THE ENGLAND OF 
 SHAKESPEARE 
 
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(Darnell Mniuerattg SItbrary 
 
 Stfyara, 3Jrm $ork 
 
 FROM THE 
 
 BENNO LOEWY LIBRARY 
 
 COLLECTED BY 
 
 BENNO LOEWY 
 
 1854-1919 
 BEQUEATHED TO CORNELL UNIVERSITY 
 
Cornell University Library 
 PR 2910.D61 1917a 
 
 The England of Shakespeare. With twelve i 
 
 3 1924 013 150 937 
 
Cornell University 
 Library 
 
 The original of this book is in 
 the Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924013150937 
 
THE ENGLAND OF SHAKESPEARE 
 
BY THE SAME AUTHOR 
 
 ENGLISH VILLAGES 
 THE PARISH CLERK 
 THE OLD-TIME PARSON 
 THE OLD ENGLISH COUNTRY SQUIRE 
 THE STORY OF OUR ENGLISH TOWNS 
 THE MANOR HOUSES OF ENGLAND 
 THE CHARM OF AN ENGLISH VILLAGE 
 THE COTTAGES AND VILLAGE LIFE OF 
 
 RURAL ENGLAND 
 OLD ENGLISH CUSTOMS 
 SYMBOLISM OF THE SAINTS 
 THE COUNTIES OF ENGLAND 
 THE PARSON'S PLEASANCE 
 OUT OF THE IVORY PALACES 
 VANISHING ENGLAND 
 THE CHURCH IN THE NETHERLANDS 
 THE VILLAGE CHURCH 
 THE CATHEDRALS OF GREAT BRITAIN 
 HANDBOOK OF GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE 
 BOOKS FATAL TO THEIR AUTHORS 
 LONDON SURVIVALS 
 MEMORIALS OF OLD LONDON 
 THE CITY COMPANIES OF LONDON 
 
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE 
 The Chandos Portrait, attributed to Richard Rnrbage or John T«vt 
 
 , in the Xationat Portrait Gallery 
 
THE ENGLAND OF 
 SHAKESPEARE 
 
 BY 
 
 P. H. DITGHFIELD 
 
 M.A., F.S.A.f F.R.S.L., F.KHist.S. 
 
 RECTOR OF BARKHA5I 
 
 WITH TWELVE ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 E. P. DUTTON & COMPANY 
 
 PUBLISHERS 
 
\tJ366/ 
 
 First Published in 1917 
 
TO 
 
 LANCELOT RIDLEY PHELPS 
 
 PROVOST OF ORIEL COLLEGE 
 OXFORD 
 
 AND TO ALL OLD ORIEL FRIENDS 
 
 WHO STILL HAVE ME 
 
 IN REMEMBRANCE 
 
 WITH KINDLY GREETINGS 
 
 I DEDICATE 
 
 THIS BOOK 
 
viii THE ENGLAND OF SHAKESPEARE 
 
 to save its life. He revelled in the happy life of 
 a glorious day, clouded over as it often was by 
 human passion and darkened by many a crime, and 
 had a hope for every one and a smile for all. 
 
 The Elizabethan stage had no scenery, but if we 
 would understand Shakespeare we must place him 
 on his stage with proper fittings around him : now 
 a courtly palace with a Tudor Queen who ably 
 ruled her land and won her subjects' hearts ; now 
 we hear the disputings of rival religious factions. 
 We enter busy London with him and contrast it 
 with our own ; we walk with him in the streets of 
 Stratford, along the country roads, meet strange 
 travellers and rogues and vagabonds, and watch 
 the maidens dance around the May- Pole with their 
 blithe companions. We go with him to Oxford and 
 learn how men were taught in his day, and see him 
 with his friends at the " Mermaid," or at Southwark 
 and Paris Gardens, in the Playhouse and watch the 
 beaux on their stools on the stage and the ground- 
 lings in the pit. Thus we get to know the man 
 better, to understand him better. 
 
 I have tried to paint these Elizabethan and 
 Jacobean scenes and the task has not been easy. 
 There is no lack of material. Many have written 
 about the period, but Shakespeare plays only a 
 small part in such chronicles. I have tried to enlist 
 the help of the poet himself who bears witness to 
 the events and circumstances of his times. It would 
 be difficult to name all the books I have consulted, 
 
PREFACE ix 
 
 and perhaps it is not necessary to make a complete 
 bibliography. There are many histories of the 
 reign of Queen Elizabeth, from Camden's Annals to 
 Bishop Creighton's History. William Harrison's 
 A Description of England, (1577) has been of con- 
 stant service, together with the notes published in 
 the edition issued by the New Shakespearean Society 
 in 1877, and Philip Stubbes's The Anatomic of 
 Abuses, issued by the same Society; Hentzner's 
 description of England (the copy used by me is in 
 the possession of the Society of Antiquaries, and 
 was issued by Horace Walpole at his Strawberry Hill 
 Press), the works of Spenser, Ben Jonson, John 
 Stow, Strutt's Sports and Pastimes, Joseph Hall's 
 Satires, Busino, the Venetian Ambassador's account 
 of his visit to England, Goadby's England of 
 Shakespeare, Social England, and many other 
 volumes. I desire to express my thanks to my old 
 friend, Sir Theodore Andrea Cook, Editor of the 
 Field, for kindly sending me some extracts from 
 works of authors contemporary with the poet, 
 which illustrate some of the characters of the 
 period. An important and valuable work published 
 by the Oxford University Press in two large volumes 
 by a group of Oxford scholars and experts, about 
 three dozen in number, entitled Shakespeare's 
 England, appeared when the manuscript of this 
 volume was nearly finished. I might bewail my 
 fate in having so formidable a rival and competitor 
 in the field before me. But if it stimulates a study 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 * William Shakespeare . . . Frontispiece 
 
 The Cbandos Portrait, attributed to Richard Burbage or John Taylor 
 in the National Portrait Gallery. 
 
 FACING PACK 
 
 St. Paul's Cathedral, and Preaching at Paul's Cross 48 
 
 From a picture in the possession of the Society of A miquaries, London. 
 
 Queen Elizabeth and her Court visiting Black- 
 friars, June 16, 1600 . . . .66 
 
 From the painting of Marcus Gheerarts in the possession of the Earl 
 of Ilchester at Melbury. (Photo, Augustin Rischgitz.) 
 
 The Royal Exchange, London . . . 104 
 
 From an engraving by Hollar. 
 
 Stratford Church . . . .116 
 
 From a drawing by E. H- New. 
 
 The Shakespeare Monument . . .122 
 
 From a drawing by E. H. New. 
 
 Ann Hathaway's Cottage . . . 134 
 
 From a drawing by E. H. New. 
 
 The Hall, Audley End . . . .172 
 
 From an engraving in Nash's Mansions of England. 
 
 An Elizabethan Galleon .... 184 
 
 From an old engraving. 
 
 *View of a Stage taken from Kirkman's Drolls 
 
 (1672-3) . . . . . .244 
 
 Showing much the same arrangements as those of the Elizabethan 
 Drama. 
 
 *A Hunting Scene .... 252 
 
 Fr«m The Noble Arte of Venekia by Tu'beville. 
 
 *Somb Costumes of the Poet's Period . . 276 
 
 Thanks are due to the Editor of the Field for permission to use the 
 blocks marked* 
 
 xiii 
 
THE ENGLAND OF SHAKESPEARE 
 
THE ENGLAND OF 
 SHAKESPEARE 
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 IT is fitting that in the year of grace one thou- 
 sand nine hundred and sixteen, three hundred 
 after the soul of England's greatest national 
 poet passed away from earth, his countrymen 
 should again crown him with their wreaths of 
 laurel and unite in honouring his memory. But for 
 the din of war and the world-wide clash of arms a 
 greater and grander commemoration would have 
 been possible. Foreign nations would have sent 
 their tributes of praise and respectful homage to 
 the poet's greatness. In no other country, besides 
 our own, is Shakespeare more honoured than in 
 Germany. I have met socially and on the lecture 
 platform the distinguished German scholar, Pro- 
 fessor Brandl, who three years ago lectured before 
 the British Academy at Burlington House. Shake- 
 speare was his hero, his unsurpassed poet, genius, 
 dramatist and litterateur. In their affection and 
 
2 THE ENGLAND OF SHAKESPEARE 
 
 appreciation of our national poet Germany and 
 England were united by close ties which could 
 never be severed. German scholars vied with our 
 English professors in trying to solve the mysteries 
 of his surpassing genius. The two nations were 
 made akin by the influence exercised by the poet, 
 an influence that would increase as the years passed 
 on and produce peace and harmony between the 
 German nation and our own. 
 
 The prophecy has been fearfully falsified. We 
 should like to hear an expression of the Professor's 
 views at the present time. Probably he has joined 
 the pleasant company of other German writers, 
 inebriated with their arrogance, who maintain that 
 our poet has left his native shore and sought an 
 asylum and an enduring home in the Fatherland. 
 One of our greatest authorities on Shakespeare, Sir 
 Sidney Lee, has well said, " We welcome the 
 homage which Germany pays Shakespeare. We 
 treat that homage as a tribute, in whatever spirit 
 rendered, to poetic genius and power which are 
 essentially English. The German homage to Shake- 
 speare is an involuntary confession. There are 
 lessons which Shakespeare can teach that the 
 Germans have yet to learn, and we can wish nothing 
 better for them and for ourselves than that they 
 should supply the defect at an early date." 
 
 In spite of the strictuips of Victor Hugo, 1 and the 
 criticisms of George Pellissier, who contends that 
 
 1 Prefaces of Cromwell and Odes and Ballades, 1826. 
 
Missing Page 
 
4 THE ENGLAND OF SHAKESPEARE 
 
 few sea-board settlements then had a precarious 
 existence on the edge of a land of savagery and 
 forest. The wife of Robert Harvard, Katherine, 
 the mother of the future founder, lived at Stratford- 
 on-Avon in a house that is still standing. It is 
 now called " Harvard House." Though its name is 
 modern and it has been much restored, it is a fine 
 old half-timbered residence, and was built by 
 Katherine's father, Thomas Rogers, alderman of 
 Stratford in 1596. Shakespeare saw it when it 
 was newly built, and was a neighbour of the Har- 
 vards at Southwark, and doubtless often visited 
 the Rogers' family at Stratford and Robert Harvard 
 in his London home. It is not improbable that he 
 knew the seven-year-old boy, John, who was 
 destined to carry light and learning to the colony 
 beyond the seas. The share of the United States 
 of America in the fame of the poet, their national 
 bard and ours, is very real. 
 
 If the English nation were not engaged in this 
 stupendous struggle we should have welcomed 
 representatives from all these countries, and con- 
 centrated our attention upon a worthy celebration 
 of the Shakespeare Tercentenary. The present writer 
 was for some years a member of the committee 
 for promoting the national memorial of the poet. 
 A theatre was to have been built, statues erected 
 and much else accomplished in honour of the com- 
 memoration. These ambitious schemes have for 
 the moment been abandoned. But the lovers of 
 
INTRODUCTION 5 
 
 Shakespeare were well advised to refuse to pass 
 over the great event in silence ; and though shorn 
 of much of its magnificence, though State functions 
 were of necessity circumscribed, not a few men 
 and women of England have by a study of the 
 great national poet's writings been braced to 
 endure hardness, and by reflecting upon the achieve- 
 ments of the past been encouraged to face the 
 future with a high courage and a determined step. 
 
 One feature of Shakespeare's writings is his 
 intense and ardent patriotism. In the great histori- 
 cal panorama of his plays again and again he dis- 
 plays his affection for his country, and in that he 
 reflected the spirit of his age. The poet loved 
 
 " that white-faced shore 
 Whose foot spurns back the ocean's roaring tides, 
 And coops from other lands her islanders, 
 Even till that England, hedged in with the main, 
 That water-walled bulwark, still secure 
 And confident from foreign purposes." 1 
 
 Again in the same play (King John) he utters the 
 proud defiance to England's foes : 
 
 " This England never did (nor never shall) 
 Lie at the proud foot of a conqueror. 
 
 Come the three corners of the world in arms, 
 
 And we shall shock them : nought shall make us rue 
 
 If England to itself do rest but true." 2 
 
 1 King John, Act II, scene i . 
 ! Ibid. Act V, scene 7. 
 
6 THE ENGLAND OF SHAKESPEARE 
 
 Again and again he sounds the warning note, 
 " England is safe, if true within herself," a warning 
 that echoes on through all the ages of our country's 
 history, and is no less needed now than at any 
 other time of our national history. 
 
 " O England ! model of thy inward greatness, 
 Like little body with a mighty heart — 
 What mightst thou do, that honour would thee do, 
 Were all thy children kind and natural ! " * 
 
 Perhaps the passage that reveals most clearly the 
 poet's ardent patriotism is that spoken by John of 
 Gaunt on his deathbed, wherein he describes the 
 true greatness and valour of England, but mourns 
 over the degradation into which she had fallen 
 under the rule of his foolish nephew, King Richard 
 II. You will recall the words : 
 
 " This royal throne of kings, this scepter'd isle, 
 This earth of majesty, this seat of Mars, 
 This other Eden, demi-Paradise ; 
 This fortress, built by nature for herself 
 Against infection and the hand of war ; 
 This happy breed of men, this little world ; 
 This precious stone set in a silver sea, 
 Which serves it in the office of a wall, 
 Or as a moat defensive to a house, 
 Against the envy of less happier lands ; 
 This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England, 
 This nurse, this teeming womb of royal kings, 
 Fear'd by their breed, and famous by their birth, 
 Renowned for their deeds as far from home. 
 For Christian service and true chivalry, 
 As is the sepulchre in stubborn Jewry, 
 Of the world's ransom, blessed Mary's Son 
 
 1 Henry V, Act II, chorus. 
 
INTRODUCTION 7 
 
 This land of such dear souls, this dear, dear land, 
 Dear for her reputation through the world, 
 Is now leased out (I die pronouncing it) 
 Like to a tenement or pelting farm : 
 England, bound in with the triumphant sea. 
 Whose rocky shore beats back the envious siege 
 Of watery Neptune, is now bound in with shame, 
 With inky blots and rotten parchment bonds ; 
 That England that was wont to conquer others. 
 Hath made a shameful conquest of itself ; 
 O, would the scandal vanish with my life, 
 How happy then were my ensuing death." 1 
 
 Shakespeare often refers to the sea that guards 
 
 our island home. In the above passage he does and 
 
 in several others, such as when Hastings speaks in 
 
 the last act of the third part of King Henry VI : 
 
 " Let us be back'd with God and with the seas, 
 Which He hath given for fence impregnable, 
 And with their helps only defend ourselves ; 
 In them and in ourselves our safety lies." 2 
 
 Even England's enemies are made to say, 
 
 "That island of England breeds very valiant creatures," 3 
 
 referring to her breed of mastiffs of unmatchable 
 courage, with which the men sympathise and " eat 
 like wolves and fight like devils." 
 
 How well they fought at Agincourt history tells 
 and the play records, and every reader knows those 
 lines of -King Henry that he spake before the battle, 
 glowing with a gallant courage, chivalry and high 
 hope of victory. On the five hundredth anniversary 
 
 1 King Richard II, Act II, scene i. 
 * 3 Henry VI, Act IV, scene I . 
 3 Henry V, Act III, scene 7. 
 
8 THE ENGLAND OE SHAKESPEARE 
 
 of the fight, which we celebrated during the progress 
 
 of the present war, we recalled them : 
 
 " We few, we happy few, we band of brothers ; 
 For he, to-day, that sheds his blood with me, 
 Shall be my brother ; be he ne'er so vile, 
 This day shall gentle his condition : 
 And gentlemen in England, now a-bed, 
 Shall think themselves accursed they were not here ; 
 And hold their manhoods cheap, while any speaks 
 That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day." 1 
 
 Shakespeare sent forth a burning message for all 
 time of ardent patriotism and love of England. 
 Is it not a strange coincidence that the anniversary 
 of his death-day should be the Feast of St. George, 
 England's patron saint, whose name was the 
 battle-cry of our warriors on many a bloody field ? 
 It was " our ancient word of courage, fair St. 
 George," 2 that inspired " our men with the spleen 
 of fiery dragons." May we in the modern Armaged- 
 don sound forth the same encouraging cry (slightly 
 modified) : 
 
 " God and St. George, England and victory." 3 
 
 The task I have set myself to perform is to 
 examine England as it appeared in the days when 
 Shakespeare lived. In studying his life and 
 achievements it is absolutely necessary to know 
 thoroughly the conditions of his age, the social 
 forces that were at work, to visit the Court of the 
 
 1 Henry V, Act IV, scene 3. 
 
 2 Richard III, Act V, scene 3. a Ibid. 
 
INTRODUCTION 9 
 
 great Queen, make acquaintance with her crowd of 
 statesmen, courtiers, gallant leaders like Drake, 
 Gilbert, Raleigh, Grenville and the rest of the 
 brave band of heroes, who defended England's 
 shores when threatened with as formidable an array 
 of hostile vessels as ever sought to enslave our 
 English freedom. England was then alone fighting 
 for her life. To-day she has powerful allies in a 
 conflict still more fierce and gigantic ; but there is 
 a strange continuity running through history, of 
 which I shall write more at length on a later page, 
 and we have reason to hope that the same guarding 
 sea, of which the poet speaks so often, may still 
 prove a barrier to aggression and invasion. 
 
 These men of old, whose acquaintance we shall 
 renew, loved to engage in wild adventures, to cir- 
 cumnavigate the globe, to hunt the Spanish treasure 
 ships, to " singe the beard of the King of Spain," 
 founding colonies for England, laying the founda- 
 tions of England's Empire. We will walk together 
 with the poet along the streets of old London, and 
 go with him to the playhouse and to the " Mer- 
 maid " inn and meet the company of players. We 
 will tramp with him in his early days from Stratford 
 to London, " pass the time o' day " with the people 
 whom we meet upon the road. We shall try to paint 
 a picture of the England of the poet's period, the 
 scenes upon which his gentle brown eyes rested, the 
 kind of buildings and their surroundings existing 
 in his time, the stately palaces, the picturesque 
 
10 THE ENGLAND OF SHAKESPEARE 
 
 manor houses and the humble dwellings of the poor 
 that studded the country-side when he wrote his 
 immortal plays. 
 
 Every person is in some way influenced by his 
 environment, even a poet who creates. His imagina- 
 tion peoples the world with characters that exist 
 only in his fancy, it is true ; but he is dependent 
 upon what he sees and hears, upon the age in which 
 he lives and upon the tone and temper of that age. 
 If we would know the real man intimately and as 
 a friend, we must place him amidst his accustomed 
 surroundings ; and if we would understand the 
 life, work and character of Shakespeare we must 
 try to place him in his Elizabethan setting, to cast 
 our thoughts back three hundred years and more 
 and to live in his time and know the manners of his 
 age. Students of his works, Shakespearean scholars, 
 who can analyse each play and who revel in the 
 perplexing meanings of divers words and passages, 
 in his allusions and problems of language, in his 
 sources of knowledge and the origins of his plays, in 
 divers readings and such-like questions, may scorn 
 this humbler task. But it is no less important and 
 presents features of absorbing interest both for the 
 student and the general reader. The jewel gleams 
 in the sunlight, but its setting adds to its beauty 
 and is not unimportant. 
 
II 
 
 SHAKESPEARE'S ENGLAND 
 
 THERE is a natural love and fondness in 
 Englishmen for whatever was done in the 
 reign of Queen Elizabeth. We paint the 
 England of that day in vivid and perhaps too 
 glaring colours. We look back upon it as the time 
 of a 'golden age, and on the great men who lived 
 in it as our chiefest heroes and the greatest examples 
 of wisdom, courage, integrity and learning. It was 
 a time when England first began to feel her great- 
 ness, when the warm life-blood of freedom coursed 
 through her veins, and when she cast off the shackles 
 that encumbered her, and she was free. It was, 
 indeed, a wonderful age, a time when valour, 
 energy and genius reached a pitch that has never 
 been excelled. It is true that it had not a monopoly 
 of these virtues : 
 
 Vixere fortes ante A-gamemnona 
 Multi 
 
 and after him, too, they have lived and worked and 
 fought for their native land ; but the Elizabethans 
 had the advantage of the quickening of all impulses 
 warlike and intellectual, given by the opening of the 
 
 11 
 
12 THE ENGLAND OF SHAKESPEARE 
 
 New World, by the enlargement of ideas and ideals, 
 by the assurance of the expansion of the destinies 
 of the race, and of the possibilities of advancing 
 greatness and power that dawned upon the heart 
 of every patriot. 
 
 From a thinly populated country, torn and rent 
 by internal dissensions, eyed with covetous glances 
 by both France and Spain, who were like two dogs 
 waiting to seize a bone, England rose to be one of 
 the Great Powers of Western Europe, a position she 
 has never relinquished. She had passed through an 
 age of long-standing Civil War, through years of 
 reckless tyranny. She had seen her mighty lords 
 die in scores upon the scaffold. The fires of religious 
 persecution at Smithfield, Oxford, Gloucester, had 
 scarcely died down, wherein many a lowly soul and 
 beloved divine had breathed their last in direst 
 agony for the sake of the faith they venerated, for 
 the God they worshipped. And now the terror had 
 passed like a hideous dream, and England awoke to 
 find herself free, free to work out her own destinies, 
 and free to develop her powers. 
 
 Amidst all the unfolding of the scenes of the 
 new era the Queen herself holds the stage. On a 
 later page I shall endeavour to paint her portrait 
 and sketch her strange and complex character, her 
 strength, her weaknesses, her diplomacy, her mean- 
 ness, her lack of scruples, her masculine mind, her 
 frivolity, her power of winning and holding the 
 affections of her subjects, and her devoted love of 
 
SHAKESPEARE'S ENGLAND 13 
 
 England that shone forth through all the mists 
 that perplex the painter and obscure the vision 
 of the Virgin Queen. The poets sang her praises. 
 Spenser dedicated his immortal Faerie Queene to 
 the " most high, mighty and magnificent Empress, 
 renowned for piety, virtue and all gracious govern- 
 ment, Elizabeth ... to live with the eternity of 
 her fame " ; and he pours forth his melodious verse 
 to her : 
 
 " O Goddess, heavenly bright, 
 Mirror of grace and majesty divine, 
 Great Lady of the greatest Isle, whose light 
 Like Phoebus' lamp throughout the world doth shine." 
 
 The Faerie Queen was " the most excellent and 
 
 glorious person of our Sovereign the Queen and 
 
 her Kingdom is Faerie Land, and as a most 
 
 virtuous and beautiful Lady I do express her as 
 
 Belphcebe." 
 
 Twice only does Shakespeare praise his Queen, 
 
 once when he presents her under the simile of a 
 
 vestal in A Midsummer Night's Dream. 1 Oberon 
 
 says he saw 
 
 " Flying between the cold moon and the earth, 
 Cupid all arm'd a certain aim he took 
 At a fair vestal throned by the west : 
 And loosed his love-shaft smartly from his bow 
 As it should pierce a hundred thousand hearts : 
 But I might see young Cupid's fiery shaft 
 Quench'd in the chaste beams of the watery moon : 
 And the imperial vot'ress passed on. 
 In maiden meditation fancy free." 
 
 1 Act II, scene 2. 
 
14 THE ENGLAND OF SHAKESPEARE 
 
 The other allusion is in Henry VIII, when as 
 an infant she is christened, and Cranmer acts 
 the part of seer and foretells the future great- 
 ness of the child : 
 
 " This royal infant (Heaven still move about her !) 
 Though in her cradle, yet now promises 
 Upon this land a thousand thousand blessings, 
 
 , Which time shall bring to ripeness : She shall be 
 (But few now living can behold that goodness) 
 A pattern to all princes living with her, 
 And all that shall succeed : Sheba was never 
 More covetous of wisdom and fair virtue 
 Than this pure soul shall be : all princely graces, 
 That mould up such a mighty prince as this is. 
 With all the virtues that attend the good, 
 Shall still be doubled on her : truth shall mourn her ; 
 She shall be lov'd and fear'd : Her own shall bless her : 
 Her foes shake like a field of beaten corn, 
 And hang their heads with sorrow : Good grows with her : 
 In her days, every man shall eat in safety 
 Under his own vine, what he plants ; and sing 
 The merry songs of peace to all his neighbours ; 
 God shall be truly known ; and those about her 
 From her shall read the perfect ways of honour. 
 And by those claim their greatness, not by blood. 
 
 She shall be, to the happiness of England, 
 
 An aged princess ; many days shall see her, 
 
 And yet no day without a deed to crown her. 
 
 Would I had known no more ! Yet she must die, 
 
 She must, the saints must have her ; yet a virgin, 
 
 A most unspotted lily, shall she pass 
 
 To the ground, and all the world shall mourn her." 
 
 A mighty panegyric truly ! And most of the 
 poets sang in the same strain. John Davis, in his 
 
SHAKESPEARE'S ENGLAND 15 
 
 Hymns of Astrea, wrote a long acrostic poem, the 
 initial letters of each verse forming the words 
 " Elizabetha Regina," and each line contains a 
 eulogy. As to the greatness of the times in which 
 she lived there were, and are still, some who take 
 a pessimistic view. Mr. Hubert Hall, the learned 
 student of the Elizabethan State Papers, who 
 speaks with much authority, declares that " the 
 state of society was the worst that had ever before 
 been in the land." 1 Mr. Harold Bayley asserts that 
 " the current impression that the spacious times of 
 great Elizabeth were a period of high moral and 
 intellectual development is not endorsed by history 
 nor is it deductible from the evidence of men who 
 were then living," 2 and that they were entirely 
 blind to the alleged grace and intellectuality of 
 their surroundings. 
 
 Drayton was a pessimistic painter of the state of 
 England in his day. Writing to George Sandys and 
 William Jeffreys he laments over the degeneracy of 
 his country, and compares the English to " the 
 stiff-necked Jews " who did " their noble prophets 
 utterly refuse." He thought : 
 
 " This very age wherein we two now live 
 Shall in the compass wound the Muses more 
 Than all the old English ignorance before." 
 
 1 Society in the Elizabethan Age. 
 
 ' The Shakespeare Symphony, An Introduction to the Ethics 
 of the Elizabethan Drama. 
 
16 THE ENGLAND OF SHAKESPEARE 
 
 Against learning, ignorance stood 
 
 " Like some dull porter at a Palace gate ; 
 So dull and barbarous lately are we grown 
 That for man's knowledge it enough doth make 
 If he can learn to read an almanack." 
 
 He alludes to his era as 
 
 " These feverish dog-days, blest by no record 
 But to be everlastingly abhorred." 
 
 Describing the state of poetry in " our woful 
 
 England " he says 
 
 " The Muses here sit sad . . . 
 What canst thou hope or look for from his pen 
 Who lives with beasts though in the shape of men." 
 
 He inveighs against the ignorance and vice of 
 the people, and must have been reading the dia- 
 tribes of Philip Stubbes. Doubtless there was 
 plenty of both, but England had just begun to 
 renew its youth, and was guilty of the errors of 
 youth, its heedlessness, thoughtlessness and care- 
 lessness ; yet we must not forget its manly virtues, 
 its courage, its power of achievement. Drayton's 
 whining about the Muses reads like the jealous 
 moanings of a disappointed poet who had been 
 eclipsed by more powerfully inspired rivals. 
 
 Of courtiers and the Court I shall write in another 
 chapter of this book. The Queen was well served 
 by her counsellors and advisers, Burleigh, Walsing- 
 ham, Archbishop Parker and the rest, though she 
 had the spirit of the Tudors strongly developed, and 
 hesitated not to pursue her own course and be guided 
 
SHAKESPEARE'S ENGLAND 17 
 
 by her own judgment in difficult affairs of policy. 
 Of the morals and character of many members of 
 her Court, such as Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, 
 and his crew, the least said the better. Later on 
 I shall try to write something of Court Society, 
 which rendered to the Queen subservient homage. 
 Not even the greatest favourite dared to thwart 
 her will. Many strove to ingratiate themselves with 
 powerful Ministers of State in the hope of gain, a 
 grant of escheated land or tithe, a lucrative post, 
 " a dissolved monastery, or some other spoil of 
 blood or sacrilege for which they watched patiently 
 as a dog watches for the tossed bone. Their names 
 may be found in nearly every parliament of the 
 reign — with those of lawyers, monopolists and 
 usurers, the rising generations of county magnates — 
 and on nearly every local page of the State Papers." 1 
 
 The rise of a new class of squires in Elizabethan 
 times is noted by many contemporary writers, and 
 forms a special feature of the age. The old feudalism 
 was dead, and Harrison writes scornfully of these 
 " new gentlemen." Any one who studied the laws 
 of the realm, abiding in the University, giving his 
 mind to his books or professed physic and the 
 liberal sciences, or became a captain in the wars, 
 or benefited the commonwealth by good counsel 
 given at home, living without manual labour, and 
 able to bear the charges of a gentleman, could for 
 money have a coat of arms bestowed upon him by 
 
 1 Society in the Elizabethan Age, Hubert Hall, f.s.a., p. 15. 
 
18 THE ENGLAND OF SHAKESPEARE 
 
 heralds (who in their charter did of custom pretend 
 antiquity and service and many gay things and thus 
 make good profit) — any one so distinguished could 
 be called " Master," the title of esquires and gentle- 
 men, and be reputed a gentleman ever after. It is 
 all of no consequence, Harrison concludes. The 
 sovereign loses nothing. If " the gentleman " be 
 called to the wars he pays for his own outfit. His 
 title hurts no one but himself, who perhaps will go 
 in wider buskins than his legs will bear, or as the 
 proverb says, now and then bear a bigger sail than 
 his boat is able to carry. 
 
 A notable change in the manners of Englishmen 
 was that in reference to foreign travel. Hitherto 
 we had been rather a stay-at-home race. Our 
 ideas were insular and foreign countries were un- 
 known ; but now it became the fashion for noblemen 
 and gentlemen to send their sons abroad for the 
 completion of their education in spite of the stric- 
 tures of the moralists who declared that those who 
 went to Italy brought home nothing but atheism, 
 vice and pride. Ascham says that the " Court of 
 Circe " corrupted men's minds and morals. " I 
 know divers that went out of England, men of 
 innocent life, men of excellent learning, who re- 
 turned out of Italy, not only with worse manners, 
 but also with less learning." The influence of 
 " fond " books translated out of Italian into English 
 and sold in every shop in London, also " beguiled 
 simple and innocent wits," $ome of the opinions 
 
SHAKESPEARE'S ENGLAND 19 
 
 learnt in Italy were " Keep faith only when you'll 
 not lose by it " ; " Forgive only when you are fully 
 revenged " ; " He is a fool that maketh account of 
 any religion, but more fool that will lose any part 
 of his wealth, or get into trouble for leaning to any ; 
 but if he should die for his faith, he is stark mad 
 and the worse fool of all." Such were they who, 
 according to Harrison and others, had become the 
 loathed thing, an " Italianised Englishman." 
 
 However, travelling was the vogue amongst the 
 young men of the day. Sir Henry Unton, as a young 
 man, made the " grand tour," and travelled in 
 Venetian territory, carrying an umbrella, preceded 
 by a servant blowing a horn. In the National Por- 
 trait Gallery there is a series of pictures in one 
 group depicting various scenes in his career, at 
 Oxford, travelling, in the wars in the Low Country, 
 his marriage feast and his funeral. There is no 
 scene representing his stout conduct when he was 
 acting as an Ambassador to the King of France in 
 1592. In his presence the Duke of Guise ventured 
 to speak slanderously of the Queen of England. 
 Sir Henry Unton immediately took up the challenge 
 saying that whoever spake in such terms of his royal 
 mistress" shamefully and slanderously lied." Shake- 
 speare often alludes to the desire of youth : " To see 
 the wonders of the world abroad." 1 Bacon advised 
 it as a part of the proper education of a gentleman. 
 Thomas Hoby, of Bisham Abbey, Berkshire, 
 
 I J)je Two GentUrnen of Verona, Act I, scene \, 
 
20 THE ENGLAND OF SHAKESPEARE 
 
 after leaving Cambridge without taking a degree, 
 travelled abroad, in order to study foreign lan- 
 guages with a view to enter the diplomatic service. 
 He wrote an account of his Travaile and Lief, 
 recording his journeys to Germany, Venice, Padua, 
 Naples, Sicily, France, Spain and elsewhere, and 
 gives descriptions of the cities and towns he visited. 
 He copied epitaphs, described the medicinal quali- 
 ties of the waters of the Bath of Juno at Caldiero, 
 near Verona, and added notes on the political affairs 
 of the various countries. This book is an admirable 
 sixteenth-century guide-book, as well as a work 
 of considerable value. He also translated Count 
 Castiglione's book, // Cortegiano (the Courtier), and 
 this translation won an assured place amongst the 
 books of the Elizabethan period, and as its latest 
 editor states, though Thomas Hoby's knowledge 
 of the language was far from perfect, his work was 
 " the book of a great age, the age that made Shake- 
 speare possible." Many other young Englishmen 
 followed in his footsteps, and wandered further 
 afield, even to Vienna, Denmark and Poland, while 
 many travelled with tutors and acquired learning 
 by studying in the ancient Universities of France 
 and Italy. Sometimes the travelled youth escaped 
 not the sarcasm of the stay-at-homes, as they 
 " put on airs," lisped in foreign accents, and like 
 some moderns preferred every country to their own. 
 Rosalind twitted such persons in the character of 
 the melancholy Jaques, when she said ; 
 
SHAKESPEARE'S ENGLAND 21 
 
 " Farewell monsieur Traveller ; look you lisp, 
 and wear strange suits, disable all the benefits of 
 your own country, be out of love with your nativity, 
 and almost chide God for making you the counte- 
 nance you are ; or I will scarce think you have 
 swum in a gondola." 
 
 Of the state of Religion, the strife between the 
 Church against Papist and Puritan I have treated 
 in another place, and also of many other features of 
 the England that the poet knew. We shall watch 
 the builders working, rearing great houses and 
 mansions, and the smaller manor houses which are 
 the gems of our English domestic architecture. 
 All the signs of growing wealth were evident. 
 
 In the City stood the noble houses of the prosperous 
 merchants who were making great fortunes. Such an 
 one does our poet describe in the Merchant of Venice : 
 
 " Believe me, Sir, had I such venture forth, 
 The better part of my affections would 
 Be with my hopes abroad. I should be still 
 Plucking the grass to know where sits the wind ; 
 Peering in maps for ports, and piers and roads ; 
 And every object that might make me fear 
 Misfortune to my ventures, out of doubt 
 Would make me sad." 
 
 They had built up a great trade with foreign lands. 
 They exported broad cloth, cottons, friezes, rugs, 
 tin, wool, the best beer, bales, bustian, mockadoes 
 tufted and plain, lead, etc., which were sent to all 
 parts of the world, and there either exchanged for 
 other wares or for money. They were not content 
 
22 THE ENGLAND OF SHAKESPEARE 
 
 with their old European trade, but sent their vessels 
 to the East and West Indies, to the Canaries and 
 New Spain, and even to China, Muscovy, Tartary 
 and other far-off countries, bringing home cargoes 
 of curious merchandise. Some of their voyages 
 Harrison styles " suspicious," perhaps he meant 
 piratical ; perhaps he alludes to the slave trade 
 which had begun its evil course. He liked not the 
 merchants overmuch, and thought that too many 
 of them, and of lawyers, injured the country by 
 keeping up prices. When foreign ships brought 
 their wares into England sugar was only fourpence 
 a pound ; it had risen on account of these middle- 
 men to half a crown ; raisins had risen from a penny 
 to eightpence or tenpence a pound, and other com- 
 modities in a like manner. In spite of these stric- 
 tures of the honest parson the merchants brought 
 great wealth into England, and were of immense 
 service to the sovereign. There was Sir Paul Pindar, 
 the front of whose house is now in the South Ken- 
 sington Museum, the wealthiest of the City mer- 
 chants who flourished in the time of James I, lent 
 the sovereign great sums of money, and when he 
 died the Crown owed him £300,000. x 
 
 Near his house stood Crosby Hall, the home of Sir 
 John Spencer, a typical Elizabethan merchant who 
 owned Canonbury, and who had a fair and beauteous 
 daughter who was carried off in a baker's basket by 
 a young courtier, William, Lord Compton. Spencer 
 
 1 I have told his story in London Survivals, p. 206. 
 
SHAKESPEARE'S ENGLAND 23 
 
 disinherited his daughter, and the young couple 
 were left in poverty. I may tell the rest of the 
 story as it reveals the good-natured character of the 
 Queen. A child was born. Elizabeth offered to be 
 godmother and asked Sir John to be sponsor to an 
 infant in whom she was much interested. Sir John 
 felt flattered by the royal invitation, little knowing 
 whose child it was, consented willingly, and then, of 
 course, at the "christening by the intercession of the 
 Queen the dispute ended and the rebellious daughter 
 was forgiven. 
 
 The greatest of all the merchants of the period 
 was Sir Thomas Gresham, whose career has been 
 minutely inspected by Mr. Hubert Hall, who has 
 examined his account books and made them tell 
 a not always creditable story. He was the founder 
 of the Royal Exchange and the most financially 
 successful of all his compeers in an age unparalleled 
 for its money-making activity. 
 
 " The great master of exchange, the useful agent 
 of the Crown, the financial adviser of ministers, the 
 oracle of the City, the merchant prince, patron, and 
 benefactor, becomes also, in his inevitable relations 
 to the age in which he lived, an usurer, the son and 
 nephew of usurers ; a monopolist, the nominee of 
 corrupt courtiers, and the associate of thievish con- 
 tractors ; and a landlord, the son, nephew, cousin, 
 husband of a name as foul as any in the annals of 
 oppression, eviction and plunder." 1 
 
 1 Society in the Elizabethan Age, by H. Hall, f.s.a. 
 
24 THE ENGLAND OF SHAKESPEARE 
 
 That is a terrible indictment, and we are glad 
 to note the following qualification : " Yet if he 
 were of these he was not like unto them ; and 
 higher praise than this can be awarded to no dis- 
 tinguished Englishman of the latter half of the 
 16th century." 
 
 The fact is that Mr. Hall discovered some very 
 damaging defects in Sir Thomas's accounts, which 
 nearly landed him in very serious difficulties with 
 the Government. It is true that his services were 
 of immense value to the State, and he was much 
 honoured and respected by his contemporaries. For 
 the ill-doings of his wife and his relatives he was 
 not responsible. His dishonesty, discovered by 
 Mr. Hall, cannot be excused. The race for wealth 
 and luxury was characteristic of the age, and 
 Gresham, the founder of the Exchange, the great 
 benefactor of the City, was not immune from the 
 temptations that surrounded him. Nicholas Breton 
 gives a good account of a City merchant. He wrote : 
 
 " A worthy merchant is the heir of adventure, 
 whose hopes hang much upon the wind. Upon a 
 wooden horse he rides through the world, and in a 
 merry gale he makes a path through the seas. He is 
 a discoverer of countries and a finder out of commodi- 
 ties, resolute in his attempts and royal in his expenses. 
 He is the life of traffic and the maintainer of trade, 
 the sailor's master and the soldier's friend. He is 
 the exercise of the Exchange, the honour of credit, 
 the observation of time and the understanding of 
 
SHAKESPEARE'S ENGLAND 25 
 
 thrift. His study is number, his care is his accounts, 
 his comfort his conscience, and his wealth his good 
 name. He fears not Scylla and sails close by 
 Charybdis, and having beaten out a storm, rides at 
 rest in a harbour. By his sea gain he finds his land 
 purchase, and by the knowledge of trade finds the 
 key of treasure. ... He plants the earth with 
 foreign fruits, and knows at home what is good 
 abroad. He is neat in apparel, modest in demeanour, 
 dainty in diet and civil in his carriage. In sum he 
 is the pillar of a city, the enricher of a country, the 
 furnisher of a court and the worthy servant of a 
 King." 1 
 
 The rise of the yeoman in social importance was 
 a feature of the country life, a noble class of men, 
 the backbone of England, who, as Harrison says, in 
 time past made all France afraid. They were, and 
 are, respected in their neighbourhood, though 
 agricultural depression has in these days almost 
 deprived them of their lands. They were farmers 
 of their own holdings, and in Elizabethan times they 
 throve and increased their gains. They often 
 farmed, also, the squires' lands, grazed cattle, fre- 
 quented the markets, kept servants, were shrewd 
 and clever, and became rich. They often bought 
 up the properties of poor and unthrifty gentlemen, 
 sent their sons to the University and the Inns of 
 Court, and made them gentlemen. We hope to re- 
 new our acquaintance with this stalwart and 
 honourable class of Englishmen later on. 
 
 1 The Good and the Badde, 1616. 
 
26 THE ENGLAND OF SHAKESPEARE 
 
 Of the change in agricultural life that occurred in 
 Elizabeth's reign there is much to be said. The 
 sheep with its rich fleeces had given way to corn 
 and wheat and barley ; but English wool was still 
 wanted, and the shepherd had not abdicated or 
 relinquished his functions. He had his portrait 
 painted by the master-hand of Shakespeare. In 
 As You Like It, 1 Cor in says : 
 
 " Sir, I am a true labourer : I earn that I eat, get 
 that I wear, owe no man hate, envy no man's happi- 
 ness, glad of other men s good, content with my 
 harm ; and the greatest of my pride is to see my 
 ewes graze and my lambs suck." 
 
 A contemporary writer, John Stephens, in Essayes 
 and Characters (1615), thus describes him : 
 
 " An honest shepherd is a man that well verifies 
 the Latin piece, qui bene latuit bene vixit : he lives 
 well that lives retired : for he is always thought the 
 most innocent because he is least public : and cer- 
 tainly I cannot well resolve you whether his sheep 
 or he be more innocent. Give him fat lambs and 
 fair weather, and he knows no happiness beyond 
 them. He shows, most fitly among all professions, 
 that nature is contented with a little. For the sweet 
 fountain is his fairest alehouse : the sunny bank 
 his best chamber. Adam had never less need of 
 neighbours' friendship ; nor was at any time 
 troubled with neighbours' envy less than he : the 
 next grove or thicket will defend him from a shower : 
 
 1 Act III, scene 2. 
 
SHAKESPEARE'S ENGLAND 27 
 
 and if they be not so favourable, his homely palace 
 is not far distant. He proves quietness to be best 
 contentment, and that there is no quietness like 
 a certain rest. His flock affords him his whole 
 raiment, outside and linings, cloth and leather ; 
 and instead of much costly linen, his little garden 
 yields hemp enough to make his lockram shirts : 
 which do preserve his body sweetened against 
 court-itch and poxes, as a sear-cloth sweetens car- 
 cases. He gives the just epitome of a contented 
 man : for he is neither daunted with lightning and 
 thunder, nor overjoyed with spring-time and 
 harvest. His daily life is a delightful work, whatso- 
 ever the work be ; whether to mend his garments, 
 cure a diseased sheep, instruct his dog, or change 
 pastures : and these be pleasant actions, because 
 voluntary, patient, not interrupted. He compre- 
 hends the true pattern of a moderate wise man : 
 for as a shepherd, so a moderate man hath the 
 supremacy over his thoughts and passions : neither 
 hath he any affection of so wild a nature, but he can 
 bring it into good order, with an easy whistle. The 
 worst temptation of his idleness teaches him no 
 further mischief, than to love entirely some nut- 
 brown milk-maid, or hunt the squirrel, or make his 
 cosset wanton. He may turn many rare esteemed 
 physicians* into shame and blushing : for whereas 
 they, with infinite compounds and fair promises, 
 da carry men to death the furthest way about ; 
 he with a few simples preserves himself and family 
 to the most lengthened sufferance of nature. Tar 
 and honey be his mithridates and syrups ; the 
 which, together with a Christmas carol, defend his 
 desolate life from cares and melancholy. With little 
 
28 THE ENGLAND OP SHAKESPEARE 
 
 knowledge and a simple faith, he purifies his honest 
 soul, in the same manner as he can wash his body 
 in an obscure fountain, better than in the wide 
 ocean. When he seems lazy and void of action, 
 I dare approve his harmless negligence, rather than 
 many approved men's diligence. Briefly he is the 
 perfect allegory of a most blessed governor : and he 
 that will pursue the trope's invention, may make 
 this character a volume." 
 
 There was much lawlessness in England during 
 Elizabeth's reign. Street quarrels between rival 
 factions were common. London apprentices waged 
 war against each other, and the shout of " Clubs ! 
 Clubs ! " soon created a concourse of riotous youths 
 who fought fiercely, Salters v. Skinners, or Merchant 
 Taylors v. Haberdashers. Contarini, the Italian 
 ambassador, in recounting his adventures in Lon- 
 don, states : 
 
 " You will see to two things, that is to say, to 
 the great devils and the little devils. By the great 
 ones I mean the waggons, which when they meet 
 the coaches of the gentry, refuse to give way and 
 yield as due. The little devils are the apprentices, 
 alias shop boys, who on two days in the year, which 
 prove fatal to them, Shrove Tuesday and the first 
 of May, are so riotous and outrageous, that in a 
 body three or four thousand strong, they go com- 
 mitting excesses in every direction, killing human 
 beings and demolishing nouses," etc. 
 
 They had a very successful day on Shrove Tues- 
 day in 1617 when they and other riotous persons 
 
SHAKESPEARE'S ENGLAND 29 
 
 assembled in Lincoln's Inn Fields, Finsbury field, 
 Ratcliffe and Stepney and beat down the walls of 
 many victualling houses suspected of being dis- 
 orderly, spoiled a new Play-house, and resisted the 
 Sheriffs of London and the Constables and Justices 
 of Middlesex. They seem to have well earned their 
 title on that occasion. 
 
 The gentlemen of the day were always eager to 
 fight duels and were skilled in the art of fence. In 
 every town there were professors who had fencing 
 schools, instructing the youths in the noble art of 
 self-defence. Our old English style of fighting was 
 with sword and buckler, but these weapons gave 
 place in Shakespeare's time to the rapier and 
 dagger, which became fashionable. The poet often 
 alludes to them. 
 
 " I have heard the Frenchman hath good skill 
 in his rapier," occurs in the Merry Wives of Windsor ; 
 and in Love's Labour's Lost there is the proud boast, 
 " I do excel thee in my rapier, as much as thou 
 didst me in carrying gates." Anacronisms are not 
 unusual in our poet's works, and it is not altogether 
 surprising that he makes use of this weapon in his 
 Richard II long before it had been invented. In 
 Hamlet there is the fencing scene where the fight 
 is fought with foils, one of which was " unbated," 
 i.e. it had no button at the end ; and there are con- 
 stant allusions in the Plays, either metaphorically 
 or literally, to the art of fence, of which there were 
 two schools, the Spanish and the Italian. Savjolo 
 
30 THE ENGLAND OF SHAKESPEARE 
 
 was the great professor of the latter, which had the 
 greater vogue. Thither young gallants flocked to 
 learn Bobadill's " special rules, as your punto, your 
 reverso, your stoccata, your imbroccato, your 
 passada, your montanto." 
 
 This worthy is the " hero " in Jonson's Every 
 Man in his Humour, a typical swashbuckler, a 
 tavern-swordsman, such as he, described in Romeo 
 and Juliet, who flings down his sword on the table, 
 saying, " ',God send me no need of thee,' and 
 by the operation of the second cup, draws it 
 on the drawer, when indeed there is no need." 
 Mercutio is described by Tybalt in the same play 
 thus : 
 
 " He fights as you sing prick-song, keeps time, 
 distance and proportion ; rests on his minim rest, 
 one, two, and the third in your bosom ; the very 
 butcher of a silk button, a duellist, a duellist." 
 
 You will remember the proud boastings of 
 Bobadill, his reputed skill with his weapon, how he 
 was attacked by three or four or six at Turnbull, 
 Whitechapel, Shoreditch and upon the Exchange 
 and defeated them ; and yet Downright comes 
 along and beats the " bragging rascal " who dare 
 not draw his weapon. 
 
 The tavern-knight, of whom Falstaff was a fair 
 example, kept sorry company, and the tallow 
 candles shed a hideous light on the rushrcovered 
 floor, strewn with overthrown mugs and patches 
 
SHAKESPEARE'S ENGLAND 31 
 
 of spilt wine or beer and broken victuals, a table 
 with empty bottles and tankards, while the com- 
 pany sang lively songs, uttered quarrelsome oaths, 
 and loud shouts, and ever and anon the clink of a 
 sword or the sharp hissing of rapiers marked the 
 beginning of a quarrel, when pewter pots or their 
 contents were thrown, and hoarse cries and savage 
 oaths sounded through the tavern. " A word 
 and a blow " was the motto of these fiery Eliza- 
 bethans. 
 
 All through the country it was the same. Men 
 fought with knives and daggers and swords and 
 staves and pikes, and the results were fatal, as the 
 records show. Armed violence was very common, 
 and there was no county free from these homicidal 
 attacks. Lawlessness was in the air. There is a 
 curious instance in the records of Castle Comb, in 
 Wilts, with regard to the brewing of beer and the 
 prices at which it was sold. Very strict regulations 
 were framed by the Court in 1577 and 1588, which 
 I need not particularise. Subsequently it was the 
 duty of the tithing-man to report that " the ale- 
 wy ves (the keepers of the ale-houses) had broken all 
 the orders of the last law-day," The court appears 
 to have received the presentment in silence, and 
 made no order. The despair of the tithing-man 
 may be imagined, as well as the triumph of the fair 
 delinquents. We cannot help seeing them in high- 
 crowned hats, with arms akimbo, making mouths 
 at the court and jury sworn, and laughing 
 
32 THE ENGLAND OF SHAKESPEARE 
 
 outright at the tithing-man and the rest of 
 creation. 
 
 Prosecutions for unlawful games were frequent. 
 Those indulged in were nine-holes, rushe and bowls. 
 In 1576 in the same town four card-players (luserunt 
 apud cartas pictas, videlicet kuffe) were fined 
 vi s viii a , which, however, was mitigated to xii d . 
 Offenders who played " nyne-holes " were fined 
 xii d ; those at bowles (apud globas) 11A Some 
 daring offenders played shift-groate on Sundays. 
 " ad malum exemplum aliorum," and so bad was 
 the example that several were presented a little 
 later for habitually playing cards (usi sunt ludere) 
 on Sundays. 
 
 You may like to know the menu and the cost of 
 food of a young squire, Wild Darrell by name, 
 when he came to London and stayed at Warwick 
 Lane in 1589. His accounts have been carefully 
 preserved, and I will only mention the items for 
 one day : 
 
 Wednesdy dyner April 16 
 
 A pece of bief .... xviiii d 
 
 A legg of mutton .... xx d 
 
 ii chickens and bacon . . . xx d 
 
 ii chickens and ii pigions . . xviiii d 
 
 For dressing all . . . . vii d 
 For parsly, cloves and sauce for the 
 
 mutton ..... vi d 
 
 Bread and beare .... xvi d 
 
 089 
 
SHAKESPEARE'S ENGLAND 33 
 
 Supper eodem 
 
 A shoulder of mutton . . . xx d 
 
 iii pigions ..... viii d 
 For roastinge the mutton, pigions, ii 
 
 chickens and ii rabbettes . . xi d 
 
 For sawse, soppes and parsley . . v d 
 
 Bread and beare .... xiiii d 
 
 o 4 10 
 
 He evidently observed the fast on Friday when his 
 expenses were as follows : 
 
 For dressing of fishe and butter . xxii d 
 For cheese iiii d 
 
 He certainly indulged in smoking, as we find 
 among " sundries," " J oz of tobacco io d ; an ounce 
 of tobacco 5 s ; four tobacco pipes 2 s ." Smoking 
 came greatly into fashion in Elizabethan times, 
 though Shakespeare never mentions tobacco. His 
 contemporaries, however, abundantly made up for 
 this omission, and reveal the almost universal 
 practice of the habit. I will not discuss the question 
 as to who smoked the first pipe in England, but it 
 seems fairly certain that it was not Sir Walter 
 Raleigh. We have the testimony of Harrison that 
 in 1673 " the taking in of the smoke of the Indian 
 herbe called Tobacco, by an instrument formed like 
 a little ladell, whereby it passeth from the mouth 
 
 1 Society in the Elizabethan Age, p. 212. 
 3 
 
34 THE ENGLAND OF SHAKESPEARE 
 
 into the head and stomach, is greatly taken up and 
 used in England." The prevalence of smoking was 
 a new feature of Elizabethan Society. All classes 
 indulged in it — peers and squires, parsons and 
 peasants. In the Alchemist we make the acquaint- 
 ance of Abel Drugger, " a seller of tobacco," who 
 comes to Subtle, a charlatan, to ask from this pro- 
 fessor of astrology how he had best plan his new 
 shop, and Face introduces him, and incidentally to 
 us the tricks of tobacco-sellers : 
 
 ' ' Here is my friend, Abel, an honest fellow ; 
 He lets me have good tobacco, arid he does not 
 Sophisticate it with sack-lees or oil, 
 Nor washes it in muscadel and grains, 
 Nor buries it in gravel underground, 
 Wrapp'd up in greasy leather, . . . 
 But keeps it in fine lily pots, that, open'd, 
 Smell like conserve of roses, or French beans. 
 He has his maple block, his silver tongs, 
 Winchester pipes, and fire of Jupiter ; 
 A neat, spruce, honest fellow, and no goldsmith." 
 
 Here we have the whole outfit of the smoker. The 
 maple blocks were for the cutting or shredding the 
 tobacco upon them ; the fire of Jupiter was juniper 
 wood charcoal fire, and with the silver tongs the 
 tobacconist lighted his customer's pipe. 
 
 Smoking did not escape the attention of Hentzner, 
 the German traveller, to whose observations on our 
 manners and customs I shall often refer. He noticed 
 its prevalence in the theatres, but " everywhere 
 else," he says, " the English are constantly smoking 
 tobacco. They have pipes on purpose, made of 
 
SHAKESPEARE'S ENGLAND 35 
 
 clay, into the further end of which they put the 
 herb, so dry that it may be rubbed into powder ; 
 and putting fire to it, they draw the smoke into their 
 mouths, which they puff out again through their 
 nostrils, like funnels, along with plenty of phlegm 
 and defluxions from the head." Does this mean 
 that these early smokers were in the objectionable 
 habit of spitting ? 
 
 The swashbuckler Bobadil boasted about his 
 tobacco quite as much as he did about his swords- 
 manship, and with equal truth. He says that he 
 smoked seven pounds in eight days, and that his 
 was the best tobacco in the world, Trinidado, that 
 when he was in the West Indies he had lived on 
 nothing else for twenty-one weeks, that tobacco 
 cured all the ills of life. In the theatre the young 
 fops were to be seen sitting on stools upon the 
 stage, each one having his smoking tools with him, 
 and puffing away so that they must have made 
 Rosalind and Ophelia cough in the midst of their 
 most beautiful lines ; but you will understand that 
 they were youths and had perhaps grown accus- 
 tomed to the fragrant weed. And all the rest of 
 the audience smoked also. " By this vapour " was 
 a favourite oath. The fop, or rather the child 
 imitating him in Jonson's Cynthia's Revels, sitting 
 on his stool at the theatre with his three sorts of 
 tobacco and his light, scoffs at the play, the music, 
 the poets, and says, " By this vapour — an't were 
 for tobacco — I think — the very smell of them would 
 
86 THE ENGLAND OF SHAKESPEARE 
 
 poison me, I should not dare to come in at their 
 gates. A man were better visit fifteen jails— or a 
 dozen or two hospitals — than once adventure to 
 come near them." 
 
 James I could not endure smoking, and issued his 
 famous " Counterblaste to Tobacco " without de- 
 creasing its consumption. Barnaby Rich wrote a 
 satire on " The Honestie of this Age " (1614), and 
 states that tobacco was sold in all taverns, inns and 
 ale-houses and also in the shops of apothecaries, 
 grocers, chandlers, and that 7000 houses lived by 
 the trade. Camden also bears witness that tobacco 
 shops were more numerous than taverns. 1 So 
 completely had the " noxia herba nicotiana," as 
 tobacco is described in the Oxford University 
 Statutes, conquered Society and claimed its votaries. 
 
 Such were some of the features of Shakespearean 
 England. In the subsequent chapters I shall 
 endeavour to describe other traits of this remark- 
 able era, the time when Shakespeare wrote his 
 immortal works and tells us incidentally something 
 of the peculiarities of the period. Undoubtedly it 
 was a great age, but it was new and differed much 
 from anything that had gone before. England was 
 young and restless, and the rushing down "the 
 ringing grooves of change " wrought many ills, 
 which did not escape the lash of the satirist or the 
 
 1 The curious reader will find much information on the sub- 
 ject in my friend Mr. Apperson's recent work on The Social 
 History of Smoking, 
 
SHAKESPEARE'S ENGLAND 87 
 
 strictures of the preachers. It was an age as varie- 
 gated as the costume of the gallant or of the city 
 dame, who changed their garments and the cut and 
 colour of their clothes with every whim of fashion. 
 We shall try with the poet's help to interpret and 
 to represent this changing England which Shake- 
 speare knew, and in his words, 
 
 " What now ensues to the judgment of your eye 
 I give, my cause who best can justify." 
 
