![]() ![]() ![]() The masque was Hymenaei, scripted by Ben Jonson, with costumes and special effects by Inigo Jones, choreography by Thomas Giles, and music by Alfonso Ferrabosco. It was an occasion both glamorous and propagandist, with King James in the audience and Queen Anne on stage in the part of Juno. The prologue of Shapiro’s new book is very different – not a scene of liberating aggression in the mean streets of Middlesex, but a glittery court masque at the Banqueting House in Whitehall, on 6 January 1606. For Shakespeare it ushers in a year of thrilling theatrical achievements: Henry V, Julius Caesar and As You Like It are performed Hamlet takes shape on paper. This is the famous scene of repossession, in which members of the Lord Chamberlain’s Men – Shakespeare’s company – conclude a long dispute with their landlord by dismantling the old playhouse called the Theatre and carting off its timbers to build a new venue in Southwark, the Globe. It opened with an atmospheric prologue – a freezing December morning in 1598 a dozen heavily armed men approaching a disused building in Shoreditch, east London. ![]() J ames Shapiro’s 1599: A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare was published to great acclaim 10 years ago. ![]()
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