William Nugent
Encyclopedia
William Nugent (1550–1625) was an Irish rebel, brother of Christopher
, fourteenth baron of Delvin
(Sixth Baron Delvin), and the younger son of Richard Nugent, thirteenth baron Delvin, from whom he inherited the manor and castle of Ross in County Meath
.
, and ward of his uncle, Nicholas Nugent
. He was for a short time in May 1575 placed under restraint on suspicion of being implicated in the refusal of his brother, Lord Delvin, to sign the proclamation of rebellion against the Earl of Desmond
. On 10 April 1577 he and his wife had livery granted them of the lands of the late Baron of Skryne, valued at 130 lbs. a year. He was suspected of sympathising with the rebellion of Viscount Baltinglass
, but eluded capture by taking refuge with Toirdhealbhach Luinneach Ó Néill, who refused to surrender him. He was excluded by name from the general pardon offered the adherents of Lord Baltinglass, and by the unwise severity of Lord Grey
he was driven to take up arms on his own account. With the assistance of the Ó Conchúir and Kavanagh septs, he created considerable disturbance on the borders of the Pale
. The rising, though violent, was short-lived. Nugent spent much of the winter without shelter. His friends were afraid to communicate with him. Nugent's wife, out of 'the dutiful love of a wife to husband in that extremity,' managed to send him some shirts. She was found out and punished with a year's imprisonment. Finally, in January 1582, with the assistance of Turlough Luineach, he escaped to Scotland, and from there made his way through France to Rome. Shortly afterwards, his uncle Nicholas, who had already been removed from his office as Chief Justice, was charged with inciting William to rebellion, found guilty of treason , and hanged.
He at first met with a chilling reception but when the scheme of a Spanish invasion of England began to take definite shape, he was frequently consulted by the Cardinal of Como and Giacomo Buoncompagno
, nephew of Gregory XIII, as to the prospects of a general insurrection in Ireland. About Easter 1584 he was ordered to Paris, where he had audience with Archbishop Beaton and the Duke of Guise, by whom he was sent, 'in company of certain Scottish lairds and household servants of the king of Scots' with letters in cipher to James VI and the Master of Gray
. Later in the summer he made his way back to Ulster, disguised as a friar. Information reached Perrot
in September that he was harboured by Maguire and O'Rourke
, but that otherwise he had not met with much support. Perrot hoped to be shortly in possession of his head; but November drew to a close without having realised his object, and he finally consented to offer him a pardon. The offer was accepted, and in December Nugent formally submitted. Meanwhile his wife had, on the intercession of the Earl of Ormonde
, been restored to her possessions, and Nugent, though figuring in Fitzwilliam
's list of discontented persons, quietly recovered his old position and influence.
He never forgave Sir Robert Dillon
for the pertinacity with which he prosecuted his family, and in the summer of 1591 he formally accused him of maladministration of justice. His case was a strong one, and, it was generally admitted, contained strong presumptive evidence of Dillon's guilt. The Irish government was in a difficult position. As Wilbraham said, there was little doubt that Sir Robert Dillon had been guilty of inferior crimes dishonourable to a judge, 'it was no policy that such against whom he had done service for her majesty should be countenanced to wrest anything hardly against him unless it was capital.' This was also Fitzwilliam's opinion; while commissioners were appointed to try the charges against Dillon, obstacles of one sort and another were constantly arising. In November 1593 Dillon was pronounced innocent of all the accusations laid to his charge.
The rest of Nugent's life was uneventful. In 1606 James I consented to restore him to his blood and inheritance. A bill for the purpose was transmitted to the privy council in 1613. But it was not returned, having been found unfit to pass the Irish Parliament. Nugent died on 30 June 1625. By his wife, Janet Marward, he had three sons: Robert, who died on 1 May 1616; Christopher, who died unmarried; and James, marshal of the army of the confederates and governor of Finagh, by whose rebellion the family estate was finally forfeited.
wrote The Green Cockatrice which claimed that William Nugent was the real author of Shakespeare's works. She claimed he led a life which gave him insights into the kind of political, religious, military, legal and international diplomatic intrigues that populate Shakespeare's works.
