( ' *a U UC-NRLF |lijl|ji|ll||l||l lillllllllllllillilllllililiil B 3 SbO EflD 1 iixai-i> ■j^^^y^ .j//C-ri.'^Ti.'u:a//' ^ OtI'NKTMENT OF ^EK^IY EXTEXSIOR. ^(( it 1 1 am cJ/iakcj/u'iirr from ihc (/ ri'cj/u^ic/ /uti/iluu/ in'/r in the yhakumctircv ilcrnrritii ljattcr(/ al c)lriithrr-i'n-^ Irrn. A LIFE OF WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE BY SIDNEY LEE WITH PORTRAITS AND FACSIMILES THE MACMILLAN COMPANY^\S^ LONDON: MACMILLAN & CO., Ltd. 1906 All rights reserved J I X, Copyright, 1898, Bv THE MACMILLAN COMPANY. Set up and electrotyped November, 1898. Reprinted January, November, 1899 ; July, 1901 ; February, 1903; April, 1904; July, 1906. NoriuooS IPrtBS J. S. Gushing & Co. — Berwick * Smith Norwood Mass. U.S.A. PREFACE This work is based on the article on Shakespeare which I contributed last year to the lifty-first volume of the ' Dictionary of National Biography.' But the changes and additions which the article has under- gone during my revision of it for separate publication are so numerous as to give the book a title to be regarded as an independent venture. In its general aims, however, the present life of Shakespeare en- deavours loyally to adhere to the principles that are inherent in the scheme of the ' Dictionary of National Biography.' I have endeavoured to set before my readers a plain and practical narrative of the great dramatist's personal history as concisely as the needs of clearness and completeness would permit. I have sought to provide students of Shakespeare with a full record of the duly attested facts and dates of their master's career. I have avoided merely aesthetic criti- cism. My estimates of the value of Shakespeare's plays and poems are intended solely to fulfil the obligation that lies on the biographer of indicating V 373J94 VI WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE succinctly the character of the successive labours, which were woven into the texture of his hero's life. Esthetic studies of Shakespeare abound, and to in- crease their number is a work of supererogation. But Shakespearean literature, as far as it is known to me, still lacks a book that shall supply within a brief compass an exhaustive and well-arranged statement of the facts of Shakespeare's career, achievement, and reputation, that shall reduce conjecture to the smallest dimensions consistent with coherence, and shall give verifiable references to all the original sources of information. After studying Elizabethan literature, history, and bibliography for more than eighteen years, I believed that I might, without exposing my- self to a charge of presumption, attempt something in the way of filling this gap, and that I might be able to supply, at least tentatively, a guide-book to Shake- speare's life and work that should be, within its limits, complete and trustworthy. How far my belief was justified the readers of this volume will decide. I cannot promise my readers any startling revela- tions. But my researches have enabled me to remove some ambiguities which puzzled my predecessors, and to throw light on one or two topics that have hitherto obscured the course of Shakespeare's career. Particulars that have not been before incorporated in Shakespeare's biography will be found in my treatment of the following subjects : the conditions under which ' Love's Labour's Lost ' and the ' Mer- PREFACE vii chant of Venice ' were written ; the references in Shakespeare's plays to his native town and county ; his father's applications to the Heralds' College for coat-armour; his relations with Ben Jonson and the boy actors in 1601 ; the favour extended to his work by James I and 'his Court ; the circumstances which led to the publication of the First Folio, and the his- tory of the dramatist's portraits. I have somewhat expanded the notices of Shakespeare's financial affairs which have already appeared in the article in the ' Dictionary of National Biography,' and a few new facts will be found in my revised estimate of the poet's pecuniary position. In my treatment of the sonnets I have pursued what I believe to be an original line of investigation. The strictly autobiographical interpretation that crit- ics have of late placed on these poems compelled me, as Shakespeare's biographer, to submit them to a very narrow scrutiny. My conclusion is adverse to the claim of the sonnets to rank as autobiographical documents, but I have felt bound, out of respect to waiters from whose views I dissent, to give in detail the evidence on which I base my judgment. Mat- thew Arnold sagaciously laid down the maxim that ' the criticism which alone can much help us for the future is a criticism which regards Europe as being for intellectual and artistic ^ purposes one great con- ^ Arnold wrote 'spiritual,' but the change of epithet is needful to render the dictum thoroughly pertinent to the topic under consideration. Vlll WILLIAM SIIAKESrEARE federation, bound to a joint action and working to a common result.' It is criticism inspired by this lib- eralising principle that is especially applicable to the vast sonnet-literature which was produced by Shake- speare and his contemporaries. It is criticism of the type that Arnold recommended that can alone lead to any accurate and profitable conclusion respect- ing the intention of the vast sonnet-literature of the Elizabethan era. In accordance with Arnold's sug- gestion, I have studied Shakespeare's sonnets com- paratively with those in vogue in England, France, and Italy at the time he wrote. I have endeavoured to learn the view that was taken of such literary endeavours by contemporary critics and readers throughout Europe. My researches have covered a very small portion of the wide field. But I have gone far enough, I think, to justify the conviction that Shakespeare's collection of sonnets has no reasonable title to be regarded as a personal or autobiographical narrative. In the Appendix (Sections iii. and iv.) I have supplied a memoir of Shakespeare's patron, the Earl of Southampton, and an account of the Earl's rela- tions with the contemporary world of letters. Apart from Southampton's association