Outlines of the life of Shakespeare

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OUTLINES.

I I.OV'D SHAKESPEARE AND DO HONOUR HIS MEMORY, ON THIS SIDE

IDOLATRY, AS MUCH AS ANY. HE WAS, INDEED, HONEST, AND OF AN OPEN

AND FREE NATURE ; HAD AN EXCELLENT FANCY, BRAVE NOTIONS AND GENTLK
EXPRESSIONS.

BEN JONSON.

OUTLINES

OF THE

LIFE OF SHAKESPEARE.

BY

J. O. HALLIWELL-PHILLIPPS, F.R.S.,

F.S.A., Hon. M.R.S.L., Hon. M.R.I.A.

THE FIFTH 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.

— The Thirtieth Sonnet.

LONDON:
MESSRS. LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO.

M.DCCC.LXXXV.

PREFACE.

The remains of New Place, a partial sketch of which is
engraved on the opposite leaf, are typical of the frag
ments of the personal history of Shakespeare which have
hitherto been discovered. 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 immense popularity of some of his works, was held
in no general reverence. It must be borne in mind that
actors then occupied an inferior position in society, and
that in many quarters even the vocation of a dramatic
writer was considered scarcely respectable. The intelli
gent 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 connected in any way with the

^ I

PREFACE.

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 Shake
speare'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 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 deter
mined care be taken to avoid the temptation of endeavour
ing to illustrate that history by his writings, or to decipher
his character or sensibilities through their media. It is
the more important to insist upon the latter conditions as
necessary preliminaries, for so vivid is often the earnestness
which 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 exception,
for it must surely be admitted that the exchange of the

PREFACE. vii

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 ne
cessarily be the least egotistical, one of his profoundest
achievements being, by rapid permutations of thought and
feeling, to identify himself for the moment with the inner
consciousness 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 i
of composition. The intelligence 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 outward 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 plausibly appropriated in
that direction, it would have to be proved that, no matter
how far their admission was sanctioned by the conven
tional licence of the ancient stage, they were unnaturally
introduced into the mouths of the speakers. The like
may be more emphatically asserted in reference to
presumed consecutive revelations, the acceptance of
which is obviously incompatible with the general belief
that he consistently preserved a fidelity to nature in all 243

vjii PREFACE.

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
215 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
biographical 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
23 unobtrusive language, a sketch of his personal history
strictly out of evidences and deductions from them.
Subtle and gratuitous assumptions of unsupported
possibilities will be rigidly excluded, and no conjectures
admitted that are not practically removed out of that
category by being in themselves 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

PREFACE. ix

some position that existed, on or before that day, in
connection 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 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
knowledge 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 expulsion 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

x PREFACE.

few entries respecting the great dramatist. The same
observation cannot unfortunately be thought to hold good
in respect to the next reporter, John Aubrey, who, about

4 the same period, visited Stratford-on-Avon in one of his
equestrian journeys. This industrious antiquary was the
author of numerous little biographies, which 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

5 them. He was unfortunately also one of those foolish and
detestable gossips who repeat everything that they hear or
misinterpret, and this without so much as giving a thought
to the damage that they may inflict upon the reputation of
their victims. 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 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 narrative is to be received

PREFACE. xi

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 intentional
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 seventeenth century. 6
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 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 indiscretions.

There is not one of the manuscripts above named ,
which can be fairly described as yielding more than small
collections of brief memoranda. A similar observation
will apply to the printed notices of the latter half of the 7
seventeenth century, which include very little that belongs
to tradition and not much else of importance. Seventy
or eighty years were suffered to elapse from the death of
the poet before any one seriously undertook to gather the

xii PREFACE.

^materials that were necessary for the construction of a
substantial biography. The exact period is not known,
but most likely at some time about the year 1690, Thomas

« Betterton, 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 par
ticulars that he managed to glean upon this occasion were
afterwards communicated by him to his friend Nicholas
"9 Rowe, a well-known dramatist, and some of them were
incorporated by the latter into an account that was
published in 1 709. " I must own," observes Rowe, in
speaking of Betterton, "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 frag
ments which would otherwise 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. An
evidence of the latter opinion will be noticed in the
remarkable manner in which two at least of his traditional
notices, — those which refer to the embarrassed circum-

- stances of John Shakespeare, and to the name of Oldcastle,
— have been verified by modern research ; while there
are several allusions which indicate that the whole is
the result of original enquiry. That he exercised also
unusual caution in dealing with his materials is obvious

PREFACE. xiii

from the prelude to the Southampton anecdote, as well
as from the hesitating manner in which he introduces
many of his statements. It is scarcely necessary to
observe that this prudence has added immeasurably to
his credibility, and rendered every word of his essay
deserving of respectful attention.

There are many who question the value of the stray
morsels collected by Betterton and others in the seven
teenth 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 truth, that there is no intimation
of the poet having followed the trade of a butcher until
nearly a century afterwards, that the poaching exploit
remained unnoticed 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 Stratford biographical notices,
unless we adopt the incredible theory that they were
altogether 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 argument,
however plausible, will not bear the test of impartial
examination. It would apply very well to the present
age, when incessant locomotion and the reign of
newspapers have banished the old habit of reliance
upon hearsay for intelligence or for a continuity in
the recollection 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

xiv PREFACE.

the few, and intercommunication 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 con
tinued, with gradual but almost imperceptible advances
in the latter 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, provincial 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 immemorial
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 analysis
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 con
cordances naturally suggest a pause before the exclu
sion 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. xv

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, therefore, 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 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

xvi PREFACE.

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
unfortunately been merely the subject of refined and
useless conjecture. Internal evidences of construction
and style, obscure contemporary references, and metrical

251 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

252 most of those epochs are merely conjectural, little real
progress is made in the enquiry. No sufficient allow
ances 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 pro
gress nor retrogression. Shakespeare's genius arrived

203 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
dramatic style frequently varies not only with the subject
of the adopted narrative, but with the purpose of author
ship. It may be presumed, for instance, that the diction
and construction of a drama written with a view to its
performance at the Court might be essentially dissimilar
from those of a play of the same date composed merely
for the ordinary stage, where the audiences were of a
more promiscuous character and the usages and appli
ances of the actors in some respects of a different nature.
Nor have the various theories that are found in aesthetic
2 criticism, those by which the gradation of the author's

PREFACE. xvii

mental changes is sought to be established, landed us in 237
greater certainty. The subject of the chronological order 3
is one, indeed, solely of a biographical curiosity that can 304
only be legitimately gratified by the discovery of con
temporary evidence. Even with such assistance, the
mere facts of 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 Shakespeare'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, however,
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 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

xviii PREFACE.

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 com
pilation 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 contempt 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 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 thou
sands, to pay homage at the shrine of the national
dramatist ; and many not ashamed to indulge the fancy
that the gentle spirit may yet occasionally hover amidst
the scenes that he loved so well on earth.

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 biographical essay

PREFACE. xix

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 advocate, no wild conjectures to drag into
a temporary existence, and no bias save one inspired
by the hope that Shakespearean discussions 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
of the minutest scrap of information respecting the life of
our 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 305
records and official collections, are being made accessible.

HOLLINGBURY COPSE, BRIGHTON.

March, 1884.

B 2

MEMORANDUM.

The additional matter which is introduced into this,
the fifth edition of the present work, may, it is hoped,
render it more useful to the student.

It is scarcely necessary to observe that, however great
may be the care taken to avoid them, errors must in
evitably occur in a work that exacts so great a variety of
research in its several details. The only possibility of
eliminating them is through the concurrent aid of my
fellow-students, for an oversight which is immediately
detected by one reader frequently continues to pass
unnoticed year after year by another. A great favour
would be conferred by assistance in this direction, and
it would be acknowledged with that gratitude which at
present is restricted to the Rev. H. P. Stokes and Dr.
Ingleby in this country, and tc Mr. William J. Rolfe of
Boston, U.S., all of whom have kindly furnished me
with substantial corrections.

HOLLINGBURY COPSE,

BRIGHTON, ENGLAND.
April, 1885.

PREMONITORY NOTES.

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 the earlier days varying consider
ably both with locality and object, and there having been a variety of
complex influences that renders an exact determination of those values
an impossibility ; but, in balancing the Shakespearean and present
currencies, the former may be roughly estimated from a twelfth to a
twentieth of the latter in money, and from a twentieth to a thirtieth
in landed or house property. Even these scales may be deceptively
in favour of the older values, there having been, in Shakespeare's
days, a relative and often a fictitious importance attached to the
precious metals, arising from their comparative scarcity and the
limited appliances for dispensing with their use.

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 time. 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 9
rented a cottage and a small quantity of land at Snitterfield, 10
an obscure village in that county. He had two sons,
one of whom, named Henry, continued throughout his
life to reside in the same parish. John, the other son,
left his father's home about the year 1551, and, shortly
afterwards, 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- 235
town about eight miles distant.

At this period, and for many generations afterwards,
the sanitary condition of the thoroughfares of Stratford-
on-Avon was, to our 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 want of scavengers, or other effective appliances for

OUTLINES.

OUTLINES, 25

the preservation of cleanliness. House-slops were reck
lessly 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
receptacles of offal and every species of nastiness. A
regulation for the removal of these collections 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 amerced
in the sum of twelve-pence for having amassed what was
no doubt a conspicuous sterquinarium 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. But although there was little excuse
for his negligence, one of the public stores of filth being
within a stone's throw of his residence, all that can be
said to his disparagement is that he was not in advance
of his neighbours in such matters, two of whom were
coincidently fined for the same offence.

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 building in Henley Street annexed
to that which is now shown as the Birth- Place, and the
other situated in Greenhill Street, a road afterwards called

26

OUTLINES.

-V-

OUTLINES. 27

More Towns End. In the year 1557, however, his for
tunes underwent an important change through an alliance
with Mary, the youngest daughter of Robert Arden, a
substantial yeoman farmer in the neighbourhood,, who
had died a few months previously. The maiden name
of her mother has not been discovered, but it is ascer
tained 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
reversion to estates at Wilmecote and Snitterfield, 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 practically married an heiress, his now
comparative affluence investing him with no small degree
of local importance. His official career at once com
menced 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 Corpora
tion 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 fines for
those offences which were punishable arbitrarily, and for

28

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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 116
largely in wool purchased from the neighbouring farmers,
and occasionally also dealt in corn and other articles. 191
In those days, especially in small provincial towns, the
concentration of several trades into the hands of one 192
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 con
ducted 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 days an un
usually large and commodious residence 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 202
Shakespeare, he who was afterwards to be the national
poet of England, was born. An apartment 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 baptized 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

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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 modifications. The general form
and arrangement of the tenement that was purchased in
1556 may yet, however, be distinctly traced, and 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 not
been greatly changed since the days of the poet's boyhood.
This is the antique cellar under the sitting-room, from
which it is approached by a diminutive flight of steps. It
is a very small apartment, measuring only nine by ten
feet, but near " that small most greatly liv'd this star of
England."

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.

32 OUTLINES.

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 of these
worthies could even write their own names, but nearly
all tradesmen then reckoned with counters, the results
on important occasions 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,
having been elected an alderman in the previous summer,
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, 1566, another son, who was
christened Gilbert on the thirteenth, was born, the poet
i2i being then nearly two and a half years old. This Gilbert,
who was educated at the Free School, in after life entered
into business in London as a haberdasher, returning,
however, in the early part of the following century, to
his native town, where he is found, in 1602, completing
an important legal transaction with which he was en
trusted by the great dramatist. His Christian name
was probably derived from that of one of his father's
neighbours, Gilbert Bradley, who was a glover in Henley

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33

Facsimiles from the Corporation Accounts that were
superintended by the Poets father and Ms colleague in
the years 1564 and 1565.

34 OUTLINES.

Street, residing near the Birth- Place and on the same
side of the way.

In September, 1567, Robert Perrot, a brewer, John
Shakespeare, and Ralph Cawdrey, a butcher, were nomi
nated for the office of the High Bailiff, or, as that
dignitary was subsequently 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 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 Shake
speare, — " 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 Strat-
ford-on-Avon capable of initiating him even into these

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preparatory accomplishments, but John Shakespeare, in
his official position, could hardly 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
entertainments 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 municipal
accounts ; and sometimes there were bodies of actors in
the town to whom the official liberality was not extended. 114
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 question, — was the poet, who was then
in his fifth or sixth year, a spectator at either of these

c 2

36

OUTLINES.

Facsimiles of the mark-signatures used by Shakespeare's
parents in the year 1579, when they executed a deed
conveying their interests in two houses in Snitterjield to
one Robert Webb.

OUTLINES. 37

performances? 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, 1 564, to a free dramatic
entertainment exhibited as were those at Stratford-on-
Avon, before the Corporation under precisely similar
conditions, there then arises a reasonable probability that
we should be justified in giving an affirmative reply to
the enquiry. 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 autobiography, 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 the manner is, as I
think it is in other like corporations, 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 personated 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

38 OUTLINES.

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 ; 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 thereunto, 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 ; the two old men, the
End of the World and the Last Judgment. This sight
tooke such impression 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

OUTLINES. 39

Exercises of a Penitent Sinner, published 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 replace 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 exceedingly
primitive description. The latter were, however, put on
the stage with far more elaborate appliances, there being
no reason for believing that the itinerant platform of the
later drama was provided with much beyond a few
properties. The theatre of the mysteries consisted of a
movable wooden rectangular structure of two rooms one
over the other, the lower closed, the upper one, that in
which the performances took place, being open at least
on one side to the audience. The vehicle itself, every
portion of which that was visible to the audience was
grotesquely painted, was furnished in the upper room with
tapestries that answered the purposes of scenery, and with 84
mechanical appliances for the disposition of the various
objects introduced, such as hell-mouth, a favourite property 85
on the ancient English stage. This consisted of a huge
face constructed of painted canvas exhibiting glaring eyes
and a red nose of enormous dimensions ; the whole so
contrived with movable 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

40 OUTLINES.

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 dimensions. 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, some probably not very unlike decorated
86 sentry boxes. Amongst the miscellaneous properties
may be named "a rybbe colleryd red," which was no
doubt used in the mystery of the Creation. Clouds were
represented by painted cloths so contrived that they
could open and show angels in the heavens. Horses and
other like animals were generally formed with hoops and
laths that were wrapped in canvas, the latter being after
wards painted in imitation of nature. Artificial trees
were introduced, and 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 earthquake, 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 movable ropes could be
employed. Some of the other machinery was evidently
of an ingenious 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

OUTLINES. 41

with the circumstances of the history. Some writers, in
terpreting the stage-directions too literally, have asserted
that those characters were introduced upon the pageant
in a state of nudity. This was certainly 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 cloths, over which at the proper time
were thrown the garments of skins. There were no 87
doubt some incidents represented in the old English
mysteries which would now be considered 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
costumes 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 88
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 89
deception, he probably appeared, when brandishing his
flaming sword, as fierce and hideous a tyrant as could
well have been represented. Pontius Pilate was usually
env/rapped 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 required

42 OUTLINES.

either mending or painting. Masks were worn by several
other personages, though it would appear that in some
90 instances the operation 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, witnessed repre
sentations of some of these mysteries, cannot admit of a
12 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
retained in Stratford or its neighbourhood. The per
formances which then took place nearly every year at
Coventry attracted hosts of spectators from all parts of
the country, while, at occasional intervals, the mystery
players of that city made theatrical progresses to various
other places. It is not known whether they favoured
Stratford -on- A von 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
107 recorded that they gave a performance in the year
1570. Amongst the mysteries probably recollected by
Shakespeare was one in which the King was introduced
as Herod of Jewry, and in which the children of Bethle
hem were barbarously speared, the soldiers disregarding
the frantic shrieks of the bereaved mothers. In the collec
tion 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
extravagance of rage, which formed one of the then main
dramatic characteristics of that sovereign, must have made

OUTLINES. 43

a deep impression on a youthful spectator. The idea
of such a history being susceptible of exaggeration into
burlesque never entered a spectator's mind in those days,
and the impression made upon him was probably increased
by the style of Herod's costume.

Besides the allusions made by the great dramatist to
the Herod of the Coventry players, there are indications
that other grotesque performers were occasionally in his
recollection, those who with blackened faces acted the
parts of the Black Souls. There are several references
in Shakespeare 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 91
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 absolute
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 per
formances 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 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 en
couraged by the Church. The impression made on

44 OUTLINES.

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 genius
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 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 occasional abuses,
they long continued to be one of the most effectual
means of disseminating 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 Warwick
shire 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 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 Coventre, 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

OUTLINES. 45

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 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 professed 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 dramatist is to the history as represented
in those plays, not to that recorded in the New
Testament. 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, appears to account for their long
continuance in a practically unaltered state while other
forms of the drama were being developed by their side.
From the fourteenth century until the termination of
Shakespeare's youthful days they remained 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

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as a rule the mysteries were designed to bring before the
audience merely the personages and events of religious

224 history. Allegorical characters had been occasionally
introduced, and about the middle of the fifteenth cen
tury there appeared a new kind of English dramatic
composition 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 character and manners.
There was, however, no consecutive or systematic de
velopment 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
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 fifteenth 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 was born in 1558 and had died

204 some time previously to the arrival of her younger sister.

OUTLINES. 47

Joan was then so common a name that it is hazardous to 205
venture on a conjecture respecting the child's sponsor,
but she was very likely so called after her maternal aunt,
Mrs. Lambert of Barton-on-the-Heath. John Shake
speare'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
commenced his studies there in the spring of the year
1571, and unless its system of instruction differed essen
tially 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 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 Sententise 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 intended for
the use of boys on Saints' Days.

48 OUTLINES.

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 School, were probably the only
volumes of the kind to be found at Stratford-on-Avon.
Exclusive 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. Fortunately
for us, the youthful dramatist had, excepting 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 dis
appeared, 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
field, who died in 1573, appointing ''to be my overseers

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49

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50 OUTLINES.

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 x\].d. a pece." Henry Shake
speare 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.

On March the nth, 1574, "Richard, sonne to
Mr. John Shakspeer," was baptized at Stratford, the
Christian name of the infant having probably been
adopted in recollection of his grandfather of Snitterfield,
who had been removed by the hand of death some
years previously. Independently of this new baby, there
were now four other children, — Anne, who was in her
third, Joan in her fifth, Gilbert in his eighth, and the
poet in his tenth year. The father's circumstances were
not yet on the wane, so there is every reason for believing
that the eldest son, blessed with, as it has been well
termed, the precious gift of sisters to a loving boy,
returned to a happy fire-side after he had been tormented
by the disciplinarian routine that was destined to terminate
in the acquisition of " small Latin and less Greek."

The defective classical education of the poet is not,
however, 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

OUTLINES. 51

requiring his assistance in one of the branches of the
Henley Street business. Rowe's words, published in
1709, are these, — "he had bred him, 'tis true, for some
time at a free-school, where 'tis probable he acquir'd that
little Latin he was master of; but the narrowness of his
circumstances, and the want of his assistance at home,
forc'd his father to withdraw him from thence, and un
happily prevented his further proficiency in that language."
John Shakespeare's circumstances had began to decline
in the year 1577, and, in all probability, he removed the
future dramatist from school when the latter was about
thirteen, allowing Gilbert, then between ten and eleven,
to continue his studies. The selection of the former for
home-work may have partially arisen from his having
been the elder and the stronger, but it also exhibits the
father's presentiment of those talents for business which
distinguished the latter part of his son's career.

The conflict of evidences now becomes so exceedingly
perplexing, that it is hardly possible to completely recon
cile them. All that can 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 apprenticed 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

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52 OUTLINES.

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 mortals to be the reluctant victims of circum
stances.

The tradition reported by the parish clerk in 1693 is
the only known evidence of Shakespeare having been an
apprentice, but his assertion that the poet commenced
his practical 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 considerable dealer in wool,'5 and that the great
dramatist, after leaving school, was brought up to follow
223 the same occupation, continuing in the business until his
departure from Warwickshire. 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. 53

Although the information at present accessible does
not enable us to determine the exact natures of Shake
speare's occupations from his fourteenth to his eighteenth
year, that is to say, from 1577 to 1582, there can be no
hesitation in concluding that, during that animated and
receptive period of life, he was mercifully released from
what, to a spirit like his, must have been the deleterious
monotony of a school education. Whether he passed
those years as a butcher or a wool-dealer does not greatly
matter. In either capacity, or in any other that could 113
then have been found at Stratford, he was unconsciously
acquiring a more perfect knowledge of the world and
human nature than could have been derived from a
study of the classics. During nearly if not all the time
to which reference is now being made, he had also the
opportunity of witnessing theatrical performances by some
of the leading companies of the day. But trouble and
sorrow invaded the paternal home. In the autumn of
1578, his father effected the then large mortgage of 4O/.
on the estate of Asbies, and the records of subsequent
transactions indicate that he was suffering from pecuniary
embarrassments in the two years immediately following.
In the midst of these struggles he lost, in 1579, his
daughter Anne, who was then in her eighth year. It
cannot be doubted that the poet acutely felt the death
of his little sister, nor that he followed her to the grave
at a funeral which was conducted by the parents with
affectionate tributes. In the next year their last child 2oi
was born. He was christened Edmund on May the 3rd,
1580, no doubt receiving that name from the husband of
his maternal aunt, Mrs. Lambert. It was this gentleman
who held the mortgage on Asbies, but on John Shake
speare tendering payment to him in the following autumn,

54

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OUTLINES. 55

the money was refused until other sums due to the same
creditor were also repaid. This must have been a great
disappointment to the worthy glover, who had only a few
weeks before sold another property in the hope of being
able to redeem the matrimonial estate.

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 misrepresentation, that
there was no impediment of precontract 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 condemnation, these facts taint the
husband with dishonour, although, even according to
modern notions, that very marriage may have been
induced on his part by a sentiment in itself the very
essence of honour. If we assume, however, as we
reasonably may, that cohabitation had previously taken 275
place, no question of morals would in those days have 276
arisen, or could have been entertained. The precontract,

56 OUTLINES.

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 indicate the high probability of there
having been a precontract, a ceremony which substan
tially had the validity of the more formal one, and the
improbability of that marriage having been celebrated
under mysterious or unusual circumstances. Whether
the early alliance was a prudent one in a worldly point
of view may admit of doubt, but that the married pair
continued 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 inscribed 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

OUTLINES, 57

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 celebrated 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 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 withheld 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
assumption that the lovers followed the all but universal
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 transaction. 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 John
Maides of Snitterfield, on purpose to acknowledge that

58 OUTLINES.

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 thereupon 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 afterwards referred to in the
same depositions as constituting a definite " contract of
marriage." On another occasion, in 1588, there was a
precontract 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 perfectly
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 upon
thoffer that she was 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 Hathaway. 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,

OUTLINES. 59

who was betrothed in the same year in which Shake
speare 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 evidence, to assume
that the subject of his memoir departed unnecessarily
from the ordinary usages of life and society. In Shake
speare's matrimonial 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 as the flax-wench,
and gratuitously united with the poet in a moral wrong
that could have been converted, by the smallest expen
diture of trouble, into a moral right. The whole theory
is absolutely incredible. We may then feel certain that,
in the summer of the year 1582, William Shakespeare
and Anne Hathaway were betrothed either formally or
informally, but, at all events, under conditions that could,
if necessary, have been legally ratified.

The marriage, in accordance with the general 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 cere
monial service. The name of the parish in which the
nuptials were celebrated has not been ascertained, 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 Shakespeare had neglected to

60 OUTLINES.

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 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 gentleman,
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 himself in London." If we
accept this narrative, which is the most reliable account
of the incident 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 chil
dren, 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 consider-
115 able 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 similar though less
discouraging circumstances. This youth, upon quitting
Stratford, "join'd himself 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

OUTLINES. 6 1

an apprentice, arid 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 disproportionable to what he used to receive with
apprentices, yet, upon his discreet account he gave of
himself 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 himself 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 Shake
speare, a fugitive, leaving his native town unexpectedly,
must have reached London more unfavourably circum
stanced than Sadler, although the latter experienced so
much trouble 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 Shakespeare " 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,

62 OUTLINES.

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 ac
quainted 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.

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 employment at the theatre in a
very subordinate capacity, nor can it be safely assumed
that there would have been an opening for him of any
kind. The quotations above given seem to indicate that
his earlier occupation was something of a still lower
character. A traditional anecdote was current about the
middle of the last century, according to which it would
appear that the great dramatist, if connected in any sort
of manner with the theatre immediately upon his arrival
in London, could only have been engaged in a servile

OUTLINES. 63

capacity, and that there was, in the career of the great
poet, an interval which some may consider one of degra
dation, to be regarded with either incredulity or sorrow.
Others may, with more discernment and without reluc
tance, 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
perhaps the best version is the one recorded by Dr. 81
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 horseback
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 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 pre
sent 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. Johnson received this anec-

64 OUTLINES.

dote from Pope, to whom it had been communicated by
Rowe ; and it appears to have 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 circum
stance of the anecdote being founded upon the practice
of gentlemen riding to the theatres, a custom obsolete
after the Restoration, is sufficient to establish the an
tiquity of the story. In a little volume of epigrams by
Sir John Davis, printed at Middleborough 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, riding even "into the fieldes
playes to behold'' Most of these horsemen were probably
accustomed to a somewhat lavish expenditure, and it
may very well be assumed that Shakespeare not unfre-
quently received more than the ordinary fee of a tester
for his services. There is, at all events, no valid reason
for enrolling the tradition amongst the absolute fictions
that have been circulated respecting the poet. Several
writers have taken that course 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 circum
stance alone cannot be decisive against the opinion that

\

\

OUTLINES. 65

there may be glimmerings of truth in it. This is, indeed,
all that is contended for. Few 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, subsisted 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 82
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 satisfactorily 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 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

66 OUTLINES.

readily accessible through one of the numerous itinerant
companies, and before, not after, such inclinations must
have been in some measure restrained by the local
domestic ties that resulted from his marriage. If he had
quitted 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 Shake
speare 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 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
northerne 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 become acquainted with James Burbage at
a time when he was desirous of obtaining any kind of
situation that presented itself, the tradition leading tathe
inference that he was engaged by the latter to act in some

OUTLINES. 67

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 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 83
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 received into the playhouse
as a serviture," in other words, an attendant on the per
formers. 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 business 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 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 respect
able as any of the occupations which are here enumerated.

E 2

68 OUTLINES.

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 Henslowe'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 establishment, 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 certainly by
water. The boatmen of the Thames were perpetually
asserting at a somewhat later period that their living
depended on the continuance 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 pf 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

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required 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, not
withstanding some apparent testimonies to the contrary,
the Blackfriars Theatre, as will be afterwards seen, was
not then in existence. It was to the Theatre or to
the Curtain that the satirist alluded when he speaks of
the fashionable youth riding " into the fieldes playes to
behold." Both these theatres were situated in the parish
of Shoreditch, in the fields of the Liberty of Halliwell, in
which locality, if the Davenant tradition is in the slightest
degree to be trusted, Shakespeare 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 appearance of a country-
village, but inwardly sustaining much of the bustle and
all the vices of the town. These latter inconveniences
could easily be avoided, for there were in the neighbour
ing 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 fatter,
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 company 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^.804. Thus Shakespeare's
observation of our wild flowers was not necessarily

"O

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LONDINVM, TEJLACJ5S

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72 OUTLINES.

limited, as has been supposed, to his provincial expe
riences, 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 connexion, 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 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 between 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

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73

Facsimiles of legal evidences which illustrate the un
satisfactory condition of John Shakespeare's financial
affairs in the year 1587.

74 OUTLINES.

same writer informs us that the visit occurred subse
quently to his junction with one of the theatrical companies.
The exact dates of these events are unknown, but it is
not likely that he would have ventured into Sir Thomas's
neighbourhood for a considerable time after his escapade.
Country justices wielded in those days tremendous power
in adjudication on minor offences. There were no news
papers to carry the intelligence 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. However greatly he may have desired to rejoin
his family, it is, therefore, not probable that the poet
would be found again at Stratford-on-Avon before the
year 1587, and then we have, in the Lambert episode,
a substantial reason for believing that he had at that
time a conference with his parents on the subject 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 circum
stances. It must have been a subject for anxious
deliberation, one that could hardly have been arranged
without a personal 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 com
panies 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

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we are destitute of any information, and have no rela
tive means of forming an opinion on the subject. Even
if it be conceded that Burbage's theatre was the first
with which 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 by a share of profits. There was
no establishment at that time devoted for a long con
tinuous 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 position 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 conjecture 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 Spenser, who died in 303
September, 1588, was the most popular comedian of the
day, one of those instinctive humourists who have merely
to show their faces to be greeted with roars of merriment.
It may have been, when the part of Derick, the clown,
was in his hands, that Shakespeare became acquainted
with the Famous Victories of Henry the Fifth, a lively
play, some of the incidents of which he unquestionably

76 OUTLINES.

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 testa
mentary 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. To the next, who is a scholar,
are left a handsome annuity and a very large sum of
money for the purchase of books. Affected 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 grotesque figure
he must have appeared in a costume which is described
by an eye-witness as 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 subsequent history,
that his return to Stratford-on-Avon was merely of a

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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 not, indeed, a single
particle of evidence respecting 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 book
less neighbourhood ; 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 accomplishments. 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, how
ever, gained a footing in London, he would have been
placed under different conditions. Books of many kinds
would have been accessible to him, and he would have
been almost daily within hearing of the best dramatic
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

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This engraving is taken from a sketch which was made
by T. J. Blight, F.S.A., in 1862, of one of the best
specimens of early half-timbered houses then remaining at
Stratforti-upon-Avon. It is an undoubted genuine example
of sixteenth century work.

OUTLINES. 79

during his residence in the metropolis. It is, for instance,
hardly possible that the Amores 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 latter event appears to have occurred
on the third of March, 1592, when a new drama, entitled 36
Henry, or Harry, the Sixth, was brought out by Lord
Strange's Servants, then acting either at Newington
or South wark 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 37
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
extraordinary success must have secured for the author
a substantial position in the theatrical world of the day.
The play had, for those times, an unusually long run, so
that Nash, writing in or before the following month of
July, states that the performances of it had, in that short 3s
interval, been witnessed by " ten thousand spectators at
least," and, although this estimate may be overstrained,
there can be no hesitation in receiving it as a valid testi
mony 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 39
and spurious version of the second play, the unskilful work 40

8o OUTLINES.

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

41 and Lancaster. It was published by Millington, the same
bookseller who afterwards issued the surreptitious edition
of Henry the Fifth.

Robert Greene, a popular 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 sarcastic
episode respecting some of his contemporaries, a line
from one of Shakespeare's then recent compositions,—
O, tigers heart, wrapped in a woman s hide ! This line

42 is of extreme interest as including the earliest record
of words composed by the great dramatist. It forms
part of a vigorous speech which is as Shakespearean in
its natural characterial fidelity, as it is Marlowean in its
diction. That speech of the unfortunate Duke of York's
is one of the most striking in the play, and the above
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 concluded that all Shakespeare's plays on the
subject of that reign, although perhaps subsequently
revised in a few places by the author, were originally

43 produced in that year. A surreptitious 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

44 Earl of Pembroke's servants/'

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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 author
ship 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 dramatist
had outlived the possibility of appearing in the character 45
of an imitative writer. That Shakespeare commenced
his literary vocation 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
1599, may be gathered from that interesting relic of
literary autobiography, the final chorus to the latter play.
No theory respecting the history of the former dramas
is wholly free from embarrassing perplexities, but that
which best agrees with the positive evidences 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 46
vamped, imperfect, and blundering versions of the poet's 47
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 September, 1592 ; and it is clear that
one portion of it had been composed under the influence
of a profound jealousy of Shakespeare. Greene is ad
dressing 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 line above mentioned, — "trust /
them not, for there is an upstart crow, beautified with

F

82 OUTLINES.

our feathers, that, with his Tygers 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 Ghettle, 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 scene 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 writting, that aprooves his art." Apologies of
this kind are so apt to be 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 acquaintance, was desirous
of keeping friends with one who was beginning to be

236 appreciated by the higher classes of society. The
annoyance, however, occasioned by Greene's posthumous

us 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

OUTLINES. 83

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 apprenticed 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 Metamorphoses,
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 Englishmen when
at a distance from the town of their birth, between the
poet and Richard Field. When, therefore, the latter
is discovered, 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 dedication 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
handywork. Field, however, registered the copyright to
himself on April the i8th, and the work was offered for 92
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 Archbishop
of Canterbury, who, although no Puritan, would scarcely

F 2

84

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VENVS

AND ADONIS

Villa miretur wulgus : mibiflauut (^p
Pocula Caftaliapkm miniftret agtta,.

LONDON

Imprinted by Richard Field, and are to be fold at

the figne of the white Greyhound in

Paules Church-yard.

OUTLINES. 85

Upon the opposite page is a facsimile of the title of
Shakespeare's earliest printed work, one which was intro-
driced to the public by the following most interesting
dedication. The latter is the author s first undramatic
prose composition which is known to exist.

TO THE RIGHT HONORABLE

Henrie VVriothefley5Earle of Southampton,

and Baron of Titchfield.

Ight Honourable y Iknovs? not how I shall offend in
dedicating my vnpolisht lines toyourLordship3nor
bow theworlde will cenfaremee for choojingjo
flrong aproppe tofappcrtfi weake a burthen >
__ onelye if your Honour feeme but pleafedy I ac-
countmyfelfe highly trot fed > and <vowe to take aduwtage of all
idlehouresjilllhaue honouredyou with foynegrmer labour. But
ifthefrH heire of my wuentionproue deformedj. 'fhall beforie it
had fo noble a god-father : andneuer after ear e fb barren aland>
forfeare ityeeldmeftillfo bad a harueft3 1 leaue it to jour Honou -
r able furuey^and jour Honor to your hearts content ^which I vcifh
may afovaies anj were your o<wnerveuifh) and the worldsbope-

Your Honors in all dutie,
William Shakefpearc.

86 OUTLINES.

have considered its exquisite versification sufficient to

93 atone for its voluptuous character.

The poem of Venus and Adonis, which was favorably

94 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 may be 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 Stratford-
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 circumstances 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

95 have formed a ready and natural defence against the
writer's obvious timidity. The work was inscribed,
apparently without permission, to Lord Southampton, a
young nobleman then only in his twentieth year, who
about this time had commenced to exhibit a special dis
position to encourage the rising authors of the metropolis.

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 association with
an individual in the favoured position, and with the

OUTLINES. 87

exceptionally generous character, of Lord Southampton.
Wealthy, accomplished and romantic, — with a tempera
ment 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 compli
ment. But all doubts upon these points were speedily
removed, and little more than a twelvemonth elapsed
before the poet is found warmly attached to Lord
Southampton, and eagerly taking the opportunity, in his
second address, of tendering his gratitude for favours
conferred in the interval.

Although the plague was raging violently in London
at the time, and theatrical performances were forbidden,
the companies do not appear to have entered upon
their rural tours until shortly after the publication of
Venus and Adonis. It is very likely, therefore, that
Shakespeare was in town when his manuscript was at
the printer's, and not impossible that he glanced over the
proof-sheets, besides superintending the general arrange
ment of the work. While the poet was or may have
been thus engaged, it is curious that John Norden, the only
really able surveyor of the day, should have chosen this
dangerous season for the formation of an elaborate plan
of the metropolis. Little could the worthy draughtsman
have imagined that the main value of his labours would
have consisted in their telling posterity something about

88

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89

So 1 60 3.40 J 2.0 400 4 So

90 OUTLINES.

the city that was traversed by the youthful poet. Yet
so it was to be, and the nature of London, as it existed
between the years 1587 and 1616, has become of national
interest. There it was, with its dense mass of thickly-
peopled houses within the walls, and, outside that limited
area, what may perhaps be fitly described as partial
suburbs of a like crowded description and scattered
fragments of provincial towns. A walk of about a mile
and a half would have taken the great dramatist from his

298 apartment in South wark right through London to the
northern theatres, each termination of this little distance
being practically in the country. The deadly epidemic,
however, being at this period especially virulent in
Shoreditch, it is most likely that Shakespeare was then
keeping away as much as possible from that locality, and
that he was occupied elsewhere in completing his literary
engagements in view of an approaching professional tour.
Crossing the river by boat and landing at the Blackfriars
Stairs, he would have been within a few minutes' walk of
Field's printing-office, near Ludgate, where the types of
Venus and Adonis were being set up. That house was
close to all the leading publishers of the day, and a reference
to Norden's map will show how very circumscribed was
the space in which his metropolitan business of all kinds
must have been transacted, — how small was the world to
which his first poem was chiefly addressed. Although

58 this interesting plan, here engraved in fac-simile, is not
quite accurate in some of its measurements, there is no
doubt of its general fidelity, and that it gives the reader
a better idea of Shakespeare's London than could be
conveyed by written description. It should be observed
that the circular building, there noted as "the play-howse,"
is the Rose, the theatre in which his earliest dramas

OUTLINES. 91

were produced. The Theatre and the Curtain stood in
the fields to the left of the road which leads upwards
from Bishopsgate, but most unfortunately the limits of
the plan just suffices for the exclusion of those interesting
structures.

In the winter-season of 1593-4, Shakespeare's earliest
ragedy, which was, unfortunately, 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 24
during the season. This tragedy, having been successfully
produced before a large audience on January the 23rd, 25
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. 112
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 Sixth must of course have been afterwards
transferred by Henslowe to the Lord Chamberlain'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

92 OUTLINES,

legitimate 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 Shakespeare. 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 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 appearance of Titus Andronicus.
In the same year, 1594, there was published the Tragicall
Raigneof Selimus, Emperourof 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 common 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

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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-box, not by those of attempted reforms of
the drama, were no doubt in his own opinion amply
justified by the result. A certain deference to the ex
pectations 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 mea
sure of temptation, without reflecting to what extent
a familiarity with representative horrors 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- 239
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.

No discussion on either of the last-named plays, or on
many of the others, can be satisfactorily conducted so
long as the influences of the older drama, and the theatric
usages of the time, are not ever carefully borne in mind.

94 OUTLINES.

It is a fallacy to admit, with many, the necessity of true
criticism being grounded upon a reverential belief that
the whole of Shakespeare's plays, in the forms in which
they have descended to us, are examples of the unvarying
perfection of the writer's judgment and dramatic art.
That he was endowed with an exquisite judgment there
is ample evidence, but that it was not always utilized
is equally indisputable. It is obvious that, in several
instances, when vivifying some of the most popular old
English dramas, he was contented to transfer irrational
plots and defective constructions that had been firmly
established in public favour. The latter were sometimes
adopted without an effort to bring them into harmony with
the conduct of the action ; and there appears to have
been generally a disinclination on his part to originate
either plots or incidents. So numerous were the popular
and other tales that were suited for contemporary dramatic
purposes, there was, as a rule, no theatrical necessity for
his inventing either ; while the creation of a new story,
never an easy and generally a hazardous task for a
dramatist, might have been more trouble to him than the
composition of a play. Shakespeare was leading a busy
life, and there are no indications that he would have
delayed the completion of any one of his works for the
sake of art. It should be remembered that his dramas
were not written for posterity, but as a matter of business,
never for his own speculation but always for that of the
managers of the theatre, the choice of subject being
occasionally dictated by them or by patrons of the stage ;
his task having been to construct out of certain given or
elected materials successful dramas for the audiences of
the day. It is not pretended that he did not invariably
take an earnest interest in his work, his intense sympathy

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with each character forbidding such an assumption ; but
simply that his other tastes were subordinated when
necessary to his duty to his employers. If the managers
considered that the popular feeling was likely to encourage,
or if an influential patron or the Court desired, the pro
duction of a drama on some special theme, it was composed
to order on that subject, no matter how repulsive the
character of the plot or how intrinsically it was unfitted
for dramatic purposes. Working thus under the domi
nation of a commercial spirit, it is impossible to say to 193
what extent his work was affected by unfavourable
influences ; such, for example, as the necessity of finish
ing a drama with undue haste, the whole, as it may
have been, especially in his early days, written under
disturbing circumstances in the room of a noisy tavern or
in an inconvenient lodging that served him for " parlour,
kitchen, and hall." And, again, besides the incongruities
derived from the older plays or novels, his control over
his art was occasionally liable to be governed by the
customs and exigencies of the ancient stage, so much
so that, in a few instances, the action of a scene was
diverted for the express purpose of complying with those
necessities. From some of these causes may have arisen
simultaneous inequalities in taste and art which otherwise
appear to be inexplicable, and which would doubtlessly
have been removed had Shakespeare lived to have given
the public a revised edition of his works during his
retirement at Stratford-on-Avon, and had wished to
display that uniformity of excellence which he alone,
of all prolific writers, might have achieved.

The Burbages, however, had no conception of his
intellectual supremacy, and, if they had, it is certain that
they would not have deviated on that account from the

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course they were in the habit of pursuing. In their
estimation, however, he was merely, to use their own
words, a "deserving man," an effective actor and a
popular writer, one who would not have been considered
so valuable a member of their staff had he not also
worked as a practical man of business, knowing that the
success of the theatre was identified with his own, and
that, within certain limits, it was necessary that his art
should be regulated by expediency. There is, indeed,
no evidence that Shakespeare wrote, at any period of
his life, without a constant reference to the immediate
effect of his dramas upon the theatrical public of his own
day ; and it may reasonably be suspected that there is
not one of them which is the result of an express or
cherished literary design. He was sometimes, moreover,
in such a hurry of composition that a reference to the
original foundation-story is necessary for the complete
elucidation of his meaning, another circumstance which
is incompatible with a resolute desire for the construc
tion of perfect artistic work. This is one of the several
indications which lead to the high probability that his
theatrical success was neither the result of a devotion to
art, nor of a solicitude for the eulogy of readers, but of
his unrivalled power of characterization, of his intimate
knowledge of stage business, and of a fidelity to mental
nature that touched the hearts of all. These qualities,
although less prominently developed in Titus Andronicus
than in many other of his plays, are yet to be observed
in that inferior work. Even amidst its display of
barbarous and abandoned personages, neither sternness
nor profligacy is permitted to altogether extinguish the
natural emotions, while, at the same time, the unities of
220 character are well sustained. It is by tests such as these,

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not by counting its syllables or analyzing its peculiarities
of style, that the authenticity of Shakespeare's earliest 26
tragedy should be determined.

Although it is dangerous nowadays to enter upon the
history of Shakespeare's art with the language of common-
sense, the risk must be encountered if we are not contented
to lose interesting examples of the poet's youthful genius.
If, indeed, all is to be discarded that offends the extra-
judicial taste of modern purists, the object of our idolatry
will be converted into a king of dramatic shreds and
patches. The evil arises from the practice of discussing
the intricacies of that art without reference to the con
ditions under which it was evolved. Those which have
been above-mentioned will go far to explain many
difficulties, and especially the singular variations of
power that are occasionally to be traced in one and the
same drama. A few words on the general question may
now be added. In one sense, that of being the delineator
of the passions and character, Shakespeare was the
greatest artist that ever lived, as he was also in melody,
and in all kinds of dramatic expression. But in another
and very usual meaning of that personal term, in that of
being an elaborator intent on rendering his component
work artistically faultless in the eye of criticism, he can
hardly be thought to have even a slight claim to the title.
When Ben Jonson told Drummond of Hawthornden,
in 1619, that "Shakespeare wanted art," he referred no
doubt to his general negligence in the latter respect, and
perhaps especially to his occasional defects in construc
tion. One of Shakespeare's most wonderful gifts was his
unlimited power of a characterial invention to suit any
kind of plot, no matter how ill-devised, and, at the same
time harmonize with theatrical expediencies, however

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98 .OUTLINES.

incongruous, which might have been considered by the
managers or actors to have been essential to the mainte
nance of popularity. " His wit," observes the same Rare
Ben, dissatisfied with what he no doubt thought a reckless
mode of composition, " was in his own power ; — would
the rule of it had been so too!" It was natural that
Jonson, with his reverence for classical models, should
regard his great contemporary's indifference to them with
dismay. But Shakespeare, endowed with an universal
genius, created his personages by unfettered instinct, and,
most happily, the times and circumstances were alike
favourable to the development of the dramatic power by
which alone the perfect results of that genius could have
been exhibited. Commencing his public life as an actor,
he had the inestimable advantage of gaining a preliminary
259 knowledge of all that was most likely to be effective on
the stage, the then conventionalities of which, moreover,
by their very simplicity, and notwithstanding one or two
drawbacks, were eminently calculated for the fullest
exercise of an author's poetic and imaginative faculties.
Then there was a language which, having for some time
past been emancipated from the influence of literal
terminations, had attained a form that gave matchless
facilities for the display of nervous expression, and this
in the brightest period of earnest and vigorous English
thought. That language found in Shakespeare its
felicitous and unrivalled exponent, and although on
occasions his words either imperfectly represent the
thought or are philologically erroneous, becoming thus
to mere readers inextricably obscure, it may be confi
dently averred that there is not one speech, the essential
meanings of which, if it were properly delivered, would
not have been directly intelligible to the auditory. He

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had also ready prepared to his hands the matured out
ward form of a drama, its personages and their histories,
all waiting for the hand that was to endow them with
grace and life. It was then his unconscious mission
through the most effective agency, that of the stage, to
interpret human nature to the people. That interpretation
was fortunately neither cramped nor distorted by the
necessity of adherence to literary rule, while the popular
tastes sanctioned its uncontrolled application to every
variety of character, through all kinds of probable or
improbable situation, — before fairy-land had been exiled,
and the thunder of fie-foh-fum had lost its solemnity.
Writing first for a living, and then for affluence, his
sole aim was to please an audience, most of whom,
be it remembered, were not only illiterate, but unable
to either read or write. But this very ignorance of
the large majority of his public, so far from being a
disadvantage, enabled him to disregard restrictive canons
and the tastes of scholars, — to make that appeal to
the heart and intellect which can only be universal
when it reaches the intuitive perceptions of the low
liest, — and by exhibiting his marvellous conceptions in
the pristine form in which they had instinctively emanated,
become the poet of nature instead of the poet of art.
That Shakespeare wrote without effort, by inspiration
not by design, was, so far as it has been recorded, the 232
unanimous belief of his contemporaries and immediate
successors. It was surely to this comprehensive truth,
and not exclusively to the natural music of his verse,
that Milton referred when, in two of the most exquisite
lines respecting him that were ever penned, he speaks
of Fancy's child warbling " his native wood-notes wild."
If those notes had been cabined by philosophy and

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methodically cultivated, they might have been as intrin
sically powerful, but they would assuredly have lost much
of their present charm.

It cannot be absolutely observed of Shakespeare, as
it has been of another great poet, that he woke up one
morning to discover that he was famous, but there is
reason for believing that the publication of his Lucrece, in
the May of this year, 1594, almost immediately secured for
its author a higher reputation than would then have been
established by the most brilliant efforts of dramatic art.
This magnificent poem, which was originally proposed
to be entitled the Ravishment of Lucrece, must have
been written after the Dedication to Venus and Adonis,
and before the entry of the former work at Stationers'
Hall, that is to say, at some time between April, 1593,
and May, 1 594. There can be no doubt of the estima
tion in which it was held in the year of publication, the
author of an elegy on Lady Helen Branch, 1594, includ
ing 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

108 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
Shakespeare," is a marginal note to Polimanteia, 1595,
one which implies that it was then considered his best
work. Later references testify its continued appreciation,

109 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

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•*

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 compositions 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 interesting, 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 conjunction with the Lord
Admiral's, Servants. It is exceedingly probable that
Shakespeare then 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, 1 594,
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

roa

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104 OUTLINES.

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 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 produc
tion, would have belonged to those companies by whom
the first representations of his dramas were given. If
i94 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,

I594-

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 arrange
ments, and now they were making 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 gentle
man, who was elected Prince of Purpoole, the ancient
name of the manor, other students being elected to serve

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under him in all the various offices then appertaining to
royalty and government. The grand entertainment of
all was arranged for the evening of Innocent's 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 professional neighbours, and appearing
as an embassy credited by their Emperor, arrived about
nine o'clock "very gallantly appointed." The ambas
sador, 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." Compli
mentary addresses were then exchanged between the
Prince and the Ambassador, but, owing to defective
arrangements 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 continued as was
able to disorder and confound any good inventions what
soever; 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 anything of
account saving dancing and revelling with gentlewomen ;
and, after such sports, a Comedy of Errors, like to Plautus 76
his Menechmus, was played by the players ; so that night
was begun and continued to the end in nothing but

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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
representation of the Comedy of Errors, and 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 owners of the copyright. The performance must
have taken place very late on the night following the day
in which the poet had appeared before Queen Elizabeth
at Greenwich. On the next evening there was a
Commission of Oyer and Terminer at Gray's Inn to
enquire into the circumstances 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 confusions." The Comedy of Errors, the
perfection of dramatic farce, long continued an acting
play, it having been performed before James the First
on December the 28th, 1604.

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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 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 discovered 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 241
drama entitled the Reign of King Edward the Third,
produced in or before the year 1595, there are occasional 242
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 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,

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As lend my body, palace to my soul,
Away from her, and yet retain my soul. x
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 acknow
ledging 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,

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

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some time before the year 1595, it may, of course, be
assumed that Shakespeare 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 reasoning upon this and similar questions must
be received 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 imitators of his
own style, then there will be at least an excusable surmise
that his work is to be traced in parts 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
infinitely superior in composition to the rest of the play,
and so exactly in Shakespeare's manner, this presumption,
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 last-named 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
transplanted 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

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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.

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

52 of the first dramas selected by them, while in their new
position, was Shakespeare's tragedy of Romeo and Juliet,

53 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

54 the play of the season. Its popularity led to the com
pilation of an imperfect and unauthorized edition which
issued from Banter's press in the following year, one got
up in such haste that two founts of type were engaged
in its composition. In 1599, Cuthbert Burby, a book
seller, whose shop was near the Royal Exchange, published
the tragedy with the overstrained 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

55 be inferred from several early allusions, as well as from
the express testimony of Leonard Digges, but it is

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rather singular that the author's name is not mentioned
in any of the old editions until some time after the year
1609. An interesting tradition respecting one of the
characters in this tragedy is recorded in 1672 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." The eminent narrator of this
little anecdote ingenuously adds, — " but, for my part,
I cannot find he was so dangerous a person ; — I see
nothing in him but what was so exceeding harmless that
he might have lived to the end of the play, and died in
his bed, without offence to any man."

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 Stratford-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 company 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 the poet's 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 inferred 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 an abode anywhere else but in London, and no hint is

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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 ap
proach to a continuous 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 economical 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 occa
sioned 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 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 that we
have of his rising pecuniary fortunes, and of his deter
mination to advance in social position.

Early in the year 1597, — on New Year's Day, Twelfth
Night, Shrove Sunday, and Shrove Tuesday, — Shake
speare's company again performed before the Queen at
Whitehall. In the summer they made a tour through

OUTLINES 113

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 hereafter to be the author
of Lear might have witnessed, and been impressed with,
the samphire 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- A von. The estate was sold to him
for £60, a moderate sum for so considerable a property,
but the residence was described in 1549 as being then
" in great ruyne and decay and unrepayred," so that it
was probably in a dilapidated condition when it was
transferred to Shakespeare. There are reasons for
believing that it was renovated by the new owner.

However limited may have been the character of the
poet's visits to his native town, there is no doubt that
New Place was henceforward to be accepted as his
established residence. Early in the following year, on
February the 4th, 1598, corn being then at an unprece
dented and almost famine price at Stratford-on-Avon, he
is returned as the holder of ten quarters in the Chapel
Street Ward, that in which the newly acquired property
was situated, and in none of the indentures is he described
as a Londoner, but always as "William Shakespeare of
Stratford-on-Avon, in the county of Warwick, gentleman."
There is an evidence in the same direction in the interest
that he took in the maintenance of his grounds, a fact
elicited from two circumstances that are worthy of record.

n

114

OUTLINES.

THE EXEMPLIFICATION OF THE FINE THAT WAS LEVIED WHEN SHAKESPEARE

^wfcjfnii^j^Jii) #10 ^o^Tw^^^^
4^iiit ^iccJ^AiMpfmt iiJ$atf HI 4)^m wf <Stt0^

^v A^ n .A A. . ^ x— vr» •» AX «v f^ XA

|r p
AtoOl!l/-fe^(/

«dii 8

OUTLINES.

PURCHASED THE ESTATE OF NEW PLACE FROM UNDERBILL IN THE YEAR 1597.

H 2

n6 OUTLINES.

It appears from a comparison of descriptions of parcels,
1597 and 1602, that in the earlier years of his occupancy,
he arranged a fruit-orchard in that portion of his garden
which adjoined the neighbouring premises in Chapel
Street. Then there is the well-authenticated tradition
that, in another locality near the back of the house, he
planted with his own hands the first mulberry-tree that
had ever been brought to Stratford-on-Avon. The date
of the latter occurrence has not been recorded, but it may
be assigned, with a high degree of probability, to the
spring of 1609, in which year a Frenchman named Verton
distributed an immense number of young mulberry plants
through the midland counties of England. This novel
arrangement was carried out by the order of James the
First, who vigorously encouraged the cultivation of that
tree, vainly hoping that silk might thence become one of
the staple productions of this country.

The establishment of the fruit-orchard and the tradition
respecting the mulberry-tree are the only evidences which
have reached us of any sort of interest taken by the great
dramatist in horticulture. It has, indeed, been attempted
to prove his attachment to such pursuits by various
allusions in his works, but no inferences as to his special
tastes can be safely drawn from any number of such
references. There was, no doubt, treasured in the store
house of his perfect memory, and ready for immediate
use, every technical expression, and every morsel of
contemporary popular belief, that had once come within
his hearing. So marvellous also was Shakespeare's all
but intuitive perception of nearly every variety of human
thought and knowledge, the result of an unrivalled power
of rapid observation and deduction, if once the hazardous
course of attempting to realize the personal characteristics

OUTLINES, 117

A facsimile of the list of holders of corn in the Ward
of Sir at 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.

n8 OUTLINES.

or habits of the author through his writings be indulged
in, there is scarcely an occupation that he might not be
suspected of having adopted at one period or other of his
life. That he was familiar with and fondly appreciated
the beauty of our wild flowers ; that he was acquainted
with many of the cultivated plants and trees ; that he
had witnessed and understood a few of the processes of
gardening ; — these facts may be admitted, but they do
not prove that he was ever a botanist or a gardener.
Neither are his numerous allusions to wild flowers and
plants, not one of which appears to be peculiar to
Warwickshire, evidences, as has been suggested, of the
frequency of his visits to Stratford-on-Avon. It would
be about as reasonable to surmise that he. must have
taken a journey to Elsinore before or when he was
engaged on the tragedy of Hamlet, as to adopt the oft-
repeated suggestion that the nosegays of Perdita could
only have been conceived when he was wandering on
the banks of the Avon. To judge in that manner
from allusions in the plays it might be inferred that
the Winter's Tale must have been written in London,
for there is little probability that a specimen of one
of the flowers therein mentioned, the crown-imperial,
could have been then seen in the provinces, whereas
there is Gerard's excellent authority that it had "been
brought from Constantinople amongst other bulbus
rootes, and made denizens in our London gardens,"
Herball, ed. 1597, p. 154. All inductions of this kind
must be received with the utmost caution. Surely the
poet's memory was not so feeble that it is necessary to
assume that the selection of his imagery depended upon
the objects to be met with in the locality in which he was
writing. Even were this extravagant supposition to be

OUTLINES. 119

maintained, no conclusion can be derived from it, for it is
not probable that London would have had the exclusive
possession of any cultivated flower, while it is certain that
Stratford had not the monopoly of every wild one. It
should be recollected that the line of demarcation be
tween country and town life was not strongly marked in
Shakespeare's day. The great dramatist may be prac
tically considered never to have relinquished a country
life during any part of his career, for even when in the
metropolis he must always have been within a walk of
green fields, woods and plant-bordered streams, and
within a few steps of some of the gardens which were
then to be found in all parts of London, not even except
ing the limited area of the City. Wild plants, as has
been previously observed, were to be seen in the im
mediate vicinity of the Shoreditch theatres, and there is
perhaps no specimen mentioned by Shakespeare which
was not to be met with in or near the metropolis ; but
even were this not the case, surely the fact of his having
resided in Warwickshire during at least the first eighteen
years of his life is sufficient to account for his know
ledge of them. Then again at a later period he must, in
those days of slow and leisurely travel, have been well
acquainted with the rural life and natural objects of
many other parts of the country which were traversed
by him when the members of his company made their
professional tours, and with the district between London
and Stratford-on-Avon he must of course have been
specially familiar.

The metropolis in those days was the main abode of
English letters and refined culture, but in other respects
there could have been very few experiences that were
absolutely restricted to its limits. If this is carefully

120

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OUTLINES.

121

122 OUTLINES.

borne in mind, it will save us from falling into numerous
delusions, and, amongst others, into the common one of
fancying that Shakespeare must have drawn his tavern-
life from an acquaintance with its character as it was
exhibited on the banks of the Thames. There was no
more necessity for him to have travelled from London in
search of flowers than there was to have gone there for
the, — " anon, anon, sir ; score a pint of bastard in the
Half Moon." We have, indeed, the direct testimony of
Harrison, in 1586, to the effect that the metropolitan
were then inferior to many of the provincial hotels.
There was certainly at least one inn at Stratford-on-
Avon which could bear comparison in essential respects
with any to be found elsewhere in England. The
Bear near the foot of the bridge possessed its large
hall, its nominated rooms such as the Lion and Talbot
chambers, an enormous quantity of house linen, a
whole pipe of claret, two butts of sack, plenty of
beer, upwards of forty tankards of different sizes, and,
amongst its plate, "one goblet of silver, parcel-gilt."
The last-named vessel need not be converted into
the prototype of the one used by Mrs. Quickly in
the Dolphin, nor, as a rule, in the absence of palpable
evidence to the contrary, are there grounds for believ
ing that the great dramatist was thinking of special
localities when he was penning his various allusions or
characterizations.

210 When the amazing number of different characters in
the plays of Shakespeare is borne in mind, it is curious
that he should have left so few traces in them of what is
exclusively provincial. There are yet fewer, if any, of
language or customs that can be thought to be absolutely
peculiar to Stratford-upon-Avon, but examples of both

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123

124 OUTLINES.

are frequently to be met with that may fairly be supposed
to have been primarily derived from the poet's local
experiences. Amongst these is the expression, — aroint
thee, witchl — one that is so rare in our literature, either
in print or manuscript, that the combined labours of
philologists have failed to produce a single early instance
of its use in the works of other authors. That it was,
however, a familiar phrase in Shakespeare's time with
the lower classes of his native place, is apparent from
one of the town records. It is there narrated how one
Goodie Bromlie, in an altercation with a woman named
Holder, was so exceedingly free-spoken that she had the
audacity to wind up a torrent of abuse with the unseemly
execration, — arent the, wichl There is no doubt that
Stratford yielded many another unusual expression, —
many a quaint observation, — to the recollection of the
great dramatist, and it is just possible that an occasional
specimen may yet be met with in the locality. One of
the inhabitants, so recently as the year 1843, was put
into the stocks for intoxication, and a passer-by, asking
the captive how he liked the discipline, was met with
the reply, — " I beant the first mon as ever were in the
stocks, so I don't care a farden about it." If it were
not an impossible view of the case, it might be fancied
that the jovial delinquent had been travestying one of
the reflections that Richard the Second is made to utter
in the dungeon of Pom fret Castle.

Those who would desire to realize the general appear
ance of the Stratford-on-Avon of the poet's days must
59 deplore the absence, not merely of a genuine sketch
of New Place, but of any kind of view or engraving of
the town as it appeared in the sixteenth or seventeenth
centuries. Its aspect must then have been essentially

OUTLINES. 125

different from that exhibited at a subsequent period.
Relatively to ourselves, Shakespeare may practically be
considered to have existed in a different land, not more
than glimpses of the real nature of which are now to be
obtained by the most careful study of existing documents
and material remains. Many enthusiasts of these times
who visit Stratford-on-Avon are under the delusion that
they behold a locality which recalls the days of the great
dramatist, but, with the exception of a few diffused
buildings, scarcely one of which is precisely in its
original condition, there is no resemblance between
the present town and the Shakespearean borough, —
the latter with its medieval and Elizabethan buildings,
its crosses, its numerous barns and thatched hovels,
its water-mills, its street bridges and rivulets, its mud
walls, its dunghills and fetid ditches, its unpaved walks
and its wooden-spired church, with the common fields
reaching nearly to the gardens of the Birth- Place.
Neither can there be a much greater resemblance
between the ancient and modern general views of the
town from any of the neighbouring elevations. The
tower and lower part of the church, the top of the
Guild Chapel, a few old tall chimneys, the course of
the river, the mill-dam, and the outlines of the surround
ing hills, would be nearly all that would be common to
both prospects. There were, however, until the last few
years, the old mill-bridge, which, excepting that rails had
been added, preserved its Elizabethan form, the Cross-
on-the-Hill, and the Wier Brake, the two latter fully
retaining their original character. Now, alas, a hideous
railway has obliterated all trace of the picturesque from
what was one of the most interesting and charming spots
in Warwickshire. The annexed engraving is a copy of

126 OUTLINES,

a sketch, taken about the year 1715, the earliest view of
the locality that has yet been discovered.

A former inhabitant of Stratford-on-Avon, writing in
the year 1 759, asserts that " the unanimous tradition of
this neighbourhood is that, by the uncommon bounty of
the Earl of Southampton, he was enabled to purchase
houses and land at Stratford." According to Rowe, —
" there is one instance so singular in the magnificence
of this patron of Shakespeare's that, if I had not been
assured that the story was handed down by Sir William
D'Avenant, who was probably very well acquainted with
his affairs, I should not have ventured to have inserted ;
that my Lord Southampton at one time gave him a
thousand pounds to enable him to go through with a
purchase which he heard he had a mind to." A com
parison of these versions would indicate that, if the
anecdote is based on truth, the gift was made on the
occasion of the purchase of New Place in 1597 ; and it is
probable that it was larger than the sum required for that
object, although the amount named by Rowe must be an
exaggeration. Unless the general truth of the story be
accepted, it is difficult to believe that Shakespeare could
have obtained, so early in his career, the ample means he
certainly possessed in that and the following year. The
largest emoluments that could have been derived from
his professional avocations would hardly have sufficed
to have accomplished such a result, and the necessity of
forwarding continual remittances to Stratford-on-Avon
must not be overlooked.

It was not until the year 1597 that Shakespeare's
public reputation as a dramatist was sufficiently estab
lished for the booksellers to be anxious to secure the
copyright of his plays. The first of his dramas so

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127

128 OUTLINES.

honoured was the successful and popular one of Richard
the Second, which was entered as a tragedy on the books
of the Stationers' Company by Andrew Wise, a publisher
in St. Paul's Churchyard, on August the 29th, 1597. In
this edition the deposition scene was omitted for political
reasons, objections having been made to its introduction
on the public stage, and it was not inserted by the
publishers of the history until some years after the
accession of James. Considering the small space that it
occupies and its inoffensive character, the omission may
appear rather singular, but during the few years that
closed the eventful reign of Elizabeth, the subject of
the deposition of Richard the Second bore so close an
analogy, in the important respects of the wishes of those
who desired a repetition of a similar occurrence, it was
an exceedingly dangerous theme for the pen of contem
porary writers.

One of the most popular subjects for the historical
49 drama at this period was the story of Richard the Third.
A piece on the events of this reign had been acted by the
Queen's Company in or before the month of June, 1594,
but there is no evidence that this production was known
to the great dramatist. The earliest notice of Shake
speare's play hitherto discovered is in an entry of it as
a tragedy on the books of the Stationers' Company in
October, 1597, and it was published by Wise in the
same year. The historical portions are to a certain
extent taken from More and Holinshed, but with an utter
defiance of chronology, the imprisonment of Clarence, for
instance, preceding the funeral of Henry the Sixth.
There are, also, slight traces of an older play to be
observed, passages which may belong to an inferior hand,
and incidents, such as that of the rising of the ghosts,

OUTLINES. 129

suggested probably by similar ones in a more ancient
composition. That the play of Richard the Third, as we
now have it, is essentially Shakespeare's, cannot admit of
a doubt ; but as little can it be questioned that to the
circumstance of an anterior work on the subject having
been used do we owe some of its weakness and ex
cessively turbulent character. No copy of this older play
is known to exist, but one brief speech and the two
following lines have been accidentally preserved —

My liege, the Duke of Buckingham is ta'en,
And Banister is come for his reward.

from which it is clear that the new dramatist did not
hesitate to adopt an occasional line from his predecessor,
although he entirely omitted the character of Banister.
Both plays must have been successful, for, notwithstanding
the great popularity of Shakespeare's, the more ancient
one sustained its ground on the English stage until the
reign of Charles the First.

Dick Burbage, the celebrated actor, undertook the 50
character of Richard the Third, a part in which he was
particularly celebrated. There was especially one telling
speech in this most fiery of tragedies, — "a horse! ahorse!
my kingdom for a horse!" — which was enunciated by him
with so much vigour and effect, that the line became an
object for the imitation, and occasionally for the ridicule,
of contemporary writers. The speech made such an
impression on Marston, that it appears in his works not
merely in its authentic form, but satirized and travestied 5i
into such lines as, — " a man ! a man ! a kingdom for
a man," Scourge of Villanie, ed. 1598, — "a boate,
a boate, a boate, a full hundred markes for a boate,"
Eastward Hoe, 1605, — "a foole, a foole, a foole, my

i

130 OUTLINES.

coxcombe for a foole," Parasitaster, 1606. Burbage con
tinued to enact the part of Richard until his death in
1619, and his supremacy in the character lingered for
many years in the recollection of the public ; so that
Bishop Corbet, writing in the reign of Charles the First,
and giving a description of the battle of Bosworth as
narrated to him on the field by a provincial tavern-keeper,
tells us that, when the perspicuous guide —

would have said, King Richard died,

And called, a horse ! a horse !, he Burbage cried.

Although the experiment seems to have failed, it
may here be mentioned that, in November, 1597, John
Shakespeare, no doubt at the poet's instigation and
expense, filed a bill in Chancery against Lambert for
the recovery of Asbies. It is clear that the sum of forty
pounds, which was advanced on the security of this
property, was then ready to be tendered ; an evidence
that the purchase of New Place had by no means ex
hausted the resources of the great dramatist, who thus,
within a few months, had at the least a surplus of a
hundred pounds beyond the necessities of expenditure.
The proceedings in the suit were carried on for very
nearly two years, publication having been granted in
October, 1599, but, as no decree is recorded, there can
be little doubt that either the plaintiffs retired from the
litigation, or that there was a compromise in favor of
the possession of the land by the defendants.

Queen Elizabeth held her court at Whitehall in the

Christmas holidays of 1597, and amongst the plays then

performed was, on December the 26th, the comedy of

72 Love's Labour's Lost, printed early in the following

year, 1598, under the title of, — "A Pleasant Conceited

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The following is a copy of the earliest title-page in
which Shakespeare s name is given as the author of the
work.

PLEASANT

Conceited Comedie

Loues labors loft.

As it was prefented before herHighnes
this kft Chriftmas.

Newly corrected and augmented
W. Sh&keftere.

Jmprinted at London by WW+
for Cttt&ert Bvrfy.

The name of the great dramatist also occurs on the
titles of two other of his plays that were issued later in
the same year.

I 2

132 OUTLINES.

Comedie called, Loues labors lost." No record has
been discovered of the time at which this drama was
first produced, but on the present occasion it had been
"newly corrected and augmented," that is to say, it had
received some additions and improvements from the
hands of the author, but the play itself had not been

73 re- written. A few scraps of the original version of the
comedy have been accidentally preserved, and are of
extreme interest as distinctly exhibiting Shakespeare's
method of working in the revision of a play. Thus, for
example, the following three lines of the earlier drama, —

From women's eyes this doctrine I derive ;
They are the ground, the books, the academes
From whence doth spring the true Promethean fire.

are thus gracefully expanded in the corrected version
which has so fortunately descended to us, —

From women's eyes this doctrine I derive ;
They sparkle still the right Promethean fire ;
They are the books, the arts, the academes,
That show, contain, and nourish all the world ;
Else none at all in ought proves excellent.

74 Love's Labour's Lost is mentioned byTofte and Meres
in 1598, and was no doubt successful on the stage, or
otherwise it would scarcely have been revised and
published. Burbage, at all events, had a high opinion of
the comedy, for when the company to which the author
belonged selected it for representation before Queen Anne
of Denmark at Southampton House early in the year 1605,
he observed that it was one " which for wit and mirth will
please her exceedingly." That the great actor correctly
estimated its attractions may be gathered from its being
performed about the same time before the Court.

OUTLINES. 133

The First Part of Henry the Fourth, the appearance
of which on the stage may be confidently assigned to the 26o
spring of the year 1597, was followed immediately, or a 261
few months afterwards, by the composition of the Second 262
Part. It is recorded that both these plays were very 263
favourably received by Elizabeth, the Queen especially
relishing the character of Falstaff, and they were most
probably amongst the dramas represented before that
sovereign in the Christmas holidays of 1597-8. At this
time, or then very recently, the renowned hero of the
Boar's Head Tavern had been introduced as Sir John J3
Oldcastle, but the Queen ordered Shakespeare to alter 2e4
the name of the character. This step was taken in 265
consequence of the representations of some member or
members of the Cobham family, who had taken offence
at their illustrious ancestor, Sir John Oldcastle, Lord 266
Cobham, the Protestant martyr, being disparagingly 296
introduced on the stage ; and, accordingly, in or before
the February of the following year, Falstaff took the
place of Oldcastle, the former being probably one of the
few names invented by Shakespeare. 267

The great dramatist himself, having nominally adopted
Oldcastle from a character who is one of Prince Henry's
profligate companions in a previous drama, a composition
which had been several years before the public, and had
not encountered effective remonstrance, could have had
no idea that his appropriation of the name would have
given so much displeasure. The subject, however, was
viewed by the Cobhams in a very serious light. This
is clearly shown, not merely by the action taken by the
Queen, but by the anxiety exhibited by Shakespeare, in
the Epilogue to the Second Part, to place the matter
beyond all doubt by the explicit declaration that there

134 OUTLINES.

was in Falstaff no kind of association, satirical or other
wise, with the martyred Oldcastle. The whole incident
is a testimony to the popularity of, and the importance
attached to, these dramas of Shakespeare's at their first
appearance, and it may be fairly questioned if any
comedy on the early English stage was more imme
diately or enthusiastically appreciated than was the First

268 Part of Henry the Fourth. Two editions of the latter
play appeared in 1598, and, in the same year, there were
quoted from it passages that had evidently already

269 become familiar household words in the mouths of the
public. Strangely enough, however, the earliest edition
that bore the author's name on the title-page was not
published till the following year.

270 The inimitable humour of Falstaff was appreciated
at the Court as heartily as by the public. The Queen
was so taken with the delineation of that marvellous
character in the two parts of Henry the Fourth, that she
commanded Shakespeare to write a third part in which
the fat knight should be exhibited as a victim to the
power of love. Sovereigns in the olden time, especially
one of Elizabeth's temperament, would never have dreamt
of consulting the author as to the risk of the selected
additional passion not harmonizing with the original
conception. Shakespeare's business was to obey, not to
indulge in what would have been considered an insolent
and unintelligible remonstrance. His intention of con
tinuing the history of the same Falstaff in a play on the

195 subject of Henry the Fifth was, therefore, abandoned,
and thus we have, in the Merry Wives of Windsor, a
comedy in which some of the names are adopted from
the previous dramas, but the natures of the characters to
which those names are attached are either modified or

OUTLINES. 135

altogether transformed. The transient allusions which
bring the latter play into the historical series are so trivial,
that they would appear to have been introduced merely
out of deference to the Queen's expressed wishes for 29
a continuation. The comedy diverges in every other
respect from the two Parts of Henry the Fourth, and
remains, with the Induction to the Taming of the Shrew,
the only examples in the works of Shakespeare of abso
lute and continuous representations of English life and
manners of the author's own time.

There is an old tradition which avers that the Merry
Wives of Windsor was written, at the desire of the Queen, 30
in the brief space of a fortnight, and that it gave immense 31
satisfaction at the Court. Nor in those days of rapid
dramatic composition, when brevity of time in the exe- 32
cution of such work was frequently part of an ordinary
theatrical agreement, could such a feat have been
impossible to Shakespeare. It could have been no
trouble to him to write, and the exceptional celerity of
his pen is recorded by several of his friends. Hence,
probably, are to be traced most of the numerous little
discrepancies which, by a careful analysis, may be detected
throughout the works of the great dramatist, and which
are seen perhaps more conspicuously in this play than
in most of the others. Shakespeare had evidently, as a
writer, neither a topographical nor a chronometrical mind,
and took small care to avoid inconsistencies arising from
errors in his dispositions of localities and periods of time ;
provided always of course that such oversights were not
sufficiently palpable in the action to disturb the complete
reception of the latter by the audience. We may rest
assured that the poet, when engaged in dramatic writing,
neither placed before his eyes an elaborate map of the

136 OUTLINES.

scenes of the plot ; nor reckoned the exact number of
hours to be taken by a character in moving from one
spot to another ; nor, in the composition of each line of
verse, repeated the syllables to ascertain if they developed
the style of metre it was his duty to posterity to be using
at that special period of his life. Such precautions may
best be indefinitely reserved for the use of that visionary
personage, — a scientific and arithmetical Shakespeare.

The earliest notice of the Merry Wives of Windsor,
hitherto discovered, is in an entry on the registers of
the Stationers' Company bearing date in January, 1602,

33 in which year a catch-penny publisher surreptitiously

34 issued a very defective copy, one made up by some
poetaster, with the aid of short-hand notes, into the form
of a play. That it was written, however, before the

35 production of Henry the Fifth in 1599 is most probable,
it being unlikely that Shakespeare would have revived
the characters of Falstaff, Quickly, Nym, and Bardolph,
after their deaths in that play. It is certain, at all
events, that the comedy was produced before the death
of Sir Thomas Lucy of Charlecote in July, 1600, for it is
contrary to all records of Shakespeare's nature to believe
that the more than playful allusions it contains to that
personage would have been penned after the decease of
Shallow's prototype. There is a mystery attached to the
resuscitation, in the opening scene of the play, of what is
apparently a reference to the deer-stealing incident, the
only plausible explanation of the revived memory of the
latter being in the possibility of some additional offence,
in connection with the original exploit, having been given
by Sir Thomas after the poet had established for himself
a leading position in his native town by the purchase of
New Place in the year 1597.

OUTLINES. 137

Two plays, the titles of which have not been recorded,
were acted by Shakespeare's company in the early part
of the year 1598, the poet being then in London. It is 233
certain, however, that his thoughts were not at this time
absorbed by literature or the stage* So far from this
being the case, there are good reasons for concluding
that they were largely occupied with matters relating to
pecuniary affairs, and to the progress of his influence at
Stratford-on-Avon. He was then considering the advisa
bility of purchasing " an odd yard land or other " in the
neighbourhood, and this circumstance, indicating the
possession of redundant means, becoming known, his
friend, Richard Quiney, who was in the metropolis, was
strongly urged both in English and Latin to suggest to
him the policy of trying to obtain one of the valuable
tithe-leases, and to name, amongst other inducements, — 222
"by the friends he can make therefore, we think it a
fair mark for him to shoot at ; — it obtained would
advance him in deed and would do us much good,"
letter of Abraham Sturley dated from Stratford-on-Avon,
24 January, 1 598. These expressions indicate that Shake
speare's desire to establish a good position for himself
in his native town was well known to his provincial
friends.

It was natural that the poet, having not only himself
bitterly felt the want of resources not so many years
previously, but seen so much inconvenience arising from
a similar deficiency in his father's household, should now
be determining to avoid the chance of a recurrence of the
infliction. That he did not love money for its own sake,
or for more than its relative advantages, may be gathered
from his liberal expenditure in after life ; but that he
had the wisdom to make other tastes subservient to

1 38 OUTLINES,

its acquisition, so long as that course was suggested
by prudence, is a fact that cannot fairly be questioned.
However repugnant it may be to the flowery sentiments
of the aesthetic critics, no doubt can arise, in the minds
of those who will listen to evidence, that when Pope
asserted that —

Shakespeare, whom you and ev'ry playhouse bill
Style the divine, the matchless, what you will,
For gain, not glory, wing'd his roving flight,
And grew immortal in his own despight.

he not only expressed the traditional belief of his own
240 day, but one which later researches have unerringly
verified. With all Shakespeare's gentleness of disposi
tion and amiable qualities, it is evident from the records
that there was very little of the merely sentimental in his
nature ; that is to say, of such matters as a desire for
posthumous fame or the excitable sympathy which is so
often recklessly appeased without thought of results. In
the year now under consideration, 1598, he appears not
only as an advancer of money, but also, as will be
presently seen, one who negotiated loans through other
capitalists. " If you bargain with William Shakespeare,"
writes Adrian Quiney, from the country, to his son
Richard in London, " or receive money therefore, bring
your money home that you may." The latter, who was one
of the leading business inhabitants of Stratford-on-Avon,
was in the metropolis endeavouring to arrange important
matters for the town, including the grant of a new charter
and relief from a subsidy. He was not well furnished
with the necessary means for carrying on these affairs,
the Corporation experiencing trouble and delay in
obtaining funds, circumstances which rendered them

OUTLINES.

139

anxious for the sale of the tithe-lease which they, as
previously mentioned, desired to be offered to Shake
speare. The worthy agent was also greatly embarrassed
in the same year on his own account, and some months
afterwards applied to the great dramatist for the loan of
the then very considerable sum of thirty pounds. The
application was made in a tiny little note folded into the
dimensions represented by the line surrounding the above

facsimile of the direction ; but it may admit of a doubt
that it was ever forwarded to the poet. The Quiney
correspondence was introduced somehow or other into
the Corporation archives, most probably on the death of
Richard in his year of office, but, if Shakespeare had
received the communication, it is all but impossible to
account satisfactorily for its being found in that depo
sitory. It may be that the great dramatist called on
Richard Quiney just before the departure of the latter
for the Court, thus rendering the despatch of the billet
unnecessary ; and this view is confirmed by Sturley's
remarks on the poet in his letter of November.

140

OUTLINES.

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142 OUTLINES.

Not a single fragment of any of the poet's own letters
has yet been discovered, and the above is the only one
addressed to him which is known to exist. It will be
observed that the money was proposed to be lent on
Quiney's personal security united with that of either Mr.
Bushell or Mr. Mytton, both Stratford men ; 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 arranged
other matters, that "you shall be the paymaster your
self." 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 negotiate a pecuniary
advance to the Corporation. " Your letter of the 25th of
October," writes Sturley to Quiney on November the 4th,
1 598, " came to my hands the last of the same at night
per Green way, 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 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.

OUTLINES. 143

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

4Q

Shakespeare was nominated, 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 inten
tion of negotiating for the purchase of land at Shottery.
Richard Quiney, who married in 1580 the daughter and
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 decease, 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

144 OUTLINES.

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.

66 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 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 was anxious to secure the copyright,
but the registrars of Stationers' Hall withheld their
consent until he had obtained the sanction of the Lord
Chamberlain, in other words, that of the author and his
colleagues ; and upwards of two years elapsed before

67 the earliest editions of the comedy appeared. It con
tinued for a long time to be one of the acting plays of
Shakespeare's company, and, as lately as 1605, it attracted
the favourable notice of James the First, who was so

OUTLINES. 145

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 Jonson's famous comedy of
Every Man in his Humor was produced by the Lord
Chamberlain'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
acquaintance with Ben Jonson," observes Rowe, " began
with a remarkable piece of humanity and good nature ;
Mr. Jonson, who was at that time altogether unknown to
the world, had offered one of his plays to the players in
order to have it acted, and the persons into whose hands
it was put, after having turned it carelessly and super
ciliously 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.
Jonson 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 misunder
standing between them, the latter alluding to Jonson
simply as a bricklayer, not as one of his company, in his

K

146 OUTLINES.

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
himself, who, unbiassed by the recollection that he had
been defeated in, at all events, one literary skirmish with
the great dramatist, speaks of him in language that would
appear hyperbolical 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 reference to his works, mode
rately 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 act
ing in Ben Jonson's comedy, — September, 1598, — there
appeared 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 theological
character, he was interested in all branches of literature,
and had formed intimacies with some of its chief
representatives. He had been favoured with access to
the unpublished writings of Drayton and Shakespeare,
and had either 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

OUTLINES. 147

Won, the Midsummer Night's Dream, and King John, — 20
are mentioned for the first time. There can be no doubt 21
that the first of these dramas had been written some
years previously, and Love Labours Won, a production 75
which is nowhere else alluded to, is one of the numerous
works of that time which have long since perished, unless
its graceful appellation be the original or a secondary 4s
title of some other comedy. Neither King John nor go
the Two Gentlemen of Verona was printed during the
author's lifetime, but two editions of the Midsummer
Night's Dream appeared in the year 1600. This last-
mentioned circumstance indicates the then popularity of
that exquisite but singular drama, the comic scenes of
which appear to have been those specially relished by the
public. One little fragment of the contemporary stage 22
humour, displayed in the representation of this play, has
been recorded. When Thisbe killed herself, she fell
on the scabbard, not on the trusty sword, the interlude
doubtlessly having been acted in that spirit of extreme
farce which was naturally evolved from the stupidity 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 col
lection of similitudes, " was thought to live in Pythagoras,
so the sweet witty soul of Ovid lives in mellifluous and
honey-tongued Shakespeiare ; 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 a few were obtainable with diffi
culty. A publisher named Jaggard who, in the follow
ing year, 1599, attempted to form a collection of new

K 2

148 OUTLINES.

Shakespearean poems, did not manage to obtain more

133 than two of the Sonnets. The words of Meres, and the
insignificant result of Jaggard's efforts, when viewed in
connexion with the nature of these strange poems, lead to
the inference that some of them were written in clusters,

134 and others as separate exercises, either being contribu
tions made by their writer to the albums of his friends,
probably no two of the latter being favoured with identi
cal compositions. There was no tradition adverse to a

135 belief in their fragmentary character in the generation

136 immediately following the author's death, as may be

137 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 re
served 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

OUTLINES. 149

of special notice, for its investigation will tend to remove
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
expired ? By the spring of 1 602 at the latest, if not
previously, he had acquired a secure and definite com
petence independently of his emoluments as a dramatist,
and yet, eight years afterwards, in 1610, he is discovered
playing in company with Burbage and Hemmings 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 exhibited in the well-known dialogue in Hamlet,
and that the poet's last wishes included affectionate
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
unfortunate estimation in which the stage was held by
the immense majority of his countrymen, 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 de
manding special respect, it is the unflinching courage
with which, notwithstanding his desire for social position,
he braved public opinion in favour of a continued adher
ence to that which he felt was in itself a noble profession,

ISO OUTLINES.

and this at a time when it was not merely despised, but
surrounded by an aggressive fanaticism that prohibited
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 discard
ing 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
biographical exposition of the Sonnets, necessitate the
acceptance of interpretations that are too subtle for dis
passionate reasoners. Even in the few instances where
there is a reasonable possibility that Shakespeare was
thinking of living individuals, 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 sus
tained 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 addresses to the
dark-eyed beauty of more than questionable reputation,
— unless, with a criminal indifference to the risk of the
scandal travelling to the ears of his family, he had
desired to proclaim to his acquaintances his own infidelity
and folly, — he might, perhaps, 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

OUTLINES. 151

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 discharge of their owne duetie."
The disguise of the ideal under the personal was, indeed,
an ordinary expedient.

In the Christmas holidays of 1598-1599, three plays"/
were acted by Shakespeare's company 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 Southampton, was
in London in the autumn of this year, and no doubt
favoured more than one 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 opportunity 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, how
ever, of his appreciation of Essex, it was natural that
the great dramatist should have taken a special interest

152 -OUTLINES.

in the course of affairs in Ireland, his great patron and
friend, Lord Southampton, holding the distinguished
position of General of the Horse in the Earl's army.
There is no record of this drama in the year of its
composition, but there is little or rather no doubt that
297 it was produced on the diminutive boards of the Curtain

196 Theatre in the summer of 1599. It was favourably
received, and the character of Pistol appears to have

197 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 lifetime,
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

198 placing it on the title-pages of any of those impressions.
There are unequivocal indications that the edition of
1 600 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 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
respecting 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 dis
tinguished services, and that his wife's ancestors were

OUTLINES. 153

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 division. The publisher seems to have had few
materials of any description that he could venture to
insert under either title, for, in order to make something
like a book with them, he adopted the very unusual
course of having nearly the whole of the tract printed
upon one side only of each 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 at the Greyhound in St. Paul's Churchyard.
With the exception of the two sonnets above alluded
to, and a few verses taken from the already published
comedy of Love's Labour's Lost, Jaggard'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 ascertained to have been the composi-

154 OUTLINES.

tion 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 liitle poem called the Lover's Complaint, may
be included in the significant ei cetera by which Meres
clearly 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
measures to induce him to disavow or suppress the ascrip
tion in the title-page of that work. There was, it is true,
no legal remedy, but there is reason for believing that,

149 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

229 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 as his work by the publisher,
Thomas Pavier, a shifty bookseller, residing at the
grotesque sign of the Cat and Parrots near the Royal

OUTLINES. 155

Exchange. Two editions were issued in the same year
by Pavier, the one most largely distributed being that
which was assigned to the pen of the great dramatist, and
another to which no writer's name is attached. As there
are no means of ascertaining which of these editions is 230
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. 231

The most celebrated theatre the world has 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 1599,
they had pulled it down and removed the materials to
Southwark, using them in the erection of a new building
which was completed towards the end of the year and
opened early in 1600 under the title of the Globe. Ben
Jonson's comedy of Every Man Out of his Humour was
one of the first plays there exhibited, the author, in an
epilogue written probably for the occasion, distinctly
appealing to the judgment of "the happier spirits in
this faire-fild Globe," ed. 1600. Amongst the Shake
spearean 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, Pericles, Othello, Macbeth and the Winter's
Tale.

The exact position of the Globe Theatre will be
gathered from the annexed view of London, which was

1 56

OUTLINES.

OUTLINES. 157

published a few years after its erection, and contains by
far the most interesting representation we have of the
building. A person entering Southwark from London
Bridge, after passing the last gateway, its poles and its
traitors' heads, would proceed a short distance along the
High Street. Turning then to the right, threading the
streets and alleys that laid on the south of the Church
and Winchester House, he would arrive at the Globe,
the circular building which is seen amidst the trees in
the open space below the thickly-populated fringe of
houses known as the Bank-side, the theatre itself being
only about two hundred yards from the margin of the
river. A little further on is the Bear Garden, the flags
indicating that the doors of both establishments were
open to the public. It would appear from this engraving
that there was in the original Globe Theatre a circular
sub-structure of considerable size, perhaps constructed of
brick or masonry, which probably included a corridor
with a passage to the pit or yard and staircases leading
to other parts of the house. Upon this sub-structure the
two wooden stories, in portions of which were included
the galleries and boxes, were erected. The building was
constructed mainly of wood and was partially roofed with
thatch, but the larger portion of the interior was open
to the sky. This latter circumstance, however, did not
exclude winter performances, for, amongst the very few
records in which their exact dates are mentioned, is a
notice of one that took place in the month of February.

In the absence of a roof over the pit, and much of the
other part of the building obliquely exposed to the rays
of the sun, or to the fury of a tempest, both visitors and
actors must, on occasions, have found the Globe, even
in the summer time, exceedingly uncomfortable. The

158 OUTLINES.

extent of inconvenience that was endured there in the
month of February, and in muggy Southwark, almost
defies conjecture. Our ancestors evidently cared little
for their ease if they could but witness a piece of good
acting, for it must be remembered that, in those days,
there was nothing else, — no scenic effects, — to attract a
metropolitan audience to the lower side of the river. The
compensation was mainly due to three great advantages,
In the first place, the subordinate characters were efficiently
represented, Shakespeare himself not disdaining to under
take some of the minor parts ; a complete intellectual'
representation being, in fact, a necessity in the absence
of meretricious supports. In the second, there was the
natural light from above, which is so essential to the
accurate display of the facial expression. It is scarcely
necessary to observe that the currents of air, engendered
by the open roof, would have rendered a performance by
candle-light an impossibility. Then there was a building
so diminutive that the remotest spectator could hardly
have been distant more than a dozen yards, or thereabouts,
from the front of the stage. The whole auditory were
thus within a hearing distance that conveyed the faintest
modulation of the performer's voice, at the same time that
it demanded no inartistic effort on his part in the more
sonorous utterances. Added to this, every lineament of
his countenance would have been visible without telescopic
aid. It was for such a theatre that Shakespeare wrote,
for one wherein an actor of genius could satisfactorily
develop to every one of the audience not merely the
written but the unwritten words of the drama, those
latter which are expressed by gesture or by the subtle
language of the face and eye. There is much of the
unrecorded belonging to the pages of Shakespeare that

OUTLINES. 159

requires to be elicited in action, and no little of that much
which can only be effectively rendered under conditions
similar to those which prevailed at the opening of the
Globe.

Intersecting the stage were two curtairis of arras, one
running along near the back, and the other about the
centre, either being drawn as occasion required. Upon
these tapestries, which are sometimes mentioned as having
been in a decayed condition, were generally portrayed
human figures or representations of subjects that included
'them. These designs had, of course, no reference to the
performance, and there was no movable or other kind of
scenery. The latter must obviously, as a rule, have been
incompatible with the accurate production of dramas
composed for a theatre in which such a material appeal to
the eye was unknown. This would necessarily have been
specially the case with the works of a great master of the
dramatic and theatrical arts, one whose knowledge of the
unique conventionalities of the ancient stage was supreme.
There can be no doubt that Shakespeare, in the compo
sition of most of his plays, could not have contemplated
the introduction of scenic accessories. It is fortunate
that this should have been one of the conditions of his
work, for otherwise many a speech of power and beauty,
many an effective situation, would have been lost. All
kinds of elaborate attempts at stage illusion tend, more
over, to divert a careful observance of the acting, while
they are of no real service to the imagination of the
spectator unless the author renders them necessary for
the full elucidation of his meaning. That Shakespeare
himself ridiculed the idea of a power to meet such a
necessity, when he was writing for theatres like the
Curtain or the Globe, is apparent from the opening

160 OUTLINES.

chorus to Henry the Fifth ; and his words equally apply
to the most perfect theatrical representations that could
be given of " the vasty fields of France," or of the com
bat " that did affright the air at Agincourt." It is obvious
that he wished attention to be concentrated on the players
and their utterances, and that all surroundings, excepting
those which could be indicated by the rude properties of
the day, should be idealistic.

Shakespeare's company acted before Queen Elizabeth
at Richmond Palace on Twelfth Night and Shrove Sun
day, 1600, and at Whitehall 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 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 distinctly 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,
56 As You Like It, was most likely 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 this drama was frus
trated by an appeal to the Stationers' Company, a fact

OUTLINES. 161

which testifies to its popularity ; and one of its ditties was 57
set to music by Thomas Morley, an eminent composer of
the day, who published it, with some others of a cognate
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 the author of the comedy.
" One of Shakespeare'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 entertain
ments 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 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

L

1 62 OUTLINES.

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 is reason for believing that it
includes a glimmering of truth which is founded on an
earlier tradition.

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 application made to the Stationers' Com
pany on or before August the 4th, 1600, but, on the 23rd
of the same month, Wise and Aspley succeeded in ob
taining a license. It is not known if the prohibition was
directed against the latter publication and afterwards
removed, or whether it refers to a fraudulent attempt
by some other bookseller to issue a surreptitious copy.
Although Much Ado about Nothing was not reprinted
in the author's lifetime, there is no doubt of its continued

60 popularity.

The scene of this comedy is laid in Messina, but the

61 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 con-

62 stable 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

OUTLINES. 163

either of those characters, it is not likely that the Gren-
don 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 applic
able to the English constables of the author's period, to
such as were those in the 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 wherefore 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 watchmen stand so
openly in plumps as no suspected person will come
near them, and if they be no better instructed 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, 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 philosophical writer. One Robert Chester

L 2

164 OUTLINES.

208 was the author of a long and tedious 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 ; never before
extant ; and now first consecrated by them all generally,
to the love and merite of the true-noble knight, Sir
John Salisburie", — the names of Shakespeare, Marston,
Chapman, and Jonson being attached to the recognized

209 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 medi
tated a personal 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 punishment
of reading Love's Martyr.

The poet's father, — Mr. Johannes Shakspeare, as he
is called in the register, — was buried at Stratford-on-Avon
on September the 8th, 1601 ; having no doubt expired
a few days previously at his residence in Henley Street,
which is noticed so recently as 1597 as being then in his
occupation. He is mentioned as having been 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

OUTLINES. 165

were accompanied by decrepitude. 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 tenements
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 68
in the season of 1601-2, most probably on January the 5th. 69
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 the only building 70
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 contemporary
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
observes, "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 representation 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

166 OUTLINES.

performance. There is no doubt that the comedy was
performed by the Lord Chamberlain's servants, and
very little that Shakespeare himself was one of the
actors who were engaged. Twelfth Night was appre
ciated at an early period as one of the author's most
popular creations. There is not only the testimony of
71 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
206 following May, the great dramatist purchased from the
Combes, for the sum of ^320, one hundred and seven

* \pr6 '>M^0^

"7 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. It is not likely,
indeed, that he visited the locality within any brief
period after this transaction, for otherwise the counter
part of the indenture, which was duly engrossed in

207 complete readiness for the purchaser's attestation, would
hardly have been permitted to remain without his sig
nature.

OUTLINES.

167

The pecuniary resources of Shakespeare must now
have been very considerable, for, notwithstanding 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 September the 28th, 1602, at a Court Baron of the
Manor of Rowington, one Walter Getley transferred to
the poet a cottage and garden which were situated in
Chapel Lane opposite the lower grounds of New Place. 271

They covered the space 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 272
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 formalities. At a later
period he was admitted to the copyhold, and then he

1 63

OUTLINES.

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170 OUTLINES.

273 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
building, and no representation of the original tenement
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

221 garden on the lane side continued to be one of mud
until the latter part of the eighteenth century.

156 In the spring of this year, 1602, our national tragedy,

157 known originally under the title of the Revenge of

158 Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, was in course of represen-

159 tation by the Lord Chamberlain's players at the Globe

160 Theatre, and had then, in all probability, been recently

161 composed. 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

162 summer of the following year, 1603, when two book
sellers, named Ling and Trundell, employed an inferior

163 and clumsy writer to work up, in his own fashion, what

164 scraps of the play had been furtively obtained from short
ies hand notes or other memoranda into the semblance of a

perfect drama, which they had the audacity to publish as

Shakespeare's own work. It is possible, however, that

300 the appearance of this surreptitious edition, which contains

166 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

167 Roberts for that publisher, "enlarged to almost as much
againe as it was, according to the true and perfect

OUTLINES. 171

coppie," 1604. The appearance of subsequent 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 168
ever since, as then, been accepted as the leading charac
ter of the greatest actor of the passing day. It is worth
notice that the incident of Hamlet leaping into Ophelia's l69
grave, now sometimes omitted, was considered in Bur-
bage'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 170
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
representation by the Lord Chamberlain's servants. The
subject had been dramatized by Decker and Chettle for 123
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 copy
rights were exchangeable, so that the application made
by Roberts is not likely to refer to the jointly-written 124
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 believing that he ever succeeded
in procuring, the company's sanction to his projected
speculation. At all events, Shakespeare's Troilus and
Cressida was not printed until early in the year 1609,

17*

OUTLINES.

THE '

JTragicall Hiftorie of
" HAMLET

By William Shake-fpeare.

As it hath beene diuerfe times a&edby his HighncfTe fcr-
uants in the Cittie of London : asalfointhetwoV-

niuerfities of Cambrldgeand Oxford ,and dfe-where

^t London printed for NX. and lohn Trun^lL

OUTLINES.

'73

THE

Tragicall Hiftorie of

HAMLET

'Prince

By William Shakespeare.

Newly imprinted and enlarged to almoft as much,
againe as it was, according to the true and perfeft
Coppic.

AT LONDON,
Printed by I. R. for N. L. and are to be fold at his

fhoppc vndcr Saint Dunftons Church in
flectftreet 1604.

174 OUTLINES.

when two other publishers, Bonian and Walley, having
surreptitiously procured a copy, ventured on its publica
tion, and, in the hope of attracting purchasers, they had
the audacity to state, in an unusual preface, that it had
never been represented on the stage. They even appear

125 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

126 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 professing 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 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.

There can be little doubt that Troilus and Cressida
was originally produced at the Globe in the winter season
of 1602-1603. 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 com
pany, who had acted before her at Whitehall on Decem
ber the 26th, 1602, were summoned to Richmond for
another performance 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

OUTLINES. 175

on which the poet could have had the opportunity of
appearing before her. Elizabeth died on March the
24th, but, amongst the numerous 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 con
temporary writer, can easily be accounted for in more
than one way ; if, indeed, an explanation is needed
beyond a reference to the then agitated and bewildered
state of the public mind. 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 enthusiastic a
display of grief for Elizabeth would 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 Shake
speare 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 distinguished party then assembled in that
noble mansion. In the following Christmas holidays,

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1603-1604, they were acting on several occasions 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
former occasion at Hampton Court before the Floren
tine 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
company 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 1 5th of March, 1604, that 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 Shakespeare and
his three friends, Burbage, Hemmings, 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 col
leagues were termed the King's Servants, and took rank
at Court amongst the Grooms of the Chamber,

Shortly after this event the poet made a visit to
Stratford-on-Avon. It appears, from a declaration filed

OUTLINES. 177

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 7th and the end of May, 1604, and
that the latter did not, or could not, pay the debt thus
incurred, amounting to £i. 155. lod. Shakespeare had
sold him malt to the value of £i. 193. 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 127
title of the Moor of Venice, is first heard of in 1604, it 128
having been performed by the King's players, who then 129
included Shakespeare himself, before the Court, in the
Banqueting 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 130
Shoreditch, who had perhaps been taken with the repre
sentation of the tragedy, gave the name of Othello's per
fect 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

M

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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 play ; a result that may, without disparage
ment 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 Burbage.

131 The name of the first performer of I ago is not known, but

132 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 undertaken by a popular
comedian, and that Shakespeare adapted some of the
speeches of that character to the peculiar talents of the
actor.

27 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
at Whitehall, and if it were written for that special
occasion, it seems probable that the 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

28 dislike to encountering 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 after
thought.

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

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179

by Nathaniel Butter to the reading public as one of the
compositions of the great dramatist. On May the 4th, a
few days before his death, the poet's colleague, Augustine
Phillips, made his will, leaving " to my fellowe, William
Shakespeare, a thirty shillinges peece in goold." And
in the following July, Shakespeare made the largest, and,
in a monetary sense very likely the most judicious, pur- 96
chase he ever completed, giving the sum of ^440 for
the unexpired term of the moiety of a valuable lease
of the tithes of Stratford, Old Stratford, Bishopton and
Welcombe.

On October the 9th in the same year, 1605, Shake
speare'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 Davenant, who
had taken out his license 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 War
wickshire and London." His wife is described by
the same writer as "a very beautiful woman, of a good
wit and conversation. Early in the following year the
latter presented her husband with a son, who was chris
tened at St. Martin's Church on March the 3rd, 1606,
receiving there the name of William. 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

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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 shee 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 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 alto
gether unauthorized. 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
surmise 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 in his journey lye at this house
in Oxon, where he was exceedingly respected." He then
proceeds to tell us that Sir William, considering himself

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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 reckless gossip must 225
needs add that Sir William's mother not only " had a
very light report," but was looked upon in her own day
as a perfect Thais. Sufficient is known of the family
history of the Davenants, and of their social position
and respectability, 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 226
papers, eliminates every kind of insinuation against the
character of either Shakespeare or Mrs. Davenant. He
may have known from reliable sources that there could
have been no truth in the alleged illegitimacy, and any
how he no doubt had the independent sagacity to observe
that the reception of the libel involved extravagant ad
missions. 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 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 227
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 assurance to posterity doubly sure, there
is preserved at Alnwick Castle a very elaborate manu-

1 82 OUTLINES.

script 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 of 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 after
wards, for her exceptional 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 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 mistress'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 remembrance 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

OUTLINES. 183

was something to admire in the works of the great
dramatist. 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 Blackfriers " which he desired to re-introduce to the
public, no fewer than nine were compositions of Shake
speare. 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 Christ
mas holidays of 1606, the tragedy of King Lear, some of 216
the incidents of which were adopted from one or more 217
older dramas on the same legend, was represented before
King James at Whitehall, having no doubt been pro- 218
duced at the Globe in the summer of that year. No
record of the character of its reception by the Court has
been perserved, but it must have been successful at the
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 and
even unique testimony to the popularity of a dramatic
author of the period.

184 OUTLINES.

The poet's eldest daughter, Susanna, then in her
twenty-fifth year, was married at Stratford-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 was most probably connected
with the Halls of Acton, co. Middlesex, but he was not

171 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 result of his engagement with the
poet's daughter. He appears to have taken up his

172 first Stratford abode in a road termed the Old Town,
a street leading from the churchyard to the main por
tion 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 the town, nothing whatever is known of
his career during the lifetime of Shakespeare.

A few months after Mrs. Hall was married, she lost
her uncle Edmund, who, on Thursday, December the
234 3ist, 1607, was buried at Southwark, in the church of
St. Saviour's, "with a forenoone knell of the great bell."
It may fairly be assumed that the burial in the church, a
mark of respect which was seldom paid to an actor, and
.which added very considerably to the expenses of the
funeral, resulted from the affectionate directions of his
brother, the poet ; while the selection of the morning for

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185

1 86 OUTLINES.

the ceremony, then unusual at St. Saviour's, may have
arisen from a wish to give some of the members of the
Globe company the opportunity of attendance. 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. There can be little doubt that he was intro
duced to the stage by the great dramatist, but, from the
absence of professional notice of him, it may be concluded
that he did not attain to much theatrical eminence.

Elizabeth, the only child of the Halls, was born in
February, 1608, an event which conferred on Shake
speare the dignity of grandfather. 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 traditionally
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 business qualities of her grandfather, but,
with this exception, nothing is known of her disposition
or character.

211 In the spring of the year 1 608, the apparently inartificial

212 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 performances were probably too large for
the company to incur the risk of their being diminished
by the circulation of the printed drama. Blount was

OUTLINES. 187

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, 213
1609, an impression followed by another surreptitious
one in 1611. As Blount, the legitimate 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 214
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 production, one to which,
in its present form, Shakespeare was merely responsible
for a number of re-castings and other improvements.

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 78
successful, it did not equal the former in popularity. It 79
was, however, sufficiently attractive for Blount to secure
the consent of the Master of the Revels to its publication
and also for the company to frustrate his immediate
design.

Almost simultaneously with the contemplated pub
lication of the admirable tragedy last mentioned, an
insignificant piece, of some little merit but no dramatic
power, entitled the Yorkshire Tragedy, was dishonestly
introduced 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 consider
able 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

1 88 OUTLINES.

Shakespeare's company at the Globe Theatre. When
originally produced, it appears to have had the title of
228 All's One, belonging to a series of four diminutive plays
consecutively acted by the company as a single per
formance in lieu of a regular five-act drama. This was
a curious 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 occurrence which happened in the spring of
the year 1605, — one °f those exceptionally terrible
murders that every now and then electrify and sadden
the public. A Yorkshire squire of good family, mad
dened 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 the
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 consum
mate the work by suicide, but he exhibited at the last
some kind 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 practically electing to suffer
the then inevitable and fearful alternative of being
pressed to death.

OUTLINES. 189

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 September the 9th, 1608. He would natu
rally 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 i6th 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 the poet, in 1608 and
1 609, engaged in a suit with a townsman for the recovery
of a debt. In the August of the former year he com
menced an action against one John Addenbroke, but it
then seems to have been in abeyance for a time, the first
precept for a jury in the cause being dated December
2ist, 1608 ; 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 I5th in the following year. A
verdict was then given in favour of the poet for £6
and £i. 45. 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

190 OUTLINES.

must not be assumed that the great dramatist attended
personally to these matters, although of course the pro
ceedings 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 the press. It was entered
at Stationers' Hall on May the 2Oth, and published by
one Thomas Thorpe under the title of — " Shake-speares
Sonnets, 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

138 now be considered 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 speculation that he

139 dedicated the work to the factor in the acquisition, one
Mr. W. H., in language of hyperbolical gratitude, wish
ing 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

143 the subject of numerous futile conjectures ; but the use of
initials in the place of names, especially if they referred
to private individuals, was then so extremely common

OUTLINES. 191

that it is not necessary to assume that there was an
intentional reservation.

This was a memorable year in the theatrical 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 Hammings, Condell, Burbage, and the poet
himself.

The exact period is unknown, but it was in the same
year, 1609, or not very long afterwards, that Shakespeare 253
and two other individuals either commenced or devised
a law-suit bearing upon a question in which he was
interested as a partial owner of the Stratford tithes. Our
only information on the subject is derived from the draft
of a bill of complaint, one that was penned under the
following circumstances. Nearly all the valuable posses
sions of the local college, including the tithes of Stratford-
on-Avon, Old Stratford, Welcombe and Bishopton, were
granted by Edward the Sixth, a few days before his
death in 1553, to the Corporation, but the gift was subject
to the unexpired term of a lease for ninety-two years
which had been executed in 1544 by the then proprietors
in favour of one William Barker. The next owner of
the lease, John Barker, assigned it in 1580 to Sir John
Huband, but he reserved to himself a rent-charge of
,£27. 135. 4^., with the usual power of re-entry in case
of non-payment. The above-mentioned tithes were of
course involved in this liability, but, when Shakespeare
purchased a moiety of them in 1605, it was arranged that
his share of that charge should be commuted by an annual
payment of £$. An observance of this condition should
have absolved the poet from further trouble in the
matter, but this unfortunately was not the case. When

192 OUTLINES.

the bill of complaint was drafted there were about forty
persons who had interests under Barker's lease, and
commutations of the shares of the rent-charge had only
been made in two cases, that is to say, in those of the
owners of the tithe-moieties. A number of the other
tenants had expressed their willingness to join in an
equitable arrangement, provided that it was legally carried
out ; but there were some who declined altogether to
contribute, and hence arose the necessity of taking
measures to compel them to do so, a few, including
Shakespeare, having had to pay more than their due
proportions to avoid the forfeitures of their several
estates. The result of the legal proceedings, if any were
instituted, is not known, but there are reasons for believ-

254 ing that the movement terminated in some way in favour
of the complainants.

The annual income which Shakespeare derived from
his moiety is estimated in the bill of complaint at ^60,
but this was not only subject to the payment of the
above-named ^5, but also to that of one- half of another

255 rent- charge, one of ^34, that belonged to the Corporation
of Stratford. His nett income from the tithes would
thus be reduced to ^38, but it was necessarily of a
fluctuating character, the probability, however, being

256 that there was a tendency towards increase, especially in
the latter part of his career. It is most likely that he
entered into an agreement each year with a collector,
whose province it would have been to relieve him of all
trouble in the matter, and pay over a stipulated amount.
It is not probable that he himself visited the harvest
field to mark, as was then the local practice, every tenth
sheaf with a dock, or that he personally attended to the
destination of each of his tithe-pigs.

OUTLINES. 193

The next year, 1610, is nearly barren of recorded
incidents, but in the early part of it Shakespeare pur
chased twenty acres of pasture land from the Combes,
adding them to the valuable freeholds that he had
obtained from those parties in 1602. After this trans
action he owned no fewer than a hundred and twenty- 200
seven acres in the common fields of Stratford and its
neighbourhood. His first purchase consisted entirely of
arable land, but although he had the usual privilege of
common of pasture that was attached to it, the new
acquisition was no doubt a desirable one. The concord
of the fine that was prepared on the latter occasion is
dated April the i3th, 1610, and as it was acknowledged
before Commissioners, it may be inferred that Shakespeare
was not in London at the time.

There are an unusual number of evidences of Shake
speare'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 Andronicus, 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
commercial value of his name.

The tragedy of Macbeth was acted at the Globe 14
Theatre, in April, 1611, and Forman, the celebrated 15
astrologer, has recorded a graphic account of its per- 16
formance 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 statement

194 OUTLINES.

that Macbeth and Banquo made their first appearance on
17 horseback, a curious testimony to the rude endeavours
of the stage-managers of the day to invest their repre
sentations with something of reality. The weird sisters
were personated by men whose heads were disguised
by grotesque periwigs. Forman's narrative 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 that, in Davenant's time, Banquo and his
Ghost were performed by different actors, a practice not
impossibly derived from that of former times.
22 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 unlikely 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

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195

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, \s
and although he does not record either the date or the
locality, there can be little hesitation in referring the
incident to the spring of the year 1 6 1 1 ; at all events, to
a period not later than the following September, when
that marvellously eccentric astrologer died suddenly in a 19
boat while passing over the Thames from Southwark to
Puddle Dock. It may be suspected that the poet was
in London at the time of that occurrence, for in a
subscription-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
Parliament 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, having most likely been
produced at one of the Shakespearean theatres in 1611,
was represented before King James and the Court at 152
Whitehall on the evening of the First of November in 153
that year, the incidental music having been composed
by Robert Johnson, one of the Royal "musicians for

N 2

196 OUTLINES.

the lutes." The record of the performance includes the
earliest notice of that drama which has yet been dis-

154 covered. It was also acted with success at the Blackfriars
Theatre, and it was one of the plays selected early in

155 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
ii 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 conclusion that the poet abandoned
literary occupation 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 Henry the
Eighth being, most likely, his concluding 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

63 exquisite Induction, are taken from an old farce which

64 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

OUTLINES. 197

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; but its local allusions might 65
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 him
self must have been familiar in his native county. With
such animated power is it written that we almost appear
to personally witness the affray between Marian Hacket,
the fat ale-wife of Wincot, and Christopher Sly, to see no
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 buttery. Wincot is a 150
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. 151
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 conjunction with the references to Wilmecote and
Barton-on-the- Heath, definitely proves 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

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local imagery extends to the nobleman, the play itself
must be supposed to be represented at Clopton House,
the only 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 imbibed 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 entertain
ment 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 which is 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

184 Bardon Hill to the village of Bidford, six miles distant,

185 a place said to have been then noted for its revelry.
When he had nearly reached his destination, he happened

186 to meet with a shepherd, and jocosely enquired of him if
the Bidford Drinkers were at home. The rustic, per
fectly equal to the occasion, replied that the Drinkers

187 were absent, but that he would easily find the Sippers,

188 and that the latter might perhaps be sufficiently jolly
to meet his expectations. The anticipations of the
shepherd were fully realized, and Shakespeare, in bend-

OUTLINES. 199

ing 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. 189
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 following morning. The 193
whole story, indeed, when viewed strictly with reference
to the habits and opinions of those days, presents no
features that suggest disgrace to the principal actor,
or imposition on the part of the narrator. With our
ancestors the ludicrous aspect of intoxication completely
neutralized, or rather, to speak more correctly, excluded
the thought of attendant discredit. The affair would
have been merely regarded in the light of an unusually
good joke, and that there is, at least, some foundation
for the tale may be gathered from the fact that, as early
as the year 1 762, the tree, then known as Shakespeare's
Canopy, was regarded at Stratford-on-Avon as an object
of great interest.

