William Strachey
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William Strachey (1572-1621) was an English writer and barrister, whose writings are among the primary sources for the history the English colonization of North America, and as one of the few narratives describing Powhatan society.
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[edit] Early life
Strachey was born in 1572 in Surrey, England. He attended Emmanuel College at Cambridge University. He later studied at Gray's Inn.
[edit] Shipwreck of the Sea Venture
In 1609 Strachey joined the Virginia Company of London, a joint-stock company, to colonize Virginia. He was aboard the flagship Sea Venture with the leaders of the expedition when the ship was blown off course by a hurricane. Leaking, and with its foundering imminent, the ship was run aground on the island of Bermuda, accidently beginning England's colonisation of that Atlantic archipelago.
He is especially remembered for the record of this shipwreck, which he composed in his capacity as the secretary of the expedition. Textual similarities between the text and William Shakespeare's The Tempest have led some scholars to conclude that Shakespeare read Strachey's work and was influenced by it in his description of the shipwreck and island in the play - indeed, Strachey was a friend of the Earl of Southampton (Shakespeare's patron) and it is entirely possible that Strachey and Shakespeare made contact in this manner.[citation needed]
A partial excerpt of Strachey's description:
- And the ship in every joint almost, having spewed out her oakum, before we were aware was grown five foot suddenly deep with water above her ballast, and we almost drowned within, whiles we sat looking when to perish from above. This imparting no less terror than danger, ran through the whole ship with much fright and amazement, startled and turned the blood, and took down the braves of the most hardy Mariner of them all, insomuch as he that before happily felt not the sorrow of others, now began to sorrow for himself, when he saw such a pond of water so suddenly broken in and which he knew could not (without present avoiding) but instantly sink him.[1]
[edit] Strachey and Shakespeare
Strachey's account of the grounding of the Sea Venture in his manuscript A True Reportory of the Wracke has, according to new Historicist criticism, been cited as the basis for some of Shakespeare's The Tempest. Having been a friend of the Earl of Southampton, Shakespeare would have most certainly have had access to Strachey's manuscript and the comparison of texts has revealed great similarities in the accounts of the shipwreck.[citation needed]
Thematically, it has been suggested that the characters in The Tempest experience a renevatio toward the end of the play that can be construed as a containment of the previous disorder that is greatly similar to the circumstance of the Sea Venture as it experienced its own rebirth by reaching the colony at Jamestown, Virginia.[citation needed]
[edit] Writings
Strachey's writings are among the few first-hand descriptions of Virginia in the period. His list of words of the Powhatan are one of only two records of the language (the other being Captain John Smith's.)
[edit] Archeological Record
In 1997, Strachey's signet ring was discovered in the ruins of Jamestown -- it was identifiable by the family seal, an eagle.
