His Life and Genius 147 



reflection or an old proverb rhythmically ex- 

 pressed in his melodious language is accounted 

 his, admired as if it had never been spoken before 

 and enshrined for evermore.* 



In 1604 or 1605, after twenty years of indus- 

 trious work as play-writer and player, he left 

 London to reside at Stratford, making periodical 

 visits thenceforth to town to see his friends and 

 look after his interests. All the while he had 

 steadily added to his possessions, purchasing land, 

 houses and the leases of tithes in Stratford, 

 besides increasing his shares in the theatre and 

 buying at least one tenement in Blackfriars. 

 From the first he had a definite aim which he 

 pursued definitely : was persistently bent on 

 retrieving the family fortunes and on retiring to 

 live in dignity and reputation at Stratford. When 

 his father, who in 1592 had been in debt and 

 distress, applied to the College of Arms in 1596 

 for a grant of armorial bearings, stating that he 

 was worth £500 in lands and tenements, the 



* If he was Homer-like in his fresh and direct converse with 

 realities and pure melody of natural utterance, his absolute 

 return to nature, it is all the more wonder nowadays that our 

 modern poets, who make that the great praise of him and 

 of Homer, and praise them as the greatest poets of all time, 

 should for the most part set themselves painfully to work to 

 get as far as possible from living touch of real life and direct 

 simplicity of diction ; the more pleased with themselves, appar- 

 ently, the more fancifully ingenious, the more thinly spiritual, 

 and the more startling and obscure they can strain themselves 

 to be. 



