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[Illustration: SHAKESPEARE THE BOY]
SHAKESPEARE THE BOY
With Sketches of
The Home and School Life
The Games and Sports, the Manners, Customs
and Folk-Lore of the Time
by
WILLIAM JAMES ROLFE, LITT.D.
[Illustration: (Publisher's colophon)]
With Forty-one Illustrations
London
Chatto & Windus
1897
Copyright, 1896, by Harper & Brothers.
All rights reserved.
PREFACE
Two years ago, at the request of the editors of the _Youth's
Companion_, I wrote for that periodical a series of four familiar
articles on the boyhood of Shakespeare. It was understood at the
time that I might afterwards expand them into a book, and this
plan is carried out in the present volume. The papers have been
carefully revised and enlarged to thrice their original compass,
and a new fifth chapter has been added.
The sources from which I have drawn my material are often mentioned
in the text and the notes. I have been particularly indebted to
Halliwell-Phillipps's _Outlines of the Life of Shakespeare_,
Knight's _Biography of Shakspere_, Furnivall's Introduction to
the "Leopold" edition of Shakespeare, his _Babees Book_, and his
edition of Harrison's _Description of England_, Sidney Lee's
_Stratford-on-Avon_, Strutt's _Sports and Pastimes_, Brand's
_Popular Antiquities_, and Dyer's _Folk-Lore of Shakespeare_.
I hope that the book may serve to give the young folk some glimpses
of rural life in England when Shakespeare was a boy, and also to
help them--and possibly their elders--to a better understanding of
many allusions in his works.
W. J. R.
CAMBRIDGE, _June 10, 1896_.
CONTENTS
PAGE
PART I.--HIS NATIVE TOWN AND NEIGHBORHOOD 1
WARWICKSHIRE 3
WARWICK CASTLE AND SAINT MARY'S CHURCH 4
WARWICK IN HISTORY 8
GUY OF WARWICK 9
KENILWORTH CASTLE 12
COVENTRY 14
CHARLECOTE HALL 19
STRATFORD-ON-AVON 24
THE EARLY HISTORY OF STRATFORD 27
THE STRATFORD GUILD 34
THE STRATFORD CORPORATION 39
THE TOPOGRAPHY OF STRATFORD 43
PART II.--HIS HOME LIFE 47
THE DWELLING-HOUSES OF THE TIME 49
THE HOUSEHOLD FURNITURE 52
FOOD AND DRINK 57
THE TRAINING OF CHILDREN 60
INDOOR AMUSEMENTS 67
POPULAR BOOKS 71
STORY-TELLING 73
CHRISTENINGS 80
SUPERSTITIONS CONNECTED WITH BIRTH AND BAPTISM 84
CHARMS AND AMULETS 87
PART III.--AT SCHOOL 93
THE STRATFORD GRAMMAR SCHOOL 95
WHAT SHAKESPEARE LEARNT AT SCHOOL 99
THE NEGLECT OF ENGLISH 106
SCHOOL LIFE IN SHAKESPEARE'S DAY 110
SCHOOL MORALS 112
SCHOOL DISCIPLINE 113
WHEN WILLIAM LEFT SCHOOL 118
PART IV.--GAMES AND SPORTS 119
BOYISH GAMES 121
SWIMMING AND FISHING 130
BEAR-BAITING 132
COCK-FIGHTING AND COCK-THROWING 136
OTHER CRUEL SPORTS 139
ARCHERY 142
HUNTING 145
FOWLING 151
HAWKING 153
THEATRICAL ENTERTAINMENTS 160
PART V.--HOLIDAYS, FESTIVALS, FAIRS, ETC. 165
SAINT GEORGE'S DAY 167
EASTER 172
THE PERAMBULATION OF THE PARISH 174
MAY-DAY AND THE MORRIS-DANCE 176
WHITSUNTIDE 184
MIDSUMMER EVE 186
CHRISTMAS 190
SHEEP-SHEARING 193
HARVEST-HOME 195
MARKETS AND FAIRS 198
RURAL OUTINGS 207
NOTES 213
INDEX 247
ILLUSTRATIONS
SHAKESPEARE THE BOY _Frontispiece_
THE SHAKESPEARE BIRTHPLACE, ABOUT 1820 3
WARWICK CASTLE 5
GATE-HOUSE OF KENILWORTH CASTLE 13
COVENTRY CHURCHES AND PAGEANT _Facing p._ 14
CHARLECOTE HALL 20
ENTRANCE TO CHARLECOTE HALL 22
SIR THOMAS LUCY 23
STRATFORD CHURCH _Facing p._ 30
STRATFORD CHURCH, WEST END 32
THE GUILD CHAPEL AND GRAMMAR SCHOOL, STRATFORD 35
MAP--PLAN OF STRATFORD 42
SHAKESPEARE HOUSE, RESTORED 49
ROOM IN WHICH SHAKESPEARE WAS BORN _Facing p._ 50
INTERIOR OF ANNE HATHAWAY'S COTTAGE " 56
OLD HOUSE IN HIGH STREET 59
ANNE HATHAWAY'S COTTAGE _Facing p._ 64
SHILLING OF EDWARD VI. 68
ANCIENT FONT AT STRATFORD 81
PORCH, STRATFORD CHURCH _Facing p._ 88
INNER COURT, GRAMMAR SCHOOL 95
THE SCHOOL-ROOM AS IT WAS 97
DESK SAID TO BE SHAKESPEARE'S 102
WALK ON THE BANKS OF THE AVON _Facing p._ 112
HIDE-AND-SEEK " 122
"MORRIS" BOARD 130
FISHING IN THE AVON _Facing p._ 132
THE BEAR GARDEN, LONDON 133
GARDEN AT NEW PLACE _Facing p._ 146
ELIZABETH HAWKING 155
BOY WITH HAWK AND HOUNDS 159
ITINERANT PLAYERS IN A COUNTRY HALL _Facing p._ 160
WILLIAM KEMP DANCING THE MORRIS 163
THE BOUNDARY ELM 167
MORRIS-DANCE _Facing p._ 178
CLOPTON HOUSE ON CHRISTMAS EVE " 190
THE FAIR " 200
INTERIOR OF GRAMMAR SCHOOL, BEFORE THE RESTORATION 225
CLOPTON MONUMENTS _Facing p._ 238
THE BAR-GATE, SOUTHAMPTON 242
ARMS OF JOHN SHAKESPEARE 251
SHAKESPEARE THE BOY
PART I
HIS NATIVE TOWN AND NEIGHBORHOOD
[Illustration: THE SHAKESPEARE BIRTHPLACE, ABOUT 1820]
WARWICKSHIRE
The county of Warwick was called the heart of England as long ago
as the time of Shakespeare. Indeed, it was his friend, Michael
Drayton, born the year before himself, who first called it so.
In his _Poly-Olbion_ (1613) Drayton refers to his native county
as "That shire which we the heart of England well may call." The
form of the expression seems to imply that it was original with
him. It was doubtless suggested by the central situation of the
county, about equidistant from the eastern, western, and southern
shores of the island; but it is no less appropriate with reference
to its historical, romantic, and poetical associations. Drayton,
whose rhymed geography in the _Poly-Olbion_ is rather prosaic and
tedious, attains a kind of genuine inspiration when, in his 13th
book, he comes to describe
"Brave Warwick that abroad so long advanced her Bear,
By her illustrious Earls renowned everywhere;
Above her neighboring shires which always bore her head."
