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THE DAVENANT BUST. 
 
* 'Gainst death and all oblivious enmity 
 Shall you pace forth, your praise shall still find room 
 Even in the eyes of all posterity 
 That wear this world out to the ending doom." 
 
 Shakespeare's Sonnets. 
 
 C0^)carc'iei 
 
 Z(Mn an^txmcB. 
 
 By 
 H. SNOWDEN WARD and 
 CATHARINE WEED WARD, 
 
 Fellows of the Royal Photographic Society, and 
 Editors of The Photogram. 
 
 NEW YORK: TRUSLOVE & 
 COMBA, 65 FIFTH AVENUE. 
 LONDON : DAWBARN & 
 WARD, LIMITED. : : : : 
 
 A 
 
27045 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 Introduction and Acknowledgment ------ 7 
 
 Chapter I. — The Town and District - - - - - 9 
 
 II. — Some Historical Notes ------ 27 
 
 III. — Shakespeare's Ancestors - 47 
 
 IV. — Shakespeare's Childhood ------ 65 
 
 V. — Shakespeare's Boyhood - 79 
 
 VI. — Shakespeare's Youth and Courtship - - - 93 
 
 VII. — Seeking a Fortune ------- 107 
 
 VIII. — Manhood and the Close of Life . . - - 121 
 
 IX. — A Great Man's Memory ------ 137 
 
 Appendix A. — Information for Visitors ------ 166 
 
 Map of the District --------- 169 
 
 Appendix B. — Shakespeare's Will ------- 170 
 
 C. — New Light on Shakespeare's Lineage - - - 172 
 
 Index ------------- 174 
 
 Plan of Stratford-on-Avon ------ Eiui of Book. 
 
 ^ 1899 
 
INTRODUCTION . . 
 AND 
 
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT 
 
 ^^UR task has been a simple one ; — to write in plain words 
 VjO the tale of Shakespeare's life, to picture what remain to 
 I us of the scenes that Shakespeare saw. There are 
 "lives'' more learned than anything we can attempt, 
 and illustrations of Shakespeare's Town more picturesque than 
 anything we can make. But the pictitres are too often fancies, the 
 "■lives" too seldom distinguish beticcen fact and theory. We have 
 tried to be simply true ; and, while giving our own deductions from 
 some of the facts, to keep the facts themselves distinct. 
 
 It is to be regretted that ih> photographic record could have 
 been made a century or more ago, for the vandal and the "improver" 
 have made sad havoc of the Shakespeare haunts. But as the changes 
 are still in progress, our photograms may be useful in years to come, 
 in reconciling the contradictions of more beautiful but less accurate 
 representations. 
 
 Something of Shakespeare's gentle, kindly spirit seems still to 
 linger in Stratford-on-the-Avon, and it is a pleasure to acknowledge 
 the generous assistance we have received from all sides. Our especial 
 thanks are due to the Earl of Warwick, Sir Arthur Hodgson, 
 
Mr. H. R. Fairfax-Lucy, Mrs. Charles E. Floiccr, Mr. J. W. 
 Ryland, Mrs. R. S. dc Coiircy Laffan, Mr. Richard Savage, 
 Mr. W . G. Colbouriie, the Misses Hancock, Mr. Douglas 
 McNeillc, Mr. W. Salt Brassiugton, and Mr. A. H. Wall, 
 the late Librarian of the Shakespeare Memorial, and noic Editor 
 of The Shakespearean. 
 
 Hawthornden, 
 
 WooDsiDE Park, N., 
 yiily, 1896. 
 
 ■ the New Place ^u 
 
THE HARVARD HOUSE, 
 
Quinej', vintner. Behind the vintner's cellar is a dark and vaulted chamber, 
 a veritable " black hole," that was probably the cell for incorrigible offenders, 
 at the time when this house was the Town's Cage, or prison. The upper part of 
 the walls and the vaulted roof are probably of more recent date ; but the 
 foundation walls, and the raised bench running along two sides and round one 
 end of the cell, are undoubtedly very ancient. If this raised bench were the 
 prisoners' couch, and this their dungeon cell, we may be sure that anything 
 more than a very brief imprisonment would be equivalent to a sentence of 
 death. 
 
 Opposite this house, close to the other side of the High Street, stood the 
 old Market Cross, and its site is marked by a stone in the roadway, the mean- 
 ing of which is probably unknown to most of the younger inhabitants. Under 
 the Cross was a well, which remained in good order below the street level until 
 about 1 880, when it was filled up, in order to facilitate the carrying across it 
 of drain-pipes, etc. 
 
 Further along High Street is the Harvard House, built in 1596, and the 
 home of Katharine Rogers, afterwards Harvard. Her son, John, emigrated 
 to America in 1634, ^^^ founded Harvard University. Opposite, is the Corn 
 Exchange, and a few yards further is Sheep Street, turning to the left. It 
 is worth while wandering down this street, and turning into the side courts 
 and alleys. Some of them are masked at the ends by great barn doors, but 
 no one will object to the curious visitor passing through. Within, these courts 
 are as picturesque as anything to be seen in Italy, and the little maidens and 
 bright-faced boys who wonderingly gaze at the visitors are tj'pical Shakespeare- 
 country children. At the top of the street, again, is the Town Hall, no longer 
 so interesting as when the lower part was open to the pathway, and contained 
 the stocks and other town property. These stocks, alas! have disappeared; 
 probably made into firewood. Over the door is a statue of Shakespeare, 
 presented by Garrick at the time of the Shakespeare Jubilee, and in the Council 
 Chamber, which visitors may see, are several interesting paintings, with some 
 of the old Town Charters. 
 
 Chapel Street is a continuation of High Street. On the left is the Shakes- 
 peare hotel and house of the Five Gables, the most picturesque old building in 
 Stratford. Here was the head-quarters of the Garrick Jubilee, many relics of 
 which are still preserved ; and here, too, are held the principal race-dinners 
 and market-dinners of the town. Further, on the same side, is Thomas 
 Hathaway's house ; next to it, Julius Shaw's house, and next again, the house 
 of Thomas Nash, who married the poet's grand-daughter, Elizabeth Hall. 
 Our interest in Julius Shaw arises from the fact that he was one of the 
 witnesses of Shakespeare's will. Thomas Nash's house, next to the garden 
 and site of New Place, where Shakespeare lived and died after his retirement 
 from London, and also during the intervals and holidays of his London life, 
 
 14 
 
OLD COURT, OFF SHEEP STREET. 
 
is now used as a museum, under the Birthplace Trust. Though a charge is 
 made for admission to the museum, the gardens are open free. Opposite the 
 site is the Falcon tavern, in which, according to a none-too-old tradition, 
 Shakespeare drank, and played the game of shovel-board. Unfortunately' for 
 this story, the house was not a tavern in Shakespeare's time, but no doubt he 
 was friendly with the occupier, and often spent an evening" under its roof. It 
 is just possible, too, that the shovel-"board still preserved in the New Place 
 museum may have been in the possession of Shakespeare's neighbour across 
 the way. Let us have faith in the relics when connected with a tradition so 
 pleasant and harmless. 
 
 HALL S CROFT 
 
 The Guild Chapel and Grammar School are worth a careful inspection, and 
 those who can stay over Sunday should attend one of the chapel services. 
 The row of alms-houses, the ancient dwellings of the poorer brethren of the 
 Guild, are full of interest, and if you can obtain an invitation to step inside 
 one of them and chat with its occupant, you gain a glimpse into a very 
 interesting phase of English life, — the declining days of an old pensioner who 
 has drifted into this quiet back-water to rest until the longer rest shall come. 
 
 At the end of Church Street we find Trmity College School on the right, 
 and the Old Town turns off to the left. Here is Hall's Croft, the home of 
 
 i6 
 
X 
 
THE MIDDLE ROW (NO LONGER EXISTING) 
 From a Negative by Mr. H. P. KohiiKon. 
 
to the intrusion of courteous strangers. A little further up the street, on the 
 left, is the back view of the Birth-house, across its lawn and garden ; and we 
 would advise all who can sufficiently curb their impatience, to make this their 
 first view of the house. It is much more satisfying than the front view, and 
 it is well that the ineffaceable first impression of the Birth-house should be as 
 pleasant as possible. 
 
 Returning to the bridge foot, we find in Bridge Street a fitting ending to 
 the tour of the town itself. There are several houses of entertainment, where 
 the weary traveller may be rested and refreshed, — the Golden Lion, and 
 the Old Red Lion, typical old English hostelries; and the Red Horse, 
 with its memories of' Washington Irving. Wherever one may choose to rest 
 for the night, Irving's room must not be overlooked, and we must trespass on 
 the hospitality of Mr. and Mrs. Colbourne sufficiently to secure, at least, a 
 glimpse of the room, and a chance of recording our signatures in the visitors' 
 book. The chair that Irving occupied, the poker which he described as his 
 sceptre, even the clock that he mentioned as ticking in the old sexton's cottage, 
 are preserved with religious care, and the walls of the room are hung with 
 mementoes of many a Shakespeare pilgrim since Irving's time. William 
 Winter, the gentle critic and author, has brought rnany a contribution, but 
 none more notable than the lines which he inscribed in the front of the present 
 
 visitors' book: — 
 
 "While evening waits and barkens 
 While yet the song-bird calls. 
 Before the last light darkens, 
 
 Before the last leaf falls, 
 Once more with reverent feeling 
 His haunted shrine I seek — 
 • By silent awe revealing 
 
 The thought I cannot speak." 
 Truly much depends upon the spirit in which we visit Shakespeare's home. 
 
 It is unnecessary to say much about the surroundings of Stratford. There 
 are varied pilgrimages for a day, a week, or a month, and the arrangement thereof 
 may well be left to the pilgrim, acting under the advice of mine host of the 
 hotel. Of course, the first visit must be to Ann Hathaway's cottage, across 
 the fields melodious with the feathered crowd that sing the same song as their 
 kindred sang when Shakespeare went a-courting. And as we wander where 
 he wandered, we may recall the love-song in which his lady's name is pleasantly 
 enshrined. The lines were written by Charles Dibdin, though some have 
 called them an ancient piece of work, and suggested that they may have been 
 by Shakespeare. 
 
 ., "Would ye be taught, ye feathered throng, 
 
 With love's sweet notes to grace your song, 
 To pierce the heart with thrilling la)', 
 Listen to mine Ann Hathaway. 
 
 "24 " ■ 
 
She hath a way to sing so clear, 
 
 Phcebus might wondering stop to hear. 
 
 To melt the sad, make blithe the gay, 
 
 And Nature charm, Ann hath a way. 
 She hath a way, 
 Ann Hathaway; 
 
 To breathe delight, Ann hath a way." 
 Then there is the walk along the river to Luddington, the walk so loved b}' 
 Judith Shakespeare, as William Black relates in his pleasant chronicle-novel 
 of Stratford life in Shakespeare's day. There is VVilmcote, the home of 
 Shakespeare's mother; Snitterfield, where his father first saw the light; Aston 
 Cantlow, where thej' were probabl)' married; and Charlecote, with its deer- 
 stealing legend, and the tombs of the three Sir Thomas Lucys in the church; 
 Billesley and Temple Grafton, rivals with Luddington for the honor of having 
 been the scene of Shakespeare's marriage; Clopton House, if the permission 
 of Sir Arthur Hodgson can be obtained; and, further afield, the family 
 mansion, — Shakespeare Hall, Rowington; the glorious old Castle of "Warwick; 
 and the ruin of Kenilworth. 
 
 Even in Stratford itself there are one or two items of interest that have not 
 come into our tour of the town. In Back Lane, behind the vicarage grounds, 
 is a spot often visited by the curious, a little grave-yard set apart by the vicar 
 and his wife for the burial of their pets. The little plot gives ample evidence 
 that even the dumb animals are not forgotten, for in addition to the tomb- 
 stones, with their polyglot inscriptions to the memories of Adam, Noah, 
 Moses, Bijou, and Oko Jumbo, the graves are neatly kept and trimmed with 
 flowers. In the Birmingham Road, only a couple of hundred yards from the 
 birth-house, is an elm tree within a railing, marking the site of the old gnarled 
 boundary elm, amongst the roots of which young Willie Shakespeare played. 
 A walk to the top of the Welcombe Hills, with their traces of our old savage 
 flint-age ancestors, is not too great an exertion even for the ladies, and it is 
 calculated to give an excellent appetite for breakfast. Or the same stroll in the 
 evening, when, perchance, the mists lie along the river side, and the grass is 
 wet in the valley, will give a chance of hearing the nightingale singing when 
 other birds have gone to rest. 
 
 Then, if a day can be given to it, a drive of twelve or fourteen miles 
 along the Banbury Road — along the way that Shakespeare must have ridden — 
 will make an ever-memorable trip. Leaving Stratford by the Clopton Bridge, 
 the road gradualh' climbs from the valley until close under the foot of Edge 
 Hill, and then by a steep grassy ascent through a hanging wood to the top of 
 the hill itself, just above the field of the first battle of the Parliamentary war. 
 Emerging from the wood, a new and beautiful vale comes in sight, a scene as 
 fair as the Avon valley itself; but that which charms us most is the view 
 looking westward from Edge Hill, across the broad lowlands to where Stratford 
 
nestles bj' the river. Can we not imagine tlie jo}ous heart-leap of the poet, 
 returning from his London triumphs, when he thus caught the first sight of 
 the home-place he held so dear. 
 
 From all these wanderings we can contentedly return to Stratford, and feel 
 as Washington Irving felt when he wrote in his Note Book the words so well 
 fitted to close a tourist's day; — 
 
 " To a homeless man, who has no spot on this wide world which he can truly call his 
 own, there is a feeling of something like independence and territorial consequence, when, 
 after a weary day's travel, he kicks off his boots, thrusts his feet into slippers, and 
 stretches himself before an inn fire. Let the world without go as it may ; let kingdoms 
 rise or fall, so long as he has the wherewithal to pay his bill, he is, for the time being, the 
 very monarch of all he surveys. The arm-chair is his throne, the poker is his sceptre, and 
 the little parlor, some twelve feet square, his undisputed empire. It is a morsel of certainty, 
 snatched from the midst of the uncertainties of life; it is a sunny moment gleaming 
 out kindly on a cloudy day ; and he who has advanced some way on the pilgrimage of 
 existence knows the importance of husbanding even morsels and moments of enjoyment." 
 
 THE MEMORIAL, FROM CEOPTON BRinOE. 
 
 26 
 

 
 
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 ELFORD villa; 
 
 Chapter II. 
 
 SOME HISTORICAL NOTES. 
 
 '• O England ! model to th\- inward greatness. 
 Like little body mth a mighri- heart. 
 What might'st thou do, that honour would thee do. 
 Were all thy children kind and natural ? '" 
 
 King Henry V. Act II., Opening Chorus. 
 
 R-ATFORD-ox-AvoN, and the countn- immediately 
 surrounding it, would be far from uninteresting even 
 had no great poet lived there in the past. More 
 than one of Stratford's sons bore j-eoman part in 
 the building up of England, and in making her the 
 mother of nations. More than one of Stratford's 
 old houses has a histor\- rich in incident and human 
 interest. The Church, the Guild Chapel, and the 
 Grammar School, take us back in memor\- to times 
 and manners of which we must know something if we are to fullv 
 understand the complex civilisation of to-day. Their records tell us 
 better than any great city's record can tell, of the life and ways and 
 thoughts of that sturdy yeoman class which moulded the English 
 life as neither kings nor parliaments could mould it, and made 
 Great Britain and her sons and daughters over-sea, the nations 
 that thev are. 
 
 27 
 
The old halls and mansions within a few miles of Stratford have many a 
 bit of interesting history' and legend, more than one blood-stained floor, and 
 haunted room, and secret passage, and priest's hiding chamber, to tell of those 
 turbulent and intolerant days of which we often speak as the " good old times." 
 The Stratford men may have heard the guns at Edge Hill, in 1642, and no 
 doubt some of them fought on each side in that battle of father against son, 
 and brother against brother. Certainly, soon after that battle, the town was 
 occupied by the Royalists, who were driven out by Lord Brooke. He, in turn, 
 gave way to superior force, and the Queen, Henrietta Maria. tnol< up her 
 
 THE BOUDOIR, BILLESLEY HALL 
 
 I ]\''itk entrance to priesfs hiding place.) 
 
 quarters for three weeks at New Place, Shakespeare's house. But these 
 events were in the time of Shakespeare's children, and we are more interested 
 in the local and national conditions that moulded the poet's own life and work. 
 It is difficult, indeed, at the present day, to realise what Stratford and 
 Warwickshire were when Shakespeare knew them. We hear visitors, as they 
 saunter along the Warwick Road, or skim on their light cycles over the 
 highway from Banbury, talking of how Shakespeare may have wandered in 
 the same way under the whispering trees, or cantered where the cycles glide 
 when on his joysome way to London. But macadamised surfaces and steam 
 road-rollers were unknown in the days of Good Queen Bess ; many of the 
 broad roads of to-day were then non-existent, or represented only by ill-defined 
 
 28 
 
winding ways through dense thickets ; boggy underfoot, overhung by 
 treacherous boughs, and made painful by the petty annoyances of hidden 
 water-holes, and cruel briar-bushes. Even what are now main roads in such 
 a district, were in those days deep-rutted grass-grown ways, almost impassable 
 for wheeled vehicles in the winter time, and none too convenient in the best of 
 weather. The forest of Arden, too, was then a forest in very truth; with 
 farmsteads and villages set in clearings, such as we think of in connection 
 
 THE TOWN CAGE. 
 
 with American backwoods. The forest was not greatly changed from the old 
 Saxon times, or from its state when, in the days of King Stephen, a good 
 Crusader, Sir Hugh de Hatton, returning home after escape from slavery 
 among the Saracens, was lost in the woodland surrounding his own lands at 
 Hatton, and would have perished had he not been accidently found by one of 
 his shepherds. Hatton is but a short two miles from Rowington, where lived 
 a strong section of the Shakespeare family, and where it is traditionally stated 
 that "As you like it" was written. In that truly Warwickshire play, we 
 remember Touchstone's remark: — 
 
 " Ay, now I am in Arden, the more fool I ; when I was at home I was in a better 
 place, but travellers must be content." 
 
 29 
 
and the little adventure of Sir Hugh de Hatton throws a flood of light upon 
 such a quotation. Not only was the country in its wild state as regards trees 
 and tangle, but wild beasts and wilder men, — broken soldiers, dispossessed 
 land-holders, ne'er-do-weels, and outlaws for conscience sake, made it necessary 
 for men to bear arms when moving a few miles from the villages, and to travel 
 in strong companies if known or believed to carry money or articles of value. 
 Loxley, only four miles from Stratford-on-Avon, was almost certainly the 
 birthplace of Rohm Hood, and more than one good Warwickshire name was 
 found amongst his company. 'Tis true that his time was some four hundred 
 years before the poet's, but the rough ways persisted o£f-and-on, and outlawry 
 and mendicancy were revived in their worst forms under the evil rule of 
 Henry VHI. In those days of little learning and few amusements, the local 
 legends and traditions persisted for centuries, so that Shakespeare would know 
 of the wild wood-men from the fireside stories of his earliest days, and later, 
 from the tales of many travellers, or from his own roaming experiences. The 
 stories of local knights, and heroes, and pilgrims mingled with the tales of 
 the freebooters who stole from the strong to give to the weak, and of whom 
 the country people were proud. The very families from which sprang the 
 picturesque characters that surrounded Bold Robin Hood, and many a less 
 known, though more recent outlaw, remained amongst the Warwickshire 
 peasantry and yeomanry. Did not the youngest of Will Shakespeare's aunts 
 marry John Scarlett, who is said to have been of the same family as the famous 
 Will Scarlett ? 
 
 In the days of the poet's father, the outlaws increased to the numbers of an 
 army ; and only the famine, pestilence, and violence, that rapidly thinned their 
 ranks, gave any effective check to what was a great national danger. Frequent 
 wars on the Scottish border and in the North of England, and the constant 
 plots and rebellions resulting from the unsettled government of the land, filled 
 the country with homeless and desperate men. The great increase of sheep- 
 farming, for wool-growing purposes, caused much good grain land to be laid 
 down to pasture, and threw out of employment immense numbers of farm 
 laborers, whose only resource was beggary and robbery. 
 
 This sheep-farming also led to the dispossessing and ruthless eviction 
 all over the country of small farmers and " squatters," whose only claim to 
 their little holdings lay in the fact that they or their fathers had toilsomely 
 created them in the wilderness. Many of the most industrious of the poor 
 folk, men, women and children, were thus turned into the world homeless 
 and penniless, and the best help that the statesmen and the Crown could give 
 to these poor wretches, vagabonds through no fault of their own, was to 
 decree at times slavery, and at other times death, to those who had " no 
 visible means of subsistence." 
 
 30 
 
Just at the time when these troubles had reached their height, WilHam 
 Shakespeare was born ; and during his early years Elizabeth, with a con- 
 sistent policy hidden under many devious windings, was endeavoring to 
 establish a firm and peaceful government. 
 
 Turning from the civil conditions, let us for a moment consider the 
 religious history of the times. The bitter struggle between " the old faith " 
 and Protestantism seems to give the key to many of the most puzzling 
 circumstances surrounding the life of the poet. The terrible scenes attendant 
 upon the suppression of the monastries and other confiscatory acts of Henry 
 VIII. were fresh in the memories of the middle-aged men amongst whom 
 Shakespeare was educated. And they were terrible scenes, which appealed 
 to the sympathies even of religious opponents, though we, as Protestants, 
 reading Protestant history-books, may scarce realise the fact. The poet's 
 father was about ten years old when the bill for the suppression of the 
 greater monasteries was passed by a king who was still nominally a staunch 
 Catholic, and who, in the same year, passed the Bloody Bill, which aimed at 
 the severe punishment of Protestants and the abolition of diversity ot 
 opinion. John Shakespeare and his slightly older contemporaries, whose 
 talk and tales supplied the bulk of the poet's general information, passed 
 through the troublous times when Protestants and Catholics alike were 
 plotting and scheming, stopping at no sort of wickedness to win the favor of 
 the king and the triumph of their own religion. Living in a district that 
 strongly favored the old cause, they saw the new one gradually winning its 
 way by intrigue and cunning, until in 1545 the Primer of Henry VIII. was 
 ordered to take the place of the breviary, in public worship. They saw the 
 Protestant power increasing during the short but beneficent reign of Edward 
 VI., and the return of Catholic power under Mary, whose six years of stormy 
 reign and bitter persecution of the Protestants increased the religious hate of 
 each party for the other. Six years before the birth of the poet, Elizabeth 
 had come to the throne. As he was growing to youth and manhood, the 
 friends of Roman Catholicism were gradually realising that they had 
 little to hope from that vigorous queen. Comparative peace descended upon 
 England, but the bitterest religious hatred was kept glowing by reports of the 
 fighting and intrigues that centred round Mary, Queen of Scots, who 
 represented Romanism in Britain, by the persecution of Protestants in 
 France, and by the veiled, but nevertheless real persecution of Catholics in 
 England. Position and influence were gradually taken away from the 
 Catholics as occasion served, and under circumstances which were often 
 unjust and tyrannical. The Protestants, though triumphant in England, 
 feared as much as they hated the Catholics, who were still all powerful in 
 almost all parts of Europe. 
 
 32 
 
RELOVEKY OF THE HOLY CROSS 
 
 Jirt\hs|irv>wraT!)ittjfm akrlTBlvtljU'asi tn" i«f f^nrtiiebolft'Of.tolinnia.btf toUmlvi'nto 
 
 )»UWjnflitrilii4l ~l\\ ilmttJiMiVHmilrHitiilirti 
 
 
 TESTING AND ADORING THE HOLY CROSS. 
 I Ancient Frescoes in the Gnilil Chapd.) 
 
William Shakespeare was born early in 1564, and was, therefore, four 
 years old when Mary, Queen of Scots, escaping from her prison in Lochleven 
 Castle, gathering a small army, but defeated near Glasgow, made her way 
 into England, threw herself on the tender mercy of Elizabeth, and was 
 forthwith imprisoned in Bolton Castle, Yorkshire. It was in the previous 
 year that the Protestants in France were defeated at St. Denis, and that the 
 Duke of Alva was appointed Governor of the Netherlands, in which capacity 
 he massacred no less than 18,000 Huguenots. The poet was five years old 
 when the Catholic lords of Northumberland and Westmoreland raised the 
 standard of revolt and marched triumphantly through Durham into Yorkshire, 
 to be crushed by the Royal forces. When the poet was six years old, 
 Leonard Dacre raised a northern rebellion in favor of Mary, and in the same 
 year the Scots swooped into England, in return for which a portion of 
 southern Scotland was fiendishly ravaged. At eight years old the poet 
 would hear and wonder as the people talked in awe-stricken tones of the 
 massacre of St. Bartholomew's Day, when Protestants in France, to a number 
 variously stated between 20,000 and 60,000 were slaughtered, and the Pope 
 struck medals, and ordered a Te Dettin to be sung in honor of the great event. 
 From that time, until he married, the poet would constantly hear of the 
 torture and execution of Romanists in England, and of the almost equal 
 intolerance shewn to the Puritans. And although most of these troubles 
 were far from the secluded vale of Avon, they were seriously discussed 
 around the firesides of Stratford, and partisan feeling ran deep. Warwick- 
 shire was strongly Catholic in its general sympathies, and even to the 
 present day many of the old families, both rich and poor, are staunch 
 Catholics. Billesley Hall, at which there is reason to believe that 
 Shakespeare was a visitor, has still its priest's hiding chamber, and its 
 underground passage (now bricked up at the end of a few yards) alleged to 
 run as far as Causton. Clopton House, too, the Manor house of the district 
 including Stratford and Wilmcote, has its priest's chamber in which the 
 Gunpowder Plot conspirators met. 
 
 It is well to bear in mind the social and religious conditions of the time, 
 as here very briefly sketched. They especially help us to understand the 
 importance of the town government, with its subscriptions for the inain- 
 tenance of billmen and bowmen, its struggle with "the dearth," and "the 
 pestilence," and its ineffectual efforts to induce the townsfolk to keep their 
 gutters clean. They also emphasise the value of the various charities and 
 institutions that were connected with the town's government by the Guild. 
 
 Of the history of Stratford-on-Avon, as a separate place, we have no trace 
 earlier than a somewhat doubtful charter of Ethelred, King of Mercia, 
 whereby in 6gi he conveyed to the then Bishop of Worcester, :^e monastery 
 of Stratford. In 781, Offa, King of Mercia, confirmed the right of the then 
 
 34 
 
SHAKESPEARE HALL, ROWINGTON. 
 
ii.shop of Worcester to Stratford, and little more is known of the place until 
 we come to the Domesday Survey (1085) in which it is dealt with very fully 
 and described as having been a manor of the Bishop of Worcester for several 
 centuries. 
 
 Before the end of the 12th century, Stratford had several craftsmen and 
 small manufacturers, and from Richard I. the Bishop of Worcester obtained 
 a charter for a weekly market to be held on Thursday." In 1216 an annual 
 
 PRIEST S ROOM, CLOPTON HOUSE. 
 
 (Meeting place of llie Giiitponider Plotters 
 
 fair, held on Trinity Sunday and the two following days, was granted. In 
 1224 a three-days annual fair commencing on St. Augustine's Day (May 
 26th) was granted, and later in the century grants were obtained for a four- 
 days fair on and following the eve of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, and a 
 three-days fair commencing on the eve of Ascension Day. The first fair, no 
 doubt, arose from the Church anniversary, while the third arose from the 
 dedication day of the Guild Chapel, which belonged to the Guild of the 
 Holy Cross. 
 
 This Guild of the Holy Cross, whose records as far back as 1353 are now 
 preserved in the Shakespeare's Birth House Museum, was the most im- 
 portant factor in the life of Stratford and the country round, during the 
 
 * This market day was observed i 
 
 changed to Friday. 
 
 37 
 
middle ages. Working on lines somewhat similar to those of the modern 
 Friendly Societies, with their sick and burial funds, schools, and other 
 charities, and having in addition a distinctly religious side, the Guilds were 
 ver)' popular and became very powerful. Of the actual date or manner of 
 origin of the Stratford Guild we have no record, but at the end of the 14th 
 century it was regarded as very ancient, and its officers had no knowledge of 
 its real age. It was an institution admitting members of both sexes, and 
 raising funds by means of entrance fees, by an annual subscription (in 1389 it 
 was sixpence a year) by fines for non-observance of rules ; by gifts and 
 bequests; and, later, by revenues from land and investments of accumulated 
 funds. The fines included (in 1389) : — 
 
 Non-attendance to pay subscription . . . . . . . . id. 
 
 Neglect to follow funeral of a deceased member . . . . id. 
 
 Failure to provide a tankard of ale at the Easter Feast . . Jd. 
 
 Quarrelling or causing a quarrel at the feast . . . . . . id. 
 
 Failure to watch by dead member, if summoned . . . . id. 
 
 On introducing guest or stranger without leave, or on taking 
 
 the seat of another member . . . . . . . . Jd. 
 
 The Guild was governed by two Aldermen and six Councillors, who agreed 
 to forfeit for non-attendance at a council meeting fourpence. 
 
 Among the benefactions and advantages of the Guild we find : — The 
 burning of a candle in honor of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Blessed Virgin, 
 and the Holy Cross, " so that God and the Blessed Virgin and the Venerated 
 Cross may keep and guard all brethren and sisters of the Guild from 
 every ill." 
 
 The great candle above mentioned and eight smaller ones to be carried 
 from the church to the house of any member who died, and to be kept 
 burning by the body until it was buried, and then set before the Cross on 
 the altar. In case of the death of a poor man or a stranger in the town, the 
 Guild provided four candles, as well as a sheet and a hearse-cloth to lie 
 over the coffin until the bod)' was buried. 
 
 A feast was held in Easter-week for the cherishing of brotherl)' love. Each 
 member to bring a great tankard filled with ale ; which ale was given to the 
 poor, after prayers to God and the Virgin and the Venerated Cross ; and 
 before the feast. One-third of the brethren were summoned to watch the 
 body and pray for the soul of a deceased brother through the night after his 
 death. Any brother who was robbed or otherwise thrown into poverty was 
 provided with "food and clothing and what else he needs, so long as he 
 bears himself well and rightly towards the brethren and sisters of the 
 Guild." 
 
 Associations having such beneficent objects and appealing strongly to the 
 religious as well as to the social and commercial instincts of the people, were 
 
 38 
 
of the greatest possible value in a societ)' which possessed, apart from them, 
 no adequate substitute for our trades unions, friendly societies, or even 
 savings banks and fire and life insurance offices. The special guilds for 
 separate trades came later, so that there is little wonder that the general 
 guilds were well supported and eventualh- so powerful as to be, practically', 
 the local governing bodies. 
 
