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SOME ACCOUNT

OF THE

LIFE OF SHAKESPEARE.

"ALL that is known with any degree of certainty concerning Shakespeare, is-that he was born at Stratfordupon-Avon-married and had children there—went to London, where he commenced actor, and wrote poems and plays returned to Stratford, made his will, died, and was buried."1 Such is the remark made long ago by one of the most acute of his commentators: and even at the present day,-notwithstanding some additional notices of Shakespeare which have been more recently discovered,—the truth of the remark can hardly fail to be felt and acknowledged by all, except by professed antiquaries, with whom the mere mention of a name in whatever kind of document assumes the character of an important fact.2

1 Note by Steevens on Shakespeare's xciiid Sonnet.

2 "All that insatiable curiosity and unwearied diligence have hitherto detected about Shakespeare serves rather to disappoint and perplex us, than to furnish the slightest illustration of his character. It is not the register of his baptism, or the draft of his will, or the orthography of his name that we seek. No letter of his writing, no record of his conversation, no character of him drawn with any fullness by a contemporary has been produced.-Note. I am not much inclined to qualify this paragraph in consequence of the petty circumstances relating to Shakespeare

Shakespeares abounded in Warwickshire: they were settled there as early as the fourteenth century; and, soon after, they spread themselves, in various branches, through the county: but genealogical inquiry has as yet been able to throw little light on the pedigree of the dramatist. We have every reason to believe that his father, John Shakespeare, was the son of Richard Shakespeare, a substantial farmer at Snitterfield. In 1552 we find John Shakespeare resident in Henleystreet, Stratford-upon-Avon; but his employment at that period is not recorded. In 1556 he was carrying on the business of a glover.5 He did not, however, confine himself to glove-making,—he was also engaged in

which have been lately brought to light, and which rather confirm than otherwise what I have said." Hallam's Introd. to the Liter. of Europe, ii. 176, ed. 1843.

3 Three miles from Stratford.-Richard Shakespeare of Snitterfield was a tenant of Robert Arden, whose daughter John Shakespeare married: at Snitterfield, too, lived a Henry Shakespeare; and John Shakespeare had a brother named Henry. (Mr. Collier first offered the conjecture, that Richard Shakespeare was the poet's grandfather.)

As is shown by a Court Roll, dated April 29th, 1552, in the Carlton Ride Record Office: "Item [juratores] præsent. super sacramentum suum quod Humfrudus Reynoldes (xij.) Adrianus Quyney (xij.a) et Johannes Shakyspere (xij.) fecerunt sterquinarium in vico vocato Hendley Strete contra ordinationem curiæ. Ideo ipsi in misericordia, ut patet."

5 This is proved by the following extract from the register of the proceedings of the bailiff's court;-at least, there seems to be little or no doubt that the "Johannem Shakyspere" mentioned in it was the father of the poet;

"Stretford, ss. Cur. Philippi et Mariæ, Dei gratia regis et reginæ Angliæ, Hispaniarum, &c. secundo et tercio, ibidem tent. die Marcurii, videlicet xvij die Junii, anno prædicto [1556], coram Johanni Burbage ballivo, &c.

"Thomas Siche de Arscotte in com. Wigorn. queritur versus Johannem Shakyspere de Stretford in com. Warwici glover in placito quod redd. ei octo libras," &c. (i.e. Thomas Siche brings an action against John Shakespeare glover for the sum of £8.)

agricultural pursuits:6 and it would seem that eventually he abandoned the glove-trade entirely; for he is styled "yeoman" in a deed dated 1579,-his name occurs in a list of "the gentlemen and freeholders"” in Barlichway hundred, 1580,-and he is again called "yeoman" in a deed dated January 1596-7.-According to Aubrey, he was "a butcher;" according to Rowe, a considerable dealer in wool:"8 and perhaps these several traditions are not utterly at variance either with each other or with what has been just mentioned; for if he was a yeoman, he might have raised for the market both sheep and cattle, which might occasionally have been killed on his own premises; and, in that case, he would have had wool to sell. But such an hypothesis is unsatisfactory: and, as John Shakespeare appears to have tried sundry occupations, it is not unlikely that at one period he was a butcher, and at another a woolstapler.

• In 1556 he brought an action against a certain Henry Fyld [Field] for unjustly detaining eighteen quarters of barley (" quæ ei injuste detinet"); and in 1564 he was paid by the Corporation "for a pec tymbur iijs."

