Transcribed from the 1899 Smith, Elder and Co. edition by Les Bowler.
[Picture: William Shakespeare]
A LIFE
OF
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
BY
SIDNEY LEE.
_WITH PORTRAITS AND FACSIMILES_
FOURTH EDITION
LONDON
SMITH, ELDER, & CO., 15 WATERLOO PLACE
1899
[All rights reserved]
_Printed November_ 1898 (_First Edition_).
_Reprinted December_ 1898 (_Second Edition_); _December_ 1898
(_Third Edition_); _February_ 1899 (_Fourth Edition_).
PREFACE
This work is based on the article on Shakespeare which I contributed last
year to the fifty-first volume of the 'Dictionary of National Biography.'
But the changes and additions which the article has undergone during my
revision of it for separate publication are so numerous as to give the
book a title to be regarded as an independent venture. In its general
aims, however, the present life of Shakespeare endeavours loyally to
adhere to the principles that are inherent in the scheme of the
'Dictionary of National Biography.' I have endeavoured to set before my
readers a plain and practical narrative of the great dramatist's personal
history as concisely as the needs of clearness and completeness would
permit. I have sought to provide students of Shakespeare with a full
record of the duly attested facts and dates of their master's career. I
have avoided merely aesthetic criticism. My estimates of the value of
Shakespeare's plays and poems are intended solely to fulfil the
obligation that lies on the biographer of indicating succinctly the
character of the successive labours which were woven into the texture of
his hero's life. AEsthetic studies of Shakespeare abound, and to
increase their number is a work of supererogation. But Shakespearean
literature, as far as it is known to me, still lacks a book that shall
supply within a brief compass an exhaustive and well-arranged statement
of the facts of Shakespeare's career, achievement, and reputation, that
shall reduce conjecture to the smallest dimensions consistent with
coherence, and shall give verifiable references to all the original
sources of information. After studying Elizabethan literature, history,
and bibliography for more than eighteen years, I believed that I might,
without exposing myself to a charge of presumption, attempt something in
the way of filling this gap, and that I might be able to supply, at least
tentatively, a guide-book to Shakespeare's life and work that should be,
within its limits, complete and trustworthy. How far my belief was
justified the readers of this volume will decide.
I cannot promise my readers any startling revelations. But my researches
have enabled me to remove some ambiguities which puzzled my predecessors,
and to throw light on one or two topics that have hitherto obscured the
course of Shakespeare's career. Particulars that have not been before
incorporated in Shakespeare's biography will be found in my treatment of
the following subjects: the conditions under which 'Love's Labour's Lost'
and the 'Merchant of Venice' were written; the references in
Shakespeare's plays to his native town and county; his father's
applications to the Heralds' College for coat-armour; his relations with
Ben Jonson and the boy actors in 1601; the favour extended to his work by
James I and his Court; the circumstances which led to the publication of
the First Folio, and the history of the dramatist's portraits. I have
somewhat expanded the notices of Shakespeare's financial affairs which
have already appeared in the article in the 'Dictionary of National
Biography,' and a few new facts will be found in my revised estimate of
the poet's pecuniary position.
In my treatment of the sonnets I have pursued what I believe to be an
original line of investigation. The strictly autobiographical
interpretation that critics have of late placed on these poems compelled
me, as Shakespeare's biographer, to submit them to a very narrow
scrutiny. My conclusion is adverse to the claim of the sonnets to rank
as autobiographical documents, but I have felt bound, out of respect to
writers from whose views I dissent, to give in detail the evidence on
which I base my judgment. Matthew Arnold sagaciously laid down the maxim
that 'the criticism which alone can much help us for the future is a
criticism which regards Europe as being, for intellectual and artistic
{vii} purposes, one great confederation, bound to a joint action and
working to a common result.' It is criticism inspired by this
liberalising principle that is especially applicable to the vast
sonnet-literature which was produced by Shakespeare and his
contemporaries. It is criticism of the type that Arnold recommended that
can alone lead to any accurate and profitable conclusion respecting the
intention of the vast sonnet-literature of the Elizabethan era. In
accordance with Arnold's suggestion, I have studied Shakespeare's sonnets
comparatively with those in vogue in England, France, and Italy at the
time he wrote. I have endeavoured to learn the view that was taken of
such literary endeavours by contemporary critics and readers throughout
Europe. My researches have covered a very small portion of the wide
field. But I have gone far enough, I think, to justify the conviction
that Shakespeare's collection of sonnets has no reasonable title to be
regarded as a personal or autobiographical narrative.
In the Appendix (Sections III. and IV.) I have supplied a memoir of
Shakespeare's patron, the Earl of Southampton, and an account of the
Earl's relations with the contemporary world of letters. Apart from
Southampton's association with the sonnets, he promoted Shakespeare's
welfare at an early stage of the dramatist's career, and I can quote the
authority of Malone, who appended a sketch of Southampton's history to
his biography of Shakespeare (in the 'Variorum' edition of 1821), for
treating a knowledge of Southampton's life as essential to a full
knowledge of Shakespeare's. I have also printed in the Appendix a
detailed statement of the precise circumstances under which Shakespeare's
sonnets were published by Thomas Thorpe in 1609 (Section V.), and a
review of the facts that seem to me to confute the popular theory that
Shakespeare was a friend and _protege_ of William Herbert, third Earl of
Pembroke, who has been put forward quite unwarrantably as the hero of the
sonnets (Sections VI., VII., VIII.) {ix} I have also included in the
Appendix (Sections IX. and X.) a survey of the voluminous
sonnet-literature of the Elizabethan poets between 1591 and 1597, with
which Shakespeare's sonnetteering efforts were very closely allied, as
well as a bibliographical note on a corresponding feature of French and
Italian literature between 1550 and 1600.
