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EXPURGATED
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THE GIFT OF
MAY TREAT MORRISON
IN MEMORY OF
ALEXANDER F MORRISON
THE LIFE OF
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
EXPURGATED
THE ORIGINAL MONUMENT AT STRATFORD
(From Sir Wm. Dugdale's " History of the Antiquities of Warwickshire ")
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THE LIFE OF
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
EXPURGATED
BY
WILLIAM LEAVITT STODDARD
(M.A., HARVARD)
"Non canimus surdis."
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BOSTON
W. A. BUTTERFIELD
59 Bromfield Street
1910
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Copyright, 1910
By William Leavitt Stoddard
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GEO. H. ELLIS CO., PRINTERP, BOSTON
PROLOGUE
"It seems a kind of respect due to the memory
of excellent men, especially of those whom their
wit and learning have made famous, to deliver
some account of themselves, as well as of their
works, to posterity. For this reason, how fond
do we see some people of the great men of an-
tiquity; their families, the common accidents of
their lives, and even their shape, make, and
features have been the subject of critical enquiries.
How trifling soever this curiosity may seem to be,
it is certainly very natural; and we are hardly
satisfied with an account of any remarkable per-
son till we have heard him described to the very
clothes he wears. As for what relates to men of
letters, the knowledge of an author may sometimes
conduce to the better understanding of his book,
and though the works of Mr. Shakespeare may
seem to many not to want a cominent, yet I fancy
some little account of the man himself may not
he thought improper. ^^ — From Nicholas Rowe's
Account of the Life of Shakespeare, 1709.
"I have not sought, (/ say) nor do I seek either
to force or ensnare men's judgments, but I lead
them to things themselves and the concordances
of things, that they may .see for themselves what
they have, what they can dispute, what they can
add and contribute to the common stock. And
for myself, if in anything I have been either too
iv Prologue
credulous or too little awake and attentive, or if
I have fallen off by the way and left the inquiry
incomplete, nevertheless I so present these things
naked and open, that my errors can he marked
and set aside before the mass of knowledge be
further infected by them.^^ — From Francis
Bacon's Preface to the Great Instauration
(Spedding's translation) .
CONTENTS.
PAGE
Prologue iii
Concerning Other ''Lives of Shake-
speare" 1
John Shakespeare in the Records .... 12
William Shakespeare in the Records . . 14
Shakespeare's Will 23
Poems ascribed to Shakespeare of Strat-
ford 29
Contemporary Allusions, Real and Sup-
posed, TO William Shakespeare ... 33
Evidences from the Plays and Poems . . 57
The First Folio 62
Epilogue 67
Bibliography 69
Index 75
THE LIFE OF
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
EXPURGATED
Chapter One.
CONCERNING OTHER ^' LIVES OF
SHAKESPEARE."
Like most men of my generation, I have never
been able from any one volume to obtain a
clear idea of Shakespeare:* with the works
bearing that name I could and did become
reasonably familiar and greatly pleased, but of
the man who wrote them I was for a long time
ignorant. Naturally, I turned for information
to the biographies of the poet-actor. But I
was doomed to a disappointment. For there,
in the welter of quoted, copied, and sometimes
photographed documents, among '^ allusions"
that alluded to Shakespeare and ''allusions"
that did not allude to him at all, in the confu-
sion of skilfully deployed adverbs implying
various degrees of uncertainty in the mind of
the biographer (as, ''doubtless," "probably,"
"credibly," and their kind), in the tangle of ar-
guments supporting now one theory of author-
ship and now another, I felt myself strangely
lost, like a person who searches in vain through
* Throughout this book I have adopted the lazy expedient of
spelUng Shakespeare in this fashion. I am aware that William
Shakespeare of Stratford is not known to have employed this
orthography, and I am aware that many of the plays and poems
appeared with the hyphenated signature, which, as far as I can
discover, William Shakespeare of Stratford never employed. It
seemed best, all in all, to adhere to a simple convention.
« e « «
.1^. v':-! William Shakespeare
a volume for something which the title-page
has promised to include, but which he cannot
find. At the end of an armful of books I was,
if anything, farther away from the man Shake-
speare than when I began.
What, for example, did Shakespeare do when
he was a boy? Where did he go to school, —
not where did he '' doubtless" go, but where
really ? Who were his chums, and later his
friends; and why no letters from him to them?
Why did he not publish his own plays, or at
least prevent wholesale piracy and the despair
of modern editors? How could a man be so
careful about his second-best bed and so care-
less about his poetry? I can never be certain
whether the young man of the sonnets was Mary
Fitton or Mr. W. H. — there are arguments
for both — or whether Mr. W. H. was one whose
initials, as some insist, were not W. H. at all,
but out of quite another part of the alphabet.
In lieu of reconciling all the divergent and
vigorously debated opinions about Shakespeare,
it became my amusement to test each new
biography of the poet on one subject: Did
Shakespeare poach? Are we this year, or are
we not, to believe the story? On the face of
it, it is extremely probable that a countryman
of twenty odd years should steal deer and be
thrashed for it. But, on the face of it, again,
it is extremely improbable that the greatest
and most learned poet in the language should,
a married man with a growing family, fall into
Other "Lives of Shakespeare'^ 3
such ways. Still, who can tell? What have
the biographers done with the story?
My experience is that the authenticity of the
yarn depends on the biography of the moment.
One is reminded of a clever Frenchman who,
discussing certain phases of the Shakespeare
sonnets, remarked in the Revue des Deux
Mondes: —
''Enfin M. Gerald Massey . . . soulagea d'un
grand pois la conscience Anglaise en desinfectant,
c'est lui-meme qui s'en vante, les sonnets de
Shakespeare. Le procede de desinfection con-
sistait, tout simplement a diviser arbitrairement
les sonnets en personnels et en dramatiques.
Etaient personnels tous ceux qui, d'apres le
code moral de M. Massey, etaient compatibles
avec la dignite et la veriu de Shakespeare.
Tous les autres etaient dramatiques. . . . Ainsi
s'expliquait Fenigme, ainsi tombait le scandale.
Shakespeare etait rendu blanc comme neige
a la pieuse admiration des Anglais."
Very similar is the case with the ''deer steal-
ing prank." It has always, strangely enough,
been considered one offence. The sources agree
in giving the impression that it was more than
one, if not several. It may be ''doubtless"
true that Shakespeare was caught but once,
if at all, but it is equally clear that the word
"prank" should be made plural. Let us look
into the origin of the story.
Nicholas Rowe was a play-writer of Queen
Anne's time. In 1709 he published an account
of the life of Shakespeare. His information, he
4 William Shakespeare
says, came mainly from the actor Betterton.
About 1690 (?) (Shakespeare died in 1616)
Betterton went down to Warwickshire to learn
what he could about Shakespeare. Now Rowe,
who had obtained his information from Bet-
terton, who in turn had obtained his in War-
wickshire at a time when every one who had
personally known Shakespeare was either
seventy-four years old, older, or dead, wrote as
follows:* — (1)
'^He had, by a misfortune common enough to
young fellows, fallen into ill company; and
amongst them, some that made a frequent
practice of deer-stealing engaged him with them
more than once in robbing a park belonging to
Sir Thomas Lucy of Cherlecot [sic], near Strat-
ford. For this he was persecuted by that gentle-
man, as he thought, somewhat too severely;
and in order to revenge that ill usage, he
made a ballad upon him."
This story received what a more recent
biographer calls an important because inde-
pendent corroboration in some notes written
between 1690 and 1708 by Richard Davies,
a rector in Gloucestershire. William Fulman,
whoever he was, bequeathed to Davies some
scraps of writing, little more than the dates
of birth and death, about Shakespeare. The
parson augmented these notes by adding (where
he learned these items I do not know) : "Much
given to all unluckiness in stealing venison and
* The numerals in parentheses refer, by chapters, to the corre-
sponding numerals in the Bibliography at the back of the book.
Other ^^ Lives of Shakespeare^^ 5
rabbits, particularly from Sir . . . Lucy, who
had him oft whipped and sometimes imprisoned,
and at last made him fly his native country
to his great advancement, but his revenge was
so great that he is his Justice Clodpate* and
calls him a great man, and that in allusion to
his name bore three louses rampant for his
arms." (2) Shakespeare, Archdeacon Davies
adds, died a papist. So far as I am aware,
this last statement has not been widely per-
petuated. Why? It might serve to explain
certain Romish passages in the plays.
But these are the documents — and the only
known early documents — bearing on the Lucy
legend. How to determine its truth or falsity ?
Let us see.
One gentleman, with spectacles and a per-
plexed brow, writes, ''Doubtless,! this tradi-
tion may be dismissed as scarcely credible.
Who can conceive of the creator of Hamlet,
the author of 'Lear' and 'Macbeth,' the poet
of the sonnets and 'Cymbeline,' albeit in
the flush and prime of youth, so far forgetting
his high destiny as" . . . and so on to the demoli-
tion of a respectable mouth-to-mouth tradition.
Another historian, of a less moral turn, considers
the poaching incident as "probably authentic,"
and warns his readers not to judge Shakespeare
too hastily for this "boyish escapade." We all
* Justice Clodpate was a character in ' the comedy of " Epsom
Welle."
t Doubtless, Free from doubt or uncertainty, undoubted, indubi-
table. . . . Often in a weaker sense. — Oxford Dictionary.
6 William Shakespeare
at times have felt like poaching. Humanum
est errare. I believe that this is the view
held to-day by the ''consensus of scholarly
opinion."
The word play on ''luce" in "The Merry
Wives," the possible similarity between Justice
Shallow in the same play and Sir Thomas
Lucy, the fact that Shakespeare has been
credited with some scurrilous verses against
that knight, and that the poaching story is the
only glimmer of light between the marriage
of Shakespeare and his appearance in London
have done much to confirm the orthodox
theory of the incident. Other information
derivable from Rowe and Davies, not having
such support, has been accepted or discarded
less elaborately, after the manner of Mr.
Gerald Massey, mentioned a page or so back.
On one occasion it was discovered that there
was no deer park in Stratford in Shakespeare's
time. (3) This is not a matter of conjecture,
but of fact and record. Since, then, there was
no enclosure, deer came under the head of ferae
naturae, and might be killed by whoso willed
and could shoot straight. This, again, is not
a matter of conjecture, but of fact and record.
But, — here is the reason (so I think) why this
highly apochryphal legend has been retained
in spite of its obvious falsity, — if the Lucy in-
cident is not true, how can the rest of Mr.
Nicholas Rowe's biography be trusted, and how
account for the joke in "The Merry Wives"
unless on the assumption that any one might
Other "Lives of Shakespeare^' 7
have made it, poacher in Lucy's domain or
not? And, without Rowe and Davies, Shake-
spearean life-writing is a strain on the imagina-
tion. The dilemma is perfect.
Some one recently proposed the following
solution. In Archdeacon Davies' story it was
said that Shakespeare was unlucky in stealing
rabbits as well as venison, and ''particularly
from Sir . . . Lucy." Now, as a rule, the term
''warren" apphes to rabbits, not to deer.
Sidney Lee, in discussing this very matter,
says that Sir Thomas Lucy owned a warren at
Charlecote. I do not question the truth of
this statement: I have not seen the evidence.
The explanation is simple and logical. There
was no deer park, ergo no deer. But there was
a warren, ergo rabbits. The line in "The Tam-
ing of the Shrew," therefore, "I knew a wench
married in an afternoon as she went to the
garden for parsley to stuff a rabbit," is hence-
forth invested with the aroma of a personal
reminiscence. And Moth's remark in "Love's
Labor's Lost" about "your arms crossed on
your thin-belly doublet like a rabbit on a spit"
may well recall the more savory results of the
deed. In the absence of evidence to the con-
trary such may be the true interpretation of
the little anecdote. My informant is Mr.
Joseph Butts.
I have been further puzzled in my readings
of the biographies of our national poet to find
out not what, but how much is alleged as known
8 William Shakespeare
about the object of our quest. In the absence
of quality, quantity has had to suffice. Mr.
