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STRATFORD-UPON-AVON,

E

AS ASSOCIATED WITH SHAKESPEARE.

STRATFORD-UPON-AVON.

CHAPTER I.

STRATFORD-UPON-AVON.

Shakespeare's genius original and self-developing-Hence it matters little where he was born-Stratford in the olden time, why interesting-The antiquity of the town to be expected-Stratford monastery from 693 to Norman Conquest-Notice in Domesday Book-Old charters-Incorporation in time of Edward VI.-Population-Old buildings .extantFires-Pestilence-Society changed.

THE genius of William Shakespeare is pre-eminently original and self-developing. His language is his own. However much his expression is enriched by the spoils of the drama before his time, it is totally unlike anything that went before it. But he is no less original in his thoughts. Search the pre-existing literature for his conceptions of man,-for his characters, such as Jaques, Hamlet, Othello, and Macbeth,-for the sublime ideas among which his imagination revels; they are nowhere to be found. That his genius is self-developing follows by a natural law from its being original, for self-development is simply the growth of originality. Such being the case, it would have made little difference to the general magnitude of Shakespeare's intellect, whether he had been reared amid the bustle

of a city or at a peasant's hearth in some quiet hamlet, or had he been born in a totally different age. Yet, although that is true, this most imitative and sympathetic of human spirits, in a peculiar manner wears the complexion and gives expression to the ideas and aspirations of his own times. No other age could have produced his dramas just as they are. It is this that invests Stratford of three centuries ago with a peculiar interest. The less we know of the individual man Shakespeare, the more do we wish to know regarding the society which moulded and formed his character in conformity with itself. The old scattered town, with its timber-framed houses, the every-day life of its inhabitants, the town-talk of the citizens,—the topics of absorbing interest in public affairs, acquire, for this reason, an importance which would not otherwise attach to them.

Stratford-upon-Avon can boast of a high antiquity, and was very old even in Shakespeare's time. It is situated on the right bank of the Avon, and, as its name (from the Anglo-Saxon stræte or strete, road) indicates, is at that point where the highway from Henley in Arden and the places beyond, leading through Oxford to London, crossed the river by a ford ere bridges were erected. The Avon at this point ceases to be navigable; and from that we would naturally expect to find a town here even in the earliest times. The place where water-carriage ceases, becomes à depôt for goods, which forms the nucleus of a town; and, accordingly, on nearly all rivers we find a town occupying such a position. The circumstance we have just mentioned may account

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