WILLIAM SHAKSPEARE.
The Power of Shakspeare. Meagre Early History. Doubts of his Identity.
What is known. Marries, and goes to London. "Venus" and "Lucrece."
Retirement and Death. Literary Habitudes. Variety of the Plays. Table
of Dates and Sources.
THE POWER OF SHAKSPEARE.
We have now reached, in our search for the historic teachings in English
literature, and in our consideration of the English drama, the greatest
name of all, the writer whose works illustrate our position most strongly,
and yet who, eminent type as he is of British culture in the age of
Elizabeth, was truly and pithily declared by his friend and contemporary,
Ben Jonson, to be "not for an age, but for all time." It is also
singularly true that, even in such a work as this, Shakspeare really
requires only brief notice at our hands, because he is so universally
known and read: his characters are among our familiar acquaintance; his
simple but thoughtful words are incorporated in our common conversation;
he is our every-day companion. To eulogize him to the reading public is
To gild refined gold, to paint the lily,
To lend a perfume to the violet ...
The Bible and Shakspeare have been long conjoined as the two most
necessary books in a family library; and Mrs. Cowden Clarke, the author of
the Concordance to Shakspeare, has pointedly and truthfully said: "A poor
lad, possessing no other book, might on this single one make himself a
gentleman and a scholar: a poor girl, studying no other volume, might
become a lady in heart and soul."
MEAGRE EARLY HISTORY.--It is passing strange, considering the great value
of his writings, and his present fame, that of his personal history so
little is known. In the words of Steevens, one of his most successful
commentators: "All that is known, with any degree of certainty, concerning
Shakspeare, is--that he was born at Stratford upon Avon--married and had
children there--went to London, where he commenced actor, and wrote poems
and plays--returned to Stratford, made his will, died, and was buried."
This want of knowledge is in part due to his obscure youth, during which
no one could predict what he would afterward achieve, and therefore no one
took notes of his life: to his own apparent ignorance and carelessness of
his own merits, and to the low repute in which plays, and especially
playwrights, were then held; although they were in reality making their
age illustrious in history. The pilgrim to Stratford sees the little low
house in which he is said to have been born, purchased by the nation, and
now restored into a smart cottage: within are a few meagre relics of the
poet's time; not far distant is the foundation--recently uncovered--of his
more ambitious residence in New Place, and a mulberry-tree, which probably
grew from a slip of that which he had planted with his own hand. Opposite
is the old Falcon Inn, where he made his daily potations. Very near rises,
above elms and lime-trees, the spire of the beautiful church on the bank
of the Avon, beneath the chancel of which his remains repose, with those
of his wife and daughter, overlooked by his bust, of which no one knows
the maker or the history, except that it dates from his own time. His bust
is of life-size, and was originally painted to imitate nature--eyes of
hazel, hair and beard auburn, doublet scarlet, and sleeveless gown of
black. Covered by a false taste with white paint to imitate marble, while
it destroyed identity and age: it has since been recolored from
traditional knowledge, but it is too rude to give us the expression of his
face.
The only other probable likeness is that from an old picture, an engraving
of which, by Droeshout, is found in the first folio edition of his plays,
published in 1623, seven years after his death: it was said by Ben Jonson
to be a good likeness. We are very fortunate in having these,
unsatisfactory as they are, for it is simple truth that beyond these
places and things, there is little, if anything, to illustrate the
personal history of Shakspeare. All that we can know of the man is found
in his works.
DOUBTS OF HIS IDENTITY.--This ignorance concerning him has given rise to
numerous doubts as to his literary identity, and many efforts have been
made to find other authors for his dramas. Among the most industrious in
this deposing scheme, have been Miss Delia Bacon and Mr. Nathaniel Holmes,
who concur in attributing his best plays to Francis Bacon. That Bacon did
not acknowledge his own work, they say, is because he rated the dramatic
art too far beneath his dignity to confess any complicity with it. In
short, he and other great men of that day wrote immortal works which they
were ashamed of, and were willing to father upon the common actor and
stage-manager, one William Shakspeare!
While it is not within the scope of this volume to enter into the
controversy, it is a duty to state its existence, and to express the
judgment that these efforts have been entirely unsuccessful, but have not
been without value in that they have added a little to the meagre history
by their researches, and have established the claims of Shakspeare on a
firmer foundation than before.
