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THE LIFE OF 
 
 WILLIAM SHAKSPERE 
 
 Ter- Centennial Address 
 
 By WILLARD GIBSON DAY, A. M. 
 
 Fac Similes of Shakspere's Authentic Sig- 
 natures, and the Title Page of His 
 First Edition of Hamlet 
 
 FOR USE OF SCHOOLS AND COLLEGES 
 
 For Sale by All Booksellers 
 
 Copyright, April 23, 1916. 
 
 N. C. Book Depot 
 
 326 N. Howard Street 
 
 Baltimore, Md. 
 
COPYRIGHT, 1916, 
 BY WILLARD GIBSON DAY. 
 
The Life of William Shakspere. 
 
 ADDRESS BY WILLARD GIBSON DAY, A. M. 
 
 Ladies and Gentlemen: 
 
 The journey hence to London, is, in thought, an 
 easy one ; and hardly more difficult on to Oxford, forty- 
 six miles west of London. Thence we may go again 
 northwest, .sixty miles, by the wagon road, to the ever 
 classic river Avon. Stratford-on-Avon is situated in a 
 wide valley, at a ford of the river, and hence called 
 Stratford, or Valley Ford. It is an ancient town: 
 was three hundred years old at the time of the Norman 
 conquest. It has now about five thousand people, old 
 and young, and had fourteen hundred in the time of 
 Shaksipere. 
 
 In the early days of the town, the little river 
 let or hindered people's crossing, according to its own 
 capricious will, until a plain, long, rumibling and un- 
 certain wooden bridge was built. That lasted until 
 the reign of Henry VII. when a low stone structure ot" 
 fourteen pointed arches, took its place. The bridge 
 still remains. 
 
 Approaching Stratford by the London road, there 
 may be seen, across the river, on the west bank, the 
 east or chancel end of Stratford Church, with its high 
 and wide old-English chancel window. You see also 
 the churchyard, filled with graves, extending down 
 to the edge of the water. 
 
 Crossing the Avon, by the bridge, you turn to the 
 left, along the nearest street, and soon you are at the 
 entrance of the church. Then, going forward to the 
 chancel, you see at your feet, and toward the left or 
 north side, three graves, covered by stone slabs, and 
 with inscriptions surmounted by coats-of-arms. The 
 
 M195181 
 
4 THE LIFE OF WILLIAM SHAKSPERE. 
 
 grave nearest the middle of the church, is that of 
 Susanna Hall, eldest daughter of William Shakspere. 
 Next to her's is that of her husband, Dr. John Hall, an 
 eminent physician of Stratford. Close by the grave 
 of Dr. Hall, is that of 'Thomas Nash, who married 
 the daughter of the Halls, and thus the granddaughter 
 of William Shakspere, and Ms last lineal descendant. 
 Adjoining this grave, is that of i/he great poet. This is 
 covered by a stone slab, on which is the now well 
 known inscription : 
 
 "Good friend, for lesu's sake, forbear 
 To digge ye dust encloased here : 
 Blest 'be ye man yt spares these stones, 
 And curst be he yt moves my bones/' 
 
 These words alone, doggerel as they are, have, by 
 their miagic influence, kept the bones of Shakspera 
 in their proper resting-place in Stratford; whereas 
 otherwise they would long since have 'been removed to 
 ome great corner aimong the less noible but mighty 
 dead that lie (buried at Westminster. 
 
 Beyond the slab that covers Shakspere's grave, i* 
 a wider one, extending to the north wall of the church. 
 This covers the grave of "Anne, beloved wife of Wm. 
 Shakspere," who died in 1623, aged sixty-seven. 
 
 Looking up from this last grave, we see immedi- 
 ately over it, on the left or north wall of the chunch, 
 the (bust of Shaksipere, taken in a sitting posture ; his 
 hands resting on a cushion before him; his left hand 
 holding a pen. This bust was placed in its position 
 within seven years after his death. It was made from 
 a cast taken from the face, and though very inartistic 
 in itis details, is generally regarded as giving the most 
 correct representation of the poet's personal appear- 
 ance. It was even ipainted, to make it as life-like as 
 possible : the face and hands flesh-color, the eyes hazel 
 and the costume such as he had been accustomed to 
 weacr. 
 
 The Stratford Church is in the southern portion 
 of (the town, while in the northern part, on Henley 
 street, is istill shown the house, and even the room, 
 ipoet was bom. This event took place on the 
 
THE LIFE OF WILLIAM SHAKSPEKE. 5 
 
 23rd of April, 1564. It was St. George's Day ; and all 
 the military, civil and ecclesiastical officials were 
 parading in their fullest uniforms. They passed the 
 Shakespere birth-place, on their way to the great elm, 
 at the northern 'boundary of the town, and where 
 they halted in their march, read portions of the Holy 
 Scriptures, chaunted psalms, and sung hymnls, led 
 by choristers, in their white robes and surplices. 
 There were also mimic shows, representations of St 
 George killing the dragon; and other holiday sports; 
 and at every turn of the street there went up shouts 
 that filled the air, for "'St. George and merry Eng- 
 land !" 
 
 Well were they given on that happy anniversary ; 
 for then indeed was born a man that did more for 
 England and for us, for hds mother tongue, and for 
 mankind, than all the Georges in the calendar, and 
 whether commons, doctors, saints, or kings ! 
 
 Born of whom? Of John and Mary Shakspere: 
 then very plain and simple names ; but now more than 
 honoraible titles. Mary Shakspere was the daughter 
 of Agnes Webbe and Robert Arden, son of Robert 
 Arden, groom of the bed-chamiber in the royal house- 
 hold of Henry VII. The Arden family trace their 
 lineage back to the time of Edward the Confessor. 
 
 Mary Arden was a mild, amialble, lovable woman. 
 Her father had died a year 'before her marriaige; and 
 left her a home, in which she lived apart from her 
 mother and sisters; a little lonesome, perhaps, until 
 John Shakspere 'became a frequent visitor at the place. 
 They were hasTdly married before <she put her hus- 
 band in the fullest possession of this home, and of 
 all the other property she had. 
 
