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 PORTRAIT OF WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE 
 
 BY MARTIN DROESHOUT. 
 Jitdiirtd Fac-timila from fht First Folio (162.'}).
 
 STRA TFORD-ON-A VON EDITION 
 
 Fact and Fiction 
 
 ABOUT 
 
 Shakespeare 
 
 WITH SOME ACCOUNT OF 
 
 THE PLAYHOUSES, PLAYERS, AND PLAYWRIGHTS 
 OF HIS PERIOD 
 
 BY 
 
 ALFRED C. CALMOUR 
 
 AUTHOR OF "THE AMBER HEART" AND OTHER PLAYS 
 
 AVITH NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 STRATFORD-ON-AVON : 
 GEORGE BOYDEN 
 
 LONDON : 
 HENRY WILLIAMS, 48, OLD BAILEY 
 
 K-
 
 TO 
 MARGUERITE 
 
 AND 
 
 BRANDON THOMAS 
 
 THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED 
 
 BY THEIR FRIEND 
 
 THE WRITER.
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 So many attempts have been made to pom'tray 
 the character of William Shakespeare and elucidate 
 the text of his works, so much material has been 
 collected and published by explorers in the field 
 of Shakespearean lore, that little remains to be 
 recorded by later chroniclers. In this account of 
 the great dramatic poet and i)layer, I fear I 
 must rely for interest more upon the manner in 
 which I have marshalled my gleanings than upon 
 the matter gleaned. 
 
 Of no man has so much that is unreliable been 
 wa*itten as about William Shakespeare. He lias 
 been painted as a flawless divinity devoid of those 
 traits we attribute to common humanity, and he 
 has been depicted as a slothful drunkard with 
 Falstaffian proclivities. That which I have written 
 has been restricted to recorded evidences, and 
 inspired by such information as I have acquired 
 in the com'se of a labour of love. And if, by my 
 narrative, I have directed any person how to become 
 better acquainted with Shakespeare's work, and 
 have thus awakened a corresponding enthusiasm for 
 the author of some of the noblest and most beautiful 
 thoughts in the English language, I shall, in some 
 small measm-e, have repaid the deep debt of 
 gratitude I owe to " our ever-li\dng poet." 
 
 Alfred C. Calmour 
 
 Stratford-on-Avon, 1894.
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 Page. 
 
 Richard Shakespeare 1 
 
 John Shakespeare 2 
 
 Marriage with Mary Anion 3 
 
 iJoniestic Siuronndings 4 
 
 John Shakespeare's prosperity ... 5 
 
 Occupation 6 
 
 Baptism of William Shakespeare 7 
 
 Tiie Art of Writing 8 
 
 Dramatic Entertainments at 
 
 Stratford 10 
 
 The Earl of Leicester's Players.. 11 
 
 The Burbage Family | 
 
 William Shakespeare's | 12 
 
 Education ) 
 
 The Grammar School 13 
 
 Training at the Grannnar 
 
 School 16 
 
 Shakespeare's Youthful Occupa- 
 tion 19 
 
 Early Poetic Efforts 20 
 
 Wooing of Anne Hathaway 21 
 
 Marriage 23 
 
 Baptism of his Children 24 
 
 Shakespeare and Sir Thomas 
 
 Lucy 25 
 
 Departure from Stratford 26 
 
 Burbage's Company Abi-oad 27 
 
 First Employment upon the 
 
 Stage 28 
 
 Downes's Record 29 
 
 Robert Greene's Attack 30 
 
 Shakespeare's Progress 32 
 
 Henry VI 33 
 
 References to the Trade of 
 
 Butcher 35 
 
 Atmosphere of the Play 37 
 
 Motive for Greene's Attack 38 
 
 Shakespeare's Plagiarisms 39 
 
 Chettle's Apology 41 
 
 Shakespeare's Reputation 42 
 
 The Early Theatres 43 
 
 Population of London 44 
 
 Conveyance to the Theatre ... \ .. 
 
 Bills of the Play r° 
 
 Rehearsals and Hour of the 
 
 Play 46 
 
 Prices of Admission 47 
 
 Interior of Theatres 48 
 
 Scenery 49 
 
 Painting the Face 51 
 
 Costumes worn on the Stage 1 -g 
 
 The Audience i 
 
 Amusements at the Play 54 
 
 Page. 
 Unauthorised printing of Plays 55 
 
 Venus and Adonis 56 
 
 Dedication of the Poem 57 
 
 Evidence in the Poem 58 
 
 The Literary value of the Poems 
 
 and Plays 59 
 
 Friendship of the Earl of 
 
 Southampton 61 
 
 His Generosity to Shakespeare.. 62 
 Shakespeare before Queen 
 
 Elizabeth 63 
 
 Plays Performed on Sunday ... 64 
 
 Shakespeare's Rapid Rise 65 
 
 The Production of the Plays... 66 
 
 Player and Playwright I gg 
 
 Richard Bui'bage I 
 
 Actors in Shakespeare's Plays 69 
 
 Shakespeare as an Actor 70 
 
 Shakespeare before James I ... 71 
 Royal condescension to Shake- 
 speare 72 
 
 Popularity of the Play 73 
 
 Thrift and Prudence of the 
 
 Players 74 
 
 Shakespeare's Monopoly 75 
 
 The Poet's Share ) ^g 
 
 Sharers and Hirelings | 
 
 Salaries of Players 79 
 
 The Emolument of Play- 
 wrights 80 
 
 Shakespeare's Family 82 
 
 Contemporary opinion of Shake- 
 speare's work 83 
 
 Ben Jonson's testimony 86 
 
 Fuller's Account 88 
 
 The Davenant Incident 89 
 
 Manningham's Story 90 
 
 Shakespeare's Investments ... 91 
 
 Richard Quiney 92 
 
 Deaths of Richard and Edmund 
 
 Shakespeare 93 
 
 Shakespeare's return to Strat- 
 ford 96 
 
 Life at Stratford 97 
 
 Shakespeare's Will 99 
 
 Cause of Death 101 
 
 Burial 104 
 
 The Stratford Bust 105 
 
 Ben Jonson's testimony of 
 
 admiration 106 
 
 Milton's Eulogy 1 iQg 
 
 The First Folio ) 
 
 The Droeshout Portrait Ill
 
 ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 Ft'ontispiece : 
 PORTRAIT OF WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. 
 
 MAP OF A PART OF WARWICKSHIRE (1G03). 
 
 THE "BIRTHPLACE" IN HENLEY STREET. 
 
 THE GUILD CHAPEL AND HALL. 
 
 CHARLECOTE HALL. 
 
 ROBERT GREENE IN CONCEIPT. 
 
 MAP OF LONDON (1593). 
 
 INTERIOR OF THE SWAN THEATRE (1596). 
 
 INTERIOR OF THE RED BULL THEATRE (1672). 
 
 GREENWICH PALACE. 
 
 WILLIAM KEMP DANCING THE MORRIS. 
 
 VIEW OF LONDON (1610). 
 
 PORTRAIT OF BEN JONSON. 
 
 THE GLOBE THEATRE (1614). 
 
 SHAKESPEARE'S BUST IN STRATFORD CHURCH,
 
 TT has long been the custom, when extraordinary 
 -*■ ability has developed in a man of humble 
 origin, to seek in the parents for some trace of that 
 quality of genius shown by the child, and in many 
 cases this genealogical analysis has discovered 
 that the ability was inherited. But in the case 
 of Shakespeare the most exhaustive scrutiny of his 
 ancestors has failed to show that their intelligence 
 was on anything like a high intellectual plane, or 
 that their tastes and habits materially differed 
 from those of Warwickshire people in their own 
 station of life. Therefore, since we are not to 
 seek in the poet's parents for a direct clue to 
 his genius, I will only give the reader a brief 
 account of them prior to that year which saw the 
 birth of William Shakespeare. 
 
 So far back as the reign of Edward the Sixth 
 there resided near Stratford-on-Avon a farmer 
 named Richard Shakespeare. He had acquired gj^^j^^^I^^'^l^re 
 considerable property in the village of Snitterfield,
 
 2 Fact and Fiction about Shakespeare 
 
 which is distant about four miles from Stratford. 
 Witli him, then, resided his two sons, Henry and 
 John. About the year 1551 John Shakespeare 
 left his father's home and settled down in the 
 neighbouring Borough of Stratford-on-Avon. 
 
 He took up his abode in Henley Street, one of 
 the principal thoroughfares in Stratford, leading 
 to the adjacent market town of Henley -in- Arden, 
 from which it derived its name. 
 
 For many years subsequently to 1551 John 
 Shakespeare held a humble position as tradesman 
 at Stratford, and it is not till 1556 that we find 
 his worldly position advanced. In October of this 
 year he purchased two small freeholds — one in 
 Shakespeare. Hcnloy Street and the other in what was then 
 known as Greenhill Street ; and he was summoned 
 on a court of Record jury on the 21st of March, 
 and in the proceedings of the Court of Record 
 dated the 17tli of June he is described, in the 
 Corporation books, as John Shakespeare of Stratford, 
 ''glover." 
 
 In the year 1557 he married Mary, the youngest 
 daughter of Robert Arden, of Wilmcote (a village 
 close to Stratford) who was a farmer of considerable 
 wealth, and who had but lately died. And this
 
 Fact and Fiction about Shakespeare 
 
 John Sliakospeare's 
 Marria)'C- 
 
 Robert Ardeu. 
 
 marriage materially advanced John Shakespeare's 
 worldly fortunes, for Mary Arden was a favourite 
 child, and her father made over to her the reversion 
 of a large portion of his estate, which comprised 
 two farm houses, with a hundred acres of land, at 
 Snitterlield, fifty acres at Wilmcote, and a copy- 
 hold estate at the latter place of an unknown 
 acreage. 
 
 Robert Arden was a typical farmer of the period. 
 He does not seem to have possessed any ambition 
 to figure as a country gentleman — indeed, his only 
 desire appears to have been to provide for his 
 numerous family. And he possessed sufficient 
 wealth to settle property on all his eight daughters, 
 Agnes, Jane, Katherine, Margaret, Joyce, Alice, 
 Elizabeth, and Mary. 
 
 Nothing whatever is known of the personal 
 character of Mary Arden, and therefore it would 
 only be a matter of the merest sj^eculation if I 
 were to depict her as a young woman entirely 
 differing in mind and body from her sisters, or 
 from other farmers' daughters of that period, or, 
 on the other hand, to assert that, because she 
 lived in the midst of rude surroundings, she was 
 devoid of romance, or a feeling for the beautiful. 
 Either of these statements would be idle conjecture. Mary Arden.
 
 SuiTouiidiiigs. 
 
 4 Fact and Fiction about Shakespeare 
 
 Some idea of the domestic smTOundings of people 
 of the Arden class can be obtained by a glance 
 at the inventory of the goods of Robert Arden. 
 Domestic Many of those articles of domestic use which our 
 poorest folk now consider necessary were unheard 
 of by that prosperous yeoman.* Table knives and 
 forks, and what we now call crockery, did not 
 exist. The food was eaten on flat pieces of wood, 
 and for washing purposes the cleanly must have 
 been put to sore straits, for they had not any 
 soap, and the towels they did have were commonly 
 used to wipe the hands after a meal. 
 
 * The Ynventory of all the goodes, moveable and unmoveahle, of Rohart 
 Ardennen, of Wyllmcote, late dessiside, made the ix.th day of December, in 
 the thyrde and the forthe yeare of the raygne of our soverayne lorde and 
 ladye, Phylipe and Mar ye, hinge and quen, due. 1556. 
 
 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.s. — Item, ij. peyntid-clothes in the hall and v. peyntid- 
 clothes in the chamber, vij. peare of shettes, ii. cofferes, one which, priside 
 at xviiij.s. — Item, v. borde-clothes, ij. toweles and one dyeper towelle, 
 prisid att vj.*'. viij.d.- — Item, one fether-bedde, ij. mattereses, viij. canvases, 
 one coverlett, iij. bosteres, one pelowe, iiij. peyntide-clothes, one whyche, 
 prisid att xxvj.s. viij.(Z. — 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.s. viij. fZ.— Item, one broche, a peare of cobbardes, one axe, a bill, iiij. 
 nagares, ij. hatchettes, an ades, a mattoke, a yren crowe, one fatt, iiij. 
 barrelles, iiij. pales, a quyrne, a knedyng-trogh, a lonng saw, a hansaw, 
 prisid at XX. s. ij.fZ.— Item, "viij. oxen, ij. boUokes, vij. kyne, iiij. wayning 
 caves, xxiiij./». — Item, iiij. horses, iij. coltes, prisid att viij.^j. — Item, l.ti 
 shepe, prisid att vij./z. — Item, the whate in the barne and the barley, 
 prisid att xviij.Zi. — Item, the heye and the pease, ottes and the strawe, 
 prisid att iij.li. \].s. viij.fi. — Item, ix. swine, prisid att xxvj.s. viij.d. — 
 Item, the bees and powltrye, prisid att v.«.— Item, carte and carte-geares, 
 and plogh and plogh geares with harrowes, prisid att xl.«. — Item, tlie wodd 
 in the yarde, and the baken in the roffe, prisid att xxx.s. — Item, the 
 wheatein thefylde, prisid att vj-li. xiij.s. iiij.d.— Summa totalis, lxxvij./«. 
 xj.s. x.d.
 
 JLanptot, 
 
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 Map of a part of Warwickshire
 
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 Wiithall 
 
 
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 lL>xhall 
 
 ■^^■^"^Jshnt^-^i^^'y n'apenhury \Strtncn:>:, 
 
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 ^RWICK, 
 
 Mortm MereU 
 
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 showin 
 
 cr the Shakespeare Country (1603).
 
 Fact and Fiction about Shakespeare 5 
 
 These domestic deficiencies, however, could not 
 suppress any inborn sensitiveness in Mary Arden's 
 nature, or obliterate her emotional qualities, did 
 she possess tliem, and, tlierefore, it is just as 
 easy to conceive that this farmer's daughter had 
 an innate refinement of thought and lofty aspira- 
 tions — althougli living in an age when books were 
 not obtainable, and intellectual education for women 
 unheard of in those rural districts — as to imaffine 
 her to be a mere buxom healthy country lass, 
 with no other qualities than a knowledge of farm 
 work and the general management of the dairy, 
 the kitchen, and the store room. 
 
 From the year of his marriage John Shakespeare 
 rose in the estimation of his fellow-citizens. In 
 1557 he was elected one of the ale tasters of 
 Stratford, and had the supervision of malt liquors 
 and bread. He was, at the same time, made a 
 burgess, and in 1558 — that is, the following year — 
 he was appointed one of the four petty constables 
 by the Jury of the Court Leet, who re-elected 
 him in 1559. 
 
 Among other civic ofiices he was, in 1561, 
 elected one of the Chamberlains of the Borough. *^°^°4wity"''' 
 
 All this time we find him living in Henley 
 Street and following not only the business of a
 
 6 Fact and Fiction about Shakespeare 
 
 glover, but other occupations. He dealt largely 
 in wool and corn, and in 1556 he is found pursuing 
 Henry Field for illegally detaining 18 quarters 
 of barley. 
 
 He was also a grazier, butcher, and tanner. 
 Indeed, he seems to have combined in himself 
 both the producer and the purveyor. At that 
 time it was the custom among glovers in Stratford 
 not to restrict themselves to a single business. In 
 a MS. dated 1595, and to be seen in the Corporation 
 Records, "George Perry e '" is thus described: — 
 "Besides his glover's trade, use the buyinge and 
 sellinge of woll and yorne, and making of malte." 
 And, again, " Kobert Butler" is described as having 
 Occupation. " bcsidcs his glovcr's occupation, use the makinge 
 of nialtc ; " and there are many farmers of good 
 repute at this day who carry on a similar combination 
 of businesses, and who do not think it dci'ogatory 
 to sell the wool from the sheep they rear, to tan 
 the hide of the slaughtered animal, or to dispose 
 of its carcass. 
 
 The house in Henley Street in which John 
 Shakespeare lived was one of considerable size 
 and importance in Stratford, as it then existed. 
 The present building, surrounded as it is by modern 
 dwellings, cannot adequately convey any correct
 
 w 
 
 PL, 
 
 ,^3 
 
 pq 

 
 Pact and Fiction about Shakespeare 7 
 
 idea of its significance in the year of William 
 Shakespeare's birth. 
 
 There is no contemporary evidence recording 
 the precise day upon which William Shakespeare 
 was born. The 23rd of April, which has been 
 accepted since the middle of the last century as 
 the Poet's birthday, is quite conjectural. The 
 only evidence we have which enables us to arrive 
 at an approximate idea of the day is the entry 
 in the Stratford register recording his baptism, wiiiiamshrkespeare 
 That event took place on Wednesday, the 26th 
 of April, 1564. 
 
 William was the third child of John and Mary 
 Shakespeare, their two daughters, Joan and Mar- 
 garet, being born in the years 1558 and 1562 
 respectively. Margaret died in 1563, and following 
 William's birth in 1564 came Gilbert in 1566, 
 Joan in 1569, Anne in 1571 (who died in 1579), 
 Richard in 1573, and Edmund in 1580. 
 
 In the July of 1564 — the year William Shake- 
 speare was born — a plague broke out in Stratford. 
 The sanitary arrangements of that Borough, in ArrangenSsia 
 common with other country towns, were of the Stratford, 
 most primitive kind; and John Shakespeare had, 
 in 1552, been amerced in the sum of twelve pence
 
 8 Fact and Fiction about Shakespeare 
 
 for a breach of such sanitary regulations as then 
 existed. This plague fortunately did not attack 
 any member of the Shakespeare family. As his 
 responsibilities increased, the worldly condition of 
 John Shakespeare showed a marked improvement. 
 In 1565 he was elected an Alderman, and he helped 
 to make up the accounts of the Chamberlains of 
 the Borough, and this proves that he possessed 
 some skill in arithmetic, whatever deficiency he 
 showed in the art of writing. 
 
 Neither John Shakespeare nor his wife could 
 do more than make their mark, but this mode of 
 attesting to one's signature was usual among the 
 residents of Stratford. And, indeed, the art of 
 writing was only practised by scriveners and by 
 those who had received a scholastic education. 
 
 
 Correct orthography was not thought to be, in 
 
 this or the succeeding reign, of any importance. 
 
 Elizabethan ^^ ^^^^ ^^^ samo sumamo spelt differently by 
 
 Orthography, (jiffg^ent mcmbers of one family ; and even a scholar
 
 Fact and Fiction about Shakespeare. 9 
 
 like Sir Walter Raleigh sometimes spelt his name 
 Rawley, and at other times Kalegli. There seems 
 to have been no fixed rule in the matter. The 
 name was spelt just as it sounded to the ear, and 
 surely this is not more strange than the fantastic 
 pronunciation still given to such family names as 
 Beauchamp, Majoribanks, and Cholmondeley. 
 
 Among Warwickshire people Shakespeare's name 
 was spoken as if it were written Shaxper — indeed, 
 by many of the rural population it is still so 
 pronounced — and consequently it was often spelt 
 as near to that sound as possible. 
 
 On the fourth of September, 1568, John Shake- 
 speare, or " Mr. " John Shakespeare, as we now 
 for the first time find him designated in the Records, 
 was chosen High Bailiff of Stratford, a post which 
 he had been unsuccessfully nominated for in the 
 previous year, and which was analogous to the 
 
 ■.. .. ^^ nr mi l^ i John Shakospeare 
 
 dignitary we now call Mayor, i lius we see that oir,t.-.i 
 
 in the eleven years from the time John Shakespeare 
 
 was elected to his first office — that of the supervision 
 
 of malt liquors and bread in 1557 — he had risen 
 
 to the highest official position his fellow-citizens 
 
 could bestow uj^on him. 
 
 And this brings me to a period in the career 
 of John Shakespeare which I do not hesitate to 
 
 lligli Itailiff.
 
 r>r;imntio 
 
 lO Fact and Fie lion about Shakespeare 
 
 suggest must liave indirectly moulded the youthful 
 mind of his sou Williaui to tliat taste for theatrical 
 representations which he afterwards developed to 
 his and to our advantaere. 
 
 I am referring to that passion for the drama 
 which John Shakespeare most certainly showed 
 while J^ailiff of Stratford. After his election 
 dramatic entertainments were encouraged as they 
 had never before been encouraged at Stratford. 
 In the municipal accounts are entries showing that 
 between 1568 and 1569 both the " Queen's Players" 
 Entcrtaiiinu-nis and the 'VEarl of Worcester's Players" irave per- 
 
 at Stratford. •' o i 
 
 forniances in the Guild Hall before the Council. 
 As these performances were free to the public, 
 the Corporation bestowing on the players the 
 necessary gratuity, it is not unlikely that members 
 of the Corporation brought their children to see 
 them, and the Bailiff, under whose patronage the 
 representation was given, would scarcely hesitate 
 to avail himself of a common privilege. 
 
