Editing John Speed (section)

== Interpretations ==
=== John Speed and William Shakespeare ===
[[William Shakespeare]] had near connections with [[St Giles, Cripplegate]] parish, of which John Speed was a parishioner. In his account of the reign of King [[Henry V of England|Henry V]], John Speed mentions that the character of Sir [[John Oldcastle]], a [[Lollard]] martyr in Henry V's time, was falsely represented in the theatres as a stock buffoon and rogue. He wrote,
{{blockquote|The author 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.<ref>J. Speed, ''The History of Great Britain Under the Conquests of the Romans'', etc., 2nd edition (1623), [https://books.google.com/books?id=nsw-AAAAcAAJ&pg=PA804 p. 804] (Google).</ref>}}
The author of ''The Three Conversions'' was the [[Jesuit]] [[Robert Persons]], and the references to the Lollard martyr Oldcastle are in the third part of the work.<ref>(Robert Persons), ''The Third Part of A Treatise Intituled: of Three Conversions of England, conteyninge. an examen of the Calendar or Catalogue of Protestant Saints... [etc]. By N. D.'' (Imprinted with licence, Anno Dni 1604) pp. 196-99 and pp. 244-55.</ref> Speed is saying that Persons the Catholic author had infamously falsified the historical character of Oldcastle the Lollard martyr by representing him as the cowardly rebel portrayed in the late Elizabethan stage plays. Thomas Fuller, in his ''Church-History of Britain'' (1655), evidently echoes Speed where he remarks:
{{blockquote|''Stage-poets'' have themselves been very ''bold'' with, and others very ''merry'' at, the memory of ''Sr John Oldcastle'', whom they have fancied a ''boon'' Companion, a ''jovial Royster'', and yet a Coward to boot, contrary to the credit of all Chronicles, owning him a ''Martial man'' of merit. The best is, ''Sr John Falstaffe'', hath relieved the Memory of ''Sr John Oldcastle'', and of late is substituted ''Buffoone'' in his place, but it matters as little what ''petulant Poets'', as what ''malicious Papists'', have written against him."<ref>T. Fuller, ''The Church-history of Britain from the Birth of Jesus Christ until the Year M.DC.XLVIII'' (Iohn Williams, London 1655), [https://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/eebo/A40655.0001.001/1:40.1.2.1?rgn=div4;view=fulltext Book IV, Section II, Chapter 40, p. 168] (Umich/eebo).</ref>}}

While Shakespeare's character of Sir [[John Falstaff]] is evidently based on the [[John Oldcastle#Literary portrayals|stage-Oldcastle]] model, under a different name, the inference drawn by some editors (since [[Nicholas Rowe (writer)|Nicholas Rowe]]) that Speed was referring specifically to Shakespeare,<ref>P. Corbin and D. Sedge (eds), ''The Oldcastle Controversy: "Sir John Oldcastle, Part 1" and "The Famous Victories of Henry V"'', The Revels Plays Companion Library (Manchester University Press, 1991).</ref> or (if he was), that he intended to associate Shakespeare directly with Robert Persons and his Catholic sympathies,<ref>H.J. Heller, ''Penitent Brothellers: Grace, Sexuality, and Genre in Thomas Middleton's City Comedies'' (Newark: University of Delaware Press, 2000) p. 181.</ref> has long been debated.<ref name=Shakespeare>J.-C. Mayer "This Papist and his Poet': Shakespeare's Lancastrian kings and Robert Parsons's ''Conference about the next Succession''" in R. Dutton, A. G. Findlay and R. Wilson (eds), ''Theatre and Religion: Lancastrian Shakespeare'' (Oxford, UK: Manchester University Press, 2003), pp. 116-29, at pp. 116, 127, 128, 236.</ref><ref>V.B. Richmond ''Shakespeare, Catholicism, and Romance'' (New York: Bloomsbury Publishing 2015), p. 13.</ref><ref>G. Holderness ''The Faith of William Shakespeare'' (UK: British Library, 2016) p. 47.</ref><ref>H. Bloom, ''William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet'' (New York: Infobase Publishing, 2009), p. 75.</ref> Possibly, Speed was referring to the author of a different play in which the Oldcastle figure appeared by name. A summary of the argument was presented by [[Edmond Malone]]'s editors.<ref>E. Malone (ed.), ''The Plays and Poems of William Shakspeare: with the Corrections and Illustrations of Various Commentators'' (F.C. and J. Rivington, etc., London 1820), XVI, Note to Henry IV Part 1, p. 193 and note 3 and pp. 410-19, note.</ref>

