CHRISTOPHER NEWPORT: Of Limehouse, in London. He had sailed with Sir Francis Drake. His first voyage and his first command were in 1590, and he spent the following fifteen years at sea, or largely so. He had lost a hand on his first voyage, but his skills as a navigator were not affected. The first settlers for Virginia's Jamestown colony arrived on a ship he commanded.
RICHARD FIELD: Of Stratford-on-Avon, he came to London just as William Shakespeare did. Established a shop in Blackfriars, becoming one of England's best known printers. He lived from 1561 to 1624 and published the first works of Shakespeare to appear in print: Venus and Adonis in 1593 and The Rape of Lucrece in 1594. His father was a tanner; Shakespeare's was a glover.
THE BELLE SAVAGE: On Ludgate Hill. The site is now a garden and the building itself was removed in 1873. It first appeared in 1452 as Savage's Inn, and its courtyard was used as a theatre for the presentation of plays. Pocohontas stopped there for a time when living in England, and according to rumor the Devil himself made an appearance there once during a play. This must not be considered extraordinary, as the Devil was making quite a few appearances in London at the time, as well as later. The Inn could stable up to one hundred horses and house about the same number of guests.
Many explanations have been offered for the name of the Inn, including a claim that it had been named for Pocohontas. It is more than likely it was simply named for the first owner. Much could be written on its history and its place in historical events. Travel in those days offered many trials and tribulations, not the least of which were the creatures inhabiting the beds in most inns. Parson Woodforde commented that he had been "savagely bitten" while stopping the night at La Belle Savage.
COVENEY HASLING: A gentleman of Stamford, a collector of antiquities, and a man of modest means but varied interests.
The Society of Antiquaries of London was not formed until 1707 when a group of interested men began meeting in the Bear Tavern in the Strand, and later on Fleet Street. However, there was a Society of Antiquaries in the country at large at a much earlier date.
TABARD: The inn from which Chaucer's pilgrims began their trek as recorded in The Canterbury Tales, and a popular resort for many years. It lay near the end of London Bridge, and was a large, rambling structure. Plays were frequently performed there as the architecture of such inns offered balconies overlooking the courtyard, and provided a natural setting for theatre. The Tabard burned in 1676 but was rebuilt and stayed in business in one way or another for over a hundred years after that date. Later it was demolished.
JULIUS CAESAR: Barnabas Sackett was fortunate enough to attend the first performance of this play written by William Shakespeare. That performance took place on September 21, 1599, at the Globe Theatre in London.
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE: Born in Stratford-on-Avon; an actor of character roles (he often played kings) who also wrote plays. A thoroughgoing professional writer who knew what he was doing at all times. He was prolific, writing thirty-six plays, many sonnets, and several narrative poems, all in less than twenty years. He did this while he was regularly performing one old play and rehearsing a new one. We do not know how many roles he was prepared to offer at any given moment but Edward Alleyn, an actor performing in the same era, was prepared to go on stage in any one of seventy roles. It can be assumed that Shakespeare was equally prepared.
A canny businessman, he soon became an actor-sharer, owning a small piece of the company and sharing in its profits and losses. That he saved his money cannot be doubted, for from the first he bought real estate in Stratford and maintained his family there. Later he became an actor-manager.
When he left the theatre, he retired to live the life of a country gentleman in the surroundings he loved. It has been suggested with some probability of truth that in earlier years, before choosing London and the theatre, he had been a school teacher. There are frequent references in his plays to various school texts and the conduct of school boys, so this seems a strong possibility.
There has been a tendency to enshroud him in mystery for one reason or another. As a matter of fact, we know more about his life than that of almost any commoner of the time, and there is no mystery. The only reason for imagining that anyone else but Shakespeare wrote his plays is that he did not attend a university, which seems to have offended some small-minded scholars from time to time. The school he did attend in Stratford was one of the best in England, and several of the nobility sent their sons to school there for that reason.
The sources of his plays, many of which he merely rewrote from other sources and improved, are obvious and well-known. At one time or another, more than fifty people or organizations have been credited with writing his plays. There is no logical reason to suppose they were written by anyone but Shakespeare himself.
Sir Francis Bacon, to whom some misguided people have attributed the plays, simply did not have the time. He never completed the work he had laid out for himself and which was dear to his heart. Moreover, there are errors in Shakespeare's plays that Bacon would never have made.
Unfortunately we miss many points in Shakespeare's plays because we are not familiar with personalities and discussions current in his time. Personalities known to everyone in England are often portrayed in an oblique manner recognizable to his audience. Topical allusions are common throughout his plays, all of which would have amused his audience.
The Tempest was based upon a well-known shipwreck in Bermuda, much discussed at the time. And not many years before the first performance of Hamlet, Eustachio had discovered the Eustachian tube, which was used in the murder of the King, Hamlet's father.
Aside from his use of language (and an actor was constantly rehearsing the finest writing of the period) his greatest asset was something that could not be obtained from books: his knowledge of people, character, and psychology. That he was a keen observer of his fellow man is obvious, and none of his rivals came close to him in that respect.