 The accounts of the various masters of the Stratford Guild are so 
 extremely interesting that we 
 feel sure our readers will 
 pardon a digression for the 
 purpose of pointing out some 
 of the facts to be learnt there- 
 from. The entrance fees 
 varied from time to time, and 
 even in the same year the fee 
 varied somewhat, according to 
 the rank of the brother or 
 sister joining. The largest 
 fees were usually paid by the 
 chaplains, which can be well 
 understood if they were to 
 pose, after admission, as mem- 
 bers receiving a stipend. The 
 souls of deceased persons were 
 eligible for membership, and 
 as they were not likely to make 
 any call upon the temporal 
 resources of the Guild, their 
 entrance fee was half the 
 amount charged to brethren 
 still in the flesh, and no sub- 
 scriptions were demanded. All 
 through the records we find [ -^ 
 
 very numerous entries of fees - — - — 
 
 paid for the souls of deceased ^he guild chapel, from scholars' lane. 
 
 persons. Widows and un- 
 married women paid a reduced entrance fee, and in 1436 we find a very curious 
 entry of a compact with a single man — " William Purdon, syngulmon, and if 
 he should hereafter marry, then his wife to be received into the fraternity of 
 the Guild without paying any. fine (or entrance fee)." In many cases we find 
 that payment of the " fine " and of subscriptions was made in goods or labor 
 instead of money. 
 
 39 
 
We find particulars of the building of the Grammar School, and also of 
 a portion of the Guild Chapel. We learn that the Guild paid tribute of 
 money, and of certain services to the Parish Church, and that in addition to 
 maintaining the Grammar School it subsidised a preparatory school to the 
 extent of providing the schoolmaster with a house, rent free. We find that 
 the Guild very handsomely entertained the travelling preachers and important 
 visitors to the town, and that it formed a court of arbitration which did not 
 
 hesitate to pay for a feast at 
 the making of two enemies 
 into friends. It gave en- 
 couragement to promptness 
 and punctuality by keeping 
 two public clocks, and gener- 
 allj' looked after the interests 
 of its members from the 
 cradle to the grave, and even 
 beyond: for did not the Guild 
 pay fourpence a year to the 
 crier, or " le Belman," for 
 "praying round about the 
 town for the souls of brothers 
 and sisters four times a year." 
 Of the home life and 
 religious ceremonies of the 
 time we can form a good idea 
 from the records, but perhaps 
 none of the items are more 
 interesting than those per- 
 taining to the feasts of the 
 brethren. The numbers 
 attending the feasts during 
 the first thirty years or so of 
 THE GUILD CHAPEL. ENTRANCE. thc fifteenth ccntuTy varied 
 
 from a hundred and eight 
 {.\.r>. 1410) to a hundred and seventy-two (.\.d. 1416), these numbers being 
 exclusive of the chaplains, the strangers, the cooks and turnspits, and those 
 brethren who waited on the rest. The providing of a feast for such numbers 
 was evidently beyond the resources of the local tradesmen and the local 
 markets, for we constantly find entries of payments for men and horses to buy 
 the provisions in surrounding towns and villages, and to convey them to 
 Stratford. The sheep, goats, fowls, &c., were bought alive, and kept some 
 time before the feast; the unground grain was bought and ground for bread 
 
 40 
 
and pastr}' ; and whatever the viands may have lacked in elegance and 
 variety, there was certainly no lack of quantity. The partial account of the 
 feast made in 1410, when a hundred and eight brethren attended, is fairly 
 typical of the provision made, and of the market prices then ruling. We find 
 
 Corn. — Twenty bushels, lo/- ; exclusive of corn to feed the pullets. 
 
 Ale. — From Agnes Iremonger, eight dozen (? gallons) good ale, 12/-; small ale, 3/- 
 From Agnes Mayel, nine gallons good ale, 1/6 ; small ale, gd. 
 
 Meat. — Four calves, n/- ; two " legges " of veal, 8d. ; two " buttus " of pork, 8J-d. ; 
 two sheep, 5/- ; one calf, 3/4 ; nine small pigs, 3/9 ; 10 " kyddus lambe " bought at 
 " Shresesbury," 5/10 ; and carriage of same to Stratford, 2od. 
 
 Pullets. — 113 pullets, g/ii J; 
 three capons, 8d. 
 
 Spices. — ijlbs. pepper, 5/6 ; 
 half quatron saffron, 2/- ; one 
 quatron ginger, yd ; one quat- 
 ron cloves, i4d.; three pounds 
 " raysens de courance," i2d. ; 
 six pounds almonds, i8d. ; three 
 pounds rice, 8d. ; twelve pounds 
 figs, i/- ; " graynus," gd. 
 
 Sundries. — One bushel salt, 
 yd. ; two gallons red wine, 1/4 ; 
 one gallon "osey," i/-; vinegar, 
 6d. ; stipend of two cooks, 4/- ; 
 two turners (turnspits), 2d. ; 
 washing the vessels, 4d. ; rushes 
 for the hall, 3d. 
 
 Milk, cream, eggs, honey and 
 
 other items are enumerated, 
 
 but the details are omitted 
 
 from the copy of the record. 
 
 In later accounts we find much 
 
 more extensive provision. For 
 
 instance, an undated account 
 
 (probably about 1461) specifies 
 
 270 geese (at 2-J-d. each), 72 
 
 pullets, 32 gallons of milk, and 
 
 1,350 eggs: not to mention 
 
 other items. The market price of eggs remained steady through the century 
 
 at sixpence a hundred, and the year above quoted (1410) seems to have been a 
 
 bad one for buying sheep, for their usual price in the records is sixpence each. 
 
 In 1447 we find a curious entry ; — i^d. for laths and nails bought for the 
 
 window of " la Schole Hous," when the pullets were there before the feast. 
 
 In many cases minstrels were engaged to add to the pleasure of the meet- 
 ing, and they were usually well paid. In 141 1 we find 3/4 paid to a harper. 
 
 41 
 
in 1424 the minstrels " de Warrwick" received 2od., in 1427 a minstrel 
 received 2od., while in 1464 sixpence was paid to " divers m3'nstrells " of 
 Lord Warwick and Lord Gloucester. In 1410 it is evident that there was no 
 plumber resident in the town, for in addition to a " stipend " of twentj' pence 
 for " sowdyng" a gutter, we find a payment of one penny for keep of the horse 
 of said " plumbar " for a day and a night. 
 
 We will only mention one 
 other incidental subject before 
 returning to our main matter, 
 and that is the light thrown 
 upon the origin of surnames 
 by the old records of the Guild. 
 A considerable majority of the 
 surnames indicate some occu- 
 pation, and in many cases we 
 find that it was the occupation 
 actually followed by the bearer 
 of the name. One of the most 
 prominent nam.es in the record 
 is Iremonger, and in 1427 we 
 lind that the father of Thomas 
 Iremonger was John Couper, 
 while his mother was Awbree 
 MuUevi-ard. At another time 
 we find that the ironwork used 
 in the Guild buildings was 
 bought from one of the Ire- 
 mongers. In one account of 
 1460 we find a proctor called 
 Robert Iremonger, while in 
 another account of the same 
 year he is called Robert Halle, 
 Iremonger. In 1442, John 
 Sclatter was chief bailiff, and 
 15s. 4d. was paid to him for 
 laying tiles. In 1466 we find 
 STAIRS TO THE MUNIMENT ROOM, GUILD HALL. entry, — " paid WilHam Sclat- 
 
 ter, ye sclattur, for sclattynge" 
 certain houses, 14s. Thomas Payntour painted the houses, Geoffrey Baker 
 supplied bread, Thomas Bedemon was the bedeman or bell-man, and Robert 
 Carpenter did the timber work. There is an entry of Thomas Hore, Fissher, 
 and John Fissher, servant of the aforesaid Thomas Hore. In many cases 
 
 42 
 
the place of residence is used as a surname, as Wm. Beoley (of Bearle}'), 
 Wm. Staffordshir, and John Hoore, " otherwise Stratford," of Winchester, 
 evidently a native of Stratford who had left his own town. 
 
 We might wander for a long time in the interesting bye-paths of these 
 records, but space forbids. The Guild was near its zenith in 1478-9, when 
 "the Illustrious Prince (afterwards Edward V.) the eldest son of our Lord 
 the King" became a brother. He was no honorary member either, but 
 
 manfully paid a " fine " 
 of forty shillings, in a 
 year when common folk 
 paid 6s. 8d., and he also 
 introduced a number of 
 noblemen and gentle- 
 men. By this time the 
 Guild was strong and 
 wealthy. It owned a 
 large proportion of the 
 houses in Stratford, 
 and its lands, both in 
 Stratford and the sur- 
 rounding districts had 
 become very extensive. 
 By the beginning of the 
 sixteenth century the 
 Guild had passed its 
 prime, and in 1547, at 
 the dissolution of reli- 
 gious houses under 
 Henry VIII., it was 
 suppressed, and its 
 revenues appropriated 
 by the Crown. This 
 high-handed proceeding- 
 resulted, amongst other 
 things, in showing the 
 
 CLOPTON HOUSE. REAR. , ^ i ^ -i i 
 
 great value 01 the Guild, 
 for though it was not restored in the same form, the state of misgovernment 
 or non-government into which the town fell caused a petition to be made to 
 the King, and six years after the Guild was destroyed, Edward VI., the son of 
 the destroyer, gave a charter for a local corporation on practicall)- the same 
 lines as the Guild, and with a portion of its ancient revenues (Charter, 
 June 7, 1553). Authorities differ as to the extent to which the dissolution of 
 
 44 
 
the Guild affected its school, but at the same time that the charter of incorpora- 
 tion was given, the school was reorganised as the "King's New School." 
 Rules were made for its government, and it was sufficiently endowed. Within 
 four years of the charter, John Shakespeare was elected an officer of the 
 corporation, and within less than twenty years of the endowment of the 
 Grammar School, his son William became one of its scholars, as we shall see 
 in later chapters. 
 
 WELFORD VILLAGE. 
 
 46 
 
Chapter III. 
 
 SHAKESPEARE'S ANCESTORS. 
 
 in which 
 the early 
 
 'I lay my claim to my inheritance of free descent.'' 
 Richard II. Act II., Scene 3. 
 
 HARLES Knight, at the beginning of his " Life of Shakes- 
 peare," quotes from Steevens a few lines that are worthy 
 careful consideration. They are: — "All that is known 
 with an)' degree of certainty concerning Shakespeare is 
 — that he was born at Stratford-on-Avon ; married, and 
 had children there; went to London, where he commenced 
 actor, and wrote poems and plays ; returned to Stratford, 
 his will, died, and was buried." (Written 1773.) 
 This account, exaggerated in its baldness, is useful to 
 remind us that the number of actual facts known about the 
 poet and his connections is very small. No scrap of his writing- 
 is known to exist, except some six signatures, and possibly 
 the two words, "by me," preceding the signature to his will. 
 Only one letter written to him is preserved. The site of the house 
 he died is known, and his grave is with us. Almost all beyond this, 
 homes of his parents, the place of his birth, his education, his trade, 
 
 47 
 
the very name of his wife, her home, and the circumstances of his life in 
 Stratford, can only be established by conjecture, based on circumstantial 
 evidence, often of a kind that is open to at least two interpretations. 
 
 Church and town records were meagre and badly kept in the sixteenth 
 century ; and the gross carelessness and ignorant vandalism of too many 
 custodians have destroyed many evidences that might have been of great 
 value in connection with our subject. 
 
 The early accounts of Shakespeare's life are brief, and more or less in- 
 accurate. The oldest notes are from a memorandum book of the Rev. 
 John Ward, M.A., who wrote in 1662, the year of his induction as vicar of 
 Stratford-on-Avon. John Aubrey, the gossip-chronicler, visited Stratford 
 about the same time and collected a few particulars of doubtful value. In 
 1693 a traveller recorded a chat with William Castle, then parish clerk at 
 Stratford. A few notes entered about the same date, and evidently from 
 current traditions, are found in a manuscript biographical notebook, kept by 
 the Rev. Richard Davies, a Gloucestershire clergyman ; but the first fairly 
 full account of the poet's life was written by Nicholas Rowe, a dramatist of 
 the end of the seventeenth century, from particulars furnished by Thomas 
 Betterton, whose respect for the poet's work led him to visit Stratford-on- 
 Avon in search of biographical facts. The date of this visit is not known, but 
 Betterton, the greatest Shakespearean actor of his time, took to the stage in 
 1660, and Rowe's account was published in 1709. Through Sir William 
 Davenant, godson of Shakespeare, and proprietor of the theatre in which 
 Betterton played, there was a direct connection between the time of the poet 
 and that of his first chronicler. It has been pointed out that as the poet's 
 second daughter, Judith, lived to 1662, and his grand-daughter (who was 
 eight years old at his death) lived to 1670, there was a good chance of obtain- 
 ing fairly accurate particulars at Stratford at the time of Betterton's visit, 
 especially if made, as Mr. Collier suggested, not later than 1670 to 1675. 
 
 Malone, whose " Life of Shakespeare" was published in 1821, added much 
 to our knowledge of the poet's history by a careful searching of records and 
 registers, but even Malone seems to make certain important statements for 
 which he quotes no authority, and which appear incredible in the face 
 of ascertained facts. This tendency to set down surmises and probabilities as 
 definite statements, is a weakness almost inseparable from work so largely 
 conjectural as a life of Shakespeare; and all the leading writers on the subject 
 seem to have fallen more or less into the trap. As they also, in some cases, 
 quote the previous writer's suppositions as if they were undoubted truths, it i.s 
 difficult to trace authority for many statements, and all we can promise in the 
 following pages is that, so far as possible, we will avoid stating as fact any- 
 thing for which we have not a copy of the original record or authority. From 
 Rowe and Malone we must necessarily quote often with no other acknowledg- 
 
ment than this general one. Other workers have added most useful light, 
 especial!}- J. O. Hallivvell- Phillips,'" whose "Outlines of the Life of 
 Shakespeare," published in 1848, and revised and extended in successive 
 editions until his death, in i88g, is an invaluable storehouse. Major James 
 Walter, searching amongst "the descendants of Roman Catholic families, 
 resident at the time in 'the Shakespeare country,'" has unearthed a great 
 mass of interesting and suggestive tradition. 
 
 THE ARDEN HOU.SE, UH.MCdTK. 
 
 Of all the many debateable points in Shakespeare history, none has given 
 rise to more discussion than the question of the social position of his 
 ancestors. Both the Shakespeare and the Arden families were very extensive; 
 both included many illustrious, as well as many obscure members, and it has 
 been most difficult to decide with what particular branches of the family the 
 poet was connected. Most important evidence is found in the draft grants 
 of arms to John Shakespeare, dated 1596 and 1599. Doubt has been cast 
 upon these documents because the confirmation of them has not been found; 
 
 49 
 
and also because a reference to the " parents and late antecessors " was 
 supposed to relate to the Arden family, who, of course, were not the 
 "antecessors" of John, but of his wife, and, therefore, of his son William. 
 Halliwell-Phillips said of these draft grants: — "Ridiculous statements were 
 made respecting the claims of the two families. Both were really descended 
 from obscure English country yeomen, but the heralds made out," &c. We 
 should hesitate to contradict such an authority were it not for the distinct 
 statement made as recently as i88g by Charles H. Athill, Richmond Herald 
 of the Heralds' College, and published by Major Walter. It runs : — 
 
 " I have referred to the original papers relating to the Shakespeare Grant oi 
 Arms, and there can be no doubt that a patent was assigned to John 
 Shakespeare, the father of the poet, in 1596, and that it was ratified 
 in the subsequent assignment for Arden. 
 
 There is also ample proof that the grantee established the fact that he was 
 of sufficient social position to warrant the issue of a patent." 
 
 With this statement as our warranty we may claim as actual ancestors of 
 the poet, some of those important personages, who, otherwise, could only be 
 "supposed" to be his forebears. Dugdale collected a great mass of facts as 
 to the history of the Arden family, but did not conclusively prove the identity 
 of his Robert Arden with the great-grandfather of Mary Arden. If the state- 
 ments in the draft of arms are repudiated, doubt remains. If accepted, the 
 case seems fairly clear. Turchil, a man "of especial note and power and 
 great possessions," lived in Warwick at the time of the Norman Conquest. 
 By the Conqueror he was confirmed in his possessions, and made military 
 gpvernor of Warwick Castle. Following the Norman fashion, he took a 
 surname, " de Eardene," from the Eardene or Arden, the forest land in which 
 he lived and ruled. His descendants, of varying wealth and importance, 
 including more than one sheriff' of the county, are traced down to Robert 
 Arden, brother of Sir John Arden, squire of the body to Henry VII. 
 
 This Robert was supposed by Knight to have been the great-grandfather 
 of Mary Arden, the mother of the poet; but there is evidence to show that he 
 was really her great-uncle, and that his brother, Thomas, was her grandfather. 
 We find that Robert Arden, grandfather of the poet, is described, in an 
 indenture of 1501, as the son of " Thome Ardern de Wylmecote ; " and in 1526 
 Sir John Arden leaves fees for life to his three brothers, Thomas, Martin, and 
 Robert. 
 
 The Robert Arden in whom we are most interested, married a wife whose 
 name we know not, at a date of which we have no record; and had a family 
 of eight daughters.* Left a v\'idower, he married Agnes Hill (born Webbe), a 
 native of Bearley, some three miles from Stratford-on-Avon, and widow of John 
 
 'i' French, Hunter, and Mrs. Slopes say seven daughters. Phillips gives eight. 
 50 
 
Hill, farmer, of the same place. R. B. Wheler, a very careful local historian, 
 says that this good woman was sister of the wife of Richard Shakespeare, of 
 Snitterfield, so that the connection between the Arden and Shakespeare 
 families was an intimate one, long before the marriage of John Shakespeare 
 and Mary Arden. As several of the relations will appear in our story of 
 the poet's life, we have drawn up a tabular statement, on lines somewhat 
 different from the ordinary pedigrees, that will convey at a glance what would 
 take many words to make clear. Amongst other matters, it shews instantly 
 what relatives of the poet were living at any given date, and enables us to 
 
 SHAKESPEARE HALL, ROWINGTON. 
 
 see who may have been interested in the births, and present at the weddings 
 and funerals, that mark the family history. 
 
 In most cases the exact date of birth is not known ; h, therefore, is the 
 date of the baptismal entry. In the same way, most of the deaths are dates 
 of burials, and not the actual dates of decease. The death of Gilbert Shakes- 
 peare, the poet's brother, is very uncertain, as the entry of a funeral, February 
 2, 1612, is of "Gilbertus Shakespeare, adolescens," and it seems hardly likely 
 that a man over forty years of age would be so described. It has been 
 
 51 
 
Arden, Robert 
 
 
 o ^H =W c-2, 
 •2, (J E ^E < E 
 
 1557 
 
 1558 
 
 1559 
 
 1560.. 
 
 1561 
 
 1562 
 
 1563 
 
 1564 
 
 1565 
 
 1566 
 
 1567 
 
 1575 
 1576 
 1577 
 1578 
 1579 
 1580.. 
 
 1603 
 1604 
 1605 
 1606 
 1607 
 
 1612 
 1613 
 1614 
 1615 
 t6i6 
 
 1623 
 1646 
 
 John Shakespeare- 
 
 ed 1556 — Mary Arden. 
 
 SE 
 SO 
 
 R m^ j; 
 
 W. Shakespeare 
 m. Anne Hath- 
 away, 1582. 
 
 Susannah Shakespe 
 
 £(1. Is I 
 
 _2. Sz 
 
 . Dr. John Hall, Junes, 1607, 
 
 1560 
 1561 
 1562 
 1563 
 1564 
 1565 
 1566 
 1567 
 
 
 -1576 
 
 
 1577 
 
 ■fi 
 
 1578 
 
 ^ 
 
 1579 
 
 ^ 
 
 1,80 
 
 ..K 
 
 1,81 
 
 
 1582 
 
 ■CO 
 
 1583 
 .S84 
 
 
 15S5 
 
 £'" 
 
 1586 
 
 5.-° 
 
 1587 
 
 Judith Shakespeare m 
 d. Fdn-iiaryQ. l6b2. 
 
 1613 
 1614 
 1615 
 1616 
 
 1623 
 
 r646 
 
 , February 10, 1616. 
 
 Elizabeth Hall b. February 21, 1608. 
 
 m. Thomas Nash, April 16, 1626. 
 Thomas Nash d. April 4, 1647. 
 m. Sir John Barnard, Kt., June 5, 1649. 
 Sir John Barnard d. March 15, 1674. 
 Elizabeth Hall (Lady Barnard) d. February 17, 1670, 
 
 Elizabeth Hall (Lady Ba 
 
 .rd)^ 
 
 Shakespeare Quiney b. Noveml 
 
 d. May 8, 1617. 
 Richard Quiney b. February 9, 
 
 d. February 26, 1639. 
 Thomas Quiney b. January 23, 
 
 d. January 28, 1639. 
 
 X descendant of William Shakespeare. 
 
t. '-I 
 ^ d 
 
suf^gested that this was a young son of the poet's brother Gilbert. If so, it 
 seems strange that the father's name is not given. 
 
 Mary, the youngest daughter of Robert Arden, was destined to become the 
 mother of England's greatest poet, but ere we speak of her marriage, let us 
 look for a moment to the poet's other line of ancestry. 
 
 The second draft Grant of Arms to John Shakespeare distinctly says that 
 his "parent, grent-graiidfnthcr, and late antecessor, for his faithful and 
 approved service to the most prudent priiiee King H. 7, of famous 
 memorie, was advanced and rewarded with lands and tenements geven to him 
 in those partes of Warwikeshere," etc. The italics are interlineations made 
 in the draft, which afterwards separately sets out the marriage connection with 
 the Arden family, and, therefore, seems to prove incontestably that the poet's 
 father claimed, and the Heralds, after usual examination, allowed, an illustrious 
 descent. It is open to argument, and has been strongly contended, that this 
 statement about the illustrious Shakespeare was a fiction, either of the poet, 
 or of the Heralds, and based upon the fact of the illustrious Arden ; who, 
 according to the sceptics, being the great-grandfather of John Shakespeare's 
 wife, would be, by courtesy, great-grandfather of John Shakespeare. We fail 
 to see good support for this contention, but leave the question with those who 
 care to examine the authorities and weigh the probabilities. Probably we 
 shall never know with absolute certainty whether the particular Shakespeares 
 from whom the poet was directly descended, were lordly or lowly, but for a 
 long time the Shakespeare family was very numerous in Warwickshire, and 
 included many members in the position of substantial yeomen and farmers, 
 as well as craftsmen of good local standing. That some, at any rate, took a 
 good position amongst the local gentry is well evidenced by the Shakespeare 
 Hall, at Rowington, which, according to old tradition, was the home of 
 Thomas Shakespeare, a brother of the poet's father. The Hall is sometimes 
 spoken of as a manor house, but hardly attams to that dignity. In fact, it is 
 one of some seven or eight good houses in the immediate neighbourhood, all 
 of about the same period. Although long tenanted hy farmers who had no 
 appreciation of its historical value, the house is well preserved, and is now 
 occupied by J. W. Ryland, Esq., an antiquary, who treats it with reverent care. 
 Though difficult of access, being a two miles walk from Kingswood, the 
 nearest station; and though not open to the ordinary tourist, the house and 
 its associations are so full of interest that we give a couple of views. The 
 little room above the entrance is traditionally the room used by William 
 Shakespeare, on his visits to the Hall, and the one in which he wrote 
 "As You Like It." Whether the play was suggested by visits to this house, 
 on the very borders of the forest of Arden, or whether the tradition was 
 suggested by the play, is matter for speculation. Certain it is that the play 
 
 55 
 
was written somewhere, and there seems no real reason why it should not 
 have been at the house of the poet's relations, situated in the district which 
 is so charmingly made the scene of action. 
 
 Exactly what relationship (if any) existed between the poet and the 
 occupants of Shakespeare Hall, in his day, has not been proved. The 
 suggestion about an uncle, Thomas, rests only on local tradition. Connections 
 have been traced between the Stratford, Warwick, Snitterfield, and Rowington 
 branches of the family, though Halliwell-Phillips was dissatisfied with 
 the evidence connecting the poet with Rowington. At the poet's death 
 he owned a copyhold under the manor of Rowington, but as this was 
 
 SNITTERFIELD CHURCH. 
 
 on a cottage and ground forming part of the New Place estate, where he 
 died, in Stratford, and as it was bought by him from Walter Getley, in 1602, 
 it is no evidence of connection with the Rowington family. French suggested 
 that John and Joan Shakespeare, who were registered on the roll of the Guild 
 of St. Ann, at Knowle, in 1526, maj' have been the parents of Richard, the 
 poet's grandfather. In 1547, however, we find Joan Shakespeare, widow, 
 living at Lyannce farm, so that even if these good people were connected 
 with the poet, it is probable they did not live at Shakespeare Hall. The 
 problem is full of difficulty; probably it will never be certainly solved; but if 
 
 56 
 
we are content to commence our history with the poet's paternal grandfather, 
 
 we are on fairh' safe ground. Richard Shakespeare, of Snitterfield, is a man 
 
 of whom we know something definite, and his relationship to the poet may 
 
 be considered firmly established. He lived at Snitterfield, some four miles 
 
 from Stratford-on-Avon, as a tenant farmer, holding land under Robert Arden, 
 
 of Wilmcote, and also under the Guild of St. Mary, at Warwick. Of his 
 
 commercial connections with Robert Arden we know nothing, but the records 
 
 of the Court of the Guild of St. Mary, shew that he suffered severely in that 
 
 terrible depression about the middle of the reign of Henry VHI., to which we 
 
 referred in the last chapter. In 1529 " Richard Shakespeare owes suit of 
 
 court;" in 1531 he made default and had judgment given against him. In 
 
 '33, '37, '38, '40, and '50, similar entries are found, and it is pleasant to know 
 
 that with the generosity characteristic of 
 
 the old Guild;; to those who were in real 
 
 misfortune, three of the entries indicate 
 
 that the default was excused. These 
 
 facts prove that Richard Shakespeare long 
 
 struggled with debt and difficulty, and that 
 
 one of his landlords esteemed him an 
 
 honest man, worthy of assistance. We 
 
 shall see that one of his sons, Henr}-, who 
 
 remained in Snitterfield, was in similar 
 
 straits, and was assisted by his brother 
 
 John. The other landlord, Robert Arden, 
 
 with whom his tenant was connected b)' 
 
 their marriage of sisters, and whose 
 
 favorite daughter was to become the wife 
 
 of the tenant's son, John, was probably no 
 
 less lenient than the Guild. 
 
 How long Richard Shakespeare lived 
 in Snitterfield we know not; nor whether ^ ^^ , tinrcH 
 
 he was born there. We have seen his 
 
 records as early as 1529, and we know that he was still on the farm in October, 
 1560. In this year, or early in the next, he probably died, as there is no entry 
 of his name in the Church registers, which date back to 1561. 
 
 The evidence that John and Henry Shakespeare were sons of this good 
 man, Richard, is very strong, but what other children he may have had does 
 not appear, though there is some possibility that he had a son Thomas. The 
 date of birth of neither of his sons is known, but Malone suggests that 
 probably John was born in 1530. It is not known when John Shakespeare 
 left Snitterfield. Many writers say it was in 1551, but this is obviously 
 impossible, since, in 1552, he was resident in Henley Street, Stratford-on-Avon, 
 
 57 
 
and in 1556, while residing at the same place, was described as a glover. 
 We do not know where or when he learned the glover's craft, but it was certainly 
 not in his native hamlet, and we know that both in Warwick and Stratford there 
 were glovers before his time. No one could practise a trade without the 
 usual apprenticeship, which was almost invariably seven or ten years; 
 generally seven years from the fourteenth j'ear of age, so that it would seem 
 likely (especially if Malone's estimate of birth- year is correct) that the young 
 glover came to Stratford about 1544, and in 155 1 became free of the appren- 
 ticeship and began business on his own account. 
 
 There has been, perhaps, more contradictory speculation about the precise 
 habits and character of John Shakespeare than about any other person or 
 circumstance connected with the poet; and it has been commonly concluded 
 that the character of the poet himself must have been largely inherited from 
 his mother. This seems hardly necessary on an examination of the facts. 
 Taken impartially, they delineate a character common enough in successful 
 men who rise from the ranks, and in no way prove John Shakespeare 
 incapable of being the father of a genius. The whole course of his life, so 
 far as is known, was that of a man of enterprise and energy ; of eager, active, 
 temperament, with the initiative and creative faculties strong, the reflective 
 and conservative faculties comparatively weak. Such a man is, as John 
 Shakespeare was, undoubtedly, a cheerful optimist; busy, sympathetic, 
 generous, public-spirited, somewhat careless in detail, because liable to over- 
 estimate his own powers, and prone to have too many irons in the fire. 
 
 We have stated that he was described as a glover, whose business in those 
 days included the tanning of skins (sometimes the skinning and even the 
 killing of the animals) as well as the manufacture and sale of all such leather 
 goods as did not come more properly into the trades of the boot maker, or the 
 saddler and harness maker. Leggings and thick farming gauntlets formed 
 part of the commodities, and doubtless, also, such articles as leathern aprons, 
 leather breeches, "blackjacks," and "leather bottels." We know that John 
 Shakespeare became the owner or occupier of considerable property, that he 
 dealt in corn, and also in timber (though to what extent is not known). 
 Tradition says that he was a butcher and a wool-stapler, and all these facts 
 and traditions, though at first sight contradictory, fall in with the view that 
 his original and principal business was a glover's (in the wide sense described 
 above), and that as he prospered, his money was invested, as was usual in 
 those days, in houses and land, and in commercial enterprises and specula- 
 tions which he could personally supervise. The timber transaction may have 
 been one of many dealings, especially since his tanning would make him a 
 regular buyer of bark, or it may have been a casual speculation. The selling 
 of a quantity of barley was natural to a farmer; and the treating and tanning 
 
 58 
 
of sheep-skins would necessitate his dealings in skin-wool at any rate, so that 
 more extensive wool-stapling might quite possibly follow. 
 
 It has been suggested that John Shakespeare's success was largely, if not 
 entirely, due to the property, social influence, and business ability of his wife, 
 and the fact of his rapid advancement in prosperity and public position after 
 his marriage, has been cited. This seems part of a quite unnecessary attempt 
 to brand the father with incompetence, in order that his character may serve 
 as a foil for the talents of the illustrious son. Without wish to detract from 
 the value of Mary Arden's influence, it is well to note that before his marriage, 
 John Shakespeare was firmly on the lower rounds of the ladder, and had 
 made the first, usually the most difficult steps, towards wealth and position. 
 
 In 1552 he was fined twelve pence for having too large a "muck-hill" 
 before his door, but this was just the sort of thing that would happen to an 
 enthusiastic busy man in a time when the only sanitary arrangement was for 
 the private refuse that accumulated in the streets to be periodically removed 
 to one of three or four public " muck-hills" that were equally within the 
 town. The fining was doubtless a spasmodic effort of that time between the 
 disestablishment of the Guild and the charter of incorporation, for two other 
 Stratfordians were at the same time fined for the same offence. In 1556 he sued 
 a neighbour for the value of eighteen quarters of barley, which seems to show 
 either that then he was a grain grower in addition to his leather business, or 
 that he had sufficient ready cash or good credit for speculation outside his own 
 trade. In 1556 he purchased two houses in Stratford, one in Henley Street, 
 and the other in Greenhill Street. On the 30th April, 1557, he was a juror of 
 the leet, and in the same year was elected ale-taster. 
 
