Glass "9^ 2'i l(p . Book lU SHAKSPEEE: BIRTHPLACE AND ITS NEIfiHBOEKHOOD. "Doubtless Shakspere had seen many a Bottom in the old Warwickshire hamlets ; many a Sir Nathaniel playing ' Alissander,' and finding himself ' a little o'erparted.' He had been with Snug the joiner, Quince the carpenter, and Flute the bellows-mender, when a boy, we will not question, and acted with them, and written their parts for them." Froude's History of England, vol. i. ch. i. pp. 69, 70. " Shakspere had to be left with his kingcups and clover : pansies — the passing clouds — the Avon's flow — and the undulating hills and woods of Warwick." Euskix's Modern Painters, vol. iv. ch. xx. § 29, p. 373. i The Tombs in the Chancel. SHAKSPERE: HIS BIRTHPLACE AND ITS NEIGHBOURHOOD. BY JOHN E. WISE. ILLUSTRATED BY W. J. LINTON. LONDON: SMITH, ELDER AND CO., 65, CORNHILL. M.DCCC.LXI. Km * [ The Right of Translation is reserved.} LIST OF ILLUSTKATIONS. PAGE The Tombs in the Chancel — Frontispiece. Porch of Trinity Church — Title-page, The room in which Shakspere was born 12 His Father's House in Henley Street 13 Old Font of Trinity Church 19 Trinity Church 20 The Latin School 28 The Mathematical School 34 Back of Grammar School, and Guild Chapel 35 Shakspere's Desk 42 Charlecote Hall 43 Autograph and Seal of Sir Thomas Lucy 57 Stratford, from Welcombe Grounds 58 Welcombe Thorns 69 Anne Hathaway's Cottage ........ 70 Avon at the Weir Brake ......... 75 Bidford Bridge .......... 86 The Foot-Bridge at the Mill 92 At Luddington . 93 Apple Gathering 102 The House in Henley Street as Restored . . . . .103 Honey Stalks . 115 Bust of Shakspere 116 Remains of Shakspere's House at New Place 148 Autograph 158 CONTENTS. CHAP. PAGE I. Introductory 1 II. Stbatfobd-upon-Ayon — The House where Shakspere was Born 13 III. Stratford — The Pabish Church . . . . .20 IV. The Gbammab School — Chapel of the Guild — New Place 28 V. The Chamberlain's Books, etc., of Stratford — Priyate Manuscripts in Stratford 35 VL Chaelecote Pabk 43 VLL Welcombe and Snitterfield 58 VIII. Shotteey 70 IX. The Ayon — Luddington — Welfobd . . . .75 X. "Piping Pebwoeth — Dancing Maeston " ... 86 XI. Wabwickshire Oechaeds and Haeyest Homes . . 93 XII. The Pboyinctaltsms of Shakspere 103 XE Shakspere 116 Glossaey of Words still used in Waewickshire to BE FOUND IN ShAKSPEBE 149 Index 159 NOTE. Whilst these sheets were in the press, the munificent bequest of 2,500Z., left, together with an annuity of 60L, by the late Mr. John Shakespear, of Worthington, Leicestershire, has been set aside by a decree of the Court of Chancery, and the committee for the repairs of the house in Henley Street, where Shakspere was born, find themselves liable for a heavy debt. Surely, however, the English nation, which loves and reverences its greatest poet, will not suffer the people of Stratford long to need assistance for repairing the birthplace of Shakspere, when Australia, to her honour, is setting up a statue to him in her principal town. SHAKSPERE: HIS BIETHPLACE AND ITS NEIGHBORHOOD. CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTORY. How often do we hear it said, K How I should have liked to have seen Shakspere." Had we seen him, most likely we should have found him a man like ourselves, greater because he was not less but more of a man, suffering terribly from all the ills to which flesh is heir ; and we should have been disappointed and said, " Is this all, is this what we came out to see?" and proved ourselves in all probability mere valets to the hero. It is better as it is ; we must be content to let Shakspere have had Ben Jonson for a friend, and joyfully to take his testimony, brief as that is, — " I loved the man, and do honour his memory, 1 2 SHAKSPERE AND HIS BIRTHPLACE. on this side idolatry, as much as any. He was, indeed, honest, and of an open and free nature." Though springing from an excellent feeling, it is a mistaken wish to see with the physical eye the world's great men. The least part of a great man is his material presence. It is better for us each to draw our own ideal of Shakspere ; to picture his face so calm and happy and gentle, as his friends declare his spirit to have been ; yet not unseared by misfortune and chastened by the divine religion of sorrow. It is better as it is. We know not for certain even his likeness, or his form. The earth-dress falls away, the worthless mortal coil is shuffled off, and only what is pure and noble, the essence of all that is great in the man, remains for evermore as a precious birthright to all the world. A more reasonable wish is one, also often heard, that we had some diary of Shakspere, some of his private letters to his wife or his children, or even a correspondence with Ben Jonson. I do not know that even this is to be regretted. Ben Jonson's correspondence has been brought to light, and alas ! he has been found out to have been a poor government spy. And though of Shakspere we can confidently trust, That whatever record leap to light, He never shall be shamed ; yet I still think it better as it is. The gods should live INTRODUCTORY. 3 by themselves. And as was the case with the physical, so with the spiritual man, it is best for us to draw our own ideal. Of the greatest poets who have ever lived, the world knows nothing. Homer is to us only a name. Of the singer of the Nibelungen Lied we know not so much as that. And yet all that is good and noble of them remains to us. We surely will not grudge our Shakspere their happy lot. The truest biographer of Shakspere, it has been well said, is the most earnest student of his plays. Even did we possess the private letters and diaries of Shakspere, what use could we make of them ? One man only has been born, since Shakspere died, fit to write his history, and that man, Goethe, is a foreigner. Most biographies, even where the amplest in- formation abounds, are mere catalogues of dates, a history of what the great man eats and drinks, and whatwithal he is clothed. To know Shakspere's life would undoubtedly be to know one of the highest lives ever lived. To know his struggles, for struggles he had, bitter as ever man endured, his sonnets alone would testify ; to trace how from darkness he fought his way to light, how he moulded circumstances, how he bore up against fortune and misfortune, were indeed to know a history such as we cannot expect ever now to have revealed. 