Ill 
 
 RELIGION 
 
 THERE is no period of Church History 
 about which it is more difficult to write 
 clearly and concisely than that of the 
 time of Queen Elizabeth and Shakespeare. It 
 should be remembered that there was then only one 
 Church in England, the Church of England, but 
 there were several discordant elements, which sub- 
 sequently separated from her. It is unnecessary for 
 my purpose to trace the course of the Reformation 
 in England. Every one knows of the violent break 
 with Rome that took place in the time of Henry 
 VIII, when the masterful king overthrew the Papal 
 power in this country, constituting himself the Head 
 of the Church. The Reformation was begun in 
 England long before the question of the Divorce. 
 Wise and learned men like Dean Colet and others 
 were feeling after a more excellent way and striving 
 after Reform. But the break came through Henry's 
 action. The great question was, what was to be the 
 future condition of the Church? There were wise 
 men who strove only to purge away Roman errors, 
 
 38 
 
RELIGION 39 
 
 and to revert to the tenets and practice of primitive 
 antiquity. There were foreign reformers who 
 looked to Calvin and Geneva as a model for a 
 Christian Church. Service books and Articles were 
 drawn up, and the vernacular was used instead of 
 Latin services which few understood. But the 
 English reformers used largely the old service 
 books, translating the beautiful old prayers into 
 language understood by the people. During the 
 brief reign of Edward VI the foreign influence grew 
 stronger. The First Prayer Book of 1549 was modi- 
 fied in 155a, expunging certain things to which 
 these foreign good people objected. The Second 
 Prayer Book was scarcely issued before the young 
 king died, and then with the accession of Mary 
 there was a complete restoration of Roman Catholi- 
 cism with lamentable results for England. Five 
 years of horror followed, which sickened England 
 of Roman tyranny, and then Elizabeth ascended 
 the throne, and the Church was declared to be once 
 more free from the domination of Rome. The 
 Marian persecutions had accomplished more than 
 the actual teaching of the Reformers ; it united 
 the people in their detestation of Rome. 
 
 Within the fold of the Church there was the 
 Roman party, the moderate party of which Parker 
 was the leader, and the extreme Reformers, who, 
 driven out of England by the Marian persecutions, 
 had lived amongst these foreigners at Frankfort, 
 Zurich and Strasburg and learnt their ways and 
 
40 THE ENGLAND OF SHAKESPEARE 
 
 modes of worship. They came back rejoicing, 
 eager to find in the new Queen a favourer of their 
 views. They expected that the Church would go 
 back to what she was in Edward's time ; but in 
 this they were mistaken. 
 
 In the next chapter I shall try to depict the 
 character of the Queen, and to show her cleverness, 
 her artfulness, her duplicity, her extravagance, her 
 penuriousness. We know well her vigorous mind, 
 her strong will, her Tudor character, her love of 
 England and her vehement determination. She 
 needed all these qualities in steering the great ship 
 of the State through the dangerous waves. She 
 saved England, and no less may it be said of her 
 that she saved the Church of England from Roman 
 domination on the one hand and from Puritanism 
 on the other. 
 
 The Queen had wise counsellors : William Cecil, 
 who was created Lord Burghley; Nicolas Bacon, 
 Keeper of the Privy Seal ; and Matthew Parker, 
 afterwards Archbishop. When she rode into Lon- 
 don a Bible was presented to her, which she pressed 
 to her heart and said that she would always read it. 
 Wisely she showed that she was not going to make 
 any violent changes. The Mass was still celebrated 
 in the x churches. There were sixteen Marian bishops 
 left. She did not call upon them to resign their 
 sees, but they had to take an oath of allegiance 
 acknowledging her as the Head of the Church ; and 
 this they refused to do and ultimately were deprived 
 
RELIGION 41 
 
 of their sees. This determined Queen absolutely 
 refused to yield to any pressure put upon her by 
 either Papist or Puritan, and with the help of Arch- 
 bishop Parker and Burghley so steered the ship 
 of the Church that she avoided all the rocks and 
 whirlpools that beset her course in a somewhat 
 hazardous voyage. 
 
 But the Church had emerged from the Reforma- 
 tion pillaged, robbed, and impoverished. It had 
 been shorn on all sides. The fabric of the churches 
 had been injured and mutilated. Their furniture 
 and sacred vessels had gone to swell the hideous 
 heap of spoil that a rapacious King, greedy courtiers, 
 and other avaricious people had amassed on the 
 pretence of putting down " superstition." Robbery 
 was in the air ; no class was exempt from blame. 
 The highest seized on the confiscated lands of the 
 monasteries, and other less exalted persons took the 
 opportunity of possessing themselves of a vestment 
 or altar-cloth to serve for the adornment of their 
 houses, without respect either to the source whence 
 it was derived or the means by which it was obtained. 
 In another book I have given sundry examples of 
 this unrighteous peculation, 1 and need not repeat 
 them here. Money, crosses, candlesticks, copes, 
 vestments, chalices, are included in the list of 
 treasure purloined by private persons. The con- 
 dition of the churches before and after the great 
 pillage is an extraordinary contrast. Before it even 
 
 1 The Old-time Parson, p. 92. 
 
42 THE ENGLAND OF SHAKESPEARE 
 
 small country churches had an amazing store of 
 valuables which the piety of former generations had 
 amassed. The inventories of Church goods com- 
 piled by the Royal Commissioners reveal the 
 existence of a vast amount of sacred treasure. 
 When the Elizabethan parson entered upon his 
 duties all these rich and beautiful adornments had 
 vanished. Memorial brasses had been torn from 
 the floors and his church was ruinated and despoiled. 
 
 During the reign of Mary images had been set up 
 again and the Roman use restored, but soon after 
 her sister ascended the throne, there were in most 
 of the towns riotous proceedings on the part of the 
 people, who tore down the images and made bon- 
 fires of vestments, service books, ornaments and 
 rood-screens, and the churches were again left bare 
 and destitute. 
 
 Nor was this his only misfortune. The Eliza- 
 bethan parson discovered that his income was in 
 accordance with his plundered church. The disso- 
 lution of the monasteries had played havoc with the 
 endowment of his living. Abbots and monks had 
 always been eager to procure the impropriation of 
 tithes ; in other words, to become rectors of the 
 parishes, appointing one of their body, or a secular, 
 to act as vicar of each benefice. When the dissolu- 
 tion came the courtiers seized upon the impropriated 
 tithes and never restored them to the Church, to 
 which they lawfully belonged. Hence arose the 
 race of lay impropriators, lay-rectors, whose mis- 
 
RELIGION 43 
 
 deeds are recorded by Spelman in his History of 
 Sacrilege. Those noblemen and others, who assisted 
 the Crown in robbing the Church, were amply re- 
 warded by a share of the spoil which they had 
 helped their sovereign to seize. It is often said that 
 Church property thus purloined has a curse upon 
 it, and Sir Henry Spelman shows what a large 
 number of these Church robbers suffered terrible 
 deaths on the scaffold, at the stake, wounding and 
 torture, and how soon their ill-gotten gains passed 
 into other hands. 
 
 Nor did this sacrilege cease when Elizabeth came 
 to the throne. She herself was a Church robber and 
 so was her favourite, Leicester. Moreover, a very 
 pretty little business was transacted, worthy of the 
 unscrupulous crew who surrounded the Queen. The 
 lands of bishoprics were seized, and the sees re- 
 endowed with their appropriated tithes. Thus 
 hundreds of parishes were forced to contribute to 
 episcopal incomes, which were thus maintained by 
 the tithes which ought to have been devoted to the 
 sustenance of the parochial clergy. Some of these 
 recipients of Church property were despicable ras- 
 cals, e.g. Christopher Hatton, the dancing Lord 
 Chancellor, "who bagged no less than 105 grants 
 of tithes, besides Ely Place, the property in London 
 of the Bishops of Ely." 
 
 The result of all this robbery was disastrous to 
 the poor parson of the Elizabethan age. He awoke 
 to find himself beggared. Nor were his misfortunes 
 
44 THE ENGLAND OF SHAKESPEARE 
 
 yet complete. The dissolution of the monasteries 
 had a disastrous effect upon the Universities. 
 Many of the poorer students had been supported 
 by the abbeys, or were lodged in the monastic 
 houses at Oxford or Cambridge ; and by the 
 destruction of these institutions were cast adrift. 
 The number of students soon began to dwindle, 
 studies languished, professors left the Universities, 
 and young men, weary of the changes and disputa- 
 tions about religion, no longer nocked to the abodes 
 of learning, but devoted their energies to trade and 
 mercantile pursuits. 1 Hence the Universities, which 
 had been the nursing mothers of parsons, ceased to 
 furnish a good supply of the " inferior clergy," as 
 rectors, vicars and curates are sometimes styled. 
 Fuller speaks of the " mean ministers " of that time, 
 and says that the best that could be gotten were 
 placed in pastoral charges. " Alas ! toleration was 
 eminency in that age. A rush-candle seemed a 
 torch when no brighter light was ever seen before." 
 So the difficulties of the Church were great in the 
 early days of the Queen's reign. Livings were poor. 
 Harrison says that they were worth from £10 to £30 
 a year, not sufficient to maintain a mean scholar, 
 much less a learned man. This good clergyman, 
 Harrison, who was rector of Radwinter and Canon 
 of Windsor, and whose Description of England is 
 
 1 Cf. Latimer's Fifth Sermon before Edward VI, 1549. Jewel's 
 Works, ii, 999, 1000. Archbishop Sandys, Works, p. 154, 1012 
 (Parker Soc). 
 
RELIGION 45 
 
 so priceless to all students of Elizabethan times, 
 mourns over the difficulties of the Church. There 
 are so few really good ministers, he laments. We 
 so want able men. The clergy are very heavily 
 taxed ; they have to pay tenths and first-fruits, 
 and subsidies, taxes for armour and munitions, and 
 out of £20 a year they only receive £13 6s. 8d. The 
 laity try to make the clergy pay part of their taxes. 
 Who stole all the old Church lands ? The Church 
 has now become the ass for every market man to 
 ride on and cast his wallet. 
 
 With such grievous complaints does the old 
 clergyman try to relieve his mind. Nor is that all. 
 The clergy have to pay for the Visitations of arch- 
 bishop, bishop, and archdeacon, and double in- 
 quisition fees to the Prince. Thus, he says, "we 
 pay for Prince and laity too, and they both grumble 
 at us and slander us." All was not right with the 
 Church, and he has far more to say than I can set 
 down here. He tells us of his services on Sunday. 
 The Second Prayer Book of Edward VI had been 
 adopted by royal authority with sundry alterations 
 in the direction of the First Prayer Book, i.e. in the 
 direction of what we should call higher Churchman- 
 ship, as opposed to Puritan principles. The Queen 
 desired the latter, but the strong Puritan party in 
 the House of Commons objected, and Burghley 
 found that the opposition was so great, that reluc- 
 tantly he advised the Queen to accept the will of 
 her Parliament. 
 
46 THE ENGLAND OF SHAKESPEARE 
 
 If the vicar could preach, he was permitted to 
 do so, having obtained the permission from and 
 given satisfactory proof to the bishop or his depu- 
 ties. Great pains were taken to instruct ministers 
 in preaching. They had to write sermons and to 
 submit them to the judgment of the archdeacon, 
 who examined them ; and if the parson made 
 progress he was at length permitted to preach, and 
 became what they called " a painful preacher," i.e. 
 a painstaking one. For those who could not preach 
 a Book of Homilies was provided containing sermons 
 which they were required to read. As there was 
 a scarcity of duly ordained clergymen, Archbishop 
 Parker and the bishops arranged that lay-readers 
 should be appointed to help the parson. All this 
 shows that the Church was not idle. 
 
 Then the clergy in several dioceses arranged to 
 meet frequently for the purpose of studying Holy 
 Scripture together. These meetings were called 
 Prophesyings or Exercises, and were simply of the 
 nature of what we have in the present day, clerical 
 meetings. In their essential nature they were 
 harmless and indeed useful and essential ; but they 
 were principally conducted by the Puritan faction, 
 and were used for the purpose of advancing their 
 peculiar tenets. The Queen saw the danger of these 
 gatherings, and though the bishops were in favour 
 of supporting them and regulating them, the 
 imperious and strong-willed sovereign ordered them 
 to be suppressed. Harrison gives a description of 
 
RELIGION 47 
 
 these clerical conferences, which he valued very 
 much. Two young ministers expounded some 
 passages of Scripture for an hour, and then a 
 graduate summed up, and commented on their 
 discourses, praised the good and rebuked the slack 
 ones. The laity attended these gatherings, which 
 he thought were very useful to the clergy, induced 
 them to study their books, and kept them away 
 from hawking, hunting, tables, cards, dice and 
 (0 mores !) tippling in ale-houses, shooting matches, 
 and other vanities, " nothing commendable to such 
 as should be godly and zealous stewards of the good 
 gifts of God, faithful distributers of the Word unto 
 the people and diligent pastors according to their 
 calling." He regretted very much that " the 
 author of all mischief " had stirred up adversaries 
 who had succeeded in suppressing these conferences. 
 What were the contentions of the Puritan fac- 
 tion ? Were they hostile to the Church ? Un- 
 doubtedly. They wanted to remove from the 
 Church " the remnants, relics and leavings of the 
 Pope and papistry," as they termed the ceremonies 
 and doctrines. The foreign reformers, Calvin, 
 Bucer and Beza, were their authorities. The 
 Church's ceremonies to which they objected were 
 " badges, signs and sacraments of idolatry and 
 idolatrous priests, which had their beginning from 
 the Devil and Antichrist, whose implements and 
 trappings they are." Harrison was a bit of a Puritan. 
 He speaks of Confirmation, and says that " most 
 
48 THE ENGLAND OF SHAKESPEARE 
 
 care little for this ceremony." The Puritans 
 objected to the Prayer Book, which they said was 
 full of " general and particular corruptions." It 
 was based on "popish portuise." The Scriptures 
 are " barely read " without exposition and mangled 
 into " Pistles and Gospells." Apocryphal writings 
 are inserted and Holy Days kept. They objected 
 to the use of the Cross in Baptism, private com- 
 munions for the sick, the apparel of the ministers, 
 imposition of hands in the Ordinal. The surplice 
 was " a rag of popery." Most extraordinarily bitter 
 was the Vestiarian Controversy. Even the square 
 college-cap was furiously fought over. Moreover, 
 " the Lord Bishops, Deans, Chancellors, Commis- 
 saries and such like " were compendiously described 
 as " the Pope's bastards " and the " body of Anti- 
 christ." They objected to the character of the 
 existing clergy, one of whom, John Frith, of Grafton, 
 they said could neither preach nor read well, his 
 chiefest trade being to cure hawks that are hurt or 
 diseased, for which purpose many do usually repair 
 to him. Shakespeare's clergyman at Stratford was 
 an excellent parson — " learned, zealous and godlie 
 — a happy age if our church were fraight with manie 
 such." 1 But Thomas Cartwright definitely cut the 
 tie that more or less bound the faction to the 
 Church. As Professor of Divinity at Cambridge, 
 and in the pulpit of Great St. Mary's Church he 
 
 1 The Seconde Parte of a Register, edited by Dr. Peel. This 
 work throws wonderful light upon Puritan ideas and the con 
 troversjes of the time. 
 
ST. PAULS CATHEDRAL, AND PREACHING AT PALLS CROSS 
 From a picture in the possession of the Society of Antiquaries, London 
 
RELIGION 49 
 
 thundered forth the precepts of his party, and 
 showed that it was no simple difference about vest- 
 ments and the minutias of ceremonial, but an abso- 
 lute denial of episcopacy and orders. The Puritan 
 ideal was definitely opposed to every idea of church- 
 manship. Cartwright did not claim merely liberty 
 of conscience for his followers, but an actual de- 
 thronement of the Church and the substitution of 
 his party for the system of Church Government that 
 had been established and that had always existed 
 from primitive times. His faction was prosecuted 
 by the civil power, not by the Church, and drifted 
 off into Presbyterianism and Congregationalism. 
 It had little popular sympathy during the Queen's 
 reign, though later on it gathered force, until at 
 length it worked its will and brought to ruin both 
 Church and King. 
 
 In the meantime the Roman controversy loomed 
 large. For some years Roman Catholics continued 
 to communicate and even to minister in the Church 
 of England, and for a time all seemed to be going 
 peacefully. But the Roman party began to plot 
 and to threaten. The Pope issued a Bull declaring 
 Elizabeth illegitimate and absolving her subjects 
 from their allegiance. Conspiracies were discovered 
 against her life. Rebellions broke out. The country 
 was flooded with seminary priests from Douai, who 
 preached treason, the murder of the Queen and the 
 enthronement of Mary Queen of Scots, as well as 
 looking after their flocks. They dressed as laymen 
 
 4 
 
50 THE ENGLAND OF SHAKESPEARE 
 
 and celebrated Mass in the houses of their adherents. 
 A large number of the gentry still clung to the " Old 
 Religion," and had chapels in their houses and secret 
 hiding-places for the priests. Severe edicts were 
 enacted against them. They were styled recusants, 
 and were fined mercilessly for not attending their 
 parish church, and the priests were hunted and if 
 caught were executed. Between 1575 and 1585 
 there were sent to England about 250 of these 
 priests. Sixty of these suffered the penalty of death. 
 But however severely recusants were fined and per- 
 secuted they remained loyal to the Queen and to 
 their country, and no man was a traitor when 
 England was in danger during the time of the 
 Spanish Armada, but all flocked to the standard to 
 save the country from a foreign foe. 
 
 It is difficult to determine what part Shakespeare 
 took in these controversies. Some have declared 
 that he was a Puritan, which he certainly was not- 
 Others assert that his sympathies were with the 
 recusants, that the Ardens were Roman Catholics, 
 and that one of them, Edward Arden, suffered 
 death on a charge of conspiracy. They say that 
 the cause of his leaving his home at Stratford was 
 not any deer-slaying adventure, but that it was 
 connected with his religion, which was opposed to 
 that of the Puritan, Sir Thomas Lucy. 1 These are 
 
 1 Sir Thomas was a friend of Fox, the author of the Acts and 
 Monuments, that did much to arouse England against the 
 crueltiss of Roman persecution. Fox acted as tutor to Lucy's 
 children. 
 
RELIGION 51 
 
 speculations which cannot be verified. He was 
 a man who "wore not his heart upon his sleeve 
 for daws to peck at." He utters some of the most 
 beautiful and inspiring Christian thoughts. He 
 speaks of the Holy Land : 
 
 " Over whose acres walk'd those blessed feet, 
 Which fourteen hundred years ago were nail'd 
 For our advantage on the bitter cross." 1 
 
 Perhaps wearied with the controversies of his age 
 he bursts forth : 
 
 " In religion what damn'd error but some sober brow 
 will bless it, and approve it with a text." a 
 
 There is a reference to the difference between the 
 Puritan and the Church's mode of singing in Winter's 
 Tale. Churchmen sang in a lively fashion; the 
 Puritan in a Geneva drawl. Hence the shepherd 
 seems to have combined both methods; for in the 
 company of singers who came to the sheep-shearing 
 " there was but one Puritan among them and he 
 sings Psalms to hornpipes." 
 
 There is^rather a cryptic allusion to the Vestiarian 
 controversy in All's Well that Ends Well, when the 
 clown says : " Though honesty be no Puritan, yet 
 it will do no hurt ; it will wear the surplice of 
 humility over the black gown of a big heart." 
 Popular applause probably greeted the allusion to 
 the Smithfield fires of martyrdom in Winter's Tale, 
 
 1 i Henry IV, Act I, scene i. 
 
 1 Merchant of Venice, Act III, scene 2. 
 
52 THE ENGLAND OF SHAKESPEARE 
 
 when Leontes said to Paulina, " I'll have thee 
 burned," to which she replied : 
 
 " I care not, 
 It is an heretic that makes the fire, 
 Not she which burns in it." 
 
 The sect of the Brownists, from whom sprang the 
 Pilgrim Fathers, the followers of Brown of Norwich 
 is alluded to with some scorn by Sir Andrew Ague- 
 cheek in Twelfth Night, when he says he would as 
 lief be a Brownist as a politician. 
 
 The views of our poet, however, with regard to 
 religious controversy are not clearly stated. The 
 Dean of Norwich shows that he had learnt his 
 Church Catechism. He speaks in Hamlet of the 
 fingers as "pickers and stealers," l evidently refer- 
 ring to the duty to one's neighbour "keeping my 
 hands from picking and stealing." He always 
 shows a reverence for holy things, for God and 
 religion. This is abundantly exemplified in the 
 Plays. How beautiful is his description of the 
 death of a Christian warrior who gave 
 
 " His pure soul unto his captain Christ, 
 Under whose colours he had fought so long."* 
 
 He speaks of reverence as " the angel of the world." 
 He knew the value of repentance " whereby the 
 Eternal's wrath's appeased," and " By Christ's 
 dear blood shed for our grievous sins." He refers 
 to the guilt of Judas " who did betray the Best." 
 
 1 H«m/e*,~Act.III, scene 2, 1. 348. 
 ? Richard II, Act IV, scene 1. 
 
RELIGION 53 
 
 Of our Saviour he speaks as " The world's ransom 
 blessed Mary's Son." In his Will he commends his 
 soul into the hands of God " hoping and assuredly 
 believing through the only merits of Jesus Christ 
 my Saviour, to be made partaker of everlasting 
 life." In the Historical Plays he depicts many 
 scenes of Catholic ceremonial, introducing cardinals, 
 priests, papal legates, monks, friars, etc., but he 
 shows no appreciation of their ritual ; his clergy 
 are treated as historical characters, as human beings 
 whose faults and failings, virtues and good deeds are 
 depicted with impartiality, and some of his speeches, 
 as in King John, set forth the independence of the 
 English Crown from subservience to the Papal 
 claims and deny the Pope's " usurped authority." 
 We can imagine with what applause such sentiments 
 would be greeted in an Elizabethan theatre. That 
 he saw the weakness of Puritanism and the foolish- 
 ness of some of its professors, is shown in his picture 
 of Malvolio, who is described by Maria in Twelfth 
 Night as "a kind of Puritan " ; to whom Sir 
 Andrew replies : 
 
 " O ! if I thought that, I'd beat him as a dog." 
 
 Though neither Puritan nor Papist, Shakespeare 
 shows in many passages a deep religious spirit, 
 and it is fairly safe to assume that his beliefs and 
 his sympathies were with the moderate party in 
 the Church, the via media, of which Hooker, Parker, 
 Jewell and Whitgift were the main exponents, and 
 to which the majority of the people in the land 
 
54 THE ENGLAND OF SHAKESPEARE 
 
 belonged. He had a very intimate knowledge of 
 Holy Scripture. We find very frequent allusions to 
 the historical facts and characters of the Bible. He 
 speaks in Henry VIII in that noble address of 
 Wolsey after his fall of " man the image of his 
 Maker," recalling how in Genesis we read " God 
 created man in His own image." Adam and Eve 
 and the serpent are mentioned in Richard II, 
 Act III, scene 4, and in other passages. Cain and 
 Abel, Noah's flood, Job and his wife, Jacob and 
 Laban, Pharaoh and the lean kine and the Egyptian 
 plagues, the manna in the wilderness, Deborah, 
 Jephthah, David and Goliath, the Queen of Sheba, 
 King Nebuchadnezzar, Daniel (he shows his know- 
 ledge of the Apocrypha and the story of Susannah), 
 Judas, Herod, Pilate, are all mentioned, and there 
 are constant parallelisms and direct quotations 
 from the Scriptures in the Plays. 1 Amidst the 
 controversies of the day he seems to say " A plague 
 on both your Houses " ; and he presents kindly 
 portraits of the English clergy of his day, though 
 with a little satire and comic relief, in which play- 
 wrights have been accustomed to indulge, but 
 without a touch of that grotesque coarseness and 
 vulgarity which showed itself in the dramas of the 
 Restoration period. 
 
 The story of the Religion of his time covers some 
 thirteen years of the reign of James I. These years 
 
 1 On Shakespeare's Knowledge and Use of the Bible, by Charles 
 Wordsworth (1864). 
 
RELIGION 55 
 
 witnessed changes not a few. Somewhat to the 
 astonishment of churchmen, the great " Solomon 
 of the North " supported the claims of the English 
 Church, and favoured neither Romanist nor Puritan. 
 His favourite maxim, " No bishop, no king," pleased 
 not the latter, and the Romanists who hoped great 
 things from the new sovereign were disappointed, 
 and the Gunpowder Plot was the result, though the 
 leading Roman Catholics had no share in it. I need 
 not dwell on the Hampton Court Conference, on the 
 harsh measures dealt out to both of the extreme 
 parties, of the magnificent translation of the Bible, 
 and of much else that occurred before Shakespeare 
 rested in his grave at Stratford. 
 
 I might say one word about the criticism and 
 harassing of the clergy, upon which Harrison is very 
 strong. Some, he says, find fault with our thread- 
 bare gowns, and declare it is because we have wives 
 to keep, whereas our poverty is due to avaricious 
 patrons of livings who are hard and grasping. They 
 grind us down. They demand out of a benefice of 
 £20 a year twenty quarters of oats, ten quarters of 
 wheat, and sixteen of barley, which they call 
 hawk's meat. Such patrons scrape the wool off 
 the cloaks of us parsons, and then complain our 
 gowns are threadbare. No wonder the learned 
 author was indignant ! The laymen, too, found 
 fault with the widows of clergymen, who were too 
 " fond " and married again without considering 
 their calling. He asks, Do not some duchesses, 
 
56 THE ENGLAND OF SHAKESPEARE 
 
 countesses, or the wives of barons and knights do 
 the same ? " Eve will be Eve, though Adam would 
 say nay." The marriage of the clergy, to which the 
 Queen so much objected, increased their power of 
 exercising hospitality, and the poor were more often 
 fed, the parsonage was better furnished and the 
 food was better and more frugally dressed. In 
 spite of all the criticisms of grasping patrons, who 
 vilified the clergy in order to steal their lands, a 
 married clergy was the best both for the country 
 and for themselves. 
 
 There is a sketch of a country parson in Ben 
 Jonson's Magnetic Lady, which shows that there 
 was nothing much amiss with the position of the 
 worthy old man, who was certainly a " prelate of 
 his parish " and a somewhat fussy autocrat : 
 
 " He is the prelate of the parish here, 
 And governs all the games, appoints the cheer, 
 Writes down the bill of fare, pricks all the guests, 
 Makes all the matches and the marriage-feasts — 
 Without the ward : draws all the parish wills. 
 Designs the legacies and strokes the gills 
 Of the chief mourners : and whoever lacks 
 Of all the kindred he hath first his blacks. 
 Thus holds he weddings up and burials 
 As the main thing : with the gossips' stalls 
 Their pews, he's top still at the public mess ; 
 Comforts the widow and the fatherless 
 In funeral sade ; sits 'bove the alderman ; 
 For of the wardmote quest he better can 
 The mystery than the Levitic law : 
 That piece of clerkship doth his vestry awe. 
 He is, as he conceives himself, a fine 
 Well-furnished and apparelled divine." 
 
RELIGION 57 
 
 Of course there were " black sheep " amongst 
 the Elizabethan parsons. At Bridestowe and 
 Sourton, in Devon, in 1582, articles of misdemean- 
 our were drawn up against the rector, one Gilbert 
 Gerwyn, by some of his parishioners. He refused 
 to communicate an old bedridden woman at Easter 
 unless he were paid a penny for doing so. " For 
 his pryde, skoldying, avarice, and crueltye, his 
 manner is hated and abhored by all the two parishes, 
 and so driveth them awaye from the church." 
 Other examples of bad clergymen might be found, 
 but these few black sheep did not make the whole 
 flock black, or warrant the strictures of the advanced 
 Puritans. 
 
 A very notable official in the Church of the period 
 was the Parish Clerk, who alone of all the minor 
 Orders survived the changes wrought by the 
 Reformation. Shakespeare alludes to him in 
 Richard II when he makes the monarch face his 
 rebellious noble, saying : 
 
 " God save the King ! will no man say, Amen ? 
 Am I both priest and clerk ? Well then, Amen. 
 God save the King ! although I be not he : 
 And yet, Amen, if Heaven do think him me." 
 
 During the dearth of clergy the clerk seems often 
 to have discharged duties which scarcely pertained 
 to his office. The episcopal inquiries show that in 
 the absence of the vicar he used to read the service. 
 The Injunctions of Archbishop Grindal issued in 
 1571 show that the clerk used to presume to 
 
58 THE ENGLAND OF SHAKESPEARE 
 
 perform the marriage service, baptize, administer 
 the cup in Holy Communion, and say the service, 
 while in the Lincoln diocese in 1588 he used to 
 read one lesson and the epistle, and in Devon he 
 used to "ease the minister" by reading prayers, 
 churching women, christening, burying and marry- 
 ing. 1 
 
 In many towns lecturers were appointed by the 
 townsfolk and were often thorns in the sides of the 
 clergy. They were not appointed by or under the 
 jurisdiction of the bishop or parson, preached 
 extreme Puritanism and stirred up the people 
 against the vicars. 
 
 The clerical dress in Shakespeare's time is fully 
 set forth in the Canons, which enjoin " a prescript 
 form of decent and comely apparel so that they 
 might be had in reverence and be known to the 
 people, and thereby receive the honour and estima- 
 tion due to the special Messengers and Ministers of 
 Almighty God." The framers of the Canons re- 
 gretted the newfangleness of apparel which some 
 factious persons had introduced and hoped that it 
 might soon die out. The superior clergy and incum- 
 bents were ordered to wear gowns with standing 
 collars and sleeves straight at the hands, or wide 
 sleeves, as were used in the Universities, with hoods 
 and tippets of silk or sarcenet and square caps. A 
 curious print of the meetings of Convocation shows 
 
 1 For the complete story of this official the reader is referred 
 to my book, The Parish Clerk. 
 
RELIGION 59 
 
 this clerical attire. During their journeys parsons 
 were ordered to wear cloaks with sleeves, commonly 
 called priests' cloaks, without guards, welts, long 
 buttons, or cuts. They were not allowed to wear 
 any coif or wrought night cap, but only plain night 
 caps of black silk, satin or velvet. In private houses 
 parsons might use any comely and scholar-like 
 apparel, provided it be not cut or pinkt, and that 
 in public they go not in doublet and hose, without 
 coats or cassocks, and any light-coloured stockings 
 were forbidden. 
 
 The condition of the Cathedrals was rather 
 lamentable. The estates had been plundered and 
 avarice reigned. Most of the stalls of the canons 
 were empty, the prebends were no prebends, but 
 useless additions to prior preferments. Clever men 
 at the Universities held a contempt for the ministry 
 and preferred to take to Physic and Law, lest, as 
 the Church was so poor and had been so plundered, 
 they should not be able to gain a living by entering 
 the clerical profession. Froude gives a description 
 somewhat exaggerated of the cathedral establish- 
 ments of the period : 
 
 " Deans and canons by the rule of their founda- 
 tions were directed to dine and keep hospitality in 
 their common hall. Those among them who had 
 married broke up into their separate houses, where, 
 in spite of Elizabeth, they maintained their families. 
 [The Queen had issued her injunctions to Parker 
 against the marriage of deans and canons.] The 
 
60 THE ENGLAND OF SHAKESPEARE 
 
 unmarried ' tabled abroad at the ale-houses.' The 
 singing men of the choir became the prebend's 
 private servants, ' having the Church stipend for 
 their wages.' The cathedral plate adorned the 
 prebendal sideboards and dinner-tables. The organ- 
 pipes were melted into dishes for their kitchens ; 
 the organ-frames were carved into bedsteads, where 
 the wives reposed beside their reverend lords : while 
 the copes and vestments were coveted for their 
 gilded embroidery, and were slit into gowns and 
 bodices. Having children to provide for, and only 
 a life interest in their revenues, the chapters, like the 
 bishops, cut down their woods, and worked their 
 fines, their leases, their escheats and wardships, for 
 the benefit of their own generation. Sharing their 
 annual plunder, they ate and drank and enjoyed 
 themselves while their opportunity remained ; for 
 the times were dangerous, and ' none could tell who 
 should be after them.' " 
 
 The picture is a little fanciful, but doubtless in 
 the main true, and it needed the sternness of a 
 Laud to cleanse such an Augean stable. 
 
 In reviewing the story of religion in the time of 
 Elizabeth and during the whole century we can 
 easily see that the state of Christianity in the 
 country was not very perfect, and that the Church, 
 hampered by State control, and trying gradually to 
 settle itself into its proper position, never reached 
 its highest level. She had plenty of good men, but 
 few of supreme excellence. Calvinism with its 
 
RELIGION 61 
 
 gloomy creed threatened her. She produced no 
 theological works of the first rank, save those of 
 Hooker and Jewell. As Bishop Creighton wrote 
 with regard to the Church : 
 
 "It is well to abandon all illusions about the 
 sixteenth century. There were strong men, there 
 were powerful minds, but there was a dearth of 
 beautiful characters. A time of revolt and up- 
 heaval is a time of one-sided energy, and of moral 
 uncertainty, of hardship, of unsound argument, of 
 imperfect self-control, of vacillation, of self-seeking. 
 It is difficult in such a time to find heroes — to dis- 
 cover a man whom we can unreservedly admire." 
 
 There was much ignorance among the people. 
 Men clung with tenacity to their convictions 
 whether Protestant or Papist. There were many 
 heroes amongst the recusants who suffered the 
 spoiling of their goods rather than the abandon- 
 ment of their faith. There was much irreligion, 
 much sense of freedom from all restraints, frivolity, 
 licentiousness and drunkenness. According to the 
 Puritan Stubbes, " the Book of God was rent, 
 ragged and all be-torn," and harassed by many 
 difficulties and contending factions the Church had 
 much ado to mend its tatters. 
 
 One feature of the Church life of the period was 
 the severe discipline exercised over both clergy and 
 laity. I have already told you about the somewhat 
 severe methods that were adopted to produce 
 " painful preachers," how they had to submit their 
 
62 THE ENGLAND OF SHAKESPEARE 
 
 sermons to the Archdeacon for inspection, and how 
 they were not allowed to preach until they were in 
 the opinion of that official duly qualified. The 
 times of services were duly fixed. Matins was said 
 at an early hour, at seven or eight o'clock, and not 
 at ii a.m. as is the modern custom, and therefore 
 the prayer to Almighty God for having " brought 
 us to the beginning of this day " was more appro- 
 priate then than now. The Litany and Communion 
 Service followed, and Evensong was said in the 
 afternoon. All people were required to communi- 
 cate at least three times in the year, and children 
 and young people under twenty years of age were 
 ordered to be catechised and instructed every 
 Sunday and Holy Day before or at Evening Prayer. 
 The names of parents, masters and mistresses who 
 did not send their young people to the catechising, 
 were presented to the Ordinary to be censured or 
 punished. The names of children who did not 
 know their Catechism were also presented. Evil- 
 doers could not receive the Holy Communion unless 
 they had done penance before the congregation. 
 People who did not attend church were fined 
 I2d. Every detail of parochial and Church life 
 was minutely inspected and examined. Bad be- 
 haviour in church, or outside the church, or fre- 
 quenting inns during service-time rendered the 
 guilty liable to punishment. The churchwardens 
 and sidesmen had no sinecure. It was their duty to 
 enforce the discipline of the parish. Special week- 
 
RELIGION 63 
 
 day services were held on Tuesdays and Thursdays, 
 but the clejrgy were required to say morning and 
 evening prayer every day, and Mistress Page was 
 one who would not miss either service. Fasting 
 was enjoined on Wednesdays, and Parliament 
 ordered that fish should be alone eaten on that day, 
 for the advantage of fishermen. Sermons were long 
 and numerous in London, and Paul's Cross was the 
 great preaching place to which there was much 
 resort to hear the great divines of the day. 
 
 Psalm-singing was very popular. Sternhold and 
 Hopkins had produced their terrible Old Version of 
 the Psalms in verse. I have a copy of the Bible and 
 Prayer Book (in Black Letter) and bound up with 
 them is this metrical production of the two scribes. 
 However, it was welcomed cordially by the people, 
 who sang the verses lustily in spite of their bad 
 poetry, and perhaps found relief in them after 
 enduring a long homily or a tedious discourse. 
 
 The system of ecclesiastical discipline exercised 
 in parochial life, the watchful care over each detail 
 of Church observance, which extended even to the 
 saying of grace before meals in private houses, 1 the 
 
 1 Shakespeare often alludes to the saying of grace. These are 
 some passages : 
 
 " I will not be absent at the grace." — Merry Wives of Windsor, 
 
 Act I, scene I. 
 " While grace is saying, hood mine eyes thus with my hat and 
 
 sigh and say. Amen." — Merchant of Venice, Act II, scene 2. 
 " I could never say grace in all my life." — Titus Andronicus, 
 
 Act IV, scene 3. 
 ( There are two long graces in Timon of Athens, Act I, scene 2, 
 and Act III, scene 6. 
 
64 THE ENGLAND OF SHAKESPEARE 
 
 minute inspection as revealed in Inquiries by 
 bishops and the returns of churchwardens and quest- 
 men, show a great amount of activity and religious 
 zeal on the part of the Church ; and though it was 
 difficult at a time when there was a large amount 
 of unsettlement in the minds of people, when there 
 were so many cross-currents and eddies, to produce 
 a high standard of religion, I cannot endorse the 
 statement set forth by either Puritan or Papist that 
 has been made that the influence of the Church was 
 lacking ; or that the state of Religion in the Eliza- 
 bethan age was altogether bad. 
 
IV 
 THE COURT 
 
 SHAKESPEARE was born on April 23rd, 
 1564, six years after Queen Elizabeth came 
 to the throne, and lived to enjoy the doubtful 
 privilege of spending the last thirteen years of his 
 existence under the rule of the foolish " Solomon of 
 the North," King James. He lived in stirring times, 
 when England began to feel her power and to 
 awake to a sense of freedom and independence ; 
 and yet when the wondrous boy was born in Strat- 
 ford the country was in the direst peril. England 
 was described by the ambassador of one of the 
 nations which coveted the kingdom as being a 
 realm " without money, men, armour, fortresses, 
 practice in arms, or good captains." Her popula- 
 tion was small, only about four or five millions, less 
 than that of London at the present time. In the 
 disastrous reign of Queen Mary and her fanatical 
 consort, Philip, her military power had dwindled, 
 the attention of the Government being concen- 
 trated upon the extirpation of " heresy " and 
 the burning of " martyrs," rather than upon the 
 6 65 
 
66 THE ENGLAND OF SHAKESPEARE 
 
 defence of the realm and the development of its 
 resources. 
 
 Two countries coveted our fair English land, 
 Spain and France. Foreigners said that this realm 
 was like " a bone between two dogs." In spite of 
 the laws of the Church and the unlawfulness of 
 marrying his deceased wife's sister (an incon- 
 venience that could always be removed by the 
 decree of the Pope) , Philip of Spain wanted to wed 
 the imperious Queen, in order to win England from 
 his rival Henry II of France, who was in his turn 
 eager for Elizabeth to marry his son. How cleverly 
 she played one against the other, met intrigue with 
 intrigue, and matched her cunning with that of the 
 craftiest heads in Europe, is a matter of history. It is 
 amusing to notice how she mystified the Ambassadors 
 to her court, played with them, cajoling and flatter- 
 ing, now pretending that she was only a weak 
 woman and could not understand statesmanship, 
 and then appearing firm as a rock, stout, brave, 
 determined, ready to face the world in arms and 
 dictate her terms. 
 
 No wonder the embarrassed Count de Feria, 
 writing to his master, Philip of Spain, expressed 
 his amazing difficulties : "It is troublesome to 
 negotiate with this woman, as she is naturally 
 changeable." Therein he was quite mistaken. It 
 was her determined policy to mystify and puzzle 
 these officious servants of their Spanish sovereign. 
 Sometimes she used to greet them with great 
 

THE COURT 67 
 
 compliments and the politest of phrases, and then 
 the Ambassador would report : " I do not know 
 whether she is fishing, which is quite possible," or 
 again murmur, "I am not sure about her ; I do 
 not understand her." Poor hoodwinked Noialles, 
 the French Ambassador, wrote in the bitterness 
 of his spirit : " She hath more dissimulation than 
 sincerity or honesty. Few people living can play 
 that game as well as she." In a moment of despera- 
 tion the unlucky Ambassador of Spain exclaimed : 
 " This woman is possessed of a hundred thousand 
 devils." 
 
 Courageous and masterful as her sire, as any 
 Tudor, eager for power and popularity, cunning, 
 learned, quick, amazingly tactful, as vain as any 
 girl of her beauty, her bright eyes and commanding 
 presence, such were some of the characteristics of 
 the famous Queen who came to rule over England 
 in the hour of her great peril and anxiety. Not only 
 from the Continent did danger threaten. There was 
 the constant rivalry of Mary, Queen of Scots, who 
 had been proclaimed Queen of England, Scotland 
 and Ireland by the French King, her father, who 
 contested the legitimacy of Elizabeth's birth. 
 Aided by the arms of France, Scotland during the 
 early years of her reign was a formidable danger. 
 But the fair, frail and beautiful Mary threw away 
 her opportunities and brought destruction upon her- 
 self. She married Darnley who was assassinated. 
 There was the affaire Rizzio, who shared his fate; 
 
68 THE ENGLAND OF SHAKESPEARE 
 
 and then by her marriage with Bothwell she 
 alienated the attachment of her subjects. A 
 powerful insurrection broke out in Scotland, and 
 Mary was soon a refugee in England and then a 
 prisoner. Elizabeth was relieved from the fear of 
 a Scottish invasion, but while her rival lived there 
 was the constant danger of plots to place Mary 
 on the throne of England. A less brave woman 
 would scarcely have faced the difficulties of her 
 situation. There were the conspiracies of the Duke 
 of Norfolk, the insurrection of the northern earls, 
 the sentence of excommunication passed upon her 
 by the Pope, the dispatch of seminary priests from 
 Douai to spread sedition throughout the country 
 and raise up plots against her life ; and behind all 
 these were the intrigues of Spain, which somewhat 
 resembled modern German methods. 
 
 Many were the suitors for her hand. After her 
 bigoted brother-in-law, Philip II of Spain, had 
 received his conge the Archduke Ferdinand of 
 Austria was a potential suitor, in spite of the 
 Queen's avowed determination that she would 
 never marry a Roman Catholic. Then the claims 
 of his brother the Archduke Charles ; and amusing 
 it is to read in the dispatches of ambassadors how 
 the Queen postponed a decision and played with 
 the Emperor of Austria and Philip. She would 
 never marry a man she had not seen. Let the 
 Archduke come to her country as a suitor, and she 
 would see if she liked him. The Queen of England 
 
THE COURT 69 
 
 had no intention of humbly suing for a husband, 
 and she would make no promise to accept the Arch- 
 duke even if he came to her country. And there 
 were others. James Hamilton, Earl of Arran and 
 Duke of Chatelherauldt, who was the next heir 
 to the Scottish throne on the death of Mary if she 
 died without issue, possessed some attraction, as by 
 his marriage the union of the northern and southern 
 kingdoms would be effected. But his offers were 
 declined when the sagacious Queen seemed to see 
 that her difficulties with Scotland were less pressing. 
 The King of Sweden, Eric IV, a nephew of the King 
 of Denmark, Sir William Pickering, " tall, hand- 
 some and very successful with women " ; Duke Hans 
 Casimir, second son of the Elector Palatine, the 
 Duke d'Alencon, sought her hand, and received 
 encouragement, and amidst all these proposals and 
 negotiations there was Robert Dudley, Earl of 
 Leicester, a worthless person, the receiver of bribes 
 from Spain, a married man, who seemed to dominate 
 her affections and retain her regard. 
 
 A strange character was this wonderful Queen. 
 Frivolous, vain, voluptuous, caring little for the 
 scandals she created, she loved to be surrounded 
 by handsome men ; and yet she could be hard 
 as steel, determined in council and resolute in 
 her determination. She loved pleasure, the merry 
 dance, the chase, the tournament and courtly 
 display, and yet from her amusements she would 
 turn to discuss abstruse questions of foreign and 
 
70 THE ENGLAND OF SHAKESPEARE 
 
 domestic policy with her ministers in firm tones 
 without a smile or a jest, often displaying the 
 violence of her temper and abusing them with a 
 powerful invective in the language of Billingsgate. 
 She had learnt Greek and read her Greek Testament 
 every morning. She encouraged literature and was 
 the patron of learning. She could appreciate the 
 beauties of the Faerie Queene, and the genius of 
 Shakespeare. French and Italian works were no 
 sealed book to her. And from these studies she 
 would turn with equal readiness to the killing of 
 stags, dancing the canary, or the brawl on the 
 pavin, and flirting with Leicester or any other hand- 
 some man who frequented her Court. 
 
 In spite of all the Queen was the idol of her 
 people. Amidst all the maze of her strange, lonely 
 life, her courtships, her diplomacy, she had but one 
 aim, the good of England and the welfare of her 
 subjects. She won their affection and their good- 
 will. She procrastinated ; she kept her enemies at 
 bay ; she flattered them, cajoled them, hoodwinked 
 them ; she lied, she deceived, because England was 
 not ready. Quietly she was gathering the nation's 
 strength. Slowly her navy grew. By the exploits 
 of her seamen, the achievements of her gallant 
 commanders and leaders, by the gradual multipli- 
 cation of her arms and munitions, by her wise 
 government, and knowing that she had the love of 
 her people to be depended upon, she knew that 
 England was ready when the time came for her to 
 
THE COURT 71 
 
 strike. And when the hour arrived she threw off 
 the mask that she had so long worn, and was pre- 
 pared to meet her Spanish foe, when the Invincible 
 Armada appeared in sight of the English shores 
 and threatened with rack and thumbscrew the 
 English heretics, and England became the Mistress 
 of the Seas. 
 
 The continuity of history is a pleasing study. 
 Curiously enough the success of England in over- 
 throwing the Armada, and her continued supremacy 
 on the sea, may be traced to the victory of Spain 
 in the naval battle of Lepanto, which was won with 
 high towering galleys. Encouraged by that success 
 Duke John continued to build his galleys for the 
 attack on England, imagining that they were quite 
 as useful for ocean-going seamanship as in the 
 smoother waters of the Mediterranean. The result 
 proved the fallacy of his theories, the smaller 
 English vessels, well manned, well armed, easier 
 to steer and encircle the ponderous galleons of 
 Spain, were the victors in the strife, and from that 
 day to this the control of the sea has been in the 
 hands of England. May her navies continue to 
 hold that supremacy in the present hour of danger 
 and relentless war when the diabolical engines of 
 modem warfare, the mine and the submarine, have 
 added their terrors to naval fighting. 
 
 Elizabeth's love of England was the key to her 
 policy. " Nothing, no worldly thing under the sun, 
 is so dear to me as the love and goodwill of my 
 
72 THE ENGLAND OF SHAKESPEARE 
 
 subjects," she declared to her first Parliament ; 
 and whether she was cajoling an ambassador or 
 playing the suitors for her hand one against another, 
 the welfare of England was her sole object, her one 
 absorbing care. She was fortunate enough, or wise 
 enough, to select wise counsellors. William Cecil, 
 Lord Burghley, was her indispensable Secretary of 
 State, learned and the lover of learned men, dis- 
 creet but not heroic, sound in his religious views 
 against Papal pretensions. He was always at her 
 right hand to support her and help her through 
 her many difficulties. Sir Francis Walsingham was 
 another faithful and sturdy adviser and eminent 
 statesman, whom his royal mistress used in her 
 sportive moods to call her moon, who guided her 
 course during the dark night that threatened- Europe 
 at that time. She had reason to congratulate her- 
 self on having a counsellor so honest and sagacious 
 as Walsingham. 
 
 Another courtier was Robert Devereux, Earl of 
 Essex, a great favourite of the Queen, who sent him 
 to Ireland to crush Tyrone's rebellion, a mission that 
 little pleased him. I have seen in a country house, 
 Hulton Park, Lancashire, some original autograph 
 letters written by him to the Queen, sometimes 
 complaining of his banishment and occasionally 
 expressing his ardent affection for Elizabeth, and 
 his longing to be with her at Court. These were 
 endorsed by the methodical Queen, who labelled 
 the former malcontent and the latter d' amour with 
 
THE COURT 73 
 
 her initials E.R. The story of his execution and of 
 the fatal ring is too well known to be here recorded. 
 She must have retained much affection for him, as 
 when she heard of the wrongful detaining of the 
 ring the news nearly broke her heart. His sister, 
 Penelope Devereux, a beautiful girl without wealth, 
 was married to the old ill-favoured rich Lord Rich, 
 but was beloved by the most accomplished gentle- 
 man of his age, Sir Philip Sidney, of Penshurst. 
 Everyone knows the story of Astrophel and Stella 
 and the sonnets and poems Sidney wrote in honour 
 of his " Stella," Penelope Devereux. He spared not 
 her rich husband, 
 
 " Rich fools there be whose base and filthy hearts," 
 
 while he poured forth his love to " Stella, sovereigne 
 of my joy," " Stella, food of my thoughts, hart of 
 my hart." When Lord Rich died she married 
 Charles Blount, Earl of Devon, a worthless husband, 
 thus escaping from the frying-pan into a very warm 
 fire. Sidney married the heiress of Sir Francis 
 Walsingham, and this, too, proved an unhappy 
 marriage. Other courtiers were Mountjoy, Sir 
 Francis Knolles and his daughter Lettice, who 
 married Leicester after the death of poor Amy 
 Robsart, " Wild " Darrell of Littlecote, whose 
 memory is associated with a terrible story that 
 Mr. Hubert Hall, who knows intimately all the 
 chief personages of the period, 1 has proved to be 
 
 1 Elizabethan Society, by Hubert Hall. 
 
74 THE ENGLAND OP SHAKESPEARE 
 
 untrue by his researches among the Darrell Papers 
 in the Record Office. There were many other " fair 
 women and brave men " frequenting the Court of 
 Elizabeth which was a very brilliant assembly. 
 
 Sports and games and pageants and plays all 
 formed part of the Queen's policy to make her 
 people happy, and to win their goodwill. Especially 
 did she strive to impress distinguished foreigners 
 visiting this country with stately banquets and 
 scenes of plenty, prosperity and magnificence, and 
 some lively accounts are given by them in their 
 reports of the proceedings. 
 
 There is a very graphic description of the Queen's 
 reception of the French embassy sent to England 
 in 1559 for the ratification of the Treaty of Cateau- 
 Cambresis, written by II Schifanoya and recorded 
 in the Venetian Calendar. 1 
 
 The Ambassadors were received on May 23rd by 
 Lord Cobham at Dover: They spent two days 
 hunting and hawking in his park. At Gravesend 
 the Admiral welcomed them and conducted them 
 in barges up the Thames. A noble company of 
 courtiers and chief men of the realm, well mounted 
 and apparelled, received them at the Tower, and 
 conducted them along Cheapside to their lodgings 
 in the palace of the Bishop of London and the 
 Deanery near St. Paul's Cathedral, where every- 
 thing was provided for making good cheer. On the 
 following day they went to the Court at Whitehall 
 
 Elizabeth and Mary Stuart, by F. A. Mumby, p. 25. 
 
THE COURT 75 
 
 Palace. The great hall was hung with choice 
 tapestries, and there was the royal throne with a 
 canopy and royal cushions. The Earl of Arundel, 
 the Lord Steward, received them with all the Lords 
 of the Privy Council, and mounting the stairs they 
 went to kiss hands and do reverence to the Queen, 
 who received them very joyfully and graciously, 
 going to meet them as far as the guard chamber at 
 the head of the stairs. After conversing for an 
 hour she withdrew, and they were taken to the 
 Park to see a pair of bucks killed, one by dogs, the 
 other by archers, very much to their diversion till 
 supper time. A great feast was prepared in the 
 garden under the long gallery, hung with gold and 
 silver brocade, and closed in with wreaths of flowers 
 and leaves. The Queen was dressed in purple velvet, 
 covered with gold and pearls and jewels that added 
 much to her beauty. She took the Due de Mont- 
 morenci, Constable of France, with her right hand 
 and M. de Vielleville with the left and walked for 
 an hour in the orchard, speaking to them most 
 sweetly and familiarly in French, as readily as she 
 does Italian, Latin and Greek, all which tongues 
 she was accustomed to use at pleasure. 
 
 The trumpets sounded for supper. In two 
 corners of the gallery were two semi-circular cup- 
 boards, laden with most precious and costly drinking 
 cups of gold and of rock crystal and other jewels. 
 The Due was invited to sit at the table with the 
 Queen. The others sat at a large table, the lords on 
 
76 THE ENGLAND OF SHAKESPEARE 
 
 one side, the ladies on the other, but the latter were 
 so numerous and took up so much room on account 
 of their farthingales, that some of the lords had to 
 sit on the ground on the rushes. The banquet 
 lasted two hours, and there were excellent joints, 
 but the delicacies and the cleanliness were a little 
 lacking in the opinion of the Italian scribe. Dancing 
 followed the supper. 
 
 We need not follow the visitors further, except 
 to note that they were rather shocked on remarking 
 that Corpus Christi Day was not observed in England, 
 and that the shops were all open and the people at 
 work, and also that they had reason to remember 
 their visit on account of the costly gifts which the 
 Queen gave them, consisting of gold and silver 
 cups, hackneys, spoons, forks, 1 and divers dogs — 
 mastiffs, hounds and setters — and chains of 
 gold. 
 
 Such scenes were very frequent during Elizabeth's 
 reign. We might follow the Court to Windsor and 
 witness the festivities held there on several occa- 
 sions, and trace her royal Progresses through the 
 country to the mansions of her leading subjects and 
 to her several residences. Greenwich was her 
 favourite palace, where she was born and generally 
 
 1 This shows that forks were not uncommon in high circles 
 and polite society in Elizabethan times. Coryat, in his Crudities, 
 mentions that he was surprised to see people in Italy using forks, 
 and wrote as if they were unknown in England. Perhaps they 
 were in the society in which Coryat moved ; but at Court, in the 
 colleges of Oxford and Cambridge, and in noblemen's houses, 
 they were no novelties. 
 
THE COURT 77 
 
 lived, " particularly in summer for the delightful- 
 ness of its situation," as Paul Hentzner, a distin- 
 guished visitor to England in 1598, describes it. 
 This worthy man was a travelling tutor to a young 
 German nobleman, and records what he saw with 
 minute accuracy and precision. He came to the 
 palace at Greenwich when the Queen was there, 
 and was much impressed by what he saw. 
 
 " The Presence-Chamber was hung with rich 
 tapestry, and the floor after the English fashion 
 strewed with hay (or rushes), through which the 
 Queen commonly passes on her way to Chapel. At 
 the door stood a gentleman dressed in velvet with 
 a gold chain, whose office was to introduce to the 
 Queen any person of distinction that came to wait 
 on her. It was Sunday, when there is usually the 
 greatest attendance of nobility. In the same hall 
 were the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Bishop of 
 London, a great number of Counsellors of State, 
 Officers of the Crown, and Gentlemen, who waited 
 the Queen's coming out ; which she did from her own 
 apartment when it was time to go to Prayers, 
 attended in the following manner : 
 
 " First went Gentlemen, Barons, Earls, Knights 
 of the Garter, all richly dressed and bare-headed ; 
 next came the Chancellor, bearing the Seals in a 
 red-silk Purse, between Two ; one of which carried 
 the Royal Sceptre, the other the Sword of State, in 
 a red scabbard, flushed with golden Fleurs de Lis, 
 the point upwards : next came the Queen in the 
 Sixty-fifth year of her Age, as we are told, very 
 majestic ; her Face oblong, fair, but wrinkled ; her 
 
78 THE ENGLAND OF SHAKESPEARE 
 
 Eyes small, yet black and pleasant ; her Nose a 
 little hooked ; her Lips narrow, and her Teeth 
 black (a defect the English seem subject to, from 
 their too great use of sugar) ; she had in her Ears 
 two pearls with very rich drops ; she wore false hair, 
 and that red ; upon her Head she had a small 
 Crown, reported to be made of the gold of the cele- 
 brated Luneboug table. x Her Bosom was uncovered, 
 as all the English ladies have it, till they marry ; and 
 she had on a Necklace of exceeding fine jewels ; her 
 Hands were small, her Fingers long, and her Stature 
 neither tall nor low ; her air was stately, her 
 manner of speaking mild and obliging. That day 
 she was dressed in white Silk, bordered with pearls 
 of the size of beans, and over it a Mantle of black 
 silk shot with silver threads ; her Train was very 
 long, the end of it born by a Marchioness ; instead 
 of a Chain, she had an oblong Collar of gold and 
 jewels. As she went along in all her state and 
 magnificence, she spoke very graciously, first, to 
 one, then to another, whether foreign Ministers, 
 or those who attended for different reasons, in 
 English, French and Italian, being well skilled in 
 Greek, Latin, and the languages I have mentioned, 
 she is mistress of Spanish, Scotch and Dutch : 
 Whoever speaks to her, it is kneeling ; now and 
 then she raises some with her Hand. While we 
 were there, W. Slawata, a Bohemian Baron, had 
 letters to present to her ; and she, after pulling off 
 her glove, gave him her right Hand to kiss, sparkling 
 with rings and jewels, a mark of particular Favour : 
 
 1 " At this distance of time it is difficult to say what it was." 
 Note by Horace Walpole in his edition of Henizr.er's Travels, 
 printed at his Str wberry Hill Press. 
 
