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THE

DRAMATIC WORKS

OF

William Shakspeare.

FROM THE TEXT OF THE

CORRECTED COPIES OF STEEVENS AND MALONE,

WITH

A LIFE OF THE POET,

BY CHARLES SYMMONS, D. D.

THE SEVEN AGES OF MAN;

EMBELLISHED WITH ELEGANT ENGRAVINGS.

AND A

GLOSSARY.

COMPLETE IN ONE VOLUME.

HARTFORD:

WILLIAM ANDRUS.

1841.

THE

LIFE OF WILLIAM SHAKSPEARE.

BY CHARLES SYMMONS, D. D.

Wherever any extraordinary display of human inferences of lawless and vagabond conjecture., Intellect has been made, there will human cu- Of this remarkable ignorance of one of the most riosity, at one period or the other, be busy to richly endowed with intellect of the human obtain some personal acquaintance with the dis-species, who ran his mortal race in our own tinguished mortal whom Heaven had been pleas- country, and who stands separated from us by ed to endow with a larger portion of its own no very great intervention of time, the causes ethereal energy. If the favoured man walked may not be difficult to be ascertained. William on the high places of the world; if he were con- Shakspeare was an actor and a writer of plays; versant with courts; if he directed the move-in neither of which characters, however he might ments of armies or of states, and thus held in his excel in them, could he be lifted high in the hand the fortunes and the lives of multitudes of estimation of his contemporaries. He was hohis fellow-creatures, the interest, which he noured, indeed, with the friendship of nobles, excites, will be immediate and strong; he stands and the patronage of monarchs; his theatre was on an eminence where he is the mark of many frequented by the wits of the metropolis; and he eyes; and dark and unlettered indeed must be associated with the most intellectual of his times. the age in which the incidents of his eventful life But the spirit of the age was against him; and, will not be noted, and the record of them be pre-in opposition to it, he could not become the sub served for the instruction or the entertainment ject of any general or comprehensive interest. of unborn generations. But if his course were The nation, in short, knew little and cared less through the vale of life: if he were unmingled about him. During his life, and for some years with the factions and the contests of the great: after his death, inferior dramatists outran him if the powers of his mind were devoted to the in the race of popularity; and then the flood of silent pursuits of literature-to the converse of puritan fanaticism swept him and the stage philosophy and the Muse, the possessor of the together into temporary oblivion. On the reethereal treasure may excite little of the attention storation of the monarchy and the theatre, the of his contemporaries; may walk quietly, with school of France perverted our taste, and it was a veil over his glories, to the grave; and, in not till the last century was somewhat advanced other times, when the expansion of his intel- that William Shakspeare arose again, as it were, lectual greatness has filled the eyes of the world, from the tomb, in all his proper majesty of light. it may be too late to inquire for his history as a He then became the subject of solicitous and man. The bright track of his genius indelibly learned inquiry: but inquiry was then too late; remains; but the trace of his mortal footstep is and all that it could recover, from the ravage of soon obliterated for ever. Homer is now only a time, were only a few human fragments, which Dame-a solitary name, which assures us, that, could scarcely be united into a man. To these at some unascertained period in the annals of causes of our personal ignorance of the great mankind, a mighty mind was indulged to abard of England, must be added his own strange human being, and gave its wonderful produc- indifference to the celebrity of genius. When tions to the perpetual admiration of men, as they he had produced his admirable works, ignorant spring in succession in the path of time. Of or heedless of their value, he abandoned them Homer himself we actually know nothing; and with perfect indifference to oblivion or to fame. We see only an arm of immense power thrust It surpassed his thought that he could grow into forth from a mass of impenetrable darkness, and the admiration of the world; and, without any holding up the hero of his song to the applauses reference to the curiosity of future ages, in which of never-dying fame. But it may he supposed he could not conceive himself to possess an inthat the revolution of, perhaps, thirty centuries, terest, he was contented to die in the arms of las collected the cloud which thus withdraws obscurity, as an unlaurelled burgher of a prothe father of poesy from our sight. Little more vincial town. To this combination of causes than two centuries has elapsed since William are we to attribute the scantiness of our mateShakspeare conversed with our tongue, and trod rials for the Life of William Shakspeare. His the self-same soil with ourselves; and if it were works are in myriads of hands: he constitutes not for the records kept by our Church in its the delight of myriads of readers: his renown is registers of births, marriages, and burials, we coextensive with the civilization of man; and, should at this moment be as personally ignorant striding across the ocean from Europe, it occuof the "sweet swan of Avon," as we are of the pies the wide region of transatlantic empire: but old minstrel and rhapsodist of Meles. That he is himself only a shadow which disappoints William Shakspeare was born in Stratford upon our grasp: an undefined form which is rather Avon; that he married and had three children; intimated than discovered to the keenest searchthat he wrote a certain number of dramas; that ings of our eye. Of the little however, questionhe died before he had attained to old age, and able or certain, which can be told of him, we was buried in his native town, are positively the must now proceed to make the best use in our only facts, in the personal history of this extra-power, to write what by courtesy may be called ordinary man, of which we are certainly pos- his life; and we have only to lament that the sessed; and, if we should be solicitous to fill up result of our labour must greatly disappoint the this bare and most unsatisfactory outline, we curiosity which has been excited by the grandeur innst have recourse to the vague reports of un- of his reputation. The slight narrative of Rowe, stantial tradition, or to the still more shadowy founded on the information obtained, in the be

