Any work on Shakespeare is a collaborative venture and in writing this book, and making the films, my debts are unusually great.
In Stratford At the Birthplace Trust: Roger and Marion Pringle, Josephine Walker, Anne Donnelly, Susan Brock, Mairi McDonald, Lorraine Finch; Jon Colton and the staff at Henley Street; Richard Morris and everyone at Wilmcote; Charles, Gail and all at Shottery; Ann Kenyon and the Halls Croft staff; Mary and all at Nash’s house. Thanks too to Bob Bearman for chewing over many knotty problems; and Stanley Wells who was prepared to be a sounding board and, with the typical generosity he shows towards all students and seekers, read my final draft: needless to say any errors of fact interpretation remain mine. Thanks to Liz Flower, our wonderful fixer. Others in Stratford-upon-Avon include Richard Edgington and all the town council; Martin Gorick, vicar at Holy Trinty; Tim and Iwona Moore-Bridger, and all the staff, boys and parents at King Edward VI Grammar School; Keith Wilmot, the Latin master; and special thanks to Perry Mills for his wonderful support at all times, especially in putting on sections of Ralph Roister Doister and Poetaster.
The players Our first and greatest debt is to the Royal Shakespeare Company, starting with Adrian Noble who first supported the project and put us in touch with Greg Doran, who made it all possible. Greg’s enthusiasm, knowledge, humour and skill was an inspiration to us all, and it is fitting that our shows went out in the year he received an Olivier award for achievement in the theatre. The excerpts were performed by Tony Sher, Harriet Walter, Jane Lapotaire, Julian Glover, Mal Storry, Estelle Kohler, Alex Gilbreath, Ray Fearon, Des Barrit, Gerald Kyd, Jo Stone Fewings, Nancy Carroll, Steve Noonan, Rob Whitelock, Adrian Schiller and Simon Trinder – and if one could bottle what they have one would make a fortune. On the road with us were Linda Hood, Vic Cree, Pip Horobin, Stuart McCann and Brenda Leedham; thanks too to Roger Mortlock and Lynda Farren at the RSC and all the staff at the Swan Theatre. Thanks also to Mark Rylance, Claire Van Kampen, Sherri Plant and Rowan Walter-Brown and the Globe Company as well as Anthony Arlidge from the Middle Temple for a truly memorable performance of Twelfth Night. Also ‘The Comedy Store Players’ who helped us imagine Shakespeare’s comedy: Jim Sweeney, Paul Merton, Josie Lawrence, Lee Simpson, Neil Mullarkey, Richard Vranch and Andy Smart.
The scholars Stanley Wells, Andy Gurr, Peter Blayney, Frank Brownlow, Richard Wilson, David Cressy and Imtiaz Habib gave freely of their expertise; so too did Alexandra Walsham and Marion Wynne-Davies; Alison Shell and Siobhan Keenan who generously helped me with their unpublished research. To Alan Nelson I owe Cordelia Taylor and the anatomisings (here). Nat Alcock, Peter Davidson, Judith Mossman, Tim Wilks and David Crankshaw kindly answered my questions. My thanks too to Pam Willis at the Priory of St John; David Trendell for the Byrd Mass; Philip Burden; the Liverpool Archaeology Unit; Robin Whittaker and the Worcester Record Office; the Bishop of Worcester; Dereck Maudlin, the Warwick town clerk; John Schofield at the Museum of London; Peter Milward, Tom McCoog and the English Society of Jesuits; the John Rylands Library; Dr Christine Hodgetts and the Record Offices in Warwick, Nottingham, Birmingham, Norfolk, Hampshire and Stoke; Jan Graffius at Stonyhurst College; Helen Clish and Lancaster University Library; Guy Hutsebaut and the Plantin-Moretus Museum in Antwerp; the London Guildhall Library; David Beasley and the Goldsmiths; Ian Murray, Alan Eastburn and the Company of Barber Surgeons; Robin Myers and the Stationers’ Company. At the National Monument Record: Anna Eavis, Anne Woodward, Ian Savage and Tony Rumsey. I am especially indebted to Jan Piggott at Dulwich College and Ian Dejardin and the staff of Dulwich Picture Gallery; Sir Paul Getty and Bryan Maggs at the Wormsley Library and Georgiana Ziegler at the Folger. Among many archives my greatest debt is to David Thomas at the PRO for his tremendous help; thanks also to Hugh Alexander and the rest of the staff for allowing us behind the scenes; and at the British Library thanks to Hugh Cobb, and the staff of the Departments of Western Manuscripts and Printed Books.
