THEATRICAL DRUDGERY. COMPOSITIONS.
_"Sweet are the uses of adversity,
Which, like the toad, ugly and venomous,
Wears yet a precious jewel in its head."_
Shakspere had now his foot firmly planted on the lower round of the ladder
of fame, whose top leaned against the skies of immortality!
The fermentation of composition began again to work within his seething
brain, and the daily demands of the Blackfriars spurred him on to emulate
if not surpass Kyd, Lodge, Greene and Marlowe.
During the time Shakspere had been a strolling player through the middle
towns of England he had studied the works of Ovid and Petrarch, and read
with pleasure the sonnets and Arcadia of Sir Philip Sidney.
While playing at Kenilworth, the Lady Anne Manners, young and beautiful
cousin to the Earl of Leicester, honored the young actor with great praise
for his part in playing the Lover in "Love's Conquest." She presented the
Bard with a bunch of immortelles, that even when withered, he always kept
in an inside pocket, and at various times composed sonnets to his absent
admirer, playing Petrarch to another Laura.
The languishing, luscious, lascivious poem of "Venus and Adonis" was really
inspired by the remembrance of Miss Manners, and imagination pictured
himself and the lady as the principals in the sensuous situation!
William, like Dame Nature, was full of life-sap, that circled through his
body and brain with constant motion and sought an outlet for the surplus
volume of ideal knowledge, in theatrical action, teaching lessons of right
and wrong, with vice and virtue struggling forever for the mastery of
mankind.
The Bard worked night and day in his duties as theatrical drudge for the
Blackfriars, and made himself valuable and solid with old Burbage, who saw
in the young actor a marvelous development of new thought and force, that
had never before been seen on the British stage.
In a few weeks Bull Billings was discharged for tyranny and drunkenness,
and my friend William was given the place of chief property man and
prompter.
Various plays were put on and off the Blackfriars stage, through the hisses
or cheers of the motley audience, the autocrats of the "pit" seeming to be
the real umpires of the cessation or continuance of the most noted plays.
The last week in October, 1586, was a mournful time for London, as the
greatest favorite of Queen Elizabeth, Sir Philip Sidney, was to receive a
State funeral at Saint Paul's.
All England went in mourning for the handsome cavalier and poet, who lost
his life at the siege of Axel, in the Netherlands, while serving as chief
of cavalry under his uncle, the Earl of Leicester.
All business closed in honor of the young hero, and the celebrated military
organization, the "Ancient and Honorable Artillery," led more than thirty
thousand of the "train bands," who followed in the great procession to
Saint Paul's Church.
The sacerdotal service began at noon, and Queen Elizabeth rode in a golden
car on a dark purple throne to witness the last rites in honor of her court
favorite.
The bells of London churches, temples, turrets, and towers rang continually
until sundown, filling the air with a universal requiem of grief, while the
black clouds hanging over the metropolis shed showers of tears for the
untimely loss of a patriot and a poet.
William and myself saw the funeral car from the steps of St Paul, and as
the coffin was carried in on the shoulders of eight stalwart soldiers,
dressed in the golden garb of the Horse Battalions, we bowed our heads in
holy adoration to the memory and valor of the sonnet-maker--lost in eternal
sleep.
_"Come, sleep, O sleep, the certain knot of peace,
The baiting place of wit, the balm of woe,
The poor man's wealth, the prisoner's release--
The indifferent judge between the high and low!"_
How truthful this extract from one of Sidney's sonnets!
He was a synonym of bravery and politeness; for being carried from the
field of battle, thirsty and bleeding, he called for a cup of water, and
just as he was lifting it to his lips a fatally wounded soldier was being
carried by who fixed his longing eyes eagerly on the cup--and instanter,
the gay and gallant Sidney delivered the drink to the poor soldier, saying:
"Thy necessity is greater than mine!"
Noble self-sacrifice, elemental generosity, imperial nature, sublime and
benevolent in thought and act!
On our return to the Devil Tavern for supper we found Manager Burbage, of
Blackfriars, awaiting us. He was in great haste and desired William to look
over a play that had been submitted by Greene and Lodge, who composed it
jointly.
It was a comedy-tragedy, entitled "Looking Glass of London," in three
rambling acts, and while Burbage was disposed to take the play and pay for
it, he desired that Shakspere should give it such ripping corrections as he
thought best.
This was surely showing great confidence in a young actor and author--to
criticise the play of acknowledged dramatists who had been the talk of the
town.
Shakspere modestly remarked: "I fear, sir, your friends, Lodge and Greene,
will not like or tolerate my cutting of their play."
