NRLF B i* SOD 357 smt SHAKESPERE : HIS BIRTHPLACE, HOME, AND GRAVE. :N THF PARISH CHURCH, 51 RM FORD-ON A< SHAKESPERE: HIS BIRTHPLACE, HOME, AND GRAVE. pilgrimage t0 Stratf0r!tr-0tr- IN THE AUTUMN OF 1863. BY THE REV. J. M. JEPHSON, B.A., F.S.A. WITH PHOTOGRAPHIC ILLUSTRATIONS BY ERNEST ED WARDS, B.A. A Contribution to the Tercentenary Commemoration of the Poet's Birth. LONDON: LOVELL REEVE & CO., 5, HENRIETTA STREET, COVENT GARDEN. 1864. PRINTED BY JOHN EDWARD TAYLOR, LITTLE QUEEN STREET, LINCOLN'S INN FIELDS. PREFACE. o FOUR years ago I was induced to give a very plain, matter-of-fact account of a tour which I took in Brittany. To my great furprife and pleafure it was moil indulgently received by my literary friends, the critics. I accomplifhed, not only my primary object of paffing my fummer holiday with pleafure and profit, but alfo the fecondary one of obtaining much unex- pected praife. I have been ever fince projecting another expedition, but fomething always prevented me, till laft autumn, when my friend, Mr. Lovell Reeve, fuggefted a vilit to Stratford-upon-Avon, and a little book a propos of the Tercentenary Feftival in honour of Shakefpere's birth. A love for the drama, and an efpecial veneration for the Father of it in Eng- land, are, I may fay, hereditary in my family. In the laft century my grand-uncle, Robert Jephfon, was one of thofe who endeavoured to revive the romantic drama of the Elizabethan era, and wrote feveral tra- gedies, amongft which was " The Count of Nar- M188570 vi Preface. bonne/' founded on Walpole's " Caftle of Otranto," and " Julia, or the Italian Lovers," which long held pofleffion of the ftage. From my childhood, then, I have heard Shakefpere difcuffed, extolled, acted, and quoted ; and I was glad of an opportunity of vifiting the place which is eipecially confecrated to his memory, and of adding my tiny grain to the volume of incenfe which will rife in his honour on his three hundredth birthday. The few facts of his life already known have been published over and over again ; but I thought that they might be fo connected with the fcene of his youth and the chofen retreat of his mature age, as to make a whole which might be fuggeftive of thought to thofe who mall viiit Stratford next ipring. I am the more bold to offer this little fketch to lovers of England's greateft poet, becaufe, if, like Mofes, my fpeech be weak and flammering, I am affifled by a coadjutor whofe camera is almoft as great a worker of wonders as was Aaron's rod. CONTENTS. o CHAPTER I. Pilgrimages, ancient and modern Reafons for riding on horfeback The companions of my journey Hints for the road Hertford Its ftaple manufacture Panfhanger The River Lea Luton Dun- flable Early Englifh church Winflow Buckingham Banbury Edgehill Page i CHAPTER II. Arrival at Stratford Firft impreffions Appearance of Stratford in Shakefpere's time Ancient bridge built by Sir Hugh Clopton The Shakefpere Inn The Town Hall Chapel of Holy Crofs Grammar School Parifh church Old houfes in Chapel Street Street fronts Priefts' college 16 CHAPTER III. Shakefpere's parentage His father's flation and employments His mother The houfe in which he was born Reftorations Portrait prefented by Mr. W. O. Hunt Projea of planting the garden with flowers mentioned by Shakefpere Viciffitudes of the houfe Its final prefervation as a national relic 26 viii Contents. CHAPTER IV. The fchool where he was brought up His fchoolmafters Prototype of Sir Hugh Evans, and perhaps of Holofernes 44 CHAPTER V. Shottery Anne Hathaway's home His marriage and married life 51 CHAPTER VI. His brothers and lifters His father's embarraflments Tradition of his poaching adventure External evidence Internal evidence Juftice Shallow His love of hunting His punimment and revenge Vifit to Charlecote Harveft home Shooting a buck Charlecote Hall Lord Macaulay on Englifh domeftic architecture Charlecote Church and monuments 58 CHAPTER VII. The early drama Myfteries, miracles, moralities The Elizabethan Drama Shakefpere's Introduction to the flage Tradition that he held gentlemen's horfes His firft employments in the theatre Greene's envious allufion to his fuccefs Chettle's teftimony to his uprightnefs and courtefy Meeres' account of his plays His induf- try The profits of actors in his time 78 CHAPTER VIII. Elizabethan theatres Shakefpere's ikill as an actor His friendmip with Southampton He is noticed by King James His plays popular at court Venus and Adonis Rape of Lucrece His obligations to Chaucer The fonnets Dedication Mr. F. Victor Hugo's theory his knowledge of good fociety 98 CHAPTER IX. His annual vifit to Stratford His careleflhefs of fame Grant of arms to his father Purchafe of New Place Remains of New Place Fate of his mulberry tree 1 24 Contents. CHAPTER X. Social effects of railroads Shakefpere's town and country life Sources from whence he obtained the plots of his plays Wrote for immediate fuccefs and profit His friends and focial life in London Ben Jonfon His converfation and Ion-mots Life in the country Friends at Stratford Amufements His death His religion His defcendants Firil edition of his works Dedication 136 CHAPTER XI. Remaining relics at Stratford-on-Avon His parifh church His grave His monument Monuments of his family Font in which he was probably baptifed My return home 183 CHAPTER XII. Ideal of the man His influence on the national character Structure of his plays The Tercentenary Feftival Propofed Shakefperian Theatre 196 LIST OF PHOTOGRAPHIC ILLUSTRATIONS. PAGE Monument of Shakefpere in the Parifli Church, Stratford-on- Avon . . . . . * Frontifpiece. Ancient Houfe at Stratford-on-Avon . ' . . . ." . 24 Shakefpere's Houfe, Stratford-on-Avon -, from Henley Street . 