So they lov'd, as love in twain
Had the essence but in one;
Two distincts, division none:
Number there in love was slain.

Hearts remote, yet not asunder;
Distance, and no space was seen
"Twixt this turtle and his queen:
But in them it were a wonder.

So between them love did shine,
That the turtle saw his right
Flaming in the phoenix' sight;
Either was the other's mine.

Property was thus appall'd,
That the self was not the same;
Single nature's double name
Neither two nor one was call'd.

Reason, in itself confounded,
Saw division grow together,
To themselves yet either neither,
Simple were so well compounded;
That it cried, How true a twain
Seemeth this concordant one!
Love hath reason, reason none,
If what parts can so remain.
Whereupon it made this threne
To the phoenix and the dove,
Co-supremes and stars of love,
As chorus to their tragic scene.

THRENOS.

Beauty, truth, and rarity,
Grace in all simplicity,

Here enclos'd in cinders lie.

Shakespeare. VII.

30

Death is now the phoenix' nest;
And the turtle's loyal breast
To eternity doth rest,

Leaving no posterity: -
"Twas not their infirmity,
It was married chastity.

Truth may seem, but cannot be;
Beauty brag, but 'tis not she;
Truth and beauty buried be.

To this urn let those repair
That are either true or fair;
For these dead birds sigh a prayer.

THE LIFE

OF

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE.

On the 23d April 1564 occurred the most important event, perhaps, in the literary history of the world the birth of the great English dramatist — of the immortal Shakespeare. He was born in the pleasant town of Stratford-upon-Avon in Warwickshire. His father, by trade a glover, and not, as has been erroneously asserted, either a dealer in wool, or a butcher, (the absurd fiction related by Aubrey that our dramatist himself exercised the latter trade scarcely merits allusion,) was born near Stratford about the year 1530: and is supposed to have been the son of Richard Shakespeare, farmer, who tenanted a house and land belonging to Robert Arden, a small, but respectable land-proprietor of Wilmecote in the parish of Aston Cantlowe, not far from Stratford. To Mary, seventh daughter of the above Robert Arden, John Shakespeare was married. She inherited from her father, besides a sum in money, a small estate in fee, in the parish of Aston Cantlowe, called Asbyes, consisting of a messuage, fifty acres of arable land, six acres of meadow and pasture, and a right of common for all kinds of cattle. This simple pair, become in our times so interesting when we are contemplating the almost miraculous genius, and wide-spread fame of their illustrious offspring, were married in the year 1557; and we are justified in thinking that the bridegroom's affairs were sufficiently prosperous to warrant his union with the youngest of seven coheiresses. The Ardens were an ancient and considerable family in Warwickshire, who derived their name from the forest of Arden in or near which they had possessions. One

of them Sir John Arden, the brother of Mary's great-grandfather, had been esquire of the body to Henry VII., who had bountifully rewarded his services and fidelity. Many Shakespeares were resident at an early date in different parts of Warwickshire, as well as in some of the adjoining counties; the name however was very differently written: we find Shakspere, Shakespere, Shakespeyre, Shaxper, Chacsper, Shakespeare and Shakspeare; the first was written by the great dramatist himself in a volume of a translation of Montaigne's essays known to have belonged to him, and now in the British Museum; the last is the manner in which he signed his final testament.

The first fruit of the union of John Shakespeare and Mary Arden was a daughter, baptized by the name of Joan, on the 15th Sept. 1558. She died in early infancy. The second child Margaret, was baptized on the 2d Dec. 1562, and died in the following April. Our great dramatist was born therefore a year after, and the memorandum of his baptism in the church register is precisely in the following form:"

"1564 April 26. Gulielmus filius Johannes [sic] Shakspere." So that whoever kept the book either committed a common clerical error or was no great proficient in the rules of grammar. He was baptized therefore three days after he was born, for it was at that period the custom to carry infants very early to the font. A house is still pointed out in Henley-street, as that in which William Shakespeare first saw the light, and in this street, his father was owner of a copyhold dwelling. His two sisters having died before his birth, William became the eldest child of his parents, and in the course of time his mother bore to her husband five more children. Gilbert born in 1566. Joan in 1569. Anne in 1571, who died at an early age, being buried in 1579. Richard in 1573 and Edmund born in the spring of 1580. While William Shakespeare was yet in extreme infancy, a malignant fever denominated the plague, broke out at Stratford, he was but two months old when it made its appearance; it does not appear to have reached any member of John Shakespeare's family, we mention it therefore merely to

notice that on this calamitous visitation he contributed one shilling to the relief of the poor, showing that at this date he was in moderate and probably comfortable, though not in affluent circumstances, and we are warranted in concluding that he was then an industrious and thriving tradesman. At the time of his marriage he was probably a member of the corporation of Stratford; in 1558 he was appointed one of the four constables, and soon after he was chosen one of four persons, called affeerors, whose duty it was to impose fines on their fellow-townsmen for offences against the bye-laws of the borough. He continued to advance in rank and importance in the corporation, and was elected one of the fourteen aldermen of Stratford on the 4th July 1565, and rather more than three years afterwards the father of our poet was chosen bailiff, when his son William was four years and a half old. This was the highest distinction in the power of his fellow-townsmen to bestow, yet although he had risen to a station so respectable, and was at the same time a magistrate, his name being in the commission of the peace, he was not able to write. There was however nothing remarkable in this inability, for in 1565 when one John Wheler was called by nineteen aldermen and burgesses to undertake the duties of bailiff, John Shakespeare was among twelve other marksmen, including the then bailiff, and the "head alderman." The simple Mary Arden too could not boast of a more accomplished education than her husband, for it is recorded that she also was unable to pen her name.

In 1570 when William Shakespeare was in his seventh year, his father rented a meadow two miles from Stratford; the annual payment was £ 8, a considerable sum, certainly, for that time; and in 1575 he bought two freehold houses, with orchards and gardens, in Henley-street for £ 40. To one of these he is supposed to have removed his family; but for aught we know he had lived from the time of his marriage and continued to live in 1574 in the copyhold in Henley-street, which had been alienated to him eighteen years before.

It is indisputable, we apprehend, that soon after this date the tide of John Shakespeare's affairs began to turn, and that