THE SOUTHWARK OF SHAKESPEARE

"Sweet Swan of Avon! what a sight it were
To see thee in our water yet appear
And make those flights upon the banks of Thames
That so did take Eliza and our James!"

-Ben Jonson.

In the previous chapter we thought proudly of Southwark as the birthplace of a master-piece of English literature, but our pride is even greater when we think of the Southwark of Tudor times, and realise that here our greatest writer lived and acted, and gave to the world the plays of his maturity.

Southwark had developed comparatively little since Chaucer's day. The panoramic view by Wyngaerde in 1545, and the map by Agas in 1560, show us the main road from the bridge, and one leading eastward to Horsleydown with a branch to Bermondsey; houses thickly cluster about the Priory of St. Mary Overie, and between the bridge and St. George's Church a few large mansions mostly facing the river, the churches of St. George and St. Olave are conspicuous landmarks, and beyond are the fields and woods separating Southwark from the villages of Lambeth, Kennington and Newington. The fields were intersected by open streams and ditches, crossed by scores of little bridges, and on the banks of the streams grew crowfoot, bitter-sweet and many grasses.

Changes that a map cannot show had come in Southwark. The district east and west of London Bridge became in the 16th century a refuge for persecuted people from the Low Countries, and it was said that in 1655 "the empty houses got filled to the glory of the English nation and to the great advantage of landlords." Among the refugees were many skilful brewers, armourers, weavers and glass painters, and their coming caused considerable improvement in trade.

Then too, the days of the Dissolution had come, and the monasteries had passed into other hands. Bermondsey Abbey had been given to Southwell, then sold to Thomas Pope, who pulled down the priory and church and built Bermondsey House on the site. The Priory of St. Mary Overie had been dissolved, the church bought by the parishioners, who changed its name to that of St. Saviour, and the priory precincts sold to Lord Montague. Suffolk House, immediately opposite to St. George's Church, had been turned by Henry VIII into a Mint. Rochester House and Winchester Palace on Bankside still remained, the latter, "a voluptuous princely palace," in Elizabeth's time the home of the great scholar and saint Bishop Lancelot Andrewes.

Tudor Southwark was the playground of London. Its convenient nearness, and its equally convenient freedom from the restrictions which bound the City, caused it to the haunt of hundreds of Londoners, who crossed the river to wander among the trees and wild flowers of Paris Garden or to enjoy the more exciting attractions of Bankside. Paris Garden was land which had been given originally to the Abbey of Bermondsey. Later it passed into the possession of the Knights Templars. Its name was derived from Robert de Paris, who leased the house and grounds in the reign of Richard II.

The manor house was known in later days as Holland's Leaguer, and stood in what is now Blackfriars Road, its name being remembered by the modern Holland Street. The Garden extended a little distance east and west of the present Blackfriars Bridge and was bounded on the north by the river and on the south by St. George's Fields.

Bankside extended eastward from Paris Garden nearly to St. Mary Overie, and the 'Way to the Bank" passed behind the Bishop of Winchester's Palace.

Both on the Bank and in Paris Garden the cruel sports of bear- and bull-baiting were carried on. These sports had been encouraged by English sovereigns for many years, and in the 16th century were a leading national amusement. In 1526 In 1526 a circus or amphitheatre was erected on Bankside, in which were to be held contests between mastiff dogs and bulls or bears. Accommodation was provided for a thousand onlookers, and the entrance fee was fixed at 1d., with an extra id. for a seat in the raised gallery.

The bear was chained to a stake in the middle of a ring, and four, five or six dogs were let loose upon him. As the dogs were mutilated or slain, fresh ones took their place, "until the bear was either mastered or proved himself invincible."

In 1570 a second circus was added on Bankside for bull-baiting, although this sport was not quite so popular as bear-baiting.

Queen Elizabeth did all she could to encourage the sport. She entertained the French Ambassador, and was herself entertained by the Earl of Leicester, to a display of bear baiting.

In 1599 she visited Paris Garden. Many are the references in Shakespeare's plays to this national sport:

“They have tied me to a stake, I cannot fly
But bear-like I must fight the course"

cries Macbeth.

Richard III compares his father to: "a bear, encompassed round with dogs."

The porter in Henry VIII taunts the noisy crowd with mistaking "the court for Paris Garden," and in The Merry Wives of Windsor we have mention of Sackerson, a very popular bear in Shakespeare's day.

The sport continued to be fashionable until the time of the Roundheads, when it was suppressed. It revived again during the Restoration, and Pepys and Evelyn make frequent reference to it.

The mastership of the royal game was a coveted office. In 1604 it was held conjointly by Philip Henslowe and his son-in-law Edward Alleyn. Henslowe had lived in Southwark since 1577 and was the owner of some property in what is now Clink Street. A keen man of business, he saw an opportunity of making money by supplying a public need, and accordingly in 1588 built on Bankside a playhouse known as the Rose. The name of Rose Alley still marks the site.

This was the first theatre on Bankside, but not the first London theatre, for across in the neighbouring parish of Shoreditch, James Burbage had built The Theatre, the first permanent building in England designed for theatrical purposes, and modelled in many respects on the old inn courtyards. South London boasted another playhouse at Newington Butts, near what was afterwards the site of Spurgeon's Tabernacle. Its history is obscure. Plays are first mentioned there in 1580, and by 1599 the theatre is said to be only a memory. An order to the players to act there on three days a week was rescinded because of the "tediousness of the way, and that of long time plays have not there been used on working days."