1—2 4 SHAKSPERE AND HIS BIRTHPLACE. Still the wish will ever linger that we did possess some scraps of information. We ever shall care to know what we can about our greatest men; it is the one feeling that will last to all time : and this love, this reverence for the good and great men of the earth, is amongst the best traits in our human nature. I will not blame even that feeling which hoards up Garrick cups, and mulberry tooth-picks as treasures ; even this, in its way, is a testimony to the infinite worth of true greatness. Halliwell and Collier have given up their time in searching every record and deed for the minutest allusion to our poet ; and the least thing they have discovered has been eagerly welcomed. But we seem ever doomed to disappointment; not one scrap, not a half-sheet of paper of Shakspere's handwriting ever turns up : the most painful search adds but little to our knowledge ; nothing beyond a name or two, or another date or so. His life is at best but a collection of fines and leases ; everything connected with his private life perished with him ; when he died he carried with him his secret. No external history could of course reveal to us the fount of his inspiration : that is just as visible now, as ever, to the seeing eye, and the sympathetic love of any reader. But the man himself, what he did here on earth, how he struggled with outward circumstances, and how from being the apprentice to a butcher or a woolstapler he rose to become INTRODUCTORY. 5 the writer of Hamlet, we know not. It is idle to say that this is of second-rate importance, and that Shakspere's inner life, which may be gleaned from his writings, is alone worth knowing ; men ever wall wish to know his exterior life. I feel that I can add nothing; new to the researches of Collier and Halliwell, but I have always thought that something might be written better than the present guide- books to Stratford. Here w T as Shakspere born, and here he died ; here in the archives of the town the only infor- mation about him and his family exists ; and here, still more important, is the country w 7 here he rambled when a boy, and which he loved when a man ; and here people still come, day after day, on a pilgrimage to his house, showing that hero-worship is not dead, proving that even in these days the world pays homage to its great men. The aim of this little book is not very high, but if it will, in some measure, take away the reproach of meagreness from the hand-books to Stratford, and throw some little light on the text of Shakspere, by giving the reader a better idea of the land where the poet lived, I shall be very well content. To me it has always appeared a most happy circum- stance that Shakspere should have been born in That shire which we the heart of England well may call, as his fellow-countryman Drayton sings, and that his child- 6 SHAKSPEKE AND HIS BIBTHPLACE. hood should have fallen amidst such true rural English scenery ; for it is from the storehouse of childhood that in after years we draw so much wealth. Happy indeed was it that his home should have been amongst the orchards and woodlands round Stratford, and the meadows of the Avon. The perfection of quiet English scenery is it, such as he himself has drawn in the Midsummer NigMs Dream, and The Winter's Tale, and As You Like It, and a hundred places. I cannot but hold the theory of the effects of local causes on a poet's mind, remembering what the poets themselves have said. Coleridge declared that the memo- ries of his youth were so graven on his mind, that when a man and far away from the spot, he could still see the river Otter flowing close to him, and hear its ripple as plainly as when in years long past he w T andered by its side ; and Jean Paul Richter, when lamenting how greatly the absence of the sea had affected his writings, exclaimed, " I die without ever having seen the ocean ; but the ocean of eternity I shall not fail to see." And just as climate modifies the physical condition of a nation, so scenery affects the mental condition of a poet. I have no wish to strain the theory. I know well that a truth may be so overstated that it. at last becomes a falsehood; I know too that a poet's mind cannot be tied down to any spot, but it takes a colour from everything which it sees, and that INTRODUCTORY. 7 the saying of Thucydides, dvBpwv kiri^av^v ivaaa yrj Tacpoc, will bear reversing, and all the earth is as truly the birth- place of a great man as his grave; yet still I somehow think that the quiet fields round Stratford, and the gentle flow of the Avon, so impressed themselves upon Shakspere's mind, that his nature partook of their gentleness and quietness. Take up what play you will, and you will find glimpses there of the scenery round Stratford. His maidens ever sing of " blue- veined violets," and ec daisies pied," and " pansies that are for thoughts," and " ladies'-smocks all silver-white," that still stud the meadows of the Avon. You catch pictures of the willows that grow ascaunt the brooks, showing the under-part of their leaves, so white and hoar, in the stream ; * and of orchards, too, when The moon tips with silver all the fruit-tree tops. I do not think it is any exaggeration to say that nowhere in England are meadows so full of beauty as those round Stratford. I have seen them by the river-side in early * Virgil, who, with all his shortcomings and failings, had a real love for Nature, and, as long as he kept to descriptions of her, was always truthful, describes the willow somewhat similarly, — "glauca canentia fronde salicta" (Georgic ii. 13), though it is a very inferior picture to Shakspere's of the leaves reflected in the water. Virgil was probably thinking of the willow- leaves when the wind stirred them, making them glisten with silver. 8 SHAKSPEKE AND HIS BIRTHPLACE. spring burnished with gold ; and then later, a little before hay-harvest, chased with orchisses, and blue and white milkwort, and yellow rattle-grass, and tall moon-daisies : and I know nowhere w r oodlands so sweet as those round Stratford, filled with the soft green light made by the budding leaves, and paved with the golden ore of prim- roses, and their banks veined with violets.