Was born at Stratford-upon-Avon, in the county of Warwick, on the 23d of April, 1564. His father, John Shakespeare, was a glover, and at various times alderman and bailiff of the town; his mother, Mary Arden, was the daughter of an ancient but decayed family in the county. It is most likely that the poet received his education at the free-school of Stratford; and we have the assertion of Aubrey that he was for some time a schoolmaster, and the plausible conjecture of Malone, based upon the familiarity displayed in his writings with the technicalities of the law, that he likewise served in the office of an attorney. Nothing certain, however, is known of his youth, but that he married, soon after the 28th November, 1582, Anne Hathaway, of Stratford; and that their first child was christened on the 26th of May, 1583. Twins were born to them in 1585, soon after which event Shakespeare went to seek his fortune in London. The well known story that he left Stratford in order to avoid the consequences of stealing deer from the park of Sir Thomas Lucy at Charlecote rests upon a tradition, picked up by Betterton, the actor, some fifty years after the poet's death, and neither shaken nor strengthened by the diligence of many subsequent inquirers. We first hear of him in London in 1589, as a shareholder and player in the Blackfriars Theatre; and he had doubtless already commenced author, by altering or adapting the writings of others to the stage; for a passage in Spenser's "Tears of the Muses," in which he seems to be alluded to as 66 our pleasant Willy," proves that in 1591, when the poem was first printed, he had achieved a considerable reputation as a dramatist. In 1593 he published his poem of “Venus and Adonis,” and in 1594 that entitled Lucrece." Both works were dedicated to Henry Wriothesley, Earl of Southampton, who rewarded the author with a gift of a thousand pounds. It was this bounty, perhaps, which enabled him to become a leading shareholder in the New Globe Theatre on the bankside in Southwark, built by the Blackfriars company, and opened in 1595. In summer, the same company used to perform at a theatre at Newington Butts. Shakespeare remained on the stage till 1604, when his name ceases to be found amongst the actors. He continued, however, to live in London—near the Bear Garden in Southwark; and to write for the stage until 1612 or 1613, when he took up his permanent abode at Stratford. There his gains had been from time to time invested in a substantial house called the New Place, and built by Sir Hugh Clopton in the reign of Henry VII., some other detached tenements, a hundred and seven acres of land, a garden and orchard, and the great tithes of the parish-property which may have been worth between two and three hundred pounds a year. This property must have been acquired mainly by the representations of his plays, and his own exertions as an actor. From his printed dramas he seems to have derived no profit, nor to have looked for any fame; indeed, he seems neither to have been concerned in their publication, nor to have bestowed the least care in the revision of the text. His name was even affixed during his lifetime to several plays which his friends and fellow actors saw fit to exclude from the first collected edition printed by them in 1623. Of his sonnets, written, many of them, before 1598, though not printed until 1609, the dedication to "their only begetter," Mr. W. H., initials which have as yet never been deciphered, was signed, not by the author, but by the publisher, Thomas Thorpe. Aubrey was informed that Shakespeare "did act exceedingly well." But he certainly did not hold amongst actors the prominent place which he occupied amongst authors. In his own plays, he is said to have sustained the parts of the Ghost in “Hamlet,” and Adam in “As You Like It," he likewise acted in Ben Jonson's "Every Man in his Humour;" and his last recorded appearance on the stage was in that author's "Sejanus.” His person and manners are thus briefly described by Aubrey. "He was a handsome, well-shaped man, very good company, and of a ready, and pleasant, and smooth wit." He died at Stratford on the 23rd April, 1616, aged 53 years. By his widow, who survived him till 1623, he had three children: Susanna, married to Dr. Hall, a physician of some eminence; Hamnet, who died aged eleven in 1596; and Judith, the wife of Thomas Quiney, a wine merchant at Stratford. Elizabeth, daughter of Dr. Hall and widow of Sir John Bernard, who died at Abingdon in 1670, was the last lineal descendant of Shakespeare. -The poet was buried on the north side of the chancel of the great church of Stratford. Within seven years of his death a monument was erected there to his memory, containing his bust, and inscribed with these verses : Stay, Passenger, why goest thov by so fast? Read, if thov canst, whom enviovs Death hath plast Leaves living art byt page to serve his witt Obiit ano Doi. 1616. Ætatis. 