WHAT IS KNOWN.--William Shakspeare (spelt _Shackspeare_ in the body of his
will, but signed _Shakspeare_) was the third of eight children, and the
eldest son of John Shakspeare and Mary Arden: he was born at the beautiful
rural town of Stratford, on the little river Avon, on the 23d of April,
1564. His father, who was of yeoman rank, was probably a dealer in wool
and leather. Aubrey, a gossiping chronicler of the next generation, says
he was a butcher, and some biographers assert that he was a glover. He may
have exercised all these crafts together, but it is more to our purpose to
know that in his best estate he was a property holder and chief burgess of
the town. Shakspeare's mother seems to have been of an older family.
Neither of them could write. Shakspeare received his education at the free
grammar-school, still a well-endowed institution in the town, where he
learned the "small Latin and less Greek" accorded to him by Ben Jonson at
a later day.
There are guesses, rather than traditions, that he was, after the age of
fifteen, a student in a law-office, that he was for a time at one of the
universities, and also that he was a teacher in the grammar-school. These
are weak inventions to account for the varied learning displayed in his
dramas. His love of Nature and his power to delineate her charms were
certainly fostered by the beautiful rural surroundings of Stratford;
beyond this it is idle to seek to penetrate the obscure processes of his
youth.
MARRIES, AND GOES TO LONDON.--Finding himself one of a numerous and poor
family, to the support of which his father's business was inadequate, he
determined, to shift for himself, and to push his fortunes in the best way
he could.
Whether he regarded matrimony as one element of success we do not know,
but the preliminary bond of marriage between himself and Anne Hathaway,
was signed on the 28th of November, 1582, when he was eighteen years old.
The woman was seven years older than himself; and it is a sad commentary
on the morality of both, that his first child, Susanna, was baptized on
the 25th of May, 1583.
Strolling bands of players, in passing through England, were in the habit
of stopping at Stratford, and setting upon wheels their rude stage with
weather-stained curtains; and these, it should be observed, were the best
dramatic companies of the time, such as the queen's company, and those in
the service of noblemen like Leicester, Warwick, and others. If he did not
see he must have heard of the great pageant in 1575, when Leicester
entertained Queen Elizabeth at Kenilworth, which is so charmingly
described by Sir Walter Scott. Young Shakspeare became stage-struck, and
probably joined one of these companies, with other idle young men of the
neighborhood.
Various legends, without sufficient foundation of truth, are related of
him at this time, which indicate that he was of a frolicsome and
mischievous turn: among these is a statement that he was arraigned for
deer-poaching in the park of Sir Thomas Lucy, of Charlecote. A satirical
reference to Sir Thomas in one of his plays,[30] leads us to think that
there is some truth in the story, although certain of his biographers have
denied it.
In February, 1584-5, he became the father of twins, Hamnet and Judith, and
in 1586, leaving his wife and children at Stratford, he went up with a
theatrical company to London, where for three years he led a hard and
obscure life. He was at first a menial at the theatre; some say he held
gentlemen's horses at the door, others that he was call-boy, prompter,
scene-shifter, minor actor. At length he began to find his true vocation
in altering and adapting plays for the stage. This earlier practice, in
every capacity, was of great value to him when he began to write plays of
his own. As an actor he never rose above mediocrity. It is said that he
played such parts as the Ghost in Hamlet, and Adam in As You Like It; but
off the stage he became known for a ready wit and convivial humor.
His ready hand for any work caused him to prosper steadily, and so in
1589 we find his name the twelfth on the list of sixteen shareholders in
the Blackfriars Theatre, one of the first play-houses built in London.
That he was steadily growing in public favor, as well as in private
fortune, might be inferred from Spenser's mention of him in the "Tears of
the Muses," published in 1591, if we were sure he was the person referred
to. If he was, this is the first great commendation he had received:
The man whom nature's self had made,
To mock herself and truth to imitate,
With kindly counter under mimic shade,
Our pleasant Willie.
There is, however, a doubt whether the reference is to him, as he had
written very little as early as 1591.