 Ala Mary Shakspere came of somewhat gentle 
 blood, John Shakspere boasted also of his descent from 
 a valiant soldier in the army of the Earl of Richmond, 
 who conquered Richard III., on the field of Bosworth. 
 So when the poet William set out to glorify the Ear! 
 of Richmond, he was partly engaged in brightening 
 the shield of his own ancestors. And after Win. had 
 gained some reputation and influence in London, one 
 of 'his first efforts r was to have established by coat-of- 
 
6 THE LIFE OF WILLIAM SHAKSPERE. 
 
 arms the riigiht of plain John Shakspere to write his 
 name, if haply had been able to write, Magister, 
 or Mr. John Shakspere. 
 
 Like most of his fellow-citizens, however, poor 
 John Shaikspere could not write his own name. So in 
 his earlier married life, in the solid ardor of an honest 
 flame for the lovely lady of his heart, he took the first 
 letter of her name, A, for his sign manual. Mary 
 Shakspere had a little more education than her hus- 
 band ; and she wrote the letters M-y for her signature ; 
 and even between those two letters and the few un- 
 doubted signatures of William Shakspere, we may see 
 a distinctly recognizable family resemblance in hand- 
 writing. She doubtless placed the pen and held it for 
 the crooked marks of the poet in his earliest begin- 
 nings. 
 
 Mary Arden no doubt condescended a little in her 
 marriage with John Shakspere, who was a pushing, 
 enterprising, and generally miscellaneous kind of a 
 man; one who only needed, however, the gentle sup- 
 port and kindly counsel of a wise and quiet wife, to 
 become as he did become, the most prominent poli- 
 tician of Stratford. He climbed through all the grades 
 of office, and finally, in 1568, became a high bailiff of 
 the (borough and chief magistrate of the town. 
 
 A great deal of ink has been wasted in the dis- 
 cussion of John Shaksipere's occupation; or occupa- 
 tions, as we should say ; for he had several, chief among 
 which we may always reckon the rearing of a large 
 and excellent family. His most ordinary business 
 wias that of a farmer. With this he combined some 
 town employments. He no douibt attended to the 
 butchering of his own cattle, hogs and sheep, and 
 bought others, to hiis profit. So in the representations 
 of the poet's birth-place there is a front shop, with a 
 butcher's stall and a sale window. There can be little 
 douibt that meat was sold at the Henley-street resi- 
 dence, and by the Shakspere family; although John 
 Shakspere was called a wool-stapler, in order to dig- 
 nify his employment as much as posisdble. 
 
 It has been said that William Shakspere was in his 
 youth apprenticed to a butcher; but in the light of 
 
THE LIFE OF WILLIAM SHAKSPERE. 7 
 
 recent discoveries that was not possible. And yet he 
 knew all aibout the processes of butchering, and in a 
 way that no man ever learns without seeing and en- 
 gaging in the work. He mentions things seldom or 
 never observed outside of a slaughter-pen. Thus, in 
 Hamlet, he talks of "coagulate gore." He makes the 
 old nurse, in "Romeo and Juliet," discourse of bloody 
 deeds done by Romeo, "in blood, all in gore blood!" 
 In Henry V., he pictures the "fetlock deep in gore." 
 And again he says, "in gore he lay ensteeped." Men 
 see gore in a slaughter hou.se, and hardly any where 
 else, except in imagination. Shakspere does not hesi- 
 tate to mention a "'barrow of butcher's offal;" thus 
 indicating that he had seen butchering done, tat only 
 in a small way. And there are many other s>uch allu- 
 sions. He did not forget his early avocations even in 
 his latest life and work. In the play of Henry VI., 
 Shakspere makes the rebel Cade say to Dick, the 
 butcher of As'hford, about hiis destruction of enemies : 
 "They fell tefore thee like sheep and oxen; and thou 
 behavedst thyself as thou hadst been in thine own 
 slaughterhouse." Again he 'makes another butcher 
 say: 
 
 "Then is sin struck down, like an ox; 
 And iniquity's throat cut, like a calf." 
 
 All these illustrations show that Shakspere had 
 seen butchering done, and probably had often assisted 
 his father in the work. 
 
 Mary Shakspere took care of her own children : 
 and it may 'be partly owing to this fact, under Provi- 
 dence, that the plague which visited the low fevery 
 town of Stratford, in Shakspere' s infancy, did not take 
 him to the other world, as it did one-sixth of the entire 
 population of within six months. The doors of the 
 houses were all marked with a red cross and the Latin 
 words, "Miserere, Domine!" and the prayer itself, 
 "Lord, have mercy upon us!" went up that year from 
 many a sorrowing heart in that ill-fated town. 
 
 When the poet was four years old, his father was 
 mayor of the village, and held his court sessions in a 
 chaimiber of the guild ; and the large-eyed, lighWiaired 
 boy began with his earliest memory to take in with 
 
8 THE LIFE OF WILLIAM SHAKSPERE. 
 
 wonderment the curious humors of men. Young as he 
 was, he was a "chiel amang them," 
 
 His father was ambitious for the son's education ; 
 and Ms mother used her opportunities in teaching him 
 to read. For the only school in the town was the 
 StraJtford Free Grammar School; and that could not 
 toe entered except by those who had learned to read. 
 The poet undoulbtedly first studied the A B C or "Ab- 
 sey Book/' to wftiidh he makes allusion in the play of 
 King John. It contained the "Pater-noster, Ave- 
 Maria, Crede and Ten Commandments in Englyshe;" 
 and had 'been published ten years before the birth of 
 Shakspere by John Day, a loyal churchmen, a friend 
 learning, and a celebrated publisher who had the sole 
 copy-right for that and several other works that were 
 successively consumed in Shiakspere's course of edu- 
 cation. 
 
 When the poet was six years old, the family re- 
 moved to a small farm at Ingon, two miles from Strat- 
 ford. John Shakspere had rented it for eight pounds 
 a year. William then had a good long healthy walk to 
 his school, but which he could islhorten a little by com- 
 ing cross-lots over the beautiful fields of Welcomibe, 
 that lie northwest of the village, and which in his later 
 Mfe ibecame Ms property. Here he had opportunity for 
 his lyric observation of the spring : 
 
 "When diaisies pied, and violets blue, 
 And lady-smocks, all silver white, 
 And cuckoo buds, of yellow hue, 
 
 Do paint the meadows with delight !" 
 
 And here also in the bad wintry weather, he could 
 say, in the rhythm of his homeward steps > at night : 
 
 "When icicles hang by the wall, 
 
 And Dick, the shepherd, blows his nails, 
 And Tom bears logs into the hall, 
 
 And milk comes frozen home in pails ; 
 When blood is nipped and ways be foul, 
 Then nightly sings the staring owl : 
 
 To-JWhoo, 
 
 TV>-whit, to-whoo, 
 A merry note, while greasy Joan doth keel the pot." 
 