In the year 1612 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

200 OUTLINES,

Troia Britanica, a large poetical work that had appeared
three years previously, 1609. " Here, likewise," observes
that writer, speaking in 1612 of the last-named produc
tion, " I must necessarily insert a manifest injury done
me 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,
in so the author I know much offended with M. Jaggard
that (altogether unknowne to him) presumed to make so
bold with his name."

Although Hey wood thus ingeniously endeavours to
make it appear that his chief objection to the piracy
arose from a desire to shield himself 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 remonstrances of Hey-
wrood addressed to Shakespeare, who may certainly have
been displeased at Jaggard's proceedings, but as clearly
required pressure to induce him to act in the matter. 1 f
the publisher would now so readily listen to Shake
speare's wishes, it is difficult to believe that he 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

OUTLINES. 201

intentions, entirely acquits the former of any blame in the
matter.

Early in the following year the great dramatist lost
his younger, and most probably now his only surviving,
brother, Richard, who was buried at Stratford-on-Avon
on February the 4th, 1613. He was in the thirty-ninth
year of his age. Beyond the records of his baptism and
funeral no biographical particulars respecting him have
been discovered ; but it may be suspected that all the
poet's brothers were at times more or less dependent
on his purse or influence. When the parish-clerk told
Dowdall, in 1693, that Shakespeare "was the best of
his family" he used a provincial expression which implied
not only that its other members of the same sex were
less amiable than himself, but that they were not held in
very favourable estimation.

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
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 other, he was so intent on its
acquisition that he permitted a considerable amount,
;£6o, of the purchase-money to remain on mortgage.
That reason can hardly be found in the notion that

202 OUTLINES.

the property was merely a desirable investment, for it
would appear to have been purchased at a somewhat

244 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 Shake
speare'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 establishment of the neighbour
ing theatre. It does not appear that Shakespeare

245 lived to redeem the mortgage, for the legal estate re
mained 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

246 colleague of the same name.

The conveyance-deeds of this house bear the date of
March the loth, 1613, but in all probability they were
not executed until the following day, and at the same
time that the mortgage was effected. The latter trans
action was completed in Shakespeare's presence on
the eleventh, and that the occurrence took place in
London or in the immediate neighbourhood is apparent
from the fact that the vendor deposited the original con-

247 veyance on the same day for enrollment in the Court of
Chancery. The independent witnesses present on the
occasion consisted of Atkinson, who was the Clerk of
the Brewers' Company, and a person of the name of
Overy. To these were joined the then usual official
attestors, the scrivener who drew up the deeds and his
assistant, the latter, one Henry Lawrence, having the
honour of lending his seal to the great dramatist, who

OUTLINES. 203

thus, to the disappointment of posterity, impressed the
wax of both his labels with the initials H. L. instead of
those of his own name.

This Blackfriars estate was the only London pro
perty 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,
and either at the side or back, included in the premises,
was a diminutive enclosed plot of land. The house
was situated on the west side of St. Andrew's Hill,
formerly otherwise termed Puddle Hill or Puddle Dock
Hill, and it was either partially on or very near the
locality now and for more than two centuries known 248
as Ireland Yard. At the bottom of the hill was Puddle 249
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 admir
able 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 Shake
spearean 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
buildings 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 on Tuesday, .
June the 29th, 1613. The great dramatist was probably

204 OUTLINES.

at Stratford-on-Avon at the time of this lamentable occur
rence. At all events, his name is not mentioned in any

97 of the notices of the calamity, nor is there a probability

98 that he was the author of the new drama on the history
of Henry the Eighth, which was then produced, the
first one on the public stage in which the efforts of the
dramatist were subordinated to theatrical display. It is

99 true that some of the historical incidents in the piece
that was in course of representation when the accident
occurred are also introduced into Shakespeare's play,

100 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, Hemmings,
Condell, and one who enacted the part of the Fool,

101 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,

102 the Prologue is careful to inform the audience that there
was to be a novel treatment of the history divested of
some of the former accompaniments. This theory of a

103 late date is in consonance with the internal evidence.
The temperate introduction of lines with the hyper
metrical syllable has often a pleasing effect, but during
the last few years of the poet's career, their immoderate
use was affected by our dramatists, and although, for the

258 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

104 the present instance, he suffered himself to be influenced
by this undesirable fashion.

OUTLINES. 205

When Shakespeare's Henry the Eighth was produced,
the character of the King was undertaken 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 1708, and by Roberts, the actor, in a
tract published in 1729, the latter observing, — " 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 originally ;
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 from old Mr. Lowin, that had his in- 105
structions 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 106
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 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 299
summoned to the Ecclesiastical Court to atone for the
offence. The case was opened at Worcester on July

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the 1 5th, 1613, the poet's friend, Robert Whatcot, being
the chief witness on behalf of the plaintiff. Nothing
beyond the formal proceedings in the suit has been
recorded, but there can be little doubt that Lane was
one of those mean social pests who attack the personal
honour of any one they may happen to be offended
with. Slanderers, however, are notorious cowards.
Neither the defendant nor his proctor ventured to
appear before the court, and, in the end, the lady's
character was vindicated 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 composed at
a later period. The first two lines of that mock elegy
are, however, undoubtedly spurious, and are omitted in
the earliest discovered version of it, dated 1630, pre
served at Thirlestane House. There is, moreover, no
reason for believing that Combe was an usurious money
lender, ten per cent, being then the legal and ordinary

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207

208 OUTLINES.

rate of interest. That rate was not lowered until after
the death of Shakespeare.

The Globe Theatre, which had been rebuilt at a
very large cost, 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 playhouse, 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 at
tempted 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 originated the movement,
encountered a determined and, in the end, a success
ful opposition. He spared, however, no exertions to
accomplish the object, and, in many instances, if we
may 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 inducements, 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. Manwaring. The

OUTLINES. 209

latter, who had been practically bribed by some land
arrangements 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 expostu-
lary letter to him, and that he had arrived there on
Wednesday, November the i6th, 1614. We are in
debted for the knowledge of this circumstance to the
diary of Thomas Greene, the town-clerk of Stratford- 298
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 : —

1. — Jovis, 17 Nov., my cosen Shakspeare comyng yesterday to
towne, I went to see him how he did. He told me that they assured
him they merit to inclose noe further then to Gospell Bushe, and soe 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 satisfaccion, and not before ;
and he and Mr. Hall say they think ther will be nothyng done at all.

2. — 23 Dec. A hall. Lettres wryten, on to Mr. Maneryng, another
to Mr. Shakspeare, with almost all the companies 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. — g Jan. 1614. Mr. Replyngham, 28 Octobris, article with Mr.
Shakspear, and then I was putt in by T. Lucas.

o

2IO

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I

i

1

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4. — ii Januarii, 1614. Mr. Manyryng and his agreement for me
with my cosen Shakspeare.

5. — Sept. Mr. Shakspeare tellyng J. Greene that I was not able 301
to beare the encloseing 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.

Had it not been for its untimely termination, 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 pro
vincial associates, for he retained his literary intimacies
until the end ; while it is clear, from what is above
recorded, that his retirement to Stratford did not exclude
an occasional visit to the metropolis. He had, moreover,
the practical wisdom to be contented with the fortune 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 desiring more
when in full possession of whatever there is in the ability
of money to contribute to happiness.

02

212 OUTLINES.

It is not likely that the poet, with his systematic
forethought, had hitherto neglected to provide for the
ultimate devolution of his estates, but, as usual, it is only
the latest will that has been preserved. This important
record was prepared in January, 1616, either by or under
283 the directions of Francis Collins, a solicitor then residing

284 at Warwick, and it appears, from the date given to the
superscription and from some of the erasures in the

285 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
circumstances relating to Judith's matrimonial engage-

286 ment, the appointment for that day was postponed, at
Shakespeare's request, in anticipation of further instruc
tions, and before Collins had ordered a fair copy to be

. made. The draft, therefore, remained in his custody,

287 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 dangerous 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

OUTLINES. 213

regular transcript, and that the papers were signed after
a few more alterations had been hastily effected. An
unusual number of witnesses were called in to secure the
validity of the informally written document, its draftsman, 288
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 alteration of the
day of the month was overlooked. It is probable that 289
the melancholy 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 himself. 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 ob
served that the words, by me, which, the autographs
excepted, are the only ones in the poet's handwriting
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 con
sidered 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 January, of an attach-

214 OUTLINES.

ment 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 contemplated 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 were living. The singular
limitation of the three years from the date of the will,
290 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 contingent on his reaching
the age of thirty. However that may be, it seems
certain that the interlineated words, in discharge of tier
marriage portion, 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 £ 100 on the occasion
of her marriage with Thomas Quiney. That event took

OUTLINES. 215

place in their native town on Saturday, February the
loth, 1616. There was some reason for accelerating
the nuptials, for they were married without a license,
an irregularity for which, a few weeks afterwards, they
were fined and threatened with excommunication by
the ecclesiastical 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 bride
groom's position or then character to authorise a parent's
opposition, nor have good reasons been adduced for the
suspicion that there was ever any unpleasantness between
the married Quineys and their Shakespeare connections.
Their first-born son was christened after the great
dramatist, and they remained on good terms with the
Halls. Judith, the first and one of the most prominent 141
legatees named in the will, was a tenant-for-life in
remainder 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 devising his real estates
to one child, followed the example of his maternal
grandfather and the general custom of landed pro
prietors. He evidently desired that their undivided
ownership 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.

216 OUTLINES.

Thomas Quiney, at the time of his marriage with
Judith Shakespeare, was very nearly four years her
junior, having been a younger son, born in 1589, of
Richard Quiney, whose correspondence 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. That his edu
cation, however, had not been restricted to the curriculum
of the Grammar School, and that he had been specially
instructed in French and caligraphy, may be inferred
from the motto in that language and from the elaborate
signatures with which he has embellished the first page
of the account that he delivered to the Corporation
in 1623.

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 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 integrity 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,

OUTLINES.

217

218 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

291 way the undevisable property of his eldest daughter.
Bedsteads were sometimes of elaborate workmanship,
and gifts of them are often to be met with in ancient
wills. The notion of indifference to his wife, so fre
quently 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

292 selected as portions of compensation 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 Warwick, considered it a sufficient
mark of respect 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 con
temporary 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 exami
nation that they are merely copies of the ordinary
forms in use at Worcester. We should not inspect

OUTLINES. 219

these matters through the glasses of modern life.
For the gift of a bed let us substitute 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 settle
ments formerly so often made between husband and
wife, but even if there had been 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 293
the rest of the property.

It is curious that the only real ground for 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. How
ever 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

220 OUTLINES.

life, is the possibility of her having been afflicted with
some chronic infirmity 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 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.
Independently 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 Hathaways, appear to be mysterious, it must be
recollected that we are entirely unacquainted with family
arrangements, the knowledge of some of which might
explain them all. It has, moreover, been objected that
"the will contains less of sentiment 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
temperament. 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-

OUTLINES. 221

school of Stratford-on-Avon, who made a transcript for
him, was also disappointed 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 expected to find it written
in blank-verse.

The preponderance of Shakespeare's domestic over
his literary sympathies is strikingly exhibited in this
final record. Not only is there no mention of Dray ton,
Ben Jonson, or any of his other literary friends, but an
entire absence of reference to his own compositions.
When these facts are considered adjunctively with his
want of vigilance in not having previously secured
authorized publications of any one of his dramas, and
with other episodes of his life, it is difficult to resist the
conviction that he was indifferent to the posthumous
fate of his own writings. The editors of the first folio
speak, indeed, in a tone of regret at his death having
rendered a personal edition an impossibility ; but they
merely allude to this as a matter of fact or destiny,
and as a reason for the devolution of the task upon
themselves. They nowhere say, as they might naturally
have done had it been the case, that the poet himself
had meditated such an undertaking, or even that the
slightest preparations for it had been made during
the years of his retirement. They distinctly assure
us, however, that Shakespeare was in the habit of
furnishing them with the autograph manuscripts of his
plays, so that, if he had retained transcripts of them
for his own ultimate use, or had afterwards collected
them, it is reasonable to assume that they would have
used his materials and not been so careful to mention

222 OUTLINES.

that they themselves were the only gatherers. It may,
indeed, be safely averred that the leading facts in the case,
especially the apathy exhibited by the poet in his days of
leisure, all tend to the persuasion that the composition of
his immortal dramas was mainly stimulated by pecuniary
results that were desired for the realization of social
and domestic advantages. It has been frequently
observed that, if this view be accepted, it is at the
expense of investing him with a mean and sordid
disposition. This conclusion may well be questioned.
Literary ambition confers no moral grace, whilst its
possession, as it might in. Shakespeare's case, too
often jeopardizes the attainment of independence as
well as the paramount claims of family and kindred.
That a solicitude in these latter directions should
have predominated over vanity is a fact that should
enhance our appreciation of his personal character,
however it may affect the direct gratitude of posterity
for the infinite pleasure and instruction derived from
his writings.

There was a funeral as well as a marriage in the
family during the last days of Shakespeare. 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 dra
matist 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 comparatively recent period, and its prevalence
affected the traditional history of the poet's last illness.

OUTLINES.

223

The facts were these. Late in the March of this
calamitous year, or, accepting our computation, early in
April, Shakespeare and his two friends, Drayton and
Ben Jonson, were regaling themselves at an entertain
ment 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 returning 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, a day which, according
to our present mode of computation, would be the fifth
of May. The cause of the malady, then attributed to
undue festivity, would now be readily discernible in the
wretched sanitary conditions 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 deposited in the chancel, the selection of that
locality for the interment being due to the circumstance
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 doorway that opened to the latter, with
its antique corbels, still remaining. The sepulchre was

224 OUTLINES.

covered with a slab that bore the following inscription, —

GOOD FREND, FOR lESVS SAKE FORBEARS
TO DIGG THF. DVST ENCLOASED HEARE ;
BLESTE BE THE MAN THAT SPARES THES STONES,
AND CVRST BE HE THAT MOVES MY BONES.

277 lines which, according to an early tradition, were selected
by the poet himself for his epitaph. There is another

278 early but less probable statement that they were the
poet's own composition ; but, at all events, it may be
safely gathered that they originated in some way from a

302 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

279 been a tradition that Shakespeare's feelings on this sub
ject arose from a reflection on the ghastly appearance of
that receptacle, 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
congratulation that the simple verses should have pro
tected his ashes from sacrilege. The nearest approach
to an excavation into the grave of Shakespeare was
made in the summer of the year 1 796, in digging a vault
in the immediate locality, when an opening appeared
which was presumed to indicate the commencement 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 making an examina
tion. No relics whatever were visible through the small

OUTLINES. 225

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, 280
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 to unfold to the world the material abode
which once 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 Shakespeare 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 con
ceded to the poet's remains, have not been extended to
the tomb-stone. The latter had, by the middle of the
last century, sunk below the level of the floor, and,
about ninety 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 mischievous 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 Archbishop 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 house
hold effects, but not a fragment of this latter document
is known to be in existence. The testament itself 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, in its
present form, it is a manuscript prepared for engross
ment, and that the latter would have been subject to a
careful revision or even to the introduction of additional 2c4
matter. We may confidently assume that, if circum
stances had permitted it, a fair copy would not only
have been made before the execution, but that such

p 2

228 AFTER THE FUNERAL.

errors as those which are found in the statement of
295 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 perplexity. 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 testamentary
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 time of their marriage in a

142 small house on the west of the High Street, but a few
months afterwards he removed to a much larger one,

143 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

144 wife, and in which he was supported by the Corporation
and the leading inhabitants of the town. During the
early period 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

AFTER THE FUNERAL. 229

the office for a second term. His accounts for 1622-
1623 were singularly prefaced by a French motto that
speaks of the happiness of those who become wise through
the lessons taught by the sufferings of others, and, from
the official prominence given to the sentiment, it may
perhaps be inferred that there was a personal application
that would then have been generally understood. 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 attempt 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 145
and for encouraging tipplers in his shop. The history of
the remainder of his career is not pleasurable. Although
he still continued to be patronized by the local authorities,
prosperity had forsaken him, and he had to struggle
with a failing business for many years, until ultimately,
some time about the year 1652, he removed to the metro
polis. 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 146
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 147
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 148
attained the ripe age of seventy-seven.

230 AFTER THE FUNERAL.

The Halls, who were the executors and chief legatees

173 made New Place their established 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, was independent of
titles, for no country doctor ever achieved a greater

174 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, notwithstanding
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

175 religious tendencies in the direction of puritanism, and
these may have led to an indifference 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

176 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

177 the chancel of the parish church on the following day.
Favour was exhibited in the permission to select that
locality for the physician's interment, his share of the
tithe-lease having been disposed of long previously.
The concession was due either to the influence of his
son-in-law, who was one of the tithe-owners, or to the

•— 7

AFTER THE FUNERAL. 231

latter circumstance being taken to confer the special
burial-right on the whole family. However that may
be, 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 Mr. 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 in
cluded in this bequest. It may also perhaps be assumed
that there was a study at New Place 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 purposes of one, but, from the absence of all reference
to books in the will of 1 6 1 6, 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 probably that of 1595, are amongst the few volumes 77
that can be positively said to have been in his own
hands. In that age of common-place books it must not
be too hastily assumed that individual passages, such as

232 AFTER THE FUNERAL.

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

178 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 disturbed at
the notion of parting with any of the latter that had
been written by her husband, to whom she was warmly

179 attached. During the civil wars, about the year 1642, a
surgeon named James Cooke, attending in his professional
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 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 husband's, 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.

AFTER THE FUNERAL. 233

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,
however, 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 markswoman. Such an edu
cational defect would of course have passed unnoticed
in those days, and could not have affected the estimation
in which she was held for a high order of intelligence,
religious fervour 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 nere a teare to shed,

lines engraved, by the direction of some loving hand, on
the grave-stone that records her decease on July the i ith,
1 649. 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 endow
ments of her father, her hopes of salvation rested on a
Foundation that was independent of such gifts.

234

AFTER THE FUNERAL.

AFTER THE FUNERAL.

235

The only child of the Halls, Mistress Elizabeth as she
is described in the nuptial register, with the title usually
given in former 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 181
been personal friends of Shakespeare. Mrs. Nash be- 182
came a widow in 1647, but about two years afterwards 183
she married John Barnard, a gentleman of wealth and
position in the county of Northampton. Leaving no
issue by either husband, the lineal descent from the poet
terminated at her death in the year 1670. — There now
only remain to add a few notes on the ultimate destinies
of the Shakespearean estates.

In the year 1624 the poet's son-in-law, John Hall,
parted with the share in the tithes that had been pur- 257
chased from Huband in 1605. It formed a part of the
residuary estate. The land bought from the Combes,
the Henley Street property and New Place, continued in
the family until the death of the poet's last descendant, 219
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. 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. 274
This little estate remained in the possession of the Halls
at least down to the year 1633, but its subsequent descent,

236 AFTER THE FUNERAL.

until it is noticed as being in the hands of the Cloptons
early in the last century, is unknown.

25° The Blackfriars estate followed the succession of the
other properties until 1647, but then, or some few years
afterwards, it came to be treated as a fee-simple belonging
to Mrs. Barnard, who parted with it, either by sale or gift,
to her kinsman, Edward Bagley. The date of this trans
fer 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 Fetherston. 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
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 observance 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 inscription, 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 harmonized 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 been spared in its
preparation, but there is no display of vulgar ostenta
tion, the whole being admirably suited for the main
object of the design, the formation of a niche for the
reception 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

238 RECORDS OF AFFECTION.

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 satisfactory 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 Gerard Johnson, the son
of a native of Amsterdam who had settled in England
as "a tbmbe-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 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 imitation 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

RECORDS OF AFFECTION. 239

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 fragment 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
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 1861, 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 then taken was undoubtedly inju
dicious, it did not altogether obliterate 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 monument, 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 abhorrence, 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 community, the
transcendent literary merits of a dramatist. Upon a
rectangular tablet, placed below the bust, are engraven
the following lines, —

240 RECORDS OF AFFECTION.

IVDICIO PYLIVM, GENIO SOCRATEM, ARTE MARONEM,
TERRA TEGIT, POPVLVS M^RET, 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. >ETATIS 53. DIE 23. AP.

It is not likely that these verses were composed 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, com
pensated by the earliest recognition of the great dramatist
as the unrivalled interpreter of nature. With whom
quick Nature died ! The writer thus managed to 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 interfere with an appreciation of
her father's dramatic 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 acknowledgment of her
husband's literary eminence. But the pleasure derived
from these sentiments must have been impaired by the
violent antipathy entertained by large classes, in and near
Stratford-on-Avon, towards the stage and its votaries.

RECORDS OF AFFECTION. 241

'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
imprudent to permit the royal servants to depart without
a compensation for their unceremonious dismissal. They
were evidently regarded as a privileged company, for at
a Court Baron held in October, 1616, at the neighbour
ing 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, re
garded it as the memorial of one whose literary career
had, to say the least, been painfully useless to society.
A like fanaticism no doubt pervaded no insignificant
section of Londoners, but it was not sufficiently dominant
in the metropolis 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 metropolitan favour
shown to these works for some years after their author's
decease. The audiences of course required the produc
tion of a series of novelties, but it was an event, hitherto

Q

242 RECORDS OF AFFECTION.

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 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 acquaint
ance 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 appear
ance 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
published 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
Hemmings and Condell, then the leading proprietors
and managers of the Globe and Blackfriars theatres, and
281 the owners of most, if not all, of the Shakespearean
dramas. These estimable men, who are kindly remem
bered 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 compensated 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 number of compositions that had

RECORDS OF AFFECTION. 243

become obsolete. When, therefore, we find Hemmings
and Condell not only initiating and vigorously sup- 282
porting the design, but expressing their regret that
Shakespeare himself had not lived to direct the publica
tion, 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 Shake
speare?" What plausible reason can be given for not
accepting the literal truth of their description of them
selves as " a pair so careful to show their gratitude to
the dead," whether that gratitude were for extrinsic ser
vices, or for the benefits that the author's dramatic genius
had conferred 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. Hemmings and
Condell speak of themselves as mere gatherers, and it
is nearly certain that all that they did was to ransack
their dramatic 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 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 composition. But these circumstances

Q 2

244 RECORDS OF AFFECTION.

do not imply the absence of trouble and care, for their
searches must have extended over the accumulated play-
books of many years, and out of the thirty-six dramas
which they had collected, one-half had never been pub
lished in any shape. Authentic copies, however, of four
teen of the others, some probably by arrangement with
the managers, had appeared in printed quarto, and four
mutilated versions, that had been surreptitiously 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 mentioned 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 invested 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 agree
able 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 manuscripts after they had
been submitted to the tribunals just mentioned ; and
these manuscripts would again, especially at revivals,
have been liable to modifications suggested by the exi
gencies of the stage. Then there was the contingent

RECORDS OF AFFECTION.

245

probability of further variations being insisted upon at
rehearsals, and of other changes being enforced by
theatrical arrangements when the London prompt
copies were used in the provinces. In addition to
all these perils, there were those arising from the
occasional necessity 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 inserted scraps of paper.
So far, then, from being astonished at the textual
imperfections of the folio, we ought to be profoundly
thankful for what is, under the circumstances, its
marvellous state of comparative excellence. Hemmings
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 to be marred by the distorted texts
of Hamlet and Lear. There cannot, indeed, be a doubt
that, according to their lights, they expressed a sincere
conviction when they delivered the immortal dramas to
the public as being "absolute in their numbers, as he
(Shakespeare) conceived 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

246 RECORDS OF AFFECTION.

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 con
nected, 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 Shake
spearean theatres before their dissolution. There is,
moreover, perfect evidence in the first folio itself that
Hemmings 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 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 deserve to be very attentively
weighed. They speak volumes in favour of the opinion
that Hemmings and Condell executed their task con
scientiously. 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.

RECORDS OF AFFECTION. 247

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 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,
however, 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 produc
tions, — that in it he dramatized, in the interests of the
managers, a story unequivocally 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, Marlowe, then
perhaps the adverse opinion just mentioned may not
be so positively enunciated. Its little exhibition of
classical knowledge, obviously not beyond the powers of
a man of "small Latin," may be merely an example of
the fleeting taste which led him to the subjects of his
early poems ; while, as to the objections raised from
the metre, one can only suggest that the arbitrary limi
tation of an author's discretional fancy in his measures is
generally, as in this instance, beyond the range of practical
argument. It may be, however, that, to the adoption of
metrical forms presumed to suit the conduct of the
narrative, is owing some of the turgid and disagreeable
character of the production ; and as soon as its prose is

248 RECORDS OF AFFECTION.

substituted 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 subordinate 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 preservation of what may be termed the
'99 unity of character in each individual, that is to say, the
consistency of his traits of disposition and bearing with
themselves and with his actions.

The evidence of Meres, which is not only that of an
accomplished scholar giving his voluntary opinion within
five years from the appearance of Titus Andronicus, but
also that of one who has faithfully recorded so many
other literary facts, ought to satisfy us that there is
no alternative but to receive that drama as one of the
genuine works of Shakespeare. Upon what true prin
ciple can we at this day undertake to reject, on our own
judgments, the testimony of an Elizabethan witness upon
one Shakespearean declaration at the same moment that
we unhesitatingly accept it in respect to all the others ?
It is also obvious that while, on the one hand, neither
Meres, nor Hemmings, nor Condell entertained the
remotest suspicion that the tragedy could ever be con
sidered 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

RECORDS OF AFFECTION. 249

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 Hem-
mings 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 managerial
capacity, referring to the singularly few corrections that
they had observed in the autograph manuscripts which
he had originally delivered to them for the use of the
theatre.

There is but one more subject involving the authority
of Hemmings and Condell that 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," observes Ben Jonson, " have often men
tioned 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 refashioned 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

250 RECORDS OF AFFECTION,

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 art by elaborate revision,
additional scenes and expansions of character. But this
notion, like some others now in vogue, can only be ac-
120 cepted by those who consider it decorous or reasonable
to allow modern opinions to supersede, in matters of
fact, the direct testimony of Shakespeare's own personal
friends.

If the latter had not volunteered, in affectionate remem
brance 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 possesses, 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 conspicuous an object in the
title-page. The Stratford 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. But in like manner as there have
arisen in these days critics who, dispensing altogether
with the old contemporary evidences, can enter so per-

RECORDS OF AFFECTION. 251

fectly into all the vicissitudes of Shakespeare's intellectual
temperament that they can authoritatively identify at a
glance every line that he did write, and, with equal pre
cision, 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 recognise in an old curiosity
shop the dramatic visage that belonged to the author of
Hamlet. Lowlier votaries can only bow their heads in
silence.

SHAKESPEARE'S WILL.

There are several erasures and interlineations in this document
which render it difficult to convey to the reader's mind an exact idea
of the original ; but if he will 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 able to derive a tolerably clear impression of this valuable
record

Vicesimo quinto die [Januarii] Martii, anno regni domini nostri
Jacobi, nunc regis Anglie, &c. decimo quarto, et Scotie xlix° annoque
Domini 1616.

T. Wmi. Shackspeare. — In the name of God, amen ! I William
Shackspeare, of Stratford upon Avon in the countie of Warr. gent., in
perfect health and memorie, God be praysed, doe make and ordayne
this my last will and testament in manner and forme followeing, that
ys to saye, First, I comend my soule into the handes of God my
Creator, hoping and assuredlie beleeving, through thonelie merittes of
Jesus Christe 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 discharge
of her marriage porcion within one yeare after my deceas, with con-
sideracion 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 discend or
come unto her after my deceas, or that shee nowe hath, of, in or to,
one copiehold tenemente with thappurtenaunces lyeing and being in
Stratford-upon-Avon aforesaied in the saied countie of Warr., being
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
myexecutours to® paie her consideracion from my deceas according

254 SHAKESPEARE'S WILL.

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 l.li. shall
remaine amongst the children of my saied sister equallie to be devided
amongst them ; but if my saied daughter Judith be lyving att thend
of the saied three yeares, or anie yssue of her bodye, then my will ys
and soe I devise and bequeath the saied hundred and fyftie poundes
to be sett out by my executours and overseers for the best benefitt of her
and her issue, and the stock not to be paied unto her soe long as she
shalbe marryed and covert baron [by my executours and overseers] ;
but my will ys that she shall have the consideracion yearelie paied
unto her during her lief, and, after her deceas, the saied stock and
consideracion to bee paied to her children, if she have anie, and if not,
to her executours or assignes, she lyving the saied terme after my
deceas, Provided that if such husbond, as she shall att thend of the
saied three yeares be marryed unto, or att anie after®, doe sufficientlie
assure unto her and thissue of her bodie landes awnswereable to the
porcion by this my will gyven unto her, and to be adjudged soe by
my executours and overseers, then my will ys that the saied clli. 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.li. and all
rny wearing apparrell, to be paied and delivered within one yeare after
my deceas ; and I doe will and devise unto her the house with thappur-
tenaunces 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, fyve

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 direccions 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.s-

SHAKESPEARE 'S WILL. 255

viij.d- [in gold] ; and to my fellowes, John Hemynges, Richard Burbage,
and Henry Cundell, xxvj.s- viijd- a peece to buy them ringes. Item, I
gyve, will, bequeath and devise, unto my daughter Susanna Hall, for
better enabling of her to perform? this my will, and towardes the per-
fonnans thereof, all that capitall messuage or tenemente, with thappur-
tenaunces, 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 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 lyeing 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 fourth [sonne], fyfth, sixte, and seaventh sonnes of her bodie
lawfullie issueing one after another, and to the heires males of the
bodies of the saied fourth, fifth, sixte, and seaventh sonnes lawfullie
yssueing, in such manner as yt ys before lymitted to be and remaine
to the first, second and third sonns of her bodie, and to their
heires males, and for defalt of such issue, the saied premisses to be
and remaine to my sayed neece Hall, and the heires males of her
bodie lawfullie yssueing, and for defalt of such issue, to my daughter
Judith, and the heires males of her bodie lawfullie issueinge, and for
defalt of such issue, to the right heires of me the saied William
Shackspeare for ever. Item, I gyve 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

256 SHAKESPEARE'S WILL.

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.

Witnes to the publishing hereof, — Fra : Collyns ; Julius Shawe ;
John Robinson ; Hamnet Sadler ; Robert Whattcott.

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
i 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
documents of the Shakespearean period, the letters ff at the commence
ment of a word merely stand for a capital F, and that it is not always
possible to decide whether a transcriber of that time intended or 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 may be noticed the frequent impossi
bility of deciding between the relative appearances of the u and the w.

4 In copies of a few 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 particular with literal accuracy,
excepting that it has not as a rule been thought advisable to retain
either italics or the long s.

5. The orthography of old Latin documents is generally followed,
e.g., e for ^, capud for caput, set for sed, nichil for nihil, &c. In the
Latin as well as in the English extracts errors which are obviously
merely clerical ones are occasionally 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 variations in different copies of the same
edition.

THE LATER THEATRES.

The following are copies of documents which relate to the Blackfriars and Globe
Theatres, the establishments with which the great dramatist was specially connected
in the later period of his metropolitan career.

/. Deed of Feoffment from Sir William More of Loseley, co. Surrey, to Jarnei
Burbage, 4 February, 1596, conveying to the latter that portion of a large house in
Blackfriars which was aftemuards converted by him into a theatre.

This indenture made the fourth daye of Februarie, in the eighte and thirtyth yeare
of the raigne of our Soveraigne lady Elizabeth, by the grace of God Queene of
Englande, Fraunce and Irelande, Defender of the Fayth, &c., betwene Sir William
More of Loseley in the county of Surrey, knight, of thone partye, and James Burbage
of Hollowell in the countye of Middlesex, gentleman, of thother partye, Witnesseth
that the said Sir William More, for and in consideracyon of the some of sixe
hundreth poundes of lawful 1 money of England to him by the said James Burbage at
and before thensealinge of theis presentes truelye payd, whereof and wherewith he,
the said Sir William More, dothe acknowledge and confesse himselfe fully satysfied and
paid, and thereof and of every parte thereof doth cleirely acquite and discharge the
said James Burbage, his heyres, executors and administrators, and every of them, by
theis presentes hath bargayned, sold, alyened, enfeoffed and confirmed, and by theis
presentes doth fully and cleirelye bargaine, sell, alyen, enfeoffe and confirme to the
said James Burbage, his heires and assignes, for ever, all those seaven greate upper
romes as they are nowe devided, beinge all uppon one flower and sometyme beinge
one greate and entire rome, with the roufe over the same covered with lead ; together
also with all the lead that doth cover the same seaven greate upper roemes, and also
all the stone stayres leadinge upp unto the leades or roufe over the said seaven
greate upper romes out of the said seaven greate upper romes ; and also all the greate
stone walles and other walles which doe enclose, devide and belonge to, the same
seaven greate upper romes ; and also all that greate payre of wyndinge stayres, with
the stayre-case thereunto belongeinge, which leadeth upp unto the same seaven greate
upper romes out of the greate yarde there which doth lye nexte unto the Pype Office ;
which said seaven greate upper romes were late in the teanure or occupacyon of
William de Lawne, Doctor of Phisick, or of his assignes, and are scituate, lyeinge
and beinge within the prescincte of the late Blackfryers Preachers nere Ludgate in
London ; together also with all the waynescott, glasse, dores, lockes, keyesand boltes
to the same seaven greate upper romes and other the premisses by theis presentes
bargayned and sold incident or apperteyninge, or beinge fixed or fastened thereunto ;
togeather also with the easemente and commoditie of a vaulte beinge under some
parte of the sayde seaven greate upper romes, or under the entrye or voyde rome
lyeinge betwene those seaven greate upper romes and the sayde Pipe Office, by a stole
and tonnell to be made into the same vault in and out of the greate stone wall in
the ynner side thereof next and adjoyneinge to the said entry or voide rome, beinge
towardes the south ; and alsoe all those romes and lodginges, with the kitchin thereunto
adjoyninge, called the Midle Romes or Midle Stories, late beinge in the tenure or
occupacion of Rocco Bonnetto, and nowe beinge in the tenure or occupacyon of
Thomas Bruskett, gentleman, or of his assignes, conteyninge in length fyftie twoo foote

R 2

260 THE LATER THEATRES.

of assize more or lesse, and in bredith thirtie seaven foote of assize more or lesse, lyeing
and beinge directlye under parte of those of the sayd seaven greate upper romes which lye
westwardes ; which said Mydle Romes or Mydle Stories doe extende in length south-
wardes to a parte of the house of Sir George Gary, knight ; and also all the stone walks
and other walles which doe enclose, devide and belonge to, the same Midle Romes or
Midle Stories, together alsoe with the dore and entrey which doe lye nexte unto the
gate entringe into the house of the said Sir George Gary, and used to and from the said
Midle Romes or Midle Stories out of a lane or waye leadinge unto the house of the sayd
Sir George Gary, with free waye, ingres, egres and regres, into and from the said
Midle Romes or Midle Stories in, by and through the waies nowe used to the said house
of the said Sir George Gary ; and also all those twoo vaultes or sellers late beinge in
thoccupacyon of the said Rocco Bonnetto, lyeinge under parte of the said Midle Romes
or Midle Stories at the north end thereof, as they are nowe devided, and are nowe in
the teanure or occupacion of the said Thomas Bruskett and of John Favor, and are
adjoyneinge to the twoo lytle yardes nowe in thoccupacyons of Peter Johnson and of the
sayd John Favor, together also with the stayres leadinge into the same vaultes or cellers
out of the foresaid kitchen in thoccupacyon of the said Thomas Bruskett ; and also all
those two uppei romes or chambers with a lyttle butterey at the north end of the said
seaven greate upper romes and on the weste side thereof, nowe being in thoccupacyon
of Charles Bradshawe, together with the voyd rome, waye and passage, nowe thereunto
used from the said seaven greate upper romes ; and also all those twoo romes or loftes
now in thoccupacion of Edward Merry, thone of them lyeinge and beinge above or over
the said two upper romes or chambers in thoccupacion of the said Gharles Bradshawe,
and on thest and north parte thereof, and havinge a chimney in it, rjid thother of them
lieinge over parte of the foresaid entrey or voyde rome next the loresaid Pipe Office,
together with the stayres leadinge from the foresaid romes in thoccupacion of the
foresaid Charles Bradshawe upp unto the foresaid two romes in thoccupacyon of the
said Edward Merry ; and also all that lytle rome now used to laye woode and coles in,
being aboute the midle of the said stayers westwardes, which said litle rome laste
mencyoned is over the foresaid buttrey nowe in thoccupacyon of the sayd Charles
Bradshawe, and is now in thoccupacyon of the said Charles Bradshawe ; and also all
that rome or garrett lyeinge and beinge over the said twoo romes or loftes laste before
mencyoned in thoccupacyon of the said Edward Merry, together with the dore, entrye,
void grounde, waye and passage and stayres leadinge or used to, with or from the said
romes in thoccupacyon of the said Edward Merry up unto the said rome or garrett over
the said twoo romes in thoccupacyon of the said Edward Merrie ; and also all those twoo
lower romes, now in thoccupacyon of the said Peter Johnson, lyinge directlye under
parte of the said seaven greate upper romes ; and also all those twoo other lower romes
or chambers nowe beinge also in the tenure or occupacion of the said Peter Johnson,
being under the foresaid romes or chambers in thoccupacyon of the said Charles Brad
shawe ; and also the dore, entry, waye, voyd grounde and passage leadinge and used to
and from the said greate yard next the said Pipe Office into and from the said fouer lower
romes or chambers ; and also all that litle yard adjoyneinge to the said lower romes as
the same is nowe enclosed with a bricke wall, and nowe beinge in thoccupacyon of the
said Peter Johnson, which said foure lower romes or chambers and litle yard doe
lye betwene the said greate yard nexte the sayd Pipe Office on the north parte, and an
entery leadinge into the messuage which Margaret Pooley, widdow, holdeth for terme
of her lyefe, nowe in the occupacyon of the said John Favor, on the west parte, and a
wall devidinge the said yard now in thoccupacyon of the said Peter Johnson and the
yard nowe in thoccupacion of the said John Favor on the south parte ; and also the
stayres and staire-case leadinge from the said litle yard nowe in thoccupacyon of the
sayde Peter Johnson up unto the foresaid chambers or romes nowe in thoccupacyon of
I he said Charles Bradshawe; and alsoe all that litle yard or peice of void granule,

THE LA TER THE A TRES.

with the bricke wall thereunto belongeinge, lyeinge and beinge nexte the Queenes
highewaye leadinge unto the ryver of Thamis, wherein an old privy nowe standeth, as
the same is nowe enclosed with the same bricke wall and with a pale, next adjoyneinge
to the house of the said Sir William More, nowe in thoccupacyon of the right honorable
the Lord Cobham, on the east parte, and the streete leadinge to the Thamys there on
the west parte, and the said yarde nexte the said Pipe Office on the south parte, and
the house of the saide Lorde Cobham on the north parte, — All which premisses before
in theis presentes mencyoned to be hereby bargayned and sold are scituate, lyeinge
and beinge, within the saide prescincte of the said late Blackfryers Preachers ;
together also with all libertyes, priveledges, lightes, watercourses, easementes, com
modities and appurtenaunces to the foresaid romes, lodginges and other the premisses
before in theis presentes mencyoned to be hereby bargained and sold belongeinge or in
any wyse apperteyninge. And also the sayd Sir William More, for the consyderacyon
afbresayd, hath bargayned, sold, alyened, enfeoffed and confirmed, and by theis
presentes doth bargayne, sell, alyen, enfeoffe and confirme unto the said James
Burbage, his heires and assignes for ever, free and quiett ingres, egres and regres, to
and from the streete or waye leadeing from Ludgate unto the Thamys over, uppon and
thoroughe, the same greate yarde next the said Pipe Office by the wayes nowe there
unto used into and from the sayde seaven greate upper romes, and all other the
premisses before in and by theis presentes mencyoned to be bargayned and sold, and
to and from every or any parte or parcell thereof, together alsoe with free libertye
for the said James Burbage, his heires and assignes, to laye and discharge his and
their wood, cole and all other carriages, necessaries and provisions, in the same greate
yarde laste before mencyoned for conveniente tyme, untill the same maye be taken and
carried awaie from thence unto the premisses before by theis presentes mencyoned to
be bargayned and sold, and so from tyme to tyme and at all tymes hereafter the sayd
James Burbage, his heyres and assignes, leavinge convenyent waies and passages to
goe and come in, uppon and throughe, the said greate yarde from tyme to tyme to and
from the said Pipe Office, and to and from the garden and other houses and romes of
the said Sir William More not hereby bargayned and sold out of the streete leadeinge
to the said ryver of Thamys, so that the said wood, cole, carriages and provisyons so
layed and discharged in the said yarde last mencyoned by the said James, his heyres
or assignes, be removed and avoided out of and from the said yarde within three dayes
next after it shal be broughte thither, without fraude or further delaye. And further,
the said Sir William More, for the consideracion aforesaid, doth by theis presentes
graunte, bargayne and sell, unto the said James Burbage, his heyres and assignes,
for ever, the revercyon and revercyons, remainder and remainders, of all and singuler
the premisses before by theis presentes mencyoned to be heareby bargained and sold,
and every parte and parcell thereof, excepte and reserved unto the said Sir William
More, his heyres and assignes, one rome or stole as the same is now made in and out
of the foresaide wall nexte the said entrey adjoyneinge to the said Pipe Office into the
foresaid vault. All which said seaven greate upper romes, and all other the pre
misses with thappurtenaunces above by theis presentes mencyoned to be bargayned
and sold, amonge others Sir Thomas Cawarden, knighte, deceased, late had to
him, his heyres and assignes, for ever, of the guifte and graunte of the late Kinge
of famous memorie Edwarde the Sixte, late Kinge of England, as in and by his
letters Patentes under the Greate Scale of Englande, beareinge date at Westminster
the twelveth daye of Marche, in the fourth yeare of his raigne, more at lardge
appeareth ; and all which said premisses above by theis presentes mencyoned to
be bargayned and sold, the said Sir Thomas Cawarden, in and by his last will and
testamente in writing, beareinge date in the daye of St., Barthilmew the appostle in
the yeare of our Lord God, 1559, amonges other thinges dyd will and declare his
intente to be that his executors, with the consente of his overseers, should have full

262 THE LA TER THE A TRES.

power and aucthoritye to bargaine sell and alyen for the performance of his said last
will and testamente ; and also in and by the same his said laste will and testamente
dyd ordeyne and make dame Elizabeth his then wyef and the said Sir William More,
by the name of William More of Loseley, in the county of Surrey, esquier, executors
of his said last will and testamente, and Thomas Blagrave and Thomas Hawe over
seers of the same, as in and by his said last will and testament more at large appereth ;
and all which premisses above mencyoned to be hereby bargayned and sold, amonges
others, the said Dame Elizabeth Cawarden and William More, executors of the said
laste will and testament, by and with thassent, consent, agreement and advise, of the
said Thomas Hawe and Thomas Blagrave, overseers of the said last will, in accom-
plyshment thereof dyd bargayne and sell unto John Byrche, gentleman, John Awsten
and Richard Chapman, and their heyres for ever, as in and by their deed indented of
bargaine and sale thereof made, beareinge date the twentith day of December in the
second yere of the raigne of our said soveraigne lady the Queenes Majestic that nowe
is, and enrolled in her Majesties High Courte of Chauncerie more at lardge appeareth;
and all which said premisses with thappurtenaunces above mencioned to be hereby
bargayned and sold amonges others, the said John Birche, John Awsten, and Richard
Chapman, did by their deed indented of bargaine and sale, beareinge date the twoo
and twentith daie of December in the said second yere of the raigne of our said
Soveraigne lady the Queenes Majestye that nowe is, bargaine and sell to the said Dame
Elizabeth Cawarden and Sir William More and their heires for ever, as in and by the
same deed indented of bargaine and sale last above recited, and also enrolled in her
Majesties said Highe Courte of Chancery, more at lardge also appeareth ; which said
Dame Elizabeth is longe sithence deceased, by reason whereof all and singuler the
same premisses, in and by theis presentes mencyoned to be hereby bargayned and sold,
are accrued and come unto the said Sir William More and his heires by righte of
survivorshippe ; To have and to hold all the said romes, lodginges, cellers, vaultes,
stayres, yardes, waies, and all and singuler other the premisses, with all and singuler
their appurtenaunces before in theis presentes mencyoned to be hereby bargained and
sold, excepte before excepted, to the said James Burbage his heires and assignes
for ever, to the onelye use and behoofe of the said James Burbage his heires and
assignes for evermore. And the said Sir William More doth covenaunte and graunte
for himself, his heires, executors and administrators, to and with the said James
Burbage, his heires and assignes, by theis presentes, that he, the said Sir William
More, is and standeth, at the tyme of thensealinge and deliverye of theis presentes,
lawfully and absolutelye seysed of the sayd romes, lodginges, yardes, and of all and
singuler other the premisses in and by these presentes mencyoned to be bargayned
and sold, in his demeasne as of fee simple, and that the sayd romes, lodginges, cellers,
vaultes, stayres, yardes, and all and singuler other the premisses before in and by
these presentes mencyoned to be hereby bargayned and sold, excepte before excepted,
the daye of the date heareof are and at all tymes, and from tyme to tyme for ever heare-
after, shall stande, contynue and remayne to the said James Burbage, his heyres and
assignes, for ever, cleirely acquited, exonerated and dischardged, or els by the said
Sir William More, his heyres, or assignes, uppon reasonable requeste thereof to him or
them made by the sayd James Burbage, his heyres or assignes, sufficyently saved or
kepte harmeles of and from all former bargaynes, sales, guiftes, grauntes, joynctures,
dowers, leases, estates, anuytyes, rentes-charclge, arrerages of rentes, statutes mer-
chaunte and of the staple, recognizaunces, judgmentes, execucyons, yssues, fees, fynes,
amercyamentes, and of and from all other chardges, tytles, troubles and incomber-
aunces whatsoever had, made, comitted or done by the sayd Sir William More and by
the foresaid Sir Thomas Cawarden, knighte, deceased, or by eyther of them, or by any
other person or persons, by, with or under, their or any of their estate, righte, tytle,
assente, consente, acte, meanes or procurement e. And alsoe that he, the sayde James

THE LATER THEATRES. 263

Burbage, his heyres and assignes, shall or maye from henceforthe for ever peacebly
and quietlye have, hold, occupye, possesse, enjoye and keepe, all the sayd romes,
lodginges, cellars, yardes, and all and singuler other the premisses, with the appurte-
naunces, before by these presentes mencyoned to be hereby bargayned and sould, and
every parte and parcell thereof, excepte above excepted, without any lett, treble,
vexacyon, eviccyon, recoverye, interupcyon or contradiccion of the sayd Sir William
More his heyres or assignes, or of any of them, and without any lawfull lett, troble,
vexacyon, eviccion, recoverye or interrupcyon of any other person or persons whatso
ever lawefullye haveinge or claymeinge, or which heareafter shall lawefully have or
clayme, any estate, righte, tytle or interest in or to the said romes, lodginges, and all
other the premisses before by these presentes mencyoned to be bargayned and sold, or
in or to any parte or parcell thereof, by, from or under, the sayd Sir William More
and Sir Thomas Cawarden, or any of them, or their or either of their estate, righte,
tytle or interest. And the said Sir William More dothe alsoe covenaunte and
graunte, for himselfe, his heyres, executors and assignes, to and with the said James
Burbage, his heyres and assignes, by these presentes, that he the said Sir William
More and his heyres shall and will from tyme to tyme, duringe the space and terme of
three yeres next ensueinge after the date heareof, at or uppon reasonable requeste
thereof to him or them or any of them to be made by the said James Burbage, his
heyres or assignes or any of them, well and truelye doe knowledge, execute, cause and
suffer to be made, done and executed, all and every such further acte and actes, thinge
and thinges, devise and devises, assuraunce and assurances, in the lawe whatsoever
for the further and more better assurance, suertye and more suer makeinge, of the
sayd romes, lodginges and all other the premisses with the appurtenaunces before in
these presentes mencyoned to be hereby bargayned and sold unto the sayd James
Burbage, his heyres and assignes for ever, to thonlye use and behoofe of the sayd James
Burbage his heyres and assignes for evermore, be it by deed or deedes indented or inrolled,
or not inrolled, thinrollment of theis presentes, fyne, feoffement, recoverye with single or
double voucher, releas, confirmacion or otherwise, with warrantie onelye of the sayd Sir
William More and his heyres againste him the sayd Sir William More and his heires,
or all or as many of theis wayes or meanes or any other, as by the said James Burbage,
his heyres or assignes or any of them, or by his or their or any of their learned counsell
in the lawe, shal be reasonably advised or devised and required, at thonely costes and
chardges in the lawe of the sayd James Burbage, his heyres or assignes, so as the same
assurance or assuraunces in forme aforesaid, to be had and made by the sayd Sir William
More or his heyres, to the said James Burbage his heyres or assigns, doe not comprehend
in them or any of them any furder or greater warrantie then onely againste the said Sir
William More and his heyres, and the heyres of the sayd Sir Thomas Cawarden •- and so
as the sayd Sir William More and his heyres, or any of them, be not compelled to travell
in person any furder then to the cittyes of London and Westminster, or any of them, for
the makeinge, knowledginge or executeinge, of the sayd assurances in. forme aforesaid to
be had or made. And furthermore the sayd Sir William Ike/re doth by theis presentes
aucthorize, nominate and appointe, George Austen, gentleman, and Henrye Smyth,
merchantaylor, to be his lawefull deputyes and attorneys joynctly and severallye for
him and in his name to enter into all the sayd romes, lodginges, cellers, and other the
premisses before in theis presentes mencyoned to be hereby bargayned and sold, and
into every parte thereof, and peaceable possession and seazen thereof for him and in
his name to take, and after such possessyon and season thereof so had and taken, to
delyver possessyon and seazon thereof, and of every parte thereof, unto the sayd James
Burbage, his heires and assignes, accordinge to the purporte, effecte, true intente and
meaninge of theis presentes ; and all and whatsoever his said attorneys, or either of
them, shall by vertue of theis presentes doe or cause to be done in his name in
execucion of the premisses, he the sayd Sir William More and his heyres shall and will

264 THE LA TER THE A TRES.

ratifye, confirme and allowe, by theis presentes. In witnes whereof the partyes firste
above named to theis indentures sonderlye have sett their scales the daye and yeare
firste above written.

//. A Petition to the Privy Council from the inhabitants of the Blackfriars,
November, fjy6, against the theatre -which was then about to be established by Burbage
in that locality. From the State Papers, Domest. Eliz. , cclx. 116, This manuscript
is not the original Petition, but an undated copy of it made in or about the year /6j/, as
is ascertained by a comparison of the handwriting with that in transcripts of other
documents in the State Papers, Dom. Char. /., ccv. 32. The date of the original is
shown by the Order of 1619 given hereafter.

To the right honorable the Lords and others of her Majesties most honorable
Privy Councell, — Humbly shewing and beseeching your honors, the inhabitants of the
precinct of the Blackfryers, London, that whereas one Burbage hath lately bought
certaine roomes in the same precinct neere adjoyning unto the dwelling houses of the
right honorable the Lord Chamberlaine and the Lord of Hunsdon, which romes the
said Burbage is now altering and meaneth very shortly to convert and turne the same
into a comon playhouse, which will grow to be a very great annoyance and trouble,
not only to all the noblemen and gentlemen thereabout inhabiting but allso a generall
inconvenience to all the inhabitants of the same precinct, both by reason of the great
resort and gathering togeather of all manner of vagrant and lewde persons that, under
cullor of resorting to the playes, will come thither and worke all manner of mischeefe,
and allso to the greate pestring and filling up of the same precinct, yf it should please
God to send any visitation of sicknesse as heretofore hath been, for that the same
precinct is allready growne very populous ; and besides, that the same playhouse is so
neere the Church that the noyse of the drummes and trumpetts will greatly disturbe
and hinder both the ministers and parishioners in tyme of devine service and
sermons ; — In tender consideracion wherof, as allso for that there hath not at any
tyme heretofore been used any comon playhouse within the same precinct, but that
now all players being banished by the Lord Mayor from playing within the Cittie by
reason of the great inconveniences and ill rule that followeth them, they now thincke
to plant themselves in liberties ; — That therfore it would please your honors to take
order that the same roomes may be converted to some other use, and that no playhouse
may be used or kept there ; and your suppliants as most bounden shall and will dayly
pray for your Lordships in all honor and happines long to live. Elizabeth Russell,
dowager ; G. Hunsdon ; Henry Bowes : Thomas Browne ; John Crooke ; William
Meredith ; Stephen Egerton ; Richard Lee ; . . . Smith ; William Paddy ;
William de Lavine ; Francis Hinson ; John Edwards ; Andrew Lyons ; Thomas
Nayle ; Owen Lochard ; John Robbinson ; Thomas Homes ; Richard Feild ;
William Watts; Henry Boice ; Edward Ley; John Clarke; William Bispham ;
Robert Baheire ; Ezechiell Major ; Harman Buckholt j John Le Mere ; John Dollin ;
Ascanio de Renialmire ; John Wharton.

///. Contract between Henslowe and Allen, on the one Part, and Peter Street,
Carpenter, on the other Part, Jor the erection by the latter of the Fortune Theatre near
Golden Lane, January 8th, 1599-1600. From the oi-iginal preserved at Dulwick
College, being the one executed by Street in a monogram of his initials, and endorsed, —
" Peater Streat, for the building of the Fortune." This document incidentally reveals
to some extent the nature of the construction of the Globe Theatre.

This Indenture made the eighte daie of Januarye, 1599, and in the twoe and
fortyth yeare of the reigne of our sovereigne ladie Elizabeth, by the grace of God
Queene of England, Fraunce and Irelande, defender of the faythe, &c., betwene Phillipp
Henslowe and Edwarde Allen of the parishe of Sainte Saviours in Southwark, in the

THE LATER THEATRES. 265

countie of Surrey, gentlemen, on th'one parte, and Peeter Streete cittizein and
carpenter of London, on th'other parte, — Witnesseth that, whereas the saide Phillipp
Henslowe and Edward Allen the daie of the date hereof have bargayned, compounded
and agreed with the saide Peter Streete for the erectinge, buildinge, and settinge upp
of a newe howse and stadge for a plaie-howse, in and uppon a certeine plott or parcell
of grounde appoynted oute for that purpose, scytuate and beinge nere Goldinge Lane
in the parishe of Sainte Giles withoute Cripplegate of London ; to be by him the
saide Peeter Streete, or somme other sufficyent woorkmen of his provideinge and
appoyntemente, and att his propper costes and chardges, for the consideracion here
after in theis presentes expressed, made, erected, builded and sett upp, in manner and
forme followeinge ; that is to saie, the frame of the saide howse to be sett square, and
to conteine fowerscore foote of lawfull assize everye waie square withoute, and fittie
five foote of like assize square everye waie within, with a good, suer, and stronge
foundacion of pyles, brick, lyme, and sand, bothe withoute and within, to be wroughte
one foote of assize att the leiste above the grounde ; and the saide frame to conteine
three stories in heighth, the first or lower storie to conteine twelve foote of lawfull
assize in heighth, the seconde storie eleaven foote of lawfull assize in heigth, and the
third or upper storie to conteine nyne foote of lawfull assize in height. All which
stories shall conteine twelve foote and a half of lawfull assize in breadth througheoute,
besides a juttey forwardes in eyther of the saide twoe upper stories of tenne ynches of
lawfull assize ; with fower convenient divisions for gentlemens roomes, and other
sufficient and convenient divisions for twoe-pennie roomes ; with necessarie seates to
be placed and sett as well in those roomes as througheoute all the rest of the galleries
of the saide howse ; and with suche like steares, conveyances, and divisions, withoute
and within, as are made and contryved in and to the late erected plaie-howse on the
Banck, in the saide parishe of Sainte Saviours, called the Globe ; with a stadge and
tyreinge-howse to be made, erected and sett upp within the saide frame ; with a
shadowe or cover over the saide stadge ; which stadge shal be placed and sett, as alsoe
the stearecases of the saide frame, in suche sorte as is prefigured in a plott thereof
drawen ; and which stadge shall conteine in length fortie and three foote of lawfull
assize, and in breadth to extende to the middle of the yarde of the saide howse ; the
same stadge to be paled in belowe with good stronge and sufficyent newe oken bourdes,
and likewise the lower storie of the saide frame withinside, and the same lower storie
to be alsoe laide over and fenced with stronge yron pykes ; and the saide stadge to be
in all other proporcions contryved and fashioned like unto the stadge of the saide
plaie-howse called the Globe ; with convenient windowes and lightes glazed to the
saide tyreinge-howse. And the saide frame, stadge, and stearecases to be covered
with tyle, and to have a sufficient gutter of lead, to carrie and convey the water frome
the coveringe of the saide stadge, to fall backwardes. And alsoe all the saide frame
and the stairecases thereof to be sufficyently enclosed withoute with lathe, lyme and
haire. And the gentlemens roomes and twoe-pennie roomes to be seeled with lathe,
lyme and haire ; and all the flowers of the saide galleries, stories and stadge to be
oourded with good and sufficyent newe deale bourdes of the whole thicknes, wheare
leede shal be. And the saide howse, and other thinges before mencioned to be made
and doen, to be in all other contrivitions, conveyances, fashions, thinge and thinges,
effected, finished and doen, accordinge to the manner and fashion of the saide howse
called the Globe ; saveinge only that all the princypall and maine postes of the saide
frame, and stadge forwarde, shal be square and wroughte palaster-wise, with carved
proporcions called satiers to be placed and sett on the topp of every of the same postes ;
and saveinge alsoe that the saide Peter Streete shall not be chardged with anie manner
of paynteinge in or aboute the saide frame, howse, or stadge, or anie parte thereof, nor
rendringe the walls within, nor seelinge anie more or other roomes then the gentlemens
roomes, twoe-pennie roomes and stadge, before remembred. Nowe theereuppon the

266 THE LATER THEATRES.

saide Peeter Streete dothe covenaunte, promise and graunte for himself, his executors
and administrators, to and with the saide Thillipp Henslowe and Edward Allen, and
either of them, and the'xecutors and administrators of them, and either of them, by theis
presentes, in manner and forme followeinge, that is to saie : that he the saide Peeter
Streete, his executors or assignes, shall and will, at his or their owne propper costes
and chardges, well, woorkmanlike and substancyallie make, erect, sett upp and fully
finishe in and by all thinges, accordinge to the true meaninge of theis presentes, with
good, stronge and substancyall newe tymber and other necessarie stuff, all the saide
frame and other woorkes whatsoever in and uppon the saide plott or parcell of grounde,
beinge not by anie aucthoretie restrayned, and haveinge ingres, egres and regres to doe
the same, before the fyve and twentith daie of Julie next commeinge after the date
hereof ; and shall alsoe, att his or theire like costes and chardges, provide and finde
all manner of woorkemen, tymber, joystes, rafters, boordes, dores, boltes, hinges,
brick, tyle, lathe, lyme, haire, sande, nailes, leede, iron, glasse, woorkmanshipp and
other thinges whatsoever, which shal be needeful, convenyent and necessarie for the
saide frame and woorkes and everie parte thereof ; and shall alsoe make all the saide
frame in every poynte for scantlinges lardger and bigger in assize then the scantlinges
of the timber of the saide newe erected howse called the Globe. And alsoe that
he the saide Peeter Streete shall furthwith, as well by himself as by suche other
and soe manie woorkmen as shal be convenient and necessarie, enter into and uppon
the saide buildinges and woorkes, and shall in reasonable manner proceede therein,
withoute anie wilfull detraccion, untill the same shal be fully effected and finished.
In consideracion of all which buildinges, and of all stuff and woorkemanshipp thereto
belonginge, the saide Phillipp Henslowe and Edwarde Allen, and either of them, for
themselves, theire and either of theire executors and administrators, doe joynctlie
and severallie covenaunte and graunte to and with the saide Peeter Streete, his executors
and administrators, by theis presentes, that they, the saide Phillipp Henslowe and
Edward Allen, or one of them or the executors, administrators or assignes of them or
one of them, shall and will well and truelie paie or cawse to be paide unto the saide
Peeter Streete, his executors or assignes, att the place aforesaid appoynted for the
erectinge of the saide frame, the full somme of fower hundred and fortie poundes of
lawfull money of Englande, in manner and forme followeinge ; that is to saie, att
suche tyme and whenas the tymber woork of the saide frame shal be raysed and sett
upp by the saide Peeter Streete, his executors or assignes, or within seaven daies then
next followeinge, twoe hundred and twentie poundes : and att suche time and whenas
the saide frame and woorkes shal be fullie effected and fynished as is aforesaide, or
within seaven daies then next followeinge, th'other twoe hundred and twentie poundes,
withoute fraude or coven. Provided allwaies, and it is agreed betwene the saide
parties, that whatsoever somme or sommes of money the saide Phillipp Henslowe and
Edward Allen, or either of them, or the executors or assignes of them or either of
them, shall lend or deliver unto the saide Peter Streete, his executors or assignes, or
anie other by his appoyntemente or consent, for or concerninge the saide woorkes or
anie parte thereof, or anie stuff thereto belonginge, before the raizeinge and settinge
upp of the saide frame, shal be reputed, accepted, taken and acccumpted in parte of the
firste paymente aforesaid of the saide somme of fower hundred and fortie poundes;
and all suche somme and sommes of money as they, or anie of them, shall as aforesaid
lend or deliver betwene the razeinge of the saide frame and finishinge thereof, and of
all the rest of the saide woorkes, shal be reputed, accepted, taken and accoumpted in
parte of the laste paymente aforesaid of the same somme of fower hundred and fortie
poundes ; anie thinge above-said to the contrary notwithstandinge. In witnes whereof
the parties above-said to theis present presente indentures interchaungeably have sett
theire handes and scales. Yeoven the daie and yeare firste above-written.

THE LATER THEATRES. 267

IV. An Order of the Lords of the Privy Council "for the restrainte of the {moderate
use and Companye of Play e hawses and Players" June 22nd, 1600. From the original
Register of the Privy Council. There is another transcript of this Order preserved in
the archives of the City of London. In the latter copy the word too is in the place of so
in the second line of the third paragraph. This is the only variation -worthy of notice.

Whereas divers complaintes have bin heretofore made unto the Lordes and others
of her Majesties Privye Counsell of the manyfolde abuses and disorders that have
growen and do contynue by occasion of many houses erected and employed in and
about the cittie of London for common stage-playes, and now verie latelie by reason
of some complainte exhibited by sundry persons againste the buyldinge of the like
house in or near Golding-lane by one Edward Allen, a servant of the right honorable
the Lord Admyrall, the matter as well in generaltie touchinge all the saide houses for
stage-playes and the use of playinge, as in particular concerninge the saide house now
in hand to be buylte in or neare Goldinge-lane, hath bin broughte into question and
consultacion amonge their Lordships ; forasmuch as it is manifestly knowen and
graunted that the multitude of the saide houses and the mys-government of them hath
bin and is dayly occasion of the ydle, ryotous and dissolute living of great nombers of
people, that, leavinge all such honest and painefull course of life as they should
followe, doe meete and assemble there, and of many particular abuses and disorders
that doe thereupon ensue ; and yet, nevertheles, it is considered that the use and
exercise of such playes, not beinge evill in ytself, may with a good order and modera-
cion be suffered in a well-governed state, and that her Majestic, beinge pleased at
somtymes to take delight and recreation in the sight and hearinge of them, some
order is fitt to be taken for the allowance and mayntenaunce of such persons as are
thought meetest in that kinde to yealde her Majestic recreation and delighte, and
consequently of the houses that must serve for publike playinge to keepe them
in exercise. To the ende, therefore, that both the greate abuses of the playes and
playinge-houses may be redressed, and yet the aforesaide use and moderation of them
retayned, the Lordes and the reste of her Majesties Privie Counsell, with one and
full consent, have ordered in manner and forme as followeth, —

Firste, — that there shal be aboute the Cittie two houses and no more allowed to
serve for the use of the common stage-playes, of the which houses one shal be in
Surrey in that place which is commonly called the Banckeside or theraboutes, and the
other in Middlesex. And forasmuch as their Lordships have bin enformed by Edmund
Tylney, Esqr., her Majesties servante and Master of the Revells, that the house nowe
in hand to be builte by the saide Edward Allen is not intended to encrease the nomber
of the playhouses, but to be insteede of another, namely the Curtayne, which is ether
to be ruyned and plucked downe or to be put to some other good use, as also that the
scytuation thereof is meete and convenient for that purpose, it is likewise ordered that
the saide house of Allen shal be allowed to be one of the two houses and namely for
the house to be allowed in Middlesex for the company of players belonging to the
Lord Admirall, so as the house called the Curtaine be, as it is pretended, either
ruynated or applyed to some other good use. And for the other house allowed to be
on Surrey side, whereas their Lordships are pleased to permitt to the company of
players that shall play there to make their owne choice which they will have of divers
houses that are there, choosing one of them and no more, and the said company of
plaiers, being the servantes of the Lord Chamberlain, that are to play there, have made
choise of the house called the Globe, it is ordered that the saide house and none other
shal be there allowed ; and especially it is forbidden that any stage-playes shal be
played, as sometymes they have bin, in any common inne for publique assembly in or
neare aboute the Cittie.

Secondly, — forasmuch as these stage-plaies, by the multitude of houses and company
of players, have bin so frequent, not servinge for recreation but invitinge and callinge

268 THE LATER THEATRES.

the people dayly from their trade and worke to myspend their tyme, it is likewise
ordered that the two severall companies of players assigned unto the two houses
allowed may play each of them in their severall house twice a weeke and no oftener,
and especially they shall refrayne to play on the Sabbath-day upon paine of impryson-
ment and further penaltie ; and that they shall forbeare altogether in the tyme of Lent,
and likewise at such tyme and tymes as any extraordinary sicknes or infection of
disease shall appeare to be in or about the cittie.

Thirdly, — because these orders wil be of little force and eflecte unlesse they be
duely putt in execution by those unto whome it appertayneth to see them executed, it
is ordered that severall copies of these orders shal be sent to the Lord Maior of London
and to the Justices of the Peace of the counties of Middlesex and Surrey, and that
lettres shal be written unto them from their Lordships straightly charginge them to see
to the execucion of the same, as well by commyttinge to prison any owners of play
houses and players as shall disobey and resist these orders as by any other good and
lawfull meanes that in their discretion they shall finde expedient, and to certifie their
Lordships from tyme to tyme as they shall see cause of their proceedinges heerein.

V. The Letter from the Lords of the Privy Council to the Justices of the Peace for
the County of Surrey, June 22nd, 1600, referred to in the preceding Order. From the
original Register of the Privy Council.

By occasion of some complaintes that of late have bin made unto us of the multi
tude of houses servinge for common stage-playes in and aboute the Cittie of London,
and of the greate abuses and disorders growen by the overmuch haunte and resorte of
many licentious people unto those houses and places, we have entred into considera-
cion of some fitt course to be taken for redresse of the saide disorders by suppressing
dyvers of those houses, and by some restrainte of the imoderate use of the plaies, for
which cause wee have sett downe certaine orders to be duely henceforth observed and
kept, a copy whereof we sende yow here inclosed, and have sent the like to the Lord
Maior of London and to the Justices of the Peace of Middlesex ; but as wee have done
our partes in prescribinge the orders, so, unlesse yow perfourme yours in lookinge to the
clue execution of them, we shall loose our labor, and the wante of redresse must be
imputed unto yow and others unto whome it apperteyneth ; and, therefore, wee doe
hereby authorize and require you to see the saide orders to be putt in execucion and to
lie continued, as yow do wish the amendement of the aforesaide abuses and will remove
the blame thereof from yourselves.

VI. A Letter from the Lords of the Council to the Lord Mayor of London in reply
to a complaint made by the latter of the number of play 'houses, ji December, 1601. From
the Privy Council Register.

Wee have receaved a lettre from yow renewing a complaint of the great abuse and
disorder within and about the cittie of London by reason of the multitude of play-howses,
and the inordinate resort and concourse of dissolute and idle people daielie unto
publique stage-plaies ; for the which information, as wee do commende your Lordship
because it betokeneth your care and desire to reforme the disorders of the Cittie, so wee
must lett yow know that wee did muche rather expect to understand that our order sett
downi and prescribed about a yeare and a half since, for reformation of the said
disorders upon the like complaint at that tyme, had bin duelie executed, then to finde
the same disorders and abuses so muche encreased as they are. The blame whereof,
as wee cannot but impute in great part to the Justices of the Peace or some of them in
the counties of Middlesex and Surrey, who had speciall direction and charge from us
to see our said Order executed for the confines of the Cittie, wherein the most part of
those play-howses are scituate, so wee do wishe that it might appeare unto us that
any thing hath bin endeavoured by the predecessors of yow the Lord Maior, and by

THE LATER THEATRES. 269

yow, the Aldermen, for the redresse of the said enormities and for observation and
execution of our said Order within the Cittie. Wee do therefore once againe renew
hereby our direction unto yow, as wee have donne by our lettres to the justices of
Middlesex and Surrey, concerninge the observation of our former Order, which wee
do praie and require yow to cause duelie and dilligentlie to be put in execution for
all poyntes thereof, and especiallie for the expresse and streight prohibition of any
more playhowses then those two that are mentioned and allowed in the said Order ;
charging and streightlie commanding all suche persons as are the owners of any
the howses used for stage-plaies within the Cittie not to permitt any more publique
plaies to be used, exercised or shewed, from hencefoorth in their said howses, and
to take bondes of them, if yow shall finde it needeful, for the perfourmaunce
thereof ; or if they shall refuse to enter into bonde or to observe our said Order,
then to committ them to prison untill they shall conforme themselves thereunto. And
so praying yow, as yourself do make the complaint and finde the enormitie, so to applie
your best endeavour to the remedie of the abuse, wee bidd, &c.

VII. A Letter from the Lords of the Council to the Magistrates of Surrey and Middle
sex, severely censuring them for not having enforced the Order of June ', 1600, and
desiring them to amend their negligence without delay. From the Privy Council
Register, 31 December, 1601.

Two lettres of one tenour to the Justices of Middlesex and Surrey. It is in vaine
for us to take knowledg of great abuses and disorders complayned of and to give order
for redresse, if our directions finde no better execution and observation then it seemeth
they do, and wee must needes impute the fault and blame thereof to yow or some of
yow, the Justices of the Peace, that are put in trust to see them executed and
perfourmed ; whereof wee may give yow a plaine instance in the great abuse contynued
or rather encreased in the multitude of plaie-howses and stage-plaies in and about
the cittie of London. For whereas about a yeare and a half since, upon knowledge
taken of the great enormities and disorders by the over-much frequentinge of plaies, wee
did carefullie sett downe and prescribe an order to be observed concerninge the number
of play-howses and the use and exercise of stage-plaies, with lymytacion of tymes and
places for the same, namely, that there should be but two howses allowed for that use,
one in Middlesex called the Fortune and the other in Surrey called the Globe, and the
same with observacion of certaine daies and times, as in the said order is particularly
expressed, in such sorte as a moderate practice of them for honest recreation might be
contynued and yet the inordinate concourse of dissolute and idle people be restrayned ;
wee do now understande that our said order hath bin so farr from taking dew effect,
as, insteede of restrainte and redresse of the former disorders, the multitude of play
howses is much encreased, and that no daie passeth over without many stage-plaies in
one place or other within and about the Cittie publiquelie made ; the default of
perfourmance of which our said order we must in greate parte the rather impute to the
Justices of the Peace, because at the same tyme wee gave earnest direction unto yow to
see it streightly executed and to certifie us of the execution, and yet we have neither
understoode of any redresse made by yow, nor receaved any certificate at all of your
proceedinges therein, which default or omission wee do now pray and require you forth
with to amende, and to cause our said former order to be putt duely in execution ; and
especiallie to call before you the owners of all the other play-howses, excepting the two
howses in Middlesex and Surrey aforementioned, and to take good and sufficient bondes
of them not to exercise, use or practise, nor to suffer from henceforth to be exercised,
used or practized, any stage-playinge in their howses, and, if they shall refuse to enter
into such bondes, then to comitt them to prison untill they shall conforme themselves.
And so, &c.

276 THE LATER THEATRES.

VIII. A Letter from the Lords of the Council to the Lord Alayor of London and
the Magistrates of Surrey and Middlesex, desiring them to sanction performances at the
Globe, Fortune and Curtain Theatres, April, 1604. From a contemporary transcript
preserved at Dulwich College.

After our hartie . . . Wheras the Kings Majesties Plaiers have given . . .
highnes good service in ther quallitie of playinge, and for as much lickwise as they are
at all times to be emploied in that service whensoever they shal be commaunded, we
thinke it therfore fitt, the time of Lent being now past, that your Lordship doe
permitt and suffer the three companies of plaiers to the King, Queene and Prince,
publicklie to exercise ther plaies in ther severall and usuall howses for that purpose
and noe other ; viz., the Globe scituate in Maiden Lane on the Banckside in the
countie of Surrey, the Fortune in Goldinge Lane, and the Curtaine in Hollywelle in
the cowntie of Midlesex, without any lett or interrupption in respect of any former
Lettres of Prohibition heertofore written by us to your Lordship, except ther shall
happen weeklie to die of the plague above the number of thirtie within the Cittie of
London and the Liberties therof, att which time wee thinke itt fitt they shall cease and
forbeare any further publicklie to playe untill the sicknes be againe decreaced to the
saide number ; and so we bid your Lordship hartilie farewell. From the Court at
Whitehalle, the ix.th of Aprill, 1604. — Your very loving Frends, — Nottingham ;
Suffolk ; Gill: Shrowsberie ; Ed: Worster ; W. Knowles ; J. Stanhopp.

To our verie good L. the Lord Maior of the Cittie of London, and to the Justices
of the Peace of the Counties of Middlesex and Surrey.

IX. "A Sonnett vpon the pittifull burneing of the Globe playhowse in London."
First printed by Haslewood, under his customary pseudonym, in the Gentleman's
Magazine, 1816, and there said to have been " copied from an old manuscript volume of
poems" Doubts having been suggested respecting the genuineness of this poem, it is
important to stale that the present edition of it is taken from a manuscript of the early
part of the seventeenth century, of unquestionable authenticity, preserved in the library
of Sir Mat hew Wilson, Bart., of Eshton Hall, co. York.

Now sitt the downe, Melpomene, «= Wrapt in a sea-cole robe,
And tell the dolefull tragedie, =That late was playd at Globe ;
For noe man that can singe and saye
Was scard on St. Peters daye.

Oh sorrow, pittifull sorrow, and yett all this is true.

All yow that please to understand, = Come listen to my storye,
To see Death with his rakeing brand = Mongst such an auditorye ;
Regarding neither Cardinalls might,
Nor yett the rugged face of Henry the eight. — Oh sorrow, &c.

This fearfull fire beganne above, = A wonder strange and true,
And to the stage-howse did remove, = As round as taylors clewe ;
And burnt downe both beame and snagg,
And did not spare the silken flagg. — Oh sorrow, &c.

Out runne the knightes, out runne the lordes, = And there was great adoe ;
Some lost their hattes, and some their swordes ; = Then out runne Burbidge too ;
The reprobates, thoughe druncke on munday,
Prayd for the Foole and Henry Condye. — Oh sorrow, &c.

The perrywigges and drumme-heades frye, = Like to a butter firkin ;
A wofull burneing did betide = To many a good buffe jerkin.

THE LA TER THE A TRES,

Then with swolne eyes, like druncken Flemminges,
Distressed stood old stuttering Heminges. — Oh sorrow, &c.

Noe shower his raine did there downe force = In all that sunn-shine weather,
To save that great renowned howse ; = Nor thou, O ale-howse, neither.
Had itt begunne belowe, sans double,
Their wives for feare — Oh sorrow, &c.

Bee warned, yow stage-strutters all, = Least yow againe be catched,

And such a burneing doe befall, = As to them whose howse was thatched ;

Forbeare your whoreing, breeding biles,

And laye up that expence for tiles. — Oh sorrow, &c.

Goe drawe yow a petition, = And doe yow not abhorr itt,
And gett, with low submission, = A licence to begg for itt
In churches, sans churchwardens checkes,
In Surrey and in Midlesex.

Oh sorrow, pittifull sorrow, and yett all this is true.

X. An Order by the Corporation of the City of London, dated January 21 st, 1618-19,
for the suppression of the Blackfriars Theatre. From the original entry recording the
proceedings of that day in a manuscript preserved in the City archives. There is an
early copy of this Order amongst the State Papers, Dom. Char. I., ecu. 32, which reads
in the sixth line, — " and that thereuppon their honnors."

Item, this day was exhibited to this Court a peticion by the constables and other
officers and inhabitantes within the precinct of Blackfryers, London, therein declaring
that in November, 1596, divers honorable persons and others, then inhabiting in
the said precinct, made knowne to the Lordes and others of the Privy Councell
what inconveniences were likely to fall upon them by a common playhowse then
preparing to be erected there, and that their honors then forbad the use of the said
howse for playes, and in June, 1600, made certaine orders by which, for many
weightie reasons therein expressed, it is limitted there should be only two playhowses
tolerated, whereof the one to be on the Banckside, and the other in or neare Golding
Lane, exempting thereby the Blackfryers ; and that a lettre was then directed from
their Lordships to the Lord Maior and Justices, strictly requiringe of them to see those
orders putt in execucion and so to be continued. And nowe, forasmuch as the said
inhabitantes of the Blackfryers have in their said peticion complayned to this court
that, contrarie to the said Lordes orders, the owner of the said playehowse within the
Blackfryers under the name of a private howse hath converted the same to a publique
playhowse, unto which there is daily so great resort of people, and soe great multitudes
of coaches, whereof many are hackney coaches bringing people of all sortes that some
times all their streetes cannot conteyne them, that they endanger one the other, breake
downe stalles, throw downe mens goodes from their shopps, hinder the passage of the
inhabitantes there to and from their howses, lett the bringing in of their necessary
provisions, that the tradesmen and shoppkeepers cannot utter their wares, nor the
passengers goe to the common water-staires without danger of their lives and lyms,
whereby manye times quarrells and effusion of blood hath followed, and the minister and
people disturbed at the administracionof the Sacrament of Baptisme and publique prayers
in the afteernoones ; whereupon, and after reading the said order and lettre of the
Lordes shewed forth in this Court by the foresaid inhabitauntes, and consideracion
thereof taken, this Court doth thinke fitt and soe order that the said playhowse be
suppressed, and that the players shall from henceforth forbeare and desist from playing in
that howse, in respect of the manifold abuses and disorders complayned of as aforesaid.

272 THE LATER THEATRES.

XL A Collection of Papers relating to Shares and Sharers in the Globe and
Blackfriars Theatres, 1635 ; from contemporary transcripts formerly preserved amongst
the official manuscripts of the Lord Chamberlain of the Household at St. James's
Palace. These documents have lately been transferred to our national Record Office.

(a) To the Right Honorable Philip Earle of Pembroke and Montgomery, Lord
Chamberlaine of His Majesties houshold, Robert Benefield, Heliard Swanston and
Thomas Pollard humbly represent these their grievances, ymploring his Lordships
noble favor towardes them for their reliefe. That the petitioners have a long time
with much patience expected to bee admitted sharers, in the playhouses of the Globe
and the Blackfriers, wherby they might reape some better fruit of their labours then
hitherto they have done, and bee encouraged to proceed therin with cheerfulnes.
That those few interested in the houses have, without any defalcacion or abatement
at all, a full moyety of the whole gaines ariseing therby, excepting the outer dores, and
such of the sayd houskeepers as bee actors doe likewise equally share with all the rest
of the actors both in th'other moiety and in the sayd outer dores also. — That out of
the actors moiety there is notwithstanding defrayed all wages to hired men, apparell,
poetes, lightes and other charges of the houses whatsoever, soe that, betweene the
gaynes of the actors, and of those few interessed as houskeepers, there is an
unreasonable inequality. — That the house of the Globe was formerly divided into sixteen
paries, wherof Mr. Cutbert Burbidge and his sisters had eight, Mrs. Condall four
and Mr. Hemings four. — That Mr. Tailor and Mr. Lowen were long since admitted
to purchase four partes betwixt them from the rest, vizt., one part from Mr.
Hemings, two partes from Mrs. Condall, and halfe a part a peece from Mr. Burbidge
and his sister. — That the three partes remaining to Mr. Hemings were afterwardes
by Mr. Shankes surreptitiously purchased from him, contrary to the petitioners
expectation, who hoped that, when any partts had beene to bee sold, they should
have beene admitted to have bought and divided the same amongst themselves for
their better livelyhood. — That the petitioners desire not to purchase or diminish any
part of Mr. Taylors or Mr. Lowens shares, whose deserveings they must acknowledge
to bee well worthy of their gaines, but in regard the petitioners labours, according to
their severall wayes and abilityes, are equall to some of the rest, and for that others of
the sayd houskeepers are neither actors, nor his Majesties servantes, and yet the
petitioners profit and meanes of livelyhood soe much inferior and unequall to theires,
as appeares before, they therfore desire that they may bee admitted to purchase for
their moneys, at such rates as have beene formerly given, single partes a peece onely
from those that have the greatest shares and may best spare them, vizt., that Mr.
Burbadge and his sister, haveing three partes and a halfe a peece, may sell them two
partes, and reserve two and a halfe a peece to themselves. And that Mr. Shankes,
haveing three, may sell them one and reserve two, wherin they hope your Lordship
will conceave their desires to bee just and modest ; the rather for that the petitioners,
not doubting of beeing admitted sharers in the sayd house the Globe, suffered lately
the sayd houskeepers, in the name of his Majesties servantes, to sue and obtaine a
decree in the Court of Requestes against Sir Mathew Brand for confirmation unto
them of a lease paroll for about nine or ten yeeres yet to come, which they could
otherwise have prevented untill themselves had beene made parties. — That for the
house in the Blackfriers, it beeing divided into eight partes amongst the aforenamed
housekeepers, and Mr. Shankes haveing two partes therof, Mr. Lowen, Mr. Taylor
and each of the rest haveing but one part a peece, which two partes were by the sayd
Mr. Shankes purchased of Mr. Heming, together with those three of the Globe as
before, the petitioners desire and hope that your Lordship will conceave it likewise
reasonable that the sayd Mr. Shankes may assigne over one of the sayd partes amongst
them three, they giveing him such satisfaccion for the same as that hee bee noe looser
therby.— Lastly, that your Lordship would to that purpose bee nobly pleased, as their

THE LA TER THEA TRES. 273

onely gracious refuge and protector, to call all the sayd houskeepers before you, and
to use your Lordships power with them to conforme themselves therunto ; the rather
considering that some of the sayd housekeepers, who have the greatest shares, are
neither actors nor his Majesties servantes as aforesayd, and yet reape most or the
chiefest benefitt of the sweat of their browes, and live upon the bread of their labours,
without takeing any paynes themselves. For which your petitioners shall have just
cause to blesse your Lordship, as however they are dayly bound to doe with the
devotions of most humble and obliged beadsmen.
Burbadge f

Shares
in the
Globe.

Robinson .
Condall .
Shankes .
Taylor
Lowen

of a lease of 9 yeeres from our

Lady Day last, 1635,
not yet confirmed by Sir Mathew
Brand to bee taken to feoffees.

Blackfryers. — Shankes, 2. Burbadge, I. Robinson, I. Taylor, I. Lowen, I.
Condall, i. Underwood, I.

(b) Court at Theoballes, 12 July, 1635. — Haveing considered this petition and
the severall answeres and replyes of the parties, the merites of the petitioners, the
disproportion of their shares, and the interest of his Majesties service, I have thought
fitt and doe accordingly order that the petitioners, Robert Benefield, Eyllcerdt
Swanston and Thomas Pollard, bee each of them admitted to the purchase of the
shares desired of the severall persons mentioned in the petition for the fower yeeres
remayning of the lease of the house in Blackfriers, and for five yeeres in that of the
Globe, at the usuall and accustomed rates, and according to the proportion of the
time and benefitt they are to injoy. And heerof I desire the houskeepers, and all
others whome it may concerne, to take notice and to conforme themselves therin
accordingly. The which if they or any of them refuse or delay to performe, if they
are actors and his Majesties servantes, I doe suspend them from the stage and all the
benefitt therof ; and if they are onely interessed in the houses, I desire my Lord
Privy Scale to take order that they may bee left out of the lease which is to bee made
upon the decree in the Court of Requestes. — P. AND M.

(c) Robert Benefield, Eyllardt Swanston, and Thomas Pollard doe further humbly
represent unto your Lordship. — That the houskeepers beeing but six in number, vizt.,
Mr. Cutbert Burbage, Mrs. Condall, Mr. Shankes, Mr. Taylor, Mr. Lowen and Mr.
Robinson (in the right of his wife), have amongst them the full moyety of all the
galleries and boxes in both houses, and of the tireing-house dore at the Globe. — That
the actors have the other moyety, with the outer dores ; but in regard the actors are
halfe as many more, vizt., nine in number, their shares fall shorter and are a great deale
lesse then the houskeepers ; and yet, not withstand ing out of those lesser shares the sayd
actors defray all charges of the house whatsoever, vizt., wages to hired men and boyes,
musicke, lightes, &c., amounting to 900 or loco li. per annum or theraboutes, beeing
3 li. a day one day with another ; besides the extraordinary charge which the sayd
actors are wholly at for apparell and poetes, &c.— Wheras the sayd houskeepers out
of all their gaines have not till our Lady Day last payd above 65 /*'. per annum rent
for both houses, towardes which they rayse betweene 20 and 30 li. per annum from the
tap-howses and a tenement and a garden belonging to the premisses, &c., and are at
noe other charges whatsoever, excepting ihe ordinary reparations of the houses. — Soe
that upon a medium made of the gaynes of the howskeepers and those of the actors
one day with another throughout the yeere, the petitioners will make it apparent that
when some of the houskepers share 12 s. a day at the Globe, the actors share not
above 3 s. And then what those gaine that are both actors and houskeepers, and
have their shares in both, your Lordship will easily judge, and therby finde the
modesty of the petitioners suite, who desire onely to buy for their money one part a

S

274 THE LA TER THEA TRES.

peece from such three of the sayd houskepers as are fittest to spare them, both in
respect of desert and otherwise, vizt., Mr. Shankes one part of his three ; Mr.
Robinson and his wife, one part of their three and a halfe ; and Mr. Cutbert Burbidge
the like. — And for the house of the Blackfriers, that Mr. Shankes, who now injoyes
two partes there, may sell them likewise one, to bee divided amongst them three. —
Humbly beseeching your Lordship to consider their long sufferings, and not to permitt
the sayd howskeepers any longer to delay them, but to put an end to and settle the
sayd busines, that your petitioners may not bee any further troublesome or importunate
to your Lordship, but may proceed to doe their duty with cheerfullnes and alacritye.
— Or otherwise in case of their refusall to conforme themselves, that your Lordship
would bee pleased to consider whether it bee not reasonable and equitable that the
actors in generall may injoy the benefitt of both houses to themselves, paying the sayd
howskeepers such a valuable rent for the same as your Lordship shall thinke just and
indifferent. — And your petitioners shall continue their dayly prayers for your Lordships
prosperity and happines.

(d) The answere of John Shankes to the petition of Robert Benefield, Eyllardl
Swanston and Thomas Pollard, lately exhibited to the Right Honorable Philip, Earle of
Pembroke and Montgomery, Lord Chamberlin of his Majesties houshold, — Humbly
sheweth, — That, about allmost two yeeres since, your suppliant, upon offer to him
made by William Hemings, did buy of him one part hee had in the Blackfriers for
about six yeeres then to come at the yeerly rent of 6 K. 5 s. , and another part hee then
had in the Globe for about two yeeres to come, and payd him for the same two partes
in ready moneys 1 56 //'. , which sayd partes were offered to your suppliant, and were as
free then for any other to buy as for your suppliant. — That about eleven months since,
the sayd William Hemings, offering to sell unto your suppliant the remaining partes
hee then had, viz., one in the Blackfriers, wherin hee had then about five yeeres to
come, and two in the Globe, wherin hee had then but one yeere to come, your
suppliant likewise bought the same, and payd for them in ready moneys more 350 //'.,
all which moneys soe disbursed by your suppliant amount to 506 li. , the greatest part
wherof your suppliant was constrained to take up at interest, and your suppliant hath
besides disbursed to the sayd William Hemings diverse other small summes of money
since hee was in prison. — That your suppliant did neither fraudulently nor surreptitiously
defeat any of the petitioners in their hope of buying the sayd partes, neither would the
sayd William Hemings have sold the same to any of the petitioners, for that they would
not have given him any such price for the same, but would, as now they endeavour to doe,
have had the same against his will, and at what rates they pleased. — That your suppliant,
beeing an old man in this quality, who in his youth first served your noble father, and
after that, the late Queene Elizabeth, then King James, and now his royall Majestye,
and haveing in this long time made noe provision for himselfe in his age, nor for his
wife, children and grandchild, for his and their better livelyhood, haveing this opor-
tunity, did at deere rates purchase these partes, and hath for a very small time as yet
receaved the profiles therof, and hath but a short time in them, and is without any
hope to renew the same when the termes bee out ; hee therfore hopeth hee shall not bee
hindred in the injoying the profitt therof, especially whenas the same are thinges very
casuall and subject to bee discontinued, and lost by sicknes and diverse other wayes,

and to yield noe proffitt at all. — That wheras the petitioners in their complaint say that
they have not meanes to subsist, it shall by oath, if need bee, bee made apparent that
every one of the three petitioners for his owne particular hath gotten and receaved

this yeere last past of the summe of 180 //'., which, as your suppliant conceaveth, is a
very sufficient meanes to satisfie and answere their long and patient expectation, and
is more by above the one halfe then any of them ever gott, or were capable of elswhere,
besides what Mr. Swanston, one of them who is most violent in this busines, who hath

further had and receaved this last yeere above 34 li. for the profitt of a third part of

THE LA TER THE A TRES.

275

THE NEW GLOBE THEATRE, OPENED IN THE YEAR 1614.

S 2

276 THE LATER THEATRES.

one part in the Blackfriers which hee bought lor 20 //., and yet hath injoyed the same
two or three yeeres allready, and hath still as long time in the same as your suppliant
hath in his, who for soe much as Mr. Swanston bought for 20 //. your suppliant payd
60 //'. — That when your suppliant purchased his partes, hee had noe certainty therof
more then for one yeere in the Globe, and there was a chargeable suit then depend
ing in the Court of Requestes betweene Sir Mathew Brend, knight, and the lessees of
the Globe and their assignes, for the adding of nine yeeres to their lease in consideration
that they and their predecessors had formerly beeneat the charge of 1400/2. in building
of the sayd house upon the burning downe of the former, wherin, if they should
miscarry, for as yet they have not the assurance perfected by Sir Mathew Brend, your
suppliant shall lay out his money to such a losse as the petitioners will never bee
partners with him therin. — That your suppliant and other the lessees in the Globe
and in the Blackfriers are chargeable with the payment of 100 li. yeerly rent, besides
reparacions, which is dayly very chargeable unto them, all which they must pay and
Ijeare, whether they make any proffitt or nott, and soe reckoning their charge in build
ing and fitting the sayd houses, yeerly rent and reparations, noe wise man will
adventure his estate in such a course, considering their dealing with whome they have
to doe, and the many casualtyes and dayly troubles therwith. That in all the aflayres
and dealinges in this world betweene man and man, it was and is ever held an
inviolable principle that in what thing soever any man hath a lawfull interest and
property hee is not to bee compelled to depart with the same against his will, which
the complainantes endeavour. — And wheras John Heminges, the father of William
Hemings, of whome your suppliant made purchase of the sayd partes, injoyed the same
thirty yeeres without any molestacion, beeing the most of the sayd yeeres both player
and houskeeper, and after hee gave over playing diverse yeeres ; and his sonne, William
Hemings, fower yeers after, though hee never had anything to doe with the sayd stage,
injoyed the same without any trouble ; notwithstanding, the complainantes would
violently take from your petitioners the sayd partes, who hath still of his owne purse
supplyed the company for the service of his Majesty with boyes, as Thomas Pollard, John
Thompson deceased (for whome hee payed 40 //. ), your suppliant haveing payd his part
of 200 //'. for other boyes since his comming to the company, John Honiman, Thomas
Holcome and diverse others, and at this time maintaines three more for the sayd service.
Neither lyeth it in the power of your suppliant to satisfie the unreasonable demandes of
the complainantes, hee beeing forced to make over the sayd partes, for security of moneys
taken up as aforesayd of Robert Morecroft of Lincolne, his wifes uncle, for the
purchase of the sayd partes, untill hee hath made payment of the sayd moneys, which
hee is not able to doe unlesse hee bee suffered to injoy the sayd partes during the small
time of his lease, and is like to bee undone if they are taken from him. — All which
beeing considered, your suppliant hopeth that your Lordship will not inforce
your suppliant against his will to depart with what is his owne, and what hee hath
deerly payd for, unto them that can claime noe lawfull interest therunto. And your
suppliant, under your Lordships favour, doth conceave that if the petitioners, by those
their violent courses, may obtaine their desires, your Lordship will never bee at quiet
for their dayly complaintes, and it will bee such a president to all young men that
shall follow heerafter, that they shall allwayes refuse to doe his Majesty service unlesse
they may have whatsoever they will, though it bee other mens estates. And soe that
which they pretend shall tend to the better gouvernment of the company, and inabling
them to doe his Majesty service, the same will bee rather to the destruction of the
company, and disabling of them to doe service to his Majestye ; and besides, the
benefit! and profitt which the petitioners doe yeerly make without any charge at all
is soe good, that they may account themselves to bee well recompenced for their
labour and paines, and yet when any partes are to bee sould, they may buy the same
if they can gett the bargaine therof, paying for the same as others doe. — The humble

THE LA TER THE A TRES.

suite of your suppliant is that your honor will be pleased that hee may injoy that
which hee hath deerly bought and truly payd for, and your suppliant, as in duty hee is
bound, shall ever pray for your Lordship.

. (e) To the Right Honorable Philip Earle of Pembroke and Montgomery, Lord
Chamberlaine of his Majesties hottshold. — Right Honorable and our singular good
Lord. — Wee your humble suppliantes, Cutbert Burbage and Winifrid his brothers
wife, and William his sonne, doe tender to your honorable consideration for what
respectes and good reasons wee ought not in all charity to bee disabled of our lively-
hoodes by men soe soone shott up, since it hath beene the custome that they should
come to it by farre more antiquity and desert then these can justly attribute to them
selves. — And first, humbly shewing to your honor the infinite charges, the manifold
law-suites, the leases expiration, by the restraintes in sicknes times, and other acci-
dentes, that did cutt from them the best part of the gaines that your honor is informed
they have receaved. — The father of us, Cutbert and Richard Burbage, was the first
builder of playhowses, and was himselfe in his younger yeeres a player. The Theater
hee built with many hundred poundes taken up at interest. — The players that lived in
those first times had onely the profitts arising from the dores, but now the players
receave all the commings in at the dores to themselves and halfe the galleries from the
houskepers. Hee built this house upon leased ground, by which meanes the land
lord and hee had a great suite in law, and, by his death, the like troubles fell on us,
his sonnes ; wee then bethought us of altering from thence, and at like expence built
the Globe, with more summes of money taken up at interest, which lay heavy on us
many yeeres ; and to ourselves wee joyned those deserveing men, Shakspere, Hemings,
Condall, Philips and others, partners in the profittes of that they call the House, but
makeing the leases for twenty-one yeeres hath beene the destruction of ourselves and
others, for they dyeing at the expiration of three or four yeeres of their lease, the
subsequent yeeres became dissolved to strangers, as by marrying with their widdowes
and the like by their children. — Thus, Right Honorable, as concerning the Globe,
where wee ourselves are but lessees. Now for the Blackfriers, that is our inheritance ;
our father purchased it at extreame rates, and made it into a playhouse with great
charge and troble ; which after was leased out to one Evans that first sett up the
boyes commonly called the Queenes Majesties Children of the Chappell. In processe
of time, the boyes growing up to bee men, which were Underwood, Field, Ostler, and
were taken to strengthen the Kings service ; and the more to strengthen the service,
the boyes dayly wearing out, it was considered that house would bee as fitt for our
selves, and soe purchased the lease remaining from Evans with our money, and placed
men players, which were Hemings, Condall, Shakspeare, &c. And Richard Bur
bage, who for thirty-five yeeres paines, cost and labour, made meanes to leave his
wife and children some estate, and out of whose estate soe many of other players and
their families have beene mayntained, these new men, that were never bred from
children in the Kings service, would take away with oathes and menaces that wee
shall bee forced and that they will not thanke us for it ; soe that it seemes they would
not pay us for what they would have or wee can spare, which, more to satisfie your
honor then their threatning pride, wee are for ourselves willing to part with a part
betweene us, they paying according as ever hath beene the custome and the number
of yeeres the lease is made for. — Then, to shew your Honor against these sayinges,
that wee eat the fruit of their labours, wee referre it to your Honors judgement to
consider their profittes, which wee may safely maintaine, for it appeareth by their
owne accomptes for one whole yeere last past, beginning from Whitson Munday,
1634, to Whitson Munday, 1635, each of these com plainantes gained severally, as hee
was a player and noe howskeeper, 180 It. Besides Mr. Swanston hath receaved from
the Blackfriers this yeere, as hee is there a houskeeper, above 30 //., all which beeing
accompted together may very well keepe him from starveing.— Wherfore your honors

THE LATER THEATRES.

A Facsimile of those portions of the Lord Chamberlains
Manuscript in which the Burbages mention Shake
speare. From the original contemporary transcript
of the petition in the Public Record Office.

THE LA TER THE A TRES. 279

most humble suppliantes intreates® they may not further bee trampled upon then their
estates can beare, seeing how deerly it hath beene purchased by the infinite cost and
paynes of the family of the Burbages, and the great desert of Richard Burbage for his
quality of playing, that his wife should not sterve in hir old age ; submitting ourselves
to part with one part to them for valuable consideration and let them seeke further
satisfaccion elsewhere, that is, of the heires or assignes of Mr. Hemings and Mr. Condall,
who had theirs of the Blackfriers of us for nothing j it is onely wee that suffer con
tinually. — Therfore, humbly relyeing upon your Honorable charity in discussing their
clamor against us, wee shall, as wee are in duty bound, still pray for the dayly increase
of your honors health and happines.

(f) John Shankes. — A petition of John Shankes to my Lord Chamberlains, shewing
that, according to his Lordships order, hee did make a proposition to his fellowes for
satisfaccion, upon his assigening of his partes in the severall houses unto them ; but
they not onely refused to give satisfaccion, but restrained him from the stage ; that,
therfore, his Lordship would order them to give satisfaccion according to his propo
sitions and computation.

Md. all concerning this and h/;re ) Answered, vizt., I desire Sir H. Herbert and
entred were delivered annexed. j Sir John Finett, and my solliciter 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 equitable 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 convayances to
bee settled accordingly, and to give mee an account of their whole proceedinges in
writing. — Aug. I, 1635.

THE FOOL AND THE ICE.

When Ulysses tells his love-embarrassed colleague that "the fool
slides o'er the ice that you should break," the imagery is so peculiar, it
may be reasonably suspected that there is a reference to an extraneous
story or incident which was in the author's mind at the period of
composition. And if it can be shown that one of the latter alternatives
is probable, the allegory cannot be received as an original fancy without
the assumption of a very remarkable and unlikely coincidence. When,
therefore, it is found that there happened, in the poet's own day and at
a short distance from his native town, a somewhat remarkable event to
which the line spoken by Ulysses would perfectly apply, we may conclude
that Shakespeare was either present on the occasion or was familiar with
its details.

It happened one winter that the players of Lord Chandos of Sudeley
had been acting at Evesham, a town distant, by the then only main
road, about fifteen miles from Stratford-upon-Avon. Their performances
had been specially relished by Jack Miller, a native of the former place,
and one of the natural imbeciles in whose eccentricities our ancestors so
much delighted. He was, in fact, the popular Fool of the town and
neighbourhood, so that when he announced his intention of decamping
with his favourite performer, the clown, there was an anxiety on the
part of the inhabitants to frustrate the design. They wished him,
however, to have a last peep at the actors, so he was taken to the Hart
Inn, and there was locked up in a room whence he could see them when
they were on the road to their next quarters at Pershore, the Avon
flowing between that route and the apartment which was selected for
the temporary imprisonment. No one dreamt that further precautions
were necessary, for, although the water bore a coating of ice, the latter
was too thin for it to be considered possible that a boatless individual
would be able to pass over the river, even if he succeeded in escap
ing from the tavern. But no sooner did Jack get a sight of his pet
buffoon than, managing to alight to the ground from the window, he
scudded over the ice to the company, executing his venturesome feat,
to the utter amazement of them all, in perfect safety.

Amongst the members of the company witnessing the occurrence was
Robert Armin, who was aftei wards one of Shakespeare's own professional
colleagues. This individual subsequently made a collection of tales
respecting persons of the Jack Miller type, issuing it, in 1600, under the

282 THE FOOL AND THE ICE.

title of Foole Vpon Foole or Six Sortes of Sottes, a curious little tract
without the author's name, the writer simply describing himself as
Clonnico de Curtanio Snuffe, meaning, by this odd phrase, that he was
then filling the post of Clown at the Curtain Theatre. It was published
anonymously a second time in 1605, as the work of Clonnico del Mondo
Snuffe, in other words, the Clown at the Globe Theatre. When Armin,
however, re-edited it in 1 608 under the title of the Nest of Ninnies, he
then openly acknowledged the composition. The history of the above-
mentioned affair is introduced, in very nearly the same words, into all
three editions, the following copy of the account being taken, with a few
verbal corrections, from the first.

In the towne of Esom, in Worcestf.rsh., Jacke Miller, being there borne,
was much made of in every place. It hapned that the Lord Shandoyes
players came to towne and used their pastimes there ; which Jacke not a
little loved, especially the clowne, whome he would imbrace with a joy full
spirit, and call him Grumball, for so he called himself e in gentlemens houses,
where he would imitate playes, dooing all himself e, king, clowne, gentleman
and all; fiaving spoke for one, he would sodainly goe in, and againe returne
for the other ; and, stambring so beastly as he did, made mighty mirth : to
conclude, he was a right innocent without any villany at all. — When these
Players as I speake of had done in tJie towne, they went to Partiar, and
Jacke swore he would goe all the world over with Grumball, that he would.
It was then a great frost new begun, and the haven was frozen over thinly ;
but heere is the wonder ; — the gentleman that kept the Hart, an inne in the
towne whose backside looked to the way that led to the river-side to Partiar,
lockt up Jacke in a chamber next the haven, where he might see the players
passe by ; and they of the towne, loath to loose his company, desired to have
it so; but he, I say, seeing them goe by, creepes through the window, and
sayde, I come to thee, Grumball. The players stood all still to see further.
He got downe very daungerously, and makes no more adoe, but boldly
ventures over the haven, which is by the long bridge, as I gesse some forty
yardes over ; tut, — hee made nothing of it, but my heart aked to see it, and
my eares heard tJie ize cracke all the way. When fie was come unto
them I was amazed, and tooke up a brick-bat, which there lay by, and
threwe it, which no sooner fell upon the ize but it burst. Was not this
strange that afoole of thirty yeeres was borne of that ize which would not
indure the fall of a brick-bat ? — yes, if was wonderfull me thought, but
every one rated him for the deed, telling him it was daungerous. He
considered his fault, and, knowing faults should be punished, he entreated
Grumball the clowne, whom he so deerely loved, to whip him but with
rosemary, for that he thought wold not smart. But the players in jest
breecht him till the bloud came, which he tooke laughing, for it was his
manner ever to weepe in kindnes and laugh in extreames. That this is
true my eyes were witnesses, being then by.

THE FOOL AND THE ICE. 283

It is satisfactory to find that the truth of this narrative is well supported
by the accuracy of its references to the local details. The Hart Inn at
Evesham, which continued to be a tavern till quite recently, was situated
near the bridge over the Avon, and at a few doors beyond the house
now known as the Crown. A road that skirts the eastern bank of the
river is the one leading to Partiar, the yet local pronunciation of the
name of the town, and travellers on that highway would have been
distinctly visible to, and within a hearing distance of, spectators at those
back windows of the first-named tavern which were nearest to them.

The period of Jack's adventure is unknown. Armin speaks of himself
as having been in the service of the fourth Lord Chandos, who held the
title from 1594 to 1602, but this information is given in an address to
that nobleman's widow, so that it is not unlikely that the writer had been
one of the retainers of his lordship's predecessor. Throughout the reign
of Elizabeth the Chandos actors performed occasionally at least, if not
often, in Gloucestershire and the adjoining counties, and the glacial
exploit was perhaps a subject of local gossip. Shakespeare had also of
course the opportunity of hearing all about it from Armin himself, but
there is nothing to warrant a conjecture that he was an eye-witness of
the transaction, or one that he had ever joined, even for the briefest
period, the company that were astounded by the success of the perilous
transit.

THE RATSEY EPISODE.

" A pretty Prancke passed by Ratsey upon certaine Players that he met by chance
in an Inne, who deniett their owne Lord and Maister, and used another Noblemans
Name" This is the title of the following interesting chapter in Ratseis Ghost, here
taken from the unique copy of that work preserved in the library of Earl Spencer at
Althorp, co. Northampton. There is no date to this curious little quarto tract, but it
was entered at the Stationers Hall on May the 31 st, 1605. In all probability
Shakespeare is included amongst the players who are mentioned as having arrived in
London from the provinces in an impecunious condition, and aftenvards risen to wealth.
Gamaliell Ratsey and his company travailing up and downe the countrey, as they
had often times done before, per varios casus et tot discrimina rerum, still hazarding
their severall happes as they had severall hopes, came by chance into an inne where
that night there harbored a company of players ; and Ratsey, framing himselfe to an
humor of merriment, caused one or two of the chiefest of them to be sent for up into
his chamber, where hee demanded whose men they were, and they answered they
served such an honorable personage. I pray you, quoth Ratsey, let me heare your
musicke, for I have often gone to plaies more for musicke sake then for action ; for
some of you not content to do well, but striving to over-doe and go beyond yourselves,
oftentimes, by S. George, mar all ; yet your poets take great paines to make your parts
fit for your mouthes, though you gape never so wide. Other-some, I must needs
confesse, are very wel deserving both for true action and faire deliverie of speech, and
yet, I warrant you, the very best have sometimes beene content to goe home at night with
fifteene pence share apeece. Others there are whom Fortune hath so wel favored that,
what by penny-sparing and long practise of playing, are growne so wealthy that they
have expected to be knighted, or at least to be conjunct in authority and to sit with
men of great worship on the bench of justice. But if there were none wiser then I
am, there should more cats build colledges, and more whoores turne honest women,
then one before the world should be filled with such a wonder. Well, musicke was
plaide, and that night passed over with such singing, dauncing and revelling, as if my
Lord Prodigall hadde beene there in his ruines of excesse and superfluitie. In the
morning, Ratsey made the players taste of his bountie, and so departed. But everie
day hee had new inventions to obtaine his purposes, and as often as fashions alter, so
often did he alter his stratagems, studying as much how to compasse a poore mans
purse as players doe to win a full audience. About a weeke after, hee met with the
same players, although hee had so disguised himselfe with a false head of hayre and
beard that they could take no notice of him ; and lying, as they did before, in one
inne together, hee was desirous they should play a private play before him, which
they did not in the name of the former noblemans servants ; for, like camelions, they
had changed that colour ; but in the name of another, whose indeede they were, although
afterwardes, when he heard of their abuse, hee discharged them and tooke away his.
warrant. For being far off, for their more countenance they would pretend to be
protected by such an honourable man, denying their lord and maister, and comming
within ten or twenty miles of him againe, they would shrowd themselves under their
owne lords favour. Ratsey heard their play, and seemed to like that, though he
disliked the rest, and verie liberally out with his purse and gave them fortie shillings,

286 THE RA TSE Y EPISODE.

with which they held themselves very richly satisfied, for they scarce had twentie
shillings audience at any time for a play in the countrey. But Ratsey thought they
should not enjoy it long, although he let them beare it about them till the next day in
their purses ; for the morning beeing come, and they having packt away their luggage
and some part of their companie before in a waggon, discharged the house and followed
them presently. Ratsey intended not to bee long after, but having learned which way
they travailed, hee, being verie wel horsed and mounted upon his blacke gelding, soone
overtooke them ; and when they saw it was the gentleman that had beene so liberall
with them the night before, they beganne to doe him much courtesie and to greete his
late kindnesse with many thankes. But that was not the matter which he aymed at.
Therefore he roundly tolde them they were deceived in him, — hee was not the man
they tooke him for. I am a souldier, sayth he, and one that for meanes hath ventured
my fortunes abroade, and now for money am driven to hazard them at home ; I am not
to bee played upon by players ; therefore, be short, deliver mee your money ; I will
turne usurer now ; my fortie shillings againe will not serve without interest. They
beganhe to make many faces, and to cappe and knee, but all would not serve their
turne. Hee bade them leave off their cringing and complements and their apish
trickes, and dispatch ; which they did for feare of the worst, seeing to begge was
bootelesse ; and having made a desperate tender of their stocke into Ratseyes handes,
he bad them play for more, for, sayes hee, it is an idle profession that brings in much
profile, and every night where you come, your playing beares your charges and
somewhat into purse. Besides, you have fidlers fare,— meat, drink and mony. If
the worst be, it is but pawning your apparell, for as good actors and stalkers as you
are have done it, though now they scorne it ; but in any case heereafter be not
counterfaites ; abuse not honorable personages in using their names and countenance
without their consent and privitie ; and because you are now destitute of a maister, I
will give you leave to play under my protection for a senights space, and I charge you
doe it, lest, when I meet you again, I cut you shorter by the hams and share with you
in a sharper manner then I have done at this time. And for you, sirra, saies hee to
the chiefest of them, thou hast a good presence upon a stage ; methinks thou darkenst
thy merite by playing in the country. Get thee to London, for, if one man were dead,
they will have much neede of such a one as thou art. There would be none in my
opinion fitter then thyselfe to play his parts. My conceipt is such of thee, that I durst
venture all the mony in my purse on thy head to play Hamlet with him for a wager.
There thou shall learne to be frugall, — for players were never so thriflie as ihey are now
aboul London — and lo feed upon all men, lo let none feede upon Ihee ; lo make ihy hand
a slranger lo ihy pockel, ihy harl slow to performe thy tongues promise ; and when thou
feelesl thy purse well lined, buy thee some place or lordship in the country, that, growing
weary of playing, thy mony may there bring thee to dignitie and reputalion ; then thou
needest care for no man, nor nol for them thai before made Ihee prowd wilh speaking
Iheir words upon Ihe slage. Sir, I lhanke you, quolh Ihe player, for ihis good counsell ;
I promise you I will make use of it, for I have heard, indeede, of some lhal have gone
to London very meanly, and have come in time to be exceeding wealthy. And in
this presage and propheticall humor of mine, sayes Ratsey, kneele downe — Rise up,
Sir Simon Two Shares and a Halfe ; ihou arl now one of my knighls, and Ihe first
knight lhal ever was player in England. The nexl lime I meete thee, I must share
with thee againe for playing under my warranl, and so for ihis lime adiew. How ill
hee brooked ihis new knighlhood, which hee dursl nol bul accepl of, or liked his lale
counsell, which he losl his coine for, is easie lo be imagined ; but whether he met with
them againe, after the senights space that he charged them to play in his name, I have
not heard it reported.

