Sir George Buck (died 1622) was an antiquarian who served as Master of the Revels to King James I of England. Sir George was a descendant of Sir John Buck, an adherent of Richard III who had been executed following the Battle of Bosworth Field. It was Buck who discovered the copy of the act of parliament, Titulus Regius, which brought King Richard III of England to the throne. He found it in the Croyland Chronicle, one of the sources for his History of King Richard III, published in 1619. Buck also claimed to have seen a letter written by Elizabeth of York to John Howard, Duke of Norfolk, shortly before the death of Queen Anne Neville, in which Elizabeth declared her love for King Richard and her hope of becoming his wife.
In Buck's words, the letter asks Norfolk "to be a mediator for her to the King, in behalf of the marriage propounded between them", who, as she wrote, was her "onely joy and maker in this world", and that she was his in heart and thought: "withall insinuating that the better part of February was past, and that she feared the Queen would never die." The letter, if it ever existed, is now lost. Buck fell from favour, was overwhelmed by debt, and died insane.
The inscriptions clearly reveal that GeorgeBuc, who would serve as Master of the Revels from 1610 to 1622, knew Shakespeare personally and considered him a reliable informant on the authorship of George a Greene, which we know from other evidence was performed on five occasions in December 1593 and January 1594.
Buc's library is known to have been dispersed after his death.
Buc made a particular point of identifying the authors of anonymous works, including plays, and of "improving" their titles.
One of the most revealing images we have of Shakespeare in the course of his day-to-day professional affairs derives from a chance encounter with GeorgeBuc, a government servant and author who sought out Shakespeare's advice about the authorship of an anonymous play he had recently purchased.
Like everyone in the theatre community, Shakespeare knew that Buc was next in line for the position of Master of the Revels, so we can assume he would have done his best to help him.
Buc, who was one of the first serious collectors of Elizabethan drama, had purchased a copy of George a Greene, the Pinner of Wakefield, by an unknown author.
Feeds |
Contact