Walk past the brothels and turn right

Of considerable interest on the frontispiece of the first volume (Comedies) in the Cassell, Petter & Galpin set of Shakespeare's works (pictured in the previous posting) is an engraving of the Globe Theatre in Southwark, just across the Thames from the city jurisdiction of London. Since the engraving was made in the latter half of the nineteenth century, its appearance and its relation to other buildings in the immediate vicinity is conjectural.

However, the view certainly provides grist for the imagination, and it is not without certain merits. Not the least of these is a depiction of the streets and ground around the Globe as muddy and unpaved, in keeping with contemporary accounts attesting to the damp conditions in what was little more than a flood plain. Southwark was a shadowy, brothel-infested neighborhood, its saving grace being its location just outside the reach of the city's increasingly puritanical magistrates.

Such a setting may hardly seem commensurate with the brilliance of Shakespeare's works, so many of which were performed here. Perhaps the view, though imaginary, can serve as an additional reminder that greatness often springs from humble origins, the poet himself being Exhibit A.