-------------------------------------------------- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=siSs8ta9_DM .................................................. https://historicmedals.com/viewItem.php?no=2762

Shakespeare's Mulberry Wood, Covered Cup, , circa 1790, by W. W. the cup decorated with mulberry leaves, the handle of the lid in the form of a mulberry and the base inscribed, SHAKESPEARS MULBERRY WOOD, 180 x 105 mm. Extremely fine, an exceptional
object. £3750.00

<<William Shakespeare bought *NEW PLACE* for his family in 1597.

In 1759, the new owner, the Rev. Francis Gastrell, incited local opinion by demolishing the entire New Place property, including the famous mulberry tree, which had reputedly been planted by Shakespeare following James 1's directive to encourage the silk
weaving trade.

Gastrell subsequently sold the wood which was turned into various objects connected with Shakespeare. This new trade was very much assisted by the festival organised by David Garrick in Stratford on Avon in 1769 to honour the memory of the great man.
Garrick himself bought a number of objects made from the wood.

In his play The Jubilee, Samuel Foote who although one of Garrick's oldest friends, mercilessly sent up the who event which he considered to be more about Garrick than Shakespeare. Things were not helped by the fact the festival was virtually flooded out
by three days of continuous rain.

He presents a tinker selling a "Toothpick cases, needle cases, punch ladles, tobacco stoppers, inkstands, nutmeg graters and all sorts of boxes made out of the famous Mulberry Tree, who is challenged by a second trader with the accusation that "His goods
are made of old chairs and stools and colored to cheat gentlefolks with.">> --------------------------------------------------------------
In 1608 *THOMAS GREENE* and his wife Leticia living at
*NEW PLACE* , Stratford-on-Avon, had a son, William. ......................................................
EPIGRAMS. BOOK I. The Author B. J.
.
64. To [Robert (Cecil) Earl of Salisbury. (May 4, 1608)]
Upon the Accession of the Treasurership to him. ......................................................
NOt glad, like those that have new Hopes, or Suits,
With thy *NEW PLACE* , bring I [Th]ese ear[L]y Fruits
[O]f Love, an[D] what the [G]olden Ag[E] did hold
A Treasure, Art: Condemn'd in th' Age of Gold. ..................................................
_ <= 8 =>

. *N E W P L A C E* (May 4, 1597)
. b r i n g I[T h]
. e s e e a r[L]y
. F r u i t s[O]f
. L o v e,a n[D]w
. h a T t h e[G]o
. l d E n A g[E]d
. i d H o l d A T
. r e A s u r e,
.
[T LODGE] 8 Prob. in epigram ~ 1 in 7250 -------------------------------------------------------------
*THOMAS GREENE* of Middle Temple was the only real person
who lived in *NEW PLACE* at the time and, as Town Clerk of
Stratford from 1603 to 1617, Greene had the means, motive and
opportunity to doctor the Town Records (including Will's will, of
course) to make it appear that there was a real illiterate Stratford
boob. (Presumably, it was hoped that smart people in the future would
recognize that an illiterate Stratford boob couldn't possibly have
written the works; thereby softening Oxford's Faustian bargain.) ------------------------------------------------------ http://shakespeareauthorship.com/friends.html wrote:

<<[*THOMAS GREENE*] was living in *NEW PLACE* in 1609 and possibly for
some time before, and in his diary he refers affectionately to "my
cosen Shakespeare" numerous times around 1614. Three of his children
were born in Stratford, and he named two of them "William" and "Anne,"
most likely after Shakespeare and his wife. Who was *THOMAS GREENE*?
He was the son of *THOMAS GREENE* Sr., mercer, of Warwick, who in his
will of 1590 left eighty pounds and a gray mare to Thomas Jr. In 1595
Thomas entered the Middle Temple; his sureties (i.e., sponsors) were
John Marston Junior and Senior, the future playwright and his father.
In 1601 he accompanied Richard Quiney to London on Stratford business,
where they tried unsuccessfully to see the Attorney General, Sir
Edward Coke. Greene was a close friend of Michael Drayton, the
poet, and in 1603 he wrote a sonnet to Drayton which appeared in The
Barons' Wars; in the same year he wrote a poem in honor of King James
called A Poets Vision and a Princes Glorie. Drayton, in turn, later
wrote an elegy for Sir Henry Rainsford, Greene's good friend and
fellow Middle Templar who he often mentions affectionately in the
same diary where he mentions Shakespeare. Some of Greene's papers
managed to survive at Stratford, and they include Latin verses
and some English jottings about the nature of love.