Descendants, eye witnesses and practitioners I would like to thank William Hunt and the staff of the College of Arms; Sir Bernard and Lady de Hoghton; Christopher Allen and Gill Godfrey at Ede and Ravenscroft; Mark Booth, David Meredith and the National Trust staff at Rufford and Sutton House; Alan Longstaff and his helpers who were so generous at Baddesley Clinton; Sir Edmund Fairfax Lucy at Charlecote; Lord Montague of Beaulieu; the Herbert family at Wilton House; the Derby family at Knowsley; the Earl of Rutland; Hedley Duncan at the House of Lords; David Schwarz and all at St Winifrid’s Well; Mark Beabey; Nick Pank; Bill Turner; Alan Fiddes; Leslie Winfield; Nicole Ryder; Billy McKeen; Peter Shakeshaft; Peter McCurdy; Anne Payton; Marc Meltonville and the experimental archaeologists at Hampton Court; Billy Purefoy and Paula Chateauneuf for the wonderful Cardenio music; Crispins of Shoreditch; Rev Brian Lee at St Botolph’s, Aldgate; Wendy Harrington and all at the New Inn in Gloucester; the staff at Leicester Guildhall; the Tower of London and Hampton Court Palace.
The film makers At Maya Vision Rebecca Dobbs was the producer who cheerfully held it all together, Sally Thomas was the wonderful line producer and Barbara Bouman did a huge amount of rare picture and textual research; John Cranmer as usual was the computer wizard and Kevin Rowan the accountant. The director was David Wallace who with Peter Harvey and Neil Lacock swapped the Andes and the Hindu Kush for the M40. Thanks too to Dave Scott, Jeff Baines and Peter Eason as well as Lucy Wallace, Rosa Rogers, Nicol Smith and all the FT2 trainees who worked on the films. Our fantastic editor Gerry Branigan whose contribution as always goes far beyond the editing of pictures and Sally Hilton who stepped in to help at very short notice; Howard Davidson who did the music and the graphic artists Dave McKean and Chris Krupa. Thanks also to Lavinia Trevor and Kevin Sim. At BBC Books my thanks as ever to Chris Weller, Sally Potter, and Shirley Patton; Martin Redfern and Linda Blakemore who did a great job on the book; Pene Parker; Esther Jagger who performed the heroic task of reducing and editing my huge original text. Thanks too to all those in BBC Television who have been involved in the films: Laurence Rees who first supported us and whose advice is always valued by we programme makers, Jane Root for commissioning the series, Krishan Arora our Executive Producer and Adam Kemp in BBC Independent Commissioning. In the States Leo Eaton, Executive Producer for PBS, was our rock as always; thanks too to Jacoba Atlas and all at PBS, including John Wilson, Jack Dougherty, Sandy Heberer and Jim Guerra for their support, not forgetting Kathy Quattrone for setting the ball rolling.
Friends and family I would like to thank the many friends, going back over forty years to my school and college days, with whom I acted in Shakespeare’s plays. Also Richard Cottrell and Jonathan Miller, and Jonathan James-Moore and members of the Oxford and Cambridge Shakespeare Company. But above all my thanks go to the two inspiring teachers who first taught us Shakespeare in Manchester in the 1960s, did plays and took us by bus to Stratford in the days before the motorway to see the great productions of that time – among them Hugh Griffith and Paul Rogers doing ‘Banish plump Jack’. Few gifts are more precious and it is with the deepest gratitude that the names of Bert Parnaby and Brian Phythian are inscribed at the front of this book
My greatest debt as always is to my family: to my daughters Mina and Jyoti and my wife Rebecca, who with her insight and support has contributed more than she will ever know to this book and who bore with great patience my relationship with the man from Stratford. This book is really as much hers as mine; and my debt to her goes beyond what can be put into words.