able motive for deception in what is evidently the casual note of a provincial hearsay.1 Lastly, it is objected that if Shakespeare died a Catholic, how could he have been buried in the chancel, the place of honour in the Parish Church? Shakespeare, in virtue of his tenure of half the tithes, was, so to say, lay Rector of Stratford. The chancel belonged to the Corporation, not to the Vicar, and to them, not to him, the fees for burial there were paid. Moreover, just about this time the Corporation was at war with the Vicar. On December 4, 1615, we find the entry: "At this Hall it is agreed that the Chamberlains shall discharge Mr. Rodgers, the Vicar, from receiving any more benefit by burials in the chancel, and that the Chamberlains shall receive it from henceforth towards the repairs of the chancel of the Parish Church, and also to demand of Mr. Rodgers so much as he hath received within the last year." 2 This strife seems to have lasted till May 1617, when Wilson was appointed Vicar. In such a state of things there would have been nothing unlikely in the master of the great house of the town being buried in the place of honour, notwithstanding suspicions of Popery attached to his name. The tombs of Catholic equally with those of Protestant squires are to be found in the chancels of their Parish 1 "Outlines," i. 265. 2 Halliwell's "Stratford Records," 107. BURIAL IN THE CHANCEL III Churches. The objection to Shakespeare's Catholicism founded on the site of his grave, sometimes emphasised as most important, is absolutely inconclusive, and leaves untouched the wholly independent evidence in its favour already given. CHAPTER III. CONTEMPORARY DRAMATISTS. WHILE Shakespeare's predilection for the old order of things is generally admitted, yet this is said to prove little or nothing as to his religious belief. The traditional mode of thought and speech current in his time forbade, we are told, any scurrilous treatment of the ancient faith, and Catholic modes of expression are to be found in the other dramatists of the period. "The whole English stage at that period," says Gervinus, "never ventured to my knowledge to portray a character even slightly tinged with religious bigotry"; and again, Macaulay writes, "The greatest and most popular dramatists of the Elizabethan age treat religious subjects in a very remarkable manner We remember nothing in their plays resembling the coarse ridicule with which the Catholic religion and its monastics were assailed two generations later by dramatists who wished to please the multitude.” 1 Now if the Elizabethan drama was thus conspicuous for its tolerance, the absence of bigotry in Shake 1 "Burleigh and his Times," Essays, 232, ed. 1877. . CONTROVERSIAL DRAMAS 113 But the speare would of course prove nothing. reverse is the case. The stage as a fact was not only a forum for the political strife of the period, as we have seen in the case of the play of "Richard II.;" it was also the arena for theatrical quarrels, and above all for religious controversy. In 1588, soon after Shakespeare's arrival in London, Job Throckmorton on behalf of the Puritans attacked the Protestant Episcopacy in a series of pamphlets entitled "Master Marprelate," in which the Bishops were termed "petty Antichrists and swinish rabble." In return, Archbishop Whitgift through Bancroft engaged Nash, Lily, Marlowe, and Greene to satirise the Puritans. A series of scurrilous comedies followed, of so pungent a character that the plays were inhibited and the theatres in the city were closed by order of the Lord Mayor (Harte), 1589. One form of religion, however, might be safely vilified and ridiculed with no danger of any official interference, and that was Catholicism, as we shall proceed to show. "A Looking Glass for London," written by Thomas Lodge and Robert Greene, and produced in 1591, is an instance of how the stage was used as a Protestant pulpit. The play is an exhortation to London, under the image of Nineveh, to repent of 1 "A Whip for an Ape," Nash's "Countercuffe to Martin Junior," "Pasquil's Return," Lily's "Pap with a Hatchet.” H its sins. The last act closes with these words, spoken in the character of the prophet Jonas: "Repent, O London, lest for thine offence Thy Shepherd fail, whom mighty God preserve Robert Greene again (1593), in his ideal religion which he attributes to Sir Christopher Hatton, writes thus: "Ne was his faith in man's traditions, He hated anti-Christ and all his trash; George Peele (1589) invites Norris and Drake to lead their armies "To lofty Rome, There to deface the pride of anti-Christ, And pull his paper walls and popery down, John Marston (1598) in his "Scourge of Villany" talks of peevish Papists crouching and kneeling to dumb idols (Pygmalion), and of the monstrous filth of Douay Seminary. Christopher Marlowe (1593) in his "Faustus" exhibits at length the 1 "A Maiden's Dream," dedicated to Lady Elizabeth Hatton. 1591. 2 A farewell entitled, "To the Famous and Fortunate Generals of our English Forces." 1589. |