Laid-Back Shakespeare #6

If you've been following this series, "Laid-Back Shakespeare," you know we've spent some time on the story of the coat of arms, the heraldic device that meant so much to William Shakespeae and his father John and that would allow them to move up to a position among the gentry.

This is the sixth post in the series.

Theoretically the rank of "Gentleman" was an honor given because of family and service to the nation, but it was actually bought: you paid off someone to get it, in other words. Even so, there were standards you had to meet.

Over twenty years after John had applied to the College of Heralds for the rank of gentleman and didn’t get it, his son had moved on up to become a successful London playwright, actor and theatrical businessman. William Shakespeare felt he was in a position to try for the prize again.



The application was renewed. In 1596 Sir William Dethick, Garter King-of-Arms, granted the Shakespeare family a coat of arms, a rough sketch of which is shown above.

It has the items one might expect to find on such a device, a falcon, a spear, etc.; it was simple but it would do the job. Both father and son could now stop signing their names as Mr. Shakespeare and each could sign as Mr. Shakespeare, Gentleman – and Will, at least, did.

There had been some criticism that lately honors had been given out to too many types of people; riff-raff had to be kept out. In awarding the rank, Garter Dethick mentioned the Shakespeare connection to the Arden family, an ancestor of which had performed “valiant service to King Henry II of famous memory.” There is no historical evidence of any Arden doing anything of the kind, but perhaps Garter was simply trying to defend his decision for Shakespeare – who had paid well for the honor – and to avoid any future criticism. In addition, Dethick went on, the father, John, had served as bailiff, which meant he had been a Queen’s officer, and that was true.

Take another look at the sketch above. There are two lines scribbled at the bottom: they give a glimpse into the squabbles and rivalries that went on in the granting of such honors.

It seems that Garter, Sir William Dethick, was a contentious sort, but he may have met his match in the York Herald, Peter Brooke, who obviously felt granting such an honor to a commoner like this Shakespeare person was a huge mistake.

He wrote at the bottom of the sketch: “Shakespeare the player. By Garter.”

A whole world of Elizabethan custom, tradition, class, prejudice, rivalry, whathaveyou, is summed up in those two lines.

What Brooke is saying is this: “This guy is an ACTOR, for God’s sake! You don’t grant a coat of arms to actors.” Which was certainly, for the most part, true.
It’s difficult for us in our 21st century to realize the low esteem in which theatrical people, and the theatre generally, were held. There was then, to many, something shameful about this type of work.

It’s fascinating to note what his son-in-law, Dr. John Hall, wrote when Our Will retired to Stratford. Dr. Hall kept very careful records, noted down just about everything that happened, in his medical practice as well as in the daily goings-on of his family. He found himself now living with William Shakespeare, the greatest playwright who ever lived. And what he wrote about his famous father-in-law was – nothing, not a word. Hall was a Puritan.

He was probably simply embarrassed: perhaps he thought, all right, so he made a lot of money down there in London, but it was not respectable work.

The other line the York Herald wrote on the sketch, “By Garter,” was his way of saying, “It was Dethick who was responsible for this; I had nothing to do with it.”



For the final version of his coat of arms, Will Shakespeare wrote the words, in Old French, “Not Without Right.” I take this to mean: “My dad and I struggled for years to get to this place. We’re here and we have a RIGHT to be here – get used to it!”

Laid-Back Shakespeare #4

Will Shakespeare's Social Climb

“We’re movin’ on up to the east side,
To a deluxe apartment in the sky.
Movin’ on up to the east side;
We finally got a piece of the pie.” (Theme song of “The Jeffersons”)

The story of Will and his father, John Shakespeare, is the story of two men who struggled to leave the low position they had been born into and to “move on up” to a higher class. To that degree they were both lifelong social climbers.

Let’s talk for a moment about social class in Elizabethan England. The rank both Will and his dad sought was “Gentleman.” That word did not then mean someone who held doors open for ladies. “Gentleman” was a legal rank. If you were born into it, you were fortunate. If you weren’t, if you were born into a lower class – as were both Will and his father – moving on up to that grade was extremely difficult.

John Shakespeare spent a good portion of his life trying, but he never made it.

The Elizabethan hierarchy was rigid, and carefully spelled out. The pecking order went like this: the Sovereign at the top, followed by Duke, Earl, Viscount, Baron and Knight. That was the nobility.

Below this came the rank the Shakespeare men aspired to: Gentleman. Legally, a gentleman was a person of good birth and independent means, and neither Shakespeare, pere or fils, fit that description. You could officially became a “Gentleman” when a coat of arms was granted to you by the College of Heralds.

As far as “good birth” was concerned, William Shakespeare knew well that if anyone were to investigate his family, the truth would come out: his father had begun life in a very low position – in fact, at just about the bottom of the barrel.



John Shakespeare had been a farmer, but not really. The word “farmer” implies someone with a farm; young John S. had been merely a share-cropper, a farm hand, working on a rich man’s farm. There had been no school in John’s home town, Snitterfield, so he was probably illiterate.

Not content with raising crops and pasturing herds, John left the farm and moved to Stratford to learn a trade and open a business. To work as a craftsman you had to spend seven years as apprentice; John did this to become a glover, a person who made and sold gloves and all kinds of leather goods.

Once more or less settled, he looked about for a bride. He aimed high. He began courting the daughter of the wealthy man whose farm he had worked: her name was Mary Arden. She was to become Our Will’s mother.



Shakespeare's dad really moved on up. The Ardens possessed one of the most important and respected names in Warwickshire. In ordinary circumstances, an illiterate farm hand would never have been considered by the Arden family. However, Mary’s father, Robert Arden, had eight daughters and he had to find husbands for them; John had a chance.

It would seem that Mary, the youngest of the daughters, had been her dad’s favorite: when she married Shakespeare she was provided with a large dowry. John not only improved his social standing by marrying into the Arden family, he greatly improved his financial situation too.



He opened a shop in town. He was now a tradesman, which meant he was a solid step above his former position: the lowest, laborer class. He also became active as a member of the town council. But he was not yet a “Gentleman.”

Was John Shakespeare’s son, William, able to make it to that exalted rank? Stay tuned. All will be revealed in future installments. :-)