Fleay, himself a writer of note on Shakespeare,
once said of a collection of allusions to Shake-
speare, ''nominate and innominate," as some
one has phrased it: —
"They consist almost entirely of slight ref-
erences to his published works, and have no
bearing of importance on his career. Nor,
indeed, have we any extensive material of any
kind to aid us in this investigation; one source
of information, which is abundant for most
of his contemporaries, being in his case entirely
absent* Neither as addressed to him by
others, nor by him to others, do any com-
mendatory verses exist in connection with
any of his or any other men's works pub-
lished in his lifetime — a notable fact, in what-
ever way it may be explained. Nor can he
be traced in any personal contact beyond a
very limited circle, although the fanciful might-
have-beens so largely indulged in by his biog-
raphers might at first lead us to an opposite
conclusion."
The second aspect of the matter is presented
by Sidney Lee, who reniarks: ''The scantiness
of contemporary records of Shakespeare's ca-
reer has been much exaggerated. An in-
vestigation extending over two centuries has
brought together a mass of detail which far
exceeds that accessible in the case of any
other contemporary writer. . . . The fully
* My italics.
Other ^^ Lives of Shakespeare^^ 9
ascertained facts are numerous enough to define
sharply the general direction that Shakespeare's
career followed."
Which, Mr. Fleay or Mr. Lee, is right? And
what, expurgated and stripped of ail the super-
imposed biographical rhetoric and imaginations,
are those facts about Shakespeare?
In the following skeleton account of Shake-
speare I have included, according to the stern-
est canons of academic practice and literary
orthodoxy, every available scrap of informa-
tion about Shakespeare between 1564 and
1616. With material of later date I have
been more arbitrary. If there are flagrant
omissions, they are due to my carelessness
or to the fact that it was impossible to
get certain information. I have worked, and
with reasonable consistency, on the hypoth-
esis that, in order to be admitted within this
catalogue, each record or allusion to Shake-
speare must, in one spelling or another, bear
the name Shakespeare. Thus much matter
of the purely conjectural variety has been
wholly eliminated. And when it is further
realized that in several Elizabethan and
Jacobean allusions to the plays Shakespeare's
name was not included, and that Henslowe,
a joint proprietor of the Rose and several other
theatres where many of the great dram^as were
produced, in the eighteen years of his diary
(1591-1609) failed once to speak of Shakespeare,
— when these items are recalled, few readers
10 William Shakespeare
will be surprised at the barrenness of the re-
sults herein set forth. The allusions to and
records of Shakespeare being, as Mr. Fleay
has suggested, curiously sparse, any comparison
of the physical bulk of this volume with that of
other lives of Shakespeare must be compli-
mentary to me.
Lately people have been questioning the
identity of William Shakespeare, the actor, of
Stratford, with William Shakespeare, the poet
and playwright. Arguments of spelling have
had their force, and are not without importance;
but from them we can expect little that is defi-
nite. Arguments from probability, human and
fictitious, merging into arguments of analogy,
also lend their weight to the controversy.
Even a rival candidate in Lord Verulam has
won many adherents. It is chiefly, however,
to clarify the atmosphere that the device of
this book * has been resorted to. Strictly
speaking, I have prepared no argument at all,
but a tabular view of the ascertained facts, —
the existing ''accepted" facts concerning the
two Williams; and, where there is a chance
* I have been of two minds whether to use "unexpurgated" or
"expurgated" in the title of this book. Neither is a usual word
for such a purpose, and neither wholly expresses what I mean. I
have presented the life of Shakespeare unexpurgated in so far as
I have included matter commonly omitted (as in the case of the
Northumberland Manuscript), hitherto glossed over (as in the
case of the Manningham story), or commonly relegated to a foot-
note (as in the case of the epitaph on Ben Jonson). But in the
main I have presented the life of Shakespeare expurgated of all
the tissue of surmises, doubts, likelihoods, and other text which
tends to obscure the vision of one who is trying to select for himself
the known facts and draw for himself his own conclusions.
Other Lives of "Shakespeare^^ 11
that the one might be or has been confounded
with the other, I have tried to unravel the
mystery. I have believed that it is the prov-
ince of the biographer not to imagine, ''portray,"
or omit, but merely to present and occasionally
to explain.
Chapter Two.
JOHN SHAKESPEARE IN THE
RECORDS.
In this chapter I have selected only those
records of John Shakespeare of Stratford which
afford either vital statistics or any mention
of William Shakespeare. Very numerous, in-
deed, are the items concerning John Shake-
speare in the local archives, but, as little can be
learned from them except the facts and dates
of the holding of town offices, loaning and owing
money, and so on, it did not seem worth while
to reprint them in full. Moreover, it is im-
possible to be certain that they all refer to the
same man. Mr. Halliwell-Phillipps has pub-
lished an approximately complete list. (1)
1551 (?)• John Shakespeare left Snitterfield,
his birthplace.
1556. John Shakespeare bought two free-
hold tenements in Stratford.
1557 (?)• John Shakespeare married Mary
Arden.
1558. John Shakespeare was baptized.
1562. Margaret Shakespeare was baptized.
1563. Margaret Shakespeare was buried.
1564. William Shakespeare was baptized.
1566. Gilbert Shakespeare was baptized.
1569. Joan Shakespeare was baptized.
John Shakespeare 13
1 57 1. Anna Shakespeare was baptized.
I573"4- Richard Shakespeare was baptized.
1579. Anna Shakespeare was buried.
1580. Edmund Shakespeare was baptized.
1596. The draft of a coat-of-arms for John
Shakespeare was made. (2)
1599. The coat-of-arms was drafted. (3)
160 1. John Shakespeare was buried. (No
will has been found, and there is no known
record of his grave.)
Chapter Three.
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE IN THE
RECORDS.
For the sake of convenience I have made this
arbitrary distinction between ''records" and
''allusions." I call "records" all those facts
which have been found in parish registers,
official archives, and such business correspond-
ence as relates directly to the affairs of Shake-
speare. The word "allusions" in this book
covers practically everything else naming Shake-
speare, except the material in the chapter "Evi-
dences from the Plays and Poems."
Owing to the commonness of the name
Shakespeare in Elizabethan times, "the poet
has been more than once credited with achieve-
ments which rightly belonged to one or other
of his numerous contemporaries who were
identically named."* It is impossible, at this
distance of time, to maintain that all the records
in this chapter refer to the same William
Shakespeare; and it is equally inadvisable to
guess which refer to him and which do not.
1564, April 26. William Shakespeare was
baptized at Stratford. (1)
1582, Nov. 27. An entry in the register of
the Bishop of Worcester, issuing a license
♦Sidney Lee, "A Life of William Shakespeare," 1909, p. 2.
In the Records 15
authorizing the marriage of William Shake-
speare and Anne Whatley of Temple Graf-
ton. (2)
1582, Nov. 28. A deed was filed in the registry
of the Bishop of Worcester in which two
husbandmen of Stratford went bond that no
impediment ''by reason of precontract" ex-
isted in the way of the marriage of William
Shakespeare and Anne Hathaway of Shottery.
(3)
1583, May 26. Susanna, daughter of William
Shakespeare, was baptized. (4)
1585, Feb. 2. Hamnet and Judith Shake-
speare were baptized. (5)
1589. William Shakespeare's name was men-
tioned in a bill of complaint brought by John
Shakespeare against John Lambert of Strat-
ford respecting an estate at Wilmecote, near
Stratford. (6)
i594-5> March. William Kempe, WiUiam
Shakespeare, and Richard Burbage were paid
in all twenty pounds as members of the Lord
Chamberlain's company, which had acted be-
fore the Queen. (7)
Before 1595. Anne Shakespeare borrowed
forty shillings from Thomas Withington. Un-
paid in 160L (8)
1595* William Shakespeare was held liable
for a subsidy assessed in St. Helen's Bishops-
gate. (9)
1596. Memorandum by AUeyn to the ef-
fect that Shakespeare was lodging near the bear
garden in Southwark (?). (10)
16 William Shakespeare
1596, Aug. 11. Hamnet Shakespeare was
buried in Stratford. (11)
1596, October. William Shakespeare was re-
turned as a defaulter for a tax in St. Helen's.
(12)
1597. Again taxed in St. Helen's. (13)
1597, May 4. William Shakespeare bought
New Place in Stratford for sixty pounds. A
fine was levied at the same time. (14)
1597-8, Feb. 4. William Shakespeare was
on record as a householder in Chapel Street,
Stratford, and as the owner of ten quarters of
corn. (15)
1598, October. William Shakespeare was
again taxed in St. Helen's. (16)
1598. Acted in Ben Jonson's ''Every Man
in his Humor." (17)
1598. Bought stone to repair his house
in Stratford (?). (18)
1597-8, Jan. 24. Abraham Sturley of Strat-
ford, in a letter to his brother-in-law, Richard
Quiney, in London, wrote: ''This one special
rememberance from our father's motion. It
seemeth by him that our countryman, Mr.
Shakespeare is willing to disburse some money
upon some odd yardland or other at Shottery
or near about us; he thinketh it a very fit
pattern to move him in the matter of our tithes.
By the instructions you can give him thereof,
and by the friends he can make therefor, we
think it a fair mark for him to shoot at and
would do us much good." (19)
1598, Oct. 25. Richard Quiney wrote to
In the Records 17
William Shakespeare, his '^loving good friend
and countryman": ''Loving countryman, I
am bold of you, as of a friend, craving your
help with XXX 11 upon Mr. Bushell's and my
security, or Mr. Mytton's with me. Mr. Ross-
well is not come to London as yet, and I have
especial cause. You shall friend me much in
helping me out of all the debts I owe in London,
I thank God, and much quiet my mind, which
would not be indebted. I am now towards
the Court, in hope of answer for the dispatch
of my business. You shall neither lose credit
nor money by me, the Lord willing; and now
but persuade yourself so, as I hope, and you
shall not need to fear, but, with all hearty
thankfulness, I will hold my time, and content
your friend, and if we bargain farther, you shall
be the pay-master yourself. My time bids me
hasten to an end, and so I commit this your
care and hope of your help. I fear I shall not
be back this night from the Court. Haste.
The Lord be with you and with us all. Amen!
From the Bell in Carter Lane, the 25th October,
1598.
''Yours in all kindness,
"Ryc. Quiney."
(This has been deemed worth printing in full,
as it is the only known extant letter addressed
to William Shakespeare.) (20)
1598, Nov. 4. Abraham Sturley in Strat-
ford, writing to Richard Quiney in London,
said he hoped that "our countryman, Mr.
18 William Shakespeare
Wm. Shak. would procure us money, which
I will like of, as I shall hear when, and where,
and how." (21)
1598, 1599 (?). Adrian Quiney, writing from
Stratford to his son Richard Quiney, at the
Bell in Carter Lane, said, '^If you bargain with
Wm. Sha ... or receive money therefore, bring
your money home that you may; and see how
knit stockings be sold." (22)
1599 (?)• William Shakespeare's name ap-
peared in an heraldic manuscript book as one
who had received arms under false pretences.
