William and Susanna Read online

  This edition published 2016 by Lothian Custom Publishing,

  264 Danks Street, Middle Park, 3206.

  © Copyright L. E. Pembroke 2016

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  National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication entry (ebook)

  Creator: Pembroke, L. E., author.

  Title: William and Susanna / L.E.Pembroke.

  ISBN: 9781921737213 (eBook)

  Subjects:

  Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616--Family--Fiction.

  Daughters--Fiction. Historical fiction.

  Dewey Number: A823.4

  eBook edition distributed by

  Port Campbell Press

  www.portcampbellpress.com.au

  eBook Created by Warren Broom

  Author’s Note

  William Shakespeare was born on April 23rd in 1564 and died, following an evening spent with player colleagues and playwright Ben Jonson, on the date of his birth in 1616, just 52 years old. It is also true that his mother, Mary, nee Arden, was a member of a recusant landowning family and his father John a one-time mayor of Stratford-on-Avon. William had three brothers and four sisters, five children survived to adulthood. He was educated at The Kings Grammar School in Stratford-on-Avon.

  It is also a known fact that several members of the Arden family took part in various plots to overthrow Queen Elizabeth and restore a Catholic monarch to the throne. Along with a number of papist priests mentioned in this story, some members of William Shakespeare’s family, on the maternal side, paid the gruesome penalty for treason.

  William married Anne Hathaway in November 1582. He was eighteen, she was twenty-six years. Their first child, Susanna, was born six months after the marriage took place. Two years later twins, Hamnet and Judith, were born. Soon after that William Shakespeare was rarely heard of in Stratford. He became known in 1590 in London. He was, at that time, a member of a group of players called The Lord Chamberlain’s Men. At about this time he began his career as a playwright and poet and soon achieved fame. Periodically he returned to Stratford on brief family visits.

  Shakespeare was introduced to Henry Wriothesley, 3rd Earl of Southampton, in the early 1590s, Wriothesley soon became the playwright’s patron. Shakespearean enthusiasts believe many of the poet’s most sentimental sonnets were devoted to Wriothesley.

  Altogether, over a period of twenty five years, William Shakespeare wrote forty plays, one hundred and fifty four sonnets, two narratives and various other shorter poems.

  His son died aged eleven, probably from the plague. His daughter Judith made a bad marriage and had three sons, all of whom died before reaching adulthood. His older daughter, Susanna married Puritan physician, John Hall who became a close friend to William. Susanna and John had one daughter, Elizabeth.

  William Shakespeare, a wealthy man and owner of real estate in London and Stratford, returned to live in Stratford in 1610.

  The rest is supposition and fiction.

  CONTENTS

  Prologue

  ACT 1-1

  ACT 1-2

  ACT 1-3

  ACT 2-1

  ACT 2-2

  ACT 2-3

  ACT 2-4

  ACT 2-5

  ACT 2-6

  ACT 2-7

  ACT 3-1

  ACT 3-2

  ACT 3-3

  ACT 3-4

  ACT 3-5

  ACT 3-6

  ACT 4-1

  ACT 4-2

  ACT 5-1

  ACT 5-2

  Notes on Aspects of Life during the Sixteenth Century

  Prologue 1577

  John Shakespeare padlocked the roughly-hewn, heavy oak door. He bent to pick up the lantern, doused the flame and stepped into the bleak, coal black, main thoroughfare. Late, biting autumnal winds swirled along the path and cobbled roadway tossing hundreds of shrivelled brown, orange and yellow leaves to the ground. Slippery and dangerous those dying fallen leaves.

  John’s son shivered in the dismal atmosphere. He was of slight build yet of good appetite and it was way past the usual time for their evening meal. Also, William, aged thirteen years, was barely able to contain his impatience so anxious was he to reveal his news. Bubbling with excitement, he had raced down to the warehouse straight from school only to find his father too preoccupied with work to listen to what he had to say. Hours later, waiting in the dark roadway, he cupped his hands around his mouth and blew warm air into them. William was not good in the cold, since early childhood he had been given to frequent coughing and was in constant need of his mother’s herbal cures for chest complaints. Tonight he wished he wore one of the many sheep skin coats that were stored in his father’s warehouse in preparation for tomorrow, the weekly Market Day in Stratford.

  Tuesday was always the busiest day of the week for the majority of people in the town and district who were preparing for Wednesday Market Day. John was always up early on Wednesdays because soon after dawn crowds from the surrounding villages began setting up their stalls in the market square. Some of them, pushing their hand carts, needed to leave home before three in the morning in order to find a good position. They were mostly simple country folk intent only on bartering their diverse goods for the necessities of life. Sticks of rock (William loved the mint-flavoured sweets). Goslings caged in wicker baskets; they’d be full-sized and ready for the oven on Christmas Day. And, always, there were plenty of one day-old chicks huddled together adjacent to clutches of eggs, pots of honey, cheese and butter along with turnips and onions in abundance.

