WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE - 23rd APRIL 1616; “HE DIED A PAPIST”

 WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

23rd APRIL 1616

“HE DIED A PAPIST”

William Shakespeare died on 23rd April 1616, his death recorded by the Protestant rector of Sapperton, Gloucestershire and later Archdeacon of Coventry, the Reverend Richard Davies, in the following terms:

“He died April 23, 1616, AEtat. 53, probably at Stratford, for there he is buried and hath a monument on which lays a heavy curse upon anyone who shall remove his bones. He died a papist.”

The entry in the burial register of the Stratford parish church of the Holy Trinity provides his interment as; “1616, Apr 25 Will Shakespeare, gent.”

To any Catholic reading Shakespeare’s plays, particularly in the context of the political environment of his time, the Catholic allusions are glaringly apparent. The beauty is that, upon detailed study, a recognition of his Catholicism, in conjunction with historical comparisons, brings out his extraordinary wit and his subtle contemporaneous references to the political upheavals of the time. Today, when the prejudices and bigotry of the puritans are all but completely forgotten, Ben Jonson’s panegyric for the First Folio (1623) reveals his genius:

“He was not of an age but of all time.”

Shakespeare’s fond and sympathetic portrayals of priests and nuns, performed in an era when any genuine priest in the audience would have been immediately arrested and executed, are indicators of his sympathies in an environment in which secrecy prevailed by reason of deadly necessity.

I have taken this biography from the following authors:

H Mutschmann and K Wenteresdorf (Mutschmann), “Shakespeare and Catholicism” Sheed and Ward, New York 1952;

Ian Wilson, (Wilson), “Shakespeare The Evidence”, St Martin’s Griffin, New York, 1993;

Michael Wood, (Wood), “In Search of Shakespeare”, BBC, 2003.

Mutschmann describes Shakespeare’s family on his mother’s side, the Ardens as “gentlefolk”, Thomas Arden, the poet’s great-grandfather, being “related to the powerful earls of Warwick. He purchased a farm at Snitterfield in 1501, inherited by Robert Arden, the grandfather of the poet. The Ardens were a staunch Catholic family, both the main family at Park Hall which was destined to suffer terribly for its faith and the junior branch at Wilmcote. There can be no doubt that Mary Arden [William Shakespeare’s mother] was brought up a strict Catholic and never wavered in her faith. Robert Arden’s will, witnessed by the local priest, Father William Burton, provided his soul bequeathed, like a good Catholic: ‘To Almighty God and to our blessed Lady Saint Mary and to all the holy company of heaven.’”

“On the male side, William Shakespeare came from yeoman stock – his paternal grandfather Richard Shakespeare had been a farmer in Snitterfield. Richard assisted his Catholic neighbours who bequeathed maintenance of tapers before the altar and the image of our Lady, even though Elizabeth had ascended the throne and replaced the Missal by the prayer book and abolished images.”

In 1559 Elizabeth revived the Act of Supremacy declaring herself the Supreme Governor of the Church in England. The Oath of Supremacy excluded Catholics from office. But in the following year the Act of Uniformity prohibited the saying of and hearing of Mass and the administering of all sacraments according to the Catholic rites and a fine of one shilling was imposed for non-attendance at church of England services on holy days. The Catholic spirit, however, proved difficult for Elizabeth’s civil servants to eradicate. (1)

Throughout Shakespeare’s life, the practice of the Catholic faith was illegal and brought immense penalty, including crippling fines, execution and forfeiture of property. Families throughout England were reduced to penury through the constant imposition of fines for failing to attend Anglican service.

“In order to exterminate the spirit of Catholicism once and for all the government made use of all means at its disposal: house searches, arrests, the imposition of huge fines and the death penalty. The number of persons in custody increased to such an extent that the existing prisons proved inadequate and additional places of detention had to be improvised. A document of the year 1583 tells us that the prisons were so full of Catholics there was hardly any room for the thieves. Fines were imposed on a particularly large scale, with the intention of forcing the victims to choose between conforming to the state religion and financial ruin. A statute promulgated during the same period contains the following provisions: “Any one above the age of 16 years of age who shall refuse to frequent the prayers, sermons and churches of the Protestants shall forfeit for every month … twenty pounds of legal money…Every person who shall wilfully hear Mass shall forfeit the sum of one hundred marks and shall be imprisoned for one year.” (2).