(23)
1600, March. William Shakespeare recov-
ered in London a debt of seven pounds from
John Clayton. (24)
Before 1602. Planted a fruit orchard in
Stratford. (25)
1602, May 1. William] Shakespeare bought
a hundred and seven acres, more or less, of
arable land in Old Stratford for three hundred
and twenty pounds. (26)
1602, Sept. 28. William Shakespeare bought
a cottage and garden in Chapel Lane. (27)
1603, May. William Shakespeare was listed
with some of the actors of Lord Chamberlain's
company who were licensed by the King. (28)
1603. William Shakespeare acted in Ben
Jonson's ''Sejanus." (29)
1603-4, March 15. William Shakespeare and
eight other actors walked in a procession from
the Tower to Westminster. (30)
1604. William Shakespeare sued Phillip
In the Records 19
Rogers for malt worth nearly two pounds,
and for a loan. (31)
1604. William Shakespeare was listed as
holding a cottage and garden at Stratford. (32)
1605. Augustine Phillips, an actor, died,
leaving to his '' fellow" William Shakespeare
a thirty-shilling piece of gold. (33)
1605, July 24. William Shakespeare bought,
for four hundred and forty pounds, a moiety
of the tithes of Stratford, Old Stratford, Wel-
combe, and Bishopton. (34)
1605, Shakespeare's name as a trained sol-
dier was recorded in the certificate of the
muster-roll for Rowington, in the county of
Warwick. (35)
1606, August. William Shakespeare was
listed in a survey of Stratford as owner of a
copyhold estate. (36)
1607, June 5. Susanna Shakespeare married
John Hall at Stratford. (37)
1607, Dec. 31. Edmund Shakespeare, actor,
was buried in Southwark. (38)
1608, Sept. 9. Mary Shakespeare was buried
in Stratford. (39)
1608, Oct. 16. William Shakespeare stood
godfather at Stratford to the son of William
Walker. (40)
1608-9. William Shakespeare was at law
in Stratford with John Addenbroke for the re-
covery of a debt. (41)
1610. Shakespeare's estate (bought from
the Combes) was fined. (42)
161 1. Shakespeare's name appears in some
20 William Shakespeare
papers involved in a lawsuit. From them we
learn a little about Shakespeare's financial
affairs, but nothing about the identity of the
poet and the actor, (43)
1612, Shakespeare's name appeared in a
bill of complaint respecting the Stratford
tithes. (44)
1612-3, March 10. WilUam Shakespeare, to-
gether with William Johnson, John Jackson,
and John Hemming, bought a house and grounds
near the Blackfriars Theatre. (45)
1 61 2-3, March 11. William Shakespeare, to-
gether with William Johnson, John Jackson,
and John Hemming, mortgaged the Black-
friars property to Henry Walker, from whom
they had bought it. (46)
1613, March 31. ''Mr. Shakespeare" received
forty-four shillings from the steward of the Earl
of Rutland "about my Lord's Impreso."
(Richard Burbage, on the same day, received
the same sum for "painting and making it in
gold.") (47)
1 614, July. John Combe of Stratford died,
bequeathing to William Shakespeare five
pounds. (48)
1614, Oct. 28. William Shakespeare and
Thomas Greene of Stratford obtained a deed
indemnifying them against any injury from the
enclosing of the common lands in Stratford.
(49)
1614, Nov. 17. Entry in Thomas Greene's
diary (Greene was town-clerk of Stratford):
"My cousin Shakespeare coming yesterday to
In the Records 21
towne, I went to see him how he did. He
told me that they assured him they meant to
inclose no further than to Gospell Bush, and so
up straight (leaving out part of the Dingles
to the Field) to the Gate in Clopton hedge,
and take in Salisbury's piece, and that they
mean in April to survey the land, and then to
give satisfaction, and not before; and he and
Mr. Hall say they think there will be nothing
done at all." (50)
1614, Dec. 23. From the same: "A hall.
Letters written one to Mr. Mannering, another
to Mr. Shakespeare, with almost all the com-
pany's hands to either. I also wrote of my-
self to my cousin Shakespeare the copies of
all our acts, and then also a note of the incon-
veniences would happen by the enclosures."
(50)
1614-5, Jan. From the same: ''Mr. Rep-
lyngham, 28 Octobris, article with Mr. Shake-
speare, and then I was put in by T. Lucas."
(50)
1614-5, Jan. 11. From the same: ''Mr.
Mannering and his agreement for me with my
cousin Shakespeare." (50)
1615, Sept. From the same: "Mr. Shake-
speare telling J. Greene I was not able to bear
the enclosing of Welcombe." (50)
(The notes from Greene's diary have been
deemed worth printing in full, because they are
the most intimate and personal contemporary
records of William Shakespeare known.)
1 61 5, April 26. William Shakespeare was
22 Williarn Shakespeare
one of six petitioners to Lord Chancellor Eger-
ton praying him to compel Matthew Bacon
to deliver up papers concerning their title to
various houses and lands within the precinct
of Blackfriars. (May 15. Answer of Mat-
thew Bacon. May 22. Order of the court di-
recting the surrender of the papers to the pe-
titioners.) (51)
i6i6, Feb. 10. Judith Shakespeare married
Th. Quiney. (52)
i6i6, March 25. Date of Shakespeare's will.
(53)
i6i6, April 23. WiUiam Shakespeare was
buried. (54)
It will be observed that not one of the
records printed in this chapter evidences any
connection between William Shakespeare of
Stratford and the William Shakespeare of
the great plays. It is true that William Shake-
speare of Stratford acted in some of the plays
bearing the name William Shakespeare or
Shake-speare on the title-page. But it is not
true that this similarity and at times identity
of names has left any trace in any known sur-
viving contemporary record to the effect that
any one supposed the Stratford Shakespeare to
be other than an actor or a man of affairs.
It may be that documents will some time show
that such a connection existed. TiU they do,
we cannot make it for them.
Chapter Four.
SHAKESPEARE'S WILL.
It seemed interesting to print Shakespeare's
will, for two reasons: first, it is the only ex-
tant autographed document which may be
assumed to have been composed by, or phrased
under the direction of, WilHam Shakespeare;
and, second, because it might reasonably be ex-
pected that the identity of the actor with the
dramatist would in it be disclosed or at least
indicated. A careful perusal of this composi-
tion, however, will afford no clew.
"Vicesimo quinto die Martii, anno regni
domini nostri Jacobi, nunc regis Anglie, &c.
decimo quarto, et Scotie xlix° annoque Domini,
1616.
"T. Wmi. Shakespeare. — In the name of God,
amen! I William Shakespeare, of Stratford-
upon-Avon in the county of Warr. gent., in
perfect health and memory, God be praised, do
make and ordain this my last will and testa-
ment in manner and form following, that is
to say, First, I commend my soul into the hands
of God my Creator, hoping and assuredly be-
lieving, through the only merits of Jesus
Christ, my Saviour, to be made partaker of
life everlasting, and my body to the earth
24 William Shakespeare
whereof it is made. Item, I give and bequeath
unto my daughter Judith one hundred and
fifty pounds of lawful English money, to be
paid unto her in manner and form following,
that is to say, one hundred pounds in discharge
of her marriage portion within one year after
my decease, with consideration after the rate
of two shillings in the pound for so long time as
the same shall be unpaid unto her after my de-
cease, and the fifty pounds residue thereof
upon her surrendering of, or giving of such
sufficient security as the overseers of this my
will shall like of to surrender or grant, all her
estate and right that shall descend or come
unto her after my decease, or that she now
hath, of, in or to, one copyhold tenement with
the appurtenances lying and being in Strat-
ford-upon-Avon aforesaid in the said county of
Warr., being parcel or holding of the manor of
Rowington, unto my daughter Susanna Hall
and heirs forever. Item, I give and bequeath
unto my said daughter Judith one hundred
and fifty pounds more, if she or any issue of
her body be living at the end of three years next
ensuing the day of the date of this my will,
during which time my executors to pay her con-
sideration from my decease according to the
rate aforesaid; and if she die within the said
term without issue of her body, then my will
is, and I do give and bequeath one hundred
pounds thereof to my niece Elizabeth Hall,
and the fifty pounds to be set forth by my
executors during the life of my sister Joan Hart,
His Will 25
and the use and profit thereof coming shall be
paid to my said sister Joan, and after her de-
cease the said fifty pounds shall remain amongst
the children of my said sister to be divided
amongst them; but if my said daughter
Judith be living at the end of the said three
years, or any issue of her body, then my will
is and so I devise and bequeath the said hun-
dred and fifty pounds to be set out by my exe-
cutors and overseers for the best benefit of her
and her issue, and the stock not to be paid
unto her so long as she shall be married and
covert baron; but my will is that she shall
have the consideration yearly paid unto her
during her life, and, after her decease, the said
stock and consideration to be paid to her
children, if she have any, and if not, to her
executors or assigns, she living the said term
after my decease, Provided that if such hus-
band as she shall at the end of the said three
years be married unto, or at any after, do
sufficiently assure unto her and the issue of her
body lands answerable to the portion by this
my will given unto her, and to be adjudged so
by my executors and overseers, then my will
is that the said one hundred and fifty pounds
shall be paid to such husband as shall make
such assurance, to his own use. Item, I give
and bequeath unto my said sister Joan twenty
pounds and all my wearing apparel, to be paid
and delivered within one year after my de-
cease; and I do will and devise unto her the
house with the appurtenances in Stratford,
26 William Shakespeare
wherein she dwelleth, for her natural life, under
the yearly rent of twelve pence. Item, I give
and bequeath unto her three sons, William Hart,
. . . Hart, and Michael Hart, five pounds apiece,
to be paid within one year after my decease.
Item, I give and bequeath unto the said Eliza-
beth Hall all my plate except my broad silver
and gilt bowl, that I now have at the date of
this my will. Item, I give and bequeath unto
the poor of Stratford aforesaid ten pounds; to
Mr. Thomas Combe my sword; to Thomas
Russell esquire five pounds, and to Francis
Collins of the borough of Warr. in the county
of Warr., gent., thirteen pounds, six shillings,
and eight pence, to be paid within one year
after my decease. Item, I give and bequeath
to Hamlet Sadler twenty-five shillings and
eight pence to buy him a ring; to William
Reynolds, gent., twenty-six shillings eight pence
to buy him a ring; to my god-son William
Walker twenty shillings in gold; to Anthony
Nash gent, twenty-six shillings eight pence,
and to Mr. John Nash twenty-six shillings
eight pence; and to my fellows, John Hem-
ynges, Richard Burbage, and Henry Cundell,
twenty-six shillings eight pence apiece to buy
them rings. Item, I give, will, bequeath and
devise unto my daughter Susanna Hall, for
better enabling of her to perform this my will,
and towards the performance thereof, all that
capital messuage or tenement, with the appur-
tenances, in Stratford aforesaid, called the
New Place, wherein I now dwell, and two mes-
His Will 27
suages or tenements with the appurtenances,
situate lying and being in Henley Street with-
in the borough of Stratford aforesaid; and all
my barns, stables, orchards, gardens, lands,
tenements and hereditaments whatsoever, situ-
ate, lying and being, or to be had, received,
perceived, or taken, within the towns, hamlets,
villages, fields and grounds of Stratford-upon-
Avon, Old Stratford, Bushopton, and Wel-
combe, or in any of them in the said county
of Warr. And also all that messuage or tene-
ment with the appurtenances wherein one John
Robinson dwelleth, situate lying and being
in the Blackfriars in London near the Ward-
robe; and all other my lands, tenements, and
hereditaments whatsoever, To have and to hold
all and singular the said premises with their
appurtenances unto the said Susanna Hall
for and during the term of her natural life, and
after her decease, to the first son of her body
lawfully issuing, and to the heirs males of the
body of the said first son lawfully issuing, and
for default of such issue, to the second son of
her body lawfully issuing, and to the heirs
males of the body of the said second son law-
fully issuing, and for default of such heirs, to
the third son of the body of the said Susanna
lawfully issuing, and of the heirs males of the
body of the said third son lawfully issuing, and
for default of such issue, the same so to be and
remain to the fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh
sons of her body lawfully issuing one after
another, and to the heirs males of the bodies
28 William Shakespeare
of the said fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh
sons lawfully issuing in such manner as it is
before limited to be and remain to the first,
second and third sons of her body, and to their
heirs males, and for default of such issue, the
said premises to be and remain to my said
niece Hall, and the heirs males of her body law-
fully issuing, and for default of such issue, to
my daughter Judith, and the heirs males of her
body lawfully issuing, and for default of such
issue, to the right heirs of me the said William
Shakespeare forever. Item, I give unto my
wife my second best bed with the furniture.
Item, I give and bequeath to my said daughter
Judith my broad silver gilt bowl. All the rest
of my goods, chattels, leases, plate, jewels, and
household stuff whatsoever, after my debts
and legacies paid, and my funeral expenses
discharged, I give, devise, and bequeath to my
son-in-law, John Hall, gent., and my daughter
Susanna, his wife, whom I ordain and make
executors of this my last will and testament.
