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Nothing further is heard of Mrs. Mary Shakespeare her death in 1608. On the 9th of September, that y the parish register notes the burial of "Mary Shakespe widow," her husband having died seven years before. T she had in a special degree the confidence and affection her father, is apparent from the treatment she received his will. It would be very gratifying, no doubt, perh very instructive also, to be let into the domestic life a character of the Poet's mother. That both her nature a her discipline entered largely into his composition, and h much to do in making him what he was, can hardly questioned. Whatsoever of woman's beauty and swe ness and wisdom was expressed in her life and mann could not but be caught and repeated in his susceptive a fertile mind. He must have grown familiar with t noblest parts of womanhood somewhere; and I can scar conceive how he should have learned them so well, but th the light and glory of them beamed upon him from 1 mother. At the time of her death, the Poet was in 1 forty-fifth year, and had already produced those migh works which were to fill the world with his fame. F some years she must in all likelihood have been more less under his care and protection; as her age, at the tin of her death, could not well have been less than seventy.

And here I am minded to notice a point which, it seer to me, has been somewhat overworked within the last fe years. Gervinus, the German critic, thinks-and our M White agrees with him- that Shakespeare acquired all h best ideas of womanhood after he went to London, ar conversed with the ladies of the city. And in support this notion they cite the fact for such it is-that th women of his later plays are much superior to those of h earlier ones. But are not the men of his later plays quit as much superior to the men of his first? Are not his late plays as much better every way, as in respect of the femal characters? The truth seems to be, that Shakespeare sa more of great and good in both man and woman, as he b

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came older and knew them better; for he was full of intel-
lectual righteousness in this as in other things. And in
this matter it may with something of special fitness be said
that a man finds what he brings with him the faculty for
finding. Shakespeare's mind did not stay on the surface
of things. Probably there never was a man more alive to
the presence of humble, modest worth. And to his keen
yet kindly eye the plain-thoughted women of his native
Stratford may well have been as pure, as sweet, as lovely,
as rich in all the inward graces which he delighted to un-
fold in his female characters, as any thing he afterwards
found among the fine ladies of the metropolis; albeit I
mean no disparagement to these latter; for the Poet was
by the best of all rights a gentleman, and the ladies who
pleased him in London doubtless had sense and womanhood
enough to recognize him as such. At all events, it is reason-
able to suppose that the foundations of his mind were laid
before he left Stratford, and that the gatherings of the boy's
eye and heart were the germs of the man's thoughts.

We have seen our Poet springing from what may be
justly termed the best vein of old English life. At the
time of his birth, his parents, considering the purchases
previously made by the father, and the portion inherited by
the mother, must have been tolerably well off. Malone,
reckoning only the bequests specified in her father's will,
estimated Mary Shakespeare's fortune to be not less than
£110. Later researches have brought to light considerable
items of property that were unknown to Malone. Sup-
posing her fortune to have been as good as £150 then, it
would go nearly if not quite as far as $5000 in our time.
So that the Poet passed his boyhood in just about that
medium state between poverty and riches which is ac-
counted most favourable to health of body and mind.

At the time when his father became High-Bailiff the
Poet was in his fifth year; old enough to understand some-
thing of what would be said and done in the home of an
English magistrate, and to take more or less interest in the

UNIVERSITY OF LICEUCANI I IDDADire

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duties, the hospitalities, and perhaps the gayeties inci to the headship of the borough. It would seem that Poet came honestly by his inclination to the Drama. 1 ing his term of office, John Shakespeare is found acting his public capacity as a patron of the stage. The cham lain's accounts show that twice in the course of that money was paid to different companies of players; these are the earliest notices we have of theatrical formances in that ancient town. The Bailiff and his William were most likely present at those performan From that time forward, all through the Poet's you probably no year passed without similar exhibitions Stratford. In 1572, however, an act was passed for straining itinerant players, whereby, unless they could sh a patent under the great seal, they became liable to proceeded against as vagabonds, for performing withou license from the local authorities. Nevertheless, the cha berlain's accounts show that between 1569 and 1587 no 1 than ten distinct companies performed at Stratford und the patronage of the corporation. In 1587, five of th companies are found performing there; and within 1 period just mentioned the Earl of Leicester's men noted on three several occasions as receiving money fr the town treasury. In May, 1574, the Earl of Leices obtained a patent under the great seal, enabling his playe James Burbadge and four others, to exercise their art in a part of the kingdom except London. In 1587, this co pany became "The Lord Chamberlain's servants"; and shall in due time find Shakespeare belonging to it. Jan Burbadge was the father of Richard Burbadge, the great actor of that age. The family was most likely from W wickshire, and perhaps from Stratford, as we have alrea met with the name in that town. Such were the oppor nities our embryo Poet had for catching the first rudimen of the art in which he afterwards displayed such learn mastery.