VENUS AND ADONIS.--In 1593 appeared his _Venus and Adonis_, which he now
had the social position and interest to dedicate to the Earl of
Southampton. It is a harmonious and beautiful poem, but the display of
libidinous passion in the goddess, however in keeping with her character
and with the broad taste of the age, is disgusting to the refined reader,
even while he acknowledges the great power of the poet. In the same year
was built the Globe Theatre, a hexagonal wooden structure, unroofed over
the pit, but thatched over the stage and the galleries. In this, too,
Shakspeare was a shareholder.
THE RAPE OF LUCRECE.--The _Rape of Lucrece_ was published in 1594, and was
dedicated to the same nobleman, who, after the custom of the period,
became Shakspeare's patron, and showed the value of his patronage by the
gift to the poet of a thousand pounds.
Thus in making poetical versions of classical stories, which formed the
imaginative pabulum of the age, and in readapting older plays, the poet
was gaining that skill and power which were to produce his later immortal
dramas.
These, as we shall see, he began to write as early as 1589, and continued
to produce until 1612.
RETIREMENT AND DEATH.--A few words will complete his personal history: His
fortune steadily increased; in 1602 he was the principal owner of the
Globe; then, actuated by his home feeling, which had been kept alive by
annual visits to Stratford, he determined, as soon as he could, to give up
the stage, and to take up his residence there. He had purchased, in 1597,
the New Place at Stratford, but he did not fully carry out his plan until
1612, when he finally retired with ample means and in the enjoyment of an
honorable reputation. There he exercised a generous hospitality, and led a
quiet rural life. He planted a mulberry-tree, which became a pilgrim's
shrine to numerous travellers; but a ruthless successor in the ownership
of New Place, the Reverend Francis Gastrell, annoyed by the concourse of
visitors, was Vandal enough to cut it down. Such was the anger of the
people that he was obliged to leave the place, which he did after razing
the mansion to the ground. His name is held in great detestation at
Stratford now, as every traveller is told his story.
Shakspeare's death occurred on his fifty-second birthday, April 23d, 1616.
He had been ill of a fever, from which he was slowly recovering, and his
end is said to have been the result of an over-conviviality in
entertaining Drayton and Ben Jonson, who had paid him a visit at
Stratford.
His son Hamnet had died in 1596, at the age of twelve. In 1607, his
daughter Susannah had married Dr. Hall; and in 1614 died Judith, who had
married Thomas Quiney. Shakspeare's wife survived him, and died in 1623.
LITERARY HABITUDES.--Such, in brief, is the personal history of
Shakspeare: of his literary habitudes we know nothing. The exact dates of
the appearance of his plays are, in most cases, doubtful. Many of these
had been printed singly during his life, but the first complete edition
was published in folio, in 1623. It contains _thirty-six_ plays, and is
the basis of the later editions, which contain thirty-_seven_. Many
questions arise which cannot be fully answered: Did he write all the plays
contained in the volume? Are the First Part of Henry VI., Titus
Andronicus,[31] and Pericles his work? Did he not write others not found
among these? Had he, as was not uncommon then and later, collaboration in
those which bear his name? Was he a Beaumont to some Fletcher, or a
Sackville to some Norton? Upon these questions generations of Shakspearean
scholars have expended a great amount of learned inquiry ever since his
day, and not without results: it is known that many of his dramas are
founded upon old plays, as to plots; and that he availed himself of the
labor of others in casting his plays.
But the real value of his plays, the insight into human nature, the
profound philosophy, "the myriad-soul" which they display, are
Shakspeare's only. By applying just rules of evidence, we conclude that he
did write thirty-five of the plays attributed to him, and that he did not
write, or was not the chief writer of others. It is certainly very strong
testimony on these points, that seven years after his death, and _three
years before that of Bacon_, a large folio should have been published by
his professional friends Heminge and Condell, prefaced with ardent
eulogies, claiming thirty-six plays as his, and that it did not meet with
the instant and indignant cry that his claims were false. The players of
that day were an envious and carping set, and the controversy would have
been fierce from the very first, had there been just grounds for it.
VARIETY OF PLAYS.--No attempt will be made to analyze any of the plays of
Shakspeare: that is left for the private study and enjoyment of the
student, by the use of the very numerous aids furnished by commentators
and critics. It will be found often that in their great ardor, the
dramatist has been treated like the Grecian poet:
[Shakspeare's] critics bring to view
Things which [Shakspeare] never knew.