And I do entreat and appoint the said Thomas
Russell, esquire, and Francis Collins, gent.,
to be overseers hereof, and do revoke all former
wills, and publish this to be my last will and
testament. In witness whereof I have hereunto
put my hand the day and year first above
written. — By me William Shakespeare.
''Witness to the publishing hereof, — Fra:
CoUyns; Julius Shawe; John Robinson; Ham-
net Sadler; Robert Whattcott." (1)
Chapter Five.
POEMS ASCRIBED TO SHAKESPEARE
OF STRATFORD.
There is little to be said about the verses at-
tributed to Shakespeare of Stratford. As poetry-
it is not in my biographical province to criti-
cise them. Whether or not they are authentic
it is impossible to determine: one can only
guess. The modern biographers incline to
agree to disbelieve that Shakespeare was their
author; that is, of all but the gravestone lines.
It may be that it is necessary to imagine that
these were written by Shakespeare in order to
assume that his body is contained in the ground
beneath them. Oral tradition (by oral tradi-
tion I mean that not written down, so far as
can be ascertained, during Shakespeare's life-
time) says that he lies there, and that he com-
posed the rhyme. Oral tradition also declares
that the other poetry printed in this chapter
was written by Shakespeare. It may be so: we
do not know.
A man who lived near Stratford and who died
in 1703, at the age of ninety or so, is said to
have remembered hearing several old people
at Stratford tell the anecdote of Shakespeare's
30 William Shakespeare
stealing deer from Sir Thomas Lucy. The
first stanza only of the ballad composed on that
occasion could the man recall: —
A parliament member, a justice of peace,
At home a poor scarecrow, at London an ass,
If lowsie is Lucy, as some folk miscall it.
Then Lucy is lowsie, whatever befall it.
He thinks himself great.
Yet an ass in his state,
We allow by his ears but with asses to mate;
If Lucy is lowsie, as some folk miscall it.
Sing lowsie Lucy, whatever befall it. (1)
[Compare ''Merry Wives of Windsor," I. 1 : —
Slen. All his successors (gone before him)
hath don't: and all his ancestors (that come after
him) may : they may give the dozen white luces in
their coats.
Shal. It is an old coat.
Evans. The dozen white luces do become an
old coat well : it agrees well passant : it is a familiar
beast to man, and signifies love.
"Luce" and ''louse," we are told, were pro-
nounced alike.]
In a manuscript pocket-book which Arch-
deacon Plume of Rochester used, it is con-
jectured, about 1656 to note down various
trifles, appears the following couplet ascribed
to Shakespeare. It is on the authority of
John Hackett that Plume quoted this mock
epitaph on Ben Jonson: —
Poems Ascribed to Shakespeare 31
Here lies Benjamin . . . w[it]h short hair up [on]
his chin
Who w[hi]l[e] he Hved w[as] a slow th[ing], and
now he is d[ea]d is nothing. (2)
In a manuscript written, it is conjectured,
not many years after the death of Shakespeare,
occurs this passage: —
''On John Combe a covetous rich man, Mr.
Wm. Shakespeare wrote this at his request
while he was yet living for his epitaph:
Who hes in this tomb?
Hough, quoth the devil, 'tis my son, John a'Combe.
Finis.
''But, being dead and making the poor his
heirs [Combe left Shakespeare five pounds], he
after writes this for his epitaph :
However he lived judge not.
John Combe shall never be forgot.
While poor hath memory, for he did gather
To make the poor his issue: he their father
As record of his tilth and seeds
Did crown him in his latter needs. Finis. W.
Shak." (3)
Aubrey, writing in 1680, quoted these lines
as having been composed by Shakespeare at a
tavern : —
Ten in a hundred the devil allows,
But Combes will have twelve he swears and vows.
If any one asks who lies in this tome,
Hoh! quoth the devil, 'tis my John o'Combe! (4)
32 William Shakespeare
Rowe, writing in 1709, asserted that the
epitaph that Shakespeare composed to amuse
Combe was this:
Ten-in-the-Hundred hes here ingrav'd,
'Tis a hundred to ten his soul is not sav'd;
If any man ask, who hes in this tomb?
Oh! ho! quoth the devil, 'tis my John-a-Combe.
(5)
Stratford tradition credits Shakespeare with
the authorship of the local jingle running as
follows : —
Dirty Gretton, dingy Greet,
Beggarly Winchcomb, Sudley sweet;
Hartshorn and Wittington Bell,
Andoversford and Merry Frog Mill. (6)
The following lines are inscribed on a grave-
stone in the church at Stratford. Tradition
agrees in assigning both tomb and poetry to
Shakespeare : —
Good friend, for Jesus' sake forbear
To dig the dust enclosed here;
Blest be the man that spares these stones,
And curst be he that moves my bones. (7)
Chapter Six.
CONTEMPORARY ALLUSIONS, REAL
AND SUPPOSED, TO WILLIAM
SHAKESPEARE.
1592. In an address ''To those gentlemen,
his quondam acquaintance, that spend their
wits in making plays, R. G. [Robert Greene]
wisheth a better exercise and wisdom to pre-
vent his extremeties," and said, to these play-
wrights : —
''Base minded men all three of you, if by
my misery ye be not warned; for unto none of
you, like me, sought those burrs to cleave,
those puppets (I mean) that speak from our
mouths, those antics garnished in our colors.
Is it not strange that I, to whom they all have
been beholding, is it not like that you, to
whom they all have been beholding, shall,
(were ye in the case that I am now) be both at
once of them forsaken? Yes, trust them not,
for there is an upstart crow, beautified with our
feathers, that with his tiger's heart wrapped in
a player's hide, supposes he is as well able to
bombast out a blank verse as the best of you;
and being an absolute Johannes Factotum, is
in his own conceit the only Shake-scene in a
country. O, that I might entreat your rare
wits to be employed in more profitable courses,
34 William Shakespeare
and let these apes imitate your past excellence,
and never more acquaint them with your ad-
mired inventions. I know the best husband
of you all will never prove a usurer and the
kindest of them all will never prove a kind
nurse; yet, whilst you may, seek you better
masters, for it is a pity men of such rare wits
should be subject to the pleasures of such rude
grooms." (1)
1592. Greene's letter, said Chettle later
in the same year, referring to the epistle just
quoted from, ''written to divers playmakers,
is offensively by one or two of them taken, and
because on the dead they cannot be avenged
they wilfully forge in their conceits a living
author, and, after tossing it to and fro, no
remedy but that it must light on me. How
I have all the time of my conversing in print-
ing hindered the bitter inveighing against
scholars, it hath been very well known; and
how in that I deal I can sufficiently prove.
With neither of them that take offence was I
acquainted, and with one of them I care not
if I never be. The other, whom at that time
I did not so much spare as since I wish I had,
for that as I have moderated the heat of liv-
ing writers, and might have used my own dis-
cretion (especially in such a case) the author
being dead, that I did not I am as sorry as
if the original fault had been my fault, because
myself have seen his demeanor no less civil
than he excellent in the quality he professes;
Contemporary Allusions 35
besides, divers of worship have reported his up-
rightness of dealing, which argues his honesty;
and his facetious grace in writing that approves
his art."
In the first passage here quoted Greene ad-
dresses three playwrights, and warns them not
to trust the players, because there is an ''up-
start crow" who decorates himself in those
playwrights' feathers; that is to say, who gets
hold of plaj^s by the playwrights here addressed
and uses parts of them for his own purposes.
Greene dubs this purloiner of other men's
writings a ''Johannes Factotum," who regards
himself as the only "Shake-scene in a country,"
and who wraps "a tiger's heart in a player's
hide." This looks like a clear and con-
temptuous allusion to Shakespeare in his
capacity as dramatist working under the name
of an actor.
In the second passage here quoted, Chettle,
who published Greene's letter, denies that he
wrote it himself, and regrets that he did not
soften the slur on "the other" playwright
who has been taken to be the "Shake-scene"
alluded to above. Chettle expresses his sorrow
because "divers of worship" have testified to
Shake-scene's civility of demeanor and his ex-
cellence in his profession, as well as to his
uprightness and his "facetious grace" in writ-
ing. Chettle is manifestly alluding to a play-
wright, not an actor. There is nothing to be
learned here about the identity between the
36 William Shakespeare
Stratford actor and the poet Shakespeare, or
Shake-scene. (2)
1594. In a laudatory address entitled ''In
Praise of Willobie His Avisa Hexamaton to
the Author/' prefixed to "Willobie his Avisa,"
there appeared these stanzas: —
In Lavine land though Livie boast.
There hath been a constant dame;
Though Rome lament that she have lost
The garland of her rarest fame,
Yet now we see that here is found
As great a faith in English ground.
Though Collatine have dearly bought
To high renown a lasting life.
And found, that most in vain have sought,
To have a fair and constant wife.
Yet Tarquin plucked his glistering grape.
And Shakespeare paints poor Lucrece rape.
Clearly a reference to Shakespeare's ''The
ilape of Lucrece," which was published in
1594. From this passage, however, we learn
nothing about the author. It is as if some one
spoke of Bryce's "American Commonwealth,"
so far as any information about the identity
of the writer is concerned. On the face of it,
therefore, these stanzas teach us nothing about
William Shakespeare of Stratford, nor do they
suggest, remotely or otherwise, a connection
between him and the poet of "Lucrece rape."
(3)
1595- On a margin of a book entitled "Poli-
manteia," opposite a passage in which the
Contemporary Allusions 37
author is boasting of the poets of England
as compared with the poets of other coun-
tries, there occur these side-notes: ''AH praise
worthy. Lucrecia Sweet Shakespeare. Elo-
quent Graveston. Wanton Adonis. Watsons
hey re."
From this ''allusion/' as from the previous
one, we learn nothing about Shakespeare.
The title of one or possibly of two poems bear-
ing the name Shakespeare are mentioned.
That is all. No connection with the Stratford
man is here hinted at. (4)
1597 (?)• ''The Return from Parnassus"
was the second part of a trilogy of three
plays written and acted by the students of
St. John's College, Cambridge. In the sec-
ond of these plays occurred the following
passage : —
Gullio. Pardon, fair lady, though the sick-
thoughted Gullio makes amain unto thee, and like
a bold-faced suitor 'gins to woo thee.
Ingenioso. (We shall have nothing but pure
Shakespeare and shreds of poetry that he hath
gathered at the theatres.)
Gullio. Pardon me, my mistress, as I am a
gentleman, the moon in comparison of thy bright
hue a mere slut, Anthony's Cleopatra a black-
browed milkmaid, Helen a dowdy.
Ingenioso. (Mark, Romeo and Juliet. Oh
monstrous theft! I think he will run through a
whole book of Samuel Daniel's.)
Gullio. Thrice fairer than myself ( — thus I
began — )
431S64
38 William Shakespeare
The gods' fair riches, sweet above compare,
Staine to all nymphs more lovely than a man,
More white and red than doves and roses are!
Nature that made thee with herself had strife
Saith that the world hath ending with thy life.
Ingenioso. Sweet Mr. Shakespeare!
Later in this drama, GuUio, the fool of the
piece, being asked in what vein he would like
some verses written for his mistress, replies: —
Not in a vain vein (pretty, i' faith!): make me
them in two or three diverse veins, in Chaucer's,
Gower's, and Spenser's, and Mr. Shakespeare's.
Marry, I think I shall entertain those verses which
run like these:
Even as the sun with purple colored face.
Had ta 'en his last leave on the weeping morn, etc.
O sweet Mr. Shakespeare! I'll have his picture in
my study at the Court.
In the same play, later on, Gullio says: —
Let this duncified world esteem of Spenser and
Chaucer; I'll worship sweet Mr. Shakespeare, and
to honor him lay his Veiius and Adonis under my
pillow. . . .
