SHAKESPEARE: A POET FOR ALL SEASONS

Transcription

1 HeyJ LVIII (2017), pp SHAKESPEARE: A POET FOR ALL SEASONS ANDREA CAMPANA Austin, Texas Have we learned nothing from Shakespeare in the 400 years since his death? The current reimagining in the popular media of Sir Thomas More from saintly man of conscience to religious bigot fails to take into account what Shakespeare had to say about the man who put More to death: King Henry VIII. In the play Henry VIII, in which Shakespeare collaborated, the hypocrisy of the King s claim that he acts out of conscience in seeking a divorce from Katherine of Aragon is not only exposed but juxtaposed with the view of history as told more credibly by suffering martyrs who ascended the scaffold for the sake of conscience, as did Sir Thomas More. 1 At issue were heart, judgment, faith, discernment, and most of all the Pope defied by King Henry. 2 The history is well known: the Pope refused to annul King Henry s marriage to Katherine, and More refused to support the annulment the King obtained from his Archbishop in defiance of the Pope. Sir Thomas was later executed after allegedly refusing to swear an oath recognizing King Henry VIII as the Supreme Head of the Church. As if to say what truly brought about the Protestant Reformation in England, Shakespeare s play points to Anne Boleyn, the paramour extraordinaire of King Henry that turned his head before she lost hers. In the language of religion, a minor character named Sir Thomas Lovell speaks of a new proclamation for the reformation of our travell d gallants that fill the court with quarrels, talk, and tailors (1.3). (During Shakespeare s day, when Catholicism was illegal, Queen Elizabeth I issued a series of devastating proclamations against Catholics and the Jesuits in particular, subjecting them to ruinous fines, imprisonment, and execution.) Further, in Henry VIII, the character Cranmer s comment that in the days of Queen Elizabeth, every man shall eat in safety under his own vine what he plants, and sing the merry songs of peace to all his neighbors and that God shall truly be known (5.4) can be interpreted as an ironic allusion to 2 Kings and Isaiah In those passages, which convey the historical circumstances underpinning Psalm 46, the evil Rabshakeh of Assyria attempts to turn the true Israelites away from their leader Hezekiah, an ancestor of Jesus. Through this allusion, Shakespeare essentially derides the actions of Thomas Cranmer, who changed his faith on several occasions to conform to an incoming monarch, and equates Queen Elizabeth with the evil king of Assyria. The message parallels the directive to English Catholics by the Jesuits during Shakespeare s day, and in particular the Jesuit controversialist writer John Floyd ( ): never change your faith. The fictional character Lovell in Henry VIII goes on to say that English courtiers should leave those remnants of fool and feather that they got in France and renounce the faith they have in tennis, and tall stockings. In these seemingly trite comments on French fashion, we may see an allusion to Anne Boleyn, who studied at the French court before meeting King Henry in England sometime around It is well known that she was a devotee of the new Protestant movement. King François I of France was attempting to gain power over the Catholic Church through restraint of VC 2016 Trustees for Roman Catholic Purposes Registered. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd, 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford OX4 2DQ, UK and 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA.