The verse catches something of the music of the throstle and the
lark, of the woosel "with golden bill" and the nightingale with her
tender strains, as he tells of these Warwickshire birds, and of the
region with "flowery bosom brave" where they breed and warble; but
in Shakespeare the same birds sing with a finer music--more like
that to which we may still listen in the fields and woodlands along
the lazy-winding Avon.
WARWICK CASTLE AND SAINT MARY'S CHURCH.
Warwickshire is the heart of England, and the country within ten
miles or so of the town of Warwick may be called the heart of this
heart. On one side of this circle are Stratford and Shottery and
Wilmcote--the home of Shakespeare's mother--and on the other are
Kenilworth and Coventry.
In Warwick itself is the famous castle of its Earls--"that fairest
monument," as Scott calls it, "of ancient and chivalrous splendor
which yet remains uninjured by time." The earlier description
written by the veracious Dugdale almost two hundred and fifty years
ago might be applied to it to-day. It is still "not only a place
of great strength, but extraordinary delight; with most pleasant
gardens, walls, and thickets such as this part of England can
hardly parallel; so that now it is the most princely seat that is
within the midland parts of this realm."
[Illustration: WARWICK CASTLE]
The castle was old in Shakespeare's day. Cæsar's Tower, so called,
though not built, as tradition alleged, by the mighty Julius, dated
back to an unknown period; and Guy's Tower, named in honor of the
redoubted Guy of Warwick, the hero of many legendary exploits, was
built in 1394. No doubt the general appearance of the buildings
was more ancient in the sixteenth century than it is to-day, for
they had been allowed to become somewhat dilapidated; and it
was not until the reign of James I. that they were repaired and
embellished, at enormous expense, and made the stately fortress
and mansion that Dugdale describes.
But the castle would be no less beautiful for situation, though it
were fallen to ruin like the neighboring Kenilworth. The rock on
which it stands, washed at its base by the Avon, would still be
there, the park would still stretch its woods and glades along the
river, and all the natural attractions of the noble estate would
remain.
We cannot doubt that the youthful Shakespeare was familiar with the
locality. Warwick and Kenilworth were probably the only baronial
castles he had seen before he went to London; and, whatever others
he may have seen later in life, these must have continued to be his
ideal castles as in his boyhood.
It is not likely that he was ever in Scotland, and when he
described the castle of Macbeth the picture in his mind's eye was
doubtless Warwick or Kenilworth, and more likely the former than
the latter; for
"_This_ castle hath a pleasant seat; the air
Nimbly and sweetly recommends itself
Unto our gentle senses. This guest of summer,
The temple-haunting martlet, does approve,
By his loved mansionry, that the air
Smells wooingly here; no jutty, frieze,
Buttress, nor coign of vantage, but this bird
Hath made his pendent bed and procreant cradle.
Where they most breed and haunt I have observed
The air is delicate."
Saint Mary's church at Warwick was also standing then--the most
interesting church in Warwickshire next to Holy Trinity at
Stratford. It was burned in 1694, but the beautiful choir and the
magnificent lady chapel, or Beauchamp Chapel, fortunately escaped
the flames, and we see them to-day as Shakespeare doubtless saw
them, except for the monuments that have since been added. _He_
saw in the choir the splendid tomb of Thomas Beauchamp, Earl of
Warwick, and in the adjacent chapel the grander tomb of Richard
Beauchamp, unsurpassed in the kingdom except by that of Henry VII.
in Westminster Abbey. _He_ looked, as we do, on the full-length
figure of the Earl, recumbent in armor of gilded brass, under the
herse of brass hoops also gilt; his hands elevated in prayer, the
garter on his left knee, the swan at his head, the griffin and
bear at his feet. _He_ read, as we read, in the inscription on the
cornice of the sepulchre, how this "most worshipful knight decessed
full christenly the last day of April the year of oure Lord God
1439, he being at that time lieutenant general and governor of the
realm of Fraunce," and how his body was brought to Warwick, and
"laid with full solemn exequies in a fair chest made of stone in
this church" on the 4th day of October--"honoured be God therefor."
And the young Shakespeare looked up, as we do, at the exquisitely
carved stone ceiling, and at the great east window, which still
contains the original glass, now almost four and a half centuries
old, with the portrait of Earl Richard kneeling in armor with
upraised hands.
The tomb of "the noble Impe, Robert of Dudley," who died in 1584,
with the lovely figure of a child seven or eight years old, may
have been seen by Shakespeare when he returned to Stratford in his
latter years, and also the splendid monument of the father of the
"noble imp," Robert Dudley, the great Earl of Leicester, who died
in 1588; but in the poet's youth this famous nobleman was living in
the height of his renown and prosperity at the castle of Kenilworth
five miles away, which we will visit later.
WARWICK IN HISTORY.
Only brief reference can be made here to the important part that
Warwick, or its famous Earl, Richard Neville, the "King-maker,"
played in the English history on which Shakespeare founded several
dramas,--the three Parts of _Henry VI._ and _Richard III._ He is
the most conspicuous personage of those troublous times. He had
already distinguished himself by deeds of bravery in the Scottish
wars, before his marriage with Anne, daughter and heiress of
Richard Beauchamp, made him the most powerful nobleman in the
kingdom. By this alliance he acquired the vast estates of the
Warwick family, and became Earl of Warwick, with the right to hand
down the title to his descendants. The immense revenues from his
patrimony were augmented by the income he derived from his various
high offices in the state; but his wealth was scattered with a
royal liberality. It is said that he daily fed thirty thousand
people at his numerous mansions.
The Lady Anne of _Richard III._, whom the hero of the play wooes in
such novel fashion, was the youngest daughter of the King-maker,
born at Warwick Castle in 1452. Richard says, in his soliloquy at
the end of the first scene of the play:--
"I'll marry Warwick's youngest daughter.
What though I kill'd her husband and her father?"
Her husband was Edward, Prince of Wales, son of Henry VI., and was
slain at the battle of Tewkesbury.
The Earl of Warwick who figures in _2 Henry IV._ was the Richard
Beauchamp already mentioned as the father of Anne who became the
wife of the King-maker. He appears again in the play of _Henry V._,
and also in the first scene of _Henry VI._, though he has nothing
to say; and, as some believe, he (and not his son) is the Earl of
Warwick in the rest of the play, in spite of certain historical
difficulties which that theory involves. In _2 Henry IV._ (iii. 1.
66) Shakespeare makes the mistake of calling him "Nevil" instead of
Beauchamp.
The title of the Warwick earls became extinct with the death of the
King-maker on the battle-field of Barnet. It was then bestowed on
George, Duke of Clarence, who was drowned in the butt of wine by
order of his loving brother Richard. It then passed to the young
son of Clarence, who is another character in the play of _Richard
III._ He, like his unfortunate father, was long imprisoned in the
Tower, and ultimately murdered there after the farce of a trial on
account of his alleged complicity in a plot against Henry VII. The
subsequent vicissitudes of the earldom do not appear in the pages
of Shakespeare, and we will not refer to them here.
GUY OF WARWICK.
The dramatist was evidently familiar with the legendary renown of
Warwick as well as its authentic history. Doubtless he had heard
the story of the famous Guy of Warwick in his boyhood; and later
he probably visited "Guy's Cliff," on the edge of the town of
Warwick, where the hero is said to have spent the closing years of
his life. Learned antiquarians, in these latter days, have proved
that his adventures are mythical, but the common people believe
in him as of old. There is his "cave" in the side of the "cliff"
on the bank of the Avon, and his gigantic statue in the so-called
chapel; and can we not see his sword, shield, and breastplate, his
helmet and walking-staff, in the great hall of Warwick Castle? The
breastplate alone weighs more than fifty pounds, and who but the
mighty Guy could have worn it? There too is his porridge-pot of
metal, holding more than a hundred gallons, and the flesh-fork to
match. We may likewise see a rib and other remains of the famous
"dun cow," which he slew after the beast had long been the terror
of the country round about. Unbelieving scientists doubt the bovine
origin of these interesting relics, to be sure, as they doubt the
existence of the stalwart destroyer of the animal; but the vulgar
faith in them is not to be shaken.
