Primary sources
The documentary archive
The books, letters, accounts and eyewitness records underlying the investigations.
Lewkenor’s own words provide the starting point: his accounts of soldiers and exiles, his historical explanations, his translation of Venetian government and his correspondence about foreign visitors. Alongside them stand payment accounts, court instructions, ambassadors’ dispatches and records of theatrical performance.
This guide identifies the principal sources and directs readers to accessible texts and document collections. Quotations and their individual references appear on the relevant play and biography pages.
Lewkenor’s published writings
The Resolved Gentleman, 1594
Lewkenor’s translation and adaptation of the chivalric allegory associated with Olivier de La Marche includes supplementary explanations of biblical, classical and European history.
These histories recount Hercules and Nessus, Caesar, Antony, the Trojan War and the fortunes of rulers and soldiers. Their particular language and selection of events can be compared directly with passages in the plays.
Read the EEBO–TCP transcription →
The Estate of English Fugitives, 1595
Title-page image.
A sustained account of Englishmen serving abroad, including soldiers, captains, disappointed pensioners and religious exiles. Its episodes address unpaid wages, preferment, imprisonment, divided loyalties and the desire to return home.
Named figures include Jaques Francesco, Captain John Smith, William Stanley and the del Monte brothers. The accounts give the military comparisons a foundation in identifiable people and particular incidents.
Explore the soldiers and their associates →
The Commonwealth and Government of Venice, 1599
Lewkenor’s English translation of Gasparo Contarini describes Venetian institutions, magistracies, justice and military arrangements, with additional material about the city.
The “officers of night”, the authority of the doge, the treatment of strangers and the conduct of public business supply specific points of comparison with Othello and The Merchant of Venice.
The volume also preserves Lewkenor’s dedication to Anne Russell, Countess of Warwick, commendatory poetry and his statement that he had served under Battista del Monte.
Consult the EEBO–TCP transcription in XML →
Othello ·
The Merchant of Venice
The Spanish Mandeville of Miracles, 1600
Lewkenor’s translation of Antonio de Torquemada’s collection of extraordinary reports takes the form of conversations about nature, resemblance, spirits, transformations and distant lands.
The discussions include lookalike children, a boy mistaken for his sister while wearing her clothes, familiar spirits making invisible music, and supernatural powers governing the winds.
Twelfth Night ·
The Tempest ·
Hamlet
Letters, petitions and signatures
The petition of 1587
The French-language document supplied with Lewkenor’s 1587 signature records his circumstances during foreign service. The accompanying name reads “Loys Lewkenor”, with a description identifying him as an English gentleman.
The document belongs alongside the later published accounts of military hardship, injury and dependence upon patrons. Its handwriting and wording provide evidence distinct from the retrospective narrative of a printed book.
Correspondence with ministers
Lewkenor’s letters record requests, introductions, journeys and official arrangements. His letter from Egham of 2 September 1594 asks for the return of a handwritten treatise previously delivered at Hampton Court.
Other correspondence concerns ambassadors delayed by weather, the provision of horses and coaches, and the loss of a Flemish hoy off Sandown Fort:
A Flemish hoy was yesterday cast away, men and all, over against Sandown Fort.
Lewkenor’s correspondence from Dover; quoted on the Tempest page.
Read the Sandown Fort and diplomatic correspondence →
Signed diplomatic expense accounts
Lewkenor’s accounts itemise the costs of attending ambassadors: journeys, servants, hired coaches and the movement of visitors between London, royal residences and the coast.
The supplied account concerning Gondomar and the Venetian ambassador includes Lewkenor’s signature and a total of £48. Such records show the practical work behind ceremonial descriptions.
Royal office and expenditure
The grant of 7 November 1605 sets out the responsibilities of the Master of the Ceremonies, the annual stipend and arrangements for reimbursing ambassadorial expenses.
Frederick Devon’s Issues of the Exchequer provides a published route into payments for Lewkenor’s service. These entries can be read beside the warrants and accounts that explain the work performed.