2 SHAKESPEARE: A POET FOR ALL SEASONS 409 the Pope s power. It was intellectually and socially fashionable at the court of François to support the tradition of opposing papal authority, which began with the schism of the Catholic Church from 1378 to An agreement between King François and Pope Leo X allowed the French king to designate archbishops, bishops, abbots, and priors. While the Pope still controlled the purse strings of the French Church for the most part, the King of France was granted the power to collect tithes from clerics. The groundwork was set for a limited Protestant Reformation in France and ultimately French nationalism. Shakespeare s fictional character, Sir Thomas Lovell, appears to oppose this early form of Gallicanism. The passage demonstrates Shakespeare s intimate familiarity with the religious issues of his day, buried beneath a fictional but highly allusive surface that goes out of its way to hide his truest beliefs. Many of his characters are drawn from real life, and they oftentimes locate him directly within the recusant and Jesuit contemporary dramas of England. A recusant was a Catholic who refused to attend mandated Anglican Church services at a time when Catholicism was illegal. The early Jesuits the order was founded in 1540 established a clandestine mission to England in 1580 in order to minister to persecuted Catholics, but a substantial number were executed for alleged treason. The real and eminent Sir Thomas Lovell (died 1524) of East Harling in Norfolk, England, enjoyed a distinguished career in service to the first Tudor monarch, King Henry VII, as a trusted adviser in political, financial, and military affairs. Among the many positions he held, Lovell was a Knight of the Garter, Chancellor of the Exchequer, Speaker of the House of Commons, Treasurer of the King s Chamber and Household, and member of the Privy Council. He remained an influential figure during the early reign of King Henry VIII, serving as Constable of the Tower of London and Steward of the Household, and played a role in the French expeditions, but gradually retired, his age and opposition to the policies of Cardinal Wolsey leading to his eventual disappearance from the court of Henry VIII. Lovell had grown wealthy from his many salaries, and he acquired extensive real estate in East Anglia. The wives of Sir Thomas Lovell and his brother Robert Eleanor Ratcliffe and Ela Conyers were descended from the Lords Mortimer of Attleborough; real estate in Attleborough was owned and passed down through the Lovells. Sir Thomas Lovell s real estate holdings extended to the tiny village of Bridgham near East Harling, as did those of a man named Peter Moulde in 1547, most likely the father of Peter Mowle (a variation of the name), who lived in Attleborough in Peter Mowle, who can be found in the records alternately as Moulde and as intimately tied to the Lovell family, was the recusant Catholic scrivener born in 1554 that was responsible for copying and disseminating the poetry of the Jesuit poet and martyr Robert Southwell ( ). It has been shown that Shakespeare drew heavily from the poetry and prose of Southwell. 3 Arguably the greatest Catholic poet of the counter-reformation, Southwell served on the Jesuit mission during Shakespeare s day and was executed during the reign of Queen Elizabeth. The poems of Southwell and the manuscripts containing them were considered sacred relics by recusants. These handwritten manuscripts were dedicated and gifted by Peter Mowle to matriarchal Catholic women, 4 including the Frances Neville married to Sir Edward Waldegrave, and they became the basis for the printed copies of Southwell s poetry in circulation today, particularly the Waldegrave manuscript. Frances Neville was the cousin of Margaret Neville, who was married to the uncle of the Jesuit, Sir Robert Southwell ( ), while Frances Neville Waldegrave s daughter, Magdalen, was married to the Catholic Sir John Southcote ( ), to whom the Jesuit Henry Floyd ( ) served as chaplain for 19 years. The painting of Sir Thomas More found in The Frick Collection in New York says it all. Commissioned by More himself, the painting by Hans Holbein the Younger is bathed in shafts

