ENW.ISM UTKRATURB. 



mother, was of on ancient and aristocratic Warwioluhira family. 



Hut in In-- Utter yi-iiM, iiml ut tho period when hi* ton was 

 Ki-.iwiuK' i. it" in;mli<>.,.l, his fi.rtuiii-s had doolined, and he became 

 invi.lv. -.I in ; . -It-lit. Of the o;irli--r youth and ednoa- 



Williuiu Shakespeare we know absolutely nothing. We 

 havo no rocord of whore he was at school or what his employ- 

 Burnt was after he left it. One tradition, hut a rery improbable 

 ..IP-, r. |.t. ntH him aa having boon a master or usher in a school. 

 A'-<->.i-'ln: t > niiiitlit-r, ho bocamo an attorney's olerk ; and some 

 faint .-..I.. in- is tfivrii to thin atory by tho proneness whioh 

 Shakespoaro shown to UBO words and metaphors derived from the 

 law, and tho correctness with whioh ho ones them. In 1582, at 

 the age of eighteen, ho was married to Anno Hathaway, the 

 daughter of a small farmer living not far from Stratford. II.- 

 wife was several years older than himself ; and the fact that 

 tlu-ir first diiUl was li.-rn lmt a very few months after marrying, 

 teems to show that tho circumstances of tho marriage were not 

 inu. -h to tho credit of tho parties, and to confirm the traditions 

 of Shakespeare's early wildnoss. A very short timo afterwards, 

 in 1 .".-.:. t iii-re ia no doubt that ho loft his native town and 

 Huttlrd in Ijondon, and soon became a motnbor of a theatrical 

 c<>ui].iiiiy. From tho littlo that wo know of Shakespeare's position 

 and .-iroumstanoos at Stratford, and what wo know of tho powers 

 ho in fact poaaesaed, and of which ho must probably even then 

 havo boon in aomo degree conscious, this change from Stratford 

 to London seems to require littlo explanation ; but tradition 

 has boon busy finding occasions for it. Tho beat-known story 

 upon this subject is that Shakoapearo, with aomo of hia wild com- 

 paniona, was guilty of tho common, and in those days not very 

 heinous offence, of door-stealing in tho park of Sir Thomas Lucy, 

 at Chorlcoto. For this offonco ho waa treated by Sir Thomas with 

 a severity whioh he resented ; and ho showed hia resentment by 

 writing a set of doggrel versos in ridiculo of his enemy, and fixing 

 a copy on hia gate ; an offence which roused the anger of the 

 local magnate to such an extent that Stratford was no longer a 

 safe abode for Shakespeare, and hence his migration to London. 

 This atory rests upon no sufficient evidence. But it has in 

 itself no improbability, and the tradition has more conaiatency 

 than moat of the same class. Within a abort time after Shake- 

 speare' a death old people in the neighbourhood professed to give 

 fragments of the very ballad which did tho mischief. And, what- 

 ever the cause may have boon, there can be no doubt that later 

 in life Shakespeare bore aome grudge against tho Lucy family, 

 and intended to ridicule them in the person of Justice Shallow, 

 in the " Merry Wives of Windsor," who bore as anna " a dozen 

 white luces" in "hia old coat" (luces that is, pike fish being 

 in fact borne by the Lucys), or aa Sir Hugh the Welshman 

 expressed it, "a dozen white louses," which "become an old 

 coat well." Shallow's complaint against Falataff, " You have 

 beaten my men, killed my deer, and broke open my lodge," has 

 been thought by some to refer to and confirm the atory of the 

 deer-stealing. On tho other hand, however, this passage may 

 poasibly explain the origin of the story. 



Whatever the cauae of Shakespeare's move to London may 

 have been, we find him very soon afterwards a member of the 

 Globe company of players. This was the most important of the 

 theatrical companies which were at this time becoming ao 

 numeroua in London, and it had two theotrea under its control, 

 the Globe in Southwark, for summer use, and the Blackfriars 

 theatre for winter. Tradition has again boon very busy over 

 this period of Shakespeare's life, and the mode in which he 

 gained admission to the company. But the stories of hia 

 aaving held horses at the theatre door, and other stories of tho 

 same class, are wholly unworthy of credit. The stage waa not 

 a profession very difficult of access ; it was then, as it has often 

 been since, the common refuge for " every one that was dis- 

 tressed, and every one that waa in debt, and every one that waa 

 discontented ; ' ' and Shakespeare, in his diatreaa, adopted it. 