 Let us now return for a moment to Robert Arden, whose descent we 
 traced from an ancient and honorable house, and whose daughter, in 1557, 
 married the already' prosperous glover. As we have seen, he was owner of 
 part of the land farmed by Richard Shakespeare, and we know that he owned 
 another farm and house in Snitterfield, as well as two farms in Wilmcote, one 
 of which he occupied. From the inventory made after his death, we know 
 that his home was substantial and commodious for the time, and the house 
 still shewn at Wilmcote, as Mary Arden's, thoroughly bears out the idea. 
 We may be sure that John Shakespeare was familiar from his youth with 
 the home of his father's landlord, whom, as the husband of his mother's 
 sister, he would almost regard as an uncle. No doubt his poor father, 
 harassed with debt, would often point to his landlord as an example of a 
 shrewd, hard-working, successful man. And no doubt the same landlord was 
 anxiously consulted when the father contemplated apprenticing his boy to the 
 glover's craft, that was to place him beyond those money troubles which had 
 clouded the home through all his young days. We can imagine John 
 Shakespeare as a lad, often calling at the Arden house after a day's ramble in 
 
 60 
 
the forest, to shew his cousins the birds' eggs, the nuts, or other country 
 treasures that he had collected, and to drink a bowl of milk, or munch an 
 apple from the orchard, while telling all his adventures, and gazing in 
 admiration on some of the eleven " painted cloths," which hung in place of 
 tapestry in the hall-way and best rooms. We may be sure that on sabbath 
 days and holidays Mistress Shakespeare and Mistress Arden would often meet, 
 in sisterly fashion, for mutual confidence and encouragement. We may be 
 sure, too, that one or other of the Arden girls would often visit the 
 Shakespeare homestead with presents of some of those frugal dainties, proofs 
 
 of their culinary ability as well as of their goodwill, 
 with which country women love to give their friends 
 a mild surprise. There were feast-days and fair-days in Stratford, as well 
 as in their own villages and hamlets, when the lads and lasses would 
 meet, decked in all their bravery, and casting care to the winds; for even 
 in hard times those countrv folk knew nothing of the strenuous, anxious 
 grind of modern city life. There were endless opportunities for the families 
 to become acquainted, and we can imagine John Shakespeare as he pro- 
 gressed in his apprenticeship, and later, as his own business began to 
 prosper, often walking in an evening to Wilmcote, and telling in his hopeful 
 enthusiastic wa}', of every new sign of success. We can imagine honest 
 Robert Arden, after cheering and encouraging the rising young tradesman, 
 standing under the pent-house roof, as the youth and his own daughters 
 wandered out to the orchard, and smiling a quiet humorous smile as he 
 noted that his youngest favorite daughter, Mary, was also the favorite of 
 
 6i 
 
3'oung John Shakespeare. It is but right to mention that Wilmcote tradition 
 (probably of ancient date) says that Robert Arden was in no way friendly 
 to the match, but the facts warrant us in supposing that any objection he 
 might have, was no stronger than the common and very natural objection 
 of a fond father, to losing his favorite daughter. 
 
 On November 24th, 1556, Robert Arden, " secke in Bodye and good and 
 perfett of rememberence," made his last will and testament, appointing as 
 his executors his daughters Alice and Mary. He made special and extensive 
 bequests to these two daughters, and suitable provision for his widow (who 
 already held certain valuable assets), and left the residue to his other children, 
 without mentioning their names. On December i6th, in the same year, this 
 
 ASTON CANTLOV 
 
 will was proved. The " lande in Wilmcote cawlide Asbies," which was part 
 of the bequest to Mary Arden, is of the greatest possible interest, as it plays 
 an important part in the history of John and William Shakespeare. Though 
 we do not know the extent or boundaries of the land, though the name, 
 Asbies, has long been out of use, a house which is generally accepted as Mary 
 Arden's, is still preserved, and is visited by numbers of Shakespeare pilgrims, 
 to whose use it has been reserved by Samuel Lane, a farmer of the district, 
 who makes a charge of a few pence for admission. The house is indeed well 
 worth a visit, for whether it is or is not the actual home of Mary Arden, it 
 gives us a good idea of the conditions of the well-to-do farmers of about that 
 period. A long two-story house, built of the stone of the district, with low 
 ceilings, wide fire-places, stone floors, and broad window-sills. The stairs to 
 
the upper story are built in the best room ; and the bakehouse, wash-copper, 
 and rub-stone under the pent-house roof that runs behind the building, tell of 
 rough, hearty times. The old draw-well stands in the small paved yard 
 behind the house. A low stone wall divides this yard from the main farm 
 yard with its farm buildings on each side, with its manure heaps, and its 
 horse pond. A gate at one end of the house admits to the farm yard from the 
 road, and at the other side of the yard, under a great pent-house roof, high 
 enough to shelter a loaded hay-wain, is a gate which leads to the meadows 
 and the orchard, of which we get a glimse from the back door of the house. 
 
 The date when John Shakespeare took Mary Arden from this home is 
 not known ; nor are we certain where the wedding occurred. There was no 
 church in Wilmcote at that time, so probably the ceremony took place at the 
 church of the parish, Aston Cantlow. The marriage was almost certainly in 
 
 iF.GISTRV OF SHAKESPEARE S BIRTH. 
 
 1557, for it was after the death of Robert Arden (Dec, 1556), and the first 
 child of the union was baptised Joan on September 5th, 1558. This marriage 
 with an heiress, the daughter of a substantial local farmer and landowner, and 
 a woman doubtless in ever}- way a true helpmeet for a thriving tradesman, 
 would enhance the position of John Shakespeare, and help him greatly in 
 his somewhat extensive enterprises. 
 
 In 1558 the poet's father was chosen one of the four petty constables, his 
 second step toward the position of Chief Alderman which he was afterwards 
 to attain, and it is interesting to note that in this year he was fined fourpence 
 for not keeping his gutter clean, at which time Francis Burbage, the Chief 
 Alderman, and three others were similarly fined for the same offence. On 
 September 30th, 1558, John Shakespeare was, for the second time, a juror of 
 the leet, and in 1559 was re-elected pett}- constable, and elected one of the 
 affeerors or officers who imposed fines in the case of convictions to which no 
 definite legal penalties were attached. In 1561 he was again afteeror, and 
 also Chamberlain of the Borough, a post for which he seems to have been 
 well fitted, for not only was he re-elected for a second year (1562-3), but we 
 find that later he prepared the Chamberlain's accounts when others were in 
 
 63 E 
 
office. And yet, marvellous as it appears to us now, this successful business 
 man who is repeated!)' entrusted with the accounts of the Corporation, is 
 generally supposed to have been so ignorant of letters and figures that 
 he could not even sign his own name. Though reason almost cries out 
 against such an idea, and though Knight and others have striven to show 
 that inability to sign their names has not been proved against John and Mary 
 Shakespeare, the whole of the evidence seems strongly to point to their 
 illiteracy. 
 
 On December 2nd, 1562, was baptised, and on April 30th, 1563, was 
 buried Margaret, the second daughter of John and Mary Shakespeare. 
 
 In 1564, on or about April 22nd, was born William, the first son, and 
 possibly at that time the only child in the family in Henley Street. The 
 death of his sister Joan is not recorded ; in fact, nothing is known of her 
 beyond her baptismal entry on September 15th, 1558; but since another 
 daughter was baptised in the same name on April 15th, 1569, it is evident 
 that the first daughter must have died in infancy. Tradition says that the 
 poet first saw light on April 23rd, the day of St. George, patron saint of 
 England. It may well have been so, and it is fitting that he who was 
 destined to be the greatest of all Englishmen should be born on the day of 
 his country's saint. 
 
 ■I,,/ Gardens.) 
 
 64 
 
Chapter IV. 
 
 SHAKESPEARE'S CHILDHOOD. 
 
 ' Happy the parents of so fair a child," 
 
 Taming of the Shrew. Act IV., Scene 5. 
 
 E know but little of the childhood of Shakespeare, 
 of the time when he was drinking in the 
 influence and inspiration of a noble mother's 
 ove. Not a word of direct history or even legend has 
 been carried down the years, and we can only construct 
 a vision of his early days from the bare walls and 
 floors of his birth-house, and from the historv of his 
 town. 
 The birth-house has an unquestionable record from the hands 
 of John Shakespeare to its present owners — the Shakespeare's 
 Birthplace Trust. It is also identified as the house of Shakespeare's 
 birth from a time sufficiently ancient to preclude any suggestion of 
 manufactured tradition, and even the room in which the poet was 
 born is shewn. It has been pointed out that though there is 
 evidence that this house belonged to John Shakespeare at the time 
 his son was born, there is no absolute evidence that the birth did 
 not take place at some other of the homes which John Shakespeare 
 is known to have occupied at one time or other. "While 
 
 65 
 
this is quite true, the idea seems so unnecessary and far-fetched that we may 
 well accept the birth-house with its strong presumptive evidence and its old 
 tradition. Probably the house has been so far altered and restored that but 
 little of the original fabric remains, and we know that its interior arrange- 
 ments have, more than once, been greatly changed, but still, it is our 
 Shakespeare's birthplace, a place which has received its millions of pilgrims, 
 a place which has quickened the aspirations of many an enthusiast who 
 came with deeper purpose than the idle curiosity of the crowd. 
 
 The house is greatly changed from its appearance before it was taken over 
 by the Trust, as will be seen by comparing the view from a negative taken 
 
 SHAKESPEARE S BIRTHPLACE. 
 
 by Mr. H. P. Robinson, in 1858, with the more recent views taken by our- 
 selves. In making the changes, every possible care was taken to secure a 
 true restoration to the old arrangement. The old timbers and main portions 
 were religiously left untouched, except in so far as decay rendered some repairs 
 imperative, and the alterations were confined to the removing of details known 
 to be recent additions. Every possible precaution is taken for the safety of 
 the home. When it was purchased, the adjoining cottages were also bought 
 and pulled down, to isolate it from the risk of fire. No artificial light of any 
 description is allowed within the walls, and the heating is secured by hot- 
 water pipes brought under the garden, along the pathway from the Custodian's 
 
 66 
 
house. The old stone floor of the main room, broken by ill-treatment during 
 the time when the house was used as a butcher's shop, is left in its old 
 condition, although beneath it is an older floor of oak, still good and sound. 
 Rather than remove the ceiling of the birth-room, which is in a very decrepit 
 state, the Trustees have entirely closed the top storey and held the plaster 
 together as well as may be by a close grating of iron laths, which have a 
 curious appearance. The views of the house prevent the necessity of any 
 extensive description, though it is well to say that it is reall}' two dwellings, 
 and has, at one time, been divided into three. 
 
 THE "MAIN ROOM," SHAKESPEARE'S BIRTH-HOUSE. 
 
 Visitors first enter the main room, a stone floored apartment with immense 
 stone chimney-place, capable of holding and smoking many a side of bacon. 
 Immediately behind is the living-room or kitchen, also with a huge chimney 
 that leaves ample space within itself for a chair each side of the fire. Behind 
 this again is a sort of back hall, leading to the garden, and a small snuggery 
 or little parlor. From the living-room, stairs descend to the cellar, and others 
 take a narrow winding way to a tiny landing between the birth-room and the 
 two rooms (now thrown into one) at the rear. The birth-room is similar to 
 the main room beneath it, with great chimney-place and a row of little lattice 
 
 67 
 
windows. It seems lamentably bare, the few incongruous pieces of old 
 furniture ranged against the walls, only add to the deserted effect, and there is 
 no sense of Jioiiie. Yet what a home it must have been when this was the 
 best bedroom of the thriving glover who was working his way up the ladder 
 of local fame, cheered by the earnest, loving encouragement of his good wife, 
 and the merry prattle of his quick, observant son. The house was never 
 palatial ; but in the living-room there was the comfort of a roaring fire and a long 
 high-backed settle, and seats in the chimney-corner when the wind howled 
 without. There were never any paperhangings or tapestries, never any 
 
 PARLOR, SHAKESPEARE S BIRTH-HOUSE. 
 
 useless furniture or pretentious luxuries, but the walls were freshly whitened, 
 and on them would hang " painted cloths," framed " samplers," worked by 
 the house-mother in her early days ; bright arms, and the more valuable 
 implements of the trade, side by side with bright household utensils, and 
 possibly one or two curios brought from foreign lands to the local fairs. 
 Probably there were some of the painted cloths from the Arden homestead, 
 and possibly one of these illustrated in rude fashion the " Seven Ages of 
 Man," a subject which vied with the story of the Prodigal Son in popularity. 
 We may be sure, from what we know of the life in such homes, that there 
 
 68 
 
was good store of snowy sheets, warm blankets, and heavy counterpanes for 
 the cold nights, and probably a long patch-work cushion, stuffed with rags to 
 mask the wooden hardness of the long settle. In those days when labor 
 was cheap and material expensive, patch-work made warm quilts and 
 comfortable cushions from the cast-off garments of the whole family ; and 
 garments were not cast off in such a household until they would no longer 
 bear mending. The cellar held good store of milk and butter and cheese, 
 with brisk ale, and may be, some cyder from the Arden orchard. The long- 
 settle, its seat forming two lids, held a couple of packs of flour and a couple 
 of packs of meal, with a wooden scoop in each division, worn smooth and 
 
 niRTH-ROOM. 
 
 white with years of use. In the barn behind was grain ready to be ground, 
 in the chimney swung the great thick sides of bacon, while hams, and onions 
 and savory herbs, hung from the joists and rafters. The spinning wheel would 
 be found in a corner, and, doubtless, was often busy. Probably there were 
 stools instead of chairs, the tables and the fourpost bed were notable for 
 strength, rather than beauty. Forks and tableknives were not needed, for 
 broth was eaten with a wooden spoon or drunk from the bowl, while the 
 solids were stolidly munched, or cut up and conveyed to the mouth with the 
 knife that each one used for other purposes. Table-cloths or board-cloths 
 were used on semi-state occasions only, and the platters, dishes and bowls were 
 
 69 
 
probably all of wood, which could be easily cleaned by scouring with sand 
 after washing. The stone floor boasted no carpet but a dressing of sand or a 
 bordered pattern of chalk, but it was frequently scoured, and when finished 
 off with a washing of milk, such a stone floor was the pink of cleanliness. 
 For the winter weather rushes would be spread in place of carpeting. 
 
 Outside the house was great ignorance of sanitary precaution, and no 
 concern for beaut}'. The front street, as we have seen, was in a state so bad 
 that we have two records of fines imposed on John Shakespeare for allowing 
 the accumulation of filth by a corporation that was far from squeamish in 
 such matters. At the back of the house where is now a trim garden, there 
 were doubtless the tan-pits, of evil savor, a pig-sty or two, and the usual 
 domestic offices of the time. But beyond these were the open gravel pits 
 of the Guild, and the fields and hawthorn hedges rising away to the 
 Welcombe Hills. 
 
 In such a house Willie Shakespeare was born just as Queen Elizabeth, 
 after concluding a treaty of peace with France, was resolutely turning to the 
 settlement of affairs in her own land ; and the early years of his life were 
 stirring times for the country. There was little or no reading in such a home, 
 and by the fireside of a man like John Shakespeare the talk would range over 
 the greatest possible variety of subjects — history, legend, politics, trade, 
 fairy-lore, and town government. It was the ideal environment to store the 
 mind of a quick impressionable lad with poetical ideas and weird conceptions. 
 
 Adjoining the home was the workshop, or the wool sl;iop, as it is generally 
 called. This place, bought from Edward West in 1556, must have proved a 
 fascinating attraction to the young poet, with its changing stock of wool and 
 skins, and all the work and mystery of the glover's craft. The boy was yet 
 too young to take interest in his father's steady promotion from office to office, 
 but we must glance at the events which were passing around him. 
 
 In the very year of his birth (1564) a sore plague swept over Stratford. 
 All strangers were forbidden to enter, and inhabitants were ordered not to 
 leave the town. Stringent sanitary measures (considering the period) were 
 adopted, and the town council met in the open air for fear of infection. 
 
 Probably the mother and young child were removed from the town, for the 
 prosperous tradesman who had lost two infant children, would not wish to let 
 his little son take risks ; so it is likely that when about three months old, the 
 poet made his first lengthy visit to either Wilmcote or Snitterfield. It is, 
 indeed, possible that they moved to Clifford Chambers, where, according to 
 a tradition, John Shakespeare lived for some years. Certain it is that the 
 vicarage house at Clifford Chambers was at that time occupied by a John 
 Shakespeare, though we know of no certain evidence that this was John 
 Shakespeare the Stratford glover. It has even been suggested that possibly 
 the poet was born at Clifford Chambers, but there seems no shred of evidence 
 
 70 
 
THE LIBRARY AT THE GRAMMAR SCHOOL. 
 
in favor of this suggestion. Whatever maj' have happened to Mrs. Shakes- 
 peare and her infant son, the father stayed in the plague-stricken town. On 
 August 30th he contributed twelve pence, on September 6th, six pence, on 
 September 27th, six pence, and on October 20th, eight pence, for the poor of 
 the town and those that were visited by the plague. In this year occurred a 
 piece of vandalism with which John Shakespeare could have had little 
 sympathy if, as seems almost certain, he was a friend of the "old faith." 
 Yet, as one of the chamberlains of the town, he was bound to take part in 
 the payment for what he regarded as an act of sacrilege. It was the tearing 
 down of the rood-loft in the Guild Chapel ; the removal of the last trace of 
 papistry, as the images had already been " defaced" in 1562 and 1563. 
 
 In March of 1565 John Shakespeare and a colleague made up the 
 chamberlain's accounts, to Michaelmas 1564; on July 4th he was chosen an 
 alderman, and on September 12th sworn into that office. In taking the oaths 
 of office he was bound to swear allegiance to the new religion as well as to 
 the Crown, but, like many others in Warwickshire, he might take his oaths 
 with a mental reservation, knowing that open recalcitrancy meant ruin to his 
 family as well as to himself. In September of this same year, he and 
 eighteen others signed an order to John Wheeler to take the position of 
 bailiff. 
 
 In 1566 the chamberlain's accounts were placed in the hands of John 
 Shakespeare alone, and it is noteworthy that in this, and in two or three 
 other cases, balances were shown to be due to him from the corporation, 
 which would hardly have been the case had he been in straitened circum- 
 stances. On October 13th, another son, Gilbert, was baptised, a lad who in 
 later years was to make a competency as a haberdasher, in London, afterwards 
 returning to Stratford to act as local representative of his famous brother in at 
 least one important business transaction. The records of this year shew that 
 John Shakespeare became bail in two actions, for one Richard Hathaway, but 
 whether the same whose daughter was afterwards to become the poet's wife, 
 is unknown. 
 
 In 1567, John Shakespeare is first recorded as Mr., and this has been taken 
 as an indication that in this year the coat of arms, confirmed in 1596, was 
 granted. His name is found in the attendance book of the town council on 
 three occasions, and on the last of these, September 3rd, he was one of three 
 persons nominated for bailiff, the highest position the town could offer. 
 Ralph Cawdey, a butcher, proved the successful candidate. In this year, too, 
 John Shakespeare was assessed for a royal subsid}' on goods of the value 
 
 of £4- 
 
 1568 again saw three nominations for bailitf, one of them being Robert 
 Perrot, who was unsuccessful in the previous year. This time John 
 Shakespeare was elected. Late in this year is recorded an appearance of the 
 
 74 
 
players, under the patronage of the corporation, and it is quite Hkely that 
 little Willie, who was afterwards to do so much for the players' art, then saw 
 his first theatrical performance. The travelling actors of those days were held 
 in no great repute. No women were in their company, for, at that time, and 
 for a great many years longer, the playing of a theatrical part by a woman 
 would have been held a scandalous exhibition. Usually the whole company 
 tramped on foot from town to town, their slight wardrobe carried by one or 
 two pack-horses or mules. ¥ot safety, they often joined forces with the 
 regular vagrants, or school-men (as poor as their companions). The travelling 
 
 of these three classes, in company, gave rise to the well-known old jingle : — 
 
 Hark! hark! the dogs do bark, 
 
 The beggars are coming to town, 
 Some in rags, and some in jags, 
 
 And some in a velvet gown. 
 
 The players who were fortunate enough to have the nominal patronage of 
 some nobleman, and a license to call themselves his servants, would crave 
 permission of the town authorities to perform within its boundaries, and if 
 those authorities were favorably disposed, might receive a "bespeak," with 
 permission to perform two or three times in the town-hall. 
 
 75 
 
In the year i668-g, the Queen's servants and those of the Earl of 
 Worcester played before the town council at Stratford. The first named 
 company received nine shillings, and the latter twelve pence from the public 
 purse. Though it is not known that Willie Shakespeare saw these plays, 
 we know that other boys exactly his own age saw similar plays in the very 
 same year, and may be sure that John Shakespeare, the leading man of the 
 town, bent on honoring the new departure, would take his family to the play. 
 The long, somewhat low room of the Guild was far better suited for the plays 
 of the day than many with which the actors had to be content, and now that 
 it has been restored''" to its original condition, we can well call up the picture. 
 There was no glass in the windows, but stout oak bars, just near enough together 
 to prevent any one crawling through, and the breezes would be partially excluded 
 by heavy hangings or tapestries. Guttering candles and smoky torches 
 arranged in clusters threw a glare on players and public alike. With the stage 
 not more than a foot above the general level, no scenery, few costumes, and 
 scarce any "properties" beyond such articles as might be borrowed in the 
 district, it was very different from the sumptuous theatrical arrangements of the 
 present day. The play, too, was strong and direct in its tendency, generally 
 with a melodramatic moral, and plenty of the broadest farce-comedy element. 
 There was crude justice, "villainy vanquished and virtue victorious," and 
 exaggerated action that were calculated to appeal strongly to simple folk and 
 children ; so that we may be sure of its lasting impression on an active 
 imagination such as that of the child Shakespeare. 
 
 1569 was not, so far as we know, a very eventful year for the child whose 
 career we are interested in following. His father's name occurs several times 
 in the town records, now as supervising the chamberlain's accounts, now as 
 witness to a couple of documents, and on sundry occasions as taking his 
 place as presiding officer at meetings of the town council and the court of 
 record. On April 15th a daughter was baptised, and in remembrance of the 
 dear first child that the parents had loved and lost, was given the favorite 
 local name of Joan. This first sister of William Shakespeare, undoubtedly 
 had a great influence upon his life, and we know that she was generously 
 remembered in his will. 
 
 In 1570 and 1571 we have few records of the Shakespeare family. John 
 attended council meetings, had money transactions (nature not recorded) 
 with the council, and in the latter year was elected chief magistrate. On 
 September 28th of that year his daughter Anna was baptised. 
 
 So far as we have evidence, the affairs of the family were prosperous. But 
 in these years the religious troubles were seething and working, and no doubt 
 many a time the Shakespeare home would see an earnest little party of 
 
 * From iheendof last, or beginning of the present, century, until 1894, the Guild-hall was divided into three 
 rooms: which led some to ridicule the idea of plays ever having been given here. The restoration, in 
 1894, shewed that the partitions were no portion of the original fabric. 
 
 76 
 
friends of the old faith, gathered around the great hearth to discuss with 
 some anxiety the news brought to the town by some chance traveller. Mary 
 of Scotland was in prison, '69 and '70 saw rebellions in the north, with 
 terribly stern retaliation. In '70 the Pope excommunicated Elizabeth, and a 
 fanatic who posted a copy of the Bill of Excommunication on the Bishop of 
 London's gate, was executed. In 1571 the puritans, who had been almost as 
 repugnant to the government as the catholics, received many concessions, 
 but these were far from helping the catholic cause, which was soon to receive 
 a terrible blow in England, from the very success of some of its extremist 
 friends in France. The unparalleled massacre of St. Bartholomew in August, 
 1572, must have shocked and saddened all true catholics as well as protestants, 
 and though Elizabeth evidently did not feel strong enough to vigorously 
 protest, there is no doubt that in England at that time was sown that bitter 
 hatred of the papists of which traces remain to this day. It must have been 
 a time of great excitement and anxiety when the news came to the little town 
 of Stratford, and to the home of its chief magistrate ; whose son, nearly eight 
 years old, would grasp something of the seriousness of the situation. 
 
 Surely we are justified in believing that such an event as St. Bartholomew's 
 day stamped its seal on a whole lifetime. May we not further believe that when 
 the doubts and fears of the time subsided, our little Shakespeare was a child 
 no longer, but was turning his earnest gaze to the future — a boy of purpose. 
 
 78 
 
THE BATHING PLACE. 
 
 Chapter V. 
 
 SHAKESPEARE'S BOYHOOD. 
 
 '■ Then the whining school-boy with his satchel 
 And shining morning face, creeping like snail 
 Unwillingly to school." 
 
 As You Like If. Act II., Scene 7. 
 
 jM^HATEVER of autobiography there may be in 
 
 Shakespeare's works, we may well refuse to 
 
 believe that the quotation above given carries any 
 
 personal confession. 'Tis true that of the great 
 
 poet's boyhood we have not a single direct reliable 
 
 record, but the whole circumstances of his character 
 
 ^.msijet^ ^^'^ surroundings assure us that he was never the 
 
 1 (t^^ laggard or the dunce of his class. The eldest son 
 
 1^ of such a home, of such a father, in the very 
 
 morning of our greatest revival of learning, with free access 
 
 to an excellent school, how can we believe otherwise than that 
 
 he was an apt and cheerful scholar? He, who made such 
 
 literary out-put as we find in the years of his early manhood, 
 
 was no idler, no dullard or blockhead; and though we may be 
 
 sure that he was never excessively industrious, we may be 
 
 equally sure that he loved to match his bright wits, quick 
 
 79 
 
observation, and retentive memory, against the duller brains around him. 
 To imagine that he was not a scholar of the Grammar School of King 
 Edward VI. is madness; to imagine him an unwilling scholar is quite 
 unnecessarj". 
 
 The school was the fine old foundation of the Guild, established about the 
 beginning of the fifteenth century; and endowed by Thomas Jolyffe, priest of 
 the Guild, in 1482. As we have already seen, the Guild funds were con- 
 fiscated with the Guild property, by order of Henry VIII., and restored by 
 Edward VI. Hence the school was known in Shakespeare's time, and is 
 until this day, as King Edward the Sixth's school. 
 
 Much of the old-time feeling clings around this school and the 
 Guild Chapel to which it is attached. The great bell of the chapel (there are 
 two) is still tolled at six in the morning during summer time, and is rung at 
 curfew time every night during the winter. On the first of the month one 
 stroke is given at the morning call, and each day a stroke is added until the 
 end of the month. Six in the morning was the time for commencing lessons 
 in Shakespeare's day, and the studies were continued for twelve hours, with 
 brief recesses for meals and recreation. The metal of the great bell is of very 
 old date, though it has comparatively recently been recast. Its smaller 
 companion is younger, and is rung to call people to the chapel service, while 
 the two together are the town's fire-alarm. Those who have time to spare 
 will be well repaid for asking permission from the chaplain, and hunting up 
 the verger, with the keys, by the climb up the narrow, worn, and winding 
 stairway to the bell chamber. The old tower is quaint indeed, and there are 
 beautiful views from its wind-doors, across the school playground, across 
 garden and orchard, to the church of Trinity. When the sunlight falls on 
 the church there are few fairer prospects. From this point of vantage we can 
 easily see the plan of the Grammar school and Guildhall, the houses of the 
 poor brethren of the guild, the priest's house, and the pedagogue's house, all 
 clustering round the corner of the playground. 
 
 Descending to Church Street again, we enter the passage between the 
 Guild chapel and the Grammar school, and find the main doorway of the 
 Guildhall, on the right, in the passage. The hall is a long, low, room, 
 dating at least from 1417, though it is uncertain whether the building was 
 entirely rebuilt, or only thoroughly restored, in that year. It is only so 
 recently as 1894 that it has been restored to its old condition as one room, after 
 being for about a century divided into three. At that restoration a few 
 interesting facts came to light. On the wall opposite the main door — the end 
 where the players made their stage, were traces of five frescoes. The white- 
 wash that had been over them for years, or centuries, had made their 
 decipherment almost impossible, even with the most careful cleaning, but we 
 can make out that the centre panel is the Crucifixion, with the Virgin on one 
 
 80 
 
side, and St. John on the other; while the side panels contain coats of arms. 
 In another panel some old writing was found, incised in the very fine plaster, 
 and, after careful photographic copj'ing, was found to be a memorandum of 
 some fish-sauce and oil — probably obtained for one of the feasts of the guild 
 or the corporation. 
 
 From this hall, we pass through a doorway, over which is an undecipher- 
 able inscription, with the date i6ig, into a room which is variously called the 
 armour)', and the council chamber, or 'greein' room. If it was not the 
 agreeing room of the guild, it was, doubtless, the "green" room of the 
 players, and, perhaps, this punning possibility has led to the generally 
 
 IHt GREEIN KOOl 
 
 accepted name. At one time, certainly, it was the armoury. It is a quaintly 
 timbered room, with an old painting of the arms of England, dating 
 from the public rejoicings at the restoration of the Stuarts, in 1660. Another 
 doorway leads from this room to a queer old staircase, a curious branch of 
 which gives access to a tiny room, undisturbed for an indefinite period, until 
 a few years ago, when its pile of dusty lumber was overhauled and revealed 
 sufficiency of interesting documents to earn for it the name of the muniment 
 room. The papers thus found are preserved at the birth-house museum. At 
 the top of the stairs is a fine room over the armoury, now used a? the school 
 library. A massive, carved, oak table, of great age, fills the centre of the 
 
room, and on the wall, at one end, are painted two roses — red, with white 
 centre, and white, with red centre — supposed to date from 1485, when the 
 wars of the roses ended by happy union of the rival houses. 
 
 The mathematical room, over the south-westerly end of the Guildhall, 
 and the Latin school-room, over the rest of that long apartment, are intensely 
 interesting, as associated with Shakespeare's school days. In the northern 
 corner of the Latin room stood the long desk known as Shakespeare's, and 
 now preserved in the birth-house museum. It is objected by some that this 
 was an usher's desk, and not a scholar's desk at all; but if we are to believe 
 the tale of Audrey that Shakespeare "had been in his younger days a school 
 master in the country," this difficulty vanishes. There remains the still 
 greater objection (which, we fear, is a valid one) that the desk preserved in 
 the birth-house is not near as old as Shakespeare's day. But, in relic worship, 
 such an objection is mere detail. 
 
 At this end of the Latin room is a "lobby," over the passage that gives 
 entrance to the Guildhall, and having the tower of the Guild Chapel for one of 
 its walls. Until recently, it was spanned at the level of the eaves by a 
 ceiling, on the removal of which it was curious to find the chapel tower wall 
 scratched all over with names and initials of scholars now gone and forgotten. 
 We can only surmise the use of this curious chamber, without light, without 
 ventilation. May be in early days it was a dormitory, later, a punishment 
 room. Returning through the Latin room, and down the outside staircase, of 
 recent date but ancient style, we come into the corner of the playfield. 
 Opposite is the pedagogue's house, as ancient and as curious as the school 
 itself, and between it and the Guild Chapel is a boarding house for the scholars, 
 standing on the site of the house of the priest of the Guild. The pedagogue's 
 house is now devoted to school purposes, providing three or four good class- 
 rooms, and a tiny private room for the headmaster. The building is quaintly 
 irregular, for it has hardly an exterior timber that is truly upright, or truly 
 horizontal, and none of its angles are rectangles. 
 
 Although called the pedagogue's house, there is some reason to believe 
 that this ancient building is the original schoolhouse, in which lessons were 
 given before the present school was built, when, possibly, the Guildhall was 
 a one-storey building. 
 