THE COURT 79 
 
 Whenever she turned her Face, every body fell 
 down on their knees. 1 The Ladies of the Court 
 followed next to her very handsome and well- 
 shaped, and for the most part dressed in white ; 
 she was guarded on each side by the Gentlemen 
 Pensioners, fifty in number, with gilt battle-axes ; 
 in the Antichapel next the Hall where we were, 
 Petitions were presented to her, and she received 
 them most graciously, which occasioned the accla- 
 mation of, Long Live Queen Elizabeth ! She 
 answered it with, I thank you, my good people. 
 In the Chapel was excellent music ; as soon as it, 
 and the Service was over, which scarce exceeded 
 half an hour, the Queen returned in the same State 
 and Order, and prepared to go to Dinner. But 
 while she was still at Prayers, we saw her Table 
 set out with the following Solemnity : 
 
 " A Gentleman entered the room bearing a rod, 
 and along with him another who had a table-cloth, 
 which after they had both kneeled three times, 
 with the utmost veneration, he spread upon the 
 table, and after kneeling again, they both retired. 
 Then came two others, one with the rod again, the 
 other with a salt-seller, a plate and bread ; when 
 they had kneeled, as the others had done, and 
 placed what was brought upon the table, they two 
 retired with the same ceremonies performed by 
 the first. At last came an unmarried Lady (we 
 were told she was a Countess) and along with a 
 
 1 Her father had been treated with the same deference. It 
 is mentioned by Fox in his Acts and Monuments, that when the 
 Lord Chancellor went to apprehend Queen Katherine Parr, he 
 spake to the King on his knees. — Horace Walpole. 
 
 King James I suffered his courtiers to omit it. — Bacon's Papers, 
 V, ii, p. 516. 
 
80 THE ENGLAND OF SHAKESPEARE 
 
 married one, bearing a tasting-knife, who when she 
 had prostrated herself three times, in the most 
 graceful manner approached the table, and rubbed 
 the plates with bread and salt, with as much awe 
 as if the Queen had been present : When they had 
 waited there a little while, the Yeomen of the 
 Guard entered, bareheaded, clothed in scarlet with 
 a golden rose upon their backs, bringing in at each 
 turn a course of 24 dishes, served in plate, most 
 of it gilt ; these dishes were received by a gentle- 
 man in the same order they were brought and placed 
 upon the table, while the Lady-taster gave to each 
 of the guard a mouthful to eat for fear of any poison. 
 During the time that this guard, which consists of 
 the tallest and stoutest men that can be found in 
 all England, being carefully selected for this service, 
 were bringing dinner, twelve trumpets and two 
 kettle drums made the hall ring for half an hour 
 together. At the end of all this ceremonial a num- 
 ber of unmarried ladies appeared, who with particu- 
 lar solemnity lifted the meat off the table, and 
 conveyed it into the Queen's inner and more private 
 chamber, where after she had chosen for herself 
 the rest goes to the Ladies of the Court. 
 
 " The Queen dines and sups alone with very 
 few attendants ; and it is very seldom that any 
 body, foreigner or native, is admitted at that time, 
 and then only at the intercession of somebody in 
 power." 
 
 Our garrulous visitor then goes on to tell us of 
 the Queen's Park stocked with deer, with an old 
 square tower called Mirefleur, supposed to be that 
 mentioned in the romance of Amadis de Gaul, 
 
THE COURT 81 
 
 joined to a plain where knights and other gentle- 
 men used to meet at set times and holidays to 
 exercise on horseback. 
 
 Such are some of the glimpses of Court life in 
 Elizabethan times. The Queen loved State and 
 pageantry and ceremonial, and nought was lacking 
 to suit the royal taste of the imperious Tudor 
 sovereign, to impress the foreigner and to awe her 
 subjects. 
 
 Masques were frequently performed before the 
 Queen, the ladies and gentlemen attiring themselves 
 in gorgeous costumes and dancing, and these were 
 continued in full force during the reign of her 
 successor. Very brilliant were the masques arranged 
 on the occasion of the marriage of the Princess 
 Elizabeth by " lords and ladies, with many ingenious 
 speeches, delicate devises, melodious music, pleasant 
 dances with other princely entertainments of time, 
 all which were singularly well performed in the 
 Banqueting house," as Busino records. The gentle- 
 men of the Inns of Court also performed masques 
 before the King and Queen, 
 
 " in order to express their singular love and dutious 
 affection to his majesty. . . . They employed the 
 best wits and skilfullest artisans in devising, com- 
 posing, and erecting their several strange properties, 
 excellent speeches, pleasant devises and delicate 
 music, brave in habit, rich in ornaments, in demean- 
 our courtly, in their joy by land and water very 
 stately and orderly. ..." 
 6 
 
82 THE ENGLAND OF SHAKESPEARE 
 
 I should like to quote more of Busino's interesting 
 description of these masques, but it is far too lengthy 
 and verbose, and perhaps greatly exaggerated. 
 Other accounts of royal functions in the time of 
 this Scottish " Solomon " are not so edifying. His 
 Queen, Anne of Denmark, by her frivolous waysi 
 and he by his rough manners, did not maintain the 
 dignity of the Court. On one occasion the masque 
 began : Bacchus appeared on a car followed by 
 Silenus on a barrel, and twelve wicker flasks per- 
 formed ludicrous antics. Twelve boys as pages, 
 Mount Athos, as nearly the size of life as the stage 
 would allow, and Mercury, the god of trade, all vied 
 with each other in flatteries to the King. At last 
 twelve cavaliers in masks, with the young Prince 
 Henry as the central figure, chose their partners 
 and danced every kind of dance, the last being the 
 Spanish dance in single pairs, until they were 
 weary. Whereupon the surly, bad-tempered King 
 shouted aloud, " Why don't they dance ? What 
 did you make me come here for ? Devil take you 
 all : dance ! " So Buckingham, prime favourite, 
 sprang forward, cutting a score of lofty and very 
 minute capers with so much grace and agility, that 
 he appeased the King's wrath and pleased every- 
 body. Prince Henry greatly distinguished himself 
 by his dancing, and bowing, and cutting capers, 
 and every step of his was in time. There were 
 strange doings on another occasion, when the 
 characters in the masques appeared to lack temper- 
 
THE COURT 83 
 
 ance ; and Victory lay in a drunken slumber, and 
 Peace was quarrelsome, and fought with her 
 olive-branch and the scenes were disgraceful. 
 
 Court life degenerated greatly under the rule of 
 this uncouth monarch, who was never happy except 
 when he was hunting, for which he had a passion. 
 I could tell you much about this, but this chapter 
 is growing too long already. 
 
 I have scarcely mentioned, I think, the royal 
 progresses. Gloriana was a restless soul, and was 
 always on the move, staying at her several palaces, 
 or in the homes of her nobles. She came sometimes 
 to Windsor, then a quiet country town sleeping 
 under the shadow of its lordly castle, one of the 
 finest royal palaces in Europe. It is redolent of the 
 Merry Wives, which, it has been said, was written 
 by the Queen's command, and that she was so eager 
 to see it acted that she commanded it to be finished 
 in fourteen days. Some writer has said that the 
 Queen rather suggested a part of the plot, as she 
 wished to see Falstaff in love. There were Fords 
 and Pages living then in Windsor, and the Garter 
 Inn existed at that time, and, of course, Heme's 
 Oak and Datchet Mead. There is a reference in 
 the play to the festival of the Order of the Garter, 
 which may have taken place near the time of its 
 performance : 
 
 " The several chairs of order look you scour 
 With juice of balm and every precious flower. 
 Each fair instalment, coat and several crest 
 With loyal blazon ever more be blest ! 
 
84 THE ENGLAND OF SHAKESPEARE 
 
 And nightly, meadow fairies, look you sing, 
 Like to the Garter's compass, in a ring, 
 The expressure that it bears, green let it be. 
 More fertile-fresh than all the field to see ; 
 And Honi soit qui mal y pense white 
 In emerald tufts, flowers purple, blue and white ; 
 Like sapphire, pearl, and rich embroidery, 
 Buckled below fair knighthood's bending knee." 
 
 Elizabeth used to visit her palaces in turn. After 
 Whitehall, she journeyed to Greenwich, Hampton 
 Court and Richmond, and then into the country, 
 where she honoured many a mansion or manor house, 
 and where you will often find a bed-chamber with an 
 elaborate mantelpiece and plaster ceiling with E.R. 
 engraved upon them in remembrance of her visit, 
 and, of course, the bed in which she is said to have 
 slept. The expense of entertaining her majesty 
 with her large Court was very great, especially as 
 she expected to receive costly presents. It is said 
 that one poor squire, threatened with a visit, 
 thought it cheaper to burn his house down, rather 
 than to welcome the Queen. But in spite of the 
 cost she was usually cordially welcomed, and every- 
 thing was done to delight her by shows and pageants, 
 sports and morrice-dancing. At Coventry the guilds 
 performed their accustomed play of the fight with 
 the Danes, and she bestowed upon them her grudging 
 praise, " What fools ye Coventry folk are ! " 1 
 
 The progresses of King James were not so success- 
 ful and did not give the same pleasure to his subjects 
 
 1 Nichols's Progresses fully tells the story of the Queen's 
 wanderings. 
 
THE COURT 85 
 
 as Elizabeth's had done. I will venture to describe 
 an elaborate pageant on the Thames on the marriage 
 of his daughter, the unhappy Queen of Bohemia ; 
 and then my chronicle of Court doings must end. 
 Howes tells us that the entertainments consisted of 
 " fantastique or enchanted castles, rocks, bowers, 
 forests, and other devices floating upon the water, 
 being as pleasant to behold by day, as they seemed 
 strange by night. A stately fleet of ships, galeons, 
 argoses, galleys and bergantines, furnished with 
 cannons and guns, sailed up the river between 
 London Bridge and Whitehall, and encountered 
 the King's pinnace and other ships of war, and the 
 castles and rocks and beacons, and the Turkish 
 galleys resembled Algiers, and the whole was meant 
 to represent the battle of Lepanto, the show being 
 rather spoilt by the coming in of the tide and the 
 contrary wind." 
 
 Just before all this gaiety and pageantry took 
 place, the young Prince Henry died. It was a sad 
 blow for England, as he promised to make a good 
 King. 
 
V 
 THE LONDON OF SHAKESPEARE 
 
 SHAKESPEARE'S London was a far different 
 city from the great overgrown modern 
 metropolis, as we know it. Before the six- 
 teenth century the space within the old city walls 
 sufficed for the bulk of the population, which did 
 not exceed 120,000 at the beginning of the reign of 
 Elizabeth's sire. Nor was it overcrowded, as there 
 were monasteries and noblemen's houses with 
 gardens and pleasances and orchards bearing 
 fruit. But in the reign of the Virgin Queen all this 
 was altered. The city began to grow. The monas- 
 teries had been dissolved, and noblemen's houses 
 occupied their site. The gardens within the walls 
 were built over with sordid and mean hovels where 
 plague germinated. The streets were narrow and 
 irregular, and in spite of the royal edict of 1580 
 which prohibited the erection of buildings on new 
 sites within a radius of three miles of the City gates, 
 or the dividing of houses into two or more tenements, 
 poor people flocked to London as they have been 
 doing in recent years, driven principally by poverty 
 
 86 
 
THE LONDON OF SHAKESPEARE 87 
 
 and by the decrease of agricultural labour, and the 
 City became overcrowded. Plague stalked abroad 
 in the narrow, ill-drained, tortuous streets, in the 
 " stinking lanes," as a contemporary writer de- 
 scribed them, such as Turnagain Lane that ran 
 down the slope to Fleet Ditch, and in the crowded 
 pestilential dwellings of inner or outer London. 
 
 In spite of all this London was a noble city, a 
 City of palaces and towers, of fine churches and 
 splendid residences of nobles and bishops, of great 
 inns, of busy wharves and bustling commerce ; 
 and over all towered the great steeple of old St. 
 Paul's, shorn of its spire, a magnificent cathedral, 
 though Time had laid its heavy hand upon its 
 fabric. Looking at an old map of London We see 
 on the east the Tower of London standing out 
 conspicuously with its guarding walls and strong 
 fortifications, Old London Bridge connecting the 
 City with Bankside where the church of St. Mary 
 Ouverie (now Southwark Cathedral), the Globe 
 Theatre, and the Bear Garden, are conspicuous, 
 Barnard Castle, many a tower or spire of the City 
 churches ; but the grand Cathedral of St Paul Seems 
 to dominate the scene, while the hills of Hamp- 
 stead and Highgate form a pleasing background. 
 
 But the chief source of its greatness was its river, 
 the noble Thames, which gave to London a port. 
 William Camden wrote that : " The Thames by its 
 safe and deep channel was able to entertain the 
 greatest ships in existence, daily bringing in so 
 
88 THE ENGLAND OF SHAKESPEARE 
 
 great riches from all parts that it striveth with 
 the mart-towns of Christendom for the second 
 prize and affordeth a most sure and beautiful 
 Roade for shipping." The river was the great 
 highway in Elizabethan times. The roads and 
 lanes were badly paved, muddy, narrow and incon- 
 venient for coaches, which were rare at that period ; 
 and if you wished to travel from one part of the 
 City to another you would descend one of the 
 stairs that led to the waterside and be rowed in a 
 barge or wherry by some of the vast number of 
 watermen who plied for hire on the stately river. 
 Its waters could then boast of salmon, and was 
 very different from the dark muddy river with 
 which we are familiar. 
 
 Not long before Shakespeare was born the Strand 
 was a country road connecting the City with the 
 village of Charing, whence another road led to 
 Westminster, its magnificent Abbey with its 
 sanctuary and the royal palace. Across the river 
 was the palace of the Archbishop of Canterbury, 
 Lambeth, which you would have reached by means 
 of a wherry, though the river was usually fordable 
 at that place, and horses and waggons went through 
 the water. The old maps show the abundance of 
 shipping on the Thames, and the Queen, the great 
 people of the land, the Lord Mayor and the City 
 Companies had their State barges, and used to be 
 rowed up and down the river with musicians on 
 board; and there were splendid pageants on the 
 
THE LONDON OF SHAKESPEARE 89 
 
 water, the City magnates attired in their brilliant 
 robes of office, while city youths and apprentices 
 passed many a happy evening in water quintain, 
 charging each other with wooden spears and shields 
 in their wherries. Stow, who wrote his Survey in 
 Shakespeare's time, thus describes the traffic on 
 the river : " By the Thames all kinds of merchandise 
 be easily conveyed to London, the principal store- 
 house and staple of all commodities within the 
 realm. So that, omitting to speak of great ships 
 and other vessels of burthen there pertaineth to 
 the cities of London, Westminster and borough of 
 Southwark, above the number, as is supposed, of 
 2,000 wherries and other small boats, whereby 
 3,000 poor men at the least be set on work and 
 maintained." 
 
 Perhaps the best way of seeing London in the 
 time of the poet would be to borrow the Arch- 
 bishop's barge at Lambeth, where the Watergate 
 still records the fact that the river once lapped its 
 outer wall, or hire a wherry, and proceed down the 
 Thames, and observe the sights ; and afterwards 
 wander a little through the streets of the City. 
 As we start in our boat we see the noble Abbey 
 of Westminster " where kings and queens are 
 crowned," with its recently completed Henry VII's 
 chapel, one of the three finest examples of late 
 Gothic work in England, and its Jerusalem chamber 
 where Shakespeare tells of the death of Henry IV. 
 The old palace of Westminster looked a little 
 
90 THE ENGLAND OF SHAKESPEARE 
 
 deserted, as the Court no longer inhabited it, and 
 very different from the present Houses of Parlia- 
 ment erected by Sir Charles Barry between 1840 
 and 1859 after the disastrous fire of 1834. West- 
 minster Hall, built by William Rufus and rebuilt 
 by Richard II, looked much the same as it does 
 now, but there were then the Exchequer buildings 
 and the Star Chamber, a fearsome court that 
 men liked not to be tried in. Passing down the 
 river we come to Whitehall, then a stately pile, 
 where we have already paid our homage to the 
 Queen. It consisted of a vast courtyard, tennis 
 court and picture gallery ; and there were two 
 great gateways, one at the Westminster end called 
 the King Street end and the other at the north 
 end designed by Holbein and called after him, and 
 also the Whitehall or Cock-pit Gate. The grounds 
 included St. James's Park and the Tilt Yard, which 
 was situate where is now the Horse Guards' 
 Parade. Whitehall was formerly known as York 
 Place, being Wolsey's Palace, when he was Arch- 
 bishop of York, before it passed into the King's 
 hands. The change of name is noted in the play 
 Henry VIII (Act IV, scene 1). Passing onwards 
 we see York House, the town dwelling of the Arch- 
 bishops of York, formerly that of the Bishop of 
 Norwich arid then of Charles Brandon, Duke of 
 Suffolk, and subsequently of Nicholas Bacon, where 
 his illustrious son, Lord Bacon, the idol of the 
 Baconians, was born. It passed later on to King 
 
THE LONDON OF SHAKESPEARE 91 
 
 James's favourite " Steenie," Duke of Buckingham, 
 who built the Watergate, sole surviving part of the 
 mansion. Durham House comes next in order, one 
 of the most interesting of the old Strand palaces, 
 formerly belonging to the See of Durham. The 
 Royal Mint was established here. It saw the brief 
 triumph of poor Lady Jane Grey. At the time of 
 our pilgrimage in Shakespearean days it had been 
 granted by the Queen to Sir Walter Raleigh, 
 Salisbury House, the house of the Cecils, Earls of 
 Salisbury, looked proudly down upon the Thames. 
 The palace of the Bishops of Carlisle came next, 
 but before Shakespeare's time it had been assigned 
 to the Russells, Earls of Bedford. We see the water- 
 gate and garden of the Savoy palace, which Henry 
 VII converted into a hospital. It was rather under 
 a cloud, being managed by a rascally master, one 
 Thurland, who spent his time and money in 
 developing mines in Cumberland rather than 
 in tending his cure, and went bankrupt. Next 
 stood Somerset House, not the present masterpiece 
 of Sir Robert Chambers, erected in 1776-86, but 
 that raised by Protector Somerset, who pulled 
 down churches and plundered wholesale in order 
 to build this house, wherein Stuart queens held 
 high revel, and masques and dances made the old 
 court gay. 
 
 Then we see Arundel House, where lived the 
 Countess of Nottingham, who caused the death 
 of the Earl of Essex by the non-delivery of a ring 
 
92 THE ENGLAND OF SHAKESPEARE 
 
 to Queen Elizabeth. The Earl's own house, Essex 
 
 House, formerly known as Leicester House, stood 
 
 next to the home of his enemy. It is associated 
 
 with the two favourites of the Queen. Dudley, 
 
 Earl of Leicester obtained it by royal grant, 
 
 and after his death in 1588 it passed into the hands 
 
 of his unfortunate stepson, the Earl of Sussex. 
 
 Spenser refers to this house and to its owner. Of 
 
 Leicester he wrote : 
 
 " Next whereunto there stands a stately place, 
 Where oft I gayned gifts and goodly grace 
 Of that great Lord, which therein wont to dwell ; 
 Whose want too well now feels my freendles case." 
 
 And then of Essex : 
 
 " Yet therein now doth lodge a noble Peer, 
 Great England's glory and the world's wide wonder, 
 Whose dreadfull name late through all Spaine did 
 
 thunder, 
 And Hercules' two pillors standing neere 
 Did make to quake with feare." 
 
 The Temple Gardens next greet our eyes as we 
 
 row down the river. The Temple is redolent with 
 
 Shakespearean memories. In Middle Temple Hall 
 
 Twelfth Night was acted on February 2nd, 1601-2. 
 
 Here we feel in close touch with the poet, who in 
 
 the first part of Henry VI makes the gardens the 
 
 scene of the white and red rose-plucking by the 
 
 respective adherents of the houses of York and 
 
 Lancaster. Spenser also alludes to the Temple in 
 
 the lines : 
 
 " Where now the studious lawyers have their bowers, 
 There whylome wont the Templer Knights to bide." 
 
THE LONDON OF SHAKESPEARE 98 
 
 Where once the White Friars had their holy 
 house, Stow says, " that many fair houses were 
 built for noblemen and others." The place had the 
 privilege of sanctuary and became the Alsatia of 
 the outcasts of society. Shakespeare alludes to it 
 in the play Richard III, whither the body of Henry 
 VI is ordered to be taken. Adjoining this was the 
 royal palace of Bridewell, which Edward VI has 
 given to the City of London for a workhouse and 
 house of correction. The third act of Henry VIII 
 is supposed to be laid here. Close here the unsavoury 
 waters of the Fleet Ditch emptied themselves into 
 the Thames. 
 
 On the site of Printing House Square stood the 
 house of the Black Friars, wherein Queen Katharine 
 was tried. Some of the Queen's courtiers lived 
 here. Playhouse Yard proclaims the site of Bur- 
 bage's theatre, and Shakespeare had a house here. 
 It is near the summit of St. Andrew's Hill, and was 
 purchased by him in 1613. It is described in the 
 extant Deed of Conveyance as " now or late being 
 in the tenure or occupancy of one William Ireland 
 . . ."abutting upon a street leading down to Puddle 
 Wharf on the east part, right against the Kinges 
 Majesties Wardrobe." Ireland Yard remains to 
 the present day and at the juncture of this road 
 with St. Andrew's Hill was undoubtedly a home of 
 Shakespeare. Ireland Yard leads by Glasshouse 
 Yard, to Playhouse Yard, part of the site of the 
 Blackfriars Theatre, Glasshouse Yard tells of the 
 
94 THE ENGLAND OF SHAKESPEARE 
 
 industry of glass-making started by the Queen ; 
 and several artists lived within the precincts. 
 Barnard's Castle frowns down upon us as we 
 pass, formerly the ancient fortress built by Ralph 
 Barnard, a follower of William the Conqueror ; but 
 that had passed away and that which we see was 
 erected in 1428 by Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester. 
 In the play Richard III the Duke of Gloucester is 
 here offered the crown by the Duke of Buckingham. 
 We begin to see the busy scenes of the Port of 
 London, the river crowded with shipping, though 
 we must wait until we have passed London Bridge 
 before the extent of London's commerce is revealed. 
 Here, however, is Paul's Wharf, that takes its name 
 from the great cathedral hard by, Broken Wharf, 
 which was perhaps named from the breaking up 
 of old ships ; Queen Hythe and the Three Cranes, 
 where casks of wine from Bordeaux and Spain were 
 craned up on the Vintry Wharf. We pass the Steel- 
 yard, where the King's beam weighed the tonnage 
 of goods brought to London, and where the Hanse 
 merchants exercised their ancient privileges of 
 German " peaceful penetration," whose extortionate 
 career was ruthlessly stopped by the imperious 
 Queen. Shrewsbury House, to which a long history 
 is attached — too long to tell here — was fast falling 
 into decay, and was about to make way for meaner 
 dwellings. Just at the foot of London Bridge was 
 the '* Olde Swann," a hostel with stairs and landing- 
 place. The passage of a boat under the narrow 
 
THE LONDON OF SHAKESPEARE 95 
 
 arches of London Bridge was not unattended with 
 danger, and as we are prudent folk we land here 
 and walk across the end of the bridge, joining our 
 barge again on the other side. 
 
 London Bridge was considered one of the wonders 
 of Europe ; but it is a somewhat mean and unsuitable 
 structure, acting as a dam and causing an accumula- 
 tion of fallen ruins, so that " shooting London 
 Bridge " was a very perilous adventure. There 
 was a drawbridge in the centre, so that ships with 
 high masts could pass, and on the bridge were 
 constructed various buildings, including a chapel 
 with two storeys, and Nonsuch House, a wooden 
 building imported from Holland, with towers and 
 spires. Over the gate were the arms of Queen 
 Elizabeth. The bridge had originally a gate at 
 each end, that on the southern side being known 
 as Bridge Gate and subsequently Traitor's Gate, 
 so named because the head of traitors were dis- 
 played on spikes above it, and the other was taken 
 down in 1577 just before our water-pilgrimage 
 began. 
 
 We pass by several wharves and landing-places : 
 Lion Key, Billingsgate, which Norden in his map- 
 drawing seems to derive from Bellyn, till we come 
 to the Custom House, just newly built, and Gallery 
 Key ; and then the old Tower with its Traitor's 
 Gate and stout portcullis that seemed like iron 
 teeth to devour the unfortunate rebels. The Tower 
 had ceased to be a royal residence, and was mainly 
 
96 THE ENGLAND OF SHAKESPEARE 
 
 a gloomy fortress, a prison for traitors, or supposed 
 traitors, whose torture chambers and the block 
 lacked not many victims. It contained also a 
 primitive Zoological Gardens, where, in 1598, were 
 confined three lionesses, one lion, a tiger, a lynx, 
 a wolf, a porcupine, all kept in a remote place, 
 " fitted up for the purpose with wooden lattices at 
 the Queen's expense." 1 Here James and some 
 members of his Court came to see some lions and 
 a bear bated by dogs, a somewhat sickening 
 spectacle. The Tower is often mentioned in the 
 plays and scenes laid therein. St. Katherine's 
 Hospital, that benevolent institution founded by 
 Queen Matilda, wife of King Stephen, and which 
 blossomed anew in modern times in Regent's Park, 
 completes the points of interest recorded, in 
 Norden's map, and there our pilgrimage may end, 
 and we may return along the southern side. 
 
 Glancing at this southern shore of the Thames 
 river we notice " S. Towleyes," which name is a 
 corruption of St. Olave's, Tooley Street, " a fair 
 and neat large church " of a parish inhabited 
 " especially by aliens or strangers and poor people," 
 as Stow records, who tells also of the ancient hostel 
 of the Abbot of St. Augustine, Canterbury, nigh 
 the church, in his time divided into tenements. 
 Then we find ourselves in a most interesting 
 Shakespearean neighbourhood, that of Southwark 
 with its noble church of St. Saviour or St. Mary 
 
 1 Social England, III, p. 782. 
 
THE LONDON OF SHAKESPEARE 67 
 
 Ouverie, which in modern times has been raised 
 
 to the dignity of a cathedral. It contains a splendid 
 
 modern memorial of the poet, who for some time 
 
 resided in the Bankside, the tomb of Edmund 
 
 Shakespeare, the poet's brother, of Philip Massinger, 
 
 the poet Gower, the player Lawrence Fletcher, and 
 
 John Fletcher the dramatist. Sir Aston Cokayne's 
 
 verses record the memory of two of these poets : 
 
 " In the same grave Fletcher was buried, here 
 Lies the stage poet, Philip Massinger ; 
 Plays they did write together, were great friends, 
 And now one grave includes them at their ends ; 
 To whom on earth nothing did part, beneath 
 Here in their fames they lie in spight of death." 
 
 West of the church stood Winchester House, 
 the town residence of the Bishops of Winchester. 
 Some remains of the hall can still be seen in the 
 large warehouse that now covers its side. Further 
 west is the region of Shakespearean drama, where 
 stood the Rose Theatre, called in Norden's map the 
 Playhouse, which we shall see again when we visit 
 the London theatres, and the Bear-house where 
 bears were baited and other cruel sports indulged in, 
 both situate in Paris Gardens. Further west we 
 find the Lambeth Marshes, and a little further on 
 the Palace of the Archbishop, whence we started 
 on our pilgrimage. 
 
 We must now leave the river and traverse the 
 
 narrow winding streets of the City, and contrast its 
 
 appearance with the London that we know to-day. 
 
 The walls of the City, though somewhat decayed, 
 
 7 
 
98 THE ENGLAND OF SHAKESPEARE 
 
 still surrounded it, but the ditches had been filled 
 up with refuse. The City gates still frowned down 
 upon the passenger, and Newgate had just been 
 rebuilt (1586), when Shakespeare tramped from 
 Stratford and probably entered London through 
 its portals. He had passed through Uxbridge past 
 the gallows at Tyburn, along Holborn. He saw 
 Staple Inn, very much as we see it to-day, and 
 then through Newgate entered the City. Within the 
 walls in Pre-Reformation times there had been a 
 large number of monasteries with their gardens and 
 orchards. These for the most part were situate 
 in the region north of the great line of streets, 
 Newgate, Cheapside, Cornhill, Leadenhall and Aid- 
 gate, while south of this there were tortuous streets 
 and masses of buildings in which the population was 
 closely packed. In Elizabeth's time the northern 
 portion was being quickly built over, in order to 
 provide dwellings for the large number of immigrants 
 who flocked into London. The house of the Grey 
 Friars had been converted into Christ's Hospital, 
 or the Bluecoat School, by the Queen's royal 
 brother, King Edward VI, where now the Post 
 Office stands. Part of the old London wall has 
 been discovered recently in the open space in 
 front of the new Post Office buildings, and in this 
 wall was a gate leading to the grounds of St. 
 Bartholomew's Hospital, close to which still stands 
 the famous church with the tomb of the founder 
 Rahere. The open space Smithfield lay before it, 
 
THE LONDON OF SHAKESPEARE 99 
 
 formerly the scene of gorgeous tournaments, and 
 of the cruel fires of martyrdom which had not long 
 before died down. If we proceeded northwards 
 we should soon see the Charterhouse, once the 
 pious home of the old Carthusians. But the monks 
 had gone, and the noblemen had entered into their 
 possessions. It had not yet begun its career as a 
 hospital and famous school, but was the home of 
 the clever nobleman, Lord North, who had trimmed 
 his sails to every wind that blew, retaining the 
 favour of all the Tudor monarchs from the time 
 of Henry VIII to that of the Virgin Queen, who 
 was often entertained by him at the Charterhouse. 
 
 When Shakespeare came to London he marched 
 along Newgate Street to St. Martin's le Grand, 
 and as he passed along the street saw the shambles 
 or meat market. Close at hand, where the collegiate 
 church stood, was a wild Alsatian colony that 
 enjoyed the privilege of sanctuary, where broken 
 men, rufflers, fraudulent debtors and outlaws con- 
 gregated, and defied the mermidons of the law. 
 
 The youthful poet would turn aside to see the 
 grand Cathedral of old St. Paul's, walking along 
 Old Change and entering the precincts by St. Augus- 
 tine's Gate. Its grand stern beauty must have 
 made a deep impression upon his mind. The noble 
 proportions of the building and its great size, the 
 soaring height of the nave and the massive tower 
 200 feet in height, which had lost its lofty spire in 
 1561, would strike the visitor with a sense of the 
 
100 THE ENGLAND OF SHAKESPEARE 
 
 dignity of this glorious church. In the churchyard 
 he saw Paul's Cross which Stow describes as " a 
 pulpit cross of timber, mounted on steps of stone 
 and covered with lead in which are sermons 
 preached every Sunday in the forenoon." 
 
 He enters the Cathedral and admires the grand 
 beauty of the building, its walls ablaze with colour, 
 richly canopied tombs and floor of marble ; but 
 being a lover of life and all things that pertain to 
 humanity, he is distracted by the strange humour 
 of Paul's Walk ; and sees the motley crowd that 
 promenaded the central thoroughfare. Shake- 
 speare afterwards represented Falstaff in Henry V 
 as having " bought Bardolph in Paul's," and 
 Dekker describes the strange crowd composed of 
 " the knight, the gallant, the upstart, the gentle- 
 man, the clown, the captain, the apple-squire, the 
 lawyer, the usurer, the citizen, the bankrupt, 
 the scholar, the beggar, the doctor, the idiot, the 
 ruffian, the cheat, the Puritan, the cut-throat, 
 highman, lowman and thief ; of all trades and 
 professions some ; of all countries some. Thus 
 while Devotion kneels at her prayers, doth Profana- 
 tion walk under her nose in contempt of Religion." 
 
 Here lawyers received their clients ; here men 
 sought service ; here usurers met their victims, 
 and the tombs and font were mightily convenient 
 for counters for the exchanges of money and the 
 transactions of bargains ; and the rattle of gold 
 and silver was constantly heard amidst the loud 
 
THE LONDON OF SHAKE^EAftE lol 
 
 talking of the crowd. Both men and women vied 
 with each other in the display of their costumes, 
 and fair maids looked not displeased when gallants 
 paid them marked attention. 
 
 But we have seen enough of such profane irrever- 
 ence, and walk with the youthful poet to Pater- 
 noster Row, and look with envious eyes at the stalls 
 of the booksellers. At the west end of West Cheap, 
 now called Cheapside, was the Little Conduit and 
 the Church of St. Michael-le-Querne, and, then one 
 of the marvels of London, the famous Goldsmiths' 
 Row, described by Stow and built by Thomas Wood, 
 goldsmith, in 1491. It was newly painted and 
 gilded in 1594, and in the windows were exhibited 
 a great store of Venetian gold cups, jugs, ear-rings 
 and ornaments of various designs that excited the 
 admiration of the Queen. Here, too, is Bread 
 Street, where the bakers congregated, and Friday 
 Street with its fish-shops, and with a front to 
 both thoroughfares stands the Mermaid Inn, where 
 poets and wits assembled in the memorable Mer- 
 maid Club. There we meet Shakespeare, Sir Walter 
 Raleigh, Ben Jonson, Beaumont, Fletcher, Donne, 
 Selden and a host of others. Was there ever such 
 a galaxy of genius ? No wonder Beaumont wrote ; 
 " What things have we seen 
 Done at the Mermaid ! Heard words that have been 
 So nimble, and so full of subtle flame, 
 As if that every one from whom they came 
 Had meant to put his whole wit in a jest, 
 And had resolved to live — fool the rest 
 Of his dull life. ' 
 
102 THE ENGLAND OF SHAKESPEARE 
 
 No wonder that a modern bard has told in sonorous 
 verse the deeds done by this brilliant company. 
 Proceeding eastward we come to Bucklersbury, 
 where were the shops of the grocers and apothe- 
 caries and herbalists, to which Falstaff refers in the 
 Merry Wives of Windsor when he contends that he 
 was not " like a many of those lisping hawthorn- 
 buds, that come like women in men's apparel, and 
 smell like Bucklerbury in simple time." Mercers' 
 Hall stood then where it does now, the premier 
 Company's abode, chief of that noble band of City 
 Guilds which have done so much for London and 
 for England. Old Jewry, Bow Church, the Eleanor 
 Cross, the Great Conduit, the Standard, where Lord 
 Say was killed by Cade's rebels, all these we pass in 
 our pilgrimage. 
 
 The modern Guildhall is very different now in 
 appearance to what it was in Shakespeare's time ; 
 but Sir Thomas Gresham held the civic feasts and 
 displayed the proud and sumptuous hospitality of 
 the Lord Mayor as in modern days. In the church- 
 yard of the neighbouring church, St. Mary Alder- 
 manbury, is a modern monument to Hemmings and 
 Condell, Shakespeare's companions, who earned 
 the gratitude of posterity by collecting and publish- 
 ing his plays. The church was destroyed in the 
 Great Fire, and the present one was built on the 
 site of the former edifice. 
 
 It is impossible to traverse all the streets of old 
 London and note its buildings in this brief chapter, 
 
THE LONDON OF SHAKESPEARE 103 
 
 but we must examine some of the most prominent. 
 When Shakespeare came to London the Great 
 Bourse, or Royal Exchange, was newly built, and 
 Queen Elizabeth had opened in state that noble 
 building, reared by the famous City merchant Sir 
 Thomas Gresham after the fashion of the Bourse at 
 Antwerp. It consisted of a large quadrangle sur- 
 rounded by a cloister, above which was the Pawn, 
 a corridor or promenade with shops and stalls full 
 of costly goods, wherein a fashionable company 
 strolled in the evenings, and the scenes that en- 
 livened or disgraced Paul's Walk in the daytime 
 were re-enacted. Above this were sets of rooms 
 for business purposes, and a great bell-tower and 
 a tall Corinthian column, each surmounted by the 
 Gresham crest, a grasshopper, completed the 
 building. An excellent view of this is given in 
 Holler's print. The traders who assembled here 
 formed a very cosmopolitan crowd. Merchants 
 from Venice and Vienna, Lombards, Frenchmen 
 from Paris and Bordeaux, traders from Amsterdam, 
 Antwerp and Hamburg, all flocked here, and 
 almost every language was heard and every style 
 of foreign garb seen. No wonder Dekker observed 
 that " at every turn a man is put in mind of Babel." 
 In East Cheap are the cooks' shops, where a 
 savoury meal may be procured, and some noted 
 inns and taverns, the Black Bell, once the residence 
 of the Black Prince, the King's Head and the 
 Boar's Head, over which Dame Quickly presides 
 
104 THE ENGLAND OF SHAKESPEARE 
 
 and Falstaff is often in attendance. In Cannon 
 Street we must glance at London Stone, which has 
 crossed the road since Shakespeare's time, and think 
 of Jack Cade striking it with his sword and exclaim- 
 ing, " Now is Mortimer lord of the City." Shake- 
 speare makes him say : " Here sitting upon London 
 Stone I charge that the conduit run nothing but 
 claret wine this first year of our reign " (Henry VI, 
 Part II). 
 
 Bishopsgate Street had many fair houses of 
 prosperous merchants. Sir Thomas Gresham had 
 a residence here. At Crosby Hall 1 the poet 
 makes Richard Duke of Gloster bid the Lady 
 Anne to 
 
 " Presently repair to Crosby Place," 
 
 and there Richard lived and plotted the murder 
 of the Princes in the Tower. In Elizabethan times 
 it was the residence of the richest merchant in the 
 City, Sir John Spencer, whose daughter and heir 
 made a romantic marriage, which has been recorded 
 already. In the same street lived Sir Paul Pindar, 
 another worthy whose name I have mentioned 
 on an earlier page. 2 Sir Francis Walsingham lived 
 close by at the Papye, formerly a hospital for poor 
 priests, and here still stands the beautiful Church 
 of St. Helen, formerly attached to the nunnery 
 of St. Helen. We are on Shakespearean ground, as 
 
 1 Now removed to Chelsea. For a history of the house see 
 my book, London Survivals (Methuen). 
 
 1 For a sketch of his life see London Survivals, p. 206. 
 
THE LONDON OF SHAKESPEARE 105 
 
 a subsidy roll in the Record Office records that the 
 poet once lived in the precinct in 1598. It appears 
 that he was then so busy writing plays and acting 
 that he forgot to pay his quota. 1 A fine window 
 has been erected to his memory in the church. 
 Another great Elizabethan, though little accounted 
 of in his time, John Stow, the historian, to whose 
 monumental work every writer is indebted, lived 
 hard by, close to the Church of St. Andrew Under- 
 shaft, wherein is his monument erected by his 
 widow. 
 
 I have no space wherein to describe all the 
 numerous churches in London, so many of which 
 were swept away by the Great Fire. We should 
 have noticed in Broad Street the beautiful church 
 of the Augustine Friars, which was granted by 
 Queen Elizabeth to the Dutch colony in London 
 and still remains in their possession. In Shake- 
 speare's time the precincts had been divided into 
 gardens, and there was a large house erected by 
 William Paulet, first Marquis of Winchester, whose 
 son ruthlessly plundered the church and sold the 
 monuments and everything else that was of value. 
 At the juncture of Fenchurch and Leadenhall 
 Streets stood the hospitium of the priory of Holy 
 Trinity, known as Christ Church, the greatest of all 
 the monastic institutions in London except West- 
 minster. The prior was held in honour in the City 
 
 1 Roll of the Pipe, 49 Eliz. 1598 : " William Shakespeare in 
 the Parish of St. Helen's Bishopgate owe 13s 4<1 of the subsidy." 
 
106 THE ENGLAND OF SHAKESPEARE 
 
 and ranked as an Alderman. The King seized the 
 priory at the dissolution of monasteries, and gave 
 it to Sir Thomas Audley, who built a fine house. 
 Stow watched the destruction of the old building, 
 which was wrought with much difficulty. In Shake- 
 speare's time it was known as Duke's Place, as it 
 had passed to the Duke of Norfolk, who married 
 Audley's daughter. 
 
 If we wended our way northward through Bishops- 
 gate we should come to Shoreditch, where there is 
 a modern church dedicated to St. Leonard. The 
 registers of the older church have happily been 
 preserved, and in them we find the names of Tarle- 
 ton, the Queen's jester, James Burbage, his son 
 Richard, Cuthbert Burbage, William Somers, George 
 Wilkins (poet and player), Richard Cowley (player) 
 and many other of the actors in the Burbage and 
 Shakespeare companies. They used to act in the 
 two theatres called the Curtain and the Theatre, 
 which stood in the Finsbury Fields on land that 
 formerly belonged to the Priory of Holywell. The 
 Theatre was Burbage's playhouse ; the Curtain 
 was erected by a rival. But of theatres I hope to 
 tell in a later chapter. In Shoreditch Church there 
 is a monument to the memory of the famous family 
 of Burbage, to whom the Elizabethan drama owes so 
 much, and a memorial window to our national poet. 
 
 As we traverse the streets of Elizabethan London 
 and meet the people Shakespeare knew, we notice 
 many strange sights and curious characters. I 
 
THE LONDON OF SHAKESPEARE 107 
 
 have not mentioned the abodes of the lawyers, save 
 the Temple. There was Gray's Inn with its associa- 
 tion with Lord Bacon. In its hall, which was 
 regularly strewn with rushes, masques and revels 
 took place, and here Shakespeare's Comedy of Errors 
 was performed on 28th of December, 1594. There 
 was a great masque given to the Court of Queen 
 Elizabeth by Lord Bacon and his friends, and 
 another on the occasion of the marriage of the 
 Princess Elizabeth to the Prince Palatine. Probably 
 it was after one of these revels that Bacon wrote 
 his essay on Masques and Triumphs. " These things 
 are but toys, but since princes will have such things, 
 it is better they should be graced with elegancy 
 than daubed with cost." The whole essay throws 
 light upon the sort of entertainment that was 
 enacted in the spacious days of good Queen Bess. 
 The garden was laid out by Bacon, who was one of 
 the most distinguished alumni of the Inn. Doubtless 
 he framed it after the model set out in his essay on 
 gardening. He was partial to some " fair alleys to 
 give a full shade and shelter, that when the wind 
 blows sharp you may walk as in a gallery." So 
 well did he construct these that they were a feature 
 of the place, according to the rhyme : 
 
 " Gray's Inn for walks, Lincoln's Inn for wall, 
 The Inner Temple for a garden, and the Middle for a hall." 
 
 Moreover, he advocated the raising of mounts, 
 " A fair mount with three ascents and alleys, 
 
103 THE ENGLAND OF SHAKESPEARE 
 
 enough for four to walk abreast." On the west 
 side of the garden he constructed a mount that was 
 called after him, " Lord Bacon's Mount." More- 
 over, he planted a katulpa tree which he brought 
 from abroad. After his disgrace he retired here 
 and wrote his Novum Organum, and, if we are to 
 believe the Baconians, the plays of Shakespeare, 
 the poems attributed to Spenser and also Don 
 Quixote ! Lincoln's Inn with its fine gate and its 
 old hall and buildings remains, though it has a 
 grand new hall and library. Shakespeare mentions 
 Ely Place, formerly the London house of the 
 Bishop of Ely, the lease of which had been obtained 
 by Sir Christopher Hatton, the dancing Lord 
 Chancellor, by order of the Queen ; his name 
 remains in Hatton Gardens. " Bid him repair to 
 Ely-house," occurs in Richard II (Act II, scene i), 
 and Gloster says to the Bishop in Richard III : 
 
 " My Lord of Ely, when I was last in Holborn, 
 I saw good strawberries in your garden there ; 
 I do beseech you, send for some of them." 
 
 Such were some of the buildings and the sights 
 of Shakespearean London, when the poet lived 
 therein. But who shall tell the extraordinary 
 varied life of the people ? We hear the cries of the 
 white-aproned cooks in East Chepe crying out, 
 *' Hot ribs of beef," " Pies well baked." Falstaff 
 and others like him are calling to Dame Quickly, 
 " Come, give's some sack." Riotous apprentices are 
 calling " Clubs." Foreign faces and garb meet us 
 
THE LONDON OF SHAKESPEARE 109 
 
 in the streets, and savage tongues mingle with the 
 English. Poor prisoners in Newgate, the Fleet, the 
 Clink, the Compter, cry aloud to the passers-by for 
 meat and bread. Ballad-singers chant the latest 
 ballad. Autolycus is peddling his wares. Everyone 
 is in a hurry. Courtiers are returning from White- 
 hall, the crowds of people from the play or the bear- 
 baiting ; and as the evening shadows fall, the 
 watchmen call out to the dwellers in the over- 
 hanging houses, " Hang out your lights ! " the 
 rufflers and the criminals prowl about seeking whom 
 they may devour. Down Wapping way there are 
 taverns and narrow streets and rope- walks, and there 
 ear-ringed sailors in the inns in an atmosphere foul 
 with tobacco tell of strange adventures in the 
 Spanish Main and of their battles with the Spaniards. 
 Such were some of the scenes of London life in the 
 poet's time. But it was not far to journey to the 
 country. Chelsea, Pimlico, Charing, were rural 
 villages. The Queen hunted in her parks at Maryle- 
 bone and Hyde Park. Londoners had not far to 
 travel to go a-Maying and wash their faces in morn- 
 ing dew. Wearied with the din and turmoil of 
 the Great City, we will retire from its crowded 
 street, follow in the footsteps of the poet, and try 
 to find a little rural repose. 
 
VI 
 
 SHAKESPEARE'S 
 HOME AT STRATFORD-ON-AVON 
 
 IEAVING London City we will betake Our- 
 selves into the country and try to realise 
 —'the England that Shakespeare knew, the 
 kind of buildings and surroundings on which his 
 eyes were accustomed to rest, whenever he wandered 
 away from the great City of London in the company 
 of players, or abode in tranquillity at Stratford-on- 
 Avon. He was a great traveller along our country 
 roads. Oxford he knew well, where he often stayed 
 at the Crown and, it is said, admired Mistress 
 Davenant, the innkeeper's wife. In 1593 he went 
 to Bristol with Lord Hunsdon's company of actors, 
 whence he wandered by the Severn River to Shrews- 
 bury, and then by Stratford back to London. In 
 1603 he was at Coventry, and later on Leicestershire 
 knew him, and Coventry and Marlborough, and the 
 towns and villages through which he passed. He 
 was a much-travelled person, journeying in his 
 early days on foot, and in the time of his affluence 
 on horseback. The days of coaching were not yet. 
 
 110 
 
SHAKESPEARE'S HOME AT STRATFORD ill 
 
 I am going to tell you of the manor houses and the 
 humble dwellings of the poor that studded the 
 country-side when Shakespeare wrote his immortal 
 plays, and of the village life which he knew so well, 
 and which finds reflexion in his verse. 
 
 Our first thoughts will go back to that first 
 twenty years of his life spent in the heart of England, 
 that middle shire so picturesque and richly storied, 
 Warwickshire, and to that quaint old town of Strat- 
 ford which was ever dear to the poet's heart. His 
 writings show that his mind was imbued and his 
 imagination stirred by the legends and traditions 
 of his native shire, by wandering amidst the wood- 
 land haunts of the Forest of Arden, by the beauty, 
 variety and freedom of sylvan life. The deer ran 
 wild in the thickets of Arden, and the plays show 
 how skilled he was in the whole art of venery and 
 how familiar with that " highest franchise of noble 
 and princely pleasure." 
 
 The banished duke, in As You Like It, is made 
 to say : 
 
 " Come, shall we go and kill us venison ? 
 And yet it irks me, the poor dappled fools, 
 Being native burghers of this desert city, 
 Should, in their own confines, with forked heads, 
 Have their round haunches gor'd." 
 
 The poet had often listened to the cry of the 
 hounds or he would never have penned those lines 
 in A Midsummer Night's Dream that describe then- 
 perfections : 
 
112 THE ENGLAND OF SHAKESPEARE 
 
 " My hounds are bred out of the Spartan kind, 
 So flew'd, so sanded ; and their heads are hung 
 With ears that sweep away the morning dew ; 
 Crook-knee'd, and dew-lapp'd like Thessalian bulls ; 
 Slow in pursuit, but match'd in mouth like bells, 
 Each under each." 
 
 The sportsmen of those days seem to have taken 
 great pains in selecting their hounds so as to make 
 their cry musical and pleasant to the ear. A con- 
 temporary of Shakespeare, Gervase Markham, in 
 his Country Contentments, published in 1611, thus 
 describes how it was accomplished : 
 
 " If you would have your kennel for sweetness 
 of cry, then you must compound it of some large 
 dogs that have deep solemn mouths and are swift 
 in spending, which must, as it were, bear the bass 
 in the consort, then a double number of roaring 
 and loud ringing mouths which must bear the 
 counter-tenor, then some hollow plain sweet mouths 
 which must bear the mean or middle part : and so 
 with these parts of music you shall make your cry 
 perfect : and herein you shall observe that these 
 hounds thus mixed do run just and even together, 
 and not hang off loose one from another, which is 
 the vilest sight that may be, and you shall under- 
 stand that this composition is best to be made of 
 the swiftest and largest deep-mouthed dog, the 
 slowest middle-sized dog, and the shortest-legged 
 slender dog, and if amongst these you cast in a couple 
 or two of small singing beagles, which as small trebles 
 may warble amongst them, the cry will be a great 
 deal the sweeter. . . . 
 
 " If you would have your kennel for depth of 
 
SHAKESPEARE'S HOME AT STRATFORD 113 
 
 mouth, then you should compound it of the largest 
 dogs, which have the greatest mouths and deepest 
 flews, such as your west-country Cheshire and Lanca- 
 shire dogs are, and to five or six couple of bass mouths 
 you shall not add above two couple of counter- 
 tenors, as many means, and not above one couple 
 of roarers, which being heard but now and then, as 
 at the opening or hitting of a scent, will give much 
 sweetness to the solemness and graveness of the cry, 
 and the music thereof will be much more delightful 
 to the ears of every beholder." 
 
 And thus does the famous sportsman describe his 
 favourite pastime : 
 
 " I think it not amiss to begin and give that 
 recreation precedency of place, which is mine 
 opinion (however it may be esteemed partial) doth 
 many degrees go before and precede all other, as 
 being most royal for the stateliness thereof, most 
 artificial for the wisdom and cunning thereof, and 
 most manly and warlike for the use and endurance 
 thereof. And this I hold to be the hunting of wild 
 beasts in general : of which, as the chases are many, 
 so will I speak of them particularly in their proper 
 places. But before I proceed any further I will tell 
 you what hunting is, and from the true definition 
 thereof make your way more easy and plain into 
 the hidden art of the same. Hunting is then a 
 curious search or conquest of one beast over another, 
 pursued by a natural instinct of enmity, and accom- 
 plished by the diversities and distinction of smells 
 only, wherein Nature equally dividing her cunning 
 giveth both to the offender and offended strange 
 
 8 
 
114 THE ENGLAND OF SHAKESPEARE 
 
 knowledge both of offence and safety. In this 
 recreation is to be seen the wonderful power of God 
 in his creatures, and how far rage and policy can 
 prevail against innocence and wisdom. But to pro- 
 ceed to my main purpose, you shall understand 
 that as the chases are many which we daily hunt, 
 as that of the stag, the buck, the roe, the hare, the 
 fox, the badger, the otter, the boar, the goat and 
 suchlike, so the pursuers or conquerors of these 
 chases (speaking of hunting only) are but one kind 
 of creatures, namely, hounds." 
 
 Shakespeare seems to have been quite familiar 
 with the noble art of hunting ; and the latest 
 authorities agree in thinking that the traditional 
 story of the poaching affray in Charlecote Park is 
 founded upon fact, and that Sir Thomas Lucy of 
 Charlecote was the prototype of Mr. Justice Shallow. 
 By his rovings through the forest his mind was 
 stored with the lore of park, warren and chase, and 
 the loveliness of country sights and sounds. 
 
 His imagination was also fired by the stirring 
 events in the history of his country. Eight miles 
 away stood the lordly castle of Warwick, with 
 all the associations of the great King-maker. The 
 battle of Bosworth Field was fought only eighty 
 years before the poet's birth, and we know how 
 long stories and traditions linger on in the country. 
 Even now in North Oxfordshire the peasants can tell 
 you stories of the Great Civil War, just as if Charles 
 and Cromwell were fighting the other day ; so the 
 
SHAKESPEARE'S HOME AT STRATFORD 115 
 
 men who Shakespeare knew, the farmers and 
 foresters of Arden, would discourse to him of the 
 century-old battle, and laid in his mind the founda- 
 tion of those historical romances upon which that 
 great series of historical dramas was constructed. 
 To the value of these merely as a study of English 
 history the great writer, Mr. James Gardner, bears 
 abundant witness. 
 
 We will visit first the poet's home, the town of 
 Stratford. We must not expect to find in this 
 modern place all that Shakespeare knew and saw. 
 Mr. Halliwell-Phillips, the great Shakespearean 
 scholar, says that with the exception of a few 
 diffused buildings, scarcely one of which is in its 
 original condition, there is no resemblance between 
 the present town and the Shakespearean borough. 
 But some certainly remain. There is the well-known 
 birthplace of the poet. It is one of the two houses 
 in Henley Street purchased by John Shakespeare, 
 his father, in 1575. It has been somewhat altered 
 and much restored. I have seen an old print of 
 the house as it was in 1858, which shows that it was 
 then in a very dilapidated condition. It has now 
 three graceful gables which were entirely lacking in 
 the earlier picture. The restorers, however, were 
 guided by old prints and plans, and tried to make 
 it as nearly as possible as it was in the poet's time. 
 It is a plain half-timbered house, or rather two 
 cottages made into one. Half a century ago the 
 southern part of it was faced with brick. The 
 
116 THE ENGLAND OF SHAKESPEARE 
 
 restoration has been done in a very conservative 
 spirit, and only when the woodwork was decayed 
 were new timbers inserted. At one time the house 
 was used as a butcher's shop and the stone floor of 
 the main room was much damaged. This has been 
 left as it was. A great beam supports the floor 
 timbers of the room above this. There is a large 
 stone fire-place with a heavy beam across the top. 
 A door opens to the back-room or kitchen, which 
 has another large chimney-piece with an ingle-nook. 
 A small parlour and back hall complete the ground- 
 floor accommodation, and stairs lead to the cellar 
 and the birth-room on the first floor. This room is 
 very similar to the main room below, and has 
 another large fire-place and lattice windows. Some 
 noted names have been scratched upon the glass, 
 including those of Sir Walter Scott and Charles 
 Dickens. The ceiling is somewhat shaky ; so the 
 attics have been closed to visitors. On the left of 
 the entrance there are some rooms in which are 
 stored the municipal archives of the borough of 
 Stratford, and there the governors of the Shake- 
 speare Birth-Place Trust hold their meetings. 
 
 The poet's father, John Shakespeare, is reported 
 to have been a man of many occupations according 
 to various writers. These included the trades 
 of a glover, tanner, corn-merchant, wool-stapler, 
 butcher and timber-merchant. It is probable that 
 his original industry was glove-making, and being 
 a man of unwonted energy, who rose to be Chief 
 
SHAKESPEARE'S HOME AT STRATFORD 117 
 
 Alderman of his native town, he combined with it 
 other kindred trades and various dealings. The 
 house adjoining his home at Stratford is believed 
 to have been his wool-shop, and is now, renovated 
 and restored, a Shakespearean museum and library, 
 containing many relics of the poet which are too 
 numerous to be recorded here. They are of perennial 
 interest to the crowds of tourists from England, 
 America, the Colonies and every civilised country 
 who make their pilgrimage to the poet's town and 
 home and birthplace and do homage to Shake- 
 speare's memory. 
 
 We must look at the garden wherein flourish all 
 the flowers mentioned in the plays, lilies, carna- 
 tions, " streak'd gilliflowers, the fairest flowers of the 
 season, that some call Nature's bastards," rosemary 
 and rue, " these keep seeming and savour all the 
 winter long," and " morning roses newly washed 
 with dew," pale primrose, "first-born child of 
 spring," cuckoo-cups, poppies, daffodils, lavender, 
 honeysuckle, eglantine, oxlips, pansies, " for 
 thoughts," and all the rest of the old-fashioned 
 English blooms that delighted the poet's eyes, and 
 of which he sang so sweetly. 
 
 But the house wherein Shakespeare in his boy- 
 hood lived is not the only thing in Stratford 
 upon which his serene brown eyes rested. The 
 whole town in the sixteenth century consisted of 
 these half-timbered, gable-roofed, wood-and-plaster 
 houses, with gardens at the back and also at the 
 
118 THE ENGLAND OF SHAKESPEARE 
 
 sides ; the streets were broad, and took the form of 
 a central cross, and at the intersection stood the 
 High Cross, a solid stone building with steps below 
 and open arches above. There were held the 
 markets. There was another cross in the Rother 
 market, where quantities of cattle were sold — 
 " Rother " being an old Saxon name for horned 
 cattle, and Shakespeare uses it in his play, Timon 
 of Athens. 
 
 The old bridge built by Sir Hugh Clopton in the 
 fifteenth century still spans the Avon. Across this 
 the poet must often have wandered, and I seem to 
 see him clinging to his mother's hand strolling along 
 the bank of the stream, watching the graceful swans 
 and listening to her voice as she discourses to him of 
 the lore of birds and flowers, and of the stories of 
 olden times, unfolding the pages of history and of the 
 part which the Ardens and Shakespeares may have 
 played in the national annals. Mary Arden was of 
 gentle birth and good family. There was a Sir 
 Thomas Arden, squire of the body to Henry VII, 
 a brother of Robert, great uncle of the poet's 
 mother. 
 
