0:00:11 > 0:00:14In November 1605, England's new monarch,
0:00:14 > 0:00:18King James I, survived the gunpowder plot.
0:00:18 > 0:00:21An attempt by Catholic terrorists
0:00:21 > 0:00:26to destroy his fledgling Jacobean regime.
0:00:27 > 0:00:29James was a contradictory figure.
0:00:29 > 0:00:33Brilliant, but unpopular.
0:00:33 > 0:00:34His three years on the throne
0:00:34 > 0:00:38had been a time of upheaval and uncertainty.
0:00:38 > 0:00:42But also a time of unprecedented creativity
0:00:42 > 0:00:46for writers like William Shakespeare.
0:00:49 > 0:00:52The significance of November 5th, 1605
0:00:52 > 0:00:54had less to do with the plot
0:00:54 > 0:00:57than it had to do with the aftermath.
0:00:57 > 0:01:02The English nation had entered a new world of conspiracy and anxiety.
0:01:04 > 0:01:10Writers like Shakespeare struggled to capture this mood of turbulence.
0:01:10 > 0:01:14And a new word entered the national vocabulary.
0:01:14 > 0:01:17Shakespeare's, too.
0:01:17 > 0:01:18Equivocation.
0:01:19 > 0:01:21To equivocate.
0:01:21 > 0:01:23To lie. To deceive.
0:01:23 > 0:01:27To appear to be what you are not.
0:01:27 > 0:01:31From the secret manuscript, of a Jesuit priest
0:01:31 > 0:01:36to the lies and betrayals of Macbeth.
0:01:36 > 0:01:39From Coriolanus, who cannot equivocate.
0:01:40 > 0:01:42I'll fight with none, but thee.
0:01:43 > 0:01:48To the king's own manipulations of the past.
0:01:48 > 0:01:54Equivocation came to represent a new, dark, post-plot age.
0:01:56 > 0:01:58An age given extraordinary voice
0:01:58 > 0:02:02by the greatest playwright of the day, William Shakespeare.
0:02:22 > 0:02:26On a late January day in 1606,
0:02:26 > 0:02:29four men were drawn on wicker hurdles
0:02:29 > 0:02:33through the streets of London to the churchyard of St Paul's.
0:02:33 > 0:02:36WHINNYING
0:02:39 > 0:02:44All were conspirators in the gunpowder plot.
0:02:44 > 0:02:47And all had been brought here to die.
0:02:51 > 0:02:54The crowd had been gathering since the early hours
0:02:54 > 0:02:56on that cold January morning.
0:02:56 > 0:03:00A crowd that believed these men had come within an ace
0:03:00 > 0:03:02of blowing up Parliament, King James,
0:03:02 > 0:03:06England's ruling class and much of London besides.
0:03:06 > 0:03:09But now, the tables had turned.
0:03:09 > 0:03:13It was the plotters who were to be destroyed.
0:03:13 > 0:03:15Slowly and painfully.
0:03:17 > 0:03:20Sir Everard Digby mounted the scaffold
0:03:20 > 0:03:26knowing all too well the fate that awaited him.
0:03:26 > 0:03:28To be dragged to the gallows and hanged.
0:03:28 > 0:03:32To be pulled down while still alive.
0:03:32 > 0:03:36Sliced open from the neck to the groin.
0:03:36 > 0:03:38His organs ripped out.
0:03:38 > 0:03:41His body finally cut into quarters.
0:03:44 > 0:03:47Shakespeare lived just a few hundred yards from here.
0:03:47 > 0:03:50We don't know whether he witnessed these gruesome events
0:03:50 > 0:03:54or heard the dying words of Sir Everard Digby.
0:03:54 > 0:03:56When it was Digby's turn to die,
0:03:56 > 0:03:58the executioner, who had been cutting him up,
0:03:58 > 0:04:02reached into his chest, pulled out his heart,
0:04:02 > 0:04:07held it up to the crowd and cried, "Here is the heart of a traitor!"
0:04:07 > 0:04:09To which, it is said,
0:04:09 > 0:04:13Digby replied with his dying breath, "Thou liest!"
0:04:16 > 0:04:21Their exchange perfectly captures this post-gunpowder moment.
0:04:21 > 0:04:23A world of plots and counterplots.
0:04:23 > 0:04:26Of competing versions of the truth.
0:04:35 > 0:04:39The following day, the last of January, 1606,
0:04:39 > 0:04:42the remaining plotters, Guy Fawkes among them,
0:04:42 > 0:04:45went to their grisly deaths.
0:04:52 > 0:04:55The government designated November 5th
0:04:55 > 0:04:58as an annual day of thanksgiving
0:04:58 > 0:05:00to mark the nation's deliverance
0:05:00 > 0:05:04from a failed terrorist plot against the state.
0:05:04 > 0:05:06CHEERING
0:05:11 > 0:05:14Guy Fawkes, though, told another story.
0:05:14 > 0:05:17Claiming that the plotters' motivation
0:05:17 > 0:05:18was to prevent Parliament
0:05:18 > 0:05:22from ratifying the union of England and Scotland.
0:05:23 > 0:05:27Union was James' greatest political goal.
0:05:27 > 0:05:32And it was deeply unpopular on both sides of the border.
0:05:32 > 0:05:36Fawkes was keenly aware of tensions to be exploited
0:05:36 > 0:05:38in Jacobean England.
0:05:41 > 0:05:43So, too, was Shakespeare.
0:05:50 > 0:05:54In previous Jacobean plays, like Timon of Athens and King Lear,
0:05:54 > 0:05:58Shakespeare had brilliantly anatomised
0:05:58 > 0:06:01a greedy England led by an extravagant leader.
0:06:01 > 0:06:06An England troubled, and uncertain about the nature of its ruler.
0:06:08 > 0:06:10Now, the upheaval of the plot
0:06:10 > 0:06:15created rich new territory for England's playwrights.
0:06:18 > 0:06:20The government couldn't believe
0:06:20 > 0:06:23that the plot was the work of a few disgruntled Catholic gentry.
0:06:23 > 0:06:27There must have been a wider conspiracy at work.
0:06:27 > 0:06:31And every conspiracy has an evil mastermind.
0:06:31 > 0:06:35In Father Henry Garnet, they had found their man.
0:06:40 > 0:06:45The 50-year-old Garnet was England's senior Jesuit,
0:06:45 > 0:06:49dedicated to keeping the faith alive in Protestant England.
0:06:51 > 0:06:54He'd spent much of his life on the run,
0:06:54 > 0:06:57but now, England's most wanted man,
0:06:57 > 0:06:58he was taken into custody
0:06:58 > 0:07:03the same week the plotters were executed.
0:07:08 > 0:07:12Linking Garnet to the plot would allow the government
0:07:12 > 0:07:15to create a bigger story for November 5th.
0:07:15 > 0:07:18The story of a papal-backed terrorist conspiracy
0:07:18 > 0:07:22to overthrow James' regime.
0:07:25 > 0:07:29Government agents searched hiding places for evidence.
0:07:29 > 0:07:31Hidden in a lodging in London,
0:07:31 > 0:07:35they found a manuscript that sent their hearts racing.
0:07:40 > 0:07:42This is one of the most extraordinary documents
0:07:42 > 0:07:45to survive from Shakespeare's day.