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ginning of the last century, by the inquiries of ject of controversy. According to the testimony Betterton, the famous actor, will necessarily of Rowe, grounded on the tradition of Stratford, supply us with the greater part of the materials the father of our poet was a dealer in wool, or, with which we are to work. in the provincial vocabulary of his country, a William Shakspeare, or Shakspere, (for the wool-driver; and such he has been deemed by floating orthography of the name is properly all the biographers of his son, till the fact was attached to the one or the other of these varieties,) thrown into doubt by the result of the inquisiwas baptized in the church of Stratford upon tiveness of Malone. Finding, in an old and obAvon, as is ascertained by the parish register, scure MS. purporting to record the proceedings on the 26th of April 1564; and he is said to have of the bailiff's court in Stratford, our John been born on the 23d of the same month, the Shakspeare designated as a glover, Malone day consecrated to the tutelar saint of England. insults over the ignorance of poor Rowe, and His parents, John and Mary Shakspeare, were assumes no small degree of merit to himself as not of equal ranks in the cominunity; for the the discoverer of a long sought and a most imformer was only a respectable tradesman, whose portant historic truth. If he had recollected the ancestors cannot be traced into gentility, whilst remark of the clown in the Twelfth Night,* the latter belonged to an ancient and opulent that a sentence is but a cheverel glove to a good house in the county of Warwick, being the wit. How quickly the wrong side may be turned youngest daughter of Robert Arden of Wilme- outwards!" he would, doubtless, have pressed cote. The family of the Ardens (or Ardernes, the observation into his service, and brought it as it is written in all the old deeds,) was of con- as an irresistible attestation of the veracity of siderable antiquity and importance, some of his old MS.

them having served as high sheriffs of their Whatever may have been the trade of John county, and two of them (Sir John Arden and Shakspeare, whether that of wool-merchant or his nephew, the grandfather of Mrs.Shakspeare,) of glover, it seems, with the little fortune of his having enjoyed each a station of honour in the wife, to have placed him in a state of easy compersonal establishment of Henry VII. The petence. In 1569 or 1570, in consequence partly younger of these Ardens was made, by his of his alliance with the Ardens, and partly of sovereign, keeper of the park of Aldercar and his attainment of the prime municipal honours bailiff of the lordship of Codnore. He obtained, of his town, he obtained a concession of arms also, from the crown a valuable grant in the from the herald's office, a grant, which placed lease of the manor of Yoxsal in Staffordshire, him and his family on the file of the gentry of consisting of more than 4,600 acres, at a rent of England; and, in 1574, he purchased two houses, 421. Mary Arden did not come dowerless to her with gardens and orchards annexed to them, plebeian husband, for she brought to him a small in Henley Street in Stratford. But before the freehold estate called Asbies, and the sum of 61 year 1578, his prosperity, from causes not now 138. 4d. in money. The freehold consisted of a ascertainable, had certainly declined; for in house and fifty-four acres of land; and, as far that year, as we find from the records of his as it appears, it was the first piece of landed pro- borough, he was excused, in condescension to perty which was ever possessed by the Shak-his poverty, from the moiety of a very moderate speares. Cf this marriage the offspring was four assessment of six shillings and eightpence, made sons and four daughters; of whom Joan (or, by the members of the corporation on themaccording to the orthography of that time, Jone,) selves; at the same time that he was altogether and Margaret, the eldest of the children, died exempted from his contribution to the relief of one in infancy and one at a somewhat more ad- the poor. During the remaining years of his vanced age; and Gilbert, whose birth immedi- life, his fortunes appear not to have recovered ately succeeded to that of our Poet, is supposed themselves; for he ceased to attend the meetby some not to have reached his maturity, and ings of the corporation hall, where he had once by others to have attained to considerable lon- presided; and, in 1586, another person was subgevity. Joan, the eldest of the four remaining children, and named after her deceased sister, married William Hart, a halter in her native town; and Edmund, the youngest of the family, adopting the profession of an actor, resided in St. Baviour's parish in London; and was buried in &t. Saviour's Church on the last day of December 1607, in his twenty-eighth year. Of Anue and Richard, whose births intervened between those of Joan and Edmund, the parish register tells the whole history, when it records that the former was buried on the 4th of April 1579, in the eighth year of her age, and the latter on the 4th of February 1612-13, when he had nearly completed his thirty-ninth.