Of Guy's many exploits the most noted was his conflict with a
gigantic Saracen, Colbrand by name, who was fighting with the Danes
against Athelstan in the tenth century, and was slain by Guy, as
the old ballad narrates. Subsequently Guy went on a pilgrimage
to the Holy Land, leaving his wife in charge of his castle.
Years passed, and he did not return. Meanwhile his lady lived an
exemplary life, and from time to time bestowed her alms on a poor
pilgrim who had made his appearance at a secluded cell by the Avon,
not far from the castle. She may sometimes have talked with him
about her husband, whom she now gave up as lost, assuming that he
had perished by the fever of the East or the sword of the infidel.
At last she received a summons to visit the aged pilgrim on his
death-bed, when, to her astonishment, he revealed himself as the
long-lost Guy. In his early days, when he was wooing the lady,
she had refused to give him her hand unless he performed certain
deeds of prowess. These had not been accomplished without sins that
weighed upon his conscience during his absence in Palestine; and
he had made a vow to lead a monastic life after his return to his
native land.
The legend, like others of the kind, was repeated in varied forms;
and, according to one of these, when Guy came back to Warwick he
begged alms at the gate of his castle. His wife did not recognize
him, and he took this as a sign that the wrath of Heaven was not
yet appeased. Thereupon he withdrew to the cell in the cliff, and
did not make himself known to his wife until he was at the point of
death.
Shakespeare refers to Guy in _Henry VIII._ (v. 4. 22), where a
man exclaims, "I am not Samson, nor Sir Guy, nor Colbrand"; and
Colbrand is mentioned again in _King John_ (i. 1. 225) as "Colbrand
the giant, that same mighty man."
The scene of Guy's legendary retreat on the bank of the Avon is
a charming spot, and there was certainly a hermitage here at a
very early period. Richard Beauchamp founded a chantry for two
priests in 1422, and left directions in his will for rebuilding the
chapel and setting up the statue of Guy in it. At the dissolution
of the monasteries in the time of Henry VIII. the chapel and its
possessions were bestowed upon a gentleman named Flammock, and
the place has been a private residence ever since, though the
present mansion was not built until the beginning of the eighteenth
century. There is an ancient mill on the Avon not far from the
house, commanding a beautiful view of the river and the cliff. The
celebrated actress, Mrs. Siddons, lived for some time at Guy's
Cliff as waiting-maid to Lady Mary Greatheed, whose husband built
the mansion.
KENILWORTH CASTLE.
But we must now go on to Kenilworth, though we cannot linger long
within its dilapidated walls, majestic even in ruin. If, as Scott
says, Warwick is the finest example of its kind yet uninjured by
time and kept up as a noble residence, Kenilworth is the most
stupendous of similar structures that have fallen to decay. It
was ancient in Shakespeare's day, having been originally built
at the end of the eleventh century. Two hundred years later, in
1266, it was held for six months by the rebellious barons against
Henry III. After having passed through sundry hands and undergone
divers vicissitudes of fortune, it was given by Elizabeth to Robert
Dudley, Earl of Leicester, who spent, in enlarging and adorning
it, the enormous sum of £60,000--three hundred thousand dollars,
equivalent to at least two millions now. Scott, in his novel of
_Kenilworth_, describes it, with no exaggeration of romance--for
exaggeration would hardly be possible--as it was then. Its very
gate-house, still standing complete, was, as Scott says, "equal
in extent and superior in architecture to the baronial castle
of many a northern chief"; but this was the mere portal of the
majestic structure, enclosing seven acres with its walls, equally
impregnable as a fortress and magnificent as a palace.
[Illustration: GATE-HOUSE OF KENILWORTH CASTLE]
There were great doings at this castle of Kenilworth in 1575, when
Shakespeare was eleven years old, and the good people from all the
country roundabout thronged to see them. Then it was that Queen
Elizabeth was entertained by Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester,
and from July 9th to July 27th there was a succession of holiday
pageants in the most sumptuous and elaborate style of the time.
Master Robert Laneham, whose accuracy as a chronicler is not to be
doubted, though he may have been, as Scott calls him, "as great a
coxcomb as ever blotted paper," mentions, as a proof of the earl's
hospitality, that "the clock bell rang not a note all the while
her highness was there; the clock stood also still withal; the
hands stood firm and fast, always pointing at two o'clock," the
hour of banquet! The quantity of beer drunk on the occasion was 320
hogsheads, and the total expense of the entertainments is said to
have been £1000 ($5000) a day.
John Shakespeare, as a well-to-do citizen of Stratford, would
be likely to see something of that stately show, and it is not
improbable that he took his son William with him. The description
in the _Midsummer-Night's Dream_ (ii. 1. 150) of
"a mermaid on a dolphin's back
Uttering such dulcet and harmonious sounds
That the rude sea grew civil at her song,"
appears to be a reminiscence of certain features of the Kenilworth
pageant. The minstrel Arion figured there, on a dolphin's back,
singing of course; and Triton, in the likeness of a mermaid,
commanded the waves to be still; and among the fireworks there were
shooting-stars that fell into the water, like the stars that, as
Oberon adds,
"shot madly from their spheres
To hear the sea-maid's music."
When Shakespeare was writing that early play, with its scenes in
fairy-land, what more natural than that this youthful visit to what
must then have seemed veritable fairy-land should recur to his
memory and blend with the creations of his fancy?
COVENTRY.
The road from Warwick to Kenilworth is one of the loveliest in
England; and that from Kenilworth five miles further on to
Coventry is acknowledged to be _the_ most beautiful in the kingdom;
yet it is only a different kind of beauty from the other, as that
is from the beauty of the road between Warwick and Stratford.
[Illustration: COVENTRY CHURCHES AND PAGEANT]
Till you reach Kenilworth you have all the varieties of charming
rural scenery--hill and dale, field and forest, river-bank and
village, hall and castle and church, grouping themselves in
ever-changing pictures of beauty and grandeur; and now you come to
a straight road for nearly five miles, bordered on both sides by
a double line of stately elms and sycamores, as impressive in its
regularity as the preceding stretch had been in its kaleidoscopic
mutations.
This magnificent avenue with its over-arching foliage brings us to
Coventry, no mean city in our day, but retaining only a remnant of
its ancient glory. In the time of Shakespeare it was the third city
in the realm--the "Prince's Chamber," as it was called--unrivalled
in the splendor of its monastic institutions, "full of associations
of regal state and chivalry and high events."
In 1397 it had been the scene of the famous hostile meeting between
Henry Bolingbroke, Duke of Hereford (afterwards Henry IV.), and
Thomas Mowbray, Duke of Norfolk, which Shakespeare has immortalized
in _Richard II._ Later Henry IV. held more than one parliament
here; and the city was often visited and honored with many marks of
favor by Henry VI. and his queen, as also by Richard III., Henry
VII., Elizabeth, and James I.
