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37-424: In older texts, especially from the time of the early Jamestown settlers, spelling was not standardized, so the following spellings are used in different texts: A weroansqua is a female ruler. Spellings of this word also vary. Paramount chiefs let their district and subordinate weroances make the final decision on how to handle a hostile situation. This was made apparent with the events that took place in 1607 and

74-545: A compilation of the colonial laws put in place by the governors. He then produced an extended manuscript about the Virginia colony, The Historie of Travaile Into Virginia Britannia , dedicating the first version to Henry Percy, 9th Earl of Northumberland , in 1612. The manuscript included his eyewitness account of life in early Virginia, but borrowed heavily from the earlier work of Richard Willes, James Rosier , John Smith , and others. Strachey produced two more versions during

111-488: A degree. In 1605 he was at Gray's Inn , but there is no evidence that he made the law his profession. In 1602 he inherited his father's estate following a legal dispute with Elizabeth Brocket, his stepmother. Strachey wrote a sonnet, Upon Sejanus , which was published in the 1605 edition of the 1603 play Sejanus His Fall by Ben Jonson . Strachey also kept a residence in London, where he regularly attended plays. He

148-445: A genius of his right by my loathed usurpation. Jonson's reference to "happy genius" have led some to speculate that William Shakespeare—who acted in the play—was Jonson's co-author on the original version of Sejanus , which has not survived. Another candidate for co-authorship is George Chapman , who later wrote a poem praising the play. Jonson was certainly collaborating with Chapman in this period, as his next play, Eastward Ho ,

185-546: A widow whose first name was Dorothy, by whom he does not appear to have had any issue. Strachey's son, William, married three times, and died in 1635. Sejanus His Fall Sejanus His Fall , a 1603 play by Ben Jonson , is a tragedy about Lucius Aelius Sejanus , the favourite of the Roman emperor Tiberius . Sejanus His Fall was performed at court in 1603, and at the Globe Theatre in 1604. The latter performance

222-575: Is no manner of doubt on the evidence and from the signature of his deposition, was the well-known voyager and writer whose account of the Bermuda voyage left its marks on Shakespeare’s Tempest . He gave evidence in the suit as ‘William Strachey, of Crowhurst, Surrey, gentleman, aged 34’ on 4 July 1606. Strachey became friends with the city's poets and playwrights, including Thomas Campion , John Donne , Ben Jonson , Hugh Holland , John Marston , George Chapman , and Matthew Roydon , many of them members of

259-578: Is not known which parts were played by which actors. David Grote argues that the published list probably mixes two separate productions, as Lowin did not join the King's Men until after the first production. However Grote suggests that the most likely roles for these performers can be identified: Sejanus, the largest role and a classic over-reacher in the Richard III manner, was obviously played by Burbage. The proud Silius , whose confrontation with Tiberius occupies

296-503: Is prefaced by an epistle "To the Readers" by Jonson, and commendatory verses by George Chapman , Hugh Holland , 'Th. R.', generally assumed to be Sir Thomas Roe , John Marston , William Strachey , one 'Everard B.', and two poets who signed their verses as 'Cygnus' and 'Philos'. In 2023, the scholar Chris Laoutaris identified 'Cygnus" as William Shakespeare . A 1616 edition in folio features Jonson's Epistle to Lord Aubigny , in which

333-402: Is unknown. It might have been something in the text or the performance of the play. Nor is it known exactly when this accusation was made, though it is likely to have been in the early period of James I's reign. However, according to Jonson expert James Loxley, "no action was taken, as far as we know". There have been several theories about what may have led to the accusation. One theory is that

370-491: The Main Plot . This might explain how a play set in ancient Rome was suspected of promoting "Popery". It has also been suggested that the central theme of the play, the dangers of rule by royal favourites, was the problem. In the early years of his reign, 1603–05, James was especially sensitive to criticism of his supporters, given the several conspiracies against him, culminating in the 1605 Gunpowder Plot . Jonson's epistle "To

407-566: The New World , and in 1609 purchased two shares in the Virginia Company and sailed to Virginia on the Sea Venture with Sir Thomas Gates and Sir George Somers in the summer of that year. Strachey was a passenger aboard the flagship Sea Venture with the leaders of the expedition when the ship was blown off course by a hurricane . Leaking, and with its foundering imminent, the ship

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444-707: The "Fraternity of Sireniacal Gentlemen" who met at the Mermaid Tavern . By 1605 Strachey was in precarious financial circumstances from which he spent the rest of his life trying to recover. In 1606 he used a family connection to obtain the position of secretary to Thomas Glover , the English ambassador to Turkey . He travelled to Constantinople , but quarrelled with the ambassador and was dismissed in March 1607 and returned to England in June 1608. He then decided to mend his fortunes in