with the sonnets, he promoted Shakespeare's welfare at an early stage of the dramatist's career, and I can quote the authority of Malone, who appended a sketch of Southamp- ton's history to his biography of Shakespeare (in the PREFACE ix 'Variorum' edition of 1821); for treating a know- ledge of Southampton's life as essential to a full knowledge of Shakespeare's. I have also printed in the Appendix a detailed statement of the precise cir- cumstances under which Shakespeare's sonnets were published by Thomas Thorpe in 1609 (Section v.), and a review of the facts that seem to me to confute the popular theory that Shakespeare was g friend and protege of William Herbert, third Earl of Pembroke, who has been put forward quite unwarrantably as the hero of the sonnets (Sections vr., vii., viii.y I have also included in the Appendix (Sections ix. and x.) a survey of the voluminous sonnet-literature of the Elizabethan poets between 1591 and 1597, with which Shakespeare's sonnetteering efforts were very closely allied, as well as a bibliographical note on a corre- sponding feature of French and Italian literature between 1550 and i6(X). Since the publication of the article on Shake- speare in the ' Dictionary of National Biography,' I have received from correspondents many criticisms and suggestions which have enabled me to correct some errors. But a few of my correspondents have exhibited so insrenuous a faith in those forged docu- ^ I have already published portions of the papers on Shakespeare's relations with the Earls of Pembroke and Southampton in the Fort- nightly Review (for February of this year) and in the Cornhill Magazine (for April of this year), and I have to thank the proprietors of those periodicals for permission to reproduce my material in this volume. X WILLIAM SIL\KESrLARE ments relating to Shakespeare and forged references to his works, which were promulgated chiefly by- John Payne Collier more than half a century ago, that I have attached a list of the misleading records to my chapter on 'The Sources of Biographical Information' in the Appendix (Section i.). I be- lieve the list to be fuller than any to be met with elsewhere. The six illustrations which appear in this volume have been chosen on grounds of practical utility rather than of artistic merit. My reasons for selecting as the frontispiece the newly discovered ' Droeshout ' painting of Shakespeare (now in the Shakespeare Memorial Gallery at Stratford-on-Avon) can be gath- ered from the history of the painting and of its dis- covery which I give on pages 288-90. I have to thank Mr. Edgar Flower and the other members of the Council of the Shakespeare Memorial at Stratford for permission to reproduce the picture. The por- trait of Southampton in early life is now at Welbeck Abbey, and the Duke of Portland not only per- mitted the portrait to be engraved for this volume, but lent me the negative from which the plate has been prepared. • The Committee of the Garrick Club gave permission to photograph the interesting bust of Shakespeare in their possession,^ but, owing to the fact that it is moulded in black terra-cotta, no satisfactory negative could be obtained ; the ^ For an account of its history see p. 295. PREFACE xi engraving I have used is from a photograph of a white plaster cast of the original bust, now in the Memorial Gallery at Stratford. The five autographs of Shakespeare's signature — all that exist of un- questioned authenticity — appear in the three remain- ing plates. The three signatures on the will have been photographed from the original document at Somerset House, by permission of Sir Francis Jeune, President of the Probate Court ; the autograph on the deed of purchase by Shakespeare in 1613 of the house in Blackfriars has been photographed from the original document in the Guildhall Library, by permission of the Library Committee of the City of London; and the autograph on the deed of mortgage relating to the same property, also dated in 16 1 3, has been photographed from the original document in the British Museum, by permission of the Trustees. Shakespeare's coat-of-arms and motto, which are stamped on the cover of this volume, are copied from the trickings in the margin of the draft- grants of arms now in the Heralds' College. The Baroness Burdett-Coutts has kindly given me ample opportunities of examining the two peculiarly interesting and valuable copies of the First Folio ^ in her possession. Mr. Richard Savage, of Stratford-on- Avon, the Secretary of the Birthplace Trustees, and Mr. W. Salt Brassington, the Librarian of the Shake- speare Memorial at Stratford, have courteously re- 1 See pp. 309, 311. xii WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE plied to the many inquiries that I have addressed to them verbally or by letter. Mr. Lionel Cust, the Director of the National Portrait Gallery, has helped me to estimate the authenticity of Shakespeare's portraits. I have also benefited, while the work has been passing through the press, by the valuable sug- gestions of my friends the Rev. H. C. Beeching and Mr. W. J. Craig, and I have to thank Mr. Thomas Seccombe for the zealous aid he has rendered me while correcting the final proofs. October 12, 1S98. CONTENTS PARENTAGE AND BIRTH Distribution of the name of Shakespeare The poet's ancestry . The poet's father His settlement at Strat- ford .... The poet's mother 1564, April. The poet's and baptism . Alleged birthplace PAGE . 6 birth II CHILDHOOD, EDUCATION, AND MARRIAGE The father in municipa office Brothers and sisters . The father's financial dif ficulties . 1571-7 Shakespeare's education His classical equipment Shakespeare's knowledge of the Bible . 1575 Queen Elizabeth at Ken ilworth . 1577 Withdrawal from school 16 1582, De<. The poet's marriage Richard Hathaway of Shottery Anne Hathaway Anne Hathaway's cot- tage .... The bond against imped- iments .... 15S3, May. Birth of the poet's daughter Susanna Formal betrothal proba- bly dispensed with 19 23 XIV WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE III THE FAREWELL TO STRATFORD Early married life Poaching in Charlecote . Unwarranted doubts of the tradition . 