|
||
|
|
|
|
Map showing the locations of Shakespeare's plays set in Great Britain, after that of John Speed's The Kingdome of Great Britaine and Ireland. Although most of Ireland is not shown here, other features from Speed's map have been retained, such as the oilliphéist, unicorn, and lion, each with their respective banner of arms, and the view of London. Locations from King John, Richard II, Henry IV, Henry V, Henry VI, Richard III, Henry VIII, Cymbeline, Macbeth, King Lear, As You Like It, and The Merry Wives of Windsor.
John Speed (1551 or 1552-1629) was a contemporary of William Shakespeare (1564-1616). It has been debated that in Speed's History of Great Britain when discussing Henry V, he is referring to the Jesuit Robert Persons (the "papist") and William Shakespeare ("the poet") in the following quote:
The author of [A Treatise of ] The Three Conversions hath made Oldcastle a ruffian, a robber and a rebel, and his authority, taken from the stage players, is more befitting the pen of his slanderous report, than the credit of the judicious, being only grounded from this papist and his poet, of like conscience for lies, the one ever feigning and the other ever falsifying the truth.
