Shakespeare's Family

only too little about it. Still, certain inferences may be soundly based on known facts. He must have been educated at the Stratford Grammar S

ns of support were assured, but over-early, as it would then have been considered, solely from a financial standpoint. He had no assured means of support. His hope of securing his inheritance of Asbies was fading. He did not marry an heiress. Many vials of wrath have been poured on the devoted head of Anne Hathaway by those who do not consider all sides of the question. Harrowing pictures of the relations of young Shakespeare and "his aged wife" are drawn, even by such writers as Dr. Furnivall. Now, it is a well-known fact that almost all very young men fancy girls older than themselves, and it is an artistic fact that a woman under thirty does look younger, and not older, than a man of the same age, if she has led a natural and simple life. It is much more than likely that the well-grown, responsible eldest son of anxious

s to that of William Shakespeare and Anne Hathaway of Stratford, November 28, 1582.[137] It all seems possible to explain. Travelling was inconvenient on November roads; Will set out for the license alone, as bridegrooms were often wont to do, when they could afford the expense of a special license. He might give his own name, and that of his intended wife, at a temporary address. The clerk made an error in the spelling, which might have been corrected; but meanwhile discovered that Shakespeare was under age, was acting without his parents-

might be solemnized. It was clearly a question in which the woman's friends were the proper parties to summon. The bond of John Shakespeare would not then have been good for ￡40, and the would-be bridegroom had nothing of his own. The place where they were married has not yet been discovered; it is quite possible to have been at "a private mass," as was the case in another marriage wit

Athen?um[139] on "Sir Thomas Lucy," and in my chapter on "The Traditional Sir Thomas and the Real."[140] It is much more than likely Shakespeare was concerned in the religious

n of a straitened father. But there were so many in a similar case. It is evident he succeeded in nothing that he hoped or wished for. His own works prove that. He was unable to act the gentleman, but was determined to play the man. He may have dwelt with, and certainly frequently visited, his old

e of Greene's notice then published by Chettle, of "the upstart crow."[143] And he probably had written some. But his first firm step on the staircase of fame was taken in the publication of his "Venus and Adonis" by his friend Richard Field in April, 1593, and his first grip of success in his dedication thereof to the young Earl of Southampton. The kindness of his patron between 1593 and 1594 had ripened his admiration into love; and the dedication of the "Rape of Luc

piritual chastity of Lucrece is triumphant over evil. The one poem completes the conception of the oth

e, I have gone

elf a motley

ughts, sold cheap

ences of aff

ke do you with

ddess of my h

better for m

, which public ma

having played twice before the Queen, at Greenwich on St. Stephen's Day, December 26, 1594, and on Innocents' Day, December 28 of the same year.[147] On the latter day at night, amid the turmoil of the Gray's Inn revels, Shakespeare's play of the "Comedy of Errors" was represented by his comp

L, FROM THE SIT

ace

149] That he was cautious in his investments was evident. He had seen too much suffering through rashness in money affairs not to benefit by the experience. Thereby he made clear his desire for the rehabilitation of himself and family in the place where he was born. By 1598 we have irrefragable testimony to the position he had already taken, alike in the world of letters as in the social life of Stratford. In the autumn of that year appeared the perennial advertisement of Meres, the Professor of Rhetoric at Oxford, Master of Arts of both Universities, who ranks him among the first of his day, as an epic and lyric poet, and as a writer

buy one of the tithe leases. "By the friends he can make therefore, we think it a fair mark for him to shoot at; it obtained, would advance him in deed, and would do us much good." Richard Quiney was in the Metropolis at the end of 1598 on affairs of the town, trying to secure the grant of a new charter, and relief from subsidy; but either on his own account, or the affairs of the tow

wolde nott be indebeted. I am nowe towardes the Cowrte, in hope of answer for the dispatch of my buysness. Yow shall nether loase creddytt nor monney by me, the Lord wyllinge; and nowe butt persuade yourselfe soe, as I hope, and you shall nott need to feare, butt, with all hartie thanckefullness, I wyll holde my tyme, and content yowr ffrende, and yf we

and contreymann Mr. Wm. Sha

in-law Sturley, who replied on November 4: "Your letter of the 25th of October came to my hands, the last of the same at night per Greenway,[152] which imported that our Countryman Mr. W