28 1585 Justice Shallow The flight from Stratford . IV ON THE LONDON STAGE 1586 The Journey to London . Richard Field, Shake- speare's townsman Theatrical employment . A playhouse servitor The acting companies The Lord Chamberlain's company Shakespeare a member of the Lord Chamberlain's company 31 The London theatres Place of residence in Lon- 36 32 don .... 38 32 Actors' provincial tours . 39 33 Shakespeare's alleged 34 travels .... 40 In Scotland 41 35 In Italy .... 42 Shakespeare's roles . 43 His alleged scorn of an 36 actor's calling 45 EARLY DRAMATIC WORK The period of Shake- speare's dramatic work, 1591-1611 His borrowed plots . The revision of plays Chronology of the plays Metrical tests . 1591 Love's Labour's Lost 1591 Two Ge?itlemen of Verona 1592 Comedy 0/ Errors 1592 Romeo and yitliet 1592, March. Henry VI . 1592, Sept Greene's attack on Shakespeare . Chettle's apology Divided authorship of Henry VI . Shakespeare's coadjutors Shakespeare's assimilative power . . . . Lyly's influence in comedy Marlowe's influence in tragedy . . . -63 Richard III ... 63 Richard II . . .64 Shakespeare's acknow- ledgments to Marlowe . 64 Titus Andronicus . . 65 1594, August. The Merchant of Venice . . . .66 Shylock and Roderigo Lopez . . . .68 A'in^ John . . .69 Dec. 28. Comedy of Er- rors in Gray's Inn Hall 70 Early plays doubtfully as- signed to Shakespeare . 71 Arden of Feversham (1592) .... 71 Edivard III . . .72 Alucedorus . . .72 Faire Em (1592) . . 73 1593 1593 1593 1594 15941 CONTENTS XV VI THE FIRST APPEAL TO THE READING PUBLIC 1593, April. Publication of Ve- nus and Adonis . . 74 1594, May. Publication of Lu- crece . . . •76 Enthusiastic reception of the poems . . .78 Shakespeare and Spenser 79 Patrons at Court . . 81 VII THE SONNETS AND THEIR LITERARY HISTORY The vogue of the Eliza- bethan sonnet . . 83 Shakespeare's first experi- ments . . . .84 1594 Majority of Shakespeare's sonnets composed . 85 Their literary value . . 87 Circulation in manuscript 88 ■'I'heir piratical publication in 1609 . . . .89 A Lover's Complaint 91 Thomas Thorpe and ' Mr. W. H; . . . . 91 The form of Shakespeare's sonnets . . . -95 1 heir want of continuity . 96 The two ' groups ' . -96 Main topics of the first ■group' ... 98 Main topics of the second ' group ' ... 99 The order of the sonnets in the edition of 1640 . 100 Lack of genuine senti- ment in Elizabethan sonnets .... 100 Their dependence on French and Italian models .... loi Sonnetteers' admissions of insincerity . . . 105 Contemporary censure of sonnetteers' false senti- ment .... 106 Shakespeare's scornful al- lusions to sonnets in his plays .... 108 VIII THE BORROWED CONCEITS OF THE SONNETS Slender autobiographi- cal element in Shake- speare's sonnets . The imitative element Shakespeare's claims of immortality for his son- nets a borrowed con- ceit . . . . 109 109 113 Conceits in sonnets ad- dressed to a woman . 117 The praise of ' blackness ' 118 The sonnets of vitupera- tion .... 120 Gabriel Harvey's ' Amo- rous Odious sonnet , 121 Jodclle's Cotttr' Amours . 122 XVI WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE IX THE PATRONAGE OF THE EARL OF SOUTHAMPTON Biographic fact in the ' dedicatory ' sonnets . The Earl of Southampton the poet's sole patron . Rivals in Southampton's favour .... Shakespeare's fear of an- other poet Barnabe Barnes probably the chief rival Other theories as to the chief rival's identity Sonnets of friendship Extravagances of literary compliment . 126 PAGE Patrons habitually ad- dressed in affectionate terms Direct references to Southampton in the sonnets of friendship His youthfulness The evidence of portraits 144 Sonnet cvii. the last of the series .... 147 Allusions to Queen Eliza- beth's death . . . 147 Allusion to Southamp- ton's release from prison .... 149 139 142 143 X THE SUPPOSED STORY OF INTRIGUE IN THE SONNETS Sonnets of melancholy and self-reproach . . 151 The youth's relations with the poet's mistress . 153 Ms Avisa Willobie (1594) • • • -155 Summary of conclusions respecting the sonnets . 158 XI THE DEVELOPMENT OF DRAMATIC POWER 1594- 1595 159s 1597 1597 1598 5 Midsummer Night's Essex and the rebellion of Dream. .... 161 1601 . . . . 174 All's Well that Ends Shakespeare's popularity Well . . . .162 and influence 176 The Taming of the Shrcio 163 Shakespeare's friendship Stratford allusions in the with Ben Jonson ., 176 Induction . . . 164 The Mermaid meetings . 177 Wincot . . . .165 1598 Meres's eulogy . 178 Henry IV . . . .167 Value of his name to pub- Falstaff . . . .169 lishers . . . . 179 T/ie A ferry Wives of 1599 T/ie Passionate Pilgritn . 182 Windsor . . . 171 1601 The Phxnix and the Henry I' . . . . 173 Turtle . . . . 183 CONTENTS XVll XII THE PRACTICAL AFFAIRS OF LIFE Shakespeare's practical temperament. . . 185 His father's difficulties . 186 His wife's debt . . . 187 1596-9 The coat of arms . . 188 1597, May 4. The purchase of New Place . . . 193 1598 Fellow-townsmen appeal to Shakespeare for aid 195 Shakespeare's financial position before 1599 . 196 Shakespeare's financial position after 1599 His later income Incomes of fellow-actors . 1601-1610 Shakespeare's for- mation of his estate at Stratford 1605 The Stratford tithes . 1600-1609 Recovery of small debts . . . . 200 202 203 204 205 206 XIII MATURITY OF GENIUS 1599 1599 1000 1601 1601 Literary work in 1599 . 207 Muck Ado about Nothing 208 . 209 . 209 . 211 As You Like It . 'Rvelfth Night . Julius Caesar . The strife between adult actors and boy actors . Shakespeare's references to the struggle Ben Jonson's Poetaster . Shakespeare's alleged par- tisanship in the theatri- cal warfare . 213 216 217 219 1602 Hamlet .... 221 The problem of its publi- cation .... 222 The First Quarto, 1603 . 222 The Second Quarto, 1604 223 The Folio version, 1623 . 223 Popularity of Hamlet . 224 1603 Troilus a>id Cressida . 225 Treatment of the theme . 227 1603, March 26. Queen Eliza- beth's death . . . 229 James I's patronage . 230 XIV THE HIGHEST THEMES OF TRAGEDY 1604, Nov. Othello . . . 235 1604, Dec. Measure for Meas- ure .... 237 1606 Macbeth .... 239 1607 King Lear . . . 241 1608 Timon of Athens , . 