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73-535: The question of the identity of the Dark Lady is an unsolved, controversial issue because of the insufficiency of historical detail. Some believe that she might be of Mediterranean ancestry, with the dark hair and dark eyes common in Greece, Spain, Italy, and southern France. Other scholars have suggested, given Shakespeare's description of her dark, dun-colored skin and black wiry hair, that the Dark Lady might have been

146-577: A campaign for a national theatre in Britain. In it, while attempting to meet with the Dark Lady for a tryst, Shakespeare accidentally encounters Queen Elizabeth , and commends the project to her. Ngaio Marsh 's 1966 novel Killer Dolphin (published in the UK a year later as Death at the Dolphin ) involves the creation and production of The Glove , a play portraying Shakespeare's devastating encounter with

219-418: A classic Tudor courtyard house. The cloister became the central courtyard of the house (a magnificent fountain was placed in the middle), the old refectory, with the addition of a grand porch, became the great hall, while the rest of the abbey was turned into fine apartments for the family. The church tower was initially kept as part of the house but it was soon demolished on the advice of John Crayford, one of

292-592: A decision was made to abandon the mansion and deliberately demolish much of it to create a romantic ruin. When this happened local people took stone from the abbey for their homes; evidence can be seen in walls and foundations of older houses in Titchfield village. Much, though, is inside the buildings; in The Bugle Hotel in Titchfield , for example, a big fireplace was salvaged from the ruins. Though

365-430: A few calves and lambs, hogs of small value; certain brewing vessels, a dozen rusty platters, dishes and saucers... As for the few hangings left, we esteem them at 20 shillings... The royal commissioners went on to note that the cost of converting the abbey into a house would be on the order of £200, but the charges on the estate from paying the pensions of the canons and the abbot would be £120 yearly. They recommended that

438-606: A fool or an evil magician in league with the Devil. Forman was born in Quidhampton , Fugglestone St Peter , near Salisbury , Wiltshire , on 31 December 1552. At the age of nine he went to a local free school, the City Grammar School, Salisbury , but was forced to leave after two years following the death of his father on 31 December 1563. For the next ten years of his life he was apprenticed to Matthew Commin,

511-654: A good reputation for the life led by its canons. As with other Premonstratensian houses, Titchfield Abbey was visited once a year by the father-abbot from the parent house (in this case Halesowen Abbey); or instead, in certain years, by a commission of the General Chapter of Prémontré, the headquarters of the Premonstratensian Order. The abbey remained tolerably solvent for most of its existence, however, in common with many religious houses and secular lords it experienced severe financial difficulties in

584-433: A great deal has been destroyed, there are still major remains of the abbey and Place House to be seen. In fact, the pulling down of Place House has revealed more of the abbey than would otherwise be visible. The nave of the church still stands to full height and with it Wriothesley's gatehouse. To the east of the gatehouse ruins, the barest outline of the former church can be seen, including the choir and transepts. Fragments of

657-467: A lady's affection, often assumed to be Shakespeare and William Herbert, 3rd Earl of Pembroke , Herbert's mistress Mary Fitton has been proposed as the "Dark Lady". The first to make this suggestion was Thomas Tyler in the preface to his 1890 facsimile edition of the Sonnets , but later commentators have assessed the depiction of the rivalry as a "fictitious situation" presented for poetic effect. When

730-606: A licence to practise from the University of Cambridge in 1603. With a notable sexual appetite, Forman pursued numerous women. He wrote of his conquests in his diaries, showing as little regard for the background of his inamoratas as for the location of consummation. Many of his clients provided brief affairs. He wrote of having his first sex with his "beloved" on "15/12/1593, 5:00 PM, London." Then writing after "She died 13/6/1597." On 22 July 1599, Forman wed seventeen-year-old Jane Baker. Having never been content with just one woman,

