The Lodger: Shakespeare on Silver Street
£4.30
Shakespeare the Lodger, Nicholl the Dodger - Some years ago I read two books by Charles Nicholl called The Fruit Palace and Borderlines about trips he made to Colombia and Thailand, respectively, and did not believe a word of either. They were over-the-top accounts of drugs, travels, precious stones, cliché mystery characters such as a red-haired Scotsman called McGregor living an unfathomable existence in the South American jungle. I later read his book about the murder of Christopher Marlow The Reckoning and was equally unimpressed. Once again, there was a decisive absence of hard facts and a lot of smoke and shadows. I should have learned my lesson but I was foolish enough to buy The Lodger recently which, according to the Guardian, ranks among the finest books about Shakespeare s life. This is hype of the highest degree. This book centres on a civil court case which took place in London in 1612 at which Shakespeare gave evidence. Based on a few of his statements, scribbled, at times illegibly, by the court clerk, Nicholl has tried to construct a whole narrative which is based on such a feeble foundation, i.e. the absence of facts, that it unravels within the first few pages. Instead, we have plenty of familiar quotes from the plays, lots of references to Marlow, banal observations, supposition on supposition and politically correct attempts to put 17th century London into a 21st century context e.g. describing Huguenot refugees as the boat people of their time. Pages and pages go by without even any reference to Shakespeare. It is also padded out with around 70 pages of court documents left in the Elizabethan spelling. How I longed for Anthony Burgess s lively novel about Shakespeare Nothing Like the Sun after trudging through this.
Not to be Overlooked - Charles Nicholl s books about Marlowe and da Vinci have previously graced my reading list: the first is a meticulous reconstruction of Marlowe s final meal in an attempt to explain the playwright s death, which is sometimes a little repetitive, the second a more conventional biography of the renaissance polymath.The Lodger is closer to the first, in being a depiction of how Shakespeare possibly lived whilst in London, centring on a single event, the signing of a legal deposition by the playwright which concerned his landlord, but fortunately without the repetitiousness.So little is actually known about the bard that to say it is amazing nobody did this before is an understatement, but it is a tribute to Nicholl that he has picked up the baton and run with it. As with the Marlowe book, The Reckoning, in The Lodger Nicholl takes small clues from documents relating to Shakespeare s deposition and expands them, using contemporary evidence, to construct a likely picture of how Shakespeare and his acquaintances would have lived and worked. Somewhat tenuous, but well done nevertheless, is the speculation around how Shakespeare may have drawn on his everyday life in order to write the plays. Previous attempts have been made, albeit on a grander scale, to prove that he was, for example, a seaman whose travels had given him access to the various locations featured in the plays. It takes less of a stretch to imagine Shakespeare incorporating at least some of his day-to-day experience into his works, for example his association with George Wilkins, nominally a victualler, in reality most likely a pimp and keeper of a bawdy house, which Nicholl contends could quite easily have formed the basis of the frolics in Measure For Measure. Maybe as good as giving some colour to the life of the Swan of Avon is the picture Nicholl paints of the City of London in the early 16th Century. Throughout the book he carefully relates London then to London now, so he tells us, for example, what was formerly in the place where modern day Gresham Street is. This interests me especially because I walked the streets of the city on a daily basis for the better part of two decades with my job, but what an excellent resource he has provided also for visitors to London curious about the history of the area they re walking around, just over the Millennium Bridge from the Tate Modern and within walking distance of a performance of one of the plays at the Barbican.Also quite clever is the way Nicholl takes us on a tour of the Huguenot immigrant community of the time, their networks and preoccupations and the milieu of tire-making, which then links into the headgear seen in brothels, stately homes and theatres, bringing us neatly back to Shakespeare himself and the possible reason he found himself lodging in the residence of the Mountjoys, themselves immigrant French tiremakers. Nicholl s knowledge of the works of Shakespeare is extensive, and he uses this well in relating the events in the book to the events in the works. But beyond that is his knowledge of the works of other Elizabethan and Jacobean writers and playwrights, including that of the aforementioned George Wilkins, whose plays seem to echo his criminal record, but also seem quite self-aware in assessing the lifestyle of a debauched and decadent cad.Sometimes, true, the book nudges towards a prurient nudge-nudge wink-wink suggestiveness regarding the bard s personal life, but somehow never quite gets there, more maybe than can be said for some of the plays themselves! Altogether, whilst lacking some of the gravitas of the likes of Frank Kermode, this is an educational, erudite and entertaining book, one any Shakespeare aficionado can t afford to overlook.
Entertaining fiction - Nicholl is a very eloquent writer, engaging the reader who is willing to suspend his disbelief. My reading of Shakespeare s evidence is that he was at best evasive, at worst perjurious. As a book about Shakespeare the book is a non-starter. As an imaginative description of early seventeenth century London life, the book succeeds quite well.