242 1608 Pericles .... 243 1608 Antony and Cleopatra . 245 1609 Coriolanus . . . 247 XVUl WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE XV THE LATEST PLAYS The placid temper of the latest plays . . . 248 1610 Cymbeline .... 249 161 1 A Winter's Tale . . 251 16 1 1 Tke Tempest . . . 252 Fanciful interpretations of The Tempest. . . 256 Unfinished plays . . 258 The lost play of Car- denio .... 258 The Two Noble Kins- meft .... 259 Henry VIII . . .261 The burning of the Globe Theatre .... 262 XVI THE CLOSE OF LIFE Plays at Court in 16 13 . 264 Actor-friends . . . 264 161 1 Final settlement at Strat- ford .... 266 Domestic affairs . . 266 1613, March. Purchase of a house in Blackfriars . 267 1614, Oct. Attempt to enclose the Stratford common fields .... 269 1616, April 23. Shakespeare's death .... 272 1616, April 25. Shakespeare's burial .... 272 The will .... 273 Shakespeare's bequest to his wife .... 273 Shakespeare's heiress . 275 Legacies to friends . . 276 The tomb in Stratford Church .... 276 Shakespeare's personal character . . . 277 XVII SURVIVORS AND DESCENDANTS Mrs. Judith Quiney (1585- 1662) .... 280 Mrs. Susannah Hall (1583-1649) . . .281 The last descendant . . 282 Shakespeare's brothers, Edmund, Richard, and Gilbert . . . .283 XVIII AUTOGRAPHS, PORTRAITS, AND MEMORIALS Spelling of the poet's name . . . . Autograph signatures Shakespeare's portraits . The Stratford bust . The ' Stratford portrait ' . Droeshout's engraving The ' Droeshout ' paint- ing Later portraits . 284 284 286 286 287 287 291 The Chandos portrait . 292 The ' Jansen ' portrait . 294 The ' Felton ' portrait . 294 The ' Soest ' portrait. . 294 Miniatures . . . 295 The Garrick Club bust . 295 Alleged death-mask . . 296 Memorials in sculpture . 297 Memorials at Stratford . 297 CONTENTS XIX XIX BIBLIOGRAPHY PAGE Quartos of the poems in the poet's lifetime . . 299 Posthumous quartos of the poems The ' Poems ' of 1640 Quartos of the plays in the poet's lifetime Posthumous quartos of the plays 1623 The First Folio The publishing syndi cate The prefatory matter The value of the text The order of the plays The typography Unique copies . The Sheldon copy . Estimated number of ex tant copies Reprints of the First Folio 1632 The Second Folio . 1663-4 The Third Folio 1685 The Fourth Folio . Eighteenth-century edi tors Nicholas Rowe (1674- 1718) . . . 300 300 300 300 303 303 306 307 307 308 308 309 310 3" 312 312 313 313 314 PAGE Alexander Pope (1688- 1744) • • • -315 Lewis Theobald (1688- 1744) • . . -317 Sir Thomas Hanmer (1677-1746) . . .317 Bishop Warburton (1698- 1779) . . . .318 Dr. Johnson (1709-1783) . 319 Edward Capell (1713- 1781) . . . . 319 George Steevens (1736- 1800) .... 320 Edmund Malone (1741- 1812) .... 322 Variorum editions . . 322 Nineteenth-century edi- tors 323 Alexander Dyce (1798- 1C69) . . . .323 Howard Staunton (1810- 1874) . . . .324 Nikolaus Delius (1813- 1888) . . . .324 The Cambridge edition (1863-1866) . . .324 Other nineteenth-century editions .... 324 XX POSTHUMOUS REPUTATION Views of Shakespeare's The first appearance of contemporaries 326 actresses in Shake- Ben Jonson's tribute 327 spearean parts English opinion between David Garrick (1717- 1660 and 1702 329 1779) .... Dryden's view . 330 John Philip Kemble Restoration adaptations . 331 (1757-1823) . English opinion from 1702 Mrs. Sarah Siddons onwards 332 (1755-1831) . Stratford festivals 334 Edmund Kean (1787- Shakespeare on the Eng- 1833) . . . . lish stage 334 334 336 337 337 338 XX WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE William Charles Mac- Shakespeare in France 347 ready (1793-1873) 339 Voltaire's strictures . 348 Recent revivals. 339 P'rench critics' gradua Shakespeare in English emancipation from Vol music and art 340 tairean influence . 349 Boydell's Shakespeare Shakespeare on the gallery .... 341 French stage . 350 Shakespeare in America . 341 Shakespeare in Italy 352 Translations 342 In Holland 352 Shakespeare in Germany. 342 In Russia . 353 German translations. 343 In Poland. 353 Modern German critics . 345 In Hungary 353 Shakespeare on the Ger- In other countries . 354 man stage 345 XXI GENERAL ESTIMATE General estimate 355 Character of Shake Shakespeare's defects 355 speare's achievement Its universal recognition 356 357 APPENDIX THE SOURCES OF BIOGRAPHICAL KNOWLEDGE Contemporary records abundant . . . 361 First efforts in biography. 361 Biographers of the nine- teenth century . . 362 Stratford topography . 363 Specialised studies in biography . . .363 Epitomes .... 364 Aids to study of plots and text .... 364 Concordances . . . 364 Bibliographies . . . 365 Critical studies . . . 365 Shakespearean forgeries . 365 John Jordan (1746-1809) 366 The Ireland forgeries (1796) . . . .366 List of forgeries promul- gated by Collier and others (1835-1849) . 367 II THE BACON-SHAKESPEARE CONTROVERSY Its source .... 370 Toby Matthew's letter of 1621 .... 371 Chief exponents of the theory .... 371 Its vogue in America Extent of the literature Absurdity of the theory 372 372 373 APPENDIX^ CONTENTS XXI III THE YOUTHFUL CAREER OF THE EARL OF SOUTHAMPTON Shakespeare and South- ampton .... 374 Southampton's parentage 374 1573, Oct. 6. Southampton's birth . . . .375 His education . . . 375 Recognition of South- ampton's beauty in youth .... 377 His reluctance to marry . 378 Intrigue with Elizabeth Vernon .... 379 1598 Southampton's marriage . 379 1601-3 Southampton's impris- onment .... 380 Later career . . . 380 1624, Nov. 10. His death . . 381 IV THE EARL OF SOUTHAMPTON AS A LITERARY PATRON Southampton's collection of books . . . 382 References in his letters to poems and plays . 382 His love of the theatre . 383 Poetic adulation . . 384 1593 Barnabe Barnes's sonnet . 384 Tom Nash's addresses . 385 1595 Gervase Markham's son- net 387 1598 Florio's address . . 387 The congratulations of the poets in 1603 . . . 387 Elegies on Southampton . 389 THE TRUE HISTORY OF THOMAS THORPE AND 'MR. W. H.' The publication of the 'Sonnets' in 1609 . . 390 The text of the dedica- tion .... 391 Publishers' dedications . 392 Thorpe's early life . . 393 His ownership of the manuscript of Mar- lowe's Lncan . . . 