that the said William Replingham and his heires shall procure such sufficient securitie unto the said William Shackespeare and his heires for the performance of theis covenauntes, as shal bee devised by learned counsell. In witnes whereof the parties abovsaid to theis presentes interchangeablie their handes and seales have put, the daye and yeare first above wrytten. "Sealed and delivered in the presence of us, Tho. Lucas, Jo. Rogers, Anthonie Nasshe, Mich. Olney." To the scheme of enclosure,-among the chief promoters of which was William Combe,-the Corporation of Stratford were strongly opposed (contending that it would increase the distress of the poorer classes, already suffering from the fire which, as mentioned above, had broken out in July); and their clerk, Thomas Greene, a lawyer and some relation to Shakespeare, was in London on this business, when he made the following memorandum: 34 "1614. Jovis, 17 No. My cosen Shakspear comyng yesterdy to town, I went to see him how he did. He told me that they assured him they ment to inclose no further than to Gospell Bush, and so upp straight (leavyng out part of the Dyngles to the ffield) to the gate in Clopton hedg, and take in Salisburyes peece; and that they mean in Aprill to survey the land, and then to 34 The relationship between the Greenes and the Shakespeares has not yet been traced. (In the Stratford burial-register is the entry, "1589 [-90], March 6. Thomas Greene, alias Shakspere.") The word "cousin," which Greene applies to Shakespeare, was formerly equivalent to kinsman.-This matter of the enclosures concerned Greene personally; for we have seen that he, as well as Shakespeare, was a tithe-holder, gyve satisfaccion, and not before; and he and Mr. Hall say they think ther will be nothyng done at all." About a fortnight after the above date, Greene, having left Shakespeare in London, returned to Stratford; where he continued his notes: "23 Dec. A hall. Lettres wrytten, one to Mr. Manyring, another to Mr. Shakspear, with almost all the company's hands to eyther. I also wrytte myself to my cosen Shakspear the coppyes of all our acts, and then also a not of the inconvenyences wold happen by the inclosure." The letter to Arthur Mainwaring (Lord Ellesmere's domestic auditor) is still preserved: but the more interesting one has perished. A memorandum by Greene of a later date records the continued uneasiness of Shakespeare about the proposed encroachments: "1 Sept. [1615]. Mr. Shakspeare told Mr. J. Greene that he was not able to beare the enclosing of Welcombe." Our poet did not live to see the termination of this contest: it was not till 1618 that an order of the Privy Council forbade all further attempts at enclosure. Shakespeare, as shown by the first of Greene's notes, was in London in the middle of November 1614, having probably gone thither on the business just detailed; and, as far as we know, it was his last visit to the metropolis. A curious illustration of his domestic life at Stratford during the same year is furnished by an article in the Chamberlains' Accounts: Item, for on quart of sack, and on quart of clarrett winne, geven to a precher at the New Place, xx.d.” As the Corporation had issued a strict prohibition against the performance of plays in Stratford,35 we cannot doubt that the divine thus refreshed at their expense was a puritan: with such preachers Shakespeare could have had little sympathy; and perhaps he lent his house on the occasion in compliance with the wishes of some of his family or neighbours, whom he was too liberal-minded to oppose.-In connection with the entry above quoted, Mr. Halliwell has a remark which I must be allowed to say I think quite erroneous: "His [Shakespeare's] own departure was probably soothed by the presence of the religious friends of the Halls: but there is, unfortunately, a testimony in the epitaph on his daughter which implies that his life had not been one of piety: 35 On Dec. 17th, 1602, they "ordered that there shalbe no pleys or enterlewedes playd in the chamber, the guildhalle, nor in any parte of the howsse or courte, ffrom hensforward, upon payne that whosoever of the baylief, aldermen, and burgesses of this boroughe shall gyve leave or licence thereunto, shall forfeyt for everie offence x.s." This order having been slighted, another was made on Feb. 7th, 1612: "The inconvenience of plaies beinge verie seriouslie considered of, with the unlawfullnes, and howe contrarie the sufferance of them is againste the orders hearetofore made, and againste the examples of other well-governed citties and burrowes, the companie heare are contented and theie conclude that the penaltie of x.s. imposed in Mr. Bakers yeare for breakinge the order, shall from henceforth be x.li. upon the breakers of that order, and this to holde untill the nexte commen councell, and from thencforth for ever, excepted that be then finalli revokd and made voide." What a change had come over the spirit of the Corporation since Shakespeare's early days! see p. 37. Witty above her sexe, but that's not all, Something of Shakespeare was in that, but this Assuredly the writer of the epitaph had no intention of imputing a want of "piety" to Shakespeare: his meaning clearly is—that the wit (i. e. the mental power) which raised Mrs. Hall above the level of her sex was partly derived from her father (talent being sometimes hereditary), but that by divine grace alone she had attained the wisdom which leads to salvation. -Here, too, may be noticed the tradition preserved by the Rev. Richard Davies, that Shakespeare died a papist;37-which is contradicted by the general tenor of his writings as well as by the whole history of his life. Nor is it improbable that this tradition originated with the puritan party at Stratford; for Shakespeare,-who could hardly have avoided all discussion on the controverted religious topics of the day, may have incidentally let fall expressions unfavourable to puritanism, which were afterwards misrepresented as papistical. To the same year (1614) belongs the publication of a poem entitled The Ghost of Richard the Third, written by C. B. (Christopher Brooke, I believe), in which Richard is made to utter the following lines,perhaps the happiest encomium that Shakespeare had yet received as a dramatist; 37 "He dyed a papist" are the concluding words of Davies's additions to the article on Shakespeare in Fulman's Ms. Collections: see note, p. 35. "To him that impt my fame with Clio's quill, And with my actions dignifi'd his pen; He that from Helicon sends many a rill Whose nectared veines are drunke by thirstie men; Crown'd be his stile with fame, his head with bayes, And none detract, but gratulate his praise."38 On February 10th, 1615-16, Shakespeare's younger daughter Judith was married to Thomas Quiney,-four years her junior,39 —vintner and wine-merchant at Stratford; son of the Richard Quiney who in 1598 applied to Shakespeare for the loan of 307.,40 and who died May 31st, 1602, while bailiff of Stratford.-A deed is still extant which shows that Judith, when required to sign her name, had to make her mark instead; and yet we have proof that her sister Susanna wrote a tolerable hand; so unequally had the poet's daughters shared in the benefits of education. On the 25th of the following month Shakespeare executed his will,-"Vicesimo quinto die Martii ;" the date having originally stood "Vicesimo quinto die Januarii," and the instrument having doubtless been prepared in that month, as it contains manifest references to the approaching marriage of his daughter Judith. It declares the testator to be "in perfect health and memory;" which, if not a mere legal formula, might have been the case when it was first drawn up: but his 38 P. 27, Shakespeare Soc. ed. 39 He was baptized Feb. 26th, 1588-9. |