803-449: A local merchant. Commin traded in cloth, salt and herbal medicines, and it was during his time as a young apprentice that Forman started to learn about herbal remedies. After arguments with Mrs Commin, Simon found his apprenticeship terminated, and he eventually went to study at Oxford as a poor scholar. He then spent a year and a half at Magdalen College , Oxford , where he may have become interested in medicine and astrology. Through

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876-461: A misreading of Forman's text: Forman had described Lanier as "brave in youth", not "brown in youth", but Rowse, while later correcting his misreading, continued to defend his argument. In the diaries, Emilia is described as the mistress of Lord Hunsdon , the Queen's Lord Chamberlain. She seemed to have similar qualities to ones of the Dark Lady. For example, Emilia was so attractive to men that during

949-566: A more serious interest in the occult, eventually setting up a thriving practice as an astrologer physician, documented in his detailed casebooks of his clients' questions about illness, pregnancy, stolen goods, career opportunities and marriage prospects. His success and his methods attracted the attention of the College of Physicians (now the Royal College of Physicians) who attempted to ban him from medical practice. He eventually obtained

1022-458: A pardon for this oversight in 1542. As the home of an important noble, the new mansion continued to play host to important guests. Wriothesley's son, the second Earl of Southampton entertained both Edward VI and his sister Elizabeth I . Under the fourth Earl, Titchfield was host to Charles I twice, once in 1625 in company with Queen Henrietta Maria , the second time in November 1647 when

1095-456: A portrait of Fitton, showing her to have fair complexion, brown hair, and grey eyes, was discovered in 1897, the identification fell from favour. It was Fitton whom George Bernard Shaw had in mind when writing his play The Dark Lady of the Sonnets (see below ). Elizabeth Vernon of Hodnet , Shropshire , who married William Herbert, 3rd Earl of Pembroke amid scandal has been offered as

1168-490: A possible identity for the muse. Jacqueline Field was the French-born wife of Shakespeare's friend and publisher Richard Field . The "not impeccable" reasoning provided by Charlotte Carmichael Stopes , a lecturer in literary history, to justify the claim does not form a strong case, comprising little more than: “as a Frenchwoman…she would have had dark eyes, a sallow complexion and that indefinable charm", thus matching

1241-496: A woman of African ancestry. Ultimately, "none of the many attempts at identifying the dark lady…are finally convincing". In 1973, A. L. Rowse claimed to have solved the identity of the Dark Lady in his book Shakespeare's Sonnets—the Problem Solved , based upon his study of astrologer Simon Forman 's journal entries describing his meetings with Emilia Lanier . It was later shown that Rowse had based his identification on

1314-425: A year as a pension for himself and comfortable incomes for his eight canons and three novices. Despite this, Abbot John remained in government favour, being made Dean of Norwich Cathedral in 1539, and later Bishop of Sodor and Man . He died in 1573. Wriothesley won the battle to gain control of Titchfield and immediately began work to turn it into a mansion for himself, to be known as Place House. Within days of

1387-457: Is a Richard II acted at the Globe on 30 April 1611; but from the description it is clearly not Shakespeare's Richard II . The manuscript was first described by John Payne Collier in 1836, and in the 20th century it was suspected as one of his forgeries. Most modern scholars now accept the section as authentic, but some still suspect it could be a forgery. Simon Forman is the protagonist of

1460-478: Is a section titled the "Bocke of Plaies", which records Forman's descriptions of four plays he saw in 1610–11 and the morals he drew from them. The document is noteworthy for the listing of three Shakespearean performances: Macbeth at the Globe Theatre on 20 April 1610; The Winter's Tale at the Globe on 15 May 1611; and Cymbeline , date and theatre not specified. The fourth play described by Forman

1533-597: The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography also recording a connection between the Daniel family and Marlborough. Frampton notes that the baptismal records of the parish contain an entry for one "Avisa Danyell" (dated 8 February 1556), and from this he deduces that this was Samuel's sister and therefore John Florio's wife. Thus, he says, Avisa Florio was the Dark Lady. The speculations that Florio’s wife, of whatever baptismal name and relationship with Shakespeare,