 From 1568 the taste for dramatic representations 
 increased at Stratford, for I find that in 1573 the 
 " Earl of Leicester's Players " appeared there, and 
 in 1576 the "Karl of Warwick's" and the "Earl 
 of Worcester's Players " gave performances. '' The 
 Earl of Leicester's " and the " Earl of Worcester's "
 
 Fact and Fiction about Shakespeare 1 1 
 
 companies paid a second visit in 1577, and in 
 1580 appeared the " Countess of Essex's I'layeis" 
 and the " Elarl of Derby's Servants." 
 
 These players must not be confounded with 
 the meaner sort of actors, who, as Dekker words 
 it, " travelled upon the hard hoof from village t(j 
 village for cheese and buttermilk," without tlie 
 protection of some nobleman to shield them from 
 the charge of vagabondage. They were trained 
 players of reputation. 
 
 So from his fifth to his sixteenth year William 
 Shakespeare had many opportunities of witnessing 
 the best dramatic talent then before the public. 
 For in the Earl of Leicester's company (among Leicester's^piayers. 
 other Warwickshire players) was James Burbage — 
 the father of that famous actor, Richard Burbage — 
 who was the head of the comj^any, and acted 
 before the Queen at Kenihvorth Castle in the 
 summer of 1575. 
 
 Perhaps it is in the lives of the Burbages that 
 we are to look for the clue to the early stage 
 career of William Shakespeare, and so it may 
 not be quite out of place if I give here a few 
 records of the Burbage family. 
 
 A family of the name of Burbage was settled 
 in Stratford-upon-Avon in tlie middle of the
 
 12 
 
 Fact and Fiction about Shakespeare 
 
 Tlio ]{urbage 
 P^amily. 
 
 William 
 
 Shakespeare's 
 
 Education. 
 
 sixteenth century — a John Burbage was Bailiff of 
 the Borough in June, 1555 — and James (tlie father 
 of Richard and Cutlibert), although he had worked 
 as a joiner, was, as far back as 1559 the head 
 of ''Lord Robert Dudley's Company of Players," 
 afterwards the " Earl of Leicester's Players," 
 chiefly composed of Warwickshire men, who were 
 the Court players, and held in the highest esteem. 
 In this company were many educated men from 
 the Universities, men who ranked as gentlemen, 
 and who lived like noblemen, and in their wills 
 were able to leave land, houses, money, and rich 
 gifts of swords, rings, chains, and costly clothing 
 to relatives, friends, and their fellow players ; and 
 in 1573 John Heminge (afterwards to be William 
 Shakespeare's friend and the Editor of his collected 
 works) was probably of the company, for he, too, 
 was a Stratford man, and, with Henry Condell, 
 doubtless studied the Accidence and Lilly's Gram- 
 mar in the same school as that attended in after 
 years by young William Shakespeare. 
 
 If the evidence I have obtained can be relied 
 upon, it must be admitted that the early education 
 of the boy Shakespeare was of a far higher kind 
 than that generally conceded. 
 
 Having previously acquired a rudimentary
 
 The Guild Chapel and Hall as they appeared in 1797.
 
 Fact and Fiction about Shakespeare 13 
 
 knowledge of reading and writing, it was usual 
 for boys to enter the Stratford Grammar School 
 at the age of seven ; so it would be about the 
 year 1571 when William Shakespeare ''with his 
 satchel and shining morning face crept " (as boys 
 do now) " unwillingly to school." 
 
 A common blunder is that of stating that 
 Shakespeare went to school in the Hall 
 which is now used as the Grammar School. 
 In 1571 the School was kept in the Chancel of 
 the old Guild Chapel, which was originally part 
 of a monastic establishment dissolved by Henry 
 VIII., who confiscated its revenues. These were 
 restored in 1553, by Edward VI. who, in his 
 charter, described the School as " The King's New 
 School." Another misconception is that of suppos- 
 ing Shakespeare ever used a "horn book" at the 
 Grammar School. This book was only used in 
 the Parish School, which, compared with the 
 Grammar School, was as an ordinary Board The Grammar school. 
 School of to-day would be if compared with 
 any of our great Public Schools. Shakespeare's 
 Schoolmaster (whether Walter Roche or Thomas 
 Hunt) would have been profoundly amused at 
 the idea of his boys using the " horn book." 
 
 Dr, Fuller, writing of Coventry Grammar School
 
 14 Fact and Fiction about ShaJcespeare 
 
 a few years after Shakespeare's death, sajs, ^' Herein 
 I have seen more (abate the three English schools 
 of the first magnitude — Eton, Westminster, Charter- 
 house) and as well learned scholars as in any 
 school in England." 
 
 The salary of the Head Master of Stratford 
 Grammar School was larger than that then received 
 by the Head Master of Eton, and the appointment 
 was in the hands of the Lord of Stratford Manor, 
 one of the greatest and most learned men in the 
 greatest and most learned court in Europe — that 
 of Queen Elizabeth. He was no other than 
 Ambrose, Earl of Warwick, the brother of Earl 
 Dudley, owner of Kenilworth Castle. 
 
 If William Shakespeare did not obtain con- 
 siderable classical proficiency, the reason for that 
 result must be looked for, not in the method 
 adopted for his training, or the incompetence of 
 his masters, but rather in the fact that the altered 
 circumstances of John Shakespeare necessitated the 
 Withdrawal from the youtli's withdi'awal from the school at an early 
 
 Grammar School •' •' 
 
 age to assist his father in his business. That he 
 was withdrawn at an early age from the Grammar 
 School was so commonly known to the inhabitants 
 that when John Aubrey visited Stratford about 
 forty years after Shakespeare's death, he was told
 
 Pact and Fiction about Shakespeare 15 
 
 by some of the poet's neighbours — who might well 
 remember — that when Shakespeare was a boy 'Mie 
 exercised his father's trade;"* and on Betterton, 
 the actor, visiting Stratford, even forty years 
 later, he was informed by the descendants of 
 those who must have known the Sliakespeare 
 family, that tlie dramatist's faiher " Bred him 
 
 *Xotice of Shake'ipeare from Aubrey's Lives of Eminent Men. 
 
 Mr. William Shakespear was borne at Stratford-upon-Avon in the County 
 Warwick ; his father was a butcher, and I have been told lieretofore by 
 some of the neiglibours that, when he was a boj-, he exercised Iiis father's 
 trade, but wlien he kill'd a calfe, lie would doe it in a high style and make 
 a speecli. There was at that time another butchers son in this towne, tliat 
 was held not at all inferior to him for naturall a 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 
 tlie plaj'-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 dramati(jue poetr)', which at that time was very lowe, and his plaj-es 
 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 Ureame, he happened to take at Grenden 
 in Bucks, whicii is the roade from London to Stratford, and there was 
 living that constable about 1642, when I first came to Oxon. Mr. Jos. 
 Howe is of the parish and knew him. Ben Johnson and he did gather 
 humours of men dayly wherever they came. One time, as he was at the 
 tavern at .Stratford-super-Avon, one Combes, an old rich usurer, was to be 
 bnryed ; he makes there this extemporary epitaph, — "Ten in tiie 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 /;'. per annnm there and 
 thereabout to a sister. I have heard Sir Wm. Davenant and Mr. Thomas 
 Shadwell, who is counted the best conuudian we have now, say tiiat he iiad 
 a most prodigious witt, and did admire his naturall parts beyond all other 
 dramaticall writers. He was wont to say tliat lie never blf)tted out a line 
 in his life ; sa^'d Ben Johnson, — I wisli he had blotted out a thousand. His 
 comfpdies will remaine witt as long as the English tongue is understood, for 
 that he handles //loz-e.f /io//(//n(//i ; now our present writers reflect so much 
 upon particular persons and coxcombeities, that twenty yeares hence they 
 will not be understood. Thougli, as Ben Joluison says of him, that he had 
 but little Latine and lesse Greek, he understood Latine pretty well, for he 
 had been in his younger yeares a schoolmaster in the countrey.
 
 Training at the 
 Grammar School. 
 
 16 Fact and Fiction about Shakespeare 
 
 for some time at a free school, but the narrow- 
 ness of his circumstances and the want of his 
 assistance at home forced him to withdraw the boy 
 from the schooL" Of John Shakespeare's altered 
 circumstances I shall speak hereafter. What I want 
 to dwell upon now is the fact that the training 
 at the Stratford Grammar School was of a fairly 
 high order, and that Latin and Greek were both 
 taught. As a preparation for deeper studies, the 
 pupils were first instructed in ''Lilly's Grammar," 
 the " Sententia Pueriles/' Deax's '' Manual of 
 Phrases," and the ^' Confabulationes Pueriles." 
 Among: the school books in common use at the 
 School — and, indeed, in all the endowed Grammar 
 Schools at that period, were '' Gate's Maxims," 
 ^'^sop's Fables," the "Fables of Ph^drus" the 
 ''Gesta Romanorum," the Histories of "Florus," 
 '' Cfesar," and " Livy." Also, '' Tully," " Sallus," 
 " Ovid," with the '' Eclogues of Baptista Mantuanus," 
 "Virgil," "Horace," "Terence," "Seneca," the 
 " Orations and Epistles of Cicero," and parts of 
 "Juvenal" and " Plautus."* Many advanced 
 
 * In the founder's statute of a Grammar School (Sir John Dean's) in 
 1553, the books used are enumerated thus — " The Accidence and Grammar 
 set out b}' King Henry VIII. . . . and then Inditutum Chri-stiani 
 that learned Erasmus wrote, and then copia of the same Erasmus, 
 Colloquium Era^imi, Ovidii Aletamorplioae^, Terreuce, Tully, Horace, 
 Sallus, Virgil, and such others as shall be thought most conveaieut."
 
 Fact and Fiction about ^hakesj^eare 17 
 
 pupils of the Stratford Grammar School had acquh'cd 
 enough knowledge of Latin to correspond with 
 some fiuencY in that language, and no doubt the 
 " small Latin and less Greek " which, as Jonson 
 afterwards asserted, Shakespeare possessed, would 
 have been deepened and widened if he had remained 
 longer at the Grammar School — unless, indeed, 
 the boy followed that course which he afterwards 
 
 described as a man — 
 
 ' ' I am no breecliiug scholar in the schools ; 
 I'll not be tied to hours, nor 'pointed times, 
 But learn my lessons as I please myself."* 
 
 But as the facts stand, Shakespeare's knowledge 
 of Latin and Greek could not have been so incon- 
 siderable, for there is a measure of praise 
 in Ben Jonson's statement, and it must be borne 
 in mind that Jonson (a pupil of Camden) spoke Lati'n^rnd" 
 as a Classical scholar of the highest attainments, 
 and what would seem " small Latin and less 
 Greek " to him would appear a very considerable 
 knowledge to a less learned and less critical 
 authority. 
 
 The days of John Shakespeare's declining pros- 
 perity began about 1577, and in 1578 he is found 
 effecting a mortgage on his Ashbies estate at 
 Wilmcote. Later records show that dm-ing the 
 
 * " Taming of the Shrew," Act III., Scene I. 
 
 Greek."
 
 l8 Fact and Fiction about Shakespeare 
 
 next two years — 1579 and 1580 — he was in 
 monetary difficulties. The father of our poet soon 
 John hecame so deeply indebted to Edmund Lambeii, who 
 
 d,eiA\\\\ng^\>Tol\)^r\ty. held tlio mortgage on the Ashbies estate, that not 
 even the sale of his wife's reversionary interest in 
 the Snitterfield property could clear off these and 
 other debts. 
 
 So about the age of thirteen, after having had six 
 years' tuition at the Stratford Grammar School, 
 William Shakespeare finished his scholastic education 
 and settled down to that form of life which his father 
 had designed for liim. 
 
 As previously stated, the business of John 
 Shakespeare (like that of his friend, Ralj:)!! Cawdrey, 
 who had twice been bailiff of Stratford) was a 
 combination of farmer, glover, woolstapler, butcher, 
 and purveyor of farm produce ; and I see in this 
 occupation nothing incompatible with the study of 
 natural history and poetic forms of expression. 
 Much of young William Shakespeare's life would be 
 spent on his uncle's farm at Snitterfield, or his father's 
 meadows near Stratford, where he became acquainted 
 with the wealth of flowers and the many varied forms 
 of j)lant, insect, and bird life, the knowledge of 
 which was to become so useful to him in after days.
 
 Fact and Fiction about Shakespeare 19 
 
 Without some employment of this kind it would 
 have been scarcely possible for him to have described 
 rm*al scenery and mode of life with the com|)leteness 
 he did. Every allusion to it in his plays (and later 
 I shall more directly refer to this) points to his 
 having lived, moved, and had his being as a lad in 
 the atmosphere of the meadow and the fann. Youthful cx.cu,,atiou. 
 
 And even if he had, in his youth, followed the 
 trade of a butcher, as tradition asserts, and " killed 
 a calf in high style," as recorded by Aubrey, I shall 
 be able to show later that some of his happiest 
 similes and allusions were drawn from a storelK)use 
 of practical kncjwledge, such as even a reflective and 
 imaginative butcher might have acquired, and fixed 
 on the tablet of his memory ^vitli those " saws of 
 books," "forms," and " jiressures past, that youth 
 and observation copied there." 
 
 And even at this time Shakes2:)eare would not be 
 altogether ignorant of the fame that had l)een 
 acquired by the Ipsmch butcher's son, Wolsey, and 
 his defence of him in later years seems to have been 
 inspired by intense sympathy and kindred feeling. 
 There is something almost personal in those lines of 
 Griffith beginning — 
 
 " This Cardinal, 
 Though from an humble stock, undoubtedly
 
 Wolsey's rise. 
 
 20 Fact and Fiction about Shakespeare 
 
 Was fashioned to much honour from his cradle. 
 
 He was a scholar, and a ripe, and good one : 
 
 Exceeding wise, fair spoken, and persuading ; 
 
 Lofty and sour to them that loved him not. 
 
 But to those men that sought him, sweet as Summer."--' 
 
 During the next five years of William Shake- 
 speare's life we have no record of him. We know 
 that several companies of players visited Stratford 
 during that period, and it is not unlikely that 
 William, now verging on to manhood, attended 
 the performances. The Rev. John Ward, vicar of 
 Stratford, who might well have known Shakes^^eare's 
 grand-daughter, Lady Barnard, has left it recorded 
 in his diary that Shakespeare " frequented the plays 
 all his younger time ; " and gossiping Aubrey, a few 
 years later, asserts that William, " being inclined 
 Early naturally to poetry and acting . . . began early to 
 
 make essayes at dramatic poetry." Be that as it 
 may, of one thing we are assured, that about this 
 time he was occupied with an affair of the heart. 
 
 Those who are acquainted with Stratford must 
 remember that pleasant walk through the meadows 
 to Shottery. When the fields are spread with 
 
 " Daffodils, 
 That come before the swallow dares, and take 
 The winds of March with beauty," 
 
 * Henry VIII., Act IV., Scene II.
 
 Fact and Fiction about Shakespeare 
 
 21 
 
 when every bank gives shelter to 
 
 " Bright primroses in happy council grouped, 
 Their faces turned unto their nearest Wn 
 The slender cowslips, as if to welcome them," 
 
 the way to Shottery is delightful. But in Spring, 
 
 or Summer, or Autumn, tlie grassy walks are 
 
 equally enchanting to those who love sylvan 
 
 scenery. 
 
 In Shakespeare's youth the walk must have been 
 
 even more solitary and romantic than it is to-day. 
 
 And it was here (according to tradition) tliat 
 WilHam Shakespeare came to woo Anne Hathaway. 
 One cannot l)c certain that the wooing was all on 
 his side, for Anne was eight years older than 
 Shakespeare, and at the age of twenty-six women 
 arc not altogether insensible to the charm of a 
 youthful lover, wliose form is shapely and whose 
 expressions are gentle. 
 
 Anne Hathaway was the daughter of one Ricliard 
 Hathaway, a substantial yeoman, of Shottery. Tlie 
 Hathaway family was of considerable repute in the 
 neighbourhood of Stratford, and possessed land in 
 various parts of Warwickshire. 
 
 So little trustworthy evidence, however, is obtain- 
 able relative to her ancestors, that any detailed 
 account is impossible. The earliest notice of Anne 
 
 The 
 
 wooing of Anne 
 
 Hathaway. 
 
 The Hathaways.
 
 22 Fact and Fiction ahoiit Shakespeare 
 
 HatliaAvay's birthplace was not made till 1750, when 
 the Rev. Joseph Greene, then master of the Stratford 
 Grammar School, compiled Nicholas Rowe's un- 
 published account of the locality, which assigned her 
 birthj^lace to Luddington, where, as Rowe recorded 
 it, "a substantial family of that name still reside." 
 This was in Greene's amended statement Avritten 
 down Shotteriche, " where a creditable family of the 
 shottery. name aforementioned till within these few years 
 resided." 
 
 It appears to have been the custom in Shake- 
 speare's day, before a license for marriage could 
 Ijo obtained, for a bond to be entered into by 
 two responsible sureties at the Consistory Court. 
 Shakespeare's sureties were Fulk Sandells and John 
 Richardson, inhabitants of Shottery, the village in 
 which the Hathaway family are said to have 
 resided.* 
 
 * The Bond given in November, 1582, in anticipation of the marriafje of 
 Shakespeare and Anne Hathaway. 
 
 Noverint imiversi per presentes nos, Fulconem Sandells de Stratford in 
 coniitatu Warwicensi, agrieolam, et .Johannein Rychardson, ibiden^. 
 agricolam, teneri et firmiter obligari Ricardo Cosin, generoso, et Roberto 
 Warmstry, notario publico, in quadraginta libris bone et legalis unonete 
 Anglie solvendis eisdeni Ricardo et Roberto, heredibus, exeeutoribiis vel 
 assignatis suis, ad quam quidem solucionem bene et fideliter faciendain 
 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 regui domine nostre Elizabethe, 
 Dei gratia Anglie, Francie et Hibernie regine, fidei defeusoris, 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 meaiies whatsoever, but that
 
 Pact and Fiction about Shakespeare 23 
 
 The date of this bond (given in anticii)ation of 
 the marriage) is the 28th of November, 1582, when 
 Shakespeare was only eigliteen years of age. And 
 unless a precontract of marriage were entered into 
 before this period (a course sometimes taken in those Bond of Marriage, 
 times by young and ardent lovers, and almost as 
 binding as marriage) it is open to supposition that 
 the union of William Shakespeare and Anne 
 Hathaway was hastened by circumstances and 
 dictated by motives of honour. 
 
 The maiTiage, in accordance with general practice, 
 would be celebrated a few days after the execution 
 of the bond— at the beginning of December. Now 
 a reference to the facsimile of the Stratford register 
 at the end of this volume will show that the first 
 child, Susanna, was baptized on Sunday, May the ^^^^^ ^^ susanna. 
 26th, of the following year. That the marriage was 
 
 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 reniaine and continew like man ivnd 
 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, ecclesiasticall or temporall, for and 
 concerning any suche lawfuU lett or impediment ; and, moreover, if the 
 said William Shagepere do not proceed to solemnizacion of mariadg with 
 the said Anne Hathwey without the consent of hir frindes ; and, also, if 
 the said William do, upon his owne proper costes and expenses, defend and 
 save harndes tiie right reverend Pather in God, Lord John Bushop of 
 Worcester, and ids offycers, for licencing them, the said M^illiam and 
 Anne, to be maried together with once asking of the bannes of matrimony 
 betwene thejn, and for all other causes wliicii 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.
 
 24 Fact and Fiction about Shakespeare 
 
 not one of lasting" affection is tolerably clear, for 
 about three years after his union with Anne 
 Hathaway, and shortly after the baptism of his twin 
 children, Hamnet and Judith, the poet left Strat- 
 ford, and took that important step in his life which 
 ultimately gave to England her greatest dramatist. 
 
 ^H'^vnA^ 
 
 b^ 
 
 Whether the departure of William Shakespeare 
 
 from his native town was hastened by the rancom* 
 
 of Sir Thomas Lucy, of Charlecote Hall, who, in 
 
 Deer 'poaching 1585, had the cliargc of a bill in Parliament " for the 
 
 preservation of grain and game," and who might 
 
 incident.
 
 w 

 
 Fact and Fiction about Shakespeare 25 
 
 have rigorously pursued Shakesj^eare for his youthful 
 frolic of deer poaching, is at least open to doubt. 
 This species of poaching ^Yas not confined to men of 
 Shakespeare's class. The same form of depredation 
 was practised by the students of the Universities, 
 and Dr. Forman relates how two students in 1573 
 — one of them, John Thomborough, aged 21, 
 afterwards Bishop of Worcester — "never studied, 
 nor gave themselves to their books, but to go to 
 schools of defence, to the dancing schools, to 
 steal deer and conies" — which goes far to prove 
 that poaching deer was not then considered to be a 
 very heinous crime.* 
 
 That Shakesj^eare had received some affront from 
 Sir T'homas Lucy is clearly shown by his satirical ^''^lucv"'^^ 
 references to him in the character of Justice Shallow 
 in the "Merry Wives of Windsor;" but that he 
 composed the doggerel verses first publislied by 
 
 * Contemporary evidence proves that the gravity of tlic offence was 
 lessened when tlie youthful offenders were of good social position, and 
 from the following extract it would seem that to poach deer for sport was 
 considered to be a " ril)baud in tlie cap of youth," and not a rcpreliensible 
 crime. 
 