  Many wives, including John’s wife, Mary, had measured out packets of medicinal herbs for sale. Comfrey ointment, for burns, sprains and swelling, was always popular. Rose, lavender and sage for headaches or mint for an aching gut. As well, there were plenty of middle men who travelled twenty miles or more in order to purchase John’s leather work - gloves, boots and coats lined with sheep skin, wool and leather caps or rugs to cover dirt floors.

  After completing their market business, John always went with these men to one of the ale houses to sample a pint or two of Stratford beer. This was beer with a fine reputation largely due to the standard imposed by the local ale-taster, who was none other than John Shakespeare. Ale-tasting, these days, was John’s only avocation as the family had fallen on hard times. Sadly for John and his family, gone were the days when he strode across the Stratford stage at various times mayor, Chief Alderman, Bailiff of Stratford and Chamberlain of the Borough.

  John turned to the boy. ‘We’ll have an ale, your mother must wait our meal. She knows this is the busiest night of the week for me. You’ll enjoy the ale at The Crown, our latest ale-wife has already built up an excellent reputation. Her doubles are the best a man ever tasted.’ No doubles for William of course, John, not wanting to anger his dominating wife, would never offer his boys at school the stronger brew.

  Briskly they strode along to John’s favourite tavern. He, aware of his son’s present perturbation, hoped that whatever the boy was screwing up his courage to say would not involve him in expense. At any rate, he had a massive thirst to be quenched before he would permit his son to reveal what was on his mind.

  All members of the family had learnt the hard way that for them times had changed for the worse
during the last five years. No longer was there money to fritter away on unnecessary extravagances for the children. There were simply too many mouths to feed. William, since the infant deaths of their first two girls, was the eldest and there were four others. John often wondered where it would end. Abstinence being unthinkable for John and most of his peers he could only pray that now Mary was well over thirty she would soon be less fertile?

  He selected a small table in the corner, indicated the boy should sit on the bench and wait there while he ordered the ale at the bar. He returned with two foaming pots, a double and a single, and took a deep swallow ‘Well, my boy, tell me what is occupying your mind?’

  The boy, ignoring his ale, burst forth. ‘It’s Mr Jenkins, father, at midday dinner he called me to his office.’ The boy fumbled in his breeches pocket and drew out several sheets of paper. ‘He had these in his hand, it is a story I wrote last week.’

  William offered the paper to his father, paper covered with small, neat writing without even a smudge of ink - that in itself was commendable. John remembered his own few years at school, his work was always untidy spattered with ink drops from the quill. And another thing he didn’t easily forget was the school-master’s cane biting into his clumsy ink-stained hands. John was no scholar.

  The boys wrote their compositions in Latin and occasionally Greek. John had soon forgotten his Latin, time at school had been wasted on him. He perused the paper and found to his shame that he was unable to remember a single word. But then he hadn’t had the advantages William had. His schooling finished at the age of ten years. After that he worked on his yeoman father’s farm for several years, they grew barley which may have led to his adult interest in brewing. As a young man he went on to be employed by the Arden family; it was then he met and married Mary Arden

  ‘What is this story? The work is neat enough, I’ll admit.’

  ‘My story is based on the myth of Romulus and Remus. They were twin boys who were abandoned and left to drown; they were found and saved by a she-wolf who became their foster-mother. Mr Jenkins says my story is outstanding, and shows that I have a splendid imagination and an eye for detail. He intends asking you if I may attend Oxford University when I complete my time at The Kings. And, father you might remember that three years ago, before Mr Hunt left the school, he also said that I was doing remarkably well and might even end up at Oxford.’

  The boy’s upturned, eager face tore at his heart like a sabre. Yet he had to put a stop to this tom-foolery. ‘Thomas Jenkins has no business putting that sort of idea into your head. He knows, everyone knows, our present difficult circumstances. There’ll be no university for you my boy. In fact, I doubt that I can see my way clear to keep you at the Kings School for a further three years.’

  It had been hard for John to accept the change of social status when he was forced to resign his civic duties, and even now, five years since his enforced resignation, he brooded over the circumstances surrounding it. He knew he had done a good job in his various roles and always worked hard for the Stratford community. Having to lose his only perquisite of office embittered him. As Mayor he was permitted to send his boys to The Kings Stratford Grammar School, without paying fees. He always wanted educated sons; sons who would have a better life than he had done, it didn’t make him feel good about himself, being barely literate.

  The boy appeared stunned at his father’s reaction. Now silent, he averted his face not wanting his father to see the tears welling in his eyes.

  John’s voice softened. ‘You have to understand, William, you are now the eldest child, I will be depending on you. Things have gone badly with me during the last few years. I am no longer an alderman. I will never again be Mayor and, worst of all, my application to bear a coat-of-arms has been refused.’

  That hurt above any other matter. For John, to be legally called “gentleman” and possess a Coat of Arms was his dearest wish. It had never been easy being married to a member of the minor Landed Gentry; married into the family which employed him. His wife had brought substantial property to the marriage enabling him to be selected for his various civic duties, nevertheless, it didn’t make a man feel like a man when he had to depend on her inheritance to feed and clothe his children.