30 Shakefpere's Houfe, Ihowing the Window of the Room in which he was born . . . . . . . -35 Living Room in Shakefpere's Houfe . . . . . 37 Interior of the Room in which Shakefpere was born . . .38 Shakefpere's Houfe, from the Garden. The Garden Seat, a carved Hone removed from New Place . . . . . . . 40 Grammar School and Tower of the Guild Chapel, Stratford-on- Avon . . . ... .^ 44 Ann Hathaway's Cottage, Shottery . . ."" . .- ; 52 Charlecote Hall, near Stratford-on-Avon : the Seat of Sir Thomas Lucy (Juflice Shallow) . . . . . .76 Ruins of New Place, Stratford-on-Avon : the Houfe in which Shakefpere died . . . . . . . . . 134 Porch of Parifh Church, Stratford-on-Avon . .' . .. . 184 Weft end of the Parim Church, Stratford-on-Avon . . . 186 Ancient Font in the Parim Church of Stratford-on-Avon, in which it is believed Shakefpere was baptifed . . . . . . 192 Monument of Shakefpere, in Poets' Corner, Weftminfter Abbey . ip^ SHAKESPERE. ******#*#*******#*^ CHAPTER I. MANY are the changes which have pafled over Eng- land fince Edward the Third was king ; and amongft them not the leaft characteriftic is that which may be obferved in the objects, the manner, and the feafons of our pilgrimages. The men of the fourteenth century fought forgetfulnefs of the evils under which they groaned by adoring at the fhrine of the bold prieft who, by paffive refiftance, withftood the will of the fierce Norman Conqueror ; we try to elevate our minds above the common drudgery of life by feeking Nature where fhe may be worshipped in her grandeft forms, or by treading the ground which has been confecrated by Genius. They rode from every {hire's end of England to kneel at the fhrine of Beckett, " the holy, blifsful martyr," and to kifs his blood-ftained veflments ; we take the exprefs train to Warwick, and thence Shakefpere. proceed by omnibus to Stratford-upon-Avon, that we may gaze on the cottage where Shakefpere was born and the grave where his bones moulder in peace. Their minds were prepared to adore in the gorgeous temple where the relics of the faint were enfhrined in gold and precious ftones, by the perufal of legends written in defiance of Nature and Tafte ; our intereft in the homely fcenes we vifit is infpired by poems in which Nature is prefented to our minds with the fidelity of the moft confummate art, and every fenti- ment and word dictated by the moft exquifite tafte. Not lefs fignificant is the change in the feafon at which we feek our annual recreation. In days when men were content with few luxuries and had leifure to choofe their time for work and play, the verdure, the flowers, the finging of the birds, and the genial breezes of April, reminded them that a ride in pleafant com- pany through the pretty fields and woods of Kent would be beneficial to their fouls ; then " longen folk to gon on pilgrimages ;" now we can only fave from labour and corroding cares a few weeks at the fag end of fummer, when we are releafed for a feafon from the confuming toils of our bury life. On the whole, I think our nineteenth-century pil- grimages, whether their objects be the Matterhorn or the little town of Stratford-upon-Avon, have the The Prologue. advantage of their predeceflbrs in the fourteenth cen- tury. But in one reipecl: mine was fadly inferior to that which ftarted from the tabard in the Borough fome- where about the year 1383. I had no "perfight gentil knight," no clerk of Oxenford, no jolly friar, no gentle manciple, no gallant fquire, no precife priorefs, no boif- terous hoft, to bear me company ; nor, I fear, if I had, mould I have anfwered to the defcription of the " pore perfoun of a toun " in any quality except that implied in the firft epithet. " I rode all unarmed and I rode all alone." I rode becaufe I preferred fpending my " par- fon's week" loitering among the green lanes, taking the rough and fmooth, the funfhine and mower, the bitter and fweet, as it pleafed God to fend them, to being whifked from one point of my journey to the other in a railway carriage. In the latter plan the journey itfelf is quite uninterefting, and is, therefore, hurried over as quickly as poffible ; in the former it forms part of the pleafure of the trip. " The prize is in the pur- fuit." Some of my neighbours, indeed, to whom I im- parted my defign,faid very plainly, by their looks at leaft, that they thought me a trifle infane for fpending three days in travelling a diftance which might be accom- plifhed by train in as many hours ; but the imputation of infanity is one which muft be fubmitted to by any one who refolves to follow his own inclinations in thefe Shakefpere. days when all thought and action are civilifed down to a dead level of infipid conventionalifm. A friend kindly lent me a Norwegian pony of fmall fize but immenfe power, for the journey. Thefe ftrong, compact little animals get through far more work than a large horfe. I chriftened my temporary fervant " Stornoway," for I thought that had a fine Scandina- vian found. And fo, having packed the feweft poffible number of neceflaries in the old knapfack which had accompanied me round Brittany fome fix years ago, and ftrapped it on little Stornoway's crupper, I mounted for my journey. At that moment, my black retriever, whom his former mafter had called "Smoker," came bounding up, wriggling from fide to fide, holding up " his honeft bawfoned fonfie face," laying back his ears, and wag- ging his tail, as much as to fay, " What a pleafant ride we are going to have together." I did not like to difappoint him, and it ftruck me that he might make an agreeable addition to the ttte-a-rtte between me and Stornoway. So Smoker was permitted to join the expedition. By