Cornwell"; and was accordingly fined. In 1581 he resolutely declined to pay tithes on his farm, refused to submit to the decision of the Ecclesiastical Court, and, after being censured, was excommunicated. In 1582 he was fined "for not labouring with teams for the amending of the Queen's highway"; and the following year he was again fined because he refused to wear a cloth cap on Sundays and holidays as required by statute. Clearly he had a mind of his own.

Although he was married (his wife was named Margaret), he seems to have had no children at least none that lived to maturity. The young William, we may suppose, was a frequent visitor in the home of his "Uncle Harry" and "Aunt Margaret," and on their farm, perhaps, acquired some of his wide knowledge of rustic types and of country life.

In his business undertakings Henry seems to have been consistently unfortunate. In 1586 he was unable to pay a certain debt for which his more prosperous Stratford brother had become surety, and the creditor was forced to bring suit against John Shakespeare for the sum.1 In 1591 he was imprisoned for debts to Richard Ainge; and in 1596 he was again attached for debts to John Tomlyns. His very death was rendered pathetic by the clamor of creditors. John Blythe, of Allesley, it seems, had sold two oxen to "Henry Shakespeare of Snitterfield” for £6 13s. 4d., which Henry promised to pay on a certain date. He died, however, with the debt unpaid, and Blythe brought suit against one William Meades for recovery of the sum, declaring that "Shakespeare, falling extremely sick about such time as the money was due, died about the time whereon the money ought to have been paid,

1 The documents in this case make the relationship between John, of Stratford, and Henry, of Snitterfield, perfectly clear: "Henricus Shakesper, frater dicti Johannes."

having it provided in his house against the day of payment.... Now so it is... that Shakespeare, living alone, without any company in his house,' and dying without either friends or neighbours with him or about him, one William Meades, dwelling near unto him, having understanding of his death, presently entered into the house of the said Shakespeare after that he was dead, and pretending that the said Shakespeare was indebted to him, ransacked his house, broke open his coffers, and took away divers sums of money, and other things," including, we are told, "all the goods and household stuff belonging to the said Shakespeare," a mare out of the stable, and "the corn and hay out of the barn." 2

The record of his troubled life is closed by a notice of his burial in the Snitterfield churchyard on December 9, 1596. Six weeks later, "Margaret Sakspere, being tymes the wyff of Henry Shakspere," was laid beside him.3

1 William Meades replied that Henry's wife Margaret was in the house; but since Margaret died six weeks later she may at the time referred to have been confined to her bed.

2 C. C. Stopes, Shakespeare's Environment, p. 69. It should be added that William Meades denied that he ransacked the house.

It is barely possible, but I think quite unlikely, that there was a third brother named Thomas. The history of Thomas is so vague, and his connection with the poet's family so doubtful, that other than a footnote reference to him is unjustified. For what is known of him, see Halliwell-Phillipps, Outlines, ii, 212.

CHAPTER II

PARENTAGE

THE poet's father, John, doubtless spent his youth on the parental farm at Snitterfield, and by hard labor in the fields, ploughing "with sturdy oxen," earned the designation agricola, which, as we have seen, was bestowed on him in the letters of administration of his father's estate. But at some date before 1552, prompted by vaulting ambition, he transferred his activities to the neighboring town of Stratford, a thriving place of some two thousand inhabitants.' Here he engaged his energies in various enterprises. In 1556, and again in 1586, he is described in legal documents as a glover, and that seems to have been his chief business throughout life. Yet, like other glovers of the time, he probably did not confine himself to the narrow limits of this trade. In a suit of 1573 he is referred to as a "whyttawer" (white-tawer), a tanner of white leather; and we learn, though on less authoritative evidence, that he was "a considerable dealer in wool." Furthermore, from the nature of the lawsuits in which he became involved, it seems that he dealt also in grain, malt, and other farm-products."

1 The estimate of Fripp, op. cit., p. xii. Fripp also gives (pp. xxxii-iii) an interesting, but problematical, account of John's apprenticeship to the glover's craft.

? It will be remembered that Sir John Mennes describes him in his old age as a glover still to be seen in his shop.

'See Halliwell-Phillipps, Outlines, ii, 328, note 191.

'That of Nicholas Rowe, who gathered his information largely from Betterton. Betterton made a visit to Stratford about 1690 to learn what he could of the poet and his family.

Probably he continued for a time his interest in farming at Snitterfield; as Fripp observes, "many of the Stratford tradesmen were yeomen,” and "most tradesmen supplemented their earnings by farming, malting, or victualling."

Our first notice of him in Stratford is in April, 1552, when, along with two other citizens, he was fined 12d. for having allowed a pile of filth (sterquinarium) to accumulate before his house in Henley Street the very house, it appears, in which twelve years later the poet was born. At this early date John was unmarried, and though he probably used the Henley Street house as his bachelor residence, he must have chiefly employed it as his shop, and as a warehouse for such stuff as passed through his hands.

Through industry at his chosen trade of glove-making, and good judgment in his miscellaneous speculations, he early laid the foundation of prosperity. The numerous suits he instituted in the courts against persons who owed him money, as well as the suits brought by others against him, clearly indicate the variety and extent of his activities. On June 28, 1553, Stratford received a charter of incorporation, and John, as one of the rising young business men of the town, was called upon to take a part in the municipal government; the records show that he was frequently required to serve on juries, and otherwise to perform the duties of citizenship.

By October 2, 1556, he had so prospered that he was able to buy two houses in Stratford. One of these, situated in Greenhill Street, with a garden, croft, and appurtenances, including a barn and an outhouse, was purchased, it would seem, as a speculation; no further record of it is to be discovered, and the presumption is that he shortly disposed of the property. The other, situated in Henley Street and adjoining the dwelling he already occupied there on a lease (to-day it constitutes the eastern half of the double house known as "Shakespeare's Home"), was acquired, no doubt, in order to provide increased accommodations for his growing business. Its common designation as the "Wool Shop"