* All this, ? The finest part of Drayton's Polyolbion is the thirteenth book, where he describes the scenery of his native Warwickshire, and of his " old Arden." The following passage will interest the reader as a description of the country in Shakspere's time, Drayton being born only one year before Shakspere: — Brave Warwick that abroad so long advanced her Bear, By her illustrious Earls renowned everywhere : Above her neighbouring shires which always bore her head, My native country, then, which so brave spirits hast bred, If there be virtues yet remaining in thy earth, Or any good of thine thou bredst into my birth, Accept it as thine own, whilst now I sing of thee, Of all thy later brood the unworthiest though I be. When Phoebus lifts his head out of the watery wave, No sooner doth the earth her flowery bosom brave, At such time as the year brings on the pleasant spring, But Hunt's up to the morn, the feathered sy Ivans sing; And, in the lower grove, as on the rising knoll, Upon the highest spray of every mounting pole, There quiresters are perched, with many a speckled breast: Then from her burnished gates the goodly glittering East INTRODUCTORY. 9 and the tenderness that such beauty gives, you find in the pages of Shakspere ; and it is not too much to say that he painted them, because they were ever associated in his mind with all that he held precious and dear, both of the earliest and the latest scenes of his life. Therefore I repeat, that it was well that Shakspere was born here. And I dwell especially upon his love for flowers, — a love always manifested by our great poets : Gilds every mountain top, which late the humorous night Bespangled had with pearl, to please the morning's sight; On which, the mirthful quires, with their clear open throats Unto the joyful mom so strain their warbling notes, That hills and valleys ring, and e'en the echoing air Seems all composed of sounds about them everywhere. The throstle with shrill sharps, as purposely he sung To awake the listless sun, or chiding'that so long He was in coming forth that should the thickets thrill; The woosel near at hand, that hath a golden bill, As nature him had marked, of purpose t' let us see That from all other birds his tunes should different be : For with their vocal sounds they sing to pleasant May; Upon his dulcet pipe the merle doth only play. When, in the lower brake, the nightingale hard by, In such lamenting strains the joyful hours doth ply, As though the other birds she to her tunes would draw. But the passage does but faint justice to the sweetness of the birds in the Warwickshire woodlands. The reader will remember how, in the Mid- summer Night's Dream, Shakspere sings of the nightingale, and the " woosel- cock with his orange tawny bill," and " the throstle with his note so time; " and they may still all be heard singing as sweetly as ever in * the woods around Stratford. 10 SHAKSPEKE AND HIS BIRTHPLACE, by Spenser, and Chaucer, and Milton, who seem to regard them with a human sympathy, and to endow them, too, with human feelings. So Shakspere loved, as Lord Her- bert of Cherbury would have said, " our fellow-creatures the plants ; " and so speak Imogen and Perdita of them, and so, too, Ophelia. Violets Ophelia would have given to her brother ; but they died all, when her father died. And I dwell also upon this love for flowers, because we ^ust remember that God has given them, as it were, as a peculiar gift to the poor (that is, to the great body of mankind), for their delight and their contemplation. Other things they have not — pictures, nor gardens, nor libraries, nor sculpture-galleries ; but flowers they always have, and it is the contemplation and the love of them that? distinguishes us from the beasts of the field. * Happy, indeed, therefore, was Shakspere's lot to have been born in the country among such scenes ! far happier * It is true that Shakspere can paint sea-cliffs, as in Lear ; or mountains, as in Cymbeline ; or the sea in a storm, as in the Tempest; but he never dwells upon them with that fondness with which he paints his own lowland meadows. This must certainly, in a great measure, be attributed to the reasons given in the text, but partly also to the fact, that man in Shakspere's day had not yet learnt to see a beauty in the clouds, or the wild ravine, or the stormy sea. For this insight we must thank our modern poets and painters; though we must ever remember that there are touches and lines in Shakspere describing mountains and storm, and sunset scenes and clouds, which have never been equalled. INTRODUCTORY. 11 than befell liis great fellow-poets, Spenser and Milton, both born in the turmoil of London. And surely, too, it was well that he was born amongst country rustics, and that from the scenes of early life he was able to gather strength, and to idealize, without weakening their reality, his Christopher Slys, his Quinces the carpenters, and his Snugs the joiners, such as we may easily conceive he saw and knew in his boyhood. I know that it is often brought as a reproach against him that he should have drawn them ; but I, for my own part, find in this Shakspere's greatest merit, feeling assured that there is nothing insignificant in humanity, and that the humblest man is by no means the worthless thing generally thought. Surely I think, that in painting these rough forms so lovingly, we may detect Shakspere's true great- ness of mind. And the simple thought that nature has made the most numerous of the world's family these same so-called common men, might inspire us with a wish to know and to love them. By painting them, Shakspere could better paint the complexities and troubles of daily life, with its hard toil, such as will last as long as the world lasts. These things may be in themselves very paltry, but they cease to be paltry when we know that by them millions of human beings are strangely affected. And here let me take the opportunity of saying, what 12 SHAKSPERE AND HIS BIRTHPLACE. has been often said before, but which cannot be too often repeated, that Shakspere's chief excellence lies in this, that he has not drawn mere lay-figures, but human, breathing, complex men and women — not Romans, not Greeks, but simply men; that he has never obtruded mere party creeds, but given us true religion; never painted mere finite systems, but true perennial human sympathy; and that he has never forgotten the broad principle, that whether Saxon or Celt, Jew or Gentile, we are all bro- thers; that, in fact, to use his own words, he has ever " held the mirror up to nature," reflecting there all forms and shapes, but reflecting them with the charity that looks upon a brother's shortcomings in pity, knowing well how utterly impossible it is to judge another. The Room in which he was Born. The House in Henley Street. CHAPTER II. STRATFORD -UPON- AVON — THE HOUSE WHERE SHAKSPERE WAS BORN. This little country town lies in the Yale of the Red Horse, so called from the giant figure of a horse cut in the red marl on the side of the Edgehills, some twelve miles off, and w T hich gives its name, like its fellow on the Berkshire hills, to the surrounding