 The buildings of the Grammar School bring us 
 in close touch with the poet's early life, and perhaps 
 in his picture of the Seven Ages of Man he remem- 
 bered himself as a boy, " with satchell on his back 
 trudging unwillingly to school." This Grammar 
 School was situate in the grand old Gothic build- 
 ings of the Guild of the Holy Cross, which in pre- 
 
SHAKESPEARE'S HOME AT STRATFORD 119 
 
 Reformation days was very rich and powerful. 
 Its records date back to 1352, and it owned most 
 of the property in the town. It was one of those 
 important institutions which conferred so many 
 advantages on the people in the Middle Ages. It 
 taught the children, promoted religion, cherished 
 brotherly love, kept its annual feast and provided 
 for its members in their old age. Some were very 
 wealthy corporations and had a large membership. 
 In 1416 this Guild had 173 members, and its feast 
 was very sumptuous with a very extended menu. 
 The minstrels of Warwick performed during dinner. 
 The young Prince Edward, for a brief space King 
 Edward V, was a member, and the names of many 
 noblemen and gentlemen appear on the Guild roll. 
 The noble Guild chapel remains wherein the priest 
 performed the daily services, and where a candle 
 was kept burning in honour of Our Lord Jesus 
 Christ, the Blessed Virgin and the Holy Cross, so 
 that " God and the Blessed Virgin and the Vener- 
 ated Cross may keep and guard all brethren and 
 sisters of the Guild from every evil." 
 
 But all this had changed just before Shakespeare's 
 day. The unscrupulous Commissioners of King 
 . Edward VI had seized upon the property of the 
 Guild and confiscated its revenues. Happily Strat- 
 ford fared better than many other guilds. The 
 King was induced to disgorge some of the stolen 
 property and to re-endow the school and the alms- 
 houses. In Queen Elizabeth's time the images in 
 
120 THE ENGLAND OF SHAKESPEARE 
 
 the chapel were defaced and the rood-loft removed 
 and other damage caused, but the Grammar School 
 remained. The hall of the Guild was used for plays 
 in 1568. It is a long narrow room and was built in 
 the early part of the fifteenth century. There is 
 a playground, garden, orchard, homes for the poor 
 brethren, a priest's house, the Pedagogue's House, 
 an armoury and council room, muniment room 
 and library, and the Latin schoolroom. Here the 
 poet received his early education, being thoroughly 
 grounded in Latin, and under the masterships 
 of Walter Roche, Thomas Hunt and Thomas 
 Jenkins ; and Sir Sidney Lee has shown by refer- 
 ences to the plays how well he knew Ovid, though 
 his scholarly friend, Ben Jonson, declared that he 
 had " small Latin and less Greek." A visit to the 
 large schoolroom makes one picture in imagination 
 the clever, bright, brown-eyed boy sitting at 
 his desk pouring over the Metamorphoses, Lily's 
 grammar, or writing in the " Old English " 
 script. 
 
 The desk that is said to have been used by him 
 is preserved at the Birth House, though it is prob- 
 ably of later date. Across the road stood New Place, 
 the large house purchased by the poet in the days of 
 his affluence in 1597. It was pulled down by Sir 
 John Clopton in 1702, and a fine new house built 
 which was destroyed by Sir Francis Gastrell half a 
 century later. Its site and the garden were pur- 
 chased in 1876 through the exertions of Mr. Halli- 
 
SHAKESPEARE'S HOME AT STRATFORD 121 
 
 well-Phillips, and placed in the hands of the trustees 
 of the birthplace. 
 
 New Place must have been a fine house. Queen 
 Henrietta Maria, who came to Stratford during the 
 Civil War with 5000 men, held her Court there for 
 three weeks. In the garden there is a mulberry 
 tree, the grandchild of that planted by the poet, 
 and the well that supplied the house with water 
 remains. The New Place Museum has been formed 
 in the home of Thomas Nash, who married Shake- 
 speare's granddaughter. The shop of Quiney, the 
 Vintner, who married Shakespeare's daughter 
 Judith, is another relic in Stratford. The cellars 
 are interesting and were formerly known as 
 " the Cage," as they were used as the dungeon 
 of the town before they became Quiney's wine 
 cellar. 
 
 And then there is the stately church, which is 
 much the same as it was in the poet's time. It is 
 cruciform, with a handsome tower and octagonal 
 spire, dedicated to the Holy Trinity. Shakespeare 
 never saw the present graceful stone spire, which 
 was built in 1763. In his time there was a lead- 
 covered wooden spire. It is an extremely beautiful 
 church and is approached by an avenue of limes. 
 From whatever point you see it the view is most 
 striking. Perhaps the best is that seen from across 
 the placid Avon, the river over which the loving 
 willows droop and kiss the surface of the stream 
 with the earliest catkins and grey leaflets, where 
 
122 THE ENGLAND OF SHAKESPEARE 
 
 the " mary-birds ope their golden eyes " to greet the 
 sun of spring and the cuckoo flowers fringe the 
 margin of the river. John de Stratford in 1332 
 founded here a chantry, and in 1351 Ralph de Strat- 
 ford built " a house of square stone " as a college 
 for priests serving the chantry, and the church 
 became a collegiate church. The transepts and 
 part of the tower belong to the early thirteenth 
 century. Later on in that century the aisles and 
 piers of the nave and the tower were built by the 
 Stratfords, their work ending about 1330. Dean 
 Balshall, in 1465-91, built the noble spacious choir, 
 the clerestory, west window and north porch. 
 Opposite the tomb and mural monument we can 
 pay respectful homage to the poet's memory and 
 gaze at his effigy, which the best authorities con- 
 sider to be an authentic likeness of Shakespeare 
 himself. 
 
 The bust was erected by Dr. Hall, who married 
 Shakespeare's daughter Susannah, and the likeness 
 was obtained from a cast taken by Dr. Hall after the 
 poet's death. The maker of the monument was 
 Gerard Johnson, described as " tomb-maker," who 
 had his yard near the Globe Theatre in London. 
 The effigy was painted to resemble life, the poet 
 being depicted with hazel eyes, auburn hair and 
 beard. The monument was repaired in 1748 by 
 John Ward, the grandfather of the Kembles, with 
 money raised by a performance of Othello. In 1793, 
 when whitewash was considered a mark of beauty, 
 
THE SHAKESPEARE MONUMENT 
 
SHAKESPEARE'S HOME AT STRATFORD 123 
 
 it was painted white by Edmund Malone j 1 and so 
 it remained until 1861, when it was repainted as 
 we see it now. 2 The inscription is as follows : 
 
 " Judicio Pylium, genio Socratem, 
 
 Arte Maronem, terra tegit, 
 
 Populus mseret, Olympus habet. 
 Stay, Passenger, why goest thou so fast ? 
 Read if thou can'st, whom envious Death hath prest 
 Within this monument : Shakespeare with whom 
 Quick Nature dide ; whose name doth deck 'ys Tombe 
 Far more than cost ; sith all that he hath writt 
 Leaves living Art but page to serve his witt. 
 
 Obiit Ano Dom. 161 6 
 
 ^Etatis 53 Die Ap. 23." 
 
 The poet's tomb is in the chancel, bearing the 
 
 well-known inscription : 
 
 " Good Friend, for Jesus sake forbeare 
 To dig the dust enclosed heare. 
 Blest be the man that spares these stones, 
 And curst be he that moves my bones." 
 
 It need not be added that these doggerel verses 
 were not composed by our national poet, as 
 Baconians and Mark Twain have asserted. They 
 constituted a stock inscription of undertakers in 
 
 1 This proceeding did not escape the satire of a wit of the 
 period, who wrote in the album at Stratford Church : 
 
 . " Stranger to whom this monument is shewn 
 
 Invoke the Poet's curse upon Malone, 
 p^ Whose meddling zeal his barbarous taste displays, 
 h And daubs his tombstone as he marred his plays." 
 
 2 There has lately been a lengthy correspondence on the sub- 
 ject in the Literary Supplement of The Times, one writer con- 
 tending that the appearance differs considerably from Dugdale's 
 drawing of the monument ; but it is proved that Dugdale's 
 plates are very fanciful and are not to be depended upon or 
 adduced as evidence. 
 
124 THE ENGLAND OF SHAKESPEARE 
 
 the seventeenth century. Near the tomb is that of 
 his wife, Ann Hathaway, who must have been 
 a lady of considerable charm, if the lines of a later, 
 poet convey the truth, who wrote : 
 
 " She hath a way to sing so clear, 
 Phoebus might wondering stop to hear. 
 To melt the sad, make blythe the gay 
 And nature charm, Anne hath a way. 
 
 She hath a way, 
 
 Ann Hathaway, 
 To breathe delight Anne hath-a-way." 
 
 The tomb of Shakespeare's daughter Susannah, 
 the wife of Dr. Hall, bears some lines written by 
 her daughter Elizabeth, who became later on 
 Lady Barnard, the last of the poet's lineal descen- 
 dants. 
 
 " Witty above her sex, but that's not all, 
 Wise to Salvation was good Mistress Hall. 
 Something of Shakespeare was in that, but this 
 Wholy of him with whom she's now in blisse. 
 Then, Passenger, hast ne'er a tear 
 
 To weep with her that wept for all ? 
 That wept, yet set herself to cheer 
 Them up with comfort cordiall. 
 Her love shall live, her mercy spread. 
 When thou hast ne'er a tear to shed." 
 
 Evidently the poetic power of sonorous verse had 
 run somewhat thin in this latest of the Shake- 
 spearean family. The Registers at Stratford are 
 profoundly interesting as they record the baptism 
 and burial of the poet, and of his relatives. 
 
VII 
 THE COUNTRY AROUND STRATFORD 
 
 THE country of leafy Warwickshire was 
 typical of the rest of England in Shake- 
 speare's time. It was for the most part 
 open and unenclosed, dotted with what the poet 
 speaks of as " poor pelting villages, sheepcotes and 
 mills." It is a country of gentle undulations, soft- 
 flowing rivers and well-timbered vales. The Avon 
 marks the great natural division of the county. 
 The southern open country is termed the Feldon 
 or champagne country. On the northern side is 
 the Arden or the forest land. The heights of 
 Shuckburgh, Napton, Burton and Brailes alone 
 break the monotony of the Feldon plain, which 
 rises in successive undulating billows to Hodnell, 
 Gaydon and Wellesbourne, and sinks to the foot 
 of the Edge Hills on the Oxfordshire borders. 
 Across the Avon the country is more picturesque ; 
 though the forest has disappeared, it still retains 
 its sylvan beauty. In Shakespeare's time it was 
 a country of forest wildness and freedom. Many 
 of the farms had but recently been reclaimed, and 
 
 125 
 
126 THE ENGLAND OF SHAKESPEARE 
 
 most of them had thin bosky acres of " toothed 
 briars, sharp furzes, pricking gorse and thorns," 
 hazel copses and outlying patches of unshrubbed 
 downland. 
 
 The villages were composed of black-and-white 
 half-timbered cottages and farms with thatched 
 roofs, which usually surrounded a village green 
 with its maypole in the centre. A noble old church 
 girt by its hallowed acre, and dating back to Norman 
 times, preaching the continuity of English life, its 
 spire pointing with its finger heavenwards, stood at 
 one corner of the village, and not far away was 
 the manor house which the lord of the manor, 
 following the example of his age, was just rebuilding. 
 
 Such villages were scattered over the shire of 
 Warwick, and with many of them the poet would 
 be familiar. He would often wander along that 
 footpath, the towpath, and thence in a north- 
 westerly direction to the Wilmcote homestead, his 
 mother's former home, where her father Robert 
 Arden lived. It can still be seen and is a typical 
 yeoman's farm of the period. If you would know 
 what kind of person an Elizabethan yeoman or 
 franklin was like, we might say with the poet in 
 
 Henry V : 
 
 " And you, good yeoman, 
 Whose limbs were made in England, shew us here 
 The mettle of your pasture." 
 
 Sir Thomas Overbury, a -contemporary of our 
 poet, in his Characters, published in 1614-15, 
 
THE COUNTRY AROUND STRATFORD 127 
 
 will enable us to give the amusing and graphic 
 answer : 
 
 " His outside is an ancient yeoman of England, 
 though his inside may give arms (with the best 
 gentlemen) and ne'er see the herald. There is no 
 truer servant in the house than himself. Though 
 he be master, he says not to his servants, ' Go to 
 field,' but ' Let us go ' ; and with his own eye 
 doth both fatten his flock, and set forward all 
 manner of husbandry. He is taught by nature to 
 be contented with a little ; his own fold yields him 
 both food and raiment : he is pleased with any 
 nourishment God sends, whilst curious gluttony 
 ransacks, as it were, Noah's Ark for food, only to 
 feed the riot of one meal. He is ne'er known to go 
 to law ; understanding, to be law-bound among 
 men, is like to be hide-bound among his beasts ; 
 they thrive not under it : and that such men sleep 
 as unquietly, as if their pillows were stuffed with 
 lawyers' pen-knives. When he builds, no poor 
 tenant's cottage hinders his prospect : they are 
 indeed his alms-houses, though there be painted 
 on them no such superscription. He never sits up 
 late, but when he hunts the badger, the vowed foe 
 of his lambs : nor uses he any cruelty, but when 
 he hunts the hare ; nor subtlety, but when he 
 setteth snares for the snipe, or pit-falls for the black- 
 bird ; nor oppression, but when in the month of 
 July, he goes to the next river, and shears his sheep. 
 He allows of honest pastime, and thinks not the 
 bones of the dead any thing bruised, or the worse 
 for it, though the country lasses dance in the church- 
 yard after evensong. Rock Monday, and the wake 
 
128 THE ENGLAND OF SHAKESPEARE 
 
 in summer, shrovings, the wakeful ketches on 
 Christmas Eve, the hockey or seed cake, these he 
 yearly keeps, yet holds them no relics of popery. 1 
 He is not so inquisitive after news derived from 
 the privy closet, when the finding an aerie of hawks 
 in his own ground, or the foaling of a colt come of 
 a good strain are tidings more pleasant, more 
 profitable. He is lord paramount within himself, 
 though he hold by never so mean a tenure ; and 
 dies the more contentedly (though he leave his heir 
 young) in regard he leaves him not liable to a 
 covetous guardian. Lastly, to end him ; he cares 
 not when his end comes, he needs not fear his 
 audit, for his quietus is in heaven." 
 
 Richard Arden's house still stands and is a 
 substantial dwelling-place with a long low roof and 
 dormer windows jutting therefrom, and barns and 
 outhouses and farm buildings. Harrison in his 
 Description of England in Elizabethan times tells 
 of the excellent methods of building that prevailed, 
 of the use of white mortar tempered with hair, 
 the even and smooth surface of the walls — " as 
 nothing in my judgment can be done with more 
 exactness." The walls were hung with tapestry, arras 
 work or painted cloths, wherein either diverse 
 histories or herbs, beasts and knots and suchlike 
 are stained. In the Arden house we learn that 
 there were eleven painted cloths which served to 
 keep out the draughts. Farmers such as Richard 
 Arden had learned to garnish their cupboards with 
 1 i.e. as the Puritans did. 
 
THE COUNTRY AROUND STRATFORD 129 
 
 plate, their beds with tapestry and silk hangings 
 and their tables with fine napery. In his youth 
 Harrison had known what it was to have hard 
 lodging, lying on straw pallets only covered by a 
 sheet with a round log for a pillow. Servants did 
 well if they had a sheet above them, as they seldom 
 had any below them to keep them from the pricking 
 straws that ran oft through the canvas of the pallet 
 and rased their hardened hides. All that was 
 altered. As regards furniture, pewter platters and 
 silver or tin spoons had taken the place of wooden 
 vessels. Farmers had plenty of pewter, three or 
 four feather beds, tapestry carpets, a silver salt- 
 cellar, a wine bowl and a dozen spoons. Doubtless, 
 the Arden house contained all these excellencies, 
 which in the days of his affluence would also be 
 seen in the Shakespeare household in Henley Street. 
 Not far away from Wilmcote stands the interesting 
 Clopton House, the old residence of the ancient 
 family of the Cloptons, one of whom had built the 
 bridge at Stratford. Report says that the poet 
 often visited the house and buried himself in the 
 library. The principal part of the house has been 
 built since his time, having been erected by Sir 
 John Clopton in the reign of Charles II, whose 
 arms appear on the pediment. The south and west 
 sides are, however, Tudor work and probably date 
 back to the time of Henry VII. It was in this house 
 that Ireland, Shakespeare's friend, wished to make 
 it appear that he had found a depository of Shake- 
 9 
 
130 THE ENGLAND OF SHAKESPEARE 
 
 speare's papers, but he was disappointed by Mr. 
 Williams, who then resided as tenant. The Con- 
 fessions written by the younger Ireland records the 
 conversations between these personages, and is not 
 without humour. In one of the garrets is a small 
 room, said to have been an oratory. The walls 
 are inscribed with scriptural sentences, one text 
 being enclosed in a heart-shaped border. There 
 used to be a figure of a large fish taken by a hook 
 and line, the whole drawn by a hand issuing from 
 a cloud, and beneath this was inscribed : 
 
 flfliltftfjn: you rpgfe t arlpe 
 
 flDr $oe to brti late, 
 IBUmemter Cfjri0t Vastus 
 
 tiLijat jjptfi for pour gafee. 
 
 In the great hall is a large oriel window con- 
 taining a series of heraldic shields emblazoned with 
 the arms of the families which were allied with the 
 Cloptons for many generations. If you would 
 know more of this illustrious family, you must 
 visit again the church at Stratford, where there are 
 many monuments to its worthy members. There 
 is an altar tomb with no inscription, said to be the 
 monument of Sir Hugh Clopton, Lord Mayor of 
 London in the time of Henry VII. Another white 
 marble tomb records the memory of William 
 Clopton and his wife Anne, who died in Shake- 
 speare's time. There is yet another fine monument 
 of George Carew, Earl of Totnes and Baron of 
 
THE COUNTRY AROUND STRATFORD 131 
 
 Clopton and of Joice, his countess, daughter of 
 William Clopton. Ambrose Rokewood, the Gun- 
 powder Plot conspirator, leased the house in the 
 early years of James I's reign, and the company of 
 plotters used to meet in the oratory, above described, 
 to devise the impious designs. 
 
 In the same district amongst the hills of Well- 
 combe, celebrated by a poem written by John 
 Jordan, a wheelwright of Stratford, lie the Dingles, 
 where Shakespeare often wandered and mused upon 
 the traditional battle between the hosts of Britons 
 and Saxons. There are earthworks and a large 
 tumulus, and there stood the house of his friend 
 William Combe, brother of John de Combe, who 
 in his time was reckoned a great usurer. This 
 friend bequeathed to the poet by his will five 
 pounds, but Shakespeare was not prevented by 
 this from writing the following satirical lines : 
 
 " Ten in the hundred lies here engraved, 
 "Tis a hundred to ten his soul is not saved : 
 If any one ask who lies in this tomb, 
 Oh, oh, quoth the Devil, 'tis my John o' Combe." 
 
 The present house has been built since his time, 
 and therefore does not interest us, but a grand 
 panorama of the beautiful country unfolds itself 
 from the height of the tumulus, and you can see 
 the windings of the soft-flowing Avon, the numerous 
 seats of the country gentry, the town of Stratford, 
 the Edge hills, the hills of Shuckbrough Broadway, 
 Ilmington and the Malvern heights 
 
132 THE ENGLAND OF SHAKESPEARE 
 
 Between Stratford and Warwick still stands the 
 noble Charlecote House, a fine specimen of Eliza- 
 bethan architecture. It was built by Sir Thomas 
 Lucy, the alleged persecutor of the poet, who 
 revenged himself by satirising him in the character 
 of Mr. Justice Shallow. This is not the place to 
 discuss the question whether the poaching incident 
 was true or not. Mrs. Stopes, whose accuracy on 
 Shakespearean questions is beyond dispute, pro- 
 nounces against it. Sir Sidney Lee and many 
 others guardedly accept it ; but there are other 
 causes alleged for the persecution, such as that the 
 Ardens were recusants, that the Shakespeares 
 favoured the " Old Religion," and were obnoxious 
 to the stern Protestant squire ; but our present 
 concern is with the England the poet knew, and the 
 scenes on which his eyes were accustomed to rest, 
 and we must leave the controversy to the experts. 
 
 Charlecote stands on the eastern bank of the 
 Avon, which winds gracefully through the luxuriant 
 grounds of the extensive park. It is shaded with 
 deep and lofty woods, and enlivened with herds of 
 deer, and is joined by the River Hele flowing 
 beneath a beautiful Rialto bridge. Jago sings in 
 the poem " Edgehill " : 
 
 " Charlecote's fair domain, 
 Where Avon's sportive stream delighted strays 
 Thro' the gay smiling meads, and to his bed 
 Hele's gentle current wooes, by Lucy's hand 
 In every graceful ornament attir'd 
 And worthier such to share his liquid realms." 
 
THE COUNTRY AROUND STRATFORD 133 
 
 Various alterations have been made in the house, 
 but it still preserves its Elizabethan character. The 
 front is built of brick with stone dressings, and 
 consists of a central portion with three gables, and 
 two projecting wings. There is a fine stone porch 
 elaborately ornamented. Over the door are the 
 arms of Queen Elizabeth. On each side of the 
 window of the room above the entrance doorway 
 are two Corinthian pillars, and on the summit of 
 the whole at the angles are the royal supporters 
 represented sitting, each with an upright banner 
 in his claws. This was added in Shakespeare's 
 time in compliment to the Queen, who visited Sir 
 Thomas Lucy on her return from Kenilworth 
 Castle. The four principal angles of the house are 
 flanked each by a lofty octagonal turret with a 
 cupola and gilt vane. The great Gatehouse, 
 standing a little distance from the front, is a 
 striking building with a large chamber in the 
 upper storey forming a noble banqueting room, and 
 it is flanked by similar turrets with vanes. The great 
 hall of the mansion has a minstrels' gallery, wherein 
 now a large organ has taken the place of the lutes, 
 virginals, violins, cornets, flutes and fifes which 
 discoursed sweet music to Sir Lucy's guests. The 
 great oriel window contains the armorial bearings 
 of the Lucys and their connections. Those arms of 
 Lucy are referred to in The Merry Wives of Windsor, 
 where " Robert Shallow esquire " who wrote him- 
 self " Armigero in any bill, warrant, quittance or 
 
134 THE ENGLAND OF SHAKESPEARE 
 
 obligation," makes play with the word in the 
 following conversation : 
 
 Slender. All his successors before him hath done 't; 
 
 and all his ancestors that come after him may ; they 
 
 may give the dozen white luces in their coat. 
 Shallow. It is an old coat. 
 Evans. The dozen white luces do become an old coat 
 
 well ; it agrees well, passant; it is a familiar beast to 
 
 man and signifies love. 
 Shallow. The luce is the fresh fish ; the salt fish is an 
 
 old coat. 
 
 The luce is a pike. The family is a very ancient 
 one, and through many generations held a high 
 position in Warwickshire. If you would make a 
 better acquaintance with Sir Thomas and his Lady 
 you must enter the modern church, where you can 
 behold his knightly figure and that of his wife well 
 preserved in alabaster. 
 
 Another walk by pleasant footpath ways con- 
 ducts us to the scene of the poet's romance, the 
 village of Shottery and the cottage of Ann Hath- 
 away, renowned in story, the delight of painters 
 and photographers. I have no intention of entering 
 into the many controversies concerning the marriage, 
 as to whether Ann was the daughter of Richard 
 Hathaway, the somewhat impecunious farmer, the 
 place and date of the wedding, and other questions 
 about which much has been written. It is enough 
 for us that here is the cottage or farm, and that 
 tradition has decided that it was the home of 
 Shakespeare's bride, and a very picturesque home 
 
THE COUNTRY AROUND STRATFORD 135 
 
 it was, and is. It is a good example of a Tudor 
 farmhouse of small size, half-timbered with a roof 
 deeply thatched, the thatch curving gracefully over 
 the little dormer windows in the upper storey and 
 steps leading to the front door. A little oriel 
 window juts out on the ground floor, and the garden 
 is abloom with old-fashioned flowers. Modern 
 builders have somewhat spoilt the surroundings by 
 the erection of an ugly row of brick cottages in front 
 of the house, but happily the cottage remains, and 
 is zealously guarded by its faithful custodians, the 
 Trustees of the Birthplace. 
 
 Within the house there is much old-fashioned 
 furniture, the family Bible of the Hathaways, an 
 Elizabethan four-posted bed that belonged to the 
 Hathaways, whose descendant Mrs. Baker, until 
 her death recently at an advanced age, was the 
 guardian of the house. 
 
 The lordly castle of Warwick and Kenilworth we 
 shall visit later, but there are many villages and 
 houses that are associated with the family of the 
 poet. A John Shakespeare lived for a time in the 
 vicarage of Clifford Chambers, a picturesque black 
 and white house. At Rowington there still stands 
 Shakespeare Hall, where it is believed the poet's 
 paternal uncle, Thomas Shakespeare, lived, and 
 that the poet wrote As You Like It in the little 
 room over the porch. His grandfather lived at 
 Snitterfield. Barton-on-the-Heath is mentioned in 
 The Taming of the Shrew, and the story of Kit Sly 
 
136 THE ENGLAND OF SHAKESPEARE 
 
 is said to have a local origin at Wincot. Luddington 
 may be the hamlet wherein Shakespeare was 
 married, unless the ceremony took place at Temple 
 Grafton or Billesley ; the picturesque old villages of 
 Welford, Alcester, Alveston, Aston Cantlow and 
 many others, all recall the surroundings of the poet 
 and afford some reflection of the country Shake- 
 speare knew. 
 
 We must not forget to visit Shakespeare's crab- 
 tree at Bidford, which recalls a scandalous story of 
 the poet's youth, for which there is not much 
 evidence. A certain rhyme tells of : 
 
 " Piping Pebworth, Dancing Marston, 
 Haunted Hillborough, Hungry Grafton, 
 Dodging Exhall, Papist Wixford, 
 Begging Brown and Drunken Bidford." 
 
 The poet with some boon companions is said to 
 have had a drinking bout with the Bidford topers, 
 and as a result he fell asleep under the crab-tree. 
 In the morning, though pressed to resume the 
 contest, he declared he had had enough. He had 
 drunk with all the above-named villages and he 
 cared not to have any more such foolish contests. 
 Such is the story which finds a place in Washington 
 Irving's account of the poet. Whether it be true 
 or not, no one can tell. At any rate, there is the 
 crab-tree descendant of that under which he spent 
 the night " to witness if I lie." 
 
VIII 
 ROADS AND TRAVELLERS 
 
 OUR Shakespeare, as I have already re- 
 marked, was a great traveller along the 
 highways of England, and knew its roads 
 well. These were abominable except in summer 
 time, and even then they were full of deep ruts and 
 holes, while in winter they were wellnigh impass- 
 able to wheeled traffic. Men and women rode on 
 horseback. There were no light carriages. Queen 
 Elizabeth had her great cumbersome gilt coach, 
 but when she made long journeys she usually rode, 
 sometimes on a pillion behind her Chancellor, 
 attended by her numerous courtiers, while her 
 baggage was carried in two-wheeled waggons 
 drawn by six strong horses. As many as six hun- 
 dred such carts were used when she was making 
 a royal progress. The speed was very slow. When 
 Mary Queen of Scots was conducted as a prisoner 
 from Bolton Castle to Ripon, a distance of sixteen 
 miles, the journey required the whole of a winter's 
 day, because the road was " foule, long and cumber- 
 some." When Busino journeyed into the country 
 137 
 
138 THE ENGLAND OF SHAKESPEARE 
 
 with the Venetian Ambassador, Contarini, he took 
 six days to travel 150 miles. He wrote : " The 
 roads were so bad that the coach occasional stuck 
 in the mud, though his Lordship's mares were very 
 powerful. And on one occasion it positively broke 
 down." This was in the time of James I. 
 
 In mediaeval times travellers used to commend 
 their souls to God and make votive crosses on the 
 doorposts of their churches, before starting on their 
 journeys, fearing the dangers of the way. In 
 Shakespeare's time no less apprehensive was the 
 traveller, if we may credit the rhyme : 
 
 " A citizen for recreation sake 
 To see the country would a journey take 
 Some dozen miles, or very little more, 
 Taking his leave with friends two months before, 
 With drinking healths and shaking by the hand. 
 As he had travelled to some new-found land." 
 
 During the later part of the Queen's reign and in 
 that of her successor coaches began to be used in 
 London. They were introduced into England by 
 William Boonen, a Dutchman, the Queen's coach- 
 man, in 1564. Taylor, the water-poet, thus humor- 
 ously described them : "A coach was a strange 
 monster in those days, and the sight of it put both 
 horse and man into amazement. Some said it was 
 a great crab-shell brought out of China, and some 
 imagined it to be one of the Pagan temples in which 
 the cannibals adored the Devil." Later on so many 
 coaches were fashioned that leather became scarce. 
 
ROADS AND TRAVELLERS 139 
 
 In the first half of the sixteenth century horse- 
 litters were sometimes used, and a springless 
 waggon, like a huge timber ark covered within and 
 without with red cloth, the lining fringed with red 
 silk, and the harness made of red leather, with the 
 royal arms painted upon it, conveyed court ladies 
 in royal progresses. But they naturally preferred 
 to ride their steeds, than to be jolted in these 
 cumbersome drays along the rutty roads. 
 
 The roads, as I have said, were execrable. It 
 never occurred to the road-makers to make them 
 with the highest point in the centre, so that the 
 water might drain off them ; but the middle of the 
 road was hollowed out. There was plenty of space 
 on each side the highway, and the drivers of the 
 waggons and carts found it easier to make their 
 way along the roadsides rather than follow the 
 road itself. And then there were bridges to be 
 crossed. Happily the benefactors of olden days, 
 merchants and monks, had built strong stone 
 bridges over many of our rivers. Guilds had been 
 formed to erect and keep in repair bridges, and to 
 provide a guild chapel on the bridge with a priest 
 to pray with and succour travellers. Noble hand- 
 some structures they were, and still many remain 
 witnessing to " the fair work and square " of the 
 medieval masons. They were narrow and not 
 intended for vehicular traffic, but for the passage 
 of pack-horses and riders. Here and there are little 
 excrescences or places jutting out from the parapet, 
 
140 THE ENGLAND OE SHAKESPEARE 
 
 wherein passengers could take refuge when a string 
 of pack-horses or a cart passed along the bridge. 
 As the funds of the guilds had been appropriated 
 by the greedy commissioners of King Edward VI 
 on the ground of " superstitious " uses, there was 
 no money to keep them in repair ; but they were 
 so substantially built that they had not suffered 
 much in Shakespeare's day ; but the wooden 
 structures stretched across stone piers or made 
 entirely of timber with no parapets were not very 
 safe. You remember how the foul fiend led poor 
 Tom " through fire and through ford — made him 
 so proud of heart to ride on a bay trotting-horse 
 over four-inched bridges." 1 
 
 But if the roads were bad and travelling danger- 
 ous there were many good inns by the way. Harrison 
 says : 2 " Those towns we call thoroughfares have 
 great and sumptuous inns in them for the receiving 
 of such travellers and strangers to pass to and fro. 
 The manner of harbouring wherein is not like to 
 that of some other countries, in which the host 
 or goodman of the house doth challenge a lordly 
 authority over his guests, but clean otherwise, 
 since every man may use his inn as his own house 
 in England, and have for his money how great or 
 little variety of victuals, and what other service he 
 himself shall think expedient to call for." Therein 
 the worthy parson echoes the words of Falstaff, 
 
 1 King Lear, Act IV, scene 3. 
 
 2 Description of England, Pt. 2, ch. 16, p. 107. 
 
ROADS AND TRAVELLERS 141 
 
 " Shall I not take mine ease at his inn ? " He tells 
 us that the inns were well furnished with napery, 
 bedding and tapestry. Table linen was washed 
 daily, and every guest had clean sheets. The guest 
 did not pay for putting up a horse. He had a key 
 to his room and could keep it as long as he stayed 
 there. The host was answerable for his guests' 
 goods, so that there was no greater security any- 
 where for travellers than in the greatest inns in 
 England. 
 
 But this does not seem to have extended to 
 the stable, where ostlers stole the horses' corn and 
 were in league with the tapsters and robbers. Either 
 the ostler or the chamberlain would find out whether 
 the guest carried money or valuables, and then 
 inform highwaymen who would relieve the traveller 
 of any superfluous wealth, " to the utter undoing 
 of many an honest yeoman by the way." 
 
 These inns must have been very large, as some 
 of them could provide lodging for 200 or 300 persons 
 and their horses, and procure food for them on the 
 shortest notice. The inns of London are reported 
 to have been the worst in England ; but yet they 
 were better than those to be found in foreign 
 countries. 
 
 Fynes Moryson, who travelled much along our 
 English roads, gives a very favourable account of 
 the inns of the Shakespearean period. 1 He wrote : 
 
 1 Itinerary, 1617, Part 3, p. 151. The spelling of the passage 
 is modernised. 
 
142 THE ENGLAND OF SHAKESPEARE 
 
 " The world affords not such Inns as England 
 hath, either for good and cheap entertainment 
 after the guest's own pleasure, or for humble attend- 
 ance on passengers ; yea, even in very poor villages. 
 . . . For as soon as a passenger comes to an Inn, 
 the servants run to him, and one takes his horse 
 and walks him till, he be cold, then rubs him and 
 gives him meat, yet I must say that they are not 
 much to be trusted in this last point, without the 
 eye of the master or his Servant to oversee them. 
 Another Servant gives the passenger his private 
 chamber, and 1 kindles his fire; the third pulls off 
 his boots, and makes them clean. Then the Host 
 or Hostess visit him ; and if he will eat with the 
 Host, or at a common table with others, his meal 
 will cost him sixpence, or in some places but four- 
 pence (yet this course is less honourable, and not 
 used by Gentlemen) ; but if he will eat in his 
 chamber, he commands what meat he will, accord- 
 ing to his appetite, and as much as he thinks fit for 
 him and his company, yea, the kitchen is open to 
 him, to command the meat to be dressed as he best 
 likes ; and when he sits at table, the Host or 
 Hostess will accompany him, or, if they have many 
 guests, will at least visit him, taking it for courtesy 
 to be bid sit down ; while he eats, if he have com- 
 pany especially, he shall be offered music, which 
 he may freely take or refuse ; and if he be solitary, 
 the musicians will give him the good day with 
 music in the morning. It is the custom, and no 
 way disgraceful, to set up part of supper for his 
 breakfast. In the evening or in the morning after 
 breakfast (for the common sort used not to dine 
 but ride from breakfast to supper-time, yet coming 
 
ROADS AND TRAVELLERS 143 
 
 early to the Inn for better resting of their Horses), 
 he shall have a reckoning in writing, and if it seem 
 unreasonable, the Host will satisfy him either for 
 the due price, or by abating part, especially if the 
 servant deceive him any way, which one of ex- 
 perience will soon find. ... I will now only add, 
 that a Gentleman and his man shall spend as much 
 as if he were accompanied with another Gentle- 
 man and his man ; and if Gentlemen will in such 
 sort join together to eat at one table, the expenses 
 will be much diminished. Lastly, a man cannot 
 more freely command at home in his own House, 
 than he may do in his Inn ; and at parting, if he 
 give some few pence to the Chamberlain and Ostler, 
 they wish him a happy journey." 
 
 No wonder that these inns by the wayside had 
 many attractions. When greeted by such kind, 
 gracious hosts and hostesses, travellers welcomed 
 each friendly inn with its swinging sign before the 
 door supported by some well-wrought ironwork 
 fashioned by the village blacksmith, who worked in 
 his smithy hard by, ready to shoe the horses of the 
 guests. Unhappily Englishmen of Shakespeare's 
 time had lost the good reputation of their sires, 
 who had earned a good character for sobriety. 
 Camden declares that Englishmen were the most 
 sober of the Northern nations, but a sad change 
 has come about, and Camden attributes their 
 deterioration to the long wars in the Netherlands, 
 where they " first learnt to drown themselves with 
 immoderate drinking, and by drinking others' 
 
144 THE ENGLAND OF SHAKESPEARE 
 
 healths to impair their own." The London of 
 Shakespeare was a drunken London, and in the 
 country the vice was quite as prevalent. " That 
 severe castigator of the faults of his age, Philip 
 Stubbes, in his Anatomie of Abuses, is constantly 
 inveighing against this sin. He wrote that every 
 inn was crowded from morn till night with the most 
 determined drunkards. We cannot accept all that 
 Stubbes wrote as accurate, and Harrison declares 
 that drunkenness had decreased ; but there were 
 abundant grounds for his accusations. Rabelais 
 describes a man overcome with drink as being " as 
 drunk as an Englishman." Massinger asserts in his 
 play, the Grand Duke of Florence, that an English- 
 man " will drink more in two hours than the Dutch- 
 man or the Dane in four and twenty." James I, 
 though by no means an example of sobriety, tried 
 to improve matters, and an Act was passed in his 
 first reign pointing out that the use of inns was 
 for the accommodation of travellers, and were 
 not meant for " entertaining and harbouring of 
 lewd idle people, to spend and consume then- 
 time and their money in lewd and drunken 
 manner." 
 
 Kemp (the original performer of Dogberry), who 
 performed a morris dance from London to Norwich 
 and wrote an account of his journey, Nine Days' 
 Wonder, printed in 1600, gives so wonderful an 
 account of the innkeeper at Rockland, that it is 
 thought that it must have been written by his 
 
ROADS AND TRAVELLERS 145 
 
 friend and fellow-player, Shakespeare. He may vie 
 with our host of the Tabard. 
 
 " He was a man not over spare, 
 In his eybals dwelt no care : 
 Anon, Anon, and Coming, friend, 
 Were the most words he used to spend : 
 Save, sometimes he would sit and tell 
 What wonders once in Bullayne fell ; 
 Closing each period of his tale 
 With a full cup of nut-brown ale. 
 Turwyn and Turney's siege was hot, 
 Yet all my hoast remembers not : 
 Ket's field and Musseleborough pray, 
 Were battles fought but yesterday. 
 O, 'twas a goodly matter then 
 To see your sword and buckler men,' 
 
 etc., etc. 
 Saint Martin, send him merry mates 
 To enter at his hostry gates ! 
 For a blither lad than he 
 Cannot an Innkeeper be." 
 
 10 
 
IX 
 SHAKESPEARE'S JOURNEY TO LONDON 
 
 DRIVEN away from Stratford by domestic 
 troubles and by the persecution of Sir 
 Thomas Lucy, 1 Shakespeare took the road 
 and started on his adventurous journey to London 
 to seek his fortune. Already his youthful heart had 
 been fired by the love of the drama. Companies 
 of players had often performed in his native town, 
 and at Coventry and elsewhere he had seen them 
 act ; he had doubtless made friends with individual 
 members of the actors, and therefore when the 
 home life had been left behind he would not un- 
 likely seek them out and try to enter the profession. 
 There are two main roads from Stratford to Lon- 
 don. That on the right hand led the way over 
 Edge Hill, through Drayton, Banbury, Buckingham, 
 Aylesbury, Amersham and Uxbridge. The other 
 road ran through Shipston, Long Compton, Wood- 
 stock, Oxford, High Wycombe, Beaconsfield and 
 
 1 Mrs. Stopes maintains that he could not have been driven 
 from home in consequence of stealing Lucy's deer, as Sir Thomas 
 Lucy had then no park to steal deer from, and suggests that he 
 came to London in connection with a lawsuit against John 
 Lambert. Burbage and Shakespeare's Stage, p. 54. 
 
 J 46 
 
SHAKESPEARE'S JOURNEY TO LONDON 147 
 
 Uxbridge ; or by an alternative route he may have 
 travelled by the Henley Road from Oxford to Ux- 
 bridge and then through Holborn, entering the City 
 of London by Newgate. Aubrey seems to imply 
 that the poet commonly used this western route, as 
 he was accustomed to stay at the Crown Inn at 
 Oxford, where he was very friendly with Mistress 
 Davenant, the hostess. 1 We will travel along this 
 route with him. It must have been a new world 
 of adventure upon which he was entering, perhaps 
 not with a light heart, feeling a sense of injustice, 
 that everything had gone wrongly with him, a 
 knowledge of capability and even genius if only 
 he had opportunity for accomplishing great things. 
 He was glad that the old life, a little sordid, reck- 
 less and foolish, was over, and that he could now 
 start again and win his way in spite of all. 
 
 It was early morning as he crossed the old bridge. 
 The mists were rising from Avon River. Cattle 
 were lowing in the fields as if to bid him farewell, 
 and the larks were singing in the upper air, as if 
 to encourage him to hope. Every bush was alive 
 with the song of birds ; from every hedge and tree 
 the tender green was bursting. Amidst this gay 
 pageant of young life it was not possible for him to 
 be depressed. 
 
 After passing Bridge Town he must have been 
 uncertain which road he should choose. We will 
 
 1 Sir William Davenant, Poet Laureate, used to boast that 
 Shakespeare was his sire. 
 
148 THE ENGLAND OF SHAKESPEARE 
 
 imagine that he turned to the right along a familiar 
 way, past Atherstone, and Preston on the River 
 Stour, which are both a little to the west of the 
 main road, and then walked on to Alderminster, 
 the name of which betokens an ancient monastic 
 church ; which had not then degenerated into the 
 sorry condition it fell into in later times. 1 Further 
 on he came to Halford with its fine manor house, 
 and then following the course of the Stour to 
 Eltington, the home of the Shirleys, a very ancient 
 family, who were there in Shakespeare's time and 
 perhaps refreshed him as he passed. They had been 
 there before William the Conqueror came, still hold 
 the manor, and have an honourable history which 
 invites us to linger there ; but our poet is impatient 
 to press onwards, and we must perforce follow him. 
 The next village through which he passed was 
 Tredington, where the noble church spire and tower 
 attracted his gaze and reminded him of his church 
 at Stratford. If he entered the building he would 
 have passed under a Norman doorway and admired 
 the piers of the same date, the fine fourteenth- 
 century chancel, and perhaps knelt in the Lady 
 Chapel and sought a blessing on his journey. The 
 
 1 Dining at the Author's Club two years ago I heard Sir 
 Lewis Dibden, Dean of Archer, describe some of the curious 
 revelations of his Court records, and amongst these is a terrible 
 account of the misdeeds of the Vicar of Alder-minster in 1666, 
 who desecrated his church ornaments and utensils by turning 
 them into domestic uses, hunted, smoked, frequented ale-houses, 
 played games on Sundays and boasted a friendship with Oliver 
 Cromwell, 
 
SHAKESPEARE'S JOURNEY TO LONDON 140 
 
 old mediaeval pews are still there, but the Jacobean 
 pulpit is later than the poet's time. He would, 
 however, have seen the splendid fifteenth-century 
 screen and, the altar with its five crosses in the 
 vestry, and the chests and the brasses and much 
 else that would have pleased his eye. And then on 
 he tramped to Shipston-on-Stour, and his way was 
 hindered by thousands of sheep that were being 
 driven to the sheep-market, which was the greatest 
 in the kingdom. 
 
 And here I may digress and tell you of the sheep 
 and other cattle that Shakespeare knew. 
 
 CATTLE IN ENGLAND 
 
 England possessed a very excellent breed of sheep 
 which for " sweetness of flesh " and wool surpassed 
 all other countries. Harrison assures us that if 
 Jason had known their value he would have come 
 to Britain for sheep and never gone to Colchis. 
 We English folk are fools, he thinks (an accusation 
 that has been made in much later times), because 
 we seek to deprive ourselves of this superiority by 
 sending our rams and ewes to foreign countries. 
 How blind we are ! But such is our nature ! We 
 see no inconvenience until we feel it, and care only 
 for present gain without considering the damage 
 done to our posterity. However, foreigners driven 
 by persecution from their own lands have taught 
 us to use our wool in other ways besides simply the 
 
150 THE ENGLAND OF SHAKESPEARE 
 
 making of cloth and woollen, and have produced 
 " mockados, baies, vellures, grograinas, etc.," to 
 our great profit. Every farmer kept sheep, and 
 some of the principal sheepmasters as many as 
 20,000. Rot was rather prevalent. Ewes' milk 
 greatly improved cheese. 
 
 Our great store of cattle exceeded that of any 
 other country. We had more horses, oxen, sheep, 
 goats, and swine, and these were better in quality 
 than any foreign cattle. Our oxen were larger in 
 bone, our horses pleasanter to ride, our cows better 
 milkers, our sheep provided better wool, our pigs 
 better bacon and our goats were more profitable. 
 Cows were used for milking and ploughing. Our 
 oxen have great bodies and were the best in Europe. 
 The graziers were very cunning and capable and 
 became very rich, riding in velvet coats and having 
 chains of gold. The horns of our oxen were larger 
 than those of any other country, and were some- 
 times increased by art, the graziers annointing the 
 budding horns of young oxen with honey. 
 
 Our horses were not so tall as some of those in 
 foreign lands, but they had a very easy pace, and 
 our cart horses were very fine and large and strong. 
 Five or six could draw a ton and a half. A pack- 
 horse could carry 4 cwt. We had no asses and 
 therefore no mules. I am sorry to have to report 
 that the reputation of horse-dealers in Shakespeare's 
 time was not better than in our own. They were 
 the biggest rogues and knaves alive, and Harrison 
 
SHAKESPEARE'S JOURNEY TO LONDON 151 
 
 describes some of their tricks at the great horse- 
 fairs at Ripon, Newport Pond, Wolfpit, Harborrow, 
 etc. Foreign horses were much imported, such as 
 the jennet of Spain, " lusty, young and proud " 
 (as Shakespeare describes it), the courser of Naples, 
 the hobby of Ireland, the Flemish " roile " and the 
 Scottish nag. Henry VIII founded a splendid stud 
 of horses and improved the breed. Of the sheep 
 I have already written ; goats were plentiful, 
 especially in Wales and rocky hill-country, and pigs 
 were excellent. Master Harrison did not approve of 
 women scouring clothes with hogs' dung, and could 
 not abide to wear such on his body. Brawn was 
 not known abroad ; and a French gentleman who 
 received a present from an English friend of pickled 
 brawn thought it was fish and reserved it for his 
 Lenten fare. Greatly liking it he asked for more, 
 but happily his conscience was not troubled, as he 
 remained in ignorance of its quality. Brawn was 
 the staple dish for the beginning of dinner, and as 
 it is somewhat hard to digest, it was washed down 
 by a draught of malmsey. The mysteries of its 
 cooking I shall refrain from disclosing. 
 
 We left our poet contemplating the sheep at Ship- 
 ston, which probably derives its name from the con- 
 course of the animals at the great fairs, and must 
 hurry on with him up the steep hills from Long 
 Compton to the Rollright stones, where weird stories 
 of witches and the evil eye linger on, and were cur- 
 rent enough in the sixteenth century. Perhaps on 
 
152 THE ENGLAND OF SHAKESPEARE 
 
 this desolate spot he conceived the gaunt figures of 
 the witches in Macbeth, as he gazed upon the great 
 circle of unhewn monoliths, the solitary King Stone 
 and the group of whispering knights. It is the 
 same story of "vaunted ambition that doth o'erleap 
 itself." A king with his army is marching in far-off 
 Neolithic times, seeking glory and a throne. A 
 witch meets him and cries : 
 
 " If Long Compton thou canst see 
 King of England thou shalt be." 
 
 The king thinks success assured, and calls exultingly, 
 
 " Stick, stock, stone. 
 As King of England I shall be known." 
 
 So he takes seven strides forward, but lo ! and 
 behold ! instead of his looking down on Long Comp- 
 ton there rises before him the long mound of earth 
 which still stands before the King Stone, and the 
 witch chuckles and cries : 
 
 " As Long Compton thou canst not see, 
 King of England thou shalt not be. 
 Rise up, stick, and stand fast, stone, 
 For King of England thou shalt be none ; 
 Thou and thy men hoar stones shall be 
 And I myself an eldern-tree." 
 
 Immediately the king and his army were turned 
 into stones where they stood, the king on the side 
 of the mound, and the army in a circle behind him, 
 and also the whispering knights who were forming 
 a conspiracy against their sovereign. The witch 
 became, as she prophesied, an elder tree, who 
 
SHAKESPEARE'S JOURNEY TO LONDON 153 
 
 watches over the victims of her magic. You can 
 tell whether a woman is a witch and defy her spells 
 by causing her to bleed. Talbot says to the 
 Maid of France in Henry VI, " Blood I will draw 
 on thee ; thou art a witch." So the elder tree 
 bleeds when it is cut, and the spell of her witchcraft 
 vanishes. Fairies dance around the King Stone at 
 night. " They were little folks like girls to look at," 
 said an old man now dead. His widow, whose 
 mother had been murdered as a witch, used to put 
 a stone over a hole to keep the fairies in at night, 
 but it was always turned over in the morning. 
 Girls used to put their ears to the " Whispering 
 Knights," to hear them whispering and to learn their 
 fortunes. Witchcraft was prevalent everywhere in 
 Elizabethan and Jacobean times, and stern perse- 
 cution raged against hapless old women. I shall 
 have more to say about them later on. Shakespeare 
 often mentions witches and witchcraft in his plays, 
 and he may have slept at night beneath the shade 
 of this cromlech circle, and heard the whispering 
 of the knights and seen the fairies' court, Titania, 
 Peaseblossom and the rest dancing around the 
 Stone King. 
 
 The road takes us eastward of Chipping Norton, 
 where stood a castle, and where we will rest awhile 
 and see the mounds behind the church that mark 
 the site of the mediaeval fortress. When the poet 
 stayed there the town had not received its first charter, 
 for which it had to wait until James I granted it ; 
 
154 THE ENGLAND OP SHAKESPEARE 
 
 but it had a guild, and he noted the old guild hall, 
 and the remarkably fine church, still the glory of 
 the Oxfordshire town. Perhaps he discovered that 
 chepynge, or chipping, signified a market and that 
 this prefix was added to the town's old name of 
 Norton to signify that it had a famous market first 
 granted to the lord of the town, William Fitz Alan, 
 in 1205. It is a wonderful road this road of Shake- 
 speare's travel. On his right lay the mysterious 
 secrets of Wychwood Forest, and close at hand the 
 Hoar at Enstone, relic of primeval days and primi- 
 tive folk, and a little further on Grime's Dyke, or 
 Devil's Ditch, that speaks of the buried past, of 
 tribal boundaries and mysterious peoples, some of 
 whose bones lie hidden in a tumulus we pass. And 
 then across the Akeman Street we go, and think of 
 the Romans and their imperial rule, their power, 
 their roads, their camps and cities. They pass — all 
 pass — " our little life is bounded by a sleep " — and 
 so musing we come to Woodstock with its glove- 
 making and its old manor-house. Gloriana in her 
 young days had been kept a close prisoner therein, 
 and envied the freedom of a poor milkmaid who was 
 " singing pleasantlie," and there she had studied 
 her books and cultivated astrology under the 
 tuition of the celebrated Dr. Dee. Milkmaids of the 
 period seem to have been very attractive. Here 
 is a description of 
 
 " A fair and happy milkmaid 
 The queen of curds and cream," 
 
SHAKESPEARE'S JOURNEY TO LONDON 155 
 
 as the poet dubs her in Winter's Tale (Act IV, 
 scene 4) . It was written by Sir Thomas Overbury, 
 Shakespeare's contemporary i 1 
 
 " A fair and happy milkmaid is a country wench, 
 that is so far from making herself beautiful by art, 
 that one look of hers is able to put all face-physic 
 out of countenance. She knows a fair look is but 
 a dumb orator to commend virtue, therefore minds 
 it not. All her excellencies stand in her so silently, 
 as if they had stolen upon her without her know- 
 ledge. The lining of her apparel (which is herself) 
 is far better than outsides of tissue : for though 
 she be not arrayed in the spoil of the silkworm, 
 she is decked in innocency, a far better wearing. She 
 doth not, with lying long abed, spoil both her com- 
 plexion and conditions. Nature hath taught her 
 too immoderate sleep is rust to the soul. She rises 
 therefore with chanticleer, her dame's cock, and at 
 night makes the lamb her curfew. In milking a 
 cow, and straining the teats through her fingers, it 
 seems that so sweet a milk-press makes the milk the 
 whiter or sweeter ; for never came almond glove or 
 aromatic ointment on her palm to taint it. The 
 golden ears of corn fall and kiss her feet when she 
 reaps them, as if they wished to be bound and led 
 prisoners by the same hand that felled them. Her 
 breath is her own, which scents all the year long of 
 June, like a new-made hay-cock. She makes her 
 hand hard with labour, and her heart soft with pity : 
 and when winter evenings fall early (sitting at her 
 merry wheel) she sings a defiance to the giddy 
 wheel of fortune. She doth all things with so sweet 
 
 1 Characters (1614-16). 
 
156 THE ENGLAND OF SHAKESPEARE 
 
 a grace, it seems ignorance will not suffer her to do 
 ill, being her mind is to do well. She bestows her 
 year's wages at next fair ; and in choosing her 
 garments, counts, no bravery in the world like 
 decency. The garden and bee-hive are all her 
 physic and chirurgery, and she lives the longer for 
 it. She dares go alone and unfold sheep in the 
 night, and fears no manner of ill, because she means 
 none : yet to say truth, she is never alone, for she is 
 still accompanied with old songs, honest thoughts 
 and prayers, but short ones ; yet they have their 
 efficacy, in that they are not palled with ensuing 
 idle cogitations. Lastly, her dreams are so chaste, 
 that she dare tell them ; only a Friday's dream is 
 all her superstition : that she conceals for fear of 
 anger. Thus lives she, and all her care is she may 
 die in the spring-time, to have store of flowers stuck 
 upon her winding-sheet." 
 
 Another eight miles' tramp brings us to Oxford. 
 Tired and weary we enter by St. Giles, with St. John's 
 College on our left, the famous, wondrous city 
 " Oxonium, Oxford, the famed Athens of England," 
 as the foreign visitor, Hentzner, calls it ; " that 
 glorious seminary of learning and wisdom, whence 
 religion, politeness and letters are abundantly 
 dispersed into all parts of the kingdom." He con- 
 sidered that the colleges and halls for the beauty of 
 their buildings, their rich endowments and copious 
 libraries, excel all the academies in the Christian 
 world. It is difficult for us to imagine the feelings 
 of the poet as he entered the wondrous Oxford. 
 
SHAKESPEARE'S JOURNEY TO LONDON 157 
 
 And yet tragedy was mingled with its beauty. 
 There is the place where a few years ago the Marian 
 martyrs, Archbishop Cranmer and Bishops Ridley 
 and Latimer, were burnt at the stake, set up in 
 Broad Street, the two latter on October 16th, 1555, 
 and the Archbishop on March 21st, 1556. St. Mary 
 Magdalen's Church looked down upon the scene. 
 Its nave and tower looked new, as it had been 
 recently rebuilt by Henry VIII with some of the 
 old materials brought from Bewley Abbey. A little 
 further on the poet walked under the north gate of 
 the city, over which was the Bocardo Prison, wherein 
 the martyred prelates had been incarcerated. This 
 gate was very large and strong, with towers on 
 either side, and was backed by another gate. There 
 was a stout portcullis and a military engine over it 
 " to let down anything obnoxious to the enemy 
 approaching thereunto." Two great folding doors 
 barred the way, made strong with bars of iron nailed 
 upon them, and " there were battlements, statues 
 and arms thereon, which afforded great delight to 
 strangers that came that way," as the Rev. Sir John 
 Peshall has recorded. 
 
 And so we pass into the Cornmarket Street. On 
 the left is St. Martin's Church, the oldest church in 
 Oxford, with its old Saxon tower ; and on the 
 right are the hospitable doors of the Crown Inn, 
 where the smiling hostess, Mistress Davenant, greets 
 us with a hearty welcome. 
 
 And so to supper and to bed, 
 
X 
 
 THE UNIVERSITIES 
 
 MISTRESS DAVENANT had much to tell 
 the poet about the affairs of Oxford, and 
 of the several visits of Queen Elizabeth, 
 who loved the city with a whole-hearted affection. 
 When she left the cavalcade of students, dons and 
 citizens at Shotover Hill, looking back at the fair 
 city of towers and spires, she exclaimed : " Fare- 
 well, farewell, dear Oxford ! God bless thee ! and 
 increase thy sons in number, holiness and virtue." 
 The kindly hostess recounted that as a child she 
 had witnessed the strange funeral of poor Amy 
 Robsart a quarter of a century before, told of the 
 slow building of a new college for Welshmen, 
 Jesus College, and wondered why Welshmen wanted 
 to come to Oxford, of the horrid plague that broke 
 out a dozen years ago, and how quite recently there 
 had been a Gaol Fever in the prison that carried 
 off 300 men, and how it was all the fault of Row- 
 land Jenkes, a bookseller of the city, who had 
 dared to utter calumny against the good Queen, 
 whom Heaven preserve. But people were getting 
 
 168 
 
THE UNIVERSITIES 159 
 
 wickeder and wickeder every day, and were plotting 
 against her majesty, and the Roman Catholics were 
 carrying off many young Oxford lads to Douay 
 and Rome and making priests of them to send back 
 and make England Roman and to kill the Queen. 
 There was Cuthbert-Mayne of St. John's, and 
 Campian of the same, and Sherwin of Exeter 
 College, all nice-spoken gentlemen, who had often 
 visited the Crown, and they had all been hanged, 
 drawn and quartered. These were terrible times. 
 So the landlady of the Crown related her news. 
 In the meantime we will look round the city and 
 try to discover the state of the University in the 
 Shakespearean age. We cannot have a better 
 guide than the Rev. Canon Harrison, who was a 
 graduate of both Universities. Comparing the two, 
 he says that Oxford standeth most pleasantly 
 ringed with woods on the surrounding hills and 
 watered with rivers in the vales. Cambridge is too 
 near the fens which poison the air. The Oxford 
 colleges and streets are better than those of Cam- 
 bridge, being more stately, magnificent and commo- 
 dious, but the buildings of the sister University have 
 greater uniformity and compactness. The towns- 
 folk of both places like to annoy the students and 
 charge high prices, and Town and Gown rows were 
 not unknown in Elizabethan times. Both towns 
 have castles. Harrison praises the architecture of 
 the Divinity School at Oxford, as being of fine and 
 excellent workmanship, and considers that it comes 
 
160 THE ENGLAND OF SHAKESPEARE 
 
 next to King's Chapel at Cambridge, which two 
 with King Henry VII's chapel at Westminster are the 
 three most notable buildings in Europe. He might 
 have added a fourth, St. George's Chapel, Windsor. 
 
