each new measure of arbitrary power was announced from across the Atlantic, or each new act of menace and violence on the part of the officers of the government, or of the army, occurred in Boston, its citizens-oftentimes in astonishment and perplexity rallied to the sound of his voice in Faneuil Hall; and there, as from the crowded gallery or the Moderator's chair, he animated, enlightened, fortified, and roused the admiring throng, he seemed to gather them together beneath the ægis of his indomitable spirit, as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings."

"Why," asked one of the English Tories of the tory governor of Massachusetts, "why hath not Mr. Adams been taken off from his opposition by an office?"

To which the governor replied:

"Such is the obstinacy and inflexible disposition of the man, that he never would be conciliated by any office whatever."

This was indeed the truth. His daughter, who long survived him, and with whom living persons have conversed, used to say that her father once refused a pension from the British government of two thousand pounds a year. Once, when a secret messenger from General Gage threatened him with a trial for treason if he persisted in his opposition to the government, and promised him honors and wealth if he would desist, Adams rose to his feet, and gave him this answer:

"Sir, I trust I have long since made my peace with the King of kings. No personal consideration shall induce me to abandon the righteous cause of my country. Tell Governor Gage it is the advice of Samuel Adams to him no longer to insult the feelings of an exasperated people."

At that time the whole property of this illustrious patriot was the house in which he lived, and a little land about it, and his whole income was ninety pounds a year, which was the amount of his salary as clerk to the Assembly.

When he had wrought up the people to the point of sending representatives to a general congress, he himself was one of its members, and he continued to serve his country during the Revolution with all the zeal and energy which had marked his conduct in his native State. When the war was done, and his

country was free, he went home to Boston and had not a place to lay his head. His house had been ravaged and plundered by the British troops, and it was with very great difficulty that he gathered together the requisite articles of household furniture. Sometime after, however, the premature death of his son, Dr. Adams, put him in possession of a competent estate.

During the last years of his life, when the conflict raged between the Federalists and Republicans, he espoused the Republican side, which exposed him to so much obloquy, that it was with great difficulty that he was elected to so unimportant an office as lieutenant-governor of the State. Finally, he was elected to the governorship, and even received a few votes in 1796 for the presidency. When Mr. Jefferson came into power, in 1801, that great man wrote a most beautiful and touching letter to the Republican patriarch, recognizing his great services, and assuring him that the chief of the Democratic party was fully alive to their value..

He died in October, 1803, aged eighty-two years. Party spirit ran so high in Boston at that time, and the Republicans were so odious, that it was with considerable difficulty that his friends could induce the authorities of the State to pay to his remains the funeral honors usually accorded to those who have held high office. Boston, a city which many persons suppose to be dangerously infected with what are called "radical ideas," is, in reality, one of the most "conservative" communities in the world. In fact, all communities are conservative. It is only individuals who are radical, although sometimes, for short periods, great men of that stamp rule the communities to which they belong, and in which they are generally hated or feared.

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 poct. 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.

The

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 privilege was conferred upon him of bearing a coat of arms. 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 early 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 you will see. Hamlet and his friends are talking 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