3 410 ANDREA CAMPANA of light, while a painting found nearby of Thomas Cromwell, King Henry s pawn and an enemy of the Catholic Church, is shrouded in darkness. Hans Holbein painted several other members of the More family on a visit to England between 1526 and 1528, as well as members of King Henry VIII s court who were strong supporters of Sir Thomas More and Katherine of Aragon and whose descendants became recusants that sheltered Jesuits in hiding during Shakespeare s day. One of the portraits by Holbein features Anne Ashby Lovell, the wife of Sir Thomas Lovell s heir, Sir Francis Lovell of East Harling (died 1550), an esquire of the body to Henry VIII. Sir Francis, son of Gregory Lovell, inherited the extensive landholdings of his uncle, Sir Thomas, who died childless in The Holbein painting of Anne Lovell, titled A Lady with a Squirrel and a Starling, is exquisite. Set against a striking blue-green background and tendrils of vines, a starling covered with sparkling stars sits perched on Lady Lovell s shoulder and appears ready to speak into her ear; the starling is generally known for mimicry and repetition. She holds a pet squirrel on a chain in her lap; the squirrel was found in the Lovell heraldry, while the starling was perhaps for Harling. 5 The painting of Lady Lovell includes the presence of a girdle similar to those found in the More family group portrait and in another painting by Holbein of the Virgin Mary, 6 most likely an indicator of the support of Lady Lovell and the Mores for the Catholic Katherine of Aragon. Sir Thomas Lovell owned property in East Harling, where the Jesuit Henry Floyd was born, and Badlingham in Cambridgeshire, where John Floyd, Henry s brother, was born. Both Jesuits served on the mission to England during Shakespeare s day. The father of the two Jesuits, Evan Fludd (the pronunciation of Floyd at the time), was deeply connected to the recusant Catholic grandson of Sir Francis Lovell and Anne Ashby Lovell, Sir Thomas Lovell ( ), as indicated in historical records, making it likely that Fludd was employed by the family. This Sir Thomas Lovell married Alice Huddleston (born 1538), whose nephew, Henry Huddleston, sheltered the Jesuit John Gerard. Alice Huddleston s father, Sir John Huddleston ( ), was married to Bridget Cotton, whose family was intermarried with the family of the Jesuit Robert Southwell. A son of Sir Thomas and Alice, Sir Francis Lovell, was married to Ann Carey, granddaughter of Shakespeare s patron, Sir Henry Carey Lord Hunsdon, while Huddleston s other daughter, Eleanor, lived in Southam House in Gloucestershire, built by her grandfather and said to house a portrait of Shakespeare. The Catholic Lovell family of Norfolk was intermarried with the recusant Huddleston family, while the Calthorpe family of Norfolk was intermarried with the Lovells, the Huddlestons, Sir Robert Southwell (died 1514), the family of Anne Ashby Lovell, Jane Boleyn (the aunt of Anne Boleyn), and the Symonds family of Suffield, which included the mother of the Jesuits John and Henry Floyd, Elizabeth Symonds. All of these families lived within close proximity of one another in Norfolk. Other subjects painted by Holbein during this time period were Lady Mary and Sir Henry Guildford, whose half-brother George married a descendant of Sir Robert Mortimer of Essex and whose mother was Joan Vaux, and Sir Nicholas Vaux. Though Henry Guildford was a loyal companion to King Henry VIII, serving as the King s Master of Revels and Master of Horse, he also remained loyal to Katherine of Aragon and opposed the divorce, as did Nicholas Vaux. The wife and sister of a descendant of Sir Henry Guildford s brother would play significant roles in influencing Anne Higham Line to turn her loyalty to the Jesuits and become their devoted servant. 7 She cared and sewed for the Jesuit mission superior Henry Garnet and other priests before meeting her own demise on the scaffold in 1601 for harboring a priest. Anne Line was canonized as a saint in The direct descendant of Sir Nicholas Vaux, William Vaux, 3 rd Baron of Harrowden, was a recusant known for his Catholic missionary activity. He was tried for