 English University life differed entirely from that 
 of foreign Universities. The colleges are under such 
 strict disciplinary rule that Erasmus thought that 
 the life of students differed little from that of monks 
 and was, indeed, stricter. There were large numbers 
 of students, as many as 3000, who were supported 
 either by their colleges or by their rich friends. There 
 had been changes in the status of the scholars. 
 The colleges were founded originally for poor men's 
 sons, but the rich had encroached upon them, so that 
 it was difficult for a poor man to gain a fellowship. 
 I am sorry to state that in Grammar Schools bribery 
 prevailed, so that poor men's children were pre- 
 vented from coming to Oxford ; rich students re- 
 ceived the scholarships and then spent their time 
 in reading stories, gambling and idleness, so that 
 they bring disgrace upon the University. They 
 swagger about in gay clothing, frequent riotous 
 company, and for an excuse plead that they are 
 gentlemen. 
 
 Each college had its professors and tutors of 
 languages and several sciences, who trained the 
 youths privately, and then after twelve terms the 
 scholars went to the common schools and public 
 disputations to try their skill. Five professors or 
 readers were provided by princes for the instruction 
 
THE UNIVERSITIES 161 
 
 in Divinity, civil law, physic, Hebrew and Greek. 
 Public lectures were also given in philosophy, logic, 
 rhetoric and quadrinials (which term seems to 
 have included arithmetic, music, geometry and 
 astronomy, subjects that were much neglected) by 
 professors provided by the University. These 
 professors controlled the exercises for the degrees, 
 and graduates were expected to wear a distinctive 
 dress that marked them as grave and reverend men. 
 The University course was protracted and required 
 seven years. The first degree was that of sophisters; 
 then after four years they proceeded to the B.A. 
 degree, and then after another three years' study 
 they attained to the degree of M.A. They could then 
 rise to the rank of Doctor in the subjects they had 
 chosen, but to become a D.D. required about 
 eighteen to twenty years. 
 
 The professors at Oxford and Cambridge were as 
 good as the best Continental ones. Every college 
 had its Master, a President and Censors or Deans, 
 who looked after the students and punished them 
 severely for any breach of discipline. Such was 
 the constitution of the University in Shakespeare's 
 day. We will walk along the Oxford streets and 
 notice the College buildings, many of which have 
 been much altered since his time, and some of those 
 we know so well were not then founded. Christ 
 Church looked fairly new, having been built by 
 Cardinal Wolsey and Henry VIII, but there was 
 no Tom tower. The old church of St. Frideswide 
 11 
 
162 THE ENGLAND OF SHAKESPEARE 
 
 had been shorn of much of its western portion and 
 converted into the Cathedral of the new See of 
 Oxford. Peckwater Quad was not there, but where 
 Canterbury Gate now stands there was Canterbury 
 College, where Wickliffe was once warden and Sir 
 Thomas Moore a student. There was no Pembroke 
 College. At Carfax was a large conduit and Carfax 
 Church, both of which have vanished except the 
 tower of the latter. Shakespeare never saw any 
 of the present Oriel buildings, though the College 
 was founded in 1326. Corpus was in existence, 
 having been founded eighty years prior to his visit. 
 Merton shone forth in all its glory of mediaeval 
 architecture, and the great southern quadrangle 
 was built in the poet's time (1610), though subse- 
 quent to our pilgrimage. The present front of 
 St. Alban Hall he would not recognise, as it has 
 been renewed in modern times. Magdalen, with its 
 fifteenth-century buildings, looked then as charming 
 as it does to-day. Queen's was rebuilt in the early 
 eighteenth century, and University in 1634-74. 
 All Souls' (1438-42) and St. Mary's Church must 
 have delighted his eyes. Not much of Balliol, 
 Trinity and Exeter that Shakespeare saw remains. 
 Lincoln's Hall and Library belong to his period, 
 and Brazenose was only about seventy-five years 
 old. During a subsequent visit of the poet he must 
 have seen the building of the Bodleian Library, 
 though the Radcliffe was still unknown. Wyke- 
 ham's famous foundation of New College was then 
 
THE UNIVERSITIES 163 
 
 in its prime, and Wadham saw the light three years 
 before the poet died. The west quadrangle of 
 St. John's looked out on St. Giles's, but Laud's 
 additions were not yet made. Worcester was then 
 known as Gloucester Hall. 
 
 The comparison between the life of Oxford 
 students and that of monks is also made by Hentz- 
 ner. He says : " These students lead a life almost 
 monastic, for as the monks had nothing in the 
 world to do, but when they had said their prayers 
 at stated hours, to employ themselves in instructive 
 studies, no more have these. They are divided into 
 three Tables : the first is called the Fellows' Table, 
 to which are admitted Earls, Barons, Gentlemen, 
 Doctors and Masters of Arts, but few of the latter ; 
 this is more expensively served than the others : 
 the second is for Masters of Arts, Bachelors, some 
 Gentlemen and eminent Citizens : the third for 
 people of low condition." During dinner a student 
 read aloud the Bible, placed on a desk in the middle 
 of the Hall. After grace they retired to their 
 chamber or walked in the College garden, which 
 was attached to every college. In Greene's play, 
 Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay, a speaker tells how 
 
 " these Oxford schools 
 Are richly seated near the river-side : 
 The mountains full of fat and fallow deer. 
 The battling pastures lade with kine and flocks, 
 The town gorgeous with high-built colleges, 
 And scholars seemly in their grave attire 
 Learned in searching principals of art." 
 
164 THE ENGLAND OF SHAKESPEARE 
 
 Hentzner compares their habit with that of the 
 Jesuits, their gowns reaching down to their ankles, 
 and sometimes lined with fur, the caps square, 
 while the Doctors, Masters and Professors had 
 another kind of gown. Every college had a library, 
 to which each student had a key. At Cambridge, 
 and also at Oxford, each room had accommodation 
 for two fellows or four scholars. 
 
 Harrison mentions several Halls, or Hostels— 
 Brodegates, Hart Hall, Magdalen Hall, Alburne 
 Hall, Postminster, St. Mary Hall, White Hall, New 
 Inn and Edmond Hall ; wherein the students had 
 more liberty than in the colleges. They were called 
 hostellers, or halliers, and he mentions that Arch- 
 bishop Cranmer was educated at such a Cambridge 
 Hall, and that the ignorant London folk, hearing 
 that he was a " hosteller," supposed that he had 
 been an ostler at an inn, and hung up bottles of 
 hay at his Palace Gate when he adopted the views 
 of the Reformation party. Besides these halls there 
 were ruins of many other hostels* such as Beef Hall, 
 Mutton Hall and sundry ancient dwellings where 
 students in olden days had lodged. 
 
 We may gather, then, that the appearance of 
 the Oxford Shakespeare knew was very different 
 from that which. we know to-day. . there had been 
 great changes in recent years in the University and 
 much controversy. The everlasting question of the 
 teaching of Greek had been much agitated in early 
 Tudor times as it has in recent years. Theological 
 
the universities us 
 
 disputes had taken the place of study. Royal 
 Commissioners had descended upon Oxford, intro- 
 ducing new rules and curricula. The monasteries 
 in pre-Reformation times had fed the University 
 with promising students, and their destruction had 
 for a time been grievously felt. Scholasticism had 
 been driven out by a forcible hand. But ere the 
 sixteenth century had passed away Oxford was 
 recovering itself. That was evinced by the number 
 of students who flocked to it as their Alma Mater, 
 and by the influence which the University exercised 
 upon Society in general. But these are large 
 questions and are beyond the scope of this present 
 book. 
 
 I do not propose to follow the Bard along the 
 rest of his way to London ; though the road is 
 tempting and there are many attractions. We have 
 still to travel far, if we are to note all the special 
 features of Shakespeare's England, and to sketch 
 the country as we go. I may mention a little village 
 in the delectable county of Bucks, Grendon-Under- 
 wood, which is associated with the poet. Aubrey 
 mentions that when he was travelling on foot to 
 London and in poverty, he slept in the porch of the 
 church, and was there discovered by the village 
 constable, who accused him of stealing the church's 
 goods, and raised the alarm. He demanded to be 
 searched, and when nothing was discovered, he 
 
166 THE ENGLAND OF SHAKESPEARE 
 
 exclaimed, " Much ado about nothing," a phrase 
 that came in useful later on. It is suggested that 
 this village constable was the prototype of Dogberry 
 and Verges, who are said to speak pure Bucking- 
 hamshire. I have visited " Shakespeare Farm " in 
 the village, formerly the Ship Inn, where the poet 
 is said to have stayed and written some of his plays, 
 and so persistent is the local tradition that they 
 point you to the one original " bank whereon the 
 wild thyme grows." 
 
XI 
 MANSIONS AND MANOR-HOUSES 
 
 SHAKESPEARE'S age was an age of build- 
 ing. He must often have witnessed the 
 masons and carpenters at work. It was an 
 age when so many of our noble English mansions 
 were being erected, an age that gave birth to Hat- 
 field, Longleat, Audley End, Chatsworth, Hard- 
 wick and many other of the grandest English seats. 
 It was an age of great architects : of John Thorpe 
 (whose designs you may still study preserved in the 
 Soane Museum, or better still in some of his master- 
 pieces), of Bernard Adams, Bradshaw and Hunting- 
 don Smithson. There were many others who 
 wrought well and worthily — Rodolph Simmons, 
 who built colleges at Cambridge, Richard Lea, 
 John Shute, Stickles, Theodore Havens, who de- 
 signed the famous gates at Caius College, Cam- 
 bridge, and Thomas Holte, who built the curious 
 Tower of the Schools Quadrangle at Oxford. 
 Shakespeare often saw the scaffolding erected and 
 the builders at work. You will remember the 
 poet's words — 
 
 167 
 
168 THE ENGLAND OF SHAKESPEARE 
 
 " When we mean to build, 
 We first survey the plot, then draw the model, 
 And when we see the figure of the house. 
 Then must we rate the cost of the erection, 
 Which if we find outweighs ability 
 What do we then, we draw anew the model 
 In fewer offices, or, at least, desist 
 To build at all. 
 
 All the country squires, the newly enriched 
 city merchants, or the nouveaux riches who had 
 enriched themselves with the spoils of the monas- 
 teries, or been blown by lucky gales into the sun- 
 shine of Court favour — all these were building : 
 some great palaces such as Wollaton, or Burghley 
 House, or Holland House ; others, those charming 
 manor-houses that stud the country-side, set in a 
 framework of dark trees in sequestered villages and 
 obscure hamlets. 
 
 The Elizabethan age was a period of great change 
 and progress in housebuilding. New fashions had 
 set in. The Renaissance, that great intellectual re- 
 awakening which took place in the fifteenth century, 
 revolutionising Western Europe, had set its seal on 
 English life, though its progress was slower than 
 in Italy and France. It was the intellectual, moral, 
 spiritual and artistic rebirth of Europe, and began 
 to be felt first in Italy, whence men looked for its 
 inspiration. The old mediaeval order of things had 
 passed away. In all ways English folk were striking 
 out new paths for themselves. There was a feeling 
 of freedom in the air. There were many abuses ; 
 plague, misery and death stalked abroad ; but 
 
MANSIONS AND MANOR HOUSES 169 
 
 there was a real expansion of ideas and a develop- 
 ment in art and life. 
 
 We English are a conservative people and are 
 slow to embrace new ideas. Henry VIII and 
 Wolsey had imported Italian workmen. Many of 
 them were employed in the work of decorating and 
 embellishing houses, in making great tombs, such 
 as that of Henry VII in Westminster Abbey, terra- 
 cotta busts and images, and monuments adorned 
 with classical details and Renaissance art. Fore- 
 most among these Italian artists was Torrigiano, 
 who was employed at Hampton Court and in the 
 construction of the aforesaid monument at West- 
 minster ; and there were others, Rovezzano and 
 Giovanni da Majone and many other Italian work- 
 men who were engaged in decorating pure English 
 work, not in the building and construction of 
 houses. Their reign was very transitory. Henry VIII 
 was not very popular — to say the least of it — in 
 Italy. His son had no vast wealth to spend on 
 building palaces, and the Italians withdrew ; and 
 though some of their influence remained as to detail 
 and ornament, the native style asserted itself. 
 Foreign competition was not, however, eliminated, 
 and Renaissance ideals somewhat diffused by 
 Flemish and German interpretation began to force 
 themselves upon our English minds. Englishmen 
 clung to their Gothic traditions. The English 
 masons who carried out the work, liked not foreign 
 notions. Hence arose the Elizabethan style, call it 
 
170 THE ENGLAND OF SHAKESPEARE 
 
 mongrel, if you will, formed by grafting the exotic 
 plant upon the old native stock. And this when 
 done by skilful gardeners — the very able architects of 
 the period — produced a healthy and vigorous growth. 
 The Armada had been overthrown. The feudal 
 power of great nobles with armies of retainers had 
 vanished. Fortified dwellings were no longer 
 needed. No gloomy walls and serried battlements 
 were required to resist a foe. So great men built 
 no more castles, but were able to " sacrifice strength 
 to convenience and security to sunshine." Instead 
 of the barbaric splendour of the fortress, there arose 
 the' pomp and grace of the Elizabethan hall, the 
 stately mansion, and the picturesque manor-house. 
 Flemish and German artisans were brought over to 
 rear the great houses, and (as I have said in another 
 book) 1 to load them with bastard Italian Renais- 
 sance detail. Nothing could be worse than some 
 of these vast structures, with their distorted gables, 
 their chaotic proportions and their crazy interpreta- 
 tion of classic orders. Contrast these vast piles with 
 the typical Tudor manor-house, the means of the 
 builders of which, or their good taste, would not 
 permit of such a profusion of these architectural 
 luxuries, and you will discover the far greater 
 attractiveness of the humbler dwelling. It is un- 
 equalled in its combination of stateliness with 
 homeliness, in its expression of the manner of life 
 of the men who built it. 
 
 1 Manor-houses of England. 
 
MANSIONS AND MANOR HOUSES 171 
 
 Let us look at one of these vast piles, the largest 
 of them all when it stood in all its full glory, before 
 time and decay and the ruthless hand of Sir John 
 Vanbrugh robbed it of half its magnificence. Audley 
 End was built by Thomas, Earl of Suffolk, Lord 
 Treasurer of England in the reign of James I, who 
 came to visit him and congratulated him on having 
 been able to build a much finer house than the King 
 himself could afford. This was uttered not without 
 an arriere pensee, as the Treasurer was not only 
 fond of extravagance and show, but was charged 
 with embezzlement, deprived of his office and 
 severely fined. Audley End was begun in 1603, and 
 took thirteen years to build. A model was sent 
 from Italy, which cost £500, and the whole structure 
 entailed an expenditure of £190,000. The character 
 of the building is essentially Jacobean, which implies 
 that along with Italian details there is a strong 
 flavour of English workmanship and arrangement, 
 a flavour that could only have been imported by 
 English designers and would never have been taught 
 on Italian soil. 1 The main building, most of which 
 still remains, was arranged round a court, but there 
 was also a great outer quadrangle which was first 
 entered through a central archway. This great 
 court was surrounded by buildings less in height 
 than the inner court, had on each side an arcade, 
 and at the upper end, opposite the entrance, a 
 
 1 Journal of British Archtzological Association, Vol. XIX, 
 Pt. 2, p. 203, and a monograph by Mr. Gotch. 
 
172 THE ENGLAND OE SHAKESPEARE 
 
 paved terrace, whence two porches led into the 
 main building. On the garden side two wings pro- 
 jected, one of which was occupied by the chapel. 
 The gallery was 226 feet in length. The exterior 
 was of fine wrought stone, with columns and other 
 decorative designs of marble. Mr. W. Niven thinks 
 that Bernard Jansen was the architect, but Mr. 
 Gotch attributes it to the famous John Thorpe, the 
 builder of Longleat, Hatfield, Holland House and 
 many other mansions. It is suggested that he was 
 identical with " John of Padua." The destruction 
 of this immense pile began in 1721, when on the 
 advice of Sir John Vanbrugh, the Earl of Suffolk 
 pulled down the whole of the principal court, and 
 further mutilation soon followed. In 1729 the 
 east wing was pulled down and the long gallery, 
 and the great house was reduced to its present 
 size. It is still a magnificent building and we can 
 admire the largely-designed ceiling over the stair- 
 case, the contorted strap-work in the ceiling of the 
 small library and the beautifully-modelled ceiling 
 of the saloon ; but Audley End is too magnificent, 
 the details are clumsy, and were probably wrought 
 by German hands, though the plan of the building 
 is essentially English. 
 
 The traditional style upon which the Elizabethan 
 plan was based is well described by Andrew Boorde 
 in his Dyetorie or Regiment of Health, published in 
 1547. He wrote : 
 
 " Marke the hall of such a fashion that the 
 
MANSIONS AND MANOR HOUSES 173 
 
 parlour be annexed to the head of the hall ; and the 
 buttrye and pantrye at the lower end thereof. The 
 cellar under the pantrye set somewhat at a base, 
 the kechyn sette somewhat at base from the buttrye 
 and pantrye, coming with an entrye within by the 
 wall of the buttrye ; the pastrie house and the 
 larder annexed to the kechyn. Then divide the 
 logginge by the circuit of the quadrinal courte, and 
 let the gatehouse be opposite or against the hall 
 doore, not directly, but the hall doore standing 
 abase of the gatehouse, in the middle of the front 
 enteringe of the place. Let the privye chamber 
 be annexed to the great chamber of estate, with 
 other chambers necessary for the buildinge, so that 
 many of the chambers may have a prospect into 
 the chapell." 
 
 This last requisite is literally carried out at 
 Broughton Castle, so that several bedchambers look 
 down upon the chapel, causing a witty bishop to 
 say that for the first time he understood the words 
 of the Psalmist when he sang " Let the saints re- 
 joice in their beds." The old doctor, Andrew 
 Boorde's description of a Tudor mansion, if you 
 have patience to master the old spelling and the 
 quaint language, will enable you to understand the 
 usual plan of an early Tudor mansion. There is 
 no idea of erecting a house capable of resisting the 
 attack of an enemy. If it was built on the site 
 of an earlier house there would be a moat, but this 
 was filled in, at least on the side of the entrance ; 
 so that you could have ridden straight up to the 
 
174 THE ENGLAND OF SHAKESPEARE 
 
 gatehouse without having to cross a drawbridge. 
 There may have been an elegant stone bridge over 
 the moat if it had not been drained. The gate- 
 house had two flanking towers, but there was nO 
 hostile or threatening appearance about them, and 
 they were more for ornament than utility, except 
 that they were often used for carrying stairs. There 
 were sometimes towers or hexangular turrets at 
 the angles of the quadrangular court, and these and 
 the tall chimneys with their elaborate decorations 
 were very characteristic of the earlier Tudor 
 domestic architecture. 
 
 You knocked at the gate with the ponderous 
 knocker, and were met by a single porter, and after 
 having satisfied him with your harmlessness and 
 respectability you entered the court, and were 
 directed to the entrance of the house. You would 
 observe on the right of the screens, or passage, the 
 buttery, kitchen, pantry, etc., and the lodgings of 
 the servants, on the left the hall, beyond which lay 
 the parlour, with drawing-room and chambers 
 devoted to the use of the family. Examples of this 
 arrangement are seen in all the old houses of the 
 Tudor period, and with regard to the buttery, you 
 will remember Maria says to Sir Andrew Ague- 
 cheek : 
 
 " Bring your hand to the buttery-bar and let in drink." 
 
 The hall was still the chief apartment as it was in 
 mediaeval times, when the family dined at the high 
 
MANSIONS AND MANOR HOUSES 175 
 
 table set on the dais, and there was a large central 
 hearth with a louvre over it, or a huge fireplace, and 
 there were tables set on trestles for the retainers, 
 and rushes on the floor, on which they slept. You 
 remember when Capulet cries out : 
 
 " A hall ! a hall ! give room and foot it, girls. 
 More light, ye knaves, and turn the tables up, 
 And quench the fire, the room is grown too hot." 
 
 The Elizabethan builders increased the accommo- 
 dation of their houses without altering the general 
 plan. They added a dining parlour so that the 
 family could take their meals in private, and a 
 servants' dining-room, with drawing-room, also a 
 breakfast-room, and long gallery for exercise in 
 wet weather, for balls and children's games, and 
 an increased number of bedrooms. So the house 
 became much more comfortable. 
 
 Sometimes there was a second courtyard, around 
 which the domestic offices were grouped. At the 
 dais end of the hall there was a large bay-window 
 filled with stained glass showing the armorial bear- 
 ings of the family and of those connected with it by 
 ties of marriage or kinship. These houses presented, 
 and happily still present, a most beautiful 
 appearance with their picturesque line of gables, 
 their fretted fronts, castellated gateways, their 
 jutting oriels, their Italian gardens, their terraces 
 with graceful steps leading to the lower gardens, 
 their statuary, vases, fouatains, mazes, their formal 
 
176 THE ENGLAND OF SHAKESPEARE 
 
 beds, and lines of yews cat efully cut and trimmed 
 into shapes of birds and beasts. 
 
 I visited Knowle a short time ago and there saw 
 the line of gables on the principal facade, with 
 graceful carved heads, and on entering the first 
 court opposite the entrance there is distinct evi- 
 dence of Italian influence, a raised terrace and 
 loggia with classical pillars and semicircular arches. 
 Under this influence the Gothic pointed arches, 
 whether accurately- pointed or four-centred, had 
 given way to the classical semicircular. 
 
 But all was not well with these Elizabethan 
 houses, especially in the mansions of the great. The 
 Italians had gone back to their sunny land, but we 
 had other visitors to our shores whose work lacked 
 the grace and perfection of the Italians. These 
 were the Germans and the Flemings who had 
 settled in England, driven here by terrible persecu- 
 tions in their own lands, or invited by some noble- 
 man who admired their workmanship. They intro- 
 duced some terrible adornments and ornamentations 
 into our homes. They were guilty of wild extrava- 
 gance in art, and instead of the refined Italian work 
 they brought coarse designs and crude mechanical 
 methods, which were imposed upon the native art, 
 but never was really assimilated with it. We see 
 examples of their skill in the huge mantelpieces in 
 our great mansions and in ponderous tombs. 
 Under their influence the beautiful clustered 
 chimney-stacks of the early Tudor period dis- 
 
MANSIONS AND MANOR HOUSES 177 
 
 appeared, and the ugly use of columns for chimneys 
 set in. Foreign pattern-books were imported con- 
 taining strange and weird designs which the amateur 
 architects, the squires and noblemen, copied when 
 they were constructing a new house, or making 
 a new staircase. They thought that these designs 
 were the latest things in fashion, and therefore 
 unhesitatingly adopted them, and unfortunately 
 most of these pattern-books came from Germany 
 and Holland, and not from Italy, which furnished 
 better and more tasteful patterns. 
 
 These new Elizabethan houses revelled in more 
 light than any of their predecessors. In dangerous 
 mediaeval days the buildings of the courtyard type 
 had no windows on the outside, lest they should 
 assist the enemy in an attack. Then, later on, the 
 outside windows were small and narrow ; but 
 when security was more or less assured, they 
 blossomed out into a useful size. Large oriel 
 windows broke the surface of the walls and diffused 
 light into the dwelling. Formerly the top of the 
 windows were cusped and the mullions were splayed 
 and moulded. Now they were made square-headed 
 and had often mullions and transoms, the stone- 
 work being carved with arabesques, and sometimes 
 had classic pilasters on each side. 
 
 The Elizabethan manor-house is often an architec- 
 tural gem. The English traditional style was pre- 
 served, and it was not generally overloaded with 
 foreign ornamentation. The house was usually 
 
 12 
 
178 THE ENGLAND OF SHAKESPEARE 
 
 E shaped — that is to say, there was the main body 
 with two wings and a porch with a room over it. 
 Sometimes Renaissance details embellished the 
 porch with classical pilasters, and an entablature 
 at the summit. The squire's coat of arms usually 
 appears over the doorway, with crest and sup- 
 porters, as Shakespeare wrote in the Midsummer 
 Night's Dream : 
 
 " Two of the first, like coats of heraldry, due 
 But to one, crowned with one crest." 
 
 Sometimes the house was planned in the form of 
 the letter H, the wings at the side being extended 
 both ways. Indeed, Thorpe devised the eccentric 
 monogram house made on the plan K, which he 
 explained by the rhyme : 
 
 " Thus 2 letters I and T, 
 Joined together as you see 
 Is meant for a dwelling house for me." 
 
 I do not know whether he ever constructed such 
 a house. Indeed, it is very uncertain whether he 
 built many of the houses the plans of which appear 
 in his collection still preserved in the Soane Museum. 
 Mr. Reginald Blomfield maintains that he did not, 
 but Mr. Crotch, f.s.a., the great authority on English 
 domestic architecture, considers him to have been 
 the leading architect of his age. Whether he built 
 the houses or not, the plans are there, and they 
 reveal some of the secrets of the style that was 
 prevalent when Shakespeare lived. In the manor 
 
MANSIONS AND MANOR HOUSES 179 
 
 or mansion he shows that the long gallery, the great 
 and stately staircase which had taken the place of 
 the narrow newel or circular one of an earlier age, 
 and the abundance of windows, which Bacon in- 
 veighed against and which found its expression in 
 
 " Hardwick Hall 
 More glass than wall," 
 
 were some of the distinguishing features of the 
 Elizabethan style. Tall figures often adorned the 
 balustrade of the staircase as at Aldermaston Court, 
 where when the old house was burnt down they 
 were removed to the new. Harrison tells us that 
 the " walls of our houses on the inner sides in like 
 sort be either hanged with tapestry, arras work, or 
 painted cloths, wherein diverse histories, or herbs, 
 beasts, knots and such like are stained, or else they 
 are sealed with oak of our own, or wainscot brought 
 hither out of the East countries, whereby the rooms 
 are not a little commended, made warm, and much 
 more close than otherwise they would be." Rushes 
 were abandoned in parlours and carpets came into 
 use. 
 
 Many houses were enriched with the spoils of 
 religious houses. Shakespeare speaks occasionally 
 of tapestry, though some of it was " worm-eaten." 
 Some, he tells us, was imported from Turkey, and 
 Gremio was proud of his Tyrian tapestry as well as 
 of his cyprus chests, his arras counterpoints, his 
 fine linen, Turkish cushions bossed With pearl, 
 
180 THE ENGLAND OF SHAKESPEARE 
 
 his Venetian valence, his pewter and brass vessels 
 that had taken the place of wooden platters. The 
 heavy four-posted beds, in which, of course, Gloriana 
 is sure to have slept, and tables and chairs of the 
 period are not uncommon, and can still be seen in 
 many old houses or collections of old furniture. 
 
 In Elizabethan times some of the old castles were 
 still in their prime, and had not yet been besieged 
 and battered by Cromwell's cannon, or sleighted 
 when the Civil War was over. Warwick still looks 
 proudly down on the town, and is full of the 
 memories of the great " King-maker." Shakespeare 
 knew it well, and it is not difficult to suppose that 
 he derived his historical inspiration from gazing at 
 this grand old pile of the noble Earls of Warwick. 
 Kenilworth, now a ruin, was then in its prime, the 
 residence of the Earl of Leicester who entertained 
 the Queen so royally, and who had added some 
 palatial buildings to the ancient fortress. All the 
 people in the neighbourhood would flock to see the 
 pageant, and there amongst the company would 
 doubtless be John Shakespeare and his son who 
 saw Proteus riding "on a dolphin's back " and 
 remembered it for subsequent use. Sherborne Castle 
 was the abode of Sir Walter Raleigh, and Bolton 
 and Fotheringhay were the prisons of Mary Queen 
 of Scots, and our Berkshire Donnington was strong 
 enough a few years later to resist all the forces of 
 the Parliament in its famous siege. These are only 
 a tithe of the " relics of feudalism " that were 
 
MANSIONS AND; MANOR HOUSES 181 
 
 still habitable and where great nobles lived with 
 some tokens of their former state, hunting in their 
 parks and exercising some measure of sway over the 
 surrounding districts. 
 
 The plan of .the yeoman's house somewhat 
 resembles that of the manor house, but is of simpler 
 construction. It consisted of a hall with a parlour 
 at one end and a kitchen at the other, with offices 
 on the ground-floor and bed-chambers above. Many 
 cottages were built in Queen Elizabeth's time owing 
 to the change in the methods of farming, and the 
 necessity for additional labour. Many of these 
 remain, built of brick, timber or stone, according 
 to the building material supplied by nature in the 
 particular locality. The timber cottages were 
 made of a wooden framework, the interstices being 
 filled with " wattle and daub," formed by entwined 
 laths covered with clay or plaster, and white- 
 washed over. In the early days of the sixteenth 
 century the upright timbers were placed close 
 together, and this is a sign of early work ; while 
 later on, when timber became scarcer, they were 
 placed farther apart and the framework was 
 strengthened by curved braces. Harrison tells us 
 that there was a great increase in the erection of 
 chimneys for these humble dwellings, and old men 
 told him that in former times every man used to 
 make his fire against a reredos in the hall, and the 
 smoke found its way out of the doors and windows 
 or through a hole in the roof. It would be pleasant 
 
182 THE ENGLAND OF SHAKESPEABE 
 
 to dwell upon these English cottages and upon the 
 whole story of the domestic architecture of the 
 period, but that would require a volume, and I have 
 already attempted to do this in some of my other 
 books. We have other important features of 
 English life in Shakespeare's time to study, and 
 must pass on to " the next scenes of this eventful 
 history." 
 
XII 
 THE NAVY AND ARMY OF ENGLAND 
 
 HARRISON wrote his Description of England 
 some years before the Armada sailed to 
 destroy our country, but in his time he had 
 reason to be proud of our navy. 
 
 " Certes," he wrote, " there is no' prince in 
 Europe that hath a more beautiful or gallant sort of 
 ships than the queen's majesty of England at this 
 present, and those generally are of such exceeding 
 force, that two of them being well appointed and 
 furnished as they ought, will not let to encounter 
 with three or four of those of other countries, and 
 either bowge them or put them to fight, if they may 
 not bring them home." He tells us that the build 
 of the ships was the best in the world for facing all 
 kinds of weather, and that for strength, assurance, 
 nimbleness and swiftness of sailing all foreigners 
 were agreed that they surpassed all others. 
 
 There were when Harrison wrote twenty-four or 
 
 twenty-five great ships, and the names of these 
 
 were : The Bonadventure, Elizabeth Jonas, 1 White- 
 
 1 So named by the Queen in remembrance of her deliverance 
 from the fury of her enemies, as Jonah was preserved from the 
 whale's belly. 
 
 183 
 
184 THE ENGLAND OF SHAKESPEARE 
 
 Bear, Philip and Mary, Triumph, Bull, Tiger, Ante- 
 lope, Hope, Lion, Victory, Marie Rose, Foresight, 
 Swiftsute, Aid, Handmaid, Dreadnought, 1 Genet or 
 Jennett, Swallow, Burke of Bullen, Achates, Falcon, 
 George, Revenge. In the Household Ordinances of 
 1578 there are mentioned the Cadish, the Primrose 
 and the Falcon, and we are informed that there were 
 135 ships besides those of 100 tons and upwards, 
 656 barques and ships of between 40 and 100 tons, 
 100 sail of hoyes, and an infinite number of small 
 barques. It was customary to build one ship a year 
 for the better defence of the country, and Harrison 
 declares that if all the navy should be required for 
 service at one instant (which God forbid) the Queen 
 would have between nine and ten thousand seamen, 
 besides the privately owned vessels which her sub- 
 jects could supply. 
 
 Besides all these vessels the Queen had three 
 choice galleys, the Speedwell, the Try-right and the 
 Black Galley, and she took great delight in her navy, 
 though alas ! this did not prevent her from starving 
 it, refusing to grant money for the proper equip- 
 ment of the ships, and the providing of powder 
 and the victualling of the men. Her commanders, 
 
 1 It is interesting to note that this name of a iamous 
 class of modern battle-ships was in existence in Elizabethan 
 days ; and also that the Lion, Tiger, and Victory of our modern 
 navy should then have prototypes, who doubtless accomplished 
 deeds of daring against the Spaniards as their successors have 
 done against the Germans. This list would furnish names for 
 some of our modern ships if the Admiralty has difficulties in 
 providing suitable nomenclature. 
 
lf|§ M 
 
 H m 
 
 
THE NAVY AND ARMY OF ENGLAND 185 
 
 Sir John Hawkins, Lord Howard and others were 
 often driven into despair by her parsimony. The 
 ships owned by private subjects were very numerous, 
 the number varying from two to sixteen for each 
 of such shipowner who derived great gains there- 
 from. A ship of the first class when fitted was worth 
 £1000 and a man-of-war £2000, which sum corre- 
 sponded with about £12,000 of our money in the 
 present day. 
 
 This naval force was only of gradual growth. 
 In the earlier years of the Queen's reign the navy 
 had been neglected. In her sire's time England had 
 become a first-rate naval power and could muster 
 fifty or sixty fighting vessels. But that power had 
 been suffered to decline, and during the first ten years 
 of Elizabeth's reign she could only provide a beggarly 
 dozen. Private enterprise had supplied the defici- 
 ency and made England a terror to her enemies. 
 
 Our great navigators proved themselves bold, 
 enterprising and resolute men, and such men as 
 gallant Sir John Hawkins, Francis Drake, Sir Walter 
 Raleigh, the Gilberts and John Davis, laid the 
 foundations of our English maritime supremacy and 
 made England the " Mistress of the Seas." The 
 splendid achievement of the Elizabethan sailors 
 began the formation of our colonial enterprise and 
 raised England to a supremacy which she has never 
 abdicated. She had to wrest the power from the 
 Spaniard and the Portuguese, who were before her 
 in the race. Bartholomew Diaz had doubled the 
 
186 THE ENGLAND OF SHAKESPEARE 
 
 Cape of Good Hope. Vasco da Gama had sailed to 
 India. Columbus had discovered the American 
 continent Vasco Nunez de Balboa possessed the 
 characteristics of Englishmen, " the man who knew 
 not when he was beaten," and was the first white 
 man to look upon the Pacific Ocean. These men 
 revealed an El Dorado which filled the coffers of 
 Spain with gold, and aroused the emulation of other 
 nations to follow in their steps. 
 
 Richard Hakluyt, in his Epistle Dedicatory to 
 his Principal Navigations (1589), thus records the 
 achievements of our English explorers : 
 
 "To speak a word of that just commendation 
 which our nation do indeed deserve : it cannot be 
 denied, but as in all former ages, they have been 
 men full of activity, stirrers abroad, and searchers 
 of the remote parts of the world, so in this most 
 famous and peerless government of her most 
 excellent Majesty, her subjects through the special 
 assistance and blessing of God, in searching the 
 most opposite corners and quarters of the world, 
 and to speak plainly, in compassing the vast globe 
 of the earth more than once, have excelled all the 
 nations and people of the earth. For, which of the 
 kings of this land before her Majesty, had their 
 banners ever seen in the Caspian Sea? which of 
 them hath ever dealt with the Emperor of Persia, 
 as her Majesty hath done, and obtained for her 
 merchants large and loving privileges ? who ever 
 saw, before this regiment, an English leger in the 
 stately porch of the Grand Signor at Constanti- 
 
THE NAVY AND ARMY OF ENGLAND 187 
 
 nople ? who ever found English consuls and agents 
 at Tripolis, in Syria, at Aleppo, at Babylon, at 
 Balsara, and which is more, who ever heard of 
 Englishmen at Goa before now ? what English 
 ships did heretofore ever anchor in the mighty 
 river of Plate ? pass and repass the unpassable (in 
 former opinion) straits of Magellan, range along the 
 coast of Chili, Peru and all the backside of Nova 
 Hispania further than any Christian ever passed, 
 traverse the mighty breadth of the South Sea, land 
 upon the Luzones in despite of the enemy, enter 
 into alliance, amity and traffic with the princes of 
 the Moluccas and the Isle of Java, double the 
 famous Cape of Bona Speranza, arrive at the Isle 
 of Santa Helena, and last of all return home most 
 richly laden with the commodities of China, as the 
 subjects of this now flourishing monarchy have 
 done ? " 
 
 In this mighty struggle for supremacy the " Sea 
 Dogs ' ' of Devon played their glorious part . The most 
 strikiiig figure in the strange drama was Sir Francis 
 Drake, " the Captain," as he was called by the 
 Plymouth folk, who was supposed by the Spaniards 
 to be in league with the devil, and whose drum 
 sounds to lead his countrymen to victory whenever 
 England is in danger. He and his glorious com- 
 patriots called into being our navy, the foundations 
 of which had been laid by the prudent action of 
 Henry VIII. Spain barred the progress of English 
 liberties. Our people knew something of the 
 character and conduct of her king, Philip II, the 
 
188 THE ENGLAND OF SHAKESPEARE 
 
 consort of Mary Tudor, under whose direction the 
 torture and burning of martyrs had been used to 
 stamp out freedom, and who had done the like to 
 our poor sailors fallen into his hands and been in- 
 carcerated in the hateful dungeons of the Inquisition. 
 Hispania est delenda was the motto of the English 
 seamen. They have been termed pirates, un- 
 authorised buccaneers, many of them who fitted 
 out their ships to cripple the power of Spain and 
 to enrich themselves with the spoil taken from her 
 galleons ; but that was not their character. They 
 thought that in robbing Spain they were doing 
 their duty to God and their country, and in the 
 hour of England's greatest danger they saved their 
 country from the foeman's wrath. 
 
 When the Spaniard threatened our shores and 
 the great conflict seemed inevitable, the Queen 
 sought for a man to organise her navy, and found 
 such a one in John Hawkins, who was acknowledged 
 to be the best man of his age for the work. He was 
 a sturdy, capable stubborn Englishman, having all 
 the best characteristics of our race, who devoted 
 himself steadily to the task and worked wonders, 
 amidst many discouragements, rectifying abuses, 
 abolishing the dishonest tricks of unscrupulous 
 persons, and turning out strong suitable ships in 
 splendid condition, well equipped with guns and 
 other requisites for the defence of the nation. 
 When the trial of strength came England had 34 
 ships from 1100 to 30 tons, carrying 857 guns 
 
THE NAVY AND ARMY OF ENGLAND 189 
 
 and 6279 men. Cities and towns contributed to 
 the strength of the navy. London equipped 30 
 ships, and Southampton, Poole, Dartmouth, Ply- 
 mouth, Barnstaple, Bristol and other places, sent 
 brigs and barques. There were gathered to meet 
 the assault of Spain, 197 ships with an aggregate 
 tonnage of 29,744 tons, manned by 15,785 gallant 
 seamen. Against this force were massed 130 ships, 
 but they had twice as much tonnage, with 3165 
 guns, 19,295 soldiers, 8252 sailors, 2088 galley 
 slaves, besides 2000 illustrious volunteers who were 
 bent on crushing England, while 17,000 soldiers 
 under the Duke of Palma were waiting to join the 
 Armada at Calais. 
 
 Such was the state of the apparently unequal 
 contest. How the English fought, how clever their 
 seamanship and strategy, how they manoeuvred 
 and sank the unwieldy galleys one by one, it is 
 beyond the scope of this history to narrate. Sir 
 Francis Drake's account of what happened sums 
 up the matter in plain and sailor-like fashion : 
 
 " Beaten and shuffled together from the Lizard 
 to Calais, driven with squibs from their anchors, 
 and chased out of sight of England about Scotland 
 and Ireland, their invincible and dreadful navy, 
 with all its great and terrible ostentation, did not 
 in all their sailing about England, so much as sink 
 or take one ship, bark, pinnace or cock-boat of 
 ours, or even burn so much as one sheepcote on 
 this land." 
 
190 THE ENGLAND OF SHAKESPEARE 
 
 The events which called forth the energies of the 
 navy also aroused the army to a sense of the danger 
 to which England was exposed. It had been the 
 rule from the thirteenth to the middle of the six- 
 teenth century, whenever invasion threatened, to 
 empower special " Commissioners of Array " to 
 muster and train all, or a portion, of the men of 
 each county capable of bearing arms, and to hold 
 them in readiness to defend the kingdom. The 
 sheriff had command of the shire forces. In the 
 reign of Philip and Mary Lords-Lieutenants for each 
 county had .been appointed, who became the chief 
 military officers of the Crown in every county. He 
 appointed the officers and assessed the number of 
 men to be supplied from each hundred or parish. 
 The ancient obligation to keep sufficient arms 
 according to each man's estate was enforced. 
 Harrison tells us that in the time of Queen Mary 
 we were very short of armour and artillery, and that 
 this deficiency was noted with satisfaction by one 
 of the greatest peers of Spain who espied our naked- 
 ness in this respect and who observed that " it 
 would be an easy matter to conquer England, 
 because it wanted armour." 
 
 When, however, Queen Elizabeth came to the 
 throne this want was remedied and the country 
 was well supplied with military equipment. The 
 use of the long bow, which had earned the undying 
 reputation of the English archers on many a bloody 
 field, was passing away and became utterly decayed ; 
 
THE NAVY AND ARMY OF ENGLAND 191 
 
 but the men became equally skilful in shooting with 
 the caliver and in handling a pike and other weapons. 
 Every town and village had its armoury, containing 
 corslets, rivets, shirts of mail, jacks quilted and 
 covered with leather, fustian or canvas. Even the 
 poorest village had arms and armour for three or four 
 soldiers, and Harrison concludes that England had 
 never a better store of munitions and armour than 
 she had in the years before the Spaniard came. 
 The whole realm was an armoury and her furniture 
 infinite. Beside the weapons kept in the Queen's 
 armouries, some of the nobles had hundreds of 
 corslets, besides calivers, hand-guns, bows, arrows, 
 pikes, bills, pollaxes, flasks, touch-boxes, targets, 
 etc., the very sight of which frightened the worthy 
 wearer of the black gown. He gives the names of 
 the greatest ordnance, the Robinet, Falconet, 
 Falcon, Minion, Sacre, Demie Culverin, Culverin, 
 Demie Canon, Canon, E. Canon, Basiliske, with 
 their weight and the size of their mouths, and 
 though he asks what hath the long black gown to do 
 with glistening armour ? or what acquaintance can 
 there be between Mars and the Muses ? he seems 
 to have possessed a considerable knowledge of 
 military affairs. 
 
 England was not unprepared when the Invincible 
 Armada came. For eight years she had been putting 
 her house in order, though hampered by the Queen's 
 penuriousness. The coasts and creeks, which would 
 have afforded a favourable place for an enemy's 
 
192 THE ENGLAND OF SHAKESPEARE 
 
 landing, were fortified with forts and towers. The 
 militia were put into training. Beacons were 
 prepared on every towering height to warn the 
 people to repair to their appointed meeting places, 
 as Macaulay sings in his stirring ballad, and when 
 they were fired the men would flock to their ren- 
 dezvous, pike-men with their weapons twenty feet 
 long wearing corslets, bill-men with shorter hook- 
 shaped blades with murderous looking points, 
 archers, horsemen wearing corslet and marion or 
 helmet and tassets or thigh-guards. Some carried 
 a harquebus or petronel ; others were armed with 
 culverin, or a larger petronel, or muschete. All were 
 willing and determined to resist the foe, though 
 many lacked training. In these modern days it is 
 considered a marvellous feat to make a man a soldier 
 in three months. Six days a year were then con- 
 sidered ample, and many had only received a train- 
 ing of one day. However, in the time of her emer- 
 gency England was able to muster 86,016 foot and 
 13,831 cavalry, though only about half of the 
 infantry could handle well their cumbersome primi- 
 tive guns. They were never destined to try their 
 strength against the soldiers of Spain, and that, 
 perhaps, was fortunate for England, if Mouldy and 
 Wart and Feeble were true types of the stuff of the 
 British Army. Even brave and able soldiers like 
 John Norris feared what might be the result if a 
 single Spanish regiment succeeded in landing. The 
 wooden walls of England kept the foreigners at bay 
 
THE NAVY AND ARMY OF ENGLAND 193 
 
 and effectually prevented a hostile landing on our 
 shores — those walls that were manned by brave 
 patriots and dauntless heroes, who in the hour of 
 national or personal danger took as their motto the 
 saying of old John Hawkins, " Fear nothing ; God 
 will deliver us." 
 
 Nothing reveals more clearly the gallant heart 
 of England in this crisis of her history than the 
 popular ballads that were composed and sung by 
 the people, when the Armada threatened our 
 country, at the fairs and market gatherings, ales 
 and harvestings. England's very soul was stirred 
 and the land was full of song : 
 
 " This isle was full of noises 
 Sounds and sweet airs that gave delight and hurt not." 
 
 One of the most spirited of these was by Thomas 
 Deloney, a famous ballad-maker of the time, and 
 is described — " A joyful new ballad, declaring the 
 happie obtaining of the great Galleazzo, where in Don 
 Pietro de Valdez was the chiefe, through the mightie 
 power and providence of God, being a speciall token 
 of his gracious and fatherly goodness towards us 
 to the great encouragement of all those that willingly 
 fight in the defence of his gospel and our good Queene 
 of England." 
 
 (To the Tune of Mounsenes Almaigne.) 
 
 " O noble England 
 
 Fall downe upon thy knee ; 
 And praise thy God with thankfull hart 
 Which still maintaineth thee. 
 
 13 
 
194 THE ENGLAND OF SHAKESPEARE 
 
 The foraine forces. 
 
 That seekes thy utter spoile ; 
 Shall then through His especial grace 
 
 Be brought to shameful foile. 
 
 With mightie power 
 
 They came unto our coast ; 
 To overrunne our countrie quite, 
 
 They make their brags and boast. 
 
 In strength of men 
 
 They set their only stay ; 
 But we upon the Lord our God 
 
 Will put our trust alway." 
 
 The ballad then goes on to describe the wonder- 
 ful fleet, the soldiers, the stores of provisions and 
 how the Pope has sent " many blessed graines, to 
 sanctify their bad pretense bestowed both cost and 
 paines." But " the little land " was not dismayed, 
 
 for — 
 
 " In happie houre, 
 
 Qur foes we did discry ; 
 And under saile with gallant winde 
 As they came passing by. 
 
 Which suddaine tidings 
 
 To Plymouth being brought. 
 Full soon our Lord High Admirall 
 
 For to pursue them sought. 
 
 And to his traine 
 
 Courageously he saide : 
 Now for the Lord and our good Queene 
 
 To fight be not afraide. 
 
 Regard our cause 
 
 And play your partes like men ; 
 The Lord no doubt will prosper us 
 
 In all our actions then." 
 
THE NAVY AND ARMY OF ENGLAND 195 
 
 Here is a grand description of a Spanish galleon : 
 
 " This great Galleazzo, 
 
 Which was so hughe and hye, 
 
 That like a bulwarks on the sea, 
 
 Did seeme to each man's eye. 
 
 There was it taken 
 
 Unto our great reliefe ; 
 And divers nobles in which traine 
 
 Don Pietro was the chiefe. 
 
 Strong was she stuft 
 With cannons great and small ; 
 
 And other instruments of warre 
 Which we obtained all. 
 
 A certaine signe 
 
 Of good success we trust ; 
 That God will overthrow the rest 
 
 As he hath done the first." 
 
 Then the verses describe the pursuit of the 
 Spaniards until they " neere Callice came." There 
 the false Spaniards on board one of the ships hung 
 out a flag of truce, which when the sailors saw, they 
 sent some " little barkes " to board her ; but 
 " the false Spaniards broke their word, and with 
 charged cannons " received them rather warmly ; 
 so, " like lions fierce," the Englishmen fought their 
 faithless foes, and killed the men and sunk their ark 
 in Callice sand. The name of the Spanish captain 
 is given, Don Hugo de Moncaldo, " through whose 
 braines ye pouders force a Bullet strong did beat." 
 
 The " mightie vessell " was three score yards in 
 length ; what would the poet have said if he could 
 
196 THE ENGLAND OF SHAKESPEARE 
 
 have seen our modern ships-of-war ? He describes 
 her equipment, and the intentions of the savage foes. 
 Evidently these verses were written during the 
 fights with the Armada, while the ships were in the 
 Channel, for the ballad concludes with a spirited 
 verse praying " his deare bretheren which beareth 
 armes this day for safegarde of your native soile," 
 to regard their duties and fight valiantly for their 
 God, their queen and country. 
 
 Many a simple English heart was doubtless stirred 
 by Deloney's strains to fight for his hearth and 
 home, and many lonely ones comforted when they 
 heard the news that their gallant sons had not yet 
 been defeated. 
 
 The next ballad is a spirited description of " the 
 Queenes visiting of the campe at Tilsburie with her 
 entertainment there." We can form from these 
 verses a very accurate picture of the courtly state 
 which Queen Elizabeth loved so dearly, the arrange- 
 ment of the troops with their banners, some of them 
 torn and rent with the bullets of Flanders ; and 
 we can realise the enthusiasm which the presence 
 of the Queen and her well-chosen words aroused in 
 the hearts of her soldiers, and the tact and judg- 
 ment which she displayed during that anxious time. 
 Here is a description of her royal progress : 
 
 " And on the eighth of August she 
 From fair St. James' tooke her way, 
 With many Lords of high degree 
 In princely robes and rich aray. 
 
the navy And army of England i9t 
 
 And to bardge upon the water 
 
 Being King Henryes royall daughter 
 
 She did goe with trumpets sounding, 
 And with dubbing drums apace, 
 
 Along the Thames that famous river 
 For to view the campe a space." 
 
 On arriving at the camp the soldiers kneel to receive 
 their Sovereign, but the Queen says, ' ' Lord blesse you 
 all, my friends, but doe not kneele so much to me. 
 Her royall heart leaped at the sight of her noble 
 hosts, and tossing up her plume of feathers, cheare- 
 fully her body bending, she waved her royall hand." 
 She abode at the house of a " Maister Riches " for 
 the night ; and then on the morrow " riding on a 
 princely paulfrey with her lordes and ladies all she 
 came to the campe with a guarde of yeomen, the 
 sergeant-trumpet with his mace, nine trumpeters 
 in coats of scarlet colour trim, the King of Heralds 
 bearing the Arms of England, wrought with rich 
 embroidered gold on the finest velvet blue and 
 crimson ; and two sergeants, in velvet coats, bearing 
 maces of beaten gold." Thus proceeded the virgin 
 Queen " atired like an angell bright," with no lack 
 of attendance, besides the goodly company already 
 described. 
 
 " And then bespake our noble Queen, 
 My loving friends and countriemen, 
 I hope this day the worst is seene 
 
 That in our wars we shall sustaine. 
 But if our enemies do assaile you, 
 Never let your stomackes faile you, 
 
198 THE ENGLAND OF SHAKESfEAttE 
 
 For in the midst of all your troupe. 
 We ourselves will be in place, 
 
 To be your joy, your guide and comfort 
 Even before our enemies face." 
 
 With a brief account of Her Majesty's return the 
 ballad closes. It is signed " T.D.," and imprinted 
 by John Wolfe, for Edwarde White, 1588. 
 
 These extracts from the ballads of Thomas 
 Deloney will give the reader some idea of their 
 style and contents, who has not been able to study 
 the original copies preserved with great care in the 
 British Museum. But Deloney was not the only 
 popular songster of the period. Here is a verse from 
 an unknown writer, entitled " Queen Elizabeth's 
 Champion ; or Great Britain's Glory," which lacks 
 neither spirit nor animation : 
 
 " Come sound up your trumpets and beat up your drums, 
 And let's go to sea with a valiant cheer, 
 In search of a mightie vast navy of ships. 
 The like has not been for these fifty long year. 
 Raderer two, tandaro te, 
 Raderer tandorer, ran do te. 
 
 The Queen she provided a navy of ships, 
 
 With sweet flying streamers so glorious to see ; 
 Rich top and topgallant, captains and lieutenants, 
 Some forty, some fifty brass pieces and three. 
 Raderer two, tandaro te, 
 Raderer, tandorer ran do te." 
 
 Such were some of the verses of the ballad-writers 
 who, by the cheerful strains and spirited words, 
 gave courage to the sailors' hearts, and nerved the 
 
THE NAVY AND ARMY OF ENGLAND 199 
 
 warrior's" arm for victory. When anxiety was 
 stamped on every brow, they inspired hope and 
 resolution, and the songs of the people play no 
 inconsiderable part in national history. And when 
 the victory was won, and the Spanish ships were 
 being wrecked on the Scottish coasts, or on the 
 rocky shores of Ireland, the people sang their songs 
 as they had never done before, and all England rang 
 with one universal shout of exultation. 
 
 The Queen Elizabeth was the popular idol; to 
 her exertions they attributed the victory ; and 
 many a courtly ode and tribute of praise, many a 
 homely ballad were chanted in her honour. The 
 most elaborate of these compositions is a curious 
 epigram, by Theodore Beza, written in several 
 languages, in Latin, English, Dutch, French, 
 Spanish, Hebrew and Greek. Here is the English 
 stanza of this strange composition, preserved in the 
 British Museum. It is entitled — 
 
 " Ad Serenissimam Elizabetham Reginam. 
 
 The Spanish Fleete did flote in narrow seas, 
 
 And bend her ships against the English shore. 
 
 With so great rage as nothing could appease 
 
 And with such strength as never seene before. 
 
 And all to joyne the kingdom of that land 
 
 Unto the kingdoms that he had in hand. 
 
 Now if you aske what set this king on fire, 
 
 To practise warre when he of peace did treat, 
 
 It was his Pride and never quencht desire, 
 
 To spoile that Islands wealthe by Peace made great. 
 
 His Pride which farre above the heavens did swell, 
 
 And his desire as unsufficed as hell. 
 
200 THE ENGLAND OF SHAKESPEARE 
 
 But well have winds his proud blasts overblowen, 
 And swelling waves alaid his swelling heart, 
 Well hath the Sea with greedie gulfs unknown, 
 Devoured the devourer to his smart : 
 And made his ships a praie unto the sand 
 That meant to praie upon another's land. 
 And now O Queen above all others blest, 
 For whom both windes and waves are prest to fight, 
 So rule your own, so succour friends opprest, 
 (As farre from pride as ready to do right), 
 That England you, you England, long enjoy 
 No lesse your friends' delight, than foes annoy.'' 
 
 From a curious book, entitled A Fig for the 
 Spaniards or Spanish Spirits, wherein are livelie 
 portrayed the damnable deeds, miserable murders and 
 monstrous massacres of the cursed Spaniards, pub- 
 lished in 1591, I extract a fair sample of the pane- 
 gyrics to which the Virgin Queen's ears must have 
 become familiar. 
 
 " Hsec est virgo potens, ha?c est Regina fidelis 
 Haec est Diva latens mulibribus alma figuris 
 Qua tot lustra gerens apud Anglos' nobile sceptrum 
 Regibus est radamata bonis, populoque Deoque." 
 
 Of the later Armada poetry I do not propose to 
 treat. Of Robert Southey's sweetly flowing lines ; 
 of Macaulay's grand unfinished poem which reflects 
 so faithfully the spirit of the Armada days, and 
 lights again the beacons on the hills; of Schiller's 
 stirring verses which conclude with— 
 
 " God the Almighty blew, 
 And the Armada went to every wind — " 
 
THE NAVY AND ARMY OF ENGLAND 201 
 
 of these we cannot now speak. But a study of the 
 current ballad literature of the day enables us to 
 understand more perfectly the popular feeling which 
 existed in the minds of Englishmen when " the 
 ocean castles and floating hosts " of Spain threat- 
 ened our shores, to realise the indomitable courage 
 with which our brave forefathers faced their formid- 
 able foe, and won a victory unparalleled in the 
 annals of the history of the world. 
 
XIII 
 AGRICULTURE AND TRADE 
 
 " I (hank my God and ever shall 
 It was the sheep that paid for all" — 
 
 was the saying of the clothiers and woolmen of 
 England, and this was certainly true of the Tudor 
 landowners and farmers of England until the time 
 of Shakespeare. Every one was busy with these 
 useful fleeces which brought much wealth into 
 England and lined the pockets of the merchants and 
 agriculturists. All the land was given up to grazing, 
 and the farmers cared not for ploughing and sowing 
 when they found that keeping sheep was more 
 profitable. English wool commanded a high price 
 in Continental markets, and English clothiers such 
 as the famous " Jack of Newbury " waxed fat and 
 prosperous. But in the special period we are study- 
 ing rural affairs were altered. English wool declined 
 in price as it did in quality. Wheat rose in value 
 from six shillings a quarter in Henry VIII's time to 
 thirty-eight shillings in that of the later years of 
 Queen Elizabeth. 
 
