Returning again to Clemence Dane, I have chosen her biographical play about William Shakespeare written between January 1920 and April 1921. Dane’s play was first produced in November 1921 (of which more below). The play returns to the great contradiction that continues to fascinate – Shakespeare, the domestic and public man of Stratford and Shakespeare, writer, Londoner, man of the theatre and court.
The play begins in Stratford with the young Shakespeare at home wrangling and uneasy with his wife. We are offered an unhappy Shakespeare with his wife literally blocking his light..
‘Sweetheart, you stay the light.’
The household is disturbed by the arrival of Anne’s mother who has met a traveller on the way, the player Henslowe, come to persuade Shakespeare to London. Shakespeare protests he cannot leave the expectant Anne
Shakespeare refuses Henslowe but then falls into talk with Anne only to find her confused and contradictory about the possible due date of the child and Shakespeare believes himself trapped by deception into marriage and leaves with Henslowe.
Once Shakespeare in London he and the players enter the orbit of Elizabeth I portrayed here as extraordinary and fierce and there Shakespeare meets lady-in waiting Mary Fitton. The real Mary Fitton, seen at one time as the possible Dark Lady of the Sonnets, had a number of affairs including one with William Herbert, after Earl of Pembroke. Here in the play, she is initially disdainful as Shakespeare comes to Elizabeth, describing him as ‘the lesser man’ to Marlowe but then as a potential diversion.
‘So Pembroke goes to Ireland! Ay, and comes back, old winter! I can wait – Shakespeare! Will Shakespeare! O charity – I wish it were Marlowe!’
But from then on brilliant and sparkling dialogue between Queen Wasp and King Drone brings them into love and a vision that will lead Shakespeare to ‘Romeo and Juliet’. But after a performance of ‘Romeo and Juliet’ Anne’s mother arrives to tell Shakespeare that not only was a baby born but the child, Shakespeare’s son is desperately ill. Shakespeare finds himself torn between the two worlds and can only reflect on the future as work ahead.
The first production of the play in 1921 was in a ten year period 1919-1929 of productions by the Reandean Company. The Reandean Company was founded in 1919 by Basil Dean (1888-1978) actor, writer and producer and businessman Alec Rea. In the First World War Dean had been a pioneer in organised entertainment for the troops moving to the War Office in 1917. In the Second World War he was to be the director of ENSA. The Reandean produced a number of works including ‘The Constant Nymph’ in 1926. Dane’s play had Philip Merivale as Shakespeare and Claude Rains and Marlowe and Flora Robson as one the shadows of Act I Queen Margaret.
The Solitary Reader 