The Folio
Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies, Published According to the true Originall Copies, the Folio, was published in late 1623, seven years after Shakespeare’s death; complete with introductory accolades and elegies. It took seven years post-death but praise for Shakespeare – and thus, public acknowledgment of his death – was finally published.[1] Is it possible 1623’s Folio elegies left some clues – clues commenting, in some fashion, on the circumstances of Shakespeare’s death?
Dramatis Personae:
Author: Shakespeare. I.e., Shakespeare wrote the plays printed in the Folio.[2]
Introductory Elegists: An elegy is a serious, reflective poem usually associated with praising or lamenting the dead and offered as written words, published. A eulogy, while similar, is the spoken version; think, a funeral eulogy or sermon. Because there is zero evidence Shakespeare received a funeral his death might not then have received a spoken, public eulogy. However, prefatory elegies for Shakespeare – written words published – abound in 1623’s Folio: John Heminges and Henry Condell were responsible for two, collectively; as was Ben Jonson. Hugh Holland, Leonard Digges and James Mabbe each wrote one. Strictly speaking, the prefatory material composing the written introductory remarks in the Folio can be broken down as follows: true elegies number four, two addresses and one dedication total seven written pieces.
John Heminges and Henry Condell[3]
Heminges and Condell wrote two introductory pieces for the Folio; one is its Dedication and the other an Address To The Readers, a marketing pitch. Because neither the Dedication nor the Address is an elegy qua elegy – notwithstanding the two men could loosely be termed elegists – neither piece will be reproduced here.[4]
Ben Jonson
Jonson – contemporary of Shakespeare, poet and playwright – contributed an Address To The Readers and an elegy. Only his elegy is analysed to see if it provides any information about Shakespeare’s death:
To The Memory Of My Beloved, The Author
MR. W I L L I A M S H A K E S P E A R E:
And What He Hath Left Us.
To draw no envy (Shakespeare) on thy name,
Am I thus ample to thy Booke, and Fame;
While I confesse thy writings to be such,
As neither Man, nor Muse, can praise too much.
‘Tis true, and all men’s suffrage. But these wayes
Were not the paths I meant unto thy praise;
For seeliest Ignorance on these may light,
Which, when it sounds at best, but eccho’s right;
Or blinde Affection, which doth ne’re advance
The truth, but gropes, and urgeth all by chance;
Or crafty Malice, might pretend this praise,
And thine to ruine, where it seem’d to raise.
These are, as some infamous Baud, or Whore,
Should praise a Matron. What could hurt her more?
But thou art proofe against them, and indeed
Above th’ ill fortune of them, or the need.
I, therefore will begin. Soule of the Age !
The applause ! delight ! the wonder of our Stage !
My Shakespeare, rise; I will not lodge thee by
Chaucer, or Spenser, or bid Beaumont lye
A little further, to make thee a roome :
Thou art a Moniment, without a tombe,
And art alive still, while thy Booke doth live,
And we have wits to read, and praise to give.
That I not mixe thee so, my braine excuses;
I meane with great, but disproportion’d Muses :
For, if I thought my judgement were of yeeres,
I should commit thee surely with thy peeres,
And tell, how farre thou dist our Lily out-shine,
Or sporting Kid or Marlowes mighty line.
And though thou hadst small Latine, and lesse Greeke,
From thence to honour thee, I would not seeke
For names; but call forth thund’ring ’schilus,
Euripides, and Sophocles to us,
Paccuvius, Accius, him of Cordova dead,
To life againe, to heare thy Buskin tread,
And shake a stage : Or, when thy sockes were on,
Leave thee alone, for the comparison
Of all, that insolent Greece, or haughtie Rome
Sent forth, or since did from their ashes come.
Triumph, my Britaine, thou hast one to showe,
To whom all scenes of Europe homage owe.
He was not of an age, but for all time !
And all the Muses still were in their prime,
When like Apollo he came forth to warme
Our eares, or like a Mercury to charme !
Nature her selfe was proud of his designes,
And joy’d to weare the dressing of his lines !
Which were so richly spun, and woven so fit,
As, since, she will vouchsafe no other Wit.
The merry Greeke, tart Aristophanes,
Neat Terence, witty Plautus, now not
please;But antiquated, and deserted lye
As they were not of Natures family.
Yet must I not give Nature all: Thy Art,
My gentle Shakespeare, must enjoy a part;
For though the Poets matter, Nature be,
His Art doth give the fashion. And, that he,
Who casts to write a living line, must sweat,
(Such as thine are) and strike the second heat
Upon the Muses anvile : turne the same,
(And himselfe with it) that he thinkes to frame;
Or for the lawrell, he may gaine a scorne,
For a good Poet’s made, as well as borne.
And such wert thou. Looke how the fathers face
Lives in his issue, even so, the race
Of Shakespeares minde, and manners brightly shines
In his well toned, and true-filed lines :
In each of which, he seemes to shake a Lance,
As brandish’t at the eyes of Ignorance.
Sweet swan of Avon! what a sight it were
To see thee in our waters yet appeare,
And make those flights upon the bankes of Thames,
That so did take Eliza, and our James !
But stay, I see thee in the Hemisphere
Advanc’d, and made a Constellation there !
Shine forth, thou Starre of Poets, and with rage,
Or influence, chide, or cheere the drooping Stage;
Which, since thy flight fro’ hence, hath mourn’d like night,
And despaires day, but for thy Volumes light.
Ben: Jonson[5]
Jonson’s elegy has left no clues.
Hugh Holland
Mentioned earlier, Holland contributed one elegy to the Folio:
Upon The Lines And Life Of The Famous Scenicke Poet
MASTER WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
Those hands, which you so clapt, go now, and wring
You Britaines brave; for done are Shakespeares dayes:
His dayes are done, that made the dainty Playes,
Which made the Globe of heav’n and earth to ring.