Since the publication of the article on Shakespeare in the 'Dictionary of
National Biography,' I have received from correspondents many criticisms
and suggestions which have enabled me to correct some errors. But a few
of my correspondents have exhibited so ingenuous a faith in those forged
documents relating to Shakespeare and forged references to his works,
which were promulgated chiefly by John Payne Collier more than half a
century ago, that I have attached a list of the misleading records to my
chapter on 'The Sources of Biographical Information' in the Appendix
(Section I.) I believe the list to be fuller than any to be met with
elsewhere.
The six illustrations which appear in this volume have been chosen on
grounds of practical utility rather than of artistic merit. My reasons
for selecting as the frontispiece the newly discovered 'Droeshout'
painting of Shakespeare (now in the Shakespeare Memorial Gallery at
Stratford-on-Avon) can be gathered from the history of the painting and
of its discovery which I give on pages 288-90. I have to thank Mr. Edgar
Flower and the other members of the Council of the Shakespeare Memorial
at Stratford for permission to reproduce the picture. The portrait of
Southampton in early life is now at Welbeck Abbey, and the Duke of
Portland not only permitted the portrait to be engraved for this volume,
but lent me the negative from which the plate has been prepared. The
Committee of the Garrick Club gave permission to photograph the
interesting bust of Shakespeare in their possession, {x} but, owing to
the fact that it is moulded in black terra-cotta no satisfactory negative
could be obtained; the engraving I have used is from a photograph of a
white plaster cast of the original bust, now in the Memorial Gallery at
Stratford. The five autographs of Shakespeare's signature--all that
exist of unquestioned authenticity--appear in the three remaining plates.
The three signatures on the will have been photographed from the original
document at Somerset House, by permission of Sir Francis Jenne, President
of the Probate Court; the autograph on the deed of purchase by
Shakespeare in 1613 of the house in Blackfriars has been photographed
from the original document in the Guildhall Library, by permission of the
Library Committee of the City of London; and the autograph on the deed of
mortgage relating to the same property, also dated in 1613, has been
photographed from the original document in the British Museum, by
permission of the Trustees. Shakespeare's coat-of-arms and motto, which
are stamped on the cover of this volume, are copied from the trickings in
the margin of the draft-grants of arms now in the Heralds' College.
The Baroness Burdett-Coutts has kindly given me ample opportunities of
examining the two peculiarly interesting and valuable copies of the First
Folio {xi} in her possession. Mr. Richard Savage, of Stratford-on-Avon,
the Secretary of the Birthplace Trustees, and Mr. W. Salt Brassington,
the Librarian of the Shakespeare Memorial at Stratford, have courteously
replied to the many inquiries that I have addressed to them verbally or
by letter. Mr. Lionel Cust, the Director of the National Portrait
Gallery, has helped me to estimate the authenticity of Shakespeare's
portraits. I have also benefited, while the work has been passing
through the press, by the valuable suggestions of my friends the Rev. H.
C. Beeching and Mr. W. J. Craig, and I have to thank Mr. Thomas Seccombe
for the zealous aid he has rendered me while correcting the final proofs.
_October_ 12, 1898.
CONTENTS
I--PARENTAGE AND
BIRTH
Distribution of the 1
name of Shakespeare
The poet's ancestry 2
The poet's father 4
His settlement at 5
Stratford
The poet's mother 6
1564, April The poet's birth and 8
baptism
Alleged birthplace 8
II--CHILDHOOD,
EDUCATION, AND
MARRIAGE
The father in 10
municipal office
Brothers and sisters 11
The father's 12
financial
difficulties
1571-7 Shakespeare's 13
education
His classical 15
equipment
Shakespeare's 16
knowledge of the
Bible
1575 Queen Elizabeth at 17
Kenilworth
1577 Withdrawal from 18
school
1582, Dec. The poet's marriage 18
Richard Hathaway of 19
Shottery
Anne Hathaway 19
Anne Hathaway's 19
cottage
The bond against 20
impediments
1583, May Birth of the poet's 22
daughter Susanna
Formal betrothal 23
probably dispensed
with
III--THE FAREWELL TO
STRATFORD
Early married life 25
Poaching at 27
Charlecote
Unwarranted doubts of 28
the tradition
Justice Shallow 29
1585 The flight from 29
Stratford
IV--ON THE LONDON
STAGE
1586 The journey to London 31
Richard Field, 32
Shakespeare townsman
Theatrical employment 32
A playhouse servitor 32
The acting companies 34
The Lord 35
Chamberlain's company
Shakespeare, a member 36
of the Lord
Chamberlain's company
The London theatres 36
Place of residence in 38
London
Actors' provincial 39
tours
Shakespeare's alleged 40
travels
In Scotland 41
In Italy 42
Shakespeare's roles 43
His alleged scorn of 45
an actor's calling
V--EARLY DRAMATIC
WORK
The period of his 46
dramatic work,
1591-1611
His borrowed plots 47
The revision of plays 47
Chronology of the 48
plays
Metrical tests 49
1591 _Love's Labour's 50
Lost_
1591 _Two Gentlemen of 52
Verona_
1592 _Comedy of Errors_ 53
1592 _Romeo and Juliet_ 55
1592, _March_ _Henry VI_ 56
1592, _Sept._ Greene's attack on 57
Shakespeare
Chettle's apology 58
Divided authorship of 59
_Henry VI_
Shakespeare's 60
coadjutors
Shakespeare's 61
assimilative power
Lyly's influence in 61
comedy
Marlowe's influence 63
in tragedy
1593 _Richard III_ 63
1593 _Richard II_ 64
Shakespeare's 64
acknowledgments to
Marlowe
1593 _Titus Andronicus_ 65
1594, August The Merchant of 66
Venice
Shylock and Roderigo 68
Lopez
1594 King John 69
1594, Dec. _Comedy of Errors_ in 70
Gray's Inn Hall
Early plays 71
doubtfully assigned
to Shakespeare
_Arden of Feversham_ 71
(1592)
_Edward III_ 72
_Mucedorus_ 72
_Faire Em_ (1592) 73
VI--THE FIRST APPEAL
TO THE READING PUBLIC
1593, _April_ Publication of _Venus 74
and Adonis_
1594, _May_ Publication of 76
_Lucrece_
Enthusiastic 78
reception of the
poems
Shakespeare and 79
Spenser
Patrons at Court 81
VII--THE SONNETS AND
THEIR LITERARY
HISTORY
The vogue of the 83
Elizabethan sonnet
Shakespeare's first 84
experiments
1594 Majority of his 85
Shakespeare's
composed
Their literary value 87
Circulation in 88
manuscript
Their piratical 89
publication in 1609
_A Lover's Complaint_ 91
Thomas Thorpe and 91
'Mr. W. H.'