THE ONLY SHAKE-SCENE.

/. From a little work entitled, — " Greens Groats-worth of Wit, bought with a Million
of Repentaunce. Describing the follie of youth, thefalshoode of make-shift flatterers, the
miserie of the negligent, and mischief es of deceiuing Courtezans. Written before before® his
death and published at his dying request. — Fcelicem fuisse infaustum. — London, — Printed
by Thomas Creede,for Richard Oliue, dwelling in long long® Lane, and are there to
be solde. 1596." This is the earliest edition known, but it was originally published in
1592, having been entered at Stationers Hall on the 2oth of September in that year.
The following is a copy of the writer's address — " To those Gentlemen, his Quondam
acquaintance, that spend their wits in making Plates, R. G. wisheth a better exercise,
and wisdome to preuent his extremities"

If wofull experience may moove you, gentlemen, to beware, or unheard of
wretchednes intreate you to take heed, I doubt not but you will looke backe with
sorrow on your time past, and endevour with repentance to spend that which is to
come. Wonder not, for with thee wil I first begin, thou famous gracer of tragedians, that
Greene, who hath said with thee, like the foole in his heart, there is no God, should
now give glorie unto His greatnesse ; for penitrating is His power, His hand lies
heavie upon me, He hath spoken unto me with a voice of thunder, and I have felt,
He is a God that can punish enimies. Why should thy excellent wit, His gift, be so
blinded, that thou shouldst give no glory to the giver ? Is it pestilent Machivilian
pollicie that thou hast studied ? O punish follie ! What are his rules but meere con
fused mockeries, able to extirpate in small time the generation of mankinde. For if
sic volo, sic jubeo, hold in those that are able to command ; and if it be lawfull, fas et
nefas, to doe anything that is beneficiall, onely tyrants should possesse the earth ; and
they, striving to exceede in tyranny, should each to other bee 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 ? 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 wilfull striving against knowne truth exceedeth 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 thee I joyne young Juvenall, that byting satyrist that lastlie withmee together
writ a comedie. Sweete 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 wel ; 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 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 thee ; and

288 THE ONLY SHAKE-SCENE.

were it not an idolatrous oth, I would sweare by sweet S. George thou art unworthie
better hap, sith thou dependest on so meane a stay. Base minded men al three of
you, if by my miserie ye be not warned ; for unto none of you, like me, sought those
burres to cleave ; those puppits, I meane, that speake from our mouths, those anticks
garnisht in our colours. Is it not strange that I, to whom they al have beene beholding,
is it not like that you to whome they all have beene beholding, shall, were ye in that
case that I am now, be both at once of them forsaken ? Yes, trust them not ; for there
is an upstart crow, beautified with our feathers, that, with his Tygers 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. O that I might intreate your rare wits to be imployed in
more profitable courses, and let those apes imitate your past excellence, and never more
acquaint them with your admired inventions ! I know the best husband of you all
will never prove an usurer, and the kindest of them all wil never proove a kinde
nurse ; yet, whilst you may, seeke you better maisters, for it is pittie men of such
rare wits should be subject to the pleasures of such rude groomes.

In this I might insert two more, that both have writ against these buckram
gentlemen ; but let their owne works serve to witnesse against their owne wickednesse,
if they persever to maintaine any more such peasants. For other new commers, I
leave them to the mercie of these painted monsters, who, I doubt not, will drive the
best minded to despise them ; for the rest, it skils not though they make a jeast at
them.

But now returne I againe to you three, knowing my miserie is to you no news ;
and let me heartily intreate you to bee warned by my harmes. Delight not, as I have
done, in irreligious oaths ; for from the blasphemers house a curse shall not depart.
Despise drunkennes, which wasteth the wit and making® men all equal unto beasts.
Flie lust, as the deathsman of the soule, and defile not the temple of the Holy Ghost.
Abhorre those epicures, whose loose life hath made religion lothsome to your eares ;
and when they sooth you with tearmes of maistership, remember Robert Greene,
whome they have often so flattered, perishes now for want of comfort. Remember,
gentlemen, your lives are like so many lighted tapers, that are with care delivered
to all of you to maintaine ; these with windpuft wrath may be extinguisht, which
drunkennes put out, which negligence let fall ; for mans time of itselfe is not so short,
but it is more shortened by sin. The fire of my light is now at the last snuffe, and the
want of wherewith to sustaine it ; there is no substance left for life to feede on. Trust
not then, I beseech yee, to such weake staies ; for they are as changeable in minde
as in many attires. Well, my hand is tired, and I am forst to leave where I would
begin ; for a whole booke cannot containe their wrongs which I am forst to knit up
in some few lines of words. — Desirous that you should live, though himself e be dying. —
Robert Greene.

II. The Preface to — " Kind-Harts Dreame. Conteining five Apparitions, with their
Inuectiues against abuses raigning. Deliuered by seuerall Ghosts vnto him to be
publisht, after Piers Penilesse Post had refused the carriage. — Inuita Inuidia. — by
H. C. — Imprinted at London for William Wright" This interesting work is undated,
but it was entered at Stationers Hall on December the 8th, 1592.

To the Gentlemen Readers. — It hath beene a custome, gentlemen, in my mind
commendable, among former authors, whose workes are no lesse beautified with
eloquente phrase than garnished with excellent example, to begin an exordium to the
readers of their time. Much more convenient I take it, should the writers in these
duies, wherein that gravitie of enditing by the elder exercised is not observ'd, nor that
modest decorum kept which they continued, submit their labours to the favourable
censures of their learned overseers. For seeing nothing can be said that hath not

THE ONLY SHAKE-SCENE. 289

been before said, the singularitie of some mens conceits, otherwayes exellent well
deserving, are no more to be soothed than the peremptorie posies of two very sufficient
translators commended. To come in print is not to seeke praise, but to crave pardon ;
I am urgd to the one, and bold to begge the other ; he that offendes, being forst, is
more excusable than the wilfull faultie ; though both be guilty, there is difference in
the guilt. To observe custome, and avoid, as I may, cavill, opposing your favors
against my feare, He shew reason for my present writing and after proceed to sue for
pardon. About three moneths since died M. Robert Greene, leaving many papers in
sundry bookesellers hands, among other his Groats worth of Wit, in which a letter,
written to divers play-makers, is offensively by one or two of them taken ; and because
on the dead they cannot be avenged, they wilfully forge in their conceites a living
author ; and after tossing it two and fro, no remedy but it must light on me. How I
have all the time of my conversing in printing hindred the bitter inveying against
schollers, it hath been very well knowne ; and how in that I dealt, I can sufficiently
proove. With neither of them that take offence was I acquainted, and with one of
them I care not if I never be. The other, whome 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 scene 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 writting, that aprooves his art. For the
first, whose learning I reverence, and, at the perusing of Greenes booke, stroke out
what then in conscience I thought he in some displeasure writ ; or, had it beene true,
yet to publish it was intolerable ; him I would wish to use me no worse than I deserve.
I had onely in the copy this share ; — it was il written, as sometimes Greenes hand was
none of the best ; licensd it must be ere it could bee printed, which could never be if
it might not be read. To be breife, I writ it over ; and, as neare as I could, followed
the copy ; onely in that letter I put something out, but in the whole booke not a worde
in ; for I protest it was all Greenes, not mine nor Maister Nashes, as some unjustly
have affirmed. Neither was he the writer of an Epistle to the second part of Gerileon,
though by the workemans error T. N. were set to the end ; — that I confesse to be
mine, and repent it not.

Thus, gentlemen, having noted the private causes that made me nominate myselfe
in print ; being as well to purge Master Nashe of that he did not, as to justifie what I'
did, and withall to confirm what M. Greene did ; I beseech yee accept the publikei
cause, which is both the desire of your delight and common benefite ; for though the
toye bee shadowed under the title of Kind -hearts Dreame, it discovers the false hearts
of divers that wake to commit mischiefe. Had not the former reasons been, it had
come forth without a father ; and then shuld I have had no cause to feare offending,
or reason to sue for favour. Now am I in doubt of the one, though I hope of the
other ; which, if I obtaine, you shall bind me hereafter to bee silent till I can present
yee with something more acceptable. — Henrie Chettle.

THE COPYRIGHT ENTRIES.

1593. — xviij0 Aprilis. — Richard Feild. — Entred for his copie, vnder thandes of the
Archbisshop of Cant, and Mr. Warden Stirrop, a booke intuled© Venus and Adonis. —
Assigned ouer to Mr. Harrison sen:, 25 Junij, 1594. The last paragraph is a marginal
note inserted at or near the latter date.

J593-4- — vj-to die February. — John Danter. — Entred for his copye, vnder thandes
of bothe the wardens, a booke intituled a Noble Roman Historye of Tytus Andronicus.

I593-4- — xij° Marcij. Thomas Myllington. Entred for his copie, vnder the handes
of bothe the wardens, a booke intituled the firste parte of the contention of the twoo
famous houses of york and Lancaster, with the deathe of the good Duke Humfrey, and
the banishement and deathe of the duke of Suff : and the tragicall ende of the prowd
Cardinall of Winchester, with the notable rebellion of Jack Cade and the duke ofyorkes
first clayme vnto the crowne.

1594. — 9 May. — Mr. Harrison Sen. — Entred for his copie, vnder thand of Mr.
Cawood, warden, a booke intituled the Ravyshement of Lucrece.

1594. — 25 Junij. — Mr. Harrison Sen. — Assigned ouer vnto him from Richard Feild,
in open court holden this day, a book called Venus and Adonis, the which was before
entred to Ric. Feild, 18 April, 1593.

1596. — 25 Junij. — William Leeke. — Assigned ouer vnto him for his copie from Mr.
Harrison thelder, in full court holden this day, by the said Mr. Harrisons consent, a
booke called Venus and Adonis.

1597. — 29° Augusti. — Andrew Wise.— Entred for his copie, by appoyntment from
Mr. Warden Man, The Tragedye of Richard the Second.

1597. — 20 Octobr. — Andrewe Wise. — Entred for his copie, vnder thandes of Mr.
Barlowe and Mr. warden Man, The tragedie of kinge Richard the Third, with the
death of the duke of Clarence.

1 597-8. — 1597, Annoque R. R. Eliz : 40°. xxvto die Februarij. — Andrew Wyse.
— Entred for his copie, vnder thandes of Mr. Dix and Mr. Warden Man, a booke
intituled The historye of Henry the iiij.th with his battaile at Shrewsburye against
Henry Hottspurre of the Northe, with the conceipted mirthe of Sir John Falstoff.

1598. — Anno 40mo Regine Elizabethe, xxij.° Julij. — James Robertes. — Entred for
his copie, vnder the handes of bothe the wardens, a booke of the marchaunt of Venyce,
or otherwise called the Jewe of Venyce, Prouided that yt bee not prynted by the said
James Robertes, or anye other whatsoeuer, without lycence first had from the Right
honorable the lord chamberlen.

1600.- 4 Augusti. — As yow like yt, a booke ; Henry the Fift, a booke ; The
Commedie of Muche A doo about nothinge, a booke, — to be staied. In the original
the last three words are on the side of a bracket, denoting that they refer to all the plays
here mentioned.

1600. — 14 Augusti. — Thomas Pavyer. — Entred for his copyes, by direction of Mr.
White, warden, vnder his hand wrytinge, These copyes followinge, beinge thinges
formerlye printed and sett over to the sayd Thomas Pavyer, viz. . . The historye
of Henrye thev.11' with the battell of Agencourt.

1600. — 23 Augusti. — Andrewe Wyse ; William Aspley. — Entred for their copies,

T 2

292 THE COPYRIGHT ENTRIES.

vnder the handes of the wardens, twoo bookes, the one called Muche adoo about
Nothinge, thother the second parte of the history of Kinge Henry the iiij.th, with the
humors of Sir John Fallstaff, wrytten by Mr. Shakespere.

1600. — 8 Octobr. Tho. Fyssher. — Entred for his copie, vnder the handes of Mr.
Rodes and the wardens, A booke called A mydsommer nightes dreame.

1600. — 28 Octobr. — Tho. Haies. — Entred for his copie, vnder the handes of the
wardens and by consent of Mr. Robertes, A booke called the booke of the Merchant ol
Venyce.

1 601-2. — 1 8 January. — Jo. Busby. — Entred for his copie, vnder the hand of Mr.
Seton, a booke called, An excellent and pleasant conceited commedie of Sir Jo.
Faulstof and the merry wyves of windesor. Immediately after this under the same day
is the following entry, — Arthure Johnson. — Entred for his copye, by assignement from
John Busbye, A booke called an excellent and pleasant conceyted Comedie of Sir John
Faulstafe and the merye wyves of Windsor.

1602. — 44 Re., 19 April. — Tho. Pavier. — Entred for his copies, by assignement from
Thomas Millington, these bookes folowinge, salvo jure cuiuscunque, viz., The first and
second parte of Henry the vi'., ij. bookes ; a booke called Titus and Andronicus.
Entred by warrant vnder Mr. Setons hand.

1602. — xxvjto Julij. — James Robertes. — Entred for his Copie, vnder the handes of
Mr. Pasfeild and Mr. Waterson, warden, A booke called the Revenge of Hamlett
Prince Denmarke®, as yt was latelie Acted by the Lo : Chamberleyn his servantes.

1602-3. — 7 Febr. — Mr. Robertes. — Entered for his copie, in full Court holden this
day, to print when he hath gotten sufficient aucthority for yt, The booke of Troilus
and Cresseda as yt is acted by my Lord Chamberlens men.

1603. — I Regis Ja., 25 Junj. — Math. Lawe. — Entred for his copies, in full courte
holden this day, these copies folowinge, viz., iij. enterludes or playes ; the first is of
Richard the 3, the second of Richard the 2, the third of Henry the 4 the first parte,
all kinges ; all whiche, by consent of the company, are sett ouer to him from Andr : Wyse.

1606-7. — 22> Januar. — Mr. Linge. — Entred for his copies, by direccion of a Court,
and with consent of Mr. Burby vnder his handwryting, These iij. copies, viz., Romeo
and Juliett, Loues Labour Loste, The taminge of a Shrewe.

1607. — 5to Regis, 19 Novembr. — Jo. Smythick. — Entred for his copies, vnder
thandes of the wardens, these bookes folowing whiche dyd belonge to Nicholas Lynge,
viz., a booke called Hamlett ; Romeo and Julett ; Loues labour lost.

1607. — 5 Regis 26 Nov. — Na. Butter ; Jo. Busby. — Entred for theer copie, vnder
thandes of Sir Geo. Buck, knight, and thwardens, a book called Mr. William Shake
speare his historye of Kinge Lear, as yt was played before the Kinges maiestie at
Whitehall vppon St. Stephans night at Christmas last, by his maiesties servantes
playinge vsually at the globe on the Banksyde.

1608. — 6to regis Jacobi, 2do die Maij, — Mr. Pavyer. — Entered for his copie, vnder
the handes of Mr. Wilson and Mr. Warden Seton, A booke called A Yorkshire Tragedy,
written by Wylliam Shakespere.

1608. — 20 May. — Edw. Blount. — Entred for his copie, vnder thandes of Sir Geo.
Buck, knight, and Mr. Warden Seton, a booke called, The booke of Perycles prynce
of Tyre. — Under the same day is the following entry, — Edw. Blunt. — Entred also for
his copie, by the lyke aucthoritie, a booke called Anthony and Cleopatra.

1608-9. — 28UO 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, warden, a Booke called Shakespeares sonnettes.

1613-4. — PrimoMartij, 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,

THE COPYRIGHT ENTRIES. 293

viz.*, — Mascalls first booke of Cattell ; Mr. Denies sermon of repentance ; Recordes
Arithmeticke ; Lucrece.

1616-7. — !60 Febr. 1616. Rr. 14°. — Mr. 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.*, 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 hoi den this day, all his right in Venus
and 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, viz.*. Comedyes. The Tempest. The two
gentlemen of 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. Mackbeth. Anthonie and Cleopatra. Cymbeline.

THE COVENTRY MYSTERIES.

According to Matthew Paris, the story of St. Catherine was drama
tised about the commencement of the twelfth century by one Geoffrey,
a learned Norman then in England, in a play which was acted at Dun-
stable at that period. This is the earliest notice of the drama in this
country which has been discovered, but it is not at all likely that the
performance was in the English language. It may, indeed, be safely
assumed that all the plays acted in England at this time, and for several
generations afterwards, were composed either in Latin or Anglo-Norman,
the testimony which assigns the composition of the Chester Mysteries to
the thirteenth century being unworthy of credence. The earliest piece
in English of a dramatic character known to exist is a metrical dialogue
between three persons, which is preserved on a vellum roll in a hand
writing of the commencement of the fourteenth century. It is entitled
Interludium de Clerico et Puella^ but there is no evidence to show that it
was intended for the stage. It may have been merely an interlocutory
poem like the contemporary Harrowing of Hell, which has been usually,
but perhaps erroneously, considered to be one of the old English
mysteries. Dismissing the consideration of these pieces for the obvious
reason that there is at least no substantial proof that either of them are
connected with the subject, the history of the English drama, so far as
can be gathered from the materials which have been preserved, really
commences with the plays which were exhibited on movable stages
either by the guilds of towns or by itinerant companies in and after the
fourteenth century. Amongst many other places, Chester, York and
Coventry may be mentioned as having been then and for long afterwards
specially celebrated for these performances, which usually took place at
the time of the festival of Corpus Christi or at Whitsuntide ; but as
Shakespeare would most likely have formed one of a Warwickshire
audience, observations on the subject will be mainly restricted to those
of the last-named city.

It should be remarked at the outset that the interesting plays,
usually termed the Coventry Mysteries, a transcript of which, made in
the fifteenth century, is in MS. Cotton. Vespas. D. 8, were not performed,
so far as is known, by any of the trading companies of that city, but by
itinerant players from Coventry (Dugdale's Warwickshire, ed. 1656,
p. 1 1 6), who acted those dramas in various towns, a fact which appears
from the concluding lines of the prologue. Very few of the plays which
arenoted as having been exhibited by the above-named trading companies

296 THE CO VENTR Y M YSTERIES.

have be-jn preserved, but there was until lately a curious one at Long-
bridge House, transcribed in the form in which it was fevised by one
Robert Croo in the year 1534, and then performed by the guild of the
Shearmen and Tailors. The subjects of this pageant are the Birth of Christ
and the Adoration of the Magi, with the Flight into Egypt and the Murder
of the Innocents. It is not at all improbable that Shakespeare witnessed
some late performance of this curious drama, in which the boisterous
fury of Herod is depicted with what would now be thought a ludicrous
exaggeration, greater perhaps than in any other play in which he is
introduced, and strikingly justifying the expression of out-heroding
Herod. This braggadocio describes himself as " prynce of purgatorre*
and cheff capten of hell," and also as " the myghttyst conquerowre that
ever walkid on grownd," observing, — " Magog and Madroke bothe did
I confownde,=And with this bryght bronde there bonis I brak on
sundr." He tells the audience that it is he who is the cause of the
thunder, and that the clouds were frequently so disturbed at the sight of
his " feyrefull contenance " that " for drede therof the verr^ yerth doth
quake." When the Magi escape his fury knows literally no bounds, —
" I stampe, I stare, I loke all abowtt, = Myght I them take I schuld them
bren at a glede, = I rent, I rawe, and now run I wode." After this
outburst, Herod not merely storms furiously on the platform, but
descends from the scaffold and exhibits the violence of his passion
in the street, as appears from the following curious stage-direction, —
" here Erode ragis in the pagond and in the strete also." Hamlet's
suggestion that the riotous bluster of such a personage could be exceeded
by that of any other actor, was certainly significant of the very extremity
of rant in the latter.

The performances of these mysteries at the festival of Corpus Christi
were resorted to by numbers of people from what were then long
distances, and thither might the boy Shakespeare have been taken by
his parents for a holiday treat. Dugdale, writing about the middle of
the seventeenth century, and speaking of Coventry, observes, — " I my-
selfe have spoke with some old people who had in their younger yeares
bin eye-witnesses of these pageants soe acted, from whome I have bin
tolde that the yearly confluence of people from farr and neare to see
that shew was extraordinary great, and which yielded noe smalf advantage
to this citty," original MS. of Dugdale's Antiquities of Warwickshire
preserved at Merevale. The exhibitions here alluded to were performed
on movable scaffolds that were passed at intervals to various localities,
so that several plays were continually being acted at one and the same
time in different places, — a judicious method of separating the audiences
in those days of very narrow streets, and of enabling each group to
witness a series of performances every day of the festival. These
pageants, observes Dugdale in his Antiquities of Warwickshire, ed. 1656,

THE CO VENTR Y MYSTERIES. 297

p. 1 1 6, "had theaters for the severall scenes very large and high, placed
upon wheels and drawn to all the eminent parts of the city for the
better advantage of spectators." A more elaborate account of them is
given by a clergyman who witnessed some of the later performances of the
Chester mysteries, which were no doubt conducted similarly to those of
Coventry, — "every company had his pagiant or parte, which pagiants
weare a high scafolde with two rowmes, a higer® and a lower, upon four
wheeles; in the lower they apparelled themselves, and in the higher rowme
they played, beinge all open on the tope, that all behoulders mighte heare
and see them ; the places where the played them was in every streete ;
they begane first at the Abay gates, and when the firste pagiante was
played, it was wheeled to the Highe Crosse before the mayor, and so to
every streete, and soe every streete had a pagiant playinge before them
at one time till all the pagiantes for the daye appoynted weare played ;
and when one pagiant was neere ended, worde was broughte from streete
to streete that soe the mighte come in place thereof excedinge orderlye,
and all the streetes have their pagiantes afore them all at one time playe-
inge togeather; to se which playes was great resorte, and also scafoldes
and stages made in the streetes in those places where they determined to
playe theire pagiantes," MS. Harl. 1 948. It has been frequently stated that
there were sometimes three rooms in the pageant, the highest represent
ing heaven, the middle one the earth, and the lowest the infernal regions.
This was the case in some of the continental performances, but there "' is
no good evidence that the English pageant ever contained more than
two rooms. That the lower one of the latter was not exclusively used
for a tiring-house is, however, certain. There were trap-doors on the floor
of the stage through which the performers ascended and descended, and
in some instances the declension was certainly intended to be to the place
of torment. A similar contrivance was occasionally adopted on the
supplementary scaffolds. " Here xal entyr the Prynse of Dylfs in a
stage and helle ondyrneth that stage," stage-direction in Mary Magdalene,
Digby Mysteries, xvi. Cent. In the same mystery the bad angel is
represented as entering " into hell with thondyr," no doubt through the
grotesquely painted hell-mouth, a singular contrivance which has been
previously described.

The vehicles which Dugdale calls theaters were in Shakespeare's
time always termed pageants. They were not constructed merely for
temporary use, but were substantially formed of wood and lasted for years,
having been carefully preserved by the guilds in their various pageant-
houses, whence they were brought out when the performances of the
mysteries were arranged to take place. Some, if not all, of these houses
were remaining at Coventry in the poet's early days. " Paid for a lode
of cley for the padgyn howse, vj. d; paid for iij. sparis for the same
howse, vj. d; paid to the dawber and his man, xiiij. d; paid to the

298 THE COVENTRY MYSTERIES,

carpyntur for his worke, iiij. d ; paid for a bunche and halfe of lathe,
ix. d; paid for vj. pennye naiylles, ij. d" accounts of the Smiths'
Company, 1571, MS. Longbridge. "Spent at Mr. Sewelles of the
company about the pavynge of the pajen house, vj. d; payd for the
pavynge of the pagen house, xxij. d; payd for a lode of pybeles, xij. d ;
for a lode sande, vj. d" Smiths' Accounts, 1576, MS. ibid. " Item, paide
to James Bradshawe for mendynge the pageant-howse doores, iiij. d ;
item, to Christofer Burne for a key and settynge on the locke on the
doore, v. d ; item, paide to Baylyffe Emerson for halfe yeres rente of the
pageant-howse, ij. s. vj. d ; item, gyven to Bryan, a sharman, for his good
wyllofthe pageante-howse, x. d" Smiths' Accounts, 1586, MS. ibid.

The pageant itself may be described as a wooden structure which
consisted of two rectangular rooms erected on the floor of a strong
wagon, the lower apartment being enclosed with painted boards, and
the upper one open, the latter having a decorated canopy supported by
pilasters or columns rising from each corner of the floor, and orna
mented at the top with banners or other appendages. In the following
series of extracts referring to the Coventry pageants a few of the more
curious ancient entries respecting them are included, there being no
reason for believing that there was any material variation in the ap
pliances or representations of the mysteries from the fifteenth century
to the time of Shakespeare. " Also it is ordenyd that the jorneymen
of the seyd crafte schall have yerely vj. s. viij. //, and for that they
schall have owte the paggent, and on Corpus Christi day to dryve it
from place to place ther as it schal be pleyd, and then for to brynge it
geyn into the paggent howse without ony hurte nyther defawte, and
they for to put the master to no more coste," ordinances of the Com
pany of Weavers of Coventry, 1453, MS. " Item, expende at the fest
of Corpus Christi yn reparacion of the pagent, that ys to say, a peyre
of new whelys, the pryce viij. s; item, for naylys and ij. hokys for the
sayd pagiente, iiij. d ; item, for a cord and sope to the sayde pagent,
ij. d\ item, for to have the pagent ynto Gosford strete, xij. d" accounts
of the Company of Smiths of Coventry, 1462, MS. Longbridge. " Item,
in met and drynk on mynstrelles and on men to drawe the pagent,
xxij. d" Smiths' Accounts, 1467, MS. ibid. "Item, rysshes to the
pagent, ij. d; item, ij. clampys of iron for the pagent, viij. d; item,
ij. legges to the pagent and the warkemanship withall, vj. d" Smiths'
Accounts, 1470, MS. ibid. " Expenses to brynge up the pagent into
the Gosford Strete amonge the feliship, viij. d; expenses for burneysshyng
and peyntyng of the fanes to the pagent, xx. d; item, cloutnayle and
other nayle and talowe to the pagent, and for waysshyng of the seid
pagent and ruysshes, vj. d. ob. ; item, at bryngyng the pagent owt of
the house, ij. d\ item, nayles and other iron gere to the pagent, viij. d.
ob. ; expenses to a joyner for workemanshipp to the pagent, vij. d?

THE CO VENTR Y M YSTERIES. 299

Smiths' Accounts, 1471, MS. ibid. " Item, for havyng furth the pagent
on the Wedonsday, iij. d; item, paid for ij. peyre newe whelis, viij. s ;
expenses at the settyng on of hem, vij. d; item, for byndyng of thame,
viij. d\ paid to a carpenter for the pagent rowf, vj. d" Smiths' Accounts,
1480, MS. ibid. " Item, for the horssyng of the padgeantt and the
axyll tree to the same, xvj. d; item, for the hawyng of the padgeantt in
and out, and wasshyng it, viij. d" Smiths' Accounts, 1498, MS. ibid.
"Item, paid for ij. cordes for the draught of the paygaunt, j. d; item,
paid for shope and gresse to the whyles, j. d ; item, paid for havyng oute
of the paygant and swepyng therof and havyng in, and for naylles and
ij. claspes of iron, and for mendyng of a claspe that was broken, and for
coterellis and for a bordur to the pagaunte, xix. d" Smiths' Accounts,
1499, MS. ibid. "Paid for dryvyng of the pagent, iiij. s. iiij. d; paid
for russys and soop, ij. d" Smiths' Accounts, 1547, MS. ibid. The
soap was used for greasing the wheels, and the rushes were strewn on
the floor of the pageant. " Item, payd to payntter for payntyng of the
pagent tope, xxij. d" Smiths' Accounts, 1554, MS. ibid. " Item, spent
on the craft when the overloked the pagyand, ij. ^ ; item, payd for iiij.
harneses hyrynge, iij. s ; item, payd to the players betwene the stages,
viij. d ; item, payd for dressynge the pagyand, vj. d; item, payd for
kepynge the wynd, vj. d; item, payd for dryvyng the pagyand, iiij. s ;
item payd to the dryvers in drynke, viij. d; item, payd for balls, vj. d;
item, payd to the mynstrell, viij. d? accounts of the Cappers' Company
for 1562, delivered in February, 1563, MS. ibid. "Item, paid for a
ledge to the scafolde, vj. d ; item, paid for ij. ledges to the pagiand,
viij. d; item, paid for grett naylles, vj. d; item, for makynge clene the
pagiand house, ij. d; item, paid for washenge the pagiand clothes, ij. d;
item, for dryvinge the pagiand, vj. s. vj. d ; item, paid to the players at
the second stage, viij. d" Pageant Accounts of the Cappers' Company
for 1568, MS. ibid. "Paid for laburrars for horssyng the padgang,
xvj. d ; spent abowt the same bessynes, xvj. d; for takyng of the yron
of the olde whele, x. d; paid for poyntes and paper, iij. d" accounts of
the Smiths' Company, 1570, MS. ibid. The pageant was accompanied
on rare occasions with what were termed scaffolds or stages, which
appear to have been merely pageants of small dimensions appropriated
to the use of individual characters. These scaffolds were mounted on
wheels, but if they were attached to the pageant in the transit of the
latter to its various stations, they were certainly sometimes separated
from it during the performance. It occasionally happened that scenes
of the play, with or without properties and mechanical contrivances,
were exhibited outside between the scaffolds or between the pageant and
the scaffolds. Herod, as has been previously mentioned, sometimes
" raged " in the street as well as on the platform. Some of the actors
would at times descend from the latter and mount their steeds, while

300 THE COVENTRY MYSTERIES.

others came on horseback to the pageant, according to the necessities
of the history which was represented.

There were occasional performances of the mysteries at Coventry
during all the time of Shakespeare's boyhood. In 1567 the following
were the " costes and charges of the pagiand " of the Cappers' Company,
— " Item, payd for a cloutt to the pagiand whelle, ij. d ; item, payd for
a ponde of sope to the pagiand, iij. d; item, payd to the players at the
second stage, viij. d; item, payd for balles, viij. d; item, payd to the
mynstrell, viij. d; item, payd to Pilat for his gloves, ij. d\ item, payd
for assyden for Pilat head, ij. </; item, piyd to Jorge Loe for spekyng
the Prologue, ij. d." accounts delivered in January, 1568, MS. Long-
bridge. In 1568 there was another account of a similar character for
the same company's pageant, — " Item, paid for balles, viij. d; item,
paid for Pylatt gloves, iiij. d\ item, paid for the spekynge of the
Prologe, ij. d ; item, paid for prikynge the songes, xij. d; item, paid for
makynge and coloringe the ij. myters, ij. s. iiij. d; item, paid for
makynge of hellmothe new, xxj. d" MS. ibid. This company had also
a performance in the next year, and in 1571 their accounts for the
pageant are thus recorded, — " Item, paid for mendynge the pagiand
geyre, iij. d; item, paid for a yard of bokeram, xij. d\ item, paid for
payntynge the demons mall and the Maris rolles, vj. d; item, for
makynge the roles, ij. d; item, paid to the players att the second stage,
viij. d" MS. ibid. In 1572 the following were the "charges for the
padgand " of the Smiths' Company, — " Paid for canvys for Jwdas coote,
ij. s ; paid for the makyng of hit, x. d; paid to too damsselles, xij. //;
paid for a poollye and an yron hoke and mendyng the padgand, xvj d ;
paid for cownlters and a lase and pwyntes for Jwdas, iij. d" MS. Long-
bridge. The same company first performed in this year, 1572, their
" new play," either in conjunction with or after the older pageant, as
appears from the original accounts. This new drama was unquestion'
ably an imitation of the ancient mystery. The expenses of its perform
ance in 1573 are thus stated, — " Paid for pleyng of Petur, xvj. d; paid
for Jwdas parte, ix. d\ paid for ij. damsylles, xij. d ; paid to the deman,
vj. d; paid to iiij. men that bryng yn Herod, viij. d ; paid to Fastoun
for hangyng Jwdas, iiij. d\ paid to Fawston for coc-croyng, iiij. d;
paid for Mr. Wygsons gowne, viij. d" MS. Longbridge. It seems from
the following account of the expenses of the same play in 1574 that the
last entry was a payment made for the loan of a gown to be worn by
the person who acted the part of Herod, — " Paid for pleynge of Petur,
xvj. d; paid for Jwdas, ix. d; paid for ij. damselles, xij. d; paid to the
deman, vj. d; paid to iiij. men to bryng yn Herode, viij. d; paid to
Fawston for hangyng Jwdas and coc-croyng, viij. d; paid for Herodes
gowne, viij. d" MS. ibid. In 1576 there was a payment of eighteenpence
" for the gybbyt of Jezie." In 1577 the old mystery and the " new pley"

THE COVENTRY MYSTERIES. 3°i

were again performed by the Smiths' Company, and threepence was
paid "for a lase for Jwdas and a corde" used in the latter. The
expenses of the old pageant are stated as follows, — " Paid to the
plears at the fyrst reherse, ij. s. vj. d; paid for ale, iiij. d. ; paid for
Sent Marye Hall to reherse there, ij. d; paid for mendyng the pad-
gand howse dore, xx. d; paid for too postes for the dore to stand
upon, iiij. d ; paid to the carpyntur for his labur, iiij. d; paid to James
Beseley for ij. plattes on the post endes, vj. d; for great naylles to
nayle on the hynge, ij. d; paid to vj. men to helpe up with the dore,
vj. d" accounts of the Smiths' Company for 1577, MS. Longbridge.
There was a repetition of both these performances in the following year,
when the following expenses were incurred for the new play, — " Paid
for the cokcroing, iiij. d ; paid to Thomas Massy fora trwse for Judas,
ij. s. viij. d ; paid for a new hoke to hange Judas, vj. d ; paid for ij.
new berars of yron for the new seyt in the padgand, xij. d" accounts,
1578, MS. ibid. These must have been amongst the last performances
at Coventry of the genuine old English mystery, which appears to
have been suppressed in that city and in some other places in the
year 1580; but the old dramatic taste survived, and in 1584, the
theatric appliances having as yet been retained, the Smiths' Company
brought out, under the sanction of the Corporation, an entirely new
pageant entitled the Destruction of Jerusalem, a tragedy written by
an Oxford scholar, and partially founded on events recorded by Josephus.
It may be presumed that it was composed with the express object of
retaining the attractions of the older performances in a form that would
meet the objections of the authorities to the latter. This pageant was
also acted by other companies, and appears to have been the only
one allowed to be performed. With its Chorus and large number of
characters, it must have been a more elaborate production than any
of the ancient English mysteries, but it was acted on the pageant
vehicle at different stations in the city, and no doubt with appliances
similar to those used in the performances of the older dramas. It
may be doubted, however, if the Destruction of Jerusalem, notwith
standing the pains bestowed upon its production, and though it was
probably superior as a work of art to the old mysteries, ever achieved
the popularity of the latter. It does not appear to have been exhibited
again until the year 1591, when it was played with the unanimous
consent of the Corporation. " It is also agreed by the whole consent
of this house that the Distruccion of Jerusalem, the Conquest of the
Danes or the Historic of K. E. the 4, at the request of the comons of
this cittie, shal be plaid on the pagens on Midsomer Daye and St.
Peters Daye next in this cittie and non other playes ; and that all
the meypoles that nowe are standing in this cittie shal be taken downe
before Whitsonday next, and non hereafter to be sett up in this cittie,"

302 THE COVENTRY MYSTERIES.

MS. Council-Book of Coventry, 19 May, 1591. The merry England
of Shakespeare's youth was now in the course of a rapid transformation
so far as the favourite recreations of the country people were concerned,
and these performances in 1591 were the last representations cf the
Coventry pageants. Several of the companies had disposed of their
vehicles and the attendant houses some years previously. Those of
the Smiths' Company were parted with in 1586, and the Weavers sold
their pageant in the following year, but the properties and dresses belong
ing to some of the companies were preserved by them for years after the
termination of the performances. An inventory of the goods of the
Cappers' Company, taken in 1597, includes, — " ij. pawles, sixe cressittes,
ij. streamars and the poles, ij. bisshopes myters, Pylates dublit, ij.
curtaynes, Pylates head, fyve Maries heades, one coyff, Mary Maudlyns
gowne, iij. beardes, sixe pensils, iiij. rolles, iij. Marye boxes, one play-
boke, the giandes head and clubbe, Pylates clubbe, hell-mowth, Adams
spade, Eves distaffe," MS. Longbridge. It may perhaps be inferred
from the preservation of these relics that some of the companies still
nourished the hope that the Coventry pageants would be revived. It is
certain that mysteries, similar to those which had been acted in that
city when Shakespeare was a boy, lingered in some parts of England
till the reign of James the First. Weever, after mentioning an eight-day
play in London in 1409, observes, — "the subject of the play was the
Sacred Scriptures from the creation of the world ; they call this Corpus
Christi Play in my countrey, which I have scene acted at Preston and
Lancaster, and last of all at Kendall in the beginning of the raigne
of King James, for which the townesmen were sore troubled, and
upon good reasons the play finally supprest not onely there but in
all other townes of the kingdome," Ancient Funerall Monuments,
1631, p. 405. The mystery of the passion acted at Ely House in the
same reign (Prynne's Histrio-Mastix, 1633, p. 117) was probably one
of the more elaborate religious dramas which so long maintained their
popularity with the Roman Catholics. It is not likely that any of the
legitimate ancient English mysteries were performed in London at so
late a period, but other kinds of plays on Biblical subjects held their
ground on our public stage until the early part of the seventeenth
century.

Although Coventry was exceptionally celebrated for its mysteries,
others of lesser importance were exhibited, during Shakespeare's boy
hood, at Worcester, a city within an accessible distance from Stratford-
upon-Avon. In February, 1559, the authorities of the former borough
" ordeyned that the pageantes shal be dryven and played upon Corpus
Christi day this yere, acordinge to the auncyent custom of this cyte","
Worcester Municipal MSS. They were discontinued previously to
September the 25th, 1584. on which day the Corporation "agreed

THE COVENTRY MYSTERIES. 3°3

that Richard Dyrran have a lease of the vacant place where the
pagantes do stand for the terme of three score and one yeares, in
consyderacion that he shall buyld the same." The building erected
upon this plot of ground was long known as the Pageant House,
mention being made in a local account-book of a chief-rent having been
paid for it under that name in the year 1735.

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 fons qui dicitur 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 dis
appeared, but it was in existence so 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.

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 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 totam domum et edificia vocata le Fratrie,
claustrum vocatum le Cloyster et terram 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, brasineas, 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 vocatam 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
Oatebarne, parcellas ejusdem Prioratus de Halliwell." A small portion
of this estate, that in which the Theatre was afterwards erected, belonged

U

305 THE THEATRE AND CURTAIN.

in the year 1576 to one Giles Allen. It was at this period that "James
Burbage of London joyner" obtained from Allen a lease for twenty-one
years, dated ijth 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 promo
tion of which his earlier as well as his adopted profession were exactly
suited. He obtained the lease referred to with this express object,
with a proviso from Allen 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 afterwards. 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 recog
nised 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. Lieutenaunt 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 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
unfortunately 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

THE THEATRE AND CURTAIN. 3°7

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 high
way 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 wind
mills 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 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 appears 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

U 2

308 THE THEATRE AND CURTAIN.

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.

When Burbage obtained the lease in 1576, it was agreed that, if he
expended the sum of ^200 in the way already mentioned, he should
be entitled not only to take down the buildings he might erect on the
gardens or vacant space, but to demand an extension of the term to
1607, provided that he laid out the money within ten years from the
commencement of the tenancy. A new lease, dated ist November,
1585, carrying out this extension, 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 proposed deed of 1585, — "all thos two
howses or tenementes with thappurtenaunces which, att the tyme of the
sayde former demise made, weare in the severall tenures or occupacions
of Johan Harrison, widowe, and John Dragon ; and also all that howse
or tenement with thappurtenances, together with the gardyn grpunde
lyinge behinde parte of the same, beinge then likewise in the occupa-
cion 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 occupacion of the sayde Gyles,
unto the gardeyne ther then in the occupacion of Ewin 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 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 adjoyninge 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 thap
purtenances lyinge under the same three upper romes, and next adjoyninge
also to the foresayde house or tenemente called the Mill-house, then also
beinge in the severall tenurs or occupacions of Alice Dotridge, widowe,

THE THEATRE AND CURTAIN. 3°9

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 owtwarde 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 thappurtenances att the tyme of the
makinge of the sayde former dimise made beinge in the severall occii-
pacions 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 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 ; 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 brick wall, extendinge in lenght® from the foresayde
brick wall which incloseth parte of the foresayde 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 formed a portion
of that which was purchased by Webb in 1544, and belonged to Allen in

3 >o • THE THEATRE AND CURTAIN. '

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 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 represented in Aggas's map in a north-east direction from

Holy well 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 confirmed 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

she we 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 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." 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, bat

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

THE THEATRE AND CURTAIN. 311

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- 77 0- 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, and as nearly as possible on the site of what is now
Deanes Mews. Excavations made a few years ago for a railway, which
passes over some of the ground upon which the 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 playne blowes," — MS.Lansd.4i. The neighbourhood of the
Theatre was.occasionally visited by the common hangman, a circumstance
which proves that there was an open space near the building. It is
stated in the True Report of the Inditement of Weldon, Hartley and
Sutton, who suffred for High Treason, 1588, 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. 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

312 THE THEATRE AND CURTAIN.

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 seventy-six 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 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 eighty, 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 hath 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 fifty-five, 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

THE THEATRE AND CURTAIN. 313

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.^, 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 as he this
examinate remembreth some xxx.tyyeares 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 mentioning 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 watter 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
seventy-four, who deposed, — "that 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

314 THE THEATRE AND CURTAIN.

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 stage-loving citizens
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
\laye, 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, indignantly 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 resorte 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

THE THEATRE AND CURTAIN. 3' 5

doe make assembles of cittizens and there 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 that matter, I have surceassed to precede further, and do humbly
refer the whole to your wisdomes and grave considerations ; 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 premises, 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 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 i3th 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

316 THE THEATRE AXD CURTAIN.

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 pre
cinct, but ar now retorned to their old haunt, and frequent the plaies,
as their manner is, that ar daily shewed at the Theater 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 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 performances
at the Shoreditch theatres culminated in an order of the Privy Council
for their suppression, 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 confluence 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 representa
tions made by the Lord Mayor in a letter written on the same day
to the Privy Council, in which he observes, — "wee have fownd by

THE THEATRE AND CURTAIN. 3'7

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 of incontinencie and most ungodly
confederacies," 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, — "Alettre 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 entertainments 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

318 THE THEATRE AND CURTAIN.

solitude." James Burbage on September ryth, 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 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 James Burbage, previously to his
decease, made a deed of gift of the property to his two sons, Cuthbert
and Richard.

It is worth recording that, shortly before the death of the elder
Burbage in 1597, negociations were pending with Allen for a con
siderable 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
agreement 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 likewise 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 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

THE THEATRE AND CURTAIN. 3 '9

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 agreemente
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 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 con
dition 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 predicti Egidius Alleyn et Sara uxor ejus
convenerunt 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 im-
penditionis et expositionis predictarum ducentarum librarum, modo et
forma predicta, ad aliquod tempus et tempora ante finem predicti
termini viginti et unius annorum per predictam indenturam concessi,
aut ante finem predicti termini viginti et unius annorum post confec-
tionem 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,

320 THE THE A TRE AND CURTAIN.

Anglice sett upp, in et super gardino et locis vacuis, Anglice the groiimdes,
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 com-
moditate." 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 adminis
trators, doe covenante and graunte, and every of them severally
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 downe 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 proceedings 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 Street, a builder and carpenter, to remove the
building, which operation was accordingly effected either in December,
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 construction of the Globe, is particularly inte
resting. 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 design, — " unlawfullye
combyninge and confederating himselfe with the sayd Richard Burbage
and one Peeler 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 hen and there armed themselves with dyvers and manye unlawfull

THE THEATRE AND CURTAIN. 321

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, servauntes 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, notwithstanding 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. Burbage, 44 Eliz.

The date here assigned to the removal of the Theatre is December
z8th, 1598 ; but, according to another authority, the event took place
on January 2oth, 1599, the possibility 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 que-
ritur de Petro Strete, in custodia marescalli marescallie domine Regine
coram ipsa Regina existente, de eo quod ipse, vicesimo die Januarij
anno regni domine Elizabethe nunc Regine Anglic quadragesimo primo,
vi et armis &c. clausum ipsius Egidii vocatum the Inner Courte Yarde,
parcellam 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 conculcavit et consumpsit ; et quandam structuram
ipsius Egidii ibidem fabricatam et erectam vocatam the Theater ad
valenciam septingentarum librarum adtunc et ibidem diruit, 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, 1600, 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 advantage pull downe the said Theatre, which aboute the Feast of

X

322 THE THEATRE AND CURTAIN.

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,
1599, that the greater portion at least of the Theatre was removed, but
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, referring
to 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 directe
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 Alleyne hathe suffred your subjecte to contynue in
possession of the premisses for diverse yeares, and hathe accepted the
rente reserved by the saide indenture 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 Theator uppon the premisses, beinge the cheefeste proffitte that
your subjecte hoped for in the bargayne therof, did to that purpose, by
the consente and appointmente 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 Street, who by his " direction and comaund-
ment did enter uppon the premisses and take downe the saide buildinge ;"
and Street himself admitted the fact in his Answer to a suit of trespass
brought against him by Allen early in 1599, — "et quoad venire vi et
armis, ac 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, captionem 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 Street, — "and this complainant
doth not denie but that he hathe pulled downe the said Theatre, which
this complainant taketh it was lautull for him so to do, beinge a thinge

THE THEATRE AND CURTAIN. 3V3

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 Blacksmiths 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
revvarde 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 estab
lishment in February, 1581-2, — "thePlaye 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 performance 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. 22j 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 entertain
ment 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 Plays 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 constrayned 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 cries so miserally® at the Theater, 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 Dr. 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.

X 2

324 THE THEATRE AXD CURT A IX.

According to the account previously quoted from Stow'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 preserved 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. 1598, 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 Holy-
well Priory. The land is mentioned under that name in a lease of 29
Henry VIII., 1538, — " Sibilla Newdigate, priorissa dicti nuper monas-
terii sancti Johannis Baptiste de Halliwell predicta, et ejusdem loci
conventus, per aliam indenturam suam sigillo eorum conventuali sigil-
latam, datam primo die Januarij dicto anno vicesimo nono predict!
nuper patris nostri, unanimi eorum assensu et consensu dimiserint,
tradiderint et ad firmam concesserint prefato nuper Comiti Rutland
totam illam mansionem sive mesuagium cum gardino adjacente, 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 fenilem supra edificatum, scituata et
existentia extra portas ejusdem nuper monasterii prope pasturam dicte
nuper Priorisse vocatam the Curtene" 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 (Shore-
ditch 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

THE THEATRE AND CURTAIN. 325

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 any of them,
or of their or any of their assigne or assignes ; and also all other mesuages,
landes, tenementes and hereditamentes, with their appurtenaunces,
sett, lyeng and being in Halliwell Lane in the saide parishe of Sainte
Leonard," Rot. Claus. 23 Eliz. The Curtain House was either in or
near Holywell Lane. " John Edwardes, being excommunicated, 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 Pawles Crosse on
Sunday the Thirde of November, 1577, in which he says, — "looke bur
uppon the common playes in London, and see the multitude that flocketh
to them and followeth them ; beholde the sumptuous theatre houses, a
continuall monument of Londons prodigalitie and folly." The Queen's
Players seern to have acted at the Curtain as weil as at the neighbouring
theatre. At all events, Tarlton, who belonged to that company, played
there, if we may confide in an allusion in one of the Jests. If credit
may be given to the evidence of Aubrey, Ben Jonson also was at one

326 THE THEATRE AND CURTAIN.

time an actor at this theatre. 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 blunders ; but Rare Ben's comedy of Every
Man in his Humour was most likely produced there in the year 1598.

Is there decisive evidence that the Lord Chamberlain's Servants were
in the habit of acting at the Curtain Theatre about the last-named period ?
The reply to this question depends upon the interpretation given to the
words " Curtaine plaudeties " in the well-known lines on stage-struck
I>uscus in Marston's Scourge of Villanie, 1598; whether the word
Curlaine 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 facts that Pope, who
was then a member of the Lord Chamberlain's Company, was also a
sharer in that establishment ; and that Armin was playing there early in
the year 1600. That the Curtain Theatre was, towards the close of the
sixteenth century, 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, Tie 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 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
commonplace-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 lyth, 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 trans
ferred their services to Lord Hunsdon on the death of his father in

THE THEATRE AND CURTAIN. 32?

juiy, 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.//. vj..y. \\\].d, and
by waye of her Majesties rewarde, xvj.//. xiij.s. iiij.d, in all the some of
I.//'.," MS. in the Public Record Office.

In the early part of the year 1600 arrangements were made for the
erection of the Fortune Theatre near Golden Lane, a spot which was at
no considerable distance, not much more than half a mile, from the
Curtain Theatre. It was considered by the opponents of theatrical
amusements that the permission to establish a new theatre in that part
of London should be conditional upon the removal of the older one.
Strenuous efforts were accordingly made to induce the Privy Council
to insist upon the demolition of the Curtain, and orders were given in
June, 1600, to that effect; but, like the previous injunction of 1597,
they proved to be altogether inoperative. The Lords of the Council
seem indeed to have been aware of the possibility of this result, for, in
their letters to the Lord Mayor of London and the Justices of Middlesex,
they observe, — " as wee have done our partes in prescribinge the orders,
so, unlesse yow perfourme yours in lookinge to the due execution of them,
we shall loose our labor, and the wante of redresse must be imputed
unto yow and others unto whome it apperteyneth," Privy Council
Register, 22 June, 1600. Copies of the Lords' order and their letters
will be found in the division respecting the Later Theatres, and it
appears from the former that Tylney, the Master of the Revels, had
stated to the Council " that the house nowe in hand to be builte by the
saide Edward Allen is not intended to encrease the nomber of the
playhouses, but to be insteede of another, namely the Curtayne, which
is ether to be ruyned and plucked downe or to be put to some other
good use." It is not improbable that Allen was anxious for the
suppression of the Curtain as a theatre, and was exerting his influence
to accomplish that object. The prospects of the new establishment
would of course have been improved had the efforts in this direction
been successful, but the combined influences of the City authorities and
the Privy Council were ineffectual. On the last day of the following
year, 1601, the Council made another strenuous but fruitless attempt to
persuade the magistrates to enforce their order for the suppression of
all but the two selected theatres, the Globe and the Fortune.

The players brought much of this opposition upon themselves by
their ridicule of the citizens. Complaints were made, in 1601, that the

328 THE THEATRE AND CURTAIX.

actors at the Curtain Theatre had covertly satirized living individuals of
good position in some of their plays ; but it is not known to which of the
companies they belonged. With a view of terminating these irregularities,
the Lords of the Privy Council addressed the following letter to "certaine
Justices of the Peace in the county of Middlesex " on May loth, 1601,
— " wee do understand that certaine players, that use to recyte their
playes at the Curtaine in Moorefeildes, do represent upon the stage
in their interludes the persons of some gent, of good desert and quallity
that are yet alive under obscure manner, but yet in such sorte as all the
hearers may take notice both of the matter and the persons that are
meant thereby. This beinge a thinge very unfitte, offensive and contrary
to such direccion as have bin heretofore taken, that no plaies should be
openly shewed but such as were first perused and allowed, and that
might minister no occasion of offence or scandall, wee do hereby require
you that you do forthwith forbidd those players, to whomsoever they
appertaine, that do play at the Courtaine in Moorefeildes, to represent
any such play, and that you will examine them who made that play and
to shew the same unto you, and, as you in your discrecions shall thincke
the same unfitte to be publiquely shewed, to forbidd them from henceforth
to play the same eyther privately or publiquely ; and yf, upon veiwe of
the said play, you shall finde the subject so odious and inconvenient as
is informed, wee require you to take bond of the cheifest of them to
aunswere their rashe and indiscreete dealing before us," MS. Register
of the Privy Council. Shakespeare's association with the Curtain
probably terminated at the opening of the Globe, and certainly did not
continue after the decease of Elizabeth. Throughout the reign of James
the former theatre was occupied by actors with whom the great dramatist
had no professional connexion.

The puritanical writers of the time of Shakespeare were indignant at
the erection of regular theatrical establishments, and the Theatre and
Curtain were the special objects of their invective. They are continually
named together as sinks of all wickedness and abomination. In
Northbrooke's Treatise, 1577-8, Youth asks, — "doe you speake against
those places also whiche are made uppe and builded for such playes and
enterludes, as the Theatre and Curtaine is, and other suche lyke places
besides?" Age replies, — " yea, truly, for I am persuaded that Satan
hath not a more speedie way and fitter schoole, to work and teach his
desire to bring men and women into his snare of concupiscence and
filthie lustes of wicked whoredome, than those places and playes and
theatres are, and therefore necessarie that those places and players
shoulde be forbidden and dissolved and put downe by authoritie, as the
brothell houses and stewes are." The effects of the great earthquake
of April, 1580, were felt generally throughout London as well as at the
theatres, but Stubbes affects to consider it a "fearfull judgement of

THE THEATRE AND CURTAIN. 329

God " on the wickedness of the stage, — " the like judgement almost did
the Lord shewe unto them a little before, beyng assembled at their
theaters to see their baudie enterludes and other trumperies practised,
for He caused the yearth mightely to shake and quaver as though all
would have fallen downe, wherat the people, sore amazed, some leapt
down from the top of the turrets, pinacles, and towers where thei
stood to the grounde, whereof some had their legges broke, some their
armes, some their backes, some hurt one where, some another, and
many sore crusht and brused, but not any but thei went awaie sore afraied
and wounded in conscience," Anatomic of Abuses, 1583; the allusion
to "turrets, pinacles, and towers" being no doubt a metaphorical
flourish. According to Munday — " at the play-houses the people came
running foorth, supprised® with great astonishment," View of Sundry
Examples, 1580. "The earthquake that hapned in the yeere 1580 on
the sixt of April, that shaked not only the scenicall Theatre, but the
great stage and theatre of the whole land," Gardnier's Doomes-day
Booke, 1606. Two days after the shock was published a ballad
entitled, — " Comme from the plaie, = Comme from the playe,=The
house will fall, so people saye,=The earth quakes, lett us hast awaye."
At the time of this earthquake the only theatres in England were situated
in Shoreditch, and there is evidence that the effects of it were felt in
that locality. " Also in Shordiche and other places fell chymneys, as at
Mr. Alderman Osburns in Fyllpot Lane fell a pece of a chymney," MS.
Diary, 6 April, 1580. Again, when Field wrote his Godly Exhortation
upon the accident which occurred at Paris Garden in January, 1583, he
could not resist the introduction of adverse criticism on the Shoreditch
theatres, — " surely it is to be feared, beesides the distruction bothe of
bodye and soule that many are brought unto by frequenting the Theater,
the Curtin and such like, that one day those places will likewise be cast
downe by God himselfe, and being drawen with them a huge heape of
such contempners and prophane persons utterly to be killed and spoyled
in their bodyes." This is, however, moderate language in comparison
with the exaggerated invective of Stubbes in the same year. After
alluding to the Theatre and Curtain as " Venus pallaces," he writes,
here speaking generally of plays and theatres, — " doe they not maintaine
bawdrie, insinuat foolerie and renue the remembraunce of Heathen
idolatrie ? Doe thei not induce whoredome and uncleannesse ? Nay, are
thei not rather plaine devourers of maidenly virginitie and chastitie ?
for proofe whereof but marke the flockyng and runnyng to Theaters and
Curtens daylie and hourelie, night and daie, tyme and tide, to see playes
and enterludes, where suche wanton gestures, such bawdie speeches,
suche laughyng and flearyng, suche kissyng and bussyng, suche clippyng
and culling, such wincking and glauncing of wanton eyes and the like
is used as is wonderfull to beholde," Anatomic of Abuses, ed. 1583.

330 THE THEATRE AND CURTAIN.

Rankins, in his Mirrour of Monsters, 1587, observes that "the Theater
and Curtine may aptlie be termed for their abhomination, the chappell
adulterinum." It was not surprising that these attacks provoked
retaliation, so the absurdities of the Martin Marprelate clique were
unmercifully ridiculed at the Theatre, as appears from a marginal note,
The Theater, to the following passage in Martins Months Minde, 1589,
— " as first, drie-beaten and therby his bones broken ; then whipt, that
made him winse ; then wormd and launced, that he tooke verie
grievouslie to be made a Maygame upon the stage." It is afterwards
stated that " everie stage plaier made a jest of him." Some of these
theatrical satires were so virulent that their performance was forbidden.
" Would those comedies might be allowed to be plaid that are pend, and
then I am sure he would be decyphered and so perhaps discouraged,"
Pappe with an Hatchet, n. d. The Theatre and Curtain are again
named together by Rainolds, in his Overthrow of Stage Playes, 1599,
written in 1593, but there merely in reference to male actors being
permitted to wear the costume of the other sex.

Although the denunciations of the Puritans were grounded upon
exaggerated statements, there can be little doubt that both these theatres
were frequented by some disreputable characters. " In the playhouses
at London," observes Gosson in his Playes Confuted, sig. G. 6, — "it is
the fashion of youthes to go first into the yarde and to carry theire eye
through every gallery ; then like unto ravens, where they spye the carion
thither they five and presse as nere to the fairest as they can ; instead
of pomegranates they give them pippines ; they dally with their garments
to passe the time ; they minister talke upon al occasions, and eyther
bring them home to theire houses on small acquaintance, or slip into
taverns when the plaies are done ; he thinketh best of his painted sheath,
and taketh himselfe for a jolly fellow, that is noted of most to be busyest
with women in all such places." The independent testimony of the
author of the Newes from the North, 1579, is to a similar effect, — "I
have partely shewed you heere what leave and libertie the common
people, namely youth, hath to followe their owne lust and desire in all
wantonnes and dissolution of life; for further proofe wherof I call
to witnesse the Theaters, Courtaines, heaving houses, rifling boothes,
bowling alleyes and such places where the time is so shamefully mispent,
namely the Sabaoth dayes, unto the great dishonor of God and the
corruption and utter destruction of youth." In Anthony Babington's
Complaint, written by R. Williams, the former, who was executed in
1586, is represented as saying, — " to bee a good lawier my mynde woulde
not frame, = I addicted was to pleasure and given so to game ;= But to
the Theatre and Curtayne woulde often resorte,= Where I mett com-
panyons fittinge mydisporte," MS.Arundel 418. It appears from Nash's
Pierce Penilesse, 1592, and several other authorities, that the neighbouring

THE THEATRE AND CURTAIN. 33*

village of Shoreditch was distinguished by the number of houses which
were inhabited by the frail sisterhood. In Skialetheia, 1598, mention is
made of an old citizen, " who, comming from the Curtaine, sneaketh in =
To some odde garden noted house of sinne ; " and West, in a rare poem,
the Court of Conscience, 1607, tells a libertine, — " Towards the Curtaine
then you must be gon, — The garden alleyes paled on either side ;=Ift
be too narrow walking, there you slide." Compare also a line in a poem
of the time of James I. in MS.Harl.2i27, — " Friske to the Globe or
Curtaine with your trull."

Little is known respecting the dimensions and structure of either the
Theatre or the Curtain. In Stockwood's Sermon Preached at Paules
Crosse the 24 of August, 1578, they are alluded to as having been
erected at a large cost, while the former is termed a gorgeous playing-
place, — " what should I speake of beastlye playes againste which out of
this place every man crieth out ? have we not houses of purpose built
with great charges for the maintainance of them, and that without the
Liberties, as who woulde say, — there, let them saye what they will say,
we wil play. I know not how I might with the godly learned especially
more discommende the gorgeous playing place erected in the fieldes
than to terme it, as they please to have it called, a Theatre, that is, even
after the maner of the olde heathnish theatre at Rome, a shew place of
al beastly and filthie matters, to the which it can not be chosen that
men should resort without learning thence muche corruption." The
Theatre is mentioned in 1601 as "the late greate howse," and that it
was correctly so designated would appear from the proceedings of a
Chancery Suit, Braynes v. Burbage, 1590, in which it is stated that
James Burbage, at the time of its erection, had borrowed the sum of
;£6oo for the express object of defraying the larger portion of the cost.
This agrees with an assertion made by Burbage's descendants in 1635,
that " the Theater hee built with many hundred poundes taken up at
interest." Allen, the freeholder, stated in 1601 his belief that the
Theatre was " erected att the costes and charges of one Braynes, and
not of James Burbage, to the value of one thousand markes," that is,
between £600 and ^£700, a large sum at the period at which it was
built; and when the building was removed in 1599, Allen estimated its
value at ,£700. This Braynes was the father-in-law of James Burbage.
The consideration given for the money advanced by this person must
have sadly interfered with the profits derived by Burbage from the
Theatre, which was doubtlessly a good speculation in itself. Allen,
indeed, speaks of a profit of ^2,000 having been realized from it.
" And further whereas the complainant," observes Allen, referring to
Cuthbert Burbage, " supposeth that the said Jeames Burbage his father
did to his great chardges erecte the said Theatre, and therby pretendeth
that there should be the greater cause in equitie to releive him, the

332 THE THEATRE AXD CURTAIN.

complainant, for the same, hereunto the defendant saieth that, con-
sideringe the great proffitt and beniffitt which the said Jeames Burbage
and the complainant in their severall times have made therof, which, as
the defendant hath credibilie hard, doth amounte to the somme of twoe
thousand powndes at the least, the defendant taketh it they have been
verie sufficientlye recompensed for their chardges which they have
bestowed uppon the said Theatre or uppon anie other buildinges there,"
Answer of Gyles Allen in the suit of Burbage v. Allen, Court of
Requests, 42 Eliz. Cuthbert Burbage, in his Replication, denies
" that the said James Burbadge or this complaynant hathe made twoo
thousand poundes proffitt and benefitt by the said theatre." Nothing
is here said respecting the material of which the edifice was constructed,
but in another paper in the same suit he alludes to " certayne tymber
and ottur stuffe ymploied in makinge and erectinge the Theater." That
the building was mainly constructed of wood cannot, however, admit of
a doubt, it being spoken of continually in the legal papers of more than
one of the Burbage suits as a structure of " wood and timber," materials
which James Burbage, being a joiner, would naturally have selected.
"The said defendant Cuthbert Burbage being well able to justifie the
pullinge downe, usinge and disposinge, of the woodde and tymber of the
saide playehowse," Answer of the Burbages, 44 Eliz. The Lord Mayor,
in a letter written in April, 1583, speaks, in reference to the Theatre, of
"the weakenesse of the place for mine," alluding perhaps to the wooden
scaffolds inside the building.

Although entertainments took place both at the Theatre and at the
Curtain during the winter months, there can be but little doubt that the
roof in each of these buildings merely covered the stage and galleries,
the pit or yard being open to the sky. This was certainly the case in
the latter theatre. The author of Vox Graculi or Jack Dawe's Prog
nostication, 1623, describing the characteristics of the month of April,
observes, — " about this time new playes will be in more request then
old, and if company come currant to the Bull and Curtaine, there will
be more money gathered in one after-noone then will be given to
Kingsland Spittle in a whole moneth ; also, if, at this time, about the
houres of foure and five it waxe cloudy, and then raine downeright,
they shall sit dryer in the galleries then those who are the understanding
men in the yard." The afternoon was likewise the usual time for the
performances in Shakespeare's day. Chettle, in his Kind Hartes Dreame,
1592, alludes to bowling-alleys, situated between the City walls and the
Theatre, " that were wont in the after-noones to be left empty, by the
recourse of good fellows unto that unprofitable recreation of stage-
playing."

The charge for admission to the Theatre was a penny, but this sum
merely entitled the visitor to standing room in the lower part of the

THE THEA TRE AND CURTAIN. 333

house. If he wanted to enter any of the galleries another penny was
demanded, and even then a good seat was not always secured without
a repetition of the fee. None who go, observes Lambard, "to Paris
Gardein, the Bell Savage or Theatre, to beholde beare baiting, enterludes
or fence play, can account of any pleasant spectacle unlesse they first
pay one pennie at the gate, another at the entrie of the scaffolde, and
the thirde for a quiet standing," Perambulation of Kent, ed. 1596,
p. 233, one of the passages in that edition not found in ed. 1576. The
author of Pappe with an Hatchet, 1589, speaks of twopence as the usual
price of admission "at the Theater,1' so the probability is that the penny
alone was insufficient for securing places which would be endured by
any but the lowest and poorest clas« of auditors, those who stood in the
yard or pit and were there exposed to the uncertainties of the weather.
Those of the audience who were in the galleries were, at least to a
considerable extent, protected from the rain. There were upper as well
as lower galleries in the building, the former being mentioned in the
following interesting clause of the proposed lease to Burbage of 1585, —
" and further that yt shall or maye be lawfull for the sayde Gyles and
for hys wyfe and familie, upon lawfull request therfore made to the sayde
Jeames Burbage, his executors or assignes, to enter or come into the
premisses, and their in some one of the upper romes to have such con
venient place to sett or stande to se such playes as shal be ther played,
freely without anythinge therefore payeinge, soe that the sayde Gyles, hys
wyfe and familie, doe come and take ther places before they shal be taken
upp by any others." It appears from this extract that there were seats for
the audience as well as standing-room in the galleries.

Neither the Theatre nor the Curtain was used exclusively for
dramatic entertainments. "Theater and Curtine for comedies and
other shewes," marginal note in Stow's Survay of London, ed. 1598,
p. 69. Both these theatres were frequently engaged for matches and
exercises in the art of fencing, as appears from several notices, dated
between the years 1578 and 1585, in MS.Sloane 2530, a curious volume
which seems to be a register of a society formed for the advancement
of the science of fencing, in which degrees were granted to those who
proved themselves to be the most efficient. It would appear from the
original manuscript of Stow's Survey that not only fencers, but tumblers
and such like, sometimes exhibited at these theatres. Near the
buildings of the dissolved Priory, observes Stow, "are builded two
howses for the showe of activities, comodies, tragidies and histories, for
recreation ; the one of them is named the Curteyn in Halywell, the
othar the Theatre ; thes are on the backesyde of Holywell, towards the
filde," MS.Harl.538. It should, however, be observed that the word
activities is not in the printed editions of 1598 or 1599, and the passage-
is omitted altogether in the subsequent impressions.

334 THE THEATRE AND CURTAIN.

When the fencers engaged the Theatre they sometimes increased
their audience by marching "with pomp" through the City. In July,
1582, the Lord Mayor thus writes to the Earl of Warwick respecting
one John David, a fencer in the Earl's service, who desired to exhibit
his skill at that establishment, — " I have herein yet further done for your
servante what I may, that is, that if he may obteine lawefully to playe at
the Theater or other open place out of the Citie, he hath and shall have
my permition with his companie drumes and shewe to passe openly
throughe the Citie, being not upon the sondaye, which is as muche as
I maye justefie in this season, and for that cause I have with his owne
consent apointed him Monday next," City of London MSS. This
permission, as appears from the correspondence, was granted very
reluctantly by the Lord Mayor, whose successor in the following year
absolutely prohibited any display of the kind. His Lordship thus writes
on April 27th, 1583, to one of the Justices of the Peace, — "there ar
certain fencers that have set up billes, and meane to play a prise at the
Theatre on Tuesday next, which is May eve. How manie waies the
same maie be inconvenient and dangerous, specially in that they desire
to passe with pomp thorough the Citie, yow can consider ; namelie, the
statute against men of that facultie, the perill of infection, the danger of
disorders at such assemblies, the memorie of 111 May Daie begon upon
a lesse occasion of like sort, the weakenesse of the place for ruine,
wherof we had a late lamentable example at Paris Garden ; for these
causes in good discretion we have not only not geven them licence, but
also declared to them the dangers, willing them at their perill to forbeare
their passing both thorough the Citie and their whole plaieng of such
prise."

It would appear, from these notices of the fencing matches which
took place at the Theatre and Curtain, that both establishments were
accessible to persons who desired to hire them for occasional purposes.
The probability is that they were thus engaged by various companies,
and a curious narrative, given in the following words in a letter from
Fleetwood to Lord Burghley, written in June, 1584, seems to confirm
this opinion, — " upon Sonndaie my Lord sent ij. aldermen to the Cowrt
for the suppressing and pulling downe of the Theatre and Curten, for
all the Lords agreed thereunto, saving my Lord Chamberlen and Mr.
Vice-Ch., but we obteyned a lettre to suppresse theym all ; — upon the
same night I sent for the Quenes players and my Lord of Arundel his
players, and they all well nighe obeyed the Lordes lettres ; — the chiefest
of her Highnes players advised me to send for the owner of the Theater,
who was a stubburne fellow, and to bynd him ; — I dyd so ;— he sent me
word that he was my Lord of Hunsdens man and that he wold not comme
at me, but he wold in the mornyng ride to my Lord ; — then I sent the
under-shereff Cor hym, and he browght hym to me, and, at his commyng,

THE THEATRE AND CURTAIN. 335

he showtted me owt very justice ; and in the end I shewed hym my Lord
his masters hand, and then he was more quiet ; but, to die for it, he wold
not be bound. — And then I mynding to send hym to prison, he made
sute that he might be bounde to appere at the oierand determiner, the
which is to-morowe, where he said that he was suer the court wold not
bynd hym, being a counselers man ; and so I have graunted his request,
where he shal be sure to be bounde, or els ys lyke to do worse,:'
M.S. Lansd.4i, art. 13. It is not to be assumed that the person who is here
mentioned as " the owner of the Theater " was either Burbage or Hyde.
He was more probably a temporary occupier of the building, for James
Burbage is not known to have ever belonged to the company of actors
in the pay of Lord Hunsdon, who was at that time Lord Chamberlain
of the Household. It may reasonably be gathered from Fleetwood's
letter that at least three companies, those of Queen Elizabeth, Lord
Arundel and Lord Hunsdon, were playing in June, 1584, at the Theatre
or Curtain ; the first and last probably at the Theatre, perhaps acting on
alternate days. It is certain that the Queen's Company sometimes
performed at the latter, for Laneham and Tarlton, both at one period
belonging to that company, are noticed as having acted there; the
author of Martins Months Minde, 1589, speaking of " twittle twattles
that I had learned in ale-houses and at the Theater of Lanam and his
fellowes." Tarlton is alluded to, as an actor at the same establishment,
in Nash's Pierce Penilesse, 1592, — "Tarlton at the Theater made jests
of him;" and again in Harington's Metamorphosis of Ajax, 1596, — -
" which worde was after admitted into the Theater with great applause
by the mouth of Mayster Tarlton, the excellent comedian." The
establishment appears to have been noted for its comic entertainments.
"If thy vaine," observes the author of Pappe with an Hatchet, 1589
"bee so pleasaunt and thy witt so so® nimble that all consists in glicks
and girds, pen some play for the Theater."

SHAKESPEARE'S NEIGHBOURS.

Few particulars have been discovered respecting the persons who
resided in Shakespeare's immediate neighbourhood, and none at all of
the terms on which he lived with them. Although it is known that he
had a wide circle of acquaintances in his native town, it is by the merest
accident that even the names of any of them have been recorded.
Amongst the latter the only one of his neighbours was Julius Shaw, who,
having been invited to witness the execution of the poet's will, may be
reasonably assumed to have been a somewhat intimate friend. There
is, however, an interest in what details can be given of the inhabitants
and residences in the vicinity of New Place, and it will be afterwards
observed that some of this information is of great value in the determi
nation of the western boundaries of Shakespeare's gardens. In the case
of Nash's House, its history is so inextricably connected with those
boundaries that it has been continued to the present day ; but it need
scarcely be added that no similar prolixity has been necessary in other
instances.

The name of Shakespeare's next-door neighbour in Chapel Street,
the inhabitant of the tenement now, and as early as the year 1674,
known as Nash's House, has not been ascertained. There was a build
ing here at least as early as 37 Henry VIII., then mentioned as the
tenement of William Phillips, and one Henry Norman seems to have
resided in it in 1618, for in that year his name appears as contributing
three shillings for its Church-rate. Thomas Nash, in his will dated
August 25th, 1642, proved in 1647, devised to his wife Elizabeth, for
her life, " all that messuage or tenemente with thappurtenaunces scituate,
lyeinge and beinge in Stratford-uppon-Avon in the county of Warwicke,
in a streete there called or knowen by the name of the Chappell Streete,
and nowe in the tenure, use and occupacion of one Johane Norman,
widowe ; " and, after the death of the said Elizabeth, to his kinsman,
Edward Nash, in fee. The house thus became the property of Shake
speare's grand-daughter from 1647 until her death in 1670, when it
devolved upon the relative just mentioned. Edward Nash's will is
dated in March, 1678, but, owing to the testator referring to, without
quoting, a deed of settlement executed three days previously, there is
no mention of the house, which must have been in some way settled
upon his grand-daughter Jane, who afterwards married Franklyn Miller,
of Hyde Hall, co. Hertford. This gentleman sold it to Hugh Clopton

Y

338 SHAKESPEARE'S NEIGHBOURS.

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 inhabit!, 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-
upon-Avon," Fin. Term. Trin. n 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 following interesting descrij>-
tion of the properties, — " all that messuage or tenement scituate and
being in Stratford-upon-Avon, wherein the said Edward Clopton now
dwells, togeather with the yard, garden, backside, outhouses and appur
tenances to the same belongeinge, 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 appurtenances 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 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 had then
been recently purchased 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 1740 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, 1 760, 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 was
not sufficient to pass real estate, as it merely disposed of personalty ;
and, after her death, Nash's House descended to Fanny Mortiboys,

SHAKESPEARE'S NEIGHBOURS. 339

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 1800, 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 belong
ing 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. No representation of the original
house is known to exist, but from existing remains of the upper outside
part of its ancient southern end, it is seen that its roof was higher than
that of Shakespeare's residence, its gable end overhanging the latter, and
the purlines projecting about eleven or twelve inches from the face of
the wall. From the appearance of the framing of the timbers, there is
every reason to believe that this gable is in the same condition as when
it was originally constructed. The front of the house has been twice
rebuilt 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 Nash'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 1597, a new lease was then granted to the
latter for twenty-five years. "July Shawe holdeth one tenemente with a
garden, yearly rent xij..r.," 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

Y 2

340 SHAKESPEARE'S NEIGHBOURS.

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 appa
rently 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 considerable 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 Mr. Hall for New Place. It
would seem from this circumstance that Shaw's house must have been
a substantial 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 existing 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 discrepancy 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 present
measurement of the same boundary of the next house, also belonging to
the town, 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,

SHAKESPEARE'S NEIGHBOURS. 34'

marrying Anne Boyes in 1594. His position in the following year is
thus described — " 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 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, and acted as one of the chamberlains for 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 ^"180. He was re-elected bailiff in 1627, and
died 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.

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 was 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 inches. These premises, 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, may have
been reproduced, but little, if any, of the original work of the sixteenth

H2 SHAKESPEARE'S NEIGHBOURS.

century is now to be traced. This house was long erroneously con-
sidered 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 'l 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
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 it is described as " all
that messuage or tenement with the appurtenances thereunto belonging,
situate and being in the Chappell Street in the said borough 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, gentleman, deceased, on the south part." These
premises, afterwards 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 origi
nally, 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 Corporation 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
thappurtenances wheerin the said Marye now dwelleth, scittuate and

SHAKESPEARE'S NEIGHBOURS.

343

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
Perrye one the north parte, the garden or orchard of Mr. John Hall one
thest parte, and the saide streete one the west." Another testimony to the
?ame 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 messuag 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 occupaccion of the said Thomas Hathway."

Opposite to New Place, on the south-west end of Chapel Street and
at the corner of Scholar's Lane, was, in Shakespeare's time, a private
residence, which was afterwards, some time between the years 1645 an<^
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 Shake
speare'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 tenne-
ment with the apurtenances called by the name of the Falcon ;" in 1685,
as "comonly called by the name of the Falcon house;" and in 1687,

344 SHAKESPEARE'S NEIGHBOURS.

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 given by
Ireland in 1795, with lattice-windows on the ground floor, is at all events
inaccurate, 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 upright oak timbers with plaister," and
there is no doubt, from the structural indications visible even in its
present altered condition, that it was originally a post-and-pan edifice
of three stories, the fronts of the two upper ones overhanging the ground,
floor rooms. Ireland adds the unfounded statements 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, but
as to its implied age there is much uncertainty, while the tradition
connecting it with the poet is unquestionably a modern fabrication.

THE HISTORY OF NEW PLACE.

There is a vellum roll, which was written in the year 1483, in which
a tenement at Stratford-upon-Avon is described as being jtixta 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-upon-Avon in 1497, in which he is described
as being seized "de uno burgagio jacente in Chapell Strete in Stretforde
predicta ex oposito Capelle ex parte boriali" Sir Hugh had previously
granted a life-interest in the estate to one Roger Paget, in whose posses
sion it was vested in 1496. The William Clopton, to whom the rever
sion in fee was bequeathed in the same year, was the son of John, and
the grandson of Thomas, 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
sumtyme of thenheritance of myne auncettours havyng the name and
names of Clopton, to those of the heirez males of my body commyng,
and for defaultc of suche heire male of my body comyng, to the

346 THE HIS TOR Y OF NE W PLA CE.

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 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 then consisting of one tenement with the appurtenances
in Chapel Street in the tenure of William Bott, — Escheat 2 Eliz.

Leland, who visited Stratford-upon-Avon about the year 1540,
describes New Place as an elegant house built of brick and timber. His
words are, — " there is a right goodly chappell, in a fayre street towardes
the south ende of the towne, dedicated to the Trinitye ; 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, wherin 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 misin
formed when he made the statement that Sir Hugh resided at New
Place in the latter part of his life, and that he died there. It seems
evident, from his remains having been interred 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 that tenant. 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 period yet discovered
is there any evidence that they were inhabitants of 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 neighbour
hood, 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 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 was the occasion of a law-suit, the

THE HIS TOR Y OF NE W PL A CE. 347

result of which is not stated, but there can be little doubt that it ter
minated in some way in favour of the defendant, who devised his estates
at Stratford- upon -A von to his son, William Clopton, in 1560. This
bequest was encumbered with a number of heavy legacies, in conse
quence 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 there in 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 extensile, 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 Neiv Place gardfli, 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 i8th, 1565, and the
spot referred to was clearly an 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 appurtenaunces 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 Tomlins,
the garden of which extended to the western side of what was afterwards
the Great Garden of New Place. " John Tomlins holdeth one tene
mente 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 a 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

34« THE HIS TOR Y OF A'E W FLA CE.

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 New Place is the following plea which
Bott filed against Sponer on September i2th, 1565, — "Willielmus Bott
queritur versus Ricardum Sponer de placito transgressionis, et sunt
plegii de prosequendo, 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 le newe place gardyn, in
quodam® venella vocata Dede Lane apud Stretford predictam, infra
jurisdiccionem hujus curie, fregit et intravit, et duoclecim pecias de
meremiis vocatas xij. peces of tymber squaryd and sawed precii quadra-
ginta 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 sectam, 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 and 21 Henry VL, 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 Bott and
others to William Underhill for the sum of ,£40, being then described
as consisting of one messuage and one garden ; and in a return to a
commission issued out of the Exchequer for the survey of the posses
sions of Ambrose earl of Warwick, made in 1590, it is stated that
" Willielmus Underhill generosus " held in fee a house called the Ne^t>e
Place with its appurtenances at an annual court-rent of twelve-pence.
The estate continued in the hands of the Underhill family until the year
1597, when it was purchased by Shakespeare, being then described as
consisting of one messuage, two barns, and two gardens. The following
is a copy of the foot of the fine levied on this occasion, — "Inter Williel-
mum Shakespeare, querentem, et Willielmum Underhill, generosum,

THE HISTORY OF NEW PLACE. 349

deforciantem, de uno mesuagio, duobus horreis, et duobus gardinis, cum
pertinenciis, in Stratford-super-Avon, unde placitum convencionis sum-
monitum fuit inter eos in eadem curia, Scilicet quod predictus Willielmus
Underbill recognovit predicta tenementa cum pertinenciis esse jus ipsius
Willielmi Shakespeare, ut ilia que idem Willielmus habet de dono predicti
Willielmi Underbill, et ilia remisit et quietumclamavit de se et heredibus
suis predicto Willielmo Shakespeare et heredibus suis imperpetuum ;
et preterea idem Willielmus Underbill concessit, pro se et heredibus
suis, quod ipsi warantizabunt predicto Willielmo Shakespeare et heredi
bus suis predicta tenementa cum pertinenciis imperpetuum ; et pro hac
recognicione, remissione, quieta clamancia, warantia, fine et concordia
idem Willielmus Shakespeare dedit predicto Willielmo Underbill
sexaginta libras sterlingorum," Pasch. 39 Eliz. A facsimile of the
exemplification of this fine, that which was held by Shakespeare" with
his title-deeds, is here given. Another one was levied on New Place
in 1602, for the same property is unquestionably referred to, notwith
standing the addition of the words, et duobus pomariis, in the foot of
the fine, — " Inter Willielmum Shakespeare, generosum, querentem, et
Herculem Underbill, generosum, deforciantem, de uno mesuagio, duobus
horreis, duobus gardinis, et duobus pomariis cum pertinenciis, in
Stretford-super-Avon ; unde placitum convencionis summonitum fuit
inter eos in eadem curia, Scilicet quod predictus Hercules recognovit
predicta tenementa cum pertinenciis esse jus ipsius Willielmi, ut ilia que
idem Willielmus habet de dono predicti Herculis, et ilia remisit et
quietumclamavit de se et heredibus suis predicto Willielmo et heredibus
suis imperpetuum ; et preterea idem Hercules concessit, pro se et
heredibus suis, quod ipsi warantizabunt predicto Willielmo et heredibus
suis predicta tenementa cum pertinenciis contra predictum Herculem et
heredes suos imperpetuum ; et pro hac recognicione, remissione, quieta
clamancia, warantia, fine et concordia idem Willielmus dedit predicto
Herculi sexaginta libras sterlingorum," Mich. 44 & 45 Eliz. In the
absence of the deed which would explain the object of this fine, it can
only be conjectured that, after Shakespeare had bought New Place, it
was discovered that Hercules Underbill had some contingent interest in
the property which was conveyed to the poet by this second transaction.
There is evidence, in the list of corn and malt owners, dated a few
months after Shakespeare's purchase of New Place, that he was then the
occupier of that residence, and there is no doubt that it continued to be
in his possession until his death in 1616. In the latter year he devised
" all that capitall messuage or tenemente, with thappurtenaunces, called
the Newe Place, wherein I nowe dwell," to his daughter Susanna Hall
for life, remainders to her male issue in strict entail, remainder to his
grand-daughter, Elizabeth Hall, then a little girl of eight years of age,
and her male issue, remainder to his daughter Judith and her male issue,

350

/•///•: HISTORY OF NEW PLACE.

£

5

«—

-

THE HIS TOR Y OF NE W PL A CE. 3 5 1

remainder to the testator's own heirs for ever. No further dealings with
the estate took place until the early part of the year 1639, when, on the
death of the two surviving sons of Judith Quiney, that lady herself being
then fifty-four years of age, the poet's devise of remainders to her children
was accepted as void. Within a few weeks after this unexpected occur
rence, Susanna Hall joined with Mr. and Mrs. Nash in making a new
settlement of the Shakespeare entails. Under a deed of May ayth, 1639,
New Place and the other settled estates were confirmed "to the onelie
use and behoofe of the said Susan Hall for and during the terme of her
naturall life, and after her decease to the use and behoofe of the said
Thomas Nash and Elizabeth his wife for and during the terme of their
[lalurall lives, and the life of the longest liver of them, and after their
deceases, to the use and behoofe of the heires of the bodies of the said
Thomas Nash and Elizabeth his wife betweene them lawfullie begotten
or to bee begotten, and for default of such issue, to the use and behoofe
of the heires of the bodie of the said Elizabeth lawfullie begotten or to
bee begotten, and, for default of such issue, to the use and behoofe of the
said Thomas Nash and of his heires and assignes for ever, and to none
other use or uses, intent or purpose whatsoever." No note of a fine of
this date has been discovered, and, notwithstanding the wording of the
settlement to that effect, it may be doubted if one was levied. The
estate tail and remainders do not appear to have been effectually
barred until the year 1647.

In the month of July, 1643, New Place was the temporary residence
of Queen Henrietta Maria in the course of her triumphant march from
Newark to Keinton. This fact, which there is no reason to dispute, rests
upon a tradition told by Sir Hugh Clopton to Theobald early in the last
century, and the anecdote exhibits a continuation in the family of the
sincere loyalty which the favours of previous sovereigns must have
riveted to the poet's own affections. According to the last-named writer,
the Queen " kept her Court for three weeks in New Place," Preface to
his edition of Shakespeare, ed. 1733, p. xiv. She was, however, at
Stratford only three days, arriving there on July nth, at the head of
upwards of two thousand foot and a thousand horse, with about a hundred
waggons, and a train of artillery. This was a memorable day for
Stratford, for here the Queen was met by Prince Rupert at the head of
another body of troops, the most stirring event of the kind the ancient
town has ever witnessed. The Corporation bore at least some of the
expense of entertaining Henrietta, who left Stratford on the i3th of the
same month, meeting the King in the vale of Keinton, near the site of
the battle of Edgehill.

Thomas Nash appears to have considered the settlement of 1639 as
one entitling him to dispose of Shakespeare's estates by will, perhaps on
the supposition that he would outlive his mother-in-law, and a period at

3$2 THE HISTORY OF NEW PLACE.

which it was unlikely for her daughter to have issue. There was also
the exonerative fact that the terms of the devise in his will would not
affect the life-interest of his wife as secured by that settlement. It is, at
all events, certain that he devised New Place in 1642 to his kinsman
Edward Nash, just as if it were his own property, — " item, I give, dispose
and bequeath unto my kinesman Edward Nash, and to his heires and
assignes for ever, one messuage or tenement with the appurtenances
comonly called or knowen by the name of the Newe Place, scituate
lyeing and being in Stratford-uppon-Avon aforesaid in the said county
of Warwicke, in a streete there called or knowen by the name of the
Chappell Streete, togeather alsoe with all and singuler howses, out-
howses, barnes, stables, orchardes, gardens, easementes, proftittes and
comodities to the same belonginge or in anie wise appertayninge, or
reputed, taken, esteemed or enjoyed as thereunto belonging, and nowe
in the tenure, use and occupacion of mee the said Thomas Nashe." In
a nuncupative codicil, made very shortly before his death on April the
4th, 1647, he declares that the land given in the will to Edward Nash,
including doubtlessly the estate of New Place, should be by him settled,
after his decease, upon Edward's son Thomas. He was clearly a man
of very considerable wealth, which is even specifically alluded to in the
lines inscribed on his tombstone in the chancel of Stratford church.
Shakespeare's grand-daughter Elizabeth was his sole executrix and
residuary legatee, but most of the other terms of the will indicate a
partiality in favour of his own relatives, the disposition to whom of the
poet's estates does not appear to be equitable. The codicil mentions
the then handsome legacy of ^50 to his mother-in-law, Shakespeare's
daughter ; and it also exhibits him on friendly terms with other members
of his wife's family, there being several bequests to the Hathaways and
Quineys.

So full of civil troubles were those days that, at the very time of her
husband's death, Mrs. Nash had soldiers quartered upon her at New
Place, one of whom was implicated in a robbery of deer from the park
of Sir Greville Verney, an occurrence which took place on the last day of
April, 1647. She duly proved her husband's will in the following June,
but the entail of New Place having been barred in 1639, and re-settled
on her and her issue, and as she, at her husband's decease, was not
thirty-nine years of age, she declined to carry out Nash's will so far a?
that estate and two others were concerned. She therefore without
delay, — in fact, within two or three weeks after her husband's decease, —
joined with her mother in levying a fine (Easter Term, 23 Car. I.) on
New Place, and resettling it on June 2nd, 1647, " to the onlie use and
behoofe of the said Susan Hall for and duringe the terme of her natural I
life, and after her decease, to the use and behoofe of the said Elizabeth
Nash, and the heires of her body lawfully begotten or to be begotten,

THE HISTORY OF NEW PLACE. 353

and, for default of such issue, to the use and behoofe of the right heires
of the said Elizabeth Nash for ever." In Michaelmas of the same year
a recovery of the same estate was prosecuted. It is worth mentioning
that Mrs. Nash was not present when the will was signed at New Place
on August the 25th, 1642, and unless the devise of that estate were made
with her full knowledge and consent, she might reasonably have felt
herself at liberty to endeavor to secure a residence associated with the
memories of her father and grandfather.

Edw-ard Nash, the devisee under his uncle's will, naturally desired to
place the new settlement made by Susanna Hall and her daughter on
one side ; and, to effect this purpose, he filed a bill in Chancery on
February i2th, 1647-8, against Elizabeth Nash and other legatees, to
compel them to produce and execute the provisions of the said will.
The defendant, in her answer, admits the contents of the will, but denies
that Thomas Nash had the power to dispose of any interest in New
Place, asserting that the estate could not be so devised, because it was
the inheritance of William Shakespeare, her grandfather, who was seized
thereof in fee simple long before her marriage with Nash, bequeathing
it to Susanna Hall, the daughter and coheir of the said William, for her
life, and after her death to her and her issue. She then proceeds to
mention that Susanna Hall, to whom the property was devised by
Shakespeare, was yet living and enjoying the same ; that she and her
mother, after Nash's death, levied a fine and recovery on the estate to
the use of Susanna for life, remainder to herself; and that she only
disputed that portion of her husband's will which had reference to New
Place, the land in Old Stratford, and the house in London. Mrs. Nash
also admits that she "hath in her hands or custodie many deeds,
evidences, writings, charters, escripts and muniments which concerne the
lands and premises which the defendant claymeth as her inheritance,
and other the lands which are the defendant's joynture, and are devised
to her by the said Thomas Nash." Amongst these were the title-deeds
of New Place.

The answer of Elizabeth Nash was taken by commission at Strat
ford, no doubt at New Place, in April, 1648, and on June loth, process
of duces tecum having been previously awarded against the defendants
" to bringe into this Court the will, evidences and writinges confessed by
their answere to be in their custody, or att the retourne thereof to shewe
unto this Courte good cause to the contrary," it was ordered " that the
will be brought into this Court to the end the plaintiff may examine
witnesses therupon, and then to be delivered back to the defendant,
and that the defendant shall allsoe bring the said evidencies and
writinges into Court upon oath the first day of the next terme there to
remaine for the equall benefitt of both parties, and shall within ten daies
after notice deliver unto the plaintiff a true schedule thereof." The

Z

334 THE HISTORY OF NEW PLACE.

will of Thomas Nash was produced before the examiners in Chancery
in November, and Michael Johnson, one of the witnesses, was examined
at length as to its authenticity ; but it seems that Elizabeth Barnard
defied altogether the above-named order in respect to the title-deeds of
the estates in dispute. It appears from the affidavit filed at the Six
Clerks' Office in December, 1649, tnat *he writ of execution of the order
of the tenth of June was personally served upon her on July the sixth,
and there is a note in the books of the same office, dated November
the 2oth, to the effect that she had paid no attention to the order or
to the writ. There was clearly an indisposition to allow the evidences
in her possession respecting the property to be deposited in Court.

In the midst of these legal proceedings, and a few days after the order
of the tenth of June was served upon Mrs. Barnard, her mother, Susanna
Hall, expired. After this event, assuming the settlement of 1647 to have
been valid, New Place became the property of Mrs. Barnard, and there
is every reason to believe that the litigation terminated in the latter
part of the year 1650. It appears from the books in the Six Clerks'
Office that no replication was ever filed, and no decree in the suit can
be found. In November, 1650, an order for the publication of the
evidence was granted, so it is clear that after that date the pleadings
were closed, and henceforth no more is heard of the suit. The terms
of the compromise can only be conjectured, but as Lady Barnard, in
her will, in directing her trustees to dispose of New Place and other
estates, provides " that my loving cousin Edward Nash esq. shall have
the first offer or refusal thereof, according to my promise formerly made ta
him? it may be presumed that the dispute was amicably adjusted, that
assurance having probably been elicited on the occasion. The estate
tail and remainders appear to have been so effectually barred by the
fine and recovery of 1647, it is most likely that Edward Nash found
that his efforts to retain the property would be ineffectual.

A few weeks previously to the termination of the suit between the
Nashes, a fine, dated in 1650, was levied on New Place, the only effect,
however, of which seems to have been to place John Barnard and
Henry Smith as trustees of the settlement of 1647, m the stead of
Richard Lane, whose colleague, William Smith of Balsall, appears to
have been dead. This explanation is offered, however, with hesitation,
fines being as a rule merely auxiliary to deeds explaining their object,
which otherwise can often only be conjectured. In 1652. another fine
was levied, and a settlement made whereby New Place was confirmed
" to the use of John Barnard and Elizabeth his wife for and dureing
theire naturall lives, and the life of the longest liver of them, and to the
heires of the body of the said Elizabeth lawfully begotten or to be
begotten, and for defaulte of such issue, to the use of such person or
persons, and for such estate and estates, as the said Elizabeth by any

THE HIS TOR Y OF NEW PLACE. 355

writeing either purporteing her last will or otherwise, sealed and
subscribed in the presence of two or more credible witnesses, shall
lymitt and appoint ; and from and after such nominacion or appoint
ment, or in defaulte of such nominacion or appointment, to the use and
behoofe of the right heires of the survivor of them, the said John and
Elizabeth, for ever." In pursuance of this power, Mrs. Barnard, in
April, 1653, executed a deed conveying New Place, after the death of
her husband and the decease of herself without issue, to trustees, who
were directed to sell the estate, and apply the proceeds " in such manner
and by such some or somes, as I, the said Elizabeth, shall by any
wrighting or noate under my hand, truly testified, declare and
nominate."

John Barnard, who was knighted by Charles the Second in 1661,
owned the manor of Abington, near Northampton, at which place he
and his wife resided at the time of her death in 1670. How long after
their marriage they occupied New Place does not appear, but it is
mentioned as in his tenure in 1652, and, from the names of the witnesses,
it may be perhaps assumed that Mrs. Barnard was living at Stratford
when she executed the deed of 1653. From a list of fire-hearths made
in 1663, it would seem that Francis Oldfield, gentleman, was then living
in the house, and he continued to occupy it until at least 1670, but in
1674 a Mr. Greene is returned as holding it. Sir John Barnard was
presented for a nuisance in Chapel Lane in 1670, but probably as
owner, not as occupier. Oldfield, there is reason to believe, removed
from New Place in or soon after that year, for on June i6th, 1671,
he requested to be released from being an alderman " in respect he
hath removed his habitacion into another county, and liveth att that
distance from this burrough that hee is incapacitated to doe that respect
and duty which belongs to his said office or place of alderman, as
formerly hee hath done," a request, however, which was not complied
with until September, 1672. The usual place of residence of Sir John
and Lady Barnard, during the later years of their-lives, appears to have
been at the chief mansion in the small and retired village of Abington.
The house, which is situated very near the church, still remains, but in
a modernised state, the only relics of the Barnards consisting of carved
oak panelling in the old dining-room, and a fine hall of the sixteenth
century, the latter remaining in the original state, with the exception that
some modern village carpenter has added pieces of wood placed cross
wise between the spaces of the original work. No tradition respecting
the Barnards has been preserved in the neighbourhood, as I ascertained
many years ago from careful enquiries amongst the then old inhabitants.
Lady Barnard executed her will there on January 29th, 1669-70, being
probably in a delicate state of health, for she died in the following
month, and was buried at Abington on February i7th. "Madam

7. 2

356 THE HISTORY OF NEW PLACE.

Elizabeth Bernard, wife of Sir John Bernard kt., was buried 17° Febr.,
1669," Abington register. In her will she requests her surviving trustee,
after the death of her husband, to sell New Place to the best bidder,
and to make the first offer of it to Edward Nash. She also directs that
the executors or administrators of Sir John Barnard " shall have and
enjoy the use and benefit of my said house in Stratford, called the
New Place, with the orchards, gardens, and all other the appurtenances
thereto belonging, for and during the space of six months next after the
decease of him the said Sir John Barnard." There is a little bit of
traditional evidence leading to the not at all improbable conclusion
that this will gave dissatisfaction to the Harts. " I have been told by
Thomas Hart," says Jordan, in one of his manuscripts, "his great-grand
father George attempted to recover New Place by virtue of his great
uncle's (the poet's) will." If George Hart meditated, which is not
unlikely, an attempt of the kind, it probably never came into court, the
entail having been too successfully barred to lead us to believe that
much progress in any legal proceedings in his favour could have been
made.

No sepulchral monument of any description was erected in com
memoration of the last descendant of Shakespeare. The memory of her
husband, who died at Abington early in 1674, was not so neglected, but
his remains, with probably those of Lady Barnard, have long since
disappeared, for beneath his memorial slab is now a vault belonging to
another family. Administration of his effects was granted to his son-
in-law, Henry Gilbert of Locko, co. Derby, the husband of his daughter
Elizabeth, and to his two other surviving daughters. By these, or some
of these, New Place was no doubt kept possession during the six months
named by Lady Barnard.

Edward Nash not purchasing the estate, it was sold by Lady
Barnard's surviving trustee to Sir Edward Walker, at one time Secretary
at War to Charles the First, and then Garter King at Arms. In the
conveyance, dated May i8th, 1675, it is described as "all that capitall
messuage or tenement, with appurtenances, scituate and being in
Stratford-upon-Avon, comonly called or knowne by the name of the
New Place, scituate in part in a street there called Chappell Street, and
in part in a lane there called Chappell Lane, and all gardens, orchards,
courts, yards, outlets, backsides, barnes, stables, outhowses, buildings,
walls, mounds and fences to the same belonging, or in any wise of right
apperteynmg or therwithall formerly comonly used or enjoyed, or
reputed as parcell or member therof, or belonging therunto." It
appears from the Stratford records and from Dugdale's Diary that Sir
Edward did not reside at New Place, when he was in Warwickshire, but
at Clopton House, an ancient mansion which, of course, externally at
least, must have been familiar to Shakespeare, although no reliance is

THE HISTORY OF NEW PLACE. 357

to be placed on the recently asserted, and most likely fictitious, tradition
that he visited there. The house, which has long been modernized, was
a large rambling gabled edifice said to have been originally moated. It
is situated on the brow of the Welcombe Hills, amidst land of trivial
undulation, within two miles of Stratford-on-Avon.

Sir Edward Walker did not long retain the enjoyment of his Shake
spearean purchase. He died in 1677, devising New Place to his
daughter Barbara, wife of Sir John Clopton, for her life, with remainder
to the testator's senior grandson, Edward Clopton ; but the rental of
the premises was to be reserved for ten years " towards raising portions
for my female grandchildren, Agnes and Barbara Clopton." The terms
of the bequest to his daughter and grandson are, — " I give unto my
said deare daughter after the expiracion of tenn yeares the house called
the New Place, with the gardens, barnes, &c., lying in the borough of
Stratford, during her naturall life, and then to come to my eldest grand-
sonn, Edward Clopton and his heires." Barbara died in 1692, when
the estate devolved on her son Edward, who became the occupier of
New Place about two years afterwards, previously to which time the
premises had been tenanted successively by persons named Joseph Hunt
and Henry Browne. It appears from a deed previously quoted that
Edward Clopton removed to Nash's house some time before May, 1699,
continuing, nevertheless, to hold the Great Garden that belonged to
New Place. A few months afterwards he gave the rest of the latter
estate to his father, Sir John Clopton, conveying to him, in January,
1699-1700, for his life "all that messuage or tenement and premises,
with the appurtenances, situate, lying and being in Chapel Street and
Chapel Lane in the borough of Stratford-upon-Avon, commonly called
or known by the name of the New Place, then in the tenure of John
Wheeler gent," with remainder to the use of Hugh Clopton in fee. It
is worthy of remark that no garden at all is here mentioned. Sir John
appears shortly after this period to have pulled down the original
building, for in September, 1702, he settled New Place upon Hugh
Clopton and his intended wife, in anticipation of the former's marriage
with Elizabeth Millvvard, and it was then described as "one new house
standing and being in Stratford-upon-Avon, which house is intended for
them, the said Hugh Clopton and Elizabeth his intended wife, to live in,
but the same haveing been lately built is not finished, or fitted up, and
made convenient for them to inhabitt in." All these transactions were
no doubt the results of a family arrangement

When the Cloptons thus arranged for the demolition of Shakespeare's
latest residence, there was no one to supplicate for its preservation, and it
would be unfair to reproach them for not having been guided by sentiments
that were not cherished till a later period. They had not the counsel of
posterity. It is clear from the indenture of settlement of 1 702 above men-

THE HIS TOR Y OF NE W PLA CE. 3 59

tioned that the second house of New Place was completed in or very
shortly before that year, for it is therein described as " lately built " and
as being altogether in an unfinished state in the month of September.
In fact, Sir John Clopton then agreed to complete by the following
March the " finishing both as to glaseing, wainscoateing, painteing,
laying of flores, makeing the starecase, doors, walls and pertitions in
and about the said house, brewhouse, -stables, coachhouse and other
buildings, and alsoe wallinge the garden, and layeing gravell walkes
therein, and doeing all other things proper and reasonable in and about
the said house to make the same inhabitable." Some few of the
materials of the ancient building were used in the construction of the
new one, and portions of the foundations were suffered to remain, but
Sir John Clopton clearly rebuilt the house on a different ground-plan.
The excavations that have been made establish this fact beyond a
doubt, a circumstance it may be well to state decisively, it having been
confidently asserted, on what appeared to be good authority, that the
previous edifice was merely refronted and altered. In fact, in respect
to most of the basement, the old fabric was removed altogether, while, as
to the greater portion of the rest, the foundations only, to the height of
about fifteen inches, were allowed to remain. A curious demonstration
of this occurs in the remains of the south-east room, where a fire-place
built by Sir John Clopton is to be observed crossing over the founda
tions of the ancient walls, the latter two feet wide.

When the rebuilding of New Place was completed and it was fitted
for residence in 1703, it was occupied by Hugh Clopton with the small
back garden and premises attached to it, while his brother Edward
occupied the adjoining house and garden, together with the Great
Garden. They continued neighbours until 1706, when Nash's House>
together with the large garden, became, as has been previously noticed,
the property of Aston Ingram. Hugh Clopton did not re-annex the
Great Garden to New Place until March 2ist, 1728-9, when, in the
conveyance from his sister Barbara, the widow of Ingram, as recited in
an old abstract of title, it is described as " all that piece or parcel of
ground lying and being within the borough of Stratford-upon-Avon
called the Great Garden, and which did formerly belong to New Place,
the house wherein he the said Hugh Clopton did then inhabit and dwell,
and was near adjoining to the said house and backside thereof, which
said garden contained by estimation three quarters of an acre more or
less, together also with all barns, stables, outhouses, brick walls, edifices,
buildings, ways, waters, &c., to the same premises belonging." The
word near used in this description must not be understood to imply
that the Great Garden did not actually join the back premises of New
Place, for in the conveyance of Nash's House from Ingram to Rose,
1729, the former is described as "the plot or peice of ground called or

360 THE HISTORY OF NEW PLACE.

knowne by the name of the Great Garden, being or being reputed three
quarters of an acre, bee the same more or less, with the yard, barnes,
stables, and outhouses to the same belonging, standing, lyeing and being
on the east side the house called the New Place, now in the possession
of the said Hugh Clopton, and some years since belonged to or was a
part of that house or premisses thereunto belonging."

In June, 1732, Hugh Clopton settled New Place and its grounds to
himself for life, with various remainders over. He died in 1751, and, in
1756, the then owners of the estate under that settlement conveyed to
the Rev. Francis Gastrell in fee, " all that capital messuage or mansion
house called the New Place, situate and being in Chapel Street and
Chapel Lane within the borough of Stratford-upon-Avon in the county
of Warwick, with the kitchen garden heretofore purchased of William
Smith, gentleman, as also the Great Garden and yard thereto adjoining,
together with the buildings erected thereon, some time since purchased
of Barbara Ingram widow, now in the tenure of the said Henry Talbott,
and also all the pews and seats in the Church and Chapel of Stratford-
upon-Avon aforesaid usually held and enjoyed by the said Sir Hugh
Clopton and his domesticks as appurtenant to the said messuage ; and
also all the fixtures and ornaments fixed to and belonging to the said
capital messuage, with their incidents and appurtenances." It was this
Gastrell who pulled the modern non-Shakespearean house down to the
ground in the year 1759.

In the settlement of 1732, the estate is particularly described as "all
that capitall messuage called the New Place, scituate in Chappel Street,
adjoyning to Chappel Lane, within the Burrough of Stratford-upon-Avon,
in the county of Warwick, together with the kitchin garden heretofore
purchased of William Smith gent., as also the Great Garden and yard
thereto adjoyning, together with the buildings erected thereon, and lately
purchased of Barbara Ingram, widdow, together with all outhouses,
edifices, buildings, barns, stables, and edifices thereunto belonging, or
in anywise appertaining, or therewith usually held, occupied or enjoyed,
and now in the occupation of the said Hugh Clopton." Mention is here
first made of the kitchen garden formerly belonging to William Smith,
gent., perhaps the individual of that name and rank who died at Strat-
ford-on-Avon in 1708, but there is no trace to be "found respecting its
situation or of the date of purchase. In the absence of other documents,
either can only be a subject of conjecture, but the former was, in all
probability, the small indented plot at the north-west of the Great Garden.
With this exception, there is no reason for doubting that the northern
boundary-line of the original Shakespeare estate has been unaltered to
the present day. Had any change been made, the fact could hardly
have escaped notice in the title-deeds, but no absolute evidence is at
present accessible, the most anxious search having failed to unearth the

THE HISTOR Y OF NE W PLA CE. 36 1

old indentures referring to the property between that line and Sheep
Street, the only records that would be likely to enable us to arrive at
a definite conclusion.

The Great Garden of New Place was bounded on the east by a slip
of land which, long before the time of Shakespeare, and for many
generations afterwards, belonged to the trustees of the Charity of Clifford
Chambers, a village near Stratford. It had been given to the parish of
Clifford for eleemosynary purposes by Hugh Chesenale, who was the
priest of that village in the time of Henry the Seventh. This little
estate measured only sixty feet in length by thirty in width, and is
described in a deed of the year 1472 as, ".burgagium cum suis pertinentiis
scituatum in vico vocato Dede Lane in Stratford, inter tenementum
Abbathie de Redyng ex parte una et tenementum priorisse de Pynley
nunc in tenura Johannis Gylbert ex parte altera." In 1572, it is men
tioned as consisting of a barn and garden, and a lease was granted in
that year by the trustees, amongst whom was one named in the deed John
Shaxber, to Lewis ap Williams of Stratford ironmonger, of " one barne
with a garden to the same belonginge in Stretforde aforesaied, in a lane
ther commonlye caled Deadd lane alias Walker stret, nowe in the tenure
and occupation of Robarte Bratte or his assignes," such lease to com
mence at the expiration of one formerly granted to Robert Bratte. The
annual rental was five shillings and ninepence, Williams covenanting
to keep the barn and garden in good order, and to pay all chief rents and
other outgoings. This barn is mentioned in 1590 in a return to a
commission issued out of the Exchequer for the survey of the possessions
of Ambrose earl of Warwick, — " inhabitantes de Clyfford unum horreum,
v'}.d" the sixpence being the chief rent paid to the Lord of the Manor.
In 1619, the estate was occupied by one John Beesly alias Coxe,
carpenter, who in or shortly before that year pulled down the barn, in
the place of which he erected a small cottage of two bays, and, in defiance
of orders then in vogue at Stratford, roofed the tenement with thatch.
On the back of the lease above-named is an endorsement that may be
assigned to the period of the first James, which contains one of the very
few contemporary written notices of the great poet, and it is important
as proving decisively that the Great Garden of New Place was occupied
by Shakespeare himself. The memorandum is as follows, — " the barne
on the west sid bounds by Mr. William Shaxpeare of Pynley Holt, and

Ir V J

the est sid on the Kinges land William Wyatt of Stratford yoman."
This means that the western side of the Clifford estate was bounded
by property of William Shakespeare which had belonged to the Priory of

362 THE HIS TOR Y OF NEW PLA CE.

Pinley Holt, and the eastern side by Crown land belonging to William
Wyatt

Another evidence that the western side of this small estate adjoined
the Great Garden of New Place is contained in a lease dated March the
25th, 1 62 2, between the Clifford Trustees and the above-named John
Beesley, in which it is witnessed that the former, " for and in considera
tion that the said John Beesley alias Cox hath alreadie at his owne proper
costes and charges newlie erected and builte up two bayes of new
buyldinges, and for diverse other good causes and consideracions them
especiallie moveing, have demised, sett and to farme lett, and by theise
presentes doe graunte, demise, sett and to farme lett, unto the saide John
Beesley alias Cox, all that now cottage or tenemente newlie erected by
the said John Beesley alias Cox, containinge by estimacion two bayes,
with a backside or garden plotte to the same belonging, contayninge in
length three score yardes, and in breadth tenn yardes, all which lie in a
streete called Deade Lane or Chappell Lane, and now Walkers Streete,
in Stratforde aforesaide, and is bounded on the weste side with the now
land of John Hawle, gent., sometyme the landeof the dissolved Priorieof
Pynley Houlte, and on the easte side with the lande sometyme belonging
to the Abbie of Reading, and now the land of William Wyate gent." In
August, 1758, Gastrell, having then just previously bought the land on
the eastern side of this estate, induced the Trustees of Clifford Chambers
to give the latter up to him in exchange for a more valuable holding in
Sheep Street, after which transaction he was the owner of the land on the
north side of the lane extending from the south-west corner of New
Place to the Corporation property upon which now stands the Infirmary.

