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Document signed by 2nd Earl of Pembroke, patron of Shakespeare's acting company
Description: Henry Herbert, 2nd Earl Pembroke (1534-1601), patron of the Pembroke's Men, Shakespeare's acting company before he and others joined the Lord Chamberlain's Men in 1594.
This document is signed by four of the successive High Sheriffs of Wiltshire and probably dates to the late 1590s ("1598" is written in the upper left in pencil in a later hand).
Transcription: S[] xxxvi li xiii s iiii d To the[] Pembroke | Edw Penruddok | Henry Willughby Esq | James ley | John Danntesey Edmunde Lambert | Wa: Vaughan: | Jo: penrudd[ler?]
High Sheriffs of Wiltshire from 1588-98 (signatories of the present document in bold):
1588: Henry Willoughby, of Knoyle Odierne or West Knoyle 1589: John Warneford, of Sevenhampton near Highworth 1590: William Eyre, of Great Chalfield 1591: Sir John Hungerford 1592: Sir John Thynne 1593: John Hungerford, of Stoke near Great Bedwyn 1594: Sir Henry Sadler Kt, of Everley 1595: John Dauntsey, of West Lavington 1596: Sir James Mervyn Kt., of Fonthil 1597: Sir Edward Penruddocke, of Compton Chamberlayn 1598: Walter Vaughan, of Falstone
Henry Willoughby is the most famous of these sheriffs. He is author of Willobie his Avisa (1594), which contains an unattributed prefatory poem in which his celebration of Avisa's chastity is compared with that of "Shake-speare" who "paints poore Lucrece rape": this is the first ever printed reference to Shakespeare. As the book also contains a reference to taking counsel, when in love, with "his familiar friend W. S. who not long before had tryed the curtesy of the like passion, and was now newly recovered of the like infection" (a man also described as an "old player," well practiced in the drama of a "loving Comedy … like to have growen to a Tragedy"), it is often suggested that Willoughby and Shakespeare knew one another. More dubious is the argument that maintains Willoughby is therefore Shakespeare's "W.H." and hence his fair youth.
The problem with all of the above has been that there is scant evidence to show Willoughby and Shakespeare ever met. The only person so far to uncover significant material potentially linking the men is Leslie Hotson in 1937; he found a mutual acquaintance, Thomas Russell, who could have introduced the two (L. Hotson, I, William Shakespeare (1937), 53–70).
Shakespeare is sometimes said to have performed with the acting company, the Lord Pembroke’s Men; he certainly had strong and continuous connections with the literary Earls of Pembroke. This document, by linking Pembroke and Willoughby (a link confirmed by Assize records showing the two present at sessions held in Winchester castle), provides a second conduit through which Willoughby could have been brought to Shakespeare.
Catalogued by Dr. Tiffany Stern, FBA
Description: Henry Herbert, 2nd Earl Pembroke (1534-1601), patron of the Pembroke's Men, Shakespeare's acting company before he and others joined the Lord Chamberlain's Men in 1594.
This document is signed by four of the successive High Sheriffs of Wiltshire and probably dates to the late 1590s ("1598" is written in the upper left in pencil in a later hand).
Transcription: S[] xxxvi li xiii s iiii d To the[] Pembroke | Edw Penruddok | Henry Willughby Esq | James ley | John Danntesey Edmunde Lambert | Wa: Vaughan: | Jo: penrudd[ler?]
High Sheriffs of Wiltshire from 1588-98 (signatories of the present document in bold):
1588: Henry Willoughby, of Knoyle Odierne or West Knoyle 1589: John Warneford, of Sevenhampton near Highworth 1590: William Eyre, of Great Chalfield 1591: Sir John Hungerford 1592: Sir John Thynne 1593: John Hungerford, of Stoke near Great Bedwyn 1594: Sir Henry Sadler Kt, of Everley 1595: John Dauntsey, of West Lavington 1596: Sir James Mervyn Kt., of Fonthil 1597: Sir Edward Penruddocke, of Compton Chamberlayn 1598: Walter Vaughan, of Falstone
Henry Willoughby is the most famous of these sheriffs. He is author of Willobie his Avisa (1594), which contains an unattributed prefatory poem in which his celebration of Avisa's chastity is compared with that of "Shake-speare" who "paints poore Lucrece rape": this is the first ever printed reference to Shakespeare. As the book also contains a reference to taking counsel, when in love, with "his familiar friend W. S. who not long before had tryed the curtesy of the like passion, and was now newly recovered of the like infection" (a man also described as an "old player," well practiced in the drama of a "loving Comedy … like to have growen to a Tragedy"), it is often suggested that Willoughby and Shakespeare knew one another. More dubious is the argument that maintains Willoughby is therefore Shakespeare's "W.H." and hence his fair youth.
The problem with all of the above has been that there is scant evidence to show Willoughby and Shakespeare ever met. The only person so far to uncover significant material potentially linking the men is Leslie Hotson in 1937; he found a mutual acquaintance, Thomas Russell, who could have introduced the two (L. Hotson, I, William Shakespeare (1937), 53–70).
Shakespeare is sometimes said to have performed with the acting company, the Lord Pembroke’s Men; he certainly had strong and continuous connections with the literary Earls of Pembroke. This document, by linking Pembroke and Willoughby (a link confirmed by Assize records showing the two present at sessions held in Winchester castle), provides a second conduit through which Willoughby could have been brought to Shakespeare.
Catalogued by Dr. Tiffany Stern, FBA