sunken wrack and sumless treasures.' There is no need, therefore, of enlargement, by any one, on a theme so trite as the unparalleled excellency of the genius of 'The applause, delight, and wonder of our stage.' In the general verdict of all modern critics we may safely concur. The intellectual supremacy of Shakespeare may now be granted to be unquestionable. The ages have carried his venture safely 'adown the fretful tide of circumstance,' even to our days; and the more we examine the wealth of poetry with which it is freighted, the more astounded we become at the niggardly pittance of biographical material regarding our imperial benefactor the records of his time afford us. 'We as little feel the power of identifying the young man who came up from Stratford, and was afterwards an indifferent player in a London theatre, and retired to his native place in middle life, with the author of Macbeth and Lear, as we can give a distinct historic personality to Homer.' Hallam, perhaps, in this sentence underrates the worth, for comprehending the outward life of Shakespeare, of the traditions which Rowe digested into a narrative; the ingenious inferences and acute guesses of Steevens, Malone, and Knight, concerning dates and facts; and the results of the laborious researches of Halliwell, Collier, Dyce, and Singer, into the history of the drama, in the musty records of the Elizabethan period, and among the byeways of the literature of the stage. For we must confess that our curiosity, by its yearning for a complete, delightful, life-like picture, causes much of its own disappointment, and by its straining after impossibilities makes us forget the true uses of the information we possess. It would, undoubtedly, be satisfying, if not gratifying, were we able to behold, in a clear consecutive memoir, 'Our Shakespeare,' as Milton fondly calls him, in his habit as he lived.' The story of his early struggles, hopes, fears, and ultimate success; of his poetic aspirations, efforts, and shy toying with the muses, and then of his bold bearding of the public critics in verse, and his dashing claim for notice on the stage; of his private crosses, annoyances, and griefs; his social talk and home enjoyments, his businesses, labours, and triumphs, his mode of taking the vicissitudes of life, and of meeting the emergencies of public and private change; and the narrative of the method he pursued in study, in building up those magnificent creations of his out of the airy nothings of fancy, and in daily contact with his neighbours, friends, and fellowplaywrights, would certainly be full of interest. We should like to note his progress at school, his habits as a young man, the The Moral Character of Shakespeare. 21 the manner in which he conducted himself when he would a-wooing go,' how Henley-street regarded him, in what way he lived while writing for and acting at the 'Globe,' on the Bankside, and with what humours he disported himself in his 'wit combats' at the Mermaid. Other and graver curiosities assail us too-with what eyes did he look on life, time, religion, and eternity? Did he hold a faith which regulated the pulses of his heart and the impulses of his nature? Did he live worthy of the vocation whereunto he was called, in all the relations of life, as a genius, a man, and a Christian? So grows the insatiable appetite, that, to find food for itself, curiosity would give itself to restless questioning, and ever as a reply was given it would reiterate the ceaseless cry of the daughters of the horseleech-give! give! We cannot hope to satiate this cormorant greed by any revelations of new facts, but we may, by calling attention to the reperusal of the facts of which we are already the possessors, show that they tell more than we have hitherto learned from them-if we do so, as we desire, 'in the modesty of fearful duty.' The times are now astir with Shakespeare's name. A great national festival is even now approaching the day of celebration, by which the meditations of men must be bent upon the character of our chief dramatist. We purpose, therefore, to set forth the facts of Shakespeare's life in such a form as shall enable us to offer some specific opinions concerning his moral character, such as it may be beneficial at this season to impress upon the minds of those who cannot themselves pursue to their sources the scattered and fragmentary materials out of which the ordinary memoirs of 'the Swan of Avon' are prepared. These sources are, as we have said, exceedingly scanty. A great deal of the trustworthiness of any memoir elaborated from such meagre elements must depend upon the manner in which these are arranged, the criticism employed to test their authenticity, and the consistency of all the inferences deduced from them, with all the statements accepted as available and reliable. Hitherto the biography of Shakespeare has been a clueless maze, because no specific order has been observed in combining the facts which, when duly arranged, constitute all that we have to form the groundwork of a story. Yet a distinguished critic in the Quarterly Review' (James Hannay, author of 'Singleton Fontenoy,' Satire and Satirists,' &c.), July, 1859, has said that there is much more known than has yet been wisely used even about Shakespeare, who still waits the man that is to distil from the gathered lore of the antiquaries the precious ointment of critical biography.' In this paper we purpose supplying a chronological arrange ment ment of the materials at hand (which singularly enough has never yet been done), noting the various items which each witness adds to our store; and we shall thereafter endeavour to infer what manner of man he was in life and labours, of whom these various accounts are handed down to us. In so doing we shall learn more of the man, his position and his influence, than would be possible in a more formal and digested memoir. The early history of every man is involved in his parentage, connections, education, and surroundings. The registers of Stratford inform us that William Shakespeare, son of John Shakespeare, was baptized April 26th, 1564. By tradition and inference the 23rd of April is assigned as his birthday, and a house in Henley-street, now in possession of the nation, is believed to have been his birth-place. His father was a burgess of the corporation, and graduated through all the municipal offices-as the Stratford records show from ale-taster to alderman, between 1557 and 1572. In the former year, probably, he married Mary Arden, 'daughter and one of the heirs of Robert Arden, of Wilmcote, at which time he possessed two copyhold estates, viz., a house, garden, and croft, in Greenhill-street, and