THE LIFE OF WILLIAM SHAKSPERE. 9 
 
 Certainly lively pictures of isimple homely occupations, 
 and the plain rustic living to which the poet was ac- 
 customed. 
 
 The Free Grammar School of Stratford was a 
 classic institution; and as the church curates who 
 taught were 'better instructed in Latin than in other 
 branches, they generally taught that to the neglect of 
 other, perhaps more useful knowledge. Sh&kspere 
 undoubtedly studied Virgil, 'but was obliged to pick 
 up geography in later life. And even then he knew 
 so little of it that he located a sea in Bohemia; land 
 made a love-lorn couple sail in a ship Where they could 
 only possibly have gone by overland conveyance. 
 
 A certain Thomas Hunt, curate of Ludington, was 
 fortunate enough, perhaps, to preside over Shakspere 
 as the "whining schoolboy;" if one could imagine 
 that he ever did or could whine over any kind of learn- 
 ing. And if the young poet'isi metrical brain was ever 
 lulled to sleep by the busy hum of the .school, he might 
 have gathered in his dreams the fairy information 
 which he penned in after days, in the verse : 
 
 "I know a bank wheron the wild thyme blows, 
 Where ox-lips, and the nodding violet grows, 
 Quite over-canopied with lush woodbine, 
 With sweet musk-roses, and with eglantine." 
 
 WTiile pursuing his studies in school, Sihakspere 
 devoted himself to Wm. Lilly's grammar, which had a 
 very attractive picture as a frontispiece : a large apple 
 tree, with 'boys in the branches reaching for the fruit. 
 No doubt young Shakspere took his share. And the 
 book and picture may have led him into that doubt- 
 ful character of poacher, which a stupid wiseacre set 
 down for him the generation following. These were 
 his words: " William Shakesipere, much given to all 
 unluckiness, in stealing venison and rabbits, particu- 
 larly from Sir Lucy ; who oft had him whipt, and some- 
 times imprisoned ; and at last made him fly his native 
 country, to his great advancement. From, an actor of 
 plays he became a composer." This last sentence we 
 may certainly endorse, with some qualification. But 
 the other declarations were not only apochryphal but 
 
10 THE LIFE OF WILLIAM SHAKSPERE. 
 
 impossible. Sir Lucy was in London, and not at all 
 in Stratford, at the time set down for the deer-steal- 
 ing business. And we can readily imagine what would 
 have followed from the Lucys, or any of their retain- 
 ers, flogging any one of stalwart John Shakspere's 
 curly-headed sons. 
 
 Shiakspere doubtless received much of his Bible in- 
 formation througih the church services, which he at- 
 tended in the chapel of the guild. And before the 
 days of Cromwell the walls of this chapel were well 
 adorned with historical and symbolical pictures. As 
 he sat in his place, observing everything at once with 
 his open, wide, wondering eyes, he took in the details 
 of Becket's martyrdom, painted on one side of the 
 room, and the inevitable retribution of the Last Judg- 
 men on the other. A picture of "the seven deadly sins" 
 came in for their share of his sharp, youthful analysis. 
 
 His companion and friend, pedantic old Ben 
 Johnson, had to acknowledge that Shakspere knew 
 some Latin and a little Greek. And this he must have 
 learned in his early life; for the most of his classical 
 allusions are in his earlier works. In Henry VI. he 
 quotes a line from Virgil, familiar to every student of 
 the Aeneid: 
 
 "Tantane animis celesti'bus ira?" 
 
 And he alludes, at least six times, to Aeneas, always 
 giving the proper accent to the name, and showing 
 that he had isicanned its quantity, and under a proper 
 instructor. 
 
 While yet a schoolboy Shakspere began his obser- 
 vation of royalty; the occasion being the visit of the 
 queen Elizabeth to Sir Thomas Lucy at Charlecote; 
 an event which stirred the society of Stratford to the 
 depths. John Shaksipere was then chief magistrate; 
 and at his tbest estate; and figured in a very enter- 
 prising manner, no dou'bt, on the unusual occasion. 
 William, being the eldest son, had, perhaps, various 
 matters committed to his attention; and the entire 
 family of little Shaksperes may have felt themselves 
 very necessary to the preservation of the royal realm. 
 
 But a change was to come over the hitherto happy 
 
THE LIFE OF WILLIAM SHAKSPERE. 11 
 
 Shakspere household. The father has a large family 
 to keep. He is of a liberal and generous dis/position. 
 He has 'been spending money too rapidly, considering 
 their limited means. There had been already seven 
 children ; four daughters and three sons. Two of the 
 daughters were older than the poet. It was found 
 necessary to 'mortgage some property, to obtain a loan 
 of forty pounds. But after receiving the proceeds the 
 father is still too poor to pay his poor tax. The year 
 following he is poorer still. The father and mother 
 sell more property; and another son is added to the 
 family, Edmund, who, when he grew up, followed his 
 brother William to the stage in London. 
 
 John Shaksipere absents himself from the town 
 council, because he cannot face his creditors. Sir 
 Thomas Lucy is appointed to find out who are disloyal 
 to the government in not attending church; and John 
 Shakspere assigns as his resaon for absence, the fear 
 of being arrested for debt ! 
 
 William is taken from school. He helps his father 
 in every possible calling, buying and selling cattle, 
 butchering, or doing any other out-door work. It was 
 said that he had been a schoolmaster in the country. 
 If true at all, it must have been "about this time," 
 as the almanac-makers say. He may have instructed 
 the neighboring children at Ingon, where the Shak- 
 spere family had been living. Or, he may have gone to 
 Shottery, and become more intimate with an excellent 
 family that he had always known, the Hathaways, 
 
 The Hathaways were better educated than the 
 Shaksperes were, and may have been in some way 
 early patrons of the poet's learning. At all events an 
 intimacy springs up between the poet, aged seventeen, 
 and Ann Hathaway, twenty-five. The lady was repre- 
 sented as a beautiful woman, with dark hair and eyes, 
 in pleasant contrast with the light auburn hair and 
 hazel eyes of the poet. She had undoubtedly a lovely 
 character; for her brother named his eldest daughter 
 after her; and the Shakspere family did the same in 
 the case of one of their younger children. She was 
 also esteemed by others, and generally by those who 
 
12 THE LIFE OP WILLIAM SHAKSPERE. 
 
 knew her; for the -gardener on the Hathaway estate 
 left in his will a small 'bequest for the poor of Strat- 
 ford, which Mis Ann was to disburse at discretion. 
 This simple fact goes very far toward indicating her 
 actual Character. 
 
