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ness.

did not intend me for contentions, but for study and quietMy lord, my particular contests with Mr. Travers here have proved the more unpleasant to me, because I believe him to be a good man; and that belief hath occasioned me to examine mine own conscience concerning his opinions; and to satisfy that, I have consulted the Scripture, and other laws both human and divine, whether the conscience of him and others of his judgment ought to be so far complied with as to alter our frame of church government, our manner of God's worship, our praising and praying to him, and our established ceremonies, as often as his and others' tender consciences shall require us: And, in this examination, I have not only satisfied myself, but have begun a treatise in which I intend a justification of the Laws of our Ecclesiastical Polity, in which design God and his holy angels shall, at the last great day, bear me that witness which my conscience now does; that my meaning is not to provoke any, but rather to satisfy all tender consciences, and I shall never be able to do this but where I may study, and pray for God's blessing upon my endeavours, and keep myself in peace and privacy, and behold God's blessing spring out of my mother earth, and eat my own bread without oppositions; and therefore if your grace can judge me worthy of such a favour, let me beg it, that. I may perfect what I have begun."

In consequence of this appeal, Hooker was presented, in 1591, with the living of Boscombe, in Wiltshire, and shortly afterwards he became a prebend of Salisbury. At Boscombe he completed and published, in 1594, the first four books of the Ecclesiastical Polity, the treatise referred to in the extract given above. In the following year the queen presented him with the rectory of Bishopsburn, near Canterbury, and there he spent the last six years of his life. He died November 2, 1600, and was buried in his church at Bishopsburn, where a monument was erected to his memory, thirty-five years later, by Sir William Cooper. The fifth book of the Ecclesiastical Polity was published in 1597, and other three were

published after his death. A few days before this event his house was robbed, and when the fact was mentioned to him he anxiously inquired whether his books and papers were safe. On being assured that they were, he said, “Then it matters not, for no other loss can trouble me."

The Ecclesiastical Polity is a monument of learning, genius, and industry. It was the first publication in the English language which exhibited a strict methodical arrangement, and a train of clear logical reasoning. It is chiefly intended as an exposition of the character and principles of the Church of England, but it is not simply a theological treatise but is regarded as an authority upon the whole range of moral and political principles. The style in which the work is written is almost without a rival for sustained dignity. The periods are often too long and too intricate, but "the sweep and cadence of his sentences are in felicitous unison with the march and majesty of the thought and imagery." To Hooker belongs the merit of being one of the first to discover and develop the resources of our native tongue. His language is full of racy English, without vulgarity and without pedantry. To use the words of Mr. Hallam: "The finest as well as the most philosophical writer of the Elizabethan age is Hooker. The first book of the Ecclesiastical Polity is, at this day, one of the masterpieces of English eloquence."

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE.-1564-1616.

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE, the greatest poet which England, or any other country, has ever produced, was born at Stratford-on-Avon, in Warwickshire, on or about the 23rd of April, 1564. His father, John Shakespeare, seems to have been a man of some position, as he was first bailiff and afterwards alderman of the town. His occupation was probably that of woolstapler, though he

is variously described as glover, grazier, and even butcher. His mother, Mary Arden, was descended from an ancient Warwickshire family whose pedigree could be traced up to the reign of Edward the Confessor. Shakespeare was probably educated at the Free Grammar School of Stratford what progress he made there we cannot tell. With respect to his attainments in classics, it was said of him by Ben Jonson, that he knew "small Latin and less Greek." This may be perfectly true, yet the numerous allusions to the mythology of the ancients, which we find scattered throughout his writings, show us that he was thoroughly imbued with a taste for classical literature.

How long he remained at school we do not know, and there is the like uncertainty respecting the occupation he adopted after leaving it. It has been conjectured that he was for some time in a lawyer's office, as his works abound in legal phrases and illustrations. Others think that he assisted his father in the business of woolstapler.

