PR ,W 5b OCT uT $* *?V v> v -1 . *J- % '"%■ %. <-> ♦,s v ,0o * :■>]$?*"$.'■> j - ^' ~ ?^%,. THE LIFE OF SHAKESPEARE. COPIED FROM THE BEST SOURCES, WITHOUT COMMENT. By DANIEL W. WILDER. $ BOSTON: If^ LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY. ' 1893. 77? »e?f Copyright, 1893, By D. W. Wilder. John Wilson and Son, Cambridge. THIS VOLUME IS INSCRIBED TO JOHN BARTLETT, A.M., 0f GTamfrntoge, plag*. WITH THE ESTEEM AND LOVE BORN OF LONG YEARS OF FRIEND- SHIP, DATING FROM THE DAYS OF THE HARVARD MAGAZINE, AND FOLLOWING AND CONTINUING WITH EVERY EDITION OF HIS FAMILIAR QUOTATIONS. My friend has shown his appreciation of the king of men, not by prating about him, but by compiling the Shakespeare Phrase Book and the Complete Concordance of Shakespeare's Works. D. W. W. PREFATORY NOTE. No brief and accurate biography of Shake- speare is now before the public ; none can be bought at any bookstore. This book is compiled to meet that want. The compiler has inserted no opinions of his own ; every statement here made is copied and duly credited. The readers of Shakespeare rapidly increase in numbers. They wish to know his life ; and all, except students of the dramatist, prefer a small volume. June, 1893. INTRODUCTORY. James Orchard HALLiwELL-PHiLLipps,agreat Shake- spearian scholar and antiquary, was born at Chelsea m 1820, the son of Thomas Halliwell. He studied at Jesus College, Cambridge, and yet an undergraduate began that long career as an editor which he kept up almost till the close of life. His studies embraced the whole field of our earlier literature, — plays, ballads, popular rhymes and folk-lore, chap-books and English dialects ; and its fruits remain in the publications of the old Shakespeare and Percy societies. As early as 1839 he was elected Fellow of the Royal and Antiquarian societies. Gradually he came to concentrate himself upon Shakespeare alone, and more particularly upon the facts of his life, — the suc- cessive editions of his " Outlines of the Life of Shake- speare " ( 1848 ; 8th ed. 1889) recording the growing results of his discoveries. For many years he waged a brave warfare with fortune, but in 1872 he succeeded to the property of Thomas Phillipps, his first wife's father, and added that surname to his own. He made a royal use of his wealth, accumulating in his quaint house (Hol- lingbury Copse, near Brighton) an unrivalled collection of Shakespearian books, MSS., and rarities of every kind, and dispensing hospitalities to scholarly visitors from all Vlll INTRODUCTOKY. parts of England and America, as well as giving princely benefactions of books to Edinburgh University, Stratford, and Birmingham. Here he died, Jan. 3, 1889. The pri- vately printed Calendar (1887) of his collection embraced as many as eight hundred and four different items. By his will it was first offered, at the price of £7,000, to the corporation of Birmingham ; but it was not accepted. Apart from Shakespeare, his " Nursery Rhymes and Nursery Tales of England " (1845) and " Dictionary of Archaic and Provincial Words" (1817; 6th ed. 1868) will keep his memory from being forgotten. His mag- nificent edition in folio of the works of Shakespeare (16 vols. 1853-65) was published at a price prohibitive to most students. — Chambers's Encyclopcedia, 1890. Mr. Halliwell-Phillipps says the " name Shakespeare probably arose in the thirteenth century, when surnames derived from personal occupations first came into general use in this country ; and it appears to have rapidly be- come a favorite patronymic. The origin of it is suffi- ciently obvious." " Some," says Camden, " are named from that which they commonly carried, — as Palmer, that is, Pilgrime, for that they carried palme when they returned from Hieru- salem ; Long-sword, Broad-speare, Fortescu, that is Strong-shield, and in some respect Break-speare, Shake- speare, Shot-bolt, Wagstaffe." (Remaines, ed. 1605, p. 111.) " Breakspear, Shakspear, and the lyke have bin sur- names imposed upon the first bearers of them for valour and feates of armes." (Verstegan's Restitution of De- cayed Intelligence, ed. 1605, p. 294.) INTRODUCTORY. IX "Shakeshaft and Drawsword were amongst the other old English names of similar formation. The surname of the poet's family was certainly known as early as the thirteenth century, there having been a John Shakespere living, apparently in Kent, in the year 1279, who is men- tioned in Plac. Cor. 7 Edw. 1 Kane. From this time the Shakespeares are found dispersedly in gradually increas- ing numbers until the sixteenth and seventeenth cen- turies, when they were to be met with in nearly every part of England. It cannot be said that during the latter periods the surname was anywhere an excessively rare one, but from an early date Shakespeares abounded most in Warwickshire." (H.-P. ii. 152.) JOHN SHAKESPEARE. 1551. Richard Shakespeare, the poet's grand- father, was a farmer, and rented land under Eobert Arden, at Snitterfield, very near Stratford-on-Avon, in the fourth year of the reign of Edward VI. Richard Shakespeare is mentioned in legal papers dated 1535, 1550, and 1560, and in a will made in 1543. He probably died in 1560 or 1561. He had two sons, Henry and John. John Shakespeare, the poet's father, probably born at Snitterfield, an obscure village, left his father's home about the year 1551, and soon be- came a resident of the neighboring borough of Stratford-on-Avon. 1552. In April, 1552, John Shakespeare is fined twelve pence for maintaining a nuisance in front of his house. 1556. In October, 1556, he bought two small freehold estates, — one a building in Henley Street, and the other in Greenhill Street. The road, eight miles long, from Henley-in-Arden to Stratford-on- l 2 JOHN SHAKESPEARE. Avon, has been known since the Middle Ages as Henley Street. John Shakespeare's business was that of a glover; after his marriage he speculated in wool, and dealt in corn and other articles. An entry in the Corpo- ration books of June, 1556, shows that he was a glover. i 6 A recognizance in the Controlment Roll of the twenty- ninth of Elizabeth shows that he was known in Stratford- on-Avon as a glover thirty years afterwards, 1586." (H.-P. ii. 297.) There were other glovers there who dealt in wool, yarn, and malt. " There can be little doubt that John Shakespeare, in common with other farmers and land-owners, often killed his own beasts and pigs, both for home consumption and for sale ; but it is in the highest degree improbable that his leading business was ever that of a butcher. [Aubrey states that he was a butcher.] If that had been the case, there would assuredly have been some allusion to the fact in the local records." (H.-P. ii. 329.) Mr. Phillipps gives the "Annals " of John Shake- speare. The first item is the nuisance record, 29 April, 6 Edward VI., and the fine of twelve pence. "Hurnfridus Keynoldes xij.d, Adrianus Quyney, xij.d, et Johannes Shaky spere, xij.d, fecerunt ster- quinarium in vico vocato Hendley Streete," etc., — made a dung-heap in the place called Henley Street. 1556. A suit of Thomas Siche "versus Johannem Shakyspere de Stretforde, in comitatu Warwicensi, JOHN SHAKESPEARE. 3 glover," occupies two months and is gained by Shakespeare. In another suit this year he is called once " Shakyspere " and twice " Shakespere ; " in two others " Shakysper," in another " Shakispere," and in the last suit of the year he changes to " Shaksper." 1557. Johannes Shakespere is on the list of a manorial jury. In October John Shakspeyre was a juror. In the court records of this year he is also " Shakysper " and " Shakspeyr." He was probably chosen one of the burgesses this year. " Every one in the poet's time spelt according to his fancy. So widely diffused was this anarchy in the realms of penmanship that it would have been exceedingly diffi- cult to have lighted upon an individual who would have cared for the preservation of uniformity even in the record of his own family surname." (H.-P. ii. vi.) He was elected ale-taster in 1557, his first office ; "an officer appointed for the supervision of malt liquors and bread. At about the same time he was received into the Corporation, taking the lowest rank, as was usual with new comers, — that of a burgess." In 1558 he was appointed one of the four petty constables ; re-elected October 6, 1559, and, on the same day, chosen one of the affeerors, or persons who fixed fines for offences. This last office he again filled in 1561, and in the same year was elected one of the chamberlains of the borough, an office that he held two years. His second ac- count to the Corporation was delivered in the first month of 1564. 4 JOHN SHAKESPEARE. In 1557 he married Mary Arden, the youngest daughter of Robert Arden, a wealthy farmer of Wilmecote, near Stratford-on-Avon, who had died a few months before. The date of the marriage is unknown. Robert Arden owned two farm-houses and a hundred acres of land at Snitterfield occupied by tenants, and a house and fifty acres of land at Wilmecote occupied by himself. Eobert Arden (frequently spelled Ardern), the father of Mary the poet's mother, is described in an indenture of 1501 as the son of " Thome Ardern de Wylinecote." The grandfather of the poet, Eobert Arden, owned considerable estates at Snitterfield, bought in 1519 and 1529. But he was a farmer, not a " county gentleman." He died in 1556. " Mary (Arden) Shakespeare, mother of the poet, died in 1608. She was the eighth and last daughter of Eobert Arden." (H.-P. ii. 171.) The name of her mother is unknown. Mary could not write or read, and made a mark for her signature. Her father, Eobert — " Reserved to his daughter Mary the reversion to a por- tion of a large estate at Snitterfield, her step-mother taking only a life-interest. Some part of this land was in the oc- cupation of Richard Shakespeare, the poet's grandfather, whence may have arisen the acquaintanceship between the two families. In addition to this reversion, Mary Arden received, under the provisions of her father's will, not only a handsome pecuniary legacy, but the fee-simple of a valuable property at Wilmecote. — the latter, which was known as Asbies, consisting of a house with nearly sixty acres of land. An estimate of these advantages, JOHN SHAKESPEAEE. 5 viewed relatively to his own position, would no doubt have given John Shakespeare the reputation amongst his neighbors of having married an opulent heiress, his now comparative affluence investing him with no small degree of local importance." (H.-P. i. 29, 30.) Her father's will, made in November, 1556, makes her and her sister Alice his executors. " Allso I ordene and constytute and make my full exceqtores Ales and Marye, my dowghteres, of this my last will and testament, and they to have no more for their peynestakyng now as afore geven them." " It may be fairly concluded," says Halliwell- Phillipps, "that Mary 'was in her teens' when she married." She might act as executor although an " infant " in law. She was buried at Stratford- on-Avon, Sept. 9, 1688. Mr. Phillipps says of her son, "He would naturally have desired, if pos- sible, to attend the funeral, and it is nearly certain that he was at his native town in the following month." In the Stratford Eegister, " the earliest register preserved in the Church of the Holy Trinity," this Mary the mother gets one line : " 1608. F. 1 Sept. 9, Mayry Shaxspere, wydowe." " The inventory of Robert Arden's goods, which was taken shortly after his death in 1556, enables us to realize the kind of life that was followed by the poet's mother during her girlhood. In the total absence of books or means of intellectual education, her acquirements must have been restricted to an experimental knowledge of matters connected with the farm and its house. There 1 F. stands for funeral, or burial. 6 JOHN SHAKESPEARE. can be no doubt that the maiden with the pretty name, — she who has been so often represented as a nymph of the forest, communing with nothing less aesthetic than a nightingale or a waterfall, — spent most of her time in the homeliest of rustic employments ; and it is not at all improbable that, in common with many other farmers' daughters of the period, she occasionally assisted in the more robust occupations of the field. It is at all events not very Hkely that a woman unendowed with an ex- ceptionally healthy and vigorous frame could have been the parent of a Shakespeare. Of her personal character or social gifts nothing whatever is known, but it would be a grave error to assume that the rude surroundings of her youth were incompatible with the possession of a romantic temperament and the highest form of subjec- tive refinement. Existence, indeed, was passed in her father's house in some respects, we shoald now say, rather after the manner of pigs than that of human beings. Many ot the articles that are considered necessaries in the hum- blest of modern cottages were not to be seen ; there were no table-knives, no forks, no crockery. The food was manipulated on flat pieces of stout wood, too insignifi- cant in value to be catalogued, and whatever there may have been to supply the places of spoons or cups were no doubt roughly formed of the same material ; but some of the larger objects, such as kitchen-pans, may have been of pewter or latten. The means of ablution were la- mentably defective, if indeed they were not limited to what could have been supplied by an insulated pail of water ; for what were called towels were merely used for wiping the hands after a meal, and there was not a single wash-hand basin in the establishment. As for the in- mate and other labourers, it was very seldom indeed, if ever, that they either washed their hands or combed their hair ; nor is there the least reason for suspecting that those accomplishments were in liberal requisition in the JOHN SHAKESPEARE. 7 dwellings of their employers. But surely there was nothing in all this to have excluded the unlettered damsel from a fervid taste for oral romance, — that which was then chiefly represented by tales of the fairies, the knights, or the giants ; nothing to debar the high probability of her recitals of them having fascinated her illustrious son in the days of his childhood ; nothing to disturb the graceful suggestion that some of his impressions of per- fect womanhood had their origin in his recollections of the faultless nature of the matron of Henley Street. The maiden name of Robert Arden's wife has not been dis- covered. " (H.-P. i. 27-29.) 1558. Four persons named, and "John Shak- speyr (iiij. d), for not kepynge ther gutters cleane they stand amerced." His name is very often on the court records, gaining and losing suits. This is from the baptismal register: " September 15, Jone Shakspere, daughter to John Shaxspere." September 30 : " The xij, men have ordenyd ther trysty and wel-belovyd Humfrey Plymley, Soger Sadler, John Taylor, and John Shakspeyr (jur.), constabulles." 1559. In the court records he appears once as "Shackspere." " John Shakspeyr was also one of the affeerors who were sworn into office on the same day, 6 October, at a meeting of the courtleet, his mark, formed something like a pair of compasses, appearing in the record at a short distance on the left of his name." (H.