 She undoubtedly admires Shakspere for his "hand- 
 some, well-shapt" form, as described by the gossiping 
 Aubrey ; as perhaps also for some faint "conception of 
 his rare poetical genius. But when she finally comes 
 to question herself closely she finds that she not only 
 adnnires but loves him. She blames herself no doubt, 
 but her love, as an advocate, soon acquits her. She 
 may have been the inspirer of those (burning stanzas 
 entitled the "Passionate pilgrim/' written 'by the poet 
 in his adolescence. For if Shakspere ever loved a 
 huonian being he loved Ann Hathaway then. She may 
 have heard Dowland play, or sung his beautiful com- 
 positions with a sweet, soft voice that matched her 
 charming countenance. 
 
 She might indeed have debated her love in her 
 own heart in the words of that old English love^song : 
 
 "0 was I to blame to love him? 
 
 was I to 'blame to love him? 
 So gallant, so kind, I could not be blind ; 
 
 1 was not to blame to love him. 
 
 "My heart it may break with its sorrow, 
 'Tis lost for his sake, no complaint will I make, 
 My heart it may break 'with its sorrow. 
 
 "O saw you yon tree's sweet blossom? 
 Like me, to youir sight, it fades with the blight ; 
 Yet blame not the love nor the blossom ! 
 
 "O pride of my heart, I love thee! 
 The zephyr, the sky, may alter ; not I. 
 
 I was not to blame to love thee!" 
 
 It ilsi certain that Ann Hathaway loved S'hakspere 
 with a will that nothing could conquer. And so it is 
 not surprising that in this stage we find Shakspere 
 in the character of the "lover, sighing like a furnace, 
 
THE LIFE OF WILLIAM SHAKSPERE. 13 
 
 and with a woeful 'ballad made to his mistress' eye- 
 brow!" 
 
 This mutual attachment could not be kept from 
 the keen observing eyes of the old father Hathaway, 
 who saw in the disparity of their years disgrace for 
 himself and his favorite daughter. She could not give 
 her lover up; and so the father made a will, provid- 
 ing for all his children but one. In less than a year 
 he died; and on proving the will, it was found that 
 Anne Hathaway's name was never even mentioned 
 in it. 
 
 Richard Hathaway died in July, 1582, and then 
 perhaps the sternest opposition to Shakspere's mar- 
 riage was removed. There was doubtess some kind 
 of ibetrothal or pre-contract between the lovers, soich 
 as in those days was looked upon as almost the same as 
 a miarriage. 
 
 And two of the men mentioned in father Hatha- 
 way's will, John Richardson and Fulke Sandels, are 
 within four months, again on the court records; this 
 time in connection with William Shakspere. They 
 have gone with him a day's ride on horseback, to Wor- 
 cester, to 'become endorsers for Shakspere on his mar- 
 riage bond. It is dated November 28, 1582, and al- 
 lows the marriage after once asking of the tains, and 
 with the consent "of her friends," whereas the law 
 and custom both required three. Shakspere had given 
 his word, and was anxious to make it his 'bond, at a 
 time when any meaner nature would have sihown un- 
 willingness, or certainly less alacrity than he did. 
 
 The lovers were married, and a little more than 
 half a year afterwlard their first child, Susannah, 
 Shakspere's favorite daughter, was baptized. Twenty 
 months later, twin children, Hamnet and Judith, were 
 baptized. 
 
 About this time John Shakspere was deprived of 
 his alderman's gown, because of his continued absence 
 from the sessions. The entire family was in the depths 
 of poverty, and suffering all the most annoying dis- 
 graces of debt What wonder then that Wm. Shak- 
 spere, being still under twenty-one years of age, with 
 
14 THE LIFE OP WILLIAM SHAKSPERE. 
 
 no trtade or profession, but having 1 a wife and three 
 small children to provide for, beside his need to help 
 has wretched poverty-stricken parents, what wonder 
 that he should determine to try the venture of his for- 
 tune in the far off city of London? 
 
 He left his native town, his home-nest, wife and 
 children, father and mother, brothers and sisters, and 
 all the other hearts he loved so well. We may see 
 him take his way across that old stone bridge, that 
 cared so little whom it separated. At the eastern 
 end of the bridge three ways met, the middle one going 
 to London. This he took, and journeyed on in a south- 
 easterly direction. He crossed the eteep hills that 
 divide his native Warwickshire from Oxfordshire. 
 He traveled on foot, for the family could not have 
 owned a horse. He trudged through the weary 
 stretches of barren downs that mia)ke the beautiful 
 Woodstock Park seem like a paradise! And how re- 
 freshing would have been its legends of royal romance, 
 the balladls of "Fair Rosamund," if he had only known 
 of them! He must have stopped in that region tired 
 and travel-worn, before he came, on the second day, 
 to a resting-place at Oxford, that town of mighty 
 learning, then in his wide-wondering eyes beyond the 
 summit of his most classic aimibition! Here he may 
 have lingered for a day, forming a couple of new 
 acquaintances, the Davenants, and studying the ouit- 
 sides of the college buildings. He could not have gone 
 into tiie great Bodleian Library, which would now 
 fall down and worship a page, or even a single line of 
 Shakspere'is manuscript, were it to be found, for that 
 library was not opened to the general public until four- 
 teen years later. And Shakspere was then one only of 
 ijhe most ordinary public, ragged, no doubt, disheart- 
 ened, and suffering deeply from all the ills that ad- 
 verse financial fortune can fall heir to. 
 
 Shakspere stopped at the Crown Inn, a smiall and 
 rather private tavern, kept by the very humble par- 
 ents of William Davenant, Shakespere's namesake and 
 godson; who in his manhood was knighted and called 
 Sir William Daveniant; and for his excellent dramatic 
 writing, "rare Sir William Davenant." 
 