There is nothing to be learned here about the
identity of the poet with the actor from Strat-
ford. (5)
1597 (?)• The Northumberland Manuscript
is a folio volume containing '^Of Tribute,"
''Of Magnanimity," ''An advertisement touch-
ing private censure," "An advertisement touch-
ing the controversies of the Church of England,"
Contemporary Allusions 39
''A letter to a French gentleman: touching
the proceedings in England;" . . . speeches
spoken in a '' Device" before Queen Elizabeth
in 1595, and a speech ''for the Earl of Sussex
at the tilt," 1596, — all these by Francis Bacon;
a letter to Queen Elizabeth by Sir Philip Sid-
ney; and an imperfect copy of ''Leicester's
Commonwealth." There is evidence that some
things in the book have been removed, and in
the table of contents it appears that among
them were some orations spoken at Gray's
Inn, essays by Bacon, as well as two plays en-
titled "Richard II." and "Richard III."
This book is interesting because it is the only
known hint that the Shakespeare plays, like
the Shakespeare sonnets, were circulated in
manuscript. The date of this folio has been
fixed at about 1597, for Bacon's essays, which
had been "travelling abroad," presumably
in copies from the author's manuscript, were
at last pubHshed in 1597, and it is improb-
able that, being now accessible in print, any
one would laboriously copy them out. The
same is true of the Richard plays. All the
other pieces in the manuscript are of earlier
date.
On a fly-leaf, which is shown here photo-
graphically reproduced, some one scribbled
Shakespeare's name repeatedly, and misquoted
a line from "Lucrece." Strictly speaking, this
document is neither a "record" nor an "allu-
sion." As it is, however, the only known con-
40 William Shakespeare
temporary book among the contents of which
were numbered "Richard II." and ''Richard
III./' and as the fly-leaf attests an interest in
Shakespeare, if only orthographical, I thought it
worth reproducing. (6)
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A MODERN SCRIPT FACSIMILE OF OPPOSITE PAGE.
Contemporary Allusions 41
•
1598. In a book called ''Palladis Tamia"
was printed an essay entitled ''A Comparative
Discourse of our English Poets with the Greek,
Latin, and Itahan poets," by Francis Meres,
a Master of Arts of Oxford as well as of
Cambridge. The following passage mentions
Shakespeare : —
''As the Greek tongue is made famous and
eloquent by Homer, Hesiod, Euripides, Aeschy-
lus, Sophocles, Pindarus, Phocylides, and Aris-
tophanes; and the Latin tongue by Virgil,
Ovid, Horace, Silius Italicus, Lucanus, Lu-
cretius, Ausonius and Claudianus; so the
English tongue is mightily enriched and gor-
geously invested, in rare ornaments and re-
splendent habiliments, by Sir Philip Sidney,
Spenser, Daniel, Drayton, Warner, Shake-
speare, Marlow, and Chapman. . . .
'';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.
"As Plautus and Seneca 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 Labor's Lost, his Love's
Labor's Won, his Midsummer Night's Dream,
and his Merchant of Venice.
''For tragedy: his Richard II., Richard III.,
42 William Shakespeare
Henry IV., King John, Titus Andronicus, and
his Romeo and Juliet.
''As Epius Stolo said that the Muses would
speak with Plautus's 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." . . .
Shakespeare's name is mentioned five more
times by Meres, but always in a group, and no-
where again singly. Thus, together with many
other contemporaries, he is called a lyric poet,
good at tragedies, and ''most passionate among
us to bewail and bemoan the perplexities of
love. ' '
These allusions are like the two just preceding,
in that they tell us nothing about Shakespeare,
except that the name was connected with cer-
tain poems and plays. This is not news. Of
his identity with the Stratford man, the actor
Shakespeare, we can learn nothing from Meres.
(7)
1598. In "Poems in Divers Humors," bound
with an "Encomium of Lady Pecunia," by
Richard Barnfield, under the title "A Remem-
berance of some English Poets," appeared these
lines :
And Shakespeare thou, whose honey-flowing vein,
(Pleasing the world) thy praises doth obtain;
Whose Venus and whose Lucrece, (sweet and chaste)
Thy name in fame's immortal book have placed.
Live ever you, at least in fame live ever;
Well may the body die, but fame dies never.
Contemporary Allusions 43
The only possible information concerning
Shakespeare here obtainable is that he — who-
ever he was — was still alive. There is nothing
to be learned here about the identity of the
actor with the dramatist or of the Stratford
man with the dramatist. (8)
1599. In '' Epigrams in the Oldest Cut and
Newest Fashion," John Weever wrote some
verses inscribed ''Ad Guilelum Shakespeare."
They are: —
Honey-tongued Shakespeare, when I saw thine
issue,
I swore Apollo got them and none other,
Their rosy-tainted features clothed in tissue.
Some heaven-born goddess said to be their mother;
Rose-cheeked Adonis with his amber tresses.
Fair fire-hot Venus charming him to love her,
Chaste Lucretia, virgin-like her dresses.
Proud lust-stung Tarquin seeking still to prove her;
Romea-Richard ; more whose names I know not,
Their sugared tongues and power attractive beauty
Say they are saints, although that saints they show
not.
For thousands vows to them subjective duty;
They burn in love; thy children, Shakespeare het
them;
Go, woo thy muse; more nymphish brood beget them.
There is nothing to be learned here about
Shakespeare nor about the identity of the
poet-dramatist with the actor from Stratford.
(9)
1600. In a book entitled ''Bel-vedere, or the
Garden of the Muses," appeared this passage: —
44 William Shakespeare
"Now that every one may be fully satisfied
concerning this Garden, that no one man doth
assume to himself the praise thereof, or can
arrogate to his own deserving those things
which have been derived from so many rare
and ingenious spirits, I have set down both how,
whence and where these flowers had their first
springing till thus they were drawn together
into the Muses Garden, that every ground may
challenge his own, each plant his particular,
and no one be injured in the justice of his
merit. . . .
' ' Edmund Spenser ; Henry Constable esquire ;
Samuel Daniel; Thomas Lodge, Doctor of
Physic; Thomas Watson; Michael Drayton;
John Davies; Thomas Hudson; Henry Locke
esquire; John Marston; Christopher Marlowe;
Benjamin Jonson; William Shakespeare;
Thomas Churchyard esquire; Thomas Nash;
Thomas Kidd; George Peele; Robert Greene;
Joshua Sylvester; Nicholas Breton; Gervase
Markham; Thomas Storer; Robert Wilmot;
Christopher Middleton; Richard Barnfield;
these being modern and extant poets that have
lived together; from many of their extant works,
and some kept in private."
The only possible information concerning
Shakespeare here obtainable is that he was still
alive. There is nothing to be learned here
about the identity of the poet-dramatist with
the actor from Stratford. (10)
1601. John Manningham, a barrister-at-law
Contemporary Allusions 45
who kept a diary, wrote in it, under the date of
February 2d: ''At our feast we had a play
called Twelve Night, or What You Will, much
like the comedy of Errors, or Menechmi in
Plautus, but most like and near to that in
Italian called Inganni. A good practice in it
to make the steward believe his lady widow was
in love with him, by counterfeiting a letter as
from his lady, in general terms, telling him
what she liked him best in, and prescribing his
gesture in smiling, his apparel, etc., and then,
when he came to practise, making him believe
they took him to be mad."
This is one of many allusions to the plays of
Shakespeare. It is too obvious to say that
the actor is not mentioned as the author.
(11)
1 60 1, March 13. (From the same): ''Upon a
time when Burbage played Richard III. there
was a citizen gone so far in liking with him,
that before she went from the play she ap-
pointed him to come that night unto her by
the name of Richard the Third. Shakespeare
overhearing their conclusion went before, was
entertained, and at his game ere Burbage came.
The message then being brought that Richard
the Third was at the door, Shakespeare caused
return to be made that William the Con-
queror was before Richard the Third. Shake-
speare's name William.
)j
Clearly, an allusion to Shakespeare the actor,
who was a fellow of Burbage's. It is impossible
46 William Shakespeare
to say that Manningham considered or did not
consider Shakespeare the author of the play
which he had witnessed within six weeks.
Without other information from Manningham
this allusion evidently does not identify the
Stratford man with the dramatist. (12)
1602 (?). In the third play of the trilogy
played by the students of St. John's, ^^The
Return from Parnassus or the Scourge of
Simony/' Ingenioso is reading from ''Belve-
dere, or The Garden of the Muses," the names
of various poets for Judicio to criticise. Toward
the end of the list he comes to WiUiam Shake-
speare. Judicio then says.
Who loves not Adonis love or Lucrece rape?
His sweeter verse contains heart throbbing line,
Could but a graver subject him content,
Without love's foolish lazy languishment.
There is nothing to be learned here about the
identity of the poet with William Shakespeare
of Stratford. (13)
1602. In ''The Return from Parnassus, or
the Scourge of Simony," Will Kempe and Bur-
bage, the actors, are brought on the stage.
This dialogue ensues: —
Burhage. Now Will Kemp, if we can entertain
these scholars at a low rate, it will be well, they
have oftentimes a good conceit in a part.
Kempe. It's true indeed, honest Dick, but the
slaves are somewhat proud, and besides, it is a
good sport in part, to see them never speak in their
walk but at the end of the stage, just as though
Contemporary Allusions 47
in walking with a fellow we should never speak
but at a stile, a gate, or a ditch, where a man can
go no further. I was once at a comedy in Cam-
bridge, and there I saw a parasite make faces and
mouths of all sorts in this fashion.
Burbage. A little teaching will mend these faults,
and it may be besides they will be able to pen a
part.
Kempe. Few of the university pen plays well;
they smell too much of that writer Ovid and that
writer Metamorphosis, and talk too much of Pro-
serpina and Jupiter. Why, here's our fellow Shake-
speare 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. It's a shrewd fellow indeed: I wonder
these scholars stay so long. . . .
In this satirical play the points are repeat-
edly made that actors belong to a low profes-
sion, and that in contrast to them the university
men have a difficult time making their way in
the world. In this passage, then, Kempe and
Burbage, whose parts were of course taken by
students, amuse the audience by boasting that
a fellow, Shakespeare, was the author of works
which could ''put down" all the university
pens, even Ben Jonson, who, though not a
university man (he was later given honorary
degrees from both Cambridge and Oxford),
ranked with the university men on account of
his learning. As the piece is satirical, it is diffi-
48 William Shakespeare
cult to take the lines as referring to Shake-
speare as other than an actor. (14)
1603. In a ballad called '^A Mournful Ditty
entitled Elizabeth's Loss, together with a Wel-
come for King James," occurred these verses:
You poets all, brave Shakespeare, Jonson, Greene,
Bestow your time to write for England's Queene.
Lament, lament, lament, you English peers;
Lament your loss, possessed so many years.
There is nothing to be learned here about
Shakespeare nor about the identity of the
poet-dramatist with the actor from Strat-
ford. (15)
1604. In a book of ''Epigrams" by I. C.
occur these lines: —
Whoe'er will go unto the press may see
The hated fathers of vile balladry;
One sings in his base note the river Thames
Shall sound the famous memory of noble King
James;
Another says that he will to his death.
Sing the renowned worthiness of sweet Elizabeth;
So runs their verse in such disordered strain.
And with them dare great majesty profane;
Some dare do this; some other humbly craves
For help of spirits in their sleeping graves.
As he that called to Shakespeare, Jonson, Greene,
To write of their dead noble Queen.
There is nothing to be learned here about
Shakespeare nor about the identity of the poet-
dramatist with the actor from Stratford. (16)
Contemporary Allusions 49
1604. In the dedication to a book called
"Daiphantus, or the Passions of Love," the
author says that an epistle to the reader * 'should
be like the never-too-well-read Arcadia, where
the prose and verse (matter and words) are
like his mistress's eyes, one still excelling another
and without corivall; or to come home to the
vulgars' element, like friendly Shakespeare's
tragedies, where the commedian rides, when
the tragedian stands on tiptoe; faith, it should
please all, like Prince Hamlet. But, in sad-
ness, then it were to be feared he would run
mad. In sooth, I will not be moonsick to please;
nor out of my wits, though I displeased all."
