Continuing our special series of Literary Footprints 2019 posts, Dave Charnick previews some of the London Shakespeare connections linked to his Echoes of Shakespeare walk which features as part of the festival on 24th October. Dave is running no fewer than three different Shakespeare walks during our festival, full booking details are on his walks page.

Grief fills the room up of my absent child,
Lies in his bed, walks up and down with me

These lines are taken from William Shakespeare’s play The Life and Death of King John (Act Three, Scene Four). They are the words of a mother whose son has been taken away. She is Lady Constance, wife of the dead Geoffrey, Duke of Brittany, and sister-in-law to Geoffrey’s younger brother, the English King John. Her son is Prince Arthur, Duke Geoffrey’s only son.

Arthur has been taken from France back to England by his uncle John; the boy having arguably a stronger claim on the English throne, his safety in John’s hands in less than assured! This may explain the strength of Lady Constance’s grief. Her words are those of a parent whose child is not coming back.

There is no certain date for the writing of King John, but it is listed with eleven others by churchman and author Francis Meres in his 1598 literary survey Palladis Tamia. Meres gives the twelve plays as examples of how Shakespeare is ‘most excellent’ as a writer of English comedy and tragedy. Current thinking is that King John was written in 1596, the year that Shakespeare’s only son Hamnet died at the age of eleven.

The parish register of Holy Trinity, Stratford upon Avon, records Hamnet’s burial on 11 August 1596. It is an irresistible thought that the loss of Shakespeare’s only son gave form to Constance’s words, a perfect expression of parental loss. But eleven years later, another Shakespeare felt that same loss.

Edmund Shakespeare, born in 1580 when his eldest brother William was sixteen, came to London around 1600 and became an actor. He had just one child, a son called Edward. Shortly before Edmund’s own death in December 1607, at the age of twenty-seven, Edmund laid his son Edward to rest. The parish register of St Giles without Cripplegate records the burial on 12 August 1607 of the ‘base born’ Edward. The child’s age is not recorded, but he would have been approximately six years old.

Edmund would have been eighteen in 1598 when Palladis Tamia appeared. It is unlikely he would have played in King John. However, whether or not he knew Constance’s speech, it is tempting to imagine his brother’s words coming to Edmund’s mind when he laid his dead son in the earth.

The grieving Constance makes a telling comment. She points out how futile it is to try and offer consolation if you have not experienced such loss yourself. Surely this touch of authenticity hints that the lament is based on more than Shakespeare’s imagination?

Fare you well: had you such a loss as I,
I could give better comfort than you do.

Follow the link for the full list of our Literary Footprints 2019 walks and if you’re feeling particularly curious (and energetic!) then why not take advantage of our great value season ticket which for only £49 allows you one free place on every Literary Footprints walk throughout October!

Picture credits

Claire Bloom as Lady Constance (BBC Shakespeare) – http://bbcshakespeare.blogspot.com

Extracts taken from Palladis Tamia and the parish registers of Holy Trinity and St Giles Churches – https://shakespearedocumented.folger.edu/exhibition

Extract taken from the First Folio edition of The Life and Death of King John – https://firstfolio.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/