0:07:46 > 0:07:50I'm looking at it in the comfort of a library in Oxford,
0:07:50 > 0:07:54but my mind is racing back to a scene in the Tower of London
0:07:54 > 0:07:57on 12th February, 1606,
0:07:57 > 0:08:01when this very document was thrust in the face of Father Henry Garnet
0:08:01 > 0:08:05by interrogators who demanded to know of him
0:08:05 > 0:08:07when he had last seen this document.
0:08:07 > 0:08:13Garnet knew the game was up. His handwriting was all over it.
0:08:13 > 0:08:16The authorities had withheld until this moment
0:08:16 > 0:08:19this crucial piece of incriminating evidence.
0:08:19 > 0:08:22The title, in capital letters,
0:08:22 > 0:08:24A Treatise Of Equivocation.
0:08:24 > 0:08:29But it's been crossed out, almost surely by Garnet himself.
0:08:29 > 0:08:34He provides an alternative title on the previous page.
0:08:34 > 0:08:37First writing, A Treatise Of Lying,
0:08:37 > 0:08:39before he catches himself and writes,
0:08:39 > 0:08:44A Treatise Against Lying And Fraudulent Dissimilation.
0:08:44 > 0:08:47But there's no hiding what this book is really about.
0:08:47 > 0:08:50It's a How To Guide for English Catholics
0:08:50 > 0:08:53torn in their loyalties between the King and the Pope
0:08:53 > 0:08:57on how to bend the truth when questioned by the authorities
0:08:57 > 0:09:00without actually committing the sin of lying.
0:09:03 > 0:09:05My absolute favourite bit,
0:09:05 > 0:09:09"If one should be asked whether such a stranger
0:09:09 > 0:09:13"lodgeth in my house, then I should answer,
0:09:13 > 0:09:16"he lieth not in my house.
0:09:16 > 0:09:21"Meaning that he doth not tell a lie there,
0:09:21 > 0:09:24"though he lodged there."
0:09:24 > 0:09:29To the authorities, this sort of advice was outrageous.
0:09:29 > 0:09:31The devil's work.
0:09:37 > 0:09:42Garnet's trial was an elaborate piece of government theatre
0:09:42 > 0:09:46staged at London's Guildhall.
0:09:46 > 0:09:50A venue reserved for the most high-profile offences
0:09:50 > 0:09:52against the State.
0:09:55 > 0:09:58He was brought in by coach, instead of on foot,
0:09:58 > 0:10:01to make him look more important.
0:10:01 > 0:10:04The mastermind of a planned atrocity
0:10:04 > 0:10:08backed by England's Catholic enemies.
0:10:20 > 0:10:24Hidden somewhere in this room that day was King James himself.
0:10:26 > 0:10:29This was not a spectacle he would have missed.
0:10:29 > 0:10:33If Shakespeare wasn't in the crowd, he would have heard it.
0:10:33 > 0:10:36This was the talk of the town.
0:10:36 > 0:10:38The trial lasted until 7:00 at night.
0:10:38 > 0:10:43And Garnet was made to stand in a special pulpit.
0:10:43 > 0:10:47The crowd loved it when the Lord Admiral mocked him, saying
0:10:47 > 0:10:50that Garnet had done more good from this pulpit that day
0:10:50 > 0:10:51than from any in his lifetime.
0:10:52 > 0:10:55This was a show trial.
0:10:55 > 0:10:57The outcome assured from the get-go,
0:10:57 > 0:11:00once the attorney general had accused Garnet
0:11:00 > 0:11:03of having had a hand in every treasonous plot,
0:11:03 > 0:11:07stretching back over 15 years.
0:11:13 > 0:11:18At the heart of the prosecutor's case was equivocation.
0:11:18 > 0:11:20They were obsessed by it.
0:11:20 > 0:11:23Invoking it at every turn to trip up Garnet.
0:11:23 > 0:11:25In his defence, Garnet offered
0:11:25 > 0:11:29an intellectual justification of equivocation,
0:11:29 > 0:11:34and went so far as to suggest that Jesus himself had equivocated.
0:11:34 > 0:11:37These were not arguments that carried much weight
0:11:37 > 0:11:39that day in this room.
0:11:39 > 0:11:44The jury took just 15 minutes to reach its verdict.
0:11:44 > 0:11:47And a contemporary wrote just a few days later,
0:11:47 > 0:11:50"Garnet will equivocate at the gallows,
0:11:50 > 0:11:55"but he will be hanged, without equivocation."
0:12:04 > 0:12:06The regime had its scapegoat,
0:12:06 > 0:12:09and a chilling concept of equivocation
0:12:09 > 0:12:12had burnt into the national psyche.
0:12:13 > 0:12:17Shakespeare caught the mood in a play he wrote that very year.
0:12:17 > 0:12:22The bloody and harrowing tragedy of Macbeth.
0:12:26 > 0:12:29"Faith, here's an equivocator
0:12:29 > 0:12:32"who committed treason enough for God's sake,
0:12:32 > 0:12:36"but could not equivocate to heaven.
0:12:36 > 0:12:39"O! Come in, equivocator."
0:12:46 > 0:12:49Driven by ambition,
0:12:49 > 0:12:52by supernatural predictions and by his wife,
0:12:52 > 0:12:56Macbeth contemplates the worst crime
0:12:56 > 0:13:00Shakespeare's world can imagine. The murder of a king.
0:13:00 > 0:13:03The very crime the gunpowder plotters
0:13:03 > 0:13:06had attempted for real just months earlier.
0:13:09 > 0:13:14Macbeth stabs to death his monarch, King Duncan, while he's asleep,
0:13:14 > 0:13:17then flees to his own bed
0:13:17 > 0:13:22as a loud knocking at one of the castle gates rouses the porter.
0:13:22 > 0:13:26INTERMITTENT KNOCKING
0:13:26 > 0:13:28A porter who was part comic turn,
0:13:28 > 0:13:31part devilish commentary
0:13:31 > 0:13:34on the world of equivocation.
0:13:38 > 0:13:40Knock, knock, knock!
0:13:40 > 0:13:42Who's there,
0:13:42 > 0:13:45in the name of Beelzebub?!
0:13:45 > 0:13:49Ah-ha-ha-ha-ha! Everybody, stay calm.
0:13:53 > 0:13:56I suppose the first thing that struck me
0:13:56 > 0:14:01was the dramaturgical mischief of having such a scene
0:14:01 > 0:14:05after the despair, terrifying beauty
0:14:05 > 0:14:08of the scene that preceded it
0:14:08 > 0:14:11with Macbeth and Lady Macbeth around the murder.
0:14:11 > 0:14:13They're going off as they hear the knocking.
0:14:13 > 0:14:16Then you bring on a variety turn.
0:14:16 > 0:14:19What is Shakespeare doing?
0:14:19 > 0:14:23He's being very disruptive and mischievous.
0:14:24 > 0:14:29We decided to play quite a seditious game with this.
0:14:29 > 0:14:33Almost threatening to blow up the play, as well as the audience,
0:14:33 > 0:14:36with an inappropriately
0:14:36 > 0:14:40anarchic, comic, playful moment.
0:14:40 > 0:14:46Um,...I suppose there's also a bit of an uneasy frisson
0:14:46 > 0:14:49with suicide bombers today,
0:14:49 > 0:14:52strapping themselves up with explosives.
0:14:52 > 0:14:55But this was a bomber with Brocks fireworks
0:14:55 > 0:14:58nicely, beautifully coloured, inside his jacket.
