Robert Nye - The Late Mr Shakespeare

We had a great metal bowl with a cannon ball in it. This was our thunder for The Tempest (and King Lear ). Ben Jonson makes fun of our effects in the prologue to his Bartholomew Fair , offering ironic excuses for not having sought applause by staging monsters (an allusion to Caliban), and for hesitating to unleash nature, 'like those that beget Tales, Tempests'. Mr Jonson missed the point, as usual. It was not the stage properties that made The Tempest so moving and so memorable. It was the words.

Too old for Miranda, I took the part of Ariel. But there was more to this casting than the matter of my age. I think that Shakespeare wrote the part of Ariel for me, since Ariel is a spirit, something beyond man or woman. I had served my master well, and I had gone for him through the female and the male. In Ariel he recognised and rewarded my service in the sexual journey, the ways in which I had enacted on the stage the secret dreams and dramas of his heart. He set me forth now as a creature neither male nor female, and beyond either condition. Then, at the play's end, he set me free, even as he freed himself in the person of Prospero. No doubt it was his recognition that he had ruined my life, even as he had also made me.

If I could, would I fly backwards from the garden and up onto the wall, and unsing Polly Dear , and never know him?

I would not.

I am happy enough to be Ariel.

Call me a little epitome of the leavings of Dame Nature's workshop, a compound of all sorts and sexes, a wheyfaced hermaphrodite. I shall not care to quarrel with those callings. I am what I am, and William Shakespeare made me.

Note Ariel's last words to Prospero, my words to Mr Shakespeare in that part:

Was't well done?

That is the only question I care to ask. His answer to it, spoken aside, still more than contents me:

Bravely, my diligence. Thou shalt be free.

I always took that for my approbation. My master's approval of my career in his service. Not that I am free, not yet, not quite. Nor shall be till I have finished with this my book.

John Spencer Stockfish played the part of Miranda. John Spencer Stockfish had several qualities in common with Susanna Shakespeare, so shall we say that this part suited him down to the ground?

John Spencer Stockfish was my Caliban, madam.

John Spencer Stockfish was a shit, sir, yes.

Chapter Ninety-Five Pickleherring's list of things despaired of

I once heard Dr Donne preaching in St Paul's. He spoke of 'that glorious creature, that first creature, the Light.' The remembrance that the Light was the first created thing has stayed with me since. I always recall it when I get up early and witness the dawn, as today.

This morning I met Pompey Bum on the stairs. The sun not long risen, that greased, cruel, potbelly whoremaster was already drunk. He sat at the turning of the bannisters, his mouth agape and drivelling. He was reading a book, with his bottle beside him. His eyes went to and fro. He read from left to right, lips moving, silently, then bent to kiss the page where he had read it. He wept and trembled. Then he burst out with a lamentable cry, saying, 'What shall I do to be saved?'

When I asked him what he meant, he wept the more. Then he told me that he was for certain informed that this our city of London will be burnt with fire from heaven, in which fearful overthrow we shall all miserably come to ruin.

I comforted my landlord as I could, and advised him to take more water with it.

Then I came in here to attend to my Aeolian harp. But the day is close and windless, and the strings will not speak.

The end of my book is in sight, yet there are a number of things which I meant to include in it but which now there will be no room for. Fatigue and my lack of competence may be blamed. All these are matters recorded on notes, which I have accumulated in my boxes, but which now it is too late to work into the fabric of my book. Here is a list of things despaired of, things that belong in my Life of William Shakespeare but which now I must leave for others to write about:

