INTRODUCTION

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

THE life of William Shakespeare began in the beautiful country town of Stratford-on-Avon and ended fifty-two years later on the same day at the same place. During the interval, however, it must not be supposed that the dramatist had a tranquil pastoral existence all these years at his birthplace. He struck out for himself in the largest city of the country, London, and spent there twenty-five years as an actor and writer of plays, gathering fame and accumulating sufficient property to enable him to pass the last years of his life in uninterrupted calm at his beloved Stratford.

Shakespeare was born in 1564, on the twenty-third of April. The town of Stratford was then a place of about fifteen hundred inhabitants. Since then it has grown but little; it now boasts a population of not more than ten thousand. The change in shaping of streets, in sanitary arrangements, and in appearance of buildings has, however, been great since the poet's

time. The house in Henley Street where Shakespeare was born has now been joined with another which originally stood somewhat to the west of it, and the two thus made one have been preserved as The Birthplace. The visitor to Stratford finds here a most interesting collection of Shakespeare mementoes. Our own Washington Irving in one of his Sketchbook papers gives a delightful picture of the house as it was in his time. Though there has been considerable change since Irving's day, his account is still to be recommended as a bit of pleasant reading. Nowadays the impression brought away from a visit to The Birthplace is likely to be particularly vivid because of the shilling for this and shilling for that and shilling for all attitude of the caretakers. The first home of Shakespeare will, nevertheless, always be a favorite resort for travellers.

Shakespeare's father was a dealer in wool, malt, skins, meat, leather, corn, and all kinds of farm produce. Thus in some biographies he is called a butcher, in others a glover, in others a drover. By his wide field of trading activity he might be called one or all of these. He became, before the birth of his son, a man of prominence in the village. He had no education, but in this respect did not differ from the other villagers. He was elected by his townsmen to various positions, such as alderman, July 4, 1565, and three

years later bailiff, the highest position to which he could be chosen. His wife was Mary Arden, the daughter of a prosperous farmer who lived not far from Stratford. Two daughters preceded the boy William, both of whom died in infancy. William was christened on the twenty-sixth of April, 1564. From this, it is conjectured that according to the baptismal custom of the time he must have been born on the twenty-third or possibly the twenty-second of the same month and year. By way of poking fun at the Shakespearian scholars who assert positively that Shakespeare was born on the twenty-third, Mr. Sidney Lee remarks slyly that such scholars make their dogmatic statements apparently on the sole basis that William Shakespeare undoubtedly died on the twentythird and hence was probably born on the same day.

Little is definitely known about the life of young Shakespeare from his birth to his twenty-second year. By most authorities it is inferred that, because there was a grammar school in Stratford and because Shakespeare's father was in fair circumstances, the boy William probably attended the school. It is thought that he was a pupil till 1577 or 1578, when he was obliged to leave school on account of his father's financial difficulties. His father continued for eight or nine years after the birth of William to be successful in business, but then was forced to mortgage his property piece by

piece till at last, because of the danger of arrest for debt, he feared even to attend the Guildhall as bailiff. While at school, William Shakespeare learned something of Latin, and perhaps a little French and Greek. That he learned at school any language besides English is assumed solely from the fact that in his plays. he shows familiarity with Latin and French, and from the additional fact that schoolboys of his time usually studied Latin. Aubrey, quoted by Mr. Lee in his recent paper, "Shakespeare in Oral Tradition," says that the boy very early betrayed signs of poetic genius.

Greater probably than the educative influence of the Grammar School on the boy Shakespeare was the influence upon him of the plays presented in Stratford during these years. In the course of ten years or so at this period, more than two dozen theatric companies were hospitably entertained at Stratford. Shakespeare's father, the bailiff, officially welcomed to the town of Stratford the Queen's company and the Earl of Worcester's company of actors. The talk of the villagers regarding these companies and perhaps the conversation of the actors themselves gave Shakespeare his first conception of a play. The influence upon William Shakespeare of these early years of acquaintance with the drama can hardly be over-estimated.

Another educative influence of this period before he went to London was the surpassingly beautiful country round about Stratford, which he came to love with all his soul. Appreciating the influence of nature upon the great dramatist, Milton wrote in L'Allegro :

"Or sweetest Shakespeare, Fancy's child,
Warble his native wood-notes wild."

Through all his works there runs a tone of intimate acquaintance with the things of nature, as for instance in the soothingly descriptive phrase of As You Like It, III, 2, 42, "The beetle with his drowsy hums." It is known that he was fond of outdoor life, and it may be surmised that in these impressionable years he laid the foundations for the true and accurate knowledge of nature which he later showed in his. plays.

Five years after the time when he was forced to discontinue his schooling, Shakespeare was married, though then only a youth of eighteen, to Anne Hathaway. A daughter, Susanna, was born in May, 1583, and twins, Hamnet and Judith, were born in February, 1585. Anne Hathaway was the daughter of a farmer who lived about a mile from Stratford. No record of the marriage appears in the parish register at Stratford, but an interesting marriage bond has been discovered, dated 1583, so that there is no doubt