393 His dedicatory address to Edward Blount in 1600 . . . .394 Character of his business . 395 Shakespeare's sufferings at publishers' hands . 396 The use of initials in dedications of Eliza- bethan and Jacobean books .... 397 Frequency of wishes for ' happiness ' and ' eter- nity' in dedicatory greetings . . . 398 Five dedications by Thorpe .... 399 ' W. H." signs dedica- tion of Southwell's ' Poems "... 400 'W. H.' and Mr. William Hall .... 402 The ' onlie begetter ' means ' only procurer' . 403 XXll WILLIAM SHAKESrEARE {APPENDIX VI •MR. WILLIAM HERBERT' PAGE Origin of the notion that ' Mr. W. H.' stands for William Herbert . . 406 The Earl of Pembroke known only as Lord Herbert in youth . . 407 Thorpe's mode of address- ing the Earl of Pem- broke .... 408 VII SHAKESPEARE AND THE EARL OF PEMBROKE Shakespeare with the act- ing company at Wilton in 1603 .... The dedication of the First Folio in 1623 No suggestion in the sonnets of the youth's 411 412 identity with Pem- broke .... 413 Aubrey's ignorance of any relation between Shakespeare and Pem- broke . . . „ 414 VIII THE 'will' sonnets Elizabethan meanings of ' will ' . . . . Shakespeare's uses of the word .... Shakespeare's puns on the word .... Arbitrary and irregular use of itaUcs by Eliza- 416 417 418 bethan and Jacobean printers .... 419 The conceits of Sonnets cxxxv.-vi. interpreted . 420 Sonnet cxxxv. . . . 421 Sonnet cxxxvi. . . . 422 Sonnet cxxxiv. . . . 425 Sonnet cxliii. . . . 426 IX the vogue of THE ELIZABETHAN SONNET, I59I-I597 1557 Wyatt's and Surrey's Son- 1582 1591 1592 nets published Watson's Centurie Love Sidney's Astrophel Stella . Collected sonnets feigned love . Daniel's Delia . of and of 427 428 428 429 430 1592 1593 1593 1593 1593 1594 1594 Fame of Daniel's sonnets 431 Constable's Diana . . 431 Barnabe Barnes's sonnets 432 Watson's Tears of Fa?tcie . Giles Fletcher's Licia Lodge's Phillis . Drayton's Idea . Percy's Ccelia . 433 433 433 434 435 APPENDIX] C ONT ENTJ > XXUl PAGE PAGE 1594 Zepkeria . 435 1597 Robert Tofte's Laura . 438 1595 Barnfiold's sonnets to Sir William Alexander's Ganymede 435 Aurora .... 438 IS9S Spenser's Amoretti . 435 Sir Fulke Greville's 1595 Emaricdulfe 436 CcElica .... 438 1595 Sir John Davies's Gul- Estimate of number of li?ige Sonnets . 436 love-sonnets issued be- 1596 Linche's Diella 437 tween 1591 and 1597 . 439 1596 Griffin's Fidessa 437 II. Sonnets to patrons, 1591- 1596 Thomas Campion's son- 1597 . . . .440 nets . . . . 437 III. Sonnets on philosophy 1596 William Smith's Ckloris . 437 and religion . . . 440 X BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE ON THE SONNET IN FRANCE, I 550-1600 Ronsard ( 1524-1585) and ' La Pleiade' . . . 442 The Italian sonnetteers of the sixteenth century 442 n. Philippe Desportes (1546- 1606) . . . .443 Chief collections of French sonnets pub- lished between 1550 and 1584 . . . .444 Minor collections of French sonnets pub- lished between 1553 and 1605 ... .444 Index 447 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE .... Frontispiece From the 'Droeskoitt' painting, now in the Shake- speare Memorial Gallery, Strat/ord-on-Avon. HENRY WRIOTHESLEY, Third Earl of Southampton, as a young man . . To face p. 145 From the painting at Welbeck Abbey. SHAKESPEARE'S AUTOGRAPH-SIGNATURE TO THE PURCHASE-DEED OF A HOUSE IN BlACK- FRIARS, DATED MARCH lO, 1612-3 . . . To face p. 267 From the original document now preserved in the Guildhall Library, London. SHAKESPEARE'S AUTOGRAPH-SIGNATURE TO A MORTGAGE-DEED RELATING TO THE HOUSE PURCHASED BY HIM IN BlACKFRIARS, DATED March ii, 1612-3 To face p. 269 From the original document now preserved in the British Muse tun. THREE AU rOGRAPH-SIGNATURES severally WRITTEN BY SHAKESPEARE ON THE THREE SHEETS OF HIS WILL To face p. 273 From the original document at Somerset House, London. WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE . . . .To face p. 295 Froin a plaster-cast of the terra-cotta bust 7iow at the Garrick Club. WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE PARENTAGE AND BIRTH Shakespeare came of a family whose surname was borne through the middle ages by residents in very Distribu- ^^lauy parts of England — at Penrith in tionofthe Cumberland, at Kirkland and Doncaster in name. Yorkshire, as well as in nearly all the midland counties. The surname had originally a martial significance, implying capacity in the wield- ing of the spear.^ Its first recorded holder is John Shakespeare, who in 1279 was living at ' Freyndon,' perhaps Frittenden, Kent.^ The great mediaeval guild of St. Anne at Knowle, whose members in- cluded the leading inhabitants of Warwickshire, was joined by many Shakespeares in the fifteenth century.^ ^ Camden, Remains, ed. 1605, p. ill; Verstegan, Restitution, 1605. 2 Plac. Cor. 7 Edw. I, Kane; cf. Notes and Queries, 1st ser. xi. 122. 3 Cf. the Register of the Guild of St. Anne at Knowle, ed. Bickley, 2 WTLLTAM SH\KESrEARE In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries the sur- name is found far more frequently in Warwickshire than elsewhere. The archives of no less than twenty- four towns and villages there contain notices of Shakespeare families in the sixteenth century, and as many as thirty-four Warwickshire towns or^illages were inhabited by Shakespeare families in the seven- teenth century. Among them all William was a common Christian name. At Rowington, twelve miles to the north of Stratford, and in the same hundred of Barlichway, one of th# most prolific Shakespeare families of Warwickshire resided in the sixteenth century, and no less than three Richard Shakespeares of Rowington, whose extant wills were proved respectively in 1560, 1591, and 1614, were fathers of sons called William. At least one other William Shakespeare was during the period a resi- dent in Rowington. As a consequence, the poet has been more than once credited with achievements which rightly belong to one or other of his numerous contemporaries who were identically named. The poet's ancestry cannot be defined with abso- lute certainty. The poet's father, when applying for The poet's 3. grant of arms in 1 596, claimed that his ancestry. grandfather (the poet's great-grandfather) received for services rendered in war a grant of land in Warwickshire from Henry VII. ^ No precise con- firmation of this pretension has been discovered, and it may be, after the manner of heraldic genealogy, fictitious. But there is a probability that the poet 1 See p. 189. PARENTAGE AND BIRTH 3 came of good yeoman stock, and that his ancestors to the fourth or fifth generation were fairly substantial landowners.