Greene's literary endeavors (at least those that were published)
seem to have been confined to the period 1602-1603, when he was in
London finishing up his formal studies at the Middle Temple. He was
called to the Bar of the Middle Temple in October 1602, and in August
of the following year he was appointed Steward (later called Town
Clerk) of Stratford. He held this position for the next 14 years,
during which time he negotiated a new town charter (in 1610), bought
a lease of tithes (in 1609, as Shakespeare had done in 1605), and was
heavily involved in the enclosure controversy of 1614-19, during which
he wrote his famous diary in which he mentions Shakespeare. In 1617 he
resigned his post and sold his house for 240 pounds and his tithes
for 400 pounds, though he complained that he should have gotten more
because of his long service to the town. He became a Reader at the
Middle Temple in 1621, Master of the Bench in 1623, and Treasurer
in 1629. He died in Bristol in 1640.>> ----------------------------------------------------------- http://genforum.genealogy.com/cgi-bin/print.cgi?greene::1130.html

<<*THOMAS GREENE*, son of *THOMAS GREENE* and Isabel Lingen, married
Lettice Tutt of West Meane, Southampton by whom he had six children
including an Anne (b. 1604) and a William (b. 1608). He is also the
same *THOMAS GREENE* who contributed a commentary poem to the 1603
edition of Michael Drayton's _The Baron's Wars_. Lived in Stratford.
Family was descended from the "Tamworth" Greenes. Apprentice to the
Law in the "Middle Temple" 1623. Lived for a while in Bristow.>> -----------------------------------------------------------

Will at wr...@mindspring.com wrote:

The document that bears Judith's "mark" could have been drawn up
by the scrivener with the names of the parties already written-in.
Judith may have been asked merely to seal it with a mark. .................................................................

Rob Zigler wrote:

IIRC, Judith put her mark to the document when she was in her
twenties. Another woman, Lettice Greene(wife of *THOMAS GREENE*, Shakespeare's "cousin"), signed the document.

----------------------------------------------------------------
<<*THOMAS GREENE's* Diary records scraps of Shakespeare's talk during
a crisis over land enclosure. He and his brother John, who was also
active at Stratford, were called to the bar; John was a lawyer of
Clements Inn. From the Middle Temple, Greene had been solicitor
of the Stratford Corporation, before he served from 1603 to 1617
as borough steward (by patent) and as town clerk. While
waiting for a house, he had noted in September 1609,
'I mighte stay another yeare at *NEW PLACE*'.>>
.
. - p.384 _Shakespeare a life_ by Park Honan ....................................................
(d) [1609, Sept. 9. Extract from Memorandum of *THOMAS GREENE*
on delay in delivery to him of a house by George Browne
(Misc. Doct. xii. 103), given by H.P. ii. 378.]

"He doubted whether he might sowe his garden, untill about my goinge
to the Terme. (seeing I could gett noe carryages to help me here with
tymber) I was content to permytt yt without contradiccion & the
rather because I perceyued I mighte stay another yere at newe place."

(c) [1614, Nov. 17 to 1615, Sept. 5. Extracts from memoranda
of *THOMAS GREENE*, pr. in facs. and transcript by E. J. L.
Scott in C. M. Ingleby, Shakespeare and the Enclosure of
Common Fields at Welcombe (1885):

(1) "[1614.] Jovis 17 No. At my Cosen Shakspeare commyng yesterday
to towne I went to see him howe he did he told me that they assured
him they ment to inclose noe further then to gospell bushe & so vpp
straight (leavyng out part of the dyngles to the ffield) to the gate
in Clopton hedge & take in Salisburyes peece: and that they meane in
Aprill to servey the Land & then to gyve satisfaccion & not before &
he & Mr Hall say they think there will be nothyng done at all...."