of "children," but eventually resumed it for their own use, and in it placed "men-players, which were Hemings, Condell, Shakespeare," etc. On Burbage's death in 1597, there was a dispute about "The Theater" lease, and his sons transferred the materials to Southwark, and built the Globe in 1599. On the rearing of the Globe at heavy cost, they joined to themselves "those deserving men Shakespeare, Hemings, Condell, Philips and others, partners in the Profits of what they call the House, but making the leases for twenty-one years hath been the destruction of ourselves and other

our shares each. These originally died with the owner, but in later

the publishers for various editions of his poems, as well as

altering and writing plays. Shares in th

layer of the money

in the house of the money

performances before the Queen, o

formances in variou

The death of his only son Hamnet did not deter him in his earnest efforts to regain social position, and to restore the fortunes of his family. An almost exact parallel may be found in the efforts and aims of Sir Walter Scott. But Shakespear

s of New Place, quite possibly intended for the use of his brothers. It appears from the roll that he did not appear at the Manorial Court in person,[156] then held at Rowington, there being a stipulation that the estate should remain in the hands of the lady of the manor, the Countess of Warwick, until he

the time of the Essex Conspiracy, not only for his friend Southampton's life, but even for his own; for Philips, the manag

in Scotland, as far north as Aberdeen.[159] I am inclined to think Shakespeare went with them. The scenery in "Macbeth"[160] suggests vivid visual impressions, and the favour of James VI. must have been secure

Pro Laurentio Fletcher et Willi

ichard Cowly, and the rest of their Associates Freely to use and exercise the Arte and Facultie of playing Comedies, Tragedies, Histories, Enterludes, Morals, Pastoralls, Stage-plaies, and such others like as theie have alreadie studied or hereafter shall use or studie, as well for the Recreation of our loveinge Subjects as for our Solace and Pleasure, when wee shall thincke good to see them, during our pleasure; and the said Commedies, Tragedies, Histories, En

during our said Pleasure, but also to be aiding and assistinge to them if anie Wrong be to them offered, and to allow them such former Curtesies as hath been given to men o

at Westminster the n

de Privat

l for this iss

nobles the power of patronage of players, reserving it only for the Royal Family,

the Earl of Pembroke, was recalled to Court favour. The King visited him in his royal progress August 30 and 31, 1603, and held his Court at Wilton, Winchester,[162] and Basing during most of October, November,[163

in the taste he had himself educated. The world appreciated his work the better "that so did take Eliza and our James."[166] The snarls of envy witnessed his success; the eulogiums of admirers perpetuated his appreciation. On May 4, 1605, Augustine Phillips died, leaving by w

on William was born. Gossip, supported, if not originated, by himself, suggests that William Davenant wa

ild, and the only grandchild Shakespeare saw, was born in February, 1607-1608,

instituted a process for debt against John Addenbroke and his security Hornebie. His attorney was his cousin, Thomas Greene, then residing, under unknown conditions, at New Place. In the latter year he instituted m

ord at the time. In a subscription list drawn up at Stratford September 11, 1611, his name is the only one entered on the margin, as if it were a later insertion, "towards the charge of prosecuting the Bill in Parliament for th

id ￡100 for it in 1604, and who asked then the price of ￡140. Shakespeare, however, at this raised price secured it, leaving ￡60 of it on mortgage. The date of the conveyance deed is March 10, 1613,[168] probably signed on the 11th, on which da

o long in leaving the theatre that the spectators feared for their safety. It is not known whether this fire would prove a loss to him. In June of that year a malicious piece of gossip was circulating in Stratford against the good name of Sh

Puritan. John Combe, one of the chief men of the neighbourhood, died in July, 1614, leaving Shakespeare ￡5. Shakespeare would probably never receive it. The will, dated January 28, 1612-13, was not proved till November, 1616. It is clear, however, that these men were friendly at that time, and that the mock elegy,

peare through his tithes, and much discussion has been waged over the true meaning of the entries of his cousin, Thomas Green, the Town Clerk of Stratford-on-Avon, and his attorney. Unfor

25th of that month. I own that the date, erased to be replaced by "March," looks to me more like "February." An important difference it would be, because in January he might not have known that his daughter, Judith Shakespeare, aged 32, had made up her mind to marry Thomas Quiney, aged 28. By February 25 she had already done it. On February 10, 1616,

the "sonne" was erased. Of course, this possibly arose from the scrivener intending to start with the Halls. But the less important bequests came first. One hundred and fifty pounds was to be paid to Judith within a year, in two instalments, the ￡100 in discharge of her marriage portion, and the ￡50 on her surrendering her share in the copyhold tenement in Stratford-on-Avon (once Getley's) to her sister, Susanna Hall. Another ￡150[1

e plate, except his broad silver-gilt bowl, which he left to Judith. Ten pounds he left to the poor, his sword to Mr. Thomas Combe, ￡5 to Thomas Russell, ￡13 6s. 8d. to Francis Collins. Rings of the value of 26s. 8d. each w

