

9
. Stow 1908, 2.118-20. Belott’s Bill also refers to ‘Yr Highnes Court of White Hall, comonlie called the Court of Request’. This White Hall (or White Chamber) was part of Westminster Palace, and has no connection with the nearby Whitehall Palace.

10
. For Belott’s will (25 July 1646) see Appendix 4.

11
. FPC MS 4; see Appendix 3.

12
. Wallace 1910a, 489; SDL 213.

13
. L. Hotson, ‘Not of an Age’,
Sewanee Review
39 (1941), reprinted in Hotson 1949, 161-84; it was originally a lecture at the Folger Shakespeare Library, 23 April 1940. A. L. Rowse, ‘The Secrets of Shakespeare’s Landlady’,
The Times
, 23 April 1973, expanded in Rowse 1976, 107-10.

14
. That
Pericles
was only partly Shakespeare’s was noted in the prologue to George Lillo’s adaptation,
Marina
(1738): ‘We dare not charge the whole unequal play / Of Pericles on him.’ On evidence both external (see Chapters 21-23) and internal (see Jackson 2001, Vickers 2002) Wilkins is overwhelmingly the most plausible co-author, though F. Hoeniger (Arden edn, 1963, lii-lxiii and Appendix B) mounts a case for John Day, himself a collaborator with Wilkins. For biographical and critical sources on Wilkins see Part Six, note 3 below.

15
. Formulated by the Lyonnais investigator Dr Edmond Locard in his
Manuel de technique policière
(Paris, 1923), ch 3.

2. Turning forty

16
. Dulwich College MS I/49; Foakes 1977, vol. 2, no. 49. The eighteenth-century scholar Edmund Malone possessed a ‘curious document’ which he thought afforded the ‘strongest presumptive evidence’ that Shakespeare was living in Southwark in 1608 (
An Inquiry into the Authenticity of certain Miscellaneous Papers
(1796), 215; EKC 2.88). He intended to publish it in his
Life
of Shakespeare, but died before he reached that stage of the story. This mysterious item may have been a copy of the poor-relief list of 1609, though the dates do not quite match. Malone refers to another document (also unidentified) which showed that Shakespeare was in Southwark in 1598 - this was perhaps the Pipe Rolls entry relating to his unpaid tax (see note 65 below). Malone’s inference that Shakespeare lived continuously in Southwark between 1598 and 1608 is invalidated by the sojourn on Silver Street, which he did not know about.

17
. According to traditional reckoning, Shakespeare’s fortieth birthday fell on 23 April 1604. In fact his birthdate is not known: he was baptized on 25 April 1564, and so may have been born on any day between about 20 and 24 April; the choice of the 23rd - St George’s Day - is a jingoistic convenience, first mooted in the early eighteenth century. Thomas De Quincey suggested that the wedding-day of Shakespeare’s granddaughter Elizabeth, 22 April 1627, commemorated his birthday. See SDL 20-24.

18
. EKC 2.323-7. William Lambarde records the Queen’s dramatic utterance a few months later: ‘I am Richard II, know ye not that?’ (326). Blair Worden questions whether the play was Shakespeare’s (‘Which Play was Performed at the Globe Theatre on 7 February 1601?’,
LRB
25, 10 July 2003).

19
. Jonson refers to these travails in conversations with the Scottish poet William Drummond, 1618-19: see Patterson 1923, 25-7. The offending play was
Eastward Ho!
Letters written from prison by Jonson and his co-author George Chapman survive in contemporary copies. The authors were ‘hurried to bondage and fetters’, Jonson says, ‘without examining, without hearing, or without any proof but malicious rumour’ (C. Petter, ed.,
Eastward Ho!
(1973), Appendix 3). Jonson was also imprisoned in the Marshalsea in 1597, as part-author (with Thomas Nashe) of the lost satire
The Isle of Dogs
(Nicholl 1984, 243-9); and in Newgate in 1598, charged with killing the actor Gabriel Spenser in a swordfight on Hoxton Fields (Riggs 1989, 49-53).

20
. Leishman 1949, 369-71. The plays were performed at St John’s College, Cambridge,
c
. 1598-1602; the author was possibly Edmund Rishton, a student at St John’s (BA 1599, MA 1602), whose name appears on the outer leaf of the extant MS (Bod., Rawlinson MS D.398). On the War of the Theatres or Poetomachia (‘Poets’ Quarrel’) of
c
. 1599-1602, see Steggle 1998. On the Shakespearean ‘purge’ see Honigmann 1987, 42-9; Riggs 1989, 63-85; Duncan-Jones 2001, 118-25.

21
. SDL doc. 157.

22
. For the dates see the section on George Carey in Wallace T. MacCaffrey, ‘Henry Carey, 1st Baron Hunsdon’,
ODNB
2004. For the disease see the anonymous court lampoon on him - ‘Fool hath he ever bin / With his Joan Silverpin. / Quicksilver’s in his head / But his wit’s as dull as lead’ (C. C. Stopes,
Life of Henry, Third Earl of Southampton
(1922), 235-7). Joan Silverpin was a generic name for a prostitute, and mercury preparations a supposed cure for syphilis.