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I have already published one book on hakespe re I b und to anti ipate the bjection write another that goes in so e measure over the same ground answer is not far seek book was needed younger readers who have not p wer and for p pular readers have not ti e to aster critical questions oncerning hake speare and yet are desirous of acquainting the selves to so e extent ith the results of those investigati ns that have been ade I have been repeatedly asked to publish in a separate for the portions of my which are independent any subjecti e theories his is not h wever wh t I have done his book has nothing in c m on with the but what is common to all general treatises ritical editions hakespeare It is partly an ti n and partly a supplement to the larger work yet I trust o plete in itself b k rom the previous one in the following parti lars
It is eant y unger readers and a more popular so critical a publi alth gh there are in it things that
I trust may be usef l even the l tter
It nly extends to the end hakespeare s life instead of e bracing the wh le hist ry the li abethan
Jac be n dra a
It omits all such t pi s as etrical tests ontro erted questions lists of actors and atters essential to the more advanced student but a hindrance to the beginner the other hand it contains entirely new matter to the extent of three fourths the book and the rest has been altogether written not condensed from the I specially mention among the new matter the full accounts of the doubtful plays the li es of contemporary dramatists the excerpts on gram ar founded on chmidt s the count of the alterations to which plays were subject chapter on the presentation of plays founded on hasles the tables compiled from the accounts of revels at court and and the chapter on the connection hakespeare s plots But neither this nor its predecessor are supposed to contain e erything which a student requires although this does I trust contain all that is needed for popular readers or young students apart from the ordinary annotations on the text and the larger work is meant embrace all that in addition to such books as chmid s and Abbott s considerable time of study will be needful for some here er there is a discrepancy in dates etc between

and the the may be

the

generally trusted di erences are due to the stereotyp ing of the by the publishers without my knowledge and the consequent perpetuation of the errata a list of which was sent them by me in August I belie e that the

great care of the printers and my urther experience in correcting for the press ha e kept the free from printer s errors nearly the friends who have formerly aided me by their encouragement to further work I wish now to add the names of Ingleby and the American hakespearians Messrs rosby and Furness to the critics who have so cordially welcomed me I tender my sincere thanks in trust that their encouragement may produce in me still better and more useful work

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HAK P A LI E

ILLIAM HAK P A was the son of J hn hakespeare of tratford and Mary Arden of who were arried about his John hakespeare had lived in
Henley treet tratford fr at least was ell do and respected had copyholds of two h ses a burgess a e ber of the tratf rd c rp rati n a dealer in gloves and barley had property in from his father and in fro his wife he beca e an a feeror or of for the borough municipal cha ber lain and me ber the co on all in rapid succession
April his third child eldest illiam was bapti ed at tratford Between this date and we lending money to the borough aking up the cha berlain s acco nts acting as alder an high and Magister hakespe re chief alder an had ls bo ght two houses in Henley treet illia was prob bly during the latter part of this period at tratford Gra r chool nder urate Hu t h as Jenkins in maybe from poverty m yb fr m livi g out the t wn lands newly a ired at Bish pt n and o be J hn hakespeare attended the eetings of the irreg larly half his b r gh taxes were re itted
In d und a bert who was also security him to oger dler debt of week In a levy on him for soldiers was le t his wife s inheritan e was rtg ged to was excused from a p or rate of
INT U TI N S AKESPEARIAN TUDY paid About this date illiam most likely left school at some thirteen or years old and became a lawyer s lerk or at rate entered on some occupation for his livelih od the age of eighteen he married Anne Hathaway seven years his senior marriage bond was dated o em ber Fulk andells and John ichardson farmers

tratford became bound in it for the lawful solemnisation of the arriage with once asking of the banns six months after usanna illiam s daughter was
May bapti ed and on F Hamnet and Judith his twin children and last
John hakespeare but there were three of this name in tratford was distrained on January a writ issued against him and he deprived of his alderman s gown for attending at the halls hether this was illiam s father or not our dramatist left tratford for ondon about and began his career there in poverty here is great rea son to belie e that the old tradition of his holding horses at the theatre door during performance time has a basis of fact and it is almost certain that he ery soon obtained e ploy ment in the company of ord trange s players as an actor here were other c mpanies at this date namely the
Queen s Pembroke s Ad iral s hapel hildren and hil dren of Paul s chief dramatic writers were illy Greene Peele Marlow and odge theatrical world then as in most t mes was disturbed by angry rival ries and bitter quarrels cannot trace hakespeare in these distinctly till when the ad ent of in ondon kindled a among them Peele and ash
Marlow on one side and Greene on the other had already had their quarrels but then two distinct camps were for ed ash and Greene leading the one Peele and Marlow the other hakespeare belonged to the latter but took little if any part in the quarrel th ugh he was bitterly att cked by both N ash and reene I n this sa e year he prob ably made his attempt at dramatic writing in the co ic in conjunction with his portions of the