-P. ii. 219.) 1560. Johannes Shakespere is in a list of jurors, but did not serve. 1561. A chamberlain and an affeeror. 8 JOHN SHAKESPEARE. 1562. Ke-elected chamberlain. "Leywys ap Williams, hye bayly, Kobert Perotte, capitall al- dermane, Jorm Tayler and Johne Shackspere, chamburlens." Baptismal register : " December 2, Margareta, filia Johannis Shakspere," 1563. He sold the Corporation a piece of timber. " Item : payd to Shakspeyr for a pec tymbur, iiij. s" " John Shakspeyre " and u John Tayler " are still "chamburlens ; " neither could write. Burial reg- ister: "April 30. Margareta filia Johannis Shak- spere." At a meeting of the Town Council held December 20 " John Shaxspere " is noticed among the "burgesys beyng then present." 1564. The chamberlains deliver their accounts January 10, to the new chamberlains. " At a hall holden the xxvj.th day of January the chambur ys found in arrerage and ys in det unto John Shak- speyr xxv. s. viij.;" a balance that was subsequently paid. Baptismal register : " April 26, Gulielmus, filius Johannes Shakspere." " Jhon Shacksper" gives 12d. for the " releffe of the poure," August 30, and 6d. September 6, " to- wardes the releyff of thosse that be vysytyd" by the plague, and 6d. on September 27, and 8d. on Oct. 20. He was present at a meeting of the Corporation, September 27, " his name occurring in a formal list given in the Council-book and distinguished by his compass-mark." Mr. Phillipps says that John Shakespeare was " in affluent circumstances about this period, and the leading director of the accounts that were passed on 21 March, 1565." JOHN SHAKESPEAKE. 9 1565. July 4, chosen to fill a vacancy in the Council, and present at the meeting held on that day ; first among the " burgesez present/' and thfen of " aldermen present." " At thys hall John Shak- speyr ys appwntyd an alderman." September 12, sworn in as alderman, — " Johne Shakspeyr, jur." In March, 1565, John Shakespeare made up the accounts of the chamberlains of the borough. He could not write ; nearly all tradesmen then reck- oned with counters, and the poet's father was an adept in this kind of work. In September, 1567, he was nominated for high bailiff, an officer subse- quently called the mayor. He was not elected. The local records then for the first time call him " Mr. Shakspeyr." Before that he had been called John Shakespeare or Shakespeare. He was a rising man. During the boyhood of the poet "his father was one of the leading men in Stratford-on-Avon." 1566. The chamberlains' accounts were placed under John Shakespeare's individual superintend- ence. " In thys accompt the chaumbur ys in det unto John Shakspeyr, to be payd unto hym by the next chamburlein, vij. s. iij. dP Baptismal Reg- ister : "October 13, Gilbertus, filius Johannis Shakspere." 1567. "He was assessed on goods of the value of £4 to a subsidy that was levied in 9 Elizabeth." Present at meetings of the Town Council in Jan- uary, July, and on the 3d of September, when he was one of three persons " nominatyd for the belyf." 10 JOHN SHAKESPEAKE. 1568. « On the fourth of September, 1568, John Shake- speare, — ' Mr. John Shaky sper,' as he is called in that day's record, — was chosen high bailiff, attaining thus the most distinguished official position in the town after an active connection with its affairs during the preceding eleven years. The poet had entered his fifth year in the previous month of April, the family in Henley Street now consisting of his parents, his brother Gilbert, who was very nearly two years old, and himself ." (H.-P. i. 37.) In a note in volume ii. p. 231, Mr. Phillipps says : " On September 4th the Corporation ' procedyd to thel- lectione of theire balyf for the next yere,' and John Shake- speare was the one chosen of the three nominated, — ' the names whereof one to be balyf, Mr. John Shakysper, Mr. Robert Perrot, Robert Salusburye.' He presided as high bailiff at a meeting of the Council held on the 1st of October, and at the Court of Record on the 6th and 20th of the same month. In precepts that he issued in Decem- ber he is termed i justiciarius de pace ac ballivus infra burgum.' " Mr. Phillipps believes that the poet's father had a passion for the drama. During the year of his bailiffship dramatic entertainments are first heard of at Stratford-on-Avon ; they must have been in- troduced with his sanction. In 1568 or 1569 the Queen's and the Earl of Worcester's players gave representations before the Council, paid for by the Council, and free to the public. Other bodies of actors, he believes, played in the town. Mr. Phillipps says, "the new religious system [Protestantism] was now firmly established at Stratford." He says that although high bailiff JOHN SHAKESPEARE. 11 Shakespeare took the oath of supremacy and " out- wardly conformed to the Protestant rule," there is no doubt " that he was one of the many of those holding a similar position in the Catholic strong- hold of Warwickshire who were secretly attached to the old religion. . . . After the great penal legis- lation of 1581, his name was included in more than one list of suspected recusants. ... In a time of virulent and crushing persecution he was unwill- ing to sacrifice the temporal interests of his wife and children as well as his o&n on the altar of open non-conformity." Mr. Phillipps quotes from a ballad of the time of James I. : — " There be divers Papists, That to save their fine Come to church once a moneth, To hear service divine.'' Under the statute of 23 Elizabeth a fine of twenty pounds was imposed upon all persons over the age of sixteen for every month in which there was an entire absence from the services of the Church. 1569. On January 26, the accounts of the cham- berlains were taken " before Mr. John Shakyspere," high bailiff. On February 12 he was a witness on a bond and an indenture, his name appearing as John Shaxpere. Baptismal Register, Stratford-on- Avon : " April 15, Jone, the daughter of John Shak- spere." As high bailiff he presides at meetings of the Council and of the Court of Record. 1570. The chamberlains " praye allowaunce of 12 JOHN SHAKESPEARE. money delivered to Mr. Shaxpere at sundrie times* Yj. li." 1571. September 5, Council Book : " At a hall there holden the v.th day of September, Mr. John Shakespere was elected alderman for the yere to come, and ys sworne ut supra." Baptismal register : " September 28, Anna, filia magistri Shakspere." 1572. He ceased to be chief alderman on the 3d of September. 1573. August 28 " John Shaxbere " was a wit- ness to a conveyance. He was present at Council meetings in January and September. 1574. Baptismal register : " March 11, Bichard, sonne to Mr. John Shakspere." 1575. In October he gave £40 for two houses at Stratford. As an alderman he attended meetings of the Council. An alderman also in 1576. 1577. At only one meeting of the Town Council this year is it certain that he was present. 1578. The Town Council on January 29 made a levy on the people to purchase military accoutre- ments ; the tax on " burgese " Shakespeare is thus named: "Mr. Shaxpeare, iij. s. iiij. dP Among the debts owed to Boger Saddeler, a baker of Strat- ford, appended to his will, is " the debte of Mr. John Shaksper, v. li." This " indicates that John Shakespeare's circumstances were not as flourishing as they were in 1564." A resolution of the Coun- cil, passed November 19, ordered every alderman to pay weekly toward the relief of the poor four pence," saving Mr. John Shaxpeare and Mr. Bobert JOHN SHAKESPEARE. 13 Bratt, who shall not be taxed to pay anythinge." Mr. Phillipps says : " The estate of Asbies was lost forever to the Shakespeares (John and Mary) when on November the 14th, 1578, they unfortu- nately passed it over to Edmund Lambert as a security for an advance of £40." 1579. Money is levied, March 11, for the pur- chase of armor and defensive weapons ; among the defaulters is "Mr. Shaxpeare, iij. s. iiij. d." Burial register : " April 4, Anne, daughter to Mr. John Shakspere." " On October 15th John and Mary Shakespeare [' John Schakspere and Marye his wyeffe'] conveyed his interest in a Snitterfield estate to Eobert Webbe, the purchase money being only £4." The convey- ance is signed, " The marke + of John Shackspere. The marke + of Marye Shacksper." John Shake- speare absents himself from Council meetings. 1579. " The reversion that was parted with in the year 1579 consisted of a share in a considerable landed estate that had belonged to the poet's maternal grandfather, — a share to which John and Mary Shakespeare would have become absolutely entitled upon the death of Agnes Arden, who was described as ' aged and impotent ' in the July of the following year, 1580, and who died a few months afterwards, her burial at Aston Cantlowe having taken place on the 29th of December. In her will, that of a substantial lady farmer of the period, there is no direct mention of the Shakespeares.' , (H.-P. i. 61.) 1580. Baptismal register : " May 3, Edmund, sonne to Mr. John Shakspere." In a book of the names of the gentlemen and freeholders in the 14 JOHN SHAKESPEARE. county of Warwick, 1580, under " Stretford-upon- Aven " occurs the name of "John Shaxper." He attended no Council meetings this year ; none in 1581. 1582. " Johannes Shaxper " is present only at the Council meeting of September 5. He is absent from all the meetings in 1583 and 1584. 1585. Three suits against him in the Court of Record, for debt. Absent from Council. 1586. Suits against " Johannes Shackspere," for debt. He serves on juries in May and July. In July he went over to Coventry to become one of the bail for the due appearance of Michael Pryce, indicted for felony ; is called " Johannes Shake- spere, de Stretford-super-Avon, in comitatu War- rewicensi, glover." " On 6 September there was an ' eleccion of newe alder- men/ and '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 dothe not come to the halles when they be warned, nor hat he not done of longe tyme.' " (H.-P. ii. 241.) 1587. "In the early part of this year John Shake- speare was tormented by an action that had been brought against him in the Court of Record by Mcholas Lane, who averred that, in a conference they had held in the previous June, the former had made himself responsible for £10 in the event, subsequently realized, of his brother Henry not paying that sum on Michaelmas Day, 1586, part of a debt of £22 that was owing to Lane. Judg- ment was no doubt given in favour of the plaintiff, the suit having been removed by certiorari at the instance of the defendant." (H.-P. ii. 241.) JOHN SHAKESPEARE. 15 The legal papers are in Latin. The name appears as Shakspere, Shaksper, Shacksper, Shaxpere, Schackspere, Shakesper, in the different papers of this one year. In the Court of Record records of 1588 and 1589 he is the plaintiff. One of his bills of complaint shows that he was " still engaged in commercial speculations." 1590. " His estate in Henley Street described in the inquisition on the lands of the Earl of Warwick, 6 October. He served on a Court of Record jury, 16 December." (H.-P ii. 244.) 1591. In several suits he is defendant, in several plaintiff. Shaxspere, Shaxsper, and Shaksper oc- cur in the legal papers. 1592. John Shakespeare was appraiser of the estates of two deceased persons. Sir Thomas Lucy and other commissioners prepared lists of the re- cusants of Warwickshire. Among those found who had been " hearetofore presented," at Stratford-on- Avon, u for not comminge monethlie to the Churche according to hir Majesties lawes," were " Mr. John Shackspere " and eight others ; but they say of them : " It is sayd that these laste nine coom not to Churche for feare of processe for debttee." In the paper from which the commissioners obtained their information the words are: "Wee suspect these nyne persons next ensuinge absent them- selves for feare of processes." They are named, " Mr. John Shackspeare " among them. Then they were not recusants ; not persons who refused to conform to the established rites of the Church; debtors, not papists. 16 JOHN SHAKESPEARE. 1593. Two suits against " Johannes Shaxpere," for debt. "Johannes Shaxpere nichill dicit ad accionem Eicardi Tyler in placito debiti." He says nothing. The " Venus and Adonis " is published this year. 1595. A suit for debt against " Johannes Shax- pere," — "his last appearance in the register of the Court of Record." 1596. " There is preserved at the College of Arms the draft of a grant of coat-armour to John Shakespeare, dated in October, 1596, the result of an application made no doubt some little time previously. It may be safely inferred, from the unprosperous circumstances of the grantee, that this attempt to confer gentility on the family was made at the poet's expense. This is the first evidence that we have of his rising pecuniary fortunes, and of his determination to advance in social position." (H.-P. i. 130.) The following is copied from the draft of a grant of " Coat Armour " proposed to be conferred on the poet's father : — " Being therefore solicited, and . . . credible report in- formed that John Shakespeare, of Stratf ord-uppon-Avon, in the counte of Warwick, whose parentes and late ante- cessors were for theyre vale ant and faithefull service ad- vaunced and rewarded by the most prudent prince King Henry the Seventh of famous memorie, sythence whiche tyme they have contiweed at those partes in good repu- tacion and credit ; and that the said John having maryed Mary, daughter and one of the heyres of Robert Arden of Wilmcote, in the said counte, gent, — in consideration whereof, and for encouragement of his posterite, to whom theyse achiwmentes maie desend by the auncient custom JOHN SHAKESPEARE. 17 and lawes of armes, I have therfore assigned, graunted, and by these presentes confirmed, this shield or cote of armes ; viz., Gould on a bend sable a speare of the first, the poynt steeled, proper, and for his creast or cognizance a faulcon, his winges displayed, argent, standing on a wrethe of coullors, supporting a speare gould steled as aforesaid, sett uppon a healmett with mantelles and tas- selles as hathe ben accustomed and more playnely appear- ethe depicted on this margent. Signefieng hereby that it shal be lawfull for the sayd John Shakespeare gent, and for his children, yssue and posterite, at all tymes convenient, to make shewe of and to beare the same blazon atchevement on theyre shield or escucheons, cote of arms, creast, cognizance or seales, ringes, signettes, penons, guydons, edefices, utensiles, lyveries, tombes or monumentes, or otherwyse, at all tymes in all lawfull warrlyke factes or civile use and exercises, according to the lawes of armes, without lett or interruption of any other person or persons." (H.-P. ii. 56.) It is to be observed that the name is " Shake- speare/' In the draft for the same purpose, made in 1599, the name is " Shakespere." 1597. He sells a narrow strip of land on the west of his Henley Street freeholds for £2. 10s., and about this time a fragment of ground at the back of the wool-shop. On the 24th of November, " John Shakespere of Stratford-upon-Avon, in the county of Warwicke, and Mary his wief," brought a suit against John Lambert (the poet's maternal uncle) respecting the estate of Asbies at Wilmecote. 