Add. MS 20001, folio 9 verso
From the collections of: THE BRITISH LIBRARY
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The British Library has graciously contributed the above images to Shakespeare Documented under a Creative Commons Public Domain Mark.
Copyright status of the manuscript and unpublished Materials: The 1988 Copyright, Designs and Patents Act (as amended) states that unpublished literary and artistic works remain in copyright in the UK until at least 31 December 2039. Therefore important parts of the library’s collection remain in copyright, including very old manuscripts. However for unpublished material created many centuries ago and in the public domain in most other countries, the Library believes this material to be very unlikely to offend anyone. As an institution whose role it is to support access to knowledge, we have therefore taken the decision to release certain digitised images technically still in copyright in the UK under the Public Domain Mark.
Document-specific information
Creator: Hans Jacob Wurmsser von Vendenheym
Title: RELATION by Hans Jacob Wurmsser von Vendenheym of his journey, in company with Duke Louis Frederic of Wirtemberg, second son of the reigning Duke Frederic, into England, the United Provinces, and some parts of Germany, 16 March-24 July, 1610.
Date: 17th century
Repository: The British Library, London, UK
Call number and opening: Add. MS 20001, fol. 9v
View online bibliographic record
From the collections of: THE BRITISH LIBRARY
Terms of use
The British Library has graciously contributed the above images to Shakespeare Documented under a Creative Commons Public Domain Mark.
Copyright status of the manuscript and unpublished Materials: The 1988 Copyright, Designs and Patents Act (as amended) states that unpublished literary and artistic works remain in copyright in the UK until at least 31 December 2039. Therefore important parts of the library’s collection remain in copyright, including very old manuscripts. However for unpublished material created many centuries ago and in the public domain in most other countries, the Library believes this material to be very unlikely to offend anyone. As an institution whose role it is to support access to knowledge, we have therefore taken the decision to release certain digitised images technically still in copyright in the UK under the Public Domain Mark.
Document-specific information
Creator: Hans Jacob Wurmsser von Vendenheym
Title: RELATION by Hans Jacob Wurmsser von Vendenheym of his journey, in company with Duke Louis Frederic of Wirtemberg, second son of the reigning Duke Frederic, into England, the United Provinces, and some parts of Germany, 16 March-24 July, 1610.
Date: 17th century
Repository: The British Library, London, UK
Call number and opening: Add. MS 20001, fol. 9v
View online bibliographic record
Heather Wolfe, "A German prince sees Othello at the Globe in 1610," Shakespeare Documented, https://doi.org/10.37078/582.
British Library, Add. MS 20001, folio 9 verso. See Shakespeare Documented, https://doi.org/10.37078/582.
During a diplomatic visit to England in 1610, the Protestant German prince Louis Frederick Würtemberg attended a performance of Othello--“l’histoire du More de Venise”--at the Globe. According to his secretary’s account of the trip, in the same week, he also saw a bear-baiting, monkeys riding on horses, a perpetual motion machine, and a self-playing keyboard instrument. In one of the earliest references to the Great Bed of Ware, mentioned in Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, the Prince’s secretary notes that in the town of Ware, in Hertfordshire, he (the secretary) slept on the famous bed, which had an eight-foot-wide mattress filled with swans’ down. At the same time, he was regularly having audiences with the royal family and other ambassadors to England.
The account is written in French, and reveals that a visit to the Globe was considered to be an essential part of the tourist experience, alongside the inventions of the eccentric alchemist and philosopher Cornelis Drebbel (1572-1633) and other, more low-brow activities.
His Excellency went to the Globe, the usual place where plays [or comedies] are performed; the history [or story] of the Moor of Venice was represented there.
Son Eminence alla au Globe lieu ordinare on l'on Joue les Commedies, y fat representé l'histoire du More de Venise.
Written by Heather Wolfe
Last updated May 17, 2020
