In "Juliana Penn! Robert Cecil! Who Knew?" [link],
the first of my short essays on the relationship between the two figures from
the life of Edward de Vere, the 17th Earl of Oxford, I presented two
undated letters from Robert Cecil to Mrs. Juliana Penn. The letters are estimated to have been
written around 1591 or ’92.
It was at that time that Mrs. Penn wrote her infamous letter
to the Earl demanding he and/or Thomas Churchyard pay the back bills one or
both of them owed to her. The letter to
Oxford and the letters from Churchyard to the hostess being substantial pieces
of evidence toward identifying Churchyard as the model for the character
Falstaff, in Shakespeare’s Henry IV plays,[1]
I include them in my Edward de Vere's Retainer Thomas Churchyard: the Man Who Was Falstaff [link]. As I point out in the book, the Mrs. Penn
episode provided the London literati with entertainment. So much so that it features at various points
in the infamous literary battle between Gabriel Harvey and Thomas Nashe.
In the first letter Cecil is surprisingly solicitous. He asks after Mrs. Penn’s health, she having
caught a chill during a visit to Cecil House on the Strand. The subject of the visit is left vague but
includes the following:
…surely this letter may assure you that there was not, nor
is, the least suspicion conceaved of any privity of yours to any ill of his who
is now a prisoner in the Gate-house.
At that point, I could not identify who was the prisoner in
question.
Having discovered the identity of the prisoner soon
afterwards, and a great deal more, the next essay — "Juliana Penn, Robert Cecil and the Silver Bell, &c." [link] — seemed a proper intermediary toward that presently before the reader. It turns out that Penn and Cecil were
acquainted from at least 1588, and, given the familiar tone of a letter from
that year, almost certainly earlier.
The prisoner in the gatehouse was Charles Chester. By all appearances, the man was a member of
the Bristol Chesters.[2] Juliana Penn having been brought up in Bristol,[3]
she may have been (among all else she was) the London node of a network to
advance certain Bristol families’ interests.
It is eye-opening to learn that Mrs. Penn had the audacity
to try to delay the capture of Chester — perhaps even to avoid it — much to the
consternation of Cecil. This is the
subject of the letters between them, the first of which was dated “20th of June
1592”. By the information available to
Mrs. Susan Beach-Hicks we learn that:
The State papers make no mention of the affair, and it was
evidently of minor importance as a State affair, although, as a personal
affair, it must have agitated several lives. It made no permanent breach in
Juliana's friendship with the Cecils. Robert continued to be the widow's useful
friend.[4]
Penn’s assiduous descendant does not seem to have discovered
the outcome of the case.
With this, then, by way of introduction, I proceed to the
letters that have been made public relating to the matter. Only the Cecil side of the correspondence
would seem to be available at present.
[1] Shakespeare,
William. 2 Henry IV, II.ii.
Host. O my most worshipful lord, an't please
your Grace, I am a poor widow of Eastcheap, and he is arrested at my suit.
Ch. Just. For what sum ?
Host. It is more than for some, my lord; it is
for all, — all I have. He hath eaten me out of house and home; he hath put all
my substance into that fat belly of his: — but I will have some of it out
again, or I will ride thee o' nights like the mare.
[2] Hicks-Beach,
Susan. A Cotswold Family: Hicks and
Hicks Beach, 75-6
[3]
Ibid., 57. ‘" Julyan my welbeloved
Wief" is described in every Hicks pedigree as Juliana Arthur of Clapton in
Gordano, near Bristol;…’
[4]
Ibid., 78.
- Juliana Penn, Robert Cecil and the Silver Bell, &c. February 25, 2018. “You know my Lord you had anything in my house whatsoever you or your men would demand, if it were in my house; if it had been a thousand times more, I would have been glad to pleasure your lordship withall.”
- Juliana Penn! Robert Cecil! Who Knew? February 11, 2018. “…there was not, nor is, the least suspicion conceaved of any privity of yours to any ill of his who is now a prisoner in the Gate-house.”
- Edward de Vere in Palermo in the final analysis. January 29, 2018. “In Naples he is tortured for 7 months upon suspicion of being an English spy. Upon his release, he is informed by the Italians and Spaniards that England has lost its battle with the Spanish Armada and the Queen been taken prisoner. The year, then, is 1588, and is confirmed by the fact that he arrives back in England in May of 1589.”
- Falstaff's Sack. August 7, 2017. 'The question Mr. Hart addresses is “Just what is sack?”. This is not the first time the question has been addressed but his is a particularly thorough attempt at an answer.'
- Check out the English Renaissance Article Index for many more articles and reviews about this fascinating time and about the Shakespeare Authorship Question.
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