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Thursday, November 30, 2017

Leonard Digges and the Shakespeare First Folio

In this series:

It can be quite difficult to get access to certain 17th century books.  One such book is Gerardo the unfortunate Spaniard (1622) by Leonard Digges, one of the poets who wrote a memorial poem for the Shakespeare First Folio.  It is one of only two known published works (both translations) by Digges who came from a highly respected intellectual family.  His grandfather and father wrote about mathematics and science.  His brother was highly respected in political circles.

Advocates of the Stratford candidate for the authorship of the works of Shakespeare have struggled over the years to explain why none of the persons who wrote memorial poems knew Shakespeare personally.  After exhaustive searching it turns out that Thomas Russell, one of the attorneys who drafted Shaksper’s final Will, may be the same Thomas Russell who married Digges’ mother, Anne.  As the result of subsequent reflections among the Stratford faithful, it has been declared that Russell’s role assures us beyond question that he was a close personal friend of the decedent.  No sources or examples, it would seem, are considered necessary to establish the claim as fact. 

Sometime between 1601 and 1603 the Digges family had moved from London to live with Russell in the township of Alderminster.  From that timeRussell and the Diggeses lived only 5 miles away from Stratford, the argument goes.  The Russell-Diggeses and their presumably highly intellectual connections at Court and in academia obviously became close friends with Shaksper.  It is, therefore, only reasonable to assume that the Stratford man was highly literate.  Also that Leonard’s First Folio poem was to a personal friend.

Among Stratfordians, all of this is understood to be sufficient evidence that surely the writers of the memorial poems knew Shakespeare personally however obscure their connections.  Also that Leonard was a close personal friend of Shaksper thus making clear the Stratford man’s intellectual acumen.  He was an autodidact of the first order — of an order only explicable by genius.

Regardless whether the attorney who drafted Shaksper’s Will was indeed Leonard Digges’ step-father or not, however, it is highly unlikely that Digges and Shaksper were ever friends — almost equally unlikely that they ever met.  The young Leonard left for Oxford University in 1603, the year that Anne Digges married her Thomas Russell.  This is considered to be about the time that Shaksper retired to Stratford-Upon-Avon.  In that year, Shaksper would have been 39 years of age and Leonard 15.

Upon receiving his baccalaureate, in 1606, Leonard briefly chose to reside in London.  After that he went on an extended tour of the Continent which ended around the year that Shaksper died.  Upon his return he took up residence at Oxford University.  He received his M.A. from Oxford, in 1626, based upon his attendance for many years at the finest universities in Europe.[1]


Regardless that the Diggeses lived in a village only 5 miles away, Leonard was only there, at most, during vacations and breaks from his Oxford University studies.  The inconveniences of travel being such as they were, in the early 17th century, he is likely to have remained in Oxford or to have visited London even on those occasions. Had he returned home, he remained half Shaksper’s age and is unlikely to have sought his company.  After 1606, Leonard was rarely at home or never at all.  He spent the next ten-or-so years studying at European universities.

Add to this the fact that Digges’ memorial poem includes not the slightest intimate personal note and the matter is right back where is was to begin with.  And where exactly was the matter?  The writers of the memorial poems all belonged to the stable of writers of Edward Blount, the main editor of the First Folio of the Plays of Shakespeare.[2]  Thomas Russell was chosen by Shaksper, a wily businessman, from among the lawyers in his vicinity, for the man’s professional capabilities rather than for friendship’s sake.

In the year 1622 (the year the final text of folio was being being finished), Edward Blount published:

Gerardo the unfortunate Spaniard, or a Pattern for Lascivious Lovers. Containing several strange miseries of loose affection. Written by an ingenious Spanish Gentleman, Don Goncalo de Cespides, and Meneces, in the time of his five years imprisonment.
Originally in Spanish, and made English by L. D.—
London : Printed for Ed. Blount. 1622.

The “L. D.” was Leonard Digges.  Remarkably, the connection between Blount and the Herbert brothers was active before their names appears as the dedicatees to the First Folio.