4 SHAKESPEARE: A POET FOR ALL SEASONS 411 harboring the Jesuit martyr and saint Edmund Campion, and his daughters sheltered Henry Garnet for nearly 20 years. Further, Jane Roper ( ), whose great aunt Margaret Roper was the daughter of Sir Thomas More, married Sir Robert Lovell of Merton Abbey in Surrey, of the same family as Shakespeare s Sir Thomas Lovell, but Jane changed her name to Mary after being widowed. She sheltered Jesuits and left for Brussels, where she entered a convent under the spiritual direction of the Jesuits. 8 She later authored a pro-catholic pamphlet in a heated exchange with the Protestant courtier Sir Edward Hoby, a war of words taken up afterward by the prolific Jesuit controversialist John Floyd. The Ropers, who supported Cardinal William Allen in his establishment of a college for English Catholics at Douai, France, in 1575, were a long suffering recusant family that was dealt the blow of having employed the servant named Eliott who betrayed Campion, leading to his capture by the authorities and eventual execution. What is fascinating about A Lady with a Squirrel and a Starling is that it seems Shakespeare saw the painting and was inspired to write a passage in Henry IV Part I, another play that explores the rise of the Tudors. In the only use of the word starling in the canon of Shakespeare, the playwright has the character Hotspur say, He said he would not ransom Mortimer, forbad my tongue to speak of Mortimer. But I will find him when he lies asleep, and in his ear I ll holla Mortimer! Nay, I ll have a starling shall be taught to speak nothing but Mortimer, and give it him to keep his anger still in motion (1.3). The honor-obsessed Hotspur is attempting to persuade the King to pay the ransom for Lord Mortimer, Hotspur s brother-inlaw, held prisoner by Welsh rebels. Hotspur is part of the Percy family s rebellion against King Henry IV, who has the royal blood of Richard II on his hands stemming from his seizure of the crown. Disorder threatens the order of England, Shakespeare says in Henry IV Part I, much as King Henry VIII s illegitimate marriage to Anne Boleyn and wrecking of the Catholic Church threatened the order of England. In both cases involving Henry IV and Henry VIII the image of the starling speaking in the ear seems to have been associated with rebellion caused by corrupt leadership, leading to disorder in England. Though several generations passed between King Henry VIII and his daughter Queen Elizabeth I, those whose families had been touched by brutal execution especially the family of Sir Thomas More revolted spiritually and politically. For the past 25 years, historians have been quietly revising the official Whig version of the Reformation to account for the violent and forced interruption of a vibrant Catholic tradition in England. Now, as a counter-revision attempts to bring up the bodies and reinvent the character of Sir Thomas More, we may note that Shakespeare acknowledges, in what was supposed to have been his last play, The Tempest, that he has done the same in examining his country s history: And by the spurs plucked up the pine and cedar; graves at my command have waked their sleepers, oped, and let em forth by my so potent art (5.1), alluding to Psalm 46 and suggesting the Final Judgment in Catholic theology at which justice triumphs over evil and at which St. Michael the Archangel prevails. Not only was St. Michael the patron saint of the Jesuit mission, according to a letter written by Henry Garnet, but he takes credit for helping the Hebrew forces of King Judah defeat the army of the Assyrian Sennacherib, the underlying event that gave rise to the writing of Psalm 46, Shakespeare s special psalm. Saint Peter is considered by Catholic theologians as the spiritual force behind Psalm 46, which has been interpreted as a summation of the words of Christ: You are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of Hell will not prevail against it (Matthew 16.18). It must also be remembered that Shakespeare s Globe Theatre burned to the ground during a performance of Henry VIII a play about the man who wrecked the Catholic Church in 1613 on June 29, the feast day of St. Peter.

5 412 ANDREA CAMPANA If the great Bard himself has preserved the truth of the 16 th century for us one stained with the blood of the scaffold we may ask, Who is qualified to change it? Notes 1 Susannah Brietz Monta, Thou fall st a blessed martyr : Shakespeare s Henry VIII and the Polemics of Conscience, English Literary Renaissance, Vol. 30, No. 2, pp Eamon Duffy, More or Less, The Tablet, January 29, John Klause, Shakespeare, the Earl, and the Jesuit (Madison and Teaneck, N.J.: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press) F.W. Brownlow, Robert Southwell. In Twayne s English Authors Series (New York: Twayne Publishers) Susan Foister, Martin Wyld, and Ashok Roy. Hans Holbein s A Lady with a Squirrel and a Starling, National Gallery Technical Bulletin, Vol. 15 (1994), pp Ibid. 7 Martin Dodwell, Anne Line. Shakespeare s Tragic Muse (Sussex: Book Guild Publishing) Arnold Hunt, The Lady is a Catholic: Lady Lovell s Reply to Sir Edward Hoby, Recusant History, 31, pp , doi: /s