GIFT OF Felix: Flugel OUTLINES. f0 V $1 OUTLINES OF THE LIFE OF SHAKESPEARE. J. O. HALLIWELL-PHILLIPPS, F.R.S., F.S.A., Hon. M.R.S.L., Hon. M.R.I. A. THE THIRD EDITION. When to the sessions of sweet silent thought I summon up remembrance of things past, I sigh the lack of many a thing I sought. Tht Thirtieth Son tut. LONDON : LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO. M.DCCC.LXXXIII. H/9 o PREFACE. The remains of New Place, a sketch of which is engraved on the opposite page, are typical of the fragments of the personal history of Shakespeare which have hitherto been dis- covered. In this respect the great dramatist participates in the fate of most of his literary contemporaries, for if a collection of the known facts relating to all of them were tabularly arranged, it would be found that the number of the ascertained particulars of his life reached at least the average. At the present day, with biography carried to a wasteful and ridiculous excess, and Shakespeare the idol not merely of a nation but of the educated world, it is difficult to realize a period when no interest was taken in the events of the lives of authors, and when the great poet himself, notwithstanding the im- mense popularity of some of his works, was held in no general reverence. It must be borne vi PREFACE. in mind that actors then occupied an inferior position in society, and that even the vocation of a dramatic writer was considered scarcely respectable. The intelligent appreciation of genius by individuals was not sufficient to neutralize in these matters the effect of public opinion and the animosity of the religious world ; all circumstances thus uniting to banish general interest in the history of persons con- nected in any way with the stage. This biographical indifference continued for many years, and long before the season arrived for a real curiosity to be taken in the subject, the records from which alone a satisfactory memoir could have been constructed had disappeared. At the time of Shakespeare's decease, non- political correspondence was rarely preserved, elaborate diaries were not the fashion, and no one, excepting in semi-apocryphal collections of jests, thought it worth while to record many of the sayings and doings, or to delineate at any length the characters, of actors and dramatists, so that it is generally by the merest accident that particulars of interest respecting them have been recovered. In the absence of some very important and unexpected discovery, the general desire to penetrate the mystery which surrounds the PREFACE. Vll personal history of Shakespeare cannot be wholly gratified. Something, however, may be accomplished in that direction by a diligent and critical study of the materials now accessible, especially if determined care be taken to avoid the temptation of endeavouring to illustrate that history by his writings, or to decipher his character through their media. It is the more important to insist upon the latter conditions as necessary preliminaries, for so vivid is often the earnestness he throws into the spirit of a character that it would occasionally be all but impossible, unless a vigilant guard is entertained against such a fallacy, to doubt that what we read was not a purely intellectual emanation. " A man's poetry," however, observes the greatest of modern bards, " has no more to do with the every-day individual than inspiration with the Pythoness when removed from the tripod." Shakespeare's could have been no ex- ception, for it must surely be admitted that the exchange of the individuality of the man for that of the author is the very essence of dramatic genius, and, if that be so, the higher the genius the more complete will be the severance from the personality. The greatest of dramatists must necessarily be the least egotistical, one of his profoundest achievements being, by rapid Vlii PREFACE- permutations of thought and feeling, to identify himself for the moment with the inner conscious- ness of each person appearing on the scene. In the course of that mental process he is constantly embodying passions which are not only utterly at variance with his own disposition, but altogether foreign to his experiences. It is, therefore, clearly hazardous, and a mere effort of conjecture or fancy, to attempt to infer, from any delineated passion or humour, either the writer's own temperament or his emotions at or about the period of composition. The intelli- gence which so rapidly converted the dull pages of a novel or history into an imperishable drama was transmuted into other forces in actual life, as may be gathered even from the scanty records of the poet's biography that still remain. From those evidences may perhaps also be gathered some little of his mental apart from his out- ward nature, but it is not likely that more of the former will ever be disclosed. Before isolated sentiments in his dramas could, in the absence of direct evidence, be appropriated in that direction, it would have to be proved that, no matter how far their admission was sanctioned by the conventional licence of the ancient stage, they were unnaturally introduced into the mouths of the speakers. The like may be more emphati- PREFACE. IX cally asserted in reference to presumed con- secutive revelations, the acceptance of which is obviously incompatible with the general belief that he consistently preserved a fidelity to nature in all his creations. A similar objection would apply, though perhaps not so distinctly, to the various theories which, in one way or other, involve the assumption that the freedom of his invention was regulated in uniform measures by the tone of his own spiritual temperament. All such notions are inconsistent with the perfect unity and harmony of the dramatic art ; and, in the following pages, excepting where there are either indications of knowledge or allusions to contemporary events, no biographi- cal use will be made of any of the plays. Amongst the other, that is to say, the non- dramatic works of Shakespeare, there are only the Sonnets which can be supposed to be of assistance to the biographer. For reasons hereafter given the latter will be accepted as entirely impersonal. Excluding, therefore, all reliance upon fanciful theories of any kind respecting the great dramatist, it is proposed to construct, in plain and unobtrusive language, a sketch of his personal history strictly out of evidences and deductions from them. Subtle and gratuitous assumptions of unsupported X PREFACE. possibilities will be rigidly excluded, and no conjectures admitted that are not practically removed out of that category by being in them- selves reasonable inferences from concurrent facts. Guided by this system, it follows, as a matter of course, that precedence will be always given to early testimonies over the discretionary views of later theorists, no matter how plausible or how ably sustained those views may be. And it may be as well to add, the design being exclusively biographical, that no kind of evidence bearing date subsequently to the twenty-third day of April, 1616, will be admitted, unless there is either a certainty or a reasonable probability that it refers to, or is illustrative of, some event that happened, or of some position that existed, on or before that day, in connexion with the main objects of enquiry. The evidences accessible to the biographer form naturally two divisions, the contemporary and the traditional, the one differing widely from the other in perceptible and literal validity. The former, amongst which may be included all notices written by personal friends of the great dramatist, rarely include statements that are open to doubt or to a variety of interpretations. Far different is the case with the traditions, scarcely one of which can be accepted without PREFACE. XI patient investigation, and a few so apparently improbable that they are apt to be hastily rejected as unworthy of serious discussion. The latter is much too frequently the treatment extended to these hearsay records, but it is one highly favoured by numerous critics of the present day who, guided by some mysterious instinct, assume to have a more intimate know- ledge of Shakespeare's personal history than was vouchsafed to the ancient inhabitants of his own native town. In the hope of arresting this tendency towards the indiscriminate ex- pulsion of the traditional stories, and of showing that they are at least deserving of a careful examination, the following observations on a few of the most important are submitted to the judgment of the impartial reader. The earliest recorded traditions at present known are those imbedded in a closely written memoranda-book compiled in the year 1662 by the Rev. John Ward, M.A. of Oxford, and vicar of Stratford- on- Avon. Although this person had then settled only recently in the town, his induction to the living having occurred in the same year, there can be no reasonable doubt that he has accurately repeated the prevalent local gossip in the few entries respect- ing the great dramatist. The same observation xii PREFACE. cannot unfortunately be thought to hold good in respect to the next reporter, John Aubrey, who, about the same period, visited Stratford- on-Avon in one of his equestrian journeys. This industrious antiquary was the author of numerous little biographies, v/hich are here and there disfigured by such palpable or ascertained blunders, that it would appear that he must have been in the habit of compiling from imperfect notes of conversations, or, no doubt in many instances, from his own recollections of them. It would, therefore, be hazardous as a rule to depend upon his statements in the absence of corroborative evidence, but we may at the same time in a great measure rely upon the accuracy of main facts in those cases in which there is too much elaboration for his memory to have been entirely at fault. We need not, for instance, give credence to his assertion that Shakespeare's father was a butcher, in the literal sense of that term, but it is scarcely possible that he would have given the story about the calf if he had not been told that the poet himself had followed the occupation. In the same way, although it is obvious that the anecdote respecting the constable is incorrectly narrated, no one should hesitate at accepting for truth the circumstance that Shakespeare occasionally rested at Grendon PREFACE. Xlii Underwood in taking the Aylesbury route in his journeys between his native town and the metropolis. Very meagre indeed are the fragments of information to be safely collected from Aubrey, but every word in the next traditional account of the poet is to be received with respect as a faithful record of the local belief. That account is preserved in minutes respecting Shakespeare which were compiled by a traveller who paid a visit to the church of Stratford-on-Avon in the year 1693. His informant was one William Castle, then the parish-clerk and sexton, a person who could have had no motive for exercising deception in such matters. The day had not arrived, at least to a rustic guide, for an attempt to set out dramatic eminence in bolder relief by an in- tentional exaggeration of early troubles. The main facts of the poet's Stratford life would, moreover, have been clearly known in that town all through the seventeeth century. About the same time that Castle's observations were registered, a Gloucestershire clergyman, the Rev. Richard Davies, rector of Sapperton, who owned a manuscript biographical dictionary, added therein a few notes to the life of the great dramatist, nearly all of which were clearly derived from oral sources. In this case also xiv PREFACE. there is no pretence for a suspicion that the hearsay testimonies have been garbled or in any way falsified. The inaccuracies observable in the allusions to Sir Thomas Lucy merely show that the writer had but a hazy recollection of the comedy of the Merry Wives of Windsor, not that he had been misinformed respecting the current notion of the poet's early indis- cretions. There is not one of the manuscripts above named which can be fairly described as yield- ing more than small collections of brief memo- randa. A similar observation will apply to the printed notices of the latter half of the seventeenth century, which include very little that belongs to tradition and not much else of importance. Seventy or eighty years were suffered to lapse from the death of the poet, before any one seriously undertook to gather the materials that were necessary for the con- struction of a substantial biography. The exact period is not known, but most likely at some time about the year 1690, Thomas Bet- terton, the most celebrated Shakespearean actor of that day, paid a visit to Warwickshire with the express object of ascertaining what could be there learnt respecting the personal history of the great dramatist. The particulars that PREFACE. XV he managed to glean upon this occasion were afterwards communicated by him to his friend Nicholas Rowe, a well-known dramatist, and some of them were incorporated by the latter into an account of the life of Mr. William Shakespeare that was published in 1 709. " I must own," observes Rowe in speaking of Bet- terton, " a particular obligation to him for the most considerable part of the passages relating to his life which I have here transmitted to the public, his veneration for the memory of Shakespeare having engaged him to make a journey into Warwickshire on purpose to gather up what remains he could of a name for which he had so great a value." We are indebted to this enthusiasm for the rescue of several valuable fragments which would other- wise have been lost; and no sufficient reason has yet been given for impugning Rowe's general accuracy. There are, indeed, a few errors in the minor details of his biographical sketch, but that he drew it up mainly from reliable sources is unquestionable. There is evidence of the latter opinion in the remarkable manner in which two at least of his traditional notices, those which refer to the embarrassed circumstances of John Shakespeare, and to the name of Oldcastle, have been verified by XVI PREFACE. modern research ; while there are several allu- sions which indicate that the whole is the result of original enquiry. That he exercised also unusual caution in dealing with his mate- rials is obvious from the prelude to the South- ampton anecdote, as well as from the hesitating manner in which he introduces many of his statements. Unfortunately, the prudence that adds so greatly to his credibility is likely to have deprived us of many a curious tale, which we should now like to have the opportunity of submitting to investigation. There are many who question the value of the stray morsels collected by Betterton and others in the seventeenth century. The main external argument brought forward in support of their incredulity is the late period at which the traditions have been recorded. Thus it is said, and with great truth, that there is no intimation of the poet having followed the trade of a butcher until nearly a century after- wards, that the poaching exploit remained un- noticed for a still longer time, and so on ; these long terms of silence being, it is considered, fatal to a dependence upon such testimonies. But it appears to be overlooked that the Strat- ford biographical notices, unless we adopt the incredible theory that they were altogether PREFACE. XV11 gratuitous and foolish inventions, were in all probability mere repetitions of gossip belonging to a much earlier period. This gossip, it must be remembered, was of a character that was seldom jotted down, and that still more rarely found its way into print. Independently even of these considerations, the above line of argu- ment, however plausible, will not bear the test of impartial examination. It would apply very well to the present age, when incessant locomo- tion and the reign of newspapers have banished the old habit of a reliance upon hearsay for intelligence or for a continuity in the recollec- tion of minor events. The case was very different indeed in the country towns and villages of by-gone days, when reading of any kind was the luxury of the few, and intercom- munication exceedingly restricted. It may be confidently asserted that, previously to the time of Rowe, books or journals were very rarely to be met with at Stratford-on-Avon, while the large majority of the inhabitants had never in their lives travelled beyond twenty or thirty miles from their homes. There was in fact a conversational and stagnant, not a reading or a travelling, population ; and this state of things continued, with gradual but almost imperceptible advances in the latter PREFACE. directions, until the development of the railway system. The oral history of local affairs thus became in former days imprisoned, as it were, in the districts of their occurrence ; and it is accordingly found that in some cases provin- cial incidents have been handed down through successive generations with an accuracy that is truly marvellous. There has been, for example, a tradition current at Worcester from time im- memorial that a robber of the sanctus-bell was flayed, and his skin nailed to one of the doors of the cathedral. This is a species of barbarity that must be assigned to a very remote period, and yet the fact of its perpetration has been established in recent years by a scientific analy- sis of fragments hanging to an ancient door which is still preserved in the crypt. Other instances nearly as curious might be adduced, including the verification, already mentioned, of one of Rowe's statements that was first given by him from an oral source a hundred and thirty years after the period to which it refers. These concordances naturally suggest a pause before the exclusion of country traditions on the ground of recency, but of course the nearer their promulgation reaches to our own times the greater should be the caution exercised in their acceptance. PREFACE. XIX The London traditions, which were subjected through a long series of years to very different influences, do not merit the same degree of consideration. The violent disruption of the theatrical world in the middle of the seventeenth century was attended with the loss of nearly all its original character, and at the creation of a new stage there was retained little beyond fragmentary recollections of the old. It has been clearly ascertained that even Dryden had a very imperfect knowledge of the history of the latter, and there is nothing to indicate that he cared to gather any particulars respecting the life of the great dramatist. Very few indeed there must have been in the Restoration period who took a sincere interest in the subject, not any, so far as we know, excepting Davenant and Betterton. The best of the metropolitan reports are traceable to the latter, most of the others that were recorded after his death in 1710 being exceedingly meagre and unsatisfactory. In the compilation of the following pages it has, there- fore, been thought advisable, in estimating the authority of the various traditions, to give the preference, wherever selection was necessary, to the rural versions. It may also be observed that great reliance has been placed on the general credibility of those anecdotes, whether 2 2 XX PREFACE. gleaned from London or the provinces, that include references to facts or conditions which have been verified by modern enquiry, but which could only have been known to the narrators through hearsay. The literary history of Shakespeare cannot of course be perfected until the order in which he composed his works has been ascertained, but, unless the books of the theatrical managers or licensers of the time are discovered, it is not likely that the exact chronological arrangement will be determined. The dates of some of his productions rest on positive testimony or distinct allusions, and these are stand-points of great value. In respect, however, to the majority of them, the period of composition has unfortu- nately been merely the subject of refined and useless conjecture. Internal evidences of con- struction and style, obscure contemporary references, and metrical or grammatical tests can very rarely in themselves be relied upon to establish the year of authorship. Specific phases of style or metre necessarily had periods of commencement in Shakespeare's work, but, so long as most of those epochs are merely conjectural, little real progress is made in the enquiry. Nor as a rule are the results ob- tained from aesthetic criticism, which depend to PREFACE. XXI some extent upon the individual sentiment of the critic, of greater certainty. No sufficient allowances appear to be made for the high probability of the intermittent use of various styles during the long interval which elapsed after the era of comparative immaturity had passed away, and in which, so far as constructive and delineative power was concerned, there was neither progress nor retrogression. Shake- speare's genius arrived at maturity with such celerity that it is perilous to assert, from any kind of internal evidence alone, what he could not have written at any particular subsequent period, and style frequently varies not only with the subject but with the purpose of authorship. It may be presumed, for instance, that the diction and construction of a drama written for performance at the Court might be essentially dissimilar from those of a play of the same date composed for the ordinary stage, where the audiences were of a more promis- cuous character and the usages and appliances of the actors in many respects of a different nature. The subject of the chronological order is one, however, solely of a biographical curiosity that can only be legitimately gratified by the discovery of contemporary evidence. Even with such assistance, the mere facts of Xxil PREFACE. that order would be nearly all that could be elicited, for critics of later days might as wisely think of stretching their hands to the firmament as dream of the advent of an intellectual power adequate to grasp the definite history of Shake- speare's mind. It will thus be seen that, no matter what pains a Shakespearean biographer may take to furnish his store, the result will not present a more brilliant appearance than did the needy shop of Romeo's apothecary. He is baffled in every quarter by the want of graphical docu- ments, and little more can be accomplished beyond a very imperfect sketch or outline, and that not always a pleasurable one, of the material features of the poet's career. This unsatisfactory position occasionally leads to the hasty opinion that we should be better off with- out any information at all. The latter is, how- ever, a narrow view that a small amount of reading would enlarge. Little as we know of Shakespeare's history, there are parts of that little which enable us to form clearer notions of the integrity of some of his dramas than would otherwise be possible. Unless, moreover, his mode of working is studied in connexion with the literature of his age and the usages of the ancient stage, there .is much in his writings PREFACE. XX111 that would be inexplicable. An absolute divorce of the book from the man is not, therefore, to be encouraged. We may, indeed, regret that some of the idle gossip was ever registered, but suppression is now impracticable, while we may console ourselves with the reflection that there is an element of the absurd in the endeavour to represent a human being as immaculate. True reverence is, in this case, rather exhibited in that reliance upon contemporary accounts of the poet's gentle and amiable nature which forbids hesitation in continued research. As for the rest, if the fragmentary records do nothing more than exhibit the spontaneous union of the highest genius with effective habits of business, the compilation of a biography of Shakespeare will not have been undertaken in vain. The same kind of feeling which occasionally arises to suggest the inutility of Shakespearean biography is generally accompanied by a con- tempt for the poet's memorials. Should we appreciate the Iliad the more, it is asked, if we chanced to discover the birth-place of Homer ? Will a visit to Stratford-on-Avon bring us nearer to a perfect knowledge of Hamlet ? No more flowers are to be strewn on the grave ; they will be useful for the decoration of our tables. It is enough' that we enjoy the magnificent XXIV PREFACE. inheritance bequeathed to us by the sons of Song ; we need not care to honour or preserve the names of the testators. These, however, are not the sentiments of the public, who virtually denounce them by flocking, in annually increasing thousands, to pay homage at the shrine of the national dramatist. It only remains to add, in conclusion, that the principal design of this work is to furnish the reader with an authentic collection of all the known facts respecting the personal and literary- history of the great dramatist. There is, it is true, an attempt, in the little essay which forms the text, to give a consecutive narrative founded on my own interpretation of the various testi- monies ; but depositions of the witnesses are delivered at the termination of the summing-up, and each issue is left to the decision of the jury of students. I have no favourite theories to support, no wild conjectures to drag into a temporary existence, and no bias save one inspired by the hope that Shakespearean dis- cussions may be controlled by submission to the authority of practical evidences. The collection of these evidences is the chief pursuit, or rather the leading hobby, of my declining years. No journey is too long, no trouble too great, if there is a possibility of either resulting in the discovery PREFACE. XXV of the minutest scrap of information respecting the life of the national poet, or of materials that throw light upon the contemporary drama and the usages of the ancient stage. And let me acknowledge, with every sentiment of gratitude, how essentially my labours are facilitated and cheered by the kind and ready liberality with which private and other libraries, family archives, municipal records and official collec- tions, are being made accessible. HOLLINGBURY COPSE, BRIGHTON. December, 1882. PREMONITORY NOTE. The significance of much that -is adduced in the following pages will not be appreciated without a continual reference to the probable worth of money in the time of the poet The estimate of the difference between its value at that period and at our own cannot be accurately calculated, the purchasing ability in former days varying considerably both with locality and object ; but, when compared with our present rate, the former may be roughly computed at one twelfth of the latter in money, and at one thirtieth in landed or house property. Even these scales may be deceptively in favour of the older values, there having been, in Shake- speare's days, a relative and often a fictitious importance attached to cash, arising from its comparative scarcity. It will be useful also to be constantly bearing in mind the difference between the Old and New Styles. According to the former, the one which of course prevailed during the whole of the Shakespearean period, each month commenced twelve days later than it does at the present day. It is especially important that this variation should be recollected in the consideration of all that relates to the country and to rural life. OUTLINES. In the reign of King Edward the Sixth there lived in Warwickshire a farmer named Richard Shakespeare, who rented a cottage and a small quantity of land at Snitterfield, an obscure village in that county. He had two sons, one of whom, called Henry, continued throughout his life to reside in the same parish. John, the other son, left his father's home about the year 1550, and, two years afterwards, 1552, is found residing in the neighbouring and comparatively large borough of Stratford-on- Avon, in the locality which has been known from the middle ages to the present day as Henley Street, so called from its being the terminus of the road from Henley-in-Arden, a market-town about eight miles distant. At this period, and for many generations afterwards, the sanitary condition of the tho- roughfares of Strat ford-on- A von was, to our 30 * OUTLINES. present notions, simply terrible. Under-surface drainage of every kind was then an unknown art in the district. There was a far greater extent of moisture in the land than would now be thought possible, and streamlets of a water- power sufficient for the operations of corn-mills meandered through the town. This general humidity intensified the evils arising from the v/ant of scavengers, or other effective appliances for the preservation of cleanliness. House-slops were recklessly thrown into ill-kept channels that lined the sides of unmetalled roads ; pigs and geese too often revelled in the puddles and ruts ; while here and there, small middens were ever in the course of accumulation, the recep- tacles of offal and of every species of nastiness. A regulation for the removal of these collec- tions to certain specified localities interspersed through the borough, and known as common dung-hills, appears to have been the extent of the interference that the authorities ventured or cared to exercise in such matters. Sometimes, when the nuisance was thought to be sufficiently flagrant, they made a raid on those inhabitants who had suffered their refuse to accumulate largely in the highways. On one of these occasions, in April, 1552, John Shakespeare was fined the sum of twelve-pence for having OUTLINES. 31 amassed what was no doubt a conspicuous ster- quinarium before his house in Henley Street, and under these unsavoury circumstances does the history of the poet's father commence in the records of England. It is sad to be compelled to admit that there was little excuse for his negligence, one of the public stores of filth being within a stone's throw of his residence. For some years subsequently to this period, John Shakespeare was a humble tradesman at Stratford - on - Avon, holding no conspicuous position in the town ; yet still he must have been tolerably successful in business, for in October, 1556, he purchased two small freehold estates, one being the premises now shown as the Birth - Place, and the other situated in Greenhill Street, a road afterwards called More Towns End. In the year 1557, how- ever, his fortunes underwent an important change through an alliance with Mary, the youngest daughter of Robert Arden, a sub- stantial yeoman farmer in the neighbourhood, who had died a few months previously. The maiden name of her mother has not been dis- covered, but it is ascertained that her father had contracted a second marriage with Agnes Hill, a widow, and that, in a settlement made on that occasion, he had reserved to Mary the 32 OUTLINES. reversion to estates at Wilmecote and Snitter- field, her step-mother taking only a life-interest in them. Some part of the land thus settled was in the occupation of Richard Shakespeare, the poet's grandfather, whence may have arisen the acquaintanceship between the two families. In addition to these estates in expectancy, Mary Arden received, under the provisions of her father's will, not only a handsome pecuniary legacy, but the fee-simple of another valuable property at Wilmecote, the latter, which was known as Asbies, consisting of a house with nearly sixty acres of land. Considering his social position, John Shakespeare had practi- cally married an heiress, his now comparative affluence investing him with no small degree of local importance. His official career at once commenced by his election as one of the ale- tasters, an officer appointed for the supervision of malt liquors and bread. About the same time he was received into the Corporation as one of the burgesses, and in the September of the following year, 1558, he was chosen one of the four constables under the rules of the Court Leet. He was again elected constable for another year on October the sixth, 1559, and on the same day he was chosen one of the four affeerors appointed to determine the OUTLINES. 33 fines for those offences which were punishable arbitrarily, and for which no express penalties were prescribed by statute. This latter office he again filled in 1561, when he was elected one of the Chamberlains of the borough, an office that he held for two years, delivering his second account to the Corporation in January, 1564. The ostensible business followed by John Shakespeare was that of a glover, but after his marriage he speculated largely in wool pur- chased from the neighbouring farmers, and oc- casionally also dealt in corn and other articles. In those days, especially in small provincial towns, the concentration of several trades into the hands of one person was very usual, and, in many cases, no matter how numerous and complicated were the intermediate processes, the producer of the raw material was frequently its manufacturer. Thus a glover might, and sometimes did, rear the sheep that furnished him with meat, skins, wool, and leather. Whether John Shakespeare so conducted his business is unknown, but it is certain that, in addition to his trade in gloves, which also, as was usual, included the sale of divers articles made of leather, he entered into a variety of other speculations. In Henley Street, in what was for those 3 34 OUTLINES. days an unusually large and commodious resi- dence for a provincial tradesman, and upon or almost immediately before the twenty-second day of April, 1564, but most probably on that Saturday, the eldest son of John and Mary Shakespeare, he who was afterwards to be the national poet of England, was born. An apart- ment on the first floor of that house is shown to this day, through unvarying tradition, as the birth-room of the great dramatist, who was bap- tized on the following Wednesday, April the twenty-sixth, receiving the Christian name of William. He was then, and continued to be for more than two years, an only child, two girls, daughters of the same parents, who were born previously, having died in their infancy. The house in which Shakespeare was born must have been erected in the first half of the sixteenth century, but the alterations that it has since undergone have effaced much of its original character. Inhabited at various periods by tradesmen of different occupations, it could not possibly have endured through the long course of upwards of three centuries without having been subjected to numerous repairs and modi- fications. The general form and arrangement of the tenement that was purchased in 1556 may yet, however, be distinctly traced, and OUTLINES, 35 32 36 OUTLINES. many of the old timbers, as well as pieces of the ancient rough stone-work, still remain. There are also portions of the chimneys, the fire-place surroundings and the stone basement- floor, that have been untouched ; but most, if not all, of the lighter wood-work belongs to a more recent period. It may be confidently asserted, that there is only one room in the entire building which has suffered no change since the days of the poet's boyhood. This is the antique cellar, two views of the interior of which are here given. It is a very small apart- ment, measuring only nine by ten feet, but near " that small most greatly liv'd this star of England* 1 In the July of this year of the poet's birth, 1564, a violent plague, intensified no doubt by sanitary neglect, broke out in the town, but the family in Henley Street providentially escaped its ravages. John Shakespeare contributed on this occasion fairly, at least, if not liberally, both towards the relief of the poor and of those who were attacked by the epidemic. In March, 1565, John Shakespeare, with the assistance of his former colleague in the same office, made up the accounts of the Chamberlains of the borough for the year ending at the previous Michaelmas. Neither OUTLINES. 37 38 OUTLINES. of these worthies could even write their own names, but nearly all tradesmen then reckoned with counters, the results on important occa- sions being entered by professional scriveners. The poet's father seems to have been an adept in the former kind of work, for in February, 1566, he individually superintended the making up of the accounts of the Chamberlains for the preceding official year, at which time he was paid over three pounds, equivalent to more than thirty of present money, that had been owing to him for some time by the Corporation. In the month of October another son, who was christened Gilbert on the thirteenth, was born, the poet being then nearly two and a half years old. This Gilbert in after life entered into business in London as a haberdasher. In September, 1567, Robert Perrot, a brewer, John Shakespeare, and Ralph Cawdrey, a butcher, were nominated for the office of the High Bailiff, or, as that dignitary was subse- quently called, the Mayor. The last-named candidate was the one who was elected. It is upon this occasion that the poet's father is alluded to for the first time in the local records as " Mr. Shakspeyr." He had been previously therein mentioned either as John Shakespeare, or briefly as Shakespeare, and the addition of OUTLINES. 39 the title was in those days no small indication of an advance in social position. There is, indeed, no doubt that, during the early years of Shakespeare's boyhood, his father was one of the leading men in Stratford-on-Avon. On the fourth of September, 1568, John Shakespeare, " Mr. John Shakysper," as he is called in that day's record, was chosen High Bailiff, attaining thus the most distinguished official position in the town, after an active connexion with its affairs during the preceding eleven years. The poet had entered his fifth year in the previous month of April, the family in Henley Street now consisting of his parents, his brother Gilbert, who was very nearly two years old, and himself. It must have been somewhere about this period that Shakespeare entered into the mysteries of the horn- book and the A. B. C. Although both his parents were absolutely illiterate, they had the sagacity to appreciate the importance of an education for their son, and the poet, somehow or other, was taught to read and write, the necessary preliminaries to admission into the Free School. There were few persons at that time at Stratford-on-Avon capable of initiating him even into these pre- paratory accomplishments, but John Shake- speare, in his official position, could hardly 40 OUTLINES. have encountered much difficulty in finding a suitable instructor. There was, for instance, Higford, the Steward of the Court of Record, and the person who transcribed some of his accounts when he was the borough Chamberlain ; but it is as likely as not that the poet received the first rudiments of education from older boys who were some way advanced in their school career. A passion for the drama is with some natures an instinct, and it would appear that the poet's father had an express taste in that direction. At all events, dramatic entertain- ments are first heard of at Stratford-on-Avon during the year of his bailiffship, and were, it may fairly be presumed, introduced in unison with his wishes as they certainly must have been with his sanction. At some period between Michaelmas, 1568, and the same day in 1569, the Queen's and the Earl of Worcester's players visited the town and gave representations before the Council, the former company receiving nine shillings and the latter twelve pence for their first performances, to which the public were admitted without payment. They doubtlessly gave other theatrical entertainments with stated charges for admission, but there would, of course, be no entries of those performances in the muni- OUTLINES. 41 cipal accounts; and sometimes there were bodies of actors in the town to whom the official libe- rality was not extended. No notice whatever of the latter companies would have been registered. Were it not for the record of a correlative incident, it would have been idle to have hazarded a conjecture on the interesting ques- tion, was the poet, who was then in his fifth or sixth year, a spectator at either of these per- formances ? If, however, it can be shown that, in a neighbouring county about the same time, there was an inhabitant of a city who took his little boy, one born in the same year with Shakespeare, 1564, to a free dramatic entertain- ment exhibited as were those at Stratford - on-Avon, before the Corporation under pre- cisely similar conditions, there then arises a reasonable probability that we should be jus- tified in giving an affirmative reply to the en- quiry. There is such an evidence in the account left by a person of the name of Willis, of " a stage-play which I saw when I was a child," and included by him in a confidential narrative of his moral and religious life, a sort of auto- biography, which, in his old age, he addressed to his wife and children. The curious narrative given by Willis is in the following terms, " In the city of Gloucester 42 OUTLINES. the manner is, as I think it is in other like cor- porations, that, when players of enterludes come to towne, they first attend the Mayor to enforme him what noble-mans servants they are, and so to get licence for their publike playing ; and if the Mayor like the actors, or would shew respect to their lord and master, he appoints them to play their first play before himselfe and the Aldermen and Common Counsell of the city ; and that is called the Mayors play, where every one that will comes in without money, the Mayor giving the players a reward as hee thinks fit to shew respect unto them. At such a play my father tooke me with him, and made mee stand betweene his leggs as he sate upon one of the benches, where wee -saw and heard very well. The play was called the Cradle of Security, wherin was per- sonated a king or some great prince, with his courtiers of severall kinds, amongst which three ladies were in speciall grace with him ; and they, keeping him in delights and pleasures, drew him from his graver counsellors, hearing of sermons and listning to good counsell and admonitions, that, in the end, they got him to lye downe in a cradle upon the stage, where these three ladies, joyning in a sweet song, rocked him asleepe that he snorted againe ; OUTLINES. 43 and in the meane time closely conveyed under the cloaths wherewithall he was covered a vizard, like a swine's snout, upon his face, with three wire chaines fastned therevnto, the other end whereof being holden severally by those three ladies, who fall to singing againe, and then discovered his face that the spectators might see how they had transformed him, going on with their singing. Whilst all this was acting, there came forth of another doore at the farthest end of the stage two old men, the one in blew with a serjeant at armes his mace on his shoulder, the other in red with a drawn sword in his hand and leaning with the other hand upon the others shoulder; and so they two went along in a soft pace round about by the skirt of the stage, till at last they came to the cradle, when all the court was in greatest jollity ; and then the foremost old man with his mace stroke a fearfull blow upon the cradle, whereat all the courtiers, with the three ladies and the vizard, all vanished ; and the desolate prince starting up bare-faced, and finding himselfe thus sent for to judgement, made a lamentable complaint of his miserable case, and so was carried away by wicked spirits. This prince did personate in the Morrall the Wicked of the World ; the three ladies, Pride, Covetousnesse and Luxury ; 44 OUTLINES. the two old men, the End of the World and the last Judgment. This sight tooke such im- pression in me that, when I came towards mans estate, it was as fresh in my memory as if I had seen it newly acted," Willis's Mount Tabor or Private Exercises of a Penitent Sinner, pub- lished in the yeare of his age 75, Anno Dom. 1639, pp. 110-113. Who can be so pitiless to the imagination as not to erase the name of Gloucester in the preceding anecdote, and re- place it by that of Stratford-on-Avon ? Homely and rude as such an allegorical drama as the Cradle of Security would now be considered, it was yet an advance in dramatic construction upon the medieval religious plays generally known as mysteries, which were still in favour with the public and were of an ex- ceedingly primitive description. The latter were, however, put on the stage with far more elabo- rate appliances, there being no reason for be- lieving that the itinerant platform of the later drama was provided with much beyond a few properties. The theatre of the mysteries con- sisted of a moveable wooden rectangular struc- ture of two rooms one over the other, the lower closed, the upper one, that in which the per- formances took place, being open at least on one side to the audience. The vehicle itself, OUTLINES. 45 every portion of which that was visible to the audience was grotesquely painted, was fur- nished in the upper room with tapestries that answered the purposes of scenery, and with mechanical appliances for the disposition of the various objects introduced, such as hell-mouth, a favourite property on the ancient English stage. This consisted of a huge face con- structed of painted canvas exhibiting glaring eyes and a red nose of enormous dimensions ; the whole so contrived with moveable jaws of large, projecting teeth, that, when the mouth opened, flames could be seen within the hideous aperture ; the fire being probably represented by the skilful management of links or torches held behind the painted canvas. There was frequently at the back of the stage a raised platform to which there was an ascent by steps from the floor of the pageant, and sometimes an important part of the action of the mystery was enacted upon it. Some of the properties, however rude, must have been of large di- mensions. They were generally made of wood, which was invariably painted, but some appear to have been constructed of basket-work covered over with painted cloths. The larger ones were cities with pinnacles and towers, kings' palaces, temples, castles and such like, 46 OUTLINES. some probably not very unlike decorated sentry- boxes. Amongst the miscellaneous properties maybe named "a rybbe colleryd red," which was no doubt used in the mystery of the Crea- tion. Clouds were represented by painted cloths so contrived that they could open and show angels in the heavens. Artificial trees were introduced, arid so were beds, tombs, pulpits, ships, ladders, and numerous other articles. One of the quaintest contrivances was that which was intended to convey the idea of an earth- quake, which seems to have been attempted by means of some mechanism within a barrel. In the lower room, connected with pulleys in the upper part of the pageant, was a windlass used for the purpose of lowering or raising the larger properties, and for various objects for which moveable ropes could be employed. Some of the other machinery was evidently of an in- genious character, but its exact nature has not been ascertained. The costumes of many of the personages in the mysteries were of a grotesque and fanciful description, but in some instances, as in those of Adam and Eve, there was an attempt to make the dresses harmonize with the circumstances of the history. Some writers, interpreting the stage-directions too literally, have asserted that OUTLINES. 47 those characters were introduced upon the pageant in a state of nudity. This was cer- tainly not the case. When they were presumed to be destitute of clothing, they appeared in dresses made either of white leather or of flesh- coloured clothes, over which at the proper time were thrown the garments of skins. There were no doubt some incidents represented in the old English mysteries which would now be con- sidered indecorous, but it should be borne in mind that every age has, within certain limits, its own conventional and frequently irrational sentiments of toleration and propriety. Adam and Eve attired in white leather and personified by men, for actresses were then unknown, scarcely could have realized to the spectator even a generic idea of the nude, but at all events there was nothing in any of the theatrical cos- tumes of the early drama which can be fairly considered to be of an immodest character, although many of them were extravagantly whimsical. Thus Herod was always introduced wearing red gloves, while his clothes and head- gear seem to have been painted or dyed in a variety of colours, so that as far as costume could assist the deception, he probably appeared, when brandishing his flaming sword, as fierce and hideous a tyrant as could well have been 48 OUTLINES. represented. Pontius Pilate was usually en- wrapped in a large green cloak, which opened in front to enable him to wield an immense club. The latter was humanely adapted to his strength by the weight being chiefly restricted to that of the outer case, the inside being lightly stuffed with wool. The Devil was another important character, who was also grotesquely arrayed and had a mask or false head which frequently re- quired either mending or painting. Masks were worn by several other personages, though it would appear that in some instances the opera- tion of painting the faces of the actors was substituted. Wigs of false hair, either gilded or of red, yellow, and other colours, were also much in request. That Shakespeare, in his early youth, wit- nessed representations of some of these mys- teries, cannot admit of a reasonable doubt ; for although the ordinary church-plays were by no means extinct, they survived only in particular localities, and do not appear to have been re- tained in Stratford or its neighbourhood. The performances which then took place nearly every year at Coventry attracted hosts of spec- tators from all parts of the country, while, at occasional intervals, the mystery players of that city made theatrical progresses to various other OUTLINES. 49 places. It is not known whether they favoured Stratford-on-Avon with a professional visit, but it is not at all improbable that they did, for they must have passed through the town in their way to Bristol, where it is recorded that they gave a performance in the year 1 5 70. Amongst the mysteries probably recollected by Shake- speare was- one in which the King was intro- duced as Herod of Jewry, and in which the children of Bethlehem were barbarously speared, the soldiers disregarding the frantic shrieks of the bereaved mothers. In the collection known as the Coventry Mysteries, a soldier appears before Herod with a child on the end of his spear in evidence of the accomplishment of the King's commands, a scene to be remembered, however rude may have been the property which represented the infant ; while the ex- travagance of rage, which formed one of the then main dramatic characteristics of that sovereign, must have made a deep impression on a youthful spectator. The idea of such a subject being susceptible of exaggeration into burlesque never entered a spectator's mind in those days, and the impression made upon him was probably not slightly increased by the style of Herod's costume. Besides the allusions made by the great 50 OUTLINES. dramatist to the Herod of the Coventry players, there are indications that other grotesque per- formers in the pageants of that city were occa- sionally in his recollection, those who with blackened faces acted the parts of the Black Souls. There are several references in Shake- speare to condemned souls being of this colour, and in one place there is an allusion to them in the language of the mysteries. Falstaff is reported to have said of a flea on Bardolph's red nose that " it was a black soul burning in hell ; " and, in the Coventry plays, the Black or Damned Souls appeared with sooty faces and attired in a motley costume of yellow and black. It is certainly just possible that the notions of Herod and the Black Souls may have been derived from other sources, but the more natural probability is that they are abso- lute recollections of the Coventry plays. The period of Shakespeare's boyhood was also that of what was practically the last era of the real ancient English mystery. There were, it is true, occasional performances of them up to the reign of James the First, but they became obsolete throughout nearly all the country about the year 1580. Previously to the latter date they had for many generations served as media for religious instruction. In days when OUTLINES. 5 1 education of any kind was a rarity, and spiritual religion an impossibility or at least restricted to very few, appeals to the senses in illustration of theological subjects were wisely encouraged by the Church. The im- pression made on the rude and uninstructed mind by the representations of incidents in sacred history and religious tradition by living characters, must have been far more profound than any which could have been conveyed by the skill of the sculptor or painter, or by the eloquence of the priest. Notwithstanding therefore the opposition that these performances encountered at the hands of a small section of churchmen, who apprehended that the introduction of the comic element would ultimately tend to feelings of irreverence, it is found that, in spite of some abuses, they long continued to be one of the most effectual means of spreading a knowledge of Scriptural history and of inculcating belief in the doctrines of the Church. In the Hundred Mery Talys, a collection which was very popular in England throughout the sixteenth century, there is a story of a village priest in Warwickshire who preached a sermon on the Articles of the Creed, telling the congregation at the end of his discourse, " these artycles ye be bounde to -12 52 OUTLINES. beleve, for they be trew and of auctorytd ; and yf you beleve not me, then for a more suerte and suffycyent auctoryte go your way to Coventr6, and there ye shall se them all playd in Corpus Cristi playe." Although this is related as a mere anecdote, it well illustrates the value which was then attached to the teachings of the ancient stage. Even as lately as the middle of the seventeenth century there could have been found in England an example of a person whose knowledge of the Scriptures was limited to his recollections of the performance of a mystery. The Rev. John Shaw, who was the temporary chaplain in a village in Lancashire in 1644, narrates the following curious anecdote respecting one of its inhabitants, " one day an old man about sixty, sensible enough in other things, and living in the parish of Cartmel, coming to me about some business, I told him that he belonged to my care and charge, and I desired to be informed in his knowledge of religion ; I asked him how many Gods there were ; he said, he knew not ; I, informing him, asked him again how he thought to be saved ; he answered he could not tell, yet thought that was a harder question than the other ; I told him that the way to salvation was by Jesus Christ, God-man, who, as He was man, shed OUTLINES. 53 His blood for us on the crosse, &c. ; Oh, sir, said he, I think I heard of that man you speak of once in a play at Kendall called Corpus Christi Play, where there was a man on a tree and blood ran downe, &c., and after he pro- fessed that he could not remember that ever he heard of salvation by Jesus Christ but in that play." It is impossible to say to what extent even the Scriptural allusions in the works of Shakespeare himself may not be attributed to recollections of such performances, for in one instance at least the reference by the great dra- matist is to the history as represented in those plays not to that recorded in the New Testa- ment. The English mysteries indeed never lost their position as religious instructors, a fact which, viewed in connexion with that of a widely-spread affection for the old religion, ap- pears to account for their long continuance in a practically unaltered state while other species of dramas were being developed by their side. From the fourteenth century until the termina- tion of Shakespeare's youthful days they re- mained the simple poetic versions in dialogue of religious incidents of various kinds, enlivened by the occasional admission of humorous scenes. In some few instances the theological narrative was made subservient to the comic action, but 54 OUTLINES. as a rule the mysteries were designed to bring before the audience merely the personages and events of religious history. Allegorical charac- ters had been occasionally introduced, and about the middle of the fifteenth century there appeared a new kind of English dramatic com- position apparently borrowed from France, in which the personages were either wholly or almost exclusively of that description. When the chief object of a performance of this nature, like that of the Cradle of Security previously described, was to inculcate a moral lesson, it was sometimes called either a Moral or a Moral-play, terms which continued in use till the seventeenth century, and were licentiously applied by some early writers to any dramas which were of an ethical or educational character. Morals were not only performed in Shakespeare's day, but continued to be a then recognized form of dramatic composition. Some of them were nearly as simple and inartificial as the mysteries, but others were not destitute of originality, or even of the delineation of cha- racter and manners. There was, however, no consecutive or systematic development of either the mystery into the moral or the moral into the historical and romantic drama, although there are examples in which the specialities of each OUTLINES. 55 are curiously intermingled. Each species of the early English drama appears for the most part to have pursued its own separate and independent career. In April, 1569, the poet's sister, Joan, was born. She was baptized on the I5th of that month, and, by a prevalent fashion which has created so much perplexity in discussions on longevities, was named after an elder child of the same parents who had died in infancy about ten years previously. John Shakespeare's term of office as High Bailiff expired in the September of the same year, 1569, his successor being one Robert Salisbury, a substantial yeoman then residing in a large house on the eastern side of Church Street. Although there is no certain information on the subject, it may perhaps be assumed that, at this time, boys usually entered the Free School at the age of seven, according to the custom followed at a later period. If so, the poet com- menced his studies there in the spring of the year 1571, and, unless its system of instruction differed essentially from that pursued in other establishments of a similar character, his earliest knowledge of Latin was derived from two well- known books of the time, the Accidence and the Sententiae Pueriles. From the first of 56 OUTLINES. these works the improvised examination of Master Page in the Merry Wives of Windsor is so almost verbally remembered, that one might imagine that the William of the scene was a resuscitation of the poet at school. Recollections of the same book are to be traced in other of his plays. The Sententiae Pueriles was, in all probability, the little manual by the aid of which he first learned to construe Latin, for in one place, at least, he all but literally translates a brief passage, and there are in his plays several adaptations of its sentiments. It was then sold for a penny, equivalent to about our present shilling, and contains a large collection of brief sentences collected from a variety of authors, with a distinct selection of moral and religious paragraphs, the latter in- tended for the use of boys on Saint's Days. The best authorities unite in telling us that the poet imbibed a certain amount of Latin at school, but that his acquaintance with that language was, throughout his life, of a very limited character. It is not probable that scholastic learning was ever congenial to his tastes, and it should be recollected that books in most parts of the country were then of very rare occurrence. Lilly's Grammar and a few classical works, chained to the desks of the Free OUTLINES. 57 School, were probably the only volumes of the kind to be found at Stratford-on-Avon. Exclu- sive of Bibles, Church Services, Psalters, and education manuals, there were certainly not more than two or three dozen books, if so many, in the whole town. The copy of the black- letter English history, so often depicted as well thumbed by Shakespeare in his father's parlour, never existed out of the imagination. For- tunately for us, the youthful dramatist had, ex- cepting in the school-room, little opportunity of studying any but a grander volume, the infinite book of nature, the pages of which were ready to be unfolded to him in the lane and field, amongst the copses of Snitterfield, by the side of the river or that of his uncle's hedgerows. Henry Shakespeare, the poet's uncle, resided on a large farm near Snitterfield church. The house has long disappeared, but two of the old enclosures that he rented, Burmans and Red Hill, are still to be observed on the right of the highway to Luscombe, with the ancient boundaries, and under the same names, by which they were distinguished in the days of Shakespeare's early youth. Nearly every one of the boy's connexions, as well as his uncle Henry, was a farmer. There was the brother of Agnes Arden, Alexander Webbe of Snitter- 58 OUTLINES. field, who died in 1573, appointing "to be my overseers to see this my last will and testament performed, satisfied and fullfilled, according to my will, John Shackespere of Stretford-upon- Aven, John Hill of Bearley, and for theyre paynes taken I geve them xij.df. a pece." Henry Shakespeare was present at the execution of this will, and there is other evidence that the poet's family were on friendly terms with the Hills of Bearley, who were connexions by marriage with the Ardens. Then there were the Lamberts of Barton -on -the- Heath, the Stringers of Bearley, the Etkyns of Wilmecote, all of whom were engaged in agricultural business, and Agnes Arden, who was still alive and farming at Wilmecote. The defective classical education of the poet is not to be attributed to the conductors of the local seminary, for enough of Latin was taught to enable the more advanced pupils to display familiar correspondence in that language. It was really owing to his being removed from school long before the usual age, his father requiring his assistance in one of the branches of the Henley Street business. The conflict of evidences now becomes so exceedingly perplexing, that it is hardly possible to completely reconcile them. All that can OUTLINES. 59 prudently be said is that the inclination of the testimonies leans towards the belief that John Shakespeare, following the ordinary usage of the tradesmen of the locality in binding their children to special occupations, eventually ap- prenticed his eldest son to a butcher. That appellation was sometimes given to persons who, without keeping meat-shops, killed cattle and pigs for others ; and as there is no telling how many adjuncts the worthy glover had to his legitimate business, it is very possible that the lad may have served his articles under his own father. With respect to the unpoetical selection of a trade for the great dramatist, it is of course necessary for the biographer to draw attention to the fact that he was no ordinary executioner, but, to use the words of Aubrey, " when he killed a calf, he would do it in a high style and make a speech." It may be doubted if even this palliative will suffice to reconcile the employment with our present ideal of the gentle Shakespeare, but he was not one of the few destined, at all events in early life, to be exempt from the laws which so frequently ordain mor- tals to be the reluctant victims of circumstances. The tradition reported by the parish clerk in 1693 i s the n ly known evidence of Shake- speare having been an apprentice, but his 60 OUTLINES. assertion that the poet commenced his practi- cal life as a butcher is supported by the earlier testimony of Aubrey. If the clerk's story be rejected, we must then rely on the account furnished by Betterton, who informs us, through Rowe, that John Shakespeare " was a con- siderable dealer in wool," and that the great dramatist, after leaving school, was brought up to follow the same occupation, continuing in the business until his departure from Warwick- shire. Whichever version be thought the more probable, the student will do well, before arriving at a decision, to bear in mind that many butchers of those days were partially farmers, and that those of Stratford-on-Avon largely represented the wealth and commercial intelligence of the town. Amongst the latter was Ralph Cawdrey, who had then twice served the office of High Bailiff, and had been for many years a colleague of the poet's father. Nor were the accessories of the trade viewed in the repulsive light that some of them are at the present time. The refined and lively Rosalind would have been somewhat astonished if she had been told of the day when her allusion to the washing of a sheep's heart would have been pronounced indecorous and more than unladylike. OUTLINES. 6 1 It was the usual custom at Stratford-on- Avon for apprentices to be bound either for seven or ten years, so that, if Shakespeare were one of them, it was not likely that he was out of his articles at the time of his marriage, an event that took place in 1582, when he was only in his nineteenth year. At that period, before a licence for wedlock could be obtained, it was necessary to lodge at the Consistory Court a bond entered into by two responsible sureties, who by that document, certified, under a heavy penalty in case of misrepresen- tation, that there was no impediment of precon- tract or consanguinity, the former of course alluding to a precontract of either of the affianced parties with a third person. The bond given in anticipation of the marriage of William Shakespeare with Anne Hathaway, a proof in itself that there was no clandestine intention in the arrangements, is dated the twenty-eighth of November, 1582. Their first child, Susanna, was baptized on Sunday, May the 26th, 1583. With those numerous moralists who do not consider it necessary for rigid enquiry to precede condem- nation, these facts taint the husband with dis- honour, although, even according to modern notions, that very marriage may have been 62 OUTLINES. induced on his part by a sentiment in itself the very essence of honour. If we assume, how- ever, as we reasonably may, that cohabitation had previously taken place, no question of morals would in those days have arisen, or could have been entertained. The precontract, which was usually celebrated two or three months before marriage, was not only legally recognised, but it invalidated a subsequent union of either of the parties with any one else. There was a statute, indeed, of 32 Henry VIII., 1540, c. 38, s. 2, by which certain marriages were legalised notwithstanding precontracts, but the clause was repealed by the Act of 2 & 3 Edward VI., 1548, c. 23, s. 2, and the whole statute by i & 2 Phil, and Mar., 1554, c. 8, s. 19, while the Act of i Elizabeth, 1558, c. i, s. n, expressly confirms the revocation made by Edward the Sixth. The ascertained facts respecting Shakespeare's marriage clearly indi- cate the high probability of there having been a precontract, a ceremony which substantially had the validity of the more formal one, and the improbability of that marriage having been celebrated under mysterious or unusual circum- stances. Whether the early alliance was a prudent one in a worldly point of view may admit of doubt, but that the married pair con- OUTLINES. 63 tinned on affectionate terms, until they were separated by the poet's death, may be gathered from the early local tradition that his wife " did earnestly desire to be laid in the same grave with him." The legacy to her of the second- best bed is an evidence which does not by itself negative the later testimony. The poet's two sureties, Fulk Sandells and John Richardson, were inhabitants of the little hamlet of Shottery, and on the only in- scribed seal attached to the bond are the initials R. H., while the consent of friends is, in that document, limited to those of the bride. No conclusion can be safely drawn from the last-named clause, it being one very usual in such instruments, but it may perhaps be inferred from the other circumstances that the marriage was arranged under the special auspices of the Hathaway family, and that the engagement was not received with favour in Henley Street. The case, however, admits of another explanation. It may be that the nuptials of Shakespeare, like those of so many others of that time, had been privately cele- brated some months before under the illegal forms of the Romish Church. If this were the fact, it was natural that the Hathaways, leaning to a different persuasion, should have 64 OUTLINES. been anxious for the marriage to be openly acknowledged and recorded. It was extremely common at that time, amongst the local tradespeople, for the sanction of parents to be given to early marriages in cases where there was no money, and but narrow means of support, on either side. It is not, therefore, likely that the consent of John and Mary Shakespeare to the poet's marriage was with- held on such grounds, nor, with the exception of the indications in the bond, are there other reasons for suspecting that they were averse to the union. But whether they were so or not is a question that does not invalidate the assump- tion that the lovers followed the all but uni- versal rule of consolidating their engagement by means of a precontract. This ceremony was generally a solemn affair enacted with the immediate concurrence of all the parents, but it was at times informally conducted separately by the betrothing parties, evidence of the fact, communicated by them to independent persons, having been held, at least in Warwickshire, to confer a sufficient legal validity on the transac- tion. Thus, in 1585, William Holder and Alice Shaw, having privately made a contract, came voluntarily before two witnesses, one of whom was a person named Willis and the other a OUTLINES. 65 John Maides of Snitterfield, on purpose to ac- knowledge that they were irrevocably pledged to wedlock. The lady evidently considered herself already as good as married, saying to Holder, " I do confesse that I am your wief and have forsaken all my frendes for your sake, and I hope you will use me well ; " and there- upon she "gave him her hand." Then, as Maides observes, " the said Holder, mutatis mutandis, used the like words unto her in effect, and toke her by the hand, and kissed together in the presence of this deponent and the said Willis." These proceedings are after- wards alluded to in the same depositions as constituting a definite "contract of marriage." On another occasion, in 1588, there was a pre- contract meeting at Alcester, the young lady arriving there unaccompanied by any of her friends. When requested to explain the reason of this omission, "she answered that her leasure wold not lett her and that she thought she cold not obtaine her mother's goodwill, but, quoth she, neverthelesse I am the same woman that I was before." The future bridegroom was per- fectly satisfied with this assurance, merely asking her " whether she was content to betake herself unto him, and she answered, offring her hand, which he also tooke uppon thoffer that she was 5 66 OUTLINES. content by her trothe, and thereto, said she, I geve thee my faith, and before these witnesses, that I am thy wief; and then he likewise answered in theis wordes, vidz., and I geve thee my faith and troth, and become thy husband." These instances, to which several others could -be added, prove decisively that Shakespeare could have entered, under any circumstances whatever, into a precontract with Anne Hath- away. It may be worth adding that espousals of this kind were, in the Midland counties, almost invariably terminated by the lady's acceptance of a bent sixpence. One lover, who was betrothed in the same year in which Shakespeare was engaged to Anne Hathaway, gave also a pair of gloves, two oranges, two handkerchiefs and a girdle of broad red silk. A present of gloves on such an occasion was, indeed, nearly as universal as that of a sixpence. It can never be right for a biographer, when he is unsupported by the least particle of evi- dence, to assume that the subject of his memoir departed unnecessarily from the ordinary usages of life and society. In Shakespeare's matrimo- nial case, those who imagine that there was no precontract have to make another extravagant admission. They must ask us also to believe that the lady of his choice was as disreputable OUTLINES. 67 as the flax-wench, and gratuitously united with the poet in a moral wrong that could have been converted, by the smallest expenditure of trouble, into a moral right. The whole theory is ab- solutely incredible. We may then feel certain that, in the summer of the year 1582, William Shakespeare and Anne Hathaway were be- trothed either formally or informally, but, at all events, under conditions that could, if necessary, have been legally ratified. The marriage, in accordance with the gene- ral practice, no doubt took place within two or three days after the execution of the bond on November the 28th, 1582, the " once asking of the bans" being included in the ceremonial service. The name of the parish in which the nuptials were celebrated has not been ascer- tained, but it must have been one of those places in the diocese of Worcester the early registers of which have been lost. Early marriages are not, however, at least with men, invariably preceded by a dispersion of the wild oats ; and it appears that Shake- speare had neglected to complete that desirable operation. Three or four years after his union with Anne Hathaway, he had, observes Rowe, "by a misfortune common enough to young fellows, fallen into ill company, and, amongst 5-2 68 OUTLINES. them, some, that made a frequent practice of deer-stealing, engaged him with them more than once in robbing a park that belonged to Sir Thomas Lucy of Charlecote, near Strat- ford ; for this he was prosecuted by that gentle- man, as he thought, somewhat too severely, and, in order to revenge that ill-usage, he made a ballad upon him ; and though this, probably the first essay of his poetry, be lost, yet it is said to have been so very bitter that it redoubled the prosecution against him to that degree, that he was obliged to leave his business and family in Warwickshire for some time, and shelter him- self in London." If we accept this narrative, which is the most reliable account of the inci- dent that has been preserved, the date of the poet's departure from his native town may be assigned to a period shortly after the births of his youngest children, the twin Hamnet and Judith, who were baptized at Stratford-on-Avon on February the 2nd, 1585. At the period of Shakespeare's arrival in London, any reputable kind of employment was obtained with considerable difficulty. There is an evidence of this in the history of the early life of John Sadler, a native of Stratford-on- Avon and one of the poet's contemporaries, who tried his fortunes in the metropolis under OUTLINES. 69 similar though less discouraging circumstances. This youth, upon quitting Stratford, " join'd him- self to the carrier, and came to London, where he had never been before, and sold his horse in Smithfield ; and, having no acquaintance in London to recommend him or assist him, he went from street to street, and house to house, asking if they wanted an apprentice, and though he met with many discouraging scorns and a thousand denials, he went on till he light on Mr. Brokesbank, a grocer in Bucklersbury, who, though he long denied him for want of sureties for his fidelity, and because the money he had (but ten pounds) was so disproportion- able to what he used to receive with apprentices, yet, upon his discreet account he gave of him- self and the motives which put him upon that course, and promise to compensate with diligent and faithfull service whatever else was short of his expectation, he ventured to receive him upon trial, in which he so well approved him- self that he accepted him into his service, to which he bound him for eight years." It is to be gathered, from the account given by Rowe, that Shakespeare, a fugitive, leaving his native town unexpectedly, must have reached London more unfavourably circumstanced than Sadler, although the. latter experienced so much trouble 7O OUTLINES. in finding occupation. At all events, there would have been greater difficulty in the poet's case in accounting satisfactorily to employers for his sudden departure from home. That he was also nearly, if not quite, moneyless, is to be inferred from tradition, the latter supported by the ascertained fact of the adverse circumstances of his father at the time rendering it impossible for him to have received effectual assistance from his parents; nor is there reason for believing that he was likely to have obtained substantial aid from the relatives of his wife. Johnson no doubt accurately reported the tradition of his day, when in 1765, he stated that Shake- speare "came to London a needy adventurer, and lived for a time by very mean employments." To the same effect is the earlier testimony given by the author of Ratseis Ghost, 1605, where the strolling player, in a passage reasonably believed to refer to the great dramatist, observes in reference to actors, " I have heard indeede, of some that have gone to London very meanly, and have come in time to be exceeding wealthy." The author of the last-named tract was evidently well acquainted with the theatrical gossip of his day, so that his nearly contemporary evidence on the subject may be fairly accepted as a truthful record of the current belief. OUTLINES. 71 It has been repeatedly observed that the visits of theatrical companies to the poet's native town suffice to explain the history of his connexion with the stage, but it is difficult to understand how this could have been the case. There is no good evidence that a single one of the actors belonged to his neighbourhood, and even if he had casually made the acquaintance of some of the itinerants, it is extremely unlikely that any extent of such intimacy would have secured the admission of an inexperienced person into their ranks. The histrionic art is not learnt in a day, and it was altogether unusual with the sharers to receive into the company men who had not had the advantage of a very early training in the profession. It might, therefore, have been reasonably inferred, even in the absence of tradition, that at this time Shakespeare could only have obtained employ- ment at the theatre in a very subordinate capa- city, nor can it be safely assumed that there would have been an opening for him of any kind. The quotations above given seem to in- dicate that his earlier occupation was something of a still lower character. A traditional anecdote was current about the middle of the last cen- tury, according to which it would appear that the great dramatist, if connected in any sort of 72 OUTLINES. manner with the theatre immediately upon his arrival in London, could only have been en- gaged in a servile capacity, and that there was, in the career of the great poet, an interval which some may consider one of degradation, to be regarded with either incredulity or sorrow. Others may, with more discernment and with- out reluctance, receive the story as a testimony to his practical wisdom in accepting any kind of honest occupation in preference to starvation or mendicancy, and cheerfully making the best of the circumstances by which he was surrounded. The tale is related by several writers, but per- haps the best version is the one recorded by Dr. Johnson, in 1765, in the following terms, "in the time of Elizabeth, coaches being yet uncommon and hired coaches not at all in use, those who were too proud, too tender or too idle to walk, went on horseback to any distant business or diversion ; many came on horse- back to the play, and when Shakespeare fled to London from the terror of a criminal prosecution, his first expedient was to wait at the door of the play-house, and hold the horses of those that had no servants that they might be ready again after the performance; in this office he became so conspicuous for his care and readiness, that in a short time every man as he alighted called OUTLINES. 73 for Will Shakespeare, and scarcely any other waiter was trusted with a horse while Will Shakespeare could be had ; this was the first dawn of better fortune ; Shakespeare, finding more horses put into his hand than he could hold, hired boys to wait under his inspection, who, when Will Shakespeare was summoned, were immediately to present themselves, ' I am Shakespeare's boy, sir ;' in time Shakespeare found higher employment, but as long as the practice of riding to the play-house continued the waiters that held the horses retained the appellation of Shakespeare's Boys." Dr. John- son received this anecdote from Pope, to whom it had been communicated by Rowe ; and it appears from a statement in the Lives of the Poets, 1753, that it reached the last-named writer through Betterton and Davenant. It has been and is the fashion with most biographers to discredit the horse tradition entirely, but that it was originally related by Sir William Davenant, and belongs in some form to the earlier half of the seventeenth century, cannot reasonably be doubted. The circumstance of the anecdote being founded upon the daily practice of numerous gentlemen riding to the theatres, a custom obsolete after the Restoration, is sufficient to establish the 74 OUTLINES. antiquity of the story. In a little volume of epigrams by Sir John Davis, printed at Middle- borough in or about the year 1599, a man of inferior position is ridiculed for being constantly on horseback, imitating in that respect persons of higher rank, " He rides into the fieldes playes to behold." Ben Jonson, in the Induction to Cynthia's Revels, first acted in the year 1600, also alludes to the ordinary use of horses by visitors to theatres (Workes, ed. 1616, p. 184) ; so does Decker in his Guls Home-book, 1609 ; and a later reference to the practice occurs in Brome's Court Beggar, a comedy acted at Drury-Lane Theatre in the year 1632. Many writers have rejected the tradition mainly on the ground that, although it was known to Rowe, he does not allude to it in his Life of Shakespeare, 1 709 ; but there is no improbability in the supposition that the story was not related to him until after the publication of that work, the second edition of which in 1714 is a mere reprint of the first. Other reasons for the omission may be suggested, but even if it be conceded that the anecdote was rejected as suspicious and improbable, that circumstance alone cannot be decisive against the opinion that there may be a particle of truth in it. This is, indeed, all that is contended for. Few OUTLINES. 75 would be disposed to accept the story literally as related by Johnson, but when it is considered that the tradition must be a very early one, that its genealogy is respectable, and that it harmonizes with the general old belief of the great poet having, when first in London, sub- sisted by "very mean employments," little doubt can fairly be entertained that it has at least in some way or other a foundation in real occurrences. It should also be remembered that horse-stealing was one of the very commonest offences of the period, and one which was probably stimulated by the facility with which delinquents of that class obtained pardons. The safe custody of a horse was a matter of serious import, and a person who had satis- factorily fulfilled such a trust would not be lightly estimated. It is important to observe that all the early traditions, to which any value can be attached, concur in the belief that Shakespeare did not leave his native town with histrionic intention. Even in the absence of those evidences, although it might not necessarily, still it might, and most likely would, be a fallacy to assume that his dramatic tastes impelled him to undertake an arduous and premeditated journey to encounter the risk of an engagement at a metropolitan 79 OUTLINES. theatre, however powerfully they may have influenced his choice of a profession after he had once arrived in London. For, residing throughout his youth in what may fairly be considered a theatrical neighbourhood, with continual facilities for the cultivation of those tastes, if he had yielded in his boyish days to an impulsive fascination for the stage, it is most likely that he would in some way have joined the profession while its doors were readily accessible through one of the numerous itinerant companies, and before, not after, such inclina- tions must have been in some measure restrained by the local domestic ties that resulted from his marriage. If he had left Stratford-on-Avon in his early youth, there would be no difficulty in understanding that he became one of the elder player's boys or apprentices, but it is extremely unlikely that, at the age of twenty-one, he would have voluntarily left a wife and three children in Warwickshire for the sake of obtaining a miserable position on the London boards. It is not, therefore, requisite to assume that Shakespeare rushed in the first instance to the theatre or its neighbourhood in search of employment, and a plausible explanation can be given of the circumstances which led him OUTLINES. 77 to the occupation mentioned in the Davenant anecdote. It appears that James Burbage, the owner of the Theatre, rented premises close by Smithfield in which he " usually kept horses at liverye for sundry persons ;" his assistant, or rather manager, of the stable being "a north- erne man usually called by the name of Robyn," possibly the same individual whose life was afterwards sacrificed by the unfortunate rise in the price of oats. If the course adopted by Sadler on his arrival in London was, as is most likely, the one also taken by the poet, the latter would at once have proceeded to Smithfield to obtain the best price for the horse which carried him to the metropolis, the further retention of the animal being no doubt beyond his means. He might readily upon this occasion have be- come acquainted with James Burbage, at a time when he was desirous of obtaining any kind of situation that presented itself, the tradition lead- ing to the inference that he was engaged by the latter to act in some equine capacity. If so, one of his duties would have been the care, during the performances, of the horses of those of Burbage's Smithfield customers who visited the theatre. This enterprising manager was also the landlord of a tavern in Shoreditch, where it is possible that his own horses may have been 78 OUTLINES. kept. He must, at all events, have been just the kind of person to be ready to take an active and intelligent rustic into his service, without being too inquisitive respecting the history of the young man's antecedents, The transition from the stable and the fields to the interior of the theatre may not have been long deferred, but all the evidences unite in affirming that Shakespeare entered the latter in a very humble capacity. The best authority on this point is one William Castle, who was the parish -clerk of Stratford-on-Avon during nearly all the latter part of the seventeenth century, and used to tell visitors that the poet " was re- ceived into the playhouse as a serviture," in other words, an attendant on the performers. A later account is somewhat more explicit. We are informed by Malone, writing in 1 780, that there was "a- stage tradition that his first office in the theatre was that of prompter's attendant, whose employment it is to give the performers notice to be ready to enter as often as the busi- ness of the play requires their appearance on the stage ; " nor can the future eminence of Shakespeare be considered to be opposed to the reception of the tradition. " I have known men within my remembrance," observes Downes, in 1710, "arrive to the highest dignities of the OUTLINES. 79 theatre, who made their entrance in the quality of mutes, joint-stools, flower-pots, and tapestry- hangings." The office of prompter's attendant was at least as respectable as any of the occu- pations which are here enumerated. No one has recorded the name of the first theatre with which Shakespeare was connected, but if, as is almost certain, he came to London in or soon after the year 1585, there were at the time of his arrival only two in the metropolis, both of them on the north of the Thames. The earliest legitimate theatre on the south was the Rose, the erection of which was contemplated in the year 1587, but it would seem from Hens- lowe's Diary that the building was not opened till early in 1592. The circus at Paris Garden, though perhaps occasionally used for dramatic performances, was not a regular theatre. Ad- mitting, however, the possibility that companies of players could have hired the latter establish- ment, there is good reason for concluding that Southwark was not the locality alluded to in the Davenant tradition. The usual mode of transit for those Londoners who desired to attend theatrical performances in Southwark, was cer- tainly by water. The boatmen of the Thames were perpetually asserting at a somewhat later period that their living depended on the con- SO OUTLINES. tinuance of the Southwark, and the suppression of the London, theatres. Some few of the courtly members of the audience, perhaps for the mere sake of appearances, might occasionally have arrived at their destination on horseback, having taken what would be to most of them the circuitous route over London Bridge ; but the large majority would select the more convenient passage by boat. The Southwark audiences mainly consisted of Londoners, for in the then sparsely inhabited condition of Kent and Surrey very few could have arrived from those counties. The number of riders to the Bankside theatres must, therefore, always have been very limited, too much so for the remunerative employment of horse-holders, whose services would be re- quired merely in regard to the still fewer persons who were unattended by their lackeys. The only theatres upon the other side of the Thames, when the poet arrived in London, were the Theatre and the Curtain, for, notwithstanding some apparent testimonies to the contrary, the Blackfriars' Theatre, as will be afterwards shown, was not then in existence. It was to the Theatre or to the Curtain that the satirist al- luded when he speaks of the fashionable youth riding " into the fieldes playes to behold." Both these theatres were situated in the parish of OUTLINES. 