judgment was in combination with the highest fancy. With such friends, then, as Fulk Sandells and John Rychardson, would this young man be as free and as gladsome as if they were as equal in their minds as in their worldly circumstances. To a certain extent he would doubtless take the lead; he must of necessity have been the readiest in all discourse in his own circle ;-the unconscious instructor of his companions; one that even age would listen to with reverence. To the young he would have been as a spirit of gladness lighted upon the earth, to make everything more bright and beautiful amidst which he walked. A sharp gallop over Bardon Hill shakes off the cold of the grey morning; and as the sun shoots a sudden gleam over a reach of the Avon, the young poet warms up into a burst of merriment which brings his friends in a moment to his side. He is full of animation. All the natural objects around furnish him with a theme. The lapwing screams, and he has a story to tell which is not the less enjoyed by his hearers because Ovid had told it before him; a hare runs towards them on the road, and he has a laugh for the superstition that ill-luck is boded-mingled with a remark, which is more for himself than his listeners, that "there is more in this world than is known to our philosophy." They hold their course gallantly on through Bidford and Salford; pausing a moment to look upon that fine old monastic house, which has become deserted since the dissolution of the abbeys. There were once state and

wealth within its walls. Its tenants are scattered or perished: and if some solitary nun shall still endure, she will at last find a resting-place amongst the poorest-no requiem will be sung for her, such as she has heard sung for her sisters.

They rest for an hour or two at Evesham. Well known is that interesting town to William Shakspere; and he has many traditions connected with its ruined abbey, which have a deep interest even for those who look not upon such matters with the spirit of poetical reverence. Onwards again they ride through the beautiful vale. unequalled in its picturesque fertility. As they catch the first glimpse of the bold Malvern hills the young poet's eye is lighted up with many thoughts of the vast and wonderful of nature; for, to the inhabitants of a level and cultivated country even the slightest character of mountainous scenery brings a sense of the sublime. Nearer and nearer they approach these hills, and still they are indistinct, though apparently lifted to the clouds; and he watches that blue haze which hangs around them, as if in their solitudes there was something to be found more satisfying than in the pent-up plains. Pershore is reached; a magnificent work, like Evesham, made desolate by changes of opinion, urged on by violence and rapacity. The spires and towers of Worcester are soon in view. An hospitable inn there receives them. They are weary; and their business is deferred to the morrow. The morning comes; and the young men are surprised at the readiness of the official persons to promote their object. The requisite formalities are soon accomplished. The morning is passed in looking over the wonders of that interesting city-rich in monuments of the past which time and policy have spared. The evening sees the travellers on their way homeward. Sunday comes; and the banns are once asked. On Monday is the wedding,

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It is scarcely necessary to point out to our readers that the view we have taken presupposes that the licence for matrimony, obtained from the Consistorial Court at Worcester, was a permission sought for under no extraordinary circumstances ;-still less that the young man who was about to marry was compelled to urge on the marriage as a consequence of previous imprudence. We believe, on the contrary, that the course pursued was strictly in accordance with the customs of the time, and of the class, to which Shakspere belonged. The espousals before witnesses, we have no doubt, were then considered as constituting a valid marriage, if followed up within a limited time by the marriage of the Church. However the Reformed Church might have endeavoured to abrogate this practice, it was unquestionably the ancient habit of the people. It was derived from the Roman law, the foundation of many of our institutions. It prevailed for a long period without offence. It still prevails in the Lutheran Church. We are not to judge of the customs of those days by our own, especially if our inferences have the effect of imputing criminality where the most perfect innocence existed.*

NOTE ON CHRISTENING CUSTOMS.

HOWES, in his 'Continuation of Stow's Chronicle,' has this passage: "At this time (the first year of Queen Elizabeth), and for many years before, it was not the use and custom, as now it is (1631), for godfathers and godmothers generally to give plate at the baptism of children (as spoons, cups, and such like), but only to give christening shirts, with little bands and cuffs wrought either with silk or blue thread; the best of them for chief persons were edged with a small lace of black silk and gold, the highest price of which for great men's children was seldom above a noble, and the common sort two, three, or four and five shillings a-piece." Most of our readers are probably familiar with the story of Shakspere's own present as a godfather to the son of Ben Jonson. It is found in a manuscript in the British Museum, bearing the title of 'Merry Passages and Jests,' compiled by Sir Nicholas Lestrange. Such parts of this manuscript as are fit for publication, with other selections, have been published by the Camden Society in a little volume entitled 'Anecdotes and Traditions.' We would give this story if it were only to show our respect to Mr. Thoms, the editor of the volume, who has our sympathy when in his l'envoy he pleasantly says, "Go forth, my little book. Thou wilt, I know, find some friendly hands outstretched to give thee welcome. Yet, peradventure thou mayest meet also with unfriendly frowns-kindly meant, but hard to bear withal -signs of disapproval from good men and true, amongst whom it is the orthodox opinion that, as antiquarian matters are as old as the desert, they should be made as dry." The anecdote, in the orthography of the original, is as follows: "Shake-speare was god-father to one of Ben Jonson's children, and after the christ'ning, being in a deepe study, Jonson came to cheere him up, and ask't him why he was so melancholy? No, faith, Ben' (says he), 'not I, but I have been considering a great while what should be the fittest gift for me to bestow upon my god-child, and I have resolv'd at last.' I pr'y the, what?' sayes he. 'I' faith, Ben, I'le e'en give him a douzen good Lattin Spoones, and thou shalt translate them.'"

