In 1604 an action was brought by Shakespeare in the Court of Record at Stratford against Philip Rogers to recover a debt of 17. 15s. 10d. At different times between March and the end of May in that year, Shake Charles II., would in his younger days come to London to visit his brother Will, as he called him, and be a spectator of him as an actor in some of his own plays. This custom, as his brother's fame enlarged, and his dramatick entertainments grew the greatest support of our principal, if not of all our theatres, he continued, it seems, so long after his brother's death as even to the latter end of his own life. The curiosity at this time of the most noted actors [exciting them] to learn something from him of his brother, &c., they justly held him in the highest veneration: and it may be well believed, as there was besides a kinsman and descendant of the family, who was then a celebrated actor amongst them, this opportunity made them greedily inquisitive into every little circumstance, more especially in his dramatick character, which his brother could relate of him. But he, it seems, was so stricken in years, and possibly his memory so weakened with infirmities (which might make him the easier pass for a man of weak intellects), that he could give them but little light into their enquiries; and all that could be recollected from him of his brother Will in that station was, the faint, general, and almost lost ideas he had of having once seen him act a part in one of his own comedies, wherein being to personate a decrepit old man, he wore a long beard, and appeared so weak and drooping and unable to walk, that he was forced to be supported and carried by another person to a table, at which he was seated among some company, who were eating, and one of them sung a song." Oldys's Mss. In the preceding account one of Shakespeare's younger brothers" has been thought to mean Gilbert (of whose burial there is no entry in the register): most probably, however, Gilbert (who, if alive " some years after the Restoration," would have been nearly a century old) was dead in 1616, since he is not noticed in the poet's will:—and at that date the other brothers of Shakespeare are known to have been dead. By "a kinsman and descendant of the family, who was then a celebrated actor amongst them," is evidently meant the distinguished tragedian Charles Hart: but of his relationship to the Harts of Stratford no proof exists; and perhaps he has been confounded by Oldys's informant with William Hart, the eldest son of Shakespeare's sister Joan, who is supposed to have been the actor of that name mentioned in two warrants of the time of Charles the Second, and who was buried at Stratford, March 29th, 1639.-"A traditional story was current some years ago about Stratford,—that a very old man of that place,-of weak intellects, but yet speare had sold to Rogers as much malt as amounted to the value of 17. 19s. 10d.; and he had also, on June 25th, lent him two shillings: of all this debt Rogers had paid only six shillings; hence the action.-Pity that, for want of better materials, the poet's biographers should have to enter on such insignificant details! The quarto of Hamlet, 1603, which had so grossly misrepresented the author's text, was superseded by a more correct edition in 1604,-" enlarged to almost as much againe as it was, according to the true and perfect coppie." It has been shown that as early as Jan. 1597-8,3 there was talk at Stratford of Shakespeare's "dealing in the matter of our tithes:" but the business came to no issue till 1605, when he purchased a moiety of a lease, granted in 1544 for ninety-two years, of the tithes, great and small, of Stratford, Old Stratford, Bishopton, and Welcombe. The indenture executed between "Raphe Husbande of Ippesly in the countye of Warwick esquier on thone parte, and William Shakespeare, of Stratford uppon Avon in the saied countie of Warwick, gentleman, on thother parte," is dated July 24th; and for this purchase, the greatest he is known to have made, Shakespeare paid down four hundred and forty pounds. related to Shakespeare,-being ask'd by some of his neighbours, what he remember'd about him; answered,-that he saw him once brought on the stage upon another man's back; which answer was apply'd by the hearers to his having seen him perform in this scene [As you like it, act ii. sc. 7] the part of Adam," &c. Capell's Notes, &c. vol. i. part i. p. 60. 3 See p. 63. In a "Certificate of the names and arms of trained soldiers within the Hundred of Barlichway, co. Warwick, taken at Alcester, before Sir Fulk Greville, Sir Edw. Greville, and Tho. Spencer," dated Sept. 23d, 1605, "the name of William Shakespere occurs in the list of soldiers of the town of Rowington ;" and (though Shakespeares abounded in Warwickshire) it is by no means unlikely that the said "William Shakespere" was our dramatist, who at that troubled period-somewhat more than a month before the discovery of the Gunpowder Plot-may have joined a band of soldiers, ready, in case of emergency, to defend the state. Our author's King Henry the Eighth would seem to have been produced not long after the accession of James, who is elaborately complimented towards the conclusion of the play;5 and his Macbeth, which also contains a flattering allusion to the reigning monarch, was probably brought upon the stage about 1606. The tradition that King James, on some occasion, wrote with his own hand "an amicable letter"7 * Calendar of State Papers, Domestic Series, of the reign of James I. 1603-1610, edited by Mrs. Green, 1857, p. 234.-A writer in The Athenæum for August 15th, 1857, remarks on the above extract; "The date is Septr. 23, 1605, the year of the Gunpowder Plot; and the lists were possibly prepared through instructions issued by Cecil in consequence of secret information as to the working of the plot in Warwickshire,—the proposed head-quarters of the insurrection." 5 "Nor shall this peace sleep with her: but as when The bird of wonder dies," &c. • Act iv. sc. 1, "and some I see That two-fold balls and treble sceptres carry." "That most learned prince, and great patron of learning, King James the First, was pleased with his own hand to write an amicable to Shakespeare, is not to be dismissed as altogether unworthy of credit. Mr. Collier cannot believe "that James I. should have so far condescended:"8 but it is certain that the condescension of that monarch was frequently extreme, his familiarity most unkinglike; and perhaps the tradition concerning the letter is indirectly supported by the following entries in the Accounts of the Revels, which prove how highly the dramas of Shakespeare were relished at the court of James: "The Plaiers. By the kings By his Matis plaiers. By his Matis plaiers. The Poets which mayd the plaies. Hallamas Day being the first of The Sunday ffollowinge, A Play On St. Stiuens Night in the Hall Shaxberd. letter to Mr. Shakespeare; which letter, though now lost, remained long in the hands of Sir William D'Avenant, as a credible person, now living, can testify." Advertisement to Lintot's edition of Shakespeare's Poems, 1710.-Oldys, in a Ms. note on his copy of Fuller's Worthies, states that the Duke of Buckingham [Sheffield] told Lintot that he had seen the letter in the possession of Sir William Davenant. The late Mr. Boswell (Malone's Shakespeare, ii. 481, ed. 1821) printed, from a vol. of Ms. Poems in his possession, four lines entitled "Shakespeare upon the King:" but an earlier copy of them in the Ashmolean Museum, Ms. No. 38 (see Halliwell's Life of Shakespeare, p. 160, folio ed.), gives the name of their real author,-"Mr. Robert Barker, his Majestis printer." 8 Life of Shakespeare, p. ccxiv. first ed.: altered to "that James I. should have so done" in Mr. Collier's sec. ed. p. 183. By his Matis plaiers. By his Matis plaiers. By his Matis plaiers. By his Mati plaiers. A Play called Mesur for Mesur. On Inosents Night The Plaie of Shaxberd. Betwin Newers Day and Twelfe on the 7 of January was played On Shrousunday A play of the 24th, 1605.] By his Matis players. By the Kings players. The Kings players. [March On Shroutusday A Play cauled [King Lear was entered in the Hallomas nyght was presented The 5th of Nouember; A play called ye winters nightes Tayle. Shaxberd. Shaxberd. • Cunningham's Extracts from the Accounts of the Revels at Court, &c. (printed for the Shakespeare Soc.), pp. 203, 204, 205, 210. |