 " Some colts, wild youngsters, that ne'er broken were, 
 Hold it a doughty deed to steal a deare ; 
 If cleanly they come off, tliey feast anon, 
 And say their pray is good fat venison ; 
 If otherwise I)}' t!iem it doth ajjpeare 
 Tluit that whicli they liave stoUen then is deare." 
 
 " Wits Bedlam," 1G17. 
 
 Shakespeare and 
 ■ Thoi 
 Lucy.
 
 26 Fact and Fiction about Shakespeare 
 
 Steevens in 1778 from Olclys' MS., and 
 commencing- 
 
 " A Parliament Member, a Justice of Peace, 
 At home a poor Scarecrow, in London an Ass," 
 
 and affixed them to the gates of Charlecote Park, is 
 not worthy of credence. 
 
 Whetlier it was this poaching business or the 
 poverty of his father, or the fact that he had tired 
 of matrimonial Hfe, which necessitated liis departure 
 from the borough, the evidence is perfectly clear 
 that he left Stratford about this period. 'J'here is 
 yet another circumstance which may have conduced 
 to his hasty dej^arture from his native town. This 
 was the re-appearance in Stratford of the company 
 of i^layers under the Burbages. They had been 
 acting at the Hall of the Guild, and Shakespeare, 
 who must have been on terms of intimacy with 
 those members of the company who were his 
 ^^stiatford°"^ townsmen and who had often experienced his 
 father's hosj^itality and patronage when Bailiff of 
 Stratford, may have taken this opportunity of em- 
 bracing a 2^rofession which he loved, and for which 
 after events proved him to be so eminently fitted. 
 It must always be remembered that Shakespeare 
 commenced liis theatrical career as an actor, and it 
 was not till he had made some progress in the art of
 
 Fact and Fiction about Shak€S2icarc 27 
 
 acting that we hear of him as a dramatist. Nothing 
 is accurately kno^\Ti of Sliakesi)care's movements 
 from 1587 till 1592, but there is evidence 
 that within this period Burbage and his company 
 were travelling on the Continent, playing before 
 Kings, Grand Dukes, Princes, and burgomasters, 
 and that they sojourned for some time in Denmark, 
 where they saw in the flesh two gentlemen of that 
 court, named Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. The 
 signatures of these gentlemen, wi'itten side by side, 
 are preserved in an autograph album which belonged 
 in 1577 to Duke Frederick the First of Wurtem- 
 bm'g, and which is still treasured in the Royal 
 Public Library at Stuttgart. Rosencrantz and 
 Guildenstern were tlien in attendance upon their 
 royal master, Frederick the Second, who, before 
 and after 1587, distinguished himself by entertain- 
 ing the Earl of Leicester's players under Richard companyfbroad. 
 Burbage. 
 
 If Shakespeare were a member of Burbage' s 
 company of players when they sought for 
 reputation abroad, it would very natm^ally account 
 for nmch of his acquaintance with the customs of 
 foreign com'ts ; and the fact that both Rosencrantz 
 and Guildenstern were members of the Danish 
 Com*t at the period of Burbage' s visit goes far to
 
 28 Fact and Fiction about Shakespeare 
 
 show that Shakes^^eare was aware of the 
 circumstance when, later, he wrote his play of 
 ''Hamlet." 
 
 Much that is conjectural has been written about 
 Shakespeare's first employment on the stage. If 
 we consider the terms of intimacy that must have 
 existed between James Burbage and his patron, 
 John Shakespeare, and that later we find William 
 Shakespeare associated in the management of play- 
 ''^'ou the stage?"*" liouscs witli Eicliard and Cuthbert Burbage, it is 
 hardly credible that the youthful poet held or 
 tended horses for his daily bread when he left 
 Stratford and settled in London. Other young 
 men, with far less natural ability than Shakespeare 
 must have possessed, and without the advantage of 
 influential actor-friends, have left their homes and 
 joined theatrical companies. There are several 
 players of repute in London who began in this way. 
 In every case the procedure was exactly the same. 
 They were admitted as members of the company 
 either as supernumeraries or as "general utility," 
 to play small parts, and in some cases to "hold the 
 book," or, using a less technical phrase, " to 
 prompt." 
 
 Sometimes a clever lad will commence his stage 
 career as a " call boy," and by promotion reach the
 
 Fact and Fiction about Shakespeare 29 
 
 post of ''j^^omptci'," and at last the coveted position 
 of actor. 
 
 That this procedure is of very ancient date there 
 is ample proof, for Downes, the prompter, writing 
 in 1710, observes, '' I have knoAvn men A\dthin my 
 remembrance arnve to the highest dignities of the 
 theatre who made their entrance in the qualities 
 of mutes, joint-stools, flower pots, and tapestry Downes's record, 
 hangings," and it is more than probable that he had 
 heard from men who had acted under Sir William 
 Davenant, and who knew the facts as related by 
 the poet's godson, that Shakespeare's first appear- 
 ance upon the stage was in some such subordinate 
 capacity. 
 
 But in whatever capacity Shakespeare first 
 appeared upon the stage his dramatic instinct and 
 the constant practice in the round of parts he 
 would be compelled to enact would soon show to 
 exj)ert actors that he was far above the average 
 tyro in ability. 
 
 Indeed, we have e\T[dence that he had made in 
 1592 some position both as a player and as a play- 
 wi'ight. 
 
 The e\ddence that I am about to adduce is well 
 known, but its importance in tracing the career of 
 the great di*amatic poet cannot be over-rated. On
 
 30 
 
 Fact and Fiction about Shahes2oeare 
 
 Robert Green's 
 attack. 
 
 the 3rd of September, 1592, died Robert Greene, 
 who had, for the nine years immediately preceding 
 his death, been a wi-iter for the stage. He seems 
 
 "Greene in Conceipte." 
 
 Title page of a pamphlet, " Greene in Conceipte." 
 
 to have fallen into disrej^ute as a dramatist, and 
 just before he died he gave vent to his dis- 
 appointment in a little work entitled "Greene's 
 Groat's- worth of Wit, bought with a Million of 
 Repentaunce . . . written before his death, and 
 published at his dying request." He first entreats
 
 Fact and Fiction about Shakespeare 31 
 
 Christopher Marlowe, '' the famous gi-acer of 
 tragedians," to turn from his atlicistical ways, and 
 use his wit for the glorification of the Giver of all. 
 " Defer not, with me, till this last point of extremitie; 
 for little knowest thou how in the end thou shalt 
 be ^dsited."* And Marlowe's death, some two years 
 later, was tragical enough. Then he goes on: 
 "Base-minded men al three of j^ou" (Marlowe, 
 Nash, Peele) "if by my miserie ye be not warned; 
 for unto none of you, like me, sought those buiTes 
 to cleave ; those puppits, I meane, that speake 
 from our mouths, those anticks, garnisht in our 
 colours. . . . Yes, trust them not ; for there is an 
 
 * " Greenes Groats-trorth of Wit, bouyht with a .Million of Repentaunce. 
 Describing the foUie of youth, the falshoode of make-ahift flatterers, the 
 iniaerie of the negligent, and mischiefe-s of deceining Courtezans. Wintten 
 before his death and jynhlishtd at his dying request. — Fielice.m fuisse. 
 infausfnni. — London, — Printed by Thomas Creede, for Richard Oliue, 
 direlliiig in. long Lane." Originally jmtili'ihed in 1592. The writer's 
 address — " To those Gentlemen, his Quondam acquaintance, that spend their 
 wits in making Plaies, R. G. wisheth a better exercise, and wisdome to 
 preuent hia extremities." 
 
 If wofull expeiieuce may iiioove you gentlemen, to beware, or unheard 
 of wretclieilnes intreate you to take heed, I doubt not but 3'ou will looke 
 backe with sorrow on your time past, and endevour \\itli repentance to 
 spend that wliich is to come. Wonder not, for with thee wil I first begin, 
 thou famous gracer of trage<lians, that (ireene, who hath said with thee, 
 like the foole in his lieart, there is no (iod, should now give glorie unto 
 His greatnesse ; for penitrating is His powei-. His hand lies heavie upon 
 me, He hath spoken unto me witii a voice of thunder, and I have felt He 
 is a Cod that can punish enimies. ^Vhy should thy excellent wit, His 
 gift, be so blinded, that thou shouldst give no glorj' to the giver? Is it 
 pestilent Machivilian pollicie that tliou iiast studied? O punish foUie ! 
 What are Ids rules but meere confused mockeries, able to extirpate in 
 .small time the generation of mankindc. For if sir volo, sic juln-o, liold in 
 those that are able to connnand ; and if it be lawfull, /h-s- et ntfas, to doe 
 anything that is beneficiall, onely tyrants should possesse the earth ; and
 
 32 Fact and Fiction about Shakespeare 
 
 upstart crow beautified with our feathers, that, 
 with 'his Tygers heart wTapt in a Players 
 hide,' supjioses 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." 
 
 This is a most significant reference to 
 
 Shakespeare, for it points out in unmistakeable 
 
 terms that in 1592 the young actor dramatist had 
 
 Evidence of arrived at a position of some eminence. It also 
 
 Snakespeaies a 
 
 Progress. gocs, iu a gTcat mcasurc, to prove that at least one 
 of Shakespeare's plays was well known at that 
 j^eriod. 
 
 they, striving to exceeds in tyranny, should each to other bee a slaughter- 
 man ; till the niiglitiest outliving all, one stroke were left for death, that 
 in one age mans life should ende. Tlie brother of this diabolioall atlieisme 
 is dead, and in his life had never tiie felicitie he aimed at ; but as he began 
 in craft, lived in feare, and ended in despaire. (Jnnin iii-'icnitahilia .sunt 
 Dei jiidicia ? This murderer of many bretliren liad his conscience seared 
 like Caine ; tliis betra3'er of him that gave his life for him inherited the 
 portion of Judas ; this apostata perished as ill as Julian: and wilt tliou, 
 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 wilfuU striving against 
 knowne trutli exceedeth al the terrors of my soule. Defer not, with me, 
 till this last point of extreuiitie ; for little knowest thou how in the end 
 thou shalt be visited. 
 
 With thee I joyne young Juvenall, that byting satyrist tliat lastlie with 
 mee together writ a comedie. Sweete boy, might I advise thee, be 
 advised, and get not many enemies by bitter words ; inveigh against value 
 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 iuferiour ; driven (as myselfe) to extreanie shifts ; a little have I
 
 Fact and Fiction about Shakespeare 33 
 
 When Greene alluded to Shakespeare as liavin<^ 
 "a Tygers heart wrapt in a players hide," he 
 did so, conscious of the fact that a similar line had 
 been spoken (doubtless Avitli considerable effect) 
 in one of Shakespeare's dramas, and that a parody 
 of it would stin<^ more poignantly. The line 
 Greene satiiises is that spoken by the Duke 
 of York in the fourth scene of the first 
 act of the third part of "Henry VI."; "0 tiger's ThoPiayof 
 heart wrapped in a woman's hide ! " And a close ^"""^^ 
 
 examination of this and the two other parts of 
 " Henry VI." will show that there is more of 
 what we might reasonably expect to find in an 
 
 to say to thee ; and were it not an idolatrous olli, I would sweare by 
 sweet S. George thou art iinwortiiie better hap, sith thou dependest on so 
 nieane a stay. Base minded men al three of you, if Ijy my niiserie ye be 
 not warned ; for unto none of you, lilie me, sought those liurres 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 wliome tliey all have been 
 beholding, siiall, were ye in that case that I am now, be both at once of 
 tiiem forsaken ? Yes, trust them not ; for tiiere is an upstart crow, 
 beautified witii our featiiers, that, with his Ty<jers heart irrapt in a 
 Players Jiide, supposes lie 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 acountrie. Othat I might intreate 
 your rare wits to be imployed in more profitable courses, ami let those 
 apes imitate your past excellence, and never more acquaint them with 
 your admired inventions ! I know the best husband of j'ou all will never 
 prove an usurer, and the kindest of them all wil never proove a kinde 
 nurse ; yet, \\hilst you may, seeke you better niaisters, for it is pittie men 
 of such rare wits should be subject to the pleasures of sucli rude groomes. 
 In this I might insert two tnore, that both have writ against these 
 buckram gentlemen ; but let their owne works serve to wituesse against 
 their owne wickednesse, if they persever to maintaine any more such 
 peasants. For other new coniuiers, I leave them to the mercie of these
 
 Local topograpbj'. 
 
 34 Fact and Fiction about Shakcsjjcare 
 
 early Shakespeare play than in any other of his 
 works. 
 
 In the third part of this historical play the 
 Warwickshire country is often selected as the scene 
 of action, and a passage goes to show that the 
 writer was acquainted mtli the topography of the 
 neighbourhood. In Act v., Scene 1 (which is laid 
 at Coventry) we have references to adjacent 
 villages ; and one, Southani, on the Coventry-road, 
 within a few miles of Stratford, must have been 
 known to Shakespeare. 
 
 Then, there are in this play other evidences of 
 the early impressions of the author, and frequent 
 references to his fonner occu2:)ation. Indeed, there 
 
 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 harmess 
 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 e<jual unto beasts. Flie lust, as tlie deathsnian of 
 the soule, and defile not the temple of the Holy Ghost. Abhorre those 
 epicures, whose loose life hath made religion lothsoine to your ears ; and 
 when they sooth you with tearmes of maistership, remember Robert 
 Greene, whome they have often so flatteretl, 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 extinguislit, 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 tire of my light is now at the last snuffe, and the 
 want of wherewith to sustain it ; tliere is no substance left for life to feede 
 on. Trust not then, I beseech 3'ee, to such weake stales ; for tliey 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. — 
 Dem'oud that you should live, though himself e he dying. — Robert Greene.
 
 Fact and Fiction about Shakespeare 35 
 
 are more allusions to the trade of butcher than 
 are to be found in any of his later works. Such 
 sufrerestive similes as Hamlet's line " There's 
 a divinity that shapes our ends, rough liew them 
 how we will,"* and Rosalind's remark, " I mil take 
 upon me to wash your liver as clean as a sound 
 sheep's heart, "t are comparatively rare, and miglit 
 have emanated from one not practically familiar 
 with the nice uses of the trade; but in ''Henry 
 VI." the allusions are brought in with frequency, 
 and point to a far more expert knowledge. I 
 instance the f ollomng : — 
 
 " And as the butcher takes away the calf, 
 
 And binds the wretch, and beats it when it strays, 
 
 Bearing it to the bloody slaughter house ; References 
 
 Even so remorseless, have they borne him hence. *^° B*'tch^*^ 
 
 .... the dam runs lowing up and down, 
 
 Looking the way her harmless young one went,"J 
 and this — 
 
 " Who finds the heifer dead, and bleeding fresh, 
 
 And sees fast by a butcher with an axe, 
 
 But will suspect 'twas he that made the slaughter ? "§ 
 
 and these — 
 
 "Then is sin struck down like an ox, and iniquity's throat cut 
 like a calf/'l| 
 
 * Hamlet, Act V,, Scene 2. 
 
 t As You Like It, Act III., Scene 2. 
 
 + Henry VI. (Second Part), Act III., Scene 1. 
 
 § Henry VI. (Second Part), Act III., Scene 2. 
 
 II Henry VI. (Second Part), Act IV., Sqene 2.
 
 36 Fact and Fiction about Shakespeare 
 
 " He shall have the skins of our enemies to make dog's leather 
 
 of."* 
 " Is not this a lamentable thing that of the skin of an innocent 
 
 lamb should be made parchment? "f 
 " They fell before thee like sheep and oxen, and thou behaved'st 
 thyself as if thou had'st been in thine own slaughter- 
 house "J 
 
 ' ' So flies the reckless shepherd from the wolf, 
 So first the harmless sheep doth yield his fleece. 
 And next his throat unto the butcher's knife." § — 
 
 and many other examples. 
 
 In "Henry VI.," too, Shakespeare is full of his 
 
 youthful impressions. Thus he speaks, through the 
 
 mouth of Cade, of the prejudice of the ignorant 
 
 against learning : — 
 
 '• Thou hast most traitorously corrupted the youth of the realm, 
 in creating a Grammar School : and whereas, before, our 
 forefathers Jiad no other books, but the score and the tally, 
 thou hast printing to be used and, contrary to the King, his 
 crown and dignity, thou hast built a paper mill,"|| 
 
 In the person of Lord Say, however, Shakespeare 
 rebukes the ignorant, speaking thus — 
 
 "And seeing ignorance is the curse of God, 
 Knowledge the wing wherewith we fly to Heaven."^ — 
 
 The whole atmosphere of this play is almost 
 
 rural ; we have no pictures of taverns and dis- 
 
 * Henry VI. (Second Part), Act IV., Scene 2. 
 t Henry VI. (Second Part), Act IV., Scene 2. 
 J Henry VI. (Second Part), Act IV., Scene 3. 
 § Henry VI. (Third Part), Act V., Scene 6. 
 II Henry VI. (Second Part), Act IV., Scene 7. 
 IF Henry VI. (Second Part), Act IV., Scene 7.
 
 Fact and Fiction about Shakespeare 37 
 
 reputable houses — no creations of London growth 
 such as Falstaff and his companions. The 
 
 The 
 
 Londoners who do appear might well have been atmosphere of 
 
 btratiord citizens. And we must remember that 
 
 in 1592 Shakespeare was only 28 years of age, and 
 
 had been resident but a short time in London. In 
 
 after years, when he penned his masterpieces, he 
 
 never drew a more beautiful picture of rural life 
 
 than that which he puts into the mouth of King 
 
 Henry VL 
 
 " Alas ! metliinlcs it -were a happy life, 
 To be no better tlian a liomoly swain ; 
 To sit upon a hill, as I do now, 
 To carve out dials quaintly, point by point, 
 Thereby to see the minutes how they run : 
 
 When this is known, then to divide the times : 
 
 So many days my ewes have boon with young ; 
 
 So many weeks ere the poor fools will yean ; 
 
 So many months ere I shall shear the fleece : 
 
 So many minutes, hours, weeks, months, and years, 
 
 Pass'd over to the end they were created. 
 
 Would bring white hairs unto a quiet grave. 
 
 Ah ! what a life were this ! how sweet ! how lovely ! 
 
 Gives not the hawthorn bush a sweeter shade 
 
 To shepherds looking on their silly sheep, 
 
 Than doth a rich embroidered canopy 
 
 To Kings, that fear their subjects' treachery ? 
 
 yes, it doth : a thousand fold it doth.
 
 38 Fact and Fiction about Shakespeare 
 
 And to conclude, — the shepherd's homely curds, 
 
 His cold thin drink out of his leathern bottle, 
 
 His wonted sleep under a fresh tree's shade, 
 
 All which secure and sweetly he enjoys, 
 
 Is far beyond a prince's delicates, 
 
 His viands sparkling in a golden cup, 
 
 His body couched in a curious bod, 
 
 When care, mistrust, and treasons wait on him."* 
 
 The evidence in " Henry VI." is, I think, suffi- 
 cient to point out, with some certainty, that it was 
 among Shakespeare's earliest successfully acted 
 works. Greene would not have written of him 
 80 bitterly if he had been unsuccessful. It was 
 ^"^'''auaci?'^''™''''^^* ^ common event for the player to turn play- 
 wright ; and Shakespeare had, doubtless, indirectly 
 been the cause of Greene's want of employment. 
 Were Shakespeare living now, public opinion 
 would, doubtless, oblige him to call many of his 
 early plays adaptations, but in Shakespeare's time 
 it was not considered dishonest for one dramatist 
 to appropriate without acknowledgment the plot 
 and dialogue of another. The ethics of plagiarism 
 seem not to have troubled any of the Eliza- 
 bethan dramatists — and, least of all, Shakespeare. 
 In his play of '' Henry VI." whole passages are 
 freely introduced from another play upon the same 
 
 • Henry VI. (Third Part), Act II., Scene 5.
 