The area of Shakespeare’s birth and upbringing was notorious in Elizabeth’s time as a stronghold of Catholic recusancy. A report by the Privy Council in the year of Shakespeare’s birth said that of the Shire’s 42 Justices of the Peace, half were adversaries and only 8 were favourers of Protestantism. (3).

William’s father John, a glover, born in 1529 was, by 1556, sufficiently prosperous as to buy two houses. In 1557 he married Mary Arden in a marriage according to the Catholic rite.

William was born on 23 April 1564 and was baptised by the Protestant vicar at the local parish church, Holy Trinity. He was educated at the local grammar school, a right to which he was entitled by virtue of his father’s position, the grammar schools having been founded by the guilds. The schoolmasters of the grammar school at the time of Shakespeare's childhood were Thomas Jenkins, the son of an old servant of Sir Thomas White, the founder of the Catholic-tinged St John’s College Oxford. This was the man who introduced Shakespeare to the virtues of rhetoric by studying Cicero and Quintillian and who sparked Shakespeare’s love of the poetry of Ovid and a taste for history set down in Caesar. (4)

His next teacher, Simon Hunt, at Stratford between 1571-5, left Stratford to join the university at Douai in France, which had been founded a few years before for English Catholics, (who were banned from receiving a university education). One of William Shakespeare’s fellow pupils, Robert Debdale, whose parents were neighbours of the Hathaways, went to Douai, became a priest and entered England under cover as a missionary priest.

Debdale was in Douai with Thomas Cottam. A fully ordained Catholic priest, Cottam was the younger brother of John Cottam who succeeded Thomas Jenkins as Stratford’s schoolmaster in September 1579. After his resignation in 1581, John Cottam, the schoolmaster, overtly declared his Catholicism. On 5 June 1580 Thomas Cottam left Rheims for England carrying a letter and religious gifts for Debdale’s family in Shottery but before he could reach them he was arrested and cast into the Tower, the Debdale letter intercepted and preserved. Religious items such as Rosaries or Agnes Dei brought with them a penalty of death if found. (5)

Thomas Cottam was executed on 30 May 1582 at Tyburn, following upon the martyrdom of the Jesuit, Edmund Campion, the previous December. Robert Debdale, Shakespeare's fellow-pupil, was tried as a priest and executed in 1586. (5A).

There is a tradition that young Shakespeare received his early religious training from a Benedictine monk, Dom Thomas Combe, who was related to the wealthy Combe family of Stratford. (6)

In 1568 John Shakespeare was elected High Bailiff, the equivalent of the Mayor of Stratford. However, in 1576, a change came over John Shakespeare’s fortunes and he broke off all public life, failed to attend meetings of the Stratford Corporation, (even though, in the 13 years before he had failed to attend only once), and claimed excuse for absence by reason of debt.

Mutschamnn says that formerly it was believed by Shakespearean scholars that the business fortunes of John Shakespeare, at this period, must have declined. However, there is no evidence in the records for this belief. Indeed, after his claim of debt, John Shakespeare went surety for two people on purchases, which is evidential support that he still had means and was publicly known to have means. Perhaps the relevant scholars are not apprised of the political environment of the time and the true extent of the religious persecution meted out to the recusant community. John Shakespeare's claim of debt was, in fact, a common plea by Catholics who wished to avoid the harsh penalties of non-compliance with the forced attendance at Anglican service and public denial of their faith. Analysis of the circumstances at the time provides the context - the withdrawal by John Shakespeare from public duties is directly referable to government measures undertaken at that time: “In April 1576, Queen Elizabeth appointed a Grand Commission Ecclesiastical to inquire into offences against the statutes of supremacy and particularly to ‘order, correct, reform and punish any persons wilfully and obstinately absenting themselves from church and service.’ The wording of the instructions to the commissioners makes it clear that the investigations were directed against Catholics, being ‘eager to run to earth the papists.” (7).

Churchwardens were employed as spies for the regime under Sir Francis Walsingham, reporting on those who did not attend Anglican service or who, if attending, nevertheless failed to take Anglican communion. Fines were levied by the churchwardens; in more serious, basically recidivist cases, heavier fines and terms of imprisonment were imposed by the commissioners, together with a bond or recognisance taken against further repetition of the offence. At this time John Shakespeare was cited in court records and received a recognisance together with the exaction of a crippling fine.