The slip of land which was between the Clifford estate and the town
property on the east belonged in 1434, and probably long previously, to
the Abbey of Reading. It is described in 1622 as " the lande some
tyme belonging to the Abbie of Reading, and now the land of William
Wyate gent.;" and, in 1656, as "the land sometyme belonging to the
Abbey of Reading, and now or late the land of Nicholas Ryland gent."
There is no evidence to show that Wyat's property extended on the
north beyond the boundaries of that belonging to Clifford, but in all
probability it did, and, including a larger piece of land on the north
east, reached from Chapel Lane to Sheep Street. At all events, it is
certain that Nicholas Ryland owned such an estate, which, in 1681, he
or his son sold for ^153 to Thomas Maides of Stratford-upon-Avon
felmonger, and which is described in the conveyance recited in an old
abstract of title as " all that messuage or tenement and malthouse, with
the gardens, orchard and backside thereunto belonging, situate, lying and
being in Stratford-upon-Avon, in a certain street called the Sheep Street,
and one piece or parcel of ground belonging to the said messuage and,
lying behind and southward from the same, then lately planted with hopps,

THE HISTORY OF NEW PLACE. 363

and was then in the tenure of Joseph Hunt gent., all which premises
was then in the tenure or occupation of the said Thomas Maides, his
assigns or undertenants ; and also all that barn to the said messuage
belonging, situate, lying and being in Stratford-upon-Avon aforesaid, in
a certain street called Walkers Street or Chapel Lane, then in the
tenure or occupation of one William Greenway or his undertenants."
This proves decisively that the barn on the Ryland estate stood in
Chapel Lane, but the "one piece or parcel of ground then (1681)
lately planted with hopps " was not included in the portion of the estate
sold to Spurr in 1707. It was situated at the back of the premises in
Sheep Street, a portion of it most likely adjoining the northern boundary
of the ancient Clifford estate in Chapel Lane. This appears from the
following description of the Sheep Street estate, when it passed from
Michael Goodrich to Joseph Smith in 1709, — "all that messuage or
tenement and malthouse with th'appurtenences, scituate lyeing and
being in Stratford-upon-Avon, in a certaine streete there called the
Sheepe Streete, late in the severall occupacions of the said Michaell
Goodrich, Jane Washbrooke and Frances Williams, or some or one of
them ; and alsoe all that peece or parcell of ground lyeing behind the
said messuage, and southward from the same, formerly planted with
hopps." All the property here described was bought by Gastrell in
1758 of Elizabeth Barodale, who inherited from the Smiths. It was
then divided into three tenements, two of which, those lying to the
eastward, were given by Gastrell to the Clifford Trustees, in the same
year, in exchange for their small estate in Chapel Lane.

In December, 1692, Mary, the widow of the above-named Thomas
Maides, with other parties, conveyed the Ryland estates to Michael
Goodrich the younger. They are then described as consisting of " all
that messuage or tenement and maulthouse with thappurtenances, scituate
and being in Stratford-upon-Avon, in a certaine streete there called the
Sheep Streete, and one peece or parcell of ground belongeing to and
lyeing behind the said messuage and southward from the same, formerly
planted with hopps, and then in the tenure of Joseph Hunt gen., and all
that barne to the said messuage belongeing scituate in Stratford afore
said, in a certaine streete there called the Walkers Streete or Chappell
Lane, formerly in the tenure of one William Greenway, all which
premises were heretofore purchased by the said Thomas Maides of one
Nicholas Ryland ; and such interest, title, estate, use and advantage as
the said Thomas Maides formerly had or might have into out of and
through the gatehouse belongeing to one Samuell Ryland, formerly in
the occupacion of one John Izod glazior, adjoyneing to the west side of
the said messuage." This gatehouse did not form part of the Goodrich
estate, but a right of way under it, through Izod Yard, to the premises
at the back of Goodrich's property in Sheep Street, was always carefully

364 THE HISTOR Y OF NEW PLA CE.

provided for. In the year 1704, at the back of the house adjoining
this gateway on the east was first a yard, then a newly erected barn,
then a garden called the Little Garden, which latter was divided from
another called the Great Garden, this Great Garden adjoining the
northern boundaries of the Clifford Chapel Lane estate and the yard
afterwards sold by Goodrich to Spurr. The passage under the gateway
and through Izod Yard is now an alley, and known as Emms' Court.

The barn in Chapel Lane occupied by William Greenway in 1681,
with a back yard, were sold by Michael Goodrich, the son, probably, of
the Michael above named, to Edward Spurr in October, 1707. The
yard extended to the southern boundary of Goodrich's garden attached
to his premises in Sheep Street, from which garden it was divided by a
hedge. The barn and yard are described as then, 1707, "having the
tenement now in the tenure of the said Edward Spurr on the west side
and the barne of Richard Tyler gent, now in the occupation of John
Hunt gent, on the east side thereof," and further as, "all and singuler
the said recited barne and yard, as the same is now devided from the
garden belonging to the messuage of the said Michaell Goodrich by
an old quicksett hedge, togeather with the passage att the end of the
said barne leading out of the said streete called Walkers Streete alias
Chappell Lane into the said yard lying behind the said barne, which
said barne and yard are now in the tenure or occupacion of Thomas
Woolmore gent and John Hunt gent., and are scituate in the
said streete called Walkers Streete alias Chappell Lane, and were
purchased by Michaell Goodrich deceased, father of the said Michaell
Goodrich, party to these presents, to him and his heires, of one Mary
Maides, widdow of Thomas Maides, late of Stratford felmonger,
deceased." The yard and barn continued with the Spurrs until April,
1758, when John, the eldest son of Edward Spurr, in consideration of
^£30, conveyed to the Rev. Francis Gastrell in fee, " all that barn and
yard situate and being in a certain street or lane in Stratford-upon-Avon
called Walkers Street alias Chappell Lane, together with the passage
at the end of the said barn leading out of the said street called Walkers
Street alias Chappell Lane into the said yard lying behind the said
barn, which 'said yard and barn were heretofore in the tenure of
Thomas Woolmore gentleman and John Hunt gentleman, and are now
in the possession of the said Francis Gastrell." The barn no doubt
adjoined Chapel Lane, for in the year 1694 Michael Goodrich was
" presented for not reparing the ground before his barne in the Chappell
Lane," Court Leet MS.

To the east in Chapel Lane of the slip of land sold by Michael
Goodrich to Edward Spurr in 1707, were three estates belonging to the
Corporation, the only one which is of importance in the present enquiry
being of course that nearest to New Place. It adjoined the property of

THE HISTORY OF NEW PLACE. 3$5

Goodrich, and is said in a deed of i 723 to have measured one hundred
and eighty feet on that, its western side, but in a later one of 1763, as
one hundred and eighty-two feet eight inches. These premises are
described in 1599 as " all that barne and backside thereunto belonginge
with thappurtenaunces whatsoever scituate, lienge and beinge in Stret-
forde aforeseyd, in a certeyne lane there called the Chappell Lane or
Walkers Strete, and nowe in the tenure or occupacion of Abraham
Strelley or his assignes." Early in the seventeenth century, they were
occupied by William Mountford, and in 1619 were leased to Richard
Mountford for sixty years, then described as consisting of a barn, garden
and workhouse, although from another document of the same date it is
certain that the barn had then been recently destroyed. Some time after
the destruction of the latter, a smaller one was erected which occupied
a portion only of the frontage in Chapel Lane, leaving an open plot of
land between the new barn and the one on the Corporation estate on
the east side, so that the latter is described in 1689 as bounded by
"the land vi Samuell Tyler gent." William Greeneway, who occupied
the adjoining barn, afterwards Spurr's, in 1681, also at that time rented
the estate formerly Mountford's, which latter was in 1682 leased by the
Corporation to Samuel Tyler. The person last-named died in May,
1693, and the premises were occupied by Richard Tyler at and after
this date, the latter being succeeded in the occupation by John
Hunt in or before 1707. In a poor-rate levy made in July, 1697,
" Mr. Tiler his barne and garden " are valued at ^3 per annum. In
the year 1723 these premises were leased by the Corporation to John
Hunt gentleman, and were then described as consisting of, " all that
their barne, plotts of ground and workehouse to the same belonging,
scituate lyeing and being in a certaine lane there called the Chappell
Lane, heretofore in the tenure or occupacion of Samuel Tyler gent., but
now in the tenure or occupacion of the said John Hunt, his assignes or
undertenants, and is abutted and bounded as hereinafter mencioned,
viz., the breadth towards the street eastward goeing bevell ninteen
yards and a halfe and one inch, the length from the barne to the end of
Richard Hulls ground eight and fifty yards, the length from the lane
next the barne now in the possession of Thomas Woolmer gent, to the
ground of Mr. John Woolmer of Gainsburrough on the other side
thereof sixty yards, and the breadth on the lane side ninteen yards and
one foote." This description is important, because it proves that
Thomas Woolmer's barn adjoined this property, thus removing all
doubt as to the locality of the one conveyed by Goodrich to Spurr in
the year 1707.

It is deeply to be regretted that the dimensions of the small estate
sold by Goodrich in 1707 are not given in any of the deeds refer
ring to it. Its exact size must, therefore, be a matter of conjecture.

366 THE HISTORY OF NEW PLACE.

The frontage in Chapel Lane could not have been extensive, for the
barn is referred to as adjoining the Corporation property on the east,
while, on the western side, between the barn and the Clifford land,
there was only a passage leading to the back-yard. It is extremely
unlikely that, if this yard was very wide towards the north-east end, the
whole property could have been sold in 1707 for the small sum of ^24,
or in 1758 for ^30, the purchase moneys paid respectively by Spurr
and Gastrell. It may, therefore, be assumed that it consisted of a long
narrow slip of land, the average width being that required for a barn
and side-passage. Taking this width at the lowest estimate of thirty
feet, — it was probably rather more, — and bearing in mind that the
Clifford estate was only ten yards in breadth, it follows that on the east
of the New Place estates as thrown into one property by Gastrell there
is a strip of land at least sixty feet in width, which certainly neither
belonged to Shakespeare, nor was ever in his occupation.

The history of New Place after the death of Gastrell remains to be
told. By his will dated in 1768, and proved in 1772, he devised to his
wife all his estates in Stratford-upon-Avon. In March, 1775, his widow
conveyed to William Hunt, of that town, gentleman, "all that large
garden or parcel of land near the Chappel, upon part of which a capital
messuage lately stood, as the same is now walled in, together with the
barn and dovehouse standing thereupon ;" this description, although it
has been otherwise stated, certainly including the Clifford and Spun-
properties. The trustees of this last owner sold the estate in Sep
tember, 1790, to Charles Henry Hunt, who, in May, 1807, conveyed
it to Messrs. Battersbee and Morris as tenants in common. At the
time of this latter purchase, there were, in Chapel Lane and on the
New Place ground, two cottages which had been formed some years
previously out of a large barn that had been one of the appendages to
the Shakespeare property in the time of the second Hugh Clopton.

In 1819, all the estates above-mentioned were submitted to auction
in a number of lots, but none of the purchases were completed until
1827, when, as previously stated, Nash's House and garden, with the
site of New Place and some of its adjoining grounds, were purchased
by a Miss Smith, and aftenvards became vested in the Corporation of
Stratford-upon-Avon. At the same time all the remainder, with the
exception of the two cottages and their small back-gardens, was sold to
Edward Leyton of that town. One of these cottages was purchased by
the same gentleman in 1834, and the other in 1838 ; but in April, 1827,
he had sold a small piece of ground abutting on Chapel Lane, upon
which an ugly building, occasionally used for theatrical entertainments,
was afterwards erected. In 1844, all the estate, with the exception of
the land just alluded to, was settled by him upon his daughter, Mrs.
Loggin, and from her trustee it was purchased by me in October, 1861,

THE HISTORY OF NEW PLACE. 367

with moneys collected by public subscription. Some years afterwards I
had the satisfaction of reversing the divorce of April, 1827, in respect
to the fragment of land which had then been separated from the rest.
Thus, after a number of intricate vicissitudes, the whole of Shakespeare's
estate of New Place once more became an individual property, to be
held for ever in memory of the great dramatist by the Corporation of
his native town.

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 swear? 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 manuscript to " mutuall flatterie."

2. Two loves I have of Comfort and Despair. — This is the i44th
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 sonnet, 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 of that volume.

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."

5. 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 7. 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 of that edition.

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 this separate title-page, — " Poems : in Divers
Humors. — London, Printed by G. S. for John Jaggard, and are to be

2 A

370 THE PASSIONATE PILGRIM.

solde at his shoppe neere Temple-barre, at the Signe of the Hand and
starre. 1598." Barnfield calls these poems "fruits of unriper yeares,"'
and expressly claims their authorship in terms beside which Jaggard's
presumptive evidence is of no value. 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
nearly 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. 1 640, and to that title are added the words,
" of musick and poetry," in my annotated copy of that work.

9. Fair was the morn when the fair queen of love. — 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. 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 meete Adonis in that place,=
Addrest her early to a certain grove,= Where hee was wont the savage
bore to chase." This alteration is found on the margin of my copy of
ed. 1640 in a handwriting which is nearly contemporary with the date of
that publication.

10. Sweet rose, fair flower, untimely pluck1 d} soon faded. — The only
early printed copies of this, 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."

n. Venus, with Adonis sitting by her. — This sonnet, with four lines
entirely different and a few minor alterations, is found in B. Griffin's
Fidessa more Chaste than Kinde, i6mo, 1596. It also occurs with No. 4
in a manuscript, written about the year 1625, preserved at Warwick
Castle, the latter poem being there given as a Second Part in continua
tion 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 Gentleman'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 Shakespear, in a private hand." In the copy in the 1640
edition of the Poems it is called " beauties valuation."

THE PASSIONATE PILGRIM. 37 1

14. and 15. Good night, good rest, ah ! neither be my share ; — // was
a lordings daughter, the fairest one of three. — These two canzonets are
found only in the Passionate Pilgrim and in the 1640 edition of the
Poems, being in the last styled respectively, "loath to depart," and
" a duell." After the first one there commences, in the original edition
of 1599, a separate part of twelve leaves with another title-page —
" Sonnets to sundry notes of Musicke. At London — Printed for W.
Jaggard, and are to be sold by W. Leake, at the Greyhound in Paules
Churchyard, 1599."

16. On a day, alack the day ! — This poem, with two additional lines,
occurs in Love's Labour's Lost, 1598. It is also introduced, with
Shakespeare's name attached to it, in England's Helicon, eds. 1600
and 1614. The copy in the Poems, ed. 1640, is headed, Love-sicke.

17. 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, occurs in England's Helicon, 1600,
entitled, " The vnknowne Sheepheards complaint," and there subscribed
Ignoto, so it is clear that Bodenham was unacquainted with the name
of its author. There is an early version of the song in MS. Had.
6910, and it is called " loves labour lost " in ed. 1640.

18. Whenas thine eye hath chose the dame.—K very early manuscript
of this poem, with numerous variations, is preserved in a miscellany
compiled, there is reason to believe, some few years before the appear
ance of the Passionate Pilgrim. The copy of it which is given in the
Poems, ed. 1640, is termed "wholesome counsell."

19. Live with me, and be my love. — The first of these very pretty songs
is incomplete, and the second, called Loues answere, still more so. In
England's Helicon, 1600, the former is given to Marlowe, the latter to
Ignoto: and Walton, in his Compleat Angler, 1653, mentions them
together as " that smooth song which was made by Kit Marlow now at
least fifty years ago ; and an answer to it, which was made by Sir
Walter Raleigh in his yonger 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.

20. 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, 1 600. The latter version follows in that work the No. 1 7 of
this list, is also subscribed, Ignoto, and is headed, — "Another of the

2 A 2

372 THE PASSIONATE PILGRIM.

same Shecpheards." 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 supple
mentary lines, just noticed, having the appearance of being an
unauthorised couplet improvised for the sake of giving a neater finish
to the abridgment

The Passionate Pilgrim was first published in the year 1599, and
the third edition, to which were added the two poems taken from
Heywood's Troia Britanica, appeared in 1612. No copy of the second
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.

Only two copies of the third edition have as yet been discovered,
each with a title-page bearing the name of Shakespeare as the author of
the work ; but in one of them, that in the Bodleian, there is also a
substituted title in which the words, " by W. Shakespere," are omitted,
there being, however, no other variation. It is evident from what
Hey wood says, in 1612, that the omission was due to the remonstrances
of Shakespeare himself, for otherwise a cancel of the additional poems
would have met the objections raised by the former.

The incongruous title given to this little work must be attributed to
Jaggard's own caprice. So Wither, in his Schollers Purgatory, 1625,
speaking of a dishonest publisher, observes, — "if he get any written
coppy into his powre likely to be vendible, whether the author be
willing or no, he will publish it ; and it shall be contrived and named
also according to his own pleasure, which is the reason so many good
bookes come forth imperfect and with foolish titles ; — nay, he oftentymes
gives bookes such names as, in his opinion, will make them saleable,
when there is litle or nothing in the whole volume suitable to such a
tytle." Artifices of these kinds were common throughout the days of
Shakespeare's literary career.

THE CHAPEL LANE.

This narrow road, known also formerly as Walker Street or Dead
Lane, skirted one end of Shakespeare's house and the longest side of
his garden. Evidences of the insalubrious state of the lane in the
poet's time are, therefore, of interest in estimating the probable cause
of his fatal illness. Its appearance was then essentially different from
that now to be observed, for, with the single but important exception of
the Guild Chapel, there is not a vestige left of its ancient character or
surroundings. Passing through it was a streamlet, the water of which
turned a mill that is alluded to in rentals of the 'town property dated
in 1545 and 1604, as also in the Ministers' Accounts, co. Warw.,
2 Edw. VI. The sanitary condition of the lane was execrable, and with
its bad road, fetid gutters, dunghills, pigsties, mud-walls and thatched
barns, it must have presented an extremely squalid appearance. The
" gutteres or dyches " are mentioned as requiring to be cleansed in a
record dated as early as 1553, — Item, "that every tenaunt in Chapell
lane or Ded lane do scour and kep cleane ther gutteres or dyches in
the same lane befor thassencyon day, and so from thensfurthe from
tyme to tyme to kepe the same, in peyn of every offender to forfet for
every deffalt iij.^. \i\].d., and that every tenaunt do ryd the soyelles
in the stretes of logges and blokes ther lyenge and beynge to the
noysaunce of the kynges leage people by the same day in lyke peyne."
A comparison of this entry with others in the same manuscript would lead
to the belief that Chapel Lane was then one of the, if not the, dirtiest
locality in the town. In 1558, William Clopton, residing at New Place
was fined for not keeping clean " the gutter alonge the Chappell in
Chappell Lane;" and in the following year, 1559, it was ordered that
no inhabitant of the ward " dwellynge neer unto the Chappell from
hensfurthe use to ley eny muk in eny other place in the Chappell Lanes,
but only in the gravell pyt in the Chappell Lane," under a penalty of
three shillings and four pence for each offence. The following entries
respecting the former state of the lane are extracted from the records
of Stratford and from the rolls of the manor-court: — " 1554. That every
the tenauntes or ther famyly from hensfurthe do carry ther mucke to
the commen dunghylles appwntyd, or elles into Meychyn's yard or in the
gravell pyttes in Chappell Lane. — 1556. Thomas Godwyn, fletchar, Sir
William Brogden, clericus, for not scouryng ther gutter in Ded Lone
they be amersyd. — 1558. That non dyg from hensfurthe eny gravell in the

374 THE CHAPEL LANE.

gravell pyttes in Chappell Lane under the peyne vj.s. viij.*/. — That the
chamburlens do ryd the mukhyll in Chappell Lane, nye unto the
Chappell at the goodwyf Walker's hous end, before the Assensyon day
under the peyn of vj.j. viij.//. — 1560. That every tenaunt in Ded Lone
do secure and kep cleane ther dyches and the lane before ther soylles
from tyme to tyme. — 1561. John Sadler, mylner, for wynnowyng his
peas in Ded lane and levyng the chaf in the lane, and bryngeynge hys
swyne into the same lane, and not scourynge the dyche ther, he stands
amerced, xvj.</. — that every tenaunt kep cleene ther gutturs and dyches
as well in the strets as in Ded lane under pene vj.j. viij.^/. — 1605. It
is agreed that the Chamberlaines shall gyve warning to Henry Smyth to
plucke downe his pigges-cote which is built nere the chappie wall and
the house-of-office there, and that hee forbeare to kepe anie swine
about the house which hee holdeth of Mr. Aspinall or the Chappie
yard, and this to be done before the next hall. — 1605-6. Henrye
Smythe [presented] for nott makinge cleane the water couarsse before
his barne in Chappie Laine. — Johne Perrie for a muckhill in the Chappie
Laine." It will be observed from some of these notices that even the
surroundings of the Guild Chapel itself were no exceptions to the
general squalidity. The only later notices of the state of the lane in the
poet's time which have been discovered relate to a pigsty which John
Rogers, the vicar, had commenced to erect, about the year 1613,
immediately opposite the back court of New Place. Some of the
inhabitants, most probably including Shakespeare, the person most
interested in the suppression of the impending nuisance, had complained
of this addition to the engendering causes of a villanous compound of
bad smells, and the vicar accordingly besought the Corporation that
they " would consent to the finishinge of that small plecke which I have
begunne in the lane, the use whereof was noe other but to keepe a
swine or two in, for about my howse there is noe place of convenience
without much annoyance to the Chappell, and how farre the breedeinge
of such creatures is needefull to poore howskeepers I referre myselfe
to those that can equall my charge ; moreover the highway will be
wider and fayrer, as it may now appears."

The original streamlet of Chapel Lane appears to have gradually
undergone deterioration until it became a shallow fetid ditch, an open
receptacle of sewerage and filth. There is a curious account of this ditch,
as it appeared in the last century, in a letter written for the purposes of
a law-suit in 1807, and, although of so recent a date, it is worth giving
as confirmatory, notwithstanding the changes that had taken place in
the interval, of some of the early notices of the lane. " I very well
remember," says the writer, " the ditch you mention fourty-five years,
as after my sister was married, which was in October, 1760, I was very
often at Stratford, and was very well acquainted both with the ditch

THE CHAPEL LANE. 375

and the road in question; — the ditch went from the Chapel, and
extended to Smith's house ; — I well remember there was a space of two
or three feet from the wall in a descent to the ditch, and I do not
think any part of the new wall was buik on the ditch ; — the ditch was
the receptacle for all manner of filth that any person chose to put there,
and was very obnoxious at times ; — Mr. Hunt used to complain of it,
and was determined to get it covered over, or he would do it at his own
expence, and I do not know whether he did not; — across, the road
from the ditch to Shakespeare Garden was very hollow and always full
of mud, which is now covered over, and in general there was only one
waggon tract along the lane, which used to be very bad, in the winter
particularly ; — I do not know that the ditch was so deep as to overturn
a carriage, and the road was very little used near it, unless it was to
turn out for another, as there was always room enough." Thomas Cox,
a carpenter, who lived in Chapel Lane from 1774, deposed to remem
bering the open gutter from the Chapel to Smith's cottage, " that it
was a wide dirty ditch choaked with mud, that all the filth of that part
of the town ran into it, that it was four or five feet wide and more than
a foot deep, and that the road sloped down to the ditch." According
to other witnesses, the ditch extended to the end of the lane, where,
between the road-way and the Bancroft, was a narrow creek or ditch
through which the overflow from Chapel Lane no doubt found a way
into the river.

Smith's house, above alluded to, was on the site of the Getley copy
hold tenement which had once belonged to Shakespeare. On the south
of the ditch, on the side opposite to New Place, between the Getley
estate and the Guild Chapel, there was originally a mud-wall, such
a one having been on that site at least as early as 1590, and it is
occasionally alluded to in the local records of the last century. About
the year 1807, the Corporation, having taken in a small piece of waste
ground when they filled in the ditch and built a new wall, subjected
themselves to an action on the plea that they had exceeded their strictly
legal rights. In their defence, they assert that, — " about twenty years
ago this lane was a narrow and almost impassable road, and very little
used ; — there was a wide open ditch running from the Chapel to a
house in the tenure of Samuel Smith, and so on to the bottom of the
lane on the south side thereof, which was generally filled up with mud and
stagnant water, and became the receptacle for all the filth and rubbish of
the town ; and on the side of this ditch, between that and the mud-wall,
heaps of manure, ashes, and broken crockery-ware were continually
thrown by the inhabitants ; — the space between the ditch and the old
mud-wall was between two or three feet, and went sloping to the edge
of the ditch, and was the lord's waste, and never was part of the road,
and the ditch itself was so bad that no carriage could safely go within

376 THE CHAPEL LANE.

two feet of the brink or edge of it on the lane side," that being on
account of the ground sloping down towards the ditch. The evidences
differ as to the exact time when the ditch was covered over, but the
work was probably executed about the year 1780. The " lord's waste"
seems to have been an indefinite slip of land on either side of the lane,
probably all that was not actually -used by vehicles passing through,
presumed to belong to the lord of the manor, and continually subjected
to encroachments by the owners of the adjoining properties.

In Shakespeare's time, Chapel Lane ran almost exclusively through
gardens and barns, the latter being the storehouses for corn so numerous
in Stratford before the various enclosures of the common lands in the
neighbourhood. On the New Place side, there was first the poet's
garden, and then the barn in which, in February, 1598, he had stocked
ten quarters of corn. This building is thus mentioned in 1590, in a
return to a commission issued out of the Exchequer for the survey of
the possessions of Ambrose earl of Warwick, — " Willielmus Underhill
generosus tenet libere unum horreum, viij.</.," vicus voc. Walkers
Streete, nine other barns being mentioned in the same list as being
in Chapel Lane. On the site of Shakespeare's barn stood in 1556 a
tenement that had belonged to the priory of Pinley ; Warw. Survey,
Longbridge MS. Immediately adjoining the Great Garden of New
Place was the barn on the Clifford Charity estate, which was pulled
down about the year 1619. There then appears to have been, in the
poet's time, a small plot of land, afterwards Spurr's, unbuilt upon ; but
on the Corporation estate adjoining this on the east there was a barn
attached to each of three holdings. Next to Spurr's estate, divided
from it by a quickset hedge, the usual kind of fence about here in the
days of Shakespeare, was a slip of land, on which stood a barn, leased
by the Corporation to Abraham Strelley in 1599 for twenty-one years.
This little estate was previously described in 1582 as "a barne with
backesyd in tenure of Nicholas Barnshurst, sufficiently repayred, and
j. ellme groweing thereon." It was thatched and of four bays, occupying
the entire frontage in Chapel Lane ; and in the back premises was a
thatched hovel of two bays, in many of the deeds termed a workhouse,
and sometimes a wood-house. This barn and two others on the east had
been destroyed by fire shortly before the year 1619. Their history may
to some extent be gathered from a lease granted in that year to Alice
Smith, widow, of the premises in the middle of the three holdings into
which the property was divided. In this deed it is recited that, in
consideration of the surrender of a former lease, and " that the saide
Alice Smith hath at her owne costes and charges newlie erected, built
and tyled, the saide barne, the same beinge heertofore consumed by
fyer," the Corporation grant her, for a period of sixty years, " all that
barne and garden with thappurtenaunces, scituate and beinge in Dead

THE CHAPEL LANE. 377

Lane alias Walkers Streete, betweene a garden and plott ofgrownd
wheron late stood a barne of the said bayliffe and burgesses late in the
occupation of William Mountford, deceased, one the west parte, and
the garden and plott of grownd wherone late stood a barne of the saide
bayliffe and burgesses in the occupaccion of Mr. Tyler one the est
parte, and the gardens of the said bayliff and burgesses in the occupa-
cions of Charles Rooke and William Byddle one the north, and the
said streete or lane one the south." Next to these premises were a
barn and piece of land, which were leased by the Corporation in 1591
to Richard Tyler for twenty-one years. " Richard Tiler, a barne of
v. baies thatchd, a backside in bredth answerable, in length about
liij. yerdes," survey dated 1599. This barn having been destroyed, the
ground was leased to William Shawe in 1623 on the condition that he
should, within three years, build "a good, substantiall and sufficient
well-tymbered barne conteineing foure bayes, and cover the same with
tyles or slates." Sketches of one or two of the later barns of Chapel
Lane have been preserved, but none of those of the Shakespearean
period are known to exist.

OLD HOUSES AT THE RIVER END Of CHAPEL LANE, 1840.

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 partnership
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 drama, it will yet 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? Shakespeare."
— 2. The title-page of the first edition, which runs thus, — " The Two
Noble Kinsmen, presented at the Blackfriers by the Kings Majesties
servants with great applause : Written by the memorable Worthies
of their time, Mr. John Fletcher, Gent., and Mr. William Shak-
speare, Gent. — Printed at London by Tho. Cotes for John 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 introduction of another
name. — 4, "Two Noble Kinsmen, a tragicomedy ; this play was written
by Mr. Fletcher and Mr. Shakespear," Langbaine's English Dramatick

380 THE TWO NOBLE KINSMEN.

Poets, ed. 1691, p. 215. — 5. Pope's assertion, in his edition of Shake
speare, printed in 1723, 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, for,
in the same edition, iii. 115, he makes the positive statement that the
1591 play of King John was the joint production of Shakespeare and
William Rowley, shortly afterwards, however, iii. 148, alluding to this
incredible hypothesis as if it were a traditional report. — 6. The declara
tion of Steevens in 1778, viii. 230, that "there is a playhouse tradition
that the first act was written by Shakespeare."

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 five years before
its production on the stage, for Curtis Grevile was not a member of the
King's Company before 1622, 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 authorship 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 collective works had been issued
only two years previously.

4. 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 assigned to Fletcher in the
register, the third appearing there under the title of the Noble
Kinsman. 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 assign-

THE TWO NOBLE KINSMEN. 381

ment. The omission of the Two Noble Kinsmen in the folio edition of
Beaumont and Fletcher, 1647, is 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. — 5. In 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 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. — 6. 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. — 7. The play was inserted
without Shakespeare's name in the second folio edition of Beaumont
and Fletcher, published in 1679. — 8. The absence of contemporary
evidence that Shakespeare and Fletcher were acquainted with each
other. — 9. 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. — 10. The direct evidence of
Leonard Digges about the year 1623 of Shakespeare's aversion to any
kind of literary partnership, so that he even carefully avoided the then
common practice of availing himself of scenes written for him by other
dramatists. — n. The parallel instance of " the History of Cardenio by
Mr. Fletcher and Shakespeare " having been entered by Moseley on the
registers of the Stationers' Company in the year 1653. — 12. Finally, the
extreme improbability of a dramatist of Shakespeare's unrivalled 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 having in such a case the assurance to be
palpably imitating him, both characterially and verbally, in his portion
of the work.

THE SPURIOUS PLAYS.

With the exception of the plays in the first folio, and the three
mentioned at the commencement of the preceding article, there is not
one the attribution of which to the great dramatist is worthy of serious
discussion. A few observations, however, on the inconsiderate ascrip
tions of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries may be useful for
reference; but later ones have neither the possession of a moderate
antiquity, nor any other features, to render them of Shakespearean
interest. There is no limit to conjectural extravagance, otherwise it
would be incredible that portions of the drama of Sir Thomas More,
the whole of the comedy of Albumazar, with various other pieces of
an equally inferior character, should have been assigned in recent
times to the pen of Shakespeare.

Arden of Feversham. An inartificial tragedy, published in 1592,
and first attributed to Shakespeare by Mr. Edward Jacob in 1770. —
The Arraignment of Paris. A dramatic pastoral by George Peele,
printed in 4to, 1584. It is foolishly ascribed to Shakespeare in
Kirkman's Catalogue, 4to, 1671. — The Birth of Merlin. A drama
which was printed in 1662 by Thomas Johnson for Francis Kirkman
and Henry Marsh, who announce that it was "written by William
Shakespear and William Rowley." Publishing evidence of this nature
and late period is all but worthless, — in Kirkman's case absolutely so, —
and it is in the highest degree improbable that Shakespeare ever wrote
any work in conjunction with William Rowley, who did not join the
King's Company during the lifetime of the great dramatist. It is
curious to observe how few plays, not included in the first folio, were
issued with Shakespeare's name to them during the long interval
between the year of his death and the appearance of the present one.
They are limited to Pericles, 1619, 1630 and 1635; tne Yorkshire
Tragedy, 1619 ; the Troublesome Raigne of John, 1622 ; and the Two
Noble Kinsmen, 1634. — Cardenio. "The History of Cardenio by
Mr. Fletcher and Shakespeare " was entered to Moseley on Sept. the
9th, 1653. A play termed in one entry Cardenno, and in another
Cardenna, was acted more than once by the King's Servants in 1613,
as recorded in the Stanhope accounts, MS. Rawl. A. 239. — The Double
Falsehood. First published by Theobald in 1728 as, "written originally
by W. Shakespeare." The history of the manuscripts of this play,
which is given by the editor, is not satisfactory. He states that the

384 THE SPURIOUS PLA YS.

oldest of them " is of above sixty years standing, in the handwriting of
Mr. Downes, the famous old prompter, and, as I am credibly inform'd,
was early in the possession of the celebrated Mr. Betterton, and by him
design'd to have been usher'd into the world." An anecdote, which is
not creditable to the taste of its inventor, is put forth in support of the
conjectural authorship, — " there is a tradition, which I have from the
noble person who supply'd me with one of my copies, that it was given
by our author, as a present of value, to a natural daughter of his for
whose sake he wrote it in the time of his retirement from the stage."
It is worth notice that the writer of this drama has introduced a line
which is but slightly altered from one in Antony and Cleopatra. — Duke
Humphrey. " Duke Humphrey, a tragedy by Will : Shakspeare " is in
a list of plays entered to Moseley in June, 1660, and a drama under
the same title, also attributed to Shakespeare, was amongst the dramatic
manuscripts that perished through the carelessness of Warburton in the
early part of the last century. — Eurialus and Lucretia. Entered as the
work of Shakespeare to one Robert Scott on the Stationers' Registers,
August the 2ist, 1683. It is also mentioned with Hamlet and some
other plays in the same registers under the year 1630. — Fair Em. A
comedy first published in 1631, but acted many years previously by
Lord Strange's Servants. It has been attributed to the great dramatist
from being found in a collection of quarto plays lettered, Shakespear,
Vol. /, formerly belonging to Charles the Second, and so described, no
doubt from the binder's title, in an old manuscript catalogue of that
sovereign's library. The volume is therein mentioned as containing, —
"Shakespeare's Puritan Widow, Sir John Oldcastel, Cromwell's Life,
Devell of Edmonton, London Prodigall, Mucedorus, Miller's Daughter,
Love Labour Lost." — George a Greene. This comedy was acted in
December, 1593, by the players of the Earl of Sussex, a company who
produced Titus Andronicus in the following month. It was entered at
Stationers' Hall in 1595, but the earliest known edition bears the date
of 1599. The statement that there was a tradition assigning this play
to Shakespeare is a pure invention, and, according to an early
manuscript note in a copy of the first edition, the great dramatist
himself is a witness to its having been composed by some other writer.
— Henry tJie First and Henry the Second. In 1653 Moseley entered
" Henry the First and Henry the 2d. by Shakespeare and Davenport "
on the registers of the Stationers' Company. Henry the First "by
Will. Shakespear and Rob. Davenport " is in the list of manuscript plays
said to have been destroyed by Warburton's servant about the year
1730, So that two plays appear to have been registered under the above
titles, and Sir Henry Herbert, in 1624, licensed "for the King's
company the Historye of Henry the First, written by Damport."
Whether Moseley intended to assert that each drama was the joint

THE SPURIOUS PLA YS. 385

composition of Shakespeare and Davenport, or that the one first named
in the entry was written by the former and the other by the latter, is a
matter of uncertainty as well as one of no consequence. A drama
called Harey the Firste Life and Deth was produced by the Lord
Admiral's company in May, 1597, and another on the events of the
same reign was written by Drayton and others in the following year. —
Iphis and lantha. " Iphis and lantha, or a Marriage without a Man,
a comedy by Will : Shakspeare," was entered to Humphrey Moseley in
June, 1660. — Locrine. A tragedy entered at Stationers' Hall without
an author's name in July, 1594, and printed in the following year as
"newly set foorth, overseene and corrected, by W. S." It was first
ascribed to Shakespeare by the editors of the third folio, 1664. An
obscurely written manuscript note in a copy of the first edition, signed
by one G. B., believed from the handwriting to be the initials of Sir
George Buck, would lead to the inference that this drama was originally
entitled Estrild, and that it was written by Charles Tilney. — Lorrino.
A play mentioned in a list of Shakespeare's dramatic works in
Winstanley's Lives of the Poets, 1687, p. 132. — The Merry Devil of
Edmonton, This entertaining comedy is mentioned in the Blacke
Booke, 1604, and was entered at 'Stationers' Hall in October, 1607, to
Arthur Johnson, who published it in the following year, 1608, under
the title of, The Merry Devil of Edmonton, as it hath beene sundry
times acted by his Majesties Servants at the Globe on the Banke-side ;
that is, by Shakespeare's company. The copyright of what appears to
have been a rival and lost drama on the same history was claimed by
other publishers in April, 1608, and was attributed by them to the pen of
one T. B. In this latter play the death of Fabel was introduced, while
the enumeration of the other incidents forbids us to suppose that it
could be a continuation of the former production. The earliest attribution
of a piece on this subject to the great dramatist is found in the registers
of the Stationers' Company under the date of September, 1653, when a
publisher named Moseley inserted, "The Merry Devill of Edmonton
by Wm. Shakespeare," in an entry which includes palpable misrepresen
tations respecting the authorship of other compositions. The evidence
of Moseley is clearly not reliable, but there appears to have been a
vague idea, in the latter part of the seventeenth century, that the play
might have been written by Shakespeare. It is attributed to him in an
early manuscript note in a copy of the edition of 1655, and also by a
bookseller named Kirkman in 1671. Langbaine, ed. 1691, p. 541,
judiciously discredits the last-mentioned authority. — Mucedorus. An
inferior but popular old comedy, the earliest known edition of which
appeared in the year 1598. It was first attributed to Shakespeare by
Kirkman in 1671, and it is also mentioned as his production in
Winstanley's Lives, 1687, p. 132. Langbaine, ed. 1691, p. 542, merely

2 B

386 THE SPURIOUS PLAYS.

v

refers to some of these previous assignments without expressing a
decisive opinion on the subject. — Oldrastes. A play mentioned in a
list of Shakespeare's dramatic works in Winstanley's Lives of the Poets,
1687, p. 132. — Ttie Puritan. Licensed by Sir George Buck, entered
by Eld at Stationers' Hall in August, 1607, as "a booke called the
comedie of the Puritan Wydowe," and issued by that printer in the
same year under the title of, The Puritaine or the Widdow of Watling-
streete ; acted by the Children of Paules ; written by W. S. This play
is attributed to Shakespeare in the third folio of 1664, as also by
Winstanley in 1687 and by several later writers. — The Second Maiden's
Tragedy. A play licensed without an author's name in the year 1611,
and preserved in manuscript in the Lansdowne collection. It is
ascribed by a later hand in the volume to George Chapman, whose
name has been erased for the substitution of that of the great dramatist.
The last hand-writing is unquestionably of a late date, certainly not
earlier than the period of the reign of George the First. — Stephen.
" The History of King Stephen by Will : Shakspeare " is found in a list
of plays entered to Humphrey Moseley on June the 29th, 1660.

THE MULBERRY-TREE.

For nearly a century and a half it has been the unvarying tradition
of Stratford-on-Avon that the great dramatist planted a mulberry
sapling at New Place with his own hands. The truth of this circum
stance, in itself highly probable, may be said to be all but confirmed by
the early belief in its accuracy, and by the reverence entertained by
the inhabitants for the living tree, facts testified by the singular
displeasure exhibited by them at the time of its removal. One lady's
veneration for the memorial took a curious form in the preservation
of the juice of its fruit in a vial that was believed to have been
hermetically sealed, but a few expiring drops are all that now remain
of the cherished liquid.

No written or printed record of Shakespeare's mulberry-tree has
been discovered of a date previously to its extirpation, but there is a
story, resting on the testimony of a very old man, that Sir Hugh
Clopton entertained friends under it about the year 1744. This state
ment has been repeated in many works with slight variations, but the
only good authority for it appears to be an unpublished letter from
Malone to Davenport, dated in April, 1788, in which he says, — "old
Mr. Macklin the player, who is now playing with wonderful vigour in
the eighty-eighth year of his age, informs me that Mr. Garrick and he
paid a visit to Stratford about the year 1744, and were hospitably
entertained by Sir Hugh Clopton, then a very old gentleman; his
memory, however, is by no means accurate." Malone, referring to
the tree in another part of the same letter, adds, — "old Mr. Macklin
says he was entertained under it by one of the Clopton family in 1744."
It has also been stated that Delane the actor was in company with
Garrick and Macklin on the occasion; Ireland's Views, 1795, p. 201.
Then there is the testimony of Jordan saying that "the mulberry-tree
in the garden of New Place, planted by Shakespeare, was grown to a
very large size, with wide spreading boughs that shaded many yards of
ground, under which were placed benches to sit on in the shade, and
which I have heard Sir Hugh Clopton took great delight in shewing
to the nobility and gentry whose curiosity excited them to visit the last
memorial of immortal Shakespeare," MS. at Stratford-on-Avon, repeated
in nearly the same words in other adversaria by the same writer.
There appears to be little doubt of the fact that Sir Hugh Clopton,
who, as is known from the evidence of Theobald, took an interest

2 B 2

388 THE MULBERRY-TREE.

in the traditions respecting New Place, valued the tree on account of
its having been planted by the great dramatist. Thomas Sharp, the
relic-carver, in a declaration made upon oath shortly before his death
in 1799, asserted, — "that I was personally acquainted with Sir Hugh
Clopton, knight, barrister-at-law and one of the Heralds-at-Arms, who
was son of Sir John Clopton, knight, that purchased a certain messuage
or house near the Chapel in Stratford, called the New Place, of the
executors of Lady Elizabeth Barnard, and grand-daughter of Shake-
spear ; and that I have often heard the said Sir Hugh Clopton solemnly
declare that the mulberry-tree which growed in his garden was planted
by Shakespear, and he took pride in shewing it to and entertaining
persons of distinction whose curiosity excited them to visit the spot
known to be the last residence of the immortal bard." The story told
by the Vicar of Stratford-on-Avon in 1790 is also worth giving. "The
Rev. Mr. Davenport," observes Malone, "informs me that Hugh
Taylor, who is now (1790) eighty-five years old, and an alderman
of Warwick, says, he lived when a boy at the next house to New
Place; that his family had inhabited the house for almost three
hundred years ; that it (the fact of Shakespeare planting the tree) was
transmitted from father to son during the last and the present century ;
that this tree, of the fruit of which he had often eaten in his younger
days, some of its branches hanging over his father's garden, was planted
by Shakespeare ; and that, till this was planted, there was no mulberry-
tree in that neighbourhood ; — Mr. Taylor adds that he was frequently
when a boy at New Place, and that this tradition was preserved in the
Clopton family as well as in his own," Life of Shakespeare, ed. 1790,
p. 118. There was a family of the name of Taylor living in the early
part of the eighteenth century at the house now known as the Shake
speare Hotel, the yard of which adjoins the north-west corner of the
New Place Great Garden ; so that, unless the old man's recollection of
the site was imperfect, there were at that time two mulberry-trees on the
Shakespeare estate. His statement, that the one planted by the great
dramatist was the first that had been seen in the locality, may be more
implicitly relied upon.

The tree was cut down in the year 1758 (MS. Mai. 40), and,
within a few months after its removal, tobacco-stoppers made of its
wood were publicly sold as Shakespearean relics by one Moody, a toy-
seller at Birmingham ; Hull's Select Letters, 1778, i. 251. The gift of
one of these relics, made by Percy through Shenstone to a mutual
friend in 1759, was the occasion of a foolish hoax, the present being
accompanied with a fictitious correspondence respecting the tree.
There can, therefore, be no doubt that, very soon after it was felled, it
was known as Shakespeare's mulberry-tree and that relics made from it
were exposed for sale. It may be observed, in confirmation of these

THE MULBERRY-TREE. 389

facts, that in the next year, 1760, the Corporation presented an inkstand
made of the wood to the Steward of the Court of Record, who thus
expressed his thanks in a letter to the Town-Clerk, — "I really want
words to express the sense I have of this great instance of regard
which the Corporation of Stratford have honoured me with by their
Chamberlain ; — I do not know any present that could have been so
agreeable to me, not only as a testimony of respect to me from the
Corporation, which I shall always pride myself upon, but also as it
falls in with what, if I had known how to have wished, I should most
certainly have wished for ; — the standish of Shakspeare's planting is the
fittest ornament for an hermitage." A person named Sharp obtained a
large quantity of the wood, and his original bill, dated in 1760, against
the Corporation for the portions supplied on this and on some other
similar occasion, is preserved in their archives.

Amongst the visitors to the poet's native town in the same year, 1760,
was a lady who, after quoting in a letter the epitaph on Shakespeare's
monument, that part of it referring to " envious death," proceeds to say,
— " death, however, in taking Shakespear from the world so early, is, I
think, far outdone by a man now living in or near this town; for there was
till lately the house in which Shakespear lived and a mulberry-tree of his
planting, the house large, strong and handsome, the tree so large that it
would shade the grass plat in your garden, which I think is more than
twenty yards square, and supply the whole town with mulberries every
year ;— as the curiosity of this house and tree brought much fame and
more company and profit to the town, this man, on some disgust, has pulled
the house down so as not to leave one stone upon another, and cut down
the tree and piled it as a stack of firewood, to the great vexation, loss
and disappointment of the inhabitants ; — however, an honest silversmith
bought the whole stack of wood, and now makes many odd things of
this wood for the curious." These evidences show that relics from
the tree were highly esteemed almost immediately after its destruction.
There was a tradition to the effect that Sharp merely bought the
remains for firewood, and that, shortly after the purchase, one of the
logs being on the fire, a visitor suggesting the profit that could have
been made by converting it into saleable relics, the owner immediately
took the hint and snatched away the piece that was burning. This
anecdote was related to me in 1863 by Thomas Gibbs, who entered
life as one of Sharp's assistants, and so had an opportunity of
being well-informed on the subject. The fact seems to be that
Gastrell himself retained one or more of the best portions of the
tree, and if he allowed Sharp, as he probably did, to take away the
remainder at an ordinary waste price, it is evident that it was not long
before the purchaser discovered the commercial importance of his
bargain. Some years afterwards the latter was accused of having

390 THE MULBERRY-TREE.

used fictitious wood, and the report was deemed of sufficient moment
to be contradicted in his formal death-bed affidavit, in which he states
that Gastrell " cut down the mulberry-tree and cleft it as firewood, when
the greatest part of it was purchased by me, the said Thomas Sharp,
who employed one John Luckman to convey it to my own premises,
where I have worked it into many curious toys and usefull articles
from the same." It may be added that notices of mulberry relics dated
previously to the negociations for the Jubilee of 1769 are exceedingly
rare, but that afterwards they are as plenty as blackberries. A history
of these relics might be compiled at great length, but would hardly be
of interest to any but the owners of such memorials.

Sir Hugh Clopton, who resided at New Place during the first half of
the last century, died in 1751, and in 1756 the estate was sold by his
representatives to the Rev. Francis Gastrell, who, in 1759, pulled the
residence then on the site of Shakespeare's house down to the ground.
Shortly before the removal of that building, the new proprietor had
felled the mulberry-tree to the great annoyance of the inhabitants of the
town. The late R. B. Wheler tells us that he recollects his father saying
that, when a boy, he assisted in breaking Gastrell's windows in revenge for
the fall of the tree, which latter act, however, may be accounted for with
out attaching willful conduct to its impetuous owner. Several accounts
agree in stating that it had attained a great magnitude with overhanging
boughs, the trunk being in a state of decay, and indeed it is most
probable that a tree of a century and a half's growth would have been
of a very considerable size, the mould of Stratford being peculiarly favour
able to the luxuriant growth of the mulberry. If planted at all near the
house, its boughs would certainly have overshadowed some of the rooms
at the back. Davies, in his Life of Garrick, the first edition of which
appeared in 1780, expressly asserts that "the mulberry-tree planted by
the poet's own hand became an object of dislike to this tasteless owner
of it because it overshadowed his window, and rendered the house, as
he thought, subject to damps and moisture." Here is one plausible
reason given for the removal, and there may have been another that has
not been recorded in the evidences of decay having convinced Gastrell
that more than a transitory preservation was an impossibility. It would
seem, at all events, that he was not indifferent to the poetical associa
tion, for that he kept relics of it in his own hands may be inferred from
the circumstance of his widow having presented one to the Lichfield
Museum. In a catalogue of that museum, ed. 1786, is the following
entry,— "an horizontal section of the stock of the mulberry-tree planted
by Shakespear at Stratford-upon-Avon ; this curiosity was presented to
the museum by Mrs. Gastrel, August igth, 1778; it is six inches
diameter,'' the last word being an obvious error, the writer meaning
six inches in thickness.

THE MULBERRY-TREE, 39*

The statement made by Davies is rendered probable by the fact that
the mulberry-tree was situated in the garden at the back of New Place,
the one near the house. One Charles Oakes, in an affidavit made in a
lawsuit in 1807, supported by recollections of Stratford extending to the
period of Gastrell's residence there, says that the garden which was
opposite the vicar's northern wall, the latter near the Chapel and in
Chapel Lane, " was called the Shakespeare Garden, being the garden
on the north side of the lane, and so called from the mulberry-tree
planted by Shakespeare growing therein." At this time its site had
been generally forgotten, and most people took it for granted that the
tree now in the Great Garden was in the situation of the old one. In
a plan of Stratford made in 1802 the " spot on which grew Shakespeare's
mulberry " is marked as being in that garden, but apparently at some
little distance westward from the present tree. There is evidence of
what was the local belief only twenty years after it was cut down,
in a paper accompanying a letter from the Rev. Richard Jago, vicar of
Snitterfield, to the Town-clerk of Stratford, written in 1778, in which he
gives an extract from a pretended work entitled, Acts and Monuments
of the Fairies, consisting of a decree from King Oberon to his loving
fairy subjects respecting their revels held in the poet's garden, — " and
whereas by the wilful and malicious destruction of the said mulberry-
tree, as before recited, and other damage at New Place, late the mortal
residence of the said William Shakespear of immortal memory, the
sports and recreations of our good subjects have been grievously
disturbed and interrupted ; now we, taking the same into our serious
consideration, have ordered and ordained, and by these presents do
order and ordain, that the said sports and recreations formerly kept and
held by our good people under the said mulberry-tree do forthwith cease
at the place where the said mulberry -tree stood, and that from henceforth
they be duely celebrated and observed with accustomed rites in the piece
of ground next thereunto adjoining, being part or parcel of the terrestrial
estate of the said William Shakespear, and now belonging to our beloved
William Hunt, of whose affection for us and our people we have undoubted
assurance, as likewise of his care to cultivate the same with all manner of
productions agreeable to us, and to cause the same to be laid in proper
places with clean and close-binding gravel, and the grass thereof to be
neatly and frequently mowed for the better accommodation of our good
subjects in celebrating the said rites; and our royal will and pleasure
further is that a part of the said ground lying nearest to the river Avon,
and appropriated hereby to the celebration of the said rites, shall hence
forth be called Fairy Lawn, and that a fair pedestal or tablet of stone
shall be erected in the centre of the said lawn, and an inscription,
recording our affection and regard for the said William Shakespear,
and our determination herein, engraven thereon." This document,

392 THE MULBERRY-TREE.

written by a person well acquainted with the locality for the amusement
of one who must have been familiar with all the provincial testimony on
the subject, furnishes conclusive evidence that the original tree was in
the smaller garden. The one now in the Great Garden has been
pronounced to have been raised from a scion of Shakespeare's tree,
but this opinion is more than doubtful. Enquiries have not succeeded
in tracing its existence previously to William Hunt's tenancy, some con
siderable time after the removal of the older tree, and the late R. B.
Wheler, who was better acquainted with the subject than any one else,
distinctly asserts that — " it is well known that neither of these trees
(that at New Place and one in Old Town), nor that growing in the Lion
garden, nor any other reported as such, ever sprung from Shakespeare's
tree ; — many people are willing enough to affirm their own as a scion
from the celebrated tree, but unfortunately their tales are foolish and
improbable when examined."

The Jubilee of 1769, mentioned in the preceding account, was the
name given to a series of entertainments at Stratford that were devised
and arranged in that year by Garrick, a celebrated actor of the day,
under the ostensible pretence of doing honour to Shakespeare. And
the great poet was dignified in this fashion. — The opening of the
celebration having been duly announced in early morn by a powder
cannonade, the lady visitors were serenaded in rotation by young men
attired in fancy costume, and when everybody had thus been thoroughly
aroused, Garrick was presented by the Corporation with a medal and a
wand, both made from relics of the famous mulberry-tree, bells and
cannon loudly uniting to proclaim the acceptance of the gifts. Then
there were public feasts, more serenading, an oratorio at the church,
elaborate processions, a masquerade, balls, illuminations, fireworks,
horse-races, and an unlimited supply of drummers. In the midst,
however, of all this tomfoolery, the presiding genius of the show recited
an ode in praise of the great dramatist, that achievement and some of
the gaieties taking place in a large wooden theatre that had been
erected for the occasion on the Bancroft.

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 recognised quotations or poems being
excluded. It has not been considered necessary to form a correspond
ing selection of innominate references to him, or of the occasional
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, 1603, and 1609.

In Lavine land though Livie bost,
There hath beene seene 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.

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 volume entitled, — " Polimanteia,
or the meanes lawfull and unlawful!, to judge of the fall of a Common
wealth, against the frivolous and foolish conjectures of this age" 4to.,
Cambridge, 1595. The author is eulogising in his text the poets of
England as superior to those of foreign nations, but the two side-notes

394 CONTEMPORAR Y NO TICES.

— 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 author's 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 tlie original work, the first portion being at the bottom oj
one page and the four concluding lines at the top of the next.

Let o

ther countries (sweet Cambridge) enuie,
All praise (yet admire) my Virgil, thy pttrarch, di-
worthy. uine Spenser. And vnlesse I erre, (a thing

Lucrecia easie in such simplicitie) deluded by
Sweet Shak- dearlie beloued Delia, and fortunatelie
speare. fortunate Cleopatra ; Oxford thou maist

Eloquent extoll thy courte-deare-verse happie
Gaueston. Daniell, whose sweete refined muse, in
contracted shape, were sufficient a-
mongst men, to gaine pardon of the Wanton
sinne to Rosemond, pittie to diftressed Adonis.
Cleopatra, and euerliuing praise to her Watsons
louing Delia. heyre.

III. From Barnfield's Encomion of Lady Pecunia, 1598, the same
lines, with a verbal error, occurring in the second edition of that work,
1605. In both editions the following -verses conclude, — " A Remembrance
of some English Poets."

And Shakespeare thou, whose hony-flowing vaine,
Pleasing the world, thy praises doth obtaine ;
Whose Venus, 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 com
parative 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 Treasury, being tJie Second part of Wits
Commonwealth. By Francis Meres, Maister of Artes of both Universities.
Viuitur ingenio, catera mortis erunt. — At London. — Printed by P. Short
for Cuthbert Burbie, and are to be solde at his shop at the Royall
Exchange, 1598." There can be no doubt that this chapter was written
in the summer of 1598, the work itself having been entered at Stationers'
Jlall on the yth of September in that year, aud there being in the Discourse

CONTEMPORAR Y NO TICKS.

395

a notice of Marstorfs Satires registered on the previous 27 th of May. The
date of publication is a fact of so much interest that a facsimile of the
copyright entry to Bur by is here subjoined.

<jf» Q^p

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, Ausonius and Claudianus ; so the English
tongue is mightily enriched and gorgeouslie invested, in rare ornaments
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 Epius®

3Q6 CONTEMPORA R Y NO TICES.

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 nee Jovis ira, nee ignis,
= Nec poterit ferrum, nee edax abolere vetustas. And as Horace saith
of his ; Exegi monumentum aere perennius ; regalique situ pyramidum
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, flanima, senectus, = Hoc
opus unda, lues, turbo, venena ruent. = Et quanquam ad pulcherrimum
hoc opus evertendum tres illi dii=Conspirabunt, Cronus, Vulcanus, et
pater ipse gentis, = Non tamen annorum series, non flamma, nee ensis,
= Sternum 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, Shake
speare, Bretton. — As these tragicke poets flourished in Greece, Aeschylus,
Euripedes, Sophocles, Alexander Aetolus, Achaeus Erithriaeus, Asty-
damas Atheniensis, Apollodorus Tarsensis, Nicomachus Phrygius,
Thespis Atticus and Timon Apolloniates ; and these among the Latines,
Accius, M. Attilius, Pomponius Secundus and Seneca; so these are
our best for tragedie, the Lorde Buckhurst, Doctor Leg of Cambridge,
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 Rhodius, Aristonymus, Archippus Atheniensis and Callias
Atheniensis ; and among the Latines, Plautus, Terence, Naevius, 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
Hall 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 Mega-
rensis and Pigres Halicarnassasus; 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 perplexities of Love, — Henrie Howard, earle of Surrey, Sir
Thomas Wyat the elder, Sir Francis Brian, Sir Philip Sidney, Sir Walter

CONTEMPORAR Y NO TICE3. 397

Rawley, Sir Edward Dyer, Spencer, Daniel, Drayton, Shakespeare,
Whetstone, Gascoyne, Samuell Page, sometimes fellowe of Corpus
Christi Colledge in Oxford, Churchyard, Bretton.

V. Verses on Shakespeare, inscribed, "Ad Gulielmum Shakespeare?
from John Weever's "Epigrammes in the oldest cut and newest fashion"
8vo. Lond, J5pp.

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;=J?omea®, 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-vedere, or the Garden of the Muses, — Imprinted at
London" 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, f 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 Con
stable esquier ; Samuell Daniell ; Thomas Lodge, Doctor of Physicke ;
Thomas Watson ; Michaell Drayton ; John Davies ; Thomas Hudson ;
Henrie Locke esquier ; John Marstone ; Christopher Marlow ; Ben
jamin Johnson ; William Shakspeare ; Thomas Churchyard esquier ;
Thomas Nash ; Thomas Kidde ; George Peele ; Robert Greene ;
Josuah Sylvester ; Nicholas Breton ; Gervase Markham ; Thomas
Storer; Robert Wilmot; Christopher Middleton; Richard Barnefield;
these being moderne and extant poets that have liv'd togither; from many
of their extant workes, and some kept in privat.

VII. Verses from — "A Mournefull Dittie entituled Elizabeths Losse,
together with a Welcome for King James" a very rare ballad in the library
of S. Christie- Miller, Esq., of Britwell House, Burnham.

393 CONTEMPORAR Y NO TICES.

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.

VIII. From "Epigrames, served out in 52 severall Dishes for every
man to tast without surf et ing. By I. C. Gent." 12 mo. Lend. 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
sound the famous memory of noble King James ;= Another sayes that
he will, to his death, = Sing the renowned worthinesse of sweet Eliza
beth ;=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.

IX. From — "Daiphantus, or the Passions of Love. Comicall tj
Reade, but tragicall to act ; as full of Wit as Experience ; by An. Sc.
gentleman" 4to. Land. 1604. The author, supposed to be one Anthony
Scoloker, observes, in a quaint dedication, 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 mistresses eyes, one still excelling
another, and without corivall ; or to come home to the vulgars element,
like friendly Shake-speares 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. In sooth, I will not be moonesicke to please ; nor out of
my wits, though I displeased all.

X. From Camderf s Remaines of a Greater Worke concerning Britaine,
1605, ii. 8, the Epistle Dedicatorie to Sir Robert Cotton bearing the date
offline, 1603. The following passage is repeated in ed. 1614, p. 324.

These may suffice for some poeticall descriptions of our auncient
poets ; if I would come to our time, what a world could I present to you
out of Sir Philipp Sidney, Ed. 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 in tJie
winter of 1 60 1 -2, but not printed until 1606, in which latter year two
editions appeared under the title of, — The Returnefrom Pernassus, or the

CONTEMPORAR Y NO TICES. 399

Scourge of Simony, publiquely acted by the Students in Saint Johns Colledge
in Cambridge." It was entered at Stationers' Hall in October, 1603. 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 of" — . In one edition
of this play the word lazy in theffth 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 Returnefrom
Pernassus, the celebrated actors, Burbage and Kemp, appear as instructors
of their art to two university students, previously to which the follou'ing
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 a man can go no further. I was once at a comcdie in
Cambridge, and there I saw a parasite make faces and mouths of all
sorts on this fashion. — Bur. A little teaching 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
Juppiter. 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 Barksted" 8vo. Lond. 1607, a work entered at
Stationers' 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

400 CONTEMPORAR Y NO T1CES.

song was worth ie 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 satyricall Epi-
gramms and others in honor of many noble and worthy Persons of our
Land" by John Davies of Hereford, 8vo., Epig. 159, pp. 76, 77. This
curious little volume is undated, but it was entered at Stationers' Hall
on October the 8th, 1610. The following verses are addressed "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, butaraigning 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 White Divel, or
the Tragedy of Paulo Giordano Ursini, 4to. Lond. 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 understanding 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. Hey wood, wishing what I write may be read by their light ; pro
testing 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 Excellence of the English tongue by R. C. of
Anthony, esquire? printed in Camden's Remaines, ed. 1614, pp. 43, 44.
The initials stand for the name of Richard Careu>, whose earliest published
work appeared in 1598, but the date of tJie composition of the 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 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 meta
phors, in ecchoes and agnominations, they may all bee lively and exactly
represented in ours. Will you have Platoes veine ? — reade Sir Thomas

CONTEMPORAR Y NO TICES. 401

Smith. The lonicke? — Sir Thomas Moore. Ciceroes? — Ascham.
Varro? — Chaucer. Demosthenes? — Sir John Cheeke, who, in his
treatise to the Rebels, hath comprised all the figures of rhetorick. Will
you reade Virgill ? — take the Earle of Surrey. Catullus ? — Shakespheare
and Barlowes® fragment. Ovid ? — Daniell. Lucan ? — Spencer. Mar
tial ? — Sir John Davies and others. Will you have all in all for prose
and verse — take the miracle of our age, Sir Philip Sidney.

XVII. From the Second Part of a work entitled, — " Rubbe and a great
Cast, Epigrams by Thomas Freeman, gent." 4to. Lond., 1614 ; entered
at Stationers' Hall on June the 3Oth. The following epigram is addressed
" to Master W: Shakespeare"

Shakespeare, that nimble mercury, thy braine, = Lulls many hundred
Argus-eyes asleepe, = So fit for all thou fashionest 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.

XVIII. From — " The Ann ales or Generall Chronicle of England,
begun first by maister John Stow, and after him continued and augmented,
with matters forreyne and domestique, auncient and moderne, unto the
ende of this present yeere, 1614, by Edmond Howes, gentleman? fol.,
Land., 1615, p. 811. The following are amongst the observations 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, gentleman; M.Willi. Shakespeare, gentleman ;
Samuell Daniell, esquire ; Michaell Draiton, esquire of the bath ; M.
Christopher Mario, gen. ; M. Benjamine Johnson, gentleman ; John
Marston, esquier ; M. Abraham Frauncis, gen. ; master Frauncis Meers,
gentle. ; master Josua Silvester, gentle. ; master Thomas Deckers,
gentleman ; M. John Flecher, gentle. ; M. John Webster, gentleman ;
M. Thomas Heywood, gentleman ; M. Thomas Middelton, gentleman
M. George Withers.

2 C

LIFE-TIME EDITIONS.

This list of the contemporary editions of Shakespeare's poems and dramas, here
arranged in chronological order and printed V. L., 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 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. 1593. — ii. 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 Langbaine's Account of the
English Dramatick Poets, 1691, p. 464, no copy of this edition of the play being now
known to exist. — iii. 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 Millington, and are to be sold at his shop vnder Saint Peters Church in
Cornwall. 1594. — iv. Lvcrece. — London. — Printed by Richard Field, for lohn
Harrison, and are to be sold at the signe of the white Greyhound in Paules Churh-
yard®. 1594- — v. 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. — vi.
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 Pembrooke 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. — vii. Venvs and Adonis.
Vilia miretur vulgus: mihi flauus Apollo = Pocula Castalia plena ministret aqua.
Imprinted at London by R. F. for lohn Harison. 1596. — viii. 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 lohn Danter. 1597. — ix. 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. — x. The
Tragedy of King Richard the third. Containing, 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 Right honourable the Lord Chamberlaine his
seruants. — At London — Printed by Valentine Sims, for Andre\v Wise, dwelling in
Paules Chuch-yard®, at the Signe of the Angell. 1597. — xi. Lvcrece. At London,

2 C 2

404 LIFE-TIME EDITIONS.

Printed by P. S. for lohn Harrison. 1598.— xii. The Hystorie of Henrie the Fourth,
— 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 above head-line.
— xiiL A Pleasant Conceited Comedie called, Loues labors lost. As it was presented
before her Highnes this last Christmas. Newly corrected and augmented By W.
Shakespere. — Imprinted at London by W. W. for Cutbert Burby. 1598. — xiv. The
Tragedie of King Richard the second. As it hath beene pubhkely 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. — xv. The Tragedie of King
Richard the third. Conteining 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. — xvi. 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, Printed by P. S. for Andrew Wise, dwelling in Paules
Churchyard, at the signe of the Angell. 1598. — xvii. Venvs and Adonis. — Vilia
miretur vulgus : mihi flauus Apollo = Pocula Castalia plena ministret aqua. — Imprinted
at London for William Leake, dwelling in Paules Churchyard at the signe of the
Greyhound. 1599. — xviii. 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 Cuthbert Burby, and are to be sold at his
shop neare the Exchange. 1 599. — xix. The Passionate Pilgrime. By W. Shakespeare.
At London — Printed for W. laggard, and are to be sold by W. Leake, at the Grey
hound in Paules Churchyard. 1599. — xx. The History of Henrie the Fovrth; With
the battell at Shrewsburie, betweene the King and Lord Henry Percy, sumamed
Henry Hotspur of the North. With the humorous 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. — xxi. 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 Millington, and are to be sold at
his shoppe vnder Saint Peters Church in Cornewall. 1600. — xxii. 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 Tragical end of the prowd Cardinal! 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 Millington, and are to be sold at his shop
vnder S. Peters church in Cornewall. 1600. — xxiii. Lvcrece — London. Printed by I.
H. for lohn Harison. 1600. — xxiv. 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
Honourable the Earle of Pembrooke his seruantes. Printed at Londou® by W. W. for
Thomas Millington, and are to be sold at his shoppe vnder Saint Peters Church in
Cornewall. 1600. — xxv. 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 Admiral! of England, his

LIFE- TIME EDITIONS. 405

Seruants. Written by William Shakespeare. London — printed for T. P. 1600. —
xxvi. 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. Millington, and lohn Busby. And are to be sold at his
house in Carter Lane, next the Powle head. 1600. — xxvii. 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. — xxviii. The Second part of Henrie the fourth, continuing to
his death, and coronation of Henrie the fift. With the humours of sir lohn Falstaffe,
&c., 1600. This second edition contains two additional leaves, but its title-page is
identical with that last given. — xxix. 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. 1600. — xxx. 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 Fleete-
streete. 1600. — xxxi. 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. — xxxii. 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. Printed by lames Roberts, 1600. — xxxiii. 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. 1600. — xxxiv. 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 Shakespeare. — 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. —
xxxv. A " Poeticall Essaie on the Turtle and Phcenix," published in " Loves Martyr : or,
Rosalins Complaint. Allegorically shadowing the truth of Loue, in the constant Fate of
the Phoenix and Turtle." — London, Imprinted for E. B. 1601. — xxxvi. A Most pleasaunt
and excellent conceited Comedie, of Syr lohn Falstaffe, and the merrie Wiues of Wind
sor. Entermixed with sundrie variable and pleasing humors, of Syr Hugh the Welch
Knight, lustice 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 else-where. London — Printed by T. C. for Arthur
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. — xxxvii. The Tragedie of King Richard the
third. Conteining 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 Chamberlaine his seruants. Newly augmented, By
William Shakespeare. — London — Printed by Thomas Creede, for Andrew Wise,

406 LIFE-TIME EDITIONS.

dwelling in Paules Church-yard, at the signe of the Angell. 1602. — xxxviii. 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 Pauls Churchyard. 1602. — xxxix. 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.— xl. 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. — xli. 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 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. — xlii. 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. — xliii. 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 Falstalffe. Newly corrected
by W. Shake-speare. 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. — xliv.
The Tragedie of King Richard the third. Conteining his treacherous Plots against
his brother Clarence : the pittifull murther of his innocent Nephewes : his tyrannical 1
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 Church-yard, at the Signe of
the Foxe, neare S. Austins gate, 1605. — xlv. 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. — xlvi. 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.
1605. — xlvii. Lvcrece. At London, Printed be® N. O. for lohn Harison. 1607. — xlviii.
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. — xlix. 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. — 1. 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 tor bee sold at his shop on
Cornhill, neere to the exchange. 1608 — li. 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

LIFE-TIME EDITIONS.

Seruants. Printed for T. P. 1608. — Hi. 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 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. — liii. The Tragedie of King Richard the second. As it hath been
publikely acted by the Right Honourable the Lord Chamberlaine his seruantes. By
William Shake-speare. 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. — liv. M.
William Shak-speare : His True Chronicle Historic of the life and death of King
Lear and his three Daughters. With the vnfyrtunate 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 vsually 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. — Iv. 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. — Ivi. 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. —
Ivii. 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 diners and sundry times acted by his Maiesties Seruants, at
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. — Iviii. 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. — lix.
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. — Ix. Shake-
speares Sonnets. Neuer before Imprinted. — At London — By G. Eld for T. T. and are to
be solde by William Aspley. 1609. — Ixi. 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. — Ixii. 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. 161 1. — Ixiii. 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. — Ixiv. The Tragedy 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 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. — Ixv. The Most

408 LIFE- TIME EDITIONS.

Excellent And Lamentable Tragedie, of Romeo and Ivliet. As it hath beene sundrie
times publikely Acted, by the Kings Maiesties Seruants at the Globe. Newly
Corrected, augmented, and amended. — London, Printed for John Smethwicke, and are
to bee sold at his Shop in Saint Dunstanes Church-yard, in Fleetestreete vnder the Dyall.
The position here given to this title-page is conjectural, the edition being undated. — Ixvi.
The Most Excellent And Lamentable Tragedie, of Romeo and Ivliet. As it hath
beene sundrie times publikely Acted, by the Kings Maiesties Seruants at the Globe.
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. This is the same edition as the last
with merely an alteration in the title-page. — Ixvii. 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. — Ixviii. The
Tragedie of King Richard the third. Containing his treacherous Plots against his
brother Clarence : the pittifull murther of his innocent Nephewes : his tyrannical!
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 Shake-speare. London, Printed by Thomas Creede, and are to be sold by
Mathew Lawe, dwelling in Pauls Church-yard, at the Signe of the Foxe, neare S.
Austins gate, 1612. — Ixix. The Passionate Pilgrime. or Certaine Amorous Sonnets,
betweene Venus and Adonis, newly corrected and augmented. By W. Shakespere.
The third Edition. Where-unto is newly added two Loue-Epistles, the first from
Paris to Hellen, and Hellens answere backe againe to Paris. Printed by W. laggard.
1612. — Ixx. 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. Shake
speare. 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.
— Ixxi. 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. — Ixxii. The Rape of Lvcrece. By Mr. William
Shakespeare. 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.

ESTATE RECORDS.

This section is formed of records, bearing date from 1579 to 1618, which relate to
properties in which it is known that Shakespeare had, at any time of his life, either
contingent or absolute interests. It has not been thought necessary to give the later
estate documents at length, those passages in them which are of the slightest value
being quoted either in the illustrative notes or in the essays.

/. The Note of a Fine levied when an Estate at Aston Cantlowe was mortgaged by
Shakespeare's Parents, Easter Term, 21 Eliz., fS79-

Inter Edmundum Lambert, querentem, et Johannem Shakespere et Mariam, uxorem
ejus, deforciantes, de duobus mesuagiis, duobus gardinis, quinquaginta acris terre, duabus
acris prati, quatuor acris pasture, et communia pasture pro omnimodis averiis, cum
pertinenciis, in Awston Cawntlett ; unde placitum convencionis summonitum fuit inter
eos, etc., scilicet, quod predicti Johannes et Maria recognoverunt predicta tenementa et
communiam pasture, cum pertinenciis, esse jus ipsius Edmundi, ut ilia que idem
Edmundus habet de dono predictorum Johannis et Marie ; et ilia remiserunt et
quietumclamaverunt de ipsis Johanne et Maria, et heredibus suis, predicto Edmundo,
et heredibus suis, imperpetuum. Et, preterea, iidem Johannes et Maria concesserunt,
pro se et heredibus ipsius Marie, quod ipsi warantizabunt predicto Edmundo, et
heredibus suis, predicta tenementa et communiam pasture, cum pertinenciis, contra
predictos Johannem et Mariam, et heredes ipsius Marie, imperpetuum ; et pro hac
recognicione, remissione, quietaclamancia, warantia, fine, etc., idem Edmundus dedit
predictis Johanni et Marie quadraginta libras sterlingorum.

//. A Bill of Complaint brought by the Poefs Father against John Lambert in the
Court of Queen's Bench, 1589, respecting an estate at Wilmecote near Stratford-on-Avon.
From the Coram Rege Rolls, Term. Mich. 31-32 Eliz. This document contains the
only positive notices of the great dramatist between the years 1585 and 1592 which have
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, et protulit hie in curiam dicte domine
regine tune ibidem quandam billam suam versus Johannem Lambert, filium et
heredem Edmundi Lamberte nuper de Barton Henmershe in comitatu predicto
yoman, in custodia marescalli &c., de placito transgression is super casum ; et sunt
plegii de prosequendo, scilicet, Johannes Doo et Ricardus Roo, que quidem billa
sequitur in hec verba, — WARR:, Johannes Shackespere queriturde 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 Anglic vicesimo, per quandam
indenturam gerentem datam die et anno predictis, emisset sibi et heredibus suis de
prefato Johanne Shackespere et Maria uxore ejus unum mesuagium 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,

410 ESTATE RECORDS.

et alia premissa cum pertinentiis, prefato Edmundo, heredibus et assignatis suis, imper-
petuum ; proviso semper quod si dictus Johannes Shackespere, heredes, executores,
administrators vel assignati sui, solverent seu solvi causarent prefato Edmundo
quadraginta libras legalis monete Anglic in die festi sancti Michaelis 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 pertinentiis, 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, discendebant 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 premissis, cum pertinentiis ; et quod dictus
Johannes Shackespere 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 evidencias
premissa predicta concernentia ; predictus Johannes Lamberte, vicesimo sexto die
Septembris anno regni dicte domine regine vicesimo nono, apud Stratforde-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 Anglic 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 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 Shacke
spere 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 tam ad assurandum premissa predicta quam ad deliberandum
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 promissionem et assumpcionem, suas
hucusque non solvit, nee aliqualiter pro eisdem contentavit licet ad hoc per eundem
Johannem Shackespere postea, scilicet, primo die Septembris 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 lucrari potuisset totaliter perdidit et amisit, ad dampnum ipsius Johannis
Shackspeare triginta librarum, ac inde producit sectam. — Et modo ad hunc diem,
scilicet, diem Jovis proximum post octabas sancti Michaelis isto eodem termino, usque
quern diem predictus Johannes Lamberte habuit licenciam ad billam interloquendam
et tune ad respondendam, etc., coram domina regina apud Westmonasterium, veniunt
tam predictus Johannes Shackspere, per attornatum suum predictum, quam predictus
Johannes Lamberte, per Johannem Boldero, attornatum suum, et idem Johannes
Lamberte defendit vim et mjuriam quando, etc., et dicit quod ipse non assumpsit
super se modo et forma prout predictus Johannes Shackespere superius versus eum

ES TA TE RECORDS.

narravit, et de hoc ponit se super patriatn ; 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 tarn etc. Idem dies datus est partibus predictis ibidem etc.

///. A Deed of 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 presens scriptum pervenerit, Johannes
Shakespere de Stratford-super-Avon in comitatu Warrewicensi, yoman, salutem in
Domino sempiternam. Noveritis me, prefatum Johannem, pro et in consideracione
summe quinquaginta solidorum bone et legalis monete Anglic mihi per quendam
Georgium Badger de Stretford predicta, draper, premanibus solutorum, unde fateor
me fideliter esse solutum et satisfactum, dictumque Georgium Badger heredes,
executores et administrators suos, inde quietos esse et exonerates imperpetuum,
per presentes barganizavi et vendidi, necnon dedi et concessi, et hac presenti carta
mea confirmavi, prefato Georgio Badger, heredibus et assignatis suis, totum illud
toftum et parcellam terre mee cum pertinenciis jacentem et existentem in Stretford-
super-Avon predicta, in quodam vico ibidem vocato Henlye Strete, inter liberum
tenementum mei, predicti Johannis Shakespere, ex parte orientali, et liberum tene-
mentum predicti Georgii Badger ex parte occidentali, continentem in latitudine per
estimacionem dimidium unius virgate apud uterque fines, et jacet in longitudine a
predicto vico vocato Henlye Strete ex parte australi usque regiam viam ibidem
vocatam Gyll-Pyttes ex parte boreali, continens per estimacionem in longitudine
viginti et octo virgatas vel circa, et modo est in tenura sive occupacione mei,
predicti Johannis Shakespere, habendum et tenendum predictum toftum et parcellam
terre, cum pertinenciis, prefato Georgio Badger, heredibus et assignatis suis, ad solum
et proprium opus et usum ejusdem Georgii, heredum et assignatorum suorum,
imperpetuum, tenenda de capitalibus dominis feodi illius per servicium inde prius
debitum et de jure consuetum. Et ego vero, predictus Johannes Shakespere, et
heredes mei, totum predictum toftum et parcellam terre cum pertinenciis prefato
Georgio Badger, heredibus et assignatis suis, ad opus et usum supradictis contra
omnes gentes warrant izabimus et imperpetuum defendemus per presentes. Sciatis
insuper me, prefatum Johannem Shakespere, plenam et pacificam possessionem et
seisinam de et in predicto tofto et parcella terre, cum pertinenciis, prefato Georgio
Badger, secundum vim, formam, tenorem et effectum hujus presentis carte mee inde
ei confecte, in propria persona mea tradisse® et deliberasse. In cujus rei testimonium
huic presenti scripto meo sigillum meum apposui. Datum vicesimo-sexto die Januarij,
anno regni domine nostre Elizabethe, Dei gracia Anglic Francie et Hibernie regine, fidei
defensoris, etc., tricesimo nono, 1596.

Sigillatum et deliberatum, ac pacifica possessio et seisina de tofto et parcella terre
infrascriptis, deliberata fuit per infranominatum Johannem Shakespere infrascripto
Georgio Badger, die et anno infrascriptis, secundum formam, tenorem et effectum
hujus presentis carte, in presencia, viz., Richard Lane, Henry Walker, per me
Willielmum Courte, scriptorem, Thomas Loche, Thomas Beseley.

ESTATE RECORDS.

IV. Papers in a Chancery Suit respecting an Estate at Wilmecote, Michaelmas
Term, Jjyjf. The father and mother of Shakespeare were the plaintiffs^ and John
Lambert, son of the poefs maternal uncle, the defendant.

24 Nov., 1597. To the righte honorable Sir Thomas Egerton, knighte, lorde
keper of the greate scale of Englande. — In most humble wise complayninge, sheweth
unto your good lordshippe your dailye oratours, John Shakespere 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 yarde lande with thappurtenaunces, lyinge and beinge in
Wylnecote, in the saide county ; and they beinge thereof so seised, for and in con-
sideracion of the somme of fowerty poundes 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 somme of
fowertie poundes ; 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 poundes, and
desired that they mighte have agayne the sayde 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 notwithstandinge, nowe so yt ys ;
and yt maye please your good lordshippe that, shortelie after the tendringe of the
sayde fowertie poundes to the saide Edmounde, and the 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 saide 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 accordinge 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 thinges, and did withstande them for entringe into the premisses, and as yet doeth
so contynewe still ; and by reasone that certaine deedes and other evydences concer-
ninge the premisses, and that of righte belonge to your saide oratours, are coumme to
the handes 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 comen lawe for the recovery of the premisses ; in tender consideracion
whereof, and for so muche as your saide oratours knowe not the certaine dates nor
contentes of the saide wrytinges, 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 wrytinges 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 wrytinges
as aforesaide, your sayde oratours cannot tell what accions or against whome, or in
what manner, to bringe theire accion for the recoverie of the premisses att 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

ESTATE RECORDS, 413

wealthe and verey fewe frendes 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 subpena, to be directed to the saide John Lamberte, comand-
inge him thereby att a certaine daie, and under a certaine payne therein to be lymytted,
personally to appeare 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 cor am me, Thomam Legge, 24. Novembris, f^97- — 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 complainantes byll, and also savinge to this defendante such advantage as by the
order of this honorable courte he shal be 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 to
hearinge ; for a seconde full and directe answeare unto the said complainantes byll
sayeth thai true yt is, as this defendante verylie thinkethe, that the said complainantes
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 thappurte-
naunces, 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 fower -
fenth daye of November, in the twenteth yeare of the raigne of our Sovereigne Lady
the Queenes Majestic that now ys, for and in consideracion of the summe of fortie
powndes of lawfull Englishe monney unto the said complainante paide by Edmunde
Lamberte, this defendantes father in the said byll named, did geve, graunte, bargaine
and sell the said messuage, and one yearde and fower acres of lande with thappurte-
naunces, unto the said 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 in
denture there is a condicionall provisoe conteyned that, if the said complainante did
paye unto the said Edmunde Lamberte the summe of fortie powndes 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 covenauntes, grauntes and agreementes therin
conteyned, shulde cease and be voyde, as by the said indenture, wherunto this defen
dante for his better certentie doth referre himselfe, maye appeare ; and afterwardes,
the saide 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 terme 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 conuzance 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 complainante did

414 ESTATE RECORDS.

not tender or paye the said summe of fortie powndes unto the said Edmunde Lamberte,
this defendantes 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 defendantes 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 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 com-
plainantes, doe now trowble and moleste this defendante by unjuste sutes in lawe,
thinkinge therby, as yt shoulde seme, to wringe from him this defendante some further
recompence for the said premisses then they have alreddy received ; without that,
that yt was agreed that the said Edmunde Lamberte shoulde have and enjoye the
said premisses in anie other manner 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 hereinbefore
not answeared unto, confessed and avoyded, traversed or denied, is true, to this
defendantes 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 courte shall awarde, and prayethe to be dis
missed therhence with his reasonable costes and charges in this wrongfull sute by him
unjustly susteyned.

The replication of John Shakespere and Mary his wiefi, plentiffes, to the answere of
John Lamberte, defendant. — The said complaynantes, for replicacion to the answere of
the said defendant, saie that theire bill of complaynt ys certayne and sufficient in the
lawe to be answered ; which said bill, and matters therein contayned, these com
plainants will avowe, verefie, and Justine 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 defenndant
is untrue and insufficient in lawe to be replied unto, for many apparent causes in the
same appearinge, thadvantage whereof these complainantes praie may be to theym
nowe and at all tymes saved, then and not ells ; for further replicacion 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 mencioned in the said bill of complaynt,
he this complaynant, John Shakspere, did come to the dwellinge-house of the said
Edmunde Lambert, in Barton-uppon-the-Heathe, uppon 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 redempcion 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 altcgether, as well the said
fortie poundes as the other money, which he owed him over and above, he would net

ESTATE RECORDS.

receave the said fortie poundes, 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 detaynetli the said premisses from him the said complaynant ; without
that, any other matter or thinge, materiall or effectuall, for these complaynantes to
replie unto, and not herein sufficientlie confessed and avoyded, denyed and traversed,
ys true ; all which matters and thinges thes complaynantes are redie to 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.

V. The original 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 somine 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 them
selves fullie satisfied, contented and paide, and therof, and of everie parte and parcell
therof, doe clearlie, exonerate, acquite and discharge the saide William Shakespere,
his heires, executors, administrators 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 thappur-
tenaunces, conteyninge by estymacion fowre yarde lande of errable lande, scytuate,
lyinge and beinge within the parrishe, feildes or towne of Olde Stretford aforesaide, in
the saide countie of Warrwick, conteyninge by estimacion 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, proffittes,
advantages and commodities whatsoever, with their and everie of their appurtenaunces
to the saide bargayned premisses 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 louche 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 lawfullye 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 ever. And the saide William

416 ESTATE RECORDS.

Combe and John Combe, for them, their heires, executors and administrators, doe
covenant, 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 mencioned to be bargayned and solde, without any further condicion
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, and at all tymes herafter,
well and sufncientlie 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 obligatorie, lynes, feoffamentes, entayles, judgmentes,
execucions, charges, titles, forfeytures and encombrances whatsoever, at any tyme
before the ensealinge herof, had, made, knowledged, 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 Coml>e, for them, their heires, executors, administrators and assignes,
doe covenant, promise and 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 right, full 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 everie of their appui te-
naunces, — other then the cheife lorde or lordes of the fee or fees of the premisses, for
their rentes and services only, — at all tymes herafter, duringe the space of fyve 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 furtherf
more better a/id 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
Shakespere, his heires and assignes, for ever, accordinge to the true entent and
meaninge of theis presentes, as by the saide William Shakespere, his heires and
assignes, or his or their learned counsell in the lawe, shal be reasonablye devized or
advized, and required, be yt bye fyne or fynes with proclamacion, recoverye with
voucher or vouchers over, deede or deedes enrolled, enrollment of theis presentes,
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

ESTATE RECORDS. 41?

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, adminis
trators 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 whatsoever, 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 have enterchangeably sette their
handes and seales, the daie and yeare first above written, 1602. — W. Combe.— Jo.
Combe. — Sealed and delivered to Gilbert Shakespere, to the use of the within-named
William Shakespere, in the presence of Anthony Nasshe, William Sheldon, Humfrey
Maynwaringe, Rychard Mason, Jhon Nashe.

VI. An Extract from the Court-rolls of the Manor ofKowington, being the Surrender
from Walter Getley to Shakespeare of premises in Chapel Lane, Stratford-on-Avon, 1602.

Rowington. — Visus franci plegii cum curia baronis prenobilis domine Anne,
Comitisse Warwici, ibidem tentus vicesimo octavo die Septembris, anno regni domintj
nostre Elizabethe, Dei gracia Anglie, Francie et Hibernie regine, fidei defensoris, etc.,
quadragesimo quarto, coram Henrico Michell, generoso, deputato scenescallo Johannis
Huggeford, armigeri, capitalis scenescalli ibidem. — Ad hanc curiam venit Walterus
Getley, per Thomam Tibbottes, juniorem, attornatum suum, unum customariorum
tenencium manerii predicti, predicto Thoma Tibbottes jurato pro veritate inde, et sursum
reddidit in manus domine manerii predicti unum cotagium, cum pertinenciis, scituatum,
jacens et existens in Stratford-super-Avon, in quodam vico ibidem vocato Walkers
Streete alias Dead Lane, ad opus et usum Willielmi Shackespere et heredum suorum
imperpetuum, secundum consuetudinem manerii predicti ; et sic remanet in manibus
domine manerii predicti, quousque predictus Willielmus Shakespere venerit ad
capiendum premissa predicta. In cujus rei testimonium predictus Henricus Michell
huic present! copie sigillum suum apposuit die et anno supradictis. — Per me,
Henricum Michell.

VII, The conveyance to Shakespeare in 1605 of the moiety of a lease, granted in 1544,
of the tithes of Stratford-on-Avon, Old Stratford, Welcombe and Bishopton.

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 and Irelande, kinge, Defender of the Fayeth, &tc., that is to saye, of Englande,
Fraunce and Irelande 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

2 D

4i 8 ESTATE RECORDS.

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, Welcombeand 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 mannors, landes, tene-
mentes, meadowes, pastures, feedinges, woodes, underwoodes, rentes, revercions, services,
courtes, leetes, releeves, wardes, marriages, harriottes, perquisites of courtes, liberties,
jurisdiccions, and all other hereditamentes, with all and singuler other rightes, com
modities, and their appurtenaunces, togeather with all manner of parsonages, gleebe
landes, tythes, alterages, oblacions, obvencions, mynumentes, offeringes, and all other
issues, proffittes, emolumentes and advantages in the countye of Warr. or Worcester,
or elcewhere whatsoever they bee, unto the sayed then colledge apperteyninge, — the
mancionhouse and the scite of the sayed colledge, with their appurtenaunces, within
the precinctes of the walls of the sayed colledge, unto the sayed warden and subwarden
onelye excepted, — To have and to holde all the sayed mannors, 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 apperteyninge, unto the
sayed William Barker, his executors 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 payeinge
therefore yearelye unto the sayed warden and subwarden and their successors att the
sayed colledge, cxxij.//. xviij.j. i\.d. of lawfull money of Englande, as more playnely
appeareth by the sayed indenture ; and whereas alsoe the revercion of all and singuler
the sayed premisses, amonge other thinges, by vertue of the Acte of Parliament,
made in the fyrst yeare of the raigne of the late soveraigne lorde Kinge Edwarde
the sixte, for the dissolucion of chauntries, colledges, and free chappels, or by somme
other meanes, came to the handes and possession of the «ayed late Kinge Edwarde ;
and whereas the sayed late Kinge Edwarde the sixte beinge seised, as in right of his
crowne of Englande, of and in the revercion of all and singuler the premisses, by his
lettres patentes, bearinge date the eight and twentyth daye of June in the seaventh
yeare of his raigne, for the consideracion therein expressed, did gyve and graunte unto
the baylief and burgesses of Stratforde aforesayed, and to their successors, amonge
other thinges, all and all manner of the sayed tythes of corne, graine and heye,
comynge, encreasinge or arrysinge, in the villages and fyeldes of Oldc Stratforde,
Welcombe and Bushopton aforesayed, in the sayed countye of Warr., then or late in
the tenure of John Barker, and to the late Colledge of Stratforde-upon-Avon in the
sayed countye of Warr. of late belonginge and apperteyninge, and parcell of the
possessions thereof beinge ; and alsoe all and all manner of the sayed tythes of wooll,
lambe, and other smalle and pryvie tythes, oblacions and alterages, whatsoever, within
the parishe of Stratford-upon-Avon aforesayed, and to the sayed late Colledge of
Stratforde-upon-Avon belonginge or apperteyninge, and then or late in the tenure of
William Barker or of his assignes, and the revercion and revercions whatsoever of all
and singler the sayed tythes, and everye parte and parcell thereof, and the rentes,
revenues, and other yearelye proffittes whatsoever reserved upon anye demise or
graunte of the sayed tythes, or anie parte or parcell thereof : and whereas alsoe the
interest of the sayed premisses in the sayed originall lease mentioned, and the interest

ESTATE RECORDS, 4'9

of certain copieholdes in Shotterie in the parishe of Stratford aforesayed, beinge by
good and lawfull conveyans and assurance in the lawe before that tyme conveyed and
assured to John Barker of Hurste in the sayed countye of Berk., hee, the sayed John
Barker, by his indenture bearinge date the foure and twentyth daye of June in the
twoe and twentythe yeare of the raigne of the late Queene Elizabeth, for the
consideracions therein specifyed did gyve, graunte, assigne and sett over unto Sir
John Hubande, knighte, brother of the sayed Raphe Hubande, all and singuler the
sayed laste mencioned premisses, and all his estate, right, title and interest that hee
then had to come, of, in and to all and singuler the sayed premisses, and of all other
manners, messuages, landes, tenementes, gleebe landes, tythes, oblacions, commodities
and proffittes in the sayed originall lease meucioned, for and duringe all the yeares
and terme then to come unexpired in the sayed originall lease, exceptinge as in and
by the sayed laste mencioned indenture is excepted, — as by the same indenture more
att large maye appeare ; to have and to holde all and singuler the sayed recyted
premisses, excepte before excepted, to the sayed Sir John Hubande, his executors
and assignes, for and duringe the yeares then to come of and in the same, yeldinge
and payeinge therefore yearelye, after the feast of St. Michaell tharchangell nexte
ensueinge the date of the sayed laste mencioned indenture, for and duringe all the
yeares mencioned in the sayed first mencioned indenture then to come and not expired,
unto the sayed John Barker, his executors, administrators and assignes, one annuall
or yearelye rente of twentye seaven poundes thirteene shillinges foure pence by the
yeare, to be yssueinge and goeinge out of all the manners, landes, tenementes, tythes
and hereditamentes, in the sayed indenture specyfied, to bee payed yearlye to the
sayed John Barker, his executors, administrators and assignes, by the sayed Sir John
Hubande, his executors, administrators and assignes, att the feastes of the Anunciacion
of our Ladye and St. Michaell tharchangell, or within fortye dayes after the sayed
feastes, in the porche of the Parishe Churche of Stratford aforesayed, by even porcions,
and further payeinge, doeinge and performinge all suche other rentes, dutyes and
servyces, as att anie tyme from thencefourth, and from tyme to tyme, for and duringe
the terme aforesayed, should become due to anie personne or personns for the same
premisses, or anie parte thereof, and thereof to discharge the sayed John Barker, his
executors and administrators ; and yf yt shoulde happen the sayed twentye-seaven
poundes thirteene shillinges foure pence to bee behinde and unpayed, in parte or in
all, by the space of fortye dayes nexte after anie of the sayed feastes or daies of paye-
ment, in which, as is aforesayed, it ought to bee payed, beinge lawfullie asked, that
then yt shoulde bee lawfull to and for the sayed John Barker, his executors, adminis
trators and assignes, into all and singuler the premisses, with their appurtenaunces,
and everye parte and parcell thereof, to re-enter, and the same to have againe, as in
his or their former righte, and that then and from thenceforthe the sayed recyted
indenture of assignement, and everye article, covenaunte, clause, provisoe and agree
ment therein conteyned, on the parte and behalf of the sayed John Barker, his
executors, administrators and assignes, to bee performed, should ceasse and bee utterlie
voyde and of none effect ; with diverse other covenauntes, grauntes, articles and
agreementes in the sayed indenture of assignemente specified to bee observed and
performed by the sayed Sir John Hubande, his executors and assignes, as in and by the
sayed recyted indenture it doth and maye appeare. And whereas the sayed Sir John
Hubande did, by his deade obligatorie, bynd himself and his heires to the sayed John
Barker in a greate some of money for the performance of all and singuler the cove
nauntes, grauntes, articles and agreementes, which, on the parte of the sayed Sir John
Huband, were to bee observed and performed, conteyned and specyfied as well in
the sayed recyted indenture of assignement, as alsoe in one other indenture, bearinge
the date of the sayed recyted indenture of assignement, made betweene the sayed
John Barker on thone partie and the sayed Sir John Hubande on thother partie, as by

2 D 2

420 ESTATE RECORDS.

the sayed deade obligatorie more att large it doth and maye appeare. And whereas
alsoe the sayed Sir John Hubande, by his laste will and testament in writinge, did
gyve and bequeath unto his executors, amongst other thinges, the moytie or one half
ufall and singuler the sayed tythes, as well greate as smalle, before mencioned, to
bee graunted to the sayed baylyffe and burgesses of Stratford, for and duringe soe
longe tyme, and untill, of the yssues and proffittes thereof, soe much as with other
thinges in his sayed will to that purposse willed, lymitted or appointed, shoulde
bee sufficient to discharge, beare, and paye, his funeralls debtes and legacies ; and
alsoe, by his sayed laste will and testament, did gyve and bequeath the other moytie,
or one half of the sayed tythes, unto the sayed Raphe Hubande and his assignes,
duringe all the yeares to come in the sayed first mepcioned indenture and not expired,
payeinge the one half of the rentes and other charges dewe or goeinge out of or for
the same, that is to saye the one half of tenne poundes by yeare to bee payed to the
sayed John Barker over and above the rentes thereof reserved upon the sayed original!
lease for the same, as by the sayed will and testament more playnelye appearnth ; —
This indenture nowe witnesseth that the sayed Raphe Hubande, for and in considera-
cion of the somme of foure hundred and fourtye poundes of lawfull Englishe money to
him by the sayed William Shakespear, before thensealinge and deliverye of thees
presentes, well and truelye contented and payed, whereof and of everye parte and
parcell whereof hee, the sayed Raphe Hubande, dothe by thees presentes acknowledge
the receipt, and thereof and of everye parte and parcell thereof dothe clerelye acquite,
exonerate and discharge the sayed William Shakespear, his executors and adminis
trators, for ever by thees presentes, — hathe demised, graunted, assigned and sett over,
and by thees presentes dothe demise, graunte, assigne and sett over unto the sayed
William Shakespear, his executors and assignes, the moytie or one half of all and
singuler the sayed tythes of corne, grayne, blade and heye, yearelye, and from tyme
to tyme cominge, encreasinge, reneweinge, arrysinge, groweinge, issueinge or happen-
ynge, or to bee had, receyved, perceyved or taken out, of, upon or in the townes,
villages, hamlettes, groundes and fyeldes of Stratforde, Olde Stratforde, Welcombe
and Bushopton aforesayed in the sayed countye ofWarr., and alsoe the moytie or
one half of all and singuler the sayed tythes of wooll, lambe, and other smalle and
pryvie tythes, herbage, oblacions, obvencions, alterages, mynurr.entes 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 : and alsoe the moytie or one half of all and all
manner of tythes, as well greate as smalle whatsoever, which were by the laste will
and testament of the sayed Sir John Hubande gyven and bequeathed to the sayed
Raphe Hubande, arrysing, encreasinge, reneweinge or groweinge within the sayed
parishe of Stratford-upon-Avon, and whereof the sayed Raphe Hubande hath att anie
tyme heretofore been, or of right ought to have been, possessed, or whereunto hee
nowe hath, or att anie tyme hereafter should have, anie estate, right or interest, in
possession or revercion ; and all thestate, right, tytle, interest, terme, claime and
demaunde whatsoever, of the sayed Raphe Hubande, of, in and to all and singuler
the premisses hereby lastelye mencioned to bee graunted and assigned, and everie or
anie parte or pai cell thereof, and the revercion and revercions of all and singuler the
sayed premisses, and all and singuler rentes and yearely proffyttes reserved upon anie
demise, graunte or assignement thereof, or of anie parte or partes thereof heretofore
made, — the pryvie tythes of Luddington and suche parte of the tythe-heye, and pryvie
tythes of Bushopton, as of right doe belonge to the vicar, curate or minister there, for
the tyme beinge, alwayes excepted and foreprised, — To have and to holde all and
everye the sayed moyties or one halfe of all and singuler the sayed tythes, before
in and by thees presentes lastelye mencioned to bee graunted and assigned, and
everye parte and parcell of them, and everye of them, and all thestate, righte, tytle

ES TA TE RECORDS. 42 i

and intereste of the sayed Raphe Huband of, in and to the same, and all other
thafore demised premisses, and everye parte and parcell thereof, except before
excepted, unto the sayed William Shakespear, his executors and assignes, from the
daye of the date hereof, for and duringe the residewe of the sayed terme of
fourescore and twelve yeares in the sayed first recyted indenture mencioned, and
for suche and soe longe terme and tyme, and in as large, ample and benefyciall
manner as the sayed Raphe Hubande shoulde or oughte enjoye the same, yeldinge
and payeinge therefore yearely duringe the residewe of the sayed terme of foure
score and twelve yeares which bee yet to come and unexpired, the rentes here
after mencioned, in manner and forme followeinge, that is to saye, unto the
baylyffe and burgesses of Stratford aforesaied, and their successors, the yearelye
rent of seaventeene poundes att the feastes of St. Michaell tharchangell and the
anunciacion of blessed Marye the Virgin by equall porcions, and unto the sayed John
Barker, his executors, administrators or assignes, the annuall or yearelye rente of fyve
poundes att the feaste dayes and place lymitted, appointed and mencioned in the sayed
recyted indenture of assignement made by the sayed John Barker, or within fortye
dayes after the sayed feaste dayes by even porcions, as parcell of the sayed annuall
rent of tvventye seaven poundes thirteene shillinges foure pence in the sayed assigne
ment mencioned ; and the sayed Raphe Hubande dothe by thees presentes, for him,
his heires, executors and administrators, covenaunte and graunte to and with the
sayed William Shakespear, his executors, administrators and assignes, that hee, the
sayed Raphe Hubande, att the tyme of thensealinge and delyverye of thees presentes,
hath, and att the tyme of the first execucion, or intencion of anie execucion, of anie
estate by force of thees presentes shall have, full power, and lawfull and sufficient
aucthoritie certeinlie, suerlye and absolutelie, to graunte, demise, assigne and sett
over all and everye the sayed moyties, or one halfe of all and singuler the sayed
tythes, and other the premisses before in thees presentes lastelye mencioned to bee
assigned and sett over, and everye parte and parcell thereof, unto the sayed William
Shakespear, his executors and assignes, accordinge to the true meaninge of thees
presentes ; and alsoe that the sayed William Shakespear, his executors, administrators
or assignes, shall and maye from tyme to tyme, and att all tymes duringe the residewe
of the sayed terme of foure score and twelve yeares yet to come and unexpired, for
the yearelye severall rentes above by thees presentes reserved, peaceablie, lawfullye
and quietlie have, holde, occupie, possesse and enjoye all and everye the sayed moyties,
or one halfe of all and singuler the sayed tythes of come, graine, blade, heye, woolle,
lambe, and other smalle and pryvie tythes, herbage, oblacions, obvencions, offeringes,
and other the premisses before by thees presentes graunted and assigned, and everye
parte and parcell thereof, excepte before excepted, without anie lett, trouble, entrie,
distresse, claime, deniall, interrupcion or molestacion whatsoever of the sayed Raphe
Hubande, his executors, administrators or assignes, or of anie other personne or
personns havinge or clayminge to have, or which, att anie tyme or tymes hereafter,
shall or maye have, or claime to have, anie thinge of, in or to the afore graunted
premisses or anie parte thereof, by, from or under the sayed Raphe Huband, his
executors, administrators or assignes, or anie of them, or by, from, or under the sayed
Sir John Hubande, or by their or anie of their meanes, consent, forfeiture, act or
procurement, and without anie lawfull lett, trouble, distresse, claime, denyall, entrie
or demaunde whatsoever, other then for the sayed yearely rent of twentye seaven
poundes thirteene shillinges fourepence by the sayed recyted assignement reserved of
the sayed John Barker, his executors, administrators or assignes, or anie of them, or of
anie personne or personns clayeming by, from or under them, or anie of them, —
thcstate and interest of the Lorde Carewe of, in and to the tythes of Bridgtowne and
Ryen Clyfforde, and the interest of Sir Edwarde Grevill, knight, of and in the moytie
of the tythe-heye, woolle, lambe, and other smalle and pryvie tythes, oblacions,

422 KSTA TE RECORDS.

obvencions, ofleringes and proffittes before by thees presentes graunted and assigned
unto the sayed William Shakespear, which is to endure untill the feast of St. Michaell
tharchangell next ensueinge the date hereof, and noe longer, onelye excepted and
foreprised ; — and the sayed Raphe Hubande doth by thees presentes, for him his
heires, executors and administrators, covenaunte and graunte to and with the sayed
William Shakespear, his executors, administrators and assignes, that aH and everye
the sayed moyties of the sayed tythes before mencioned to be graunled to the sayed
William Shakespear, and other the premisses, except before excepted, nowe are, and
soe from tyme to tyme, and att all tymes hereafter duringe the residewe of the saied
terme of fourescore and twelve yeares yet to come and unexpired, according to the true
meaninge hereof shal be, remaine, and contynewe unto the sayed William, his executors
or assignes, free and clere, and freelye and clerelye acquyted, exonerated and discharged,
or well and sufficientlie saved and kept harmelesse, of and from all and all manner of
bargaines, sales, guiftes, assignementes, leases, recognizances, statutes mercheant and
of the staple, outlaries, judgementes, execucions, titles, troubles, charges, encumbraunces
and demaundes whatsoever, heretofore had, made, done, comitted, omitted or suffered,
or hereafter to bee had, made, done, comitted, omitted or suffered, by the sayed
Raphe Hubande, Sir John Hubande and John Barker, or anie of them, their or anie
of their executors, administrators or assignes, or anie of them, or by anie personne or
personns whatsoever clayminge by, from or under them or anie of them, or by their
or anie of their meanes, act, title, graunte, forfeiture, consent or procurement, except
before excepted ; and alsoe that hee, the sayed Raphe Hubande, his executors, adminis
trators and assignes, shall and will, from tyme to tyme and att all tymes duringe the
space of three yeares next ensueing, upon reasonable requeste, and att the costes and
charges in the lawe of the sayed William Shakespear, his executors or a^signes, doe
performe and execute, and cause, permitt and suffer to bee done, performed and
executed, all and everye suche further and reasonable acte and actes, thinge and
thinges, devyse and devyses in the lawe whatsoever, bee yt or they by anie meane,
course, acte, devise or assurans in the lawe whatsoever, as by the sayed William
Shakespear, his executors or assignes, or his or their learned councell, shal be reason-
ablie devised, advised or required for the confirmacion of thees presentes, or for the
further or more better or firmer assurans, suertye, suer makinge and conveyeinge of
all and singler the premisses before by thees presentes demised and assigned, or ment
or intended to bee demised and assigned, and everye parte and parcell thereof, unto
the sayed William Shakespear, his executors and assignes, for and duringe all the
residewe of the sayed terme of fourescore and twelve yeares which bee yet to come
and unexpired, according to the tenor and true meaninge of thees presentes, soe as
the sayed Raphe Hubande, his executors or assignes, bee not hereby compelled to
travell from Ippesley aforesayed for the doeinge thereof; and the sayed William
Shakespear doth by thees presentes, for him, his heires, executors and administrators,
covenaunte and graunte to and with the sayed Raphe Hubande, his executors,
administrators and assignes, that hee, the sayed William Shakespeare, his executors,
administrators or assignes, shall and will, duringe the residewe of the sayed terme of
fourescore and twelve yeares which bee yet to comme and unexpired, yearelie content
and paye the severall rentes above mencioned, vidlt., seaventene poundes to the
baylief and burgesses of Stratford aforesayed, and fyve poundes to the sayed John
Barker, his executors or assignes, att the dayes and places aforesayed in which it
ought to bee payed accordinge to the purporte and true meaninge of thees presentes,
and thereof shall and will discharge the saied Raphe Hubande, his executors, adminis
trators and assignes. In witnes whereof the partyes abovesayed to thees presentes
interchangeablie have sett their scales the daie and yeare fyrst above written. — Raffe
Huband. — Sealdeand delivered in the presence of William Huband, Anthony Nasshe,
Fra : Collyns.

ESTATE RECORDS.

Bond for the Performance of Covenants. — Noverint universi per presentes me,
Radulphum Huband, de Ippesley in comitatu Warwici, armigerum, teneri et firmiter
obligari Willielmo Shakespear, de Stratforde-super-Avon in dicto comitatu Warwici,
generoso, in octingentis libris bone et legalis monete Anglic solvendis eidem Willielmo,
aut suo certo attornato, executoribus vel assignatis suis, ad quam quidem solucionem
bene et fideliter faciendam obligo me, heredes, executores et administratores meos,
firmiter per presentes sigillo meo sigillatas. Datum vicesimo quarto die Julii, annis
regni domini nostri Jacobi, Dei gracia Anglie, Scocie, Francie et Hibernie regis, fidei
defensoris, etc., scilicet, Anglie, Francie et Hibernie tercio, et Scocie tricesimo octavo. —
The condicion of this obligacion is suche, that if thabove bounden Raphe Hubande,
his heires, executors, administrators and assignes, and everye of them, shall and doe,
from tyme to tyme and att all tymes, well and truelye observe, performe, fulfill and
keepe all and everye covenaunte, graunte, article, clause, sentence and thinge
mencioned, expressed and declared, in a certein writinge indented, bearinge date with
thees presentes, made betweene the sayed Raphe Hubande on thone parte and the
abovenamed William Shakespear on thother parte, and which, on the parte and
behalf of the saied Raphe, his heires, executors, administrators and assignes, or anie
of them, are to bee observed, performed, fulfilled or kept, according to the purporte
and true meaninge of the saied writinge, that then this present obligacion to bee
voyde and of none effect, or els to stand and abide in full force, power and vertue. —
Kaffe Huband. — Sealed and delivered in the presens of William Huband, Anthony
Nasshe and Fra. Collyns.