country. The Avon, after passing 14 SHAKSPERE AND HIS BIRTHPLACE. under the walls of Warwick Castle, and through the park of Charlecote, widens out broader and shallower as it approaches the town, where used to be a ford, still visible by the side of the bridge, from which the place takes its name, the Saxon prefix of " Strsete " or " Stret " signifying a street. It is, like most of our English country towns, very quiet all the week, but waking into some little stir on market- days and fairs. There is nothing about it to attract atten- tion; no old gates, no picturesque old buildings, as at the neighbouring city of Warwick ; nothing but the Avon, and the surrounding country, and the one name of Shak- spere. And, since the traveller will only take an interest in it as connected with Shakspere, I shall not go into the history of the place, but leave that to the local historian, and confine myself entirely to what relates to Shakspere. The first spot which every one looks for is Shakspere's birthplace. It stands in Henley Street; and though there is no absolute evidence that he was born there, yet we know that his father rented it in 1552, and this, coupled with the tradition, makes the fact nearly certain. The property was subsequently purchased by his father for forty pounds in 1575 ; and from the fine levied at the time we learn that it consisted of two messuages, and two gardens, and two orchards. In 1597 his father sold a THE HOUSE WHERE SHAKSPERE WAS BORN. 15 small portion of the land for two pounds, and in the deed relating to the sale we find him described as a yeoman.* The house has passed through many changes ; but recently, thanks to the liberality of the late Mr. John Shakspere, and to the good taste of the people of Stratford, it has been restored to its original state in Shakspere's time, and been separated from the surrounding buildings, and the garden planted with all the flowers the poet sings of so lovingly in his plays. The house is one of the old timbered houses that may still be seen standing in many parts of the county, with their great beams chequering the walls with squares, and their high-pitched gable roofs and dormer windows. Come, we will go in and see the room where was born the man in whose pages live all the poetry, and nobleness, and worth of one of the best ages of English history. It is but a platitude to say that this room stands before all palaces. And as we look at it, and remember that pro- bably it was much scantier and smaller, we bethink our- selves how little Nature cares for her greatest children. She flings them by in obscure corners of the world, leaving them to fight their way. In poverty have been born the world's greatest men. Homer was born, no one knows * Mr. Halliwell, in his accurate Life of Shakspere, gives both the fine and this document in full, pp. 34, 37. 16 SHAKSPERE AND HIS BIRTHPLACE. where ; Socrates was the son of a midwife ; and Newton's and Burns's birthplaces were ploughmen's cottages. So it has been, and so it will be. The order of the world was changed by One born in a manger, and the highest Gospel was preached by fishermen ; and States were overthrown by a poor priest, preaching only out of the sincerity of his heart Let us note, too, all the signatures on the walls, and not be angry with them, for they are but the expression of a true feeling of love and reverence. It is something to think of, that here to this room should be drawn all men, high and low, rich and poor, to pay homage to the son of a yeoman, or, at most, a mere w^oolstapler. While .such an influence lasts, the world is on the right road. Princes and conquerors, blustering and bullying, pass away; but the works of one .genuine man are eternal. It would be well if for one moment we could see the old Stratford of the sixteenth century; for unless we can throw ourselves back into the past, and into its spirit, even Shak- spere is meaningless. The street in which he was born was still, as now, called Henley Street; ahd consisted, nearer the main town, of old, timbered, high-gabled houses, squared with black oak beams; but towards the other end, where now runs Clopton Lane, was unenclosed land. In the High Street stood the houses of the gentry THE HOUSE WHERE SHAKSPERE WAS BORN. 17 and the richer tradesmen, with their open courts and galleries, and their rush- strewn floors, and their wide barge-boards, rich with carving. And the Falcon still stood where it does now, as a hostelry, with its red lattices. And opposite to it was " the Great House" of the Cloptons, some day to be the New Place of Shakspere, and the Chapel of the Guild, and the Grammar School, with its staircase outside, and the Guild Hall beneath it, where the companies of players used to perform when the Corpora- tion gave an entertainment ; * and somewhat lower down, below the timbered almshouses, stood the house of the priests of the Guild, with its round dove-tower ; and you might just catch a glimpse of the Church of the Trinity, * No doubt these entertainments acted strongly upon the mind of Shak- spere when a boy, and perhaps gave him his first bias to the stage. The following extracts from the Chamberlain's books at Stratford, will interest the reader, as showing how frequently the players exhibited. The two companies first mentioned performed when Shakspere's father was bailiff. 1569. Item, payd to the Quene's pleyers . Item, to the Erie of Worcester's pleers 1573. Paid to Mr. Bayly for the Earle of Lecester'i 1576. Geven my Lord of Warwicke players Paid the Earle of Worceter players 1577. Paid to my lord of Leyster players . Paid to my lord of Wosters players 1579. Paid to the Countys of Essex plears 1580. Paid to the Earle of Darbye's players 1581. Paid the Earle of Worcester his players Paid to the L. Bartlett his players ix.li. xije?. s players vs. xvijs. viijd. VS. viijd. XVS. iijs. iiijdf. xiiijs. \]d. viijs. iiij. iijs. iiij. iijs. 8* 2 18 SHAKSPEKE AND HIS BIRTHPLACE. with its timbered and lead-coated spire; and the crosses still stood here and there in the streets.