Ben Jonson and William Shakspere: Records of Payment (Part 2).

Ben Jonson and William Herbert, 3rd Earl of Pembroke

Now that we’ve gotten a look at an introduction to Shakspere’s and Jonson’s paychecks let’s look at each from the accession of James I to 1616 (the year of Shakspere’s death). The King’s Men company continued to receive payments for plays performed at the Royal Court. I am not aware that records of payment earlier than 1611-or-so have survived. Around that year the company was rewarded with between 3l and 8l per play. On at least one occasion, James I included an extra 20l “reward” for a series of six plays.  How the money was divided up we do not precisely know.

The number of members of the King’s Men was increased to twelve in around 1604. Each member was paid 2s. per day to attend upon the Spanish Ambassador, as Grooms of the Chamber, during his visit in August of 1604. Only one or two of the grooms for this employment are named in the order. Shakspere is not among them but it seems unlikely that he would pass on the opportunity to rub elbows with such potentially useful contacts at Court. No theater, music, tumbling, etc., was provided by the grooms though they may have aided in managing the bull and bear baitings with which the Spanish guests were entertained.

As we have seen, in Part 1 [link], Ben Jonson was writing masques for the Court of James I almost  from its inception. By 1605, he and Inigo Jones were the Court’s choice for such entertainments.

In early 1608, the two produced a masque for a private wedding to be held at  Court. The cost was expected to be 3600l. Jonson was surely only paid a small portion of that amount. Among the twelve noblemen who underwrote the cost were the Herbert Brothers: the Earls of Pembroke and Montgomery. The production cost for lavish costumes and scenery likely accounted for most of the expense. Nevertheless, his payment was just as surely well above that received by all of the King’s Men, together, for a play.

No record of Shakspere’s activities as housekeeper-sharer is extant from 1610 onward. In the February 1610 lawsuit Keysar v. Burbadge, Shakspere is not listed as a Globe shareholder.[1] In March of the same year is the last record we have of “Gilbart Shakespere” managing Shakspere’s business affairs in Stratford while his brother was away.  Records show William attending to his own considerable Stratford business thenceforward. Perhaps Gilbert was too ill to continue in his customary role. He was buried just under a year later at Holy Trinity in Stratford.

Neither theater shares nor Gilbert are mentioned in Shakspere’s Will.

Soon after the accession of James, Jonson all but ceased writing plays. He wrote his highly popular Court Masques on a regular basis, instead. In 1616 he chose to take stock of the first phase of his writing life by publishing the first ever English folio “collected works”. He also included new poetry, in particular his Epigrams. The Epigrams were largely upon friendly courtiers and a wide range of figures in the London literary world alive and dead. Shakspere is not mentioned at all in them.

Both his play Catiline and the Epigrams were dedicated to William Herbert, Earl of Pembroke. The dedication of the latter, and the epigram to Pembroke, described him in the most flattering terms.[2] A quote from the prose dedication may be of particular interest as it may reflect on Jonson’s poem in the Shakespeare First Folio.

I must expect, at your Lordship's hand, the protection of truth and liberty, while you are constant to your own goodness. In thanks whereof, I return you the honour of leading forth so many good and great names (as my verses mention on the better part) to their remembrance with posterity. Amongst whom, if I have praised unfortunately any one that doth not deserve; or, if all answer not, in all numbers, the pictures I have made of them; I hope it will be forgiven me, that they are no ill pieces, though they be not like the persons.[3]

Several epigrams on King James I were more fawning still  In February of that year, Jonson was awarded a pension from the Royal Treasury for 100 crowns (roughly 65l).

We’ve mentioned, in passing, in Part 1 [link], large sums that came to Jonson from other noblemen elsewhere for poems celebrating special occasions. These generally seem to have come after the 1616 Folio. A mere mention will have to suffice here. Several other signal grants also occurred after 1616.

We don’t know precisely when he began working on the Shakespeare First Folio, or in all what capacities, but 1621 simultaneously marks both the beginning of the production of the great volume and a series of new Royal grants. In July his pension was increased to 100l. In October he received a reversionary grant from the King, by letters patent, of the office of the Master of the Revels, and his pension was again increased. This time to 200l.[4] These generous new benefits certainly bespeak some greatly appreciated service on Jonson’s part for the King and/or someone intimately close to the King. Sir John Eliot was clear that the Herbert brothers — the Earls of Pembroke and Montgomery — were the source of all.[5]

 

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[1] Chambers, E. K. William Shakespeare (1930). II.64. “1610, Feb. 8. From suit of Keysar v. Burbadge and Others (Court of Requests), pr. in full C. W. Wallace (1910, Nebraska Univ. Studies, x. 336)”

[2] An epigram was also written upon Susan de Vere, Countess of Montgomery, and an epitaph, in Underwoods, upon William Herbert’s mother, Mary Sidney Herbert, Dowager Countess of Pembroke.

[3] Gifford, William. The Work of Ben Jonson (1875).  VIII.144-5.

[4] This coincidence may first have been noticed in 'The First Folio: A Family Affair' by Ruth Lloyd Miller.  Shakespeare Identified (1975) 1-31.

[5] See my “Sir John Eliot on Ben Jonson and Pens-for-Hire in General.” Virtual Grub Street, August 31, 2022. https://gilbertwesleypurdy.blogspot.com/2022/08/sir-john-eliot-on-ben-jonson-and-pens.html

Also at Virtual Grub Street:

• 2021 SAT Conference: On The Presentations of Eddi Jolly and Earl Showerman. December 9, 2021. “Where I might disagree I can only do so with the utmost respect given her close attention to the primary sources.”
• How Shakespeare gave Ben Jonson the Infamous Purge. November 7, 2021. “Of course, De Vere could not openly accuse Jonson of having outed him as Shakespeare.”
• More on Thomas North as Shakespeare and author of Arden of Feversham. June 14, 2021. “This is also the reason why the title pages included the address of the shop that was selling the book.”
• A 1572 Oxford Letter and the Player’s Speech in Hamlet. August 11, 2020. “The player’s speech has been a source of consternation among Shakespeare scholars for above 200 years.  Why was Aeneas’ tale chosen as the subject?”
• Check out the Shakespeare Authorship Article Index for many articles on Shakespeare and the Authorship Question.
• Check out the Letters Index: Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford for many letters from this fascinating time, some related to the Shakespeare Authorship Question.