VIII. The Note of a Fine levied in Trinity Term, 8 Jac. I., 1610, on the Estate
purchased by Shakespeare from the Combes.

Inter Willielmum Shakespere, generosum, querentem, et Willielmum Combe,
armigerum, et Johannem Combe, generosum, deforciantes, de centum et septem acris
terre et viginti acris pasture, cum pertinenciis, in Old Stratforde et Stratforde-super-
Avon ; unde placitum convencionis summonitum fuit inter eos, etc., scilicet, quod
predicti Willielmus Combe et Johannes recognoverunt predicta tenementa, cum
pertinenciis, esse jus ipsius Willielmi Shakespere, ut ilia que idem Willielmus habet de
dono predictorum Willielmi Combe et Johannis, et ilia remiserunt et quietum-
clamaverunt de ipsis Willielmo Combe et Johanne, et heredibus suis, predicto Willielmo
Shakespere et heredibus suis imperpetuum ; et, preterea, idem Willielmus Combe
concessit, pro se et heredibus suis, quod ipsi warantizabunt predicto Willielmo
Shakespere, et heredibus suis, predicta tenementa, cum pertinenciis, contra predictum
Willielmum Combe, et heredes suos, in perpetuum. Et ulterius idem Johannes
concessit, pro se et heredibus suis, quod ipsi warantizabunt predicto Willielmo
Shakespere, et heredibus suis, predicta tenementa, cum pertinenciis, contra predictum
Johannem, et heredes suos, imperpetuum. Et pro hac, etc., idem Willielmus
Shakespere dedit predictis Willielmo Combe et Johanni centum libras sterlingorum.

IX. A Draft of a Bill of Complaint respecting the tithes, Shakespeare being one of the
plaintiffs, 1612. In this manuscript there are several interlineations and corrections
in the handwriting of Thomas Greene. The following is a copy of the document in its
corrected state, none of the variations and notes that are found in the original draft being
of the slightest interest in connexion with the history of the poefs ownership of the
moiety. The original is preserved at Stratford-on-Avon.

Richard Lane et alii querentes, et Dominus CareWe et alii defendentes, in Can-
cellaria billa. — To the Right Honorable Thomas Lord Ellesmere, Lord Chauncellour
of England. In humble wise complayninge, shewen unto your honorable good
Lordshipp, your dayly oratours Richard Lane, of Awston in the county of Warwicke,
esquire, Thomas Greene, of Stratford -uppon-Avon in the said county of Warwicke,

424 ESTA TE RECORDS.

esquire, and William Shackspeare, of Stratford-uppon-Avon aforesaid in the said
county of Warwicke, gentleman, that whereas Anthonie Barker, clarke, late warden
of the late dissolved Colledge of Stratford-uppon-Avon aforesaid in the said county of
Warwicke, and Gyles Coventrey, late subwarden of the same colledge, and the chapter
of the said colledge, were heretofore seised in their demesne as of fee in the right of the
said colledge, of and in divers messuages, landes, tenementes and glebe landes, scituate,
lyeinge and beinge within the parishe of Stratford-uppon-Avon aforesaid, and of and
in the tythes of corne, grayne and haye, and of and in all and all manner of tythes
of wooll, lambe, and all other small and pryvye tythes and oblacions and alterages
whatsoever, cominge, groweinge, aryseinge, reneweinge or happeninge within the
whole parishe of Stratford-uppon-Avon aforesaid ; and beinge soe thereof seised, by
their indenture beareinge date in or aboute the seaventh day of September, in the six
and thirtyth yeare of the raigne of our late soveraigne lord of famous memory, Kinge
Henry the Eight, sealed with their chapter scale, they did demise, graunte and to
ferine lett, amongst divers manners and other messuages, landes, tenementes and
hereditamentes, unto one William Barker, gentleman, nowe deceassed, the aforesaid
messuages, landes, tenementes and glebe landes, scituate, lyeinge and beinge within
the said parishe of Stratford-uppon-Avon aforesaid, and the aforesaid tythes of corne,
grayne and hay, and all and all manner other the said tythes of wooll, lambe,- and smale
and pry vie tythes, oblacions and alterages whatsoever ; To have and to hould from
the feast ofSte. Michaell tharchangell then last past, for and duringe the terme of
fourescore and twelve yeares thence next and imediately followeinge and fully to be
compleate and ended ; by vertue of which demise the said William Barker entred into
the said demised premisses, and was thereof possessed for all the said terme of yeares,
and beinge soe thereof possessed of such estate, terme and interest, the said estate, terme
and interest of the said William Barker, by some sufficient meanes in the law afterwards,
came unto one John Barker, gent., by vertue whereof the said John Barker entred into
the same premisses soe demised to the said William Barker, and was thereof possessed for
and duringe the residue of the sayd terme of yeares then to come and not expired ; and
beinge soe thereof possessed, he, the said John Barker, in or aboute the xxij.th yeare of
the raigne of our late soveraigne lady Queene Elizabeth, by sufficiente assureance and
conveyance in the lawe, did assigne assure and convey over unto Sir John Huband,
knight, synce deceassed, the said messuages, landes, tenementes and glebe landes,
scituate, lyeinge and beinge within the said parishe of Stratford-uppon-Avon, and all and
singuler the tythes before specified, and all his estate, right, tytle, interest and terme of
yeares of and in the same ; to have and to hould for and duringe all the residue of the said
terme of Ixxxxij. yeares then to come and not expired, reserveinge uppon and by the said
assureance and conveyance the annuell or yearely. rente of xxvij.//. xiij.j. \\\].d. of lawfull
money of England at the feastes of Ste. Michaell tharchangell and thanunciacion of our
blessed lady Ste. Mary the Virgin, by even and equall porcions ; in and by which said
assureance and conveyance, as one Henry Barker, gent., executor of the last will and
testamente of the said John Barker, or administrator of his goodes and chatties, or
othenvise assignee of the said rente from the said John Barker, hath divers and sundry
tymes given forth ; and which, yf the said rente of xxvij M. xiij.j. \i\}.d. or anie partc
thereof shall happe al anie tyme to be unpaid, the tenauntes of the said premisses, as he
sayeth, shall find, there was, by some sufficiente meanes, good and sufficiente provision
causion and securyty hadd and made, that yf the said annuell or yearely rente, or anie
parte thereof, should be behind and unpaid, in parte or in all, after eyther of the said
feaste dayes wherein the same ought to be paid by the space of forty dayes, beinge
lawfully demaunded at the porch of the parishe church of Stratford aforesaid, that then
yt should and might be lawfull to and for the said William Barker, his executors, admin
istrators and assignes, into all and singuler the said messuages, landes, tenementes, glebe
lands and tythes, and other the premisses soe assured and assigned unto the said Sir

ESTA1E RECORDS.

John Huband, to enter, and the same to have againe, reposseede®, and enjoy as in his or
their former estate ; by vertue of which said assignemente, assureance and conveyance
soe made to the said Sir John Huband, he, the said Sir John Huband, entred into all and
singuler the same premisses soe assigned unto him, and was thereof possessed for and
duringe all the residue of the said terme of Ixxxxij. yeares then to come and not expired,
under the condicion aforesaid, and subjecte to the forfeyture of all the said terme to him
assured and conveyed, yf defaulte of payemente of the aforesaid rente xxvij.//. xiij.j.
iiij.o'. happened to be mad contrary to the true entente and meaninge of the said pro
vision and security in and uppon the same assureance soe hadd and made ; and whereas
sythence the said assureance and conveyance soe made to the said Sir John Huband,
all the said assigned premisses are of divers and sundry parcells, and by divers and
sundry severall sufficiente meane assignementes and under estates deryved under
the said assureance and conveyance soe made unto the said Sir John Huband, for
very greate summes of money and valuable consideracions, come unto and nowe
remayne in your said oratours, and other the persons hereafter in theis presentes
named, and they have severall estates of and in the same parcells, as followeth ;
that is to saie, your oratour Richard Lane, an estate or interest for and duringe
all the residue of the said terme of and in the tythes of come and grayne of and
in the barony of Clopton and the village of Shottery, being of and within the
parishe of Stratford-uppon-Avon, of the yearely value of Ixxx.//., and of and in divers
messuages, landes, tenementes and other hereditamentes in Shottery aforesaid and
Drayton, within the said parishe of Stratford-uppon-Avon, of the yearely value of
xxx.Ii. by the yeare ; and your oratour Thomas Greene, an estate or interest for and
duringe all the residue of the said terme of and in one messuage with thappurtenaunces
in Old Stratford, of the yearely value of three powndes ; and your oratour William
Shackspeare hath an estate and interest of and in the moyty or one half of all tythes of
come and grayne aryseinge within the townes villages and fieldes of Old Stratford,
Byshopton and Welcombe, being of and in the said parishe of Stratford, and of and
in the moity or half of all tythes of wooll and lambe, and of all small and pryvy tythes,
oblaciones, and alterages arisynge or increasyng in or within the wholl parishe of
Stratford-upon-Avon aforesayd, for and duringe all the residue of the said terme,
beinge of the yearely value of threescore powndes ; and the right honorable Sir George
Carewe, knight, Lord Carewe of Clopton, hath an estate and interest, for the terme
of nyneteene yeares or thereaboutes yet to come, of and in the tythes of corne grayne and
hay aryseinge in the village and fieldes of Bridgtowne, in the said parishe of Stratford,
of the value of xx.//. ; and your oratour, the said Richard Lane, an estate of and in the
same in reversion thereof, for and duringe all the residue of the said terme of Ixxxxij.
yeares then to come and not expired; and Sir Edward Grevill, knight, the reversion of
one messuage in Stratford aforesaid, after the estate of one John Lupton therein deter
mined, for and duringe all the residue of the said terme of Ixxxxij. yeares, beinge of the
yearely value of forty shillinges or thereaboutes ; and Sir Edward Conway, knight, hath
an estate and interest for and duringe the residue of the said terme of and in the tythes of
corne, grayne and haye of Loddington, another village of and within the said parishe
of Stratford-uppon-Avon, of the yearely value of xxx./z. ; and Mary Combe, widowe,
and William Combe, gent., and John Combe, gent., or some or one of them, an
estate for the terme of six yeares or thereaboutes yet to come of and in the other
moyty or half of the tythes of corne and grayne aryseinge within the townes, villages
and fieldes of Old Stratford aforesaid, and Bishopton and Welcome in the said
parishe of Stratford, and of and in the moyty or half of all tythes of wooll and lambe,
and of all smale and pryvy tythes, oblacions and allerages ariseinge or encreasinge in
or within the wholl parishe of Stratford-uppon-Avon aforesaid, of the yearely value of
\\.li. and of and in the tythes of come, grayne and hay of Rien Clyfford, within the
parishe of Stratford aforesaid,, of the yearely value of x.//.; and the said Thomas

426 ESTA TE RECORDS.

Greene, an estate of and in the reversion of the same moyty of all the same tythes of
come and grayne, and wooll and lambe, and smale and privie tythes, oblacions and
alterages, for and during all the residue of the said terme of fourescore and twelve
yeares which after the feast day of thanunciacion of our blessed lady Ste. Mary the
Virgin which shal be in the yeare of our Lord God 1613, shal be to come and unex-
pir'ed ; and John Nashe, gent., an estate of and in the tythes of corne, grayne and haie
aryseinge within the village and fieldes of Drayton within the parishe of Stratford
aforesaid, of the yearely value of xx. markes, for and duringe all the residue of the
said terme of Ixxxxij. yeares ; and John Lane, gent., an estate, for and duringe all the
residue of the said terme, of and in one hereditamente in Stratford aforesaid, hereto
fore called Byddles Barne, lately made and converted into divers and sundry tenementes
or dwellinge-howses, and divers other messuages or tenementes, of the yearely value
of viij./j. or thereaboutes ; and Anthonie Nashe, an estate of and in one messuage or
tejiemente in Bridgstreete in Stratford aforesaid, of the yearely value of foure powndes,
for and duringe all the residue of the said terme of yeares yet to come ; the said
William Combe and Mary Combe, widowe, mother of the said William, or one of
them, an estate of and in divers cottages and gardens in Old Stratford, and of and in
fyve leyes of pasture in Ryen-Clyfford in the said parishe of Stratford aforesaid, and
of and in certayne lancles or leyes in their or one of their closse or enclosure called
Ste. Hill in the same parishe, of the yearely value of fyve powndes or thereaboutes,
for and duringe all the residue of the said terme of Ixxxxij. yeares yet to come and
unexpired; Daniell Baker, gent., an estate and® in the tythes of Shottery meadowe
and Broad Meadowe within the said parishe, of the yearely value of xx.//., for and
duringe all the residue of the sayd terme of Ixxxxij. yeares yet to come and unexpired ;
John Smyth, gent., an estate of and in divers messuages, tenementes, barnes, and
gardens in Stratford-uppon-Avon aforesaid, of the yearely value of viij./i. by the
yeare, for and duringe all the residue of the said terme of Ixxxxij. yeares yet to come
and unexpired ; Frauncys Smyth the younger, gent., an estate of and in two barnes
and divers messuages and tenementes with thappurtenaunces in the parishe of Strat
ford aforesaid, of the yearely value of xij./*., for and duringe all the residue of the said
terme of Ixxxxij. yeares yet to come and unexpired ; William Walford, draper, an
estate of and in two messuages or tenementes lyeinge and beinge in the Chappell
Streete in Stratford-uppon-Avon aforesaid, of the yearely value of xl.j., for and duringe
all the residue of the said terme of Ixxxxij. yeares yet to come and unexpired ;
William Courte, gent., an estate of and in two messuages or tenementes in the
Chappell streete in Stratford-uppon-Avon aforesaid, of the yearely value of iij./j'., for
and duringe all the residue of the said terme of Ixxxxij. yeares yet to come and
unexpired ; John Browne, gent., an estate of and in one messuage in Bridge streete
aforesaid, in Stratford-uppon-Avon aforesaid, of the yearely value of iiij./j., for and
duringe all the residue of the said terme of Ixxxxij. yeares yet to come and unexpired ;
Christopher Smyth of Willmecott, an estate of and in one messuage with the appur-
tenaunces in Henley Streete in Stratford-uppon-Avon aforesaid, of the yearely value
of iiij./*., for and duringe all the residue of the said terme of Ixxxxij. yeares yet to come
and unexpired ; Thomas Jakeman, an estate of and in one yard land in Shottery
aforesayd in the parishe of Stratford aforesaid, of the yearely value of x./;'., for and
duringe all the residue of the said terme of Ixxxxij. yeares yet to come and unexpired ;
and Richard Kempion of Bynton, one yard land and a half in Bynton, of the yeroly
value of eight powndes, for and duryng all the residue of the sayd terme of Ixxxxij.
yeres yet to come and unexpired ; Stephen Burman, an estate of and in one yard land
and a half in Shottery aforesaid in the parishe of Stratford aforesaid, of the yearely value
of xv.//., for and duringe all the residue of the said terme of Ixxxxij. yeares yet to come
and not expired ; Thomas Burman, an estate of and in half a yard land in Shottery in
Ihe pnrishe of Stratford aforesaid, of the yearely value of v.//., for and duringe all the

ESTA TE RECORDS.

residue of the said terme of Ixxxxij. yeares yet to come and not expired ; and William
Burman and the said Thomas Burman, executors of the last will and testament of one
Stephen Burman, late deceassed, an estate of and in one tenemente in Church Streete
in Stratford aforesaid, of the yearely value of iij.//., for and duringe all the residue of
the said terme of Ixxxxij. yet® to come and not expired ; Thomas Horneby, an estate
of and in the messuage wherein he nowe dwelleth in Stratford-uppon-Avon aforesaid,
of the yearely value of iij.//'. x.s., for and duringe all the residue of the said terme of
Ixxxxij. yeares yet to come and not expired ; Thomas Hamond, John Fifield, William
Smarte, Thomas Aynge, Thomas Holmes, Edward Ingram, Richard Ingram, Thomas
Bucke, Thomas Gryffin, Edward Wylkes, . . Brunte widowe, Thomas Vicars,
Roberte Gryffin, Phillipp Rogers, . . Peare widowe, . , Younge, widowe,
and . . Byddle, have every of them severall estates for all the residue of
the said terme of Ixxxxij. yeares, some of them of and in severall messuages
with thappurtenaunces, and others of them of and in severall shoppes, barnes
and severall gardens, every of the said severall messuages and partes of the premisses,
wherein they severally have such estates, beinge of the severall yearely values of
three powndes by the yeare or thereaboutes ; and by reason of the said severall
estates and interestes soe respectyvely beinge in the said Lord Carewe, Sir
Edward Grevill, Sir Edward Conway, and in your said orators, and in the sayd
Mary Combe, William Combe, John Combe, John Lane, Anthonie Nashe, Thomas
Barber, Daniell Baker, John Smyth, Frauncys Smyth, John Nashe, William Walford,
William Courte, John Browne, Christopher Smyth, Thomas Jakeman, Stephen
Burman, William Burman, Thomas Burman, John Lupton, Thomas Horneby,
Thomas Hamond, John Fifield, William Smarte, Thomas Aynge, Thomas Holmes,
Edward Ingram, Richard Ingram, Thomas Bucke, Thomas Gryffin, Edward Wylkes,
. . Brunte, Thomas Vicars, Roberte Gryffin, Phillipp Rogers, . . Fletcher, . . Peare, . .
Younge, and . . Byddle, every of them, and every of their executors and assignes,
ought in all right, equity, reason and good conscience, for and duringe the severall
respectyve contynuances of their severall respectyve interestes, estates and termes
in the premisses, and accordinge to the severall values of the said severall premisses
soe enjoyed by them, and the rentes they doe yearely receyve forpthe same, to pay
unto the executors, administrators or assignes of the said John Barker a ratable
and proporcionable parte and porcion of the said annuell or yearely rente of
xxvij./z. xiij.J. iiij.rf. by and uppon the said assureance and conveyance soe as
aforesaid by the said John Barker made unto the said Sir John Huband reserved and
payeable ; but soe yt is, yf yt may please your honorable good lordshippe, that the
said Lord Carewe, Sir Edward Grevill, Sir Edward Conway, Mary Combe, William
Combe, or anie other the said other partyes, at anie tyme synce the said assureances
and conveyances soe made and derived from or under the said interest of the said
Sir John Huband, for that uppon or by the deedes of their severall under estates
or assignementes unto them made, they, or those under whom they clayme, excepte the
said Mary Combe, Thomas Greene, William Combe, John Combe, and William
Shackspeare, whoe only are to pay for tythes of their said severall moytyes before
specified v./z. , and noe more, yearely duringe their said respectyve interestes, were
not directed nor appoynted, nor anie covenauntes by them or anie of them, or
anie other under whom they or anie of them doe clayme, excepte touchinge the
said severall yearely fyve powndes soe to be paid for the said moytyes, were made,
whereby yt might appeare howe much of the same rente of xxvij./z'. xiij.j. iiij.aT. ought
to be paid for every of the said severall premisses, excepte concernyng the sayd
moityes, could never yet be drawen to agree howe to paye the residue of the said
rente, or be brought to pay anie precise parte or porcion at all towardes the same ; but
divers of them, beinge of greate ability, doe divers tymes forebeare and deny to pay
anie parte at all towardes the same, except the persons before executed only as

428 ESTATE RECORDS.

touchinge the said severall fyve powndes for their said severall moytyes, alledginge
and saieinge, Lett them that are affrayd to forfeyte or loose their f states looke to
yt, and amongst them see the said rente be truely and duelye paid, for they double but
they shall doe well enoughe with the executors or assignes of the said Jo. Barker;
further excusinge their not payeinge anie rente at all for the residue of the premisses
other then the said moytyes, by sayeinge that, yf they could fynd anie thinge in anie
of their deedes of assignmentes or conveyances chargeinge them precisely with any part
thereof, or in anie wise declareinge howe much they are to pay, they would willingly,
as is fitt, pay such rate and porcion as they were soe bownd unto, but because they
find noe such matter to charge them, excepte the said parties excepted, which by the
deedes of their estates are directed for the said severall moytyes to pay the said severall
yearely rentes of v./i. apeece, therefore they will not paye anie thinge at all toward es
the said residue of the said rente of xxvij./Y. xiij.j. iiij.</., untyll, by some legal 1 course or
proceedinge in some courte of equity, yt shal be declared what parte or porcion
in reason and equity every severall owner of the said severall premisses ought to
pay towardes the same, and be judicially ordered thereunto, which lett them that
thinke that a good course endevour to bringe to passe, when they shall see good, or
wordes to such lyke efTecte ; soe as your oratours, their said respectyve estates and
interestes of and in their said severall premisses aforesaid, and the estates of divers of
the said partyes, which would gladly pay a reasonable parte towardes the said rente,
but doe nowe refuse to joyne with your said oratours in this their said suite, for feare
of some other of the said parties which doe soe refuse to conlrybute, doe remayne and
stand subjecte to be forfeyted by the negligence or willfullnes of divers or anie other
of the said partyes, which manie tymes will pay nothinge, whenas your oratours
Richard Lane and William Shackspeare, and some fewe others of the said parties, are
wholly, and against all equity and good conscience, usually dryven to pay the same for
preservacion of their estates of and in the partes of the premisses belonginge unto
them ; and albeyt your said oratours have taken greate paynes and travayle in
entreatinge and cndevoringe to brinee the said parties of their owne accord es, and
without suite of lawe, to agree every one to a reasonable contribucion toward the
same residue of the said rente of xxvij.//'. xiij.j. iiij.</., accordinge to the value of such
of the premisses as they enjoy, and onely for their respectyve tymes and termes
therein, yet have they refused and denied, and styll doe refuse and deny, to be
perswaded or drawen thereunto, and some of them beinge encoraged, as yt should
seme, by some frendly and kind promise of the said Henry Barker, assignee of
the said John Barker, that they should find favour, thoughe their said estates should be
all forfeyted, have given yt forth that they should be glade and cared not a whitt yf the
estates of some or all the said premisses should be forfeyted, for they should doe well
enoughe with the sayd Henry Barker. In tender consideracion whereof, and for soe
much as yt is against all equitye and reason that the estates of some that are willinge to
paie a reasonable parte toward the said residue of the said rente of xxvij.//. xiij.j. iiij.</.,
haveinge respecte to the smalnes of the values of the thinges they doe possesse, should
depend uppon the carlesnes and frowardnes or other practices of others, which will
not paie a reasonable parte or anie thinge at all toward the same ; and for that yt is
most agreeable to all reason, equity and good conscience, that every person, his
executors and assignes, should be ratably charged with a yearely porcion toward the
said residue of the sayd rente, accordinge to the yearely benefitt he enjoycth or
receaveth ; and for that your oratours have noe meanes, by the order or course of the
common lawes of this realme, to enforce or-compell anie of the said partyes to yeald
anie certayne contrybucion toward the same, and soe are and styll shal bee remediles
therein unles they may be in that behalf relieved by your Lordshippes gracious
clemency and relyef to others in such lyke cases extended ; May yt therefore please
your good lordshippe, the premisses considered, and yt beinge alsoe considered that

ESTATE RECORDS. 429

very manie poore peoples estates are subjecte to be overthrowen by breach of the
condicion aforesaid, and thereby doe depend uppon the negligences, wills or practices
of others, and shall contynue daylye in double to be turned out of doores, with their
«vives and families, thorough the practice or wilfullnes of such others, to write your
honorable lettres unto the said Lord Carewe, thereby requiringe him to appeare in the
Highe Courteof Chauncery to answere to the premisses, and to graunte unto your said
oratours his Majesties most gracious writtes of subpena to be directed unto the said
Sir Edward Grevill, Sir Edward Conway, and other the said parties before named,
and to the said Henry Barker, whoe claymeth under the right and tytle of the said
John Barker, and usually receyveth the said rente in his owne name, and usually
maketh acquittaunces upon the receipt thereof, under his owne hand and in his owne
name, as in his owne right, and usually maketh acquittances of divers partes thereof,
thereby comaundinge them and every of them at a certayne day, and under a certayru
payne therein to be lymitted, to be and personally appeare before your good lordshippe
in his highnes most honorable Courte of Chauncery, fully, perfectly and directly to
awnswere to all and every the premisses, and to sett forth the several 1 yearely values
of the severall premisses soe by them enjoyed, and to shewe good cause whie a
comission should not be awarded forth of the said most honorable courte for the
examininge of wittnesses to the severall values aforesaid, and for the assessinge, taxinge
and ratinge thereof, that thereuppon yt may appeare howe much every of the said
parties, and their executors, administrators and assignes, for and duringe their said
severall respectyve estates and interestes, ought in reason proporcionably to pay for the
same towardes the said residue of the said yearely rente of xxvij./z'. xiij.s. ii\}.d., that
the same may be ordered and established by decree of your most honorable good
Lordshippe accordingly ; and the said Henry Barker to awnswere to the premisses, and
to sett forth what estate or interest he claymeth in the said rente of xxvij.//. xiij.j. iiij.</.,
and alsoe to shewe good cause whie he should not be ordered to accept the rentes
ratablye to be assessed as aforesaid, and to enter onely into the tenement and estate
onely of such persons which shall refuse or neglecte to pay such parte of the said rente,
as by your most honorable order there shal be sett downe and rated uppon them
severally to paie, and further to stand to and abide such further and other order and
direccions touchinge the premisses as to your good Lordshipp shall seeme to stand
with right equity and good conscience. And your Lordshippes said oratours shall
dayly pray unto thalmightie for your Lordshippes health, with dayly encrease in all
honour and happines. — Endorsed, Lane, Greene et Shakspeare contra W. Combe et
alios respondentes.

X. The Deed of Bargain and Sale of the Blackfriars Estate from Henry Walker to
Shakespeare and Trustees, zoth March, 1612-3. This indenture was the one that was
enrolled by the vendor in the Court of Chancery, and that which was afterwards held by
the purchaser. From the original preserved at Hollingbury Copse.

This Indenture made the tenthe day of March, in the yeare of our Lord God,
according to th^ computacion of the Church of England, one thowsand six hundred
and twelve, and in the yeares of the reigne of our sovereigne Lord James, by the grace
of God king of England, Scotland, Fraunce and Ireland, defender of the faithe, &c.,
that is to saie, of England, Fraunce and Ireland the tenth, and of Scotland the six and
fortith, Betweene Henry Walker, citizein and minstrell of London, of th'one partie,
and William Shakespeare of Stratford-upon Avon in the countie of Warwick, gentle
man, William Johnson, citizein and vintener of London, John Jackson and John
Hemmyng of London, gentlemen, of th'other partie ; Witnesseth that the said Henry
Walker, for and in consideracion of the somme of one hundred and fortie poundes of
lawfull money of England to him in hande, before th'ensealing hereof, by the said
William Shakespeare well and trulie paid, whereof and wherewith hee, the said Henry

43° ESTA TE RECORDS.

Walker, doth acknowledge himselfe fullie satisfied and contented, and thereof, and of
every part and parcell thereof, doth cleerlie acquite and discharge the said William
Shakespeare, his heires, executours, administratours and assignes, and every of them
by theis presentes, hath bargayned and soulde, and by theis presentes doth fullie
cleerlie, and absolutlie bargayne and sell unto the said William Shakespeare, William
Johnson, John Jackson, and John Hemmyng, their heires, and assignes for ever, All
that dwelling-house or tenement, with th'appurtenaunces, situate and being within the
precinct, circuit and compasse of the late Black Fryers, London, sometymes in the
tenure of James Gardyner, esquiour, and since that in the tenure of John Fortescue,
gent., and now or late being in the tenure or occupacion of one William Ireland, or of
his assignee or assignes, abutting upon a streete leading downe to Pudle Wharfle on the
east part, right against the Kinges Majesties Wardrobe ; part of which said tenement
is erected over a great gate leading to a capitall mesuage which sometyme was in the
tenure of William Blackwell, esquiour, deceased, and since that in the tenure or
occupacion of the right Honourable Henry, now Earle of Northumberland ; and also
all that plott of ground on the west side of the same tenement, which was lately
inclosed with boordes on two sides thereof by Anne Bacon, widow, soe farre and in
such sorte as the same was inclosed by the said Anne Bacon, and not otherwise, and
being on the third side inclosed with an olde bricke wall ; which said plott of ground
was sometyme parcell and taken out of a great peece of voyde ground lately used for
a garden ; and also the soyle whereupon the said tenement standeth ; and also the
said brick wall and boordes which doe inclose the said plott of ground ; with free
entrie, accesse, ingresse, egresse and regresse, in, by and through the said greate gate
and yarde thereunto the usuall dore of the said tenement ; and also all and singuler
cellours, sollers, romes, lightes, easiamentes, profittes, commodities and hereditamentes
whatsoever to the said dwelling-house or tenement belonging or in any wise apper-
teyning j and the reversion and reversions whatsoever of all and singuler the premisses,
and of every parcell thereof ; and also all rentes and yearlie profittes whatsoever
reserved and from hensforth to growe due and paiable upon whatsoever lease, dimise
or graunt, leases, dimises or grauntes, made of the premisses or of any parcell thereof ;
and also all th'estate, right, title, interest, propertie, use, possession, clayme and
demaund whatsoever, which hee, the said Henry Walker, now hath, or of right may,
might, should, or ought to have, of, in or to the premisses or any parcell thereof ; and
also all and every the deedes, evidences, charters, escriptes, minimentes and writinges
whatsoever, which hee, the said Henry Walker, now hath, or any other person or
persons to his use have or hath, or which hee may lawfullie come by without suite in
the lawe> which touch or concerne the premisses onlie, or onlie any part or parcell
thereof, togeither with the true copies of all such deedes, evidences and writinges as
concerne the premisses, amounges other thinges, to bee written and taken out at the
onlie costes and charges of the said William Shakespeare, his heires or assignes ; which
said dwelling-house or tenement, and other the premisses above by theis presentes
mencioned to bee bargayned and soulde, the said Henry Walker late purchased and
hadd to him, his heires and assignes, for ever, of Mathie Bacon, of Graies Inne in the
countie of Midd., gentleman, by indenture bearing date the fifteenth day of October,
in theyeare of our Lord God one thowsand six hundred and fower, and in the yeares
of the reigne of our said sovereigne lord king James, of his realmes of England, Fraunce
and Ireland, the seconde, and of Scotland the eight and thirtith ; to have and to holde
the said dwelling-house or tenement, shopps, cellors, sollers, plott of ground and all
and singuler other the premisses above by theis presentes mencioned to bee bargayned
and soulde, and every part and parcell thereof, with th'appurtenaunces, unto the said
William Shakespeare, William Johnson, John Jackson and John Hemmyng, their
heires and assignes, for ever, to th'onlie and proper use and behoofe of the said
William Shakespeare, William Johnson, John Jackson and John Hemmyng, thur

ESTATE RECORDS. 43 1

heires and assignes for ever. And the said Henry Walker, for himselfe, his heires,
executours, administratours, and assignes, and for every of them, doth covenaunte,
promisse and graunt to and with the said William Shakespeare, his heires and assignes,
by theis presentes, in forme following, that is to saie, that hee, the said Henry Walker,
his heires, executours, administratours or assignes, shall and will cleerlie accuite,
exonerate and discharge, or otherwise from tyme, to tyme and at all tymes hereafter well
and sufficientlie save and keepe harmles, the said William Shakespeare, his heires and
assignes and every of them, of, for and concernyng the bargayne and sale of the
premisses, and. the said bargayned premisses, and every part and parcell thereof, with
th'appurtenaunces, of and from all and al manner of former bargaynes, sales, guiftes,
grauntes, leases, statutes, recognizaunces, joyntures, dowers, intailes, lymittacion and
lymittacions of use and uses, extentes, judgmentes, execucions, annuities, and of and
from all and every other charges, titles and incumbraunces whatsoever, wittinglie and
wilfullie had, made, committed, suffered or donne by him, the said Henry Walker, or
any other under his aucthoritie or right, before th'ensealing and deliverie of theis
presentes, except the rentes and services to the cheefe lord or lordes of the fee or fees
of the premisses from hensforth for or in respecte of his or their seigniorie or seigniories
onlie to bee due and donne. And further the said Henry Walker, -for himselfe, his
heires, executours and administratours, and for every of them, doth covenaunte,
promisse and graunt to and with the saide William Shakespeare, his heires and
assignes, by theis presentes in forme following, that is to saie, that for and notwith
standing any acte or thing donne by him, the said Henry Walker, to the contrary, hee,
the said William Shakespeare, his heires and assignes, shall or lawfullie may peace-
ablie and quietlie have, holde, occupie and enjoye the said dwelling-house or tenement,
cellours, sellers, and all and singuler other the premisses above by theis presentes
mencioned to bee bargayned and soulde, and every part and parcell thereof, with
th'appurtenaunces, and the rentes, yssues and profittes thereof, and of every part and
parcell thereof, to his and their owne use receave, perceave, take and enjoye from
hensforth for ever without the lett, treble, eviccion or interrupcion of the said Henry
Walker, his heires, executours or administratours, or any of them, or of or by any other
person or persons which have, or maye before the date hereof pretend to have, any
lawfull estate, right, title, use or interest, in or to the premisses or any parcell thereof,
by, from or under him, the said Henry Walker. And also that hee, the said Henry
Walker and his heires, and all and every other person and persons and their heires, which
have, or that shall lawfullie and rightfullie have or clayme to have, any lawfull and right-
full estate, righte, title or interest, in or to the premisses or any parcell thereof, by, from
or under the said Henry Walker, shall and will, from tyme to tyme and at all tymes from
hensforth, for and during the space of three yeares now next ensuing, at or upon the
reasonable request and costes and charges in the lawe of the said William Shakespeare,
his heires and assignes, doe make, knowledge and suffer to bee donne, made and know-
ledged, all and every such further lawfull and reasonable acte and actes, thing and
thinges, devise and devises in the lawe whatsoever, for the conveying of the premisses,
bee it by deed or deedes inrolled or not inrolled, inrolment of theis presentes, fyne, feoffa-
ment, recoverye, release, confirmacion or otherwise, with warrantie of the said Henry
Walkerand his heires against him the said Henry Walker and his heires onlie, or otherwise,
without warrantie, or by all, any or as many of the wayes, meanes and devises aforesaid,
as by the said William Shakespeare, his heires or assignes, or his or their councell
learned in the lawe shal bee reasonablie devised or advised, for the further, better and
more perfect assurance, suertie, suermaking and conveying of all and singuler the
premisses, and every parcell thereof, with th'appurtenaunces, unto the said William
Shakespeare, his heires and assignes, for ever, to th'use and in forme aforesaid ; and
further that all and every fyne and fynes to bee levyed, recoveryes to bee suffered,
estates and assurances at any tyme or tymes hereafter to bee had, made, executed or

432 ESTA TE RECORDS.

passed by or betweene the said parties of the premisses, or of any parcell thereof, shal
bee, and shal bee esteemed, adjudged, deemed and taken to bee, to th'onlie and
proper use and behoofe of the said William Shakespeare, his heires and assignes, for
ever, and to none other use, intent or purpose. In witnesse whereof the said parties
to theis indentures interchaungablie have sett their scales. Yeoven the day and
yeares first above written. — Henry Walker. — Sealed and delivered in the presence of
Will. Atkinson ; Robert Andrewes, scr. ; Edw. Query ; Henry Lawrence, servant to
the same Scr.

XI. The opening Paragraphs and the Termination of the Counterpart of the preceding
Indenture of the roth of March, 1612-3, the former being the deed which -was held by
the vendor. With the exceptions of the signatures and the attestation, and an erasure of
a few lines referring to a lease of the premises which had been granted by Walker in
December, 1604, the whole of the counterpart is verbally identical with the deed that is
given at length in the last article. From the original in the Library of the City of
London.

1. This indenture made the tenthe day of Marche, in the yeare of our Lord God,
according to the computacion of the Church of England, one thowsand six hundred
and twelve, and in the yeares of the reigne of our sovereigne Lord James, by the grace
of God King of England, Scotland, Fraunce and Ireland, defender of thefaith, &c., that
is to saie, of England, Fraunce and Ireland the tenth and of Scotland the six and fortith,
betweene Henry Walker, citizein and minstrell of London of th'one partie, and
William Shakespeare, of Stratford-upon-Avon in the countie of Warwick, gentleman,
William Johnson, citizein and vintener of London, John Jackson and John Hemmyng,
of London, gentlemen, of th'other partie.

2. And further, that all and every fyne and fynes to bee levyed, recoveryes to bee
suffered, estates and assurances at any tyme or tymes hereafter to bee had, made,
executed or passed by or betweene the said parties of the premisses, or of any parcell
thereof, shal bee, and shal bee esteemed, adjudged, deemed and taken to bee, to th'onlie
and proper use and behoofe of the said William Shakespeare, his heires and assignes,
for ever, and to none other use, intent or purpose. In witnesse whereof the said
parties to theis indentures interchaungablie have sett their scales. Yeoven the day
and yeares first above written. — William Shakspere. — Wm. Johnson.— 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, servant to the same scr.

XII. The deed from Shakespeare and Trustees to Henry Walker, by which the
Blackfriars Estate was mortgaged to the latter, nth March, 1612-3. From the original
in the Library of the British Museum.

This Indenture made the eleaventh day of March, in the yeares of the reigne of
our Sovereigne Lord James, by the grace of God, king of England, Scotland, Fraunce
and Ireland, defender of the Faith, &c. , that is to saie, of England, Fraunce and
Ireland the tenth, and of Scotland the six and fortith ; betweene William Shakespeare,
of Stratford-upon-Avon in the countie of Warwick, gentleman, William Johnson,
citizein and vintener of London, John Jackson and John Hemmyng, of London,
gentlemen, of th'one partie, and Henry Walker, citizein and minstrell of London, of
th'other partie : Witnesseth that the said William Shakespeare, William Johnson,
John Jackson and John Hemmyng, have dimised, graunted and to ferme letten, and
by theis presentes doe dimise, graunt and to ferme lett unto the said Henry Walker
all that dwelling-house or tenement, with th'appurtenaunces, situate and being within,
the precinct, circuit and compasse of the late Black Fryers, London, sometymes in the
tenure of James Gardyner, esquiour, and since that in the tenure of John Fortescuc,

ESTATE RECORDS. 433

gent., and now or late being in the tenure or occupacion of one Willinm Ireland, or
of his assignee or assignes, abutting upon a streete leading downe to Puddle Wharffe
on the east part, right against the Kinges Majesties Wardrobe ; part of which said
tenement is erected over a greate gate leading to a capitall mesuage which some-
tyme was in the tenure of William Blackwell, esquiour, deceased, and since that in the
tenure or occupacion of the right honourable Henry, now Earle of Northumberland ;
and also all that plott of ground, on the west side of the same tenement, which was
lately inclosed with boordes on two sides thereof by Anne Bacon, widow, soe farre and
in such sorte as the same was inclosed by the said Anne Bacon, and not otherwise,
and being on the third side inclosed with an olde brick wall ; which said plott of ground
was sometyme parcell and taken out of a great voyde peece of ground lately used for
a garden ; and also the soyle whereuppon the said tenement standeth, and also the
said brick wall and boordes which doe inclose the said plott of ground, with free
entrie, accesse, ingresse, egresse 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, easiamentes, profi ttes, commodities and appurtenaunces
whatsoever to the said dwelling-house or tenement belonging, or in any wise apper-
teyning ; 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
mentioned to bee dimised, and every part and parcell thereof, with th'appurtenaunces,
unto the said Henrye Walker, his executours, administratours and assignes, 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, without 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 peppercorne at the feast of Easter yearlie, yf the same bee law-
fullie demaunded, and noe more ; provided alwayes that if the said William Shake
speare, 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 some of threescore poundes of lawfull money of
England in and upon the nyne and twentith day of September next comming 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 neere Ludgate, of London, at one entier payment
without delaie, that then and from thensforth this presente lease, dimise and graunt,
and all and every matter and thing herein conteyned, other then this provisoe, shall
cease, determyne, 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 Shake
speare, for himselfe, his heires, executours and administratours, 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
hee, the said William Shakespeare, 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'appur
tenaunces, of and from all and al manner of former and other bargaynes, sales, guiftes,
erauntes, leases, joyntures, dowers, intailes, statutes, recognizaunces, judgmentes,
execucions, and of and from all and every other charges, 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

2 E

434 ESTA TE RECORDS.

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
seigniorie or seigniories onlie, to bee due and donne. In witnesse whereof the said
parties to theis indentures interchaungablie have sett their scales. Yeoven the day and
yeares first above written. 1612. — Wm. Shakspere. — Wm. Johnson.— 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, servant to the same scr.

XIII. Articles of Agreement between Shakespeare and William Replingham, 1614,
by •which the latter agrees to compensate the poet should loss accrue to him by enclosures
which were then contemplated. 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
made® betweene William Shackespeare, of Stretford in the county of Warwicke, gent.,
on the one partye, and William Replingham, of Greete Harborowe in the Countie of
Warwicke, gent., on the other partie, the daye and yeare abovesaid. — Item, the said
William Replingham, for him, his heires, executours 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 Shacke
speare, 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 yearelie value of the tythes they the said William Shackespeare and Thomas doe
joyntlie or severallie hold and enjoy in the said fieldes, or anie of them, 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 perform
ance of theis covenauntes, as shal bee devised by learned counsell. In witnes whereof
the parties abovsaid to theis presentes interchangeablie their handes and scales have
put, the daye and yeare first above wrytten. Sealed and delivered in the presence of
us, — Tho: Lucas ; Jo: Rogers ; Anthonie Nasshe ; Mich: Olney.

XIV. A Deed transferring the Legal Estate of the Blackfriars property, 10 February,
i6i"j-8, in trust to follow the directions of Shakespeare's will, subject only to the
remaining term of a lease granted by the poet to one John Robinson, From the original
preserved at Hollingbury Copse.

This indenture made the tenth day of February, in the yeres of the reigne of our
sovereigne Lord James, by the grace of God kinge of England, Scotland, Fraunce
and Ireland, defender of the faith, &c., that is to say, of England, Fraunce and
Ireland the fifteenth, and of Scotland the one and fiftith ; between John Jackson and
John Hemynge, of London, gentlemen, and William Johnson, citizen and vintiner of
London, of thone part, and John Greene, of Clementes Inn in the county of Midd.,
gent., and Mathew Morrys, of Stretford-upon-Avon in the county of Warwick, gent.,
of thother part ; witnesseth that the said John Jackson, John Hemynge and William
Johnson, as well for and in performance of the confidence and trust in them reposed
by William Shakespeare, deceased, late of Stretford aforesaid, gent., and to thend and
intent that the landes, tenementes and hereditamentes, hereafter in theis presentes

ESTATE RECORDS. 435

mencioned and expressed, may be conveyed and assured according to the true intent
and meaning of the last will and testament of the said William Shakespeare, and for
the some of fyve shillinges of lawfull money of England to them paycl, for and on the
behalf of Susanna Hall, one of the daughters of the said William Shakespeare, and
now wife of John Hall of Stretford aforesaid, gent., before thensealling and delivery
of theis presentes, have aliened, bargained, sold and confirmed, and by theis presentes
doe, and every of them doth, fully, cleerely and absolutely alien, bargaine, sell and
confirme unto the said John Greene and Mathew Morry, their heires and assignes for
ever, All that dwelling-howse or tenement with thappurtenaunces scituat and being
within the precinct, circuite and compase of the late Blackfriers, London, sometymes
in the tenure of James Gardyner, esquior, and since that in the tenure of John
Fortescue, gent. , and now or late being in the tenure or occupacion of one William
Ireland, or of his assignee or assignes, abutting upon a street leadinge downe to
Puddle Wharfe on the east part, right against the kinges Majesties Warderobe, part
of which tenement is erected over a great gate leading to a capitall messuage which
sometymes was in the tenure of William Blackwell, esquior, deceased, and, since that,
in the tenure or occupacion of the right honourable Henry, earle of Northumberland ;
and also all that plot of ground on the west side of the said tenement which was
lately inclosed with boordes on twoe sides thereof by Anne Bacon, widdow, soe farr
and in such sort as the same was inclosed by the said Anne Bacon, and not otherwise,
and being on the third side inclosed with an ould brick wall ; which said plot of
ground was sometymes parcell and taken out of a great peece of voyd ground lately
used for a garden; and also the soyle whereupon the said tenement standeth ; and
also the said brick wall and boordes which doe inclose the said plot of ground, with
free entry, accesse, ingres, egres and regres, in, by and through the said great gate
and yarde there unto the usuall dore of the said tenement ; and also all singuler®
cellers, sollars, roomes, lightes, easementes, profittes, comodyties and hereditamentes
whatsoever to the said dwelling-howse or tenement belonging or in any wise apper-
teyning, and the revercion and revercions whatsoever of all and singuler the premisses
and of every parcell thereof; and also all rentes and yerely profittes whatsoever
reserved, and from henceforth to grow due and payable, upon whatsoever lease,
demise or graunt, leases, demises or grauntes, made of the premisses, or any parcell
thereof; and also all thestate, right, title, interest, property, use, clayme and
demaund whatsoever, which they, the said John Jackson, John Hemynge and William
Johnson, now have, or any of them hath, or of right may, might, shoold or ought to
have in the premisses ; to have and to holde the said dwelling-howse or tenement,
lights, cellers, sollars, plot of ground, and all and singuler other the premisses above
by theis presentes mencioned to be bargained and sold, and every part and parcell
thereof, with thappurtenaunces, unto the said John Green and Mathew Morrys, their
heires and assignes, for ever, to the use and behoofes hereafter in theis presentes
declared, mencioned, expressed and lymitted, and to none other use, behoofe, intent
or purpose ; that is to say, to the use and behoofe of the aforesaid Susanna Hall for
and during the terme of her naturall life, and after her decease to the use and behoofe
of the first sonne of her body lawfully yssueing, and of the heires males of the body of
the said first sonne lawfully yssueing ; and, for want of such heires, to the use and
behoofe of the second sonne of the body of the said Susanna lawfully yssueing, and of
the heires males of the body of the said second sonne lawfully yssueing ; and, for
want of such heires, to the use and behoofe of the third sonne of the body of the said
Susanna lawfully yssueing, and of the heires males of the body of the said third sonne
lawfully yssueing ; and, for want of such heires, to the use and behoofe of the fowerth,
fyveth, sixt and seaventh sonnes of the body of the said Susanna lawfully yssueing,
and of the severall heires males of the severall bodyes of the said fowerth, fiveth, sixt
and seaventh sonnes, lawfully yssueing, in such manner as it is befqre lymitted to be

2 E 2

436

ESTATE RECORDS.

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ESTATE RECORDS.

437

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438 ESTATE RECORDS.

and remeyne to the first, second, and third sonncs of the body of the said Susanna
lawfully yssueing, and to their heires males as aforesaid ; and, for default of such
heires, to the use and behoofe of Elizabeth Hall, daughter of the said Susanna Hall,
and of the heires males of her body lawfully yssueing ; and, for default of such heircs,
to the use and behoofe of Judyth Quiney, now wife of Thomas Quiney, of Stretford
aforesaid, vintiner, one other of the daughters of the said William Shakespeare, and of
the heires males of the body of the said Judyth lawfully yssueing ; and, for default of
such yssue, to the use and behoofe of the right heires of the said William Shakespeare
fur ever. And the said John Jackson, for himself, his heires, executours, adminis-
tratours and assignes, and for every of them, doth covenaunt, promise and graunt, to
and with the said John Green and Mathew Morrys, and either of them, their and
either of their heires and assignes, by theis prescntes, that he, the said John Jackson,
his heires, executours, administratours or assignes, shall and will, from-tyme to tyme
and at all tymes hereafter, within convenient tyme after every reasonable request to
him or them made, well and sufficiently save and keepe harmeles the said bargained
premisses, and every part and parcell thereof, of and from all and all manner of
former bar^aines, sales, guiftes, grauntes, leases, statutes, recognizaunces, joynctures,
dowers, intayles, uses, extentes, judgementes, execucions, annewyties, and of and from
nil other charges, titles and incombraunces whatsoever, wittingly and willingly had,
made, comitted or done by him, the said John Jackson alone, or joynctly with any
other person or persons whatsoever ; except the rentes and services to the cheifle lord
or lordes of the fee or fees of the premisses from henceforth to be due, and of right
accustomed to be done, and except one lease and demise of the premisses with
thappurtenaunces heretofore made by the said William Shakespeare, togeither with
them, the said John Jackson, John Hemynge and William Johnson, unto one John
Robinson, now tennant of the said premisses, for the terme of certen yeres yet to come
and unexpired, as by the same whereunto relacion be had at large doth appeare.
And the said John Hemynge, for himself, his heires, executours, administratours and
nssignes, and for every of them, doth covenaunt, promise and graunt, to and with the
said John Greene and Mathew Morrys, and either of them, their and either of their
heires and assignes, by theis presentes, that he, the said John Hemynge, his heires,
executours, administratours or assignes, shall and will from tyme to tyme and at all
tymes hereafter, within convenient tyme after every reasonable request, well and
sufficiently save and keepe harmeles the said bargained premisses, and every part and
parcell thereof, of and from all and all manner of former bargaines, sales, guiftes,
grauntes, leases, statutes, recognizaunces, joynctures, dowers, intayles, uses, extentes,
judgementes, execucions, annewyties, and of and from all other charges, titles and
incombraunces whatsoever, wittingly and willingly had, made, comitted or done by
him, the said John Hemynge alone, or joynctly with any other person or persons
whatsoever, except the rentes and services to the cheiffe lord or lordes of the fee or
fees of the premisses from henceforth to be due and of right accustomed to be done,
and except one lease and demise of the premisses with thappurtenaunces heretofore
made by the said William Shakespeare, togeither with them the said John Jackson,
John Hemyng and William Johnson, unto one John Robinson, now tennant of the
said premisses, for the terme of certen yeres yet to come and unexpired, as by the
same whereunto relacion be had at large doth appeare. And the said William
Johnson, for himself, his heires, executours, administratours and assignes, and for
every of them, doth covenaunt, promise and graunt, to and with the said John Green
and Mathew Morrys, and either of them, their and either of their heires and assignes,
by theis presentes, that he, the said William Johnson, his heires, executours, adminis
tratours or assignes, shall and will, from tyme to tyme and at all tymes hereafter
within convenient tyme after every reasonable request, well and sufficiently save and
keepe harmeles the said bargained premisses, and every part and parcell thereof, of

ESTA TE RECORDS. 439

and from all and all manner of former bargaines, sales, guiftes, grauntes, leases,
statutes, recognizaunces, joynctures, dowers, intayles, uses, extentes, judgementes,
execucions, annewyties, and of and from all other charges, titles and incombraunces
whatsoever, wittingly and willingly had made comitted or done by him, the said
William Johnson alone, or joyntly with any other person or persons whatsoever,
except the rentes and services to the cheiff lord or lordes of the fee or fees of the
premisses from henceforth to be due and of right accustomed to be done, and except
one lease and demise of the premisses with thappurtenaunces heretofore made by
the said William Shakespeare, togeither with them, the said John Jackson, John
Hemynges, and William Johnson, unto one John Robynson, now tennant of the said
premisses, for the terme of certen yeres yet to come and unexpired, as by the same
whereunto relation be" had at large doth appeare. In witnes whereof the parties
aforesaid to theis presente indentutes have interchaungeably sett their handes and
sealls. Yeoven the day and yeres first above written, 1617.— -Jo: Jackson. — -John
Heminges. — Wm. Johnson. Sealed and delyvered by the within named John
Jackson in the presence of Ric. Swale ; John Prise. Sealed and delyvered by the
withinamed William Johnson in the presence of Nickolas Harysone ; John Prise.
Sealed and delyvered by the withinamed John Hemynges in the presence of Matt :
Benson ; John Prise. Memorand. that the xj.th daye of Februarye in the yeres
within written, John Robynson, tenant of the premysses withinmencioned, did geve
and delyver unto John Greene withinnamed, to the use of Susanna Hall within-named,
sixe pence of lawefull money of England, in name of attornement, in the presence of
Matt : Benson ; John Prise. Per me Rychardum Tyler.

ma- I •

THE DAVENANT SCANDAL.

In illustration of what has oeen advanced in the text respecting the mythical
character of this disreputable anecdote, 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 fashionable 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 —

/. — Wit and mirth char geably collected out of Tavernes, &c.t 7629; here given from
the reprint in All the 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, with the
exception of one word, they can still be distinctly read when placed under a magnifying-
glass. That word is here printed trader, but the true reading may be a coarse synonym,
either term signifying a woman of very loose character. It should also be noticed that,
in line 16, the word seemed is written over was, neither being marked for omission. —
Sir William Davenant, knight, poet-laureate, was borne about the end of February
in ... Street in 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 dis
creet citizen ; his mother was a very beautifull woman, and of a very good witt, and
of conversation extremely agreable. They had three sons, viz., Robert, William, and
Nicholas, an attorney. — Robert was a fellow of St. John's Coll. in Oxon, then preferd
to the vicarage of West Kington by Bp. Davenant, whose chaplaine he was, — and two
handsome daughters, one m. to Gabriel Bridges, 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. I have heard Parson Robert say that
Mr. W. Shakespeare 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, author of Hudibras, 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-fellowe ; but I feare he was
drawne from schoole before he was ripe enough. He was preferred to the first
Dutches 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 spider, which he empaled in it, but without the expected successe ; the
spider would goe over, and thorough and thorough, unconcerned.

442

THE DA VENA NT SCANDAL.

3. Gildon's edition of Langbaine's work on the Dramatic Poets, 1699. — Sir William
D'avenant, the son of John 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 Warwickshire ; whither for the beautiful mistress of the house,
or the good wine, I shall not determine.

4. ffeartie's manuscript pocket-book for 1709, preserved in the Bodleian Library. —
Twas reported by tradition in Oxford that Shakespear, as he us'd to pass from London
to Stratlbrd-upon- Avon, where he liv'd 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 lov'd witty company, tho' himself a reserv'd and melancholly man. He had
born to him a son, who was afterwards christen'd by the name of William, who prov'd
a very eminent poet and was knighted by the name of Sir William Davenant, and the
said Mr. Shakespenr was his god -father 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 ask'd him, — Child, whither art thou going in such hast? To which the
child reply'd, — O, sir, my god -father is come to town, and I am going to ask his
blessing. To which the Dr. said,— Hold, child 1 You must not take the name of God
in vaine.

J. Jacob's Poetical Register, 1719, i. 38, 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 than a poetical child only of Shakespeare was
common in town, and Sir William himself seemed fond of having it taken for truth.

7. Spence' s Anecdotes, the following being one said to have been related by Pope in
the year 1744. — Shakespeare, in his frequent journeys between London and his native
place, Stratford-upon-Avon, used to lie at Davenant's, at 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
Shakespeare 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 Shakespeare " — " Fie, child," says the old gentleman, "why
are you so superfluous ? have you not learnt yet that you should not use the name of
God in vain."

8. Chetwood's General History of the Stage, from its origin in Greece down to the
present Time, 8vo. Land. 1749. — Sir William Davenant was, by many, supposed the
natural son of Shakespear. He succeeded Ben. Johnson as poet-laureat in 1637, and
obtained a patent for a company of comedians from King Charles, and was knighted
by that monarch. His works are printed in folio, 1673, which contains seventeen
dramatic pieces besides his poems, with his head crowned with laurel. The features
seem to resemble the open countenance of Shakespear, but the want of a nose gives
an odd cast to the face.

0. The Manuscript Collections of Oldys, written probably about the year 1750, and
first printed by Steevens in 1778. — 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, afterwards 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, afterwards Sir William, was then a little school-boy in the town

THE DA VENANT SCANDAL. 443

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 rurjning 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 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 in having the repute of bearing a richer kind by grafting ; and this
was the reason he omitted it.

10. The British Theatre, containing the Lives of the English Dramatic Poets, 8vo.
Dublin, J7JO. — Sir William Davenant was the son of a vintner in Oxford, where he was
born in the year 1605, and admitted a member of Lincoln College in the year 1621.
He is said to have been much encouraged in his poetic genius by the immortal
Shakespear, and, in some accounts of that author's life, he is supposed to be his natural
son.

//. Manuscript Notes written by Oldys on the margins of his copy of Langbaine,
1691, preserved in the library of the British Museum. — The story of Davnant's
godfather Shakespeare, as Mr. Pope told it me, is printed among the jests of
John Taylor, the water-poet, in his Works, folio, 1630, but without their names,
and with a seeming fictitious one of the boy's godfather, vizt., Goodman Digland the
gardener, I suppose of Oxford, for Taylor tells other jests that he pick'd up at Oxford
in the same collection.

12. The Lives of the Poets, 1753, vol. ii. 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
iournies to Warwickshire, spent some time there, 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.

13. 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.

14. Notes by Warton in Malone's supplement to Shakespeare, 1780, i. 69, in which
there is a gratuitous insinuation of the possibility of an extension of the scandal. —
Antony Wood is the first and original author of the anecdote that Shakspeare, in his
iournies from Warwickshire 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

444 THE DA VENA NT SCA NDA L.

well qualified to know these particulars : for he was a townsman of Oxford, where he
was born in 1632.

/j". Letter to Malone from J. 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 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 Dunwell, 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. Bodman, 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 mantes, &*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
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 ?

16. Will of John Davenant, of Oxford, vintner, proved on October zist, 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 encreasing then otherwise. And for soe much
as many wise men are suddenly overtaken by death, by procrastinateing of their
matters concerning 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 disposeing 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, hope-
inge 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 1 name to be as followeth, hartily desiring these five following whom I name

THE DA VENANT SCANDAL. 445

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. William Gryce, Mr. Thomas
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 compasse 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 Dettford, 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 debtes, or to the survivors, if any happen to
dye in the meane tyme. And that this maybe the better effected according to my will
and intent, I will that my servant Thomas have the managing thereof duringe his
apprentishipp, and that he shall give a true account of his dealing unto my executors
and overseers four times in the yeare ; 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 be 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 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 sixteen 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
2o!i. to be payd out of his owne stocke, and zo/*. out of my goodes, and double
apparrell, and that this be done within the compasse of three moneths after my death,

446 THE DA VENANT SCANDAL.

for avoyding of inconvenience in my house for mastershippe when I am gone. My
will is alsoe concerning the remainder of the yeares in my lease of my house, tlie
taverne, 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. Huffe
yearely soe much as they two shall agree uppon, my overseers beinge umpires betwixt
them, whereof the cheefest in this office I wish to be my frende 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 sonne 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 sickncs, or if he should call for wine and the like with his
friendes and acquaintance, that he presently pay for it or be sett downe uppon his
name to answeare the same out of his part, my meaning being that the government
shall consist in my three daughters and in my servant Thomas, whom I have alwaies
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 sonne Robert for his better allowance in the
university have quarterly paid him fifty shillinges and twenty shillinges to buy him
necessaryes out of the provenew 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 time,
yf I dy before he goes out Bacheler, his reasonable apparrell and expences of that
degree to be payd out of my goodes, provided alwaies if 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 o'f 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
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 shal be needfull 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 a few 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 —

THE DA VENANT SCANDAL. 447

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-times, =Enlargd from
this worlds misery ; and thus hee, =Whom wee now waile, made hast to bee made
free. = There needes no loud hyperbole to 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. =Hee had choyce giftes of nature and of arte ; = 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.

18. Another Poem "on the Same" preserved in the Manuscript which contains the
verses printed in the last article. — If to bee great e 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.

19. An Account of the English Dramatick Poets, by Gerard Langbaine. 8vo.
Oxford, 1691. — Sir William Davenant, a person sufficiently known to all lovers of
poetiy, 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 following. He
was the mercurial son of a saturnine father, Mr. John D'Avenant, a vintner by pro
fession, who liv'd in the same house which is now known by the sign of the Crown.

20. Wood's Athena Oxonienses, an Exact History of all the Writers and Bishops
ivho have had (heir Education in the most ancient and famous University of Oxford.
Fol. Land. 1692., it. 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, anno 1605-6, 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 College and a venerable Doctor of Divinity. 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 elsewhere
mention, and in academical in Lincoln College 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 poetical faculty, as fancy could advance, without it. After he had left the said
college 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 beirg

448 THE DAVENANT SCANDAL.

poetically given, especially in his younger days, was much delighted in him. After
his death, anno 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 which he dedicated his poem, which
he afterwards published, called Madagascar. Sir John Suckling also was his great
and intimate friend.

THE STRATFORD REGISTER.

The earliest register preserved in the Church of the Holy Trinity,
the only one in which there are entries respecting the great dramatist, is
a narrow and thick folio consisting of leaves of vellum held in a
substantial ancient binding, the latter being protected by metal at the
outer corners. This inestimable volume bears on its original leather side
the date of 1600, in which year all the entries from 1558 were transcribed
into it from then existing records, the contents of each page being
uniformly authenticated by the signatures of the vicar and the church
wardens. After this attested transcript had been made, the records of the
later occurrences, taken probably from the sexton's notes, were entered
into the book, and their accuracy officially therein certified, at frequent
but unsettled intervals, a system that continued in vogue for many years ;
so that there is not one amongst the following extracts which, in the
manuscript, is more than a copy or an abridgment of a note made at the
time of the ceremony. In these extracts, which are here given in
chronological order, baptisms are denoted by the letter B, marriages by M,
and funerals or burials by F, these forming three separate divisions in
the register.

1558. B. — September 15. Jone Shakspere, daughter to John
Shaxspere.

1562. B. — December 2. Margareta, filia Johannis Shakspere.

1563. F. — April 30. Margareta, filia Johannis Shakspere.

1564. B. — April 26. Gulielmus, filius Johannes® Shakspere.
1566. B. — October 13. Gilbertus, filius Johannis, Shakspere.
1569. B. — April 15. Jone, the daughter of John Shakspere.
1571. B. — September 28. Anna, filia magistri Shakspere.
1573-4. B. — March n. Richard, sonne to Mr. John Shakspeer.

1579. F. — April 4. Anne, daughter to Mr. John Shakspere.

1580. B. — May 3. Edmund, sonne to Mr. John Shakspere.
1583. B. — May 26. Susanna, daughter to William Shakspere.
1584-5. B. — February 2. Hamnet and Judeth, sonne and daughter

to William Shakspere.

1588-9. B. — February 26. Thomas, sonne to Richard Queeny.
1589-90. F. — March 6. Thomas Green alias Shakspere.
1593. B. — June 20. Thomas, filius Anthonii Nash gen.

2 F

45° THE STRATFORD REGISTER.

1596. F. — August n. Hamnet, filius William Shakspere.

1600. B. — August 28. Wilhelmus, filius Wilhelmi Hart.

1 60 1. F. — Septemb. 8. Mr. Johannes Shakspeare.
1603. B. — June 5. Maria, filia Willielmi Hart.

1605. B. — Julii 24. Thomas, fil. Willielmi Hart, hatter.

1607. M. — Junij 5. John Hall, gentleman, and Susanna Shaxspere.

1607. F. — Decemb. 17. Mary, dawghter to Willyam Hart.
1607-8. B. — Februar. 21. Elizabeth, dawghter to John Hall, gen.

1608. F. — Sept. 9. Mayry Shaxspere, wydowe.

1608. B. — Sept. 23. Mychaell, sonne to Willyam Hart.

1611-2. F. — Februarys. Gilbertus Shakspeare, adolescens.

1612-3. F. — February 4. Rich. Shakspeare.

1615-6. M. — Feabruary 10. Tho. Queeny tow Judith Shakspere.

1616. F.— Aprill 17. Will. Hartt, hatter.

1616. F. — Aprill 25. Will. Shakspere, gent.

1616. B. — November 23. Shaksper, fillius Thomas Quyny, gent

1617. F. — May 8. Shakspere, fillius Tho. Quyny, gent.
1617-8. B. — February 9. Richard, fillius Thomas Quince.

1618. F. — November i. Micael, fil. to Jone Harte, widowe.
1619-20. B. — Januarie 23. Thomas, fili. to Thomas Queeny.
1623. F. — August 8. Mrs. Shakspeare.

1626. M. — April 22. Mr. Thomas Nash to Mrs. Elizabeth Hall.
1635. F. — November 26. Johannes Hall, medicus peritissimus.
1638-9. F. — January 28. Thomas, filius Thomae Quiney.
1638-9. F. — February 26. Richardus, filius Tho. Quiney.
1639. F. — March 29. Willielmus Hart.

DOMESTIC RECORDS.

/. The Will of Robert Arden, Shakespeare's maternal grandfather, November, 1356.
From the original in the Registry Court of Worcester.

In the name of God, Amen, the xxiiij.th daye of November, in the yeare of our
Lorde God, 1556, in the thirde and the forthe yeare of the raygne of our soveragne
lorde and lad ye, Phylipe and Marye, kyng and quene, &c., I, Robart Arden, of
Wyllmecote in the parryche of Aston Caunntlowe, secke in bodye and good and
perfett of rememberence, make this my laste will and testement in maner and forme
folowyng. — Fyryste, I bequethe my solle to Allmyghtya God and to our bleside
Laydye, Sent Marye, and to all the holye compenye of heven, and my bodye to be
beryde in the churchyarde of Seynt Jhon the Babtyste in Aston aforsayde. Allso I
give and bequethe to my youngste dowghter Marye all my lande in Willmecote,
cawlide Asbyes, and the crop apone the grounde sowne and tyllide as hitt is ; and
vj./z. xiij..r. i\\].d. of monye to be payde orr ere my goodes be devydide. Allso I
gyve and bequethe to my dowghter 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 Annes my wife vj./z. xiij.j. iiij.rf. apone this condysione, that shall® sofer my
dowghter Ales quyetlye to ynyoye halfe my copye-houlde in Wyllmecote dwryng the
tyme of her wyddowewhodde ; and if she will nott soffer my dowghter Ales quyetlye
to ocupye halfe with her, then I will that my wyfe shall have butt iij.lt. VJ..T. \\\].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 Snytterfylde, and Jhon Skerlett, whome
I do ordene and make my overseres of this my last will and testament, and they to
have for ther peynes-takyng in this behalfe xx.s. apese. Allso I ordene and constytute
and make my full exceqtores 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 parryche of Aston,
to every howse iiij.d. — Thes beyng wyttnesses, — Sir Wylliam Borton, curett ; Adam
Palmer; Jhon Skerlett ; Thomas Jhenkes ; Wylliam Pytt ; with other mo. — Probatum
fuit, &c., Wigorn., &c., xvj.° die mensis Decembris, anno Domini 1556.

II. The Ynventory of all the goodes, moveable and unmoveable, of Robart Ardennes of
Wyllmcote, late desseside, made the ix.th day of December, in the thyrde and the forthe
yeare of the raygne of our soveraygne lorde and ladye, Phylipe and Marye, kyng and
quen, &c. 1536.

Imprimis, in the halle, ij. table-bordes, iij. choyeres, ij. formes, one cobbowrde, ij.
coshenes, iij. benches and one lytle table with shellves, prisede att viij.j. — Item, ij.
peyntide-clothes in the hall and v. peyntid-clothes in the chamber, vij. peare of
shettes, ii. cofieres, one which, priside at xviiij.J. — Item, v. borde-clothes, ij. toweles
and one dyeper towelle, prisid att vj.j. viij.af. — Item, one fether-bedde, ij. mattereses,
viij. canvases, one coverlett, iij. bosteres, one pelowe, iiij. peyntide-clothes, one

2 F 2

452 DOMESTIC RECORDS.

whyche, prisid att xxvj.j. viij.</. — 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, prisid att Ij.j. \\\}.d. — Item, one
broche, a peire of cobbardes, one axe, a bill, iiij. nagares, ij. hachettes, an ades, a
mattoke, a yren crowe, one fatt, iiij. barrelles, iiij. payles, a qxjyrne, a knedyng-trogh,
a lonni* sawii, a hansaw, prisid at xx.s. \}.d, — Item, viij. oxen, ij. bollokes, vij. kyne,
iiij. wayning caves, xxiiij.//. — Item, iiij. horses, iij. coltes, prisid att viij./r. — Item, l.ti
shepe, prisid att vij.//. — Item, the whate in the barne and the barley, prisid att xviij.//.
— Item, the heye and the pease, ottes and the strawe, prised att iij.//. vj.j. viij.c/. —
Item, ix. swyne, prisid att xxvj.j. viij.</. — Item, the bees and powltrye, prised att v.j.
— Item, carte and carte-geares, and plogh and plogh geares with harrowes, prised att
xl.f. — Item, the wodd in the yarde, and the baken in the roffe, prisid att xxx.j. — Item,
the wheatein thefylde, prisid att vj.//. xiij.j. \\\].d. — Summa totalis, Ixxvij./i. xj.j. x.</.

///. The Will of Agn^s Arden, step-mother to John Shakespeare's wife, and thus
intimately connected with the poet's ancestry, fj?y. From the original in the Registry
Court of Worcester.

In the name of God yeare of our Lorde God r579, and in the .

. . yeare of the raigne off our Soveraigne . . Queene Elyzabethe, by the
grace off ... Fraunce and Irlande, Queene, defTendris 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. 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 \.s., 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 Hills 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.j viij.</., 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 of them, one shipe more. Allso I geve to Robarte Haskettes iij.s. iiij.</. Also,
I geve to John Peter ij.j., and allso to Henrie Berrie \\].d. Item, I give to Jhohan
Lamberde \\}.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-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 Fullwod 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,
\i].d. a-peece. The rest of all my goodes, moveablesand unmoveables, not bequevid,
my bodie brought home, my debtes and legacies paid, I geve and bequeth to John
Fullwod and to John Hill, to the use and behalf of the said John Fullwodes and

DOMESTIC RECORDS. 453

Jchn Hilles children, to be delivered unto them and everie of them when the come to
age of discrecion. Yf any of the said children doe die before they recover their partes
so geven by me, their partes deseased shall remain to the other so levinge with the said
John Fullwod and John Hill, I® do ordaine and make my full executors of this, my last,
wyll. Allso I ordeyne and make my overseers, Addam Palmer, George Gibbes.
These beinge witnesses, — Thomas Edkins, Richarde Petifere, with others.

Probatum fuit hoc presens testamentum coram magistro Richardo Cosin, legum
doctore, reverendi in Christo patris et domini Johannis permissione divina Wigorn.
episcopi etcetera; apud Warwicum ultimo die mensis Martii, 1581. Exhibuit
inventarium ad summam xlv. li.

IV. The inventorie of all the goodes, moveable and unmoveable, of Annes Ardcnne of
Wylmcote deseased, praised by Thomas Boothe, Addam Palmer, George Gibbes, Thomas
Edkins thelder, Thomas Edkins the younger, the xix.th day of Januarye, anno regni
Elizabeths regince xxiij. — 1581.

Inprimis, in the halle, twoe table-bordes with a cobbarde and a painted -clothe,
three coshens with shilves, other formes and benches, viij.j. — Item, three pottes of
brasse, ij. calderons, ij. brasse pannes, ij. peeces of pewter, with iij. candelstickes,
with two saltes, xvj.j1. — Item, ij. broches, j. payre of cobbardes, j. fireshovell, with
pott-hokes and linkes for the same, xvj.</. — Item, in the chambers her apparrell, l..r. —
Item, the beddinge and bedstides with apreeware in the said chambers, iij. A'. iij..r.
\\}.d. — Item, three coffers with a peece of woollen clothe, xv.j. — Item, the cowperie
ware, with a maulte-mylle, one knedinge-troughe with syves, and a stryke, \,s. — Item,
fowre oxenne, fowre kyne, ij. yearlinge-calves, xij./t. xiij.j. \\].d. — Item, xxxviij.th
sheepe, \\].li. — Item, three horses and one mare, iiij.//. — Item, five score pigges, xiij. s.
\\\].d. — Item, wayne and wayne-geares, plowe and plow-geres, carte and cart-geares,
xxx.j. — Item, the wheate in the barne her parte, iiij./j. — Item, her part of barly in
the barne, iij./*'. — Item, her parte of hey in the barnes, xiiij.j.— Item, the wheate
one grounde in the fieldes her parte, \.li. — Item, her parte of peason, iij./z. vj.j. viij.a'.
— Somma totalis, xlv./z.

V. The Bond against Impediments which was exhibited at Worcester, in November^
1382, in anticipation of the marriage of Shakespeare and Anne Hathaway, From the
original preserved in the Bishop 's Registry.

Noverint universi per presentes nos, Fulconem Sandells de Stratford in comitatu
Warwicensi, agricolam, et Johannem Rychardson, ibidem agricolam, teneri et
firmiter obligari Ricardo Cosin, generoso, et Roberto Warmstry, notario publico, in
quadragintalibris bone et legalis monete Anglic solvendis eisdem Ricardo et Roberto,
heredibus, executoribus vel assignatis suis, ad quam quidem solucionem bene et
fideliter faciendam obligamus nos et utrumque nostrum, per se pro toto et in solidum,
heredes, executores et administratores nostros, firmiter per presentes sigillis nostris
sigillatas. Datum 28 die Novembris, anno regni domine nostre Elizabethe, Dei
gratia Anglie, Francie et Hibernie regine, fidei defensoris, etc., 25°. — The condicion
of this obligacion ys suche that, if herafter there shall not appere any lawfull lett or
impediment, by reason of any precontract, consanguitie, affinitie, or by any other
lawfull meanes whatsoever, but that William Shagspere one thone partie, and Anne
Hathwey, of Stratford in the dioces of Worcester, maiden, may lawfully solennize
matrimony together, and in the same afterwardes remaine and continew like man and
wiffe, according unto the lawes in that behalf provided ; and, moreover, if there be
not at this present time any action, sute, quarrell or demaund moved or depending
before any judge, ecclesiastical 1 or temporal], for and concerning any suche lawfull
lett or impediment ; and, moreover, if the said William Shagspere do not proceed to
solemnizacion of mariadg with the said Anne Hathwey without the consent of hir

454 DOMESTIC RECORDS.

frindes ; and also if the said William do, upon his owne proper costes and expenses,
defend and save harmles the right reverend Father in God, Lord John Bushop of
Worcester, and his offycers, for licencing them the said William and Anne to be
maried together with once asking of the bannes of matrimony betwene them, and for
all other causes which may ensue by reason or occasion therof, that then the said
obligacion to be voyd and of none effect, or els to stand and abide in full force and
vertue.

VI. Draft of a Grant of Coat- Armour proposed to be conferred on Shakespeare 's
Father in the year fj<?6. From the original manuscript preserved at the College of
Arms, the interlineations be:itg denoted by Italics. The number oj the regnal year,
•which is here erroneous, is correctly given in another draft of the same contemplated
grant.

Non sanz droict. Shakespere, 1596. — To all and singuler noble and gentillmen of
what estate or degree bearing arms to whom these presentes shall come, William
Dethick, alias Garter, principall king of arms, sendethe greetinges ; Knowe yee that
whereas, by the authorite and auncyent pryvelege and custome perteyning to my said
office of principall king of arms from the Quenes most exc. majeste, and her highnes
most noble and victorious progenitors, I am to take generall notice and record, and to
make publique demonstracion and testemonie, for all causes of arms and matters of
gentrie thoroughe out all her Majestes kingdoms and domynions, principalites, isles
and provinces, to thend that, . . as some by theyre auncyent names, famelies,

kyndredes and descentes, have and enjoye sonderie ensoignes and of

arms, so other for theyre valiant factes, magnanimite, vertue, d ignites, and descertes,
maye have suche markes and tokens of honor and worthinesse, whereby theyr name

and good fame shal be and divulged, and theyre children and

posterite in all vertue to the service of theyre prynce and contrie. Being therefore
solicited and . . credible report informed that John Shakespeare, of Stratford-
uppon-Avon in the counte of Warwick, whose parentes and late antecessors were for
theyre valeant and faithefull service advaunced and rewarded by the most pruden®
prince King Henry the Seventh of famous memorie, sythence whiche tyme they 'have
contiweed® at those paries in good reputacion and credit ; and that the said John
having marytd Mary, daughter and one of the heyres of Robert Arden of Wilmcote, in
the said counte, gent. In consideration wherof, and for encouragement of his posterite,
to whom theyse achiwmentes mate desend by the auncient custom and lawcs of armes, I
have therfore assigned, graunted, and by these presentes confirmed, this shield or cote
of arms, viz., Gould on a bend sable a speare of the first, the poynt steeled, proper, and
for his creast or cognizance, a faulcon, his ivinges displayed, argetit, standing on a
wrethe of his coullors, supporting a speare gould sleled as aforesaid, sett uppon a
healmett with mantelles and tasselles as hathe ben accustomed and more playnely
appearethe depicted on this margent. Signefieng hereby that it shal be lawfull for
the sayd John Shakespeare gent, and for his children, yssue and posterite, at all tymes
convenient, to make shewe of and to beare the same blazon atchevement on theyre shield or
escucheons, cote of arms, creast, cognizance or scales, ringes, signettes, penons, guydons,
eJefices, utensiles, lyveries, tombes or monumentes, or otherwyse, at all tymes in all
lawfull warrlyke factes or civile use and exercises, according to the lawes of armes,
without lett or interruption of any other person or persons. Yn wittnesse wherof
I have hereunto subscribed my name, and fastened the scale of my office endorzed
with the signett of my arms, at the Office of Arms, London, the xx.te daye of Oc
tober, in the xxxix.te yeare of the reigne of our Soveraigne Lady Elizabeth, by the
Grace of God Quene of England, France and Ireland, Defender of the Faithe, &c.,
1596.

DOMESTIC RECORDS. 455

VII. A Letter front Abraham SturLy to his brother-in-law, Richard Quiuey,
24 January, 1597-8, in which a reference is made to Shakespeare's contemplated
purchase of land at Shot (cry. The name of the addressee, which is not given in the
original, is ascertained from passages in another letter by the same writer. Although
it is not biographically requisite to print this and the two other similar letters in full,
yet they are so given as interesting examples of the domestic correspondence of the
Stratfordians in the time of the poet.

Most loving and belovedd in the Lord, in plaine Englishe we remember u in the
Lord, and ourselves unto u. I would write nothinge unto u nowe, but come home.
I prai God send u comfortabli home. This is one speciall remembrance from ur
fathers motion. Itt semeth bi him that our countriman, Mr. Shaksper, is willinge to
disburse some monei upon some od yarde land or other att Shotterie or neare about us ;
he thinketh it a veri fitt patterne to move him to deale in the matter of our tithes.
Bi the instruccions u can geve him theareof, and bi the frendes he can make therefore,
we thinke it a faire marke for him to shoote att, and not unpossible to hitt. It
obtained would advance him in deede, and would do us inuche good. Hoc movere,
et quantum in te est permovere, ne necligas, hoc enim et sibi et nobis maximi erit
momenti. Hie labor, hie opus esset eximie et gloriae et laudis sibi. — U shall
understande, brother, that our neighbours are growne with the wantes they feele
throughe the dearnes of corne, which heare is beionde all other countries that I can
heare of deare and over deare, malecontent. Thei have assembled togeather in a great
nomber, and travelld to Sir Tho. Luci on Fridai last to com plaine of our malsters ; on
Sundai to Sir Foulke Gre. and Sir Joh. Conwai. I should have said on Wensdai to
Sir Ed. Grevll first. Theare is a metinge heare expected to-morrowe. The Lord
knoweth to what end it will sorte ! Tho. West, returninge from the ij. knightes of the
woodland, came home so full that he said to Mr. Baili that night, he hoped within a
weeke to leade some of them in a halter, meaninge the malsters ; and I hope, saith
Jho. Grannams, if God send mi Lord of Essex downe shortli, to se them hanged on
gibbettes att their owne dores. — To this end I write this cheifli, that, as ur occasion
shall suffer u to stai theare, theare might bi Sir Ed. Grev. some meanes made to the
Knightes of the Parliament for an ease and discharge of such taxes and subsedies
wherewith our towne is like to be charged, and I assure u I am in great feare and
double bi no meanes hable to paie. Sir Ed. Gre. is gonne to Brestowe, and from
thence to Lond., as I heare, who verie well knoweth our estates, and wil be willinge to
do us ani good. — Our great bell is broken, and Wm. Wiatt is mendinge the pavemente
of the bridge. — Mi sister is chearefull, and the Lord hath bin mercifull and comfortable
unto hir in hir labours, and, so that u be well imploied, geveth u leave to followe ur
occasions for j. weeke or fortnight longer. I would u weare furnisht to pai Wm.
Pattrike for me xj./z. and bring his quittance, for I thinke his specialtie is in Jho.
Knight hand, due on Candlls. daie. — Yestrdai I spake to Mr. Sheldon att Sir. Tho.
Lucies for the stale of Mr. Burtons suite, and that the cause might be referred to
Mr. Walkrs of Ellyngton ; he answered me that Mr. Bur. was nowe att Lond., and,
with all his harte and good will, the suite should be staied, and the matter so referred.
I have here inclosed a breife of the reckoninge betwene him and me, as I would have it
passe, and as in reqitie it should passe, if he wil be but as good as his faith and promise.
— Good brother, speake to Mr. Goodale that there be no more proceading in tharches
bi Mr. Clopton, whom I am content and most willinge tocompounde withall, and have
bin ever since the beginninge of the laste terme, and thearefore much injured bi
somebodie, that I have bin put to an unnecessarie charge of XX. J. and upwards that
terme ; wheareas I had satisfied Mr. Clopton, as I was credibli made beleve by some
of his servantes. I was allso assured of the staie of suite bi Mr. Barnes in the harvest,
and bi Mr. Pendleburi the latter end of the terme. Mi brothr Woodwarde commeth
up att the latter end of this weeke, who will speake with Mr. Clopton himselfe to that

456 DOMESTIC RECORDS.

purpose. — U understand bi mi letter I sent bi our countriman Bumell that masse
Brentt dispatchd 5o/. for u. Jh. Sdlr bounde alone as yeat. — Because Mr. Brbr
might not have it for 12. moneths, he would noneatt all, wherebi I lost mi expectation,
and Icafte®, I assure u, in the greatest neede of 3O/. that possibli maie be. In truth,
brother, to u be it spoken and to nonne els, for want thereof knowe skarce we. wai
to turne me. Det Deus misericordiae dominus exitum secundum bene placitum SUUTI.
— Ur fathr with his blessinge and comendation, mi sister with her lovinge remem
brance, comendes hir ; in health both, with all ur children and houshold : ur fathr,
extraordinari hartie, chearefull and lustie, hath sent u this remembrance innclosed.
— It maie be u knowe him his executr and brother, I meane of whom our brother
Whte borowed for me the 8o/. paihable alt Mai next ; his name I have not att hand.
He dwelleth in Watlinge Streate. If 4O/. thereof might be procured for 6. monethcs
more, it would make me whole. I knowe it doeth u good to be doinge good, and
that u will do all the good u can. — I would Hanlett weare att home, satisfied for his
paines taken before his cominge, and so freed from further travell. Nunc Deus
omnipotens, opt. max., pater omnimodae consolationis, benedicat tibi in viis tuis, et
secundet te in omnibus tuis, per Jhesum Christum, Dominum nostrum ; Amen ! Dum
ullus sum tuis turn. — Stretfordirc, Januarii 24. — Abrah. Strl. — Commend me to
Mr. Tom Bur'll, and prai him for me and mi bro. Da. Bakr. to looke that J. Tub
maie be well hooped, that he leake not out lawe to our hurte for his cause ; quod partim
avidio non nihill suspicor et timeo.
Recevcd of Mr. Bnttcs : —

In beanes 23 qrs., att 3*. qd. the strike - 3O/. 135. 4«/.

Barlei 8 qrs., and 4 str., att 4f. the str. .... 137. i2j. o/.

Wheate 4 qrs. 4 str., att 6s. 8d. the str. - - - - 1 2/. or. (*/.

567. $J. 4</.

I have paid and sowed theareof, $2/. us. &J. — Mi Lad. Gre. is run in arreages with
mi sister for malt, as it semeth, which hindreth and troubleth hir not a littell.

VIII. A Return of the Quantities of Corn and Malt held in February, fjgS, by
the inhabitants of the ward in which New Place was situated.

Stratforde Burrowghe, Warrwicke. — The noale of come and malte taken the iiij.th
of Febrwarij, 1597, in the xl.th yeare of the raigne of our moste gracious soveraigne
ladie Queen Elizabethe, &c.

Chappie Street IVarde. — Frauncys Smythe jun., iij. quarters. — Jhon Coxe, v.
quarters. — Mr. Thomas Dyxon, xvij. quarters. — Mr. Thomas Barber, iij. quarters. —
Mychaell Hare, v. quarters. — Mr. Bifielde, vj. quarters. — Hughe Aynger, \Tj. quarters.
— Thomas Badsey, vj. quarters, bareley j. quarter. — Jhon Rogers, x. str. — Wm.
Emmettes, viij. quarters. — Mr. Aspinall, aboutes xj. quarters. — Wm. Shackespere,
x. quarters. — Julij Shawe, vij. quarters.

Straingers. — Rye : Dyxon hathe of Sir Tho : Lucies, xvj. quarters.— of Sir Edw.
Grevyles x. quarters — of Edw. Kennings, iiij. quarters. — Mr. Bifielde of hys systers,
iiij. quarters. — Hughe Ainger of hys wyves systers, one quarter. — William Emmettes
of one Nickes of Whatcoate, iiij. quarters, di. ; of Frauncys Tibballs, vj. str.

IX. A Letter from Adrian Quiney, to his son Richard, undated, but, from a
comparison of it with other corre;pondence , it is all but certain that it was written either
late in the year 1598 or early in 1599. It is addressed, — " To my lovynge sontif,
Rycharde Qwyney, at the Belle in Carter Leyne deliver thesse in London" and includes
a notice of Shakespeare.

Yow shalle, God wyllyng, receve from youre wyfe by Mr. Baylye, thys brr,
asowrance of x.s., and she wold have yow to bye some grocerye, yff hyt be resonable ;

DOMESTIC RECORDS, 457

yow maye have cnrryage by a woman who I wyltyd to com to you. Mr. Layne by
reporte hath receved a great summ of money of Mr. Smyth of Wotten, but wylle not
be knowyn of hyt, and denyd to lende your wyff any, but hys wyff sayd that he had
receved \.li which was gevyn hyr, and wysshd hym to lent that to your wyff, which he
dyde ; she hopyth to mayk provyssyon to paye Mr. Combes and alle the rest. I wrot
to yow concerning Jhon Rogerss ; the howsse goythe greatlye to dekaye ; ask secretli
therin, and doo somewhat therin, as he ys in doubt that Mr. Parsonss wylle not
paye the 3/2'. 135. 4^. Wherfor wryte to hym, yff yow maye have carryage, to bye
some such warys as yow may selle presentlye with profet. Yff yow bargen with Wm.
Sha. . or receve money therfor, brynge youre money homme that yow maye ; and see
howe knite stockynges be sold ; ther ys gret byinge of them at Aysshome. Edward
Wheat and Harrye, youre brother man, were both at Evyshome thys daye senet, and,
as I harde, bestow 2O/z°. ther in knyt hosse ; wherefore I thynke yow maye doo good,
yff yow can have money.

X. A Letter from Abraham Sturley to Richard Q n'ney, 4 November, 1598, at the
commencement of which there is an allusion to Shakespeare.

All health, happines of suites and wellfare, be multiplied unto u and ur labours
in God our Father bi Christ our Lord. Ur letter of the 25. of Octobr came to mi
handes the laste of the same att night per Grenwni, which imported a stai of suites
bi Sr. Ed. Gr. advise, untill &c., and that onli u should followe on for tax and sub.
presentli, and allso ur travell and hinderance of answere therein bi ur longe travell
and thaffaires of the Courte ; and that our countriman Mr. Wm. Shak. would procure
us monei, which I will like of as I shall heare when, and wheare, and howe ; and I
prai let not go that occasion if it mai sorte to ani indifferent condicions. Allso that
if monei might be had for 30 or 4O/., a lease, &c., might be procured. Oh howe can
u make dowbt of monei, who will not beare xxx. tie or xl.s. towardes sutch a match !
The latter end of ur letter which concerned ur houshold affaires I delivered presentli.
Nowe to ur other letter of the i° of Novmbr receved the 3d. of the same. I would I
weare with u ; nai, if u continue with hope of those suietes u wrighte of, I thinke I
shall wt. concent ; and I will most willingli come unto u, as had u but advise and
compani, and more monei presente, much might be done to obtaine our charter
enlargd, ij, faires more, with tole of corne, bestes and sheepe, and a matter of more
valewe then all that ; for (sai u) all this is nothinge that is in hand, seeinge it will
not rise to 8o/., and the charges wil be greate. What this matter of more valewe
meaneth I cannot undrstand ; but me thinketh whatsoe-er the good would be, u are
afraid of want of monei. Good thinges in hand 01 neare hand can not choose but
be worth monei to bringe to hand, and, beinge assured, will, if neede be, bringe
monei in their mouthes, there is no feare nor dowbte. If it be the rest of the tithes
and the College houses and landes in our towne u speake of, the one halfe weare
aboundantli ritch for us ; and the other halfe to increase Sr. Ed. riallties would both
beare the charge and sett him sure on ; the which I take to be your meaninge bi the
latter parte of ur letter, where u write for a copie of the particulars, which allso u shall
have accordingli. Oh howe I feare when I se what Sr. Ed. can do, and howe neare
it sitteth to himselfe, leaste he shall thinke it to good for us, and procure it for
himselfe, as he served us the last time ; for it semeth bi ur owne wordes theare is some
of hit in ur owne conceite, when u write if Sr. Ed. be as forward to do as to speake,
it 'will be done ; a dowbt I assure u not without dowbt to be made ; whereto allso u
ad, notwithstandinge that dowbt, no want but monei. Somewhat must be to Sr. Ed.
and to each one that dealeth somewhat and great reason. And me thinketh u need
not be affraid to promise that as fitt for him, for all them, and for urselfe. The thinge
obtained no dowbte will pai all. For present advise and encouragmente u have bi
this time Mr. Baili, and for monei, when u certi.fie what u have done and what u

458 DOMESTIC RECORDS.

have spent, what u will do, and what u wante ; somewhat u knowe we have in hand,
and God will provide that we. shall be sufficient. Be of good cowrage. Make fast
Sr. Ed. bi all meanes, or els all our hope and ur travelles be utterli disgraced.
Consider and advise if Sr. Ed. will be faste for us, so that bi his goodwill to us and
his meanes for us these thinges be brought about. What weare it for the fee-farme of
his rialltics, nowe not above xij. or xiiij./., he weare assured of the dowble, when these
thinges come to hande, or more, as the goodnes of the thinge procured proveth. But
whi do i travell in these thinges, when I knowe not certainli what u intende, neither
what ur meanes are, nor what are ur difficulties preclseli and bi name, all which must
be knowen bi name, and specialli with an estimate of the charge before ani thinge can
be added either for advise or supplie. I leave these matters therefore unto the
Allmighties mercifull disposition in ur hand, until! a more neare possibilite or more
leisure will encourage u or suffer u to write more plainli and particularly But
withall the Chancell must not be forgotten, which allso obtained would yeald some
pretti gub of monei for ur present busines, as I thinke. The particulars u write for
shalle this morninge be dispatched and sent as soone as mai be. All is well att home ;
all ur paimentes made and dispatchd ; mi sister saith if it be so that u can not be
provided for Mrs. Pendllbur, she will, if u will, send u up x./. towardes that bi the
next after, or if u take it up, pai it to whom u appointe. — Wm. Wallford sendeth
order and monei per Wm. Court nowe cominge, who haihe some cause to feare, for he
was neweli served with proces on Twsdai last att Alcr. per Roger S. — Mr. Parsons
supposeth that Wenlock came the same dai with Mr. Baili that u writt ur letter. He
saith he supposeth u mai use that x./. for our brwinge matters. Wm. Wiatt
answered Mr. Ba., and us all, that he would neither brwe himselfe, nor submit t
himselfe to the order, but bi those veri wordes make against it with all the strength
he could possibli make, yeat we do this dai begin Mr. Bar. and miselfe a littell for
assai. My bro. D. B. att Shrewsburi or homeward from thence. But nowe the bell
hath range mi time spent. The Lord of all power, glori, merci, and grace and
goodnes, make his great power and mercie knowen towardes us in ur wcakenes. Take
heed of tabacco whereof we heare per. Wm. Perri ; against ani longe journei u mai
undertake on foote of necessiti, or wherein the exercise of ur bodi must be imploied,
drinke some good burned wine, or aqavitne and ale strongli mingled without bread
for a toste, and, above all, kepe u warme. Farewell, mi dare harte, and the Lord
increase our loves and comfortes one to another, that once it mai be sutch as becometb
Christianiti, puriti, and sinceriti, without staine or blemishe. Fare ye well ; all ui
and ours well. From Stretford, Novem. 4th, 1598. Urs in all love in the best
bond, — Abrak. Sturlei. — Mrs. Coomb, when Gilbert Chamocke paid them theii
monei, as he told me, said that if ani but he had brought it, she would not receve it,
because she had not hir gowne ; and that she would arrest u for hit as soone as u come
home, and much twattell ; but att the end, so that youe would pai 4/. toward hit, she
would allowe u xx. j, and we shall heare att some leasure howe fruictes are, and hoppes,
and sutch knakkes. Att this point came Wm. Sheldon, the silke man, with a
warrant to serve Wm. Walford againe upon a trespasse of 5co/.

To his mast lovixgt brother, Mr. Richard Quota, att the Bell in Carterlane att
London, geve these. Paid *d.

XI. Draft of a Grant of Coat- Armour proposed1 to be conferred on Shakespeare's
Father in the year fjQp. from the original manuscript preserved at the College of
Arms, the interlineations being denoted by Italics. A few words near the end of the
paper, whuh were in a corner now lost, have been mpplitd from an old transcript.

To all and singuller noble and gentelmen of all estates and degrees bearing arms
to whom these presentes shall com, William Detnick, Garter, Principal! King of Anns
of England, and William Camden, alias Clarentieulx, King of Anns, for the sowth,

DOMESTIC RECORDS. 459

east and weste partes of this realme, sendethe greetinges. Knowe yee that in all
nations and kingdoms the record and remembrances of the valeant factes and verteous
dispositions of worthie men have ben made knowen and divulged by certeyne shieldes
of arms and tokens of chevalrie, the grant and testemonie wherof apperteynethe unto
us by vertu of our offices from the Quenes most exc. majeste, and her highenes most
noble and victorious progenitors ; wherfore being solicited, and by credible report
informed, that John Shakespere, nowe of Stratford-uppon-Avon in the counte of
Warwik, gent., whose parent, great grandfather, and late antecessor, for his faithefull
and approved service to the late most prudent prince King H. 7. of famous memorie,
was advaunced and rewarded with landes and tenementes geven to him in those partes
of Warwikeshere, where they have continewed bie some descentes in good repulacion
and credit ; and for that the said John Shakespere having maryed the daughter and
one of the heyrs of Robert Arden of Wellingcote in the said countie, and also produced
this his auncient cote of arms heretofore assigned to him whilest he was her Majesties
officer and baylefe of that towne, In consideration of the premisses, and for the en
couragement of his posterite, unto whom suche blazon of arms and atchez-ementes of
inheritance from theyre said mother by the auncyent custome and lawes of arms maye
lawfullie descend, We, the said Garter and Clarentieulx, have assigned, graunted and
confirmed, and, by these presentes, exemplejied, unto the said John Shakespere and to his
posterite, that shield and cote of arms, viz., in a field of gould uppon a bend sables a
speare of the first the poynt upward bedded argent ; and for his creast or cognizance
a falcon with his wynges displayed standing on a wrethe of his coullers supporting
a speare armed hedded or and steeled sylver, fyxed uppon a helmet with mantelles and
tasselles, as more playnely maye appeare depicted on this margent ; and we have
lykewise uppon on other escucheone impaled the same with the auncyent arms of the
said Arden of Wellingcote, signefeing thereby that it maye and shal be lawefull
for the said John Shakespere, gent., to beare and use the same shieldes of arms, single
or impaled as aforesaid, during his naturall lyffe ; and that it shal be lawfull for his
children, yssue, and posterite, lawfully begotten, to beare, use, and quarter ana shewe
forthe the same with theyre dewe differences in all lawfull warlyke factes and cevele
use or exercises, according to the lawes of arms and custome that to gent, belongethe,
without let or interruption of any person or persons for use or per bearing the same.
In wyttnesse and testemonye wherof we have subscribed our names and fastened the
scales of our offices. Yeven at the Office of Arms, London, the ... day of . .in the
xlij.te. yeare of the reigne of our most gratious soveraigne Elizabeth, by the Grace of
God, Quene of Ingland, France and Ireland, Defender of the Faythe, &c., 1599.

XII. The Will of John Hall, Shakespeare's Son-in-law, from the recorded copy in
the Registry of the Prerogative Court of Canterbury, where it is entitled, Testamentum
nuncupativum Johannis Hall.

The last Will and Testament nuncupative of John Hall of Stratford-upon-Avon in
the county of Warwick, gentleman, made and declared the five and twentith of
November, 1635. Imprimis, I geve unto my wife my house in London. Item, I
geve unto my daughter Nash my house in Acton. Item, I geve unto my daughter
Nash my meadowe. Item, I geve my goodes and money unto my wife and my
daughter Nash, to be equally devided betwixt them. Item, concerning my study of
bookes, I leave them, sayd he, to you, my sonn Nash, to dispose of them as yow see
good. As for my manuscriptes, I would have given them to Mr. Boles, if hee had
been here ; but forasmuch as hee is not heere present, yow may, son Nash, burne
them, or doe with them what yow please. Wittnesses hereunto, — Thomas Nash.
Simon Trapp.

460 DOMESTIC RECORDS.

XIII. The Will of Lady Barnard, Shakespeare's grand-daughter, January, 1670,
proved at London in the following March. From a contemporary transcript.

In the name of God, Amen, I, Dame Elizabeth Barnard, wife of Sir John Barnard of
Abington in the county of Northampton, knight, being in perfect memory, — blessed
be God ! — and mindfull of mortallity, doe make this my last will and testament in
manner and forme following. Whereas by my certaine deed or writeing under my
hand and scale dated on or about the eighteenth day of Aprill, 1653, according to a power
therein mencioned, I, the said Elizabeth, have lymitted and disposed of all that my
messuage with th'appurtenances in Stratford-upon-Avon, in the county of Warwicke,
called the New Place, and all that foure yard land and a halfe in Stratford, Welcombe
and Bishopton in the county of Warwick, after the decease of the said Sir John
Bernard and me, the said Elizabeth, unto Henry Smith of Stratford aforesaid, gent.,
and Job Dighton of the Middle Temple, London, esquire, sithence deceased, and
their heires, upon trust that they and the survivor of them, and the heirs of such
survivor, should bargaine and sell the same for the best value they can gett, and the
money thereby to be raised to bee imployed and disposed of to such person and
persons, and in such manner, as I, the said Elizabeth, should by any writing or note
under my hand, truly testified, declare and nominate, as thereby may more fully
appeare. Now my will is, and I doe hereby signifie and declare my mynd and meaning
to bee that the said Henry Smith, my surviving trustee, or his heires, shall with all
convenient speed after the decease of the said Sir John Bernard, my husband, make
sale of the inheritance of all and singuler the premisses, and that my loving cousin,
Edward Nash, esq., shall have the first offer or refusall thereof according to my
promise formerly made to him ; and the moneys to be raised by such sale I doe give,
dispose of and appoint, the same to be paid and distributed as is hereinafter expressed,
that is to say, to my cousin Thomas Welles of Carleton, in the county of Bedford,
gent., the somme cf fifty pounds to be paid him within one yeare next after such sale ;
and if the said Thomas Welles shall happen to dye before such time as his said legacy
shall become due to him, then my desire is that my kinsman, Edward Bagley, cittizen
of London, shall have the sole benefitt thereof. Item, I doe give and appoint unto
Judith Hathaway, one of the daughters of my kinsman, Thomas Hathaway, late of
Stratford aforesaid, the annuall somme of five pounds of lawfull money of England, to
be paid unto her yearely and every yeare from and after the decease of the survivor of
the said Sir John Bernard and me, the said Elizabeth, for and during the natural! life
of her, the said Judith, att the two most usuall feasts or dayes of payment in the yeare,
videlicet, the feast of the Annunciacion of the Blessed Virgin Mary and St. Michaell
the Archangel!, by equall porcions, the first payment thereof to beginne at such of the
said feasts as shall next happen after the decease of the survivor of the said Sir John
Bernard and me the said Elizabeth, if the said premisses can be soe soone sold, or
otherwise soe soone as the same can be sold ; and if the said Judith shall happen to
marry, and shal be mynded to release the said annuall somme of five pound, and
shall accordingly release and quitt all her interest and right in and to the same after it
shall become due to her, then and in such case I doe give and appoynte to her the
somme of forty pounds in Hew thereof, to bee paid unto her at the tyme of the
executing of such release as aforesaid. Item, I give and appointe unto Joane, the
wife of Edward Kent, and one other of the daughters of the said Thomas Hathaway, the
somme of fifty pounds to be likewise paid unto her within one yeare next after the
decease of the survivor of the said Sir John Bernard and me the said Elizabeth, if the
said premisses can be soe soone sold, or otherwise soe soone as the same can bee sold
and if the said Johan shall happen to die before the said fiftie pounds shal be paid to
her, then I doe give and appoynt the same unto Edward Kent, the younger, her sonne,
to be paid unto him when he shall attayne the age of one-and-twenty yeares. Item, I
doe alsoe give and appoynt unto him, th6 said Edward Kent, sonne of the said Johan,

DOMESTIC RECORDS. 461

the somme of thirty pounds towards putting him out as an apprentice, and to be paid
and disposed of to that use when he shall be fitt for it. Item, I doe give, appoynte,
and dispose of unto Rose, Elizabeth and Susanna, three other of the daughters of my
said kinsman, Thomas Hathaway, the somme of fortie pounds a-peece to be paid unto
every of them at such tyme and in such manner as the said fiftie pounds before
appointed to the said Johan Kent, their sister, shall become payable. Item, all the
rest of the moneys that shal be raised by such sale as aforesaid I give and dispose of
unto my said kinsman, Edward Bagley, except five pounds only, which I give and
appoint to my said trustee, Henry Smith, for his paines ; and if the said Edward
Nash shall reluse the purchase of the said messuage and foure yard land and a halfe
with the appurtenances, then my will and desire is that the said Henry Smith, or his
heires, shall sell the inheritance of the said premisses and every part thereof unto the
said Edward Bagley, and that he shall purchase the same ; upon this condicion,
nevertheles, that he, the said Edward Bagley, his heyres, executors or administrators,
shall justly and faithfully performe my will and true meaning in making due payment
of all the severall sommes of money or legacies before-mencioned in such manner as
aforesaid. And I doe hereby declare my will and meaning to be that the executors
or administrators of my said husband, Sir John Bernard, shall have and enjoy the use
and benefit of my said house in Stratford, called the New Place, with the orchard,
gardens and all other thappurtenances thereto belonging, for and dureing the space of
six monthes next after the decease of him, the said Sir John Bernard. Item, I give
and devise unto my kinsman, Thomas Hart, the sonne of Thomas Hart, late of
Stratford-upon-Avon aforesaid, all that my other messuage or inne, situate in Stratford-
upon-Avon aforesaid, commonly called the Maydenhead, with the appurtenances, and
the next house thereunto adjoyning, with the barne belonging to the same now or late
in the occupacion of Michaell Johnson or his assignes, with all and singuler the
appurtenances, to hold to him, the said Thomas Hart, the sonne and the heires of his
body ; and for default of such issue, I give and devise the same to George Hart,
brother of the said Thomas Hart, and to the heires of his body ; and for default of
such issue, to the right heires of me, the said Elizabeth Bernard, for ever. Item, I
doe make, ordayne, and appoynte my said loving kinsman, Edward Bagley, sole
executor of this, my last will and testament, hereby revokeing all former wills ;
desireing him to see a just performance hereof according to my true intent and meaning.
In witnes whereof I, the said Elizabeth Bernard, have hereunto sett my hand and
scale the nyne-and-twentieth day of January, anno domini one thousand six hundred
sixty-nyne. — Elizabeth Barnard. — Signed, sealed, published and declared to be the
last will and testament of the said Elizabeth Bernard, in the presence of — John
Howes, rector de Abington, Francis Wickes.

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THE FIRST FOLIO.

The earliest collective edition of the dramatic writings of Shakespeare was entered
in the registers of the Static ers' Company on November the 8th, 1623, and was
published under the title of, — " Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories and
Tragedies. — Published according to the True Originall Copies. — London — Printed by
Isaac Jaggard, and Ed. Blount. 1623." At the commencement of this valuable work
are the following prefixes, which, it is scarcely necessary to observe, were written by
Shakespeare's friends and contemporaries, and are of extreme value and interest in
connexion with the history of the poet's literary career.

To the Most Noble and Incomparable Paire of Brethren, William, earle of Pembroke ;
&c. , Lord Chamberlains to the Kings most Excellent Majesty, and Philip, earle
of Montgomery, 6-v., Gentleman of his Majesties Bed-chamber, both Knights of the
most Noble Order of the Garter, and our singular good lords.

Right Honourable, — Whilst we studie to be thankful in our particular for the many
favors we have received from your L.L., we are falne upon the ill fortune to mingle
two the most diverse things that can bee, feare and rashnesse ; rashnesse in the
enterprize, and feare of the successe. For when we valew the places your H.H.
sustaine, we cannot but know their dignity greater then to descend to the reading of
these trifles ; and, while we name them trifles, we have depriv'd ourselves of the
defence of our Dedication. But since your L.L. have beene pleas'd to thinke these
trifles some-thing heeretofore, and have prosequuted both them, and their authour living,
with so much favour, we hope, that (they out-living him, and he not having the
fate, common with some, to be exequutor to his owne writings) you will use the like
indulgence toward them, you have done unto their parent . There is a great difference
whether any booke choose his patrones, or finde them. This hath done both. For so
much were your L. L. likings of the severall parts, when they were acted, as, before they
were published, the volume ask'd to be yours. We have but collected them, and done
an office to the dead to procure his orphanes guardians ; without ambition either of
selfe-profit or fame, onely to keepe the memory of so worthy a friend and fellow alive,
as was our Shakespeare, by humble offer of his playes to your most noble patronage.
Wherein, as we have justly observed, no man to come neere your L.L. but with a kind
of religious addresse, it hath bin the height of our care, who are the presenters, to make
the present worthy of your H.H. by the perfection. But there we must also crave
our abilities to be considerd, my Lords. We cannot go beyond our owne powers.
Country hands reach foorth milke, creame, fruites or what they have : and many
nations (we have heard) that had not gummes and incense, obtained their requests with
a leavened cake. It was no fault to approch their gods by what meanes they could,
and the most, though meanest, of things are made more precious when they are
dedicated to temples. In that name, therefore, we most humbly consecrate to your
H.H. these remaines of your servant Shakespeare ; that what delight is in them may
be ever your L.L., the reputation his, and the faults ours, if any be committed by a
payre so carefull to shew their gratitude both to the living and the dead as is — Your
Lordshippes most bounden,— -John Heminge. — Henry Condell.

4'M THE FIRST FOLIO.

To the great Variety of Readers. — From the most able to him that can but spell ; —
there you are number'd. \Ve had rather you were weighd, especially when the fate
of all bookes depends upon your capacities, and not of your heads alone, but of your
purses. Well ! It is now publique, and you wil stand for your priviledges wee know;
to read and censure. Do so, but buy it first. That doth best commend a booke, the
stationer saies. Then, how odde soever your braines be, or your wisedomes, make
your licence the same and spare not. Judge your sixe-pcn'orth, your shillings worth,
your five shillings worth at a time, or higher, so you rise to the just rates, and welcome.
But, whatever you do, buy. Censure will not drive a trade or make the jacke go.
And though you be a magistrate of wit, and sit on the stage at Black-Friers or the
Cock-pit to arraigne playes dailie, know, these playes have had their triall alreadie, and
stood out all appeales, and do now come forth quitted rather by a Decree of Court then
any purchas'd letters of commendation.

It had bene a thing, we confesse, worthie to have bene wished, that the author
himselfe had liv'd to have set forth and overseen his owne writings ; but since it hath
bin ordain'd otherwise, and he by death departed from that right, we pray you do not
envie his friends the office of their care and paine to have collected and publish'd them ;
and so to have publish'd them, as where (before) you were abus'd with diverse stolne
and surreptitious copies, maimed and deformed by the frauds and stealthes of injurious
impostors that expos'd them ; even those are now offer'd to your view cur'd and
perfect of their limbes, and all the rest absolute in their numbers as he conceived them ;
who, as he was a happie imitator of Nature, was a most gentle expresser of it. His
mind and hand went together ; and what he thought, he uttered with that easinesse
that wee have scarse received from him a blot in his papers. But it is not our province,
who onely gather his works and give them you, to praise him. It is yours that reade
him. And there we hope, to your divers capacities, you will finde enough both to
draw and hold you : for his wit can no more lie hid then it could be lost. Reade him,
therefore ; and againe and againe ; and if then you doe not like him, surely you are in
some manifest danger not to understand him. And so we leave you to other of his
friends, whom, if you need, can bee your guides. If you neede them not, you can leade
yourselves and others; and such readers we wish him.— John Heminge. — Henrie
Condell.