0:14:58 > 0:15:01Ah!
0:15:01 > 0:15:06Faith, here's an equivocator!
0:15:06 > 0:15:09Who could swear in both the scales
0:15:09 > 0:15:11against either scale,
0:15:11 > 0:15:17who committed treason enough for God's sake.
0:15:17 > 0:15:20Yet, could not equivocate to heaven.
0:15:20 > 0:15:25O! Come in, equivocator.
0:15:26 > 0:15:30The word equivocation figures again and again in the porter's scene,
0:15:30 > 0:15:31and elsewhere in Macbeth.
0:15:31 > 0:15:34I'm just curious about your thoughts
0:15:34 > 0:15:36about how that resonates in the play.
0:15:36 > 0:15:38With Macbeth
0:15:38 > 0:15:42and the timing of the writing of Macbeth after the gunpowder plot,
0:15:42 > 0:15:46after the trial of Father Garnet, the Jesuit priest,
0:15:46 > 0:15:53it was well known that, er...people were horrified
0:15:53 > 0:15:56and made much of
0:15:56 > 0:16:01what they saw as appalling, treasonous hypocrisy
0:16:01 > 0:16:04that was wrapped up in this.
0:16:04 > 0:16:06I think it is interesting
0:16:06 > 0:16:12that Shakespeare has the porter, the devil...
0:16:12 > 0:16:15talking, saying that Father Garnet
0:16:15 > 0:16:20would not be able to equivocate himself to heaven.
0:16:20 > 0:16:23Typical Shakespeare piece of equivocation.
0:16:23 > 0:16:27It is on the line, very satisfying for James, watching the play,
0:16:27 > 0:16:29or his officers,
0:16:29 > 0:16:32but it's the devil saying it.
0:16:32 > 0:16:34- It is... - HE CHUCKLES
0:16:34 > 0:16:39So it's the deniability every which way is there.
0:16:39 > 0:16:40HE CACKLES
0:16:40 > 0:16:43Knock, knock, knock. Never at quiet!
0:16:43 > 0:16:50WHAT ARE YOU?!
0:16:56 > 0:16:58Oh.
0:17:00 > 0:17:04But this place is too cold for hell!
0:17:04 > 0:17:08I'll devil-porter it no further!
0:17:08 > 0:17:13I had thought to let in some of all professions
0:17:13 > 0:17:16that go the primrose way
0:17:16 > 0:17:20to the everlasting bonfire!
0:17:20 > 0:17:22KNOCKING
0:17:24 > 0:17:28Anon! Anon.
0:17:28 > 0:17:32I pray you, remember the porter.
0:17:35 > 0:17:40The theme of equivocation dominates the play.
0:17:40 > 0:17:45Macbeth equivocates with his wife, she, with her guests.
0:17:45 > 0:17:50Even the play's nobler characters like Lady Macduff are infected.
0:17:52 > 0:17:54In the play's climactic moment,
0:17:54 > 0:17:57Macbeth realises that he himself
0:17:57 > 0:18:00has been the victim of the witches' lies.
0:18:01 > 0:18:03"I pull in resolution
0:18:03 > 0:18:06"and begin to doubt the equivocation of the fiend
0:18:06 > 0:18:11"that lies like truth."
0:18:24 > 0:18:26It was a bold move on Shakespeare's part
0:18:26 > 0:18:30to write a play that so closely shadowed real events.
0:18:32 > 0:18:35Other playwrights had been jailed for less.
0:18:37 > 0:18:40But Shakespeare, the king's man,
0:18:40 > 0:18:44had balanced the play with care.
0:18:44 > 0:18:47The plotters suffer and die.
0:18:47 > 0:18:53And crucially, the rightful line to the throne seems to be restored.
0:18:55 > 0:19:00As Shakespeare knew, this was a message King James loved to hear.
0:19:03 > 0:19:07The issue of rightful succession is at the heart of this play.
0:19:07 > 0:19:09There's a wonderful moment towards the end
0:19:09 > 0:19:12where Macbeth demands to know of the witches
0:19:12 > 0:19:15who will succeed him as king of Scotland after his death.
0:19:15 > 0:19:21They respond by conjuring up a magnificent display.
0:19:21 > 0:19:23And I'll read Shakespeare's stage direction.
0:19:23 > 0:19:27"A shew of eight kings, and Banquo last,
0:19:27 > 0:19:30"with a glasse in his hand."
0:19:30 > 0:19:34It's at this point that Macbeth, horrified,
0:19:34 > 0:19:38discovers that Banquo, his friend, who he had killed,
0:19:38 > 0:19:42whose heirs will succeed in Scotland.
0:19:42 > 0:19:44All the bloodshed, all the guilt,
0:19:44 > 0:19:47all the murders had been for naught.
0:19:47 > 0:19:52It's at this moment that a magical mirror is held up before Macbeth,
0:19:52 > 0:19:56allowing him to see even further into the future.
0:19:56 > 0:20:00And he sees a line of kings who three sceptres bear.
0:20:02 > 0:20:06This, for Jacobean audiences, was an obvious elusion to their monarch,
0:20:06 > 0:20:10king of Britain, France and Ireland.
0:20:13 > 0:20:15King James himself
0:20:15 > 0:20:18was making a cameo appearance in Shakespeare's play.
0:20:21 > 0:20:24As Shakespeare was finishing Macbeth,
0:20:24 > 0:20:29a West Country gentleman named Thomas Lyte was already at work
0:20:29 > 0:20:32on one of the most remarkable achievements
0:20:32 > 0:20:34of this Jacobean moment.
0:20:34 > 0:20:38One that also played to the king's preoccupation
0:20:38 > 0:20:42with succession and lineage.
0:20:44 > 0:20:49This is the most extraordinary document I have ever examined.
0:20:49 > 0:20:54The Lyte Genealogy, the labour of seven years' love.
0:20:56 > 0:20:59Only five of the original nine panels exist,
0:20:59 > 0:21:02but the story it tells of British history
0:21:02 > 0:21:05and of British identity is unparalleled.
0:21:06 > 0:21:09It's a difficult document to read.
0:21:09 > 0:21:12Think of it as a kind of London Underground map
0:21:12 > 0:21:16with various lines circulating.
0:21:16 > 0:21:19The Saxon line, the North Wales line,
0:21:19 > 0:21:21the Tudor line.
0:21:21 > 0:21:26All leading to a final destination, King James himself.
0:21:29 > 0:21:33It's a visual equivalent of Shakespeare's history plays.
0:21:33 > 0:21:36With Cordelia and Lear,
0:21:36 > 0:21:38Richard II,
0:21:38 > 0:21:41Henry VIII, all here.
0:21:41 > 0:21:45Shakespeare himself would have almost surely have seen this
0:21:45 > 0:21:47hanging in Whitehall Palace.
0:21:47 > 0:21:50In a gorgeous, illuminated version
0:21:50 > 0:21:53that King James had hung there for display.
0:21:59 > 0:22:02Lyte's remarkable genealogy
0:22:02 > 0:22:05includes a prophecy about a monarch
0:22:05 > 0:22:09destined to rule over an united Britain.
0:22:09 > 0:22:12A overt reference to James's long-held dream
0:22:12 > 0:22:16of union between England and Scotland.