 Fact and Fiction about Shakespeare. 39 
 
 subject, printed in 1594 and 1595, entitled " The 
 Contention of the Two Famous Houses of York 
 and Lancaster," and '' The True Tragedy of 
 Richard Duke of York and the Good King 
 Henry VI., with the whole Contention between 
 the Two Houses of York and Lancaster." I give 
 one example. King Henry, in the " Whole 
 Contention," says to the dying Cardinal Beaufort — 
 
 " Lord Cardinal, if thou diest assured of Heavenly bliss, Shakosixare's 
 
 Hold up thy hand and make some sign to me. Plagiarisms, 
 
 \_T/ie Cardinal dies. 
 0, see, he dies, and makes no sign at all ! 
 God forgive his soul " ! 
 
 In Shakespeare's "Henry VI." (Second Part, 
 Act III., Scene 3) it is rendered thus — 
 
 Kinff. " Peace to his soul, if God's good pleasure be ! 
 Lord Cardinal, if thou thinkst on Heaven's bliss, 
 Hold up thy hand, make signal of thy hope. — 
 He dies and makes no sign ; God, forgive him ! '' 
 
 It was this appropriation of another's ideas that 
 led Robert Greene to stigmatize Shakespeare as 
 "an upstart crow beautified with our feathers ; " 
 and had Greene lived to see the bard of Avon use 
 the story — and even some of the dialogue — of his 
 novel, " Pandosto, or the Triumph of Time," for 
 the building up of *' The Winter's Tale," he would.
 
 40 Fact and Fiction about Shakespeare 
 
 doubtless, have been more satirical and bitter in 
 his denunciation of our poet than he was.* 
 
 * Shakespeare's power of absorbing and assimilating tlie material lie 
 found in plays, chronicles, and romances, was marvellous. He not only 
 "gathei'ed humours" wherever he went, but he borrowed suggestive 
 matter from every source. Speaking of the poet's receptivity, Sir Benjamin 
 W. Richardson lately delivered himself as follows: — "There had often 
 been attempts to make Shakespeare more tiian mortal. That had been a 
 great mistake. When they heard him spoken of as a kind of divine being 
 he was conceived of wrongly ; but when they considered his power as a 
 receptive being then they understood his greatness. All tlie otherwise in- 
 explicable mysteries of his works were explained when they studied him in 
 his surroundings and those incidents of his daily life which he seized and 
 utilised as he did the crude plays of his time, transmuting them into tlie 
 splendid forms of truth, fancy, humour, wit, he alone could remler. His 
 sphere of action was limited, and his movements about the world were 
 also limited. There were no proofs in his works of extensive travel, and 
 even his description of the cliflfs at Dover might have been gathered from 
 reading instead of actual sight. His receptive power, in all that came 
 before him, was unbounded, and that explained all. A distinguished 
 physician, who was an idolater of Shakespeare, once confronted the 
 speaker with what he thought to be an unanswerable argument in favour 
 of the poet's supernatural gifts. In ' Twelfth Night,' the poet refers to 
 the most refined membrane of the human brain, the feeding membrane 
 which directly envelopes the brain and supplies it with blood, the jjia 
 mater. How could Shakespeare know of that ? He was not an anatomist. 
 But there lived a contemporary of his named Helkiah Crookes, who pub- 
 lished a book of anatomy, illustrated with plates, showing and naming all 
 the membranes of tiie brain. The book was printed by Jaggard, living in 
 the Barbican, who was also the printer of the Shakespeare Sonnets, and 
 the poet, who lived near, nmst often have seen a work which was for some 
 years on hand, and would illustrate anatomy most fully to him. Shake- 
 speare discussed religious subjects — as the doctrine of free will and free 
 grace — and what, it was asked, could he who was not a theologian know of 
 such a matter? There was no mystery. In Shakespeare's time the 
 learned Lewis Molina iiad brought out a noted work in which lie 
 endeavoured to reconcile the two doctrines. The book would be the talk 
 of all reading men ; and anyone who would study the poet by this light 
 would see how a mind like his would be influenced by the controversy. 
 There were other books also open to him. Tlie sketches of the eml)lema- 
 tists, who figured many things, the girdle round the earth, the ages of 
 man, the dog baying the moon, the man blown up by his own petard, 
 were sketches sure to be seen and utilised by him. The moral philosophy 
 of Shakespeare had been much dwelt upon as more than human, but he 
 (the speaker) lield in his hand a volume, ' A Treatise of Moral Philosophy, 
 containing the sayings of the wise,' published by William Baudwin and
 
 Fact and Fiction about Shakespeare 41 
 
 Greene's bitter attack upon Shakespeare, how- 
 ever, was not left long unanswered, for Henry 
 Chettle, who liad edited the "Groats-worth of 
 Wit," made some amends for that act by the 
 publication, a few months after Greene's deatli, of 
 a work entitled " Kind-Harts Dreame," in the 
 preface to which he wrote as follows : 
 
 ''About three moneths since died M. Robert chettie's apology. 
 Greene, leaving many papers in sundry bookesellers' 
 hands, among other his ' Groatsworth of Wit,' in 
 which a letter, written to divers play-makers, is 
 offensively by one or tAvo of them taken. . . . 
 With neither of them that take offence was I 
 acquainted, and with one of them" (meaning 
 Marlowe) "I care not if I never be. The other, 
 whome at that time I did not so much spare as 
 since I wish 1 had, for that, as I have moderated 
 the lieate of living writers, and might have usde 
 my owne discretion, — especially in such a case, 
 
 enlarged by Thomas Paulfreyman, one of the gentlemen of Queen 
 Elizabeth's chapel, published in its fourtli edition in 1590. In that book 
 were sayings arranged under different heads — justice, virtue, trutii, duty, 
 and so on — from which Shakespeare must have enriched himself, taking 
 sometimes, in effect, sayings almost literally, but clothing them in his own 
 matciiless words, as in the passage, ' Cowards die many times before their 
 deaths,' and in the dialogue between Polonius and Laertes, which could be 
 traced out from quotations on the same page by Plutarch and anotlier 
 ancient authority. These things ids perceptive mind would seize upon as 
 it did on those crude plays of his time which he translated into the 
 splendid coin of his realm of truth and fancy."
 
 42 Fact and Fiction about Shalccspeare 
 
 the author beeing dead, — that I did not I am as 
 sory as if the originall fault had beciic my fault, 
 because myselfe have secne his demeanor no lesse 
 civill, than he exelent in the qualitie he professes ; 
 — besides, divers of worship have reported his 
 uprightnes of dealing, which argues his honesty, 
 and his facetious grace in writing, that aprooves 
 his art."* 
 
 This is a very handsome tribute to the genius 
 and integrity of Shakespeare, and clearly shows 
 RepuEn.^ the estimation he was held in at that period, 1592, 
 both as a player and a playwright. 
 
 Before proceeding further with the record of 
 William Shakespeare's work, it may not be un- 
 interesting if I give a few particulars respecting 
 
 * Preface to *^ Kind- Harts Dreame." Entered at Stationer's Hall, 
 December the 8th, 1592, by H. C. 
 
 To (he Oenthmen Readers. — It liath beene a custoine, gentlemen, in my 
 mind commendable, among former authors, whose workes are no less beauti- 
 fied 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 daies, wherein that gravitie of 
 enditing by the elder exercised is not observed, 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 
 been before said, the singularite of some mens conceits, otherways exellent 
 well deserving, are no more to be soothed than tiie peremptorie posies of 
 two very sufficient translators commended. To come in print is not to 
 seeke praise, but to crave pardon ; I am urged to tlie one, and bold to 
 begge the other ; he that offendes, being forst, is more excusable than the 
 willful faidtie ; 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 booksellers hands, among other his Groatsworth of
 
 Fact and Fiction about Shakespeare 43 
 
 the playhouse and stage customs as they existed at 
 this date. I wish that I could state with certainty 
 at which theatre Shakespeare first appeared. But 
 no reliable evidence on that point is forthcoming. 
 When Shakespeare made his earliest essays at 
 acting in London there were only three regular 
 theatres. These were ^' The Rose," on the south 
 of the Thames, directed by Philip Henslowe, 
 ''The Theatre," and the "Curtain," managed 
 by James Burbage. The two last-named play- 
 houses were situated in the parish of Shore- 
 ditch, in the fields of the Liberty of Halliwell 
 (or Holywell), which was then very like a country TheatrJJ 
 village on the outskirts of the city. Not till 1600 
 was the Globe playhouse built. The materials of 
 
 Wit, in which a letter, written to divers play-makers, is oft'ensively by one 
 or two of them taken ; and because on tlie 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 tlic time 
 of my oonversing in printing hindred the bitter invejing against scliollera, 
 it hath been very well knowne ; and how in that I dealt, I can sutliciently 
 proove. With neither of tliem that take offence was I acquainted, and 
 with one of them I care not if I never be. The other, wliome 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 autlior beeing dead, — that I did not I am as 
 sory as if the originall fault had bcene my fault, because myselfe liave 
 scene his ilemeanor no lesse civill, than lie exelent in the qualitie he 
 professes ; besides, divers of worship have reported his uprightnes of 
 dealing, which argues his lionesty, and his facetious grace in writting, tliat 
 aprooves his art. For the first, whose learning I reverence, and, at the 
 perusing of (ireenes booke, stroke out wliat then in conscience I thought 
 he in some displeasure writ ; or, iiad it bcene true, yet to publisli it was 
 iutoUerable ; 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 Greene?
 
 44 Fact and Fiction about Shakespeare 
 
 the wooden structure erected by the Burbages in 
 Shoreditch (which had fallen into disuse in 1598) 
 were utilised in the erection of the Globe. The 
 continuator of Stowe mentions that there were 
 seventeen theatres built between 1570 and 1630, 
 and I may here state parenthetically that after 
 1600 as many as ten of these playhouses were open 
 at the same time, viz., the three private houses, 
 Whitefriars, Blackfriars, and Cockpit, and the 
 public theatres, Globe, Curtain, Red Bull, Fortime, 
 Swan, Hope, and the Rose. Computing from 
 Graunt's "observations on the bills of mortality" 
 Population of (1631), Loudon, at this period, contained about 
 London. 120,000 inhabitants. 
 
 The mode of conveyance to the Southwark 
 
 hand was none of the best ; licensed 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 1 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, 
 thougli 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 
 myself in print ; being as well to purge Master Nashe of tliat he did not, 
 as to justitie what I did, and withall to confirm what M. Greene did ; I 
 beseech yee accept the publike 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 tliat 
 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 here- 
 after to bee silent till I can present yee with something more acceptable, — 
 Henrit Chetth.
 
 ILON 
 
 -.1^ ^ aH-lU^ --i .11, Uj, ,11. Illll.lllll 

 
 DON ^ , 
 
 4 */i
 
 Fact and Fiction about Shakespeare 45 
 
 theatre was by water, and to the London theatres 
 at Shorcditch j)Uxygoers went on foot, on horse- 
 back, and in coaches. From Stowe we learn that 
 coaches were introduced into England in 1564, and 
 ''soon began a great trade of coach-making." 
 Indeed, the use of them shortly became so general 
 that in an order by the Corporation of the City of 
 London for the suppression of the Blackfriars 
 Theatre in 1618, occurs the following, "and so 
 great multitudes of coaches, whereof many are ^'xheaTrTwy*" 
 hackney coaches, bringing people of all sorts, that Coach, 
 
 sometimes all their streets cannot contain them, 
 that they endanger one the other." 
 
 As playgoers neared the theatre in the fields their 
 attention would be attracted to the bills of the 
 play, posted wherever they could best arrest the 
 eye. John Northbroke, in his treatise against 
 theatrical performances, printed about 1579, awy^: 
 ''They use to set up bills upon posts some 
 certain days before, to admonish people to make 
 resort to the theatre ; " and eight years afterwards 
 the court of assistants of the Stationers' Company r-iiis of tim Piny. 
 gave John Charlewood a license for the sole 
 printing of the "bills of the play." 
 
 Even at this early period of theatrical history 
 customs prevailed which have remained to this
 
 Rehearsals. 
 
 46 Fact and Fiction about Shakespeare 
 
 day. Take rehearsals as an example. The term 
 "rehearsal" was as well understood and as techni- 
 cally apj)lied before 1600 as at present. In the 
 articles between Henslowe, Meade, and Dawes, it is 
 provided that he (Dawes) " shall, and will, at all 
 times during the said term, duly attend all such 
 rehearsals, which shall, the night before the 
 rehearsal, be given publicly out" — just as at the 
 present time the notice of a rehearsal of a play is 
 posted in the hall near the stage door on what is 
 technically known as the "call board." 
 
 Arrived at the playhouse we find the hour of 
 commencing the play specifically stated on the 
 bill. That hour was three o'clock. The follow- 
 ing proclamation is made by an actor in 
 " Histriomastix " (1610): 
 
 " All that can sing and say 
 Come to the Town House and see a plaj'^ : 
 At three o'clock, it shall begin." 
 
 And in the articles between Henslowe, Meade, and 
 Dawes the player, it is expressly stipulated that 
 °piay^.*'^'' l^e shall be ready '' apparelled to begin the play at 
 the hour of three in the afternoon." 
 
 The price of admission to the best places in the 
 theatre, at this date, was a shilling; later, in 1616, 
 it became eighteen pence, and in 1620 the charge
 
 Pact and Fiction about Shakespeare 47 
 
 was increased to two shillings and half a crown. 
 The galleries and pit were sixpence at the best 
 theatres, and a pemiy and twopence in the meaner 
 playhouses. It must be remembered, however, 
 that the purchasing power of money in Shake- 
 speare's age was five times greater than at the 
 present day — a goose being obtainable for a shilling, 
 a chicken for fourpence, and a pound of beef, or 
 butter, for threepence — and in all monetary values 
 this ratio should be borne in mind. 
 
 Being admitted into the theatre, what do we find? 
 — a circular building fashioned something like the 
 courtyards of old inns, where theatrical entertain- 
 ments originally took place. The interior of this 
 building — except over the stage and galleries — 
 was open to the sky. The stage was erected in 
 the area, and was sometimes surrounded on three 
 sides by pales to keep off what Ben Jonson calls 
 "the understanding gentlemen of the ground," 
 and Shakespeare "the groundlings." These stood 
 up ; and in the side boxes and uj^on the stage (in 
 the private theatres) sat the people of quality. 
 The stage itself was strewn with rushes, tlie usual 
 covering for floors at this period, though on very 
 rare occasions it would be matted. The house, 
 when it became dark, was lighted by cressets, large 
 
 Prices of 
 Admission. 
 
 Tlie interior of 
 Thoatrt's.
 
 48 
 
 Fact and Piction about Shakespeare 
 
 '" f / 
 
 \\ T^X okii/LLiairLC Tubus i^ond^nemliiu^ 
 
 ij-o JianTu4^^ \vi£h 
 
 Interior of the Swan Theatre (1596) . 

 
 Fact and Fiction about Sha/cesjjcare. 49 
 
 open Icinterns, similar to those formerly fitted to tlie 
 poop of a ship. No curtains were lowered, 
 or drawn across the stage, to divide the acts of the 
 plays ; and it is cmious to note what ingenious 
 motives had to be invented by dramatists for carry- 
 ing; off the dead bodies of the characters killed in the 
 play. Before the action of a play could proceed 
 the wounded and dead (except at the end of a 
 piece) would have to be taken away; the dying 
 Mercutio, the dead Polonius, Marc Antony, 
 Roderigo, and Queen Katherine could not be left 
 to encumber the stage while another scene was in 
 progress. When tragedies were performed the 
 stage was hung with black, as is shown by the 
 following from the induction to a "Warning for 
 Fair Women," 1599: 
 
 " Look, Comeclie, I marked it not till uow, 
 The stage is hung Avith black, and I perceive 
 The auditors prepared for tragedy." 
 
 Scenery was then unknown; and Sir Philip g^^^^^y 
 Sidney, describing the stage in his time, says, 
 "Now you shall have three ladies walk to gather 
 flowers, and then we must believe the stage to be 
 a garden. By and by we have news of shipwreck 
 in the same place, then we are to blame if we 
 accept it not for a rock." And again, in his
 
 50 Fact and Fiction about Shakespeare 
 
 " Defence of Poesy," he says "what child is there 
 that coming to a play, and seeing Thebes written 
 upon an old door, doth believe that it is Thebes." 
 The back of tlie stage was sometimes Imng with 
 arras, or tapestry, or "painted clothes" as they 
 
 Interior of the Red Bull Theatre (1672).
 
 Fact and Fiction about Shakespeare 51 
 
 were then termed in the decoration of houses. 
 Machinery, such as trap doors and 0})cnings in the 
 stage, were known and used; but even these 
 accessories were of the rudest kind. 
 
 Although the play usually commenced at three 
 in the afternoon, and in broad daylight, the 
 players painted their faces to represent the ' Face, 
 different characters they assumed, much as they 
 do to-day. Shakespeare's Richard III. laments 
 that he was sent "into this breathing world scarce 
 half made up,"* but we may feel assured that 
 Burbage, when enacting that character, did not 
 appear so before his audience. Indeed, the custom 
 of " making up " the face for stage performances 
 goes back to an earlier period of English dramatic 
 history. It was shown by the accounts of the 
 Smith's Company in the Longridge MS., that in 
 1502 and 1548, twopence in the former year, and 
 fourpencc in the latter, were " paid to the painter 
 for painting the players faces." Of the costumes 
 worn by the performers we have ample evidence. 
 In Henslowe's diary (1597-1603) there is an 
 inventory of the dresses of the " Lord Admiral's 
 Servants," and it shows that in many cases they 
 were both ricli and costly. Among the lengthy 
 
 * King Ricliaid III., Act I., Scene 1.
 
 52 Fact and Fiction about Shakespeare 
 
 list are mentioned " an orange tawney satin 
 doublet, laid thick with gold lace, a blue taffeta 
 worn on the stage, siiit, an asli colourcd satin doublet, laid with gold, 
 a peach coloured doublet, and a pair of cloth of 
 gold hose, with silver pins." The value of these 
 and other dresses are given by Ilenslowe. He 
 appraises a doublet of white satin, laid thick with 
 gold lace, and a pair of ''rowne pandes " hose of 
 cloth of silver at £7. Nine other suits he values 
 at £37. Robert Greene introduces a player in 
 '' Groatsworth of Wit," who boasts that his share 
 in the stage apparel is worth more than £200. 
 
 The behaviour of the audience was not alto- 
 gether encouraging to sound dramatic performances. 
 The conduct of an audience when a new play was 
 produced is thus described by Ben Jonson in his 
 " Case is Altered," acted at the Blackfriars Theatre 
 about 1599: — " But the sport is at a new play to 
 observe the sway and variety of opinion that 
 passeth it. A man shall have such a confused 
 mixture of judgement poured out in the throng 
 there as ridiculous as laughter itself. One says he 
 likes not the writing, another likes not the plot, 
 another not the playing; and sometimes a fellow 
 that comes not there past once in five years, at a 
 parliament time, or so, will be as deep in censuring 
 as the best." 
 
 The Audience.
 
 Fact and Fiction about Shakespeare 53 
 
 The conduct of capricious gallants, on the 
 production of a new play, is thus noticed : — " They 
 have taken such a habit of dislike in all things that 
 they will approve nothing, be it never so conceited 
 or elaborate, but sit depressed, making faces, and Behaviour of ti>o 
 
 Uallauts. 
 
 spitting, wagging their upright cars, and cry 
 Filthy ! Filthy ! simply uttering their own con- 
 dition and using their wryed countenances, instead 
 of a vice to turn the good aspects of all that shall 
 sit near them from what they behold." Strangely 
 enough, a similar charge was brought against Ben 
 Jonson himself by Dekker in 1602. In his 
 '' Satiromastix " he says of Jonson " that he sat in 
 the gallery during the performance of his plays, 
 distorting his countenance at every line, to make 
 the gentlemen have an eye of him, and to make 
 players afraid to take his part " — that is afraid to 
 act the part assigned to them. The other charge 
 is in these terms: — " Besides you must foreswear 
 to venture on the stage when your play is ended, *^tiH> 1'^". " 
 and to exchange courtesies and compliments with 
 the gallants in the lords rooms, to make all the 
 house rise up in arms, and to cry ' that's Horace ! 
 that's he ! that's he ! that's ho that pens and purges 
 humours.' " Ben Jonson, in his '' Devil is an Ass," 
 played in 1616, touches upon the demeanour of
 
 54 
 
 Fact and Fiction about Shakespeare 
 
 Conduct of those 
 who sit on the 
 
 Stage. 
 
 Card playing, nut 
 
 cracking, and 
 
 smoking at the 
 
 Play. 
 
 the young men who used to sit upon the stage 
 
 and display their fine suits there. Fitzdottrell 
 
 tells his wife — 
 
 " Here is a cloak, cost fifty pounds, wife, 
 Which I can sell for tliirty, when I have seen 
 All London in it, and London has seen me. 
 To-day I go to the Black friar's playhouse. 
 Sit in the view, salute all my acquaintance : 
 Eise up between the acts, let fall my cloak, 
 Publish a handsome man, and a rich suit : 
 And that's a special end why we go thither. 
 All that pretend to stand for't on the stage : 
 The ladies ask, who's that '? for they do come 
 To see us love, as we do to see them." 
 