To the memory of my beloved, the author, Mr. William Shakespeare, and what he
hath left us. — To draw no envy (Shakespeare) on thy name, = Am I thus ample to thy
booke and fame ; = While I confesse thy writings to be such, = As neither man nor muse
can praise too much, ='Tis true, and all mens suffrage. But these waves = Were not
the paths I meant unto thy praise ; = For seeliest ignorance on these may light, =
Which, when it sounds at best, but eccho's right ; = Or blinde affection, which doth
ne're advance = The truth, but gropes and urgeth all by chance ; Or crafty malice might
pretend this praise, = and thinke to ruine where it seem'd to raise. = These are, as some
infamous baud or whore = Should praise a matron. What could hurt her more ?= Bat
thou art proofe against them, and indeed = Above th'ill fortune of them, or the need. =
I, therefore, will begin. — Soule of the age ! = The applause ! delight ! the wonder of our
stage ! = My Shakespeare, rise ; I will not lodge thee by = Chaucer or Spenser, or bid
Beaumont lye = A little further, to make thee a roome ; Thou art a moniment without
a tombe, = And art alive still while thy booke doth live, = And we have wits to read
and praise to give. = That I not mixe thee so my braine excuses, = I meane with
great, but disproportion'd muses, = For if I thought my judgement were of yeeres, =
I should commit thee surely with thy peeres, =And tell how farre thou didstst our
Lily out-shine, = Or sporting Kid, or Marlowes mighty line. = And though thou hadst
small Latine and lesse Greeke, = From thence to honour thee I would not seeke =
For names, but call forth thund'ring ^Eschilus, = Euripides and Sophocles to us, =

THE FIRST FOLIO. 465

Paccuvius, Accius, him of Cordova dead, = To life againe, to heare thy buskin tread =
And shake a stage ; or, when thy sockes were on, = Leave thee alone, for the compari
son = Of all that insolent Greece or haughtie Rome = Sent forth, or since did from
their ashes come. = Triumph, my Britaine, thou hast one to showe, = To whom all
scenes of Europe homage owe. = He was not of an age, but for all time ! = And all the
Muses still were in their prime, = When, like Apollo, he came forth to warme = Our
eares, or like a Mercury to charme ! = Nature herselfe was proud of hisdesignes, =And
joy'd to weare the dressing of his lines, = Which were so richly spun and woven so fit, =
As, since, she will vouchsafe no other wit. = The merry Greeke, tart Aristophanes, =
Neat Terence, witty Plautus, now not please,— -But antiquated and deserted lye = As
they were not of Natures family. = Yet must I not give Nature all; thy art, = My
gentle Shakespeare, must enjoy a part ; = For though the poets matter Nature be, =
His art doth give the fashion ! and that he, = Who casts to write a living line, must
sweat, = Such as thine are, and strike the second heat = Upon the Muses anvile ; turne
the same, =And himselfe with it, that he thinkesto frame ; = Or for the lawrell he may
gaine a scorne, = For a good poet's made as well as borne, = And such wert thou.
Looke how the fathers face = Lives in his issue ; even so, the race = Of Shakespeares
minde and manners brightly shines = In his well-torned and true-filed lines, = In each
of which he seemes to shake a lance, = As brandish't at the eyes of ignorance. = Sweet
Swan of Avon ! what a sight it were = To see thee in our waters yet appeare, = And make
those nights upon the bankes of Thames, = That so did take Eliza and our James ! =
But stay, I see thee in the hemisphere = Advanc'd, and made a constellation there ! =
Shine forth, thou Starre of Poets, and with rage = Or influence, chide or cheere the
drooping stage ; = Which, since thy flight from hence, hath mourn'd like night, = And
despaires day but for thy volumes light. — Ben : Jonson.

Upon the Lines and Life of the Famous Scenicke Poef, Master William Shakespeare.
— Those hands, which you so clapt, go now and wring, = You Britaines brave, for done
are Shakespeares dayes ; = His dayes are done that made the dainty playes, = Which
made the Globe of heav'n and earth to ring. =Dry'de is that veine, dry'd is the
Thespian spring, = Turn 'd all to teares, and Phcebus clouds his rayes ; = That corp's,
that coffin, now besticke those bayes, = Which crown'd him poet first, then poets king. =
If tragedies might any Prologue have, = All those he made would scarse make one to
this ; = Where Fame, now that he gone is to the grave, = Deaths publique tyring-house,
the Nuncius is. = For though his line of life went soone about, = The life yet of his
lines shall never out. — Hugh Holland.

To the Memorie of the deceased Authour, Maister W. Shakespeare. — Shake-speare,
at length thy pious fellowes give = The world thy Workes, — thy Workes, by which
out-live = Thy tombe thy name must ; when that stone is rent, = And Time dissolves
thy Stratford moniment, = Here we alive shall view thee still. This booke, — When
brasse and marble fade, shall make thee looke = Fresh to all ages ; when posteritie =
Shall loath what's new, thinke all is prodegie = That is not Shake-speares ; ev'ry line,
each verse, = Here shall revive, redeeme thee from thy herse. = Nor fire, nor cankring
age, as Naso said, = Of his, thy wit-fraught booke, shall once invade. = Nor shall I e're
beleeve, or thinke thee dead, = Though mist untill our bankrout stage be sped, =
Impossible, with some new straine t' out-do = Passions of Juliet and her Romeo ; = Or
till I heare a scene more nobly take, = Then when thy half-sword parlying Romans
spake. =Till these, till any of thy volumes rest = Shall with more fire, more feeling, be
exprest, = Be sure, our Shake-speare, thou canst never dye, = But, crown'd with
lawrell, live eternally. — L. Digga.

2 G

4&6 THE FIRST FOLIO.

To the memoric of M. \V. Shake-spear'. — Wee wondred (Shake-speare) that thou
went'st so soone=From the worlds stage to the graves tyring-roome. = Wee thought
thee dead, b-st this, thy printed worth, = Tels thy spectators that thou went'st but forth =
To enter with applause. An actors art = Can dye, and live, to acte a second part. =
That's but an exit of mortalitie, = This, a re-entrance to a plaudite. — I. M.

The Workes of William Shakespeare, containing all his Comedies, Histories, and
Tiagedies, tritely set forth according to their first Original!. — The names of the Princi-
pall Actors in all these playes. —William Shakespeare; Richard Burbadge ; John
Hammings ; Augustine Phillips ; William Kempt ; Thomas Poope ; George Bryan ;
Henry Condell ; William Slye ; Richard Cowly ; John Lowine ; Samuell Crosse ;
Alexander Cooke ; Samuel Gilburne ; Robert Armin ; William Ostler ; Nathan
Field ; John Underwood ; Nicholas Tooley ; William Ecclestone ; Joseph Taylor ;
Robert Benfield ; Robert Goughe ; Richard Robinson ; John Shancke ; John Rice.

A Catalogue of the several! Comedies, Histories, and Tragedies contained in this
Volume. — COMEDIES. The Tempest, folio I ; the Two Gentlemen of Verona, 20 ; The
Merry Wives of Windsor, 38 ; Measure for Measuie, 61 ; The Comedy of Errours, 85 ;
Much adoo about Nothing, 101 ; Loves Labour lost, 122 ; Mid«ommer Nights Dreame,
145 ; The Merchant of Venice, 163 ; As you Like it, 185 ; The Taming of the Shrew,
208 ; All is well that Ends well, 230 ; Twelfe-Night, or what you will, 255 ; The
Winters Tale, 304. — HISTORIES. The Life and Death of King John, foL I ; the Life
and Death of Rkhard the Second, 23 ; the First Part of King Henry the Fourth, 46 ;
The Second Part of K. Henry the fourth, 74 ; The Life of King Henry the Fift,
69 ; The First part of King Henry the Sixt, 96 ; The Second part of King Hen. the
Sixt, I2O ; The Third part of King Henry the Sixt, 147 ; The Life and Death of
Richard the Third, 173 ; The Life of King Henry the Eight, 205.— TRAGEDIES. The
Tragedy of Coriolanus, fol. I ; Titus And ronicos, 31 ; Romeo and Juliet 53 ; Timon
of Athens, 80 ; The Life and death of Julius Caesar, 109 ; The Tragedy of Macbeth,
131 ; The Tragedy of Hamlet, 152 ; King Lear, 283 ; Othello, the Moore of Venice,
310 ; Anthony and Cleopater, 346 ; Cymbeline King of Britaine, 369.

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES.

/. From Ben Jonson's — " Timber, or Discoveries made upon Alen and Matter, as
they have flow 'd out of his daily Readings, or had their refluxe to his peculiar Notion of
the Times" fol. Land. 1641. The following remarks were no doubt written long before
their author's death in f6j?.

De Shakespeare nostrat. — I 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 ; 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 ;
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, — Ccesarthou
dost me wrong ; hee reply ed, — C&sar 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.

//. Lines on the Familiar Names given to Shakespeare and his contemporaries, from
Heywoocfs Hierarchie of the Blessed Angel Is, 1635.

Our moderne poets to that passe are driven, = Those names are curtal'd which they
first had given ; = And, as we wisht to have their memories drown'd, = We scarcely can
afford them halfe their sound. = Greene, who had in both academies ta'ne = Degree of
Master, yet could never gaine = To be call'd more than Robin ; who, had he=Profest
ought save the Muse, serv'd and been free — After a seven yeares prentiseship, might
have, = With credit too, gone Robert to his grave. = Mario, renown'd for his rare art and
wit, = Could ne're attaine beyond the name of Kit ; = Although his Hero and Leander
did = Merit addition rather. Famous Kid = Was call'd but Tom. Tom Watson,
though he wrote = Able to make Apollo's selfe to dote = Upon his muse, for all that he
could strive, = Yet never could to his full name arrive. =Tom Nash, in his time of no
small esteeme, = Could not a second syllable redeeme. = Excellent Bewmont, in the
formost ranke — Of the rar'st wits, was never more than Franck . = Mellifluous Shake
speare, whose inchanting quill = Commanded mirth or passion, was but Will. = And
famous Johnson, though his learned pen = Be dipt in Castaly, is still but Ben. = Fletcher
and W'ebster, of that learned packe = None of the mean'st, yet neither was but Jacke. =
Deckers but Tom ; nor May, nor Middleton. = And hee's now but Jacke Foord, that
once were® John.

///. From Fuller's History of the Worthies of Warwickshire, forming fart of his
History of the Worthies of England, fol. Land. 1662. This was a posthumous work, ihe
author having died in 1661, and the following notice was doubtlessly written several years
previously to that event.

2 G 2

468 BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES.

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 sur-name, whence some may conjecture him of a military extraction,
hasti-vibrans or Shake-speare. — 2. Ovid, the most naturall and witty of all poet?, and
hence it was that Queen Elizabeth, coming into a grammar-school made this extemporary
verse, — " Persius a crab-staffe, bawdy Martial, Ovid a fine wag." — 3. Plautus, who was
an exact comaedian yet never any scholar, as our Shake-speare, if alive, would confess
himself. Adde 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 mournfull. — He was an eminent instance of the truth of that
rule, poeta non fit sed nascitur, — one is not made but bom 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 tides, tack about, and take advantage of all winds, by the
quickness of his wit and invention. He died anno Domini 16 . ., and was buried at
Stratford-upon-Avon, the town of his nativity

IV. Notes respecting Shakespeare extracted from an original memoranda-book of ihe
Rev. John Ward, Vicar of Stratford-on-Avon. They were written either in 1662 or
1663, as ap 'pears from the following entry, — " this booke was begunne Feb. 14, 1661, and
finished April the 25, f66j, att Mr. Brooks his house in Stratford-uppon-Avon."

Shakspear had but two 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 a thousand 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.

V. 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 fathers trade, but when he kill'd
a calfe, he would doe it in a high style and make a speech. There was at that time
another butchers son in this towne, that was held not at all inferior to him fora naturall
witt, his acquaintance and coetanean, but dyed 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 humur of ... „ the cunstable in a Midsomers Night's
Dreame, he happened to take at Grenden in Bucks, which is the roade from London to

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES. 469

Stratford, and there was living that constable about 1642, when I first came to Oxon.
/ thinke it was Midsomernight 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 country once
a yeare. I thinke I have been told that he left 2 or 300 It. per annum there and
thereabout to a sister. I have heard Sir Win. Davenant and Mr. Thomas Shadwell,
who is counted the best comoedian we have now, say that he had a most prodigious witt
(v. his Epitaph in Dugdale's Warw. ), and did admire his naturall parts beyond all
other dramaticall writers. lie (£. Johnsons Underwoods] was wont to say that he never
blotted out a line in his life ; sayd Ben Johnson, — I wish he had blotted out a thousand.
His comcedies will remaine witt as long as the English tongue is understood, 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 L.itine and lesse Greek, he
understood Latine pretty well, for he had been in his younger yeares a schoolmaster in
the countrey. From Mr. . . Beeston.

VI. Notes on Shakespeare, those in Roman type having been made be fore the year 1688
by the Rev. William Fulman, and those in Italics being additions by the Rev. Richard
Davies made previously to 1708. From the originals preserved at Corpus Christi College,
Oxford. There is no evidence in the manuscript itself that the interesting additions
•were made by Davies, but the fact is established by the identity of the handwriting with
that in one of his autographical letters preserved in the same collection.

William Shakespeare was born at Stratford-upon-Avon in Warwickshire about
1 563-4. 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 advancement; but his revengwas so great that
he is his Justice Clodpate, and calls him a great man, and that in allusion to his name
bore three lowses 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 lays a heavy curse upon any one who slial
remoove his bones. He dyed a papist.

VII. Anecdotes respecting Shakespeare, from a little manuscript account of places in
Warwickshire by a person named Dowdall, written in the year 1693.

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
Jetter he has done ; but here I send you the whole inscription. — Just under his effigies
in the wall of the chancell is this written. — "Judicio Pylum, genio Socratem, arte
Maronem, = Terra tegit, populus mcerett, Olympus habet. = Stay, passenger, whygoest
thou by soe fast 1— Read if thou canst, whome envious death hath 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 epithaph made by himselfe a little before his death, — " Good friend,
for Jesus sake forbeare = To digg the dust inclosed here ! = Bles't be the man that spares
these stones, = And curs't be he that moves my bones!" — The clarke that shew'd me

4?o BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES.

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 extinguishd. 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.

VI If. An Extract from a Letter written in the year 1694, by William Hall, an
Oxford graduate, to his intimate friend, Edward Thwaites, an eminent Anglo-Saxon
scholar. From the original Manuscript in the Bodleian Library.

I very greedily embrace this occasion of acquainting you with something which I
found at Stratford-upon- Avon. That place I came unto on Thursday night, and the next
day went to visit the ashes of the great Shakespear which lye interr'd in that church.
The verses which, in his lifetime, he ordered to be cut upon his tomb-stone, for his
monument have others, are these which follow, — "Reader, for Jesus's sake forbear=
To dig the dust enclosed here ; = Blessed be he that spares these stones, = And cursed
be he that .moves my bones." — The little learning these verses contain would be a very
strong argument of the want of it in the author, did not they carry something in them
which stands in need of a comment. There is in this Church a place which they call the
bone-house, a repository for all bones they dig up, which are so many that they would
load a great number of waggons. The poet, being willing to preserve his bones
unmoved, lays a curse upon him that moves them, and haveing to do with clarks and
sextons, for the most part a very ignorant sort of people, he descends to the meanest of
their capacitys, and disrobes himself of that art which none of his co-temporaries wore
in greater perfection. Nor has the design mist of its effect, for, lest they should not
onely draw this curse upon themselves, but also entail it upon their posterity, they have
laid him full seventeen foot deep, deep enough to secure him. And so much for
Stratford, within a mile of which Sir Robinson lives, but it was so late before I knew,
that I had not time to make him a visit.

IX. Extracts from Rcnae's Account of the Life of Shakespeare, 1709. The portions
of this essay which are here omitted consist mainly of remarks on the plays and are of
no biographical value.

It seems to be a kind of respect clue to the memory of excellent men, especially of
those whom their wit and learning have made famous, to deliver some account of
themselves, as well as their works, to posterity. For this reason, how fond do we see
some people of discovering any little personal story of the great men of antiquity,
their families, the common accidents of their lives, and even their shape, make, and
features have been the subject of critical enquiries. How trifling soever this
curiosity may seem to be, it is certainly very natural ; and we are hardly satisfy'd with
an account of any remarkable person 'till we have heard him describ'd even to the
very cloaths he wears. As for what relates to men of letters, the knowledge of an
author may sometimes conduce to the better understanding his book ; and tho' the
works of Mr. Shakespear may seem to many not to want a comment, yet I fancy some
little account of the man himself may not be thought improper to go along with
them. — He was the son of Mr. John Shakespear, and was born at Stratford-upon- Avon,
in Warwickshire, in April, 1564. His family, as appears by the register and publick
writings relating to that town, were of good figure and fashion there, and are mention'd
as gentlemen. His father, who was a considerable dealer in wool, had so large a
family, ten children in all, that, tho' he was his eldest son, he could give him no better
education than his own employment. He had bred him. 'tis true, for some time at a
free-school, where 'tis probable he acquir'd that little Latin he was master of ; but the

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES. 471

narrowness of his circumstances, and the want of his assistance at home, forc'd his
father to withdraw him from thence, and unhappily prevented his further proficiency
in that language. — Upon his leaving school, he seems to have given intirely into that
way of living which his father propos'd to him ; and, in order to settle in the
workl after a family manner, he thought fit to marry while he was yet very young.
His wife was the daughter of one Hathaway, said to have been a substantial yeoman
in the neighbourhood of Stratford. In this kind of settlement he continu'd for some
time, 'till an extravagance that he was guilty of forc'd him both out of his country and
that way of living which he had taken up ; and tho' it seem'd at first to be a blemish
upon his good manners, and a misfortune to him, yet it afterwards happily prov'd the
occasion of exerting one of the greatest genius's that ever was known in dramatick
poetry. He had, by a misfortune common enough to young fellows, fallen into ill
company ; and amongst them, some that made a frequent practice of deer-stealing
engag'd him with them more than once in robbing a park that belong'd to Sir Thomas
Lucy of Cherlecot, near Stratford. For this he was prosecuted by that gentleman, as
he thought, somewhat too severely ; and in order to revenge that ill usage, he made a
ballad upon him. And tho' 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 oblig'd to leave his business and family in Warwickshire
for some time, and shelter himself in London. — It is at this time, and upon this
accident, that he is said to have made his first acquaintance in the play-house. He was
receiv'd into the company then in being at first in a very mean rank ; but his
admirable wit, and the natural turn of it to the stage, soon distinguish'd him, if not as an
extraordinary actor, yet as an excellent writer. His name is printed, as the custom
was in those times, amongst those of the other players, before some old plays, but
without any particular account of what sort of parts he us'd to play ; and tho' I have
inquir'd, I could never meet with any further account of him this way than that the
top of his performance was the ghost in his own Hamlet. I should have been much
more pleas'd to have learn'd, from some certain authority, which was the first play he
wrote ; it would be without doubt a pleasure to any man, curious in things of this kind,
to see and know what was the first essay of a fancy like Shakespear's. Perhaps we
are not to look for his beginnings, like those of other authors, among their least perfect
writings. Art had so little, and nature so large a share in what he did, that, for ought
I know, the performances of his youth, as they were the most vigorous, and had the
most fire and strength of imagination in 'em, were the best. I would not be thought
by this to mean that his fancy was so loose and extravagant as to be independent on
the rule and government of judgment ; but that what he thought was commonly so
great, so justly and rightly conceiv'd in itself, that it wanted little or no correction, and
was immediately approv'd by an impartial judgment at the first sight. Mr. Dryden
seems to think that Pericles is one of his first plays ; but there is no judgment to be
form'd on that, since there is good reason to believe that the greatest part of that ploy
was not written by him ; tho' it is own'd some part of it certainly was. particularly the
last act. But tho' the order of time in which the several pieces were written be
generally uncertain, yet there are passages in some few of them which seem to fix
their dates. So the chorus in the beginning of the fifth Act of Henry V., by a
compliment very handsomly turn'd to the Earl of Essex, shows the play to have been
written when that lord was general for the queen in Ireland ; and his elogy upon
Q. Elizabeth, and her successor K. James, in the latter end of his Henry VIII., is a
proof of that play's being written after the accession of the latter of those two princes
to the crown of England. Whatever the particular times of his writing were, the
people of his age, who began to grow wonderfully fond of diversions of this kind, could
not but be highly pleas'd to see a genius arise amongst 'em of so pleasurable, so rich a
vein, and so plentifully capable of furnishing their favourite entertainments. Besides

472 BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES.

the advantages of his wit, he was in himself a good-natur'd man, of great sweetness in
his manners, and a most agreeable companion ; so that it is no wonder if, with so many
good qualities, he made himself acquainted with the best conversations of those times.
Queen Elizabeth had several of his plays acted before her, and without doubt gave him
many gracious marks of hei favour. It is that maiden princess plainly whom he
intends by — " a fair vestal, throned by the west." And that whole passage is a
compliment very properly brought in, and very handsomly apply'd to her. She was
so well pleas'd with that admirable character of Falstaff in the two parts of Henry the
Fourth, that she commanded him to continue it for one play more, and to shew him
in love. This is said to be the occasion of his writing the Merry Wives of Windsor.
How well she was obey'd, the play it self is an admirable proof. Upon this occasion
it may not be improper to observe, that this part of Falstaff is said to have been
written originally under the name of Oldcastle ; some of that family being then
remaining, the Queen was pleas'd to command him to alter it ; upon which he made
u-e of Falstaff. . The present offence was indeed avoided ; but I don't know whether
the author may not have been somewhat to blame in his second choice, since it is certain
that Sir John Falstaff, who was a Knight of the Garter, and a lieutenant-general,
was a name of distinguish'd merit in the wars in France in Henry the Fifth's ami
Henry the Sixth's times. What grace soever the Queen confer'd upon him, it was not
to her only he ow'd the fortune which the reputation of his wit made. He had the
honour to meet with many great and uncommon marks of favour and friendship from
the Earl of Southampton, famous in the histories of that time for his friendship to the
unfortunate Earl of Essex. It was to that noble lord that he dedicated his Venus and
Adonis, the only piece of his poetry which he ever publish'd himself, tho' many of his
plays were surrepticiously and lamely printed in his lifetime. There is one instance
so singular in the magnificence of this patron of Shakespear's, that, if I had not been
assur'd that the story was handed down by Sir William D'Avenant, who was probably
very well acquainted with his affairs, I should not have ventur'd to have inserted ; that
my Lord Southampton at one time gave him a thousand pounds to enable him to go
through with a purchase which he heard he had a mind to. A bounty very great, and
very rare at any time, and almost equal to that profuse generosity the present age
has shewn to French dancers and Italian eunuchs. — What particular habitude or
friendships he contracted with private men I have not been able to learn, more than
that every one who had a true taste of merit, and could distinguish men, had generally
a just value and esteem for him. His exceeding candor and good nature must
certainly have inclin'd all the gentler part of the world to love him, as the power of
his wit oblig'd the men of the most delicate knowledge and polite learning to admire
him. Amongst these was the incomparable Mr. Edmond Spencer, who speaks of him,
in his Tears of the Muses, not only with the praises due to a good poet, but even
lamenting his absence with the tenderness of a friend. The passage is in Thalia's
complaint for the decay of dramatick poetry, and the contempt the stage then lay under.
— I know some people have been of opinion that Shakespear is not meant by Willy in
the first stanza of these verses, because Spencer's death happen'd twenty years before
Shakespear's. But, besides that the character is not applicable to any man of that
time but himself, it is plain by the last stanza that Mr. Spencer does not mean that he
was then really dead, but only that he had with-drawn himself from the publick,
or at least with-held his hand from writing, out of a disgust he had taken at the then
ill taste of the town, and the mean condition of the stage. Mr. Dryden was always of
opinion these verses were meant of Shakespear, and 'tis highly probable they were
so, since he was three and thirty years old at Spencer's death, and his reputation in
poetry must have been great enough before that time to have deserv'd what is here
said of him. His acquaintance with Ben Johnson began with a remarkable piece of
humanity and good nature ; — Mr. Johnson, who was at that time altogether unknown

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES. 473

to the world, had ofier'd one of his plays to the players in order to have it acted ',
and the persons into whose hands it was put, after having turn'd it carelessly and
superciliously over, were just upon returning it to him with an ill-natur'd answer
that it would be of no service to their company, when Shakespear 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. Johnson and his writings to the publick.
After this they were profess'd friends ; tho' I don't know whether the other ever made
him an equal return of gentleness and sincerity. Ben was naturally proud and
insolent, and, in the days of his reputation, did so far take upon him the supremacy in
wit, that he could not but look with an evil eye upon any one that seem'd to stand
in competition with him. And if at times he has affected to commend him, it has
always been with some reserve, insinuating his uncorrectness, a careless manner of
writing, and want of judgment ; the praise of seldom altering or blotting out what
he writ, which was given him by the players who were the first publishers of his
works after his death, was what Johnson could not bear ; he thought it impossible,
perhaps, for another man to strike out the greatest thoughts in the finest expression,
and to reach those excellencies of poetry with the ease of a first imagination, which
himself with infinite labour and study could but hardly attain to. Johnson was
certainly a very good scholar, and in that had the advantage of Shakespear ; tho' at
the same time I believe it must be allow'd that what nature gave the latter was more
than a ballance for what books had given the former ; and the judgment of a great
man upon this, occasion was, I think, very just and proper. In a conversation
between Sir John Suckling, Sir William D'Avenant, Endymion Porter, Mr. Hales ot
Eaton, and Ben Johnson ; Sir John Suckling, who was a profess'd admirer of
Shakespear, had undertaken his defence against Ben Johnson with some warmth ;
Mr. Hales, who had sat still for some time, hearing Ben frequently reproaching him
with the want of learning and ignorance of the antients, told him at last that, " if
Mr. Shakespear had not read the antients, he had likewise not stollen anything from
'em " (a fault the other made no conscience of) ; — and that, " if he would produce any
one topick finely treated by any of them, he would undertake to shew something upon
the same subject at least as well written by Shakespear." Johnson did indeed take
a large liberty, even to the transcribing and translating of whole scenes together ; and
sometimes, with all deference to so great a name as his, not altogether for the
advantage of the authors of whom he borrow'd. And if Augustus and Virgil were
really what he has made 'em in a scene of his Poetaster, they are as odd an emperor
and a poet as ever met. Shakespear, on the other hand, was beholding to no body
farther than the foundation of the tale ; the incidents were often his own, and the
writing intirely so. There is one play of his, indeed, the Comedy of Errors, in
a great measure taken from the Menoechmi of Plautus. How that happen'd I
cannot easily divine, since I do not take him to have been master of Latin
enough to read it in the original, and I know of no translation of Plautus so old as his
time. — "Tis not very easieto determine which way of writing he was most excellent in.
There is certainly a great deal of entertainment in his comical humours ; and tho'
they did not then strike at all ranks of people, as the satyr of the present age has taken
the liberty to do, yet there is a pleasing and a well-distinguish'd variety in those
characters which he thought fit to meddle with. Falstaff is allow'd by every body to
be a master-piece ; the character is always well-sustain'd, tho' drawn out into the
length of three plays ; and even the account of his death given by his old landlady
Mis. Quickly, in the first act of Henry V., tho' it be extremely natural, is yet as
diverting as any part of his life. If there be any fault in the draught he has made of
this lewd old fellow, it is that, tho' he has made him a thief, lying, cowardly,
vainglorious, and in short every way vicious, yet he has given him so much wit as to
make him almost too agreeable ; and I don't know whether some people have not,

474 BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES.

in remembrance of the diversion he had formerly afforded 'em, been sorry to see his
friend Hal use him so scurvily when he comes to the crown in the end of the second
part of Henry the Fourth. Amongst other extravagances, in the Merry \Vives of
Windsor, he has made him a dear-stealer, that he might at the same time remember
his Warwickshire prosecutor under the name of Justice Shallow ; he has given him
very near the same coat of arms which Dugdale, in his Antiquities of that county,
describes for a family there, and makes the Welsh parson descant very pleasantly upon
'em. — Hamlet is founded on much the same tale with the Elect ra of Sophocles.
In each of 'em a youn^ prince is engag'd to revenge the death of his father, their
mothers are equally guilty, are both concem'd in the murder of their husbands, and
are afterwards married to the murderers. I cannot leave Hamlet without taking
notice of the advantage with which we have seen this master-piece of Shakespear
distinguish itself upon the stage by Mr. Betterton's fine performance of that part.
A man who, tho* he had no other good qualities, as he has a great many, must have
made his way into the esteem of all men of letters by this only excellency. No
man is better acquainted with SJiakespear's manner of expression, and indeed he. has
study'd him so well, and is so much a master of him that whatever part of his he
|>erforms, he does it as if it had been written on purpose for him, and that the author
had exactly conceiv'd it as he plays it. I must own a particular obligation to him for
the most considerable part of the passages relating to his life which I have here
transmitted to the publick ; his veneration for the memory of Shakespear having
engag'd 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. — The latter part of his
life was spent, as all men of good sense will wish theirs may be, in ease, retirement,
and the conversation of his friends. He had the good fortune to gather an estate
equal to his occasion, and, in that, to his wish ; and is said to have spent some years
before his death at his native Stratford. His pleasurable wit and good nature
engag'd him in the acquaintance, and entitled him to the friendship of the gentlemen
of the neighbourhood. Amongst them it is a story almost still remember'd in that
country, that he had a particular intimacy with Mr. Combe, an old gentleman noted
thereabouts for his wealth and usury. It happen'd that, in a pleasant conversation
amongst their common friends, Mr. Combe told Shakespear, in a laughing manner,
that he fancy'd he intended to write his epitaph if he happen'd to out-live him, and
since he could not know what might be said of him when he was dead, he desir'd it
might be done immediately ; upon which Shakespear gave him these four verses, —
" Ten-in-the- Hundred lies here ingrav'd, = Tis a hundred to ten, his soul is not
sav'd ; = If any man ask, who lies in this tomb ?= Oh ! ho ! quoth the Devil, 'tis my
John-a-Combe." — But the sharpness of the satyr is said to have stung the man so
severely that he never forgave it. — He dy'd in the 53d year of his age, and was bury'd
on the north side of the chancel, in the great Church at Stratford, where a monument
is plac'd in the wall. On his grave-stone underneath is, — " Good friend, for Jesus
sake, forbear = To dig the dust inclosed here. = Blest l>e the man that spares these
stones, = And curst be he that moves my bones." — He had three daughters, of which
two liv'd to be marry'd ; Judith, the elder, to one Mr. Thomas Quiney, by whom she
had three sons, who all dy'd without children ; and Susannah, who was his favourite,
to Dr. John Hall, a physician of good reputation in that country. She left one child
only, a daughter, who was marry'd first to Thomas Nash, esq., and afterwards to
Sir John Bernard of Abbington, but dy'd likewise without issue. This is what I could
learn of any note either relating to himself or family. The character of the man is
best seen in his writings. But since Ben Johnson has made a sort of an essay towards
it in his Discoveries, tho', as I have before hinted, he was not very cordial in his
fiiendship, I will venture to give it in his words, — " I remember the players," &c.

PECUNIARY LITIGATION.

The following evidences of the Stratford Court of Record are the only existing
ones of that tribunal which relate to proceedings in which Shakespeare was involved.
The register of the Court being unfortunately imperfect, the only information which
they yield respecting the poet is the negative fact that he did not appear as one of
its litigants between 20 January, 1585, and 7 October, 1601.

I. A Declaration filed by Shakespeare's Orders, in the year 1604, to recover the
value of malt sold by him to a person of the name of Rogers. There is an obvious error
in the first mention of the regnal year, and it should also be noticed that the word modios
is incorrectly given in every instance in which it occurs in the original document.

Stretford Burgus. — Phillipus Rogers sommonitus fuit per servientem ad clavam
ibidem ad respondendum Willielmo Shexpere de placito quod reddat ei triginta et
quinque solidos decem denarios quos ei debet et injuste detinet, et sunt plegii de
prosequendo Johannes Doe et Ricardus Roe, etc., et unde idem Willielmus, per
Willielmum Tetherton attornatum suum, dicit quod cum predictus Phillipus Rogers,
vicesimo septimo die Marcii, anno regni domini nostri Jacobi regis, nunc Anglic,
Francie et Hibernie, primo, et Scocie tricesimo-septimo, hie apud Stretford predictam,
ac infra jurisdiccionem hujus curie, emisset de eodem Willielmo tres modios brasii pro
sex solidis de predictis triginta et quinque solidis decem denariis ; ac etiam quod cum
predictus Phillipus Rogers, decimo die Aprillis, anno regni dicti domini regis nunc
Anglic, etc., secundo, hie apud Stretford predictam ac infra jurisdiccionem hujus curie,
emisset de eodem Willielmo quatuor modios brasii pro octo solidis de predictis
triginta et quinque solidis decem denariis ; ac etiam quod cum predictus Phillipus,
vicesimo quarto die dicti Aprillis, anno regni dicti domini regis nunc Anglic, etc.,
secundo, hie apud Stretford predictam, infra jurisdiccionem hujus curie, emisset de
eodem Willielmo alios tres modios brasii pro sex solidis de predictis triginta et quinque
solidis decem denariis ; ac etiam quod cum predictus Phillipus, tercio die Maii anno
regni dicti domini regis nunc Anglic, etc., secundo, hie apud Stretford predictam, ac
infra jurisdiccionem hujus curie, emisset de eodem Willielmo alios quatuor modios
brasii pro octo solidis de predictis triginta et quinque solidis decem denariis ; ac etiam
quod cum predictus Phillipus, decimo-sexto die Maii, anno regni dicti domini regis nunc
Anglic, etc., secundo, hie apud Stretford predictam, infra jurisdiccionem hujus curie,
emisset de eodem Willielmo alios quatuor modios brasii pro octo solidis de predictis
triginta et quinque solidis decem denariis ; ac etiam quod cum predictus Phillipus,
tricesimo die Maii, anno regni dicti domini regis nunc Anglic, etc., secundo, hie apud
Stretford predictam, ac infra jurisdiccionem hujus curie, emisset de eodem Willielmo
duas modios brasii pro tres solidis decem denariis de predictis triginta et quinque
solidis decem denariis ; ac etiam quod cum predictus Phillipus, vicesimo quinto die
Junii, anno dicti domini regis nunc Anglic, etc., hie apud Stretford predictam, ac infra
jurisdiccionem hujus curie, mutuatus fuisset duos solidos legalis monete, etc., de
predictis triginta et quinque solidis decem denariis residues, solvendos eidem Willielmo
cum inde requisitus fuisset. Que omnia separales sornme attingunt se in toto ad
quadraginta et unum solidos decem denarios. Et predictus Phillipus Rogers de cex

476 PECUNIAR Y LITIGA T/ON.

solidis inde eidem Willielmo postea satisfecisset. Predictus tamen Phillipus, licet
sepius requisitus, predictos triginta et quinque solidos decem denarios residues eidem
Willielmo nondum reddidit, sed illos ei hue usque reddere contradixit et adhuc
contradicit, unde dicit quod deterioratus est et dampnum habet ad valencian decent
solidorum. Et inde producit sectam, etc.

II. Orders and Papers in an Action Drought by Shakespeare against John
Addenbrookf, 1608-1609, for the Recovery of a Debt.

i. Stratford Burgus. — Preceptum est servientibus ad clavam ibidem quod capiant,
seu etc., Johannem Addenbrooke, generosum, si etc., et eum salvo etc., ita quod
habeant corpus ejus coram ballivo burgi predicti, ad proximam curiam de recordo
ibidem tenendam, ad respondendum Willielmo Shackspeare, generoso, de placito
debiti, et habeant ibi tune hoc preceptum. Teste Henrico Walker, generoso, ballivo
ibidem, xvij. die Augusti, annis regni domini nostri Jacobi, Dei gratia regis Anglic,
Francie et Hibernie, sexto, et Scotie quadragesimo.® Greene. — Virtute istius
precepti cepi infranominatum Johannem, cujus corpus paratum habeo prout interius
mihi precipitur. Manucaptor pro defendente, Thomas Hornebye. Gilberius Charnock,
serviens.

ii. Stratford Burgus. — Preceptum est servientibus ad clavam ibidem quod
habeant, seu etc., corpora Philippi Greene, Jacobi Elliottes, Edward! Hunt, Roberti
Wilson, Thome Kerby, Thome Bridges, Ricardi Collyns, Johannis Ingraham,
Danielis Smyth, Willielmi Walker, Thome Mylls, Johannis Tubb, Ricardi Pincke,
Johannis Smyth pannarii, Laurencii Holmes, Johannis Boyce, Hugonis Piggen,
Johannis Samvell, Roberti Cawdry, Johannis Castle, Pauli Bartlett, Johannis Yeate,
Thome Bradshowe, Johannis Gunne, juratorum summonitorum in curia domini regis
hie tenta coram ballivo ibidem, ad faciendum quandam juratam patrie inter Willielmum
Shackspeare, generosum, querentem, et Johannem Addenbrooke, defendentem, in
placito debiti, et habeant ibi tune hoc preceptum. Teste Francisco Smyth juniore,
generoso, ballivo ibidem, xxj. die Decembris, annis regni domini nostri Jacobi, Dei
gratia regis Anglic, Frauncie et Hibernie, sexto, et Scotie quadragesimo secundo.
Greene. — Executio istius precepti patet in quodam panello huic precepto annexe.
Gilbertus Charnock, serviens.

iii. Nomina juratorum inter Willielmum Shakespere, generosum, versus Johannem
Addenbroke de placito debiti. — Philippus Greene ; Jacobus Elliott; Edwardus Hunte ;
Robertus Wilson ; Thomas Kerbye ; Thomas Bridges ; Ricardus Collins ; Johannes
Ingraham ; Daniell Smyth ; Willielmus Walker ; Thomas Mills ; Johannes Tubb ;
Ricardus Pincke ; Johannes Smyth, draper ; Laurencius Holmes ; Johannes Boyce ;
Hugo Piggon ; Johannes Samwell ; Robertus Cawdry ; Johannes Castle ; Paulus
Bartlett ; Johannes Yeate ; Thomas Bradshowe ; Johannes Gunne. — Quilibet jurat or
predictus, pro se separatim, manucaptus est per plegios, Johannem Doo et Ricardum
Roo.

iv. Stratford Burgus. — Preceptum est servientibus ad clavam ibidem quod
distringant, seu etc., Philippum Greene, Jacobum Elliottes, Edwardum Hunt, Robertum
Wilson, Thomam Kerbey, Thomam Bridges, Ricardum Collins, Johannem Ingraham,
Danielem Smyth, William Walker, Thomam Mylls, Johannem Tubb, Ricardum Pincke,
fohannem Smyth, pannarium, Laurencium Holmes, Johannem Boyce, Hugonem Piggin,
Johannem Samwell, Robertum Cawdry, Johannem Castle, Paulum Bartlett, Johannem
Yate, Thomam Bradshawe, et Johannem Gunne, juratores summonitos in curia
domini regis de recordo hie tenta inter Willielmum Shackspeare, querentem, et
Johannem Addenbroke, defendentem, in placito debiti, per omnes terras et cattalla sua
in balliva sua, ita quod nee ipsi nee aliquis per ipsos ad ea manum apponant, donee
aliud inde a curia predicta habuerint preceptum, et quod de exitibus eorundem de curia
predicta respondeant. Et quod habeant corpora eorum coram ballivo burgi predicti*

PECUNIAR Y LITIGA TION. 477

ad proximam curiam de recordo ibidem tenendam, ad faciendum juratam illam et ad
audiendum judicium suum ile plunbus defaltis ; et habeant ibi tune hoc preceptum.
Teste Francisco Smyth juniore, generoso, ballivo ibidem, xv°. die Februarii, annis regni
domini nostri Jacobi, Dei gratia regis Anglic, Francie et Hibernie, sexto, et Scotie
quadragesimo-secundo. Greene, — Executio istius precepti patet in quodam panello
huic precepto annexo. — Franciscus Boyce, serviens.

v. Nomina juratorum inter Willielmum Shackspere, querentem, et Johannem
Addenbrooke, de placito debiti. — Philippus Greene ; Jacobus Elliottes egrotat ;
Edwardus Hunt ; Robertus Wilson, juratus ; Thomas Kerby ; Thomas Bridges ;
Ricardus Collyns, juratus ; Johannes Ingraham, juratus ; Daniel Smyth, juratus ;
Willielmus Walker, juratus ; Thomas Mills, juratus ; Johannes Tubb, juratus ;
Ricardus Pincke, juratus ; Johannes Smyth, pannarius, juratus ; Laurencius Holmes ;
Johannes Boyce ; Hugo Piggin, juratus ; Johannes Samvell ; Robertus Cawdrey,
juratus ; Johannes Castle ; Paulus Bartlett ; Johannes Yate, juratus ; Thomas
Bradshawe et Johannes Gunne. Quilibet juratorum predictorum, per se separating
attachiatus est per plegios, Johannem Doo et Ricardum Roo. Exitus cujuslibet eorum
per se, vj.j. viij.</. Juratores dicunt pro querente ; misas, iiij.</. ; dampna, \\.d.

vi. Stratford Burgus. — Preceptum est servientibus ad clavam ibidem quod capiant,
seu etc., Johannem Addenbrooke, si etc., et eum salvo etc., ita quod habeant corpus
ejus coram ballivo burgi predicti, ad proximam curiam de recordo ibidem tenendam,
ad satisfaciendum Willielmo Shackspeare, generoso, tarn de sex libris debiti quas
predictus Willielmus in eadem curia versus eum recuperavit quam de viginti et quatuor
solidis qui ei adjudicati fuerunt pro dampnis et custagiis suis quos sustinuit occacione
detencionis debiti predicti, et habeant ibi tune hoc preceptum. Teste Francisco
Smyth juniore, generoso, ballivo ibidem, xv. die Marcii, annis regni domini nostri
Jacobi, Dei gracia regis Anglic, Francie et Hibernie sexto, et Scotie xlij°. Greene. —
Infranominatus Johannes non est inventus infra libertatem hujus burgi. Franciscus
Boyce, serviens.

vii. Stratford Burgus. — Preceptum est servientibus ad clavam ibidem quod cum
quidam Willielmus Shackspeare, generosus, nuper in curia domini Jacobi, nunc regis
Anglic, burgi predicti, ibidem tenta virtute literarum patentium domini Edwardi, nuper
regis Anglie, sexti, levavit quandam querelam suam versus quendam Johannem
Addenbrooke de placito debiti, cumque eciam quidam Thomas Horneby de burgo
predicto in eadem querela devenit plegius et manucaptor predicti Johanne, scilicet,
quod si predictus Johannes in querela ilia legitimo niodo convincaretur quod idem
Johannes satisfaceret prefato Willielmo Shackspeare tam debitum in querela ilia per
prefatum Willielmum versus predictum Johannem in curia predicta recuperandum
quam misas et custagia que eidem Willielmo in querela ilia per eandem curiam adjudicata
forent versus eundem Johannem, vel idem se redderet prisone dicti domini regis
Jacobi nunc, burgi predicti, ad satisfaciendum eidem Willielmo eadem debitum misas
et custagia ; et ulterius quod si idem Johannes non satisfaceret eidem Willielmo debitum
et misas et custagia, nee se redderet predicte prisone dicti domini regis nunc ad
satisfaciendum eidem Willielmo in forma predicta, quod tune ipse idem Thomas
Horneby debitum sic recuperandum et misas et custagia sic adjudicata eidem Willielmo
satisfacere vellet. Cumque eciam in querela ilia taliter processum fuit in eadem curia
quod predictus Willielmus in loquela ilia, per judicium ejusdem curie, recuperabat
versus predictum Johannem tam sex libras de debito quam viginti et quatuor solidos
pro decremento misarum et custagiorum ipsius W'illielmi in secta querela illius
appositos. Super quo preceptum fuit servientibus ad clavam ibidem quod capiant, seu
etc., predictum Johannem, si etc., et eum salvo etc., ita quod habeant corpus ejus
coram ballivo burgi predicti, ad proximam curiam de recordo ibidem tenendam, ad
satisfaciendum predicto Willielmo de debito predicto sic recuperato, quam de viginti
et quatuor solidis pro predictis dampnis et custagiis adjudicatis; unde Franciscus Boyle,

478 P ECU XI A R Y LITIGA TION.

tune et nunc serviens ad clavam, ad diem retorni inde mandavit quod predL-tus
Johannes non est inventus in balliva sua, unde idem Willielmus, ad predictam curiam
dicti domini regis, supplicaverit sibi de remedio congruo versus predictum manucap-
torem in hac parte provideri, super quod preceptum est servientibus ad clavam ibidem
quod per probos et legales homines de burgo predicto scire faciant, seu etc., prefatum
Thomam quod sit coram ballivo burgi predicti, ad proximam curiam de recordo in
burgo predicto tenendam, ostensurus si quid et® se habeat vel dicere sciat quare
predictus Willielmus execucionem suam versus eundem Thomam de debito et misis et
custagiis illis habere non debeat, juxta vim, formam et eflectum manucapcionis predicti,
si sibi viderit expedire, et ulterius facturus et recepturus quod predicta curia dicti
domini regis consideret in ea parte, et habeant ibi tune hoc preceptum. Teste
Francisco Smyth juniore, generoso, ballivo ibidem, septimo die Junii, annis regni
domini nostri Jacobi, Dei gracia regis Anglic, Francie et Hibernie, septimo, et Scotie
xlij°. Greene. — Virtute istius precepti mihi directi per Johannem Hemynges et
Gilbertum Chadwell, probos et legales homines burgi infrascripti, scire feci infrano-
minatum Thomam Hornebye, prout interius mihi precipitur. Franciscus Boyce,
serviens.

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 them during 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 Nastis
Pierce Ptnilesse, printed by Jeffes, 1592. This was a very popular -work, two editions
appearing in that year, and two more in the next.

How would it have joyed brave Talbot (the terror of the French) to thinke that,
after he had lyen two hundred yeare in his toomb, he should triumph againe on the
stage, and have his bones new 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.

II. Satirical Verses upon a great Frequenter of the Curtain Theatre, from Marstotfs
Scourge of Villanie, 1598, a work entered at Stationer 's' Hall on May zfth. 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? = 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
moving! y = 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,
divided into three parts: By R. T. Gentleman. — At London. Printed by Felix
Kyngston for Matthe^v Ijnunes. 1598, — a very small 8vo.

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 seemcle 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.

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.

480 THEATRICAL EVIDENCES.

IV. An Extract from the Diary of John Manningham, a barrister of the Middle
Temple, London, 1601-2 ; from the original in the British Museum, MS. Harl.jjsj.

Febr : 1601.— .2. — At our feast wee bad 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 prescribing his
gesture in smiling, his apparaile, &c., and then, when he came to practise, making him
beleeve they tooke him to be mad, &c.

V. Licence to Fletcher, Shakespeare, and others, to play comedies, &c., 77 May,
f6oj. Bill of Privy Signet ; endorsed, " The Players Priviledge." The King's
licence is given in <the same terms in the Writ of Privy Seal dated on May the i8th,
as well as in the Patent under the Great Seal issued on the following day.

By the King. — Right trusty and wel beloved Counsellour, we greete you well,
and will and commaund you that, under our Privie Scale in your custody for the time
being, you cause our lettres to be directed to the Keeper of our Create Scale of
England, comaunding him that under our said Create Scale he cause our lettres to be
made patentes in forme - following. — James, by the grace of God King of England,
Scotland, Fraunce and Irland, Defender of the Faith, &c., to all justices, maiors,
sheriffes, constables, hedboroughes, and other our officers and loving subjectes greeting.
Know ye that we, of our speciall grace, certaine knowledge and meere motion, have
licenced and authorized, and by these presentes doo licence and authorize, these our
servantes, Lawrence Fletcher, William Shakespeare, Richard Burbage, Augustine
Phillippes, John Henninges®, Henry Condell, William Sly, Robert Armyn, Richard
Cowlye and the rest of their associates, freely to use and exercise the arte and facultie
of playing comedies, tragedies, histories, enterludes, moralles, pastoralles, stage- plaies,
and such other, like as they have already studied or heerafter shall use or studie, as
well for the recreation of our loving subjectes as for our solace and pleasure when we
shall thinke good to see them, during our pleasure. And the said comedies, tragedies,
histories, enterludes, morall®, pastoralles, stage-plaies and such like, to shew and
exercise publiquely to their best commoditie, when the infection of the plague shall
decrease, as well within their now usual! howse called the Globe within our countie of
Surrey, as also within any towne-halles or mout-halles, or other convenient places

THEATRICAL EVIDENCES, 481

within the liberties and freedome of any other cittie, universitie, towne or borough
whatsoever within our said realmes and dominions, willing and comaunding you and
every of you, as you tender our pleasure, not only to permitt and suffer them heerin
wfthout any your lettes, hinderances, or molestacions during our said pleasure, but
also to be ayding and assisting to them, yf any wrong be to them offered, and to allowe
them such former courtesies as hath bene given to men of their place and qualitie.
And also, what further favour you shall shew to these our servantes for our sake we
shall take kindely at your handes. In witnes whereof £c. And these our lettres shall
be your sufficient warrant and discharge in this behalf. Given under our Signet at
our Manner of Greenwiche the seavententh day of May in the first yeere of our raigne
of England, Fraunce and Irland, and of Scotland the six and thirtieth.— Ex : per
Lake. — To our right trusty and wel beloved Counsellour, the Lord Cecill of Esingdon,
Keeper of our Privie Scale for the time being.

VI. A Letter, now preserved at Hatfield, from Sir Walter Cope, addressed — "from
your library. — To the right honorable the Lorde Vycount Cranborne at the Courted
It is endorsed 1604, that is, 1604-5, f^e Queen having been entertained by Lord
Southampton in the January of the latter year.

Sir, — I have sent and bene all thys morning huntyng for players juglers and such
kinde of creaturs, but fynde them harde to fynde ; wherfore, leavinge notes for them
to seeke me, Burbage ys come, and sayes ther ys no new playe that the Quene hath
not scene, but they have revyved an olde one cawled Loves Lahore lost, which for wytt
and mirthe he sayes will please her excedingly. And thys ys apointed to be playd to-
morowe night at my Lord of Sowthamptons, unless yow send a wrytt to remove the
corpus cum causa to your howse in Strande. Burbage ys my messenger ready
attendyng your pleasure. — Yours most humbly, — Walter Cope.

VII. In the play of the Return front Parnassus, written in the winter of 1601-2,
but not printed till 1606, Burbage and Kemp are discovered instructing two Cambridge
students, Philomusus and Studioso, in the histrionic art. Kemp has taught Philonmsus
a long speech, when Burbage thus addresses the latter.

Bur. I like your face and the proportion of your body for Richard the 3. I pray,
M. Phil., let me see you act a little of it.

Phil. Now is the winter of our discontent

Made glorious summer by the sonne of Yorke.

Bur. Very well, I assure you. Well, M. Phil, and M. Stud., wee see what
ability you are of. I pray, walke with us to our fellows and weele agree presently.

VIII. The Preface to the First Edition of Troilus and Cressida, 1609. It was most
likely written, at the request of the publishers, by some well-known author of the day.

A never writer to an ever reader, — Newes. — Eternall reader, you have heere a new
play, never stal'd with the stage, never clapper-clawd with the palmes of the vulger.
and yet passing full of the palme comicall ; for it is a birth of your® braine that never
under-tooke any thing commicall vainely ; and were but the vaine names of commedies
changde for the titles of commodities, or of playes for pleas, you should see all those
grand censors, that now stile them such vanities, flock to them for the maine grace of
their gravities ; especially this authors commedies, that are so fram'd to the life that
they serve for the most common commentaries of all the actions of our lives ; shewing
such a d«xteritie and power of witte, that the most displeased with playes are pleasd
with his commedies. And all such dull and heavy-witted worldlings as were never
capable of the witte of a commedie, comming by report of them to his representations,
have found that witte there that they never found in themselves, and have parted
better-wittied then they came ; feeling an edge of wit e set upon them more then

2 H

482

THEATRICAL EVIDENCES.

V.

I

T*»

•I
<0

I

THEATRICAL EVIDENCES. 483

ever they dreamd they had braine to grinde it on. So much and such savored salt of
witte is in his commedies, that they seeme, for their height of pleasure to be borne in
that sea that brought forth Venus. Amongst all there is none more witty then this ;
and had I time I would comment upon it, though I know it needs not, for so much
as will make you thinke your testerne well bestowd, but for so much worth as even
poore I know to be stuft in it. It deserves such a labour as well as the best commedy
in Terence or Plautus, and beleeve this, that when hee is gone, and his commedies
out of sale, you will scramble for them, and set up a new English Inquisition. Take
this fora warning, and, at the perrill of your pleasures losse and judgements, refuse not,
nor like this the lesse for not being sullied with the smoaky breath of the multitude ;
but thanke fortune for the scape it hath made amongst you ; since, by the grand
possessors wills, I beleeve you should have prayd for them® rather then beene prayd.
And so I leave all such to bee prayd for (for the states of their wits healths) that will
not praise it. — Vale

IX. From the original manuscript Journal of the Secretary to the German embassy to
England in April, 1610.

****• 0™™**

90.

Lundi, 30. — S. E. alia au Globe, lieu ordinaire ou Ton joue les commedies ; y fut
represente 1'histoire du More de Venise.

X. In the Ashmole collection of manuscripts is a small folio pamphlet of fourteen
leaves, nine of which are unwritten upon, but the remaining five contain, — " The Bocke
of Plaies and Notes therof per Formans for common pollicie." This little tract, which

t

is in the autograph of the celebrated Dr. Simon Forman, consists of his accounts of the
representations of four plays, three relating to dramas by Shakespeare and a fourth to
one by another writer on the subject of Richard the Second. The former only are here
given.

In the Winters Talle at the Glob, 1611, the 15 of Maye, Wednesday.— Observe
ther howe Lyontes, the Kinge of Cicillia, was overcom with jelosy of his wife with the
Kinge of Bohemia, his frind, that came to see him, and howe he contrived his death,

2 H 2

484 THEATRICAL EVIDENCES.

and wold have had his cupberer to have poisoned, who® gave the King of Bohemia
warning therof and fled with him to Bohemia. — Remember also howe he sent to the
orakell of Appollo, and the aunswer of Apollo that she was giltles, and that the king
was jelouse, &c., and howe, except the child was found againe that was loste, the
kinge shuld die without yssue ; for the child was caried into Bohemia, and there laid
in a forrest, and brought up by a sheppard, and the Kinge of Bohemia hissonn maried
that wentch ; and howe they fled into Cicillia to Leontes, and the sheppard, having
showed the letter of the nobleman by whom Leontes sent a® was that child, and the®
Jewells found about her, she was knowen to be Leontes daughter and was then 16 yers
old. — Remember also the rog that cam in all tottered like Coll Pipci, and howe he
feyned him sicke and to have bin robbed of all that he had, and howe he cosoned the
por man of all his money ; and after cam to the shep-sher with a pedlers packe, and
ther co ioned them again of all their money ; and howe he changed apparrell with the
Kinge of Bomia his sonn, and then howe he turned courtiar, &c. Beware of trustinge
feined beggars or fawninge fellouse.

Of Cimbalin King of England. — Remember also the storri of Cymbalin, King of
England in Lucius tyme ; howe Lucius cam from Octavus Cesar for tribut, and, being
denied, after sent Lucius with a greate armi of souldiars, who landed at Milford
I laven, and affter wer vanquished by Cimbalin, and Lucius taken prisoner ; and all by
means of three outlawes, of the which two of them were the sonns of Cimbalin, stolen
from him when they were but two yers old by an old man whom Cymbalin banished,
and he kept them as his own sonns twenty yers with him in a cave ; and howe of® of
them slewe Clotan, that was the quens sonn, goinge to Milford Haven to sek the love
of Innogen, the kinges daughter, whom he had banished also for lovinge his daughter ;
and howe the Italian that cam from her love conveied himself into a cheste, and said
yt was a chest of plate sent from her love and others to be presented to the kinge ;
and in the deepest of the night, she being aslepe, he opened the cheste, and came
forth of yt, and vewed her in her bed, and the markes of her body, and toke awai her
braslet, and after accused her of adultery to her love, &c., and in thend howe he came
with the Remains into England, and was taken prisoner, and after reveled to Innogen,
who had turned herself into mans apparrell, and fled to mete her love at Milford
Haven, and chanchsed to fall on the cave in the wodes wher her two brothers were ;
and howe, by eating a sleping dram, they thought she had bin deed, and laid her in
the wodes, and the body of Cloten by her in her loves apparrell that he left behind
him ; and howe she was found by Lucius, etc.

In Mackbeth at the Glob, 1610, the 20 of Aprill, Saturday, ther was to be
observed, firste, howe Mackbeth and Bancko, two noble men of Scotland, ridinge
thorowe a wod, the® stode before them three women feiries or nimphes, and saluted
Mackbeth, sayinge three tyms unto him, Haille, Mackbeth, King of Codon ; for thou
shall be a kinge, but shall beget no kinges, etc. Then said Bancko, what all to
Mackbeth, and nothing to me ? Yes, said the nimphes, haille to thee, Banko, thou
shall beget kinges, yet be no kinge ; and so they departed and cam to the courte of
Scotland to Dunkin, King of Scotes, and yt was in the dais of Edward the Confessor.
And Dunkin bad them both kindly wellcom, and made Mackbeth forthwith Prince of
Northumberland, and sent him horn to his own castell, and appointed Mackbeth to
provid for him, for he wold sup with him the next dai at night, and did soe. And
Mackebeth contrived to kill Dunkin, and thorowe the persuasion of his wife did that
night murder the kinge in his own castell, beinge his guest ; and ther were many
prodigies seen that night and the dai before. And when Mack Beth had murdred
the kinge, the blod on his handes could not be washed of by any means, nor from his
wives handes, which handled the bluddi daggers in hiding them, by which means they
became both moch amazed and affronted. The murder being knowen, Dunkins two
sonns fled, the on to England, the (other to) Walks, to save them selves. They

THEATRICAL EVIDENCES. 485

beinge fled, they were supposed guilty of the murder of their father, which was
nothinge so. Then was Mackbeth crowned kinge ; and then he, for feare of Banko,
his old ccmpanion, that he should beget Kinges but be no kinge him self, he contrived
the death of Banko, and caused him to be murdred on the way as he rode. The
next night, beinge at supper with his noble men whom he had bid to a feaste, to the
which also Banco should have com, he began to speake of noble Banco, and to wish
that he wer ther. And as he thus did, standing up to drinck a carouse to him, the
ghoste of Banco came and sate down in his cheier be-hind him. And he, turninge
about to sit down again, sawe the goste of Banco, which fronted him so, that he fell
into a great passion of fear and fury, utteringe many wordes about his murder, by
which, when they hard that Banco was murdred, they suspected Mackbet. Then
Mack Dove fled to England to the kinges sonn, and soe they raised an army and cam
into Scotland, and at Dunstonanyse overthrue Mackbet. In the mean tyme, whille
Macclove was in England, Mackbet slew Mackdoves wife and children, and after in
the battelle Mackdove slewe Mackbet. Observe also howe Mackbetes quen did rise in
the night in her slepe, and walke and talked and confessed all, and the docter noted
her wordes.

XL From the Accounts of moneys expended by Lord Stanhope, Treasurer of the
Chamber, between Michaelmas, 1612, and Michaelmas, 1613, from the original manu
script in the Bodleian Library, Raivl. A. 239.

Item, paid to John Heminges uppon the Cowncells warrant dated att Whitehall
xx.° die Maij, 1613, for presentinge before the Princes Highnes, the Lady Elizabeth
and the Prince Pallatyne Elector, fowerteene severall playes, viz., one playe called
Pilaster, one other called the Knott of Fooles, one other Much adoe abowte nothinge,
the Mayeds Tragedy, the merye dyvell of Edmonton, the Tempest, A kinge and no
kinge, the Twins Tragedie, the Winters Tale, Sir John Falstafe, the Moore of Venice,
the Nobleman, Ccesars Tragedye, and one other called Love lyes a bleedinge, all
which playes weare played within the tyme of this accompte, viz., paid the some of
iiij." xiij.//. vj.j. viij.</.

Item, paid to the said John Heminges uppon the lyke warrant, dated att Whitehall
xx°. die Maij, 1613, for presentinge sixe severall playes, viz :, one playe called a badd
beginininge® makes a good endinge, one other called the Capteyne, one other the
Alcumist, one other Cardenno, one other the Hotspurr, and one other called
Benedicte and Betteris, all played within the tyme of this accompte, viz :, paid fortie
powndes, and by waye of his Majesties rewarde twentie powndes. In all, Ix./z.

XII. Extract from an account of a visit to Bosivorth Field, given in an itinerary
by Bishop Corbet, here taken from the edition in his Poems, ed. 164^. This pleasant
narrative was written long before the date of publication, while the recollections of the
host of the Leicester inn are obviously meant to extend to a period antecedent to the
year 1619.

Mine host was full of ale and history, = And. on the morrow, when he brought us
nigh = Where the two Roses joyned, you would suppose = Chaucer nere writ the
Romant of the Rose. =Heare him, — See yee yond' woods? there Richard lay = With
his whole army. Looke the other way, = And loe where Richmond in a bed of
grosse© = Encamp'd himselfe o're night with all his force. = Upon this hill they met.
Why, he could tell = The inch where Richmond stood, where Richard fell ; = Besides
•what of his knowledge he could say, = Hee had authentique notice from the play, =
Which I might guesse by's mustring up the ghosts, = And policies not incident to
hosts ; = But chiefly by that one perspicuous thing = Where he mistooke a player for a
king, = For when he would have said, King Richard dy'd, = And call'd a horse, a
horse, he Burbage cry'd.

486 THEATRICAL EVIDENCES.

XIII. The commencement of an elegy — " On Mr. Richard Burbidg, an excellent
both player and painter "—from a manuscript of the time of Charles I. , preserved in
the library of the Earl of Warwick. The line given in Italics, wanting in that
volume, is supplied from another copy. This addition it necessary to the context, but
otherwise the original is carefully followed, a single text in these cases being more
authoritative than an eclectic one. The first word of I. 77 is of course an error for oft,
and two various readings are worth special notice, — in 1. 19 mad for sad, and in I. 21
his/or this, five transcripts of the elegy, all of them in seventeenth-century manu
scripts of undoubted genuineness, are known to exist, viz. — one at Warwick Castle,
two at Thirlestane House, and two (one in octavo and one in folio) formerly belonging
to Hasleivood and now in the library of Mr. A. Huth. The lines referring to Hamlet,
Lear, and Othello, are found in all but one, the octavo Haslewood of these manuscripts,
the solitary omission being no doubt accidental. It must also be observed that the
poem is termed in one of the Huth manuscripts, — " A Funerall Ellegye on the death of
the famous actor, Richard Burbedg, who dyed on Saturday in Lent the ij of March,
j6i8," — and as it may fairly be assumed that so precise a title was derived from one
that was given soon after the actor's death, the composition of the elegy may be assigned
to the year 1619.

Some skillful limmer aid mee ; if not so, = Som sad tragoedian helpe to express my
wo ; = But, oh ! hee's gone, that could the best both limme = And act my greif ; and
it is only him = That I invoke this strang assistance to it, = And on the point intreat
himself to doe it ; = For none but Tully Tully's prais can tell, = And as hee could no
man could doe so well = This part of sorrow for him, nor here shew = So truly to the
life this mapp of woe, = That greifs true picture which his loss hath bred. = Hee's
gone, and with him what a world is dead, = Which hee reviv'd ; to bee revived so=
No more : — young Hamlet, old Hieronimo, = Kind Leir, the greived Moor, and more
beside, =That livd in him, have now for ever died. = Ought® have I scene him leape
into the grave, = Suiting the person (that hee seemd to have) = Of a sad lover with
so true an eie, = That then I would have sworn hee meant to die. = Oft have I seene
him play this part in jeast= So lively, that spectators and the rest = Of his sad crew,
whilst hee but seemd to bleed, = Amazed thought ev'n that hee died indeed. = And
did not knowledg cheke mee, I should sweare = Even yet it is a fals report I heare, =
And think that hee that did so truly faine = Is still but dead in jest, to live againe ; =
But now hee acts this part, not plaies, tis knowne ; = Others hee plaid, but acted hath
his owne.

XIV. Verses prefixed to— " Poems written by Wil. Shakespeare, gent." a small
octavo volume printed at London in 1640. Leonard Digges, the author of these lines,
was an Oxford scholar, whose earliest printed work appeared in the year 1617, and who
died at that university in /6jj. The following poem was evidently written soon after
the opening of the second Fortune Theatre in 1623, and it bears every appearance of
having been intended for one of the Commendatory Verses prefixed to the first folio,
perhaps that for which his shorter piece in that volume may have been substituted. It is
superscribed as being " upon Master William Shakespeare, the deceased authour, and
his poems."

Poets are borne not made, — when I would prove = This truth, the glad rememberance
I must love = Of never dying Shakespeare, who alone = Is argument enough to make
that one. = First, that he was a poet none would doubt, = That heard th' applause of
what he sees set out = Imprinted ; where thou hast — I will not say, = Reader, his
Workes, for to contrive a play = To him twas none, — the patterne of all wit, = Art
without Art unparaleld as yet. =Next Nature onely helpt him, for looke thorow =
This whole booke, thou shall find he doth not borrow=One phrase from Greekes, nor
Latincs imitate, = Nor once from vulgar languages translate, = Nor plagiari-like from

THEATRICAL EVIDENCES. 487

others gleane;=Nor begges he from each witty friend a scene = To peece his Acts
with ; —all that he doth write, = Is pure his owne ; plot, language exquisite. = But oh !
what praise more powerfull can we give = The dead, then that by him the Kings Men
live, = His players, which, should they but have shar'd the® fate, = All else expir'd
within the short termes date, = How could the Globe have prospered, since, through
want = Of change, the plaies and poems had growne scant ?= But, happy verse, thou
shalt be sung and heard, = When hungry quills shall be such honour bard. = Then
vanish, upstart writers to each stage, = You needy poetasters of this age ; = Where
Shakespeare liv'd or spake, vermine, forbeare, = Least with your froth you spot them,
come not neere ; = But if you needs must write, if poverty = So pinch, that otherwise
you starve and die, = On Gods name may the Bull or Cockpit have = Your lame
blancke verse, to keepe you from the grave : = Or let new Fortunes younger brethren
see, = What they can picke from your leane industry. = I doe not wonder when you
offer at = Blacke-Friers, that you suffer : tis the fate = Of richer veines, prime judge
ments that have far'd = The worse, with this deceased man compar'd. = So have I
scene, when Cesar would appeare, = And on the stage at halfe-sword parley were, =
Brutus and Cassius, oh how the audience = Were ravish'd ! with what wonder they
went thence, = When some new day they would not brooke a line = Of tedious (though
well laboured) Catiline ; = Sejanus too was irkesome ; they priz'de more = Honest
lago, or the jealous Moore. = And though the Fox and subtill Alchimist, = Long
intermitted, could not quite be mist, = Though these have sham'd all the ancients, and
might raise = Their authours merit with a crowne of bayes, = Yet these sometimes,
even at a friends desire = Acted, have scarce defrai'd the seacoale fire = And doore-
keepers : when, let but Falstaffe come, = Hall, Poines, the rest, — you scarce shall have
aroome, = All is so pester'd : let but Beatrice = And Benedicke be scene, loe, in a
trice = The cockpit, galleries, boxes, all are full = To hear Malvoglio, that crosse-
garter'd gull. = Briefe, there is nothing in his wit-fraught booke, = Whose sound we
would not heare, on whose worth looke, = Like old coynd gold, whose lines in every
page = Shall passe true currant to succeeding age. = But why doe I dead Sheak-
speares® praise recite, = Some second Shakespeare must of Shakespeare write ; = For
me tis needlesse, since an host of men = Will pay, to clap his praise, to free my pen. —
Leon. Digges.

ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES.

No. i. 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 varying 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.

No. 2. ^Esthetic 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 probable 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 suggestions 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. The latter unfortunately
cannot be readily dissociated from the main bulk, that which at present
consists either of the pompous enunciation of matters that are obvious
to all, or of the veriest twaddle that ever deceived the unwary in its
recesses amidst the wilds of dreary verbiage and philosophical jargon.

No. j. 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

49°' ILL USTRA TIVE NO TES.

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 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 adaptation must be conceded
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 un
conquerable apathy of Rosaline do so much in clearing the way to J uliet,
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 circumstances 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.

No. 4. 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 inspec
tion, is found in his Monumenta Britannica, MS. A few brief notes
respecting this undoubtedly honest, though careless, antiquary, who
was born in 1626 and died in 1697, 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.

No. 5. 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. 49 1

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.

No. 6. 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 1 806 ; 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 acquaintance
ship.

No. 7. 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 sub
sequent publications of Phillips, Winstanley, Langbaine, Blount and
Gildon, is all but worthless. Dugdale, in his Antiquities of Warwick
shire, 1656, gives a valuable account of the sepulchral monuments, but
adds no information respecting the poet himself.

No. 8. Thomas Betterton. — This actor, who was born in West
minster 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 enter
prise that he 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 Strat-
ford-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 thereabouts.

No. p. A farmer named Shakespeare. — This name probably arose
in the thirteenth century, when surnames derived from personal occupa
tions first came into general use in this country, and it appears to have

492 ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES.

rapidly become a favourite patronymic. The origin of it is sufficiently
obvious. Some, says Camden, are named "from that which they
commonly carried, as Palmer, that is, Pilgrime, for that they carried
palme when they returned from Hierusalem ; Long-sword, Broad-speare,
Fortescu, that is, Strong-shield, and in some such respect, Break-speare,
Shake-speare, Shot-bolt, Wagstaffe," Remaines, ed. 1605, p. in.
" Breakspear, Shakspear, and the lyke have bin surnames imposed upon
the first bearers of them for valour and feates of armes," Verstegan's
Restitution of Decayed Intelligence, ed. 1605, p. 294. Shakeshaft
and Drawsword were amongst the other old English names of similar
formation. The surname of the poet's family was certainly known as
early as the thirteenth century, there having been a John Shakespere,
living, apparently in Kent, in the year 1279, who is mentioned in Plac.
Cor. 7 Edw. i Kane. From this time the Shakespeares are found
dispersedly in gradually increasing numbers until the sixteenth and
seventeenth centuries, when they were to be met with in nearly every
part of England. It cannot be said that during the latter periods the
surname was anywhere an excessively rare one, but from an early date
Shakespeares abounded most in Warwickshire. In the fifteenth century
they were to be discovered in that county at Coventry, Wroxhall,
Balsall, Knowle, Meriden and Rowington ; in the sixteenth century, at
Berkswell, Snitterfield, Lapworth, Haseley, Ascote, Rowington, Pack-
wood, Beausal, Temple Grafton, Salford, Tanworth, Barston, Warwick,
Tachbrook, Haselor, Rugby, Budbrook, Wroxall, Norton-Lindsey,
Wolverton, Hampton-in- Arden, Knowle, Hampton Lucy and Alcester ;
and in the seventeenth century, at Weston, Bidford, Shrewley, Haseley,
Henley-in-Arden, Kenilworth, Wroxhall, Nuneaton, Tardebigg, Charle-
cote, Kingswood, Knowle, Flenkenho, Coventry, Rowington, Sherbourn,
Packwood, Hatton, Ansley, Solihull, Lapworth, Budbrook, Arley,
Packington, Tanworth, Warwick, Longbridge, Kington, Fillongley, Little
Packington, Meriden, Long Itchington, Claverdon and Tachbrook. It
is not probable that this list, which has been compiled almost exclusively
from records inspected by myself, is by any means a complete one, but
it is sufficiently extensive to show how very numerous formerly were
Shakespeares in Warwickshire, and how dangerous it must be, in the
absence of direct evidence, to assume that early notices of persons of
that name relate to members of the poet's family. Thus it has happened
that more than one John Shakespeare has been erroneously identified
with the father of the great dramatist. There was an agriculturist of
that name, who, in 1570, was in the occupation of a small farm, situated
in the parish of Hampton Lucy near Stratford-on-Avon, which was
described as " one other meadowe with thappurtenaunces called or
knowen by the name of Ingon alias Ington meadowe, conteynynge by
estymacion fouretene acres, be it more or lesse, then or late in the

ILL USTRA TIVE NO TES. 493

tenure or occupacion of John Shaxpere or his assignes," Rot. Glaus. 23
Eliz. This individual has always been considered to have been the
John Shakespeare of Henley Street, but that he was a different person
who resided at Ingon appears from the following entry in the Hampton
Lucy register under the date of 1589, — " Joannes Shakespere of Yngon
was buried the xxv. th of September." He was in all probability at one
time the owner of a field which bordered on Ingon Lane, and which is
described in the will of John Combe, 1613, as Parson's Close alias
Shakespeare's Close. It has also been supposed that the poet's father
resided about the year 1583 at Clifford, a village at a short distance
from Stratford-on-Avon, but that this conjecture is groundless may be
confidently inferred from the fact of the John Shakespeare of Clifford
having been married there in 1560 to a widow of the name of Hobbyns.
" 1560, 15 Octobris, John Shaxspere was maryed unto Julian Hobbyns,
vidua," MS. Register. Even when there are documents which yield
notices referring apparently to one individual in one locality, identification
should not be assumed in the absence of corroborative evidence or at
least of circumstances inducing a high degree of probability ; but when,
as in the instances just discussed, there are merely the facts of persons
of the same Christian and surname living about the same period in
neighbouring but different parishes, conjecture of identity, without such
confirmation, ought to be inadmissible. Neither would interest attach
to the volumes which might be compiled on the numerous ancient
branches of the Shakespeares, and at the same time be destitute of a
single morsel of real evidence to connect them in any degree of consan
guinity with those of Stratford-on-Avon.

No. 10. At Snitterfield. — Richard Shakespeare was residing in that
village as lately as 1560, but the conjecture that he removed some time
after that year to Rowington, and was the same person as the Richard
Shakespeare of the latter village, who died in or about 1592, is one of
those gratuitous speculations which unfortunately embarrass most dis
cussions on genealogical subjects. Richard had been a Christian name
in the Rowington family at least as early as the time of Henry the
Eighth, as appears from the subsidy-rolls of that reign, and it frequently
occurs in the Rowington Shakespeare documents from that period to
the close of the seventeenth century. There is no reason for believing
that any person of the name migrated to Rowington after the year 1560,
much less any evidence that he arrived there from Snitterfield. It is
not probable, however, that the idea of a connexion between the
Shakespeares of Rowington and the poet's family would have arisen,
had it not been assumed, from the fact of Shakespeare having been a
copyholder under the manor, that he was also connected with the
parish. This was not necessarily the case. Singularly enough, there
were two very small properties at Stratford-on-Avon held under the

494

ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES.

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496 ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES.

manor of Rowington, but it does not follow, from the mere circum
stance of Shakespeare purchasing one of those estates, that he was
connected in any way with that village, or that he was ever there with
the exception of one attendance at the manorial court. One of these
Stratford copyholds was located in Church Street, and the other was the
one in Chapel Lane, that which was surrendered to the poet in 1602.
Rowington and Stratford-on-Avon are in the same Hundred, but they were
about twelve miles distant from each other by the nearest road, and there
was very little communication between the two places in Shakespeare's
time. Their relative situations will be best observed in the map of War
wickshire engraved in 1 603, in which the indirect roads between them are
delineated. More than one person of the name of William Shakespeare
was living at Rowington in the times of Elizabeth and the first James.
Richard Shakespeare of that village, who died in 1 560, mentions his son
William in a will dated in the same year ; and it appears from the will of
another inhabitant of the same name, 1591, that his youngest son was
also named William. There was another William, who signs his name
with a mark, something like a small letter a, — " the mark of William
Shakespere " — in a roll of the customs of the manor which were con
firmed in 1614, this person being one of the jury sworn on that occasion.
The eldest son of a Richard Shakespeare of Rowington, who died in
1614, was also called William, as appears from his will and from the
papers of a Chancery suit of 1616. This individual may or may not
have been the marksman of the customs roll, but he was over forty
years of age in 1614, as is ascertained from the Chancery records just
mentioned. Legal proceedings were commenced at Worcester in 1614
" per Willielmum Shakespeare, filium naturalem Elizabethe Shakespeare,
nuper 9e Roweington," respecting her will ; MS. Episc. Reg. Which of
these William Shakespeares was the trained soldier of Rowington in
the muster-roll of 1605 is a matter of no consequence, it being certain
that the latter was not the great dramatist, who, in such a list, would
undoubtedly have been described as belonging to Stratford-on-Avon,
not to a place in which he never resided. A reference to the original
muster-roll will set the question at rest, a list of the trained soldiers at
Stratford-on-Avon appearing not only in a different part of the manu
script, but in another division of the Hundred, and including no person
of the name of Shakespeare. There is no doubt that, amongst the
multitude of Shakespeare families who were settled in Warwickshire in
the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the Shakespeares of Rowington
are those most frequently noticed in the records of those times. It is
no exaggeration to say that at least a hundred pages of this work could
be filled even with the materials regarding them which have been
collected by myself, and these are certainly not exhaustive. If any
connexion, however slight, had existed between the Shakespeares of

ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES. 497

Rowington and those of Stratford-on-Avon during that period, it is all
but impossible that some indication of the fact should not be discovered
in one or other of the numerous wills, law papers and other documents
relating to the former. There is nothing of the kind.

No. ii. Only six. — There is supposed to be a possibility, derived
from an apparen treference to it in Weever's Mirror of Martyrs, that
the tragedy of Julius Caesar was in existence as early as the year 1599,
for although the former 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 premises must be cautiously received. Shake
speare's was not, perhaps, the only drama of the time to which the lines
of Weever were applicable ; and the more this species of evidence is
studied, the more is one inclined to question 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; Hamlet, 1603; Heywood's
Apology for Actors, 1612. There was a French tragedy on the subject
published at Paris in 1578, and a Latin one was performed at Christ
Church, Oxford, in 1582. Tarlton, who died in 1588, had appeared as
Caesar, perhaps on some unauthorised occasion, a circumstance alluded
to in the Ourania, 1606. A play 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 drama, the great popularity of which is recorded by
Digges in 1623.

No. 12. Cannot admit of a reasonable doubt. — There is no absolute
evidence on this subject, nor was there likely to be, but it is unreason
able to require early written testimony on such a point, or to assume it
credible that Shakespeare did not witness scenes that were then, in all
probability, familiar to every lad at Stratford-on-Avon. We have no
evidence that the poet ever saw a maypole, yet we know perfectly well
that he must have met with many a one in the course of his life, and the
persuasion that he was a spectator at some of the mysteries rests on
exactly similar, though less cogent, deductive impressions. Had the
representations of those primitive dramas been of very exceptional oc
currence, it would of course have been a different matter.

No. 13. The Boar's Head Tavern. — It is a singular circumstance
that there is no notice of this celebrated tavern in any edition of Shake-
peare 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

2 I

498 ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES.

0»

never mentions that tavern at all, and the only possible allusion to it is
in the Second Part of Henry the Fourth, where the Prince asks, speak
ing of Falstaff,— " doth the old boar feed in the old frank ?" The Boar's
Head was an inn at least as early as 1537, when it is expressly demised
in a lease as all that tavern called the Bores Hedde " cum cellariis,
sollariis et aliis suis pertinentiis in Estchepe, in parochia Sancti Michaelis
predicti, in tenura Johanne Broke, vidue." About the year 1588 it was
kept by one Thomas Wright, a native of Shrewsbury. " George Wrighte,
sun of Thomas Wrighte of London, vintener, that dwelt at the Bore's
Hed in Estcheap," 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 house.
There were numerous other tenements in London and the country,
including five taverns in the City, known by the name of the Boar's
Head, but the one in Eastcheap was totally destroyed in the great fire
of 1666, and no genuine representation of it is known to exist.

No. 14. Macbeth. — If Dryden may be trusted, there are speeches
in this drama which were not liked by Rare Ben. " In reading some
bombast speeches of Macbeth, which are not to be understood, he
(Jonson) us'd to say that it was horrour, and I am much afraid that
this is so," Essay on the Dramatique Poetry of the last Age, 1672.

No. 15. Was acted. — In the little thin folio manuscript pamphlet
which Forman calls, "the bock of plaies and notes therof per For-
mans, for common pollicie," there are notes of the performances of four
plays, namely, — i. Cymbeline, undated; 2. Macbeth, on Saturday, April
the 2oth, 1611 ; 3. A play on the history of Richard the Second, on
Tuesday, April the 3oth, 1611 ; 4. The Winter's Tale, on Wednesday,
May the i5th, 1611. In the original manuscript, the year 1610 is given
as the date of the second theatrical visit, but, as there must be an over
sight either in the note of the year or in that of the day of the week, it
seems most likely that all the dramas above mentioned were seen by
Forman about the same time, and that the error lies in the former
record.

No. 16. A graphic account. — This is the earliest distinct notice of
the tragedy which has been discovered, so that it must have been written
at some time between March, 1603, and April, 1611, for there is the all
but certainty that it was produced after the accession of James. The
allusion to the " two-fold balls and treble sceptres," and the favourable
delineation of the character of Banquo, appear sufficient to establish the
accuracy of this conclusion. It may also be thought probable that
Macbeth was written and acted before the year 1607, from an apparent
reference to Banquo's ghost in the comedy of the Puritan, 1607, —
" we'll ha' the ghost i' th' white sheet sit at upper end o' th' table." All
deductions, however, of this kind are to be cautiously received, for it is

ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES. 499

of course possible that the incident referred to may have been originally
introduced in the older play on the subject. A similar observation will
apply to a passage in the Knight of the Burning Pestle, 1611, where the
probability of the allusion is somewhat marred by the reference to a
whispering tale. The story of Macbeth had been introduced on the
English stage at least as early as 1600, for, in that year, Kemp, the
actor, in his Nine Daies Wonder performed in a Daunce from London
to Norwich, thus alludes to some play on the subject, — " still the search
continuing, I met a proper upright youth, onely for a little stooping in
the shoulders all hart to the heele, a penny poet, whose first making
was the miserable stolne story of Macdoel, or Macdobeth, or Macsome-
what, for I am sure a Mac it was, though I never had the maw to see
it." The concluding words clearly imply that Kemp alluded to some
piece that had been represented on the stage, one whence Shakespeare
may have derived the legend of the murder and other incidents. It is
at all events worth notice, in reference to the feasibility of this sugges
tion, that when Lady Macbeth says, — " nor time nor place did then
adhere, and yet you would make both," — there seems to be an allusion
to some incident which was in the author's recollection, and which, in
the hurry of composition, he had forgotten was inconsistent with his own
treatment of the subject.

No. 17. On horseback. — Rude models of horses, the bodies made
of canvas dilated with hoops and laths, were familiar objects on the
early English stage. "Enter a spruce courtier a-horse-backe," stage-
direction in MS. play of Richard the Second, c. 1597. "One great
horse with his leages," list of theatrical properties, 1599. Many actors
of the Shakespearean period were dexterous in their management
of these hobby-horses, and it would seem that there was at least one
troupe composed entirely of that class of performers. " Payed Mr. Maior
that hee gave to the Princes hobyehorse plaiores, \].s. vj.</.," Reading
Corporation MSS., 1608.

No. 18. Cymbeline. — The tragedy is called "Cymbeline King of
Britaine"in the list prefixed to the first folio, 1623. It may be just
worth notice that a cavern near Tenby, that might be passed in a walk
to Milford, known as Hoyle's Mouth, has been suggested as the pro
totype of the cave of Belarius.

No. 19. When that eccentric astrologer, Dr. Forman, died suddenly.
, — The day of his burial is thus recorded in the beautifully written
ancient register of St. Mary's, Lambeth, — "A.D. 1611, September 12;
Simon Forman, gent."

No. 20. The Midsummer Nighfs Dream. — It has been plausibly
suggested that this title was derived from the circumstance of its having
been originally produced at Midsummer, as otherwise the name would
be inappropriate ; and the graceful compliment paid in it to Elizabeth

212

$oo ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES.

would appear to indicate that the comedy was written with a view to its
representation before that sovereign. The Lord Chamberlain's servants
were not in the habit of acting plays before Royalty in the summer time,
but when there was one intended for ultimate performance before the
Court, it was their usual custom to produce it in the first instance at
the theatre. In this way, by means of what may be termed public
rehearsals, the actors were trained for a more effective representation
before the Queen than would otherwise have been attainable. "Whereas
licence hath bin graunted unto two companies of stage-players to use
and practice stage-playes, whereby they might be the better enhabled
and prepared to shew such plaies before her Majestic as they shal be
required at tymes meete and accustomed," Privy Council Register, 1598.

No. 21. Mentioned for the first time. — There seems to be a
probability that Shakespeare, in the composition of the Midsummer
Night's Dream, had in one place a recollection of the sixth book of the
Faerie Queene, published in 1596, for he all but literally quotes the
following line from its eighth canto, — " Through hih and dales, through
bushes and through breres" ed. 1596, p. 640. As the comedy was not
printed until the year 1600, and it is impossible that Spenser could
have been present at any representation of it before he had written the
sixth book of his celebrated poem, it may fairly be concluded that
Shakespeare's play was not composed at the earliest before the year
1596, in fact, not until some time after January the zoth, 1595-6, on
which day the Second Parte of the Faerie Queene was entered on the
Stat. Reg. The sixth book was probably composed as early as 1592 or
1593, no doubt in Ireland and at some 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
written previously to the composition of the latter work.

No. 22. One little fragment. — A curious stage-artifice, which was
originally practised in the workmen's interlude, is thus mentioned in
Sharpham's comedy of the Fleire, published in 1607, — "Kni. And how
lives he with 'am ? — Fie. Faith, like Thisbe in the play, 'a has almost
kil'd himselfe with the scabberd." Another little vestige of the old per
formance is accidentally recorded in the first folio, 1623, where a man
named Tawyer is introduced as heading the procession of the actors as
trumpeter. This person was a surbordinate in the pay of Hemmings,
his burial at St. Saviour's in June, 1625, being thus noticed in the
sexton's MS. note-book, — "William Tawier, Mr. Heminges man, gr.
and cl., xvj.</."

No. 23. In plain and unobtrusive language. — Life is not breathed
into a skeleton by attiring it in fancy gauze, and thus the climax of
dullness has been reached by those who, blending the real with the
ideal, have hitherto attempted to produce a readable Life of Shake-

ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES. 501

speare. A foolish desire to avoid the title of Dryasdusts has driven
them into the ranks of the larger family of Drierthandusts. It is not
every subject that can legitimately be made attractive to the lazy, or, as
it is the fashion to term him, the general reader. In the entire absence
of materials that reveal the poet's living character, the selection really
lies between the acceptance of romance and that of a simple narrative
of external facts. We have not even the consolation of expecting that
narrative to be ever interwoven with an absolutely faithful representation
of contemporary life, — a life with all the infinite variations from that of
the present day many of which necessarily elude the most assiduous
research.

No, 24. Titus Andronicus. — The actors who were enlisted under
the banner of the Earl of Sussex were playing at the Rose from
December the 2yth, 1593, to February the 6th, 1594, the last-mentioned
day being that of the third performance of this drama and also that of
the entry of its copyright by Danter at Stationers' Hall. It is clear,
however, from the actorial notices on the title-page of the edition of
1594, that the tragedy itself could not have been published for some
weeks, if not months, after the latter transaction. No copy of that
impression is now known to exist, but it had been seen by Langbaine,
who, in his Account of the English Dramatick Poets, 1691, p. 464,
says, — "this play was first printed 4°. Lond. 1594, and acted by the
Earls of Derby, Pembroke and Essex, their Servants." That Essex is
here a misprint for Sussex is evident from the title-page of the 1600
edition, and also from the half-title on the first page of text in that of
1611. Those two later impressions were published by Edward White,
but neither he nor Danter had aught to do with any of the subsequent
productions of Shakespeare, while the assignment of "Titus and
Andronicus " from Millington to Pavier in 1602 may refer to a prose
history, in the same way that the " book called Thomas of Reading,"
named in the same entry, certainly does. In the note of the transfer
of the copyright from Mrs. Pavier to Brewster and Bird, 1626, Titus
Andronicus is not included in the " right in Shakesperes plaies or any
of them," but is inserted in company with the prose Hamlet. Whether
the interest of the Paviers was in the history or in the drama is, however,
a question of no great moment, the title-pages of the old editions of
the latter showing that an acting copy of it was in the repertoire of
Shakespeare's company during the later years of the reign of Elizabeth
and in the early part of that of James the First.

No. 23. Having been successfully produced. — Its immediate popularity
on the stage is evidenced, not merely by its timely publication and the
large receipts at the theatre, but also by the circumstance of its having
been performed by several different companies within a brief time after
its production in 1594. It is also worth notice that Danter entered the

$02 ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES.

copyright of a ballad on the history of the play at the same time that he
registered the latter, and this is another testimony in a like direction.
In Father Hubburds Tales, 1604, the action of a man with one arm
is compared to that of "old Titus Andronicus," the reference being
probably to the tragedy, and one which, it is clear, was assumed to have
been familiar to readers of the day. A drama called Andronicus, which
is noted as having been twice acted at Newington in June, 1594, was
most likely another production, and the one which is mentioned, under
that single title, and as being a very old play in 1614, in Ben Jonson's
Induction to his Bartholomew Fair. It is improbable that Henslowe's
three titles recorded in January and February, 1594, should vary so
distinctly from the two given in the following June, had the same play
been intended in all the entries.

No. 26. The authenticity of Shakespeare's earliest tragedy. — An
alteration of Titus Andronicus by Edward Ravenscroft, a dramatist of
the Restoration period, was produced on the stage in or about the year
1678, when it was heralded by a prologue that included the following
lines, — "To day the poet does not fear your rage,=Shakespear by him
reviv'd now treads the stage ;= Under his sacred lawrels he sits down=
Safe from the blast of any criticks frown. = Like other poets, he'll not
proudly scorn = To own that he but winnow'd Shakespear's corn;=So
far he was from robbing him of 's treasure, = That he did add his own
to make full measure." But when the work itself was published in
1687, under the title of "Titus Andronicus or the Rape of Lavinia,
acted at the Theatre Royall, a tragedy alter'd from Mr. Shakespears
Works by Mr. Edw. Ravenscroft," the adapter makes this curious state
ment, — " I have been told by some anciently conversant with the stage
that it was not originally his, but brought by a private author to be
acted, and he only gave some master-touches to one or two of the
principal parts or characters," the words his and he referring to the great
dramatist. Ravenscroft adds that the original prologue had then been
lost, but Langbaine, who has preserved the lines above quoted in his
Account of the English Dramatick Poets, 1691, p. 465, seems to
question the truth of that assertion, plainly holding the opinion that
the former writer was not distinguished for his literary integrity. How
ever that may be, it is clear that so late a tradition respecting the
authorship of the earlier play cannot fairly be held to outweigh the
decisive testimonies of Shakespeare's own contemporaries.

No. 27. In the Christmas holidays. — The performance here men
tioned took place on the evening of December the 26th, at Whitehall.
" 1604 and 1605 — Edmund Tylney — on St. Stephens night Mesure for
Mesur by Shaxberd, performed by the King's players," old notes of the
Audit Records taken for Malone about the year 1800. "For makeinge
readie the halle at Whitehalle for the Kinge, for the plaies againste

ILL USTRA TIVE NO TES. 5°3

Christmas, by the space of iiij.or daies in the same moneth, lxxviij..f. \\\].d"
MS. Accounts of the Treasurer of the Chamber, 1604.

No. 28. A great dislike. — James the First had long exhibited a taste
for seclusion. As early as the year 1586, a contemporary alludes to "his
desire to withdraw himself from places of most access and company, to
places of more solitude and repose, with very small retinue." A similar
feeling pervaded his movements after he had ascended the throne of
these realms, and in his progress from Edinburgh to London, " he was
faine," observes the writer of A True Narration of the Entertainment of
his Royall Majestic, 1603, "to publish an inhibition against the in
ordinate and dayly accesse of peoples comming." In his " publick
appearance," observes Wilson, " especially in his sports, the accesses of
the people made him so impatient that he often dispersed them with
frowns, that we may not say with curses."

No. 29. 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 woman, 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 slightest reference to the memories of the Boar's Head tavern.
All this leads to the inference that the small connexion to be traced
between the comedy and the 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. Then, again, there are traces in the play
itself of its composition having been subjected to external influence.

No. 30. At the desire of the Queen. — With respect to the degree of
credibility to be given to Rowe's version of the Falstaff anecdote, much
will depend upon the importance to be attached to the subsequent
discovery of a confirmatory fact which was unknown to that biographer.
There is no reason to believe that the first edition of the Merry Wives
had been seen by any writers of the eighteenth century until a copy of
it came into the hands of Theobald about the year 1731. See a letter
from that critic to Warburton in MS. Egerton 1956. According to the
title-page of that edition, the comedy, in 1602, had "bene divers times
acted by the Right Honorable my Lord Chamberlaines Servants, both
before her Majestic and elsewhere." This is the only known contem
porary evidence that it was ever performed before Queen Elizabeth,

$0* ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES.

0

although the internal references to Windsor Castle in connexion with
that Sovereign would suggest the probability of its having been written
with a view to its performance before the Court.

No. 31. In the brief space of a fortnight. — This tradition was first
recorded by Dennis in the dedication to the Comical Gallant, 1702, in
which he says, referring to the Merry Wives of Windsor and Queen
Elizabeth — "this comedy was written at her command, and by her
direction, and she was so eager to see it acted that she commanded it to
be finished in fourteen days ; and was afterwards, as tradition tells us,
very well pleas'd at the representation," and in the prologue, he repeats
the assertion that Shakespeare's comedy was written in the short space
of fourteen days. Rowe, in 1709, speaking of Queen Elizabeth, says,
— "she was so well pleased with that admirable character of Falstaff in
the two parts of Henry the Fourth, that she commanded him (Shake
speare) 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 his Remarks,
1710, 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 I 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."
Gildon here says nothing of the incentive created by the original
attractions of the theatrical Falstaff, but Elizabeth could not very well
have commanded a portrayal of the fat knight in love if she had not
been previously introduced to him in another character. Pope,
Theobald, and later editors, appear to have taken their versions of the
tradition second-hand from their predecessors. Rowe's version of the
anecdote is, as usual with him, the one most cautiously written, and
therefore that to be preferred ; but still there is no reason for disbelieving
the assertions 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 somewhat weakened by the fact that, in
his Letters, ed. 1721, p. 232, he reduces the period to ten days. It is
at the same time to be remembered that extreme rapidity of composition
was not unusual with the dramatists of the Shakespearean period.

No. 32. 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 fort
night." 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.

ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES. 505

No. jj. A catchpenny publisher. — It is worthy of remark that, in the
title-pa^e 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 con
temporary edition of any of the plays of Shakespeare in the title-page ot
which so many flattering notices of characters are introduced.

No. 34. A very defective copy. — The first edition, in every respect
an irregular performance, is considered by some critics to be an imper
fect copy of a very hastily written original sketch of the comedy. Were
this the case, surely there would be found passages unmistakeably
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 imperfect transcripts of speeches
that are found in the authentic drama. The few re-written portions
are of 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 tormented by the pretended fairies in Windsor Park,
the most 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 con
sideration, and some of the lines in them are poor and despicable.
There are indications that the botcher was fully acquainted with Shake
speare'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, Shake
speare'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 larger 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 folio edition, are entirely omitted in the quarto. Amongst the
numerous other indications of an imperfect publication, attention may
be drawn to the introduction of Bardolph in the second stage-direction,
while he is 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 inferior writer of the time was concerned with the publication.

5o6 ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES.

No. 35. Written before the production of Henry the Fifth. — The
foreign swindlers, who are facetiously termed cousin -germans by Parson
Evans in ed. 1623, are alluded to in ed. 1602 as "three sorts of cosen
garmombles" the last word being reasonably conjectured to be an
allusion in some way by metathesis to Count Mompelgard, the second
title of the Duke of Wirtemberg. This nobleman paid a visit to England
in 1592, being then known under the former designation, for he did not
succeed to the dukedom until the following year. He was ceremoni
ously received by Queen Elizabeth at Reading, leaving that place for
Windsor escorted by a person of rank who was specially deputed by
her Majesty to show him every mark of attention. He remained only
two days in the latter town, proceeding thence, under the guidance of
one or more members of the royal household, to the palace at Hampton
Court. There was clearly no opportunity during these excursions
between Reading and Hampton Court for the perpetration of the
garmomble rogueries, and the same remark will apply to the conditions
under which he travelled from London through Colebrook and Maiden
head. From the minute account of these occurrences, which was
published at Tubingen in 1602, it seems that the Queen sent one of
her own carriages expressly to London for the use of the distinguished
stranger, and that he had driven in it to Reading " with several post-
horses," but not a word is said respecting his having then had an
authority for engaging them without payment. Even if there had been
such an exercise of tyrannical privilege, it was of far too usual a kind to
have elicited the references in the Merry Wives of Windsor, and that
the Count himself would have sanctioned a disreputable personal fraud
is, under the circumstances, altogether incredible ; the rather also from
the fact of his having been accompanied the whole distance by one of
the Queen's pages of honour. If, as is most probable, Shakespeare
alludes to real events, it may be concluded that, on some other occa
sion, three Germans, staying at the Garter Inn as retainers of a Duke
Mompelgard, pretended that they had to meet him in his progress from
London towards the Court, and, by that stratagem, managed to run off
with the poor innkeeper's horses, defrauding him at the same time of
his charges for a week's luxurious maintenance. Now it seems that
when Breuning was the special ambassador to this country from
Wirtemberg in 1595, he ascertained that one Stammler had previously
appeared with fictitious credentials before the Queen as an envoy from
the Duke. This impudent knave, who was ultimately " banished the
kingdom on account of his discreditable tricks," was still in England in
the latter part of that year, and was evidently suspected of indulging in
nefarious equine transactions. It appears that Breuning, having received
private information that Stammler was making enquiries respecting a
horse with an ostensible view to its purchase, consulted La Fontaine on

ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES. 507

the matter, and, by his advice, "employed some one to watch him,
giving orders that he should be arrested if he showed any signs of an
intention to levant." Some of these particulars will be found in Rye's
England as seen by Foreigners, 1865, and others are given by Herr
Kurz in his Altes und Neues, zu Shakspeare's Leben und Schaffen,
1868. La Fontaine arrived in England in October, 1595, as Charge
des affaires du Roi en 1'absence d'Ambassadeur ; App. Publ. Rec. Rep.,
xxxvii., 187. No exact record of Stammler's delinquencies has come
to light, but it is by no means impossible that he may have been the
ringleader in the deceptions practised on mine Host of the Garter.
Whether this were the case or not, no legitimate inference respecting
the date of Shakespeare's composition is to be drawn from the allusions
to the transactions of the Germans. When the great dramatist was at
Windsor he may have heard a full account of the story in the form in
which it is introduced into the comedy, for it should be remembered
that, in those days of restricted intercourse, unusual incidents of all
kinds would continue to be subjects of local gossip for years after their
occurrence.

No. 36. A new drama. — This fact is ascertained from Henslowe's
Diary, the letters N.E., that is, New Enterlude, being attached to the
note of the performance, which realised the then large sum of three
pounds sixteen shillings and five pence.

No. j/. On unquestionable authority. — That of Robert Greene who,
in his Groatsworth of Wit, written in or shortly before August, 1592,
mentions Shakespeare as an upstart crow, a phrase altogether incon
sistent with the opinion that the authorial career of the latter had been
initiated any length of time previously to the appearance of that work.

No. 38. Month of July. — Nash's Pierce Penilesse, the work here
alluded to, was entered on the registers of the Stationers' Company on
August the 8th, 1592. The words of Nash, those in which he calls
Talbot the Terror of the French, viewed in connection with the entries
in Henslowe's Diary, not only prove that he refers to the drama which
was produced in Mar"ch, but that the latter was, in all probability, the
First Part of Henry the Sixth ; that is to say, if it be conceded that
Greene quotes from the Third Part in the Groatsworth of Wit published
in the following September.

No. 39. Collective Edition of 1623. — The omissions, discrepancies,
transpositions, and repetitions, found in this edition of the Second and
Third Parts, merely show that the latter was printed from theatrical,
copies in which there were numerous erasures and alterations. Both
plays, in reference to these peculiarities, should be considered together.
In one instance, at least, a speech which occurs in the First Part of the
Contention and in the Second Part of Henry the Sixth is repeated
nearly word for word in the Third Part of the latter, but is not inserted

5o8 ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES.

in the True Tragedie, — " Hold, Warwick, seek thee out," &c., 2 Henry
VI., act v. sc. 2. The careless manner in which the folio copies ha\e
been edited is perhaps nowhere more clearly seen than in the lines
respecting the Castle Tavern, a speech which in that edition is obviously
an imperfect transcript. Malone, referring to the obviously incorrect
repetitions in ed. 1623, considers that they arose "from Shakespeare's
first copying his original as it lay before him, and afterwards, in
subsequent passages, added to the old matter, introducing expressions
which had struck him in preceding scenes." This deduction is not
sustained on a careful examination, for repetitions also occur in the
quartos. It is unsafe to rest arguments either on these or on verbal
indications, but one of the latter, fore-spent in the edition of 1623,
printed sore spent in that of 1595, may possibly imply the priority of the
text of the former.

No 40. A garbled and spurious version. — This theory appears to
present fewer difficulties than any other that has been advanced to meet
the singular perplexities of the case. As some of this version was
probably taken in short-hand at the theatre, and that in the folio printed
from a theatrical copy that had been tampered with, it is most likely
that some lines of Shakespeare's are peculiar to the former. There are
several that he could hardly have rejected had he been merely com
posing an alteration of the First Part of the Contention. The internal
evidence is strongly in favour of the Second Part of Henry the Sixth,
although of course it may have been retouched by the author after its
first production, being one of Shakespeare's earliest plays. That part of
young Clifford's speech commencing, " Meet I an infant of the house of
York," is in itself almost decisive as to this point, while it is an essential
portion of a noble harangue, the other lines of which may or may not
have been subject to revision. It is also worth notice that there are a
larger number of decided archaisms in the Second Part of Henry the
Sixth than there are in the First Part of the Contention ; and as there
are good reasons for believing that the manuscript of the Third Part of
Henry the Sixth was in existence in 1594, it is most extremely unlikely,
in such a case, that copies of the other parts, as written by Shakespeare,
were not in the actors' hands at the same period.

No. 41. By Millington. — Both parts of the Contention had been
assigned by Millington to Pavier in April, 1602, the latter entering them
upon the books of the Stationers' Company on that occasion, salvo jure
cujuscunque, as "the first and second parte of henry the vi.t, ii. bookes;"
a mistake for the First and Second Parts of the Contention. There
appears to be something mysterious in the Latin words, and it is curious
that Pavier should have kept the two plays till the year 1619 without a
republication. The entry is, however, important, for it clearly shows
that, as early as 1602, the present title of Henry the Sixth had superseded

ILL USTRA TIVE NOTES. 509

the older one. Pavier's first edition appeared as " the Whole Contention
betweene the two famous Houses, Lancaster and Yorke."

No. 42. The earliest record. — Taking Greene's words in their con
textual and natural sense, he first alludes to Shakespeare as an actor,
one " beautified with our feathers," that is, one who acts in their plays,
then to the poet as a writer just commencing to try his hand at blank
verse, and, finally, to him as not only engaged in both those capacities
but in any other in which he might be useful to the company. If
Greene had intended, as some think, to accuse Shakespeare of pilfer
ing from his works, or from those of other contemporaries, it may be
assumed that he would have made the charge in far more direct terms.
Moreover, the particular satire, which was eindently aimed at Shakespeare,
would have lost its significance if the words of any other writer had been
travestied. The attack of Greene's, plainly interpreted, is a decisive
proof of Shakespeare's authorship of the line, and hence, by fair
inference, of the speech in which it occurs.

No 4.3. A surreptitious and tinkered version of the Third Part. —
There is almost conclusive evidence that the first folio text of the Third
Part of Henry the Sixth was in existence at least as early as the year
1594, and, therefore, before the publication of the True Tragedie,
Gabriel Spencer and Humphrey Jeffes, two of the subordinate actors in
the former, having continued in the Lord Admiral's Company after that
period. It is obviously most unlikely that the manuscript of the play
should have been left with that company after Shakespeare had joined
the Lord Chamberlain's, there being every reason for believing that
those two companies acted altogether independently of each other after
the year 1594. Gabriel acted the Messenger in the second scene of the
first act, as appears from the text of ed. 1623. It seems that he was
popularly known by his Christian name, being so noticed in a list of
the Lord Admiral's Company in October, 1597, by Henslowe in 1598,
and again in the complimentary reminiscences of deceased players in
Heywood's Apology for Actors, 1612. On October the 2nd, 1597, a
warrant was issued " to the keeper of the Marshalsea, to release Gabriell
Spencer and Robert Shaa, stage-players, out of prison, who were of late
committed to his custodie," most probably for debts. Although Gabriel
had an interest in the profits of the company to which he belonged, it
appears that in the later part of his career he was in pecuniary difficulties,
being compelled to be constantly borrowing money on his promissory
notes, and once at least on the pawn of a jewel. He met with an un
timely death in 1598, when, having challenged Ben Jonson, he was
killed by the latter in a duel. This unfortunate event took place in the
fields near Hoxton, then a straggling country village, and the regret of
Henslowe at his loss is thus expressed in a letter to Allen dated on the
26th of September, — "sence yow weare with me I have loste one of my

5 io ILL USTRA TIVE NO TES.

company, which hurteth me greatley, that is, Gabrell, for he is slayen
in Hogesden fylldes by the hands of Bengemen Jonson, bricklayer,"
Dulwich MS. The poor actor's burial is thus recorded in the register
of SL Leonard's, Shoreditch, — "Gabriell Spencer, being slayne, was
buryed the xxiiij.th of September," a note adding that his residence was
in Hog Lane, a street in the vicinity of the northern theatres. Two
other actors, Humphrey and Sinklow, undertook the parts of the two
Keepers in the first scene of the third act of the Third Part of Henry
the Sixth, their names being attached to the speeches of those characters
in the edition of 1623. Humphrey Jeffes, the person here alluded to,
acted, in or before the year 1592, in a drama called the First Part of
Tamber Can, and he was one of the Lord Admiral's Company acting in
Peele's Battle of Alcazar about the year 1594. Henslowe mentions
him as a half-sharer in the same company in 1598, he and his brother
Anthony having one share between them. He was one of the actors
in the play of the Six Yeomen of the West in 1601, and in that year
he appears to have been residing in Southwark, — " Marye Jeffes, d. of
Humphrey, a player," Baptisms, St. Saviour's, Southwark, 25 Jan.
1 600- 1. When most of the Lord Admiral's actors transferred their
services to Prince Henry in 1603, Humphrey Jeffes and his brother
were members of the new company, and they marched in the procession
of James the First through London, '1604 ; Lord Chamberlain's MS.
Early in the year 1613, a few weeks after the death of the Prince, whose
funeral he attended, Humphrey became one of the servants of the
Elector Palatine, in which company he remained until two or three
years before his death. "Humphrie Jeffes, plaier," Burials at St.
Giles's, Cripplegate, 21 August, 1618. It may be just worth a note to
add that he was one of the players summoned before the Privy Council
in March, 1616, for joining in stage-performances during Lent. Little,
however, as there is known of the history of this actor, still less has been
discovered respecting his fellow-player, Sinklow, who is generally, and
perhaps rightly, presumed to be the John Sincler, one of the performers
with Burbage and others in the Second Part of the Seven Deadly Sins,
a drama originally produced some time before September, 1588. Sink-
low was a subordinate member of the Lord Chamberlain's Company at
least as early as the year 1600, for he is introduced into the first edition
of the Second Part of Henry the Fourth as having enacted the part of
a Beadle in that drama, and he was one of the company of itinerant
players in the Induction to the Taming of the Shrew, no doubt acting
in the comedy itself. He appears also in the Induction to the Mal
content, 1604, where he is introduced with several of the King's Players,
and takes the part of a rich gallant who wishes to indulge in the dignity
of having a stool on the stage. With respect to his capabilities as an
actor, nothing can safely be inferred from the graceful compliment paid

ILL US TRA TIVE NO TES. 5 1 1

by the Lord to the Second Player in the Induction to the Taming of
the Shrew, for it is of course possible that Shakespeare had written that
episode before he knew the distribution of the parts. The character
of Soto, therein alluded to, was probably one in an early drama which
is no longer in existence, certainly not the personage so named who is
introduced in Fletcher's Women Pleased.

No. 44. The Earl of Pembroke's Servants. — And no doubt produced
by that company. It is to be observed that, however occasionally
mendacious in other respects, the title-pages of the earliest impressions
of old quartos are generally excellent authorities for the names of the
companies by whom the plays were first acted.

No. 45. Had outlived the possibility. — Mr. Swinburne, in an elo
quent criticism, is of opinion that the lines which open the fourth act of
the Second Part, and are not to be found in the version of 1594, are
indisputably by Marlowe. "It is inconceivable," he observes, "that
any imitator but one should have had the power so to catch the very
trick of his hand, the very note of his voice, and incredible that the one
who might would have set himself to do so," a Study of Shakespeare,
1880, p. 52. But if Shakespeare, as is most probable, wrote those lines
in the year 1592, he may not at that time have outlived the possibility
referred to in the text. It is worth notice that there are a few striking
coincidences of language, especially in the passage respecting the wild
Oneil, to be traced in Marlowe's Edward the Second and the Contention
plays of 1594 and 1595 ; and also that a line from the Jew of Malta
is found in the Third Part of Henry the Sixth, but not in the True
Tragedie. The transference of occasional lines from one writer by
another was, however, too common a practice of the day to prove much
in the way of authorship, or to involve a serious charge of plagiarism.

No. 46. The quarto editions. — "The old copies," observes Dr.
Johnson, " are so apparently imperfect and mutilated, that there is no
reason for supposing them the first draughts of Shakespeare ; I am
inclined to believe them copies taken by some auditor who wrote down,
during the representation, what the time would permit, then perhaps
filled up some of his omissions at a second or third hearing, and, when
he had, by this method, formed something like a play, sent it to the
printer." This auditor would have taken down his notes in short-hand.
In plain words, the quartos are jumbles composed of parts of the
original play made up with other matter supplied by some wretched
hack, the whole abounding in obvious inaccuracies. An endeavour to
unravel the precise history of such relics, printed in those days of
commonplace books compiled from short-hand notes taken at the
theatres, must necessarily be futile. Some of the trifling additions to
and variations from the texts of 1594 and 1595, found in the editions of
1600 and 1619, may perhaps be attributed to the use of such materials.

5>2 ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES.

These additions appear for the most part to be such as might be the
work of the poorest of botchers, but there is one line, peculiar to
ed. 1619, — " Under pretence of outward seeming ill," — which is greatly
in Shakespeare's manner.