 An extensive system of enclosure set in. Acts of 
 Parliament were passed ordering that pasture should 
 
 202 
 
AGRICULTURE Aftt) TRADE 203 
 
 be turned into tillage and that no arable land should 
 be laid down to grass. Sheep-farming required little 
 labour ; hence there had been much distress among 
 the agricultural labourers, who had nocked to the 
 towns, and their cottages had been pulled down. 
 They were now called back to the country to till 
 the land ; cottages had to be built for them, and 
 landlords and farmers, copyholders and labourers 
 shared in the increased prosperity of the country- 
 side. 
 
 Harrison tells us that the soil of England is very 
 fruitful, and brings forth many commodities of 
 which other countries have need, but that it is fitter 
 for grazing than tilling. In his day three-fourths of 
 the country was pasture and one-fourth arable, but 
 the soil had been very much improved in recent 
 times by the " painful " (painstaking) care and skill 
 of the farmers, and the pasture was mostly fine and 
 rich, so much so that the cattle were speedily fatted, 
 or yielded a great abundance of milk and cream, 
 which produced the yellowest butter and the finest 
 cheese. Wales had the best pasture land, and the 
 county of Cardigan was as fertile as Italy, which, in 
 the learned author's time, was deemed the Paradise 
 of the World, but on account of the wickedness of 
 the inhabitants he deemed it to be the " very sink 
 and drain of Hell. ' ' x Hop-growing had recently been 
 
 1 Harrison never ceased to goad at Italy and on the shame- 
 less conduct of her people, strongly objecting to our young men 
 going there and learning their evil ways. 
 
204 THE ENGLAND OE SHAKESPEARE 
 
 started with excellent results, and few farmers had 
 no hop-gardens, the crops of which were far better 
 than those brought to us from Flanders. The 
 Flemings had used much corruption and daily 
 forgery in this industry, but the tables had been 
 turned, and our farmers could not only supply the 
 country's requirements, but export their hops to 
 Flanders. Harrison regretted that we had no vine- 
 yards and did not make wine ; though some had 
 lately tried wine-growing, but the experiment had 
 not succeeded. He notes that in former times there 
 were vineyards, and refers to the old wine-tithes, 
 abbey vineyards, of that at Smithfield, quoting as 
 his authority John Stow, the great London antiquary. 
 The Isle of Ely was called the Isle of Vines, and other 
 evidence is brought forward to show that it would 
 be quite possible to grow grapes in England and to 
 make our own wine. 
 
 And here I may recall the description of an Eliza- 
 bethan farmer, as he is depicted by a contemporary 
 writer, John Stephens, in his work entitled Essays 
 and Characters, published in 1615. It is at once 
 graphic and amusing : 
 
 " A farmer is a concealed commodity. His worth 
 or value is not fully known till he be half rotten : 
 and then he is worth nothing. He hath religion 
 enough to say, God bless his Majesty ; God send 
 peace, and fair weather : so that one may glean 
 harvest out of him to be his time of happiness : 
 but the tithe-sheaf goes against his conscience ; for 
 
AGRICULTURE AND TRADE 205 
 
 he had rather spend the value upon his reapers and 
 ploughman than bestow anything to the mainte- 
 nance of a parson. He is sufficiently book-read, nay, 
 a profound doctor, if he can search into the diseases 
 of cattle : and to foretell rain by tokens makes him 
 a miraculous astronomer. To speak good English 
 is more than he much regards ; and for him not to 
 contemn all arts and languages, were to condemn 
 his own education. The pride of his housekeeping 
 is a mess of cream, a pig, or a green goose : and if 
 his servants can uncontrolled find the highway to 
 the cupboard, he wins the name of a bountiful yeo- 
 man. Doubtless he would murmur against the 
 Tribune's law, by which none might occupy more 
 than five hundred acres, for he murmurs against 
 himself, because he cannot purchase more. To pur- 
 chase arms (if he emulates gentry) sets upon him 
 like an ague : it breaks his sleep, takes away his 
 stomach, and he can never be quiet till the herald 
 hath given him the harrows, the cuckoo, or some 
 ridiculous emblem for his armoury. The bringing 
 up and marriage of his eldest son, is an ambition 
 which afflicts him so soon as the boy is born, and 
 the hope to see his son superior, or placed above 
 him, drives him to dote upon the boy in his cradle. 
 To peruse the statutes, and prefer them before the 
 Bible makes him purchase the credit of a shrewd 
 fellow ; and then he brings all adversaries to com- 
 position ; and if at length he can discover himself in 
 large legacies beyond expectation, he hath his desire. 
 Meantime, he makes the prevention of a dearth 
 his title to be thought a good commonwealth's 
 man. And therefore he preserves a chandler's 
 treasure of bacon, links and puddings in the chimney 
 
206 THE ENGLAND OF SHAKESPEARE 
 
 corner. He is quickly and contentedly put into the 
 fashion, if his clothes be made against Whitsuntide, 
 or Christmas Day : and then outwardly he contemns 
 appearance. He cannot therefore choose but hate 
 a Spaniard likewise, and (he thinks) that hatred only 
 makes him a loyal subject : for benevolence and 
 subsidies be more unseasonable to him, than his 
 quarter's rent. Briefly, being a good housekeeper, 
 he is an honest man : and so, he thinks of no rising 
 higher, but rising early in the morning ; and being 
 up, he hath no end of motion, but wanders in his 
 woods and pastures so continually, that when he 
 sleeps, or sits, he wanders also. After this, he turns 
 into his element, by being too venturous hot, and 
 cold : then he is fit for nothing but a chequered 
 grave : howsoever some may think him convenient 
 to make an everlasting bridge ; because his best 
 foundation has been (perhaps) upon wool-packs." 
 
 Trade was carried on in fairs and markets. We 
 had in England such gigantic fairs as Stourbridge, 
 near Cambridge, and Bartholomew Fair at Smith- 
 field ; and every town and some villages had fairs 
 which were bestowed upon them by royal grants. 
 Fairs are of ecclesiastical origin, as their name 
 denotes. Fair is the Latin feria or holy day, and it 
 would be interesting to show how in the East the 
 great gatherings for religious observances became 
 the centres of organised trading ; such as the great 
 fair held in the eleventh century on Mount Calvary, 
 on September 15th every year, where the produc- 
 tions of Europe were exchanged for those of the 
 
AGRICULTURE AND TRADE 207 
 
 East. The German name messen, derived from the 
 Mass or feast, seems also to denote the ecclesiasti- 
 cal origin of fairs. 
 
 They were usually held on the Festival of the 
 Patron Saint of the Church in each parish, whither 
 flocked friends and neighbours from the surround- 
 ing villages, and quite small villages used to have 
 their fairs. Profiting by such assemblies, chapmen 
 used to set up their booths and stalls and sell their 
 produce, and minstrels and mountebanks added 
 their amusements, and thus a fair arose. Fairs 
 were held by prescription or by Royal grant ; that 
 is to say, the right of holding one became a privilege. 
 If it had been held from time immemorial, it was held 
 by right of prescription ; if not, it owed its origin 
 to some Royal grant, which was bestowed on some 
 individual, corporation, church, or monastery, and 
 the right of collecting tolls, stallage, etc., was con- 
 ferred on the beneficiary. 
 
 Archdeacon Cunningham, in his Growth of English 
 Industry and Commerce, writes : "By far the greater 
 part of the commerce of this country was carried on 
 at such fairs, and Stourbridge Fair was one of the 
 most important in the whole kingdom, rivalling, it 
 was said, the great fair of Nijni Novgorod, as a 
 gathering of world-wide fame." 
 
 Fuller, in the seventeenth century, states that 
 there was a tradition that this fair originated with 
 some Westmorland cloth dealers, who were here 
 overtaken by a storm on their way to Norwich, and 
 
208 THE ENGLAND OF SHAKESPEARE 
 
 found so ready a market for their goods, which they 
 spread out to dry on the grass of the common, that 
 they went no further, but returned hither the next 
 year and again. This tradition does not seem 
 improbable, as Kendal has, from time immemorial, 
 been renowned for its cloth — the famous " Kendal 
 green " worn, as old ballads record, by the English 
 archers ; and Norwich was throughout the Middle 
 Ages the great commercial centre of the cloth trade. 
 
 King John, however, was the real originator, as, 
 in 1211, he granted to the lepers of the Hospital of 
 St. Mary Magdalen at Stourbridge, by- Cambridge, 
 a fair to be held in the Close of the Hospital on the 
 Vigil and Feast of Holy Cross. There were sad 
 disputings between the University and the Corpora- 
 tion of Cambridge about this fair and these lasted 
 six centuries. However, I will not trouble you with 
 an account of them. 1 
 
 A new charter was sought by the Mayor in 1553, 
 when it was proposed to pay King Edward VI 1000 
 marks for the privilege, but delays occurred, and 
 it was not obtained until the reign of Queen Eliza- 
 beth, in the year 1589, who granted two charters, 
 one to the town and the other to the University. 
 Queen Elizabeth was an ardent admirer and sup- 
 porter of learning, and greatly loved both Univer- 
 sities, Oxford and Cambridge ; and when the town 
 complained of the usurpations of the University, 
 
 1 Cf. ray lecture on " Stourbridge Fair," British Archaeo- 
 logical Association Journal, September, 1913. 
 
AGRICULTURE AND TRADE 209 
 
 she replied that " she would not take away any privi- 
 leges of the University but would rather add to them. ' ' 
 
 In this charter of Queen Elizabeth it is stated 
 that Stourbridge, from the advantages of the place, 
 its contiguity to the University, and the fitness of 
 the season, far surpassed the greatest and most 
 celebrated fairs of all England, whence great benefits 
 had resulted to the merchants of the whole king- 
 dom, who resorted thereto, and there quickly sold 
 their wares and merchandises to purchasers coming 
 from all parts of the realm. A list of the goods sold 
 would take up much time to record. We have 
 mention of the tolls and customs payable for 
 merchandise in the time of Philip and Mary, which 
 open our eyes to the vast variety of goods brought 
 here for sale. What is styled " beyond sea class- 
 hold " seems to indicate goods brought from abroad, 
 which found their way to Stourbridge by the water- 
 ways along the Ouse, and Cam, and Stour. In 
 mediaeval times monks from monasteries near and 
 far came to purchase supplies for their houses. 
 Squires and noblemen bought goods for their manor 
 houses. In the Household Book of Lord North in 
 the time of Queen Elizabeth I find a long list of 
 goods purchased by him, including salt fish, white 
 salt, bay salt (showing the large amounts of salt 
 meats consumed in great houses in Tudor times), 
 kettles, pails, feather bedtick, raisins, currants, 
 prunes, gunpowder, dog-couples, etc. 
 
 The household and privy-purse accounts of the 
 H 
 
210 THE ENGLAND OF SHAKESPEARE 
 
 Lestranges, of Hunstanton, also show that the 
 squire spent eight shillings " for my cost in ryding 
 to Styrbryche feyer to buy stuffe for ye house and 
 home again." 
 
 Amongst the crowd of eager buyers and sellers 
 were Venetian and Genoese merchants with their 
 rich stuffs, their silks and velvets, the Flemish 
 weavers with their linens, the Spaniard with his 
 stock of iron, the Norwegian with his tar and pitch, 
 the Gascon with his wines, the Hanse merchants 
 with their furs and amber, while squires, and earls, 
 and college bailiffs eagerly flitted about making 
 purchases. There were such valuable commodities 
 as embroidery upon velvet and cloth of gold, cloths 
 of silk wrought with gold, and silver of Cyprus and 
 gold of Lucca, Spanish leather, Spanish iron, 
 Eastern boards (wainscots) and a mysterious article, 
 a hundred half -wax fish (probably dried fish). 
 
 The fair was the prototype of " Vanity Fair " in 
 Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, who thus describes the 
 bustling scene and vividly allegorises it : 
 
 " At this Fair are all such merchandize sold as 
 Houses, Lands, Trades, Places, Honours, Prefer- 
 ments, Countries, Kingdoms, Suits, Pleasures and 
 Delights of all sorts, etc. And moreover at this 
 Fair there is at all times to be seen jugglings, cheats, 
 games, plays, fools, apes, knaves and rogues, and 
 that of every kind. 
 
 " And, as in other fairs of less moment, there are 
 the several rows and streets under their proper 
 
AGRICULTURE AND TRADE 211 
 
 names, where such and such wares are vended, so 
 here likewise you have the proper places, rows and 
 streets where the wares of this fair are soonest to be 
 found. Here is Britain Row, the French Row, the 
 Italian Row, the Spanish Row, the German Row, 
 where several sorts of vanities are to be sold." 
 
 There is no contemporary account of the pro- 
 ceedings which perhaps our poet witnessed, as he 
 went to Cambridge with his company of actors. 
 Once only does he mention fairs in his plays, 
 though he must often have been present at the revel. 
 
 In All's Well occurs the line : 
 
 " I will buy me a son-in-law at a fair, and toll him." 1 
 
 Although there is no description of Stourbridge 
 in the poet's time, the proceedings were regulated 
 by time-honoured custom, and therefore, differed 
 little from the scenes recorded a little later. 
 
 The fair was proclaimed on September 7th with 
 great solemnity by the Vice-Chancellor of the 
 University and the Mayor of the town, accompanied 
 by the Members of Parliament, Aldermen, Recorder, 
 soldiers and officers on horseback, with music play- 
 ing before them, the crier in scarlet on horseback, 
 forming a grand procession, followed by a great 
 number of boys of the town on horseback, who as 
 soon as the ceremony of proclaiming was over rode 
 races, and on returning to Cambridge each boy had 
 a cake and some ale at the Town Hall. 
 
 1 Act V, scene 3. 
 
212 THE ENGLAND OF SHAKESPEARE 
 
 The proclamation began with the familiar " 
 yes, O yes, O yes," a corruption of the old Norman 
 French " Oyez," " hear ye," ordered silence, bade 
 people keep the peace, and make no affrays or out- 
 cries, nor wear weapons upon pain of imprisonment 
 and loss of those weapons, ordered all vagrant and 
 unruly persons to withdraw, and bade the bakers, 
 brewers, vintners, etc., to sell good and wholesome 
 victuals, and ending up with God save the King. 
 
 Previous to the opening, if the husbandmen who 
 rent the land do not clear their corn before August 
 24th, the fair people may trample it down in order 
 to build their booths ; but if the fair folk have not 
 removed their stalls before Michaelmas Day at noon, 
 the ploughmen may come in with their horses, 
 ploughs and carts and destroy whatever they may 
 find. 
 
 The shops or booths were built in rows like 
 streets, having each their name, as Garlick Row, 
 Booksellers' Row, Cook Row, etc., and every com- 
 modity had its proper place, as the Cheese Fair, 
 Hop Fair, Wool Fair. All sorts of traders were there, 
 wholesale or retail, goldsmiths, toymen, brasiers, 
 turners, milliners, haberdashers, hatters, mercers, 
 drapers, pewterers, china warehouses ; in fact, 
 every trade in London was represented. There 
 were also taverns, coffee-houses, eating-houses, 
 where you could have made a hearty meal on roast 
 goose, boiled pork, and other delicacies. 
 
 Crossing the main road at the south end of Garlick 
 
AGRICULTURE AND TRADE 213 
 
 Row is a great square, formed of the largest booths, 
 called the Duddery (derived from the old word 
 Dudde, signifying cloth — Scotch folk still call 
 clothes duds), where the wholesale clothiers or wool- 
 len manufacturers had their booths. In the centre 
 was a may-pole capped by a vane, and also a pulpit 
 whence the minister of Barnwell preached on -the 
 two Sundays during the fair. In this Duddery alone 
 £100,000 worth of woollen manufactures was sold 
 in less than a week, besides the prodigious trade 
 carried on by wholesale men from London and all 
 parts of England, who transacted their business 
 wholly in their pocket-books, and meeting their 
 chapmen from all parts made up their accounts, 
 received money chiefly in bills and took orders. 
 These exceeded by far the sales of goods brought 
 actually to the fair. Clothiers from Yorkshire and 
 Lancashire flocked there, bringing 1000 horse- 
 pack of goods. A part of a street of booths was 
 taken up with upholsterers' ware. The West of 
 England goods were well represented and an enor- 
 mous amount of wool and hops was sold, the price 
 of hops throughout England being settled according 
 to the charge of Stourbridge Fair. It was like 
 a well-fortified city, without disorder or confusion. 
 The gentry came in from the surrounding country 
 towards the end of the fair, bought their stuff and 
 enjoyed the puppet shows, drolls, rope-dancers and 
 such like. The last day was spent in horse-racing 
 and foot races. In most fairs there was a local 
 
214 THE ENGLAND OF SHAKESPEARE 
 
 court of justice called Pied-Powder Court, the name 
 probably being derived from the " dusty feet " of 
 the fair folk who attended it. The whole circuit of 
 the fair ground was three miles, and within this 
 space all the business was transacted and the 
 booths set up. On some occasions when the plague 
 was raging, the authorities forbade the holding of 
 the fair on account of the fear of infection. 
 
 Such in brief is the story of Stourbridge Fair, 
 very different from some of the smaller ones which, 
 as Harrison says, were only " for drink, pies and 
 pedlary," and which he thought ought to be 
 stopped, as they corrupted the youths. He gives 
 a full list of all the fairs in England and the days on 
 which they were held. 
 
 The records of Bartholomew Fair are voluminous. 
 In Shakespeare's time the proceedings were watched 
 by our foreign guest Hentzner, who thus described 
 what he saw : 
 
 "It is worthy of observation that every year, 
 upon St. Bartholomew's Day, when the fair is held, 
 it is usual for the mayor, attended by twelve princi- 
 pal aldermen, to walk in a neighbouring field, 
 dressed in his scarlet gown, and about his neck a 
 golden chain, to which is hung a golden Fleece, and, 
 besides, that particular ornament which distin- 
 guishes the most noble order of the Garter. When 
 the mayor goes out of the precincts of the city a 
 sceptre and sword and a cap are borne before him, 
 and he is followed by the principal aldermen in 
 scarlet gowns with gold chains, himself and they 
 
AGRICULTURE AND TRADE 215 
 
 on horseback. Upon their arrival at a certain 
 place appointed for that purpose, where a tent is 
 pitched, the mob trying to wrestle before them, two 
 at a time ; the conquerors receive rewards from the 
 magistrates. After this is over a parcel of live rab- 
 bits are turned loose among the crowd, which are 
 pursued by a number of boys who endeavour to 
 catch them, with all the noise they can make. While 
 we were at the show, one of our company, Tobias 
 Salander, Doctor of Physic, had his pocket picked 
 of his purse with nine crowns which, without doubt, 
 was so cleverly taken from him by an Englishman, 
 who always kept very close to him, that the Doctor 
 did not perceive it." 
 
 Hentzner does not tell us that this gathering was 
 the chief Cloth Fair of England, and in that respect 
 had no rival. The Merchant Taylors' Company 
 have still their silver yard-measure with which they 
 were authorised to try the measures of the clothiers 
 and drapers. That bit of old London called Cloth 
 Fair, erected by Lord Rich after the Priory had 
 been dissolved, marks the place where the booths 
 of the clothiers stood in fair-time. Dated 1604, 
 there is still extant the order of the proceedings of 
 the Lord Mayor, who was met by the Aldermen and 
 Sheriffs at the Guildhall Chapel after dinner at two 
 o'clock, attired in their violet gowns lined, with their 
 horses. The company rode to Newgate and thence 
 to Smithfield, where a long proclamation was read, 
 which enjoined the keeping of the peace and the 
 selling of goods by proper weights and measures. 
 
216 THE ENGLAND OF SHAKESPEARE 
 
 Before 1614 Smithfield was often a sea of mud and 
 filth during fair-time. In that year it was paved 
 and houses had been built which encroached upon 
 the ground originally occupied by the traders. At 
 the same time Ben Jonson produced his comedy, 
 Bartholomew Fair, painting a wonderful picture 
 of the assembly with its follies and vices. We make 
 the acquaintance of Adam Overdo, judge of the 
 court of Piepowder, who wanders about the fair 
 disguised so that he may discover abuses ; Puppy, 
 the wrestler, asleep before the booth of fat Ursula, 
 the pigwoman ; a north-country clothier some- 
 what overcome by the " too meaghty eale," sole 
 representative of the merchants of Leeds and Brad- 
 ford, who brought their wares and did their business 
 in Cloth Fair. We see Master Daniel Knockem 
 Jordan, the horse courser, captain of roarers, bully 
 in sword, boot and feather, a knight of the knife 
 who cuts purses and steals penny dogs ; ballad- 
 singers, pigwomen, costard or apple mongers, bullies, 
 the Piepowder Court with its justice and clerks and 
 marshals ; stocks and whipping-post for trans- 
 gressors, and a pond for ducking Ursula, the pig- 
 woman. There was Kindheart, the tooth-drawer, 
 and an ape that leaped over a chair for a King of 
 England, but refused to perform for the Pope or 
 the King of Spain, hobby-horses, drums and rattles ; 
 and roast pig seems to have been the chief delicacy 
 of which Ursula was the principal purveyor. The 
 ballad-singers shout : 
 
AGRICULTURE AND TRADE 217 
 
 " Buy my ballads ! new ballads ! Hey ! 
 Now the Fair's a filling ! 
 O for a time to startle : 
 The birds o' the booths here billing 
 Yearly with old Saint Bartle ! " 
 
 Then there was the burlesque puppet play, The 
 Ancient Modem History of Hero and Leander, other- 
 wise called the Touchstone of True Love, with as true 
 a Trial of Friendship between Damon and Pythias, 
 two faithful friends of the Bankside, and the Puritan 
 Zeal-of-the-Land Busy, who hove from Banbury, 
 and is described as a " hypocritical vermin." He 
 rages against stage-plays, but is " converted " by 
 a puppet. The tricks of the cut-purses are set forth 
 and their success proven. But these and other 
 vagaries of the Pleasure Fair, so fully described by 
 the poet in his play, reflect only the social life of the 
 period, and do not concern the economic values of 
 the Fair. There were others in London : May Fair, 
 held by a grant of the Abbot of Westminster in 
 Brook Field, on the site of Curzon Street, began on 
 May Day and lasted with much revelry for fourteen 
 days. It was presented as a nuisance and stopped 
 for a time in 1708, and finally abolished in the reign 
 of George II. Southwark Fair, or Lady Fair, once 
 depicted by Hogarth, was. suppressed at the end of 
 the eighteenth century, and St. James's Fair and 
 one on Tower Hill were other marts in the City for 
 the sale of various commodities. 
 
 Weekly markets were held in most towns for the 
 
218 THE ENGLAND OF SHAKESPEARE 
 
 convenience of buyers, to which agricultural produce 
 was brought for sale. There seem to have been 
 many tricks in trade. The inspection of the goods 
 was imperfectly carried out, and if a country baker 
 brought to the market good bread, fault was found 
 with it by the townsfolk and he was obliged to 
 return home with his goods unsold. Moreover, 
 there was much drunkenness at these gatherings 
 caused by " heady ale and beer, called by the 
 people hussecap, mad dog, angels' food and dragons' 
 milk." Malt bugs hugged at ale-pots like pigs at 
 their dame's teats, till they were as red as cocks and 
 little wiser than their combs. 
 
 Bodgers and loaders and common carriers bought 
 up all the corn and then raised the price so that the 
 poor man could not purchase his weekly stock. 
 Much corn was exported to hostile nations and 
 Papists to the detriment of the home consumer. 
 The bodgers were terrible folk, and were guilty of 
 all manner of deceit. They kept the corn to enhance 
 the price even till it was musty, and then the poor 
 were forced to buy it, and it gave them the plague. 
 Purveyors 1 also bought all kinds of farm-produce, 
 butter, cheese, pigs, capons, hens, hogs and bacon, 
 and then permitted their wives to sell these goods 
 elsewhere, raising the prices. There were too many 
 dealers. There were no standard weights and 
 
 1 Purveyors were those who bought for the sovereign's use, 
 exercising the prerogative of purveyance. They often abused 
 their authority, and their powers of pre-emption were considered 
 a great hardship. 
 
AGRICULTURE AND TRADE 219 
 
 measures, and these wretched dealers bought by 
 one measure, the larger one, and sold by a smaller 
 one. These and other tricks were resorted to by 
 these infamous creatures who cheated the poor and 
 wronged the nation. However, in spite of abuses 
 the markets were useful institutions. They sup- 
 plied the neighbourhood with all that the people 
 required, and there was scarcely a town through- 
 out the country which had not its weekly market 
 and once or twice a year its fair. 
 
 Trade increased enormously during our period. 
 During the reigns of the Queen's immediate pre- 
 decessors it was at a low ebb and there was much 
 distress in the land. Vagrants and impoverished 
 people were plentiful and the Government found it 
 necessary to institute some first attempts at Poor 
 Law enactments. The coinage had been shame- 
 lessly debased and Elizabeth determined early in 
 her reign to reform the currency, and this con- 
 tributed greatly to the revival of trade. Her policy 
 was based upon what we usually call " Protec- 
 tion," which is effective in fostering new industries 
 whatever the advocates of a Free Trade policy may 
 urge against it. English merchants were not 
 obliged to pay customs. English fishermen brought 
 their cargoes of fish into port free of charge, whereas 
 foreigners were heavily mulcted. English folk were 
 obliged to fast and eat fish, not so much as a re- 
 ligious duty, but as an encouragement to the fishing 
 industry. In order to promote the industry of cap- 
 
220 THE ENGLAND OF SHAKESPEARE 
 
 making everyone below a certain rank had to wear 
 a cap, or submit to be fined. New charters were 
 granted to the City Companies of London, and 
 some of their duties were to supervise the quality 
 of the goods provided by the members thereof, 
 to regulate the trade and advance the interests of 
 the members. As I have already noticed many 
 industrious foreigners, driven out of France and 
 Flanders, by religious persecution, flocked to our 
 shores and brought with them the secrets of their 
 industries, especially of cloth-making, and the 
 manufacture of silk, paper, thread, " bags, sages, 
 arras, mockades," lace, parchment, needles, galli- 
 pots, etc. The old English clothiers continued to 
 prosper and maintain their supremacy in their 
 trade. 
 
 Our ships sailed to many distant ports and brought 
 home the treasures of India, Persia, Turkey, Russia, 
 Sweden and America. From the port of Antwerp 
 came jewels and precious stones, silver, bullion, 
 quicksilver, silks, cloth of gold and silver, gold and 
 silver thread, camblets, grograms, spices, drugs, 
 sugar, cotton, cummin galls, linen fine and coarse, 
 serges, demi-ostades, tapestry, madder, hops in 
 great quantity, glass, salt fish, metallic and other 
 merceries of all sorts to a great value, arms of all 
 kinds, ammunition for war, and household furni- 
 ture. To Antwerp we sent vast quantities of fine 
 and coarse draperies, fringes and other things of 
 that kind, the finest wool, excellent saffron in small 
 
AGRICULTURE AND TRADE 221 
 
 quantities, a great amount of lead and tin, sheep 
 and rabbit skins without number, and various other 
 kinds of fine peltry and leather, beer, cheese, and 
 other sorts of provisions ; and also malmsey wines 
 which we imported from Candia. 1 
 
 Great Merchant Trading Companies carried on 
 the trade of England with foreign countries and 
 enjoyed monopolies. The Merchant Adventurers 
 were the pioneers of English commercial enterprise, 
 and during our period there were formed the Russia 
 Company, the Company of New Trades, the Com- 
 pany of Tripoli Merchants, the Eastland Company, 
 which subsequently became the East India Com- 
 pany. By a sort of " peaceful penetration " the 
 Germans, after their usual fashion, had acquired a 
 very large amount of our English trade by the means 
 of the Hanseatic League, which had its abode in the 
 steelyard of the Hanse merchants in London. It 
 was very despotic in the exercise of its rights, and 
 was wisely suppressed in 1552, thus leaving scope 
 for English enterprise. 
 
 The growth of English industry, the development 
 of our native resources, of metals and mining, of 
 new industries, the exploits of individuals, the 
 whole story of monopolies would require much 
 space for their complete elucidation, and we must 
 pass on to other features of Shakespearean England. 
 
 1 L. Guicciardini. 
 
XIV 
 LITERATURE 
 
 TO open the casket in which Elizabethan 
 gems of literature are stored is at once a 
 joy and a privilege. To study the portraits 
 of the masters of those days, the giants and pigmies, 
 the scholars and divines, the poets and poetasters, 
 the roystering Bohemian and the cultured student, 
 to open their works and revel in their master- 
 pieces, admits one to a New World as rich as El 
 Dorado and as pleasing to the mind and senses. 
 English letters of Shakespeare's age had little 
 ground to build upon. There had been a dearth of 
 poets. The preceding years were not ideal for 
 literary composition. The disturbances wrought by 
 the Reformation and the destruction of the monas- 
 teries, which had been regarded as homes of learned 
 leisure, the religious persecutions of Mary's reign 
 and the uncertainty, had hindered the progress of 
 the revival of letters which was felt in Italy and in a 
 less degree in Germany and France as a result of 
 the Renaissance. The old English poets Chaucer 
 and Gower, who wrote his Confessio Amantis, had 
 
 223 
 
LITERATURE 223 
 
 been long dead. The buffooneries of Skelton, " Poet 
 Laureate," were of little account. Henry Howard, 
 Earl of Dorset, pronounced to be the first English 
 classical poet on account of " justness of thought, 
 correctness of style and purity of expression," the 
 first polite writer of love-verses in our language, 
 the translator of Virgil, the introducer of blank 
 verse into the English tongue, had ended his life on 
 Tower Hill at the early age of about thirty years 
 (the exact date of his birth is not known) in 1546-7. 
 Sir Thomas Wyatt was not a great poet and nearly 
 shared the fate of Surrey. His poems were published 
 by Tottel together with those of Surrey and of 
 some " uncertain authors," in the first printed 
 poetical English miscellany, containing probably 
 poems of various excellence by Sir Francis Bryan, 
 George Boleyn, Lord Rochford (brother of Anne 
 Boleyn) and Lord Vaux, all professed rhymers and 
 sonnet-writers. This publication shows that poetry 
 in England was not dead, but awaited develop- 
 ment. And then we have George Gascoigne, writer 
 of prose and verse, bene natus, bene vestitus et 
 modice doctus (like a Fellow of All Souls', Oxford), 
 soldier, courtier, Member of Parliament, and possibly 
 a bit of a roysterer, leading an adventurous life, and 
 scribbling much that is not without merit. His 
 blank verse is pronounced by a great modern critic 
 to be worthy of a little praise ; his prose spirited and 
 vigorous, but his metres are limp and wooden, his 
 style stiffened with the old clumsy alliteration 
 
224 THE ENGLAND OF SHAKESPEARE 
 
 and his verse lacks fire. Thus he wrote in The 
 Steele Glas : 
 
 " Pray for the nources of our noble Realme, 
 I mean the worthy Universities, 
 (And Cantabridge shall have the dignities, 
 Whereof I was unworthy member once), 
 That they bring up their babes in decent wise : 
 That Philosophy smel no secret smoke 
 Which Magike makes in wicked mysteries," 
 etc., etc., etc. 
 
 It is all rather dull. In the Royal MSS. there is 
 an illustration showing the soldier-author armed 
 with sword and lance presenting one of his works to 
 the Queen: A wreath is suspended over his head 
 and a hand holds a scroll bearing the legend, Tarn 
 Marti quam Mercurio. 
 
 Sundry minor poets adorned this preliminary 
 period before the burst of the song of the true 
 Elizabethans. There was George Turberville. He 
 was learned in languages, loved the classics, and 
 was secretary to the Russian ambassador, Thomas 
 Randolph. He translated Ovid's Epistles and 
 Ecloques and some Italian " Tragical Tales," and 
 delighted in writing " Elegant and Witty Epi- 
 grams " and Epitaphs which are usually conceits 
 without point and with lame and impotent endings. 
 Other minor poets of the period were Thomas 
 Churchyard, who wrote Challenge, advocating the 
 delights of the country, the Mirror and Manners of 
 Men, abusing the conduct of the time ; Barnebe 
 Googe, the translator of The Popish Kingdom of 
 
LITERATURE 225 
 
 Thomas Naogeorgus, or Kirchmaier ; Heresbach's 
 Five Books of Husbandry, and other books ; Hunnis, 
 Edwards, Roydon and others who translated Latin 
 or Italian poems into English, or wrote quaint 
 verse of no particular merit. 
 
 Amongst these minor lights shines the greater 
 star, Thomas Sackville, Lord Buckhurst and Earl 
 of Dorset, who wrote Gordoduc and the Complaint 
 of Henry Duke of Buckingham and the Induction 
 to the Mirror of Magistrates, a collection of narra- 
 tives of the lives of various remarkable personages 
 who had figured in our history, probably borrowed 
 from a Latin treatise of Boccaccio, which had been 
 translated many years before by Lydgate under 
 the title of The Fall of Princes. There is nothing 
 very remarkable about the work save these two 
 contributions by Sackville, who was then a young 
 man and had not yet been ennobled. These poems 
 evince a strength of creative imagination which 
 had been unknown in England since the days of 
 Chaucer ; and the Induction especially, which is 
 a splendid gallery of allegoric paintings, tinged with 
 dark and melancholy hues, entitles Sackville to the 
 renown of having no small share in lighting the way 
 to the greatest painter in our own or any other 
 poetry — the author of The Faerie Queene. 
 
 Sackville's Gordoduc is one of the first attempts 
 in England at writing tragic drama. It is the first 
 English imitation of Seneca's Latin tragedy. It is 
 written in blank verse, and may be considered as 
 
 15 
 
226 THE ENGLAND OF SHAKESPEARE 
 
 an experiment of a somewhat doubtful kind. It 
 treats of wars, tumults and rebellions. Drums and 
 flutes sound. Armed men march upon the stage 
 and discharge their guns. Brother kills brother — 
 it is all very tragic and unreal, but it prepared the 
 way for the real drama that was to follow, the plays 
 of our poet and his contemporaries. Other early 
 experiments in dramatic writing, of which much 
 has doubtless perished, are Ralph Roister Doister, by 
 Nicholas Udall, head-master of St. Paul's School 
 and Eton, and Gammer Gurton's Needle, by Bishop 
 Still. 
 
 But the flow of the stream of literature rolled on, 
 and gathered force as it progressed. If we concern 
 ourselves with dates we may place the real literary 
 revival as having started about the year 1579, and 
 foremost among its leaders was John Lyly, whose 
 Euphues appeared at that time. Sir Henry Blount, 
 in a preface to an earlier work, said of this author, 
 " Our nation are in his debt for a new English which 
 he taught them. Euphues and his England began 
 first that language ; all our ladies were then his 
 scholars ; and that beauty in court which could 
 not parley Euphuism, that is to say, who was 
 unable to converse in that pure and reformed 
 English, which he had formed his work to be the 
 standard of, was so little regarded as she which 
 now there speaks not French." Euphues and his 
 England is the second part of the work ; the first 
 being Euphues, the Anatomy of Wit. A story runs 
 
LITERATURE 227 
 
 through the work with the plot of which we are 
 not concerned ; but it unfolds a scheme of educa- 
 tion which owes much to Plutarch. There are 
 letters in praise of the Queen and other notables of 
 the day, and reflections upon the state of Eliza- 
 bethan Society which are not altogether flattering. 
 The language of Euphuism is pedantic, fantastic 
 and extravagant ; there is much far - fetched 
 allusion, elaborate indirectness, alliteration and 
 monotony of phrase ; but there are also much wit, 
 fancy and prettiness. Shakespeare alludes to this 
 mode of speech in his Euphuist Don Adriano de 
 Armado in Love's Labour's Lost, who is described by 
 the King as a " man of fire — new words, fashion's 
 own knight — that hath a mint of phrases in his 
 brain — one whom the music of his own vain tongue 
 doth ravish like enchanting harmony." Holofernes 
 says : "I abhor such fanatical fantasms, such in- 
 sociable and point-devise companions ; such rackers 
 of orthography as to speak dout, fine, when he should 
 say doubt ; det, when he should pronounce debt, 
 d, e, b, t, not d, e, t ; he clepeth a calf, cauf ; half, 
 hauf ; neighbour vocatur nebour, neigh, abbreviated 
 ne : this is abhominable (which he would call 
 abominable) ; it insinuateth me of insanie." Shake- 
 speare is evidently laughing at the pedantic school- 
 master more than at the fantastic thought, and the 
 pronunciation which he makes Holofernes criticise 
 was probably his own and that of the educated folk 
 of his time. But the chief influence of Lily's work 
 
228 THE ENGLAND OF SHAKESPEARE 
 
 was the creation of pleasure in the new resources 
 of thought and language, of style and phrase and 
 beauty in the expression of the English tongue. 
 
 In prose Sir Philip Sidney's Arcadia achieved a 
 remarkable success, reflecting as it does the noble 
 qualities of the writer, his romantic chivalry, his 
 tenderness and childlike simplicity of heart, his 
 keen sense of the fullness of the life of his age, his 
 learning, his adventurous spirit — all these are re- 
 vealed in this beautiful pastoral medley. The 
 Arcadia was written about 1580, and earlier came 
 his poems, Astrophel and Stella. His Apology for 
 Poetry soon followed, a work written in stately 
 style sounding the same note of music in his sonor- 
 ous phrases. His heroic death in Flanders on the 
 field of battle closed at an early age his brilliant 
 career. 
 
 The immortal work of Edmund Spenser, the 
 Faerie Queene, soon burst on an astonished world 
 like the sunshine of a glorious summer after a fitful 
 spring. This was in 1590. Eleven years earlier 
 he had won his place at the head of English poesy 
 by his Shepherd's Calendar, " where love and 
 loyalty and Puritanism justled oddly with the 
 fancied shepherd life." Little inferior to him was 
 his friend, Thomas Watson, author of Hecatom- 
 pathia, a poet of no mean merit. Vain would it be 
 to attempt to reproduce here the panegyrics that 
 the Faerie Queene has called forth. It was " the 
 delight of every accomplished gentleman, the 
 
LITERATURE 229 
 
 model of every poet, the solace of every soldier." 
 It is the one critical event in the annals of English 
 poetry, and from it has flowed a stream of song 
 that has fertilised the poesy of every age. There 
 is an extraordinary wealth of vivid imagination, 
 of poetic fancy. Classical mythology, mediaeval 
 romance, Greek legends, popular superstitions, 
 stories from the New World, the contest between 
 Roman Catholicism and Protestants, Renaissance 
 ideals, all inspired the poet's verse, while he painted 
 the various scenes in gorgeous colouring and in- 
 stilled his sublime moral teaching, while the knights 
 of Holiness, Chastity, Temperance, Justice, Truth 
 fight the battles of the Lord against all that is base 
 and degrading to the soul of man. The Red Cross 
 knight represents the Church Militant ; Una is the 
 Queen herself, and the scarlet-clad Duessa is 
 Roman Catholicism, as typified by Mary Queen of 
 Scots. It was a disaster to English literature that 
 the work was never completed in published form. 
 Irish rebellions have much to answer for, and none 
 more so than that of 1599, which doomed his Irish 
 home to flames and with it the three last books of 
 the Faerie Queene and doubtless several other literary 
 masterpieces. The poet passed away soon after 
 this tragic event broken-hearted by his misfortunes, 
 having left his mark upon literary history and a 
 name that will never die. 
 
 Amongst the crowd of Elizabethans we can only 
 mention the names of Drayton, most prolific of 
 
230 THE ENGLAND OF SHAKESPEARE 
 
 authors, Samuel Daniel, Hudson, John Markham, 
 Thomas Achely, John Weever, Charles Middleton, 
 Henry Constable, Sir Edward Dyer, Charles Fitz- 
 geoffry and William Warner, some of whose con- 
 temporaries even presumed to rank him on a level 
 with Spenser and called him the Homer and Virgil of 
 his age, his principal work being Albion's England. 
 Then there was Sir John Davis (1570-1626), a 
 learned lawyer and politician, philosopher and poet, 
 author of the Orchestra and the Immortality of the 
 Soul, in which he sets forth the process of God's art 
 in fashioning the soul of man after His image. The 
 opening verse of his Dedication to Queen Elizabeth 
 may be quoted : 
 
 " To the clear majesty which in the north 
 
 Doth like another Sun in glory rise, 
 Which standeth fixed yet spreads her heavenly worth, 
 
 Loadstone to hearts and loadstar to all eyes. 
 Stay long (sweet spirit) ere thou to Heaven depart 
 Who mak'st each place a Heaven wherein thpu art." 
 
 Gloriana liked such flattery and Davis was a 
 very courtly poet. His Hymns of Astrea is an 
 acrostic poem, the initial letters of each verse 
 forming the words Elizabetha Regina. His Orchestra 
 is a poem on dancing and was left unfinished, and 
 contains a dialogue between Penelope and one of 
 her wooers. 
 
 Foremost among the great names of prose 
 writers, of course, stands that of Francis Lord 
 Bacon, whose Essays mark a turning point in 
 
LITERATURE 231 
 
 English style. With him may be ranked the learned 
 author of the Ecclesiastical Polity, Richard Hooker, 
 who, in the quietude of a country Buckinghamshire 
 vicarage and in despite of a quarrelsome and dis- 
 contented wife, wrote his magnificent work, which 
 is still the textbook of divinity students and has 
 an extraordinary literary merit apart from the 
 study of Churchmanship. As I have mentioned the 
 names of divines I must not omit that of Dr. Donne 
 (1573-1631), Dean of St. Paul's, whom Dryden 
 called " the greatest wit though not the best poet 
 of our nation." It has been said of him that his 
 writing was rugged and uncouth, that he had no 
 ear for music and was regardless of harmony, but he 
 was no less a true poet and was not far from the best. 
 He did not write with the intention of publishing 
 anything, and most of his poetry was composed in 
 early life. 
 
 Donne's contemporary, Bishop Joseph Hall (1574- 
 1656), has been styled the Christian Seneca, and was 
 remarkable for his knowledge, depth of thought 
 and eloquence of expression. He was one of the 
 first of the satirists and wrote in an animated style. 
 During the sufferings he endured in later life he 
 consoled himself with literature and his books and 
 adorned his age by his learning and piety. Of 
 travel-books and histories there were several, 
 Hakluyt, Knolles, Sir Walter Raleigh and a school 
 of literary criticism grew up. A variety of pamphlet 
 literature was seen in the booksellers' shops, creating 
 
232 THE ENGLAND OF SHAKESPEARE 
 
 and developing the public taste for reading and 
 letters. But I have no more space in which to 
 record the wonderful burst of literary power that 
 occurred in the period we are studying apart from 
 the drama, and for a study of the players and their 
 plays we will turn to the next chapter. 
 
XV 
 PLAYS AND PLAYERS 
 
 IF we would go back to the origin of the English 
 drama we must place ourselves in mediaeval 
 times, and watch the performances of the Old 
 Miracle Plays in the streets of Chester or York or 
 other city. The subjects were scriptural, the 
 Creation of the World, Noah's Flood, scenes from 
 the New Testament and the Lives of Saints. The 
 streets were the theatres of the people. The stage 
 was constructed on wheels, in order that it might 
 be drawn to " all the eminent parts of the city for 
 the better advantage of spectators." It consisted 
 of three platforms ; the highest represented Heaven, 
 where God and His angels dwelt ; glorified saints 
 played their parts on the second platform, and 
 below them acted the living men and women. In 
 one corner was " hell's mouth," a huge dark cavern, 
 resounding with yells and shrieks, sending forth fire 
 and smoke. Strange to say, this was the centre of 
 the comic element of the performance ; troops of 
 merry demons constantly issued forth from this 
 cave of horrors, and the Devil was represented as 
 
 233 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 the poet, the dieu du theatre, as he appears to most 
 of his countrymen, was a very bad dramatist, 1 
 Shakespeare ever since the days of Louis XIV has 
 found a welcome in France, and Voltaire sang his 
 praises and sounded the trumpet of his fame in 
 every European country. 
 
 But for the war we should have welcomed to our 
 shores representatives, not only from France and 
 Germany, but from every Colony and Dependency 
 of the British Crown, where the poet is honoured 
 quite as much as in the mother-land. Spain, too, 
 would have been with us in spirit, as she is cele- 
 brating this year her great national poet and prose 
 writer, Miguel de Cervantes, the immortal author of 
 Don Quixote, who died exactly on the same day as 
 Shakespeare, April 23rd, 1616. More happily 
 situated than we are, she is able to do complete 
 honour to her heroic poet, and King and Govern- 
 ment and people are uniting to celebrate the occasion. 
 
 And then, there is America, who can claim an 
 equal right with us by kinship with the poet to pay 
 homage to the dead. It was during his life that the 
 first steps were taken towards the settlement of 
 those English colonies which at last became the 
 United States of America. In Southwark Minster 
 was baptized John Harvard, the son of Robert, the 
 founder of Harvard College, which blossomed out 
 in later times to the famous Harvard University, 
 the great centre of learning in a Continent where a 
 1 Shakespeare et La Superstition Shakespearienne, 1914. 
 
234 THE ENGLAND OF SHAKESPEARE 
 
 a very comic person who made the spectators roar 
 with laughter by his buffoonery and strange jests. 
 In course of time the upper platforms were removed 
 and only living characters represented. 
 
 The trades' guilds performed these plays, and 
 one of the objects of a new guildhall at York in the 
 fifteenth century was to provide a convenient place 
 for the plays to be performed in. The Chester plays 
 were very famous, composed by a monk and acted 
 by the guilds. Here is a programme arranged for 
 a whole week : 
 
 i. The Bakers and Tanners bring forth the 
 Falling of Lucifer. 
 
 2. Drapers and Hosiers — The Creation of the 
 
 World. 
 
 3. Drawers of Dee and Waterleaders — Noah and 
 
 his Ship. 
 
 4. Barbers, Wax Chandlers and Leeches — Abra- 
 
 ham and Isaac. 
 
 5. Coopers, Wire-drawers and Pinners — King 
 
 Balak, Balaam and Moses. 
 
 6. Wrights, Slaters, Tilers, Daubers and 
 
 Thatchers — The Nativity of our Lord. 
 
 7. Painters, Broderers and Glaziers — The Shep- 
 
 herds' Offering. 
 
 8. Vintners and Merchants — King Herod and the 
 
 Mount Victorial. 
 
 9. Mercers and Spicers — The Three Kings of 
 
 Colin." 
 
PLAYS AND PLAYERS 235 
 
 I have told before in my book on Our English 
 Towns, the story of these Miracle Plays, of which 
 the most famous were those acted at York, Chester, 
 Hull and Coventry, but they seem to have been 
 usual in many other places, wherein their presence 
 seems little known, and it is only by delving amongst 
 the old Churchwardens' Account Books that we 
 can discover traces of the players. Thus, in those 
 of St. Lawrence's Church, Reading, we find items 
 for a " crescloth for Adam to make i pair of hosen 
 and I ell for a doublett," fpr " coarse canvass to 
 make xiii caps," and " ii ells of crescloth for Eve's 
 coat " ; and sundry other entries referring to 
 " dyed flax for wigs, a quior of paper, a doublett of 
 leather," and Sybil Darling received " for nails for 
 the sepulchre and for resin to the resurrection play 
 ii d ," the resin being used for the illumination at the 
 moment of the Resurrection. 
 
 Perhaps the people grew weary of the sameness 
 of these performances. At any rate, Moralities were 
 introduced, in which dialogues were carried on by 
 allegorical personages, and the characters imper- 
 sonated virtues and vices ; but the Devil was so 
 popular a character that his services were retained. 
 He continued to be the buffoon of the performance, 
 flourished his dagger of lath, belaboured the actors 
 and kept the audience in a roar of laughter by his 
 boisterous merriment. All this was doubtless very 
 childish and silly, but there were also other forms 
 of amusement which contributed to the early 
 
236 THE ENGLAND OF SHAKESPEARE 
 
 development of the Shakespearean drama. For 
 centuries there had been pageants in the City of 
 London. To celebrate the return of a conquering 
 king, such as Henry V after Agincourt, the accession 
 of a sovereign or other great State occasion, there 
 were " Ridings in the Cheap," and a wonderful 
 display of allegorical pomp. Triumphal chariots, 
 adorned with paintings, enriched with gold and silver 
 and rare jewels, and figures bearing the banners of 
 kings and mayors and the companies with the arms 
 of founders, were drawn through the streets. A 
 virgin, the crest of the Mercers' Company, sat on 
 a high throne, dressed in a robe of white satin, 
 decked with gold and jewels ; her long, dishevelled 
 flaxen hair was adorned with pearls and gems, and 
 crowned with a rich coronet. Her attendants were 
 Fame blowing her trumpet, Vigilance, Wisdom and 
 other personified virtues, and the nine Muses with 
 eight pages of honour walked on foot and Triumph 
 was her charioteer. Nine white Flanders' horses 
 drew the huge machine, each horse being mounted 
 by some emblematical figure, such as Asia, America, 
 Victory, etc. Grooms and Roman lictors in crim- 
 son garb and twenty savages, or " green men," 
 throwing squibs and fireworks completed the 
 pageant. There were endless such exhibitions both 
 in the streets and on the river. Then when Queen 
 Mary went through London before her coronation 
 a lofty pageant welcomed her in Gracechurch 
 Street, and on the top stood an angel in green with 
 
PLAYS AND PLAYERS 237 
 
 a trumpet in her hand, and when the trumpeter, 
 who was secretly hidden within the pageant, did 
 sound his trumpet, the angel put his trumpet to his 
 mouth and pretended to blow. At Norwich Queen 
 Elizabeth saw Mercury parading before her in a 
 coach covered with birds and " naked spirits hang- 
 ing by the heels in the air, and clouds cunningly 
 painted out, as though by some thunder-crack they 
 had been shaken and tormented." 
 
 I have no space wherein to describe the " princely 
 pleasures " prepared by the Earl of Leicester for 
 the Queen's entertainment at Kenilworth Castle, 
 and everyone has doubtless read an account of 
 them in Sir Walter Scot's novel. Imagination, 
 classical lore and mythology and poetical fancy 
 devised all kinds of scenes and pageants. The Lady 
 of the Lake, Sylvanus, Pomona, Ceres, Bacchus, 
 Jupiter and all that Olympus or Fairy-land could 
 produce went to swell the pageant, and a masque 
 told of the delivery of the Lady of the Lake from 
 the power of Merlin and the " villain of the piece," 
 Sir Bruce Sans Petie, and Proteus rode on a dolphin 
 and the nymphs and gods of the sea sang the praises 
 of Gloriana. 
 
 Then we have the Ludi or court spectacles which 
 were performed in Henry VIII's time. A moving 
 rock decorated with trees and flowers slowly 
 entered the hall, and then poured forth knights and 
 ladies, or allegorical personages, who danced and 
 sang or performed some interlude, and then retired 
 
238 THE ENGLAND OF SHAKESPEARE 
 
 to the recesses of the rock which slowly moved 
 away. The interlude was a link between the 
 morality and the regular comedy and tragedy, and 
 John Heywood was the author of many of these. 
 One of them is A Mery Play betwene the Pardoner, 
 and the Frere, the Curate and neighbour Pratte, 
 printed in 1533. These interludes consisted of only 
 one act ; there were no different scenes, and were 
 only the embryo of regular comedy. I have already 
 mentioned Ralph Roister Doister and Gammer 
 Gurton's Needle, the earliest regular plays known 
 to us, and Gordoduc, the earliest tragedy written by 
 Sackville. From these beginnings the Elizabethan 
 and Shakespearean drama was evolved. Gordoduc 
 was performed before the Queen in 1562 by the 
 Gentlemen of the Inner Temple. In the halls of 
 the Inns of Court dramatic performances, whether 
 masques or interludes, and classical dramas, fre- 
 quently took place, and also at the colleges at 
 Oxford and Cambridge. 
 
 I have said that the earliest theatres were the 
 inn-yards with their surrounding galleries. Players 
 were deemed by the Law to be " rogues and vaga- 
 bonds," until they became members of some 
 nobleman's special company of players. Amongst 
 these were the Earl of Leicester's, Lord Aber- 
 gavenny's, Lord Arundel's, Queen Elizabeth's, 
 Lord Chamberlain's and Lord Oxford's companies ; 
 and there were a few others. 
 
 R, Willis in Mount Tabor (published soon after 
 
PLAYS AND PLAYERS 239 
 
 Shakespeare's time) describes very excellently and 
 clearly the procedure of the production of a play or 
 interlude in a provincial town or city. It was as 
 follows : 
 
 " In the city of Gloucester, the manner is (as I 
 think it is in other like corporations) that when 
 players of interludes come to town, they first attend 
 the mayor, to inform him what nobleman's servants 
 they are, and so to get licence for their public play- 
 ing ; and if the mayor like the actors, or would 
 shew respect to their lord and master, he appoints 
 them to play their first play before himself and the 
 aldermen and common council of the city ; and 
 that is called the mayor's play, where everyone 
 that will, comes in without money, the mayor giving 
 the players a reward as he thinks fit to shew respect 
 unto them. At such a play my father took me with 
 him, and made me stand between his legs, as he 
 sat upon one of the benches, where we saw and 
 heard very well. The play was called The Cradle of 
 Security, wherein was personated a king or some 
 great prince, with his courtiers of several kinds, 
 amongst which three ladies were in special grace 
 with him ; and they keeping him in delights and 
 pleasures, drew him from his graver counsellors, 
 hearing of sermons, and listening to good counsel 
 and admonitions, that in the end they got him to 
 lie down in a cradle upon the stage, where these 
 three ladies joining in a sweet song rocked him 
 asleep, that he snorted again, and in the meantime 
 closely conveyed under the cloths wherewithal he 
 was covered, a vizard like a swine's snout upon his 
 face, with three wire chains fastened thereunto, the 
 
240 THE ENGLAND OF SHAKESPEARE 
 
 other end whereof being holden severally by those 
 three ladies, who fall to singing again, and then 
 discovered his face, that the spectators might see 
 how they had transformed him, going on with their 
 singing. Whilst all this was acting, there came 
 forth of another door at the farthest end of the 
 stage, two old men, the one in blue, with a sergeant 
 at arms, his mace on his shoulder, the other in red, 
 with a drawn sword in his hand, and leaning with 
 the other hand upon the other's shoulder ; and so 
 they two went along in a soft pace round about by 
 the skirt of the stage, till at last they came to the 
 cradle, when all the court was in greatest jollity ; 
 and then the foremost old man with his mace 
 stroke a fearful blow upon the cradle ; whereat all 
 the courtiers, with the three ladies and the vizard, 
 all vanished ; and the desolate prince starting up 
 bare-faced, and finding himself thus sent for to 
 judgment, made a lamentable complaint of his 
 miserable case, and so was carried away by wicked 
 spirits. This prince did personate in the moral, 
 the wicked of the world ; the three ladies, Pride, 
 Covetousness, and Luxury ; the two old men, the 
 end of the world, and the last judgment." 
 
 Mrs. Stopes tells us in her recently published work 
 how the first theatres began to be built. James 
 Burbage was their first designer. He and his com- 
 pany, then in the service of the Earl of Leicester, 
 had been forbidden to perform in inn-yards or open 
 spaces ; so he determined to build for himself a 
 special house for his plays and players. He dis- 
 covered a convenient spot in Shoreditch, beyond 
 
PLAYS AND PLAYERS 241 
 
 Finsbury Fields, just outside the jurisdiction of the 
 Lord Mayor. 1 There the first theatre arose. It 
 was built of timber, and the design was framed 
 after the fashion of an inn-yard, with roof of thatch 
 sheltering the galleries and stage, but open in the 
 centre, so that the " groundlings," who had no 
 seats, were exposed to the wind and weather. The 
 " Theatre/' as it was called, was not a very palatial 
 place, this glorified shed, which first opened its 
 doors in 1576. Soon there arose a rival play-house, 
 the " Curtain," erected by someone whose name 
 has not been preserved, and Philip Henslowe built 
 two theatres in the historic region of Bankside, on 
 the south of the Thames, the " Rose " and the 
 " Swan." Poor James Burbage had a troubled life, 
 harassed by lawsuits, the recurrence of the plague 
 and disturbances outside his theatre by riotous folk. 
 The Court loved the plays, but the Lord Mayor and 
 the civic authorities persecuted the players and 
 Puritans preached and denounced them. James 
 Burbage acquired part of the site of the Blackfriars' 
 house for a theatre, and Play-House Yard still 
 preserves its memories. Then for divers reasons 
 after James Burbage's death his sons, Cuthbert 
 and Richard, bodily removed the " Theatre " to the 
 Bankside near St. Saviour's Church, and called it 
 the " Globe," inscribing over the entrance, " Totus 
 mundus agit histrionem," which may have sug- 
 gested to Shakespeare the opening line of the 
 
 1 Burbage and Shakespeare's Stage, by Mrs. C. C. Stopes, p. 19. 
 16 
 
242 THE ENGLAND OF SHAKESPEARE 
 
 soliloquy of Jaques in As You Like It, " All the 
 world's a stage." A tablet on a wall marks the site 
 of this wonderful play-house which witnessed the 
 triumphs of the Shakespearean drama famed 
 throughout the world. 
 