the way, I never could make out the propriety of calling a dog " Smoker." Johnfon explains the word, " One who dries or perfumes by fmoke." And with all his good qualities, Smoker is as guiltlefs as The Prologue. Crab was of having anything in common with per- fume. Smoker is not a romantic or an elegant name ; but my Smoker is as good-natured, fagacious, faithful, engaging, and, I may fay, with Launce, " gentleman- like " a dog, as if he had taken his name from gods or heroes. Still, I muft fay, he had fome of Crab's qualities, for he never med a tear at leaving his friends, the beagle puppies. The evening was delightful. It was the 31 ft of Auguft : every field was filled with labourers gathering in the heavy fheaves, and at every turn I met the laden waggons, drawn by their fturdy teams, and entering the homefteads. But, at the very outfet, I met with fome troubles for which I had not bargained. Stornoway was a very wife little fellow, and evidently thought that though it might be very good fun for me to ride along the pleafant lanes of England on a harveft evening on his legs, he had much rather be in his comfortable ftable, and that poffibly a little well-timed firmnefs on his part might intimidate the new rider whom he found upon his back. Accordingly, as foon as he came to the well-known gate of his home he objected ftrongly to go any farther. The fmalleft intimation of mine with hand or knee that I wifhed him to go on, was met with a defiant tofs of the head. When I became im- Shakefpere. portunate he iidled towards the gate. But he imme- diately refented an application of the whip or fpur by {landing up ftraight on his hind-legs. If I had not been very quick in leaning well forward and loofening the reins, he muft have tumbled back on the hard road. The next time he tried it, however, I was prepared, and leaning over his fhoulder with a rein in each hand, I pulled him down, and then applied the fpurs vigoroufly. After fome fighting and lofs of time and temper on both fides, we agreed upon a truce. The fame fcene was repeated, however, with gradually diminifhed intenfity at every farm-yard we came to, and I thought to my- felf, " Mafter Stornoway, either you muft give in, or we mall not reach Stratford this month." Stornoway did give in, for this was the laft time he fhowed any ferious difpofition to difpute my wifhes. Hertford was my deftination on the firft night of my pilgrimage, and my road lay through the pretty village of Blackmore, and to the left of Foreft Hall, whence many a gallant fox has broken covert, and led the EfTex hounds for miles acrofs the celebrated Roding, or Roden, country, on the outskirts of which it is fituated. Both the country and the peer take their titles from the little ftream called the Roden which runs through it. About four miles on this fide of Epping I turned to the right for Harlow Bum, and The Prologue. as the fhades of evening were defcending, paffed the fine park of the Rev. Jofeph Arkwright, a brother-in- law of the Bifhop of Rochefter, and Mafter of the EiTex Fox-hounds ; and what is more, though now over fixty, one of the fineft riders in England. From Har- low Bufh my way lay through Natfhall Crofs, Burnt Mills, Eaflwich, and Stanftead all charming, pic- turefque villages of thatched and tiled cottages, fur- rounded by trees. The moon had rifen, the ftars were mining, and the clocks were going nine as I faw the lights of Hertford below me in the valley. I put up at the Dimfdale Arms, and having feen Stornoway fed, retired to what is called the coffee-room, having ac- complifhed twenty-fix miles on this the firft day of my pilgrimage. Perhaps it may be ufeful to obferve that horfes on a journey derive wonderful benefit from being fed in the prefence of their mafters. Why it is I never could make out ; it may be that they enjoy their corn the more for company. The coachman of a friend of mine always makes it a point to comb his horfes' tails while they are eating their oats at an inn, and he fays that they do their work as well again in confequence of this practice. The oftlers do not like it. Having feen my pony fed, the next thing was to look after my own creature comforts. And here I was 8 Shakefpere. foon made unpleafantly aware that I was travelling in a country where people live at home. I might have faid, it is true, " The chambres and the ftables were wyde, And wel we weren efud atte befte," as far as houfe-room went ; but in refped: of all that minifters to real material comfort and cheerfulnefs, an Englifh inn is far behind a Continental one. In a French town fuch as Hertford, there would have been a falle-a-manger filled with guefls, and the chef would have fent in a refreshing potage, with fome delicate cutlets, or other appetiflant dim, followed by a poire cuite, and wafhed down with a bottle of Bordeaux. Here I was fhown into a room, carpeted and curtained it is true, with well-fluffed chairs to fit on or to go to fleep in, but with an air as if it was never occupied. And then when I afked for fupper I was told I might have cold beef, or they would fend out for a chop a thing with a quantity of fat and griftle on it, from which one has to pare the eatable part with the greateft care, and even that is imbued with the flavour of the tallow which one has to banifh to the farther corner of one's plate. And this is to be wafhed down with heavy brewer's ale or brandied fherry. We Englifh are indeed highly favoured in our meat, but who fent us our cooks ? 