 The visitors used to amuse themselves with 
 reading, playing at cards, drinking, and smoking 
 during the performance. Dekker. in his "Gulls 
 Horn Book," 1619, tells his hero, whom he 
 supposes to be sitting on the stage, " before the 
 play begins fall to cards," and Stephen Gosson, in 
 his "School of Abuse," 1579, informs us that 
 young men of his day treated the ladies to 
 apples. Nut-cracking was also a favourite amuse- 
 ment of the lower class of spectators — "the vulgar 
 sort of nutcrackers who come for sight," as 
 Ben Jonson calls them. Sir John Davies and 
 Christopher Marlowe in their epigrams, printed 
 about 1598, speak of smoking as a "danger," and
 
 Fact and Fiction ahout Shakespeare 55 
 
 Ben Jonson in '' Bartholemcw Fair" (1614) talks 
 of those " who accommodate gentlemen with 
 tobacco at our theatres." 
 
 It was a common practice (as noted by Jonson, 
 Webster, Beamiiont, and Fletcher in their works) 
 for auditors as the play progressed to take down 
 jests and passages in their tablets or " table 
 books," as they were called, and often maimed and 
 corrupted copies of plays were then printed and 
 sold, to the manifest injury of the author and the 
 acting right of the players. Heywood, deploring 
 this custom, says in his " Pleasant Duologues and 
 Dramas " how plays are copied by the ear, observing 
 
 " That some by stenography drew 
 
 The plot, put it in print, scarce one word true." Unautliorised 
 
 priutmg of Plays. 
 
 He further says in the prefatory matter to his 
 ''English Traveller" (1633): ''True it is that my 
 plays are not exposed unto the world in volumes 
 to bear the titles of works, as others ; one reason is 
 that many of them, by shifting and change of 
 companies, have been negligently lost ; others of 
 them are still retained in the hands of some actors, 
 who think it against their peculiar profit to have 
 them come to print." 
 
 Marston, in his preface to the " Malcontent," 
 1604, says: "one thing only affects me; to think
 
 56 Fact and Fiction about Shakespeare 
 
 Plays common 
 Property. 
 
 Venus and Adonis. 
 
 that scenes, invented merely to be spoken, should 
 be inforcively published to be read." 
 
 So strongly was this species of theft felt to be 
 injurious, and so impossible was it to invoke the 
 law for the protection of that which was not then 
 considered to be a property, that Henslowe, in his 
 diary, records the fact that he '' lent unto Robert 
 Shaw, the 18tli of March, 1599, to give unto the 
 printer to stay the printing of ' Patient Grissel ' 
 40 shillings." 
 
 There are many other interesting facts relating 
 to the stage at this period, but I fear that I have 
 already deviated too far from the " direct forth- 
 right " of my theme. I shall, however, later, touch 
 upon the emolument of author and actor, and 
 other points of theatrical interest, as they better 
 exemplify the life of our poet and his companions. 
 
 After Chettle's tribute to Shakespeare in his 
 "Kind Hart's Dreame" in 1592, we find the 
 dramatist making a bid for fame in work un- 
 connected with the stage. I refer to his poem of 
 "Venus and Adonis," published by his friend, 
 Richard Field (the son of the Stratford tanner, 
 Henry Field) in 1593, and dedicated to the Earl 
 of Southampton.
 
 Fact and Fiction about Shakespeare 57 
 
 As this dedication is the first iindramatic prose 
 composition of the poet known to exist, a study of 
 it may not be miinteresting : — " Right Honom-able, 
 I know not liow I shall offend in dedicating my 
 unpolisht lines to yom- Lordship, nor how the 
 worlde will censure mee for choosing so strong a 
 proppe to support so weake a burthen, onelye if your 
 Honour seeme but pleased, I account myself e highly Dedicatiun to thu 
 praised, and vowe to take advantage of all idle Southampton. 
 lioures, till I have honoured you with some graver 
 labour. But if the first heire of my invention prove 
 deformed, I shall be sorie it had so noble a god- 
 father : and never after eare so barren a land, for 
 feare it yeeld me still so bad a harvest. I leave it 
 to your Honoui-able sm'vey, and your Honor to 
 yom- hearts content; which I wish may alwaies 
 answere your owne msli, and the worlds hopefull 
 expectation. Your Honors in all dutie, William 
 Shakespeare." 
 
 It wdll be observed that one phrase in the 
 dedication has a special importance, for Shakespeare 
 definitively states therein that the poem of " Venus 
 and Adonis " is the first heii- of his invention. If The first hiir of 
 
 his luveutiou. 
 
 that were so the poem must have been composed 
 between the years 1587 and 1592, before he 
 became kno\\ai as a waiter for the stage; and
 
 58 Fact and Fiction about Shakespeare 
 
 judging from internal evidence there is notliing 
 to preclude the possibility of this. The descrip- 
 tions of the chase are gTaj)hic and picturesque, such 
 as one might reasonably expect from a poet who 
 had lived all his younger days in the comitry, and 
 had thus acquired a special knowledge of hounds 
 and horses. The following description of the good 
 23oints of a horse in the fiftieth verse has never been 
 surpassed : — 
 
 " Eound-hoof'd, short-jointed, fetlocks shag aud loug, 
 Broad breast, full eye, small head, and nostril wide, 
 High crest, short ears, straiglit legs and passing strong, 
 Thin mane, thick tail, broad buttock, tender hide : " 
 
 This is equal in completeness to the jDoet's later 
 description in " The Taming of the Shrew" of the 
 defective qualities of a horse, which runs as 
 
 follows : — 
 
 " Possessed with the glanders, and like to mose in the chine; 
 troubled with the lampass, infected with the fashions, full 
 of wind-galls, sped with spavins, rayed with the yellows, 
 past cure of the fives, starlc spoiled with the staggers, 
 begnawn with bots ; swayed in the back, and shoulder 
 shotten."* 
 
 The only possible motive for doubting Shake- 
 
 Poe:i). speare's statement that this poem was the first heir 
 
 of his invention is the fact that the verses show 
 
 such a complete mastery of rhythm and choice of 
 
 * Taming of the Shrew, Act III., Scene 2. 
 
 Evidence in the
 
 Fact and Fiction about Shakespeare ;j9 
 
 diction, and yet even this is satisfactorily explained 
 
 by the statements made by Aubrey and others tliat 
 
 he " began early" to make essays in poetry. 
 
 It may ]>e, however, that Shakespeare places the -^^^ utorary value 
 
 poem on a different plane of literary value to that "^ ^'"' ^'"'""*" 
 
 of his plays, and from this standpoint intends to 
 
 suggest that it was the first heir of his invention. 
 
 Indeed, it is clearly showTi that he did set a higher 
 
 value upon his poems than upon his dramatic 
 
 efforts. We have no such references about the 
 
 lasting worth of his dramas, as those wiitten ])y the 
 
 poet of his verse. In the fifty-fifth of his Sonnets 
 
 he ^^a'ites — 
 
 "Not marble, nor the gilded monuments 
 Of princes, shall outlive this powerful rhyme ; " 
 
 and in the eighty-first Sonnet he T;vTites — 
 
 ' ' Your monument shall be my gentle verse, 
 AVhich eyes not yet created, shall o'er-read ; 
 And tongues to be, your being shall rehearse 
 When all the breathers of this world ai-e dead ; 
 You still shall live (such virtue hath my pen) 
 Where breath most breathes— even in the mouths of men." 
 
 Now, even allowing for poetic hyperbole, this 
 is a very high (and a very sound) appreciation of 
 the work. We find tliat Shakespeare, when dealing 
 with his l)lays, in comnum with other dramatists vaiuoof riays. 
 of the time, sets a purely commercial value on his
 
 60 Fact and Fiction about Shakespeare 
 
 labours. Plays were not then accepted as serious 
 contril^utions to literature, and when Ben Jonson 
 published his collected plays as "works" in 1616, 
 he was derided for doing so by Fitzgeoffry in 
 " Certain Elegies." 
 
 But whether "Venus and Adonis" was, or was 
 not, the first heir of Shakespeare's invention, the 
 dedication of it to the Earl of Southampton won 
 for the poet the patronage and friendship of one 
 of the most powerful, most romantic, and most 
 scholarly noblemen of the age. 
 
 The friendship of some great noble was necessary 
 in those days to protect and encourage poets, 
 players, and playwrights. The uncertainty of 
 regular emolument made it an absolute necessity 
 for a scholar or a poet to enrol himself under the 
 banner of some great lord. And men like the Earls 
 of Essex and Southamj)ton did noble work in 
 befriending such poets as Edmund Spenser and 
 Shakespeare. Queen Elizabeth, although an ardent 
 admirer of theatrical representations, did not 
 generously support its exponents; she was, as 
 Camden describes her, "liberal in commendations" 
 only. So to the young noblemen of the Court, 
 poets, playwrights, and players turned for
 
 Friendship of tho 
 
 Fact and Fiction about Shakespeare 61 
 
 bounty, and in voiy few cases did tlicy appeal in 
 vain. 
 
 The friendship of the Earl of Southampton for 
 the young dramatic poet, Shakespeare, ripened 
 apace, and in May, 1594, Shakespeare dedicated a souuipton. 
 second poem to that nobleman, viz., the poem on the 
 subject of " Lucrece." 'I he follo^ving are the terms 
 of this second dedication, and they contrast in a 
 marked manner with the diffident tone of the 
 dedication affixed to "Venus and Adonis" a year 
 before: — " The love I dedicate to your Lordship is 
 without end : wherof this Pamphlet, ^vithout 
 beginning, is but a superfluous Moity. The 
 warrant I have of your Honourable disposition, 
 not the worth of my untutored Lines makes it 
 assured of acceptance. What I have done is yours, 
 what I have to doe is yours, being part in all I 
 have, devoted yours. Were my worth greater, my 
 duety would shew greater, meane time, as it is, 
 it is bound to your Lordshi}) ; To wliom I aWsIi long 
 life still lengthned with all happinesse. Your 
 Lordships in all duety. William Shakespeare." 
 
 Of the munificence of the Earl of Southampton 
 to Shakespeare we have the folloAving traditional 
 evidence. 
 
 Nicholas Rowe, in 1709, wrote '' There is one
 
 VENVS 
 
 AND ADONIS 
 
 Vilia mireturqmlgus .• mihiflauui (^^oUo 
 ^ociila Cdflaliapkm mimjlretaqua. 
 
 LONDON 
 
 Imprinted by Richard Field ^ and are to be fold at 
 
 thefigne of the white Greyhound in 
 
 Paules Church-yard, 
 
 15^3-
 
 TO THE RIGHT HONORABLE 
 
 Henrie VVriothelleyjEarle of Southamptorij 
 
 and Baron of Titchfield. 
 
 \IghtHof2ourdle, Iknow not how I shall offend in 
 d£dicatmg my unpolisht lines toyonrLorashipjnor 
 hoTp thevforlde 'vvill cenfuremee for choojingjo 
 Prong aproppe to fuppcrt fo 'vveake a burthen^ 
 onelye if your Honour feeme hut pleafed ^ I ac- 
 count myfelfe highly praifed, and ^owe to take aduantage of all 
 idle hcures^tilllhaue honouredyou with feme grauer labour. But 
 if the fir H heire of my inuentionproue deformcd^I fhall be forie it 
 hadfo noble agod father : d72d?ieuer after ear e f) barren alatid^ 
 for f ear e ityeeldmeftillfo bad a haruefty 1 leaue it to jour Honou • 
 rableftiruey^ndjour Honor to your hearts content ^njvhich I trip:) 
 ?nay ahvaies anfwereyour owne^vvifh^ and the <vvorldshope' 
 fitllex^eBation. 
 
 Your Honors in all dutiCj 
 
 William Shakefpearco
 
 62 
 
 Fact and Fiction about Shakespeare 
 
 Rowe's evidenco of 
 
 Southampton's 
 
 generosity. 
 
 instance so singular in the magnificence of this 
 patron of Shakesj^eare's that, if I had not been 
 assured that the story was handed down by Sir 
 WiUiam Davenant, who was probably very well 
 acquainted with his affairs, I should not have 
 ventured to have inserted : that my lord, Southamp- 
 ton 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." 
 
 Shakespeare's neighbours had perpetuated this 
 statement from very early times, and ascribed 
 certain purchases of land made by the poet at 
 Stratford to this source. But the instance of 
 lordly generosity cited is not so singular as Rowe 
 imagines. It was not an unusual occurrence for 
 noblemen to present the scholars and poets they 
 admired with gifts of money or land, and we have 
 recorded "^rooi that Southampton's friend, the 
 Earl of Essex, gave Twickenham Park to the 
 learned Francis Bacon, who described it "as a 
 frrlncTsTaconf garden of Paradise." It was then worth about 
 £1,800. 
 
 From tliis period Shakespeare's artistic and 
 financial position might be considered assured. 
 He was a successful actor and dramatist, respected 
 and esteemed, and by unceasing labour he was
 
 Fact and Fiction about Sha/cespcai'c 
 
 G3 
 
 becoming; a master in tlie difficult craft of play- 
 writing. 
 
 In the Jmie of 1594 " Titus Andronicus" was 
 performed by the *' Lord Chamberlain and the Lord 
 Admiral's servants," but there is no evidence that 
 Shakespeare acted in it. The earliest notice which 
 positively states where Shakespeare appeared on 
 the stao^e is one which records the fact of his ^., , 
 having played before Queen Elizabeth at Green- ^"^'^'" *^i'za'^-ti'- 
 wich Palace in December, L594. 
 
 In the manuscript accounts of the Treasurer 
 
 William Kemp Dancing the Morris. 
 
 Kemp's "Nine Daies Wonder.'
 
 64 Fact and Fiction about Shakespeare 
 
 The Players' 
 Reward. 
 
 Plays performed 
 on Sunday. 
 
 of the Chamber is the following entry: ''To 
 William Kempe, William Shakespeare, and Richard 
 Burbage, servants to the Lord Chamberlain, upon 
 the Council's warrant, dated at Whitehall the 15tli 
 of March, 1594, for two several comedies or 
 interludes showed by them before Her Majesty in 
 Christmas time, last past, upon St. Stephen's day, 
 and Innocent's day. £13 6 shillings, and 8 j^ence ; 
 and by way of her Majesty's reward £6 13 shillings 
 and 4 pence, in all £20," being at the rate of ten 
 pounds for each representation. 
 
 Shakespeare's com2:)any played again before 
 Queen Elizabeth at Whitehall on New Year's day. 
 Twelfth Night, Slirove Sunday, and Shrove Tues- 
 day, 1597; and at Richmond Palace on Twelfth 
 Night and Shrove Sunday, 1600, but whether the 
 dramatist took a part in these representations I 
 cannot ascertain. It will be noticed that Queen 
 Elizabeth often selected Sunday as an appropriate 
 day for witnessing* dramatic representations, but 
 in Shakespeare's age it was customary for plays to 
 be acted after divine service on Sunday. Stock- 
 wood, in a sermon preached at Paul's Cross in 
 1578, says — "If you resort to the Theatre, the 
 Curtain, and other places of plays in the City, 
 you shall on the Lord's day have these places,
 
 *""■." ■•- A'MU
 
 Fact and Fiction about Shakespeare 65 
 
 with many other, that I cannot reckon, so full as 
 possible they can tln'ong." 
 
 The rapidity with wliich Sliakespeare now rose 
 into fame can best be sho^vn hj enumerating his 
 writings and giving an approximate date of their ^111^'^^!''*' 
 production. Were it not that we know that tlie 
 demand invariably creates the suppl}', his numerous 
 and unceasing contributions to the stage would bo 
 a matter for wonder. Between the years 1591 and 
 1599 he had given to the world sixteen of liis 
 jilays, many of them being his masterpieces. And 
 this record of his work thus confirms the statement 
 made by the Rev. John Ward, vicar of Stratford, 
 who, in his diary for 1662, states that Shakespeare 
 " supplied the stage with two plays every year." 
 
 There is no authentic proof which definitely 
 shows in what order Shakespeare's plays were 
 written or produced, and the attempts made by 
 editors and commentators to fix their sequence arc 
 merely guesses. Such information as we have can 
 only be gathered from internal evidences in the 
 plays, from entries in the Stationers' Eegister, and 
 published contemporary records. These prove that 
 in 1592 Shakespeare had written "Henry VI.," in 
 1594 "Titus Andronicus," "The Comedy of 
 Errors," and "The Taming of the Shrew"—
 
 66 Fact and Fiction about Shakespeare 
 
 with Christopher Sly and Marian Hacket, the 
 fat ale wife who resided at Wincot, a hamlet near 
 to the poet's native town, and reminiscent of 
 Stratford — in 1596 " Romeo and Juliet," and 
 the first and second parts of " Henry IV.," 
 "Richard II.," and "Richard III." in 1597. 
 
 The production of ,, ^ . _, , _ ,,.,i^. t-i ,, ,,r.i 
 
 the Plays. " Lovc s Labom' s Lost," " Kmg John," "Two 
 Gentlemen of Verona," " Midsmnmer Night's 
 Dream," and the " Merchant of Venice" in 1598 — 
 the latter i:»lay, with Burbage as Shylock, having 
 l>ccn enacted as far back as 1593. " Henry V." 
 in 1599. "Much Ado About Nothing" and "As 
 You Like It" in 1600. "Hamlet," "The Merry 
 Wives of Windsor," and "Twelfth Night," in 
 1602. "Measure for Measure" and "Othello" 
 in 160^. "Lear" in 1606. "Antony and 
 Cleopatra" and "Pericles" in 1608. " Troilus 
 and Cressida" in 1609. "Coriolanus" in 1610. 
 "Macbeth," "Cymbeline," "The Winter's 'J'ale," 
 and " The Tempest " in 1611 ; and " Julius Cgesar " 
 in 1613. I can find no definite record of the date 
 of production of the remaining three of Shake- 
 speare's plays— "All's Well that Ends Well," 
 "Henry VIII.," and Timon of Athens "—but 
 there is not the least doubt that they were written 
 before 1613, in which year Shakespeare retired to
 
 Fact and Fiction about Shakespeare. 67 
 
 PLEASANT 
 
 Conceited Comedie 
 
 CALLED, 
 
 Loues labors loft. 
 
 Asit was prefentcd before her I Lghncs 
 this M Chriflmas. 
 
 Newly corrc£led and augmented 
 B) W. Shakepre. 
 
 Imprinted at London by W.W<, 
 for Cutbcrt Burljy^
 
 68 Fact and Fiction about Shakespeare 
 
 Stratford to live, as I shall show, upon the wealth 
 he had acquired. 
 
 In speaking of the success of Shakespeare as a 
 dramatist, it ought not to be forgotten that some 
 measure of that success was due to the interpreta- 
 tion of his principal characters. Indeed, to 
 Richard Burbage the poet was under great 
 obligations, greater than those who are not 
 intimately acquainted with the nmtual ol)ligation 
 Pi^y^r and Play- of plajcr and playwright can well understand. 
 Even Shakespeare's finest creations can be rendered 
 tame and abortive by inadequate representation, 
 and Burbage Ijrought the force of his genius to 
 bear on Shylock, Richard III., Romeo, Henry V., 
 Brutus, Hamlet, Othello, Lear, Macbeth, Pericles, 
 and Coriolanus. As an actor Burbage seems to 
 have been unequalled, and contemporary criticism 
 is all in praise of his dramatic power. From many 
 eulogies written before and after his death I cull 
 the following : — 
 
 " What a wide world was in that little space. 
 Thyself a world — the Globe thy fittest place ! 
 Thy stature small, but every thought and mood, 
 Might throughly from thy face be understood. 
 And his whole action, he could change with ease, 
 Richard Burbage. From ancient Lear, to youthful Pericles. 
 
 But let me not forget, one choicest part j
 
 Fact and Fiction about Shakespeare 69 
 
 Wlxerein beyondtlie rest, lie moved the heart. 
 The grieved Moor, made jealous by a slave, 
 Who sent his wife to fill a timeless grave. 
 Then slew himself upon the bloody bod : 
 All these, and many more, are with him, dead. 
 Hereafter must our poets cease to write : 
 Since thou art gone, dear Dick, a tragic night 
 Will wrap our black hung stage : he made a poet, 
 And those who yet remain full well may know it." 
 