The form of 95
Shakespeare's sonnets
Their want of 96
continuity
The two 'groups' 96
Main topics of the 98
first 'group'
Main topics of the 99
second 'group'
The order of the 100
sonnets in the
edition of 1640
Lack of genuine 100
sentiment in
Elizabethan sonnets
Their dependence on 101
French and Italian
models
Sonnetteers' 105
admissions of
insincerity
Contemporary censure 106
of sonnetteers' false
sentiment
Shakespeare's 108
scornful allusions to
sonnets in his plays
VIII--THE BORROWED
CONCEITS OF THE
SONNETS
Slender 109
autobiographical
element in
Shakespeare's sonnets
The imitative element 109
Shakespeare's claims 113
of immortality for
his sonnets a
borrowed conceit
Conceits in sonnets 117
addressed to a woman
The praise of 118
'blackness'
The sonnets of 120
vituperation
Gabriel Harvey's 121
_Amorous Odious
sonnet_
Jodelle's _Contr' 122
Amours_
IX--THE PATRONAGE OF
THE EARL OF
SOUTHAMPTON
Biographic fact in 125
the 'dedicatory'
sonnets
The Earl of 126
Southampton the
poet's sole patron
Rivals in 130
Southampton's favour
Shakespeare's fear of 132
another poet
Barnabe Barnes 133
probably the chief
rival
Other theories as to 134
the chief rival's
identity
Sonnets of friendship 136
Extravagances of 138
literary compliment
Patrons habitually 139
addressed in
affectionate terms
Direct references to 142
Southampton in the
sonnets of friendship
His youthfulness 143
The evidence of 144
portraits
Sonnet cvii. the last 147
of the series
Allusions to Queen 147
Elizabeth's death
Allusions to 149
Southampton's release
from prison
X--THE SUPPOSED STORY
OF INTRIGUE IN THE
SONNETS
Sonnets of melancholy 151
and self-reproach
The youth's relations 153
with the poet's
mistress
_Willobie his Avisa_ 155
(1594)
Summary of 158
conclusions
respecting the
sonnets
XI--THE DEVELOPMENT
OF DRAMATIC POWER
1594-95 _Midsummer Night's 161
Dream_
1595 _All's Well that Ends 162
Well_
1595 _The Taming of The 163
Shrew_
Stratford allusions 164
in the Induction
Wincot 165
1597 _Henry IV_ 167
Falstaff 199
1597 _The Merry Wives of 171
Windsor_
1598 _Henry V_ 173
Essex and the 174
rebellion of 1601
Shakespeare's 176
popularity and
influence
Shakespeare's 176
friendship with Ben
Jonson
The Mermaid meetings 177
1598 Meres's eulogy 178
Value of his name to 179
publishers
1599 _The Passionate 182
Pilgrim_
1601 _The Phoenix and the 183
Turtle_
XII--THE PRACTICAL
AFFAIRS OF LIFE
Shakespeare's 185
practical temperament
His father's 186
difficulties
His wife's debt 187
1596-9 The coat of arms 188
1597, May 4. The purchase of New 193
Place
1598 Fellow-townsmen 195
appear to Shakespeare
for aid
Shakespeare's 196
financial position
before 1599
Shakespeare's 200
financial position
after 1599
His later income 202
Incomes of fellow 203
actors
1601-1610 Shakespeare's 204
formation of his
estate at Stratford
1605 The Stratford tithes 205
1600-1609 Recovery of small 206
debts
XIII--MATURITY OF
GENIUS
Literary work in 1599 207
1599 _Much Ado about 208
Nothing_
1599 _As You Like It_ 209
1600 _Twelfth Night_ 209
1601 _Julius Caesar_ 211
The strife between 213
adult actors and boy
actors
Shakespeare's 216
references to the
struggle
1601 Ben Jonson's 217
_Poetaster_
Shakespeare's alleged 219
partisanship in the
theatrical warfare
1602 _Hamlet_ 221
The problem of its 222
publication
The First Quarto, 222
1603
The Second Quarto, 223
1604
The Folio version, 223
1623
Popularity of 224
_Hamlet_
1603 _Troilus and 225
Cressida_
Treatment of the 227
theme
1603, _March_ 26 Queen Elizabeth's 229
death
James I's patronage 230
XIV--THE HIGHEST
THEMES OF TRAGEDY
1604, Nov. _Othello_ 235
1604, Dec. _Measure for Measure_ 237
1606 _Macbeth_ 239
1607 _King Lear_ 241
1608 _Timon of Athens_ 242
1608 _Pericles_ 243
1608 _Antony and 245
Cleopatra_
1609 _Coriolanus_ 247
XV--THE LATEST PLAYS
The placid temper of 248
the latest plays
1610 _Cymbeline_ 249
1611 _A Winter's Tale_ 251
1611 _The Tempest_ 252
Fanciful 256
interpretations of
_The Tempest_
Unfinished plays 258
The lost play of 258
_Cardenio_
_The Two Noble 259
Kinsmen_
_Henry VIII_ 261
The burning of the 262
Globe Theatre
XVI--THE CLOSE OF
LIFE
Plays at Court in 264
1613
Actor-friends 264
1611 Final settlement at 266
Stratford
Domestic affairs 266
1613, _March_ Purchase of a house 267
in Blackfriars
1614, Oct. Attempt to enclose 269
the Stratford common
fields
1616, April 23rd. Shakespeare's death 272
1616, April 25th. Shakespeare's burial 272
The will 273
Shakespeare's bequest 273
to his wife
Shakespeare's heiress 275
Legacies to friends 276