For example, as noted above, he was imprisoned by the state for opposing the cess in Ireland in the 1570s, and he rebelled in 1581 losing a number of supporters to the hangman's noose and causing him to flee into exile, first into Scotland, then France and Italy – locations which are prominent in Shakespeare's works. During his exile he met with most of the great European leaders, including the Pope, the kings of Spain, France and Scotland, and the Duke of Guise
, and was involved in European-wide planning for an invasion of England. According to Brian Nugent, author of Shakespeare was Irish!, the aforementioned court case he launched in the 1590s, accusing one of the senior Irish judges, and the Lord Deputy, of corruption, demonstrates the great legal knowledge which comes across in the Plays. This court case is also mentioned by J.S. Brewer and William Bullen. Nugent was always a great Catholic champion, a member of arguably the most prominent Catholic family in Ireland during the years of Shakespeare and he also launched a controversy in Dublin arguing the cause of Catholicism, which matches the new thinking about Shakespeare's religion
.
Numerous references in Nugent's life history also echo plot points in the Plays, like this from the aforementioned court case:
When the Lord Deputy was trying to catch William in 1584 he reported back to London:
This seems similar to the Duke, Isabella and Claudio in Measure for Measure
This account of his marriage reads a lot like Romeo and Juliet
and the beginning of Othello
:
But more than anything else he was known for his great literary talents, as described by Father John Lynch, one of the most important Irish historians of the period:
Nugent lived for a long time in England as a student at Oxford and earlier as a ward of the third Earl of Sussex
, the same well-known English nobleman who was the uncle of the Earl of Southampton
and the founder of the Lord Chamberlain's Men
players. As early as 1577 he was known as a composer of 'divers sonnets' in English, to quote his friend Richard Stanihurst
writing in Chapter 7 of Holinshed
's Chronicles.
Throughout the 19th and 20th centuries many Irish journals and writers commented on this but they usually did not go so far as to claim that Shakespeare was therefore Irish. They always worked on the understanding that the English language had branched off sometime in the late 17th or 18th centuries with Hiberno-English preserving the older Elizabethan English language. However, some continuities existed between forms of English imported before the reign of James I
and those that developed from later English implantations. Distinctive Irish pronunciations were already identified.
As a further example of these journal articles there is this note from the Ulster Journal of Archaeology:
Another example from the same journal:
was an Act of Parliament, usually passed for high treason and preceding execution, which was often characterised as a 'blood stain', 'blot' or 'corruption of blood', because it had the effect of stripping the victim's hereditary rights as well as property. An example of a 'blot' reference is found in Henry VI:
Ben Jonson
, an acquaintance of Shakespeare, has this 'blot' reference in Timber (1640):
This theme of blots and bloodstains recurs in the Sonnets to such a degree that Hickey theorized that the real author was also attainted:
When William Nugent was attainted he wrote:
Christopher Nugent
Sir Christopher Nugent, 6th Baron Delvin was an Irish nobleman and writer. He was arrested on suspicion of treason against Queen Elizabeth I of England, and died while in confinement before his trial had taken place....
, fourteenth baron of Delvin
Delvin
Delvin is a small town in east County Westmeath, Ireland located on the N52 road at a junction with the N51 to Navan. The town is from Mullingar and is the setting of the book Valley of the Squinting Windows by Delvin native Brinsley MacNamara, described under the fictitious name of "Garradrimna"...
(Sixth Baron Delvin), and the younger son of Richard Nugent, thirteenth baron Delvin, from whom he inherited the manor and castle of Ross in County Meath
County Meath
County Meath is a county in Ireland. It is part of the Mid-East Region and is also located in the province of Leinster. It is named after the ancient Kingdom of Mide . Meath County Council is the local authority for the county...
.
Life and politics
He first acquired notoriety in December 1573 by his forcible abduction and marriage of Jane (Janet) Marward, heiress and titular baroness of SkryneSkryne
Skryne, officially Skreen , is a village with apopulation of 1403 , situated on and around a hill between the N2 and N3 national primary roads in County Meath, Ireland. It is situated on the far side of the Gabhra valley from the Hill of Tara. This valley is sometimes referred to as the Tara-Skryne...