* And the gallants moved about the old town in their rich picturesque dresses, their doublets of velvet, and their slashed shoes, and their ruffles, and their peach-coloured hose. Trade was then prospering. The middle-classes of England were for the first time growing into importance, and the lower classes were far better off than they had ever before been. And, going on to more important matters, let us remember that now was the day-spxing of Protestantism, and that the minds of men were awakening from the deathlike sleep that had bound them. The spirit of the Reformation could not end where it began, but passed through every- thing, altering the whole tendency of English thought. Learning and philosophical inquiry now marked a new birthday from which men should date. And the poet is ever the reflex of all that is noble and good of his time. His birth becomes a necessity. For every age must have * Two certainly, one in Kother Street and the other at the market cross. See Wheler's History of Stratford, p. 109, from which, together with the late Captain Saunders' valuable collection of sketches, I have partly drawn this description of old Stratford. I ought to mention that the existence of the Ealcon rests only upon tradition. The three inns in Shakspere's time, " The Crowne," " The Beare," and " The Swanne," were all in Bridge Street, as may be seen in an order of the Corporation, dated 18 Dec, 8 James I. Probably it was one of the ale-houses, of which there were thirty within the borough. THE HOUSE WHERE SHAKSPERE WAS BORN. 19 its own poet. And just as spinning-machines were the necessity of the eighteenth, so was Shakspere the inevi- table outcome of the sixteenth century. The energy of that age must be revealed, not alone in defeating Spanish Armadas or in Reformations, but in some a3sthetic shape. And in the drama Shakspere luckily found ready made to hand the materials on which he so impressed the patriotism and the high feeling of his day that they will live to all time. If we do not understand this, we do not understand Shakspere. Old Font of Trinity Church 2—2 Trinity Church, Stratford. CHAPTER III. STRATFORD — THE PARISH CHURCH. Renowned Spenser ! lie a thought more nigh To learned Chaucer, and, rare Beaumont ! lie A little nearer Spenser, to make room For Shakspere, in your threefold, fourfold, tomb. The next spot to which we instinctively turn, after the birthplace of Shakspere, is the parish church of Stratford. Very beautiful is it, with its avenue of limes and its great STRATFORD— THE PARISH CHURCH. 21 elms by the river-side, their topmost boughs now red in the April sun, and the rooks cawing and building in the branches, and the Avon flowing close by, with the sound of its splashing weir. It is a spot where any poet might wish to be buried. And Shakspere lies in the chancel close to the river, where, if any sounds reach the dead, he might hear the noise of its weir. It is pleasant to think of him resting here side by side with his wife, and his favourite daughter and her husband. It never makes me sad to look at their graves. His was a lot which any one might envy — to be laid with those in death whom they loved dearest in life. And those lines on his grave- stone — Good frend, for Jesus' sake, forbeare To digg the dust encloased heare; Blest be the man that spares thes stones, And curst be he that moves my bones ; which have for so long passed as unmeaning doggrel, are to me inexpressibly beautiful. I do not for one moment suppose that Shakspere wrote them ; but I do think that whoever wrote and placed them there, felt he was express- ing, to the best of his powers, Shakspere's own feelings on the subject. They are in accordance with all we know of the man — a simple prayer to be left alone in peace where some day the dust of all that he best loved would 22 SHAKSPEKE AND HIS BIRTHPLACE. be laid with him. It is the same entreaty that his fellow poet, Spenser, utters in the Fairy Queen — O dearest God ! me grant, I dead be not defouled. B. I, Canto x. 42. And as I before noticed how much happier than Milton's and Spenser's was Shakspere's lot to be born in the country, so, too, do I think it far happier for him to be buried in the quiet church of Stratford than, like them, in the bustle and roar of London. No poet, perhaps, rests so happily as Shakspere. This is better than being buried in Westminster Abbey or St. Paul's, to lie at peace amongst your own. Goethe rests beside a royal duke and Schiller ; but I think Shakspere's a far happier lot. Dante sleeps in a marble tomb far away from his native Florence, " parvi mater amoris" as he bitterly said; but Shakspere rests here under the plain gravestones, amongst his own friends and kindred. Let us mark also some of the other inscriptions, parti- cularly that to Shakspere's favourite daughter Susanna, the wife of Dr. Hall :— Witty above her sexe ; but that's not all — Wise to salvation was good Mistris Hall; Something of Shakspere was in that, but this Wholly of Him with whom she now's in bliss. It is not too much to conjecture that this gentleness STRATFORD— THE PARISH CHURCH. 23 and goodness of spirit made her Shakspere's favourite daughter. And it is pleasant to know that she placed the inscription to the memory of her mother, who lies on her husband's right hand, and to know, further, that they both earnestly desired to be buried with Shakspere.* But it always makes me sad, as I read the date on the monument on the wall, to think that almost in the prime of life the poet was snatched away, and what Hamlets and Lears the world has missed. I hope the old tradition is true, that the last play he wrote was the Tempest, with its creations " on the skirts of human nature dwelling." Above all others this play is built upon the firm foundations of spirit, and derives a tragic interest from the fact that the poet himself was so soon to be called away to that spirit-land. Nor let us forget the bust, with its face looking so calm and quiet ; and though perhaps it does not realize Shakspere's countenance to us, still there is about it a certain quietness and gentleness that accords with all that we know of him. " Here is a man who has struggled toughly," I always think of Shak- spere, as Goethe said of himself; and the smooth, un- meaning portraits we have of him, give me not the * From a letter written in 1693, from Mr. Dowdall to Mr. Edward Southwell, and published under the title of Traditionary Anecdotes of Shakspere, London, 1838. 24 SHAKSPERE AND HIS BIRTHPLACE. slightest idea of the man. The bust, however, was sculptured by Gerard Johnson, one of the best artists of his day, and erected only seven years after Shakspere's death, when his features would still be well remembered ; and we must therefore regard it as the only authentic like- ness of him we possess. Originally it was coloured, the eyes being a light hazel, and the hair and beard auburn. In 1743 it was repainted, and the old colours were faithfully preserved; but in 1793 Malone caused the whole bust to be whitewashed by some common house-painter, for which he righteously suffered the penalty of the well-known epigram.