 That significant remark "He made a poet" 
 shows clearly enough the estimation he was held 
 in as a Shakespearean actor ; and after his death, 
 in March, 1618, Shakespeare's heroes were never 
 so finely played till Betterton appeared. There 
 were some twenty-six other actors associated with 
 Bm'bage in the representation of Shakespeare's 
 plays, among them being John Heminge, 
 William Kempe, Thomas Pope, Henry Condell, Actors in shake- 
 William Sly, John Lowin, and Joseph Taylor, '«i^--^"« pi-y«- 
 not a few of whom were Warwickshire men.* 
 
 Of the parts the poet acted in his own plays no 
 reliable accounts can be obtained. The tradition 
 recorded by Oldys, that Shakespeare played Adam 
 
 * The names of the PrincipaU Actors in Shakespeare's playes, as set 
 forth in the frst Folio. — William Shakespeare; Richard Burbadge ; John 
 Henimiiigs ; Augustine Pliillips ; William Kempt ; Thomas Toopo ; 
 George Bryan ; Henry Condell ; William Slye ; Richard Cowly ; dohn 
 Lowine ; Samuell Crosse ; Alexander Cooke ; Samuel (iilburne ; Rol)ert 
 Armin ; William Ostler ; Natlian Field ; John Underwood ; Nicholas 
 Tooley ; William Ecclestone ; Joseph Taylor ; Robert Beufield ; Robert 
 Goughe ; Richard Robinson ; John Shancke ; John Rice.
 
 to Fad and Fiction about Shakespeare 
 
 in " As You Like It," is quite untrustworthy, and 
 Nicholas Rowe's statement that " the top of his 
 performance was the Ghost in his own ' Ham- 
 let ' " is, to say the least of it, purely conjectural, 
 unsupported as it is by the smallest contemporary 
 evidence. Still, if we cannot associate Shakespeare 
 
 Shakespeare as an . i r^ • i •!• 
 
 Actor. with acting definite characters m his own works, 
 
 we have evidence of his having played in the 
 works of other authors. In 1608, a license was 
 granted by James the First to Shakespeare and 
 the members of liis company to perform at the 
 Globe playhouse, and in the country.* Records 
 of this tour have been found at Bath, Coventry, 
 and other provincial towns, and it was during the 
 term of this license that Shakespeare acted at the 
 
 * Licence to Shakespeare, and othem, to play comedies, <Stc., \1th May, 
 1603. 
 
 By the King. — Right trusty and wel beloved Counsellour, we greete you 
 well, and will and commaund you that, under our Privie Seale in your 
 custody for the time being, you cause our lettres to be directed to tlie 
 Keeper of our Greate Seale of England, comaunding him that under our 
 said Greate Seale he cause our lettres to be made jjatentes in forme follow- 
 ing. — James, by the grace of (iod King of England, Scotland, Fraunce, and 
 Irland, iJefendor of the Faith, &c. , to all justices, maiors, sheritfes, 
 constables, hedboroughes, and other our officers and loving subjects 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 facultic 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
 
 Fact and Fiction about Shakespeare 71 
 
 Globe in Ben Jonsons comedy of "Sejaims." 
 James I., like his predecessor, Queen P^lizabeth, 
 was exceedingly fond of theatrical representations, 
 and after his accession to the tin-one in 1G03, 
 Shakespeare and his "fellows" were frequently 
 commanded to appear before his Majesty at 
 Hampton Court and Whitehall. Early in the New 
 Year, 1604, they gave the King a taste of their 
 quality at Hampton Court, and later, on Shrove 
 Sunday, at Whitehall. In November of this year, 
 they performed " Othello " in the Banqueting 
 House, Whitehall; "Measure for Measure" in 
 the follo^dnff December; and " Kine: Lear" in siuikosix-arc iKjfore 
 
 *-" ' O James I. 
 
 December, 1606. 
 
 "The King's Servants" — as this company of 
 
 comedies, tragedies, histories, enterludcs, morall pastoralles, stage-plaies 
 and such like, to shew and exercise publiquely to their best coninioditie, 
 when the infection of tlie plague shall decrease, as well witiiin their now 
 usuall howse called the Globe witliin our countie of Surrey, as also witliin 
 any towne-halles or mout-hallus, or other convenient places witiiin liie 
 liberties and freedonie of any other cittie, universitie, towne or borougii 
 whatsoever within our said realmesand tloniiiiions, willing and coniaunding 
 you and every of j'ou, as you tender our pleasure, not only to periuilt and 
 sutler them heerin without any your lettes, hiiiderances, or molestacions 
 during our said pleasure, but also to be aj-cling and assisting to them, yf 
 any wrong be to them oU'ered, and to allowe them such former courtesies 
 as hath bene given to men of tiieir place and qualitie. And also, what 
 further favour you shall shew to these our servantes for our sake wo shall 
 take kindely at your handes. In witnes wliereof iSrc. And tliese our 
 lettres shall be your sufficient warrant and discharge in this behalf. Given 
 under our Signet at our Manner of Greenwiche the seavententli day of 
 May in the first yeere of our raigne of England, Fraunce and Irland, 
 and of Scotland the six and thirtietii. — Ex : per Lake. — To our riglit 
 trusty and wel beloved Counsellour, tiie Lord Cecill of Esingdon, Keeper 
 of our Privie Scale for the time being.
 
 72 Fact and Fiction about Shakespedre 
 
 players were designated — were virtually attached 
 to the Eoyal Household. Taking rank with the 
 Grooms of the Chamber, they would, on State 
 occasions, be adorned in their liveried cloaks of 
 scarlet cloth and capes of velvet. Many fabulous 
 Royal stories have been written about the condescendins; 
 
 coiidescensiun to <--' 
 
 Shakespeare. familiarity shown by Queen Elizabeth and King 
 James on various occasions to Shakespeare, and 
 of their frequent visits to the Globe and Blackfriar's 
 playhouses. As a matter of fact, there is not the 
 slightest evidence to prove that either of these 
 monarchs ever visited the public theatres. The 
 players were always commanded to appear before 
 them at the Court ; and the condescension dis- 
 played uj^on these occasions — in an age of strictly 
 defined social distinctions — was probably less than 
 that shown by her Majesty Queen Victoria towards 
 the leading performers of our day, when they are 
 commanded to appear before her at Windsor Castle. 
 Between 1603 and 1608 Shakespeare and his 
 company passed a large part of each year in 
 touring through the country. The period chosen 
 for these excursions was from the middle of May 
 until the autumn, when the Court and the nobility 
 were absent from London. 
 
 In 1609 we find Shakespeare playing at the
 
 Fact and Fiction about Shakespeare 73 
 
 Blackfriar's Theatre Avitli Hemingej Condell, and 
 
 Burbage. And in a petition made to the Earl of ' '''lirS-iar'!* " 
 
 Pembroke, then Lord Chamberlain, we find 
 
 Ciithbert Bm-bage recording the fact that '' Shak- 
 
 spere, Hemings, Condall, and Philips, and 
 
 others " duly acted together at tliat })layhouse. It 
 
 was not as an actor, however, but as a playwriglit 
 
 and "sharer" in theatrical enterprises that Bliake- 
 
 speare was enabled to realize those large sums of 
 
 money with which he afterwards })urcliased houses 
 
 and land. 
 
 After 1594 dramatic rei:)resentations became a 
 most po2:)ular source of entertainment. During the 
 whole period that Shakespeare was connected with 
 the Blackfriar's and Globe playhouses theatrical 
 speculations apiiear to have been hig-hly profitable. The piay a pojuiLir 
 In the "Return from Parnassus," printed in 1606, 
 Kempe tells the two Cambridge students, mIio 
 sought instruction from himself and Burbage : "lie 
 merry lads, you have happened upon the most 
 excellent vocation in the world for money ; they 
 come North and South to bring it to the playhouse." 
 Nearly all the performers and "sharers" of tliat 
 day, who possessed common prudence, died rich — 
 Edward Alleyn (the founder of Dulwich College), 
 Henslowe, Heminge, and many others. And if
 
 74 
 
 Fact and Fiction about Shakespeare 
 
 The players acquin 
 fortune. 
 
 Order in Council 
 IGOO. 
 
 the following extract from a work, 2:»ubli.shed in 
 1605, can be relied upon as proof, tlie players 
 were indeed thrifty and prudent. ^' Players were 
 never so thrifty as they are now about London . . . 
 when thou feelest thy purse well lined, buy thee 
 some place of worship in the country, that, growing 
 weary of playing, thy money may there bring thee 
 to dignity and reputation." . . . The player to 
 whom this advice was given replied: " Sir, I thank 
 you for this good counsel ; I promise you I will 
 make use of it, for I have heard indeed of some 
 tliat have gone to London very meanly, and have 
 come in time to be exceedingly wealthy" — an 
 allusion that might, even in 1605, have been meant 
 for Shakesj)eare. But there is one other circum- 
 stance that should not go unrecorded, which helped 
 in a great measure to enrich the poet and his fellow 
 players. I allude to an order of the Lords of the 
 Privy Council in 1600 "for the restraints of the 
 immoderate use and comj)any of playhouses and 
 players." After a preamble it states — "forasmuch 
 as it is manifestly known and granted that the 
 multitude of the said houses and the misgovernment 
 of them hath been and is daily the occasion of the 
 idle, riotous, and dissolute living of great numbers 
 of people, that, leaving all such honest and painful

 
 Fact and Fiction about Shakespeare 75 
 
 course of life as thoy should follow, do meet and 
 assemble there, and of many particular abuses and 
 disorders that do thereupon ensue, and yet, never- 
 theless, it is considered that the use and exercise of 
 such plays, not being gy\\ in itself, may with good 
 order and moderation be suifered in a well 
 governed state, and that her Majesty, being pleased 
 at sometimes to take delight and recreation in the 
 sight and hearing of them, some order is fit to be 
 taken for the allowance and maintenance of such 
 persons as are thought meetest in tliat kind to 
 yield her Majesty recreation and delight, and 
 consequently of the houses that nuist serve for 
 2)ublic playing to keep them in exercise." In this 
 order we find it decreed that " there shall be about 
 the city two houses, and no more allowed to serve Two theatres to lo 
 for the use of the common stage plays, of the which 
 houses one shall be in Surrey, in that place wliich 
 is connnonly called the Bankside, or thereabouts, 
 and the other in Middlesex." 
 
 When I state that the house selected l)y tlie 
 Privy Council on the south of the Thames was 
 the newly-erected Globe playhouse, it will be 
 apparent that a valuable monopoly was granted to shuk.siHar. s 
 Burl^age, Shakespeare, and the other ''sharers"— »>"">'i-i>- 
 even when takivig into account the fact that the 
 order was not implicitly obeyed.
 
 76 Fact and Fiction about Shakespeare 
 
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 The Poet's " share. 
 
 78 Fact and Fiction about Shakespeare 
 
 I am unable to discover what was the exact 
 projiortion of Shakespeare's share in the Globe and 
 Blackfriar's playhouses, but it must have been a 
 considerable one. It was the custom at that time 
 for theatrical business to be carried on by 
 those immediately connected with the stage. 
 There were no financial supporters of the drama 
 who speculated in its profit and loss. The actors 
 themselves were divided into two classes — the 
 "sharers" and the "hirelings." The "sharers," 
 as the term suggests, obtained their remuneration 
 from a portion of the profits of the performance. 
 Shakespeare indicates in "Hamlet" (Act III., 
 Scene 2) that a whole share was a considerable 
 interest in a "cry of players;" and in a petition 
 presented to the Lord Chamberlain, some years 
 after Shakespeare's death, by the Burbages, we get 
 a further insight into the emolument of actors. 
 Says this document: " The players that lived in the 
 first times had onely the profitts from the doores, 
 but now the players receave all the commings in 
 Sharers and ^^ ^^^ dorcs to tliemselvcs, and half e the galleries 
 hirehngs. f^^^^^^ ^|^g housekecpers." ^rhe "hirelings" were 
 engaged at a weekly salary, and their services 
 were often secured for a term of years, by such an 
 agreement as Henslowe drew up with Dawes, the
 
 Fact and Fiction about ShaJcespearc 70 
 
 plaj^er before mentioned. Tlie salary of a '' lure- 
 lino-" of course varied with his ability, but I find 
 that six shillings a week (just double the averan^e 
 wage of a day labourer) was considered fair emolu- 
 ment for an intelligent player in those days. I have 
 read of an actor's being engaged for a year at five "^'^"""""'^ ri:iy<'i-5=. 
 shillings a week. This was the amount paid to boj^s 
 who always enacted the juvenile and female parts, 
 and who were invariably apprenticed to an 
 established actor for a term of years. Although 
 as early as 1592 women acted in foreign theatres, 
 the prejudice against the innovation was so strong 
 in the British mind that it was not until the 
 Restoration that they appeared upon the English 
 stage. But long after the Restoration trained men 
 actors were preferred in female parts to women Womonontho 
 who were comparative novices in the art of acting. 
 The dramatic author in the reigns of Elizabeth 
 and James was remunerated at a very moderate rate. 
 Before the year 1600 the price paid by Henslowe 
 for a new play never exceeded £8. In August, 
 1 598, he had given Ben Jonson, Henry Porter, and 
 Henry Chettle £6 only in full payment for a play 
 called " Hot Anger Soon Cold." Sometimes a 
 successful author was paid in advance, to secure 
 his services. But playwrights did not earn large 
 
 Stage.
 
 80 Fact and Fiction about Shakespeare 
 
 sums of money by their plays in Shakespeare's 
 
 The euiolumeiit of ,• "ot j.ii"r\ ip tt ^^ 
 
 Playwrights. time, iien Jonson told Drmnmond or Hawthorn- 
 den that " of all his plays he never gained £200." 
 Shakespeare's ^Aay^ were held in the highest 
 estimation, as I shall presently show, but before 
 doing so I must briefly record the death of 
 the poet's son, Hamnet, which took place early 
 in August, 1596, when the boy was in his twelfth 
 son, Hamnet, and " ycar, tlic dcatli of tlic poct's fatlicr in 1601, and of 
 
 liis father and . . , . -, rtr\o 
 
 mother. his mothcr m IbOo. 
 
 I should dwell upon these facts if I could 
 discover that their occurrence had any effect upon 
 Sliakespeare's mode of life and writings. But 
 there is nothing to prove that he ever paid 
 more than the visit " into Warwickshire once 
 a year," recorded by Aubrey, till he finally settled 
 in Stratford in 1613. From the death of his 
 parents Shakespeare did not derive the smallest 
 financial benefit ; indeed, during the latter years 
 of his life, John Shakespeare had declined in 
 prosperity. As far back as 1578 he was obliged 
 to provide two sureties to obtain the loan of £5 ; 
 and in 1586, about a year after our poet left 
 Stratford, we find the following in the proceedings 
 ° "porerty^^'^^^ against John Shakespeare in tlie Court of Record, 
 after a distress had been issued for the seizure of
 
 Pact and Fiction about Shakesj)care 81 
 
 Ills goods : — •" John Shakespeare has no effects on 
 which a distraint can be levied." In October, 
 
 ') 
 
 fa.^vii^ 
 
 ^^ 
 
 Facsimile of the Signature of Susanna Hall. 
 
 1596, however, he had sufficiently recovered from 
 his embarrassments to apply to the College of
 
 82 Fact and Fiction about Shakespeare 
 
 Arms for a grant of coat armour ;* but this only- 
 coat announ'^ points to the fact that, from this period, until his 
 death five years afterwards, the old glover received 
 assistance from his successful son, there bein"-, 
 after 1596, no further record of his indigence. 
 Shakespeare's wife and family had always been 
 permanently located at Stratford ; and there is no 
 
 Shakespeare's family. . . , , . . , . 
 
 existing record, or even traditional evidence, to 
 show that they ever left tlie borough and came to 
 reside at the poet's reputed London dwelling, near 
 the Bear Garden in Southwark. 
 Marriage of Susanna. ^^ 1607 was Celebrated tlio marriage of Shake- 
 speare's eldest daughter, Susanna, witli John Hall, 
 
 * Draft of a Grant of Coat-Armour propoiei to be conferred on 
 Hhakfipaart^ s Father. From the original manuscript preserved at the College 
 of A rmx. 
 
 To all and siiiguller noble and gentelmen of all estates and dcj^'rees 
 bearing arms to whom these presents shall com, William Detliick, Uarter, 
 Prineipall King of Arms of England, and William (Jampden, alias 
 Clarentieulx, King of Arms, for the sowth, east and weste partes of this 
 realme, sendetho greetinges. Knowe j'ee that in all nations and kingdoms 
 the record and remembrances of the valeantfactes antl vertcous dispositions 
 of worthie men have ben made knowen and divulged by certeyne shieldes 
 of arms and tokens of chevalrie, the grant and testimonie wherof 
 appertej-nethe unto us b}' vertu of our offices from the Quenes most exc. 
 majeste, and her highenes most noble and victorious progenitors ; wherefore 
 being solicitetl, and by ci'edible report informed, that Jolin Shakespere, nowe 
 on Stratford-uppon-Avon in the counte of Warwik, gent., whose parent, 
 great grandfatlier, and late antecessor, for his faithefull and approved 
 service to the late must prudent jjrinre King H. 7. of famous memorie, was 
 advaunced and rewarded with landes and tenementes geventohim in those 
 partes of Warw ikeshere, where they have continewed bie .some descentes 
 in good repulacion and itredit ; and for that the said Jolni Shakespere 
 having maryed the daughter and one of the heyrs of Robert Arden of 
 W^ellingcote in the said countie, and also produced thishiv auncient cote of 
 arms heretofore assigned to him whilest lie was her Majesties Officer and 
 baylefe of that towue, In cousideratiou of the premisses, and for the en-
 
 Fact and Fiction about Shakespeare 83 
 
 Master of Arts, and a physician of some repute ; 
 later I shall have to record the marriage of her 
 sister, Judith, with Thomas Quiney. This latter 
 event, however, did not take place till 161 G, a few 
 weeks before Shakespeare's death. 
 
 And now I will turn to the recorded opinions of 
 Shakespeare's contemporaries, and by quoting a 
 few of them sliow how highly his work was held Ct)ntuini)<.rary 
 
 , . -r» 1 /-i 11 p if-ii 1 upiniun (if Sliake- 
 
 ni then' esteem. Ixobert (jrreene s abuse of Shake- spt-arcs work. 
 speare in 1592 was followed by laudatory notices 
 in 1594 and 1595, in which his poem of " Tarquin 
 and Lucrece" is specially singled out for com- 
 
 couragemeiit of his posterite, unto whom suche blazon of arms and 
 atcheiKmenfes of inheritanct from theyre said mother by the auncyout 
 custome and lawes of arms maye lawfullie descend, We, the said (iartcr 
 and Clarentieulx, have assigned, graunted and confirmed, aiul, hy these 
 jtrexentes exemp/efied, unto the said Jolin Sliakcspere and to liis posterite, 
 that shiehl and cote of arms, viz., in a field of gould uppon a bend sables a 
 speare of the first the poynt upward hedded argent ; and for his creast or 
 cognizance a falcon with his w^aiges displayed standing on a wretlie of his 
 coullers supporting a speare armed hedded and steeled or sylver, fyxed 
 uppon a helmet with mantelles and tasselles, as more playnely maye 
 appeare depicted on this margent ; and we have lykeirise vpjion on other 
 eacucheone impaled the same with tlie auncyent arms of the said Arden of 
 Wellingcote, signefeing thereby it maye and, shal be lawefuU for the said 
 John Shakespere, gent., to beare and use the same shitldes of arms, single 
 or impaled as aforesaid, during his naturall lyfl'e ; and that it shal be 
 lawfull for Ills cliildren, yssiie, and posteritie, lawfully begotten, to beare, 
 use, and quarter and shetce forthe the same with theyre dewe ditTerences in 
 all lawfull warlyke factes and eevele 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 tlie same. 
 In wyttnesse and testeinonye wherof we have subscribed our names and 
 fastened the scales of our ofiices. Yeven at tiie 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, Queue of Ingland, France and 
 Ireland, Defender of the Fay the, &c., 1599.
 
 84 Fact and Fiction about Shakespeare 
 
 mendation. Francis Mercs, " Master of Arts of 
 both Universities," in his " Palladis Tamia," 
 published in 1598, has a lengthy eulogy of 
 Shakespeare's writings^ from which the following 
 is an extract: — "As the soul of Euphorbus was 
 thought to live in Pythagoras, so the sweet witty 
 soul of Ovid lives in mellifluous and honey tongued 
 Shakespeare ; witness his ' Venus and Adonis,' 
 his ' Lucrece,' his sugared Sonnets among his 
 private friends, &c." This was the first time 
 that Shakespeare's sonnets had been mentioned 
 by a contemporary (they were not published by 
 Thomas Thorpe till 1609), and whatever motive 
 the poet may have had for writing them — and 
 much has been, and might still be, conjectured on 
 this point — they undoubtedly were highly valued 
 in his day as poetic compositions. Meres continues : 
 Francis Meres, ct^g Plautus and Scucca are accounted the best 
 for comedy and tragedy among the Latins, so 
 Shakespeare among the English is the most 
 excellent in both kinds for the stage ; for comedy 
 witness his ' Gentlemen of Verona,' his ' Errors,' 
 his 'Love's Labour's Lost,' his 'Love's Labour's 
 Won,' his ' Midsummer's Nights Dream,' and 
 his ' Merchant of Venice ; ' for tragedy, his 
 ' Kichard n.,' ' Richard lU.,' ' Henry IV.,' 'King
 
 Fact and Fiction about Shakespeare 85 
 
 John,' ' Titus Andronicii?,' and his ' Romeo and 
 Juliet.' As Epius Stolo said that the Muses woukl 
 speak with Plautus' tongue if they would 
 speak Latin ; so I say that the Muses would speak 
 with Shakespeare's fine filed phrase, if they would 
 speak English." 
 
