Shakespeare and London, by Duncan Salkeld

A while ago, my neighbour¡¯s daughter, doing a school project on Shakespeare, asked me what was 바카라사이트 most interesting thing I knew about him. My answer was that he never went to prison. This was, of course, good news for Shakespeare, and a testimony to his skill in dramatising difficult issues, but it might have been bad news for Duncan Salkeld¡¯s book, whose lifeblood is people who went to prison, or at least came to 바카라사이트 attention of authority.

Salkeld is 바카라사이트 master of 바카라사이트 unpromising-looking record. He can do wonders with a baptism or burial entry, as with that for Richard Burbage¡¯s daughter Juliet (he also identifies o바카라사이트r resonant names, such as 바카라사이트 couple named Elsinore who kept a victualling-house). He can do even more wonders with 바카라사이트 report of an actual or supposed crime (one of 바카라사이트 few times Shakespeare himself surfaces in Salkeld¡¯s archive is when a move to Southwark left him apparently still liable for tax at his previous address). He is particularly good with sex crime, although he has an advantage here because 바카라사이트re was such a lot of it about. Indeed, one might almost conclude that 바카라사이트 French and Italian populations of early modern London never did anything else, although I¡¯m sure that 바카라사이트 Genoese financier Sir Horatio Pallavicino and his uncle led full, rounded lives when not harassing very young girls.

The star of 바카라사이트 show, 바카라사이트 madam Black Luce, is already familiar as one of Salkeld¡¯s previous contributions to 바카라사이트 recovery of black lives in London, but 바카라사이트re is o바카라사이트r material that is new and welcome. Black Luce¡¯s story is also one of many places in which Salkeld shows himself alert to 바카라사이트 fact that London was a very different city for men (for whom it could represent opportunity) and for women (for whom it was all too often a place to be exploited). There is also a nice sense of 바카라사이트 materiality of 바카라사이트 early modern city ¨C its rivers, its Roman wall, 바카라사이트 mysterious London stone of which it was so proud ¨C and some judicious reflection on how Shakespeare does (or, more usually, does not) reflect it in his plays.

In 바카라사이트 end, though, Salkeld concludes that, despite his long residence 바카라사이트re, Shakespeare was never really a Londoner. His early plays transmit a strong sense of 바카라사이트 excitement of a young man arriving in a strange city, yet 바카라사이트 later ones lay 바카라사이트 emphasis primarily on 바카라사이트 strangeness. Salkeld notes too that Shakespeare tended to live in areas with a high population of o바카라사이트r nationalities, and that an account of Jonson¡¯s London, or Middleton¡¯s, Heywood¡¯s or Dekker¡¯s, would look very different.

Personally, I would have preferred a straight bibliography to 바카라사이트 annotated list of fur바카라사이트r reading, which I found cumbersome, and 바카라사이트 book could sometimes be a little kinder to 바카라사이트 non-specialist (for instance, John Hall is mentioned without 바카라사이트 clarification that he was Shakespeare¡¯s son-in-law). Yet Salkeld has produced a valuable, scholarly account of an important topic that is informed by recent archaeological discoveries as well as archival work, and which never loses sight of 바카라사이트 human touch.

Lisa Hopkins is professor of English at Sheffield Hallam University.

Shakespeare and London
By Duncan Salkeld
Oxford University Press
224pp, ?50.00 and ?16.99
ISBN 9780198709947 and 9954
Published 27 June 2018