Strange: portrait of Shakespeare’s early patron rediscovered

 

 

 

Darnley Fine Art has announced the recent acquisition of a lost portrait of Ferdinando Stanley, 5th Earl of Derby (1559–94), also known as Lord Strange. Ferdinando was a crucial figure during the Elizabethan era as both a member of Parliament and the patron of celebrated writers including Christopher Marlowe, Edmund Spenser, and, in all probability, William Shakespeare. It is believed that Shakespeare was employed as one of Lord Strange’s Men, a group of actors, acrobats and tumblers who showcased their talents at The Theatre in Shoreditch, England’s first ever permanent theatre, and from 1592 at the Rose Theatre at Bankside. On 3 March that year, the diary of the proprietor of the Rose, Philip Henslowe, recorded a performance by Lord Strange’s Men of (Shakespeare’s) Henry VI.

Following the death of his father in 1593, Ferdinando succeeded as the Earl of Derby whereupon his troupe was for a brief period renamed Derby’s Men, although the term is more usually associated with the players patronised by his brother, William, the 6th Earl.

Ferdinando had a claim to the English throne, as he was a descendant of Henry VII and had a place in the line of succession to Elizabeth I according to the will of Henry VIII. Any aspirations were cut short by his untimely death under suspicious circumstances. As so often, poisoning was suspected, amid fears that there was growing Roman Catholic support for Derby’s right to the throne – although it was not certain to contemporaries, including the Jesuit agent Robert Parsons, that he was a convinced Catholic.

The newly rediscovered portrait will be on show and on sale at Darnley Fine Art, 8 Cecil Court London WC2N 4HE

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