0:22:18 > 0:22:20Like Shakespeare, Lyte understood
0:22:20 > 0:22:23how deeply genealogy mattered to a king
0:22:23 > 0:22:27anxious to secure his own succession.
0:22:28 > 0:22:33Lyte's reward, befitting a king already known for his extravagance
0:22:33 > 0:22:36was a spectacular jewel,
0:22:36 > 0:22:40now one of the treasures of the British Museum.
0:22:41 > 0:22:46We've seen the Lyte Genealogy, now we get to see the Lyte jewel.
0:22:46 > 0:22:48It's really extraordinary.
0:22:50 > 0:22:52Tell me what you know about this.
0:22:52 > 0:22:54It's got 16 table-cut diamonds.
0:22:54 > 0:22:56You can see the wonderful fire in them
0:22:56 > 0:22:58as I move the jewel in my hands.
0:22:58 > 0:23:02But even more remarkable is this openwork cover,
0:23:02 > 0:23:04where further diamonds are used
0:23:04 > 0:23:08to form the letters Jacobus Rex, King James in Latin.
0:23:08 > 0:23:12And then there are five rose-cut diamonds even more splendid,
0:23:12 > 0:23:15which are set in petal-like collets to look like little flowers,
0:23:15 > 0:23:18diamond flowers, around the initials of the king, the royal cipher.
0:23:18 > 0:23:23And if I open it, you can see how the openwork frame on the front...
0:23:25 > 0:23:29..reveals the wonderful miniature by Hilliard inside.
0:23:29 > 0:23:33Which is in splendid condition with this wonderful red silk background.
0:23:33 > 0:23:35And you can see how the inside of the lid
0:23:35 > 0:23:38is enamelled in red, white and blue,
0:23:38 > 0:23:41echoing the colours of Hilliard's miniature of the king.
0:23:41 > 0:23:45On the back, just as sophisticated, if I turn it over for you,
0:23:45 > 0:23:48is this really beautiful enamel decoration.
0:23:49 > 0:23:52With the red, the white and the blue
0:23:52 > 0:23:54picked up from the miniature again.
0:23:54 > 0:23:56So it's a beautifully-designed jewel.
0:23:56 > 0:24:00Every element has been very carefully thought out,
0:24:00 > 0:24:03as well as executed, in precious materials.
0:24:03 > 0:24:06What do you think this says about King James at this moment?
0:24:06 > 0:24:10Well, I do think it's the gratitude of a very needy, anxious king
0:24:10 > 0:24:12at the beginning of his reign,
0:24:12 > 0:24:15who's desperate to persuade his subjects
0:24:15 > 0:24:17that he has a right to be King of England.
0:24:17 > 0:24:22I think it's also very much intended to be a spontaneous gesture,
0:24:22 > 0:24:25although it must have been quite a studied one,
0:24:25 > 0:24:28of magnificence, of princely magnificence.
0:24:28 > 0:24:31If it's part of a very carefully stage-managed,
0:24:31 > 0:24:34very carefully orchestrated court handover,
0:24:34 > 0:24:38at which all the ambassadors and other important dignitaries
0:24:38 > 0:24:41are supposed to actually look at the genealogy
0:24:41 > 0:24:43and take in its political message,
0:24:43 > 0:24:46then it's worth paying all these diamonds, it's worth all this gold,
0:24:46 > 0:24:48- and it's worth the wonderful miniature.- Yes.
0:24:55 > 0:24:58The Lyte jewel expresses in perfect miniature
0:24:58 > 0:25:03the king's desire to use wealth and extravagance
0:25:03 > 0:25:06to express himself...and his ideas.
0:25:11 > 0:25:15So, in a world dominated by theatre,
0:25:15 > 0:25:21it was inevitable that James would find ways of using a court spectacle
0:25:21 > 0:25:25to express that desire on a grand scale.
0:25:34 > 0:25:39The spectacular banqueting house, beautifully rebuilt in 1619,
0:25:39 > 0:25:44had been the scene of some of Shakespeare's plays for James's Court.
0:25:45 > 0:25:49But the one-off performance that played here in early January 1606
0:25:49 > 0:25:54was about as far from Shakespeare as you can imagine.
0:25:56 > 0:25:59It was written by his great rival, Ben Jonson,
0:25:59 > 0:26:03who'd been jailed a year earlier for mocking the king's fellow Scots
0:26:03 > 0:26:07in a play called Eastward Ho.
0:26:07 > 0:26:11But tonight's production was designed to please,
0:26:11 > 0:26:14and to show that the regime had bounced back
0:26:14 > 0:26:17after the gunpowder plot.
0:26:17 > 0:26:21It was a masque, and its title was Hymenaei.
0:26:22 > 0:26:27Because their splendour and majesty were so hard to record,
0:26:27 > 0:26:31it's difficult to grasp today what it felt like
0:26:31 > 0:26:34to attend a Jacobean court masque.
0:26:35 > 0:26:38Imagine...Olympic opening ceremony
0:26:38 > 0:26:41combined with royal wedding.
0:26:42 > 0:26:47Persuade the finest artists, composers, choreographers
0:26:47 > 0:26:49and writers to collaborate.
0:26:49 > 0:26:53Give the best seats to the royal family.
0:26:53 > 0:26:58Everyone else, 1,000 or so, are crammed into this space.
0:26:58 > 0:27:02And to make things more interesting, there were no tickets.
0:27:02 > 0:27:06You had to dress up, show up and hope for the best.
0:27:06 > 0:27:12Hymenaei was one of the most expensive theatre extravaganzas
0:27:12 > 0:27:14England had ever seen.
0:27:14 > 0:27:19Its dazzling design created by Inigo Jones,
0:27:19 > 0:27:22the greatest architect and designer of the age.
0:27:24 > 0:27:28Jones was also responsible for the rebuilt banqueting house
0:27:28 > 0:27:32and collaborated on many of the great Jacobean masques.
0:27:33 > 0:27:38His costume designs capture their lavishness.
0:27:38 > 0:27:43Even the late Queen Elisabeth's wardrobe was raided for the masque.
0:27:43 > 0:27:47Some of her 3,000 dresses cut up and recycled.
0:27:47 > 0:27:51She'd have turned in her grave.
0:27:51 > 0:27:55We're in a world of fantastic spectacle.
0:27:55 > 0:27:58And heavy-handed allegory.
0:28:02 > 0:28:07Hymenaei celebrated a real wedding of two highborn teenagers.
0:28:07 > 0:28:11The Earl of Essex and Frances Howard.
0:28:12 > 0:28:15But even the wedding was an allegory.
0:28:15 > 0:28:18The symbolic union of two great families
0:28:18 > 0:28:24whose factional differences, James wanted to bring to an end.
0:28:24 > 0:28:28The masque was a great spectacle, along with a bit of propaganda
0:28:28 > 0:28:31and some nasty political manoeuvring.
0:28:31 > 0:28:35The marriage of the young lovers was no story of Romeo and Juliet,
0:28:35 > 0:28:38but real politic at its most crass.
0:28:43 > 0:28:48The day after the masque came a symbolic indoor foot combat
0:28:48 > 0:28:51between knights representing the two families.
0:28:51 > 0:28:56The Essex faction had always been less supportive of the king,
0:28:56 > 0:28:59and their side lost.
0:28:59 > 0:29:04Their defeat reveals another layer of symbolism in Hymenaei.
0:29:05 > 0:29:10Because they were represented by the goddess of virginity.