^ Adam Shakespeare, a tenant by military service of land at Baddesley Clinton in 1389, seems to have been great-grandfather of one Richard Shake- speareAho held land at Wroxhall in Warwickshire during the first thirty-four years (at least) of the sixteenth ceijj;ftiry. Another Richard Shakespeare who is conjectured to have been nearly akin to the Wroxhall family was settled as a farmer at Snitter- field, a villagjh^four miles to the north of Stratford- on-Avon, m 1^28. ^ It is probable that he was the poet's grandfather. In 1550 he was renting a mes- suage and land at Snitterfield of Robert Arden ; he died at the close of 1560, and on February 10 of the next year letters of administration of his goods, chattels, and debts were issued to his son John by the Probate Court at Worcester. His goods were valued at 35/. lys.^ Besides the son John, Richard of Snitterfield certainly had a son Henry ; while a Thomas Shakespeare, a considerable landholder at ^ Cf. Times, October 14, 1895; ^^o^^^ ^nd Queries, 8th ser. viii. 501 ; articles by Mrs. Stopes in Genealogical Magazine, 1897. 2 Cf. Hallivvell-Phillipps, Outlines of the Life of Shakespeare, 1887, ii. 207. 3 The purchasing power of money was then eight times what it is now, and this and other sums mentioned should be multiplied by eight to compare them with modern currency (see p. 197 «). The letters of administration in regard to Richard Shakespeare's estate are in the district registry of the Probate Court at Worcester, and were printed in full by Mr. Halliwell-Phillipps in his Shakespeare'' s Tours (privately issued 1887), pp. 44-5. They do not appear in any edition of Mr. Halliwell-Phillipps's Outlines. Certified extracts appeared in AWwaw^i Queries, 8th ser. xii. 463-4. 4 WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE Snitterfield between 1563 and 1583, whose parentage is undetermined, may have been a third son. The son Henry remained all his life at Snitterfield, where he engaged in farming with gradually diminishing suc- cess ; he died in embarrassed circumstances in Decem- ber 1596. John, the son who administered Richard's estate, was in all likelihood the poet's father. About 1 55 1 John Shakespeare left Snitterfield, which was his birthplace, to seek a career in the The poet's neighbouring borough of Stratford-on-Avon. father. There he soon set up as a trader in aK manner of agricultural produce. Corn, wool, malt, meat, skins, and leather were among the commodities in which he dealt. Documents of a somewhat later date often describe him as a glover. Aubrey, Shake- speare's first biographer, reported the tradition that he was a butcher. But though both designations doubt- less indicated important branches of his business, neither can be regarded as disclosing its full extent. The land which his family farmed at Snitterfield supplied him with his varied stock-in-trade. As long as his father lived he seems to have been a frequent visitor to Snitterfield, and, like his father and brothers, he was until the date of his father's death occasionally designated a farmer or ' husbandman ' of that place. But it was with Stratford-on-Avon that his life was mainly identified. In April 1 5 52 he was living there in Henley Street, a thoroughfare leading to the market town of Henley- in-Ardcn, and he is first mentioned in the borough records as paying in that month a fine of twelve- PARENTAGE AND BIRTH 5 pence for having a dirt-heap in front of his house. His frequent appearances in the years that follow as His settle either plaintiff or defendant in suits heard ment at in the local court of record for the recovery trat or . ^^ small dcbts suggest that he was a keen man of business. In early life he prospered in trade, and in October 1556 purchased two freehold tenements at Stratford — one, with a garden, in Henley Street (it adjoins that now known as the poet's birthplace), and the other in Greenhill Street with a garden and croft. Thenceforth he played a prominent part in municipal affairs. In 1557 he was elected an ale-taster, whose duty it w^as to test the quality of malt liquors and bread. About the same time he was elected a burgess or town councillor, and in September 1558, and again on October 6, 1559, he was appointed one of the four petty constables by a vote of the jury of the court-leet. Twice — ini559and 1561 — hewaschosen one of the affeerors — officers appointed to determine the fines for those offences which were punishable arbitrarily, and for which no express penalties were prescribed by statute. In 1561 he was elected one of the two chamberlains of the borough, an office of responsibility which he held for two years. He delivered his second statement of account to the cor- poration in January 1564. When attesting docu- ments he occasionally made his mark, but there is evidence in the Stratford archives that he could write with facility ; and he was credited with financial apti- tude. The municipal accounts, which were checked bv tallies and counters, were audited bv him after he 6 WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE ceased to be chamberlain, and he more than once advanced small sums of money to the corporation. With characteristic shrewdness he chose a wife of assured fortune — Mary, youngest daughter of Robert Arden, a wealthy farmer of Wilmcote in the parish of Aston Cantlowe, near Stratford. The Arden family The poet's in its chicf branch, which was settled at Park- mother. \iq}\, Warwickshire, ranked with the most influential of the county. Robert Arden, a progenitor of that branch, was sheriff of Warwickshire and Leicestershire in 1438 (16 Hen. VI), and this sheriff's direct descendant, Edward Arden, who was himself high sheriff of Warwickshire in 1575, was executed in 1583 for alleged complicity in a Roman Catholic plot against the life of Queen Elizabeth.