The National Archives: guide to State Papers Foreign →
Diplomatic witnesses
The Moroccan embassy, 1600
Records of Abd el-Ouahed ben Messaoud’s embassy establish the Moroccan presence at Elizabeth’s court and Lewkenor’s interpreting role. They belong beside the ambassador’s surviving portrait and the broader diplomatic setting examined on the Othello page.
Read the ambassador’s profile →
Venetian dispatches
The correspondence of Venetian ambassadors supplies observations of audiences, precedence, performances and the conduct of royal officers. Lewkenor repeatedly appears arranging journeys, carrying messages and negotiating access.
Foscarini identifies Robert Shirley as Lewkenor’s relation. Pesaro describes the influence of Pembroke’s kinship with the Master of the Ceremonies. Other reports record the reception of ambassadors and disputes over religious observance.
The English calendars are edited translations and summaries of the diplomatic records. Their wording should be distinguished from the original Italian documents.
John Finet’s ceremonial record
Finetti Philoxenis, published in 1656, preserves observations on the reception, precedence, treatment and audiences of foreign ambassadors. Finet served alongside Lewkenor before succeeding him.
The record is especially valuable for the sequence of court events: who received a visitor, who escorted him, where he sat and how an apparent breach of honour was resolved.
The Cambridge Works of Ben Jonson: guide to the Masque Archive and its documentary sources →
Theatrical occasions
Whitehall, 6 January 1601
The Twelfth Day instructions name “Mr. Lewkner” among the gentlemen appointed to accompany Virginio Orsini, Duke of Bracciano. They require music, dancing and a play after supper.
The documents are preserved in the Alnwick papers. Orsini’s letters describe his experience of the entertainment. Leslie Hotson’s identification of the unnamed comedy as Twelfth Night is an interpretation of that evidence.
Read the instructions and Orsini’s account →
John Manningham’s diary, 1602
Manningham records Twelfth Night by title at the Middle Temple feast on 2 February 1602 and describes the trick played upon Malvolio.
View the manuscript and transcription →
The King’s Men and the Spanish ambassador, 1604
A Treasurer of the Chamber account names Augustine Phillips and John Heminges, with ten fellow players, attending the Spanish ambassador at Somerset House for eighteen days in August 1604.
Lewkenor’s private play, 1609
A Goldsmiths’ Company minute authorises the use of the garden-house for Lewkenor to have a play “for the solace of himself and his friends”. The record establishes the gathering but does not name its play or performers.
The Württemberg visit, 1610
The account of Louis Frederick of Württemberg’s visit records Lewkenor’s reception of the prince and the visit to the Globe to see Othello. It connects diplomatic travel with public playgoing.
Read the Othello investigation →
Court performances, 1611–12
Sir George Buc’s account lists plays presented at court, including The Tempest on 1 November 1611 and The Winter’s Tale on 5 November.
Cardenio and the Savoyard ambassador, 1613
A payment to John Heminges records a performance of Cardenna before the Duke of Savoy’s ambassador on 8 June 1613. The lost play is usually identified with Cardenio.
Consult the surviving records in the Lost Plays Database →
Family, legal and parliamentary records
Wills, admissions, marriages, property transactions and committee lists give the personal connections their documentary structure.
These include Lewkenor’s Middle Temple admission, the Combe family relationships, the Shirley connections and parliamentary service alongside named colleagues. Shakespeare’s will records the gift of his sword to Thomas Combe.
Consult Shakespeare’s will and its commentary →
Follow the family and professional connections in the Lewkenor Circle →
The First Folio, 1623
The First Folio preserves the collected plays alongside the dedication signed by John Heminges and Henry Condell, their address to readers, and the commendatory poems.
Its dedication to William and Philip Herbert connects the publication with Lewkenor’s cousins. The preliminary matter can be examined as evidence in its own right, alongside the history of the individual play texts.
Reading the evidence
An original letter, a printed translation, an eyewitness account and a later calendar offer different kinds of evidence. The investigations identify the speaker or writer and distinguish contemporary wording from later interpretation.