1598. A return was made of the holders of corn in Stratford. " The name of John Shakespeare does not occur in the list that was taken for the 2 18 JOHN SHAKESPEARE. Henley Street ward. His son, however, had at this time accumulated ten quarters at New Place. " In the case of " John Shackspere and Mary his wief plaintiffes, John Lamberte defendant/' a commission is awarded to examine witnesses. Mr. Phillipps says that in the replication and in the bill of 1597 the assertion is made — " That the poet's father travelled on that Michaelmas- day to the mortgagee's residence at Barton-on-the-Heath, a retired village on the southern borders of Warwick- shire, ' and then and there tendered to paie unto him the said Edmunde Lambert the said fortie poundes, which he was to paie for the redempcion of the said premisses ; which somme the said Edmunde did refuse to receyve, sayinge that he owed him other money, and unles that he, the said John, would pale him altogether, as well the said fortie poundes as the other money which he owed him over and above, he would not receave the said fortie poundes.' So absolute was the law of forfeiture on such occasions that the Shakespeares would hardly have ven- tured upon an expensive litigation had they not felt that there were reasonable grounds for the course they adopted; the probability being that Edmund Lambert, at the above- mentioned interview, had verbally guaranteed the sur- render of the estate at any time at which his conditions were fulfilled. This would explain the absence of litiga- tion during the life-time of the original mortgagee, and, after the failure of the negotiations with his successor, want of means no doubt hindered further action until the subject was revived under the poet's sanction and influ- ence in 1597." (H.-P. ii. 203.) 1599. The case of " John Shakespeare plaintiff, John Lambard defendant ; " order entered May 18. In the order of June 27 the name is " John Shack- JOHN SHAKESPEARE. 19 speere ; " of October 23, " John Shakespere ; " and in a duplicate of the last entry the name appears as " Shakesbere." " Towards the close of the year 1599 a renewed attempt was made by the poet to obtain a grant of coat-armour to his father. It was now proposed to impale the arms of Shakespeare with those of Arden, and on each occasion ridiculous statements were made respecting the claims of the two families. Both were really descended from obscure English country yeomen, but the heralds made out that the predecessors of John Shakespeare were re- warded by the Crown for distinguished services, and that his wife's ancestors were entitled to armorial bear- ings. Although the poet's relatives at a later date assumed his right to the coat suggested for his father in 1596, it does not appear that either of the proposed grants was ratified by the college, and certainly nothing more is heard of the Arden impalement." (H-P. i. 178.) 1601. "In the early part of this year an action was brought by Sir Edward Greville against the Corporation respecting the toll-corn ; and John Shakespeare assisted, in company with four other persons, including Adrian Quiney, in the preparation of suggestions for the use of counsel for the defendants. This is the latest contempo- rary notice of the worthy old glover that has yet been dis- covered, and it is an interesting evidence that longevity had neither extinguished his capacity for business nor its appreciation by his fellow-citizens. The suggestions above mentioned are without a date, but they were cer- tainly written before September, the funeral of Mr. Jo- hannes Shakspeare having taken place upon the eighth of that month. And here terminates the fragmentary history of the poet's father. No record of the site of his grave has been discovered, and all traces of a sepulchral memorial, if one were ever to be seen either within or with- out the church, have long disappeared." (H.-P. ii. 248.) 20 JOHN SHAKESPEARE. The following is copied from the Stratford church register: "1601. P. Septemb. 8, ]\Ir. Johannes Shakspeare." "The poet's father. — Mr. Johannes Shakspeare, as he is called in the register, — was buried at Stratford-on- Avon on September 8, 1601, having no doubt expired a few days previously at his residence in Henley Street, which is noticed so recently as 1597 as being then in his occupation. He is mentioned as having been concerned with others in the former year in the discussion of matters respecting an action brought by Sir Edward Greville against the town ; so there are no reasons for be- lieving that his latest years were accompanied by decrepi- tude. In all probability the old man died intestate ; and the great dramatist appears to have succeeded, as his eldest son and heir-at-law, to the ownership of the freehold ten- ements in Henley Street. It is not likely that the widow acquired more than her right to dower in that property, but there can be no hesitation in assuming that such a claim would have been merged in a liberal allowance from her son." (H.-P. i. 199.) Mr. Phillipps speaks of the "'modern fabrication."' the long confession of faith of " John Shakspear, an unworthy member of the Holy Catholick re- ligion.*' It was first noticed in an unpublished letter from Jordan to the editor of the Gentleman's Magazine, dated at Stratford-on-Avon, June 14, 1781. Malone was at first deceived by the " con- fession." but afterward admitted his error. ]\Ir. Phillipps believes that " Jordan himself was the forger of the document." WILLIAM SHAKE SPEAEE. 1564. THE LINEAGE OF WILLIAM* SHAKESPEARE UNTIL ITS EXTINCTION IN 1670. WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. = Anne Hathaway. Born 1555 Born 1564. Died 1616. Married 1582. or 1556. 1623. Married 1582. Died Susanna. Born 1583. 1607. Died 1649. Married = John Hall, eminent physician. Born 1574 or 1575. Married 1607. Died 1635. Elizabeth. Born 1608. = Thomas Nash, first husband. Married 1626 and 1649 Died 1670, s. p. Born 1593. Married 1626. Died 1647. John Barnard, second husband. Born 1604. Married 1649. Knighted 1661. Died 1674. Hamnet, a twin with Judith. Born 1585. Died 1596. Judith, a twin with = Thomas Quiney, wine- Hamnet. Born 1585. Married 1616. Died 1662. merchant. Born 1589. Married 1616. Living in 1655, but exact period of death unknown. I Shakespeare. Born 1616. Died 1617. Richard. Born 1618. Died 1639. Thomas. Born 1620. Died 1639. 22 WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. 1564. The record of the baptism is given in the register preserved in the Church of the Holy Trinity at Stratford: "1564. b. April 26, Guliel- mus, filius Johannes Shakspere." " In Henley Street, in what was for those days an un- usually large and commodious residence for a provincial tradesman, and upon or almost immediately before the twenty-second day of April, 1564, but most probably on that Saturday, the eldest son of John and Mary Shake- speare, he who was afterwards to be the national poet of England, was born. An apartment on the first floor of that house is shown to this day, through unvarying tradition, as the birth-room of the great dramatist, who w 7 as bap- tized on the following Wednesday, April the twenty-sixth, receiving the Christian name of William. He was then, and continued to be for more than two years, an only child, — two girls, daughters of the same parents, who were born previously, having died in their infancy. De Quincey was the first to conjecture that the 22d of April, corresponding to our present 4th of May, is the real birthday. The sug- gestion was derived from the circumstance of the poet's only grandchild having been married to Thomas Xash on the 22d of April, 1626 ; and few things are more likely than the selection of her grandfather's birthday for such a celebration. Only ten years had elapsed since his death, and that he had been kind to her in her childhood may be safely inferred from the remembrances in the will. Whatever opinion may be formed respecting the precise interpretation of the record of the age under the monu- mental efligy, the latter is a certain evidence that Shake- speare was not born after the 23d of April. It may also be fairly assumed that the event could not have happened many days previously, for it was the almost universal practice amongst the middle classes of that time to baptize children very shortly after birth. The notion WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. 23 that Shakespeare died on his birthday was not circulated until the middle of the last century, and it is completely devoid of substantial foundation. Had so unusual a circumstance occurred, it is all but impossible that it should not have been numbered amongst the early tradi- tions of Stratford-on-Avon, and there is good evidence that no such incident was known in that town at the close of the seventeenth century." (H.-P. ii. 332.) "There is no doubt that Stratford-on-Avon was con- sidered, from very early Shakespearean times, to have derived its celebrity from its having been the birth-town of the great dramatist. ' One travelling through Strat- ford-upon-Avon, a towne most remarkeable for the birth of famous William Shakespeare ' (A banquet of Jests, or Change ofCheare, 1639). 'William Shakespear, the glory of the English stage, whose nativity at Stratford-upon- Avon is the highest honour that town can boast of ' ( Thea- trum Poetarum, 1675). ' I say not this to derogate from those excellent persons, but to perswade them, as Homer and our Shakespear did, to immortalize the places where they were born' (Dedication to Virtue Betrayed, 1682). Throughout the seventeenth century, however, the grave- stone and effigy appear to have been the only memorials of the poet that were indicated to visitors ; and no evidence has been discovered which represents either the birth-place or the birth-room as an object of commercial exhibition until after the traditions respecting them are known to have been current. There is not a word about the two latter in Richardson's popular edition of 1 De Foe's Tour,' 1769, nor in any of the earlier guide- books or itineraries, although several of those works notice other matters of Shakespearean interest. There is, indeed, little doubt that the birth-place did not become one of the incentives for pilgrimage until public attention had been specially directed to it at the time of the Jubilee, while it was not then generally known that the 24 WILLIAM SHAKESPEAKE. birth-room could be identified. A correspondent of the Gentleman's Magazine, writing from Lichfield in July, 1769, observes : ' I do not know whether the apartment where the incomparable Shakespeare first drew his breath can at this day be ascertained or not ; but the house of his nativity, according to undoubted tradition, is now remaining.' " (H.-P. i. 386.) " Upon the north side of Henley Street is a detached building, consisting of two houses annexed each other, — the one on the west having been known from time immemorial as Shakespeare's birth-place; and that on the east, a somewhat larger one, which was purchased by his father in the year 1556. It may fairly be assumed that in the latter the then < considerable dealer in wool ' deposited no trifling portion of his stock." (H.-P. i. 377.) " The two buildings are collectively mentioned as the 1 house where Shakespeare was born ' in Winter's plan of the town, 1759, — the attribution being therein casually noticed amongst other well-known established facts ; and in Greene's view, which was engraved in 1769, they are described together as a ' house in Stratford-upon-Avon in which the famous poet Shakespear was born.' This view was published in anticipation of Garrick's Jubilee, and identified the building with the one named in the accounts of that celebration; but up to this period no intimation is anywhere given as to which of the then two houses was considered to be the birth-place. The latter deficiency is fortunately supplied by Boswell, who was pre- sent at the Jubilee, and informs us that amongst the embel- lishments displayed on that occasion i was a piece of paint- ing hung before the windows of the room where Shake- speare was born, representing the sun breaking through the clouds' (London Magazine, September, 1769, p. 453). It is true that the locality of the room is not particularized, but it would be the merest foppery of scepticism to doubt that it is the apartment which is now exhibited as WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. 25 the birth-room ; and, indeed, the testimony of my late friend R. B. Wheler, whose father was at the Jubilee, and who had perfect knowledge of the local reports of that commemoration, should in itself exclude a misgiving oft the subject. i The stranger is shewn a room over the butcher's shop, in which our bard is said to have been born ; and the numberless visitors, who have literally covered the walls of this chamber with names and other memorials, sufficiently evince the increasing resort to this hallowed roof 9 (Wheler's Guide to Stratford-upon-Avon, 1814, p. 12). There can, therefore, be no doubt that from the earliest period at which we have, or were likely to have, a record of the fact, it was the tradition of Strat- ford that the birth-place is correctly so designated." (H.-P. i. 385.) " The house in which Shakespeare was born must have been erected in the first half of the sixteenth century, but the alterations that it has since undergone have effaced much of it's original character. Inhabited at various periods by tradesmen of different occupations, it could not possibly have endured through the long course of upward of three centuries without having been subjected to numerous repairs and modifications. The general form and arrangement of the tenement that was purchased in 1556 may yet, however, be distinctly traced ; and many of the old timbers, as well as pieces of the ancient rough stone-work, still remain. There are also portions of the chimneys, the fireplace surroundings, and the stone base- ment-floor, that have been untouched ; but most, if not all, of the lighter wood-work belongs to a more recent period. It may be confidently asserted that there is only one room in the entire building which has not been greatly changed since the days of the poet's boyhood. This is the antique cellar under the sitting-room, from which it is approached by a diminutive flight of steps. It is a very small apartment, measuring only nine by ten 26 WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. feet ; but near ' that small most greatly liv'd this star of England.' " (H.-P. i. 31.) 