There is nothing to be learned here about
Shakespeare nor about the identity of the
poet-dramatist with the actor from Strat-
ford. (17)
1605(03). In the epistle dedicatory of
Camden's ''Remains of a Greater Work con-
cerning Britain," published this year anony-
mously, occur these words: —
"These may sufl&ce for some poetical descrip-
tions of our ancient poets; if I would come to
our time, what a world could I present to you
out of Sir Philip Sidney, Ed. Spenser, John
Owen, Samuel Daniel, Hugh Holland, Ben
Jonson, Th. Campion, Mich. Drayton, George
Chapman, John Marston, William Shakespeare,
and other pregnant wits of these our times,
whom succeeding ages may justly admire."
There is nothing to be learned here about
50 William Shakespeare
Shakespeare, nor about the identity of the poet-
dramatist with the actor from Stratford. (18)
1607. In a book called ''Mirrha, the Mother
of Adonis, or Lust's Prodigies," WilHam Bark-
sted wrote: —
But stay, my Muse, in thine own confines keep,
And wage not war with so dear loved a neighbor;
But having sung thy day-song, rest and sleep;
Preserve thy small fame and his greater favor.
His song was worthy merit (Shakespeare he,)
Sung the fair blossom, thou, the withered tree;
Laurel is due to him; his art and wit
Hath purchased it; Cyprus thy brow will fit.
There is nothing to be learned here about
Shakespeare. Concerning the identity of the
poet-dramatist and the actor we remain in
our former ignorance. (19)
1610. In a book called '^Hypercritica; or a
Rule of Judgment for writing or reading our
histories," Edmund Bolton wrote the following:
''The Choice of English. As for example,
language and style (the apparel of matter)
he who would pen our affairs in English, and
compose unto us an entire body of them, ought
to have a singular care thereof. For albeit
our tongue hath not received dialects, or ac-
centual notes as the Greek, nor any certain
or established rule of grammar or true writing,
is notwithstanding very copious, and few there
be who have the most proper graces thereof,
in which the rule cannot be variable: For as
much as the people's judgments are uncer-
Contemporary Allusions 51
tain, the books also out of which we gather
the most warrantable English are not many to
my rememberance, of which, in regard they
require a particular and curious tract, I forbear
to speak at this present. But among the chief,
or rather the chief, are in my opinion these.
''Sir Thomas Moore's works.
" George Chapman's first seven books of Iliad.
''Samuel Drayton.
"Michael Drayton his Historical Epistles of
England.
"Marlowe his excellent fragment of Hero and
Leander.
"Shakespeare, Mr. Francis Beaumont, and
innumerable other writers for the stage; and
press tenderly to be used in this argument.
"Southwell, Parson, and some few other of
that sort."
There is nothing to be learned here about
the identity of the Stratford man with the poet-
dramatist. (20)
i6ii. In some notes made by William
Drummond of Hawthornden, under the head
"Table of my English books, anno 1611,"
we find the following, here reprinted letter for
letter : —
Venus and Aden, by Schaksp.
The Rap of Lucrece, idem.
The Tragedie of Romeo and Julieta
4d. Ing
A Midsumers Night Dreame.
52 William Shakespeare
There is nothing here to be learned about
the identity of the Stratford man with the poet
and playwright. (21)
1611 (?). In ''The Scourge of Folly" John
Davies of Hereford wrote these verses, ''To
our English Terence, Mr. Will. Shake-speare " :
Some say, good Will, (which I, in sport, do sing)
Hadst thou not played some kingly parts in sport,
Thou hadst been a companion for a king;
And been a king among the meaner sort.
Some others rail; but, rail as they think fit,
Thou hast no railing, but a reigning wit :
And honesty thou sow'st, which they do reap.
So, to increase their stock which they do keep.
It is impossible, without knowing more than
we do about the circumstances under which
this epigram was written, to decide what
it means. In terming Shakespeare a Terence,
the writer evidently addressed him as a play-
wright. In remarking that Shakespeare had
played some kingly parts in sport, we can
hardly understand that Shakespeare of Strat-
ford is mentioned, as it was not his sport,
but his business to act. Doubtless, as the
phrase goes, this line is figurative in meaning.
From this poem we can learn nothing about
the identity of the actor with the poet-drama-
tist. (22)
161 2. In the conclusion to Webster's
"White Devil" occur these words: —
"Detraction is the sworn friend to ignorance:
for mine own part, I have ever truly cherished
Contemporary Allusions 53
my good opinion of other men's worthy labors,
especially of that full and heightened style of
Master Chapman, the labored and understand-
ing works of Master Jonson, the no less worthy
composures of the both excellent Master Beau-
mont and Master Fletcher; and lastly (with-
out wrong last to be named) the right happy
and copious industry of M. Shakespeare, M.
Decker, and M. Hey wood, wishing what I
write may be read by their light; protesting
that, in the strength of mine own judgment,
I know them so worthy, that, though I rest
silent in my own work, yet to most of theirs
I dare, (without flattery) fix that of Martial,
— non norunt, Haec monumenta mori."
There is nothing to be learned here about
Shakespeare except that his industry was con-
sidered by Webster as happy and copious.
Nor is there any hint of the identity of the poet-
dramatist with the actor from Stratford. (23)
1 614. In a book entitled ''The Excellency
of the English Tongue," printed in Camden's
''Remains," R. C. wrote: —
"The long words that we borrow, being inter-
mingled with the short of our own store, make
up a perfect harmony, by culling from out
which mixture (with judgment) you may
frame a speech according to the matter you
must work on, majestical, pleasant, delicate or
manly, more or less, in what sort you please.
Add hereunto that, whatsoever grace any
other language carrieth in verse or prose, in
54 William Shakespeare
tropes or metaphors, in echoes and agnomi-
nations, they may all be lively and exactly
represented in ours. Will you have Plato's
vein? read Sir Thomas Smith. The Ionic?
Sir Thomas More. Cicero? Ascham. Varro?
Chaucer. Demosthenes? Sir John Cheek
(who, in his treatise to the rebels, hath
comprised all the figures of rhetoric). Will
you read Virgil? take the Earl of Surrey.
Catullus? Shakespheare and Barlowes frag-
ment [sic]. Ovid? Daniel. Lucan? Spenser.
Martial? Sir John Davies and others. Will
you have all in all for prose and verse? take
the miracle of our age, Sir Philip Sidney."
There is nothing to be learned from this
allusion about Shakespeare, nor about the
identity of the poet-dramatist and the actor
from Stratford. (24)
1614. The passage in the epistle dedicatory
to Camden's ''Remains" that was published
in 1605 was reprinted this year. (See above
under 1605.) (25)
1 6 14. In some epigrams by Thomas Free-
man occur the following lines "To master W.
Shakespeare": —
Shakespeare, that nimble mercury, thy brain,
Lulls many hundred Argus-eyes asleep,
So fit for all thou fashionest thy vein;
At th' horse-foot fountain thou hast drunk full
deep ;
Virtue's or vice's theme to thee all one is;
Who loves chaste life, there's Lucrece for a teacher;
Contemporary Allusions 55
Who list read lust, there's Venus and Adonis,
True model of a most lascivious lecher.
Besides in plays thy wit winds like Meander.
When needy new-composers borrow more
Thence Terence doth from Plautus or Menander.
But to praise thee aright I want thy store;
Then let thine own works thine own worth upraise,
And help t' adorn thee with deserved bays.
There is nothing to be learned here about
Shakespeare nor about the identity of the poet-
dramatist with the actor from Stratford. (26)
1614. In Stow's '^The Annals, or General
Chronicle of England," continued by Edmund
Howe, there occurs this passage: —
''Our modern and present excellent poets,
which worthily flourish in their own works,
and all of them in my own knowledge lived
together in this Queen's reign, according to
their priorities, as near as I could, I have
orderly set down (viz.) George Gascoigne,
esquire; Thomas Churchyard, esquire. Sir
Edward Dyer, knight, Edmund Spenser
esquire. Sir Philip Sidney knight. Sir John Har-
rington knight. Sir Thomas Challoner knight.
Sir Francis Bacon knight; and Sir John Davies
knight. Master John Lily gentleman, Master
George Chapman gentleman, M. W. Warner
gentleman, M. Willi. Shakespeare gentleman,
Samuel Daniel esquire, Michael Drayton
esquire, of the bath, M. Christopher Marlow
gentleman, M. Benjamin Jonson gentleman;
John Marston esquire, M. Abraham Francis
gentleman, Master Francis Meres gentleman,
56 William Shakespeare
Master Joshua Sylvester, gentleman; Master
Thomas Decker, gentleman, M. John Fletcher
gentleman, M. John Webster gentleman, M.
Thomas Heywood gentleman, M. Thomas
Middleton gentleman, M. George Withers."
There is nothing here to be learned about
Shakespeare nor about the identity of the poet-
dramatist and the actor from Stratford. (27)
Since we can find no contemporary allusion
definitely declaring the two Shakespeares to
be one and the same, it is not improbable that
they were not regarded as the same. At least
we cannot exhibit, as evidence that the iden-
tity existed, the passages quoted in this chapter.
Chapter Seven.
EVIDENCES FROM THE PLAYS AND
POEMS.
In this chapter I have printed such docu-
ments as deal directly with the plays and poems
published under the name William Shakepeare
during the life time of William Shakespeare of
Stratford. It did not seem useful to try to
make a list of the quartos with their dates,
nor did it seem wise to attempt to select from
the plays and poems any so-called ''self-
revealatory" or "autobiographical" passages.
The preface, dedicatory letters, and records
herein included show no connection between
the actor and the playwright. This is the last
link in our chain of negative evidence.
1593. In ''Venus and Adonis," the dedica-
tion "To the Right Honorable Henry Wrio-
thesley. Earl of Southampton, and Baron of
Titchfield," William Shakespeare, who signed
himself "Your honor's in all duty," wrote: —
"Right Honorable, I know not how I shall
offend in dedicating my unpolished lines to
your Lordship, nor how the world will censure
me for choosing so strong a prop to support
so weak a burden, only if your Honor seem but
pleased, I account myself highly praised, and
vow to take advantage of all idle hours till I
have honored you with some graver labor.
58 William Shakespeare
But if the first heir of my invention prove de-
formed, I shall be sorry it had so noble a god-
father: and never after ear so barren a land
for fear it yield me still so bad a harvest, I
leave it to your Honorable survey, and your
Honor to your heart's content, which I wish
may always answer your own wish, and the
world's hopeful expectation." (1)
There is nothing to be learned here about the
identity of the Stratford actor with the poet.
1594. In the dedication to ''The Rape of
Lucrece," William Shakespeare, addressing
again the Earl of Southampton, and signing
himself as before, wrote: —
"The love I dedicate to your Lordship is
without end: whereof this pamphlet without
beginning is but a superfluous moiety. The
warrant I have of your honorable disposition,
not the worth of my untutored lines makes
it assured of acceptance. What I have done
is yours, what I have to do is yours, being
part in all I have, devoted yours. Were my
worth greater, my duty would show greater,
meantime, as it is, it is bound to your Lord-
ship; to whom I wish long life still lengthened
with all happiness." (2)
There is nothing to be learned here about
the identity of the Stratford actor with the
poet.
1600. Entry at Stationers' Hall: . . . ''Two
books, the one called Much Ado about Noth-
ing, the other the second part of the History
of King Henry the IVth with the humors of
The Plays and Poems 59
Sir John Falstaff, written by Mr. Shakespeare."
(3)
1604. In the Accounts of the Revels at
court in the reigns of Elizabeth and James,
for the whole year 1604 and part of 1605,
''Shaxberd" appears as the poet ''which made
. the plays" "Measure for Measure," ''The
Play of Errors," and "A Merchant of Venice."
The authenticity of the insertion of this name
has been questioned. It is needless to say that,
even if the records are true ones, there is noth-
ing to be learned here about the identity of
the Stratford actor with the writer of the
dramas. (4)
1607. Entry at Stationers' Hall: "A book
called Mr. William Shakespeare his history
of King Lear as it was played before the King's
majesty at Whitehall." ... (5)
1609. Entry at Stationers' Hall: "En-
tered ... a book called Shakespeare's Son-
nets." (6)
1609. The Quarto of "Troilus and Cres-
seida" was published this year, with the name
William Shakespeare on the title-page and with
the following unsigned preface. The caption
was "A Never Writer to an Ever Reader."