Coventry, moreover, played an important part in the history
of the English Drama. It was renowned for the religious plays
performed by the Grey Friars of its great monastery, and kept
up, though with diminished pomp, even after the dissolution of
their establishment. It was not until 1580 that these pageants
were entirely suppressed; and Shakespeare, who was then sixteen
years old, may have been an eye-witness of the latest of them. No
doubt he heard stories of their attractions in former times, when,
as we are told by Dugdale, they were "acted with mighty state
and reverence by the friars of this house, had theatres for the
several scenes, very large and high, placed upon wheels, and drawn
to all the eminent parts of the city for the better advantage of
spectators; and contained the story of the New Testament composed
into old English rhyme." There were forty-three of these ancient
plays, performed by the monks until, as Tennyson puts it,
"Bluff Harry broke into the spence,
And turned the cowls adrift."
When the boy Shakespeare saw them--if he did see them--they were
played by the different guilds, or associations of tradespeople.
Thus the Nativity and the Offering of the Magi, with the Flight
into Egypt and the Slaughter of the Innocents, were rendered by
the company of Shearmen and Tailors; the Smiths' pageant was the
Crucifixion; that of the Cappers was the Resurrection; and so on.
The account-books of the guilds are still extant, with charges for
helmets for Herod and gear for his wife, for a beard for Judas and
the rope to hang him, etc. In the accounts of the Drapers, whose
pageant was the Last Judgment, we find outlays for a "link to set
the world on fire," "the barrel for the earthquake," and kindred
stage "properties."
In the books of the Smiths or Armorers, some of the charges are as
follows:--
"_Item_, paid for v. schepskens for gods cote and for makyng,
iii_s._
_Item_, paid for mendyng of Herods hed and a myter and other
thyngs, ii_s._
_Item_, paid for dressyng of the devells hede, viii_d._
_Item_, paid for a pair of gloves for god, ii_d._"
The most elaborate and costly of the properties was "Hell-Mouth,"
which was used in several plays, but specially in the representation
of the Last Judgment. This was a huge and grotesque head of canvas,
with vast gaping mouth armed with fangs and vomiting flames. The
jaws were made to open and shut, and through them the Devil made his
entrance and the lost souls their exit. The making and repairing of
this was a constant expense, and frequent entries like the following
occur in the books of the guilds:--
"Paide for making and painting hell mouth, xii_d._
Paid for keping of fyer at hell mouthe, iiii_d._"
Many curious details of the actors' dresses have come down to us.
The representative of Christ wore a coat of white leather, painted
and gilded, and a gilt wig. King Herod wore a mask and a helmet,
sometimes of iron, adorned with gold and silver foil, and bore a
sword and a sceptre. He was a very important character, and the
manner in which he blustered and raged about the stage became
proverbial. In _Hamlet_ (iii. 2. 16) we have the expression, "It
out-herods Herod"; and in the _Merry Wives of Windsor_ (ii. 1. 20),
"What a Herod of Jewry is this!"
All the actors were paid for their services, the amount varying
with the importance of the part. The same actor, as in the
theatres of Shakespeare's day, often played several parts. In
addition to the payment of money, there was a plentiful supply
of refreshments, especially of ale, for the actors. Pilate, who
received the highest pay of the company, was moreover allowed wine
instead of ale during the performance.
Reference has been made above to the "lost souls" in connection
with Hell-Mouth. There were also "saved souls," who were dressed in
white, as the lost were in black, or black and yellow. There is an
allusion to the latter in _Henry V._ (ii. 3. 43), where the flea on
Bardolph's rubicund nose is compared to "a black soul burning in
hell-fire."
The Devil wore a dress of black leather, with a mask, and carried
a club, with which he laid about him vigorously. His clothes were
often covered with feathers or horsehair, to give him a shaggy
appearance; and the traditional horns, tail, and cloven feet were
sometimes added.
The regular time for these religious pageants was Corpus Christi
Day, or the Thursday after Trinity Sunday, but they were
occasionally performed on other days, especially at the time of
a royal visit to Coventry, like that of Queen Margaret in 1455.
Prince Edward was thus greeted in 1474, Prince Arthur in 1498,
Henry VIII. in 1510, and Queen Elizabeth in 1565.
Shakespeare has other allusions to these old plays besides those
here mentioned, showing that he knew them by report if he had not
seen them.
Historical pageants, not Biblical in subject, were also familiar to
the good people of Coventry a century at least before the dramatist
was born. "The Nine Worthies," which he has burlesqued in _Love's
Labour's Lost_, was acted there before Henry VI. and his queen
in 1455. The original text of the play has been preserved, and
portions of Shakespeare's travesty seem almost like a parody of it.
But we must not linger in the shadow of the "three tall spires"
of Coventry, nor make more than a brief allusion to the legend of
Godiva, the lady who rode naked through the town to save the people
from a burdensome tax. It was an old story in Shakespeare's time,
if, indeed, it had not been dramatized, like other chapters in
the mythic annals of the venerable city. It has been proved to be
without historical foundation, being mentioned by no writer before
the fourteenth century, though the Earl who figures in the tale
lived in the latter part of the eleventh century. The Benedictine
Priory in Coventry, of which some fragments still remain, is said
to have been founded by him in 1043. He died in 1057, and both he
and his lady were buried in the porch of the monastery.
The effigy of "Peeping Tom" is still to be seen in the upper part
of a house at the corner of Hertford Street in Coventry.
Shakespeare makes no reference to this story of Lady Godiva, though
it was probably well known to him.
CHARLECOTE HALL.
Returning to Warwick, and travelling eight miles on the other
side of the town, we come to Stratford. By one of the two roads
we may take we pass Charlecote Hall and Park, associated with the
tradition of Shakespeare's deer-poaching--a fine old mansion, seen
across a breadth of fields dotted with tall elms.
[Illustration: CHARLECOTE HALL]
The winding Avon skirts the enclosure to the west. The house, which
has been in the possession of the Lucy family ever since the days
of Shakespeare, stands at the water's edge. It has been enlarged in
recent times, but the original structure has undergone no material
change. It was begun in 1558, the year when Elizabeth came to the
throne, and was probably finished in 1559. It took the place of
a much older mansion of which no trace remains, the ancestors of
Sir Thomas Lucy having then held the estate for more than five
centuries. The ground plan of the house is in the form of a capital
letter E, being so arranged as a compliment to the Virgin Queen;
and only one out of many such tributes paid her by noble builders
of the time. Over the main door are the royal arms, with the
letters E. R., together with the initials of the owner, T. L.
Within there is little to remind one of the olden time, but some
of the furniture of the library,--chairs, couch, and cabinet of
coromandel-wood inlaid with ivory,--is said to have been presented
by Elizabeth to Leicester in 1575, and to have been brought from
Kenilworth in the seventeenth century. There is a modern bust of
Shakespeare in the hall.
The tradition that the dramatist in his youth was guilty of
deer-stealing in Sir Thomas's park is not improbable. Some critics
have endeavored to prove that there was no deer-park at Charlecote
at that time; but Lucy had other estates in the neighborhood,
on some of which he employed game-keepers, and in March, 1585,
about the date of the alleged poaching, he introduced a bill into
Parliament for the better preservation of game.
The strongest argument in favor of the tradition is to be based on
the evidence furnished by the plays that Shakespeare had a grudge
against Sir Thomas, and caricatured him as Justice Shallow in
_Henry IV._ and _The Merry Wives of Windsor_. The reference in the
latter play to the "dozen white luces" on Shallow's coat of arms is
palpably meant to suggest the three luces, or pikes, in the arms of
the Lucys. The manner in which the dialogue dwells on the device
indicates that some personal satire was intended.
