Shakespeare's Guide to Italy: Retracing the Bard's Unknown travels, Richard Paul Roe, c. 2011

Shakespeare's Guide to Italy: Retracing the Bard's Unknown travels, Richard Paul Roe, c. 2011, in personal library.

 Romeo and Juliet: first chapter in this incredibly well-researched book. Goes hand-in-hand with Brenda James' The Truth Will Out. 

Some takeaways:

Shakespeare's First Folio Plays:

Ten history plays that involve the Sir Henry Neville family.
includes the trilogy of Henry VI and the fourth for a tetralogy: Richard III
also, his contemporary, Henry VIII

Two additional plays set in the British Isles:
King Lear, ancient Britiain
Cymbeline, Wales

Ten non-history plays set in Italy
including Othello -- Act I only; the rest of the play takes place in Cyprus (Turkey)

Three additional plays set in ancient Rome

Ten of his best plays set in places outside of England:
Scotland, of course: Macbeth
Denmark: Hamlet

Years The Plays Were Written:

to be completed later;
an important piece of the story.

********************************
Verona

There are two plays set in Verona and a third play near Verona, in Padua

• Romeo and Juliet (Verona)
  
• The Two Gentlemen of Verona (Verona / Milan)
  
• The Taming of the Shrew (Padua)
  

The rich and famous British, throughout the ages, including those during Sir Henry Neville's lifetime, made the grand tour of continental Europe. Sir Henry Neville certainly did and spent part of his professional / government life in France.

If visiting Switzerland, the most likely / scenic / famous route would be across the Brenner Pass. That's how Goethe began his Italian journey at age 37.

The first major Italian city one enters after crossing the Alps through the Brenner Pass: Verona. 

Verona, from the north is the gateway to Venice to the East, and Milan to the west (Venice, Verona, and Milan are almost at the same latitude in northern Italy). At that latitude, Italy is as wide as it gets and then narrows significantly to the peninsula with Bologna and Florence about halfway between Verona and Rome. Naples, southern Italy, is south of Rome, and on the western coast. 

Despite all the time Sir Henry Neville spent in France, he set only one play in France, As You Like It.

***********************

New word: lazeratto (various spellings): wiki. In Two Gentlemen of Verona. Named after the leper St Lazarus of biblical fame. Hospitals for lepers.

 

*************************
The Merchant Of Vienna
"Venice: the City and the Empire" -- Part 1
"Venice: Trouble and Trial" -- Part II

This play is absolutely full of information about the Jews in Vienna in the mid- to late-16th century. At this time, no Jews lived in England, and except for the few English that traveled to the continent, no one really knew much, if anything, about the Jews, except that spread by rumor or undocumented sources. One wonders if Sir Henry Neville's really purpose of this play was to introduce to his audience, the culture of the Jews, as well as the Venetian Empire.

Like the first chapter on Verona, this is an easy-to-read chapter with a lot of historical information.

Sir Henry Neville was definitely an astute businessman.

This really is cool. His grand tour continues: after crossing the Brenner Pass into northern Italy, he visits Verona (Romeo and Juliet, Two Gentlemen of Verona), then Padua (Taming of the Shrew). Now in this fourth play, he's visiting Venice (The Merchant of Venice). It is very clear that Sir Henry Neville had fallen in love with northern Italy, took copious notes for future plays. This is absolutely amazing.

 *************************
Othello
"Strangers and Streets, Swords and Shoes"

The entire first act is set in Venice.

The rest of the play, Acts II through V, is set on the island of Cyprus.

In the 16th century, Cyprus was a wealthy island under Venetian rule until it was conquered by the Ottoman Empire in 1571: Venetian rule Cyprus was a major overseas possession of the Republic of Venice, along with Crete. The island was a key location for controlling the Levantine trade, and was also a profitable producer of cotton and sugar. Famagusta became a luxurious place for merchants and ship owners, and was known as "the district of churches." 

 

 

 Now, unto Florence. But, a side trip to a little village outside Mantua.

 *************************
A Midsummer Night's Dream
"Midsummer in Sabbioneta"

The author mentions that the 16th century has become his favorite Italian century, p 180.

Wow, this in incredible!!! Holy mackerel. A random traveler mentions to the author that the latter needs to take a side trip to a small village outside of Mantua. The village: Sabbioneta.

On the guided tour, hte guide that Sabbioneta came to be called La Piccola Atena -- "Little Athens" because it had become a hospital gathering place for scholars and intellectuals.

Obviously Sir Henry Neville would have been part of this crowd -- a scholar and an intellectual. So, on i grand tour, Sir Henry Neville knew about Little Athens and went there to hang out with his friends. It makes me think of Davos, where the super-rich and occasionally famous and the faux intelligentsia go to hang out every winter for a week or so. 

For Sir Henry Neville, to end up in Sabbioneta, it was a dream come true. Wow.

This author is incredible.

 *************************
All's Well That Ends Well
"France and Florence"

The source for this story: a story about Beltramo de Rossiglione and Giglietta de Narthone in The Decameron of Giovanni Boccaccio (1313 - 1375). 

The setting for Shakespeare's "All's Well That Ends Well" is primarily in France, specifically the region of Roussillon.  There are "two" Roussillons (technically a third but the third is not an option). One of the Roussillons is on the road from Florence to Paris, and that's the Roussillon where this play was set.

Tuscan wars: Florence vs Siena, p. 195.

Even though set in France, the author includes it as an Italian play because of all the talk of the war -- and particularly Florence. Tuscany.

The importance of capitalization (upper case / lower case) in Shakespeare.

**************************
A Musical Interlude

Link here. This one absolutely makes my day! 

Stage direction in Shakespeare's All's Well That Ends Well.

"Tucket" is the English version of the Italian word toccata, from toccare, meaning to touch. In Renaissance Italy a "toccata" was also the royal or noble declaration. [It might be used to alert the audience something important was about to happen -- perhaps the riders were being called to mount, or perhaps royalty was about to enter stage right.]  Its attention-getting style- so tuneful and attractive -- was soon to be adopted in teh early seventeenth century, in compositions of music, such as those of Corelli [Arcangelo Corelli, 1653 - 1713, some four decades after Shakespeare was writing] and Bach [J.S. Bach, 1685 - 1750 -- some seventy-five years after Shakespeare was writing.]

The toccata originated in northern Italy (think Tuscany, Florence) in the late Renaissance period (15th and 16th centuries). Shakespeare was writing in the late 16th century, early 17th century).

Folks are probably more familiar with this version. 

So, if toccatas were originally written for organ, brilliant that Shakespeare turned to trumpets for his plays. Wow.  

According to Richard Paul Roe, p. 199, "a tucket is a run of tuneful notes, generally on a trumpet."

Again, using a precise word.

 

  *************************
Much Ado About Nothing
"Misfortune in Messina"

Part 1

Part 2

 *************************
The Winter's Tale
"A Cruel Notion Resolved"

 

 *************************
The Tempest
"Island of Wind and Fire"