2 Henry VI and the Tomb of Duke Humphrey

ABSTRACT

This article explores the intersection of Shakespeare’s depiction of Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester in 2 Henry VI and the cultural memory of this historical figure in the seventeenth century, with a focus on the site of the duke’s tomb at St Albans Abbey. I first call attention to, edit, and translate a Latin epitaph ‘pensild on the wall neare to his Tombe’ by the clergyman William Westerman around 1617, which could have been prompted by Shakespeare’s play. I then bring to light some explicit references to 2 Henry VI, previously unidentified, in the Civil War-era satirical pamphlet The Devill seen at St. Albons.

KEYWORDS:

• Humphrey Duke of Gloucester
• Latin
• epitaph
• satire
• superstition
• pious fraud

Acknowledgments

My thanks to the referees for their comments and suggestions, which improved the quality of this article.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Nashe, Works, vol. 1, 163. See Ibid., vol. 4, 93 and OED s.v. dine, v., P1.

2 On the tomb see Vickers, Humphrey Duke of Gloucester, 439–41.

3 Salmon, The History of Hertfordshire, 87. See Nicholson, The Abbey of Saint Alban, 53.

4 The Annual Register, 284.

5 Gough, Sepulchral Monuments in Great Britain, vol. 2, pt. 2, 142–43.

6 Booth, Journael van Abram Booth, 190 (where the inscription is quoted in prose).

7 Weever, Ancient Funerall Monuments, 555. On Weever and Shakespeare see Honigmann, Shakespeare: The ‘Lost Years’, 50–58 et passim.

8 On early modern graffiti habits see esp. Fleming, Graffiti and the Writing Arts.

9 Sandford, Genealogical History, 309. As both a noun and a verb ‘pencil’ in early modern English generally refers to a fine paintbrush rather than a writing implement made of graphite or similar material, though the latter sense is attested by the seventeenth century; see OED s.v. pencil, v and s.v. pencil, n.

10 See Wood, Athenae Oxonienses, vol. 2, cols. 141–42; Urwick, Nonconformity in Herts, 329–30.

11 Pennant, Journey from Chester, 268.

12 On this aspect of the duke see Weiss, Humanism in England, Ch. 3–4; Gillam, Divinity School and Duke Humfrey’s Library; Saygin, Humphrey and the Italian Humanists; Petrina, Cultural Politics in Fifteenth-Century England. For more on Humphrey in the wider context of fifteenth-century humanism in England see Rundle, Renaissance Reform of the Book, passim.

13 Weever, Ancient Funerall Monuments, 555.

14 Ibid.

15 See Taylor and Loughnane, ‘Chronology of Shakespeare’s Works’, 493–96.

16 Shakespeare, First Part of the Contention.

17 See Knowles, ‘The Farce of History’, 169; Pearlman, ‘The Duke and the Beggar’.

18 Shakespeare, First Part of the Contention, sig. C3r–v.

19 On the 1619 Jaggard-Pavier quartos (the so-called ‘False Folio’) see recently Lesser, Ghosts, Holes, Rips and Scrapes.

20 Mart. Ep. 2.8.8.

21 The Devill seen at St. Albons, 6; see Notestein, History of Witchcraft, 251–52.

22 The Devill seen at St. Albons, 2.

23 Ibid.

24 Ibid.

25 Ibid.

26 Drayton, Englands Heroicall Epistles, fols. 50r–58v; Middleton, Legend of Humphrey.

27 See Lost Plays Database, s.v. Duke Humphrey, https://lostplays.folger.edu/Duke_Humphrey.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg under the Excellence Strategy of the Federal Government and the Länder.