It should be understood that poaching was then regarded, except
by the victims of it, as a venial offence. Sir Philip Sidney's
May Lady calls deer-stealing "a prettie service." The students
at Oxford were the most notorious poachers in the kingdom, in
spite of laws making expulsion from the university the penalty
of detection. Dr. Forman relates how two students in 1573 (one of
whom afterwards became Bishop of Worcester) were more given to
such pursuits than to study; and one good man lamented in later
life that he had missed the advantages that others had derived
from these exploits, which he believed to be an excellent kind of
discipline for young men.
[Illustration: ENTRANCE TO CHARLECOTE HALL]
We must not assume that Sir Thomas was fairly represented in the
character of Justice Shallow. On the contrary, he appears to have
been an able man and magistrate, and very genial withal. The
Stratford records bear frequent testimony to his judicial services;
and his attendance on such occasions is generally coupled with
a charge for claret and sack or similar beverages. It is rather
amusing that these entries occur even when he is sitting in
judgment on tipplers. In the records for 1558 we read: "Paid for
wine and sugar when Sir Thomas Lucy sat in commission for tipplers,
xx _d._"
[Illustration: SIR THOMAS LUCY]
That he was a good husband we may infer from the long epitaph of
his wife in Charlecote Church, which, after stating that she died
in 1595, at the age of 63, goes on thus: "all the time of her life
a true and faithful servant of her good God; never detected of any
crime or vice; in religion most sound; in love to her husband most
faithful and true; in friendship most constant; to what in trust
was committed to her most secret; in wisdom excelling; in governing
of her house and bringing up of youth in the fear of God that did
converse with her, most rare and singular; a great maintainer of
hospitality; greatly esteemed of her betters, misliked of none
unless of the envious. When all is spoken that can be said, a woman
so furnished and garnished with virtue as not to be bettered, and
hardly to be equalled by any. As she lived most virtuously, so she
died most godly. Set down by him that best did know what hath been
written to be true, _Thomas Lucy_."
The author of this beautiful tribute may have been a severe
magistrate, but he could not have been a Robert Shallow either in
his official capacity or as a man.
STRATFORD-ON-AVON.
Stratford lies on a gentle slope declining to the Avon, whose banks
are here shaded by venerable willows, which the poet may have had
in mind when he painted the scene of poor Ophelia's death:--
"There is a willow grows aslant a brook,
That shows his hoar leaves in the glassy stream."
The description could have been written only by one who had
observed the reflection of the white underside of the willow-leaves
in the water over which they hung. And I cannot help believing
that Shakespeare was mindful of the Avon when in far-away London
he wrote that singularly musical simile of the river in one of his
earliest plays, _The Two Gentlemen of Verona_, so aptly does it
give the characteristics of the Warwickshire stream:
"The current that with gentle murmur glides,
Thou know'st, being stopp'd, impatiently doth rage;
But when his fair course is not hindered,
He makes sweet music with the enamell'd stones,
Giving a gentle kiss to every sedge
He overtaketh in his pilgrimage;
And so by many winding nooks he strays,
With willing sport, to the wild ocean.
Then let me go, and hinder not my course:
I'll be as patient as a gentle stream,
And make a pastime of each weary step,
Till the last step have brought me to my love;
And there I'll rest, as, after much turmoil,
A blessed soul doth in Elysium."
The river cannot now be materially different from what it was three
hundred years ago, but the town has changed a good deal. I fear
that we might not have enjoyed a visit to it in that olden time as
we do in these latter days.
It is not pleasant to learn that the poet's father was fined
for maintaining a _sterquinarium_, which being translated from
the Latin is _dung-heap_, in front of his house in Henley
Street--now, like the other Stratford streets, kept as clean
as any cottage-floor in the town--and we have ample evidence
that the general sanitary condition of the place was very bad.
John Shakespeare would probably not have been fined if his
_sterquinarium_ had been behind his house instead of before it.
Stratford, however, was no worse in this respect than other
English towns. The terrible plagues that devastated the entire
land in those "good old times" were the natural result of the
unwholesome habits of life everywhere prevailing--_everywhere_,
for the mansions of noblemen and the palaces of kings were as
filthy as the hovels of peasants. The rushes with which royal
presence-chamber and banquet-hall were strewn in place of carpets
were not changed until they had become too unsavory for endurance.
Meanwhile disagreeable odors were overcome by burning perfumes--of
which practice we have a hint in _Much Ado About Nothing_ in the
reference to "smoking a musty room."
But away from these musty rooms of great men's houses, and the
foul streets and lanes of towns, field and forest and river-bank
were as clean and sweet as now. The banished Duke in _As You Like
It_ may have had other reasons than he gives for preferring life
in the Forest of Arden to that of the court from which he had been
driven; and Shakespeare's delight in out-of-door life may have been
intensified by his experience of the house in Henley Street, with
the reeking pile of filth at the front door.
His poetry is everywhere full of the beauty and fragrance of the
flowers that bloom in and about Stratford; and the wonderful
accuracy of his allusions to them--their colors, their habits,
their time of blossoming, everything concerning them--shows how
thoroughly at home he was with them, how intensely he loved and
studied them.
Mr. J. R. Wise, in his _Shakespeare, His Birthplace and its
Neighbourhood_, says: "Take up what play you will, and you will
find glimpses of the scenery round Stratford. His maidens ever
sing of 'blue-veined violets,' and 'daisies pied,' and 'pansies
that are for thoughts,' and 'ladies'-smocks all silver-white,'
that still stud the meadows of the Avon.... I do not think it is
any exaggeration to say that nowhere are meadows so full of beauty
as those round Stratford. I have seen them by the riverside in
early spring burnished with gold; and then later, a little before
hay-harvest, chased with orchises, and blue and white milkwort,
and yellow rattle-grass, and tall moon-daisies: and I know nowhere
woodlands so sweet as those round Stratford, filled with the soft
green light made by the budding leaves, and paved with the golden
ore of primroses, and their banks veined with violets. All this,
and the tenderness that such beauty gives, you find in the pages
of Shakespeare; and it is not too much to say that he painted them
because they were ever associated in his mind with all that he held
precious and dear, both of the earliest and the latest scenes of
his life."
THE EARLY HISTORY OF STRATFORD.
Stratford is a very ancient town. Its name shows that it was
situated at a _ford_ on the Roman _street_, or highway, from London
to Birmingham; but whether it was an inhabited place during the
Roman occupation is uncertain. The earliest known reference to the
town is in a charter dated A.D. 691, according to which Egwin, the
Bishop of Worcester, obtained from Ethelred, King of Mercia, "the
monastery of Stratford," with lands of about three thousand acres,
in exchange for a religious house built by the bishop at Fladbury.
It is not improbable that Stratford owes its foundation to this
monastic settlement. Tradition says that the monastery stood where
the church now is; and, as elsewhere in England, the first houses
of the town were probably erected for its servants and dependants.
These dwellings were doubtless near the river, in the street that
has been known for centuries as "Old Town."
The district continued to be a manor of the Bishop of Worcester
until after the Norman Conquest in 1066. According to the Domesday
survey in 1085, its territory was "fourteen and a half hides," or
about two thousand acres. It was of smaller extent than in 691,
because the neighboring villages had become separate manors. The
inhabitants were a priest, who doubtless officiated in the chapel
of the old monastery (of which we find no mention after the year
872), with twenty-one villeins and seven _bordarii_, or cottagers.
The families of these residents would make up a population of
about one hundred and fifty. "Every householder, whether villein
or cottager, evidently possessed a plough. The community owned
altogether thirty-one ploughs, of which three belonged to the
bishop, the lord of the manor." The agricultural produce was
chiefly wheat, barley, and oats. A water-mill stood by the river,
probably where the old mill now is; and there the villagers were
obliged to grind all their corn, paying a fee for the privilege.