(3) "23 Dec. 1614. A Hall. L(ett)res wrytten one to Mr Manneryng*
another to Mr Shakspeare with almost all the com(panyes) ha*nds
to eyther: I alsoe wrytte of myself to my Cosen Shakespeare
the Coppyes of all our oathes m(a)de then alsoe a not of
the Inconvenyences wold gr(ow) by the Inclosure. . . ." -----------------------------------------------------------------
<<[Among *THOMAS GREENE*'s fellow students at the Middle Temple]
there was *John MANNINGham* , the now-famous diarist who described
a performance of *Twelfth Night* in the Middle Temple hall on
February 2, 1602 and told a bawdy anecdote about Shakespeare
and Richard Burbage. Manningham knew *GREENE*,

and quotes him in his diary for February 5, 1603:
.
"There is best sport always when you put a woman on the case.">>
.
Greene was called to the bar that summer, after which he
moved to Stratford (where he had already represented the
town in some business matters) and became town clerk.>>
. - p.384 _Shakespeare a life_ by Park Honan -----------------------------------------------------------------------
A certain Margaret Wheelar had become pregnant by Quiney nine months
before, and this sexual conduct suddenly became evident a month after
the wedding. Wheelar & child died and were buried on March 15, 1616.

On March 26, with the lawyer, *THOMAS GREENE*, Will's former lodger,
as prosecuting counsel, Quiney confessed in court that he had had
"carnal intercourse with the said Wheelar" and was sorry. He had
good reason for being genuinely sorry for, the day before the trial, Shakespeare had altered his will drastically, much reducing
poor Judith's expectation; she was punished for her match. ---------------------------------------------------------------------
A certain Margaret Wheelar had become pregnant by Quiney nine months
before, and this sexual conduct suddenly became evident a month after
the wedding. Wheelar & child died and were buried on March 15, 1616.

On March 26, with the lawyer, *THOMAS GREENE*, Will's former lodger, as prosecuting counsel, Quiney confessed in court that he had had "carnal intercourse with the said Wheelar" and was sorry. He had good reason
for being genuinely sorry for, the day before the trial, Shakespeare
had altered his will drastically, much reducing poor Judith's
expectation; she was punished for her match. Thomas had to do public
penance. He appeared in the parish church on three successive Sundays
at the end of which time William Shakespeare was to be dead!
Thomas had married into the Shakespeare family without producing
his share of the marriage settlement of one hundred pounds in land.
Later, he was to be fined for swearing and
for allowing drunkenness on his premises. ------------------------------------------------------------------ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greene%27s_Tu_Quoque

<<*THOMAS GREENE's* _Tu Quoque_, also known as The City Gallant, is a Jacobean era stage play, a comedy written by John Cooke. The play was a major popular success upon its premier, and became something of a legend in the theatre lore of the seventeenth
century.

GREENE's Tu Quoque would likely have become a key item in the Queen's Men's repertory, except for the unfortunate death of *THOMAS GREENE* in August 1612. The play was revived by the Queen of Bohemia's Men and performed at Court on 6 January 1625 before
Charles I. In the Restoration period, Sir William Davenant produced his own adaptation of Cooke's play in 1667; Samuel Pepys saw it on 12 September of that year. Davenant's version was not published in its own era, and no copy of it has survived. Francis
Kirkman's 1662 volume The Wits uses a frontispiece that alludes to the play: a picture of a clown peeking out from behind a curtain is captioned "Tu quoque".

The play was first published in a 1614 quarto issued by the bookseller John Trundle. (The play was published without an entry in the Stationers' Register, which was unusual though not unknown. Trundle – whose shop bore the sign of "the Nobody" –
would publish A Fair Quarrel three years later, in 1617, also without a Register entry.) In this first edition, the work was called GREENE's Tu Quoque, or The City Gallant; and it was under its ad hoc title that the play maintained its fame. The first
edition bore a picture of GREENE, in costume, on its title page. A second quarto was printed in 1622 for stationer Thomas Drew, and a third, undated quarto followed sometime later, perhaps by 1628.

