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WILLIAM SHAKSPEARE.

name of Shakspeare, which is mentioned by gan, among those 'syrnames imposed upon rst bearers of them for valour and feats of * is one of great antiquity in the woodland ts of Warwickshire. The family, thus rably distinguished, appears to have re| its origin either at Rowington or LapLong before the genius of our great tic poet had rendered their name a subject ional interest, the Shakspeares were estad among the more affluent inhabitants of villages, and thence several individuals of ce, from time to time, removed, and became s in the principal places of the county. er the most indefatigable researches Malone himself unable to trace the particular h of the family from which Shakspeare If descended, beyond his immediate an; but it is mentioned by Rowe, as being ood figure and fashion,'t in the town of ford. This statement is supported by the rity of a document, preserved in the Colof Heralds, conferring the grant of a coat ns on John Shakspeare, the father of the in which the title of gentleman is added to enomination; and it is stated, that his grandfather had been rewarded by king y the Seventh, for his faithful and approved es, with lands and tenements given him in parts of Warwickshire, where they have ued by some descents in good reputation redit.'

the estate which the royal munificence had thus conferred on his ancestor, it was insufficient for his wants; and he was obliged to have recourse to trade to increase the narrow measure of his patrimony. The traditional accounts that have been received respecting him are consistent in describing him as engaged in business, though they disagree in the nature of the employment which they ascribe to him. In the MS. notes which Aubrey had collected for a life of the poet, it is affirmed, that 'his father was a batcher;' while on the other hand, it is stated by Rowe that he was 'a considerable dealer in wool.' The truth of the latter report it is scarcely possible to doubt. It was received from Betterton the player, whose veneration for the poet induced him to make a pilgrimage to Warwickshire, that he might collect all the infor mation respecting the object of his enthusiasm which remained among his townsmen, at a time when such prominent facts as the circumstances and avocation of his parents could not yet have sunk into oblivion. § It is indeed, not improbable that both these accounts may be correct.

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Shakspeare's father inherited any portion of stances.

estitution of Decayed Intelligence, 4to. 1605.

WE's Life of Shakspeare.

rant of arms to John Shakspeare, made 1599. e, who always appears to have had a double obà his researches, first, to discredit all received ns respecting our poet and his family, and se, to introduce some fanciful conjecture of his suggests that these expressions relate not to acestor of John Shakspeare, but to the ancestor wife. His arguments are not devoid of plausibut what certainty can we ever hope to obtain

in the consideration of remote events, if the express authority of contemporary official documents is to be set aside by the questionable conjectures of the antiquarian?

Betterton was born in 1635. Shakspeare's youngest daughter lived till 1662, and his grand-daughter till 1670; and many of his relatives and connexions, the Harts and the Hathaways, were surviving at the time of Betterton's visit to Stratford.

|| See REED's Shakspeare, vol. 18. p. 346 347. Stee

veus' note.

having been a glover, which has been advanced | ley Street; in 1570 he rented fourteen acres of

in Malone's last edition of our author's works, I have no hesitation in dismissing. It is neither supported by tradition, nor probability; and the brief minute which the laborious editor discovered in the bailiff's court at Stratford, must have referred to some other of the innumerable John Shakspeares, whom we find mentioned in the wills and registers of the time.

The father of Shakspeare married, probably about the year 1555 or 1556, Mary the daughter of Robert Arden, of Willingcote, in the county of Warwick; by which connexion he obtained a small estate in land, some property in money,* and such accession of respectability as is derived from an equal and honourable alliance. The family of Mary Arden, like his own, was one of great antiquity in the county, and her ancestors also had been rewarded for their faithful and important services by the gratitude of Henry the Seventh. The third child, and the eldest son of this union, was the celebrated subject of the present memoirs.

WILLIAM SHAKSPEARE was born on the 23d of April, 1564, and baptized on the 26th of the same month.

At the time of the birth of his illustrious offspring, John Shakspeare evidently enjoyed no slight degree of estimation among his townsmen. He was already a member of the corporation, and for two successive years, had been nominated one of the chamberlains of Stratford.+ From this time he began to be chosen in due succession to the highest municipal offices of the borough. In 1569, he was appointed to discharge the important duties of high bailiff; and was subsequently elected and sworn chief alderman for the year 1571.