^ John Shakespeare's wife belonged to a humbler branch of the family, and there is no trustworthy evidence to determine the exact degree of kinship between the two branches. Her grandfather, Thomas Arden, pur- chased in 1 501 an estate at Snitterfield, which passed, with other property, to her father Robert ; John Shakespeare's father, Richard, was one of this Robert Arden's Snitterfield tenants. By his first wife, whose name is not known, Robert Arden had seven daughters, of whom all but two married; John Shakespeare's wife seems to have been the youngest. Robert Arden's second wife, Agnes or Anne, widow of John Hill {d. 1545), a substantial farmer of Bearley, survived him ; but by her he had no issue. When he died at the end of 1556, he owned a farmhouse at Wilmcote ^ French, Geiicalogica Shakespeareana, pp. 458 seq. ; cf. p. 191 infra. PARENTAGE AND BIRTH 7 and many acres, besides some hundred acres at Snitterfield, with two farmhouses which he let out to tenants. The post-mortem inventory of his goods, which was made on December 9, 1556, shows that he had lived in comfort ; his house was adorned by as many as eleven 'painted cloths,' which then did duty for tapestries among the middle class. The exordium of his will, which was drawn up on November 24, 1556, and proved on December 16 following, indicates that he was an observant Catholic. For his two youngest daughters, Alice and Mary, he showed especial affection by nominating them his executors. Mary received not only 6/. 13^'. 4d. in money, but the fee-simple of Asbies, his chief pro- perty at Wilmcote, consisting of a house with some fifty acres of land. She also acquired, under an earlier settlement, an interest in two messuages at Snitterfield.^ But, although she was well provided with worldly goods, she was apparently without educa- tion ; several extant documents bear her mark, and there is no proof that she could sign her name. John Shakespeare's marriage with Mary Arden doubtless took place at Aston Cantlowe, the parish church of Wilmcote, in the autumn of 1557 (the church registers begin at a later date). On Septem- ber 15, 1558, his first child, a daughter, Joan, was baptised in the church of Stratford. A second child, another daughter, Margaret, was baptised on Decem- ber 2, 1562 ; but both these children died in infancy. The poet William, the first son and third child, was 1 Hallivvell-Phillipps, ii. 179. 8 WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE born on April 22 or 23, 1564. The latter date is generally accepted as his birthday, mainly (it would The oefs ^PP^ar) on the ground that it was the day birth and of his death. There is no positive evidence apism. ^^ ^j^^ subject, but the Stratford parish registers attest that he was baptised on April 26. Some doubt is justifiable as to the ordinarily accepted scene of his birth. Of two adjoining houses Alleged forming a detached building on the north birthplace, gj^jg ^f Henley Street, that to the east was purchased by John Shakespeare in 1556, but there is no evidence that he owned or occupied the house to the west before 1575. Yet this western house has been known since 1759 as the poet's birthplace, and a room on the first floor is claimed as that in which he was born.^ The two houses subsequently came by bequest of the poet's granddaughter to the family of the poet's sister, Joan Hart, and while the eastern tenement was let out to strangers for more than two centuries, and by them converted into an inn, the 'birthplace' was until 1806 occupied by the Harts, who latterly carried on there the trade of butcher. The fact of its long occupancy by the poet's collateral descendants accounts for the identi- fication of the western rather than the eastern tene- ment with his birthplace. Both houses were pur- chased in behalf of subscribers to a public fund in 1846, and, after extensive restoration, were converted into a single domicile for the purposes of a public museum. They were presented under a deed of 1 Cf. Halliwell-Phillipps, Letter to Elze, 1888. PARENTAGE AND BIRTH 9 trust to the Corporation of Stratford in 1866. Much of the Elizabethan timber and stonework survives, but a cellar under the ' birthplace ' is the only por- tion which remains as it was at the date of the poet's birth.i 1 Cf. Documents and Sketches in Halliwell-Phillipps, i. 377-99. 10 WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE II CHILDHOOD, EDUCATION, AND MARRIAGE In July 1564, when William was three months old, the plague raged with unwonted vehemence at Strat- The father ^^rd, and his father liberally contributed to in munici- the relief of its poverty-stricken victims, pa o ce. Portune still favoured him. On July 4, 1565, he reached the dignity of an alderman. From 1567 onwards he was accorded in the corporation archives the honourable prefix of 'Mr.' At Michaelmas 1568 he attained the highest office in the corporation gift, that of bailiff, and during his year of office the corpo- ration for the first time entertained actors at Stratford. The Queen's Company and the Earl of Worcester's Company each received from John Shakespeare an official welcome.