stituted as alderman in his place, in consequence of his magisterial inefficiency. He died in the September of 1601, when his illustrious son had already attained to high celebrity; and his wife, Mary Shakspeare, surviving him for seven years, deceased in the September of 1608, the burial of the former being registered on the eighth and that of the latter on the ninth of this month, in each of these respective years.

On the 30th of June 1564, when our poet had not yet been three months in this breathing world, his native Stratford was visited by the plague; and, during the six succeeding months, the ravaging disease is calculated to have swept to the grave more than a seventh part of the In consequence of a document, discovered in whole population of the place. But the favoured the year 1770, in the house in which, if tradition infant reposed in security in his cradle, and is to be trusted, our poet was born, some per- breathed health amid an atmosphere of pestisons have concluded that John Shakspeare was lence. The Genius of England may be supposed a Roman Catholic, though he had risen, by the to have held the arm of the destroyer, and not regular gradation of office, to the chief dignity to have permitted it to fall on the consecrated of the corporation of Stratford, that of high bai- dwelling of his and Nature's darling. The disliff; and, during the whole of this period, had ease, indeed, did not overstep his charmed unquestionably conformed to the rites of the threshold; for the name of Shakspeare is not Church of England. The asserted fact seemed to be found in the register of deaths throughout not to be very probable; and the document in that period of accelerated mortality. That he question, which, drawn up in a testamentary survived this desolating calamity of his townsform and regularly attested, zealously professes men, is all that we know of William Shakspeare the Roman faith of him in whose name it speaks, from the day of his birth till he was sent, as we having been subjected to a rigid examination are informed by Rowe, to the free-school of by Malone, has been pronounced to be spurious. Stratford; and was stationed there in the course The trade of John Shakspeare, as well as his of his education, till, in consequence of the straitreligious faith, has recently been made the subAct iii. sc. L

