Chapter
2: The Dream of Restoration
When I see the word Restoration in a
theatre book, or any book that talks about English History, my mind instantly
goes to the restoration of the monarch in the 1660s when Charles II came back
from France to his coronation as the King of England. The puritans were
overthrown and England entered in a cultural explosion as years of repression
gave way to many years of vulgar but enjoyable ‘Restoration Comedies.’
Scratch that though, none of that
here. This chapter focused a great deal on the lineage of William Shakespeare,
his father’s rise and then dramatic fall from stature – and his mother’s loss
of family property. John Shakespeare’s profession (outside of civil servant)
seems to have been work with leather, gloves, and other apparel made from
animal skins. This comes across in a great number of Shakespeare’s plays with
references to leather, sewing and the use of animal skins for different
products.
John Shakespeare married the
youngest Arden daughter – descendent of the great family of Arden that came
over to England with William the Conqueror. This family owned – to quote Monty
Python – ‘Huge tracks of land,’ some of which was a forest, later known as the
Forest of Arden (As You Like It,
anyone?). Unfortunately, John seemed to have run into some financial
difficulties in his life, because it wasn’t long before John sold off the land
that his dear wife had inherited in order to pay off his debts.
William was also affected by his
father’s sudden decline in status and wealth – it appears that a number of
young men around him with ambitious fathers attended university. William, very
conspicuously did not. Granted, he did get married at the age of 18, have his
first child and two more just a few years later all in the early 1580s, but
this probably would not have happened if he had been sent away to continue his
schooling. No, instead it appears that William worked in a law office. What
with all of his many (correct) references to law in early modern England, this
would make perfect sense. It would have kept his wife and children fed and
clothes, while also introducing him to new words and important pieces of
information that later became key to a number of his plots.
John Shakespeare’s desires to
elevate his family did not go away, though, simply because he was in dire
financial straights and had lost his public office: he still wanted his family
to have their own Coat of Arms. To have a Coat of Arms was to be a gentleman –
and to be a gentleman was to be better than the average man – at least in
social status. If you’ve seen Downton Abbey, you know that status as a
gentleman is even better than wealth in England for the majority of early
modern history onward. So John Shakespeare filed his claim for a Coat of Arms,
which was received and then ultimately ignored and forgotten until magically in
the late 1590s, when it was suddenly approved. Greenblatt mentions that this is
almost undoubtedly due to an intervention by the now successful young William
Shakespeare.
Later, William also had his mother’s
Coat of Arms (that of the Arden family) added to his as a way of acknowledging
both his father’s right to the title of gentleman (as a civil servant) and his
mother’s gentle heritage. Still, the Shakespeare Coat of Arms is the only one
that lies above his grave. But he assures any onlookers that is in fact, a
gentleman.
There was also mention in this
chapter of William’s natural knack for puns and rote within his plays. I have
no understanding of French and was surprised to learn that the words that the
French princess is trying to learn in Henry
V can easily be turned into French puns for much more rude words. And with
many of the quotes from Shakespeare’s sonnets and poems in this chapter, I now
know that I should endeavor to read Venus
& Adonis next.