 We have seen the outside of these theatres over 
 which a flag waved when the performances were 
 going on. Let us look inside. Before us was a 
 large open stage projecting into what is now the 
 stalls or the pit. At the back was a rear stage that 
 could be curtained off, with a gallery above it ; on 
 either side a door leading to the living rooms with 
 windows above the doors. There was no scenery. 
 The audience had to exercise its imagination and 
 to help the spectators : a label was suspended over 
 the front of the stage to tell in what place or country 
 the action was going on. This defect is ridiculed 
 by Sir Philip Sidney in his Defence of Poesy. " Now," 
 he says, " you shall see three ladies walk to gather 
 flowers, and then we must believe the stage to be 
 a garden. By and by we hear news of a shipwreck 
 in the same place ; then we are to blame if we 
 accept it not for a rock. Upon the back of that 
 comes out a hideous monster with fire and smoke : 
 then the miserable beholders are bound to take 
 it for a cave. While in the meantime two armies 
 fly in, represented with four swords and two buck- 
 lers ; and then what hard heart will not receive it 
 for a pitched field? " It was all rather a make- 
 believe. But what was the use of the rear stage 
 
PLAYS AND PLAYERS 243 
 
 and the gallery ? Alas ! we cannot be certain. 
 No one has ever seen a play acted as did the Eliza- 
 bethans. Perhaps the scenes were presented 
 alternately ; scene i on the front stage, scene ii 
 on the back stage, and so on. Perhaps it was all 
 a haphazard arrangement, just as Sir Philip describes 
 it ; and you could have imagined yourself in a 
 castle or hall, a bed-chamber or a church, though 
 the trees of the forest had not been removed and the 
 blare of trumpets of the fighting hosts consisting 
 of three or four " supers " had scarcely died away. 
 It is not to be supposed that the arrangements in all 
 the theatres were the same ; playwrights and 
 managers altered things to suit their convenience ; 
 but it should be remembered that there was no 
 drop-curtain, there were no intervals between the 
 scenes ; otherwise the patience and strength of the 
 standing crowd of " groundlings " would have been 
 exhausted. The action and speech were rapid and 
 the interest never flagged. 
 
 The stage was strewn with rushes. The per- 
 formance usually began with a prologue, spoken 
 by an actor clad in a long black velvet cloak, who 
 was introduced with a nourish of trumpets. The 
 actors played in masks and perukes, and female 
 parts were taken by boys or young men. The 
 audience was perhaps as interesting as the players. 
 It was very mixed. The majority consisted of a 
 keen-witted but ill-educated popular crowd, some 
 young men about town, fops and beaux, and 
 
244 THE ENGLAND OF SHAKESPEARE 
 
 some patrons of fine taste and exalted position. 
 The playwright had to please the groundlings as 
 well as the lords, and mingle comedy and coarseness 
 with choice poetry. We have seen how Ben Jonson 
 adapted the classical story of Hero and Leander 
 in Bartholomew Fair to meet the popular taste. 
 In the galleries sat the citizens and their wives and 
 daughters clad in ruffs and farthingales. On the 
 floor of the theatre stood the crowd of poorer folk, 
 apprentices, men, and women too, and if we are to 
 believe the strictures of Stubbes the behaviour 
 was not very discreet in the " great wooden 0, the 
 pit," where they amused themselves with reading, 
 criticism, playing at cards and dice, drinking ale 
 and wine, munching apples and smoking. Noble- 
 men and gentlemen sat on the stage and paid six- 
 pence for the stools with which they were accommo- 
 dated, while their pages waited behind and supplied 
 them with pipes and tobacco. Fops loved thus to 
 display their figures and their finery, their rose hat- 
 bands, standing collars and shagged ruffs, their 
 cabbage-shoe strings, French doublets and Spanish 
 hose, short gaudy cloaks, rapiers and hangers. If 
 they did not by their attire attract sufficient atten- 
 tion, they talked loud and railed at the play, the 
 actors and the author, perhaps in the midst of 
 Shakespeare's most pathetic scenes ; and if the 
 groundlings, disturbed by the din, murmured and 
 expressed their dislike, they withdrew with a 
 flourish of magnificent contempt for the plebeians 
 
VIEW OF A STAGE TAKEN FROM KIRKMAn's DROLLS (1672— 3) 
 Showing- much the same arrangements as those of the Elizabethan Drama 
 
PLAYS AND PLAYERS 245 
 
 and sought other distractions. Such was the 
 theatre which first saw our poet's masterpieces. 
 
 The wooden theatre, the Globe, was burnt down 
 in 1613 and was replaced by a stone hexagonal 
 building, wherein during the last two years of 
 Shakespeare's life his latest plays were doubtless 
 staged. 
 
 We have sketched briefly the early history of the 
 drama in England, and witnessed the interludes, 
 masques and pageants and pastimes. Into the 
 midst of this world of strange elements, of Renais- 
 sance suggestions, of native histrionic art, of classi- 
 cal lore, of pastorals, poetry and romance, stepped 
 the great playwrights of the regular drama of whom 
 our Shakespeare was the chief. A vast number of 
 plays have been entirely lost except their names. 
 There were fifty-two plays presented between 1568 
 and 1580, according to the lists of the Master of the 
 Revels, and not one has survived, though some of 
 them may have formed the foundation of other 
 plays. We know that even Shakespeare was em- 
 ployed in adapting old plays to suit the improved 
 taste of his time. A few have remained. There 
 was a Damon and Pytheas, by Richard Edwards, 
 performed at Christ Church, Oxford, before the 
 Queen. He was very highly esteemed by his con- 
 temporaries. The Paradise of Dainty Devices con- 
 tains much of his work. But I can only find space 
 to notice these early dramatists. There was George 
 Peele, author of the Arraignment of Paris, the Love 
 
246 THE ENGLAND OF SHAKESPEARE 
 
 of King David and Fair Bethsdbe and the Old 
 Wives' Tale, a Pleasant conceited Comedy, the story 
 somewhat resembling Milton's Comus. Robert 
 Green, in the midst of his writing scurrilous pam- 
 phlets, wrote five plays of a farcical nature, of 
 which the History of Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay 
 is the best known. Head and shoulders above him 
 and Peele, and, indeed, above all the dramatists 
 before Shakespeare, stood Christopher Marlowe, 
 whose Tragical History of the Life and Death of 
 Doctor Faustus, Tamburlaine the Great, Edward II, 
 The Rich Jew of Malta, took the world by storm. 
 Lamb compares Marlowe's description of the abdica- 
 tion of Edward II to that of Shakespeare's Richard 
 II, and the splendour of poesy in Marlowe's Jew 
 with that in the Merchant of Venice. 
 
 Poor Marlowe's fate was tragic. He took to 
 riotous courses, as did several others of his age: 
 Green, Peele, Nash and others. It is noted in a life of 
 Bishop Hall that poets began to be men of the 
 world, neglected study and retirement, frequented 
 taverns, became libertines and buffoons, and ex- 
 hilarated the circles of the polite and profligate. 
 Dekker's Gul's Home Book and Belman's Night 
 Walks record the lives of the men-about-town of 
 the period. It was a feverish, restless world, the 
 world of Elizabethan London, and recklessness, 
 licentiousness and irregularity quickly closed the 
 careers of some of these men. Then there was Kyd, 
 the author of the Spanish Tragedy ; Webster, who 
 
PLAYS AND PLAYERS 247 
 
 wrote the Duchess of Malpy ; Lodge, the author of 
 the Wounds of Civil War and of Rosalynde, which 
 supplied Shakespeare with the plot of As You Like It. 
 
 Of the work of Shakespeare as a poet and a 
 dramatist it is beyond the scope of this book to 
 describe. I am writing about the England Shake- 
 speare knew, and not about the character, achieve- 
 ments and the poetic power and genius of the man 
 himself. That would be a thrice-told tale. Tributes 
 flow to him from every land. Great scholars sing 
 his praise, and a far larger work than this modest 
 volume would be needed to analyse his plays and 
 poems and point out their excellences, their gran- 
 deur, the sweetness of his music, the nobility of his 
 language, his surpassing genius. 
 
 To others then we assign the task to sing our 
 Shakespearean's praise, while we proceed to name 
 some of his contemporaries who shine like little 
 stars when compared with his great glorious sun. 
 Foremost amongst them was George Chapman, 
 excellent scholar and poet, who, so Charles Lamb 
 believed, came nearest to Shakespeare in descrip- 
 tive and didactic writing. Then there were Webster, 
 Middleton, Dekker, Marston, Robert Tailor, Tour- 
 neur and Rowley. Of Ben Jonson some one wrote : 
 
 " The Muse's fairest light in no dark time 
 The wonder of a learned age, the line 
 Which none ean pass, the most proportioned wit, 
 To Nature the best judge of which was fit, 
 The deepest, plainest, highest, clearest pen," 
 etc., etc., etc. 
 
248 THE ENGLAND OF SHAKESPEARE 
 
 Such fulsome compliments would scarcely have 
 pleased " honest Ben." His two tragedies, Sejanus 
 and Catiline, were worthless. It is said that it was 
 through the kindness of Shakespeare that his play, 
 Every Man in His Humour, was brought out at the 
 Rose Theatre in 1596. His Every Man out of His 
 Humour in the following year attracted the Queen 
 to the theatre. Some of his comedies achieved 
 fame, Volpone or the Fox, Epicene or the Silent 
 Woman and The Alchemist, and his masques, such 
 as Cynthea's Revels, performed in 1600 by the 
 children of the Queen's Chapel, and his unfinished 
 The Sad Shepherd. His Poetaster, a satire, was per- 
 formed at the Blackfriars Theatre in 1601, wherein 
 he opposed Dekker and Marston, and the former 
 replied to it in a counter satire, Satiromastrix or the 
 untrussing of a humorous Poet. He frequented the 
 Mermaid Tavern in company with Shakespeare, 
 Fletcher, Selden, Carew, Donne and others, and 
 took part in the wit-contests. Fuller describes these 
 contests between Jonson and our poet. The former 
 was like a Spanish galleon, the latter an English 
 ship of war. Jonson was far higher in learning, but 
 solid and slow in performance. Our poet was lesser 
 in bulk, but higher in sailing ; he could turn with 
 all tides and take advantage of all winds by the 
 quickness of his wit and invention. 
 
 Nearest to Shakespeare rank his friends, Beau- 
 mont and Fletcher, whose dramas are essentially 
 poetical and imaginative, though inferior in dramatic 
 
PLAYS AND PLAYERS 249 
 
 power to our national poet's plays. Towards the 
 end of his life his contemporaries were Philip 
 Massinger, a lesser Jonson, John Ford and James 
 Shirley, who carried on the traditions of the English 
 stage, until Puritanism and the triumph of the 
 sectaries dethroned the kings and queens of tragedy 
 and comedy, as they led forth the Royal Martyr to 
 execution at Whitehall. The theatres were closed 
 and stage-plays prohibited. A few strolling com- 
 panies defied the law, but the drama died until the 
 Restoration of the Monarchy again restored it to 
 life. 
 
XVI 
 SPORTS AND PASTIMES OF THE PEOPLE 
 
 HUNTING and hawking were the general 
 sports of gentry in Shakespeare's time. 
 The Queen was a notable huntress. An 
 eye-witness records her prowess at Kenilworth 
 during her magnificent entertainment by Leicester 
 in 1575 ; and towards the end of her long life, when 
 at Oatlands, she is described in a contemporary 
 letter as still " well and excellently disposed to 
 hunting, for every second day she is on horseback 
 and continues the sport long." Shakespeare, who, 
 as I have already stated, was well learned in the 
 Noble Art of Venerie, thus enumerates the three 
 beasts which were hunted : 
 
 " The timorous hare. 
 Or at the fox which lives by subtlety, 
 Or at the roe which no encounter dare " ; 
 
 and he seems to have loved best to hunt the hare, 
 though his gentle heart grieved over the poor 
 animal's sufferings. 
 
 In Venus and Adonis the graphic description is 
 given of the poor hare " outrunning the wind," 
 
 250 
 
SPORTS AND PASTIMES OF THE PEOPLE 251 
 
 " cranking and crossing with a thousand doubles," 
 seeking refuge amongst a flock of sheep or a herd 
 of deer or rabbits, and then far off upon a hill 
 " standing on hinder legs with listening ear " : 
 
 " To hearken if his foe pursue him still : 
 Anon their loud alarum he doth hear. 
 And now his grief may be compared well 
 To one sore sick, that hears the passing bell." 
 
 There were several writers on hunting in Shake- 
 speare's time, which fact shows that it was very 
 popular. The anonymous treatise on the Noble 
 Art of Venerie or Hunting was published in 1575. 
 Sir Thomas Cokaine wrote A Short Treatise on 
 Hunting, compyled for the Delight of Noblemen and 
 Gentlemen (1591), and Gervase Markham, the son 
 of a Nottinghamshire squire, soldier, poet, play- 
 wright, sportsman and farmer, published several 
 treatises on country sport. His Gentleman's Academy 
 is stated to have been taken from the Book of 
 St. Albans of Hawking, Hunting and Armoury, 
 originally compiled by Dame Juliana Berners. 1 
 Country Contentments ; or the Husbandmen's Re- 
 creation tells about the art of riding, hunting, 
 shooting, hawking, coursing with greyhounds, etc., 
 and in Markham's Cavallarie are disclosed all that 
 concerns horses and horsemanship and various 
 
 1 I need not discuss the identity of this sporting nun, who 
 was usually supposed to have been the Prioress of Sopwell, until 
 historians proved that there never was a lady of that name on 
 the list of Prioresses. — Cf. Hunting, by His Grace the Duke of 
 Beaufort (Badminton Library). 
 
252 THE ENGLAND OF SHAKESPEARE 
 
 tricks and secrets which seem to us poor twentieth- 
 century folk incredible. Armed with such works 
 the country gentleman of the seventeenth lacked 
 not instruction in the science and art of hunting. 
 
 The best way to understand the methods of 
 hunting adopted during the time of Shakespeare is 
 to read what contemporary writers have set down 
 concerning it. Our friend, Hentzner, thus describes 
 the sport : 
 
 " The huntsmen who had been ordered for the 
 occasion, and who live in splendid separate lodges 
 in these parks (the royal parks), made some capital 
 sport for his Highness. In the first enclosure his 
 Highness shot off the leg of a fallow deer, and the 
 dogs soon after caught the animal. In the second, 
 they chased a stag for a long time backwards and 
 forwards with particularly good hounds, over an 
 extensive and delightful plain ; at length his High- 
 ness shot him in front with an English cross-bow, 
 and this deer the dogs finally worried and caught. 
 In the third, the greyhounds chased a deer, but 
 much too soon ; for they caught it directly, even 
 before it could get out into the open plain." 
 
 It seems to have been poor sport for the deer. 
 Usually a stand was erected covered with boughs, 
 and the Queen or other privileged sportsmen shot 
 the deer as it was driven past with a cress-bow. 
 The sport was decidedly cruel, as the animal did 
 not have much chance of escape, But cruel sports 
 were the fashion in that time, 
 

SPORTS AND PASTIMES OF THE PEOPLE 253 
 
 Shakespeare describes a similar hunting scene in 
 Love's Labour's Lost. Stag-hunting, however, was 
 a nobler sport, as the animal was chased in the 
 open country. I have already quoted Shakespeare's 
 description of a good hound ; he seems to have 
 been an equally good judge of a horse. He tells 
 what a thoroughbred should be : 
 
 " In shape, in courage, colour, pace and bone. 
 Round-hoof d, short-jointed, fetlocks shag and long, 
 Broad breast, full eye, small head and nostril wide. 
 High crest, short ears, straight legs, and passing strong, 
 Thin mane, thick tail, broad buttock, tender hide." 
 
 Very cruel were the bear and bull-baitings, that 
 were commonly witnessed by royalty, noblemen 
 and their wives, and enjoyed much by the populace. 
 Sunday was the great day for these exhibitions, 
 arousing the anger of the Puritans, and especially 
 of Stubbes, the severe critic of the age. The Bear 
 Garden in Bankside was a favourite place of resort. 
 Laneham tells us of such scenes : 
 
 " It was a sport very pleasant of these beasts, 
 to see the bear with his pinkey eyes leering after 
 his enemy's approach ; the nimbleness and wait 
 of the dogs to take his advantage, and the force 
 and experience of the bear again to avoid the 
 assaults ; if he were bitten in one place, how he 
 would pinch in another to get free ; but if he were 
 taken once, then what shift with biting, with claw- 
 ing, with roaring, tossing and tumbling, he would 
 work to wind himself from them ; and when he 
 was loose, to shake his ears twice or thrice, with 
 
254 THE ENGLAND OP SHAKESPEARE 
 
 the blood and slaver about his physiognomy, was a 
 matter of goodly relief." 
 
 A more barbarous sport could not well be con- 
 ceived, unless it were a Spanish bull-fight. In 
 Paris Garden there were two bear gardens. Scaf- 
 folds were erected for the spectators. You paid a 
 penny at the gate, another at the entrance to the 
 scaffold, and a third for quiet standing. The Queen 
 liked the sport. In 1559 sne g ave a splendid dinner 
 to the French and other ambassadors, who were 
 afterwards entertained with the baiting of bulls 
 and bears, arid the Queen herself stood with the 
 ambassadors looking on the pastime till six at night. 
 On the following day they went by water to Paris 
 Garden, where they saw a similar entertainment. 
 Some years later the Queen received the Danish 
 Ambassador at Greenwich and treated him to a 
 sight of a bear and bull-baiting, " with other merry 
 disports," says Holinshed; amongst these was a 
 horse with an ape upon its back. I will spare you 
 Hentzner's description, who also records the whip- 
 ping of a blind bear as a specially humorous pro- 
 ceeding. There are many references to the sport 
 in Shakespeare's plays. In Macbeth there is the 
 line : 
 
 "They have ty'd me to a stake; I cannot fly; but 
 bear-Jike I must fight the course." 
 
 In 2 Henry VI we find : 
 " Are these thy bears ? We'll bait these bears to death " 
 
SPORTS AND PASTIMES OF THE PEOPLE 255 
 
 And again : 
 
 " Or as a bear encompassed round with dogs." 
 
 Hawking was much practised in Shakespeare's 
 time, as it always had been in the preceding ages. 
 It was a graceful and nobl« sport, and even now 
 has a few enthusiasts. The lore of the sport is too 
 lengthy to be recorded here. Hentzner, writing in 
 1598, says that it was the general sport of the 
 English nobility, and at this time most of the best 
 treatises upon the subject were written, some of 
 which I have mentioned in connection with hunt- 
 ing. There was also George Turbervile's Booke 
 of Faulconrie or Hauking and Latham's Falconry. 
 Ladies joined in the sport, and were keen hawkers. 
 There is a picture extant of the Queen going hawk- 
 ing. The sportsman wore gloves to prevent the 
 talons from hurting his hand. The bird wore a 
 hood before it was flown, and had straps of leather, 
 or jesses, attached to its legs, which bore bells. 
 These bells were carefully selected so as to produce 
 a harmonious tone. In one of Thomas Heywood's 
 interludes occur the lines : 
 
 " Her bels, Sir Francis, had not both one waighte, 
 Nor was one semitone above the other. 
 Me thinkes these Millane bels do sound too full, 
 And spoile the mounting of your hawke.'' 
 
 Our poet compares Lucretia trembling " as fowls 
 hearing falcon's bells." Great pains were taken 
 in the training of the birds. The sport was at its 
 
256 THE ENGLAND OF SHAKESPEARE 
 
 zenith in Elizabethan and Jacobean times. At the 
 end of the seventeenth century it had almost passed 
 away. Shakespeare constantly refers to the sport. 
 There are the well-known lines in Romeo and Juliet : 
 
 " O, for a falconer's voice, 
 To lure this tassel-gentle back again ! " 
 
 And again : 
 
 " Between two hawks which flies the higher pitch 
 I have some shallow spirit of judgment." 
 
 He knew thoroughly well the technical terms of 
 falconry, which has a language of its own. Petrucio 
 tells us how to train a falcon : 
 
 " My falcon now is sharp, and passing empty, 
 And till she stoop, she must not be full gorg'd, 
 For then she never looks upon her lure. 
 Another way I have to man my haggard, 
 To make her come, and know her keeper's call. 
 That is— to watch her as we watch their kites, 
 That bate and beat and will not be obedient." 
 
 A haggard is a wild bird that has been caught late, 
 and is more difficult to train. This Othello applies 
 figuratively to Desdemona : 
 
 " If I do prove her haggard, 
 Though that her jesses were my dear heart-strings 
 I'd whistle her off, and let her down the wind. 
 To prey at fortune." 
 
 Harrison does not mention any horses kept for 
 racing. Perhaps being a parson he was ignorant 
 of the sport. However, another clergyman, Bishop 
 Hall, refers in his Satires to horse-racing ; 
 
SPORTS AND PASTIMES OF THE PEOPLE 257 
 
 "... dost thou prize 
 Thy brute beasts' worth by their dam's qualities ? 
 Say'st thou this colt shall prove a swift-pac'd steed, 
 Onely because a Jennet did him breed ? 
 Or say'st thou this same horse shall win the prize, 
 Because his dam was swiftest Trunchefice 
 Or Runcevall his syre ; himself a Gallaway ? 
 While like a tireling jade he lags half away." 
 
 The Chester races were then fully established on 
 the Rodeye, on Shrove Tuesday, instituted by the 
 Company of Saddlers, and the prize was a silver 
 bell ; also at Stamford in Lincolnshire. The Puritan 
 writers, although they were always inveighing 
 against the iniquity of plays, cards, dice and other 
 idle pastimes, seem not to have objected to horse- 
 racing, which, wrote Thomas Northbrooke, 
 " yieldeth good exercise." At the close of our 
 period, in the reign of James I, public races were 
 established in many parts of England, and the 
 courses were named bell-courses, because the prize 
 was a silver bell. Shakespeare alludes to " riding 
 wagers," and makes Imogen say : 
 
 " Whose horses have been nimbler than the sands 
 That run i' the clock's behalf." 
 
 Archery, formerly the most popular of pastimes, 
 was ceasing to be of use in the service of war. 
 Hentzner says that in 1598 he saw in the armoury 
 of the Tower of London a great store of cross- 
 bows, bows and arrows. Roger Ascham, most 
 worthy of men, and excellent archer and tutor to 
 17 
 
253 THE ENGLAND OF SHAKESPEARE 
 
 the Queen, wrote the " Toxophilus " in praise of 
 the noble sport in which our ancestors so splendidly 
 excelled and won great victories by their skill. 
 Our foes have taught us less worthy weapons of 
 warfare, and it would be well for humanity if 
 international law enacted that in future wars no 
 other instruments should be used but bows and 
 arrows, lance and sword. Complaints were made 
 during our period of the disuse of the long-bow. 
 In Finsbury Fields the sport had been carried on, 
 and Stow states that before his time it was cus- 
 tomary at Bartholomew-tide for the Lord Mayor 
 with the sheriffs and aldermen to go there, and in 
 the presence of a large crowd of citizens to shoot at 
 the standard with broad and light arrows. But 
 Stow declared that the sport had decayed because 
 of the enclosures which prevented the citizens from 
 having space for their exercise, and soon after his 
 death in 1605, and well within the period of our 
 poet's life, a commission was appointed by James I 
 to inquire into the complaints of the citizens, and 
 its efforts were successful in preventing intrusion 
 upon the old archery grounds. 
 
 It would be pleasant to recall all Roger Ascham's 
 instructions and directions and the whole art and 
 skill of archery, and when one begins to talk of 
 bowmen and their bows it is difficult to stop. I 
 might tell you of the great shooting match in 
 Gloriana's reign in 1583, when 3000 archers formed 
 a great procession and marched from Merchant 
 
SPORTS AND PASTIMES OF THE PEOPLE 259 
 
 Taylors' Hall through Broad Street to Moorfields, 
 headed by their captain, who was called the Duke of 
 Shoreditch, a title humorously conferred by Henry 
 VIII on the leader of the London archers. The 
 captain conferred spurious titles of dukes and earls 
 upon his officers, and many wore chains of gold ; 
 and there were 4000 whifflers and billmen besides 
 pages and footmen — a right royal procession. Each 
 archer had a long-bow and four arrows, and at 
 last they came to Smithfield, where they performed 
 various evolutions and shot at a target. Two of 
 the ancient City Companies, the Bowyers and the 
 Fletchers, were engaged in the art of making bows 
 and arrows, and Stow tells of a large close, called 
 the Tazell, let to the cross-bow makers, wherein 
 they used to shoot at a popinjay, or wooden parrot. 
 There were butts for archery in almost every town 
 and village, and there are constant allusions in the 
 plays to the sport. 
 
 Tennis was fashionable. In Shakespeare's time 
 tennis-courts were common in England. Henry VIII 
 had erected " divers fair tennis-courts, bowling 
 allies and a cock-pit " at Whitehall, where they 
 doubtless still remained in the time of his illustrious 
 daughter. Our poet alludes to the game. Polonius, 
 in Hamlet, when instructing Reynolds to bear false 
 witness, puts in his mouth : 
 
 " There was he gaming ; there overtook in his rouse, 
 There falling out at tennis " : 
 
260 THE ENGLAND OF SHAKESPEARE 
 
 and, of course, he mentions the satirical present of 
 a ton of tennis balls sent by the French king to 
 Henry V. At Elvetham, Hants, the Queen saw, in 
 1591, after dinner, ten of her host's servants fashion- 
 ing a tennis-court with a cross line in the middle 
 and playing hand-ball " at bord and cord," as they 
 called it, " to the great liking of her highness." 
 
 Football was a popular game, and it was of a very 
 rough variety, with general hacking, tripping and 
 charging the opponents. No wonder James I tried 
 to abolish it, declaring it was " meeter for lameing 
 than making able the users thereof." 
 
 Qur Berkshire registers of this period tell of a 
 terrible event at North Moreton during a football 
 match in Shakespeare's time in 1598, and shows 
 that the game was rough and fast and furious. 
 
 This register records the burial of two men, 
 Richard and John Gregorie, and states : " These 
 two men were killed by ould Gunter. Gunter's 
 sonnes and the Gregories fell together by ye yeares 
 (ears) at football. Ould Gunter drew his dagger 
 and broke both their heads, and they died 
 both within a fortnight after." Sad to relate, old 
 Gunter was the parson of the parish. Possibly 
 he was witnessing the savage game. His sons and 
 the Gregories were playing fiercely in the scrum. 
 He saw his boys overthrown by their opponents 
 and, fearing for their lives and carried away by 
 excitement, drew his dagger, and struck the fatal 
 blows. Strange to say, he was not hanged, or 
 
SPORTS AND PASTIMES OF THE PEOPLE 261 
 
 deprived of his living, or even tried for manslaughter. 
 But this is a curious revelation of the fierceness of 
 Elizabethan football. 
 
 The poet bears witness to the same fact. Lear 
 says to the steward : 
 
 " Do you bandy looks with me, you rascal ? 
 
 (Strikes him.) 
 Steward : I'll not be struck, my lord. 
 Earl of Kent : Nor tripped, neither, you base foot- 
 ball player (tripping up his heels)." 
 
 Shakespeare alludes to football in the Comedy of 
 Errors (Act II, scene i) : 
 
 " Am I so round with you as you with me. 
 That like a football you do spurn me thus ? 
 You spurn me hence, and he will spurn me hither : 
 If I last in this service, you must case me in leather." 
 
 Barclay, in his Ship of Fools, and Waller testify 
 to the fierceness of the game, as also does Stubbes, 
 who thus describes it : 
 
 " For as concerning football playing, I protest unto 
 you it may rather be called a friendly kind of fight, 
 than a play or recreation ; a bloody and murdering 
 practice, than a fellowly sport or pastime. For doth 
 not every one lie in wait for his adversary, seeking 
 to overthrow him and to pick him on his nose, 
 though it be upon hard stones, in ditch or dale, in 
 valley or hill, or what place it be he careth not, so 
 he have him down. And he that can serve the most 
 of this fashion, he is counted the only fellow and 
 who but he ? So that by this means, sometimes their 
 necks are broken, sometimes their backs, sometimes 
 
262 THE ENGLAND OF SHAKESPEARE 
 
 their legs, sometimes their arms, sometime one part 
 thrust out of joint, sometime another, sometime 
 their noses gush out with blood, sometime their 
 eyes start out, and sometimes hurt in one place, 
 sometimes in another. But whosoever scapeth away 
 the best goeth not scot-free, but is either sore 
 wounded, and bruised, so as he dieth of it, or else 
 scapeth very hardly. And no marvel, for they have 
 sleights to meet one betwixt two, to dash him 
 against the heart with their elbows, to hit him under 
 the short ribs with their gripped fists, and with their 
 knees to catch him upon the hip, and to pick him 
 on his neck, with an hundred such murdering 
 devices. And hereof groweth envy, malice, rancour, 
 choler, hatred, displeasure, enmity and what not 
 else : and sometimes fighting, brawling, contention, 
 quarrel picking, murder, homicide and great effusion 
 of blood, as experience daily teacheth." 
 
 Knightly tournaments had almost passed away, 
 but tilting at the ring was fashionable at Court and 
 in the tilting grounds of the noble mansions of the 
 great ; while lesser men, farmers and yeomen, 
 played at the quintain, which was of various forms. 
 The Queen witnessed the sport at Kenilworth, and 
 it was usually the accompaniment of rural weddings. 
 A beam turned on a pivot at the top of a post. At 
 one end was a board ; at the other a sack. The 
 combatants rode on horseback and with a pole for 
 a lance charged the board. If he did not show speed 
 and activity the sack swung round and hit him a 
 vigorous blow. The great design was to break the 
 
SPORTS AND PASTIMES OF THE PEOPLE 263 
 
 board fairly and squarely, and to escape the buffet- 
 ing. Youths and apprentices in London engaged 
 at water-quintain in boats, or charged each other 
 in boat-tilting. 
 
 Of fencing I have told elsewhere. Cock-fighting 
 was fairly general in the time of James I. There 
 were some curious customs in northern Grammar 
 Schools relating to the sport. Our poet refers to it 
 very little, but we find Cloten in Cymbeline when he 
 was eager to fight and could not find an adversary, 
 complaining, " I must go up and down like a cock 
 that nobody can match." 
 
 Athletic contests were not unknown and the 
 Cotswold games at Barton-on-the-Heath at Whit- 
 suntide would be well known to Shakespeare, who 
 doubtless took part in the coursing matches, leaping, 
 cudgel-playing, fighting with sword and buckler, 
 pitching the bar and tossing the pike. x 
 
 English. folk have always loved dancing, whether 
 at Court or on the rural village green. The old 
 English country dances became famous in all the 
 courts of Europe ; but they were not really country 
 dances, but contre dances, the partners standing 
 opposite each other as in Sir Roger de Coverley. 
 There were several kinds of dancing popular in 
 our period, such as the pavon described by Beatrice, 
 which took its name from pavo, a peacock, a grave 
 and stately dance, the gentlemen dressed in rich 
 
 1 Shakespeare and Sport, by Sir Sidney Lee (article in the 
 Field). 
 
264 THE ENGLAND OF SHAKESPEARE 
 
 attire, scholars in their gowns, peers in their mantles, 
 and the ladies in gowns with long trains, the motion 
 resembling that of the strutting of a peacock. 
 The canary and the brawl were also favourites, 
 and also the lavolta, thus described in the Orchestra 
 of Sir John Davis : 
 
 " A lofty jumping or a leaping round 
 Where arm in arm two dancers are entwined, 
 And whirl themselves in strict embraces bound ; 
 And still their feet an anapest do sound." 
 
 Our friend Hentzner tells us that " the English 
 excell in dancing." High leaping and stately move- 
 ments were considered essentials, in which accom- 
 plishment our ancestors excelled and were praised 
 by all foreigners ; and surpassed all other nations. 
 Queen Elizabeth was complimented by Melvil upon 
 her high dancing. A dancer in Winter's Tale is re- 
 ported " to have danced twelve foot and a half by 
 the squier." 
 
 The London damsels used to dance before their 
 master's doors, an " open pastime " which Stow 
 remembered to have seen in his youth and he 
 regretted its discontinuance, and on May Days and 
 other festivals the lads and lasses on the village 
 green used to trip it merrily. It did not escape the 
 lashings of the Puritans, and I cannot set down 
 here all that Philip Stubbes declares against dancing, 
 " the horrible vice of pestiferous dauncing." He 
 calls it " the noble science of heathen divelrie," and 
 one that no Christian may indulge in. Certainly 
 
SPORTS AND PASTIMES OF THE PEOPLE 265 
 
 dancing was a vigorous exercise in his day, if he 
 proclaims truly that " some have broke their legs 
 with skipping, leaping, turning and vawting, and 
 some have come by one hurt, and some by another." 
 However, we have no time to consider Puritanical 
 objections. 
 
 The country squire loved cards, draughts, dice 
 and chess. It was over a game at chess that Ferdi- 
 nand and Miranda made love in the Tempest. 
 Billiards, too, he liked, and Cleopatra says to 
 Charmian, " Let's to billiards." At Knole there is 
 a billiard-table that is similar to those in use in early 
 Jacobean times, the balls being pushed along with 
 a sort of cue which ladies used to use before they 
 became so proficient as they now are. The squire 
 had his bowling green and was fond of the game on 
 a summer's evening. Shakespeare alludes to the 
 game when he says : 
 
 " Like to a bowl upon a subtle ground 
 I have tumbled past the throw." 
 
 In towns there were bowling alleys often attached 
 to taverns, and these were regarded as very bad 
 places for servants and apprentices, who were for- 
 bidden to frequent them. John Earle, in his Micro- 
 cosmographic (1628), says : "A bowl-alley is a place 
 where there was three things thrown away besides 
 bowls, to wit, time, money and curses, and the last 
 ten to one. The best sport in it is the gamester's, 
 and he enjoys it that looks on and bets not. ... To 
 
266 THE ENGLAND OF SHAKESPEARE 
 
 give you the moral of it : it is the emblem of the 
 world, or the world's ambition, where most are short 
 or over, or wide, or wrong-biassed, and some few 
 jostle to the ' mistress ' fortune." 
 
 Shakespeare loved all the familiar scenes and 
 joyous customs of the country, and doubtless took 
 his part in them in his youthful days. As a boy he 
 would have played at " whipping of tops," " hide 
 and seek," " more sacks to the mill," " pushpin " 
 and " nine men's morris." All these are mentioned 
 by him, and also " ninepins," " quoits," " leap- 
 frog " and " prisoners' base." The humours of the 
 sheep-shearing . festival are described in Winter's 
 Tale. There were many high days and festivals to 
 be observed, especially Christmas and its holidays, 
 which were duly and riotously kept in court and 
 hall and parish. A Lord of Misrule presided over 
 the sports and fooleries. The houses and churches 
 were decked with evergreens, and the young folks 
 danced round the standards that were ' set up. 
 Large feasts were held to which poor folk were 
 bidden, and many rich men kept open house. The 
 boar's head was a favourite dish, which was ushered 
 in with great pomp and music. At the Universities 
 and Inns of Court there were great functions and 
 feasts, and the Lord of Misrule exercised tyrannical 
 sway over the assemblies, instituting all kinds of 
 mischievous pranks. 
 
 Stubbes's description of Christmas is too long to 
 be quoted here, but it is extremely graphic and 
 
SPORTS AND PASTIMES OF THE PEOPLE 267 
 
 severe in its condemnation. Then there were the 
 diversions of Plough Monday, the time-honoured 
 rejoicing, on May Day, when the May-pole was set 
 up and much dancing ensued. This day was a 
 happy one for milk-maids, who used to borrow all 
 the plate they could muster and then made a 
 pyramid on their pails and danced from door to 
 door. Easter Day and Hock-tide brought their 
 accustomed festivities. Fires were lighted on 
 St. John's Eve and Harvest Homes were popular 
 rejoicings. Hentzner fortunately witnessed a Har- 
 vest Home in Berkshire, and thus describes it : 
 
 h ," As we were returning to our inn, we happened 
 to meet some country people celebrating their 
 harvest home : their last load of corn they crown 
 with flowers, having besides an image richly dressed, 
 by which, perhaps, they signify Ceres ; this they 
 keep moving about, while the men and women and 
 men and maid servants riding through the streets 
 in the cart, shout as hard as they can till they 
 arrive at the barn." 
 
 Church ales, also, diversified the rural life of the 
 villages, and caused much amusement and the 
 friendly meeting together of neighbours from other 
 parishes. The churchwardens used to go round 
 the villages and collect from the people a store 
 of provisions and malt from the farmers in prepara- 
 tion for a feast. Near the church stood the church 
 house, which belonged to the parish and was in 
 
268 THE ENGLAND OF SHAKESPEARE 
 
 the custody of the churchwardens. Aubrey thus 
 describes it : 
 
 " In every parish was a church house, to which 
 belonged spits, crocks, and other utensils for dress- 
 ing provisions. Here the housekeepers met. The 
 young people were there too, and had dancing, 
 bowling, shooting at butts, etc., the ancients (i.e. 
 the old folks) sitting gravely by and looking on." 
 
 This account presents a pleasant picture of 
 simple, rural merriment. The ale that was brewed 
 was not a very heady beverage. These feasts were 
 usually held on the festival of the dedication of the 
 church, the proceeds being devoted to the mainte- 
 nance of the poor, the restoration of the church, or 
 other worthy object. Sometimes they were held 
 at Easter and Whitsuntide, perhaps four times a 
 year, or as often as money was wanted or a feast 
 desired. On these occasions an arbour of boughs 
 was erected in the churchyard, and was called 
 Robin Hood's Bower, where the maidens collected 
 money for the " ales," and all went " merry as a 
 marriage bell " ; but the Puritans thought that it 
 went too merrily and tried to put an end to them 
 and finally succeeded. 
 
 Philip Stubbes's righteous soul was much scandal- 
 ised by these " church ales." He describes them as 
 existing " in certain towns where drunken Bacchus 
 bears swaie. . . . Then when this nippitatum, this 
 husse-cappe, as they call it, this nectar of life, is set 
 
SPORTS AND PASTIMES OF THE PEOPLE 269 
 
 abroad, well is he that can get the soonest to it, and 
 spends the most at it, for he is counted the godliest 
 man of all the rest, and most in God's favour, 
 because it is spent upon his church forsooth. If 
 all be true, which they say, they bestow that money 
 which is got thereby for the repaire of their churches 
 and chappels ; they buy bookes for the services, 
 cupps for the celebration of the sacraments, sur- 
 passes for Sir John, and such other necessaries," etc. 
 Wakes (or, as he calls them, wakesses) were 
 sources of gluttonie and drunkenness, and Stubbes 
 states that many spent more at one of these feasts 
 than in all the year besides. Autolycus brought his 
 wares to them, as he did to the sheep-shearing and 
 church ales : 
 
 ' ' Lawn as white as driven snow ; 
 Cyprus, black as e'er was crow ; 
 Gloves, as sweet as damask roses ; 
 Masks for faces, and for noses ; 
 Bugle bracelet, necklace-amber ; 
 Perfume for my lady's chamber ; 
 Golden quoifs and stomachers ; 
 For my lads to give their dears ; 
 Pins, and poking sticks of steel, 
 Which maids lack from head to heel : 
 Come, buy of me : come buy, come buy, 
 Buy, lads, or else your lasses cry.'' 
 
 And hard-hearted must the lads have been if they 
 did not give their lasses a " fairing/' some tawdry 
 (St. Awdry) laces, a cape, silk and thread, or a 
 ballad fresh from town, or any other fine things 
 from the pedlar's pack. 
 
270 THE ENGLAND OF SHAKESPEARE 
 
 Such scenes as these, such pastimes, games and 
 sports helped to make a " merry England " ; and 
 though times were often hard, and plagues were 
 frequent and life uncertain, village life was, per- 
 haps, happier then than now, and the joy of life 
 greater, in spite of Stubbes's Anatomie of Abuses and 
 other Puritanical declamations. 
 
XVII 
 ELIZABETHAN COSTUME 
 
 SHAKESPEARE'S period was a time of 
 many inventions, and nothing is more 
 notable than the changes wrought in dress. 
 In order to give a full account of the eccentricities 
 of Elizabethan costume I should be obliged to 
 quote the sayings of endless satirists and reproduce 
 dozens of quaint portraits of celebrities of the period. 
 But I will spare you most of this, and try only to 
 picture the dress of the men and women Shake- 
 speare knew or strolled with in the streets of London 
 City. Thomas Dekker, in his Seven Deadly Sinnes of 
 London, compares an Englishman's dress to a 
 traitor's body that has been hanged, drawn and 
 quartered, and set up in several places. Part of 
 it was in Denmark ; the collar of his doublet and 
 the belly belonged to France ; the wing and narrow 
 sleeve to Italy ; the short waiste hung over a Dutch 
 shop in Utrecht ; his huge slops belonged to Spain. 
 Poland gave him his boots. The block for his head 
 altered faster than the feltmaker could fit him ; 
 and hence we received the name of blockheads. 
 
 271 
 
272 THE ENGLAND OF SHAKESPEARE 
 
 And so we who mocked every nation because they 
 kept to one fashion, yet stole patches from every 
 one of them, to piece out our pride, were laughing- 
 stocks to them, because their cut so scurvily be- 
 came us. 
 
 Fashions changed so swiftly that Andrew Boorde, 
 when trying to describe an Englishman's dress, 
 after sundry endeavours gave up the task, and drew 
 a naked man with a pair of shears and a piece of 
 cloth in his hands, so that he could make a garment 
 that satisfied him. Harrison notes these changes 
 and says that he cannot describe the dress of an 
 Englishman, as one day he appears in Spanish guise, 
 while on the next he adopts the French mode, and 
 subsequently high German, Turkish, or Moorish 
 gowns and Barbarian sleeves please him in turn, 
 and make him look as absurd as a dog in a 
 doublet. 
 
 England was then young in mind and heart, and 
 took a childish pleasure in such vanities, which 
 were extremely costly and led to all manner of 
 mischief, fickleness and folly ; and the women 
 followed the men in devising novelties and imitating 
 the fashions of the sterner sex, so that it was some- 
 times hard to tell the difference. 
 
 In the early days of Elizabeth two changes from 
 the previous style were remarkable. Formerly the 
 doublet had long skirts or bases ; these disappeared, 
 and instead of the long hosen worn by gentlemen in 
 the former reigns, they wore breeches or trunk hose 
 
ELIZABETHAN COSTUME 273 
 
 or slops and stockings or nether-stocks. The trunk 
 hose, also called " galligascoynes " were of French 
 origin of the Burgundian type, and were large and 
 round, almost capable of " containing a bushell of 
 wheat or to carry malt to a mill." 1 Another style 
 of French breeches fitted tight to the leg, terminated 
 below the knee in one or more rolls called " canions." 
 Venetian and Spanish trunk hose varied, the former 
 being fastened at the knee by silken points or but- 
 tons. The large and wide variety of the English 
 style in 1566 changed to close-fitting breeches, but 
 towards the end of the century the old fashion 
 revived. The transformations of the doublet were 
 remarkable. At first it fitted closely to the body, 
 but later on it was stuffed or " bombasted," until it 
 became known as the " pease-cod-bellied " doublet. 
 Such is that which the familiar figure of Mr. Punch 
 presents. Ben Jonson alludes to this great bellied 
 doublet. 
 
 Then there was, what Dekker calls, the " treble- 
 quadruple dsedalian ruff," which came into fashion 
 with Gloriana and was of Spanish origin. It in- 
 creased in size every year, until towards the end of 
 the century it was pronounced " monstrous." Ben 
 Jonson alludes to the " three-piled ruff." It was 
 worn by both men and women, and necessitated the 
 use of starch to keep it in order, and there are allu- 
 sions to " stiff-necked rabatos that have more 
 
 1 The Passions of the Minde in Generall, by Thomas Wright, 
 1601. 
 
 18 
 
274 THE ENGLAND OF SHAKESPEARE 
 
 arches for Pride to row under than can stand under 
 five London bridges." 
 
 Over the doublet was worn a cloak which varied 
 with the prevailing taste. Sometimes it was of 
 Spanish fashion, then of French, next of Italian or 
 Dutch, and then a jacket without sleeves called 
 a mandevil or mandillian. Puffings or slashings 
 ornamented the cloaks, doublets and sleeves, and 
 divers colours with unsavoury names were intro- 
 duced. The old brown and russet colours somewhat 
 resembled our familiar khaki. Stubbes tells of 
 cloaks bordered with " bugles and other kinds of 
 glass." The head-covering varied with the rest of 
 the costume. In 1571, in order to encourage the 
 wool and clothiers' trade, all men, except noblemen, 
 were obliged by Act of Parliament to wear caps of 
 wool made in England. Later on hats, conical or 
 steeple-crowned, or with small crown and huge 
 great brim, adorned with bunches of feathers of 
 various colours, constituted a remarkable head- 
 gear. We read of a young coxcomb, changed into 
 the shape of a French puppet, his head dressed up 
 in white feathers like a shuttlecock. He also wore 
 " wings," which are described as lateral prominences 
 extending from each shoulder. 
 
 Stockings were ornamented with clocks or quirks 
 or cogs about the ankles and were of many colours. 
 Boots had wide tops and these had fringed " boot- 
 hosen " hanging down to the ankles and " clogged 
 with silk of all colours, with birds, fowles, beasts 
 
ELIZABETHAN COSTUME 275 
 
 and antiques portrayed all over." So says Master 
 Stubbes, who also laughs at the fashion of wearing 
 pantoffles or slippers, or high-heeled cork shoes 
 which caused their wearers to walk in a mincing 
 pace. The costume of the gallant was not complete 
 without a rapier. Some wore rings of gold, stones 
 or pearls in the ears " to improve God's work." 
 The hair was sometimes cut short, or curled or worn 
 long like a woman's, or cut off above or under the 
 ears like a wooden dish. Beards were cut to suit 
 the shape of the face of the individual. A shaven 
 chin, or beard cut short to suit a lean face, making 
 it appear broad ; a long slender beard for a round 
 face, and much hair left on the face for the weasel- 
 beaked ones. Men wore gowns, bracelets, gold 
 chains, and loved scent, like the women. 
 
 But let us turn to the ladies and see extravagance 
 let loose. They copied the men in their doublets 
 and jerkins which were buttoned to the breast, and 
 had wings on their shoulders. Women's doublets 
 were brought down to a peak in front, and gave 
 place to a long-peaked stomacher. The ruff of 
 lawn or cambric came in with Queen Elizabeth, who 
 brought over some women from Holland to stiffen 
 or starch them. Later on wires and poking-sticks 
 of steel were used to extend the ruff and to make it 
 stick out properly. The farthingale was intro- 
 duced about the middle of the reign. Head-dresses 
 were very elaborate, the hair being " curled, frizzled 
 and crisped, laid out on wreaths and borders from 
 
276 THE ENGLAND OF SHAKESPEARE 
 
 one ear to the other." Perukes and false hair were 
 much worn, so that their heads appear " like that 
 of a gorgon saving that they want the crawling 
 snakes of Medusa, to hang sprawling in their hair 
 along their faces." Shakespeare often inveighed 
 against women wearing false hair and painting their 
 faces. The Queen set the fashion. Hentzner 
 noticed that her hair was red. At Tutbury another 
 observer said it was black. The beautiful Mary 
 Queen of Scots also varied the colour of her hair. 
 The ladies wore caps, hats and hoods of sundry 
 kinds, " lattice caps with three horns or corners 
 like the forked caps of Popish priests," as Puritan 
 Stubbes states, who also mentions the ladies' 
 corked shoes, pantomes and slippers, some of black 
 velvet, some of white, green, yellow, Spanish leather 
 and some of English, stitched with silk and em- 
 broidered with gold and silver all over the foot 
 " with other gewgaws innumerable." Silk stock- 
 ings were first used in England at this time and 
 were of divers colours. Petruchio, in the Taming 
 of the Shrew, makes some severe comments on his 
 wife's dresses, to " the sleeves curiously cut," and 
 to the cap : 
 
 " Why, this is moulded on a porringer ; 
 A velvet dish ; fie, fie ! 'tis lewd and filthy : 
 Why 'tis a cockle on a walnut-shell, 
 A knack, a toy, a trick, a baby's cap." 
 
 Tight-lacing was then as fashionable as it was in 
 recent times. A contemporary writer says : "To 
 
SOME COSTUMES OF THE POETS PERIOD 
 
ELIZABETHAN COSTUME 277 
 
 become slender in the waiste and to have a straight 
 spagnolized body, what pinching, what girding, 
 what cingling will they not endure ? Yea, some- 
 times with iron-plates, with whale-bones and other 
 such trash, that their very skin and quick flesh is 
 eaten in and consumed to the bones : whereby they 
 sometimes work their own death." A pale com- 
 plexion was esteemed a mark of beauty, and women 
 were said to have swallowed gravel, ashes, coals, 
 dust, tallow and candles, so on to produce a pale 
 bleak colour. 
 
 Many were shocked at the display of bare breasts, 
 and kissing was commonly practised. Before this 
 time Erasmus remarked upon this custom, and 
 advised a friend to come to England in order to 
 enjoy these salutations from the beautiful maids of 
 this country. Some ladies strongly objected to this 
 indiscriminating kissing. 
 
 There are many other articles of female attire 
 which helped to make the dress complete. There 
 were hoops " that hips and haunch do hide and 
 heave aloft the gay hoist train," finely fringed 
 aprons and jewels galore, scarfs and fans, amber 
 bracelets, beads, plenty of lace and fragrant poman- 
 ders, a sort of perfumed paste rolled in a ball which 
 was useful in attracting suitors and in keeping off 
 the plague. Musk also pleased these ladies, and 
 they often wore masks, made of velvet, and carried 
 looking-glasses in their girdles, or in the centre of 
 their fans, which were made of feathers inserted 
 
278 THE ENGLAND OF SHAKESPEARE 
 
 into silver or ivory tubes. I had nearly forgotten to 
 mention their gloves, which were like gauntlets, 
 ornamented with gold thread and fringe. 
 
 Here is a picture of a lady attired in what was 
 called a riding habit taken from William Goddard's 
 A Mastiff Whelp : 
 
 " To see Morilla in her coach to ride, 
 With her long lock of hair upon one side ; 
 With hatt and feather worn in swagging guise : 
 With buttoned boddice, skirted doublet wise, 
 Unmaskt, and sit i' th' booth without a fanne : 
 Speake, could you judge her lesse than be some manne.' - 
 
 Morilla's side-lock of hair, commonly worn both 
 by men and women, was called the French lock. 
 A beau in Rub and a Great Cast, by Freeman, has 
 a " long French locke," and this is alluded to in 
 many other poems and epigrams. 1 
 
 In such manner was a woman dressed in the 
 glorious days of Queen Bess, who herself set the 
 fashion of extraordinary extravagance, having some 
 3000 dresses, seeming to delight in every wayward 
 fancy and to uphold the truth of the satirist that 
 " a ship was sooner rigged than a woman." I have 
 not mentioned many of the ladies' " mincing 
 niceties," such as taffeta pipkins, durance petti- 
 coats and silver bodkins, their smocks, 3 li a piece, 
 and much else ; but a woman's dress has many 
 intricacies that are difficult for a man to describe ; 
 
 1 Hall's Satires, iii, 7, A Letting of Humour's Blood (Epi- 
 gram 27). Pyrott's Springes for Woodcockes (1613), " And on 
 his shoulder wears a dangling locke." 
 
ELIZABETHAN COSTUME 279 
 
 yet I have written, perhaps, enough to disclose the 
 Elizabethan extravagance in costume, as a warning 
 to subsequent ages. However there were some 
 men and women who were not carried away by this 
 love of finery and ever-changing transformation. 
 The country squires and their ladies, as far as the 
 evidence afforded by their effigies on their tombs, 
 were not so ridiculous, and Harrison says that the 
 merchants did least alter their attire and therefore 
 were most to be commended. Though their dress 
 was very fine and costly, yet in form and colour it 
 represented the ancient gravity belonging to citizens 
 and burgesses. The younger sort of their wives, 
 however, both in dress and costly house-keeping 
 were always striving after the new fashions, as being 
 women indeed, and therefore full of curiosity, and 
 in far greater measure than amongst those of the 
 higher calling in life. 
 
XVIII 
 
 THE POOR. ROGUES AND VAGABONDS 
 AND PUNISHMENTS 
 
 ENGLAND was called in Shakespearean times 
 the paradise of married women, the purga- 
 tory of servants and the hell of horses. 
 Certainly the ladies who gratified their love of dress 
 sat at their doors in the City streets decked out in 
 their fine clothes, and who received great honour 
 at the banquets of the City Companies, did not 
 trouble themselves with household drudgery, walked 
 and rode to visit their friends, and enjoyed much 
 liberty, had what is called in modern phraseology 
 " a good time." I do not know why England 
 should then have been a purgatory for servants, 
 unless it be that the nouveaux riches are in the 
 habit of treating their dependants with hautiness 
 and arrogance. Bad roads, cumbersome, springless 
 wagons, heavy coaches and the double burden of 
 pinion riding, may have made a horse's life a 
 weariness to him. 
 
 There is no doubt, however, that rogues and 
 vagabonds, who greatly increased in number during 
 
 280 
 
ROGUES, VAGABONDS, PUNISHMENTS 281 
 
 our period, experienced very hard times. This in- 
 crease was due partly to the dissolution of the 
 monasteries, but chiefly to economic reasons. The 
 progress of sheep-farming in the time of the early 
 Tudors, and consequently the decrease in agricul- 
 tural employment, had driven the labourers from 
 the village to the towns, where work could not be 
 found for them. Scarcely a quarter of a century 
 had elapsed since the destruction of the monasteries 
 when Elizabeth came to the throne. The monks 
 had been good landlords and had provided well for 
 the labourers and tenants on their farms. Their 
 departure caused a serious social revolution. When 
 Harrison wrote in 1566, not sixty years had elapsed 
 since beggars and vagrants began their trade ; and 
 he says that there were in his time about 10,000 1 
 tramps and rogues, who, following the example of 
 the gypsies, had devised a language of their own 
 called " canting," or " peddlar's French," com- 
 posed partly of English words and partly of odd 
 words of their own devising which no one could 
 understand but themselves. He divided the poor 
 into three classes, the impotent, those made poor 
 by accident, and the thriftless, who became rogues 
 and vagabonds. For the first two classes, the true 
 Poor, whom Christ bids us feed, weekly collections 
 were made throughout the land, and it was found 
 necessary to establish by various Acts of Parlia- 
 
 1 This estimate was too low. In 1569 a search was made, and 
 no less than 13,000 were rounded up. . 
 
282 THE ENGLAND OF SHAKESPEARE 
 
 ment — of which there were four passed in Eliza" 
 beth's reign — a system of Poor relief. The only 
 remedy they could devise to cure the vagrants was 
 to whip them in the towns through which they 
 wandered. In the record of our Berkshire town of 
 Hungerford there are several items referring to 
 these whippings : the instrument of torture, the 
 whip, is still preserved, and it is also noticeable that 
 the victims were subsequently given money to help 
 them on their way to the next town where the pro- 
 cess would be repeated. I notice also that the 
 whip is not a very formidable instrument. The 
 lashes are very thin, and I do not think they could 
 hurt the victim very much. It must have been 
 simple child's play to an Eton birching. Harrison 
 has some very harsh words against the sin of 
 covetous folk who grabbed land, and turned men 
 out of their holdings for their own gain. " At whose 
 hand shall the blood of these men be required ? " 
 he asks in scorn. The dispossessed either emigrate 
 or join the ranks of the ever-increasing bands of 
 wanderers. These beggars must have been a great 
 nuisance, as they used to counterfeit sickness and 
 make hideous sores upon their bodies, so as to 
 excite the pity of the passers-by. Some, too, were 
 very sturdy beggars, thieves, robbers, rufflers and 
 a host of others whose names are a puzzle, e.g. 
 Palliards, Fraters, Abrams, freshwater mariners or 
 whipjacks, dummerers and others, both male and 
 female. 
 
ROGUES, VAGABONDS, PUNISHMENTS 283 
 
 These were guilty of all kinds of crime, and 
 various punishments were inflicted, whipping, burn- 
 ing through the ears with a third-inch hot iron and 
 in case of contumacy death. Amongst the tramps, 
 who falsely pretended to be licensed to ply their 
 calling, were cofiners, unlawful gamesters, physiog- 
 nomists, palmists, fortune-tellers, fencers, players, 
 minstrels, jugglers, pedlars, tinkers, pretended 
 scholars at the Universities, shipmen and bearwards. 
 These bear-leaders had been the cause of many 
 children's deaths. Punishments, like sports, in the 
 poet's time, were cruel. In the country we had our 
 stocks. Shakespeare often alludes to them. Fal- 
 staff complains — 
 
 " The knave constable had set me in the stocks." 
 
 In All's Well a victim is said to have been set in the 
 stocks all night ; and other passages are doubtless 
 familiar to you. 
 
 In one play someone says, " Fetch hither the 
 stocks," showing that portable stocks were some- 
 times used. An accompaniment to the stocks was 
 the whipping-post, which (as I have said) was in 
 frequent use. Ducking-stools and branks were 
 much in vogue for scolding women, terrible imple- 
 ment of torture which poor women had to endure 
 who had dared to protest against the vagaries of 
 drunken or faithless husbands, or to speak their 
 minds to a local tyrant dressed in the apparel of a 
 brief authority. 
 