During this period of his life, which constitutes the poet's years of childhood, the fortune of Master John Shakspeare-for so he is uniformly designated in the public writings of the borough, from the time of his acting as high bailiff-perfectly corresponded with the station which we find him holding among his townsmen. His charities rank him with the second class of the inhabitants of Stratford. In a subscription for the relief of the poor, 1564, out of twentyfour persons, twelve gave more, six the same, and six less, than the poet's father; and in a second subscription, of fourteen persons, eight gave more, five the same, and one less. So early as 1556, he held the lease of two houses in the town, one in Green Hill, and the other in Hen

The whole was worth little more than 100%., at that time considered a fair provision for a daughter. He was admitted to the corporation probably in 1557. He was elected chamberlain in 1561.

From the sentiment and the language, this confession appears to be the effusion of a Roman Catholic mind, and was probably drawn up by some Roman Catholic priest. If these premises be granted, it will

land, called Ington Meadow: and we find him four years afterwards, becoming the purchaser of two additional houses in Henley Street, with a garden and orchard attached to each.

In this season of prosperity, Mr. John Shakspeare was not careless of the abilities of his child. His own talents had been wholly unimproved by education, and he was one of the twelve, out of the nineteen aldermen of Stratford, whose accomplishments did not extend to being able to sign their own names. This circumstance, by the bye, most satisfactorily establishes the fact, that he could not have written the confession of faith which was found in repairing the roof of his residence at Stratford. But, whatever were his own deficiences, he was careful that the talents of his son should not suffer from a similar neglect of education. William was placed at the Free School of Stratford: it is not uninteresting to know the names of the instructors of Shakspeare. They have been traced by the minute researches of Malone. Mr. Thomas Hunt, and Mr. Thomas Jenkins, were successively the masters of the school, from 1572 to 1580, which must have included the schoolboy days of our poet.

At this time, Shakspeare would have possessed ample means of obtaining access to all those books of history, poetry, and romance, with which he seems to have had so intimate an acquaintance, and which were calculated to attract his early taste, and excite the admiration of his young and ardent fancy; and he might also thus early have become imbued with a taste for the drama, by attending the performances of the different companies of players, the comedians of the Queen, of the Earl of Worcester, of Lord Leicester, and of other noblemen, who were continually making the Guildhall of Stratford, the scene of their representations. But he was soon called to other cares, and the discharge of more serious duties. The prosperity of his father was not of permanent duration. In 1578, Mr. John. Shakspeare mortgaged the estate which he had received from his wife; in the following year he was exempted from the contribution of fourpence a week for the poor, which was paid by the other aldermen; and that this exception in his favour was made in consequence of the pecuniary embarrassments under which he was known to labour, is manifest from his having been at the same period reduced to the necessity of obtaining Mr. Lambert's security for the pay

follow, as a fair deduction, that the family of Shakspeare were Roman Catholics.' Chalmers' Apology,

p. 198. The paper was found in 1770, and communicated to Malone; but are not the official situations held by Shakspeare's father in the borough conclusive against the opinion which Mr. Chalmers has grounded upon it?

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f a debt of five pounds, to Sadler, a baker.
epression of his circumstances is alluded
Rowe, and attributed to the expenses in-
1 to a large and increasing family; but in
tement, the real cause of his difficulties is
en. It has been ascertained, by the dili-
of Malone, that the family of Shakspeare's
was by no means numerous; for of his
children, five only attained to the years
urity.* The decay of his affairs was
ural consequence of the decline of the
of trade in which he was engaged. As a
pler, Mr. John Shakspeare had flourished
- as the business itself was prosperous;
h its failure, his fortunes had fallen into
He became involved in the gradual ruin
Fell on the principal trade of the place,
ich, in 1590, drew from the bailiff and
es of Stratford, a supplication to the Lord
er Burghley, lamenting the distresses of
n; for want of such trade as heretofore
d by clothinge, and making of yarne,
ng and mayntayninge a number of poore
by the same, which now live in great
and miserie, by reason they are not set
e, as before they have been.'t