In 1594 another theatre was built, west of the Rose, in Paris Garden, and was named the Swan; in 1613 Henslowe engaged a carpenter to demolish the game place and build a playhouse "convenient in all things both for players to play in, and for the game of bears Thus and bulls to be baited in the same.' arose the Hope Theatre, where plays were performed on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays, and bears were baited on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

But the great glory of Bankside was the Globe, built in 1599 by Richard and Cuthburt Burbage with the timbers from The Theatre in Shoreditch. Its name may have come from its sign, which represented Hercules supporting the world on his shoulders, with the motto: "Totus mundus agit histrionem."

There has been much controversy about the exact site of this famous building, but the general opinion seems to be that it stood within the area now covered by Barclay, Perkin's brewery, and a memorial tablet placed in the wall by the Shakespeare Reading Society in 1909 testifies to this.

Much has been written about the Globe Theatre. We know that it was circular in shape, for Shakespeare says of it:

"Can this cockpit hold
The vasty fields of France? or may we cram
Within this wooden O the very casques
That did affright the air at Agincourt?"

There were galleries on three sides of the building, with small rooms under the lowest gallery answering to our present boxes: there was a yard or pit where people stood to see the exhibition.

Shakespeare calls such people "the groundlings," while Ben Jonson speaks of "the understanding gentlemen of the ground."

The prices of admission varied from id. to Is., but the latter price was charged only on special occasions. There was no scenery, the actors' appeal to the audience being: "Piece out our imperfections with your thoughts," and all women's parts were taken by boys.

The players were known at first as "The Lord Chamberlain's servants," but after a proclamation from James I had given them permission to perform at the Globe, they received the King's patronage and took the title of "The King's Players."

Who were these men who, with Shakespeare the greatest among them, made the "glory of the Bank?"

Christopher Marlowe, a man of rather wild, dissolute life, wrote plays in blank verse: Tamburlaine, The Jew of Malta, and Edward VI are the best known. He is supposed to have collaborated with other dramatists in improving plays bought by Henslowe, the owner of the Rose Theatre. After his tragic death at the age of thirty, Shakespeare paid tribute to him in the play As You Like It.

"Dead Shepherd, now I find thy saw of might
Who ever loved, that loved not at first sight?"

A bosom friend and admirer of Shakespeare was Ben Jonson, in whose play, Every Man in his Humour the great dramatist is said to have acted. The well known song, "Drink to me only with Thine Eyes," was written by him. You will remember that he is buried in Westminster Abbey with the simple epitaph: "O rare Ben Jonson."

Beaumont and Fletcher were two other young poets who lived and wrote on Bankside. They were the closest of friends, having everything in common, even to their wardrobe. They worked together in the production of many dramatic works, and both were admirers of Shakespeare, from whom they caught inspiration for their own writing.

Beaumont is buried in the Poet's Corner of the Abbey, but Fletcher lies beside Massinger, another dramatist of the period, in Southwark Cathedral.

Of Shakespeare, the greatest of them all, there is little need to speak here, for the details of his life should be known to many English boys and girls. The story of his boyhood in Stratford-on-Avon, his flight to London, his early struggles and his eventual triumphs, are, or should be, "familiar in our mouths as household words." He acted for a short season at the Rose Theatre under the management of Henslowe, and from 1599 to 1613 was associated with the Globe as actor and dramatist and shareholder.

Did he ever live in Southwark? That is a question we should like to answer in the affirmative, but probably shall never know. One writer says he did, between the years 1598 and 1608. Undoubtedly his younger brother, Edmond Shakespeare, lived on Bankside, and was buried in the Cathedral "with a forenoone knell of the great bell," and if William Shakespeare was not actually a resident he was a very frequent visitor to Southwark theatres, gardens, inns, and church.

The Globe Theatre, with which his name will be for ever associated, was burnt down in 1613 during a performance of Henry VIII.

Here is an account written by Sir Henry Watton on July 2, 1613:

"The King's Players had a new play called "All is True," representing some principal pieces of the reign of Henry VIII ... Now King Henry making a masque at the Cardinal Wolsey's house, and certain cannons being shot off at his entry, some of the paper or other stuff wherewith one of them was stopped did light on the thatch, where being thought at first but idle smoak, and their eyes more attentive to the show, it kindled inwardly and ran round like a train, consuming within less than an hour, the whole house to the very ground. This was the fatal period of that virtuous fabric, wherein yet nothing did perish but wood and straw, and a few forsaken cloaks, only one man had his breeches set on fire, that would perhaps have broyled if he had notby the benefit of a provident wit put it out with a bottle of ale."

The theatre was rebuilt, and remained until 1644, when it was demolished.

The glories of Bankside have passed away. To-day, wharves and factories have replaced the gardens, streams, and theatres, but here and there a name reminds us of bygone associations, and in the Cathedral hard by the Shakespeare memorial and the beautiful stained glass windows preserve the memory many of the famous men who lived and laboured there.