“In the summer of 1577 commissioners of another kind were appointed for musters – a sure sign that the government’s anti-Catholic measures were to be backed up by military force. The Commissioners for musters visited Stratford on 18 October 1577; among them was a local magnate Sir Thomas Lucy, a Puritan and confirmed hater of Catholics who had been active in Warwickshire in 1569 in making preparation against the northern rebellion.

On January 29 1578 a levy was imposed to enforce the government’s anti-Catholic measures and prevent uprisings. John Shakespeare refused to pay. He was fined for recusancy – an unambiguous indicator of his Catholicism. However, he was held in obvious respect and was not pursued by the Corporation. There is no evidence that he paid any fines.” (7A)

John Shakespeare authored a testament, in the style of St Charles Borromeo, which he hid in the roof of his house in Stratford, which provided, inter alia:

"I, John Shakespeare, beseech.. all my dear friends, parents and kinsfolk….to assist and succour me with their holy prayers….especially with the holy sacrifice of the Mass..

“I, John Shakespeare, have made this present writing...in presence of the Blessed Virgin Mary, my Guardian Angel and all the celestial Court… for the better declaration hereof, my will and intention is that it be finally buried with me after my death.” (9)

The document was so well secreted that it was not discovered until 1757 when the owner of the house engaged workers to re-tile. The templates for the testament signed by John Shakespeare were brought to England by Robert Persons and Edmund Campion. (10)

Records exist of the young William Shakespeare applying for a marriage license to Anne Hathaway, in lieu of banns, in the local church, but there are no records of Shakespeare’s marriage, a fact explained by the fact that Father John Frith of Temple Grafton who possibly conducted Shakespeare’s marriage ceremony, was described as ‘an old priest unsound of religion’ much resorted to by the locals for his skill in cures, recalling the old friar in Romeo and Juliette with his medicines and potions. (11). Evidently the recourse to a license was a ruse employed by Catholics to evade the requirement of marriage in a protestant service. The Sacrament of marriage is one which requires the officiation of a priest in Catholic doctrine.

Wilson says that it is suggested that, in 1581, Shakespeare “joined a company of players owned by Alexander Hoghton, a Catholic gentleman of Lea Hall near Preston. Hoghton in his will of 1581 commends a certain William Shakeshafte who he says ‘now dwells with me’ and who seems to have been a young actor to the special care and protection of Sir Thomas Hesketh of nearby Rufford Hall, who, like Hoghton, maintained a small company of actors and musicians.” (11A)

William and Anne Shakespeare’s first child, Susanna, was christened in the Stratford parish church on Trinity Sunday 26th May 1583. Twenty months later, on 2nd February 1585, William christened two twins, Judith and Hamnet, the god-parents being Hamnet Sadler and his wife, Judith, known recusants who were subjected to repeated fines for their refusal to attend protestant service and were on the lists of recusants. (12) The baptism of infants was, of necessity, performed in a Protestant Church as a record. According to Catholic doctrine, the sacrament of baptism can be performed by a person other than a priest if the proper form is followed and the correct intention is present on the part of the relevant persons.

Shakespeare's kinsman, Edward Arden, the head of the Park Hall branch of Ardens, his wife, Mary Arden and son-in-law, John Somerville maintained a private chaplain, Father Hugh Hall, disguised as a gardener, despite the dreadful penalties for harbouring priests and hearing Mass.(12A). On October 25 1583, John Somerville, apparently suffering from a temporary mental illness, perhaps brought on by the ever-present oppression, eluded his family and set out for London where "he openly uttered threats against the Queen: according to one report, he wanted to shoot her, according to another, he said that her head should be stuck on a pole. He did not get very far before he was arrested and sent to the Tower of London." (12B) This incident has gone down in history as "The Somerville Conspiracy", a title which ignores the fact that Somerville was alone, his threats were mere words without more and no evidence was found of any "conspiracy" which, by definition, requires the complicity of others. Sir Thomas Lucy, accompanied by the Clerk of the Privy Council, Thomas Wilkes, conducted a search of Park Hall, immediately arresting Edward and Mary Arden. Father Hall was arrested at the home of William Underhill. The government investigators were unable to find evidence of a treasonable conspiracy, as contained in the report to Sir Francis Walsingham, "For the papists in this county [ie., Warwickshire], greatly do work upon the advantage of clearing their houses of all shows of suspicion." (12C). Absence of evidence being no barrier, John Somerville, Edward Arden and Mary, together with their daughter were indicted and tried in London on 16th December 1583, Sir Thomas Lucy's brother, Timothy, being on the jury. They were found guilty of high treason and "Master Arden had to suffer the customary cruel death meted out to those condemned for this crime. Protesting that he was dying for his faith, which was certainly true, he was executed on December 20 at Smithfield Market, London, being hanged, disemboweled, beheaded and quartered; his head was then placed on a spike at London Bridge. On the previous evening Somerville died a violent death in mysterious circumstances in Newgate prison... Mistress Arden was sentenced to be burnt to death but was pardoned by the Queen. She and her daughter, Mistress Somerville, endured a long term of confinement in the Tower." (12D)