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1606-586: The Eugene O'Neill Theater Center (2023). and Goodspeed Musicals (2024). In her stage play The Dark Lady , Canadian playwright and actress Jessica B. Hill draws together the stories of Emilia Lanier and Shakespeare into a tumultuous love story which highlights both Lanier's possible influence on the Bard's work and her efforts to make her own mark on history. The play was staged in Manitoba and Saskatchewan in

1679-601: The Fathers of the Church , medicine , law , philosophy , grammar , travel , legends , romances and records of the abbey. The canons also had another collection of more than 100 books used for services that they kept in the church. A library on this scale was huge for the period and is surprising for a minor house like Titchfield. It compares closely, for instance, with the holdings of the great royal foundation of Reading Abbey which had 228 volumes. Henry VIII dissolved

1752-508: The Rule of St Augustine , but in addition to engaging in a life of study and prayer within their abbeys, they also had a pastoral mission and served as parish priests ministering to the spiritual needs of the laity . The order was well known for the austerity of the lives led by its members, something that made it – as with the Cistercians – especially popular with wealthy benefactors in

1825-458: The University of Chicago , who refuse to acknowledge the theory that Lanier was the Dark Lady not only due to the lack of any direct proof, but also because the claimed association with Shakespeare tends to overshadow her own literary achievements: she published her celebrated collection of poems Salve Deus Rex Judæorum in 1611. G. B. Harrison , writing in 1933, notes that a Clerkenwell brothel-owner known as "Black Luce" had participated in

1898-552: The "Devil Forman"; the result being that his reputation was severely tarnished. Forman's papers have proven to be a treasure trove of rare, odd, unusual data on one of the most studied periods of cultural history. They include autobiographies, guides to astrology, plague tracts, alchemical commonplace books and notes on biblical and historical subjects. They also contain his disputes with the College of Physicians and his largely unsuccessful magical experiments. At one time he possessed

1971-461: The 1570s and 1580s Forman worked as a teacher while studying the occult arts. In the early 1590s he moved to London starting up a practice as a physician in Philpot Lane . Having survived an outbreak of the plague in 1592 his medical reputation began to spread. In 1597 a Buckinghamshire clergyman named Richard Napier (1559–1634) became his protégé. In the 1590s Forman began to develop

2044-618: The 1601–1602 Christmas revels at Gray's Inn (under the Latinized stage-name "Lucy Negro") and that she could there have encountered Shakespeare, as this was the occasion of the first performance of Twelfth Night . Harrison "tentatively" proposes Black Luce as the Dark Lady. Duncan Salkeld , a Shakespearean scholar from the University of Chichester , while acknowledging that "[t]he records do not link her directly with Shakespeare", established that Luce had multiple connections to London's theatrical scene. Two Clerkenwell brothel-keepers carried

2117-549: The 2019 video game Astrologaster in which he is voiced by Dave Jones . Titchfield Abbey#Place House Titchfield Abbey is a medieval abbey and later country house , located in the village of Titchfield near Fareham in Hampshire , England. The abbey was founded in 1222 for Premonstratensian canons , an austere order of priests. The abbey was a minor house of its order, and became neither wealthy nor influential during its three centuries of monastic life;

2190-457: The Dark Lady and portrays her as annoyed with her depiction in sonnet 130 and more receptive to Kit Marlowe's crude but direct flattery. The series also includes the character of Lucy, a tavern-keeper from Africa. A musical 'The Dark Lady' by Sophie Boyce and Veronica Mansour is currently in development, depicting the 'what if' scenario whereby Emilia uses William Shakespeare 's name in order to have her plays seen. The musical has been developed at

2263-473: The Dark Lady's true identity, and finally asserts that Florio's wife is the real one, using some clues which were mentioned in Shakespeare's work: she was dark-haired, self-centred, and enjoyed sex. According to him, Mrs. Florio loved "for her own gratification", indulged in "temptation and callously self-satisfied betrayal of her husband", which coincides with features of the Dark Lady. He also suggests that