Virtually nothing is known of the author. He is identified as "Io. Cooke" on the title page of the 1614 quarto, and for many years scholars were not even sure if his name was John or Joshua. The first quarto bears an Epistle to the Reader by Thomas
Heywood, which indicates that Cooke was dead by 1614. .....................................................
TO THE READER.

To gratulate the love and memory of my worthy friend the author, and my entirely beloved fellow the actor, I could not choose, being in the way just when this play was to be published in print, but to prefix some token of my affection to either in the
frontispiece of the book. For the gentleman that wrote it, his poem itself can better speak his praise than any oratory from me. Nor can I tell whether this work was divulged with his consent or no; but, howsoever, it hath passed the *TEST* of the stage
with so general an applause, pity it were but it should likewise have the honour of the press. As for Master Green, all that I will speak of him (and that without flattery) is this (if I were worthy to censure), there was not an actor of his nature, in
his time, of better ability in performance of what he undertook, more applauded by the audience, of greater grace at the court, or of more general love in the city: and so with this brief character of his memory I commit him to his rest. THOMAS HEYWOOD.
......................................
. UPON THE DEATH OF THOMAS GREEN.
.
. How fast bleak Autumn changeth Flora's dye
. What yesterday was Green, now's sear and dry. ......................................................
John Payne Collier speculated that John Cooke was a brother of Alexander Cooke, actor with the King's Men.

Cooke's play can be classed with other prodigal-son plays of its era, like Eastward Ho and The Roaring Girl. It tells a double version of the story: the citizen Spendall, as his name indicates, wastes his patrimony and is reduced to poverty and prison.
Bubble enjoys the reverse fortune, coming into money – yet he remains true to his master, the gentlemanly Staines, mourning the man's decline and urging him to repair his fortunes...by robbery ("if we be taken, we'll hang together at Tyburn"). The high-
living Staines loses his estate to a usurer in a foreclosed debt; the usurer dies and passes his wealth to his nephew...Bubble. In a reversal of roles, Staines becomes Bubble's servant. Staines gets his revenge by making Bubble a pretentious fool, worse
than the natural fool he already was. Through a series of disguises and cheats, Staines eventually manages to reverse his situation, till he is the master and Bubble the servant once again.

GREENE's Tu Quoque gives a rich picture of everyday life in its era; it "uses tennis rackets, tobacco pipes, cards, dice and candles to establish a life of debauchery in visual terms...and a begging-basket with scraps of food to symbolize the natural
result...." The play's stark picture of debtors' prison is noteworthy. The drama is lavish in its use of costume and the details of the mercer's trade in the London of its time.

The play's text contains a bit of meta-theater, in that GREENE in the role of Bubble refers to himself during performance:

Geraldine: Why, then, we'll go to the Red Bull:
they say GREENE's a good clown.

Bubble: GREENE! GREENE's an ass.

Scattergood: Wherefore do you say so?

Bubble: Indeed I ha' no reason;
for they say he is as like me as ever he can look.

Ben Jonson would work the same trick in 1616 in his The Devil is an Ass, by referring in his text to actor Richard Robinson, who starred in the original production. And Thomas Killigrew would give his version of the trick in The Parson's Wedding (1641).

*THOMAS GREENE* was born in Romford, Essex, in September 1573; his baptism is recorded as 13 September 1573. He was with the Queen's Men from 1604 (shortly after the death of the company's celebrated comedian Will Kempe) and his usual stage persona was
that of "amiable ass". By the time of his death in August 1612 had had risen to be a principal investor in the company, as well as the leaseholder of the nearby Curtain Theatre. One cryptic epigram states that "new come from sea, [he] made but one face
and died"; this, states William Oldys, appeared in Richard Braithwaite's Remains after Death (1618) and signifies that he had recently returned from overseas and specialized in but one type of role. He once played a baboon onstage. His 1612 last will and
testament mentions his wife Susan, daughter Honor, brothers John and Jeffrey GREENE and sister Elizabeth Barrett. The will also mentions two sons-in-law and three daughters-in-law, though in GREENE's day these terms referred to stepchildren – his wife
Susan's five children with her first husband, Robert Browne.