THE LIFE OF WILLIAM SHAKSPERE. 15 
 
 Leaving his newly-formed friends at Oxford, the 
 youthful adventurer went on, four miles to Whatley, 
 six more to Thetisford, five to Stocking Church, six to 
 East Wickham, five to Bacconsfield, seven to Uxbridge, 
 and then fifteen of the longest of all weary miles to 
 his uncertain Mecca of London ! 
 
 We may be thankful that on the journey his lodg- 
 ing only cost him a penny a day; for which small 
 sum beds were furnished with clean linen. If he had 
 traveled on horseback, his own fare would have cost 
 him nothing, the host in that case only charging for 
 the keep of the horse. But one foot up and one foot 
 down was Shakspere's way to London town. He even 
 passed through "Banbury Cross" without the requisite 
 of the nursery jingle with regard to the "hoisB." 
 
 But what shall he do in London? What shall any 
 man, without trade or profession, do in any large city 
 today? If honest, he will certainly 'be glad to do any 
 thing that offers. A clerkship in a grocery would 
 have been a godsend to Shakspere ! It was not a time 
 for him to choose an occupation mincingly. He could 
 have attended market, and sold meats again siuocess- 
 fully. Or, isance he could write, and wais therefore a 
 "learned" man, he might have kept accounts, or per- 
 haps drawn deeds such as he had seen in his father's 
 office in Stratford ! 
 
 But no such good place was open to Shaifcspere! 
 Luckily for us, however, theatrical companies had 
 visited Stratford every year during the poet's youth. 
 And a certain Thomas Green, of Stratford, had found 
 employment in a low capacity at the Blackfriars The- 
 arte ; and thirther Shakspere went. He was admitted 
 in the lowest capacity. It is believed and very well 
 attested, that at first he held horses at the door of the 
 theater. Happy horses! now certainly immortal- 
 ized ! Shlakspere no doubt loved and petted them ; he 
 stroked their intelligent faces, patted their 'beautiful 
 necks; and they, in turn, sniffed at his curly hair, 
 and nibbled with their sensitive lips at hi's ragged 
 elbow; while the so-called masters of the noble ani- 
 mals applauded to the echo scenes insdde the theater 
 
16 THE LIFE OF WILLIAM SHAKSPERE. 
 
 which it proved the mission of the poet either to alter 
 or abolish. 
 
 Shakspere at length becomes lan actor of small 
 parts, while as a supernumerary he helps to shift the 
 few 'bungling scenes used to frame in the extravagant, 
 ranting, peaeodc-strutting stars ! He became univer- 
 sally useful about the place. And when it became his 
 employment and duty to improve and reform the plays 
 in use, (by Subtractions and additions of his own, he 
 gets a spanking rebuff frofm a talented but dissipated 
 and declining play-wright, one Robert Greene, who 
 warns his friends to beware of Shakspere, as one hav- 
 ing a "tyger's heart in a player's hide." He calls 
 Shakspere an upstart crow, adorned with Greene's 
 and other's feathers; and who believes that he can 
 bomlbast out blank verse equal to the best of us !" Time 
 haig certainly established the last supposition. 
 
 Greene died, and a year later this allusion to Shak- 
 spere found its way into print. Shakspere was very 
 indignant over it; and so the publisher makes a very 
 humible apology, anid fully endorses Shakspere's quick- 
 ly-earned but excellent reputation both as a writer and 
 as a mian. 
 
 In 1592 John Shakispere is still in the depths of 
 debt, but William has become a .shareholder in the 
 Blackfriars Theatre. The next year he is admitted as 
 part owner of the Globe Theater also, a play-house for 
 (summer entertainments and built without a roof. But 
 William is unable to help his father much, because the- 
 atrical performances were prohibited on account of 
 the plague prevailing in London. 
 
 The next year, When Shakspere was thirty years 
 old, he -began to print 'some of his earliest works. The 
 poem entitled Venuis and Adonis was published in May, 
 1594, and dedicated to Henry Wriothesly, Earl of 
 Southampton. He afterwards published the second 
 poetai entitled "The Rape of Luereece," and (similarly 
 dedicated. These two letters of dedication are the 
 only Shakspere letters now in existence. Of course 
 the then unvalued originals of these letters perished 
 in tjhe printing-office. 
 
 Shatospere at that time had many frien'dfe among 
 
THE LIFE OF WILLIAM SHAKSPERE. 17 
 
 the nobility ; and to establish himself more firmly as a 
 well-born gentleman, and also to obtain a crumb of 
 comfort for his debt-despairing father, he applies for 
 a confirmation of a coat-of-arms, on the score of his 
 great-grandfather's services as a soldier under Henry 
 VII. The arms were granted, and John Shakspere, 
 yoeman, was entitled to have Magister, or Mr., put 
 before his name. But as people often forget it in writ- 
 ing, the Mr. had to 'be interlined, or written over his 
 name, as it is now commonly found. It is fortunate 
 for us now, that he had this small title; for it helps 
 us to distinguish the poet's father from another John 
 eihakspere, a shoemaker, and at that time not on any 
 account to 'be called a M'ister. 
 
 In 1599 Shakspere again applies to the College-of- 
 Arrms, in the name of his father, ibut in his mother's 
 right, for the arms of Robert Arden to be united with 
 tihose of John Shakspere. The request was granted; 
 and so the poet (became, as we may say, doubly a gen- 
 tleman; a title which, in his simple and true-souled 
 ambition, he thoroughly delighted in. The theater was 
 not hite chosen place ; nor were its associations gener- 
 ally those he loved the most. He, was perfectly at 
 home only with really ndble men, and whether he 
 found these among his theatrical associates or else- 
 where. 
 
 During the poet's life in London, he was re- 
 quired to pass through nearly every kind of human 
 suffering. First, there wa's his long-continued separa- 
 tion from his doting family. Early in this involuntary 
 absence, he wrote from an Italian story, translated 
 into English, the love-filled tragedy of Romeo and 
 Juliet No doubt his own true heart was his ideal 
 Romeo ; and the one he never ceased to love, the true 
 Juliet The play presents the full-grown deep and 
 honest love of man and woman, and not the simple, 
 doubting, weak and tender "-maiden passion" for a 
 maid. 
 