One must also remember that the age in which he lived was not one given to introspection. His age was a time of outward movement, of exploration. This was the period of Sir Francis Drake, Hawkins, Frobisher, and others who were capturing ships and raiding ports along the Spanish Main.
Shakespeare's plays are open to many interpretations but surely those based on Freudian or other modern psychological theories are furthest from what the author himself had in mind. The Elizabethan period was a time of action, not for looking inward. Ben Jonson, an equally famous playwright in his day, once killed an enemy soldier in single combat between the assembled armies, and later killed at least one man in a duel. Another playwright, Christopher Marlowe, was involved in several violent actions and was finally murdered in what has been described as a brawl in a tavern. It is more likely, I believe, considering Marlowe's career as a spy, that it was an assassination.
All in all, it was a time when direct action was the order of the day, and Shakespeare knew his audience and what they wished to see. The man of the Elizabethan period would have been equally at ease at the siege of Troy or in the American West. Drake or Achilles would have been perfectly at home at the Alamo, and Jim Bowie in the Trojan war. Achilles and Bowie could have walked a deck with Drake. The times were similar, as were the men.
WILL KEMPE: Also, Kemp. An actor in the same company as Shakespeare; a portrayer of low comedy, vastly popular in his time. He also appeared in several plays by Ben Jonson.
RICHARD BURBAGE: The matinee idol of his day; played leads in many of Shakespeare's plays as well as others. His father, James Burbage, was the owner of a theatre, inherited by his sons, Cuthbert and Richard. The latter lived 1567 to 1619.
DEVIL'S DYKE: Built by the Iceni, a Celtic people whose leaders included Queen Boudicca. The Dyke was about six miles long, covering a gap between the fens and the heights, from Reach to Wood Ditton.
THE WASH: A shallow bay, some 22 miles by 15, opening upon the North Sea, on the east coast of Lincolnshire and Norfolk. It includes the estuaries of several sma
ll rivers; the Nene, the Ouse, the Witham, and the Welland. It was here that King John lost the royal treasure--the sceptre and the crown of England, as well as many unset rubies, diamonds, and emeralds. The crown of Matilda, the sword of Tristan, nearly two hundred gold and silver cups, rings, jeweled belts, pendants, clasps, and sacks of gold coins were also lost. King John felt safer when keeping the royal treasure close to him. Aside from the long train of wagons, he also had the army with him.
King John knew nothing of the Wash or its vagaries, nothing of what could happen when the incoming tide met the outflowing currents of the rivers. His plan was to spend the night at a Cistercian abbey at Swineshead, and when they reached the place where the river flowed across the sand into the Wash he saw no danger in those slight waters. Eager to get on, tired and wanting rest, as did those he commanded, he had no idea that when the tide met the river currents the Wash became a maelstrom, a mad whirling of fresh and salt water against which nothing could stand.
King John rode through the shallow waters and his army followed. Behind came the heavily loaded wagons, just in time to catch the first of the tide. In a moment the wagon train was engulfed. There were cries for help, madly struggling horses fighting to be free of their harness, and fleeing men. Then the waves swept over the train and King John's royal treasure was swept away to be buried in the mud and sand of the Wash.
The King rode on to spend the night at the abbey, and ate a hearty meal. The combination of the meal, the stress, and perhaps a bit of poison was fatal for the King. But not while at the Cistercian abbey, for he rode away, no longer trusting them, if he ever had. Riding on did not help, however, for he died soon after.
The memory of that vast treasure lost in the Wash did not die. So far as is known, only one small piece was ever found, a bit of gold broken from a cup.
That the treasure was not forgotten Barnabas was soon to discover.
POTAKA: An Eno Indian, encountered in Carolina by Barnabas. Decimated by intertribal warfare as well as smallpox, the last of the Eno joined forces with the Catawba. They were of Siouan ancestry.
KING ARTHUR: Barnabas mistakenly believed that he lived before the Romans. His existence is disputed, some believing the stories of Arthur and his Round Table were figments of someone's imagination. There is considerable evidence, however, that some such Celtic chieftain did live and organized resistance against the invaders of England after the Romans had left.
Recently further evidence has been discovered on the Isle of Man. Much of the story of King Arthur did not, however, take place in England, but across the channel in Brittany. Now a part of France, Brittany was for many years a part of England, and several of the places referred to in the stories of King Arthur and his Knights can be found in Brittany. If he existed, and I, for one, believe he did, then it was in that period of turmoil that followed the retreat of the Roman legions from England. The Roman presence had long held the barbarian hordes at bay, but once the soldiers were gone the English shores were exposed. In those hectic times a strong leader was necessary.
WHITE HART: An inn known in Southwark (a borough of London near the docks), mentioned by Charles Dickens. Open as early as 1406, it was partly destroyed by fire in 1669 (after it was known by Barnabas and his friends), later rebuilt, and then finally torn down in 1889.