8 1 Shoreditch, in the fields of the Liberty of Halli- well, in which locality, if the Davenant tradition is in the slightest degree to be trusted, Shake- speare must have commenced his metropolitan life. This new career, however, was initiated not absolutely in London, but in a thinly popu- lated outskirt about half a mile from the city walls, a locality possessing outwardly the ap- pearance of a country village, but inwardly sus- taining much of the bustle and all the vices of the town. These latter inconveniences could easily be avoided, for there were in the neigh- bouring meadows ample opportunities for quiet meditation or scientific enquiry. Here it was that Gerard, the celebrated botanist, a few years afterwards stumbled upon a new kind of crow- foot which he describes as being similar to the ordinary plant, " saving that his leaves are fat- ter, thicker, and greener, and his small twiggie stalkes stand upright, otherwise it is like ; of which kinde it chanced that, walking in the fielde next unto the Theater by London, in com- pany of a worshipfull marchant named master Nicholas Lete, I founde one of this kinde there with double flowers, which before that time I had not scene," the Herball, 1597, p. 804. Thus Shakespeare's observation of our wild flowers was not necessarily limited, as has been sup- 6 82 OUTLINES. posed, to his provincial experiences, two of the principal theatres with which he was connected having been situated in a rural suburb, and green fields being throughout his life within an easy walk from any part of London. Shakespeare's early theatrical life must have been an era of pecuniary struggles. There were his wife and children to support, at all events partially, even if some kind of assistance were tendered by the Hathaways ; while his father had been in difficulties for several years past. In 1578, his parents had borrowed the sum of ^40, on the security of his mother's estate of Asbies, from their connection, Edmund Lambert of Barton-on-the- Heath. The loan remaining unpaid, and the mortgagee dying in March, 1587, his son and heir, John, was naturally desirous of having the matter settled. John Shakespeare being at that time in prison for debt, and obviously unable to furnish the money, it was arranged shortly afterwards that Lambert should, on cancelling the mortgage and paying also the sum of 20, receive from the Shakespeares an absolute title to the estate. This offer would perhaps not have been made had it not been ascertained that the eldest son, William, had a contingent interest, derived no doubt from a settlement, and that his assent was OUTLINES. 83 essential to the security of a conveyance. The proposed arrangement was not completed, but the record of the poet's sanction to it is an interesting evidence that no estrangement be- tween his parents and himself had followed the circumstances which led him to the metropolis. It clearly appears from the account given by Rowe, that Shakespeare returned to his native town after the dangers from the Lucy prosecution had subsided. The same writer informs us that the visit occurred subsequently to his junction with one of the theatrical com- panies. The exact dates of these events are unknown, but it is not likely that he would have ventured into Sir Thomas's neighbour- hood for a considerable time after his escapade. Country justices wielded in those days tremen- dous power in adjudication on minor offences. There were no newspapers to carry the intel- ligence of provincial tyranny to the ears of a sensitive public opinion, and there is no doubt that a youth in Shakespeare's position, who had dared to lampoon the most influential magistrate of the locality, would have been for some time in a critical position. It is, therefore, not prob- able that the poet would be found again at Stratford-on-Avon before the year 1587, and then we have, in the Lambert episode, a sub- 62 84 OUTLINES. stantial reason for believing that he had at that time a conference with his parents on the sub- ject of the Asbies mortgage. The sum of ^20, equivalent to at least ^"240 of our present money, to be paid in cash by Lambert, would have been an element of serious importance to them all in their then financial circumstances. It must have been a subject for anxious deliberation, one that could hardly have been arranged without a per- sonal interview, and, in the presence of Rowe's testimony, it may fairly be assumed that the meeting took place at Stratford, not in London. In the same year, 1587, an unusual number of companies of actors visited Stratford-on- Avon, including the Queen's Players and those of Lords Essex, Leicester, and Stafford. This circumstance has given rise to a variety of speculations respecting the company to which the poet may then have belonged ; but the fact is that we are destitute of any information, and have no relative means of forming an opinion on the subject. Even if it be conceded that Burbage's theatre was the first with w r hich Shakespeare was connected, no progress is made in the enquiry. That personage, who had retired from the stage, was in the habit of letting the building to any public entertainers who would remunerate him either in cash or OUTLIM ..-. 85 by a share of profits. There was no establish- ment at that time devoted for a long continu- ous period to the use of a single company. It is, however, all but certain that the favourite theory of Shakespeare having been one of the Queen's servants at this period is incorrect, for his name is not found in the official list belonging to the following year ; so that, if he was connected in any way with them, he could at the latter date have been merely one of the underlings who were not in a posi- tion of sufficient importance to be included in the register. With the single exception of the absence of his name from that list, no evidence whatever has been discovered to warrant a con- jecture on the subject. But although there is no reason for believing that he was ever one of the royal actors, we may be sure that he must have witnessed, either at Stratford or London, some of the inimitable performances of the company's star, the celebrated Richard Tarlton. This individual, the " pleasant Willy" of Spen- ser, who died in September, 1588, was the most popular comedian of the day, one of those in- stinctive humourists who have merely to show their faces to be greeted with roars of merri- ment. It may have been, when the part of Derick, the clown, was in his hands, that Shake- 86 OUTLINES. speare became acquainted with the Famous Victories of Henry the Fifth, a lively play, some of the incidents of which he unquestion- ably recollected when composing his histories of that sovereign and his predecessor. There was another drama that was played in London about the same time, one in which Tarlton's personation of a dissolute youth was singularly popular and long remembered. In this latter was a death-bed scene, a notice of which may be worth giving as an example of the dramatic incidents that our ancestors relished in the poet's early days : A wealthy father, in the last extremity of illness, communicates his tes- tamentary intentions to his three sons. His landed estates are allotted to the eldest, who, overcome with emotion, expresses a fervent wish that the invalid may yet survive to enjoy them himself. TQ the next, who is a scholar, are left a handsome annuity and a very large sum of money for the purchase of books. Af- fected equally with his brother, he declares that he has no wish for such gifts, and only hopes that the testator may live to enjoy them himself. The third son, represented by Tarlton, was now summoned to the bed-side, and a gro- tesque figure he must have appeared in a cos- tume which is described by an eye-witness as OUTLINES. 87 including a torn and dirty shirt, a one-sleeved coat, stockings out at heels, and a head-dress of feathers and straw. "As for you, sirrah," quoths the indignant parent, " you know how often I have fetched you out of Newgate and Bridewell ; you have been an ungracious villain ; I have nothing to bequeath to you but the gallows and a rope." Following the example of the others, Tarlton bursts into a flood of tears, and then, falling on his knees, sobbingly exclaims, " O, father, I do not desire them ; I trust to Heaven you shall live to enjoy them yourself." It may be gathered, from the poet's subse- quent history, that his return to Stratford-on- Avon was merely of a temporary character. The actors of those days were, as a rule, individual wanderers, spending a large portion of their time at a distance from their families ; and there is every reason for believing that this was the case with Shakespeare from the period of his arrival in London until nearly the end of his life. All the old theatrical companies were more or less of an itinerant character, and it is all but impossible that he should not have already commenced his provincial tours. But what were their directions, or who were his associates, have not been discovered. There is 88 OUTLINES. not, indeed, a single particle of evidence re- specting his career during the next five years, that is to say, from the time of the Lambert negociation, in 1587, until he is discovered as a rising actor and dramatist in 1592. This interval must have been the chief period of Shakespeare's literary education. Removed prematurely from school ; residing with illiterate relatives in a bookless neighbour- hood ; thrown into the midst of occupations adverse to scholastic progress it is difficult to believe that, when he first left Stratford, he was not all but destitute of polished accomplish- ments. He could not, at all events, under the circumstances in which he had then so long been placed, have had the opportunity of acquiring a refined style of composition. After he had once, however, gained a footing in London, he would have been placed under different condi- tions. Books of many kinds would have been accessible to him, and he would have been almost daily within hearing of the best dra- matic poetry of the age. There would also no doubt have been occasional facilities for picking up a little smattering of the continental languages, and it is almost beyond a doubt that he added somewhat to his classical knowledge during his residence in the metropolis. It is, OUTLINES. 89 for instance, hardly possible that the A mores of Ovid, whence he derived his earliest motto, could have been one of his school-books. Although Shakespeare had exhibited a taste for poetic composition before his first departure from Stratford-on-Avon, all traditions agree in the statement that he was a recognized actor before he joined the ranks of the dramatists. This event appears to have occurred on the third of March, 1592, when a new drama, en- titled Henry, or Harry, the Sixth, was brought out by Lord Strange's Servants, then acting either at Newington or Southwark under an arrangement with Henslowe, a wealthy stage manager, to whom no doubt the author had sold the play. In this year, as we learn on unques- tionable authority, Shakespeare was first rising into prominent notice, so that the history then produced, now known as the First Part of Henry the Sixth, was, in all probability, his earliest complete dramatic work. Its extraor- dinary success must have secured for the author a substantial position in the theatrical world of the day. The play had, for those times, an un- usually long run, so that Nash, writing in or before the following month of July, states that the performances of it had, in that short inter- val, been witnessed by " ten thousand spectators 9O OUTLINES. at least," and, although this estimate may be overstrained, there can be no hesitation in re- ceiving it as a valid testimony to the singular popularity of the new drama, The Second Part of Henry the Sixth must have appeared soon afterwards, but no record of its production on the stage has been preserved. The former drama was published for the first time in the collective edition of 1623. A garbled and spurious version of the second play, the un- skilful work of some one who had not access to a perfect copy of the original, appeared in the year 1594 under the title of the First Part of the Contention betwixt the Houses of York and Lancaster. It was published by Millington, the same bookseller who afterwards issued the surreptitious edition of Henry the Fifth. Robert Greene, a distinguished prose writer and dramatist, who had commenced his literary career nine years previously, died on the third of September, 1592. In a work entitled the Groatsworth of Wit, written shortly before his death, he had travestied, in an interesting sar- castic episode respecting some of his contem- poraries, a line from one of Shakespeare's then recent compositions, O, tiger s heart, wrapped in a woman s hide ! This line is of extreme interest as including the earliest record of words OUTLINES. 91 composed by the great dramatist. It forms part of a vigorous speech which is as Shakespearean in its natural characterial fidelity, as it is Mar- lowean in its diction. This speech of the unfortunate Duke of York's is one of the most striking in the play, and the above special line was probably selected for quotation by Greene on account of its popularity through effective delivery. The quotation shows that the Third Part of Henry the Sixth was written previously to September, 1592, and hence it may be con- cluded that all Shakespeare's plays on the subject of that reign, although perhaps subse- quently revised in a few places by the author, were originally produced in that yean A sur- reptitious and tinkered version of the Third Part, made up by an inferior hand chiefly out of imperfect materials, appeared in 1595 under the title of the Tragedy of Richard Duke of York, and therein stated to have been " sundry times acted by the Earl of Pembroke's servants." There is no reason for wonder in the style of a young author being influenced by that of a popular and accomplished contemporary, and judgment on the authorship of much of the above-named plays should not be ruled by a criticism which can only fairly be applied to the rapidly approaching period when the great 92 OUTLINES. dramatist had outlived the possibility of appear- ing in the character of an imitative writer. That Shakespeare commenced his literary vo- cation as, to some extent, a follower of Marlowe can hardly be denied, even were the line quoted by Greene the only remnant of his early plays ; and that the three parts of Henry the Sixth had been some years on the stage, when Henry the Fifth was produced in 1 599, may be gathered from that interesting relic of literary autobio- graphy, the final chorus to the latter play. The theory which best agrees with the positive evi- dences is that which concedes the authorship of the three plays to Shakespeare, their production to the year 1592, and the quarto editions of the Second and Third Parts as vamped, imperfect, and blundering versions of the poet's own original dramas. The Groatsworth of Wit was published very soon after the unfortunate writer's decease, that is to say, it appeared towards the end of Sep- tember, 1592; and it is clear that one portion of it had been composed under the influence of a profound jealousy of Shakespeare. Greene is addressing his fellow-dramatists, and speaking of the actors of their plays, thus introduces his satirical observations on the author of the Third Part of Henry the Sixth, with a travesty of the OUTLINES. 93 line above mentioned, " trust them not, for there is an upstart crow, beautfied with our feathers, that with his Tygera heart wrapt in a Players hide, supposes he is as well able to bumbast out a blanke verse as the best of you ; and being an absolute Johannes factotum, is in his owne conceit the onely Shake-scene in a countrie." It was natural that these impertinent remarks should have annoyed the object of them, and that they were so far effective may be gathered from an interesting statement made by the editor, Henry Chettle, in a work of his own, entitled Kind-Heart's Dream, that he published a few weeks afterwards, in which he specially regrets that the attack had proved offensive to Shakespeare, whom, he observes, "at that time I did not so much spare as since I wish I had, for that, as I have moderated the heate of living writers, and might have usde my owne discretion, especially in such a case, the author beeing dead, that I did not I am as sory as if the originall fault had beene my fault, because myselfe have seene his demeanor no lesse civill than he exelent in the qualitie he professes ; besides, divers of worship have reported his uprightnes of dealing, which argues his honesty, and his facetious grace in writing, that aprooves his art." Apologies of this kind are so apt to be 94 OUTLINES. overstrained that we can hardly gather more from the present one than the respectable position Shakespeare held as a writer and actor, and that Chettle, having made his aquaintance, was desirous of keeping friends with one who was beginning to be appreciated by the higher classes of society. The annoyance, however, occasioned by Greene's posthumous criticism was soon forgotten by the poet amidst the triumphs of his subsequent career. Removing now the scene of our fragmentary history from the metropolis to the country, we find, at the time of Greene's lampoonry, the poet's father busily engaged with his counters in appraising the goods of one Henry Field, a tanner of Stratford-on-Avon, whose inventory, attached to his will, was taken in August, 1592. This tradesman's son, Richard, who was ap- prenticed to a printer in London in the year 1579, took up his freedom in 1587, and soon afterwards commenced business on his own account, an elegant copy of Ovid's Metamor- phoses, 1589, being amongst the numerous works that issued from his press. It is most likely, indeed all but certain, that Shakespeare participated in his father's acquaintance with the printer's relatives, and at all events there was the provincial tie, so specially dear to OUTLINES. 95 Englishmen when at a distance from the town of their birth, between the poet and Richard Field. When, therefore, the latter is dis- covered, early in the year 1593, engaged in the production of Venus and Adonis, it is only reasonable to infer that the author had a control over the typographical arrangements. The purity of the text and the nature of the dedica- tion may be thought to strengthen this opinion, and although poems were not then generally introduced to the public in the same glowing terms usually accorded to dramatic pieces, the singularly brief and anonymous title-page does not bear the appearance of a publisher's handy- work. Field, however, registered the copyright to himself on April the i8th, and the work was offered for sale, at the White Greyhound in St. Paul's Churchyard, by his friend, John Harrison, the publisher of the first three editions, and who next year became the owner both of the Venus and Lucrece. It may be well to record that the publication had what was probably the vicarious sanction of no less an individual than the Arch- bishop of Canterbury, who, although no Puritan, would scarcely have considered its exquisite versification sufficient to atone for its voluptuous character. The poem of Venus and Adonis, which was 96 OUTLINES. favorably received and long continued to be the most popular book of the kind, is termed by the author " the first heir of my invention." If these words are to be literally interpreted, it must have been written in or before the year 1592; but Shakespeare maybe referring only to works of a strictly poetical character, which were then held in far higher estimation than dramatic compositions. However that may be, the oft-repeated belief that Venus and Adonis was a production of his younger days at Strat- ford-on-Avon can hardly be sustained. It is extremely improbable that an epic, so highly finished and so completely devoid of patois, could have been produced under the circum- stances of his then domestic surroundings, while, moreover, the notion is opposed to the best and earliest traditional opinions. It is also to be observed that there is nothing in the Dedication in favour of such a conjecture, although the fact, had it been one, would have formed a ready and natural defence against the writer's obvious timidity. The work was inscribed, apparently without permission, to Lord South- ampton, a young nobleman then only in his twentieth year, who about this time had com- menced to exhibit a special disposition to encourage the rising authors of the metropolis. OUTLINES. 97 Literature, in Shakespeare's time, was nearly the only passport of the lower and middle class to the countenance and friendship of the great. It was no wonder that the poet, in days when interest was all but omnipotent, should have wished to secure the advantages that could hardly fail to be derived from a special associa- tion with an individual in the favoured position, and with the exceptionally generous character, of Lord Southampton. Wealthy, accomplished and romantic, with a temperament that could listen to a metrical narrative of the follies of Venus without yielding to hysterics, the young nobleman was presumably the most eligible dedicatee that Shakespeare could have desired for the introduction of his first poem to the literary world. It is evident, however, that, when he was penning the inscription to Venus and Adonis, whatever presentiment he may have entertained on the subject, he was by no means sure that his lordship would give a friendly reception to, much less so that he would be gratified by, the intended compliment. But all doubts upon these points were speedily removed, and little more than a twelvemonth elapsed before the poet is found warmly at- tached to Lord Southampton, and eagerly- taking the opportunity, in his second address, 98 OUTLINES. of tendering his gratitude for favours conferred in the interval. In the winter-season of 1593-4, Shake- speare's earliest tragedy, which was, unfor- tunately, based on a repulsive tale, was brought out by the Earl of Sussex's actors, who were then performing, after a tour in the provinces, at one of the Surrey theatres. They were either hired by, or playing under some financial arrangement with, Henslowe, who, after the representation of a number of revivals, ventured upon the production of a drama on the story of Titus Andronicus, the only new play introduced during the season. This tragedy, having been successfully produced before a large audience on January the 23rd, 1594, was shortly afterwards entered on the books of the Stationers' Company and published by Danter. It was also performed, almost if not quite simultaneously, by the servants of the Earls of Derby and Pembroke. Thus it appears that Shakespeare, up to this period, had written all his dramas for Henslowe, and that they were acted, under the sanction of that manager, by the various companies performing from 1592 to 1594 at the Rose Theatre and Newington Butts. The acting copies of Titus Andronicus and the three parts of Henry the OUTLINES. 99 Sixth must of course have been afterwards transferred by Henslowe to the Lord Cham- berlain's company. Hideous and repulsive as the story of Tamora and the Andronici is now considered, it was anything but repugnant to the taste of the general public in Henslowe's day. Neither was it regarded as out of the pale of the legiti- mate drama by the most cultivated, otherwise so able a scholar and critic as Meres would hardly, several years after the appearance of Titus Andronicus, have inserted its title amongst those of the noteworthy tragedies of Shake- speare. The audiences of Elizabeth's time revelled in the very crudity of the horrible, so much so that nearly every kind of bodily torture and mutilation, or even more revolting incidents, formed part of the stock business of the theatre. Murders were in special request in all kinds of serious dramas. Wilson, one of Lord Leicester's servants, was thought in 1581 to be just the person to write a play then urgently desired, which was not only to " be original and amusing," but was also to include "plenty of mystery," and ".be full of all sorts of murders, immorality, and robberies." Nor was the taste for the predominance of the worst kind of sensational incidents restricted to the public 72 100 OUTLINES. stage, as any one may see who will care to peruse the Misfortunes of Arthur, produced with great flourish by the students of Gray's Inn in 1588. This deplorable fancy was nearly in its zenith at the time of the production of Titus Andronicus. In the same year, 1594, there was published The Tragicall Raigne of Selimus, Emperour of the Turkes, a composition offering similar attractions, but the writer was so afraid of his massacres being considered too insipid, he thus reveals his misgivings to the audience, If this First Part, gentles, do like you well, The Second Part shall greater murders tell. The character of the theatrical speculations of Henslowe was obviously influenced, in com- mon with that of nearly all managers, by the current tastes of the public, and, in an age like the one now spoken of, is it wonderful that he should have considered the story of Titus Andronicus a fit theme for the dramatist? Is it also marvellous that Shakespeare, a young author then struggling into position, should not have felt it his duty, on aesthetic grounds, to reject an offer the acceptance of which invited no hostile criticism, while it opened out a prospect of material advantages ? Henslowe's judgment, regulated by thoughts of the money OUTLINES. 101 box, not by those of attempted reforms of the stage, were no doubt in his own opinion amply justified by the result. A certain deference to the expectations of a popular audience is, indeed, nearly always essential to the continuous support of a theatre, and it is not unlikely that the very incidents now so offensive were those which mainly contributed to the success of the tragedy. As for the poet's share in the transaction, we are too apt to consider it indefensible under any measure of temptation, without reflecting to what extent a familiarity with representative hor- rors might produce an unconscious indifference to their ghastliness, even in the tenderest of natures. Such horrors belong to the taste of the age, not to that of the individual. We must try to reconcile ourselves, as best we may, to the obvious fact that Shakespeare did not always consider it necessary to deviate from the course of his foundation-tales for the sake of avoiding the barbarities of the ancient stage. Had it been otherwise, the story of Titus Andronicus might have been purified, and we also mercifully spared from a contemplation of the appalling eye-scene in the tragedy of Lear. It cannot be absolutely observed of Shake- speare, as it has been of another great poet, that he woke up one morning to discover that he 102 OUTLINES. was famous, but there is reason for believing that the publication of his Lucrece, in the May of this year, almost immediately secured for its author a higher reputation than would then have been established by the most brilliant efforts of dramatic art. This magnificient poem, which was originally proposed to be entitled the Ra- vishment of Lucrece, must have been written after the Dedication to Venus and Adonis, and before the entry of the former work at Sta- tioners' Hall, that is to say, at some time between April, 1593, and May, 1594. There can be no doubt of the estimation in which it was held in the year of publication, the author of an elegy on Lady Helen Branch, 1594, including amongst our greater poetes, " You that have writ of chaste Lucretia, = whose death was witnesse of her spotlesse life;" and Drayton, in his Matilda, of the same date, speaking of Lucrece, " lately reviv'd to live another age." Shakespeare's new poem is also mentioned in Willobie's Avisa, published in September, 1594, the earliest contemporary work in which he is introduced by name ; and in the following year, "Lucrecia Sweet Shake- speare," is a marginal note to Polimanteia, 1595, one which implies that it was then considered his best work. Later references testify its con- OUTLINES. 103 tinued appreciation, and it was received as the perfect exposition of woman's chastity, a sequel, or rather perhaps a companion, to the earlier one of her profligacy. The contemporaries of Shakespeare allude more than once to the two poems as being his most important works, and as those on which his literary distinction chiefly rested. The prefixes to the Venus and Lucrece are, in the presence of so few biographical memorials, inestimable records of their author. The two dedications and the argument to the second work are the only non-dramatic prose compo- sitions of Shakespeare that have descended to modern times, while the former are, alas, the sole remaining samples of his epistolary writings. The latter are of course by far the more inter- esting, and, making allowances for the inordinate deference to rank which then prevailed, they are perfect examples of the judicious fusion of independence with courtesy in a suggestive application for a favour, and in expressions of gratitude for its concession. In the June of this same year, 1594, Titus Andronicus was performed at Newington Butts by the Lord Chamberlain's, then acting in con- junction with the Lord Admiral's, Servants. It is exceedingly probable that Shakespeare then 104 OUTLINES. belonged to the former company, and if so, the poet would have been one of the actors in the plays daily represented, Friday excepted, at the Newington Theatre from the third to the thirteenth of June in that year, in performances which included Marlowe's Jew of Malta, the old Tragedy of Hamlet, and the Taming of a Shrew. The earliest definite notice, however, of the poet's appearance on the stage, is one in which he is recorded as having been a player in two comedies that were acted before Queen Elizabeth in the following December, 1594, at Greenwich Palace. He was then described as one of the Lord Chamberlain's Servants, and was associated in the performances with Kemp and Burbage, the former of whom was the most favourite comedian of the day. It is not known to what company or companies Shake- speare belonged previously to his adhesion to the one last named ; but the probabilities are these. It is well ascertained that Henslowe was an exceedingly grasping manager, and it is, therefore, most unlikely that he would have speculated in new plays that were not intended for immediate use. We may then fairly assume that every drama composed for him would be, in the first instance, produced by the actors that occupied his theatre when the manuscript was OUTLINES. 105 purchased. Now, as Shakespeare was an actor as well as a dramatist, there is an inclination towards the belief that he would have been engaged at Henslowe's theatre when employed to write for that personage, and, if we accept the theory of early production, would have belonged to those companies by whom the first representations of his dramas were given. If this view be taken, it would appear that the poet was one of Lord Strange 's actors in March, 1592; one of Lord Pembroke's a few months later ; and that he had joined the company of the Earl of Sussex in or before January, 1 594. There were rare doings at Gray's Inn in the Christmas holidays of the year last mentioned. The students of that house had usually excelled in their festive arrangements, and this year they made preparations for revels on a scale of exceptional magnificence, sports that were to include burlesque performances, masques, plays and dances, as well as processions through London and on the Thames. A mock Court was held at the Inn under the presidency of one Henry Helmes, a Norfolk gentleman, who was elected Prince of Purpoole, the ancient name of the manor, other students being elected to serve under him in all the various offices then appertaining to royalty and government. 106 OUTLINES. The grand entertainment of all was arranged for the evening of Innocents' Day, December the 28th, on which occasion high scaffolds had been erected in the hall for the accommodation of the revellers and the principal guests, a large number of the latter having received invitations. Amongst the guests, the students of the Inner Temple, joining in the humour of their pro- fessional neighbours, and appearing as an em- bassy credited by their Emperor, arrived about nine o'clock " very gallantly appointed." The ambassador, we are told, was " brought in very solemnly, with sound of trumpets, the King at Arms and Lords of Purpoole making to his company, which marched before him in order ; he was received very kindly by the Prince, and placed in a chair beside his Highness, to the end that he might be partaker of the sports intended." Complimentary addresses were then exchanged between the Prince and the Ambassador, but, owing to defective arrange- ments for a limitation of the number of those entitled to admission on the stage, there followed a scene of confusion which ended in the Templarians retiring in dudgeon. " After their departure," as we are told in the original narrative, " the throngs and tumults did some- what cease, although so much of them con- OUTLINES. 107 tinued as was able to disorder and confound any good inventions whatsoever ; in regard whereof, as also for that the sports intended were especially for the gracing of the Tem- plarians, it was thought good not to offer any- thing of account saving dancing and revelling with gentlewomen ; and, after such sports, a Comedy of Errors, like to Plautus his Menech- mus, was played by the players ; so that night was begun and continued to the end in nothing but confusion and errors, whereupon it was ever afterwards called the Night of Errors." This is the earliest notice of the comedy which has yet been discovered, but that it was written before the year 1594 may be inferred from an allusion in it to the civil war for and against Henry the Fourth, the Protestant heir to the French throne, a contest which terminated in 1593- The spacious and elegant open-roofed hall of Gray's Inn, the erection of which was completed in the year 1560, is one of the only two buildings now remaining in London in which, so far as we know, any of the plays of Shakespeare were performed in his own time. In accordance with the then usual custom of the Inns of Court, professional actors were engaged for the re- presentation of the Comedy of Errors, and IO8 OUTLINES^ although their names are not mentioned, it may be safely inferred that the play was acted by the Lord Chamberlain's Company, that to which Shakespeare was then attached, and the owner of the copyright. The performance must have taken place very late on the night following the day in which the poet had had the honour of playing before Queen Elizabeth. On the next evening there was a Commission of Oyer and Terminer at Gray's Inn to enquire into the cir- cumstances of the misfortunes of the previous night, the cause of the tumult being assigned to the intervention of a sorcerer ; but it is hardly pleasant to be told, even in burlesque, that this personage was accused of having " foisted a company of base and common fellows to make up our disorders with a play of errors and con- fusions." The Comedy of Errors, the perfec- tion of dramatic farce, long continued an acting play, it having been performed before James the First on December the 28th, 1604. When Greene thought to be sarcastic in terming Shakespeare " an absolute Johannes Factotum," he furnished an independent and valuable testimony to the poet's conspicuous activity. It is but reasonable to assume that part of this energy in theatrical matters was devoted, in accordance with the ordinary practice OUTLINES. 109 of the time, to the revision and enlargement of the plays of others, work then assigned by managers to any convenient hands, without reference to sentimental views of authorial integrity. No record, however, has been dis- covered of the name of even one drama so treated by Shakespeare in the early period of his career, so that, if any such composition is preserved, the identification necessarily depends upon the tests of internal evidence. These are valueless in the chief direction, for there is surely not a known possible example in which is to be traced the incontestible supremacy of dramatic power that would on that account sanction the positive attribution of even one of its scenes to the pen of the great dramatist. Other tests, such as those of phraseology and mannerism, are nearly always illusory, but in an anonymous and popular drama entitled the Reign of King Edward the Third, produced in or before the year 1595, there are occasional passages which, by most judgments, will be accepted as having been written either by Shakespeare, or by an exceedingly dexterous and successful imitator of one of his then favourite styles of composition. For who but one or the other could have endowed a kind and gentle lady with the ability of replying to 110 OUTLINES. the impertinent addresses of a foolish sovereign in words such as these, As easy may my intellectual soul Be lent away, and yet my body live, As lend my body, palace to my soul, Away from her, and yet retain my soul My body is her bower, her court, her abbey And she an angel, pure, divine, unspotted ! If I should lend her house, my lord, to thee, I kill my poor soul, and my poor soul me. or have enabled the king, when instinctively acknowledging the dread effect of her beauty, to thus express a wish that " ugly treason " might lie, No farther off than her conspiring eye, Which shoots infected poison in my heart, Beyond repulse of wit or cure of art. Now in the sun alone it doth not lie, With light to take light from a mortal eye ; For here two day-stars, that mine eyes would see, More than the sun steal mine own light from me. Contemplative desire ! desire to be In contemplation that may master thee. or have made the royal secretary convey his impression of the lady's conquest in the following lines, I might perceive his eye in her eye lost, His ear to drink her sweet tongue's utterance ; And changing passion, like inconstant clouds, That rackt upon the carriage of the winds, OUTLINES. I I I Increase and die in his disturbed cheeks. Lo ! when she blush'd, even then did he look pale, As if her cheeks by some enchanted power, Attracted had the cherry blood from his. Anon, with reverent fear, when she grew pale, His cheeks put on their scarlet ornaments, But no more like her oriental red Than brick to coral, or live things to dead. but, as it is possible that Edward the Third was composed some time before the year 1595, it may, of course, be assumed that Shake- speare himself was the imitator, in his own acknowledged works, of the style of the writer of this anonymous play, or of that of some other author, the predecessor of both. Not one in fifty of the dramas of this period having descended to modern times, much of the reason- ing upon this and similar questions must be re- ceived with grave suspicion of its validity, and the exact history of the composition of the play above quoted will most likely remain for ever a mystery. If, however, it is thought probable that Shakespeare's career of imitation expired with his treading in some of the footsteps of Marlowe, and that he had not, at the latest time when Edward the Third could have appeared, achieved a popularity sufficient to attract imi- tators of his own style, then there will be the conclusion that his work is to be traced in parts 112 OUTLINES. of that historical drama. Every now and then one meets in it with passages, especially in the scenes referring to the King's infatuation for the Countess of Salisbury, which are so infi- nitely superior in composition to the rest of the play, and so exactly in Shakespeare's manner, this inference, under the above-named premises, can scarcely be avoided. Whether this view be accepted or not, Edward the Third will, under any circumstances, be indissolubly connected with the literary history of the great dramatist, for one of its lines is also found in his ninety- fourth sonnet. As the latter poem, even if it had been written as early as 1595, was not printed for many years afterwards, it is unlikely that the line in question could have been trans- planted from the sonnet into the play by any one but Shakespeare himself, who, however, might have reversed the operation, whether he were or were not the original author of the words. This is the passage in the drama in which the line of the sonnet is introduced, A spacious field of reasons could I urge Between his gloomy daughter and thy shame, That poison shows worst in a golden cup ; Dark night seems darker by the lightning flash ; Lilies that fester smell far worse than weeds ; And every glory that inclines to sin, The shame is treble by the opposite. OUTLINES. 113 In the summer of the year 1596, upon the death of the Lord Chamberlain on July the 22nd, the company of actors to which the poet belonged became the servants of the late Chamberlain's eldest son, Lord Hunsdon, and one of the first dramas selected by them, while in their new position, was Shakespeare's tragedy of Romeo and Juliet, which was produced at the Curtain Theatre and met with great success. Romeo and Juliet may be said, indeed, to have taken the metropolis by storm and to have become the play of the season. Its popularity led to the publication of an imperfect and piratical edition which issued from Danter's press in the following year. In 1599, Cuthbert Burby, a bookseller, whose shop was near the Royal Exchange, published the tragedy with the over- strained announcement that it had been " newly corrected, augmented and amended." This is the version of the drama which is now accepted, and it appears to be an authentic copy of the tragedy produced in 1596, after a few passages in the latter had been revised by the author. The long-continued popularity of Romeo and Juliet may be inferred from several early allusions and editions, as well as from the express testimony of Leonard Digges. An interesting tradition respecting one of the 8 114 OUTLINES. characters in this tragedy is recorded by Dryden, who observes that the great dramatist " showed the best of his skill in his Mercutio, and he said himself that he was forced to kill him in the third act, to prevent being killed by him." A severe domestic affliction marred the pleasure that the author might otherwise have derived from his last -mentioned triumph. His only son Hamnet, then in his twelfth year, died early in August, 1596, and was buried at Strat- ford-on Avon on the eleventh of that month. At the close of the year the poet also lost his uncle Henry, the farmer of Snitterfield, during the same Christmas holidays in which his com- pany had the honour of performing on two occasions before Queen Elizabeth at Whitehall Palace. No positive information on the subject has been recorded, but the few evidences there are lead to the belief that the Shakespeare family continued, throughout his life, to reside in his native town. They had not accompanied him in his first visit to the metropolis, and, from the circumstance of the burial of Hamnet at Stratford-on-Avon, it may be confidently in- ferred that they were living there at the time of the poor youth's decease. It is in the highest degree unlikely that they could have taken up OUTLINES. 115 an abode anywhere else but in London, and no hint is given of the latter having been the case. Let it also be borne in mind that Shakespeare's occupations debarred him from the possibility of his sustaining even an approach to a con- tinuous domestic life, so that, when his known attachment to Stratford is taken into considera- tion, it seems all but certain that his wife and children were but waiting there under economi- cal circumstances, perhaps with his parents in Henley Street, until he could provide them with a comfortable residence of their own. Every particular that is known indicates that he admitted no disgrace in the irresponsible persecution which occasioned his retreat to London, and that he persistently entertained the wish to make Stratford his and his family's only permanent home. This desire was too confirmed to be materially affected even by the death of his only son, for, shortly after that event, he is discovered taking a fancy to one of the largest houses in the town, and becoming its purchaser in the following year. At this time, 1596, he appears to have been residing, when in town, in lodgings near the Bear Garden in Southwark. There is preserved at the College of Arms the draft of a grant of coat-armour to John 82 Il6 OUTLINES. Shakespeare, dated in October, 1596, the result of an application made no doubt some little time previously. It may be safely inferred, from the unprosperous circumstances of the grantee, that this attempt to confer gentility on the family was made at the poet's expense. This is the first evidence we have of his rising pecuniary fortunes, and of his determination to advance in social position. Early in the year 1597, on New Year's Day, Twelfth Night, Shrove Sunday and Shrove Tuesday, Shakespeare's Company again per- formed before the Queen at Whitehall. In the summer they made a tour through Sussex and Kent, visiting Rye in August, and acting at Dover on the third of September. In their progress to the latter town, he who was here- after to be the author of Lear might have witnessed, and been impressed with, the sam- phire gatherers on the celebrated rock that was afterwards to be regarded the type of Edgar's imaginary precipice. By the end of the same month they had quitted the southern counties, and travelled westward as far as Bristol. In the spring of this year the poet made his first investment in realty by the purchase of New Place, consisting of a mansion and grounds in the centre of the town of Stratford-on-Avon. OUTLINES. 117 Facsimile of the list of holders of corn in the Ward of Strat- ford-on-Avon in which New Place was situated, from the original manuscript return dated in February, 1598. Shakespeare's name is introduced as the owner of ten quarters of corn, that entry being the earliest notice of him in the capacity of a householder. 6 li (flf-Lvnc^fc , / / -> 701 - <4J oin i i .1 I to him for /"6o, a moderate sum for so considerable a property, Inn th<- residem e was < rih'-d in i ^.\> t a* Ix-in;; thru " in tfivai ni) IK- ami shal-.rspeare. There arc reasons lor l>< -li-\ in;; that it was renovated l>y the new owner. I lowever liinil' -.1 may h.r. < I ><' n 1 1 1< < h.irac ter of the poet's visits to lu's native town, there is no doubt that !\v\v Place was hencHor- to be accepted as his established reside me. Marly in the lnll<>wintf year, on February tin- .|th, I 598, COm beiii". lh. n at an impx ( ( denied ami almott famine! price ai Si i.ii lord-on-Avon, In- is rrtmiK (I ; ,s ilir h(.ld i^!fOK 3 t^ii? f^^cPriJh J l^S < ^ ^L a\^L ^ *79 LlPr\iirr'< 54*4 rl^M^t^i^ ^^^t-Ki^il^ ^7>?!-IW*j54 Jfc^Hi ^ u ;* ^ j 1^ ^4 j v i ^ j ? - j J^S. > ^ OUTLINES. [45 but there are mysterious allusions towards the close of the letter which indicate that the loan was to be obtained through another person, the poet's security to the last being an essential consideration in the arrangement. If it were otherwise, why should Quiney be so anxious to mention that Shakespeare will " neither lose credit nor money " by the affair ; or why should he wish to " content his friend; " or why should he promise him, if they negociated other matters, that " you shall be the paymaster yourself." It is certain that the great dramatist had at this period not only money, but more opportunities for the transaction of monetary business than were accessible to his country friends ; for, on the very day that Quiney applied to him for this personal loan, the former writes to his brother-in-law at Stratford-on-Avon to inform him that Shakespeare had undertaken to nego- tiate an advance of money to the Corporation. "Your letter of the 25th of October," writes Sturley to Quiney on November the 4th, 1598, " came to my hands the last of the same at night per Greenway, which imported that our countryman, Mr. William Shakespeare, would procure us money, which I will like of as I shall hear when and where and how ; and I pray let not go that occasion, if it may sort to any indifferent 10 146 OUTLINES. conditions." The Greenway here mentioned was the Stratford carrier, the good people of that town being well contented in those days if they received letters from the metropolis once in a week. The Richard Quiney, to whom Shakespeare was a " loving countryman " and friend, was descended from his namesake, the Master of the Guild of Stratford-on-Avon in the time of Henry the Eighth. His grandfather Adrian and his father Richard were well-to-do mercers of the same town, persons of that occupation then dealing, at least in Warwickshire, not only in silk and cloth, but in such miscellaneous articles as ginger, sugar, and red-lead. Throughout the reign of Elizabeth the Quineys were influential members of the Corporation, and were thus brought into contact with the poet's father during the official career of the latter. In January, 1572, John Shakespeare was nomi- nated, in conjunction with Adrian Quiney, then bailiff, to undertake the management of some important legal business connected with the affairs of the borough. It was this Adrian to whom the great dramatist, in 1598, apparently communicated his intention of negociating for the purchase of land at Shottery. Richard Quiney, who married in 1580 the daughter and OUTLINES. 147 sole heiress of one Thomas Philipps, another of the Stratford mercers, was bailiff in 1592-1593 and again in 1601-1602, dying in the year last mentioned after a few weeks' illness, and before his term of office had expired. After his de- cease, his widow, Elizabeth, kept a tavern, and in her house no doubt were opportunities for her friend, Judith Shakespeare, seeing much of her future husband, with whom, indeed, she must have been acquainted from childhood. It may be worth mentioning that, in common at that time with most ladies of their position, neither Mrs. Quiney nor her future daughter- in-law could even write their own names. There were no free-schools for girls, and home education was, as a rule, the privilege of a section of the higher classes ; so when Judith Shakespeare was invited in December, 1611, to be a subscribing witness to two instruments respecting a house at the south-east corner of Wood Street, then being sold by Mrs. Quiney to one William Mountford for the large sum of ^131, in both instances her attestations were executed with marks. The comedy of the Merchant of Venice, the plot of which was either grounded on that of an older drama, or formed out of tales long familiar to the public, was represented with 10 2 148 OUTLINES. success in London in or before the month of July, 1598. It then had another title, being " otherwise called the Jew of Venice," and a bookseller named Roberts endeavoured to se- cure the consent of the Lord Chamberlain to its publication, but without success, for upwards of two years elapsed before the earliest editions of the comedy appeared. It continued for a long time to be one of the acting plays of the Lord Chamberlain's company, and, as lately as 1605, it attracted the favourable notice of James the First, who was so much pleased with one performance, that he ordered a repetition of it two days afterwards. One of the most interesting of the recorded events of Shakespeare's life occurred in the present year. In September, 1598, Ben Jon- son's famous comedy of Every Man in his Humor was produced by the Lord Chamber- lain's company, and there is every probability that both writer and manager were indebted for its acceptance to the sagacity of the great dramatist, who was one of the leading actors on the occasion. " His acquaintaince with Ben Jonson," observes Rowe, " began with a re- markable piece of humanity and good nature ; Mr. Jonson, who was at that time altogether unknown to the world, had offered one of his OUTLINES. 149 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 upon returning it to him with an ill-natured answer that it would be of no service 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. Jpnson and his writings to the public." The statement that rare Ben was then absolutely new to literature is certainly erroneous, however ignorant the Burbages or their colleagues may have been of his primitive efforts ; but he was in a state of indigence, rendering the judgment on his manuscript of vital consequence, and the services of a friendly advocate of inestimable value. He had been engaged in dramatic work for Henslowe some months before the appearance of the new comedy, but about that time there seems to have been a misunderstanding between them, the latter alluding to Jonson simply as a bricklayer, not as one of his company, in his record of the unfortunate duel with Gabriel. There had been, in all probability, a theatrical disturbance resulting in the last-named event, and in Ben's temporary secession from the Rose. Then there are the words of Jonson I5O OUTLINES. himself, who, unbiassed by the recollection that he had been defeated in, at all events, one lite- rary skirmish with the great dramatist, speaks of him in language that would appear hyper- bolical had it not been sanctioned by a feeling of gratitude for a definite and important service, " I loved the man and do honour his memory, on this side idolatry, as much as any." This was a personal idolatry, not one solely in refer- ence to his works, moderately adverse criticisms upon which immediately follow the generous panegyric. It may, then, fairly be said that the evidences at our disposal favour, on the whole, the general credibility of the anecdote narrated by Rowe. In the same month in which Shakespeare was acting in Ben Jonson's comedy, there ap- peared in London the Palladis Tamia, a work that contains more elaborate notices of the great dramatist than are elsewhere to be found in all contemporary literature. Its author was one Francis Meres, a native of Lincolnshire, who had been educated at Cambridge, but for some time past resident in the metropolis. Although his studies were mostly of a theo- logical character, he was interested in all branches of literature, and had formed intim ;: with some of its chief representatives. He had OUTI.IN 151 In vii favoured with access to the unpublished writings of Drayton and Shakespeare, and had cither seen a manuscript, or witnessed a repre- sentation, of rare Ben's earliest tragedy. In the important enumeration of Shakespeare's plays given by Meres, four of them, the Two Gentlemen of Verona, Love Labours Won, the Midsummer Night's Dream, and King John, are mentioned for the first time. There can be no doubt that the first of these dramas been written some ye^rs previously, and e Labours Won, a production which is no- re else alluded to, is one of the numerous ks of that time which have long since 'shed, unless its graceful appellation be the inal or a secondary title of some other ledy. Neither King John nor the Two iitlemen of Verona were printed during the hor's lifetime, but two editions of the Mid- .imer Night's Dream appeared in the year X3. This last-mentioned circumstance indi- es the then popularity of that exquisite but 'pillar drama, the comic scenes of which ap- pear to have been those specially relished by the public. One little fragment of the contempo- rary stage humour, displayed in the representa- tion of this play, has been recorded. When Thisbc killed herself, she fell on the scabbard. 152 OUTLINES. not on the trusty sword, the interlude doubt- lessly having been acted in that spirit of extreme farce which was naturally evolved from the stu- pidity and nervousness of the clowns. It is in the Palladis Tamia, 1598, that we first hear of those remarkable productions, the Sonnets. "As the soul of Euphorbus," observes Meres in that quaint collection of similitudes, " was thought to live in Pythagoras, so the sweet witty soul of Ovid lives in mellifluous and honey- tongued Shakespeare ; witness his Venus and Adonis, his Lucrece, his sugared Sonnets among his private friends, &c." These last-mentioned dainty poems were clearly not then intended for general circulation, and even transcripts of any of them were obtainable with difficulty. A publisher named Jaggard who, in the following year, 1599, attempted to form a collection of new Shakespearean poems, did not manage to obtain more than two of the Sonnets. The words of Meres, and the insignificant result of Jaggard's efforts, lead to the inference that these strange poems were an assemblage of separate contributions made by their writer to the albums of his friends, probably no two of the latter being favoured with identical compositions. There was no tradition adverse to a belief in their fragmentary character in the generation OUTLINES. 153 immediately following the author's death, as may be gathered from the arrangement found in Benson's edition of 1640 ; and this concludes the little real evidence on the subject that has descended to us. It was reserved for the students of the present century, who have ascertained so much respecting Shakespeare that was unsuspected by his own friends and contemporaries, to discover that his innermost earnest thoughts, his mental conflicts, and so on, are revealed in what would then be the most powerful lyrics yet given to the world. But the victim of spiritual emotions that involve criminatory reflections, does not usually protrude them voluntarily on the consideration of society ; and, if the personal theory be accepted, we must concede the possibility of our national dramatist gratuitously confessing his sins and revealing those of others, proclaiming his disgrace and avowing his repentance, in poetical circulars distributed by the delinquent himself amongst his most intimate friends. There are no external testimonies of any description in favour of a personal application of the Sonnets, while there are abundant difficulties arising from the reception of such a theory, Amongst the latter is one deserving of special notice, for its investigation will tend to remove 154 OUTLINES. the displeasing interpretation all but universally given of two of the poems, those in which reference is supposed to be made to a bitter feeling of personal degradation allowed by Shakespeare to result from his connection with the stage. Is it conceivable that a man who encouraged a sentiment of this nature, one which must have been accompanied with a distaste and contempt for his profession, would have remained an actor years and years after any real necessity for such a course had ex- pired ? By the spring of 1602 at the latest, if not previously, he had acquired a secure and definite competence independently of his emoluments as a dramatist, and yet, eight years afterwards, in 1610, he is discovered playing in company with Burbage and He.minges at the Blackfriars Theatre. When, in addition to this voluntary long continuance on the boards, we bear in mind the vivid interest in the stage, and in the purity of the acted drama, which is ex- hibited in the well-known dialogue in Hamlet, and that the poet's last wishes included affec- tionate recollections of three of his fellow- players, it is difficult to believe that he could have nourished a real antipathy to his lower vocation. It is, on the contrary, to be inferred that, however greatly he may have deplored the OUTLINES. 155 unfortunate estimation in which the stage was held by the immense majority of his country- men, he himself entertained a love for it that was too sincere to be repressed by contemporary disdain. If there is, amongst the defective records of the poet's life, one feature demanding special respect, it is the unflinching courage with which, notwithstanding his desire for social position, he braved public opinion in favour of a continued adherence to that which he felt was in itself a noble profession, and this at a time when it was not merely despised, but sur- rounded by an aggressive fanaticism that pro- hibited its exercise even in his own native town. These considerations may suffice to eliminate a personal application from the two sonnets above mentioned, and as to the remainder, if the only safe method, that of discarding all mere assumptions, be strictly followed, the clearer the ideality of most of them, and the futility of arguments resting on any other basis, will be perceived. It will be observed that all the hypotheses, which aim at a complete biographi- cal exposition of the Sonnets, necessitate the acceptance of interpretations that are too subtle for dispassionate reasoners. Even in the few instances where there is a reasonable possibility that Shakespeare was thinking of living indi- 156 OUTLINES. viduals, as when he refers to an unknown poetical rival or quibbles on his own Christian name, scarcely any, if any, light is thrown on his personal feelings or character. In the latter case, it is a mere assumption that the second Will is the youth of the opening series, or, at least, that position cannot be sustained without tortuous interpretations of much which is found in the interval. With respect to other suggested personal revelations, such as those which are thought to be chronicled in Shakespeare's ad- dresses to the dark-eyed beauty of more than questionable reputation, he might, perhaps, un- less he desired to proclaim to his acquaintances his own infidelity and folly, have repeated the words of the author of Licia, who published his own sonnets in the year 1593, and thus writes of their probable effects, "for the matter of love, it may bee I am so devoted to some one, into whose hands these may light by chance, that she may say, which thou nowe saiest, that surelie he is in love, which if she doe, then have I the full recompence of my labour, and the poems have dealt sufficientlie for the dis- charge of their owne duetie." The disguise of the ideal under the personal was, indeed, an ordinary expedient. The most celebrated theatre the world has OUTLINES. 157 ever seen was now to receive a local habitation and a name. The wooden structure belonging to the Burbages in Shoreditch had fallen into desuetude in 1598, and, very early in the follow- ing year, they had pulled it down and removed the materials to Southwark, using them in the erection of a new building which, in allusion to its circular form, was denominated the Globe. Henry the Fifth and Every Man out of his Humor were amongst the earliest plays there exhibited, the latter having been acted by the Lord Chamberlain's Servants in 1599, and the author distinctly appealing to the judgment of " the happier spirits in this faire-fild Globe," ed. 1600. In another place the Presenter addresses the audience as the "thronged round/' Amongst the Shakespearean dramas acted at the old Globe before its destruction by fire in 1613 may be mentioned, Romeo and Juliet, Richard the Second, King Lear, Troilus and Cressida, Peri- cles, Othello, Macbeth and the Winter's Tale. In the Christmas holidays of 1598-1599, three plays were acted by Shakespeare's Com- pany before the Queen at Whitehall, after which they do not appear to have performed at Court until the following December, on the 26th of which month they were at Richmond Palace. The poet's distinguished friend, Lord South- 158 OUTLINES. ampton, was in London in the autumn of this year, and no doubt favoured the new Globe Theatre with his attendance. In a letter dated October the nth, 1599, his lordship is alluded to as spending his time " merrily in going to plays every day." In March, 1599, the Earl of Essex departed on his ill-starred expedition to Ireland, leaving the metropolis amidst the enthusiastic cheers of the inhabitants. He was then the most popular man in all England, hosts of the middle and lower classes regarding him as their chief hope for the redress of their grievances. At some time in May or June, whilst the suppression of the Irish was considered in his able hands a mere work of time, Shakespeare composed his play of Henry the Fifth, taking the oppor- tunity of introducing in it a graceful compliment to the Earl, in terms which indicate that the poet himself sympathized with the thousands of Londoners who fondly expected hereafter to welcome his victorious return to England. Independently, however, of his appreciation of Essex, it was natural that the great dramatist should have taken as special interest in the course of affairs in Ireland, his great patron and friend, Lord Southampton, holding the distinguished position of General of the Horse OUTLINES. 159 in the Earl's army. There is no record of this drama in the year of its composition, but it is obvious, from the Chorus- Prologue, that it was written for and produced at the Globe Theatre, being necessarily one of the first plays, if not the very first one, that was represented on that stage in 1599. It was favourably received, and the character of Pistol appears to have been specially relished by the audiences. In or before the August of the following year, 1600, an unsuccessful attempt was made to obtain a license for its publication, but the only copy of it, printed in the author's life-time, was a miserably imperfect and garbled one, which was surreptitiously published about that time by Millington and Busby, and transferred by them very soon afterwards to Thomas Pavier, the latter reprinting this spurious edition in 1602 and 1608. It is curious that Pavier, who was so unscrupulous in other instances in the use of Shakespeare's name, should have refrained from placing it on the title-pages of any of these impressions. There are un- equivocal indications that the edition of 1600 was fraudulently printed from a copy made up from notes taken at the theatre. Towards the close of this year, 1599, a renewed attempt was made by the poet to l6o OUTLINES. obtain a grant of coat-armour to his father. It was now proposed to impale the arms of Shakespeare with those of Arden, and on each occasion ridiculous statements were made re- specting the claims of the two families. Both were really descended from obscure English country yeomen, but the heralds made out that the predecessors of John Shakespeare were rewarded by the Crown for distinguished services, and that his wife's ancestors were entitled to armorial bearings. Although the poet's relatives at a later date assumed his right to the coat suggested for his father in 1596, it does not appear that either of the proposed grants was ratified by the college, and certainly nothing more is heard of the Arden impalement. The Sonnets, first mentioned in the previous year, are now again brought into notice. They, had evidently obtained a recognition in literary circles, but restrictive suggestions had possibly been made to the recipients, for, as previously observed, when Jaggard, in 1599, issued a tiny volume under the fanciful title of the Passionate Pilgrim, he was apparently not enabled to secure more than two of them. These are in the first part of the book, the second being entitled " Sonnets to sundry Notes of Music," but Shakespeare's name is not attached to the latter OUTLINES. l6l division. The publisher seems to have had few materials of any description that he could venture to insert under either title, for he adopted the very unusual course of having nearly the whole of the tract printed upon one side of the leaf. Not keeping a shop, he entrusted the sale to Leake, who was then the owner of the copyright of Venus and Adonis, and who published an edition of that poem in the same year, the two little volumes no doubt being displayed together on the stall of the latter in St. Paul's Churchyard. With the ex- ception of the two sonnets above alluded to, and a few verses taken from the already pub- lished comedy of Love's Labour's Lost, Jag- gard's collection does not include a single line that can be positively ascribed to the pen of the great dramatist, but much that has been ascer- tained to have been the composition of others. The entire publication bears evident marks of an attempted fraud, and it may well be doubted if any of its untraced contents, with perhaps three exceptions, justify the announcement of the title-page. The three pieces alluded to are those on the subject of Venus and Adonis, and these, with the beautiful little poem called the Lover's Complaint, may be included in the significant et cetera by which Meres clearly ii 1 62 OUTLINES. implies that Shakespeare was the author of other poetical essays besides those which he enumerates. It is extremely improbable that Shakespeare, in that age of small London and few publishers, could have been ignorant of the use made of his name in the first edition of the Passionate Pilgrim. Although he may, however, have been displeased at Jaggard's unwarrantable conduct in the matter, it appears that he took no strenuous measure to induce him to disavow or suppress the ascription in the title-page of that work. There was, it is true, no legal remedy, but there is reason for believing that, in this case, at least, a personal remonstrance would have been effective. Owing, perhaps, to the apathy exhibited by Shakespeare on this occasion, a far more remarkable operation in the same kind of knavery was perpetrated in the latter part of the following year by the publisher of the First Part of the Life of Sir John Oldcastle, 1600, a play mainly concerned with the romantic adventures of Lord Cobham. Although this drama is known not only to have been composed by other dramatists, but also to have belonged to a theatrical company with whom Shakespeare had then no manner of connection, it was unblushingly announced OUTLINES. 163 as his work by the publisher, Thomas Pavier, a shifty bookseller, residing at the grotesque sign of the Cat and Parrots near the Royal Exchange. Two editions were issued in that same year by Pavier, the one most largely distributed being that which was assigned to the pen of the great dramatist, and another to w r hich no writer's name is attached. As there are no means of ascertaining which of these editions is the first in order of publication, it is impossible to say with certainty whether the introduction of Shakespeare's name was an afterthought, or if it were withdrawn for a special reason, perhaps either at his instigation or at that of the real authors. It is most likely, however, that the anonymous impression was the first that was published, that the ascribed edition was the second, and that there was no cancel of the poet's name in either. Shakespeare's company acted before Queen Elizabeth at Richmond Palace on Twelfth Night and Shrove Sunday, 1600, and at White- hall on the 26th of December. On March the 6th they were at Somerset House, and there performed, before Lord Hunsdon and some foreign ambassadors, another drama on the subject of Oldcastle. A few weeks after the last occurrence, the poet, who was then in 1 1 164 OUTLINES. London, brought an action against one John Clayton to recover the sum of ^7, and duly succeeded in obtaining a verdict in his favour. This is one of the several evidences that dis- tinctly prove the great dramatist to have been a man of business, thoroughly realizing the necessity of careful attention to his pecuniary affairs. Here we have the highest example of all to tell us that financial discretion is not incompatible with the possession of literary genius. One of the most exquisite of Shakespeare's comedies, As You Like It, was produced in the summer of this year, and was, as might be expected, favourably received. The celebrated speech of Jacques on the seven ages of man would have had an appropriate significance when uttered below the Latin motto under the sign of the Globe Theatre, but the coincidence was no doubt accidental. An attempt to publish the comedy was frustrated by an appeal to the Stationers' Company, a fact which testifies to its popularity. It is satisfactory to be enabled to state that one of the songs introduced into this play, <( It was a lover and his lass," was not written by Shakespeare, but by Thomas Morley, an eminent musician of the day, who published it, with some others of a cognate OUTLINES. 165 description, in his First Booke of Ayres or Little Short Songs, a small thin folio volume printed at London in the same year, 1600. According to a tradition mentioned by several writers of the last century, there was a character in As You Like It that was performed by Shakespeare himself. " One of Shake- speare's younger brothers," says Oldys, " who lived to a good old age, even some years, as I compute, after the restoration of King Charles the Second, would in his younger days come to London to visit his brother Will, as he called him, and be a spectator of him as an actor in some of his own plays. This custom, as his brother's fame enlarged, and his dramatick entertainments grew the greatest support of our principal, if not of all our theatres, he continued, it seems, so long after his brother's death, as even to the latter end of his own life. The curiosity at this time of the most noted actors to learn something from him of his brother, &c., they justly held him in the highest veneration ; and it may be well believed, as there was besides a kinsman and descendant of the family, who was then a celebrated actor among them, this opportunity made them greedily inquisitive into every little circumstance, more especially in his dramatick character, which his brother 1 66 OUTLINES. could relate of him. But he, it seems, was so stricken in years, and possibly his memory so weakened with infirmities, which might make him the easier pass for a man of weak intellects, that he could give them but little light into their enquiries ; and all that could be recollected from him of his brother Will in that station was, the faint, general and almost lost ideas he had of having once seen him act a part in one of his own comedies, wherein being to personate a decrepit old man, he wore a long beard, and appeared so weak and drooping and unable to walk, that he was forced to be supported and carried by another person to a table, at which he was seated among some company who were eating, and one of them sung a song." This account contains several discrepancies, but there may be a glimmering of truth in it, and, at all events, it must be recollected that Oldys wrote before the era of Shakespearean forgeries had commenced. The earliest notice of the comedy of Much Ado about Nothing occurs in the entry in which we also first hear of As You Like It. Its attempted publication was stopped by an appli- cation made to the Stationers' Company on or before August the 4th, 1600, but, on the 23rd of the same month, Wise and Aspley succeeded OUTLINES. 167 in obtaining a license. It is not known if the prohibition was directed against the latter pub- lication and afterwards removed, or whether it refers to a fraudulent attempt by some other bookseller to issue a surreptitious copy. Al- though Much Ado about Nothing was not reprinted in the author's life time, there is no doubt of its continued popularity. The scene of this comedy is laid in Messina, but the satire on the constables obviously refers to those of the England of the author's own time. Aubrey, whose statements are always to be cautiously received, asserts that Shakespeare ' * happened to take" the " humour " of one of them " at Grendon in Bucks, which is in the road from London to Stratford, and there was living that constable about 1642." The eccentric biographer no doubt refers to Dogberry or Verges, but if the poet really had a special individual in his mind when portraying either of those characters, it is not likely that the Grendon constable could have been the person so honoured, for unless he had attained an incredible age in the year 1642, he would have been too young for the prototype. It is far more likely that the satire was generally applicable to the English constables of the author's period, to such as were those in the 1 68 OUTLINES. neighbourhood of London at the time of his arrival there, and who are so graphically thus described in a letter from Lord Burghley to Sir Francis Walsingham, written in 1586, " as I came from London homeward in my coach, I saw at every town's end the number of ten or twelve standing with long staves, and, until I came to Enfield, I thought no other of them but that they had stayed for avoiding of the rain, or to drink at some alehouses, for so they did stand under pentices at alehouses ; but at Enfield, finding a dozen in a plump when there was no rain, I bethought myself that they were appointed as watchmen for the apprehending of such as are missing ; and thereupon I called some of them to me apart, and asked them where- fore they stood there, and one of them answered, to take three young men ; and, demanding how they should know the persons, Marry, said they, one of the parties hath a hooked nose ; and have you, quoth I, no other mark ? No, said they. Surely, sir, these w r atchmen stand so openly in plumps as no suspected person will come near them, and if they be no better in- structed but to find three persons by one of them having a hooked nose, they may miss thereof." It was towards the close of the present year, OUTLINES. 169 1600, or at some time in the following one, that Shakespeare, for the first and only time, came forward in the avowed character of a philo- sophical writer. One Robert Chester was the author of a long allegorical poem, which was issued in 1601, under the title of, " Love's Martyr or Rosalins Complaint, allegorically shadowing the truth of Love in the constant fate of the Phcenix and Turtle," and " to these are added some new compositions of severall moderne writers whose names are subscribed to their severall workes, upon the first subject ; viz., the Phcenix and Turtle." The latter were stated, in a separate title-page, to have been " done by the best and chiefest of our moderne writers, with their names subscribed to their particular workes ; neuer before extant ; and now first consecrated by them all generally, to the loue and merite of the true-noble Knight, Sir lohn Salisburie ", the names of Shake- speare, Marston, Chapman, and Jonson being attached to the recognized pieces of this latter series. The contribution of the great dramatist is a remarkable poem in which he makes a notice of the obsequies of the phoenix and turtle-dove subservient to the delineation of spiritual union. It is generally thought that, in his own work, Chester meditated a personal I/O OUTLINES, allegory, but, if that be the case, there is nothing to indicate that Shakespeare participated in the design, nor even that he had endured the pun- ishment of reading Love's Martyr. The poet's father, Mr. Johannes Shak- speare, as he is called in the register, was buried at Stratford-on-Avon on September the 8th, 1601. He is mentioned as being concerned in the same year, probably as a witness, in an action brought by Sir Edward Grevile against the town, so there are no reasons for believing that his latest years were accompanied by de- crepitude. In all probability the old man died intestate, and the great dramatist appears to have succeeded, as his eldest son and heir-at- law, to the ownership of the freehold estate in Henley Street. It is not likely that the widow acquired more than her right to dower in that property, but there can be no hesitation in assuming that such a claim would have been merged in a liberal allowance from her son. Twelfth Night, the perfection of English comedy and the most fascinating drama in the language, was produced in the season of 1601-2, most probably on January the 5th. There is preserved a curious notice of its performance in the following month before the benchers of the Middle Temple in their beautiful hall, nearly OUTLINES. 171 the only building now remaining in London in which it is known that any of Shakespeare's dramas were represented during the author's lifetime. The record of this interesting occur- rence is embedded in the minutely written con- temporary diary of one John Manningham, a student at that inn of court, who appears to have been specially impressed with the character of Malvolio. "A good practice in it," he ob- serves, " to make the steward believe his lady widow was in love with him, by counterfeiting a letter as from his lady in general terms, telling him what she liked best in him, and prescribing his gesture in smiling, his apparel, &c., and then, when he came to practice, making him believe they took him to be mad." This repre- sentation of Twelfth Night took place at the Feast of the Purification, February the 2nd, one of the two grand festival days of the lawyers, on which occasion professional actors were annually engaged at the Middle Temple, the then liberal sum of ten pounds being given to them for a single performance. There is no doubt that the comedy was performed by the Lord Chamberlain's Company, and very little that Shakespeare himself was one of the actors who were engaged. Twelfth Night was appreciated at an early period as one of the 172 OUTLINES. author's most popular creations. There is not only the testimony of Manningham in its favour, but Leonard Digges, in the verses describing this most attractive of Shakespeare's acting dramas, expressly alludes to the estimation in which the part of Malvolio was held by the frequenters of the theatre. The Queen kept her Court at Whitehall in the Christmas of 1601-1602, and, during the holidays, four plays, one of them most probably Twelfth Night, were exhibited before her by Shakespeare's company. In the following May, the great dramatist purchased from the Combes, for the sum of ^"320, one hundred and seven acres of land near Stratford-on-Avon, but, owing to his absence from that town, the conveyance was delivered for his use to his brother Gilbert. The pecuniary resources of Shakespeare must now have been very considerable, for, notwith- standing the serious expenditure incurred by this last acquisition, a few months afterwards he is recorded as the purchaser of a small copyhold estate near his country residence. On Septem- ber the 28th, 1602, at a Court Baron of the Manor of Rowington, one Walter Getley trans- ferred to the poet a cottage and garden which were situated in Chapel Lane opposite the lower grounds of New Place. They covered the space OUTLINES. 173 of a quarter of an acre, with a frontage in the lane of forty feet, and were held practically in fee simple at the annual rental of two shillings and sixpence. It appears from the Roll that Shakespeare did not attend the manorial court then held at Rowington, there being a stipulation that the estate should remain in the hands of the lady of the manor until he appeared in person to complete the transaction with the usual form- alities. At a later period he was admitted to the copyhold, and then he surrendered it to the use of himself for life, with a remainder to his two daughters in fee. The cottage was replaced about the year 1690 by a brick and tiled build- ing, and no representation of the original tene- ment is known to be in existence. The latter, in all probability, had, like most other cottages at Stratford-on-Avon in the poet's time, a thatched roof supported by mud walls. The adjoining boundary wall that enclosed the vicarage garden continued to be one of mud until the latter part of the eighteenth century. In the spring of this year, 1602, our national tragedy, known originally under the title of the Revenge of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, was in course of representation by the Lord Cham- berlain's players at the Globe Theatre, and had then in all probability, been recently composec 1 . 174 OUTLIXKS. Its popularity led to an unsuccessful attempt by Roberts, a London publisher, to include it amongst his dramatic issues, but it was not printed until the summer of the following year, 1603, when two booksellers, named Ling and Trundell, employed an inferior and clumsy writer to work up, in his own fashion, what scraps of the play had been furtively obtained from short- hand notes or other memoranda into the sem- blance of a perfect drama, which they had the audacity to publish as Shakespeare's own work. It is possible, however, that the appearance of this surreptitious edition, which contains several abnormous variations from the complete work, may have led the sharers of the theatre to be less averse to the publication of their own copy. At all events, Ling in some way obtained an authentic transcript of the play in the following year, and it was " newly imprinted" by Roberts for that publisher, " enlarged to almost as much againe as it was, according to the true and per- fect c.oppie," 1604. The appearance of subse- quent editions and various early notices evince the favour in which the tragedy was held by the public in the time of its author. The hero was admirably portrayed by Burbage, and has ever since, as then, been accepted as the leading character of the greatest actor of the passing day. OUTLINES. 175 It is worth notice that" the incident of Hamlet leaping into Ophelia's grave, now sometimes omitted, was considered in Burbage's time to be one of the most striking features of the acted tragedy ; and there is a high probability that a singular little incident of by-play, enacted by the First Grave-digger, was also introduced at the Globe performances. The once popular stage- trick of that personage taking off a number of waistcoats one after the other, previously to the serious commencement of his work, is an artifice which has only been laid aside in comparatively recent years. In February, 1603, Roberts, one of the Shakespearean printers, attempted to obtain a license for an impression of the play of Troilus and Cressida, then in the course of representa- tion by the Lord Chamberlain's servants. The subject had been dramatized by Decker and Chettle for the Lord Admiral's Servants in 1599, but although the two companies may have been then, as in former years, on friendly terms, there is no probability that their copyrights were exchangeable, so that the application made by Roberts is not likely to refer to the jointly- written drama. When that printer applied for a license for the publication of the new tragedy, he had not obtained, nor is there any reason for 1 76 OUTLINES. believing that he ever succeeded in procuring the company's sanction to his projected specu- lation. At all events, Shakespeare's Troilus and Cressida was not printed until early in the year 1609, when two other publishers, Bonian and Walley, having surreptitiously procured a copy, ventured on its publication, and, in the hope of attracting purchasers, they had the au- dacity to state, in an unusual preface, that it had never been represented on the stage. They even appear to exult in having treacherously obtained a manuscript of the tragedy, but the triumph of their artifices was of brief duration. The deceptive temptation they offered of novelty must have been immediately exposed, and a pressure was no doubt exerted upon them by the company, who probably withdrew their opposition on payment of compensation, for, by the 28th of January, the printers had received a license from the Lord Chamberlain for the publication. The preface was then entirely cancelled, and the falsity of the assertion that Troilus and Cressida had never been acted was conspicuously admitted by the re-issue profess- ing to appear "as it was acted by the King's Majesty's Servants at the Globe," when is not stated. The suppressed preface could hardly have been written had the drama been one of OUTLINES. 177 the acting plays of the season of 1608-9, and, indeed, the whole tenor of that preamble is against the validity of such an assumption. The career of the illustrious sovereign, who had so highly appreciated the dramas of our national poet, was now drawing to an end. Shakespeare's company, who had acted before her at Whitehall on December the 26th, 1602, were summoned to Richmond for another per- formance on the following Candlemas Day, February the 2nd, 1603. The Queen was then in a very precarious state of health, and this was the last occasion on which the poet could have had the opportunity of appearing before her. Elizabeth died on March the 24th, but, amongst the poetical tributes to her memory that were elicited by her decease, there was not one from the pen of Shakespeare. The poetical apathy exhibited by the great dramatist on this occasion, although specially lamented by a contemporary writer, can easily be accounted for in more than one way. The company to which he belonged might have been absent, as several others were at the time, on a provincial tour. Again, they were no doubt intent on obtaining the patronage of the new sovereign, and may have fancied that too enthu- siastic a display of grief for Elizabeth would 12 1 78 OUTLINES. have been considered inseparable from a regret for the change of dynasty. However that may be, James the First arrived in London on May the 7th, 1603, and ten days afterwards he granted, by bill of Privy Signet, a license to Shakespeare and the other members of his company to perform in London at the Globe Theatre, and in the provinces at town-halls or other suitable buildings. It was either in this year, or early in the following one, and under this license that the company, including the poet himself, acted at that theatre in Ben Jonson's new comedy of Sejanus. The King was staying in December, 1603, at Wilton, the seat of one of Shakespeare's patrons, William Herbert, third earl of Pembroke, and on the second of that month the company had the honour of performing before the dis- tinguished party then assembled in that noble mansion. In the following Christmas holidays, 1603-1604, they were acting on several occa- sions at Hampton Court, the play selected for representation on the first evening of the new year being mentioned by one of the audience under the name of Robin Goodfellow, possibly a familiar title of the Midsummer Night's Dream. Their services were again invoked by royalty at Candlemas and on Shrove Sunday, on the OUTLINES. 1 79 former occasion at Hampton Court before the Florentine ambassador, and on the latter at Whitehall. At this time they were prohibited from acting in or near London, in fear that public gatherings might imperil the diminution of the pestilence, the King making the com- pany on that account the then very handsome present of thirty pounds. Owing in some degree to the severe plague of 1603, and more perhaps to royal disinclination, the public entry of the King into the metropolis did not take place until nearly a year after the death of Elizabeth. It was on the I5th of March, 1604, tnat James undertook his formal march from the Tower to Westminster, amidst emphatic demonstrations of welcome, and passing every now and then under the most elaborate triumphal arches London had ever seen. In the royal train were the nine actors to whom the special license had been granted the previous year, including of course Shake- speare and his three friends, Burbage, Hemings, and Condell. Each of them was presented with four yards and a half of scarlet cloth, the usual dress allowance to players belonging to the household. The poet and his colleagues were termed the King's Servants, and took rank at Court amongst the Grooms of the Chamber. T2 2 l8o OUTLINES. Shortly after this event the poet made a visit to Stratford-on-Avon. It appears, from a declaration filed in the local court, that he had sold in that town to one Philip Rogers several bushels of malt at various times between March the 2;th and the end of May, 1604, anc * that the latter did not, or could not, pay the debt thus incurred, amounting to \. 