"Care not for their opinion! Do as I say, and have the play ready for
staging Monday afternoon at two o'clock."
"Your command is law, and I obey," said the Bard--and out rushed the
bluffing, busy Burbage.
The constant circulation of bohemian customers, day and night about the
Devil's Tavern, was not conducive to careful composition of plays, and
William and myself moved to modest quarters near Paris Garden, kept by a
Miss Maggie Mellow, a blonde maiden of uncertain age.
William continued to perform his theatrical duties diligently, while I was
engaged at the printing shop of Field, translating historic, dramatic and
poetic works from Latin authors, thus piecing out the price of food,
clothes and shelter in the whirlpool of London joy and misery.
During my apprenticeship with Sam Granite, as a marble cutter, I spent my
nights with Master Hunt studying the intricate windings of the Latin
language, and became proficient in the translation of ancient authors,
delving also into the philosophy of Greek roots, with its Attic phrases and
Athenian eloquence.
My parents desired me to leave off the trade of stone cutting and prepare
for the priesthood, where I could make an easier living, working on the
fears, egotism and hopes of mankind.
I was always too blunt to play the velvet philosopher and saint-like
character of a sacerdotal vicaro of any church or creed, feeling full well
that the so-called divine teacher and pupil know just as much about the
"hereafter" as I do--and that's nothing! Put not thy faith in wind,
variable and inconstant.
So, a life of bohemian hack-work for printers, publishers and theatrical
managers seemed best suited to my nature, giving me perfect freedom of
thought and a disposition to express my honest opinion to prince or
peasant, in home, church or state.
God is God, and Nature is His representative!
_While man, vain creature of an hour,
Depressed by grief or blessed by power
Is but a shadow and a name--
A flash of evanescent fame!_
Most of the dramatic writers during the reigns of Henry the Eighth,
Elizabeth, James the First, and Charles the Second, were graduates of
Oxford, Cambridge or other classical halls of learning. They borrowed their
plots and characters from ancient history and endeavored to galvanize them
into English subjects, tickling the ears of the groundlings, as well as
their royal patrons with Grecian and Roman translations of lofty
allegorical and mythological conceptions.
AEschylus, Euripides, Sophocles and Homer, with Terence, Tacitus, Virgil,
Horace and Ovid, were constantly pillaged for thoughts to piece out the
theatrical robes and blank verse eloquence of playwrights who only received
for their best accepted works from five to twenty pounds; proprietors and
stage managers driving hard bargains with these brilliant, bacchanalian and
impecunious bohemians.
The winter and spring of 1587-8 was a busy time for William. In addition to
his prompting and casting the various plays for Burbage, he was engaged in
collecting his sonnets, putting finishing touches on "Venus and Adonis," as
well as composing the "Rape of Lucrece," a Roman epic, based on historic
truth.
He had also planned and mapped out the English play of "Henry the Fourth,"
taken from an old historical play, and was figuring on two
comedies--"Midsummer Night's Dream" and the "Merry Wives of Windsor."
Often when entering his workroom at twelve o'clock at night, or six o'clock
in the morning, I found him scratching, cutting, and delving away at his
literary bench and oak chest.
He could work at three or four plays alternately, and, from crude plots
taken out of ancient history, novels, religious or mythological tableaus,
devised his characters and put words in their mouths that burned in the
ears of British yeomen, tradesmen, professional sharpers and lords and
ladies who crowded the benches and boxes of the Blackfriars.
He reminded me of an expert cabinet-maker, who had piled up in a corner of
his shop a variety lot of rough timber, from which he fashioned and
manufactured the most exquisite dressers, sofas and bureaus, dovetailing
each piece of oak, rosewood or mahogany, with exact workmanship, and then
with the silken varnish of his genius, sending his wares out to the rushing
world to be admired, and transmitted to posterity, with perfect faith in
the endurance of his creations!
In putting the finishing touches on the fifth act of a play he would
quickly change to the composition of the first act of another, and, with
lightning rapidity embellish the characters in the third act of some
comedy, tragedy or history, that constantly occupied his multifarious
brain.
His working den at the Blackfriars was crowded with a mass of theatrical
literary productions, ancient and modern, while our lodging rooms were
piled up with Latin, Greek, Spanish and French translations.
Manager Burbage, Dick Field and even Chris Marlowe were constantly
patronizing the wonderful William, and supplied him with the iron ore
products of the ancient and middle ages, which he quickly fashioned into
the laminated steel of dramatic excellence.
_"Why, man, he doth bestride the narrow world
Like a Colossus; and we petty men
Walk under his huge legs and peep about
To find ourselves dishonorable graves."_