The Oxford Companion to Shakespeare

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Camden, William

Camden, William (1551–1623),
antiquarian, historian, and teacher. Born in London, Camden was a distinguished compiler of British history and a gifted headmaster of Westminster School who won his pupil Ben Jonson's unreserved praise. Having written Britannia (1586), he drew partly on that work for Remains of a Greater Work Concerning Britain (1605), in which he glances at modern poets. In a list of nine ‘pregnant wits’, Camden merely cites Shakespeare's name, but on more congenial antiquarian ground, he explores the name's antecedents and variants: ‘Strong-shield’ or ‘Breake-speare, Shake-Speare, Shotbolt, Wagstaffe’.

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