155. lod. Shakespeare had sold him malt to the value of i. 195. iod., and, on June 25th, Rogers borrowed two shillings of the poet at Stratford, making in all 2. is. iod. Six shillings of this were afterwards paid, and the action was brought to recover the balance. In the following August the great dramatist was in London, there having been a special order, issued in that month by desire of the King, for every member of the company to be in attendance at Somerset House. This was on the occasion of the visit of the Spanish ambas- sador to England, but it may be perhaps that their professional services were not required, for no notice of them has been discovered. The tragedy of Othello, originally known under the title of the Moor of Venice, is first heard of in 1604, ft having been performed by the King's players, who then included Shake- speare himself, before the Court, in the Banquet- OUTLINES. l8l ing House at Whitehall, on the evening of Hallowmas day, November the first. This drama was very popular, Leonard Digges speaking of the audiences preferring it to the laboured compositions of Ben Jonson. In 1609, a stage-loving parent, one William Bishop, of Shoreditch, who had perhaps been taken with the representation of the tragedy, gave the name of Othello's perfect wife to one of his twin daughters. A performance at the Globe in the April of the following year, 1610, was honoured with the presence of the German ambassador and his suite, and it was again represented at Court before Prince Charles, the Princess Elizabeth, and the Elector Palatine, in May, 1613. These scattered notices, accidentally preserved, doubtlessly out of many others that might have been recorded, are indicative of its continuance as an^ acting__|)lay ; a result that may, without disparagement to the author, be attributed in some measure to the leading character having been assigned to the most accomplished tragic actor of the day, Richard Burbgige^ The name of the first performer of I ago is not known, but there is a curious tradition, which can be traced as far back as the close of the seventeenth century, to the effect that the part was originally under- 1 82 OUTLINES. taken by a popular comedian, and that Shake- 1 speare adapted some of the speeches of that [ character to the peculiar talents of the actor. In the Christmas holidays of the same year, on the evening of December the 26th, 1604, the comedy of Measure for Measure was performed before the Court, and if it were written for that special occasion, it seems probable that lines, those in which Angelo deprecates the thronging of the multitude to royalty, were introduced out of special consideration to James the First, who, as is well known, had a great dislike to en- countering crowds of people. The lines in the mouth of Angelo appear to be somewhat forced, while their metrical disposition is consistent with the idea that they might have been the result of an afterthought. Shakespeare's company performed a number of dramas before the Court early in the following year, 1605, including several of his own. About the same time a curious old play, termed the London Prodigal, which had been previously acted by them, was impudently submitted by Nathaniel Butter to the reading public as one of the compositions of the great dramatist. On May the 4th, the poet's colleague, Augustine Phillips, made his will, leaving " to my fellowe, William Shakespeare, a thirty shillinges peece OUTLINES. 183 in goold." The testator was very ill at the time the will was executed, and expired a few days afterwards. In the July of the same year, Shakespeare made the largest, and, in a pecuniary point of view, perhaps the most judicious purchase he ever completed, giving the sum of ^440 for the unexpired term of a moiety of the interest in a lease, granted in 1 544 for ninety-two years, of the tithes of Stratford, Old Stratford, Bishop- ton, and Welcombe, subject to certain annual payments. It appears that, as early as 1598, the subject of his becoming the purchaser of these tithes had been mooted at Stratford, and the management of them would probably require great prudential care. It is not impossible that confidence was entertained in his tact and judg- ment, and that this, as well as his command of capital, were amongst the reasons that induced the Council of Stratford, who received a rent from these tithes, to desire that he should be the purchaser. On October the Qth, 1605, Shakespeare's company gave a performance before the Mayor and Corporation of Oxford. If the poet, as was most likely the case, was one of the actors on the occasion, he would have been lodging at the Crown Inn, a wine tavern kept by one John 184 OUTLINES. Davenant, who had taken out his licence in the previous year, 1604. The landlord was a highly respectable man, filling in succession the chief municipal offices, but, although of a peculiarly grave and saturnine disposition, he was as recorded by Wood in 1692, "an admirer and lover of plays and play-makers, especially Shakespeare, who frequented his house in his journies between Warwickshire and London." His wife is described by the same writer as "a very beautiful woman, of a good wit and con- versation." Early in the following year the latter presented her husband with a son, who was christened at St. Martin's Church on March the 3rd, 1606, receiving there the name of Wil- liam. They had several other children, and their married life was one of such exceptional harmony that it elicited the unusual honour of metrical tributes. A more devoted pair the city of Oxford had never seen, and John Davenant, in his will, 1622, expressly desires that he should be " buryed in the parish of St. Martin's in Oxford as nere my wife as the place will give leave where she lyeth." It was the general belief in Oxford, in the latter part of the seventeenth century, that Shakespeare was William Davenant's godfather, and there is no reason for questioning the OUTLINES. 185 accuracy of the tradition. Anthony Wood alludes to the special regard in which the poet was held by the worthy innkeeper, while the Christian name that was selected was a new one in the family of the latter. There was also current in the same town a favourite anecdote, in which a person was warned not to speak of his godfather lest he should incur the risk of breaking the Third Commandment. This was a kind of representative story, one which could be told of any individual at the pleasure of the narrator, and it is found in the generic form in a collection of tavern pleasantries made by Taylor, the Water- Poet, in 1629. This last fact alone is sufficient to invest a personal application with the gravest doubt, and to lead to the inference that the subsequent version related of Shakespeare was altogether unau- thorized. If so, there can be little doubt that with the spurious tale originated its necessary foundation, the oft-repeated intimation that Sir William Davenant was the natural son of the great dramatist. The latter is first heard of in one of the manuscripts of Aubrey, written in or before the year 1680, in which he says, after mentioning the Crown tavern, " Mr. William Shakespeare was wont to goe into Warwickshire once a yeare, and did commonly 1 86 OUTLINES. in his journey lye at this house in Oxon, where he was exceedingly respected." He then pro- ceeds to tell us that Sir William, considering himself equal in genius to Shakespeare, was not averse to being taken for his son, and would occasionally make these confessions in his drinking bouts with Sam Butler and other friends. The writer's language is obscure, and might have been thought to mean simply that Davenant wished to appear in the light of a son in the poetical acceptation of the term, but the mischievous gossip must needs add that Sir William's mother " had a very light report ; in those days she was called a trader," in other words, a perfect Thais. Sufficient is known of the family history of the Davenants to enable us to be certain that this onslaught upon the lady's reputation is a scandalous mis-statement. Anthony Wood also, the conscientious Oxonian biographer, who had the free use of Aubrey's papers, eliminates every kind of insinuation against the character of either Shakespeare or Mrs. Davenant. He had the sagacity to ob- serve that the reception of the libel involved extravagant admissions. It would require us to believe that the guilty parties, with incredible callousness, united at the font to perpetuate their own recollection of the crime ; and this in the OUTLINES. 187 presence of the injured husband, who must be presumed to have been then, and throughout his life, unconscious of a secret which was so insecurely kept that it furnished ample materials for future slander. Even Aubrey himself tacitly concedes that the scandal had not transpired in the poet's time, for he mentions the great respect in which the latter was held at Oxford. Then, as if to make assuiance to posterity double sure, there is preserved at Alnwick Castle a very elaborate manuscript poem on the Oxford gossip of the time of James the First, including especially everything that could be raked up against its innkeepers and taverns, and in that manuscript there is no mention either of the Crown Inn or the Davenants. It is, indeed, easy to perceive that we should never have heard any scandal respecting Mrs. Davenant, if she had not been noted in her own time, and for long afterwards, for her ex- ceptional personal attractions. Her history ought to be a consolation to ugly girls, that is to say, if the existence of such rarities as the latter be not altogether mythical. Listen to the antique words of Flecknoe, 1654, referring to Lord Exeter's observation that the world spoke kindly of none but people of the ordinary types. " There is no great danger," he writes, even of 1 88 OUTLINES. the latter escaping censure, " calumny being so universal a trade now, as every one is of it ; nor is there any action so good they cannot find a bad name for, nor entail upon't an ill intention ; insomuch as one was so injurious to his mis- tress's beauty not long since to say, she has more beauty than becomes the chaste." The future Sir William was in his eleventh year when he lost his godfather, and the traditions which imply that he was fondly attached to him may be safely trusted. They are corroborated by much of Davenant's subse- quent history. Amongst his earliest poems, those issued in 1638, there is an ode " in re- membrance of Master William Shakespeare," in which he cautions writers to refrain from deriving their imagery from the banks of the Avon, the flowers and trees having withered in grief at his loss, while the river had nearly wept itself away. At a later period, curious as the assertion may now appear, he had the honour of teaching Dryden that there was something to admire in the works of the great dra- matist. When, moreover, at the Restoration in 1660, Sir William was the first in attempting to revive the old drama, in as legitimate a form as could then be tolerated, out of eleven of " the most ancient playes that were playd at OUTLINES. 189 Blackfriers " which he desired to re-introduce to the public, no fewer than nine were compositions of Shakespeare. In those days of a vicious stage, this course was one unlikely to have been adopted by a manager anxious, as Davenant unquestionably was, for commercial success, if he had not been influenced by strong personal tendencies, such as those which may have been cherished from very early life in affectionate remembrance of the poet, or even derived from tastes primarily imbibed in association with him. On the evening of December the 26th, in the Christmas holidays of 1606, the tragedy of King Lear, some of the incidents of which were adopted from one or more older dramas on the same legend, was performed before King_Jajnes__at Whitehall. No record of the character of its reception by the Court has been preserved, but it must have been successful at the Globe Theatre, for the booksellers, late in ^ the November of the following year, made an arrangement with the company to enable them to obtain the sanction of the Master of the Revels for the publication of the tragedy, two editions of which shortly afterwards appeared, both dated in 1608. In these issues the author's name is curiously given in one line of large type at the very commencement of each title-page, a singular OUTLINES. and even unique testimony to the popularity of a dramatic author of the period. The poet's eldest daughter, Susanna, then in her twenty-fifth year, was married at Strat- ford-on-Avon on June the 5th, 1607, to John Hall, M.A., a physician who afterwards rose to great provincial eminence. He was born in the year 1575, and most probably connected with the Halls of Acton, co. Middlesex, but he was not a native of that village. In his early days, as was usual with the more highly educated youths of the time, he had travelled on the continent, and attained a proficiency in the French language. The period of his arrival at Stratford-on-Avon is unknown, but, from the absence of all notice of him in the local records previously to his marriage, it may be presumed that his settlement there had not then been of long duration. It might even have been the re- sult of his engagement with the poet's daughter. He appears to have taken up his first Stratford abode in a road termed the Old Town, a street leading from the churchyard to the main portion of the borough. With the further exceptions that, in 1611, his name is found in a list of supporters to a highway bill, and that, in 1612, he commenced leasing from the Corporation a small piece of wooded land on the outskirts of OUTLINES. the town, nothing whatever is known of his career during the life-time of Shakespeare. A few months after Mrs. Hall was married, she lost her uncle Edmund, who, on December the 3ist, 1607, was buried at Southwark, in the church of St. Saviour's, " with a forenoon knell of the great bell." It may fairly be assumed that the ringing of this dirge, which added very considerably to the expenses of the funeral, resulted from the directions of his brother, the poet. Edmund Shakespeare was in the twenty- eighth year of his age at the time of his death, and is described in the register as a player. Elizabeth, the only child of the Halls, was born in February, 1608, an event which con- ferred on Shakespeare the dignity of grand- father. The poet lived to see her attain the engaging age of eight, and the fact of his entertaining a great affection for her does not require the support of probability derived from his traditional recorded love of children. If he had not been extremely fond of the little girl, it is not likely that he would have specifically bequeathed so mere a child nearly the whole of his plate in addition to a valuable contingent interest in his pecuniary estate. It appears, from the records of some chancery proceedings, that she inherited in after life the shrewd OUTLINES. business qualities of her grandfather, but, with this exception, nothing is known of her dispo- sition or character. In the spring of the year 1608, the apparently inartificial drama of Pericles was represented at the Globe Theatre. It seems to have been well received, and Edward Blount, a London bookseller, lost no time in obtaining the per- sonal sanction of Sir George Buck, the Master of the Revels, for its publication, but the emoluments derived from the stage per- formances were probably too great for the company to incur the risk of their being diminished by the circulation of the printed drama. Blount was perhaps either too friendly or too conscientious to persist in his designs against the wishes of the actors, and it was reserved for a less respectable publisher to issue the first edition of Pericles early in the following year, 1 609, an impression followed by another surreptitious one in 1611. As Blount, the legi- timate owner of the copyright, was one of the proprietors of the first folio, it may safely be inferred that the editors of that work did not consider that the poet's share in the composition of Pericles was sufficiently large to entitle it to a place in their collection. This curious drama has, in fact, the appearance of being an earlier OUTLINES. 193 production which was merely retouched by Shakespeare. About the time that Pericles was so well received at the Globe, the tragedy of Antony and Cleopatra was in course of performance at the same theatre, but, although successful, it did not equal the former in popularity. It was, however, sufficiently attractive for Blount to secure the consent of the Master of the Revels to its publication and also for the company at the Globe to frustrate his immediate design. Almost simultaneously with the contem- plated publication of the admirable tragedy last mentioned, an insignificant piece, of some little merit but no dramatic power, entitled the Yorkshire Tragedy, was impudently submitted to the public as having been " written by W. Shakespeare." It was " printed by R. B. for Thomas Pavier" in 1608, the latter being a well-known unscrupulous publisher of the day, but it is of considerable interest as one of the few domestic tragedies of the kind and period that have descended to us, as well as from the circumstance of its having been performed by Shakespeare's company at the Globe Theatre. When originally produced, it appears to have had the title of All's One, belonging to a series of four diminutive plays, consecutively acted by 13 194 OUTLINES the company as a single performance in lieu of a regular five-act drama. This was a curi- ous practice of the early stage of which there are several other examples. The Yorkshire Tragedy, the only one of this Globe series now preserved, was founded on a real occur- rence which happened in the spring of the year 1605 one of those exceptionally terrible murders that every now and then electrify and sadden the public. A Yorkshire squire of good family, maddened by losses resulting from a career of dissipation, having killed two of his sons, unsuccessfully attempted the destruction of his wife and her then sole remaining child. The event created a great sensation in London at the time, and it is most likely that this drama on the subject was produced at the theatre shortly after its occurrence, or, at least, before the public excitement respecting it had subsided. This is probable, not merely from the haste with which it was apparently written, but from its somewhat abrupt termination indicating that it was completed before the execution of the murderer at York in August, 1605. It appears to have been the criminal's professed object to blot out the family in sight of their impending ruin, intending perhaps to consummate the work by suicide, but he exhibited at the last some kind OUTLINES. 195 of desire to atone for his unnatural cruelty. In order to save the remnant of the family estates for the benefit of his wife and surviving child, he refused to plead to the indictment, thus practi- cally electing to suffer the then inevitable and fearful alternative of being pressed to death. It is not unlikely that the publisher of the Yorkshire Tragedy took advantage of the departure of Shakespeare from London to perpetrate his nominated fraud, for the poet's company were travelling on the southern coast about the time of its appearance. A few months later the great dramatist was destined to lose his mother, the Mary Arden of former days, who was buried at Stratford-on-Avon on Sep- tember the Qth, 1608. He would naturally have desired, if possible, to attend the funeral, and it is nearly certain that he was at his native town in the following month. On October the 1 6th he was the principal godfather at the baptism of the William Walker to whom, in 1616, he bequeathed " twenty shillings in gold." This child was the son of Henry Walker, a mercer and one of the aldermen of the town. The records of Stratford exhibit Shake- speare, in 1 608 and 1 609, engaged in a suit with a townsman for the recovery of a debt. In August, 1608, he commenced an action against 132 OUTLINES. one John Addenbroke, but it then seems to have been in abeyance for a time, the precept for a jury in the cause being dated December 2 1 st, 1 608 ; after which there was another delay, possibly in the hope of the matter being amicably arranged, a peremptory summons to the same jury having been issued on February 1 5th in the following year. A verdict was then given in favour of the poet for 6 and i. 4^. costs, and execution went forth against the defendant ; but the sergeant at mace returning that he was not to be found within the liberty of the borough, Shakespeare proceeded against a person of the name of Horneby, who had become bail for Addenbroke. This last process is dated on June the 7th, 1609, so that nearly a year elapsed during the prosecution of the suit. It must not be assumed that the great dramatist attended personally to these matters, although of course the proceedings were carried on under his instructions. The precepts, as appears from memoranda in the originals, were issued by the poet's cousin, Thomas Greene, who was then residing, under some unknown conditions, at New Place. The spring of the year 1609 is remarkable in literary history for the appearance of one of the most singular volumes that ever issued from OUTLINES. 197 the press. It was entered at Stationers' Hall on May the 2Oth, and published by one Thomas Thorpe under the title of " Shake-speares Son- nets, neuer before Imprinted," the first two words being given in large capitals, so that they might attract their full share of public notice. This little book, a very small quarto of forty leaves, was sold at what would now be con- sidered the trifling price of five-pence. The exact manner in which these sonnets were acquired for publication remains a mystery, but it is most probable that they were obtained from one of the poet's intimate friends, who alone would be likely to have copies, not only of so many of those pieces but also one of the Lover's Complaint. However that may be, Thorpe, the well-wishing adventurer, was so elated with the opportunity of entering into the specu- lation that he dedicated the work to the factor in the acquisition, one Mr. W. H., in language of hyperbolical gratitude, wishing him every happiness and an eternity, the latter in terms which are altogether inexplicable. The surname of the addressee, which has not been recorded, has been the subject of numerous futile conjec- tures ; but the use of initials in place of names, especially if they referred to private individuals, was then so extremely common that it is not 198 OUTLINES. necessary to assume that there was an in- tentional reservation. This was a memorable year in the theatri- cal biography of the great dramatist, for, in the following December, the eyry of children quitted the Blackfriars Theatre to be replaced by Shakespeare's company. The latter then included Heminge, Condell, Burbage, and the poet himself. The next year, 1610, is nearly barren of recorded incidents, but in the month of June Shakespeare purchased twenty acres of pasture land from the Combes, adding them to the property he had obtained from those parties in 1602. There are an unusual number of evidences of Shakespeare's dramatic popularity in the following year. We now first hear of his plays of Macbeth, the Winter's Tale, Cymbeline, and the Tempest. New impressions of Titus An- dronicus, Hamlet and Pericles also appeared in 1611, and, in the same year, a publisher named Helme issued an edition of the old play of King John, that which Shakespeare so marvellously re-dramatized, with the deceptive imputation of the authorship to one W. Sh., a clear proof, if any were needed, of the early publishing value of his name. OUTLINES. 199 The tragedy of Macbeth was acted at the Globe Theatre, in April, 161 1, and Forman, the celebrated astrologer, has recorded a graphic account of its performance on that occasion, the only contemporary notice of it that has been discovered. The eccentric Doctor appears to have given some of the details inaccurately, but he could hardly have been mistaken in the state- ment that Macbeth and Banquo made their first appearance on horseback, a curious testi- mony to the rude endeavours of the stage man- agers of the day to invest their representations with something of reality. The weird sisters were personated by men whose heads were disguised by grotesque periwigs. Forman's nar- rative decides a question, which has frequently been raised, as to whether the Ghost of Banquo should appear, or only be imagined, by Macbeth. There is no doubt that the Ghost was personally introduced on the early stage as well as long afterwards, when the tragedy was revived by Davenant ; but the audiences of the seventeenth century were indoctrinated with the common belief that spirits were generally visible only to those connected with their object or mission, so in this play, as in some others of the period, an artificial stimulus to credulity in that direction was unnecessary. It is a singular circumstance 200 OUTLINES. that, in Davenant's time, Banquo and his Ghost were performed by different actors, a practice not impossibly derived from that of former times. A performance of the comedy of the Winter's Tale, the name of which is probably owing to its having been originally produced in the winter season, was witnessed by Dr. Forman at the Globe Theatre on May the i5th, 1611. It was also the play chosen for representation before the Court on the fifth of November in the same year. Although it is extremely un- likely that Camillo's speech respecting " anointed Kings " influenced the selection of the comedy, there can hardly be a doubt that a sentiment so appropriate to the anniversary celebrated on that day was favourably received by a Whitehall audience. The Winter's Tale was also per- formed in the year 1613 before Prince Charles, the Lady Elizabeth and the Elector Palatine, some time before the close of the month of April, at which period the two last of the above-named personages left England for the Continent. Amongst the performances of other dramas witnessed by Dr. Forman was one of the tragedy of Cymbeline, and although he does not record either the date or the locality, there OUTLINES. 201 can be little hesitation in referring the incident to the spring of the year 161 1 ; at all events, to a period not later than the following Septem- ber, when that marvellously eccentric astrologer died suddenly in a boat while passing over the Thames from South wark to Puddle Dock. It may be suspected that the poet was in London at the time of that occurrence, for in a subscrip- tion-list originated at Stratford-on-Avon on the eleventh of that month, his name is the only one found on the margin, as if it were a later insertion in a folio page of donors "towardes the charge of prosecutyng the bill in Parliament for the better repayre of the highe waies." The moneys were raised in anticipation of a Parlia- ment which was then expected to be summoned, but which did not meet until long afterwards. The list includes the names of all the leading inhabitants of the town, so that it is impossible to say whether the poet took a special interest in the proposed design, or if he allowed his name to appear merely out of consideration for its promoters. The comedy of the Tempest was represented before King James and the Court at Whitehall on the evening of the First of November, 161 1, the incidental music having been composed by Robert Johnson, one of the Royal " musicians 202 OUTLINES. for the lutes." The record of the performance includes the earliest notice of that drama which has yet been discovered. It was also acted with success at the Blackfriars Theatre, and it was one of the plays selected early in the year 1613 for the entertainment of Prince Charles, the Lady Elizabeth and the Elector Palatine. The four years and a half that intervened between the performance of the Tempest in 1611 and the author's death, could not have been one of his periods of great literary activity. So many of his plays are known to have been in existence at the former date, it follows that there are only six which could by any possibility have been written after that time, and it is not likely that the whole of those belong to so late an era. These facts lead irresistibly to the con- clusion that the poet abandoned literary occu- pation a considerable period before his decease, and, in all probability, when he disposed of his theatrical property. So long as he continued to be a shareholder in the Globe Theatre, it was incumbent upon him to supply the company with two plays annually. It may, therefore, be reasonably inferred that he parted with his shares within two or three years after the performance above alluded to, the drama of OUTLINES. 203 Henry the Eighth being, most likely, his con- cluding work. Amongst the six plays above-mentioned, is the amusing comedy of the Taming of the Shrew. Most of the incidents of that drama, as well as those of its exquisite Induction, are taken from an old farce, which was written at some time before May, 1594, and published in that year under the nearly identical title of the Taming of a Shrew. This latter work had then been acted by the Earl of Pembroke's servants, and was probably well known to Shakespeare when he was connected with that company, or shortly afterwards, for it was one of the plays represented at the Newington Butts Theatre by the Lord Admiral's and the Lord Chamberlain's men in the June of the same year. The period at which he wrote the new comedy is at present a matter solely of conjecture. Its local allusions might induce an opinion that it was composed with a view to a contemplated representation before a provincial audience. That delicious episode, the Induction, presents us with a fragment of the rural life with which Shakespeare himself must have been familiar in his native county. With such animated power is it written that we almost appear to personally witness the 204 OUTLINES. affray between Marian Hacket, the fat ale- wife of Wincot, and Christopher Sly, to see the nobleman on his return from the chase discovering the insensible drunkard, and to hear the strolling actors make the offer of professional services that was requited by the cordial welcome to the butteiy. Wincot is a secluded hamlet near Stratford-on-Avon, and there is an old tradition that the ale-house frequented by Sly was often resorted to by Shakespeare for the sake of diverting himself with a fool who belonged to a neighbouring mill. Stephen Sly, one of the tinker's friends or relatives, was a known character at Stratford- on-Avon, and is several times mentioned in the records of that town. This fact, taken in con- junction with the references to Wilmecote and Barton-on-the- Heath, definitely prove that the scene of the Induction was intended to be in the neighbourhood of Stratford-on-Avon, the water-mill tradition leading to the belief that Little Wilmecote, the part of the hamlet nearest to the poet's native town, is the Wincot alluded to in the comedy. If but the virtuous character of that interesting particle must not be overlooked the local imagery extends to the nobleman, the play itself must be supposed to be represented at Clopton House, the only OUTLINES.. 2O5 large private residence near the scene of Sly's intemperance; but if so, not until 1605, in the May of which year Sir George became Baron Carew of Clopton. It was the general opinion in the convivial days of Shakespeare " that a quart of ale is a dish for a king." So impressed were nearly all classes of society by its attractions, it was im- bibed wherever it was to be found, and there was no possible idea of degradation attached to the poet's occasional visits to the house of entertainment at Wincot. If, indeed, he had been observed in that village, and to pass Mrs. Racket's door without taking a sip of ale with the vigorous landlady, he might perhaps no longer have been enrolled amongst the members of good-fellowship. Such a notion, at all events, is at variance with the proclivities recorded in the famous crab-tree anecdote, one of sufficient antiquity to deserve a notice amongst the more trivial records of Shakespearean biography. It would appear from this tradition that the poet, one summer's morning, set out from his native town for a walk over Bardon Hill to the village of Bidford, six miles distant, a place said to have been then noted for its revelry. When he had nearly reached his destination, he happened to meet with a shepherd, and jocosely 206 OUTLINES. enquired of him if the Bidford Drinkers were at home. The rustic, perfectly equal to the occasion, replied that the Drinkers were absent, but that he would easily find the Sippers, and that the latter might perhaps be sufficiently jolly to meet his expectations. The anticipa- tions of the shepherd were fully realized, for Shakespeare, in bending his way homeward late in the evening, found an acceptable interval of rest under the branches of a crab-tree which was situated about a mile from Bidford. There is no great wonder and no special offence to record, when it is added that he was overtaken by drowsiness, and that he did not renew the course of his journey until early in the follow- ing morning. The whole story, indeed, when viewed strictly with reference to the habits of those days, presents no features that suggest disgrace to the principal actor, or imposition on the part of the narrator. That there is, at least, some foundation for the tale may be gathered from the fact that, as early as the year 1762, the tree, then known as Shakespeare's Canopy, was regarded at Stratford- on- A von as an object of great interest. In the year 1612 the poet was involved in a suit respecting his interests in the local tithes. It appears from the draft of a bill filed before OUTLINES. 207 Lord Ellesmere, that some of the lessees re- fusing to contribute their proper shares of a reserved rent, a greater proportion than was right fell to Lane, Greene, and Shakespeare. The result of the suit is not known, but it is ascertained from the draft bill that an annual income of ^60 was derived from the poet's share. It was about this time that the third edition of the Passionate Pilgrim made its appearance, the publisher seeking to attract a special class of buyers by describing it as consisting of " Certain Amorous Sonnets between Venus and Adonis." These were announced as the work of Shakespeare, but it is also stated that to them were " newly added two love epistles, the first from Paris to Helen, and Helen's answer back again to Paris ;" the name of the author of the last two poems not being mentioned. The wording of the title might imply that the latter were also the compositions of the great dramatist, but they were in fact written by Thomas Heywood, and had been impudently taken from his Troia Britanica, a large poetical work that had ap- peared three years previously, 1609. " Here, likewise," observes that writer, speaking in 1612 of the last-named production, "I must necessarily insert a manifest injury done me 2O8 OUTLINES. in that worke, by taking the two Epistles of Paris to Helen, and Helen to Paris, and printing them in a lesse volume under the name of another, which may put the world in opinion I might steale them from him ; and hee, to doe himselfe right, hath since published them in his owne name ; but as I must acknowledge my lines not worthy his patronage under whom he hath publisht them, so the author I know much offended with M. Jaggard that (altogether unknowne to him) presumed to make so bold with his name." Although Heywood thus ingeniously endea- vours to make it appear that his chief objection to the piracy arose from a desire to shield him- self against a charge of plagiarism, it is apparent that he was highly incensed at the liberty that had been taken ; and a new title-page to the Passionate Pilgrim of 1612, from which Shake- speare's name was withdrawn, was afterwards issued. There can be little doubt that this step was taken mainly in consequence of the remon- strances of Heywood addressed to Shakespeare, who may certainly have been displeased at Jag- gard's proceedings, but as clearly required pres- sure to induce him to act in the matter. If the publisher would now so readily listen to Shake- speare's wishes, it is difficult to believe that he OUTLINES. 209 would not have been equally compliant had he been expostulated with either at the first appearance of the work in 1599, or at any period during the following twelve years of its circulation. It is pleasing to notice that Hey- wood, in observing that the poet was ignorant of Jaggard's intentions, entirely acquits the former of any blame in the matter. Early in the following year the great dramatist lost his younger brother Richard, who was buried at Stratford-on-Avon on February the 4th, 1613. He was in the thirty- ninth year of his age. There is no record of the exact period at which the great dramatist retired from the stage in favour of a retreat at New Place, but it is not likely that he made the latter a permanent residence until 1613 at the earliest. Had this step been taken previously, it is so improbable that he would, in the March of that year, have been anxious to secure possession of an estate in London, a property consisting of a house and a yard, the lower part of the former having been then and for long previously a haberdasher's shop. The premises referred to, situated within one or two hundred yards to the east of the Blackfriars Theatre, were bought by the poet for the sum of ^140, and, for some reason or 14 210 OUTLINES. other, he was so intent on its acquisition that he permitted a considerable amount, ^60, of the purchase-money to remain on mortgage. That reason can hardly be found in the notion that the property was merely a desirable invest- ment, for it would appear to have been pur- chased at a somewhat extravagant rate, the vendor, one Henry Walker, a London musician, having paid but 100 for it in the year 1604. If intended for conversion into Shakespeare's own residence, that design was afterwards abandoned, for, at some time previously to his death, he had granted a lease of it to John Robinson, who was, oddly enough, one of the persons who had violently opposed the estab- lishment of the neighbouring theatre. It does not appear that Shakespeare lived to redeem the mortgage, for the legal estate remained in the trustees until the year 1618. Amongst the latter was one described as John Hemyng of London, gentleman, who signs himself Heminges, but it is not likely that he was the poet's friend and colleague of the same name. This Blackfriars estate was the only London property that Shakespeare is known for certain to have ever owned. It consisted of a dwelling- house, the first story of which was erected partially over a gateway, with an enclosed small OUTLINES. 2 I I plot of land either at the side or back. The house was situated on the west side of St. Andrew's Hill, formerly otherwise termed Pud- dle Hill or Puddle Dock Hill, and it was either partially on or very near the locality now and for more than two centuries known as Ireland Yard. At the bottom of the hill was Puddle Dock, a narrow creek of the Thames which may yet be traced, with its repulsive very gradually inclined surface of mud at low water, and, at high, an admirable representative of its name. Stow, in his Survay of London, ed. 1603, p. 41, mentions " a water gate at Puddle Wharfe, of one Puddle that kept a wharfe on the west side thereof, and now of puddle water, by meanes of many horses watred there." It is scarcely necessary to observe that every vestige of the Shakespearean house was obliterated in the great fire of 1666. So complete was the destruction of all this quarter of London that, perhaps, the only fragment of its ancient build- ings that remained to the present century is a doorway of the old church or priory of the Blackfriars, a relic which was to be observed about twenty years since, then built into the outer wall of a parish lumber-house adjoining St. Anne's burying ground. The Globe Theatre was destroyed by fire 142 2 I 2 OUTLINES. on Tuesday, June the 29th, 1613. The great dramatist was probably at Stratford-on-Avon at the time of this lamentable occurrence. At all events, his name is not mentioned in any of the notices of the calamity, nor is there a proba- bility that he was the author of the drama then produced, the first one on the public stage in which the efforts of the dramatist were sub- ordinated to theatrical display. It is true that some of the historical incidents in the piece that was in course of representation when the ac- cident occurred, are also introduced into Shake- speare's play, but it is not likely that there was any other resemblance between the two works. Amongst the actors engaged at the theatre on this fatal day were Burbage, Heminge, Condell, and gne who enacted the part of the Fool, the two last being so dilatory in quitting the building that fears were entertained for their safety. Up to this period, therefore, it may reasonably be inferred that the stage-fool had been introduced into every play on the subject of Henry the Eighth, so that when Shake- speare's pageant drama appeared some time afterwards, the Prologue is careful to inform the audience that there was to be a novel treat- ment of the history divested of some of the former accompaniments. This theory, of a late OUTLINES. 2 I 3 date, is in consonance with the internal evidence. During the last five or six years of the poet's career, the immoderate use of lines with the hypermetrical syllable became fashionable with our dramatists, and although, for the most part, Shakespeare's metre was a free offspring of the ear, owing little but its generic form to his pre- decessors and contemporaries, it appears certain that, in his later years, he suffered himself to be influenced by this disagreeable innovation. When Shakespeare's Henry the Eighth was produced, the character of the King was under- taken by Lowin, a very accomplished actor. This fact, which is stated on the authority of an old manuscript note in a copy of the second folio preserved at Windsor Castle, is confirmed by Downes, in 1 708, and by Roberts, the actor, in a tract published in 1/29, the latter ob- serving, " I am apt to think, he (Lowin) did not rise to his perfection and most exalted state in the theatre till after Burbage, tho' he play'd what we call second and third characters in his time, and particularly Henry the Eighth origi- nally ; from an observation of whose acting it in his later days, Sir William Davenant convey'd his instructions to Mr. Betterton." According to Downes, Betterton was instructed in the acting of the part by Davenant, "who had it 2 I 4 OUTLINES. from old Mr. Lowin that had his instructions from Mr. Shakespeare himself." There is a stage-tradition that, in Shakespeare's drama, as was also probably the case in all the old plays on the subject, the King's exclamation of ha was peculiarly emphasized. A story is told by Fuller of a boy-actor in the part whose feeble utterance of this particle occasioned a colleague to warn him that, if he did not pronounce it more vigorously, his Parliament would never give him a " a penny of money." Shortly before the destruction of the Globe Theatre in 1613, and in the same month of June, there was a malicious bit of gossip in circulation at Stratford-on-Avon respecting Mrs. Hall, Shakespeare's eldest daughter, and one Ralph Smith. The rumour was traced to an individual of the name of Lane, who was accordingly summoned to the Ecclesiastical Court to atone for the offence. The case was opened at Worcester on July the i5th, 1613, the poet's friend, Robert Whatcot, being the chief witness on behalf of the plaintiff. N othing beyond the formal proceedings in the suit has been recorded, but there can be little doubt that Lane was one of those social pests who attack the personal honour of any one they may happen to be offended with. Slanderers, however, are OUTLINES. 2 I 5 notorious cowards. Neither the defendant nor his proctor ventured to appear before the court, and, in the end, the lady's character was vindi- cated by the excommunication of the former on July the 27th. When itinerant preachers visited Stratford- on-Avon, it was the fashion in those days for the Corporation to make them complimentary offerings. In the spring of the following year, 1614, one of these gentlemen arrived in the town, and being either quartered at New Place, or spending a few hours in that house, was there presented by the municipal authorities with one quart of sack and another of claret. There is no evidence that Shakespeare participated in the clerical festivity, the earliest notice of him in this year being in July, when John Combe, one of the leading inhabitants, died, bequeathing him the then handsome legacy of ^5. It is clear, therefore, that, at the time the will was made, there was no unfriendliness between the two parties, and that the lines commencing, Ten-in- the-hundred, if genuine, must have been com- posed at a later period. The first two lines of that mock elegy are, however, undoubtedly spurious, and are omitted in the earliest dis- covered version of it, dated 1630, preserved at Thirlestane House. There is, moreover, no 2l6 OUTLINES. reason for believing that Combe was an usurious money-lender, ten per cent, being then the legal and ordinary rate of interest. That rate was not lowered until after the death of Shakespeare. The Globe Theatre, which had been rebuilt at a cost of ^1400, had then been recently opened ; and Chamberlain, writing from London on June the 3Oth, 1614, to a lady at Venice, says, " I heare much speach of this new play- house, which is saide to be the fayrest that ever was in England." In the autumn of the same year, 1614, there was great excitement at Stratford-on-Avon respecting an attempted enclosure of a large portion of the neighbouring common-fields, not commons, as so many biographers have inadvertently stated. The design was resisted by the Corporation, under the natural impression that, if it were realized, both the number of agricultural employes and the value of the tithes would be seriously diminished. There is no doubt that this would have been the case, and, as might have been expected, William Combe, the squire of Welcombe, who origi- nated the movement, encountered a deter- mined and, in the end, a successful opposition. He spared, however, no exertions to accomplish the object, and, in many instances, if we may OUTLINES. 2 I 7 believe contemporary allegations, tormented the poor and coaxed the rich into an acquiescence with his views. It appears most probable that Shakespeare was one of the latter who were so influenced, and that, amongst perhaps other in- ducements, he was allured to the unpopular side by Combe's agent, one Replingham, guaranteeing him from prospective loss. However that may be, it is certain that the poet was in favour of the enclosures, for, on December the 23rd, the Corporation addressed a letter of remonstrance to him on the subject, and another on the same day to a Mr. Man waring. The latter, who had been practically bribed by some land arrange- ments at Welcombe, undertook to protect the interests of Shakespeare, so there can be no doubt that the three parties were acting in unison. It appears that Shakespeare was in the metropolis when the Corporation decided to address an expostulary letter to him, and that he had arrived there on Wednesday, Novem- ber the 1 6th, 1614. We are indebted for the knowledge of this circumstance to the diary of Thomas Greene, the town-clerk of Stratford-on- Avon, who has recorded in that manuscript the following too brief, but still extremely curious, notices of the great dramatist in connection with the subject of the enclosures : 2l8 OUTLINES. i. Jovis, 17 Nov., my cosen Shakspeare comyng yes- terday to towne, I went to see him how he did. He told me that they assured him they ment to inclose noe further than to Gospell Bushe, and so upp straight (leavyng out part of the Dyngles to the Field) to the Gate in Clopton hedge, and take in Salisburyes peece ; and that they mean in Aprill to survey the land, and then to gyve satisfaccicn, and not before ; and he and Mr. Hall say they think ther will be nothyng done at all. 2. 23 Dec. A hall. Lettres wrytten, one to Mr. Many- ring, another to Mr. Shakspear, with almost all the com- pany's handes to eyther. I alsoe wrytte of myself to my cosen Shakspear the coppyes of all our actes, and then also a not of the inconvenyences wold happen by the inclosure. 3. 10 Januarii, 1614. Mr. Manwaryng and his agree- ment for me with my cosen Shakspeare. 4. 9 Jan. 1614. Mr. Reply ngham, 28 Octobris, article with Mr. Shakspear, and then I was putt in by Thursday. 5. Sept. Mr. Shakspeare told Mr. J. Greene that I was not abble to beare the enclosing of Welcombe. Greene was in London at the date of the first entry, and at Stratford at that of the second. The exact day on which the fifth memorandum was written is not given, but it was certainly penned before the fifth of September. Why the last observation should have been chronicled at all is a mystery, but the note has a mournful interest as the register of the latest recorded spoken words of the great dramatist. They were uttered in the autumn of the year 1615, when the end was very near at hand. OUTLINES. 219 Had it not been for its untimely termina- tion, the concluding period of Shakespeare's life would have been regarded with unmixed pleasure. It "was spent," observes Rowe, "as all men of good sense will wish theirs may be, in ease, retirement, and conversation of his friends." The latter were not restricted to his provincial associates, for he retained his literary intimacies until the end ; while it is clear, from what is above recorded, that his retire- ment to Stratford did not exclude an occasional visit to the metropolis. He had, moreover, the practical wisdom to be contented with the for- tune his incessant labours had secured. He had gathered, writes his first real biographer, "an estate equal to his occasion, and, in that, to his wish!" language which suggests a traditional belief that the days of accumulation had passed. In other words, he was one of the few who knew when to commence the enjoyment of acquired wealth, avoiding the too common error of de- siring more when in full possession of whatever there was in the ability of money to contribute to happiness. It is not likely that the poet, with his syste- matic forethought, had hitherto neglected to provide for the ultimate devolution of his estates, but, as usual, it is only the latest will 220 OUTLINES. that has been preserved. This important re- cord was prepared in January, 1616, either by or under the directions of Francis Collins, a solicitor then residing at Warwick, and it appears, from the date given to the superscrip- tion and from some of the erasures in the manuscript itself, that it was a corrected draft ready for an engrossment that was to have been signed by the testator on Thursday, the twenty-fifth of that month. For some unknown reason, but most probably owing to circum- stances relating to Judith's matrimonial en- gagement, the appointment for that day was postponed, at Shakespeare's request, in antici- pation of further instructions, and before Collins had ordered a fair copy to be made. The draft, therefore, remained in his custody, his client being then "in perfect health," and taking no doubt a lively interest in all that concerned his daughter's marriage. Under such conditions a few weeks easily pass away unheeded, so that, when he was unexpectedly seized with a danger- ous fever in March, it is not very surprising that the business of the will should be found to have been neglected. Hence it was that his lawyer was hurriedly summoned from Warwick, that it was not considered advisable to wait for the preparation of a regular transcript, and that OUTLINES. 221 the papers were signed after a few more altera- tions had been hastily effected. An unusual number of witnesses were called in to secure the validity of the informally written document, its draftsman, according to the almost invariable custom at that time, being the first to sign. The corrected draft of the will was so hastily revised at Shakespeare's bedside, that even the correction of the day of the month was overlooked. It is probable that the melan- choly gathering at New Place happened some- what later than the twenty-fifth of March, the fourth week after a serious attack of fever being generally the most fatal period. We may at all events safely assume that, if death resulted from such a cause on April the 23rd, the seizure could not have occurred much before the end of the preceding month. It is satisfactory to know that the invalid's mind was as yet unclouded, several of the interlineations that were added on the occasion having obviously emanated from him- self. And it is not necessary to follow the general opinion that the signatures betray the tremulous hand of illness, although portions of them may indicate that they were written from an inconvenient position. It may be observed that the words, by me, which, the autographs excepted, are the only ones in the poet's hand- 222 OUTLINES. writing known to exist, appear to have been penned with ordinary firmness. The first interlineation, that which refers to Judith, was apparently the result of her marriage, an event considered as a probability on the twenty-fifth of January, and shortly afterwards, that is to say, in less than three weeks, definitively arranged. That the poet, as is so often assumed, was ignorant, in Janu- ary, of an attachment which resulted in a marriage in February, is altogether incredible. It is especially so when it is recollected that the Quiney and Shakespeare families were at least on visiting terms, and all residing in a small country town, where the rudiment of every love-affair must have been immediately enrolled amongst the desirable ingredients of the gossips' caldron. But there is evidence in the will itself that Shakespeare not only con- templated Judith's marriage, but was extremely anxious for her husband to settle on her an estate in land equivalent in value to the bequest of ^150. He makes the failure of that settlement an absolute bar to the husband's life or other personal interest in the money, rigidly securing the integrity of the capital against the possibility of the condition being evaded so long as Judith or any of her issue OUTLINES. 223 were living. The singular limitation of the three years from the date of the will, not from that of the testator's decease, may perhaps be explained by the possibility of Thomas Quiney having a landed reversion accruing to him at the end of that period, such as a bequest con- tingent on his reaching the age of thirty. How- ever that may be, it seems certain that the interlineated words, in discharge of her marriage porcion, must have reference to an engagement on the part of Shakespeare, one entered into after the will was first drawn up and before that paragraph was inserted, to give Judith the sum of ;ioo on the occasion of her marriage with Thomas Quiney. That event took place in their native town on Saturday, February the loth, 1616. There was some reason for accele- rating the nuptials, for they were married with- out a license, an irregularity for which, a few weeks afterwards, they were fined and threat- ened with excommunication by the ecclesias- tical court at Worcester. No evidence, however, has been discovered to warrant the frequent suggestion that the poet disapproved of the alliance. So far as is known, there was nothing in the bridegroom's position or then character to authorise a parent's opposition, nor have good reasons been adduced for the suspicion 224 OUTLINES. that there was ever any unpleasantness between the married Quineys and their Shakespeare connections. Their first-born son was chris- tened after the great dramatist, and they re- mained on good terms with the Halls. Judith, the first and one of the most prominent legatees named in the will, was a tenant-for-life in re- mainder under the provisions of that document, so there is not the least reason for suspecting that the partiality therein exhibited to the testator's eldest daughter was otherwise than one elicited by aristocratic tendencies. It is not likely that it was viewed in any other light by the younger sister, who received what were for those days exceedingly liberal pecuniary legacies, while the special gift to her of " my broad silver gilt bole" is an unmistakable testimony of affection. Shakespeare, in de- vising his real estates to one child, followed the example of his maternal grandfather and the general custom of landed proprietors. He evidently desired that their undivided owner- ship should continue in the family, but that he had no other motive may be inferred from the absence of conditions for the perpetuation of his own name. Thomas Quiney, at the time of his marriage with Judith Shakespeare, was very nearly four OUTLINES. 225 years her junior, having been a younger son, born in 1589, of Richard Quiney, whose corres- pondence with the poet in 1598 has already been noticed. He then, that is to say, in February, 1616, lived in a small house on the west of the High Street, but nothing respecting his previous career has been discovered. Following the bequests to the Quineys are those to the poet's sister Joan, then in her forty-seventh year, and five pounds a-piece to his nephews, her three children, lads of the respective ages of sixteen, eleven and eight. To this lady, who became a widow so very shortly before his own decease, he leaves, besides a contingent reversionary interest, his wearing apparel, twenty pounds in money, and a life-interest in the Henley Street property, the last being subject to the manorial rent of twelve- pence. This limitation of real estate to Mrs. Hart, the anxiety displayed to secure the in- tegrity of the little Rowington copyhold, and the subsequent devises to his eldest daughter, exhibit very clearly his determination to place under legal settlement every foot of land that he possessed. With this object in view, he settles his estates in tail male, with the usual remainders over, all of which, however, so far as the predominant intention was concerned, 15 226 OUTLINES. turned out to be merely exponents of the vanity of human wishes. Before half a century had elapsed, all possibility of the continuance of the family entail had been dispelled. The most celebrated interlineation is that in which Shakespeare leaves his widow his " second-best bed with the furniture," the first- best being that generally reserved for visitors, and one which may possibly have descended as a family heir-loom, becoming in that way the undevisable property of his eldest daughter. Bedsteads were sometimes of elaborate work- manship, and gifts of them are often to be met with in ancient wills. The notion of indifference to his wife, so frequently deduced from the above-mentioned entry, cannot be sustained on that account. So far from being con- sidered of trifling import, beds were even sometimes selected as portions of compensa- tion for dower; and bequests of personal articles of the most insignificant description were never formerly held in any light but that of marks of affection. Amongst the smaller legacies of former days may be enumerated kettles, chairs, gowns, hats, pewter cups, feather bolsters and cullenders. In the year 1642 one John Shakespeare of Budbrook, near War- wick, considered it a sufficient mark of respect OUTLINES. 227 to his father-in-law to leave him " his best boots." The conjugal history of Shakespeare would not have been so tarnished had more regard been given to contemporary practices. It has generally been considered that the terms of the marriage-bond favour a suspicion of haste and irregularity, but it will be seen on examination that they are merely copies of the ordinary forms in use at Worcester. We should not inspect these matters through the glasses of modern life, For the gift of a bed let us sub- stitute that of one of its present correlatives, a valuable diamond-ring for example, and we should then instinctively feel not only that the gift was one of affection, but that its isolation was most probably due to the circumstance of a special provision of livelihood for her being unnecessary. This was undoubtedly the case in the present instance. The interests of the survivor were nearly always duly considered in the voluntary settlements formerly so often made between husband and wife, but if there were no such arrangements in this case, the latter would have been well provided for by free-bench in the Rowington copyhold, and by dower on the rest of the property. It is curious that the only real ground for '52 228 OUTLINES. a belief in any kind of estrangement between them should not hitherto have been noticed, but something to favour that impression may be fancied to be visible in Shakespeare's neglect to give his widow a life-interest either in their own residence at New Place or in its furniture. However liberally she may have been provided for, that circumstance would hardly reconcile us to the somewhat ungracious divorce of a wife from the control of her own household. It is clear that there must have been some valid reason for this arrangement, for the grant of such an interest would not have affected the testator's evident desire to perpetuate a family estate, and there appears to be no other obvious design with which a limited gift of the mansion could have interfered. Perhaps the only theory that would be consistent with the terms of the will, and with the deep affection which she is traditionally recorded to have entertained for him to the end of her life, is the possibility of her having been afflicted with some chronic in- firmity of a nature that precluded all hope of recovery. In such a case, to relieve her from household anxieties and select a comfortable apartment at New Place, where she would be under the care of an affectionate daughter and an experienced physician, would have been the OUTLINES. 229 wisest and kindest measure that could have been adopted. It has been observed that a man's character is more fully revealed in a will than in any other less solemn document, and the experiences of most people will tend to favour the impression that nothing is so likely to be a really faithful record of natural impulses. Dismissing, as unworthy of consideration, the possibility of there having been an intentional neglect of his wife, it is pleasing to notice in Shakespeare's indications of the designer having been a conscientious and kind-hearted man, and one who was devoid of any sort of affectation. In- dependently of the bequests that amply provided for his children and sister, there are found in it a very unusual number of legacies to personal friends, and if some of its omissions, such as those of reference to the Hathaway s, appear to be mysterious, it must be recollected that we are entirely unacquainted with family arrange- ments, the knowledge of some of which might explain them all. It has, moreover, been objected that "the will contains less of senti- ment than might be wished," that is to say, it may be presumed, by those who fancy that the great dramatist must have been, by virtue of his art, of an aesthetic and sentimental tempera- 230 OUTLINES. ment. When Mr. West of Alscot was the first, in 1747, to exhibit a biographical interest in this relic, the Rev. Joseph Greene, Master of the grammar-school of Stratford-on-Avon, who made a transcript for him, was also disap- pointed with its contents, and could not help observing that it was " absolutely void of the least particle of that spirit which animated our great poet." It might be thought from this impeachment that the worthy preceptor ex- pected to find it written in blank- verse. There was a funeral as well as a marriage in the family during the last days of Shake- speare. William Hart, who was carrying on the business of a hatter at the premises now known as the Birth-place, and who was the husband of the poet's sister Joan, was buried at Stratford-on-Avon on April the I7th, 1616. Before another week had elapsed, the spirit of the great dramatist himself had fled. Amongst the numerous popular errors of our ancestors was the belief that fevers often resulted from convivial indulgences. This was the current notion in England until a compara- tively recent period, and its prevalence affected the traditional history of the poet's last illness. The facts were these. Late in the March of this calamitous year, or, accepting our com- OUTLINES. 231 putation, early in April, Shakespeare and his two friends, Dray ton and Ben Jonson, were regaling themselves at an entertainment in one of the taverns at Stratford-on-Avon. It is recorded that the party was a jovial one, and according to a late but apparently genuine tradition, when the great dramatist was re r turning to New Place in the evening, he had taken more wine than was conducive to pedestrian accuracy. Shortly or immediately afterwards, he was seized by the lamentable fever which terminated fatally on Tuesday, April the 23rd, 1616, O.S., . May the 3rd, N.S., corresponding to our present fifth day of the latter month. The cause of the malady, then attributed to undue festivity, would now be readily discernible in the wretched sanitary con- ditions surrounding his residence. If truth, and not romance, is to be invoked, were there the woodbine and sweet honeysuckle within reach of the poet's death-bed, their fragrance would have been neutralized by their vicinity to middens, fetid water-courses, mud-walls and piggeries. The funeral was solemnized on the following Thursday, April the 25th, when all that was mortal of the great dramatist was consigned to its final resting-place in the beautiful parish church of his native town. His remains were 232 OUTLINES. deposited in the chancel, the selection of that locality for the interment being due to the circum- stance of its then being the legal and customary burial-place of the owners of the tithes. The grave is situated near the northern wall of the chancel, within a few paces of the ancient charnel-house, the arch of the door- way that opened to the latter, with its antique corbels, still remaining. The sepulchre was covered with a slab, that bore the following inscription, GOOD FREND, FOR lESVS SAKE FORBEARE TO DIGG THE DVST ENCLOASED HEARE ; BLESTE BE THE MAN THAT SPARES THES STONES, AND CVRST BE HE THAT MOVES MY BONES. lines which, according to one early tradition, were selected by the poet himself for his epitaph. According to another and less probable account, they were the poet's own composition ; but, at all events, it may be safely gathered that they originated in some way from a repugnance on his part to the idea of a disturbance of his remains. It should be remembered that the transfer of bones from graves to the charnel-house was then an ordinary practice at Stratford-on-Avon. There has long been a tradition that Shakespeare's feelings on this subject arose from a reflection on the ghastly appearance of that receptacle, OUTLINES. 233 which the elder Ireland, writing in the year 1795, describes as then containing "the largest assemblage of human bones" he had ever beheld. But whether this be the truth, or if it were merely the natural wish of a sensitive and thoughtful mind, it is a source of con- gratulation that the simple verses should have protected his ashes from sacrilege. The nearest approach to an excavation into the grave of Shakespeare was made in the summer of the year 1796, in digging a vault in the immediate locality, when an opening appeared which was presumed to indicate the commence- ment of the site of the bard's remains. The most scrupulous care, however, was taken not to disturb the neighbouring earth in the slightest degree, the clerk having been placed there, until the brickwork of the adjoining vault was completed, to prevent anyone mak- ing an examination. No relics whatever were visible through the small opening that thus presented itself, and as the poet was buried in the ground, not in a vault, the chancel earth, moreover, formerly absorbing a large degree of moisture, the great probability is that dust alone remains. This consideration may tend to discourage an irreverent opinion expressed by some, that it is due to the interests of science 234 OUTLINES. to unfold to the world the material abode which formerly held so great an intellect. It is not many years since a phalanx of trouble-tombs, lanterns and spades in hand, assembled in the chancel at dead of night, intent on disobeying the solemn injunction that the bones of Shake- speare were not to be disturbed. But the supplicatory lines prevailed. There were some amongst the number who, at the last moment, refused to incur the warning condemnation, and so the design was happily abandoned. The honours of repose, which have thus far been conceded to the poet's remains, have not been extended to the tomb-stone. The latter had, by the middle of the last century, sank below the level of the floor, and, about fifty years ago, had become so much decayed as to suggest a vandalic order for its removal, and, in its stead, to place a new slab, one which marks certainly the locality of Shakespeare's grave and continues the record of the farewell lines, but indicates nothing more. The original memorial has wandered from its allotted station no one can tell whither, a sacrifice to the insane worship of prosaic neatness, that mis- chievous demon whose votaries have practically destroyed so many of the priceless relics of ancient England and her gifted sons. AFTER THE FUNERAL. The poet's bereaved family now consisted of his widow, the Anne Hathaway of his youth ; his elder daughter, Susanna, and her husband, John Hall ; his other daughter, Judith, and her husband, Thomas Quiney ; his sister Joan Hart and her three sons, William, Thomas and Michael ; and his only grand-child, Elizabeth Hall, a little girl in the ninth year of her age. Mr. Hall was in London in the following June, and on the twenty-second of that month he proved his father-in-law's will at the Arch- bishop of Canterbury's registry, an office then situated near St. Paul's. He also produced at the same time an inventory of the testator's household effects, but not a fragment of this latter document is known to be in existence. A copy of the will itself is here given. There are several erasures and interlineations render- ing it difficult to convey to the reader's mind an exact idea of the original ; but if he will 236 AFTER THE FUNERAL. carefully bear in mind that, in the following transcript, all words inserted in square brackets are those which have been erased, and that all the Italics represent interlineations, he will be enabled to derive a tolerably clear impression of this valuable record. It occupies three large sheets of paper, the testator's signature appear- ing on each. Vicesimo quinto die [Januarii] Martii, anno regni domini nostri Jacobi, nunc regis Angliae, &c. decimo quarto, et Scotiae 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 tes- tament 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 my 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 and] 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 dis- charge of her marriage portion within one yeare after my deceas, with consideracion after the rate of twoe shillinges in the pound for soe long tyme as the same shalbe unpaied 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 AFTER THE FUNERAL. 237 discend or come unto her after my deceas, or that shee nowe hath, of in or to one copiehold tenemente with thappurte- naunces lyeing and being in Stratford-upon-Avon aforesaied in the saied countie of Warr., being parcell 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 con- sideracion 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 shalbe payed to my saied sister Jone, and after her deceas the saied Hi. shall remaine amongst the child- ren 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 sufficientlie assure unto her and 238 AFTER THE FUNERAL. 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.li. 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.H. 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.d. Item, I gyve and bequeath unto her three sonns, William Harte, Hart, and Michaell Harte, fvye poundes a peece, to be payed within one yeare after my deceas [to be sett out for her within one yeare after my deceas by my executours, with thadvise and direc- cions of my overseers, for her best proffitt untill her marriage, and then the same with the increase thereof to be paied unto her]. Item, I gyve and bequeath unto [her] the saied Elizabeth Hall all my plate, except my brod silver and 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 Combe 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] Hamlett Sadler xxvj.s. viij.d. to buy him a ringe; to William Raynoldes, gent, xxvj.s. viij.d. to buy him a ring; to my god- son William Walker xx. s in gold ; to Anthonye Nashe gent. xxvj. s - viij. d> , and to Mr. John Nashe xxvj. 5 * viij. d - [in gold] ; and to my fellowes John Hemynges, Richard Burbage, and Henry Cundell, xxvj.*- viij. d - a peece to buy them ringes. Item, I gyve, will, bequeath and devise, unto my daughter AFTER THE FUNERAL. 239 Susanna Hall, for better enabling of her to performe this my will t 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 thappurtenaunces, scituat lyeing and being in Henley streete within the borough of Stratford aforesaied ; and all my barnes, stables, orchardes, gardens, landes, tenementes and hereditamentes 1 whatsoever, scituat lyeing 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 lyeng and being in the Blackfriers in London nere the 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 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 ffourth [sonne], ffyfth, sixte, and seaventh sonnes of her bodie lawfullie issueing one after another, and to the heires males of the bodies of the saied ffourth. fifth, sixte and seaventh sonnes lawfullie yssueing, in such manner as yt ys before 240 AFTER THE FUNERAL. lymitted to be and remaine to the first, second and third sonns of her bodie, and to theire heires males, and for defalt of such issue, the saied premisses to be and remaine to my sayed neece Hall, and the heires males of her bodie law- fullie 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, I give unto my wiefe my second best bed with the furniture. 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 wills, and publishe this to be my last will and testament In witnes whereof I have hereunto put my [scale] hand the daie and yeare first above written. By me William Shakespeare. Witness to the publishing hereof, Fra: Collyns ; Julius Shawe; John Robinson; Hamnet Sadler ; Robert Whattcott. The foregoing document is written upon what was termed pot-paper, a material then commonly used by solicitors for their drafts, and so called on account of its water-mark being either a pot or a jug. It is beyond reasonable doubt that the will, in its present form, is a manuscript prepared for engrossment, and that AFTER THE FUNERAL. 241 the latter would have been subject to a careful revision or even to the introduction of additional matter. We may confidently assume that, if circumstances had permitted it, a fair copy would not only have been made before the execution, but that such errors as those which are found in the statement of the regnal years, or in the duplication of the bequest of the plate, would have been corrected. If the will be accepted as a lawyer's draft, there is really very little in it to create a serious per- plexity. The form of the superscription is not, as has been surmised, one so peculiar that it can be fairly made the subject of a special theory. Although no instance of its use is to be found amongst the records of the local testa- mentary court, the Stratford wills having been almost invariably drawn up by laymen, it was a common formula with professional men, as may be seen from numerous examples of the early part of the seventeenth century which are attached to wills preserved at Somerset House. Neither can any conclusion be safely drawn from what was then an ordinary and formal disposition of the soul and the body. The terms of the bequest to his daughter Judith have been already considered. Her husband, Thomas Quiney, was living at the 16 242 AFTER THE FUNERAL. time of their marriage, in a small house on the west of the High Street, but a few months afterwards he removed to a much larger one, which was known as the Cage, situated on the opposite side of the way at the corner of Fore Bridge Street. It is in connection with the latter residence that he is first heard of as a vintner, a trade into which he may have entered with the capital bequeathed to his wife, and in which he was supported by the Corporation and the leading inhabitants of the town. During the early portion of his matrimonial life he appears to have occupied a good position, having been elected a burgess in 1617, and performing the duties of Chamberlain in 1621- 1622 so satisfactorily that he was continued in the office for a second term. He was a fairly regular attendant at the meetings of the Town Council up to the year 1630, when he retired from that body, being at the same time involved in litigation, and making an unsuccessful at- tempt to dispose of the lease of his house ; circumstances which indicate that his affairs had drifted into an unsatisfactory state. It was altogether an unfortunate year for him, for it is recorded in its annals that he was fined for swearing and for encouraging tipplers in his shop. The history of the remainder of his AFTER THE FUNERAL. 243 career is not pleasurable. Although he still continued to be patronized by the local au- thorities, prosperity had forsaken him, and he had to struggle with a failing business for many years, until ultimately, some time about 1652, he removed to the metropolis. There are reasons for believing that he was then in poverty, finding in London a kind protector in his brother Richard, a wealthy grocer, and that he died there a few years after his departure from Stratford. There were no children left to regret their father's reverses. His family, by his only wife Judith, consisted of three sons, the eldest, Shakespeare Quiney, dying in his infancy, and the two others, Richard and Thomas, soon after their arrival at manhood. As neither of the latter had issue, the line from the poet in this direction became extinct in 1662 on the death of their mother, who had a few days previously at- tained the ripe age of seventy-seven. The Halls, who were the executors and chief legatees, made New Place their estab- lished residence soon after the poet's decease. Mr. John Hall, as he is almost invariably termed in the Stratford records, was a Master of Arts, but he never received the honour of a medical degree. His reputation, however, 16-2 AFTER THE FUNERAL. was independent of titles, for no country doctor ever achieved a greater popularity. His advice was solicited in every direction, and he was summoned more than once to attend the Earl and Countess of Northampton at Ludlow Castle, a distance of over forty miles, no trifling journey along the bridle-paths of those days. And even in such times of fierce religious animosities, the desire to secure his advice outweighed all prejudices, for, notwith- standing his avowed Protestantism, it is recorded by the Linacre professor, in 1657, that "such as hated him for his religion often made use of him." It is clear, indeed, that, after the death of Shakespeare, whatever may have been the case previously, he openly exhibited strong religious tendencies in the direction of puri- tanism, and these may have led to an indiffer- ence for the fate of any dramatic manuscripts that might have come into his hands. It would also seem from notices of a quarrel he had with the Corporation, from which he was expelled in 1633, that he was somewhat of a perverse and impetuous disposition. He died on November the 25th, 1635, the "ringing of the great bell " attending his obsequies in the chancel of the parish church on the following day. Favour was exhibited in the permission to AFTER THE FUNERAL. 245 select that locality for the physician's interment, his share of the tithe lease having been dis- posed of long previously. It is evident that there was a desire on the part of Mrs. Hall that the last resting-places of herself and her family should be near to those of her parents. In a nuncupative will that was made by Air. Hall a few hours before he died, he gave Thomas Nash, the husband of his only child, his " study of books." As the Halls were Shakespeare's residuary legatees, there can hardly be a doubt that any volumes that had been possessed by the latter at Stratford-on- Avon were included in this bequest. It may also perhaps be assumed that there was a study here in the time of the great dramatist. At all events there was clearly a sitting-room in the house that could have been used for the pur- poses of one, but, from the absence of all reference to books in the will of 1616, it may be safely inferred that the poet himself was not the owner of many such luxuries. Anything like a private library, even of the smallest dimensions, was then of the rarest occurrence, and that Shakespeare ever owned one at any time of his life is exceedingly improbable. The folios of Holinshed and Plutarch, the former in the edition of 1586 and the latter in 246 AFTER THE FUNERAL. probably that of 1595, are amongst the few volumes that can be positively said to have been in his own hands. In that age of com- mon-place books it must not be too hastily assumed that individual passages, such as that he adapted from Montaigne, were taken from the works themselves. It is in the narrative of a circumstance that occurred at New Place a few years after Hall's death, that we obtain the only interesting personal glimpse we are ever likely to have of Shakespeare's eldest daughter. It exhibits her in one direction as a true scion of the poet, a shrewd person of business, caring more for gold than for books, albeit she was somewhat dis- turbed at the notion of parting with any of the latter that had been written by her husband, to whom she was warmly attached. During the civil wars, about the year 1642, a surgeon named James Cooke, attending in his pro- fessional capacity on a detachment stationed at Stratford-bridge, was invited to New Place to examine the books which the doctor had left behind him. " After a view of them," as he observes, Mrs. Hall "told me she had some books left by one that professed physic with her husband for some money ; I told her, if I liked them, I would give her the money AFTER THE FUNERAL. 247 again ; she brought them forth, amongst which there was this, with another of the authors, both intended for the press; I, being acquainted with Mr. Hall's hand, told her that one or two of them were her husbands, and showed them her ; she denied ; I affirmed, till I perceived she began to be offended ; at last I returned her the money." By the word this, Cooke refers to the manuscript Latin medical case-book which he translated into English, and published in 1657. The conversation here recorded would appear to show that Mrs. Hall's education had not been of an enlarged character ; that books and manuscripts, even when they were the productions of her own husband, were not of much interest to her. Were it otherwise, it would be difficult to account for the pertinacity with which she insisted upon the book of cases not being in the doctor's handwriting ; for his caligraphy is of an uniform and somewhat peculiar description, not readily to be mistaken for any of the ordinary styles of writing then in use. It is very possible that the affixion of her signature to a document was the extent of her chirographical ability, for the art of writing was then rare amongst the ladies of the middle class, and her sister was a marks-woman. Such an educational defect would of course have passed 248 AFTER THE FUNERAL. unnoticed in those days, and could not have affected the estimation in which she was held for a high order of intelligence, religious fer- vour and sympathetic charity, Witty above her sexe, but that's not all, Wise to salvation was good Mistris Hall ; Something of Shakespere was in that, but this Wholy of Him with whom she's now in blisse. Then, Passenger, ha'st ne're a teare To weepe with her that wept with all ; That wept, yet set her selfe to chere Them up with comforts cordiall ? Her love shall live, her mercy spread, When thou ha'st ne're a teare to shed. lines engraved, by the direction of some loving hand, on the grave-stone that records her decease on July the nth, 1649. The term witty is of course here used in the old sense of brightly intelligent, and the allusion in the fourth line is probably to the Saviour as the Dispenser of a wisdom unconnected with mortal intellect. In other language, while she inherited some of the mental endowments of her father, her hopes of salvation rested on a Foundation that was independent of such gifts. The only child of the Halls, Mistress Elizabeth, as she is described in the nuptial register, with the title usually given in former AFTER THE FUNERAL. 249 days to single ladies, was married at Stratford- on-Avon in April, 1626, to Thomas Nash, a resident of that town and a man of considerable property. Born in 1593, he was in his youth a student at Lincoln's Inn, and had no doubt been all his life well acquainted with the bride's family, both his father and uncle having been personal friends of Shakespeare. Mrs. Nash became a widow in 1647, but about two years afterwards she married John Barnard, a gentle- man of wealth and position in the county of Northampton. Leaving no issue by either husband, the lineal descent from the poet ter- minated at her death in the year 1670. There now only remain to add a few notes on the ultimate destinies of the Shakespearean pro- perties. In the year 1625 the poet's son-in-law, John Hall, parted with the share in the tithes that had been purchased from Huband in 1605. It formed a part of the residuary estate. The land bought from the Combes, the Henley Street property and New T Place, continued in the family until the death of the poet's last descendant, Lady Barnard, in 1670. The two houses in Henley Street were included in the entail, but one was subject to the life-interest of the poet's sister, Joan Hart, who died in 1646. 250 AFTER THE FUNERAL. Lady Barnard devised both of them to the Harts, in whose possession they remained until the beginning of the present century. Judith Quiney duly surrendered her interest in the Rowington copyhold to her sister, and the latter was formally admitted to it at one of the manorial courts. This little estate remained in the possession of the Halls at least down to the year 1633, but its subsequent descent, until it is noticed as being in the hands of the Cloptons early in the last century, is unknown. The Blackfriars estate followed the succes- sion of the other properties until October, 1652, when it was excluded from the parcels in the re-settlement executed by the Barnards in the October of that year. Upon the death of Mrs. Hall, in 1649, it had passed into the fee-simple ownership of her daughter, who no doubt re- tained its exclusrve possession until she parted with it, either by sale or gift, to her kinsman, Edward Bagley. The date of this transfer is not known, but it occurred some time in or before 1667, in the August of which year the latter sold the property to Sir Heneage Fether- ston. The buildings upon it had been destroyed in the fire of London, Bagley receiving only ^35 for the land, and it may be that the estate did not come into his hands until after, and AFTER THE FUNERAL. 251 perhaps in consequence of, that calamity. With the possible exception of the Getley copyhold, this was the first disseverance of any of the poet's estates from the hands of his descendants. RECORDS OF AFFECTION. Although few of us imagine that the homely lines on Shakespeare's grave-stone were his own composition, there can be little doubt that they owe their position to an affectionate ob- servance of one of his latest wishes. Destitute even of a nominal record, and placed in a line of descriptive and somewhat elaborate family memorials, it is difficult to believe that an in- scription, so unique in its simplicity, could have another history. And it was, in all probability, the designedly complete isolation of these verses that suggested to his relatives the propriety of raising an eligible monument in the immediate vicinity, on the only spot, indeed, in which there could have been erected a cenotaph that har- monized with the associations of his grave. This monument was erected on the northern wall of the chancel, at an elevation of some five feet above the pavement, and within a few paces of the grave. Expense does not appear to have 254 KI.CORDS OF AFFECTION. been spared in its preparation, but there is no display of vulgar ostentation, the whole being admirably suited for the main object of the design, the formation of a niche for the recep- tion of a life-sized bust. The precise history of the construction of the effigy is unknown, but there is an old tradition to the effect that the artist had the use of a posthumous cast of the face of his subject. If this were the case, it may be safely assumed that when John Hall, the executor and son-in-law, was in London in June, a few weeks after Shakespeare's decease, he took the opportunity of leaving the cast in the hands of a person on whom he thought that he could best rely for the production of a satis- factory likeness. He accordingly selected an individual whose place of business was near the western door of St. Saviour's church, within a few minutes' walk of the Globe Theatre, and, therefore, one to whom the poet's appearance was no doubt familiar. The name of this sculptor was Garrat Johnson, the son of a native of Amsterdam who had settled in Eng- land as " a tombe-maker" in the previous reign, and who had died in Southwark a few years previously. The exact time at which the monument was erected in the church is unknown, but it is KKCORDS OF AFFECTION. 255 alluded to by Leonard Digges as being there in the year 1623. The bust must, therefore, have been submitted to the approval of the Halls, who could hardly have been satisfied with a mere fanciful image. There is, however, no doubt that it was an authentic representation of the great dramatist, but it has unfortunately been so tampered with in modern times that much of the absorbing interest with which it would otherwise have been surrounded has evaporated. It was originally painted in imita- tion of life, the face and hands of the usual flesh colour, the eyes a light hazel, and the hair and beard auburn. The realization of the costume was similarly attempted by the use of scarlet for the doublet, black for the loose gown, and white for the collar and wristbands. But colours on stone are only of temporary endurance, and so much of these had disappeared in the lapse of a hundred and thirty years that it was considered advisable in 1749 to have them renovated. The bust, which represents the poet in the act of composition, had also been deprived of the fore-finger of the right hand, a pen and a frag- ment of the adjoining thumb, all of which were restored at the same time in new material. After a while these pieces of stone again fell off, and two of them, those belonging to the 256 RECORDS OF AFFECTION. finger and thumb, the pen thenceforth being represented by a quill, were refashioned by one William Roberts of Oxford in 1 790 ; and shortly afterwards, that is to say, in 1793, Malone persuaded the vicar to allow the whole of the bust to be painted in white. It remained in this last-mentioned state for many years, but, in 1 86 1, there was a second restoration of the original colouring. This step was induced by the seriously adverse criticism to which the operation of 1793 had been subjected, but although the action taken by Malone was un- doubtedly injudicious, it did not altogether ob- literate the semblance of an intellectual human being, and this is more than can be said of the miserable travesty which now distresses the eye of the pilgrim. In estimating the degree of affection that suggested the order for this elaborate monu- ment, it will be desirable to bear in mind the strong puritanical tendencies of the Halls. They were members of a sect who held every- thing connected with the stage in wild abhor- rence, so that it must have required all the courage inspired by a loving memory to have dictated the erection not only of an unusually handsome memorial, but of one which pro- claimed, in the midst of their religious com- RECORDS OF AFFECTION. 