We have already inserted Spenser's warm, but not less judicious and well-merited, eulogium of Shakespeare in 1591, when in his "Tears of the Muses" he addresses him as Willy, and designates him "that same gentle spirit, from whose pen Large streames of honnie and sweete nectar flowe." If we were to trust printed dates, it would seem that in the same year the author of "The Faerie Queene" gave another proof of his admiration of our great dramatist: we allude to a passage in "Colin Clout's come home again," which was published with a dedication dated 27th December, 1591; but Malone proved, beyond all cavil, that for 1591 we ought to read 1594, the printer having made an extraordinary blunder. In that poem (after the author has -spoken of many living and dead poets, some by their names, as Alabaster and Daniel, and others by fictitious and fanciful appellations1) he inserts these lines: "And there, though last not least, is Ætion; A gentler shepherd may no where be found, Malone takes unnecessary pains to establish that this passage applies to Shakespeare, although he pertinaciously denied that "our pleasant Willy" of "The Tears of the Muses was intended for him. We have no doubt on either point; and it is singular, that it should never have struck Malone that the same epithet is given in both cases to the had been originally a printer, then became a bookseller, and, finally? a pamphleteer and dramatist. He was, in various degrees, concerned in about forty plays. 1 Malone, with a good deal of research and patience, goes over all the pseudo-names in "Colin Clout's come home again," applying each to poets of the time; but how uncertain and unsatisfactory any attempt of the kind must necessarily be may be illustrated in a single instance. Malone refers the following lines to Arthur Golding: "And there is old Palemon, free from spite, Whose careful pipe may make the hearers rue; Who sung so long, until quite hoarse he grew." The passage, in truth, applies to Thomas Churchyard, as he himself informs us in his "Pleasant Discourse of Court and Wars," 1596: he complains of neglect, and tells us that the Court is "The platform where all poets thrive, Save one whose voice is hoarse, they say; The stage, where time away we drive, In the same way we might show that Malone was mistaken as to other poets he supposes alluded to by Spenser; but it would lead us too far out of our way. No body has disputed, that by Etion, the author of "Colin Clout" meant Shakespeare. person addressed, and that epithet one which, at a subsequent date, almost constantly accompanied the name of Shakespeare. In "The Tears of the Muses" he is called a gentle spirit," and in " Colin Clout's come home again" we are told that, 66 "A gentler shepherd may no where be found." In the same feeling Ben Jonson calls him " my gentle Shakespeare," in the noble copy of verses prefixed to the folio of 1623, so that ere long the term became peculiarly applied to our great and amiable dramatist'. This coincidence of expression is another circumstance to establish that Spenser certainly had Shakespeare in his mind when he wrote his "Tears of the Muses" in 1591, and his " Colin Clout's come home again" in 1594. In the latter instance the whole description is nearly as appropriate as in the earlier, with the addition of a line, which has a clear and obvious reference to the patronymic of our poet: his Muse, says Spenser, 66 66 Doth, like himself, heroically sound." Of his These words alone may be taken to show, that between 1591 and 1594 Shakespeare had somewhat changed the character of his compositions: Spenser having applauded him, in his "Tears of the Muses," for unrivalled talents in comedy, (a department of the drama to which Shakespeare had, perhaps, at that date especially, though not exclusively, devoted himself) in his "Colin Clout" spoke of the "high thought's invention," which then filled Shakespeare's muse, and made her sound as "heroically" as his name. genius, in a loftier strain of poetry than belonged to comedy, our great dramatist, by the year 1594, must have given some remarkable and undeniable proofs. In 1591 he had perhaps written his "Love's Labour 's Lost" and "Two Gentlemen of Verona;" but in 1594 he had, no doubt, produced one or more of his great historical plays, his "Richard II." and "Richard III.," both of which, as before remarked, together with "Romeo and Juliet," came from the press in 1597, though the last in a very mangled, imperfect, and unauthentic state. One circumstance may be mentioned, as leading to the belief that "Richard III." was brought out in 1594, viz. that in that year an impression of "The True Tragedy of Richard the Third," (an older play than that of Shakespeare) was published, that it might be bought under the notion that it was the new drama by the most popular poet of the day, then in a course of representation. It is most probable that " Richard II." had been 1 In a passage we have already extracted from Ben Jonson's "Dis"coveries," he mentions Shakespeare's "gentle expressions;" but he is there perhaps rather referring to his style of composition. composed before "Richard III.," and to either or both of them the lines, "Whose Muse, full of high thought's invention, Doth, like himself, heroically sound," will abundantly apply. The difference in the character of Spenser's tributes to Shakespeare in 1591 and 1594 was occasioned by the difference in the character of his productions CHAPTER IX. The dramas written by Shakespeare up to 1594. New docnments relating to his father, under the authority of Sir Thomas Lucy, Sir Fulk Greville, &c. Recusants in Stratford-upon-Avon. John Shakespeare employed to value the goods of II. Field. Publication of "Venus and Adonis" during the plague in 1593. Dedication of it, and of "Lucrece," 1594, to the Earl of Southampton. Bounty of the Earl to Shakespeare, and coincidence between the date of the gift and the building of the Globe theatre on the Bankside. Probability of the story that Lord Southampton presented Shakespeare with 1000l. HAVING arrived at the year 1594, we may take this opportunity of stating which of Shakespeare's extant works, in our opinion, had by that date been