73

sion made to him in Greene's Groatsworth of Wit has been conclusively shown by Mr. Simpson to refer to him as an actor only; and as it is palpable, that, if Greene had known him as an author, he would have referred to him also in that capacity, we may fairly assign as the date of his beginning to write alone 1591; it cannot have well been later, and if earlier Greene would have known it in 1592. John Shakespeare we find in 1591 still in possession of a house in Henley Street, Stratford; in 1591 and in the next year as one of four "credible men" making inventory of goods of one Ralph Shaw, wooldriver, and Henry Field, tanner. At this time Shakespeare was writing his early plays of the rhyming period.

In 1593 the theatres were closed on account of the plague, and Shakespeare found leisure to publish the first piece of his invention, the Venus and Adonis, which he dedicated to his patron Lord Southampton. This was followed by a new poem, also dedicated to him, the Rape of Lucrece, in 1594. Meanwhile, death had been busy with the band of dramatists; not only had "Learning deceast in beggary” been exemplified in the end of the repentant Greene, who was at enmity with Shakespeare, but his friends Marlowe and Peele had by 1596 also died, the one in a drunken quarrel, the other of a shameful disease. No wonder that he felt disgusted with the theatre. In that year he probably wrote his great poem to Lord Southampton (Sonnets 1—126), in which he expresses himself bitterly as to the position occupied by an actor, especially a travelling or strolling actor. During this time he had also been occupied in retouching, adding to, re-writing plays by other men. Edward III. and 1 Henry VI.; and I have no doubt Richard III. and Romeo and Juliet, are rifaccimenti made by him between 1593 and 1596. These plays in their original form were written by Marlowe and Peele, separately or conjointly, except 1 Henry VI., which seems to show Lodge's work in part of it, With them there is no trace of any quarrel on Shakespeare's part. His enemies were Greene and Nash and Lilly. The last of these belonged to rival theatres, which embittered the quarrel. Lilly wrote only for the youths who went under the names of Children of the Chapel and Children of St. Paul's. These "children," as we may see in Hamlet, were Shakespeare's particular detestation; with Nash also, the bitter pamphleteer, he had no sympathy; but Marlowe he refers to kindly in As You Like

It, iii. 5, "Dead shepherd! Now I find thy saw of might," and Peele seems to have followed him to the Lord Chamberlain's Company. For in that company (whether he joined it along with Lord Strange's company in 1594 or belonged to it earlier) we find Shakespeare fixed in our earliest theatrical notice of him as acting before Queen Elizabeth at Greenwich in December of that year. In 1595 appeared the strange book Locrine, a lamentable tragedy "newly set forth, overseen and corrected by W. S." This clever play, which is a new edition of an old work by Charles Tilney and George Peele (1526), contains many lines taken from Greene, and alludes in many places to those plays of his which he produced in 1585-6 in rivalry with Marlowe. It was probably edited by Shakespeare on or just before Peele's death, and one year before the production of Romeo and Juliet.

In 1596 his only son Hamnet died. Shakespeare's feelings as a father can be seen in King John, iii. 4, which was probably written during his son's illness or very shortly after his decease. In this year also Romeo and Juliet was produced at the Curtain Theatre in Shoreditch; a grant of arms to John Shakespeare was applied for at the Heralds' College; his uncle Henry died (to be followed in a few weeks by Margaret his wife); all events which must have in some instances greatly affected the mind of Shakespeare, in others prepared him for a more settled life with more definite aims; in all made him ready for the great change in style and purpose which is shown in the historic and comic plays of his Second Period.

Immediately after the commencement of this, in 1597, begins the publishing of Shakespeare's plays, without his name on the title page; it was, however, inserted in 1598, and in no case (except the noticeable one of Romeo and Juliet) was it omitted thereafter. The application for arms is also granted in this year, and William Shakespeare, gentleman, has 60l. to purchase of William Underhill one messuage, two barns, two gardens, two orchards with appurtenances, in Stratford-on-Avon. This is the celebrated New Place formerly called the Great House, built by Sir Hugh Clopton, in Henry VIII.'s time. John Shakespeare and wife also have money (? from son William) to file a bill in Chancery in the old Asbies matter, to recover that estate from John Lambert, son of Edmund Lambert, the mortgagee of nineteen years back. They had tendered,

ކ

they allege, the money in release duty; yet the estate is with-
held.

