On August 20th The Guardian published this article:
It’s interesting to drill down to see where the idea that “[The] Archway in St George’s Guildhall probably led to dressing room used by Bard” comes from. The source appears to be
https://westnorfolkartists.org/artscentre/pdfs/The_Case_for_Placing_Shakespeare_in_KL.pdf
In which we read, with emphasis added,
“When they came to be printed in 1593 and 1594 several of Shakespeare’s early plays state explicitly that they were performed by Pembroke’s Men: Titus Andronicus, The Taming of the Shrew, and 3 Henry VI. (To this list we can add 2 Henry VI.) 4 Early modern scholar Andrew Gurr has demonstrated that Shakespeare was with his plays in Pembroke’s Men in 1592 and 1593 by highlighting how textual details in the early printed editions of 2 and 3 Henry VI strongly suggest that the author had to be present in and with the company when they performed the plays. Details of staging reflected in the stage directions found in the early quarto and octavo versions of 2 and 3 Henry VI suggest the presence of the author when they were first staged. Replications of visual details evoked in these stage directions betrays the hand of a writer who was familiar with the descriptive minutiae of the plays’ key source, Holinshed’s Chronicles. 5 We know that Shakespeare was performing with the company in 1592 from a rather critical dig at the playwright made in a text published that autumn by fellow writer and dramatist Robert Greene. Norwich-born Greene famously referred to Shakespeare as an ‘upstart crow’ in a jibe that closely evoked the language of 3 Henry VI. This reference has long been known to Shakespeare scholars, and close scrutiny of its sense and context suggests Greene may have seen Shakespeare perform in this early history play in around mid-1592. 6 “
4 Gurr, p. 269. Pembroke’s Men also performed Christopher Marlowe’s Edward II.
5 Gurr, p. 271.
6 Gurr, p. 271; Ackroyd, pp. 176-7.
Ackroyd, Peter. Shakespeare: The Biography (London, 2005).
Gurr, Andrew. The Shakespearean Playing Companies (Oxford, 1996).
Oxfordians will immediately recognize the tentative (to put it mildly) nature of the text in boldface, particularly the upstart crow reference, on which much has been published on our website.
From https://www.klccc.uk/old-st-georges-guildhall we also have:
“Far more in keeping with its current role, Shakespeare performed in St. George’s Guildhall in 1593 and The Lord Admiral’s Men, with whom he was associated, were in Norwich that year.”
However no source is given to show how the Stratford Man might have been in both The Lord Admiral’s Men and Pembroke’s Men in the same year, 1593.
One wonders how long it might be before Shakespeare’s Doorway passes from tentative conjecture to Stratford on Avon style fact.
9/5/24 update: Ros Barber published a more detailed critique here: https://open.substack.com/pub/shakyatbest/p/the-bard-in-kings-lynn?r=phgdn&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email