The forecited accounts have an entry, in 1564, of t

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The chamber

ourse of that year

of players; and of theatrical perBailiff and his son ose performances. he Poet's youth, ar exhibitions at as passed for re3 they could show came liable to be Forming without a theless, the cham

shillings "paid for defacing image in the chapel." Even
then the excesses generated out of the Reformation were
invading such towns as Stratford, and waging a "crusade
against the harmless monuments of the ancient belief; no
exercise of taste being suffered to interfere with what was
considered a religious duty." In these exhibitions of strol-
ling players this spirit found matter, no doubt, more de-
serving of its hostility. While the Poet was yet a boy, a
bitter war of books and pamphlets had begun against plays
and players; and the Stratford records inform us of divers
attempts to suppress them in that town; but the issue
proves that the Stratfordians were not easily beaten from
that sort of entertainment, in which they evidently took
great delight.

We have seen that both John and Mary Shakespeare, in-
stead of writing their name, were so far disciples of Jack
Cade as to use the more primitive way of making their
mark. It nowise follows from this that they could not
read; neither have we any certain evidence that they could.
Be this as it may, there was no good reason why their chil-
dren should not be able to say, "I thank God, I have been
so well brought up, that I can write my name." A Free-
School had been founded at Stratford by Thomas Jolyffe
in the reign of Edward the Fourth. In 1553, King Edward
the Sixth granted a charter, giving it a legal being, with
legal rights and duties, under the name of "The King's New
School of Stratford-upon-Avon." What particular course
or method of instruction was used there, we have no cer-
tain knowledge; but it was probably much the same as
that used in other like schools of that period; which in-
cluded the elementary branches of English, and also the
rudiments of classical learning.

and 1587 no less Stratford under 587, five of those and within the cester's men are ving money from Earl of Leicester bling his players, e their art in any 1587, this comvants"; and we ng to it. James Age, the greatest ikely from Warve have already ere the opportu e first rudiments ed such learned

n 1564, of two

Here it was, no doubt, that Shakespeare acquired the "small Latin and less Greek" which Ben Jonson accords to him. What was "small" learning in the eyes of such a scholar as Jonson, may yet have been something handsome in itself; and his remark may fairly imply that the Poet

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had at least the regular free-school education of the t Honourably ambitious, as his father seems to have been being somebody, it is not unlikely that he may have pr learning the more for being himself without it. Will was his oldest son; when his tide of fortune began to the Poet was in his fourteenth year, and, from his na qualities of mind, we cannot doubt that, up to that tim least, "all the learnings that his town could make him receiver of he took, as we do air, fast as 'twas minister and in his Spring became a harvest."

The honest but credulous gossip Aubrey, who died ab 1700, states, on the authority of one Beeston, that "Sha speare understood Latin pretty well, for he had been in younger years a schoolmaster in the country." The sta ment may fairly challenge some respect, inasmuch as p sons of the name of Beeston were connected with the sta before Shakespeare's death and long afterwards. And i not unlikely that the Poet may, at some time, have been assistant teacher in the free-school at Stratford. Nor d this conflict with Rowe's account, which states that Jo Shakespeare kept William at the free-school for some tin but that straitness of circumstances and need of help for him to withdraw his son from the school. Though writi from tradition, Rowe was evidently careful, and what says agrees perfectly with what later researches have est lished respecting John Shakespeare's course of fortune. also tells us that the Poet's father "could give him no bet education than his own employment." John Shakespea as we have seen, was so far occupied with agriculture as be legally styled a "yeoman." Nor am I sure but the : cient functions of an English yeoman's oldest son might a better education for what the Poet afterwards acco plished than was to be had at any free-school or univers in England. His large and apt use of legal terms a phrases has induced many good Shakespearians learned the law to believe that he must have been for some tim student of that noble science. It is indeed difficult

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