John Manningham (1570s – 1622) was an English lawyer and diarist, a contemporary source for Elizabethan era and Jacobean era life and the London dramatic world, including

William Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...

Life

He was son of Robert Manningham of

Fen Drayton Fen Drayton is a small village between Cambridge and St. Ives in Cambridgeshire, England, and between the villages of Fenstanton and Swavesey. The village has a primary school, village hall, tennis courts and football fields, where Drayton Lio ...

Cambridgeshire Cambridgeshire (abbreviated Cambs.) is a Counties of England, county in the East of England, bordering Lincolnshire to the north, Norfolk to the north-east, Suffolk to the east, Essex and Hertfordshire to the south, and Bedfordshire and North ...

, by his wife Joan, daughter of John Fisher of

Bledlow Bledlow is a village in the civil parish of Bledlow-cum-Saunderton in Buckinghamshire, England. It is about WSW of Princes Risborough, and is on the county boundary with Oxfordshire. The toponym "Bledlow" is derived from Old English and mean ...

Buckinghamshire Buckinghamshire (), abbreviated Bucks, is a ceremonial county in South East England that borders Greater London to the south-east, Berkshire to the south, Oxfordshire to the west, Northamptonshire to the north, Bedfordshire to the north-ea ...

. He matriculated at

Magdalene College, Cambridge Magdalene College ( ) is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college was founded in 1428 as a Benedictine hostel, in time coming to be known as Buckingham College, before being refounded in 1542 as the College of St Mary ...

around 1592, and graduated B.A. in 1596. On 16 March 1598 he entered as a student in the

Middle Temple The Honourable Society of the Middle Temple, commonly known simply as Middle Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court exclusively entitled to call their members to the English Bar as barristers, the others being the Inner Temple, Gray's Inn an ...

, and on 7 June 1605 he was called to the degree of an utter barrister. A fellow-student, Edward, son of William Curll and brother of

Walter Curll Walter Curle (or Curll; 1575 – 1647) was an English bishop, a close supporter of William Laud. Born in Hatfield, Hertfordshire, he was educated at St Albans School and at Christ's College, Cambridge (matriculated c. 1592), transferring ...

, obtained for him the post of auditor of the court of wards. He was also befriended by a distant relative, Richard Manningham, who, born at

St Albans St Albans () is a cathedral city in Hertfordshire, England, east of Hemel Hempstead and west of Hatfield, Hertfordshire, Hatfield, north-west of London, south-west of Welwyn Garden City and south-east of Luton. St Albans was the first major ...

in 1539, made a fortune in London as a mercer, and in his old age retired to Bradbourne, near Maidstone. Richard Manningham died on 25 April 1611, and was buried in East Malling Church, where John Manningham erected a monument to his memory. To John, his sole executor, Richard left his house and lands in

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

Diary

Manningham wrote a diary, preserved among the

Harleian Manuscripts The Harleian Library, Harley Collection, Harleian Collection and other variants ( la, Bibliotheca Harleiana) is one of the main "closed" collections (namely, historic collections to which new material is no longer added) of the British Library in ...

in the

British Library The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom and is one of the largest libraries in the world. It is estimated to contain between 170 and 200 million items from many countries. As a legal deposit library, the British ...

, and first printed by the

Camden Society The Camden Society was a text publication society founded in London in 1838 to publish early historical and literary materials, both unpublished manuscripts and new editions of rare printed books. It was named after the 16th-century antiquary an ...

in 1868, under the editorship of John Bruce. It covers the period from January 1602 to April 1603; at the time the writer was a student in the Middle Temple. The work is a medley of anecdotes of London life, political rumours, accounts of sermons, and memoranda of journeys. The gossip respecting Queen Elizabeth's illness and death and the accession of James I is set down in detail, and Manningham often supplies comments on the character of the chief lawyers and preachers of the day. He also gives an account of the performance of Shakespeare's ''

Twelfth Night ''Twelfth Night'', or ''What You Will'' is a romantic comedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written around 1601–1602 as a Twelfth Night's entertainment for the close of the Christmas season. The play centres on the twins Vio ...

'' on 2 February 1602 in the Middle Temple Hall, and the

Harefield Entertainment The Harefield Entertainment included hospitality and performances for Elizabeth I of England in August 1602. Several copies of the performance script survive, along with original manuscript accounts of the Queen's host which seems to have been manip ...

of August of that year.

John Payne Collier John Payne Collier (11 January 1789, London – 17 September 1883, Maidenhead) was an English Shakespearean critic and forger. Reporter and solicitor His father, John Dyer Collier (1762–1825), was a successful journalist, and his connection wi ...

first called attention to Manningham's work.J. Payne Collier, ''Annals of the Stage'' (1831), i. 320. The anecdote of Shakespeare's triumph over Richard Burbage in the pursuit of the favors of a lady of doubtful virtue ("William the Conqueror was before Richard III") comes from his entry for 13 March 1602.

Sir Thomas Bodley Sir Thomas Bodley (2 March 1545 – 28 January 1613) was an English diplomat and scholar who founded the Bodleian Library in Oxford. Origins Thomas Bodley was born on 2 March 1545, in the second-to-last year of the reign of King Henry VIII, ...

John Stow John Stow (''also'' Stowe; 1524/25 – 5 April 1605) was an English historian and antiquarian. He wrote a series of chronicles of English history, published from 1565 onwards under such titles as ''The Summarie of Englyshe Chronicles'', ''The C ...

, Sir Thomas Overbury and Barbara Ruthven are also occasionally mentioned.

Family

Manningham married, about 1607, Ann, sister of his friend Curll. They had three sons and three daughters. Walter Curll, by his will of 15 March 1646–7, left legacies to his sister Ann Manningham and her son and his godson Walter.

Notes

;Attribution *

External links

* *
The festival of Twelfth Night in John Manningham's diary
British Library website {{DEFAULTSORT:Manningham, John English diarists English lawyers Year of birth missing 1622 deaths People of the Elizabethan era Alumni of Magdalene College, Cambridge People associated with Shakespeare 16th-century English writers 16th-century male writers 17th-century English writers 17th-century English male writers Harleian Collection 17th-century English lawyers 16th-century English lawyers People from South Cambridgeshire District