this time worth L.500 in tenements and lands. In 1599, a farther application is recorded, to authorise the impalement of the Arden arms with those of Shakespeare: the permission was granted. But it is more than probable that William Shakespeare was the moving spring of these applications, as he was by this time fast accumulating wealth in a profession then so much looked down upon that he was precluded from seeking the honours himself. There is a curious document dated 1592, being a "return of all recusants or persons who, from various causes, did not attend church;" in this document John Shakespeare's name occurs, and though there is a note appended that he is said not to do so, from "feare of processe of debts," yet we find him at this very time assisting in making an inventory of the effects of a tanner, then deceased, not apparently afraid of arrest for debt. Some have held that these were indications of a relapse from the Protestant faith, but the facts stated are too slight to justify such a grave conclusion. John Shakespeare did not long enjoy his heraldic honours. He died in September 1601. His wife survived him for seven years, dying in 1608. William Shakespeare, the third child of John Shakespeare, was born on 23d April 1564. An entry in the register of Stratford records his baptism on the 26th April, and an early tradition that he died on the anniversary of his birth fixes the 23d as the day on which he first saw the light. A house is still pointed out in Henley Street as that in which he was born. From this time till his eighteenth year we have not a word of reliable history. Any information, we gather from traditions first collected about fifty years after his death. It is believed that he received the elements of his education at the Free Grammar School of Stratford, which he entered about the age of seven, and at which he remained for six or seven years. We have few indications to guide us in judging of his proficiency there. One of the traditions makes him out "in his younger years to have been a schoolmaster in the country, and that he understood Latin pretty well." Some have supposed from this that in the Free Grammar School he had assisted "in teaching the young idea how to shoot." Ben Jonson, an intimate friend of his, makes the remark, "And though thou hadst small Latin and less Greek," so that it is not likely that he had made great progress, at all events in the classics. It is also asserted that he was apprenticed to a lawyer in Stratford, but the proof of this is very insufficient. When William Shakespeare was about the age of fourteen, it is supposed that the difficulties into which his father was fast getting, induced him to take William from school to assist in his business. The various occupations in which a "yeoman" would naturally be engaged may have given rise to one of the traditions that Shakespeare was apprenticed to a butcher, it has been already seen that his father killed his stock for the market, and it may have been while with his father that, as tradition asserts, "when he (Shakespeare) killed a calf, he would do it in a high style, and make a speech." It has been supposed that it was about this time that he first became acquainted with the strolling players, who occasionally visited Stratford, and under whose influence his mind received that impulse which some years later produced such wonderful results. We now come to one of those events in the life of Shakespeare upon which the evidence is documentary-his marriage with Anne Hathaway, a resident of the neighbourhood. A marriage bond dated 28th November 1582, is still preserved, in which two persons, Fulk Sandells and John Richardson, come under a penalty of L.40, to be forfeited to the Bishop in the event of any cause appearing hereafter why William Shakespeare and Anne Hathaway should not be married, this bond being required to enable a clergyman to unite them after only a single publication of banns. The reason of this haste is not, unfortunately, difficult to find: their first child, Susanna, was born about the 26th May 1583, scarcely six months after the date of the bond. Endeavours have been made to explain away the above circumstance by a suggestion that a previous marriage before witnesses had taken place, and that this was only to enable the religious part of the ceremony to be performed. But on this supposition the haste is unaccountable, especially with the responsibility which it threw on the signers of the bond. The bond, too, mentions a marriage to be performed afterwards; and as there is a seal R. H. also attached to the document, which is supposed to be that of Anne's father, then dead, it is but too plain why the various parties pushed on the legal solemnisation of the union. The truth is, the editors of Shakespeare have a feverish anxiety to show that his character was all but immaculate. The slightest incident in his favour is magnified to absurdity, while aught showing he was but a with the frailties