It read: —
"Eternal reader, you have here a new play,
never staled with the stage, never clapper-
clawed with the palms of the vulgar, and yet
passing full of the palm comical; for it is a
birth of your brain, that never undertook any-
thing comical vainly; and were but the vain
60 William Shakespeare
names of comedies changed for the titles of
commodities, or of plays for pleas, you should
see all those grand censors, that now style
them such vanities, flock to them for the main
grace of their gravities; especially this au-
thor's comedies, that are so framed to the life
that they serve for the most common commen-
taries of all the actions of our lives, showing
such a dexeterity and power of wit, that the
most displeased with plays are pleased with
his comedies. And all such dull and heavy-
witted worldlings as were never capable of the
wit of a comedy, coming by report of them to
his representations, have found that wit there
that they never found in themselves, and have
parted better witted than they came; feeling
an edge of wit set upon them more than ever
they dreamed they had brain to grind it on.
So much and such favored salt of wit is in his
comedies, that they seem (for their height of
pleasure) to be born in that sea that brought
forth Venus. Amongst all there is none more
witty than this: and had I time I would com-
ment upon it, though I know it needs not (for
so much as will make you think your testern
well bestowed), but for so much worth as
even poor I know to be stuffed in it. It de-
serves such a labor, as well as the best comedy
in Terence or Plautus. And believe this, that
when he is gone and his comedies out of sale,
you will scramble for them, and set up a new
English Inquisition. Take this for a warning,
and at the peril of your pleasure's loss and
The Plays and Poems 61
judgments, refuse not, nor like this the less for
not being sullied with the smoky breath of the
multitude; but thank fortune for the scape
it hath made amongst you, since by the grand
possessors' wills I believe you should have
prayed for them rather than been prayed.
And so I leave all such to be prayed for (for
the states of their wits' healths) that will not
praise it. Vale." (7)
It is not known who wrote this curious pref-
ace. Two quartos of ''Troilus" were printed
this year, both exactly alike, except that one
omitted the passage just quoted. Who were
the grand possessors has never been satisfac-
torily answered.
Chapter Eight.
THE FIRST FOLIO.
The year 1492 is memorable in the history
of the discovery of continents. Equally im-
portant in the history of the discovery of authors
is the year 1623, for then was published the
identity of the writer of the Shakespeare dramas.
Nothing in the records of William Shakespeare
of Stratford — I am speaking of the known
records — had explicitly connected that actor
and provincial business man with the creation
or the publication of the splendid poetry.
Nothing in the contemporary allusions either
to this gentleman or to the playwright had
indicated that either the inhabitants of Strat-
ford or of London believed the two men to be
the same man. And nothing in the plays or
poems themselves afforded a clew. The first
Folio (1) supplied the link. That given, by
working backwards the task of the biographers
has been simple.
Yet the First Folio did not supply absolutely
the first link, for the thing had been hinted at
some time between 1616 and 1623. Some one
— no one knows who — in those years built into
the wall of the Stratford church a monument
in memory of William Shakespeare. After
1636 this monument,* representing a thin
* See frontispiece.
The First Folio 63
man with a down-drooping mustache, standing
with his hands on a cushion, was removed.
The man there sculptured resembled the present
bust of Shakespeare chiefly in having a bald
head with the hair clustered above the ears
and in wearing a jerkin with two rows of buttons
down the middle and a turndown collar. By
whom altered or for what reasons remains in
the dark. On this older monument, as on the
present one, stood this inscription : —
Judicio Pylium, genio Socratem, arte Maronem
Terra tegit, populus moeret, Olympus habet.
Stay passenger, why goest thou by so fast?
Read, if thou canst, whom envious death hath
placed
Within this monument: Shakespeare, with whom
Quick Nature died; whose name doth deck this
tomb
Far more than cost, sith all that he hath writ
Leaves living art but page to serve his wit.
ObiitAno. Doi. 1616. Aetatis 53. Die 23. Ap. (2)
The Latin lines state that Shakespeare was
a Nestor in judgment, a Socrates in (philosoph-
ical) genius, and in art a Virgil. ''The earth
hides him, the people mourn him, Olympus has
him." Remarks that surely pointed the way,
but did not quite declare the fact. Before
1623 a casual tourist, not having a Baedeker,
would not know what the world now beheves
it knows.
64 William Shakespeare
But the First Folio gave definitely to the
author of the plays a local habitation and a
name. In the opening pages of that volume
are some poems in memory of Mr. Shakespeare.
In one of them L. Digges began: —
Shakespeare, at length thy pious fellows give
The world thy works, — thy work, by which, outlive
Thy tomb, thy name must when that stone is rent,
And time dissolves thy Stratford monument. (1)
In another set of verses Ben Jonson said : —
Sweet Swan of Avon! What a sight it were
To see thee in our waters yet appear.
And make those flights upon the banks of Thames
That so did take Eliza and our James! (1)
In the list of principal actors in these plays
Shakespeare's name leads all the rest. Lastly,
the dedication and the preface are signed by
Hemming and Condell, actors, to each of whom,
as to Richard Burbage, Shakespeare of Strat-
ford had bequeathed some money to buy them
rings. Hemming and Condell, who, as Malone
has practically proved, merely lent their names
to what Ben Jonson really wrote, speak here
definitely of Shakespeare the author as their
friend and fellow-player. Thus an identifica-
tion of the two WiUiams was made, and the
office of illustrious playwright had sought and
found its man.
Besides giving to the world an author, this
First Folio published for the first time several
plays: ''The Tempest," ''Two Gentlemen of
Verona/' "Comedy of Errors," "As You Like
The First Folio 65
It," ''Measure for Measure/' ''All's WeU,"
"Twelfth Night," "Winter's Tale," "Third
Part of Henry VI.," "Henry VIIL," "Timon,"
"Julius Caesar," "Macbeth," "Antony and
Cleopatra," and "Cymbeline." Although these
had never been printed in their present form,
many with their titles had been presented on the
stage. "The Taming of the Shrew," "Timon,"
"Julius Csesar," "Coriolanus," "All's Well,"
and "Henry VIIL" had not only never been
printed, but, apparently, had never been heard
of at all in their present form. Several plays,
as "Richard III.," "Othello," "Hamlet," and
"Second Part of Henry VI.," contained revi-
sions and newly written matter, admittedly by
Shakespeare. From a legal point of view Lord
Penzance (3) has admirably discussed certain
other very curious inconsistencies in the First
FoHo.
To show that no one seems to have acknowl-
edged the authorship of the plays till they were
collected and published after the death of
Shakespeare has been my task. It will be
argued that negative evidence proves nothing;
but the keenest mind of the seventeenth century
is my authority for quoting: "It is the pecuHar
and perpetual error of the human intellect to
be more moved and excited by affirmatives than
by negatives; whereas it ought properly to
hold itself indifferently disposed towards both
ahke. Indeed, in the establishment of any true
axiom, the negative instance is the more forcible
66 William Shakespeare
of the two." My purpose is not so much to
prove or to disprove as to correct the biographies
as they stand to-day. A single point further
should be added.
Mr. W. S. Booth has shown (4) that by ap-
plying to the first and last pages of the Shake-
speare plays as printed in the First Folio, a
variant of a commonly used mathematical
cipher, one can read repeatedly a hidden acros-
tic of the name of Francis Bacon. The chief
difference between this and the other ciphers
which an unwilling world has had to examine
from time to time is the fact that it works as
its discoverer claims. That these acrostics are
the result of human design has not, as this book
goes to press, been definitely acknowledged.
Mathematical analysis goes to show that in-
tention is manifest and historical warrant is
not wholly wanting. At any rate it is a re-
markable fact that in the only document iden-
tifying William Shakespeare from Stratford
with the poet the name of so illustrious a con-
temporary should be secretly embedded.
EPILOGUE.
"And now I have . . . marked the deficiencies.
. . . Wherein if I have differed from the ancient
and received doctrines, and thereby given a handle
to contradiction; for my part, as I am far from
wishing to dissent, so I purpose not to contend.
If it he truth,
Non canimus surdis, respondent omnia silvae:
the voice of nature will consent, whether the voice
of man do or not. But as Alexander Borgia was
wont to say of the expedition of the French to
Naples, ' that they came ivith chalk in their hands
to mark up their lodgings, and not with weapons
to break in\' so I like better that entry of truth,
which comes peaceably as with chalk to mark up
those minds which are capable to lodge and harbor
such a guest, than that which forces its way with
pugnacity and contention." — From Francis
Bacon's De Augmentis Scientarum, Book III.,
Chapter VI. (Spedding's translation.)
BIBLIOGRAPHY.
In the following Bibliography the attempt has been
made to refer the reader, wherever possible, to easily
accessible photographic reproductions or type fac-sim-
iles of original documents; and, failing this, to at least
two easily accessible books containing the full texts
of the documents. In several instances these texts are
not available.
These abbreviations have been employed: —
H. P. = "The OutHnes of the Life of William Shake-
speare," by J. 0. Halliwell-Phillipps. Longmans, Green,
1908.— Lee Illust. = "A Life of WiUiam Shakespeare,"
by Sidney Lee. Illustrated Library Edition. Smith &
Elder, 1899.— Lee = "A Life of William Shakespeare,"
by Sidney Lee. The Macmillan Company, 1909. — Lam-
bert ="Cartea Shakespeareanae. . . ." Arranged by
D. H. Lambert. George Bell & Sons, 1904.— Allu-
sion = "The Shakespeare Allusion-Book: A Collection
of Allusions to Shakespeare from 1591 to 1700. . . . Re-
edited, revised, and rearranged with an introduction,
by John Munro." New York, Duffield & Co., 1909.—
G. G. G. = "The Shakespeare Problem Re-stated,"
by G. G. Greenwood. London, John Lane, 1908.
Chapter One.
(1) H. P., ii. 73 et seq.
(2) H. P., i. 68, fac-simile.
(3) G. G. G., 24.
Chapter Two.
(1) H. P., ii. 215 et seq.
(2) Fac-simile of the second draft (in part), Lambert,
19.
(3) Fac-simile of the confirmation of the draft (in
part), Lambert, 35.
70 William Shakespeare
Chapter Three.
^1) Lee Illust., 8, fac-simile.
(2) Lambert, 3.
(3) H. P., ii. 55. Lambert, 4.
(4) Lee Illust., 21, fac-simile.
(5) Lee Illust., 23, fac-simile.
(6) Lambert, 5. H. P., ii. 14 et seq.
(7) Lambert, 13. H. P., i. 121.
(8) Lee, 194.
(9) Lee, 39.
;iO) Lee, 39.
^11) Lee Illust., 149, fac-simile.
^12) Lee, x.
[13) Lee, x.
:i4) H. P., ii. 106-107, fac-simile.
:i5) H. P., i. 137, fac-simile.
[16) Lambert, 28. Lee, x.
[17) Lambert, 31.
;i8) Lee, 201.
;i9) H. P., ii. 57. Lambert, 27.
(20) Lee Illust., 156-157, fac-simile. Also H. P., i.
166, fac-simile.
(21) H. P., ii. 59. Lambert, 29.
(22) H. P., ii. 58.
(23) Lee, xiv.
(24) Lee, 213.
(25) Lee, 201.
(26) H. P., ii. 17. Lambert, 42.
(27) H. P., ii. 19. Lambert, 44.
(28) Lambert, 47.
(29) Lambert, 48.
(30) Lee, 240.
(31) H. P., ii. 77.
(32) H. P., ii. 204.
(33) Lee, 273.
(34) H. P., ii. 19. Lambert, 55.
(35) Lambert, 57.
Bibliography 71
(36) H. P., ii. 355.
(37) Lee Illust., 216, fac-simile.
(38) Lambert, 59.
(39) Lambert, 60.