year

Francis

In it

10

The year 1598 is for the critic memorable. In that Meres published his Palladis Tamia, or Wits Treasury. Meres mentions by name twelve plays, the Venus and Adonis, Lucrece, and Sonnets, and so gives us a most valuable landmark for our chronology. He also shows the estimation in which Shakespeare was held as a dramatist before his name had been affixed to any published play. Nine times is he noticed in this work, oftener than any other; he is praised for Lyricks, Elegies, Comedies, Tragedies, and Knowledge of the English Tongue; and in influence in other matters he was advancing as rapidly as in favour with the critics. Early in this same year Abraham Sturley wrote from Stratford to Richard Quiney (father of Thomas Quiney, the future husband of Susanna Shakespeare) respecting a solicitation to Burleigh, the Lord Treasurer, on behalf of Stratford for exemption from subsidies and su taxes, and a grant of money out of 30,000l. set aside by Parliament for relieving decayed towns, in consideration of great fires in Stratford in 1594 and 1595. The passage is worth quoting: "It seemeth that our countryman, Mr. Shakespeare, is willing to disburse some money upon some odd yard land or other at Shottery, or near about us. He thinketh it a very fit pattern to move him to deal in the matter of our tithes. By the instructions you can give him thereof and by the friends he can make therefore, we think it a fair mark for him to shoot at, and not impossible to hit. It obtained would advance him indeed, and would do us much good." Other matters indicate an advance in wealth. He is the third largest holder of corn and malt in his ward, having ten quarters; he is lending Richard Quiney, or at any rate deemed capable of lending, 30l.; he is selling stone to the corporation; he is making friends too; he is playing in Jonson's Every Man in His Humour. Jonson has joined the Chamberlain's company, and altered into pure English the semiItalian plot of this play as written at first. Possibly Shakespeare suggested this. At the end of this year the Theatre was pulled down, and in 1599 the building of the Globe Theatre was commenced with the old materials. At this new house in Bankside the rest of Shakespeare's plays were produced; that is in all probability all his dramas that are not included in Meres' list. The theatre at Black

friars, erected not more than three years earlier, was let out to the Children of the Chapel, and remained in their occupation till 1601, and in that of other children's companies till 1612, to Shakespeare's great annoyance.

In the year 1600 the Fortune Theatre was built by Alleyn for the Admiral's company. In this year ninety extracts from Shakespeare appear in England's Parnassus; quotations from him also occur in England's Helicon and in Bel-vedere, or the Garden of the Muses. Piratical publishers also begin to prefix his name to plays not his.. All this shows his rapidly increasing fame.

In 1601 his name is attached to a poem in Love's Martyr or Rosalin's Complaint, by Robert Chester: and, which is much more important, his father dies: he was buried on the 8th September. Again we find a division in his works, as shown in style, metre, and dramatic power, coincident with the death of those related to him. He ceases now to write Histories, and almost abandons Comedy. Tragedy of the deepest kind is the subject of his culminating art.

In his Third Period, Shakespeare advances in worldly prosperity as well as in art and reputation. In May 1602 he purchases, for 320%., 107 acres of arable land in Old Stratford parish from William Combe of Warwick, and John Combe of Old Stratford: the indenture, in his brother's absence, is sealed and delivered to Gilbert Shakespeare; in the same year in September, Walter Getley, by his attorney Thomas Tibbottes, at a Court Baron of the Manor of Rowington, surrenders to him and his heirs a house in Walker's Street or Dead Lane near New Place, possession being reserved to the Lady of the Manor, till suit and service had been done by him for the same. At Michaelmas in the same year he bought from Hercules Underhill for 60l. one messuage, two orchards, two gardens, two barns, &c. The document of this purchase is in the Chapter House, Westminster. He evidently is looking forward to settling at Stratford, and perhaps to founding a family there.

In 1603, the year of the Queen's death, Sir John Davies compliments him in his Microcosmos. We find him also acting in Ben Jonson's Sejanus, of which he probably shared the authorship (in its first form). The play, however, was condemned. It is not likely that any play jointly composed by men of such entirely different canners could amalgamate sufficiently to succeed. It did succeed

afterwards when Jonson recast the whole. At the end of the same year (December) James I. was entertained at the seat of William Earl of Pembroke, a patron of Shakespeare's, at Walton near Salisbury, by the company to which Shakespeare belonged. It is supposed that Massinger, whose father was a retainer of Pembroke's, on that occasion chose the dramatic career as his business for life.

In 1604 Shakespeare brought an action against Philip Rogers in the Court at Stratford for 17. 15s. 6d. for malt. A sharp man of business this poet of ours, and looks after details himself; he is by no means the ideal artist of the vulgar. In 1605 he bought of Ralph Hubande a thirty-one years' remainder of a ninety-two years' lease of the tithes of Stratford, Old Stratford, Bishopton, and Welcombe for 440/. Prosperity thickens; and the gentle poet is loved as well as prosperous. Augustine Phillips, his co-partner in the profits of the house and fellow-actor, leaves him a 30s. gold piece as token of esteem; nay, there is a credible tradition that James I. wrote him an autograph letter at this time.

In 1606 we find he is still in possession of the house in Walker Street, but as he did not fill up the form for the Survey of Rowington Manor (1 Aug.), he was probably absent from Stratford.

In 1607 John Davies of Hereford compliments him in the Scourge of Folly; and his daughter Susanna marries Dr. John Hall, a Stratford leech (June 5); but his good fortune is once more interrupted by that which cannot be evaded, Death. On 31 December, 1607, his youngest brother, Edmund, a player, is buried at St. Saviour's, Southwark, aged twenty-seven; on 9 September, 1608, his mother, Mary, is buried at Stratford. Again bereavement, but if we can judge from his works, a softening one; from this time he writes no more cynical tragedies; he takes a healthier if not so grand a view of human life; he returns to history and comedy; but it is Roman and not Chronicle history; and the comedy turns entirely on the rejoining of parents and children after long separation. His last period shows the most human feeling, if not the most perfect

art.

In the beginning of his Fourth Period, on October 16, 1608, Shakespeare was sponsor for William Walker, to whom in his will he leaves 20s. In 1609 we find him again looking after his business carefully. On 15 March he instituted a process for 67. debt and