to turn his thoughts towards his birthplace, as the spot where he hoped to spend the evening of his days in honourable retirement. We are told-and why should we discredit the tradition ?-that he was in the habit of annually visiting Stratford, from which it would seem that his family never removed: and we may conclude that he was present, on August 11th, 1596, at the burial of his only son Hamnet, who died in his twelfth year.10-As actor, and dramatist, and perhaps as play-house proprietor, Shakespeare was now in the receipt of a considerable income; and he proceeded to lay out a portion of his well-earned gains on the purchase of a property at Stratford. Early in 1597 he bought, for sixty pounds, from William Underhill, one of the best houses in that town, called New Place,11

been the scrap which he discovered at Dulwich College, and which represents Shakespeare as having joined with ten other inhabitants of Southwark (not all of them the most respectable) in a complaint against some particular annoyance. But the fragment in question, which I inserted here in the former edition of this Memoir, has been declared by competent judges to be a forgery. See it in Appendix, No. V.

"He was wont to goe to his native countrey once a yeare." Aubry's Mss., Mus. Ashmol. Oxon.

10 On the back of the panel of a jury called on the occasion of a suit between a Margaret Younge and a Jane Perat, Nov. 1596, are some memoranda beginning

"Mr. Shaxpere, one boke.

Mr. Barber, a coverlet," &c. &c.

The "Mr. Shaxpere" was in all probability the poet, not his father; for a "boke" would have been a useless acquisition to the latter-who could not write his name. (See p. 16.)

11 1863. "The leading facts regarding New Place are these:

1st. New Place was built by Sir Hugh Clopton, temp. Henry VII., circ. 1490. He died in London, 1496, and, being a bachelor, devised it to his great-nephew, William Clopton, who died in 1521.

2nd. From the Clopton family it passed by purchase to the family of

said to have been originally built by Sir Hugh Clopton in the reign of Henry the Seventh: it was situated in Chapel-street ward,12 close to the Chapel of the Holy Trinity; and consisted of one messuage, two barns, and two gardens, with their appurtenances. The following note of the fine levied on the occasion is in the Chapter House, Westminster:

"Inter Willielmum Shakespeare quer. et Willielmum Underhill generosum deforc. de uno mesuagio, duobus horreis, et duobus gardinis, cum pertinentiis, in Stratford super Avon, unde placitum convencionis sum. fuit inter eos, &c. scilicet quod prædictus Willielmus Underhill recogn. prædicta tenementa cum pertinentiis esse jus ipsius Willielmi Shakespeare ut illa quæ idem Willielmus habet de dono prædicti Willielmi Underhill, et ill. remisit et quietclam. de se et hæred. suis prædicto Willielmo Shakespeare et hæred. suis in

Bott, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, 1563. [It was purchased by William Bott, a lawyer in practice at Stratford.]

3rd. By William Bott it was resold to Wm. Underhill, within a short space of time, between 1563 and 1570. [In Michaelmas Term, 1567.]

4th. William Shakespeare purchased from the Underhill family, for 607., New Place, consisting of 'one messuage, two barns, and two gardens, with their appurtenances,' during the Easter Term of 1597, in the 39th year of the reign of Queen Elizabeth, and the year after his only son, Hamnet, had died. By him it was repaired, renovated, and fitted up for his permanent residence," &c. Bellew's Shakespere's Home, &c. p. 16.

12 66 'A noate of corne and malte" in Stratford, taken during a dearth of grain, and dated Feb. 4th, 1597-8, mentions, among the dwellers in Chapel Street Ward,-" Wm. Shackespere [the holder of] X. quarters."

The Chamberlains' accounts for the same year show that he (not his father, surely) sold a load of stone to the Corporation of Stratford,— xd."

"Pd. to Mr. Shaxpere for on lod of ston

perpetuum; et præterea idem Willielmus Underhill concessit pro se et hæred. suis quod ipsi warant. prædicto Willielmo Shakespeare et hæred. suis prædicta tenementa cum pertinentiis in perpetuum. Et pro hac, &c. idem Willielmus Shakespeare dedit prædicto Willielmo Underhill sexaginta libras sterlingorum. [Pasch. 39 Eliz.]"