481-783: The 'hidden' stage play". More recently, the Royal Shakespeare Company staged the play in 2005. Later, as part of the many staged readings and livestream productions that took place during the COVID-19 pandemic , New York City's Red Bull Theatre produced a "livestream presentation" via YouTube on 17 May 2021 directed and adapted by Nathan Winkelstein, featuring notable Broadway and US television actors including Tamara Tunie (Sabinus), Laila Robins (Tiberius Caesar), Denis O'Hare (Sejanus), Keith David (Silius), Manoel Felciano (Natta), Matthew Rauch (Drusus), Stephen Spinella (Eudemus), and Emily Swallow (Livia), among others. The play

518-660: The Globe; the 1604 performance was "hissed off the stage". According to Park Honan , the later Roman works of Shakespeare, who had acted in Sejanus , carefully avoided " Sejanus ' s clotted style, lack of irony, and grinding moral emphasis." The published cast list in Jonson's 1616 folio identifies the principal actors as Richard Burbage , Augustine Phillips , William Sly , John Lowin , William Shakespeare , John Heminges , Henry Condell , and Alexander Cooke (listed in that order). It

555-427: The Readers" in the 1605 quarto states that an unnamed author had "good share" in the version of the play which was performed on the public stage: Lastly I would inform you that this book, in all numbers, is not the same with that which was acted on the public stage, wherein a second pen had good share; in place of which, I have rather chosen to put weaker (and no doubt less pleasing) of mine own, than to defraud so happy

592-526: The Weroance of Arrohattec (whose given name was Ashaquid) was often referred to simply as "Arrohattec", much as the Earl of Essex would be referred to just as "Essex" in lieu of a personal name. When the English arrived in Virginia, some of the weroances subject to the paramount chief Powhatan, or mamanatowick (Wahunsenacawh) were his own nearest male relatives: In Powhatan society, women could inherit power, because

629-523: The author of Description de Tous les Provinces de France . By his father's first marriage Strachey had three brothers and three sisters. Strachey's mother died in 1587, and in August of that year Strachey's father married Elizabeth Brocket of Hertfordshire , by whom he had five daughters. Strachey was brought up on an estate purchased by his grandfather in the 1560s. In 1588, at the age of sixteen, he entered Emmanuel College, Cambridge , but did not take

666-553: The colonial ship Sea Venture , which was caught in a hurricane while sailing to Virginia. The survivors eventually reached Virginia after building two small ships during the ten months they spent on the island. His account of the incident and of the Virginia colony is thought by most Shakespearean scholars to have been a source for Shakespeare's play The Tempest . William Strachey, born 4 April 1572 in Saffron Walden , Essex ,

703-611: The core of the first three acts and whose suicide is a traditionally noble Roman death, most likely would have gone to Heminges, with the more military Condell as the Guards Captain Macro . Phillips, who had been playing dissolute men for some time, would seem very likely for Tiberius if not for Jonson's hint that it was actually Shakespeare. Still, with Shakespeare as Tiberius, there is a very large role for an indignant speechmaker, Arruntius , that would have taken advantage of Phillips's rhetorical skills. Grote further suggests that

740-532: The dramatist again indicates that Sejanus was a flop when staged at the Globe Theatre . In the winter of 1618–19 Jonson told his friend William Drummond that the Earl of Northampton was his "mortal enemy" because Jonson had beaten one of the Earl's servants, and that Northampton had had Jonson called before the Privy Council on an accusation of "Popery and treason", based on Sejanus . What led to these accusations

777-450: The eldest sister; but never to the heires of the males. William Strachey William Strachey (4 April 1572 – buried 16 August 1621) was an English writer whose works are among the primary sources for the early history of the English colonisation of North America . He is best remembered today as the eye-witness reporter of the 1609 shipwreck on the uninhabited island of Bermuda of

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814-540: The fall of Sejanus was thought to mirror that of the Earl of Essex , who had been executed in 1601. Another writer, Samuel Daniel was brought before the Privy Council in 1604 because his play Philotas was thought "to be a reflection of the dangerous matter of the dead Earl of Essex". However Philip Ayres has argued that Sejanus was thought to parallel the 1603 trial of Walter Raleigh , who had been found guilty of conspiring with Spanish Catholics to murder James I in

851-619: The few first-hand descriptions of Virginia in the period. His glossary of words of the Powhatan is one of only two records of the language (the other being Captain John Smith 's). Strachey remained at Jamestown for less than a year, but during that time he became the Secretary of the Colony after the drowning death of Matthew Scrivener in 1609. He returned to England probably in late 1611 and published

888-558: The hostility with the newcomers (English settlers). Weroances and Priest were the only ones allowed to enter into religious temples. A weroance did not go to meet any visitor, visitors were escorted to see a weroance. The weroance, their wives, and councilors often dressed in the finest jewels, and tanned deer skin. Several of the weroances' personal names were known and some recorded by William Strachey and other sources. The names of their respective chieftaincies were also commonly used as titles, exactly analogous to European peerages, so that

925-415: The inheritance of power was matrilineal . In A Map of Virginia John Smith of Jamestown explains: His [ Chief Powhatan 's] kingdome descendeth not to his sonnes nor children: but first to his brethren, whereof he hath 3 namely Opitchapan , Opechancanough , and Catataugh ; and after their decease to his sisters. First to the eldest sister, then to the rest: and after them to the heires male and female of