0:29:10 > 0:29:13A reminder to all those watching
0:29:13 > 0:29:16that the Virgin Queen, Elizabeth, was gone
0:29:16 > 0:29:20and that the world now belonged to a married monarch.
0:29:20 > 0:29:22King James.
0:29:33 > 0:29:381606 was shaping up to be a great year for the king.
0:29:38 > 0:29:40The plotters were dead.
0:29:40 > 0:29:43Hymenaei had been glorious.
0:29:43 > 0:29:47Symbolically laying the ghost of Elizabeth to rest.
0:29:49 > 0:29:54That summer, there were more opportunities for symbolism and glory.
0:29:54 > 0:30:00Crowds came out to see great Danish warships anchored in the Thames.
0:30:00 > 0:30:03Surrounded by ships of James's navy.
0:30:03 > 0:30:08From their masts flew a new flag by proclamation of the king,
0:30:08 > 0:30:12soon to be known as the Union Jack,
0:30:12 > 0:30:17emblem of the union dream that James still clung to.
0:30:19 > 0:30:24The Danish flagship carried James' brother-in-law King Christian of Denmark,
0:30:24 > 0:30:27in England on a state visit.
0:30:27 > 0:30:31The new flag, the visiting king, were all meant to impress,
0:30:31 > 0:30:36to show that this was a new regime that had found its footing.
0:30:36 > 0:30:39But appearances can be deceptive,
0:30:39 > 0:30:42and the visit went on to prove another old saying -
0:30:42 > 0:30:47friends you can choose, family you're stuck with.
0:30:48 > 0:30:53It probably doesn't get worse than a self-confident brother-in-law
0:30:53 > 0:30:56who is taller than you, more handsome,
0:30:56 > 0:30:59and can drink you under the table.
0:31:04 > 0:31:06In the course of one lavish entertainment,
0:31:06 > 0:31:12the kings were presented with a mask entitled The Queen of Sheba.
0:31:12 > 0:31:18The Queen of Sheba show before the two kings got a little out of hand.
0:31:18 > 0:31:22"The Lady who did play the Queen's part,
0:31:22 > 0:31:25"did carry most precious gifts to both their Majesties.
0:31:25 > 0:31:29"But, forgetting the steps arising to the canopy,
0:31:29 > 0:31:33"overset her caskets into his Danish Majesty's lap,
0:31:33 > 0:31:38"and fell at his feet, tho' I rather think it was in his face.
0:31:38 > 0:31:42"His Majesty then got up and would dance with the Queen of Sheba."
0:31:42 > 0:31:44Well, who wouldn't?
0:31:44 > 0:31:47"But he fell down and humbled himself before her,
0:31:47 > 0:31:52"and was carried to an inner chamber and laid on a bed."
0:31:54 > 0:31:59The account of this virtual orgy is by Sir John Harrington,
0:31:59 > 0:32:03courtier, writer and wit.
0:32:03 > 0:32:08Harrington goes on, "The bed was defiled with all the wine,
0:32:08 > 0:32:11"cream, jellies, cake and spices
0:32:11 > 0:32:15"that King Christian had got all over him in the commotion."
0:32:19 > 0:32:23Harrington was clearly appalled, and he concludes,
0:32:23 > 0:32:28"I have much marvelled at these strange pageantries,
0:32:28 > 0:32:31"and they do bring to my remembrance
0:32:31 > 0:32:36"what passed of this sort in our Queen's days."
0:32:36 > 0:32:41It's a searing indictment of James' decadent regime,
0:32:41 > 0:32:44and in invoking Queen Elizabeth's ghost,
0:32:44 > 0:32:48Harrington reminds us of how good things had been back then.
0:32:52 > 0:32:56Many a modern leader would sympathise with James.
0:32:56 > 0:33:00The popular predecessor is never easy to kill off.
0:33:00 > 0:33:05It didn't help that the contrast was so marked.
0:33:05 > 0:33:09"The old Queen," wrote the Venetian ambassador,
0:33:09 > 0:33:14"had been much-loved and knew how to caress the people,"
0:33:14 > 0:33:19while King James was "despised and almost hated."
0:33:22 > 0:33:27Playwright Thomas Dekker quickly jumped on the bandwagon
0:33:27 > 0:33:30of nostalgia for Elizabeth.
0:33:30 > 0:33:34His colourfully titled Whore Of Babylon is a dramatic fantasy
0:33:34 > 0:33:39that nostalgically plays out Elizabethan England's war
0:33:39 > 0:33:42with Catholic Europe.
0:33:42 > 0:33:46It replays the battle between "the purple whore of Rome,"
0:33:46 > 0:33:50the papacy, and Titania, the Fairie Queene,
0:33:50 > 0:33:56who Dekker explicitly aligns with Queen Elizabeth.
0:34:02 > 0:34:07Shakespeare is never so explicit, but he too was sifting this moment
0:34:07 > 0:34:11of Elizabethan nostalgia when he brought to the stage another
0:34:11 > 0:34:17great queen of the past in his Roman tragedy, Antony and Cleopatra.
0:34:35 > 0:34:41Shakespeare's Egypt is a decadent place, full of temptations.
0:34:44 > 0:34:46Echoes of the sordid bacchanalia
0:34:46 > 0:34:49of King Christian's visit are unmistakeable...
0:34:50 > 0:34:53..when Antony, getting drunk at a feast,
0:34:53 > 0:34:57urges Octavius to do the same.
0:34:57 > 0:35:03"Be a child of the time," he says. "Enjoy the conquering wine."
0:35:07 > 0:35:10The wine conquers both duty and reason,
0:35:10 > 0:35:12and to be the child of that time
0:35:12 > 0:35:15is to choose pleasure over good governance.
0:35:15 > 0:35:18This could be John Harrington writing.
0:35:18 > 0:35:21Now, it's dangerous to read Shakespeare as a topical writer.
0:35:21 > 0:35:24His works are too subtle and nuanced for that,
0:35:24 > 0:35:29but the image of a British and a Danish king drinking health
0:35:29 > 0:35:33to each other aboard ship as King Christian prepares to depart,
0:35:33 > 0:35:36would have been fresh in the memory of London's playgoers.
0:35:39 > 0:35:41Cleopatra is a much subtler,
0:35:41 > 0:35:46more ambiguous creation than Dekker's Titania.
0:35:46 > 0:35:50Even to Antony, she is both an enchanting queen
0:35:50 > 0:35:53and a "triple-turned whore."
0:35:53 > 0:35:56In the character of Antony, Shakespeare plays out the tensions
0:35:56 > 0:36:00between the play's two competing worlds -
0:36:00 > 0:36:06Rome, macho and tough, and Egypt, decadent and soft.
0:36:09 > 0:36:13But there's a third key character in the play - Octavius,
0:36:13 > 0:36:16whose ambitions to rule over the whole Empire
0:36:16 > 0:36:20seem to resonate with James' regime.
0:36:23 > 0:36:25In Antony and Cleopatra,
0:36:25 > 0:36:29one thing that leaps out at you immediately
0:36:29 > 0:36:37is this three-pillared world of the Roman Empire.
0:36:37 > 0:36:44And you become aware of James' aspiration to be Emperor
0:36:44 > 0:36:47and, indeed, to talk of himself as Augustus,
0:36:47 > 0:36:51of a three-pillared new Britain.
