to have been a highly respectable inhabitant of Stratford, and at the time of his decease21 he undoubtedly production of Shakespeare: see Mr. Halliwell's Life of Shakespeare, p. 162, folio ed. A Ms. vol. of poems, by Herrick and others, among Rawlinson's Collections in the Bodleian Library, Oxford, contains the following "EPITAPH. When God was pleas'd, the world unwilling yet, Elias James to nature payd his debt, And here reposeth: as he liv'd, he dyde; The saying in him strongly verefide, Such life, such death: then, the known truth to tell, He liv'd a godly life, and dyde as well. WM. SHAKESPEARE." In a Ms. volume of songs and poems collected by a Richard Jackson (which was formerly in the possession of Thorpe the bookseller) the song "From the rich Lavinian shore," &c., is called "Shakespeare's rime which he made at the Mytre in Fleete Streete.”—Mr. Collier, in his Hist. of English Dram. Poet. iii. 276, committed a trifling mistake in printing, as Shakespeare's, four lines concerning the wine at the Mitre, which he found attributed to our author in the same Ms. volume: they are merely four verses of Ben Jonson's cist Epigram, a little altered. A story of Shakespeare and some of his companions having accepted the challenge of the Bidford topers and sippers to drink with them, &c. was communicated to Malone by a native of Stratford, Life of Shakespeare, p. 500, sqq., and is related with some variations in Ireland's Picturesque Views, p. 229, sqq. Shakespeare, we are told, composed these lines on the occasion; "Piping Pebworth, Dancing Marston, Haunted Hillborough, and Hungry Grafton, To have done with such trash :-As Shakespeare was one day leaning over a mercer's door in his native town, a drunken blacksmith with a carbuncled face accosted him thus; "Now, Mr. Shakespeare, tell me, if you can, The difference between a youth and a young man :" The poet immediately answered; "Thou son of fire, with thy face like a maple, The same difference as between a scalded and a coddled apple." 21 July 10th, 1614.-"His principal residence was at the college [Stratford College,-very near New Place], which he purchased, about was on the best terms with Shakespeare, to whom he left a legacy of five pounds in token of esteem: we find, too, that Shakespeare bequeathed his sword to Thomas Combe, the nephew of John. If, therefore, we are to believe the tradition that Shakespeare in the hour of mirth extemporized some verses on his friend, we must also believe that they were void of offence against friendship. The absence of any allusion to theatres in Shakespeare's will, and his known prudence as a man of business, afford good grounds for assuming that, before he finally retired to Stratford, he had parted with the whole of his theatrical property, not choosing to rely on others for its management; and that consequently he sustained no loss by the destruction of the Globe Theatre, which was burnt down on the 29th of June 1613.22 It must have been, however, with deep con the year 1596, of the Crown," &c. Wheler's Guide to Stratford-uponAvon, p. 114; and his monument (executed, we are told, by Gerard Johnson,-Dugdale's Life, Diary, &c., p. 99, quoted infra), for the erection of which he had provided in his will, is yet to be seen in Stratford Church." In justice to this gentleman [John Combe] it should be remembered, that in the language of Shakespeare's age an usurer did not mean one who took exorbitant, but any, interest or usance for money; which many then considered as criminal. The opprobrious term by which such a person was distinguished, 'Ten in the hundred,' proves this; for ten per cent was the ordinary interest of money." Malone's Life of Shakespeare (note), p. 499. 22 The thatch caught fire from the wadding of the small cannon shot off during the performance of a piece, which Howes (Contin. of Stowe's Annales) and Thomas Lorkin (Letter, Ms. Harl. 7002) state to have been Henry the Eighth, while Sir Henry Wotton (Reliq. Wotton., p. 425, ed. 1685) says it was "a new play, called All is true, representing some principal pieces of the reign of Henry the 8th," &c. cern that he heard of a catastrophe by which his old associates suffered so severely: nor is it unlikely that he subsequently lent some assistance towards the rebuilding of the Globe, when, as we are told, the sovereign himself set the example of contributing money for that