WHAT IS KNOWN OF SHAKESPEARE.

THE catalogue of works about Shakespeare in the British Museum consists, I am told, of four folio volumes. The mere catalogue! We have, in this city, several collectors of Shakespearian literature, one of whom has got together a whole room full of books, numbering, perhaps, two thousand volumes, all of which relate, in some way, to Shakespeare. Nevertheless, the substance of what we really know of the man and his life can be stated in one of these short articles.

In the first place, how did he spell his name? When he wrote it, he spelt it in various ways; but when he had it printed he spelt it Shake-speare, or Shakespeare, and so did his intimate friend, Ben Jonson. In his own day, the name was spelt in thirty-three different ways: Shaxpur, Schakespeyr, Chacksper, Shakaspeare, Schakespeire, etc. At present, the name is almost universally spelt Shakspeare, but certainly it were far more proper to spell it as the poet printed it - Shakespeare. It is very difficult, however, to change an established mode of spelling a familiar name, and probably we shall go on omitting the middle letter to the end of time.

The father of the poet was John Shakespeare, a man in middle life, who could not write his own name, the son of a farmer named Richard Shakespeare, and probably the descendant of a long line of tillers of the soil. The poet's mother was Mary Arden, the youngest of a family of seven girls, the daughters of a man of ancient family. She inherited from her father a farm of fifty or sixty acres, and a sum of money equal, in our present currency, to about three hundred dollars, which, with her heart and hand, she gave to John Shakespeare about a year after her father's death. It is fair to infer, from John Shake

speare's marrying the daughter of a "gentleman" (his own father's landlord), that he was a young man of more than ordinary spirit and endowments."

At the time of his marriage, John Shakespeare was a glovemaker in the town of Stratford-upon-Avon; but he also had something to do with farming, perhaps rented a piece of land in the neighborhood, or bought standing crops on speculation, as our village store-keepers often do. He was a prosperous man of considerable substance, which he increased pretty rapidly for those times. He evidently stood well with his townsmen, since he was intrusted by them with several offices of some importance. His first office, which was conferred upon him when he had been married a year, was that of ale-taster. A year after, he was elected one of the fourteen burgesses of the town. In the following year, we find him constable; soon after, a magistrate, and then chamberlain. It is conjectured that he was about thirty years of age when he held this last office, which was one of considerable dignity and responsibility.

To this thriving young man two daughters were born, both of whom died in infancy, leaving him childless. Then was born William, the poet. There is no existing record of his birth, and therefore the date of that event is unknown; but we know that he was christened on the 26th of April, 1564; and as it was customary then to christen children three days after their birth, it is safe to conjecture that he was born April 23d, and that is the day on which his birthday is usually celebrated.

John Shakespeare still rose in the social scale. During the childhood of his son, he was high bailiff, justice of the peace, alderman, and mayor. His wealth increased, too, and the priv ilege was conferred upon him of bearing a coat of arms. The house in which the poet passed his early years was a pleasant and commodious one for that day, and there is no reason to doubt that he had everything needful for his comfort and enjoyment. In all probability he was a happy member of a happy household. When the boy was ten years old his father was certainly among the very first citizens of a substantial and important country town of fifteen hundred inhabitants.

There was in Stratford an ancient grammar school, where

Latin and Greek were taught; and taught (as I guess) in the ancient dull way; for this school Shakespeare attended from about his seventh to his fourteenth year, and he speaks in his plays, of boys creeping "unwillingly to school," and of their going from school with alacri y. There are thirteen passages in the works of Shakespeare expressive of the tedium and disgust which boys used to endure in the barbarous schools of the olden time; whereas, there is not one which alludes to school as a pleasant place. We are justified in inferring, from these facts, that this boy found it dull work going to Stratford grammar school.

At Stratford there was a charnel-house, containing an immense collection of human bones, with an opening through which they could be seen. The description given, in Romeo and Juliet, of the vault wherein Juliet was buried, was suggested by this charnel-house.

Many of the names of Shakespeare's characters were common in Stratford in Shakespeare's time, as the following: Bardolf, Fluellen, Peto, Sly, Herne, Page, Ford.