962-607: The next six years, dedicating one to Francis Bacon and the other to Sir Allen Apsley . It too was critical of the Virginia Company management of the colony, and Strachey failed to find a patron to publish his work, which was finally first published in 1849 by the Hakluyt Society . Strachey died of unknown causes in August 1621. The parish register of St Giles' Church, Camberwell , in Southwark records his burial on 16 August 1621. He died in poverty, leaving this verse: Hark! Twas

999-589: The precarious state of the Jamestown colony. Being critical of the management of the colony, it was suppressed by the Virginia Company. After the dissolution of the company it was published in 1625 by Samuel Purchas as "A true reportory of the wracke, and redemption of Sir THOMAS GATES Knight" . It is generally thought to be one of the sources for Shakespeare 's The Tempest because of certain verbal, plot and thematic similarities. Strachey's writings are among

1036-474: The theatre for some years. Evans assigned his rights in the property and the company in two stages, first one-half in sixths to [Edward] Kirkham, [Thomas] Kendall and [William] Rastell, and subsequently the second half in sixths to John Marston , William Strachey, and his own wife. There were later complications. But in 1606 William Strachey had a one-sixth share in the Blackfriars Theatre . Strachey, there

1073-401: The trump of death that blew My hour has come. False world adieu Thy pleasures have betrayed me so That I to death untimely go. In 1996, Strachey's signet ring was discovered in the ruins of Jamestown , identified by the family seal, an eagle . On 9 June 1595 Strachey married Frances Forster, 'the daughter of a prosperous Surrey family with political connections'. Frances Forster

1110-422: The unnamed other members of the company, Samuel Crosse , William Sly, and Robert Armin , played the roles of Lepidus, Terentius, and Sabinius. From 1604 on, there is no record of a performance of Sejanus His Fall until 1928, when it was put on by William Poel . According to the play's modern editor Philip Ayres, Poel "cut the play by roughly a quarter" to "get away from the 'literary' 1605 published version to

1147-402: Was a failure. According to Jonson, an unnamed co-author "had good share" in the version of the play as it was "acted on the public stage". For reasons unknown the play was accused of promoting " popery and treason". Jonson was questioned, but no action was taken. Jonson published the play in a revised version, replacing the contributions of his co-author with his own words. The published version

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1184-552: Was a shareholder in the Children of the Revels , a troupe of boy actors who performed 'in a converted room in the former Blackfriars monastery', as evidenced by his deposition in a lawsuit in 1606. According to Sisson: In 1600 Richard Burbage leased to [Henry] Evans his Blackfriars property, and the Children of the Revels under Nathaniel Giles , with Evans as landlord and partner, occupied

1221-455: Was accompanied by copious marginal notes citing its historical sources, in quarto in 1605 and in folio in 1616. Sejanus His Fall was first performed by the King's Men in 1603, probably at court in the winter of that year. In 1604 it was produced at the Globe Theatre . Contemporary witnesses, including Jonson, reported that the cast was greeted with heckles and hisses by their first audience at

1258-512: Was entered in the Stationers' Register by Edward Blount on 2 November 1604. On 6 August 1605 Blount transferred his copyright to Thomas Thorpe , who published it in quarto that year (STC 14782), printed by George Eld . The printed text is accompanied by "copious marginal notes" citing the play's historical sources, which Jonson informs his readers were "all in the learned tongues, save one, with whose English side I have little to do". The play

1295-542: Was run aground off the coast of Bermuda , accidentally beginning England's colonisation of that Atlantic archipelago . The group was stranded on the island for almost a year, during which they constructed two small boats in which they eventually completed the voyage to Virginia. Strachey wrote an eloquent letter dated 15 July 1610, to an unnamed "Excellent Lady" in England about the Sea Venture disaster, including an account of

1332-665: Was the daughter of William Forster and Elizabeth Draper (died 22 April 1605), widow of John Bowyer (died 10 October 1570) of Shepton Beauchamp , Somerset , and daughter of Robert Draper of Camberwell , Surrey , Page of the Jewels to King Henry VIII , by Elizabeth Fyfield. Strachey lived in London while Frances remained at her father's estate in Crowhurst, Surrey . They had two children, William Strachey (died 1635), born in March 1596/97, and Edmund Strachey, born in 1604. Frances died before 1615, and at some time before that date Strachey married

1369-505: Was the grandson of William Strachey (died 1587), and the eldest son of William Strachey (died 1598) and Mary Cooke (died 1587), the daughter of Henry Cooke, Merchant Taylor of London, by Anne Goodere, the daughter of Henry Goodere and Jane Greene. Strachey's maternal grandfather, Henry Cooke (died 1551), held Lesnes Abbey in Kent ; he was succeeded by his son, Edmund Cooke (died 1619), while his younger son, Richard Cooke, has been identified as

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