Where spelling has been modernised or a passage shortened, the accompanying attribution indicates the change. Dates, document titles and page or folio references allow readers to follow the argument back to its source.
The documentary archive · Correspondence
The Letters of Lewes Lewkenor
Manuscripts, money, ambassadors, family and grief: Lewkenor in his own words.
Open a dated entry to read the letter. These texts follow The Letters of Lewes Lewkenor, collected by William Corbett, 18 August 2026. Some entries survive here as transcriptions, others as published calendar accounts. Each entry identifies the form reproduced; uncertain readings remain in brackets.
2 September 1594 · “A poor treatise in written hand”
Lewkenor sends his brother to Cecil and asks for the return of the only copy of a handwritten work.
This bearer, my brother, newly arrived in these parts from Bohemia, is one that ever desireth humbly to rest at your LL’s service and commandment, and the rather because it pleased your LL to deal so honestly with him in his absence by delivering a letter of his to me. I doubt not his behaviour there hath been such as becomes a good subject, but he will give a reckoning of himself. By reason of some indisposition of body I cannot conveniently accompany him though very desirous to do so. I beseech you to deliver unto the bearer a poor treatise in written hand which I once delivered unto your Lordship at Hampton Court. An honorable personage hath desired to see it and there is no other copy.—Egham, 2 Sept. 1594.
To Cecil, Egham, 2 September 1594. Complete calendared account as supplied in the collection. Neither the treatise nor the “honorable personage” is named.
27 June 1603 · Rosny, royal letters and borrowed paper
At Dover, the French ambassador objects to the form of James I’s letter. Lewkenor reports the dispute and the ambassador’s visit to his chamber while he is writing.
Standing this night upon the pier with Mons. De Rhosny a packet of letters was delivered unto him by Mr. Manwood, wherein amongst others was one of his Majesty’s own hand to the French King with this superscription:—“A mon trescher frere le Roy treschretien”; which did put him into such exceeding passion that I was bold to demand the cause of his so sudden alteration, which he frankly confessed unto me to proceed from that manner of his Majesty’s writing, in regard that the French King had written a Monsieur mon Frere, &c.; and thereupon he instantly requested me with all secrecy and speed to dispatch a messenger to the Court for the reformation of this error (as he called it), and that it would please his Majesty to write a letter with correspondent style to the same which he had formerly received and that you would send it after him with all possible speed, for he cannot deliver this which he hath received to the King his master without great scandal to his master and imputation to himself, as he saith. He hopeth such diligence shall be used that the new letter shall overtake him before his arrival at Paris, being determined to linger his journey of purpose. He desireth that this reformation, if there be any, may not seem by any means to come from any complaint or mediation of his. Sir, I refer all to your consideration and have written this being by him thereunto entreated earnestly. He intendeth to embark to-morrow by 4 o’clock in the morning.
We have news that the Spanish ambassador departed from Brussels on Thursday last towards Gravelinge. I intend to stay here to-morrow and to attend the return of our ships that do convoy M. De Rhosny to Calais, Captain Barken (Bacon) having promised me to use his best diligence to enquire out the certainty when he intendeth to be at Gravelinges. There hath been since our departure from Gravesend many fightings and woundings among the French. In all occasions here for his Majesty’s service I have found that exceeding readiness and chargeable attendance in Mr. Peter Manwood, the high sheriff, that I cannot but recommend him to you: for in truth, without his help and extraordinary diligence, this and the former services had been very lamely performed.—27 June, 1603. Dover.
PS. Mons. De Rhosny was so nettled that while I was writing this letter he came to my chamber and writ there with my paper and ink a letter to the ambassador Beaumont, which he entreated to send away with mine; which I have done.
To Cecil, Dover, 27 June 1603. Calendar of the Manuscripts of the Marquess of Salisbury, vol. XV; holograph, seal, two pages, Cecil Papers 100/137. Calendared text with postscript.
2 August 1604 · Asked to lend the King money
Lewkenor asks Cecil to stop a royal demand for a loan, pointing to his own expenses.
