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SHAKSPEARE. 
In 1774, Ann Lee, with some of her followers, having 
been thought mad, and sorely persecuted, settled their tem¬ 
poral affairs,in England, and set sail from Liverpool for New 
York. James Wardley and his wife remaining behind, were 
removed into an alms-house, and there died. The others, 
we are told, “ being without leader or protection, lost their 
power, and fell into the common course and practice of the 
world!" Ann Lee and the brethren reached New York, 
after working a sort of miracle, for the ship sprung a leak on 
the voyage, and it is more than hinted, that had it not been 
for their exerlions at the pump, the vessel would have gone 
down to the bottom of the ocean! She, however, left 
New York, and fixed her residence up the Hudson river, 
eight miles from the city of Albany. In this retired spot, 
her followers greatly multiplied, but she was not without 
bitter reproaches and manifold persecutions. She and the 
elders would delight in missionary journies, being out for 
two or three years, and returning with wonderful accounts 
of their success. 
Another tribe of these visionaries collected together at 
Water-Vliet, where they were visited by great numbers from 
distant parts of the state of New York, Massachusetts, Con¬ 
necticut, New Hampshire, and the district of Maine, who 
received faith; and through the power and gifts of God, 
which were abundantly manifested for the destruction of 
sin, and the salvation of souls, many were filled with joy 
unspeakable and full of glory, and increased in their under¬ 
standing of the way and work of God. 
Ann Lee died on the eighth day of the ninth month 1784. 
From the year 1780 to 1787, the credit of this sect revived in 
America, and the number of its adherents considerably in¬ 
creased. 
The creed of the Shakers is very obscurely and mystically 
expressed. They seem to be believers neither of the Trinity 
nor of the Satisfaction. They deny also the imputation of 
Adam’s sin to his posterity, as well as the eternity of future 
punishment. The tenets on which they most dwell are 
those of human depravity, and of the miraculous effusion 
of the Holy Ghost! Their leading practical tenet is the 
abolition of marriage, or indeed the total separation of the 
sexes. This circumstance of course attracts great attention, 
and they pride themselves on their superior purity. The 
essence of their argument is, that the resurrection spoken 
of in the New Testament means nothing more than conver¬ 
sion our Saviour declares that in the resurrection they neither 
marry nor are given in marriage, therefore, on conversion or 
the resurrection of the individual, marriage ceases!!! To 
speak more plainly, the single must continue single, and the 
married must separate. Every passage in the gospel and in 
the epistles is interpreted according to this strange and unna¬ 
tural hypothesis. 
The system of the Shakers is pretty plainly described by 
themselves; and they make no scruple of attributing to Ann 
Lee, the same authority as Christ was possessed of. 
SHAKERSTONE, a hamlet of England, in Leicester¬ 
shire ; 3~ miles north-west of Market Bosworth. 
SHAKERSTOWN, a township of the United States, in 
Mercer county, Kentucky. Population 298. 
SHAKERTOWN, a township of the United States, in 
Knox county, Indiana, a little east of the Wabash; about 
15 miles north of Vincennes. 
SHAKES, in Ship-Building, a name given to the 
cracks or rents in a plank, &c., occasioned by the sun or 
weather. 
SHAKING, s. Vibratory motion.—There was a noise, 
and behold, a shaking; and the bones came together, bone 
to his bone. Ezek. —Concussion.—There shall be a great 
shaking in the land of Israel. Ezek .—State of trembling. 
A shaking through the limbs they find. 
Like leaves saluted by the wind. Waller. 
SHAKING, a disease in sheep, consisting of a weak¬ 
ness in their hind quarters, so that they cannot rise up 
when they are down. There has -not hitherto been found 
any remedy for this disease. It is probably of the nature 
of palsy, and to be removed by strong nervous stimulant 
remedies. 
SHAKRA, a village of Nedsjed, in Arabia; 120 miles 
north-east of Faid. 
SHAKSPEARE (William), the poet, was born on the 
23d of April, 1564, at Stratford-upon-Avon. His father 
John, was, according to some, a butcher; according to others, 
a woolstapler: but these accounts are not contradictory, since 
the two trades were, formerly, often united. It is said that 
his family were in respectable circumstances, and that he was 
sent to a free-school; but these facts rest only on the traditions 
collected some years after his death by Aubrey and others. 
Aubrey says, moreover, that he killed a calf in high style, 
and on such an occasion always made a speech over it to 
the surrounding country-folk; and (on the authority of a 
Mr. Beeston) that he was for some short time a country- 
schoolmaster. Let us add that his frequent and correct use 
of law-terms has induced some to think that Shakspeare 
spent some time in an attorney’s office, and we have stated 
all that is to be gathered from any source concerning his 
education. 
About the age of 18, he married Ann Hathaway, who 
bore him a son and two daughters, and soon after he left 
Stratford for London. It is reported that he was obliged to 
fly the place, on account of his having engaged in stealing 
venison from the park of Sir Thomas Lucy, and afterwards 
lampooning that gentleman. But there is no authority for 
this fact. The presumption that the character of Justice 
Shallow in Henry the Fourth was intended to represent Sir 
Thomas is weakened by the circumstances, that that charac¬ 
ter is simply foolish and impotent, and not at all imperious or 
harsh, as we may suppose the persecutor would have been 
represented by the oppressed; and that no deer-stealing 
incident, or any thing like it is introduced. This derogatory 
aspersion is still further rendered improbable by the fact, 
that robbers are never drawn by Shakspeare in the favour¬ 
able light so many other authors have delighted to pourtray 
them. He disgraces and destroys Pistol, Bardolph, &c., and 
never for a moment encourages an idea that a thief of any 
sort can be a fit or decent member of society. This is 
important, because with his powers he might have drawn the 
picture entirely in his own favour: offences against the game- 
laws never were, nor will be held disgraceful, except by those 
who have game to lose. He might have so favourably 
depicted the boldness and independence of the deer-stealer, 
and so contrasted it with the petty and legal oppression of 
the knight, that public admiration, as well as laughter, would 
have been on his own side. And can it be supposed for a 
moment, that a poet, a man of quick feelings, driven from 
his home and family, secure by time, distance and circum¬ 
stances from his opponent, would not have indulged the 
natural rancour of his pen, and lavished his hatred and 
indignation on a character intended to represent his early 
and bitter foe ? 
It is surmised with more probability, that the infidelity of 
his wife disgusted Shakspeare with his home, and determined 
him to go to London, where he had a relative established, 
named Thomas Green, a famous comedian ; through whose 
means he, no doubt, obtained an introduction to the stage. 
The slight manner in which his wife is mentioned in his will, 
the fact that he did not live with her after 1684, and that an 
entry occurs in the Stratford parish register of the burial of a 
child named Thomas Green, alias Shakspeare, render it high¬ 
ly probable that a domestic injury of this kind was the cause 
of his departure. Circumstances had already occurred to 
render the stage a desirable situation. Travelling companies 
of players had visited Stratford on more than twenty oc¬ 
casions, between 1569 (when our poet was under six 
years of age,) and 1587, and Burbage and Green, two 
celebrated London actors, were his townsmen, so that 
even from childhood, his attention must have been at¬ 
tracted to the stage. When, therefore, his views in life 
were 