Of all the discoveries which modern research has made respecting the carly life of Shakespeare, the most important is the one now to be mentioned: During his boyhood and youth he saw plays performed by, at least, twelve different companies of actors! How could this be in a remote country town, where there was no theatre? Turn to the play of Hamlet, Act II., Scene 2, and Hamlet and his friends are talking will see. you together in the king's castle, when a trumpet is heard without, which announces the approach of a company of strolling players. Hamlet receives them kindly, orders a play of them, causes them to be well lodged and entertained in the castle as long as they remained. In writing that scene, Shakespeare was recording, in part, his recollections of what used to occur in Stratford when his father was mayor, or alderman. About once a year a company of actors came riding into the town ("then came each actor on his ass"), and made their way to the mayor, of whom they asked the privilege of performing in the place. If permission was accorded, part of the expense of the entertainment was borne by the town treasury, and only a very small

charge was made for admission. The records of Stratford show that from the time William Shakespeare was six years of age to the time he was eighteen, twelve companies performed in the town. They also show that the largest sum ever paid to a company was paid during the mayoralty of John Shakespeare. The sums paid under other mayors ranged from three shillings to seventeen shillings; but when John Shakespeare was mayor the town book-keeper had to make the following magnificent entry:

"Item, payed to the queene's pleyers, 9 pounds."

We may infer from these facts, 1st, that John Shakespeare was particularly fond of the drama; 2d, that William Shakespeare, inheriting this taste, had abundant opportunities of gratifying it, and of becoming acquainted personally with actors.

When the boy was fourteen years of age and was still going to school, his father's affairs became disordered. The probability is that he had lived too liberally. He had eight children in all, of whom five lived to maturity, and he was a man to be bountiful to his children. Moreover, the many offices which he had filled may have taken too much of his time from private business. And I have sometimes thought that the caution which the poet is known to have practised in lending money may have been owing to his father having lost his property by an excessive trust in others. Whatever may have been the cause or causes of his misfortunes, he became so much involved as to be in constant fear of arrest for debt; and, finally, he was arrested and thrown into prison. He was a poor man thenceforth for some years; until, in fact, he began to receive assistance from his thriving son, William.

In consequence of these embarrassments, William Shake speare at the age of fourteen was taken from school to assist his father in his various operations, such as farming, dealing in wool, in animals, and other products of a grazing country. is possible, and almost probable, that he assisted his father in killing and selling beef.

It

Now we come to the great calamity of Shakespeare's life. One of his father's friends was Richard Hathaway, a substantial farmer near Stratford, who had a daughter, Anne, eight years

older than Shakespeare. When he was a boy of eighteen, and she a woman of twenty-six, they were married; and five months after, their first child was born. No one who has much knowledge of human nature needs any evidence that such a marriage was a ceaseless misery and shame to him as long as he lived. The many passages of his works in which unfavorable views are given of the female character, reveal the melancholy truth. The ill-starred couple had three children, Susanna, Hanımet, and Judith, all of whom were born before the father was twentyone, the two last-named being twins.

Here was a bad situation for a young man to be in upon coming of age: his father ruined; four brothers and sisters younger than himself; a wife and three children upon his hands; his wife's father dead; and no opening for him in his native town, where once his family had held their heads so high.

There were in London then five individuals who had gone as poor young men from Shakespeare's own county to the metropolis, and there risen to some distinction as actors; one of whom, and he the most successful of them all, was from Stratford itself. How natural, then, that in such circumstances the unhappy husband should look toward London and the stage for deliverance at once from domestic broils and pecuniary troubles! The story of his getting into a scrape by stealing deer may be true, or may not; but surely this young man had reasons enough to fly, without reckoning the displeasure of a country squire. Charles Reade says on this point:

"He was not driven out of Stratford by misconduct, or he could not have returned to the town in 1592. He suffered no. personal indignities from Justice Lacy, for all such matters are recorded at Stratford, and there is no trace of it. I notice, too, that when a man leaves a place where he has been degraded, his heart leaves it. Shakespeare's heart can be proved never to have left Stratford for a single day."

Mr. Reade is, perhaps, a little too positive in this passage, as is the custom of that brilliant author. No matter. Shakespeare, when he was about twenty-two years of age, went to London, and obtained an humble place in a company of players. From acting he advanced to tinkering and adapting old plays,