a house and garden in Henley-street. Three years after the latter date he bought two other houses in Henley-street. During this period John Shakespeare was in thriving circumstances, was reckoned a safe accountant, and a man of good business capacity and habits. In the early part of his career he was engaged in the different businesses of a woolstapler, which then included Graziers, Butchers, Tanners, Sheepmasters, Woodmen, &c.,' and as a small rural capitalist seems to have prospered fairly for a time-for the frequency with which notices of his suing and being sued appear in the registry of the Court of Record, may be held to prove that he had an active and extensive business, in which, of course, disputes would arise and difficulties would occur. Certain facts have been brought together from which it is generally inferred that John Shakespeare began about this time to fall into disfavour with fortune. In 1578 he and his wife mortgaged the estate of Ashbies for 401.; in 1579 they sold their immediate interest in some property in Snitterfield for 41., and in 1580 their reversionary interest for 401.; about 1577, John Shakespeare became irregular in his attendance at the councils of the corporation, was exempted from payment of a tax of fourpence a week for the poor in 1578, and was named among the defaulters in an account of money levied in 1579 for the purchase of armour and defensive weapons; at the The Moral Character of Shakespeare. 23 the same time we know he was indebted to Roger Sadler 51.; in Jan., 1586, he had no possessions in Stratford' that were able to be distrained;' in the same year he was deprived of his alderman's gown, because he dothe not come to the Halles when warned * * * * nor hathe not done of longe tyme.' Such are the chief items of the proofs of the decadence of the Shakespeare family. We think they are susceptible of another interpretation. Are they not, in fact, explained by the very indenture' of the Snitterfield sale, in which we read of John Shakespeare, of Stratford-upon-Avon, in the Countye of Warwicke, yoman, and Mareye his wyeffe;' and by the fact that he was summoned as a juryman to the Court of Record, in May, 1586? John Shakespeare had become a 'yeoman,' a probus et legalis homo, at the head of the classes below a gentleman, and as a juryman, possessed of a 401. freehold at least. He had devoted himself to his extraburghal pursuits, had forsaken the town, and had comparatively lost his interest in it. The very toleration extended to him as an alderman is proof of the desire of the Stratfordians to conciliate him, and of the consideration in which he was held; for they kept his name on the roll, though he had only made seven appearances in the council in ten years. As every alderman who absented himself was liable to fine, our argument is strengthened materially; for either Shakespeare could afford to pay the 'merciament,' or the corporation waived the charge in deference to his position and character, as making him an acquisition to the council. This interpretation, too, harmonizes with the testimony to his ambition implied in Dethick's defence of himself, in 1597, the truth of which commentators had doubted, because it so ill agreed with the (supposed) circumstances of the applicant, that this John [Shakespeare] hath a patierne thereof [i.e., of the blazon of the arms he claimed as a gentleman,], under Clarence Cooke's hand in paper XX yere's past [i.e., in 1577.] A justice of peace, and was baylife, officer, and cheffe of the town of Stratford upon-Avon XV or XVI yeres past. That he hath lands and tenementes of good wealth and substance, 500l.' &c. Add to these facts this other, that John Shakespeare neither mortgaged nor parted with his Henley-street properties, which descended by inheritance to his illustrious son.. We believe, then, that we may safely state that the boyhood of William Shakespeare was spent in the midst of active business matters-cared for morally by his mother, and looked after as to conduct and school-progress by his father, in comfort and plenty, in a family honoured not only for their position in the town, but for themselves. The Royal Grammar School School of Stratford-upon-Avon supplied free education for boys, provided that the boy be seven years old, able to read, and resident in the town.' As the school was specially connected with the corporation, and John Shakespeare was in 1571 the chief alderman of the borough, it has been inferred that his son was educated there, and all the probabilities combine to make us give the deduction credence. For six or seven years, therefore, we may suppose that he was receiving the best education the town afforded, and was engaged in the school-lads' ordinary tasks and sports. Here what the scholarly Jonson, trained under Camden at Westminster, called his little Latin and less Greek' were gained, and the pith of his mind was expended on the acquisition of the enriching lore of ancient literature. When his father began to devote himself more exclusively to husbandry-as we assume he didShakespeare, as a capable lad, would naturally be withdrawn from school to help the money-making father. In this office he doubtlessly acquired the careful, thrifty, business habits we know he afterwards showed. Here the handsome and spirited lad pursued his course upwards, and acquired a reputation among the people of his own rank for talent and vivacity. He was sought as company, and he sought company, especially the company of one who taught him the essence of all true poetry, who made him a sonneteer, and led him to say 'O know, sweet love, I always write of you, So is my love still telling what is told.'-'Sonnet,' 76. This was Anne Hathaway, the daughter of a substantial yeoman,' to whom, after the fashion of his time, he was betrothed in the summer of 1582, his father being then both yeoman and alderman. To her he was married some time after the 28th November of that same year, as we infer from the bond preserved in the Worcester registry, given on the occasion of the intended marriage, 'that if hereafter there shall not appear any lawfull lett or impediment, by reason of any pre-contract, consanguinity, or affinity, or by any other lawfull means whatsoever,' these two 'may lawfully solemnize matrimony together,' which bears the marks of two neighbours of the bride's, Fulco Sandells and John Rychardson, of Shottery. The entry of the actual solemnization of these nuptials has not been found; but the registry of Stratford-upon-Avon contains among its baptisms, May 26th, 1583, Susanna, daughter to Wm. Shakspere,' and 'Feb. 2, 1584-5, Hamnet and Judeth, sonne and daughter to Wm. Shakspere.' Before |