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2336-542: The Dark Lady, which ends with him composing Sonnet 129 . In the Doctor Who series 3 episode " The Shakespeare Code ", set in 1599, Shakespeare becomes infatuated with the Tenth Doctor 's new companion Martha Jones , a Black British woman. At the end of the episode, after deducing that she is from the future, he calls her his "dark lady" and recites Sonnet 18 for her. Upstart Crow S1E4 names Emilia as

2409-511: The Elizabethan mystery series by Judith Cook , The Casebook of Dr Simon Forman—Elizabethan doctor and solver of mysteries . The novels are based on the original casebook manuscripts, and contain a mix of historical and fictional characters. Dr Moth, a role loosely based on Forman, is played by Antony Sher in the 1998 film Shakespeare in Love . Forman's life and work form the basis of

2482-543: The abbey in 1537. In 1535 the abbey's income was assessed in the Valor Ecclesiasticus , Henry VIII's great survey of church finances, at £280 gross, £249 net, so it avoided being destroyed in the first round of suppressions in 1536. However, several important courtiers, especially Thomas Wriothesley , desired to seize the abbey for themselves and put great pressure on the abbot, John Salisbury , Suffragan Bishop of Thetford to surrender on terms before he

2555-468: The abbey buildings were of very high quality with fine masonry and carving. As the Middle Ages progressed considerable investment was made to upgrade the domestic buildings to meet rising living standards, and it is probable that by the mid fourteenth century they were rather luxurious, as evidenced by the elaborate polychrome floor tiles (an expensive and high status product) still seen today all over

2628-421: The abbey church was the venue for a royal wedding; the marriage of Henry VI to Margaret of Anjou was celebrated there by William Ayscough , Bishop of Salisbury . The Premonstratensians placed great emphasis on scholarship and the canons of Titchfield possessed a very impressive library, the catalogue for which survives. There were 224 volumes, each containing a number of different works bound together, as

2701-536: The case that the Dark Lady is the wife of John Florio, whom he names as "Aline Florio". He arrives at his theory via a play on words he either discovered or re-discovered: the name of the dark-haired character Rosaline in Love's Labours Lost being suggested to Shakespeare by combining "rose" from the Earl's family name of "Wriothesley", and "Aline" from a popular contemporary given name. Burl lists eight possible contenders for

2774-401: The character in the sonnets. Originally arising from nothing more than the poet William Davenant 's boast that he was the illegitimate son of Shakespeare, Jennet (or Jane) Davenant, the wife of a tavern-keeper on the route between London and Stratford, has been proposed as the Dark Lady. George Bernard Shaw 's short play The Dark Lady of the Sonnets (1910) was written in support of

2847-486: The cloister buildings survive, including the entrance arches to the chapter house and library in the east range. In the abbey's grounds, the fishponds have been maintained and are used regularly for fishing. In addition, to the west of the abbey, and outside of the wall ringing the English Heritage site, there is a fragment of an outlying abbey building, the use of which is not recorded. Substantial stretches of

2920-528: The copy of the Picatrix currently in the British Library . Forman left behind a large body of manuscripts dealing with his patients and with all the subjects that interested him, from astronomy and astrology to medicine, mathematics and magic. His Casebooks are the most famous of these resources. They, like his diaries and autobiographies, contain extensive details of his life. His only printed work

2993-423: The departure of the canons the commissioners who had taken the surrender of Titchfield sent a report to Wriothesley detailing the state of his new property: The church is the most naked and barren thing that ever we knew, being of such long continuance. The vestments you gave and two old chalices excepted, forty [pounds Sterling] will be the rest. At Michelmas last there were two teams of oxen and now not one ox, but

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3066-426: The desire to create an elaborate new church in the later Middle Ages and kept their original building until the end of monastic life at the abbey. North of the church stood a cloister surrounded on three sides by the domestic buildings of the house, including the chapter house , dormitory , kitchen, refectory , library, food storage rooms and quarters for the abbot. Though not large, the surviving ruins show that