, and ward of his uncle, Nicholas Nugent
Nicholas Nugent
Nicholas Nugent was an Irish judge, unique among the Irish judiciary in being hanged for treason. He had had a highly successful career, holding office as Solicitor General for Ireland, Baron of the Irish Court of Exchequer, and Chief Justice of the Irish Common Pleas, but was destroyed by the...
. He was for a short time in May 1575 placed under restraint on suspicion of being implicated in the refusal of his brother, Lord Delvin, to sign the proclamation of rebellion against the Earl of Desmond
Gerald FitzGerald, 15th Earl of Desmond
Gerald FitzGerald, 15th Earl of Desmond was an Irish nobleman and leader of the Desmond Rebellions of 1579.-Life:...
. On 10 April 1577 he and his wife had livery granted them of the lands of the late Baron of Skryne, valued at 130 lbs. a year. He was suspected of sympathising with the rebellion of Viscount Baltinglass
James Eustace, 3rd Viscount Baltinglass
James Eustace of Harristown, 3rd Viscount BaltinglassJames FitzEustace, the eldest son of Roland FitzEustace, the 2nd Viscount of Baltinglass and Joan, daughter of James Butler, 8th Baron Dunboyne. He was born in 1530 and died in Spain in 1585...
, but eluded capture by taking refuge with Toirdhealbhach Luinneach Ó Néill, who refused to surrender him. He was excluded by name from the general pardon offered the adherents of Lord Baltinglass, and by the unwise severity of Lord Grey
Arthur Grey, 14th Baron Grey de Wilton
Arthur Grey, 14th Baron Grey de Wilton was a baron in the Peerage of England, remembered mainly for his memoir of his father, and for participating in the last defence of Calais.-Life:...
he was driven to take up arms on his own account. With the assistance of the Ó Conchúir and Kavanagh septs, he created considerable disturbance on the borders of the Pale
The Pale
The Pale or the English Pale , was the part of Ireland that was directly under the control of the English government in the late Middle Ages. It had reduced by the late 15th century to an area along the east coast stretching from Dalkey, south of Dublin, to the garrison town of Dundalk...
. The rising, though violent, was short-lived. Nugent spent much of the winter without shelter. His friends were afraid to communicate with him. Nugent's wife, out of 'the dutiful love of a wife to husband in that extremity,' managed to send him some shirts. She was found out and punished with a year's imprisonment. Finally, in January 1582, with the assistance of Turlough Luineach, he escaped to Scotland, and from there made his way through France to Rome. Shortly afterwards, his uncle Nicholas, who had already been removed from his office as Chief Justice, was charged with inciting William to rebellion, found guilty of treason , and hanged.
He at first met with a chilling reception but when the scheme of a Spanish invasion of England began to take definite shape, he was frequently consulted by the Cardinal of Como and Giacomo Buoncompagno
Giacomo Boncompagni
Giacomo Boncompagni was an Italian feudal lord of the 16th century, the illegitimate son of Pope Gregory XIII . He was also Duke of Sora, Aquino, Arce and Arpino, and Marquess of Vignola.A member of the Boncompagni family, he was a patron of arts and culture...
, nephew of Gregory XIII, as to the prospects of a general insurrection in Ireland. About Easter 1584 he was ordered to Paris, where he had audience with Archbishop Beaton and the Duke of Guise, by whom he was sent, 'in company of certain Scottish lairds and household servants of the king of Scots' with letters in cipher to James VI and the Master of Gray
Patrick Gray, 6th Lord Gray
Patrick Gray, 6th Lord Gray , known most of his life as Patrick, Master of Gray, was a Scottish nobleman and politician during the reigns of James VI of Scotland and Mary, Queen of Scots.-Early life:...
. Later in the summer he made his way back to Ulster, disguised as a friar. Information reached Perrot
John Perrot
Sir John Perrot served as Lord Deputy of Ireland under Queen Elizabeth I of England during the Tudor conquest of Ireland...
in September that he was harboured by Maguire and O'Rourke
Brian O'Rourke
Lord Brian na Múrtha Ó Ruairc , hereditary lord of West Bréifne in Ireland during the later stages of the Tudor conquest of that country, was proclaimed by the English to be a rebel and became the first man extradited within Britain for crimes alleged to have been committed in Ireland.-Early life:Ó...