s unfavourable state of the affairs of his Shakspeare was withdrawn from school; stance was wanted at home.' It was, I magine, at this juncture, that his father, er able to secure a respectable subsisor his wife and children, by his original a woolstapler, had recourse to the occupation of a butcher; and, if the tale Hed in fact, which Aubrey says 'he was etofore by some of his neighbours,' then have been, that Shakspeare began to his dramatic propensities, and when he calfe, would do it in a high style, and speech.'S

assistance, however, which the poet ren-
s father in his business, was not of long
He had just attained the age of
, when he married. The object of this
tachment was Anne, the daughter of
Hathaway, a substantial yeoman, in the
urhood of his native town. She was
ars older than her husband; and Oldys,
stating his authority, in one of his MSS.
s her as beautiful. It may be feared
s marriage was not perfectly happy.
family consisted of four sons and four daugh-
AN, died in infancy: MARGARET, when only
ths old. WILLIAM, was the poet: of GIL
thing is known but the date of his baptism,
he lived till after the restoration of Charles
nd: JoAN, married William Hart, a hatter,
ord; she died in 1646, leaving three sons:
794, one of Shakspeare's two houses, in Hen-
et, was the property of Thomas Hart, a but-
= sixth in descent from JOAN. ANN, died in
RICHARD, was buried in 1612-13. EDMUND,
ayer at the Globe; he lived in St. Saviour's,

From the celebrated passage in Twelfth Night, concluding with

Then let thy love be younger than thyself, Or thy affection cannot hold the bent,' we may suspect that Shakspeare, at the time of writing this, which was probably his last, play, had lived to repent his too early marriage, and the indulgence of an affection so much misgrafted in respect of years.' Such is the conjecture of Malone; but it is hardly fair to apply personally to the poet the general maxims that may be discovered in his works. His daughter Susanna was born in the following year. The parish register of Stratford informs us that within eighteen months afterwards his wife bore twins, a son and daughter, who were baptized by the names of Hamnet and Judith: and thus, when little more than twenty, Shakspeare had already a wife and three children dependant on his exertions for support.

Malone supposes that our author was at this time employed in an attorney's office, and gives a long list of quotations from his works, which shew how familiarly he was acquainted with the terms and the usages of the law, in support of his conjecture. As there are no other grounds for entertaining such a supposition; as testimony of the same nature, and equally strong, might be adduced to prove that Shakspeare was a member of almost every other trade or profession, for he was ignorant of none; and as the legal knowledge which he displays might easily have becn caught up in conversation, or indeed from experience in the quirks and technicalities of the law, during the course of his own and his father's difficulties; I have little hesitation in classing this among the many ingenious but unsound conjectures of the learned editor, and adopting the tradition of Aubrey respecting the avocation of this portion of his life. To satisfy the claims that were multiplying around him, Shakspeare endeavoured to draw upon his talents and acquirements as the source of his supplies, and undertook the instruction of children.**

The portion of classical knowledge that he brought to the task, has given occasion for much controversy, which it is now impossible to determine. The school at which he was educated, produced several individuals, among the contemporaries of our great poet, who were not deficient

and was buried in the church of that parish, on the 31st of December, 1607.-SKOTTOWE'S Life of Shak speare, vol. i. p. 7, 8.

+ Supplication to Lord Treasurer Burghley, Nov 9, 1590, preserved in the chamber at Stratford. Rowe's Life of Shakspeare.

AUBREY'S MS. Ashmol. Oxon.

BOSWELL's Shakspeare. Note to the 93d Sonnet.
BoswELL's Shakspeare, vol. ii. p. 112.

He understood Latin pretty well, for he had been in his younger years a schoolmaster in the country.'-AUBREY.