53. die 23 Apr." The house of New Place passed to the Poet's daughter, Mrs. Hall; and while in the possession of her daughter, was for three weeks the residence of Queen Henrietta Maria in 1643. It afterwards reverted to the Cloptons, descendants of Sir Hugh, and at last fell into the hands of the Rev. Francis Gastrell, vicar of Frodsham, in Cheshire. Quarrelling with the magistrates of Stratford in 1756, this divine immortalized himself by razing the building to the ground, having previously cut down a mulberry tree in the garden, planted, according to the tradition, by the hand of Shakespeare. The Dedication prefixed to the Folio of 1623. To the most Noble and Incomparable Paire ask'd to be yours. We have but collected of Brethren. William Earle of Pembroke, them, and done an office to the dead, to &c. Lord Chamberlaine to the Kings most Excellent Maiesty. And Philip Earle of Montgomery, &c. Gentleman of his Maiesties Bed-Chamber. Both Knights of the most Noble Order of the Garter, and our singular good Lords. Right Honourable, Whilst we studie to be thankful in our particular, for the many fauors we haue receiued from your L. L we are falne vpon the ill fortune, to mingle two the most diuerse things that can bee, feare, and rashnesse; rashnesse in the enterprize, and feare of the successe. For, when we valew the places your H. H. sustaine, we cannot but know their dignity greater, then to descend to the reading of these trifles: and, while we name them trifles, we haue depriu'd our selues of the defence of our Dedication. But since your L. L. have beene pleas'd to thinke these trifles something, heeretofore; and have prosequuted both them, and their Author liuing, with so much fauour: we hope, that (they outliuing him, and he not having the fate, common to some, to be exequutor to his owne writings) you will vse the like in dulgence toward them, you haue done vnto their parent. There is a great difference, whether any booke choose his Patrones, or finde them: This hath done both. For, so much were your L. L. likings of the seuerall parts, when they were acted, as before they were published, the Volume procure his Orphanes, Guardians; without ambition either of selfe-profit, or fame: onely to keepe the memory of so worthy a Friend, and Fellow aliuc, as was our SHAKESPEARE, by humble offer of his playes, to your most noble patronage. Wherein, as we haue iustly obserued, no man to come neere your L. L. but with a kind of religious addresse; it hath bin the height of our care, who are the Presenters, to make the present worthy of yovr H. H. by the perfection. But, there we must also craue our abilities to be considered, my Lords. We cannot go beyond our owne powers. Country hands reach foorth milke, creame, fruites, or what they haue: and many Nations, (we haue heard) that had not gummes and incense, obtained their requests with a leauened Cake. It was no fault to approch their Gods, by what meanes they could: And the most, though meanest, of things are made more precious, when they are dedicated to Temples. In that name therefore, we most humbly consecrate to your H.H. these remaines of your seruant SHAKESPEARE; that what delight is in them, may be euer your L. L. the reputation his, & the faults ours, if any be committed, by a payre so carefull to shew their gratitude both to the liuing, and the dead, as is Your Lordshippes most bounden, JOHN HEMINGE. the Folio of 1623. FROM the most able, to him that can care, and paine, to have collected and but spell: There you are number'd. We publish'd them; and so to haue publish'd had rather you were weighd. Especially, them, as where (before) you were abus'd when the fate of all Bookes depends vpon with divers stolne, and surreptitious copies, your capacities: and not of your heads maimed, and deformed by the frauds and alone, but of your purses. Well! It is stealthes of iniurious impostors, that exnow publique, and you wil stand for your pos'd them: even those, are now offer'd priviledges wee know: to read, and censure. to your view cur'd, and perfect of their Do so, but buy it first. That doth best limbes; and all the rest, absolute in their commend a Booke, the Stationer saies. numbers, as he conceiued the: Who, as Then, how odde soeuer your braines be, or he was a happie imitator of Nature, was a your wisedomes, make your licence the most gentle expresser of it. His mind and same, and spare not. fudge your sixe- hand went together: And what he thought, pen'orth, your shillings worth, your fiue he vttered with that easinesse, that wee shillings worth at a time, or higher, so haue scarse receiued from him a blot in as you rise to the iust rates, and welcome. his papers. But it is not our prouince, But, whatever you do, Buy. Censure will who onely gather his works, and give not driue a Trade, or make the Iacke go. them you, to praise him. It is yours that And though you be a Magistrate of wit, reade him. And there we hope, to your and sit on the Stage at Black-Friers, or diuers capacities, you will finde enough, the Cock-pit, to arraigne Playes dailie, both to draw, and hold you: for his wit know, these Playes haue had their trial can no more lie hid, then it could be lost. alreadie, and stood out all Appeales; and Reade him, therefore; and againe, and do now come forth quitted rather by a againe: And if then you doe not like him, Decree of Court, then any purchas'd Let- surely you are in some manifest danger, ters of commendation. not to vnderstand him. And so we leaue you to other of his Friends, whom if you need, can bee your guides: if you neede them not, you can leade your selues, and others. And such Readers we wish him. It had bene a thing, we confesse, worthie to haue bene wished, that the Author himselfe had liu'd to haue set forth, and oueren his owne writings; But since it hath bin ordain'd otherwise, and he by death departed from that right, we pray you doe not envie his Friends, the office of their JOHN HEMINGE. To the Memory of the deceased Author, Master William Shakespeare. SHAKE-SPEARE, at length thy pious fellows give The world thy works; thy works, by which outlive Shall loath what's new, think all is prodigy That is not SHAKE-SPEARE'S, every line, each verse, Nor fire, nor cankering age, as Naso said Of his, thy wit-fraught book shall once invade: Nor shall I e'er believe or think thee dead, (Though miss'd) until our bankrout stage be sped Or till I hear a scene more nobly take, Than when thy half-sword parleying Romans spake: Till these, till any of thy volume's rest, Shall with more fire, more feeling, be express'd, Be sure, our SHAKE-SPEARE, thou cans't never die, L. DIGGES. |