ened circumstances of his father, he was recalled nion, both parties are wrong, both they who to the paternal roof. As we are not told at what contend for our poet's learning, and they who age he was sent to school, we cannot form any place his illiteracy on a level with that of John estimate of the time during which he remained Taylor, the celebrated water-poet, I must rethere. But if he was placed under his master sume my humble and most deficient narrative. when he was six years old, he might have conti-The classical studies of William Shakspeare, nued in a state of instruction for seven or even for whatever progress he may or may not have made eight years; a term sufficiently long for any boy, in them, were now suspended; and he was renot an absolute blockhead, to acquire something placed in his father's house, when he had atmore than the mere elements of the classical tained his thirteenth or fourteenth year, to assist Janguages. We are too ignorant, however of with his hand in the maintenance of the family. dates, in these instances, to speak with any con- Whether he continued in this situation whilst fidence on the subject; and we can only assert he remained in his single state, has not been that seven or eight of the fourteen years, which told to us, and cannot therefore at this period intervened between the birth of our poet in 1564 be known. But in the absence of information, and the known period of his father's diminished conjecture will be busy; and will soon cover fortune in 1578, might very properly have been the bare desert with unprofitable vegetation. given to the advantages of the free-school. But Whilst Malone surmises that the young poet now the important question is to be asked-passed the interval, till his marriage, or a large What were the attainments of our young Shak- portion of it, in the office of an attorney, Aubrey speare at this seat of youthful instruction? Did stations him during the same term at the head he return to his father's house in a state of utter of a country school. But the surmises of Malone ignorance of classic literature? or was he as are not universally happy; and to the assertions far advanced in his school-studies as boys of his of Aubrey I am not disposed to attach more age (which I take to be thirteen or fourteen) credit than was attached to them by Anthony usually are in the common progress of our pub-Wood, who knew the old gossip, and was comlic and more reputable schools? That his scho-petent to appreciate his character. It is inore Jastic attainments did not rise to the point of probable that the necessity, which brought young learning, seems to have been the general opinion Shakspeare from his school, retained him with of his contemporaries; and to this opinion I his father's occupation at home, till the acquiam willing to assent. But I cannot persuade sition of a wife made it convenient for him to myself that he was entirely unacquainted with remove to a separate habitation. It is reason the classic tongues; or that, as Farmer and his able to conclude that a mind like his, ardent, followers labour to convince us, he could re-excursive, and "all compact of imagination," ceive the instructions, even for three or four would not be satisfied with entire inactivity; years, of a school of any character, and could but would obtain knowledge where it could, if then depart without any knowledge beyond not from the stores of the ancients, from those at that of the Latin accidence. The most accom-least which were supplied to him by the writers plished scholar nay read with pleasure the of his own country. poetic versions of the classic poets; and the less In 1582, before he had completed his eighadvanced proficient may consult his indolence teenth year, he married Anne Hathaway, the by applying to the page of a translation of a daughter, as Rowe informs us, of a substantial prose classic, when accuracy of quotation may yeoman in the neighbourhood of Stratford. We not be required: and on evidences of this nature are unacquainted with the precise period of is supported the charge which has been brought, their marriage, and with the church in which and which is now generally admitted, against it was solemnized, for in the register of Stratour immortal bard, of more than school-boy ford there is no record of the event; and we are ignorance. He might, indeed, from necessity, made certain of the year, in which it occurred, apply to North for the interpretation of Plu-only by the baptism of Susanna, the first protarch; but he read Golding's Ovid only, as I duce of the union, on the 26th of May, 1583. As am satisfied, for the entertainment of its Eng-young Shakspeare neither increased his fortune lish poetry. Ben Jonson, who must have been by this match, though he probably received intimately conversant with his friend's classic some money with his wife, nor raised himsel acquisitions, tells us expressly that, "He had by it in the community, we may conclude that small Latin and less Greek." But, according he was induced to it by inclination, and the to the usual plan of instruction in our schools, impulse of love. But the youthful poet's dream he must have traversed a considerable extent of happiness does not seem to have been realized of the language of Rome, before he could touch by the result. The bride was eight years older even the confines of that of Greece. He must, than the bridegroom: and whatever charms she In short, have read Ovid's Metamorphoses, and might possess to fascinate the eyes of her boya part at least of Virgil, before he could open lover, she probably was deficient in those the graminar of the more ancient, and copious, powers which are requisite to impose a durable and complex dialect. This I conceive to be a fetter on the heart, and to hold in sweet cap fair statement of the case in the question re-tivity" a mind of the very highest order. No specting Shakspeare's learning. Beyond contro-charge is intimated gainst the lady but she is versy he was not scholar; but he had not pro- left in Stratford by her husband during his long fited so little by the hours, which he had passed residence in the metropolis; and on his death, in school, as not to be able to understand the she is found to be only slightly, and, as it were, more easy Roman authors without the assistance casually remembered in his will. Her second of a translation. If he himself had been asked pregnancy, which was productive of twins, on the subject, he might have parodied his own (Hamnet and Judith, baptized on the 2d of FebFalstaff, and have answered, "Indeed I am not ruary 1584-5,) terminated her pride as a mother; Scaliger or a Budæus, but yet no blockhead, and we know nothing more respecting her than friend." I believe also that he was not wholly that, surviving her illustrious consort by rather Bacquainted with the popular languages of more than seven years, she was buried on the France and Italy. He had abundant leisure to 8th of August, 1623, being, as we are told by the Acquire them; and the activity and the curiosity inscription on her tomb, of the age of sixty-seven. of his mind were sufficiently strong to urge him Respecting the habits of life, or the occupation to their acquisition. But to discuss this much of our young poet by which he obtained his agitated question would lead me beyond the subsistence, or even the place of his residence, limits which are prescribed to me; and, con- subsequently to his marriage, not a floating syltenting myself with declaring that, in my opi-lable has been wafted to us by tradition for the

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