* The old parish register is full of entries of baptisms and deaths in the Shakspere family, the most important, of course, being — "Baptisms, 1564, April 26. Gulielmus Alius Johannis Shakspere ; " and yet if you ask where is the font where the three-day-born baby was baptized, it cannot be shown. When I lived near Stratford, the old font was in the possession of a private individual. I trust it may be restored to its proper place. For if there is any one of whom Protestantism may be proud, * Stranger, to whom this monument is shown, Invoke the poet's curses on Malone : Whose meddling zeal his barbarous taste displays, And daubs his tombstone as he marred his plays. STRATFORD— THE PARISH CHURCH. 25 it is Shakspere ; and surely the font where he was sealed a member of the Churchy and for which, too, in after life he proved himself a faithful soldier, should not be allowed to rot to pieces, Milton has in these days been discovered to be a Unitarian. But against Shakspere the strictest orthodoxy has never brought a single charge. Yet if ever there was a man who questioned fate, who fought " the cruel battle within," and yet remained faithful, it was Shakspere. Never in any of his plays is there the slightest symptom of that disbelief which ends in despair and mockery. Too large-minded for any one particular creed or system, he ever treats not only religion, but all things, with the purest spirit of reverence ; and I do say that he deserves better of his Church than that the font at which he was baptized should be cast aside and forgotten. There is a monument on the north side of the great east window worth looking at, on account of its connection with Shakspere, and executed by the same sculptor as his own, to the memory of John Combe. He was, as is well known, a money-lender, and the story runs that he asked Shakspere to write his epitaph, the severity of which the miser is said never to have forgiven. But the same thought may be found in different shapes in literature long before Shakspere's time, and there is pro- 26 SHAKSPEBE AND HIS BIRTHPLACE. bably but little truth in the tradition, as we find John Combe leaving by his will five pounds to Shakspere.* The church itself is very beautiful, especially when seen as I have often seen it by night, the moon lighting tip the yellow-gray tower, etching its great black shadow on the churchyard, and breaking in soft silver lights upon the clerestory windows. Very beautiful, too, must that chancel have been where Shakspere lies, when the windows were glazed with the forms of saints and angels, and the old oak roof hung down with its pendant figures and carved statues. But all this sinks into utter insignificance when compared with the one fact that this is the church where Shakspere knelt and prayed, and where he confessed the heavy burden and the mystery of the world. I scarcely ever like to put much faith in tradition, but I think we may trust the tradition of Shakspere's deeply religious cast of thought towards the end of his life. I see no reason for disbelieving it. We may surely better accept this than the other vile stories we unhesitatingly swallow. This much I know, gathered from some little experience, that generally speaking, all bad traditions are false, but * The common version is that given by Aubrey: — Ten in the hundred lies here ingraved : 'Tis a hundred to ten his soul is not saved: If any man ask who lies in this tomb ? Oh! oh! quoth the Devil, 'tis my John a Combe. STRATFOKD— THE PARISH CHURCH, 27 that good traditions ever contain some germ of truth; the reason being that human nature is too prone to invent not good, but evil report. And through all Shakspere's plays, as I before said, there ever shines forth a reverence not only for religion, but for the mysteries of life and the world. We do ourselves no good by disbelieving this account, testified, as I surely think it is, by the evidence of the sonnets. And in conclusion I would intreat the reader to ponder over this, one of the most beautiful of Shakspere's autobiographical poems : — Poor soul, the centre of my sinful earth, Fooled by those rebel powers that thee array, Why dost thou pine within, and suffer dearth, Painting thy outward walls so costly gay? Why so large cost, having so short a lease, Dost thou upon thy fading mansion spend? Shall worms, inheritors of this excess, Eat up thy charge? Is this thy body's end? Then, soul, live thou upon thy servant's loss, And let that pine to aggravate thy store : Buy terms divine in selling hours of dross : Within be fed, without be rich no more : So shalt thou feed on death, that feeds on men, And death once dead, there's no more dying then. Sonnet 146. The Latin School. CHATTER IV. THE GRAMMAR SCHOOL— CHAPEL OF THE GUILD- NEW PLACE. Not far from the church stood the College of Stratford, whose tithes Shakspere rented, and where John Combe lived, but which has long since been pulled down. The Grammar School, however, where competent authorities say Shakspere must have been educated, still remains. THE GEAMMAE SCHOOL, ETC. 29 It is a long, low building, in the main street, with the school-rooms on the upper story, very much altered from its original state in Shakspere's time, one of those good old grammar schools that have done so much good for England. Twenty years ago the old stone staircase, roofed over with tile, by which the boys, from the time of Shakspere, had ascended to the school-room, was stand- ing. But this, too, is gone. Here it was, then, that Shakspere was educated ; and in proof of the fact, a desk is shown at w r hich he sat ; but we will not inquire too closely into the matter. Credimus quia incredibile est must be, in the case of the desk, the ground for our belief. Ben Jonson tells us that Shakspere knew " little Latin and less Greek ; " most probably, like all of us, whatever is most valuable, he taught himself. Though I, for my part, should be very well content if our grammar schools, and all other schools and colleges, would teach but "little Latin and less Greek," and more German and French. Underneath the school-room is the former Hall of the Stratford Guild, where, probably, Shakspere learnt more than in the room above, for there, as was said in a previous chapter, the various companies of players per- formed before the corporation. Adjoining the grammar school is the Chapel of the Guild, which appears, from an entry in the Corporation 30 SHAKSPERE AND HIS BIRTHPLACE. Books, in February, 159f, to have been temporarily used as the school, and the commentators bring forward the passage in Twelfth Night (act iii. scene 2), where Mal- volio is described wearing " yellow stockings, and cross- gartered, like a pedant that keeps a school i 5 the church," as an allusion to the circumstance, which probably is only accidental, as there used to be school-rooms in many of the old churches, as to this day in the Priory Church at Christchurch, in Hampshire. In the chapel there was a pew belonging to New Place, and here in Shakspere's time the walls were frescoed with paintings, which were whitewashed over by the Puritans, and have since fallen to pieces.