 In the school enclosure are two brick walls that we should much like to see 
 removed, as they are contradictions of the original scheme. One surrounds 
 the gardens of the alms-houses (formerly used by the poor brethren of the 
 Guild), the other cuts off from the yard a scrap of garden behind the priest's 
 house. Immediately within this latter wall is a charming old doorway, the 
 Brothers' door to the chapel. Inside the chapel there is not, nor has there 
 been for a century or so, any trace of this doorway. The wall is continuous, 
 plastered level and smooth, for the old purpose of the door is gone. In the 
 
 84 
 
old days, when the priest occupied his house and the pedagogue had his own 
 rooms, when the choristers or the poorer brethren dwelt in what are now the 
 alms-houses, all the buildings opened on the common court-yard, and the yard 
 had also access to the chapel without the necessity of going into the street. 
 Doubtless the Guildhall was the common refectory of priest and brethren, 
 and the brothers' door was regularly used when they rose from their meals to 
 return thanks to the Giver of all good. 
 
 This fine old school is well worth any time we may be able to spend upon 
 it, and an acquaintance with its old-time architecture, its hacked desks and 
 
 I'EDAGOGUE S HOUSE. 
 
 tables, and its ancient rough-hewn timbers, helps us to realise the poet's 
 schooldays. The years he spent at school are commonly supposed to have 
 been from 157 1 to 1578, and there is no reason to doubt the substantial 
 correctness of these dates. The seventh to the fourteenth year were usually 
 devoted to school learning by boys who were intended to become apprentices; 
 and we are told by the chroniclers that the poet's father removed him early 
 from school, for employment in his own business. The early marriage, and 
 early leaving of his country, for London, are sufficient in themselves to assure 
 
 «5 
 
us that the poet did not remain at school much beyond the usual time for lads 
 who were not to go to college; while his father's important position in the 
 town is a guarantee that he had the usual schooling of the time. Taking 
 these dates, then, his masters would be: — 1570-72, Walter Roche, Fellow of 
 Corpus Christi College, and Rector of Clifford; 1572-77," Thomas Hunt (to 
 whom we shall refer later, as curate of Luddington, where Shakespeare was 
 probably married), and 1577-78, Thomas Jenkins, M.A., St. John's College, 
 Oxford. These are all men of ability, so that there is no reason to disbelieve 
 that Shakespeare received a thorough ground- work of education. Thomas 
 Hunt, who had the greatest opportunity of influencing the poet, was a man 
 of learning and importance. His salary, we know, was twice as large 
 as that of the contemporary master of Eton. His title. Sir Thomas, 
 was a courtesy of the times, conferred on schoolmasters of standing — as in 
 the case of Sir Hugh Evans, in "The Merry Wives." Though most 
 of the schools of the same time and standing had a "petty" school, wherein 
 the rudimentary English subjects were taught to scholars of from five 
 to seven years, the Stratford school seems to have had no such arrangement. 
 In the early records of the Guild we find frequent allowances of rent, "which 
 the master and the aldermen have pardoned to him yearly, as long as he 
 wishes to keep school in it," and probably this rent-subsidised preparatory 
 school continued after the King's school was established. In such petty 
 schools, the usual books were the ABC, the Catechism, the Psalter and 
 Book of Common Prayer, and the New Testament. Passing into the lowest 
 class of the grammar school, Latin grammar and accidence, with the lesser 
 catechism in Latin for a reading book, would have to be mastered. The 
 second year, in the second form, saw continuance of grammar, with the 
 reading and memorising of dialogue, and sentences from Confabulationes 
 Pueriles, or some similar book. The aim was to make Latin sufficiently 
 familiar to be used in the common conversation of the school, and as a 
 preliminary step, isolated words and phrases were dragged into English 
 sentences. In the succeeding years a dozen books of classical prose and as 
 many of verse were gone through, so that by the time of passing the sixth 
 form the boys must have had a tolerable knowledge of Latin grammar and 
 composition, and the command of an extensive vocabulary. They were 
 encouraged to use Latin when writing to their parents and friends, and letters 
 in fluent language by Richard Quiney, Shakespeare's contemporary and friend, 
 are still preserved. 
 
 While great prominence was given to Latin, and in a smaller degree to 
 Greek, we must not suppose that the more useful learning for everyday lite 
 was entirely neglected. Reading and writing in English were, of course, 
 incidental to the learning of Latin and Greek, and sufficient arithmetic for 
 ordinary commercial purposes was added. 
 
 86 
 
Between the hours of school, in the long summer evenings, on the Saints' 
 daj's and holidays, our Willie Shakespeare was busj' with games afield, and 
 sport and adventure in the woodland. There were ample greens for rough- 
 and-tumble play in the town itself, without mentioning the school playmg 
 field. There were quiet games at marbles and tops ; romping games of fox 
 and geese, lastibat, prisoner's base, and football in the field and streets. The 
 older boys would join in the sport of archery, still in universal practice, with 
 quarter-staff and cudgel play for variety. In the hot weather there was 
 always the resource of a swim in the river, and all through the year there 
 was the attraction of wild nature — much wilder, but far more accessible than 
 
 SCHOOL BUILDINGS, FROM PLAYING FIELD. 
 
 nature to-day. No one who knows Shakespeare's works, and knows the 
 country too, can doubt that for years he was a constant wanderer by the 
 hedge-rows and the copses. We need no record to tell us that he always 
 knew where he could flush a heron, the bird of solemn and mysterious flight ; 
 that he knew where the sand-martins tunnelled their nesting-places, where 
 the kingfisher waited for his finny prey, and where the squirrel and the dor- 
 mouse passed their winter months. Doubtless he joined his fellows in 
 hunting rats and rabbits ; doubtless he baited now and then a badger, for 
 though there were laws against the keeping of dogs by mean persons, a town 
 
 87 
 
like Stratford-on-Avon was well supplied with ownerless dogs that were 
 always ready to follow a pack of boys when sport was afoot. But though we 
 may be sure he joined his fellows in their rough games, no one who knows his 
 work can doubt that his happiest hours were spent in roaming afar, or that 
 the spirit of his boyhood's days is embalmed in Amiens' sprightly song : 
 
 Under the greenwood tree, 
 
 Who loves to He with me, 
 
 And tune his merry note 
 
 Unto the sweet bird's throat. 
 Come hither, come hither, come hither, 
 
 Here shall he see 
 
 No enemy, 
 But winter and rough weather. 
 
 It is the ver}' spirit of a heart)- healthy Warwickshire lad, with his quick 
 imagination stirred and fed by tales of the outlaws of the greenwood ; and we 
 can only wonder which bird's song he intended to immortalise in the lilting 
 line, " come hither, come hither, come hither." Many commentators and 
 composers have missed entirely the extra point and charm of this refrain, 
 which is given by embodying the bird's song in the man's. But commentators 
 have mostly forgotten their boyhood and their birds. 
 
 We must not linger on this bright and happy time, but close this chapter 
 with a glance at affairs that affected the family while Willie went to school. 
 At the first meeting of the Town Council in 1672, John Shakespeare and 
 Adrian Quiney (father of the Latin letter-writer) were instructed to represent 
 the interests of the town at the coming Hillary term " accordinge to theire 
 discrecions," and we find that John Shakespeare was present at seven 
 meetings of the council. 
 
 In 1573 John Shakespeare witnessed a conveyance, and attended two 
 council meetings. 
 
 In 1574, on March nth was baptised "Richard, sonne to Mr. John 
 Shakspeer," and the father attended four council meetings. 
 
 It may be said that these details are meagre, but they are all that remain 
 to us, and they keep us in touch with John Shakespeare's life from year to year. 
 
 I" 1575 *^he poet's father again witnessed a conveyance — of a valuable 
 piece of property lying next to his own place in Henley Street. In October 
 he bought two houses for ;f 40, but we have no evidence to show where these 
 were situated. He is known to have attended three council meetings this year. 
 
 All that we know of the family in 1576 is that the father attended three 
 council meetings. In 1577 six council meetings were held. At one, John 
 Shakespeare attended, from three he was absent, of the other two the 
 attendances were not recorded. 
 
 1578, the year in which Willie Shakespeare emerged from boyhood into 
 youth, was important in the family. In this year we first find evidences that 
 
 88 
 
John Shakespeare's resources are becoming crippled, and this, combined with 
 the traditions to the etiect that the poet was early employed in his father's 
 business, leads us to conclude that in this year he probably left school. On 
 the 29th January we find the first hint that John Shakespeare was less 
 prosperous than some of his fellow-aldermen. The town resolved to arm a 
 number of pikemen, two billmen and one archer. The aldermen were 
 assessed at six shillings and eight pence each, and burgesses at three 
 shillings and fourpence, but exceptions were made in the case of two 
 aldermen and five burgesses. Of the former, Mr. Plum ley was to pay five 
 
 I HI lohllvMl ROOM, IN Tin; BIRTH-HOUSE. 
 (Formerly two hcd-rooms ; one probably the Poet's. I 
 
 shillings, and Mr. Shakespeare the same sum as the burgesses. A baker 
 whose will was made on November 14th of this year, entered amongst the 
 
 monies owing to him "of Edmonde Lambarte and Cornish for 
 
 the debte of Mr. John Shaxper, Vli;" which seems to indicate that John 
 Shakespeare required two sureties to obtain a credit of five pounds, and that 
 the creditor had been forced to look to the sureties for the discharge of the 
 debt. We shall see later that the loans of Edmund Lambert eventually led 
 to the loss of the Asbies estate, which was mortgaged to him in this year for 
 £■40. At a meeting of the council on November 19th an assessment of 
 fourpence weekly for the relief of the poor was made upon all the aldermen 
 
with the exception of John Shakespeare and one other. Of nine council 
 meetings in the year we know that he was absent from eight. The 
 attendances at the other are not recorded. 
 
 Altogether, this year was the beginning of a dark and anxious time for the 
 family. Of this we may be quite sure, though there is still much mystery 
 surrounding the pecuniary affairs of John Shakespeare. We have evidence 
 which seems to point to absolutel}' desperate circumstances, and yet we have 
 no sign that the Henley Street property was ever encumbered in any way. 
 The non-attendance at the council, which began at this time, the non-atten- 
 dance at church which we shall see later, the evident efforts of the council 
 to excuse him, the similar efforts of the commission as to recusants, and 
 finally, his allowing himself to be seized for debt, while still holding valuable 
 property, seem to require explanation. 
 
 The theories that we have yet seen seem insufficient for all the facts, and 
 we can onl}' tentativelj' suggest two points that seem to us to have been 
 insufficiently considered. One is the proud, headstrong nature of the man, 
 John Shakespeare ; the other, his almost certain attachment to the Roman 
 Catholic faith. We must remember that the town and its council were divided 
 on the question of religion, and that Sir Thomas Lucy was a stern heretic- 
 hunter. We must remember that during these few years " the Papists had 
 been tortured and executed on the most frivolous pretences." We may be 
 wrong in laying stress upon these religious differences ; but it seems to us 
 absolutely necessary to an understanding of John Shakespeare's position. 
 
 It was thus, under lowering skies and facing fortune's frown, that William 
 Shakespeare, impulsive, brave and enthusiastic, left his school-days behind 
 and joined his father in the battle of life. 
 
 92 
 
 SHAKESPEARE S DESK. 
 Birth-house Museum. 
 
LUDDINGTl 
 
 Chapter VI. 
 
 SHAKESPEARE'S YOUTH & COURTSHIP. 
 
 ■ Here come the love 
 Joy, gentle friends.' 
 
 s, full of joy and mirth. 
 
 Midsiiiiimcr Niglifs Dream. Act V., Scene 
 
 _^^,/4 HE poet s boyhood, as we have seen, ended amid 
 
 ^M^x gathering clouds. His youth was to be a time of 
 
 "^ storm, breaking for a moment into what we must 
 
 behave was a brief halcyon time of early married life, 
 
 only to close down again in a tempest which drove him 
 
 from home and kindred. If the data concerning the 
 
 earlier years of his life are fragmentary and contradictory, 
 
 those concerning his youth and marriage are still more 
 
 aggravating, for at every turn the meagre shreds of 
 
 evidence appear to conflict with each other. 
 
 Let us, therefore, first consider the affairs of John Shakespeare, so 
 
 far as they are shewn by town records and similar evidence. In 1578, we 
 
 noted a levy for the outfitting of bill-men and a bow-man. On March 
 
 nth, 1579, is account of a levy in which John Shakespeare makes default 
 
 in the sum of three shillings and four pence. Only a few days later, on 
 
 April 4th, the little eight-year-old daughter, Anne, was laid to rest 
 
 93 
 
beneath the elms of Trinity churchyard. On October 15th, John Shakespeare's 
 reversionary interest in the Snitterfield estate was sold to Robert Webbe, 
 brother of Agnes, second wife of Robert Arden. From all the ten meetings 
 of the Council in this year John Shakespeare appears to have been absent. 
 
 In 1580 the home Vv-as cheered by the birth of another son, baptised on 
 May 3rd, and named Edmund, probably after Edmund Lambert, the brother- 
 in-law, to whom his father was becoming hopelessly indebted. 
 
 With a view to liquidating this debt so far as it consisted of the £"40 
 mortgage on Asbies, the Shakespeares sold the Snitterfield property, in which 
 
 \L H\l H\\\ « 
 
 they had a direct interest, for this sum. In September John Shakespeare 
 visited Edmund Lambert's home, at Barton-on-the-Heath, for the purpose of 
 paying off the mortgage. The payment was refused by Lambert on the 
 ground that other sums, for which he had no such security as the estate of 
 Asbies, were still owing, and that he considered them a first claim. Bitterly 
 disappointing as this must have been to John Shakespeare (for the law of 
 forfeiture under a mortgage was most unjustly strict), we are almost bound to 
 conclude that Lambert gave him some verbal undertaking to release the 
 property whenever the full sum due should be tendered. But this was not 
 the only trouble to befall the poet's family in this year, for on the 2gth of 
 December, was buried, in the churchyard of Aston Cantlow, all that was 
 mortal of Agnes Arden. The only other record that we have of this year is, 
 that John Shakespeare attended none of the meetings of the Council. 
 
 94 
 
1581 is a similar record of non-attendance. In 1582 only one attendance 
 was made; and 1583 and 15S4 are both blank in this respect. In 1582 the 
 poet's father was witness in a suit brought against the Ardens (now repre- 
 sented by Robert Webbe), claiming a large portion of the Snitterfield estates. 
 The result of the suit is not known. 
 
 Meanwhile, what do we know of William Shakespeare ? There is no 
 certain evidence, but the probability is that he was busy in his father's trade. 
 Major Walter, the latest writer on the subject, contends that John Shakespeare 
 became, soon after his marriage, a gentleman farmer, and left the business of 
 
 \N'N'E HATHAWAY S 
 
 MAIN ROOM. 
 
 glover; but since he is legally described as a glover in 1552, and again in 
 1586, we must conclude that this was his trade in the poet's youth. The 
 internal evidence of the plays and sonnets has been held to prove that 
 William Shakespeare must have been a lawyer's clerk in his 3'outh, and we 
 have nothing to disprove it, but on similar evidence it has been held proven 
 that he was a player, a herbalist, a seaman, a traveller in Scotland, Denmark, 
 and elsewhere, and various other incongruous callings. Until further evidence 
 is forthcoming we must consider him a glover. Aubrev savs (1680): — "he 
 exercised his father's trade." Dowdall (1693) says: — "bound apprentice to a 
 butcher." Rowe (1709), to the value of whose account we have previously 
 
 96 
 
referred, says: — "upon his leaving school he seems to have gone entirely into 
 that way of living which his father proposed to him." 
 
 Before many years are over we find the poet a keen and wonderfully 
 successful business man, no dreamer, but one who is besought to undertake 
 affairs of importance, who conducts his own concerns, and those of such 
 friends as can secure his aid, with prudence and ability. We can scarcely 
 imagine that this sound judgment and practical ability can have been entirely 
 unrecognised by his father, even at the close of his schooldays; and we feel 
 justified in assuming that the good glover, harassed by changing fortune. 
 
 \NNE HATHAWAY S COTTAGE. MAIN ROOM. 
 
 would turn to his eldest son for assistance. We are fairly safe, therefore, in 
 saying that during the few years before his marriage, the poet was engrossed 
 with the mysteries of skins and wool, tan-bark and timber, looking after the 
 farm-land that his father owned or occupied, and giving an eye to the cutters 
 in the shop, and the glove sewers who worked at their houses. 
 
 Such occupation would fill the busy days, but there were long summer 
 evenings when the lads might wander to the neighbouring villages, and fair- 
 days when the lasses came to town. Our poet at a very early age became 
 attached to Anne Hathaway, a maiden of Shottery, some eight years his 
 
 97 
 
senior. So far we may be verj' certain, for comparatively recently has been 
 unearthed a marriage bond, fully confirming the story that previously rested 
 on tradition. Even now it is not absolutely and conclusively proved that 
 this Anne Hathaway lived at the cottage now bearing her name, or even that 
 she lived at Shottery, but there are several links of evidence that confirm the 
 
 generally accepted story, 
 and none that disprove it. 
 At the time of 
 Shakespeare's marriage 
 there were at least three 
 Hathaway families living 
 at Shottery ; one of which 
 had members living in 
 what is now called Anne 
 Hathaway's cottage. 
 One member of this 
 family, Richard Hatha- 
 way, "husbandman," 
 made his will on the first 
 day of September, 1581, 
 which will was proven in 
 London, July gth, 1582. 
 The three first bequests 
 are to sons, under twenty 
 years of age, and then we 
 find: — "Item, I give and 
 bequeathe unto Agnes, 
 my daughter, six pounds, 
 thirtene shillinges, fower 
 pence, to be paide unto 
 her at the dale of her 
 marriage." A similar 
 bequest to his daughter 
 Catherine is to be paid 
 at her marriage and 
 another, to his daughter Margaret, to be paid on reaching the age of seventeen. 
 From this it is surmised that the two elder daughters were then contemplating 
 matrimony. "Agnes" and "Anne" were interchangeable forms of the same 
 name, which was also sometimes written Annis or Annes. In the same will 
 IS mentioned another Agnes, who in the church registers is called Anne, and 
 contemporary instances are known where the two names were used inter- 
 changeably in a single sentence. It is curious, also, to note that the village 
 
 ANNE hathaway's BEDROOM. 
 
 98 
 
of St. Agnes, near Redruth, in Cornwall, is to this day called St. Ann's by 
 the natives, some of whom would scarce recognise its proper name. Thomas 
 Whittington, of Shottery, "my sheepherd," is mentioned in the will as a 
 creditor for four pounds, six shillings, and eight pence ; and in this same 
 Thomas Whittington's will, made March, 1601, we find him leaving to the 
 poor of Stratford, a sum of eleven shillings "that is in the hand of Anne 
 Shaxpere, wyfe unto Mr. Wyllyam Shaxpere, and is due debt unto me." 
 
 Fulke Sandells, "my trustie friende, and neighbour," was one of the 
 supervisors of Richard Hathaway's will, and John Richardson was one of the 
 witnesses. We find them, also, as bondsmen in the "Bond against 
 
 ANNE HATHAWAY S BEDROOM. 
 
 Impediments," given at Worcester, in November, 1582, and preserved in the 
 Bishop's Registry. This same bond has two seals, one of them bearing the 
 initials R. H.; and these facts complete the evidence of the connection 
 between Shakespeare's Anne and Richard Hathaway, to whose will we have 
 referred. The bond against impediments was to "defend and save harmles 
 the right reverend Father in God, Lord John Bushop of Worcester," against 
 any complaint arising out of his licensing the marriage of William 
 Shakespeare and Anne Hathaway with only once asking of the banns. In 
 addition to this bond, we have an entrj' in the episcopal register, at Worcester, 
 
 99 
 
of the issuing of a marriage license "inter Wm. Shaxpere et Anna Whateley 
 de Temple Grafton." The difference of a single da\' in the dates of the 
 entry, and of the bond, need not trouble us. The name Whateley, and the 
 place of abode (or marriage), are of more importance. Mr. Joseph Hill, 
 who has made a careful and special study of the whole question, says: — 
 "there is not a shadow of doubt in my mind that it was fair copied from 
 
 a waste-book (so-called), 
 and that Annam Hathwey, 
 or Annam Hathawa)', was 
 the Latinised form, and 
 mistaken by the copying 
 clerk. Temple Grafton 
 was, I believe, inserted 
 because it was named as 
 the place of the intended 
 ceremony. This was 
 almost invariably the place 
 of abode of the woman." 
 A suggestion so reason- 
 able, we feel bound to 
 accept, so far as the name 
 of the bride is concerned, 
 especiall)' since the name 
 Hathwey is distinct enough 
 in the bond itself, and 
 since Anne Hathaway was 
 unhesitatingly named, by 
 local tradition, long before 
 the marriage bond or 
 an}' documentary evidence 
 was known to exist. The 
 question of the place of 
 marriage is a little more 
 difficult, as we shall see 
 later. 
 
 The facts that the bonds- 
 men were men of Shottery ; men who had witnessed and supervised the 
 will of Richard Hathaway, and that " the consent of hir frindes " is 
 especially stipulated in the bond, are sufficient to assure us that the 
 bride's family, at anyrate, were favorable to the match, though it has been 
 suggested (a pure supposition) that the Shakespeares were opposed to it. 
 Be that as it may, there can be no reasonable doubt that within a few days 
 
 MRS. BAKER, DESCENDANT OF THE HATHAWAYS. 
 Fro?ii a Negative by Miss Hodgson. 
 
of the issue of the license, or earl)- in December, 1582, William Shakespeare 
 married Anne Hathaway. The comparatively short time between this date 
 and the baptism of their first child on May 26th, 1583, has led some to 
 question the strict morality of the poet, but for two reasons this seems 
 gratuitous slander, in the absence of any other evidence. In the iirst place, 
 the ceremony of hand-fasting or solemn betrothal was in those days, both 
 popularly and legally equivalent to marriage, though it was always understood 
 that it was a ceremony intended to be completed by the service of the church 
 later. This hand-fasting was a legal bar to marriage with another person. 
 It usually took place two or three months before the church service ; and in 
 
 wills and similar documents of the period we frequently find a woman 
 described as the wite of a man to whom she was not yet married by the 
 church rites. A very apposite instance occurs in the will of Robert Arden, 
 made July 17th, 1550, in which he mentions his daughter Agnes as " uxor 
 Thome Stringer," although her marriage with Thomas Stringer did not take 
 place until October 15th, 1550. 
 
 Another suggestion made in defence of Shakespeare's character is that 
 he was probably first married according to the Roman Catholic ritual, but 
 afterwards, in consideration of his father's position and reputation, or in view 
 of some of the harsh legislation of the time, decided to conform to the legally 
 
established rite. Major Walter, indeed, maintains that Shakespeare was 
 married in the private Roman Catholic chapel of the Manor House of Shotterj', 
 though he seems to adduce no evidence in support of his conviction. 
 
 This is a fascinating subject, and one on which we might speculate for a long 
 time. The roof room of Shottery Manor House exists, in good condition, 
 and if it could by any satisfactory evidence be connected with the Shakes- 
 peare wedding, it would form a charmingly quaint place of pilgrimage. 
 Major Walter states definitely that public worship in the Roman Catholic 
 form was continued at Shottery Manor long after it ceased to be legal, and 
 
 BILLESLEY CHURCH. 
 
 for such a purpose no room could be more suitable than the great one in the 
 roof. In those days, although the laws were severe, the local executive 
 officers were connected by the closest ties with the offenders ; in many cases 
 the officers themselves were but half-hearted adherents of the new forms, and 
 the old worship was generally allowed to continue so long as it was not too 
 obtrusive. The ringing of bells would cease ; and instead of repairing 
 openly to the church, the worshippers would quietly drop in, by twos and 
 threes at the house of some wealthier neighbor, where a convenient room 
 could be found for their service. 
 
THE ROOF ROOM, SHOTTERY MANOR. 
 
The church in which the legal and conformable marriage took place still 
 remains uncertain, in spite of the greatest possible industry on the part of 
 many devoted students who have ransacked muniment boxes and patiently 
 examined all the church registers. The memorandum of issue of the license 
 appears to indicate Temple Grafton as the place selected ; and on the other 
 hand it is suggested that these marriages by special license were almost 
 invariably performed in a little church connected with the cathedral, and on 
 the day on which the license was granted. 
 
 The honor of having been the place of Shakespeare's marriage is claimed 
 by an old tradition for the little church of Billesley ; and at this point, as we 
 have no very direct evidence, it is worth while to state what little is known 
 about the poet's connection with the place. It was here, in 1639, that 
 Shakespeare's granddaughter was married to Sir John Barnard. Amongst the 
 local gossips it has "always" been reported that Billesley Hall boasted a 
 good store of books, to which Shakespeare had access, and of which he made 
 good use; and there is one room in the hall which has "always" been 
 known as the Shakespeare room, from a tradition that there the poet slept 
 when visiting Billesley. The room is panelled in a style, and with wood 
 quite different from that used elsewhere in the hall, and it is evident that the 
 panelling has been removed from some other place. At two corners it does 
 not join ; and there are two doors in the woodwork, though the present room 
 has only one, and the other is fastened against a solid wall. It is said that 
 this wood was brought from New Place when the house was pulled down, but 
 whether the rebuilding of New Place, after Shakespeare's time, or the final 
 destruction a hundred years ago, is meant, we know not. 
 
 There is yet another place that claims the honor of having witnessed 
 Shakespeare's legal marriage, and perhaps it has the strongest balance of 
 probabilities in its favor. The little hamlet of Luddington, close to Shottery, 
 and some three miles from Stratford, is regarded by many Stratfordians as the 
 undoubted wedding-place. The old church was long ago destroyed by fire, 
 and it can never be too greatly regretted that although the register was saved 
 it passed into unappreciative hands. At a time when search was being made 
 in all directions for Shakespeare evidence the Shottery register was overlooked 
 because it was supposed to have been burnt with the church. For years it 
 continued in one of the cottages of the district, only to finally disappear. 
 Fullom says that in 1862 he found many at Stratford-on-Avon who re- 
 membered having seen the record of Shakespeare's marriage long after it was 
 said to have been destroyed; and Mr. A. H. Wall quotes the late Mr. Charles 
 E. Flower as stating that in his younger days "no one dreamed of disputing 
 the assertion that Shakesneare was married at Luddington old church." 
 
 As Thomas Hunt, master of the grammar school during Shakespeare's 
 student days, was curate of Luddington when his scholar took to himself a wife, 
 
 104 
 
it is pleasant to believe that the happy pair journej'ed gaily from Shotterv to his 
 little church, there to receive confirmation of the marriage they had previously 
 solemnised by rites more congenial to their sentiments. 
 
 Our evidence about this legal marriage is small, while the previous hand- 
 fasting, or the nonconformable marriage, rests on pure speculation. And if 
 speculation and fancy are to come into play, why should we not attempt to 
 complete the picture — fully warning our readers that our only evidence is our 
 sense of the poetic fitness of things. We have seen that Shakespeare was a 
 child of the Spring, born on the day of St. George, a day that corresponded 
 (allowing for the " new style" of our calendars) with our merry May Day. 
 
 He opened his eyes upon a woild that was just read)- to deck its May-poles, 
 and closed them fifty-two years later, on the very same day. In all the 
 records of the family we find a strong predominance of the April and May 
 dates, and if we are to imagine his nonconformable marriage at all, we prefer 
 to think of it as having taken place on a bright spring morning, when the 
 hedgerows were green, and when field and woodland alike were joyous with 
 the songs of birds. We can picture the occasional meetings during the 
 winter, at the house of one or another neighbor, and can see the tall, 
 handsome youth, the life and soul of many a party, escorting a fair maiden 
 across the fields to Shottery. There are dark wet nights when he walks in 
 front, swinging his horn lantern to indicate the puddles, and grasps his staff 
 more firmly as they pass the dark corners of the hedgerows. There are other 
 
 105 
 
nights when the earth rings sharply to the footfall, and the keen crisp air 
 sends the blood coursing gaily to the finger tips ; when a walk in the moon- 
 shine makes one wish that all of life might be night and frost and moonlight. 
 The winter wanes, it is an early spring, and week by week there are more 
 excuses for evening rambles over the Shottery fields. February is warm and 
 open, with many days when the gnats dance in the sunbeams, a month that 
 makes the rose-bushes push their tender green shoots a couple of inches long. 
 March gives a little check. There are boisterous days, and touches of frost 
 at night, but the young glover, now half recognised as a suitor, swings across 
 the field-path to spend a happy hour or two at Richard Hathaway's. March 
 melts into a soft, warm April. The blackthorn is in flower, the birds are 
 busy with their nests, and alongside the hedgerows all is fresh and green. 
 The young man is more attentive than ever, and the younger Hathaways 
 cease to chaff their sister about her boy-lover, for they see that she does truly 
 love the lad, though as yet she herself had hardly realised it. There is an 
 evening ramble, maybe along the riverside, or over Bardon Hill ; and as the 
 twilight melts into the moonlight, the man who is to move the whole world 
 with his words compresses the fervor of his soul into the story of his love. 
 Such scenes are sacred. 
 
 But a few weeks later we will suppose that the solemn trothplight was 
 given, and they became hand-fasted — man and wife — in the presence of their 
 friends. There may have been a formal service with the rites .of the Catholic 
 church, but whether this be so or not, before the hawthorn blossom had all 
 melted from the hedges, William and Anne were one flesh. 
 
 As the spring-time came again they were full of that great joy that comes 
 with all new life, and the merry month of May in 1583 saw the birth of a 
 daughter. There was now no thought of nonconforming. In the autumn 
 they had taken special license, that they might follow the example of their 
 neighbors and acknowledge the authorit}' of the church, and now the)' take 
 their baby to the same font where her father was baptised, and give her the 
 name — Susanna. 
 
 Troubles were brewing for William Shakespeare. His home was soon to 
 be broken up, as the eagle's nest is stirred to force the young to fly, but we 
 may fairly believe that he first had a year or two of peace and happiness b)' 
 his own fireside. 
 
 106 
 

 THE TUMBLE-DOWN STILE. 
 
 Chapter VII. 
 
 SEEKING A FORTUNE. 
 
 
 There is a tide in the affairs of men, 
 Which, tatien at the flood, leads on to fortune. 
 Omitted, all the voyage of their life 
 Is bound in shallows and in miseries. 
 
 yii/iiis Casar. Act IV., Scene 
 
 the heavens on a humble home, but not 
 
 VVe know little with certaint)' about 
 
 Shakespeare's early married life, but there can scarcely 
 
 be any doubt that some time between his marriage in 
 
 1582 and his leaving- home (? 1585), there was some 
 
 sort of trouble or friction with the local authorities, as 
 
 represented by Sir Thomas Lucy, of Charlecote. If 
 
 J\^' there were not some basis of fact we can hardly conceive of the 
 
 invention of the " deer-stealing incident," the story of the lampoon 
 
 posted on Sir Thomas Lucy's gate post, and the identification of 
 
 Sir Thomas Lucy with Justice Shallow, in " The Merry Wives of 
 
 Wmdsor." To us, the probabilities seem to point to a difference of 
 
 109 
 
religious opinion, possibly an irksome pett}- persecution of the Shakespeares 
 by Sir Thomas Lucy. William, sensitive, impulsive, and smarting under a 
 strong sense of injustice, may have been rash in denunciation or defiance of 
 Sir Thomas, and then may have felt his danger and fled to London. Years 
 afterwards, when the gossiping chroniclers enquired particulars of his life, 
 they might well hear that trouble with Sir Thomas Lucy forced him to flee, 
 and on pressing for further particulars there is good reason why those who 
 did not know much of the facts should suggest that poaching was the cause 
 of the trouble. At almost the very time when Shakespeare is said to have 
 left his home Sir Thomas Lucy had introduced into Parliament (March, 1585) 
 a bill for preserving grain and game. Game preservers were ever unpopular 
 
 in rural England, 
 and no doubt the 
 introduction of this 
 bill made a strong 
 impression on the 
 local memories. 
 Probably it called 
 forth strong resent- 
 ment, and possibly 
 Will Shakespeare 
 was a leader in 
 some lawless de- 
 monstration. 
 