1568. "Both parents of the poet were absolutely illiterate, but the son was taught to read and write, his education probably beginning at this time. The Queen's and the Earl of Worcester's players visited Stratford and played before the Council during this year or the next. The first performances were paid for by the Council, and were free to the public. The boy may then have first seen a play. A man named Willis, in his old age, described a play he saw in his boyhood, in Gloucester, at this time. ' My father tooke me with him, and made mee stand betweene his leggs as he sate upon one of the benches, where wee 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 severall kinds, amongst which three ladies were in speciall grace with him ; and they, keeping him in delights and plea- sures, drew him from his graver counsellors, hearing of sermons and listening to good counsel and admonitions, that in the end they got him to lye down in a cradle upon the stage, where these three ladies, joyning in a sweet song, rocked him asleepe that he snorted againe ; and in the meane time closely conveyed under the cloaths where- withal! he was covered a vizard, like a swine's snout, upon his face, with three wire chaines fastened thereunto, the other end whereof being holden severally by those three ladies who fall to singing againe, and then discovered his face that the spectators might see how they had trans- formed him, going on with their singing. Whilst all this was acting, there came forth of another doore at the farthest end of the stage two old men, the one in blew with a serjeant-at-armes his mace on his shoulder, the other in red with a drawn sword in his hand and leaning with the other hand upon the others shoulder ; and so they two went along in a soft pace round about by the WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. 27 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 fearfull 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 himselfe thus sent for to judgement, made a lamentable complaint of his miserable case, and so was carried away by wicked spirits. This prince did personate in the morrall the Wicked of the World ; the three ladies, Pride, Covetousnesse, and Luxury ; the two old men, the End of the World and the Last Judgment. This sight tooke such impression in me that, when I came towards mans estate, it was as fresh in my memory as if I had seen it newly acted.' " (H.-P. i. 41.) These plays were an advance upon the religious plays known as Mysteries, which still held the stage. The following items from old records relate to stage properties used in the Mysteries : — " The Smiths' Company in 1440 paid three shillings and sixpence halfpenny for ' cloth to lap abowt the pajent.' On another occasion sixpence was invested in ' half e a yard of Rede Sea.' (Smiths' Accounts, 1569, Coventry, MS.) " * The little children were never so afrayd of hell- mouth in the old plaies painted with great gang teeth, staring eyes and a foule bottle nose.' (Harsnet's Declara- tion, 1603.) " It may be observed that hell-mouth was one of the few contrivances in use in the ancient mysteries which were retained on the metropolitan stage in the time of Shakespeare, it being in the list of properties belonging to the Lord Admiral's Servants in 1599. Noah's Ark must have been a magnificent example of this class of pro- 28 WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. perties, as may be gathered from the following stage- direction in the Chester mystery of the flood. * Then Noy shall goe into the arke with all his famylye, his wife excepte ; the arke mnst be borded ronnde abont, and npon the bordes all the beastes and fowles hereafter re- hearsed, mnst be painted, that there wordes maye agree with the pictures.' (MS. Harl.) " ' Adam and Eve aparlet in whytt lether,' stage-direc- tion in the old Cornish mystery of the Creation of the World. ' Two cotes and a payre hosen for Eve stayned ; a cote and hosen for Adam steyned.' (Inventory of Pageant Costumes, 1565.) " ' Item, to a peyntonr for peyntyng the fauchon and Herodes face, x. d." (Accounts of the Smiths' Company, 1477.) " ' Item, paid for a go wen to Arrode, vij. s. iiij. d. ; item, paid for peynttyng and stenyng thereoff, vj. s. iiij. d. ; item, paid for Arrodes garment peynttyng that he went a prossassyon in, xx. d. ; item, paid for mendyng off Arrodes gauen to a taillour viij. d. ; item, paid for mend- yng off hattes, cappas and Arreddes creste, with other smale geyr belongyng, iij. s.' (Accounts of the Smiths' Company, 1490.) " ' Item, paid for gloves to the pleyares, xix. d. ; item, paid for pyntyng off ther fasus, ij. d.' (Accounts of the Smiths' Company, 1502.) " ' The Black or Damned Souls had their faces blackened, and were dressed in coats and hose ; the fabric of the hose was buckram or canvas, of which latter material nineteen ells were used, — nine of yellow and ten of black, — in 1556 ; and probably a sort of party- coloured dress was made for them, where the yellow was so combined as to represent flames/ (Sharp's Dissertation on the Coventry Mysteries.) " In 1556 there is an entry of a payment which was made < for blakyng the sollys fassys.' " (H.-P, ii. 289, 290.) WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. 29 There is no reasonable doubt that the poet in his youth saw some of these Mysteries. They had been seen by many generations in England, and did not become obsolete until about the year 1580. " The Rev. John Shaw, who was the temporary chaplain in a village in Lancashire in 1644, narrates the following curious anecdote respecting one of its inhabitants : * One day an old man about sixty, sensible enough in other things, and living in the parish of Cartmel, coming to me about other business, I told him that he belonged to my care and charge, and I desired to be informed in his knowledge of religion. I asked him how many Gods there were ; he said he knew not. I, informing him, asked him again how he thought to be saved ; he answered he could not tell, yet thought that was a harder question than the other. I told him that the way to salvation was by Jesus Christ, God-man, who, as He was man, shed His blood for us on the crosse, &c. " Oh, sir," said he, " I think I heard of that man you speak of once in a play at Kendall, called Corpus Christi Play, where there was a man on a tree, and blood ran downe," &c. ; and after he professed that he could not remember that ever he heard of salva- tion by Jesus Christ but in that play.' " (H.-P. i. 49.) " The allegorical was the first deviation from the purely religious drama. The introduction of secular plays quickly followed; after which, from the close of the fifteenth century to the time of Shakespeare, there was a succession of interludes and other theatrical pieces in great variety, in many of which some of the characters were abstract personifications similar to those introduced into the moral-plays. The most ancient English secular drama which is known to exist was written about the year 1490, by the Rev. Henry Medwall, chaplain to Morton, Arch- bishop of Canterbury, and afterwards printed by Rastell under the title of ' A Godely Interlude of Fulgeus, Cena- 30 WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. toure of Rome, Lucres his doughter, Gayus Flaminius and Publius Cornelius, of the Disputacyon of Xoblenes.' . . . His works, although rather dull even for his age, are superior both in construction and versification to those of his predecessors ; and he may almost be said to be the founder of our famous national drama, that which lingered for generations after him in painful mediocrity, until a little fervour and more poetic beauty were communi- cated to it by a small band of writers who were bestowing a literary character on the stage at the time of the poet's arrival in London. It was very shortly afterwards, and in the midst of this advance, that the English drama rose by a spirited bound to be first really worthy the name of art in the hands of Marlowe." (H.-P. ii. 310, 341.) A play like the " Cradle of Security " was called a Moral, or a Moral-Play ; and they were performed in Shakespeare's day. 1571. " Although there is no certain information on the subject, it may perhaps be assumed that at this time boys usually entered the Free School at the age of seven, according to the custom followed at a later period. If so, the poet commenced his studies there in the spring of the year 1571 ; and unless its system of instruction differed essentially from that pursued in other establishments of a similar character, his earliest knowledge of Latin was derived from two well-known books of the time, — the ' Accidence ' and the ' Sententiae Pueriles.' From the first of these works the improvised examination of Master Page in the ' Merry Wives of Windsor ' is so almost verbally remembered, that one might imagine that the William of the scene was a resuscitation of the poet at school. Recollections of the same book are to be traced in other of his plays. The ' Sentential Pueriles ' was, in all probability, the little manual by the aid of which he first learned to construe Latin ; for in one place, at least, WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. 31 he all but literally translates a brief passage, and there are in his plays several adaptations of its sentiments. It was then sold for a penny, equivalent to our present shilling, and contains a large collection of brief sentences collected from a variety of authors, with a distinct selec- tion of moral and religious paragraphs, the latter intended for the use of boys on Saints' Days. The best authorities unite in telling us that the poet imbibed a certain amount of Latin at school, but that his acquaintance with that language was throughout his life of a very limited char- acter. It is not probable that scholastic learning was ever congenial to his tastes, and it should be recollected that books in most parts of the country were then of very rare occurrence. Lilly's Grammar and a few classical works, chained to the desks of the Free School, were probably the only volumes of the kind to be found at Stratford-on. Avon. Exclusive of Bibles, Church Services, Psalters, and education manuals, there were certainly not more than two or three dozen books, if so many, in the whole town. The copy of the black-letter English history, so often depicted as well thumbed by Shakespeare in his father's parlour, never existed out of the imagination." (H.-P. i. 53, 55.) Nearly every one of the boy's connections was a farmer. 1574. "On March the 11th, 1574, < Richard, sonne to Mr. John Shakspeer,' was baptized at Stratford, the Christian name of the infant having probably been adopted in recollection of his grandfather of Snitterfield, who had been removed by the hand of death some years previously. Independently of this new baby, there were now four other children, — Anne, who was in her third, Joan in her fifth, Gilbert in his eighth, and the poet in his tenth year. The father's circumstances were not yet on the wane, so there is every reason for believing that 32 WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. the eldest son, blessed with, as it has been well termed, the precious gift of sisters to a loving boy, returned to a happy fireside after he had been tormented by the dis- ciplinarian routine that was destined to terminate in the acquisition of ' small Latin and less Greek/ The defec- tive classical education of the poet is not, however, to be attributed to the conductors of the local seminary; for enough of Latin was taught to enable the more advanced pupils to display familiar correspondence in that lan- guage. It was really owing to his being removed from school long before the usual age, his father requiring his assistance in one of the branches of the Henley Street business. Eowe's words, published in 1709, are these : * He had bred him, 't is true, for some time at a free school, where 't is probable he acquired that little Latin he was master of ; but the narrowness of his circum- stances and the want of his assistance at home forc'd his father to withdraw him from thence, and unhappily prevented his further proficiency in that language.' " (H.-P. i. 56.) 1575. " In the summer of 1575 Queen Elizabeth made her famous visit to Kenilworth, and was entertained by Leicester with splendid and varied ceremonies and spectacles. From Stratford it is only a few hours' walk to Kenilworth ; Shakspere's father might ride across with the boy before him. And a celebrated passage in 1616. Copyright entry : " 1616-7, 16 Febr. 1616, Er. 14. Mr. Barrett, Assigned ouer vnto him by Mr. Leake, and by order of a full Courte, Venus and Adonis." " It is not likely that the poet, with his systematic fore- thought, had hitherto neglected to provide for the ulti- mate devolution of his estates ; but, as usual, it is only the 174 WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. latest will that has been preserved. This important record was prepared in January, 1616, either by or under the directions of Francis Collins, a solicitor then residing at Warwick ; and it arjpears, from the date given to the superscription and from some of the erasures in the manuscript itself, that it was a corrected draft ready for an engrossment that was to have been signed by the testator on Thursday, the twenty-fifth of that month. For some unknown reason, but most probably owing to circumstances relating to Judith's matrimonial engage- ment, the appointment for that day was postponed, at Shakespeare's request, in anticipation of further instruc- tions, and before Collins had ordered a fair copy to be made. The draft therefore remained in his custody, his client being then l in perfect health,' and taking no doubt a lively interest in all that concerned his daughter's marriage. Under such conditions a few weeks easily pass away unheeded, so that when he was unexpectedly seized with a dangerous fever in March, it is not very surprising that the business of the will should be found to have been neglected. Hence it was that his lawyer was hurriedly summoned from Warwick, that it was not considered advisable to wait for the preparation of a regular tran- script, and that the papers were signed after a few more alterations had been hastily effected. An unusual num- ber of witnesses were called in to secure the validity of the informally written document, its draftsman, according to the almost invariable custom at that time, being the first to sign. u The corrected draft of the will was so hastily revised at Shakespeare's bedside, that even the alteration of the day of the month was overlooked. It is probable that the melancholy gathering at Xew Place happened some- what later than the twenty-fifth of March, the fourth week after a serious attack of fever being generally the most fatal period. We may at all events safely assume WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. 175 that if death resulted from such a cause on April the 23d, the seizure could not have occurred much before the end of the preceding month. It is satisfactory to know that the invalid's mind was as yet unclouded, several of the interlineations that were added on the occasion having obviously emanated from himself ; and it is not necessary to follow the general opinion that the signatures betray the tremulous hand of illness, although portions of them may indicate that they were written from an inconvenient position. It may be observed that the words hy me, which, the autographs excepted, are the only ones in the poet's handwriting known to exist, appear to have been penned with ordinary firmness." (H.-P. i. 252.) The Stratford church register contains these entries : — " 1615-6. M. Feabruary 10. Tho. Queeny tow Judith Shakspere. 