Category: William Shakespeare

The Birth and Death of William Shakespeare

23/4/2020

On this day, the 23 April 1616 William Shakespeare died, the 23rd of April may have even been the day he was born too. His baptism appears in the parish register for the 26th April 1564, babies were usually baptised a few days after their birth so it is in the realms of possibility.

William Shakespeare was one of our greatest playwrights, (I forgave him for the hatchet job he did on Richard III years ago!) and would like to write a piece on him myself but his life and his works are much covered and in a way I could never aspire to. However, I found this lovely comic line supposedly said by the man himself and thought, "this is my piece on Shakespeare."

"No I have drunk with Piping Pebworth, Dancing Marston, Haunted Hillboro’, Hungry Grafton, Dodging Exhall, Papist Wixford, Beggarly Broom and Drunken Bidford and so, I will drink no more."

The line supposedly originates from when he was visiting Stratford, Shakespeare is said to have gone on a Elizabethan 'pub crawl' setting out with a party of friends with the intent of out drinking a drinking club from the neighbouring village of Bidford on Avon. Drinking, all night, in no less that eight ale houses in the same number of villages, including Marston, Exhall and Wixford, Shakespeare finally fell asleep under a tree, where he was woken in the morning by his drinking friends who asked him join them the following evening, to which Shakespeare is said to have replied with the above sentence.

There is no proof that Shakespeare actually had the conversation but still, it may have come from his lips. We know he wrote comedy using such things as slapstick and practical jokes, and this statement is a fine example of Shakespeare talking in a quick and witty manner.

What a great pun! Only a man with the talent of William Shakespeare could have said that surely.here to edit.

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Fastolfe/Falstaff

9/4/2020

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While I was reading about William Montague, one of the twenty six founding Knights of the Order of the Garter, an order in which chivalry and honour where held in high esteem, I discovered that the actions by one man, was consider by another, to have "let the side down" so to speak.

According to Medieval Britain in 100 Facts by Matthew Lewis

"In 1429 France was resurgent against the occupying English, lead by Joan of Arc, and the culmination of this renewed conflict came on the 18th June at the Battle of Petay A smaller French force conclusively crushed the English army, who suffered over 2,000 causalities. John Talbot, who was later created Earl of Shewsbury, was captured at Patay and remained a prisoner in France for four years. Sir John Fastolf had lead a portion of the army but escaped. On securing his release, Talbot immediately accused Fastolf of cowardice and he was suspended from the Order of the Garter pending an investigation. Henry VI's uncle and regent, John, Duke of Bedford led the investigation but found no fault in Fastolf's actions,
reinstating him as a member of the Garter."

Fastolf and this event in his life are thought to have inspired Shakespeare to create Sir John Falstaff the cowardly knight
of his Henry IV plays.

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King Duncan I and Macbeth

12/8/2018

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The numerous clans of Scotland had been fighting each other for centuries and would continue to do so right up to the 18th century. One of these battles, in the middle of the 11th century, saw the death of King Duncan I at the hands of one Macbeth.

Duncan, who had a claim to the throne through his mother was king for just six years and Macbeth or mac Bethad mac Findlaich to give him his true name, was a clan leader from the north of Scotland. Like many a monarch in history, Duncan's time as king lasted as long as he could hold onto the crown before another with what they considered an equal claim ripped it from his head. In Duncan's case, his forays into the lands held by Macbeth at Moray cost him his life.

It was on this day that the aforementioned Duncan was slain in battle by Macbeth's forces at Bothnagowan or Pitgaveny near Elgin in Moray.

If you think of Macbeth then your mind automatically thinks of William Shakespeare who used Raphael Holinshed's Chronicle of Scottish History as a basis of his famous play and it is from his work that we, on the whole, view Duncan and Macbeth. Holinshed's work and Shakespeare play should be taken with a pinch of salt, they were written over five hundred years after the event. Shakespeare wrote Macbeth when James I of Scotland was on sitting on the English throne.

There is a painting of a dark-haired bearded Duncan depicted as one, among ninety-three other paintings, of Scotland's heroic kings, it has him wearing a red cloak over his armoured shoulders (the image below is probably based on this work)

The original painting is by a Dutch artist and dates to the reign of Charles II and forms part of the aforedmentioned set commissioned to decorate the Great Gallery at Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh. The inscription on the painting reads - Duncanvs I. The inscriptions on each of the paintings are taken from the work of a 16th-century Scottish historian and together they are an attempt to represent the 'symbolic power' of Scottish kingship.

Duncan's portrait has the following inscription -

'Son of Beatrix, daughter of Malcolm II a good and modest Prince. He was slain by Macbeth, traitorously, in the 6th Year of his Reign’ Duncan I is number eighty-four in the series.

Duncan I's body is stated to be buried on the island of Iona.

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The Birth and Death of William Shakespeare

Fastolfe/Falstaff

King Duncan I and Macbeth

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