I. WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. LIFE AND WORKS. A TALL gray spire, springing from amid embowering elms and lime-trees, marks the position of the parish church of Stratford-on-Avon, within the chancel of which rests the dust of William Shakespeare, the greatest of all dramatists and poets. His grave is marked by a flat stone on which are carved four lines, said to have been written by himself, imprecating a curse on any one who should "move my bones." A niche in the wall above holds a bust of the poet, whose high arching brow, and sweet oval face fringed with a peaked beard and small moustache, are so familiar to us all. Not far from Shakespeare's grave the house in which he was born stands, in a restored condition; and the conjectured room of his birth is scribbled over walls, ceiling, windows-with thousands of names of visitors, known and unknown to fame. Here, then, was born, in the month of April, 1564, William, son of John Shakespeare and Mary Arden his wife. The precise day of his birth is not known with certainty; but the baptismal register of Stratfordon-Avon contains the following entry in Latin: “ April 26, 1564. Gulielmus, filius Johannes Shakespeare,” William, son of John Shakespeare. As it was an established custom in those times to baptize on the third day after birth, it is assumed with good likelihood that he was born April 23. John Shakespeare, the son of a farmer, followed the trade of a "glover." It is to be believed that during the early years of his son's life he prospered; for he was elected an alderman of Stratford in 1565, the year following William's birth, and for a term he held office as "high bailiff," equivalent to our modern title of mayor. Later on, however, John Shakespeare's fortunes seem to have taken an ill turn. He died in 1601, by which time his son had mounted to the zenith of his fame. Of Shakespeare's mother, Mary Arden, it would be deeply interesting to have some particulars, since it is held that men resemble more their mothers than their fathers in nature and genius. But all that is known is that she was the daughter of Robert Arden, who belonged to an ancient Warwickshire family, and is mentioned in the records of the times as a "gentleman of worship." He was a land-owner; and to his daughter Mary he left a farm of considerable value, which became the property of John Shakespeare on her marriage. Little is known in the way of certain fact as to the childhood and early youth of Shakespeare, and, indeed, the same is true of his whole career. That, as a lad, he kept his eyes and ears wide open, and that the knowledge which was to develop into a knowledge of mankind began at home, are things of which we may be quite sure. It is known, also, that he was a pupil of the "Free Grammar School" of Stratford, where he obtained the rudiments of the ordinary classical education of his day. Another species of education Shakespeare may at the same time have received. It is known that companies of actors frequently visited Stratford, in the marketplace of which they set up their crazy stage, hung with faded curtains, and there flourished their wooden swords, and raved through their parts, to the immense delight of the gaping rustics. These visits were no doubt longed for and intensely enjoyed by young Shakespeare. So, too, when in 1575 the princely Leicester entertained Queen Elizabeth for nineteen days in the grand castle of Kenilworth, why may we not believe that Alderman Shakespeare, his wife Dame Mary, and his little son Will, then aged eleven, were among the crowd of people who had traveled from all the country round to see the Queen, the maskers, and the players? How Shakespeare spent his life after he left school, and before he went to London, has been made matter of much speculation by various ingenious inquirers, who have essayed to deduce from the plays what his profession was. The results are amusing enough. One makes him out a butcher, a second a farmer,1 a third an usher of the grammar-school, a fourth 2 an apprentice to a lawyer, a fifth a surgeon, a sixth a soldier; 4 but these speculations are of little more value than that in which Mr. Grant White humorously demonstrates that Shakespeare was a tailor! In point of fact, he was "Not one, but all mankind's epitome." 1 Rural Life of Shakespeare, by Roach Smith. 2 Lord Chief Justice Campbell. 8 Was Shakespeare a Surgeon? by W. Wadd. 4 Was Shakespeare ever a Soldier? by W. J. Thoms. Tradition says of Shakespeare, that he was rather a wild youth, one of the "thirsty lads of Stratford," and, in evidence of this, various stories are told; among others, the story that he was arrested for deer-stealing, and had to flee from Stratford in consequence. It should be said, that modern authorities discard these legends with scorn. At the early age of eighteen, Shakespeare married Anne Hathaway. She died (1623) seven years after her husband, and, according to a tradition, desired to be laid in the same grave with him. Three children were born to the Shakespeares, the eldest Susanna, in 1583; and two years later a son and a daughter, twins, who were baptized under the names of Hamnet and Judith. But no descendants of the poet have been in existence for more than two hundred years. It appears to have been about 1586, when Shakespeare was twenty-two years of age, that he quitted his native town, and repaired to London. Several of the most distinguished London actors of the time belonged to the neighborhood of Stratford, and Shakespeare had doubtless made their acquaintance during their professional visits to his native place. This, then, would seem to have been the attraction that drew him to the capital. Joining the company of players at the Blackfriars Theater, Shakespeare early attained considerable reputation as an actor. An old writer records of him, that he "did act exceedingly well." If the tradition be true, that his favorite parts were the Ghost in Hamlet and Adam in As You Like It, it would seem that he was not ambitious to represent any of his greatest characters; but that he had critically mastered the actor's art, is sufficiently proved by his famous “Instruction to the Players" in Hamlet.1 From acting Shakespeare soon passed to dramatic composition. He would seem to have begun with adaptations of old plays, but speedily advanced to writing plays of his own. During the first ten years of his residence in London he produced no fewer than six comedies and six tragedies. The gradual progress of Shakespeare's genius is supposed to have been not unobserved by Spenser. In 1594 or 1595 the venerable poet wrote his pastoral, entitled Colin Clout's Come Home Again, in which he commemorates his brother-poets under feigned names. The gallant Raleigh is the Shepherd of the Ocean, Sir Philip Sidney is Astrophel, and other living authors are characterized by factitious appellations. He conIcludes as follows: "And then, though last not least, is Aëtion, A gentler shepherd may nowhere be found, The sonorous and chivalrous-like name of Shake-speare seems here designated. The supposition that Shakespeare was meant is at least a pleasing one. A few years afterwards, in 1598, we meet with an 1 See Swinton's Fifth Reader, p. 315. |