Take a walk along Silver Street - and meet the real Shakespeare! - The Lodger came to me as a Christmas present that went unread till just now. Well, Happy Not-So-New Year to me - I m so glad I finally got around to it! My bet is that you will be, too.At first glance, the concept and/or genre of the book may not be universally inviting, but I assure anyone who picks this up that you ll be hooked from early on. So, before going into the subject, style and so on, please - take it on trust: this is a gem, one of the most positively infectious books around.OK, here we go: Who would have guessed that the facts about Elizabethan hair-piece manufacture could be so absolutely fascinating! What s more, this material is utterly absorbing of its own accord, even without the Shakespeare-connection that is key to the book s construction.All credit to the author, whose meticulous attention to detail is enriched by his obvious delight in the subject, along with a patent desire to communicate this to the reader with great clarity and goodwill. Scholarship this accomplished really shouldn t be so accessible - but it is!Painstaking documentary research into immigrant populations and work patterns in Jacobean London is brought to vivid life, not just through the Shakespeare Effect, but by dint of sly and entertaining nods towards, for instance, Victoria Beckham, the hideous modern business concept of networking and the bums on seats commercial realities behind the vaunted offerings at the Globe and other venues (which, by the way, are shown to be not just theatres but places of assignation and integral to the sexual spice of the day).Like Shakespeare, this fantastic work combines genuine instruction and fierce intellect with splendid entertainment. Not to mention a cast of characters - real people - who are brought to miraculous life by the author s dedicated leafing through arcane records and the like. I swear, by some alchemy, these people are lifted off old paper and imaginatively animated to the extent that you can hear their accents, smell the smells of their houses.You don t even have to be a particular fan of the Bard (but how could you not be!) or a history-buff to get a genuine thrill, not just from the story that unfolds but from the amazing evocation of the Elizabethan/Jacobean world (especially the London setting) that is accomplished here.That tangible sense of real life hits the reader with just the same intrigue and awe as, say, the cinematic equivalent whereby we might find ourselves viewing Ancient Roman or Trojan CGI vistas as if we were actually there (although this narrative equivalent is far more authentic in its particulars). The sense of verisimilitude is definitely the same, and this isn t some fictional Gladiator or mythic hero but Shakespeare, the man himself, Will in all his glory.If you re not a fan now, perhaps this marvellous human perspective will help rehabilitate him from academic rarification? If, on the other hand, you re already a Shakespeare devotee, you will find some great new ways into his verse along the byways of Silver Street.The temptation is to say that this delicious book wears its scholarship lightly or some such - but that would be a disservice to the deep forensic research, cross-referencing and deduction that underlie the riches shared here. It s the author s engaging voice that makes it all feel so easy and enticing, when actually great pains have been taken in bringing us these insights. The speculations are always credible, never shoe-horned. And, in any case, what we learn on the way is worth the trip on its own, so friendly and informed is our guide.One last thought. This book represents true scholarship, genuine research, superior yarn-spinning and lovely, fluent sentences. In any just literary world, The Lodger would enjoy popular success far above that of The DaVinci Code (pardon my same breath).
The Bard s Questionable Associates - From the initial court case Nicholl has managed to spin lives for all those involved even the servants, allowing for possibilities where fact is not available but never descending into if, buts and maybes. He looks at what the area was like but with the added flourish of imagining what the view from Shakespeare s window was, the route he would have used to get to the theatres and the landmarks he would have known - friends houses, taverns etc. This chapter combined with the one looking at the local parish records, tax records and the ground plans of a nearby house all make for a very evocative scene setting. The Mountjoys were French and Nicholl takes care to explain what a difference being French in London made to their options and trading. Further chapters look at the make up of the house (who was living there, how it was furnished and split between working and living areas), the background of the Mountjoy family and their friends as well as what they were doing in 1604-12, the trade they were involved and how they got to know Shakespeare, the court case that left such a tantalising record and just what Shakespeare was doing lodging in Silver Street anyway when he had a perfectly good house in Stratford.It sounds dull and fact-laden. It s not dull. The facts are there but they are lightly handled and the author has a very readable voice. Out of several interesting possibilities that he points up some are very convincing, yet he is cautious and points out that no evidence means no conclusion can be drawn. Still the lives the Mountjoys lived seem pretty scandalous (brothel keepers for friends, illegitimate children and love affairs) and it was fascinating to see how Shakespeare might have included them and their problems in his plays. I enjoyed this book far more than I thought I would, I was expecting a perfunctory read but ended up delighted by a well crafted, thought provoking and very, very likeable book that had something new to say about Shakespeare - no mean feat. 8/10.