^ On September 5, 1571, he was chief 1 The Rev. Thomas Carter, in Shakespeare, Puritan and Recusant, 1897, has endeavoured to show that John Shakespeare was' a puritan in religious matters, inclining to nonconformity. He deduces this inference from the fact that, at the period of his prominent association with the municipal government of Stratford, the corporation ordered images to be defaced (1562-3) and ecclesiastical vestments to l^e sold (1571). These entries merely prove that the aldermen and councillors of Stratford strictly conformed to the new religion as by law established in the first years of Elizabeth's reign. Nothing can be deduced from them in regard to the private religious opinions of John Shakespeare. The circumstance that he was the first bailiff to encourage actors to CHILDHOOD, EDUCATION, AND MARRIAGE II alderman, a post which he retained till September 30 the following year. In 1573 Alexander Webbe, the husband of his wife's sister Agnes, made him overseer of his will ; in 1 575 he bought two houses in Stratford, one of them doubtless the alleged birthplace in Henley Street; in 1576 he contributed twelvepence to the beadle's salary. But after Michaelmas 1572 he took a less active part in municipal affairs ; he grew irregular in his attendance at the council meetings, and signs were soon apparent that his luck had turned. In 1578 he was unable to pay, with his colleagues, either the sum of fourpence for the relief of the poor or his contribution ' towards the furniture of three pikemen, two bellmen, and one archer ' who were sent by the corporation to attend a muster of the trained bands of the county. Meanwhile his family was increasing. Four chil- dren besides the poet — three sons, Gilbert (baptised Brothers October 13, 1566), Richard (baptised March and sisters, j j^ IS74), and Edmund (baptised May 3, 1580), with a daughter Joan (baptised April 15, 1569) — reached maturity. A daughter Ann was baptised September 28, 1571, and was buried on April 4, 1579. To meet his growing liabilities, the father borrowed money from his wife's kinsfolk, and he and his wife visit Stratford is, on the other hand, conclusive proof that his religion was not that of the contemporary puritan, whose hostility to all forms of dramatic representations was one of his most persistent characteristics. The Elizaljethan puritans, too, according to Guillim's Display of Heraldrie (1610), regarded coat-armour with abhorrence, yet John Shakespeare with his son made persistent application for a grant of arms to the College of Arms. (Cf. infra, pp. 186 seq.) 12 WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE mortgaged, on November 14, 1578, Asbies, her valuable property at Wilmc.otc, for 40/. to Edmund Lambert of Barton-on-the-Heath, who had married her sister, Joan Arden. Lambert was to receive no interest on his loan, but was to take the ' rents and profits ' of the estate. Asbies was thereby alienated for ever. Next year, on October 15, 1579, John and his wife made over to Robert Webbe, doubtless a relative of Alexander Webbe, for the sum apparently of 40/., his wife's property at Snitterfield.^ John Shakespeare obviously chafed under the humiliation of having parted, although as he hoped The only temporarily, with his wife's property of financial Asbies, and in the autumn of 1580 he offered difficulties, to pay off the mortgage ; but his brother-in- law, Lambert, retorted that other sums were owing, and he would accept all or none. The negotiation, which was the beginning of much litigation, thus proved abortive. Through 1585 and 1586 a creditor, John Brown, was embarrassingly importunate, and, after obtaining a writ of distraint. Brown informed the local court that the debtor had no goods on which distraint could be levied.^ On September 6, 1586, John was deprived of his alderman's gown, on the ground of his long absence from the council meetings.^ 1 The sum is stated to be 4/. in one document (Halliwell-Phillipps, ii. 176) and 40/. in another (^ib. p. 179); the latter is more likely to be correct. ^ I/>. ii. 238. 3 Efforts recently made to assign the embarrassments of Shake- speare's father to another John Shakespeare of Stratford deserve little attention. The second John Shakespeare or Shakspere (as his name is usually spelt) came to Stratford as a young man in 1584, and was for ten years a well-to-do shoemaker in Bridge Street, filling the office of Master CHILDHOOD, EDUCATION, AND MARRIAGE 1 3 Happily John Shakespeare was at no expense for the education of his four sons. They were entitled to free tuition at the grammar school of Stratford, which was reconstituted on a mediceval foundation by Edward VI. The eldest son, William, Education. 111 1 i • probably entered the school n\ 1571, when Walter Roche was master, and perhaps he knew some- thing of Thomas Hunt, who succeeded Roche in 1577. The instruction that he received was mainly confined to the Latin language and literature. From the Latin accidence, boys of the period, at schools of the type of that at Stratford, were led, through conversation books like the ' Sentential Pueriles ' and Lily's grammar, to the perusal of such authors as Seneca, Terence, Cicero, Virgil, Plautus, Ovid, and Horace. The eclogues of the popular renaissance poet, Man- tuanus, were often preferred to Virgil's for beginners. The rudiments of Greek were occasionally taught in Elizabethan grammar schools to very promising pupils ; but such coincidences as have been detected between expressions in Greek plays and in Shake- speare seem due to accident, and not to any study, either at school or elsewhere, of the Athenian drama.^ of the Shoemakers' Company in 1592 — a certain sign of pecuniary stability. He left Stratford in 1594 (of. Halliwell-Phillipps, ii. 137-40). 1 James Russell Lowell, who noticed some close parallels between expressions of Shakespeare and those of the Greek tragedians, hazarded the suggestion that Shakespeare may have studied the ancient drama in a Grace el Latine edition. I believe Lowell's parallelisms to be no more than curious accidents — proofs of consanguinity of spirit, not of any indebtedness on Shakespeare's part. In the Electra of Sophocles, which is akin in its leading motive to Hamlet, the Chorus consoles Electra for the supposed death of Orestes with the same com- 14 WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE Dr. Farmer enunciated in his ' Essay on Shake- speare's Learning' (1767) the theory that Shakespeare knew no language but his own, and owed whatever knowledge he displayed of the classics and of Italian and French literature to English translations. But several of the books in French and Italian whence Shakespeare derived the plots of his dramas — Belle- forest's ' Histoires Tragiques,' Ser Giovanni's * II Pecorone,' and Cinthio's ' Hecatommithi,' for example monplace argument as that with which Hamlet's mother and uncle seek to console him. In Elecira are the lines 1171-3: Qvr\Tov Tri