0:36:51 > 0:36:55There's no question that the audience at the time would,
0:36:55 > 0:36:58to some extent, identify Octavius with James,
0:36:58 > 0:37:00and I think that's quite a dangerous bit
0:37:00 > 0:37:03of sailing close to the wind on Shakespeare's part.
0:37:03 > 0:37:05And if they hadn't made that association,
0:37:05 > 0:37:10James would have made sure they had by minting a coin that shows him
0:37:10 > 0:37:13as Augustus Caesar, quite literally, in 1603.
0:37:13 > 0:37:20Yes, it was part of James' self-image,
0:37:20 > 0:37:27that there was a new, peaceful Pax Romana.
0:37:27 > 0:37:33Pax, a Jacobite Pax, that James was pursuing
0:37:33 > 0:37:36both on the continent and in Britain by unifying Britain.
0:37:39 > 0:37:44At the end of the play, Cleopatra mourns the death of Antony
0:37:44 > 0:37:47and kills herself soon after.
0:37:47 > 0:37:51The future belongs to Octavius now,
0:37:51 > 0:37:55and he orders the lovers to be symbolically buried together.
0:37:55 > 0:37:58"No grave upon the earth shall clip in it
0:37:58 > 0:38:01"A pair so famous."
0:38:12 > 0:38:15But if the King's man could use the stage
0:38:15 > 0:38:18to revive the ghost of Elizabeth...
0:38:19 > 0:38:25..the King could use Westminster Abbey to lay it to rest.
0:38:35 > 0:38:39When she died in 1603, Elizabeth was buried beside
0:38:39 > 0:38:44the spectacular memorial to her Tudor grandfather, Henry VII.
0:38:49 > 0:38:53But, in 1606, the same year Shakespeare wrote
0:38:53 > 0:38:54Antony and Cleopatra,
0:38:54 > 0:39:01her remains were dug up on the orders of King James.
0:39:03 > 0:39:06In a narrow side-chapel nearby,
0:39:06 > 0:39:11rested the remains of Mary, England's last Catholic monarch.
0:39:11 > 0:39:15Bloody Mary, who had burned Protestants at the stake,
0:39:15 > 0:39:20and, at one time, imprisoned her Protestant half-sister, Elizabeth.
0:39:25 > 0:39:31This was Queen Elizabeth's new home, just a few yards from her old one.
0:39:31 > 0:39:34But, her sister Mary was already resting here.
0:39:34 > 0:39:36No matter.
0:39:36 > 0:39:42Queen Elizabeth's remains were unceremoniously dumped on top of her sister's,
0:39:42 > 0:39:45and this tomb erected above her.
0:39:45 > 0:39:49But this magnificent monument to England's Virgin Queen
0:39:49 > 0:39:53could not disguise the slight of this relocation,
0:39:53 > 0:39:55and, to add insult to injury,
0:39:55 > 0:39:58King James, who commissioned this monument,
0:39:58 > 0:40:03had inscribed the following words in Latin. I'll translate.
0:40:03 > 0:40:06"Here lie we.
0:40:06 > 0:40:12"Elizabeth and Mary, two sisters in the hope of one resurrection."
0:40:14 > 0:40:16It's hard to imagine who would have resented that more -
0:40:16 > 0:40:21the staunchly Catholic Mary or the mainstream Protestant Elizabeth.
0:40:26 > 0:40:31James might have added, "Two childless sisters,
0:40:31 > 0:40:36"whose failure to reproduce led to the extinction of the Tudor line."
0:40:37 > 0:40:42Soon, two more sad sisters joined the pair.
0:40:42 > 0:40:48James' baby daughter Sophia died in 1606...
0:40:48 > 0:40:51two year old Mary, the following year.
0:40:52 > 0:40:58But the king had other children, including an heir and a spare,
0:40:58 > 0:41:00Henry and Charles.
0:41:00 > 0:41:04So, the future of the Stuarts was secure,
0:41:04 > 0:41:08just as Shakespeare had shown in Macbeth.
0:41:08 > 0:41:14James had now completed part one of his grand scheme to rewrite the past.
0:41:14 > 0:41:19Part two, the most satisfying part for him, was yet to come.
0:41:23 > 0:41:26James' mother, Mary, Queen of Scots,
0:41:26 > 0:41:30had been executed by Queen Elizabeth 20 years earlier,
0:41:30 > 0:41:35and had lain in a humble grave in Peterborough ever since.
0:41:35 > 0:41:42Now, it was her turn to be dug up and delivered to a new home.
0:41:46 > 0:41:51While Elizabeth's relocation was designed to marginalise her,
0:41:51 > 0:41:55the grand new tomb James commissioned for his mother
0:41:55 > 0:41:58symbolised her resurrection.
0:42:02 > 0:42:06In comparison, this was a lavish tomb.
0:42:06 > 0:42:11Grander, taller, it took six years longer to build.
0:42:11 > 0:42:15It cost three times as much as Elizabeth's.
0:42:15 > 0:42:21James dedicated it "To our late, dearest mother of famous memory."
0:42:21 > 0:42:27This, a mother he had not seen since he was nine months old.
0:42:27 > 0:42:31So, it's less about a son's devotion to a mother he barely knew,
0:42:31 > 0:42:38and more about James' determination to realign his dynastic story.
0:42:40 > 0:42:45It wasn't only the grand new tomb that gave James' mother new status.
0:42:47 > 0:42:53She shares the space with Henry VII's much-loved mother, Margaret Beaufort,
0:42:53 > 0:42:56origin of the Tudor line,
0:42:56 > 0:43:01creating a new association for his own lineage.
0:43:04 > 0:43:08By placing his mother here, James locates the Stuarts in a line
0:43:08 > 0:43:12originating with the Tudors, thereby asserting that he
0:43:12 > 0:43:17and his descendants are England's true future.
0:43:17 > 0:43:21At the same time, he relegates Elizabeth
0:43:21 > 0:43:27to the ranks of the sterile and childless, those who had no future.
0:43:27 > 0:43:32It's a brilliant piece of both stagecraft and statecraft.
0:43:37 > 0:43:40Controlling the past by rewriting it was one thing.
0:43:42 > 0:43:47Soon, though, King James was facing a present crisis...
0:43:47 > 0:43:48You have great experience...
0:43:48 > 0:43:51..one that would involve Shakespeare as well.
0:43:51 > 0:43:53And we want to take this argument and this movement,
0:43:53 > 0:43:57and keep it going, keep it building and getting it stronger.
0:43:57 > 0:44:00We are with you. We are on your side.
0:44:00 > 0:44:03In spring 1607,
0:44:03 > 0:44:09Jacobean England was gripped by its first serious economic protests.
0:44:09 > 0:44:14A new phenomenon, inflation, was driving up food prices -
0:44:14 > 0:44:18widening the gap between rich and poor.
0:44:18 > 0:44:23Shakespeare's contemporary, the philosopher Sir Francis Bacon,
0:44:23 > 0:44:25summed it up when he wrote,
0:44:25 > 0:44:28"The rebellions of the belly are the worst."
0:44:28 > 0:44:31..keeping it building and getting it stronger. We want all...
0:44:31 > 0:44:34England's countryfolk increasingly faced
0:44:34 > 0:44:37what those in authority considered progress.
0:44:37 > 0:44:41These were the first stirrings of capitalism,
0:44:41 > 0:44:47and capitalism, then, as now, meant that the 1% owned much,
0:44:47 > 0:44:50the 99%, little.