 Shakspere' s wife was eight years older than him- 
 self, and while he knew, from his own experience, 
 all the difficulties of the isdtuataon; and while in his 
 
18 THE LIFE OF WILLIAM SHAKSPERE. 
 
 own words he endorsed the general judgment of man- 
 kind, in saying, in the play of Twelfth-Night: 
 
 "Let ever the woman take an elder than herself," 
 
 still there is not a particle oif evidence that he ever 
 ceased to love her. His strong (attachment in his en- 
 forced -absence may have begotten jealousy at times, 
 a supposition not without some evidence. Shakspere 
 certainly knew full well the torturing nature of thait 
 unreasonable passion. He represented its long cres- 
 cen'do uip to desperation in the play of Othello, where 
 the fair beautiful wife is horribly and insanely mur- 
 dered by the over-credulous black-a-moor husband. 
 And then he gave its sublime diminuendo, dn the 
 beautiful denouement of the Winter's Tale, where the 
 wife, long mourned as dead is brought back in quick 
 full life to her repentant husband's doubly-loving arms. 
 
 This last play Shaksipere wrote in Stratford, after 
 his retirement from London, and while in his own 
 comfortable home, in the, cheering presence of that 
 faithful woman, whose highest ambition was to 'be at 
 the last 'laid in the same grave with him. If he ever 
 bad any doubts of her, they were all dissipated when 
 the play of the Winter's Tale was written. 
 
 Perhaps Anne Shiaktepere had what we call now a 
 tongue, and which she may at times have used unduly ; 
 but while the poet has taught uis that a man can "smile 
 and simile, and be a villain," he has also shown us in 
 this play, by the character of Paulina, that an honest 
 womian rniay scold somewhat heroically, and yet 'be 
 something of a very angel. 
 
 No writer ever equaled Shakspere in doing thor- 
 ough hearty justice to the 'different varieties of woman- 
 kind. In his early play of Richard III., he represents 
 the fickleness of a weaik womian in her unsuccessful 
 opposition to a most consummate villain man. Richard, 
 after his interview with the Lady Anne, whom he has 
 encountered on her way to bury her husband's body, 
 exclaims : 
 
 "Was ever womian, in thds humor woo'd? 
 Was ever woman in this humor won? 
 
THE LIFE OF WILLIAM SHAKSPERE. 19 
 
 I'll have her; ibut I will not keep her long! 
 
 What! I, that killed her husband, and his father, 
 
 To take her in her -heart's extremest hate, 
 
 With curses in her mouth, tears in her eyes, 
 
 The bleeding witness of her hatred by; 
 
 With God, her conscience, and these bars against me, 
 
 And I, no friends to back my 'suit withal, 
 
 But the plain devil and dissembling looks, 
 
 And yet to win her! all the world to nothing!" 
 
 And in Cymbeline, one of his latest plays, he makes 
 a poor, deceived husband cry out in his bitter agony : 
 
 "Could I find out 
 
 The woman's part in me! For there's no motion 
 Tends to vice in man, but I affirm 
 It is the woman's part: Be it lying, note it, 
 The woman's; flattering, hers; deceiving, hers; 
 Ambitions, covetings, change of prides, disdain, 
 Nice longings, slanders, mutability, 
 All faults that may be named, nay, that hell knows, 
 Why hers, in part, or all; but rather, all; 
 For ev*n to vice 
 
 They are not constant, but are changing still 
 One vice but of a minute old, for one 
 Not half so old as that! I'll write against them, 
 Detest them, curse them : 
 
 Yet, 'tis greater skill 
 
 In a true hate, to pray they have their will: 
 The very devils cannot plague them better!" 
 
 Thus Shakspere gnvea the naturally-unjust 
 thought and feeling of a deluded man against a wife 
 who is an embodiment of womanly loveliness. In his 
 maddening error he assigns a place for her to meet 
 him, and where he expects to have her killed by a ser- 
 vant, Pisanio. The husband, Leonatus, sendls Imogen, 
 the wife, a letter, in which she reads these words: 
 "Take notice, that I am in Cambria, at Milford-Haven. 
 What your own love will, out of this, advise you, fol- 
 low." "Leonatus." Then Imogen : 
 
 "O for a horse with wings! Hearst thou, Pisanio? 
 He is at Milford-Haven! Read and tell me 
 
20 THE LIFE OF WILLIAM SHAKSPERE. 
 
 How far tis thither. If one of mean affaarts 
 May plod it in a week, why may not I 
 Glide thirther in a day? Then, true Pisanio, 
 Who longst 'like me to see thy lord ; who longst, 
 
 let me bate, 'but not like me, yet longst, 
 But in a fainter kind : O not like me : 
 
 For mine's beyond beyond, say, and speak thick, 
 Love's counsellors should fill the 'bores of hearing, 
 To the smothering of the sense, how fiar it is 
 To this same blessed Milford : And, by the way, 
 Tell me how Wales was made so happy as 
 To inherit such a haven : But, first of all, 
 How may we steal hence : and, for the gap 
 That we ishall make in time, from our hence going 
 And return, to excuse: but first, how get hence: 
 Why should excuse be born, or e'en begot? 
 We'll talk of that hereafter. Prythee, sipeiaik, speak, 
 How many score of miles may we well ride 
 Twixt hour and 'hour? " 
 
 Pisanio, (breaking in, 
 "One score, twixt 'siun and sun, 
 Madiam's enough for you ; and too much too." 
 
 Imogen. 
 
 "Why, one that rode unto his execution, man, 
 Could never go so slow : I have heard of riding wagers 
 Where horses have been nimbler than the sandtsi 
 That run in the clock's behalf, But this is foolery : 
 Go : bid my woman feign a sickness : Say, 
 She'll home to her father; and provide me, instantly, 
 A riding suit, no costlier than woudd fit 
 A franklin's housewife " 
 
 (Pisianio. 
 
 "Madlam, you're best consider " 
 Imogen. 
 
 "I see before me, man, nor here, nor here, 
 Nor what ensues: but have a fog in them 
 
 1 'cannot look through. Away, I pray thee 
 Do as I bid thee : Ther's no more to say : 
 Accessible is none, but Milford way!" 
 
 I venture the assertion tihat human language does 
 
THE LIFE OF WILLIAM SHAKSPERE. 21 
 
 not contain a more graphic portrayal of true ardent 
 feminine character than that exhibited in these won- 
 derful lines : the intense affection, which exaggerates 
 everything in Which it has -any interest; the instan- 
 taneous perception of the difficulties in the path it has 
 chosen; the magical resolution of the 'difficulties en- 
 countered; and the surrender of the entire being to 
 one dominant feeling; not to recognize these distin- 
 guishing characteristics is to be ignorant of noble 
 womanhood. 
 