friend Marlow in Greene s allusions to him were still aimed at him as an actor rather than an author so that it is unlikely that he was generally known to ha e written anythi g at that date John hakespeare meanwhile was still in possessi n of his house in Henley treet and in was described as a credible man employed in m king an in entory
In Philip opened se heatre on the
INT DU TI N SHAKESPEAR IAN TUDY
Bankside and one of the pieces performed in that year hat this play was the same as that there is little doubt and that h ke was known as speare s contrib tion at that time consisted of the epis de alb t s son John in the fourth act is highly probable have here the appearance of hakespeare as a dramatist th ugh only to the extent of va ping or at most of aiding in writing a not very high speci en of hist rical drama a th rs of the rest of this play were Marlow Peele and per h ps odge theatres in the next year were closed acc unt of the plague ord trange s company went into the co ntry to play and did not return to the se
F this ti e forward hakespeare though he did not leave his quality of acting is an acknowledged author as well In he published his d ubt had produced one or two of his earliest rec gnised and no

plays

etc But it will be m re con

treat of these plays separately and not inter rupt the regular narrative his life by noticing them here as their dates are still in many instances atters of disp te
In hakespeare published his second poem the
B th his poems were dedicated to Henry ord o thampton to who als the were in opinion addressed in this latter date the early gr up dra atists had almost disappeared Greene had deceased in beggary Marlow had been stabbed a drunken brawl Peele was dead dying of a disgraceful disease hakespeare s disgust with the stage may be seen in the tr nge s co pany beca e the ord hamberlain s on the rl of erby his c pany with
But we are anticipating In ord death F hakespe re a ng them acted before Queen li abeth at reenwich at hrist as in that year his is our p sitive notice of as an actor In the c pany was at the urtain heatre in h reditch It pr bably set there abo t that ti e having previously been acting ab t the city of ndon a ng other places a few days at ewingt n B tts under the manage ent us rer and d ring the winters at the rosskeys Grace h rch treet

the August this year hakespeare s nly son
H net was b ried at tratf rd his sorr w as a father is sh wn in Act I I I iv of the his uncle Henry buried and Henry s wife
M rgaret on the f llowing February this break
INT DU TI N S A ESPEARIAN TUDY ing up of the family was succeeded by the establishment of hakespeare s fame as a dramatist this death of his son by the birth of his brain progeny For on August the very week of Hamnet s death dward hite entered for publica tion the play that hakespeare ga e to the press and this date may be fairly taken as the di iding point between what are called his and second periods From this time till every play he wrote was published

as well as re isions of a few of those that were produced in his period His name however was not put on any title page till but except on that of it was ne er omitted afterwards

In the application for a

of a grant of

arms made at the Herald ollege in behalf John hake speare was granted In the same ear illiam had enough money to buy of illiam nderhill the Place in trat ford once called the Great House It was built by Hugh lopton in the time of Henry I I I and consisted of a messu age with barns gardens and orchards was also assessed on I st ctober at in the parish of Helen s Bishops gate In the same year his parents a bill in hancery to reco er from John ambert son of dmund to whom it had been mortgaged in hey alleged that they had duly tendered money in release according to agree ment but that the estate was nevertheless withheld from them In the same year Francis Meres published his

or

in which he not only

aided our chronological investigations by gi ing a list of the twelve plays hakespeare had then produced but also showed the estimation in which he was held by frequent mention of his lyrics elegies comedies and tragedies was the of hakespeare to literary matters
January Abraham wrote from tratford to ichard Quiney Judith hakespeare s future father law in these words It seemeth that our countryman hakespeare is willing to disburse some money upon some odd yard land or other at hottery or near about think eth it a ery pattern to move him to deal in the matter of our tithes the instructions you can give him thereof and by the friends he can make therefore we think it a fair mark him to shoot and not impossible to hit It obtained w uld advance indeed and would do much good matter in question was a solicitation to Burleigh ord reasurer to obtain an exemption from subsidies and taxes for tratford and a grant of a portion of set aside
INT DU TI N SHAKESPEARIAN TUDY by Parliament for relieving decayed towns here had been
Advance in wealth is also shown by the fact that he held corn and malt to the amount of ten quarters only two thers in his ward held as much sold st ne to the and was l ked to as a probable great there in lender of ichard Quiney Ab ut this ti e his sister Joan arried illiam Hart a tratford hatter

to whom he was much attached return to the theatre In Jonson joined the h mberlain s co pany and produced E

in which hakespeare acted but in in played by hapel hildren made attack not without provoca tion on Marston ekker and other But next play he did not his atta ks to the als attacked and I think hakespeare his raised a contro which cannot be entered into here It must to when Jonson left the hapel hildren ca e back to the ha berlain s company and pro his In this play hakespeare acted and it say that it went on till has been supposed that he wr te part hap an s how ever was pr bably the se nd pen which aided J ns n in this play share that hakespeare took in this contro has never been f lly sh wn It is pretty lear how ever that he was called ef r ed and had w if not other na es His feelings tow rds the hildren pl yers be seen in I I ii and an allusi n to his name ef r ed and the pl gi ris he was accused in