1616. F. April 25. Will. Shakspere, gent. The will is copied below. The words in Italics were interlined : — " Vicesimo quinto die (Januarii, erased) Marlii, anno regni nostri Jacobi, nunc regis Anglie, &c, decimo quarto, et Scotie xlix annoque Domini 1616. " T. Wmi. Shackspeare. — In the name of God, amen ! I, William Shackspeare, of Stratford-upon-Avon, in the countie of Warr. gent., in perfect health and memorie, God be praysed, doe make and ordayne this my last will and testament in manner and forme f olloweing, that ys to saye, First, I comend my soule into the handes of God my Creator, hoping and assuredlie beleeving, through thonelie merittes of Jesus Christe, my Saviour, to be made par- taker of lyfe everlastinge, and my bodye to the earth whereof yt ys made. Item : I gyve and bequeath unto my 176 WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. (sonne in L, erased) daughter Judyth one hundred and f yftie poundes of lawfull English money, to be paied unto her in manner and forme followeing, that ys to saye, one hundred poundes in discharge of her marriage porcion within one yeare after my deceas, with consideracion after the rate of twoe shillinges in the pound for soe long tyme as the same shal be unpaied unto her after my deceas, and the fyftie poundes residewe thereof upon her sur- rendring of, or gyring of such sufficient securitie as the overseers of this my will shall like of to surrender or graunte, all her estate and right that shall discend or come unto her after my deceas, or that shee nowe hath, of, in, or to, one copiehold tenemente with thappurtenaunces lyeing and being in Stratford-upon-Avon aforesaied in the saied countie of Warr., being parcell or holden of the mannour of Rowington, unto my daughter Susanna Hall and her heires for ever. Item : I gyve and bequeath unto my saied daughter Judith one hundred and fyftie poundes more, if shee or anie issue of her bodie be lyvinge att thend of three yeares next ensueing the dale of the date of this my will, during which tyme my execu- tours to paie her consideracion from my deceas accord- ing to the rate aforesaied ; and if she dye within the saied terme without issue of her bodye, then my will ys, and I doe gyve and bequeath one hundred poundes thereof to my neece Elizabeth Hall, and the fif tie poundes to be sett fourth by my exe cut ours during the lief of my sister Johane Harte, and the use and proffitt thereof cominge shal be payed to my saied sister Jone, and after her deceas the saied l.li shall remaine amongst the children of my saied sister equallie to be devided amongst them ; but if my saied daughter Judith be lyving att thend of the saied three yeares, or anie yssue of her bodye, then my will ys and soe I devise and bequeath the saied hundred and fyftie poundes to be sett out by my executours and overseers for the best benefitt of her and her issue, WILLIAM SHAKESPEAEE. 177 and the stock not to be paied unto her soe long as she shalbe marryed and covert baron (by my executours and over- seers, erased), but my will ys that she shall have the con- sideracion yearelie paied unto her during her lief, and, after her deceas, the saied stock and consideracion to bee paid to her children, if she have anie, and if not, to her executours or assignes, she lyving the saied terme after my deceas ; Provided that if such husbond as she shall att thend of the saied three yeares be marryed unto, or att anie after, doe sufficientle assure unto her and thissue of her bodie landes awnswereable to the porcion of this my will gyven unto her, and to be adjudged soe by my executours and overseers, then my will ys that the saied cl.li shalbe paied to such husbond as shall make such assurance, to his owne use. Item : I gyve and bequeath unto my saied sister Jone xx.li, and all my wearing apparrell, to be paied and delivered within one yeare after my deceas ; and I doe will and devise unto her the house with thappurtenaunces in Stratford, wherein she dwell- eth, for her naturall lief, under the yearelie rent of xij.d. Item : I gyve and bequeath unto her three sonns, William Harte, Harte, and Michaell Harte, fyve poundes a peece, to be payed within one yeare after my deceas (to be sett out for her within one yeare after my deceas by my executours, with thadvise and direccions of my over- seers, for her best proffitt untill her marriage, and then the same with the increase thereof to be paied unto her, erased). Item : I gyve and bequeath unto (her, erased) the saied Elizabeth Hall all my plate except my brod silver and gilt bole, that I now have att the date of this my will. Item : I gyve and bequeath unto the poore of Stratford aforesaied tenn poundes; to Mr. Thomas Combe my sword ; to Thomas Russell esquier fyve poundes, and to Frauncis Collins of the borough of Warr. in the countie of Warr., gent., thirteene poundes sixe shillinges and eight pence, to be paied within one yeare after my deceas. 12 178 WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. Item : I gyve and bequeath to (Mr. Richard Tyler thelder, erased) Hamlett Sadler xxvj.s. viij.d. to buy him a ringe ; to William Raynoldes, gent., xxcj.s. viij.d. to buy him a ring ; to my god-son William Walker xx.s in gold ; to Anthonye Nashe, gent, xxvj.s. viij.d., and to Mr. John Xashe xxvj.s. viij.d (in gold, erased) ; and to my fellowes, John He?nynges, Richard Burbage, and Henry Cundell, xxvj.s. viij.d. a peece to buy them ringes. Item : I gyve, will, bequeath, and devise unto my daughter Susanna Hal], for better enabling her to performe this my will, and towardes the performans thereof, all that capitall messuage or tenemente, with thappurtenaunces, in Stratford aforesaied, called the Xewe Place, wherein I nowe dwell, and twoe messuages or tene- mentes with happurtenaunces, scituat, lyeing, and being in Henley streete within the borough of Stratford afore- saied; and all my barnes, stables, orchardes, gardens, landes, tenementes, and hereditamentes whatsoever, scit- uat, lieing, and being, or to be had, receyved, perceyved, or taken, within the townes, hamlettes, villages, fieldes, and groundes of Stratford-upon-Avon, Oldstratford, Bushop- ton, and Welcombe, or in anie of them in the saied coun- tie of Warr ; and alsoe all that messuage or tenemente with thappurtenaunces wherein one John Robinson dwelleth, scituat, lyeing, and being in the Blackfriers in London nere the Wardrobe; and all other my landes, tenementes, and hereditamentes whatsoever, — to have and to hold all and singuler the saied premisses with their appurtenaunces unto the saied Susanna Hall for and during the terme of her naturall lief, and after her deceas, to the first sonne of her bodie lawf ullie yssueing, and to the heires males of the bodie of the saied first sonne law- f ullie yssueinge, and for defalt of such issue, to the second sonne of her bodie lawf ullie yssueinge, and (of, erased) to the heires males of the bodie of the saied second sonne lawf ullie issueinge, and for defalt of such heires to the third sonne of the bodie of the saied Susanna lawfullie WILLIAM SHAKESPEAEE. 179 yssueinge, and of the heires males of the bodie of the saied third sonne lawfullie yssueinge, and for defalt of such is- sue, the same soe to be and remaine to the fourth (sonne, erased), fyfth, sixte, and seaventh sonnes of her bodie lawfullie issueing one after another, and to the heires males of the bodies of the saied fourth, fifth, sixte, and seaventh sonnes lawfullie yssueing, in such manner as yt ys before lymitted, to be and remaine to the first, second, and third sonns of her bodie, and to their heires males, and for defalt of such issue, the saied premisses to be and remaine to my sayed neece Hall and the heires males of her bodie lawfullie yssueing, and for defalt of such issue, to my daughter Judith, and the heires males of her bodie lawfullie issueinge, and for defalt of such issue, to the right heires of me the saied William Shackspeare for ever. Item : I gyve unto my wiefe my second best bed with the furniture. Item: I gyve and bequeath to my saied daughter Judith my broad silver gilt bole. All the rest of my goodes, chattels, leases, plate, jewels, and household stuife whatsoever, after my dettes and legasies paied, and my funerall expences discharged, I gyve, devise, and bequeath to my sonne-in-lawe, John Hall, gent., and my daughter Susanna, his wief, whom I ordaine and make executours of this my last will and testament. And I doe intreat and appoint the saied Thomas Russell, esquier, and Frauncis Collins, gent., to be overseers hereof, and doe revoke all former wills, and publishe this to be my last will and testament. In witnes whereof I have here- unto put my (seale, erased) hand the daie and yeare first above written. — By me, William Shakspeare. " Witnes to the publishing hereof, — Fra. Collyns ; Julius Shawe ; John Robinson ; Hamnet Sadler ; Robert Whattcott." Mr. Phillipps says that " the terms in which the soul was devised are copied from a book of forms. 180 WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. They were taken from one of the ordinary formulas that were used by the solicitors of the period, as will appear from the following extract from a customary ' forme of a will ' given in West's First Part of Simboleography, ed= 1605, sect. 643 : ' I, R. L., of &c, sicke of bodie, but of good and perfect memory, God be praised, doe make and ordaine this, my last will and testament, in maner and forme following, that is to say: first, I commend my soule into the handes of God, my maker, hoping assuredly, through the only merites of Jesus Christ, my Saviour, to bee made partaker of life everlast- ing, and I commende my bodie to the earth whereof it is made.' " " Shakespeare, in devising his real estates to one child, followed the example of his maternal grandfather and the general custom of landed proprietors. He evidently desired that their undivided ownership should continue in the family. " Following the bequests to the Quineys are those to the poet's sister Joan, then in her forty-seventh year and five pounds a-piece to his nephews, her three children, — lads of the respective ages of sixteen, eleven, and eight. To this lady, who became a widow very shortly before his own decease, he leaves, besides a contingent rever- sionary interest, his wearing apparel, twenty pounds in money, and a life-interest in the Henley Street property, the last being subject to the manorial rent of twelve- pence. This limitation of real estate to Mrs. Hart, the anxiety displayed to secure the integrity of the little Rowington copyhold, and the subsequent devises to his eldest daughter, exhibit very clearly his determination to place under legal settlement every foot of land that he WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. 181 possessed. With this object in view, he settles his estate in tail male, with the usual remainders over, all of which, however, so far as the predominant intention was con- cerned, turned out to be merely exponents of the vanity of human wishes. Before half a century had elapsed, all possibility of the continuance of the family entail had been dispelled. "The most celebrated interlineation is that in which Shakespeare leaves his widow his ' second-best bed with the furniture/ the first-best being that generally reserved for visitors, and one which may possibly have descended as a family heir-loom, becoming in that way the unde- visable property of his eldest daughter. Bedsteads were sometimes of elaborate workmanship, and gifts of them are often to be met with in ancient wills. The notion of indifference to his wife, so frequently deduced from the above-mentioned entry, cannot be sustained on that ac- count. So far from being considered of trifling import, beds were even sometimes selected as portions of com- pensation for dower ; and bequests of personal articles of the most insignificant description were never formerly held in any light but that of marks of affection. Amongst the smaller legacies of former days may be enumerated kettles, chairs, gowns, hats, pewter cups, feather bolsters, and cullenders. In the year 1642 one John Shakespeare of Budbrook, near Warwick, considered it a sufficient mark of respect to his father-in-law to leave him ' his best boots.' " The expression * second-best ' has, however, been so repeatedly and so seriously canvassed to the testator's prejudice, it is important to produce evidence of its strictly inoffensive character. Such evidence is to be found in instances of its testamentary use in cases where an approach to a disparaging significance could not have been entertained. Thus the younger Sir Thomas Lucy of Charlecote, in a will made in the year 1600, bequeathed 182 WILLIAM SHAKESPEAKE. to his son Richard ' my second-best horse and furnyture ; ' and amongst the legacies given by Bartholomew Hatha- way to his son Edmund, in 1621, is ' my second brass pott/ But there is another example that is conclusive in itself, without other testimony, of the position which is here advocated. It is in the will, dated in April, 1610, of one John Harris, a well-to-do notary of Lincoln, who, while leaving his wife a freehold estate and other prop- erty, also bequeaths to her ' the standing bed-stead in the litle chaumber, with the second-best featherbed 1 have, with a whole furniture thereto belonging, and allso a trundle-bed- sted with a featherbed, and the furniture thereto belong- ing, and six payer of sheetes, three payer of the better sorte and three payer of the meaner sorte.' This ex- tremely interesting parallel disposes of the most plausible reason that has ever been given for the notion that there was at one time some kind of estrangement between Shakespeare and his Anne. Let us be permitted to add that the opportunity which has thus presented itself of refuting such an aspersion is more than satisfactory, — it is a consolation ; for there are few surer tests of the want either of a man's real amiability or of his moral conduct than his incompetence, excepting in very special cases, to remain on affectionate terms with the partner of his choice. And it is altogether impossible that there could have been an exculpatory special case in the present instance." " The interests of the survivor were nearly always duly considered in the voluntary settlements formerly so often made between husband and wife ; but even if there had been no such arrangements in this case, the latter would have been well provided for by free-bench in the Rowing- ton copyhold, and by dower on the rest of the property." (H.-P. i. 255, 257, 260.) WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. 