* One spot was there which we should all have loved more than any other — New Place, where Shakspere passed his last days. A clergyman of the name of Gastrell, into whose possession it eventually came, annoyed by visitors and inquiries, not only cut down the very mulberry- tree Shakspere planted, but to save the taxes, razed the house itself. I trust he lived to repent of his deed, * In Wheler's History of Stratford, pp. 98, 99, 100, will be found an account of some of these paintings. Leland, in his Itinerary, says, " Aboute the body of this chaple was curiously paynted the Daunce of Death, com- monly called the Daunce of Powles, because the same was sometime there paynted about the cloysters on the north-west syde of Powles Church, pulled down by the Duke of Somerset tempore E. 6." THE GRAMMAR SCHOOL, ETC. 31 and that he some day read how a heathen king, when he destroyed Thebes, spared the home of its poet. The old house, says Dugdale, in his History of Warwickshire, was built by Sir Hugh Clopton, Knt., in Henry VIL's reign, " a fair house, made of brick and timber," and in Sir Hugh's will was called "the Great House." In 1563 it passed by sale out of the Clopton family, and was purchased in 1597 by Shakspere, who entirely repaired and remodelled it, changing the name to New Place. The fact of his purchasing the best house in Stratford when still young, proves how soon he rose to prosperity. Here, too, at the outbreak of the civil war, Henrietta Maria kept her court for three weeks. A modern house is built on the old site, but in a part of what was Shak- spere's garden, with happy propriety, stands the Stratford Theatre. To myself there has always seemed something very beautiful in Shakspere's coming back to his native town to spend the rest of his days among his friends and kindred. He was contented and happy with his lot, and this "measureless content" is ever the mark of true greatness. And in that town where he was born he was content to die. And fate ordained, as in Raphael's case, that that day which saw his birth was alone worthy to see his death. As was before said, all the relics of former days have 32 SHAKSPEEE AND HIS BIRTHPLACE. passed away from Stratford. The College and New Place are both gone; and the house in Chapel Lane, sold by Getley to Shakspere, has been destroyed. There are not even any picturesque old houses, that so link us with the past, still standing; one only in the High Street, with its carved barge-boards and its ornamented corbels under the windows, bearing the date of 1596. But the whole town, though, is interesting when connected with Shakspere. Fairer seems the ancient city, and the sunshine seems more fair, That he once has trod its pavement, that he once has breathed its air. The very streets speak to us of him. In Timon of Athens (act iv. scene 3) occur the following lines : — It is the pasture lards the brother's sides, The want that makes him lean; the meaning of which was a complete riddle to all com- mentators. The late Mr. Singer very happily proposed " rother's sides," that is, oxen's, obviously the true reading. And in Stratford to this day is there a street still called Rother Street, and formerly the Rother Market, that is, the market for cattle, which is still held there.* Again, * To those who are interested in word-lore, the following note may, per- haps, be acceptable, about a word still used in Warwickshire, but about which so little is known in the dictionaries. Rother is said by Golding to mean black cattle, but probably any sort, as it is derived from the Saxon, hryther, a quadruped, connected with rowt or rawt, to bellow or low like an THE GEAMMAE SCHOOL, ETC. 33 there is Sheep Street, which is invariably pronounced Ship Street by the lower orders. And this pronunciation we find in Shakspere. Thus, in the Comedy of Errors (act iv. scene 1), Antipholus of Ephesus says to Dromio of Syracuse — How now, a madman ? Why, thou peevish sheep, What ship of Epidamnus stays for me? Again, in The Two Gentlemen of Verona (act i. scene 1), Speed thus laments : — Twenty to one he is shipped already, And I have played the sheep in losing him. And Shakspere in one of his poems actually rhymes the word " sheep " as if it were spelled " ship." But leaving these minor considerations, let us look steadily at the one fact, how a truly noble man can ox; as povg, from j3odu). We meet with the word in a petition of Parliament from Wotton Basset to Charles L, about "the free common of pasture for the feeding of all manner of rother-beasts, as cowes." Again, in the parish register of Harbing, Sussex, is an account of " a well-disposed person who gave a cow to the inhabitants on their keeping in order a bridge, called Bother Bridge." And in Worcestershire and Warwickshire, the manure of cattle is still called " rother-soil." The village of Rotherwell, near Horn- castle, where the petition to Henry VIH. was drawn up in 1536, and Bother- field, a hamlet in Sussex, and the towns of Rotheram and Rotherhithe, I may notice, are derived from this word; hithe, in the last compound; signifying a wharf. 3 34 SHAKSPEKE AND HIS BIRTHPLACE. ennoble even material things ; can make the very stones of the street and the very walls of the houses full of romance. It is equally true in another sense than that in which it was written — Outward forms receive Their finer influences from the life within. And so the mere name of Shakspere consecrates the old town for ever, and fills it with beauty; And he himself, though long dead, still speaks, and still continues to shed an influence incalculable to all ends of the earth, through all time. The Mathematical School. Back of Grammar School, and Guild Chaoel. CHAPTER V. THE CHAMBERLAIN'S BOOKS, ETC. OF STRATFORD. — PRIVATE MANUSCRIPTS IN STRATFORD. Very interesting are the Chamberlain's accounts of Strat- ford, for they give us all the reliable information, brief as it is, that we possess of Shakspere's family, and as the reader is not likely to inspect them, I have determined to give a short summary of their contents.