 Great pains 
 have been taken to 
 shew that Shakes- 
 peare could not 
 THE GATi>ii()u.si;, cHAKi.i- coTK. havc been harried 
 
 for deer- stealing, 
 because there was no deer-park at Charlecote ; or for rabbit- stealing, because 
 rabbits were not game. In reply, various defenders of the old story point out 
 that there is a record of a deer having been sent as a present from Charlecote ; 
 that if Charlecote had no deer-park, the trouble may have been in Fulbroke 
 Park, which had contained deer, and which at that time was confiscate to the 
 Crown, and probably in the charge of Sir Thomas Lucy ; and further that if 
 the killing of rabbits was not forbidden by law, it was illegal to trespass for 
 the purpose of such killing, and illegal for anyone under certain rank to own a 
 dog. To these the opponents of the tradition reply with the statement, 
 perfectly true, that Fulbroke Park was in the charge of Sir William Compton, 
 of Compton Wynyates, and with a whole series of other considerations, but it 
 seems hardly worth while to follow the argument into hair-splitting subtleties. 
 
Whether Shakespeare stole deer or rabbits, or whether he tore down park 
 pahngs, or headed an agitation against Sir Thomas Lucy's bill, is matter of 
 more or less indifference. Suffice it that we may be sure that a local trouble 
 in which Sir Thomas was concerned, combined with the chafing that he must 
 have felt under his father's altered circumstances, forced William Shakespeare 
 to leave his home and embark upon that successful venture which placed him 
 at the head of the English-speaking race. 
 
 The incidents surrounding" this most important step should have the 
 greatest possible interest for us; and as the evidence is so inconclusive that 
 we cannot marshal it into any orderly argument, we will simply place it 
 before our readers as full}' as space permits. 
 
 The condition of his father's affairs has already been carefully traced to 
 the point when the poet left school, probably to join his father's business. 
 We have seen that there were indications of financial distress, but that 
 through it all John Shakespeare retained his two houses in Henley Street free 
 of encumbrance. We can see no clear explanation of these facts, unless 
 the friction of religious differences, petty persecution and stubborn resentment 
 afford the clue. It may be that an intolerant small majority of Protestants, 
 too manly to enforce against their townsmen the terribly stringent laws of 
 the time, were yet small-minded enough to harry the minority in many ways. 
 
We know that there was bitter thought and bitter feehng between the 
 partizans of the two faiths ; and we have had sufficient experience of Httle 
 local governing bodies to know how personal, political, and religious 
 differences can manifest themselves in round-about spiteful ways. 
 
 For some 3'ears previous to Shakespeare's marriage " the Papists had 
 been tortured and executed on the most frivolous pretences,"* and in 1581, 
 
 the }'ear before he was married, 
 there was "great penal legislation 
 against the Catholics." It is well 
 to remember that this was the 
 twentj'-third 3'ear of Elizabeth, and 
 that even after this time there 
 was a constant succession of real 
 or fancied plots against the 
 Queen, each with its little series of 
 executions — often judicial murders. 
 Well might Burleigh 
 say, in his memorial to 
 the Queen in 15S3, " I 
 account that putting 
 to death does no 
 ways lessen them (the 
 Catholics) ; since we 
 find b }• experience 
 that it worketh no 
 such effect; 
 persecution being the 
 badge of the Church : 
 and, therefore, they 
 should never have the 
 honor to take any pre- 
 tence of mart3'rdom in 
 England, where the 
 fulness of blood and 
 greatness of heart is 
 such, that they will 
 even for shameful things go bravely to death, much more when they think 
 themselves to climb to heaven ; and this vice of obstinancy seems to the 
 common people a divine constancy ; so that for my part I wish no lessening 
 of their numbers, but by preaching and by education of the younger under 
 schoolmasters."! 
 
 * Concise English History. Lupton. + Hallam. 
 
 TOMB OF SIR THOMAS LUCY. 
 
Man}' good Protestants, like Burleigh, were weary of severe repressive 
 measures, but in many a case there was temptation to set these measures in 
 force to gratify private spite or ambition ; and in other cases pressure was 
 brought on side issues and by indirect means even when the authorities did 
 not wish to impose extreme penalties. 
 
 Under this penal legislation, Sir Thomas Lucy was one of the Com- 
 missioners appointed to 
 present a list of re - 
 cusants who failed to 
 come "monethlie to the 
 churche according to hir 
 Majesties lawes." The 
 statute in question was 
 one of 1583, which 
 imposed on all persons 
 over sixteen a fine of 
 twenty pounds for every 
 month in which the\- 
 attended no service of the 
 Church. We have no 
 record of the first inquisi- 
 tion as to recusants; but 
 on September 5th, 1592, 
 the Commission made a 
 return of "such recusants 
 as have been heretofore 
 presented," and amongst 
 them is found the name 
 of John Shakespeare. 
 Of him, and eight others 
 it was noted — "It is said 
 that these last nine come 
 not to church for fear of 
 process for debt." This 
 has been held a proof of LiiMiienii iim m 
 
 John Shakespeare's im- 
 
 pecuniosity, but it was evidently a friendly fiction to save him from the heav}- 
 fine, for the rolls of the Court of Record shew that there was no action of any 
 kind against him. 
 
 From 1577 to 1586 the poet's father was almost continually absent from 
 his seat on the Town Council (surely not through shame at his financial 
 position), and on the 31st August, in the last-mentioned year, he was deprived 
 
 113 
 
of his position because "he doth not come to the halls when they be warned, 
 nor hath not done of long time." At the same meeting, eight other 
 aldermen were deprived of their seats for the same reason, a circumstance 
 which seems to clearly' indicate local dissension. 
 
 That other members of the Shakespeare family were self-willed, and that 
 Ardens could suffer death for their beliefs and independence, we know. A 
 century before the poet's time, in 1450, one Thomas Shakespeare, of 
 Rowington, was amongst the followers of Jack Cade; and whether the poet 
 knew of this or not, his treatment of Cade's rebellion, in Henry VI., part 2, 
 is much more fair and sympathetic than that of some of the historians. 
 
 Henry Shakespeare, of Snitterfield, was frequently in trouble about his 
 tithes and other matters. In 1574 he was fined twopence for non-appearance 
 in Court. In November, 1580, he was proceeded against for the amount of 
 his tithes, but made defence that he had compounded with Rich. Brokes, of 
 Warwike, "who this jurate did beleve was owner thereof." Two informations 
 filed on March 14th, 1581, deal also with default in tithes. On the 21st 
 November, 1581, there is another record on the same business; and on May 
 22nd, 1582, excommunication is pronounced against him: — " Shagspere est 
 contumax; reservata pena ut supra; dominus ad petitionem suam pronunciavit 
 eum excommunicatum, pena reservata." As excommunication probably did 
 not trouble Henry Shakespeare, we find him next proceeded against and 
 penalised on a different pretence, for on October 25th, 1583, a fine is 
 recorded: — "Of Henry Shacksper, viijd., for not havinge and wearinge cappes 
 on Sondayes and hollydayes to the Churche, according to the forme of the 
 statute," and as he so far disregarded the Court's authority as to fail to attend 
 when summoned, there is further — "of Henry Shackesper, ijd., for not doinge 
 there sute at this Courte." On several later occasions he was fined for various 
 breaches of the law, but we need not go into them in detail. 
 
 Thomas Shakespeare, of Snitterfield, too, was often in trouble for dis- 
 obedience to the laws. Though it has not been conclusively established that 
 he was the poet's uncle, there is probability that it was so, and in any case 
 the fact of his being fined for not wearing "cappes on sondayes and hollydays 
 to the Churche," throws another interesting gleam of side-light upon our 
 study. This, too, was October 25th, 1583. 
 
 And if Shakespeares could be stubborn, Ardens could show the "fulness 
 of blood and greatness of heart " of which Burleigh wrote, as was proved in 
 this very year, 1583, when Edward Arden was executed at Smithfield for an 
 alleged plot against the Queen. Probably this action was really a piece 
 of private vengeance of the Earl of Leicester, Elizabeth's favorite. Edward 
 Arden, with a very few others of the Warwickshire gentlemen (amongst 
 whom, however, was Sir Thomas Lucy) refused to wear the livery of 
 Leicester. This was an affront, indeed, but worse that this, according to 
 
 114 
 
Dugdale, was " galling- him (Leicester) by certain harsh expressions, touching 
 his private access to the Countess of Essex before she was his wife." This 
 was one of the society scandals of the day, and the local gossip went that the 
 Countess of Essex had poisoned her husband in order to marry Leicester — 
 an incident which has been suggested as the basis of the Queen's crime in 
 Hamlet. Edward Arden was known to be a Catholic, and was a man of 
 position and spirit — facts sufficient to have secured his removal even had his 
 enemy been much less powerful than Leicester. A priest, named Hall, was 
 found, who "confessed" that he and Edward Arden were conspirators with 
 Master Somerville, Arden's son-in-law, also a Roman Catholic. The three 
 were cast into prison. Somerville, in his despair, committed suicide, the 
 informer was released, and Arden died at Smithfield. 
 
 Having regard to all these circumstances, knowing that William Shakespeare 
 was of the same blood as John and Henry, and as Edward Arden, is it any 
 wonder if he should have been equally insubordinate against the local 
 representative of the tyrannical laws ? 
 
 The year 1585 has usually been assumed as that in which Shakespeare 
 left his native place " for London." The onlj- evidence on the point is the 
 fact that his twin children, Hamnet and Judith, were baptised on February 2nd 
 of that year. If we are to resolutely believe the deer-stealing story, it is 
 perhaps convenient to fix this particular date, but if the idea we have above 
 set forth is correct, it seems more likely that 1583 would be the year of leaving 
 home. We have no evidence that he went directly to London, though this 
 has been generally assumed ; and the stories as to his beginning life by 
 holding horses at the playhouse door, are very insufficiently authenticated. 
 Even his extreme penur}' seems to be a gratuitous assumption. In view of 
 the substantial position in which we find him a very few years later, it seems 
 far more likely that the poet commenced his life away from home under 
 reasonably favorable auspices, and the suggestion that he left home to become 
 a member of Burbage's theatrical compan}* seems most consistent with all the 
 facts. 
 
 We know that James Burbage was a native of the Stratford district, for 
 Lord Southampton, asking the patronage of the Lord Chamberlain for 
 Richard Burbage, his son, and Shakespeare, says : — "they are both of one 
 county, and indeed almost of one town." Malone found some reason for 
 believing that John Heminge, one of the editors of Shakespeare's collected 
 works, and Thomas Greene, the fourth sharer in the Blackfriars theatre, were 
 also natives of Stratford or Shottery, but the evidence is not complete. 
 Burbage, however, was the leading man in the Earl of Leicester's company, 
 for which a patent to play anywhere except in London was obtained in Ma^', 
 1574. In 1573, 1577, and 1587, the Earl of Leicester's company was paid 
 for performances in Stratford. In 1587 the company became the " Lord 
 
 116 
 
Chaimberlain's servants," of which, in 1589, William Shakespeare was a 
 member. 
 
 It will be seen that the evidence is very disjointed and inconclusive, but 
 we think that the most natural conclusion is, that William Shakespeare, 
 dissatisfied and, probably, harassed at home, joined the players' company, in 
 which he had acquaintances, somewhere about 1583. A curious side-light is 
 thrown upon this question by the strong circumstantial evidence collected by 
 Stefansson, to shew 
 that Shakespeare 
 must have visited 
 Denmark in 1586. 
 He shews that when 
 the Earl of Leicester 
 led his expedition to 
 the Netherlands, in 
 December, 1585, his 
 retinue included cer- 
 tain actors, a burgher 
 of Stratford-on- 
 Avon, and two of the 
 Arden family. He 
 points out that Bur- 
 bage's company (the 
 Earl of Leicester's) 
 was playing at the 
 courtat Elsinore,from 
 June 17th to Septem- 
 ber i8th, 1586, and 
 proves conclusively 
 that whoever origin- 
 all}' plotted Hamlet, 
 must have had an 
 intimate knowledge of 
 the castle of Elsinore. 
 In any case, we need 
 hardly follow the 
 question any deeper. The various stories of the deer-stealing, and certain 
 drunken frolics; and the many versions of Shakespeare's first experiences in 
 London, appear insufficiently supported to be worthy of quotation at any 
 length. 
 
 Fortunately there are many legends of pleasanter character than those 
 which represent the poet as a poacher and a drunken brawler. We have else- 
 
 117 
 
where spoken of the story of his frequenting Billesley Hall for the sake of the 
 books it possessed. Clopton House, too, he is said to have visited for reading 
 and study. There are stories of his contemplative wanderings in the Weir 
 Brake, weaving fancies for the "Midsummer Night's Dream," and of steady 
 work in the little room over the entrance hall of the Rowington House. But 
 these, like the less creditable tales, are very vague and indefinite. 
 
 Let us return to authentic records. On February 2nd, 1585, the parish 
 register has entry — " Hamnet and Judeth, sonne and daughter to William 
 Shakspere." These were the names of two respectable Stratfordians — 
 Hamnet Sadler and Judith, his wife, a fact which seems to prove that 
 Shakespeare was not regarded by his neighbours as a disgraced man. The 
 friendship with the Sadlers continued to the last, for Hamnet Sadler 
 witnessed the poet's will. 
 
 From 1585 to 1592 we have only one single record of the doings of the 
 poet — a record that shews him helping his parents in their suit for the recovery 
 of Asbies, so we may well turn to the records of his father to partly fill 
 the gap. 
 
 In 1585 there were three suits against John Shakespeare for the recovery 
 of debts. In 1586 there were more suits against him ; he was still described 
 as a glover ; he served on two juries, and went to Coventry to become bail 
 for a neighbor indicted for a felony. 
 
 In 1587, Nicholas Lane recovered £10, part of a sum due to him from 
 Henry Shakespeare, for which it was said that John had promised to be 
 responsible. In 1588 and 1589 the tables were turned, and John Shakespeare 
 appeared as plaintiff in various causes. The most important was an action 
 in the Court of Queen's Bench, against Edmund Lambert, for the surrender 
 of Asbies. It is in this case that we find William Shakespeare coupled with 
 his father's affairs, the only evidence of his life between 1585 and 1592. The 
 case against Lambert seems to have been withdrawn, and was probably com- 
 promised by the defendant paying some further sum to complete the purchase 
 of Asbies. 
 
 In 1590, John Shakespeare served on a jury, and we have evidence that 
 the Henley Street estate was still his property, for it is so described in an 
 inquisition. At the same time it is interesting to note, from a petition 
 addressed by the bailiffs and people of Stratford to Lord Burghley, that the 
 trade of the town was greatly decayed, and the place in serious distress, its 
 workers living in "great penury and misery by reason they are not set to 
 work as before they have been." 
 
 In 159 1, John Shakespeare was busy with law-suits, as plaintiff in some, 
 and defendant in others. In 1592 he was mentioned in the list of recusants 
 " heretofore presented " by Sir Thomas Lucy and a commission, and in the 
 same year he was appraiser of the estates of two deceased neighbors. In 
 
 118 
 
1593 there were two actions against John Shakespeare for the recover)' of money, 
 and in 1595 another, the last time his name appears on the court records. 
 
 Meanwhile, William Shakespeare had been rapidly making his way in 
 London. In March, 1592, a new play, entitled " Harry the Sixth " (Henry VI., 
 first part) was acted by the servants of Lord Strange. It at once attracted 
 attention, and had an unusually successful run. The second part of the same 
 play probably followed soon after, and the third part was certainly written 
 and published, or played, before September of the same year. 
 
 In the next year, 1593, "Venus and Adonis" was published, the printer being 
 Richard Field, son of Henry Field, the Stratford tanner, whose goods had 
 been inventoried, in 1592, by John Shakespeare. The dedication was to Lord 
 Southampton, to whose favor and patronage William Shakespeare owed a 
 great deal. 
 
 We cannot go into details of all the work of the poet, and we doubt 
 whether a list of the plays with their dates of production, etc., would be of 
 any real interest to our readers. We cannot, either, go fully into the question 
 of the character, tastes, and ability of the poet as indicated by his plays and 
 sonnets, but have preferred to show, to those who know the influence of 
 parentage and environment, what were the forces that could mould his 
 character. A protest must be made, however, against the idea of a super- 
 human omniscience which has been claimed for the poet, and which claim, 
 pushed beyond the bounds of all reason, has given its principal strength to 
 "the Baconian heresy." It is contended that the poet had such ample 
 knowledge of sea-faring matters, of botany, of the law, and of a hundred other 
 crafts that he must have had the practical experience of a professional, and 
 different men find evidence of different occupations in which his early years 
 must have been spent, all along the line from the work of the school-master 
 to that of the humble butcher. These people prove altogether too much, and 
 it only remains for the Baconian to write down Shakespeare as "a mere 
 swine-herd ... a coney-catching, beer-drinking idler, or a common play 
 actor, or even a prosperous stage-manager," to shew, if both positions are 
 accepted, that Shakespeare could not have written the works attributed to him. 
 But neither position need be accepted, and those who carefully and with the 
 requisite knowledge can study Shakespeare's works, find in them the faults, as 
 well as the virtues inseparable from his training. We have shewn that he 
 was surely no ignorant boor, for the Grammar-school teaching, though not 
 equal to the work of the universities for producing a pedant, was a liberal 
 education and opened the way to all the knowledge of the time. A study of 
 the poems and plays shows most fully how many of them teem with minor 
 inconsistencies, how Roman citizens are clad in the garb of the middle ages ; 
 how gunpowder is introduced in scenes laid before the time of its discovery 
 in the West, and how the truths of geography are perverted to accommodate 
 
 iig 
 
poetic truth. The wisdom we find is the fruit of quick sympathy, accurate 
 observation, clear reasoning, true intuition, and fine memory — all the gifts of 
 bounteous Mother Nature — used amid the unparalleled opportunities of a 
 reign that seethed with brain activity. The errors we find are those that 
 may be disregarded b}' the man who looks to the inner life and the spirit of 
 things, they are impossible to the deeply read classic. 
 
 The temptation to follow the poet's life in London is very great indeed, 
 but the scope and purpose of this book limit us to the incidents connected 
 with his own town. We may wonder what happened to his wife and three 
 young children. Did they live in Henley Street, with the old glover; did they 
 go, as is generally suggested, to the mother's home at Shottery ; or did they 
 settle in some humble, cosy cottage of their own, where the mother could 
 rear and tend her bairns in her own way, and ever take a pride in keeping her 
 cottage and garden just in that perfect state in which her wandering husband 
 loved to picture them ? We know that there was a period of trial and struggle 
 for the brave high-spirited husband, and for the faithful wife ; but we know 
 the success that rewarded one, and may imagine the pride and joy that filled 
 the heart of the other. 
 
 
 
 
 ^■?^ 
 
 
 
 ^ '"^^m 
 
 
 
 w^ 
 
 
 f. 
 
 1^\ ^ 
 
 
 K ~ 
 
 lg^ 
 
 
 1 
 
 ^1 
 
 
 IN CHARLECOTE PARK. 
 
Chapter VIII. 
 
 MANHOOD AND THE CLOSE OF LIFE. 
 
 " We are such stuff 
 As dreams are made on ; and our little life 
 Is rounded with a sleep." 
 
 Tempest. Act IV., Scene i. 
 
 ARVELLous success appears to have attended the poet, 
 but it was a success won by hard work no less than by 
 great genius. An accompHshed actor, a prolific poet 
 and play-wright, a man of affairs with extensive 
 interests, both business and personal ; to be all these 
 at once needed the eager versatile temperament in- 
 herited from John Shakespeare, and also the strong reserve 
 force and persistence that may have come from the sturdy 
 Arden stock. 1594 saw the production of " Titus Andronicus," 
 the publication of " Lucrece," a poem that was an immense 
 success, the publication of a second edition of "Venus and 
 
Adonis," and the first production of "A Comedy of Errors." So the success 
 went on from year to year. In 1596, "Romeo and Juliet" took the town 
 (London) by storm, and the record is a series of successive triumphs, embittered 
 occasionally by the attacks of jealous rivals or by trouble with copyright 
 pirates. No doubt the busy worker found occasional rest and refreshment in 
 the little thatched and flower-decked home, where we pictured his wife as 
 tending his children and longing for his return. In fact, we have no certain 
 knowledge that the plays and poems were not written in Stratford, in brief 
 respites from wandering with the travelling company or working in London. 
 
 We may be pretty sure the poet visited Stratford in 1596, for on August 
 nth of that year, his only son Hamnet was laid to rest. In January of the 
 same year was buried Joan Shakespeare, of Snitterfield, possibly a relation ; 
 on December 29th was buried Henry Shakespeare, of Snitterfield, and his 
 widow si.x weeks later. In this year, too, application was made for a grant 
 of Arms to John Shakespeare, who also sold a strip of land in Henley Street, 
 thus proving that he was not reduced to poverty. 
 
 In 1597, only twelve years after the time when he is generally supposed 
 to have left Stratford, William Shakespeare bought New Place, the most 
 important house in the town, and one that was known to the neighbors as 
 "the great house." Originally built for Sir Hugh Clopton, late in the 
 fifteenth century it is probable that the building was thoroughly out of repair 
 when bought by Shakespeare, or he would hardly have obtained it for so 
 small a sum as ;f 60. No doubt the house was thoroughly renovated, for it 
 became the poet's residence, and remained so until his death. 
 
 1598 was a time of famine, when those who held any store of grain were 
 ordered to give to the authorities an account of the quantity. Twenty stocks 
 are recorded, and of these, four were as large or larger than the stock of ten 
 quarters held by the poet. John Shakespeare's name does not appear on the 
 list. In this year Ben Jonson's " Every man in his own Humour " was 
 produced, through the kindness of Shakespeare, if we are to believe the 
 account of Rowe, who says : — " His acquaintance with Ben Jonson began 
 with a remarkable piece of humanity and good nature ; Mr. Jonson, who 
 was at that time altogether unknown to the world, had offered one of his 
 plays to the players in order to have it acted, and the persons into whose 
 hands it was put, after having turned it carelessly and superciliously over, 
 were just returning it to him with an ill-natured answer that it would be of 
 no use to their company, when Shakespeare luckily cast his eye upon it, and 
 found something so well in it as to engage him first to read it through, and 
 afterwards to recommend Mr. Jonson and his writings to the public." 
 
 The only other matter that demands our attention in 1598 is a correspon- 
 dence, in which is included the only known letter addressed to Shakespeare. 
 Abraham Sturley wrote to Richard Quiney on January 24th, and mentioned 
 
that " our countriman, Mr. Shaksper, is willinge to disburse some monei upon 
 some od yarde land or other att Shotterei orneare about us." Adrian Quiney 
 wrote to his son Richard : — "Yf{ yow bargen with Wm. Sha ... or 
 receive money therfor, brynge youre money homme that yow maye ; and see 
 howe knite stockynges be sold ; ther ys gret byinge of them at Aysshome. 
 Edward Wheat and Harry, youre brother man, were both at Evyshome thys 
 daye senet, and, as I harde, bestowe 20 !i ther in knyt hosse ; wherefore I 
 thynke yow maye doo good, yff yow can have money." 
 
 On November 4th, Abraham Sturley wrote to Richard Quiney, acknow- 
 ledging " Ur letter of the 25 of October . . . which imported . . . 
 that our countriman Mr. Wm. Shak. would procure us monei," etc. Evidently 
 Quiney had taken for granted the assistance of Shakespeare, or the poet had 
 given a very prompt reply to his appeal for help, for it was only made on the 
 25th of October. The appeal itself is preserved in the Birth House museum, 
 and we reproduce, in facsimile, its two sides, of which, for better compre- 
 hension we print the following copy : — 
 
 Address : — 
 
 "To my loveinge good ftrende and contreymann Mr.Wm. Shackespere 
 
 deliver thees." 
 The letter runs: — " Loveinge contreyman, — I am bolde of yow, as of a 
 ffrende, craveinge your helpe with XXX //. upon 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 helpeinge 
 me out of all the debettes I owe in London, I thancke God, and muche quiet 
 my mynde, which wulde not be indebeted. I am nowe towardes the Cowrte, 
 in hope of answer for the dispatche of my buysenes. You shall nether loase 
 creddytt nor monney by me, the Lord wyllinge ; and nowe butt perswade 
 yowrselfe soe, as I hope, and yow shall not need to feare butt with all hartie 
 thanckefullenes I wyll hold my tyme and content yowr ffrende, and yf we 
 bargaine farther, yow shal be the paiemaster yowrselfe. My tyme biddes me 
 hastene to an ende, and soe I commit thys yowr care, and hope of your helpe. 
 I fear I shall nott be backe thys night ffrom the Cowrte. Haste. The Lorde 
 be with yow and with vs all. Amen ! ffrom the Bell in Carter Lane, the 25 
 October, 1598. 
 
 Yours in all kyndenes, 
 
 Ryc. Quyney. 
 In 1600, the Burbages, with whom Shakespeare was a partner, were busy 
 in erecting a new theatre in Southwark, to which they gave the name of the 
 Globe. The poet proceeded against John Clayton to recover a small debt, 
 and in July of the same year Sir Thomas Lucy died. A nephew, son of 
 the poet's sister, Joan Hart, was baptised August 28th, in the name of 
 William. 
 
 123 
 
ip 
 
 
 r<6»--. 
 
 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 LETTER FROM QUINEY TO SHAKESPEARE. 
 
THE CHANCEL, TRINITY CHURCH. 
 
Early in the following year, Shakespeare's company was implicated in 
 the quickly suppressed rebellion of the Earl of Essex, which practically 
 commenced with the performance, on February 7th, 1601, of Henry IV., " a 
 play of the deposing and killing of King Richard the Second." The play 
 was selected by the conspirators, who paid the players forty shillings toward 
 the loss which the)' anticipated, as the play was out of date. On the failure 
 of the plot, Essex and his great friend Southampton, were found guilty of 
 treason ; Essex was executed, and Southampton was imprisoned for the rest 
 of the Queen's reign. The Queen apparently disdained revenge on mere 
 players, or Shakespeare's close connection with Lord Southampton might 
 have led to serious trouble. As it was, his company performed before the 
 Queen, at Richmond Palace, on February 24th, the night before the execution 
 of Essex ; and the following Christmas gave four plays before the Queen, at 
 Whitehall. 
 
 Meanwhile, the good old glover had passed beyond his seventieth year, 
 and realised, no doubt, that he was on the down-hill of life. Still, he was 
 alert and active, and his judgment was respected by his fellow-townsmen, for 
 when Sir Edward Greville took certain proceedings against the town, John 
 Shakespeare was one of five men chosen to advise the counsel for the 
 defence. This mark of confidence came quite in the last few months of the 
 old man's life, for on September 8th, 1601, he was buried at Stratford-on- 
 Avon, but whether in the church or churchyard, we know not. 
 
 In 1602, the poet bought from William and John Combe 107 acres of land 
 near Stratford-on-Avon (price ;f32o), and also bought a cottage adjoining 
 New Place and standing on land held from the Manor of Rowington. In 
 1603, the publishing of new plays and the issue of new editions was unusually 
 active. In December, 1602, the poet's company had played before the Queen 
 at Whitehall ; and on February 2nd, at Richmond, some seven weeks before 
 the Queen's death, they again appeared at her command. But though honored 
 by Queen and Court, the players were gradually losing favor in certain parts 
 of the country, where Puritanism was hourly spreading ; and of this we have 
 evidence in Stratford. Just before Christmas, 1602, a rule was made that no 
 play or interlude should be performed in or about the Guild Hall, and that 
 any bailiff, alderman, or burgess who gave leave or license for any such play 
 should be fined ten shillings for each offence. Apparently, this rule was not 
 always strictly enforced, so that the town council thought it necessary, ten 
 years later, to re-introduce the rule, and raise the fine to £io- 
 
 On May 17th, 1603, the King, James I., reached London, and within ten 
 days he granted, under privy seal, a license to Shakespeare's company. 
 During the summer of that year the company played at Bath, Coventry, 
 Shrewsbury, Ipswich, and other places, and in December they performed 
 before the King at Wilton. During the next year the company appeared 
 
 127 
 
twice before the King, and as he was obliged, for fear of spreading the plague, 
 to forbid their performing near London, he made them a present of ;f 30. 
 When the formal entry into London occurred, in March, 1604, Shakespeare 
 and his fellows were in the royal pageant. They were appointed the King's 
 servants and took the court rank of Grooms of the Chamber. In Stratford, 
 during the summer, Shakespeare proceeded to recover _^i 15s. lod., the 
 balance of an account due on several sales of malt, and money lent. 
 
 Before the court, during 1605, there were several performances of 
 Shakespeare's plays, as well as those of other writers, and the company 
 
 CELLAR OF THOMAS QUINEY S HOUSE. 
 
 travelled much, as was doubtless its usual custom, in the summer. In May, 
 the poet received on the death of his partner, Augustine Phillips, a legacy 
 "to my fellowe, William Shakespeare, a thirty shillings piece in goold." 
 Soon after this, in July, the poet made his greatest investment, paying £440 
 for a portion of a lease of the tithes of Stratford, Old Stratford, Bishopton, 
 and Welcombe. 
 
 The close of the year was marked by a momentous event, important to 
 King and country, and specially interesting to Stratfordians of whatever 
 political or religious complexion. The event was the infamous Gunpowder 
 
 128 
 
ENTRANCE HALL, THOMAS NASH S HOUSE. 
 
 Now the New Place Museum. 
 
Plot, and the special interest of Stratfordians was secured by the fact that 
 several of the plotters were connected with Warwickshire, while one of their 
 number was resident at Clopton House, only a mile awa}'. We do not for a 
 moment suggest that Shakespeare had any part or lot in the matter, that he 
 was cognisant of any serious plot, or that he, necessarily,- sympathised with 
 its plans and objects, but there are certain indications that he must have been 
 acquainted with a number of the conspirators. We have seen the general 
 spirit of the Shakespeares and some of the Ardens, and have referred to the 
 connection between Shakespeare's company of players and the rebellion of 
 Essex and Southampton. Robert Catesby, Thomas Winter, and John Wright, 
 the three original conspirators in the Gunpowder Plot had all been actively 
 and responsibly employed under Essex in his attempt. Tresham, the cousin 
 of Catesby, and probably the traitor who betrayed the plot, had also been 
 prominent in the conspiracy of Essex. 
 