  He’d done his best. From the moment he met Mary, he was driven towards bettering himself. He had succeeded during the first years but as time passed he had paid dearly for his limited education, not to mention his refusal to commit to the new faith.

  ‘I have been forced to mortgage your mother’s country estate. The only property I now own outright is our Henley Street home. To be truthful, my boy, I have, for some time been seriously contemplating taking you away from school in order to bring you into the business. William, at this time I need as much help as I can get. And, as you are now the eldest child we look to you to supply that help.’

  ‘Why, father, why have we fallen on hard times? It’s not fair.’ His tone of voice had changed from excitement and enthusiasm to beseeching, whining and disbelief.

  John sighed. ‘No, it’s not fair. I was in an impossible situation. Your mother would never have forgiven me if I had signed the Oath of Supremacy, giving my total allegiance to our Queen in matters of the Faith. Yet, if I had stayed in civic office without signing The Oath, I would have been charged with treason.’

  ‘I don’t understand.’

  ‘Already we are suspected of being a recusant family, a family who secretly follows the old faith, and of course we are, but that fact remains to be proven. Years ago, the Archbishop of Worcester, following the Queen’s orders, ordered me, along with other members of the Stratford Corporation, to defile and desecrate the Guild Chapel in our own town along with disbanding the monastery in our district. May God forgive me, I agreed to do all of that because I saw no other means of escaping further excessive fines for recalcitrance or the risk of being charged with treason. But that wasn’t enough. Along came The Oath of Supremacy. We walk a tightrope William, and there are still many of us, especially many in your mother’s family who are viewed with suspicion, considered traitors because we do not always take Communion according to the new faith.’

  *

  John sipped his ale and thought about the turbulent times they’d endured following the death of King Henry some twenty years before William’s birth. Horrified they had watched as the dissolution of the monasteries and removal of all signs of the Roman Church continued by leaps and bounds. His wife’s family, along with thousands of others, had been particularly incensed by the violent removal of all trace of the shrine set on the spot, within Canterbury Cathedral, where four hundred years before, Saint Thomas A’Beckett was slain. Many were driven to plotting an uprising to remove Queen Elizabeth and replace her with Mary Queen of Scots. In his own lifetime there had only been three years, during the short reign of the Catholic Queen Mary, daughter of Queen Catherine of Aragon, during which persecutions of Catholics had ceased. However, following the accession of Queen Elizabeth, daughter of Protestant, Anne Boleyn, they had spread and intensified. Not only were the centuries old monasteries destroyed but also all symbols of papistry - altars, crucifixes, icons, candlesticks and statues were smashed into rubble. He simply couldn’t understand the extent of hatred between the Protestants and the Catholics. Those who remained loyal to the old faith, families that were caught concealing fugitive priests as well as those who persisted in attending Mass in improvised chapels in their own homes, were fined, imprisoned, tortured and sometimes hanged.

  The wisest way to handle the religious persecution was to attend Service, even to take Communion in one of the Protestant churches and to all intents and purposes, subscribe to the Church founded by King Henry VIII during the early days of The Reformation. The problem for John was that Mary refused to do the wise thing and was rarely seen at a Protestant church.

  John was certain the papists were losing the religious battle to retain the “old faith.” In many parts of England the population cared little about
the breakaway from Rome. Stories of Popes who had paid for the privilege of rank, sold indulgences and who had lovers and children were common knowledge.

  And they had all heard of Martin Luther, former priest of the Roman Church, and other good men who had broken from the old faith because they could no longer tolerate the debauchery that they believed prevailed amongst some of the hierarchy of the Roman Church. John was confused, he had never fully understood why there was such animosity between neighbours? Weren’t they all Christians? The Shakespeare family was fortunate to live in Warwickshire where many in the population believed as his family did. It was the same in Lancashire. In these counties, most of the land-holders secretly retained their Catholic faith. A person felt at home, safe in those counties.

  John had paid a heavy price for his religious beliefs but was happy enough to belong to one of the most zealous Catholic families in Warwickshire, The Arden’s. Mary’s extensive family owned large tracts of land north of Stratford in the Forest of Arden. John never regretted his marriage to Mary Arden in 1557 despite her religious zealotry, sometimes very hard to put up with.

  He sighed, now, after two infant deaths and with William the eldest, it would have been nice, he’d have been proud, to have him educated at Oxford and make something of himself. However, that sort of life was not for the likes of his family.

  ACT 1 - 1

  October 1579

  The whole Shakespeare family clustered around the box cart and four horses drawn up in the inn yard while awaiting six passengers who were about to commence their journey to the north of England.

  William was leaving his home to take up a position as a tutor in Lancashire. His mother Mary had prepared several meals for him including salt beef, boiled eggs, cheese, onion and large chunks of barley bread. She handed the food to her son with explicit instructions. Mary had learnt thrift over the last, few difficult years.