In 1085 the annual income from the mill was ten shillings, but the
bishop was often willing to accept eels in payment of the fees, and
a thousand eels were then sent yearly to Worcester by the people
who used the mill.
During the 12th century Stratford appears to have made little
progress. Alveston, now a small village on the other side of the
Avon, seemed likely then to rival it in prosperity. The boundaries
of the Alveston manor were gradually extended until they reached
their present limit on the south side of the bridge at Stratford
(at that time a rude wooden structure), and there a little colony
was planted which was known until after the Elizabethan period as
Bridgetown.
We get an idea of the life led by the majority of the inhabitants
of Stratford and its vicinity in the 12th and 13th centuries from
the ecclesiastical records of the various services and payments
rendered as rent. Many of the large estates outside of the town
had been let as "knight's fees," that is, on condition of certain
military services to be performed by the holders. Some of the
villeins within the village had become "free tenants," or free
from serfdom, and were permitted to cultivate their land as they
pleased on payment of a fixed rental in money, with little or no
labor service in addition. But most of the inhabitants were still
villeins or cottagers, from whom labor service was regularly
exacted. "Villeins who owned sixty acres had to supply two men
for reaping the lord's fields, and cottagers with thirty acres
supplied one. On a special day an additional reaping service was
to be performed by villeins and cottagers with all their families
except their wives and shepherds. Each of the free tenants had then
also to find a reaper, and to direct the reaping himself.... The
villein was to provide two carts for the conveyance of the corn to
the barns, and every cottager who owned a horse provided one cart,
for the use of which he was to receive a good morning meal of bread
and cheese. One day's hoeing was expected of the villein and three
days' ploughing, and if an additional day were called for, food
was supplied free to the workers.... No villein nor cottager was
allowed to bring up his child for the church without permission of
the lord of the manor. A fee had to be paid when a daughter of a
villein or cottager was married. On his death his best wagon was
claimed by the steward in his lord's behalf, and a fine of money
was exacted from his successor--if, as the record wisely adds, he
could pay one. Any townsman who made beer for sale paid for the
privilege."
In 1197 the inhabitants obtained for the town from Richard I. the
privilege of a weekly market, to be holden on Thursdays, for which
the citizens paid the bishop a yearly toll of sixteen shillings.
The market was doubtless held at first in the open space still
known as the Rother Market, in the centre of which the Memorial
Fountain, the gift of Mr. George W. Childs of Philadelphia, now
stands. _Rother_ is an old word, of Anglo-Saxon origin, applied
to cattle, which must have been a staple commodity in the early
Stratford market. The term was familiar to Shakespeare, who uses it
in _Timon of Athens_ (iv. 3. 12):--
"It is the pasture lards the rother's sides,
The want that makes him lean."
In the course of the 11th century Stratford was also endowed with
a series of annual fairs, "the chief stimulants of trade in the
middle ages." The earliest of these fairs was granted by the Bishop
of Worcester in 1216, to begin "on the eve of the Holy Trinity,
and to continue for the next two days ensuing." In 1224 a fair was
established for the eve of St. Augustine (May 26th) "and on the day
and morrow after"; in 1242, for the eve of the Exaltation of the
Holy Cross (September 14th), "the day, and two days following"; and
in 1271, "for the eve of the Ascension of our Lord, commonly called
Holy Thursday, and upon the day and morrow following." Early in
the next century (1313) another fair was instituted, to begin on
the eve of St. Peter and St. Paul (June 29th) and to be held for
fifteen days.
[Illustration: STRATFORD CHURCH]
Trinity Sunday was doubtless chosen for the opening of the first
of these fairs because the parish church was dedicated to the
Holy Trinity, and a festival in commemoration of the dedication
of the church was celebrated on that Sunday by a "wake," which
attracted many people from the neighboring villages. "There
was nothing exceptional in a Sunday of specially sacred character
being turned to commercial uses. In most medieval towns, moreover,
traders exposed their wares at fair-time in the churchyard, and
chaffering and bargaining were conducted in the church itself."
Attempts were made by the ecclesiastical authorities to restrain
these practices, but they continued until the Reformation.
At the close of the 13th century the prosperity of Stratford was
assured. Alveston had then ceased to be a dangerous rival. The
town was more and more profitable to the Bishops of Worcester, who
interested themselves in promoting its welfare. It appears also
that Bishop Gifford had a park here; for on the 3d of May, 1280,
he sent his injunctions to the deans of Stratford and the adjacent
towns "solemnly to excommunicate all those that had broke his park
and stole his deer."
In the 14th century the condition of the Stratford folk materially
improved. Villeinage gradually disappeared in the reign of Edward
III. (1327-1377), and those who had been subject to it became
free tenants, paying definite rents for house and land. Three
natives of the town, who, after the fashion of the time, took their
surnames from the place of their birth, rose to high positions in
the Church, one becoming Archbishop of Canterbury, and the others
respectively Bishops of London and Chichester. John of Stratford
and Robert of Stratford were brothers, and Ralph of Stratford was
their nephew. John and Robert were both for a time Chancellors of
England, and there is no other instance of two brothers attaining
that high office in succession.
[Illustration: STRATFORD CHURCH, WEST END]
All three had a great affection for their native town, and did
much to promote its welfare. Robert, while holding the living
of Stratford, took measures for the paving of some of the main
streets. John enlarged the parish church, rebuilding portions of
it, and founded a chantry with five priests to perform masses for
the souls of the founder and his friends. Later he purchased the
patronage of Stratford from the Bishop of Worcester, and gave it to
his chantry priests, who thus came into full control of the parish
church. Ralph, in 1351, built for the chantry priests "a house of
square stone for the habitation of these priests, adjoining to
the churchyard." This building, afterwards known as the College,
remained in possession of the priests until 1546, when Henry VIII.
included it in the dissolution of monastic establishments. After
passing through various hands as a private residence, it was
finally taken down in 1799.
Other inhabitants of Stratford followed the example set by John
and Ralph in their benefactions to the church. Dr. Thomas Bursall,
warden of the College in the time of Edward IV., added "a fair and
beautiful choir, rebuilt from the ground at his own cost"--the
choir which is still the most beautiful portion of the venerable
edifice, and in which Shakespeare lies buried.
The only important alteration in the church since Shakespeare's
day was the erection of the present spire in 1764, to replace a
wooden one covered with lead and about forty feet high, which had
been taken down a year before. The tower is the oldest part of the
church as it now exists, and was probably built before the year
1200. It is eighty feet high, to which the spire adds eighty-three
feet more.
The last of the early benefactors of Stratford was Sir Hugh
Clopton, who came from the neighboring village of Clopton about
1480. A few years later he built "a pretty house of brick and
timber wherein he lived in his latter days." This was the mansion
afterwards known as New Place, which in 1597 became the property of
William Shakespeare, and was his residence after he returned to
his native town about 1611 or 1612.
Sir Hugh also built "the great bridge upon the Avon, at the east
end of the town," constructed of freestone, with fourteen arches,
and a "long causeway" of stone, "well walled on each side." ...
Before this time, as Leland the antiquarian wrote about 1530,
"there was but a poor bridge of timber, and no causeway to come to
it, whereby many poor folk either refused to come to Stratford when
the river was up, or coming thither stood in jeopardy of life."
This bridge, though often repaired, is to this day a monument to
Sir Hugh's public spirit.
THE STRATFORD GUILD.
In the latter part of the 13th century an institution attained a
position and influence in Stratford which were destined to deprive
the Bishops of Worcester of their authority in the government of
the town. This was the Guild of the Holy Cross, the Blessed Virgin,
and St. John the Baptist, as it was then called. The triple name
has suggested that it was formed by the union of three separate
guilds, but of this no historical evidence has been discovered.