 Like moat of the great dramatists of his day, ho began his con- 

 nection with the stage, not as an author, but aa an actor. As 

 such, there ia no reason to suppose that Shakespeare showed 

 any remarkable talents, or attained moro than very moderate 

 distinction ; but the true bent of his genius soon made itself 

 known. He began hia career as a dramatic author, like many 

 others, by improving and adapting to the purposes of the day old 

 pieces forming part of the stock of the company ; and from this 

 inferior office he advanced to the noblor function of wholly 

 original composition. 



From the time of Shakespeare's joining the Globe cosnnany 

 hi* career seems to hare been on* of unbroken qeeass. HM 

 company itself prospered, and had the pradenoa or food for- 

 tone to steer clear of those oolliiions with the eity authorities 

 from whioh other eompanies suffered > much. And BWIre 

 speare'sown petition among his paitnen stsadUy improved, till, 

 at the accession of James I., in the renewed lioenee then granted 



to the company, hia name stands second among the 

 turers. He had never abandoned hfa connection with his native 

 town of Stratford, hot seems, daring the whole period of hia 

 life in London, to hare visited it frequently. And there he in- 

 vested the proceeds of hia shan in the theatre. In 1607 he 

 bought the estate of New Plane, in Stratford, and built them 

 tho house which became famous in consequence. In 1001 he 

 purchased further property in the earn* neicfabonrbo> 

 1611 ho sold most of hia interest in the theatre, finally aban- 

 donod all connection with the stage, and retired to and his day* 

 at Stratford. His only son had died in boyhood tern* yean 

 before. Of his two daughters, one had been married for several 

 yean to a physician of some eminence, and she and her husband 

 resided with him ; the other remained unmarried until a short 

 timo before her father's death. Of Hhakespeare's life at Strut- 

 ford during tho few yean between his retirement from the 

 theatre and his death we can learn nothing, except that rumour 

 seems to indicate that he maintained to the but his tntimanj 

 with hia old literary associates. He died on the 23rd of April, 

 1616, according to tradition on the anniversary of hia birth, 

 and was buried in tho parish church of Stratford. 



From what we havo ilready related of the history of Shake- 

 speare's life, it will be apparent that, whatever the follies or 

 vices of his youth may have been, in his mature yean he waa a 

 prudent and careful man in the management of his worldly con- 

 cerns. And there are many other circumstances pmesrred 

 which testify to the high character he bore both for integrity 

 and sound judgment. The Earl of Pembroke gave or entrusted 

 to him no less a sum than a thousand pounds to aid in the 

 enterprise of the Globe Theatre. His fellow-citUens of Stratford, 

 being interested in some proposed enclosure which was about to 

 take place in their neighbourhood, appealed to him to undertake 

 their cause and commend it to the authorities. And, snperadded 

 to those qualities, the kindliness and amiability of hia disposi- 

 tion secured for him in a peculiar degree the esteem and affec- 

 tion of hia brother actors and the most eminent of his literary 

 contemporaries, as well as the warm friendship of the chief 

 patrons of literature in his day. He did not absolutely escape 

 the hostility of rival dramatists and angry pamphleteers; 

 and the habit indulged by Shakespeare in the early part, at 

 leaat, of hia career, aa well as by other dramatists, of adapting 

 the works of earlier writers, hud him open to the charge of 

 stealing the fruit of other men's labours. But, on the whole, 

 the respect and popularity which he enjoyed secured for him an 

 unusual immunity from controversy or attack. 



Few subjects have given rise to more discussion than the 

 question of the extent of Shakespeare's learning; and, the 

 known facts being scanty, upon few subject* have more extra- 

 vagant conjectures been indulged in. As to where or in what 

 way he received any systematic education, nothing, as we have 

 pointed out, ia recorded. Ben Jonson, in the laudatory verses 

 which he wrote upon him, says that " he had small Latin and 

 leas Greek." In his plays the subjects of which are derived 

 from classical sources, it is beyond doubt that he worked from 

 translations, not from the original ; and several contemporary 

 alluaions make it clear that, as compared with his brother 

 dramatists of the day, he was regarded as an unlearned man. 

 But it must bo remembered that at that time the stage wat 

 adorned by the profound learning of Ben Jonson himself ; that 

 some of the other dramatists, though no rivals of Jonson, ware 

 very learned men ; and that most of them had, at leaat, suoh 

 culture aa a university education secures. The matter being 

 thus, to a certain extent, left at large, one class of critics have 

 represented Shakespeare aa an absolutely illiterate man, while 

 others, with less excuse, have sought to endow him with a 

 knowledge of all tho European languages, ancient and modern, 

 and, indeed, of almost all branches of learning 

 plainly lies somewhere between these two ex ti ernes We eamiet 

 reject the testimony of his contemporaries that he waa a man 

 of but scanty learning, and especially that he waa a poor 

 linguist. But, on the other hand, the *reat * <* hndf to 