Abraham men alarums aprons mountant artichokes asphodel aspic aunts bankrout beggars barber-surgeons Basimecu bat-fowling bed-pressers bed-swervers Belgia bogs bona-robas bonfires bottom-grass breaking wind brewers bubukles bullets cabbage cabinets caddis-garters cannibals cataplasm catastrophe (tickling of) caudle-cups chop-logic christom children clergy in WS's works cock-fighting comfits cony-catchers copyright cries of London cross-gartering Cutpurse Moll dropsy Dudley Digges duelling dulcimers eclipses eglantine elephants elixirs endives eringo excursions faggots fairies falcons fern-seed fewmets fleas fools (at Court) fools (on stage) football fustian galliards ghosts giants glanders (in horses) glow-worms grace (at meals) hair-pins handkerchiefs hautboys heart-burn hedgehogs hemlock hobby-horses howlets humours (the 4) impresas Ireland jennets Jones, Inigo jordans Kendal green knot gardens l adysmocks lethargy mackerel maggot-pie mandragora marchpane medlars mermaids microcosm motley mumchance Neapolitan bone-ache novum quinque nutmeg oats onions oranges osprey ouches palsy pantofles partelets passing-bells passy-measures peasecod pissing-conduits plainsong poking-sticks politics poor-laws porcupine potatoes prickets pricksong progresses (royal) projection (alchemical) pumpions quotidian fever ragged robin raisins rascal (deer) Ratsey the highwayman rebatoes Rhenish rogero (dance) salamanders shoemakers silkworms slops slugs snapdragon snipe soap (cost of) sorcerers (Lapland) spoons still music strawberries sublimation (in alchemy) sweating sickness table manners tadpoles tinkers tooth-brushes trash (of hounds) troll-my-dames tuckets valerian Venus' glove Vice (in moralities) walnuts wasters whirligigs wild-goose-chasing wormwood

Chapter Ninety-Six

Shakespeare's Will* (with notes by Pickleherring)

In the name of god Amen I William Shakespeare of Stratford upon Avon in the countie of Warr gent in perfect health & memorie god be praysed doe make & Ordayne this my last will & testament in manner & forme followeing. That is to saye ffirst I Comend my Soule into the handes of god my Creator, hoping & assuredlie beleeving through thonelie merittes of Jesus Christe my Saviour to be made partaker of lyfe everlasting, And my bodye to the Earth whereof yt is made.

Item I Gyve & bequeath unto my sonne-in-L+ daughter Judyth One Hundred & ffyftie poundes of lawfull English money to be paied unto her in manner & forme followeing; That ys to saye, One Hundred Poundes in discharge of her marriage porcion within one yeare after my deceas, with consideration after the Rate of twoe shillinges in the pound for soe long tyme as the same shalbe unpaied unto her after my deceas, & the ffytie poundes Residewe 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 & 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 & being in Stratford upon Avon aforesaied in the saied countie of Warr, being parcell or holden of the mannour of Rowington, unto my daughter Susanna Hall & her heires for ever.

Item I Gyve & bequeath unto my saied daughter Judith One Hundred & ffytie Poundes more if shee or Anie issue of her bodie be Lyvinge att thend of three Yeares next ensueing the daie of the date of this my will, during which tyme my executours to paie her consideracion from my deceas according to the Rate aforesaied. And if she dye within the said terme without issue of her bodye then my will ys & I doe gyve & bequeath One Hundred Poundes thereof to my Neece Elizabeth Hall & the ffiftie Poundes to be sett fourth by my executours during the lief of my Sister Johane Harte & the use & profitt thereof Cominge shalbe payed to my saied Sister Jone, & after her deceas the saied l lishall Remaine Amongst the children of my saied Sister Equallie to be devided Amongst them. But if my saied daughter Judith by lyving att thend of the saied three Yeares or anie yssue of her bodye, then my will ys & soe I devise & bequeath the saied Hundred & ffytie poundes to be sett out by my executours and overseers * for the best benefitt of her & her issue & the stock not to be paied unto her soe long as she shalbe marryed & covert Baron by my executours & overseers, but my will ys that she shall have the consideracion yearelie paied unto her during her lief & after her deceas the saied stock & consideracion to bee paied to her children if she have Anie & if not to her executours or assignes she lyving the saied terms after my deceas. Provided that yf such husbond as she shall att thend of the saied three Yeares be marryed unto or attaine after doe sufficientlie Assure unto her & thissue of her bodie landes Awnswereable to the porcion by this my will gyven unto her & to be adjudged soe by my executours & overseers then my will ys that the said cl lishalbe paied to such husbond as shall make such assurance to his own use.+