Wherefore to Dover?

The coastal gateway features in a number of the William Shakespeare's plays so it's not a surprise that the company with which he was associated, The Lord Chamberlain’s Men, visited Dover in 1597. They were paid 13 shillings and 4 pence by the local corporation.

The civic records don’t tell us which play or plays the actors performed but their touring repertory may have included the Bard's latest works at the time: Romeo and Juliet, Richard II, King John, The Merchant of Venice and Henry IV Part I.

Dr Siobhan Keenan, Reader in Shakespeare and Renaissance Literature at De Montfort University, says: “In many communities it was customary for the so-called ‘mayor’s play’ to be opened up to local people, so the audience in Dover could have been large.”

A performance of King John would have flattered the local Dover audience. In the play there is an attempted invasion via Kent by the French Prince (Louis), but it is resisted only in Dover, and in Act V of King John we hear how “All Kent hath yielded..” (to the French Prince) “…but Dover castle

Dr Siobhan Keenan, De Montfort University

She adds: “A performance of King John would have flattered the local Dover audience. In the play there is an attempted invasion via Kent by the French Prince (Louis), but it is resisted only in Dover, and in Act V of King John we hear how “All Kent hath yielded..” (to the French Prince) “…but Dover castle”.

Shakespeare’s Company returned to Dover at least twice more in Shakespeare’s lifetime but as the newly named The King’s Men, being rewarded by the town in 1606 and 1610.

Again, the records don’t tell us what they performed but in 1606 the troupe’s new Shakespeare plays included All’s Well That Ends Well, King Lear, Macbeth, and Antony and Cleopatra; and in 1605 they are recorded as performing Henry V and The Merchant of Venice at court so there’s a chance that these were also in the touring repertory and would have been available for performance in Dover.

King Lear might have seemed an especially appropriate play for at least one of their performances in the town in 1606. Lear famously heads to Dover (in Act 3), accompanied by Edgar (in disguise as Poor Tom) after being spurned and turned out of doors by his older daughters, Goneril and Regan.

In 1610 the company’s new Shakespeare plays included Cymbeline and The Winter’s Tale but we also know that their touring repertory included Othello as there is a record of them performing this play in Oxford that year.

As part of the same tour, The Lord Chamberlain’s Men played at Faversham, probably performing at the town’s original Guildhall - which no longer survives – and were paid 13 shillings and 4 pence by the town, although records don't tell us which plays they performed.

Shakespeare’s Company returned to Faversham at least once during Shakespeare’s lifetime, visiting as the King’s Men in 1605-6 when they were paid £1 and are thought to have performed in the upper hall (over the arcaded market area) at the new Guildhall (or Court Hall) which survives to the present, although altered.

Act 3, Scene 7

CORNWALL: Where hast thou sent the king?
GLOUCESTER: To Dover.
REGAN: Wherefore to Dover? Wast thou not charged at peril--
CORNWALL: Wherefore to Dover? Let him first answer that.
GLOUCESTER: I am tied to the stake, and I must stand the course.
REGAN: Wherefore to Dover, sir?
GLOUCESTER: Because I would not see thy cruel nails
Pluck out his poor old eyes; nor thy fierce sister
In his anointed flesh stick boarish fangs.
The sea, with such a storm as his bare head
In hell-black night endured, would have buoy'd up,
And quench'd the stelled fires:
Yet, poor old heart, he holp the heavens to rain.
If wolves had at thy gate howl'd that stern time,
Thou shouldst have said 'Good porter, turn the key',
All cruels else subscribed: but I shall see
The winged vengeance overtake such children.