I was advertised this morning that there is a privy seal out for me to lend the King money; for which finding myself altogether unfit I beseech you to cause the same to be stayed. I hold it not pertinent to trouble you with a relation of my poor estate and great charges which I am constrained to uphold. I would have waited upon you but heard not hereof till I was on my way towards Dover.—2 August, 1604.
To Lord Cecil, 2 August 1604. Calendared text; holograph, seal, Cecil Papers 106/37.
13 March 1604/5 · “My dearest wife”
After Beatrice’s death, Lewkenor explains his absence and presses Kyrton to secure a place in a lord’s travelling household. The full supplied transcription follows.
Good Mr Kyrton,
I have endured many sharp strokes of affliction since I saw you last, never since that time in manner stirring from the bedside of my dearest wife, who, having long languished in the great extremity of utmost painful sickness, is now [called to God?] this last Monday, released from the woeful sadness of this false world and assumed into the blessed society of his holy angels.
This hath been the cause that I have not as yet, being wholly overwhelmed [uncertain words], presented my form [reading uncertain] unto my most honourable good Lord. But, good Mr Kyrton, I do rely upon my Lord’s promise and yours that he may go over attending upon my Lord in that sort that may be most to do my Lord service and to himself of least expense. I will send him over in sort as shall be fitting, and he hath friends of quality both there that will be very kindly thankful for any favour you shall show him.
I earnestly entreat you that he may not fail to be accepted into my Lordship’s train, although the same, as I fear me, be in this meanwhile completely full. You shall forever engage me in an infinite beholdingness unto you, and so, assuring myself of your love and favour herein, I rest yours very faithfully assured,
Lewes Lewkenor
From my sorrowful house in Red Church Street.
This 13th March 1604.
To Robert Kyrton, Red Church Street, 13 March 1604/5: March 1605 in modern year numbering. Full transcription supplied in the collection, with spelling and punctuation modernised. Brackets mark unresolved readings; the original image has not been collated.
13 April 1610 · The Württemberg prince is coming
Lewkenor reports the imminent arrival of the prince whose party would visit the Globe and record a performance of the Moor of Venice.
The Duke of Wittenberge is under sail hitherward, and his arrival here certainly expected this night. I have advertised Lord Willoughby, who is appointed to receive him here. There is no news of the States coming as yet, their stay being the longer in regard that one of their fellow commissioners is dead. Gravesend, 13 April, 1610.
To Salisbury, Gravesend, 13 April 1610. Calendared text; holograph, one page, Cecil Papers 195/148. Postal endorsement: “Hast hast hast hast post hast hast.”
7 August 1619 · “They must not look to give law unto him”
Writing to Edward Herbert, Lewkenor explains the King’s arrangements for receiving ambassadors and the limits of their claims over invitations.
My very good Lord, the Count de Tyllger shall know the great respect your LL beareth him, and in my particular, I will endeavor to do him all possible honor and service, in as Ample manner, as ever was done to any resident Ambassador. The King is absent and my L.Chamberlain is gone into Scotland so that he will not have audience till the King’s coming to Woodstock, which will be the 22nd of this present: On Monday next I intend to go to meet him accompanied by sundry knights and gentlemen my friends. If I receive between this & that time, news of his passage from Calais, which I hourly expect. Touching your LLs postscript, I will, if any occasion accidentally be offered: endevour to give him satisfaction in the point touched in your letter. Our hope is such here of his moderation and wisdom, that he will not entertaineth ill grounded pretensions of his predecessor, but rather endevor to quench than to kindle troubles & quarrels in the court. The King’s heart is just, & there is no prince living that doth more desire to favour & cherish Ambassadors residing in his court then he does. But they must not look to give Law unto him, & to appoint him whom he shall invite. He has since his happy entrance observed an alternative course in his invitations of the Ambassadors of France & Spain and I think he will not break it. Howsoever, your LL shall find that I will faithfully perform that which you intimate in your Letter, I will ever remain, Your LL’s assured true friend, To do you service: Lewes Lewkenor
To Edward Herbert, Drury Lane, London, 7 August 1619. Full transcription supplied in the collection; spelling follows that transcription.