183 The following is the " free-bench " provision re- ferred to by Mr. Phillipps, as taken from the " Cus- toms of Eowington Manor " (1614) : — " The first wief onlie shall have for her free-bench dur- ing her life all such landes and tenementes as her hus- band dyed seised of in possession of inheritance, yf so be her said husband have done noe act nor surrender to the contrary thereof, and shee shal be admitted to her said free-bench payeing onlie a penny for a fine as aforesaid." We continue to quote from Mr. Phillipps : — " Independently of the bequests that amply provided for his children and sister, there are found in the will a very unusual number of legacies to personal friends ; and if some of its omissions, such as those of reference to the Hathaways, appear to be mysterious, it must be recol- lected that we are entirely unacquainted with family arrangements, the knowledge of some of which might explain them all. It has, moreover, been objected that ' the will contains less of sentiment than might be wished/ — that is to say, it may be presumed, by those who fancy that the great dramatist must have been, by virtue of his art, of an aesthetic and sentimental temperament. When Mr. West of Alscot was the first, in 1747, to exhibit a biographical interest in this relic, the Rev. Joseph Greene, master of the grammar-school of Stratford-on-Avon, who made a transcript for him, was also disappointed with its contents, and could not help observing that it was < absolutely void of the least particle of that spirit which animated our great poet. It might be thought from this impeachment that the worthy preceptor ex- pected to find it written in blank-verse. " The preponderance of Shakespeare's domestic over his literary sympathies is strikingly exhibited in this final record. Not only is there no mention of Drayton, Ben 184 WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. Jonson, or any of his other literary friends, but an entire absence of reference to his own compositions. When these facts are considered, adjunctively with his want of vigilance in not having previously secured authorized pub- lications of any one of his dramas, and with other episodes of his life, it is difficult to resist the conviction that he was indifferent to the posthumous fate of his own writ- ings. The editors of the first Folio speak, indeed, in a tone of regret at his death having rendered a personal edition an impossibility ; but they merely allude to this as a matter of fact, or destiny, and as a reason for the devo- lution of the task upon themselves. They nowhere say, as they might naturally have done had it been the case, that the poet himself had meditated such an undertaking, or even that the slightest preparations for it had been made during the years of his retirement. They dis- tinctly assure us, however, that Shakespeare was in the habit of furnishing them with the autograph manuscripts of his plays, so that if he had retained transcripts of them for his own ultimate use, or had afterwards collected them, it is reasonable to assume that they would have used his materials, and not been so careful to mention that they themselves were the only gatherers." " The poet was educated under the Protestant direction, or he would not have been educated at all. But there is no doubt that John Shakespeare nourished all the while a latent attachment to the old religion ; and although, like most unconverted conformists of ordinary discretion who were exposed to the inquisitorial tactics of the authorities, he may have attempted to conceal his views even from the members of his own household, yet still, however determinately he may have refrained from giv- ing them expression, it generally happens in such cases that a wave from the religious spirit of a parent will imperceptibly reach the hearts of his children and exer- cise more or less influence on their perceptions. And WILLIAM SHAKESPEAKE. 185 this last presumption is an important consideration in assessing the degree of credit to be given to the earliest notice that has come down to us respecting the character of Shakespeare's own belief, — the assertion of Davies that ' he died a Papist.' That this was the local tradition in the latter part of the seventeenth century does not admit of rational question. If the statement had ema- nated from a man like Prynne, addressing fanatics whose hatred of a stage-player would if possible have been intensified by the knowledge that he was a Romanist, then indeed a legitimate suspicion might have been entertained of the narrator's integrity ; but here we have the testimony of a sober clergyman, who could have had no conceivable motive for deception, in what is obviously the casual note of a provincial hearsay. An element of fact in this testimony must be accepted in a biography in which the best, in this instance the only, direct evi- dence takes precedence over theories that are based on mere credibilities. At the same time it is anything but necessary to conclude that the great dramatist had very strong or pronounced views on theological matters. If that were the case, it is almost certain that there would have been some other early allusion to them, and perhaps in himself less of that spirit of toleration for every kind of opinion which rendered him at home with all sorts and conditions of men, — as well as less of that freedom from inflexible preconceptions that might have affected the fidelity of his dramatic work. Many will hold that there was sufficient of those qualities to betray a general indifference to creeds and rituals; and, at all events, whatever there was of Catholicism in his faith did not exclude the maintenance -of affectionate relations with his ultra-protestant son-in-law. There is nothing in the will, in the list of witnesses, in the monumental inscrip- tion, in selection of friends, in the history of his profes- sional career, in the little that tells of his personal 186 WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. character, — there is nothing, in short, in a single one of the contemporary evidences to indicate that he ever entered any of the circles of religious partisanship. As- suming, as we fairly may, that he had a leaning to the faith of his ancestors, we may yet be sure that the incli- nation was not of a nature that materially disturbed the easy-going acquiescence in the conditions of his surround- ing world that added so much to the happiness of his later days." " Amongst the numerous popular errors of our ances- tors was the belief that fevers often resulted from con- vivial indulgences. This was the current notion in England until a comparatively recent period, and its prev- alence affected the traditional history of the poet's last illness. The facts are these : Late in the March of this calamitous year, or, accepting our computation, early in April, Shakespeare and his two friends, Drayton and Ben Jonson, were regaling themselves at an entertainment in one of the taverns at Stratford-on-Avon. It is recorded that the party was a jovial one; and according to a late but apparently genuine tradition, when the great dra- matist was returning to Xew Place in the evening, he had taken more wine than was conducive to pedestrian accuracy. Shortly or immediately afterwards he was seized by the lamentable fever which terminated fatally on Tuesday, April the 23d, 1616, — a day which, accord- ing to our present mode of computation, would be the third of May. The cause of the malady, then attributed to undue festivity, would now be readily discernible in the wretched sanitary conditions surrounding his resi- dence. If truth, and not romance, is to be invoked, were there the woodbine and sweet honeysuckle within reach of the poet's death-bed, their fragrance would have been neutralized by their vicinity to middens, fetid water-courses, mud-walls, and piggeries." (H.-P. i. 261, 261, 267.) WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. 187 "The Chapel Lane. This narrow road, known also formerly as Walker Street, or Dead Lane, skirted one end of Shakespeare's house and the longest side of his gar- den. Evidences of the insalubrious state of the lane in the poet's time are, therefore, of interest in estimating the probable cause of his fatal illness. The following entries respecting the former state of the lane are ex- tracted from the records of Stratford and from the rolls of the manor-court : ' 1554. That every the tenauntes or ther famyly from hensfurthe do carry ther mucke to the commen dun ghy lies appwntyd, or elles into Mey- chyn's yard or in the gravell pyttes in Chappell Lane. 1556. Thomas Godwyn, fletchar, Sir William Brogden, clericus, for not scouryng ther gutter in Ded Lone they be amersyd. 1558. That non dyg from hensfurthe eny gravell in the gravell pyttes in Chappell Lane under the peyne vj. s. viij. d. That the chamburlens do ryd the mukhyll in Chappell Lane, nye unto the Chappell at the goodwyf Walker's hous end, before the Assensyon day, under the peyn of vj. s. viij. d. 1560. That every tenaunt in Ded Lone do scoure and kep cleane ther dyches and the lane before ther soylles from tyme to tyme.' " (H.-P. ii. 141.) " The funeral was solemnized on the following Thurs- day, April the 25th, when all that was mortal of the great dramatist was consigned to its final resting-place in the beautiful parish church of his native town. His remains were deposited in the chancel, the selection of that local- ity for the interment being due to the circumstance of its then being the legal and customary burialplace of the owners of the tithes. " The grave is situated near the northern wall of the chancel, within a few paces of the ancient charnel-house, the arch of the doorway that opened to the latter, with its antique corbels, still remaining. The sepulchre was covered with a slab that bore the following inscription : 188 WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. Good frend, for Tesvs sake forbeare To digg the dvst eneloased heare ; Bleste be the man that spares thes stones, And cvrst be he that moves my bones, — lines which, according to an early tradition, were selected by the poet himself for his epitaph. There is another early but less probable statement that they were the poet's own composition; but, at all events, it may be safely gathered that they originated in some way from an aversion on his part to the idea of a disturbance of his remains. It should be remembered that the transfer of bones from graves to the charnel-house was then an ordi- nary practice at Stratford-on-Avon. There has long been a tradition that Shakespeare's feelings on this subject arose from a reflection on the ghastly appearance of that receptacle, which the elder Ireland, writing in the year 1795, describes as then containing 'the largest assem- blage of human bones' he had ever beheld. But whether this be the truth, or if it were merely the natural wish of a sensitive and thoughtful mind, it is a source of con- gratulation that the simple verses should have protected his ashes from sacrilege. The nearest approach to an excavation into the grave of Shakespeare was made in the summer of the year 1796, in digging a vault in the immediate locality, when an opening appeared which was presumed to indicate the commencement of the site of the bard's remains. The most scrupulous care, however, was taken not to disturb the neighboring earth in the slightest degree, — the clerk having been placed there, until the brickwork of the adjoining vault was completed, to pre- vent anyone making an examination. Xo relics whatever were visible through the small opening that thus pre- sented itself ; and as the poet was buried in the ground, not in a vault, the chancel earth, moreover, formerly absorbing a large degree of moisture, the great proba- bility is that dust alone remains. This consideration WILLIAM SHAKESPEAKE. 189 may tend to discourage an irreverent opinion expressed by some, that it is due to the interests of science to un- fold to the world the material abode which once held so great an intellect. It is not many years since a phalanx of trouble-tombs, lanterns and spades in hand, assembled in the chancel at dead of night, intent on disobeying the solemn injunction that the bones of Shakespeare were not to be disturbed. But the supplicatory lines prevailed. There were some amongst the number, who, at the last moment, refused to incur the warning condemnation, and so the design was happily abandoned. " The honours of repose, which have thus far been con- ceded to the poet's remains, have not been extended to the tombstone. The latter had, by the middle of the last century, sunk below the level of the floor, and about ninety years ago had become so much decayed as to sug- gest a vandalic order for its removal, and in its stead to place a new slab, one which marks certainly the locality of Shakespeare's grave and continues the record of the farewell lines, but indicates nothing more. The original memorial has wandered from its allotted station no one can tell whither, — a sacrifice to the insane worship of prosaic neatness, that mischievous demon whose votaries have practically destroyed so many of the priceless relics of ancient England and her gifted sons." (H.-P. i. 267.) "The Philosopher's Satyrs/' by Bobert Anton, 1616, alludes to Cleopatra and names "Comedies of errors." The only publication this year was " The Bape of Lvcrece, by Mr. William Shakespeare ; newly Beuised. London : Printed by T. S. for Boger Iackson, and are to be solde at his shop neere the Conduit in Fleet-street. 1616." This entry completes the list of plays and poems, 190 WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. seventy -two in number, written by Shakespeare and published in his lifetime. Mr. Phillipps says that works iC merely with the poet's initials have not been admitted. . . . This list of the contemporary editions of Shakespeare's poems and dramas will give a fair idea of the extent in one direction of the literary popularity that he enjoyed in his own lifetime." " The poet's bereaved family now consisted of his widow, the Anne Hathaway of his youth ; his elder daughter, Susanna, and her husband, John Hall ; his other daughter, Judith, and her husband, Thomas Qui- ney ; his sister Joan Hart, and her three sons, T\ llliam, Thomas, and Michael ; and his only grandchild, Eliza- beth Hall, a little girl in the ninth year of her age. " Mr. Hall was in London in the following June, and on the twenty-second of that month he proved his father- in-law's will at the Archbishop of Canterbury's registry, an office then situated near St. Paul's. He also produced at the same time an inventory of the testator's household effects ; but not a fragment of this latter document is known to be in existence. The testament itself is writ- ten upon what is termed pot-paper, — a material then com- monly used by solicitors for their drafts, and so called on account of its water-mark being either a pot or a jug. . . . " The Halls, who were the executors and chief legatees, made New Place their established residence soon after the poet's decease. Mr. John Hall, as he is almost inva- riably termed in the Stratford records, was a Master of Arts, but he never received the honour of a medical degree. His reputation, however, was independent of titles, for no country doctor ever achieved a greater pop- ularity. His advice was solicited in every direction, and he was summoned more than once to attend the Earl and WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. 