, but that otherwise he had not met with much support. Perrot hoped to be shortly in possession of his head; but November drew to a close without having realised his object, and he finally consented to offer him a pardon. The offer was accepted, and in December Nugent formally submitted. Meanwhile his wife had, on the intercession of the Earl of Ormonde
Thomas Butler, 3rd Earl of Ormonde
Thomas Butler, 10th Earl of Ormonde and 3rd Earl of Ossory, Viscount Thurles , was an Irish peer and the son of James Butler, 9th Earl of Ormond and Lady Joan Fitzgerald daughter and heiress-general of James FitzGerald, 10th Earl of Desmond...
, been restored to her possessions, and Nugent, though figuring in Fitzwilliam
William Fitzwilliam (Lord Deputy)
- Early life :FitzWilliam was born at Milton, Northamptonshire, the eldest son of Sir William and grandson of William Fitzwilliam , alderman and sheriff of London, who had been treasurer and chamberlain to Cardinal Wolsey and who purchased Milton in 1506...
's list of discontented persons, quietly recovered his old position and influence.
He never forgave Sir Robert Dillon
Robert Dillon (judge)
Sir Robert Dillon was a lawyer, judge and politician in the 16th century Kingdom of Ireland, a Speaker of the Irish House of Commons.Dillon was of Newtown, County Meath...
for the pertinacity with which he prosecuted his family, and in the summer of 1591 he formally accused him of maladministration of justice. His case was a strong one, and, it was generally admitted, contained strong presumptive evidence of Dillon's guilt. The Irish government was in a difficult position. As Wilbraham said, there was little doubt that Sir Robert Dillon had been guilty of inferior crimes dishonourable to a judge, 'it was no policy that such against whom he had done service for her majesty should be countenanced to wrest anything hardly against him unless it was capital.' This was also Fitzwilliam's opinion; while commissioners were appointed to try the charges against Dillon, obstacles of one sort and another were constantly arising. In November 1593 Dillon was pronounced innocent of all the accusations laid to his charge.
The rest of Nugent's life was uneventful. In 1606 James I consented to restore him to his blood and inheritance. A bill for the purpose was transmitted to the privy council in 1613. But it was not returned, having been found unfit to pass the Irish Parliament. Nugent died on 30 June 1625. By his wife, Janet Marward, he had three sons: Robert, who died on 1 May 1616; Christopher, who died unmarried; and James, marshal of the army of the confederates and governor of Finagh, by whose rebellion the family estate was finally forfeited.
Shakespeare authorship candidate
In 1978 Elizabeth HickeyElizabeth Hickey
Elizabeth Hickey was a well-known Meath historian and author who lived at Skryne Castle near Tara. The doyenne and best known of Meath historians, she wrote on a variety of topics...
wrote The Green Cockatrice which claimed that William Nugent was the real author of Shakespeare's works. She claimed he led a life which gave him insights into the kind of political, religious, military, legal and international diplomatic intrigues that populate Shakespeare's works.
For example, as noted above, he was imprisoned by the state for opposing the cess in Ireland in the 1570s, and he rebelled in 1581 losing a number of supporters to the hangman's noose and causing him to flee into exile, first into Scotland, then France and Italy – locations which are prominent in Shakespeare's works. During his exile he met with most of the great European leaders, including the Pope, the kings of Spain, France and Scotland, and the Duke of Guise
Henry I, Duke of Guise
Henry I, Prince of Joinville, Duke of Guise, Count of Eu , sometimes called Le Balafré, "the scarred", was the eldest son of Francis, Duke of Guise, and Anna d'Este...
