id="CHAPTER_IV"/>CHAPTER IV

FIRST DAYS IN LONDON

Three hundred and twenty-four years have passed since William Shakespeare set out to prove his fortune in London, and in those far-away days that his genius makes so real for us the journey was long and at times dangerous. Three days would suffice in fine summer weather, while four or five might be required in winter time, when rivers were swollen and fords were dangerous. Not only were roads bad, but bridges were conspicuous by their absence. To send a letter from Stratford to London and receive a reply to it would occupy nearly a fortnight, and if, as some writers believe, Shakespeare had already made a certain name by his skilled handling of other men's work when touring companies came to his town, it is quite clear that his best chance of establishing himself as a playwright would be found in the metropolis. Even if he had not found trouble in his native place, he could not hope to thrive there. It is thought that he travelled to town on foot by way of Oxford and High Wycombe, and that once in the metropolis he sought a friend of the family, one Richard Field of Stratford, who had left Warwickshire seven years before, and after serving his apprenticeship to a printer, had set up an office of his own in Blackfriars.

It is possible that he owed his introduction to the world of the London theatre to Field, and that at one of the only two houses in the metropolis, "The Theatre" in Shoreditch or "The Curtain" in Moorfields, he served for a time in a very humble capacity, looking after the horses of the men of fashion who rode to the play. The keen relish with which he deals with the moods and thoughts of ostlers, stable-boys, and the lower classes that frequented the stable and the theatre, lends a certain countenance to the legend. A year later, when his friend Field had been admitted a member of the Stationers' Company, Shakespeare found his employment inside one of the two theatres—probably the house in Shoreditch; some writers have said that his first work there was that of a call-boy. It is certain, at least, that his apprenticeship was a hard one, and that in those early days his contributions to the support of the Warwickshire home must have been few and scanty.

When Shakespeare came to town there were some half-dozen companies of licensed actors, that is to say, companies that enjoyed and exercised their rights under an Act of Parliament (14 Eliz. c. 2). It said that all actors, save those who held the licence of a peer of the realm or other person of importance, were to be treated as rogues and vagabonds. The company to which Shakespeare was admitted derived its rights from the Earl of Leicester, and soon after he joined, if not before, it passed under the support of the Earl of Derby, and in later years under the supreme patronage of King James I., whose admiration for the poet and his works was very large and real. James Burbage was owner of "The Theatre," and it was in his time, we may presume, that Shakespeare acted as ostler and call-boy. But he must have risen up from the ranks at no small pace when his gifts became well known, for not only do we find him a regular member of the company, but a friend of the leading members, men like Richard Burbage, son of the proprietor, and Augustus Phillips. And at "The Theatre" in Shoreditch he won some fame as a playwright, though it was not at "The Theatre" but at "The Rose," a new house on the Bankside at Southwark, that the poet's genius was to "blossom and bud and fill the face of the world with fruit."

The close of the sixteenth century was a season of considerable activity among actors; the destruction of the "galleons of Spain" had relieved the country of a very real danger. Some of the leading companies amalgamated for a time when in town; new houses were springing up. In addition to "The Rose" there was one at Newington Butts, and in 1599 the Burbages transplanted "The Theatre" to Bankside and called it "The Globe." Here Shakespeare did the most of his work and made the most of his reputation, acquiring considerable wealth the while.

James Burbage built the Blackfriars Theatre, to which Shakespeare brought his company shortly before he retired to Stratford. He gradually acquired certain interests in the theatres, so his profits were not only those of actor and playwright. The wealth that was to be his was drawn from three sources.

CHAPTER V

SHAKESPEARE'S LONDON

Of the landmarks that Shakespeare knew, the Great Fire of London destroyed many, and Time, dealing in rather gentler fashion, has effaced the most of those that the fire spared. A map made by Peter Van den Keere in 1593 shows us the old London Bridge, with the Church of St. Saviour's, then known as "St. Marye Overyes," facing the river on the Southwark side. This church, which would have been well known to the poet, is, with the exception of Westminster Abbey, the only ancient example of pure Gothic architecture in London. Its earliest name would have been St. Mary Over Rye, rye being perhaps the old name for ferry. When it was built there could have been no London Bridge, and St. Mary's was built upon the site of a still older priory founded by two Norman knights. In this church one finds a stone in the centre aisle marked "Edmond Shakespeare. Died December 1607."