3139-418: The east end of the church and the tower be demolished during the conversion. Eleven days after the surrender of the abbey a consortium of local men led by a Mr Shelonde contracted to buy marble, altars, sculpture and other fittings from the church. It is also recorded that the tiled floors of the church were taken up and sold, however, only 10% of them were worth saving. Despite this selling-off of materials from

3212-743: The fact that she was born of low degree in Somerset explains the darkness of her complexion. Burl reasons that Florio probably first met Shakespeare at Titchfield , the Wriothesley family seat in Hampshire, and met him again in London at Florio's home. Saul Frampton , of the University of Westminster, identifies Samuel Daniel's birthplace as Wilton , near Marlborough, Wiltshire, citing William Slatyer 's The history of Great Britain (1621), with

3285-473: The first inhabitants of the new monastery, under the leadership of Abbot Richard, arrived from Halesowen Abbey. They were not monks, instead they were canons regular belonging to the Premonstratensian order (also known as the 'white canons' from the colour of their robes and Norbertines from the name of their founder, St. Norbert ). They lived communally, following a very strict interpretation of

3358-598: The former abbey buildings, the bare stones left behind were vital building blocks for the new house, and Wriothesley supplemented this valuable resource with fresh Caen stone . In contrast to the parlous state of the abbey buildings, the commissioners remarked upon the impressive series of four fishponds to the north-west of the property. These measured "a mile in length to ford and harbour" and contained an estimated 100,000 "carpes, tenches, breams and pike." Unlike his similar project at Beaulieu Abbey , which he had also been granted by King Henry, Wriothesley chose to convert

3431-527: The inhabitants were devoted to scholarship, as shown by their very impressive library. The abbey was closed in 1537 by Henry VIII of England during the Dissolution of the Monasteries and the building was converted into a mansion by Thomas Wriothesley , a powerful courtier. Later in the sixteenth century the mansion was home to Henry Wriothesley , who was a patron of William Shakespeare . In 1781

3504-635: The king was on the run from Parliamentary forces after having escaped from the Hampton Court . Charles II visited the next owner of the house, Edward, Earl of Gainsborough in 1675. From the Earls of Gainsborough Titchfield passed to the Dukes of Beaufort who lived at Place House until 1741, at which point the estate was sold to the Delme family. They lived there for another forty years until, in 1781,

3577-498: The king's commissioners who helped to oversee the reconstruction on behalf of Wriothesley. Crayford was anxious to see the tower pulled down as, if it was left standing, the chimneys would have to be raised some twenty feet higher - and at great cost - to avoid defacing the church tower with their smoke. Other features of the mansion included a private indoor theatre and a deer park . The resulting palatial dwelling attracted favourable notice from Wriothesley's contemporaries: in 1540,

3650-467: The late mediaeval tile floors survive to this day. An inscription which used to lie before the entrance to the canons' refectory, was later covered and preserved beneath the steps leading up to Wriothesley's banqueting hall. Two other patches of tiling survive to the north of the gatehouse. Following the expulsion of the canons, these were concealed beneath the spiral staircases installed in Wriothesley's reconstruction, and therefore escaped being torn out with

3723-523: The latter half of the 14th century and the early 15th century due to the economic and social crisis resulting from the effects of the Black Death . The scale of the disaster can be judged by the fact that on the Titchfield estates in the plague years of 1348-1349 close to 60% of the tenants died, together with a vast number of animals, and when the plague returned in 1361-1362 the agricultural population took another massive hit. When John Poole, abbot of

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3796-496: The main abbey buildings, including the church, into his house. It was an imaginative scheme, built under the direction of master mason Thomas Bartewe, a prominent contractor for King Henry's contemporary fortification works along the South Coast. He constructed a spectacular castellated gatehouse with four octagonal turrets which was forced through the middle of the nave to provide the appropriate seigneurial emphasis needed for