(40) Lee, 275.
(41) H. P., ii. 78.
(42) H. P., ii. 25. Lambert, 67.
(43) New York Times, October 3, 1909. Also London
Times of same date.
(44) H. P., ii. 25. Lambert, 65.
(45) H. P., ii. 31. Lambert, 75. Also "A Fac-
simile of the Deed of Bargain and Sale of Shakespeare's
Blackfriar's Estate. ..." Edited by J. 0. Halliwell-
Phillipps. Brighton, 1884.
(46) H. P., ii. 34. Lambert, 77.
(47) Lee, xvii.
(48) Lee, 278.
(49) H. P., ii. 38-39, fac-simile.
(50) H. P., i. 247, 249, fac-simile (in part) and doc
uments reprinted.
(51) Lee, xxiii.
(52) Lee Illust., 219.
(53) "A Photographic Reproduction of Shakespeare's
Will, etc.," with descriptive letterpress by J. Hain
Friswell. London, S. Low, Son, & Marston, 1864.
Also reprinted, H. P., ii. 169 et seq.
(54) Lee Illust., 221.
Chapter Four.
(1) "A Photographic Reproduction of Shakespeare's
Will, taken by special permission of the judge of the
Court of Probate and Divorce; with descriptive letter-
press by J. Hain Friswell." London, S. Low, Son,
& Marston, 1864. H. P., ii. 169.
72 William Shakespeare
Chapter Five.
(1) H. P., ii. 381.
(2) Lee, viii. Allusion, ii. 68-69.
(3) G. G. G., 223 et seq., note.
(4) H. P., ii. 71.
(5) H. P., ii. 76.
(6) Lee, 171, note.
(7) Lee lUust., 220.
Chapter Six.
(1) Allusion, i. 2. H. P., i. 327.
(2) Allusion, i. 4. H. P., i. 328.
(3) "Willobie His Avisa." Edited with an essay by-
Charles Hughes. Sherrat & Hughes, London, 1904.
H. P., ii. 147. Allusion, i. 9.
(4) "Coincidences Bacon and Shakespeare," by-
Edwin Reed (Boston, Coburn PubUshing Company,
1906), 10, 11, fac-simile. Allusion, i. 23.
(5) "The Pilgrimage to Parnassus with the Two
Parts of the Return from Parnassus," edited by
W. D. Macray. (Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1886),
56, 57, 58, 63. G. G. G., 326, 327 (in part). Allusion,
i. 67.
(6) "Northumberland Manuscript: Collotype Fac-
simile and Type Transcript." Edited by F. J. Burgoyne.
Longmans, Green, 1904.
(7) "An English Garner, Critical Essays and Liter-
ary Fragments," with an introduction by J. Churton
Collins (New York, E. P. Button), 11. H. P., ii. 149.
Allusion, i. 46.
(8) "The English Scholar's Library of Old and Mod-
ern Works: Richard Barnfield . . . Poems," edited by
Edwin Arber (London, Archibald Constable, 1895),
120. H. P., ii. 148. Allusion, i. 51.
(9) H. P., ii. 151. Allusion, i. 24.
(10) "Bodenham's Belvedere." Reprinted from the
Bibliography 73
original edition for the Spenser Society, 1895. H. P.,
ii. 151. Allusion, i. 72
(11) H. P., ii. 82, fac-simile. Allusion, i. 98. See
(12).
(12) "The Diary of John Manningham," edited by
John Bruce (Westminster: Printed by J. B. Nichols,
1868), 39. Allusion, i. 99.
(13) See (5), 87. G. G. G., 327. Allusion, i. 69, 102.
(14) See (5), 138. G. G. G., 321. Allusion, i. 102.
(15) Allusion, i. 124. H. P., ii. 152.
(16) Allusion, i. 140. H. P., ii. 152.
(17) " Daiphantus or the Passions of Love, by Anthony
Scloker," edited by A. B. Grosart (1880), 3. H. P., ii.
152. Allusion, i. 133.
(18) Lambert, 55. H. P., ii. 152. Allusion, i. 127.
(19) Allusion, i. 175. H. P., ii. 153.
(20) Allusion, i. 213.
(21) Allusion, i. 164.
(22) "The Complete Works of John Davies of Here-
ford," edited by A. B. Grosart (1878). "The Scourge of
Folly," 18. H. P., ii. 154. Allusion, i. 219.
(23) "The Dramatic Works of John Webster," edited
by William Hazlitt (London, J. R. Smith, 1857),
ii. 7. H. P., ii. 154. Allusion, i. 233.
(24) H. P., ii. 154. Allusion, i. 27.
(25) See (18).
(26) Allusion, i. 245. H. P., ii. 155.
(27) "Some Acrostic Signatures of Francis Bacon,"
by William Stone Booth (Boston, Houghton, Mifflin
Company, 1909), 25, fac-simile. H. P., ii. 155.
Chapter Seven.
(1) "Shakespeare's Venus and Adonis," fac-simile
of the first edition. Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1905.
(2) "Shakespeare's Lucrece," fac-simile of the first
edition. Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1905.
(3) Lambert, 38.
74 WiUiam Shakespeare
(4) Lambert. 53. H. P.. ii. 160.
(5) Lambert. 59.
(6) Lambert. 63.
(7) AUusion, i. 207.
Chapter Eight.
(1) "The First Edition of the Works of William
Shakespeare in Reduced Fac-simile from the First Folio
Edition of 1623." with an introduction by J. 0. Halli-
well-Phillipps. London. Chatto ».V: Windus. 1S76. Also
"Mr. WiUiam Shakespeare's Comedies. Histories, and
Tragedies." collot^-pe fac-simile. with an introduction
by Sidney Lee. Oxford. Clarendon Press. 1902.
"(2) H. P., i. 2S4. fac-simile.
(3) "The Bacon-Shakespeare Controversy: A Judi-
cial Summing-up." by the Rt. Hon. Sir James Plaisted
Wilde. Baron Penzance. 1902.
V4) "Some Acrostic Signatures of Francis Bacon,"
by William Stone Booth. Boston. Houghton, Mifflin
Company, 1909.
INDEX.
"A Mournful Ditty entitled Elizabeth's Loss" 48
Addenbroke, John 19
Alleyn 15
"Allusion-Book, The Shakespeare" 69
Allusions 1, 9
Arber, Edward 72
Arden, Mary 12
Aubrey 31
Bacon, Francis iv, 39, 66, 67
Bacon, Matthew 22
Barksted, William 50
Barnfield, Richard 42
Bel-vedere 43
Betterton 4
Bibliography 69-74
Bolton, Edmund 50
Booth, W. S 66, 73
Bruce, John 73
Burbage 15, 20, 47
Burgoyne, F. J 72
Bushell 17
Butts, Joseph 7
Camden's "Remains" . . . 49, 53
Chettle 33-35
Clayton, John 18
Clodpate 5
Coat-of-arms 13
Collins, J. Churton 72
Combe, John 20, 31
Commendatory verses 8
Davies, John 52
Davies, Richard 4, 6
"De Augmentis Scientiarum" 67
Deer park 7
76 William Shakespeare
Deer-stealing 2, 3, 4, 5
"Daiphantus" 49
Digges, L 64
Dirty Gretton 32
Disinfecting Shakespeare 3
"Doubtless" 1,5
Drummond, William 51
Dugdale, Sir William frontispiece
Egerton, Lord Chancellor 22
"Epigrams" by I. C 48
" Epigrams in the Oldest Cut and Newest Fashion " ... 43
Epitaph at Stratford 32
Epsom Wells 5
Evidence from the plays and poems 57
"Expurgated" 10
Fitton, Mary 2
Fleay, F. G 8, 10
Folio, The First 62-66
Freeman, Thomas 54
Friswell, J. Hain 71
Fulman, William 4
"Gardenof the Muses, The" 43
"Great Instauration, The" iv
Greene, J 21
Greene, Robert 33
Greene, Thomas 20
Greenwood, G. G 69
Grosart, A. B 73
Hackett, John 30
Hall, John 19
Halliwell-Phillipps, J. 69
Hathaway, Anne 15
Hazlitt, WiUiam 73
Hemming, John 20
Hemming and Condell 64
Henslowe 9
Hughes, Charles 72
" Hypercritica " 50
Index 77
Identity of William Shakespeare 10
Jackson, John 20
Johnson, WilUam 20
Jonson, Ben 10, 30, 47, 64
Kempe 15, 47
Lambert, D.H 69
Lambert, John 15
Lee, Sidney 8, 14, 69
Lucas, T 21
Luces 30
"Lucrece, TheRapeof" 58
Lucy, Sir Thomas 4-7, 30
Macray, W. D 72
Mannering 21
Manningham, John 10, 44
Massey, Gerald 3, 6
"Mirrha, the Mother of Adonis" 50
Mr. W. H 2
Mytton 17
Negative evidence 65
Non cauimus surdis, etc 67
Northumberland MS 10, 38
" Palladia Tamia" 41
Penzance, Lord 65, 74
Phillips, Augustine 19
Plume, Archdeacon 30
Poaching 2, 3, 4
"Poems in Divers Humors" 42
"Polimanteia" 36
Province of the biographer 11
Quiney, Adrian 18
Quiney, Richard 16, 17, 18
Rabbits 4, 7
"Records" and "allusions" 14
78 William Shakespeare
Reed, Edwin 72
Replyngham 21
"Return from Parnassus, The" 37,46
Revue des Deux Mondes 3
Rosswell 17
Rowe, Nicholas iii, 3, 6, 32
Rowington Muster Roll 19
Rutland, Earl of 20
Scloker, Anthony 73
"Scourgeof Folly, The" 52
Shake-scene 35
Shakespeare, Anna 13, 15
Shakespeare, Edmund 13, 19
Shakespeare, Gilbert 12
Shakespeare, Hamnet 15, 16
Shakespeare, Joan 12
Shakespeare, John 12, 13
coat-of-arms 13
Shakespeare, Judith 15, 22
Shakespeare, Margaret 12
Shakespeare, Mary 19
Shakespeare, Richard 13
Shakespeare, Susanna 15, 19
Shakespeare, WiUiam, acts in "Every Man in his Humor," 16
acts in "Sej anus" 18
allusions 1, 33
assessed at St. Helen's 15
baptized 12, 14
burial 23
buys arable land 18
buys house in Blackfriars 20
buys land at Blackfriars 20
buys stone 16
Chapel Street 16
coat-of-arms 18
commendatory verses by 8
copyhold estate 19
cottage in Chapel Lane 18, 19
deer-stealing 2-5
defaulter on taxes . 16
enclosing common lands 20
Index 79
Shakespeare, William, epitaph 32
estate fined 19
First Folio 62-66
godfather 19
identity 10
Kempe and Burbage 15
lawsuit 20
Lord Chamberlain's company ... 18
marriage license 15
New Place 16
other Lives of 1
owns corn 16
papist 5
petitions Lord Chancellor 22
plants fruit orchard 18
poaching 2, 3
poems ascribed to 29-32
recovers a debt 18
spelling of his name 1
Stationers' Hall 58, 59
Stratford tithes 16, 20
sues J. Addenbroke 19
sues Philip Rogers 19
trained soldier 19
walks in a procession 18
will 22, 23-28
Shallow, Justice 6
"Shaxberd" 59
Signature, Acrostic 66, 73
Snitterfield 12
Spedding iv, 67
Southampton, Earl of 57, 58
Southwark 15
Stationers' Hall Register 58, 59
Stow's "Annals" 55
Stratford monument 62, 63
Sturley, Abraham 16, 17
Times, The London 71
Times, The New York 71
"Troilus and Cressida," Preface 59
80 Williain Shakespeare
" Venus and Adonis " 57
Verulam, Lord 10
Walker, William 19
Walker, Henry 20
Wallace, Professor, recent discoveries 71
Webster 52
Weever, John 43
Welcombe 21
Whately, Anne 15
"White Devil" 52
"WillobiehisAvisa" 36
Wilmecote 15
Withington, Thomas 15
Worcester Register 14
universrty or uaiiTornia
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