'....At the age of twelve, .... [he] was admitted to St. John's College, Cambridge. Next summer he sent his guardian Burghley an essay in Ciceronian Latin on the somewhat cynical text that ‘All men are moved to the pursuit of virtue by the hope of reward.’...He remained at the university for four years, graduating M.A. at sixteen in 1589...... About 1590, when he was hardly more than seventeen, he was presented to Queen Elizabeth, who showed him kindly notice, and her favourite, the Earl of Essex, thenceforth displayed in his welfare a brotherly interest .... In 1593 Southampton was mentioned for nomination as a knight of the garter, and although he was not chosen the compliment of nomination was, at his age, unprecedented outside the circle of the sovereign's kinsmen. ....
'Literature was from early manhood a chief interest of Southampton's life, and before he was of age he achieved wide reputation as a patron of the poets...... But the chief of Southampton's poetic clients was Shakespeare. In April 1593 Shakespeare dedicated to Southampton his poem ‘Venus and Adonis;’ ... In May 1594 Shakespeare again greeted Southampton as his patron, dedicating to him his second narrative poem ‘Lucrece.’ In his second dedicatory epistle to the earl Shakespeare used the language of devoted friendship; although such language was common at the time in communication between patrons and poets, Shakespeare's employment of it is emphatic enough to suggest that his intimacy with Southampton had become very close since he dedicated ‘Venus and Adonis’ to him in more formal language a year before.
'Evidence of Southampton's love for the Elizabethan drama is abundant, and there is a very substantial corroboration of Southampton's regard for Shakespeare, ... in the statement made by Nicholas Rowe.... that my lord Southampton at one time gave him a thousand pounds to enable him to go through with a purchase which he heard he had a mind to. A bounty very great and very rare at any time.’
'Southampton is the only patron of Shakespeare who is positively known to biographers of the dramatist. There is therefore strong external presumption in favour of Southampton's identification with the anonymous friend and patron whom the poet describes in his sonnets as the sole object of his poetic adulation. The theory that the majority of Shakespeare's sonnets were addressed to Southampton is powerfully supported by internal evidence. ... The opening sequence of seventeen sonnets, in which a youth of rank and wealth is admonished to marry and beget a son so that ‘his fair house’ may not fall into decay, can only have been addressed to a young peer like Southampton, who was as yet unmarried, had vast possessions, and was the sole male representative of his family.
'.....In 1595 ...[Southampton] involved himself in an intrigue with one of the queen's waiting women, Elizabeth, daughter of John Vernon of Hodnet in Shropshire, and a first cousin of the Earl of Essex. The amour was deemed injurious to his reputation. In 1596 he withdrew from court and played a part as a volunteer with his friend Essex in the military and naval expedition to Cadiz. Next year he again accompanied Essex on the expedition to the Azores. These experiences developed in him a martial ardour which improved his position, but on his return to court in January 1598 he gave new proof of his impetuous temper. One evening in that month Ralegh with Southampton and a courtier named Parker were playing at primero in the presence chamber, but when Ambrose Willoughby, an esquire of the body, requested them to desist on the queen's withdrawal to her bedchamber, Southampton struck Willoughby, and during the scuffle that ensued ‘the esquire pulled off some of the earl's locks.’ Next morning the queen thanked Willoughby for what he did.... While in Paris he ...[Southampton] learned that his mistress, Elizabeth Vernon, was about to become a mother, and, hurrying home, he secretly made her his wife during the few days he remained in England. When the news reached the queen she was full of anger and issued orders for the arrest of both the bride and bridegroom. .... all avenues of the queen's favour were thenceforth closed to him.
'... Essex was committed to custody [for insubordination] on his return to England from Ireland in October 1599, Southampton was in frequent communication with him, and was gradually drawn into the conspiracy whereby Essex and his friends designed to regain by violence their influence at court...... As soon as Essex regained his liberty in August, he and his associates often met at Southampton's house to devise a scheme of rebellion. ....Sunday, 8 Feb., there followed the outbreak which Essex and Southampton had organised to remove their enemies from the court. The rising failed completely. Southampton was arrested and sent to the Tower, and on 19 Feb. was brought with Essex to trial on a capital charge of treason before a special commission of twenty-five peers and nine judges sitting in Westminster Hall. .... Both defendants were convicted and condemned to death. Cecil interested himself in securing a commutation of Southampton's sentence. He pleaded that ‘the poor young earl, merely for the love of Essex, had been drawn into this action,’ and his punishment was commuted to imprisonment for life. Further mitigation was not to be looked for while the queen lived....
'Essex had been James's [King James I] sworn ally, and the king's first act on his accession to the crown of England was to set Southampton free (10 April 1603). After a confinement of more than two years, Southampton thus resumed, under happier auspices, his place at court. ...
'As soon as Southampton was at liberty, he was given high honours.....The new queen showed him special favour. In 1603 he entertained her at Southampton House, and engaged Burbage and his company of actors, of whom Shakespeare was one, to act ‘Love's Labour's Lost’ in her presence. On 10 Oct. he was made her master of the game. ...
'......[Southahmpton] took command of a troop of English volunteers...landing in the Low Countries, ...[and] was attacked by fever. ...[and] died ‘of a lethargy.’ ....
'......Southampton never ceased to cherish the passion for books which was implanted in him in boyhood, and had brought him the personal intimacy of Shakespeare. Towards the end of his life he presented a collection of books and illuminated manuscripts to the value of 360l. to furnish a new library which was being built at St. John's College, Cambridge...
'Southampton's countenance probably survives in more canvases than that of any of his contemporaries [Besides Elizabeth I aasume]. Fifteen extant portraits have been identified on good authority. Two portraits representing the earl in early manhood are at Welbeck Abbey. One, in which he is resplendently attired, ...was probably painted when the earl was just of age. The second portrait at Welbeck depicts Southampton five or six years later in prison; a cat and a book in richly jewelled binding are on a desk at the right hand...'
The words we quote are from the edition of Dictionary of National Biography, dated 1885-1900. The cat has been discussed a lot since then. I excerpted much for our account above, but all the mention the cat received at the end of the 19th century in this fabled reference, is reproduced as it appears above.
No comments:
Post a Comment