The Dedication to the Noble Brothers, William Earl of Pembroke, and, Philip Earl of Montgomery, nephews to Sir Philip Sidney, follows:

Right Noble: My Lords—

Translations, as says a witty Spaniard, are, in respect of their originals, like the knotty wrong-sides of arras-hangings : but by his wit's leave, as the fair outside could ill be seen, without help of the knots within; no more can the fame of a well-deserving author be far spread, without the labour of a translation. This made me, for the present Spanish author's sake, venture to make him speak English, and to do a public good by publishing the moral examples contained in the present tragical discourses. Now, that I presume to offer my weak endeavours to the view and protection of your Lordships, I shall no way despair of a pardon ; since the world, that takes notice of your noble good
ness, the first and best of your honoured titles, gives me assurance, that, though a stranger rather than an intruder, I shall be esteemed
To your Honors both,

A devoted Servant,
LEONARD DIGGES.[3]

The coincidence that the names of the memorial poets, Edward Blount, Ben Jonson and the Herbert brothers are often found together around the years 1622-23 is more than simply suggestive.  As they were working on the folio project, they were demonstrably trading the customary favors in terms of commendatory poems, book publications, etc.  This system of professional courtesies is the reason a poem by Leonard Digges appeared in the Folio.  It is also the reason why Hugh Holland[4] and James Mabbe, both associated with Blount’s press at the time, were selected for the other memorials.


Much of this material is also touched upon in Leah Scraggs' exceptional essay “Edward Blount and The Prefatory Material to the First Folio Of Shakespeare”. Bulletin of the John Rylands Library, 79, 1 (1997), pp. 117–26.




[1] Wood, Anthony.  Athenae Oxonienses.  An Exact History Of All The Writers And Bishops Who Have Had Their Education In The University Of Oxford. 592-3.
[3] Freeman, R. Kentish poets, a series of writers, natives of or residents in Kent;..., II, 1-3.
[4] Holland and Jonson had previously exchanged favors, on other projects, and this may be a factor as well.





  • Desperately Seeking Bridget (de Vere).  August 24, 2014.  "Even most people who assert that the Earl of Oxford was the poet and playwright Shake-speare (a group to which I resoundingly belong) do not seem to know that she was engaged, in 1598, to William Herbert, soon to inherit the Earldom of Pembroke,..."
  • Check out Virtual Grub Street's English Renaissance Article Index for articles and reviews about this fascinating time and about the Shakespeare Authorship Question.


Sunday, November 26, 2017

Falstaff, the Fellowship, Waugh-Bate, etc.: The Bystander #1


The Colonel pulled up his favorite chair and settled in.  Actually, it is the only other chair in the apartment.  I rarely entertain.

“I see you’ve included periodic overviews in your new book.  Don’t you think that is just a little patronizing?”

I could not help but smile.  I never can help smiling when the Colonel stops in.  I nodded toward the cup in his hand.  “Earl Grey?”

“Of course.  Caffeinated.  The ex sent me an early tin for Christmas.”  He slowly shook his head.  A gesture to prepare me for the worst.  “Decaf.”

“Did you expect her to change?”

“She delights in imagining what it does to me.  I will give it to the Salvation Army this year, I think.”

“Not everyone is the Colonel,” I said.

He stared into his cup looking for what my meaning could be.

“The overviews.  This is the 21st century.  I’m all but guaranteeing commercial failure writing about Shakespeare to begin with.  I’m told the books can be difficult to follow for those with no background.  It has been suggested that I help the reader more.”

“By the Shakespeare Brethren?”

“The Fellowship?  No.  They still pretty much spend their time talking about how Mark Twain was an authorship skeptic and what the key is to this or that cipher.”

“And slut-shaming Queen Elizabeth.”

“Goes without saying.”  I rose to go to the kitchenette and heat my coffee in the microwave.

The Colonel raised his voice as I walked away.  “You include footnotes and bibliographies.  Isn’t that enough?”

“You and I are among the last of a dying breed, I’m afraid.  There are no notes or bibliographies on the Discovery Channel.”

I received a quizzical look by way of reply.

“The Academics are busy arranging two classes a week punctuated with tax-free inbreeding conferences.  The amateur Fellows are crying foul and trying to manage exactly the same arrangements for themselves on the cheap.  I’m left trawling for unaffiliated curious minds or those heterodox types that aren’t perfectly bought in.  Much the same waters, that is to say, that the Discovery Channel and Ken Burns are fishing.”

“But what will people in any of these categories really know for their ersatz efforts?”

“I can’t see that they care.  Not enough to change, anyway.”

The Colonel raised his cup in a toast.  “To the last of the gentleman scholars.”

