Oh, Say, can't you see? Your days are numbered....

"Tell me wherein have I offended most?
Have I affected wealth or honor? Speak.
Are my chests filled up with extorted gold?"

                                                Henry VI, Part 2      (IV, vii)

Shakespeare's character Lord Say is about to be thrown to the dogs: Jack Cade's rebellion is gathering steam, and since rebellions rarely succeed without scapegoats, Say is beginning to look more goatish by the minute. In a few moments, he looks even less like himself: he and and his son-in-law have just had their heads lopped off, and the murderous legions of the rogue Jack Cade are on the march toward London.

If Lord Say did have a chest "filled up with extorted gold," it might have resembled the one pictured below at Agecroft Hall, made during Shakespeare's lifetime or very shortly thereafter (curatorial records indicate that the chest was made in Germany between 1575 - 1625).

This chest presently stands in Agecroft's front hallway, beneath a portrait of William Dauntesey painted in 1566, two years after Shakespeare's birth. Dauntesey became master of Agecroft Hall upon his marriage to Anne Langley, who had inherited the property several years earlier.

The chest, made of oak and walnut, measures 74x44x34 inches. The origins of the piece might be traced to one of several German cities, including Cologne, Nuremberg, and Augsburg. There were very strong trade relations between London and Cologne via the commercial hub of Antwerp. Curatorial research at Agecroft Hall mentions elaborate marquetry chests whose decoration originated in the Mannerist style of the German Kunstschrank. These were cabinets with many enclosed small spaces and were regarded as works of art in themselves, with utility taking only a secondary role. Agecroft Hall's chest is definitely of this type.

It should also be noted that many chests that were constructed in England and featured elaborate marquetry were actually made by German immigrants working in Norwich and in Southwark across the Thames from London. Southwark also happened to be the brothel-bestrewn locale of the Globe Theatre, built there in 1599 in an attempt by Shakespeare's troupe to get beyond the legal reach of puritanical London magistrates.

Curatorial notes include an additional bit of insight: a "famous example of this type of chest and very similar to ours (Agecroft's) is the Offley chest in St. Saviour's Cathedral in Southwark. It was given to the church by Hugh Offley, the Lord Mayor of London, in 1556. Its classical style is evinced by its ornamentation of arches, architraves and pilasters....Our chest, like the Offley, has a variety of colored wood in the marquetry and both have three drawers at the bottom." However, unlike the Offley piece, Agecroft's chest does not have a chessboard inside, held in place by vertical grooves, with a small built-in inlaid box for the chessmen. Perhaps the services grew long and tedious in the cathedral.

Did either chest have any hidden compartments for "extorted gold?" Well, we're not telling.