No. 47. Blundering. — Some of the evidences which have been
adduced to show that the quartos were either very early productions
of Shakespeare, or the works of elder writers, are really instances of
unskilful and obtuse attempts to supply the place of imperfect notes or
recollections.

No 48. A secondary title.— It so, All's Well that Ends Well, a
comedy first heard of under that title in 1623, would seem to have the
fairest claim, but it is not likely to have been written so early as 1598.
Assuming that the mysterious letter E of the first folio refers to
Ecclestone, All's Well must have been produced some time before
August the zgth, 1611, on which day he is mentioned as belonging to
a company with which Shakespeare had no connexion. It has been
plausibly suggested that Cowley was another of the original performers
in this drama, and that Parolles jocularly alludes to his name when he
addresses the Clown as " good monsieur Lavatch," meaning, probably,
la vache. The latter was an ancient English surname, " Sire Phylype la
Vache knyht " being mentioned in a document of 1404 printed in
Blount's Law Dictionary, ed. 1717, in v. Will.

No. 49. Richard the Third. — A Latin drama on the subject of
Richard the Third, written by Dr. Thomas Legge, was acted at St.
John's College, Cambridge, as early as the year 1579, and long con
tinued in favour with scholastic audiences ; but the earliest known
English play on this reign, probably one only of several, is entitled the
True Tragedie of Richard the Third, which was published in 1594.
There is only one line in this production, — " a horse, a horse, a fresh
horse," — which bears a great resemblance to any in Shakespeare's, but,
if the great dramatist adapted his from a previous work, it is possible
that he remembered what the Moor says in Peele's Battle of Alcazar,
1594, — "a horse, a horse, villaine, a horse!" Another piece on the
same history, one which has unfortunately long since perished, is thus
alluded to in a little volume of excessive rarity entitled, A New Booke
of Mistakes, or Bulls with Tales and Buls without Tales, but no lyes by
any meanes, 1637, — " In the play of Richard the Third, the Duke of
Buckingham, being betraid by his servant Banister, a messenger,
comming hastily into the presence of the King to bring him word of the
Duke's surprizall, Richard asking him, what newes?, he replyed, — My
leige, the Duke of Banister is tane, = And Buckingham is come for his
reward." The high probability of Shakespeare's drama having been
founded on an anterior one encourages the belief that the first of the
lines just given belonged, in its genuine form, to the older play. The

ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES. 513

former work was most likely produced in 1597, for, according to the
title-page of the first quarto, which was entered at Stationers' Hall in
October, it had then been " lately acted by the Right Honourable the
Lord Chamberlaine his servants," and the company did not re-assume
the title until the April of that year. The first edition is without the
author's name, but the second appeared in 1598 as a drama written
" by William Shakespeare," both published by Wise, who issued other
editions in 1598 and 1602, and the copyright remained in his hands
until June, 1603, when it was transferred to Matthew Law, who pub
lished the subsequent quartos of 1605 and 1612. Few plays of the
time attained a greater popularity, and, amongst the evidences of this,
may be specially noticed one in a poem entitled the Ghost of Richard
the Third, 1614, in which the author makes the King refer to Shake
speare in the following elegant panegyric, — " To him that impt my fame
with Clio's quill, = Whose magick rais'd me from oblivions den,=That
writ my storie on the Muses' hill, = And with my actions dignifi'd his
pen;=He that from Helicon sends many a rill, = Whose nectared
veines are drunke by thirstie men ;=Crown'd be his stile with fame, his
head with bayes,=And none detract, but gratulate his praise."

No. 50. Dick Burbage. — Manningham, writing in the early part of
the year 1602, alludes to Burbage's impersonation of Richard the
Third, and in the Return from Parnassus, composed about the same
time, he is introduced as selecting the character for an exercise to
enable him to test the tragic powers of a Cambridge student. See the
extracts from that play in the collection of Theatrical Evidences.

No. 31. Satirized. — That this was his intention would appear from
an allusion in the Whipping of the Satyre, 1601, — "But, harke, I heare
the cynicke satyre crie,=A man, a man, a kingdome for a man." In
Parasitaster, 1606, Marston introduces, with slight variations, the line, —
" Plots have I laid, inductions dangerous," — evidently with an intention
of ridiculing it.

No. 52. One of the first dramas. — The first appearance of a "new
ballad " on the subject of a popular drama is a probable indication of
its following shortly after the production of the latter on the stage.
Edward White entered " a newe ballad of Romeo and Juliett " on the
books of the Stationers' Company on August the 5th, 1596, the ballad
having in all probability been written and published in consequence of
the success of Shakespeare's drama produced in the early summer of
that year. No copy of the former is now known to exist, but it seems
that one came under the notice of Warton about the middle of the
last century, as appears from the following note by that critic in the
Appendix to the first volume of Johnson's edition of Shakespeare, 1765,
— "a ballad is still remaining on the subject of Romeo and Juliet,
which, by the date, appears to be much older than Shakespeare's time.

2 K

5 H ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES.

It is remarkable that all the particulars in which that play differs from
the story in Bandello are found in this ballad."

No. jj. Which was produced at the Curtain Theatre. — With
respect to the evidences for the date of the production of the tragedy it
is important to exclude that which has been supposed to be gathered
from a notice in Weever's Epigrammes, 1599. It is stated by the
author that these poems were written before he had attained the age of
twenty, — "that twenty twelve months yet did never know," — that is to
say, before 1596 or 1597, as may be gathered from a note in Stow's
Survey of London, ed. 1633^. 900. This statement of early authorship
must, however, be taken with some qualification, for one of the pieces,
an elegy on the death of Spenser, could not have been composed before
the date of publication, 1599. As Weever does not particularize which
of the poems were written at the earlier period to which he refers, it is
obvious that the elegy may not be the only one of a later date, and that
it would be unsafe to conclude that the verses addressed to Shakespeare
were amongst the former.

No. 54. The play of the season. — It is scarcely necessary to observe
that this notion is chiefly founded upon the well-known lines of Marston
in the Scourge of Villanie, 1598. Then there is also the direct assertion
of Danter, in 1597, that the tragedy had then been often played with " great
applause," a statement which may be readily trusted, for otherwise that
shifty publisher would not have incurred the risk and trouble attendant
on the production of a surreptitious copy ; and it is worth notice that
there is no other instance of the use of the word often in the title-pages
of the life-time editions.

No. 55. Several early allusions. — One telling line in the tragedy is
quoted nearly literally by Porter in a drama acted in the same year, —
" He rather have her married to her grave," Two Angrie Women of
Abington, 1599. Allot, in his Englands Parnassus, 1600, cites Romeo
and Juliet much oftener than he does any other of Shakespeare's plays ;
but it may be worth observing that there are sophistications of the text
in some of his extracts. Bodenham, in his Bel-vedere, also published
in 1600, gives several quotations, and Nicholson, in the same year, in
his Acolastus his After-Witte, 1600, garbles a line as follows, — "Thrust
in a frozen corner of the North." The notion of Jove laughing at
lovers' perjuries became a favourite idea. It is quoted in the comedy 01
How a Man may Choose a Good Wife from a Bad, 1602, and again by
Day, in his Humour out of Breath, 1608. Romeo and Juliet is cited
more than once in Decker's Satiro-Mastix, 1602, and other quotations
from it are to be found in Blurt Master Constable, 1602, Achelley's
Massacre of Money, 1602, and in Marston's Malcontent, 1604. There
likewise appear to be some recollections of the tragedy in Ram Alley,
first printed in 1611.

ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES. 5^5

No, 56. As You Like It. — The comedy is not mentioned by Meres
in 1598, and the earliest notice of it by name occurs in one of the
volumes of the Stationers' registers, on a leaf which does not belong to
the proper series of the registers, but contains irregular entries, prohibi
tions, &c. In this leaf, between two other notes, the first dated in May,
1600, and the other in January, 1603, is a notice of As You Like It,
under August the 4th, " to be staied," this memorandum no doubt to be
referred to the year 1600, Shakespeare's plays of Henry the Fifth and
Much Ado about Nothing, and Ben Jonson's Every Man in his Humour,
the only other plays noticed in that entry, having been licensed in the
same month of that year. It is improbable that the prohibition would
have been applied for or recorded after the publication of those dramas,
and it may reasonably be concluded that the objection was removed
shortly after the date of the entry, it being possibly of such doubtful
validity that the clerk did not consider it advisable to make a formal
note of it in the body of the register.

No 57. One of its ditties. — Although Morley does not expressly
claim his title to the words that are set to music in his First Booke of
Ayres, 1600, he neither in his dedication or preface insinuates that he
had borrowed a single line, while the song of the " lover and his lass " is
of the same description with others found in that work. This latter
fact, taken by itself, would have thrown grave doubts on the Shake
spearean authorship of that song, but that it was written by the great
dramatist for the comedy is shown by its analogy to one found near
the conclusion of the foundation-tale, Euphues Golden Legacie.

No. 58. This interesting plan. — There are numerous engravings which
are stated to be plans of the metropolis as it existed in the latter part of
the reign of Queen Elizabeth, but Norden's is the only one of undoubted
accuracy. It was engraved by Pieter Vanden Keere in 1593, and that
the survey was executed, or at least completed, in the same year,
appears from the following memorandum,—; Joannes Norden Anglus
descripsit anno 1593, — being inserted after the list of references. The
copy of the plan given in the text has been carefully taken from a fine
example of the original engraving, but there have been several imitations
of it, and one so-called facsimile, all of which are inaccurate and worth
less. Underneath the engraving is the following list of streets and
buildings, — a. Bushops gate streete; b. Papie; c. Alhallowes in the
wall; d. S. Taphyns; e. Sylver streete; / Aldermanburye ; ' g. Barbi
can; h. Aldersgate streete; /. Charterhowse ; k. Holborne Conduct;
/. Chauncery lane ; m. Temple barr ; n. Holbourn ; o. Grayes Inn
lane ; p. S. Androwes ; q. Newgate ; r. S. Jones ; s. S.' Nic. shambels ;
/. Cheap syde ; u. Bucklers burye ; «', Brodestreete ; x. The stockes ;
y. The Exchannge ; z. Cornehill ; 2.® Colmanstreete ; 3. Bassings hall ;
4. Honnsditche ; 5. Leaden hall , 6. Gratious streete ; 7. Heneage

2 K 2

5,6 ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES.

house; 8. Fancshurche ; 9. Marke lane ; 10. Minchyn lane; n. Paules ;
12. Eastcheape; 13. Fleetstreete ; 14. Fetter lane; 15. S. Dunshous ;
16. Themes streete; 17. London stone; 18. Olde Baylye; 19. Clerken-
well; 20. Winchester house; 21. Battle bridge; 22. Bermodsoy® streete.
There are but two other surveys of London belonging to the reigns of
Elizabeth and James which can be considered to be of any authority.
One of these is a very large one of uncertain date, executed on wood
and generally attributed to Aggas, which was first issued in the time of
Queen Elizabeth and reproduced in the reign of her successor. The
other plan is an engraving on a much smaller scale, published by Braun
at Cologne in 1572 from a survey evidently made before 1561, the
steeple of St. Paul's, destroyed in that year, being introduced. Neither
of these maps appear to be copies of absolutely original surveys taken
for the object of publication, there being indications which lead to the
conclusion either that they are alterations of a plan which was executed
some years previously, or that the latter was used in their formation.
Aggas's is the only one of the time which represents the City with
minuteness of detail, and it is unfortunate that its value should be
impaired by this uncertainty. That there is much, however, in it on
the fidelity of which reliance can be placed is unquestionable, but the
survey of the locality in which the Theatre and Curtain were situated
must have been taken before 1576, the year in which the former was
erected, for the artist engaged in a plan on such a large scale could not
have failed to have introduced so conspicuous a building, had it then
been in existence.

No. 59. The absence of a genuine sketch of New Place, — The
engraving of this house, as it is said to have existed in 1599, and pub
lished by Malone in 1790 as taken "from a drawing in the margin
of an ancient survey made by order of Sir George Carew, afterwards
Baron Carew of Clopton and Earl of Totness, and found at Clopton
near Stratford-upon-Avon in 1786," is either a modern forgery, or at
least no representation of Shakespeare's residence. Neither the Carews
nor the Cloptons had any kind of interest in New Place in the latter
part of the sixteenth century, and it is in the highest degree improbable
that a representation of it should have been attached in 1599 to a plan
of an estate that was situated in another locality. Malone's copy of the
view was not taken from the original, but from a drawing furnished by
Jordan, from whom another one, published by Ireland in 1795, was also
derived. Although the latter has several important variations from the
other, it is clearly meant for a copy of the same view, for Ireland
describes it as having been taken " from an old drawing of one Robert
Treswell's made in 1599 by order of Sir George Carew, afterwards
Baron Carew of Clopton and Earl of Totness ; it was found in Clopton
House in 1786, and was in the possession of the late Mrs. Patriche,

ILL USTRA TIVE NO TES. 5/7

who was the last of the antient family of the Cloptons ; the drawing, I
am informed, is since lost or destroyed," Picturesque Views on the
Avon, 1795, P- X97- The fact of such an early drawing being in
existence in 1786 rests entirely on Jordan's vulnerable testimony,
" diligent enquiries " instituted by the late R. B. Wheler a few years
afterwards yielding no collateral evidence in support of his assertions.
There was, however, at Clopton House a large plan of the family
estates delineated by Robert Treswell alias Somerset! in April, 1599,
which in all probability suggested the pretended discovery of a con
temporary drawing of New Place on the margin of such a survey. It is
an interesting map of those Clopton estates which were situated on the
eastern side of the Avon, and could never have included the representa
tion of a house in Chapel Lane.

No. 60. Its continued popularity. — This may be concluded, not
merely from the lines of Digges, but from the familiar quotations from
the comedy in Heywood's Fayre Mayde of* the Exchange, 1607, and in
several other contemporary plays. It appears, from the title-page of
the quarto edition, that Much Ado about Nothing had been performed
by the Lord Chamberlain's company either in or before the year 1600 ;
but the only early notice of the performance of the comedy yet dis
covered is that in the accounts of Lord Stanhope, in which it is stated
that it was one of the dramas performed at Court in the year 1613.
From a subsequent entry of the same date we learn that the comedy
was also played under the appellation of Benedick and Beatrice.
Digges alludes to those characters as the special favourites of the
public, and there can be no doubt but that their adventures, and the
ludicrous representation of the process of their conversion to mutual
affection, attract the principal attention both of the reader and the
audience, and that the impression made even by the inimitable
blundering of the constables is but secondary.

No. 61. The constables. — Kemp was the original representative of
Dogberry, and Cowley of Verges, as appears from the prefixes to a
number of speeches in ed. 1600. Kemp, who is termed in a manuscript
diary of February, 1600, "a player in interludes, and partly the Queenes
Majesties jester," appears to have left Shakespeare's company some
time before the following August, his successor being another favourite
clown, Robert Armin. That the latter at one time acted Dogberry is
clear from the following passage in the Dedication to his Italian Taylor
and his Boy, 1609, — "pardon, I pray you, the boldnes of a begger who
hath been writ downe for an asse in his time, and pleades under forma
pauperis in it still, notwithstanding his constableship and office."

No. 62. The eccentric biographer. — Aubrey, whose nature it was to
blunder, had forgotten the names both of the character and the play,
and speaks of 'the constable in a Midsummer's Night's Dream," adding

Si8

ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES.

ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES. 519

the gratuitous observation, — " I think it was Midsummer Night that he
(Shakespeare) happened to lie there."

No. 63. Taken from an old farce. — The earliest notice of this play
yet discovered occurs in the register of the Stationers' Company for
May the 2nd, 1594, when there was entered to a printer named Short,
" a booke intituled a plesant conceyted hystorie called the Tayminge
of a Shrowe," the published work bearing the title of, — " A Pleasant
Conceited Historie called the Taming of a Shrew, as it was sundry
times acted by the Right honorable the Earle of Pembrook his
servants," 1594. A reprint of this edition was published by Burby in
1596, in which year the play is thus alluded to by Sir John Harington,
— " for the shrewd wife, read the booke of Taming a Shrew, which hath
made a number of us so perfect, that now every one can rule a shrew
in our country save he that hath her," Metamorphosis of Ajax, 1596.
Burby retained his interest in the comedy until January the 22nd, 1607,
when the copyright was transferred to Ling, the latter shortly afterwards,
that is to say, in the following November, assigning it to John Smeth-
wick, who never seems to have considered it worth a reprint. It is
certain that the note of the 22nd of January refers to the old play, a
third edition of it having been published by Ling in 1607, and the
Taming of a Shrew is also the title in both of the copyright entries
made in 1642, after Smeth wick's decease. When that publisher issued
Shakespeare's drama in 1631, the fact merely shows that he preferred it
to the other, for in those days it is not likely that there would have
been any one to interfere, and it is, moreover, not impossible that the
proceeding had the sanction of his colleagues, the proprietors of the
first folio. The omission of the Taming of the Shrew in the copyright
entry of 1623 can be plausibly accounted for. If Hemmings and
Condell had submitted at the Hall a list of the plays in their folio
edition, and the registration had been confided to an official who had
no special acquaintance with dramatic literature, and who merely went
through the books to ascertain which of the pieces had already been
entered, nothing would have been more natural than a mistake in regard
to two works all but identical in title, or than his conclusion that the
Third was the only Part of Henry the Sixth that had not been
registered.

No. 64. Some time before. — There is a passage in Greene's Menaphon,
1589, nearly identical with a line in the Taming of a Shrew, but simi
larities of this description are rarely of value in a question of date. It
is obvious to be as likely for the author of the comedy to have had
Greene's words in his recollection, as for the latter to have quoted from
the play.

No. 63. Solely of conjecture. — It is true that Rowlands, in his
Whole Crew of Kind Gossips, 1609, makes a would-be Petruchio say,

520 ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES.

in reference to his wife, — "The chiefest Art I have I will bestow-
About a worke cald taming of the Shrow," but the language does not
appear sufficiently precise to warrant the conclusion that the author
intended a reference to Shakespeare's comedy. If he had contemplated
such an allusion, it is most probable that the name of the play would
have been given in Italics, the titles of songs alluded to in the same
poem being so distinguished. Another possible test for the date of the
Taming of the Shrew occurs in the edition of 1623, the speech of a
person who is introduced as a Messenger being therein marked as
delivered by one Nicke, Tooley being the only actor in the King's
company to whom that sobriquet can be referred. He is first men
tioned as belonging to that company in May, 1605, but the slight
part to which his name is attached may have been undertaken by him
when, if ever, he was one of the subordinate actors whose names would
not be found in the list of 1603.

No. 66. The Merchant of Venice. — The earliest notice which has
yet been discovered of this comedy is that in the Stat. Reg. of July,
1598. No tangible reason for assigning its composition to an earlier
year has been produced, but it may be mentioned that there are
passages in the drama of Wily Beguiled which bear considerable
similarity to others in the Merchant of Venice. Then arises the usual
difficulty, in those instances at least in which resemblances can hardly
be accidental, of determining the priority of composition ; and there is
no reliable evidence that the former play was anterior to Shakespeare's.
There is not, however, in Wily Beguiled a thought or expression of such
peculiar excellence that any dramatist of the time could not have
adopted it from recollection, unconsciously or otherwise, without
incurring the smallest risk of a plagiarical imputation.

No. 67. The earliest editions. — The comedy was first printed in
1600 by Roberts, who, on October the 28th, transferred his interest in
the copyright to Hayes, the latter issuing a second edition in the same
year.

No. 68. Was produced in the season of 1601-2. — The obvious fact
that the play was new to Manningham hardly bears on the question of
date, for although he had evidently seen a performance of the Comedy
of Errors, it would appear from his Diary that he was not an habitual
frequenter of the theatres. As a rule, however, the dramas that were
selected for representation at the Court and at the legal inns were
pieces that had been recently introduced on the public stage. Shake
speare's comedy was certainly written not very long before the
performance at the Middle Temple, as may be gathered from the use
which Shakespeare has 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. Jones does not

ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES. 521

profess to be the author of the words of this song, for he observes, — " If
the ditties dislike thee, 'tis my fault that was so bold to publish the
private contentments of divers gentlemen without their consents,
though, I hope, not against their wils ; " but there is every reason to
believe that the verses referred to in Twelfth Night were first published
in this work, a collection of new, not of old songs. As the tune and
ballad were evidently familiar to Shakespeare, the original of the portion
to which he refers in the comedy is here given, — " Farewel, dear love,
since thou wilt needs be gon, = Mine eies do shew my life is almost
done ; — Nay, I will never die, = so long as I can spie ;= There be many
mo,=though that she do go. = There be many mo, I feare not;=Why,
then, let her goe, I care not. — Farewell, farewell, since this I finde is
true, = I will not spend more time in wooing you ;= But I will seeke
elswhere,=if I may find her there. = Shall I bid her goe?=What and
if I doe?=Shall I bid her go and spare not?=Oh, no, no, no, no, I
dare not."

No. 69. Most probably on January the Fifth. — That is, on Twelfth
Night, 1602, a circumstance, however, which was thought so insufficient
for the adoption of the title that liberty of substitution was freely
offered. It is curious that Marston in 1607 should have chosen the
second title of Twelfth Night for the appellation of one of his own
comedies.

No. 70. In their beautiful hall. — The erection of the present hall,
the interior of which measures a hundred by forty feet, was completed
about the year 1577, the work occupying a long time, having been
commenced at least as early as 1562. The exterior has undergone
numerous changes since the time of Shakespeare, the old louvre having
been removed many years ago, the principal entrance or porch rebuilt,
and the whole exposed to a series of repairs and alterations. The main
features of the interior, however, bear practically the same appearance
which they originally presented. It is true that some of the minor
accessories are of modern date, but the beautiful oaken screen and the
elegant wood-carved roof suffice to convey to us a nearly exact idea of
the room in which the humours of Malvolio delighted an Elizabethan
audience.

No. 71. Leonard Digges. — This writer would seem to have
blundered if he implies that Malvolio was in the same play with
Benedick and Beatrice, as his words appear to indicate, but such an
oversight on his part is almost incredible. It may be worth mentioning
that Twelfth Night was acted, by the company to which the author
had belonged, in February, 1623, under the title of Malvolio, and that
it was performed at the Blackfriars Theatre after the children had left
that establishment. The latter fact is gathered from its being included
by Sir William Davenant amongst " some of the most ancient playes

522 ILL USTRA TIVE NO TES.

that were playd at Blackfriers," MS. dated in 1660, a list which also
includes the Tempest, Measure for Measure, Much Ado about Nothing,
Romeo and Juliet, Henry the Eighth, Lear, Macbeth and Hamlet.

No, 72. Love's Labour's Lost. — It appears from the title-page of
the first edition of this comedy, 1598, that it was acted before Queen
Elizabeth in the Christmas holidays of the previous year, and the lo
cality of the performance is ascertained from the following entry in the
accounts of the Treasurer of the Chamber, — " to Richard Brakenburie,
for altering and making readie of soundrie chambers at Whitehall
against Christmas, and for the plaies, and for making readie in the hall
for her Majestic, and for altering and hanging of the chambers after
Christmas daie, by the space of three daies, mense Decembris, 1597,
viij.//. xiij.j. \\\}.d" The original impression of 1598 is not mentioned
in the registers of the Stationers' Company, but, from the words " this
last Christmas " on the title, it may be inferred that it was published
early in that year. No notice of the copyright is found in those records
until January, 1607, when it was transferred by Burby to Ling, who, in
the following November, parted with the copyright to Smethwick, one of
the proprietors of the first folio. This last-named publisher, however,
seems to have preserved an independent ownership in the comedy, for
it was published separately, under his auspices, in the year 1631, with
the statement that it had been " acted by his Majesties Servants at the
Blacke-Friers and the Globe."

No. 73. Had not been re-written. — If it had been, the fragments of
the earlier drama could not have been found in the impression of 1598,
which was evidently printed from a corrected manuscript of the first
version, a copy in which altered lines might have been written on the
margins and the additions inserted on paper slips. The dramatists of
the Shakespearean period frequently amended their plays for special
occasions, but with rare exceptions it was not their custom to re-write
them. Love's Labour's Lost was probably retouched in anticipation of
its performance before Queen Elizabeth in 1597, but the extent of the
alterations then made was probably of a very limited character, for
otherwise more traces of them might be expected to be found in the
printed copy. In the following year Chettle was engaged in " mending"
his play of Robin Hood " for the Court."

No. 74. Is mentioned by Tofte. — The earliest incidental notice of
Shakespeare's comedy occurs in this writer's Alba, 1598. — "I once did
see a play ycleped so." The term once does not here mean formerly,
but merely, at some time or other. It does, nevertheless, imply that the
representation of Love's Labour's Lost had been witnessed some little
time before the publication of Alba in 1598, but the notice, however
curious, is of no value in the question of the chronology', as we are left
in doubt whether it was the original or the amended play that was seen

ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES. 523

by him. The poor fellow had escorted his lady-love to the theatre
and, for some unexplained reason, she had taken an opportunity, during
their visit, to reject his addresses. Tofte alludes to the comedy as
Loves Labor Lost, and other early forms of the title are here given
V.L., — Loues labors lost, Loues Labor's lost, ed. 1598; Loue labors
lost, Meres, 1598; Loves Labore lost, Cope's letter, 1605; Loues
labour lost, Stat. Reg., 1607; Loues Labour lost, Catalogue in ed.
1623; Loues Labour's lost, head-lines ibid. It should be added that,
although the early printers sometimes used the apostrophe unmeaningly,
such a practice was altogether exceptional.

No, 75. 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 very 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.
The only sixteenth-century notice of the play yet discovered is that given
by Meres in his Palladis Tamia, 1598, where he alludes to it as the
Gentlemen of Verona. It is not impossible that the last-mentioned title
was the original designation of the comedy, one by which it was generally
known in the profession : and, at a later period, Kirkman, who was
intimately connected with the stage, inserts it, with a similar title, in a
catalogue which first appeared in 1661.

No. 7<5. A Comedy of Errors. — The notice given in the text of the
performance of this drama in the year 1594 is taken from a contemporary
account of the Gray's Inn Revels which was published many years after
wards, 1688, under the title of the Gesta Grayorum. It appears, from
the dedication, that this tract was printed exactly from the original
manuscript, from which, observes the editor, it was " thought necessary
not to clip anything, which, though it may seem odd, yet naturally
begets a veneration upon account of its antiquity ; " nor is there, indeed,
the slightest reason for suspecting its authenticity. There is no evidence
that any one but Shakespeare ever wrote a play bearing the exact title
of the one named in this Gesta. The comedy is next mentioned, so
far as is yet known, in the list given by Meres in 1598, where it is
referred to under the abbreviated title of Errors; and there was a
Historic of Error performed by the Children of Pauls in 1577, which
latter has been generally considered, on the merest conjecture, to have
been the play from which Shakespeare derived his knowledge of the
incidents. It may be added that Manningham, in 1602, alludes to the
Comedy of Errors as then familiar to play-goers, and that other

524 ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES,

references to it occur in Decker's Satiro-Mastix, 1602, in the same
author's Newes from Hell, 1606, and in Anton's Philosophers Satyrs,
4to. Lond. 1616.

No. 77. The latter in probably that of 1595. — There being no
record of Shakespeare's use of any particular 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
latter 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 are assuredly indecisive. What
is required is an expression, peculiar to Shakespeare and to certain edi
tions of the translation of Plutarch, one which could not be reasonably
attributed to the independent fancy of the great dramatist There is
such an expression in the 1579 and 1595 editions of the Life of
Coriolanus, — " 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 all the later
Plutarch editions, may be convinced that Shakespeare must have read
either the impression 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.

No. 78. Although successful. — This fact may be inferred from the
entry in the Stationers' Registers of 1608, to Edward Blount of "his
copie by the lyke aucthoritie, a booke called Anthony and Cleopatra."
The " like authority " refers to the sanction of Sir George Buck and the
company, as appears from the previous entry in the register, so that
Blount was no doubt in possession of the copyright of the authentic
play. If he printed it in 1608, no copy of the impression is now known
to exist, the earliest edition which has been preserved being that in
the collective work of 1623, of which Blount was one of the publishers;
and although it is included in the list of tragedies " as are not formerly
entred to other men " in the notice of the copyright of the folio, it is
still not impossible that an earlier separate edition was issued by him.

ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES. 525

There are indications that the list of non-entered plays was carelessly
drawn up.

No. 79. Did not equal. — This may be gathered from the rarity of
contemporary allusions to it. The only extrinsic notice of the tragedy
during the author's life-time appears to be a curious one in Anton's
Philosophers Satyrs, 1616, where the latter poet blames ladies for
encouraging the performance of so vicious a drama by their presence.

No. 80. King John. — Little is known respecting the external
history of this drama. It is noticed by Meres in 1598, and that it
continued to be popular till 1611 may be inferred from the re-publica
tion in that year of the foundation-play, the Troublesome Raigne of
King John, as " written by W. Sh.," a clearly fraudulent attempt to pass
off the latter in the place of the work of the great dramatist. Shake
speare's King John was first printed in the folio of 1623, and it is
worthy of remark that it is his only authentic play which is not named
in any way in the registers of the Stationers' Company. It is not even
mentioned in the list of his dramas, amongst " soe manie of the said
copies as are not formerly entred to other men," which is inserted
under the date of November, 1623. The older history of King John
had appeared in the previous year with Shakespeare's name in full on
the title, but it is not likely that so glaring an imposition could have led
to the withdrawal of the genuine play from the above-mentioned list.
The omission was probably accidental, the issues of the Troublesome
Raigne in 1611 and 1622 leading to the inference that no copy of the
more recent drama on the subject had then escaped from the theatre.

No. 81. Perhaps the best version. — The earliest record of the anecdote
which is known to be extant is a manuscript note preserved in the
University Library, Edinburgh, written about the year 1748, in which
the tale is narrated in the following terms, — "Sir William Davenant,
who has been call'd a natural son of our author, us'd to tell the following
whimsical story of him ; — Shakespear, when he first came from the
country to the play-house, was not admitted to act ; but as it was then
the custom for all the people of fashion to come on horseback to
entertainments of all kinds, it was Shakespear's employment for a time,
with several other poor boys belonging to the company, to hold the
horses and take care of them during the representation; — by his dexterity
and care he soon got a great deal of business in this way, and was
personally known to most of the quality that frequented the house,
insomuch that, being obliged, before he was taken into a higher and
more honorable employment within doors, to train up boys to assist
him, it became long afterwards a usual way among them to recommend
themselves by saying that they were Shakespear's boys." These latter
may have been grown-up men, occasional helpers in such duties who are
of any age being to this day called stable-boys, but the reference to the

526 ILL USTRA TIVE NOTES.

poet himself as a young lad is clearly erroneous. The next account in
order of date is the following one in the Lives of the Poets, 1753, i.
130-1, — "I cannot forbear relating a story which Sir William Davenant
told Mr. Betterton, who communicated it to Mr. Rowe ; Rowe told
it Mr. Pope, and Mr. Pope told it to Dr. Newton, the late editor of
Milton, and from a gentleman who heard it from him 'tis here related.
Concerning Shakespear's first appearance in the playhouse ; — When he
came to London, he was without money and friends, and being a stranger
he knew not to whom to apply, nor by what means to support himself.
At that time, coaches not being in use, and as gentlemen were accus
tomed to ride to the playhouse, Shakespear, driven to the last necessity,
went to the playhouse door, and pick'd up a little money by taking care
of the gentlemen's horses who came to the play. He became eminent
even in that profession, and was taken notice of for his diligence and
skill in it ; he had soon more business than he himself could manage,
and at last hired boys under him, who were known by the name of
Shakespear's boys. Some of the players, accidentally conversing with
him, found him so acute and master of so fine a conversation that,
struck therewith, they and® recommended him to the house, in which
he was first admitted in a very low station, but he did not long remain
so, for he soon distinguished himself, if not as an extraordinary actor, at
least as a fine writer." This form of the story is nearly identical with
that given in the text, the latter having been first printed by Dr. Johnson
in 1765 as "a passage which Mr. Pope related as communicated to him
by Mr. Rowe." There is yet another variation of the tale in an account
furnished by Jordan in a manuscript written about the year 1783, —
" some relate that he had the care of gentlemen's horses, for carriages
at that time were very little used ; his business, therefore, say they,
was to take the horses to the inn and order them to be fed until the
play was over, and then see that they were returned to their owners,
and that he had several boys under him constantly in employ, from which
they were called Shakespear's boys." It may be doubted if this be a
correct version of any tradition current at the time it was written, Jordan
having been in the habit of recording tales with fanciful additions of his
own. Gentlemen's horses in Shakespeare's days were more hardy than
those of modern times, so that stables or sheds for them, during the two
hours the performance then lasted, were not absolute necessities ; but it
is worth recording that there were taverns, with accommodation for horses,
in the neighbourhood of the Shoreditch theatres. A witness, whose
deposition respecting some land in the immediate locality was taken
in 1602, states that he recollected, in years previously, " a greate ponde
wherein the servauntes of the earle of Rutland, and diverse his neigh
bours, inholders, did usually wasshe and water theire horses, which ponde
was commonly called the carles horsepond." Another and much simpler

ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES. 527

version of the anecdote was published as follows in 1818, — "Mr. J. M.
Smith said he had often heard his mother state that Shakspeare owed
his rise in life, and his introduction to the theatre, to his accidentally
holding the horse of a gentleman at the door of the theatre on his first
arriving in London ; his appearance led to enquiry and subsequent
patronage;" Monthly Magazine, February, 1818, repeated in Moncrierfs
Guide, eds. 1822, 1824. This form of the tradition is as old as 1785,
the mother of J. M. Smith having been Mary Hart, who died in that
year, and was a lineal descendant from Joan Shakespeare, the poet's
sister.

No. 82. Horse-stealing. — Whoever it was, tavern-keeper or other,
that, in those days, first entrusted Shakespeare with the care of a horse,
must have seen honesty written in his face. The theatres of the suburbs,
observes a puritanical Lord Mayor of London in the year 1597, are
"ordinary places for vagrant persons, maisterless men, thieves, horse-
stealers, whoremongers, coozeners, conycatchers, contrivers of treason
and other idele and daungerous persons to meet together, and to make
theire matches, to the great displeasure of Almightie God and the hurt
and annoyance of her Majesties people, which cannot be prevented nor
discovered by the governors of the Citie for that they ar owt of the
Citiees jurisdiction," City of London MSS.

No. 83. In a very humble capacity. — A gentleman who visited the
Church of the Holy Trinity at Stratford-on-Avon early in the year 1693
gives the following interesting notice of the traditional belief, then
current in the poet's native county, respecting this incident in his life, —
" the clarke that shew'd me this church is above eighty 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
oppertunity to be what he afterwards prov'd." Although the parish-
clerk was not so old as is here represented, William Castle, who was
then clerk and sexton (Stratford Vestry-book), having been born in the
year 1628 (Stratford Register), there can be no hesitation in receiving
his narrative as the truthful report of a tradition accepted in the neigh
bourhood at the time at which it was recorded. Rowe, in his Account
of the Life of Shakespear, published in 1709, assigns a special reason
for the poet's departure from Stratford, but agrees with the clerk in the
point now under consideration ; and a similar evidence appears in a
later biographical essay of less authority and smaller value, published in
a newspaper called the London Chronicle in 1769, — "his first admis
sion into the playhouse was suitable to his appearance ; a stranger, and
ignorant of the art, he was glad to be taken into the company in a very
mean rank ; nor did his performance recommend him to any distin
guished notice. '

528 ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES.

No. 84. With tapestries. — The Smiths' Company in 1440 paid
three shillings and sixpence halfpenny for "cloth to lap abowt the
pajent." On another occasion sixpence was invested in " halfe a yard
of Rede Sea," Smiths' accounts, 1569, Coventry, MS. Longbridge.
Two " pajiont clothes of the Passion " are mentioned in an inventory of
the goods of the Cappers' company in the time of Henry the Eighth,
and in a list of the theatrical appliances of another trading company,
1565, are included "three paynted clothes to hang abowtethe pageant."
Some of the pageant accounts include payments " for curten ryngus."
It is probable that curtains were sometimes placed across the stage, so
that a new scene might by their withdrawal be instantaneously presented
to the audience. " Payd for makyng of the hooke to hang the curten
on, \\\}.d." Accounts 2 Edward VI., MS. ibid.

No. 85. Hell-mouth. — " The little children were never so afrayd of
hell mouth in the old plaies painted with great gang teeth, staring eyes
and a foule bottle nose," Harsnet's Declaration, 1603. "Item, payd
for payntyng hell hede newe, xx.*/. ; payde for kepynge hell hede, \\\}.d. ;
item, payd for kepyng of fyer at hell mothe, \\\}.d. ; payd to Jhon
Huyt for payntyng of hell mowthe, xvj.</. ; payd for makyng hell
mowth and cloth for hyt, iiij.^.," accounts of the Drapers' pageant at
Coventry, 1554-1567, printed in Sharp's Dissertation, 1825, pp. 61, 73.
It may be observed that hell-mouth was one of the few contrivances in
use in the ancient mysteries which were retained on the metropolitan
stage in the time of Shakespeare, it being in the list of properties
belonging to the Lord Admiral's Servants in 1599.

No. 86. Decorated sentry-boxes. — Noah's Ark must have been a
magnificent example of this class of properties, as may be gathered from
the following stage-direction in the Chester mystery of the Flood, —
" then Noy shall goe into the arke with all his famylye, his wife excepte ;
the arke must be borded rounde about, and upon the bordes all the
beastes and fowles hereafter rehearsed must be painted, that there
wordes maye agree with the pictures," MS. Harl. 2013, fol. 23.

No. 87. Tfie garments of skins. — "Adam and Eve aparlet in whytt
lether," stage-direction in the old Cornish mystery of the Creation of
the World. " Two cotes and a payre hosen for Eve stayned ; a cote
and hosen for Adam steyned," inventory of pageant costumes, 1565.

No. 88. Herod. — It would seem that the actor of this part wore a
painted mask, there being several entries of payments in the accounts
of the guilds for mending and painting his head. " Item, to a peyntour
fbr peyntyng the fauchon and Herodes face, \.d." accounts of the
Smiths' company, 1477, MS. Longbridge. "Item, payd to a peynter
for peyntyng and mendyng of Herodes heed, \\\}.d." costes on Corpus
Christi day, 1516, MS. ibid. "Paid to John Croo for menddyng of
Herrode hed and a mytor and other thynges, ij.J.," costes on Corpus

ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES. 529.

Crysty day, 1547, MS. ibid. " Payd to John Hewet, payntter,
for dressyng of Errod bed and the faychon, ij.^.," paymentes for the
pagent, 1554, MS. ibid. The faychon here mentioned was a painted
sword, in addition to which Herod carried a sceptre and had an
ornamented helmet and crest.

No. 89. As far as costume. — " Item, paid for a gowen to Arrode,
vij.j. \\\].d. ; item, paid for peynttyng and stenyng theroff, vj..f. \\\].d. ;
item, paid for Arrodes garment peynttyng that he went a prossassyon
in, xx.df. ; item, paid for mendyrig off Arrodes gauen to a taillour, viij.d'. ;
item, paid for mendyng off hattes, cappus and Arreddes creste, with
other smale geyr belongyng, iij.^.," accounts of the Smiths' company,
1490, MS. Longbridge. " Item paid for iij. platis to Heroddis crest
of iron, \].d. ; item, paid to Hatfeld for dressyng of Herodes creste,
xiiij.*/.," Smiths' accounts, 1495, MS. ibid. " Item, paid for colour and
coloryng of Arade, iiij.^/.," costes of Corpus day Christi, 1508, MS.
ibid.

No. 90. Painting the faces. — " Item, paid for gloves to the pleyares,
xix.d. ; item, paid for pyntyng® off ther fasus, \}.d." accounts of the
Smiths' Company, 1502, MS. Longbridge. " Payd to the paynter for
payntyng the players facys, iiij.</.," paymentes on Corpus Crysty day,
1548, MS. ibid. The Longbridge manuscripts, so frequently cited in
the present work, were erewhile preserved at the ancient seat of the
Staunton family near Stratford-on-Avon, and were part of the largest and
most valuable Warwickshire collection ever formed. This celebrated
and important assemblage of rare volumes, engravings and drawings, all
relating to that county, has now unfortunately been destroyed by fire.
In many former years, through the kind liberality of its possessor, —
John Staunton, esq., of Longbridge House, — every possible facility was
given me for consulting those treasures, and I have at least the con
solation of believing that they included no fact of interest, bearing on
the history of the poet's life, that could have eluded my researches.

No. pi. Appeared with sooty faces. — "The Black or Damned Souls
had their faces blackened, and were dressed in coats and hose ; the fabric
of the hose was buckram or canvas, of which latter material nineteen ells
were used, nine of yellow and ten of black, in 1556, and probably a
sort of party-coloured dress was made for them, where the yellow was
so combined as to represent flames," Sharp's Dissertation on the
Coventry Mysteries, 1825, p. 70. The following notices of these
singular personages are taken from the accounts of the Coventry Guilds
as quoted in the same work, — " 1537. Item, for v. elnes of canvas for
shyrts and hose for the blakke soules at \.d. the elne, \}.s. \.d. ; item,
for coloryng and makyng the same cots, ix.d. ; item, for makyng and
mendynge of the blakke soules hose, \}.d." In 1556, there is an entry
of a payment which was made " for blakyng the solly.s fassys."

2 L

53° ILL USTRA TIVE NO TES.

No. 92. Offered for sale. — It was issued to the public some time
previously to June the i2th, the following entry occurring in a manu
script diary quoted in Malone's Inquiry, 1796, p. 67, — " i2th of June,
*593> f°r tne Survay of Fraunce, with the Venus and Athonay per
Shakspere, \\}.d."

No. 93. Its voluptuous character. — " I have convay'd away all her
wanton pamphlets, as Hero and Leander, Venus and Adonis," A Mad
World my Masters, 1608. Davies, in his Papers Complaint, which will
be found in his Scourge of Folly, 1610, makes Paper admit the super
lative excellence of Shakespeare's poem, but at the same time censure
its being " attired in such bawdy geare." It is also stated that " the
coyest dames in private read it for their closset-games." In the Dumbe
Knight, 1 608, the lawyer's clerk is represented as terming it " maides
philosophic." The stanza commencing with the word fondling, 11. 229-
234, is quoted in the play last named and also in Heywood's Fayre
Mayde of the Exchange, 1607.

No. 94.. Favourably received. — The second edition appeared before
June the 25th, 1594, on which day Field assigned the copyright to
Harrison. It was reprinted oftener in Shakespeare's lifetime than any
one of the plays, but there was no such edition as that of Harrison's,
1600, registered in some lists on the erroneous authority of a manuscript
title-page of the last century. There are numerous early allusions to
Venus and Adonis, as well as occasional quotations from it, but the
most considerable number of the latter will be found in Bodenham's
Belvedere, 1 600, and in the Englands Parnassus of the same year.

No. pj*. A ready and natural defence. — As in Spenser's dedication
of Mother Hubberds Tale to the Lady Compton in 1591, probably the
most analogous to Shakespeare's of all compositions of the kind, —
" having often sought opportunitie by some good meanes to make
knowen to your ladiship the humble affection and faithfull duetie which
I have alwaies professed, and am bound to beare, to that house from
whence yee spring, I have at length found occasion to remember the
same by making a simple present to you of these my idle labours ;
which, having long sithens composed in the raw conceipt of my youth,
I lately amongst other papers lighted upon, and was by others, which
liked the same, mooved to set them foorth. Simple is the device, and
the composition meane, yet carrieth some delight, even the rather
because of the simplicitie and meannesse thus personated. The same
I beseech your ladiship take in good part, as a pledge of that profession
which I have made to you, and keepe with you untill with some other
more worthie labour I do redeeme it out of your hands, and discharge
my utmost dutie."

No. 96. Made the largest purchase. — The original conveyance, as
well as an intermediate draft of it, are preserved at Stratford. In the

ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES. 53'

latter document, which is written on thirteen large sheets of pot-paper,
the final covenant is omitted, and the variations from the engrossment
are either trivial or erroneous.

No. p?. Nor is there a probability. — The mere circumstance of
there having been a Fool introduced into the play then in course of
representation is of course a decisive proof that it was not Shakespeare's
Henry the Eighth, and there are other incidental passages that lead to the
same conclusion. If it had been, the fire must have commenced before
the termination of the first act, and there would almost certainly have
been, amongst the elaborate stage-directions of ed. 1623, some reference
to " the matting of the stage," which is so specially noticed by Wotton
as then being an extraordinary novelty. Then, again, it is to be
inferred, from the records of the calamity, that the acting copies of the
play then in hand could hardly have been rescued from the flames.

No. 98. The new drama. — Wotton, in a letter written only three
days after the fire, speaks of it as " a new play called All is True,
representing some principal pieces of the raign of Henry 8." It is
mentioned in two other accounts of the calamity as " the play of Henry
the 8th," the latter being most likely a second title, one that may have
originally followed the terms of that given by Rowley to When You See
Me You Know Me, — " The famous Chronicle Historye of King Henry
the Eighth." It clearly appears, from the burden of the sonnet that was
written on the occasion, that Wotton gave the main title correctly.

No. pp. Some of the historical incidents. — Several dramas on his
torical events of the reign of Henry the Eighth were produced in
England in the time of Shakespeare. In the years 1601 and 1602
the subject attained a singular popularity in the hands of Henslowe's
company. In June of the former year Henry Chettle was occupied in
" writtinge " a play entitled Cardinal Wolsey's Life, which was produced
with great magnificence so far as regards the apparel of the performers,
by the Earl of Nottingham's players, in the following August. An entry
of £2 1 for velvet, satin, and taffeta, proves, regard being had to the then
value of money, how expensively the characters in the play were attired.
This drama was so successful that it was immediately followed by another
entitled the Rising or the First part of Cardinal Wolsey, in the composi
tion of which no fewer than four writers, Drayton, Chettle, Munday, and
Wentworth Smith, were engaged. It seems to have been licensed in
September, 1601, as "the remainder of Carnowlle Wollseye," words
which imply that it was considered supplementary to Chettle's first play
on the subject. The amendment of the first part in 1602 was im
mediately followed by the appearance of a continuation in which Will
Summers, the celebrated jester, was introduced. The name of the
author of this second part is not stated, but it is not impossible that it
was written by Samuel Rowley, who had been attached to Henslowe's

2 L 2

532 ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES.

company as early as the year 1599. Certain it is that the character of
Summers is a prominent one in that author's vulgar comedy of When
You See Me You Know Me, published by Butter in 1605, and entered
on the registers of the Stationers' Company in February, 1604-5, as
" the enterlude of K. Henry the 8th." Butter's several reprints, his
interest in the copyright until 1639, taken in conjunction with the
statement in those registers under the date of November the 8th, 1623,
decisively prove that the entry last quoted does not refer to Shakespeare's
play. According to a manuscript on the state of Ireland, written about
the year 1604, "the earle of Kildare dyed in prison in England, where
he lyved a longe tyme, and his brothers and eldest sonne deprived of
their lyves by the synister practizes of Cardynall VVolsey, sett forth at
lardge in the Irishe Chronicle, and of late acted publiquely upon the
stage in London, in the tragidie of the life and death of the said Wolsey,
to tedious to be reported to your Majestic." This enumeration of
dramas on the incidents of the same reign may be concluded with a notice
of the Chronicle History of Thomas Lord Cromwell, which was first
published as "written by W. S." in 1602. It had then most likely been
recently produced by Shakespeare's company, an entry of the copyright
in the August of that year mentioning the play " as yt was lately acted
by the Lord Chamberleyn his servantes." An assignment of the copy
right was entered in December, 1611, the second impression, however,
not appearing till 1613, the author of the play in both instances being
denoted by the above-mentioned initials. The drama of Lord Cromwell
was attributed to Shakespeare by the publisher of the third folio in 1664,
but it is hardly necessary to observe that it has no pretensions to the
claim of so high a distinction.

No. 100. Any other resemblance. — Excepting that both were framed
with a view to spectacular display, as appears from the accounts of the
fire, and from the elaborate stage-directions in the first edition of
Shakespeare's drama, the somewhat irregular construction of the latter
may be attributed to the circumstance of some of the incidents being
practically subservient to the accessories of the stage.

No. 101. 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, but it is in a measure supported by
the contemporary evidence of the risk that was incurred by those who
•vere in the theatre at the time of the conflagration. The appearance
of a fool in the represented play is, however, the only point of the
slightest importance, and that fact seems to be decisively established by
the lines in question. So far from there being evidence that the Globe
was one of those theatres in which a Fool was a regular appendage, the
very contrary may be inferred from a dialogue in Greene's Tu Quoque.

ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES. 533

No. 102. The Prologue. — It has been suggested that there is here
an allusion to Rowley's production on the same reign, a drama in
which no regard is paid to chronological order or accuracy. In the
latter play, certainly a "merry bawdy one," Summers, the jester, a
prominent character, is a " fellow in a long motley coat, guarded with
yellow," and the noise of targets was heard in a street brawl in which
the King is vigorously engaged in combat with a ruffian named Black
Will. As, however, this piece belonged to a rival establishment, it is
more likely that the prologue refers to one containing similar incidents,
perhaps that which was in the course of performance on the day of the
fire. A second edition of the former play appeared in 1613, and it may
then have been revived at the Fortune.

No. 103. This theory of a late date. — There does not appear to be
a sufficient reason for attributing the composition of Henry the Eighth
to the reign of Elizabeth. The main reason for that opinion is found
in the termination of Cranmer's prophecy, the sudden reversion in
which to his eulogy on Elizabeth has elicited the impression that the
portion of his harangue which refers to James was an insertion that was
written some years after the play originally appeared. But it should be
observed that the whole of that portion is a ramification from the
introductory encomium on the Queen, the sentiments in the latter
having in all probability been framed with a view to gratify the King
by their subsequent application to him and without reference to the
author's own views. By the obliquity of the panegyric the poet adroitly
softened and naturalized its intrinsic extravagance. The prophecy was
evidently composed for the ear .of one of those sovereigns, and very
unlikely for that of Elizabeth, who would hardly have considered the
subsequent notice of an aged princess neutralised by the previous
flattery, or have complacently endured the reference to her own decease.
The known character of that sovereign leads us to believe that either of
these allusions would have been most distasteful to her. Again, that the
play, as we now have it, was not written until 1606, may be gathered
from the reference to the new nations, which is believed to relate to the
American colonies, the settlement and chartering of which had but then
commenced. There is another possible evidence in the allusion to the
strange Indian. In 1611, Harley and Nicolas, the commanders of two
vessels in an expedition to New England, returned to this country,
bringing with them five savages. One of these, who was named Epenow,
remained in England until 1614, was distinguished for his stature, and
publicly exhibited in various parts of London.

No. 104. By this disagreeable innovation. — There are several critics
who take another view, and, relying in a great measure on metrical
percentages, would have us believe that all speeches redolent with this
peculiarity must have been written by one or other of those later con-

5 T4 ILL USTRA TIVE NOTES.

temporaries of Shakespeare who were specially addicted to its use.
Under this direction it follows that Wolsey's celebrated farewell to all
his greatness, as well as a large part of the scene in which it occurs,
are henceforth to be considered the composition of some other author.
So also, by the like process of reasoning, must the last speeches of
Buckingham, as exquisitely touching as any in Shakespeare, the death-
scene of Katharine, the magnificent dialogue between Wolsey and
Cromwell, as well as Cranmer's prophecy, be eliminated from his works.
As to the theories recently promulgated, that some contemporary
dramatist could, and that Shakespeare could not, have written those
passages, neither one nor the other is likely to be ultimately sustained.
It is true that in Henry the Eighth there is much unwelcome variation
from the poet's usual diction, but surely the play as a whole will
commend itself to most readers as one that could only have emanated
from Shakespeare's laboratory. This much can be admitted without
ignoring the unavoidable suspicion that the drama, in the form in which
it has come down to us, has been tampered with by the players or their
confederates. But there is no tangible evidence to show the precise
extent or nature of the modifications that may thus have been induced,
and, in its absence, individual opinions can never be decisive. The
latter, moreover, rest too frequently upon the treacherous foundation of
a belief in the power of assigning a definite limit to the writer's mutations
in style and excellence.

No. 105. Old Mr. Lowin. — It would seem, from a dialogue in the
comedy of Knavery in all Trades, 1664, that Taylor and Pollard acted
with Lowin in Henry the Eighth at an early period, but the notice must
refer to the performances of it which took place some time after the
death of the author. Neither of the two first-named actors joined the
King's company until after the year 1616.

No. 106. Told by Fuller. — In his Worthies, ed. 1662. "A company
of litle boyes were by their schoolmaster not many years since appointed
to act the play of King Henry the Eighth, and one who had no presence,
but an absence rather, as of a whyning voyce, puiling spirit, consump-
tionish body, was appointed to personate King Henry himselfe onely
because he had the richest cloaths, and his parents the best people of
the parish : but when he had spoke his speech rather like a mouse then a
man, one of his fellow actors told him, — If you speake not Hoh with a
better grace, your Parliament will not give you a penny of mony," old
jest-book, MS. Sloane 384. There is another copy of the anecdote in
the Fragmenta Aulica, 1662, and the vigour of the exclamation long
continued to be one of the professional traditions. "Like our stage
Harry the Eighth, cry out Hough ! Hough ! ", Memoirs of Tate
Wilkinson, ed. 1790, i. 195, referring to a period some time about the
year 1758.

ILL USTRA TIVE NO TES. 535

No. 107, Where it is recorded. — "Item, paid to the players of
Coventrie by the commaundement of Mr. Mayer and thaldremen, x.s.,"
Bristol Corporation MSS., December, 1570. They were at Abingdon
in the same year and at Leicester in 1569 and 1571, but there is no
record of the nature of their performances. Those at Coventry were no
doubt of a more impressive character, the players there having the
advantage of elaborate appliances. " Item, paide at the commaundi-
ment of master mayor unto Mr. Smythes players of Coventree, i\].s."
Abingdon Corporation MSS., 1570. There can be little doubt that
Mr. in this last extract is an error for the.

No. 108. To live another age. — In a subsequent verse Lucrece is
represented as " acting her passions on our stately stage," so that it may
be that Drayton is referring to some drama on the subject, although
both previously and afterwards he is speaking exclusively of poems.
Heywood, in his Apology for Actors, 1612, sig. G, most likely refers to
a play older than his own time on the Rape of Lucrece. Drayton's
lines are not found in any copies of the Matilda published after the
year 1596, a circumstance which has been the occasion of several
conjectures ; but no inference can be safely deduced from the omission,
that writer having been in the constant habit of making extensive
alterations in his texts for new editions.

No. 109. It was received. — " Who loves chaste life, there's Lucrece
for a teacher ;= Who lis't read lust there's Venus and Adonis,"
Freeman's Runne and a Great Cast, 1614. There are numerous quo
tations from Lucrece in Bodenham's Belvedere and the England's
Parnassus in 1600, as well as several in Nicholson's Acolastus published
in the same year. Notices of the poem occur in Barnfield's Poems in
Divers Humors, 1598; Palladis Tamia, 1598; Weever's Epigrammes,
1599; England's Mourning Garment, 1603; and in the Return from
Parnassus, 1606. That which Sir John Suckling, in the time of Charles
the First, calls his " Supplement of an imperfect Copy of Verses of Mr.
Wil. Shakespears," appears to commence with his own alterations of
two stanzas in Lucrece, the rest being stated by himself to be entirely
new compositions.

No. no. 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 contemporary of Shakespeare's at Stratford-
on-Avon, and who is mentioned in Greene's manuscript diary under the
date of March the and, 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 Warwickshire man.

No. in. The author. — Heywood here appears to take it for
granted that Shakespeare was the author of the whole of the Passionate
Pilgrim, but he does not appear to have examined the volume with any

536 ILL US TRA TIVE NO TES.

degree of care. Had he done so, he would hardly have refrained from
enhancing his complaint against Jaggard by observing that, indepen
dently of the two epistles, the latter had also appropriated five other
poems from the Troia Britanica.

No. 112. The Earls of Derby and Pembroke. — Henslowe, a great
buyer of original plays, was in the habit of lending them to various
bodies of performers. Thus the Jew of Malta, one of his stock pieces,
was acted by at least three separate and two conjunctive companies
previously to the departure of the Lord Chamberlain's servants from his
theatres in June, 1594. As Henslowe's Diary is not a perfect record ot
his theatrical doings, it is not improbable that the players of Lords
Derby and Pembroke were acting at the Rose or at Newington, under
some arrangement with him, in the spring of that year.

No. 113. Or in any other. — According to Aubrey, that most un
reliable of all the early biographers, Shakespeare "understood Latine
pretty well, for he had been in his younger yeares a schoolmaster in the
countrey." It is very unlikely that there can be any truth in this
unsupported statement, and it is, indeed, inconsistent with what Aubrey
himself previously observes respecting Shakespeare's early life.

No. 114. Was not extended. — There is no positive evidence of this
fact, but it is one which is found to be the case at this time in so many
other towns that its accuracy in respect to Stratford-on-Avon may be
fairly assumed, supported, as it is, by local probabilities. It is, for. in
stance, almost impossible that the players of Lord Chandos, who were
continually performing in the neighbourhood, should have visited that
town merely on the single recorded occasion in the autumn of 1582.

No. 113. In the history. — This narrative is or was preserved in a
manuscript written by Sadler's daughter, but it is here taken from
extracts from the original which were published in the Holy Life of
Mrs. Elizabeth Walker, 1690.

No. 116. That of a glover. — This appears not only from the often
quoted entry in the Corporation books of June, 1556, but from a
recognizance in the Controlment Roll of the twenty-ninth of Elizabeth,
the latter showing that John Shakespeare was known in Stratford-on-
Avon as a glover thirty years afterwards, 1586.

No. 117. 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 extor
tioners, 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." Alleyn had not at this time commenced his
purchases of land at Dulwich.

ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES. 537

No. 118. Was soon forgotten. — Otherwise he would have been at
the pains to have made arrangements for having the offensive allusions
in the Groatsworth of Wit cancelled in the second edition of that work
in 1596. Unfortunately no copy of the first edition is now known to
exist, and we can only infer, from Chettle's apology and from the sub
sequent impressions containing invidious references to Shakespeare and
others, that there is a high probability of Greene's tract having been
reprinted without alteration.

No. 119. Nicholas Row e. — 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.

No. 120. Who consider it decorous or reasonable. — 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 con
sideration, 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.

No. 121. This Gilbert. — In the Coram Rege rolls, 1597, Gilbert
Shackspere, who appears as one of the bail in the amount of ^19 for a
clockmaker of Stratford, is described as a haberdasher of the parish of
St. Bridget ; but as his name does not occur in the subsidy lists of the
period, it is not unlikely that he was either a partner with, or assistant
to, some other tradesman of the same occupation. It was not unusual
in former days to refer to an assistant in a shop under the trading
appellation of his employers. Gilbert was at Stratford on May the ist,
1602, on which day he received the acknowledgment of an important
conveyance of land on behalf of his brother, a fact which may be held
to show that he enjoyed the poet's confidence. He is next heard of as
the witness to a local deed of 1609, one in which his signature appears
so ably written that it may be safely concluded that he had been
educated at the Free-School. In the Stratford register of 1612 is the
notice of the burial of " Gibertus Shakspeare, adolescens," but although
the last term is of somewhat indefinite application, it is not likely that
a person over forty-five years of age would have been so designated,
and the entry refers probably to a son. If the latter theory be correct,
it should be observed that the form of the entry warrants a doubt
of legitimacy. Scarcely any particulars have reached us respecting

538 ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES.

Shakespeare's brothers and sisters. Joan being the only one of them
mentioned in his will, it is generally assumed that none of the Others
were living when that document was prepared, and, from the number
of memorials given to personal friends, it would have been strange if
relatives had been overlooked. But the " second-best bed " was an
afterthought, and such deductions are to be received with hesitation.
Gilbert, however, could at any rate have been then the only unmen-
tioned survivor, and Malone, who seldom or never speaks at random,
but relying no doubt on substantial evidence, stated in 1790 that he
" certainly died before his son." A few claims on the parts of modern
families to descent from one of Shakespeare's brothers have been
proffered, but they are unsupported by allegations worthy the name of
evidence. It is, moreover, most probable that if any of them, or any
of their issue, had been living at the time of the death of Judith
Quiney's only surviving child in 1639, the fact would have transpired in
one or other of the subsequent transactions respecting the legal rights
under the terms of the last devise of estates in the poet's will.

No. 122. The Winter's Tale. — In the office-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. 1790, p. 226. Now Sir
George Buck obtained a reversionary grant of the office of the Master
of the Revels in 1603, expectant 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 dramas for publication long before the year last-men
tioned, as appears from several entries in the books of the Stationers'
Company ; and that he could also have passed 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 direct evidence
to the contrary, it seems, however, unnecessary 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., 1610. It would seem from Wilson's Cheerful Ayres,

ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES. 539

1660, that he was the original composer of the music to the Lawn
song, another evidence for the late date of the play, that celebrated
musician having been born in June, 1595. See Wood's Fasti, fol.,
Lond., 1691, col. 725.

No. 123. By Decker and Chettle. — It is their play which is most
likely alluded to in the following passage in Cawdray's Treasurie or
Store-house of Similies, ed. 1600, p. 380, — "as an actor in a comedie
or tragedy, which sometimes resembleth Agamemnon, somtimes
Achilles, somtimes their enemie Hector, sometimes one mans person,
sometimes another; even so an hypocrite wil counterfeit and seeme
sometimes to be an honest and just man, sometimes a religious man,
and so of al conditions of men, according to time, persons and place."
Decker and Chettle's play of Troilus and Cressida, afterwards termed
Agamemnon, is thus mentioned in Henslowe's Diary, — "Lent unto
Thomas Downton, to lende unto Mr. Dickers and Harey Cheattell, in
earneste of ther boocke called Troyeles and Creassedaye, the some
of iij.//., Aprell 7 daye, 1599. — Lent unto Harey Cheattell and Mr.
Dickers, in parte of payment of ther boocke called Troyelles and
Cresseda, the 16 of Aprell, 1599, xx.s. — Lent unto Mr. Dickers and
Mr. Chettell the 26 of Maye, 1599, in earneste of a boocke called the
tragedie of Agamemnon, the some of xxx.j. — Lent unto Robarte Shawe
the 30 of Maye, 1599, in full paymente of the boocke called the tragedie
of Agamemnone, to Mr. Dickers and Harey Chettell, the some of iij.//'.
v.s. — Paid unto the Master of the Revelles man for lycensynge of a
boocke called the tragedie of Agamemnon the 3 of June, 1599, vij.j."
It is clear from these entries that in this play, as in Shakespeare's,
Chaucer's story was combined with the incidents of the siege of Troy.
The allusion to the interchange of presents between Troilus and Cressida
in the old comedy of Histriomastix, first published in 1610 but written
before the death of Elizabeth, may refer to an episode that had been
rendered popular by its treatment in the above-named play. At all
events, no allusive inference can be safely drawn from the probably
accidental use of the words shakes and speare.

No. 124. Is not likely to refer. — There is a strong confirmation of
this in the following all but positive allusions to three of Shakespeare's
works, including Troilus and Cressida, in a rare poem entitled Saint
Marie Magdalens Conversion, 1603, — "Of Helens rape and Troyes
beseiged towne, = Of Troylus faith, and Cressids falsitie,=Of Rychards
stratagems for the english crowne, = Of Tarquins lust and Lucrece
chastitie,=Of these, of none of these my muse nowe treates, = Of greater
conquests, warres and loves she speakes." The preface to the Conversion
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.

54° ILL US TRA TIVE NO TES.

No. 125. Appear to exult. — That the manuscript was obtained by
some artifice may be gathered from the use of the word scape in the
preface to the first edition.

No. 126. The printers had received. — That the second impression is
the one referred to in the registers of the Stationers' Company of
January the 28th, 1609, may, perhaps, also be inferred from the omission
in both of the word famous.

No. 127. Originally known under the title of the Moor of Venice. — This
appears from the entries of 1604 and 1610, hereafter quoted, and from
the record of the performance of the tragedy at Whitehall on May the
2oth, 1613. The author of the elegy on Burbage speaks of that famous
actor as unrivalled in the character of "the grieved Moor," and the
earliest instance of the double appellation occurs in the title-page of the
first edition, here given V.L., — "The Tragcedy of Othello, The Moore
of Venice. As it hath beene diuerse times acted at the Globe, and at
the Black-Friers, by his Majesties Seruants. Written by William Shake
speare. London, Printed by N. O. for Thomas Walkley, and are to be
sold at his shop, at the Eagle and Child, in Brittans Bursse. 1622."
The second title was the one under which the play was usually acted
during the whole of the seventeenth century.

No. 128. Is first heard of. — It may be well to remark that a passage
in the Newe Metamorphosis or a Feaste of Fancie, which has been
adduced to support an earlier date for Othello, is of no critical value in
the enquiry. Although the date of 1600 appears on the title-page of
that poem, the manuscript itself contains a distinct allusion by name to
Speed's Theatre of Great Britaine, a work first published in 1611. The
first quarto contains several irreverent expressions which are either
modified or omitted in the later editions, a proof, as Mr. Aldis Wright
observes, " that the manuscript from which it was printed had not been
recently used as an acting copy," that is to say, since 1606, when the
Statute of James against profanity in stage-plays was enacted.

No. 129. In 1604. — There are some faint reasons for conjecturing that
the tragedy was not written before the nineteenth of March in this year.
The twelfth Public Act which was passed in the first Parliament of James
the First, some time between March igth and July yth, 1604, was levelled
"against conjuration, witchcrafte and dealinge with evill and wicked
spirits." In the course of this Act it is enacted that, " if any person or
persons shall, from and after the feaste of Saint Michaell the Archangell
next comminge, take upon him or them, by witchcrafte, inchantment,
charwe or sorcerie, to tell or declare in what place any treasure of golde
or silver should or might be founde or had in the earth or other secret
places, or where goodes or thinges loste or stollen should be founde
or" be come, or to the intent to provoke any person to unlawfull lore"
then such person or persons, if convicted, " shall for the said offence

ILL USTRA TIVE NO TES 541

suffer imprisonment by the space of one whole yere without baile or
maineprise, and once in everie quarter of the saide yere shall, in some
markett towne upon the markett day, or at such tyme as any faire shal be
kept there, stand openlie uppon the pillorie by the space of sixe houres,
and there shall openlie confesse his or her error and offence." It seems
probable that part of the first Act of Othello would not have assumed
the form it does, had not the author been familiar with the Statute, in
common with the public of the day, the Duke referring to such a law
when he tells Brabantio that his accusation of the employment of
witchcraft shall be impartially investigated. Although the offence
named in the Statute refers not to the use of charms to make people love
one another, but to the employment of them for the provocation of
unlawful love, yet still this may be said to have an oblique application
to the story of the tragedy in the surreptitious marriage of Othello. By
the Act of James, a previous one, 5 Eliz. c. 16, of a similar character,
was " utterlie " repealed, and the object of the second Act appears to
have been to punish the same offence more severely.

No. ijo. One William Bishop. — " Catherine and Dezdimonye, the
daughters of William Bishoppe, were baptised the xiiij.th of September,"
Registers of St. Leonard's, Shoreditch, 1609. This is not the only
instance of the adoption of a theatrical name. " Comedia, daughter of
William Johnson, player," bur. reg. of St. Giles's, Cripplegate, 1592-3.
The burial of Juliet, a daughter of Richard Burbage, is recorded in the
Shoreditch register for 1608, but it clearly appears from other entries
that her real name was Julia.

No. 131. The first performer of lago. — According to Wright's
Historia Histrionica, 1699, p. 4, Taylor was distinguished in this part,
but probably not until after the death of Shakespeare. The insertion of
Taylor's name in the list of the Shakespearean actors in ed. 1623 merely
proves that he had been one of them in or before that year.

No. 132. A curious tradition. — " I'm assur'd, from very good
hands, that the person that acted lago was in much esteem of a comedian,
which made Shakespear put several words and expressions into his part,
perhaps not so agreeable to his character, to make the audience laugh,
who had not yet learnt to endure to be serious a whole play," — Gildon's
Reflections on Rymer's Short View of Tragedy, 1694.

No. 133. 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 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

542 ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES.

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.

No. 134. Separate exercises. — 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 inconsistencies. The
opinion that the address to the "lovely boy" in 126 is the termination
of a series, dedicated to one and the same youth, is, indeed, absolutely
disproved by the language of 57. There are several other sonnets
antecedent to 126 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.

No. 135. 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, 1593 and 1594, or with the
expressions of humility found in the Sonnets themselves, e.g., 32 and 38.

No. 136. 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 laudent
musice et opprobrium contemptorii ejusdem. In my copy of Benson's
edition of 1640, some of the printed titles there given have been altered
to others in a manuscript hand-writing which is nearly contemporary
with the date of publication.

No. 137. From the arrangement. — And not only from the classifica
tion 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.

No. 138. Five-pence. — In a manuscript account of payments, 1609,
is a note by Alleyn, under the title of hou>showld stuff, of "a book,

ILL US TRA 77 VE NO TES. 543

Shaksper sonettes, 5d " That this was the contemporary price of the
work is confirmed by an early manuscript note, 5d-, 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 handwriting of the time, — " Commendacions to my very kind and
approved frind, B. M."

No. fjp. 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 verb beget having been occasionally used in the
sense of get. "I have some cossens Carman at Court, shall- beget you
the reversion of the Master of the King's Revels," Decker's Satiro-
Mastix, 1602. Cf. Hamlet, iii. 2. 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 gratuitous
conjecture that the sonnets of 1609 were not those which were in
existence in 1598, had not the time somewhat gone by for a publisher 's
dedication to that object ?

No. 140. Numerous futile conjectures. — There does not appear to
be one of these which deserves serious investigation, but perhaps the
climax of absurdity has been reached in the supposition that the
initials represent William (Shakespeare) Himself. Scarcely less un
tenable are the various theories which assume that the publisher would
have dared to address a person of exalted rank, under any circumstances,
as Mr. W. H., — this in days when social distinctions were so jealously
exacted that a nobleman considered it necessary in the previous year,
1608, to vindicate his position by bringing an action in the Star-Chamber
against a person who had orally addressed him as Goodman Morley.
It is also worth notice that to a translation of the Manual of Epictetus,
which appeared in 1616, there is prefixed a dedication from Thomas
Thorpe to William, earl of Pembroke, in the course of which the writer
parenthetically observes, — "pardon my presumption, great lord, from
so meane a man to so great a person." The following passages from
the commencement of that dedication were not penned in the spirit of
one who had addressed a nobleman of high rank on terms of equality, —
" it may worthily seeme strange unto your lordship out of what frenzy
one of my meanenesse hath presumed to commit this sacriledge, in the
straightnesse of your lordships leisure, to present a peece for matter and
model so unworthy, and in this scribbling age wherein great persons are
so pestered dayly with dedications."

No. 141. On good terms -with the Halls. — When Thomas Quiney
was in serious pecuniary difficulties in 1633, John Hall and Thomas
Nash acted, with another connexion, as trustees for his estate; and
Nash, in a codicil to his will, 1647, leaves to Thomas Quiney and his
wife, to each of them, "twentie shillinges to buy them rings."

544 ILL US TRA TIVE NO TES.

No. 142. A small house on the west of 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
inward es sixty feete, the bredhe backwardes sixteen foott and d." The
front of this house, which is situated a few doors from the corner of
Wood Street, 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.

No. 143. The 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," 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.

No. 144. In which he was supported. — Occasional payments for
wine supplied by him to the Corporation 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 hogsheads, 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.

No. 145. Fined for swearing. — In "a note of what mony hath bine
recovered since the 21 of September, 1630, for the poore for swearing
and other defaults," are the following entries, — " item, of Mr. Quiny for
swearing, i s. od. ; item, of Mr. Quiny for suffering townsmen to tippell
in his houss, is. od."

No. 146. His brother Richard. — In whose will, dated in August,
1655, is t*16 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

ILL USTRA TIVE NO TES. 545

Quiney and his assignes out of, in and upon, all those my messuages
and lands at Shottery, with 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 con
cluding 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.

No. 147. The eldest, Shakespeare Quiney. — " May 8, Shakespeare,
sonne to Thomas Queene," list of Stratford burials for 1617, Worcester
MS. " Receaved, for the great bell, at the deat® of Thomas Quynis
child, \\\).d." Stratford Accounts, 1617.

No. 148. The death of their mother. — Her burial is thus noted in
the Stratford register for 1661-2, — "February 9, Judith, uxor Thomas
Quiney, gent." The introduction of the epithet uxor is no proof, as
has been suggested, that her husband was then living. Compare the
epitaph on Shakespeare's widow.

No. 149. 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 circumstance of his cancelling the title-page containing
Shakespeare's name in the edition of 1612, and this apparently at the
instigation of a minor writer.

No. 150. Wincot. — 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. In the parish of Clifford
Chambers, and at about four miles from the poet's native town, is a
very minute and secluded hamlet called Wincot. It is described by
Atkyns in 1712 as then containing only two houses, one of which, to
judge from its present appearance, was in former days the substantial
residence of a landowner, and a confirmation of this opinion will be
found in a petition of one Robert Loggin, House of Lords' MSS.,
January, 1667; but it is extremely unlikely that here was to be found an
alehouse of any kind, and tl e-e appears to be nothing beyond the mere
name to warrant recent conjectures of this being the hamlet mentioned
by Shakespeare. Marian Hacket, the fat ale-wife, was probably a real
character, as well as Stephen Sly, old John Naps, Peter Turf, and
Henry Pimpernell. The documentary evidence 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

2 M

546 ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES.

the truthfulness of the names referred to may be said to be all but con
firmed 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.

No. iji. 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. 1 780, p. 26. The fact of there having been a water-mill at this village
(Dugdale, ed. 1656, p. 617) in ancient times may be thought to give
some colour of possibility to the tradition. Warton merely says that
" the house kept by our genial hostess still remains, but is at present a
mill," Glossary to the Oxford edition of Shakespeare, 1770. According
to an unpublished letter written by Warton in 1790, he derived his
information from what was told him, when a boy, by Francis Wise, an
eminent Oxford scholar, who went purposely to Stratford-on-Avon
about the year 1740 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. The anecdote, as related by Capell,
belongs to a series of traditions that show how wide-spread was the
belief in Warwickshire in the last century that the great poet was of a
jovial and simple disposition ; and this is also assumed in the following
curious statement, — " the late Mr. James West of the Treasury assured
me that, at his house in Warwickshire, 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 neighbourhood of Stratford
every Saturday afternoon," Steevens in Supplement to Shakespeare,
1780, ii. 369.

ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES. 547

No. 152. And the Court. — That the Tempest was originally written
with a view to its production before the Court may perhaps be gathered
from the introduction of the Masque, and from the circumstance that
Robert Johnson was the composer of the music to Full Fathom 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,
1660. Johnson is mentioned, in the Treasurer's accounts for 1612, as
one of the royal musicians " for the lutes." There may be a suspicion
that, when the author was engaged upon this drama, the company were
short of actors, and that he was bearing this deficiency in mind when
he made Ariel, in the midst of a " corollary " of spirits, unnecessarily
assume the somewhat incongruous personality of Ceres. A similar
observation will apply to his introduction as a harpy, neither transfor
mation exactly harmonizing with the incipient delineation of his
attributes.

No. 153. The evening of the first of November. — In the Booke of
the Revells, extending from 31 October, 1611, to i November, 1612, a
manuscript in the Audit Office collection, there is a page containing a
list of plays acted during that period before the Court, two of Shake
speare's being therein mentioned in the following terms, — "By the
Kings players Hallomas nyght, was presented att Whithall before the
Kinges Majestic a play called the Tempest. — The Kings players the
5th of November, a play called the Winters Nightes Tayle." This list
is considered by more than one experienced paleographer to be a
modern forgery, but, if this be the case, the facts that it records were,
in all probability, derived from a transcript of an authentic document.
Speaking of the Tempest, in the Account of the Incidents, 1809, p. 39,
Malone distinctly says, — " I know that it had a being and a name in
the autumn of 1611 ;" and he was not the kind of critic to use these
decisive words unless he had possessed contemporary evidence of the
fact.

No. 154. 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,
ed. 1670. This probably means that the comedy was originally pro
duced at the Blackfriars' Theatre after the Children had left that
establishment, and it is alluded to in a list of "some of the most
ancient playes that were playd at Blackfriers," 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, for that situation is unquestionably no evidence of its place
in the chronological order.

2 M 2

548 ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES.

No. ijj. In the year 1613. — It has been thought that Ben Jonson
alludes to the Tempest and the Winter's Tale in the following passage
in the Induction to his Bartholomew Fair, first acted in the year 1614,
which is thus printed in the original edition of the play that appeared in
1631, the distinctions of italics and capital letters not being peculiar to
this quotation, and therefore of little value in the consideration of the
opinion respecting the allusion, — " if there bee never a Senmnt-monster
i' the Fayre, who can helpe it, he sayes ? nor a nest of Antiques 1 Hee
is loth to make nature afraid in his Playes, like those that beget Ta/es,
Tempests, and such like Drolleries." As the Tempest and the Winter's
Tale were both acted at Court shortly before the production of
Bartholomew Fair, and were probably then in great estimation with the
public, there would be some grounds for the conjecture that Shake
speare's plays are here alluded to, were it not for the circumstance that
Jonson can hardly be considered to refer to regular dramas. In the
comedy of Bartholomew Fair he ridicules those primitive dramatic
exhibitions which, known as motions or puppet-shows, were peculiar
favourites with the public at that festival. In some of these tempests
and monsters were introduced, as in the motion of Jonah and the
Whale. The "nest of anticks," which is supposed to allude to the
twelve satyrs who are introduced at the sheep-shearing festival, does not
necessarily refer even to the spurious kind of drama here mentioned.
The "servant-monster," and the "nest of anticks," may merely mean
individual exhibitions. If the latter really does relate to a dramatic
representation, it may very likely be in allusion to the fantastic characters
so frequently introduced in the masques of that period ; but the context
seems to imply that Jonson is referring to devices exhibited at the fair.

-^~*Wt9-

No. 156. In the Spring. — This appears from the entry in the books
of the Stationers' Company on July 26th, 1602, of "a booke called the

ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES. 549

Revenge of Hamlett, Prince Denmarke®, as yt was latelie acted by the
Lo : Chamberleyne his servantes." The tragedy is not noticed by
Meres in 1598, and it could not have been written in its present form
before the spring of the year 1600, the period of the opening of the
Globe, there being a clear allusion to performances at that theatre in
act ii. sc. 2.

No. 157. Our national tragedy. — There was an old English tragedy
on the subject of Hamlet which was in existence at least as early as the
year 1589, in the representation of which an exclamation of the Ghost,
— " Hamlet, revenge ! " — was a striking and well-remembered feature.
This production is alluded to in some prefatory matter by Nash in the
edition of Greene's Menaphon issued in that year, here given V.L. —
" I'le 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 speaches," 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 steeld 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 Satiromastix, 1602, — " 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 play mad Hamlet, and crie revenge." So, likewise,
in Rowlands' 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 Armm's Nest of Ninnies, 1608,
— " ther are, as Hamlet sayes, things cald whips in store," a sentence

b 5,0 ILL USTRA TIVE NO TES.

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 Con
tention, 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 June, 1594, by "my Lord Admeralle and my lorde
Chamberlen men." 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 father's empire and government 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
Revenge, just Revenge, was comming with his sworde drawne against
him, his royall Mother, and dearest Sister, to fill up those murdering
sceanes," Sir Thomas Smithes Voiage and Entertainment in Rushia,
1605. "Sometimes would he overtake him and lay hands uppon him
like a catch-pole, as if he had arrested him, but furious Hamlet wouldc
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 tugging and
tearing one anothers frockes off, they both looked like mad Tom oi
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 ther, 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 Nights Walke, 1608, a tract
which was reprinted in 1 609 and afterwards under more than one title.
"A trout, Hamlet, with foure legs," Clarke's Paroemiologia Anglo-
Latina, or Proverbs English and Latine, 1639, p. 71. The preceding
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 spectre in this, as in the later
play, urged Hamlet to avenge the murder.— 5. Was acted at the
Theatre in Shoreditch and at the playhouse at Newington Butts. — 6.
Had for its principal character a hero exhibiting more general violence

ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES. 551

than can be attributed to Shakespeare's creation of Hamlet. It also
appears that this older play was not entirely superseded by the new one,
or, at all events, that it was long remembered by play-goers.

No. 158. The Revenge of Hamlet. — This title encourages the belief
that Shakespeare's tragedy was to some unknown extent founded on the
older drama, whence he probably obtained most of his incidents and a few
bald hints for some of his dialogues, especially for those of the latter that
are disfigured by unnecessary ribaldry. It may be suspected that Polonius
would never have been called a fishmonger had there not been a cognate
pleasantry in that scene of the earlier play in which there was an allusion
to a trout, both terms being allied in meanings that are unworthy of
explanation. Whether the compiler of ed. 1603 was indebted to it for
any of his language is a point which, however probable, is not likely
to be satisfactorily determined. The manuscript of the elder play of
Hamlet no doubt belonged to the Lord Chamberlain's company,
otherwise some notice of it would have appeared in Henslowe's diary
after its performance in June, 1594, and this view is to some degree
confirmed by the notice given by Lodge in 1596 of its performance in
Shoreditch. It may be concluded, therefore, that Shakespeare had good
opportunities for being well acquainted with the earlier piece.

No. 159. In course of representation. — It appears from 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." It is also worth notice that, in the
original performance, Hamlet appeared on one or more occasions without
either coat or waistcoat, — " Puts off his cloathes; his shirt he onely weares,
= Much like mad-Hamlet; thus as passion teares," — Daiphantus, 1604.
No. 160. Recently composed. — Bishop Percy, who died in 1811,
owned a copy of Speght's edition of Chaucer, 1598, with manuscript
notes by Gabriel Harvey, a portion of one of them, as first printed by
Steevens in 1773, being in the following terms, — "the younger sort take
much delight in Shakespeare's Venus and Adonis, but his Lucrece ^nd
his tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke, have it in them to please
the wiser sort." The fate of this volume being unknown, there is no
alternative but to give what seem to be the essential particulars of the
case from the notes of Malone and Percy which occur in letters of 1803 in
the Bodleian Library and in an essay in the variorum Shakespeare, ed.
1821, ii., 369. — Harvey's autograph in the book is followed by the date of
1598, and, in the same manuscript passage from which the above extract
is taken, there is an allusion to Spenser and Watson as two of " our now
flourishing metricians." It has been assumed from these facts, Spenser

552 ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES.

having died in January, 1599, that the Hamlet note must have been
written in the previous year ; but the death of Watson having occurred
long before the 1598 edition of Chaucer appeared, it is clear that the
words now flourishing are used in the sense of now admired. It is also
certain that Harvey's manuscript date is only that of the time when he
became possessed of the volume, for in one passage he speaks of
Translated 'fassv, and the first edition of Fairfax, which is doubtlessly
alluded to, appeared in 1600.

No. 161. Its popularity. — This is shown by the direct evidence in
Daiphantus, 1604, — " faith, it should please all, like Prince Hamlet."
There is no question, as in some other notices, of the possibility of the
reference being to the older drama, the author distinctly mentioning it
as one of " friendly Shakespeare's tragedies." It may be observed that
Hamlet is the only one of Shakespeare's plays which is noticed as having
been acted in his life-time before the Universities of Oxford and
Cambridge. The distinction was a rare one, as may be gathered from
the terms in which Ben Jonson acknowledges the similar honour
which was bestowed upon his comedy of Volpone.

No. 162. 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 "diverse times acted by his Highnesse servants in the
Cittie of London, as also in the two Universities of Cambridge and
Oxford, and else-where," 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 tradesman of inferior position, it is not unlikely that he it was
who surreptitiously obtained the imperfect and erroneous copy, placing
it in the hands of some obscure printer who would have less fear of the
action of the Stationers' 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.

No. 163. 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 account
ing for what is therein exhibited of identity with and variations from the
characterization and dramatic structure of the authentic work. There
is another theory which assumes that the quarto of 1603 is a copy,
however imperfect, of Shakespeare's first sketch of the play. Were this
the case, surely there would be found in it some definite traces of the
poet's genius, sparkling in lines which belong to the variations above

ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES. 553

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 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 little beyond an assemblage of feeble utterances and inferior
doggrel, the composition of which could not reasonably be assigned to any
period, however early, 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 im
mortal 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 beginning, "Come in, Ofelia," ed. 1603, sig. C. 2, there seems
to be a palpable imitation of words of Viola in Twelfth Night.

No. 164. 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 misprints, there are
errors that cannot easily be explained on any other hypothesis, as right
done for writ down in the second scene of the first act. In act ii, sc. 2,
in venom steept is printed invenom'd speech, and by a similar ear-mistake
we have, " the law hath writ those are the only men." 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 misunderstood and converted into borne,
with another meaning. So in act iii., sc. 4, "most secret and most
grave," is converted into, " I'll provide for you a grave;" 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
commencing, "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 abridgments of the text. Some of the notes of lines taken at

554 ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES.

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 i., 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 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. 1 604 being as
follows in ed. 1603, — Voltemar, Cornelia, Leartes, Rossencraft, Gilder-
stone, Gertred. In some instances 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. See, for example, the 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 exception
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;
and 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 and 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
were taken from some copy of the genuine drama which was printed in
the following year. It seems impossible to account otherwise for the
identity of a large 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 comparison of the first act in the two
copies would alone substantiate this position. Some peculiar ortho
graphy may also be fairly adduced as corroborative evidence, e.g.,

ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES. 555

Capapea in the quartos for the cap-a-pe of the folio, strikt for strict, cost
for cast, troncheon for truncheon, Nemeon for Nemian (Neniean), eager
for aygre, Fortenbrasse for Fortinbras, penitrable for penetrable, rootes for
ntf-y, 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 explanation of the difficulty
is one suggested by Professor Dowden, who thinks 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 manu
script had been 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.

No. 163. Or other memoranda. — 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 Primerose
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. The latter theory may be supported by an
apparent Hamlet reference in the Dutch Courtezan, 1605, — "wha, ha,
ho, come, bird, come," — the word bird in Shakespeare's tragedy first
appearing in print in ed. 1623 ; and the certain quotation, — "illo, ho,
ho, ho, art there, old truepeny," — in the Malcontent, 1604, is far more
likely to have been derived from a performance of Hamlet than from
the contemporary printed edition, the word old not improbably
belonging to the original text of the nobler drama.

No. 166. Abnormous variations. — The compiler of the edition of
1603 must have made use of some version of the story that originally
appeared in the works of Saxo Grammaticus, that version, in all pro
bability, being the one then current in the elder tragedy. Note, for
example, the feelings and conduct of the Queen towards Hamlet at
the end of her interview with him and afterwards, as also her solemn
denial of any complicity in the murder. The change of the names of
Corambis and Montano in ed. 1603 to those of Polonius and Reynaldo
in ed. 1604 has not been satisfactorily explained. Corambis, a trisyl
lable, 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

556 ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES.

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 1 604.

No. 167. Enlarged. — Although Roberts registered 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 re-issued
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.

No. 168. 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 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 interpretations 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 com
pany 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.

No. 169. Hamlet leaping into Ophelia's gran. — " I. cartes leapes
into the grave, — Hamlet leapes in after Leartes," stage-directions in
ed. 1603. When the author of the elegy on Burbage mentions having
seen that actor play Hamlet in jest, the lines following do not
necessarily allude to the scene in the grave, the words this part most
likely referring to the character generally. It may here be observed
that the presumed allusion to Kemp in the speech respecting the
extempore wit of clowns is purely fanciful, while the conjecture that he

ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES. 557

undertook at any time the part of the First Gravedigger in Shakespeare's
tragedy is contrary to all probability. There is no reliable evidence
that Kemp was a member of Shakespeare's company either at or after
the production of Hamlet.

No. i/o. 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 con
versation 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, gives 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
artifice was formerly introduced in the performance of the Duchess of
Malfi, 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."
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 conster
nation 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 Shakespeare, 1709, and it is no doubt of much greater
antiquity. It appears from this engraving that, in the then performance
of Hamlet, the pictures referred to by the hero in that act were repre
sented 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
designs in the arras in which figures were represented. It is clear from
his speech in the genuine tragedy that the portraits were intended to
be whole lengths, and this would be inconsistent 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.

No. 171. Not a native of that village. — For John Hall of Acton was
married there on September the igth, 1574, to Margaret Archer, and
"Elizabeth Hall, the daughter of John, xxned the v.th of June, 1575."

558 ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES.

The poet's son in-law, in 1635, bequeathed "my house in 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 surnames, 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.

No. if 2. 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. If so,
Hall's residence was not very near Church Street, and it must have been
either one of the few houses on the north of Old Town or one on the small
piece of land between the College grounds and the borough. It is not
likely that it occupied the latter situation, the house that was standing
there in 1769 being then described as having formerly consisted of three
tenements, and these were, no doubt, in Hall's time merely small
cottages.

No, 173. New Place. — In the Vestry notes 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,
and 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, and
in a manuscript dated 14 March, 1645-6, he alludes to "my mother-in-
law, Mrs. Hall, who lives with me." He was, however, practically only
a lodger, Mrs. Hall being not only at the time the legal owner of the
estate but also the ratable occupier of the house. The latter fact is clear
from the overseers' accounts of June, 1646, in which she is noted as
being in arrears of rates to the amount of eight shillings and sixpence.

No. 174. His advice was solicited. — These particulars 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," izmo. Lond. 1657. A second edition
appeared in 1679, re-issued in 1683 with merely a new title-page. In
the original small octavo manuscript used by Cooke much of the I,atin

ILL USTRA TIVE NO TES. 559

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.

No, 175. Strong religious tendencies. — He occasionally attended the
vestries, most likely as often as regard for his professional duties war
ranted, 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 subsequently
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, 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 symptomes
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."

No. 176. 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 occasion 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 re
specting these fines and other matters, the differences culminating in the

563 ILL USTRA TIVE NO TES.

following almost unprecedented resolution which was passed at a meeting
held in October, 1633, — "at this hall Mr. John Hall is displaced 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.

No. 777. 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 aequa
dies;=Ne tumulo quid desit, adest fidissima conjux, = Et vitae comitem,
nunc quoque mortis, habet." The concluding lines of this epitaph would
appear to indicate that it was composed after the death of the widow in
the year 1649.

No. 178. The only interesting personal glimpse. — For it surely can
not profit us to be informed that on one occasion she was " miserably
tormented with the collick," Select Observations, ed. 1657, p. 24. A
similar observation will apply to Hall's notices of his daughter's illnesses,
and none of these have been thought worthy of transcription.

No. 179. 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 responsibility, 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 husband's grave,
a fact that is gathered from the concluding lines of the epitaph on his
tombstone, which give an 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.

No. 180. On the grave-stone that records her decease. — The inscrip
tion here referred to having been tampered 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 Shakespere,
gent. — She deceased the 2. day of July, anno 1649, aged 66;" the
numeral two being an error for eleven. "July 16, Mrs. Susanna Hall,

ILL US TRA 77 VE NO TES. 5 6 1

widow," Stratford burial register for 1649. The verses given in the text
were on the original stone under the above-named 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.

No 181. His father and uncle. — Thomas Nash, the father of these
persons, died suddenly at Aylesbury 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 himself very much in agricultural matters, was present in
October, 1614, when Replingham signed the agreement respecting
the 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 2oth, 1593. He was executor under his father's will in 1622, the
latter bequeathing him two houses and a piece of land near the bridge
termed the Butt Close. 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 Parlia
ment," 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.

No. 182. Became a widow in 164.7. — Thomas Nash died at New
Place on April the 4th, and was buried at Stratford on the next day.
" Aprill 5, Thomas Nash, gent.," burial register for 1647. His tomb
stone 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 ; — 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
abstuiit, 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 probably
further deteriorated before most of the Shakespeare family memorials

2 N

S62 ILL USTRA Tl VE NO TES.

were either tampered with, or replaced by new slabs, during the exten
sive alterations made in the church about the year 1836. Malone
informs us that, in 1790, six words in the above elegy were then entirely
obliterated, and Hunter speaks of the inscription in 1824 as being then
" nearly perished."

No. 183. About ftvo 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
the year 1788.

No. 184. 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 mild® 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 supposed 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.

No. 183. 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 punyshed;" and, in another one for 1606, that "ale
houses 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 keepinge ill rule in his house on the sabaoth
in service time by sellinge of alle," 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 Bidford presented for sellinge of lesse then
mesure, and for keeping disorders in his howse," Warwick County MSS.

No. 1 86. 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 Bidford, " and shewed me in the hedge a crab-
tree called Shakespear's Canopy, because under it our poet slept one
night ; for he, as well as Ben Johnson, loved a glass for the pleasure of
society ; and he, having heard much of the men of that village as deep
drinkers and merry fellows, one day went over to Bidford to take a cup
with them ; — he enquired of a shepherd for the Bidford drinkers, who

ILL USTRA TIVE NO TES. 563

replied they were absent, but the Bidford 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 lodging 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 Shak-
speare 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 eminence in that proffession 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 Stratford, 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 Shakespeare 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 strenght
with the Sippers, they were ther ready for the Contest, Shakespr and his
compainions 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 intolerable intoxicated that they was not able
to Contend any longer and acordingly set out on their return to
Stratford But had not got above half a mile on the road e'er 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 he declined it saying I have drank with —
Piping Pebworth, Dancing Marston, = Haunted Hillborough, Hungry
Grafton, = Dadgeing Exhall, Papist Wicksford, = Beggarly Broom, and
Drunken Bidford," — meaning, by this doggrel, with the bibulous com
petitors 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 by the writer to Malone in

2 N 2

564 ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES.

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. 229-233,
are 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 fabrica
tions. This seems, indeed, the only feasible explanation that can be
given of the lines on the villages not appearing, if they had been then
current, in the traditional account of 1762. They 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 Bacchanalian
utterances.

No. /<?/. 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 nevertheless a fact, that a room in a large building once so
called, though probably not a tavern at all in Shakespeare's time, 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.

No. 188. 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 statement 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 to 1681, there
is no mention either of the Falcon Inn or of the Nortons.

No. 189. Under the branches of a crab-tree. — From a sketch which
was made by Ireland either in 1792 or 1793, the fidelity of which was

ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES. 565

assured to me many years ago by persons who had seen the tree in
their youthful days, it may be inferred that it was then of an unusual
size and antiquity, and there is certainly no impossibility in the
assumption that it was large enough in the poet's time to have afforded
the recorded shelter. 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.

No. 190. Early in the follounng 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 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 completely 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.

No. ipi. 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 mallte," MS. dated 1595. " Roberte
Butler, besides his glovers occupation, usethe makinge of mallte," MS.
ibid. " Rychard Castell, Rother Market, usethe his glovers occupacion ;
his weiffe utterethe weekelye by bruynge ij. strikes of mallte," MS. ibid.
In one of the copies of an inventory taken at Stratford after the death
of Joyce Hobday, 1602, are the following entries, — "George Shacleton
oweth me for woll. xxiiij.^. — Mr. Gutteridge oweth me for calves lether,
iiij.j. viij.*/. — John Edwards of Allveston, alias Allston, oweth me for two
pere of gloves, viij.*/." 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, the material furnished by the latter being well adapted for
the production of coarse leather gloves, the only ones that, in John Shake
speare's time, were in general provincial use. " To Townsen, the glover,
for two sheepe skines, vj.s. viij.^.," records of Rye, co. Sussex, 1604.
" Butler of Puddle Wharfe, a glover, felmonger, or sheep-skin-dresser,"
Brian, 1637. There is, in the churchyard of Stratford-on-Avon, a
tombstone of the latter part of the seventeenth century (1688-9) to tne
memory of " a fellmonger and glover."

No. 192. The concentration of several trades. — Thus it is recorded,
in 1595, that " Thomas Rogers, now baieliefe of this towne, besydes his

566 ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES.

butchers trade, which untill now of late hee allwaies used, hee ys a
buyer and seller of come for great somes, and withall usethe grazinge
and buyinge and sellinge of cattell, and hathe in howshold xiij. persons ;"
and in the same year we are told, under Hyghe Streete, that "Jhon Perrye
useth sometimes his butchers trade besides his husbandrye." When
Aubrey states that John Shakespeare was a butcher, he either confused
the father's occupation with that of the son, or was led to the assertion
by the probable circumstance of the former having sometimes dealt in
meat when he was the owner of Asbies. There can be little doubt that
John Shakespeare, in common with other farmers and landowners, often
killed his own beasts and pigs both for home consumption and for sale,
but it is in the highest degree improbable that his leading business was
ever that of a butcher. If that had been the case, there would assuredly
have been some allusion to the fact in the local records. Two other
examples of the combination of trades at Stratford-on-Avon are worth
adding. " Mr. Persons hathe, besides his trade of draperye and lyvinge
yeerely commynge in, of longe tyme used makinge of mallte and bruyinge
ta sell in his howse, and ys a common buyer and seller of corne," MS.
dated 1595. " Peeter Davyes, besides his woolwynders occupacion,
usethe the makinge of mallte and victuallinge," MS. ibid.

No. ipj. The domination of a commercial spirit. — It is not at all
probable that Shakespeare could have entertained, under the theatrical
conditions that surrounded his work, the subtle devices underlying his
art which are attributed to his sagacity by the philosophical critics, and
some of which, it is amusing to notice, may be equally observed, if they
exist at all, in the original plot-sources of his dramas. Amongst the
most favourite and least tenable of these fancies is that he gratuitously
permitted his art to be controlled by the necessity of blending a variety
of actions in subjection to one leading moral idea or by other similar
limitations. But the phenomenon of a moral unity is certainly not to
be found either in nature or in the works of nature's poet, whose truth
ful and impartial genius could never have voluntarily endured a sub
mission to a preconception which involved violent deviations from the
course prescribed by his sovereign knowledge of human nature and the
human mind.

No. 194. If this view. — It is well supported by the few accessible
evidences. The poet was not a member of Lord Strange's company in
May, 1593, or his name would assuredly have been included in the list
of that date. If he was then one of Lord Pembroke's actors, there were
ample reasons for his leaving them in the following autumn, when they
are mentioned as having been in such deplorable straits that they were
compelled to pawn their theatrical apparel. The company of actors
under the patronage of the Earl of Sussex was disbanded in the spring
of 1594, some of them in all probability joining those of the Lord

ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES. 567

Chamberlain. There is, moreover, the corroborative fact that Shake
speare, throughout his subsequent career, was never known to write for
any other managers but those with whom he was theatrically connected.

No. 195. A play on the subject of Henry the Fifth. — It would seem
from the epilogue to the Second Part of Henry the Fourth that Shake
speare's original intention was to make his play on the subject of the
following reign one of a more comic nature than that which ultimately
appeared, one in which the dramatic construction would no doubt have
harmonized with the previous design.

No. 196. If was favourably received. — The surreptitious editions
may be fairly regarded as evidences of the popularity of Henry the Fifth,
and it was performed at Court by the King's players early in the year
1605. This sovereign was probably a favourite character on the old
English stage. There was not only the Famous Victories, which
appeared either in or before 1594, but a new drama called Henry the
Fifth was produced at one of the Surrey theatres in the following year.
"The 28 of Novmbr, 1595, n.e., R. at Harey the v, iij.//. \].s"
Henslowe's Diary. The patriotic influences of one or more of the
three dramas are noticed by Hey wood in his Apology for Actors, 1612.

No. 197. Specially relished. — This may be gathered from the title-
page of ed. 1600, and it would even seem that the play was sometimes
known under the title of Ancient Pistol. In the reply of a decisive
young lady to a boisterous lover, he is told, — "it is not your hustie
rustic can make me afraid of your bigge lookes, for I saw the plaie of
Ancient Pistoll, where a craking coward was well cudgeled for his
knavery ; your railing is so neere the rascall that I am almost ashamed
to bestow so good a name as the rogue uppon you," — Breton's Poste
with a Packet of Madde Letters, 1603, "newly inlarged," the tract
having originally appeared in the preceding year. In the Scornful
Lady, a comedy written before 1616, Beaumont introduces a character
who is a poor imitation of Pistol.

No. 198. Of any of those. — 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 especially such a piece as would be sug
gested by the edition of 1600. It is, moreover, perfectly clear that
some of the speeches in that impression are mere abridgments of others
in the perfect version.

No. 199. The unity of character. — The definition 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 every-

56S ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES.

where 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 individuality
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 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.

No. 200. No fewer than a hundred and tu>cnty-seven acres. — The
praecipe of the fine is dated May the 28th, 1610, — " Willielmo Combe
armigero, et Johanni Combe, generoso, quod juste &c. teneant
Willielmo Shakespere, generoso, conventionem &c. de centum et
septem acris terre, et viginti acris pasture, cum pertinentiis, in Old
Stratford et Stratford-super-Avon." This property is mentioned in 1639
as "all those fower yards land and a halfe of arrable, meadowe and
pasture, with thappurtenaunces, lying and being in the townes, hambletts,
villages, feilds and grounds of Stratford-upon-Avon, Ould Stratford,
Bishopton and Welcombe," and a like description is found in the later
settlements. The extent of a yard land curiously varied even in the
same localities of the same county, and the facts that a hundred and
seven acres were taken as four of them in 1602, and twenty as a half of
one of them in 1639, show that there was formerly no precise idea on the
subject.

No. 201. With affectionate tributes. — At this period the funereal
charges at Stratford included four-pence for ringing the bell, and the
like sum for the use of the pall. The latter article was very frequently
dispensed with, but both were ordered upon this occasion, — " item, for
the bell and pall for Mr. Shaxpers dawghter, \\\}.d" A payment

dictated by sentiment cannot reasonably be adduced in evidence
respecting the circumstances of the parents, although even such
comparatively insignificant amounts were of moment in those days to
an embarrassed tradesman.

ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES. 569

No, 202. On that Saturday. — De Quincy was the first to conjecture
that the 22nd of April, corresponding to our present 4th of May, is the
real birthday. The suggestion was derived from the circumstance of
the poet's only grand-child having been married to Thomas Nash on
the 22nd of April, 1626; and few things are more likely than the
selection of her grandfather's birthday for such a celebration. Only
ten years had elapsed since his death, and that he had been kind to her
in her childhood may be safely inferred from the remembrances in the
will. Whatever opinion may be formed respecting the precise interpre
tation of the record of the age under the monumental effigy, the latter is
a certain evidence that Shakespeare was not born after the 23rd of April.
It may also be fairly assumed that the event could not have happened
many days previously, for it was the almost universal practice amongst
the middle classes of that time to baptize children very shortly after
birth. The notion that Shakespeare died on his birthday was not
circulated until the middle of the last century, and it is completely
devoid of substantial foundation. Had so unusual a circumstance
occurred, it is all but impossible that it should not have been numbered
amongst the early traditions of Stratford-on-Avon, and there is good
evidence that no such incident was known in that town at the close of
the seventeenth century. There is preserved at the end of the parish
register a few notes on the local celebrities headed, — " I finde these
persons remarkable," — written about the year 1690, and under the poet's
name is this statement, — " born Ap. the 26th, 1564," — a date obviously
taken from the baptismal register, and proving that the writer had no
other information on the subject.

No. 203. With such celerity. — Shakespeare commenced to write for
the stage in or shortly before the winter of 1591-1592, and prior to the
summer of 1 598 he had written at least fifteen plays, including several of
his master-pieces. In the course of the next four years he had produced,
amongst others, Hamlet and Twelfth Night. Having thus reached the
summit of dramatic power in the middle of his literary career, an
endeavour to classify or to study a large number of his works in an
order of progressive ability would be manifestly futile. Shakespeare is
not to be judged by ordinary rules, and, although it is obvious that a
few of his plays belong to the very early years of authorship, it is equally
certain that he shortly afterwards exercised an unlimited control over
his art.

No. 204. Who had died some time previously. — This is the most
probable view of the case, but the register of the first Joan's burial has
not been discovered, being, in all probability, one of the omissions in the
later transcript of the original entries. It should be observed that, in
the time of Elizabeth, and for long afterwards, the practice of giving a
deceased child's first name to a successor was extremely common. In

57o ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES.

this way Shakespeare's friend, Adrian Quiney, born in 1586, was
preceded by a brother of the same name whose burial was recorded two
years previously. It may also be worth mentioning that a Christian
name was occasionally repeated in a family even in cases where the
earlier holder of it was still living ; but the absence of all other notice of
the first Joan renders this latter contingency somewhat improbable.
Goodlacke Edwardes of Worcester, clothier, in his will of 1559, distinctly
mentions two daughters of the name of Anne both living at the same
time, and this baptismal practice was the occasional source of litigation.

No. 205. Joan was then so common a name, — It was frequently in
those days considered synonymous with Jane. " Wray said, the names
are both one, and so it had been adjudged before this time, upon con
ference with the grammarians, that Jane and Joane is one name,"
Croke's Reports for Easter Term, 32 Eliz., ed. 1683, i. 176.

No. 206. The great dramatist purchased. — One of the indentures ot
conveyance has the following endorsement, — " Combe to Shackspeare
of the four yard land in Stratford field." These words have been
thought to be in Shakespeare's handwriting, but they were indubitably
written long after the poet's decease.

No. 207. In complete readiness for the purchaser 's attestation. — With
one label ready placed for one seal only, showing that the counterpart
was intended for the poet's signature. The text of the duplicate
indenture is practically identical with the one given in this work, the
few variations that are found in it being of the most insignificant and
accidental character.

No. 208. A long and tedious 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 Universities or any other
place stirred with Emulation of long continuance."

No. 209. The recognized pieces of this latter series. — The character of
the work, throughout the entire volume, should suffice to exclude the
irrational conjecture that deception has been practised in any of these
attributions. It is scarcely possible that the external testimony to their
genuineness could have been more decisive, while the internal evidence
in the case of Shakespeare's poem can only be regarded as unsatisfactory
by those who are under the impression that his style was never
materially influenced by contemporary emergencies.

No. 210. Ttit amazing number of different characters. — It has been
often remarked that some of Shakespeare's characters are germs of others
that were brought on the stage at a later period of composition, but
this is a notion that will not be sustained by a patient analysis, especially
if the different circumstances by which they are surrounded are taken

ILL USTRA 77 VE NO TES. 571

Facsimile of the Title-page to the concluding portion
of Chester's Loves Martyr or Rosalins Complaint,
allegoric ally shadowing the Truth of Love in the con
stant Fate of the Phoenix and Turtle.

HEREAFTER

FOLLOyV DIVERSE

PoeticallEflaies on the former Sub'
ieftjviz: the funk and Phoenix.

3)one by the left and chief eft of our

moderne writers, with their names fiib-

fcribed to their particular workes:

nemr Before extant.

And (now firft)confecratedby them all generally,

to the Iwe and write of the true-nolk Knight y

Sir lohn Salisburie.

Dignim laude virum

MDCL

572

ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES.

Facsimile of the Page of Chester s Loves Martyr, with
the concluding Verses of Shakespeare s lines on the Phcenix
and Turtle, from the original edition which was published
in London in tlie year 1601.

Threnos.

BEautie,Tmth,and Rarit ic,
Grace in all firnplic itie,
Here cnclofde,in cinders lie.

Peath is now the Phcenix ncft,
And the Turtles loyall breft,
To eternhic doth reft.

Leauingnopofteride,
Twas not their infirrnitie,
It was married Chaftitic.

Truth may fecme,but cannot be,
Beautie bragge,buc tis not flic,
Truth andBeautie buried be.

To this vrnclct thofe repaire,
That arc either true or faire,
For thcfe dead Birds,figfi a prayer.

ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES. 573

fully into consideration. There are an infinite number of trivial
variations a very few of which in themselves suffice to elicit a diversity
between the natures of two persons, both of whom may yet be endowed
with a large proportion of the same characteristics.

No. 211. Pericles. — No mention of this play has been discovered
in any book or manuscript dated previously to the year 1608. The
statement that an edition of Pimlyco or Runne Red-Cap was 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.

No. 212. 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, 1608." This very rare and curious tract is printed in
small quarto, and in the centre of the title-page is an interesting wood-cut
of John Gower, no 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 Fermor, 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 unnecessary 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 entreats " 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 theatrical success of Pericles
occur in the title-pages of ed. 1609, in Pimlyco or Runne Red-Cap,
1609, and in Tailor's Hogge Hath Lost his Pearle, 1614; and, notwith
standing occasional depreciations of it on the score of immorality, 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 Randolph. The following little anecdote
may possibly refer to a period anterior to the death of Shakespeare, —
" two gentlemen went to see Pericles acted, and one of them was moved
with the calamities of that prince that he wept, whereat the other laughed
extreamely. Not long after, the same couple went to see the Major of

574 ILL US TRA TIVE NO TES.

Qinborough, when he who jeered the other at Pericles now wept him-
selfe, to whom the other, laughing, sayd, what the divell should there
bee in this merry play to make a man weep? O, replied the other, who
can hold from weeping to see a magistrate so abused ? The jest will
take those who have scene these two plaies," Booke of Bulls baited with
two Centuries of bold Jest and nimble Lies, 1636.

No. 213. The first edition. — Printed in 1609, "as it hath been
divers and sundry times acted by his Maiesties Servants at the Globe
on the Banck-side." It was published before the fifth of May in that
year, 1609, there existing a copy with an owner's autograph written on
that day. The copies of this edition vary from each other in some
important readings, and there are two impressions of 1609 distinguishable
from each other by having variations in the device of the first capital letter
in the text. A third edition was issued in 1611, "printed at London
by S.S.," a surreptitious and badly printed copy with numerous typo
graphical errors. There is a rather curious peculiarity in the title-pages
of the two earliest editions, the Christian name of the author being
divided from his surname by a printer's device of two small leaves.

No. 214. The poet's share. — Dryden, writing about the year 1680,
expressly states that Pericles was the earliest dramatic production of our
national poet, — " Shakespear's own muse her Pericles first bore,=The
Prince of Tyre was elder than the Moore." If this were really the case,
the Globe play of 1608 must of course have been a revival of a much
earlier work ; but Dryden, as appears from several of his notes, was very
imperfectly acquainted with the history of the Elizabethan drama, so
that his statement, or rather what may more judiciously be termed his
opinion, on this subject cannot be implicitly relied upon. Thus, for
example, in one place he decisively states Othello to have been Shake
speare's last play, whereas it is now well-known to have been in existence
more than eleven years before his death.