, and was involved in European-wide planning for an invasion of England. According to Brian Nugent, author of Shakespeare was Irish!, the aforementioned court case he launched in the 1590s, accusing one of the senior Irish judges, and the Lord Deputy, of corruption, demonstrates the great legal knowledge which comes across in the Plays. This court case is also mentioned by J.S. Brewer and William Bullen. Nugent was always a great Catholic champion, a member of arguably the most prominent Catholic family in Ireland during the years of Shakespeare and he also launched a controversy in Dublin arguing the cause of Catholicism, which matches the new thinking about Shakespeare's religion
Shakespeare's religion
Knowledge of William Shakespeare's religion is important in understanding the man and his works because of the wealth of biblical and liturgical allusions, both Protestant and Catholic, in his writings and the hidden references to contemporary religious tensions that are claimed to be found in the...
.
Numerous references in Nugent's life history also echo plot points in the Plays, like this from the aforementioned court case:
- "The sheriff dismissed the prisoner for certain money, and (as it was informed to the Lord Deputy) for the use, or rather the abuse, of his sister."
When the Lord Deputy was trying to catch William in 1584 he reported back to London:
- "He has shaven his head and otherwise disguised himself as a friar but he has laboured in vain ... I hope to obtain his head."
This seems similar to the Duke, Isabella and Claudio in Measure for Measure
Measure for Measure
Measure for Measure is a play by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in 1603 or 1604. It was classified as comedy, but its mood defies those expectations. As a result and for a variety of reasons, some critics have labelled it as one of Shakespeare's problem plays...
This account of his marriage reads a lot like Romeo and Juliet
Romeo and Juliet
Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy written early in the career of playwright William Shakespeare about two young star-crossed lovers whose deaths ultimately unite their feuding families. It was among Shakespeare's most popular archetypal stories of young, teenage lovers.Romeo and Juliet belongs to a...
and the beginning of Othello
Othello
The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in approximately 1603, and based on the Italian short story "Un Capitano Moro" by Cinthio, a disciple of Boccaccio, first published in 1565...
:
- ".. whereupon there fell great discord between both houses of Delvin [Nugent] and Dunsany [Plunkett]. And the maid, being by her mother and father-in-law [stepfather] brought into this city as the safest place to keep her, on Friday last at night (being the fourth of this month) the Baron of Delvin's brother being accompanied with a number of armed men, entered one of the postern gates of this city about twelve of the clock in the night (the watch being either negligent or corrupted) and with twenty naked swords entered by sleight into the house where the maid lay and forcibly carried her away, to the great terror of the mother and all the rest."
But more than anything else he was known for his great literary talents, as described by Father John Lynch, one of the most important Irish historians of the period:
- "Then he learnt the more difficult niceties of the Italian language and carried his proficiency to that point that he could write Italian poetry with elegance. Before that however he had been very successful in writing poetry in Latin, English and Irish and would yield to none in the precision and excellence of his verses in each of these languages. His poems which speak for themselves are still extant."
Nugent lived for a long time in England as a student at Oxford and earlier as a ward of the third Earl of Sussex
Thomas Radclyffe, 3rd Earl of Sussex
Thomas Radclyffe 3rd Earl of Sussex was Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland during the Tudor period of English history, and a leading courtier during the reign of Elizabeth I.- Family:...
, the same well-known English nobleman who was the uncle of the Earl of Southampton
Henry Wriothesley, 3rd Earl of Southampton
Henry Wriothesley , 3rd Earl of Southampton , was the second son of Henry Wriothesley, 2nd Earl of Southampton, and his wife Mary Browne, Countess of Southampton, daughter of the 1st Viscount Montagu...
and the founder of the Lord Chamberlain's Men
Lord Chamberlain's Men
The Lord Chamberlain's Men was a playing company for whom Shakespeare worked for most of his career. Formed at the end of a period of flux in the theatrical world of London, it had become, by 1603, one of the two leading companies of the city and was subsequently patronised by James I.It was...
players. As early as 1577 he was known as a composer of 'divers sonnets' in English, to quote his friend Richard Stanihurst
Richard Stanyhurst
Richard Stanyhurst was an Irish alchemist, translator, poet and historian, born in Dublin.His father, James Stanyhurst, was recorder of the city, and Speaker of the Irish House of Commons in 1557, 1560 and 1568. Richard was sent in 1563 to University College, Oxford, and took his degree five years...
writing in Chapter 7 of Holinshed
Raphael Holinshed
Raphael Holinshed was an English chronicler, whose work, commonly known as Holinshed's Chronicles, was one of the major sources used by William Shakespeare for a number of his plays....
