the country." Collier, in admitting the probability of this, ingeniously conjectures that Shakespeare had been employed by Jenkins, the master of the grammar school from 1577 to 1580, to aid him in the instruction of the junior boys.

It has been supposed by Malone, an opinion in which Collier and others concur, that Shakespeare, during some portion of the time between his leaving school and his setting out for London, was engaged in the office of an attorney. This is perfectly consistent with the hypothesis, probable on other grounds, that he assisted his father in his agricultural pursuits, since it was natural and usual then, as it is now, for a gentleman-farmer to place his son in a lawyer's office, in order to sharpen his wits, and qualify him for engaging in business transactions. As the elder Shakespeare was a trader of some sort as well as a cultivator, his son may have had the intention of becoming an attorney, in addition to holding land. The evidence adduced in favour of his legal education is chiefly derived from his plays, in which law phrases and allusions abound. There was at that time in Stratford a Court of Record, which had jurisdiction in personal causes not exceeding £30-equal to three times the amount according to the present value of money. Seven attorneys, including the town-clerk, practised in this court; and it was probably here that Shakespeare acquired his legal knowledge. The external evidence that Shakespeare was articled to an attorney is of a very meagre kind, if taken alone. The first proof may be founded on an application of the method of exhaustion. If he was not occupied thus, in what

else was he engaged between his fifteenth and his twentythird year? The story of his being an apprentice to a butcher is really too puerile to deserve a serious refutation. The extraordinary extent and variety of his knowledge show that Shakespeare's genius must have been early developed; and can we conceive that a youth of his talent could engage in such a sorry trade? The only other external proof, if we except the fact that the poet wrote a good court hand, is an allusion in an Epistle by Thomas Nash, prefixed to Robert Greene's

Menaphon," published in 1589. Nash says: "It is a common practice now-a-days, amongst a sort of shifting companions, that run through every art and thrive by none, to leave the trade of NOVERINT, whereto they were borne, and busie themselves with the endeavours of art, that could scarcely Latinize their neck verse, if they should have need: yet English Seneca, read by candlelight, yields many good sentences, as Blood is a beggar, and so forth; and if you intreate him fair in a frostie morning, he will afford you whole Hamlets-I should say handfuls of tragical speeches." The trade of NOVERINT is that of an attorney, which is called so satirically from the words with which Latin deeds commence: "Noverint universi per presentes, &c.—Let all men know by these presents, &c." It is by no means certain that Shakespeare is referred to here—an objection having been raised on the ground that Greene's Menaphon" was first published in 1587, which would be too early to refer to our poet. It may be said, in eply to this objection, however, that the Epistle of ash has not been shown in any copy older than 1589;

and there is a decided probability that Shakespeare is the object of attack, from the circumstance that Nash's friend Greene is the same who grossly libelled the rival dramatist three years later, in his "Groatsworth of Wit," where he calls him the Johannes Fac-totum of his company, in his own conceit the only Shake-scene in a country, and, moreover, an upstart crow, beautified with our feathers." The "Hamlet" alluded to could not have been the play as we now have it, but only the first crude form of it. Upon the whole, however, it must be admitted that the external evidence is not very conclusive. Probable proofs of a more satisfactory kind are found in his plays, that Shakespeare in early life had familiar acquaintance with the lawyer's art. The subject has been elaborately discussed by Lord Campbell, in an interesting volume, entitled "Shakespeare's Legal Acquirements Considered." It is unnecessary to quote here instances of legal terms and phrases from the great dramatist; but we may remark, by way of generalization from an examination of those quoted by Lord Campbell, that Shakespeare shows such a knowledge of law, and uses technical terms with such precision, and otherwise, where his subject did not demand it, introduces legal allusions in an incidental manner in such a way, as to lead us to infer that he must have had, somehow or other, a legal education. We take one example from "Hamlet," where that prince, moralizing in the churchyard on a skull just thrown up by the sexton, says to his friend Horatio

"Why may not that be the skull of a lawyer? Where be his quiddits now, his quillets, his cases, his tenures, and his tricks? Why does he

suffer this rude knave now to knock him about the sconce with a dirty shovel, and will not tell him of his action of battery? Humph! this fellow might be in's time a great buyer of land, with his statutes, his recognizances, his fines, his double vouchers, his recoveries. Is this the fine of his fines, and the recovery of his recoveries, to have his fine pate full of fine dirt? Will his vouchers vouch him no more of his purchases, and double ones too, than the length and breadth of a pair of indentures? The very conveyances of his lands will hardly lie in this box; and must the inheritor himself have no more?"-ACT v., Scene 1.

It is certainly quite possible that Shakespeare may have acquired his legal knowledge otherwise than we have supposed; but there is special force in his casual allusions in favour of the hypothesis above mentioned. These can be accounted for only from inwrought and familiar knowledge.

There is a local tradition about one of Shakespeare's youthful adventures, which must be referred to this period. It seems Bidford, a village on the banks of the Avon, seven miles below Stratford, was the rendezvous of a fraternity of hard drinkers, called the Topers and the Sippers. These merry Bacchanalians challenged all far and near to try the strength of their heads at drinking strong ale. To explain the existence of such a fraternity, we must go back to older institutions, which had by this time decayed, although the usages which grew out of them still remained. In certain towns, as the Puritan Stubbes tells us, against Christmas and Easter, Whitsuntide, or some other time, the churchwardens of every parish provide half a score or twenty quarters of malt, some purchased out of the church stock, and some being given by the parishioners themselves. This malt is made into very strong ale or beer, and is set to sale, either in the church or some other

place assigned for that purpose. Aubrey, speaking of a festivity of the same sort, called a Church-Ale, says, that in every parish there was a church-house, to which belonged spits, crocks, and other utensils for cookery; and that here the housekeepers met and were merry, and gave their charity, while the young people had dancing, bowling, shooting at butts, and so forth, the ancients sitting gravely by and looking on. The main design of these meetings had been, we suppose, the encouragement of archery. While the long-bow was a powerful warlike implement, the free yeomen of England were carefully trained to its use, and the bowmen of a district met at certain set times for a trial of skill. These meetings at Christmas, Easter, Whitsuntide, and other occasions, had also purposes to serve in connection with the festivals of the Romish Church. At the time of which we are now speaking, which was the middle of Queen Elizabeth's reign, the introduction of gunnery had superseded the long-bow, and the Romish festivals. had been interdicted in the now Protestant Church of England. Still the old usages and merry meetings held their ground against new inventions and a new worship. In festivities of this sort the Topers and Sippers of Bidford had earned the fame of standing an unusual amount of ale without becoming intoxicated. Will Shakespeare and the Stratford band had resolved to put the skill of the Topers to the test, and for that purpose repaired to Bidford on a Whitsun Monday. They had the misfortune to miss them, for the Topers were gone to Evesham Fair on a similar errand, and accordingly they were obliged to content themselves with the