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WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

1564-1616

William Shakespeare, 1564-1616. Born, at Stratford-on-Avon, 22 or 23 April 1564. Educated at Stratford Grammar School, 1571-77 (?). Perhaps apprenticed to his father (a butcher), 1577. Married Ann Hathaway, 1582. To London, 1586; acted, and wrote for stage. Plays probably written between 1591 and 1611. Bought New Place, Stratford, May 1597. Bought a house in Blackfriars, 1613. Died, at Stratford-on-Avon, 23 April 1616. Buried in Stratford Church. Works: The following are known to have been printed in Shakespeare's lifetime: "Venus and Adonis," 1593; "Lucrece," 1594; "Richard III.," 1597; "Richard II.," 1597; "Romeo and Juliet," 1597; "Henry IV., Pt. I.,” 1598; “Love's Labour's Lost," 1598; “Henry V.,” 1600; "Midsummer Night's Dream," 1600; "Merchant of Venice," 1600; "Henry IV., Pt. II.," 1600; "Much Ado about Nothing," 1600; "Titus Andronicus," 1600; "Merry Wives of Windsor," 1602; "Hamlet," 1603; "King Lear," 1608; "Sonnets," 1609; "Troilus and Cressida," 1609. His "Comedies, Histories, and Tragedies," ed. by J. Heminge and H. Condell, were first published in 1623; his "Works," ed. by N. Rowe (7 vols.), 1709–10. · -SHARP, R. FARQUHARSON, 1897, A Dictionary of English Authors, p. 253.

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PERSONAL.

GOOD FREND FOR IESVS SAKE FORBEARE,

TO DIGG THE DVST ENCLOASED HEARE:
BLESTE BE MAN SPARES THES STONES,

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- Inscription on the Tablet over Shakespeare's Grave, April 25, 1616.

I

Base minded men al three of you, if by my miserie ye be not warned: for unto none of you (like me) sought those burres to cleave: those Puppits (I meane) that speake from our mouths, those Anticks garnisht in our colours. Is it not strange that I, to whom they al have beene beholding: is it not like that you, to whome they all have beene beholding, shall (were ye in that case that I am now) be both at once of them forsaken? Yes, trust them not: for there is an upstart Crow, beautified with our feathers, that with his Tygers heart wrapt in a Players hide, supposes he is as well able to bumbast out a blanke verse as the best of you: and being an absolute Johannes fac totum, is in his owne conceit the onely Shakescene in a countrie. O that I might intreate your rare wits to be imployed in more profitable courses: & let these Apes imitate your past excellence, and never more acquaint them with your admired inventions. I know the best husband of you all will never prove an usurer and the kindest of them all wil never proove a kinde nurse: yet, whilst you may, seeke you better Maisters; for it is pittie men of such rare wits, should be subiect to the pleasures of such rude groomes. GREENE, ROBERT, 1592, A Groats-worth of Wit.

About three moneths since died M. Robert Greene, leaving many papers in sundry Booke sellers hands, among other his Groats-worth of wit, in which, a letter written to diuers playmakers, is offensiuely by one or two of them taken, and because on the dead they cannot be auenged, they wilfully forge in their conceites a liuing author: and after tossing it to and fro, no remedy, but it must light on me. . . . With neither1 of them that

1 Marlowe and Shakespeare.

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take offence was I acquainted, and with one1 of them I care not if I neuer be: the other, whom at that time I did not so much spare, as since I wish I had, for that as I haue moderated the heate of liuing writers, and might haue vsed my owne discretion (especially in such a case) the author being dead, that I did not, I am as sory, as if the originall fault had beene my fault, because myselfe haue seene his demeanor no lesse ciuill than he exclent in the qualitie he professes: besides, diuers of worship haue reported his vprightness of dealing, which argues his honesty, and his facetious grace in writting, that aprooues his art. CHETTLE, HENRY, 1592, Kind-Hart's Dreame, ed. Rimbault, Preface, p. iv.