'The Prologue. While waiting for my animals to be fed next morn- ing, I ft rolled about the town. The ftaple manufac- ture here is fchoolboys. There are the Blue Coat School, the Green Coat School, and ever fo many other fchools, public and private, and upon thefe the trades- people live. The town is furrounded by fine woods, and prettily fituated on the river Lea, where the quaint old haberdafher, Izaak Walton, ufed to catch chubs with toafted cheefe, and liften to the milk-maids fing- ing " Come live with me and be my love." At about nine I ftarted, intending to pafs through Welwyn, feven miles diftant ; Wheathampftead, five miles from Welwyn, both in Hertfordshire; Luton, eight miles from Wheathampftead, in Bedfordfhire ; Dunftable, five miles from Luton ; Leighton Buzzard, nine miles from Dunftable ; and perhaps Winflow in Bucks, twelve miles from Leighton : thus making forty-fix miles in the day. This would have been too long a journey for a continuance ; but I thought that it would be beft to get well forward towards my deftina- tion at firft, and then to take my time afterwards ; and little Stornoway did not feem to mind my weight in the leaft. On leaving Hertford, I took the wrong turning for Welwyn, but it proved a fortunate miftake ; for the road led me round Panfhanger, the beautiful demefne i o Shakefpere. of Lord Cowper. Happily it is furrounded by park- palings, not a wall, and I had an advantageous view of the green glades, dotted here and there with noble oaks and elms, and lofing themfelves in coppices of beech. Smoker put up feveral coveys of birds which lay funning themfelves and bathing in the duft by the road-fide ; and by eleven o'clock I heard the guns going in all directions, and faw the {hooting parties " going a-birding," and tramping through the Swedes. It was a fplendid firft of September, if not for the par- tridges, at leaft for the fportfmen. After paffing Panfhanger, I defcended into the valley of the Lea, along which the road runs for feveral miles. It is a fluggim river, and is laid out at this part of its courfe in extenfive beds of water-crefles, which men were employed in gathering. Unfortunately it had no " fhingly bars," nor did it "chatter" as it went, but only " loitered " continually " round its crefles." To do it juftice, however, it did "ftir its fweet Forget-me- nots that grow for happy lovers," and indeed abounded with the richeft vegetation. At Welwyn, a fplendid viaduft, of nearly a quarter of a mile long, fpans this valley, and carries the Great Northern Railway acrofs it. From this to Luton, which is fituated on the boundary between Herts and Beds, the road lies along the fluggifh flream, and paiTes 'The Prologue. \ i to Luton Hoo, formerly belonging to the Marquis of Bute. A few years ago it was burnt down, and the ruins and eftate were purchafed by a Liverpool attor- ney, who had made a fortune by the fale of land at Birkenhead. Luton Hoo is furrounded by a great, high, ugly, brick wall, and threatening placards de- nounce the fevereft penalties of the law againft thofe who dare to tread its hallowed precincts ; fo the attor- ney has his fine place all to himfelf. How different from the ftately Panihanger, with its pidlurefque park- pales, the fence of Engliih demefnes and warrens from time immemorial. Luton is the head-quarters of the ftraw bonnet ma- nufacture, and has all the unpleafing look of a manu- facturing town. After leaving Luton, I found that the country loft its rich park-like character. The foil appears to be chalk, and the landfcape ftretches away in fine breezy downs and rolling hills, and corn-fields of fifty acres in extent. The entrance to Dunftable the place where the ftraw bonnets were firft manufactured, and from whence they take their name, and where you now fee women walking about platting, as they knit on the Continent is very ftriking. The church, an ex- quifite example of Early Englifh architecture, appear- 1 2 Skakefpere. ing all the more beautiful from the uglinefs of the furrounding buildings, ftands to the left. The deep arcading and bold mouldings of the weft end are per- fectly charming. It is the fafhion, I believe, to fay that Gothic archi- tecture culminated in the Decorated period, but to me, judging merely by the light of nature without any pretenfion to deep learning on the fubjecl:, there feems a poetry, a feeling in the Early En glim which the ftyle of no other period approaches. Here I was ftruck by a name which appeared over the door of a wretched public-houfe. It was Norman Snoxell. What on earth could have brought Norman Snoxell to Dunftable to retail beer and tobacco ? Bal- zac ufed to perambulate the ftreets of Paris for days looking over the doors of the (hops for appropriate names for his characters. Here would have been quite a godfend for any novelift who wanted to name his Norfe fmuggler or pirate. But, indeed, the names of the Englifh peafantry are fometimes very curious. I remember, in Norfolk, a fervant-maid named Phebe Blanchflower. You would never expect fuch a name out of a novel ; but it was a real name neverthelefs ; for her father, old Blanchflower, drove the Ipfwich mail for many years. I reached Leighton Buzzard, on the borders of The Prologue. 