's Chronicles.
Irishisms in Shakespeare
Hickey also drew on the many works that have been published which highlight the remarkable Irishisms in Shakespeare, like this for example by W H Blume writing in the Weekly Irish Times on the 29th of June 1901:- "In the 'Winter's Tale' (Act 3 Sc 3), occurs a very common Hibernicism when the old shepherd exclaims, on picking up the abandoned Perdita, "A boy or a child, I wonder?"
- Exclamatory words and phrases racy of the Island of Saints are not infrequent in the plays. In "As You Like It" (Act V Sc 1) we find a popular Irish interjection in, "Faith, the priest was good enough, for all the old gentleman's saying;" and in "The Twelfth Night" (Act 1 Sc 3) Sir Andrew Aguecheek boasts, "Faith, I can cut a caper."
- "Heaven keep your honour," which occurs in 'Measure for Measure' Act II Sc 2, is a prayer which may be earned any day by a dole of a copper to an Irish beggar, and Ophelia's, "how does your honour for this many a day," is an idiomatic expression which has taken root in the "ould sod." The same may be said of "saving your honour's reverence," an apologetic tag used by the loquacious clown in "Measure for Measure," Act II Sc 1. Indeed, we doubt whether any such expressions as these last three be heard at all nowadays outside Ireland.
- "Cead mile failte", the common Irish greeting, translates to "A hundred thousand welcomes", the greeting Menenius Agrippa makes to Coriolanus.
- In 'A Midsummer's Night Dream' Act 1 scene 2, when Bottom eloquently pleads for permission to play the lion he says, "Such roaring would hang us, every mother's son." According to Hickey, the expression "every mother's son" is "seldom used at the present day by anyone but a Patlander."
Throughout the 19th and 20th centuries many Irish journals and writers commented on this but they usually did not go so far as to claim that Shakespeare was therefore Irish. They always worked on the understanding that the English language had branched off sometime in the late 17th or 18th centuries with Hiberno-English preserving the older Elizabethan English language. However, some continuities existed between forms of English imported before the reign of James I
James I of England
James VI and I was King of Scots as James VI from 24 July 1567 and King of England and Ireland as James I from the union of the English and Scottish crowns on 24 March 1603...
and those that developed from later English implantations. Distinctive Irish pronunciations were already identified.
As a further example of these journal articles there is this note from the Ulster Journal of Archaeology:
- "In Routledge's lately published and very neat edition of Shakespeare's Two Gentlemen of Verona, the following note occurs on Act 4, Scene I:
-
- "Come, go with us, we'll bring thee to our crews.
- Mr. Collier's corrector reads 'cave,' Mr.Singer: 'caves.' I have not ventured to alter the text; but can hardly believe crews to be what the poet wrote."
- Now in Ulster the people call a pig-stye a pigcrew. Hence I am disposed to think that the poet used the word "crew" as meaning a hut or hovel, such as an outlaw would make for his abode in a forest. In all the Irish dictionaries the word cró is given as "a hut, hovel," &c.
- Another word occurring in Shakspeare in an obsolete sense, "cling," meaning to "shrink," is applied in Ulster by carpenters to the shrinking of timber."
Another example from the same journal:
- "Mr. KnightCharles Knight (publisher)Charles Knight was an English publisher and author.-Early life:The son of a bookseller and printer at Windsor, he was apprenticed to his father...
, in his Pictorial Shakspeare, at the following passage in Coriolanus, [Act 3,Scene 1]- "Siculus: This is clean kam.
- Brutus: Merely awry. When he did love his country
- It honoured him;"
- has a note in which he says: "We take this to mean 'nothing to the purpose.'"
- He is evidently ignorant of the real meaning of the word, although the expression "awry," used by Brutus, might have led him to it. There is no difficulty in explaining it, if we recollect that in Irish the word cam signifies "crooked."
