homage of mankind to the great poet of nature." His visit is still spoken of with interest in Stratford.

In this room there is a plaster cast of the bust in the monument, which may be studied with advantage, as the other is too high for close inspection. The place now looks bald and dingy, but we have no doubt it wore an air of taste and comfort in the sixteenth century, when it would be hung with the painted cloths then common.

We associate this place with the dawn of genius, with its strange and mysterious longings ere it take shape and know itself. In this homely abode the genial boy lived, and dreamt of the great unknown world which he longed to see, and yet play a part in it, at a time when he knew not what a great destiny was before him, and how many pilgrims in after days would visit the place of his birth, to requite in some sort with sympathy the immense benefits he has conferred on man by his immortal writings.

*Sketch-Book, "Stratford-on-Avon."

CHAPTER III.

GRAMMAR SCHOOL AND GUILD HALL.

Tile-roofed staircase-Grammar School above and Guild Hall below-The Guild, when founded-Thomas Jolyffe founds the school-Suppression of the Guild by Henry VIII.-Charter of Edward VI.-Plays in the Guild Hall-A rage then for dramatic entertainments-Explanation of story about killing a calf.

KEEPING to the order of time, the next place of interest connected with Shakespeare, after his birth-place, is the school at which he was educated. The Grammar School is an old and not very pretentious building. Entering the inner court, we mount by a stair to the school-rooms. The ascent in Shakespeare's time was by an external staircase, roofed with tile, which remained unaltered until recently. The ancient schoolroom was subsequently divided into two, and a modern plaster ceiling put below the old oak roof of the sixteenth century. It has nothing of its former antique appearance at present. An antediluvian desk, now removed, was absurdly enough shown as Shakespeare's, but nothing whatever is known regarding its age. The Guild Hall occupies the ground floor of the building, and was formerly undivided. It was used for a long period as Town Hall, a small chamber here being the place of deposit for the Corporation records, manuscripts, &c. The Guild, to which this building and the adjoining chapel belonged, was an association partly

for civil and partly for religious objects. In 1296, during the reign of Edward I., Robert de Stratford obtained permission of Godfrey Gifford, bishop of Worcester, to found an hospital and erect a chapel, for the use of the brethren and sisters of the fraternity. They received a patent from Henry IV. for the extension of the association, which was to be in honour of the Holy Cross and of John the Baptist. This patent, which was afterwards confirmed by Henry VI., empowered the society to elect eight aldermen of their number, who should choose a master and two proctors to manage their lands and revenues. In 1482, Thomas Jolyffe, a priest and member of the Guild, granted lands and tenements in Stratford and Dodwell to the association for founding a free school. This formed the commencement of the Grammar School. At the general dissolution of monastic institutions, which took place under Henry VIII., the revenues of the Guild in that wholesale confiscation fell to the Crown. There were at that time four priests belonging to it, who drew stipends of £5, 6s. 8d. each; and a clerk who had a salary of £10 a-year as schoolmaster. This alienation of the property by Henry VIII. did not continue long ; for in 1553, during the reign of his son, Edward VI., the revenues which had belonged to the Guild were granted by that excellent prince to the Corporation of the town. The royal charter for the incorporation of the inhabitants, then given, provides that a portion of these revenues should go to the support of a free grammar school, for the instruction and education of boys and youths. As Shakespeare's education has been

fully spoken of already,* it is unnecessary to refer to the subject again. It is worthy of note, however, that in the Guild Hall we doubt not he received a kind of education which was as important in its way as the Latin and Greek he learnt in the ancient room above. Here those dramatic performances took place before the mayor, the aldermen, and the common council, to which we referred above.t No doubt Shakespeare in his youth had been a frequent spectator of these plays, and had caught his earliest inspiration from them. There was something infectious in the atmosphere of the time, from which he caught the contagion. Never, either before or since, has there been such a rage for dramatic entertainments as was then. One reason is to be found in the fact that the minds of the masses had been awakened, as the mighty revolutions in religion which had just taken place clearly show, but as yet there was nothing to satisfy their intellectual craving, in the absence of literature, and in the deplorable want of education, where a high bailiff of Stratford, the father of the poet, could not write his own name. Shakespeare must have tried his hand at acting very early in life. In fact, Aubrey, who tells us the story of his being a butcher's son, and that when he killed a calf he would do it in a high style and make a speech, says further, that he was naturally inclined to poetry and acting. Besides the explanation of the story about the killing of the calf, which we adverted to before, there is a much more likely one advanced by Mr. Raine. He supposes the tradition, which Aubrey wrote † Page 38. + Page 26.

*Page 20.
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down in a mutilated and altered form, to refer to an old semi-dramatic entertainment entitled "Killing the Calf," played by a person concealed by a curtain from the spectators. Mr. Halliwell says: The possibility that Shakespeare, in his early days, contributed to the amusement of his neighbours by a performance of this kind, and that it is to such a circumstance Aubrey alludes in the passage above quoted, derives some support from the fact that this early entertainment was one of those vernacular, traditional pastimes, which have tenaciously held a place in the popular mind for centuries. The interlude of 'Killing the Calf' was commonly known in the north of England till within a recent period; and it is yet remembered in some parts of Scotland, Mr. G. V. Irving having thence recovered a copy of it as performed by the workingclasses of Forfarshire and Lanarkshire; which, though evidently of a character too greatly altered from the original to be here introduced, is exceedingly curious as a proof of its long-continued popularity. The performer retires behind a screen, and carries on a dialogue in two voices, representing of course two characters, with occasional imitations of sounds, such as grinding, produced by rubbing a piece of stone on the floor, or by a similar contrivance."* A tradition has been preserved at Leicester that Shakespeare acted in the Guild Hall there; and this is in favour of the supposition that he was connected with players previous to his going to London.

*Halliwell's folio "Shakespeare."