Saturday, February 09, 2008

THE TENANT WHO WROTE MACBETH - THE LODGER SHAKESPEARE

Review by William Grimes writing in The New York Times, February 8, 2008

To posterity the balding man in the courtroom was the greatest writer in the English language. To the maidservant formerly employed at his lodgings, he was “one Mr Shakespeare that laye in the house.” To the Court of Requests, taking depositions in a lawsuit in 1612, he was simply a witness who gave his statement, signed a hurried “Wm Shakspe” and then took his leave.


THE LODGER SHAKESPEARE
His Life on Silver Street
By Charles Nicholl
Illustrated. 378 pages. Viking. $26.95.

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This fleeting glimpse of Shakespeare as he appeared to others, grounded in a specific London setting, seized the imagination of Charles Nicholl, (right), a British biographer and historian. He embarked on a painstaking investigation into the particulars of the lawsuit, the family that rented rooms to the middle-aged playwright and life on Silver Street, where Shakespeare “laye” (that is, resided) from about 1603 to 1605, a period when he wrote, among other plays, “Macbeth,” “All’s Well That Ends Well” and “Measure for Measure.”

Mr. Nicholl’s efforts bore delicious fruit. “The Lodger Shakespeare,” resting on a solid foundation of teased-out biographical details, opens a window onto Jacobean London and the swirl of sights and sensations that surrounded Shakespeare and inevitably found their way into his plays. From a mere handful of dry facts embedded in an obscure lawsuit, Mr. Nicholl brings forth a gaudy, tumultuous, richly imagined world.

The case, long known to scholars, can be briefly summarized. Christopher and Marie Mountjoy, French immigrants who made the plumelike fashion accessories known as head tires, looked forward to the marriage of their daughter, Mary, to their apprentice, Stephen Belott. Worried that the lad might not go through with it, Marie asked Shakespeare to intervene, apply a little pressure and, in an avuncular role, preside over a formal exchange of vows. This he did, and the marriage took place, followed eventually by a lawsuit when the stingy father-in-law failed to make good on his promises of a dowry.

Reading in and around the lines, Mr. Nicholl poses questions. Who were these people exactly, and what was Shakespeare’s relation to them? What was his life like? What did he see when he walked down Silver Street?
“We are in search of facts but we listen also to the whispers,” Mr. Nicholl writes at one point, weighing a tasty bit of gossip before tossing it aside. This is his method: microscopic examination of the evidence enlivened by flights of fancy.

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