Geoffrey Marsh

Living with Shakespeare

Saint Helen's Parish, 1593-1598

• Gebundenes Buch

Produktbeschreibung

'Living with Shakespeare offers a vivid portrait of Elizabethan London, one that brings to life St Helen's parish, Shakespeare's neighbourhood in the mid-1590s. A fascinating, deeply researched and beautifully illustrated study.' James Shapiro, author of 1599: A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare 'Geoffrey Marsh is a scholar-detective, whose remarkable career at the V & A makes him a contemporary Autolycus, snapping up unconsidered trifles. A perfect sleuth for the investigation of Elizabethan London, his pioneering study of St Helen's Parish, Bishopsgate, brings to life, in the most brilliant and arresting detail, Shakespeare's day-to-day experience during some of his most formative years (1593-8). In the library of Shakespeare studies, there can be few volumes to rival this unique compendium for richness of detail or wealth of vivid contemporary insight. Marsh's attention to the character and humanity of the playwright's neighbours yields many suggestive footnotes to some world-famous lines. This portrait of a great writer's creative milieu is extraordinary and magnicent.' Robert McCrum, author of Shakespearean: On Life & Language in Times of Disruption 'Geoffrey Marsh offers the reader a fascinating, rich slice of London life in the late Elizabethan era. He focuses on lives of the people of the parish of St Helen's, Bishopsgate - which was home to one William Shakespeare for much of the 1590s, a period of transformation for the playwright and for theatre. Always a pleasure to read (but with its scrupulous research detailed in a lengthy Appendix), this beautifully illustrated book does indeed, as the author hopes, open up vistas upon Shakespeare and his world to people who only have a passing knowledge of his life. It will, however, also inform and intrigue Shakespeare scholars and practitioners.' Anna Beer, Kellogg College, University of Oxford Living with Shakespeare focuses on Shakespeare's life, following the 1593-4 plague, as he turned thirty, and was evolving from new 'arriviste' in London to established theatre professional. Packed with new discoveries from difficult-to-access manuscript records which include lay subsidy rolls, tithe records, census returns and parish registers, the book reveals the parish's complex social, religious, political and neighbourly intersections and influences. This story sheds new light on the influences which may have shaped a great writer as he finished Romeo and Juliet, A Midsummer Night's Dream and The Merchant of Venice while re-establishing his family name, status and reputation. The microhistory of a London's parish is combined with broader cultural cross currents to contextualise the creativity of a global icon. Geoffrey Marsh is Director of the Department of Theatre and Performance at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, which holds the UK's National Collection of the Performing Arts.

Produktdetails

• Verlag: Edinburgh University Press
• Seitenzahl: 352
• Erscheinungstermin: 30. April 2021
• Englisch
• Abmessung: 217mm x 278mm x 34mm
• Gewicht: 1916g
• ISBN-13: 9781474479721
• ISBN-10: 1474479723
• Artikelnr.: 59913734

Autorenporträt

Geoffrey Marsh is runs the Theatre and Performing Arts department of the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. He is the co-editor of David Bowie Is and You Say You Want a Revolution: Records and Rebels, 1966-70.

Inhaltsangabe

Acknowledgements;
Introduction: 1593, The Theatre, Shakespeare, St. Helens, English and You;
Part I. 1576, London, The Theatre and hunting for China;
1 1576, a starting point;
2 James Burbage plans his theatre - The Theatre;
3 Kick-starting the British Empire;
Part II. The Theatre 1576-1598;
4 Mr. Burbage builds The Theatre;
5 Trouble at The Theatre;
6 The early years of The Theatre 1576-86;
7 The 1594 changes at The Theatre & Shakespeare's new focus;
Part III. The parish of St. Helens, Bishopsgate Street;
8 William Shakespeare and the parish of St. Helens;
9 Searching for Shakespeare's lodgings in St. Helens;
10 What attracted Shakespeare to St. Helens?;
Part IV. Life, death and religion in St. Helens;
11 St. Helens church - the anchor of the parish;
12 A walk around the interior of St. Helens church;
13 Dreaming of English exploration, trade, wealth, colonisation and empire;
Part V. Shakespeare's neighbours in St. Helens;
14 The radical doctors of St. Helens;
15 Dr. Peter Turner visits a patient at the Sign of The Horse Head Inn;
16 Lawyers, musicians, an antiquary and more;
17 St. Helens as a micro-cosmos - a theatre of London;
Part VI. Bewitchment in London;
18 Witchcraft in Thames Street;
19 Mary Glover is bewitched in All Hallows-the-Less, Thames Street;
20 An exorcism in Shoreditch;
Part VII. Coda - the advancement of English;
21 Honey or cane sugar?;
Appendix. Detailed Documentation: Where did Shakespeare live in St. Helens
and who might have been his landlord?;
1 Introduction;
2 What accommodation in St. Helens would have appealed to Shakespeare?;
3 Identifying the location of Shakespeare's residence(s);
4 When did Shakespeare leave St. Helens?;
5 Who was John Pryn, Pryne, Prynne, Pryme, Prymme?;
6 Who was John Hatton?;
7 Three scrivenersand more? Who were Thomas Wrightson, John Harvey and
Israel Jorden, Jordan, Jordaine, Jordayne, Jurden?;
8 Who were John, Antonia and Katherine Jeffrey - immigrant embroiderers?;
9 Some other residents of St. Helens in the 1580s/90s;
Bibliography;
Index.