purpose.23-Of a very disastrous fire which broke out in Stratford on the 9th of July in the following year no more need be said than that it does not seem to have extended to the locality where Shakespeare dwelt. A project, at this time afoot, for enclosing certain common lands near Stratford, threatened to affect the interests of Shakespeare, both as regarded the property which he had bought from the Combes in 1602, and the tithes which he had purchased three years later. In a paper dated Sept. 5th, 1614, which sets forth the claims of the "Auncient ffreeholders in the ffields of old Stratford and Welcombe,"-viz. "Mr. Shakspeare," "Thomas Parker," " Mr. Lane," "Sir Frauncys Smyth," "Mace," "Arthur Cawdrey," and "Mr. Wright, vicar of Bishopton," the dramatist is mentioned thus: "Mr. Shakspeare 4 yard land, noe common nor grownd beyond Gospell-bushe, nor grownd in Sandfield, nor none in Slow-hill-field beyond Bishopton, nor none in the enclosures beyond Bishopton." 23 According to some Ms. Notes in a copy of Stowe's Annales, 1631, (formerly in the possession of Mr. Pickering the bookseller): "The Globe play house, on the Bank side in Southwarke, was burnt downe to the ground in the yeare 1612 [1613]. And new built up againe in the yeare 1613 [1614], at the great charge of King James and many noble men and others." And that he did not fail to take measures to save himself as far as possible from loss in the event of the enclosures being made, we have remarkable documentary evidence: "Coppy of the articles with Mr. Shakspeare. "Vicesimo octavo die Octobris, anno Domini 1614. Articles of agreement indented [and] made betwene William Shackespeare of Stretford in the County of Warwicke gent. on the one partye, and William Replingham of Greete Harborowe in the Countie of Warwick gent. on the other partie, the daye and yeare abovesaid. "Inter alia. Item, the said William Replingham for him, his heires, executours, and assignes, doth covenaunte and agree to and with the said William Shackespeare, his heires and assignes, That he the said William Replingham, his heires or assignes, shall, uppon reasonable request, satisfie, content, and make recompence unto him the said William Shackespeare or his assignes, for all such losse, detriment, and hinderance as he the said William Shackespeare, his heires and assignes, and one Thomas Greene gent. shall or maye be thought in the viewe and judgement of foure indifferent persons, to be indifferentlie elected by the said William and William and their heires, and in default of the said William Replingham, by the said William Shackespeare or his heires onely, to survey and judge the same to sustayne or incurre for or in respecte of the increasinge of the yearlie value of the tythes they the said William Shackespeare and Thomas doe joyntlie or severallie hold and enjoy in the said fieldes or anie of them, by reason of anie inclosure or decaye of tyllage there ment and intended by the said William Replingham; and that the said William Replingham and his heires shall procure such sufficient securitie unto the said William Shackespeare and his heires for the performance of theis covenauntes, as shal bee devised by learned counsell. In witnes whereof the parties abovsaid to theis presentes interchangeablie their handes and seales have put, the daye and yeare first above wrytten. "Sealed and delivered in the presence of us, Tho. Lucas, Jo. Rogers, Anthonie Nasshe, Mich. Olney." To the scheme of enclosure,-among the chief promoters of which was William Combe,-the Corporation of Stratford were strongly opposed (contending that it would increase the distress of the poorer classes, already suffering from the fire which, as mentioned above, had broken out in July); and their clerk, Thomas Greene, a lawyer and some relation to Shakespeare,24 was in London on this business, when he made the following memorandum: "1614. Jovis, 17 No. My cosen Shakspear comyng yesterdy to town, I went to see him how he did. He 24 The relationship between the Greenes and the Shakespeares has not yet been traced. (In the Stratford burial-register is the entry, "1589 [-90], March 6. Thomas Greene, alias Shakspere.") The word "cousin,” which Greene applies to Shakespeare, was formerly equivalent to kinsman.—This matter of the enclosures concerned Greene personally; for we have seen that he, as well as Shakespeare, was a tithe-holder. |