I I I iii

Meanwhile great changes had t ken place in the theatres
In the heatre was p lled down and the building the l be c enced with the old aterials this house the hamberlain s c pany moved and there all hakespeare s plays fro onwards were produced that is pr bably that were included in Meres list theatre at
Bla kfri rs built in was let to the hapel hildren played there till the in evels hildren succeeded
F rtune heatre was als b ilt in by Alleyn and the Ad iral s c pany had played at the ose since went to the F rtune in ctober leaving the ose the occupation of the arl of orcester s p ny
In this same year hakespeare s name was put on title page of a play written for the Admiral s co pany M nd y rayt n ilson and Hathaway his i pudent

INTRODUCTION SHAKESPEARIAN TUDY

forgery was the work of a piratical bookseller Pa ier who in this year also published a surreptitious issue of hether in onsequence of this or not no quarto edition after of any of hakespeare s works was issued with his consent hey were all thenceforth unauthorised by him or by the company hese piracies howe er show how his reputation was ad ancing so do the ninety extracts from his writings in quotations in and the and in
In we his name attached to a poem in hester s p and on th eptem ber John hakespeare s burial was entered in tratford register this date occurs the passage from the second to the third period of his works his date is also marked by the only long journey of which ha e any presumpti e evidence in hakespeare s career I n the hamberlain s company were certainly at Aberdeen under aurence Flet cher and the production of early in the reign of James with its accurate local descriptions of Macbeth s castle and the blasted heath certainly encourages to think that his witches were deri ed from personal observation in cotland Aberdeen the air would be full of men s talk about the late executions in that town for witchcraft and of the conspiracy in whose incidents o er so close a parallel to the story of M acbeth As the King s company nly consisted of some do en players it is not likely that a portion was detached for this journey
I n May he again ade purchases to the amount of he thus acquired one hundred and se en acres of arable land in tratford parish from illiam be of arwick and John ombe of tratford indenture was sealed and deli ered to Gilbert hakespeare in his brother s absenc In eptember a ter by

his attorney homas

at a ourt Baron of the

Manor of owington surrendered to him a house in ker s treet or ead ane near P ace Michael mas he bought a messuage with orchards barns etc of Hercules nderhill for urely he intended to settle at tratford

he was complimented in the

by

J hn avies of Hereford James I came to the nglish throne in this spring and accepted the ha berlain s com pany as his own hey are henceforth called the King s men In hakespeare brought an action at tratford he clearly had a keen eye to busin ss

In he bought alph a thirty one years re ainder of a lease tithes in tratford tratford

Bishopton and

for

was probably not

at tratford in this year he did not ll the form for the sur ey of owington Manor on August In occurs the last marked change of style in his writing and his fourth period begins
In he was again compli ented by J hn avies in his
June his daughter usanna arried John Hall a tratford physician But on ecember his youngest brother dmund a player was buried at aviour s outhwark th ctober hakespeare was sponsor for illiam alker th March he pursued for a small debt

and costs John

In his default

on June s ed his s rety ho as Hornby again c pli ents in his avies epte ber he s bscribed towards the costs of a bill in Parlia e t for amending highways F his last surviving brother ichard was b ried
I would date his quittance work and in

For all hope of f unding a family expiring with his last ale relative and having ear ed amply to pr vide his daughters and sister what had he left to work Fa e posthu o s fa e perhaps but the man who did print more than a q arter of his works already produced was not likely to care deeply about that
March he paid t wards the purchase of a ho se near Black riars heatre and mortgaged it for the still unpaid his h use he let to J hn obins n ten ye rs In the sa e year the draft of a bill in hancery ane Greene and hakespeare plainants sh ws that the oiety tithes bought by hakespeare in large a proportion of the reserved rent fell the

plainants

year fr these tithes

J ne the Gl be heatre pr bably cont ining many his was burned down but reb ilt the same year

br ke out during the perfor ance of

hake

speare s
In there was a large in tratf rd and the were b sy pp sing the enclosure certain c m n lands h kespeare s a e cc rs on epte ber an ancient freeholder be o pensated th ct ber he and h as Greene clerk to the c rporati n covenant cerni g co pensation for enclosure intended by illi m

Gree e was sent to ondon and on th ember he writes My cousin hakespeare coming yesterday to town I went to see how he did and he and Hall say they think there will be nothing done at all the corporation held a hall and letters with nearly all the company s signatures were written and hakespeare and Greene also sent his cousin full particulars of the proceedings
In we his name in a jury list at owington and in John ombe s will but here our kno ledge of him ceases

except for the last notice of all

March he

made his will on April he was buried died on the His daughter Judith had married homas Qui ey intner on F so that he left both his daughters