 Ambrose Rookwood, a young man who had frequently been prosecuted for 
 harboring priests in his house, was the occupant of Clopton, and we have 
 already given a view of "the priests' room," where they were sheltered. It is 
 on record that he was a devout man, of studious habits, who joined the 
 conspirators out of pure devotion to his friend Catesby; and we may feel sure 
 that such a man, living in the manor house, was well known to the people of 
 Stratford, including the Shakespeare family. Numbers of the Catholic gentry 
 of Warwickshire, as well as of other parts of the Midlands, were aware that 
 some plot was in progress, although not informed of its exact nature; and a 
 great party of them assembled, ostensibly for a mighty hunt, at the home of 
 Sir Everard Digby, at Dunchurch, twenty miles from Stratford. These hunts- 
 men were all well armed, and prepared to consider and to strike a second blow 
 had the first been successful. When joined by the desperate leaders of the plot, 
 fleeing from London in the hope that the Catholics of the Midlands might still 
 be roused to revolt, the carousing huntsmen gradually slunk awa}-. Undaunted, 
 the leaders, with the few who would follow them, marched on the night of the 
 Fifth towards Warwick, where they helped themselves to horses from the very 
 castle itself, and defeated a sheriff's party that was hastily raised against 
 them. Resting at Norbrook, near Snitterfield, they next proceeded to 
 Stratford-on-Avon, where a trumpet was sounded in the Market Square, and 
 the leaders of the conspirac}' made proclamation to such of the good folk of 
 Stratford as dared to peer forth from their homes. Not a recruit could be 
 obtained, however, and like ill-success attended the little parties detached to 
 raise friends of the Catholic cause in Grafton and other neighboring villages. 
 Greatly disheartened, the party pushed on to Alcester, some seven miles west 
 of Stratford, and we need not follow them out of Warwickshire, or attempt to 
 describe the last magnificent struggle of these desperate but undoubtedly 
 sincere and valiant enemies of the King. 
 
 130 
 
We have no definite knowledge of the whereabouts of Shakespeare at the 
 time of the plot, but the next year (1606) was spent, as usual, travelling about 
 the country, and a great number of the performances have been traced in the 
 records of various provincial towns. In 1607 there were two important events 
 — the marriage of the poet's daughter, Susanna, to John Hall, gentleman, on 
 June 5th, and the death of his brother, Edmund, who was buried in the 
 Church of St. Saviour, Southwark, on the last day of the year. As Edmund 
 is described in the register as a player, we may fairly suppose that he was 
 introduced to the stage as a member of his brother's company. 
 
 A birth and a funeral 
 mark the following year. 
 The only child of the 
 Halls was baptised 
 on February 21st 
 and received the name 
 Elizabeth. This little 
 Bessie, the poet's first 
 grandchild, and the only 
 one born before his 
 death, was very dear to 
 him, as is evidenced by 
 his will. A little later in 
 the year, in September, 
 ^, a great blow fell upon 
 
 W the family in the loss of 
 
 Mistress Mary Shakes- 
 peare, the poet's mother. 
 Her son probably 
 attended the funeral, 
 even if he were not at 
 WELL IN NLw PLACE GARDEN. homc at the tlmc of 
 
 her death, for the 26th 
 of October he was godfather to William Walker. This summer the poet's 
 company had been travelling on the South Coast, and in the autumn they 
 were in the Midlands, for on October 29th they played at Coventry. 
 
 A lawsuit against John Addenbroke was taken up on behalf of the poet by 
 his cousin, Thomas Greene, and when Addenbroke could not be found under 
 the execution, his bail-man became liable. A more extensive and involved 
 lawsuit was begun in 1609, in relation to the tithes in which Shakespeare had 
 bought an interest. The outcome of the case is not known. In the same 
 year, too, Shakespeare's Sonnets were first published by Thomas Thorpe. 
 It is probable that these pieces had been written without any thought of 
 
 132 
 
publication, contributed to the albums of friends, and otherwise, for 
 Shakespeare had nothing to do with their publication. 
 
 More land was bought from the Combes in April of i6io, twenty acres of 
 pasture adjoining the arable land previously purchased. Beyond this, the 
 fact that Shakespeare's company toured the provinces, and the further fact 
 that new plays were published and the old ones became more popular, we 
 know nothing of this 
 year. 
 
 In the next year 
 there was a subscrip- 
 tion in Stratford in 
 support of a bill then 
 before Parliament 
 " for the better re- 
 payre of the highe 
 w a 1 e s . " All the 
 principal people con- 
 tributed, including 
 Dr. John Hall, the 
 poet's son-in-law, 
 and as Shakespeare's 
 own name appears in 
 the margin and not 
 in the body of the 
 list, it is supposed 
 that he was not in 
 the town at the time. 
 To this time is attrib- 
 uted " The Taming 
 of the Shrew," and 
 although the plot of 
 both play and induc- 
 tion is known to have 
 existed in an earlier 
 
 play, the local the avenue, trinity church, in APRIL. 
 
 touches in Shakes- 
 peare's are so important in these days of the Baconian heresy that we must 
 note them in some detail. The green at Wincot we have seen in connection 
 with Mary Arden's home on its very border. There Kit Sly, a drunken tinker, 
 has an altercation with Marian Hacket, the fat ale-wife. A lord, returning from 
 hunting, picks up the befuddled Kit, and, in sport, instructs his servants to 
 take the toper to bed, and suggests that on his waking, the servants shall 
 
pretend that Sly is a lord, who has been mad. A party of travelHng players, 
 visiting the lord's house, aid the deception, so that this scene forms the 
 interlude to the proper play of " The Taming of the Shrew," which is 
 supposed to have been acted by the strollers. Wincot (or Wilmecote) and its 
 green remain to us ; there is a tradition as to the alehouse, and Stephen Sly, 
 a relative of the tinker, is remembered as a "character," and mentioned several 
 
 I'EST. WINDOW, 'J'RINTrV CHURCH. 
 
 times in the town records of Stratford. Barton-on-the-Heath, mentioned in 
 the play, is one of the villages near Stratford. The "lord" of that district 
 was the lord of Clopton, so that Clopton House, and its fine oak-panelled 
 dining-hall is obviously suggested as the scene of the play. 
 
 The purchase of an estate in Blackfriars, close to the Blackfriars theatre, 
 occurred in March of 1612, and seems to indicate that the poet had not yet 
 
 134 
 
retired from the stage and London life, but probably this retirement took 
 place very soon afterwards. Early in the following year died- the poet's 
 brother, Richard, and he was buried on February 4th. On June 29th, 1613, 
 the Globe Theatre (constructed, like other theatres at the time, of wood) was 
 burned to the ground. Shakespeare was, apparently, absent. About the 
 same time there was a slander in circulation smirching the fair fame of 
 
 TRINITY CHURCH, LOOKING EAST. 
 
 Mistress John Hall, the poet's eldest daughter, who took proceedings against 
 the slanderer, John Lane, with the result that he was excommunicated. 
 
 The bequest of £"5 to William Shakespeare, by John Combe, who died in 
 July, 1614, should have prevented the currency of the story that Shakespeare 
 had scurrilously lampooned his neighbor. This was a busy year for the 
 poet. The Globe Theatre was rebuilt, and " saide to be the fayrest that ever 
 
 135 
 
 J 
 
was in England." He was also interested in the enclosure of the common 
 fields, a project set afoot b)' William Combe, of Welcombe, apparently for his 
 own benefit. 
 
 A great fire, exceeding in its disastrous results those of 1594 and 1595 
 put together, swept through Stratford-on-Avon. The Shakespeare property 
 appears to have been untouched, though fifty-four dwelling-houses, together 
 with much other property, estimated at the value of ;f 8,000 was consumed 
 in about two hours. 
 
 The bulk of the years 1614 and 1615 were probably passed in peace and 
 contentment in Stratford. Of the real home life and personal history of the 
 poet we know so very little with certainty. Rowe says that the time was 
 spent " as all men of good sense will wish theirs to be, in ease, retirement, 
 and the conversation of his friends." 
 
 The preparation of the poet's will, in January, 1616, may have indicated 
 that he thought his end was nigh, or may have been just the natural pre- 
 caution of a time when leisure had enabled him to arrange his affairs. 
 Though drafted, the will was not signed in January, and in February the 
 poet's family was busy and doubtless happy about the wedding of the poet's 
 daughter, Judith, to Thomas Quiney, son of the letter-writer, Richard. 
 Thomas Quiney was a vintner, and took his wife to the Town Cage, their 
 home for over thirty years, in the cellar of which may still be seen traces of 
 the barrel slopes. The rejoicings attending this union would delay the 
 signing of the will, and it would seem that the poet was suddenl}' seized 
 with illness (tradition says a fever) about the end of March, for the scrivener, 
 Frauncis Collyns, was hastily summoned from Warwick; the rough draft of 
 the will was hastily altered, and, without waiting for fair copying, was signed 
 with its interlineations. The original month, January, was corrected to 
 March, but the original date, the 25th, remained unaltered. On the 23rd of 
 April, the day of his birth, the poet passed away, and on the 25th his body 
 was carried along Church Street, through the Old Town, past the house of 
 Dr. John Hall, under the arching lime-trees in whose budding branches the 
 rooks cawed noisily, and laid to rest near the altar of the old grey church, 
 close to 'the murmuring river. 
 
 ■£ %f ^-.t- <&ytfj^jf^ 
 
 {^ 
 
 BURIAL ENTRY IN PARISH REGISTER. 
 
 136 
 
Chapter IX. 
 
 A GREAT MAN'S MEMORY. 
 
 .^.^ 
 
 'I have some rights of memor}' in this Kingdom." 
 
 Hamlet. Act V., scene 5. 
 
 " Honours thrive 
 
 When rather from our acts we them derive 
 Than our fore-goers."' 
 
 .-4//'.? Wi-ll that Ends Well. Act II., scene 3. 
 
 the poet's descendants, as of his ancestors, we know very 
 very Httle. His children, the natural guardians of his 
 memory, soon died out, as if the one grand personality had 
 sapped the vigor of the family tree, and those who now 
 1^^^ claim connection with the poet have surely little knowledge 
 of the facts. From his sister Joan descended the Hart 
 family, and as many Harts were given the christian name of Shakes- 
 peare, errors are partly explicable. 
 
 At the time of the poet's death, we may imagine his wife, then 
 over sixty years of age, as a brisk and kindly dame, her hair shot 
 with silver and her step less firm than when she was wooed in 
 Shottery fields, but with eyes still bright and cheeks still ruddy. His 
 
 137 
 
daughter Susannah, now a staid matron of thirty-three summers, and a good 
 business woman, was busied with her husband's affairs and the education 
 of her httle eight-year-old daughter Bess. Her husband, good Dr. John Hall, 
 though sneered at because some of his prescriptions were such as only quacks 
 would use in the present day, was a capable and well-educated physician, a 
 Master of Arts with a Continental university training, and was making a 
 reputation far beyond the limits of his own town, or even of his county. 
 
 Joan Hart, the poet's sister: widowed only a few days before his death, 
 was living in Stratford with three sons of the ages of sixteen, eleven and six 
 years, and the other member of the family, the poet's daughter Judith, had 
 just married Thomas Quiney. 
 
 There were friends and neighbors in plenty to mourn the loss of him who 
 had been a genial friend no less than an ornament to the town. Amongst 
 them were Julius Shaw, who lived next door but one, Hamnet Sadler, for whom 
 the poet's only son was named, John Robinson and Robert Whattcott, all 
 of whom witnessed his will. And there was his next door neighbor, Anthony 
 Nash, with his son Thomas, who was afterward to become the husband 
 of Bess Hall. 
 
 In November, 1616, Judith Quine}''s first child was christened Shakespeare, 
 but less than six months later the baby died. In February, 1618, another little 
 son cheered the Quiney household, and was named Richard. In November of 
 the same year, Michael, the youngest son of Joan Hart, was buried. In 1620, 
 (January 23rd) Thomas, son of Thomas Quiney, was baptised. 
 
 In 1623, seven years after her husband, Mrs. Shakespeare — or as posterity 
 will ever call her, Anne Hathaway — was laid in the church beside her husband's 
 grave. 
 
 Bess Hall, meanwhile, was growing to years of maturity, and on the 22nd 
 of April, 1626, she was married to Thomas Nash, who lived in the house 
 which is now the New Place Museum. Dr. John Hall died in 1635 and was 
 buried November 26th ; and four years later there were three funerals in the 
 family in two months. On January 28th, 1639, was buried Thomas, and on 
 February 26th, Richard, the sons of Thomas Quiney, while on March 29th, 
 William Hart, the poet's nephew, who had been a player in London, was 
 buried at the Stratford church. 
 
 The strained social conditions of the early part of the seventeenth century 
 terminated in war, and in 1642 the king was sorely in need of funds, and called 
 upon his loyal subjects for loans. A list of the sums raised in Stratford-on- 
 Avon is preserved, from which we learn that by far the largest contribution 
 came from Thomas Nash, the husband of Elizabeth Hall, who contributed 
 ^100. In the following year. Queen Henrietta Maria triumphantly entered 
 the town at the head of 5,000 men and took up her quarters at New Place, 
 where she held court for three weeks. At this time the family of Shakespeare 
 
 138 
 
THK GOWliR STATUE. 
 
consisted of his daughters Susannah and Judith, his grand-daughter Elizabeth, 
 and his sister Joan. 
 
 The next break in the family was in April, 1647, when Thomas Nash died. 
 His wife, the former Bess Hall, was married again on June 5th, 1649, to John 
 Barnard, and only a month later, July i ith, 1649, saw the death of her mother, 
 the poet's eldest daughter, Susannah. The youngest daughter, Judith, died on 
 February gth, 1662, and probably about a year later was followed by her 
 husband. 
 
 The last remaining descendant of the poet, now Lady Barnard, died on 
 February 17th, 1670. Her husband, now Sir John Barnard, lived to 1674. 
 
 The natural keepers of the poet's memory having thus failed, the responsi- 
 bility fell upon the Harts, descendants of his sister Joan, who lived in the 
 birth-house, a portion of their inheritance from John Shakespeare. In this 
 historic building the family dwelt until about 1793, when Thomas Hart, fifth 
 in direct descent from Joan Hart, left Stratford for "Woolwich, where he died 
 in 1800. Having no children to succeed him, Thomas Hart persuaded a 
 relative, Thomas Hornby, to rent the house, and buy certain relics at a 
 valuation in order that they might be kept together and shewn to the public. 
 Thomas Hornby occupied the birth-house until his death, and afterwards his 
 
 140 
 
widow kept the place until 1820, making a livelihood by shewing the house 
 and the relics. In 1820 the rent was raised, and Mistress Hornby took a 
 house opposite the birth-place, where she still continued to shew the relics, 
 and where they were to be seen as recently as 1888. As a complete collection 
 they were last in the possession of Thomas Hornby, of Kingsthorpe, grandson 
 of Mary Hornby, and they were dispersed on June 4th, 1896, at the auction 
 rooms of Messrs. Christie, Manson & Woods. Thirty-one lots realised 
 £■130 i8s. od., the highest price for any one lot being £26. That such a 
 collection was allowed to be dispersed in such manner is doubtless due to the 
 fact that some of the items 
 were regarded by the Birth- 
 House Trust as being 
 insufficiently authenticated, 
 or of little interest. 
 
 The birth-house itself was 
 conveyed on May nth, 1796, 
 by Thomas Hart to his brother 
 John, who sold it in i8o5 to 
 Thomas Court. Court died in 
 1818, and on the death of his 
 widow in 1846, arrangements 
 were made to sell the place. 
 Rumours that the house was 
 likely to be sold to a well- 
 known American showman 
 aroused quite an excitement 
 amongst certain Britons, 
 who, until then, had taken 
 but little interest in the place. 
 Two committees were formed, 
 and in 1847, when the house 
 was put up for auction, it was 
 bought by these committees 
 jointly, the conveyance being suiosed original of the ukoeshout engraving. 
 
 completed in 1848 to four of 
 
 their members. In 1866 the property was finally transferred, under a public 
 Trust Deed, to the Corporation of Stratford-on-Avon. 
 
 At this point we will leave the history of the birth-house for the present, 
 to turn for a moment to the work of two men to whom we can never be 
 sufficiently grateful, and who must be considered as second in interest only to 
 the poet's own children. Two of the three fellow-players remembered in the 
 poet's will, anxious that his works should be preserved as completely as 
 
 141 
 
possible, chose out the best of the acting-copies in use at his old theatre, and 
 published them in collective form. The two men were John Hemings and 
 Henry Condell, and the plays, published in 1623, were the famous first folio 
 edition. Most of the plays had already been published singly in quarto form, 
 probably by pirates, but the folio edition contained half-a-dozen works until 
 then unpublished, and attracted an amount of attention that could never have 
 been secured b)' the quartos. Ben Jonson wrote a poetical introduction, 
 heading it — "To the memory of my beloved, the Author, Mr. William 
 Shakespeare, and what he hath left us," and a portrait engraved by Marcus 
 Droeshout was also included. The importance of a portrait thus authenticated 
 by Jonson, and by two other men who had been intimately acquainted with 
 the poet for years, can hardly be over-estimated. We may be sure that it was 
 from some painting which they regarded as a fair portrait, and Jonson, at any 
 rate, was satisfied with the copy, for he wrote — 
 To THE Reader. 
 " This Figure, that thou here seest put, 
 
 It was for gentle Shal<espeare cut ; 
 
 Wherein the Graver had a strife 
 
 With Nature to out-doo the Ufe : 
 
 O, could he but have drawne his wit 
 
 As well in brasse, as he hath hit 
 
 His face, the Print would then surpasse 
 
 All, that was ever writ in brasse. 
 
 But, since he cannot. Reader, looke 
 
 Not on his Picture, but his Booke." 
 
 The whereabouts of the original from which this portrait was engraved 
 has been the subject of much speculation, but within the past few months 
 the Memorial Library at Stratford-on-Avon has obtained a painting which is 
 believed by many excellent authorities to be this very original. 
 
 The only portrait that can compete with the Droeshout as regards un- 
 doubted authenticity and early date is the bust in the parish church of Holy 
 Trinity. We know that this was erected before 1623, because it is referred to 
 by Leonard Digges in his poetical ascription published in the first folio 
 edition of the plays. His lines commence — 
 
 " Shakespeare, at length thy pious fellowes give 
 The world thy Workes: thy Workes, by which, out-live 
 Thy Tombe, thy name must when that stone is rent, 
 And time dissolves thy Stratford Moniment, 
 Here we alive shall view thee still." 
 
 It is believed that the bust was provided at the sole expense of Dr. Hall 
 and his wife, and certain it is that they superintended the erection. It is also 
 traditionally recorded that the bust was copied from a cast of the features, 
 and as death-masks were not uncommonly made by doctors in those days, it 
 
 142 
 

 .>-^^S^./j 
 
 is quite possible that such a cast was taken by Dr. John Hall, handed to the 
 
 sculptor, and, having served its purpose, left in the sculptor's hands — but of 
 
 this more anon. The " tombe-maker" who supplied the monument was 
 
 Gerard Johnson, the son of a Dutch tomb-maker whose yard was close to 
 
 the Globe Theatre, and who, therefore, was probably well acquainted with 
 
 Shakespeare's appearance. Originally the tombstone was painted to resemble 
 
 life ; the eyes light hazel, the 
 
 hair and beard auburn. This 
 
 coloring on soft stone was not 
 
 imperishable, so that early in 
 
 the eighteenth century the figure 
 
 was much decayed in parts, and 
 
 in 1748 Mr. John Ward devoted 
 
 the profits of a representation 
 
 of Othello to the repairing and 
 
 beautifyingof the bust. In 1793, 
 
 Malone, with a want of taste 
 
 for which he can never be quite 
 
 forgiven, persuaded the vicar to 
 
 have the bust painted white, in 
 
 which state it remained until 
 
 i86i,when the white was scraped 
 
 off and the whole repainted t(3 
 
 match as nearly as possible the 
 
 traces of original color. In all 
 
 these changes the bust must 
 
 have suffered considerably. As 
 
 it is well represented in one of 
 
 our illustrations we need not 
 
 describe it, but will simph- sa}' 
 
 that both sculptors and surgeons 
 
 are agreed that it was made by a 
 
 craftsman rather than an artist, 
 
 and that it is a study of a dead, 
 
 rather than a living face. 
 
 Next in order of interest, and 
 decidedly in advance of the two portraits already mentioned, as regards artistic 
 merit and realisation of our ideal of Shakespeare, comes the Chandos portrait. 
 Our copy of it is from an engraving in the collection of the Earl of Warwick. 
 The original picture is in the National Portrait Gallery, and, according to the 
 catalogue, was the property of John Taylor, Shakespeare's contemporary, a 
 plaN'er. It is supposed to have been painted by Ta}'lor or Richard Burbage. 
 
 
 
 ■; bv the S^'an Electric Engr 
 
 145 
 
Taj'lor left it in his will to Sir William Davenant, after whose death it was bought 
 by Betterton, the actor, to whose enthusiastic admiration of Shakespeare we 
 have alread}' referred. After Betterton's death it was bought by Mr. Keck, of 
 the Temple, who left it to Mr. Nicholls, of Southgate, whose daughter 
 married the Marquis of Carnarvon, afterwards Duke of Chandos. Eventually, 
 by the late Lord Ellesmere, it was given to the nation. This history seems 
 perfectly clear, but objection has been raised that the portrait is a friendly 
 
 artist's conception of a some- 
 what idealised Shakespeare. 
 Surely all Shakespeare lovers 
 will appreciate the idealisa- 
 tion, if any. Another portrait 
 of great interest, though its 
 history is unfortunately lost, 
 is the " Stratford " portrait, 
 now hanging in an upper 
 room of the birth-house. Its 
 discovery is as recent as i860. 
 Previous to that time it was 
 not known to be a portrait of 
 Shakespeare, but was simply 
 an old portrait belonging to 
 the Clopton family, from 
 whom it was bought with 
 other pictures and the house 
 in which they hung, by Mr. 
 William Hunt, in 1758. In 
 i860 someone suggested that 
 the picture as it then stood 
 was the work of two different 
 periods, and two artists of very 
 unequal skill. In fact, it was 
 an old painting of considerable 
 merit, masked by decidedly 
 inferior additions. Careful removal of the later work revealed the picture we 
 reproduce, and it was presented to the Birth-Place Trust by Mr. William 
 Oakes Hunt. 
 
 To return to the Droeshout portrait. As the poet died when the engraver 
 of this portrait was quite young, we may be certain that it follows some earlier 
 work, and within the last few months, by the generosity of Mrs. Charles E. 
 Flower, the Memorial Library has been enriched by the addition of what is 
 believed to be the original painting. It is an old picture on a panel of elm. 
 
 146 
 
and bearing the date i6og. A large number of experts, both painters and 
 antiquarians have critically examined the picture, with the result that all 
 agree that there is little doubt of its having been painted in Shakespeare's 
 time, or of the date having been painted at the same time as the picture. Mr. 
 Poynter, R.A., and Mr. Ouless, R.A., are of the decided opinion that the picture 
 was painted from life; and a well-known engraver says that the picture is 
 certainl}' not a copy of the engraving, though the engraving was probably done 
 from the picture, or — more likely still — from a drawing thereof. 
 
 By far the most beautiful likeness of the poet, and one that gives us a 
 loftier idea of his personality than even the Chandos portrait, is the terra-cotta 
 bust depicted in our frontispiece, from the original in the Memorial Library. 
 Known as the Davenant bust, and 
 recently acquired by the Memorial, 
 this magnificent portrait has 
 attracted a great amount of atten- 
 tion, though so far as we are aware, 
 it has not been reproduced in any 
 way. Sir William Davenant, godson 
 of the poet, and one of his favorites, 
 was eight years old when the poet 
 died. He was an educated gentle- 
 man, a courtier, soldier, musician, 
 actor and poet — in fact, he held the 
 position of poet Laureate. It is 
 believed, also, that he was a painter 
 of some ability. In 1662, while many 
 of Shakespeare's contemporaries 
 were still alive. Sir William 
 Davenant built the Duke's Theatre, 
 in Lincoln's Inn Fields. Long after the "stratford" portrait. 
 
 his death the building was very 
 
 greatly changed ; all except the front wall was rebuilt, and the place became 
 a warehouse. In the middle of the present century it was occupied by Messrs. 
 Spode and Wilkinson, the great pottery and china merchants. A few years 
 ago the whole was pulled down to be replaced by a building for the Royal 
 College of Surgeons, and during the demolition there was found over one of 
 the front entrances, a niche, bricked up in front, and containing a terra-cotta 
 bust of Ben Jonson. Unfortunately, as no such niche was suspected, the bust 
 was broken by the workmen. Mr. Clint, who was superintending the 
 operations, suspected there might be a similar recess over the other doorway, 
 had it carefully un-bricked, and found therein the bust of Shakespeare, which 
 has since been called the Davenant. By Mr. Clint the bust was given to 
 
 147 
 
Sir Richard Owen, his son-in-law, who bequeathed it to the Memorial. A copy 
 of it was made for the Duke of Devonshire, who gave it to the Garrick Club, 
 after making two casts, one of which he retained, while the other was given 
 to Sir Joseph Paxton, and by him to the Crystal Palace Company. Many 
 competent judges are satisfied as to the age of the bust, while others claim that 
 it is quite recent work. Certain objectors have said that the costume is later 
 
 DAVENANT BUST AND COPY OF DEATH MASK. 
 
 than Davenant's time, and others have gone so far as to suggest that the bust 
 was made for Spode and Wilkinson, by Flaxman or one of his pupils. There 
 is a date, 1846, roughly but very plainly scratched in the unfinished clay 
 behind the bust; but a very curious fact about this is that some of those who 
 carefully examined the bust when it first came to the Memorial, state no date 
 was visible upon it at that time. The case is somewhat mysterious, and we 
 
 148 
 
can scarcely conceive that a leading firm of merchants, having commissioned 
 an artist like Flaxman to make two portrait studies of famous men, should be 
 foolish enough to wall them up on leaving the building. 
 
 There is onl)' one other portrait of Shakespeare to which we need here 
 refer; but that is perhaps the most interesting of all, for it purports to be the 
 death-mask, made by Dr. John Hall, from which the Stratford bust, and 
 possibly some of the paintings were made. 
 This death-mask was brought to London 
 by Ludwig Becker, a portrait painter and 
 naturalist of Hesse-Darmstadt, who was at 
 the time living in Mayence as court painter 
 to the Grand Duke. For its history we are 
 indebted to Becker. He says that it was 
 preserved in the family von Kesselstadt, of 
 Mayence, for many generations, under the 
 firm belief that it was the cast of Shakes- 
 peare's dead face, and in connection with a 
 small painting in oil on parchment, represent- 
 ing a corpse lying in state, dated 1637, ^^d 
 inscribed "Traditionen nach Shakespeare" 
 (or say — "traditionally, after Shakespeare"). 
 In 1842, a few months after the death of 
 Count and Canon Francis von Kesselstadt, 
 the family collection was sold by auction, and 
 the picture was purchased by one Jourdan, 
 an antiquary of Mayence, who sold it in 1847, 
 to Ludwig Becker. Becker endeavoured to 
 trace all particulars of its history, and heard 
 of the cast from which it was alleged to have 
 been painted, but could find no evidence of 
 the cast having been sold, though he found 
 many people who remembered its existence. 
 In 1849 in a mean general-dealer's shop in a 
 back street of Mayence, he saw a cast which 
 he instantly recognised as the original of his 
 picture, and which he gladly purchased. 
 He had previously obtained a letter from Professor N. Miiller, of Mayence, 
 who had intimately known Count Kesselstadt from 1790, to the effect that the 
 count had regarded the painting as being undoubtedly authentic, and had 
 refused some very handsome offers to purchase it. The cast bears a date a.d. 
 1616. Becker's purpose in bringing the cast to England was to sell it to the 
 British Museum authorities for ;f 10,000. It was kept for some time, and 
 
 (The Goivcr Statue.) 
 
 150 
 
examined with much care. Sir Richard Owen examining it critically as an 
 anatomist, said he would be fully prepared to accept it as Shakespeare's face, 
 and that if its history could be authentically established, there was hardly any 
 price the museum would hesitate to pay for it. Various Shakespeareans who 
 considered the evidence, felt it to be insufficiently strong: and, as Ludwig 
 Becker died in Australia while on a Government expedition in 1861, the 
 bust and painting were returned to 
 Darmstadt to Dr. Ernest Becker. 
 
 One or two of the difficulties in 
 the way of the acceptance of the 
 history of the death-mask have been 
 cleared away, and one specially in- 
 teresting point is recorded by Mr. 
 A. H. Wall, an enthusiastic believer 
 in the death-mask. He refers to the 
 official records of foreigners in London 
 which were kept during the reigns of 
 Elizabeth and James I., from which 
 it appears that Gerard Johnson was 
 not resident in London during the 
 time when Shakespeare's tomb must 
 have been made. As he was a native 
 of Amsterdam, it seems quite reason- 
 able that the death-mask may have 
 been sent to him there. 
 
 Lord Ronald Gower, William Page, 
 the great American sculptor (who 
 crossed the ocean specially to examine 
 and measure the death-mask), and 
 many other eminent authorities are 
 inclined to believe in the genuineness 
 of the mask. Mr. Page wrote — 
 
 "If England believed Shakespeare's 
 face, cast from his just cooled and perfect 
 features, lay in a little nook of Hesse- 
 Darmstadt, do you believe she would 
 not pawn her islands rather than possess 
 
 it ? . . . While royal sons and daughters are dowered, and jewels remain in the 
 Tower, Shakespeare's face lies in a foreign land unredeemed. Oh, the pity of it ! " 
 
 The Garrick Jubilee in 1769, which marked the opening of the new Town 
 Hall, and the presentation of the freedom of the Borough to David Garrick as 
 the greatest actor of his time, has been regarded by many as a tribute to Garrick 
 
 (The Goivcr Statue.) 
 
and a general self-glorification rather than a tribute to Shakespeare's memor}'. 
 Certainly, many of the performances were hardl}' such as we should now-a- 
 days consider the most fitting tribute to Shakespeare, but the long and 
 laudatory account of the affair given by Wheler shews that the people of the 
 time regarded it quite seriously and worked earnestly for its success. A 
 great pavilion was built in the Bank Croft (where the Shakespeare Memorial 
 Library now stands), and the second week in 
 September was given up to feasts, balls, 
 serenades, processions, masquerades, fireworks, 
 and ail the accompaniments of a carnival., 
 The freedom of the Borough was presented to 
 Garrick in a handsomely carved box made from 
 the wood of the mulberry tree planted by 
 Shakespeare, and Garrick presented to the town 
 the statue of Shakespeare that still stands in a 
 niche on the north wall of the Town Hall. 
 
 The more dignified celebrations which are 
 now held every year in the birth -week attract a 
 great number of pilgrims, and it is to be hoped 
 that they will eventually become generally 
 recognised as important annual events by ever;,' 
 lover of English literature and the drama. The 
 week which includes April 23rd is set aside for 
 the celebrations, and is usually opened with 
 special Shakespearean sermons at the Parish 
 (Trinity) Church, the Guild Chapel, and some 
 of the Nonconformist places of worship. A lead- 
 ing company of players occupies the Memorial 
 Theatre and gives a week of Shakespearean 
 K plays, usually including one or more that have 
 
 // been specially revived and arranged for this 
 
 J^' purpose. Mr. J. W. Benson and Mr. Ben Greet, 
 
 »^i^ ,, both supported by excellent companies, have 
 
 devoted great care and skill to the birth-week 
 PRINCE HAi,. performances, and the charming little theatre, 
 
 (The GoK-cr Slatiic ) . , . ,, , , ^ j 
 
 With Its excellent stage arrangements and 
 ample scenery and effects, has done much to give a new life and deeper 
 meaning to many of the less known, as well as some of the more popular of 
 Shakespeare's works. About thirty of the plays, in all, have been thus 
 produced, and we are tempted to hope that the dream of the founder of the 
 Memorial Theatre may yet be realised, and Stratford become a national school 
 of dramatic work. 
 