257 munity, the transcendent literary merits of a dra- matist. Upon a rectangular tablet, placed below the bust, are engraven the following lines, IVDICIO PYLIVM, GENIO SOCRATEM, ARTE MARONEM, TERRA TEGIT, POPVLVS M^ERET, OLYMPVS HABET. STAY PASSENGER, WHY GOEST THOV BY so FAST, READ, IF THOV CANST, WHOM ENVIOVS DEATH HATH PLAST WITHIN THIS MONVMENT, SHAKSPEARE, WITH WHOME QVICK NATVRE DIDE ; WHOSE NAME DOTH DECK vs. TOMBE FAR MORE THEN COST ; SITH ALL YT. HE HATH WRITT LEAVES LIVING ART BVT PAGE TO SERVE HIS WITT. OBIIT ANO. DOI. 1616. ^TATIS 53. DIE 23. AP. It is not likely that these verses were com- posed either by a Stratfordian, or by any one acquainted with their destined position, for otherwise the writer could hardly have spoken of Death having placed Shakespeare " within this monument." However that may be, it is certain that they must have been inscribed with the full sanction of his eldest daughter, who, according to tradition, was at the sole expense of the memorial. It is curious that there should be no allusion in them to his personal character, and they certainly are not remarkable for poetical beauty. These shortcomings are, however, compensated by the earliest recogni- tion of the great dramatist as the unrivalled interpreter of nature. With whom quick Nature died ! The writer thus managed to 17 258 RECORDS OF AFFECTION. express in five words the very essence of all sound criticism. It is obvious, therefore, that Mrs. Hall did not allow the prejudices that might have been imbibed with her religious tendencies, to in- terfere with an appreciation of her father's dra- matic genius. Neither can any one reasonably doubt that her mother, however unable, as was most probably the case, to read a line of his works, was gratified by the open acknowledg- ment of her husband's literary eminence. But the pleasure derived from these sentiments must have been impaired by the violent an- tipathy entertained by large classes, in and near Stratford-on-Avon, towards the stage and its votaries. It is true that a rigorous bye-law against them, which was enacted in that town in 1612, did not absolutely banish theatrical performances from the locality, but the active spirit of the opposition was unmistakably evinced a few years later, when, in 1622, six shillings were " payd to the Kinges players for not playinge in the hall." This curious species of bribery was obviously the result of a deference to the Court, it being no doubt considered im- prudent to permit the royal servants to depart without a compensation for their unceremonious dismissal. They were evidently considered a RECORDS OF AFFECTION. 259 privileged company, for at a Court Baron held in October, 1616, at the neighbouring town of Henley-in-Arden, an order was unanimously passed by the leading inhabitants that no other actors should have the use of their town-hall. When the monument was first erected, there can, indeed, be little doubt that most of the inhabitants of Stratford-on-Avon, including the puritanical vicar, regarded it as the memorial of one whose literary career had, to say the least, been painfully useless to society. A like fana- ticism no doubt pervaded no insignificant sec- tion of Londoners, but it was not sufficiently dominant to restrain the continued popularity of the works of the great dramatist, those by which, to quote the lines of a contemporary, outlive Thy tomb thy name must ; when that stone is rent, And Time dissolves thy Stratford monument, Here we alive shall view thee still. There was no real cessation in the metropo- litan favour shown to these works for some years after their author's decease. The au- diences of course required the production of a series of novelties, but it was an event, hitherto unprecedented in the annals of the English stage, for a number of what were then regarded as old plays, the product of one writer, to be 172 260 RECORDS OF AFFECTION. revived again and again to overflowing houses. We are told, on unimpeachable authority, that there was not a seat unoccupied whenever the public had the opportunity of renewing their acquaintance with the favourite Shakespearean characters ; and this taste must have prevailed at all events till August, 1623, when a special revival of the Winter's Tale is known to have been in preparation. In that very month the poet's widow had expired at Stratford-on-Avon. Mrs. Shakespeare did not live to witness the appearance of the first collective edition of her husband's plays. At the time of her death, however, a large portion of that remarkable book must have been in type, for it was pub- lished in the following November, " at the charges of W. Jaggard, Ed. Blount, J. Smith- weeke and W. Aspley, 1623." The materials for the work were collected by Heminges and Condell, then the leading proprietors and mana- gers of the Globe and Blackfriars theatres, and the owners of most, if not all, of the Shake- spearean dramas. These estimable men, who are kindly remembered in the poet's will, are not likely to have encouraged the speculation from motives of gain, for the sum, if any, they received from the publishers for their assistance could not at the best have more than compen- RECORDS OF AFFECTION. 26 I sated for the loss of the exclusive possession of even a small number of attractive pieces. So far, however, from their being remunerated for their trouble, it is all but certain that, if the speculators had been armed with the indepen- dence of paymasters, the latter would not have consented to have increased their necessarily large pecuniary risk by the addition of a num- ber of compositions that had become obsolete. When, therefore, we find Heminges and Condell not only initiating and vigorously supporting the design, but expressing their regret that Shakespeare himself had not lived to direct the publication, who can doubt that they were acting as trustees for his memory, or that the noble volume was a record of their affection ? Who can ungraciously question their sincerity when they thus touchingly allude to the writings of their departed friend and colleague, " we have but collected them and done an office to the dead, to procure his orphans guardians ; without ambition either of self-profit or fame ; only to keep the memory of so worthy a friend and fellow alive as was our Shakespeare ? " What plausible reason can be given for not accepting the literal truth of their description of themselves as " a pair so careful to show their gratitude to the dead," whether that grati- 262 RECORDS OF AFFECTION. tude were for extrinsic services, or for the benefits the author's dramatic genius had con- ferred upon their theatres ? There is no intimation, nor is it likely, that this famous work was conducted through the press under the superintendence of a special editor. Heminges and Condell speak of them- selves as mere gatherers, and it is nearly certain that all that they did was to ransack their dra- matic stores for the best copies of the plays that they could find, handing those copies over to the printers in the full persuasion that, in taking this course, they were morally relieved of all further responsibility. They appear to have been guided in their selection entirely by their knowledge of the authorship, and it is obvious that, when the copies alluded to were transferred to the press, no instructions were given to attempt an order of merit or composi- tion. But these circumstances do not imply the absence of trouble and care, for their searches must have extended over the accumu- lated play-books of many years, and out of the thirty-six dramas that they collected, one-half had never been published in any shape. Au- thentic copies, however, of fourteen of the others, some probably by arrangement with the managers, had appeared in printed quarto, RECORDS OF AFFECTION. 263 and four mutilated versions, that had been sur- reptitiously obtained, were also accessible to the public. The latter, to which, perhaps, were to be added a few of the same kind which have long since disappeared, are the pieces men- tioned by the gatherers as " divers stolen and surreptitious copies, maimed and deformed by the frauds and stealths of injurious impostors." Two of the authentic quarto editions, those of Romeo and Hamlet, were preceded by the issue of fragmentary and garbled texts. The manuscripts of Shakespeare's plays encountered a number of vicissitudes during the thirty years that elapsed from the inception of his dramatic career. Their first trial was held before the Master of the Revels, who was in- vested with compulsory powers of excision and alteration. They were next read in taverns before the selected actors, who were invariably treated with wine on such occasions, and whose criticisms, under so agreeable a liberality, must always have been of a lively, and, no doubt, sometimes of a peremptory nature. There is nothing to show that fair copies were ever made in those days for the prompters, who, in all likelihood, used the author's original manu- scripts after they had been submitted to the tribunals just mentioned ; and these manu- 264 RECORDS OF AFFECTION. scripts would again have been liable to modi- fications suggested by the exigencies of the stage. Then there was the contingent proba- bility of further variations being insisted upon at rehearsals, and of other changes being en- forced by theatrical arrangements when the London prompt copies were used in the pro- vinces. In addition to all these perils, there were those arising from the occasional ne- cessity of supplying the place of worn-out acting copies by new transcripts, and although printed editions were now and then substituted, the latter were equally at the mercy of the company. Some of the manuscripts, before they reached the hands of the printers or the intermediate scribe, must have abounded with alterations, portions marked for omission, all sorts of directions, and, finally, additions that were either written on the margins or on in- serted scraps of paper. So far, then, from being astonished at the textual imperfections of the folio, we ought to be profoundly thank- ful for what is, under the circumstances, its marvellous state of comparative excellence. Heminges and Condell did the best they could to the best of their judgment. It never could have entered their imagination that the day would arrive for the comfort of intellectual life RECORDS OF AFFECTION. 265 to be marred by the distorted texts of Hamlet or Lear. There cannot, indeed, be a doubt that, according to their lights, they expressed a sincere conviction when they delivered the im- mortal dramas to the public as being " absolute in their numbers, as he (Shakespeare) con- ceived them." There are also good reasons for believing that they were solicitous to publish all the genuine dramas of Shakespeare, that is to say, all the plays originally written by him, to the exclusion of any to which he was merely a contributor. Betterton, observes Gildon, in his Essay on the Stage, 1710, "more than once assur'd me that the first folio edition by the players contain'd all those which were truely his ; " and this statement was made by a person who had been connected, in early life, with an officer of the Blackfriars' company, and who had, therefore, an opportunity of being acquainted with the opinions held at the Shakespearean theatres before their dissolu- tion. There is, moreover, perfect evidence in the first folio itself that Heminges and Condell were bent on the publication of every one of their friend's dramas ; for, if they had been in the least degree guided by a commercial spirit, such obsolete plays as the three parts of Henry 266 RECORDS OF AFFECTION. the Sixth would assuredly have been either omitted, or their places supplied by newer and more attractive compositions. No difficulty would have attended the second expedient. As proprietors they had in their repertoire the London Prodigal and the Yorkshire Tragedy, both of them pieces that had been openly ascribed to the great dramatist, and the latter so well holding its ground that it had been reissued a few years previously. The admittance of obsolete dramas into the folio, and the exclusion of such works as those last named, are circumstances that de- serve to be very attentively weighed. They speak volumes in favour of the opinion that Heminges and Condell executed their task conscientiously. And if it is not in our power to ingenuously acquiesce in that conclusion, we shall be launched on a sea with a chart in which are unmarked perilous quicksands of intuitive opinions. Especially is the vessel itself in danger if it touches the insidious bank raised up from doubts on the authenticity of Titus Andronicus and the several parts of Henry the Sixth. The external testimonies to the reality of the former as the work of Shakespeare are irrefutable ; no one can ignore them who does not allow his own natural perception to cancel RECORDS OF AFFECTION. 267 the direct evidences of three of the author's intimate friends ; and yet, so difficult is it, with our present notions, to realize the idea of the gentle-minded poet constructing a drama on the basis of a singularly revolting tale, apparently without an effort to modify the worst of its horrors, there are many who would not believe that it emanated from his pen, even if the fact had been acknowledged by the writer himself under his own hand and seal. If, how- ever, it be borne in mind that Titus Andronicus was Shakespeare's earliest tragedy, that it is not fair to test its genuineness by the side of his later productions, that in it he dramatized, in the interests of the managers, a story un- equivocally acceptable to the public of the day, and if it be also remembered that, in all probability, he had not yet emancipated himself from a following of his great predecessor, Mar- lowe, then perhaps the adverse opinion just mentioned may not be so positively enunciated. Its little exhibition of classical knowledge was obviously not beyond the powers of a man of " small Latin," while, as to the objection raised to the metre, one can only suggest that the arbitrary limitation of an author's discretional fancy in his measures is generally, as in this instance, beyond the range of practical argu- 268 RECORDS OF AFFECTION. ment. It may be, however, that, to the adop- tion of metrical forms presumed to suit the conduct of the narrative, may be owing some of the turgid and disagreeable character of the production ; and as soon as its prose is substi- tuted for verse, we have, in the dialogue with the clown, a little episode full of the inimitable quiet humour with which the great dramatist, in varied forms, endows so many of his sub- ordinate characters. But the best internal evidence in support of the authenticity, both of Titus Andronicus and the three parts of Henry the Sixth, is their general adherence to one of the distinguishing and most important features of Shakespeare's dramatic genius, the preser- vation of what may be termed the unity of character, that is to say, the consistency of traits of disposition in each individual with themselves and with his actions. The evidence of Meres, which is that of an accomplished scholar giving his voluntary opinion within five years from the appearance of Titus Andronicus, ought to satisfy us that there is no alternative but to receive that drama as one of the genuine works of Shakespeare. It is also obvious that while, on the one hand, neither Meres, nor Heminges, nor Condell entertained the remotest suspicion that the RECORDS OF AFFECTION. 269 tragedy could ever be considered discreditable to its author, they could not, on the other, have had, in this case, the semblance of a motive for perpetrating a fraud upon their readers. When the subject comes to be fairly investigated, it will be seen that there is nothing, in the writings of any of the three, to warrant a suspicion that there was a single wilful misrepresentation of facts. The opponents of this view have, indeed, laid great stress on the statement made by the promoters of the first folio, to the effect that, owing to his rapidity of composition, they had " scarce received " from him, that is, from the great dramatist, a " blot in his papers," words that have been taken to indicate that the entire volume was printed from the author's own manuscripts, and this, as we know, would have been a serious misrepresentation. But the language of Heminges and Condell does not necessarily, under any line of interpretation, express so much, and, in all probability, they are here speaking of themselves in their mana- gerial capacity, referring to the singularly few alterations that they had observed in the manu- scripts which he delivered to them for the use of the theatre. There is but one more subject involving the authority of Heminges and Condell that 270 RECORDS OF AFFECTION. requires notice, the degree of credit to be given to their statement respecting the nature of the imperfect quartos. In reference to this question, it is important to bear in mind that the rapid movement of Shakespeare's pen was the subject of a current belief amongst his theatrical contemporaries. " The players," ob- serves Ben Jonson, "have often mentioned it as an honour to Shakespeare that, in his writing, whatsoever he penned he never blotted out line." There is, moreover, ample internal evidence that many of his plays were written in haste, and it is unlikely that so expeditious a composer would have re-fashioned his own works in preference to undertaking what was to him the easy creation of new ones. We know, indeed, positively that, in one instance, he re- wrote portions of a drama, but also, with nearly equal certainty, that the substituted lines were very limited in number, and that they did not affect the characterial integrity of the original. A similar process may have been adopted with other plays, but such incidents of work are essentially different from those suggested by the theory which assumes that the "divers maimed and deformed copies," reported in the first folio, are the author's crude sketches, and that the latter have been transformed into works of arts RECORDS OF AFFECTION. 2/1 by elaborate revision, additional scenes and expansions of character. But this notion, like some others now in vogue, can only be accepted by those who consider it decorous or reason- able to allow modern opinions to supersede, in matters of fact, the direct testimony of Shake- speare's own personal friends. If the latter had not volunteered, in affection- ate remembrance of their colleague, to gather together the works of Shakespeare, some of the noblest monuments of his genius might, and probably would, have been for ever lost. Nor in our measure of gratitude for the first folio, the greatest literary treasure the world pos- sesses, should we neglect to include a tribute to Ben Jonson. The loving interest taken by that distinguished writer in the publication is evinced not only by his matchless eulogy of the great dramatist, but also by the charming lines in which he vouches for his friend's likeness in the engraved portrait which forms so con- spicuous an object in the title-page. The Strat- ford effigy and this engraving are the only unquestionably authentic representations of the living Shakespeare that are known to exist, not one of the numerous others, for which claims to the distinction have been advanced, having an evidential pedigree of a satisfactory character. 2/2 RECORDS OF AFFECTION. But in like manner as there have arisen in these days critics who, dispensing altogether with the old contemporary evidences, can enter so per- fectly into all the vicissitudes of Shakespeare's intellectual temperament that they can authorita- tively identify at a glance every line that he did write, and, with equal precision, every sentence that he did not ; -even so there are others to whom a picture's history is not of the slightest moment, their reflective instinct enabling them, without effort or investigation, to recognize in an old curiosity shop the dramatic visage that belonged to the author of Hamlet. Lowlier votaries can only bow their heads in silence. SYMBOLS AND RULES. The following are the rules followed in printing the numerous copies and extracts which occur in the remaining portion of this volume : 1. When is attached to a word, it denotes that the original text has been followed, but that an error is suspected either in that word or in the omission of a previous one. It is sometimes added when there has been a misreading by a predecessor. 2. The division between lines of poetry which are not given separately is indicated by the parallel marks =. 3. In extracts from printed books or manuscripts written in the English language, the original mode of spelling is retained excepting in the cases of the ancient forms of the consonants j and v and the vowels / and u, but they are modernized in other respects, such as in the punctuation, use of capitals, &c. It may be well to observe that, in docu- ments of the Shakespearean period, the letters ff at the commencement of a word merely stand for a capitial F t and that it is not always possible to decide whether a transcriber of that time intended o r to be a contraction for our or whether he merely used it for or. There is often also a difficulty in ascertaining if the final stroke of a word is an e, or simply a flourish ; but this is rarely, if ever, of the least importance, the grammatical significance that was once attached to such terminations having become obsolete long before the time of Shakespeare. Amongst other trivial matters of this kind 18 274 SYMBOLS AND RULES. may be noticed the frequent impossibility of deciding between the relative appearances of the u and the w. 4. In copies of important title-pages or entries, and in special instances, when the latter are distinguished by the letters V. L., the original texts are followed in every particu- lar with literal accuracy. 5. The orthography of old Latin documents is generally followed, e.g., e for ce, capud for caput, set for sed, nichil for nihil) &c. In the Latin as well as in the English extracts C errors which are obviously merely clerical ones are occa- sionally corrected. It may be well to mention that our early printers were in the habit of correcting their texts at intervals during the press-work, so that there are often to be found literal varia- tions in different copies of the same edition. In this way, the curious error in the orthography of the poet's name, noted at p. 649, is, I find, rectified in a duplicate of Jonson's work in my possession. ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES. Page j*, line i. The remains of New Place. These in- teresting relics are, alas, nearly all that now remain of the poet's residence, but, considering that New Place was razed to the ground nearly two centuries ago, it is wonderful that even these fragments should have escaped destruction. The engraving is taken from an accurate drawing made by Blight at the time of their discovery in 1862. Page 8, line n. Or his emotions. It is difficult to treat with seriousness the opinion that the great master of imagination wrote under the direct control of his own vary- ing personal temperaments. In this way it is implied that he was merry when he wrote a comedy, gloomy when he penned a tragedy, tired of the world when he created Prospero, and so on. It would thence follow that, when he was selecting a plot, he could have given no heed either to the wishes of the managers or the inclination of the public taste, but was guided in his choice by the necessity of dis- covering a subject that was adapted for the exposition of his own transient feelings. One wonders, or, rather, there is no necessity for conjecturing, what Heminges and Condell would have thought if they had applied to Shakespeare for a new comedy, and the great dramatist had told them that he could not possibly comply with their wishes, he being then in his Tragic Period. Page 9, line j. Incompatible with the general belief. And so are, generally at least, the various theories which 18-2 276 ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES. assume that Shakespeare worked for the establishment of preconceived moral or ethical intentions. It is certain that, as a rule, instead of constructing his own plots, he followed almost literally the incidents of stories already in existence. He then seems to have been enabled, by the gift of a pre- ternatural instinct, to create simultaneously, and interpret the minds of, any required number of personages whose re- sultant actions, under the various circumstances by which they were surrounded, and the powers with which they were invested, would harmonize with the general conduct of the tale, and lead naturally to its adopted denouement. In a drama written under such conditions, the combination of a special philosophical design with fidelity to nature in characterization would be clearly impossible. Page 12, line j. Visited Stratford-on-Avon. Aubrey himself refers to " some of the neighbours " in that town as his authority for the calf anecdote, and a notice of the poet's effigy, apparently given from ocular inspection, is found in his Monumenta Britannica, MS. A few brief notes respect- ing this undoubtedly honest, though careless, antiquary, who was born in 1626, may be worth. giving. Educated at first in his native county of Wilts and afterwards at Blandford in Dorset, he was entered at the University of Oxford in 1642, but his sojourns at the last-named place were brief and irregular. A love for the study of archaeology exhibited itself even in his boyish days, and a large portion of his life was expended in itinerant searches after antiquities and all kinds of curious information. He died in 1697. Page 12, line n. From his own recollections of them. Thus, in making the statement respecting Mrs. Hall, he says, "I think I have been told," as, indeed, he must have been in one way or other, although the word sister is erroneously put for daughter. Amongst his most favourite ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES. 277 phrases are " I think " and " I guess," both, as a rule, attached to the merest conjectures. It is not known when his memoir of Shakespeare was written, but it was evidently compiled from scraps gathered from a variety of informants. The Grendon notice would appear to have been derived from a recollection of what was told him at Oxford in 1642 by Josias Howe of Trinity College, a native of the former place. This gentleman, a son of the rector of Grendon, was an excellent authority for the village tradition, but Aubrey has contrived to record it in such an embarrassing hotchpot that it is useless to attempt to recover the original story. Page 13, line 21. All through the seventeenth century. The poet's sister and her descendants inhabited the birth- place from the time of his death to the year 1806 ; and his younger daughter lived at Stratford-on-Avon until her death in 1662. Then there were Hathaways, who were members of his wife's family, residing in Chapel Street from 1647 to 1696. His godson, William Walker, who died in the same town in 1680, must have been one of the last survivors of personal acquaintanceship. Page 14, line 14. The printed notices. The best of these is the one in Fuller's Worthies, 1662, but that writer was not even at the pains to ascertain the year of the poet's decease. What there is of novelty in the subsequent publications of Phillips, Winstanley, Langbaine, Blount and Gildon, is all but worthless. Dugdale, in his Antiquities of Warwickshire, 1656, gives a valuable account of the sepulchral monuments, but adds no information respecting the poet himself. Page 14, line 23. Thomas Betterton. This actor, who was born in Westminster in 1635, appeared on the stage at the Cockpit in Drury-Lane in 1660. He attained to great eminence in his profession, but lost the first collection of his well-earned savings through a commercial enterprise that he 278 ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES. joined in 1692. In 1700 he acted in Rowe's first tragedy, a circumstance which may have led to his acquaintance with that dramatist. He died in London in April, 1710, having very nearly completed his seventy-fifth year. The precise time of his visit to Stratford-on-Avon is unknown, but it is hardly likely to have occurred in his declining years, and towards the close of his life he was afflicted with a complaint that must have rendered any of the old modes of travelling exceedingly irksome. He is mentioned, however, as having in 1709 a country house at Reading, Life, ed. 1710, p. n. That town would certainly have been nearer to Stratford than from London, but still at what was for those days an arduous cross-country journey of seventy miles or there- abouts. Page 75, line J. Nicholas Rowe. This author, who was born in 1673, was educated at Highgate and Westminster. He afterwards entered at the Middle Temple, but in a few years, on his accession to a competent fortune, the study of the law was gradually superseded by his taste for dramatic composition. He had a great esteem for Betterton, and wrote an epilogue on the occasion of that venerable actor's celebrated benefit in 1709, the same year in which the Life of Shakespeare appeared. The second edition of the last- named work was published in 1714, but it is unfortunately a mere reprint of the first. Rowe died in 1718. Page 20, line 20. Metrical tests. These are the ignes fatui which, in recent years, have enticed many a deluded traveller out of the beaten path into strange quagmires. We may rest satisfied that no process which aims at establishing the periods of Shakespeare's diction with scientific accuracy, or, indeed, any system not grounded on the axiom of its spontaneous freedom and versatility, will ultimately be accepted. The study of these baseless limitations is, how- ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES. 279 ever, comparatively harmless. A far more serious evil may be apprehended, when the statistical use of metrical tests is invoked for the determination of either partial or undivided authorship in opposition to external contemporary, or internal dramatic, evidence. It will be obvious to the most casual reader that Shakespeare adapted his metre generically to the subject, and specifically to character and sentiment. The metres were selected for the plays, not the plays for the metres, so that, although he could not have followed a definitively late metrical fashion at an early period of his literary career, we cannot assume with certainty that he would ever have abandoned the intermittent use of any known measures, if they chanced to harmonise with the treatment of the subject and the positions of the characters. The fallacies appear to consist in the endeavour to regulate, by a theoretical order, the sequence of desultory and subtle uses of various metrical structures, and in the curious pre- sumption of attempting to determine the mental conditions of which the deviations of those uses are the supposed result. Page 20, line 25. Most of those epochs. The extravagant introduction of lines with the hypermetrical syllable did not come into vogue with our dramatists until in or about the year 1610. This is the only one of the metrical tests which has a positive chronological value, the others having, at the best, 'only a correlative importance, and being practically useless in the presence of other evidence. If more plays of the time had been preserved, we might have had an accurate idea of the extent to which Shakespeare's metre followed or initiated that of his contemporaries. What few there are, however, encourage the suspicion that it often reflected, in its general forms, the current usages of the day. This may have been the case with his later, as it is known to have been with his earlier, dramas. 280 ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES. Page 20, line 28. Aesthetic criticism. It is not easy to define the present meaning of this term, but it seems to be applied, without reference to quality, to observations on the characteristics of the Shakespearean personages and on the presumed moral or ethical intentions of the great dramatist. It is already an immense literature in itself, and as all persons of ordinary capacity can, and many do, supply additions to it by the yard, its extent in the future is appalling to contemplate. This is not said in depreciation of all such efforts in themselves, for they occasionally result in sugges- tions of value ; and so subtle are the poet's theatrical uses, as well as so exhaustless his mental sympathies, there are few who could diligently act or study one of his characters without being able to propound something new that was at least worthy of respectful consideration. This unlimited expanse of aesthetic criticism stifles its practical utility, each day removing us further from the possibility of mastering its better details, even if the latter could be readily dissociated from the main bulk, that which at present unfortunately consists either of the pompous enunciation of matters obvious to all, or of the veriest twaddle that ever deceived the unwary m its recesses amidst the wilds of unlimited verbiage and philosophical jargon. Page 21, line 2. Of greater certainty. It has been one of the missions of the aesthetic critics to discover, in the works of the great dramatist, a number of the author's subtle designs in incidents that are found, on examination, to have been adopted from his predecessors. There is, for instance, the little episode of Rosaline, one which is closely taken, both in substance and position, from the foundation tale. According, however, to Coleridge, "it affords a strong instance of the fineness of Shakespeare's insight into the nature of the passions, that Romeo is introduced already ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES. 281 love-bewildered." A glance at the original narrative will show that, if there was a preconceived recondite design in the invention of the first love, the merits of the concep- tion must be accorded to the wretched poetaster who put the old story into rhyme in 1562. Equal if not greater perception is exhibited in making the icy and unconquer- able apathy of Rosaline do so much in clearing the way to Juliet, but this, like the other "fine insight," may be observed in the elder romance. The probability is that, in this play as in some others, Shakespeare was merely exercising his unrivalled power of successfully adapting his characters to a number of preformed events that he did not feel inclined to alter. So homely an explanation is not likely to satisfy the philosophical critics, who will have it that there is some mysterious contrast between the qualities of Romeo's two infatuations. " Rosaline," observes Coleridge, " was a mere creation of his fancy ; and we should remark the boastful positiveness of Romeo in a love of his own making, which is never shown where love is really near the heart," Notes and Lectures, ed. 1875, p. 147. But the impetuosity of Romeo's passion is seen, so far as circum- stances admit, as much in one case as in the other ; and as for the " boastful positiveness," it is difficult to understand that an expressed belief in the perfection of his mistress's beauty can be an evidence of a lover's insincerity. It could more fairly be said that Romeo's despondency, under the treatment he experienced at the hands of his first love, is a testimony in the opposite direction. Page 25, line p. Municipal records. There was not a single company of actors, in Shakespeare's time, which did not make professional visits through nearly all the English counties, and in the hope of discovering traces of his foot- steps during his provincial tours I have personally examined 282 ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES. the records of the following cities and towns, Warwick, Bewdley, Dover, Banbury, Shrewsbury, Oxford, Worcester, Hereford, Gloucester, Tewkesbury, Rochester, Guildford, Hastings, Saffron Walden, Abingdon, Carnarvon, Beau- maris, Oswestry, Liverpool, Chester, Reading, Conway, Gravesend, Evesham, Droitwich, Kidderminster, Campden, Maidstone, Faversham, Southampton, Newport, Bridport, Weymouth, Lewes, Coventry, Bristol, Kingston-on-Thames, Lyme Regis, Dorchester, Canterbury, Sandwich, Queen- borough, Ludlow, Stratford-on-Avon, Leominster, Folke- stone, Winchelsea, New Romney, Barnstaple, Rye, York, Newcastle-on-Tyne, Leicester, Hythe, and Cambridge, the last being preserved in the library of Downing College. The time occupied in these researches has fluctuated im- mensely in various places, from an hour or two in some few cases to several weeks in others. In no single instance have I at present found in any municipal record a notice of the poet himself, but curious material of an unsuspected nature respecting his company and theatrical surroundings has been discovered. Page 31, line 15. One being the premises. This impor- tant fact, which distinctly proves that the small house now pointed out as the Birth-Place is correctly so designated, is ascertained by the identity of the chief rent in the manorial return of 1590, "Johannes Shackespere tenet libere unum tenementum cum pertinentiis pro redd, per annum \].d. sect cur." The entry in the court-roll of October the 2nd, 1556, is as follows, "Item, quod Edwardus West alienavit praedicto Johanni Shakespere unum tent, cum gardin. adjacen. in Henley Strete, pro redd, inde domino per annum \}.d. et sect. cur. et idem Johannes praedictus in curia fecit fidelitatem." It appears from the later record of 1590 that John Shakespeare then owned an adjoining ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES. 283 property held under a rent of thirteen pence, which in all probability consisted of the two houses that he bought from the Halls in 1575. The situation of the latter is not men- tioned in the final concord, the only document connected with the purchase known to exist. Joan Shakespeare appears to have lived in 1616 at the house now used for the Museum, her chief rental being mentioned as twelve- pence in her brother's will. The difference of the penny was no doubt caused by the alienation of the slip of land to Badger in 1597. It has been hitherto assumed that the purchase made in 1556 referred to a copyhold, the over- sight having arisen from its being taken for granted that all entries in court-rolls referred to that description of title. It was, however, the usual practice to note in those records all transfers of freehold estates that were subject to chief rents and suits of court. Numerous examples of the latter kind of tenure are mentioned in the ancient Stratford deeds, and one in a conveyance of 1602 will be observed at p. 679. Page 33, line 12. In corn and other articles. There were other glovers at Stratford-on-Avon in Elizabeth's time, who did not restrict themselves to their nominal business. One of them dealt in wool, yarn, and malt, the last-named article seeming to be their usual additional trading material. "George Perrye, besides is glovers trade, usethe buyinge and sellinge of woll and yorne, and makinge of malte," MS. dated 1595. "Roberte Butler, besides his glovers oc- cupation, usethe makinge of malte," MS. ibid. " Rychard Castell, Rother Market, usethe his glovers occupacion ; his wieffe utterethe weekelye by bruynge ij. strikes of mallte," MS. ibid. Even in this century, there were firms in the north who were glovers and dealers in wool, as well as dyers of leather and dressers of skins. In former days glovers were almost invariably fellmongers as 284 ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES. well. " To Townsen, the glover, for two sheepe skines, vj.s. viij. tne Merry Devil of Edmonton, 1608; and in Ben Jonson's Silent Woman, ed. 1616, p. 550, first acted in 1609. Justices Silence and Shallow rapidly became typical characters. "No, ladie, this is a kinsman of Justice Silence," Every Man out of his Humour, ed. 1600, acted in 1599. "We must have false fiers to amaze these spangle babies, these true heires of Ma. Justice Shallow," Satiro-Mastix, 1602. "When thou sittest to consult about any weighty matter, let either Justice Shallowe, or his cousen, Mr. Weathercocke be foreman of the jurie," Woodhouse's Flea, 1605. One of the most curious notices of these personages occurs in a letter from Sir Charles Percy to a Mr. Carlington, dated from "Dumbleton in Glocestshire this 27 of December," and endorsed 1600, "Mr. Carlington, I am heere so pestred with contrie businesse that I shall not bee able as yet to come to London ; if I stay heere long in this fashion, at my return I think you will find mee so dull that I shall bee taken for Justice Silence or Justice Shallow; wherefore I am to entreat you that you will take pittie of mee, and, as occurrences shall searve, to send mee such news from time to time as shall happen, the knowledge of the which, though perhaps thee will not exempt mee from the opinion of a Justice Shallow at London, yet, I will assure you, thee will make mee passe for a very sufficient gentleman in Glocestrshire." Allusions of this kind in a private letter assume the familiarity, both of the writer and his corre- ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES. 309 spondent, with Shakespeare's play, and are interesting evidences of its popularity. Page fjj, line 20. The Boar's Head Tavern. It is a singular circumstance that there is no mention of this celebrated tavern in any edition of Shakespeare previously to the appearance of Theobald's in 1733, but that the locality is there accurately given from an old and genuine stage-tradition is rendered certain by an allusion to "Sir John of the Boares-Head in Eastcheap" in Gayton's Festivous Notes, 1654, p. 277. Shakespeare never men- tions that tavern at all, and the only possible allusion to it is in the Second Part of Henry the Fourth, where the Prince asks, speaking of Falstaff, " doth the old boar feed in the old frank ?" A suggestion of the locality may also be possibly intended in Richard the Second, where the Prince is mentioned as frequenting taverns that " stand in narrow lanes." In the play of the Famous Victories, the Castle Tavern is the inn which is mentioned as the place of meeting in Eastcheap. The earliest notice of the Boar's Head occurs in the testament of William Warden, who, in the reign of Richard II., gave "all that his tenement, called the Boar's Head, Eastcheap, to a college of priests or chaplains, founded by Sir William W'alworth, lord mayor, in the adjoining church of St. Michael, Crooked-lane." The endowments of this college were forfeited to the Crown in 1549, in which year the tenement above alluded to is described as " all his the said Walter Morden's tene- ment, called the Boar's Head in Eastcheap, worth bv year ^4." Stowe, mentioning the affray of the King's sons in Eastcheap, adds, in a marginal note, "There was no taverne then in Eastcheape." The Boar's Head is first mentioned as an inn in the year 1537, when it is expressly demised in a lease as "all that tavern called the Bores 310 ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES. Hedde cum cellariis sollariis et aliis suis pertinentiis in Estchepe, in parochia Sancti Michaelis praedicti, in tenura Johannae Broke, viduae." About the year 1588, it was kept by one Thomas Wright, a native of Shrewsbury. " Thear was chosen withe me, at that time, out of the school, George Wrighte, sun of Thomas Wrighte of London, vintener, that dwelt at the Bore's Hed in Estcheap, who sithence, having good enheritance de- scended to him, is now clerk in the king's stable and a knighte, a verye discreet and honest gentleman," Liber Famelicus of Sir James Whitelocke, sub anno 1588. In 1602, the Lords of the Council gave permission for the servants of the Earls of Oxford and Worcester to play at this tavern. There were numerous other tenements in London, including five taverns in the City, known by the name of the Boar's Head, nor was it a very unusual title for country inns. Curiously enough, by an accidental coinci- dence, Sir John Fastolf devised to Magdalen College, Oxford, a house so called in the borough of Southwark. See Mr. William Rendle's able and valuable work on Old Southwark, 1878, p. 59. Page 133, line 21. Had been introduced as Sir John Oldcastle. See the Prince's allusion to him under this name in the First Part of Henry the Fourth, i. 2, " as the honey of Hybla, my old lad of the castle." Although the authors of the First Part of Sir John Oldcastle, 1600, mention Falstaff, they almost unconsciously identify the personality of their hero with Shakespeare's fat Knight by making him refer to his exploits at Shrewsbury. Page 133, line 22. Ordered Shakespeare to alter the name. According to Rowe, in his life of Shakespeare, 1709, the "part of Falstaff is said to have been originally written under the name of Oldcastle ; some of that family ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES. 3 I I being then remaining, the Queen was pleas'd to command him to alter it ; upon which he made use of Falstaff." This account is partially confirmed by a much earlier one which occurs in a very curious dedicatory epistle addressed to Sir Henry Bourchier by Dr. Richard James, who died in 1638. It is annexed to an unpublished manuscript entitled, the Legend and Defence of the noble Knight and Martyr, Sir John Oldcastel, several copies of which, in the handwriting of Dr. James, varying slightly from each other, are still preserved. In the course of this epistle, Dr. James relates that " in Shakespeare's first shew of Harrie the Fift, the person with which he undertook to play a buffone was not FalstarTe, but Sir Jhon Oldcastle ; and that offence beinge worthily taken by personages descended from his title, as peradventure by manie others allso whoe ought to have him in honourable memorie, the poet was. putt to make an ignorant shifte of abusing Sir Jhon Fastolphe, a man not inferior of vertue, though not so famous in pietie as the other." The writer no doubt intended to put " first shew of Harrie the Fourth," it being clear, from the epilogue to the Second Part of Henry the Fourth, that Shakespeare had altered the name of Oldcastle to that of FalstafF before he wrote Henry the Fifth. The Doctor's suggestion, "as peradventure by manie others allso whoe ought to have him in honourable memorie," may be said to be confirmed by the authors of the drama of Sir John Oldcastle, published in 1600, who, in their Prologue, are careful to notice the apprehensions that might be raised in the minds of the audience by the " doubtful title," and to remove suspicion by the announcement that the delineation of the martyr's character was a "tribute of love" to his faith and loyalty. That the Famous Victories, however, gave offence to zealous Protestants, from the manner in 312 ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES. which Oldcastle is therein introduced, is almost certain ; but, in respect to several of the early allusions to that personage as a stage character, it is impossible to decide with certainty that they refer to him as represented in that particular drama. Stage-poets, says Fuller, in his Church History, ed. 1655, p. j68, "have themselves been very bold with, and others very merry at, the memory of Sir John Oldcastle, whom they have fancied a boon companion, a jovial royster, and yet a coward to boot ; the best is Sir John Falstaffe hath relieved the memory of Sir John Old- castle, and of late is substituted buffoone in his place." Page 133, line 27. Sir JoAn Oldcastle. There was a play so called which was acted by Shakespeare's company at Somerset House on March the 6th, 1600, before Lord Hunsdon and his guests, the latter being the Ambassadors from the Spanish Low Countries. " All this weeke the lords have beene in London, and past away the tyme in feasting and plaies ; for Vereiken dined upon Wednesday with my Lord Treasurer, who made hym a roiall dinner ; upon Thursday my Lord Chamberlain feasted hym, and made hym very great, and a delicate dinner, and there in the afternoone his plaiers acted before Vereiken, Sir John Old Castell, to his great contentment," Rowland Whyte to Sir Robert Sydney, dated from Baynards Castell, Saturday, 8 March, 1599-1600, ap. Sydney Letters, ed. 1746, ii. 175. It is possible, certainly, but very unlikely that the play acted on this occasion was the one that was printed in 1600, and which belonged to another company ; and still more improbable that a drama so conspicuously announced as written in the Protestant cause should have been selected for the representation before the ambassadors of a late Cardinal, the Archduke of Austria. There was, in all probability, another play on the subject of Sir John Oldcastle, now lost, that belonged to the ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES. 313 Lord Chamberlain's company. Fuller, in his Worthies, 1662, speaks of Sir John Oldcastle as " being made the make-sport in all plays for a coward ; " and there are several other general allusions, some of an earlier date, which would indi- cate the former existence of more dramas on the subject than are now known to us. That there was, in the seven- teenth century, a stage-character of Oldcastle other than the one exhibited in the Famous Victories, in Henry the Fourth and in the printed drama of 1600, admits, indeed, of proof! This fourth Sir John was as fond of ale as Goodman Smug of Edmonton ; his nose was red and carbuncled ; and he was as fat as the hero of Eastcheap. " Ale is thought to be much adulterated, and nothing so good as Sir John Oldcastle and Smug the Smith was us'd to drink," Howell's Familiar Letters, ii. 71. The appearance ot the Knight's nose is thus alluded to in the play of Hey for Honesty, 1651, 4< the sinke is paved with the rich rubies and incomparable car- buncles of Sir John Oldcastle's nose," reference to which is also made in Gayton's Festivous Notes upon Don Quixote, 1654, p. 49. It appears from a passage in the Meeting of Gallants at an Ordinarie, or the Walkes in Powles, 1604, that Sir John Oldcastle was represented on the stage as a very fat man, which is certainly not the case in the play printed under that title in 1600 : "Now, signiors, how like you mine host ? did I not tell you he was a madde round Knave and a merrie one too ? and if you chaunce to talke of fatte Sir John Oldcastle, he will tell you, he was his great grandfather, and not much unlike him in paunch, if you marke him well by all descriptions." The host, who is here described, returns to the gallants, and entertains them with telling them stories. After his first tale, he says, "Nay, gallants, I'll fit you, and now I will serve in another, as good as vinegar and pepper to your roast beefe." Signer Kick- 3 H ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES. shawe replies : " Let's have it, let's taste on it, mine host, my noble fat actor." There is another passage to the same effect in a pamphlet entitled the Wandering Jew telling Fortunes to Englishmen, 4to. Lond., 1640, p. 38, in which a character named Glutton is made to say, " A chaire, a chaire, sweet Master Jew, a chaire ; all that I say, is this : I'me a fat man, it has been a West-Indian voyage for me to come reeking hither ; a kitchen stufle-wench might pick up a living by following me, for the fat which I loose in stradling ; I doe not live by the sweat of my brows, but am almost dead with sweating ; I eate much, but can talke little : Sir John Old-castle was my great grandfathers fathers uncle ; I come of a huge kindred." It may fairly be assumed that the preceding notices do not refer to the Oldcastle of the first manuscript of Henry the Fourth. In two of the instances they certainly do not, Shakespeare's Falstaff being also alluded to in Hey for Honesty, 1651, and in Gayton's Notes, 1654. There is more uncertainty in the attribu- tion of a reference by Bagwell, who in his poem entitled the Merchant Distressed, 1644, speaking of idle cowardly captains, observes that, although they "have no skill in martial discipline, yet they'le brag, as if they durst to fight, with Sir John Oldcastle, that high-flowne knight." Page 134, line 4. One of the few names invented by Shake- speare. A general absence of sincerity, rather than insin- cerity, is one of the leading characteristics of Falstaff, but the selection of a name suggestive of duplicity was probably the result more of accident than of design. At all events, it is in the highest degree unlikely that Shakespeare meditated in the choice any reference whatever to the historic character of Fastolf, the warrior he had previously introduced into the First Part of Henry the Sixth, although the printer of the first folio edition of Henry the Fourth naturally enough ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES. 315 adopted the orthography of the then better known name. It is clear from Oldcastle having been the original appellation of Falstaff, that the cowardice of the latter was not suggested by that attributed to the Fastolf of the earlier play. Fastolf was, however, sometimes called Falstaff even in strictly historical works, as in Trussell's Continuation of the History of England, ed. 1685, p. 126. The confusion between the real and fictitious characters is lamented in Daniel's manu- script poem called Trinarchodia, 1649, an ^ ^Iso by Fuller, in his Worthies, 1662. The error continued to be made by later writers, and may occasionally be detected in works of the present century. " Sir John Fastoff gave to the seven senior demies of Magdalen College a penny a week for augmentation of their vests, which being nowadays but a small pittance, those that have it are call'd, by such as have it not, Fastoffs buckram men," Hearne's Diary, 1721. In a Short View of English History by Bevil Higgons, 1748, the warrior of Henry the Sixth's time is stated to have "been ridiculed and misrepresented by. the pen of a certain poet for an original of buffoonery and cowardice for no other reason but that some of his posterity had disobliged Mr. Shakespear." This tradition apparently belongs to the number of those which are either incorrectly recorded or are mere fabrications. Page 135, line I. Two editions. Four leaves only of the first edition, discovered many years ago at Bristol concealed in the recesses of an old book-cover, are known to exist. This precious fragment, which I would not exchange for its surface in pearls, is one of the most cherished gems in the library at Hollingbury Copse. Both editions were no doubt published by Wise in 1598, and might be distinguished by the circumstance of the word hystorie in the head-line of the first being historie in that of the second. Such was the 3l6 ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES. unsettled orthography of the period that its variation is no evidence in the question of priority, but that the fragment belongs to the first edition may be safely inferred from its containing a word found in no other impression, omission being the commonest error in early reprints. It is some- thing, at this late day, to recover even a single lost word that was written by Shakespeare, Poins therein exclaiming, " How the fat rogue roared ! " When Wise entered the play on the registers of the Stationers' Company in February, 1598, the title there given varies considerably from that of the complete edition of 1598, so that the one belonging to the fragment, if ever discovered, might possibly agree with the wording of the copyright entry. There were thus no fewer than six editions published in the author's lifetime, a fact that testifies to the great popularity of this drama. There are quotations from it in Allot's England's Parnassus, 1600, and in the Knight of the Burning Pestle, 1611. It is rather singular that, notwithstanding the publication of the continuation as the Second Part in 1600, the other should not have appeared as the First Part until it was so termed in the collective edition of 1623. Page 135, line 4. Familiar household words. Thus Meres is found quoting one of FalstafTs sayings, with- out considering it necessary to mention whence it was derived, " As Aulus Persius Flaccus is reported among al writers to be of an honest life and upright conversation, so Michael Drayton among schollers, souldeers, poets, and all sorts of people, is helde for a man of vertuous disposition, honest conversation, and well governed cariage, which is almost meraculous among good wits in these declining and corrupt times, when there is nothing but rogery in villanous man, and when cheating and craftines is counted the cleanest wit and soundest wisdome," PaUadis Tamia, 1598. ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES. 3 T J This is from a literary work, written by one of Shake- speare's friends, but there is a similar testimony to the early popularity of the First Part of Henry the Fourth in a private familiar letter from Toby Matthew to Dudley Carleton, written in September, 1598, wherein he observes, speaking of some military officers, and with the evident notion that the quotation would be recognised, " Well, honour prickes them on, and the world thinckes that honour will quickly prick them of againe." Page 135, line 24. His intention. It is scarcely necessary to observe that the Epilogue to the Second Part of Henry the Fourth is the authority for this statement. Page 136) line 7. Merely out of deference. There seems to be no other solution of the problem at all feasible. The trivial historical allusions, if they are to be seriously received as evidences of the date of action, would place the comedy between the two parts of Henry the Fourth and the drama of Henry the Fifth ; but its complete isolation from those plays offers the best means of deliverance from the perplexity created by those references. Arguments on any other basis will only land us, to use the words of Mrs. Quickly, "into such a canaries as 'tis wonderful." This Mrs. Quickly, she of the Merry Wives of Windsor, is an essentially different character from her namesake of the historical plays, and is positively introduced into the former as a stranger to Sir John, without the slighest reference to the memories of the Boar's Head tavern. All this leads to the inference that the small connection to be traced be- tween the comedy and historical plays is to be attributed to the necessity of at least a specious compliance with the wishes of the Queen, and this is as much as can fairly be said even in regard to the love adventures of Falstaff. Page 136, line 16. There is an old tradition. When- 3l8 ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES. ever a tradition includes an incident that was probably unknown at the time of its circulation, and when that inci- dent is proved to be a fact by the subsequent discovery of contemporary evidence, the whole story should be favour- ably if not implicitly received. There is no reason to believe that the first edition of the Merry Wives was known to any of the earlier writers who recorded the present tradi- tion, until a copy of it came into the hands of Theobald about the year 1731. See a letter from that critic to War- burton in MS. Egerton 1956. According to the title-page of that edition, the comedy, in 1602, had "been divers times acted by the Right Honorable my Lord Chamber- lain's Servants, both before her Majestic and elsewhere." This is the only contemporary evidence we possess that the Merry Wives of Windsor was ever performed before Queen Elizabeth, although the references in it to Windsor Castle in connection with that Sovereign would suggest the probability of its having been written with a view to its performance before the Court. According to another early notice, the comedy was selected for representation before James the First on Sunday, November the 4th, 1604. " Edmund Tylney 1604 and 1605 Sunday after Hallow- mas; Merry Wyves of Windsor performed by the King's Players," notes from the Audit Records compiled for Malone about the year 1800. Page 136, line 18. In the brief space of a fortnight. This tradition was first recorded by Dennis in the dedi- cation to the Comical Gallant, 1702, in which he says, referring to the Merry Wives of Windsor and Queen Eliza- beth " this comedy was written at her command, and by her direction, and she was so eager to see it acted that she commanded it be finished in fourteen days ; and was afterwards, as tradition tells us, very well pleas'd at the ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES. 319 representation." In the prologue to his play, Dennis repeats the assertion that Shakespeare's comedy was written in the short space of fourteen days. Rowe, in 1709, speaking of Queen Elizabeth, says, Life of Shakespeare, pp. 8, 9, " she was so well pleased with that admirable character of Falstaff in the two parts of Henry the Fourth, that she com- manded him to continue it for one play more, and to show him in love ; this is said to be the occasion of his writing the Merry Wives of Windsor." This evidence was followed by that of Gildon, who, in 1710, Remarks, etc., p. 291, observes that " the fairys in the Fifth Act makes a hand- some complement to the Queen, in her palace of Windsor, who had oblig'd him to write a play of Sir John Falstaff in love, and which / am very well assured he perform'd in a fortnight ; a prodigious thing, when all is so well contriv'd and carry'd on without the least confusion." It will be perceived that, although the statements of Dennis and Gildon are in some respects less circumstantial than those of Rowe, yet Elizabeth could not very well have com- manded Shakespeare to exhibit .^the fat knight in love if she had not been previously introduced to him in another character. Pope and Theobald appear to have taken their versions of the tradition second-hand from their pre- decessors, but their acceptance of it proves that they shared in a general belief. Rowe's version of the anecdote is, as usual with him, the one most cautiously written, and there- fore that to be preferred j but still there is no reason for disbelieving the assertion of the others to the extent that the play was written with great celerity. So much can be accepted, without absolutely crediting the asserted short limit of the fortnight ; and Dennis's authority on that point must be considered to be weakened by the fact that, in his Letters, ed. 1721, p. 232, he reduces the period to ten days 20 ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES. Page 136, line 21. Brevity of time. The wording of the entries is somewhat obscure, but it would seem from two in Henslowe's Diary that in August, 1598, Munday undertook to write a play for the Court, and Drayton gave " his worde for the boocke to be done within one fortnight." On the third of December, 1597, Ben Jonson apparently had only the plot of one of his dramas ready, and yet he engaged to complete it before the following Christmas, that is, in three weeks. See Henslowe's Diary, ap. Collier, pp. 106, 1 1 6. Page 138, line I. A catchpenny publisher. It is worthy of remark that, in the title-page of the quarto, Parson Evans is termed in error the Welch Knight, a mistake which could hardly have emanated from any one acquainted with the play, and shows that the title was probably compiled, in all its attractive dignity, by the publisher. There is no other contemporary edition of any of the plays of Shakespeare in the title-page of which so many flattering notices of character are introduced. Page 138) line 2. A very defective copy. The first edition, in every respect an irregular performance, is con- sidered by some critics to be an imperfect copy of a very hastily written original sketch of the comedy. Were this the case, surely there would be found passages unmistake- ably derived from Shakespeare's pen, adapted solely to that original, and intentionally omitted in a reconstruction of the play ; but, instead of this, the quarto consists for the most part of merely imperfect transcripts, not sketches, of speeches to be found in the authentic drama. The few re- written portions are of a very inferior power, and it would be difficult to imagine that they could not have been the work of some other hand. One of these, where Falstaff is tor- mented by the pretended fairies in Windsor Park, the most ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES. 32! favourable of the pieces which are clearly derived from another source, exhibits few, if any, traces of genius. As for the other original fragments in the quarto, they are hardly worthy of serious consideration, and some of the lines in them are poor and despicable. There are indica- tions that the botcher, whoever he might have been, was fully acquainted with Shakespeare's play of Henry the Fourth, several phrases being evidently borrowed from it. " When Pistol lies, do this," is a line found in Johnson's quarto and in the Second Part of Henry the Fourth, but not in the perfect copy of the Merry Wives. The same may also be said of such expressions as woolsack and iniquity, as applied to Falstaff, neither of which are to be traced in the first folio. Sometimes, also, Shakespeare's own expressions are employed in wrong places, to suit the editor's purpose ; and oversights, some of the greatest magnitude, occur in nearly every page. The succession of scenes, however, is exactly the same as in the amended play, although not so divided, with the exception of the fourth and fifth scenes of the third act, which are transposed. The first scene of the fourth act, and the first four scenes of the fifth act in the amended play, are entirely omitted in the quarto. Amongst the numerous other indications of an imperfect publication, the reader's attention may be drawn to the second stage-direction, in which Bardolph is introduced, as in the amended play, whereas he is there entirely omitted in the business of the scene; and to the incident of the Doctor's sending a challenge to Evans being altogether inexplicable without the assistance derived from the more perfect version. Several other speeches and devices are of so extremely an inartificial and trivial a character, it can scarcely be imagined but that some poetaster of the time was concerned with the publica- tion. 21 322 ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES. Page 140, line 21. The traditional belief of his own day. And also of that of a previous age. Randolph, in his Hey for Honesty, 1651, speaking of the "vast power divine " of money, enquires affirmatively if for its sake " did not Shakespeare writ his comedy." The metrical quotation in the text is from one of Pope's imitations of Horace, but the opinion given in those lines must be considered an expansion of a similar one which is found in the preface to his edition of the works of the great dramatist, " Shake- speare, having at his first appearance no other aim in his writings than to procure a subsistence, directed his endea- vours solely to hit the taste and humour that then prevailed." Page 148, line I. The month of July. See the entry of July the 22nd, 1598, in the registers of the Stationers' Company. The Rev. H. P. Stokes, in an able essay on the subject in the best work that has hitherto appeared on the chronological question, assigns the date of this play to 1597-8, and there is no good evidence for attributing an earlier period to its composition. Page 151, line 8. The Midsummer Nighfs Dream. It has been suggested that this title was derived from the cir- cumstance of its having been originally produced at Mid- summer, as otherwise the name would be inappropriate ; but the graceful compliment paid in it to Queen Elizabeth would appear to indicate that the comedy was written with a view to its representation before that sovereign, while the Lord Chamberlain's Company were not in the habit of acting plays before the Court in the summer time. There seems to be a probability that Shakespeare, in the composition of the Midsummer Night's Dream, had in one place a recollec- tion of the sixth book of the Faerie Queene, published in 1596, for he all but literally quotes the following line from the eighth canto of that book, " Through hills and dales, ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES. 323 through bushes and through breres" Faerie Queene, ed. 1596, p. 640. As the Midsummer Night's Dream-was not printed until the year 1600, and it is impossible that Spenser could have been present at any representation of the comedy before he had written the sixth book of the Faerie Queene, it may fairly be concluded that Shakespeare's play was not composed at the earliest before the yeare 1596, in fact, not until some time after January the 2oth, 1595-6, on which day the Second Parte of the Faerie Queene was entered on the books of the Stationers' Company. The sixth book of that poem was probably written as early as 1592 or 1593, certainly in Ireland and at some considerable time before the month of November, 1594, the date of the entry of publication of the Amoretti, in the eightieth sonnet of which it is distinctly alluded to as having been completed pre- viously to the composition of the latter work. Page 131, line n. Some years previously. As a rule it is unsafe to pronounce a judgment on the period of the composition of any of Shakespeare's dramas from internal evidence, but the general opinion that the Two Gentlemen of Verona is one of the author's earliest complete dramatic efforts may be followed without much risk of error. Admit- ting its lyrical beauty, its pathos, its humour, and its infinite superiority to the dramas of contemporary writers, there is nevertheless a crudity in parts of the action, one at least being especially unskilful and abrupt, which would probably have been avoided at a later period of composition. Page 152, line 20. The words of Meres. Those who believe that the Sonnets, as we now have them, comprise two long poems addressed to separate individuals, must perforce admit that they are the " sugared " ones alluded to by Meres, for the celebrated lines on the two loves of Comfort and Despair are found in the Passionate Pilgrim 21 2 324 ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES. of 1599. But copies of specially dedicated poems would most likely have been forwarded solely to the addressees, or, at all events, would not have been made subjects of literary notoriety through the adopted course recorded by Meres. That writer, in all probability, would have used the words, to his private friends, if he had entertained the views now adopted by the personality theorists. Page 152, line 23. Separate contributions. Here and there is to be distinctly observed an absolute continuity, but a long uninterrupted sequence after the first seventeen can be traced only by those who rely on strained inferences, or are too intent on the establishment of favourite theories to condescend to notice glaring difficulties and incon- sistencies. The opinion that the address to the "lovely boy " in 1 26 is the termination of a series, dedicated to one and the same youth, is, indeed, absolutely disproved by the language of No. 57. There are several other sonnets antecedent to 1 26 that bear no internal evidence of being addressed to the male sex, and it is difficult to understand the temerity that would gratuitously represent the great dramatist as yet further narrowing the too slender barriers which then divided the protestations of love and friendship. Page 132, line 28. Their fragmentary character. Two of the sonnets, those referring to Cupid's brand, are obviously nothing more than poetical exercises, and these lead to the suspicion that there may be amongst them other examples of iterative fancies. Here and there are some which have the appearance of being mere imitations from the Classics or the Italian, although of course it is not necessary to assume that either were consulted in the original languages. It is difficult on any other hypothesis to reconcile the inflated egotism of such a one as 55 with the unassuming dedications to the Venus and Lucrece, ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES. 325 1593 and 1594, or with the expressions of humility found in the Sonnets themselves, e.g., 32 and 38. Page 152, line 28. In the generation immediately following. In MS. Bright 190, now MS. Addit. 15, 226, a volume which may be of the time of Charles the First, or perhaps of a little earlier date, there is a copy of the eighth sonnet, there ascribed to Shakespeare, and entitled, In laudem musice et opprobrium contemptorii ejusdem. Page 153, line 2. From the arrangement. And not only from the classification and titles given by Benson in his edition of 1640, but from the terms in which he writes of the Sonnets themselves. " In your perusall," he observes in his address to the reader, " you shall finde them seren, cleere, and elegantly plaine; such gentle strains as shall recreate and not perplexe your braine ; no intricate or cloudy stuffe to puzzell intellect, but perfect eloquence such as will raise your admiration to his praise." These words could not have been penned had he regarded the Sonnets in any light other than that of poetical fancies. Page 155, line 2. The immense majority. The estima- tion in which the drama was held by the reigning sovereigns did not elevate the social position of actors, who were re- garded at Court in the light of menials, and classed by the public with jugglers and buffoons. Page i 5 9> line 23. Of any of these. These editions do not contain the choruses, and, as the latter were written as early as 1599, it is next to impossible that the quartos represent the author's imperfect sketch. The fact that Shakespeare wrote the play after he had completed the Second Part of Henry the Fourth, as appears from the epilogue to the latter, precludes the supposition that Henry the Fifth could have been a very early production; and 326 ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES. especially such a piece as would be suggested by the edition of 1600. Page 162, line 75*. In this case at least. That Jaggard would have yielded to remonstrances in 1599, had such then been made to him, may be inferred from the circum- stance of his cancelling the title-page containing Shake- speare's name in the edition of 1612, and this apparently at the instigation of a minor writer. Page i6fy line j*. A long allegorical poem. It was probably not a very successful publication, unsold copies having been re-issued in 1611 under the new title of, "The Annals of great Brittaine; or, a most excellent Monument, wherein may be scene all the antiquities of this Kingdome, to the satisfaction both of the Vniuersities or any other place stirred with Emulation of long con- tinuance." Page 170, line 25. Most probably on January the Fifth. That is, on Twelfth Night, 1602. The comedy was certainly written not very long before the performance at the Middle Temple, as may be gathered from the use which Shakespeare had made of the song, " Farewell, dear love," a ballad which had first appeared in the previous year in the Booke of Ayres composed by Robert Jones, fol., Lond. 1601. Page 172, line 14. One hundred and seven acres of land. It may be that this acquisition is referred to by Crosse in his Vertues Common-wealth, 1603, when he speaks thus ungenerously of the actors and dramatists of the period, " as these copper-lace gentlemen growe rich, purchase lands by adulterous playes, and not fewe of them usurers and extortioners, which they exhaust out of the purses of their haunters, so are they puft up in such pride and selfe-love as they envie their equalles and scorne theyr inferiours." ILLUSTRATIVE NOTI'.S. 327 Alleyn had not at this time commenced his purchases of land at Dulwich. Page 172, line 27. Opposite tJu lou>er grounds of New Place. This is stated on the reasonable supposition, in fact, all but certainty, that the locality of the estate had not been changed between the time of Shakespeare and its ownership by the Cloptons early in the last century. Since that period the Chapel Lane Rowington copyhold has always been the one described in the text, its area corre- sponding to that given in the survey of 1604. About thirty years ago, however, the late Mr. W. O. Hunt, the then owner of the copyhold, made the following extract from an account of the manor written in the year 1582, "Thomas Patrycke holdeth of the said lord by coppie of Court Roll, accordinge to the custome of the saide manour, one cottage and one garden thereunto adjacent, apperteininge and be- longinge, conteyninge by estimacion a quarterne of an acre of grounde, and doth bounde and adjoyne uppon and to a lane there called Dead Lane on the south side, the land appertayning to the towne of Clifford on the est side, and the lande now in the tenure or use of Robert Stones on the north side, and the lande of William Smithe on the west side on all partes, the which cotage and garden are holden of the said lord by the yerely rente of \].s. vj.^/., suite of court and fealtie, and fine at every decease or surrender, accordinge to the custome of the saide manour afore in this said boke of survey mentioned." The original record con- taining these particulars was lent to Mr. Hunt by the solicitor to the manor, but the manuscript cannot now be found. That the extract here given is, however, sub- stantially accurate, cannot admit of a doubt, although the description of the copyhold, as one on the north side of the lane, is extremely perplexing. It may be said to be 328 ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES. inexplicable, there being positive evidence that the Clifford estate was bounded on the west by Shakespeare's garden. There was, however, on that side a plot of freehold land which, in 1590, a barn being then upon it, belonged to one William Smith, and which must have been thrown into the New Place estate some time before the year 1622. It is extremely unlikely to have been the site of the kitchen garden first mentioned in 1732. Page 173, line j. At the annual rental of two shillings and sixpence. In a survey of the manor taken in August, 1606, and preserved amongst the records of the Land Revenue Office, there is the following notice of this copy- hold estate, the annual value of which and other particulars were evidently unknown to the compiler : Tenen. Custum. Stratford ) Willielmus Shakespere tenet pen .. super Avon. J cop. dat. die . . . Anno . . fin. viz. , n fher. Dom. manss. _. , , Ann. val Redd, per annum TT , , dimitt. Habend. J but in another survey taken October 24th, 1604, in a list of the " customary tenants in Stratforde parcell of the saide manor," is this entry, "William Shakespere lykewise holdeth there one cottage and one garden by estimation a quarter of one acre, and payeth yeerlye rent ij.s., v'].d." There is a discrepancy in the amounts of the rent which are given in the ancient records, the sum of two shillings being men- tioned in a Longbridge MS. survey of 1555, and in that of 1606 above quoted. In one of 1582, and in numerous other documents, two shillings and sixpence is named as the annual rental. Page J 7J, line n. And then he surrendered it. No ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES. 329 record of this surrender has been discovered, but it is the most natural explanation of the terms in which the copy- hold estate is mentioned in the poet's will. If this view be not accepted, it will be requisite to make the gratuitous assumption that the scrivener inserted a wholly unnecessary proviso through being unacquainted with the custom of the manor. "By the custome thereof, the eldest sonne is to inherite, and for default of yssue male, the eldest daughter ; the coppieholders for every messuage and for every tofft of a messuage paye a herriott, but a cottage and tofft of a cottage paye not herriotts," Survey, MS. Page i?j, line 23. In the Spring. This appears from the entry in the books of the Stationers' Company on July 26th, 1602, of "a booke called the Revenge of Hamlett, Prince (of) Denmarke, as yt was latelie acted by the Lo : Chamberleyne his servantes." The tragedy is not mentioned by Meres in 1598, and it could not have been written in its present form before 1599, in which year the Globe was erected, there being a clear allusion to that theatre in act ii. sc. 2. Hamlet remained one of the stock-plays after Shakespeare's company commenced playing at the Blackfriars theatre, it being alluded to in a manuscript list, written in 1660, of "some of the most ancient plays that were played at Blackfriars." In the Journal of the Dragon, -bound for the East Indies in 1607, there are notices of the tragedy being acted on board that ship, in order, observes the Captain, "to keepe my people from idleness and unlawfull games, or sleepe." Page 173, line 25. Hamlet. There was an old English tragedy on the subject of Hamlet which was in existence at s least as early as the year 1589, in the representation of which an exclamation of the Ghost, " Hamlet, revenge 1 " was a striking and well-remembered feature. This pro- 330 ILLUSTRATIVE XOTF.S. duction is alluded to in some prefatory matter by Nash in the edition of ^Greene's Menaphon issued in that year, here given V.L. "Tie turne backe to my first text, of studies of delight, and talke a little in friendship with a few of our triuiall translators. It is a common practise now a daies amongst a sort of shifting companions that runne through euery arte and thriue by none, to leaue the trade of Nouerint whereto they were borne, and busie themselues with the indeuors of art, that could scarcelie latinize their necke-verse if they should haue neede; yet English Seneca read by candle light yeeldes manie good sentences, as Bloud is a begger, and so foorth : and if you intreate him faire in a frostie morning, he will affoord you whole Hamlets, I should say handfulls, of tragical s peaches," Nash's Epistle to the Gentlemen Students of both Universities prefixed to Greene's Menaphon, 1589, first edition, the statement of there having been a previous one being erroneous. Another allusion occurs in Lodge's Wits Miserie, 1596, p. 56, "and though this fiend be begotten of his fathers own blood yet is he different from his nature, and were he not sure that jealousie could not make him a cuckold, he had long since published him for a bastard ; you shall know him by this, he is a foule lubber, his tongue tipt with lying, his heart steeled against charity ; he walks for the most part in black under colour of gravity, and looks as pale as the visard of the ghost which cried so miserally at the Theater like an oister wife, Hamlet, revenge? Again, in Decker's SatircoT^astiXj^i^oa, " Asini. Wod I were hang'd if I can call you any names but Captaine and Tucca. Tuc. No, fye'st my name's Hamlet, revenge : Thou hast been at Parris Garden, hast not ? Hor. Yes, Captaine, I ha plaide Zulziman there " with which may be compared another passage in Westward Hoe, 1607, " I, but when light wives make heavy husbands, let these husbands ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES. 331 play mad Hamlet, and crie revenge" So, likewise, in Row- l_ands'_Night Raven, 1620, a scrivener, who has his cloak and hat stolen from him, exclaims, " I will not cry Hamlet, revenge my greeves." There is also reason to suppose that another passage in the old tragedy of Hamlet is alluded to in Armin's Nest of Ninnies, 1608, "ther are, as Hamlet sayes, things cald whips in store," a sentence which seems to have been well-known and popular, for it is partially cited in the Spanish Tragedie, 1592, and in the First Part of the Contention, 1594. It seems, however, certain that all the passages above quoted refer to a drama of Hamlet anterior to that by Shakespeare, and the same which is recorded in Henslowe's Diary as having been played at Newington in 1 5 94 by " my Lord Admeralle and my lorde .Chamberlen men, 9 of June 1594, receved at Hamlet, vm.s." the small sum arising from the performance showing most probably that the tragedy had then been long on the stage. This older play was clearly one of a series of dramas on the then favourite theme of revenge aided by the supernatural intervention of a ghost, and a few other early allusions to it appear to deserve quotation. " His fathers Empire and Gouernment was but as the Poeticall Furie in a Stage-action, compleat yet with horrid and wofull Tragedies : a first, but no second to any Hamlet ; and that now Reuenge, iust Reuenge, was comming with his Sworde drawne against him, his royall Mother, and dearest Sister, to fill vp those Murder- ing Sceanes," Sir Thomas Smithes Voiage and Entertainment in Rushia, i6o^sig. K, the Italics and orthography here given V.L. from the original. "Sometimes would he over- take him and lay hands uppon him like a catch-pole, as if he had arrested him, but furious Hamlet woulde presently eyther breake loose like a beare from the stake, or else so set his pawes on this dog that thus bayted him that, with 33 2 ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES. tugging and tearing one anothers frockes off, they both looked like mad Tom of Bedlam," Decker's Dead Terme, 1608. " If any passenger come by and, wondring to see such a conjuring circle kept by hel-houndes, demaund what spirits they raise there, one of the murderers steps to him, poysons him with sweete wordes and shifts him off with this lye, that one of the women is falne in labour ; but if any mad Hamlet, hearing this, smell villanie and rush in by violence to see what the tawny divels are dooing, then they excuse the fact, lay the blame on those that are the actors, and, perhaps, if they see no remedie, deliver them to an officer to be had to punishment," Decker's Lanthorne and Candle-light, or the Bell-man's Second Night's-Walke, 1609, a tract which was reprinted under more than one different title. " A trout, Hamlet, with four legs, "Clarke's Paroemiologia Anglo-Latina, or Proverbs English and Latine, 1639, p. 71. The preced- ing notices may fairly authorize us to infer that the ancient play of Hamlet, i. Was written by either an attorney, or an attorney's clerk, who had not received a university education. 2. Was full of tragical high sounding speeches. 3. Contained the passage, " there are things called whips in store," spoken by Hamlet ; and a notice of a trout with four legs by one of the other characters. 4. Included a very telling brief speech by the Ghost in the two words, Hamlet, revenge ! whence we may fairly conclude that the Ghost in this, as in the later play, urged Hamlet to avenge the murder. 5. Was acted at the Theatre in Shoreditch j- and at the playhouse at Newington Butts. 6. Had for its principal character a hero exhibiting more general violence than can be attributed to Shakespeare's creation of Hamlet. It also appears that this older play was not entirely super- i seded by the new one, or, at all events, that it was long remembered by play-goers. ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES. 333 Page 174, line 4. Until the Summer. The edition of 1603, as appears from its title-page, could not have been published until after the nineteenth of May in that year, while the statement of the tragedy having been " diuerse times acted by his Highnesse seruants in the Cittie of London," may probably lead to the conclusion that the book was not issued until late in the year. What share Trundell possessed in this edition is not known, but, as he was a young catch- penny publisher of inferior position, it is not unlikely that he was the person who surreptitiously obtained the imperfect and spurious copy, placing it in the hands of some obscure printer who would have less fear of the action of the Sta- tioners' Company than a man of higher character would have entertained. It was certainly printed by some one who had a very small stock of type, as is shown by the evident deficiency of some of the Italic capitals. Page 174, line 6. Employed an inferior and clumsy writer. The proposition here advanced seems to be the one that most fairly meets the various difficulties of an intricate problem, an interpretation explaining nearly all the perplexing circumstances which surround the history of the barbarously garbled and dislocated text of the first edition, and accounting for what is therein exhibited of identity with and variations from the characterization and dramatic struc- ture of the authentic work. There is another theory which assumes that the quarto of 1603 is a copy, however im- perfect, of Shakespeare's first sketch of the play. Were this the case, surely there would be found some traces of the poet's genius, sparkling in lines which belong to the varia- tions above noticed, and which could not have found a place in the short-hand notes of the enlarged tragedy. There can scarcely be a doubt but that the unreasonable length of this drama led to all manner of omissions in the acting 334 ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES. copies, and that these last were subjected to continual revision at the theatre. If this were so, it is not unlikely that the first edition may contain small portions, more or less fully exhibited, of Shakespeare's own work nowhere else to be found ; but, taking that edition as a whole, excluding those parts of it which, either accurately or defectively rendered, are evidently derived from the genuine play, there is found an assemblage of feeble utterances and inferior doggrel, the composition of which could not reasonably be assigned to any period, however cany, of Shakespeare's literary career. The absolute indications of the hand of a very inferior dramatist are clearly visible in his original scene of the interview between the Queen and Horatio, and it is more easy to believe that such a writer could have made structural and characterial alterations which subtle reasoning may persuade itself are results of genius, than that Shakespeare could ever have written in any form that which no amount of logic can succeed in removing from the domain of balderdash. So wretched, indeed, is nearly the whole of the twaddle which has been cited as part of the first draft of the immortal tragedy, that one is inclined to suspect plagiarism in cases where anything like poetry is discovered. In one instance, at all events, in the lines, "Come on Ofelia," ed. 1603, sig. C. 2, verso, there seems to be a palpable imitation of words of Viola in Twelfth Night. Page 174, line 7. Scraps. The exact mode in which all these fragments were obtained will ever remain a mystery, but some were clearly derived from memoranda taken in short-hand at the theatre. Independently of spurious words which may possibly be ludicrous mis- prints, there are errors that cannot easily be explained on any other hypothesis, as right done for writ dwvn in the ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES. 335 second scene of the first act. In act ii., sc. 2, in venom steept is printed invenotrid speech, and by a similar ear- mistake we have, "the law hath writ those are the only men," ed. Timmins, p. 41. The uniform spelling of Ofelia in ed. 1603 may also be due to ear-notes. The celebrated " to be " speech appears to be a jumble formed out of insufficient memoranda, a conjecture supported by the circumstance of the word borne (bourn) being misunder- stood and converted into borne, with another meaning. So in act Hi., sc. 4, "most secret and most grave," is converted into, " I'll provide for you a grave," ed. Tim- mins, p. 66 ; and probably the short-hand for inheritor was erroneously read as honor, the sentence being arranged to meet the latter reading. The three beautiful lines com- mencing, "anon as patient as the female dove," are abbreviated most likely through short-hand to the single one, " anon as. mild and gentle as a dove " ; and there are numerous other instances of palpably bungling abridg- ments of the text. Some of the notes of lines taken at the play must have been imperfect, as, for example, in the Player-King's speech commencing, " I do believe," where the word think having been omitted in the notes, the line is incorrectly made up in ed. 1603 by the word sweet. In act. L, sc. 2, " a beast that wants discourse of reason," is printed, " a beast devoid of reason." Again, the name of Gonzago is correctly given in one speech in ed. 1603, while in another it is printed Albertus, and there are other variations in the names of persons and localities which may possibly be due to the short-hand writing of such names being easily misinterpreted. Thus the town of Vienna appears as Guyana, this variation occurring in an erroneous text of one of the genuine Hamlet speeches so incorrectly printed that he is made to address his uncle as 336 ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES. Father. To this short-hand cause may also be attributed the orthography of the names of Valtemand, Cornelius, Laertes, Rosencraus, Guyldensterne, and Gertrard in ed. 1604 being as follows in ed. 1603, Voltemar, Cornelia, Leartes, Rossencraft, Gilderstone, Gertred. In some in- stances it would seem that the compiler had no memoranda of the names, and hence the omission of those of Barnardo and Francisco may be explained. Then, again, there is the important fact that the compiler of the edition of 1603 either was possessed of notes or had recollected portions of the folio copy as they_were^ recited on the stage. Thus, for example, the compiler has a garbled version of the sentence, " the clown shall make those laugh whose lungs are tickled o' the sere," which is altogether omitted in the other quartos. The expressive line, " what, frighted with false fire," is peculiar to ed. 1603 and the folio, and is identical in both with the insignificant excep- tion that the reading fires occurs in the former. The line, "that to Laertes I forgot myself," is found only in eds. 1603 and 1623, not in the other quartos. A trace of Hamlet's within speech, the repetitions of mother in act iii., sc. 4, in ed. 1623, not in ed. 1604, is found in ed. 1603. The Doctor of ed. 1604 is correctly given as the Priest in eds. 1603, 1623. Mere verbal coincidences, of which there are several, are of less evidential value, but French grave in eds. 1603 an d 1623 for the friendly ground of ed. 1604 are variations hardly to be accounted for excepting on the above hypothesis. It is thus perfectly clear that the text of the folio copy and that of the first edition are partially derived from the same version, and there can be little doubt that portions of the latter are also taken from the genuine drama which was printed in the following year. It seems impossible to account otherwise for the identity of a large ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES. 337 number of lines common to the editions of 1603 and 1604, that identity extending even sometimes to the spelling, and the nearly textual copy of more than one speech, as, for instance, that of Voltimand in act ii., sc. 2, while a com- parison of the first act alone in the two copies would substantiate this position. Some peculiar orthography may also be fairly adduced as corroborative evidence, e.g,, Capapea in the quartos for the cap-a-pe of the folio, strikt for strict^ cost for cast, troncheon for truncheon, Nemeon for Nemian (Nemean), eager for aygre, Fortenbrasse for Fortin- bras, penitrable for penetrable, rootes for rots, and, especially, the unique verbal error sallied. This last is a strange perversion of the term solid, and one which appears to prove decisively that the quarto texts of the well-known speech in which it occurs were all derived in some way or other from one authority. It is, however, evident, from its corrupted form, that the speech in ed. 1603 was not copied from the manuscript used by the first printer of the enlarged work. At present the only feasible explana- tion of the difficulty is one kindly given me by Professor Dowden, who suggests that the compositor engaged on the second quarto may have found it convenient and useful to have by him a copy of the printed edition of 1603. If his manuscript was obscurely written, a glance at that edition might have assisted him, and hence the misprints have been accidentally copied, the hand mechanically repeating the word that occupied his eye. In the play of Eastward Hoe, printed in 1605, there is a parody on one of Ophelia's songs, which is of some interest in regard to the question of the critical value of the quarto of 1603, the occurrence of the word all before flaxen showing that the former word was incorrectly omitted in all the other early quartos. So, again, in 1606, when the author of Dolarnys 22 ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES. Primerose or the First Part of the Passionate Hermit made use of one of Hamlet's speeches, the recollection was either of the printed version of 1603, or, what is more probable, of the play as originally acted, as is evidenced by the use of the word quirks, which is peculiar to that edition. Page 174, line 14. Abnormous variations. Some of these may have been derived from the old Hamlet, a tragedy founded on some version of the story in Saxo Grammaticus. The latter only is accessible, and appears to have furnished hints, it may be through the medium of that play, to the compiler of the edition of 1603. Note, for example, the feelings and conduct of the Queen towards Hamlet at the end of her interview with him, and after- wards, as also her solemn denial of any complicity in the murder. "Histories and novels," observes Mr. Grant White in his able essay, "were then adapted to the stage with^as little alteration as would fit them for their new function ; if the subject proved popular, the plays were rewritten again and again, as the exigencies of the theatre required, and by pen of him who was nearest at hand and most capable of the work ; and, as at each rewriting they were generally more or less recast, the longer they kept the stage the more they deviated from the original story upon which they were founded; to this common fortune Hamlet appears not to have been an exception ; the vestiges of its transformation are slight, indeed, and do not enable us to trace it through its various phases ; but, under the circum- stances, they are sufficient to establish the fact that there was at least one intermediate form between the old story and the play which has come down to us." The mere fact of the Ghost not being mentioned in the original story, while he is introduced in both the elder play and in Shake- speare's, is good evidence of the accuracy of Mr. White's ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES. 339 last inference. So, again, the name of Hamlet, formed by metathesis from the Amleth of Saxo Grammaticus, is first heard of as being in the old tragedy ; and it is worth notice that, in the story given in Belleforest, the counsellor is killed in a bed, not behind the arras. The change of the names of Corambis and Montano in ed. 1603 to those of Polonius and Reynaldo in ed. 1604 has not been satis- factorily explained. Corambis, a trisyllable, not only suits the metre in the mangled play, but also in the three instances in which the name of Polonius occurs in verse in Shakespeare's own tragedy. Hence it may be concluded that the great dramatist did not alter the former name on his own judgment, but that, for some mysterious reason, the change was made by the actors and inserted in the play- house copy at some time previously to the appearance of the edition of 1604. Page 174, line 20. Enlarged. Although Roberts regis- tered the copyright of the tragedy in 1602, he did not, so far as we know, print the work before 1604, and then with a note which appears to imply that the edition of 1603 was not " according to the true and perfect copy," but that the new one was " imprinted and enlarged to almost as much again as it was " by the use of that copy. This impression was reissued in the following year, the title-page and a few leaves at the end, sigs. N and O being fresh printed, the sole alteration in the former being the substitution of 1605 for 1604. If the initials I. R. are those, as is most likely, of James Roberts, a printer frequently employed by Ling, there must have been some friendly arrangement between the two respecting the ownership of the copyright, which certainly belonged to the latter, as appears from the entry on the books of the Stationers' Company of November, 1607, when he transferred his interest to Smethwick. This 22 2 340 ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES- last-named publisher, in whose hands the copyright re- mained until his death in 1642, issued two editions in Shakespeare's lifetime, one without a date, the other published in the year 1611. Another one printed "for John Smithwicke," in 1609, is mentioned in the Variorum Shakespeare of 1821, ii., 652, and there is reason for believing that an edition of that date was once, and perhaps is now in existence, for I have a copy of Grey's Notes on Hamlet, 1754, in which are manuscript mar- ginalia of the last century distinctly stated to be collations " with the quarto of 1609 and folio of 1664." Page 174, line 26. Admirably portrayed by Burbage. This is ascertained from the very interesting and ably written elegy on Burbage, but there is no record of his treatment of the character, his delineation probably differing materially from that of modern actors. Stage tradition merely carries down the tricks of the profession, no actor entirely replacing another, and, in the case of Hamlet, hardly two of recent times, whose performances I have had the opportunity of witnessing, but who are or have been distinct in manner and expression, and even in idea. The fact appears to be that this tragedy offers a greater opportunity than any other for a variety of special interpre- tations on the stage, those being created by the individual actor's elevation or depression of one or more of the hero's mental characteristics. According to Downes, Sir William Davenant, " having seen Mr. Taylor of the Black- Fryars Company act it, who, being instructed by the author, Mr. Shaksepeur, taught Mr. Betterton in every particle of it," Roscius Anglicanus, 1708. Shakespeare may have given hints to Burbage, but Taylor did not undertake the part until after the author's decease. See Wright's Historia Histrionica, 1699, p. 4. It appears from ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES. 341 a stage direction in the quarto of 1603, that, in Burbage's time, Ophelia in act iv., sc. 5, came on the stage playing upon a lute, no doubt accompanying herself on that instrument when singing the snatches of the ballads. " Enter Ofelia playing on a lute, and her haire downe singing," ed. 1603. No such direction occurs in the other quartos, while the folio has merely, " Enter Ophelia distracted." Page 175, line 8. The once popular stage-trick. There is a graphic description of the incident in a Frenchman's account of the tragedy as performed at Covent Garden, in Kemble's time, 1811, "it is enough to mention the grave- diggers to awaken in France the cry of rude and barbarous taste, and were I to say how the part is acted it might be still worse ; after beginning their labour and breaking ground for a grave, a conversation begins between the two grave-diggers ; the chief one takes off his coat, folds it carefully and puts it by in a safe corner ; then, taking up his pick-axe, spits in his hand, give? a stroke or two, talks, stops, strips off his waistcoat, still talking, folds it with great deliberation and nicety, and puts it with the coat, then an under-waistcoat, still talking, another and another ; I counted seven or eight each folded and unfolded very leisurely in a manner always different, and with gestures faithfully copied from nature ; the British public enjoys this scene excessively, and the pantomimic variations a good actor knows how to introduce in it are sure to be vehemently applauded." A similar piece of buffoonery was practised at the performance of the Duchess of Main, certainly produced before March, 1619, for when the Cardinal tells the Doctor to put off his gown, the latter, according to the stage-direction in ed. 1708, "puts off his four cloaks one after another." A traditional usage of this kind, belonging in all probability to Shakespeare's 34 2 ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES. own time, should not be lightly discontinued ; but care should be taken to distinguish it from those which resulted solely from the exigencies created by the poverty of the ancient stage. We may rely upon it that it was to these and not to Shakespeare's voluntary election that Hamlet is made to terminate the third act by the removal of the body of Polonius, a proceeding which was adopted through the necessity of clearing the stage for the fourth act in a natural manner before the use of drop or other curtains between the acts. " Exit Hamlet with the dead body," ed. 1603. " Exit Hamlet tugging in Polonius," ed. 1623. Another old stage-trick was that of Hamlet starting to his feet, and throwing down the chair on which he had been sitting, in his consternation at the sudden appearance of his Father's spirit in act iii., sc. 4. This incident is pictured in the frontispiece to the tragedy in Rowe's edition of Shake- speare, 1709, and it is no doubt of much greater antiquity. It appears from this interesting engraving that, in the performance of Hamlet in 1709, the pictures referred to by the hero in that act were represented by two large framed portraits hung on the walls of the chamber, and this was probably the custom after the Restoration, the separate paintings taking the place of those in the tapestry, the latter accidental and imaginary, Hamlet on the ancient stage no doubt pointing to any part of the arras in which figures were represented. It clearly appears from Hamlet's speech in the genuine tragedy that the portraits were in- tended to be whole lengths, and this would be incon- sistent with the notion of miniatures, to say nothing of the absurdity of his carrying about with him one of the " pictures in little " the rage for the possession of which he elsewhere disparages. Page 175, line 25. Is not likely to refer. There is a ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES. 343 strong confirmation of this in the positive allusions to three of Shakespeare's works, including Troilus and Cressida, in a rare poem entitled Saint Marie Magdalens Conversion, 1603. The preface to the latter work is dated "this last of Januarie, 1603," but, as the book itself bears the date of that year, it may be fairly assumed that 1603, not 1603-4 is intended. Page 176, line n. Appear to exult. That the manu- script was obtained by some artifice may be gathered from the use of the word scape in the preface to the first edition. Page ij, line 10. The tithes. A copy of a rent-roll of the borough of Stratford, preserved in the Council Chamber, contains the following notice of the property to which the above documents refer. In the original, " the executours of Sir John Hubande " was formerly in the place of "Mr. William Shakespear," the latter name of course having been inserted after Shakespeare had made the purchase above mentioned : " Mr. Thomas Combes and Mr. William Shakespeare doe holde all maner of tythes of corne, grayne, and hey, in the townes, hamlettes, villages, and feildes of Okie Stratford, Welcome and Bishopton, and all maner of tythes of woole, lambe, hempe, flaxe, and other small and privie tythes, for the yerely rent of xxxiiij.//. paiable at our Lady Day and Michaelmas." Some Chancery proceedings respecting these tithes, hereafter noticed, give further information regarding the parties who were interested in them. The indenture and bond were each of them executed by Ralph Huband in the presence of William Huband, Anthony Nash, and Francis Collins, the last two of whom are mentioned as legatees in the poet's will. Anthony Nash was the father of Thomas Nash, who married Elizabeth Hall, Shakespeare's grand- daughter, in 1626. 344 ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES. Page 1 86, line 20. Who had the free use of Aubrey's papers. In his memoir of Sir William Davenant, he oc- casionally uses the exact words of Aubrey, and Warton's implied statement, that there is a notice of the scandal in one of Wood's own manuscripts, is erroneous. Page 189, line 15. One or more. There were at least two old plays on the subject in the dramatic repertory of the time, one which was printed under the title of the True Chronicle History of King Leir, and another, now lost, that bore probably more affinity to Shakespeare's drama. The latter fact is gathered from an interesting entry in an inven- tory of theatrical apparel belonging to the Lord Admiral's Company in March, 1598-9, where mention is made of " Kentes woden leage," that is, stocks. A play of King Lear was acted in Surrey on April the 6th and 8th, 1594, by the servants of the Queen and the Earl of Sussex, who were then performing as one company. The representation attracted liberal receipts, especially on the first of these occasions, but it is not mentioned by Henslowe as being then a new production. In the May of that year, there was entered to Edward White, on the books of the Stationers' Company, " a booke entituled the moste famous chronicle historye of Leire Kinge of England and his three daughters." No impression of this date is known to exist, the earliest printed copy which has been discovered being one which appeared in 1605. On the title-page of a copy of this last- named edition, preserved in the British Museum, are the following words in manuscript, "first written by Mr. William Shakespeare." This manuscript note is nearly obliterated, but it was certainly penned many years after the publication, and is, therefore, of no authority whatever in the question of authorship. Poor as this old play of King Leir undoubtedly is as a whole, it has passages of considerable merit, and it ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES. 345 seems to have been popular in Shakespeare's time. Accord' ing to the title-page of ed. 1605 it had then "bene divers and sundry times lately acted," and in a work called The Life and Death of Mr. Edmund Geninges, 1614, it is stated that " King Liere, a book so called," hath applause. Page 189, line 16. On the same legend. It should be borne in mind, as Professor Hales has intimated in a very able essay on this tragedy, that, when it was submitted to the public, the history of King Lear was not generally accepted as a legendary story. So we have the publishers of Shakespeare's play following the title of the older drama in the words, the True Chronicle History, in perfect con- fidence that the general reader of the day would receive the tragedy as founded on authentic events. Page 189, line 16. Before King James. It is certain that Shakespeare's tragedy was not produced before March, 1603, the date of the publication of Harsnet's Declaration, x ^x but the minute considerations that have been brought for- ward to assign the date of King Lear to the period anterior to its recorded performance before the Court in December, 1606, do not appear to be decisive. Such is the variation of the terms of British and English, but the former occurs more frequently than the latter in the older play. Allusions to such matter as storms and eclipses are exceedingly treacher- ous criteria. Moreover, if the tragedy had been produced any length of time previously to the Christmas of 1606, it would be difficult to account for the evidences of its popu- larity accruing only in the following year. Page ipo, line 10. Not a native of that village. For John Hall of Acton was married there, on September the 1 9th, 1574, to Margaret Archer, and "Elizabeth Hall, the daughter of John, xxned the v.th of June, 1575." The poet's son-in-law, in 1635, bequeathed "my house in 346 ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES. Acton " to his daughter, who was possibly named after the lady above mentioned. All this is, however, suggested with diffidence, for Hall being one of the commonest of sur- names, absolute identifications are hopeless in the absence of definite clues, and little assistance can be derived from the arms found on the gravestone of 1635. No record exists of the tinctures belonging to those arms, and the coat stands, in different colours, for various families of Hall. It should be observed that the registers of Maidstone negative a favourite conjecture that he was the son of an eminent physician of that town. Page 190, line 22. The Old Town. "I have seen, in some old paper relating to the town, that Dr. Hall resided in that part of Old Town which is in the parish of Old Stratford," MS. of R.B. Wheler, c. 1814. Page 192, line 5. Pericles. No mention of this play has been discovered in any book or manuscript dated previously to the year 1608. The statement that there was an edition of Pimlyco or Runne Red-Cap, issued in 1596, is inconsistent with the original entry of that tract on the Registers of the Stationers' Company under the date of April the i5th, 1609. Page 192^ line 6. At the Globe Theatre. George Wilkins, probably the dramatist of that name, made up a novel from Twyne's Patterne of Paineful Adventures, and from Pericles as acted at the Globe Theatre in 1608. It was published in that year under the title of, " The Painfull Adventures of Pericles Prince of Tyre. Being the true History of the Play of Pericles, as it was lately presented by the worthy and ancient poet John Gower. At London Printed by T.P. for Nat : Butter, 1608." This very rare and curious tract is in a small quarto, and in the centre of the title-page is an interesting woodcut of John Gower, no ILLUSTRATIVE NOTKS. 347 doubt in the costume in which he was represented at the theatre, with a staff in one hand and a bunch of bays in the other ; while before him is spread open a copy of the Confessio Amantis, the main source of the plot of the drama. Wilkins, in a dedication to Maister Henry Fer- mor, speaks of his work as " a poore infant of my braine ; " but he nevertheless copies wholesale from Twyne, adapting the narrative of the latter in a great measure to the conduct of the acting play. It appears from the circumstance of Wilkins frequently using passages obviously derived from the tragedy in the wrong places, and from his making un- necessary variations in some of the main actions, that he had no complete copy of Pericles to refer to, and that his only means of using the drama was by the aid of hasty notes taken in short-hand during its performance at the theatre. At the end of the argument of the tale, he en- treats "the reader to receive this historic in the same manner as it was under the habite of ancient Gower, the famous English poet, by the Kings Majesties Players excellently presented." Other evidences of the success of Pericles on the stage during its author's lifetime occur in Pimlyco or Runne Red-Cap, 1609, and in Tailor's Hogge Hath Lost his Pearle, 1614; and, notwithstanding occa- sional depreciations of it as a work of art, there are numerous testimonies to its continued popularity during the reigns of James and Charles the First, insignis Pericles, as it is called in some unpublished Latin verses of Ran- dolph. Page 192, line 25. The poet's share. Dryden, writing about the year 1680, expressly states that Pericles was the earliest dramatic production of our national poet, " Shake- spear's own muse her Pericles first bore,= the Prince of Tyre was elder than the Moore." If this were really the 34& ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES. case, the Globe play of 1608 must of course have been a revival of a much earlier work ; but Uryden, as appears from several of his notes, was very imperfectly acquainted with the history of the Elizabethan drama, so that his statement, or rather possibly his opinion, on this subject cannot be implicitly relied upon. Thus, for example, in one place he decisively states Othello to have been Shakespeare's last play, whereas it is now well known to have been in existence more than eleven years before his death. Page 197, line 9. five-pence. In a manuscript account of payments, 1609, discovered by Mr. G. F. Warner at Dulwich College, is a note by Alleyn, under the title of howshowld stuff, of " a book, Shaksper sonettes, 5 d - " That this was the contemporary price of the work is confirmed by an early manuscript note, 5 d> on the title-page of the copy of the first edition preserved in Earl Spencer's library at Althorp. On the last page of that copy is the following memorandum in a hand-writing of the time, "Commen- dations to my very kind and approued ffrind, B. M." Page 197, line ro. He dedicated the work. To the " only begetter," that is, to the one person who obtained the entire contents of the work for the use of the publisher. The notion that begetter stands for inspirer, could only be received were one individual alone the subject of all the poems; and, moreover, unless we adopt the wholly gra- tuitous conjecture that the sonnets of 1609 were not those in being in 1598, had not the time somewhat gone by for a publisher* s dedication to that object? Page ipp, line 10. On horseback. Most probably on hobby-horses, for it is hardly possible that there could have been room on the stage of the Globe Theatre for the intro- duction of living animals. Page 200, line j. The Winter's Tale. In the office- ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES. 349 book of Sir Henry Herbert is the following curious and interesting entry, "For the king's players; an olde playe called Winters Tale, formerly allowed of by Sir George Bucke, and likewyse by mee on Mr. Hemmings his worde that there was nothing prophane added or reformed, thogh the allowed booke was missinge ; and therefore I returned itt without a fee, this 19 of August, 1623," ap. Malone, ed. T 790, p. 226. Now Sir George Buck obtained a reversionary grant of the office of the Master of the Revels in 1603, ex- pectant on the death of Tylney, who died in October, 1610 ; but he did not really succeed to the office, as is shown by documents at the Rolls, before August, 1610, in short, a few weeks previously to the decease of Tylney. Sir George, as Deputy to the Master, licensed plays for publication years previously, as appears from several entries in the books of the Stationers' Company ; and that he could also have licensed them for acting would seem clear from the above entry, the words "likewyse by mee" showing that the comedy had been allowed by Herbert before he had succeeded to the office of Master. In the absence of any direct evidence to the contrary, it seems, however, unneces- sary to suggest that the Winter's Tale was one of the dramas that passed under Buck's review during the tenancy of Tylney in the office ; and it may fairly, at present, be taken for granted that the comedy was not produced until after the month of August, 1610. This date is sanctioned, if not confirmed, by the allusion to the song of Whoop, do me no harm, good man, the music to which was published by William Corkine, as one of his "private inventions," in his Ayres to Sing and Play to the Lute and Basse Violl, fol. Lond. 1 6 10. Page 201, line 23. And the Court. That the Tempest was originally produced before the Court may perhaps be 350 ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES. inferred from the introduction of the Masque and from the circumstance that Robert Johnson, one of the King's Musicians, was the composer of the music to Full Fatlwm Five and Where the Bee Sucks, the melodies of which, though re-arranged, are preserved in Wilson's Cheerful Ayres or Ballads set for three Voices, 4to, Oxford, 1660. Johnson is mentioned, in the accounts of the Treasurer of the Chamber for the year 1612, as one of the royal musicians "for the lutes," an office he continued to hold for many years. Mr. Alfred Roffe has pretty well demonstrated that the melodies in Wilson's book above alluded to were the original ones by Johnson. " It seemed to be very unlikely," he observes, " that, if Dr. Wilson had neufy composed these songs, he should put the name of Robert Johnson to them simply because he also had once composed the same words. That Dr. Wilson by set merely meant arranged, seems to be raised into something like certainty by examining his title-, page more carefully, Cheerful Ayres or Ballads first com- posed for one single voice and since set for three voices. Thus, it would appear that the work consists of what we should now call Songs, harmonized for three voices, and that Dr. Wilson retained, to five out of some seventy songs, the names of Robert Johnson and of Nicholas Laniere, for the very simple reason that the melodies were theirs." Page 202, line 4. With success. Dryden gives us two interesting pieces of information respecting the comedy of the Tempest, the first, that it was acted at the Blackfriars' Theatre ; the second, that it was successful. His words are, " the play itself had formerly been acted with success in the Black- Fryers," Preface to the Tempest, or the Enchanted Island, a Comedy, as it is now Acted at his Highness the Duke of York's Theatre, ed. 1670. This probably means that the comedy was originally produced at the Blackfriars' ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES. 351 Theatre, after the Children had left that establishment. The Tempest is alluded to in a list of " some of the most ancient plays that were played at Blackfriars," a manuscript dated in December, 1660. It is not at all improbable that the conspicuous position assigned to this comedy in the first folio is a testimony to its popularity. That situation is unquestionably no evidence of its place in the chronological order. Page 202, line 13. Only six. There is supposed to be a possibility, derived from an apparent reference to it in Weever's Mirror of Martyrs, that Julius Caesar was in exist- ence as early as the year 1599, for although that work was not published till 1601, the author distinctly tells his dedicatee that " this poem, which I present to your learned view, some two yeares agoe was made fit for the print." The subject was then, however, a favourite one for dramatic composition, and inferences from such pre- mises must be cautiously received. Shakespeare's was not, perhaps, the only drama of the time to which the lines of Weever were applicable. The more this species of evidence is studied, the more is one inclined to ques- tion its efficacy. Plays on the history of Julius Caesar are mentioned in Gosson's Schoole of Abuse, 1579; the Third Blast of Retrait from Plaies, 1580; Henslowe's Diary, 1594, 1602; Mirrour of Policie, 1598; Heywood's Apology for Actors, 1612 ; and there was a French tragedy on the subject published at Paris in 1578. Tarlton, who died in 1588, had appeared as Caesar, perhaps on some unauthorised occasion, a circumstance alluded to in the Ourania, 1606. A drama called Caesars Tragedye, acted before Prince Charles, the Lady Elizabeth, and the Elector Palatine, in the earlier part of the year 1613, is reasonably considered to have been Shakespeare's tragedy. 35 2 ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES. Page 204, line 2. Winco f . The ancient provincial name of the small village of Wilmecote, about three miles from Stratford-on-Avon. It is spelt both Wincott and Wilmcott in the same entry in the Sessions Book for 1642, MS. County Records, Warwick ; and Wincott in a record of 32 Elizabeth at Stratford-on-Avon. Marian Racket, described as the fat ale-wife of this hamlet, was probably a real character, as well as Stephen Sly, old John Naps, Peter Turf, and Henry Pimpernell. The documentary evi- dence respecting the inferior classes of society, especially at so early a period, is at all times brief and difficult of access ; but the opinion here expressed with regard to the truthfulness of the names referred to may be said to be all but confirmed by the discovery of contemporary notices of Stephen Sly, who is described as a " servant to William Combe," and who is several times mentioned in the records of Stratford-on-Avon as having taken an active part in the disputes which arose on the attempted enclosures of common lands, acting, of course, under the directions of his master. In a manuscript written in 1615 he is described as a labourer, but he seems to have been one of a superior class, for his house, "Steeven Slye house," is alluded to in the parish register of Stratford of the same year, as if it were of some slight extent. The locality of Wincot was long recognised as the scene of Christopher Sly's fondness of potations. When, in 1658, Sir Aston Cokayn addressed some lines to one Clement Fisher, of that village, his theme solely refers to the Wincot ale and to its powers over the tinker of the comedy. Page 204, line 2. Christopher Sly. The Christian as well as the surname of this personage are taken from the older play, but there was a Christopher Sly who was a con- temporary of Shakespeare's at Stratford on- Avon, and who ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES. 353 is mentioned in Greene's manuscript Diary under the date of March the 2nd, 1615-16. This is a singular coincidence, even if it be not considered a slight indication that the author of the Taming of a Shrew may have been a War- wickshire man. Page 204, line ij. Mill. This anecdote was first published by Capell in the following terms, "Wincot is in Stratford's vicinity, where the memory of the ale-house subsists still ; and the tradition goes that 'twas resorted to by Shakespeare for the sake of diverting himself with a fool who belong'd to a neighbouring mill," Notes to the Taming of the Shrew, ed. 1780, p. 26. Warton merely says that "the house kept by our genial hostess still remains, but is at present a mill," Appendix to the 1773 edition of Shakespeare, vol. 10. According to an un- published letter of Warton's, written in 1790, he derived his information from what was told him, when a boy, by Francis Wise, an eminent Oxford scholar, who went pur- posely to Stratford-on-Avon about the year 1 740 to collect materials respecting the personal history of Shakespeare. Warton's own words may be worth giving, " My note about Wilnecote I had from Mr. Wise, Radclivian librarian, a most accurate and inquisitive literary antiquary, who, about fifty years ago, made a journey to Stratford and its environs to pick up anecdotes about Shakespeare, many of which he told me ; but which I, being then very young, perhaps heard very carelessly and have long forgott ; this I much regrett, for I am sure he told me many curious things about Shakespeare ; he was an old man when I was a boy in this college ; the place is Wylmecote, the mill, or Wilnicote, near Stratford not Tamworth," 31 March, 1790. There may be some truth in the anecdote as related by Capell, but the other account is obviously confused and 2 3 354 ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES. inaccurate. Both the ale-house and the mill had disap- peared before Warton's time. " The late Mr. James West of the Treasury assured me that, at his house in War- wickshire, he had a wooden bench, once the favourite accommodation of Shakespeare, together with an earthern half-pint mug out of which he was accustomed to take his draughts of ale at a certain publick house in the neigh- bourhood of Stratford every Saturday afternoon," Steevens in Supplement to Shakespeare, 1780, ii. 369. Page, 205, line 24. Bardon Hill This hill, from the summit of which are to be seen exquisite views of the Cotswolds, is situated about a mile from Stratford-on-Avon, and overlooks the village of Shottery. Henry Cooper, a tradesman of Stratford-on-Avon, residing in Ely Street, in a letter to Garrick written in 1771, mentioning astroites, says, "thees small stones which I have sent are to be found on a hill called Barn-hill within a mile of Stratford, the road that Shakespear whent when he whent to see his Bidford topers ; thees stones will swim in a delf-plate amongst viniger." In Shakespeare's day there was no carriage or wagon road over Bardon Hill, the route sup- posed to have been followed by the poet having been then no doubt a bridle-way. It may be observed that the word topers does not appear to have been in use, in the sense above intended, before the middle of the seventeenth century. Page 205, line 26. Noted for its revelry. But in a report on the state of Bidford in 1605, we are told that "alehowses keepe good order in them; roagues pun- yshed;" and, in another one for 1606, that "alehouses keepe good order," Warwick Corporation MSS. It is possible, however, that these may have been exceptional years, for at a later period there are different tales. In 1613, one John Darlingie was presented at Bidford "for ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES. 355 keepinge ill rule in his house on the sabaoth in service time by sellinge of ale," MS. Episc. Reg. Wigorn. In 1646, six of the ale-house keepers were presented at the Warwick Sessions for pursuing their calling without licenses, and in the following year, 1647, "William Torpley of Bid- ford presented for sellinge of lesse then mesure, and for keeping disorders in his howse," Warwick County MSS. Page 205, line 27. He happened to meet with a shepherd. A gentleman, who visited Stratford-on-Avon in 1762, relates how the host of the White Lion Inn took him to " a place called Bidford, and showed me in the hedge a crab-tree called Shakespeare's Canopy, because under it our poet slept one night; for he, as well as Ben Jonson, loved a glass for the pleasure of society; and he, having heard much of the men of the village as deep drinkers and merry fellows, one day went over to Bidford to take a cup with them; he inquired of a shepherd for the Bidford drinkers, who replied they were absent, but the sippers were at home, and, I suppose, continued the sheepkeeper, they will be sufficient for you ; and so, indeed, they were ; he was forced to take up his lodgings under that tree for some hours," British Magazine for June, 1762. This is the only traditional account which is of the slightest value, but a ridiculous amplification of it is narrated by Jordan in a manuscript written about the year 1770. This manuscript, which was formerly in Ireland's possession (Confessions, 1805, p. 34), and is now in my own collection, is here printed V.L., "The following Anecdote of Shakspeare is tho a traditional Story as well authenticated as things of this nature generally are. I shall therefore not hesitate relating it as it was Verbally delivered to me. Our Poet was extremely fond of drinking hearty draughts of English Ale and glory'd in being thought a person of superior 232 ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES. eminence in that profession if I may be alowed the phrase. In his time but at what period it is not recorded there were two Companys or fraternitys of Village Yeomanry who used frequently to associate to gether at Bidford a town pleasantly situate on the Banks of the Avon about 7 miles below Strat- ford, and Who boasted themselves Superior in the Science of drinking to any set of equal number in the Kingdom and hearing the fame of our Bard it was determined to Challenge him and his Companions to a tryal of their skill which the Stratfordians accepted and accordingly repaired to Bidford which place agreeable to both parties was to be the Scene of Contendtion But when Shakspeare and his Companions arrived at the destined spot to their disagreeable disapointment they found the Topers were gone to Evesham fair and were told that if they had a mind to try their strength with the Sippers, they were ther ready for the Contest, Shakespf and his companions made a Scoff at their Opponents but for want of better Company they agreed to the Contest and in a little time our Bard and his Compainions got so intollerable intoxicated that they was not able to Contend any longer and accordingly set out on their return to Stratford. But had not got above half a mile on the road eer the found themselves unable to proceed any farther, and was obliged to lie down under a Crabtree which is still growing by the side of the road where they took up their repose till morning when some of the Company roused the poet and intreated him to return to Bidford and renew the contest which he declined saying I have drank with 11 Piping Pebworth, Dancing Marfton, Haunted Hillborough, Hungry Grafton, Dadgeing Exhall, Papift Wicksford, Beggarly Broom, and Drunken Bidford." ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES. 357 meaning, by this doggrel, with the bibulous competitors who had arrived from the first-named seven villages, all of which are within a few miles of Bidford. A tinkered version of this latter anecdote, in which it is for the first time classed amongst the "juvenile levities " of Shakespeare, was sent the writer to Malone in the year 1790, as one that was told him by George Hart, who died in 1778, and who was a descendant from the poet's sister. It will be found in Malone's edition of Shakespeare, 1821, ii. 500- 502 ; and two other accounts, those in the Gentleman's Magazine for December, 1794, and in Ireland's Views on the Warwickshire Avon, 1795, PP- 22 9 -2 33> ar e known to have been constructed from materials furnished by Jordan. Another version, that printed in the Monthly Mirror for November, 1808, is obviously taken from the one of 1794. There is hearsay, but no other kind of evidence, that the story, as above given, was in circulation anterior to its promulgation by the Stratford rhymer, and until more satisfactory testimony can be adduced to that effect, it must remain under the suspicion of being one of his numerous fabrications. The lines on the several villages have the appearance of belonging to the tribe of rural doggrels of the kind that were formerly so popular in our country districts. They may be genuine, and yet of course have no real connection with the Shakespearean history, however cleverly they have been adapted to Bac- chanalian utterances. Page 206, line 4. Easily find the Sippers. Long after the time of Jordan, some one, without the least authority, asserted that these gentlemen were discovered at the Falcon Inn at Bidford. It is scarcely credible, but it is neverthe- less a fact, that a room in a large building once so called, though probably not a tavern at all in Shakespeare's time, 358 ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES. has been unblushingly indicated as the scene of the revelry. It has also been pretended that an antique chair, said to have been in that building from time out of mind, was the identical seat occupied by the poet ; and even the sign of the inn, a daub of the last century, has been considered worthy of respectful preservation. Page 206, line 5. Sufficiently jolly. The epigram on Wincot ale, printed in Sir Aston Cokain's Poems, 1658, having been produced in support of other versions of the story, it should be mentioned that it obviously has no connection with the Shakespearean tradition, even if it be a fact that the Falcon Inn at Bidford was kept, in the poet's time, by a person of the name of Norton. The latter state- ment is made in Green's Legend of the Crab-Tree, 1857, p. 14, but no evidence on the subject is adduced. It appears, however, from the parish register, commencing in 1664, that there was a Norton family residing in that village in 1687 and 1692. In the only other early documents that I have been able to consult, the manorial rolls from 1671 lo 1 68 1, there is no mention either of the Falcon Inn or of the Nortons. Page 206, line 10. Under the branches of a crab-tree. From a sketch which was made by Ireland either in 1792 or 1793, it may be inferred that the tree was then of an unusual size and antiquity. Early in the present century it began to decay, the foliage gradually disappearing until, in 1824, the only remaining vestiges, consisting of the trunk and a number of roots, all in an advanced stage of decay, were transferred to Bidford Grange. Page 206, line if. Early in tfie following morning. Some of the later ramifications of the tale are sufficiently ludicrous. Thus we are told in Brewer's Description of the County of Warwick, 1820, p. 260, that "those who repeat ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES. 359 the tradition in the neighbourhood of Stratford invariably assert that the whole party slept undisturbed from Saturday night till the following Monday morning, when they were roused by workmen going to their labour." According to an improved version of this form of the anecdote, so com- pletely had the previous day been effaced from the sleeper's memory that, when he woke up, he rebuked a field labourer in the vicinity for his desecration of the sabbath. Page 207, line 9. Third edition. No copy of the second edition is known to exist, and even the date of its publication has not been recorded. In some issues of Lintott's reprints of Shakespeare's poems, 1709-1711, that of the Passionate Pilgrim has a title-page bearing the date of 1609, but, as in the cases of the Venus and the Lucrece in the same collection, the last-mentioned year is clearly given merely to range with that of the first edition of the Sonnets. Page 208, line p. The author. Heywood here appears to take for granted that Shakespeare was the author of the Passionate Pilgrim, an opinion inconsistent with the history of the third edition. It is evident that the great dramatist insisted upon the removal of his name from the title-page, for otherwise a cancel of the additional poems would have met all objections. Page 210, line 7. The vendor. The estate came to Matthew Bacon, then or afterwards of Gray's Inn, in the year 1590, in pursuance of some friendly arrangements, and it was sold by him to Henry Walker in 1604 for the sum of ;ioo. In the conveyance of the former date, mention is made of a well in the plot of land, at the back of the house. Page 210, line if. To redeem the mortgage. In mortgages of this period it was usual to name a precise date for repay- 360 ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES. ment, unaccompanied by provisions respecting the interest on, or the continuation of, the loan. It does not, therefore, follow that, in this case, Shakespeare complied with the strict terms of the arrangement, which were to the effect that the mortgage should be redeemed at the following Michaelmas. It is at all events clear, from the declaration of trust of 1618, that the legal estate was vested in the trustees when Shakespeare granted the lease to Robinson, and, in all probability, the mortgage was paid off by the Halls shortly before they executed the deed of release to the latter. Page 210, line 23. Of the same name. For he did not appear in order to sign either of the deeds of 1613, and he was certainly in London about the time at which they were executed. The trustees were probably nominated by the vendor, none being required for Shakespeare's own pro- tection. In the will of Heminge, the actor, 1630, he describes himself as " citizen and grocer of London," but it is to be observed that Condell, in 1627, mentions him as " John Heminge, gentleman." The latter name was by no means an unusual one. Page 2ii, line 5. Very near tJie locality. This appears from the following descriptions of the parcels in the con- veyance of the estate from Edward Bagley to Sir Heneage Fetherston in the year 1667, here given from an old abstract of title in my possession, "all that piece or parcel of ground whereon, at the time of the late fire, two messuages or tenements which were formerly one messuage or tenement, and heretofore were in the tenure of Thomas Crane, and, at the time of the said fire, in the tenure of William lies, lying in the parish of St. Ann, Blackfryers : and also all that piece or parcel of ground at the time of the said fire used for a yard, and adjoining to the said two messuages or ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES. 361 tenements, or one of them, lying near Ireland Yard in the said parish, which said piece or parcel of ground does abbutt on the street leading to a dock called Puddle Dock, near the river Thames, on the east, and on other grounds of Sir Heneage Fetherston west, north, and south, and all vaults, cellars, &c." Page 211, line 6. Ireland Yard. Probably so named after the William Ireland, a haberdasher, who occupied the house at the time of Shakespeare's purchase of it in 1613. His name is found, with a mark instead of a signature, as a witness to the conveyance-deed of 1604, but he did not enter on the tenancy until after the latter date. He also rented other property in the immediate neighbourhood. Page 212, line 18. The two last being so dilatory. The words of the ballad admit of several interpretations, and it is difficult, if not impossible, to ascertain the writer's exact meaning. That which occurs in the text is not given with undue confidence. The appearance of a fool in the repre- sented play is, however, the only point of the slightest importance, and the fact seems to be decisively established by the lines in question. Page 214, line 17. To an individual. His name was John Lane, who "about five weekes past reported that the plaintiff had the runninge of the raynes and had bin naught with Rafe Smith at John Palmer," July the i5th, 1613. My attention was first drawn to this occurrence by a notice of it in MS. Harl. 4064, the only Shake- spearean discovery that I made in the course of a long- continued search undertaken a few years since amongst the manuscripts of the British Museum. The notice of the termination of the suit is gathered from the reports of it preserved in the episcopal registers at Worcester. Page 218, line 19. Tliat I was not abble. The three 362 ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES. latest entries in this diary were discovered by me about thirty years ago, but when I first printed them, in 1853, I unfortunately misread this passage. There is a singular obscurity, which renders a correct interpretation of Greene's handwriting a matter of unusual difficulty. It may here be mentioned that, in the Replingham document printed at p. 728, increasinge is an obvious error for decreasinge, but the former word is that found in the original manuscript. Page 220, line 2. Either by or under the directions. It is difficult to say if the will, in its present state, was penned by the lawyer himself or by his clerk. Not having succeeded in discovering a single extraneous manuscript in the acknowledged handwriting of Collins, there is nothing but the attestation paragraph to rely upon. The latter, which seems to have been written by him, is not incon- sistent with my impression that the composition and pen- manship of the entire manuscript is to be assigned to that solicitor. The variation of style observable in his autograph is no positive criterion, a man's signature being often materially different in the forms of the letters from his other writings. There is a striking instance of this last assertion in the will of John Gibbs, of Stratford-on-Avon, transcribed by John Beddome in 1622, the latter signing his name in characters that do not in the least degree resemble those he used in his copy of the document itself. Page 220, line j. A solicitor residing at Warwick. It may be worth mentioning that the Stratfordians of those days very rarely employed solicitors for testamentary pur- poses. In Shakespeare's case, however, the creation of an entail, so unusual with his townsmen, no doubt rendered legal assistance necessary, for the requisite form would hardly have been known to the clergyman or the non-pro- ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES. 363 fessional inhabitants, the persons who at that time generally drew up local wills. Page 220, line 7. A corrected draft. In the record-room of Stratford-on-Avon there are preserved several documents which were evidently written by the same person who made or copied the poet's will, and one of them, the draft of the tithe conveyance of 1605, is an exactly similar manuscript, the corrections being made by the transcriber himself. The erasures are mainly of the same character in both, that is to say, they are chiefly eliminations of unnecessary, informal, or erroneous words and sentences. Page 220, line ij. The appointment for that day was postponed. This new theory seems to be the only one which can reasonably account for the fact of the date appearing in the superscription before the whole document was engrossed. If it be assumed that the poet, on or about the eighteenth of January, gave written or oral instructions for his will, making arrangements at the same time for its execution at a meeting to take place between Collins and himself, either at Warwick or Stratford, on the following Thursday, and that, in the interval, circumstances induced him to postpone the appointment, all the apparently con- flicting evidences will be reconciled. Page 220, line 18. In perfect health. This was not, as has been suggested, a mere legal formula. No conscien- tious solicitor would ever have used the words untruthfully, while the cognate description of a testator as " being sick in body, but of whole and perfect memory," is one that is continually met with in ancient wills. Page 221, line j. To secure the validity. This was most likely the case, although there is no doubt that the adoption of such expedients was due more to individual caution than to an absolute legal necessity. In those days 364 ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES. there was so much laxity in everything connected with tes- tamentary formalities that no inconvenience would have arisen from any kind of carelessness. No one, excepting in subsequent litigation, would ever have dreamt of asking if erasures preceded signatures, how or when interlineations were added, if the witnesses were present at the execution, or, in fact, any questions at all. The officials thought nothing of even admitting to probate a mere copy of a will that was destitute of the signatures both of testator and witnesses, and, in one curious instance, a familiar letter addressed by a John Baker to his brother and sister was duly registered in London in 1601 as an efficient testamen- tary record. It is, however, to be observed that it would be difficult to find a will of the time so irregularly written as Shake- speare's. Amongst those proved in the local court, I have not met with one containing more than four interlineations. Page 221, line p. The correction of the day of the month. When March was substituted for January, it is most likely that the day of the month should also have been changed. There was otherwise, at least, a singular and improbable coincidence. Page 223, line 2. Not from that of tJie testator's decease. This is clearly the meaning intended, although the paragraph, she living the said term after my decease^ appears to be inconsistent with the previous clause. Unless the lawyer has committed an oversight, these words may simply mean, if she has lived the said term at the period of my decease. Most of this portion of the will is expressed in a clumsy style, but the paragraph above quoted appears to have been inserted merely to avoid the chance of the pre- ceding sentences being interpreted in a sense adverse to the bequest of the reversions to Elizabeth Hall and Joan Hart. Page 225, line 5. A small house on the west of ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES. 365 the High Street. Thomas Quiney, in December, 1611, arranged to purchase from the Corporation a twenty-one years' lease of these premises, which are thus described in a terrier of the High Street Ward, 1613, " Thomas Quyney holdeth on tenement contaynyng on the strett sid sixteen foott and d., in length inwardes, sixty feete, the bredhe backwardes sixteen foott and d." This house, situated a few doors from the corner of Wood Street, is now (October, 1882), a music shop in the tenure of Mr. Councillor Maries. The front has been modernized, but much of the interior with its massive beams, oaken floors and square joists, remains structurally as it must have been in the days of Thomas Quiney. Page 226, line 10. The undevisable property. "And note that, in some places, chattels as heirloomes, as the best bed, table, pot, pan, cart, and other dead chattels moveable, may go to the heire, and the heire in that case may have an action for them at the common law," Coke upon Littleton, 1 8. b. Page 226, line 19. Compensation for dower. The following is part of the form of a codicil given in West's Simboleography, 1605, "I give to E., my wife, in recom- pence of her thirds or reasonable portion of my goods, one hundreth poundes, and two of my best gueldinges, and two of my best beddes fully furnished." Page 227, line 26. Free-bench. "The first wief onlie shall have for her free-bench during her life all such landes and tenementes as her husband dyed seised of in possession of inheritance, yf so be her said husband have done noe act nor surrender to the contrary thereof, and shee shal be admitted to her said free-bench payeing onlie a penny for a fine as aforesaid," Customs of Rowington Manor, 1614. Page 232, line 16. According to one early tradition. 366 ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES. The following manuscript note, written towards the end of the seventeenth century, is preserved in a copy of the third folio, "in the church of Strattford-uppon-Avon, uppon a stone in the chancell, these words were orderd to be cutt by Mr. Shackspeare, the town being the place of his birth and buriall." Page 232, line 18. Another and less probable account. The parish-clerk of Stratford-on-Avon informed Dowdall, in 1693, that the verses were "made by himselfe a little before his death," the word himselfe referring to Shake- speare. Roberts, in his Answer to Pope's Preface, 1729, p. 47, mentions the epitaph in the following terms, " if that were his writing, as the report goes it was." On the other hand, neither Dugdale in 1656, nor Rowe in 1709, take any notice of the presumed authorship. Page 2 32^ line 25. There has long been a tradition. " At the side of the chancel is a charnel-house almost filled with human bones, skulls, &c. the guide said that Shake- speare was so much affected by this charnel-house that he wrote the epitaph for himself to prevent his bones being thrown into it," notes of a visit made to Stratford-on-Avon in July, 1777. It may be well to observe that the date here given is correct, the account having been transferred without one into Walpoole's New British Traveller, ed. 1794. Page 233, line 24. A large degree of moisture In July, 1619, there was a resolution passed by the Town Council to " bestow some charge towardes the keeping dry the chauncell at the High Church." Page 238, line 13. To be sett out, &c. Whether we regard the document as the work of either the lawyer or his clerk, it is exceedingly difficult to understand how this long provision, afterwards erased, could have found its way into the manuscript, the commencing words, that alone would have ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES. 367 rendered them intelligible, being wanting. This cancelled portion of the will has been always presumed to refer to Judith, but it is perhaps more likely, to judge from the original state and subsequent alteration of the next para- graph, to be a portion of a cancelled bequest to the tes- tator's grand-daughter, and its insertion may have arisen from some misapprehension of the original instructions. Page 240, line 21. Seale. This word is corrected to hand, in consequence, probably, of its being recollected that sealing was not a legal necessity in the execution of a will. Page 24.1 ', line 7. In the statement of the regnal years. It would be easy to give too much weight to the error in the superscription which announces an impossible January, one which was in the fourteenth year of James of England and in the forty-ninth of his reign over Scotland. Such inaccuracies are occasionally met with in other documents of the time. Thus the will of Arthur Ange of Stratford-on- Avon is dated on March the i5th, 4 James I., the regnal year indicating 1606-7, whereas probate was granted in January, 1606. The date of 1616 in Shakespeare's will may apply to any of the early months, for it was not an invariable rule to adhere in numerals to the ancient calendar. Page 242, line 4. Tlie Cage. Quiney obtained the lease of this place, in the summer of 1616, from his brother- in-law, William Chandler, who gave it to him in exchange for his interests in the house on the other side of the way. He appears to have inhabited the Cage from the time it came into his hands until he removed from it shortly before November, 1652, when the lease was assigned to his brother Richard of London, the premises being then described as "lately in the tenure of Thomas Quiney," 368 ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES. Stratford Council Book, MS. The house has long been modernized, the only existing portions of the ancient building being a few massive beams supporting the floor over the roof of the cellar. Page 242, line 10. In which he was supported. Occasional payments for wine supplied by him to the Cor- poration are entered in the local books at various periods from 1616 to 1650. In February, 1630-31, he mentions having been "for a long time" in the habit of purchasing largely from one Francis Creswick of Bristol, to which city he now and then repaired for the purpose of selecting his wines. According to his own account, about three years previously he had bought from this merchant several hogs- heads, all of which had been tampered with before they reached Stratford-on-Avon, and this to so great an extent that he was not only dreadfully grumbled at, but lost some of his most important customers. He also seems to have dealt in tobacco and vinegar. Page 24.2, line 26. Fined for swearing. In "a note of what mony hath bine recovered since the 2ist of Septem- ber, 1630, for the poore for swearing and other defaults," are the following entries, " item, of Mr. Quiny for swear- ing, is. od. ; item, of Mr. Quiny for suffering townsmen to tippell in his houss, is. od." Page 243, line 9. His brother Richard. In whose will, dated in August, 1655, is the following paragraph, "I doe hereby give and devise unto my loving brother, Thomas Quiney, and his assignes, for and during the terme of his naturall life, one annuall or yearlie summe of twelve pounds of lawfull monie of England to be issuing and going out, and yearely to be receaved, perceaved, had and taken by the said Thomas Quiney and his assignes out of, in and upon, all those my messuages and lands at Shottery, with ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES. 369 the appurtenances, in the countie of Warwicke ; and at the time of the decease of my said brother, my executors to have, receive, perceive and take out of, in and upon, the said lands, the summe of five pounds, therewith to bear and defray the charges of my said brother's funerall." It is not likely that the concluding words would have been inserted, had not Thomas Quiney been then impoverished and in a precarious state of health. The testator left a numerous family, one of whom, Thomas, who subsequently held the lease of the Cage for many years, has often been mistaken for the poet's son-in-law. Page 243, line 23. New Place. In the Vestry note of October, 1617, he is mentioned as residing in the Chapel Street Ward, and " Mr. Hall at Newplace " is alluded to in a town record dated February the 3rd, 1617-18. Mrs. Hall continued to reside there until her death in 1649, an d during some part, if not all, of the time of her widowhood, her daughter and son-in-law lived with her in the same house. Thomas Nash speaks of it as being in his own occupation in August, 1642. Page 244, line 2. His advice was solicited. These par- ticulars are gathered from a rare little volume entitled, "Select Observations on English Bodies, or Cures both Empericall and Historicall performed upon very eminent Persons in desperate Diseases, first written in Latine by Mr. John Hall, physician, living at Stratford-upon-Avon in Warwickshire, where he was very famous, as also in the counties adjacent, as appeares by these Observations drawn out of severall hundreds of his as choysest ; now put into English for common benefit by James Cooke, practitioner in Physick and Chirurgery," i2mo, Lond. 1657. A second edi- tion appeared in 1679, re-issued in 1683 with merely a new title-page. In the original small octavo manuscript used by 24 370 ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES. Cooke much of the Latin is obscurely abbreviated, and some of the translations appear to be paraphrased. The cases were selected from a large number of previous notes, and being mostly undated, without a chronological arrangement, it is impossible to be certain that some of them are not to be referred to the time of the poet. The earliest one to which a date can be assigned seems to be that of Lord Compton, at p. 91, who was attended by Hall previously to his lordship's departure with the King for Scotland in March, 1617. Hall was evidently held in much esteem by the Northampton family, whom he attended both at Compton Wynyates and at Ludlow. Page 244, line 16. Strong religious tendencies. He oc- casionally attended the vestries, most likely as often as regard for his professional duties warranted, and interested himself in all that related to the services of the parish church, to which he presented a costly new pulpit. He was selected one of the borough churchwardens in 1628, a sidesman in 1629, and he was exceedingly intimate with the Rev. Thomas Wilson, the vicar, a thorough-going puritan, who was accused of holding conventicles, and of having so little ecclesiological feeling that he allowed his swine and poultry to desecrate the interior of the Guild Chapel. When the latter individual, in 1633, brought a suit in Chancery against the town, Hall seems to have been nominated a churchwarden by the vicar on purpose that the latter might have an excuse for making him a party to the suit, which he accordingly did, although the nomination was sub- sequently cancelled. They were such great friends that the vicarial courts were sometimes held at New Place. Of Hall's religious sincerity a favourable opinion may be formed from a memorandum written by him after his recovery from a serious illness in 1632. "Thou, O Lord, ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES. 371 which hast the power of life and death, and drawest from the gates of death, I confesse without any art or counsell of man, but only from thy goodnesse and clemency, thou hast saved me from the bitter and deadly symptones of a deadly fever, beyond the expectation of all about me, restoring me, as it were, from the very jaws of death to former health, for which I praise Thy name, O most mercifull God, and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying thee to give me a most thankfull heart for this great favour, for which I have cause to admire thee." Page 244, line 24. Expelled in 1633. He had for many years previously exhibited a great reluctance to serve on the Town Council, where his attendances would have interfered with the calls of his arduous profession. Elected a burgess in 1617 and again in 1623, he was on each oc- casion excused from undertaking the office, but in 1632 he was compelled to accept his election, non-attendances being punishable by fines, the payment of which the Corporation were determined to enforce. Serious disputes arose between the Council and himself respecting these fines and other matters, the differences culminating in the following almost unprecedented resolution which was passed at a meeting held in October, 1633, "at this hall Mr. John Hall is dis- placed from beinge a Capitall Burgesse by the voices and consent of nineteene of the Company, as appeareth by the letter r at there names, for the breach of orders wilfully, and sundry other misdemenours contrary to the duty of a burgesse and the oath which he hath taken in this place, and for his continual disturbances at our halles, as will appeare by the particulars." The bad feeling that existed between Hall and the Corporation was prolonged by his appearance as one of the plaintiffs in the Chancery suit that was shortly afterwards brought against the latter. 24 2 372 ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES. Page 244, line 27. On the following day. " November 26, Johannes Hall, medicus peritissimus," burial register for 1635. His tombstone bore the following inscription, thus given in Dugdale's Warwickshire Antiquities, ed. 1656, p. 518, "Here lyeth the body of John Hall, gent he marr. Susanna, daughter and coheir of William Shakespere, gent. he deceased November 25, anno 1635, aged 60 years. Hallius hie situs est, medica celeberrimus arte,= Expectans regni guadia leta Dei. = Dignus erat meritis qui Nestora vinceret annis = In terris omnes, sed rapit sequa dies, = Ne tumulo quid desit, adest fidissima conjux,=Et vitae comitem nunc quoque mortis habet." The conclud- ing lines of this epitaph would appear to indicate that it was composed after the death of the widow in 1649. Page 245, line 28. The latter in probably that of 1595. There being no record of Shakespeare's use of any parti- cular impression, it follows that verbal tests are the only means of its identification. These are necessarily indefinite in all cases in which the variations between two editions could have been independently adopted by the poet himself. Thus, in the Life of Antonius, ed. 1595, p. 983, there is the genuine archaism, gables, which is altered to cables in eds. 1603 and 1612 ; but it is obvious to be likely that Shakespeare might have preferred the modern form when he adopted some of Plutarch's words in the speech of Menas to Pompey in Antony and Cleopatra, Act ii, sc. 7. Again, in the life of Coriolanus, in the famous speech of Volumnia, " how much more unfortunately then all the women living," eds. 1595 and 1603, Shakespeare has merely put the line into a blank verse, one which almost necessitates the alteration of the fourth word to unfortunate, which adjective happens to be found instead of the adverb in the 1612 edition of Plutarch. Such examples as these ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES. 373 are assuredly indecisive. What is required is an expression, peculiar to Shakespeare and to certain editions of the trans- lation of Plutarch, one which could not be reasonably at- tributed to the independent fancy of the great dramatist. There is such an expression in the 1595 edition of the Life of Coriolanus, p. 248, " if I had feared death, I would not have come hither to have put my life in hazard, but prickt forward with spite, and desire I have to be revenged of them that thus have banished me." Whoever compares this passage with the speech of Coriolanus in the tragedy, act iv., sc. 5, and is told that the word spite is omitted in the Plutarch editions of 1603 and 1612, may be convinced that neither of those impressions was the one used by Shakespeare. It follows, therefore, that Shakespeare must have used either the edition of 1579 or that of 1595, and probably the latter, which was one of the speculations of his fellow-townsman, the printer of the first edition of Venus and Adonis. Page 246, line 10. The only interesting personal glimpse. For it surely cannot profit us to be informed that on one occasion she was "miserably tormented with the collick," Select Observations, ed. 1657, p. 24. A similar observa- tion will apply to Hall's notices of his daughter's illnesses, and none of these have been thought worthy of transcrip- tion. Page 246, line 18. To whom she was warmly attached. When he was afflicted with a dangerous illness in 1632, Mrs. Hall was so uneasy about him that, on her own responsi- bility, she secured the attendance of two physicians at New Place; v. Select Observations, ed. 1657, p. 229. It was doubtlessly at her wish that she was buried in her hus- band's grave, a fact that is gathered from the concluding lines of the epitaph on his tombstone, which give an 374 ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES. evidence that must outweigh that of the record of her death on the adjoining one. The probability seems to be that the latter inscription, with its accompanying verses, were written with the intention of their being engraved on the physician's tomb, but that, for want of sufficient room, they were inscribed on another slab. Page 248, line 16. On the gravestone that records her decease. The inscription here referred to having been tam- pered with in modern times, the following copy of it is taken from Dugdale, " Here lyeth the body of Susanna, wife of John Hall, gent., the daughter of William Shake- spere, gent She deceased the 2. day of July> anno 1649, aged 66 ;" the numeral two being an error for eleven. The verses given in the text were on the original stone under the above memorial, but, in the early part of the last century, they were removed to make space for a record of the death of one Richard Watts, who owned some of the tithes and so had the right of sepulture in the chancel. In 1844, the last-named inscription was erased for the restoration of the lines on Mrs. Hall, which had been fortunately preserved in the Warwickshire Antiquities, ed. 1656, p. 518. Page 249, line 7. His father and uncle. Thomas Nash of Old Stratford, gentleman, died suddenly at Ayles- bury in the course of a journey from London, and was buried at the former place on June the 2nd, 1587. He left several children, including Anthony, his eldest born, afterwards described as of Welcombe and Old Stratford, who died in 1622, and John, his second son, a resident in the Bridge Street Ward, whose decease occurred in the following year. Both of these persons are remembered in the poet's will by gifts of rings, and Anthony, who busied him- self very much in agricultural matters, was present in October, 1614, when Replingham signed the agreement respecting the ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES. 375 enclosures. Thomas Nash, the husband of Shakespeare's grand-daughter, and the eldest son of this Anthony by Mary Baugh of Twining, co. Gloucester, was baptised at Stratford- on-Avon on June the 20th, 1593. He was executor under his father's will in 1622, the latter bequeathing him two houses and a piece of land. See further respecting him at p. 456. It may be mentioned that amongst "the names of such persons within the burrough of Stratford-upon-Avon who by way of loane have sent in money and plate to the King and Parliament," 24 Sept., 1642, is found as by far the largest contributor, "Thomas Nashe esq', in plate or money paid in at Warr :, ioo//." There were other Nashes resident at Stratford, but the individuals above noticed belong to the family that was the highest in social position, one entitled to coat armour which, as well as the pedigree, were entered by Thomas Nash at the visitation of 1619. Page 249, line p. Became a widow in 1647. Thomas Nash died at New Place on April the 4th, and was buried at Stratford-on-Avon the next day. His tombstone in the chancel bore the following inscription, here taken from the copy in Dugdale's Warwickshire Antiquities, ed. 1656, p. 518, " Here resteth the body of Thomas Nashe, esquier j he mar. Elizabeth, the daug. of John Hall, gentleman ; he dyed Aprill 4, anno 1647, aged 53. Fata manent omnes; hunc non virtute carentem, = Ut neque divitiis abstulit, atra dies= Abstulit, at referet lux ultima; siste, viator, = Si peritura paras per mala parta peris." This monument was in a dilapi- dated condition at the end of the last century, and had pro- bably further deteriorated before most of the Shakespeare family memorials were either tampered with, or replaced by new slabs, during the extensive alterations made in the church about the year 1834. Malone informs us that, in 1790, six words in the above elegy were then entirely ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES. obliterated, and Hunter speaks of the inscription in 1824 as being then " nearly perished." Page 249, line p. About two years afterwards. She was married on June the 5th, 1649, at Billesley, a village about four miles from Stratford-on-Avon. The register is lost, and the accuracy of these facts rests on information given to Malone in a letter from Northampton written in 1788. Page 250, line 6. Was formally admitted. There is evi- dence of the admission, but not of its date, in a letter in my possession written by a steward of the manor in the last cen- tury. " Stretford-super-Avon ; Paule Barthlett, one mesuage, ij.s. Mr. John Hall, for his coppiehold, ij.j. \].d." Rentall of the Manner of Rowington, 1630, MS. The first of these owned the little estate in Church Street. In October, 1633, Johannes ff all gen. was fined twelve-pence for not appearing to do service at the court ; Rowington MSS. " Paid David Abby for mendinge the orchard wall att Mr. Nashes barne, 00.02.0," Stratford-on-Avon Corporation MSS., 1637. This last entry would seem to prove that the Shakespeare copy- hold was then in the occupation of Thomas Nash, and that there was a barn to the south of the cottage. Page 254, line 22. Garrat Johnson. The orthography of the Christian name is taken from that in his father's will, but the fact that he was the sculptor of the Stratford monu- ment is derived from the following manuscript note made by Dugdale in a small interleaved almanac of 1653, Shakspeare's -i monuments made by one ~) at Stratford John Combes / Gerard Johnson / super Avon. Page 257, line 21. According to tradition. This tradi- tion is mentioned in notes of a visit made to Stratford-on- Avon in July, 1777. Page 260, line 22. The owners. When Heminges and Condell speak of Death having deprived Shakepeare ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES. 377 of his right "to have set forth and overseen his own writings," they assuredly refer to a moral, not to a legal, privilege. There is no contemporary instance known of an author selling a play to a theatre and reserving to him- self a copyright interest. There was of course nothing to prevent subsequent arrangements with proprietors, although it seems that, in those days, a vigilant protection of the copy was the only effectual mode of hindering the publica- tion of a drama. Page 261, line u. Initiating. The tenor of the dedi- cation and address implies this, and the fact may be fairly said to be proved by the following words, " we pray you do not envie his friends the office of their care and paine to have collected and published them." That this was also the contemporary opinion is shown by the first line of the verses by Digges in the same volume. Page 268, line 16. The unity of character. The defi- nition given in the text conveys a sense different from that in which the term is used by the aesthetic critics. " The unity of feeling," observes Coleridge, "is everywhere and at all times observed by Shakespeare in his plays; read Romeo and Juliet, all is youth and spring ; it is one and the same feeling that commences, goes through, and ends the play; the old men are not common old men, they have an eagerness, a heartiness, a vehemence, the effect of spring ; this unity of feeling and character pervades every drama of Shakespeare," Notes and Lectures, ed. 1875, p. 63. One may be permitted to suspect that this kind of indivi- duality exists solely in the fancy, while it is very difficult to understand that it could be preserved throughout an entire drama without an undue limitation of the author's fidelity in his characterizations. The notion that the composition of one play was uniformly influenced by the geniality of ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES. youth and spring, that of another by the rigor of old age and winter, and so on ; this, in reference to the works of nature's great interpreter, is one of the most curious theories yet enunciated by the philosophical commentators. Page 270, line 5. The rapid movement of Shakespeare 's pen. Dr. Ingleby, in his Man and the Book, 1881, ii. 193, points out that Ben's testimony on this subject is " considerably qualified " by his allusions to the " second heat upon the Muses' anvil." Jonson may possibly allude to moderate revision of the kind which has been detected in the comedy of Love's Labour's Lost, and that the great dramatist had no insuperable objection to such work, when his genius permitted its exercise, may be inferred from the conclusion of the Prologue to Romeo and Juliet Page 271, line 4. Who consider it decorous or reason- able. No one likes to admit the genuineness of either Titus Andronicus or the First Part of Henry the Sixth, and, with the view of removing the former from considera- tion, I ventured to suggest, many years ago, that the text which has been preserved is that of an earlier drama on the same history. This theory, as I now see, is foolish and untenable. THE PASSIONATE PILGRIM. The following notes on the sonnets and other brief pieces, which form this quaint collection, may be useful for reference. The lines in italics are the opening ones of the several poems, here arranged in the order in which they are given in the edition of 1599. 1. When my love swears that she is made of truth. This is the 1 38th Sonnet in the collective edition of 1609, but the present version contains a few important variations from the text there given. In the 1640 edition of the Poems it is styled "false beleefe," a heading which, in my copy, is altered in early manuscript to " mutuall flatterie." 2. Two loves I have of Comfort and Despair. This is the 1 44th Sonnet in ed. 1609. There are several differences, chiefly verbal, between the two copies. In the Poems, ed. 1640, it is headed, "A Temptation." j. Did not the heavenly rhetoric of thine eye. This son- net, with a few various readings, is also found in the comedy of Love's Labour's Lost, ed. 1598. It is styled "fast and loose" in the Poems, ed. 1640, the words, "or perjurie excused," being added in old manuscript in my copy. 4. Sweet Cytherea, sitting by a brook. The only early printed copies of this, which are known to exist, are those in the two impressions of the Passionate Pilgrim and in the 1640 edition of the Poems. An old manuscript transcript of it is mentioned below, and, in the last-named printed copy, it is headed, "a sweet provocation." ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES. j. If love make me forsworn^ how shall I swear to love 1 This sonnet, with a few variations, occurs in Love's Labour's Lost, ed. 1598, and it is styled "a constant vow," in the Poems, ed. 1640. 6 and /. Scarce had the sun dried up the dewy morn ; and, Fair is my love, but not so fair as fickle. The only early copies of these, which are known to exist, are in the two impressions of the Passionate Pilgrim and in the 1640 edition of the Poems. They are headed respectively in the last work, " cruell deceit " and " the unconstant lover," altered to "cruell bashfulnes" and "faire and fickle" in my manuscript annotated copy. 8. If music and sweet poetry agree. This sonnet is taken from the latter part of Barnfield's Encomion of Lady Pecunia, 1598, a small collection of poems with a separate title-page. " Poems : in Divers Humors. London, Printed by G. S. for John Jaggard, and are to be solde at his shoppe neere Temple-barre, at the Signe of the Hand and starre. 1598." Barnfield terms these poems "fruits of unriper yeares," and expressly claims their authorship. The sonnet in question is the first in the collection, and is inscribed " to his friend Maister R. L. in praise of musique and poetrie." It is true that this and other pieces are omitted in the second edition of Lady Pecunia, 1605, but so also is nenrly the whole of the collection entitled Poems in Divers Humors, so that no substantial argument can rest upon the absence of the two Pilgrim sonnets from that edition. The present one is headed, "friendly concord," in the Poems, ed. 1640, and to that title are added the words, "of musick and poetry," in my annotated copy of that work. p. Fair was the morn when the fair queen of I we. The only early printed copies of this, which are known to exist, are those in the two impressions of the Passionate Pilgrim ILLUSTRATIVE NOTKS. 381 and in the 1640 edition of the Poems. The second line being deficient in all these copies, an endeavour was made, late in the reign of Charles the First, to make a perfect text by substituting the following three in lieu of the present second and third lines, "Hoping to meet Adonis in that place, = Addrest her early to a certain groue, = Where hee was wont the sauage bore to chase." This alteration is found on the margin of my copy of ed 1640 in a hand- writing which is nearly contemporary with the date of that publication. 10. Sweet rose, fair flower, untimely plucKd, soon faded. The only printed copies of this, which are known to exist, are those in the two impressions of the Passionate Pilgrim and in the 1640 edition of the Poems. In this last-named work it bears the title of, " Loves Losse." 77. Venus, with young Adonis sitting by her. This son- net, with four lines entirely different and a few minor altera- tions, is found in B. Griffin's Fidessa more Chaste than Kinde, i6mo, 1596. It also occurs with No. 4 in a manu- script, written about the year 1625, preserved at Warwick Castle, the latter poem being there given as a Second Part in continuation of the present one, which is styled " foolish disdaine " in the Poems, ed. 1640. 12. Crabbed age and youth cannot live together. This is the earliest known version of a popular ditty frequently noticed by writers of the seventeenth century. The copy of it which is given in the Poems, ed. 1640, is headed, "Ancient Antipothy." ij. Beauty is but a vain and doubtful good. A version of this song, entitled Beauty's Value, is printed in the Gentle- man's Magazine for 1750, p. 521, as "from a corrected manuscript," and again in Howard's Miscellaneous Pieces, 1765, as " from a very correct manuscript of William Shake- 382 ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES. spear, in a private hand." In the copy in the 1640 edition of the Poems it is called " beauties valuation." 14, 15, and 1 6. Good night, good rest, ah! neither be my share ; Lord, how mine eyes throw gazes to tJie east \ // was a lording 's daughter, the fairest one of three. These three canzonets are found only in the Passionate Pilgrim and in the 1640 edition of the Poems, the first and third being in the last styled respectively, " loath to depart," and "a duell." After the second one there commences, in the original edition of 1599, a separate part with another title- page, " Sonnets to sundry notes of Musicke. At London Printed for W. laggard, and are to be sold by W. Leake, at the Greyhound in Paules Churchyard." 17. On a day, alack the day I This poem, with two additional lines, occurs in Love's Labour's Lost, 1598. It is also introduced, with Shakespeare's name attached, in England's Helicon, eds. 1600 and 1614. The copy in the Poems, ed. 1640, is headed, Love-sicke. 18. My flocks feed not, my ewes breed not. There is a somewhat brief version of this song in the collection of Madrigals, &c., of Thomas Weelkes, 1597, this person being the composer of the music, but not necessarily the author of the words. A copy of it, as it is seen in the Passionate Pilgrim, also occurs in England's Helicon, 1600, entitled, "The Unknowne Sheepheard's Complaint," and there subscribed Ignoto, so that it is clear that Bodenham was unaquainted with the name of its author. There is an early version of the song in MS. Harl. 6910, and it is called "loves labour lost" in the 1640 edition of the Poems. ip. Whenas thine eye hath chose the dame. A very early manuscript of this poem, with numerous variations, is preserved in a miscellany compiled, there is reason to ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES. 383 believe, some few years before the appearance of the Passionate Pilgrim. The copy of it which is given in the Poems, ed. 1640, is termed "wholesome counsell." 20. Live with me, and be my love. The first of these very pretty songs is incomplete, and the second, called Love's Answere, still more so. In England's Helicon, 1600, the former is given to Marlowe, the latter to Ignoto ; and there is good reason to believe that Christopher Marlowe wrote the song, and Sir Walter Raleigh the Nymph's Reply ; for so we are positively assured by Issac Walton, who has inserted them both in his Compleat Angler, under the character of " that smooth song which was made by Kit Marlowe, now at least fifty years ago ; and an answer to it, which was made by Sir Walter Raleigh in his younger days ; old fashioned poetry, but choicely good." Both these songs were exceedingly popular, and are afterwards found amongst the street ballads. The first is quoted in the Merry Wives of Windsor, and the music to it is given in Corkine's Second Book of Ayres, fol. Lond. 1612. 21. As it fell upon a day. This charming idyl occurs, with the absence of two lines, amongst the Poems in Divers Humors appended to Barnfield's Encomion of Lady Pecunia, 1598, and the first twenty-six lines, with the addition of two new ones, are found in England's Helicon, 1600. This latter version follows in that work the No. 18 of this list, is also subscribed, Ignoto, and is headed, " Another of the same Sheepheards." The probability is that the copies of these little poems, as given in the Helicon, were taken from a commonplace-book in which the names of the authors were not recorded ; the two supplementary lines, just noticed, having the appearance of being an unauthorised couplet improvised for the sake of giving a neater finish to the abridgment. THE THEATRE AND CURTAIN. These establishments, both of which are so intimately connected with the early theatrical history of Shakespeare, were situated in that division of the parish of Shoreditch which was known as the Liberty of Halliwell. This Liberty, at a later period termed Holywell, derived its name from a sacred (A.-S. halig) well or fountain which took its rise in the marshy grounds situated to the west of the high street leading from Norton Folgate to Shoreditch Church, mora in qua fans qui diritur Haliwelle oritur^ charter of A.D. 1 189 printed in Dugdale's Monasticon Anglicanum, ed. 1682, p. 531. In Shakespeare's time, all veneration or respect for the well had disappeared. Stow speaks of it as "much decayed and marred with filthinesse purposely layd there for the heighthening of the ground for garden plots," Survay, ed. 1598, p. 14. It has long disappeared, but it was in existence as recently as 1745, its locality being marked in the first accurate survey of the parish of St. Leonard, Shoreditch, made in that year by Chassereau. At that period the well was situated in a field which was on the east of the Curtain Road and a little to the north of the junction of the Willow Walk with that road. The present Bateman's Row takes its name from the then owner of that field, and the site of the well is now one chain to the south of that Row and two chains to the east of the Curtain Road. The lands in which the holy fountain was situated belonged for many generations to the Priory of Holywell, more frequently termed Halliwell Priory in the Elizabethan documents. This institution was suppressed and its church 2 5 386 THE THEATRE demolished in the time of Henry the Eighth, but the priory itself, converted into private residences, was suffered to remain. The larger portion of these buildings and some of the adjoining land were purchased by one Henry Webb in 1544, and are thus described in an old manuscript index to the Patent Rolls preserved in the Record Office, " unum messuagium cum pertinenciis infra scitum Prioratus de Halliwell, gardina cum pertinenciis, domos et edificia cum pertinenciis, et tota domos et edificia vocata le Prairie, claustrum vocatum le Cloystcr et terrain fundum et solum ejusdem, gardina vocata the Ladyes Gardens, unum gardinum vocatum le Prioresse Garden et unum columbare in eodem, ortum vocatum le Covent Orchard continentem unam acram, et omnia horrea, domos, brazinas, etc., in tenura Johannis Foster, terram fundum et solum infra scitum predictum et ecclesie ejusdem et totam terram et solum totius capelle ibidem, totum curtilagium et terram vocata le Chappell Yard, et omnia domos, edificia et gardina in tenura predicti Johannis Foster, domum vocatum le Washinghouse et stabulum ibidem, et totum horreum vocatum le Oatebanic, parcella ejusdem Prioratus de Halliwell." A small portion of this estate, that in which the Theatre was afterwards erected, belonged in the year 1576 to one Giles Allen. It was at this period that " James Burbage of London joyner " obtained from Allen a lease, dated i3th April, 1576, of houses and land situated between Finsbury Field and the public road from Bishopsgate to Shoreditch Church. The boundary of the leased estate on the west is described as "a bricke wall next unto the feildes commonly called Finsbury Feildes." James Burbage, by early trade a joiner, but at this time also a leading member of the Earl of Leicester's Company of Players, was the originator of theatrical buildings in England, for the successful promotion of which his earlier as well as his adopted profession were AND CURTAIN. 