191 Countess of Northampton at Ludlow Castle, a distance of over fourty miles, — no trifling journey along the bridle- paths of those days. And even in such times of fierce religious animosities, the desire to secure his advice out- weighed all prejudices; for, notwithstanding his avowed Protestantism, it is recorded by the Linacre professor, in 1657, that < such as hated him for his religion often made use of him.' It is clear, indeed, that after the death of Shakespeare, whatever may have been the case previ- ously, he openly exhibited strong religious tendencies in the direction of Puritanism ; and these may have led to an indifference for the fate of any dramatic manuscripts that might have come into his hands. . . . " Anything like a private library, even of the smallest dimensions, was then of the rarest occurrence, and that Shakespeare ever owned one at any time of his life is exceedingly improbable. The folios of Holinshed and Plutarch, — the former in the edition of 1586 and the latter that of 1595, — are amongst the few volumes that can be positively said to have been in his own hands. In that age of commonplace books it must not be too hastily assumed that individual passages, such as that he adapted from Montaigne, were taken from the works themselves. " It is in the narrative of a circumstance that occurred at New Place a few years after Hall's death that we obtain the only interesting personal glimpse we are ever likely to have of Shakespeare's eldest daughter. It exhibits her in one direction as a true scion of the poet, — a shrewd person of business, caring more for gold than for books, albeit she was somewhat disturbed at the notion of parting with any of the latter that had been written by her husband, to whom she was warmly attached. During the civil wars, about the year 1642, a surgeon named James Cooke, attending in his professional capacity on a detachment stationed at Stratford-bridge, was invited to New Place to examine the books which the doctor had left behind him. 192 WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. ' After a view of them,' as he observes, Mrs. Hall ' told me she had some books left by one that professed physic with her husband for some money. I told her, if I liked them, I would give her the money again. She brought them forth, amongst which there was this, with another of the authors, both intended for the press. I, being acquainted with Mr. Hall's hand, told her that one or two of them were her husband's, and showed them her ; she denied ; I affirmed, till I perceived she began to be offended ; at last I returned her the money.' By the word 'this,' Cooke refers to the manuscript Latin medical case-book which he translated into English, and published in 1657. The conversation here recorded would appear to show that Mrs. Hall's education had not been of an enlarged char- acter ; that books and manuscripts, even when they were the productions of her own husband, were not of much interest to her. Were it otherwise, it would be difficult to account for the pertinacity with which she insisted upon the book of cases not being in the doctor's hand- writing; for his calligraphy is of an uniform and somewhat peculiar description, not readily to be mis- taken for any of the ordinary styles of writing then in use. It is very possible, however, that the affixion of her signature to a document was the extent of her chiro- graphical ability, for the art of writing was then rare amongst the ladies of the middle class, and her sister was a marks-woman. 1 Such an educational defect would of course have passed unnoticed in those days, and could not have affected the estimation in which she was held for a high order of intelligence, religious fervour, and sympathetic charity, — Witty above her sexe, but that 's not all,— Wise to salvation was good Mistris Hall ; Something of Shakespere was in that, but this Wholy of Him with whom she 's now in blisse. 1 One who, not being able to write, makes her mark instead of writing her name. WILLIAM SHAKESPEAKE. 193 Then, Passenger, ha 'st ne're a teare To weepe with her that wept with all, — That wept, yet set her selfe to chere Them up with comforts cordiall ? Her love shall live, her mercy spread, When thou ha'st nere a teare to shed, — lines engraved, by the direction of some loving hand, on the gravestone that records her decease on July the 11th, 1619. The term < witty' is of course here used in the old sense of brightly intelligent. . . . " The only child of the Halls, Mistress Elizabeth as she is described in the nuptial register, with the title usually given in former days to single ladies, was married at Stratford-on-Avon in April, 1626, to Thomas Nash, a re- sident of that town and a man of considerable property. Born in 1593, he was in his youth a student at Lincoln's Inn, and had no doubt been all his life well acquainted with the bride's family, both his father and uncle having been personal friends of Shakespeare. Mrs. Nash became a widow in 1647; but about two years afterwards she married John Barnard, a gentleman of wealth and posi- tion in the county of Northampton. Leaving no issue by either husband, the lineal descent from the poet termi- nated at her death in the year 1670. . . . " Although few of us imagine that the homely lines on Shakespeare's gravestone were his own composition, there can be little doubt that they owe their position to an affectionate observance of one of his latest wishes. Destitute even of a nominal record, and placed in a line of descriptive and somewhat elaborate family memorials, it is difficult to believe that an inscription, so unique in its simplicity, could have another history. And it was, in all probability, the designedly complete isolation of these verses that suggested to his relatives the propriety of rais- ing an eligible monument in the immediate vicinity, on the only spot, indeed, in which there could have been 13 194 WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. erected a cenotaph that harmonized with the associations of his grave. " This monument was erected on the northern wall of the chancel, at an elevation of some five feet above the pavement, and within a few paces of the grave. Expense does not appear to have been spared in its preparation ; but there is no display of vulgar ostentation, the whole being admirably suited for the main object of the design, — the formation of a niche for the reception of a life-sized bust. The precise history of the construction of the effigy is unknown ; but there is an old tradition to the effect that the artist had the use of a posthumous cast of the face of his subject. If this were the case, it may be safely assumed that when John Hall, the executor and son-in-law, was in London in June, a few weeks after Shakespeare's decease, he took the opportunity of leaving the cast in the hands of a person on whom he thought that he could best rely for the production of a satisfactory likeness. He accordingly selected an individual whose place of business was near the western door of St. Sa- viour's church, within a few minutes walk of the Globe Theatre, and therefore one to whom the poet's appearance was no doubt familiar. The name of this sculptor was Gerard Johnson, the son of a native of Amsterdam who had settled in England as < a tombe-maker ' in the previous reign, and who had died at Southwark a few years previously. " The exact time at which the monument was erected in the church is unknown, but it is alluded to by Leonard Digges as being there in the year 1623. The bust must, therefore, have been submitted to the approval of the Halls, who could hardly have been satisfied with a mere fanci- ful image. There is, however, no doubt that it was an authentic representation of the great dramatist ; but it has unfortunately been so tampered with in modern times that much of the absorbing interest with which it would WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. 195 otherwise have been surrounded has evaporated. It was originally painted in imitation of life, — the face and hands of the usual flesh colour, the eyes a light hazel, and the hair and beard auburn. The realization of the costume was similarly attempted by the use of scarlet for the doublet, black for the loose gown, and white for the collar and wristbands. But colours on stone are only of temporary endurance ; and not only had so large a portion of them disappeared in the lapse of a hundred and thirty years, but so much decay was observable in parts of the effigy that it was considered advisable in 1748 to have it entirely renovated. It is of course impossible at this day to assess the extent of the mischief that may have been perpetrated on that occasion ; but that it was very considerable may be inferred from a contemporary account of the directions given to the artist, who was instructed to ' beautify ' as well as ' repair/ and to make the whole 'as like as possible to what it was when first erected.' The bust, which represents the poet in the act of composi- tion, had also been deprived of the fore-finger of the right hand, a pen, and a fragment of the adjoining thumb, — all of which were restored at the same time in new material. After a while these pieces of stone again fell off ; and two of them, those belonging to the finger and thumb, the pen thenceforth being represented by a quill, were refashioned by one William Roberts, of Oxford, in 1790 ; and shortly afterwards, that is to say, in 1793, Malone persuaded the vicar to allow the whole of the bust to be painted in white. It remained in this last- mentioned state for many years, but in 1861 there was a second imitation of the original colouring. This step was induced by the seriously adverse criticism to which the operation of 1793 had been subjected ; but although the action then taken has been so frequently condemned, it did not altogether obliterate the semblance of an intel- lectual human being, and this is more than can be said 196 WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. of the miserable travesty which now distresses the eye of the pilgrim. " In estimating the degree of affection that suggested the order for this elaborate monument, it will be desirable to bear in mind the strong Puritanical tendencies of the Halls. They were members of a sect who held everything connected with the stage in wild abhorrence ; so that it must have required all the courage inspired by a loving memory to have dictated the erection not only of an unusually handsome memorial, but of one which pro- claimed, in the midst of their religious community, the transcendent literary merits of a dramatist. Upon a rectangular tablet, placed below the bust, are engraven the following lines : — IYDICIO PYLIVM, GENIO SGCRATEM, ARTE MARONEM, TERRA TEGIT, PGPVLVS M.ERET, GLYMPVS HABET. STAY PASSENGER, WHY GGEST THOV BY SO FaST, READ, IF THOV CANST, WHOM ENVIOVS DEATH HATH PLAST WITHIN THIS MONVMENT, SHAKSPEARE, WITH WHOME QVICK NATVRE DIDE ; WHOSE NAME DOTH DECK YS. TOMBE FAR MORE THEN COST ; SITH ALL YT. HE HATH WRITT LEAVES LIVING ART BVT PAGE TO SERVE HIS WITT. obiit ano. doi 1616. jEtatis 53. die 23 ap. " It is not likely that these verses were composed either by a Stratfordian, or by any one acquainted with their destined position, for otherwise the writer could hardly have spoken of Death having placed Shakespeare ' within this monument.' However that may be, it is certain that they must have been inscribed with the full sanction of his eldest daughter, who, according to tradition, was at the sole expense of the memorial." (H.-F. i. 271, 274, 275, 279, 281.) WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. 197 Nicholas Eowe wrote the first biography of Shakespeare. It was published in 1709. A part of it is taken up with an examination of the plays. The biographical portion is copied below, with the exception of the two or three extracts already given : — " It seems to be a kind of respect due to the memory of excellent men, especially of those whom their wit and learning have made famous, to deliver some account of themselves, as well as their works, to posterity. For this reason, how fond do we see some people of discovering any little personal story of the great men of antiquity, their families, the common accidents of their lives ; and even their shape, make, and features have been the subject of critical enquiries. How trifling soever this curiosity may seem to be, it is certainly very natural; and we are hardly srtisfy'd with an account of any remarkable person till we have heard him describ'd even to the very cloaths he wears. As for what relates to men of letters, the know- ledge of an author may sometimes conduce to the better understanding his book ; and tho' the works of Mr. Shake- spear may seem to many not to want a comment, yet I fancy some little account of the man himself may not be thought improper to go along with them. " He was the son of Mr. John Shakespear, and was born at Stratford-upon-Avon, in Warwickshire, in April, 1564. His family, as appears by the register and publick writ- ings relating to that town, were of good figure and fashion there, and are mention'd as gentlemen. His father, who was a considerable dealer in wool, had so large a family, ten children in all, that, tho' he was his eldest son, he could give him no better education than his own employ- ment. He had bred him, 't is true, for soiiib time at a free-school, where 't is probable he acquir'd that little Latin he was master of ; but the narrowness of his 198 WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. circumstances, and the want of his assistance at home, forc'd his father to withdraw him from thence, and unhappily prevented his further proficiency in that language. " Upon his leaving school, he seems to have given in- tirely into that way of living which his father propos'd to him ; and in order to settle in the world after a family manner, he thought fit to marry while he was yet very young. His wife was the daughter of one Hathaway, said to have been a substantial yeoman in the neigh- bourhood of Stratford. In this kind of settlement he continu'd for some time, till an extravagance that he was guilty of forc'd him both out of his country and that way of living which he had taken up ; and tho' it seem'd at first to be a blemish upon his good manners, and a mis- fortune to him, yet it afterwards happily prov'd the oc- casion of exerting one of the greatest genius's that ever was known in dramatick poetry. He had, by a mis- fortune common enough to young fellows, fallen into ill company ; and amongst them, some that made a frequent practice of deer-stealing engag'd him with them more than once in robbing a park that belong'd'to Sir Thomas Lucy of Cherlecot, near Stratford. For this he was prosecuted by that gentleman, as he thought, somewhat too severely ; and in order to revenge that ill usage, he made a ballad upon him. And tho' this, probably the first essay of his poetry, be lost, yet it is said to have been so very bitter that it redoubled the prosecution against him to that degree that he was obliged to leave his business and family in Warwickshire for some time, and shelter himself in London. " It is at this time, and upon this accident, that he is said to have made his first acquaintance in the play-house. He was receiv'd into the company then in being at first in a very mean rank ; but his admirable wit, and the natural turn of it to the stage, soon distinguish'd him, if not as an WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. 