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| John Manningham | |
|---|---|
| Name | John Manningham |
| Birth date | c. 1570 |
| Birth place | London |
| Death date | 1622 |
| Occupation | Lawyer, diarist |
| Notable works | Diary of John Manningham |
John Manningham was an English lawyer and diarist active in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. He is best known for a detailed personal diary that offers contemporaneous observations of figures and events in Elizabethan and early Jacobean England. Manningham's accounts provide historians and literary scholars with valuable first-hand information on court life, theatrical performances, and personalities such as William Shakespeare, Ben Jonson, and Sir Edward Coke.
Manningham was born in or near London around 1570 and matriculated at Queen's College, Oxford but did not take a degree, a path shared by contemporaries such as Ben Jonson and Francis Bacon. He entered Lincoln's Inn in the 1590s, joining the same society affiliated with figures like Sir Edward Coke and Sir Thomas More's later associates. His education at Oxford and legal training at Lincoln's Inn placed him within networks that included members of the Inner Temple and Middle Temple, institutions central to the legal and political culture of Elizabeth I's reign.
Manningham practised as a lawyer and served as a barrister or legal attendant at London's Inns of Court, interacting with prominent jurists such as Sir Edward Coke and contemporaries like Sir John Popham. His work brought him into proximity with the Court of King's Bench and the Court of Common Pleas through cases and Inns' business. Manningham's legal duties and social position linked him to patrons and clients among members of Parliament and gentry families who frequented the Inns of Court, overlapping with actors, playwrights, and courtiers who sought legal counsel or social introductions.
Manningham kept a diary between 1602 and 1603 that survives as a manuscript noted for detailed entries on personalities and events. The diary includes eyewitness accounts of performances of plays by William Shakespeare—notably a viewing of a play often identified with Twelfth Night—and anecdotes about Ben Jonson, Richard Burbage, and other theatrical figures such as Will Kemp. Manningham recorded legal and political observations involving Sir Edward Coke, Lord Chief Justice Popham, and mentions of King James I's accession events. He noted episodes connected to the Gunpowder Plot atmosphere in the early 17th century and social happenings at Whitehall and the Inns of Court.
The manuscript also contains gossip and judgments about poets and courtiers including Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, Sir Walter Raleigh, and Henry Wriothesley, 3rd Earl of Southampton, providing scholars of Elizabethan and Jacobean culture with contemporary impressions comparable to accounts by John Aubrey and Sir Simonds D'Ewes. Manningham's style mixes anecdote, legal note, and theatrical criticism, creating a composite source for the study of Renaissance drama, legal culture, and courtly life.
Though not a dramatist, Manningham's diary offers crucial evidence for the reception and staging of plays by leading dramatists such as William Shakespeare, Ben Jonson, Christopher Marlowe (whose reputation persisted posthumously), and lesser-known playwrights like Thomas Dekker and John Marston. His mention of a specific performance associated with Twelfth Night helps date the play's circulation and complements documentation from impresarios such as Philip Henslowe and acting companies like the Lord Chamberlain's Men and the King's Men. Manningham's observations on actors including Richard Burbage and theatrical entrepreneurs like James Burbage enrich reconstructions of Elizabethan stagecraft and audience response at venues such as The Globe and The Curtain.
The diary also contributes to literary biography through remarks on poets and patrons—Edmund Spenser's circle, the patronage ties of Henry Wriothesley, and networks around Ben Jonson—illuminating how legal institutions intersected with literary production. Manningham's entries serve as a primary source for editors and historians compiling chronologies and authorial contexts for major works of Renaissance literature.
Manningham lived primarily in London and remained associated with Lincoln's Inn through his adult life, embedded in a milieu that included lawyers, courtiers, and men of letters. He did not achieve the high judicial office of some contemporaries but maintained social links with influential patrons and colleagues. Manningham died in 1622; his manuscript diary passed into collections examined by later antiquarians such as Anthony Wood and editors involved in early modern manuscript preservation. The diary's survival and subsequent publication ensured Manningham a modest but enduring legacy among scholars of Elizabethan and Jacobean England.
Category:16th-century English people Category:17th-century English diarists Category:English lawyers