387 exactly suited. He obtained the lease referred to with this express object, Allen covenanting with him that, if he expended two hundred pounds upon the buildings already on the estate, he should be at liberty " to take downe and carrie awaie to his and their owne proper use all such buildinges and other thinges as should be builded, erected or sett upp, in or uppon the gardeines and voide grounde by the said indentures graunted, or anie parte therof, by the said Jeames, his executors or assignes, either for a theatre or playinge place or for anie other lawefull use for his or their commodities," Answer of Giles Allen in the suit of Burbage v. Allen, Court of Requests, 6th Febr., 42 Eliz. The lease was signed on April i3th, 1576, and Burbage must have commenced the erection of his theatre immediately after- wards. It was the earliest fabric of the kind ever built in this country, emphatically designated The Theatre, and by the summer of the following year it was a recognized centre of theatrical amusements. On the first of August, 1577, the Lords of the Privy Council directed a letter to be forwarded " to the L. Wentworth, Mr. of the Rolles, and Mr. Lieute- naunt of the Tower, signifieng unto them that, for thavoiding of the sicknes likelie to happen through the heate of the weather and assemblies of the people of London to playes, her Highnes plesure is that, as the L. Mayor hath taken order within the Citee, so they imediatlie upon the receipt of their 11. lettres shall take order with such as are and do use to play without the liberties of the Citee within that countie, as the Theater and such like, shall forbeare any more to play untill Mighelmas be past at the least, as they will aunswer to the contrarye," MS. Register of the Privy Council. The county here alluded to is Middlesex, and this is the earliest notice of the Theatre yet discovered. There is no ancient view of the district leased to Burbage in which the Theatre is introduced, but a general 252 388 THE THEATRE notion of the aspect of the locality may be gathered from the portion of the map of Aggas in which it is included. The perspective and measurements of that plan are unfor- tunately inaccurate, as may be ascertained by comparing it with the more correct, but far less graphic, delineation of the same locality in Braun's map, 1574. Both Aggas and Braun undoubtedly made use of one and the same earlier plan, but the work of the latter appears in some respects to be more scientifically executed. It is clear from Braun's map, tested by the later survey completed by Faithorne in 1658, that the eastern boundary of Finsbury Field was much nearer the highway to Shoreditch than might be inferred from the position assigned to it by Aggas. That boundary was also nearly parallel with the highway, and part of it seems to be the road or sewer which, in Aggas's map, extends from an opening on the right of the Dog-house to the lane near the spot where is to be observed a rustic with a spade on his shoulder walking towards Shoreditch. The part of the map here termed a road or sewer may have been and most likely was a line of way by the side of an open ditch, that which was afterwards the Curtain Road ; a supposition all but confirmed by a survey of the bounds of Finsbury Manor, taken in 1586, where the eastern boundary of that manor hereabouts is mentioned as the " common sewer and waye " which "goethe to the playehowse called the Theater." If this be the case, the north end of this ditch was the commencement of Holywell Lane, and the brick wall on the west of the Priory buildings was exactly opposite, the position of that wall being incorrectly represented in Aggas's map. Finsbury Field certainly included the meadow in which the three windmills were situated, as appears from a survey of the manor, taken in 1567, printed in Stow's Survey of London, ed. 1633, p. 913; and it also extended to the vicinity of the Dog-house, as is seen from a notice of it AND CURTAIN. 389 in Rot. Pat. 35 Hen. VIII. pars 16. The portion of the Field which joined Burbage's estate was of course much nearer the village of Shoreditch. At the time of the erection of the Theatre there were, as will be presently seen, more houses in the neighbourhood of the Priory than are shown in either of the early plans of Braun and Aggas. Others were erected by Burbage in the immediate vicinity of the Theatre. Witnesses were asked in 1602, " whither were the said newe howses standing in the said greate yarde, and neere and alonge the late greate howse called the Theater ; " and one of them deposed that " the newe houses standing in the greate yard neere and along the Theatre, and also those other newe builded houses that are on the other syde of the sayd greate yard over and against the sayd former newe builded houses, were not at the costes and charges of Gyles Allen erected, builded or sett up, as he hath heard, but were so builded by the said James Burbage about xxviij. yeares agoe." There can be no doubt that Aggas's plan was completed some years before the erection either of these houses or of the Theatre. In that plan the Royal Exchange, not completed till 1570, is introduced, but its insertion clearly appear? to be the result of an alteration made in the original block some years after the completion of the latter. A similar variation is to be observed in some copies of Braun's plan, in one of which, 1574, that building is found evidently in the same plate from which other impressions of that date, in which it does not occur, were taken. It should be borne in mind that great caution is requisite in the study of all the early London maps. Those of Aggas, Braun and Norden are the only plans of the time of Queen Elizabeth which are authentic, and care must be taken that reliable editions are consulted, there being several inaccurate copies and imitations of all of them. Burbage gave a premium of 20 for the lease of 1576, 390 THE THEATRE the term being for twenty-one years at the annual rent of ji4, and it was covenanted that if the lessee expended ^200 on the property in certain specified directions he should, at any time before the expiration of ten years, be entitled to claim from Allen a new lease for twenty-one years commencing from the date of the latter. A deed carrying out these terms, dated i November, 27 Elizabeth, 1585, was accordingly prepared by Burbage and submitted on that day to Allen, who, however, declined to execute. The extent of the property must have been comparatively limited, consisting merely of two gardens, four houses and a large barn, as appears from the following rather curious and minute description of parcels which occurs in the pro- posed deed of 1585, "all thos two bowses or tenementes with thappurtenaunces which, att the tyme of the sayde former demise made, weare in the severall tenures or occu- pacions of Johan Harrison, widowe, and John Diagon ; and also all that bowse or tenement with thappurtenances, together with the gardyn grounde lyinge behinde parte of the same, beinge then likewise in the occupacion of William Garnett, gardiner, which sayd gardyn plott dothe extende in bredthe from a greate stone walle there which doth inclose parte of the gardyn, then or latlye beinge in the occupation of the sayde Gyles, unto the gardeyne ther then in the occupacion of E\vin Colfoxe, weaver, and in lengthe from the same howse or tenement unto a bricke wall ther next unto the feildes commonly called Finsbury Feildes ; and also all that howse or tenemente with thappurtenances att the tyme of the sayde former demise made called or knowne by the name of the Mill-howse, together with the gardyn grounde lyinge behinde parte of the same, also att the tyme of the sayde former dimise made beinge in the tenure or occupacion of the foresayde Ewyn Colefoxe or of his assignes, which sayde gardyn grounde dothe extende in AND CURTAIN. 39 I lengthe from the same house or tenement unto the forsayde bricke wall next unto the foresayde feildes ; and also all those three upper romes with thappurtenaunces next adjoyn- inge to the foresayde Mill-house, also beinge att the tyme of the sayde former dimise made in the occupacion of Thomas Dancaster, shomaker, or of his assignes ; and also all the nether romes with thappurtenances lyinge under the same three upper romes, and next adjoyninge also to the fore- sayde house or tenemente called the Mill-house, then also beinge in the severall tenurs or occupacions of Alice Dotridge, wiclowe, and Richarde Brockenburye or of ther assignes, together also with the gardyn grounde lyinge behynde the same, extendynge in lengthe from the same nether romes downe unto the forsayde bricke wall nexte unto the foresayde feildes, and then or late beinge also in the tenure or occupacion of the foresayde Alice Dotridge ; and also so much of the grounde and soyle lyeinge and beinge afore all the tenementes or houses before graunted as extendethe in lengthe from the owtvvarde parte of the foresayde tenementes, beinge at the tyme of the makinge of the sayde former dimise in the occupacion of the foresayde Johan Harryson and John Dragon, unto a ponde there beinge nexte unto the barne or stable then in the occupacion of the Right Honorable the Earle of Rutlande or of his assignes, and in bredthe from the foresayde tenemente or Mill-house to the midest of the well beinge afore the same tenementes; and also all that great barne with thappur- tenances att the tyme of the makinge of the sayde former dimise made beinge in the severall occupacions of Hughe Richardes, inholder, and Robert Stoughton, butcher ; and also a little peece of grounde then inclosed with a pale and next adjoyninge to the foresayde barne, and then or late before that in the occupacion of the sayde Roberte Stoughton, together also with all the grounde and soyle lyinge and 39 2 THE THEATRE beinge betwene the sayde neyther romes last before expressed and the foresayde greate barne and the foresayde ponde, that is to saye, extendinge in lengthe from the foresayde ponde unto a ditche beyonde the brick wall nexte the foresayde feildes ; and also the sayde Gyles Allen and Sara his wyfe doe by thes presentes dimise, graunte and to farme lett, unto the sayde Jeames Burbage all the right, title and interest, which the sayde Gyles and Sara have, or ought to have, of, in or to all the groundes and soile lyeinge betwene the foresayde greate barne and the barne being at the tyme of the sayde former dimise in the occupacion of the Earle of Rutlande or of his assignes, extendeinge in lengthe from the foresayde ponde and from the foresayde stable or barne then in the occupacion of the foresayde Earle of Rutlande or of his assignes downe to the foresayde bricke wall next the foresayde feildes j and also the sayde Gyles and Sara doe by thes presentes demise, graunt and to fearme let to the sayde Jeames, all the sayde voide grounde lieynge and beinge betwixt the foresayde ditche and the foresayde brickwall, extendinge in lenght from the foresayde brick wall which incloseth parte of the fore- sayde garden, beinge att the tyme of the makinge of the sayde former demise or late before that in the occupacion of the sayde Giles Allen, unto the foresayde barne then in the occupacion of the foresayde Earle or of his assignes." This description is identical with that given in the lease of 1576, as appears from a recital in the Coram Rege Rolls, Easter 44 Elizabeth, R. 257. There is no doubt that the estate above described lormed a portion of that which was purchased by Webb in 1544, and belonged to Allen in 1576, for in a paper in a suit instituted many years afterwards respecting "a piece of void ground " on the eastern boundary of the property leased to Burbage we are informed that Henry the Eighth AND CURTAIN. 393 granted to Henry Webb " a greate parte of the scite of the said Pryorie, and namely amongst other thinges all those barnes, stables, bruehowses, gardens and all other buildinges whatsoever, with theire appurtenaunces, lyinge and beinge within the scite, walles and precincte of the said Pryorye, on the West parte of the said Priorye within the lower gate of the said Priorye, and all the ground and soyle by any wayes included within the walles and precincte of the said priorye extendinge from the said lower gate, of which ground the sayd yarde or peece of void ground into which it is supposed that the said Cuthbert Burbage hath wrongfully entered is parcell." This important evidence enables us to identify the exact locality of the Burbage estate, the southern boundary of which extended from the western side of the lower gate of the Priory to Finsbury Fields, the brick wall separating the latter from Burbage's property being repre- sented in Aggas's map in a north-east direction from Holywell Lane on the west of the Priory buildings, though, as previously stated, the wall is placed in that map too near Shoreditch. The rustic with the spade on his shoulder who, in Aggas's view, is represented as walking towards Holywell Lane, is at a short distance from the south-western corner of Burbage's property. Somewhere near that corner the Theatre was undoubtedly situated. This opinion is con- firmed by Stow, who, in his Survay of London, ed. 1598, p. 349, thus writes, speaking of the Priory, " the Church being pulled downe, many houses have bene their builded for the lodgings of noblemen, of straungers borne and other ; and neare thereunto are builded two publique houses for the acting and shewe of comedies, tragedies and histories, for recreation, whereof the one is called the Courtein, the other the Theatre, both standing on the south-west side towards the Field," that is, Finsbury Field. The lower gate, mentioned in the record above quoted, was on the north 394 THE THEATRE side of Holywell Lane, and in a deposition taken in 1602, it is stated that the " Earle of Rutland and his assignes did ordinarily at theire pleasures chayne and barre up the lane called Holloway Lane leading from the greate streete of Shordich towardes the fieldes along before the gate of the said Pryory, and so kept the same so cheyned and barred up as a private foote way, and that the same lane then was not used as a common highway for carte or carriage.' 1 Other witnesses assert that no one was allowed " to passe with horse or carte" unless he had the Earl's special permission. It is, perhaps, not to be concluded from these statements that persons were not allowed to drive carts through the lane, but simply that the Earl took the ordinary precautions to retain it legally as a private road. The lower gate, though indistinctly rendered, may be observed in Aggas's map on the south of the west end of the Priory buildings, and upon land situated to the north-west of this gate the Theatre was erected. All this locality is now so completely altered, it being a dense assemblage of modern buildings, that hardly any real archaeological interest attaches to it. The position of the Theatre, however, can be indicated with a near approach to accuracy. The ruins of the Priory were still visible in the last century in King John's Court on the north of Holywell Lane, and were incorrectly but popularly known as the remains of King John's Palace (Maitland's History of London, ed. 1739, p. 771). The ruins have disappeared, but the Court is still in existence, a circumstance which enables us to identify the locality of the Priory. It appears, therefore, from the evidences above cited, that the Theatre must have been situated a little to the north of Holywell Lane as nearly as possible on the site of what is now Dcancs Mews. Excavations made a few years ago for a railway, which passes over some of the ground upon which the AND CURTAIN. 395 Priory stood, uncovered the remains of the stone-work of one of the ancient entrance-doors, and these few relics are most probably the only vestiges remaining of what was once the thriving and somewhat important Priory of Holywell. Although the Theatre must have been situated near some of the houses on the Burbage estate, it was practically in the fields, as is ascertained from indisputable evidences. Stockwood, in August, 1578, speaks of it as "the gorgeous playing place erected in the fieldes." Fleetwood, writing to Lord Burghley in June, 1584, says, "that night I retorned to London, and found all the wardes full of watches ; the cause thereof was for that very nere the Theatre or Curten, at the tyme of the playes, there laye a prentice sleping upon the grasse, and one Challes alias Grostock dyd turne upon the too upon the belly of the same prentice, wherupon the apprentice start up, and after wordes they fell to playn blowes," MS.Lansd.4i. The neighbourhood of the Theatre was occasionally visited by the common hangman, a circum- stance which proves that there was an open space near the building. In the True Report of the Inditement &c. of Weldon, Hartley and Button, who suffred for High Treason in severall Places about the Citie of London on Saturday the Fifth of October, 1588, it is stated that " after Weldons execution the other prisoners were brought to Holly well, nigh the Theater, where Hartley was to suffer." In Tarlton's Newes Out of Purgatorie, 1590, that celebrated actor is represented as knowing that the performance at the Theatre was finished when he " saw such concourse of people through the Fields;" and when Peter Streete removed the building in 1599, he was accused by Allen of injuring the neighbouring grass to the value of fourty shillings. There is a similar allusion to the herba Cutberti in proceedings in Burbage v. Ames, Coram Rege Roll, Hil. 39$ THE THEATRE 41 Elizabeth, a suit respecting a small piece of land in the immediate locality. The Theatre was originally built on enclosed ground, but a pathway or road was afterwards made from it into the open fields ; for a witness deposed in 1602 that " shee doth not knowe anie ancient way into the fieldes but a way, used after the building of the Theatre, which leadeth into the fieldes." The quotation above given from Tarlton's Newes out of Purgatorie, 1590, shows that the usual access to the Theatre was through Finsbury Fields. There was certainly no regular path to it through the Lower Gate of the Priory, the old plans of the locality exhibiting its site as enclosed ground ; and according to one witness, whose evidence was taken in 1602, Allen, previously to the erection of the Theatre, had no access to his premises from the south, but merely from the east and north. The testimony here alluded to was given in reply to the following interrogatory, " whither had not the said Allen his servauntes, and such other tenauntes as he had, before those said newe buildinges were sett up and before the Theater was builded, their ordinarie waie of going and coming in and out to his howse onely through that place or neere or over againste that place wheare the Theater stood into feildes and streetes, and not anie other waie, and how long is it since he or his did use anie other waie as you knowe or have heard?" Mary Hobblethwayte, of Shoreditch, who gave her age as 76 or thereabouts, deposed " that the said Allen his servauntes and tenentes, before those newe buildinges were sett up, and before the Theatre was builded, had theire ordinary way of going and coming to and from his house onely through a way directly towardes the North, inclosed on both sydes with a brick wall, leading to a Crosse neere unto the well called Dame Agnes a Cleeres Well, and that the way made into the fieldes from the Theatre was made since the AND CURTAIN. 397 Theatre was builded, as shee remembreth, and that the said Allen his servauntes and tenauntes had not any other way other then the way leading from his house to the High Streete of Shordich." On the other hand, there were witnesses examined at the same time who asserted that Allen had access to the fields by a path through or near the site of the Theatre before that building was erected. Leonard Jackson, aged 80, declared "that the said Allen his servauntes and others his tenauntes had, before those newe buildinges were sett up, and before the Theatre was builded, the ordinary way of going and comming in and out to his house through that place, or neere or over against that place where the Theatre stoode, and that he and they had also another way through his greate orchard into the High Streete of Shorditch, and that he had used that way some xxx. yeares or xxxv. yeares or thereaboutes." Still more in detail but to a like effect is the deposition of John Rowse, aged 55, who stated that "the saide Allen his servauntes and other tenauntes there had, before those his newe buildinges were sett up and before the Theatre was builded, theire ordinary waie coming and going in and out to his house onely through that place, or neere or over against that place where the saide Theatre stoode into the fieldes, and that nowe and then he and some of his tenauntes did come in and out at the greate gate, and he doth remember this to be true, bycause that the said Allen nowe and then at his going into the country from Hollowell did give this examinates father, being appointed Porter of the house by his Lord Henry Earle of Rutland, for his paines, sometymes iij.s, sometymes iiij.j-, and further he saieth that he hath knowne the said Allen and his servauntes use another way from his house through his long orchard into Hollowell Streete or Shorditch Streete, and this waie THE THEATRE as he this examinatc remembreth some xxx.ty yeares or thereaboutes." It must be borne in mind that the property affected by the rights of way investigated in these evidences consisted of the whole of Allen's estate before Burbage was his lessee. It appears from Hobblethwayte's evidence that, after the Theatre was built, there was a road or path made from it on the west side into the fields. This road or path must have been made through the brick wall on the eastern boundary of Finsbury Fields, as is ascertained from a clause in the proposed lease from Allen to Burbage, 1585, and from an unpublished account of the boundaries of Finsbury Manor written in 1586, in which, after mention- ing that the bounds of the manor on the south passed along the road which divided More Field from Mallow Field, the latter being the one to the east of the grounds of Finsbury Court, the writer proceeds to describe them as follows, "and so alonge by the southe ende of the gardens adjoyninge to More Feld into a diche of waiter called the common sewer which runnethe into More Diche, and from thence the same diche northewarde alonge one theaste side the gardens belonginge to John Worssopp, and so alonge one theaste side of twoo closes of the same John Worssopp nowe in the occupacion of Thomas Lee thelder, buttcher, for which gardens and closses the said John Worssopp payed the quit rent to the manner of Fynsbury, as aperethe by the recorde ; and so the same boundes goe over the highe waye close by a barren lately builded by one Niccolles, includinge the same barren, and so northe as the Common Sewer and waye goethe to the playehowse called the Theater, and so tournethe by the same common sewer to Dame Agnes the Clere." The evidence of Hobblethwayte is confirmed by the testimony of Anne Thornes, of Shoreditch, aged 74, who deposed, '-'that AND CURTAIN. 399 shee cannott remember that Allen his servauntes or tenauntes had, before the said new buildinges were sett up or before the said Theatre was builded, theire ordinary way of going and comming unto his house onely through that place where the Theatre stoode into the fieldes or neere or over against that place ; but shee hath heard that, since the building of the Theatre, there is a way made into the fieldes, and that the said Allen and his tenauntes have for a long tyme used another way out of the sayd scite of the Priory that the said Allen holdeth into the High Streete of Shorditch." Rowse's evidence proves that there could have been no regular access to the locality of the Theatre through the lower gate of the Priory in Holywell Lane, and very few indeed of the audience could have used the path which entered Allen's property to the north from the well of St. Agnes le Clair, which latter was not in the direction of any road used by persons coming from London. It follows that, in Shakespeare's time, the chief if not the only line of access to the Theatre was across the fields which lay to the west of the western boundary wall of the grounds of the dissolved Priory, and through those meadows, therefore, nearly all the visitors to the Theatre would arrive at their destination, most of them on foot, but some no doubt riding "into the fieldes playes to behold," Davis's Epigrammes, 1599. This question of their route is not a subject of mere topographical curiosity, the conclusion here reached increasing the probability of there being some foundation for the tradition recorded by Davenant. The Theatre appears to have been a very favourite place of amusement, especially with the more unruly section of the populace. There are several allusions to its crowded audiences and to the license which occasionally attended the entertainments, the disorder sometimes penetrating into the City itself. " By reason no playes were the same daye, 4OO THE THEATRE all the Citie was quiet," observes the writer of a letter in June, 1584, MS.Lansd.4i. Stockwood, in a Sermon Preached at Paules Crosse the 24 of August, 1578, in- dignantly asks, " wyll not a fylthye playe wyth the blast of a trumpette sooner call thyther a thousande than an houres tolling of a bell bring to the sermon a hundred ? nay, even heere in the Citie, without it be at this place and some other certaine ordinarie audience, where shall you finde a reasonable company ? whereas, if you resort to the Theatre, the Curtayne and other places of playes in the Citie, you shall on the Lords Day have these places, with many other that I cannot recken, so full as possible they can throng ; " and, in reference again to the desecration of the Sunday at the Theatre, he says, "if playing in the Theatre or any other place in London, as there are by sixe that I know to many, be any of the Lordes wayes, whiche I suppose there is none so voide of knowledge in the world wil graunt, then not only it may but ought to be used ; but if it be any of the wayes of man, it is no work for the Lords sabaoth, and therfore in no respecte tollerable on that daye." It was upon a Sunday, two years afterwards, in April, 1580, that there was a great disturbance at the same establishment, thus noticed in a letter from the Lord Mayor to the Privy Council dated April 1 2th, " where it happened on Sundaie last that some great disorder was committed at the Theatre, I sent for the undershireve of Middlesex to understand the cercumstances, to the intent that by myself or by him I might have caused such redresse to be had as in dutie and discretion I might, and therefore did also send for the plaiers to have apered afore me, and the rather because those playes doe make assemblies of cittizens and their familes of whome I have charge ; but forasmuch as I understand that your Lordship, with other of hir Majesties most honorable Counsell, have entered into examination of AND CURTAIN. 4OI that matter, I have surceassed to precede further, and do humbly refer the whole to your wisdomes and grave con- siderations ; howbeit, I have further thought it my dutie to informe your Lordship, and therewith also to beseche to have in your honorable rememberance, that the players of playes which are used at the Theatre and other such places, and tumblers and such like, are a very superfluous sort of men and of suche facultie as the lawes have disalowed, and their exersise of those playes is a great hinderaunce of the service of God, who hath with His mighty hand so lately admonished us of oure earnest repentance," City of London MSS. The Lord Mayor here of course alludes to the great earthquake which had occurred a few days previously. In June, 1584, there was a disturbance just outside the Theatre, thus narrated in a letter to Lord Burghley, "uppon Weddensdaye one Browne, a serving man in a blew coat, a shifting fellowe, havinge a perrelous witt of his owne, entending a sport if he cold have browght it to passe, did at Theater doore querell with certen poore boyes, handicraft prentises, and strooke somme of theym ; and lastlie he, with his sword, wondeid and maymed one of the boyes upon the left hand, whereupon there assembled nere a thousand people; this Browne dyd very cuninglie convey hymself awaye." The crowds of disorderly people frequenting the Theatre are thus alluded to in Tarlton's Newes out of Purgatorie, 1590, "upon Whitson monday last I would needs to the Theatre to see a play, where, when I came, I founde such concourse of unrulye people that I thought it better solitary to walk in the fields then to intermeddle myselfe amongst such a great presse." In 1592, there was an apprehension that the London apprentices might indulge in riots on Midsummer-night, in consequence of which the following order was issued by the Lords of the Council, "moreover for avoydinge of thes unlawfull assemblies in those 26 4-O2 THE THEATRE quarters, yt is thoughte meete yow shall take order that there be noe playes used in anye place nere thereaboutes, as the Theater, Curtayne or other usuall places there where the same are comonly used, nor no other sorte of unlawfull or forbidden pastymes that drawe togeather the baser sorte of people, from henceforth untill the feast of St. Michaell," MS. Register of the Privy Council, 23rd June, 1592. Another allusion to the throngs of the lower orders attracted by the entertainments at the Theatre occurs in a letter from the Lord Mayor to the Privy Council, dated 1 3th September, 1595, "among other inconvenyences it is not the least that the refuse sort of evill disposed and ungodly people about this Cytie have oportunitie hearby to assemble together and to make their matches for all their lewd and ungodly practizes, being also the ordinary places for all maisterles men and vagabond persons that haunt the high waies to meet together and to recreate themselfes, whearof wee begin to have experienc again within these fiew daies since it pleased her highnes to revoke her comission graunted forthe to the Provost Marshall, for fear of home they retired themselfes for the time into other partes out of his precinct, but ar now retorned to their old haunt, and frequent the plaies, as their manner is, that ar daily shewed at the Theator and Bankside, whearof will follow the same inconveniences, whearof wee have had to much experienc heartofore, for preventing whearof wee ar humble suters to your good LI. and the rest to direct your lettres to the Justices of Peac of Surrey and Middlesex for the present stay and finall suppressing of the said plaies, as well at the Theator and Bankside as in all other places about the Cytie." It is clear from these testimonies that the Theatre attracted a large number of persons of questionable character to the locality, thus corroborating what has been previously stated respecting the degree of responsibility AND CURTAIN. 403 attached to those who undertook the care of the horses belonging to the more respectable portion of the audience. Two years afterwards, the inconveniences attending the large numbers of people resorting to the Shoreditch theatres culminated in an order of the Privy Council for their removal, a decree which, like several others of a like kind emanating from the same body, was disregarded. The order appeared in the form of a letter to the Justices of Middlesex dated July 28th, 1597, the contents of which are recorded as follows in the Council Register, "Her Majestic being informed that there are verie greate disorders committed in the common playhouses both by lewd matters that are handled on the stages, and by resorte and con- fluence of bad people, hathe given direction that not onlie no plaies shal be used within London or about the Citty, or in any publique place, during this tyme of sommer, but that also those playhouses that are erected and built only for suche purposes shal be plucked downe, namelie the Curtayne and the Theatre nere to Shorditch, or any other within that county; theis are therfore in her Majesties name to chardge and commaund you that you take present order there be no more plaies used in any publique place within three myles of the Citty untill Alhallontide next, and likewyse that you do send for the owner of the Curtayne, Theatre or anie other common playhouse, and injoyne them by vertue hereof forthwith to plucke downe quite the stages, galleries and roomes that are made for people to stand in, and so to deface the same as they maie not be ymploied agayne to suche use, which yf they shall not speedely performe you shall advertyse us, that order maie be taken to see the same don according to her Majesties pleasure and commaundment." This order appears to have been issued in consequence of representations made by the Lord Mayor in a letter written on the same day to the Privy Council, in 26 2 404 THE THEATRE which he observes, " wee have fownd by th'examination of divers apprentices and other servantes, whoe have confessed unto us that the saide staige playes were the very places of theire randevous appoynted by them to meete with such otheir as wear to joigne with them in theire designes and mutinus attemptes, beeinge allso the ordinarye places for maisterles men to come together to recreate themselves, for avoydinge wheareof wee are nowe againe most humble and earnest suitors to your honors to dirrect your lettres as well to ourselves, as to the Justices of Peace of Surrey and Midlesex, for the present staie and fynall suppressinge of the saide stage playes as well at the Theatre, Curten and Banckside, as in all other places in and abowt the Citie," City of London MSS. The players up to this time had wisely erected all their regular theatres in the suburbs, the Mayor and Corporation of the City having been virulently opposed to the drama. The crowds which flocked to places of entertainment were reasonably supposed to increase the danger of the spread of infection during the prevalence of an epidemic, and the Theatre and Curtain were sometimes ordered to be closed on that account. The Lord Mayor of London in a letter to Sir Francis Walsingham, dated May 3rd, 1583, thus writes in reference to the plague, " among other we finde one very great and dangerous inconvenience, the assemblie of people to playes, beare-bayting, fencers and prophane spectacles at the Theatre and Curtaine and other like places, to which doe resorte great multitudes of the basist sort of people and many enfected with sores runing on them, being out of our jurisdiction, and some whome we cannot descerne by any dilligence and which be otherwise perilous for contagion, biside the withdrawing from Gods service, the peril of ruines of so weake byldinges and the avancement and incontinencie and most ungodly con- AND CURTAIN. 405 federacies," City of London MSS. In the spring of the year 1586 plays at the Theatre were prohibited for the first of these reasons, as appears from the following note in the Privy Council Register under the date of May nth, " A lettre to the L. Maior ; his 1. is desired, according to his request made to their Lordshippes by his lettres of the vij.th of this present, to geve order for the restrayning of playes and interludes within and about the Cittie of London, for th'avoyding of infection feared to grow and increase this tyme of sommer by the comon assemblies of people at those places, and that their Lordshippes have taken the like order for the prohibiting of the use of playes at the Theater and th'other places about Newington out of his charge," MS. Register of the Privy Council. The preceding documents of July, 1597, contain the latest notice of the Theatre in connexion with dramatic entertain- ments which has yet been discovered. It is alluded to in Skialetheia, published in the following year, 1598, as being then closed, "but see yonder=One, like the unfrequented Theater, =Walkes in darke silence and vast solitude." James Burbage on September lyth, 1579, assigned his Shoreditch estate to one John Hyde, who held it till June 7th, 1589 (Coram Rege Rolls, 44 Eliz.), upon which day the latter surrendered his interest in it to Cuthbert Burbage. The assignment to Hyde may have been a security for a loan. At all events, James Burbage appears to have retained the legal estate and to have continued to deal with the property, so far as litigation was concerned, as if it were his own, and at the time of his death, which took place early in 1597, he was involved in a law-suit respecting it, this circumstance so embarrassing his successors that they found it difficult to carry on the management of the Theatre. According to a statement made by the family to Lord Pembroke in 1635, James Burbage "was the first builder 406 THE THEATRE of playhowses, and was himselfe in his younger yeeres a player the Theater hee built with many hundred poundes taken up at interest; hee built this house upon leased ground, by which meanes the landlord and hee had a great suite in law, and, by his death, the like troubles fell on us, his sonnes." There is some difficulty in reconciling the various statements respecting the devolution of the estate, but the one most likely to be correct is that made by Allen, who asserted that Tames Burbage, previously to his decease, made a deed of gift of the property to his two sons, Cuth- bert and Richard. It is worth recording that, shortly before the death of the elder Burbage in 1597, negociations were pending with Allen for a considerable extension of the lease, with a stipulation, however, assigning a limited period only for the continuation of theatrical amusements. Allen's statement is that " the said Jeames Burbage grewe to a newe agree- ment that the said Jeames Burbage should have a newe lease of the premisses conteyned in the former lease for the terme of one and twenty yeares, to beginne after the end and expiracion of the former lease, for the yearlie rent of foure and twentie powndes, for the said Jeames Burbage, in respect of the great proffitt and commoditie which he had made and in time then to come was further likelye to make of the Theatre and the other buildinges and growndes to him demised, was verye willinge to paie tenn powndes yearelye rent more then formerlie he paid ; and it was like- wise further agreed betweene them, as the defendant hopeth he shall sufficientlie prove, that the said Theatre should continue for a playinge place for the space of five yeares onelie after the expiracion of the first terme and not longer, by reason that the defendant sawe that many inconveniences and abuses did growe therby, and that after the said five yeares ended it should be converted AND CURTAIN. 407 by the said Jeames Burbage and the complainant or one of them to some other use," Answer of Gyles Allen in the suit of Burbage v. Allen, Court of Requests, 42 Eliz. Cuthbert Burbage, in his Replication, denies that his father consented to entertain the suggestion " that the said Theater should contynue for a playinge place for the space of fyve yeres onelie after the first terme and no longer." In confirmation, however, of Allen's version of the facts, there is the testimony of a witness named Thomas Nevill, who positively declared that " there was an agree- mente had betweene them, the said complainante and the said defendantes, for the howses and growndes with the Theatre which were formerlye demised unto Jeames Burbage, the father of the said complainante, with an increasinge of the rente from fourteene powndes by the yeare unto foure and twentye powndes by the yeare, which lease should beginn at the expiracion of the ould lease made unto the said complainantes father, and should continue for the space of one and twentye yeares ; and this deponente further saieth that the said defendant was at the firste verrye unwillinge that the said Theatre should continue one daie longer for a playinge place, yet neverthelesse at the laste he yealded that it should continue for a playinge place for certaine yeares, and that the said defendante did agree that the said complainante should after those yeares expired converte the said Theatre to his beste benifitt for the residue of the said terme then to come, and that afterward it should remaine to the onelye use of the defendante," MS. Depositions in the suit of Burbage v. Allen taken at Kelvedon, co. Essex, in August, 1600. The year 1597 was a critical one for the Burbages in respect to their Shoreditch estate. The original lease given by Allen expired in the Spring, and they could not succeed in obtaining a legal ratification of the additional ten years 408 THE THEATRE covenanted to be granted to the lessee, although they were still permitted to remain as tenants. Bewildered by this uncertainty of the tenure, they resolved in the following year not only to abandon the Theatre, but to take advantage of a condition in the lease of 1576, and remove the building with the whole of the materials, a step which had at least the advantage of throwing the initiative of further litigation upon Allen. The stipulation in that lease has already been given, and Streete expressly declares that it was originally intended that the same clause should form a part of the extended one, "et ulterius predictus Egidius Alleyn et Sara uxor ejus con- venerunt et concesserunt, pro seipsis heredibus executoribus et assignatis suis, et quilibet eorum separatim convenit et concessit prefato Jacobo Burbage, executoribus et assignatis suis, quod licitum foret eidem Jacobo, executoribus seu assignatis suis, in consideratione impenditionis et exposi- tionis predictis ducentarum librarum, modo et forma predicta, ad aliquod tempus et tempora ante finem predict! termini viginti et unius annorum per predictam indenturam concessi, aut ante finem predicti termini viginti et unius annorum post confectionem indenture predicte, virtute ejusdem indenture concedendi, habere, diruere et abcariare ad ejus aut eorum proprium usum imperpetuum, omnia talia edificia et omnes alias res qualia edificata erecta aut supposita forent, Anglice sett upp, in et super gardino et locis vacuis, Anglice the growndes, per indenturam predictam concessa, aut aliqua parte inde, per predictum Jacobum executores vel assignatos suos, aut pro theatre vocato a theater or playinge place^ aut pro aliquo alio licito usu pro ejus aut eorum commoditate." It is accordingly found that the stipulation is inserted as follows in the proposed lease of 1585, "and further the sayde Gyles Allen and Sara his wyfe for them, their heres, executors and administrators, doe covenante and graunte, and every of them severally AND CURTAIN. 409 covenanteth and graunteth, to and with the sayde Jeames Burbage his executors and assignes by thes presentes, that yt shall or may be lawfull for the sayde Jeames Burbage, his executors or assignes, in consideracion for the imployinge and bestowinge of the foresayde some of cc.//. mencioned in the sayde former indenture, at any tyme or tymes before the ende of the sayde terme of xxj. yeares by thes presentes granted, to have, take dowrie and carrye awaye, to his and their owne proper use for ever, all such buildinges and other thinges as are alredye builded, erected and sett upp, and which hereafter shal be builded erected or sett upp in or upon the gardings and voyde grounds by thes presentes graunted or any parte therof by the sayde Jeames, his executors or assignes, eyther for a theater or playinge place, or for any other lawfull use for his or theire comodityes." It is unnecessary to enter further into a discussion on the legal intricacies which arose in the suits between the parties, the only topics of present interest in the voluminous pro- ceedings being those which throw light on the history of the Theatre. It was Allen's intention, to use his own words, " seeing the greate and greevous abuses that grewe by the Theater, to pull downe the same and to converte the wood and timber therof to some better use ; " but in this design he was anticipated by the Burbages, who engaged one Peter Streete, a builder and carpenter, to remove the building, which operation was accordingly effected either in Decem- ber, 1598, or in January, 1599. The narrative given by Allen of the demolition of the Theatre and the removal of the "wood and timber" to Southwark, where they were afterwards used in the con- struction of the Globe, is particularly interesting. As has just been stated, Allen had himself contemplated the destruction of the Theatre and the conversion of its materials to some other use, but Cuthbert Burbage, anticipating the 410 THE THEATRE design, " unlawfullye combyninge and confederating him selfe with the sayd Richard Burbage and one Peeter Streat, William Smyth and divers other persons, to the number of twelve, to your subject unknowne, did aboute the eight and twentyth daye of December in the one and fortyth yeere of your Highnes raygne, and sythence your highnes last and generall pardon by the confederacye aforesayd, ryoutouslye assemble themselves together, and then and there armed themselves with dyvers and manye unlawfull and offensive weapons, as, namelye, swordes, daggers, billes, axes and such like, and soe armed, did then repayre unto the sayd Theater, and then and there, armed as aforesayd, in verye ryotous, outragious and forcyble manner, and contrarye to the lawes of your highnes realme, attempted to pull downe the sayd Theater ; whereuppon divers of your subjectes, ser- vauntes and farmers, then goinge aboute in peaceable man- ner to procure them to desist from that their unlawfull enterpryse, they the sayd ryotous persons aforesayd not- withstanding procured then therein with greate vyolence, not onlye then and there forcyblye and ryotouslye resisting your subjectes, servauntes and farmers, but allso then and there pulling, breaking and throwing downe the sayd Theater in verye outragious, violent and riotous sort, to the great disturbance and terrefyeing not onlye of your subjectes sayd servauntes and farmers, but of divers others of your Majesties loving subjectes there neere inhabitinge; and having so done, did then alsoe in most forcible and ryotous manner take and carrye awaye from thence all the wood and timber therof unto the Bancksyde in the parishe of St. Marye Overyes, and there erected a newe playehowse with the sayd timber and woode," Bill of Complaint, Allen v. Bur- bage, 44 Eliz. The date here assigned to the removal of the Theatre is December 28th, 1598; but, according to another authority, AND CURTAIN. 41 I the event took place on January 2oth, 1599, the possi- bility being that the operation was not completed on the first occasion. The other account to which reference is here made is in the following terms, " Egidius Aleyn armiger queritur de Petro Strete, in custodia marescalli marescallie domine Regine coram ipsa Regina existenti, de eo quod ipse, vicesimo die Januarij anno regni domine Elizabethe nunc Regine Anglie quadragesimo primb, vi et armis &c. clausum ipsius Egidii vocatum the Inner Courte Yarde, parcellum nuper monasterii prioratus de Hallywell modo dissoluti apud Hallywell, fregit et intravit, et herbam ipsius Egidii ad valenciam quadraginta solidorum adtunc in clauso predicto crescentem pedibus suis ambulando concul- cavit et consumpsit ; et quandam structuram ipsius Egidii ibidem fabricatam et erectam vocatam the Theater ad valen- ciam septingentarum librarum adtunc et ibidem dim it, divulsit, cepit et abcariavit, et alia enormia ei intulit contra pacem dicte domine Regine ad dampnum ipsius Egidii octingentarum librarum," Coram Rege Rolls, 42 Eliz. The Inner Court Yard was situated to the west of the Lower Gate, as appears from other evidences. In an Answer filed in a suit in the Court of Requests, February, 42 Elizabeth, Allen declares that he was absent in the country at the time of the removal of the building, the date of that event which is given in this Answer certainly being erroneous. According to the Defendant's statement, Cuthbert Burbage " sought to take occasion when he might privilie and for his best advan- tage pull downe the said Theatre, which aboute the Feast of the Nativitie of our Lord God in the fourtith yeare of her Majesties raigne he hath caused to be done without the privitie or consent of the defendant, he beinge then in the countrie." A mistake is here made in the number of the regnal year. There can be no doubt of the fact that it was in the course of the month of December, 1598, or January, 412 THE THEATRE 1599, that the greater portion at least of the Theatre was removed. It may be questioned if Burbage's agents had succeeded in carrying away the whole of the materials of the structure. At all events, in January, 1600, he speaks of having taken away only " parte of the building." In his Bill against Allen in the Court of Requests, speaking of the expectation that the Defendant intended ultimately to renew the original lease for ten years, he observes, "by reason wherof your subjecte did forbeare to pull downe and carie awaye the tymber and stuffe ymployed for the said Theater and playinge house at the ende of the saide first tearme of one and twentie yeares, as by the direct covenaunte and agreemente expressed in the saide indenture he mighte have done ; but after the saide firste tearme of one and twentie yeares ended the saide Alley ne hathe suffred your subjecte to contynue in possession of the premisses for diverse yeares, and hathe accepted the rente reserved by the saide inden- ture from your subjecte, wheruppon of late your saide subjecte, havinge occasion to use certayne tymber and other stuffe which weare ymploied in makinge and errectinge the saide Theater uppon the premisses, beinge the cheefeste proffitte that your subjecte hoped for in the bargayne therof, did to that purpose, by the consente and appoint- mente of Ellen Burbadge, administratrix of the goodes and chattells of the saide James Burbage, take downe and carie awaye parte of the saide newe buildinge, as by the true meaninge of the saide indenture and covenauntes lawfull was for him to doe, and the same did ymploye to other uses." In another part of the same Bill, however, he alludes to Peter Streete, who by his "direction and co- maundrnent did enter uppon the premisses and take downe the saide buildinge;" and Streete himself admitted the fact in his Answer to a suit of trespass brought against him by Allen early in i599,--"et quoad venire vi et armis, ac AND CURTAIN. 413 tot et quicquid quod est suppositum fieri contra pacem dicte domine Regine, nunc, preter fractionem et intracionem in clausum predictum et herbe predicte conculcationem et consumptionem, necnon diruptionem, divulsionem, cap- tionem et abcariationem predicte structure vocate the Theater, idem Petrus dicit quod ipse in nullo est inde culpabilis." The second statement of Cuthbert Burbage on the subject, in his Replication in the suit of Burbage v. Allen, April, 1600, which perhaps may be considered of better authority than his previous account, seems to confirm the evidence given by Streete, " and this complainant doth not denie but that he hathe pulled downe the said Theatre, which this complainant taketh it was laufull for him so to do, beinge a thinge covenaunted and permitted in the said former leas." Whether any remains of the Theatre were left standing or not, it is certain that the building, so far as it is connected with the history of the stage, may be considered to have been removed by the month of January, 1599. A few of the dramas which were performed at the Theatre are mentioned by contemporary writers. Gosson, in his Schoole of Abuse, 1579, speaks of, "the Black- smiths Daughter and Catilins Conspiracies, usually brought in to the Theater ; the firste contayning the trechery of Turkes, the honourable bountye of a noble minde, and the shining of vertue in distresse ; the last, bicause it is knowen too be a pig of myne owne sowe, I will speake the lesse of it, onely giving you to understand that the whole marke which I shot at in that woorke was too showe the rewarde of traytors in Catilin, and the necessary government of learned men in the person of Cicero, which forsees every danger that is likely to happen and forstalles it continually ere it take effect." The Play of Plays, a moral drama in defence of plays, was acted at the same establishment in February, 414 TI1 E THEATRE 1581-2, "the Playe of Playes showen at the Theater the three and twentieth of Februarie last," Gosson's Playes Confuted in Five Actions, n. d. Another kind of perform- ance had been selected on the previous day, as appears from the following obscure notice in a contemporary journal preserved in MS.Addit.5oo8, " 1582. Feb. 22, we went to the Theater to se a scurvie play set owt al by one Virgin, which ther proved a fyemarten without voice, so that we stayd not the matter." A marginal note describes this mysterious entertainment as " a virgin play." About this period " the history of Caesar and Pompey and the playe of the Fabii " were acted at the same place, as we are told by Gosson in his Playes Confuted ; and mention is made in the same work of " that glosing plaie at the Theater which prefers you so faire," but in which there was " enterlaced a baudie song of a maide of Kent and a litle beastly speach of the new stawled roge, both which I am compelled to burie in silence, being more ashamed to utter them then they ; for as in tragedies some points are so terrible that the poets are con stray ned to turne them from the peoples eyes, so in the song of the one, the speache of the other, somewhat is so dishonest that I cannot with honestie repeate it," sig. D. 6. Some years afterwards, Lodge, in his Wits Miserie, 1596, speaks of one who "looks as pale as the visard of the ghost which cried so miserally at the Theator, like an oister-wife, Hamlet, revenge;" and Barnaby Rich, in 1606, alludes to " Gravets part at the Theatre " as having been a celebrated performance. Marlowe's Doctor Faustus was also acted at the same house. " He had a head of hayre like one of my divells in Doctor Faustus, when the olde Theatre crackt and frighted the audience," Blacke Booke, 1604. The passage in Lodge refers to the old play of Hamlet, which then belonged to, and was no doubt occasionally performed by, Shakespeare's company. AND CURTAIN. 415 According to the account previously quoted from Stew's Survay of London, ed 1598, p. 349, the Curtain Theatre and the building removed in 1599, the latter distinctively termed the Theatre, were in the same locality. They are both described as being near the site of the dissolved priory, and " both standing on the south-west side towards the Field." The Curtain Theatre, however, was situated on the southern side of Holywell Lane, a little to the westward of the two trees which are seen in Aggas's view in the middle of a field adjoining Holywell Lane. In a document pre- served at the Privy Council Office, dated in 1601, this theatre is spoken of as "the Curtaine in Moorefeildes," which shows that it was on the south of that lane. Stow, ed. 1568, p. 351, speaks of Moorfields as extending in ancient times to Holywell, but the fields usually so called in the days of Shakespeare did not reach so far to the north so that the description of 1601 must be accepted with some qualification. The Curtain Theatre, as is ascertained by Stow's decisive testimony, could not possibly have stood much to the south of the lane. It must in fact have been situated in or near the place which is marked as Curtain Court in Chassereau's plan of Shoreditch, 1745. This Court was afterwards called Gloucester Row, and it is now known as Gloucester Street. This last-named theatre derived its name from a piece of ground of considerable size termed the Curtain, which anciently belonged to Holywell Priory. The land is mentioned under that name in a lease of 29 Henry VIII., 1538, " Sibilla Newdigate, priorissa dicti nuper monasterii sancti Johannis Baptiste de Halliwell predicti, et ejusdem loci conventus, per aliam indenturam suam sigillo eorum conventuali sigillatam, datam primo die Januarij dicto anno vicesimo nono predicti nuper patris nostri, unanimi eorum assensu et consensu dimiseruni, tradiderunt et ad firmam 41 6 THE THEATRE concesserunt prefato nuper Comiti Rutland totam illam mansionem sive mesuagium cum gardino adjacenti, sci- tuatam, jacentem et existentem infra muros et portas ejusdem nuper monasterii, cum ilia longa pergula ducente a dicto mesuagio usque ad capellam; ac duo stabula et unum fenile supra edificatum, scituata et existentia extra portas ejusdem nuper monasterii prope pasturam dicte nuper Priorisse vocatam the Curten" Rot. Pat. 27 Eliz., Pars 14. The phrase extra portas shows that the Curtain ground was on the southern side of Holywell Lane, the entrance to the priory having been on the north of that road. At a later period there were several buildings, including a large one specially mentioned as the Curtain House (Shoreditch Register), erected upon this land, and one or more were known as being situated in the Curtain Garden. In March, 1581, one William Longe sold to Thomas Harberte, "all that the house, tenemente or lodge commonlie called the Curtayne, and also all that parcell of grounde and close walled and inclosed with a bricke wall on the west and northe partes, and in parte with a mudde wall at the west side or ende towardes the southe, called also the Curtayne Close, sometyme apperteyning to the late Priorie of Halliwell nowe dissolved, sett, lyeng and being in the parishe of Sainte Leonarde in Shortedytche alias Shordiche in the countie of Middlesex, together with all the gardeyns, fishepond, welles and brick-wall to the premisses or any of them belonginge or apperteyning ; and also all and singuler other mesuages, tenementes, edifices and buildinges, with all and singuler their appurtenaunces, erected and builded uppon the saide close called the Curtayne or uppon any parte or parcell thereof, or to the same nere adjoyning, nowe or late in the severall tenures or occupacions of Thomas Wilkinson, Thomas Wilkins, Roberte Medley, Richard Hickes, Henrie Lanman, and Roberte Manne, or AND CURTAIN. 417 any of them, or of their or any of their assigne or assignes, and also all other mesuages, landes, tenementes and heredita- mentes with their appurtenaunces sett, lyeng and being in Halliwell Lane in the saide parishe of Sainte Leonard," Rot. Glaus. 23 Eliz. The Curtain House was either in or near Holywell Lane. " John Edwardes being excom- municated was buried the vij.th of June in the Kinges high waie in Hallywell Lane neare the Curtayn," Register of St. Leonards, Shoreditch, 1619. In some Chancery papers of the year 1591 it is described as the "howse with the appurtenaunces called the Curtayne," and it is stated that " the grounde there was for the most parte converted firste into garden plottes, and then leasinge the same to divers tenauntes caused them to covenaunt or promise to builde uppon the same, by occasion wherof the buildinges which are there were for the most parte errected and the rentes encreased." That the Curtain estate was on the south of the western end of Holywell Lane is proved decisively by an indenture of 1723, which refers to a plot of five acres then adjoining Sugarloaf Yard on the east, and which is described as " part or parcell of a peice of ground theretofore and then called by the name of the Curtain." The name is still retained in the locality in that of the well-known Curtain Road, which must have been so called either from the theatre or from the land above described. The earliest notice of the Curtain Theatre by name, which has yet been discovered, occurs in Northbrooke's Treatise on Dicing, licensed in December, 1577 ; but it is also probably alluded to, with the Theatre, by one Thomas White, in a Sermon Preached at Pavvles Crosse on Sunday the Thirde of November, 1577, in which he says, "looke but uppon the common playes in London, and see the multitude that flocketh to them and followeth them ; beholde the sumptuous theatre houses, a continuall monu- 27 418 THE THEATRE ment of Londons prodigalitie and folly." The Queen's Players seem to have acted at the Curtain as well as at the neighbouring theatre. At all events, Tarlton, who belonged to that company, played there, if we may con- fide in an allusion in one of the Jests. If any credit may be given to the blundering evidences of Aubrey, Ben Jonson also was at one time an actor at the Curtain. According to that biographer, he "acted and wrote, but both ill, at the Green Curtaine, a kind of nursery or obscure play-house somewhere in the suburbes, I thinke towardes Shoreditch or Clarkenwell." Aubrey is the only authority for the theatre ever having been known as the Green Curtain, one probably of that writer's numerous misstatements. Is there decisive evidence that the Lord Chamberlain's Servants acted at the Curtain Theatre previously to the erection of the Globe in 1 599 ? The reply to this question depends upon the interpretation given to the words " Curtaine plaudeties " in the well-known lines on stage- struck Luscus in Marston's Scourge of Villanie, 1598; whether the word Curtaine refers to the playhouse, or whether it is merely a synonyme for theatrical in reference to the curtains of the stage. The latter explanation appears to be somewhat forced, while the former and more natural one is essentially supported by the fact that Pope, who was then a member of the Lord Chamberlain's Company, was also a sharer in that establishment. That the Curtain Theatre was at this period, at all events at intervals, one of the homes of the legitimate drama, may be gathered from what Guilpin says in his Skialetheia, 1598, "or if my dispose=Perswade me to a play, I'le to the Rose, = Or Curtaine, one of Plautus comedies, = Or the patheticke Spaniards tragedies ; " in allusion, possibly, to the Comedy of Errors and the Spanish Tragedy. If the supposition that AND CURTAIN. 419 Marston speaks of the Curtain Theatre be correct, and no doubt can be fairly entertained on that point, it is certain that Shakespeare's tragedy of Romeo and Juliet was there "plaid publiquely by the Right Honourable the L. of Hunsdon his Servants," title-page of ed. 1597. Luscus is represented as infatuated with this play, and the allusion to his " courting Lesbia's eyes " out of his theatrical common- place-book can but refer to Romeo's impassioned rhapsody on the eyes of Juliet. It may then be safely assumed that Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet was acted at the Curtain Theatre some time between July 22nd, 1596, the day on which Lord Hunsdon, then Lord Chamberlain of the Household, died, and April iyth, 1597, when his son, Lord Hunsdon, was appointed to that office (Privy Council Register). During those nine months the Company was known as Lord Hunsdon's, the same body of actors continuing throughout to serve those two noblemen, so that any allusion, if there be one, to the Lord Chamberlain's Servants bearing date between August 6th, 1596, and March 5th, 1597, would refer to a company under the patronage of Lord Cobham, who was the Lord Chamberlain during that period. That the members of the other Lord Chamberlain's Company transferred their services to Lord Hunsdon on the death of his father in July, 1596, is shown by the following entry in the accounts of the Treasurer of the Chamber to Queen Elizabeth, " to John Hemynge and George Bryan, servauntes to the late Lorde Chamberlayne and now servauntes to the Lorde Hunsdon, upon the Councelles warraunte dated at Whitehall xxj. mo die Decembris, 1596, for five enterludes or playes shewed by them before her Majestic on St. Stephans daye at nighte, the sondaye nighte followeing, Twelfe Nighte, one St. Johns daye and on Shrovesunday at nighte laste, the some of xxxiij./z. vj.s. 272 42O THE THEATRE viij. co. Hertford. This gentleman sold it to Hugh Clopton in May, 1699, when it was described as "all that messuage or tenement with the appurtenances scituate, lying and being, in the Chappell Street within the burrough of Stratford-upon-Avon, wherein Samuell Phillipps did late inhabitt, and now in the tenure of Edward Clopton, esq.," and in the foot of the fine levied on the occasion, it is mentioned as being " one messuage and one garden with the appurtenances in Stratford-on-Avon," Fin. Term. Trin. 1 1 Gul. III. It appears, however, from a declaration, made in the following October, that Hugh Clopton's name in the deed of 1699 was used in trust for his brother Edward, the latter continuing to be the occupier of the house until March, 1705-6, when he sold it, together with the Great Garden of New Place, a piece of land then also in his occupation, to Aston Ingram, of Little Woolford, the husband of his sister Barbara. In the agreement for this purchase, dated in the preceding January, there is the SHAKESPEARE S NEIGHBOURS. 437 following interesting description of the properties, "all that messuage or tenement scituate and being in Stratford- upon-Avon, v-herein the said Edward Clopton now dwells, togeather with the yard, garden, backside, outhouses, and appurtenances to the same belongeing, and alsoe the hangins that are in the chamber over the kitchin, the two furnises in the brewhouse, and the coolers there ; and alsoe all that peece of ground to the said messuage belongeing, called the Create Garden, heretofore belongeing to New Place, and alsoe the barne, stables, outhouses, and appur- tenances to the said Create Garden belongeing." Aston Ingram, in his will, 1710, devises Nash's House to his wife Barbara in fee, subject to portions to younger children, which were subsequently paid by the sale of the house and the Great Garden. The latter is not specifically named in that will, but that it was included in the devise is certain from the wording of the release of his sons to their mother Barbara in March, 1728-9, who sold the premises in that year to Frances Rose of Stratford, the Great Garden being expressly excluded from the parcels conveyed to the latter, that piece of land having then been recently pur- chased by Hugh Clopton, and thenceforth restored to the New Place grounds. In 1738, the estate purchased by Rose was transferred to Philip Hatton, who devised it in 1 740 to his wife Grace for her life, with remainders to his sons, Philip and Joseph, and to his son-in-law, Thomas Mortiboys, to be equally divided between the three. Joseph Hatton, by will dated shortly before his decease in 1745, devised his share of the property to his brother Philip ; and in July, 1760, the latter conveyed to Thomas Mortiboys his two undivided third parts, the whole, subject of course to Mrs. Hatton's life-interest, thus becoming the property of Thomas Mortiboys, who, by his will, dated in 1779, devised it to his daughter Susanna. This lady made a will, but it 438 SHAKESPEARE'S NEIGHBOURS. was not sufficient to pass real estate, as it merely disposed of personalty ; and after her death, Nash's House descended to Fanny Mortiboys, who, in March, 1785, conveyed it to Charles Henry Hunt. In 1790, Mr. Hunt became also the owner of New Place, and, at some time prior to 1 800, the boundaries of the Nash Garden were removed, the two estates then becoming one property. In May, 1807, the whole was sold by him to Battersbee and Morris as tenants in common, but a few years afterwards the Great Garden again became a separate holding. In this new division, there was taken from the latter, to be added to the western premises, a slip of land, about twenty feet in width, which extended from Chapel Lane to the northern end of the garden belonging to Nash's House. In 1827, the slip of land above mentioned and all the New Place estate that lay to the westward of it, together with Nash's House and garden, found their next purchaser in Miss Lucy Smith of Coventry, after whose death they were bought, in 1836, by Mr. David Rice. Upon the decease of the latter in 1860, they again came into the market, and, in the following year, they were purchased by me with moneys collected by public subscription, becoming then and for ever the property of the Corporation of Stratford-on-Avon. The character of the original house, no representation of which is known to exist, may to some little extent be gathered from the annexed engraving of what remains of the upper outside part of its ancient southern end, the lower gable mark denoting the situation where that of New Place formerly rested against Nash's house, the roof of which was higher than that of Shakespeare's residence. Its gable end overhung the latter, and the purlines, which project about eleven or twelve inches from the face of the wall, are still visible. From the appearance of the framing of the timbers, there is every reason to believe that this SHAKESPEARE'S NEIGHBOURS. 439 gable is in the same condition as when it was originally constructed. The front of the house has been twice re- built since the time of the great dramatist, and the interior has been greatly modernized, but the massive timbers, the immense chimneys, and the principal gables at the back are portions of the ancient building, and part of the original large opening of the chimney adjoining New Place can still be observed. The foundations appear to have been of sandstone, very similar in quality to that used in the construction of the Guild Chapel,. The house adjoining Hash's on the north side, now as formerly belonging to the Corporation of Stratford, is one of considerable interest, for here resided in Shakespeare's time, at the next house but one to New Place, Julius Shaw, one of the poet's testamentary witnesses in 1616. This house is mentioned in the time of Henry the Eighth as occupied by Thomas Fylle, a glover, and in 1591 it was held from the Corporation for a long term by Robert Gybbes, whose interests having been purchased by Shaw in 440 SHAKESPEARE S NEIGHBOURS. 1597, the Corporation then granted the latter a new lease for twenty-five years. " July Shawe holdeth one tenemente with a garden, yearly rent xij.j.," Rent Roll, January, 1597-8. The property is also described as a tenement and garden in a survey taken in 1582 ; more particularly in the same document in the following terms, " a house, tenure of Robert Gybbes, sufficiently repayered save a lyttelle outt- house lackethe tyllying, and a pese of a baye is thatched which was tyled, but before hys tyme;" and yet at greater length, as it appeared in the poet's days, in a survey of 1599, in which it is noted as "a tenemente in the strete ij. baies tiled, on the backside a barne of ij. baies, with either side a depe lentoo thatched ; more inward, another crosse- backhouse of ij. baies thatched ; betwene that and the stret house a range of j. baie thatch, and ij. baies tiled, and a garden answerable in bredth to the house, in length as John Tomlins,'' that is, the same length as the garden of Tomlins, Shaw's next-door neighbour on the north. The frontage and interior of these premises are now modernized, but nearly the whole of the outside walls at the back, and the main structure generally except the front, are of framed timber work apparently as old as Shakespeare's time, and in the straggling outhouses adjoining the residence lying on the southern side of the yard or garden is some more framed timber work supported by a stone basement. The eastern terminus of this property is divided from the Great Garden of New Place by a substantial brick wall of con- siderable age, but one which is extremely unlikely to have formed the boundary in the days of Julius Shaw. It appears from the vestry-book that Shaw contributed six shillings for his proportion of a church-rate levy on this house in 1617, eight shillings being paid at the same time by Dr. Hall for New Place. It would seem from this cir- cumstance that Shaw's house must have been a substantial SHAKESPEARE S NEIGHBOURS. 441 residence, or there would have been a wider difference between the two amounts paid. When the Corporation leased the premises to him in the year 1626, we are told that "the bredth thereof on the streete side is twenty-six foote ; item, the bredth thereof at the est end is thirtie ffoote ; item, the length thereof is nyne score ffoote." The present dimensions are as follows, street frontage, twenty- six feet ; length, one hundred and seventy-nine feet, three inches; width at east end, twenty-four feet; but the dis- crepancy of the few inches in the length may readily be accounted for by assuming that the shorter length was taken along the centre of the premises. The difference in the width of the eastern limit is not so readily explained, but as the modern measurement of the same boundary of the next house, also belonging to the Corporation, is several feet in excess of the ancient computation, it may be assumed that at some period one garden received an augmentation from the other. Fortunately, the question of length as to these premises is the only one of importance in the investigation of the boundaries of Shakespeare's Great Garden. Julius Shaw, who was born in the year 1571, was the son of a wool-driver of Stratford-on-Avon, one Ralph Shaw, who died when Julius was about twenty years of age. The latter continued his father's business, marrying Anne Boyes in 1594. His position in the following year is thus de- scribed "Julye Shawe usethe the trades of buyinge and sellinge of woll and yorne, and malltinge, and hathe in howse xviij. quarter and halfe of mallte and x. quarters of barley, whereof xx. tie stryke of the mallte is Mr. Watkyns, Mr. Grevylls mans, and v. quarters of one Gylbardes of Reddytche and the reste his owne ; there are in howshold iij. persons," MS. Presentments, 1595. He is mentioned as holding seven quarters of corn at his house in Chapel-street in February, 1598, and like many other provincial tradesmen 44 2 SHAKESPEARE S NEIGHBOURS. of the time, he appears to have been a kind of general dealer. At all events he is mentioned several times in the Chamberlains' Accounts as the seller of wood, tiles and other building materials, to the Corporation. He was elected a member of the Town Council in 1603, one of the chamberlains for 1609-1610, an alderman in 1613 and bailiff in 1616. Having prospered in business, in the year last mentioned he purchased land from Anthony Nash for the then considerable sum of^iSo. His death occurred in June, 1629. He appears to have been much respected, his colleagues in 1613 speaking of "his honesty, fidelity" and their ''good opinion of him," MS, Council Book, 4 Jan. 10 Jac. I. Shaw's next-door neighbour on the northern side in 1599 was one John Tomlins, whose residence is thus described in a survey of that date, " a tenemente in the strete side ij. baies tiled, from the stret house to the garden v. baies thatched, his garden in length about xvj. yerdes ; in the old buildinge on Juli Shaues yarde there is a coller-poste broke, and silles wantinge, and an ill gutter ; warninge must be geven for these defaultes, according to his lease." The dimensions of the garden, as here given, must be erroneous, for when the Corporation granted his widow a lease of the premises in 1619, a former one of 1608 to her being then surrendered, the following schedule is attached, " Imprimis, the bredth therof one the streete syde is thirtie two foote ; item, the bredth of the est end is thirtie foote ; the length therof from the streete to the est end is eight score and seventeene foote." The same dimensions are given in the Corporation leases up to the year 1774, although, according to the plan attached to one of that date, the street frontage is thirty-two feet five inches, the length one hundred and eighty-five feet nine inches, and the width at the eastern boundary thirty-three feet four jnches. These premises, SHAKESPEARE S NEIGHBOURS. 443 which are mentioned in 1630 (MS. Orders, 2 April) as being then in a very dilapidated state, were leased in 1646 to Henry Tomlins, who covenanted to refront the house within six years, that is, before 1652, to about which period, and not to the Shakespearean, the modernized but still antiquated face of the present structure must be referred. Some of the main features, such as the overhanging upper storey and the covered passage, appear to have been reproduced, but little, if any, of the original work of the sixteenth century is now to be traced. This house was long erroneously considered to have formerly been the residence of Julius Shaw. The next house towards the north is described in 1620 as a "tenement and garden in the occupaccion of George Perrye." In 1647 it belonged to one Richard Lane, who, in the April of that year, sold it to " Thomas Hathway of Stratford-uppon-Avon joyner," under the title of " all that messuage or tenement, backside and garden, in Stratford aforesaide, in a streete there called the Chappell Streete." It was then in the occupation of this Thomas Hathaway, the same person who is mentioned in Lady Barnard's will as her kinsman, and who was therefore connected with the Shakespeare family. He died in January, 1654-5, when the premises became the property of his widow, Jane Hathaway, who, in 1691, was presented at the sessions "for not repaireing the ground before her house in Chappell Street." This lady continued to reside in the house until the time of her death in October, 1696, but some years previously, namely in September, 1692, her grand-daughter Susannah Hathaway sold the reversion in fee accruing to her on Jane's death to Richard Wilson of Cripplegate, London, who, in May, 1698, conveyed the estate to Edward Clopton in a deed in which they are described as, " all that messuage or tenement with the appurtenances thereunto belonging, situate and being in the Chappell Street in the said borough 444 SHAKESPEARE S NEIGHBOURS. of Stratford-upon-Avon, being late the messuage or tenement of one Jane Hathaway, widow, and lyes between a messuage or tenement of one Richard Holmes on the north part, and a messuage or tenement late of one William Baker, gentle- man, deceased on the south part" These premises, after- wards known by the sign of the Castle, were rebuilt by Edward Clopton, and now contain no vestiges of the architectural work of the Shakespearean period. The determination of the western boundaries of the New Place estate has been alone rendered possible by a careful enquiry into the measures of the spaces occupied by the properties above described. Although the boundary marks of the garden formerly attached to Nash's house have long been removed, their positions can be ascertained with nearly mathematical exactitude. That Shakespeare's garden was originally, as it is now, contiguous to the eastern limits of the other properties, is shown decisively by the terms of a nearly contemporary lease of the third house from New Place ; and, as those premises have belonged to the Cor- poration from the sixteenth century to the present time, it is all but impossible that their boundaries should have been changed without a record of the fact having been made. No evidence of any such alteration is to be discovered amongst the town muniments. The lease referred to was granted to Mary Tomlins in 1619, the house being therein described as, "all that messuage or tenement and garden with thappurtenaunces wherein the said Marye now dwelleth, scittuate and beinge in Stratford aforesaide in a certaine place or streete there called Chappell Streete, betweene the tenement and garden of the saide Bayliffe and Burgesses in the occupaccion of Julyus Shawe one the south parte, the tenement and garden in the occupaccion of George Perr) e one the north parte, the garden or orchard of Mr. John Hall one thest parte, and the saide streete one the west." Another SHAKESPEARE S NEIGHBOURS. 445 testimony to the same effect occurs in the conveyance of the house and garden in Chapel Street from Richard Lane to Thomas Hathaway in 1647, in which the property sold is described as consisting of, " all that messuage or tenement, with the backside and garden, and all other thappurtenaunces thereunto belonging, scittuate, lyeing and being in Stratford aforesaide in a street there called the Chappell Streete, betweene the dwelling howse of John Loach on the north side, and the howse of Henry Tomlins on the south, the land of Mrs. Hall on the east, and the said streete on the west partes thereof, and now in the occupacion of the said Thomas Hathway." Opposite to New Place, on the north west end of Chapel Street and at the corner of Scholar's Lane, was, in Shake- speare's time, a private residence, which was afterwards, some time between the years 1645 and 1668, converted into a tavern distinguished by the sign of the Falcon. At the last-mentioned date, it was kept by one Joseph Phillips, who issued a token in that year, the sign, a falcon, being in the centre. It was probably this individual who first used the house as an inn, and the sign, there can hardly be a doubt, was adopted in reference to Shakespeare's crest, even if it be a mere conjecture that the landlord was descended from William Phillips, the maternal grandfather of Thomas Quiney, and in that way remotely connected with the poet's family. The most ancient title-deed yet discovered which refers to this house is dated in 1640, and the premises are therein described as consisting of a house and garden " latelie in the tenure, use and holdinge of Mrs Katherine Temple and nowe in the use and occupation of Joseph Boles, gent." It was then evidently a private house, and it is similarly described in a deed of 1645. In 1681 it is mentioned as "all that messuage or tennement with the apurtenances called by the name of the Falcon;" in 1685, 446 SHAKESPEARE'S NEIGHBOURS. as " comonly called by the name of the Falcon house ; " and in 1687, as "all that messuage, or tenement, or inne, comonly called or knowne by the name of the Falcon, scituate and beinge in a certaine street there comonly called or knowne by the name of the Chappell Street, and now in the occupacion of Joseph Phillips." The Falcon has been twice modernized within the last hundred years, and no reliable representation of it in its original state is known to be preserved. The view of it given by Ireland in 1795, with lattice windows on the ground floor, is at all events inaccu- rate, if not chiefly fanciful, and the same observation will apply to engravings of the ancient tavern in more recent works. That writer speaks of the house as " built of up- right oak timbers with plaister," adding unfounded state- ments that it was kept, in Shakespeare's days, by Julius Shaw, and that the poet, passing much time there, had " a strong partiality for the landlord, as well as for his liquor," Views on the Warwickshire Avon, 1795, p. 204. It may be just worth mentioning that there is still preserved a shovel- board table, sixteen feet and a half in length, which is asserted to have belonged to the Falcon Inn in olden times, and at which Shakespeare is said to have often played. That the table came from the Falcon there is no doubt : as to its implied age there is much uncertainty ; while the tradition connecting it with the poet is unquestionably a modern fabrication. THE NEW PLACE. There is a vellum roll, which was written in the year 1483, in which mention is made of a tenement at Stratford- on-Avon juxta Capellam modo Hugonis Clopton generosi ; but the earliest distinct notice of the large house in that town, situated at the corner of Chapel Street and Chapel Lane, generally referred to in the old records as the New Place, the term place_ being used in old English in the sense of residence or mansion, occurs in the will of Sir Hugh Clopton, an eminent citizen and mercer of London in the fifteenth century. In that document, which was proved in October, 1496, very shortly after the testator's death, the building is devised in the following terms, " to William Clopton I bequeith my grete house in Stratford-upon-Avon and all other my landes and tenementes being in Wilmecote, in the Brigge Towne and Stratford, with reversion and servyces and duetes thereunto belonginge, remayne to my cousin William Clopton, and for lak of issue of hym to remayne to the right heires of the lordship of Clopton for ever being heires mailes." That the " grete house " refers to New Place clearly appears from the inquisition upon Sir Hugh Clopton's death, taken at Stratford-on-Avon in 1497, in which he is described as being seized "de uno burgagio jacente in Chapell Strete in Stretford predicta ex oposito Capelle ex parte boriali" Sir Hugh had previously granted a life-interest in the estate to one Roger Paget, in whose possession it was vested in 1496. The William Clopton, to 448 THE NEW PLACE. whom the reversion in fee was bequeathed in the same year, was the son of John Clopton, and the grandson of Thomas Clopton, the brother of Sir Hugh. Livery of seizin in respect to New Place was granted to him in July, 1504, probably after the death of Paget; Rot. Pat. 19 Hen. VII. He died in 1521, leaving a will in which he bequeathed all his lands and tenements in Stratford-upon-Avon to his wife Rose for her life, and in the inquisition taken on his death, held in September, 1521, he was found to be possessed of one tenement in Chapel Street situated to the north of the Chapel of the Guild, "necnon de et in uno burgagio jacente in strata vocata Chapel Strete in Stratford super Avene ex parte boriali Capelle Sancte Trinitatis in Stratford predicta," Inq. 13 Henry VIII. In the same will he leaves " all such maners, londes, and tenementis which were sum- tyme of thenheritance of myne auncettours havyng the name and names of Clopton to those of the heirez males of my body commyng, and for defaulte of suche heire male of my body comyng, to the use of the heires malez of my said auncettours of the name of the Cloptones, accordyng to the old estates of intaylez and willis hertofore therof had, made and declared by my said auncettours, or any of theym." This devise seems to include New Place, otherwise there would be no provision for its descent after the death of Rose Clopton in 1525, when it became the property of William Clopton, son of the above-named William. It is alluded to as his freehold estate in an inquisition taken on his death in 1560, and as consisting of one tenement or burgage with the appurtenances in Chapel Street, now or late in the tenure ot William Bott, " de et in uno tenemento sive burgagio cum pertintentiis in Stratford-super-Aven in dicto comitatu Warwici, in vico ibidem vocato le Chappell strete modo in tenura sive occupacione Willielmi Bott," Escheat. 2 Eliz. Leland, who visited Stratford-on Avon about the year THE NEW PLACE. 449 1540, describes New Place as an elegant house built of brick and timber. His words are, u There is a right goodly chappell in a fayre street towardes the south ende of the towne, dedicated to the Trinity e ; this chappell was newly re-edified by one Hugh Clopton, major of London ; this Hugh Clopton builded also by the north syde of this chappell a praty house of bricke and tymbre wherein he lived in his latter dayes and dyed." Leland perhaps means that upright and cross pieces of timber were used in the construction of the house, the intervening spaces being filled in with brick. This writer appears, however, to have been misinformed when he made the statement that Sir Hugh lived at New Place in the latter part of his life, and that he died there. It seems evident from his having been buried at St. Margaret's in Lothbury, as recorded by Stow, that he died in London, for he expressly stipulates in his will that if Stratford was the place of his death, he should be buried in that town. New Place, as previously mentioned, was not even in Sir Hugh's possession at that period, it having been sold or given by him to one Roger Paget for the life of the latter ; so that, in fact, the house did not revert to the Cloptons until after the death of Paget. It may be doubted if any members of the Clopton family lived there in the sixteenth century, for they are generally spoken of as residing at Clopton, and in no record of that century yet produced is there any evidence that they were living in Stratford. In November, 1543, William Clopton let New Place on lease for a term of forty years to Dr. Thomas Bentley, who had been more than once President of the College of Physicians in its very early days, the Doctor paying for the house, including some lands in the neighbourhood, a yearly rent of ten pounds. Some time afterwards this lease was surrendered, and a new one granted at the same rental to continue in force during the 29 450 THE NEW PLACE. lives of Dr. Bentley and his wife Anne, or during her widowhood should she survive her husband. Dr. Bentley died in or about the year 1549, leaving New Place in great ruyne and decay and unrepayryd. His widow married one Richard Charnocke, and the lease by this event being forfeited, Clopton entered into possession of the premises, a circumstance which occasioned a suit in Chancery, the result of which is not stated, but there can be little doubt that it terminated in some way in favour of the defendant, who devised his estates at Stratford-on-Avon to his son, William Clopton, in 1560. This bequest was encumbered with a number of heavy legacies, in consequence of which the testator's son was compelled to part with some of the estates, which he did in 1563 to one William Bott, who had previously resided at New Place and in that year became its owner. It may be assumed that the latter was living therein 1564, when his name occurs in the Council- book of Stratford as contributing more than any one else in the town to the relief of the poor. His transactions with Clopton were mysterious and extensive, but there is no good reason for a supposition that New Place was obtained in other than an honourable manner. Clopton's embarrassments appear to have arisen from his father burdening his estates with legacies of unusual magnitude, hence arising the necessity for a recourse to a friendly capitalist During the time that Bott was in possession of New Place he brought an action of trespass against Richard Sponer, accusing the latter of entering into a close in Chapel Lane belonging to Bott called the barne yarde nigh le New Place gardyn, and taking thence by force twelve pieces of squared timber of the estimated value of fourty shillings. This act is stated to have been committed on June 1 8th, 1565, and the spot referred to was clearly an THE NEW PLACE. 