1 3 Bucks, at about fix ; but I was determined, if poffible, to fleep at Winflow where I heard there was a very comfortable country inn, and fo pufhed on ; but both Stornoway and I were tired, and the laft five miles feemed interminable. However, at Winflow we ar- rived at about ten o'clock, and put up at the " Bell," having accomplifhed a journey of forty-fix miles fince breakfaft. Next morning, being the 2nd of September, I ftarted from Winflow at a little after nine, purpofing, if poffible, to reach Edgehill the fame night. Edgehill is within twelve miles of Stratford, and I thought that by fleeping there, I might ride into Stratford next morning at my leifure, and thus have the advantage of feeing the end and object of my pilgrimage by day- light. The firft town I reached was Buckingham, feven miles from Winflow. It is a nice, pretty country town, in the valley of the Stour. Between this and Brackley I paffed one of the lodges of Stowe, and then the fcenery changed. I am no great geologift, but the ftone appeared to me to be a reddifh green limeftone. It lies in regular ftrata, and comes out of the earth in nice rectangular pieces, well adapted for building. Accordingly the houfes and fences are all built of ftone, the latter having no mortar; but 1 4 Shakefpere. great art is apparently employed in making the ftones fit nicely into each other, and fome of the walls have quite a Cyclopean or Etrufcan character. I was par- ticularly ftruck with the village of Middleton- Cheney. Here the houfes feem very old, and the brown and greenim ftone of which they are built has become covered with lichens, which add much to the beauty of the colouring. Their mingled roofs, of high pitch, are very picturefque. Yet here, where Nature and the practice of former generations would feem to have plainly indicated the right forms and materials, the people are actually building fome new almfhoufes of flaming red brick and blue flate. Red brick may be made a very beautiful material, and is proper for Lon- don or Eflex, where there is no ftone ; but to import it into a place where there is already a beautiful ma- terial provided by Nature, (hows a wonderful amount of bad tafte in the builders. Banbury is a handfome town, and the principal inn extremely comfortable. I could not defcry the Crofs^ to which, when I was a baby, I was invited to " ride a cock-horfe ; " but I ate a Banbury cake out of curi- ofity. It is a villainous invention, being a " roll-up," to ufe Mifs Evans* expreffion, of rich paftry, envelop- ing currants. From Banbury I ftarted at a little after fix, and, 'The Prologue. 15 after paffing fbme gentlemen's places- Colonel North's amongft the reft got upon fome high table-land, with wild country, as far as I could fee in the rapidly clof- ing-in evening, on either fide. Smoker as well as I feemed to feel the lonelinefs of the road, for inftead of foraging about as ufual, and enjoying the pleafure of finding out what everything he pafled fmelt of, he kept clofe to Stornoway's heels. At laft I faw a twinkling light, which I afterwards found proceeded from the houfe of a Mr. Fitzgerald, and defcried two keepers under the trees. This was quite a relief. Prefently I came to an almoft ruinous toll-bar, and in a few mi- nutes more reached the lonely road-fide inn. This was Edgehill, where the firft blood was drawn in the Civil War. I knocked at the door with my whip, and was anfwered by a feared maid, who, however, foon made me comfortable ; and I went to bed in a great, wild chamber, and dreamt of battles between Cavaliers and Roundheads, the latter being worfted by a well- dire&ed fire of Enfield rifles, in which I took part. 16 CHAPTER II. NEXT morning I found that the inn at which I had flept was called the " Sun Rifing." It bears on its walls the old proverb, " Good wine needs no bufh," yet betrays its unbelief in the adage by difplaying over the door a huge bunch of grapes. It is built on the very edge of a fteep hill, hence probably called Edgehill, and commands a fine view of at leaft thirty miles in extent, bounded by the Malvern Hills. To the right is the village of Kyneton, or Kington, where the Parliamentary army was pofted on the eve of the battle of Edgehill ; and clofe under the hill is Battle Farm, where the firft battle was fought in the quarrel between the Sovereign and the Parliament, " When hard words, jealoufies, and fears Set folks together by the ears." But what was more to my prefent purpofe, mine hoft pointed out to me a little riling ground in the middle of the vaft plain which was fpread out before me, Fir ft Imprejfiom of Stratford. 17 behind which, he faid, lay Stratford-upon-Avon. Here, then, I was beginning to tread the ground which was familiar to him whofe words are houfehold words to all Englim-fpeaking people, and which fuggefted to him thofe fweet, and withal accurate and life-like pic- tures of country manners with which his great poems abound. At about ten o'clock I ftarted on my final ride to Stratford, and after defcending the almoft precipitous hill upon which the inn is perched, I found myfelf on a level road, bounded on either fide by cornfields, from which the harveft was, in many cafes, not yet gathered in. The only villages of note I pafled were Pillerton Priors and Eatington, the feat, ever fince the Con qu eft, of the ancient family of Shirley. At a little after twelve I came in fight of the beautiful old bridge built over the Avon at the en- trance to Stratford, by Sir Hugh Clopton, in the reign of Henry VII. It confifts of fourteen flightly- pointed arches, and is nearly, if not quite, level. In fad:, one does not fee how modern architects excel the older ones, even in this thoroughly utilitarian branch of the art at leaft fo far as the old materials of lime and ftone are employed. The feudal trinoda necejfltas laid upon the vaflal the obligation of defending the country, building bridges, and keeping the highways 1 8 Shakefpere. in order, and the vaflal appears to have performed the obligation tolerably well in mediaeval England. And now I was all expectation. I had at laft reached the ipot where Shakefpere was born, where he imbibed his earlieft impreffions from outward things, and where he chofe to fpend his life, in preference to many other places which would feem to have had greater claims upon his regard. The queftion