* They enable us * I here take the opportunity of thanking Mr. W. O. Hunt for his repeated kindnesses in allowing me to inspect the corporation books, &c. of 3—2 36 SHAKSPERE AND HIS BIRTHPLACE. to see the varying circumstances of Shakspere's father, and prove, apart from all other considerations, that Shakspere might have been driven by sheer necessity and poverty to seek his fortune. The first entry that I shall quote is dated January 10, 156f, when his father was one of the Chamberlains of Stratford. " Item, payd to Shakspeyr for a pec tymbur . iijs." We must, of course, bear in mind that the value of money was nearly three times as much as it is now. And in a meeting of a hall, held January 26 in the same year, we find: — " Item, at the same hall the chambur ys found in arrerage and ys in det unto John Shakspeyre . . . xxvs. viijJ." Proving not only that Shakspere's father was not in want of money, but was a man of some substance. I am not, of course, one of those who care in the least, or think it of the slightest value, to prove that Shakspere, or his father, was " a gentleman born," as the clown in the Winter's Tale would say. But I think that this information is important when taken in connection with what follows. Again, in 1565, we find : — Stratford, and in giving me any information he was able. The way in which they are kept and preserved might be profitably imitated by other corpora- tions, who seem often not at all aware of the valuable historical matter to be found in their documents. THE CHAMBERLAIN'S BOOKS OF STRATFORD. 37 " Item, payd to Shakspeyr for a rest of old det iij7. ijs. vijd" " In this accompt the chambur ys in det unto John Shakspeyr to be payd unto hym by the next cham- berlens ..... vijs. iiijrf." All tending to prove that John Shakspere was a man who could afford to let his money lie by. But his social position in the town is still more distinctively shown by a list dated the 30th of August, 1564, where we find only one burgess giving more than he does for the relief of the poor, who were suffering in that year from the plague.* Another meeting is held on the 6th and the 27th of September; and again on the 20th of October, when he gave in a similar proportion. All things seem prospering with him. In 1569, he is the chief magis- trate of Stratford. In 1570, he rents Ingon Meadow Farm. In 1575, he buys the property in Henley Street. . The tide of fortune then suddenly turns. Three years afterwards, we find in the corporation books that he, with another alderman, is excepted from paying the * Mr. Halliwell, in his Life of Shakspere, gives this and other documents in full from the Chamberlain's books, &c. at Stratford, leaving me nothing new to add, and to the extreme accuracy of his extracts I beg to testify, having compared them with the originals. 38 SHAKSPEEE AND HIS BIRTHPLACE. full levy of srx and eightpence for equipping " three pikemen, two bellmen, and an archer/' showing that from a prosperous man he was fast declining. Again, later in the same year, the state of his affairs is more significantly shown by the fact that, in an order for the relief of the poor, he is excused from any payment. And in the March of the following year, his name is marked as a defaulter for three and threepence, the reduced sum which was levied on him for purchasing the armour. From other sources we know his altered position. In 1578, he is obliged to mortgage for forty pounds his estate of Ashbies, near Wilmecote, which he received with his wife ; and in 1579, he sold the interest of his property at Snitterfield for four pounds. All things are evidently going wrong. Returning, how T ever, to the corporation books, we find the following remarkable entry, dated September 6, 1586 : — "At thys halle William Smythe and Richard Courte are chosen to be aldermen in the places of John Wheler and John Shaxspere ; for that Mr. Wheler dothe desyre to be put owt of the companye, and Mr. Shaxspere doth not come to the halles when they be warned, nor hathe not done of longe tyme." He is removed; and we meet his name but once or twice more. But in a return procured by Sir Thomas Lucy we find him in 1592, mentioned amongst other THE CHAMBERLAIN'S BOOKS OF STRATFORD. 39 recusants as staying away from church, for fear of being arrested for debt. To this has the prosperous man been reduced. It is a sad history. Then suddenly comes the wonderful change. In 1596, we find the man, who was almost beggared but four years before, applying to the herald's office for a grant of arms. There can, I think, be but one solution, that the son was now prospering and helped him. And this is corroborated by the fact that we know that in the following year the poet bought New Place. A few more years pass by, and, in 1601, John Shakspere dies, having lived to see the success of his son. It is, indeed, a strange eventful history. And I have told the story in its barest shape, without conjecture or remark, just as it may be read in the Chamberlain's and Corporation books of Stratford, for it needs no comment, no filling up of outlines, to give it pathos and interest. And of Shakspere himself, we know less than even this. A few anecdotes by Aubrey and others,* all probably with * Gossiping old Aubrey's account is as follows: — "Mr. William Shak- spere was borne at Stratford-upon-Avon, in the county of Warwick. His father was a butcher; and I have been told heretofore by some of the neighbours, that when he was a boy he exercised his father's trade; but when he kill'd a calfe, he would doe it in a high style, and make a speech. There was at that time another butcher's son in this towne, that was held not at all inferior to him for a naturall witt, his acquaintance and coetanean, but dyed young. This Wm., being inclined naturally to poetiy and acting, came to London, I guesse about 18, and was an actor at one of the play- 40 SHAKSPERE AND HIS BIRTHPLACE. some little glimmering of truth, but all going to prove his extreme poverty when first turned adrift in the world ; a few obscure passages in contemporary writers, showing how quickly he rose to fame, is all that we know of him. In a manuscript list of the quantity of corn and malt in Stratford, in February, ~ 9 a time of great dearth, we find Shakspere possessing the large quantity of ten quarters, and learn from the ward in which his name appears that he was living at New Place.* In the Chamberlain's books for the same year we meet with the following : — " Pd. to Mr. Shaxspere for on lod of ston. . . x