produced. We have already mentioned the three parts of "Henry VI.," "Titus Andronicus," "The Comedy of Errors,” “The Two Gentlemen of Verona," and " Love's Labour's Lost," as in being in 1591; and in the interval between 1591 and 1594, we apprehend, he had added to them "Richard II." and "Richard III." Of these, the four last were entirely the work of our great dramatist: in the others he more or less availed himself of previous dramas, or possibly, of the assistance of contemporaries. We must now return to Stratford-upon-Avon, in order to advert to a very different subject. A document has been recently discovered in the State Paper Office, which is highly interesting with respect to the religious tenets, or worldly circumstances, of Shakespeare's father in 15921. Sir Thomas Lucy, Sir Fulk Greville, Sir Henry Goodere, Sir John Harrington, and four others, having been appointed commissioners to make inquiries "touching all such persons" as were "jesuits, semi We have to express our best thanks to Mr. Lemon for directing our attention to this inanuscript, and for supplying us with an analysis of its contents. VOL. 1.-J nary priests, fugitives, or recusantes," in the county of Warwick, sent to the Privy Council what they call their "second certificate," on the 25th Sept. 15921. It is divided into different heads, according to the respective hundreds, parishes, &c., and each page is signed by them. One of these divisions applies to Stratford-upon-Avon, and the return of names there is thus introduced: "The names of all sutch Recusantes as have bene hearto fore presented for not cominge monethlie to the church, according to her Majesties lawes, and yet are thought to forbeare the church for debt, and for feare of processe, or for some other worse faultes, or for age, sicknes, or impotencie of bodie." The names which are appended to this introduction are the following "Mr. John Wheeler, John Wheeler, his son, William Bainton, Richard Harrington, George Bardolphe2:" and opposite to them, separated by a bracket, we read these words:- "It is sayd, that these last nine coome not to churche for feare of processe of debte." Here we find the name of " Mr. John Shakespeare " either as a recusant, or as "forbearing the Church," on account of the fear of process for debt, or on account of "age, sickness, or impotency of body," mentioned in the introduction to the document. The question is, to which cause we are to attribute his absence; and with regard to process for debt, we are to recollect that it could not be served on Sunday, so that apprehension of that kind need not have kept him away from church on the Sabbath. Neither was it likely that his son, who was at this date profitably employed in London as an actor and author, and who three years before was a sharer in the Blackfriars theatre, would have allowed his father to continue so distressed for money, as not to be able to attend the usual place of divine worship". There 1 The first certificate has not been found in the State Paper Office, after the most diligent search. 2 Hence we see that Shakespeare took two names in his "Henry V." from persons who bore them in his native town. Awdrey was also a female appellation known in Stratford, as appears elsewhere in the same document. occu By an account of rents received by Thomas Rogers, Chamberlain of Stratford, in 1589, it appears that "John Shakespeare pied a house in Bridge-street, at an annual rent of twelve shillings, fore, although John Shakespeare was certainly in great pecuniary difficulties at the time his son William quitted Stratford, we altogether reject the notion that that son had permitted his father to live in comparative want, while he himself possessed more than competence. 66 Age, sickness, and impotency of body," may indeed have kept John Shakespeare from church, but upon this point we have no information beyond the fact, that if he were born, as Malone supposes, in 1530, he was at this date only sixty-two. With regard to his religious opinions, it is certain that after he became alderman of Stratford, on 4th July 1565, he must have taken the usual oath required from all protestants; but, according to the records of the borough, it was not administered to him until the 12th September following his election. This trifling circumstance perhaps hardly deserves notice, as it may have been usual to choose the corporate officers at one court, and to swear them in at the next. So far John Shakespeare may have conformed to the requirements of the law, but it is still possible that he may not have adopted all the new protestant tenets, or that having adopted them, like various other conscientious men, he saw reason afterwards to return to the faith he had abandoned. We have no evidence on this point as regards him; but we have evidence, as regards a person of the name of Thomas Greene, (who, although it seems very unlikely, may have been the same man who was an actor in the company to which Shakespeare belonged, and who was a co-sharer in the Blackfriars Theatre, in 1589) who is described in the certificate of the commissioners as then of a different parish, and who, it is added, had confessed that he had been reconciled to the Romish religion." The memorandum is in these terms: "It is here to be remembred that one Thomas Greene, of this parisshe, heretofore presented and indicted for a recusante, hath confessed to Mr. Pobt. Burgoyn, one of the commissioners for this service, that an ould Preest reconciled him to the Romishe religion, while he was prisoner in Worcester goale. This Greene is not everie day to be founde." On the same authority we learn that the wife of Thomas Greene was 66 a most wilful recusant;" and although we are nine shillings of which had been paid. Perhaps (as Malone thought) this was John Shakespeare, the shoemaker; because the father of the poet, having been bailiff and head-alderman, was usually styled Mr. John Shakespeare, as we have before remarked. However, it is a coincidence to be noted, that the name of John Shakespeare immediately follows that of Henry Fylde or Field, whose goods Mr. John Shakespeare was subsequently employed to value: they were therefore in all probability neighbours |