I afked myfelf was, Is it poffible, by fixing my mind upon the fcene which infcribed its impreffions upon the white paper of the poet's mind, and comparing it with his writings and with the few facts known of his life, to arrive at any- thing like a juft conception of the man himfelf ? I have often obferved that by perfeveringly fixing the attention upon a difficult paffage in a foreign language, the meaning after a time feems to flafh like lightning upon the mind. Can I, by any procefs like this, read the myfterious book of Shakeipere's nature ? My firft impreffions were certainly not encouraging. The bridge was fine, and to the right was a pretty old houfe, approached by an avenue of trees, and kept with that beautiful neatnefs and elegance of greenfward and flower-beds which is feen nowhere but in England. The Avon, too, was flowing majeftically on, as it did when Shakefpere played upon its banks, or flew his hawk at the wild-fowl which harboured in its fedges; Firfl Impreffions of Stratford. 1 9 and a pair of fwans, accompanied by their cygnets, were thrufting their long necks to the bottom, where they probably found an abundant repaft of worms and grubs, warned down from fome new cuts and embank- ments a little higher up the ftream. Thefe were all pleafing objects, upon which the fancy of a poet might delight to dwell ; but as I rode up the High Street, I was obliged to acknowledge that Stratford is about as uninterefting to the outward fenfes as any country town I had ever feen in England. There is no appearance of anything like antiquity, except perhaps a couple of carriers' inns, and they are modernifed. There is no appearance even of wealth, nor any of that neatnels and elegance which are its fruits. Stratford is a col- lection, generally fpeaking, of mean houfes, and the High Street is not its befl feature. At the upper extremity is the ugly market- houfe, where the old market-crofs ufed to ftand, but this difappeared in the laft or the beginning of this century. Having called at the " Red Horfe," a good inn on the right of the High Street, in hopes of finding that Mr. Edwards, the photographer, had arrived a hope in which I was difappointed I turned to the left, down Chapel Street, .to the " Shakefpere," where I took up my quarters. The " Shakefpere " is an old-fafhioned, comfortable 2O Shakefpere. inn, and the hoft {hows a laudable intereft in the Poet who gives a name to his hoftelry and brings him moft of his cuftomers. Each room is called after one of the plays, the title of which is placed over the door. Thus the commercial room is fuperfcribed " The Tempeft" not very appropriately, however, at leaft during my ftay, for the houfe was remarkably quiet. The coffee-room was " As You Like It " I confefs I did not much like it, for it was as lonely as the Foreft of Arden itfelf. My bed-chamber was named " A Midfummer Night's Dream ;" another on the fame landing, "Much Ado about Nothing;" another, " Love's Labour Loft," and fo on. Bufts of the Poet are placed on every lobby, and the walls are hung with portraits of himfelf and illuftrations of his works. A curious old clock, faid to have been taken from New Place, and various articles of ancient furniture with which his name is connected, are to be feen in different parts of the houfe. Indeed, as a general rule, I believe Stratford-upon-Avon may be faid to live upon the memory of its great Poet, as Rome does upon the relics of the Apoftles. What a capital plan it would be, by the way, to fet up a Shakefperian high-prieft at Stratford, whofe func- tion it mould be to regulate the devotions of the pil- grims and employ himfelf in the culte des ruines, and Firft Imprefjlons of Stratford. 2 1 whofhould be infpired to pronounce an infallible judg- ment upon Shakefperian criticifm. He fhould decide whether " The Two Noble Kinfmen," " Titus Andro- nicus," " Pericles," and the firft and fecond parts of "Henry VI." were canonical or apocryphal; what fhould be the received text the folio of 1623 or that of 1632 and what the authority of the quartos; he would pronounce upon the validity of the claims of various readings, and winnow the whole crop of com- mentators, from Malone, Farmer, Theobald, Steevens, and Johnfon, down to Collier, Dyce, and the Cambridge editors. And fo at length the republic of letters might repofe upon infallible authority, and not be, as it now is, a prey to unhappy divifions, and diftra&ed by the uncertain found emitted by its contending teachers. But to return from my digreffion. Having feen poor little Stornaway made comfortable in a loofe box, to reft after his long journey, and left Smoker to keep him company, I walked out to take a general furvey of the town. The High Street I have already defcribed. Henley Street, which branches off from it at the market-place, is built of mean houfes, and has nothing remarkable about it but Shakefpere's birthplace, of which I mall fpeak prefently. Chapel Street, where New Place once ftood, has much more character. But everybody feems to have confpired to 22 Shakefpere. deface this town. The Town Hall is an ugly modern building, and the Guild Chapel of the Holy Crofs is in the debafed ftyle of the reign of Henry VIL, when Sir Hugh Clopton built it on the ruins of an older edifice, the chancel of which ftill bears evidence to its fuperior beauty. The clumfy tower is feen to the left in the photograph of the Grammar School. In the chapel is the tomb of Sir Hugh, on which is the following infcription : " He built y e ftone bridge over Avon, with y e caufey at y e Weft End; further manifefting his piety to God and love to this place of his nativity (as y e centurion in y e Gofpel did to y e Jewim Nation and Religion by building them a fynagogue), for at his fole charge this beautiful chappell of y e Holy Trinity was rebuilt, temp. H. VIL, and y e crofs ifle of y e Pari/h Church." Inftead of, perhaps, a beautiful Early Eng- lifh or Decorated building, we have one of clumfy proportions and debafed ornamentation. Such as it is, however, it has-been further debafed by the church- wardens or common -councillors of the eighteenth century. ProfefTor Willis has well obferved, that when- ever a church wanted rebuilding or decoration in the middle ages, fome Saint, or Saint's relics, were fure providentially to turn up in the neighbourhood. The clergy immediately enfhrined them, the people flocked to pay their devotions, and the church was renovated Fir/1 Impreffiom of Stratford. 