Rocco Bonetti's Blackfriars Fencing School and Lord Hunsdon's Water Pipe.

Those who have read my Capulet, Capulet and Parolles, are aware that the Italian fencing master, Rocco Bonetti sub-let space in the Blackfriars for his school. This in 1584, when Edward de Vere, the 17^th Earl of Oxford had leased the complex and signed it over to his secretary, John Lyly. Part was converted into the first Blackfriars theater in order to quiet the strenuous complaints of the Puritan faction outraged because the Children of the Queen's Chapel were performing secular plays in the chapel. Part remained to Lyly as a private residence, until, apparently, he felt he preferred the income to come from sub-letting. He may already have become “Vicemaster of Poules,” in the words of his arch-enemy Gabriel Harvey, on top of “Foolemaster of the Theater”¹ and the position may have included rooms.

A third part was still held by the owner. I add the following detail from the Malone Collections, II.i. The Margaret Poole mentioned is the owner of the complex and William More a resident with special legal status. The description of the spaces rented at Blackfrars is gratifyingly precise. First the space for Bonetti's school.

A hawle, a Chamber above the hawle a lytle roome under the said hawle, a yarde a litle Chamber or vaulte within the said yarde, a Celler adjoyninge to the said yarde under the fenschole [fence-school] under the Southend of the same beinge the tenement nowe in the tenure of the said Rocho Bonetti. An Entrye, a kitchin adioyninge to the said hawle & a smale rowne within the said kytchin. All wich Chambers & rowmes of the demise of the said Margrett Poole doe conteyne in length from north to south twentie foote and eight inches, and foure foote & a half by the present demise of the said Sr willm More: And from Easte to weste in breadeth twentie foote & a halfe of the demise of the said Margret Poole and twoe foot over & beside by this presente Indenture of the demise of the said Sr willm More.²

Next to this is the personal living space Bonetti sub-let from Lyly.

All which six foote & a halfe in lengthe and breadth of the demise of the said Sr willm More and nowe taken in and adjoyned as parte and belonginge to the aforesaid messuage or tenemente doe belonge to the tenement late in the tenure of John Lyllie gentleman & nowe in the tenure of the said Rocho Bonetti conteyninge betwene the yarde of Sr willm More on the North to the lane leadinge to the howse of Sr George Carewe Knight on the south xxxiij foote And betwene the Tenement of Margrett Poole on the south and weste and the tenement & yarde of the said Sr willm More in the tenure of the said Rocho Bonetti xxxix foote & viij inches with all Chambers, Celler, Sollers, Rowmes, entries, lights, vaulte, easements, Buildings and Comodityes with all & singuler ther severall appertenances thearunto belonginge or in any wise apperteyninge scytuat, lyinge & beinge in the parishe of St. Anne within the precincte of the Blackfryers aforesaid late in the tenure of the said Margrett Poole and her assigns and nowe in the tenure and occupaçon of the said Rocho Bonetti By the demise of the said Margrett Poole.³

And, of course, there is the matter of the rent.

Yealdinge and payinge therfore everye yeare and yearlie from & after the decease of the said Margrett Poole unto the said Sr willm More his heyres executors or assigns the full some of six pounds of lawfull money of England at foure feasts or tearmes in the yeare (viz) at the feasts of St Mychell tharke- angle, The byrthe of our lord god, The Anuntyaçon of our Ladye, St. Mary the virgin, and the nativitie of St lohn Baptiste⁴

That is to say, 6 pounds each quarter on the aforementioned feast day. On top of this, the fencing master spent 200l. for remodeling.

In the notes to the Malone Collection, the editor, Greg, informs us that

After Richard Farrant's death, in 1580, Anne Farrant sold the lease to William Hunnis and to John Newman. Then the theatre passed into the hands of Henry Evans, who in his turn sold the lease to the Earl of Oxford, who gave his interest to Lyly....

I have found no trace of the lease sold by Lyly to Bonetti. All that we Know is that in 1584 Lord Oxford and Lyly paid respectively £20 and £8 for their annual rents, and that in 1585 the same sums are entered in the name of Lord Hunsdon.⁵

Of course, Rocco Bonetti did not know that he would be immortalized in Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet into his bargain.

Long-fought litigation concerning the ownership of the property was settled, however, and all leases revoked in 1584 as part of the decision. In less than two full years, Blackfriars had produced more than a half dozen of the first great plays of the Elizabethan theater.

As for Bonetti, he found himself in debtors' prison until his fans managed to pay his outstanding bills and recover possession. Most of the details are vague but what is not is that he was challenged soon afterwards to a duel outside the school by a physical giant of a man, Austen Bagger, and critically wounded, dying in 1587.

Letters of complaint about the property, from Lord Hunsdon, who has just become the Lord Chamberlain, and subsequently patron of the Chamberlain's Men, fill out the picture of the tenement, the theater next door having been returned to storage for the Office of Revels. A letter from Hunsdon to More includes descriptions that tell a great deal about the renter of the day. Even in an area of London that had been gentrified, and being the Lord Chamberlain to Queen Elizabeth, a renter needed enormous patience.

So as I may enjoye withall the other two howses, which I have payd dearly for according to their severall leases with such comodities as is allowed in one of the said leases, which is to have a Pipe of watter which was wonte to belonge to one of those howses is nowe by yor consent turned to my Lorde Cobham[']s howse which is contrarie to yor owne lease ... And for the leases which I bought of Lyllye, since you meane to make no longer state of them, I must be content with those yeres I haue alreddie paid for, And as you will looke to have your rent for the same so I must looke to have such covenants performed as are graunted by you in the said leases, whereof the specialest thing is the Pipe of water, which I am shewer you will not thinke reason to receave so greate a rent and to take awaye the water which is the cheefest thing belonging unto it.⁶

“This mention of the 'pipe of water',” says Greg, “ identifies one of the houses with the north section of Farrant's theatre, for that was the only one of More's houses (his own mansion-house excepted) which was supplied with water.” The indoor plumbing was surely a feature installed by the friars as religious houses tended to be well ahead of the curve in such amenities.

1 Bond, R. Warwick. The Complete Works of John Lyly (1906). 33. Citing Harvey's Works (ed. Grosart), ii. p. 212.

2Greg, W. W. Malone Society Collections (1913), II.i.56-7. Loseley MS., No. 1396, f. 134. Lease to Rocho Bonetti (1584-5).

3Ibid. II.i.56-7

4Ibid. II.i.57.

5Ibid. II.i.123.

6Ibid. II.i.124. Citing Sir William More to Lord Hunsdon, April 8, 1586. Loseley MSS, Letters, &c., vol. 8, f. 58.

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