Nobles, Playwrights and Arcadia: A talk by Chris Peters on The World of William Herbert,

Event information

Nobles, Playwrights and Arcadia: The World of William Herbert, 3rd Earl of Pembroke.
William Herbert, whose splendid bronze statue stands in the Old Schools Quad in the Bodleian Library, is seen by many commentators as the mysterious ‘Mr WH’ to whom William Shakespeare dedicated his Sonnets, and thus the ‘Fair Youth’ to whom the first 126 are addressed.


But who was William Herbert? A man Clarendon would later describe as ‘being the most universally loved and esteemed of any man of that age.’ And why might he have been the object of Shakespeare’s infatuation and artistic genius? And why is he, his family and their estate at Wilton Hall, so central to our understanding of the changing and contested world of Jacobean England?

This introductory talk by Chris Peters, interspersed with readings from the Sonnets and Herbert’s own works will attempt to illuminate some of these questions.

Talk begins in the Wadham room of the Kings arms

tickets are available on the door