·

in learning; and, though he was prematurely withdrawn from their companionship, it would be difficult to believe, that with his quickness of apprehension, he could have mingled for any considerable time in their course of study, without attaining a proportionate share of their information. He understood Latin pretty well,' says Aubrey; and this account corresponds exactly with the description of his friend Ben Jonson, who speaks of him as one possessed of little Latin and less Greek.' Dr. Farmer, indeed, has proved, that translations of all the classics to which Shakspeare has referred, were already in circulation before he wrote; and that in most of his allusions to Greek and Latin authors, evident traces are discoverable of his having consulted the translation instead of the original. But this fact establishes very little: it might have proceeded from indolence, or from the haste of com position, urging him to the readiest sources of information, rather than from any incapacity of availing himself of those which were more pure, but less accessible. That he should appear unlearned in the judgment of Jonson, who, perhaps, measured him by the scale of his own enormous erudition, is no imputation on his classical attainments. A man may have made great advances in the knowledge of the dead languages, and yet be esteemed as having 'little Latin and less Greek,' by one who had reached those heights of scholarship, which the friend and companion of Shakspeare had achieved. It is a proof that his acquirements in the classic languages were considerable, or Jonson would scarcely have deemed them of sufficient value to be at all numbered among his qualifications. As to French, it is certain that he did not deal with translations only; for the last line of one of his most celebrated speeches, the Seven Ages of Man, in As you like it, is imitated from a poem called the Henriade, which was first published in 1594, in France, and never translated. Garnier, the author of it, is describing the appearance of the ghost of Admiral Coligny, on the night after his murder, at the massacre of St. Bartholomew, and introduces the following passage:—

Sans pieds, sans mains, sans nez, sans oreilles, suns yeux,

Meurtri de toutes parts.t

The verse of Shakspeare,

Sans teeth, sans eyes, suns taste, sans every thing,

scarcely exceeds the rules of legitimate translation; and the introduction and repetition of the French preposition, indicates that the coincidence was intentional, and stands as an acknowledgment of the imitation. Mr. Capel Lofft has,

Malone shews that the Quineys, Stratford men, and educated at the same school, were familiarly conversant with Latin, and even corresponded in hat language. BosWELL's edition of Malone's Shakspeare, vol. ii. p. 182.

perhaps, very fairly estimated the real extent of Shakspeare's literary acquirements: 'He had what would now be considered a very reasonable proportion of Latin; he was not wholly ignorant of Greck; he had a knowledge of the French so as to read it with ease; and I believe not less of the Italian. He was habitually conversant in the chronicles of his country. He had deeply imbibed the Scriptures.'—And again, in speaking of his Venus and Adonis and the Rape of Lucrece which were the first published efforts of Shakspeare's genius, Mr. Lofft continues: I think it not easy, with due attention to these poems, to doubt of his having acquired, when a boy, no ordinary facility in the classic language of Rome; and, when Jonson said he had "less Greek," had it been true that he had none, it would have been as easy for the verse as for the sentiment, to have said "no Greek."'

With these qualifications for the task, Shakspeare applied himself to the labour of tuition. But both the time and the habits of his life, rendered him peculiarly unfit for the situation. The gaiety of his disposition naturally inclined him to society; and the thoughtlessness of youth prevented his being sufficiently scrupulous about the conduct and the characters of his associates. 'He had by a misfortune, common enough to young fellows, fallen into ill company,' says Rowe ;S and the excesses into which they seduced him, were by no means consistent with that seriousness of deportment and behaviour which is expected to accompany the occupation that he had adopted. The following anecdote of these days of his riot, is still current at Stratford, and the neighbouring village of Bidford. I give it in the words of the author from whom it is taken. Speaking of Bidford, he says, 'there were anciently two societies of village-yeomanry in this place, who frequently met under the appellation of Bidford topers. It was a custom of these heroes to challenge any of their neighbours, famed for the love of good ale, to a drunken combat: among others, the people of Stratford were called out to a trial of strength, and in the number of their champions, as the traditional story runs, our Shakspeare, who forswore all thin potations, and addicted himself to ale as lustily as Falstaff to his sack, is said to have entered the lists. In confirmation of this tradition, we find an epigram written by Sir Aston Cockayn, and published in his poems in 1658, p. 124; it runs

thus:

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Sleeping) that there needed not many a word
To make him to believe he was a lord:

But you affirm (and in it seems most eager),
Twill make a lord as drunk as any beggar.
Bid Norton brew such ale as Shakspeare fancies
Did put Kit Sly into such lordly trances:
And let us meet there (for a fit of gladness),
And drink ourselves merry in sober sadness.

When the Stratford lads went over to Bidford, they found the topers were gone to Evesham fair; but were told, if they wished to try their strength with the sippers, hey were ready for the contest. This being acceded to, our bard and his companions were staggered at the first outset, when they thought it advisable to sound a retreat, while the means of retreat were practicable; and then had scarce marched half a mile, before they were all forced to lay down more than their arms, and encamp in a very disorderly and unmilitary form, under no better covering than a large crab-tree; and there they rested till morning.