23 by means of their pious offerings. Surely the votaries of Shakefpere ought to offer for the reftoration of a fhrine whofe fhadow fell upon his houfe, upon which he muft have looked from his windows, and where he probably ufed often to kneel. Little befides the clearing away of a quantity of ugly cumbrous church furniture would be enough to reftore it to nearly the fame appearance as it bore when Shakefpere knew it. It would now be impoffible, even if fuch a proceeding were fandtioned by public opinion, to reftore the beau- tiful frefcoes difcovered in 1804, when the chapel was repaired. The chief fubjecl: was the " Invention of the Holy Crofs," to which the chapel was dedicated ; but that which probably brought the fwdfteft ruin upon the whole was the " Martyrdom of Thomas-a- Beckett," to whofe memory Henry VIII. bore fpecial enmity, becaufe the ground of the " blifsful martyr's " canonization was his refiftance to the power of the crown. His name is carefully erafed from all mifTals and other fervice-books ufed in Henry's reign. The frefcoes were therefore probably defaced by the Refor- mers even before they were finally deftroyed in 1804. They were, however, copied, and have been published. Faffing on from the Guild Chapel, we have the whole range of buildings containing the Grammar School and Guildhall, and, near the parifh church, a 24 Shakefpere. nice-looking old houfe, built on the fite of the old college for priefts, which was pulled down in 1799. The parifh church is a very fine fpecimen of Perpen- dicular, built on the banks of the Avon, and furrounded by trees. I fhall fpeak of it more at length in connection with Shakefpere's grave and monument. The bridge, the chapel, the church, the Poet's birthplace in Henley Street, and the old houfe in Chapel Street, of which Mr. Edwards has taken an excellent photograph, are the only vifible remains of the period when Shakefpere lived here. They may ferve to give us fome idea of how Stratford looked in his time. In the firft place, then, the ftreets were not, as now, compofed of rows of uninterefting brick cottages. The dwelling-houfes were probably detached, and fur- rounded by yards and gardens, like John Shakefpere's, in Henley Street. Of the ftyle of the fhop-fronts, the mop of Mr. Williams, breeches-maker, glover, &c. (fee photograph), will give us an idea ; and a ftreet of fuch fronts, with the fhape, and height, and ornamen- tation of each varied indefinitely, muft have been very beautiful. There, on the top of the hill upon which the town ftands, was the old market crofs, a pidiurefque Gothic ftrufture, round which the chapmen aflembled, and mowed their merchandife, and perhaps fome Au- tolycus fung : I Firjl Imprejfions of Stratford. 25 " Will you buy any tape, Or lace for your cape, My dainty duck, my dear-a j Any lilk, any thread, Any toys for your head, Of the new'ft and fin'ft, fin'fl wear-a ; Come to the pedlar, Money's a meddler That doth alter all men's wear-a." Here, near the church, was the old college for priefts, appropriated by Mafter John a Combe as a dwelling- houfe on the diflblution of the religious houfes, but ftill retaining its {lately ecclefiaftical character. The church and chapel were fhorn, indeed, of their former glories, and a coat of whitewash had perhaps been laid on the walls to deface any traces of colour or painting ; but the carved benches or chairs, the rood-fcreen, and the ftained glafs probably yet remained, and the galleries and pews were as yet in the womb of time. Chapel Street was adorned and dignified by New Place, a fine old manfion built by the magnificent Sir Hugh Clop- ton. In fuch a town, built on a rifing ground on the banks of the Avon, clofe to the parks of Fulbrooke and Charlecote and the Foreft of Arden, the Poet of Nature might well have been proud to have been born, and glad to dwell amongft his own people. 26 Shakefpere. CHAPTER III. I HAD now got fo far as this in my investigation : The place of Shakefpere's birth where he fpent his youth, and to which he retired the moment he had acquired a competence was in his time, notwithftand- ing its prefent dreary appearance, a town embellifhed by many ftately and beautiful buildings, the refidence of wealthy burghers and of a large body of clergy, at that time the moft learned and cultivated clafs of fociety. It was moreover built on the banks of a lovely river, furrounded by rural villages, parks, and foreft tracts fuch a country, in fhort, as would feize upon the fancy of a poet, and mark his imagination with the imprels of its own character. For though the poet's fancy be, in one fenfe, independent of out- ward things, and " Doth glance from heaven to earth, and earth to heaven, And as imagination bodies forth The forms of things unknown, the poet's pen Turns them to fhapes, and gives to airy nothing A local habitation and a name," His Parentage. 