(GREENE's will, dated 25 July 1612, left his share in the company to his wife. She later remarried, and as Susan Baskervile initiated the lawsuit that would end the existence of Queen Anne's Men.)>>
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent.
by Washington Irving.

STRATFORD-ON-AVON.
............................................
2 [E.DYER]s skip 4 : Prob. ~ 1 in 500 ............................................
I had hoped to gather some traditionary anecdotes of the bard
from these ancient chroniclers, but they had nothing new to
impart. The long interval during which Shakespeare's writings
lay in comparative neglect has spread its shadow over his
history, and it is his good or evil lot that scarcely anything
remains to his biographers but a scanty handful of conjectures.

The sexton and his companion had been employed as carpenters on
the preparations for the celebrated Stratford Jubil[E]e, an[D]
the[Y] rem[E]mbe[R]ed Garrick, the prime mover of the fete, who
superintended the arrangements, and who, according to the sexton,
was "a short punch man, VERY lively and bustling." John Ange
had assisted also in cutting down Shakespeare's mulberry tree,
of which he had a morsel in his pocket for sale; no doubt
a sovereign quickener of literary conception.
..........................
. . <= 4 =>
.
. J .u. b .i
. l [E] e, a
. n [D] t .h
. e [Y] r .e
. m [E] m .b
. e [R] e .d
.
[E.DYER] 4
----------------------------------------------------------------- http://www.johnrausch.com/PuzzleWorld/toc.asp?t=_cat/io001.htm&m=cat/...

*NEW PLACE* remained in possession of Shakespeare's successors
until the Restoration; it was then purchased by the Clopton family:
about 1752 it was sold by the executor of Sir Hugh to a clergyman
of the name of Francis GASTRELL, who, on some offence
taken at the authorities of the borough of Stratford,
on the subject of rating the house, PULLED IT DOWN,
and cut down the MULBERRY tree.

According to a letter in the Annual Register of 1760,
the wood was bought by a silver-smith,
who "made many odd things of it for the curious.">> ------------------------------------------------------ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyramus_and_Thisbe

<<Pyramus and Thisbē are a pair of ill-fated lovers
. whose story forms part of Ovid's Metamorphoses.
. The story has since been retold by many authors.