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This tree is yet standing by the side of the road. If, as it has been observed by the late Mr. T. Warton, the meanest hovel to which Shakspeare has an allusion interests curiosity, and acquires an importance, surely the tree which has spread its shade over him, and sheltered him from the dews of the night, has a claim to our attention.

In the morning, when the company awakened our bard, the story says, they entreated him to return to Bidford, and renew the charge; but this he declined, and looking round upon the adjoining villages, exclaimed, "No! I have had enough; I have drank with

Piping Pebworth, Dancing Marston,
Haunted Hillbro', Hungry Gratten,
Dudging Exhall, Papist Wicksford
Beggarly Broom, and Drunken Bidford."

it fills us with regret, to find our immortal poet, with faculties so exalted, competing the bad pre-eminence in such abominable contests. It is some relief to know that though he erred in uniting himself with such gross associations, be was the first to retreat from them in disgust.

We can scarcely, at the present day, form a correct and impartial judgment of a subsequent offence, in which these mischievous connexions involved him as a party. The transgression, weighty as it would now be considered, appears to admit of great extenuation, on account of the manners and sentiments that prevailed at the time; and when we contemplate the consequences to which it led, we find it difficult to condemn with much severity of censure the occasion by which Shakspeare was removed from the intercourse of such unworthy companions, and by which those powerful energies of intellect were awakened in one, who might otherwise, perhaps, have been degraded in the course of vulgar sensualities, to an equality with his associates, or have attained to no higher distinction than the applauses of a country town.

One of the favourite amusements of the wild companions with whom Shakspeare had connected himself, was the stealing of 'deer and conies.' This violation of the rights of property, must not, however, be estimated with the rigour which would at the present day attach to a similar offence. In those ruder ages, the spirit of Robin Hood was yet abroad, and deer and coneystealing classed, with robbing orchards, among the more adventurous but ordinary levities of youth. It was considered in the light of an indiscretion, rather than of a criminal offence; and in this particular, the young men of Stratford were countenanced by the practice of the students of the Universities.† In these hazardous exploits, Shakspeare was not backward in accompanying his comrades. The person in whose neighbour

Of the truth of this story, I have very little doubt; it is certain, that the crab-tree is known all round the country by the name of Shak-hood, perhaps on whose property, these enspeare's crab; and that the villages to which the allusion is made, all bear the epithets here given them: the people of Pebworth are still famed for their skill on the pipe and tabor: Hilborough is now called Haunted Hillborough; and Grafton is notorious for the poverty of its soil.'*

croachments were made, was of all others the individual from whose hands they were least likely to escape with impunity in case of detection. Sir Thomas Lucy was a Puritan; and the severity of manners which has always characterized this sect, would teach him to extend very little indulgence to the excesses of Shakspeare and his wilful companions. He was besides a

The above relation, if it be true, presents us with a most unfavourable picture of the manners and morals prevalent among the youth of War-game preserver: in his place as a member of wickshire, in the early years of Shakspeare; and

• IRELAND'S Picturesque Views, p. 229–233. + Wood, speaking of Dr. John Thornborough, bishop of Worcester, and his kinsman, Robert Pinkey, says, they seldom gave themselves to their books, but spent their time in the fencing-schools and dancing-schools, in stealing deer, and conies, &c.'-Athen. Oxon. i. 371.

t Malone disputes the deer's having been stolen from Sir Thomas Lucy. Possibly the deer and conies' were not stolen from him; and he was only the magistrate that committed and punished the

parliament, he had been an active instrument in

offenders. Nothing, however, can be more uniform than the tradition that 'deer and conies' were really stolen from some one, by Shakspeare and his friends.. Mr. Jones, who died in 1703, aged upwards of ninety, and who lived at Turbich, a village about eighteen miles from Stratford, related the story to Mr. Thomas Wilks, and remembered to have heard it from several old people.'-Betterton was told it at Stratford, and communicated it to Rowe.-Oldys has the same story, so has Davies, whose additions to Fulman's Notes for a Life of Shakspeare were made in 1690

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