At the age of eighteen, he married Ann Hathaway, the daughter of a yeoman, in the neighbouring hamlet of Shottery. The offspring of this marriage was a daughter, Susanna, born in May, 1583; and a boy and girl, twins, named Hamnet and Judith, respectively, who were baptised in February, 1585. Shakespeare's wife was eight years older than himself, and it is generally thought that the union was not a very happy one.

Soon after the birth of the twins, Shakespeare left his native town and proceeded to London. The story of his having to leave home abruptly, in order to avoid the consequences of a deer-stealing affair in which he had been engaged, has no better foundation than vague tradition. It is more probable that, prompted by his love of the drama, he went to London to pursue the profession of actor and dramatist. He could not have lived to the age of twenty-one without being aware, to some extent, of the poetic gifts with which he was endowed, and he was therefore in all probability drawn to the metropolis by the same instinct which has drawn many a young poet

to the capital since, though few have been so fortunate in the pursuit of wealth and fame as was Shakespeare.

Of the poet's movements for some years after he left Stratford we know nothing. He probably at once applied for employment at the Blackfriars theatre where a fellow townsman and relative, Thomas Green, was then a leading actor. He does not appear to have distinguished himself upon the stage, and one of his biographers states, "that the top of his performance was the Ghost in his own Hamlet." There is very little doubt that, following the custom of that age, Shakespeare began to write for the stage, as well as to act, almost as soon as he settled in London; for we learn from contemporary sources that he had established a reputation a few years. later. Robert Greene, one of the most facile and popular authors of the time, but a worthless and profligate man, spent the last few days of his unhappy life in writing a pamphlet which he entitled, "A Groat's worth of Wit bought with a million of Repentance;" and in this pamphlet, published in 1592, shortly after Greene's death, occurs the following passage addressed to some of his fellow writers :

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"There is an upstart crow beautified with our feathers that, with his tiger's heart wrapt in a player's hide, supposes that he is as well able to bombast out a blank verse as the best of you; and being an absolute Johannes Factotum, is in his own conceit the only shake-scene in a country."

The expression "tiger's heart wrapt in a player's hide is a parody upon a well known line in Henry VI., Part Third:

"O tiger's heart wrapt in a woman's hide."

This expression, together with the epithet shake-scene, makes the allusion too plain to be misunderstood. The charge brought against Shakespeare is, that he had re-modelled plays originally written by Greene and his companions, and produced them as his own. That the charge was unfounded appears from the fact that in a subsequent edition of the pamphlet, the editor, a brother

dramatist, apologised for the share he had had in propogating the slander, "because," said he, "myself have seen his demeanour no less civil than he excellent in the quality he professes. Besides, divers of worship have reported his uprightness of dealing, which argues his honesty, and his facetious grace in writing, that approves his art."

The passage just quoted was written in 1593, and it is evident that by that time Shakespeare had written sufficient not only to excite the envy of his contemporaries, but also by the very force of his genius to win their esteem. There is an interesting passage in one of Spenser's minor poems, the Tears of the Muses, written about this time, which is generally supposed to refer to Shakespeare:

"And he, the man whom Nature self had made
To mock herself, and truth to imitate,
With kindly counter under mimic shade,
Our pleasant Willie, ah! is dead of late:
With whom all joy and jolly merriment
Is also deaded, and in dolour drent.

Instead thereof scoffing Scurrility,
And scornful Folly with Contempt is crept,
Rolling in rhymes of shameless ribaldry
Without regard, or due decorum kept;
Each idle wit at will presumes to make,
And doth the learned's task upon him take

But that same gentle spirit, from whose pen
Large streams of honey and sweet nectar flow,
Scorning the boldness of such base-born men,
Which dare their follies forth so rashly throw;
Doth rather choose to sit in idle cell,

Than so himself to Mockery to sell."

It is plain, when we compare the first and third verses, that the phrase "is dead of late" is not to be taken literally, but refers to some temporary cessation of the poet's pen from some cause or other.

About this time (A.D. 1593 or 1594) Shakespeare seems to have become a shareholder in the Blackfriars theatre; and when the Globe was erected on the south side of the

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