Of Shakespeare's prosperity we have further evidence in letters written by several of his townsmen.On Jan. 24th, 1597-8, Abraham Sturley, writing from Stratford to a friend in London (who, though not mentioned by name, is undoubtedly Richard Quiney) commences his long epistle thus:

"Most lovinge and belovedd in the Lord, in plaine Englishe we remember u in the Lord, and ourselves unto u. I would write nothinge unto u nowe, but come home. I prai God send u comfortabli home. This is one speciall remembrance ffrom ur ffathers motion. It semeth bi him that our countriman, Mr. Shakspere, is willinge to disburse some monei upon some od yarde land or other att Shottri or neare about us; he thinketh it a veri fitt patterne to move him to deale in the matter of our tithes.13 Bi the instruccions u can geve him theareof, and by the frendes he can make therefore, we thinke it a faire marke for him to shoote att, and not unpossible to hitt. It obtained would advance him in deede, and would do us much good. Hoc movere, et

13 A moiety of a lease of the tithes, great and small, of Stratford, Old Stratford, Bishopton, and Welcombe,-which, as will be afterwards seen, Shakespeare purchased in 1605.

quantum in te est permovere, ne necligas, hoc enim et sibi et nobis maximi erit momenti. Hic labor, hoc opus esset eximiæ et gloriæ et laudis sibi.”

A letter endorsed "To my lovynge sonne Rycharde Qwyney, at the Belle in Carter Leyne, deliver thesse in London"-without date or signature, but probably written in 1598, and ascertained to be from the pen of Adrian Quiney, contains a not very intelligible allusion to some pecuniary transaction with Shakespeare:

"You shalle, God willyng, receve from youre wyfe by Mr. Baylye thys brr. asowrance of x.s., and she wold have yow to bye sume grocerye, yff yt be resonable; yow maye have carryage by a woman who I wyllyd to com to you. Mr. Layne by report hath receved a great summ of money of Mr. Smyth of Wotten, but wylle not be knowyn of hyt, and denyd to lend your wyff any, but hys wyffe sayd that he had receved v.li. which was gevyn hyr, and wysshd hym to lent that to your wyff, which he dyde; she hopyth to mayk provyssy on to paye Mr. Combes and alle the rest. I wrot to yow concernyng Jhon Rogerss; the howsse goythe greatlye to dekaye; ask secretli therein, and doo somewhat therein, as he ys in doubt that Mr. Parsonss wylle not paye the 3li. 138. 4d. Wherfor wryte to hym yff yow maye have carryage to bye some such warys as yow may selle presentlye with profet. Yff yow bargen with Wm. Sh--or receve money therfor, brynge your money home that yow maye. And see howe knite stockynes be sold; ther ys gret byinge of them at Ayssham. Edward

Wheat, and Harrye youre brother man, were both at Evysham thys daye senet, and, as I harde, bestow 20li. ther in knyt hosse; wherfor I thynke yow maye doo good, yff yow can have money."

Great interest is attached to the following letter as being addressed to the dramatist himself, and the only one remaining of the many letters which he must have received. The writer, Richard Quiney,-father of the Thomas Quiney who afterwards became the husband of Shakespeare's youngest daughter,—was then in London on the business of the Stratford Corporation;14 and it is plain that when he requests the loan of thirty pounds,— no trifling sum in those days, he does not anticipate a refusal:

"Loveinge contreyman, I am bolde of yow, as of a ffrende, craveinge yowr helpe with xxx.li. uppon Mr. Bushells and my securytee, or Mr. Myttons with me. Mr. Rosswell is nott come to London as yeate, and I have especiall cawse. Yow shall ffrende me muche in helpeing me out of all the debettes I owe in London, I thanck God, and muche quiet my mynde, which wolde nott be indebeted. I am nowe towardes the Cowrte, in hope of answer for the dispatche of my buysenes. Yow shall nether loose creddytt nor monney by me, the Lorde wyllinge; and nowe butt perswade yowrselfe soe, as I hope, and yow shall nott need to feare butt with all heartie thanckefullnes I wyll holde my tyme, and content yowr ffreende, and yf we bargaine farther, yow shalbe the paie-master yowrselfe. My tyme biddes me