3869-602: The mansion was abandoned and partially demolished. The remains were purchased by the government in the early twentieth century and are now a Scheduled Ancient Monument under the care of English Heritage . The builder of the abbey was Bishop Peter des Roches of Winchester , a powerful politician, churchman and government official who founded several religious houses, including Netley Abbey (1236), also in Hampshire, Halesowen Abbey (1214) in Worcestershire and La Clarté-Dieu (1236) in his native France . In 1222

3942-557: The marriage "did not make much difference to [his] way of life, except that he had an inexperienced girl now as mistress of the house; he continued to be master". In 1611, he accurately predicted his own death on the River Thames . Another astrologer, William Lilly , reports that one warm Sunday afternoon in September of that year, Forman told his wife that he would die the following Thursday night (12 September): Monday came, all

4015-416: The marriage of either man’s sister to the other. Furthermore, in the prevalent usage of the time (ignored by à Wood), this may simply signify that they were both members of the same "brotherhood": in this instance, both men were grooms of the privy chamber (an honorary and not a functional office), and not related by marriage at all. Based upon the recurring theme in the early sonnets of two men vying for

4088-550: The monastery important legal privileges in 1231), with the result that Titchfield was placed on a firm financial footing from the beginning. With stone hard to come by in the county of Hampshire, the abbey was built mainly using stone brought in from neighbouring Dorset, the Isle of Wight and even as far afield as Caen in France. The abbey buildings were centred around the church, which was comparatively small and lacking in grandeur. It

4161-441: The mother house of Halesowen Abbey inspected Titchfield in summer 1420 he found the coffers empty, the abbey's accounts deeply in the red and the barns and storehouses nearly empty of food and fodder. Despite this, in the following years the canons managed to retrieve the situation and in the last years of its existence Titchfield was again prosperous. Inspections by senior abbots of the order from 1478 to 1502 noted that Titchfield

4234-400: The nickname of "Black Luce"—Lucy Baynham and Lucy Morgan—but there is no evidence that either was of African ancestry. Jonathan Bate , in his The Genius of Shakespeare (2008), considers the case for both Lanier and Luce, before suggesting his own "pleasing fancy" that the unnamed, "low-born", but "witty and talented" wife of Italian linguist John Florio (and sister of poet Samuel Daniel )

4307-448: The site. The central core of the monastery was surrounded by a walled precinct containing gardens, fishponds (several of which still survive close to the abbey buildings), orchards, barns, guesthouses, stables, a farmyard and industrial buildings. Entrance to the abbey was strictly controlled by several gatehouses. The internal affairs of the abbey seem to have been largely quiet. It was generally well run over its history and maintained

4380-572: The summer of 2023. Simon Forman Simon Forman (31 December 1552 – 5 or 12 September 1611) was an Elizabethan astrologer , occultist and herbalist active in London during the reigns of Queen Elizabeth I and James I of England . His reputation, however, was severely tarnished after his death when he was implicated in the plot to kill Sir Thomas Overbury . Astrologers continued to revere him, while writers from Ben Jonson to Nathaniel Hawthorne came to characterize him as either

4453-469: The traveller and historian John Leland noted in his Intinerary , Mr Wriothesley hath buildid a right stately house embatelid, and having a goodeley gate and a conducte [fountain] castelid in the middle of the court of it... Place House was considered sufficiently "embatelid" that it was regarded as a castle or fortified house, the building of which officially required a royal licence to fortify , something which Wriothesley neglected to secure. He obtained

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4526-405: The twelfth and early thirteenth centuries. Bishop Peter held one of the richest bishoprics in the mediaeval church and so was in a position to be generous in the endowment of his new abbey. He not only gave the manor of Titchfield itself but also extensive lands dotted around Hampshire, and this property was expanded by major grants from local aristocrats and King Henry III (who also granted