0:44:50 > 0:44:52In the Midlands, Shakespeare's home turf,
0:44:52 > 0:44:57some of the 99% decided they had had enough.
0:44:57 > 0:45:00MOB SHOUTING
0:45:00 > 0:45:05The Midlands Uprising began with protests in Haselbech, Pytchley
0:45:05 > 0:45:08and Rushton in Northamptonshire,
0:45:08 > 0:45:12then spread when 3,000 marched in Hillmorton
0:45:12 > 0:45:15in neighbouring Warwickshire.
0:45:15 > 0:45:18Another 5,000 took to the streets and fields
0:45:18 > 0:45:22in Cotesbach in Leicestershire.
0:45:22 > 0:45:25These were huge numbers for the time.
0:45:25 > 0:45:31The king acted decisively, issuing a proclamation in May 1607
0:45:31 > 0:45:34that the riots were to be suppressed.
0:45:34 > 0:45:37If necessary, by force.
0:45:38 > 0:45:41The landowners of Newton in Northamptonshire
0:45:41 > 0:45:43were a little overzealous.
0:45:43 > 0:45:48Their armed men left over 40 protesters dead.
0:45:49 > 0:45:52For good measure, the protest leaders
0:45:52 > 0:45:56were hanged, drawn and quartered.
0:45:56 > 0:45:59A sort of grisly re-run of the Gunpowder executions
0:45:59 > 0:46:02only a year or so earlier.
0:46:04 > 0:46:07The trigger for this explosion of violence was a practice
0:46:07 > 0:46:10that had been causing tension in England for decades.
0:46:12 > 0:46:14Enclosure.
0:46:15 > 0:46:18It allowed landlords to hedge in land
0:46:18 > 0:46:21that for hundreds of years had been used by all,
0:46:21 > 0:46:25a process captured in this late-Elizabethan map
0:46:25 > 0:46:27of a Suffolk estate.
0:46:29 > 0:46:31Peter, we're looking at a really extraordinary map,
0:46:31 > 0:46:35and I'm hoping that it might help us understand
0:46:35 > 0:46:38how enclosure worked in Shakespeare's day.
0:46:38 > 0:46:41If you look at the centre of the map,
0:46:41 > 0:46:46you'll see that there's a really, really big field
0:46:46 > 0:46:50whereas all around it are small fields.
0:46:50 > 0:46:54And that is the basic difference between the open field system
0:46:54 > 0:46:57and enclosure. But let's look at it in more detail,
0:46:57 > 0:46:59because when you look within this big field,
0:46:59 > 0:47:03you'll see that there's any number of individual strips.
0:47:04 > 0:47:10Now, these strips were owned by individual peasants.
0:47:10 > 0:47:12If you move away from these big fields,
0:47:12 > 0:47:15you'll see that there are small fields.
0:47:16 > 0:47:19Most of these had been recently created.
0:47:19 > 0:47:25And represented a more efficient way of utilising the land.
0:47:25 > 0:47:29And if you look carefully, you will see that many,
0:47:29 > 0:47:31if not most of these enclosed fields, are coloured green.
0:47:32 > 0:47:37Now, they're coloured green because it means that they were for pasture.
0:47:38 > 0:47:42And so, the peasant was hit by a double whammy.
0:47:42 > 0:47:47On the one hand, he lost his strips in the fields.
0:47:47 > 0:47:51Secondly, he no longer needed to be employed by the landlord
0:47:51 > 0:47:54to cultivate his strips.
0:47:54 > 0:47:59Instead, the landlord put sheep in, and here you have some sheep.
0:47:59 > 0:48:02And these sheep needed only one shepherd.
0:48:02 > 0:48:05So, instead of 30 people...
0:48:06 > 0:48:09..you might get reduced to just one.
0:48:09 > 0:48:16The remaining 29 would basically have lost any means of sustenance.
0:48:16 > 0:48:18They would have faced starvation.
0:48:18 > 0:48:22To ram the point home, there is the victim.
0:48:22 > 0:48:24That's terrific.
0:48:24 > 0:48:28It's a wandering beggar with a monkey on his shoulder.
0:48:28 > 0:48:30What you've got is a power map.
0:48:30 > 0:48:32It's a map commissioned by an extremely wealthy individual
0:48:32 > 0:48:35who wants to flaunt his wealth. He didn't live on this estate.
0:48:35 > 0:48:38This map was made for his home in London,
0:48:38 > 0:48:41and it shows just how wealthy he was.
0:48:41 > 0:48:44But more than that, it shows that he's a modern man,
0:48:44 > 0:48:50because this is one of the very first maps to be drawn to scale.
0:48:50 > 0:48:52So it can be used mathematically.
0:48:52 > 0:48:56And the mindset that produced a map that was drawn to scale
0:48:56 > 0:48:59also produced a mind that wanted to use this estate
0:48:59 > 0:49:02- as efficiently as possible. The two go together.- Yes.
0:49:13 > 0:49:15Unexpectedly, Shakespeare found himself
0:49:15 > 0:49:18at the heart of the dispute.
0:49:18 > 0:49:23In the Welcombe Hills just outside his hometown.
0:49:27 > 0:49:31We're only a mile from the centre of Stratford.
0:49:31 > 0:49:35But you won't find this site on any tourist map of Shakespeare country.
0:49:35 > 0:49:40In 1605, Shakespeare bought a half-interest in a lease
0:49:40 > 0:49:45of over 100 acres of arable land around here,
0:49:45 > 0:49:48for which he paid £440.
0:49:48 > 0:49:51That's a spectacular sum.
0:49:51 > 0:49:55It would take a Jacobean schoolmaster 20 years
0:49:55 > 0:49:57to earn that much.
0:49:57 > 0:50:00But when enclosure battles heated up around Stratford,
0:50:00 > 0:50:04Shakespeare found himself caught between the interests
0:50:04 > 0:50:08of wealthy landowners, the 1%, on the one side, and on the other,
0:50:08 > 0:50:10the needs of his fellow townspeople,
0:50:10 > 0:50:13who had tilled this land for generations
0:50:13 > 0:50:16and depended upon it for their economic survival.
0:50:18 > 0:50:23When the rapacious landowner went ahead with enclosing these fields,
0:50:23 > 0:50:28Stratford experienced its own enclosure confrontation.
0:50:28 > 0:50:31A couple of men were sent from town to stop the action,
0:50:31 > 0:50:32but they were beat up
0:50:32 > 0:50:36as the landowner looked on from horseback and laughed.
0:50:36 > 0:50:40At this point, Stratford's women and children came out in force,
0:50:40 > 0:50:46and filled in 285 yards of ditches that had been dug for new hedges.
0:50:46 > 0:50:50As for Shakespeare, the landowners had assured him
0:50:50 > 0:50:54that any losses he would incur through enclosure would be covered.
0:50:54 > 0:50:57He seems to have temporised with both sides,
0:50:57 > 0:50:59and was quoted as saying,
0:50:59 > 0:51:03"I was not able to bear the enclosure at Welcombe."
0:51:03 > 0:51:06This feels like a bit of equivocating.
0:51:06 > 0:51:09Either he found the whole subject unbearable
0:51:09 > 0:51:12or he was unable to support the venture.
0:51:14 > 0:51:18Through his investments, he was deeply implicated
0:51:18 > 0:51:24in the most pressing and volatile economic controversy of his day.
