Romeo & Juliet

SHAKESPEARE’S PATRON 1594 - 1598

The background behind Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet

Gary Danvers

The death of Henry Long - 1594 1

The death of Henry Long at the hands of Henry Danvers and his brother Charles caused some sensation at the time, but the attendant circumstances have been variously told by friends and foes of the family. The story as given by Aubrey in his History of North Wilts, and in the Journal of Archaeological Society of Wilts, vol 1 p 306 and vol viii p 239, is briefly as follows:

Henry Long, the victim, was the younger brother of Sir Walter Long, of a family long seated in the county, neighbours of the Danvers, and from time to time associated with them as members of Parliament, Sheriffs, or Justices of Peace for the county. The narrative states that the nature of the provocation, whether public or private, remains unknown, but the death occurred on October 4, 1594, at a house in Corsham, where several gentlemen, including Sir Walter Long, were assembled. Sir Henry Danvers, followed by his brother and a number of tenants and retainers, burst into the room, and without further ado shot Henry Long dead on the spot. The brothers then fled to Whitney Lodge, a secluded place near to Tichfield House, the seat of Henry Wriothesley, Earl of Southampton. There they appear to have been sheltered and maintained for a time by the Earl, and with his assistance they escaped across Southampton Water to Cawshot Castle, and thence to France, where they remained till they were pardoned in August 1598.

Lady Elizabeth Danvers’s Account

Lady Elizabeth Danvers, mother of the offenders, submitted a petition on their behalf to the Privy Council. The petition is amongst the Domestic State Papers Vol. 219 No. 78, held at the London Record Office and with it is a duplicate dated 15 April 1595, which seems to have been prepared as an instruction to counsel. The heading of the document runs:

`Grounds of the mislike of Sir Walter Long and Henry Long against Sir John Danvers.’ The grounds stated are that, owing to the industry of Sir John, two robberies had been brought home to Sir Walter’s servants, and that Sir Walter had been reprehended by the Justices of Assize for his action in the matter, and further, that he was committed to prison for his conduct towards Sir John Danvers.

Another ground of mislike was that, on another occasion, Sir John Danvers, as a Justice of the Peace, had committed four of Sir Walter’s servants for a murder of which they were guilty. Because of Sir John’s action, Sir Walter and his brother, followed by many insolent servants, provoked an affray in which a member of the Danvers family was killed, and another dangerously wounded. Sir Walter had also entered the house of one of Sir John’s tenants, and had there, unprovoked, thrown a glass of beer in the face of Sir John’s principal servant.

Sir Charles Danvers, knowing of Sir Walter’s insolent behaviour, questioned him as to his privity to the outrage, and requested satisfaction, which was conceded. But Sir Charles received from Henry Long a very violent letter, in which he gave the lie in the throat, and called him `ape, puppie, foole, and boye.’

Then follows Lady Danvers’s account of the affray which resulted in Henry long’s death:

Sir Charles being moved by the continued insolence of the Longs, determined to requite publicly so many and great disgraces, and repaired with friends to the ordinary at Corsham, where Sir Henry Long happened to be in company with others, and entering the room struck him with a stick - cudgeled him - and having done so turned to leave the room. But the door being barred by one of Long’s company, Long and his friends fell upon and seriously wounded Sir Charles. Meanwhile Sir Henry Danvers burst his way into the room, and seeing his brother bleeding and fainting, discharged his pistol at Henry Long, believing that only by doing so could he save his brother’s life.

The document goes on to state that:

Since the death of his brother, Sir Walter Long had endeavoured to hinder justice by, though a party in the affair himself, taking down the testimony of undue witnesses, and that he had endeavoured to corrupt others, and further had riotously and outrageously pulled down enclosures upon the Danvers estate.

Finally, whether because of the interest made of them by the French King, whose service the brothers had entered, and whose notice they had won by their conspicuous bravery, or because inquiries had proved that the account of the affair given by Lady Danvers was correct, the brothers were pardoned in June 1598. The pardon was, however, conditional on the brothers contenting Sir Walter Long by paying him £1,500. They returned to England the following August. But the coroner’s indictment, on which they were outlawed, was not reversed till 1604, and then on a technical ground. In suing for a writ of error the representatives of the brothers endeavoured to upset the indictment on the plea that the Latin was bad, so bad in fact that it was not Latin at all. This plea was rejected, but the fact that the word ‘percussit’ was omitted in the account of the shooting was accepted as valid ground against the indictment and accordingly it was quashed.

In a review of the Hatfield Papers, the Times dated 20 November 1895, has the following reference to the exile of Sir Charles and Sir Henry Danvers:

The adventures of Sir Charles and Sir Henry Danvers and their flight in consequence of a fatal quarrel with Henry Long, form themselves almost a historical novel. The brothers escaped to France where Sir Charles sought the aid of Sir Robert Cecil. To quote the preface to this correspondence: "It was not infrequently the practice at this time, beneath the wax which sealed important documents, to fasten down a number of strands of fine silk. So attached to the letter now referred to, securely held in the waxen seal, is a skein, composed not of silk, but of what, microscopically examined, proves to be human hair. It is yellow flaxen colour and of fine texture, and if, as not probably is the fact, it is a lock cut by himself from his own abundant tresses, here is at once lively evidence of a kind of sentimental appeal to Cecil’s heart and a small and remarkable relic of the woeful exile, Charles Danvers."