This guild, like other of these ancient societies, had a religious
origin, being "collected for the love of God and our souls' need";
but relief of the poor and of its own indigent members was also a
part of its functions.
The "craft-guilds," formed by people engaged in a single trade or
occupation, were a different class of societies, though in many
instances offshoots from the religious guilds, and often, as in
London, surviving the decay of the parent institution.
[Illustration: THE GUILD CHAPEL AND GRAMMAR SCHOOL, STRATFORD]
Members of both sexes were admitted to the Stratford Guild, as
to others of its class, on payment of a small annual fee. "This
primarily secured for them the performance of certain religious
rites, which were more valued than life itself. While the members
lived, but more especially after their death, lighted tapers were
duly distributed in their behalf, before the altars of the Virgin
and of their patron saints in the parish church. A poor man in
the Middle Ages found it very difficult, without the intervention
of the guilds, to keep this road to salvation always open. Gifts
were frequently awarded to members anxious to make pilgrimages to
Canterbury, and at times the spinster members received dowries
from the association. The regulation which compelled the members
to attend the funeral of any of their fellows united them among
themselves in close bonds of intimacy."
The social spirit was fostered yet more by a great annual meeting,
at which all members were expected to be present in special
uniform. They marched with banners flying in procession to church,
and afterwards sat down together to a generous feast.
Though of religious origin the guilds were strictly lay
associations. In many towns priests were excluded from membership;
if admitted, they had no more authority or influence than laymen.
Priests were employed to perform the religious services of the
guild, for which they were duly paid; but the fraternities were
governed by their own elected officers--wardens, aldermen, beadles,
and clerks--and a council of their representatives controlled their
property and looked after their rights.
When the Stratford Guild was founded it is impossible to determine.
"Its beginning," as its chief officers wrote in 1389, "was from
time whereunto the memory of man reacheth not." Records preserved
in the town prove that it was in existence early in the 13th
century, and that bequests were then made to it. The Bishops of
Worcester encouraged such gifts, and apparently managed that some
of the revenues of the Guild should be devoted to ecclesiastical
purposes outside its own regular uses. Before the time of Edward
I. the society was rich in houses and lands; and in 1353, as its
records show, it owned a house in almost every street in Stratford.
In 1296 the elder Robert of Stratford, father of John and Robert
(p. 31), laid the foundation of a special chapel for the Guild,
and also of adjacent almshouses. These doubtless stood where the
present chapel, Guildhall, and other fraternity buildings now are.
In 1332 Edward III. gave the Guild a charter confirming its
right to all its property and to the full control of its own
affairs. In 1389 Richard II. sent out commissioners to report
upon the ordinances of the guilds throughout England, and the
report for Stratford is still extant. It shows what a good work
the society was doing for the relief of the poor and for the
promotion of fraternal relations among its members. Regulations
for the government of the Guild by two wardens or aldermen and
six others indicate the progress of the town in the direction of
self-government. An association which had come to include all the
substantial householders naturally acquired much jurisdiction
in civil affairs. Its members referred their disputes with one
another to its council; and the aldermen gradually became the
administrators of the municipal police. The College priests were
very jealous of the Guild's increasing influence, and when the
society resisted the payment of tithes they brought a lawsuit to
compel the fulfilment of this ancient obligation; but in all other
respects the Guild appears to have been independent of external
control.
A curious feature of the conditions of membership in the 15th
century was that the souls of the dead could be admitted to its
spiritual privileges on payment of the regular fees by the living.
Early in the century six dead children of John Whittington of
Stratford were allowed this benefit for the sum of ten shillings.
The fame of the institution in its palmy days spread far beyond
the limits of Stratford, and attracted not a few men of the
highest rank and reputation. George, Duke of Clarence, brother of
Edward IV., and his wife, were enrolled among its members, with
Edward Lord Warwick and Margaret, two of their children; and the
distinguished judge, Sir Thomas Lyttleton, received the same honor.
Few towns or villages of Warwickshire were without representation
in it, and merchants joined it from places as far away as Bristol
and Peterborough.
To us, however, the most remarkable fact in the history of the
Guild is the establishment of the Grammar School for the children
of its members. The date of its foundation has been usually given
as 1453, but it is now known to have been in existence before
that time. Attendance was free, and the master, who was paid ten
pounds a year by the Guild, was forbidden to take anything from the
pupils. In this school, as we shall see later, William Shakespeare
was educated, and we shall become better acquainted with it when we
follow the boy thither.
The Guild Chapel, with the exception of the chancel, which had been
renovated about 1450, was taken down and rebuilt in the closing
years of the century by Sir Hugh Clopton (see page 34 above), who
was a prominent member of the fraternity. The work was not finished
until after his death in September, 1496, but the expense of its
completion was provided for in his will.
THE STRATFORD CORPORATION.
The Guild was dissolved by Henry VIII. in 1547, and its possessions
remained as crown property until 1553. For seven years the town
had been without any responsible government. Meanwhile the
leading citizens--the old officers of the Guild--had petitioned
Edward VI. to restore that society as a municipal corporation. He
granted their prayer, and by a charter dated June 7, 1553, put
the government of the town in the hands of its inhabitants. The
estates, revenues, and chattels of the Guild were made over to the
corporation, which, as the heir and successor of the venerable
fraternity, adopted the main features of its organization. The
names and functions of its chief officers were but slightly
changed. The warden became the bailiff, and the proctors were
called chamberlains, but aldermen, clerk, and beadle resumed
their old titles. The common council continued to meet monthly
in the Guildhall; but it now included, besides the bailiff and
ten aldermen, the ten chief burgesses, and its authority covered
the whole town. The fraternal sentiment of the ancient society
survived; it being ordered "that none of the aldermen nor none
of the capital burgesses, neither in the council chamber nor
elsewhere, do revile one another, but brother-like live together,
and that after they be entered into the council chamber, that they
nor none of them depart not forth but in brotherly love, under
the pains of every offender to forfeit and pay for every default,
vj_s._ viij_d._" When any councillor or his wife died, all were to
attend the funeral "in their honest apparel, and bring the corpse
to the church, there to continue and abide devoutly until the
corpse be buried."
The Grammar School and the chapel and almshouses of the Guild
became public institutions. The bailiff became a magistrate who
presided at a monthly court for the recovery of small debts, and
at the higher semi-annual _leets_, or court-leets, to which all
the inhabitants were summoned to revise and enforce the police
regulations. Shakespeare alludes to these leets in _The Taming of
the Shrew_ (ind. 2. 89) where the servant tells Kit Sly that he has
been talking in his sleep:--
"Yet would you say ye were beaten out of door,
And rail upon the mistress of the house,
And say you would present her at the leet
Because she brought stone jugs and no seal'd quarts."
And Iago (_Othello_, iii. 3. 140) refers to "leets and law-days."
Prices of bread and beer were fixed by the council, and ale-tasters
were annually appointed to see that the orders concerning the
quality and price of malt liquors and bread were enforced.
Shakespeare's father was an ale-taster in 1557, and about the same
time was received into the corporation as a burgess. In 1561 he
was elected as one of the two chamberlains; in 1565 he became an
alderman; and in 1568 he was chosen bailiff, the highest official
position in the town.
The rule of the council was of a very paternal character. "If
a man lived immorally he was summoned to the Guildhall, and
rigorously examined as to the truth of the rumors that had reached
the bailiff's ear. If his guilt was proved, and he refused to
make adequate reparation, he was invited to leave the town. Rude
endeavors were made to sweeten the tempers of scolding wives.