"His [William Shakespeare's] father was a butcher." Aubrey's Mss. Mus. Ashmol. Oxon.—What Aubrey immediately adds to these words will be afterwards cited.-We shall presently see, too,-and it is not a little remarkable,—that in 1693, the parish-clerk of Stratford, who was then more than eighty years old, asserted that our poet was "bound apprentice to a butcher."

Life of Shakespeare.

9 66 Ralph Cawdrey, one of the aldermen of Stratford, at the time our poet was born, was a butcher, and was bailiff of the borough the very year before Mr. John Shakespeare filled that office." Malone's Life of Shake

In

On April 30th, 1557, he was marked one of the jury of the court leet, but not sworn; and on Sept. 30th, 1558, he was one of a like jury. In the former year he was also appointed an ale-taster; and soon after Michaelmas he was chosen a burgess. On Sept. 30th, 1558, and again on Oct. 6th, 1559, he was elected constable. On the day last mentioned, and again in May 1561, he was made an affeeror. Sept. 1561, he was elected one of the chamberlains, and filled the office two years. On July 4th, 1565, he was chosen an alderman. From Michaelmas 1568 to Michaelmas 1569 he served as high-bailiff. On Sept. 5th, 1571, he was elected chief alderman for the ensuing year. It may be added that in those days few of the Corporation of Stratford could write their names, and that among the markmen was John Shakespeare.

He married Mary,10 the youngest daughter of Robert

speare, p. 71. Malone, however, thinks that in Aubrey's account John Shakespeare and his son William have been confounded with Thomas Shakespeare, a butcher at Warwick, and his son John, who in March 1609-10 was bound apprentice to William Jaggard the stationer, and who was admitted to his freedom May 22, 1617, &c.: but it is altogether unlikely that tradition should have mistaken the far-famed dramatist for Jaggard's insignificant apprentice.

10 She was the youngest of the seven daughters of Robert Arden by his first wife, whose maiden name is not known. His second wife, Agnes Arden, was the widow of a person named Hill: her maiden name was Webbe.-1863. I have not altered this note (which is founded on the researches of the late Joseph Hunter): but I am now given to understand that it most probably contains at least one mis-statement. The exact truth must be left for those to discover who are more skilful in tracing pedigrees than myself.

Arden, of Wilmecote,11 then deceased; who, though described in documents of the time as "husbandman," appears to have been a considerable landed proprietor.12

11 "A hamlet, partly in the parish of Stratford, and partly in Aston Cantlowe." Halliwell's Life of Shakespeare, p. 7, folio ed.

12 1863. What follows is extracted from The Herald and Genealogist, Part vi.

"But even as regards the Ardens all is not so clear as has been imagined. The Ardens of Wilmcote are unnoticed by the historian of Warwickshire, or by his editor, Dr. Thomas. Had they been gentry it is probable that some epitaph or other memorial of them would have occurred at the place of their residence. They were attached by Malone to the main tree of the Warwickshire Ardens who appear in the Visitations, as having descended from Robert, a younger brother of John Arden or Arderne, of Parkhall, in the parish of Curdworth, who was 'squire for the body to King Henry VII.' Mr. Hunter accepted that affiliation.* Having found the names of Thomas and Robert Arden at Wilmcote in some papers relating to taxation among the Exchequer records, he remarks,

'Let any one observe the date of this will (that of John Arden, esquire for the body to Henry the Seventh,) which is June 4, 1526, and bear in mind that Robert Arden, of Wilmecote, was a gentleman, and entitled to the same coatarmour which this testator used, and he may be disposed to come to the conclusion that the Thomas and Robert Arden of Wilmecote, of 1524, are the two brothers of that name mentioned in the will, and that this Robert, or another Robert, the son of Thomas or Robert, is the Robert Arden of Wilmecote, who made his will in 1556, and left a good amount of property to his youngest daughter, Mary Arden, one of his co-heiresses, who in the next year became the wife of John Shakespeare.' (p. 34.)

Again in p. 35, 'But though we owe nothing to the heralds for the line of Arden of Wilmecote beyond the assertion that they were gentlemen of worship, and entitled to the ancient arms of Arden, we receive at their hands,' &c.

Malone had discovered, and published, the grants made by Henry VII. to a Robert Arden, who is described in the patents as unus garcionum camera nostra. They consisted of the keepership of two parks, and a gift of the manor of Yoxall in Staffordshire; but Mr. Hunter himself suggests, That those grants to Arden which Mr. Malone has published belong to Arden of Wilmecote may be doubted, till some more decisive evidence is produced.' (p. 37.)

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* "See his New Illustrations of Shakespeare,' 1845, vol. i. pp. 33-43."
VOL. I.

B 2

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