William Shakespeare in London
WHO DID SHAKESPEARE KNOW IN
LONDON?
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The above
picture is a section of Faed's painting called 'Shakespeare
and his Contemporaries'
-
This painting is
also known as Shakespeare and His Friends at the Mermaid
Tavern
-
The full picture
below features the contemporaries, friends and rivals of
William Shakespeare!
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Shakespeare is
seated in the centre
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The standing
figure on Shakespeare's left is that of Sir Walter Raleigh
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He leans on the
shoulder of the Earl of Southampton
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Seated in the
right foreground with his back to the spectator is Sir
Robert Cotton, with Thomas Dekker on his right
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The figures
seated immediately behind Shakespeare are Ben Jonson, Donne,
and Daniel
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The figure
seated at the rear of the table is Bacon, and with him are
seated Fletcher, Dorset and Camden
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In the rear of
the seated group stands Beaumont with hand extended and next
to him stands Selden with Sylvester on the spectator's
extreme left.
WHAT WAS THE 'FRIDAY CLUB'?
-
Elizabethan
taverns, which also served as restaurants and inns for
travellers, also offered private rooms that patrons could
rent for eating and drinking, gambling, and as general
meeting places
-
One of these
tavern rooms was rented by a literary group, known as the
Friday Street Club, that met on the first Friday of every
month at the Mermaid tavern
-
It became the
gathering place for actors, playwrights, authors and poets
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This a literary
club first begun in 1603 and is said to have been started by
Sir Walter Raleigh
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The Mermaid
Tavern was located in Cheapside, to the east of St. Paul's
Cathedral
-
It had entrances
from both Friday Street and Bread Street hence the name the
"Friday Street Club" which was also known as the "Mermaid
Club"
-
Members of the
Friday Street Club included Shakespeare, Ben Jonson, Francis
Beaumont, John Fletcher. John Donne, Robert Herrick, John
Selden and Sir Walter Raleigh
-
They met on the
first Friday of every month!
William
Shakespeare in London
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