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Start Again > Collection > Shakespeare Birthplace Trust > Books > 04 Shakespeare's London and the Court
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Gasparo Contarini, The commonwealth and government of Venice, 1599 - Prefatory sonnet, p. A4r detail.

An Elizabethan courtier promotes a book known to Shakespeare. In 1599 one of Sir John Harington's poems praised the diplomat lawyer, Lewes Lewkenor's first translation into English of the Italian Garpar ...

Georg Braun and Franz Hogenberg, Londinium, c. 1572 - detail - decorative title panel

'Londinium': ancient capital of Shakespeare's England. London had been founded on the banks of the River Thames when the Romans established their fortress at what became the Tower of London. The Latin ...

Georg Braun and Franz Hogenberg, Londinium, c. 1572 - detail of city walls on the north-west.

London's City walls and the fields beyond in Shakespeare's time. Close beyond the city walls lay fields and orchards. The engraving shows the wooden frames on which laundresses would hang fabric to ...

Georg Braun and Franz Hogenberg, Londinium, c. 1572 - detail of London Bridge

London’s bridge in Shakespeare's time. London Bridge was lined with houses and shops, and was a route regularly travelled by Shakespeare from his lodgings in the city to his work across the river ...

Georg Braun and Franz Hogenberg, Londinium, c. 1572 - detail of Southwark district

Southwark: a place for entertainment in Shakespeare's time. The southbank of the river Thames in London was reached from the city only by boat, or across London Bridge. This area, called Southwark, ...

Georg Braun and Franz Hogenberg, Londinium, c. 1572 - Westminster (site of the Houses of Parliament) and on the opposite bank Lambeth Palace.

Westminster, and Whitehall Palace in Shakespeare's time. To the west of the city of London, reached by road through semi-rural suburbs or by river boat, lay the centre of government at Whitehall Palace ...

Georg Braun and Franz Hogenberg, Londinium, c.1572 - detail -The Tower of London.

The Tower of London in Shakespeare's time. The fortress on the banks of the tidal river Thames was a royal palace, and a prison stronghold. It also housed the royal armoury and a public menagerie. ...

Georg Braun and Franz Hogenberg, Londinium, c.1572 - A contemporary hand-coloured map of London

London: capital city of Shakespeare's England. William Shakespeare came to London, England's capital city, about 1588. His career in the next twenty years was centred here, as he became the most popular ...

Georg Braun and Franz Hogenberg, Londinium, c.1572 - 'Elizabethan' map of London

The walled City of London in Shakespeare's time. Elizabethan London was surrounded by ancient walls, with entrances at Ludgate, Billingsgate, Newgate and Bishopsgate. The medieval maze of streets within ...

John Norden, The View of London Bridge from east to west, [1597]

London Bridge, looking upstream in Shakespeare's time. London's medieval bridge was thronged with passers-by entering the city. At the south end (left on this contemporary engraving) lay the gate above ...

John Norden, The View of London Bridge from east to west, [1597] - detail - note the water-wheel under the bridge.

The northern bank of the Thames at London in Shakespeare's time. The water-tower at the northern end of London Bridge raised river water to distribute it into the city. Full title: John Norden, ...

John Norden, The View of London Bridge from east to west, [1597] - detail of bridge and houses above

A coach enters Shakespeare's London. The centre of London Bridge had one short section where the houses did not loom five or six storeys high above the roadway. Norden shows a coach and a stream of ...

John Norden, The View of London Bridge from east to west, [1597] - detail of capsized rowing boat

A ‘taxi-boat’ in difficulties on the river Thames in Shakespeare's time. Small rowing boats were the most common method of crossing the river Thames. These ferries acted as taxis and would ...

John Norden, The View of London Bridge from east to west, [1597] - lower left corner, dedicating the engraving to The Lord Mayor.

Dedication of the view of London bridge as Shakespeare knew it. Norden dedicated his engraving to the Lord Mayor of London, Sir Richard Saltonshall, as this corner of the engraving shows. Transcript: To ...

John Norden, The View of London Bridge from east to west, [1597] - lower right corner of the engraving, panel descibing the bridge.

London's bridge described in Shakespeare's time. John Norden's engraving of London Bridge carries a description. Here we learn that along its length lay 102 homes, built alongside and over the 30 foot ...

Ludovico Ariosto, Orlando Furioso, 1634 - Sir John Harington, title page, detail.

A courtier: Sir John Harington, Shakespeare's contemporary. Sir John Harington, son of Henry VIII's treasurer, was godson to Queen Elizabeth I. He was educated at Eton College and Cambridge before ...

Plutarch, The lives of the noble Grecians and Romaines, London, Richard Field, 1612 - dedication, p. A3r.

Shakespeare’s queen has books of history dedicated to her. Sir Thomas North, a lawyer, whose father had been an MP and privy councillor to Henry VIII and to Mary Tudor, dedicated his translation ...

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