Southampton - Shakespeare’s Patron 2

In 1594, when Southampton turned 21, he was involved in an affair which must have increased his disfavour with the Queen. And indeed it was a shocking, sensational affair. For sometime there had raged a bitter feud between two leading families down in Wiltshire, neighbours of Southampton: the Danverses of Dauntsey and the Longs of Wraxall. This culminated a couple of days before the Earl’s birthday, on 4 October 1594, with the killing of Henry Long, son and heir of the family, by two young friends of Southampton, Sir Charles and Sir Henry Danvers.

Southampton enabled them to make their getaway across the Channel to join Henry of Navarre: he hid them in a lodge of his park at Titchfield, fed them, spent a night with them, and arranged their escape by boat. When the Sheriff came over Itchen ferry (river), at the head of the hue and cry after them, a couple of the Earl’s servants - one of them, ‘Signor Florio, an Italian’ - threatened to throw the representative of the law and order overboard.

We do not have to look far to see what sparked off the makings of a play in the mind of the dramatist’s imagination, ready to seize on any suggestion, any likely story - we see this throughout Shakespeare’s work from beginning to end, from Henry VI right on to The Tempest and Henry VIII. Now in 1595, for the next play, Shakespeare reads a story with an Italian colouring,3 combines the two components of friendship and love from one source with feud and death from another, and produces Romeo and Juliet.

ROMEO AND JULIET – SUMMARY OF SHAKESPEARE’S PLAY

ACT 1

SCENE 1 - THE MARKET PLACE

An age old feud divides two powerful families in Verona, the Montagues and the Capulets. At daybreak a quarrel breaks out between Tybalt, a nephew of Capulet, and Romeo, son of Lord Montague, and his friends Benvolio and Mercutio. A fight ensues. The Prince of Verona appears and commands the families to end their feud.

SCENE 2 - JULIET’S ROOM

Juliet is playing with her nurse. Lord and Lady Capulet arrive to present their daughter to Paris, a rich young nobleman who wishes to marry her.

SCENE 3 - OUTSIDE THE CAPULET’S HOUSE

Guests arrive for a ball. Romeo and his friends decide to enter in pursuit of the pretty Rosaline. They put on masks to avoid recognition.

SCENE 4 - THE BALLROOM

Romeo and Juliet see each other and fall in love. Tybalt recognises Romeo and orders him to leave, but Lord Capulet intervenes and welcomes Romeo as a guest in his house.

SCENE 5 - JULIET’S BALCONY

Unable to sleep, Juliet goes out onto her balcony thinking of Romeo. Suddenly Romeo appears in the garden. They confess their love.

ACT 2

SCENE 1 - THE MARKET PLACE

A wedding procession passes by and Romeo dreams of his own marriage to Juliet. Juliet’s nurse brings Romeo a letter in which Juliet asks him to meet her at Friar Laurence’s chapel.

SCENE 2 - THE CHAPEL

Romeo and juliet are married secretly by Friar Laurence who hopes that their union may end the strife between the Montagues and the Capulets.

SCENE 3 - THE MARKET PLACE

Tybalt challenges Mercutio to fight and kills him. Romeo kills Tybalt, avenging the death of his friend. He flees, a `hue and cry’ ensues and Romeo is exiled from Verona.

SCENE 4 - THE CHAPEL

Juliet implores the Friar to help. He gives her a phial of sleeping potion which will make her fall into a death-like sleep. Believing her to be dead, her parents will place her body in the family tomb. Meanwhile Romeo informed by Friar Laurence, will return at night to take her away from Verona.

ACT 3

SCENE 1 - THE BEDROOM

That evening Juliet tells her parents she will marry Paris. Next morning they arrive and find her, to all appearances dead.

SCENE 2 - THE CAPULET FAMILY CRYPT

Tragically the Friar’s message does not reach Romeo, instead he has received the news of Juliet’s death. Disguised as a monk, he returns to Verona and enters the tomb. Finding Paris there, he kills him. Believing Juliet to be dead, Romeo takes poison and dies. Juliet wakes. Finding Romeo dead, she stabs herself.

ROMEO AND JULIET - THE SOURCE OF THE STORY LINE

The following scenes from Act 1 and 2 have been extracted from the synopsis on the previous page and scenes are highlighted to show the similarity between them and the actual events upon which Shakespeare, in 1595, purportedly developed his version of Romeo and Juliet.

ACT 1 SCENE 1 - THE MARKET PLACE

ACT 2 SCENE 3 - THE MARKET PLACE

Tybalt challenges Mercutio to fight and kills him. Romeo kills Tybalt, avenging the death of his friend. He flees, a ‘hue and cry’ ensues and Romeo is exiled from Verona.

The actual events, upon which the scenes were purportedly based, would read similarly if placed in the context of a play:

ACT 1 SCENE 1 - THE HOUSE IN CORSHAM

An age old feud divides two powerful families in Wiltshire, the Danverses and the Longs. A quarrel breaks out between Henry, the younger brother of Sir Walter Long, and Sir Charles, son of Lord Danvers, and a number of tenants and retainers.

ACT 2 SCENE 3 - THE HOUSE IN CORSHAM

Henry Long challenges Sir Charles to fight and almost kills him. Henry Danvers kills Henry Long, allegedly preventing the death of his brother. The brothers flee to Whitney Lodge. A ‘hue and cry’ ensues and Charles and Henry are exiled from England.

Excerpts from other plays written by Shakespeare that are based on the activities of Charles and Henry Danvers include Anthony and Cleopatra, and Measure for Measure.4

References:

1. Memorials of Danvers Family F.N. Macnamara

2. Shakespeare’s Southampton A.L. Rowse

3. Romeus and Juliet Arthur Brooke

4. Shakespeare the Evidence - Unlocking the Mysteries of the Man and His Work Ian Wilson