 In 1599 were written some commendatory verses 
 on Shakespeare by John Weever. He is again 
 mentioned in " Belvedere, or the Garden of the 
 Muses," 1600. In Camden's " Remains," 1605, camden's, 
 Shakespeare figures as a "most pregnant wit "R-mains.' 
 whom succeeding ages may justly admire," with 
 Sir Philip Sidney, Spenser, Chapman, Marston, 
 and Ben Jonson. In the " Return from Parnassus," 
 printed in 1606, as before stated, occurs the 
 following duologue between the players Burbage 
 and Kempe. Kempe remarks: "Few of the 
 University pen plays well : they smell too nuich Tho retun.jrom 
 of that writer Ovid, and that writer Metamorphosis, 
 and talk too much of Proserpina and Jupiter. 
 Why, here's our fellow Shakespeare puts them all 
 down, aye, and Ben Jonson too. 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 bewray his credit." Burbage replies: "It's 
 a shrewd fellow indeed."
 
 86 
 
 Fact and Fiction about Shakespeare 
 
 Barksted. 
 
 John Da vies. 
 
 Freeman. 
 
 Ben J(jn.son's 
 testimony. 
 
 In 1607 William Barksted eulogized Shake- 
 speare in his " Mirrha, the Mother of Adonis." In 
 John Davies's satirical epigrams 1610 the poet 
 is thus addressed : "To our Elnglish Terence, Mr. 
 Will Shakespeare." Webster, in the dedication to 
 his tragedy of Paulo Giordano Ursini, 1612, sj^eaks 
 of the ' ' right happy and copious industry " of 
 Shakespeare ; and in the ej^igrams by Thomas 
 Freeman, 1614, Shakespeare is again eulogized in 
 an enthusiastic sonnet. 
 
 To Ben Jon son's memorable poem on Shakespeare 
 I shall refer hereafter, but I wish to confine these 
 testimonials of appreciation to writings published 
 during the dramatist's lifetime. Of the man and 
 his manner we have the recorded opinions of those 
 who were on terms of daily intimacy with him. 
 Such was Ben Jonson, who wrote as follows: "I 
 remember, the players have often mentioned it 
 as an honour to Shakespeare that, in his writing, 
 whatsoever he penn'd he never blotted out line. 
 My answer hath been, 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 justify 
 mine own candour — for I lov'd the man, and do
 
 Portrait of Ben Jonson.
 
 Fact and Fiction about Shakespeare 87 
 
 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 phantasy ; brave 
 notions and gentle expressions ; wherein he flowed 
 with that facility that sometime it was necessary 
 he should be stoj^p'd; sufflaminandas erat^ as 
 Augustus said of Haterius. His wit was in his 
 own power — would the rule of it had been so too ! 
 Many times he fell into those things, could not 
 escape laughter, as when he said in the person of 
 Caesar, one speaking to him : ' Caesar thou dost me 
 wrong ; ' he replied, ' Caesar did never wrong but 
 with just cause;'* and such like; which were 
 ridiculous. But he redeemed his vices with his 
 virtues. There was ever more in him to be praised 
 than to be pardoned, "f 
 
 * The line Jonson alludes to, now reads as follows : — 
 
 " Know Cfesar dotli not wrong ; nor without cause 
 Will he be satisfied." 
 
 Julius Ciesar, Act III., Scene 1. 
 
 t Nicholas Rowe, in his Life of Shakespeare, records the tradition tiiat 
 the poet's " acquaintance with Ben Jonson began with a remarkable piece 
 of humanity and good nature : Mr. Jonson, who was at that time alto- 
 gether unknown to the World, liad ofl'ered one of his plays to tiie 
 players, in order to have it acted ; and tiie persons into whose hands it 
 was put, after iiaving turned it carelessly and superciliously over, were 
 just upon returning it to him with an ill-natured answer, that it would be 
 of no service to tlieir company ; when Shakspeare luckily cast liis e^'c 
 upon it, and found something so well in it as to engage hiin first to read 
 it througii, and afterwards to reconniiend Mi-. Jonson and his writings to 
 the public." 
 
 Shakespeare's acquaintance with Ben Jonson may have begun in tlie 
 manner narrated by Rowe, but Jonson at the time of the traditional 
 meeting (1598) " was not altogether unknown to the World." Before tiie
 
 88 Fact and FicUon about Shakespeare 
 
 In some of tliose merry meetings at the Mermaid, 
 Ben Jonson had doubtless suffered from the shafts 
 of Shakespeare's keen wit, and the more scholarly- 
 poet had not forgotten it when he penned the latter 
 portion of the above. There is quite a touch of 
 personal feeling in the line — " that sometime it was 
 necessary he should be stopp'd." I should venture 
 to say Jonson tliought that form of procedure very 
 FuIIm's account, oftcu ncccssary if Dr. Fuller's account of these 
 meetings can be relied upon. Says the Doctor — 
 " Many were tlie wit combats betwixt him and 
 Ben Jonson, which two I behold like a Spanish 
 great galleon and an English Man of War. 
 Master Jonson, like the former, was built far 
 higher in learning, solid, but slow in his per- 
 formances. Shakespeare, with the English man 
 of war, lesser in bulk, but lighter in saiHng, could 
 turn with all tides, tack about, and take advantage 
 of all winds, by the quickness of his wit and 
 invention."* 
 
 That Shakespeare, Jonson, and their fellow 
 
 production of " Every Man in His Humour " (the play that Shakespeare is 
 supposed to have "cast his e3'e upon," and recommended to his fellow 
 players) Jonson liad been employed by Philip Henslowe at the Rose 
 Theatre, and it was only after iiis duel with Gabriel, that he seceded from 
 tlie company. 
 
 * Dr. Fuller has an interesting piece of information in his " Worthies " 
 about JonsoUj and another of Shakespeare's intimates. He writes : "I
 
 Fact and Fiction about Shakespeare 89 
 
 playwrights lived in perfect amity and concord 
 there is every proof. After Greene's attack no 
 petty jealousy was shown of Shakes] jeare's success 
 and genius. When a poet did write about him 
 it was to praise not to condenni. 
 
 In the contemporary records, or tliose written 
 immediately after his death, I do not find any 
 reports which disparaged his genius. It did not 
 seem to be the custom then to "soothe the envy 
 of conscious mediocrity " by abusing a great 
 man. Such statements as were made by John 
 Manningham in his diary, and by Aubrey and 
 others, of Shakespeare's reputed gallantries, even 
 if true, were not calculated to injure him as a man 
 or a poet. And these accounts are wanting in all 
 corroborative evidence. 
 
 Looking at tlie records of the Davenant incident 
 as I may, I see nothing but conjecture in tlie 
 repeated statements that the vintner's wife ever 
 formed an attachment for Shakespeare, or he for 
 her. Doubtless, Shakespeare in his journeys to 
 and from Stratford frequented the Crown Tavern 
 
 remember when I was a scholar at Trinity College, Oxon, 1G46, I heard 
 Ralph Batluust (now Dean of Wcllsl saj' tliat Ben Jonson was a Warwick- 
 shire man." And writing of the poet Micliacl Drayton, the Doctor says 
 " He was a butclier's son, born at Athcrston upon Stower in Warwick- 
 shire." This statement is curious, if only to point tlic coincidence tliat it 
 was in company with Ben Jonson and Drayton that Sliakespeare had his 
 last merry meeting at Stratford a sliort time before lie died. 
 
 Ci intern |Kirary 
 
 fi'i-lin^,' towartis 
 
 81iake.siH.'are. 
 
 The Davenant 
 incident.
 
 Manningham's story 
 
 90 Fact and Fiction about Shakespeare 
 
 at Oxford, kept by John Davenant; and he may 
 liave admired the hostess, and, as a compliment, 
 stood godfatlier to her boy William ; but it was 
 to an anecdote published by John Taylor, " The 
 Water Poet," in 1630, of a different person, that 
 the following well-known story owed its origin : — 
 " One day an old Townsman ol)serving the boy 
 Davenant running homeward almost out of breath, 
 asked him whither he was posting in that heat 
 and hurry ?" He answered, " to see his godfather, 
 Shakespeare." " There's a good boy," said the 
 other, '' but have a care you don't take God's name 
 in vain." Sir William Davenant's own tacit 
 acceptance of the stigma of illegitimacy in after 
 years can be reasonably explained. He was 
 conscious that to be considered Shakespeare's 
 natural son was an honour any man might covet. 
 
 Manningham's story of our author has the merit 
 of being contemporaneous, published as it was in 
 1602, besides which it has certain points of humour 
 and plausibility. Briefly it is this : — 
 
 Acting one afternoon in ''Richard III.," Burbage 
 was overheard by Shakespeare to make an appoint- 
 ment with a gentlewoman. After the play he was 
 to go to her chamber, knock at the door, and, being 
 interrogated, was to reply "'TisI, Richard III.,"
 
 Fact and Fiction about Shakespeare 91 
 
 upon which he would be admitted. Shakespeare, 
 not being detained till the end of the piece, 
 thought that he would keep the appointment, and 
 doing so was shortly afterwards followed by 
 Burbage. Upon being asked who it was that 
 knocked, Burbage answered '"Tis I, Richard III." 
 and uj3on hearing this Shakespeare replied, " Go 
 thy ways, Burby, for thou knowcst that William 
 the Conqueror reigned before Richard III." 
 
 I had intended to have omitted these traditional 
 records of intrigue, but the incidents are so familiar 
 to students of Shakespeare that it would seem as 
 if I wished to depict the poet as a paragon of all 
 the virtues had I ventured to suppress them. 
 
 Having briefly shown in what estimation Shake- 
 sjDcare was held while he lived, I will now turn to 
 his more immediate affairs, and relate how those 
 sums of money which he derived from his share in 
 the profits of the playhouse and the performance siiakosjiean's 
 of his plays were invested. 
 
 A year after John Shakespeare had applied to 
 the College of Arms for the grant of coat armour — 
 that is in the Spring of 1597 — we find Shakespeare 
 making his first considerable investment. This 
 was the purchase for sixty pounds of the mansion 
 at Stratford called "New Place," which was, as 
 
 investments.
 
 92 
 
 Fact and Fiction about Shakespeare 
 
 New Place. 
 
 Richard Quiney. 
 
 far back as 1496, known as "the Great House," 
 and which was destined to be Shakespeare's home 
 wlien he returned to Stratford.* In January, 1598, 
 Shakespeare seems to have contemplated acquiring 
 some land in the neighbourhood of Shottery, for 
 one Sturley, writing to his brother-in-law, Richard 
 Quiney, says, "it seemeth . . . that our country- 
 man, Mr. Shakespeare, is willing to disburse some 
 money upon some odd yardland, or other, at 
 Shottery, or near about us ; " but whether he 
 completed any j^urchase of land there I cannot 
 ascertain. In 1598 the reputed wealth of Shake- 
 speare was such as to induce the aforesaid fellow 
 townsman of the poet, Richard Quiney, to solicit 
 a loan of thirty pounds — a considerable sum in 
 those times, when the possession of forty pounds 
 caused a man to be regarded as rich. This letter 
 from Quiney to Shakespeare (the only letter to 
 him known to exist) is preserved at the Shakespeare 
 Museum at Stratford. In 1602 Shakesj^eare 
 purchased one hundred and seven acres of land 
 near Stratford from William and John Combe for 
 
 * Leland visiting Stratford about the year 1540 describes the Chapel 
 and New Place as follows : — 
 
 " 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 bi'icke 
 and tvmbre."
 
 Fact and Fiction about Shakespeare 93 
 
 the sum of three hundred and twenty pounds. 
 This purchase was negotiated by his brotlier, 
 Gilbert, who followed the trade of a haberdasher. 
 
 Later, in the same year, Walter Getley surrendered rurthor purciiasoa. 
 
 to Shakespeare certain premises in Chapel Lane, 
 
 Stratford, including a cottage and a garden. In 
 
 1605 Shakespeare purchased the " moiety of a 
 
 lease of the tithes of Stratford -on- A von, Old 
 
 Stratford, Welcombe, and ]3ishopton." For this he 
 
 gave the large sum of four hundred and forty 
 
 pounds. In 1610 the poet bought from William 
 
 and John Combe twenty acres of pasture land. In 
 
 1613 he purchased from Henry Walker a house 
 
 and yard at Blackfriars, near to the theatre, for 
 
 one hundred and forty pounds. In this year his 
 
 brother Richard died — F'dmund, the actor, having j^^.^^,^^ ^^^ Ricii.ird 
 
 been buried at St. Saviour's, Southwark, as far Shakl^lxlarc! 
 
 back as 1607.
 
 94 
 
 Fact and Fiction about Shakespeare 
 
 
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 96 Fact and Fiction about Shakespeare 
 
 With Shakespeare's financial success came certain 
 concomitant anno^^ances in the shape of litigation. 
 Here his business training stood him in good stead, 
 for in 1604 we find, by the Stratford Records, that 
 
 Litigation. 
 
 he successfully pursued one Philip Rogers for the 
 value of some malt, and in 1608, one John 
 Addenbrooke for the recovery of a debt. Sliake- 
 speare had now accumulated a considerable landed 
 estate. He possessed more than one hundred and 
 twenty-seven acres of land about Stratford ; a 
 mansion, cottage, and garden in the borough of 
 Stratford, and an estate in Blackfriars. At 
 Stratford his name was entered in all the leases 
 and deeds as "William Shakespeare, in the County 
 of Warwick, gentleman," — and it is not a matter 
 for surprise that in 1613, having secured a 
 competence, we find him leaving theatrical 
 management, with its cares and anxieties, for the 
 well-earned repose of a country life. 
 
 It seems to have been Shakespeare's ambition 
 Return to Stratford, f I'om early tiincs to rctum to Stratford and settle 
 down there as a country gentleman. And the 
 success of his iuA^estments in the playhouses and 
 the popularity of his plays, combined with his 
 thrift and prudence, enabled him to do this sooner 
 than could reasonably have been anticipated. The
 
 Fact and Fiction nhout Shahcapcarc 97 
 
 poet may have had all his later days thoughts of 
 such a life as he depicted in his early play of 
 "Henry VI ," and as he looked on his possessions 
 at Stratford, might well have said with that 
 Kentish gentleman, Alexander Iden, 
 
 " Lord, who would live turmoiled in the Court, 
 
 And may enjoy such quiet walks as these ? 
 
 This small inheritance 
 
 Contenteth me, and 's worth a monarchy. 
 
 I seek not to wax great by others' waning ; 
 
 Or gather wealth, I care not with what envy ; 
 
 Siifficeth, that I have maintains my state, 
 
 And sends the poor, well pleased from my gate."* 
 
 Be that as it may, in 1618 (the year which saw 
 the destruction by fire of the Globe playhouse) 
 Shakespeare took up his residence at " New Place/' 
 Stratford. With the one exception of 1614, in 
 which year the newly-built Globe was opened, I 
 find no record of Shakespeare ever re-visiting the 
 scene of his dramatic triumphs. He seems to have 
 been contented to remain in Stratford, surrounded 
 by the members of his family, and occasionally 
 seeing William and John Combe, his Welcombe Lif. at stratfoni. 
 ncighjjom^s — (the latter of whom, at his death in 
 1614, left the poet five pounds). f At other times 
 
 * Henry VI. (Second Tart), Act IV., Scene 10. 
 
 t Tliis legacy conclusively proves that Jolin Combe hail kin.lly fceling3 
 towards the poet, and if Shakespeare were indeed the author of the 
 doggerel epitaph imputed to iiim by Aubrey— given at lengtli in the
 
 98 Fact and Fiction about Shakespeare 
 
 
 The Globe Theatre, after rebuilding, in 1614. 
 
 he would entertain at Stratford certain of his 
 London companions — players and playwrights. 
 
 "Notice of Shakespeare from Aubi-ey's Lives of Eminent Men" on 
 page 1.5— it must have been written after Combe's death in 1614. Rowe's 
 statement that the lines were written dining the lifetime of John Combe, 
 and " that the sharpness of the satire is said to have stung the man so 
 severely that he never forgave it " is, in the face of the legacy, obviously 
 erroneous.
 
 Fact and Fiction about Shakespeare 
 
 99 
 
 On February lOtli, 1616, Shakespeare gave liis 
 daughter, Judith, in marriage to Tliomas Quiiiey, 
 the son of that Richard Quiney wlio had appHed 
 to him for a loan. In the previous January 
 
 <:t<Xtt5^ 
 
 Marriage of Judi til 
 
 Shakespeare had made liis a\411, leaving, among 
 other bequests, the following legacies to his 
 relatives and friends: — To his daughter, Judith, 
 he gave £150 of la-svful English money, £100 to be 
 paid in discharge of her marriage portion ^Wthin 
 one year of his decease, and the remaining £50 
 
 Shakospearo's Will,
 
 100 Fact and Fiction about Shakespeare 
 
 upon her giving ujo to her elder sister, Susanna 
 Hall, all her right in a copyhold tenement and 
 appurtenances, parcel of the Manor of Rowington. 
 To the said Judith he also bequeathed £150 more 
 if she or any of her issue were living three years 
 from the date of his will ; but in the contrary event, 
 then he directed that £100 of the sum should be 
 paid to his niece, Elizabeth Hall, and the proceeds 
 of the £50 to his sister, Joan Hart, for life, with 
 residue to her children. He further gave to the 
 said Judith a broad silver-gilt bowl. To his sister, 
 Joan, besides the contingent bequest above 
 mentioned, he gave £20 and all his wearing 
 apparel ; also the house in Stratford. . . 'i\) her 
 three sons he gave £5 a piece. To his grand- 
 daughter, Elizabeth Hall, he bequeathed all his 
 plate, the silver bowl above excepted. To the 
 poor of Stratford he bequeathed £10; and, among 
 other friends, he left £1 6s 8d to buy a ring to his 
 Bequests to Heminge, "fellows" Jolm Hcmingc, Richard Burbage, and 
 ^confeir^ Henry Condell. To his daughter, Susanna Hall, 
 he bequeathed "New Place," with its ap- 
 purtenances, two tenements, situated in Henley 
 Street ; also all his barns, stables, orchards, gardens, 
 lands, situated within Stratford-upon-Avon, Old 
 Stratford, Bi.shopton, and Welcombe; and also
 
 Fact and Fiction about Shakespeare 101 
 
 that tenement wherein one Jolni Robinson dwclletli, 
 
 situated in the Blackfriars, London. To the said 
 
 Susanna Hall and her husband, he further 
 
 bequeathed all the rest of his goods, chattels, 
 
 leases, plate, jewels, and household stuff whatsoever 
 
 — after the payment of his debts, legacies, and 
 
 funeral expenses - with the exception of his 
 
 "second best bed, mth the furniture," which he Bequest to his wifo. 
 
 bequeathed to his wife. This "second best bed" 
 
 was the wife's sole legacy, and the line in the will 
 
 notifying this gift was interlineated after the 
 
 original deed had been drawn up. It ^v411 be 
 
 noticed that neither his plays nor the shares he 
 
 held in the playhouses are mentioned in the will ; 
 
 but the reason for this omission will be apparent, 
 
 when I state that his monetary interest in both 
 
 plays and playhouses would cease at his death. 
 
 There is no existing evidence to prove that 
 Shakespeare was not in the "perfect health and 
 memory" described in the preamble of his will 
 when he drew up that document, so that his decease 
 in the following April must have ham com- 
 paratively sudden. In the diary of the Rev. Jolni 
 Ward, Vicar of Stratford, and already alluded to, 
 written in 1662 (while Shakespeare's granddaughter 
 was still living) occurs the following :—" Shake- 
 
 Cause of do;»tl«.
 
