names of nine men23 subjoined,-with a memorandum opposite to them, "It is sayd that these laste nine coom not to churche for feare of processe for debtte," 24—the name of "Mr. John Shackespere" stands third. Hence it certainly would seem that dislike of the established worship was not the cause of his absenting himself from church:25 and we must recollect, too, that, as a member of the Corporation he had taken the customary oath.— In concluding this account of his embarrassments, it is proper to mention that they were never so extreme as to compel him to part with the freehold houses (or house26) in Henley-street.27 In 1597, John and Mary Shakespeare filed a bill in Chancery, for the recovery of the estate of Ashbies, against John Lambert, son of the Edmund Lambert, to whom in 1578 they had mortgaged that property for forty pounds on the condition that it should revert to them, if they repaid the money on or before Michaelmasday 1580. They alleged that the money in discharge had been tendered to Edmund Lambert, who had re 23 Followed by the names of six women. 24 In the original copies of the presentments at Warwick Castle, the memorandum runs thus, "Wee suspect theese nyne persons next ensuinge absent themselves for feare of prosses." 25 Mr. Collier (Life of Shakespeare, p. cxxxix.) thinks that he could not have been arrested on a Sunday; but the words of the document are express to the contrary. 26 See note 17, p. vi. 27 In Jan. 1596-7 he made over to George Badger a small piece of ground-"a narrow slip extending the whole length between Henleystreet and the Guild Pits" (see Halliwell's Life of Shakespeare, p. 33, folio ed.): but he would seem to have parted with it merely to accommodate his neighbour Badger. fused to receive it unless other moneys which they confessed they owed him were also paid: and it was only to be expected that they should contrast the palmy state of the defendant with their own less fortunate condi tion,-"the sayde John Lamberte ys of greate wealthe and abilitie and well frended and alied amongest gentlemen and freeholders of the countrey in the saide countie of Warwicke where he dwelleth, and your saide oratours are of small wealthe and verey fewe frends and alyance in the saide countie." In his answer to this bill John Lambert denied that the money had been tendered, and maintained that by his father's death he had become legally possessed of the estate. His answer drew forth a replication from the complainants, in which they reiterated their former statements. How the business ended is not known: perhaps it was settled by some private arrangement, for no decree in the case has been discovered.-That John Shakespeare and his wife should have attempted to carry on so expensive a law-suit without pecuniary assistance from their son the dramatist is altogether unlikely he was then in the receipt of a considerable income; and perhaps it was solely by his advice that the proceedings were instituted. In the Heralds' College are two drafts of an intended grant of arms by Dethick to John Shakespeare, dated 1596,28 and a draft of another grant by Dethick 28 If we could rely on a note at the bottom of one of the drafts of 1596, we must believe that long before that date John Shakespeare had been in communication with the heralds: "This John hath a patierne therof [i. e. a trick of the arms] under Clarenc Cookes hand in paper and Camden, dated 1599; the second grant,-the one which was actually made,-authorizing him to impale with his own bearings those of Arden.-The mention made in these documents of the ancestors of John Shakespeare having been advanced and rewarded for their services by King Henry the Seventh is not a little perplexing: we find no memorial of any honours or rewards bestowed by that monarch on any person named Shakespeare. Are we, therefore, to refer the expressions, not to the ancestors of John Shakespeare, but to those of his wife? or must we regard them as mere flourishes of the heralds, by whom applicants were sometimes furnished with ancestors as well as with coatarmour?-In all probability John Shakespeare sought this distinction at the instance of his son William, whose profession of actor prohibited him from directly soliciting it for himself: and we certainly need not doubt that before 1599 the prosperity of the son had secured the father, during the remainder of his days, against any recurrence of those difficulties which had so long beset him. According to Rowe, John and Mary Shakespeare had "ten children in all;"29 but no more than eight 30 are xx. years past.' But the said note is no more borne out by facts than the other notes which accompany it: and some have not scrupled to assert that these notes originated with Dethick, when he wished to clear himself from the charge of having granted arms improperly, and to John Shakespeare among others. 29 • Life of Shakespeare. 30 See before, p. v. known from the Stratford registers, which give the dates of their baptisms in the following order: Joan, Sept. 15th, 1558; Margaret, Dec. 2d, 1562; William, April 26th, 1564; Gilbert, Oct. 13th, 1566; Joan, April 15th, 1569; Anne, Sept. 28th, 1571; Richard, March 11th, 1573-4; Edmund, May 3d, 1580.—The first Joan must have died an infant, though the entry of her burial has not been discovered in the register. Margaret and Anne were cut off immaturely the former was buried April 30th, 1563, the latter April 4th, 1579. Gilbert, the second Joan, Richard, and Edmund, will afterwards be mentioned in the course of this memoir. The baptism of William Shakespeare at Stratfordupon-Avon is thus recorded in the register, “1564, April 26, Gulielmus filius Johannes [sic] but the day on which he first saw the light cannot be exactly fixed. If we trust a faint tradition 30 that he died on the anniversary of his birth, we are to believe 30 Oldys's Ms. Notes on Langbaine.-The inscription on Shakespeare's monument is "Obiit anno Domini 1616, Etatis 53, die 23 Ap.”—It seems unreasonable to question the constant tradition that he was born in the house in Henley-street, to which such crowds have flocked, like pilgrims to a shrine. But alas for the "Shakesperian relics," which are (or at least, when I visited the house, were) exhibited there to all "curious travellers"! They consist of a card-and-dice box, with a pincushion on its top, presented to him by the Prince of Castile; a Toledo ; an iron box which enclosed his will; a table-cloth of black velvet, embroidered with gold, the gift of Queen Elizabeth; his wife's shoe; a drinking-glass, made for him in his sickness; a table on which he wrote his works, &c.-"The most probable supposition is, that John Shakespeare lived in the birth-place during the whole of his residence in Stratford, first as tenant, and afterwards as owner; there being no reason for that he was born on the 23d of the month; nor is the interval which this supposes between his birth and baptism inconsistent with the custom of the time. When he was only a few weeks old, the plague (which had been making great havoc in London) broke out in his native town; but though it raged there during several months with fatal violence, not a single individual of the name of Shakespeare appears to have become its victim. The fact of his father's being a member of the Corporation sufficiently confirms Rowe's statement that he was sent to the Free-school at Stratford; 31 where the successive masters from 1572 to 1578,-the period during which we may assume that Shakespeare attended it, were Thomas Hunt and Thomas Jenkins.—What was the extent of our poet's "learning" is a question. which has given rise to much discussion, some of it not a little foolish. In opposition to those critics,— Gildon, Upton, &c.,-who asserted the wide erudition of Shakespeare, Farmer has incontrovertibly shown that, while composing several of his dramas, he had recourse to North's Plutarch, and to other vernacular books, instead of consulting the ancient authors in the ori believing that he ever inhabited any one of his copyhold tenements, which were, in all probability, houses of a very inferior description." Halliwell's Life of Shakespeare, p. 32, folio ed. That in January 1596-7 John Shakespeare was inhabiting what Mr. Halliwell emphatically calls the birth-place, we learn from the deed of conveyance by which he made over to George Badger the small piece of ground already mentioned: see note 27, p. ix. 1 Life of Shakespeare. |