ST. PAUL'S WALK: The news that Jesus had driven the moneylenders from the temple apparently did not reach St. Paul's Cathedral in London. What really happened, of course, was that after Henry VIII broke with the Catholic Church there was a time when St. Paul's could not be maintained as it formerly had. The nave of the cathedral, known as St. Paul's Walk, became a shortcut from Paternoster's Row to Carter Lane. That "street" became a place of popular resort. Various people set up booths and all manner of business was conducted there, moneylending being the least of these. It was also a veritable "Peacock Alley" where the very latest in fashion might be seen and where ladies of the evening, or any other time of day, might be found. Lawyers received their clients, horsefairs were conducted, murderers were hired. It was a gossip center and a place for strollers, newsgatherers, and hawkers of every description.
The first state lottery was held at the west door. Scenes from many plays of the time were set in St. Paul's, particularly in the plays and masques written by Ben Jonson, obviously a frequenter of the place. His duel with Gabriel Spencer, however, took place at Hoxton's Fields, some distance away. Ben Jonson, poet and playwright as well as occasional actor, former bricklayer's apprentice and a notable fighting man, killed Spencer in that duel. He himself was wounded.
DOLL BARTHRAM: An historical character who was hanged as a witch on July 12th, 1599. Accused by Joan Jordan, a servant of Simon Fox, of sending her three toads and then a spirit that came knocking at eleven o'clock at night. Witnesses: a chief constable, a vicar, and Anthony Aldham, a gentleman.
LUKE HUTTON: Hanged. A noted highwayman, formerly a scholar at Cambridge, and rumored to be the son of the Archbishop of York. Condemned on nine-score and seventeen indictments. Obviously an active young man, Hutton wrote a book while in prison called The Black Dog of Newgate.
NICK BARDLE: Master of a merchant vessel, half a pirate, ready to take any advantage or engage in any nefarious activity that promised a profit. He shanghaied Barnabas aboard his ship, the Jolly Jack, intending to lose him over the side somewhere en route to the Indies. But Barnabas proved one of his best seamen and Bardie delayed until too late.
Hence Barnabas became the first of his name in America, the first to look westward from the sea toward the blue distant mountains, and to wonder what lay there, and what lies beyond. Little did he know that ten generations of his name would look westward with wonder in their eyes and in their minds, and then, perhaps, still other generations would look outward to the stars.
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TO THE FAR BLUE MOUNTAINS
First publication: E.P. Dutton hardcover, October 1976;
Bantam Books paperback, June 1977 Narrator: Barnabas Sackett Time Period: c. 1600-1620
In which Barnabas Sackett returns briefly to the land of his birth, and relates what he found there, including an order for his arrest. Because of the gold coins he found and sold to Coveney Hasling, he is suspected of having found the royal treasure of King John in the Wash.
Barnabas encountered some old friends and some enemies, found his bride Abigail again, and took a ship for America. This is the story of how Abigail went with him to the far lands and became mother to his sons and daughter, and how his first born was birthed to the sounds of battle with a man standing over Abigail with a sword as she gave birth to Kin-Ring, the first son.
And how they found, at last, a home at Shooting Creek in the shadow of Chunky Gal Mountain, and what happened there and thereafter.
BLACK TOM WATKINS: A sailor and a soldier, but a smuggler as well, with his name on a list to be hanged at Tyburn, when he was caught. A man of the fens he was, and one who stopped by the cottage in times past. Now he would escape the country with Barnabas, knowing little of where they went, nor little caring whether it was to life or death. Like all men, he knew he owed life a death; only he wished to die cleanly with a sword in hand, perhaps, and a friend to stand beside.
THE PROSPECT OF WHITBY: A pub, originally built in 1520, and perhaps the oldest public house in the London area. It was where Barnabas expected to meet Peter Tallis. Originally it had been known as the Devil's Tavern, and was in the beginning a hang-out for smugglers, river pirates, and thieves of every vintage. Not far away is Execution Dock where pirates were hanged, including Captain Kidd, less a pirate than many. Charles Dickens, Whistler, Pepys, and Turner all visited here, as well as John Taylor, the Water Poet.
There is a river terrace from which the traffic on the Thames may be watched. Although it was still called the Devil's Tavern in the time of Barnabas, I have chosen to call it by its present name for the sake of those readers who might someday wish to visit the place. Its name was changed to Prospec
t of Whitby in 1777 because of a vessel named the Prospect that used to tie up there.
THE GRAPES: A waterfront tavern where Barnabas left the borrowed boat. An inn well known to Charles Dickens who also used it in a story. Few inns along the river front were better known. It was established in the sixteenth century. MAG: A sailor's wife who kept a sleeping place for sailors and others; a respectable woman whose place was clean, and whose cooking rivaled the best. Her Jack was a gunner aboard a Queen's ship. A friend to Jeremy Ring.
PIMMERTON BURKE: A vagabond, and a landless man, a wild and reckless young man given to fisticuffs in taverns and fairs. He went over the seas with Barnabas and found a home there, and modest wealth as well, until he met a lady who proved to be somewhat less than a lady. She took his gold and his emerald and went off to England, no doubt to meet a man who was less than a gentleman. Pimmerton then opened an inn, and no doubt met another lady.
the Sackett Companion (1992) Page 4