The tomb in Stratford 276
Church
Shakespeare's 277
personal character
XVII--SURVIVORS AND
DESCENDANTS
Mrs. Judith Quiney, 280
(1585-1662)
Mrs. Susanna Hall 281
(1583-1649)
The last descendant 282
Shakespeare's 283
brothers, Edmund,
Richard, and Gilbert
XVIII--AUTOGRAPHS,
PORTRAITS, AND
MEMORIALS
Spelling of the 284
poet's name
Autograph signatures 284
Shakespeare's 286
portraits
The Stratford bust 286
The 'Stratford 287
portrait'
Droeshout's engraving 287
The 'Droeshout' 288
painting
Later portraits 291
The Chandos portrait 292
The 'Jansen' portrait 294
The 'Felton' portrait 294
The 'Soest' portrait 294
Miniatures 295
The Garrick Club bust 295
Alleged death-mask 296
Memorials in 297
sculpture
Memorials at 297
Stratford
XIX--BIBLIOGRAPHY
Quartos of the poems 299
in the poet's
lifetime
Posthumous quartos of 300
the poems
The 'Poems' of 1640 300
Quartos of the plays 300
in the poet's
lifetime
Posthumous quartos of 300
the plays
1623 The First Folio 303
The publishing 303
syndicate
The prefatory matter 306
The value of the text 307
The order of the 307
plays
The typography 308
Unique copies 308
The Sheldon copy 309
Estimated number of 310
extant copies
Reprints of the First 311
Folio
1632 The Second Folio 312
1663-4 The Third Folio 312
1685 The Fourth Folio 313
Eighteenth-century 313
editions
Nicholas Rowe 314
(1674-1718)
Alexander Pope 315
(1688-1744)
Lewis Theobald 317
(1688-1744)
Sir Thomas Hanmer 317
(1677-1746)
Bishop Warburton 318
(1698-1779)
Dr. Johnson 319
(1709-1783)
Edward Capell 319
(1713-1781)
George Steevens 320
(1736-1800)
Edmund Malone 322
(1741-1812)
Variorum editions 322
Nineteenth-century 323
editors
Alexander Dyce 323
(1798-1869)
Howard Staunton 324
(1810-1874)
Nikolaus Delius 324
(1813-1888)
The Cambridge edition 324
(1863-6)
Other 324
nineteenth-century
editions
XX--POSTHUMOUS
REPUTATION
Views of 326
Shakespeare's
contemporaries
Ben Jonson tribute 327
English opinion 329
between 1660 and 1702
Dryden's view 330
Restoration 331
adaptations
English opinion from 332
1702 onwards
Stratford festivals 334
Shakespeare on the 334
English stage
The first appearance 334
of actresses in
Shakespearean parts
David Garrick 336
(1717-1779)
John Philip Kemble 337
(1757-1823)
Mrs. Sarah Siddons 337
(1755-1831)
Edmund Kean 338
(1787-1833)
William Charles 339
Macready (1793-1873)
Recent revivals 339
Shakespeare in 340
English music and art
Boydell's Shakespeare 341
Gallery
Shakespeare in 341
America
Translations 342
Shakespeare in 342
Germany
German translations 343
Modern German critics 345
Shakespeare on the 345
German stage
Shakespeare in France 347
Voltaire's strictures 348
French critics' 349
gradual emancipation
from Voltairean
influence
Shakespeare on the 350
French stage
Shakespeare in Italy 352
In Holland 354
In Russia 353
In Poland 353
In Hungary 353
In other countries 354
XXI--GENERAL
ESTIMATES
General estimate 355
Shakespeare's defects 355
Character of 356
Shakespeare's
achievement
Its universal 357
recognition
APPENDIX
I--THE SOURCES OF
BIOGRAPHICAL
KNOWLEDGE
Contemporary records 361
abundant
First efforts in 361
biography
Biographers of the 362
nineteenth century
Stratford topography 363
Specialised studies 363
in biography
Epitomes 364
Aids to study of 364
plots and text
Concordances 364
Bibliographies 365
Critical studies 365
Shakespearean 365
forgeries
John Jordan 366
(1746-1809)
The Ireland forgeries 366
(1796)
List of forgeries 367
promulgated by
Collier and others
(1835-1849)
II--THE
BACON-SHAKESPEARE
CONTROVERSY
Its source 370
Toby Matthew's letter 371
of 1621
Chief exponents of 371
the theory
Its vogue in America 372
Extent of the 372
literature
Absurdity of the 373
theory
III--THE YOUTHFUL
CAREER OF THE EARL OF
SOUTHAMPTON
Shakespeare and 374
Southampton
Southampton's 374
parentage
1573, _Oct._ 6 Southampton's birth 375
His education 375
Recognition of 377
Southampton's beauty
in youth
His reluctance to 378
marry
Intrigue with 379
Elizabeth Vernon
1598 Southampton's 379
marriage
1601-3 Southampton's 380
imprisonment
Later career 380
1624, _Nov._ 10 His death 381
IV--THE EARL OF
SOUTHAMPTON AS A
LITERARY PATRON
Southampton's 382
collection of books
References in his 382
letters to poems and
plays
His love of the 383
theatre
Poetic adulation 384
1593 Barnabe Barnes's 384
sonnet
Tom Nash's addresses 385
1595 Gervase Markham's 387
sonnet
1598 Florio's address 387
The congratulations 387
of the poets in 1603
Elegies on 389
Southampton
V--THE TRUE HISTORY
OF THOMAS THORPE AND
'MR. W. H.'
The publication of 390
the 'Sonnets' in 1609
The text of the 391
dedication
Publishers' 392
dedications
Thorpe's early life 393
His ownership of the 393
manuscript of
Marlowe's _Lucan_
His dedicatory 394
address to Edward
Blount in 1600
Character of his 395
business
Shakespeare's 396
sufferings at
publishers hands
The use of initials 397
in dedications of
Elizabethan and
Jacobean books
Frequency of wishes 398
for 'happiness' and
'eternity' in
dedicatory greetings
Five dedications by 399
Thorpe
'W. H.' signs 400
dedication of
Southwell's 'Poems'
'W. H.' and Mr. 402
William Hall
The 'onlie begetter' 403
means 'only procurer'
VI--'MR. WILLIAM
HERBERT'
Origin of the notion 406
that 'Mr. W. H.'
stands for William
Herbert
The Earl of Pembroke 407
known only as Lord
Herbert in youth
Thorpe's mode of 408
addressing the Earl
of Pembroke
VII--SHAKESPEARE AND
THE EARL OF PEMBROKE
Shakespeare with the 411
acting company at
Wilton in 1603
The dedication of the 412
First Folio in 1623
No suggestion in the 413
sonnets of the
youth's identity with
Pembroke
Aubrey's ignorance of 414
any relation between
Shakespeare and
Pembroke
VIII--THE 'WILL'
SONNETS
Elizabethan meanings 416
of 'will'
Shakespeare's uses of 417
the word
Shakespeare's puns on 418
the word
Arbitrary and 419
irregular use of
italics by
Elizabethan and
Jacobean printers
The conceits of 420
Sonnets cxxxv.-vi.
interpreted
Sonnet cxxxv 421
Sonnet cxxxvi 422
Sonnet cxxxiv 425
Sonnet cxliii 426
IX--THE VOGUE OF THE
ELIZABETHAN SONNET,
1591-1597
1557 Wyatt's and Surrey's 427
Sonnets published
1582 Watson's _Centurie of 428
Love_
1591 Sidney's _Astrophel 428
and Stella_
I. Collected sonnets of 429
feigned love
1592 Daniel's _Delia_ 430
Fame of Daniel's 431
sonnets
1592 Constable's _Diana_ 431
1593 Barnabe Barne's 432
sonnets
1593 Watson's _Tears of 433
Fancie_
1593 Giles Fletcher's 433
_Licia_
1593 Lodge's _Phillis_ 433
1594 Drayton's _Idea_ 434
1594 Percy's _Coelia_ 435
1594 _Zepheria_ 435
1595 Barnfield's sonnets 435
to Ganymede
1595 Spenser's _Amoretti_ 435
1595 _Emaricdulfe_ 436
1595 Sir John Davies's 436
_Gullinge Sonnets_
1596 Linche's Diella 437
1596 Griffin _Fidessa_ 437
1596 Thomas Campion's 437
sonnets
1596 William Smith's 437
_Chloris_
1597 Robert Tofte's 438
_Laura_
Sir William 438
Alexander's _Aurora_
Sir Fulke Greville's 438
_Coelica_
Estimate of number of 439
love-sonnets issued
between 1591 and 1597
II. Sonnets to patrons, 440
1591-1597
III. Sonnets on philosophy 440
and religion
X--BIBLIOGRAPHICAL
NOTE ON THE SONNET IN
FRANCE, 1550-1600
Ronsard (1524-1585) 442
and 'La Pleiade'
The Italian 442_n_.
sonnetteers of the
sixteenth century
Philippe Desportes 443
(1546-1606)
Chief collections of 444
French sonnets
published between
1550 and 1584
Minor collections of 444
French sonnets
published between
1553 and 1605
INDEX 447
I--PARENTAGE AND BIRTH
Distribution of the name.
Shakespeare came of a family whose surname was borne through the middle
ages by residents in very many parts of England--at Penrith in
Cumberland, at Kirkland and Doncaster in Yorkshire, as well as in nearly
all the midland counties. The surname had originally a martial
significance, implying capacity in the wielding of the spear. {1a} Its
first recorded holder is John Shakespeare, who in 1279 was living at
'Freyndon,' perhaps Frittenden, Kent. {1b} The great mediaeval guild of
St. Anne at Knowle, whose members included the leading inhabitants of
Warwickshire, was joined by many Shakespeares in the fifteenth century.
{1c} In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries the surname is found far
more frequently in Warwickshire than elsewhere. The archives of no less
than twenty-four towns and villages there contain notices of Shakespeare
families in the sixteenth century, and as many as thirty-four
Warwickshire towns or villages were inhabited by Shakespeare families in
the seventeenth century. Among them all William was a common Christian
name. At Rowington, twelve miles to the north of Stratford, and in the
same hundred of Barlichway, one of the most prolific Shakespeare families
of Warwickshire resided in the sixteenth century, and no less than three
Richard Shakespeares of Rowington, whose extant wills were proved
respectively in 1560, 1591, and 1614, were fathers of sons called
William. At least one other William Shakespeare was during the period a
resident in Rowington. As a consequence, the poet has been more than
once credited with achievements which rightly belong to one or other of
his numerous contemporaries who were identically named.
The poet's ancestry.
The poet's ancestry cannot be defined with absolute certainty. The
poet's father, when applying for a grant of arms in 1596, claimed that
his grandfather (the poet's great-grandfather) received for services
rendered in war a grant of land in Warwickshire from Henry VII. {2} No
precise confirmation of this pretension has been discovered, and it may
be, after the manner of heraldic genealogy, fictitious. But there is a
probability that the poet came of good yeoman stock, and that his
ancestors to the fourth or fifth generation were fairly substantial
landowners. {3a} Adam Shakespeare, a tenant by military service of land
at Baddesley Clinton in 1389, seems to have been great-grandfather of one
Richard Shakespeare who held land at Wroxhall in Warwickshire during the
first thirty-four years (at least) of the sixteenth century. Another
Richard Shakespeare who is conjectured to have been nearly akin to the
Wroxhall family was settled as a farmer at Snitterfield, a village four
miles to the north of Stratford-on-Avon, in 1528. {3b} It is probable
that he was the poet's grandfather. In 1550 he was renting a messuage
and land at Snitterfield of Robert Arden; he died at the close of 1560,
and on February 10 of the next year letters of administration of his
goods, chattels, and debts were issued to his son John by the Probate
Court at Worcester. His goods were valued at 35 pounds 17s. {3c}
Besides the son John, Richard of Snitterfield certainly had a son Henry;
while a Thomas Shakespeare, a considerable landholder at Snitterfield
between 1563 and 1583, whose parentage is undetermined, may have been a
third son. The son Henry remained all his life at Snitterfield, where he
engaged in farming with gradually diminishing success; he died in
embarrassed circumstances in December 1596. John, the son who
administered Richard's estate, was in all likelihood the poet's father.
The poet's father.
About 1551 John Shakespeare left Snitterfield, which was his birthplace,
to seek a career in the neighbouring borough of Stratford-on-Avon. There
he soon set up as a trader in all manner of agricultural produce. Corn,
wool, malt, meat, skins, and leather were among the commodities in which
he dealt. Documents of a somewhat later date often describe him as a
glover. Aubrey, Shakespeare's first biographer, reported the tradition
that he was a butcher. But though both designations doubtless indicated
important branches of his business, neither can be regarded as disclosing
its full extent. The land which his family farmed at Snitterfield
supplied him with his varied stock-in-trade. As long as his father lived
he seems to have been a frequent visitor to Snitterfield, and, like his
father and brothers, he was until the date of his father's death
occasionally designated a farmer or 'husbandman' of that place. But it
was with Stratford-on-Avon that his life was mainly identified.
His settlement at Stratford.
In April 1552 he was living there in Henley Street, a thoroughfare
leading to the market town of Henley-in-Arden, and he is first mentioned
in the borough records as paying in that month a fine of twelve-pence for
having a dirt-heap in front of his house. His frequent appearances in
the years that follow as either plaintiff or defendant in suits heard in
the local court of record for the recovery of small debts suggest that he
was a keen man of business. In early life he prospered in trade, and in
October 1556 purchased two freehold tenements at Stratford--one, with a
garden, in Henley Street (it adjoins that now known as the poet's
birthplace), and the other in Greenhill Street with a garden and croft.
Thenceforth he played a prominent part in municipal affairs. In 1557 he
was elected an ale-taster, whose duty it was to test the quality of malt
liquors and bread. About the same time he was elected a burgess or town
councillor, and in September 1558, and again on October 6, 1559, he was
appointed one of the four petty constables by a vote of the jury of the
court-leet. Twice--in 1559 and 1561--he was chosen one of the
affeerors--officers appointed to determine the fines for those offences
which were punishable arbitrarily, and for which no express penalties
were prescribed by statute. In 1561 he was elected one of the two
chamberlains of the borough, an office of responsibility which he held
for two years. He delivered his second statement of accounts to the
corporation in January 1564. When attesting documents he occasionally
made his mark, but there is evidence in the Stratford archives that he
could write with facility; and he was credited with financial aptitude.
The municipal accounts, which were checked by tallies and counters, were
audited by him after he ceased to be chamberlain, and he more than once
advanced small sums of money to the corporation.
The poet's mother.
With characteristic shrewdness he chose a wife of assured fortune--Mary,
youngest daughter of Robert Arden, a wealthy farmer of Wilmcote in the
parish of Aston Cantlowe, near Stratford. The Arden family in its chief
branch, which was settled at Parkhall, Warwickshire, ranked with the most
influential of the county. Robert Arden, a progenitor of that branch,
was sheriff of Warwickshire and Leicestershire in 1438 (16 Hen. VI), and
this sheriff's direct descendant, Edward Arden, who was himself high
sheriff of Warwickshire in 1575, was executed in 1583 for alleged
complicity in a Roman Catholic plot against the life of Queen Elizabeth.
{6} John Shakespeare's wife belonged to a humbler branch of the family,
and there is no trustworthy evidence to determine the exact degree of
kinship between the two branches. Her grandfather, Thomas Arden,
purchased in 1501 an estate at Snitterfield, which passed, with other
property, to her father Robert; John Shakespeare's father, Richard, was
one of this Robert Arden's Snitterfield tenants. By his first wife,
whose name is not known, Robert Arden had seven daughters, of whom all
but two married; John Shakespeare's wife seems to have been the youngest.
Robert Arden's second wife, Agnes or Anne, widow of John Hill (_d._
1545), a substantial farmer of Bearley, survived him; but by her he had
no issue. When he died at the end of 1556, he owned a farmhouse at
Wilmcote and many acres, besides some hundred acres at Snitterfield, with
two farmhouses which he let out to tenants. The post-mortem inventory of
his goods, which was made on December 9, 1556, shows that he had lived in
comfort; his house was adorned by as many as eleven 'painted cloths,'
which then did duty for tapestries among the middle class. The exordium
of his will, which was drawn up on November 24, 1556, and proved on
December 16 following, indicates that he was an observant Catholic. For
his two youngest daughters, Alice and Mary, he showed especial affection
by nominating them his executors. Mary received not only 6 pounds 13s.
4d. in money, but the fee-simple of Asbies, his chief property at
Wilmcote, consisting of a house with some fifty acres of land. She also
acquired, under an earlier settlement, an interest in two messuages at
Snitterfield. {7} But, although she was well provided with worldly
goods, she was apparently without education; several extant documents
bear her mark, and there is no proof that she could sign her name.
The poet's birth and baptism.
John Shakespeare's marriage with Mary Arden doubtless took place at Aston
Cantlowe, the parish church of Wilmcote, in the autumn of 1557 (the
church registers begin at a later date). On September 15, 1558, his
first child, a daughter, Joan, was baptised in the church of Stratford.
A second child, another daughter, Margaret, was baptised on December 2,
1562; but both these children died in infancy. The poet William, the
first son and third child, was born on April 22 or 23, 1564. The latter
date is generally accepted as his birthday, mainly (it would appear) on
the ground that it was the day of his death. There is no positive
evidence on the subject, but the Stratford parish registers attest that
he was baptised on April 26.
Alleged birthplace.
Some doubt is justifiable as to the ordinarily accepted scene of his
birth. Of two adjoining houses forming a detached building on the north
side of Henley Street, that to the east was purchased by John Shakespeare
in 1556, but there is no evidence that he owned or occupied the house to
the west before 1575. Yet this western house has been known since 1759
as the poet's birthplace, and a room on the first floor is claimed as
that in which he was born. {8} The two houses subsequently came by
bequest of the poet's granddaughter to the family of the poet's sister,
Joan Hart, and while the eastern tenement was let out to strangers for
more than two centuries, and by them converted into an inn, the
'birthplace' was until 1806 occupied by the Harts, who latterly carried
on there the trade of butcher. The fact of its long occupancy by the
poet's collateral descendants accounts for the identification of the
western rather than the eastern tenement with his birthplace. Both
houses were purchased in behalf of subscribers to a public fund on
September 16, 1847, and, after extensive restoration, were converted into
a single domicile for the purposes of a public museum. They were
presented under a deed of trust to the corporation of Stratford in 1866.
Much of the Elizabethan timber and stonework survives, but a cellar under
the 'birthplace' is the only portion which remains as it was at the date
of the poet's birth. {9}
II--CHILDHOOD, EDUCATION, AND MARRIAGE
The father in municipal office.
In July 1564, when William was three months old, the plague raged with
unwonted vehemence at Stratford, and his father liberally contributed to
the relief of its poverty-stricken victims. Fortune still favoured him.
On July 4, 1565, he reached the dignity of an alderman. From 1567
onwards he was accorded in the corporation archives the honourable prefix
of 'Mr.' At Michaelmas 1568 he attained the highest office in the
corporation gift, that of bailiff, and during his year of office the
corporation for the first time entertained actors at Stratford. The
Queen's Company and the Earl of Worcester's Company each received from
John Shakespeare an official welcome. {10} On September 5, 1571, he was
chief alderman, a post which he retained till September 30 the following
year. In 1573 Alexander Webbe, the husband of his wife's sister Agnes,
made him overseer of his will; in 1575 he bought two houses in Stratford,
one of them doubtless the alleged birthplace in Henley Street; in 1576 he
contributed twelvepence to the beadle's salary. But after Michaelmas
1572 he took a less active part in municipal affairs; he grew irregular
in his attendance at the council meetings, and signs were soon apparent
that his luck had turned. In 1578 he was unable to pay, with his
colleagues, either the sum of fourpence for the relief of the poor or his
contribution 'towards the furniture of three pikemen, two bellmen, and
one archer' who were sent by the corporation to attend a muster of the
trained bands of the county.
Brothers and sisters.
Meanwhile his family was increasing. Four children besides the
poet--three sons, Gilbert (baptised October 13, 1566), Richard (baptised
March 11, 1574), and Edmund (baptised May 3, 1580), with a daughter Joan
(baptised April 15, 1569)--reached maturity. A daughter Ann was baptised
September 28, 1571, and was buried on April 4, 1579. To meet his growing
liabilities, the father borrowed money from his wife's kinsfolk, and he
and his wife mortgaged, on November 14, 1578, Asbies, her valuable
property at Wilmcote, for 40 pounds to Edmund Lambert of
Barton-on-the-Heath, who had married her sister, Joan Arden. Lambert was
to receive no interest on his loan, but was to take the 'rents and
profits' of the estate. Asbies was thereby alienated for ever. Next
year, on October 15, 1579, John and his wife made over to Robert Webbe,
doubtless a relative of Alexander Webbe, for the sum apparently of 40
pounds, his wife's property at Snitterfield. {12a}
The father's financial difficulties.
John Shakespeare obviously chafed under the humiliation of having parted,
although as he hoped only temporarily, with his wife's property of
Asbies, and in the autumn of 1580 he offered to pay off the mortgage; but
his brother-in-law, Lambert, retorted that other sums were owing, and he
would accept all or none. The negotiation, which was the beginning of
much litigation, thus proved abortive. Through 1585 and 1586 a creditor,
John Brown, was embarrassingly importunate, and, after obtaining a writ
of distraint, Brown informed the local court that the debtor had no goods
on which distraint could be levied. {12b} On September 6, 1586, John was
deprived of his alderman's gown, on the ground of his long absence from
the council meetings. {12c}
Education.
Happily John Shakespeare was at no expense for the education of his four
sons. They were entitled to free tuition at the grammar school of
Stratford, which was reconstituted on a mediaeval foundation by Edward
VI. The eldest son, William, probably entered the school in 1571, when
Walter Roche was master, and perhaps he knew something of Thomas Hunt,
who succeeded Roche in 1577. The instruction that he received was mainly
confined to the Latin language and literature. From the Latin accidence,
boys of the period, at schools of the type of that at Stratford, were
led, through conversation books like the 'Sententiae Pueriles' and Lily's
grammar, to the perusal of such authors as Seneca Terence, Cicero,
Virgil, Plautus, Ovid, and Horace. The eclogues of the popular
renaissance poet, Mantuanus, were often preferred to Virgil's for
beginners. The rudiments of Greek were occasionally taught in
Elizabethan grammar schools to very promising pupils; but such
coincidences as have been detected between expressions in Greek plays and
in Shakespeare seem due to accident, and not to any study, either at
school or elsewhere, of the Athenian drama. {13}
Dr. Farmer enunciated in his 'Essay on Shakespeare's Learning' (1767) the
theory that Shakespeare knew no language but his own, and owed whatever
knowledge he displayed of the classics and of Italian and French
literature to English translations. But several of the books in French
and Italian whence Shakespeare derived the plots of his
dramas--Belleforest's 'Histoires Tragiques,' Ser Giovanni's 'Il
Pecorone,' and Cinthio's 'Hecatommithi,' for example--were not accessible
to him in English translations; and on more general grounds the theory of
his ignorance is adequately confuted. A boy with Shakespeare's
exceptional alertness of intellect, during whose schooldays a training in
Latin classics lay within reach, could hardly lack in future years all
means of access to the literature of France and Italy.
The poet's classical equipment.
With the Latin and French languages, indeed, and with many Latin poets of
the school curriculum, Shakespeare in his writings openly acknowledged
his acquaintance. In 'Henry V' the dialogue in many scenes is carried on
in French, which is grammatically accurate if not idiomatic. In the
mouth of his schoolmasters, Holofernes in 'Love's Labour's Lost' and Sir
Hugh Evans in 'Merry Wives of Windsor,' Shakespeare placed Latin phrases
drawn directly from Lily's grammar, from the 'Sententiae Pueriles,' and
from 'the good old Mantuan.' The influence of Ovid, especially the
'Metamorphoses,' was apparent throughout his earliest literary work, both
poetic and dramatic, and is discernible in the 'Tempest,' his latest play
(v. i. 33 seq.) In the Bodleian Library there is a copy of the Aldine
edition of Ovid's 'Metamorphoses' (1502), and on the title is the
signature Wm. She., which experts have declared--not quite
conclusively--to be a genuine autograph of the poet. {15} Ovid's Latin
text was certainly not unfamiliar to him, but his closest adaptations of
Ovid's 'Metamorphoses' often reflect the phraseology of the popular
English version by Arthur Golding, of which some seven editions were
issued between 1565 and 1597. From Plautus Shakespeare drew the plot of
the 'Comedy of Errors,' but it is just possible that Plautus's comedies,
too, were accessible in English. Shakespeare had no title to rank as a
classical scholar, and he did not disdain a liberal use of translations.
His lack of exact scholarship fully accounts for the 'small Latin and
less Greek' with which he was credited by his scholarly friend, Ben
Jonson. But Aubrey's report that 'he understood Latin pretty well' need
not be contested, and his knowledge of French may be estimated to have
equalled his knowledge of Latin, while he doubtless possessed just
sufficient acquaintance with Italian to enable him to discern the drift
of an Italian poem or novel. {16}
Shakespeare and the Bible.
Of the few English books accessible to him in his schooldays, the chief
was the English Bible, either in the popular Genevan version, first
issued in a complete form in 1560, or in the Bishops' revision of 1568,
which the Authorised Version of 1611 closely followed. References to
scriptural characters and incidents are not conspicuous in Shakespeare's
plays, but, such as they are, they are drawn from all parts of the Bible,
and indicate that general acquaintance with the narrative of both Old and
New Testaments which a clever boy would be certain to acquire either in
the schoolroom or at church on Sundays. Shakespeare quotes or adapts
biblical phrases with far greater frequency than he makes allusion to
episodes in biblical history. But many such phrases enjoyed proverbial
currency, and others, which were more recondite, were borrowed from
Holinshed's 'Chronicles' and secular works whence he drew his plots. As
a rule his use of scriptural phraseology, as of scriptural history,
suggests youthful reminiscence and the assimilative tendency of the mind
in a stage of early development rather than close and continuous study of
the Bible in adult life. {17a}
Withdrawal from school.
Shakespeare was a schoolboy in July 1575, when Queen Elizabeth made a
progress through Warwickshire on a visit to her favourite, the Earl of
Leicester, at his castle of Kenilworth. References have been detected in
Oberon's vision in Shakespeare's 'Midsummer Night's Dream' (II. ii.
148-68) to the fantastic pageants and masques with which the Queen during
her stay was entertained in Kenilworth Park. Leicester's residence was
only fifteen miles from Stratford, and it is possible that Shakespeare
went thither with his father to witness some of the open-air festivities;
but two full descriptions which were published in 1576, in pamphlet form,
gave Shakespeare knowledge of all that took place. {17b} Shakespeare's
opportunities of recreation outside Stratford were in any case restricted
during his schooldays. His father's financial difficulties grew
steadily, and they caused his removal from school at an unusually early
age. Probably in 1577, when he was thirteen, he was enlisted by his
father in an effort to restore his decaying fortunes. 'I have been told
heretofore,' wrote Aubrey, 'by some of the neighbours that when he was a
boy he exercised his father's trade,' which, according to the writer, was
that of a butcher. It is possible that John's ill-luck at the period
compelled him to confine himself to this occupation, which in happier
days formed only one branch of his business. His son may have been
formally apprenticed to him. An early Stratford tradition describes him
as 'a butcher's apprentice.' {18} 'When he kill'd a calf,' Aubrey
proceeds less convincingly, 'he would doe it in a high style and make a
speech. There was at that time another butcher's son in this towne, that
was held not at all inferior to him for a naturall witt, his
acquaintance, and coetanean, but dyed young.'
The poet's marriage.
At the end of 1582 Shakespeare, when little more than eighteen and a half
years old, took a step which was little calculated to lighten his
father's anxieties. He married. His wife, according to the inscription
on her tombstone, was his senior by eight years. Rowe states that she
'was the daughter of one Hathaway, said to have been a substantial yeoman
in the neighbourhood of Stratford.'
Richard Hathaway of Shottery. Anne Hathaway.