 Shakspere could not in his own heart conceive of a 
 thoroughly false and wicked woman; and therefore 
 Cressida, the false one, is the most absurd creature in 
 all his plays. He endeavors to picture a wicked mother, 
 in the play of Hamlet ; 'but he only succeeds in settling 
 the blame on the unnatural uncle. Shakspere could not 
 bear to leave the character of woman so dark as he 
 found it in tha story called the "History of Hamiblet," 
 from which he made the great drama ; and so, beside 
 greatly improving the character of the mother, he puts 
 in also the beautiful, tender character of Ophelia. 
 
 Shakspere wrote King- Lear at home, where he 
 doubtless contrasted his own two excellent daugh- 
 ters, Susannah, aged 24, and Judith, 22, with the 
 two ungrateful, false, and wicked creatures of the play. 
 
 In 1596 Shakspere lost his only son Hamnet, a lad 
 of twelve years old. And in the play of King John, 
 written soon after, we must believe that we can see 
 the traces of the poet's own deep, fatherly sorrow; 
 as, for example, where the mother, Constance, is made 
 to say of her young son, Arthur, then confined in a 
 prison that would only open at his death: 
 
 "And father Cardinal, I have heard you say 
 That we shall see and know our friends in heaven. 
 If that be true, then I shall see my boy again ; 
 For since the birth of Cain, the first male child, 
 To him that did but yesterday suspire, 
 There was not isuch a gracious creature born, 
 But now will canker sorrow eat my bud, - 
 And chase the native beauty from his cheek ; 
 An'd he will look as hollow 'as a ghost, 
 
22 THE LIFE OF WILLIAM SHAKSPERE. 
 
 And dim, and meagre, as an ague's fit ; 
 
 And so he'll die ; and, (rising 1 so again, 
 
 When I shall meet him an the courts of 'heaven 
 
 I shall not know him: therefore, never, never, 
 
 M'uist I see my pretty Arthur, more?" 
 
 Cardinal Pandulf. 
 "You hold too heinous a respect of grief." 
 
 GoniSitance. 
 "He talks to me that never had a son!" 
 
 Pandulf. 
 "You are ass fond of grief as of your child." 
 
 Conisitance. 
 
 "Grief fills the iroom up of my albsent child, 
 Lies in his bed; walks up and down with me; 
 Puts on his pretty looks, repeats his words ; 
 Remelnibers me of all his gracious parts; 
 Stuffls out his vacant garments with his form. 
 Then have I reason to be fond of grief. 
 Easre-you-well : had you such loss as I, 
 I could give better comfort than you do." 
 
 Five years after the death of this only son, Shak- 
 sper's father died, in Stratford; and there is a conjec- 
 ture that S'hakspere left the stage, for a season, an'd 
 visited Scotland ; and that this visit led to the produc- 
 tion of Macbeth, which is isupposied to have been writ- 
 ten soon after. 
 
 In 1607 he attended the funeral oif his brother, 
 Edmund, who was buried from a church in London. 
 And among the funeral charges is one of twenty shill- 
 ings for ringing a knell for Edmund on the great 
 bell of the church. William Shakspere paid the funeral 
 bills, and would allow no "maimed rites," even if his 
 brother had (been only an indifferent and church- 
 despised actor. 
 
 Two months later, Mrs. Hathaway, Anne 'Sihak- 
 spere's mother, died. And the isame day, Elizabeth, 
 daughter of Dr. John and Suisiannah Shakspere Hall, 
 was born. This Elizabeth proved to be the last of 
 Shiakspere's lineal descendants; for although twice 
 
THE LIFE OF WILLIAM SHAKSPERE. 23 
 
 married she had no children. At her death she had 
 the title of Lady Barnard. 
 
 Early in this year, 1608, Shakspere returned to 
 Stratford to remain. His own mother was in declin- 
 ing health. We may imagine the comfort she took 
 in having the presence of her gifted, and even then 
 quite celebrated <son. 
 
 While spending his time in Stratford, he took care 
 to look after iboth his real and personal property. He 
 had advanced money and obtained loans for his Strat- 
 ford friends while he was in London; and a part of 
 his occupation in Stratford was to collect debts due 
 him. In August, 1608, he 'brought isuit against one 
 John Addenbroke for money past due. But on Sept. 
 9th, Shakspere' s mother died ; and the suit was held in 
 aibeyance. But early in the next year Shafcsipere went 
 on with his suit. Adden'broke absented himself, and 
 Shakspere sued his endorser; and a jury of his fellow- 
 citizens gave Shakspere the amount claimed: Six 
 pounds for the debt, and one pound four shillings for 
 costs. At another time, he sued a man for twenty 
 shillings, due for corn delivered from the poet'is farm, 
 under the management of his brother, Gilbert. Shak- 
 spere was generous in providing and giving, but he 
 never permitted himself to be imposed upon either by 
 has London adventurers or his Stratford friends. 
 
 In 1612 Shakspere signed a small mortgage, to 
 secure a deferred payment on a house purchased, and 
 situated near the Blackfi-arts Theater. The mortgage 
 was for sixty pounds. But the signature has long been 
 of va/stly greater value than the property conveyed, for 
 it is the most authentic Shakspere signature on record, 
 being the only one known to have 'been executed by 
 ham while in perfect health. 
 
 The year following, Richard, the last of Shak- 
 spere's brothers, died. And during the next his jovial 
 intimate friend, John Combe, deceased, leaving Shak- 
 spere a legacy of five pounds for old acquaintance 
 siake. And the next year, 1616, is Shakspere's last on 
 earth. 
 
 Shakspere is in Stratford, surrounded by his inti- 
 mate friends and connections, taking care of his well- 
 
24 THE LIFE OF WILLIAM SHAKSPERE. 
 
 earned property, yielding him 300 a year, and in 
 actual value equal to 1,000, or say $5,000 a year, 
 at this present time: no great income, to Ibe sure; 
 but one that the poet knew was enough. He not writ- 
 ten against money-hoarding all his life to become at 
 the last avaricious himself. 
 
