Here could be met men who had sailed with Drake or with Raleigh. Drake's old ship was there, and is frequently alluded to in the literature of the time, notably by Hentzner, although it is characteristic of Shakespeare's method that he does not allude to it by name. But compare the artistic result of Shakespeare's creation in his marine scenes with that of Eastward Hoe, a contemporary play in which Drake's ship and the humours of the pool of London have their part. There simply is no comparison, although it is probable that Eastward Hoe was vastly entertaining to the Elizabethans. The one is ore, the other refined gold. The river Thames was the chief highway of Shakespeare's London. The royal barge conveyed the Queen from Whitehall to her palace at Greenwich, followed by a procession of barges and boats bedecked and trimmed with flags and streamers, bearing her ladies and attendants, the royal bodyguard, halberdiers, and officers of the royal household. When nobles paid their visits of ceremony, they went by boat or barge. Merchants on business, from wharf to wharf, from Paul's to the Tower or beyond, went by water, or if their business lay in Southwark, they used one of the numerous ferries in preference to the Bridge. Pleasure-seekers crossed by ferry from the city to the theatres and other diversions of Paris Garden and the Bankside; or they hired wherries at the nearest stairs and were rowed across. There were thousands of watermen earning their living by hire on the silent highway; and these watermen or scullers were recruited from the mariners of England. From this source stories of foreign ports or cities would come to Shakespeare's ears almost without his seeking. It is probable, too, that even before the publication of his poems, and consequent personal conversation with Lord Southampton, Lord Pembroke and others, he had opportunities of hearing young gallants, who made the "tour" in accordance with a custom of the time, comparing notes on their experiences in Germany, in Paris, or in the Italian cities. And thus the names of Padua, and Messina, of Verona, of Milan, of Mantua, with their associations of romance and distance, may have struck upon the ear of Shakespeare, amid London surroundings, while the creations of his genius were taking form and shape. Of one proud city he would doubtless hear from various sources, especially from sailors and boatmen, a city like unto London in that it was ancient and splendid, though more august; and like in that it was a mighty mart and a great port— the Queen of the Adriatic. The first time that the moving picture of the Thames burst upon the vision of young Shakespeare is a psychic moment which must be left to the imagination of the reader. It is fortunate for us that his contemporary Visscher made his picture of London from a point on the Surrey side; he shows us the most important relation that existed between the town and the river. His picture, of which a much reduced facsimile accompanies these pages, is absolutely reliable. It enables us to look upon a scene on which the eyes of Shakespeare frequently rested. You may imagine him on the Bankside, watching the boats and wherries and barges as they passed through the shadows cast by the buildings, listening to a boatman's story of the wondrous city of the waters, its waterways and its gondolas; and you may be sure that a resemblance which quickly suggests itself to you was not missed by Shakespeare. A modern poet begins a beautiful description with the lines: I stood in Venice, on the Bridge of Sighs, B Visscher's picture shows that equivalents of these were prominent features of Shakespeare's London. The Bridge has, on the west the Queen's palace of Whitehall, on the east the Tower; Paul's may represent St Mark's. CHAPTER II THE ENGLISH HISTORICAL PLAYS In one respect these plays resembled the life of Shakespeare: their incidents and scenes were laid in various parts of the kingdom, but they centralised themselves in London. The plays mirrored the catastrophic process which preceded the emergence of the Tudor dynasty, and the advent of the Renaissance in England; the aspect of London was a tangible illustration of the change. The scenes of the last of the series of historical dramas, Henry VIII., are laid in London, in the period preceding the destruction which followed upon the Reformation. This was the very time to which Shakespeare's elders in London looked back with fond regret. Notably we find this was the case with Shakespeare's elder and contemporary, John Stow, the great historian of London. The "palmy days" owe a good deal to the harmonizing effect of time, no doubt, and pictures of youth dwell in the memory |