Many of the plays are based upon well-known legends and fictional tales,
some of them already adopted in old plays: thus the story of King Lear and
his daughters is found in Holinshed's Chronicle, and had been for years
represented; from this Shakspeare has borrowed the story, but has used
only a single passage. The play is intended to represent the ancient
Celtic times in Britain, eight hundred years before Christ; and such is
its power and pathos, that we care little for its glaring anachronisms and
curious errors. In Holinshed are also found the stories of Cymbeline and
Macbeth, the former supposed to have occurred during the Roman occupancy
of Britain, and the latter during the Saxon period.
With these before us, let us observe that names, chronology, geography,
costumes, and customs are as nothing in his eyes. His aim is human
philosophy: he places his living creations before us, dressing them, as it
were, in any garments most conveniently at hand. These lose their
grotesqueness as his characters speak and act. Paternal love and weakness,
met by filial ingratitude; these are the lessons and the fearful pictures
of Lear: sad as they are, the world needed them, and they have saved many
a later Lear from expulsion and storm and death, and shamed many a Goneril
and Regan, while they have strengthened the hearts of many a Cordelia
since. Chastity and constancy shine like twin stars from the forest of
Cymbeline. And what have we in Macbeth? Mad ambition parleying with the
devil, in the guise of a woman lost to all virtue save a desire to
aggrandize her husband and herself. These have a pretence of history; but
Hamlet, with hardly that pretence, stands alone supreme in varied
excellence. Ambition, murder, resistless fate, filial love, the love of
woman, revenge, the power of conscience, paternal solicitude, infinite
jest: what a volume is this!
TABLE OF DATES AND SOURCES.--The following table, which presents the plays
in chronological order,[32] the times when they were written, as nearly as
can be known, and the sources whence they were derived, will be of more
service to the student than any discursive remarks upon the several plays.
Plays. Dates. Sources.
1. Henry VI., first part 1589 Denied to Shakspeare; attributed to
Marlowe or Kyd.
2. Pericles 1590 From the "Gesta Romanorum."
3. Henry VI., second part 1591 " an older play.
4. Henry VI., third part 1591 " " " "
5. Two Gentlemen of Verona 1591 " an old tale.
6. Comedy of Errors 1592 " a comedy of Plautus.
7. Love's Labor Lost 1592 " an Italian play.
8. Richard II. 1593 " Holinshed and other
chronicles.
9. Richard III. 1593 From an old play and Sir Thomas
More's History.
10. Midsummer Night's Dream 1594 Suggested by Palamon and Arcite,
The Knight's Tale, of Chaucer.
11. Taming of the Shrew 1596 From an older play.
12. Romeo and Juliet 1596 " " old tale. Boccaccio.
13. Merchant of Venice 1597 " Gesta Romanorum, with suggestions
from Marlowe's Jew of Malta.
14. Henry IV., part 1 1597 From an old play.
15. Henry IV., part 2 1598 " " " "
16. King John 1598 " " " "
17. All's Well that Ends Well 1598 " Boccaccio.
18. Henry V. 1599 From an older play.
19. As You Like It 1600 Suggested in part by Lodge's novel,
Rosalynd.
20. Much Ado About Nothing 1600 Source unknown.
21. Hamlet 1601 From the Latin History of Scandinavia,
by Saxo, called Grammaticus.
22. Merry Wives of Windsor 1601 Said to have been suggested by
Elizabeth.
23. Twelfth Night 1601 From an old tale.
24. Troilus and Cressida 1602 Of classical origin, through Chaucer.
25. Henry VIII. 1603 From the chronicles of the day.
26. Measure for Measure 1603 " an old tale.
27. Othello 1604 " " " "
28. King Lear 1605 " Holinshed.
29. Macbeth 1606 " "
30. Julius Cæsar 1607 " Plutarch's Parallel Lives.
31. Antony and Cleopatra 1608 " " " "
32. Cymbeline 1609 " Holinshed.
33. Coriolanus 1610 " Plutarch.
34. Timon of Athens 1610 " " and other sources.
35. Winter's Tale 1611 " a novel by Greene.
36. Tempest 1612 " Italian Tale.
37. Titus Andronicus 1593 Denied to Shakspeare; probably by
Marlowe or Kyd.