 On the 25th of January, 1616, Shakspere wrote 
 the first draft of Ms will, being at that time in perfect 
 health. His second daughter was about to be mar- 
 ried, and he wished to arrange his property to suit 
 the changing circumstances. Fifteen days later Judith 
 was married to Mr. Thomas Quiney, vintner. On the 
 25th of the next month, February, Shakspere re- writes 
 his will, putting in sundry affectionate remembrances 
 of his wife, and of his most intimate friends. Two 
 other monthls went by, and the everlasting bard, the 
 poet of all time, had passed to his final account. He 
 died on his fifty-second birthday; thus making April 
 23rd more the Shakspere than the St. George's Day. 
 He was buried on the anniversary of his baptism, 
 April 26th, and near the altar where he had been 
 b&jpitzed. 
 
 An enthusiastic friend of royalty attempted to 
 praise Shakspere by saying that he mi'ght even have 
 been a king ! So he might ! But iwhere's the king that 
 could have filled up Shakspere'fs place, in the history 
 of the world, or in the hearts of humankind? Earth, 
 in her most lavish mood, could never be extravagant 
 enough to Waste so great a poet in a politician or a 
 king! 
 
 Shiaikspere's personal characteristics have been 
 well set forth by his contemporary actors and friends: 
 Although devoted to his work, he cared less to be a 
 poet than to be a gentleman; and though he always 
 held the mirror 'so that Nature could easily see her- 
 iself, yet he never wrote a line designed to injure a 
 human being, to wound a heart or to exalt a vice. 
 There are plain, common, honest English expressions ; 
 but only such as the ssdtuiation required. Ben John- 
 son well siaid of him : "He was indeed honest, and of a 
 free and open nature; had an excellent fantasy, brave 
 notions, and gentle expressions." "He was a hand- 
 
THE LIFE OF WILLIAM SHAKSPERE. 25 
 
 some, well-shapt man," says Aubrey, "very good com- 
 pany, and of a ready, smooth and pleasant wit." "Di- 
 tinguisihed for uprightness in deialing, and a facetious 
 grace in writing," said Ghettle, in his apology. "The 
 best in tragedy and comedy," said Meres, when Shak- 
 epere had only written the first and poorest dozen of 
 his plays, 
 
 Shakspere's ability was not that acquired -by 
 study. He lacked iboth education and discipline. But 
 he had that which covered and kept out of sight all 
 minor deficiencies. His genius was the crowning ex- 
 ample of all true genius, the grand capacity for unsel- 
 fish, noble inspiration. For heaven ever 'broods over 
 the world, and where it finds a human toeing empty 
 of himself, it fiMs him with its blessing. Shakspere's 
 capacity was like a cavern of mighty echoes; and the 
 one God of Revelation, Truth and Nature, swelled him 
 to his mental utmost! The poet's very soul was pro- 
 lific; and it 'both increased and adorned whatever it 
 touched. 
 
 Stokspere's methods, or habits in writing, have 
 been indicated by his contemporary actors, Heming 
 and Condell, who were also the editors of the first com- 
 plete edition of Shakspere's works. They said of him : 
 '^His mind and hand went together; and what he 
 thouight, he uttered with such easiness that we have 
 scarce received tfrom him a blot in his papers," Ben 
 Johntson said that Shiakspere claimed, that "whatever 
 he wrote, he never Matted a line." But Johnson said 
 agadn, that "Shakspere's mind and manners were re- 
 flected in his well-turned and true-filed lines." The 
 fact is no doubt that his thought ran on in his writing, 
 like bright and glowing molten metal, taming and 
 irresistible, but which he afterwards hammered and 
 filed, when it had cooled sufficiently for him to touch. 
 
 Bhafespere studied man and nature ; and he wrote, 
 not second-hand, tout from his own feeling, observa- 
 tion, and experience. Hils plots were picked up from 
 aflU that he had learned in history, 'biography, or story. 
 But the characters were thoroughly the coinage of hi* 
 wn fertile tbrain. As Walter Scott dosed in the Cale- 
 donian inns to learn (humani'ty, and Hawthorne 
 
26 THE LIFE OF WILLIAM SHAKSPERE. 
 
 watched the crowds hurrying- into land out of the Bos- 
 ton post-office to fill his repertoire of characters, so 
 Shakspere and Ben Johnson, according to Aubrey, 
 "took the humours of men wherever they came." Fal- 
 staff was a growth, and the result of several char- 
 acters. Bardolf, Sly, FlueUen, Herne, Home, Page 
 Ford, and others, were the familiar names of Strat- 
 ford inhabitants. 
 
 Of his thirty-seven well authenticated plays, 
 thirty ^one had certainly been given to the world, on the 
 stage or in print, during Shakspere's life-time. But 
 there is not a particle of evidence to show that he 
 ever saw his own Macbeth, or Cymbeline, Timon ot" 
 Athens, Cleopatra, Julius Caesar, or Coriolanus, either 
 in print or acted out. These six plays were first pre- 
 sented to mankind in the Heming and Condell first foli 
 edition, published in 1623, seven years after their 
 author's death, and the same year that the body of the 
 excellent wife, Anne Shakspere, was laid beside that of 
 her huslband. 
 
 The man Who held horses at the door of the Black- 
 fiarls Theatre, and soon after received the contemp- 
 tuous names of "Shake-scene," and "Joannes Facto- 
 tum," never expected to earn the title of the King ot" 
 Poets! But his was not first case where the Almighty 
 has chosen a lowly worker for a miraculous work. 
 Sha'kspere stands now in his colossal greatness, like 
 the Pyramids in the Egyptian desert, or like a lofty 
 mountain rising straight up from the level sea! His 
 human kindness hovers over ins like the shadow of a 
 great rock that keeps away from the loiwly grass and 
 unpretentious flowers the hot and garish sun ! He is 
 not dead. He lives in the lives of men ; in the love and 
 trutih embodied in his works. And when his Saxon 
 race has gone; his native English tongue forgotten, 
 and the scrolls of worldly volumes mouldered in the 
 dust of silent ages, this truth and love will breathe 
 upon the bones of Nature, and the soul of Britain's im- 
 mortal bard will, like its fiaibled Arthur, the nolble 
 King, return, and again revive the dying world to un- 
 known higher ascents of honor, power and manhood! 
 
4 
 
THE 
 
 Tragicall Hiftorie of 
 HAMLET 
 
 Bv William Shake- fpearc 
 
 As it hath beene4merfb times afted by hisHighneflc fee 
 uantsmihcCittieofLeadon ; asaJfomthctwo V 
 niucrfuics of Carnbttdge and Oxford,and elfe where 
 
 Ai London onmcd for 1O<^ivdIx^tn TonuleU