?Players, I love yee, and your Qualitie,
As ye are Men, that pass time not abus'd:
And some I love for painting, poesie,
And say fell Fortune cannot be excus'd,
That hath for better uses you refus'd:

Wit, Courage, good shape, good partes, and all good,
As long as al these goods are no worse us'd,

And though the stage doth staine pure gentle bloud,
Yet generous yee are in minde and moode.

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- DAVIES, JOHN, OF HEREFORD, 1603, Microcosmos, ed. Grosart.

Renowned Spenser, lie a thought more nigh
To learned Chaucer; and rare Beaumont, lie

A little nearer Spenser; to make room

For Shakespeare in your three-fold four-fold tomb:

To lodge all four in one bed make a shift

Until Doomsday; for hardly will a fift,

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Betwixt this day and that, by fate be slain,
For whom your curtains may be drawn again.
But if precedency in death doth bar

A fourth place in your sacred sepulchre,
Under this carvèd marble of thine own,

Sleep, rare tragedian, Shakespeare, sleep alone:
Thy unmolested peace, unshared cave,
Possess as lord, not tenant, of thy grave;
That unto us and others it may be

Honour hereafter to be laid by thee.

BASSE, WILLIAM, 1616?, Epitaph on Shakspeare.

IVDICIO PYLIVM, GENIO SOCRATEM, ARTE MARONEM,
TERRA TEGIT, POPVLVS MÆRET, OLYMPVS HABET.
STAY PASSENGER, WHY GOEST THOV BY SO FAST?
READ IF THOV CANST, WHOM ENVIOVS DEATH HATH PLAST,
WITH IN THIS MONVMENT SHAKSPEARE WITH WHOME
QVICK NATVRE DIDE: WHOSE NAME DOTH DECK Ỹ TOMBE
FAR MORE THEN COST: SIEH ALL, Y HE HATH WRITT,
LEAVES LIVING ART, BVT PAGE, TO SERVE HIS WITT.
OBIIT ANO DO 1616

ÆTATIS, 53. DIE 23 AP.

– Inscriptions upon the Tablet under Shakespere's Bust, in the Chancel-north-wall of Stratford Church, 1617-1622?

This Figure, that thou here seest put,
It was for gentle Shakespeare cut;
Wherein the Graver had a strife

With Nature, to out-doo the life:

O, could he but have drawne his Wit

As well in Brasse, as he hath hit

His Face; the Print would then surpasse
All, that was ever writ in Brasse.
But, since he cannot, Reader, looke
Not on his Picture, but his Booke.

- J(ONSON), B(EN), 1623, Facing Droeshout's portrait of Shakespeare prefixed to the First Folio Edition of his Works.

Mellifluous Shakespeare, whose enchanting quill
Commanded mirth or passion was but Will.

HEYWOOD, THOMAS, 1635, The Hierarchy of
the Blessed Angels.

Shakspear had but two daughters, one whereof Mr. Hall, the physitian, married, and by her had on daughter married, to wit, the Lady Bernard of Abbingdon. I have heard that Mr. Shakspeare was a natural wit, without any art at all; hee frequented the plays all his younger time, but in his elder days lived at Stratford, and supplied the stage with two plays every year, and for itt had an allowance so large, that hee spent att the rate of 1,000l. a-year, as I have heard. Shakespeare, Drayton, and Ben Jonson, had a merie meeting, and itt seems drank too hard, for Shakespear died of a feavour there contracted. Remember to peruse Shakespeare's plays, and bee much versed in them, that I may not bee ignorant in that matter. Whether Dr. Heylin does well, in reckoning up the dramatick poets which have been famous in England, to omit Shakespeare. - WARD, REV. JOHN, 1648-78, Diary, ed. Severn, p. 183.

William Shakespeare was born at Stratford on Avon in this County; 1 in whom three eminent Poets may seem

1 Warwick.

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