St. Saviour's, "with a forenoone knell of the great bell." It may fairly be assumed that the burial in the church, a mark of respect which was seldom paid to an actor, and which added very considerably to the expenses of the funeral, resulted from the poet's own affectionate directions; while the selection of the morning for the ceremony, then unusual at St. Saviour's, may have arisen from a wish to give some of the members of the Globe company the opportunity of attendance. Edmund Shakespeare was in the twenty-eighth year of his age at the time of his death, and is described in the register as a player. There can be little doubt that he was introduced to the stage by the great dramatist, but, from the absence of professional notice of him, it may be concluded that he did not attain to much theatrical eminence.

Elizabeth, the only child of the Halls, was born in February, 1608, an event which conferred on Shakespeare the dignity of grandfather. The poet lived to see her attain the engaging age of eight, and the fact of his entertaining a great affection for her does not require the support of probability derived from his traditionally recorded love of children. If he had not been extremely fond of the little girl, it is not likely that he would have specifically bequeathed so mere a child nearly the whole of his plate in addition to a valuable contingent interest in his pecuniary estate. It appears, from the records of some chancery proceedings, that she inherited in after life the shrewd business qualities of her grandfather, but, with this exception, nothing is known of her disposition or character.

In the spring of the year 1608, the apparently inartificial drama of Pericles was represented at the Globe Theater.

It seems to have been well received, and Edward Blount, a London bookseller, lost no time in obtaining the personal sanction of Sir George Buck, the Master of the Revels, for its publication, but the emoluments derived from the stage performances were probably too large for the company to incur the risk of their being diminished by the circulation of the printed drama. Blount was perhaps either too friendly or too conscientious to persist in his designs against the wishes of the actors, and it was reserved for a less respectable publisher to issue the first edition of Pericles early in the following year, 1609, an impression followed by another surreptitious one in 1611. As Blount, the legitimate owner of the copyright, was one of the proprietors of the first folio, it may safely be inferred that the editors of that work did not consider that the poet's share in the composition of Pericles was sufficiently large to entitle it to a place in their collection. This curious drama has, in fact, the appearance of being an earlier production, one to which, in its present form, Shakespeare was merely responsible for a number of re-castings and other improvements.

About the time that Pericles was so well received at the Globe, the tragedy of Antony and Cleopatra was in course of performance at the same theater, but, although successful, it did not equal the former in popularity. It was, however, sufficiently attractive for Blount to secure the consent of the Master of the Revels to its publication, and also for the company to frustrate his immediate design.

Almost simultaneously with the contemplated publication of the admirable tragedy last mentioned, an insignificant piece, of some little merit but no dramatic

power, entitled The Yorkshire Tragedy, was dishonestly introduced to the public as having been "written by W. Shakespeare." It was "printed by R. B. for Thomas Pavier" in 1608, the latter being a well-known unscrupulous publisher of the day, but it is of considerable interest as one of the few domestic tragedies of the kind and period that have descended to us, as well as from the circumstance of its having been performed by Shakespeare's company at the Globe Theater. When originally produced, it appears to have had the title of All's One, belonging to a series of four diminutive plays that were consecutively acted by the company as a single performance in lieu of a regular five-act-drama. This was a curious practice of the early stage of which there are several other examples. The Yorkshire Tragedy, the only one of this Globe series now preserved, was founded on a real occurrence which happened in the spring of the year 1605,-one of those exceptionally terrible murders that every now and then electrify and sadden the public. A Yorkshire squire of good family, maddened by losses resulting from a career of dissipation, having killed two of his sons, unsuccessfully attempted the destruction of his wife and her then sole remaining child. The event created a great sensation in London at the time, and it is most likely that this drama on the subject was produced at the theater shortly after the occurrence, or, at least, before the public excitement respecting it had subsided. This is probable, not merely from the haste with which it was apparently written, but from its somewhat abrupt termination indicating that it was completed before the execution of the murderer at York in August, 1605. It appears to have been the crim

inal's professed object to blot out the family in sight of their impending ruin, intending perhaps to consummate the work by suicide, but he exhibited at the last some kind of desire to atone for his unnatural cruelty. In order to save the remnant of the family estates for the benefit of his wife and surviving child, he refused to plead to the indictment, thus practically electing to suffer the then inevitable and fearful alternative of being pressed to death.

It is not unlikely that the publisher of The Yorkshire Tragedy took advantage of the departure of Shakespeare from London to perpetrate his nominated fraud, for the poet's company were traveling on the southern coast about the time of its appearance. A few months later the great dramatist was destined to lose his mother, the Mary Arden of former days, who was buried at Stratford-on-Avon on September 9, 1608. He would naturally have desired, if possible, to attend the funeral, and it is nearly certain that he was at his native town in the following month. On October 16 he was the principal godfather at the baptism of the William Walker to whom, in 1616, he bequeathed "twenty shillings in gold." This child was the son of Henry Walker, a mercer and one of the aldermen of the town. It should be added that the King's Servants were playing at Coventry on the twenty-ninth of the last-named month, and that they acted in the same year upon some unknown occasion at Marlborough.

The records of Stratford exhibit the poet, in 1608 and 1609, engaged in a suit with a townsman for the recovery of a debt. In the August of the former year he commenced an action against one John Addenbroke, but it then seems to have been in abeyance for a time, the first precept for a jury in the cause being dated December 21,

1608; after which there was another delay, possibly in the hope of the matter being amicably arranged, a peremptory summons to the same jury having been issued on February 15, in the following year. A verdict was then given in favor of the poet for £6 and £1. 4s. costs, and execution went forth against the defendant; but the sergeant-at-mace returning that he was not to be found within the liberty of the borough, Shakespeare proceeded against a person of the name of Horneby, who had become bail for Addenbroke. This last process is dated on June 7, 1609, so that nearly a year elapsed during the prosecution of the suit. It must not be assumed that the great dramatist attended personally to these matters, although of course the proceedings were carried on under his instructions. The precepts, as appears from memoranda in the originals, were issued by the poet's cousin, Thomas Greene, who was then residing, under some unknown conditions, at New Place.

The spring of the year 1609 is remarkable in literary history for the appearance of one of the most singular volumes that ever issued from the press. It was entered at Stationers' Hall on May 20, and published by one Thomas Thorpe under the title of Shake-speares Sonnets, neuer before imprinted,—the first two words being given in large capitals, so that they might attract their full share of public notice. This little book, a very small quarto of forty leaves, was sold at what would now be considered the trifling price of five-pence. The exact manner in which. these sonnets were acquired for publication remains a mystery, but it is most probable that they were obtained from one of the poet's intimate friends who alone would be likely to have copies, not only of so many of those pieces but also one of The Lover's Complaint. However that