William of Stratford Part 3: ‘Would I Were in an Alehouse in London’

**Philip Rowe** (0:10)
Welcome to the History Of European Theatre podcast, and thanks for joining me on this journey through millennia of theatrical history. Episode 120, William Of Stratford, Part 3, Would I Were In An Ale House In London.
Last time, I left William and Anne Shakespeare with their eldest daughter in their arms at her baptism. A happy moment following on a few months after the necessities of their wedding. That episode, combined with what Professor Shile added in her guest episode, covers just about all that we know of the family's early life. To this though, I should add the significant event of the birth of twins, Hamnet and Judith, who were baptized in February 1585 But moving the family story beyond this is difficult because from 1585 until 1592, there is no documented activities in Shakespeare's life, except for a 1588 document concerning a dispute over mortgaged land that his father was fighting. And even in this, William is just mentioned as John's son, with no other indication of his profession or location. However, that absence of information has given space for myth and legend to grow up about the young Shakespeare family. There are a couple of these legends that have become so well known that it would be remiss of me not to mention them here.
The first of these tells how Shakespeare went to a nearby village of Bidford and spent the evening with friends in the tavern there. Having partaken of a little too much Worcester ale, the young man found himself incapable of finding his way home and spent the night sleeping it off in the open with only a crab tree for protection. This story surfaced in 1762 when an Oxford librarian, Francis Radcliffe, made a trip to Stratford to investigate Shakespeare's personal history. The story was then built up further a few years later when it was enhanced to the effect that the following morning, William's companions discovered him and suggested continuing the drinking session. William wisely declined. The legend was a popular one and for years tourists picked at the tree until it began to decline and was moved into the garden of the local vicarage for protection. This unfortunately failed to deter the souvenir seekers and eventually the poor remains of the tree were dug up by the vicar, who was fed up of tourists trampling his garden, so that no trace of it remains now. It has to be said that any semblance of truth in this story is highly dubious.
The other most famous legend of the young Shakespeare is that of him as a poacher and deer slayer. The story seems to come from a strong local tradition but didn't surface in print until 1709 when a new edition of The Complete Plays was published. Prior to this, there had been three reprints of the first folio, which had become somewhat corrupted. An editor, Nicholas Rowe, himself a playwright and literary scholar of the then-current rationalist mode, made many revisions and amendments and he is therefore considered the first editor of Shakespeare.
His six-volume edition of Shakespeare Plays reflects his experience of acting and writing plays. Following that rationalist neoclassical vogue of the time, he applied organisation and order to the plays. He divided them into five acts and scenes and marked entrances and exits of characters consistently for the first time. He also established the list of characters for each play and normalised the spelling of the names. Prior to this, printed editions used varying spellings for names, sometimes even within the same edition. It was also the first illustrated edition, with one engraving for each play. These engravings, by Francois Botard, reflect the performance and presentation styles of the early 18th century.
The edition also included plays now removed from the canon, as Rowe followed the fourth folio. Sir John Old Castle, a play now attributed to Anthony Munday, Michael Drayton and several other collaborators, and The Lamentable Tragedy Of Le Queen, whose authorship is still contested, but most likely by Robert Greene and or George Peel, both feature as the work of Shakespeare in this edition.
If you'd like to hear more about Nicholas Rowe, who, for the avoidance of doubt, I don't believe I have any relationship to besides the shared surname, and other 17th and 18th century commentators on Shakespeare, you can find all that you need to know over on Patreon for a small monthly fee, and you would be helping support my work here, so please do give it some thought.
As part of his introduction, Rowe added a short biography of Shakespeare, and to create this account, he sent researchers off to Stratford and other places associated with Shakespeare to see what he could find. The result, perhaps not surprisingly, is a story told through anecdotes and second or third hand remembrances. This, from his introduction to the complete plays, is how he tells the story of the recently married William.