14 June 1623 · Guns, music and thirty dishes of sweetmeats
Lewkenor describes the reception of the Spanish ambassador on the road from Dover to Canterbury, including the greetings at the city gates and the visit to the cathedral. The postscript concerns the next stage of the journey.
Right Honorable
I thought fitt according to the former direccions receaued from you to acquaint your Honor with the perticulers of our voyage this day from Dover to Canterburie. In ye morning my Lord of Rutlands fleete came from ye Downes and roade before the to Towne of Douer not farre from ye shore, and when the Marquis went vp the hill with his Coaches the Admiral! First and then in order all the other shipps dicharged all theire Artillerie which was seconded with the Artillery from ye castle comming afterwards to Barham Downes a brave Troupe of knightes & Gentlemen well horsed & ritchly apparelled mett him & lighted of their horses. The Marquis the other Ambassador & the Spanish gentlemen did the like out of their Coaches where after a ciuill complement past on both sides with singuler contentment to the Marquis he went into ye coach & they toke theire horses and attended him into Canterburie performing all kinds of respect & honor they could possibly do unto him. Wherein Sir Dudley Diggs, Sir Nicholas Tufton and Sir Edward Hales did express the greate care they took in performing this service according to his Majesties commandment so likewise did the other Knights and gentlemen and surely your Honor shall do them a great deal of right to acquaint his Majesty with all. Uppon the Gates of Canterburie were placed by the Mayor Hoboyes and Sackbutt that saluted his entrance into ye town. Within ye gates stood the Mayor and all his bretheren in theire Skarlett gownes tendring unto him theire service and desiring his permission that they might wait upon him in his lodging, which they did afterwards presenting him with 30 dishes of Marchpanes & other Costly sweete meats & because the press was great they placed 20 handsome men with halberts at the gate all apparelled in the livery of ye Town. After the Mayor had taken his leaue & signified his Ministries commaundment giuen vnto him & his Bretheren to do his excellence all the honor and service the town could aford. The Marquis went to see the Church where they were courteously receaued by some of the Channons &C shewed everything that was worthy to be scene specially the place where St Thomas of Canterbury was murdered which they beheld with much curiosity. I assure your honor that I have seen many receptions in Kent but I never saw any performed so well & so orderly as these of this day. And I should have condemned myself of a great neglect if I should have left It unadvertised.
So remembring my humble respective service unto your Honor I rest
Dover Saturday
14th of lune 1623 Your most devoted servant to Command Lewes Lewkenor
I thought fit to let your Honor know that the Former advertisement hold &c that ye Marquis will certainly lodge to morrow night at Gravesend. I Did yesternight write to my lord Chamberlain to Advertise my Lord Kelley thereof &. To send down Barges & do much desire to Know his Majesties Pleasure touching his audience on Monday.
To Sir Edward Conway, 14 June 1623. Full supplied transcription, including postscript. The National Archives, SP 14/146/30, ff. 1–1v. The collection gives the place in the closing as Dover.
29 November 1625 · “Leave to execute my office as formerly”
After months of confinement following a dispute over James I’s funeral, Lewkenor asks to resume his duties.
It is seven months since I was restrained to my house at the insistence of the Venetian ambassador for wrongs done him at the funeral of James I. The ambassadors of Venice have always expected more observances than those of France or Spain. I hope in future there will be a settled order. The King has pronounced me innocent. I Pray that my restraint may be removed, and that I may have leave to execute my office as formerly, or at the least to go about my private affairs.
To Secretary Conway, Hampton Court, 29 November 1625. Calendared abstract: Calendar of State Papers Domestic: Charles I, 1625–26, 18–30 November 1625, pp. 152–166.
Editorial note: Calendar accounts may abbreviate or summarise the original documents. They are identified above rather than presented as diplomatic transcriptions. Dates before 25 March may retain the contemporary English year; the Kyrton date is therefore shown as 1604/5.