No. 215. Inconsistent with the perfect unity and harmony of the
dramatic art. — And so are the various theories which assume that
Shakespeare worked for the establishment of preconceived moral or
ethical intentions. Such views would have been beyond the theatrical
requirements of his age, and, considered as emanations from his own
temperament, is it credible that, if he had seriously desired to entertain
them as objects of his work, they could ever have been listlessly inter
rupted by a neglect to encounter the smallest trouble in their favour, as
when, for example, he adhered to the foundation-tale in the pardon of
so repulsive a villain as Angelo. 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 preternatural instinct, to create simultaneously, and interpret
the minds of, any required number of personages whose resultant

ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES. 575

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 combina
tion of a special philosophical design of any kind with fidelity to nature
in characterization would be clearly impossible. And although the
belief that the great dramatist wrote numerous speeches with an ethical
purpose cannot be so distinctly refuted, yet even this modified theory is
at best but a mere surmise. The introduction of some of his treasures
of wisdom may be due to a following of the dramatic practice of the
day, and as to the remainder, it is surely not very wonderful that the
instinctive metaphysician, — the unrivalled expositor of the human mind
amidst its numberless permutations of conditions and influences, —
should become on countless occasions an incidental moralist.

No. 216. King Lear. — There was an old and popular ballad on the
history of King Lear, the earliest known copy of which is preserved in
the Golden Garland of Princely Pleasures and delicate Delights, wherein
is conteined the Histories of many of the Kings, Queenes, Princes
Lords, Ladies, Knights, and Gentlewomen of this Kingdome, 1620.
This was the third edition of that little work, and although no earlier
copy of it has been discovered, it is all but impossible that it could have
been published before the appearance of Shakespeare's tragedy.

No. 21 j. 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 inventory 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
that 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 note is nearly obliterated, but it was certainly
penned too long after the date of publication to be of value in a question
of authorship. Poor as this old play of King Leir undoubtedly is as a

576 ILL USTRA TIVE NOTES.

whole, it has passages of considerable merit, and it seems to have been
popular in Shakespeare's time. According 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.

No. 218. Before King James. — It is certain that Shakespeare's
tragedy was not produced before March, 1603, the date of the publica
tion of Harsnet's Declaration, a book whence the names of some of the
fiends mentioned by Edgar were, perhaps indirectly, taken, but the
other notices in King Lear that have been thought to bear upon the
question of its date are of a less decisive character. Such is the variation of
the terms of British and English, but the former occurs more frequently
than the latter in the older play ; while allusions to such matter as
storms and eclipses are exceedingly treacherous 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 popularity accruing only in the following year. What are termed the
aesthetic evidences are pureful fanciful. Thus we are told by one of the
shrewdest of critics, that "in King Lear the Fool rises into heroic
proportions, and shows not less than Lear himself the grand development
of Shakespeare's mind at this period of maturity." But too extravagant
is the hope of interpreting the development of a mind that had already
produced the tragedy of Hamlet, and that development at all events is
not likely to be faithfully traced in characteristics, which, in the hands
of so unlimited a genius, may be fairly regarded as natural dramatic
evolutions from an adherence to the outline of a popular story.

No. 219. Continued in the family. — The settled estates named in
the poet's will consisted of his residence and grounds at New Place, the
house in the Blackfriars, the land purchased from the Combes, and the
Henley Street property. The entail of these was barred and a re
settlement made in 1639, but the latter was abrogated by a new one,
executed in 1647, by which Mrs. Nash became the owner of the estates
subject to the life-interest of Susanna Hall and to a limitation in favour
of her issue. Some years after the death of Mrs. Hall the Henley
Street and Blackfriars estates came, under some unrecorded conditions,
to be treated as fee-simples belonging to the testator's grand-daughter ;
but the two other properties, New Place and the Combe land, were ic-
settled in 1652 to the use of Mr. and Mrs. Barnard for their joint and
survivorship lives, with a remainder to her children, and, in default of
issue, to her appointment.

No. 220. The unities of character. — In venturing to suggest the
preservation of these as one of the leading characteristics of Shakespeare's
dramatic work, it is under the impression that in this respect he is
essentially superior, certainly to Ben Jonson, and, I believe, to all

ILL USTRA TIVE NOTES. 577

contemporary writers. It is possible, indeed, that a skilful analyzer of
every one of his numerous characters might occasionally meet with an
apparent or even with a real discrepancy, but this would not materially
endanger the integrity of the position here advanced. The few examples
of this kind may be attributed either to Shakespeare's extreme rapidity
of composition, or to circumstances that occasioned intermittent work,
or even, on rare occasions, to the necessity of a compliance with the
exigencies of the stage.

No 221. Continued to be one of mud. — " It is to be noticed that
Dr. Davenport's old garden wall had not been erected more than thirty
years, and was built where a mud wall, which had been standing there
many years, was taken down, and the open ditch was filled up, and a
culvert made to carry away the water," Defendant's Case in the Bree
Suit at the Warwick Summer Assizes, 1807. The ditch here referred to
was the one that was formerly on the south side of Chapel Lane.

No. 222. One of the valuable tithe-leases. — There is nothing to lead
to the usual opinion that Quiney was referring to the lease the moiety
of which was sold in 1605. When Sturley mentions "our tithes " and
the " very great moment " Shakespeare's purchase of them would be
" both to him and to us," he alludes, in all probability, to some in which
they were likely to be interested as farmers in the event of an individual*
who was practically a non-resident, becoming the owner. That Sturley
and Adrian Quiney were likely to have officiated in such capacities is
shown by a deposition, taken in 1590, respecting the tithe-hay of Clopton,
" one Quiny and Abraham Sturley being farmers of the same," Wore.
Episc. Reg. MS., a farmer being a person who collected and sold the
tithe produce, paying over a stipulated amount to the lessee. The
Corporation, who received, at that time, a fixed rent on each of the tithe
divisions, would not have been affected by a change of ownership,
neither could the latter have been of consequence to the inhabitants of
the town.

No. 223. The same occupation. — There is this to be said in favour
of Rowe's account, that it was formerly considered in many places that
the eldest son had a kind of prescriptive right to be brought up to his
father's occupation. Dr. Franklin mentions thisusage as one that was
an invariable rule with his English ancestors ; Works, ed. 1793, i. 8.

No. 224.. Allegorical characters. — The allegorical was the first deviation
from the purely religious drama. The introduction of secular plays
quickly followed, after which, from the close of the fifteenth century to
the time of Shakespeare, there was a succession of interludes and other
theatrical pieces in great variety, in many of which some of the
characters were abstract personifications similar to those introduced into
the moral-plays. The most ancient English secular drama which is
known to exist was written about the year 1490 by the Rev. Henry

2 O

578 ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES.

Medwall, chaplain to Morton, Archbishop of Canterbury, and afterwards
printed by Rastell under the title of, — " a godely interlude of Fulgeus,
Cenatoure of Rome, Lucres his doughter, Gayus Flaminius and Publius
Cornelius, of the Disputacyon of Noblenes." Medwall was the author
of at least two other lengthy pieces, in both of which, however, the
characters were mainly allegorical, but he appears to have been the first
writer who introduced a prose speech into an English play. His works,
although rather dull even for his age, are superior both in construction
and versification to those of his predecessors, and he may almost be
said to be the founder of our famous national drama, that which lingered
for generations after him in painful mediocrity until a little fervour, and
more poetic beauty, were communicated to it by a small band of writers
who were bestowing a literary character on the stage at the time of the
poet's arrival in London. It was very shortly afterwards, and in the
midst of this advance, that the English drama rose by a spirited bound
to be first really worthy the name of art in the hands of Marlowe.

No. 225. The reckless gossip. — Aubrey was utterly wanting in either
delicacy or charity when treating on matters that affected the reputations
of others. Ben Jonson fared no better in his hands than Shakespeare.
" Ben Johnson had one eie lower than tother and bigger, like Clun the
player; perhaps he begott Clun," Aubrey's Lives, iii. 54, MS.

No. 226. Who had the free use of Aubreys papers. — In his memoir
of Sir William Davenant he occasionally 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.

No. 227. Unconscious of a secret. — This may be concluded from
the kind and liberal arrangements made in his will, 1622, in favour of
" my sonne William."

No. 228. All's one. — The half title, on the first page of the text, ed.
1608, runs as follows, — "All's One, or one of the foure plaies in one,
called a York-shire Tragedy, as it was plaid by the kings Majesties
Plaiers." As this drama was entered at Stationers' Hall on May the
2nd, it may be assumed that it had been performed by Shakespeare's
company before that day.

No. 229. Composed by other dramatists. — This appears from the
following entry under the year 1599 in Henslowe's diary, — "this i6th
of October, 99, receved by me, Thomas Downton, of Phillipp Henchlow,
to pay Mr. Munday, Mr. Drayton, and Mr. Wilson and Hathway, for
the first parte of the Lyfe of Sir Jhon Ouldcasstell, and in earnest of
the second parte, for the use of the compayny, ten pownd."

No. 230. Which of these editions is the first. — Pavier entered the
First Part of Sir John Oldcastle, but without an author's name, on the
Stationers' register of August, 1600, the drama having been produced by
the Lord Admiral's company at the Rose in the previous November.

ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES. 579

Henslowe, the manager of that theatre, was so well satisfied with the
piece that, with unwonted liberality, he presented its authors with a
gratuity on the occasion of its first performance. " Receved of Mr.
Hincheloe, as a gefte for Mr. Mundaye and the reste of the poets, at the
playnge of Sir John Oldcastell the ferste tyme, x.s.", Dulwich MS., 1599.

No. 231. No cancel of the poefs name. — Had the case been other
wise, it is all but impossible that copies with substituted title-pages
should not have been discovered. If Pavier had withdrawn the name
from the attributed drama after its publication, it is hardly likely that
he would have been at the expense of printing an entirely new edition
when the cancel of one leaf would have answered every purpose, that is
to say, presuming that the withdrawal had been the result of any special
remonstrance. Both editions of Sir John Oldcastle must have been
issued in the latter part of the year, as Pavier did not enter into the
publishing business until June, 1600.

No. 232. By inspiration not by design. — There is another theory
which has met with considerable favour in recent times, the advocates
of which would have us believe that Shakespeare's judgment throughout
his dramatic writings was commensurate with his genius, and that,
instead of troubling himself to weigh the chances of popularity, he was
always working on an artistic and inner-life directed system to which the
theatrical views of the day were altogether subordinate. Under the
provisions of this theory has arisen, amongst other eccentric fancies, the
arrangement of his works into definite Periods, each one being considered
to represent a separate mental grade, and thus we are instructed by the
inventor of this order how to discriminate between " the negative period
of his perfection " and " the period of beauty " or " that of grandeur,"
while the last Period came, as we are informed in the explicit language
of what is politely termed the higher criticism, " when the energies
of intellect in the cycle of genius were, though in a rich and more
potentiated form, becoming predominant over passion and creative self-
manifestation," Coleridge's Notes and Lectures, ed. 1875, p. 81. It is
difficult to understand the advantage of all this, but if classification of
any kind is really thought to be of use, the most feasible, little as that
most appears to be, is that which is deduced from variations in the style
of composition and in range or character of knowledge and thought.
It may certainly be possible to indicate a few of Shakespeare's dramas
that undoubtedly belong to a period of comparative immaturity, but an
enlarged division must necessarily be questionable in reference to the
works of a dramatist who was endowed with a preternatural intelligence
and an exhaustless versatility. Speculations on the exact periods of
changes of personal taste in choice and treatment of subject are attended
with even greater uncertainty, and involve the more than doubtful
supposition that neither the managers of the theatre, nor the company

2 O 2

580 ILL USTRA TIVE NO TES.

of actors, nor the prevailing temper of the audiences, exercised an
influence in the matter. It is also to be observed that much of the
tone of a play would depend upon the nature of the story that the author
was dramatizing. Can any one seriously imagine that if, for example,
the composition epochs of Hamlet and Lear had been reversed, the
treatment of either subject would on that account have materially varied
from that which it received ? Or that it is possible to gauge the writer's
mental or perceptive expansion, if there were any, that accrued in the
interval between the two compositions. Of all these matters it will be
the wisest to believe, in the words of old Leonard Digges, that " some
second Shakespeare must of Shakespeare write."

No. 2jj. The poet being then in London. — This is ascertained from
the following passage in Sturley's letter of January the 24th, — " bi the
instructions u can geve him (Shakespeare) theareof;" language which
is not likely to have been used had the poet been at Stratford and
accessible to the elder Quiney

No. 234. Was buried at Southwark. — " Burialles, December, 1607.
— 31. Edmund Shakspeare, a player, buried in the Church with a
forenoone knell of the great bell, \x.s." the Sexton's MS. note, SL
Saviour's, Southwark. " 1607, Decemb. 31, Edmond Shakespeare, a
player, in the Church," parish bur. reg. The fee for burial "in any
churchyard next the Church " was only two shillings, but we are told
that " the churchwardens have for the ground for every man or woman
that shall be buried in the Church, with an afternoones knell or without
it, xx.j.," Duties belonging to the Church of St. Saviour, 1613. The
fees for ringing the great bell amounted to eight shillings, whereas those
for the use of the lesser one did not exceed twelve-pence, facts which
indicate that no expense was spared in the conduct of Edmund's funeral.

No. 235. The road from Henley-in-Arden. — A tenement in Henley
Street is described in a medieval deed as " unum mesuagium cum suis
pertinenciis in villa do Stratford, illud, videlicet, quod jacet in illo vico
qui se extendit versus Enley." In a similar manner there arose the
names of Kent Street in Southwark, Dover Lane in Canterbury,
Trumpington Street in Cambridge, &c.

No. 236. By the higher classes of Society. — So Chettle would appear
to imply by using the expression, " divers of worship."

No. 237. The gradation of the author's mental changes.— -If, indeed,
we knew by positive testimony the exact order in which Shakespeare's
dramas were composed, it might then be within the legitimate province
of criticism to suggest biographical deductions from that order ; but no
one may reasonably assume that a special disposition must have pervaded
him at a conjectural epoch, and then conclude that a drama which is
fancied to be in harmony with the temperament so indicated belongs
to that period of his life.

ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES. 581

No. 238. A single one of the actors. — Thomas Greene, the celebrated
representative of Bubble in Tu Quoque, is said, on the doubtful authority
of some lines quoted in the British Theatre, 1750, to have been one of
Shakespeare's native acquaintances. Those lines are, in all probability,
spurious, but even if they express a truth, it is in the highest degree
unlikely that the circumstance could have influenced the poet's attach
ment to the theatre. This Thomas Greene, who was not the person of
that name mentioned in the local records, is first heard of as an actor in
the early part of the reign of James the First, when he was a member of
Queen Anne's company, and there is no reason for believing that he was
ever one of the colleagues of the great dramatist, while amongst the
latter there was not one who is known to have been connected in any
way with Stratford-on-Avon. The oft-repeated statement, that Richard
Burbage came from that locality, is unsupported by the faintest evidence,
there being no pretence whatever for conjecturing that the Stratford
family were in any way connected with that of the great actor. The
latter, moreover, were resident in London at least as early as 1576, and
when Richard's brother Cuthbert exhibited his pedigree at the metro
politan visitation of 1634, he said nothing respecting a provincial
descent. The surname of Burbage was not an unusual one, and was
to be met with, in Shakespeare's time, in various parts of England.
There were Burbages in Warwickshire not merely at Stratford, but at
Kineton, Fillongley, Coventry, Whitacre, Hartshill and Corley, a list
which could no doubt be extended by further research.

No. 239. Did not consider it necessary to deviate. — Preliminary to the
formation of a modern impartial judgment on the authorship of Titus
Andronicus, it will be only fair to dissociate Shakespeare entirely from
the revolting details of the romance, and partially at least from their
arrangement in the play itself. A theory which denies the possibility of
his having been unduly influenced by his intimate professional associa
tion with the elder drama, as well as with the managers and actors of the
day, not only in this instance but in several of his compositions, is one
that would lead to inadmissible speculations. It must be recollected
that, owing to the paucity of materials, we have very imperfect means of
forming a judgment on the originality of his constructive art.

No. 240. 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 Pope's First Epistle of the Second Book of Horace
Imitated, fol., 1737, p. 5, 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, 1725, — "Shakespeare,
having at his first appearance no other aim in his writings than to

582 ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES.

procure a subsistance, directed his endeavours solely to hit the taste and
humour that then prevailed."

No. 241. And popular. — This may be gathered from an allusion in
Hey wood's Apology for Actors, 1612, where it is classed with Henry the
Fifth amongst the stirring dramatic histories of that period Capell, who
was the first to print Edward the Third as the work of Shakespeare,
mentions its attribution to him in a list of plays at the end of the Careless
Shepherdess, 1656, and in an "Exact and Perfect Catalogue of all Playes
that are Printed," perhaps the same list or another edition of it appended
to some copies of Tom Tyler and his Wife, 1661, not only Edward
the Third, but also Edward the Second and Edward the Fourth are
ascribed to the great dramatist. It is scarcely necessary to observe
that late catalogues of this kind are of no value whatever in questions of
authorship.

No. 242. In or before the year IJ9S- — I* was entered at Stationers'
Hall by Cuthbert Burby on December the ist, 1595, and printed in the
following year, "as it hath bin sundrie times plaied about the Citie
of London." Another edition, with merely a few trivial variations,
appeared in the year 1599. Burby's widow in 1609 assigned the
copyright to VVelby, who parted with it to Snodham in 1618, but no
seventeenth century edition of the play is known to exist.

No. 243. A fidelity to nature. — The verification of this fidelity is
obviously in many cases beyond the reach of experience, but it is
unconsciously acknowledged in all through an instinct that would
resent the suggestion that a demonstration was necessary. It may,
however, be as well to observe that, when we speak of the great
dramatist as being true to nature, it is with the limitation that all but
the spiritual fidelity was subject to the conventionalities of the ancient
stage.

No. 244. 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 ^100. In the conveyance of the former date mention is
made of a well in the plot of land at the back of the house.

No. 245. To redeem the mortgage. — In mortgages of this period
it was usual to name a precise date for repayment, 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
debt should be liquidated at the following Michaelmas. It is at all
events clear, from the declaration of trust in 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.

ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES. 583

No. 246. 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
protection. In the will of Hemmings, 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 u John Heminge, gentleman " The
latter surname was by no means an unusual one.

No. 247. For enrollment. — " Indentura facta Willielmo Shake
speare, Willielmo Johnson, Johanni Jackson et Johanni Hemynge,
per Henricum Walker," contemporary index to grantees, Rot. Glaus.,
ii Jac. I., pars 31, in v. Shakespeare. At the end of the enrollment,
which of course verbally follows the original deed, is this note, — " et
memorandum quod undecimo die Marcii, anno suprascripto, prefatus
Henricus Walker venit coram dicto domino rege in Cancellaria sua, et
recognovit indenturam predictam, ac omnia et singula in eadem contenta
et specificata, in forma supradicta. Irrotulatur vicesimo-tercio die
Aprilis, anno regni regis Jacobi Anglie undecimo."

No. 248. Very near the locality. — This appears from the following
descriptions of the parcels in the conveyance of the estate from Edward
Bagley to Sir Heneage Fetherston in the year 1667, here given from an
old abstract of title, — " 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 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." The property is described in the settlements of 1639 and 1647 as
then consisting of one messuage or tenement in the occupation of a
shoemaker of the name of Dicks.

No. 249. Ireland Yard. — Probably so named after the William
Ireland, a haberdasher, who occupied the house at the time of Shake
speare'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 1 604, but
he did not enter on the tenancy until after the latter date. He also
rented other property in the immediate neighbourhood.

No. 250. Followed the succession. — The Ulackfriars house is included
with the other entailed properties in the fine that was levied in Easter
Term, 23 Car. I., in anticipation of the settlement of June, 1647. It: is

584 ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES.

curious, however, that, instead of one recovery only having been suffered
in pursuance of the conditions of that settlement, there were two filed
in Michaelmas Term, viz., one that referred to the Warwickshire estates
and a separate one for " unum mesuagium cum pertinenciis in parochia
sancte Anne, Blackfriars." This latter was preliminary no doubt to
some contemplated arrangement, possibly for its sale, and it may be
that such a transfer is alluded to in the following passage in Edward
Nash's Bill of Complaint, Feb. 1647-8, — "and she, the said Elizabeth
Nashe, by and with the consent and approbation of the said other
partyes some or one of them, hath sould away part of the premisses
devised unto your said orator and his heires, the certainty whereof nor
the names nor vallue thereof your said orator cannot sett forth, but the
same is very well knowne unto the said Elizabeth Nashe and the rest of
the said partyes ; and she, the said Elizabeth Nashe, doth now give out
and pretend that she had a good estate in the said premisses at the
tyme she sould the same, and that she had full power and lawfull
authoritie to make sale of the said premisses, albeit she and the rest of
the said persons well know the contrary."

No. 231. 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 axioms of its
spontaneous freedom and versatility, — of his complete indifference to
rule or precedent in the adaptation of language to thought and stage
elocution, — will ultimately be accepted. It is obvious that he adapted
his metre generically to the theme, and specifically to character and
sentiment ; so that, although he could not have adopted 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 inter
mittent 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 m the curious presumption of attempting to determine
the mental conditions of which the deviations of those uses are the
supposed result.

No. 252. Most of tJwse 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
m 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

ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES. 585

Shakespeare's metre followed or initiated that of his contemporaries.
What few there are, however, encourage the suspicion that it often, if
not always, 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 ; and to a following of those usages may be
fairly attributed not only some of his metrical adoptions, but much of
what is now considered an artificial obscurity of diction.

No. 2^3. Or not very long afterwards. — The bill of complaint must
have been drafted after the death of Thomas Combe in January, 1609,
and before Lady Day, 1613. There is an obvious error in the notice of
the unexpired term of Combe's lease.

No. 254. In favour of the complainants. — It would seem that,
in 1626, all the tenants were liable to contribute, for in that year the
Stratford Council " agreed that a bill in Chauncery shal be exhibited,
and subpens taken forthe against and served on such as have not payde
theire partes towardes Barkers Rente."

No. 255. A rent-charge of £34. — In a "Rent Rolle of all the
Landes and Tenementes belonginge to the Bailiffe and Burgisses of the
Boroughe of Stratforde-upon-Avon," 1598, is the following entry, —
" thexecutours of Sir John Huband doe holde all maner of tythes of
corne, grayne, and hey, in the townes, hamlettes, villages, and fieldes of
Olde 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." In
the place of the executors of Huband there is inserted in Thomas
Greene's later handwriting, — " Mr. Thomas Combes and Mr. William
Shakespeare."

No. 236. A tendency towards increase. — It is at all events certain
that about the time that the Corporation purchased their moiety from
the poet's son-in-law in 1624, they obtained no less a sum than ^90
for one year's product.

No. 257. Parted with the share in the tithes. — The Corporation
arranged the purchase from John Hall in August, 1624, at the sum of
^"400, their tenancy to commence from the previous Lady Day ; but
the conveyance was not executed till March the ist, 1625, and the
money was not paid until some months after the date of that inden
ture. According to the deed last named, there was excepted from
the moiety that was sold, "the tythes of two closses late leased to
William Combe, esquier, att the yearelie rente of twentie shillinges." The
following paragraph in that indenture may be worth giving, — " and
whereas the said William Shakespere, beinge possessed of the said
moitie, or parcell of the said tythes, to him soe graunted and assigned
by the said Raphe Huband, by his laste will and testamente, beareinge,
date the fyve and twentythe day of Marche, in the yeares of the raigne

586 ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES.

of our Sovereigne Lord James, nowe Kinge over England the fower-
teenthe, of Scotland the nyne and fortythe, did devise and will unto the
said John Hall and Susanna his wiefe all the said moitye, or one halfe
of the said tythes to him soe graunted or assigned by the said Raphe
Huband, together with all his estate and terme of yeares therein then to
come and unexpired ; by force and vertue whereof, or some other good
assuraunce in lawe, the said John Hall and Susanna doe, or one of them
doeth, nowe stand lawfullie estated and possessed of the said moitie of
all and everie the said tythes for and dueringe the resydue of the said
tyme of fourscore and twelve yeares yett to come and not expired."

No. 258. A free offspring of the ear. — Shakespeare probably wrote
verse as easily as prose, and very few species of dramatic metre had then
taken an absolute form by precedent. Even if it had been otherwise,
the metrical ear, which, like that for music, is a natural gift, must, in his
case, have revolted from a subjection to normal restrictions.

No. 259. A preliminary knowledge. — It should be recollected that
the dramatic and theatrical arts are inseparable, that they bear no close
analogy to any other, and that a real success in either is impossible
without an efficient adaptation of the written matter to the conven
tionalities of the existing stage.

No 260. On the stage. — The First Part of Henry the Fourth had
been exhibited on the public stage before the name of Oldcastle had
been altered to that of Falstaff. There is distinct evidence of this in
the well-known allusion to the Honour speech in Field's Amends for
Ladies, 1618, a piece which appears to be referred to in Stafford's
Niobe Dissolv'd, 1611. Field must have written that comedy before he
joined Shakespeare's company, and the only plausible explanation of the
passage referring to Oldcastle is that the different names of the character
long continued to be indiscriminately referred to by those who had
witnessed the earliest representations of the play. At all events, it is
certain that, after 1597, the name of the character was Falstaff on the
public stage, as is clear from the title-pages of the early quarto editions
of Shakespeare's play, and from there being allusions to him under that
appellation in Every Man Out of his Humour, acted either in 1599 or
early in 1600, and printed in the latter year; the First Part of Sir
John Oldcastle, written in 1599, printed in 1600; the Whipping of the
Satyre, 1601 ; Sharpe's More Fooles Yet, 1610 ; New and Choise
Characters of Severall Authors, 1615; and in numerous later works of
the seventeenth century. It may be worth notice that the letter, in
which Sir Toby Matthew curiously refers to Falstaff as the author of a
speech he quotes, was certainly not written until after the death of
Shakespeare. When the First Part of Henry the Fourth was acted at
Court in 1613, it is mentioned under the titles of Sir John Falstaff and
the Hotspur, and, in 1624, as the First Part of Sir John Falstaff

ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES. 587

No. 261. The spring of the year. — Certainly not long before March
the 5th, 1597, on which day Lord Cobham, who had been the Lord
Chamberlain of the Household since the previous August, expired ; for
if the name of Oldcastle had been thoughtlessly introduced into the
comedy before that period, it is obvious that his lordship, under whom
the poet then served, would not have required the Queen's authority for
its suppression. It was probably his son, Henry, Constable of Dover
Castle, who brought the subject before Elizabeth.

No. 262. By the composition of the Second Part. — The date is not
known, but the name of Oldcastle was changed to that of Falstaff in or
before February, 1598, as appears from the Stationers' Registers, and,
in the printed edition of the Second Part, the prefix Old is accidentally
left standing to one of Falstaft's speeches. In the third act, Sir John is
spoken of as Page to Thomas Mowbray, Duke of Norfolk, a fact which
applies to Oldcastle, not to Falstaff. These circumstances appear to
show decisively that the name of Shakespeare's character was at first
Oldcastle in the Second as well as in the First Part, and that the former
play was written before the month above mentioned. The time of its
production is unknown, the earliest allusion to it as an acting play being
in a reference to Justice Silence by Ben Jonson in 1599 or 1599-1600,
but it is clear from the epilogue that it could not have been submitted
to a public audience before the introduction of the name of Falstaff.
The suggestion that this epilogue was not composed by Shakespeare is
unsupported by any kind of evidence, and that it was written before the
death of Elizabeth is proved by the concluding words.

No. 263. Both these plays. — The Second Part never attained the
height of popularity accorded to the First, but still it must have been
very successful. That the " humours of swaggering Pistol," as well as
those of Falstaff, were specially appreciated, would appear from the title-
page of the edition of 1600. There are references to, or quotations
from, the Second Part, in the Poetaster, 1601 ; Eastward Hoe, 1605 ;
the 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.
"We must have false fiers to amaze these spangle babies, these true
heires of Ma. Justice Shallow," Satire- 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

588 ILL USTRA TIVE NO TES.

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, thoutgh 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 correspondent, with Shakespeare's play, and are
interesting evidences of its popularity.

No. 264. 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.

No. 265. Ordered Shakespeare to alter the name. — Stage-poets, says
Fuller, in his Church History, ed. 1655, P- I^8, — "have made them
selves 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 Oldcastle, and of late is substituted buffoone in
his place." 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 being then remaining, the Queen was
pleas'd to command him to alter it ; upon which he made use oj
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 author's handwriting, 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 Falstaffe, 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.

ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES. 5^9

The Doctor's suggestion, — "as peradventure bymanie others allso whoe
ought to have him in honourable memorie," — may be said to be con
firmed by Shakespeare's epilogue and by the authors of the drama of
Sir John Oldcastle, published in 1600, who, in their Prologue, are care
ful 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.

No. 266. Sir John 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 im
probable that a drama so conspicuously announced as written in the
Protestant cause should have been selected for 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 Lord Chamberlain's company and included
the real prototype of Falstaff, the latter being a distinction that certainly
does not belong to the Famous Victories. 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 indicate the former existence of
more dramas on the subject than are now known to us. That there
was, in the seventeenth century, a stage character of Oldcastle other
than that in Henry the Fourth, in the printed drama of 1600, or the
very meagre one exhibited in the Famous Victories, 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 Old-castle and Smugge the Smith was us'd
to drink," HowelFs Familiar Letters, ed. 1688. The appearance of the
Knight's nose is thus alluded to in the play of Hey for Honesty, 1651, —
" the sinke is paved with the rich rubies and incomparable carbuncles
of Sir John Oldcastle's nose," reference to which is also made in

590 JLL USTRA TIVE NOTES.

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 drama
which was 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 fa/te Sir John Oldcastle,
-he wil tell you he was his great grand-father, 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, He fit
you, and now I will serve in another as good as vineger and pepper to
your roast beefe." Signor Kickshawe replies ; — " let's have it, let's
taste on it, mine host, my noble/a/ actor" There is another passage to
the same effect in a pamphlet entitled the Wandering Jew telling
Fortunes to Englishmen, 410. 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-stuffe 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 attribution 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
martiall discipline, yet they'le brag, as if they durst to fight, — with Sir
John Oldcastle, that high-flowne knight."

No. 267. One of the few names invented by SJiakespeare. — A general
absence of sincerity, rather than insincerity, is one of the leading charac
teristics 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 that drama
inadvertently 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.

ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES. 591

sometimes called Falstaff even in strictly historical works, as in Trussell's
Continuation of the History of England, ed. 1685, p. 126. The con
fusion between the real and fictitious characters is lamented in Daniel's
manuscript poem called Trinarchodia, 1649, and also 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,
Fastoff's 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. Shake-
spear." This tradition apparently belongs to the number of those which
are either incorrectly recorded or are mere fabrications.

No. 268. Two editions. — Four leaves only of the first edition, dis
covered 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. Although the arrangements of the
forms in the first two editions materially differ, both impressions 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
historic in that of the second. Such was the 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 something, at this late day,
to recover even a single lost word that was written by Shakespeare, Poins
therein exclaiming, — "how the/0/ 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 in the second edition
of that year, 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.

No. 269. Familiar household words. — Thus Meres is found quoting
one of Falstaft's sayings, without 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

592 ILL US TRA 77 VE NO TES.

declining and corrupt times, when there is nothing but rogery in villanoiis
man, and when cheating and craftines is counted the cleanest wit and
soundest wisdome," Palladis Tamia, 1 598. This is from a literary work
composed by one of Shakespeare'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 recog
nized, — " well, honour prickes them on, and the world thinckes that
honour will quickly prick them of againe."

No. 270. The inimitable humour of Falstaff. — "In my time, before
the wars, Lowin used to act, with mighty applause, Falstaffe, Morose,
Vulpone, and Mammon," Historia Histrionica, 1699, p. 4. Lowin
could not have been the original performer of Falstaff, as he did not
join Shakespeare's company until long after the production of Henry
the Fourth, but he may possibly have undertaken the part before
the author's death, one for which his jovial expression of countenance
must have been well adapted. "In some tract," observes Malone, "of
which I forgot to preserve the title, Hemmings is said to have been the
original performer of Falstaff," Historical Account of the English Stage,
ed. 1790, p. 1 88.

No. 271. Opposite the lower 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 corresponding to that given in the
survey of 1604.

No. 272. 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
copyhold estate, the annual value of which and other particulars were
evidently unknown to the compiler : —

Tenentes Custutnarii.

Stratford- 1 Willielmus Shakespere tenet per^j ..
super- Avon. J copiam datam die ... anno . . 2 •

videlicet, rms-

Domum mansionalem. S henettum.

Reddendo per annum annuahs valor.
Habendum.

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 Shakesyere lykewise holdeth there one cottage and

ILL USTRA TIVE NO TES. 593

one garden, by estimation a quarter of one acre, and payeth rent
yeerlye ij.s., vj.*/." There is a discrepancy in the amounts of the rent
which are given in the ancient records, the sum of two shillings being
mentioned in a Longbridge manuscript survey of the manerium de
Rowington cum membris, 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.

No. 273. And then he surrendered it. — No record of this surrender
has been discovered, but it is the most natural explanation of the terms
in which the copyhold estate is mentioned in the poet's will. If this
view be not accepted, it will be requisite to make the gratuitous assump
tion 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," Rowington Survey, MS.

No. 274. Was formally admitted. — There is evidence of the admis
sion, but not of its date, in a letter written by a steward of the manor in
the last century. " Stretford-super-Avon ; Paule Barthlett, one mesuage,
ij.i. ; Mr. John Hall, for his coppiehold, \}.s. \}.d." Rentall of the Manner
of Rowington, 1630, MS. The first of these individuals owned the
little estate in Church Street. In October, 1633, Johannes Hall 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.

No. 275. Had previously taken place. — If the question be decided
by a strictly legal standard, this inference, however reasonable on a
balance of probabilities, is at least not one of absolute certainty. The
provisions of the Scotch law mention six lunar months as the shortest
period of gestation consistent with the viability of the child, and the
French code regards as legitimate and viable all children born after one
hundred and eighty days. See a full and able discussion of the subject
in Dr. Montgomery's Exposition of the Signs and Symptoms of
Pregnancy, ed. 1856, pp. 513-524. In the year 1710, the then leading
physicians of Edinburgh made a legal declaration " that a child born in
the beginning of the sixth lunar month may be alive and continue in
life, which is consistent with our observation and experience ; "' and the
words of the most eminent authority of all, Dr. Hunter, imply that
healthy maturity can be attained by a child born in the middle of the
seventh lunar month.

2 P

594 ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES.

No. 276. No question of morals. — Assuming the existence of a
pre-contract, Shakespeare and Anne Hathaway were, by virtue of that
contract, to use the words of Bishop Watson, "perfectly married
together ; " although, as the Bishop continues to observe, " the marriage
of them in the face of the Church afterward, by the ministration of
the priest, is not superfluous, but much expedient for sundry causes,"
Doctrine of the Seven Sacraments, 1558. Even if there had been an
informality in the pre-contract, the offence supposed to have been com
mitted by Shakespeare would have been in itself a condition that would
have rendered the arrangement legally valid. See Swinburne's Treatise
of Spousals, 1686, p. 224.

No. 277. According to an early tradition. — See Hall's letter of
1694 in the Biographical Notices, No. 8, and the following manuscript
note, written towards the end of the seventeenth century, which 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."

No. 278. Another statement less probable. — 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 Shakespeare. 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.

No. 279. 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 Shakespeare 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, first printed in the edition of Defoe's Tour issued in the next year,
and transferred without acknowledgment into later works.

No. 280. 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."

No. 281. The owners. — When Heminges and Condell speak of
Death having deprived Shakespeare of his right " to have set forih 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 himself 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 publication of
a drama.

ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES. 595

No. 282. Initiating. — The tenor of the dedication 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 lines of the poem by
Digges in the same volume, — " Shake-speare, at length thy pious
fellowes give the world thy Workes."

No. 283. 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 inconsistent with the belief that the com
position and penmanship 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.

No. 284. A solicitor residing at Warwick. — It may be worth men
tioning that the Stratfordians of those days very rarely employed
solicitors for testamentary purposes. 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-professional inhabitants,
the persons who at that time generally drew up local wills.

No. 285. 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 manu
script, 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.

No. 286. 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 docu
ment 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

2 P 2

596 ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES.

induced him to postpone the appointment, all the apparently conflicting
evidences will be reconciled.

No. 287. In perfect health. — This was not, as has been suggested, a
mere legal formula. No conscientious 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.

No. 288. 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 there was so much laxity in everything connected with testamentary
formalities that inconvenience would seldom 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 testamentary record.
It is, however, to be observed that it would be difficult to find a will of
the time so irregularly written as Shakespeare's. Amongst those proved
in the local court, I have not met with one containing more than four
interlineations.

No. 289. The alteration 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.

No. 290. Not from that of the 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 preceding sentences being interpreted in a sense adverse to the
bequest of the reversions to Elizabeth Hall and Joan Hart.

No. 291. The undtvisable 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's Commen-
tarie upon Littleton, ed. 1629, fol. 18, b.

No. 292. Compensation for dou>er. — The following is part of the
form of a codicil given in West's Simboleography, 1605, — "I give to E.,

ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES. 597

my wife, in recompence 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." In a report of the proceedings in the Star
Chamber for 1605 there is a notice of a bribe which consisted of " 200
//., a vellet gowne, spoones, and a fetherbedde."

No. 2pj. 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.

No. 294. Subject to a careful revision. — Whether we regard the
document as the work of either the lawyer or his clerk, it is exceedingly
difficult to understand how the long provision commencing, to be sett
out, afterwards erased, could have found its way into the manuscript, the
introductory words, that alone would have rendered them intelligible,
being wanting. This discarded 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 paragraph, to be
a portion of a cancelled bequest to the testator's grand-daughter, and
its insertion may have arisen from some misapprehension of the original
instructions.

No. 2(?j. 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 unknown January, one which was in the fourteenth year of James of
England and in the forty-ninth of his reign over Scotland. A similar
chronological impossibility will be observed in the declaration issued
by Shakespeare against Phillip Rogers in 1604, and cognate 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 June 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.

No. 296. Lord Cobham the Protestant Martyr. — The student will
do well to consult the exceedingly able essays on the Lollards and the
Historical Element in Shakespeare's Falstaff which will be found in
Mr. James Gairdner's Studies in English History, 8vo., 1881, pp. 1-77.

No. 297. The diminutive boards of the Curtain Theatre. — It has been
generally believed that Shakespeare alludes to the Globe Theatre when
he refers to " the wooden O " in Henry the Fifth, but, apart from the
improbability of his making a disparaging allusion to the size of his
company's new edifice, it is not at all likely that the building could have
been completed before the return of Lord Essex from Ireland in

598

ILL USTRA TIVE NO TES.

ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES.

599

Vtb.

1

600 ILL USTRA TIVE NOTES.

September, 1599. The letter O was used in reference to any object of
a circular formation, and there is every probability that it would have
been applicable to the Curtain. Now Armin, who was one of Shake
speare's company playing at the Globe in 1600, speaks of himself in his
Foole Upon Foole, published in that year, as the Clown at the Curtain
Theatre. It may then be inferred that the former theatre was opened
in 1600, and at some time before March the 25th, the latest date that
can be assigned to the production of Every Man Out of his Humour.

No. 298. His apartment in Southwark. — The Southwark of
Elizabeth and James is indissolubly connected with the biographical
history of the great dramatist, and pity it is that all vestiges of its
ancient theatres and their surroundings should have disappeared. An
elaborate essay by Mr. William Rendle on the Bankside and its theatres
appeared in 1877, but the most lucid and graphic account of the
borough itself, and its former condition, will be found in the same
writer's principal work, Old Southwark and its People, 410. 1878.

No. 299. 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 1 5th, 1613 ; contemporary notes in MS. Harl. 4064. The notice of
the termination of the suit is gathered from the reports of it preserved
in the episcopal registers at Worcester.

No. joo. This surreptitious edition. — The differences between the
editions of 1603 and 1604 will be most conveniently studied by the aid
of the parallel texts which were arranged and edited by Mr. Sam.
Timmins, 8vo. 1860, one of the most really useful and valuable books
in the embarrassing library of modern Shakespeareana.

No. 301. That I was not. — There is a singular obscurity which
renders a correct interpretation of Greene's handwriting a matter of
unusual difficulty. The pronoun in this entry is considered by Mr.
Edward Scott of the British Museum, a very able judge, to be really the
letter J, while Dr. Ingleby is of opinion that Greene, who was unques
tionably a careless scribbler, intended to write he. But if Shakespeare
had not favored the enclosure scheme, why should the majority of the
Corporation have addressed one of their letters of remonstrance to
him as well as to Manwaring, or why should Greene have troubled the
former with " a note of the inconveniences " that would arise from the
execution of the proposed design ? The whole of Greene's diary will
shortly be published under the editorship of Dr. Ingleby, to whom I am
indebted for the rectification of my Thursday disaster and for the
correct reading, tellyng, in the last extract given in the text. It may
here be mentioned that, in the Articles of Agreement, 1614, Estate
Records, No. 13, increasing is an obvious error for decreasinge, but the
former word is that found in the original manuscript.

ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES. 60 1

No. 302. A repugnance on his part. — See the extract, Biographical
Notices, No. 8, from the very curious letter of 1694, which was recently
discovered by the Rev. W. D. Macray in the Bodleian Library. The
original is undated, but Mr. Macray has distinctly ascertained that it
was written in December, 1694.

No. 303. The pleasant Willy of Spenser. — Dryden was the first to
suggest that the " pleasant " individual here mentioned was no other
than the great dramatist, but he had a very narrow acquaintance with
the literature of the Elizabethan period, and the attribution to Shake
speare is at best purely conjectural. The only real evidence at present
accessible is contained in an annotated copy of the 1611 edition of the
Teares of the Muses, in which volume the manuscript note to the line
commencing "Our pleasant Willy," — Tarlton died an. 1588, — distinctly
indicates that Spenser was referring to that celebrated actor and to his
decease, the word died being expressed by a symbol, the interpretation
of which is ascertained by other instances of its use. This memorandum
was unquestionably penned within a few years after the publication of
the work in which it appears, and as it is clearly seen, from other entries,
that the annotator had a correct general knowledge of the objects of the
Spenserian references, it is extremely unlikely that his mistakes should
be restricted to this one special case. If his testimony be accepted, the
words " dead of late " must be taken literally, and the allusion to " that
same gentle spirit " will refer to another contemporary. The use of the
sobriquet was common in Elizabeth's time, and Tarlton might have
received the one in question from his extra-popular delivery of a song
known under that name. The music to Tarlton 's Willy is preserved
in a seventeenth-century manuscript at Cambridge, MS. Univ. Lib.
Dd. iv. 23. It is also worth notice that three days after a publisher
named Wolfe had issued a contemporary ballad on Tarlton's decease,
he entered another one, — "Peggies complaint for the death of her
Willye," — and it is by no means impossible that the simulated poetess
was one of the great comedian's pet acquaintances.

No. 304. The chronological order. — An essay on the Chronological
Order of Shakespeare's Plays, by the Rev. H. P. Stokes, 8vo., 1878, is
the ablest and most elaborate dissertation that has yet appeared upon
the subject. It enters far more minutely into detail than would be
within the scope of the present work.

No. 305. 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 dis
covering traces of his footsteps during his provincial tours I have
personally examined the records of the following cities and towns,—
Marlborough, Wells, Bath, Plymouth, Totnes, Andover, Basingstoke,
Dartmouth, Godalming, Salisbury, Exeter, Arundel, Lymington, Romsey,

6o2 ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES.

Shaftesbury, Warwick, Bewdley, Dover, Banbury, Shrewsbury, Oxford,
Worcester, Hereford, Gloucester, Tewkesbury, Rochester, Guildford,
Hastings, Saffron Walden, Abingdon, Carnarvon, Beaumaris, 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, Folkestone, Winchel-
sea, 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
immensely in various places, from an hour or even less 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.

NOTES OF ACKNOWLEDGMENT.

1. Most of the Latin documents, as well as some of the English ones,
have had the advantage of re-collations made by a very able paleographer,
Mr. J. A. C. Vincent, who has also taken infinite pains, on several
occasions, to establish the true readings in difficult cases in which I was
at fault. For his assistance in these directions, especially at the Record
Office, I wish to express my sincere thanks, and, in reference to the
last-named institution, it is hardly necessary to record my gratitude, —
for it is due from every visitor, — for the unvarying kindness and patience
with which Mr. W. D. Selby is always ready to extend to others the
advantages of his own wide knowledge and experience.

2. The note on the construction of Thomas Quiney's house is given
on the excellent authority of Mr. Alderman Edward Gibbs, who is always
ready to give literary enquirers the invaluable aid of his unrivalled
knowledge in all that relates to the ancient buildings of Stratford-on-
Avon.

3. It is to the sagacity of Mr. Joseph Hill of Perry Barr, Birmingham,
who rescued them when they were positively on their way to the paper-
mill, that students are indebted for the preservation of most of the
interesting documents which relate to the history of the Eastern
boundary of the Shakespeare Henley-street estate.

THE ROTHER MARKET.

This street, which extended from the northern side of Poor's Close
to the western end of Meer Pool Lane, was the longest one in the poet's
native town, and at the latter boundary also the widest. It was also
known under the title of the Rother Street. In the time of " Adreane
Quyny, capytall alderman, John Taylor and John Shakspeyr, chambur-
lens," 1563, it is mentioned as the Roder Sireate, while in an indenture
of the previous year we hear of the Rather Merkett, and, at a later
period, of "the Rother Street otherwise called the Rother Market."
The name was derived from the old English word rother, a term which
was applied to horned cattle and which has only become obsolete
within the present century.

The Rother Market must formerly, with its streamlet, its half-timbered
houses, its mud-walled cottages and its thatched hovels, have exhibited
at all events a quaint if not a picturesque appearance. The rivulet has
long since vanished, but it was to be seen in the latter part of the
eighteenth century, the only view of it known to exist being preserved
in a rude sketch of the locality which was taken about the year 1780.
An engraving of this sketch will be found near the commencement of
the present volume, but it should be mentioned that the little bridge
which is therein exhibited does not belong to the Shakespearean period.
The stream, after passing through Meer Pool Lane, crossed Henley
Street into the Guildpits, finally emptying itself into the Avon near the
stone bridge.

The old house in the Rother Street, a view of which is here given,
is one of the most perfect and interesting examples of the domestic
architecture of Shakespeare's time that are now to be met with in
the town. The main features of the building are certainly in their
original state, and the annexed sketches of two of its rooms may perhaps
convey as faithful an idea of an Elizabethan Stratford interior as is now
within our reach.

6o4

THE ROTHER MARKET.

THE ROTHER MARKET.

605

6o6

THE ROTHER MARKET.

PLAYS AT COURT, 2 JAMES I.

One of my main endeavours in the compilation of this work is to
place the student who resides in a distant land, and who may never
have the opportunity of investigating for himself the reliability of the
Shakespearean evidences, as far as possible on a level, in respect to his
security from deception, with the critic who dwells in their midst. The
task is not an easy one, for literature has been afflicted for many gene
rations by the reception of unscrupulous forgeries that have corrupted
nearly every branch of enquiry which relates to the life or works of the
great dramatist. The rigid elimination of these is of course my para
mount object, but the separation would probably be imperfect were not
every fragment of documentary evidence brought to the initial test of an
adverse surmise. Instead of being contented with the mere absence of
suspicious indications, the first duty in every instance is to anxiously
consider if there is even a remote possibility of fraud ; and the next,
if such a possibility can be rationally imagined, to submit the case
to the decision of skilled paleographers — of those who have passed
their lives in the study and examination of ancient documents, and
have thus obtained that decisive insight in such matters which a
lengthened and continuous experience can alone bestow. This is the
system which has been followed throughout the construction of the
present volume, and it may be confidently affirmed that, excepting
where reasons for hesitation have been distinctly set forth, there has
not been a single document heretofore printed or quoted upon the
authenticity of which the slightest doubt can be entertained by a
qualified critic.

This perception of absolute surety is at length unfortunately inter
rupted. In the year 1842 there appeared a collection of extracts from
the old manuscript accounts of the Court Revels that were then pre
served at the Audit Office, and included in the volume, in "the Accompte
of the Office of the Revelles of this whole yeres charge in anno 1604
untell the last of Octobar, 1605," is a register mentioning by name
some of the dramas that were acted before Royalty during that period.
The whole of this last-mentioned record, a copy of which is given on
the next page, is unquestionably a modern forgery, and if this had been
all the evidence on the subject, there would obviously have been no

6o8

PLA YS AT COURT, 2 JAMES I.

A List of Theatrical Performances from a work entitled, " Extracts

from the Accounts of the Revels at Court in the Reigns of Queen Elizabeth

and King fames /., from the original Office Books of the Masters and

Yeomen? Svo. Lond. 1842, a few oversights in transcription being here

corrected.

The Plaiers.

By the kings
Matu plaiers.

By his Matu
plaiers.

By his Matl§
plaiers.

By his Mat!i

Plaiers.

By the

Queens Ma*'1

plaiers.

The Boyes of

the Chapell.

By his Matli
plaiers.

By his Ma'"
plaiers.

By his Ma"§
plaiers.

By his Matli
plaiers.

By his Matu
plaiers.

By his Matl§
plaiers.

By his Matu
players.

1604. The Poets

which mayd

Hallamas Day being the first of Nouembar the plaics
A play in the Banketinge house att Whithall
called the Moor of Venis.

The Sunday ffollowinge A Play of the Merry
Wiues of Winsor.

On S'. Stiuens Night in the Hall A Play caled Shaxberd.
Mesur for Mesur.

On S'. Jhons Night A Maske wth musike
presented by the Erl of Penbrok the Lord
Willowbie T; 6 Knightes more of ye Court.

On Inosents Night The Plaie of Errors. Shaxberd.

On Sunday ffollowinge A plaie How to larne Hewood.
of a woman to wooe

On Newers Night A playe cauled : All By Georg
Fouelles Chapman.

Betwin Newers Day and Twelfe day A Play
of Loues Labours Lost.

On Twelfe Night the Queens Matis Maske
of Moures wh Aleven Laydies of honnor to ac-
cupayney her matic wch cam in great showes of
devises wcb thay satt in wth exselent musike.

On the 7 of January was played the play of
Henry the fift.

The 8 of January A play cauled Euery on
out of his Umor.

On Candelmas night A playe Euery one in
his Umor.

The Sunday ffollowing A playe provided and
discharged.

On Shrousunday A play of the Marchant of Shaxberd.
Venis.

On Shroumonday A Tragidye of The Spa-
nishe Maz :

On Shroutusday A play cauled The Mart- Shaxberd.
chant of Venis againe comanded by the Kings
Ma"'.

PLA YS AT COURT, 2 JAMES I. 609

alternative but to dismiss it entirely from consideration. There are,
however, substantial reasons for believing that, although the manuscript
itself is spurious, the information which it yields is genuine.

In the year 1791 Sir William Musgrave, the First Commissioner of
the Board of Audit, made arrangements for Malone's inspection of the
ancient manuscripts then in his office, these including what he termed
"records of the Master of the Revels for 1604 and 1605.'"' These facts
are derived from explicit notes that will be found in the variorum
Shakespeare, ed. 1821, iii. 363, 361. That Malone availed himself of
the opportunity, and visited Somerset House for the express purpose of
examining the whole collection of the documents that pertained to the
Office of the Revels, is evident from his own statement in the work
just quoted, iii. 361; and amongst the papers that came with that
portion of his library which was added to the treasures of the Bodleian in
1821 is a leaf which contains the following memoranda, no clue, how
ever, being given to the source whence they were derived, —

1604 & 1605 — Edd. Tylney — Sunday after Hallowmas — Merry Wyves of Windsor
perfd by the K's players — Hallamas — in the Banquetting ho", at Whitehall the Moor
of Venis — perfd by the K's players — On S*. Stephens Night — Mesure for Mesur by
Shaxberd — perfd. by the K's players — On Innocents night Errors by Shaxberd perfd.
by the K's players — On Sunday following " How to Learn of a Woman to wooe by
Hewood, perfd. by the Q's players — On New Years Night — All fools by G. Chapman
perfd. by the Boyes of the Chapel — bet New y". day & twelfth day — Loves Labour
bst perfd by the K's p:rs— On the 7th Jan. K. Hen. the fifth perfd. by the K.'s P" —
On 8th Jan — Every one out of his humour — On Candlemas night Every one in his
humour — On Shrove sunday the Marchant of Venis by Shaxberd — perfd by the K's
P™ — the same repeated on Shrove tuesd. by the K's Commd.

Although the contents of this leaf are not in Malone's hand
writing, there is no doubt whatever that it belonged to his collection of
materials, it being one with others of an analogous character that were
in a loose bundle of scraps which formed part of the original gift to
the Bodleian, and had remained uncatalogued and inaccessible to
students until they were bound in recent years under the direction
of Mr. H. S. Harper, one of the officials of that library. The leaf
containing the abridged transcript just given is now preserved in MS.
Mai. 29, and Mr. Harper, who well recollects arranging the papers for
the formation of that volume, assures me that there is no possibility of
any of its contents having been acquired subsequently to the reception
of the Malone collection in 1821.

There is nothing either in the character of the handwriting, or in
the form of this transcript, to justify the faintest suspicion that it is in
itself a forgery. It has, on the contrary, every indication of being a
faithful abridgement, sent most probably to Malone from the Audit
Office, of the list which was printed in 1842. There now arises the
crucial enquiry for the period at which Malone became acquainted

2 Q

6io PLA YS AT COURT, 2 JAMES I.

with the information yielded by that list, for, unless he met with the latter
for the first time nearly at the end of his career, it is incredible that
he should have accepted the genuineness of any of its important details
without a personal examination of the original. Such an assumption
is incompatible with the numerous traces of the unwonted assiduity
that pervaded his Shakespearean researches. Now although there is
at present no direct evidence of the fact, the little that is known favours
the belief that he was in possession of the contents of the existing
forgery within a few years after his invitation to the Aud't Office in
1791, while nothing has been produced which is in the slightest degree
inconsistent with that opinion. I,et the following intimations be care
fully weighed. — The material novelties that are introduced into that
forgery are restricted to the dates therein given of the performances
of Othello and Measure for Measure, and the entries respecting these
are the only items that Malone would have been absolutely compelled to
notice in his dissertation upon the order of Shakespeare's plays. With
respect to the first, he took the new chronological fact for granted when he
made the following decisive statement, — " we know it (Othello) was acted
in 1604, and, I have therefore placed it in that year," — important words
that were penned before his death in 1812 (variorum Shakespeare, ed.
1821, ii. 404); and there can hardly be a reasonable doubt that he
was relying on the same testimony when he observed in another work,
— "I formerly thought that Othello was one of our great dramatick
poet's latest compositions, but I now know, from indisputable evidence,
that was not the case," note to a passage in Dryden's Grounds of
Criticism, ed. 1800, pp. 258, 259. If the former work, the variorum
of 1821, had not been impaired by the disadvantages attending its
posthumous compilation, it being the product of Malone's imperfectly
revised text and essays, the confirmation of his assertion respecting
the date of the tragedy would no doubt have been given ; and to the
same unfortunate accident must be imputed the circumstance of his
observations on the date of Measure for Measure in that edition being
a mere reprint of those which had appeared in 1790.

It is altogether impossible that so experienced a record-student
as Malone could have been even transiently deceived by the forgery
which is now in existence, while the character of its ink encourages the
suspicion that it could not have been perpetrated until long after his
death in 1812. The latter opinion is to some extent supported by
its entries not belonging to the more graphic species of literary frauds
that were current before that period. Then there is the extreme
improbability that Malone should have lighted upon two documents
each of them yielding the unexpected information of the eariy date of
Othello, while his acknowledged rigid integrity excludes the very
thought that he could have been accessory to a deception in the

PLA YS A T COURT, 2 JAMES I. 61 1

matter. It may, therefore, on the whole be fairly presumed that he
had access in or before 1800 to a genuine manuscript that included
in some form the entries that are given in the abridged transcript ; for
we may feel sure that he would never have used the words " indisputable
evidence" in respect to one of them until he had made a personal
scrutiny of the original, even if his residence had not been, as it was,
within less than an hour's walk from the Audit Office. There appears
to be only one solution that reconciles all the known facts of the case.
It is that the forger had met with, and reproduced in a simulated form,
trustworthy extracts from a genuine record that had disappeared from
that office. This view of the case is essentially supported by what is,
in respect to the present inquiry, the important discovery at Hatfield
of the note of Sir Walter Cope which mentions the revival of Love's
Labour's Lost by the King's Company in or shortly before January,
1605, an evidence that could not have been known to the impostor,
and one of a fact that would have been beyond even the remote proba
bility of a successful conjecture. On the other hand, with the single
exception of the day assigned for the performance of that comedy,
there are no questionable indications of any kind in the contents of
the fabricated list, nothing that cannot be either explained or corro
borated. The only other feature that could really justify a suspicion
is the quaint orthography of the poet's name, but this is no doubt to
be ascribed to the illiteracy of the original scribe, and it may be added
that similar forms were in provincial use, e.g., Shaxber, Chapel-lane
deed, 1572, and Stratford MS., 1704; Shaxbere, Henley-street con
veyance, 1573; Shaxbeer, Stratford MS., 1737.

The following passages, all but one of which are confirmatory of the
facts stated in the printed list of 1842, must now be given. — i. "For
makeinge readie the greate chamber at Whitehalle for the Kinges
majestic to see the plaies, by the space of twoe daies mense Novembris,
1604, xxxix. s. iiij. d", accounts of the Treasurer of the Chamber,
MS. — 2. " For makeinge readie the Banquetinge House at Whitehalle
for the Kinges Majestic againste the plaie, by the space of iiij.or daies
mense Novembris, 1604, Ixxviij.j. viij.d.", MS. ibid. — 3. "To John
Hemynges, one of his Majesties players, uppon the Counselles warraunet
dated at the Courte at Whitehalle, xxj.modie Januarij, 1604, for the paines
and expences of himselfe and his companie in playinge and presentinge
of sixe enterludes or plaies before his Majestic, viz., on All Saintes daie
at nighte, the Sonday at nighte followinge beinge the iiij.th of November,
1604, St. Stephens daie at nighte, Innocentes day at nighte, and on the
vij.th and viij.th daies of Januarie, for everie of the saide plaies accord-
inge to the usualle allowaunce of \].li. xiij.s. m].d the peece, xl.//., and
lxvj.51. vnj.d for everie plaie by waie of His Majesties rewarde, xx.//., in
all the some of lx.//.", MS. ibid. — 4. " On St. Johns day we had the

2 Q 2

612 PLA YS AT COURT, 2 JAMES 1.

marriage of Sir Philip Herbert and the Lady Susan performed at
Whitehall with all the honour could be done a great favourite; — at
night there was a mask in the hall, which for conceit and fashion was
suitable to the occasion ; the actors were the Earle of Pembrook, the
Lord Willoby, Sir Samuel Hays, Sir Thomas Germain, Sir Robert Gary,
Sir John Lee, Sir Richard Preston and Sir Thomas Eager," letter of
January, 1604-5, aP- Win wood's Memorials, 1725, ii. 43. — 5. "To John
Duke, one of the Quenes Majesties plaiers, uppon the Gounselles
warraunte dated at the Courte at Whitehalle, xix."° die Februarij, 1604,
for the expenses of himselfe and the reste of his companie for presentinge
one interlude or plaie before his Majestic on Sundaye nighte, the xxx.th
daie of December, \\.li. xiij.j. iiij.</., and to them by waie of his Majesties
rewarde, Ixvj.^. viij.^., in all x.//.," Treas. Chamb. MS. — 6. "To Samuell
Daniell and Henrie F-vans, uppon the Counselles warraunte dated at
the Courte at Whitehalle xxiiij. to die Februarij, 1604, for twoe enter-
ludes or plaies presented before the Kinges majestic by the Quenes
Majesties Children of the Revelles, the one on Newyers daie at nighte,
1604, and the other on the third daie of Januarie followinge, xiij.//. vj.s.
vi\'].d., and by waye of his Highnes rewarde, yj.//. xiij.j. iiij.*/., in all
xx.//.," MS. ibid. The Children of the Revels, previously to the recon
struction of the company in 1604, were generally known as the Children
of her Majesty's Chapel. — 7. " On Twelfth Day at night we had the
Queen's maske in the Banquetting House, or rather her pagent ; — there
was a great engine at the lower end of the room which had motion, and
in it were the images of sea-horses, with other terrible fishes, which were
ridden by Moors," letter of January, 1604-5, aP- Winwood, ii. 43-44.
This was the Masque of Blacknesse by Ben Jonson, who gives the
names of the eleven ladies in his Workes, ed. 1616, p. 899. — 8. "To
John Heminges, one of his Majesties plaiers, uppon the Counselles
warraunte dated at the Courte at Whitehalle xxiiij. to die Februarij,
1604, for himselfe and the reste of his companie, for iiij.0' interludes or
plaies presented by them before his Majestic at the Courte, viz., on
Candlemas daie at nighte, on Shrovesundaye at nighte, Shrovemundaye
at nighte and Shrovetuesdaie at nighte, 1604, at vj.//. xiij.j. \\\}.d. for
everie plaie, and Ixvj.j. \'\\}.d., by waye of his Majesties rewarde for
each playe, in all the some of xl.//.," Treas. Chamb. MS.

It would appear from these notices either that the fabricator had
not before him a complete list of the plays that had been acted, or that
he intentionally omitted a number of entries. Whatever may have
been the exact nature of his proceedings, it is certain that the particulars
of the forgery were not based upon the defective information given in
the official accounts of the Treasurer of the Chamber. If that had been
the case, it would be necessary to assume that he went recklessly out of
his way to insert a fictitious notice of a performance on a day that was

PLA YS A T COURT, 2 JAMES I. 613

not sanctioned by those accounts, the high probability of the accuracy
of that solitary discrepancy having, moreover, been lately revealed by
the discovery of an evidence to which he could not have had access.
This singular coincidence may fairly be held to outweigh the suspicion
attending the omission in the treasurer's ledger, an oversight of a very
unusual character, and yet an error infinitely more likely to occur than the
preternatural ratification of what would have been by itself an extravagant
conjecture. Upon a balance of probabilities there can thus hardly be
a doubt that Love's Labour's Lost was revived at Court very early in
the January of 1605 in a representation that was not honoured by the
presence of the Queen. When, therefore, a play was to be selected
almost immediately afterwards for the entertainment of her Majesty at
Lord Southampton's, it was natural that Burbage, who had only one
day's notice of the intended performance, should have recommended a
drama which his company had just then in hand, and which at the same
time would have been a novelty to the only spectator whose approval
was regarded.

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NOTES ON THE BIRTH-PLACE.

Upon the north side of Henley Street is a detached building, con
sisting of two houses annexed to each other, the one on the west
having been known from time immemorial as Shakespeare's Birth-Place,
and that on the east a somewhat larger one which was purchased by his
father in the year 1556. It may fairly be assumed that in the latter the
then " considerable dealer in wool " deposited no trifling portion of his
stock. As it will be convenient, in the following brief notices, to be able
to refer to the houses under names that might have been applicable to
them in the sixteenth century, the first will be termed the Birth-Place
and the other the Wool-Shop.

I. The Purchase of the Wool-Shop. — Ambrose, Earl of Warwick,
who had been for a considerable period the Lord of the Manor of
Stratford, died in 1589, and, leaving no issue, it reverted to the Crown.
In an inquisition on his estates taken in the October of the next year,
1590, is a list of the manorial tenants in Henley Street, eight of whom
are mentioned in the following order : — A. Ballivus et burgenses ville
de Stratford tenent libere unum tenementum cum pertinenciis per
redditum per annum, iij.d., secta curie. — B. Ricardus Hornebie tenet
libere unum tenementum cum pertinenciis per redditum per annum
\.d., secta curie. — C. Johannes Wylles tenet libere duo tenementa cum
pertinenciis per redditum per annum \i\j.d , secta curie. — D. Johannes
Shackespere tenet libere unum tenementum cum pertinenciis per
redditum per annum vj.d., secta curie. — E. Idem Johannes tenet libere
unum tenementum cum pertinenciis per redditum per annum xiij.d., secta
curie. — F. Georgius Badger tenet libere unum tenementum cum perti
nenciis per redditum per annum x.d., secta curie. — G. Johannes Ichivar
tenet libere unum tenementum cum pertinenciis per redditum per annum
xij.d., secta curie. — H. Ballivus et burgenses ville de Stretford tenent
libere unum tenementum cum pertinenciis per redditum per annum
\\\.d., secta curie. There is substantial reason for believing that these
entries followed the consecutive arrangement of the situations of the
estates from east to west, there being no evidence conflicting with this
opinion and its accuracy being established in all but one instance.
Assuming this to be the case, — and hardly the vestige of a doubt can
be fairly entertained on the subject, — it will be clear from the sub
sequent analysis that the D freehold of John Shakespeare was the Wool-

6i6

NOTES ON THE BIRTH-PLACE.

Shop, while the identity of the chief-rent proves that it was the same
house which was purchased by him in 1556, — "item, quod Edwardus
West alienavit predicto Johanni Shakespere unum tenementum cum
gardino adjacente in Henley Strete per redditum inde domino per
annum \}.d. et sectam curie, et idem Johannes predictus in curia fecit
fidelitatem," visus Franci Plegii, 2 October, 3 et 4 Phil, et Mar. It
has been generally assumed that this purchase was one of a copyhold,
the oversight having arisen from its being taken for granted that all
entries in court-rolls referred to that description of title, but it was the
usual practice to note in those records all transfers of freehold estates
that were subject to chief-rents. The relative position of the house then
conveyed to John Shakespeare will be observed in the annexed diagram,

H

G

F

a garden or yard
belonging to E

E

D

C

B

A

Henley Street.

but no endeavour has been made to represent even an approximation to
the true measures. It will, however, be of assistance in considering
the following notes on the several properties as they existed in 1590.

A. Then, as now, Corporation property. A glover of the name of
Bradley was the lessee of this house in the opening years of Shakespeare's
life, and a person named Wilson, who followed the correlative business
of a whittawer, is mentioned as its tenant in 1577. Having been
partially destroyed by fire in or about the year 1594, it was shortly
afterwards rebuilt by the latter, who was succeeded in the tenancy, in
the early part of the reign of James I., by Thomas Greene of Bishopton.
— B. This house is mentioned in an indenture of 1573 as then the
tenement of one Richard Hornebee, in whose possession it remained
until at least 1603, and members of the family continued in it, either as
freeholders or occupiers, for many years afterwards. It was purchased
by Thomas Nash, the first husband of Shakespeare's grand-daughter, in
the year 1620, and it is described in his will, 1642, as " one messuage or
tenement, with the appurtenances, now in the tenure of one John
Horneby, blacksmith." — C. There were originally two small houses on
this plot which belonged in 1575 to William Wedgewood, and were

NOTES ON THE BIRTH-PLACE. 617

purchased from him in that year by Edward Willis, being then de
scribed as, "all those his towe tenementes or burgages lying together
and beinge in Stretford aforesaid, in a street there commonly called
Henley Streete, which now ar in the use occupatyon and possessyon
of the sayd William Wedgewood, betwyne the tenement of Richard
Hornebe of the east part, and the tenement of John Shakesper,
yeoman, of the west parte, and the streete aforesaid of the sowthe
parte, and the Quenes highway called the Gillpittes of the north
parte." These cottages had been converted into one house some
time previously to July, 1609, when the latter is noticed as, "all that
messuage or tenemente and burgage with appurtenances called the
Bell, otherwise the signe of the Bell, heretofore used or occupyed in
two tenementes, scituate and beinge in Stratforde-upon-Avon in the
countye of Warwicke, in a streete there comonlie called Henley Streete,
and nowe or late in the tenure or occupation of Roberte Brookes, or
of his assignes or undertenauntes, betwene the tenemente of Thomas
Hornebie on the easte parte, and the tenemente late of William Shake-
spere on the weaste parte, and the streete aforesaid on the southe parte,
and the Kinges heighe waye called the Gillpittes on the northe parte,"

the word late being an interpolation in the original document. A
similar description, found in a later indenture, 1613, runs as follows, —
" all that messuage or tenemente and burgage with appurtenaunces
called the Belle, otherwise the signe of the Belle, heretofore used or
occupyed in two tenementes; scituate and beinge in Stratforde-upon-
Avon in the countye of Warwicke, in a streete there comonlie called
Henley streete, and nowe or late in the tenure or occupation of Roberte
Brookes or of his assignes or undertenantes, betwene the tenemente of
Thomas Hornebye on the easte parte, and a tenemente late William
Shakespere on the weaste parte, and the streete aforesaid on the southe
parte, and the kinges heighewaye called the Gilpittes on the northe
parte." This Robert Brookes is mentioned as a licensed innholder in
January, 1603, and as residing in Henley Street in that capacity in
1606. The Bell was purchased by Thomas Nash in 1647, when it was
described as, " all that messuage or tenement and burgage with thap-
purtenaunces called the Bell, or the signe of the Bell, heretofore used or
occupied in two tenementes, scituate lying and being in Stratford afore
said in the said county of Warwick, in a street there called the Henly

618 XOTES ON THE KIRTII. PLACE.

Street, now in the tenure or occupacion of the said Henry Willis or of his
assignes, or undertenantes, between the tenement of Mr. Nash on the
east parte, and the tenement in the tenure of John Rutter on the west
parte, and the street on the south parte, and the Kings high- way called
the Gilpittes on the north parte." None of the drawings which show the
western end of this house as it appeared in the last century, and no
earlier ones are known, are quite reliable, but it may be gathered from
them that the Bell adjoined the Wool-Shop, that its roof was somewhat
higher than that of the latter, and that there was a little projection of the
frontage into the street beyond the line of that of the buildings on the
west— D. The Wool-Shop.— E. The Birth-Place.— F. On August the
1 4th, 1591, George Badger, draper, the then owner of this house, made
a settlement in which it is described as " totum illud messuagium sive
tenementum meum, cum pertinenciis, scituatum, jacens et existens, in
Stretford predicta, in quodam vico ibidem vocato Henley Streete, inter
tenementum Roberti Johnsons ex una parte et tenementum Johannis
Shakespere ex altera parte." The property is also mentioned in John
Shakespeare's conveyance of 1597 as the freehold of George Badger,
and it continued in the hands of the latter or his representatives until
1631, when it was sold to one Thomas Home. At some uncertain
period before 1707 (manor rent-book) the house had been converted
into an inn named the Swan, one which was merged, sign and all, into
the adjoining White Lion about the year 1753. — G. This property is
mentioned in October, 1590, as the freehold of John Ichivar, but in or
before August, 1591, it appears to have passed into the hands of one Robert
Johnsons. It continued to be owned by the latter or by his descendants
until February, 1684-5, when it was sold to Edward Elderton. It was
then an inn "called or knowne by the name orsigneofthe White Lyon "
in the occupation of the last-named individual, and had been one under
the same title for a considerable period. "William Mayo, the tapster at
the Whyt Lione," Bur. Reg., 1667. It may be worth adding that there
was a Robert Johnson, described as an innholder, who took a lease of
some ground in Henley Street from the Corporation in 1598. — H. Then,
as now, Corpoiation property.

2. The Occupants of the Wool-Shop. — Although there is no direct
evidence on the subject, there can hardly be a reasonable doubt that
these premises were at one time in the occupation of John Shakespeare.
The facts of there having formerly been interior door-ways between
the Birth-Place and the Wool-shop, and that those communications
must have been formed before 1616, after which year the two houses
were always occupied as separate tenements, render it all but certain that
they were united, in part at least of his time, as one residence and place
of business. If this had not been the case, one of them would, in all pro
bability, have fallen into other hands during the pressure of his financial

NOTES ON THE BIRTH-PLACE. 619

embarrassments. After his death in 1601 the Wool-Shop descended
to the poet as heir-at-law, but nothing has been discovered respecting
his treatment of it, beyond the inference to be drawn from the language
of his will, that no member of his family was resident there in January,
1616. It is hardly likely that his mother would have required both
the houses during her widowhood, and, so far as the evidences at
present accessible enable an opinion to be formed, it would appear
most probable that he let the Wool-Shop, in or about the year 1602,
to an incidental tenant ; or it may be that the latter course was not
taken until after the death of his mother in 1608, when he most
likely permitted his sister Joan to live rent-free at the Birth-Place.
Either theory would be consistent with the notice of the Wool-Shop
in 1609 as "the tenemente late of William Shakespere." The repetition
of this statement in 1613 (see the annexed fac-simile) is of no import,

the lawyers of the olden time frequently adopting descriptions ot
parcels from anterior indentures, and that this is most likely the case
in the present instance appears from the fact of the house being noted
as " the tenement late \Villiam Shakespere " in a later Bell estate deed of
1639. The next allusion to the Wool-Shop is in the Hall and Nash
settlement of the year last-mentioned, in which it is entered as being
" nowe or late in the occupacion of Jane Hiccox, widdowe." It by
no means follows from this description that the house was not then
an inn, and that it was one, if any such, on a respectable scale may
fairly be gathered from a claim made against the Parliament in January,
1645-6, by the children of Mrs. Hiccox, who was then deceased, for
"17 silver spoones ; 2 silver boles, a bigger and a lesser; a double silver
salt; in old money 3//. 7^., and divers other things in a trunke, to
the value of 20 /*'." At this time and some years previously one John
Rutter was the landlord. "Paid John Rutter of the Maydenheade
for the entertaining of Colonel Fines and two pottels wine, as by
his bill, oo. 14. oo," Chamb. Ace., 1642. The subsequent history
of the tenancy is devoid of interest, but it is worth adding, before
dismissing the subject, that the widow Jane was most likely connected
by marriage with Lewis Hiccox, one of Shakespeare's land-tenants,
who is mentioned as having received a licence for an inn in Henley
Street in January, 1603, and whose wife Alice behaved so roughly in
the same year to Mrs. Robert Brookes that she was bound over to

620

A'OTXS ON THE BIRTH-PLACE.

NOTES ON THE BIRTH-PLACE. 621

keep the peace towards the latter in a recognizance to the amount of
;£io. All this may justify a conjecture that Robert Brookes and
Lewis Hiccox were the then respective tenants of the Bell and the
Maidenhead, in which case the two ladies would no doubt have had
splendid facilities for a quarrel.

3. The Sign of the Wool-Shop. — The names of houses at Stratford
were so frequently altered at the discretions of the occupiers, it is often
exceedingly difficult to identify a tenement without a better evidence
than its title. So far as is known, the Wool-Shop is noticed as the
Maidenhead for the first time in 1642, but it cannot be safely inferred,
from the absence of that name in the settlement of 1639, that the sign
was not adopted until after the latter year. There was a house so
called (Misc. Doc. iii. 177) which Richard Wilkins was arranging to
take from John Rogers in April, 1597, one extremely unlikely to have
been the Wool-Shop ; but amongst the leading inns of Stratford in
1612 were the White Lion, the Bell and the Maidenhead, and it is
just possible that all of these may have been situated in Henley Street.
The sign which is represented in the earliest drawing of the Wool-Shop,
attached to one of the outer timbers of the house, was most likely
first placed there in or soon after 1676, in the April of which year it
was " ordered that all signe-postes which stand upon the ground in
any street within this burrough shall bee taken downe before Midsomer
next, and that the signe-boardes shall bee hanged upon postes fixed
to the howses." The Wool-Shop is alluded to as the Swan and
Maidenhead in the will of Thomas Hart, 1786, a name it retained
until its absorption into the present trust, but in all the known
documents connected with the estate from 1647 to 1771 it is mentioned
under the second title only.

4. The Houses that were purchased in 1575.— John Shakespeare
bought two houses at Stratford in this year, but it is not known in what
part of the town they were situated, nor whether they were or were not
contiguous to each other. They may even have been located in different
streets. All that is certain in the matter is that neither on any supposi
tion could have been the Wool-Shop, but it is possible that one of them
was the Birth-Place, and that the other was a tenement which then existed
between that domicile and Badger's estate on the west. The strip of
ground which belonged to the poet's father in 1597 and adjoined the
latter was then described as a toft, and when its extremely narrow width
is considered, that term could only have been applied to a fragment of
land on which the western end of some building had previously stood.
The fine that was levied on the occasion of the purchase of the two
houses in 1575 is recorded in these words, — "inter Johannem
Shakespere, querentem, et Edmundum Hall et Emmam uxorem ejus,
deforciantes, de duobus mesuagiis, duobus gardinis et duobus pomariis,

622 NOTES ON THE BIRTH-PLACE.

cum pertinenciis, in Stretforde-super-Avon ; unde placitum convencionis
summonitum fuit inter eos in eadem curia, scilicet, quod predicti
Edmundus et Emma recognoverunt predicta tenementa, cum perti
nenciis, esse jus ipsius Johannis ut ilia que idem Johannes habet de dono
predictorum Edmundi et Emme, et ilia remiserunt et quietumclamaverunt
de ipsis Edmundo et Emma, et heredibus suis, predicto Johanni, et
heredibus suis, imperpetuum ; et preterea iidem Edmundus et Emma
concesserunt pro se, et heredibus ipsius Emme, quod ipsi warantizabunt
predicto Johanni, et heredibus suis, predicta tenementa, cum pertinenciis,
contra predictos Edmundum et Emmam, et heredes ipsius Emme, im
perpetuum ; et pro hac recognicione, remissione, quietaclamancia,
warantia, fine et concordia, idem Johannes dedit predictis Edmundo et
Emme quadraginta libras sterlingorum," Term. Mich. 17 Eliz. It
should be mentioned that the practice of exaggerating the number of
houses in the descriptions given in fines was certainly too unusual in
the sixteenth century, if then a practice at all, to warrant the opinion
that one tenement only passed on this occasion. Such exaggerations
appear to have been restricted to measurements of land, and even in
regard to the latter, notwithstanding Popham's assertion (Reports, ed.
1656, p. 105) that the extensions were invariable, we have evidences to
the contrary in the fines levied on the Shakespeare-Combe land in 1610,
1639 and 1647, the descriptions in which agree with those that are
found in the indenture of conveyance and in other documents. Then,
again, the Birth-Place and Wool-Shop are mentioned, with the addition
of New Place, as three messuages in the fines and recoveries of 1639
and 1647, and in the fine levied on the occasion of a mortgage effected
by Shakespeare Hart in 1730, the two former houses and the adjoining
cottages are accurately described. The last-named fine runs "inter
Samuelem Smith, querentem, et Shaxpeer Hart et Annam uxorem ejus,
deforciantes, de duobus mesuagiis, quatuor cotagiis, uno horreo, uno
stabulo, uno gardino et una acra terre, cum pertinentiis, in Stratford-
super-Avon."

5. The Identification of the Birth-Place. — The true solution of a
biographical question is most likely to be found in a natural hypothesis
which completely reconciles the traditional and positive evidences. It
is known that John Shakespeare became the owner of the Birth-Place
at some unascertained period before 1590, and if we assume that he
resided there from the time of his arrival at Stratford, either occupy
ing the Wool-Shop as well or annexing the latter in 1556, all known
difficulties of every kind immediately vanish. This theory, moreover,
harmonizes with all the probabilities of the case. He is first introduced
to us as one of the residents of Henley Street in 1552, being subjected
to the then considerable fine of twelve-pence for an infringement of the
by-laws, an amount that would certainly not have been imposed on one

.VOTES ON THE BIRTH-PLACE. 623

who was not a householder of some position. Then in January, 1597,-
we have his own authority for the fact that the land on the west of the
Birth-Place was at that time in his own occupation, — et modo est in
tenura sive occupacione mei, predicti Johannis Shakespere, — a passage
which certainly, by implication, refers also to the house. This is the
only evidence of the kind that has come down to us, but it is hardly
possible to exaggerate its importance in deciding the question now under
consideration, the value of a tradition being immeasurably enhanced by
its agreement with a record that could not have been known to any of
its narrators. Another testimony in the same direction may be fairly
accepted in the circumstance of Joan Hart being mentioned in the
poet's will, 1616, as then residing at the Birth-Place, this being extremely
improbable if it had not been the home of her parents.

6. The local Tradition of the western House being the Birth-Place, —
The extent of the confidence to be prudently bestowed upon the above
inferences will materially depend on the nature of the evidence that can
be given of the immemoriality of this tradition. That evidence is on the
whole of a satisfactory character, and at all events it effectually disposes
of the attempts, some of them dishonest ones, which have been made,
at various intervals from the latter part of the eighteenth century, to
circulate the unfounded opinion that the original local tradition indicated
neither of the houses on the present Henley Street estate. The two
buildings are, however, collectively mentioned as the "house where
Shakespeare was born " in Winter's plan of the town, 1759, the attribu
tion being therein casually noted amongst other well-known established
facts; and in Greene's view, which was engraved in 1769, they are
described together as a "house in Stratford-upon-Avon in which the
famous poet Shakespear was born/' This view was published in
anticipation of Garrick's Jubilee, and identifies the building with the
one named in the accounts of that celebration, but up to this period no
intimation is anywhere given as to which of the then two houses was
considered to be the Birth-Place. The latter deficiency is fortunately
supplied by Boswell, who was present at the Jubilee, and informs us
that, amongst the embellishments displayed on that occasion, "was a
piece of painting hung before the windows of the room where Shake
speare was born, representing the sun breaking through the clouds,"
London Magazine, September, 1769, p. 453. It is true that the locality
of the room is not particularized, but it would be the merest foppery of
scepticism to doubt that it is the apartment which is now exhibited
as the birth-room ; and, indeed, the testimony of my late friend, R. B.
Wheler, whose father was at the Jubilee, and who had perfect knowledge
of the local reports of that commemoration, should in itself exclude a
misgiving on the subject. " The stranger is shewn a room over the
butcher's shop, in which our bard is said to have been born ; and the

624 NOTES ON THE BIRTH-PLACE.

numberless visitors, who have literally covered the walls of this chamber
with names and other memorials, sufficiently evince the increasing resort
to this hallowed roof," Wheler's Guide to Stratford-upon-Avon, 1814,
p. 1 2. There can, therefore, be no doubt that from the earliest period
at which we have, or were likely to have, a record of the fact, it was the
tradition of Stratford that the Birth-Place is correctly so designated.

7. The commercial Aspect. — The poet's sister, followed by her lineal
descendants, occupied the Birth-Place from the time of his death until
nearly the end of the eighteenth century. Those descendants must,
therefore, have traditionally heard whether or no the family had been
resident there at the time of his birth, while, if they believed that this
had been the case, the attribution of the birth-room would have been
almost within the compass of their own knowledge. It was not merely
that it was the best sleeping-apartment in the house, and the only one
of the kind that possessed the desirable fire-place, but throughout the
English rural districts in those times, as in many even up to the present
day, there was a special and accepted room devoted generation after
generation to child-bearing. But, at the periods at which the Birth-
Place and the birth-room traditions are first recorded, the Harts had
become impoverished through the creation of mortgages on their little
estate, and it might be plausibly suggested that they may have had
pecuniary reasons for originating deceptions in these matters. This
was assuredly not the case, but as the point is one of considerable
importance in the general enquiry, it will be advisable to examine it
somewhat in detail. — There is no doubt that Stratford-on-Avon was
considered, from very early Shakespearean times, to have derived its
celebrity from its having been the birth-town of the great dramatist.
"One travelling through Stratford-upon-Avon, a towne most remarke-
able for the birth of famous William Shakespeare," a Banquet of Jests
or Change of Cheare, 1639. "William Shakespear, the glory of the
English stage, whose nativity at Stratford-upon-Avon is the highest
honour that town can boast of," Theatrum Poetarum, 1675. "I say
not this to derogate from those excellent persons, but to perswade them,
as Homer and our Shakespear did, to immortalize the places where they
were born," ded. to Virtue Betrayed, 1682. Throughout the seventeenth
century, however, the grave-stone and effigy appear to have been
the only memorials of the poet that were indicated to visitors, and
no evidence has been discovered which represents either the Birth-Place
or the birth-room as an object of commercial exhibition until after the
traditions respecting them are known to have been current. There is
not a word about either in Richardson's popular edition of De Foe's
Tour, 1769, nor in any of the earlier guide-books or itineraries, although
several of the latter notice other matters of Shakespearean interest.
There is, indeed, little doubt that the Birth-Place did not become one

NOTES ON THE BIRTH-PLACE. 625

of the incentives for pilgrimage until public attention had been specially
directed to it at the time of the Jubilee, while it was not then generally
known that the birth-room could be identified. A correspondent of the
Gentleman's Magazine, writing from Lichfield in July, 1769, observes, —
"I do not know whether the apartment where the incomparable
Shakespeare first drew his breath can at this day be ascertained or not,
but the house of his nativity, according to undoubted tradition, is now
remaining." It was not until long after this period that the former
received its due measure of veneration. Ireland, who devoted several
pages in 1795 to an account of the two houses, does not even mention
the birth-room, and the earliest published view of its interior belongs to
the comparatively recent date of 1824. It should also be recollected
that English travel in the last century was exceptional, and that, under
the most favourable circumstances, no sum that could have been
received from the then exceedingly limited number of tourists would
have induced either the perpetration of a fraud or its reception by the
inhabitants of the town. There is, moreover, ample evidence that the
Harts, during the course of their occupancy of the Birth-Place that ter
minated in 1794, never considered that the amount of the pilgrim-fees
was of a definite commercial value. There is no allusion whatever to
the subject in the long correspondence respecting the attempted sale of
the property which they maintained with their legal adviser between the
years 1800 and 1806, and although the latter mentioned the Birth-Place
as such in a newspaper advertisement, there is no reference to the Shake
spearean associations in the printed hand-bill which announced a
projected auction of the two houses in 1805.

8. The proprietary Descent of the Henley Street Estate. — The
descent of the Birth-Place and Wool-Shop estates, from the time of
their settlement in the poet's will until now, may thus be briefly
chronicled. Small portions of the former, as will be presently noticed,
were alienated in the last century, but this circumstance does not
affect the general history of the devolutions. For upwards of thirty
years after the operative commencement of the entail the Birth-Place
belonged to his sister Joan, and the Wool-Shop to his elder daughter
Susanna; but upon the death of the former, in the autumn of 1646,
both became the property of Mrs. Hall, who retained them until her
decease in July, 1649. The ownership then passed into the hands of her
daughter, Mrs. Barnard, who, having no family, was enabled to devise
them by will, in 1670, to Thomas Hart, Joan's grandson, and his issue,
with a similar remainder to his brother George. Thomas dying without
leaving children, the estates fell to the disposal of George, who, by a
deed-poll of April, 1694, gave his eldest son, Shakespeare Hart,
immediate possession of the Birth-Place and also the reversion in fee
of the Wool-Shop after the expiration of life-interests that were reserved

2 R

626 .VOTES ON THE IURTH-PLACE.

to his wife and himself. It should, however, be mentioned that a
barn and three cottages belonging to the former estate were excepted
from the first gift and added to the reversion. Upon the termination
of the life interests in 1702, Shakespeare Hart became the owner of
both properties, and he continued to hold them until his death in July,
1747. The estates, during his tenure, were subjected to mortgages
that ultimately impoverished his successors, but it is unnecessary, in
this analysis, to enter into particulars respecting these and subsequent
encumbrances or minor dispositions that merely complicated without
affecting the real history of the title. Shakespeare Hart (February,
1744-5) had devised the properties to his wife Anne, at whose death,
in 1753, they devolved, under the terms of her will, to her husband's
nephew, George Hart, who died in 1778 and was succeeded by his
eldest son, Thomas. This last-named individual, whose decease occurred
in 1793, bequeathed the Wool-Shop to his son John and the Birth-Place
to his son Thomas, the latter conveying to his brother three years
afterwards (May the nth, 1796) the realty that he inherited under
his father's will, John thus becoming the owner of both estates. He
died in 1800, having devised them to his widow for life, with remainder
to his three children as tenants-in-common, and by these persons they
were sold to one Thomas Court in July, 1806, in which month the
connexion of the poet's family with his native town virtually terminated.
Court died in 1818, leaving a will in which he directed the properties
to be sold after the death of his wife, and the moneys arising therefrom
to be divided amongst his children. The widow dying in 1846, they
were submitted to auction in London in the following year, and were
then acquired by two committees of gentlemen, the representatives
of a large body of independent subscribers who had come forward
to endeavour to save the Birth-Place from whispered designs of an
unpatriotic character. The purchase was completed in 1848 to four
delegates selected from the committees, and in July, 1866, those nominal
owners surrendered the legal estate, under a public trust, into the hands
of the Corporation of Stratford.

p. The Grounds and Out-buildings. — Until a recent period there
were two wells in the grounds, one of them in the Birth-Place garden
and the other in the rear of the Wool-Shop, and as the positions of
such accessories were very rarely altered, it may be presumed that the
former at all events was in existence at the time of the poet's birth.
With this ostensible exception, and beyond the facts of the Wool-Shop
being described in 1556 as having a garden, and the Birth-Place in
1597 as attached to land some of which was unbuilt upon, no particulars
of any kind have been discovered respecting the contemporary external
supplements of the two houses. That there were pigsties, one or two
wooden atrocities of a like redolent description, as well as the inevitable

NOTES ON THE BIRTH-PLACE. 627

dunghills, may be taken for granted, and it is also nearly certain that
there were several hovels and at least one of the numerous barns
which were then to be seen in nearly every piece of uninhabited ground
in the town. The estates are described in the settlement of 1639 as,
" all those two messuages or tenements with thappurtenaunces scituate
and being in Stratford-upon-Avon aforesaid, in a certaine streete there
called Henley streete, and nowe or late in the severall occupacions of
Jane Hiccox and Johan Hart, widdowes ; and all and singular howses,
edifices, buildings, chambers, cellars, sellers, lights, easements, barnes,
stables, backsides, orchards, gardens, profitts and commodities whatso
ever, to the said severall messuages or tenements or any of them
belonging or in any wise apperteyning, or accepted, reputed, esteemed
or taken as part, parcell, or member of the same, or of any of them ;"
but the latter enumeration is merely taken from the ordinary convey
ancing formula, and this is repeated in another description of the
property in the settlement of 1647, — "and all that messuage or tene
ment with thappurtenaunces scituate and beinge in Stratford-upon-Avon
aforesaid, in a certen streete there called Henley Streete, commonly
called or knowne by the name of the Maidenhead, and now or late
in the tenure of John Rutter or his assignes ; and all that other
messuage or tenement scituate and beinge in Henley Streete aforesaid,
now or late in the tenure of Thomas Hart, and adjoyninge unto the
said messuage or tenement called the Maidenhead, and all and singuler
houses, edifices, buildings, chambers, cellers, sellers, lights, easements,
barnes, stables, backsides, orchardes, gardens, profits and commodities
whatsoever to the said severall messuages or tenements or any of them
belonginge or in any wise apperteyninge, or accepted, reputed, esteemed
or taken as parte, parcell or member of the same, or of any of them." The
earliest reliable notice, however, of there having been a barn on either
of the premises is that given in 1670 in the will of Lady Barnard, who
speaks of one on the Birth-Place land as " now or late in the occupacion
of Michaell Johnson or his assignes," the tenant here mentioned being
then the owner of the next house but one on the west. At this period
there was clearly only one barn on the Birth-Place estate, but in
1694 there were two, although which of them, if either, was there in
the poet's time it is of course impossible to say. One of them is
described by George Hart in the year last-named as "belonging" to
the Birth-Place, and the other as " all that one barne standing on the
backsid neere to the signe of the White Lyon, now in the occupacion
of Edward Elderton, gent." The latter was no doubt the one which
is mentioned in 1730 as "all that barn situate on the backside of the
said tenements (the western cottages) in a place called the Guild Pitts,
and adjoining to the back-gates belonging to the Swan Inn," an account
which shows that it was in the extreme north-west corner, the Swan

2 K 2

628 NOTES ON THE BIRTH-PLACE.

being the next house on the west. This barn was taken down some time
previously to March, 1771, when its site was acquired by John Payton,
the owner and landlord of the White Lion. Payton had also bought
from Shakespeare Hart in March, 1746-7, a narrow piece of ground
adjoining the yard of that inn and lying immediately on the south of the
then existing barn, these two fragments of the original estate remaining
separated from it until 1856, in which year they were purchased from the
then owner, John Warden, and re-united to the Birth-Place garden.

10. The Western Cottages. — In the time of the great dramatist
there were no buildings on the western portion of the Birth-Place land
which adjoined Henley Street, none at least of a habitable character.
It was not until late in the seventeenth century, at some time about
the year 1675, that houses were erected upon the site, and these are
described in 1694 as "all those three other tennementes with the
appurtenances in the occupacion or tenures of Thomas Mountford,
Samuell Lord, and late of Richard Wharam." The exact period is
unknown, but at some time before July, 1730, the westernmost ground-
floor room of the Birth-Place with the apartment immediately over
it were formed into a separate cottage, the inner door-ways being
blocked up and a new one made leading into the street. There were
now four small distinct residences on the west of the estate, and these,
with their little back-gardens or yards, were sold by the Harts in 1771
to Payton, who then became owner of all the property the southern
end of which laid between the White Lion and the easternmost
ground-floor rooms of the Birth-Place, the whole extending, in a nearly
but not quite equable width, from the main street to the Guildpits.
These four tenements continued to be separated from the other portion
of the estate until 1848, when they were bought by public subscription,
the one that had formed part of the Birth-Place being then restored
to that house, while the three others were taken down and their sites
thrown into the garden. It will thus be seen that, after the completion
of the purchase made from Warden in 1856, all the above-mentioned
Payton land reverted to the Shakespeare estate.

11. The Pieces of Land that were alienated by the Poefs Father. —
In January, 1597, John Shakespeare conveyed to his neighbour, George
Badger, a narrow strip of land on the extreme west of the estate. It
measured only one foot and a half at each end, but was no less than
eighty-four feet in length, and was purchased subject to the claims of
the Lord of the Manor, the share of the chief-rent payable by Badger
being no doubt apportioned at one penny, a circumstance which
explains the variation between the amount of the Birth-Place rent
which is given in the return of 1590 and "the yearlie rent of xij.^."
which is named in the poet's will About the same time that this
alienation was effected, 1597, John Shakespeare parted with another

NOTES ON THE BIRTH-PLACE. 629

fragment of his Henley Street land, but this second transfer was of a
piece of ground on the east near the back of the Wool-Shop. This
nook, which was purchased by Willis, the owner of the adjoining estate,
is minutely described, in a settlement of 1611, as "all that platt of
ground conteyninge seventene footes square, that is to say, seventene
footes every way, with all and singular the edifices and buyldinges
thereuppon latelie erected and buylded, scituate, lienge and beinge in
Stretford-uppon-Avon in the county of Warr., in a streete there comonlie
called Henly Street, betwixt the freholde of one John Shakespere on
the west syde, and the freeholde of the aforesayd Edward Wyllys on the
east syde." The description here given, which was most probably taken
from the original conveyance, is repeated nearly verbally in a sub
sequent deed of 1613 excepting that the Wool-Shop is there called
"a tenement late John Shakespere." It is to subsequent litigation
respecting this plot of ground that we are indebted for our knowledge
that it had belonged to the poet's father, and that Willis desired its
acquisition for the site of some additional building the erection of which
he had in contemplation. The evidences of these facts are recorded
in an Answer which was filed in the Court of Requests in October,
1638, and which is of sufficient interest to be given at length, — "The
said defendant, &c., thinketh and hopeth to prove that Edward Willis,
of Kingsnorton, in the countie of Wigorn, in the said bill of complaint
named, was in his life tyme lawfully seised in his demeasne as of fee of
and in twoe small burgages or tenementes, with thappurtenances, in
Stratford-upon-Avon, in the countie of Warwicke ; and beinge desirous to
make the same one tenement dwelling, and wantinge roome for that
purpose, thereupon the said Edward Willis, &c., did about fortie yeares
since purchase to him and his heires, of and from one Shakespeare,
one parcell of land, conteyninge aboute seaventeene foote square (as
hee taketh it), next adjoyninge to one of the said burgages or tene
mentes, and which parcell of ground and backside this defendant
conceiveth to be the parcell of ground or backside intended by the
said bill. And the said Edward Willis, &c., about fortie yeares since
did make and erect one intire tenement upon a greate parte of the
same ; and havinge soe made, erected, and converted the same into
one tenement, thereupon and after the same was soe made into one
tenement, and had bene soe enjoyed for diverse yeares, hee the
said Edward Willis, &c., by deed indented bearinge date the twentith
daye of July, in the seaventh yeare of the raigne of our late soveraigne
lord Kinge James of England, &c., did geve, grante, &c., to Thomas
Osborne and Bartholemewe Austeyne, and their heires, all the said
twoe burgages or tenementes and parcell of ground and backside, &c.
(videlicet), all that messuage or tenement and burgage, with thappur-
tenaunces called the Bell, otherwise the signe of the Bell, heretofore used

630 NOTES ON THE BIRTH-PLACE

or occupied in twoe tenementes, scituate and beinge in Stratford-upon-
Avon, in the countie of Warwick, in a streete there commonly called
Henley Streete, and nowe or late in the tenure or occupacion of Robert
Brookes, or of his assignes or undertenantes, betweene the tenement of
Thomas Horneby on the east parte, and the tenement late of William
Shakespeare on the west parte, and the streete aforesaid on the south
parte, and the King's highe way called Gilpittes on the north parte, &c."
It will be observed that a little square plot is the only one here
mentioned as having belonged to John Shakespeare, but it is almost
certain that he also owned an adjoining slip which, from its position,
must have been originally united with it, and which is described in the
deed of 1611 as, "one little bakeside therunto belonginge conteyninge in
lengthe from the sayd platt of ground on the west syde eight yardes, and
on the east syde aleven yardes and a haulfe, and in breadthe at the
upper ende towardes the platt of ground latelie buylded uppon seventene
footes, and at the nether ende towardes the Gilpiltes two yardes and
a haulfe." There is no possibility of ascertaining the exact situations
of these two little bits of land ; but, from the narrow frontage owned by
Willis, it may be concluded that the first-mentioned plot was at the
back and not on the side of one of the two cottages which he was
desirous of transforming into a single holding. The "one little
bakeside therunto belonginge " was of course on the north of the square
plot, and extended either to, or in the direction of, the Guildpits.

12. The Boundaries of the Henley Street Estate. — The frontage line
of this estate cannot have been altered since the days of Shakespeare,
but a precise identification of the other boundaries is now impossible.
The recent plans of the several nooks of land that are now amalgamated,
and there are no early ones, cannot be implicitly relied upon in this
inquiry, for it may be taken for granted that, in the course of so many
generations, there were numerous changes that occasioned essential
differences in the aggregate, and here we have not the security of
reference to the inconvertible Corporation property. The alterations
thus gradually effected must, however, have been trivial on the eastern
and western sides, the main variation being unquestionably in the
northern boundary. That this is the case is apparent from the descrip
tion of parcels in the Badger conveyance of 1597, in which it is distinctly
stated that the western side then measured only about twenty-eight
yards, not much more than two-thirds of the length which it had
attained when in the hands of its modern private owners. This large
discrepancy can only be explained on the assumption that there was a
large space of manorial waste on the northern end of the Birth-Place
land, and there is an important early notice in the town records which
confirms this view. It is in a lease granted in 1563 of premises in
Henley Street that were only about thirty yards distant from the Wool-

NOTES ON THE BIRTH-PLACE. 631

Shop, and which, according to the description therein given, " extendithe
in lengthe from the seid strete unto a wast grounde callid the Gilpyttes."
Much of this waste that was on the immediate north of the Birth-Place
land appears to have been unenclosed in 1722, the length of the western
side of the White Lion being then estimated at ninety-five feet six inches,
and in 1717 Shakespeare Hart was " presented for not laying his gutter
down to his water-course at his back-gates, and for digging a pitt in the
highways there." There can, indeed, be no doubt that either the whole
or a portion of the Guildpits consisted, in Shakespeare's time, of a wide
piece of uncultivated land through which a shapeless road threaded its
fluctuating course. Even so recently as the year 1752 the owner of the
White Lion procured a lease from the holder of the manor of " part of
the waste lying behind the said inn," between the road and the common-
fields, which was no less than thirty feet in breadth. This plot was on
the north, and there remained on the other side of the road until recent
years a long and narrow strip of waste a portion of which was thrown
into the Birth-Place garden in 1859.

ij. The Painted Glass, — In one of the window panes of the ground-
floor room which is on the left of the entrance to the Birth-Place there
was to be seen, in the last century, a piece of glass measuring about six
inches in diameter upon which were depicted the arms of the Merchants
of the Staple. It was first described by Ireland in his Views on the
Avon, 1795, P- I9I> having been taken away from the house about five
(not thirty, as stated) years previously. This little work of art was then
believed to have been a genuine reUc of John Shakespeare's dwelling,
but, according to the unimpeachable testimony of the late R. B. Wheler,
" old Thomas Hart constantly declared that his great uncle, Shakespeare
Hart, a glazier of this town, who had the new glazing of the Chapel
windows, where it is known from Dugdale (Antiquities of Warwickshire,
ed. 1656, p. 523) that such a shield existed, brought it from thence and
introduced it into his own window," Guide to Stratford-upon-Avon, 1814.
"Thomas Hart was well qualified to know the source from whence
Shakspeare Hart derived this relick, being in his nineteenth year when
his great uncle died, and I have no doubt but that his relation of this
circumstance is correct," Wheler MS.

14. The Bass-relief of David and Goliath, — In the Wool-Shop, " over
the fire-place in the south-east angle of the front parlour," as Wheler
observes in 1824, there was formerly a bass-relief in stucco representing
the encounter between David and Goliath. The earliest notice that
has been discovered of this object is given in the following terms in
Ireland's Views on the Avon, 1795, pp. 192, 193, — "in a lower room
of the public house, which is part of the premises wherein Shakspeare
was born, is a curious antient ornament over the chimney, relieved
in plaister, which, from the date 1606 that was originally marked on

632 NOTES ON THE BIRTH-PLACE.

it, was probably put up at the time, and possibly by the poet himself ;
although a rude attempt at historic representation, I have yet thought it
worth copying, as it has, I believe, passed unnoticed by the multitude
of visitors that have been on this spot, or at least has never been made
public ; and to me it was enough that it held a conspicuous place in the
dwelling-house of one who is himself the ornament and pride of the
island he inhabited. In 1759, it was repaired and painted in a variety
of colours by the old Mr. Thomas Harte before mentioned, who assured
me the motto then round it had been in the old black letter, and dated
1606. The motto runs thus: — Golith corns with sword and spear, =
And David with a sling ;= Although Golith rage and sweare, = Down
David doth him bring." There is no improbability in the surmise that
the ornament was placed in the house as early as 1606, but it is most
unlikely that its introduction was owing in any way to the poet, or that
it can have a tangible connexion with his history. It was taken from
the Wool-Shop into the Birth-Place about the year 1813, and sub
sequently removed altogether from the premises. In this divorce there
was no calamity. The original black-letters of the distich had been
altered to Roman ones before the time of Ireland's visit to Stratford
(Confessions, 1805, p. 26), and, in a more recent transformation of the
relic, its attractions have been sought to be enhanced by the addition
of the fabulous words, — " the motto by Shakespeare."

THE BIRTH-PLACE CELLAR.

It is certain that, at this late day, there is no apartment in either the
Birth-Place or Wool-Shop which presents exactly the same appearance
under which it was viewed in the boyhood of the great dramatist, but
unquestionably the nearest approach to the realization of such a
memorial is to be found in the cellar which is under the floor of what is
usually termed the kitchen of the former house. A cellar is that part of
an ancient house which is always the least exposed to serious modification,
and it may be confidently asserted that the structural form of this little
room could not have been materially altered since its original construc
tion in the sixteenth century.

Deeply impressed with its extremely interesting character, I engaged
Mr. Blight in 1864 to make sketches of every portion of the cellar, and
it is believed that, in the six engravings here given, the means of
delineation are exhausted. It should be added that modern pillars,
which have been erected under the impression that they are essential to
the support of the roof, are here omitted.

634

THE BIRTH-PLACE CELLAR.

\

I

THE BIRTH-PLACE CELLAR.

636

THE niRTIl-PLACE CELLAR.

THE BIRTH-PLACE CELLAR.

637

INDEX.

Addenbroke, John, 189, 4/6.
^Esthetic Criticism, 16, 489.
After the Funeral, 227.
All's Well that Ends Well, 512.
Antony and Cleopatra, 187, 524.
Asbies, 72, 130, 409, 412.
As You Like It, 160, 515.

Barnard, Elizabeth, 235.
Biographical Notices, 467.
Birthday, Shakespeare's, 29, 569.
Birth-Place, 28, 411, 615.
Blackfriars Estate, 201, 429, 582.
Blackfriars Theatre, 259.
Boar's Head Tavern, 497.

Chapel Lane, 373.
Charlecote, 60, 469.
Chettle, Henry, 288.
Coat-Armour, 112, 152, 454, 458.
Collins, Francis, 212. 254, 256.
Combe, John, verses on, 206, 469.
Combe land, 166, 193, 415, 423,

568.

Combe, Thomas, 254.
Comedy of Errors, 104, 523.
Common Lands, 207, 434.
Contemporary Notices, 393.
Copyright Entries, 291.
Coriolanus, 293.
Coventry Mysteries, 295, 528.
Crab-tree Anecdote, 198, 562.
Curtain Theatre, 305.
Cymbeline, 195, 499.

Davenant Scandal, 179, 441, 578.
Domestic Records, 451.

Edward the Third, 107, 582.
Enclosures, 208, 434.
Estate Records, 409.
Evesham, players at, 281.

Falcon Tavern, 343.
FalstafF, Sir John, 134, 590.
First Folio, 462.
Fool and the Ice, 281.
Forman's notes, 483.

Garrick's Jubilee, 392.

Getley, Walter, 167, 417.

Globe Theatre, 155, 203, 208, 264,

597-
Grave-stone, Shakespeare's, 224,

594-

Greene, Robert, 80, 287.
Greene, Thomas, 209, 600.
Greene, Thomas, an actor, 581.
Groatsworth of Wit, 80, 287.

Hall, Elizabeth, 186, 254.
Hall, John, 184, 230, 459, 557.
Hall, Susanna, 184, 205, 232, 560.
Hall, William, 470.
Hamlet, 170, 548.
Hart, Joan, 46, 254.
Hathaway, Anne, 55.
Hell-mouth, 39, 528.
Henry the Eighth, 204, 531.
Henry the Fifth, 151, 567.
Henry the Fourth, 133, 586.
Henry the Sixth, 79, 507.
Horse-holding story, 62, 525.

Illustrative Notes, 489.

John, King, 147, 525.
Jonson, Ben, 145, 175, 464.
Jubilee at Stratford, 392.
Julius Caesar, 497.

Later Theatres, 259.
Lear, King, 183, 575.
Life-time Editions, 403.
London plans, 70, 88, 120, 307.

640

INDEX.

London Prodigal, 178, 406.
Love Labour's Won, 147, 512.
Love's Labour's Lost, 130, 52 2.
Lucrece, 100, 535.
Lucy, Sir Thomas, 60, 469, 471.

Macbeth, 193, 498.

Marriage, 55, 593.

Measure for Measure, 178, 502.

Merchant of Venice, 144, 520.

Meres, Francis, 146, 394.

Merry Wives of Windsor, 134, 503.

Metrical Tests, 584.

Midsummer Night's Dream, 147,

499-

Money, old values of, 21.
Monumental Effigy, 237, 465.
Much Ado about Nothing, 162, 517.
Mud- walls, 167, 170.
Mulberry-tree, 116, 387.

Nash. Elizabeth, 235.
Nash, Thomas, 561.
Neighbours, Shakespeare's, 337.
New Place, 113, 345, 516.

Oldcastle, Sir John, 133, 588.
Only Shake-scene, 287.
Othello, 177, 540.

Passionate Pilgrim, 153, 199, 369,

535-

Pecuniary Litigation, 475.
Pericles, 186, 573.
Periods, 489, 579.
Phoenix and Turtle, 164, 570.
Pleasant Willy, 75, 60 1.

Quiney, Elizabeth, 143.
Quiney, Judith, 144, 214, 235.
Quiney, Richard, 137.
Quiney, Thomas, 215, 228, 543.

Ratsey Episode, 285.
Records of Affection, 237.
Register, the Stratford, 449.
Revels' Accounts, 608.

Richard the Second, 1 28.
Richard the Third, 129, 512.
Romeo and Juliet, no, 326, 513.
Rose Theatre, 90, 326.
Rother Market, 24, 603.
Rowington Copyhold, 167, 253,
4*7> 592-

Sadler, Hamlet, 254, 256.
Shakespeare, Anne, the poet's wife,

55, 218. — Anne, his sister, 53,

449, 568.

Shakespeare, Edmund, 53, 184, 580.
Shakespeare, Gilbert, 32, 537.
Shakespeare, Henry, 23, 48.
Shakespeare, Joan, 46, 449.
Shakespeare, Judith, 60, 449. '
Shakespeare, Richard, the poet's

grandfather, 23, 27. — His brother

Richard, 50, 201, 449, 450.
Shakespeare, Susanna, 55, 449,
Sir John Oldcastle, 154, 578.
Sonnets, 147, 153, 190, 541.
Southampton, Earl of, 85 101, 126.
Spurious Plays, 383.
Symbols and Rules, 257.

Taming of the Shrew, 197, 519.
Tempest, 195, 547.
Theatre and Curtain, 305.
Theatrical Evidences, 479.
Tithes, 179, 191, 235, 423, 585.
Titus Andronicus, 91, 247, 581.
Troilus and Cressida, 171, 539.
Twelfth Night, 165, 520.
Two Gentlemen of Verona, 146,

523.
Two Noble Kinsmen, 379.

Unities of Character, 567, 576.
Venus and Adonis, 83, 530.

Will, Shakespeare's, 212, 253, 595.
Wincot, 197, 545.
Winter's Tale, 194, 548.

Yorkshire Tragedy, 187, 578.

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H28 Outlines of the life of

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