0:51:26 > 0:51:29In the immediate aftermath of the uprising,
0:51:29 > 0:51:34Shakespeare wrote a new play that captured the anger of the rioters,
0:51:34 > 0:51:39the failures of leadership, and the ambiguity of his own position.
0:51:40 > 0:51:44It was the last tragedy he would ever write.
0:51:44 > 0:51:46Coriolanus.
0:51:59 > 0:52:01SHOUTING AND SCREAMING
0:52:03 > 0:52:08Ralph Fiennes' film transposes the action to the present,
0:52:08 > 0:52:14beginning, as the play does, with a furious crowd rioting for food.
0:52:17 > 0:52:20Stop! Stop!
0:52:20 > 0:52:23Coriolanus faces them down.
0:52:23 > 0:52:27Tough, warlike, he is an enforcer for the elite.
0:52:27 > 0:52:30What's the matter?
0:52:30 > 0:52:33You dissentious rogues, that rubbing the poor itch of your opinion,
0:52:33 > 0:52:35make yourselves scabs?
0:52:35 > 0:52:37We have ever your good word.
0:52:37 > 0:52:43He that will give good words to thee will flatter, beneath abhorring.
0:52:43 > 0:52:48What would you have, you curs, that like nor peace nor war?
0:52:48 > 0:52:51The one affrights you, the other makes you proud.
0:52:51 > 0:52:52He that trusts to you,
0:52:52 > 0:52:55where he should find you lions, finds you hares.
0:52:55 > 0:52:58Where foxes, geese.
0:52:58 > 0:53:01He cannot negotiate, and he cannot equivocate,
0:53:01 > 0:53:05or certainly the other...the problem is the other person.
0:53:05 > 0:53:09That's why...as a soldier, you receive orders or give orders,
0:53:09 > 0:53:12and you go into battle as a sort of very clear line.
0:53:12 > 0:53:16So, the kind of grey area of how you and I agree to sit in a room,
0:53:16 > 0:53:18have a conversation and listen to each other is hard.
0:53:18 > 0:53:22He that retires, I'll take him for a Volsce, and he shall feel mine edge!
0:53:22 > 0:53:23Go!
0:53:23 > 0:53:30The unambiguous world of war is the world Coriolanus understands.
0:53:31 > 0:53:35"Before him he carries noise," we're told.
0:53:35 > 0:53:37"And behind him, he leaves tears."
0:53:39 > 0:53:41- Away! - GUNFIRE
0:53:41 > 0:53:44EXPLOSION
0:53:44 > 0:53:46R-r-rgh!
0:53:47 > 0:53:52It is the ambiguous world of politics that is his undoing.
0:53:53 > 0:53:57What is it? Coriolanus must I call thee?
0:53:58 > 0:54:04He cannot equivocate, cannot adopt the role leadership requires.
0:54:04 > 0:54:09"It is a part that I shall blush in acting," he says.
0:54:09 > 0:54:14Most fatally of all, and it's hard not to think of James here,
0:54:14 > 0:54:19he does not love the people, and they do not love him.
0:54:20 > 0:54:23When he dies, it is to the sound of the mob screaming,
0:54:23 > 0:54:26"Kill, kill, kill him!"
0:54:29 > 0:54:33We should feel a sense of waste and loss and a degree of pity.
0:54:33 > 0:54:35Um...
0:54:35 > 0:54:41but I think, I think the tragic protagonist
0:54:41 > 0:54:43should make us feel ambivalent. But I think
0:54:43 > 0:54:47we should go through a point where we feel a sense of pity
0:54:47 > 0:54:50and a cathartic sense of desolation,
0:54:50 > 0:54:54on which we're meant to contemplate and reflect.
0:54:54 > 0:54:57An evisceration, I mean, that's what's going on
0:54:57 > 0:55:00and that's what's in the film.
0:55:00 > 0:55:05He's...a Pieta after an evisceration is what's at the end of this,
0:55:05 > 0:55:08and you reflect on that.
0:55:10 > 0:55:14Coriolanus is perhaps the most ambiguous
0:55:14 > 0:55:16of Shakespeare's tragic heroes.
0:55:18 > 0:55:22And that ambiguity says much about the times,
0:55:22 > 0:55:26where easy distinctions between right and wrong
0:55:26 > 0:55:28seem to have vanished.
0:55:29 > 0:55:34Coriolanus is both villain and victim.
0:55:34 > 0:55:38High-handed and dismissive, an enforcer for the elite,
0:55:38 > 0:55:41who ruthlessly suppresses his own people.
0:55:41 > 0:55:44Yet he is also clearly a wronged man,
0:55:44 > 0:55:48one who cannot and will not equivocate,
0:55:48 > 0:55:53whose insistence on appearing as he is proves fatal.
0:55:56 > 0:56:01The Jacobean moment was an extraordinary time of innovation.
0:56:01 > 0:56:06When Sir Francis Bacon wrote his essay on Seditions and Troubles
0:56:06 > 0:56:09in the wake of the Midlands Uprising,
0:56:09 > 0:56:11the essay itself was a new form,
0:56:11 > 0:56:16a new way of analysing and anatomising the times.
0:56:18 > 0:56:22Francis Bacon's great line, "the rebellions of the belly
0:56:22 > 0:56:26"are the worst," could have been lifted straight out of Coriolanus.
0:56:27 > 0:56:31Like Shakespeare, Bacon recognised that when the hungry
0:56:31 > 0:56:34and desperate take to the streets and fields,
0:56:34 > 0:56:38it's a reflection not on them, but on those in charge.
0:56:39 > 0:56:41He puts it beautifully.
0:56:41 > 0:56:45"When discords and quarrels and factions are carried openly
0:56:45 > 0:56:51"and audaciously, it is a sign the reverence of government is lost."
0:56:51 > 0:56:55Maintaining that reverence requires a ruler to play a part.
0:56:56 > 0:57:00Queen Elizabeth had learned how to play hers,
0:57:00 > 0:57:04but King James, like Coriolanus, struggled with the role.
0:57:07 > 0:57:10James, though big on ideas,
0:57:10 > 0:57:13lacked many of the fundamental qualities of leadership.
0:57:13 > 0:57:16Like Coriolanus, though for different reasons,
0:57:16 > 0:57:21he could not or would not foster the love of the people.
0:57:23 > 0:57:26So it was inevitable that the English
0:57:26 > 0:57:29would turn their minds back to their much-loved queen.
0:57:29 > 0:57:34To an Elizabethan world that seemed simpler and more straightforward.
0:57:34 > 0:57:39A world of war with Spain, of great battles deciding the nation's fate.
0:57:39 > 0:57:44A world where the identity of the English seemed stable and secure.
0:57:46 > 0:57:50In its place, a world of hidden dangers and intrigue,
0:57:50 > 0:57:55in which the new and ambiguous world of equivocation held sway.
0:57:56 > 0:57:59Shakespeare's drama had become the touchstone
0:57:59 > 0:58:03for the gathering storm that was James' reign.
0:58:06 > 0:58:11Next, cracks begin to show in the Royal Family,
0:58:11 > 0:58:15as the king's eye wanders and tongues wag.
0:58:17 > 0:58:21A new theatre opens up new possibilities for Shakespeare.
0:58:24 > 0:58:29And the nation is sent reeling when real life tragedy strikes.
0:58:33 > 0:58:36Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd