BACK AGAIN IN STRATFORD
In the foregoing review of the poet's life-work, the progress of his
fortunes on the material side has been of necessity overlooked. It would
have been confusing to deal with the two interests side by side, and now
it is time to look for the signs that mark William Shakespeare's
prosperity. We know that he came to London poor and left it
comparatively wealthy, and the change of his state has some very
definite landmarks. No man passes easily from the duties of an ostler to
the position of part proprietor of prosperous theatres, and the first
few years of Shakespeare's sojourn in the metropolis bore but little
fruit. We know that in those lean times his own purse would have been
but ill-lined, and both his father's household and his own were
suffering from the pinch of poverty. His wife was forced to borrow
money; his father's affairs went steadily from bad to worse. Nor was
there in all Stratford any help for a family that had fallen from
comparative affluence into the slough of financial troubles.
We may presume, from the scanty evidence which records have left and
diligent scholarship has discovered, that the poet himself made no
effort to "fling away ambition." In the early years of his sojourn in
London, when visits to Stratford were few and far between and the fear
of the Squire of Charlecote may have compelled him to lie very low
within the boundaries of Warwickshire, he would have seen or heard of
his father's affairs going from bad to worse. The parental honours were
stripped off one by one, debts accumulated, duns were incessant in their
attendance. To a proud and sensitive man this condition of things must
needs have been very galling; but it was not destined to last long.
Quite apart from his considerable receipts as a playwright, the poet's
earnings as an actor were substantial. The purchasing value of a
sovereign in Elizabeth's time would be equal to the value of nearly
eight pounds of our money, and Shakespeare's most learned biographers
are of opinion that he was a careful and a saving man. Member of a
leading company, enjoying the patronage of noblemen and the regard of
his Sovereign, frequently summoned to take part in special performances
at Court, it is likely that the poet's income as an actor was, within
comparatively few years of the start of his career, equal in our modern
currency to a sum nearer a thousand than five hundred a year. In later
years it was still higher. For revising other men's work his fees would
have varied between thirty and forty pounds, modern currency, and for
his own plays he may well have averaged twice as much, or even more. The
"benefit" system was already in vogue, and a dramatist could command an
extra fee if the first-night audience proved very appreciative of his
efforts. Shakespeare wrote his plays at the rate of two a year, and he
would have had something in the way of a royalty on the sale of his
poems, even though the plays brought him nothing as published work. We
may presume, then, that after a year or two he was able to maintain his
wife and children with some approach to comfort, and as the years passed
and reputation grew he found himself able to revisit his birthplace in
security, and to take definite steps to re-establish the family
fortunes, then at so low an ebb.
We read that after 1596, when the poet returned to Stratford with
London's honours thick upon him and plenty of money in his purse, his
father's debts were no longer the subject of proceedings at the local
court. We may presume, then, that his son had paid them and cleared the
way for John Shakespeare's strange application to the College of Heralds
for a coat of arms. Strange at first thought, but less remarkable if, as
is generally supposed, the father was acting for the son. It was and is
the custom for a coat of arms to be applied for by the eldest male of
the house, and the poet could not have made application in his father's
lifetime. The application may have received some initial support in
London, for arms were assigned with the least possible delay. Garter
King-of-Arms referred to certain (and probably apocryphal) services
rendered "to that most prudent prince King Henry the Seventh of famous
memory," and stated, without any recorded blush, that the Shakespeare
family had continued since those days to live in Warwickshire, in good
reputation and credit! He went on to record the undoubted fact that the
applicant had married Mary Arden, daughter and heiress of Robert Arden
of Wilmcote, who is described as a gentleman. In view of these
qualifications, arms were assigned to the applicant, a shield described
in the quaint jargon of heraldry, "Gold, on a bend sable, a spear of the
first, and for crest or cognizance a falcon, his wings displayed argent
standing on a wreath of his colours, supporting a spear gold steeled as
aforesaid." The motto chosen was "Non Sans Droict."
But though the grant was assigned, the assignment was not completed for
three years, the claim to relationship with the Ardens of Park Hall,
through John Shakespeare's wife, being disallowed, as was indeed
inevitable. Even then the grant was criticised in many quarters, but
William Shakespeare's eminence tended to render all criticism nugatory;
nor was he the first eminent actor to enjoy a coat of arms. It is quite
easy to understand the significance of the application if we turn to
regard the poet as a purchaser of real estate. Some two years before the
assignment was completed, he had impressed upon his fellow townsmen of
Stratford the truth that the period of strained finances had passed.
New Place, the century-old seat of Sir Hugh Clopton, a man who had done
much for Stratford, his birthplace, and had thriven in London, was now
dismantled and in bad repair; but remained the most imposing house in
the town. It was on the market, and William Shakespeare bought it, with
outbuildings and garden, for the equivalent of about four hundred and
fifty pounds, a large sum in that place and in those days. Some years
passed before the transaction was completed, and then the poet planted
an orchard which contained a famous mulberry tree, that flourished for
more than a hundred and fifty years, and was cut down by the Rev.
Francis Gastrell, whose name and memory are anathema to lovers of
Shakespeare. The poet did not take up his residence at New Place until
he had retired from London, and by that time the repairs were completed
and the place was in good order. It is at least highly probable that the
poet conducted some farming operations in and round New Place, though we
know nothing of his special qualifications for this work. There is a
record that in time of a local famine he had a good store of corn, and
he is known to have bought several lots of arable land. From the date of
the purchase of New Place there could have been none to dispute the
poet's claim to the description of William Shakespeare of Stratford,
Gentleman, and from first to last the total amount of his purchases of
real estate in and round his native town would amount to more than L7000
modern currency, if we value the Elizabethan pound at eight times our
own.
At the corner of Chapel Street, Stratford, where it turns into Chapel
Lane, there is an ugly modern house that enjoys the title of New Place
and receives the sixpences of the faithful. The trustees of
Shakespeare's birthplace own New Place and Anne Hathaway's cottage. The
house in which Shakespeare passed his last years does not exist, but
there is not a little about Stratford that calls for sixpences more
readily than it can justify the receipt of them. All that New Place can
offer of true Shakespearian interest is some venerable timbers, a shovel
board, from the old Falcon Inn that rose close by soon after
Shakespeare's death and still stands in receipt of custom, a circular
table inlaid with wood from the mulberry tree that the poet is said to
have planted, and a stone mullion from his own house. There is little
else that can recall the past, although the site of the ancient Clopton
mansion that Shakespeare purchased is undeniably here. The history of
the house that has passed and that of its successors has a very definite
interest.
Shakespeare left New Place to his favourite daughter, Susanna, and to
her daughter, Elizabeth Nash, in second marriage Lady Barnard. On her
death Sir John Barnard kept the place as a residence until he sold it to
Sir Edward Walker, whose daughter Barbara married Sir John Clopton,
descendant of the man who built the first house at the end of the
fifteenth century. Sir John pulled down the old house, rebuilt it, and
was succeeded by Sir Hugh Clopton. From him in an evil hour it passed
into the hands of a clerical Vandal, Francis Gastrell by name. He was a
wealthy man and mean, so he quarrelled with the Stratford rating
authorities, who assessed him too heavily, or so he said, for the
relief of the poor. He had already cut down the great mulberry tree in
the garden, because his privacy was disturbed by the early pilgrims to
the poet's shrine, and for this act alone his name was an offence to the
lads of Stratford, who broke his windows when opportunity afforded. But
the town had not finished with the reverend gentleman. When the
assessors refused to listen to his claim that he should not pay full
rates to Stratford because he resided for a part of the year at
Lichfield, he vowed that New Place should never be assessed again. He
pulled the place down. Boswell described the cutting down of the
mulberry tree as a piece of "Gothic barbarity," but was silent about the
other act of vandalism. The mulberry, sold for firewood, was bought by
a local clockmaker, who made solemn affidavit that the toys he made of
it were from the genuine sacred tree. When the Rev. Mr. Gastrell had
gone to where he may have met the poet, though this is unlikely, his
widow sold the remains of the estate to a Mr. Wm. Hunt, who in time sold
it to a firm of bankers. In 1827 Miss Smith purchased the site of New
Place with the adjacent house, now the museum. Mr. Edward Leyton and his
daughter, Mrs. Loggin, were the next holders, and in 1861 Mr. J. O.
Halliwell-Phillipps, an enthusiastic student of the poet's history,
established the existing Trust after raising the necessary money by
public subscription. But as far as New Place, so called, is concerned,
it must be remarked, with deference to those whom the reminder may
offend, that the Falcon Hotel, which can be seen from the house, is the
older establishment by centuries--indeed the billiard-room is panelled
with some of the old oak from the New Place that Shakespeare knew. New
Place Museum is really the house adjoining Shakespeare's, and was the
property of Thomas Nash, first husband of Elizabeth, daughter of Susanna
Hall.
Shortly after his purchase of New Place, the poet found himself in a
better position than ever for increasing his property and gratifying his
passion for real estate. Richard and Cuthbert Burbage, sons of that
James Burbage who owned "The Theatre" in which the poet is said to have
been a servitor, had built the "Globe Theatre" on Bankside. It was an
octagonal wooden building, in which Shakespeare's company was to be seen
year after year; the poet refers to it in the opening part of "Henry V."
The two brothers, from motives of prudence or generosity or both issued
twenty-one-year leases of shares in the profits of the venture.
Shakespeare had a share; so had Condell and Phillips and others of the
company; and later the poet acquired an interest in the "Blackfriar's
Theatre." Each share was proved, in the course of long subsequent
litigation, to have been worth two hundred pounds a year. Setting down
the poet's salary at a like amount, and his author's fees at about a
hundred, we find that he must have been worth nearly L4000 a year, in
our modern currency, from the time when he bought New Place to the year
of his retirement. "The Globe" was burnt down in 1613 during a
performance of "Henry VIII.," and was rebuilt a year later, but before
the disaster occurred Shakespeare's financial position had long been
assured, and it is unlikely that he held his shares when the theatre
suffered. There is a story, unauthenticated but seemingly credited by
many good judges, to the effect that at a moment when Shakespeare was
desirous of making investments either in Stratford or London, his friend
and patron Henry Wriothesley, Earl of Southampton, came very generously
to his assistance.