- But the real difficulty seems to me to be why Shakespeare, an English writer, should be found employing pure Irish words."
Irish language in Shakespeare
There is much Irish-language influence in Shakespeare's works. Elizabeth Hickey, and some other writers, touched upon this when they claimed that Shakespeare was from Ireland. Further examples include: the word 'brogue', which Shakespeare uses exactly as Irish speakers do (Cymbeline Act IV scene 2 line 269); and 'puck', the spirit in A Midsummer Night's Dream, sounds a lot like Púca, the Irish for ghost; and also the phrase 'Calin o custure me' (Henry V Act IV scene 4 line 4) clearly refers to the old Irish harp melody 'Cailín ó cois Stúir mé'. These examples have intrigued Irish scholars over the years and in the opinion of Elizabeth Hickey and some others further raised the prospect that Shakespeare himself was Irish.Attainder
According to Hickey, another Shakespearean link is Nugent's attainder shortly after his rebellion in 1581. This was never reversed although he repeatedly begged the authorities to do so. An AttainderAttainder
In English criminal law, attainder or attinctura is the metaphorical 'stain' or 'corruption of blood' which arises from being condemned for a serious capital crime . It entails losing not only one's property and hereditary titles, but typically also the right to pass them on to one's heirs...
was an Act of Parliament, usually passed for high treason and preceding execution, which was often characterised as a 'blood stain', 'blot' or 'corruption of blood', because it had the effect of stripping the victim's hereditary rights as well as property. An example of a 'blot' reference is found in Henry VI:
- "Was not thy father, Richard Earl of Cambridge,
- For treason executed in our late king's days?
- And, by his treason, stand'st not thou attainted,
- Corrupted, and exempt from ancient gentry?
- His trespass yet lives guilty in thy blood;
- And, till thou be restored, thou art a yeoman...
- This blot, that they object against your house,
- Shall be wiped out in the next parliament."
Ben Jonson
Ben Jonson
Benjamin Jonson was an English Renaissance dramatist, poet and actor. A contemporary of William Shakespeare, he is best known for his satirical plays, particularly Volpone, The Alchemist, and Bartholomew Fair, which are considered his best, and his lyric poems...
, an acquaintance of Shakespeare, has this 'blot' reference in Timber (1640):
- "I remember, the Players have often mentioned it as an honour to Shake-speare, that in his writing, (whatsoever he penn'd) hee never blotted out line. My answer hath beene, would he had blotted a thousand. Which they thought a malevolent speech. I had not told posterity this, but for their ignorance, who choose that circumstance to commend their friend by, wherein he most faulted."
This theme of blots and bloodstains recurs in the Sonnets to such a degree that Hickey theorized that the real author was also attainted:
- "When, in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes, I alone beweep my outcast state...Yet in these thoughts myself almost despising," (26Sonnet 26Shakespeare's Sonnet 26 is generally regarded as the end-point or culmination of the group of five preceding sonnets. It encapsulates several themes not only of Sonnets 20-25, but also of the first twenty-five poems together: the function of writing poems, the effect of class differences, and...
); "So shall these blots that do with me remain" (36Sonnet 36Sonnet 36 is one of 154 Shakespeare's sonnets written by the English playwright and poet William Shakespeare. It's a member of the Fair Youth sequence, in which the poet expresses his love towards a young man or woman.-History:...
); "I am attainted" (88Sonnet 88Sonnet 88 is one of 154 sonnets written by the English playwright and poet William Shakespeare. It's a member of the Fair Youth sequence, in which the poet expresses his love towards a young man.-Synopsis:...
); and especially Sonnet 109Sonnet 109Sonnet 109 is one of 154 sonnets written by the English playwright and poet William Shakespeare. It's a member of the Fair Youth sequence, in which the poet expresses his love towards a young man.-Synopsis:...
:
- "So that myself bring water for my stain.
- Never believe, though in my nature reign'd
- All frailties that besiege all kinds of blood
- That it could so preposterously be stain'd"
When William Nugent was attainted he wrote:
- "the stain now abiding in my name which makes me ever loathsome unto myself may be wiped away...The most unfortunate and hateful to himself, William Nugent."