of his age and times, is discarded as unworthy of credit. man, Anne was seven or eight years older than her husband, and there is little in their future life to make us think that Shakespeare had much love for her. She seems, however, to have been a faithful and dutiful wife, and to have borne his long absences with at least equanimity. Shakespeare, on his departure for London, left his wife and family behind him, and there is no appearance of their ever having been with him during his residence there. It is said that he paid a yearly visit to his family at Stratford, until he finally gave up his profession, when he took up his abode with them in his native town. In 1585 were born at Stratford Shakespeare's two childrenHamnet and Judith-twins. We now come to a great event in Shakespeare's life, his leaving Stratford for London. Great controversy has taken place as to the cause of this. The reason commonly assigned is "the deer-stealing story." The original statement of the matter is as follows:-" 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 more than once in robbing the park that belonged to Sir Thomas Lucy of Charlcote, near Stratford. For this he was prosecuted by that gentleman, as he thought, somewhat too severely; and, in order to revenge that ill usage, he made a ballad upon him; and though this, probably the first essay of his poetry, be lost, yet it is said to have been so very bitter, that it redoubled the prosecution against him to that degree, that he was obliged to leave his business and family in Warwickshire for some time, and shelter himself in London." Though mere tradition cannot prove the above account to be a narrative of facts, there appears nothing in the nature of the case to make the incidents unlikely. In all ages game-stealing has been a crime constantly before the law courts; and that Shakespeare, a young, active man, mingling with the class among whom the actors in these depredations are usually found, should engage with them in such an escapade, is not at all unnatural. It may be remarked, too, that the lower classes of society have ever had a difficulty in understanding a breach of the game laws to be a moral offence. In the Merry Wives of Windsor (p. 88) Sir Thomas Lucy is plainly introduced as Justice Shallow; and when the Justice threatens to make the deer-stealing a "Star Chamber business," it seems undoubted that Shakespeare refers to the manner in which he had been prosecuted for the offence. There is also a clear allusion to Lucy's name and coat of arms in the same chapter where he refers to the luce (a pike). Lucy's coat of arms contains three luces. Though the above story seems to have been a strong reason for Shakespeare's departure, it is more than probable that the unsatisfactory state of his father's affairs gave additional reasons for his leaving home to push his fortunes in the world. He appears to have left Stratford in 1586-7, and to have directed his course to London; but we have no reliable information regarding his occupation for the next two years. An improbable story is told that he held gentlemen's horses at the doors of the theatres, and became a great favourite in the occupation. It is not at all consistent, however, with the wellascertained fact, that so early as 1589, within two or three years of his entering London, he was one of the twelve proprietors of Blackfriars' Theatre. We have a document, dated November 1589, in which this information is given. It seems probable that Shakespeare had early obtained an introduction to the company of actors, and his genius and business activity must have raised him quickly through the lower situations till he became a sharer in the profits of the theatre itself. Shakespeare was now fairly launched as an actor and writer of plays. Many discordant statements have been made as to his talents as an actor; some asserting that his "top character was the Ghost in Hamlet;" but another story, if true, shows he had the ready appreciation of the part he had to play, which is the indication of a first-class actor. The story is as follows:Queen Elizabeth on one occasion honoured the theatre with her presence while Shakespeare was personating a king. She, happening to walk across the stage near Shakespeare, dropped her glove, but Shakespeare took no notice of the circumstance. Elizabeth, desirous of ascertaining if this was intentional or a mere inadvertence, again moved past him, and dropped her glove. Shakespeare picked it up, and still personating the monarch in the play, said, "And though now bent on this high embassy, He then presented it to Elizabeth, who was greatly pleased with his ready wit. Queen Elizabeth was a great admirer of Shakespeare's plays, and in Midsummer Night's Dream (p. 288) he pays her one of the most refined tributes ever paid to woman. The passage ends with "And the imperial votaress passed on In maiden meditation, fancy free." As a writer of dramas, it is likely that Shakespeare brought |