284 THE ENGLAND OF SHAKESPEARE 
 
 Hanging was the punishment for felony or treason. 
 Torture was seldom used to extract confession. 
 Murderers were hanged in chains, and a wilful mur- 
 derer had his hands struck off before his execution, 
 but England knew nothing of those terrible instru- 
 ments of torment, the wheel and the bar, in Eliza- 
 bethan times, though they were commonly used in 
 other countries. Felony included many crimes, all 
 of which I cannot mention. Some are remark- 
 able, such as the stealing of hawks' eggs, .taking 
 horses into Scotland, conjuring, sorcery, witchcraft, 
 prophesying on arms and badges, sweating coin, 
 stealing, robbing, cutting purses, stealing deer by 
 night, forging, etc. Poisoners were boiled to death 
 in water or lead. Perjurers were burnt in the fore- 
 head with the letter P. Ears and hands were cut 
 off for various crimes, heretics burnt, and unchaste 
 women were ducked and had to do open penance 
 dressed in a sheet in churches or market-places. 
 Suicides were buried at the cross-roads with a stake 
 driven through their bodies. Halifax had a peculiar 
 law of its own. Felons were not hanged then, but 
 beheaded by a curious form of primitive guillotine, 
 which was worked by the townsfolk themselves, 
 showing that they were all willing to see justice 
 done. This was " Halifax Law." Mute felons were 
 pressed to death by heavy weights, a terribly cruel 
 death, which often was endured with much forti- 
 tude, so that the goods of the delinquent might pass 
 to his relatives ; otherwise if he were condemned 
 
ROGUES, VAGABONDS, PUNISHMENTS 285 
 
 these would have gone to the Crown. There was 
 a curious survival of Benefit of Clergy whereby 
 scholars turned felons were saved from death at the 
 first offence, but were branded on the thumb. 
 
 Horrible murders were not very frequent, but there 
 were many lesser crimes. Horse-stealing was com- 
 mon, and about three or four hundred rogues were 
 hanged every year. The City of London devised 
 many punishments for fraud and dishonesty, and 
 it was not an uncommon sight to see a fraudulent 
 baker drawn on a hurdle through the muddy streets 
 and set in the pillory, where he was a target for 
 stones and mud and filth thrown at him by the 
 outraged citizens. Occasionally, too, a butcher would 
 be seen riding on a horse with his face to the tail, 
 and his bad meat in front of him on his way to the 
 same unpleasant pillory. 
 
 In these ways did our Elizabethan ancestors 
 endeavour to " make the punishment fit the crime," 
 and according to their lights were not unsuccessful. 
 Although the age was cruel there do not seem to 
 have been any hideous torture-chambers in general 
 use, as in foreign countries, and it was a felony 
 on the part of a jailer to torture any prisoner in 
 order to discover his accomplices. The rack was 
 lurking at the Tower of London and was used in 
 Shakespeare's time, when conspirators threatened 
 the lives of sovereigns ; but England knew not the 
 terrors of the Inquisition, nor the cruel strokes of 
 the whips which the Spaniards were bringing with 
 
286 THE ENGLAND OF SHAKESPEARE 
 
 them in the galleons for the benefit of English 
 backs. 
 
 I discovered in the British Museum some Armada 
 ballads written by Thomas Deloney, a famous 
 ballad-writer of his day, to whose verses I have 
 already referred. 1 In one of these — " A new 
 Ballet of the strange and more curious Whippes 
 which the Spaniards had prepared to whippe and 
 torment English men and women, which were 
 found and taken at the overthrow of certain Spanish 
 shippes in July last past 1588. To the tune of the 
 Valiant Soldiour " — he exhibits a drawing of two 
 very savage-looking whips with large ugly spiked 
 balls on each lash, a very heavy one for men, and 
 one not quite so ponderous intended for the backs 
 of English women. The ballad begins : 
 
 " Ah, you that list to looke and see 
 What profite comes from Spayne, 
 And what the Pope and Spanyards both 
 Prepared for our gayne. 
 
 Then turn your eyes and bend your ears 
 
 And you shall heare and see 
 What courteous minds, what gentle harts 
 
 They bear to thee and mee. 
 
 For never was there horse nor mule 
 
 Nor dogge of currish kinde, 
 That ever had such whips devised 
 
 By any savage mind." 
 
 1 He had a quarrel with Kemp, one of Shakespeare's players, 
 who supposed himself maligned in one of his productions. 
 
ROGUES, VAGABONDS, PUNISHMENTS 287 
 
 The men's whips were of strings with " wyerie 
 knots like rowels they did frame which pluckt the 
 sinewes from the bone, pricked and pearced each 
 tender vein, left each crooked ribbe bear," and did 
 various other damage. The women's whips were 
 almost as destructive. The ballad then alludes to 
 the cruelty of the Spaniards in India, to the fate of 
 the British Queen Boadicea ; and then, by an in- 
 genious confusion between the Romans and the 
 Papists, asks, " If these ruffling mates of Rome did 
 princes thus torment, think you the Romish 
 Spaniards now would not shewe their disent ? '' 
 The poem concludes with a description of the 
 rejoicings of Spaniards in anticipation of their 
 victory : 
 
 " How did they late in Rome rejoyce, 
 For Italy and Spayne, 
 What ringing and what Bonfires, 
 What masses sung amaine. 
 
 What printed Bookes were sent about. 
 
 As fitted their desires, 
 How England was by Spanyards woone, 
 
 And London set on fire. 
 
 Be these the men that are so mild. 
 
 Who some so holie call ? 
 The Lord defend our noble Queene 
 
 And countrye from them all. 
 
 Finis, T.D. 
 
 Imprinted at London by Thomas Orwin and 
 Thomas Gubbin, and are solde in Paternoster Row 
 over against the Blacke Raven, 1588," 
 
XIX 
 SUPERSTITION, ALCHEMY, ASTROLOGY 
 
 IN Shakespeare's time ignorance and superstition 
 held relentless sway over the popular mind. 
 The woods were the haunts of fairies. Our 
 modern enlightenment has driven away these 
 gentle creatures from their accustomed play- 
 grounds. What are fairy rings but the marks of 
 the footsteps of these pretty little elves as they 
 danced round in their mystic circle ? Not long 
 ago they lived in Ireland and may still do so unless 
 the Sein Fieners have- killed them ; and old people 
 would not go out of doors in the evenings, lest they 
 should disturb the fairy revels. They were very 
 popular in the poet's time, and his audience would 
 believe that it was not all fancy when they heard 
 Puck say : 
 
 " How now, spirit, whither wander you ? " 
 
 and the Fairy answered : 
 
 " Over hill, over dale, 
 
 Through bush, through briar, 
 
 Over park, over pale, 
 
 Through flood, through fire. 
 288 
 
SUPERSTITION, ALCHEMY, ASTROLOGY 289 
 
 I do wander everywhere, 
 
 Swifter than the moon's sphere ; 
 
 And I serve the fairy queen, 
 
 To dew her orbs upon the green : 
 
 And cowslips to all her pensioners be ; 
 
 In their gold coats spots you see, 
 
 There be rubies, fairy favours, 
 
 In these freckles live their savours ; 
 
 I must go suck some dew-drops here, 
 
 And hang a pearl on every cowslip's ear. 
 
 Farewell, thou lob of spirits, I'll be gone ; 
 
 Our queen and all our elves come here anon." 
 
 Goblins and will-o'-the-wisps haunted the fields, 
 and ghosts lurked in the churchyards under the 
 yew-trees. 
 
 Witches and witchcraft were fully believed in 
 both by the learned and unlearned. In Elizabeth's 
 time the persecution was not so fierce as in that of 
 her successor, and though some were executed 
 witches were usually placed in the pillory or ducking 
 stool, or tested by a peculiar system of water ordeal, 
 and not condemned to death as they were later on. 
 When the witch was thrown into a river, if she 
 sank she was innocent, if she floated she was guilty. 
 It is not stated whether, being proved innocent, she 
 was ever rescued from the water. Even prominent 
 and learned men believed in it. Lord Bacon, the 
 greatest scientist of the day, prescribed " henbane, 
 hemlock, mandrake, moonshade, tobacco, opium, 
 and other soporiferous medicines," as ingredients 
 for a witch's ointment ; Sir Walter Raleigh was a 
 firm believer in witchcraft, and Sir Matthew Hale, 
 
 19 
 
290 THE ENGLAND OF SHAKESPEARE 
 
 the judge, shared the same belief. On the accession 
 of the Queen, Bishop Jewell preached a sermon 
 against sorcery, and twenty years later there was 
 a mild form of witch persecution. That was partly 
 in consequence of a waxen image of the Queen 
 being discovered in Lincoln's Inn Fields. This was 
 a terrible practice of witchcraft. If you were a 
 dealer in the black art, and you bore a grudge against 
 any one, you would make a figure in wax of your 
 victim, and occasionally torture it by pricking it 
 with a pin or a bodkin, and wherever your victim 
 happened to be, he, or she, would feel the pain in 
 that part of the body so punctured. You had only 
 to pierce the region of the heart, or burn the figure 
 in the fire, and your victim would die. The dis- 
 covery of this waxen image of the Queen seemed 
 to suggest that some hateful witch had designs upon 
 her life. It appears that the Queen had toothache, 
 caused doubtless by her fondness for sugar which 
 had made her teeth very black, and she thought 
 that it was the result of a witch's spell. Dr. Dee, 
 the famous astrologer, who on the coronation of 
 the Queen had foretold her future by consulting the 
 stars, was consulted in haste, and he pretended that 
 he was able to defeat the designs of such evil- 
 disposed persons, and prevent his royal mistress 
 feeling any of the pains which might be inflicted on 
 her effigy. We shall return to Dr. Dee's exploits 
 later on. 
 In Lancashire witchcraft found a congenial home ; 
 
SUPERSTITION, ALCHEMY, ASTROLOGY 291 
 
 and even the greatest men were not exempt from its 
 evil influences. Edward, Earl of Derby (1510-1572), 
 entertained a conjurer in his house, one Mumford 
 who (according to Richard Boyle, Earl of Cork) 
 " lately cast out devils." Ferdinando, Earl of 
 Derby, in 1594 was supposed to have been killed 
 by witchcraft, and he believed it himself. There 
 is a curious document entitled, " A true reporte of 
 such reasons and conjectures as cause verie many 
 and the same also verie learned men to suppose his 
 Hon. to be witched." A Mr. Halsall found an image 
 of wax in the Earl's bedchamber, and threw it into 
 the fire, thinking to deliver his friend from the power 
 of some witch ; but unhappily the Earl sickened 
 and died as the wax melted. Some witches were 
 charged and examined and the test was applied as 
 to whether they could repeat the Lord's Prayer 
 and one of them could not say " forgive us our 
 trespasses." 
 
 In 1597 Alice Brerley, of Casleton, was pardoned, 
 though she had been condemned to death for killing 
 two men by spells. Nicholas Starkie had two 
 young children who were believed to be possessed 
 by the devil. Miss E. M. Piatt, who wrote a chapter 
 on Lancashire Witches for my book on Lancashire, 
 suggests that they only had fits. 1 Hartley, a 
 cunning conjurer, was called in, and by means of 
 a magic circle and certain charms gave some relief ; 
 
 1 Memorials of Old Lancashire, edited by Colonel Fishwick 
 and Mr. Ditchfield, Vol. I, p. 225. 
 
292 THE ENGLAND OF SHAKESPEARE 
 
 but he outstayed his welcome and was driven from 
 the house. Before he left he caused five females to 
 be possessed, and it was believed that he breathed 
 the devil into any one whom he kissed. Dr. Dee 
 was consulted, but refused to act, recommending 
 the calling in of " some godlye preacher " who 
 prayed with the victims and fasted. Hartley was 
 sentenced to death, and some of the " godlye 
 preachers" were implicated in the charge of 
 familiarity with the black art, and one was deposed 
 from his living. 
 
 Witches were often deemed very useful folk. 
 They were consulted by fair maidens and shy youths 
 about love affairs, and provided love philtres 
 or potent herbs for compelling affection. They 
 healed cattle. A gentleman found many horses in 
 his stables bewitched. They were " sick, crying, 
 grinning and starting." He consulted a witch who 
 advised him to burn a sick horse alive. The rest 
 immediately recovered. Another man did the same 
 with the "sheep, and was told to roast the heart of 
 the sheep he burnt on a spit. With the advent of 
 James of Scotland witch-hunting began with re- 
 newed vigour. He was crazed with the witch- 
 mania of Scotland, and shared his madness with 
 John Knox. His first Parliament enacted new laws 
 for the punishment of witches. Many childish old 
 women were hunted down, the victims of malice, 
 or because they were old and ill-favoured, and many 
 of them certainly believed in their powers, and in 
 
SUPERSTITION, ALCHEMY, ASTROLOGY 293 
 
 their familiars, their black dogs or their goblins 
 called " Tibb." 
 
 There was a very famous case in Lancashire, in 
 the barren wilds of Pendle Forest in 1612, where 
 lived two old women nicknamed " Old Demdike " 
 and " Old Chattox." They made a good living out 
 of their magical art. But two of a trade seldom 
 agree, and the old women quarrelled as to who had 
 the greater powers. They could cast spells on and 
 kill children, friends and cattle, and cause the loss 
 of the goods of those who offended them. They 
 and many others used to meet at Malkin Tower to 
 concoct their villainies and Celebrate their magic 
 craft. They were brought before the justices, 
 seventeen witches and three wizards, and many 
 were condemned to death. The whole account of 
 the proceedings was written by Potts, clerk of the 
 court, and his account called the " Discoverie of 
 Witches " has been published in the Cheetham 
 Society's transactions. It throws considerable 
 light upon the ways of witches, but it is too long 
 to be here recorded. In spite of persecution witch- 
 craft flourished vigorously in the northern counties, 
 and there were many victims who paid the extreme 
 penalty of the law. 
 
 Shakespeare in this, as in other matters, reflects 
 the spirit and beliefs of his age. There are constant 
 allusions to witchcraft in the plays. His witches 
 are " foul and ugly " and " foul wrinkled." The 
 witches play a prominent part in Macbeth and 
 
294 THE ENGLAND OF SHAKESPEARE 
 
 brew most pestilential ingredients in their cauldron. 
 Poor Jeanne d'Arc, La Pucelle, was accused of 
 witchcraft, and Talbot says to her in i Henry VI, 
 
 " Blood will I draw on thee, thou art a witch," 
 
 alluding to the method of saving oneself from her 
 evil spells. If you could draw the blood of a witch 
 by scratching her, she could not harm you — a 
 remedy that was practised by a young man so late 
 as forty years ago. There are many other allusions 
 in the plays to witchcraft. In the poet's time there 
 was the celebrated Warboy's case, and Reginald 
 Scot's work, The Discoverie of Witchcraft, was 
 published in 1579. 
 
 Cognate with popular superstition was the study 
 of Alchemy. In Timon of Athens there is the 
 line : 
 
 " Hence ! You are an alchemist, make gold of that," 
 
 alluding to the constant search for the philosophers' 
 stone, by which base metals could be turned into 
 gold. It also cured all manner of human ills, a 
 precious medicine, the Elixir Vitae, which could 
 prolong life indefinitely and make old men young 
 again. Shakespeare's allusions to the art are meta- 
 phorical. Perhaps he feared Ben Jonson's warning 
 concerning alchemy : 
 
 " You may come to end 
 The remnant of your days in loathsome prison 
 By speaking of it." 
 
SUPERSTITION, ALCHEMY, ASTROLOGY 295 
 
 His play, The Alchemist, pours scorn on the art. 
 Therein we make the acquaintance of Subtle, a 
 charlatan and pretended seeker after the philos- 
 ophers' stone, and Dol Common, his accomplice. 
 Under the pretence of practising alchemy and sooth- 
 saying they attracted a great number of dupes. To 
 Abel Drugger he proclaims : 
 
 " The thumb, in chiromancy, we give Venus ; 
 The forefinger, to Jove ; the midst, to Saturn ; 
 The ring, to Sol ; the least, to Mercury, 
 Who was the lord of life, Sir, of his horoscope, 
 His house of life being Libra ; which fore-show'd, 
 He shall be a merchant, and should trade with balance." 
 
 But this is astrology. Abel Drugger was told on the 
 east side of his shop to write : 
 
 " Mathlori, Turmiel and Baraborat ; 
 Upon the north part, Rael, Velel, Thiel. 
 They are the names of those mercurial spirits 
 That do fright flies from boxes." 
 
 Sir Epicure Mammon is Subtle's great victim for 
 whom he prepared " the magisterium, our great 
 work, the stone " ; and who is going about making 
 many rich : 
 
 " Offering citizens' wives pomander-bracelets 
 As his preservative, made of the elixir, 
 Searching the spital to make old bawds young, 
 And the highways, for beggars to make rich." 
 
 He will say to all his friends " Be rich," change all 
 that is metal in his house to gold, buy tin and lead 
 and copper, purchase Devonshire and Cornwall. 
 
296 THE ENGLAND OF SHAKESPEARE 
 
 " He that has once the flower of the sun, 
 The perfect ruby, which we call elixir, 
 Not only can do that, but, by its virtue, 
 Can confer honour, love, respect, long life : 
 Give safety, valour, yea, and victory, 
 To whom he will. In eight-and-twenty days 
 I'll make an old man of fourscore a child." 
 
 Surly, his servant, suggests that he is that already, 
 but Mammon explains that his years shall be re- 
 stored and that he shall be like an eagle, and get 
 sons and daughters, young giants, as the old philos- 
 ophers, the ancient patriarchs before the flood, had 
 done. Such, and much more, had I space to set 
 them down, were some of the dreams of the searchers 
 of the philosophers' stone, who toiled day and night, 
 poring over strange books and mystic lore, mixing 
 curious and weird ingredients, to obtain that 
 wonderful elixir that should make man immortal. 
 A learned divine, the Lady Margaret Professor of 
 Divinity at Cambridge, resigned his chair to study 
 alchemy. Paracelsus, a good scientist, but a 
 drunken charlatan, had many followers. 
 
 And then, there was Dr. Dee, whose slight 
 acquaintance we have made, noted alchemist and 
 astrologer, a learned and prolific author, who was 
 warden of the collegiate church of Manchester. 
 Queen Elizabeth was a firm believer in his 
 astrological powers. He, however, disclaimed all 
 dealings with the " black art " in his petition to 
 her successor, James, which was couched in these 
 words : 
 
SUPERSTITION, ALCHEMY, ASTROLOGY 297 
 
 " It has been affirmed that your majesty's sup- 
 pliant was the conjurer belonging to the most 
 honourable privy council of your majesty's predeces- 
 sor, of famous memory, Queen Elizabeth ; and that 
 he is, or hath been, a caller or invocator of devils, or 
 damned spirits ; these slanders, which have tended 
 to his utter undoing, can no longer be endured ; and 
 if on trial he is found guilty of the offence imputed 
 to him, he offers himself willingly to the punishment 
 of death ; yea, either to be stoned to death, or to be 
 buried quick, or to be burned unmercifully." 
 
 In spite of his assertions Dr. Dee certainly 
 dabbled in the " black art," and was the companion 
 and friend of Edward Kelly, a notorious necro- 
 mancer, who for his sins had his ears cut off at 
 Lancaster. Kelly used to exhume and consult the 
 dead. In the darkness of night he and his com- 
 panions entered churchyards, dug up the bodies of 
 men recently buried, and caused them to utter 
 predictions concerning the fate of the living. Dr. 
 Dee's friendship with Kelly was suspicious. He 
 was obliged to resign his clerical office, and wandered 
 over Europe with Kelly, as an honoured guest in the 
 courts of many sovereigns. The Emperor Rodolph, 
 Stephen, King of Poland, and other royal personages, 
 welcomed the renowned astrologers who could read 
 the stars, had discovered the philosophers' stone in 
 the form of a powder which changed the bottom of 
 a warming-pan into pure silver, simply by warm- 
 ing it at the fire, the elixir that rendered men 
 
298 THE ENGLAND OF SHAKESPEARE 
 
 immortal, and made the precious metals so plentiful 
 that children played at quoits with golden rings. 
 No wonder they were so welcome. They were 
 acquainted with the Rosicrucian philosophy, could 
 hold correspondence with the spirits of the elements, 
 imprison a spirit in a mirror, ring, or stone, and 
 compel it to answer questions. Dr. Dee's mirror, 
 which worked such miracles, found in his study at 
 his death in 1608, is now in the British Museum. 
 He died in poverty and great misery, as most of 
 these professors of black magic did, and the philos- 
 ophers' stone never brought them riches. 
 
 The superstition of the age manifested itself in 
 the portents of the stars and astrology. Every one 
 was born under a lucky or unlucky star. Hall, in 
 his Satires, scoffs at judicial astrology which pro- 
 fessed to foretell human affairs. He wrote that it 
 was the daughter of Egyptian midwives, and that 
 having been nursed by superstition she assumed the 
 garb of science. 
 
 " That now who pares his nails or libs his swine, 
 But he must first take counsel of the Signs." 
 
 Men had their horoscopes cast by astrologers, and 
 firmly believed in what the stars foretold. Of this 
 popular belief Hall wrote : 
 
 " His fear or hope, for plentie or for lack, 
 Hangs all upon his New Year's Almanack. 
 If chance once in the spring his head should ake, 
 It was foretold — ' thus says mine Almanack.' " 
 
SUPERSTITION, ALCHEMY, ASTROLOGY 299 
 
 A large number of pamphlets was published, called 
 Prognostications, and these proved how eagerly the 
 people sought to read the future by the help of the 
 stars. Richard Harvey, a learned astrologer and 
 astronomer of Cambridge, published in 1582 a 
 treatise called Astrological Discourse, predicting the 
 portentous conjunction of the primary planets, 
 Saturn and Jupiter, which was to happen in the 
 following year, prophesying many evils that would 
 befall the nation. Every one became alarmed. 
 But the year passed quietly and no great calamity 
 happened ; the fears of the people subsided, and 
 Nashe wrote a parody upon Harvey's work, entitled, 
 A Wonderful, Strange and Miraculous Astrologicall 
 Prognostication, ridiculing the whole affair, and 
 Elderton, a ballad-maker, and Tarleton, the 
 comedian, joined in the laugh. Nashe poured 
 scorn on Gabriel Harvey, Richard's brother, and 
 wrote : " The best wit-craft I can turn him too, 
 to get 3 d a week, is to write Prognostigations and 
 Almanacks, and that alone must be his best philos- 
 ophers' stone till his last destiny." 
 
 Shakespeare reflects the current beliefs of his 
 time by many astrological allusions. King Richard 
 in his conversation with the widowed queen 
 declaims : 
 
 " Be opposite all planets of good luck 
 To my proceeding," 1 
 
 1 Richard III, Act IV, scene 4. 
 
300 THE ENGLAND OF SHAKESPEARE 
 
 and in the same scene there is the line : 
 
 " At their birth good stars were opposite." 
 
 In Julius Ceesar belief in astrology is deprecated 
 in the lines : 
 
 " The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, 
 But in ourselves, that we are underlings." » 
 
 And yet in King Lear we read, " The stars above us 
 govern our conditions." But this is answered by 
 Edmund, who contends : 
 
 " This is the excellent foppery of the world that, 
 when we are sick in fortune — often the surfeit of our 
 own behaviour — we make guilty of our disasters the 
 sun, the moon, and the stars ; as if we were villains 
 by necessity, fools by heavenly compulsion, knaves, 
 thieves and treachers by spherical predominance, 
 drunkards, liars, and adulterers by an enforced 
 obedience of planetary influence ; and all that we 
 are evil in, by a divine thrusting on. ' a This was 
 doubtless the poet's own belief, but he often makes 
 his characters utter the popular fallacies. He 
 makes one speak of " an auspicious star." Another 
 says : 
 
 " There was a star danc'd, and under that I was born." 
 
 Another was " born under a charitable star," and 
 there is that amusing conversation between Sir 
 
 1 Julius Casar, Act I, scene 2. 
 ' Lear, Act I, scene 2. 
 
SUPERSTITION, ALCHEMY, ASTROLOGY 301 
 
 Andrew Ague-cheek and Sir Toby Belch as to 
 whether Leo or Taurus governs " the sides and 
 heart " or the " legs and thighs," that is what is 
 " nocturnal and bestial." 
 
 But we have had sufficient of astrological jargon. 
 Astrology led the way to the science astronomy, 
 and the triumph of the Copernican system destroyed 
 such " fond things vainly invented." And as 
 astrology led to a true knowledge of the stars and 
 the motions of the heavenly bodies, so alchemy was 
 the father of chemistry which made some progress 
 during the Elizabethan and Jacobean periods. Not 
 that the conclusions of Copernicus had received 
 universal acceptance in the England of Shakespeare. 
 The earth was still commonly believed to be the 
 centre of the universe, and even Bacon accepted 
 that theory. It is a proof of the deep insight of our 
 poet into nature to observe how nearly he ap- 
 proached to the truth with regard to the " worlds 
 on worlds that compose one universe," when he 
 wrote : 
 
 " The heavens themselves, the planets, and this centre 
 Observe degree, priority, and place, 
 Insisture, course, proportion, season, form, 
 Office, and custom, in all line of order : 
 And therefore is the glorious planet Sol 
 In noble eminence enthron'd and spher'd 
 Amidst the other." 1 
 
 1 Troilus, Act I, scene 3. 
 
XX 
 
 CONCLUSION 
 
 THERE is much else that might be added 
 about the special features of the time when 
 our poet lived. We might follow the young 
 Elizabethan from his cradle to his grave and note 
 the customs that awaited him at his christening, his 
 wedding and his funeral. We might devote sections 
 to the artists, the musicians, the sculptors, the 
 doctors and lawyers. There were plenty of abuses. 
 We have listened to some of the plaints of Philip 
 Stubbes — the whole would fill a volume, and 
 Churchyard's Challenge and his Mirror and Manners 
 of Men supply us with many other strictures that 
 would " point a moral and adorn a tale." Bishop 
 Babington's godly admonitions and crowds of 
 jesting satirists record or scoff at the absurdities 
 and vices of the times. But in spite of all the critics 
 it is a true instinct that leads us to look back on 
 those days as the most vivid, changeful and moment- 
 ous in our history, unless we regard the present 
 thrilling times in which we are now living. It was 
 the youth of modern England, possessing all the 
 
 302 
 
CONCLUSION 303 
 
 follies and infirmities as well as the manly qualities 
 of youth, filled with an uplifting sense of freedom 
 and of power. 
 
 Such, in very brief, was the England Shakespeare 
 knew, of which he formed so vital and uplifting a 
 part. The French critic, M. Taine, in praising our 
 poet said that all came from within, from his soul 
 and his genius, his powerful imagination. He 
 thought that circumstances and the externals con- 
 tributed but slightly to his development. " He 
 was intimately bound up with his age ; that is, he 
 knew by experience the manners of the country, 
 court and town. He had visited the heights, the 
 depths and the middle ranks of mankind, but there 
 was nothing there. In all other respects his life 
 was commonplace ; its irregularities, troubles, 
 passions, successes, were on the whole such as we 
 meet with everywhere else." M. Taine, therefore, 
 considered that the age and the England of that age 
 had little to do with the great poet's works, and in 
 that opinion I venture to think he erred. We 
 accept with readiness the pronouncement that 
 Shakespeare " was not of an age, but for all time." 
 We know that is true when we realise the appeal he 
 makes to every age, to every country that calls 
 itself civilised. No time dims the brilliancy of his 
 language, the sublimity of his thoughts, the gran- 
 deur of his conceptions. Nevertheless primarily 
 and essentially he belonged to the age in which he 
 lived, that age of which Ben Jonson declared he 
 
804 THE ENGLAND OF SHAKESPEARE 
 
 was " the soul," that age which in all the course of 
 English history was peculiar to itself. We have 
 tried to tell its strange characteristics, its love 
 of freedom, its extravagances, its follies ; but in 
 spite of these it was a Great Age, a time when 
 poetry cast off its shackles and became new-born, 
 when literature gave birth to such masterpieces as 
 she had never produced before, a time when men's 
 eyes were opened to see the glories of the world, 
 and when the minds of Englishmen were no longer 
 cramped and confined within their country's borders. 
 It was an age when England, no longer torn by 
 Civil War and feudal tyranny, first felt her power 
 and produced great statesmen like Burleigh, great 
 divines like Hooker, navigators, heroes, conquerors 
 and a Queen who loved her country as her life, and 
 whose strong Tudor hand and wise and crafty 
 brain helped to steer the ship of state amidst many 
 dangerous rocks. 
 
 In all this Shakespeare played his part, reflecting 
 the mind and spirit of his time, and is full of human 
 sympathy and fellowship for mankind, its foibles, 
 its passions, its joys and sorrows. ' I have tried to 
 place the poet in his accustomed surroundings, to 
 depict the England that he knew, to describe the 
 abundant life that throbbed in London streets, in 
 port and palace, in cot and castle. It is a life so 
 varied, so full of divers details, that I may have 
 omitted some " scenes from this eventful history " 
 which ought to have been shown. But it is time 
 
CONCLUSION 305 
 
 for the curtain to fall. The actors have fretted their 
 little hour upon the stage, played their part and 
 said their say. The audience is, perhaps, a little 
 weary and eager to pass on from Bankside and 
 Paris gardens to fresh fields and pastures new. 
 But ere we draw the curtain, let us unite in paying 
 our reverent homage to the great poet's memory, 
 and testify our loyal affection for him, which will 
 last as long as England lives and preserves that 
 breed of men whom Shakespeare was delighted to 
 call his friends. 
 
 20 
 
INDEX 
 
 Abbeys, the effects of dissolu- 
 tion of, 281. 
 
 Abergavenny, Lord, his players, 
 238. 
 
 Achely, Thomas, 230. 
 
 Acts of Parliament for relief 
 of poor, 281. 
 
 Agincourt, battle of, 7. 
 
 Agriculture, changes in, 26, 
 203. 
 
 — and Trade, 202-21. 
 Akeman Street, 154. 
 Albion's England, 230. 
 Alchemist, the, 31, 285. 
 Alchemy, 288-301. 
 Aldermaston Court, 179. 
 Alderminster, 148. 
 Ales, church, 267. 
 Alsatia, 93, 99. 
 Ambassadors, visits of, 74, 138, 
 
 254- 
 America and Shakespeare, 3. 
 Animals kept in the Tower, 
 
 96. 
 Antwerp, 220. 
 Arcadia, 228. 
 Archery, 257-9. 
 Architects of this period, 167. 
 Architecture, Tudor, 167-82. 
 
 — of Divinity School, Oxford, 
 
 159- 
 Arden, Mary, 118. 
 Arden, Robert, 126. 
 Arden family, 50, 118, 132. 
 Arden, forest of, in. 
 Armada, the, 170, 183-99. 
 Armada ballads, 193-200, 286. 
 Armour, 191. 
 Army of England, 190-3. 
 Array, commissioners of, 190. 
 
 Arundel House, 91. 
 Arundel, Lord, his players, 238. 
 Ascham, R., 18, 257. 
 Astrea, Hymns of, 230. 
 Astrology, 288-301. 
 Astronomy, 301. 
 Astrophel and Stella, 228. 
 Aubrey, 147. 
 Audley, Sir T., 106. 
 Audley End, 171-2. 
 Augustine Friars, 105. 
 Austria, Archduke Ferdinand 
 
 of, 68. 
 Austria, Archduke Charles of, 
 
 68. 
 Autolycus and his wares, 269. 
 Avon river, 118, 121, 147. 
 
 B 
 
 Bacon, Lord, 19, 90, 107, 179, 
 230, 289. 
 
 Bacon, Nicholas, 40, 90. 
 
 Ballads, 193-200, 286. 
 
 Bankside, 241. 
 
 Barnaby Rich, 36. 
 
 Barnard, Lady, 124. 
 
 Barnard's Castle, 94. 
 
 Bartholomew Fair, 214, 217 
 
 Bartholomew Fair, Jonson's 
 play, 216. 
 
 Barton-on-the-Heath, 135, 263 
 
 Bear-baiting, 253. 
 
 Beards, 275. 
 
 Beaumont, Francis, dramatist, 
 101, 248. 
 
 Berners, £>ame Juliana, 251. 
 
 Beza, Theodore, poem by, 199. 
 
 Bible, Shakespeare's know- 
 ledge of, 54. 
 
 307 
 
308 THE ENGLAND OF SHAKESPEARE 
 
 Bidford, crab-tree at, 136. 
 Billiards, 265. 
 Birthplace, the poet's, 115. 
 Bishops, burned at Oxford, 
 
 157- 
 Bishops, Marian, 40. 
 Bishopsgate Street, 104. 
 Blackfriars, 93. 
 Blackfriars Theatre, 241. 
 Boar's Head, East Cheap, 103. 
 Bobadill in Every Man in His 
 
 Humour, 20, 35. 
 Bocardo prison in Oxford, 157. 
 Boonen, W., introduction of 
 
 coaches, 138. 
 Boorde, Andrew, 172. 
 Bosworth, battle of, 114. 
 Bowling, 265. 
 Bows, disuse of, 258. 
 Boys' games, 266. 
 Brancks, 283. 
 Brandl, Professor, 1. 
 Brawn, 151. 
 Bridewell Palace, 93. 
 Bridge, London, 95. 
 Bridge at Stratford, 118. 
 Bridge Town, 147. 
 Bridges, 139. 
 
 Bristol, Shakespeare at, no. 
 Broughton Castle, 173. 
 Brownists, the, 52. 
 Buckingham, Duke of, 91. 
 Bucklersbury, 102. 
 Bull-baiting, 253. 
 Burbage family, 106, 240. 
 Burbage, James, 240. 
 Burleigh, Lord, 16, 40, 72. 
 Busino, 137. 
 
 Camden, 36, 87, 143. 
 
 Carpets, 179. 
 
 Cartwright, T., and the Puri- 
 tans, 48. 
 
 Castle Comb, Wilts, 31. 
 
 Castles, 180. 
 
 Castleton, witch at, 291. 
 
 Catechism, the poet's know- 
 ledge of, 52. 
 
 Cathedral, St. Paul's, 99. 
 
 Cathedrals, condition of the, 
 
 59- 
 Cattle in England, 149-51. 
 Cervantes, Miguel de, 3. 
 Chapman, George, 247. 
 Charlecote Park, 114, 132. 
 Charterhouse, the, 99. 
 Chaucer, 222. 
 Cheapside, 101. 
 Chess, 265. 
 Chester plays, 233-5. 
 
 — races, 257. 
 Chipping Norton, 153. 
 Christmas holidays, 266. 
 Christ's Hospital, 98. 
 
 — Church Priory, 105. 
 Church of England, 38-64. 
 despoiled, 41 . 
 
 under James I., 54, 55. 
 
 — at Stratford, 121. 
 
 — ales, 267. 
 
 Churchyard, Thomas, 224, 302. 
 Clergy plundered, 42. 
 
 — portrait of, 58. 
 Clifford Chambers, 135. 
 Cloaks, 274. 
 
 Clopton, Sir Hugh, 118, 130. 
 
 Clopton, Sir John, 120, 129. 
 
 Clopton House, 129. 
 
 Cloth Fair, 215. 
 
 Clothiers of England, 202. 
 
 Coaches, 137, 138. 
 
 Cock-fighting, 263. 
 
 Coinage, 219. 
 
 Cokaine, Sir Thomas, on Hunt- 
 ing, 251. 
 
 Colleges at Oxford, 161. 
 
 Combe, William, 131. 
 
 Combe, John de, 131. 
 
 Companies of London, City, 
 88, 220, 259. 
 
 — Trading, 221. 
 
 — of Players, 238. 
 Compton, Long, 151. 
 Contarini, Venetian Ambas- 
 sador, 138. 
 
 Continuity of history, 71. 
 Costume, Elizabethan, 271-9. 
 Costume of the clergy, 58. 
 Cottages, 181. 
 Country Gentleman, The, 112. 
 
INDEX 
 
 309 
 
 Court, the, 65-85. 
 Coventry, Play at, 84. 
 — Shakespeare at, no. 
 Cranmer, Archbishop, 157, 164. 
 Creighton, Bishop, quoted, 61. 
 Crime in England, 283. 
 Crosby Hall, 22, 104. 
 Cross, the High, Stratford, 118. 
 Crown Inn, Oxford, 147. 
 Curtain Theatre, 106. 
 
 D 
 
 Damon and Pytheas, 245. 
 Dancing, 263. 
 Daniel, Samuel, 230. 
 Darrell, Wild, his accounts, 32, 
 
 73- 
 Davenant, Mrs., 147, 158. 
 Davenant, Sir W., 147. 
 Davis, John, 185. 
 Davis, John, Sir, 230, 264. 
 Dee, Dr., 154, 290, 292, 296-8. 
 Dekker, Thomas, on St. Paul's 
 
 Cathedral, 100. 
 Dekker, Thomas, on Royal 
 
 Exchange, 103. 
 Dekker, Thomas, on dress, 271, 
 
 273- 
 Dekker's Guls Home Book, 
 
 246. 
 Deloney, T., ballads by, 193-8, 
 
 286. 
 Derby, Earl of, 291. 
 Devereux, Penelope, 73. 
 Devereux, Robert, Earl of 
 
 Essex, 72. 
 Devil's Ditch, 154. 
 Diaz, Bartholomew, 185. 
 Discipline of the clergy, 46, 
 
 61-3. 
 
 laity, 61-3. 
 
 Discoveries of Witchcraft, The, 
 
 294. 
 Divinity School, Oxford, 159. 
 Donne, Dr., 231. 
 Donnington Castle, 180. 
 Douay, seminary priests from, 
 
 49, 159. 
 Doublets, changes in fashion 
 
 of, 272, 275. 
 
 Drake, Sir F., 185, 187, 189. 
 Drayton, 15, 14, 229. 
 Drunkenness, 143, 218. 
 Ducking-stools, 283. 
 Dudley, Earl of Leicester, 17, 
 
 43, 92, 180, 237. 
 Duels, 29. 
 Durham House, 91. 
 Dyer, Sir Edward, 230. 
 
 East Cheap, 103, 108. 
 
 East India Company, 221. 
 
 Eastland Company, 221. 
 
 Ecclesiastical Polity, The, 231. 
 
 Edge Hills, the, 125. 
 
 Edwards, Richard, 245. 
 
 Elixir Vitae, 294-6. 
 
 Elizabeth, Queen, 12, 13, 40, 
 66, 68, 70, 154, 158, 184, 
 196-9, 230, 237, 250, 254, 
 290. 
 
 Elizabeth, the Princess, 81, 
 107. 
 
 Eltington, 148. 
 
 Elvetham, 260. 
 
 Ely Place, 108. 
 
 England, Shakespeare's de- 
 scription of, 5—8. 
 
 — her rise to power, 12. 
 
 — state of, 62, 270. 
 Enstone, Hoar stone at, 154. 
 Erasmus, 160. 
 
 Essays and Characters, 204. 
 
 Essex House, 92. 
 
 Essex, Robert Devereux, Earl 
 
 of, 72, 91. 
 Euphuism, 226-8. 
 Exchange, the Royal, 103. 
 
 Fairie Queen, 13, 228. 
 Fairies, 281. 
 
 Fairs and markets, 206-9. 
 Falstaff, 30, 100, 104, 140. 
 Farmer, an Elizabethan, 204-6 
 Farmer's house, a, 128. 
 Farthingales, 275. 
 Fashions, 272. 
 
310 THE ENGLAND OF SHAKESPEARE 
 
 Feldon country, the, 125. 
 Felony, 284. 
 Fencing, 29. 
 
 Feudalism, decay of, 17, 170. 
 Fig for the Spaniards, a, 200. 
 Finsbury Fields, 106, 241, 258. 
 Fitzgeofiry, Charles, 230. 
 Flemish workmen, 170, 176. 
 Fletcher Lawrence, 97. 
 Fletcher, John, 97, 248. 
 Flowers of Shakespeare, 117. 
 Football, 260-3. 
 Ford, John, dramatist, 249. 
 Foreign appreciation of Shake- 
 speare, 1-5. 
 Foreign travel, 18. 
 
 — merchants, 103, 210. 
 
 — reformers, 39, 47. 
 Forks, use of, 76. 
 Fotheringhay Castle, 180. 
 
 Games, unlawful, 32. 
 Gammer Gurton's Needle, 226. 
 Garden, Gray's Inn, 107. 
 Gascoigne, George, 233. 
 Gaunt, John of, 6. 
 German aggression, 94. 
 German workmen imported, 
 
 170, 176. 
 Germany and Shakespeare, 2. 
 Gilberts of Devon, 185. 
 Glasshouse Yard, 93. 
 Gloucester, plays at, 239. 
 Goats, 151. 
 
 Goldsmiths' Row, 101. 
 Googe Barnebe, 224. 
 Gordoduc, 225, 238. 
 Gower, tomb of, 97. 
 Grace before meals, 63. 
 Grammar School at Stratford, 
 
 118. 
 
 masters of, 120. 
 
 Gray's Inn, 107. 
 
 Greene, Robert, his Play Friar 
 
 Bacon, 163, 246. 
 Greenwich Palace, 76, 254. 
 Grendon-Underwood, 165. 
 Gresham, Sir T., 23, 103, 104. 
 Grime's Dyke, 154. 
 
 Groundlings, 241, 243. 
 
 Guild of the Holy Cross, 118- 
 
 20. 
 Guildhall, 102. 
 Guilds perform plays, 234. 
 
 H 
 
 Hair, false, 276. 
 
 Hakluyt, R., 186, 231. 
 
 Halford, 148. 
 
 Halifax Law, 284. 
 
 Hall, Dr., 122. 
 
 Hall, Hubert, f.s.a., 15, 23, 73. 
 
 Hall, Joseph, Bishop, 231, 246, 
 298. 
 
 Halliwell-Phillips, 115, 120. 
 
 Halls at Oxford, 164. 
 
 Hanging, 284. 
 
 Hanse merchants, 94, 221. 
 
 Hardwick Hall, 179. 
 
 Hare-hunting, 250. 
 
 Harrison's Description of Eng- 
 land, 18, 23, 44, 47, 55, 128, 
 140, i 4 g, 159, 183, 191, 203, 
 281. 
 
 Harvard, John, 3. 
 
 Harvard House, 4. 
 
 Harvest Home, 267. 
 
 Harvey, Richard, 299. 
 
 Harvey, Gabriel, 299. 
 
 Hathaway, Ann, 124, 134. 
 
 Hats, 274. 
 
 Hatton, Christopher, Chan- 
 cellor, 43, 108. 
 
 Hawking, 255. 
 
 Hawkins, Sir John, 185. 
 
 Head-dresses, 275, 276. 
 
 Henry VII, tomb of, 169. 
 
 Henry VIII, 38, 99, 169, 185. 
 
 Hentzner, 34, 77, 156, 163, 215, 
 252, 255. 
 
 Heraldry, 178. 
 
 Heresbach, 225. 
 
 Heywood, John, 238, 255. 
 
 Historical plays, the value of, 
 
 "5- 
 Hoby, Thomas, 19. 
 Home of Shakespeare, the, 
 
 110-24. 
 Hooker, Richard, 231. 
 
INDEX 
 
 311 
 
 Hoops for ladies, 277. 
 
 Hop-growing, 203. 
 
 Horses, 150, 253. 
 
 Hounds, the cry of, 111-12. 
 
 Howard, Lord, 185. 
 
 Howard, Henry, Earl of 
 
 Dorset, 233. 
 Hudson, 230. 
 Hugo, Victor, 2. 
 Hungerford, 282. 
 Hunsdon's company of actors. 
 
 Lord, no. 
 Hunting, 75, in, 250. 
 Hunting, books on, 251. 
 
 II Schifanoya, 74. 
 Immortality of the Soul, 230. 
 Inns, 140-5. 
 Inquisition, 286. 
 Interludes, 238. 
 Ireland Yard, 93. 
 Irving, Washington, 136. 
 Italian manners denounced, 
 18, 203. 
 
 — fencing, 29. 
 
 — workmen imported, 169. 
 
 Jack of Newbury, 202. 
 James I, 36, 54, 82, 96, 144, 
 
 292. 
 Jansen, Bernard, architect, 
 
 172. 
 Jeanne d'Arc, 294. 
 Jenkes, Rowland, bookseller, 
 
 158. 
 Jennet of Spain, 151. 
 Jesus College, Oxford, 158. 
 Jewell, Bishop, 290. 
 Johnson, Gerard, tomb-maker, 
 
 122. 
 Jonson, Ben, 30, 34, 56, 120, 
 
 241, 247-8, 294. 
 
 K 
 
 Kelly, Edward, necromancer, 
 
 297. 
 Kemp, an actor, 144. 
 
 Kenilworth Castle, 180, 237, 
 
 250. 
 Kissing, 277. 
 Kit Sly, 135- 
 Knolles, Francis, 73. 
 Knolles, Lettice, 73. 
 Knowle, 176. 
 Kydd, dramatist, 246. 
 
 Ladies' Costume, 275-9. 
 Lambeth Palace, 88, 89. 
 Lancashire, witchcraft in, 
 
 290-2. 
 Lawlessness in England, 28. 
 Lepanto, battle of, 71, 85. 
 Literature, Elizabethan, 222- 
 
 32. 
 Lodge, dramatist, 247. 
 London, 74, 86-109. 
 
 — Bridge, 95. 
 
 — City Companies of, 88, 220, 
 
 259- 
 
 — jails, 109. 
 
 — scenes, 108, 109. 
 
 — Shakespeare's journey to, 
 146-66. 
 
 — stone, 104. 
 Lords-Lieutenants appointed, 
 
 190. 
 Lucy, Sir T., 50, 114, 132. 
 Luddington, 136. 
 Ludi or court spectacles, 237. 
 Lyly, John, 226-7. 
 
 M 
 
 Magnetic Lady, the, 56. 
 Mansions and manor-houses, 
 
 167-82. 
 Mariners of England, 9, 186, 
 
 220-1 . 
 Markets and fairs, 206-19. 
 Markham, Gervase, 112, 251. 
 Markham, John, 230. 
 Marlowe, Christopher, 246. 
 Mary Queen of Scots, 67, 137, 
 
 180, 188, 276. 
 Mary Tudor, queen, 39, 60, 
 
 236. 
 
312 THE ENGLAND OF SHAKESPEARE 
 
 Masques, 81, 107. 
 
 Massinger, Philip, 97, 144, 249. 
 
 May Day, 267. 
 
 May Fair, 217. 
 
 Mercers' Company, 102, 236. 
 
 Merchant Trading Companies, 
 
 221. 
 — Adventurers, 221. 
 Merchants, City, 21-5. 
 Mermaid Inn, 101, 248. 
 Middleton, Charles, 230. 
 Milkmaids, 154-6. 
 Miracle plays, 233-5. 
 Montmorenci, Due de, 75. 
 Monuments at Stratford, 122, 
 
 130. 
 Moralities, 235. 
 Moryson, Fynes, on inns, 141-3 
 Mount Tabor, 238. 
 
 N 
 
 Nash, dramatist, 246. 
 
 Naval supremacy of England, 
 71. 185. 
 
 Navy of England, 183-9. 
 
 New Place, Stratford, 120—1. 
 
 Newgate, 98. 
 
 Nonsuch House, 95. 
 
 North Moreton, Berks, foot- 
 ball at, 260. 
 
 Norwich, pageant at, 237. 
 
 O 
 
 Orchestra, 230. 
 
 Order of the Garter, 83. 
 
 Overbury, Sir Thomas, 126, 
 
 155- 
 Oxen, 150. 
 
 Oxford, no, 156, 159-63. 
 Oxford, Lord, his players, 238. 
 
 Pageants, 74, 85, 236. 
 Palaces, royal, 84. 
 Paracelsus, 296. 
 Paris gardens, 97, 254. 
 Parish Clerk, the, 57. 
 Parker, Archbishop, 16, 39. 
 
 Paternoster Row, 101. 
 Patriotism of Shakespeare, 
 
 3-8- 
 Paul's Walk, 100. 
 Peele, George, 245, 246. 
 Pendle witches, 293. 
 Perjurers, punishment of, 284. 
 Philip II of Spain, 65, 187. 
 Philosophers' stone, 294-6. 
 Pilgrim's Progress, the, 210. 
 Pindar, Sir Paul, 22, 104. 
 Playhouse, 97. 
 Playhouse Yard, 93, 241. 
 Players, companies of, 238. 
 Plays and Players, 233-49. 
 Plays, Miracle, 233-5. 
 Plots and conspiracies, 29, 68. 
 Plough Monday, 267. 
 Poaching, 114, 132. 
 Pomanders, 277. 
 Poor, the, 280. 
 Portuguese navigators, 186. 
 Prayer Books of Edward VI, 
 
 39, 45- 
 Pressing to death, 284. 
 Prisoners, punishment of, 284. 
 Prisoners in Newgate, 109. 
 Prognostications, 299. 
 Progresses, royal, 84, 137. 
 Prophesyings, 46. 
 Protection, 219. 
 Psalms, old version of the, 63. 
 Puritan mode of singing, 51 . 
 Puritans, 47-49. 249, 253, 257. 
 Purveyance, 213. 
 
 Q 
 
 Queen Henrietta Maria at New 
 
 Place, 121. 
 Quiney, the Vintner, 121. 
 Quintain, 262. 
 
 Racing, 257. 
 
 Raleigh, Sir Walter, 91, 180, 
 
 185, 231, 289. 
 Ralph Roister Doister, 226. 
 Rapier, use of, 29, 275. 
 Reading, miracle plays at, 233. 
 
INDEX 
 
 318 
 
 Recusants, 50, 132. 
 Reformation, the, 38, 41. 
 Religion, 38-64. 
 
 — Shakespeare's views on, 50. 
 Renaissance, the, 168-70. 
 Reverence, Shakespeare's, 51. 
 Rich, Lord, 73. 
 
 Riots in London, 28. 
 
 Roads and travellers, 137-45. 
 
 — from Stratford to London, 
 146. 
 
 Robsart, Amy, 158. 
 Rockland, inn-keeper at, 145. 
 Rogues and vagabonds, 280-7. 
 Rokewood, Ambrose, 131. 
 Rollright stones, 151. 
 Roman Catholics, 39, 49. 
 Rother market, 118. 
 Rowington, 135. 
 Rowley, dramatist, 247. 
 Royal State of Queen Eliza- 
 beth, 75, 77-80. 
 Ruffs, 273, 275. 
 Russia Company, 221. 
 
 Sackville, Thomas, Earl of 
 
 Dorset, 225. 
 Sacrilege, History of, 43. 
 Saint George, 8. 
 
 — Helen's, Bishopsgate, 104. 
 
 — James's Fair, 217. 
 
 — Katherine's Hospital, 96. 
 
 — Leonard's, Shoreditch, 106. 
 
 — Martin's le Grand, 99. 
 
 — Mary Aldermanbury, 102. 
 
 — Mary Ouverie, 97. 
 
 — Olave's Church, Tooley 
 Street, 96. 
 
 — Paul's Cathedral, 99. 
 Saviolo, professor of fencing, 
 
 29. 
 Savoy Palace, gi. 
 Scotland, 67, 69. 
 Shakespeare, Edmund, 97. 
 Shakespeare, Home of, 110- 
 
 24. 
 Shakespeare, John, 115, 116, 
 
 180. 
 Shakespeare, Susannah, 124. 
 
 Shakespeare Hall, 135. 
 Shakespeare's plays and 
 
 poetry, 251. 
 Shakespeare's knowledge of 
 
 sport, 250. 
 Sheep, 149, 202. 
 Sheep-market, 149. 
 Shepherd, the, 26-8. 
 Shepherd's Calendar, 228. 
 Sherborne Castle, 180. 
 Ships of the navy, 183. 
 Shipston-on-Stour, 149. 
 Shirley, James, dramatist, 249. 
 Shirleys of Eltington, 148. 
 Shoreditch, 106, 240. 
 Shottery, 134. 
 Shrewsbury House, 94. 
 
 — Shakespeare at, no 
 Sidney, Sir Philip, 73, 228, 
 
 242. 
 Skelton, 223. 
 Smithfield, 98. 
 Smithfield, St. Bartholomew's, 
 
 98. 
 
 — Fair at, 214-17. 
 Smoking, 33-6. 
 Snitterfield, 135. 
 Somerset House, 91. 
 Southwark, 96. 
 
 — Fair, 217. 
 
 Spain, her navigators, 186. 
 
 — and England, 186. 
 Spaniards, cruelty of, 286. 
 Spencer, Sir John, 22. 
 Spencer, Edmund, 228-9. 
 Sports and pastimes, 250-70. 
 Staple Inn, 98. 
 
 Steelyard, 94, 221. 
 Still, Bishop, 226. 
 Stockings, 274, 276. 
 Stocks, 283. 
 Stour river, 148. 
 Stourbridge Fair, 206-14. 
 Stow's Survey, 89, 93, 96, 105, 
 
 204, 258, 264. 
 Strand, the, London, 88. 
 Stratford-on-Avon, 110-24. 
 country round, 125- 
 
 36. 
 Stratford, John de, 122. 
 Stratford, Ralph de, 122. 
 
314 THE ENGLAND OF SHAKESPEARE 
 
 Stubbes, Philip, 16, 241, 253, 
 
 261, 264, 268, 302. 
 Suitors of the Queen, 68, 69. 
 Superstition, 288-301. 
 
 Taine on Shakespeare, 303. 
 
 Tapestry, 179. 
 
 Taylor, Robert, dramatist, 
 
 247. 
 Temple, the, 92. 
 Tennis, 259. 
 Thames "river, 87. 
 Theatre, 106, 241. 
 
 — Curtain, 106, 241. 
 
 — Globe, 87, 122, 241, 245. 
 
 — Rose, 97. 
 Theatres, 240-5. 
 
 Thorpe, John, 167, 172, 178. 
 Tight-lacing, 276. 
 Tottel's miscellany, 233. 
 Tournaments, 262. 
 Tower of London, 95. 
 Trade of English merchants, 
 21, 22. 
 
 — and agriculture, 202-21. 
 Travellers, 137-45. 
 Tredington, 148. 
 
 Tricks at fairs, 218. 
 
 Tripoli Merchants' Company, 
 
 221. 
 Tudor architecture, 167-82. 
 Turberville, George, 224, 255. 
 
 U 
 
 Udall, Nicholas, 226. 
 Universities, the, 158-66. 
 
 — the effect of the Refor- 
 mation on, 44. 
 
 University life, 159. 
 Unton, Sir H., 19. 
 
 Vanbrugh, Sir John, 171, 172. 
 Villages in Warwickshire, 126, 
 
 136. 
 Vineyards, 204. 
 Voltaire on Shakespeare, 3. 
 
 W 
 
 Wakes, 269. 
 
 Walsingham, 16, 72, 104. 
 Wapping, 109. 
 Warner, William, 230. 
 Warwick Castle, 114, 135, 180. 
 — Earls of, 114, 180. 
 Warwickshire, in. 
 Watson, Thomas, 228 
 Wax images, 290. 
 Webster, dramatist, 246. 
 Weapons of soldiers, 191. 
 Weever, John, 230. 
 Wellcombe, 131. 
 Westminster, 88, 89. 
 Wharfs on the Thames, 94, 95. 
 Whipping-posts, 282-3. 
 Whips, Spanish, 286. 
 White Friars, 93. 
 Whitehall Palace, 73, 90. 
 Wilmcote, 126. 
 Wincot, 136. 
 Windsor, 76, 83. 
 Witches, 152, 153, 289-94. 
 Woodstock, 154. 
 Wool trade, 202. 
 Wyatt, Sir Thomas, 233. 
 Wychwood Forest, 154. 
 
 Yeoman's house, 181. 
 Yeomen, the rise of, 23. 
 
 — description of, 126-8. 
 York House, 90. 
 
 — Miracle Plays, 233. 
 
INDEX 
 
 315 
 
 REFERENCES TO SHAKESPEARE'S WORKS. 
 
 King John, 5, 53. 
 
 Richard II, 7, 29, 52, 54, 57, 
 
 108. 
 1 Henry IV, 51. 
 Henry V, 6, 7, 8, 100, 141, 260, 
 
 283. 
 
 1 Henry VI, 92, 294. 
 
 2 Henry VI, 104, 254. 
 
 3 Henry VI, 7, 153. 
 Richard III, 8, 93, 104, 209. 
 Henry VIII, 14, 54, 90, 93. 
 
 /I •Mi&Mwwjej' Night's Dream, 
 
 13, in, 178, 289. 
 As you Like It, 21, 26, 111, 
 
 242, 247. 
 Merchant of Venice, 21, 63, 
 
 246. 
 Merry Wives of Windsor, 29, 
 
 63, 83, 102. 
 Love's Labour Lost, 29, 227, 
 
 253- 
 Hamlet, 29, 52, 259. 
 
 Romeo and Juliet, 30, 175, 
 
 256. 
 Winter's Tale, 51, 155, 266, 
 
 269. 
 All's Well that Ends Well, 51. 
 Twelfth Night, 52, 53. 
 Titus Andronicus, 63. 
 Timon of Athens, 63, 118, 294. 
 TAe Taming of the Shrew, 135, 
 
 256. 
 King Lear, 140, 261, 300. 
 Much Ado about Nothing, 166. 
 All's Well, 211, 283. 
 Venus and Adonis, 250. 
 Macbeth, 254, 294. 
 Othello, 256, 257. 
 Comedy of Errors, 261 . 
 Cymbeline, 263. 
 Tempest, 265. 
 
 Antony and Cleopatra, 265. 
 Julius Ccesar, 300. 
 Troilus, 301. 
 
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