451 enclosed space of ground in which stood a barn belonging to New Place, a little way down Chapel Lane next to the garden of that house. Sponer was a painter living at that time in Chapel Street in the third house from New Place and on the same side of the way, a fact which appears from a lease granted by the Corporation on May 28th, 1563, to "Rychard Sponer of Stratford peynter" of "a tenement wyth appurtenaunccs scytuate and beinge in the borrough of Stratford aforseid, in a strete there callyd the Chapell Strete, nowe in the tenure and occupacion of the seid Richard, and also a gardyn and bacsyde adjoynynge to the seid tenemente now lykwyse in the tenure and occupacion of the seid Richard." It appears from an endorsement that the house was the same which was afterwards held by John Tomlins, the garden of which extended to the western side of what was afterwards the Great Garden of New Place. " John Tomlins holdeth one tenemente with thappurtenaunces late in the tenure of Richard Sponer," Rent Roll, January, 1597-8. Now, in all probability, the timber was taken by Sponer from a spot close to his own garden, the division between the premises being in those days either a hedge or mud-wall, not a fence of a nature which would have rendered the achievement a difficult one. In his defence he admits having taken away six pieces of timber, but asserts that the plaintiff had presented the same to one Francis Bott, who had sold them to the defendant. This statement is declared by William Bott to be false, but it is reiterated by Sponer in the subsequent proceedings. The result of the action is not recorded, but it was settled, probably by compromise, at the close of the year. Several papers respecting this suit have been preserved, but the only one of interest in connexion with the New Place is the following plea which Bott filed against Sponer on September i2th, 1565, "Willielmus Bott queritur versus Ricardum 29 2 452 THE NEW PLACE. Sponer de placito transgressionis, et sunt plegii de prose- quendo, videlicet Johannes Doo et Ricardus Roo, unde idem Willielmus, per Jacobum Woodward attornatum suum, dicit quod predictus Ricardus, xviij. die Junii, anno regni domine Elizabethe Dei gracia Anglic Francie et Hibernie regine, fidei defensoris, etc., septimo, vi et armis, etc., clausum ipsius Willielmi Bott vocatum le barne yarde, jacens et existens in Stretford predicta juxta U newt place gardyn, in quodam venella vocata Dede Lane apud Stret- ford predictam, infra jurisdiccionem hujus curie, fregit et intravit, et duodecim pecias de meremiis vocatas xij. peces of tymber squaryd and sawed percii quadraginta solidorum de bonis cattallis ipsius Willielmi Bott adtunc et ibidem inventas cepit et asportavit, unde idem Willielmus dicit quod deterioratus est et dampnum habet ad valenciam centum solidorum, et unde producit sectarn, etc." The first mention of there being a garden attached to New Place occurs in this document; but there could not have been a very large one belonging to the house during the early part of the century, for a portion, if not the whole, of what was afterwards called the Great Garden belonged to the Priory of Pinley up to the year 1544. In deeds of 12 Henry VI. and 2 1 Henry VI., the Clifford Charity estate is described as adjoining the land of the Prioress of Pinley; but, in 12 Edward IV., that term is changed into tenement, " inter tenementum Abbathie de Redyng ex parte una et tenementum priorisse de Pynley, nunc in tenura Johannis Gylbert, ex parte altera." From this period until some time after 1544, the probability is that there were a cottage and garden between New Place and the Clifford estate. As to the exact period when the cottage was pulled down, and its site with the garden attached to New Place, it would be in vain now to conjecture. In July, 1567, the New Place estate was sold by William THE NEW PLACE. 453 Bott and others to William Underbill for the sum of ^40, being then described as consisting of one messuage and one garden ; and in return to a commission issued out of the Exchequer for the survey of the possessions of Ambrose earl of Warwick, made in 1590, it is stated that " Willielmus Underhill generosus tenet libere quandam domum vocatum the newe place cum pertinentiis pro redditu per annum xij., sicjubeo, hold in those that are able to command ; and if it be lawfull, fas et nefas, to doe any thing that is beneficial!, onely tyrants should possesse the earth ; and they, striving to exce'ede in tyranny, should each to other be'e a slaughter man ; till the mightiest outliving all, one stroke were left for death, that in one age mans life should ende. The brother .of this diabolicall atheisme is dead, and in his life had never the felicitie he aimed at ; but as he began in craft, lived in feare, and ended in despaire. Quum inscrutabilia sunt Dei judicia 9 This murderer of many brethren had his conscience seared like Caine ; this betrayer of him that gave his life for him, inherited the portion of Judas ; this apostata perished as ill as Julian : and wilt thou, my friend, be his disciple? Looke unto me, by him perswaded to that libertie, and thou shalt finde it an infernall bondage. I knowe the least of my demerits merit this miserable death ; but wilful striving against knowne truth exce*edeth al the terrors of my soule. Defer not, with me, till this last point of extremitie ; for little knowest thou how in the end thou shalt be visited. With trite I joyne young Juvenal!, that byting satyrist that lastlie with mde together writ a comedie. Swe*ete boy, might I advise thee, be advised, and get not many enemies by bitter words ; inveigh against vaine men, for thou canst do it, no man better, no man so we! ; thou hast a libertie to reproove all, and name none ; for one being spoken to, al are offended ; none being blamed, no man is injured. Stop shallow water still running, it will rage ; tread on a worme, and it will turne ; then blame not schollers vexed with THE ONLY SHAKE-SCENE. 505 sharpe lines, if they reprove thy too much libertie of .reproofe. And thou, no lesse deserving then the other two, in some things rarer, in nothing inferiour ; driven (as myselfe) to extreame shifts ; a little have I to say to th Herbert and Sir John Finett, and delivered annexed. J my sollicker Daniell Bedingfield, to take this petition and the severall papers heerunto annexed into their serious considerations, and to speake with the severall parties interested, and therupon and upon the whole matter to sett downe a proportionable and equi- table summe of money to bee payd unto Shankes for the two partes which hee is to passe unto Benfield, Swanston and Pollard, and to cause a finall agreement and convay- ances to be settled accordingly, and to give mee an account of their whole proceedinges in writing. Aug. i, 1635. THE DAVENANT SCANDAL. In illustration of what has been advanced in the text respecting the mythical character of this disreputable anec- dote, it is desirable to give in chronological order the versions of it which have obtained currency during the last two centuries. They evince for the most part the fashion- able aversion either to diminish the probability, or arrest the progressive development, of a nice bit of scandal. Added to these are a few. pieces which will be found useful in the general argument. The following extracts are taken from 1. Wit and mirth chargeably collected out of Tavernes, &c., 162 p; here given from the reprint in All tJie Workes of John Taylor, the Water-Poet, 1630. A boy, whose mother was noted to be one not overloden with honesty, went to seeke his godfather, and enquiring for him, quoth one to him, Who is thy Godfather ? The boy repli'd, his name is goodman Digland the gardiner. Oh, said the man, if he be thy godfather he is at the next alehouse, but I feare thou takest Gods name in vaine. 2. Aubrey's Lives of Eminent Persons, a manuscript in the Bodleian Library completed in the year 1680. Towards the close of the last century, an attempt was made by some one to erase the passages which are here given in Italics, but they can still be distinctly read when placed under a magnifying- gtass. Sir William Davenant, knight, Poet-Laureat, was borne about the end of February in street in 554 THE DAVENANT SCANDAL. the city of Oxford, at the Crowne Taverne ; baptized 3. of March, A. D. 1605-6. His father was John Davenant, a vintner there, a very grave and discreet citizen ; his mother was a very beautifull woman, and of a very good witt, and of conversation extremely agreeable. They had three sons, viz. Robert, William, and Nicholas. Robert was a fellow of St. John's Coll. in Oxon, then preferd to the vicarage of Westkington by Bp. Davenant, whose chaplain he was ; Nicholas was an attorney. And two handsome daughters, one m. to Gabriel Bradly, B. D. of C. C. C, beneficed in the vale of White Horse ; another to Dr. Sherburne, minister of Pembridge in Heref. and a canon of that church. Mr. William Shakespeare was wont to goe into Warwickshire once a yeare, and did commonly in his journey lye at this house in Oxon, where he was exceedingly respected. / have heard Parson Robert say that Mr. W. Shakspearc has given him a hundred kisses. Now Sir Wm. would sometimes, when he was pleasant over a glasse of wine with his most intimate friends, e. g. Sam Butler, etc., say that it seemed to him that he writt with the very spirit that Shakespeare, and was contented enough to be thought his son ; he would tell them the story as above. Now, by the way, his mother had a very light report. In those days she was called a trader. He went to schoole at Oxon. to Mr. Charles Silvester, wheare F. Degorii W. was his schoole fellow ; but I feare he was drawne from schoole before he was ripe enoughe. He was preferred to the first Dutchess of Richmond, to wayte on her as a page. I remember he told me she sent him to a famous apothecary for some unicornes home, which he was resolved to try with a spyder, which he empaled in it, but without the expected success ; the spider would goe over, and through and thorough, unconcerned. j. Gildoris edition of Langbaine's work on the Dramatic Poets, 1699. Sir William D'avenant, the son of John THE DAVENANT SCANDAL. 555 D'avenant, vintner of Oxford, in that very house that has now the sign of the Crown near Carfax ; a house much frequented by Shakespear in his frequent journeys to Warwick-shire ; whither for the beautiful mistress of the house, or the good wine, I shall not determine. 4.. Hearnds manuscript pocket-book in the Bodleian Library, 1709. July 30. Twas reported by tradition in Oxford that Shakespear, as he used to pass from London to Stratford-upon-Avon, where he lived and now lies buried, always spent some time in the Crown tavern in Oxford, which was kept by one Davenant, who had a handsome wife, and loved witty company, though himself a reserved and melancholly man. He had born to him a son, who was afterwards christened by the name of William, who proved a very eminent poet, and was knighted by the name of Sir William Davenant, and the said Mr. Shakespear was his godfather, and gave him his name. In all probability he got him. 'Tis further said that one day, going from school, a grave doctor in divinity met him, and asked him, Child, whether art thou going in such hast ? To which the child replyed, O, Sir, my god-father is come to town, and I am going to ask his blessing. To which the Dr. said, Hold, child ! You must not take the name of God in vaine. 5. Jacob's Poetical Register, 1719, i. 58, reprinted in 1723. Sir William D'Avenant was son to Mr. John D'Avenant, a vintner of Oxford. He was born in the year 1605, and his father's house being frequented by the famous Shakespear, in his journeys to Warwickshire, his poetical genius in his youth was by that means very much encourag'd; and some will have it that the handsome landlady, as well as the good wine, invited the tragedian to those quarters. 6. Conversations of Pope in the year 1730, thus recorded by Spence. That notion of Sir William Davenant being more 556 THE DAVENANT SCANDAL. than a poetical child only of Shakspeare, was common in town; and Sir William himself seemed fond of having it taken for truth. 7. Anecdote related by Pope in the year 1744, as recorded by Spence. Shakspeare, in his frequent journeys between London and his native place, Stratford-upon-Avon, used to lie at Davenant's, the Crown in Oxford. He was very well acquainted with Mrs. Davenant ; and her son, afterwards Sir William, was supposed to be more nearly related to him than as a godson only. One day, when Shakspeare was just arrived and the boy sent for from school to him, a head of one of the colleges, who was pretty well acquainted with the affairs of the family, met the child running home, and asked him whither he was going in so much haste ? The boy said, " to my god-father Shakspeare." " Fie, child," says the old gentleman, " why are you so superfluous ? have you not learned yet that you should not use the name of God in vain." 8. The Manuscript Collections of Oldys, written probably about the year 1750, and printed by Steevens in 1785. If tradition may be trusted, Shakspeare often baited at the Crown Inn or Tavern in Oxford, in his journey to and from London. The landlady was a woman of great beauty and sprightly wit, and her husband, Mr. John Davenant, after- wards mayor of that city, a grave melancholy man ; who, as well as his wife, used much to delight in Shakspeare's pleasant company. Their son, young Will Davenant, after- wards Sir William, was then a little school-boy in the town of about seven or eight years old, and so fond also of Shakspeare that, whenever he heard of his arrival, he would fly from school to see him. One day an old townsman, observing the boy running homeward almost out of breath, asked him whither he was posting in that heat and hurry. 'He answered, to see his god-father Shakspeare. There's THE DAVENANT SCANDAL. 557 a good boy, said the other, but have a care that you don't take God's name in vain. This story Mr. Pope told me at the Earl of Oxford's table upon occasion of some discourse which arose about Shakspeare's monument then newly erected in Westminster Abbey ; and he quoted Mr. Betterton the player for his authority. I answered that I thought such a story might have enriched the variety of those choice fruits of observation he has presented us in his preface to the edition he had published of our poet's works. He replied, There might be in the garden of mankind such plants as would seem to pride themselves more in a regular production of their own native fruits, than iri having the repute of bearing a richer kind by grafting ; and this was the reason he omitted it. p. Manuscript Notes written by Oldys on the m'argins of his copy of Langbatrie, 1691, preserved in the library vf the British Museum. The story of Davenant's godfather Shake- speare, as Mr. Pope told it me, is printed among the jests of John Taylor, the water-poet, in his Works, fol. 1630, but without their names, and with a seeming fictitious one of the boy's godfather, viz., Goodman Digland the gafdiner, I suppose of Oxford, for Taylor tells other jests that he picked up at Oxon in the same collection. 10. The Lives of the Poets, 1753, vol. it. pp. 63-64. All the biographers of our poet (Sir William Davenant) have observed that his father was a man of a grave disposition and a gloomy turn of mind, which his son did not inherit from him, for he was as remarkably volatile as his father was saturnine. The same biographers have celebrated our author's mother as very handsome, whose charms had the power of attracting the admiration of Shakespear, the highest compliment which ever was paid to beauty. As Mr. Davenant, our poet's father, kept a tavern, Shakespear, in his journies to Warwickshire, spent some time there, 558 THE DAVENANT SCANDAL. influenced, as many believe, by the engaging qualities of the handsome landlady. This circumstance has given rise to a conjecture that Davenant was really the son of Shakespear, as well naturally as poetically, by an unlawful intrigue between his mother and that great man. 11. A Description of England and Wales, 1769, vol. vii. p. 238. William D'Avenant, poet laureat in the reigns of Charles the First and -Charles the Second, was born in Oxford in the year 1605. His father, Mr. John D'Avenant, a vintner of that place, was a man, it is said, of a very peaceable disposition, and his mother a woman of great spirit and beauty ; and as their house was much frequented by the celebrated Shakespeare, this gave occasion to a report that the tragedian stood in a nearer relation than that of a friend to our author. 12. Notes by Warton in Malone's Supplement to Shakes- peare, 1780, i. 69, in which there is a gratuitous ins in na- tion of the possibility of an extension of the scandal. Antony Wood is the first and original author of the anecdote that Shakspeare, in his journies from Warwick- shire to London, used to bait at the Crown-inn on the west side of the corn-market in Oxford. I will not suppose that Shakspeare could have been the father of a Doctor of Divinity who never laughed : but it was always a constant tradition in Oxford that Shakspeare was the father of Davenant the poet. And I have seen this circumstance expressly mentioned in some of Wood's papers. Wood was well qualified to know these particulars : for he was a townsman of Oxford, where he was born in 1632. ij. Letter to Malone from /. Taylor, of the Sun Office, written in August, 1810. On re-perusing your history of the English stage and your anecdotes of Shakespeare and Davenant, I see no allusion to a story which I copied in early life from a manuscript book, and which, many years THE DAVENANT SCANDAL. 559 afterwards, when I became connected with the public press, I inserted in a newspaper. It is very probable that you have heard the story, though perhaps you did not think it was established on a sufficient tradition for notice in your work. I assure you upon my honour I found it there, and, if this could be doubted, I am ready to make oath of the accuracy of my statement. The manuscript-book was written by Mr. White, a very respectable gentleman who was a reading-clerk to the House of Lords. He died about the year 1772, and his property chiefly descended to a Miss D unwell, his niece. He lived upon Wandsworth Common in a very good house. That house and other property was bequeathed by Miss Dunwell to a Mrs. Bod- man, a very old acquaintance of my family, and who knew me from my birth. All Mr. White's books and manuscripts came into Mrs. Bodman's possession, and most of them, I believe, were sold by auction. The book to which I allude consisted chiefly of observations and anecdotes written by Mr. White himself, and were gleanings of conversations at which he was present He was well acquainted with Mr. Pope, and often dined in company with him, and many of the observations and anecdotes had Mr. Pope's name at the bottom of them, indicating the source whence Mr. White derived them. What became of the book I know not. After all this preface, you will perhaps exclaim, parturiunt monies, &C., but, as it relates to Shakespeare, it must be interesting. The story was to the following purport. It was generally supposed or whispered in Oxford that Shakespeare, who was the godfather of Sir William Davenant, was in reality the father. The story mentioned that Shakespeare used to come to London every two years, and always stayed a night or two, going and coming, at the Crown. On such occasions the boy was always sent for from school to pay his respects to Shakespeare. On one of 560 THE DAVENANT SCANDAL. these occasions, as the child was running along the street, he was met by one of the heads of the colleges, who asked where he was going. The child said, to see my godfather Shakespeare. What ! said the gentleman, have they not taught you yet not to use the Lord's name in vain ? 14. Will of John Davenant, of Oxford, vintner, proved on October 2ist, 1622. From the recorded copy in the Registry of the Prerogative Court of Canterbury. It hathe pleased God to afflict me these four moneths rather .with a paine then a sickenes, which I acknowledge a gentle correction for my former sinnes in having soe faire a time to repent, my paines rather daily ericreasing then otherwise. And for sde much as many wise men are suddenly .over- taken by death, by procrastinateing of their matters con- cerning the settling of their estates, I thincke it fitt, though mine be of noe great value, considering the many children I have, and the mother dead which would guide them, as well for the quietnes of my owne mind when I shall depart this life as to settle a future amity and love among them, that there may be noe strife in the division of those blessinges which God hath lent me, to set downe my mind in the nature of my laste will and testament, both for the dis- poseing of the same, as also how I would have them order themselves after my decease till it shall please God to order and direct them to other courses. First, I committ my soule to Almighty God, hopeinge by my Redeemer Christ Jesus to have remission of my sinnes ; my body I committ to the earth to be buryed in the parish of St. Martins in Oxford as nere my wife as the place will give leave where shee lyeth. For my funeralls and obsequies, if I dye in the yeare of my marolty, I desire should be in comely manner, neither affecting pompe nor to much sparing, leaveing the same to my executors discretion, whom I name to be as followeth, hartily desiring these five following whom I name THE DAVENANT SCANDAL. 561 to be my overseers to take paines not only in that but alsoe in any other matter of advice to my children concerning the settling of their estates, which five are these, Alderman Harris, Alderman Wright, Mr. John Bird, Mr. Wm. Gryce, Mr. Tho : Davis. Item, I will that my debts be paid by my executors which I owe either by bond, bill or booke, which I have made within the compass of this two yeares. Item, I give and bequeath to my three daughters, Elizabeth, Jane ( and Alice, two hundred pound a-peece to be payd out of my estate within one yeare after my buriall. Item, I give to my four sonnes one hundred fiftie pound a-peece to be payd them within a yeare after my buriall. Item, I give to my sonne Nicholas my house at the White Beare in Dett- ford, which is lett to Mr. Haines, schoolemaster of Marchant Tailers Schoole. Item, I give to my sonne Robert my scale-ring. Item, my will is that my houshold stuffe and plate be sold to the best value within the compasse of a yeare, excepting such necessaryes as my executors and overseers shall thinck fitt for the furnishing of my house, to goe towardes- the payment of my childrens portions. Item, my will is that my house shall be kept still as a taverne, and supplied with wines continually, for the bringing up and entertainment of my children, untill such time as Thomas Hallom, my servant, comes out of his yeares, and the yearly profitt thereof, necessary expenses of rent, reparacion and housekeeping being deducted, to retorne at the time of his comeing forth of his yeares to my seaven children in equall portions, together with the stocke in the seller and the debtes, or to the survivors, if any happen to dye in the meane tyme. And that this may be the better effected according to my will and intent, I will that my servant Thomas have the managing thereof duringe his apprenti- shipp, and that he shall give a true account of his dealing unto my executors and overseers four times in the yeare ; 36 562 THE DAVENANT SCANDAL. alsoe that George be kept here still in the house till his yeares come forth, at which time my will is that he be made free of the Marchant Tailers in London, and have five pound given him when he comes out of his yeares. And to the intent that this my devise of keeping my house as a taverne for the better releefe of my children may take the better effect, according to my meaning, in consideracion that my three daughters, being maidens, can hardly rule a thing of such consequence, my will is that my sister Hatton, if it stand with her good liking, may come with her youngest sonne, and lye and table at my house with my children till Thomas Hallom comes out of his yeares, for the better comfort and countenancing of my three daughters, and to have her said dyett free, and five pound a yeare in money, knowing her to have bin alwaies to me and my wife loving, just and kind. Alsoe my will is that twoe of my youngest daughters doe keepe the barre by turnes, and sett doune every night under her hand the dayes taking in the veiwe of Thomas Hallom, my servant, and that this booke be orderly kept for soe long time as they shall thus sustaine the house as a taverne, that, if need be, for avoiding of deceite and distrust there may be a calculation made of the receites and disbursementes. Now if any of my daughters marry with the consent of my overseers, that her porcion bee presently paid her, and shee that remaineth longest in the house either to have her porcion when Thomas Hollome comes out of his yeares. or if he and shee can fancy one another, my will is that they marry together, and her porcion to be divided by itselfe towardes the maintenance of the trade ; and the one halfe of my two youngest sonnes stockes shal be in his the said Thomas his handes, payeinge or allowing after twenty nobles per hundred, giving my said two sonnes or my overseers security sufficient for the same to be paid at their cominge THE DAVENANT SCANDAL. 563 to twenty-one yeares of age, the other halfe to be putt forth for their best profitt by the advise of my overseers ; my will is also that my sonne William, being now arrived to six- teen yeares of age, shall be put to prentice to some good marchant of London or other tradesman by the consent and advise of my overseers, and that there be forty pound given with him to his master, -whereof 20/1. to be payd out of his owne stocke, and 2o//. out of my goodes, and double apparrell, and that this be done within the compasse of three moneths after my death, for avoyding of incon- venience in my howse for mastershippe when I am gone. My will is alsoe concerning the remainder of the yeares in my lease of my house, the tavern e, that if Thomas and any of my daughters doe marry together, that he and she shall enjoy the remainder of the yeares, be it five or six more or lesse, after he comes out of his yeares, paying to my sonn Robert over and above the rent to Mr. HufTe yearely soe much as they two shall agree uppon, my over- seers beinge umpires betwixt them, whereof the cheefest in this office I wish to be my friend Mr. Grice ; provided alwaies my meaning is that neither the gallery nor chambers, or that floore nor cockelofts over, nor kitchin, nor lorther nor little sellar, be any part of the thing demised, but those to remaine to the use of my sonn Robert, if he should leave the universitie, to entertaine his sisters if they should marry, &c., yet both to have passage into the wood-yard, garden and house of office. My will is alsoe that my sonne Robert shall not make nor meddle with selling or trusting of wyne, nor with any thing in the house, but have entertanement as a brother for meale tydes and the like, or to take phisicke in sicknes, or if he should call for wyne and the like with his friendes and acquaintance, that he presently pay for it or bee sett downe uppon his name to answeare the same out of his part, my meaning being that 564 THE DAVENANT SCANDAL. the government shall consist in my three daughters and in my servant Thomas, whom I have alvvaies found faithfull unto me ; and to reward his vertue the better and to putt him into more encouragement, I give him twenty pound to be payd him when he comes out of his yeares. Alsoe, my will is that my sonn Robert for his better allowance in the university have quarterly paid him fifty shiliinges and twenty shiliinges to buy him necessaryes out of the pro- venew of the profitt of wyne, till Thomas comes out of his yeares, besides the allowance of the interest of his stocke ; and in the meane tyme, if I dye before he goes out Bachelor, his reasonable apparrell and expences of that degree to be payd out of my goodes, provided alwaies it it be done with the advice of Mr. Turr. My will is that Nicholas be kept at schoole at Bourton till he be fifteen yeares old, and his board and apparell be payd for out of the profitt of selling of the wyne ; and for John my will is he be kept halfe an yeare at schoole if my overseers thinke good, and his brothers and sisters, and after put to prentice and have thirty pound given with him, x.//. out of his owne stocke and twenty pound out of the profitt of selling of wyne. Alsoe my will is that within twenty-four houres after my funerall, the wynes of all sortes and condicions be filled up, and reckon how many tunnes of Gascoyne wine there is, which I would have rated at twenty-five pound per tunne, and how many butts and pipes of sweet wynes there are, which I would have rated at twentie pound per ceece, both which drawne into a summe are to be sett downe in a booke. Alsoe the next day after, a schedule of the debtes which are oweing me in the debt-booke, the sperate by themselves and the desperate by themselves them alsoe sett downe, the ordinary plate to drincke in the taverne to be wayed and valued, the bondes and billes in my study to be lookt over and sett downe, in all which use the THE DAVENANT SCANDAL. 565 opinion of Mr. Gryce ; accompt with any marchant that I deale withall betimes, and aske my debtes with as much speede as may be. Lastly, take an inventory of all the utensells in my house, and let them be praysed; in that use the advise of my overseers ; and what money shal be in caishe more then s*hal be needful for the present to pay my debtes or buy wyne with, let it be putt foorth to the best advantage. if. A poem " on Mr. Davenantt, who died att Oxford in his Maioralty a fortnight after his wife" from a very curious manuscript volume of miscellanies, of the time of Charles the First, preserved in the library of the Earl of Warwick, the text being verbally corrected in four places by the aid of a transcript made by Haslewood from another manuscript. Well, sceince th'art deade, if thou canst mortalls heare, Take this just tribute of a funerall teare ; Each day I see a corse, and now no knell Is more familiare then a passing-bell ; All die, no fix'd inheritance men have, Save that they are freeholders to the grave. Only I truly greive, when vertues brood Becomes wormes meate, and is the cankers foode. Alas, that unrelenting death should bee At odds with goodnesse ! Fairest budds we see Are soonest cropp't ; who know the fewest crimes, Tis theire prerogative to die bee-tirnes, Enlargd from this worlds misery j and thus hee, Whom wee now waile, made hast to bee made free. There needes no loud hyperbole sett him foorth, Nor sawcy elegy to bellowe his worth ; His life was an encomium large enough ; True gold doth neede no foyles to sett itt off. had choyce giftes of nature and of arte ; 566 Till-: DAVENANT SCANDAL. Neither was Fortune wanting on her parte To him in honours, wealth or progeny : Hee was on all sides blest. Why should hee dye ? And yett why should he live, his mate being gone, And turtle like sigh out an endlese moone? No, no. hee loved her better, and would not So easely lose what hee so hardly gott. Hee liv'd to pay the last rites to his bride ; That done, hee pin'd out fourteene dayes and died. Thrice happy paire ! Oh, could my simple verse Reare you a lasting trophee ore your hearse, You should vie yeares with Time ; had you your due, Eternety were as short liv'd as you. Farewell, and in one grave now you are deade, Sleepe ondisturb'ed as in your marriage-bed. 1 6. Another Poem "on the Same" preserved in the Manuscript which contains the verses printed in the last article. If to bee greate or good deserve the baies, What merits hee whom greate and good doth praise ? What meritts hee ? Why, a contented life, A happy yssue of a vertuous wife, The choyce of freinds, a quiet honour'd grave, All these hee had ; What more could Dav'nant have ? Reader, go home, and with a weeping eie, For thy sinns past, learne thus to live and die. 77. An Account of the English Dramatick Poets, by Gerard Langbaine. 8vo. Oxford, 1691. Sir William Davenant, a person sufficiently known to all lovers of poetry, and one whose works will preserve his memory to posterity. He was born in the city of Oxford, in the parish of St. Martins, vulgarly call'd Carfax, near the end of February in the year 1605, and was christned on the third of March THE DAVENANT SCANDAL. 567 following. He was the mercurial son of a saturnine father, Mr. John D'Avenant, a vintner by profession, who liv'd in the same house which is now known by the sign of the Crown. 18. Wood's Athena Oxonienses, an Exact History of all the Writers and Bishops who have had their Education in the most ancient and famous University of Oxford. Pol. Lond. 1692, ii. 292. William D'Avenant made his first entry on the stage of this vain world in the parish of S. Martin within the city of Oxford, about the latter end of the month of Febr. and on the third of March following, an. i6of, he received baptism in the church of that parish. His father, John Davenant, was a sufficient vintner, kept the tavern now known by the name of the Crown, wherein our poet was born, and was mayor of the said city in the year 1621. His mother was a very beautiful woman, of a good wit and conversation, in which she was imitated by none of her children but by this William. The father, who was a very grave and discreet citizen, yet an admirer and lover of plays and play-makers, especially Shakespeare, who frequented his house in his journies between Warwickshire and London, was of a melancholic disposition, and was seldom or never seen to laugh, in which he was imitated by none of his children but by Robert his eldest son, after- wards Fellow of S. John's Coll. and a venerable Doct. of Div. As for William, whom we are farther to mention, and may justly stile the sweet Swan of Isis, was educated in grammar learning under Edw. Sylvester, whom I shall else- where mention, and in academical in Line. Coll. under the care of Mr. Dan. Hough, in 1620, 21, or thereabouts, and obtained there some smattering in logic ; but his genie, which was always opposite to it, lead him in the pleasant paths of poetry, so that tho' he wanted much of University learning, yet he made as high and noble flights in the 568 THK DAVENANT SCANDAL. poetical faculty, as fancy could advance, without it. After he had left the said Coll. wherein, I presume, he made but a short stay, he became servant to Frances, the first Dutchess of Richmond, and afterwards to Foulk Lord Brook, who being poetically given, especially in his younger days, was much delighted in him. After his death, an. 1628, he, being free from trouble and attendance, betook himself to writing of plays and poetry, which he did with so much sweetness and grace, that he got the absolute love and friendship of his two patrons, Endimyon Porter and Hen. Jermyn afterwards Earl of S. Alban's ; to both \vhirh he dedicated his poem, which he afterwards published, called Madagascar. Sir John Suckling also was his great and intimate friend. CONTEMPORARY NOTICES. This division is restricted to those allusions to the great dramatist by name which have been discovered in the printed literature of his own time, those which are attached to recognized quotations or poems being excluded. It has not been considered necessary to form a corresponding selection of innominate references to him or of the occa- sional authentic or travestied quotations from, or imitations of, passages in his works ; but those that are of real practical use for the illustration of facts or theories are referred to either in the text or notes. Let it be observed that it is sometimes impossible to decide whether certain similarities are to be attributed to recollections of Shakespeare, or if they be prototypes of his own language or thought ; in which cases of uncertainty they are obviously of no argumentative value. /. The commencing verses of a laudatory address prefixed to Willobie his Avisa, or the true Picture of a modest Maid and of a chast and constant Wife, 4to. Lond. 1594, a work entered at Stationers' Hall on September the third in that year, and reprinted in 1596, 1605, and 1609. In Lavine lande though Livie bost, There hath beene scene a constant dame ; Though Rome lament that she have lost The gareland of her rarest fame, Yet now we see that here is found As great a faith in English ground, 57O CONTEMPORARY NOTICES. Though Collatine have deerely bought To high renowne a lasting life, And found that most in vaine have sought, To have a faire and constant wife, Yet Tarquyne pluckt his glistering grape, And Shake-speare paints poore Lucrece rape. //. The second nominated allusion to Shakespeare in our printed literature occurs on the margin of a curious rolume entitled, " Polimanteia, or the meanes lawful! and rtilawfull, to ivdge of the fall of a Common-wealth, against the friuolous and foolifh coniectures of this age" 4to., Cambridge, 1595. The author is eulogizing in his text the poets of England as superior to those of foreign nations, but the two side-notes, one consisting of three and the other of two words, in which references are made to the early poems of Shakespeare, appear to be merely illustrative examples in support of the authors main position. They seem to be isolated, and altogether unconnected with the other marginalia. The following extract, here printed V. L., exhibits the exact manner in which they are placed in the original work. Let o- ther countries (fweet Cambridge] enuie, All praife (yet admire) my Virgil, thy petrarch, di- worthy. uine Spenfer. And vnlefle I erre, (a thing Lucrecia eafie in fuch fimplicitie) deluded by Sweet Shak- dearlie beloued Delia, and fortunatelie fpeare. fortunate Cleopatra; Oxford thou maift Eloquent extoll thy courte-deare-verfe happie Gaueston. Daniell, whofe fweete refined mufe, in contracted fhape, were fuffici^nt a- mongft men, to gaine pardon of the Wanton finne to Rofemond, pittie to diftreffed Adonis. Cleopatra, and euerliuing praife to her Watfons louing Delia. hey re. CONTEMPORARY NOTICES. 5/1 /// From Barnfieltfs Encomion of Lady Pecunia, 1598, a second edition appearing in 1605. A curious early transcript of the latter, written in a kind of cypher, is in MS. Ashm. 1153. In both editions the following verses are entitled, "A Remembrance of some English Poets" Live, Spenser, ever in thy Fairy Queene, Whose like, for deepe conceit, was never scene ; Crownd mayst thou bee, unto thy more renowne, As King of Poets with a lawrell crowne. And Daniell, praised for thy sweet-chast verse, Whose fame is grav'd on Rosamonds blacke herse, Still mayst thou live, and still be honored For that rare worke, the White Rose and the Red. And Drayton, whose wel-wrrtten tragedies, And sweete Epistles, soare thy fame to skies, Thy learned name is sequall with the rest, Whose stately numbers are so well addrest. And Shakespeare thou, whose hony-flowing vaine, Pleasing the world, thy praises doth obtaine ; Whose Venus t and whose Lucrece, sweete and chaste, Thy name in fames immortall booke have plac't, Live ever you, at least in fame live ever ; Well may the bodye dye, but fame dies never. IV. The following extracts are from a treatise entitled, "A comparative Discourse of our English poets with the Greeke, Latine and Italian poets" which is near the end of a thick little volume called, "Palladis Tamia. Wits Treasvry. being the Second part of Wits Commonwealth. By Francis Meres, Maister of ' Artes of both Vniuersities. Viuitur ingenio, cater a mortis erunt. At London. Printed by P. Short, for Cuthbert Burbie, and are to be solde at his 572 CONTEMPORARY NOTICES. shop at the Royall Exchange. iQ8^ There can be no doubt that this chapter urns written in the summer of 1598, the work itself having been entered at Stationers' Hall on the fth of September in that year, and there being in the Discourse a notice of Marstoris Satires entered on the previous 2jth of May. As the Greeke tongue is made famous and eloquent by Homer, Hesiod, Euripedes, Aeschilus, Sophocles, Pindarus, Phocylides, and Aristophanes ; and the Latine tongue by Virgill, Ovid, Horace, Silius Italicus, Lucanus, Lucretius, Ansonius, and Claudianus ; so the English tongue is mightily enriched, and gorgeouslie invested in rare orna- ments and resplendent abiliments, by Sir Philip Sidney, Spencer, Daniel, Drayton, Warner, Shakespeare, Marlow and Chapman. As the soule of Euphorbus was thought to live in Pythagoras, so the sweete wittie soule of Ovid lives in mellifluous and hony-tongued Shakespeare; witnes his Venus and Adonis, his Lucrece, his sugred Sonnets among his private friends, &c. As Plautus and Seneca are accounted the best for comedy and tragedy among the Latines, so Shakespeare among the English is the most excellent in both kinds for the stage ; for comedy, witnes his Gentlemen of Verona, his Errors, his Love labors lost, his Love labours wonne. his Midsummers night dreame, and his Merchant of Venice; for tragedy, his Richard the 2, Richard the 3, Henry the 4, King John, Titus Andronicus and his Romeo and Juliet. As E~pius Stolo said that the Muses would speake with Plautus tongue, if they would speak Latin ; so I say that the Muses would speak with Shakespeares fine filed phrase, if they would speake English. As Ovid saith of his worke ; Jamque opus exegi, quod CONTEMPORARY NOTICES. 5/3 nec Jovis ira, nee ignis, = Nee poterit ferrum, nee edax abolere vetustas. And as Horace saith of his ; Exegi monumentum sere perennius; Regalique situ puramidum altius ; Quod non imber edax ; Non Aquilo impotens possit diruere ; aut innumerabilis annorum series et fuga temporum; so say I severally of sir Philip Sidneys, Spencers, Daniels, Draytons, Shakespeares, and Warners workes. Non Jovis ira : imbres : Mars : ferrum : flamma, senectus, Hoc opus unda : lues : turbo : venena ruent. Et quanquam ad plucherrimum hoc opus evertendum tres illi Dij Conspirabunt, Cronus, Vulcanus, et pater ipse gentis ; Non tamen annorum series, non flamma, nec ensis, ^Eternum potuit hoc abolere Decus. As Pindarus, Anacreon and Callimachus among the Greekes, and Horace and Catullus among the Latines, are the best lyrick poets ; so in this faculty the best among our poets are Spencer, who excelleth in all kinds, Daniel, Drayton, Shakespeare, Bretton. As these tragicke poets flourished in Greece, Aeschylus, Euripedes, Sophocles, Alexander Aetolus, Achseus Erith- riaeus, Astydamas Atheneinsis, Apollodorus Tarsensis, Nicomachus Phrygius, Thespis Atticus, and Timon Apol- loniates ; and these among the Latines, Accius, M. Attilius, Pomponius Secundus and Seneca; so these are our best for tragedie, the Lord Buckhurst, Doctor Leg of Cam- bridge, Doctor Edes of Oxforde, maister Edward Ferris, the authour of the Mirrour for Magistrates, Marlow, Peele, Watson, Kid, Shakespeare, Drayton, Chapman, Decker, and Benjamin Johnson. The best poets for comedy among the Greeks are these, Menander, Aristophanes, Eupolis Atheniensis, Alexis Terius. Nicostratus, Amipsias Atheniensis, Anaxandrides 5/4 CONTEMPORARY NOTIU -. Rhodius, Aristonymus, Archippus Atheniensis and Callias Atheniensis; and among the Latines, Plautus, Terence, Naeuius, Sext. Turpilius, Licinius Imbrex, and Virgilius Romanus; so the best for comedy amongst us bee, Edward Earle of Oxforde, Doctor Gager of Oxforde, Maister Rowley, once a rare Scholler of learned Pembrooke Hull in Cambridge, Maister Edwardes, one of her Majesties Chappell, eloquent and wittie John Lilly, Lodge, Gascoyne, Greene, Shakespeare, Thomas Nash, Thomas Heywood, Anthony Mundye, our best plotter, Chapman, Porter, Wilson, Hathway, and Henry Chettle. As these are famous among the Greeks for elegie, Melanthus, Mymnerus Colophonius, Olympius Mysius, Parthenius Nicaeus, Philetas Cous, Theogenes Megarensis and Pigres Halicarnassaeus ; and these among the Latines, Mecaenas, Ovid, Tibullus, Propertius, T. Valgius, Cassius Severus, and Clodius Sabinus; so these are the most passionate among us to bewaile and bemoane the per- plexities of love, Henrie Howard, Earle of Surrey, Sir Thomas Wyat the elder, Sir Francis Brian, Sir Philip Sidney, Sir Walter Rawley, Sir Edward Dyer, Spencer, Daniel, Drayton, Shakespeare, Whetstone, Gascoyne, Samuell Page, sometimes fellowe of Corpus Christi Colledge in Oxford, Churchyard, Bretton. V. Epigram on Shakespeare, inscribed, " The fourth weeke. Epig. 22. Ad Gulielmum Shakespeare" from a very rare Work entitled, " Epigrammes in the oldest cut, and neu>est fashion. A twise seuen houres (in so many weekes) studie No longer (like the fashion) not rnlike to continue. The first seuen. lohn Weeuer. Sic wluisse, Sat valuisse. At London Printed by V. S. for Thomas Bushdl, and are to be sold at his shop at the great north doore of Paules 1599" CONTEMPORARY NOTICES. 575 Honie tong'd Shakespeare, when I saw thine issue, I swore Apollo got them and none other, Their rosie-tainted features cloth'd in tissue, Some heaven-born goddesse said to be their mother Rose-checkt Adonis with his amber tresses, Faire fire-hot Venus charming him to love her, Chaste Lucretia, virgine-like her dresses, Prowd lust-stung Tarquine seeking still to prove her ; Romea, Richard ; more whose names I know not, Their sugred tongues and power attractive beuty Say they are Saints, althogh that Sts they shew not, For thousands vowes to them subjective dutie; They burn in love ; thy children, Shakespear, het them ; Go, wo thy muse ; more nymphish brood beget them. VI. From " Bel^edere^ or the Garden of the Mvses, Imprinted at London by F. K. for Hugh Astley, dwelling at Saint Magnus corner. 1600" This work, a collection of poetical extracts, was entered at Stationers' Hall the same year on August the nth. Now that every one may be fully satisfied concerning this Garden, that no one man doth assume to him-selfe the praise thereof, or can arrogate to his owne deserving those things which have been derived from so many rare and ingenious spirits, I have set down both how, whence and where these flowres had their first springing till thus they were drawne togither into the Muses Garden, that every ground may challenge his owne, each plant his particular, and no one be injuried in the justice of his merit Edmund Spencer. Henry Constable esquier. Samuell Daniell. Thomas Lodge, Doctor of Physicke, Thomas Watson. Michaell Drayton. John Davies, Thomas Hudson. Henrie Locke esquier. John Marstone, Christopher Marlow, Benjamin Johnson. 5/6 CONTKMI'OKAKY NOTICES. William Shakspeare. Thomas Churchyard esquier. Thomas Nash. Thomas Kidde. George Peele. Robert Greene. Josuah Sylvester. Nicholas Breton. Gerva.se Markham. Thomas Storer. Robert Wilmot. Christopher Middleton. Richard Barnefield. These being moderne and extant poets that have litfd togither; from many of their extant workes, and some kept in privat. VII. Verses from " A Mournefull Dittie entitled Elizabetlis Losse, together with a Welcome for King James. /' an unique ballad in the library of S. Christie-Miller, Esq., of Britu>ell House, Burnham. You poets all, brave Shakspeare, Johnson, Greene, Bestow your time to write for Englands Queene. Lament, lament, lament, you English peeres; Lament your losse, possest so many yeeres. Return your songs and sonnets, and your saves, To set foorth sweete Elizabeths praise. Lament, lament, &c. VIII. From " Efigrames, serued out in 52. seuerali DisJies for euery man to tast without surfeting. By I. C. Gent. London Printed by G. Elde, for W. C. and are to be solde at his Shop neere vnto Ludgate." There is no date to this rare little volume, but it was entered in the Stationers' Registers on May the 22nd, 1604, and is there ascribed to J. Cooke gent. Who er'e will go unto the presse may see The hated fathers of vilde balladrie ; One sings in his base note the river Thames Shal found the famous memory of noble king James ; Another sayes that he will, to his death, Sing the renowned worthinesse of sweet Elizabeth ; CONTEMPORARY NOTICES. 577 So runnes their verse in such disordered straine, And with them dare great majesty prophane, Some dare do this ; some other humbly craves For helpe of spirits in their sleeping graves, As he that calde to Shakespeare, Johnson, Greene, To write of their dead noble Queene ; But he that made the ballads of oh hone^ Did wondrous well to whet the buyer on. These fellowes are the slaunderers of the time, Make ryming hatefull through their bastard rime ; But were I made a judge in poetry, They all should burne for their vilde herefie. IX. From " Daiphantus, or the Passions of Loue. Comicall to Reade, but tragicall to act ; as full of Wit as Experience; by An. Sc. gentleman? 4to. Lond. 1604. The author, supposed to be one Anthony Scoloker^ in a quaint dedication, observes that an Epistle to the Reader should be like the never-too-well read Arcadia, where the prose and verce, matter and words, are like his mis- tresses eyes, one still excelling another and without corivall ; or to come home to the vulgars element, like friendly Shakespeare's tragedies, where the commedian rides, when the tragedian stands on tiptoe : Faith, it should please all, like Prince Hamlet. But, in sadnesse, then it were to be feared he would runne mad. Insooth, I will not be moone- sicke to please ; nor out of my wits, though I displeased all. X. From Camden!s Remaines of a Greater Worke con- cerning Britaine, 1605^ it. c?, the Epistle Dedicatorie to Sir Robert Cotton bearing the date of June , idoj. The following passage is repeated in ed. 1614, p. 324. These may suffice for some poeticall descriptions of our ancient poets ; if I would come to our time, what a world could I present to you out of Sir Philipp Sidney, Ed. 37 5JS CONTEMPORARY NOTK Spencer, Samuel Daniel, Hugh Holland, Ben. Johnson, Th. Campion, Mich. Drayton, George Chapman, John Marston, William Shakespeare, and other most pregnant witts of these our times, whom succeeding ages may justly admire. XI. From criticisms on the English poets in a drama written about 1602, but not printed until 1606, in which latter year frvo editions appeared under the title of, " Tlie Retvrne from Pernassvs, or the Scourge of Simony, publiqudy acted by the Students in Saint Johns Colledge in Cambridge" A character named Ingenioso, a university student, asks another, one Judicio, the opinions of the latter on various writers, each name being supposed to be preceded by the words, " What 's thy judgment t>f" . In one edition of the Retvrne the lazy in the fifth line is omitted. Ing. William Shakespeare. Jud. Who loves Adonis love, or Lucre's rape, His sweeter verse containes hart robbing life; Could but a graver subject him content, Without loves foolish lazy languishment. XII. In a later part of the drama last mentioned, the Retvrne from Pernassvs, the celebrated actors, Burbage and Kemp, appear as instructors of their art to two university students, previously to which the following dialogue takes place between them. Bur. Now, Will Kempe, if we can intertaine these schollers at a low rate, it wil be well ; they have oftentimes a good conceite in a part Kempe. Its true, indeede, honest Dick, but the slaves are somewhat proud, and, besides, it is a good sport in a part to see them never speake in their walke but at the end of the stage, just as though in walking with a fellow we should never speake but at a stile, a gate or a ditch, where CONTEMPORARY NOTICES. 579 a man can go no further. I was once at a comedie in Cambridge, and there I saw a parasite make faces and mouths of all sorts on this fashion. Bur. A little reaching will mend these faults, and it may bee besides, they will be able to pen a part. Kemp. Few of the university pen plaies well ; they smell too much of that writer Ovid, and that writer Metamorphosis, and talke too much of Proserpina and luppiter. Why, heres our fellow Shakespeare puts them all downe, I, and Ben Jonson too. O that Ben Jonson is a pestilent fellow ! he brought up Horace giving the poets a pill, but our fellow Shakespeare hath given him a purge that made him beray his credit. Bur. Its a shrewd fellow, indeed : I wonder these schollers stay so long ; they appointed to be here presently that we might try them ; oh, here they come. XIII. The conclusion of "Mirrha, the Mother of Adonis, or Lustes Prodegies, by William Barks ted" 8vo. Lond. 1607, entered at Stationer? Hall on the twelfth of November in that year. But stay, my Muse, in thine owne confines keepe, And wage not warre with so deere lov'd a neighbor; But having sung thy day song, rest and sleepe, Preserve thy small fame and his greater favor : His song was worthie merrit, Shakspeare hee Sung the faire blossome, thou the withered tree; Laurell is due to him; his art and wit Hath purchast it ; cypres thy brow will fit. , XIV. From "The Scourge of Folly, consisting of satyri- call Epigramms and others in honor of many noble and worthy Persons of our Land" by John Davies of Hereford, 8vo., Epig- I 59, PP- ?6> 77- This curious little volume is undated, but it was entered at Stationers' Hall on October the 8th, 1610. * ^ 580 CONTEMPORARY NOTICI>. To our English Terence, Mr. Will. Shake-speare. Some say, good Will, which I, in sport, do sing, Had'st thou not plaid some kingly parts in sport, Thou hadst bin a companion for a king, And beene a King among the meaner sort. Some others raile; but, raile as they thinke fit, Thou hast no rayling, but a raigning wit And honesty thou sow'st, which they do reape, So to increase their stocke which they do keepe. XV. The conclusion of the Dedication to Webster's Divel^r the Tragedy of Paulo Giordano Vrsini, {to. Lend. 1612. Detraction is the sworne friend to ignorance. For mine owne part, I have ever truly cherisht my good opinion of other mens worthy labours, especially of that full and haightned stile of maister Chapman, the labor'd and under- standing workes of maister Johnson, the no lesse worthy composures of the both worthily excellent Maister Beamont and Maister Fletcher, and lastly, without wrong last to be named, the right happy and copious industry of M. Shake- speare, M. Decker, and M. Heywood, wishing what I write may be read by their light ; protesting that, in the strength of mine owne judgement, I know them so worthy, that, though I rest silent in my owne worke, yet to most of theirs I dare (without flattery) fix that of Martiall, non norunt, Haec monumenta mori. XVI. From"The^Ece_llencie of the English tongue by R. C. of Anthony, esquire" printed in Camderis Rcmaines^ ed.jj4^ p. 44. The initials stand for the name of Richard Carew, whose earliest published work appeared in 1598, but the date of the composition of tJie present essay is unknown. The long words that we borrow, being intermingled with the short of our owne store, make up a perfect harmonic, by culling from out which mixture with judgement you may CONTEMPORARY NOTICES. 581 frame your speech according to the matter you must worke on. majesticall, pleasant, delicate or manly, more or lesse, in what sort you please. Adde hereunto that, whatsoever grace any other language carrieth in verse or prose, in tropes or metaphors, in ecchoes and agnominations, they may all bee lively and exactly represented in ours. Will you have Platoes veine ? reade Sir Thomas Smith. The lonicke ? Sir Thomas Moore. Ciceroes? Ascham. Varro? Chau- cer. Demosthenes ? Sir lohn Cheeke, who, in his treatise to the Rebels, hath comprised all the 6gures of rhetorick. Will you reade Virgill ? take the Earle of Surrey. Catullus ? Shakespheare and Barlowes fragment. Ovid ? DanielL Lucan ? Spencer. Martial ? Sir John Davies and others. Will you have all in all for prose and verse take the miracle of our age, Sir Philip Sidney. ^ ' fa rr* r. ' f (b f Z. , *&M**<*VJ XVI I. From the second Part of a work entitled "Rvbbe and a great Cast, Epigrams by Thomas Freeman, gent. Im- printed at London, and arc to bee sold at the Tigers Head. 1614"; entered at Stationer J Hall on June the ^oth. To Master W. Shakespeare. Shakespeare, that nimble Mercury, thy braine, Lulls many hundred Argus-eyes asleepe, So fit, for all thou fkshionest thy vaine, At th' horse-foote fountaine thou hast drunk full deepe, Vertues or vices theame to thee all one is. Who loves chaste life, there's Lucrece for a teacher; Who list read lust, there's Venus and Adonis, True modell of a most lascivious leatcher. Besides in plaies thy wit windes like Meander, When needy new-composers borrow more Thence Terence doth from Plautus or Menander. But to praise thee aright I want thy store; Then let thine owne works thine owne worth upraise, And help t' adorne thee with deserved baies. 582 CONTEMPORARY NOTICES. XVIII. From "The Annales or Generall Chronicle of England, begun first by maister lohn Stow, and after him continued and augmented, with matters forreyne and dome stique, auncient and moderne, vnto the ende of this present yeere, 614, by Edmond Howes, gentleman? fol., Lond., 1615, /. 8 1 1. The following are amongst the obsewations of Howes on the writers that flourished in the reign of Elizabeth. Our moderne and present excellent poets, which worthely florish in their owne workes, and all of them in my owne knowledge lived togeather in this Queenes raigne, according to their priorities, as neere as I could, I have orderly set downe, viz., George Gascoigne, esquire, Thomas Church-yard esquire, Sir Edward Dyer knight, Edmond Spencer esquire, Sir Philip Sidney knight, Sir John Harrington knight, Sir Thomas Challoner knight, Sir Frauncis Bacon knight, and Sir John Davie knight, Master John Lillie gentleman, Maister George Chapman gentleman, M. W. Warner gentle- man, M. Willi. Shakespeare gentleman, Samuell Daniell esquire, Michaell Draiton esquire of the bath, M. Christo- pher Mario gen., M. Benjamine Johnson gentleman, John Marston esquier, M. Abraham Frauncis gen., master Frauncis Meers gentle., master Josua Siluester gentle., master Thomas Deckers gentleman, M. John Flecher gentle., M. John Webster gentleman, M.Thomas Heywood gentleman, M. Thomas Middleton gentleman, M. George Withers. THEATRICAL EVIDENCES. In this section will be found some of the most interesting contemporary notices of Shakespearean performances, as well as a few pieces of a later date which may be considered to include personal recollections of the theatrical doings of the poet's own time. Other allusions to early representations will be observed in the title-pages of the quartos, and in the extracts from the Stationers' Registers. / Notice of the Performance of the First Part of Henry the Sixth) from NasKs Pierce Penilesse, 1592. This was a very popular work, two editions appearing in 1592, and two more in the following year. How would it have joyed brave Talbot (the terror of the French) to thinke that, after he had lyne two hundred yeares in his tombe, hee should triumphe againe on the stage, and have his bones newe embalmed with the teares of ten thousand spectators at least, at severall times, who, in the tragedian that represents his person, imagine they behold him fresh bleeding ! //. Satirical Verses upon a great Frequenter of the Cur- tain Theatre, from Marstoris Scovrge of Villanie, 1598, a poem entered at Stationer f Hall on May 2jth. The same lines, a few literal errors being corrected, are in the second edition of 1599. Luscus, what's playd to day ? faith, now I know ; I set thy lips abroach, from whence doth flow Naught but pure Juliat and Romio. Say, who acts best ? Drusus or Roscio ? 584 THEATRICAL EVIDENCES. Now I have him that nere of ought did speake, But when of playes or plaiers he did treate. H'ath made a common-place booke out of plaies, And speakes in print, at least what ere he sayes Is warranted by Curtaine plaudeties. If ere you heard him courting Lesbias eyes, Say, curteous sir, speakes he not movingly From out some new pathetique tragedie ? He writes, he railes, he jests, he courts, what not ? And all from out his huge long scraped stock Of well penn'd playes. /// From the Third Part of "Alba, the Months Minde of a Melancholy Lover, diuided into three parts : By R. T. Gentleman. At London. Printed by Felix Kyngston, for Matthew Lownes. 159$," a very small 8vo. A gentleman takes his lady-love to witness a performance of Shakespeare's comedy of Love f s Labour's Lost, and, for some unexplained reason, his suit appears to have been rejected during their visit at the theatre. LOVES LABOR LOST, I once did see a play Ycleped so, so called to my paine, Which I to heare to my small joy did stay, Giving attendance on my froward dame ; My misgiving minde presaging to me ill, Yet was I drawne to see it gainst my will. This play no play but plague was unto me, For there I lost the love I liked most ; And what to others seemde a jest to be, I that (in earnest) found unto my cost. To every one (save me) twas comicall, Whilst tragick like to me it did befall. THEATRICAL EVIDENCES. 585 Each actor plaid in cunning wise his part, But chiefly those entrapt in Cupids snare ; Yet all was fained, twas not from the hart ; They seemde to grieve, but yet they felt no care ; Twas I that griefe (indeed) did beare in brest, The others did but make a show in jest. Yet neither faining theirs, nor my meere truth, Could make her once so much as for to smile ; Whilst she (despite of pitie milde and ruth) Did sit as skorning of my woes the while. Thus did she sit to see LOVE lose his LOVE, Like hardned rock that force nor power can move. IV. Extracts from the Diary of John Manningham, a barrister of the Middle Temple, London, 1601-2 ; from the original in the British Museum, MS. Harl. 5353. Febr. : 1601. 2. At our feast wee had a play called Twelve Night, or what you will, much like the Commedy of Errores, or Menechmi in Plautus, but most like and neere to that in Italian called Inganni. A good practise in it to make the steward beleeve his lady widdowe was in love with him, by counterfayting a letter as from his lady in generall termes, telling him what shee liked best in him, and pre- scribing his gesture in smiling, his apparaile, &c., and then, when he came to practise, making him beleeve they tooke him to be mad, &c. March 13. Upon a tyme when Burbidge played Rich. 3., there was a citizen greue soe farr in liking with him that, before shee went from the play, shee appointed him to come that night unto hir by the name of Ri : the 3. Shakespeare, overhearing their conclusion, went before, was intertained, and at his game ere Burbedge came. Then message being brought that Rich, the 3. d was at the dore, Shakespeare 586 THEATRICAL EVIDENCES. caused returne to be made that William the Conquerour was before Rich, the 3. Shakespere's name William. V. The Docket at the Foot of the Kings Bill authorising the Licence to Fletcher, Shakespeare, and others, to exercise the art of playing comedies, &c., May, f6oj. From the A Office Dockets, anno Regni Regis Jacobi primo. May, 1603. A licence from his Majestic to his ser- vaunts, Lawrence Fletcher, William Shakespeare, Richard Burbage, Augustine Phillipps, John Henninges, Henrie Condell, William Slye, Robert Armin, Richard Cowley, and the rest of their associates, to exercise the art of playing comedies, tragedies, histories, enterludes, moralles, pasto- roles, stage playes and such like, in all townes and the Universities when the infection of the plague shall decrease. \}.s. viij. Edw. Blunt. Entred also for his copie, by the lyke aucthoritie, a booke called Anthony and Cleopatra. THE COPYRIGHT ENTRIES. 607 1608-9. 2 8 UO Januarij. Ri. Bonion ; Henry Walleys. Entred for their copy vnder thandes of Mr. Segar, deputy to Sir George Bucke, and Mr. Warden Lownes, a booke called The history of Troylus and Cressula. 1609. 20 May. Tho. Thorpe. Entred for his copie, vnder the handes of Mr. Wilson and Mr. Lownes, TN arden, a Booke called Shakespeares sonnettes. 1613-4. Primo Martij, 1613. Roger Jackson. Entred for his coppies, by consent of Mr. John Harrison the eldest, and by order of a Court, these 4 bookes followinge, viz.*, Mascalls first booke of Cattell ; Mr. Dentes sermon of repentance ; Recordes Arithmeticke ; Lucrece. 1616-7. 16 Febr. 1616. Rr. 14. ftir. Barrett- Assigned ouer vnto him by Mr. Leake, and by order of a full Courte, Venus and Adonis. 1619. 8 Julij, 1619. Lau : Hayes. Entred for his copies, by consent of a full Court, theis two copies following, which were the copies of Thomas Haies, his fathers, viz. 1 , a play called The Marchant of Venice, and the Ethiopian History. 1619-20. 8 Martij, 1619. John Parker. Assigned ouer vnto him, with the consent of Mr. Barrett and order of a full Court holden this day, all his right in Venusand Adonis^ 1621. 6 Octobris, 1621. Tho : Walkley. Entred for his copie, vnder the handes of Sir George Buck and Mr. Swinhowe, warden, The Tragedie of Othello, the moore of Venice^ 1623. 8 Nouembris, 1623, Rr. Jac. 21 Mr. Blounte; Isaak Jaggard. Entred for their copie vnder the hands of Mr. Doctor Worrall and Mr. Cole, warden, Mr. William Shakspeers Comedyes, Histories and Tragedyes, soe manie of the said copies as are not formerly entred to other men, vizA Comedyes. The Tempest. The two gentlemen of 608 THE COPYRIGHT ENTRIES. Verona. Measure for Measure. The Comedy of Errors. As you like it. All's well that ends well. Twelfe night. The winters tale. Histories. The thirde parte of Henry the sixt. Henry the eight. Tragedies. Coriolanus. Timon of Athens. Julius Caesar. Macbeth. Anthonie and Cleo- patra. Cymbeline. LIFE-TIME EDITIONS. This list of the contemporary editions of Shakespeare's poems and dramas, here arranged in chronological order, will give a fair idea of the extent in one direction of the literary popularity that he enjoyed in his own life- time. The titles of spurious works that are found either with his name in full, or in abridgment, are also included; but those with merely his initials have not been admitted. There is no distinct evidence that intentional deception was contemplated in any of the latter cases. i. Venvs and Adonis Vilia miretur vulgus : mihi flauus Apollo=Pocula Caftalia plena miniftret aqua. London Imprinted by Richard Field, and are to be fold at the figne of the white Greyhound in Paules Church-yard. 2. Titus Andronicus his Lamentable Tragedy, acted by the Earls of Derby, Pembroke and Essex, their Servants. 1594. This description is taken from a notice in LangbaMs Account of the English Dramatick Poets, 1691, /. 464, no copy of this edition of the play being now known to exist. 3. The First part of the Contention betwixt the two famous Houses of Yorke and Lancaster, with the death of the good duke Humphrey : And the banishment and death of the Duke of Suffolke, and the Tragicall end of the proud Cardinall of Winchester, with the notable Rebellion of lacke Cade : And the Duke of Yorkes first claime vnto the Crowne. London Printed by Thomas Creed, for Thomas 39 6 10 LIFE-TIME EDITIONS. Millington, and are to be sold at his shop vnder Saint Peters Church in Cornwall. 1594. 4. Lvcrece. London. Printed by Richard Field, for lohn Harrison, and are to be sold at the signe of the white Greyhound in Paules Church-yard. 1594. 5. Venvs and Adonis. Vilia miretur vulgus : mihi flauus Apollo=Pocula Castalia plena ministret aqua. London, Imprinted by Richard Field, and are to be sold at the signe of the white Greyhound in Paules Church-yard. 1594. 6. The true Tragedie of Richard Duke of Yorke, and the death of good King Henrie the Sixt, with the whole contention betweene the two Houses Lancaster and Yorke, as it was sundrie times acted by the Right Honourable the Earle of Pembroke his seruants. Printed at London by P. S. for Thomas Millington, and are to be sold at his shoppe vnder Saint Peters Church in Cornwal. 1595. 7. Venvs And Adonis. Vilia miretur vulgus : mihi flauus Apollo =Pocula castalia plena ministret aqua. Im- printed at London by R. F. for lohn Harison. 1596. 8. An Excellent conceited Tragedie of Romeo and luliet As it hath been often (with great applause) plaid publiquely, by the right Honourable the L. of Hunsdon his Seruants. London, Printed by John Danter. 1597. 9. The Tragedie of King Richard the second. As it hath beene publikely acted by the right Honourable the Lorde Chamberlaine his Seruants. London Printed by Valentine Simmes for Androw Wise, and are to be sold at his shop in Paules church yard at the signe of the Angel. 1597. jo. The Tragedy of King Richard the third. Contain- ing, His treacherous Plots against his brother Clarence : the pittiefull murther of his iunocent nephewes : his tyrannicall vsurpation : with the whole course of his detested life, and most deserued death As it hath beene lately Acted by the LIFE-TIME EDITIONS. 6ll Right honourable the Lord Chamberlaine his seruants. At London Printed by Valentine Sims, for Andrew Wise, dwelling in Paules Chuch-yard, at the Signe of the Angell. 1597- 11. Lvcrece. At London, Printed by P. S. for lohn Harrison. 1598. 12. The Hystorie of Henrie the Fourth. 1598. No copy of this first edition of the play, having a title, is known to exist; the only portion of it, hitherto discovered, being a fragment of the text with the head-line as here given. 13. A Pleasant Conceited Comedie called, Loues labors lost. As it was presented before her Highnes this last Christmas. Newly corrected and augmented By W. Shake- s_pere. Imprinted at London by W. W. for Cutbert Burby. 1598. 14. The Tragedie of King Richard the second. As it hath beene publikely acted by the Right Honourable the Lord Chamberlaine his seruants. By William Shake- speare. London Printed by Valentine Simmes for Andrew Wise, and are to be sold at his shop in Paules churchyard at the signe of the Angel. 1598. 15. The Tragedie of King Richard the third. Con- teining his treacherous Plots against his brother Clarence : the pitiful murther of his innocent Nephewes : his tyrannicall vsurpation : with the whole course of his detested life, and most deserued death. As it hath beene lately Acted by the Right honourable the Lord Chamberlaine his seruants, By William Shake-speare. London Printed by Thomas Creede, for Andrew Wise, dwelling in Paules Church-yard, at the signe of the Angell. 1598. 1 6. The History of Henrie the Fovrth ; With the battell at Shrewsburie, betweene the King and Lord Henry Percy, surnamed Henrie Hotspur of the North. With the humorous conceits of Sir lohn Falstalffe. At London, 392 6l2 LIFE -TIME EDITIONS. Printed by P. S. for Andrew Wise, dwelling in Paules Churchyard, at the signe of the Angell. 1598. 17. Venvs and Adonis. Vilia miretur vulgus : mihi flauus Apollo=Pocula Caftalia plena miniftret aqua. Im- printed at London for William Leake, dwelling in Paules Churchyard at the figne of the Greyhound. 1599. 1 8. The Most Excellent and lamentable Tragedie, of Romeo and luliet. Newly corrected, augmented, and amended : As it hath bene sundry times publiquely acted, by the right Honourable the Lord Chamberlaine his Seruants. London Printed by Thomas Creede, for Cuth- bert Burby, and are to be sold at his shop neare the Exchange. 1599. 19. The Passionate Pilgrime. By W. Shakespeare. At London Printed for W. laggard, and are to be sold by W. Leake, at the Greyhound in Paules Churchyard. 1599. 20. The History of Henrie the Fovrth ; With the battell at Shrewsburie, betweene the King and Lord Henry Percy, surnarned Henry Hotspur of the North. With the humor- ous conceits of Sir lohn Falstalffe. Newly corrected by W. Shake-speare. At London, Printed by S. S. for Andrew Wise, dwelling in Paules Churchyard, at the signe of the Angell. 1599. 21. The first Part of the Contention betwixt the two famous houses of Yorke and Lancaster, with the death of the good Duke Humphrey : And the banishment and death of the Duke of Suffolke, and the tragicall end of the prowd Cardinall of Winchester, with the notable rebellion of lacke Cade : And the Duke of Yorkes first clayme to the crowne. London : Printed by W. W. for Thomas Milling- ton, and are to be sold at his shoppe vnder Saint Peters Church in Cornewall. 1600. 22. The First part of the Contention betwixt the two famous houses of Yorke and Lancaster, with the death of LIFE-TIME EDITIONS. 613 the good Duke Humphrey : And the banishment and death of the Duke of Suffolke, and the Tragical end of the prowd Cardinall of Winchester, with the notable Rebellion of lacke Cade : And the Duke of Yorkes first clayme to the Crowne. London Printed by Valentine Simmes for Thomas Miliington, and are to be sold at his shop vnder S. Peters church in Cornewall. 1600. 23. Lvcrece. London. Printed by I. H. for lohn Harrison. 1600. 24. The True Tragedie of Richarde Duke of Yorke, and the death of good King Henrie the sixt : With the whole contention betweene the two Houses, Lancaster and Yorke ; as it was sundry times acted by the Right Honour- able the Earle of Pembrooke his seruantes. Printed at London by W. W. for Thomas Miliington, and 2re to be sold at his shoppe vnder Saint Peters Church in Cornewall. 1600. 25. The first part Of the true & honorable history, of the Life of Sir lohn Old-castle, the good Lord Cobham. As it hath bene lately acted by the Right honorable the Earle of Notingham Lord High Admirall of England, his Seruants. Written by William Shakespeare. London printed for T. P. 1600. 26. The Cronicle History of Henry the fift, With his battell fought at Agin Court in France. Togither with Auntient Pistoll. As it hath bene sundry times playd by the Right honorable the Lord Chamberlaine his seruants. London Printed by Thomas Creede, for Tho. Miliington, and lohn Busby. And are to be sold at his house in Carter Lane, next the Powle head. 1600. 27. The Second part of Henrie the fourth, continuing to his death, and coronation of Henrie the fift. With the humours of fir lohn Falftaffe, and fwaggering Piftoll. As it hath been fundrie times publikely acted by the right 614 LIFE-TIME EDITIONS. honourable, the Lord Chamberlaine his feruants. Written by William Shakespeare. London Printed by V. S. for Andrew Wife, and William Afpley. 1600. 28. The Second part of Henrie the fourth, continuing to his death, and coronation of Henrie the fift. With the humours of Sir lohn Falstaffe, and swaggering Pistoll. As it hath been sundrie times publikely acted by the right honourable, the Lord Chamberlaine his seruants. Written by William Shakespeare. London Printed by V. S. for Andrew Wise, and William Aspley. 1600. /// the first edition of this drama. Valentine Simmes, the printer, having omitted to insert the first scene of the third act, was compelled to reprint a sheet to render the play complete, the perfect copies being distinguished by the peculiarity of the sheet E containing six instead of four leaves. The probability is that Sinunes printed from a defective manuscript, for it is certain from the context that some of the omissions in the quarto, supplied in the folio, were written at the same time with the rest of the comedy. 29. Much adoe about Nothing. As it hath been sundrie times publikely acted by the right honourable, the Lord Chamberlaine his seruants. Written by William Shakespeare. London Printed by V. S. for Andrew Wise, and William Aspley. 1 600 30. A Midsommer nights dreame. As it hath beene sundry times publickely acted, by the Right honourable, the Lord Chamberlaine his seruants. Written by William Shakespeare. Imprinted at London, for Thomas Fisher, and are to be soulde at his shoppe, at the Signe of the White Hart, in Fleetestreete. 1600. 31. The Excellent History of the Merchant of Venice. With the extreme cruelty of Shylocke the lew towards the saide Merchant, in cutting a iust pound of his flesh. And the obtaining of Portia, by the choyse of three Caskets. Written by W. Shakespeare. Printed by J. Roberts, 1600. LIFE-TIME EDITIONS. 615 32. A Midsommer nights dreame. As it hath beene sundry times publikely acted, by the Right Honourable, the Lord Chamberlaine his seruants. Written by William Shakespeare. Piinted by lames Roberts, 1600. 33. The most lamentable Romaine Tragedie of Titus Andronicus. As it hath sundry times beene playde by the Right Honourable the Earle of Pembrooke, the Earle of Darbie, the Earle of Sussex, and the Lorde Chamberlaine theyr Seruants. At London, Printed by I. R. for Edward White and are to bee solde at his shoppe, at the little North doore of Paules, at the signe of the Gun. 1 600. 34. The most excellent Historic of the Merchant of Venice. With the extreame crueltie of Shylocke the lewe towards the sayd Merchant, in cutting a iust pound of his flesh : and the obtayning of Portia by the choyse of three chests. As it hath beene diuers times acted by the Lord Chamberlaine his Seruants. Written by William Shake- speare. At London, Printed by I. R. for Thomas Heyes, and are to be sold in Paules Church-yard, at the signe of the Greene Dragon. 1600. 35. A " Poeticall Essaie on the Turtle and Phoenix," published in " Loves Martyr or Rosalins Complaint, alle- gorically shadowing the truth of Loue in the constant Fate of the Phoenix and Turtle," London, Imprinted for E. B., 1601. 36. A Most pleasaunt and excellent conceited Comedie, of Syr lohn Falstaffe, and the merrie Wiues of Windsor. Entermixed with sundrie variable and pleasing humors of Syr Hugh the Welch Knight, Justice Shallow, and his wise Cousin M. Slender. With the swaggering vaine of Auncient Pistoll, and Corporall Nym. By William Shakespeare. As it hath bene diuers times Acted by the right Honorable my Lord Chamberlaines seruants Both before her Maiestie, and elsewhere. London Printed by T. C. for Arthur 6l6 LIFE-TIME EDITIONS. lohnson, and are to be sold at his shop in Powles Church- yard, at the signe of the Flower de Leuse and the Crowne. 1602. 37. The Tragedie of King Richard the third. Con- teining his treacherous Plots against his brother Clarence ; the pittifull murther of his innocent Nephewes : his tyrannicall vsurpation : with the whole course of his detested life, and most deserued death. As it hath bene lately Acted by the Right Honourable the Lord Cham- berlaine his seruants. Newly augmented, By William Shakespeare. London Printed by Thomas Creede, for Andrew Wise, dwelling in Paules Church-yard, at the signe of the Angell. 1602. 38. Venvs and Adonis. Vilia miretur vulgus : mihi flavus Apollo =^Pocula Castalia plena ministret aqua. Imprinted at London for William Leake, dwelling at the signe of the Holy Ghost, in Pauls Churchyard. 1602. 39. Venvs and Adonis. Vilia miretur vulgus, mihi flauus Apollo =Pocula Castalia plena ministret aqua. Imprinted at London for William Leake, dwelling at the signe of the Holy Ghost, in Paules Church-yard. 1602. 40. The Chronicle History of Henry the fift, With his battell fought at Agin Court in France. Together with Auntient Pistoll. As it hath bene sundry times playd by the Right honorable the Lord Chamberlaine his seruants. London Printed by Thomas Creede, for Thomas Pauier, and are to be sold at his shop in Cornhill, at the signe of the Cat and Parrets, neare the Exchange. 1602. There is a flaw in the printer's device which would appear to show that this edition was printed after that of the Richard the Third of the same year. 41. The Tragicall Historic of Hamlet Prince of Denmarke By William Shake-speare. As it hath beene diuerse times acted by his Highnesse seruants in the Cittie LIFE-TIME EDITIONS. . l/ of London : as also in the two Vniuersities of Cambridge and Oxford, and else-where At London printed for N. L. and lohn Trundell. 1603. 42. The Tragicall Historic of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke. By William Shakespeare. Newly imprinted and enlarged to almost as much againe as it was, according to the true and perfect Coppie. At London, Printed by I. R. for N. L. and are to be sold at his shoppe vnder Saint Dunstons Church in Fleetstreet. 1604. 43. The History of Henrie the Fourth, With the battell at Shrewsburie, betweene the King, and Lord Henry Percy, surnamed Henry Hotspur of the North. With the humorous conceits of Sir lohn FalstafTe. Newly corrected by W. Shakespeare. London Printed by Valentine ' Simmes, for Mathew Law, and are to be solde at his shop in Paules Churchyard, at the signe of the Fox. 1604. 44. The Tragedie of King Richard the third. Con- teining his treacherous Plots against his brother Clarence : the pittifull murther of his innocent Nephewes : his tyrannicall vsurpation : with the whole course of his detested life, and most deserued death. As it hath bin lately Acted by the Right Honourable the Lord Chamberlaine his seruants. Newly augmented, By William Shake-speare. London. Printed by Thomas Creede, and are to be sold by Mathew Lawe, dwelling in Paules Churchyard, at the Signe of the Foxe, neare S. Austins gate, 1605. 45. The London Prodigall. As it was plaide by the Kings Maiesties seruants. By William Shakespeare. London, Printed by T. C. for Nathaniel Butter, and are to be sold neere S. Austins gate, at the signe of the pyde Bull. 1605. 46. The Tragicall Historic of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke. By William Shakespeare. Newly imprinted and enlarged to almost as much againe as it was, according 6l8 LIFE-TIME EDITIONS. to the true and perfect Coppie. At London. Printed by I. R. for N. L. and are to be sold at his shoppe vnder Saint Dunstons Church in Fleetstreet. 1605. 47. Lvcrece. At London, Printed be N. O. for lohn Harison. 1607. 48. The Tragedie of King Richard the Second : With new additions of the Parliament Sceane, and the deposing of King Richard. As it hath been lately acted by the Kinges Maiesties seruantes, at the Globe. By William Shake-speare. At London, Printed by W. W. for Mathew Law, and are to be sold at his shop in Paules Church-yard, at the signe of the Foxe. 1608. 49. M. William Shake-speare, His True Chronicle History of the life and death of King Lear, and his three Daughters. With the vnfortunate life of Edgar, sonne and heire to the Earle of Glocester, and his sullen and assumed humour of Tom of Bedlam. As it was plaid before the Kings Maiesty at White-Hall, vppon S. Stephens night, in Christmas Hollidaies. By his Maiesties Seruants, playing vsually at the Globe on the Banck-side. Printed for Nathaniel Butter. 1608. 50. A Yorkshire Tragedy. Not so New as Lamentable and true. Acted by his Maiesties Players at the Globe. Written by W. Shakspeare. At London Printed by R. B. for Thomas Pauier and are to bee sold at his shop on Cornhill, neere to the exchange. 1608. 51. The Chronicle History of Henry the fift, with his battell fought at Agin Court in France. Together with ancient Pistoll. As it hath bene sundry times playd by the Right Honourable the Lord Chamberlaine his Seruants. Printed for T. P. 1608. 52. The History of Henry the fourth, With the battell at Shrewseburie, betweene the King, and Lord Henry Percy, surnamed Henry Hotspur of the North. With the LIFE-TIME EDITIONS. 619 humorous conceites of Sir lohn Falstalffe. Newly corrected by W. Shake-speare. London, Printed for Mathew Law, and are to be sold at his shop in Paules Church-yard, neere vnto S. Augustines gate, at the signe of the Foxe. 1608. 53. M. William Shak-speare : His True Chronicle Historic of the life and death of King Lear and his three Daughters. With the vnfortunate life of Edgar, sonne and heire to the Earle of Gloster, and his sullen and assumed humor of Tom of Bedlam : As it was played before the Kings Maiestie at Whitehall vpon S. Stephans night in Christmas Hollidayes. By his Maiesties seruants playing vsualiy at the Gloabe on the Bancke-side. London, Printed for Nathaniel Butter, and are to be sold at his shop in Pauls Church-yard at the signe of the Pide Bull neere St. Austins Gate. 1608. 54. The Famous Historic of Troylus and Cresseid. Excellently expressing the beginning of their loues, with the conceited wooing of Pandarus Prince of Licia. Written by William Shakespeare. London Imprinted by G. Eld for R. Bonian and H. Walley, and are to be sold at the spred Eagle in Paules Church-yeard, ouer against the great North doore. 1609. 55. The Historic of Troylus and Cresseida. As it was acted by the Kings Maiesties seruants at the Globe. Written by William Shakespeare. London Imprinted by G. Eld for R. Bonian and H. Walley, and are to be sold at the spred Eagle in Paules Church-yeard, ouer against the great North doore. 1609. 56. The Late, And much admired Play, Called Pericles, Prince of Tyre. With the true Relation of the whole Historic, aduentures, and fortunes of the said Prince : As also, The no lesse strange, and worthy accidents, in the Birth and Life, of his Daughter Mariana. As it hath been diuers and sundry times acted by his Maiesties Seruants, at 62O LIFE-TIME EDITIONS. the Globe on the Banck-side. By William Shakespeare. Imprinted at London for Henry Gosson, and are to be sold at the signe of the Sunne in Pater-noster row, &c. 1609. 57. The Late, And much admired Play, Called Pericles Prince of Tyre. With &c. 1609. The title of this, the second edition, is identical with that last given. 58. Shake-speares Sonnets. Neuer before Imprinted. At London By G. Eld for T. T. and are to be solde by lohn Wright, dwelling at Christ Church gate. 1609. 59. Shake-speares Sonnets. Neuer before Imprinted. At London By G. Eld for T. T. and are to be solde by William Aspley. 1609. 60. The Most Excellent and Lamentable Tragedie, of Romeo and Juliet. As it hath beene sundrie times publiquely Acted, by the Kings Maiesties Seruants at the Globe. Newly corrected, augmented, and amended: London Printed for lohn Smethwick, and are to be sold at his Shop in Saint Dunstanes Church-yard, in Fleetestreete vnder the Dyall. 1609. 6 1. The most lamentable Tragedie of Titus Andronicus. As it hath svndry times beene plaide by the Kings Maiesties Seruants. London, Printed for Eedward White, and are to be solde at his shoppe, nere the little North dore of Pauls, at the signe of the Gun. 1611. 62. The First and second Part of the troublesome Raigne of John King of England. With the discouerie of King Richard Cordelions Base sonne (vulgarly named, The Bastard Fawconbridge :) Also, the death of King lohn at Swinstead Abbey. As they were (sundry times) lately acted by the Queenes Maiesties Players. Written by W. Sh. Imprinted at London by Valentine Simmes for lohn Helme, and are to be sold at his shop in Saint Dunstons Churchyard in Fleetestreet. 1611. 63. The Tragedy of Hamlet Prince of Denmarke. By LIFE-TIME EDITIONS. 621 William Shakespeare. Newly imprinted and enlarged to almost as much againe as it was, according to the true and perfect Coppy. At London, Printed for lohn Smethwicke and are to be sold at his shoppe in Saint Dunstons Church yeard in Fleetstreet Vnder the Diall. 1611. 64. The Most Excellent And Lamentable Tragedie, of Romeo and Ivliet. As it hath beene sundrie times pub- likely Acted, by the Kings Maiesties Seruants at the Globe. Newly Corrected, augmented, and amended. London, Printed for lohn Smethwicke, and are to bee sold at his Shop in Saint Dunstanes Church-yard, in Fleetestreete vnder the Dyall. 65. The Most Excellent And Lamentable Tragedie, of Romeo and Ivliet. As it hath beene sundrie times pub- likely Acted, by the Kings Maiesties Seruants at the Globe. 3/ Written by W. Shake-speare. Newly Corrected, augmented, and amended. London, Printed for lohn Smethwicke, and are to bee sold at his Shop in Saint Dunstanes Church-yard, in Fleetestreete vnder the Dyall. 66. The Late, And much admired Play, Called Pericles, Prince of Tyre. With the true Relation of the whole History, aduentures, and fortunes of the sayd Prince : As also, The no lesse strange, and worthy accidents, in the Birth and Life, of his Daughter Mariana. As it hath beene diuers and sundry times acted by his Maiestyes Seruants, at the Globe on the Banck-side. By William Shakespeare. Printed at London by S. S. 1611. 67. The Tragedie of King Richard the third. Contain- ing his treacherous Plots against his brother Clarence : the pittifull murther of his innocent Nephewes : his tyrannicall vsurpation : with the whole course of his detested life, and most deserued death. As it hath beene lately Acted by the Kings Maiesties seruants. Newly augmented, By William Shakespeare. London, Printed by Thomas Creede, 622 LIFE-TIME EDITIONS. and are to be sold by Mathew Lawe, dwelling in Pauls Church-yard, at the Signe of the Foxe, neare S. Austins gate, 1612. 68. The Passionate Pilgrime. or Certaine Amorous Sonnets, betweene Venus and Adonis, newly corrected and augmented. By W. Shakespere. The third Edition. Whereunto is newly added two Loue-Epistles, the first from Paris to Hellen, and Hellens answere backe againe to Paris. Printed by W. laggard. 1612. 69. The History of Henrie the fourth, With the Battell at Shrewseburie, betweene the King, and Lord Henrie Percy, surnamed Henrie Hotspur of the North. With the humorous conceites of Sir lohn Falstaffe. Newly corrected by W. Shakespeare. London, Printed by W. W. for Mathew Law, and are to be sold at his shop in Paules Church-yard, neere vnto S. Augustines Gate, at the signe of the Foxe. 1613. 70. The Tragedie of King Richard the Second : With new additions of the Parliament Sceane, and the deposing of King, Richard. As it hath been lately acted by the Kinges Maiesties seruants, at the Globe. By William Shake- speare. At London, Printed for Mathew Law, and are to be sold at his shop in Paules Church-yard, at the signe of the Foxe. 1615. 71. The Rape of Lvcrece. By M r - William Shake- speare. Newly Reuised. London : Printed by T. S. for Roger lackson, and are to be solde at his shop neere the Conduit in Fleet-street. 1616. DOMESTIC RECORDS. /. The Will of Robert Arden, Shakespeare's maternal grandfather, November, 1556. From the original in the Registry Court of Worcester. In the name of God, Amen, the xxiiijth daye of Novem- ber in the yeare of our Lorde God 1556, in the thirde and the forthe yeare of the raygne of our soveragne Lorde and ladye, Phylipe and Marye, kyng and quene, &c., I, Robart Arden of Wyllmcote in the paryche of Aston Caunntlow, secke in bodye and good and perfett of rememberenc, make this my laste will and testement in maner and forme folowyng. Fyryste, I bequethe my solle to Allmyghtye God and to our bleside Laydye Sent Marye, and to all the holye compenye of heven, and my bodye to be beryde in the churchy arde of Seynt Jhon the baptyste in Aston aforsayde. Allso I give and bequethe to my youngste dowghter Marye all my lande in Willmecote, cawlide Asbyes, and the crop apon the grounde sowne and tyllide as hitt is. And vj.//. xiij.s. \\\\.d. of monye to be payde orr ere my goodes by devydide. Allso I gyve and bequethe to my dawghter Ales the thyrde parte of all mye goodes moveable and unmoveable in fylde and towne, after my dettes and leggeses be performyde, besydes that goode she hathe of her owne att this tyme. Allso I gyve and bequethe to Agnes my wife vj.//. xiij.j. iiij.^. apon this condysione, that shall sofer my dowghter Ales quyetlye to ynyoye halfe my copye houlde in Wyllm- cote dwryng the tyme of her wyddowewhodde ; and if she 624 DOMESTIC RECORDS. will nott soffer my dowghter Ales quyetlye to ocuppye halfe with her, then I will that my wyfe shall have butt iij.//. v].s. \\\].d. and her gintur in Snyterfylde. Item, I will that the resedowe of all my goodes moveable and unmoveable, my funeralles and my dettes dyschargyde, I gyve and bequethe to my other cheldren to be equaleye devidide amongeste them by the descreshyon of Adam Palmer, Hugh Porter of Snytterfyld, and Jhon Skerlett, whome I do orden and make my overseeres of this my last will and testament, and they to have for ther peynes takyng in this behalfe \x.s. apese. Allso I orden and constytute and make my full excequtores Ales and Marye my dowghteres of this my last will and testament, and they to have no more for ther peynes takyng now as afore geven them. Allso I gyve and bequethe to every house that hathe no teme in the paryche of Aston to every howse \\\].d. Thes beyng wyttnesses, Sir Wylliam Bouton, Curett ; Adam Palmer ; Jhon Skerlett ; Thomas Jhenkes ; William Pytt ; with other mo. Probat. fuit, &c., Wigorn., &c., xvj. die mensis Decembris, anno Domini 1556. //. The Ynventory of all the goodes moveable and un- moveable of Robart Ardennes of Wyllmcote, late desseside, made the ix th day of December in the thyrde and the for the veare of the raygne of our soveraygne lorde and ladye Phylipe and Marye kyng and quen, &c. 1556. Imprimis, in the halle ij. table bordes, iij. choeyres, ij. fformes, one cobbowrde, ij. coshenes, iij. benches and one lytle table with shellves, presede att viij.s. Item, ij. peyntide clothes in the hall and v. peyntid clothes in the chamber, vij. peire of shettes, ii. cofferes, one which, preside at xviiij.