John Speed's maps and associated commentaries are sometimes employed for the interpretation of William Shakespeare's plays.<ref>C.A. Matza Jr. (ed.), [https://books.google.com/books?id=UQFFL3nP9OwC ''Boudica: Historical Commentaries, Poetry, and Plays''] (USA: XLibris, 2010), pp. 83–90.</ref><ref>M. Cordner, P. Holland, and J. Kerrigan (eds), [https://books.google.com/books?id=_Zyo3yuLoc0C ''English Comedy''] (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2006 reprint), pp. 85, 98.</ref> Speed's historiography employs "theatrical metaphors" and makes use of medieval mythical content.<ref>I. Djordjevic, [https://books.google.com/books?id=eKO1CwAAQBAJ ''King John (Mis)Remembered: The Dunmow Chronicle, the Lord Admiral's Men, and the Formation of Cultural Memory''] (New York: Routledge, 2016), pp. 43, 61, 86, 117, 122.</ref>

=== Appreciation ===
In later years, [[Robert Sheringham]] (who recited Speed's text to his map of the Isle of Wight) referred to him as "summus et eruditus Antiquarius" (''a foremost and erudite antiquary''),<ref>R. Sheringham, ''De Anglorum Gentis Origine Disceptatio'' (Edward Story, Cambridge 1670) pp. 42-43.</ref> and he was called "our English [[Gerardus Mercator|Mercator]]";<ref>T. Park, "Edward, Lord Montague", ''A Catalogue of the Royal and Noble Authors of England, Scotland, and Ireland'', vol. 3 (London: John Scott, 1806) pp. 265-66</ref> "a person of extraordinary industry and attainments in the study of antiquities" (by [[William Nicolson]]);<ref>W. Nicolson, ''The English Historical Library'' (Abel Swall and T. Child, London 1696) p. 13.</ref><ref>''A new and general biographical dictionary'' vol. 10 (London: Printed for multiple individuals, 1762), pp. 454–455.</ref> an "honest and impartial historian... who was furnished with the best materials from some of the most considerable persons in this kingdom" (by [[Stephen Hyde Cassan]]),<ref>S. H. Cassan, ''The Lives of the Bishops of Winchester from Birinus'', vol. 1 (London, C. and J. Rivington, 1827) p. 513.</ref> a "faithful Chronologer" (in a text of 1656),<ref>T.B. Howell ''A Complete Collection of State Trials and Proceedings for High Treason and Other Misdemeanors'' vol. 5 (London: T. C. Hansard, 1816), 827.</ref> and "our Cheshire historian...a scholar...a distinguished writer on history" (by [[Charles Hulbert]]).<ref name=Hulbert>C. Hulbert, "The Memoir of John Speed", ''Cheshire Antiquities, Roman, Baronial and Monastic'' (C. Hulbert, Shrewsbury and Providence Grove/H. Washbourne, London 1838), [https://books.google.com/books?id=o8UHAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA62 pp. 62–65].</ref> [[Richard Newcourt (historian)|Richard Newcourt]] called him a "celebrated chronologer and historiographer";<ref>J. Entick, [https://archive.org/details/anewandaccurate04entigoog ''A new and accurate history and survey of London, Westminster, Southwark, and Places Adjacent''] (London: Edward and Charles Dilly, 1766), 139.</ref> [[James Granger]] observed, "his History of Great Britain was in its kind incomparably more complete than all the histories of his predecessors put together."<ref>J. Granger, ''A Biographical History of England from Egbert the Great to the Revolution'', 3rd Edition, with additions and improvements (J. Rivington and Sons, etc., London 1779), vol. 2, p. 320.</ref>

"And thus" (says Thomas Fuller), "we take our leaves of Father Speed, truly answering his name, in both the acceptions thereof, for ''celerity'' and ''success''."<ref name=Fuller />