4599-506: The years of being Hunsdon's mistress, she may have been viewed as a prostitute. She might have been a musician, because she was a member of the Bassano family , which was famous for providing the music to entertain the Courts of Elizabeth I and James I . They were Italians, and the Dark Lady may have been of Mediterranean ancestry. However, there are academics, such as David Bevington of

4672-430: Was cruciform in plan with a narrow, aisle-less nave , a short eastern arm, six side chapels in the transepts and a tower with bells. It was in some ways a rather old fashioned design and deliberately austere, perhaps reflecting the strict doctrines of the order at the period of construction. Though it was restored once after nearly falling to ruin, unlike many of their fellows the canons of Titchfield never succumbed to

4745-505: Was Daniel's sister may be based on an incorrect interpretation first made by Anthony à Wood (offering no authority) in his Athenæ Oxonienses of 1691. There is no documentary evidence to support this; rather, à Wood arrived at his conclusion from a passage of text where Daniel names Florio as his "brother" in introductory material to the latter’s famous translation of Michel de Montaigne ’s Essays . If this were referring (in today’s terms) to his "brother-in-law", this could have been due to

4818-451: Was a pamphlet advertising a bogus method for divining longitude while at sea. His intimate knowledge of Shakespeare's circle makes him especially attractive to literary historians. Modern scholars— A. L. Rowse is one prominent example, and others have followed his lead—have exploited Forman's manuscripts for the manifold lights they throw on the less-exposed private lives of Elizabethan and Jacobean men and women. One of Forman's patients

4891-452: Was common in the period, and some must have been very large to contain all the works recorded for them. The books were systematically organised by subject, shelf and location in the library room (probably the chamber between the chapter house and the church as this was the traditional location). There were books in Latin , English and French covering theology , church history , writings of

4964-427: Was excellently managed, discipline was good and the finances were in order. The abbey's location near Southampton and Portsmouth made it a convenient stopping place for journeys from England to continental Europe and it hence received many important visitors. Richard II and Queen Anne stayed at the abbey in 1393, and Henry V was a guest on his way to Southampton to invade France in 1415. On 23 April 1445,

5037-465: Was implicated in the murder of Thomas Overbury when two of his patients, Lady Frances Howard and Mrs Anne Turner , were found guilty of the crime. During the testimony of Howard's trial, lawyers hurled accusations at Forman, saying he had given Lady Essex the potion with which she plotted to kill Overbury. During the trial he was described by Sir Edward Coke , Lord Chief Justice of the King's Bench, as

5110-475: Was made to by force. Abbot John bribed Wriothesley heavily to hold off, but when it was obvious to them that their abbey was doomed he and his canons took steps to secure their personal future by realising the assets for cash, including selling off the abbey's livestock, treasures and church plate. Titchfield finally fell in December 1537. The abbot proved a tough negotiator in the surrender, securing 100 marks

5183-492: Was the Dark Lady, the lover of not only Shakespeare but also of Henry Wriothesley, 3rd Earl of Southampton , who was at the time the patron of both the linguist and the playwright. Bate acknowledges the possibility that the sonnets may be no more than Shakespeare's "knowing imaginings", rather than allusions to actual events. Aubrey Burl , a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries and commentator on prehistoric monuments, takes up

5256-507: Was the poet Emilia Lanier , Rowse's candidate to have been Shakespeare 's Dark Lady ; another patient was Mrs Mountjoy , Shakespeare's landlady. Sixty-four volumes of his manuscripts were collected by Elias Ashmole in the seventeenth century, and are now held in the Bodleian Library , Oxford. His records have been digitised by a team led by Professor Lauren Kassell of the University of Cambridge . Among Forman's manuscripts

5329-608: Was well. Tuesday came, he not sick. Wednesday came, and still he was well; with which his impertinent wife did much twit him in his teeth. Thursday came, and dinner was ended, he very well: he went down to the water-side, and took a pair of oars to go to some buildings he was in hand with in Puddle-dock. Being in the middle of the Thames, he presently fell down, only saying, 'An impost, an impost,' and so died. A most sad storm of wind immediately following. Five years after his death he

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