Returning to my computer workstation, I raised my reheated, day old coffee.  “To the last of the gentleman scholars.”

“I did watch that Waugh-Bate YouTube thing you mentioned.  Useless generalities vs. precise errors: an interesting premise.”



“I thought you might like it.”

“Bate being something of a fourth form prize holder, you might think he would care that he misrepresented Dryden and was outright wrong about Capulet and the kitchen staff.  Surely he didn’t come up with it off the top of his head.  He was reading his opening statement from a text.”

“I must admit, he had me convinced.”

The Colonel was taken aback.  “Of his ridiculous claims?” 

“Of course not.  He had me convinced that he might be poorly enough educated in certain key matters that he could sincerely believe that what he was saying was true.” 

“Capulet was chastised by his wife and Juliet’s nurse for sticking his nose in women’s business where it did not rightfully belong.  That was precisely the division of the household activities common among the upper classes both in England and Italy during the Elizabethan Era.  He was merely passing through the kitchen, as any husband might who was anxious that the preparations for the big party go well, and dallying more than the ladies felt was proper.”

“Shakespeare would hardly have been a great playwright," I added, "or a presumptive nobleman, if he wrote every character strictly to type.  That he knew that a nobleman was a human being given to individual foibles, to playful infractions, rather than an automaton strictly obedient to every social rule of his class, at every moment, means he knew more about noblemen in their private moments than was likely for a grain dealer.”

“Also, it seems that the Stratford man had never been to Elsinor Castle and Edward de Vere had never been to Elsinor Castle, therefore the Stratford man had to have written Hamlet.”  The Colonel seasoned his incredulity with the cross-eyed face which he does to remarkable comic effect.

“At any rate, it hardly mattered so long as Bate sounded like he was citing a devastating fact in his favor.  We live in the era of the soundbite.  Fact checks come long after the attention has wandered elsewhere, if they come at all.”

“What with the advent of the Stuarts, and their European tastes, pretty much everything changed about the way the nobility acted and spoke.  That being the case, Fletcher was bound to please the post-Restoration ear more than Shakespeare who they thought was a terribly talented Neanderthal.  Has the Fellowship followed up?”

“Not enough drama to attract them, I suspect.  Much more interesting to overlay a Shakespeare title page with a geometrical matrix and see what pops up.”

“By Dryden’s time educated conversation and social mores were completely changed (although he cast no aspersions whatsoever on Shakespeare’s portrayal of relationships between servants and masters).  So then, he is saying that Shakespeare’s noble characters spoke like those of an earlier age and sounded false in the ear of the Restoration theatergoer.  We’re talking some serious low-hanging fruit here.  It’s not like there wouldn’t be time to chase ciphers after the work was done.”

“They are natural talents and must go where their inspiration takes them.”

“I can certainly see your point.  It seems like there is no end of natural talents these days.  We must be onto something.”

“The Fellowship is all in a panic about Bate’s comments on computer analysis of Shakespeare’s texts, though.  He even pronounces the phrase ‘mathematical precision’ with unquestionable precision.”



“That reminds me.  My computer is getting pretty slow again.”

“I’ll see when I can schedule you in.  Have you bought the RAM expansion boards I recommended?”

“I’ve been busy reading your Falstaff book.”

“I only just published it earlier this week.”

“Before that I was preparing.  Your books require a period of attention training.  You know: all those footnotes and bibliographies and everything.”

“Soon I won’t be able to keep you on the Internet without installing the boards.”

“You’ve been putting a lot of time into understanding those analysis programs yourself, haven’t you?  By the sound of it, you haven’t found them a particularly daunting problem.  Why don’t you write a book about it?  I bet they’d buy a bunch of them.”

“Like they’re buying the book about  Churchyard being the model for Falstaff, you mean?”

“I’m sure they’ll pass the information around."  There was a savage twinkle in the Colonel's eye as he spoke.  "You should be proud of your accomplishment.”

“Yuh, right.”

“Still no reviews, I notice.  Who was the beauty who wrote that your research on the Elizabeth portrait book was exemplary and then gave you a 3-star rating, by the way?”

I only raised my eyebrows and pursed my lips.

“Well, I have to go get some pizza for the football game.  I’ll bring you a couple of slices.”

“No mushrooms.”

“What I don’t go through for the Shakespeare Authorship Question.”

“I won’t turn my nose up if they arrive together with garlic bread.”