In the Ovidian version, Pyramus and Thisbe is the story of two lovers in the city of Babylon who occupy connected houses/walls, forbidden by their parents to be wed, because of their parents' rivalry. Through a crack in one of the walls, they whisper
their love for each other. They arrange to meet near Ninus' tomb under a mulberry tree and state their feelings for each other. Thisbe arrives first, but upon seeing a lioness with a mouth bloody from a recent kill, she flees, leaving behind her veils.
When Pyramus arrives he is horrified at the sight of Thisbe's veil, assuming that a fierce beast had killed her. Pyramus kills himself, falling on his sword in proper Roman fashion, and in turn splashing blood on the white mulberry leaves. Pyramus' blood
stains the white mulberry fruits, turning them dark. Thisbe returns, eager to tell Pyramus what had happened to her, but she finds Pyramus' dead body under the shade of the mulberry tree. Thisbe, after a brief period of mourning, stabs herself with the
same sword. In the end, the gods listen to Thisbe's lament, and forever change the colour of the mulberry fruits into the stained colour to honour the forbidden love.
...........................................................
. Alas what chaunce, my Pyramus, hath parted thee and mee?
. Make aunswere O my Pyramus: it is thy Thisb', even shee
. Whome thou doste love most heartely, that speaketh unto thee.
. Give eare and rayse thy heavie heade. He hearing Thisbes name,
. Lift up his dying eyes and having seene hir closde the same.
. But when she knew hir mantle there and saw his scabberd lie
. Without the swoorde: Unhappy man thy love hath made thee die:
. Thy love (she said) hath made thee sley thy selfe. This hand of mine
. Is strong inough to doe the like. My love no lesse than thine
. Shall give me force to worke my wound. I will pursue the dead.
. And wretched woman as I am, it shall of me be sed
. That like as of thy death I was the only cause and blame,
. So am I thy companion eke and partner in the same,
. For death which only coulde alas *ASUNDER* part us twaine,
. Shall never so diss[EVER US] but we will meete againe. -------------------------------------------------------------
. A Midsommer Nights Dreame (V,i; First Folio, 1623)
. Enter Pyramus, and Thisby, and Wall,
. and *MOONE-shine*, and Lyon.
.
Pyramus & Thisbe Prologue (Peter Quince?):
. Gentles, perchance you wonder at this show,
. But wonder on, *till TRUTH make all things plaine*.
. This man is Piramus, if you would know;
. This beauteous Lady, Thisby is certaine.
. {TH(i)SMA}[N], with lyme and r[O]ugh-cast, doth p[R]esent
. Wall, tha[T] vile wall, whic[H] did these louers sunder:
. And through walls chink (poor soules) they are content
. To whisper. At the which, let no man wonder.
. This man, with Lanthorne, dog, and bush of thorne,
. Presenteth *MOONE-shine*. For if you will know,
. By *MOONE-shine* did these Louers thinke no scorne
. {TO M}eet a[T N]inus to[O]mbe, the[R]e, there [T]o wooe:
. T[H]is grizly beast (which Lyon hight by name) .......................................................
. . . . . . <= 13 =>
.
. {T H(i)S M A}[N],w i t h l y
. .m e a n d r [O] u g h-c a s
. .t,d o t h p [R] e s e n t W
. .a l l,t h a [T] v i l e w a
. .l l,w h i c [H] d i d t h e
. .s e l o u e .r. s s u n d e r:
.
{TH(i)MAS}[NORTH] 13
....................................
. . <= 7 =>
.
. {T O M} e e t a
. [T N] i n u s t
.** .o[O] m b e,t h
. .e[R] e,t h e r
. .e[T] o w o o e:
. .T[H] i s g r i
. .z l y b e a s t
.
[T/NORTH] 7
.
Prob. of 2[NORTH]s in Prologue ~ 1 in 5,530 .............................................
. The trusty Thisby, comming first by night,
. Did scarre away, or rather did affright:
. And as she fled, her mantle she did fall;
. Which Lyon vile with bloody mouth did staine.
. Anon comes Piramus, sweet youth and tall,
. And findes his Thisbies Mantle slaine;
. Whereat, with blade, with bloody blamefull blade,
. He brauely broacht his boiling bloudy breast,
. And Thisby, tarrying in *MULBERRY SHADE*,
. His dagger drew, and died. For all the rest,
. Let Lyon, *MOONE-shine*, Wall, and Louers twaine,
. At large discourse, while here they doe remaine.
.
One of 2 Shakespeare *MULBERRYs* -------------------------------------------------------------------- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laurence_Sterne

<<[L]aurence [STERNE] (24 November 1713 – 18 March 1768) was an Irish novelist and an Anglican clergyman. He wrote the novels The Life and
Opinions of {T}ristram {SHANDY}, Gentleman and A Sentimental Journey
Through France and Italy, and also published many sermons, wrote memoirs,
and was involved in local politics. Less than a month after Sentimental
Journey was published, early in 1768, Sterne's strength failed him, and
he died in his lodgings at 41 Old Bond Street on 18 March, at the age
of 54. He was buried in the churchyard of St George's, Hanover Square.
Sterne's skull was stolen shortly after it was interred and sold to
anatomists at Cambridge University. Charles Collignon discreetly
reinterred his skull back in St George's, in an unknown plot.

A year later a group of *FREEMASONS* erected a memorial stone with
David Garrick's rhyming epitaph near to his original burial place.

. Shall pride a heap of sculptur'd marble raise,
. Some worthless, unmourn'd titled fool to praise;
. And shall we not by one poor grave-stone learn
. Where genius, wit, and humour sleep with [STERNE]? >> ---------------------------------------------------------
Art Neuendorffer

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