It appears that William Shakespeare left Stratford around 1585. Mutschmann describes traditions by some biographers of Shakespeare, (who were not apprised of the extent of the religious persecution of the time), in which the cause of his departure from Stratford is attributed to a story that he had poached deer belonging to Sir Thomas Lucy: Professors Mutschmann and Wentersdorf show that Sir Thomas Lucy had no deer at that time. They show, further, that, at a time when their connections to the Arden family, coupled with the ongoing taint of recusancy were a dangerous political red flag, Sir Thomas Lucy persecuted the Shakespeares, and, particularly William, to such a degree that the young William was forced to leave Stratford. (13)

After Shakespeare’s arrival in London he came under the patronage of the Catholic Earl of Southampton. There is also evidence that Shakespeare knew, and had a close relationship with, St Robert Southwell, the Jesuit poet-priest, who was a kinsman.

The world of the stage in Elizabethan times provided a surprisingly effective camouflage for the Catholic dissident of the time, at least if coupled with protection by powerful patrons. As Clare Asquith has shown, it also provided a mechanism by which Catholic faith and culture and political comment could be disseminated under cover of coded language (13A). As regards the theatrical culture that existed in England and the traditions it drew upon, Wilson observed: “People from even the best Church of England backgrounds often .. suppose that there had been virtually nothing in the way of theatre before the Elizabethan times and Shakespeare. Mention Catholic Mystery plays and Morality plays and they may conjure up an image of Bible stories performed by people on painted carts dressed up as devils with fireworks exploding out of their bottoms. Only those who have witnessed modern revivals of such Mystery plays take a different view, as for instance, attested by Bristol drama lecturer, Professor Glynne Wickham:

“Confronted with one of the most moving and dramatic experiences of their lives, audiences have paused to ask how it came about that they should never have been told what they might expect of these medieval plays, or why it was that they had been so seriously misled by historians and critics.’

The fact is that English drama had been flourishing for several hundred years before Shakespeare – initially under the auspices of the Roman Catholic Church. It began with re-enactments in Latin of the Passion and other stories as part of church services. These developed into productions on holy days by members of the medieval Craft Guilds, performed in English in great cities such as Coventry, York and Chester.” (14)

The Mystery plays did not ‘decay’ after the Reformation, “they had to be forcibly suppressed during Elizabeth’s reign on exactly the same grounds that the abbeys had been destroyed and the churches despoiled of all their belongings: that they were ‘idolatrous’ and ‘papistical’.” (15)

“As part of the same puritanism that had the Mystery Plays banned and suppressed, during Elizabeth’s reign, acting on the stage lacked the respectability it is often supposed to have had by those unfamiliar with the Elizabethan period. In 1572 Elizabeth’s Parliament passed an Act stating that common players and minstrels shall be deemed ‘rogues, vagabonds and sturdy beggars’ with severe penalties, including stripping and whipping. “ (16)

Actors therefore sought patronage by aristocratic or powerful families.

Accordingly, in keeping with the obvious need for powerful protection, the troupe of actors to which Shakespeare initially belonged, formed by James Burbage, sought the patronage of the Earl of Leicester as protection for his players two years after the passing of the Vagabonds Act and in 1576 he negotiated a lease in Shoreditch to the north of the Bishopgate entrance to the city of London. On this he built what became called the Theatre and which, at the expiry of the lease was moved to Southwark, to be rebuilt as the Globe. (17)

"The location of the original theatre is revealing: it was built among the ruins of Holywell Priory, home to a community of nuns up to the time of Henry VIII’s Dissolution of the Monasteries, whereupon even the priory’s original holy well became a horse feeding pond. The proximity of this priory was one of the reasons for Burbage’s choice of location since, in common with other monastic sites, the priory’s environs still carried the status of a “Liberty” - a status that once gave the Catholic Church legal immunity from interference. Although with the reformation and the selling off of the Church’s lands this Liberty theoretically passed to the Crown, those within a Liberty were still free of the jurisdiction of London’s ever more Puritanical civic authorities. "(18)