 152 
 
During the birth-week is held the annual meeting of the Stratford-on-Avon 
 Shakespeare Club, and usually one or more public dinners or suppers, at 
 which the noted pilgrims to the Shakespeare shrine have an opportunity of 
 meeting and knowing the guardians of the shrine itself. Another pleasant 
 feature of the birth-week is that its influence is gradually spreading, and 
 celebrations in various forms are becoming increasingly numerous in 
 Birmingham, London, and many other centres 
 both in Britain and abroad. 
 
 We must commend every effort that tends to 
 direct more attention to the great master of 
 English and his work, but after all, second to 
 the works themselves, the relics so reverently 
 tended at Stratford-on-Avon are the great pre- 
 servers of our Shakespeare's memory. 
 
 Easily first stands the Birth-house, 
 with its record of between 25,000 and 
 30,000 pilgrims yearly. Here, as at the 
 other places of pilgrimage, a charge is 
 made for admission ; and only those who 
 know the cost and care of preserving the 
 various houses, providing suitable attend- 
 ants and guardians, and giving assistance 
 that is freely and courteously tendered to 
 all Shakespearean students, can realise 
 how very necessary is such a charge. 
 Not only is the income necessary for the 
 purchase and support of the buildings and 
 for the buying of books, relics,- etc., but a 
 check upon the swarms of irresponsible 
 "trippers" is indispensable to the safety of 
 the buildings and their contents. Photog- 
 raphers and artists sometimes grumble at 
 the special fees that are charged to them, 
 but if they once consider the comparatively 
 limited space, and the great crowds of 
 people who frequently almost block the 
 
 buildings, they will understand the necessity of severely repressing: 
 photographic work and sketching, in the interests of the majority. 
 
 The Birth-house is in the charge of Mr. Richard Savage, secretary to the 
 Shakespeare's Birth-place Trust, who is very ably supported by the Misses 
 Hancock, custodians, with assistants and gardener. The rooms to the left of 
 the entrance are never shewn to visitors, but are reserved as a depository for 
 
 (Tlie 
 
 ■ Statue.) 
 
 the 
 
 153 
 
 K 
 
the Town records and documents, and as a meeting-room for the board. The 
 cellar, too, is not shewn, a fact that we greatly regret, although we know it is 
 based on the objection to allowing lights in the building. Still, as the cellar 
 is the only part of the building that may not have suffered serious alteration 
 in the centuries since the poet's time, we feel that its opening would be greatly 
 appreciated, and surely could be done — including the necessary lighting — with 
 very little trouble and with absolute safety. The closing of the garret storey 
 of the house is easily intelligible when we know how very insecure is the 
 flooring, and realise the anxiety of the Trust to avoid repairing the floor, which 
 would mean destroying the old ceiling of the birth-room. 
 
 The main room, the living-room, a little back parlor, the birth-room 
 and the portrait-room are shewn by the custodians, and if the visitors 
 to the house are not too numerous, those who wish may step out into 
 the garden. At one time all visitors were allowed into the garden, but the 
 impossibility of keeping some from "picking and stealing" caused the 
 privilege to be withdrawn. 
 
 The adjoining house, formerly the wool-shop, is converted into a museum 
 and library. The objects of interest include many curiosities of Shakespeare's 
 time, carvings from old churches in the district, etc., etc., as well as relics 
 directly connected with the poet and his family. The original of the Quiney 
 letter, the old desk at which Shakespeare is supposed to have studied, a seal- 
 ring engraved with the initials 'W. S. and found man)' years ago in a field near 
 the church, and a number of deeds and manuscripts are amongst the most 
 important items. Many of the objects were given by Miss Wheler, sister of 
 Mr. R. B. Wheler, the historian. 
 
 Anne Hathaway's cottage, most charming of all the places of pilgrimage, is 
 owned by the Birth-place Trust, and is in the charge of Mrs. Baker, an old 
 lady of some eighty-five years, and a descendant of the Hathaway family. 
 The simple pride with which the place is shewn, and the courtly way in 
 which the old lady will offer a drink of water from Anne Hathaway's well, or 
 a few leaves or flowers from the garden, always make a lasting impression, 
 and add to the delight of a visit. When tourists are very numerous, Mrs. 
 Baker must have a weary time, and there is little chance of these personal 
 attentions. The old cottage cannot fail to delight any lover of the quaint and 
 picturesque, and it requires no other curios to make it a perfect museum. In 
 one of the upper rooms is an old carved oak four-post bed that belonged to 
 the Hathaway family long ago ; and an old bible that usually lies on the 
 little round table near Mrs. Baker's chair has the births, marriages, and 
 deaths of the Hathaways entered on its fly leaf. Mrs. Baker is always ready 
 to chat about the cottage and the many distinguished visitors she has 
 received, and we trust she may long remam amongst the custodians of the 
 poet's memor}'. 
 
 154 
 
The Grammar School and Guild Hall are open to the public during 
 convenient hours when the scholars are not at work, and, as at the other 
 places, a small fee is charged, and the proceeds devoted to the restoration 
 fund. Little need be added to the description given in Chapter V. As in 
 Shakespeare's day, the school takes high rank amongst the schools of the 
 country, and its masters are justly proud of the successes won by their 
 scholars. Most of the masters have been men of learning and refinement, 
 with pride in their school and a loving enthusiasm for the memory of its 
 greatest scholar. No exceptions to this rule are the late master, the Rev. R. 
 S. de Courcy Laffan, or the present master. Rev. E. J. W. Houghton. As the 
 master of the Grammar School is also entrusted with the services in the ancient 
 Guild Chapel, he is a most responsible custodian of the memory of the poet. 
 
 The Guild Chapel is not usually open to visitors except on Sundays, when 
 strangers are welcome to either morning or evening service. At other times 
 the chapel may be seen by special request, and those who hunt up and 
 make friends with the sexton, after obtaining permission from the head- 
 master, may enjoy the views from the windows of the tower. The old 
 frescoes which we reproduce in Chapter 11. are almost invisible now, but 
 copies of them may be seen in an interesting old book in the Memorial 
 Library. The tomb of Sir Hugh Clopton is in the Guild Chapel, with a 
 tremendoush' long inscription detailing the many noble gifts he made to his 
 native town. It has been suggested that Shakespeare may have had lessons 
 in the Chapel during repairs to the Grammar School, thus obtaining the 
 simile used in Twelfth Night — " cross-gartered . . . like a pedant 
 that keeps a school i' the church." However this may be, he must often 
 have worshipped in the little chapel, even then old and historical, that stood 
 next door to his manhood's home. 
 
 The New Place Museum, formerly the house of Thomas Nash, who 
 married Shakespeare's grand-daughter, is also the property of the Birth-place 
 Trust. In the main room are a number of relics of the poet, and curiosities 
 found about the site of the house where he died, and in pulling down the barn 
 connected therewith. The old shovel-board or shuffle-board from the Falcon 
 Inn, across the way, is one of the principal objects, but there are also two high- 
 backed, wool-worked chairs, known to have been in Shakespeare's possession, 
 a trinket-box said to have been Anne Hathaway' s, and a wooden drinking 
 flagon said to be the poet's. There are many minor relics, engravings, etc., 
 and the house gives access to the site of New Place, with the little scraps of 
 foundation-work carefully preserved and covered with wire netting. Here we 
 may take a draught of water from the same well that supplied the poet's wants, 
 though now it is bowered in ivy, while in his time it was in the cellar. In the 
 enclosure is a mulberry tree, the grand-child of the tree the poet planted. 
 This museum is in the care of the Secretary of the Birth-place Trust. 
 
 155 
 
The New Place gardens are open, without charge, at stipulated times, and 
 though there is little resemblance to the "great garden" of Shakespeare's day 
 it forms a charming resting-place. Here may be seen the child of Shakespeare's 
 great mulberry, and a piece of sculpture representing the poet and the muses, 
 from the old Shakespeare gallery in Pall Mall. While we can never too greatly 
 regret the destruction of Shakespeare's home, and of the mulberry tree that was 
 his pride, we think that the man who was responsible for the deeds has been 
 somewhat too harshly judged, and that there were, at any rate, two sides to 
 the case. The Rev. Francis Gastrell, the gentleman in question, was a man 
 of wealth, resident in Lichfield, who bought New Place in 1753, apparently for 
 use as an occasional residence. Malone says that he cut down the famous 
 mulberry tree "to save himself the trouble of showing it to those whose 
 admiration of our great poet led them to visit the poetic ground on which it 
 stood." Malone also tells us that Mr. Gastrell objected to the monthly tax 
 levied on the house, holding that it should only be payable when the house 
 was occupied, "but being very properlj' compelled b)' the magistrates of 
 Stratford to pa\' the whole of what was levied on him, he peevishly declared 
 that that house should never be assessed again, and soon afterwards pulled it 
 down." It is all very well to blame the poor man who was so worried by his 
 neighbors as to pull down the property which he had purchased only four years 
 before, and all very well to speak of the sight-seeing throng as being led by 
 "admiration of our great poet"; but surely the magistrates shewed obstinacy 
 and want of tact, as well as very little reverence for the home or the spirit of 
 Shakespeare, when they drove the quarrel to such an issue. Does it not remind 
 us of the persecution and harrying of John Shakespeare and his son b\' a very 
 similar set of petty tyrants. 
 
 The church of the H0I3' Trinity, where lie the poet's remains, has been 
 under the charge of appreciative and unappreciative vicars, but has fortunately, 
 at last, fallen into the custod}' of the Rev. Geo. Arbuthnot, D.D., a genuine 
 admirer of Shakespeare. Proud of the trust, he devotes to the preservation 
 and restoration of the church both time and money ; and, finding these in- 
 sufficient, is ever urging others to assist. Dr. Arbuthnot's earnestness and 
 untiring enthusiasm are very infectious, and under his hands the church has 
 greatly benefitted. Still, much remains to be done before the fabric is in a 
 satisfactory, or even a safe state. The west window is so shaky with the 
 buffetings of time that it seems as if the next great storm must blow it bodily 
 into the church- ; the floor, laid on the cold, wet earth of the riverside, is 
 sadly in need of air-space and drainage beneath ; the warming of the church 
 needs improving to stay the ravages of damp and cold, and there are many 
 other points that need attention. The vicar has been severely criticised at 
 times for allowing a new organ and stained glass windows to take precedence 
 of these necessary repairs ; but, unfortunately, the great subscribing public 
 
 is5 
 
will contribute to a memorial window when it will hardly give a penny for re- 
 laying a floor, and the vicar is anxious that the church should be in every 
 way a worthy shrine. The church is open to visitors, and Mr. Bennett, the 
 custodian, who takes the place of his uncle, the late Mr. Butler, is an interested 
 and interesting guide to those who visit the place in reverent spirit. 
 
 On entering, the visitor will find visitors' books, collection boxes, and a 
 small pamphlet issued bj' the vicar as a guide to the church and a small 
 memento. In a glass-topped box under the west window of the north aisle, 
 is the old parish register, open at the entries of the baptism and burial of 
 
 Shakespeare. Here, too, is the old chained bible ; and under the west 
 window of the south aisle is the old font in which the poet was baptised. 
 These objects are marked, respectively, i and 2 in our little plan of the 
 church. Following the same plan, at 3 is a tablet to the memory of the 
 Harts, a copy of an inscription placed in a corresponding position on the 
 wall outside. At 3A is a little window with some scraps of stained glass in 
 the upper part. These are interesting as being all that remain of a window 
 recording the re-building of the choir, in the following words — "Thomas 
 Balshall, Doctor of Divinity, re-edifyed this quier, and dyed Anno 1491." 
 The Chapel below (4), properly called the Chapel of Our Lady the Virgin, is 
 better known as the Clopton Chapel, since it contains the handsome tombs of 
 
 157 
 
many of the Clopton family. The American window, indicated by 6 on the 
 plan, was placed as the result of collections made entirely from Americans 
 It represents the "Seven Ages of Man," as personified by Moses, Samuel, 
 Jacob, Joshua, Solomon, Abraham, and Isaac. 
 
 PLAN OF TRINITY CHURCH. 
 
 Close beside the north chancel door is the Shakespeare monument, and 
 below it, inside the altar rails, are the tombs of the poet and his family, as 
 well as of some of his contemporaries. The order is shewn in the little 
 diagram. Shakespeare's own epitaph reads : — 
 
 Judicio Pylium, Genio Socratera, arte Maronem, 
 Terra tegit, populus mseret, Olympus habet. 
 
 Stay, pasenger, why goest thou by so fast, 
 Read, if thou canst, whom envious death hath plast, 
 Within this monument; Shakespeare, with whome 
 Quick nature dide; whose name doth deck this tomb, 
 Far more than cost, sith all that he hath writt, 
 Leaves living art, but page to serve his witt. 
 
 Obiit anno Domini 1676, Mtatis 53, Die 23 Ap. 
 
 The Latin heading may be freely rendered ; — 
 
 A Nestor in Judgment, a Socrates in Intellect, a Virgil in Art; — 
 The earth covers, the people mourn, and heaven holds. 
 
 The oft-quoted lines, which were a stock inscription with some of the 
 undertakers of the end of the sixteenth century, are on the stone that covers 
 the grave. 
 
 158 
 
(Boo5 t'ren& tov Jcsvs saftc forbeare, 
 to ^il^^^ tbc Civsst cncloascO bcare: 
 aeicstc be vc man vt spares tbes stones, 
 anO cvist be be gt moves ms bones. 
 
 The tomb of John Combe was made by the same sculptor as the 
 Shakespeare monument. 
 
 J oh 
 
 1 Combe, 161+ 
 
 
 _ 
 
 
 L 
 
 
 ]. Kendall, 
 
 1751- 
 
 . 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 '•SEvo 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Altar. 
 
 
 
 
 
 —•u 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ^5, 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 H-^ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 a 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Anne 
 Shake 
 
 William 
 - ! Shake- 
 
 Thomas 
 Nashe, 
 
 John 
 Hall, 
 
 Susanna 
 Hall, 
 
 Watts; 
 
 Anne 
 Watts, 
 
 1623. 
 
 j 1616. 
 
 16+7. 
 
 1635. 
 
 1649. 
 
 1691. 
 
 1704. 
 
 If the south chancel door (5) is open, it is worth while to step into the 
 churchj'ard for the glimpse of the poet's monument framed bj- the worn old 
 stonework. The new American window (11) is in the south transept. 
 Pending the receipt of funds it is incomplete, but the part already in position 
 was formally unveiled on April 23rd, i8q6, by Mr. Bayard, the American 
 ambassador. Near it is one of the most interesting inscriptions in the 
 church (12), on the tomb of Richard Hill, a contemporary of Shakespeare. 
 The upper part of the inscription is gone, but the following may be fairly well 
 traced : — 
 
 •ffjic nvtritvs evat, natvs, nvnc bic jacet billvs, 
 bicqve magistvatvs fama tei- mvneic fvnctvs ; 
 cvmqve bonos annos vijisset septvaginta, 
 aD tcvram eovpvs, sc& mens niigravit ati astva. 
 
 beare borne, beare liveO, beare &ie5, an& b\n■ie^ beare, 
 lietb ricbarOe bil, tbrise bailil of tbis borrow ; 
 too matrones of gooC> fame, be marrie5 in cioC>es feare, 
 anS now releaste in joi, be reasts from worlOLie sorrow. 
 
 159 
 
beave lietb intombcti tbc corpe of vicbavije bill, 
 
 a woolen &raper becinci in bis time, 
 
 vvboBC virtves live, vvbose fame ^ootb flori6b etil, 
 
 tbovgb bee besolveS be to 5v6t and alime. 
 
 a mirror be, anCi paterne mai be made, 
 
 for svcb ae sball 6VckceaCi bini in tbat trabe ; 
 
 be bib not vse to svvearc, to gloase, eitber faigne, 
 
 bis brotbcr to befravbe in barganinge; 
 
 bee vvoolb not strive to get excessive gaine 
 
 in ani cloatbe or otber kinbe of tbinge : 
 
 bis servant, S. 5. tbis trvetb can testifie 
 
 a witnes tbat bebelb it witb mi eie. 
 
 Numerous other objects of interest are to be seen in this ancient sanctuary, 
 but we must leave them to be pointed out by the custodian, and take the reader, 
 for a moment, to the Memorial Library, Theatre and Museum. 
 
 As long ago as the Jubilee in the last century, Garrick dreamed of Stratford 
 as a centre of study, a school of acting and elocution. A dream the idea re- 
 mained until the late Mr. Charles E. Flower, a generous benefactor to Stratford- 
 on-Avon, tried to secure its realisation. He was not supported as he had hoped 
 by the general public, but in spite of all difficulties and by dint of contributions 
 from his own purse to the extent of some thirty thousand pounds, in addition 
 to the gift of the site, the theatre was at length completed, and was opened 
 on April 23rd, 1879, and the library and picture gallery on April i8th, 1881. 
 
 Unfortunately, the apathy of Shakespeare lovers was such that only by 
 the desperate expedient of spending every penny of the endowment fund 
 could the building be completed, and the support is still far from what it 
 ought to be. In fact, if it were not for the extreme generosity of Mrs. 
 Charles E. Flower, and others of the same family, the work would be very 
 seriously crippled. As it is, the want of money is felt at every turn, and the 
 amount of good work accomplished in spite of all difficulties is really 
 wonderful. We have already mentioned the attention given to the revival of 
 plays, and the committee has published a complete edition of the plays as 
 produced at the Memorial Theatre, in cheap and convenient form for schools. 
 To a very great extent (probably no one save Mr. A. H. Wall, the late 
 librarian, is aware how great) the library has served its purpose as a mine of 
 information for the Shakespeare student. Although the necessity of catering 
 for tourists and sight-seers has prevented the council providing such 
 accommodation as they wish for students, the library has been considerably 
 used, and the correspondence with enquirers in all parts of the world is very 
 heavy. 
 
 The library contains some seven thousand volumes, including the plays 
 in a great number of editions and languages, books on Shakespeare and his 
 works, plays of sixteenth century authors, books on contemporary history, 
 
 160 
 
costume, etc., and biographies of Shakespearean actors. The Hbrarian and 
 his assistants also carefully collect and file all cuttings of Shakespearean 
 interest from newspapers, magazines, etc., and these ephemerse, carefully 
 collated and indexed, will eventually prove of untold value to students. 
 
 Probably for many years to come the Library will have to rely for its 
 increase mainly upon gifts, which can be made to a special Library fund. Or, 
 
 if a Shakespeare lover wishes 
 to contribute a volume or set 
 of volumes, the librarian will 
 gladly inform him of such as 
 are still wanted ; and as there 
 are blanks at almost all prices, 
 a gift of almost any sum can be 
 represented by a definite book 
 or books. Although the library 
 has hundreds of editions of 
 Shakespeare's works, there are 
 still many scores of American 
 editions (to mention one field 
 only) that are listed as wanted. 
 Many relics of well-known 
 Shakespearean actors, collec- 
 tions of "Shakespeare's 
 flowers," etc., are treasured and 
 exposed to public view. The 
 art gallery above has been en- 
 riched by many generous gifts, 
 and has a very fine collection 
 of pictures. The most interest- 
 ing are those hung together as 
 a gallery of portraits of the 
 poet, including the painting we 
 have described and reproduced 
 as the original of the Droeshout 
 engraving. Here, too, is the 
 Davenant bust. 
 
 The Memorial Theatre, excellent in every way for its purpose, is far too 
 often dark and silent, and much united work must be given by Shakespeare 
 lovers m many lands, before Stratford and its Memorial are the centres of 
 light and activity, which it is desired that they should be. 
 
 The tower of the Memorial gives a magnificent view of the country round, 
 and is very well worth the chmb. 
 
 (Glimpse through South Chancel Do. 
 
 162 
 
The work of the Memorial is conducted by Mr. Charles Lowndes, the 
 secretary, and Mr. W. Salt Brassington, librarian, with Mr. Rainbow as 
 custodian, and his daughter as assistant librarian. Every one of these people has 
 a full belief in the importance of the task entrusted to them by their committee. 
 
 The generous donation of a bronze statue of Shakespeare, by Lord Ronald 
 Gower, has already been mentioned. The statue is Lord Gower's own work, 
 as are the four figures 
 round the base, and 
 is thus a specially 
 graceful as well as 
 a valuable tribute to 
 the poet's memory. 
 
 That the memory 
 of Shakespeare's 
 daughter Judith may 
 be ever green, atablet 
 is affixed to the shop 
 that was formerly 
 her home for so 
 many years, and Mr. 
 Edward Fox, who 
 occupies the build- 
 ing, is very pleased to 
 show the capacious 
 cellars which were 
 turned to business 
 account by Quiney, 
 the vintner, after 
 they had served their 
 purpose as the town's 
 dungeons. Mr. Fox 
 has recently stripped 
 one of the walls, re- 
 vealing the ancient 
 timber in a way that stairw^ ■ n \ 
 
 throws interesting 
 
 and unexpected light upon the early arrangements of the house, and he 
 has secured from the sale of the Harts' relics, what is believed to be an 
 authentic and contemporary portrait of Judith Shakespeare. 
 
 The Arden house, too, at Wilmcote, is open to the public for a very small 
 fee, and many visitors will feel grateful to Mr. Samuel Lane, the farmer, who 
 reserves the house to their use and guards it from decav. 
 
 163 
 
Of the Jubilee Fountain in the Rother Market we wrote briefly in an 
 earlier chapter. As a tribute to the great man's memory from an American 
 admirer it is especially appreciated. The design is British, and, curiously 
 enough, the free-stone came from a Yorkshire quarry within a few yards of 
 the Spink Well where it is said that the last wild boar in England was slain. 
 
 Of the less material memorials and tributes to the memory of Shakespeare 
 we can say but little, yet the work of the many earnest men who are ever 
 searching for the least glimpses of side-light upon the poet's life and times 
 must not be ignored. There are, of course, those officially connected with 
 
 PICTURE GALLERY, MEMORIAL 
 
 this work — Mr. Richard Savage, Mr. Salt Brassington, Mr. A. H. Wall, and 
 others, but there is also a little army of devoted workers, both in the district, 
 and in other countries, even to the ends of the earth. Of important contribu- 
 tions recently made, we may speciall}' mention the publication of the 
 "Register of the Guild of Knowle," by the Archseological section of the 
 Birmingham and Midland Institute; "Records of Rowington," by Mr. J. 
 W. Ryland ; "Baddesley Clinton" (now in the press), by the Rev. Henry 
 Norris ; and the valuable work of Mrs. Stopes. 
 
 There is a common, but mistaken, idea that all that can be known of the 
 life and times of Shakespeare has already been collected and published. On 
 
 164 
 
the contrary, there is still an immense amount of good work to be done 
 especially with regard to the life of the poet away from Stratford; and anyone 
 with a sufficient interest in the subject, and a knowledge of the English 
 language, may yet dig stones to Iav upon the cairn erected to our |reat 
 man's memory. 
 
 JUDITH SHAKESPEARE. 
 
 (From a Painting oimcii by Mr. Edward Fox.) 
 
 165 
 
APPENDIX A. 
 
 Information for Visitors. 
 
 HUNDRED thousand tourists, every year, pass through Shakespeare's 
 
 to\\'n. How many of these ever feel the spirit of the place, how 
 
 many reahse that in the habits and prejudices, the language and 
 
 customs of the people, we have strong and interesting survivals of 
 
 the very surroundings of Shakespeare's life? How many think, or 
 
 care to think, that in this secluded corner of the country there is a 
 
 ^ survival of the sturdy yeoman class from which the poet sprang? 
 
 ^ ^—^^Jf *^ And how many know that Jack-in-a-Green may still be seen; that the 
 
 '^V4k '\/f^^ May-pole dance has never been misssd for a year since the stern repression 
 
 ^j^vjign of the Puritan days, and that many another quaint old custom is still kept up 
 
 '^ ^*^ amongst the Warwickshire village folk ? 
 
 If people come thousands of miles to see the bricks and mortar of our 
 British history and literature, how much more should they linger to lovingly 
 study the ways of thought and speech, the very intellectual and moral atmos- 
 phere which made possible the history and the writings. It is in the hope that 
 we may induce some to stay long enough in Warwickshire to really catch the 
 spirit of its village life that we have collected the rambling notes in this chapter. 
 Perhaps some of the suggestions may seem incongruous, and especially the 
 suggestion of the local weekly newspaper, as a help to an appreciation of the 
 old-time spirit. Yet the Stratfurd-iipon-Avon Herald is every week recording — 
 not as matters of curiosity, but as ordinary news — many local happenings that take us back 
 to the olden times. And the Herald, too, has frequent contributions on Shakesperean 
 subjects that are well worth reading and filing. 
 
 The Shakespearean, a sixpenny monthly magazine, and the only British magazine devoted 
 to Shakespearean matters, will be found still richer in Shakespeare lore, and prove most 
 valuable to the serious student. 
 
 Tlie Sports and Pastimes of the Warwickshire folk are partly modern, but even a good game 
 of cricket is useful from the Shakespearean point of view if it detains the traveller for an extra 
 half-day amid Warwickshire scenery. 
 
 Cricket. Played every fine summer evening, by numberless clubs, etc. The Stratford-on- 
 Avon Athletic and Cricket Club (Hon. Sec, Mr. T. R. EUerker, Shottery) has an exceedingly 
 fine ground with good pavilion, etc. Fixed matches are played every Saturday, from the 
 middle of May to the middle of September, and on certain other days. Other sports are also 
 encouraged by this club. Visitors may become members. Subscription, ys. 6d. 
 
 Boating. The Stratford-upon-Avon Boat Club. Hon. Sec, Mr. John Smith. A competitive 
 and pleasure-rowing club. Has its own field and boats. Holds sports monthly during the 
 summer, on Thursdays that do not clash with the Athletic Club's sports. Visitors may become 
 members — fee; los. per month. 
 
 Swimming. There is a good public bathing place. 
 
 Football and Athletics are actively supported by the Cricket Club, so that sport of some 
 kind may be seen in its ground every week of the year. 
 
 Steeplechases. Held annually about the end of April or beginning of May. Hon. Sec, 
 W. Hutchings, 26 High Street. 
 
 Lawn Tennis. A good private club, which admits visitors on introduction by members. 
 Golf. A good club that admits visitors. Excellent links within easy access of the town. 
 
 166 
 
Bim'ls. The green in Guild-street, is owned by Mr. Colbourne, of the Red Horse Hotel, and 
 used by an informal club that includes many of the principal tradespeople. Visitors welcome. 
 
 Quoits. Industriously played in many of the villages, where pitches may be seen on the 
 green or in a convenient field on any fine summer evening. Matches are played between the 
 teams of neighboring villages. 
 
 Tlif To7i<ii Baud. Hon. Sec, W. Trinder, junr. Plays in the Bancroft gardens and else- 
 where during the summer. 
 
 Tlw Volunteers have their annual week under canvas at Whitsuntide. 
 
 Fricudly Societies. The leading friendly societies — the Freemasons, Foresters, Oddfellows, 
 and Buffaloes — are well supported, but the whole district is also full of small friendly and 
 provident societies, somewhat on the lines of the old Guilds. In the ceremonial of the Buffaloes, 
 many of the old Guild customs remain. Of course, the meetings of these societies are only 
 open to such visitors as are members of their fraternity. 
 
 Foxlionnds. The Warwickshire Hunt meets all round the district during the winter. 
 
 Otter Hounds occasionally make a drag on the Avon, and by those with sturdy limbs and 
 lungs, no better sport need be asked. 
 
 Angling. The Cliffe Angling Association preserves some good water. Particulars from 
 the Hon. Sec. 
 
 May Day is fully celebrated at Welford round the May-pole on the green, and there are May- 
 poles at Offenham and King's Norton. In Stratford, the children decorate themselves and try 
 to collect coppers, but Jack-in-aGreen, kept up until within the last few yeav.j, is no longer seen. 
 
 Tin- Mop, or hiring fair, for general business and pleasure, but primarily for the hiring of 
 farm servants, is held on October 12th. An ox is roasted whole, and the flesh sold in small 
 portions, and there are many other characteristic scenes. The Runaway Mop, for servants 
 dissatisfied at the first hiring, is held a fortnight later. 
 
 T/ic Wakes are still held at many of the villages. Those at Shottery and Clifford Chambers 
 are well attended by Stratfordians and other outsiders. Shottery Wake is on the Sunday and 
 Monday between the loth and 17th of July, while that at Clifford Chambers is on the Sunday 
 and Monday between the igth and 26th of June. Wilmcote Wake is early in July, and lasts 
 for a week. The principal sport at Wilmcote is " bowling for a leg of mutton." 
 
 Gunpowder Plot. November 5th is celebrated by a club which is said to have been founded 
 on the first anniversary of the plot. It meets at the Falcon for supper (formerly a tripe supper), 
 followed by speeches and loyal toasts. The small boys make bonfires and burn Guj' Fawkes 
 in effigy, and some of the villages have great fires and noisy celebration. 
 
 Beating the Boundaries is still occasionally practised in some neighboring parishes. It was 
 recently done at Clifford Chambers. 
 
 Morris Dancing is still kept up by the men of Marston, who have handed it down, father 
 teaching son, for generations. Each dancer has his hereditary part, and the elaborate costumes, 
 intricate manoeuvers, and curious music are the same as in old days. Until recently they 
 visited Stratford regularly and were freely encouraged. Of late j'ears they have been rather 
 frowned down upon, and their performances in the town are irregular and less public than they 
 used to be. 
 
 The Mummers visit Stratford every Christmas from Snitterfield and Bidford. They dance, 
 sing, and "repeat certain lines which have been handed down for many generations" — 
 probably part of the old mumming play " The Peace Egg." 
 
 Clubs. The Liberal and Conservative Clubs have the usual social advantages. Open to 
 \-isitors on introduction by a member. The Union Club, in Chapel-lane, is purely social, and 
 its members have the right to introduce friends for one week. 
 
 The Shakespeare Club meets somewhat irregularly at its headquarters, the Red Horse Hotel. 
 Hon. Sec, Mr. Richard Savage. 
 
 167 
 
T]ic Carriers^ carts and wagons, recalling the traffic of the old times, and most of them 
 prepared to carry passengers lumberingly along the roads to their villages, visit Stratford every 
 week. Many of them come twice or thrice in the week, and several daily; from about seventy 
 different towns and villages. 
 
