Discover who wrote Pericles, and what we know about Shakespeare's co-author, George Wilkins.
WHO WAS GEORGE WILKINS?
George Wilkins was listed an innkeeper in the area of Cow Cross, London. Located between Clerkenwell and Barbican and running along the edge of Turnmill Street, this was an area well known for violence, prostitution and thievery. Records show that Wilkins was charged multiple times with acts of violence, usually against women. It was therefore likely that the inn he kept was a brothel and that Wilkins was a 'bawd' or pimp.
When he wasn't pulling pints or engaged in less reputable activities, Wilkins was dashing off pamphlets and plays. His first pamphlet was Three Miseries of Barbary, published in 1606. He then collaborated with William Rowley and John Day on The Travel of the Three English Brothers, a dramatisation of the adventures of the real-life English adventurers, the Shirley brothers (Sir Robert, Sir Antony and Sir Thomas Shirley).
His next play, The Miseries of Enforced Marriage (1607) was was acted by The King’s Men, the company with which Shakespeare was dramatist and actor.
Following the short-lived collaboration on Pericles, he wrote a prose romance called The Painfull Adventures of Pericles Prince of Tyre (Being the true History of the Play of Pericles, as it was lately presented by the worthy and ancient Poet John Gower), which is textually very close to the play.
Some editors have used Wilkins' romance to correct the 1609 printed text of the play, which, even for the notoriously error-filled playbooks of the time, contains an unusually high number of mistakes. These include an estimated 452 lines of verse printed as prose, and 51 lines of prose printed as verse, and many corruptions, inconsistencies and incomprehensible sequences.
A CHANCE MEETING
After the short-lived collaboration on Pericles, there is evidence that Shakespeare and Wilkins' paths crossed another time, giving us the only record of where Shakespeare lived in London.
In a lawsuit in 1612, both Wilkins and Shakespeare were called up as witnesses in the case of Bellott v Mountjoy. The case concerned a husband - Stephen Bellott - who was seeking the dowry of £60 he claimed to have been promised by his father-in-law Christopher Mountjoy upon his marriage to Mountjoy's daughter, Mary.
In a witness statement, Shakespeare admits to have been acting as a go-between and arranging the betrothal, as requested by Mountjoy's wife. It is recorded that he had been lodging in the Mountjoys' house in 1604 on the corner of Silver and Monkwell Streets in Cripplegate (near today's Barbican). He likely knew the Mountjoys through the theatre, as they were tyrers (makers of elaborate ladies' headwear) and would have also made costumes for the courts and playhouses.
While a number of witnesses also assert that he helped negotiate the dowry, Shakespeare's signed deposition states that he could not remember the exact amount agreed. Without this crucial evidence, the case was passed over to the church.
George Wilkins was named on a list of Shakespeare' personal acquaintances, which also included the Mountjoys, their household and neighbours.
FURTHER READING
The Lodger: Shakespeare on Silver Street by Charles Nicholl
Bringing together from a variety of sources, the author gives a detailed and compelling description of the circumstances in which Shakespeare lived and worked in London.