 102 Pact and Fiction about Shakespear'e 
 
 spear, Drayton, and Ben Jhonson, had a merry 
 meeting, and, itt seems, drank too hard, for 
 Shakespear died of a feavour there contracted."* 
 
 There is no reasonable ground for rejecting this 
 testimony, as the event would be known to many 
 of Shakespeare's neighbours at this period, who 
 were acquainted with the facts. Shakesjjeare, who 
 could not have been averse to occasional con- 
 viviality, probably drank at this memorable 
 meeting of old friends more than was prudent, and 
 contracting a fever, or some analogous ailment, as 
 
 * A tradition that Shakespeare was not averse to occasional conviviality 
 was current in Stratford as late as 1762, and a gentleman writing in the 
 " British Magazine " for June of that year records the following story, 
 which was commonly believed in the neighbourhood, and which was 
 related to him by the host of tlie White Lion Inn, who was his guide to 
 Bidford. He " shewed me in the hedge a crab tree called Shakespeare's 
 Canopy, because under it our poet slept one night ; for lie, as well as 
 Ben Jonson, 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 replied they were absent, but the 
 Bidford sippers were at home, and, I suppose, continued the sheep-keeper, 
 they will be sufficient for you ; and so indeed they were ; — he was forced 
 to take up his lodging under the tree for some hours." In 1770 this 
 account was amplified, and Shakespeare was made responsible for the 
 following impromptu doggerel, composed in reply to a friend's suggestion 
 next morning that he should return and renew the contest with the 
 Bidford sippers. Shakespeare declining, was made to say "I have drank 
 with — 
 
 Piping Pebworth, Dancing Marston, 
 Haunted Hillborough, Hungry Grafton, 
 Dadgeing Exhall, Papist Wicksford, 
 Beggarly Broom, and Drunken Bidford." 
 
 In 1790, 1794, and 1808 other versions of the story were publislied, but 
 they are all founded upon the tradition printed in 1762, and have only 
 their ingenuity to recommend them.
 
 Fact and Fiction about S/ialccspcarc 103 
 
 Fac-similcs of Entries in the Stratford Parish 
 
 Register relative to Shakespeare 
 
 and his Fanniiy. 
 
 The Baptism of Shakespeare. 26th April, 15G4 
 rrUy z6 Gy>{lrnA. ^^>^§h" -^^ytoiXU^ f^'Jo^^ 
 
 Baptism of his Daughter. Susanna, 26th May, 1583. 
 
 Baptism of his Twin Children, Hamnet & Judith, 2n(l February, 1535 
 
 Burial of his Son, Hamnet, lUh August, 1596 
 
 Burial of his Father, 8th September, IGOl. 
 
 Marriage of Susanna to Dr, Hall, 5th June, 1607. 
 
 Marriage of Judith to Thomas Quincy, 10th February, 161G. 
 
 Burial of Shakespeare, 25th April, 1616.
 
 104 
 
 Fact and Fiction about Shakespeare 
 
 Burial. 
 
 The Uharnel House. 
 
 recorded by the Rev. John Ward, died, after a 
 short ilhiess, on April the 23rd, IGlG.f 
 
 On April the 25th William Shakespeare was 
 buried in Stratford Church at the age of 52. Over 
 his grave laid a slab bearing the following well- 
 known inscription : — 
 
 " Good frend for lesvs sake forbeare, 
 To digg the dvst encloased Leare ; 
 Blese be ye man yt, spares thes stones, 
 And cvrst be he yt moves my bones." 
 
 Whether this doggerel was selected by the poet to 
 restrain the "meaner sort" of sextons from 
 disturbing his remains must always be an open 
 At that period, however, it was the 
 Stratford to transfer the bones from 
 the adjacent Charnel House; and 
 
 question, 
 custom at 
 graves to 
 
 Shakespeare may have had sentimental objections 
 to his "sconce" being knocked about by some 
 
 t Extract from an original memoranda-hook of the Rev. John Ward, 
 Vicar of Stratford-on- Avon. — " This bool-e was bej/itnne Feb. 14, 1661, and 
 finished Ajiril the 25, 1663, at Mr. Brooks his house in Stratford-rippon- 
 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 
 Abbington.— 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 tliousand a yeer, as I have heard. — Shakespear, Urayton, and Ben 
 Jhonson, had a merry meeting, and, itt seems, drank too hard, for Shake- 
 spear died of a feavour there contracted. — Remendier to peruse Shake- 
 spears plays and bee versed in them, that I may not bee ignorant in that 
 matter. "
 
 Shakespeare's Bust in Stratford Church as it now appears.
 
 Fact and Fiction ahoiit Shakespeare 105 
 
 knave with ^'a dirty sliovcl," and liis Ijoncs used 
 for a game of " loggats," .such as he describes in 
 '' Hamlet,"* and sucli as lie had, as a youth, prohahh- 
 seen played A\dtli the bones stored in Stratford 
 Charnel House. 
 
 That all interest in the great dramatist did not 
 cease at his death is shown by the testimonies of 
 his relatives, friends, and admirers. Within seven 
 years of his death, a bust sculptured by Gerard 
 Johnson, and, doubtless, typical of the poet as he 
 appeared during the latter years of his life, was 
 erected in the Stratford church by the members of The Stratford Bust. 
 his family. As this bust has been painted three 
 times — in 1748, in 1793, and in 1861, and othermse 
 desecrated by well-meaning enthusiasts, very little 
 reliance can now be placed upon the work as a 
 presentment of the jDoet as he lived. 
 
 Upon a tablet placed below the bust are engraven 
 the following appreciative lines — 
 
 *' JVDICIO PYLIY>t, GENIO SoCRATEM, ARTE !MaROXEM 
 
 Terra tegit, Popvlvs AL'eret, Olympvs IIabet." 
 
 ' ' Stay Passenger why goest thov by so fast ? 
 Read, if thov canst, whom enviovs Death hath plast, 
 With in this monvment, Sliakspeare : with whonio, 
 Qvick Natvre dide : whose name doth deck ys Tombo, 
 Far more then cost ; Sieh all, yt. Ho hath writt, 
 Loaves living art, bvt page, to servo his witt." 
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 EULOGISTIC VERSES BY SHAKESPEARE'S CONTEMPORARIES. 
 
 On William Shakespeare, who died in April, 1616. 
 Renowned Spenser, lie a thouglit more nigh 
 To learned Chaucer ; and rare Beaumont, lie 
 A litle nearer S[)eiiser, to make room 
 For Shakespeare, in your three-fold, four-fold tomb. 
 To lodyc all four in one bed make a shift 
 Until d'iomsday ; for luudly will a lift 
 Betwixt this day and that by fate be slain, 
 For whom your curtains may be drawn again. 
 But if precedency in death doth bar 
 A fourth place in your sacred sepulciire, 
 Under this carved marble of thine own, 
 Sleep, rare tragedian, Shakespeare, sleep alone. 
 Thy unmolested peace, unshared cave. 
 Possess, as lord, not tenant, of thy grave ; 
 That unto us and others it may be 
 Honour hereafter to be laid by thee. — William Basse. 
 
 To the Memori/ of my Beloved the Author, 
 Mr William Shakespeare, and ivhat he hath left ns. 
 To draw no envy, Shakespeare, on thy name. 
 Am I thus ample to thy book, and fame ; 
 While I confess thy writings to be such. 
 As neither man, nor muse, can praise too much ; 
 'Tis_true, and all men's suffrage: but these wa3-s 
 Were not the paths I meant unto thy praise : 
 For seeliest ignorance on these may light, 
 Which, when it sounds at best, but echoes right ; 
 Or blind affection, which doth ne'er advance 
 The truth, but gropes, and urgeth all by chance ; 
 Or crafty malice might pretend this praise, 
 And think to ruin, where it seem'd to raise : 
 These are, as some infamous bawd, or whore. 
 Should praise a matron ; what could hurt her more ? 
 But thou art proof against them ; and, indeed, 
 Above the ill fortune of them, or the need : 
 I, therefore, will begin : — Soul 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 lie 
 A litth? further, to make thee a room : 
 Thou art a monument without a tomb ; 
 And art alive still, while thj- book doth live. 
 And we have wits to read, and praise to give. 
 That I not mix thee so, my brain excuses ; 
 I m3an with great but disproportion'!! muses: 
 For, if I thought my judgment were of years, 
 I should commit thee surely with thj' peers : 
 And tell — how far thou didst our L^'ly outshine. 
 Or spoi'ting Kyd, or Marlowe's mighty line. 
 And though thou hadst small Latin, and less Greek, 
 From thence to honour thee, I woulil not seek 
 For names ; but call forth thun'dring /Eschylus, 
 Euripides, and Sophocles, to us, 
 I'acuvius, Accius, him of Cordova dead, 
 To life again, to hear thy buskin tread 
 And shake a stage ; or, when thj- socks were on, 
 Leave thee? alone ; for the comparison 
 Of all that insolent (ireece, or haughty Home, 
 Sent forth, or since did from their ashes come. 
 Triumph, my Britain ! thou hast one to show, 
 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 wnrm 
 Our ears, or like a Mercury to charm ! 
 Nature herself was proud of his designs, 
 And joy'd to wear the dressing of his lines ! 
 \\'hich were so richly spun, and woven so fit, 
 As, since, she will Vouchsafe no other wit: 
 The merry Greek, tart Aristophanes, 
 Neat Terence, witty I'lautus, now not please ; 
 But antiquated and deserted li<., 
 As they were not of Nature's family. 
 Yet must 1 not givtf Nature all ; thy art, 
 My gentle Shakespeare, nuist enjoy a part :— 
 For though the poet's 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 muse's anvil ; turn the same, 
 (And himself with it) that he thinks to frame ; 
 Or, for the laurel, he may gain a scorn,— 
 For a good poet's made, as well as born : 
 And such wert thou. Look, how the father's face 
 Lives in his issue ; even so the race 
 Of Shakespeare's mind, and manners, brightly sliines 
 In his well-turned and true-filed lines : 
 In each of which he seems to shake a lance, 
 As brandish'd at the eyes of ignorance. 
 Sweet swan of Avon, wliat a sight it were. 
 To see thei' in our waters yet appear ; 
 And make those fliehts upon tlie banks of Thames, 
 That so did take Eliza, and our James ! 
 But stay ; 1 see thee in the hemisphere 
 Advanc'd, and made a constellation there : — 
 Shine forth, thou star of poets ; and with rage, 
 Or influence, chide, or cheer, the drooping stage : 
 Which, since thy flight from hence, hath mourn'd like 
 And despairs day, but for thy volumes light ! [niyiit, 
 
 Bex Jonson. 
 
 To the Metnori/ of the deceased Author, Master 
 
 William Shakespeare. 
 SiiAKESPF.\RE, at lengtli thy ]iious fellows give 
 The world thy works ; thy works, by which outlive 
 Thy tomb, thy name must : when that stone is rent. 
 And time dissolves thy Stratford monument, 
 Here we alive shall view thee still. This book, 
 \\'hen brass and marble fade, shall make thee look 
 Fresh to all ages : when postm-ity 
 Shall loath what's new, think all is prodigy 
 That is not Shakespeare's ; every line, each verse, 
 Here shall revive, redeem thee from thv herse. 
 Nor fire, nor cank'ring age, — as Xaso said 
 Of his, — thy wit-fraught book shall once invade : 
 Nor shall 1 e'er believe or think thee dead. 
 Though miss'd, until our bankrout stage be sjjed 
 (Impossible) with some new strain to out-do 
 Passions "of Juliet, and her Homeo ; " 
 Or till I hear a scene more nobly take, 
 Than when thy half-sword parly ing Romans spake : 
 Till these, till any of thy volume's rest. 
 Shall with more fire, more feeling be express'd, 
 Bo sure, our Shakespeare, thou canst never die, 
 But, crown'd with laurel, live eternally. — L.- Diooes.
 
 106 Fact and Fiction about Shakespeare 
 
 Then wc have eulogistic verses wi'itten after his 
 death by William Basse, Hugh Holland, Leonard 
 Digges, Ben Jonson, and later, by John Milton. 
 
 One portion of Ben Jonson' s oft-quoted testimony 
 
 I wish to dwell upon, as it exemplifies many points 
 
 jonsoii's testin.ony in the poot's laboui' wliich otherwise bear a 
 
 uf iuiiniratioi). -,.r„ • t 
 
 dinerent construction. Jonson Avrites — 
 
 " 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 warm 
 Our ears, or like a Mercury to charm. 
 Nature herself was proud of his designs, 
 And joyed to wear the dressing of his lines ; 
 Which were so richly spun, and woven so fit, 
 As, since, she will vouchsafe no other wit : 
 The merry Greek, tart Aristophanes, 
 Neat Terence, witty Plautus, now not please ; 
 Shakespe ire's art. j^^j. antiquated, and deserted lie, 
 
 As they were not of Nature's family ; 
 Yet must I not give Nature all: thy art 
 My gentle Shakespeare, must enjoy a part; 
 For though the poet's 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 anvil ; turn the same, 
 (And himself with it) that he thinks to frame ; 
 Or for the laurel, he may gain a scorn, 
 For a good poet's made, as well as born : 
 A^d such wert thou." 
 
 Here is a direct contradiction to the statements
 
 Fact and Fiction about Shakespeare 107 
 
 that Shakes^Deare ''wanted art." Jonson is 
 emphatic when he says — 
 
 " Yet must I not give Nature all : thy art 
 My gentle Shakespeare, must enjoy a part ; " 
 
 and again the lines — 
 
 " For a good poet's made, as well as born : 
 And such wert thou " — 
 
 show that Jonson, a practical craftsman, was well 
 aware of the labour Shakespeare had emi)loycd to The evidence of 
 perfect his skill as a poet and a plaj^vright. And 
 it is only on the testimony of those who wrote in 
 later times that we learn he never laboured to 
 improve himself in his art. In matters of stagecraft 
 — whether in the contrasts of character, the selection 
 of dialogue, or the development of his plot, Shake- 
 speare's skill stuck "fiery off indeed" when 
 compared vaiXi that of his contemporaries. Kvery 
 line of his plays is wntten from a practical actor- 
 pla}^vi'ight's point of \dew — the view of obtaining 
 an effect — and, taking into consideration the 
 conditions under which plays were produced in 
 Shakespeare's day, the effects he did obtain were 
 marvellous. And this superiority over them in tlie 
 essentials of his art is duly and honourably testific>d 
 to by his brother dramatists. 
 
 Of Milton's Ode I quote the following : — 
 ' ' What needs my Shakespeare for his honoured bones
 
 108 Fact and Fiction about Shakespeare 
 
 The labour of an age in piled stones ? 
 Or that his hallowed reliques should be hid, 
 Milton's eulogy. Under a star-y pointing pyramid ? 
 
 Dear son of memory, great heir of fame, 
 
 What needs't thou such weak witness of thy name ? 
 
 Thou, in our wonder, and astonishment, 
 
 Hast built thyself a livelong monument." 
 
 But the greatest and most lasting memorial to 
 the fame of Shakespeare was contributed by his 
 two fellow-players and partners, Jolni Heminge 
 and Henry Condell. When these two men "with- 
 out ambition either of self e-profit or fame ; onely to 
 keepe the memory of so worthy a friend and fellow 
 alive, as was Shakespeare," gave to the world the 
 first folio edition of his collected works they erected 
 The first Folio. ^ " Time defying monument" to the poet.* 
 
 Before the first folio was published, not more 
 than one half of Shakespeare's plays had been 
 printed, and several of his masterpieces, including 
 ''The Tempest," "Macbeth," "Twelfth Night," 
 
 * The dedication of the players prefixed to the first Folio 1623 
 
 To the Most Xoh/e and IncomparaJde Paire of Brtthen, William, earle of 
 
 Pembroke, tt-c, Lord Chamherlaiiie to the Kings mod Excellent 
 
 Majesty, and Philip, earle of Montgomery, d-c. Gentlemen 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 than to descend to the reading of these trifles ; and, 
 
 while we name them trifles, we have depriv'd ourselves of the defence oif 
 
 our Dedication. But since your L.L. have beene pleas'd to thiuke these
 
 Fact and Fiction about Shakespeare 109 
 
 ''Mea.sui'C for Measure," " Coriolanus," "Julius 
 Caesar," " Timon of Athens," "Antony and 
 Cleopatra," " Cyinbeliue," " As You Like It," and 
 " The Winter's Tale," remained in manuscript till 
 this edition was issued in 1623. In their ill- 
 considered endeavour to depreciate the inestimable 
 value of this first folio edition of our poet's plays, 
 some modern commentators have not hesitated to 
 stigmatize it as a hasty example of cheap 17th 
 century workmanship. So far from tliis being the 
 case, a comparison between the folio and the first 
 published editions of Beaumont and Fletcher's 
 plays, or the plays of Jonson, and later of Davenant 
 — or, indeed, of the published collected labom-s of 
 any of the 17th centmy dramatists — will prove that 
 it is equal to the best of them in every particular, 
 save in that of editing. But the task of editing a 
 work of such magnitude from MS., without the 
 author's supervision, would tax the ability of the 
 
 trifles some-thing hceretofore, aud have proseciuuteil both them, and their 
 authour living-, with so much favour, we hope, that (they out-living 
 him, aud he not having tlie fate, common with some, to be exquutor to 
 his own 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 liathe done both lor so 
 much were you L.L. likings of the severall parts, when they 
 were acted, as, before they were published, tlie volume ask d to 
 be yours. We have but collected them, and done an oHiee to 
 the dead to procure his orphanes guardians ; without ambition either o 
 selfe-profit or fame, ouely to keepe the memory of so worthy a trieml an<l 
 fellow ailve, as was our Shakespeare, by humble offer of hi.s playes to your
 
 no Fact and Fiction about Shakespeare 
 
 most vigilant readers for the press. And Heminge 
 and Condell were perfectly aware of the dis- 
 advantages they laboured under, when they wrote 
 as follows in " The Preface of the Players" — 
 " It had bene a thing, we confesse, worthie to have bene wished, 
 that the Author himselfe had lived to have set forth, and 
 overseen his owne writings ; But since it hath bin ordain'd 
 otherwise, and ho by death departed from that right, we pray 
 you, doe not envie his Friends, the office of their care and 
 paine, to have collected and publish'd them." 
 
 Any one practically acquainted with the difficulties 
 of publication must know that the passing through 
 the press of a work of less bulk or pretension than 
 the folio would entail vast labour ; and even if the 
 utmost care were bestowed upon the revision it 
 would be impossible to exclude all error. Certainly 
 some of the later day emendations are not more 
 reliable than the readings in the folio, and have not 
 gone far towards clearing away the tangled under- 
 most noble patronage. Wherein, as we liave justly observed, no man to 
 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 
 of your H. H. by the perfection. But there we must also crave our abities 
 to be considered, my Lords. We cannot go beyond our owne powers. 
 Country hands reach foorth milke, ereanie, 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 approcli 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 I'emaines of your 
 servant Sliakespeare ; tliat what delight is in them may be ever yourL.L., 
 the reputation his, and the faults ours, if any be committed by a payre so 
 carefull to sliew their gratitude both to the living and the dead as is — 
 Your Lordshippes most bounden, — John Htminye. — Henry Condell.
 
 Pact and Fiction about Shakespeare 111 
 
 growth of wordy obscurity that vitiates many 
 
 j^assages. But notwithstanding its editorial faults, 
 
 the first folio is a loving tribute to the memory of a 
 
 dead friend, and the example set by these worthy 
 
 players has rarely been emulated in more modern 
 
 times. In the first folio we have, too, the only 
 
 trustworthy portrait of Shakespeare. Droeshout's 
 
 engraving, which forms the frontispiece of this 
 
 volume, although poor as a work of art, must have 
 
 been a good likeness, or we should not have had the 
 
 following lines written in praise of it by Ben 
 
 Jonson : — 
 
 " The figure that thou here seest put, 
 It was for gentle Shakespeare, cut ; 
 Wherein the graver had a strife 
 With Nature to outdo the life. 
 0, could he but have draAvn his wit 
 As well in brass, as he hath hit 
 His face, the print would then surpass 
 All that was ever writ in brass : 
 But, since he cannot, reader, look 
 Not on his picture, but his book. 
 
 With the injunction contained in the last lines of 
 Jonson's eulogy I will conclude this narrative 
 concerning Shakespeare. It is not from essays 
 or pictures that one can learn to appreciate his 
 plays. These may stimulate ; but the world-wide 
 knowledge and delight which the poet's writings 
 
 The Droeshout 
 Portrait.
 
 112 Fact and Fiction about Shakespeare 
 
 afford can only be acquired by a loving study of 
 his marvellous works. 
 
 PRINTED BY GEORGE BOYDEN AT THE " STRATFORD-ON-AVON PRESS.
 
 ERRATA. 
 
 Page ir>, line 11, for "Sententia Pueriles" read "Sententiac Pupriles." 
 
 Page 30, side note, for "Green's" read " Greene's. " 
 
 Page 104, line 5, for " laid a slab" read " was laid a slalj."
 
 112 Fact and Fiction about Shakespeare 
 
 afford can only be acquired by a loving study of 
 his marvellous works. 
 
 PRINTED BY OKORGE BOYBEN AT THE " STRATFORD-ON-AVON PRESS.
 
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