 Finally, Stratford is fortunate in having true artists amongst it painters and photographers. 
 Several painters have very fully caught the inspiration of the district, and especially is this the 
 case with Mr. J. Laurence Hart, whose studio in Scholar's-lane (only a few yards from the 
 Guild Chapel) is always freely open. It is a pleasant place to spend half-an-hour, even if not 
 immediately intent on purchases. The photographers, too, have superior local work. Mr. 
 Douglas IVIcNeille's snow subjects, his stereoscopic views and his lantern-slides are specially 
 admired, and Mr. Tyler has a very fine and extensive series of local subjects. 
 Places of Worship, with Times of Sunday Services. 
 Holy Trinity Church . _ . . . 8 a.m. ix a.m. 3 
 
 Guild Chapel 
 
 St. James's Church, Guild-street 
 
 St. Gregory's (R.C.) Church, Warwick-road 
 
 Congregational, Rother-street 
 
 Wesleyan, Birmingham-road 
 
 Primitive Methodist, Great William-street 
 
 Baptist, Peyton-street - 
 
 Salvation Army, Rother-street 
 
 The Brethren, Guild-street and Scholar's-lane 
 
 8 a.m. II 
 
 10.30 
 10.45 
 II 
 
 10.30 
 10.45 
 3 
 10.30 
 
 p.m. 
 
 &.30 
 5.30 
 5.30 
 5.30 
 5.30 
 5.30 
 5.30 
 
 THE DINING HALL, CLOFTON HOUSE. 
 168 
 
APPENDIX B. —Shakespeare's Will. 
 
 I 
 
 X? iJfjHE words that are underlined appeared in the original draft, but were 
 -» f»~ scored out before the will was signed. Those in italics were 
 qJ \q not included m the original draft, but were added at the time of 
 I signing. 
 
 Vicesimo quinto die Januarii Martii, anno regni domini nostri Jacobi, nunc regis Anglie, 
 &c. decimo quarto, et Scotie xlix° annoque Domini 1616. 
 
 T. Wmi. Shackspeare. — In the name of God, amen ! I William Shackspeare, of Stratford- 
 upon-Avon in the countie of Warr. gent., in perfect health and memorie, God be praysed, doe 
 make and ordayne this my last will and testament in manner and forme followeing, that ys to 
 saye. First, I comend my soule into the handes of God my Creator, hoping and assuredlie 
 beleeving, through thonelie merittes of Jesus Christe, mj' Saviour, to be made partaker of 
 lyfe everlastinge, and my bodye to the earth whereof yt ys made. Item, I gyve and bequeath 
 unto my Sonne in L daughter Judyth one hundred and fyftie poundes of lawfull English 
 money, to be paied unto her in manner and forme followeing, that ys to saye, one hundred 
 poundes in discharge of her marriage porcion within one yeare after my deceas, with 
 consideracion after the rate of twoe shillinges in the pound for soe long tyme as the same shal 
 be unpaid unto her after my deceas, and the fyftie poundes residewe thereof upon her 
 surrendring of^ or gyving of such sufficient securitie as the overseers of this my will shall like 
 of to surrender or graunte, all her estate and right that shall discend or come unto her after 
 my deceas, or thai shcc nowe hath, of, in or to, one copiehold tenemente with thappurtenaunces 
 lyeing and being in Stratford-upon-Avon aforesaied in the saied countie of Warr., being 
 parcel! or holden of the mannour of Rowington, unto my daughter Susanna Hall and her 
 heires for ever. Item, I gyve and bequeath unto my saied daughter Judith one hundred and 
 fyftie poundes more, if shee or anie issue of her bodie be lyvinge att thend of three yeares 
 next ensueing the daie of the date of this my will, during which tyme my executours to paie 
 her consideracion from my deceas according to the rate aforesaied ; and if she dye within the 
 saied terme without issue of her bodye, then my will ys, and I doe gyve and bequeath one 
 hundred poundes thereof to my neece Elizabeth Hall, and the fiftie poundes to be sett fourth 
 by my executours during the lief of my sister Johane Harte, and the use and proffitt thereof 
 cominge shal be payed to my saied sister Jone, and after her deceas the saied 1.'' shall remaine 
 amongst the children of my saied sister equallie to be devided amongst them ; but if my saied 
 daughter Judith be lyving att thend of the saied three yeares, or anie yssue of her bodye, then 
 my will ys and soe I devise and bequeath the saied hundred and fyftie poundes to be sett out by 
 my executours and overseers for the best benefitt of her and her issue, and the stock not to be 
 paied unto her soe long as she shalbe marryed and covert baron by my executours and 
 overseers ; but my will ys that she shall have the consideracion yearelie paied unto her during 
 her lief, and, after her deceas, the saied stock and consideracion to bee paied to her children, 
 if she have anie, and if not, to her executours or assignes, she lyving the saied terme after my 
 deceas, Provided that if such husbond as she shall att thend of the saied three yeares be 
 marryed unto, or att anie after, doe suflicientle assure unto her and thissue of her bodie 
 landes awnswereable to the porcion by this my will gyven unto her, and to be adjudged soe 
 by my executours and overseers, then my will ys that the saied cl.''- shalbe paied to such 
 husbond as shall make such assurance, to his owne use. Item, I gyve and bequeath unto my 
 saied sister Jone xx.''- and all my wearing apparrell, to be paied and delivered within one yeare 
 after my deceas ; and I doe will and devise unto her the house with thappurtenaunces in 
 Stratford, wherein she dwelleth, for her naturall lief, under the yearelie rent of xij.''- Item, I 
 gyve and bequeath unto her three sonns, William Harte, Hart, and Michaell Harte, 
 
 170 
 
fyve pouiides a peece, to be payed within one yeare after my deceas to be sett out for her 
 wit hin one y eare after my tieceas by my executours, with thadvise and direccions of^my 
 over seers, for her best proffitt until! her marriage, and then the same with the increase 
 thereof to be paied unto her. Item, I gyve and bequeath unto her tlic saicd Elisabftli Hall 
 all my plate except my hrod silver ami gilt bole, that I now have att the date of this my will. 
 Item, I gyve and bequeath unto the poore of Stratford aforesaied tenn poundes ; to Mr. 
 Thomas ComlDe my sword ; to Thomas Russell esquier fyve poundes, and to Frauncis Collins 
 of the borough of Warr. in the countie of Warr., gent., thirteene poundes, sixe shillinges, 
 and eight pence, to be paied within one yeare after my deceas. Item, I gyve and bequeath to 
 Mr. Richard Tyler thelder Hamlctt Sadler xxvj.^- viij.''- to buy him a ringe ; to William. 
 Raynoliles, gent., x.vvj.-'- viij.''- to bay him a ring; to my god-son Wilham Walker xx."- in 
 gold; to Anthonye Nashe gent, xxvj.^- viij.''-, and to Mr. John Nashe xxvj.«- z)(j;'.''- in gold ; 
 and to my fellowes, jfolin Hcniyiiges, Richard Bnrbage, and Henry Cnndell, xxvjj- viij.''- a 
 pcccc to buy them riiiges. Item, I gyve, will, bequeath and devise, unto my daughter Susanna 
 Hall,/o/- better enabling of Iter to performc this my ivill, and towardes the performans thereof, 
 all that capitall messuage or tenemente, with thappurtenaunces, in Stratford aforesaied, called 
 the Newe Place, wherein I nowe dwell, and twoe messuages or tenementes with thappur- 
 tenaunces, scituat lyeing and being in Henley streete within the borough of Stratford 
 aforesaied ; and all my barnes. stables, orchardes, gardens, landes, tenementes and heredita- 
 mentes whatsoever, scituat, lieing and being, or to be had, receyved, perceyved, or taken, within 
 the townes, hamlettes, villages, fieldes and groundes of Stratford-upon-Avon, Oldstratford, 
 Bushopton, and Welcombe, or in anie of them in the saied countie of Warr. And alsoe all 
 that messuage or tenemente with thappurtenaunces wherein one John Robinson dwelleth, 
 scituat lyeing and being in the Blackfriers in London nere thfe Wardrobe ; and all other my 
 landes, tenementes, and hereditamentes whatsoever. To have and to hold all and singuler 
 the saied premisses with their appurtenaunces unto the saied Susanna Hall for and during the 
 terme of her naturall lief, and after her deceas, to the first Sonne of her bodie lawfullie 
 yssueing, and to the heires males of the bodie of the saied first Sonne lawfullie yssueinge, 
 and for defalt of such issue, to the second sonne of her bodie lawfullie issueinge, and of to the 
 heires males of the bodie of the saied second sonne lawfullie yssueinge, and for defalt of such 
 heires, to the third sonne of the bodie of the saied Susanna lawfullie yssueing, and of the 
 heires males of the bodie of the saied third sonne lawfullie yssueing, and for defalt of such 
 issue, the same soe to be and remaine to the fourth sonne, fyfth, sixte, and seaventh sonnes 
 of her bodie lawfullie issueing one after another, and to the heires males of the bodies of the 
 saied fourth, fifth, sixte, and seaventh sonnes lawfullie yssueing, in such manner as yt ys before 
 lymitted to be and remaine to the first, second and third sonns of her bodie, and to their 
 heires males, and for defalt of such issue, the saied preniisses to be and remaine to my sayed 
 neece Hall, and the heires males of her bodie lawfullie yssueing, and for defalt of such issue, 
 to my daughter Judith, and the heires males of her bodie lawfullie issueinge, and for defalt of 
 such issue, to the right heires of me the saied William Shackspeare for ever. Item, 1 gyve 
 unto my wiefe viv second best bed loith the fnruitnre. Item, I gyve and bequeath to my saied 
 daughter Judith my broad silver gilt bole. All the rest of my goodes, chattels, leases, plate, 
 jewels, and household stuffe whatsoever, after my dettes and legasies paied, and my funerall 
 expences discharged, I gyve, devise, and bequeath to my sonne-in-lawe, John Hall, gent., and 
 my daughter Susanna, his wief, whom I ordaine and make executours of this my last will and 
 testament. And I doe intreat and appoint the saied Thomas Russell esquier, and Frauncis 
 Collins, gent., to be overseers hereof, and doe revoke all former \vills, and publishe this to be 
 my last will and testament. In witn^es whereof I have hereunto put my seale liand the daie 
 and yeare first above written. -^By me William Shakspeare. 
 
 Witnes to the publishing hereof, — Fra : CoUyns ; Julius Shawe ; John Robinson ; Hamnet 
 Sadler; Robert VVhattcott. 
 
 171 
 
APPENDIX C. 
 
 New Light on Shakespeare's Lineage. 
 
 ^HiLE our own book is in the printers' hands, a most interesting and 
 probably important volume has been published, from the pen of 
 John Pym Yeatman, Barrister-at-law, &C.- Though the time 
 before our last pages close for the press is too short to allow us to 
 thoroughly consider Mr. Yeatman's arguments, we feel that to pass 
 his work without notice would be a decided mistake. 
 
 The book has been hastily and somewhat slovenly compiled ; much of 
 the argument is far from being clear and connected ; a strong partisan feehng 
 that prevents clear judicial reasoning pervades the whole book, and the proof- 
 reading has been very careless. These serious detail blemishes seem to have 
 led most of the critics to overlook and ignore the enormously important con- 
 tribution which Mr. Yeatman has made to the history of Shakespeare — 
 provided his statements stand verification, and we cannot doubt they will 
 do so. 
 
 We briefly sum up the main contentions of the book, not necessarily in 
 the order of their importance in the eyes of Mr. Yeatman. 
 
 I- — That John Shakespeare, William Shakespeare, Dr. John Hall, and 
 most of their relatives were strongly Roman Catholic. 
 
 2. — That the fact of Catholics being legally debarred from bringing 
 any case in the courts (they were practically outlaws) explains many 
 otherwise obscure points. That the cases in which the Shakespeares 
 did appear were either — (a) in the local courts, where the officials, etc., 
 were secretly Catholic, or (b) a case in which some of the plaintiffs were 
 Protestants. This is also held to explain why Shakespeare's works were 
 never published by himself. As he had no legal rights, any work he 
 published could have been pirated with impunity; whereas, if it were confined 
 to stage performances, the pirates would need to make a shorthand report, 
 a difficult . matter with their crude reporting methods, especially as the 
 proprietors of the theatre were interested in preventing it. 
 
 3- — That John Shakespeare was not a tradesman of any kind, but a 
 gentleman of family and position, reduced in circumstances by confiscations 
 on the ground of his faith, but still amply independent. That the fining 
 for havmg a muck-hill, etc., occurred to John Shakespeare the shoemaker, 
 or some other John Shakespeare, and that the first Joan (born August 15th, 
 1558) "was not the poet's sister, but probably the shoemaker's daughter, etc. 
 
 * "The Gentle Shakspere: A vindication. London: The Koxburghe Press, 3 Victoria Street, Westminster. 
 
 172 
 
4. — That the poet did ^o deer-steahny, and was rather wild; and that 
 Anne Hathaway was an ill-bred, uneducated woman, whom he married as 
 the only atonement he could make for the results of an illicit connection, 
 and who was rather a drag and encumbrance on him through life. It is 
 suggested that his sowing of wild oats was caused by despair and despera- 
 tion on being refused by a maid (possibly the daughter of Sir Thomas Lucy) 
 with whom he was deeply in love. 
 
 5. — That Shakespeare's will is a proof of his loss of self-control and 
 partially of memory; "that it is a terrible will; it is the act of a man 
 in a passion, who knew not what he did. It has cruelty and vindictiveness 
 stamped upon it. Generosity and forgiveness are wholly wanting." 
 Mr. Yeatman suggests that this will was made especially to disgrace, humiliate, 
 and financially ruin the poet's daughter Judith, as a punishment for her 
 misconduct with Thomas Quiney; points out that Judith only repeated 
 her mother's act, and suggests that she was aided and abetted by her mother. 
 
 Points 3, 4 and 5 seem to be quite unsupported by any new evidence ; and 
 the two latter points appeal to us as unnecessary, unjustifiable, and ungenerous 
 attacks upon the memory of a man whom Mr. Yeatman professes to admire 
 and respect. It is a pity Mr. Yeatman did not confine himself to the new and 
 important matter which he appears to have unearthed and collected; and from 
 which the public attention is likely to be diverted by the matter above 
 summarised. 
 
 The discovery which Mr. Yeatman claims to have made consists of a link 
 connecting the poet's family with the Griffiths, Griffins, or Gryffyns, descended 
 from the old Welsh kings. This connection makes the poet a relative of 
 Francis Bacon, a cousin of Sir Thomas Luc)', a relative of Lord Burleigh, 
 and a cousin of Elizabeth Vernon, who became the wife of the Earl of 
 Southampton. Incidentally, Mr. Yeatman shews that Richard Shakespeare, 
 the poet's grandfather, was Bailiff of the Priory of Wro.xall ; and it is through 
 the discovery of this good man's marriage with Alys Gryffyn that all the other 
 matter has come to light. It also connects the poet with the Prioresses of 
 Wro.xall, who, like the Bailiff, were thrown on the mercy of the world, on the 
 confiscation of the property of the Priory. 
 
 The connection with the Griffin family, through the poet's grandmother, 
 gives an ancestry including numberless men of high standing, and the 
 importance of such a discovery can hardly be over-estmiated. A great collec- 
 tion of wills and other documents throwing light on the histories of these 
 people is published by Mr. Yeatman. 
 
 Of course, before accepting his conclusions as final, it will be necessary to 
 examine, with the greatest possible care, the evidence brought forward, a task 
 that is made difficult h\ the mass of matter irrelevant to the main point by 
 which it is accompanied. 
 
 173 
 
INDEX. 
 
 Addenbrooke, John, 132. 
 
 Alcester, 130. 
 
 Alms-houses, The, 16. 
 
 Alveston, 21. 
 
 American Fountain, 10, 11, 164. 
 
 American Window, 137, 15S, 159. 
 
 Arbuthnot, Rev. George, 156. 
 
 Arden, Agnes, 94. 
 
 Arden, Edward, 114. 
 
 Arden Family, The, 49, 50, 55. 
 
 Arden, Mary, 50, 60, 62, 132. 
 
 Arden, Robert, 50, 5o, 62, loi. 
 
 Arden, The Forest of, 29, 55. 
 
 Arden's House, Mary, 49, 59, 133, 163. 
 
 Armoury, The, 82. 
 
 Arms ot Clopton, 137. 
 
 Arms of Shakespeare, 49, 50, 55, I2r. 
 
 Arms of &tratford-on-Avon, 9, 65. 
 
 Arms of Warwick, 93. 
 
 Asbies, 62, gi, 94, 118. 
 
 Aston Cantlow, 6r, 62, 63, 94. 
 
 " As you like it,' 29, 55. 
 
 Aubrey, John, 48, 84, 96. 
 
 Avonbank, 20. 
 
 Baconian heresy. The, iig, 133. 
 
 Baddesley Clinton, 164. 
 
 Baker, Mrs., 100, 154. 
 
 Bardon Hill, 106. 
 
 Barnard, Lady (born Hall), 140. 
 
 Barnard, Sir John, 104, 140. 
 
 Barton-on-the Heath, 94, 134. 
 
 Bashall, Thomas, 157. 
 
 Bathing Place, The, 20, 79. 
 
 Becker, Ludwig, 150. 
 
 Benson, J. W., 152. 
 
 Betterton, Thos., 48, r45. 
 
 Billesley Church, 89, 102, 104. 
 
 Billesley Hall, 28, 34, 104, 117, riS. 
 
 Birth Entry, 63. 
 
 Birth-house Museum, 82, 84, 92, 140, 153. 
 
 Birth-house, The, 12, 24, 53, 65, 66, 67, 68, 
 
 69. 75. Qii 92, III, 118, 141. 
 Birth Place Trust, r2, 65, r53. 
 Birth Week Celebrations, 152. 
 Blackfriars Theatre, 134. 
 Boundary Elm, The, 25. 
 Brassington, W. Salt, 163, 164. 
 Bridge Street, 12, 22, 24. 
 Brooke, Lord, 28. 
 Brothers' Door, The, 41, 84. 
 Burbage, Francis, 63. 
 Burbage, James, ir5. 
 Burbage, Richard, 116, 145. 
 Burbage's Company, 116, 117, 123, 127, 130, 
 
 132, 133- 
 Burial Entry, 136. 
 Burleigh, Lord, ri2, 118. 
 Cade's Rebellion, 114. 
 
 Cage, The Town, 12, 29, 136. 
 
 Catesby, Robert, r3o. 
 
 Catholic versus Protestant, 32, 76, 78, 92 
 
 102, III, 112, 113, 130. 
 Chandos Portrait, The, 136. 
 Cliapel Street, 14, 17. 
 
 Charlecote, 107, log, no, in, 113, 115, 120 
 Charter, The Town, 34. 
 Church (see Trinity Church). 
 Church Street, 16. 
 Clayton, John, 123. 
 Clifford Chambers, 70, 71. 
 Clopton Bridge, The, 20, 21. 
 Clopton Chapel, The, 43, 157. 
 Clopton House, 34, 37, 44, nS, 130, 134. 
 Clopton, Sir Hugh, 21, 122, 155. 
 Collyns, Francis, 136. 
 Combe, John, 127, 133, 135, 159. 
 Combe, William, 127, 133, 136. 
 *' Comedy of Errors,"' 122. 
 Compton, Sir Wm., no. 
 Compton Wynyates, no. 
 Condell, Henry, 142. 
 Corn Exchange, 14. 
 Court, Thos., 141. 
 Curfew, The, 80. 
 Danger of travel, 28, 75. 
 Davenant Bust, Fronfispifci', 147, 148. 
 Davenant, Sir William, 48, 145, 147. 
 Deer stealing, 109. 
 Denmark, Shakespeare in, 117. 
 Desk, Shakespeare's, 84. 
 Dibdin, Charles, 24. 
 Digby, Sir Everard, 130. 
 Digges, Leonard, 142. 
 Droeshout Portrait, 141, 142, 146. 
 Dugdale, 50. 
 Duke's Theatre, 147. 
 Edge Hill, 25, 28. 
 Edward V., 44. 
 Edward VI., 32, 44. 
 Elizabeth, Queen, 32, 70, 78, 112, 127. 
 Elsinore, ir7. 
 Essex, Countess of, 116. 
 Essex, Earl of, 127, 130. 
 Execution of Edward Arden, 116. 
 Fairs, 37, 61. 
 
 Falcon Tavern, The, 16, 155. 
 Falstaff, 153. 
 Famine in Stratford, 122. 
 Field, Henry, 119. 
 Field, Richard, iig. 
 Fire at Stratford, 136. 
 First Folio, 142. 
 
 Flower, Mrs. Charles E., 146, iCo. 
 Flower, The late C. E., 20, 104, 160. 
 Fonts, 65, 93. 
 Frescoes, 31, 33, 45, So. 
 
 174 
 
FuUbroke Park, no. 
 
 FuUom, 104. 
 
 Game Preserving, 1 10. 
 
 Garrick, David, 14. 
 
 Gastrell, Rev. Francis, 156. 
 
 Getley, Walter, 56. 
 
 Globe Theatre, 123, 135. 
 
 Glovers and Fell-mongers, 20, 58, 96. 
 
 " Golden Lion," The, 24. 
 
 Gower Statue, The, 139, 150, 151, 153, 163. 
 
 Grafton, 130. 
 
 Grammar School, The, 16, 40, 71, 80, 81, 84, 
 
 87, 119, 155. 
 'Greein' Room, 82. 
 Greene, Thos., 116, 132. 
 Greet, Ben, 152. 
 Greville, Sir Edward, 127. 
 Guild Chapel, The, 16, 39, 40, 41, 74, 80, 81, 
 
 130. 155- 
 Guildhall, The, 76, 77, 80, 81, 85, 155. 
 Guild of St. Mary, 57. 
 Guild Street, 22. 
 Guild, The, 37. 
 
 Gunpowder Plot, The, 34, 37, 128. 
 Hall, Dr. John, 19, 132, 133, 138, 142. 
 Hall, Elizabeth, 14, 132, 138, 140. 
 Hall's Croft, r6. 
 Halliwell-Phillips, J. O., 49. 
 Hamlet, 116, ir7, 151. 
 Hancock, The Misses, 153. 
 Hand-fasting, loi. 
 Hart Family, 12, 137, 140, 157, 163. 
 Hart, Joan, 123, 138. 
 Hart, John, 141. 
 Hart, Michael, 138. 
 Hart, Thomas, 140. 
 Hart, William, 123, 138. 
 Harvard House, The, 13, 14. 
 Harvard. John, 14. 
 Hathaway, Anne, 24, 97, 154. 
 Hathaway, Richard, 74, 98. 
 Hathaway, Thos., 14. 
 Hathaway's Cottage, Anne, 24, 94, 95, 96, 
 
 97. 98. 99- 
 Hatton, Sir Hugh de, 29. 
 Heminge, John, 116, 142. 
 Henley Street, 12, 60, in. 
 " Henry IV.," 127. 
 " Henry VI.," 119. 
 Henry VII., 55. 
 Henry VIII., 32, 44. 
 High Street, 12, 14. 
 Hill, Agnes, 50. 
 Hill, Richard, 159. 
 Hornby, Mary, 141. 
 Hornby, Thomas, 140. 
 Hunt, Thomas, 86, 104. 
 Hunt, William Oakes, 146. 
 Hunt, Wm., 146. 
 Irving, Washington, 22, 26. 
 James I., 127. 
 Jenkins, Thos., 86. 
 Johnson, Gerard, 145, 151. 
 
 Jolyffe, Thomas, 80. 
 
 Jonson, Ben, 122, 142, 147. 
 
 Jubilee (Garrick's), The, i^, 151. 
 
 Justice Shallow, 109. 
 
 Knight, Charles, 47, 64. 
 
 Knowle, and its Guild, 56, 164. 
 
 Lambert, Edmund, 91, 94, 118. 
 
 Lane, John, 135. 
 
 Lane, Nicholas, 118. 
 
 Leicester, The Earl of, 114, 116, 117. 
 
 Lowndes, Charles, 163. 
 
 Loxley, 30. 
 
 " Lucrece," 121. 
 
 Lucy, Sir Thomas, 109, 113, 114, 118, 123. 
 
 Lucj', Tomb of Sir Thomas, 112. 
 
 Luddington, 19, 86, 93, loi, 104, 105. 
 
 Macbeth, Lady, 150. 
 
 Malone, 48, 57, 116, 145, 156. 
 
 Market Cross, 14. 
 
 Market Place, 12, 130. 
 
 Markets, 37. 
 
 Marriage Bond, 99. 
 
 Mary, Queen, 32. 
 
 Mary, Queen of Scots, 32, 78. 
 
 Mask, The Death, 142, 148, 150. 
 
 Massacres, 34, 78. 
 
 May Day, 105. 
 
 Memorial Fountain, 10, 11. 
 
 Memorial Library, ig, 20, 26. 
 
 Memorial Theatre, 162. 
 
 Mendicancy, 30. 
 
 Mercia, Kings of, 34. 
 
 " Merry Wives of Windsor," 86, 109. 
 
 Middle Row, 22, 23. 
 
 "Midsummer Night's Dream," 19, 118. 
 
 Mill, The, 19. 
 
 Minstrels, 41. 
 
 Mulberry Tree, Shakespeare's, 121, 156. 
 
 Muniment Room, 42, 82. 
 
 Nash, Anthony, 138. 
 
 Nash, Thomas, 14, 129, 13S, 140. 
 
 New Place, 14, 28, 56, 104, 121. 122, 12 
 
 129, 132. 
 New Place Museum, 138, 155, 157. 
 Norbrook, 130. 
 "Old Red Lion," The, 24. 
 " Old Thatch " Tavern, 10. 
 Old Town, 16. 
 Parliamentary War, 25. 
 Pedagogue's House, The, 84, 85. 
 Pedigree, Shakespeare's, 52. 
 Phillips, Augustine, 128. 
 Plague in London, 128. 
 Plague in Stratford, 70, 74. 
 Players in Stratford, 75, 116, 127. 
 Plots, 127, 128. 
 Pollard Willows, g. 
 Priests' Hiding-places, 28, 37. 
 Provisions, 41, 82. 
 Puritans, The, 78, 127. 
 Queen Henrietta Maria, 28, 138. 
 Quiney, Adrian, 88. 123. 
 Quiney, Judith, 138. 
 
 175 
 
Quiney, Richard, 86, 122, 130, 13S. 
 
 Quiney, Shakespeare, 138. 
 
 Quiney, Thomas, 12, 128, 136, 138, 163. 
 
 Quiney's Letter, 126, 154. 
 
 Railway FaciUties, 9. 
 
 " Red Horse" Hotel, The, 22, 24. 
 
 Relics, 8. 
 
 Revolts, 34, 127. 
 
 Richardson, John, gg. 
 
 Robin Hood, 30. 
 
 Robinson, John, 138. 
 
 Roche, Walter, 86. 
 
 Rogers, Katharine, 14. 
 
 Roman Catholic Marriage, loi. 
 
 Romeo and Juliet, 122. 
 
 Rookwood, Ambrose, 130. 
 
 Rother Market, 10. 
 
 Rowe, Nicholas, 48, g6, 122, 136. 
 
 Rowington, 29, 35, 51, 55, 56, 118, 127, 164. 
 
 Sadler, Hamnet and Judith, 118, 138. 
 
 Sandells, Fulke, gg. 
 
 Savage, Richard, 153, 164. 
 
 Scarlett, John, 30. 
 
 Schooldays, The Poet's, 85. 
 
 " Seven Ages of Man," The, 68, 158. 
 
 Shakespeare, Anna, 76. 
 
 Shakespeare, Anne (born Hathaway), 138. 
 
 Shakespeare Club, 153. 
 
 Shakespeare, Edmund, g4, 132. 
 
 Shakespeare, Gilbert, 51, 74. 
 
 Shakespeare Hall, 35, 51, 55, 118. 
 
 Shakespeare, Hamnet, 116, 118, 122. 
 
 Shakespeare, Henry, 57, 114, 118, 122. 
 
 " Shakespeare " Hotel, 14. 
 
 Shakespeare, Joan, 63, 64, 76, 122, 137. 
 
 Shakespeare, John, 20, 32, 46, 55, 57, 58, 60, 
 
 70, 74, 88, g3. III, 113, 118, 121, 122. 
 Shakespeare, Judith, 12, 25, 48, 116, 118, 
 
 136, 138, 163, 165. 
 Shakespeare, IVIargaret, 64. 
 Shakespeare, Mary (born Arden), 132. 
 Shakespeare, Richard, 51, 57, 88, 135. 
 Shakespeare, Susanna, 106, 132, 135, 138. 
 Shakespeare, Thomas, 55, 114. 
 Shakespeare's Tomb, 145, 158, 162. 
 Shaw, Julius, 14, 138. 
 Sheep-farming, 30. 
 Sheep Street, 14, 15. 
 Shottery, 97, 100, 106. 
 Shottery Manor House, 102, 103. 
 Signatures of Shakespeare, 3, 47. 
 Sly, Kit, 133- 
 
 Sly, Stephen, 134. 
 
 Snitterfield, 56, 57, 70, g4, 122, 130. 
 
 Sonnets published. 132. 
 
 Southampton, Lord, 116, iig, 127, 130. 
 
 St. Bartholomew, Massacre of, 78. 
 
 Stefansson, 117. 
 
 Stratford portrait. The, 146. 
 
 Sturley, Abraham, 123. 
 
 Surnames, 42. 
 
 " Swan's Nest" Hotel, The, 21. 
 
 "Taming of the Shrew," 133, 134. 
 
 Taylor, John, 145. 
 
 Temple Grafton, 100, 104. 
 
 Theatre, The Memorial, 162. 
 
 Tithes purchased, 128. 
 
 " Titus Andronicus," 121. 
 
 Town Hall, The, 14, 152. 
 
 Town Meadows, The, 20. 
 
 Trade depression, 118. 
 
 Tram Bridge, The, 20. 
 
 Tresham, Francis, 130. 
 
 Trinity Church, ig, 40, 43, 47, 64, 65, 125, 
 
 133. 134. 135. 137. 142. 145, 156, 158- 
 Trinity College School, 16. 
 Tumbledown stile. The, log. 
 Turchil de Eardene, 50. 
 " Unicorn " Hotel, The, 22. 
 "Venus and Adonis," iig. 
 Wall, A. H., 104, 151, 160, 164. 
 Walker, William, 132. 
 Walter, Major James, 49, g6, 102. 
 Ward, John, 145. 
 Ward, Rev. John, 48. 
 Wars in the North, 30, 34. 
 Warwick, Earls of, 47. 
 Warwick Road, 22. 
 Webbe, Robert, g4, 96. 
 Weir Brake, The, 19, 118. 
 Welcombe Hills, The, 25, 70. 
 Welford, 27, 46. 
 Well at New Place, 132. 
 West, Edward, 70. 
 Whateley, Anne, 100. 
 Whattcott, Robert, 138. 
 Wheler, R. B. ig, 51, 152, 154. 
 Whittington, Thomas, 99. 
 Will, Shakespeare's, 136. 
 Wilmcote, 60, 62, 70, 133, 134, 163. 
 Winter, Thomas, 130. 
 Winter, William, 24. 
 Worcester, Bishops of, 34, gg. 
 Wright, John, 130. 
 
 ERRATA. 
 
 Page 5g. — For Brake-house read Bake-house. 
 
 Page 76, line i. — For 1668-g read 1568-9. 
 
 Page 78. — Title of Illustration: "Willows, near Luddington.' 
 
 Page 84, line 10. — For Audrey read Aubrey. 
 
 Printed at the Cranford Press: Allen &■ Carruthers, Chismck, W. 
 

 PLAN OF 
 
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PLAN OF 
 
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