Dry’de is that veine, dry’d is the Thespian Spring,
Turn’d all to teares, and Phoebus clouds his rayes:
That corp’s, that coffin now besticke those bayes,
Which crown’d him Poet first, then Poets King.
If Tragedies might any Prologue have,
All those he made, would scarse make a one to this:
Where Fame, now that he gone is to the grave
(Deaths publique tyring-house) the Nuncius is,
For though his line of life went soone about,
The life yet of his lines shall never out.
Hugh Holland.[6]
Holland’s short elegy helps not.
Leonard Digges
Digges, a decent-enough poet but first rate translator,[7] one way or another had Fortune’s favour looking down on him to ensure his inclusion as a Folio elegist: the printer for Digges’s literary translations was one of the Folio’s printers, Edward Blount; Digges was an Oxford friend of James Mabbe, fellow elegist, see below, and the clincher – Fortune’s biggest favour – was the fact Digges’s widowed mother married Thomas Russell; the same Thomas Russell Shakespeare named as an overseer of his will. It might not be unreasonable to think there was much closeness between Digges and Shakespeare. Did Digges leave any clues?
To The Memory Of The Deceased Author
MAISTER W. S H A K E S P E A R E.
Shake-speare, at length thy pious fellowes give
The world thy Workes: thy Workes, by which, out-live
Thy Tombe, thy name must: when that stone is rent,
And Time dissolves thy Stratford Moniment,
Here we alive shall view thee still. This Booke,
When Brasse and Marble fade, shall make thee looke
Fresh to all Ages: when Posteritie
Shall loath what’s new, thinke all is prodegie
That is not Shake-speares; ev’ry Line, each Verse
Here shall revive, redeeme thee from thy Herse.
Nor Fire, nor cankring Age, as Naso said,
Of his, thy wit-fraught Booke shall once invade.
Nor shall I e’re beleeve, or thinke thee dead
(Though mist) untill our bankrout Stage be sped
(Imposible) with some new straine t’out-do
Passions of Juliet, and her Romeo ;
Or till I heare a Scene more nobly take,
Then when thy half-Sword parlying Romans spake.
Till these, till any of thy Volumes rest
Shall with more fire, more feeling be exprest,
Be sure, our Shake-speare, thou canst never dye,
But crown’d with Lawrell, live eternally.
L. Digges.[8]
The trend continues; Digges leaves nothing. That said, it was awfully nice of Digges – the only elegist to do so – to mention a few of Shakespeare’s characters. No other elegist mentions any of Shakespeare’s characters. Juliet and her Romeo get a specific shout-out and Digges also gives a nod to a couple of Shakespeare’s noble Roman characters but doesn’t name them. There is no point trying to guess what Romans to whom Digges was referring; Shakespeare wrote of many noble Romans. Digges knew the cause of Shakespeare’s death; too bad he didn’t put it in his elegy – it would have saved scholars wondering about it for centuries.
James Mabbe
The last of the elegists’ qualifications are thus: translator, Oxford friend of Digges, acquaintance of Jonson and he had both a personal friendship and professional relationship with printer, Edward Blount. Mabbe’s elegy in the Folio is to the point:
To The Memorie of
M. W. SHAKE-SPEARE
WEE wondred (Shake-speare) that thou went’st so soone
From the Worlds-Stage, to the Graves-Tyring-roome.
Wee thought thee dead, but this thy printed worth,
Tels thy Spectators, that thou went’st but forth
To enter with applause. An Actors Art,
Can dye, and live, to acte a second part.
That’s but an Exit of Mortalitie;
This, a Re-entrance to a Plaudite.
J.M. [9]
Unfortunately, Mabbe’s elegy cannot assist the investigation.
To summarize, it is now late 1623 and it is only now the historical record reveals the first known published comments concerning Shakespeare’s death – an event that occurred seven years previous. One more Investigative Finding can be put forth:
IF – The first published comments extant in the historical record commenting on Shakespeare’s death appear as memorial elegies in 1623’s Folio – seven years after his death; thus far, they provide no clues as to Shakespeare’s cause of death.
Is it just happenstance Shakespeare’s death – save for the burial date notation in the church register – lacked recorded comment contemporaneously therewith? The only potential causes of death as commented on by previous scholars to date – fever or illness, due to drinking or not – were common; there doesn’t seem to be anything inherent in a regular death that would precipitate silence.[10] Be that as it may, modernity is left with nothing but silence and mystery.
The next logical step in an investigation looking into Shakespeare’s death – given the ever-present silence – would naturally be the following: is there a certain type of death that might, when reasonably viewed, induce silence in 17th century England? Unfortunately, there is.
SDRP
[1] There was an undated, unpublished poem by William Basse circulating between 1616 and sometime prior to the Folio’s publication in 1623; its first known publication was in 1633: https://shakespearedocumented.folger.edu/resource/document/manuscript-copy-william-bassess-elegy-william-shakespeare Accessed 16 December 2023.
[2] With, of course, the necessary caveat acknowledged: some plays were collaborations and contribution by others in some plays is certain.
[3] Both were friends of Shakespeare, fellow actors in The King’s Men acting troupe and beneficiaries in Shakespeare’s will; they were responsible for compiling Shakespeare’s plays for publication in the Folio.
[4] The Project’s larger body of research work dissects all Folio introductory remarks and makes some interesting finds; only the elegies are discussed at present.
[5] Works, xxviii-xxix.
[6] Works, xxx.
[7] Digges, Leonard (1588–1635), poet and translator | Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (oxforddnb.com). Accessed 16 December 2023.
[8] Works, xxx.
[9] Works, xxxi.
[10] Research yielded nothing to suggest deaths caused by drinking or illness were characterized by silence.