27 yet if, as Locke afferts, the mind be a fheet of white paper till written upon by the fenfes, the original fimple ideas from which the complex images of poetry are formed muft have had their origin in outward things, however independent of them they may afterwards become. And that Shakefpere's young imagination fed upon the fcenes in which his youth was Ipent is plain, both from the facT; that he never loft light of the grand objecl: of returning to live in his native town, and from the whole character of his writings. None of his contemporaries has drawn fb direftly and Ib largely from Englim rural life as he, and the ftyle of fcenery upon which he delights to dwell, as defcribed, for inftance, in the words of Titania " And never, fince the middle fummer's fpring, Met we on hill, in dale, foreft, or mead, By paved fountain, or by rufhy brook" is juft that of the neighbourhood of Stratford. Greene and Peele have fome pretty country fcenes, but they want the touches of nature, the elegance, the lightnefs of the mafter. In thefe relpects no one approaches him but Chaucer, whole merits are unhappily buried for the generality in his obfolete language, and whofe occalional gro Uriels condemns his poems to clofe prifon. To quote inftances of Shakefpere's power of depicting Englilh country fcenes and people would be to tranfcribe 28 Shakefpere. a great part of his plays. But to take an inftance : " As You Like It" is faid to be more generally read than any other of his works ; and this is owing, I think, to the hold which the idea of life in the Foreft of Arden has on the reader, who finds in the fhepherds and fhepherdeffes, not the Arcadian article, but the real Englifli one. And where did Shakefpere get his Foreft of Arden ? Not, we may be fure, in Flanders, but in the foreft tract of Warwickfhire. Of Englifh middle clals fociety in a country town, where (hall we find a more life-like or genial picture than in " The Merry Wives of Windfor?" Page, Ford, and their wives, Sir Hugh Evans, and the hoft of the " Garter " were doubtlefs drawn from the fubftantial glovers and wool- ftaplers, innkeepers and parfons, of Stratford and the neighbourhood. Of the home of a wealthy juftice of the peace in a remote county Shallow's houfe and furroundings is the trueft and moft humorous concep- tion that ever was penned. But to gather from the place all the infight which it can yield, we muft take into account eipecially the pofition which the Poet held there in his youth. The imprefiion made upon the mind, of the young eipecially, by outward objects, depends much upon the ftanding- point from which it views them. A peer and a coftermonger fhall both inhabit London, but yet their His Parentage. 29 feveral conceptions of the place fhall differ as widely as if one lived in Timbuctoo and the other in Siberia. The family of Shakeipere, which had been long fettled in Warwickshire, appears never to have rifen above the rank of the yeomanry. The Poet's father, John Shakefpere, was the fon of Richard Shakefpere, a farmer of Snitterfield, not far from Stratford, and refided in the houfe in Henley Street which tradition afligns as the place of the Poet's birth. In an entry in the regifter of the Bailiff's Court of that town, dated 1556, ftating that he was fued by Thomas Siche of Arfcotte in Wiltshire for 8, he is defcribed as "Johannes Shakefpere de Stretford in Comitatu Warici, Glover" It appears that he alfo farmed land, or at leaft fold corn and timber, for in the fame year he fued Henry Fyld for eighteen quarters of barley, which the latter unjuftly detained. In 1564 the corporation of Stratford paid him 4^. for a piece of timber. In the fame year the year of his celebrated fon's birth he contributed towards the relief of the poor when the plague was raging in the town. He occupied a farm of fourteen acres at Ington Meadow, or Ingon Ing means " meadow," as in Ingateftone, called in Latin, Pratum apud petram and in 1575 he purchafed two freehold houfes in Henley Street. One of thefe he had before occupied as tenant that, namely, in which 30 Shakefpere. William Shakefpere was in all probability born. In a deed dated 1579 he is defcribed as a yeoman, and his name is found in a roll of the gentlemen and freeholders of Barlim hundred, in which Stratford is Situated, bear- ing date 1580. In a deed dated 1596 he is again defcribed as a yeoman. In 1586 the copyhold of a houfe in Henley Street was affigned to him. We have feen that in one document he is ftyled "glover," and that from others it appears that he farmed land. Aubrey fays he was a butcher, and Rowe, that he was a confiderable dealer in wool. But all thefe are callings which might very poffibly be exer- cifed by one and the fame perfon. Even at the prefent day, when the principle of the divifion of labour is much more rigidly carried out than formerly, we often fee farmers combining with their principal callings thofe of butchers, general dealers, timber-merchants, charcoal- burners, horfe-dealers, corn-factors, auctioneers, valuers, or fuch like country trades. In thofe times it was ftill more likely that a man of active mind and of fome claim to gentility mould be impatient of the fmall profits of farming, and mould try fome fhort cut to wealth by Speculating in any bufinefs with which cir- cumftances might have made him acquainted. At any rate he mult have been a man of fome Standing and influence in his native town, for in 1557 His Parentage. 31 he was appointed an ale-tafter and a burgefs; in 1558 and 1559 he ferved as conftable an office generally held by refpeftable farmers or tradefmen; in 1561 he was appointed afferor an officer defined by Cowel, " Such as are appointed in court-leets, &c., upon oath, to mul