LIEEyW MM.-....S.IiAKESPEAEE.. EXPURGATED ^%ru^i9^j&siuz^unM L BT0DF3AED 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 ") 5 J > > > > > » » \' » » > , > ' THE LIFE OF WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE EXPURGATED BY WILLIAM LEAVITT STODDARD (M.A., HARVARD) "Non canimus surdis." i i L^i i\ / /'. \ . A ■; ill'. ) ) J ' ' J 3 > > -> ^,j« J«l3j)»j > J J J J J , ' ■• ', ' ' BOSTON W. A. BUTTERFIELD 59 Bromfield Street 1910 f « Copyright, 1910 By William Leavitt Stoddard c t •» f (- .1 « t t, o •■ e • c.*c t re . r « • « ( f , 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) r^ "^'"^nT / o r'-n/^ %»*^J// -^ €>C-CtC<> c>y5>y_/^ \ ■fru/y -frv •rn.