It is easy to fail to appreciate the extent of the puritan distaste for the ancient classical authors, viewed as ‘pagan’, the works of whom were banned and subjected to “Bonfires of the Vanities”. The ancient classical authors, in contrast to the puritan stance, had been transcribed by the monks and had formed the basis of much of the philosophical foundations of Catholic thought. In such a context, it is notable that Shakespeare made open reference to classical allusion and that his plays such as Twelfth Night and Comedy of Errors were inspired by the Roman comedies of Plautus, Titus Andronicus showing strong influence by Seneca. This shows that Shakespeare studied the classical authors at school – an indication of a Catholic education, taught to him by Simon Hunt. It also reveals that his cultural references operated in defiance of the prevailing mentality of the time. His classical references would have been a public indicator of his refusal to adopt the puritan mindset and his adherence to the Catholic world-view. The Puritans at that time attempted to ban the pagan poets and a Privy Council memo dated April 1582 called for “The removing of such lascivious poets as are commonly read and taught at Grammar schools…as Ovid …. or such lyke.” (19)

Shortly after Shakespeare’s time, the Puritans did, indeed, succeed in banning theatre completely and the Globe as a consequence, decayed, eventually to be demolished.

In 1606 Shakespeare’s daughter, Susanna, was listed as a recusant and brought before Stratford’s church court.

On 10 March 1613 after Shakespeare had retired to Stratford, he signed the deeds for the purchase of the gatehouse at Blackfriars, adjacent to the indoor theatre. Wood observed that

"[t]he Blackfriars House was a place long known to the government as a Catholic safe house – its warren of tunnels had been the despair of Elizabeth’s priest-hunters". Moreover, the tunnels underneath the house provided hidden access for boats to the Thames, thereby enabling escape to ships off-shore.

"The former owners of the house, the Fortescues, were obstinate recusants. Shakespeare’s will, drawn up in 1616, mentions a John Robinson living in the house at that point". Wood says that John Robinson was the “name of a young Catholic priest, who was living in London at the time and later became a Jesuit.”(20).

The house appears in the poet’s will among the property conveyed to his daughter Susanna but with special conditions attached and two years after his death it was conveyed to John Greene and Matthew Morris ‘in accordance with the true intent of Mr Shakespeare’s will’.

Stranger still, "one Sunday years later, a floor in the main upstairs chamber of the house collapsed, killing a Catholic priest and 90 of his 300 strong congregation, among them Warwickshire folk, including a Tresham. So the place was still a secret Mass house, just as it was in Elizabeth’s day". (21).

(1) Mutschmann, at pp. 27,28.

(2) Ibid., at p. 13.

(3) Wilson, at p. 35.

(4) Ibid., at pp. 41-43.

(5) Ibid., at pp. 54-55.

(5A) The introduction in Comedy of Errors of Anitpholus as "studying at Rheims" is telling in circumstances where so many of Shakespeare's friends and acquaintances were martyred or involved in some way with the Jesuit mission emanating from Rheims, a factor that would have been all too familiar to the audience.

(6) Ibid., at p. 56.

(7) Mutschmann, at p. 44.

(7A) Ibid., at p. 46.

(9) Wood, at p. 44.

(10) Ibid., at p. 55.

(11) Ibid., at p. 36.

(11A) Wilson, at p. 65.

(12) Wood, opcit., at p. 58; Mutschmann, at pp. 96-98.

(12A) Mutschmann, ibid., at pp. 51.

(12B) ibid., at p. 52.

(12C) ibid., at pp. 51-52.

(12D) ibid., at p. 52.

(13) Ibid., at pp. 96, 98; there was also a statement that Shakespeare had ridiculed Sir Thomas Lucy in some poetry.

(13A) Clare Asquith, "Shadowplay, the Hidden Beliefs and Coded Politics of William Shakespeare" Public Affairs, New York, 2005.

(14) Wilson, at p. 63.

(15) Ibid.

(16) Opcit, at p. 70.

(17) Ibid., at pp. 71-72.

(18) Wilson, at p. 72.

(19) Wood, at p. 64.

(20) Ibid., at p. 330.

(21) Ibid.