^. Item, v borde clothes, ij. toweles and one dyeper towelle, presid att \}.s. viij.d 7 . Item, one ffether bedde, ij. mattereses, viij. canvases, one coverlett, iij. DOMESTIC RECORDS. 625 bosteres, one pelowe, iiij. peyntide clothes, one whyche, presid att xxvj.s. \\\}.d. Item, in the kechen iiij. panes, iiij. pottes, iij. candell stykes, one bason, one chafyng dyche, ij. cathernes, ij. skellettes, one frying pane, a gredyerene, and pott hanginges with hookes, presed att lj.^. \i\].d. Item, one broche, a peare of cobbardes, one axe, a bill, iiij. nagares, ij. hatchettes, an ades, a mattoke, a yren crowe, one ffatt, iiij. barrelles, iiij. payles, a quyrne, a knedyng trogh, a lonng seve, a hansaw, presid at xx.j. i].d. Item, viij. oxen, ij. bollokes, vij. kyne, iiij. weyyng caves, xxiiij.//. Item, iiij. horses, iij. coltes, presid att viij.//. Item, Ito. shepe, presid att vij.//. Item, the whate in the barnes, and the barley, presid att xviij.//. Item, the heye and the pease, ottes and the strawe, presed att iij.//. vj.s. viij.d. Item, ix. swyne presid att xxvj.^. viij.*/.- Item, the bees and powl- trye, presed att v.s. Item, carte and carte geares, and plogh and plogh geares with harrowes, presed att x\.s. Item, the wodd in the yarde, and the batten in the roffe, presid att xxx.s. Item, the wheate in the ffylde, presid att vj.//. xiij.j. iiij.*/. Summa totalis, Ixxvij.//. xj.,y, x.*/. ///. The Will of Agnes Arden, step-mother to John Shakespeare's wife, and thus intimately connected with the poefs ancestry, 1^79- From the original in the Registry Court of Worcester. In the name of God yeare of our Lorde God 1579, and in the . . . . yeare of the raigne off our Soveraigne . . . Queene Elyzabethe, by the grace off Fraunce, and Irlande, Queene, deffendris of the fay the, &c. ; I, Agnes Ardenne, of Wylmcote in the perishe of Aston Cantlowe, wydowe, do make my laste wyll and testamente in manner and forme followinge. First, I bequethe my soule to Almighty God my maker and redeemer, and my bodie to the earthe. 40 626 DOMESTIC RECORDS. Item, I geve and bequethe to the poore people and inhabitaunce of Bearley iiij.^. Item, I geve and bequeth to the poore people inhabited in Aston perishe, x.j., to be equallie devided by the discrecion of my overseers. Item, I geve and bequeth to everi one of my god-children \\}.d. a peece. Item, I give and bequeth to Averie Fullwod ij. sheepe, yf they doe lyve after my desease. Item, I give and bequeth to Rychard Petyvere j. sheepe ; and to Nycolas Mase, j. sheepe; and Elizabeth Gretwhiche and Elyzabethe Bentley, eyther of them one shepe. Item, I geve and bequeeth to everie off Jhon Hill's children everi one of them one sheep ; and allso to John Fullwodes children everi one of them one shepe. My wyll is that they said sheepe soe geven them shall goe forward in a stocke to they use of they sayd children untyll the come to the age of discrecion. Item, I geve and bequethe to John Payge and his wyfe, the longer liver off them, vj.s. \\\}.d., and to John Page his brother j. strike of wheat and one strike of maulte. I geve to John Fullwod and Edwarde Hill my godchilde, everi one to them, one shipe more. Allso I geve to Robarte Haskettes iij.^. iiij.^. Also, I geve to John Peter \}.s. And allso to Henrie Berrie, \\}.d. Item, I give to Jhohan Lamberde xij.d. And to Elizabethe Stiche, my olde gowne. Item, and bequeth to John Hill my sonne, my parte and moitie of my croppe in the fieldes, as well wheate, barley, and pease, painge for the same half the lordes rente- and dueties belonginge to the same, so that my wyll is the sayd John Hill shall have the nexte croppe uppon the grounde after my desease. I geve to the said Jhon Hill my best platter of the best sorte, and my best platter of the second sorte, and j. poringer, one sawcer, and one best candlesticke. And also I geve to the said John two paire of sheetes. I give to the said Jhon Hill my second potte, my best panne. Item, I geve and bequeth to Jhon Fullwod, my sonne DOMESTIC RECORDS. 627 in lawe, all the rest of my housholde stuffe. Item, I give and bequeth to John Hill, my sonne, one cowe with the white rumpe. And also I geve to John Full wood, j. browne steare of the age of two yeares olde. Item, I give and bequeth to my brother Alexander Webbes children, everi one of them, xij. et Scociae tricesimo septimo, hie apud Stretford praed., ac infra jurisdictionem hujus curias, emisset de eodem Willielmo tres modios brasii pro sex solid, de praed. triginti et quinque solid, decem denar. ; ac etiam quod cum praed. Phillipus Rogers, decimo die Aprillis, anno regni dicti domini regis nunc Angliae, &c., secundo, hie apud Stretford praed. ac infra jurisdictionem hujus curiae, emisset de eodem Willielmo quatuor modios brasii pro octo solid, de praed. 35 solid, decem denar.; ac etiam quod cum praed. Phillipus vicesimo quarto die dicti Aprillis, anno regni dicti domini regis nunc Angliae, &c., secundo, hie apud Stretford pned., infra jurisdictionem hujus curiae, emisset de eodem Willielmo alios tres modios brasii pro sex solid, de praed. 35 solid. 10 denar. ; ac etiam quod cum praed. Phillipus, tercio die Maii, anno regni dicti domini regis nunc Angliae, &c., secundo, hie apud Stretford praed, ac infra jurisdictionem hujus curiae, emisset de eodem Willielmo alios quatuor DOMESTIC RECORDS. 645 modios brasii pro octo solid, de praed. 35 solid. 10 denar. ; ac etiam quod cum praed. Phillipus, decimo sexto die Maii, anno regni dicti domini regis nunc Angliae, &c., secundo, hie apud Stretford praed., infra jurisdictionem hujus curiae, emisset de eodem Willielmo alios quatuor modios brasii pro octo solid, de praed. 35 solid. 10 denar., ac etiam quod cum praed. Phillipus, tricesimo die Maii, anno regni dicti domini regis nunc Angliae, &c., secundo, hie apud Stretford praed., ac infra jurisdictionem hujus curiae, emisset de eodem Wil- lielmo duos medios brasii pro tres solid, decem denar. de praed. 35 solid. 10 denar., ac etiam quod cum praed. Phil- lipus, vicesimo quinto die Junii, anno dicti domini regis nunc Angliae, &c., hie apud Stretford praed., ac infra jurisdictionem hujus, mutuatus fuisset duos solid, legalis monetae, &c., de praed. 35 solid. 10 denar. resid. sol vend, eidem Willielmo, cum inde requisit. fuisset; quae omnia seperaL somm. at- tingunt se in toto ad quadraginta et imum solid, decem denar. Et praedictus Phillipus Rogers; de sex solid, inde eidem Willielmo postea satisfecisset, praedictus tamen Phil- lipus, licet sepius requisit, praedictos trigirit. et quinque solid, decem denar. resid. eidem Willielmo nondum reddidit, sed ilia ei hue usque reddere contradixit et adhuc contradic., unde die. quod deter, est et dampna habet ad yalenc. decem solidorum. Et inde producit sectam, &c. XIV. Precepts in an action for debt brought by Shake- speare against John Addenbroke in the Stratford-on-Avon Court of Record^ 1609. Precept, est servientibus ad clavam ibidem quod capiant, seu &c., Johannem Addenbrooke, si &c., et eum salvo &c., ita quod habeant corpus ejus coram ballivo burgi praedicti ad prox. cur. de recordo ibidem tenend., ad satisfaciend. Willielmo Shackspeare gen. tarn de sex libr. debit, quos praedictus Willielmus in eadem curia versus eum recuperavit 646 DOMESTIC RECORDS. quam de viginti et quatuor solid, qui ei adjudicat fuer., pro dampnis et custag. suis quos sustinuit occacione detencionis debiti praedicti, et habeant ibi tune hoc precept Teste Francisco Smyth jun. gen. ball, ibidem xv. die Marcii, annis regni domini nostri Jacobi, Dei gracia regis Angliae, Franciae et Hiberniae, sexto, et Scotiae xlij. Indors. Infra nominat. Johannes non est invent, infra libertat. hujus burgi. Fr. Boyce servien. Precept, est servientibus ad clavam ibidem quod cum quidam Willielmus Shackspeare gen., nuper in cur. domini Jacobi, nunc regis Angliae, burgi praedictii bidem tent, vir- tute literarum patent, domini Edwardi, nuper regis Angliae, sexti,4evavit quandam quer. suam versus quendam Johannem Addenbrooke de placito debiti; cumque eciam quidam Thomas Horneby de burgo praedicto in eadem quer. devenit pleg. et manucap. praed. Johannis; scilicet quod, si prae- dictus Johannes in quer. ill. legitimo modo convinceretur, quod idem Johannes satisfaceret praefato Willielmo Shack- speare tam debit in quer. ill. per praefat. Willielmum versus praed. Johannem in cur. praed. recuperand. quam mis. et custag. quae eidem Willielmo in quer. ill. per eandem cur. adjudicat forent versus eundem Johannem, vel idem se red- deret prisonae dicti domini regis Jacobi nunc burg, praed. ad satisfaciendum eidem Willielmo eadem debit mis. et custag.; et ulterius quod si idem Johannes non satisfaceret eidem WilHelmo debit et mis. et custag. nee se redderet praed. prisonae dicti domini regis nunc ad satisfaciendum eidem Willielmo in forma praed., quod tune ipse idem Thomas Horneby debit sic recuperand. et mis. et custag. sic ad- judicat eidem Willielmo satisfacere vellet Cumque eciam in quer. ill. taliler process, fuit in eadem curia quod prae- dictus Willielmus, in loquela ill., per judicium ejusdem curiae recuperabat versus praedictum Johannem tam sex libr. de debito quam viginti et quatuor solid, pro decrement, mis. DOMESTIC RECORDS. 647 et custag. ipsius Willielmi in sect, querela ill. apposit. Super quo precept, fuit servient. ad clavam ibidem quod capiant, seu &c., praed. Johannem, si &c., et eum salvo &c., ita quod habeant corpus ejus coram ballivo burgi praedicti ad prox. cur. de recordo ibidem tenend., ad satisfaciendum praedicto Willielmo de debito praed. sic recuperat, quam de viginti et quatuor solid, pro praed, dampnis et custag. adjudicat. Unde Franc. Boyce, tune et nunc servien. ad clavam, ad diem retorn. inde mand. quod praedictus Johannes non est invent in balliva sua ; unde idem Willielmus ad praed. cur. dicti domini regis supplicaverit sibi de remedio congruo versus praed. manucaptorem in hac parte provideri, super quod precept, est servient. ad clavam ibidem quod per probos et legales homines de burgo praedicto scire fac. seu &c. praefat. Thomam, quod sit coram ballivo burgi praed. ad prox. cur. de recordo in burgo praedicto tenend. ostensur. si quid pro se habeat vel dicere sciat, quare predictus Willielmus exe- cucionem suam versus eundem Thomam de debito et mis. et custag. ill. habere non debeat, juxta vim, formam, et effectum manucapcionis praed. si sibi viderit expedire, et ulterius factur. et receptur. quod praed. cur. dicti domini regis cons, in ea parte ; et habeant ibi tune hoc preceptum : teste Franc. Smyth jun., gen., ball, ibidem, septimo die Junii, annis regni domini nostri jacobi, Dei gratia regis Angliae, Franca?, et Hiberniae, septimo, et Scotiae xlij. BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES. V. From Ben Jonsoris "Timber, or Discoveries made upon Men and Matter, as they have flowed out of his daily Readings, or had their refluxe to his peculiar Notion of the Times? foL Lond. 1641. De Sakespeare nostrat.*\ remember, the players have often mentioned it as an honour to Shakespeare, that, in his writing, whatsoever he penn'd, hee never blotted out line. My answer hath beene, would he had blotted a thousand ; which they thought a malevolent speech. I had not told posterity this, but for their ignorance, who choose that circumstance to commend their friend by wherein he most faulted j and to Justine mine owne candor, for I lov'd the man, and doe honour his memory, on this side idolatry, as much as any, Hee was, indeed, honest, and of an open and free nature j had an excellent phantsie ; brave notions, and gentle expressions ; wherein hee flow'd with that facility, that sometime it was necessary he should be stop'd; Sufflaminandus erat, as Augustus said of Haterius. His wit was in his owne power ; would the rule of it had beene so too. Many times hee fell into those things, could not escape laughter ; as when hee said in the person of Caesar, one speaking to him ; Ccesar thou dost me wrong; hee replyed ; Ccesar did never wrong but with just cause ; and such like ; which were ridiculous. But hee redeemed his vices with his vertues. There was ever more in him to be praysed, then to be pardoned. 650 BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES. II.FromFuller's History of the Worthies of Warunck- shire, forming part of his History of the Worthies of England, fol. Lond.j^662. This was a posthumous work, the author having died in 1661, and the following notice was doubtlessly written several years preinously to that event. William Shakespeare was born at Stratford-on-Avon in this county, in whom three eminent poets may seem in some sort to be compounded, i. Martial in the warlike sound of his surname, whence some may conjecture him of a military extraction, hasti-vibrans or Shake-speare. 2. Ovid, the most naturall and witty of all poets, and hence it was that Queen Elizabeth, coming into a grammar-school, made this extemporary verse, " Persius a crab-staffe, bawdy Mar- tial, Ovid a fine wag." 3. Plautus, who was an exact comcedian yet never any scholar, as our Shake-speare, if alive, would confesse himself. Add to all these that, though his genius generally was jocular and inclining him to festivity, yet he could, when so disposed, be solemn and serious, as appears by his tragedies ; so that Heraclitus himself, I mean if secret and unseen, might afford to smile at his comedies, they were so merry, and Democritus scarce forbear to sigh at his tragedies, they were so mourn full. He was an eminent instance of the truth of that rule, poeta not fit sed nascitur, one is not made but born a poet. Indeed, his learning was very little, so that, as Cornish diamonds are not polished by any lapidary, but are pointed and smoothed even as they are taken out of the earth, so nature itself was all the art which was used upon him. Many were the wit-combates betwixt him and Ben Johnson, which two I behold like a Spanish great gallion and an English man-of-war. Master Johnson, like the former, was built, far higher in learning, solid, but slow in his performances. Shake-spear, with the English man-of- war, lesser in bulk, but lighter in sailing, could turn with all BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES. 651 tides, tack about, and take advantage of all winds, by the quickness of his wit and invention. He died anno Domini 1 6 , and was buried at Stratford-upon-Avon, the town of his nativity. III. Notes respecting Shakespeare extracted from the original memoranda-books of the Rev. John Ward, Vicar of Stratford-on-Avon, written in the year 1662. Shakspear had but 2 daughters, one whereof Mr. Hall, the physitian, married, and by her had one daughter, to wit, the Lady Bernard of Abbingdon. I have heard that Mr. Shakespeare was a natural wit, without any art at all ; hee frequented the plays all his younger time, but in his elder days livd at Stratford, and supplied the stage with two plays every year, and for that had an allowance so large that hee spent att the rate of looo.d. a yeer, as I have heard. Shakespear, Drayton, and Ben Jhonson, had a merry meeting, and itt seems drank too hard, for Shakespear died of a feavour there contracted. Remember to peruse Shakespears plays and bee versed in them, that I may not bee ignorant in that matter. IV. A biographical notice of Shakespeare, from Aubrey's Lives of Eminent Men, a manuscript completed in the year 1680. The marginal notes of the original are here denoted by Italics. Mr. William Shakespear was borne at Stratford-upon- Avon in the county of Warwick ; his father was a butcher, and I have been told heretofore by some of the neighbours that, when he was a boy, he exercised his father's trade, but when he kilPd a calfe, he would doe it in a high style, and make a speech. There was at that time another butcher's son in this towne, that was held not at all inferior to him for a naturall witt, his acquaintance and coetanean, but dyed 652 BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES young. This Wm., being inclined naturally to poetry and acting, came to London I guesse about 18, and was an actor at one of the play-houses, and did act exceedingly well. Now B. Johnson was never a good actor, but an excellent instructor. He began early to make essayes at dramatique poetry, which at that time was very lowe, and his playes tooke well. He was a handsome well shap't man, very good company, and of a very readie and pleasant smooth witt. The humour of the cunstable in a Midsomers Night's Dreame, he happened to take at Grenden in Bucks, which is the roade from London to Stratford, and there was living that constable about 1642, when I first came to Oxon, / thinke it was Midsomer night that he happened to lye there. Mr. Jos. Howe is of the parish, and knew him. Ben Johnson and he did gather humours of men dayly where ever they came. One time, as he was at the tavern at Stratford-super-Avon, one Combes, an old rich usurer, was to be buryed ; he makes there this extemporary epitaph, Ten in the hundred the devill allowes, But Combes will have twelve he sweares and vowes ; If any one askes who lies in this tombe, Hoh ! quoth the devill, 'Tis my John o'Combe ! He was wont to goe to his native countrey once a yeare. I thinke I have been told that he left 2 or 300 //. per annum there and thereabout to a sister. I have heard Sir Wm. Davenant and Mr. Thomas Shadwell (who is counted the best como3dian we have now) say that he had a most prodigious witt (v. his Epitaph in Dugdatts Warw^ and did admire his naturall parts beyond all other dramaticall writers. He (Ben Johnsons Underwoods] was wont to say that he never blotted out a line in his life ; sayd Ben Johnson, I wish he had bloted out a thousand. His comoedies will remaine witt as long as the English tongue is understood, BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES. 653 for that he handles mores hominum : now our present writers reflect so much upon particular persons and coxcombeities, that 20 yeares hence they will not be understood. Though, as Ben Johnson sayes of him, that he had but little Latine and lesse Greek, he understood Latine pretty well, for he had been in his younger yeares a schoolmaster in the countrey. from Mr. . . . Beeston. V. Notes on Shakespeare, those in Roman type having been made before the year i68jL by the Rev. William Fulman, and those in Italics being additions by the Rev. Richard Davies made previously to JQ&. From the originals preserved at Corpus Christi College, Oxford. William Shakespeare was born at Stratford upon Avon in Warwickshire, about 1563-4. Much given to all unluckinesse in stealing venison and rabbits, particularly from Sr .... Lucy, who had him oft whipt and sometimes imprisoned, and at last made him fly his native country to his great advancem*- but his reveng was so great, that he is his Justice Clodpate, and calls him a great man, and that in allusion to his name bore three louses rampant for his arms. From an actor of playes he became a composer. He dyed Apr. 23, 1616, setat. 53, probably at Stratford, for there he is buryed, and hath a monument (Dugd. p, 520), on which he layes a heavy curse upon any one who shal remoove his bones. He dyed a papist. VI. Anecdotes respecting Shakespeare, from a little manu- script account of places in Warwickshire by a person named Dowdall, written in the year 16^^ The first remarkable place in this county that I visitted was Stratford super Avon, where I saw the effigies of our English tragedian Mr. Shakspeare ; parte of his epitaph I sent Mr. Lowther, and desired he would impart it to you, which I finde by his last letter he has done ; but here I send 654 BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES. you the whole inscriptioa Just under his effigies in the wall of the chancell is this written. Judicio Pylum, genio Socratem, arte Maronem, Terra tegit, populus moerett, Olympus habet. Stay, passenger, why goest thou by soe fast ? Read, if thou canst, whome envious death has plac't Within this monument : Shakspeare, with whome Quick nature dyed ; whose name doth deck the tombe Far more then cost, sith all that he hath writt Leaves liveing art but page to serve his witt. Obiit A. Dni. 1616. ^Etat 53, Die 23 Apr. Neare the wall where his monument is erected lyeth a plaine free stone, underneath which his bodie is buried with this epitaph, made by himselfe a little before his death, Good friend, for Jesus sake forbeare To digg the dust inclosed here ! Blest be the man that spares these stones, And curs't be he that moves my bones ! The clarke that shew'd me this church is above 80 years old ; he says that this Shakespear was formerly in this towne bound apprentice to a butcher, but that he run from his master to London, and there was received into the play- house as a serviture, and by this meanes had an opportunity to be what he afterwards prov'd. He was the best of his family, but the male line is extinguished. Not one for feare of the curse abovesaid dare touch his grave-stone, tho his wife and daughters did earnestly desire to be layd in the same grave with him. ESTATE RECORDS. /. A Conveyance by Robert Arden, Shakespeare's maternal grandfather, of a house and land at Snitterfield, in trust for his three daughters, 17 July, 1550. This farm was then occupied by Richard Shakespeare, the poefs own grandfather. Sciant praesentes et futuri quod ego Robertus Ardern de Wylmecote in parochia de Aston Cantlowe in com. Warr. husbandman dedi, concessi, et hac praesenti carta mea tripartiter indentat. confirmavi Adae Palmer de Aston Cantlowe praedict. et Hugoni Porter de Snytterfylde in com. praedicto, totum illud mesuagium meum cum suis pertinentiis in Snytterfylde praedict., quae nunc sunt in tenura cujusdam Ricardi Shakespere, ac omnia ilia mea terr. prat, pascuas et pasturas cum suis pertinentiis in Snytterfylde praedict. eidem mesuagio spectant. et pertin- ent, quae nunc sunt in tenura praedicti Ricardi Shakespere, Habendum et tenendum omnia praedict. mesuagium terr. prat, pascuas et pasturas cum suis pertinentiis praedictis Adae Palmer et Hugoni Porter haeredibus et assign, suis ad usum et opus mei praedicti Roberti Ardern et Agnetis nunc uxoris meae pro termino vitae nostrum eorundem Roberti et Agnetis, ac diucius viventis nostrum, et post decessum diucius viventis nostrum praedictorum Roberti Ardern et Agnetis nunc uxoris meae, tune ad usus et opus sequent, Scilicet, unam terciam partem omnium praedict. mesuagii terr. prat, pascuar. et pasturar. cum suis pertin. ad usum et opus Agnetis Strynger nunc uxoris Thomae Strynger, ac 656 ESTATE RECORDS. nuper uxoris Johannis Hewyns, dudum de Bereley, modo defunct., filiae mei praedict. Roberti Ardern, ac haeredum et assign, ejusdem Agnetis Strynger in perpetuum; et alteram terciam partem omnium eorundem mesuagii terr. prat. pasc. et pastur. cum suis pertinentiis, ad usum et opus Johannae Lambert, nunc uxoris Edwardi Lambert de Barton super lez Hothe, aliae filiae mei praedicti Roberti Ardern, ac haeredum et assign, ejusdem Johannae Lambert in perpetuum ; aliamque terciam partem omnium praedictorum mesuagii terr. prat. pasc. et pastur. cum suis pertinentiis, ad usum et opus Katerinae Etkyns, nunc uxoris Thomae Etkyns de Wylmecote praedict, aliee filiae mei praedicti Roberti Ardern, ac haeredum et assign, ejusdem Katerinae Etkyns in perpetuum, de capitalib. dominis feod. illi. per servic. inde prius debit, et de jure consuet. Et ego vero praedictus Robertus Ardern, et haeredes mei, omnia praedict. mesua- gium terr. prat. pasc. et pastur. cum suis pertin. praefatis Adae Palmer et Hugoni Porter haeredibus et assign, suis ad usus et opus supradict. contra omnes gentes warantizabim. et in perpetuum defendemus per praesentes. Sciatis insuper me praedictum Robertum Ardern plenam et pacificam possessionem et seisinam de et in praedict. mesuagio terr. prat. pasc. et pastur. cum suis pertin. praefatis Adae Palmer et Hugoni Porter ad usus et opus superius specificat. secundum vim, formam, tenorem, et effectum hujus prae- sentis cartae meae tripartiter indentat. inde eis confect. in propria persona mea tradidisse et liberasse. In cujus rei testimonium cuilibet parti hujus praesentis cartae meae tripartiter indentat. sigillum meum apposui. Dat. decimo septimo die Julii anno regni domini Edwardi sexti, Dei gratia Angliae Franc, et Hibern. regis, Fidei defensoris, et in terra ecclesiae Anglicanae et Hibernicae supremi capitis quarto. II. Concord of a fine levied on the occasion of the purchase ESTATE RECORDS. 657 by Shakespeare *s father of two houses at Stratford-on-Avon, 1575- Haec est finalis concordia facta in curia dominse reginae apud Westm. a die Sancti Michaelis in unum mensem anno regnor. Elizabeth. Dei gratia Angl. Franc, et Hibern. Reginae, Fidei defensoris, &c., a conquestu decimo septimo, coram Jacobo Dyer, Ricardo Harpur, Rogero Manwood, et Roberto Mounson, justic., et aliis dominae reginae fidelibus tune ibi praesentibus, inter Johannem Shakespere quer., et Edmundum Hall et Emmam uxorem ejus deforc., de duo- bus mesuagiis, duobus gardinis, et duobus pomariis, cum pertinentiis, in Stretford-super-Avon ; unde placitum con- vencionis sum. fuit inter eos in eadem curia, scilicet quod praedicti Edm. et Emma recogn. praedict. ten. cum pertin. esse jus ipsius Johannis ut ill. quae idem Johannes habet de dono praedictorum Edmundi et Emmse, et ill. remiser. et quietclam. de ipsis Edmundo et Emma et haered. suis praedicto Johanni et haered. suis in perpetuum. Et praeterea iideru Edmundus et Emma concesser., pro se et haered. ipsius Emmae, quod ipsi warant. praedicto Johanni et haered. suis praedict ten. cum pertin. contra praedictos Edmundum et Emmam et haered. ipsius Emmae in perpetuum. Et pro hac recogn. remissione quietclam. warant. fine et concordia idem Johannes dedit praedictis Edmundo et Emmae quadra- ginta libras sterlingorum. ///. Note of a Fine levied when the estate of Asbies was mortgaged by the Shakespeares, Easter Term, 21 Elizabeth, 1579- Inter Edmundum Lambert quer., et Johannem Shake- spere et Mariam uxorem ejus deforc., de duobus mesuagiis, duobus, gardinis, quinquaginta acris terrae, duabus acris prati, quatuor acris pasturae, et communa pasturae pro omni- modis averiis, cum pertinentiis in Awston Cawntlett. Unde placitum convencionis sum. fuit inter eos, &c., scilicet, quod 42 658 ESTATE RECORDS. praedicti Johannes et Maria recogn. praedicta ten. et com- munam pasturae cum pertinentiis esse jus ipsius Edmundi, ut ill. quae idem Edmundus habet de dono praedictorum Johannis et Marias, et ill. remiserunt et quietclam. de ipsis Johanne et Maria et haeredibus suis praedicto Edmundo et haeredibus suis in perpetuum. Et praeterea iidem Johannes et Maria concesserunt per se et haered. ipsius Mariae quod ipsi warant. praedicto Edmundo et haeredibus suis praedicta ten. et communam pasturae cum pertin. contra praedictos Johannem et Mariam et haeredes ipsius Mariae in perpetuum. Et pro hac recogn. remissione quietclam. warant. fine, &c., idem Edmundus dedit praedictis Johanni et Mariae quadra- ginta libras sterlingorum, IV. Deed of Conveyance, ij October, 1579, from Shake- speare's parents to Robert Webbe, of their interest in property at Snitterfield. This indenture, made the fyftenthe daye of Octobar in the yeare of the raigne of our soveraigne ladye Elizabethe, bye the grace of God of England, Fraunce and Ireland Quene, defender of the faithe, &c., the twenty the and one, Betwene John Shackspere of Stratford-upon-Avon in the countye of Warwicke yoman and Marye his wyeffe on the one partye, and Robert Webbe of Snytterfylde in the same countye yoman on the other partye ; Witnessethe that the said John Shackspere and Marye his wieffe, for and in consideracion of the somme of foure pounds of good and lawfull Englishe money by the aforesaid Roberte Webbe unto the said John Shackspere and Marye his wyeffe before the delyverie of these presents well and trulye contented and paied, of the which said somme the said John Shack- spere and Marye his wyeffe doe acknowledge themselves fully satisfyed contented and paied, and thereof and of everye parte thereof the said . . his heires executors ESTATE RECORDS. 659 administrators and assignes doe fully freely and cleerelye acquyte exonerate and dyscharge for ever, by these presents, have gyven graunted bargayned and sold, and by these presents doe gyve graunte bargayne and sell, unto the said Robarte Webbe his heires and assignes for ever, all that theire moitye parte and partes, be yt more or lesse, of and in twoo messuages or tenements with thappurtenaunces, sett lyenge and beynge in Snitterfield aforesaid in the said county of Warwicke, and of all and singular houses, edifices, barnes, stables, gardens, orchards, medowes, lesues, pastures, feedings, commons, furzes, brushewoods, underwoods, waters, lands, tenements, hereditaments, profytts, commodyties, whatsoever, or wheresoever in any wise to the said twoo messuages or tenements or any of them belonginge or appertaininge, or occupied with the same, in whose tenure or occupacion soever they or any of them or any parte or parcell of them nowe be ; and furthermore, the revertion and revertions, remainder and remainders of the same, and the rents, dutyes, profytts and commodyties whatsoever to the said revertion or revertions, remaynder or remaynders, in any wyse belonging incident or appleyinge, or excepted or reserved uppon any manner of graunte or demyse thereof heretofore had or made, or of any of thaforesaid premisses, together with all and singular deeds, cherters, evydences, wrytyngs and muniments whatsoever towchinge and con- cerninge onely the foresaid twoo messuages or tenementes, or all or any of thaforesaid premisses which theye, thafore- said John Shackspere or Marye his wyeffe, or eyther of them, or anye other person or persons, eyther by theyre or any of theyre delyverie or by theire or eyther of theire knowledge, now have or ought to have ; To have and to holde theire said moitye, parte and partes, of the said twoo messuages or tenementes, and of all and singular the graunted premisses, with theire and everye of thappurten- 422 660 ESTATE RECORDS. aunces, unto thaforesaide Roberta Webbe, his heires and assignes for ever, to his and theire onely proper use and behoofe j all which theire said moitye, parte and partes, of the said twoo messuages or tenements with thappurten- aunces, and of all and singular the graunted premisses, with theire and everye of theire appurtenaunces, thafforesaid John Shackspere and Marye his wyeffe, for them and theire heires and the heires of eyther of them, by these presents to thafforesaid Robert Webbe his heires and assignes doe warrante and promysse to defende against the said John and Marye his wiffe and their heires and the heires of eyther of them for ever by these presents. And the said John Shackspere and Marye his wyeffe, for the consideracion aforesaid, for them, theire heires and the heyres of eyther of them, theire executors administrators and assignes, and everye of them, doe covenant promysse and graunte to and with the said Robert Webbe, his heires executors adminis- trators and assignes, and everye of them, by these presents, that theire said moitye, parte and partes, of thafforesaid twoo messuages or tenements, and of all and singular the graunted premisses with their appurtenaunces, at all tyme and tymes henceforth after the delyverie of these presents maye and shall lawfully and rightfully come be and remayne unto thafforesaid Robert Webbe his heires and assignes, accordinge to the true tenour and effecte of the graunte thereof before made in these presents, free cleere and voyde, or otherwise well and sufficientlie saved harmlesse, by the foresaid John Shackspere and Marye his wyeffe, theire heires and the heires of eyther of them and their assignes, of and from all and singular bargaines, sales, feoffmentes, grauntes,intayles, joyntures, dowars, leases, wills, uses, rent-charge, rent-sects, arrerages of rents, recognizaunce, statute marchant and of the staple obligacions, judgments, executions, condempnacions, yssues, fynes, amercments, intrusions, forfaitures, alienacions ESTATE RECORDS. 66 I without lycense, and of and from all other charges troubles and incumbrances whatsoever heretofore had made or done by the foresaid John Shackspere and Marye his wieffe, or eyther of them, or of theire heires or the heires of eyther of them, or by any other person or persons by, thorough or under, theire or any of theire right, tytle or interest, acte, consent or procurement, the rents, customes and services due to the chieffe lord or lords of the fee or fees onely excepted and foreprised ; and that theye, the foresaid John Shackspere and Marye his wyeffe, and all and everye other person or persons (except before excepted) nowe havinge, claiminge or pretendinge to have, or that hereafter shall have, claime or pretend to have, any manner of lawfull and just right, tytle and interest, of, in, to or out of theire said moitye, parte and partes, of the foresaid twoo messuages or tenements, and of all or any of the graunted premisses with theire appurtenaunces, in, by or thoroughe, the right, tytle or intereste of the said John Shakspeare and Marye his wyeffe and theire heires, and the heires of eyther of them, at all tyme and tymes hereafter, from and after the delyverie of these presentes, from tyme to tyme, uppon lawfull warninge and request made by the said Roberte Webbe his heirs and assignes unto thaforesaid John Shackspere and Marye his wyeffe, and theire heires and the heires of eyther of them, at the proper costes and charges in the lawe of the said Robert Webbe his heires or assignes, shall and wyll doe cause and suffer to be done all and everye reasonable and lawfull acte and actes, thinge and thinges, devyse and devyses, for the more better and perfect assuraunce and sure makinge in the lawe of thaforesaid moitye, parte and partes, of the said twoo messuages or tenements, and of all and singular the graunted premisses with theire appurtenaunces, to the said Robert Webbe, his heires and assignes, to his and theire onely use and behoofe, be yt by fyne, feoffment, 662 ESTATE RECORDS. recovery with single or double voucher, deedes inrolled, inrollement of those presents, or by any or by all of them, or by any other wayes or meanes whatsoever, with warranty against them, the said John Shackspere and Marye his wyeffe, and theire heires, and the heires of eyther of them, as shalbe advised or devised by the said Robert Webbe, his heires and assignes, or by his and theire councell learned in the lawe. And furthermore that the said John Shackspere and Marye his wyeffe and theire heires, and the heires of eyther of them and theire assignes, shall and wyll delyver, uncanceled and undefaced, unto the said Roberte Webbe his heires or assignes, before the feast of Easter next ensueing the date of these presentes, all and singular the charters, deedes, evidences, wrytinges and myniments, which theye the said John Shackspere and Marye his wyeffe hath, or that theye theire heires, executors or assignes, at any tyme hereafter maye lawfully come by, without suite in lawe, towchinge and concerninge thafore- said twoo messuages or tenements, or the before bargained premisses or any of them, they the said John Shackspere and Marye his wyeffe, or ope of them, uppon lawfull request of the said Robert Webbe his heires and assignes, at his and theire proper costes and charges unto them the said John and Marye theire heires and assignes had and made, shall deliver or cause to be delyvered to the said Robart Webbe his heires and assignes the true and perfecte coppie and coppies at all tyme and tymes hereafter. In wittnesse whereof the partyes abovesaid to these present indentures interchangeblie have putte theire hands and scales the daye and yeare fyrst above wrytten. The marke + of John Shackspere. The marke -f of Marye Shacksper. Sealed and delivered in the presens of Nycholas Knooles, vicar of Auston, of Wyllyam Maydes and Anthony Osbaston, with other moe. ESTATE RECORDS. 663 Bond for the performance of the foregoing covenants. Noverint universi per praesentes nos, Johannem Shackspere de Stratford-uppon-Avon in com. Warwici yoman et Mariam uxor. ejus, teneri et firmiter obligari Roberto Webbe de Snitterfielde in com. praedicto yoman, in viginti marcis bonae et legalis monet. Angliae, solvendum eidem Roberto aut suo certo attornat. executoribus, administratoribus, vel assignatis suis ; ad quam quidem solutionem bene et fide- liter faciendum obligamus nos haeredos, executores, et administratores nostros firmiter per praesente, sigillo nostro sigillat. Dat decimo quinto die mensis Octobriss anno regni dominae Elizabeth. Dei gratia Angliae, Franciae et Hiberniae regina, fidei defensor, &c. vicesimo primo. The condition of this obligacion is such, that if thabove bounden John Shackspere and Marye his wyeffe, theire heires and the heires of eyther of them, theire executors, administrators and assignes, and everye of them, doe well and trulye observe, performe, fulfyll and keepe all and singular cove- nants, graunts, artycles and agreements which on theire partes are to be observed, performed, fulfylled and kepte, contayned, comprised and specified in one paire of inden- tures, bearinge date the daye of the date of this present obligacion, made betwene the abovenamed Robarte Webbe on the one partye and thabove bound John Shackspere and Marie his wieffe on the other partye, that then this present obligacion to be utterlye voyde and of none effecte, or ells to stande remayne and be in full power strengthe force and vertue. Signum Johannis + Shaxpere. Sealed and de- lyvered in the presens of Nycholas Knoolles, vicar of Auston, Wyllyam Mayds, and Anthonye Osbaston, with other moe. V. Bill of Complaint brought by John Shakespeare^ the poefs father, against Lambert in the Court of Queen's Bench^ 664 ESTATE RECORDS. 1589, respecting an estate at Wilmecote near Stratford-on- Avon. From the Coram Rege Rolls, Term. Mich. 31-32 Eliz. This document contai?is the only positive notice of the great dramatist between the years 1585 and 1592 which hers yet been discovered. WARR : Memorandum quod alias, scilicet termino Sancti Michaelis ultimo preterito, coram domina regina apud Westmonasterium venit Johannes Shackspere, per Johannem Harborne, attornatum suum, er protulit hie in curia dicte domine regine tune ibidem quandam billam suam versus Johannem Lambert, filium et heredem Ed- mundi Lamberte nuper de Barton Henmershe in comitatu predicto yoman, in custodia marescalli &c., de placito transgressionis super casum ; et sunt plegii de prosequendo, scilicet Johannes Doo et Ricardus Roo, que quidem billa sequitur in hec verba, WARR : Johannes Shackespere queritur de Johanne Lamberte, filio et herede Edmundi Lamberte nuper de Barton Henmershe in comitatu predicto yoman, in custodia marescalli marescallie domine regine, coram ipsa regina existente, pro eo, videlicet, quod cum idem Edmundus in vita sua, scilicet decimo quarto die Novembris anno regni domine Elizabethe nunc regine Anglie vicesimo, per quandam indenturam gerentem datum die et anno predictis emisset sibi et heredibus suis de pre- fato Johanne Shackespere et Maria uxore ejus unum mesua gium sive tenementum, unam virgatam terre et quatuor acras terre arrabilis cum pertinentiis in Wilmecote in dicto comitatu Warwici, habendum et tenendum mesuagium sive tenementum predictum et alia premissa cum pertinentiis prefato Edmundo heredibus et assignatis suis imperpetuum, proviso semper quod si dictus Johannes Shackespere, heredes, executores, administratores vel assignati sui, sol- verent seu solvi causarent prefato Edmundo quadraginta libras legalis monete Anglie in die festi sancti Michaelis ESTATE RECORDS. 665 Archangeli, quod tune esset in anno Domini millesimo quingentesimo et octogesimo, quod tune deinceps indentura predicta et omnia in eadem contenta vacua forent ; virtute cujus idem Edmundus in tenementa predicta cum perti- nentiis intravit et fuit inde seisitus in dominico suo ut de feodo, et sic inde seisitus existens postea, scilicet primo die Marcii anno regni dicte domine regine nunc vicesimo nono, apud Barton Henmershe predictam obiit, post cujus mortem mesuagium predictum et cetera premissa cum pertinentiis descendebant prefato Johanni Lamberte ut filio et heredi dicti Edmundi; dictusque Johannes Lamberte, dubitans statum et interesse sua de et in tenementis predictis cum pertinentiis esse vacua, et noticiam habens quod predictus Johannes Shackespere eum, implacitare vellet et intendisset pro premissis in consideracione quod predictus Johannes Shackespere adtunc imposterum non implacitaret dictum Johannem Lamberte pro mesuagio predicto et ceteris pre- missis cum pertinentiis, et quod dictus Johannes Shacke- spere et Maria uxor ejus, simulcum Willielmo Shackespere filio suo, cum inde requisiti essent assurarent mesuagium predictum et cetera premissa cum pertinentiis prefato Johanni Lamberte, et deliberarent omnia scripta et eviden- cias premissa predicta concernentia ; predictus Johannes Lamberte, vicesimo sexto die Septembris anno regni dicte domine regine vicesimo nono apud Stratford-super-Avon in comitatu predicto, in consideracione inde super se assumpsit et prefato Johanni Shackespere adtunc et ibidem fideliter promisit quod ipse idem Johannes Lambert viginti libras legalis monete Anglie prefato Johanni Shackespere modo et forma sequentibus, videlicet in et super decimum-octavum diem Novembris tune proximo sequentem viginti solidos, et in et super vicesimum tercium diem ejusdem mensis tres libras, et in et super quartum diem Decembris tune proximo sequentem sexdecim libras, predictarum viginti librarum 666 ESTATE RECORDS. residuum, apud domum mancionalem cujusdam Anthonii Ingram generosi scituatam et existentem in Walford Parva in comitatu predicto bene et fideliter solvere et contentare vellet ; et predictus Johannes Shackespere in facto dicit quod ipse hucusque non implacitavit dictum Johannem Lambert pro premissis nee aliqua inde parcella, et insuper quod ipse idem Johannes Shackespere et Maria uxor ejus simulcum Willielmo Shackespere filio suo semper hactenus parati fuerunt tarn ad assuranda premissa predicta quam ad deliberanda eidem Johanni Lamberte omnia scripta et evidencias eadem premissa concernentia ; predictus tamen Johannes Lamberte promissionem et assumpcionem suas predictas minime curans, set machinans et fraudulenter intendens ipsum Johannem Shackspere de predictis viginti libris callide et subdole decipere et defraudare easdem viginti libras prefato Johanni Shackespere juxta promis- sionem et assumpcionem suas hucusque non solvit nee aliqualiter pro eisdem contentavit licet ad hoc per eundem Johannem Shackespere, postea, scilicet primo die Septem- bris anno regni dicte domine regine nunc tricesimo apud Barton Henmershe predictam in comitatu predicto sepius requisitus fuit, per quod idem Johannes Shackspere totum lucrum commodum et proficuum que ipse cum predictis viginti libris emendo et barganizando habere et lucrare potuisset totaliter perdidit et amisit, ad dampnum ipsius Johannis Shackspeare triginta librarum, ac inde producit sectam. Et modo ad hunc diem, scilicet diem Jovis proxi- mum post octabas sancti Michaelis isto eodem termino, usque quern diem predictus Johannes Lamberte habuit licenciam ad billam interloquendam et tune ad responden- dam, etc., coram domina regina apud Westmonasterium venerunt tarn predictus Johannes Shackspere per attornatum suum predictum quam predictus Johannes Lamberte per Johannem Boldero attornatum suum, et idem Johannes ESTATE RECORDS. 667 Lamberte defendit vim et injuriam quando, etc. Et dicit quod ipse non assumpsit super se modo et forma prout predictus Johannes Shakespere superius versus eum narra- vit, et de hoc ponit se super patriam ; et predictus Johannes Shackespere similiter, etc. Ideo veniat inde jurata coram domina regina apud Westmonasterium die veneris proximo post octabas Sancti Hillarii, et qui etc., ad recognoscendum etc. Quia tam etc. Idem dies datus est partibus predictis ibidem etc. VI. Deed of the Conveyance, from John Shakespeare to George Badger , of a slip of land belonging to the Birth-Place estate, January, 1596-7. Omnibus Christi fidelibus ad quos hoc praesens scrip- turn pervenerit, Johannes Shakespere de Stretford-super- Avonam in comitatu Warwici yoman salutem in Domino sempiternam. Noveritis me praefatum Johannem, pro et in consideracione summae quadraginta solidorum bonae et legalis monetae Angliae mihi per quendam Georgium Badger de Stretford praedict. draper praemanibus solut, unde fateor me fideliter esse solut. et satisfact, dictumque Georgium Badger haeredes executores et administratores suos inde quiet, esse et exonerat imperpetuum per praesentes, bar- ganizavi et vendidi, necnon dedi et concessi, et hac praesenti carta mea confirmavi praefato Georgio Badger, haeredibus, et assignatis suis, totum illud toftum et parcellum terrae meae cum pertinentiis jacencium et existen. in Stretford-super- Avon praedicto, in quodam vico ibidem vocato Henlye Strete, inter liberum tenementum rnei praedicti Johannis Shakespere ex parte orientali et liberum tenementum prae- dicti Georgii Badger ex parte occidentali, continent in latitudine per aestimacionem dimid. unius virgat. apud utrosque fines, et jacet in longitudine a praedicto vico vocat. Henlye Strete ex parte austral, usque regiam viam ibidem 668 ESTATE RECORDS. vocatam Gyllpyttes ex parte boreali, continen. per aestima- cionem in longitudine viginti et octo virgat. vel circa, et modo est in tenura sive occupatione mei praedicti Johannis Shakespere ; habendum et tenendum praedictum toftum et parcellum terrae cum pertinentiis praefato Georgio Badger, haeredibus et assignatis suis, ad solum et proprium opus et usum ejusdem Georgii, haered. et assign, suorum, imperpe- tuum, tenendum de capitalibus dominis feod- ill. per servi- cium inde prius debit, et de jure consuet Et ego vero praedictus Johannes Shakespere et haeredes mei totum praedictum toftum et parcellum terrae cum pertinentiis praefato Georgio Badger, haeredibus et assignatis suis, ad opus et usum supradictum contra omnes gentes, warrantiza- bimus et imperpetuum defendemus per praesentes. Sciatis insuper me praefatum Johannem Shakespere plenam et paci- ficam possessionem et seisinam de et in praedicto tofto et parcello terrae, cum pertinentiis, praefato Georgio Badger, secundum vim, formam, tenorem, et effectum hujus prae- sentis cartae meae inde ei confect. in propria persona mea tradidisse et deliberasse. In cujus rei testimonium huic praesenti scripto meo sigillum meum apposui. Datum vicesimo sexto die Januarii anno regni dominae nostrae Elizabethae, Dei gracia Angliae, Franciae, et Hiberniae reginae, Fidei defensor. &c. tricesimo nono, 1596. Signum fohannis -f Shakespere. Sigillat. et deliberat. ac pacifica possessio et seisina de tofto et parcell. terrae infrascript. deliberat. fuit per infra-nominatum Johannem Shakespere infrascripto Georgio Badger, die et anno infrascripto, secun- dum formam, tenorem, et effectum hujus praesentis cartae, in praesencia, viz., Richard Lane, Harry Walker, per me Willielmum Courte scriptor., Thomas Loche, Thomas Beseley. VII. Papers in a Chancery Suit respecting the estate of ESTATE RECORDS. 669 Ashbies, Michaelmas Term, 1598. T/ie father and mother of Shakespeare were the plaintiffs, and Edmund Lambert, the poet's uncle by marriage, the defendant. 24 Nov., 1597. To the righte honorable Sir Thomas Egerton, knighte, lorde keper of the greate seale of Englande. In most humble wise complayninge, sheweth unto your good lordshippe your dailye oratours John Shake- spere of Stratford-upon-Avon, in the county of Warwicke, and Mary his wief, that whereas your saide oratours were lawfully seised in their demesne as of fee, as in the righte of the saide Mary, of and in one mesuage and one yard land with thappurtenaunces, lyinge and beinge in Wylnecote, in the saide county ; and they beinge thereof so sesed, for and in consideracion of the some of fowerty pounds to them by one Edmounde Lamberte of Barton on the Heath in the saide countie paide, your sayde oratours were contente that he, the saide Edmounde Lamberte, shoulde have and enjoye the same premisses untill suche tyme as your sayde oratours did repaie unto him the saide some of fowertie pounds ; by reasone whereof the saide Edmounde did enter into the premisses and did occupie the same for the space of three or fower yeares, and thissues and profyttes thereof did receyve and take ; after which your saide oratours did tender unto the saide Edmounde the sayde somme of fowerty pounds, and desired that they mighte have agayne the sayd premisses accordinge to theire agreement ; which money he the sayde Edmounde then refused to receyve, sayinge that he woulde not receyve the same, nor suffer your sayde oratours to have the saide premisses agayne, unlesse they woulde paye unto him certayne other money which they did owe unto him for other matters ; all which not- withstandinge, nowe so yt ys; and yt maye please your good lordshippe that, shortelie after the tendringe of the sayde fowertie pounds to the saide Edmounde, and the 670 ESTATE RECORDS. desyre of your sayde oratours to have theire lande agayne from him, he the saide Edmounde att Barton aforesayde dyed, after whose deathe one John Lamberte, as sonne and heire of the saide Edmounde, entred into the said premisses and occupied the same ; after which entrie of the sayde John your said oratours came to him and tendred the saide money unto him, and likewise requested him that he woulde suffer them to have and enjoye the sayde premisses accord- inge to theire righte and tytle therein and the promise of his saide father to your saide oratours made, which he the saide John denyed in all things, and did withstande them for entringe into the premisses, and as yet doeth so con- tynewe still ; and by reasone that certaine deedes and other evydences concerninge the premisses and that of righte belong to your saide oratours, are coume to the hands and possession of the sayde John, he wrongfullie still keepeth and detayneth the possession of the saide premisses from your saide oratours, and will in noe wise permytt and suffer them to have and enjoye the sayde premisses accordinge to theire righte in and to the same ; and he the saide John Lamberte hathe of late made sondrie secreate estates of the premisses to dyvers persones to your said oratours unknowen, whereby your saide oratours cannot tell againste whome to bringe theire accions att the commen lawe, for the recovery of the premisses ; in tender consideracion whereof, and for so muche as your saide oratours knowe not the certaine dates or contentes of the saide wrytings, nor whether the same be contayned in bagge, boxe, or cheste, sealed locked or noe, and therefore have no remeadie to recover the same evydences and wrytings by the due course of the comen lawes of this realme ; and for that also by reasone of the saide secreate estates so made by the saide John Lamberte as aforesaide, and want of your saide oratours havinge of the evidences and wrytings as aforesaide, your sayde ESTATE RECORDS. 671 oratours cannot tell what accions or against whome, or in what manner to bring theire accion for the recoverie of the premisses at the comen lawe ; and for that also the sayde John Lamberte ys of greate wealthe and abilitie, and well frended and alied amongest gentlemen and freeholders of the countrey in the saide countie of Warwicke, where he dwelleth, and your saide oratours are of small wealthe and verey fewe frends and alyance in the saide countie, maye yt therefore please your good lordshippe to graunt unto your saide oratours the Queenes Majesties moste gracyous writte of subpoena, to be directed to the saide John Lamberte, comandinge him thereby att a certaine daie and under a certaine payne therein to be lymytted, person- ally to appear before your good lordshippe in her Majesties highnes courte of chauncerie, then and there to answere the premisses ; and further to stande to and abyde suche order and direction therein as to your good lordshippe shall seeme best to stande with righte, equytie and good conscyence, and your sayde oratours shall daylie praye to God for the prosperous healthe of your good lordshippe with increase of honour longe to contynewe. Juratus coram me. Thomam Legge, 24 November, 1597. The answeare of John Lamberte, defendante, to the byll of complainte of John Shakspeere and Mary his wief complainantes. The said defendante savinge to himselfe both nowe, and att all tymes hereafter, all advantage of excepcion to the uncertentie and insufficiencie of the said complainants byll, and also savinge to this defendante such advantage as by the order of this honorable courte he shalbe adjudged to have, for that the like byll, in effecte conteyninge the selfe-same matter, hath byne heretofore exhibited into this honorable courte againste this defendante, wherunto this defendante hath made a full and directe answeare wherin the said complainante hath not proceeded 672 ESTATE RECORDS. to hearinge for a seconde full and directe answeare unto the said complainantes byll sayeth that true yt is, as this defendante verylie thinkethe, that the said complainants were, or one of them was, lawfully seized in theire or one of theire demeasne, as of fee, of and in one messuage and one yearde and fower acres of lande with thappurtenaunces, lyeinge and beinge in Wilmecott, in the parishe of Aston Cawntloe in the Countie of Warwicke, and that they or one of them soe beinge thereof seized, the said complainante John Shakspeere, by indenture beringe date uppon or about the fowertenth daye of November, in the twentieth yeare of the raigne of our Sovereigne Lady the Queenes Majestic that now ys, for and in consideracion of the summe of fortie pownds of lawfull Englishe monney unto the said complainante paide by Edmunde Lamberte, this defendants father in the said byll named, did geve, graunte, bargaine, and sell the said messuage, and one yearde and fower acres of lande with thappurtenaunces, unto the saide Edmunde Lamberte, and his heires and assignes, to have and to holde the said messuage, one yearde, and fower acres of lande with thappurtenaunces, unto the saide Edmunde Lamberte, his heires and assignes for ever; in which indenture there is a condicionall provisoe conteyned that, if the said complainante did paye unto the said Edmunde Lamberte the summe of fortie pownds uppon the feast daie of St. Michell tharchangell which shoulde be in the yeare of our Lorde God one thousande fyve hundred and eightie, att the dwellinge howse of the said Edmund Lamberte, in Barton on the Heath in the said countie of Warwicke, that then the said graunte, bargaine, and sale, and all the covenaunts, graunts, and agreements therin conteyned, shulde cease and be voyde, as by the said indenture, wherunto this defendante for his better certentie doth referre himselfe, may appeare ; and afterward, the said ESTATE RECORDS. 673' complainante John Shakspeere, by his Deede Pole and Liverie theruppon made, did infeoffe the said Edmunde Lamberte of the saide premisses, to have and to holde unto him the said Edmunde Lamberte and his heires for ever; after all which, in the term of Ester, in the one and twenteth yeare of the Queenes Majesties raigne that nowe ys, the said complainantes in due forme of lawe did levye a fyne of the said messuage and yearde lande, and other the premisses, before the Queenes Majesties justices of the comon plees att Westminster, unto the saide Edmunde Lamberte, and his heires, sur conizance de droyt, as that which the said Edmunde had of the gifte of the said John Shakspeere, as by the said pole deede, and the chirographe of the said fine, wherunto this defendante for his better certentie referreth himselfe, yt doth and maye appeare; and this defendante further sayeth that the said complain- ante did not tender or paye the said summe of fortie pownds unto the said Edmunde Lamberte, this defendants father, uppon the saide feaste daye, which was in the yeare of our Lorde God one thowsande fyve hundred and eightie, accordinge to the said provisoe in the said indenture expressed. By reason whereof this defendants said father was lawfully and absolutly seized of the said premisses in his demeasne as of fee, and, aboute eleven yeares laste paste thereof, dyed seized; by and after whose decease the said messuage and premisses with thappurtenaunces descended and came, as of righte the same oughte to descende and come, unto this defendante, as sonne and nexte heire of the said Edmunde ; by vertue whereof this defendante was and yet is of the said messuage, yearde lande and premisses, lawfully seized in his demeasne as of fee, which this defendante hopeth he oughte both by lawe and equitie to enjoye, accordinge to his lawfull righte and tytle therin ; and this defendante further sayeth that the 43 674 ESTATE RECORDS. said messuage, yearde lande, and other the said premisses or the moste parte thereof, have ever, sythence the purches therof by this defendantes father, byne in lease by the demise of the said complainante ; and the lease therof beinge nowe somewhat nere expyred, wherby a greater value is to be yearly raised therby, they the said complain- ants doe now trowble and moleste this defendante by unjuste suts in lawe, thinkinge therby (as yt shoulde seme) to wringe from him this defendante some further recom- pence for the said premisses then they have alreddy received ; without that, that yt was agreed that the said Edmunde Lamberte shoulde have and enjoy the said pre- misses in anie other manne and forme (to the knowledge of this defendante) then this defendante hath in his said answeare heretofore expressed ; and without that, that anie deedes or evidences concernynge the premisses that of righte belonge to the said complainantes are come to the handes and possession of this defendante, as in the said byll is untruly supposed; and without that, that anie other matter, cause, or thinge, in the said complainantes byll conteined, materiall or effectuall in the lawe, to be answeared unto, towchinge or concernynge him this defendante, and herein before not answeared unto, confessed and avoyded, traversed or denied, is true, to this defendants knowledge or remembrance, in suche manner and forme as in the said byll the same is sett downe and declared. All which matters this defendante is reddy to averre and prove, as this honorable cou-rte shall awarde, and prayethe to be dismissed therhence with his- reasonable costs and charges in this wrongful! sute by him unjustly susteyned. The replicacion of John Shakespere and Mary his wiefe, complainent, to the answere of John Lamberte, defendant. The said complaynaunts, for replicacion to the answere of the said defendant, saie that theire bill of complaynt ys ESTATE RECORDS. 675 certayne and sufficient in the lawe to be answered ; which said bill, and matters therein conteyned, these complainants will avowe, verefie, and justifie to be true and sufficient in the lawe to be answered unto, in such sorte, manner, and forme, as the same be sett forthe and declared in the said bill : and further they saie that thanswere of the said defendaunt is untrue and insufficient in lawe to be replied unto, for many apparent causes in the same appearinge, thadvantage whereof these complainants praie may be to theym nowe and at all tymes saved, then and not ells ; for further replication to the said answere, they saie that, accordinge to the condicion or proviso mencioned in the said indenture of bargaine and sale of the premisses men- cioned in the said bill of complaynt, he this complainant John Shakspere did come to the dwellinge house of the said Edmunde Lambert, in Barton uppon the heathe, uppbn the feaste daie of St. Michaell tharcheangell, which was in the yeare of our Lorde God one thousand fyve hundred and eightie, and then and there tendered to paie unto him the said Edmunde Lambert the said fortie poundes, which he was to paie for the redemption of the said premisses ; which somme the said Edmunde did refuse to receyve, sayinge that he owed him other money, and unles that he the said John would paie him altogether, as well the said fortie pounds as the other money, which he owed him over and above, he would not receave the said fortie pounds, and imediatlie after he the said Edmunde dyed, and by reason thereof, he the said defendant entered into the said premisses, and wrongfullie kepeth and detayneth the said premisses from him the said complainant; without that, any other matter or thinge, materiall or effectuall, for these complainantes to replie unto, and not herein sufficientlie confessed and avoyded, denyed and traversed, ys true ; all which matters and things thes complaynants are redie to 432 676 ESTATE RECORDS. averr and prove, as this honourable court will awarde, and pray as before in theire said bill they have praied. In dor so, Ter. Michael. Annis 40 et 41. VIII. Indenture of the Conveyance, of over a hundred acres of land, from William and John Combe to Shakespeare, May, 1602. This Indenture, made the firste daie of Maye, in the fowre and fortieth yeare of the raigne of our Soveraigne Ladie Elizabeth, by the grace of God, of England, Fraunce, and Ireland, Queene, Defendresse of the faithe, &c, Betweene William Combe, of Warrwicke, in the countie of Warrwick, esquier, and John Combe, of Olde Stretford, in the countie aforesaide, gentleman, on the one partie, and William Shakespere, of Stretford-uppon-Avon, in the countie aforesaide, gentleman, on thother partye; Witnesseth that the saide William Combe, and John Combe, for and in consideracion of the somme of three hundred and twentie poundes of currant Englishe money, to them in hande, at and before the ensealinge and deliverie of theis presentes, well and trulie satisfied, contented, and paide ; wherof and wherwith they acknowledge themselves fullie satisfied, con- tented, and paide, and therof, and of everie parte and parcell therof, doe clearlie exonerate, acquite, and discharge the saide William Shakespere, his heires, executors, adminis- trators and assignes for ever by theis presentes, have aliened, bargayned, solde, geven, graunted and confirmed, and by theis presentes, doe fullye, clearlie, and absolutelie alien, bargayne, sell, give, graunte, and confirme unto the saide William Shakespere, all and singuler those errable landes, with thappurtenaunces, conteyninge by estymacion fowre yarde lande of errable lande, scytuate, lyinge or beinge within the parrishe, feildes, or towne of Olde Stretford aforesaide, in the saide countie ofWarrwick, conteyninge byestimacion ESTATE RECORDS. 677 one hundred and seaven acres, be they more or lesse ; and also all the common of pasture for sheepe, horse, kyne, or other cattle, in the feildes of Olde Stretford aforesaide, to the saide fowre yarde lande belonginge, or in any wise apperteyninge; and also all hades, leys, tyinges, proffites, advantages, and commodities whatsoever, with their and everie of their appurtenaunces to the saide bargayned pre- misses belonginge or apperteyninge, or hertofore reputed, taken, knowne, or occupied as parte, parcell, or member of the same, and the revercion and revercions of all and singuler the same bargayned premisses, and of everie parte and parcell therof, nowe or late in the severall tenures or occupacions of Thomas Hiccoxe, and Lewes Hiccoxe, or of either of them, or of their assignes, or any of them; together also with all charters, deedes, writinges, escriptes, and mynumentes whatsoever, touchinge or concerninge the same premisses onlie, or only any parte or parcell therof; and also the true copies of all other deedes, evidences, charters, writinges, escriptes, and mynumentes, which doe touche and concerne the saide premisses before bargayned and solde, or any parte or parcell therof, which the saide William Combe, or John Combe, nowe have in their custodie, or herafter may have, or which they may law- fullye gett, or come by, without suite in lawe ; to have and to holde the saide fowre yarde of errable lande, conteyninge by estymacion one hundred and seaven acres, be they more or lesse, and all and singuler other the premisses before by theis presentes aliened and solde, or mencioned, or entended to be aliened and solde, and everie parte and parcell therof; and all deedes, charters, writinges, escriptes, and mynumentes, before by theis presentes bargayned and solde unto the saide William Shakespere, his heires and assignes for ever, to the onlie proper use and behoofe of the saide William Shakespere, his heires and assignes, for 678 ESTATE RECORDS. ever. And the saide William Combe, and John Combe, for them, their heires, executors, and administrators, doe cove- nant, promise, and graunte to and with the saide William Shakespere, his heires, executors, and assignes, by theis presentes, that they, the saide William and John Combe, are seazde, or one of them is seazde, of a good, sure, perfect, and absolute estate, in fee simple, of the same premisses before by theis presentes bargayned and solde, or ment, or men- cioned to be bargayned and solde, without any further con- dicion, or lymyttacion of use, or estate, uses, or estates; and that he, the saide John Combe, his heires and assignes, shall and will, from tyme to tyme, arid at all tymes herafter, well and sufficientlie save and keepe harmles, and indempnified, as well the saide fowre yardes of errable lande, conteyninge one hundred and seaven acres, and all other the premisses, with their appurtenaunces, before bargayned and solde, or mencioned or entended to be bargayned and solde, and everie parte and parcell therof, as also the saide William Shakespere, and his heires and assignes. and everie of them, of and from all former bargaynes, sales, leases, joyntures, dowers, wills, statutes, recognizances, writinges obliga- torie, fynes, feoffamentes, entayles, judgmentes, execucions, charges, titles, forfeytures, and encombrances whatsoever, at any tyme before the ensealinge herof, had, made, know- ledged, done or suffred by the saide John Combe, or by the saide William Combe, or either of them, or by any other person or persons whatsoever, any thinge lawfullye clayminge or havinge, from, by, or under them, or either of them, the rentes and services herafter to be due in respect of the premisses before mencioned or entended to be bargayned and solde to the cheife lorde or lordes of the fee or fees onlie excepted and foreprized. And the saide William Combe, and John Combe, for them, their heires, executors, administrators, and assignes, doe covenant, promise and ESTATE RECORDS. 679 graunte to and with the saide William Shakespere, his heires and assignes, by theis presentes, that they, the saide William and John Combe, or one of them, hathe rightfull power and lawfull aucthoritie for any acte or actes done by them, the saide William and John Combe, or by the sufferance or procurement of them, the saide William and John Combe, to geve, graunte, bargayne, sell, convey, and assure the saide fowre yardes of errable lande, conteyninge one hundred and seaven acres, and all other the premisses before by theis presentes bargayned and solde, or ment or mencioned to be bargayned and solde, and everie parte and parcell therof, to the saide William Shakespere, his heires and assignes, in suche manner and forme, as in and by theis presentes is lymytted, expressed, and declared ; and that they, the saide William and John Combe, and their heires, and also all and everie other person and persons, and their heires, nowe, or herafter havinge or clayminge any lawfull estate, righte, title, or interest, of, in, or to the saide errable lande, and all other the premisses before by theis presentes bargayned and solde, with their and eyerie of their appurte- naunces, other then the cheife lorde or lordes of the fee or fees of the premisses, for {heir rentes and services onlye, at all tymes herafter, duringe the space of five yeares next ensewinge the date herof, shall doe, cause, knowledge, and suffer to be done and knowledged, all and every suche further lawfull and reasonable acte and actes, thinge and thinges, devise and devises, conveyances and assurances whatsoever, for the further, more better, and perfect assurance, suretie, sure makinge and conveyinge of all the saide premisses before bargayned and solde, or mencioned to be bargayned and solde, with their appurtenaunces, and everie parte and parcell therof, to the saide William Shake- spere, his heires and assignes, for ever, accordinge to the true entent and meaninge of theis presentes, as by the 680 ESTATE RECORDS. saide William Shakespere, his heires and assignes, or his or their learned counsell in the lawe, shalbe reasonablye devized, or advized, and required, be yt by fyne or fynes, with proclamacion, recoverye with voucher or vouchers over, deede or deedes enrolled, enrollment of theis pre- sentes, feoffament, releaze, confirmacion, or otherwise ; with warrantie against the saide William Combe, and John Combe, their heires and assignes, and all other persons clayminge by, from, or under them, or any of them, or without warrantie, at the costes and charges in the lawe of the saide William Shakespere, his heires, executors, administrators, or assignes, so as for the makinge of any suche estate, or assurance, the saide William and John Combe be not compeld to travell above sixe myles. And the saide William Combe, and John Combe, for them, their heires, executors, administrators, and assignes, doe covenant, promise, and graunte to and with the saide William Shakespere, his heires, executors, administrators, and assignes, by theis presentes, that the saide William Shakespere, his heires and assignes, shall or may, from tyme to tyme, from henceforth for ever, peaceably and quietlye have, holde, occupie, possesse, and enjoye the saide fowre yardes of errable lande, and all other the bargayned premisses, with their appurtenaunces, and everie parte and parcell therof, without any manner of lett, trouble, or eviccion of them, the saide William Combe, and John Combe, their heires, or assignes; and without the lawfull lett, trouble, or eviccion, of any other person or persons what- soever, lawfullie havinge, or clayminge any thinge in, of, or out of the saide premisses, or any parte therof, by, from, or under them, the saide William Combe, and John Combe, or either of them, or the heires or assignes of them, or either of them, or their, or any of their estate, title, or interest. In wytnes wherof, the parties to theis presentes ESTATE RECORDS. 68 1 have enterchangeably set to their handes and scales, the dale and yeare firste above written. 1602. IX. Extract from the Court Rolls of the Manor of Rowington, being the Surrender from Walter Getley to Shakespeare of premises in Chapel Lane, Stratford-on-Avon, 1602. Rowington. Vis. franc, pleg. cum cur. baron, praenobilis dominae Annae comitissae Warwici, ibidem tent, xxviij . die Septembris, anno regni dominae nostrae Elizabethae, Dei gracia Angliae, Franciae et Hiberniae reginae, fidei defensor., &c., quadragesimo quarto; coram Henr. Michell generoso deputat. scenescall., Johannis Huggeford ar. capitalis scenes- calli, ibidem. Ad hanc curiam venit Walterus Getley, per Thomam Tibbottes jun. attorn, suum, unum customar. tenent. manerii praedicti (praed. Thoma Tibbottes jur. pro veritate inde), et sursumredd. in manus dominae manerii praedicti unum cotagium cum pertinent, scit jacen. et existen. in Stratford-super-Avon, in quodam vico ibidem vocato Walkers Streete alias Dead Lane, ad opus et usum Willielmi Shackespere et haered. suorum in .perpetuum, secundum consuetudinem manerii praedicti ; et sic rema- net in manibus dominae manerii praedicti, quousque prae- dictus Willielmus Shakespere ven. ad capiend. praemissa praedicta. In cujus rei testimonium, praedictus Henricus Michell huic praesenti copiae sigillum suum apposuit die et anno supradictis. X. The Conveyance to Shakespeare of the moiety of a lease of the tithes in and near Stratford-on-Avon, 24 fufy, 1603. From the -original preserved amongst the records of that town. This indenture made the foure and twentythe daye of Julye in the yeares of the raigne of our soveraigne Lorde James, by the grace of God of Englande, Scotlande, Fraunce 682 ESTATE RECORDS. and Irelande, Kynge, Defender of the Fayeth, c., that is to saye, of Englande, Fraunce and Irlande the thirde, and of Scotlande the eighte and thirtythe, Betweene Raphe Hubande of Ippesley in the countye of Warr. esquier on thone parte, and William Shakespear of Stratforde-upon- Avon in the sayed countye of Warr. gent, on thother parte ; Whereas Anthonye Barker clarke, late Warden of the Colledge or Collegiate Churche of Stratforde-upon-Avon aforesayed, in the sayed countye of Warr. and Gyles Coventrie subwarden there, and the whole chapiter of the same late colledge, by their deade indented, sealed with their chapter scale, dated the seaventh daye of September in the sixe and thirtyth yeare of the raigne of the late kinge of famous memorie Kinge Henrye the eighte, demysed, graunted, and to farme lett (amongste diverse other thinges) unto one William Barker of Sonnynge in the countye of Bark, gent., all and all manner of tythes of corne, grayne, blade and heye yearelye and from tyme to tyme comynge, encreasinge, reneweinge, arrysinge, groweinge, yssueinge or happeninge, or to bee had, receyved, perceyved or taken out, upon of or in the townes, villages, hamlettes, groundes and fyeldes of Stratforde-upon-Avon, Olde Stratforde, Welcombe, and Bushopton in the sayed countye of Warr., and alsoe all and all manner of tythes of wooll, lambe, and other small and pryvie tythes, oblacions, obvencions, alterages, mynumentes and offeringes, whatsoever yearelye and from tyme to tyme cominge, encreasinge, reneweinge or happeninge, or to bee had, receyved, perceyved or taken within the parishe of Stratforde-upon-Avon aforesayed in the sayed countye of Warr. by the name or names of all and singuler their mannours, landes, tenementes, meadowes, pastures, feed- inges, woodes, underwoodes, rentes, revercions, services, courtes, leetes, releeves, wardes, marriages, harriottes, per- quisites of courtes, liberties, jurisdiccions, and all other ESTATE RECORDS. 683 hereditamentes, with all and singuler other rightes, com- modities, and their appurtenaunces, togeather with all manner of parsonages, gleebe landes, tythes, alterages, obla- cions, obvencions, mynumentes, offeringes, and all other issues, proffittes, emolumentes and advantages in the countye of Warn or Worcester, or clcewhere whatsoever they bee, unto the sayed then colledge apperteyninge, the mancion- house and the scite of the sayed colledge, with their appur- tenaunces within the precinctes of the walls of the sayed colledge unto the sayed warden and subwarden onlye excepted, To have and to holde all the sayed mannours, landes. tenementes, and all other the premisses with all and singuler their appurtenaunces (excepte before excepted) unto the sayed colledge belonginge or in anie wyse apperteyn- inge, unto the sayed William Barker, his executours and assignes, from the feast of St. Michaell tharchangell then laste paste before the date of the sayed indenture, unto thend and terme of fourescore and twelve yeares then nexte ensueinge, yeldinge and payenge therefore yearelye unto the sayed warden and subwarden and their successours att the sayed colledge cxxij.//. xviij.j-. ix.M .-. and regresse, in, by, and through the said great gate and yarde there, unto the usuall dore of the said tenement, and also all and singuler cellours, sollers, romes, lightes, easia- mentes, prolittes, commodities, and appurtenaunces whatso- ever to the said dwelling-house or tenement belonging or in any wise apperteyning : To have and to holde the said dwelling-house or tenement, cellers, sollers, romes, plott of ground, and all and singuler other the premisses above by theis presentes mencioned to bee dimised, and every part and parcell thereof, with th'appurtenaunces, unto the said Henrye Walker, his executours, administrators, and as- signes, from the feast of th'annunciacion of the blessed Virgin Marye next comming after the date hereof, unto th'ende and terme of one hundred yeares from thence next ensuing, and fullie to bee compleat and ended, with- out ympeachment of or for any manner of waste ; yeelding and paying therefore yearlie during the said terme unto the said William Shakespeare, William Johnson, John Jackson, and John Hemmyng, their heires and assignes, a pepper corne at the feast of Easter yearlie, yf the same bee law- fullie demaunded, and noe more ; provided alwayes, that if the said William Shakespeare, his heires, executours, administratours, or assignes, or any of them, doe well and trulie paie or cause to bee paid to the said Henry Walker, his executours, administratours, or assignes, the somme of threescore poundes of lawfull money of England, in and upon the nyne and twentith day of September next com- ming after the date hereof, at or in the nowe dwelling-house of the said Henry Walker, situate and being in the parish of Saint Martyn near Ludgate, of London, at one entier pay- ment without delaie, that then and from thensforth this presente lease, dimise and graunt, and all and every matter ESTATE RECORDS. 72 / and thing herein conteyned (other then this provisoe) shall cease, determine, and bee utterlie voyde, frustrate, and of none effect, as though the same had never beene had ne made, theis presentes or any thing therein conteyned to the contrary thereof in any wise notwithstanding. And the said William Shakespeare, for himselfe, his heires, executours, administrators, and for every of them, doth covenaunt, promisse and graunt to and with the said Henry Walker, his executours, administratours, and assignes. and every of them, by theis presentes, that he the said William Shake- speare, his heires, executours, administratours or assignes, shall and will cleerlie acquite, exonerate, and discharge, or from tyme to tyme, and at all tymes hereafter, well and sufficientlie save and keepe harmles the said Henry Walker, his executours, administratours, and assignes, and every of them, and the said premisses by theis presentes dimised and every parcell thereof, with th'appurtenaunces, of and from all and al manner of former and other bargaynes, sales, guiftes, grauntes, leases, joyntures, dowers, intailes, statutes, recognizaunces, judgmentes, execucions, and of and from all and every other charge, titles, trebles, and incum- braunces whatsoever by the said William Shakespeare, William Johnson, John Jackson, and John Hemmyng, or any of them, or by their or any of their meanes, had, made, committed or donne, before th'ensealing and delivery of theis presentes, or hereafter before the said nyne and twentith day of September next comming after the date hereof, to bee had, made, committed or donne, except the rentes and services to the cheefe lord or lordes of the fee or fees of the premisses, for or in respect of his or their seignorie or seignories onlie, to bee due and done. In witnesse whereof the said parties to theis indentures inter- chaungablie have sett their scales. Yeoven the day and yeares first above written. Wm. Shakspere. Wm. Johnson. 728 ESTATE RECORDS. -Jo Jackson. Sealed and delivered by the said William Shakespeare, William Johnson, and John Jackson, in the presence of Will: Atkinson; Ed: Query; Robert Andrewes, scr. ; Henry Lawrence, seruant to the same scr. XVIII. Articles of Agreement between Shakespeare and William Replingham, by which the latter agrees to co?npen- sate the poet should loss accrue to him by enclosures contem- plated by Replingham, 1614. The following is taken from a contemporary transcript entitled "Coppy of the articles with Mr. Shakspeare" Vicesimo octavo die Octobris, anno Domini 1614. Articles of agreement indented [and] made betwene William Shackespeare of Stretford in the County of Warwick gent. on the one partye, and William Replingham of Great Harborow in the Countie of Warwick gent on the other partie, the daye and yeare abovesaid. Item, the said William Replingham for him, his heires, executors, and assignes, doth covenaunte and agree to and with the said William Shackespeare, his heires and assignes, That he the said William Replingham, his heires or assignes, shall, uppon reasonable request, satisfie content and make recompence unto him the said William Shackespeare or his assignes, for all such losse, detriment, and hinderance as he the said William Shackespeare, his heires and assignes, and one Thomas Greene gent, shall or maye be thought in the viewe and judgement of foure indifferent persons, to be indifferentlie elected by the said William and William, and their heires, and in default of the said William Replingham, by the said William Shackespeare or his heires onely, to survey and judge the same to sustayne or incurre for or in respecte of the increasinge of the yearlie value of the tythes they the said William Shackespeare and Thomas doe joyntlie or severallie hold and enjoy in the said fields, or anie of them, ESTATE RECORDS. 729 by reason of anie inclosure or decaye of tyllage there ment and intended by the said William Replingham, and that the said William Replingham and his heires shall procure such sufficient securitie unto the said William Shackespeare and his heires for the performance of theis covenaunts, as shal bee devised by learned counsell; In witnes whereof the parties abovsaid to theis presents interchaungeablie their hands and scales have put, the daye and year first above wrytten. Sealed and delivered in the presence of us, Tho. Lucas ; Jo Rogers ; Anthonie Nasshe; Mich. Olney. THE TWO NOBLE KINSMEN. There can be little doubt that Shakespeare, who was in early life, and perhaps to some extent afterwards, the Johannes Factotum of the theatre, contributed numerous fragments to the dramas of others. There is not, however, the slightest contemporary hint that he ever entered into the joint authorship of a play with any one else, and such a notion is directly opposed to the express testimony of Leonard Digges. No intimation of anything of the kind occurred until nearly twenty years after the poet's death, when a publisher named Waterson issued the Two Noble Kinsmen, in 1634, as the united composition of Fletcher and Shakespeare. A perfect distinction should be drawn between instances of occasional and those of incorporated dramatic assistance. Possible examples of two of the former have been already mentioned in the notices of Edward the Third and Pericles. Both are plays which may have been delivered to the theatre as complete, and Shakespeare's additions to, or variations of scenes in, them made afterwards. The case of the Two Noble Kinsmen stands on different grounds, for if the great dramatist wrote the portions of it attributed to him by modern critics, he must on that occasion have entered into a literary partner- ship with some other writer. Although satisfied that this cannot be the fact, and being unable to appreciate the definite Shakespearean individuality of composition which is imagined by so many to pervade certain scenes in that THE TWO NOBLE KINSMEN. 73! drama, it will be only fair to state concisely the main external testimonies on each side of the question. A. Reasons for attributing the whole or part of the Two Noble Kinsmen to the pen of Shakespeare. i. Waterson's entry of the play at Stationers' Hall on April the 8th, 1634, under the title of "a tragicomedy called the Two Noble Kinsmen, by Jo: Fletcher and W m - Shakespeare." 2. The title-page of the first edition, which runs thus, " The Two Noble Kinsmen, presented at the Blackfriers by the Kings Maiesties servants with great applause : Written by the memorable Worthies of their time, Mr. John Fletcher, Gent., and Mr. William Shakspeare, Gent. Printed at London by Tho. Cotes for lohn Waterson, and are to be sold at the signe of the Crowne in Pauls Church-yard." 4to. 1634. 3. Fletcher's assumed greater popularity in 1634, and the consequent want of motive for the introduc- tion of another name. 4. " Two Noble Kinsmen, a tragi- comedy ; this play was written by Mr. Fletcher and Mr. Shakespear," Langbaine's English Dramatick Poets, ed. 1691, p. 215. 5, Pope's assertion, in 1725, that there was a tradition to the effect that the whole of the Two Noble Kinsmen was written by Shakespeare. This writer's notes on such matters appear, however, to be of little value. In another place he gives as a tradition the incredible report that the 1591 play of King John was the joint production of Shakespeare and William Rowley. 6. The statement of Steevens in 1778, viii. 230, that "there is a playhouse tradition that the first act was written by Shakepeare." B. Reasons for believing that the great dramatist had no share in the composition of the Two Noble Kinsmen. i. It is most likely that Curtis, who is introduced as a Messenger in one of the prompter's notes that found their way into the edition of 1634, was in the original cast of the play. If so, Shakespeare must have been dead more than six 732 THE TWO NOBLE KINSMEN. years before its production on the stage, for Curtis was not a member of the King's Company before 1623, at the earliest. 2. In the Prologue which is given in the edition of 1634, and which was clearly intended for delivery at the first performance, Chaucer is represented as likely to say in the event of an unfavourable reception of the piece, " O fan from me the witles chaffe of such a wrighter" This early and spontaneous testimony to the unity of author- ship is sufficient in itself to throw grave doubts upon the veracity of the title-page. 3. Shakespeare's continued popularity in 1634, when there appeared quarto editions of two of his plays, although a second folio of his collec- tive works had been issued only two years previously. 4. There was no copyright obstacle to prevent the insertion of the Two Noble Kinsmen in the first collective edition of the works of Shakespeare, that play being described in 1634 as having been acted by the King's Servants, and there being no reason to suppose that it ever belonged to the repertoire of any other company. This, however, suggests little, for, even if it were in existence at the time, the editors of the folio might have excluded it as being only partially the work of their author. 5. When John Waterson, in October, 1646, transferred to Humphrey Moseley his copyright interests in three plays, the Elder Brother, Monsieur Thomas and the Two Noble Kinsmen the undivided authorship of all of them is distinctly as- signed to Fletcher in the register, the third appearing there under the title of the Noble Kinsmen. The Fletcherian authorship of the two other dramas is undisputed, and, if Waterson really believed that Shakespeare had written part of the last, there seems no reason why the name of the great dramatist should not have been given in the entry of the assignment. The omission of the Two Noble Kinsmen in the folio edition of Beaumont and THE TWO NOBLE KINSMEN. 733 Fletcher, 1647, * s no evidence one way or the other, the Elder Brother and Monsieur Thomas being also excluded. Moseley's preface to that work is dated very early in 1646-7, and the probability is that the whole of the folio had been worked off before he had purchased the copyrights from Waterson. 6. Tn a list of books printed for Moseley, which is inserted at the end of some copies of Shirley's Six New Playes, 1653, occurs "the Two Noble Kinsmen, a comedy written by Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher, gent., in 4." A similar entry is met with the following year in a list of the works of the same publisher, these announcements singularly contrasting with his trading anxiety to use the name of Shakespeare improperly in other instances. It should be carefully recollected that Moseley was specially connected with the works of Beaumont and Fletcher, so that his evidence, valueless in a question of Shakespearean authorship, is most likely important in regard to the works of the former dramatists. 7. The Two Noble Kinsmen is attributed to the unassisted pen of Fletcher in Kirkman's Catalogue, 1671, but this is an evidence of no value. 8. The play was inserted without Shakespeare's name in the second folio edition of Beaumont and Fletcher, published in 1679. 9. The absence of contemporary evidence that Shakespeare and Fletcher were acquainted with each other. 10. The obvious anxiety of Fletcher in several of his plays to imitate and rival Shakespeare. This tendency has been traditionally recorded by Davies even in an instance that might not otherwise have been suspected. " Above fifty years since," he observes, " it was traditionary among the comedians that Cacofago was the intended rival of Falstaff, whom he resembles in nothing but in bulk and cowardice," Dramatic Miscellanies, ed. 1785, i. 203. ii. The direct evidence of Leonard Digges about the year 1623 of Shakespeare's aversion to any kind of literary 734 THE TWO NOBLE KINSMEN. partnership, so that he even carefully avoided the then common practice of availing himself of scenes written for him by other dramatists. 12. The parallel instance of "the History of Cardehio by Mr. Fletcher and Shakespeare" having been entered by Moseley on the registers of the Stationers' Company in the year 1653. 13. Finally, the extreme improbability of a dramatist of Shakespeare's un- rivalled power and rapidity of composition entering, at the maturest period of his reputation, into the joint-authorship of a play with a much younger writer, and of the latter havingln such a case the assurance to be palpably imitating him, both characterially and verbally, in his portion of the work. INDEX. Antony and Cleopatra, 193. Arden, Mary, 31, 195. Arden, Robert, 31, 655. As You Like It, 164. Birth-Place, 34. Blackfriars Estate, 209, 713. Blackfriars Theatre, 198, 511. Chapel Lane, 481. Charlecote, 68. Chester, Robert, 169. Chettle, Henry, 93, 506. Clopton House, 204. Combes, 216, 676. Comedy of Errors, 107. Common Fields, 216. Copyright Entries, 603. Coventry Mysteries, 44. Crab-tree, 206. Cradle of Security, 42. Curtain Theatre, 80, 385. Cymbeline, 200. Davenants, 184, 553. Dover, 116. Edward the Third, 109. Enclosures, 216. Field, Richard, 94. Forrnan's Notes, 199, 593. Globe Theatre, 157, 211, 524. Greene, Robert, 90, 503. Hall, John, 190, 243. Hall, Susanna, 214, 246. Hamlet, 173. Hathaway, Anne, 61. Henry the Eighth, 212. Henry the Fifth, 158. Henry the Fourth, 133. Henry the Sixth, 89, 268. Jonson, Ben, 148. 6 fe^P Lear, King, 189. Lifetime Editions, 609. ^-vt^ Love's Labour's Lost, 132. Lucrece, 102. Macbeth, 199. Measure for Measure, 182. Merchant of Venice, 147 Merry Wives of Windsor, 135. Metrical Tests, 278. Much Ado about Nothing, 166. Mulberry Tree, 119, 489. Neighbours, 435. New Place, 116, 447. 166. J 736 INDEX. Oldcastle, 134, 163. Othello, 1 80. Passionate Pilgrim, 160, 379. Pericles, 192. Qainey, Richard, 139. Ratsey, 497. Richard the Second, 128. Richard the Third, 128. Romeo and Juliet, 113. Sharers, 539. Shawe, Julius, 441. Sonnets, 152, 160, 197. Southampton, Lord, 97. Taming of the Shrew, 203. Tempest, 201. Theatre, The, 80, 385. Theatrical Evidences 583 Titus Andronicus, 98, 267. Troilus and Cressida, 175. Twelfth Night, 170. Two Gentlemen of Verona, *S*- Two Noble Kinsmen, 730. Venus and Adonis, 95. Wincot, 204. Winter's Tale, 200. Yorkshire Tragedy, 193. t k HARRISON AND SONS, PRINTERS IN ORDINARY TO HER .MAJESTY, ST. MARTIN'S LANE. UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY BERKELEY Return to desk from which borrowed. This book is DUE on the last date stamped below. REC'D LD OCT10 1961 MAY 1 2 2005 LD 21-100m-7,'52(A2528sl6)476 M30343G 33; 14 191 o THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY T*i|> ^^^^^^^B wEBm&SH Urn EBKaB|^BBBJI9