SOURCE: Martin, Randall. “Rehabilitating John Somerville in 3 Henry VI.” Shakespeare Quarterly 51, no. 3 (autumn 2000): 332-40.

In the following essay, Martin proposes that the brief entrance of John Somerville in Henry VI, Part 3, reveals familial connections between Shakespeare and the Somerville family. Martin suggests that this connection may also indicate that Shakespeare had Catholic sympathies in spite of his Protestant Queen.

Speculation about Shakespeare's Catholicism has always been bound up with questions of his plays' references to traditional doctrine, their portrayal of clergy and religious offices, and topical allusions to polemical works. While the plays certainly dramatize Catholic customs and beliefs, their presence sheds only circumstantial light on Shakespeare's personal views and must be weighed against a great deal of evidence of anti-Catholic sentiment. The use of confessional sources might reveal more, but few have been identified, the main one being Samuel Harsnet's Declaration of Egregious Popish Impostures (1603), echoed in...