Street, and all my Barns, Stables, Orchards, Gardens, Lands, Tenements and hereditaments whatsoever lying in Stratford-upon-Avon, Old Stratford, Bis

of his grand-daughter Elizabeth, failing whom to the sons of his daughter J

unto my wife my second-be

hn Hall, gent., and to his daughter Sus

ers. There were several witnesses. It was proved June 22, 1616, by

t that was not included in the "residue." That was to be her very own. As to any provision for her, it must have taken the form of a settlement, a jointure, or a dower. There is no trace of the first or second. But the English law then assured a widow in a third of her husband's property for life and the use of the capital messuage, if another was not

cerning their father James, who was the first builder of playhouses. "And to ourselves we joined those deserving men, Shakspere, Hemings, Condell, Phillips, and others, partners[172] in the profittes of that they call the House; but makeing the leases for twe

hich seems to me implied, it would have been "di

13s. 4d. in smaller bequests, would certainly run up to ￡400 by the payment of debts and funeral expenses. The e

a lurking suspicion of maltreatment through the crude medical notions of the time: of bleeding when there should have been feeding; of vile medicines when Nature should have been supported and not und

EL, TRINI

ace

on the other hand, he had offended all the traditions of the borough. He had descended from the safe levels of trade to the vagabond life of a "common player," especially detested in Stratford-on-Avon (see notes); he had made money somehow in the city, and had returned to spend it in his native town, but he had never taken office, and had never been "one of them." And at the end he was to be buried in the Chancel, th

for Jesus'

e dust enc

man that spare

he that mov

, son and successor of the Amsterdam tomb-maker, whose place of business lay between St. Saviour's Church and the Globe Theatre. He may be presumed to have frequently seen Shakespeare in his lifetime. The exact date of

t length thy pi

rkes-thy Workes,

ame must; when t

lves thy Strat

e shall view

ny vicissitudes, and suffered so much restoration, that the likeness may have entirely vanished by this time. Nevertheless, it remains a witness to the

by his own friends, as they speak of Shakespeare's lying "within this monument.

of Stratford Church: "In the chancel lies William Shakespeare, a native of this place, who has giv

f the plays that had become their private property by purchase. The verses that preface it, written by W. Basse, suggest that Shakespe

ragedian, Shaks

ted rest, u

, not tenant to

le for the birth of famous William Shakespeare." In the same year is said to have been written Milton's memor

hakspere for his

f an age in

llowed relique

ar y-point

emory, great

u such weak wit

wonder and

elf a live-long

ual commemoration of his life in Samuel S

honoured bo

once to M

every ye

ead and s

,[175] Madam Anne Merrick, in the country, wrote to a friend in London that she could not come to town, but "must content herself with the study of Shakespeare and th

for books, probably provided to Lord Conway, among which are "Ben Jon

he same records. But as this is not intended as a

TNO

arley Re

ster Marria

kenham, to Anne Sutton, alias Dudley, daughter of Sir Edward Sutton, Ju

July 13, 1

es," ii., p. 12. Sir Thomas had no park, and J

48; also Athen?um, Fe

re Contemporaries," i. Richard

's "Groatswo

s," Athen?um, March 19 and 26, 1898, pp. 374,

nnets CX

rliest Official Record of Shakespeare's Name," "

nts, Treasury Chambe

1596 (Stratford

hakespeare at Easter, 1597, and died in July of that year. His son Fulke died without issue, an

easury," second part o

nal at the birthplac

y was the Str

rs, Dom. Ser., E

in's Papers, 1635, P.R.O. See also Halliwell-Phillipps,

s of Treasurer of

"Outlines," i. 205; ii. 1

Dom. Ser., Eliz.,

., July 26, 1602) implies that the company

s "History of the

and English Macbeth."-"Transactions of

s "F?dera,"

"Progresses of J

amations in State Papers, D

surer of the Chamber

-Phillipps, "Ou

son's verses,

"Life of Shake

dhall Library, and an account of it appe

, "Shakespeare and th

ester Bish

ill maintain her as a gentlewoman: "He will make you a hundred

ell-Phillipps, "

next chapt

y of Praise," and my own "Bacon

Domestic Series, C

appeal to all r

bid., 4