[00:03.23]Chapter 6 Death in the family
[00:08.50]After the plague years, we were busy all the time.
[00:13.61]There were new companies of players and Will now belonged to the Lord Chamberlain's Men．
[00:20.64]The Lord Chamberlain was a very important man，close to the Queen，
[00:26.66]and we often put on plays for the Queen's court，and in the houses of the great lords of England．
[00:34.76]We had some very good actors．
[00:37.90]There was Will，and Richard Burbage，of course，and John Heminges．
[00:44.38]And there was Augustine Phillips，Henry Condell，and Thomas Pope．
[00:50.04]There were other actors，too，but those six were the real company．
[00:55.91]They worked together for more than twenty years．And made a lot of money，too．
[01:04.86]I did the costumes and properties for the Chamberlain's
[01:09.31]John Heminges said I was the best properties man in the city．
[01:14.78]Will was special—because he wrote the plays．
[01:19.03]And what plays they were！He never wrote the same play twice，like some writers．
[01:26.26]He was always trying something new，something different.And he wrote fast，too．
[01:34.45]John Heminges could never understand that．
[01:38.88]How can you write so fast，Will？he asked him．
[01:43.38]And you never make a mistake or change a word．
[01:49.48]Will didn't really understand it himself．
[01:53.52]It's all in my head，he said．I think about it，
[01:57.98]and then it just comes out on paper．
[02:02.84]He wrote a play about love in 1595．Young love．
[02:09.20]It was Romeo and Juliet．
[02:13.19]It was a very sad play，because the young lovers die at the end．
[02:18.97]But the playgoers loved it．
[02:21.80]They wanted to see it again and again．
[02:27.46]Will played the part of old Capulet，Juliet's father．
[02:33.33]One of the boy actors played the part of Juliet．
[02:37.48]There were no women actors，so boys played all the women's parts．
[02:43.35]Of course， Will never put real love-making on stage．
[02:48.46]He did it all with words—clever，beautiful words，
[02:54.43]and you forgot that the women and girls were really boys in dresses．
[03:00.45]Some of the boy actors were very good，and went on to play men's parts when they were older．
[03:09.81]We played Romeo and Juliet at Richmond Palace that year．
[03:15.02]We always played before the Queen at Christmas．
[03:19.32]She liked to see the new plays，and she paid us 10 a play．
[03:26.09]We often had to work through the night to get the stage ready in time，
[03:31.51]but it was exciting to be in one of the Queen's palaces at Christmas．
[03:36.62]There was a lot of singing and dancing，and eating and drinking．
[03:42.44]Some years Christmas began in November and didn't finish until February or March．
[03:50.43]The year 1596 began well，but that summer the weather was really bad．
[03:59.29]Cold．Wet．It never stopped raining，and the plague began to come back into London．
[04:10.62]We were in Stratford for the summer,
[04:13.55]but I went down to Hampshire for a few weeks to do some business for Will about some sheep．
[04:21.24]Will didn't need me at home，because he was busy writing his new play,A Midsummer Night's Dream．
[04:30.55]I came back to Stratford one wet August evening．
[04:35.81]The house in Henley Street was strangely quiet，and I went round the back and up to Will's room—his writing room， we called it．
[04:48.32]He was just sitting there not doing anything，just sitting．
[04:57.42]What's the matter，Will？I said.Where is everybody？
[05:03.74]At church．His face was grey，and his eyes looked empty，dead．
[05:12.40]What's happened？I asked．What is it？
[05:18.17]He looked at me.Hamnet… he began．
[05:24.84]Hamnet was ill last week，and…and he died，yesterday．
[05:34.15]He was only eleven，Toby，and he's dead．My boy．
[05:41.24]My only son．He's dead，Toby．Dead．
[05:49.48]He put his face in his hands．
[05:53.78]What Can you say to a man when something like that happens to him？
[05:59.44]I sat down next to him and put my hand on his arm．
[06:05.61]We sat together，silently．
[06:10.21]I knew that Will loved that boy of his—red-haired，bright as a new penny，
[06:18.26]full of life．Just like his father．
[06:22.66]After a while I said，You'll have other sons
[06:30.63]Anne's forty already．Will's voice was tired．
[06:36.70]She's had no children since the twins．
[06:41.35]Well，now，you've got two fine girls in Susanna and Judith．
[06:47.47]They'll marry before long，and then you'll have more grandsons than you can count．
[06:53.48]You'll see．There'll be boys running up and down stairs，shouting for their Granddad Will！
[07:02.59]He smiled sadly，but his eyes were not so empty now．Pleased，I went on quickly：
[07:10.84]And there are all your brothers—Gilbert，Richard，Edmund．
[07:16.15]They'll have sons too．The Shakespeare family will never die out．
[07:22.42]Think of the family，Will，the family！
[07:27.22]And he did．He was already a famous poet and playwright，but he was a family man，too．
[07:36.39]The next year，1597，he bought a new house for his family．
[07:42.41]It was a big，grand house，called New Place，right in the middle of Stratford．
[07:50.87]It cost 60 pounds, a lot of money—and the townspeople began to say Mr Shakespeare，
[08:00.84]not Young Will the actororJohn Shakespeare's boy．
[08:06.55]They were happy to do business with him，and to borrow money from him．
[08:13.68]Anne was very pleased with the new house．
[08:17.63]The wife of Mr Shakespeare of New Place was an important person in Stratford．
[08:24.36]But she still didn't like Will's work．
[08:29.26]Actors are wild，dangerous people，she often said to him．
[08:34.77]I'm not interested in plays or the theatre，
[08:38.46]and I don't want to know anything about your work．
[08:43.57]But she liked the money，and the new house，and the new dresses,
[08:48.27]and the six fields of apple trees and the big farm north of Stratford that came a few years later．
[09:00.36]Will never talked much about Hamnet．
[09:03.80]Life goes on and Will was busier than ever．
[09:07.70]But I know he thought about his son a lot；
[09:11.64]his grief was very deep inside him．A year or two later，
[09:17.61]I was talking to John Heminges abut the costumes for Will's new play，King John．
[09:25.61]John Heminges was a family man—he had fourteen children in the end．
[09:31.98]The noise is his house！Shouting and laughing，coming and going…
[09:39.62]John was looking at the playbook．
[09:43.16]You see this bit here，Toby，he said．
[09:47.70]Will's writing about his son，isn't he？
[09:52.35]I read the words slowly，and remembered Will's empty eyes that day in August．
[10:01.26]Grief fills the room up of my absent child，
[10:06.02]Lies in his bed，walks up and down with me，
[10:10.88]Puts on his pretty looks，repeats his words…
[10:17.41]Richard Burbage said once that Will's writing changed after Hamnet's death．
[10:24.09]Will still laughed at people in his plays，
[10:27.53]but he also felt sorry for them—sorry for all the world，good and bad，rich and poor，young and old．And his people were real．
[10:41.18]No one was all good， or all bad．
[10:46.04]There was a man called Shylock in his play The Merchant of Venice．
[10:51.81]This Shylock was a money-lender and a cruel man—everyone hated him．
[10:59.75]But in the end，when Shylock lost everything，you had to feel sorry for him．
[11:07.13]He was just a sad old man．
[11:11.48]Perhaps Richard was right．And if anyone understood Will，it was Richard Burbage．