A substantial 'ducking-stool,' with iron staples, lock, and
hinges, was kept in good repair. The shrew was attached to it, and
by means of ropes, planks, and wheels was plunged two or three
times into the Avon whenever the municipal council believed her
to stand in need of correction. Three days and three nights were
invariably spent in the open stocks by any inhabitant who spoke
disrespectfully to any town officer, or who disobeyed any minor
municipal decree. No one might receive a stranger into his house
without the bailiff's permission. No journeyman, apprentice, or
servant might 'be forth of their or his master's house' after nine
o'clock at night. Bowling-alleys and butts were provided by the
council, but were only to be used at stated times. An alderman was
fined on one occasion for going to bowls after a morning meeting of
the council, and Henry Sydnall was fined twenty pence for keeping
unlawful or unlicensed bowling in a back shed. Alehouse-keepers,
of whom there were thirty in Shakespeare's time, were kept
strictly under the council's control. They were not allowed to
brew their own ale, or to encourage tippling, or to serve poor
artificers except at stated hours of the day, on pain of fine and
imprisonment. Dogs were not to go about the streets unmuzzled.
Every inhabitant had to go to church at least once a month, and
absences were liable to penalties of twenty pounds, which in the
late years of Elizabeth's reign commissioners came from London to
see that the local authorities enforced. Early in the 17th century
swearing was rigorously prohibited. Laws as to dress were regularly
enforced. In 1577 there were many fines exacted for failure to
wear the plain statute woollen caps on Sundays, to which Rosaline
makes allusion in _Love's Labour's Lost_ (v. 2. 281); and the
regulation affected all inhabitants above six years of age. In
1604 'the greatest part' of the inhabitants were presented at a
great leet, or law-day, 'for wearing their apparel contrary to the
statute.' Nor would it be difficult to quote many other like proofs
of the persistent strictness with which the new town council of
Stratford, by the enforcement of its own order and the statutes of
the realm, regulated the inhabitants' whole conduct of life."
[Illustration: PLAN of STRATFORD _On Avon_]
THE TOPOGRAPHY OF STRATFORD.
No map of Stratford made before the middle of the 18th century
is known to exist. The one here given in fac-simile was executed
about the year 1768, and, as Mr. Halliwell-Phillipps tells us, "it
clearly appears from the local records that there had then been
no material alteration in either the form or the extent of the
town since the days of Elizabeth. It may therefore be accepted
as a reliable guide to the locality as it existed in the poet's
own time, when the number of inhabited houses, exclusive of mere
hovels, could not have much exceeded five hundred."
The following is a copy of the references which are appended
to the original map: "1. Moor Town's End;--2. Henley Lane;--3.
Rother Market;--4. Henley Street;--5. Meer Pool Lane;--6. Wood
Street;--7. Ely Street or Swine Street;--8. Scholar's Lane alias
Tinker's Lane;--9. Bull Lane;--10. Street call'd Old Town;--11.
Church Street;--12. Chapel Street;--13. High Street;--14. Market
Cross;--15. Town Hall;--16. Place where died Shakespeare;--17.
Chapel, Public Schools, &c.;--18. House where was Shakespeare
born;--19. Back Bridge Street;--20. Fore Bridge Street;--21. Sheep
Street;--22. Chapel Lane;--23. Buildings call'd Water Side;--24.
Southam's Lane;--25. Dissenting Meeting;--26. White Lion."
Moor Town's End (1) is now Greenhill Street. The Town Hall (15)
did not exist in Shakespeare's time, having been first erected
in 1633, taken down in 1767, and rebuilt the following year. The
"Place where died Shakespeare" (16) was New Place, the home of
his later years. The "Dissenting Meeting" or Meeting-house (25)
was built long after the poet's day. The "White Lion" (26) was
also post-Shakespearian, the chief inns in the 16th century being
the Swan, the Bear, and the Crown, all in Bridge Street. The Mill
and Mill Bridge (built in 1590) are indicated on the river at the
left-hand lower corner of the map; and the stone bridge, erected by
Sir Hugh Clopton about 1500, is just outside the right-hand lower
corner.
The only important change in the streets since the map was made is
the removal of the row of small shops and stalls, known as Middle
Row, between Fore Bridge Street (20); and Back Bridge Street (19);
thus making the broad avenue now called Bridge Street.
The "Market Cross" (14) was "a stone monument covered by a low
tiled shed, round which were benches for the accommodation of
listeners to the sermons which, as at St. Paul's Cross in London,
were sometimes preached there." Later a room was added above, and
a clock above that. The open space about the Cross was the chief
market-place of the town. Near by was a pump, at which housewives
were frequently to be seen "washing of clothes" and hanging them on
the cross to dry, and butchers sometimes hung meat there; but these
practices were forbidden by the town council in 1608. The stocks,
pillory, and whipping-post were in the same locality.
There was also a stone cross in the Rother Market (3), and near the
Guild Chapel (17) was a second pump, which was removed by order
of the council in 1595. The field on the river, near the foot of
Chapel Lane (22), was known as the Bank-croft, or Bancroft, where
drovers and farmers of the town were allowed to take their cattle
to pasture for an hour daily. "All horses, geldings, mares, swine,
geese, ducks, and other cattle," according to the regulation
established by the council, if found there in violation of this
restriction, were put by the beadle into the "pinfold," or pound,
which was not far off. This Bancroft, as it is still called, is now
part of the beautiful little park on the river-bank, adjacent to
the grounds of the Shakespeare Memorial.
Chapel Lane, which bounded one side of the New Place estate,
was one of the filthiest thoroughfares of the town, the general
sanitary condition of which (see page 25 above) was bad enough. A
streamlet ran through it, the water of which turned a mill, alluded
to in town records of that period. This water-course gradually
became "a shallow fetid ditch, an open receptacle of sewage and
filth." It continued to be a nuisance for at least two centuries
more. A letter written in 1807, in connection with a lawsuit, gives
some interesting reminiscences of it. "I very well remember," says
the writer, "the ditch you mention forty-five years, as after my
sister was married, which was in October, 1760, I was very often
at Stratford, and was very well acquainted both with the ditch and
the road in question;--the ditch went from the Chapel, and extended
to Smith's house;--I well remember there was a space of two or
three feet from the wall in a descent to the ditch, and I do not
think any part of the new wall was built on the ditch;--the ditch
was the receptacle for all manner of filth that any person chose
to put there, and was very obnoxious at times;--Mr. Hunt used to
complain of it, and was determined to get it covered over, or he
would do it at his own expense, and I do not know whether he did
or not;--across, the road from the ditch to Shakespeare Garden was
very hollow and always full of mud, which is now covered over, and
in general there was only one wagon tract along the lane, which
used to be very bad, in the winter particularly;--I do not know
that the ditch was so deep as to overturn a carriage, and the
road was very little used near it, unless it was to turn out for
another, as there was always room enough." Thomas Cox, a carpenter,
who lived in Chapel Lane from 1774, remembered that the open
gutter from the Chapel to Smith's cottage "was a wide dirty ditch
choked with mud, that all the filth of that part of the town ran
into it, that it was four or five feet wide and more than a foot
deep, and that the road sloped down to the ditch." According to
other witnesses, the ditch extended to the end of the lane, where,
between the roadway and the Bancroft, was a narrow creek or ditch
through which the overflow from Chapel Lane no doubt found a way
into the river.
Mr. Halliwell-Phillipps believes that the fever which proved fatal
to Shakespeare was caused by the "wretched sanitary conditions
surrounding his residence"--an explanation of it which would never
have occurred even to medical men in that day.