Dear Peter Dickson,
Consider the possibility, if you will, that the arrests* were not relevant to the production of the First Folio, although the Spanish Marriage debacle may have been. Consider the events in Germany which saw the newly crowned King and Queen of Bohemia (Elizabeth Stuart and Frederick of Heidelberg) fleeing in disarray from Prague after the disastrous Battle of the White Mountain on 8th November 1620. Her father, James I refused all aid, despite the wishes of parliament, but Horace Vere, mounted an expeditionary force which proved ineffective in the event. I have read a letter from Horace Vere in the B.L. recounting the events.
History records that Frederick King of Bohemia escaped in disguise through enemy lines (and left his Garter insignia behind). According to the historian, C. V. Wedgwod, they left in such haste that the youngest prince was all but forgotten and 'the Queen's frivolous books were left flying about in her rooms to scandalize the piety of the conquerors' (126). I know that Elizabeth took some books with her to The Haag because I have seen on display in the University of Heidelberg the Manessi Codex which was known to have been in the castle library in 1613 and which turned up in Paris years later (it is possible that, desperate for money, Elizabeth sold the codex to her sister in law Henrietta).
Now consider the possibility of Elizabeth's going to live in Heidelberg in 1613 in a castle which housed one of Europe's great libraries and with a 500 seat theatre newly built by her young husband in one of the castle's towers; consider the possibility that she left England with no playscripts or books in English. Commonsense tells me that she would have taken English books and playscripts with her,such as the half dozen by Shake-speare performed in the months before her wedding, as well as others. Where are they now?
After the defeat in Bohemia, King James tried to negotiate a settlement whereby Frederick and Elizabeth could return to Heidelberg under Spanish protection, but not surprisingly they refused. In April 1622 Frederick left the Haag and joined General Mansfield on the Rhine but they were no match for the Imperial general Tilley.
When Tilley ransacked the castle, in September 1622, he sent the famous library to the Vatican. However when the collection was returned to the University of Heidelberg for the great retrospective exhibition in the 1980s celebrating the university's 600th anniversary, there were no English language books listed. I have seen the catalogue.
What happened to the English language books? Destroyed? Hidden in the Vatican? Hidden in Prague Castle? Sent back to England badly damaged? Your theory does not explain why much of the Folio was set from such obviously damaged material . . parts of several plays seem to have been reconstructed from memory. And most important of all: why was it necessary to print the collected plays? What is in them that had to be kept for posterity? Have we missed something in them? Did you know that there were ten English companies playing in Germany by 1620? What happened to their playbooks? A list of some of their plays turned up in Dresden in the mid-19th century and includes several by Shake-speare and a few by Marlowe too.
The Spanish Marriage affair was not all that concerned the English in the early 1620s.
You should consider the possibility that the dreadful events of the Thirty Years War, sparked by the affairs in Bohemia, which led to apparently indiscriminate slaughter and burning of towns and books may have been the catalyst for the decision to collect and preserve the plays of William Shake-speare in print . .
Sincerely,
Jane Nelson, University of Adelaide S.A.
*in June 1621 involving Henry de Vere, son of Edward de Vere, and Henry Wriothesley.
(posted here by permission of author)
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