199 extraordinary actor, yet as an excellent writer. His name is printed, as the custom was in those times, amongst those of the other players, before some old plays, but without any particular account of what sort of parts he us'd to play ; and tho' I have inquir'd, I could never meet with any further account of him this way than that the top of his performance was the ghost in his own Hamlet. I should have been much more pleas'd to have learn'd, from some certain authority, which was the first play he wrote ; it would be without doubt a pleasure to any man, curious in things of this kind, to see and know what was the first essay of a fancy like Shakespear's. Perhaps we are not to look for his beginnings, like those of other authors, among their least perfect writings. Art had so little and Nature so large a share in what he did, that, for ought I know, the performances of his youth, as they were the most vigorous and had the most tire and strength in 'em, were the best. I would not be thought by this to mean that his fancy was so loose and extravagant as to be independent of the rule and government of judgment; but that what he thought was commonly so great, so justly and rightly conceiv'd in itself, that it wanted little or no correction, and was immediately approv'd by an impartial judgment at the first sight. Mr. Dryden seems to think that ' Pericles ' is one of his first plays ; but there is no judgment to be form'd on that, since there is good reason to believe that the greatest part of that play was not written by him, tho' it is own'd some part of it cer- tainly was, particularly the last act. But tho* the order of time in which the several pieces were written be generally uncertain, yet there are passages in some few of them which seem to fix their dates. So the chorus in the beginning of the fifth act of ' Henry V.,' by a compliment very handsomely turn'd to the Earl of Essex, shows the play to have been written when that lord was general for the queen in Ireland ; and his elogy upon Queen Eliza- 200 WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. beth, and her successor King James, in the latter end of his ' Henry VIII.,' is a proof of that play's being written after the accession of the latter of those princes to the crown of England. Whatever the particular times of his writing were, the people of his age, who began to grow wonderfully fond of diversions of this kind, could not but be highly pleas'd to see a genius arise amongst 'em of so pleasurable, so rich a vein, and so plentifully capable of furnishing their favourite entertainments. Besides the advantages of his wit, he was in himself a good-natur'd man, of great sweetness in his manners, and a most agree- able companion ; so that it is no wonder if with so many good qualities he made himself acquainted with the best conversations of those times. Queen Elizabeth had several of his plays acted before her, and without doubt gave him many gracious marks of her favour. It is that maiden princess plainly whom he intends by ' a fair ves- tal, throned by the west ; ' and that whole passage is a compliment very properly brought in, and very hand- somely apply 'd to her. She was so well pleas'd with that admirable character of Falstaff in the two parts of ' Henry the Fourth,' that she commanded him to continue it for one play more, and to shew him in love. This is said to be the occasion of his writing the 'Merry Wives of Windsor.' How well she was obey'd, the play itself is an admirable proof. Upon this occasion it may not be improper to observe that this part of Falstaff is said to have been written originally under the name of Oldcastle ; some of that family being then remaining, the Queen was pleas'd to command him to alter it, upon which he made use of Falstaff. The present offence was indeed avoided ; but I don't know whether the author may not have been somewhat to blame in his second choice, since it is certain that Sir John Falstaff, who was a Knight of the Garter, and a lieutenant-general, was a name of distinguish 'd merit in the wars hi France in Henry the Fifth's and WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. 201 Henry the Sixth's times. What grace soever the Queen confer'd upon him, it was not to her only he ow'd the fortune which the reputation of his wit made. He had the honour to meet with many great and uncommon marks of favour and friendship from the Earl of South- ampton, famous in the histories of that time for his friendship to the unfortunate Earl of Essex. It was to that noble lord that he dedicated his • Venus and Adonis,' the only piece of his poetry which he ever publish'd him- self, tho' many of his plays were surrepticiously and lamely printed in his lifetime. There is one instance so singular in the magnificence of this patron of Shakespear's, that, if I had not been assur'd that the story was handed down by Sir William d'Avenant, who was probably very well acquainted with his affairs, I should not have ventur'd to have inserted : that my Lord Southampton at one time gave him a thousand pounds to enable him to go through with a purchase which he heard he had a mind to, — a bounty very great, and very rare at any time, and almost equal to that profuse generosity the present age has shown to French dancers and Italian eunuchs. " What particular habitude or friendships he contracted with private men I have not been able to learn, more than that every one who had a true taste of merit, and could distinguish men, had generally a just value and esteem for him. His exceeding candor and good-nature must certainly have inclin'd all the gentler part of the world to love him, as the power of his wit oblig'd the men of the most delicate knowledge and polite learning to admire him. Amongst these was the incomparable Mr. Edmond Spencer, who speaks of him, in his ' Tears of the Muses,' not only with the praises due to a good poet, but even lamenting his absence with the tenderness of a friend. The passage is in Thalia's complaint for the decay of dramatick poetry, and the contempt the stage then lay under. I know some people have been of opinion that 202 WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. Shakespear is not meant by ' Willy ' in the first stanza of these verses, because Spencer's death happen'd twenty years before Shakespear 's. But, besides that the char- acter is not applicable to any man of that time but him self, it is plain by the last stanza that Mr. Spencer does not mean that he was then really dead, but only that he had withdrawn himself from the publick, or at least withheld his hand from writing, out of a disgust he had taken at the then ill taste of the town and the mean condition of the stage. Mr. Dryden was always of opinion these verses were meant of Shakespear, and 't is highly prob- able they were so, since he was three and thirty years old at Spencer's death, and his reputation in poetry must have been great enough before that time to have deserv'd what is here said if him. " His acquaintance with Ben Jonson began with a remarkable piece of humanity and good-nature. Mr. Jonson, who was at that time altogether unknown to the world, had offer'd one of his plays to the players in order to have it acted ; and the persons into whose hands it was put, after having turn'd it carelessly and superciliously over, were just upon returning it to him with an ill-natur'd answer that it would be of no service to their company, when Shakespear luckily cast his eye upon it, and found something so well in it as to engage him first to read it through, and afterwards to recommend Mr. Jonson and his writings to the publick. After this they were pro- fess'd friends ; tho' I don't know whether the other ever made him an equal return of gentleness and sincerity. Ben was naturally proud and insolent, and in the days of his reputation did so far take upon him the supremacy in wit, that he could not but look with an evil eye upon any one that seem'd to stand in competition with him ; and if at times he has affected to commend him, it has always been with some reserve, insinuating his uncorrect- ness, a careless manner of writing, and want of judgment. WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. 203 The praise of seldom altering or blotting out what he ■writ, which was given him by the players who were the first publishers of his works after his death, was what Jonson could not bear ; he thought it impossible, perhaps, for another man to strike out the greatest thoughts in the finest expression, and to reach those excellences of poetry with the ease of a first imagination which himself with infinite labour and study could but hardly attain to. Jonson was certainly a very good scholar, and in that had the advantage of Shakespear; tho' at the same time I believe it must be allow'd that what Nature gave the latter was more than a ballance for what books had given the former ; and the judgment of a great man upon this occasion was, I think, very just and proper. . . . Jonson did indeed take a large liberty, even to the transcribing and translating of whole scenes together, and sometimes, with all deference to so great a name as his, not altogether for the advantage of the authors of whom he borrow'd ; and if Augustus and Virgil were really what he has made 'em in a scene of his * Poetaster,' they are as odd an emperor and a poet as ever met. Shakespear, on the other hand, was beholding to nobody further than the foundation of the tale ; the incidents were often his own, and the writ- ing intirely so. There is one play of his, indeed, the 6 Comedy of Errors,' in a great measure taken from the ' Menoechmi ' of Plautus. How that happened I cannot easily divine, since I do not take him to have been master of Latin enough to read it in the original, and I know of no translation of Plautus so old as his time. " ' T is not very easie to determine which way of writing he was most excellent in. There is certainly a great deal of entertainment in his comical humours ; and tho' they did not then strike at all ranks of people, as the satyr of the present age has taken the liberty to do, yet there is a pleasing and well-distinguish'd variety in those characters which he thought fit to meddle with. Falstaff is allow'd 204 WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. by everybody to be a masterpiece ; the character is always well sustain'd, tho' drawn out into the length of three plays ; and even the account of his death given by his old land- lady Mrs. Quickly, in the first act of ' Henry V.,' tho' it be extremely natural, is yet as diverting as any part of his life. If there be any fault in the draught he has made of this lewd old fellow, it is that tho' he has made him a thief, lying, cowardly, vainglorious, and in short every way vicious, yet he has given him so much wit as to make him almost too agreeable ; and I don't know whether some people have not, in remembrance of the diversion he had formerly afforded 'em, been sorry to see his friend Hal use him so scurvily when he comes to the crown in the end of the second part of 'Henry the Fourth.' Amongst other extravagances in the 'Merry Wives of Windsor,' he has made him a deer-stealer, that he might at the same time remember his Warwickshire prosecutor under the name of Justice Shallow ; he has given him very near the same coat-of-arms which Dugdale, in his * Antiqui- ties ■ of that county, describes for a family there, and makes the Welsh parson descant very pleasantly upon 'em. " ' Hamlet ' is founded on much the same tale with the ' Electra ' of Sophocles. In each of 'em a young prince is engag'd to revenge the death of his father ; their mothers are equally guilty, are both concern'd in the murder of their husbands, and are afterwards married to the mur- derers. I cannot leave < Hamlet ' without taking notice of the advantage with which we have seen this master- piece of Shakespear distinguish itself upon the stage by Mr. Betterton's fine performance of that part, — a man who tho' he had no other good qualities, as he has a great many, must have made his way into the esteem of all men of letters by this only excellency. No man is better acquainted with Shake spear's manner of expression ; and indeed he has study'd him so well, and is so much a master of him, that whatever part of his he performs, he does it WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. 205 as if it had been written on purpose for him, and that the author had exactly conceiv'd it as he plays it. I must own a particular obligation to him for the most consider- able part of the passages relating to his life which I have here transmitted to the publick, his veneration for the memory of Shakespear having engag'd him to make a journey into Warwickshire on purpose to gather up what remains he could of a name for which he had so great a value. " The latter part of his life was spent, as all men of good sense will wish theirs may be, in ease, retirement, and the conversation of his friends. He had the good fortune to gather an estate equal to his occasion, and in that to his wish, and is said to have spent some years before his death at his native Stratford. His pleasurable wit and good-nature engag'd him in the acquaintance, and entitled him to the friendship, of the gentlemen of the neighborhood. . . . He dy'd in the 53d year of his age, and was bury'd on the north side of the chancel, in the great Church at Stratford, where a monument is plac'd in the wall. . . . He had three daughters, of which two liv'd to be marry'd, — Judith, the elder, to one Mr. Thomas Quiney, by whom she had three sons, who all dy'd without children ; and Susannah, who was his favourite, to Dr. John Hall, a physician of good reputa- tion in that country. She left one child only, a daughter, who was marry'd first to Thomas Nash, esq., and after- wards to Sir John Bernard of Abbington, but dy'd like- wise without issue. This is what I could learn of any note either relating to himself or family. The character of the man is best seen in his writings. But since Ben Jonson has made a sort of an essay towards it in his < Discoveries,' tho', as I have before hinted, he was not very cordial in his friendship, I will venture to give it in his words : ' I remember the players,' etc." 206 WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. The following, also from Howe's Life, is taken from the Johnson-Steevens Shakespeare. It does not follow Rowe's orthography : — " His magick has something in it very solemn and very poetical ; and that extravagant character of Caliban is mighty well sustained ; shews a wonderful invention in the author, who could strike out such a particular wild image, and is certainly one of the finest and most uncom- mon grotesques that ever was seen. The observation, which I have been hrf ormed three very great men [Lord Falkland, Lord C. J. Vaughan, and Mr. Selden] concurred in making upon this part, was extremely just : That Shakespeare had not only found out a new character in his Caliban, but had also devised and adapted a new manner of language for that character.'' The End. 6 3 1 f ' - Deacidified using the Bookkeeper process. 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