NOTE ON SHAKSPERE'S MARRIAGE-LICENCE.

THE following is a copy of the document in the Consistorial Court of Worcester, which was first published by Mr. Wheler in 1836, having been previously discovered by Sir R. Phillips. It consists of a bond to the officers of the Ecclesiastical Court, in which Fulk Sandells, of the county of Warwick, farmer, and John Rychardson, of the same place, farmer, are bound in the sum of forty pounds, &c. It is dated the 28th day of November, in the 25th year of Elizabeth (1582):

"Novint univsi p psentes nos Fulcone Sandells de Stratford in Comit Warwic agricolam et Johem Rychardson ibm agricola teneri et firmiter obligari Rico Cosin gnoso et Robto Warmstry notario puo in quadraginta libris bone et legalis monete Angliæ solvend eisdem Rico et Robto hered execut vel assignat suis ad quam quidem soluconem bene et fidelr faciend obligam nos et utruq nrm p se pro toto et in solid hæred executor et administrator nros firmiter p pntes sigillis bris sigillat. Dat 28 die Nove Anno Regni Dne nre Eliz Dei gratia Anglia Franc et Hibniæ Regine Fidei Defensor &c. 25".

"The condicon of this obligacon ys suche, that if hereafter there shall not appere any lawfull lett or impediment by reason of any p contract or affinitie, or by any other lawful meanes whatBoev, but that Willm Shagapere on thone ptie, and Anne Hathwey, of Stratford, in the Dioces of

Worcester, maiden, may lawfully solemnize mriony, and in the same afterwards remaine and continew like man and wife, according unto the laws in that case provided; and moreov, if there be not at this psent time any action, suit, quarrel, or demand, moved or depending before any iudge ecclesiastical or temporall for and concerning any suche lawfull lett or impediment. And moreov, if the said Willm Shagspere do not pceed to solemnizacon of marriadg with the said Ann Hathwey without the consent of hir frinds. And also if the said Willm do upon his own pper costs and expences defend and save harmles the Right Revend Father in God Lord John Bushop of Worcester and his offycers, for licensing them, the said Willm and Anne, to be maried together wth once asking of the bannes of mriony betwene them and for alle other causes wch may ensue by reason or occasion thereof, that then the said obligacon to be voyd and of none effect, or else to stand and abide in fulle force and vertue."

In the Life of Shakspeare' by Mr. de Quincey the following observations are appended to an abridgment of the Marriage-Licence. The view thus taken is entirely opposed to our own, principally because it goes on to assume that the marriage of the young poet was unhappy-that his wife had not his respect-and this unhappiness drove him from Stratford. All this appears to

us to be gratuitous assumption, and altogether inconsistent with this undeniable fact, that Shakspere is especially the poet who has done justice to the purity and innocence of the female character. It is not, we think, to be lightly inferred that his own peculiar experience would have offered him an example throughout his life of the opposite qualities. It would be unfair, however, not to give the opinion which is thus opposed to our own :

"What are we to think of this document? Trepidation and anxiety are written upon its face. The parties are not to be married by a special licence, not even by an ordinary licence; in that case no proclamation of banns, no public asking at all, would have been requisite. Economical scruples are consulted, and yet the regular movement of the marriage 'through the bell-ropes' is disturbed. Economy, which retards the marriage, is here evidently in collision with some opposite principle which precipitates it. How is all this to be explained? Much light is afforded by the date when illustrated by another document. The bond bears date on the 28th day of November, in the 25th year of our lady the queen, that is, in 1582. Now, the baptism of Shakspeare's eldest child, Susanna, is registered on the 26th of May in the year following. * Strange it is, that, whilst all biographers have worked with so much zeal upon the most barren dates or most baseless traditions in the great roet's life, realising in a manner the chimeras of Laputa, and endeavouring 'to extract sunbeams from cucumbers,' such a story with regard to such an event, no fiction of village scandal, but involved in legal documents,‚—a story so significant and so eloquent to the intelligent,should formerly have been dismissed without notice of any kind; and even now, after the discovery of 1836, with nothing beyond a slight conjectural insinuation. For our parts, we should have been the last among the biographers to unearth any forgotten scandal. ** But in this case there seems to have been something more in motion than passion or the ardour of youth. I like not,' says Parson Evans (alluding to Falstaff in masquerade), 'I like not when a woman has a great peard; I spy a great peard under her muffler.' Neither do we like the spectacle of a mature young woman, five years past her majority, wearing the semblance of having been led astray by a boy who had still two years and a half to run of his minority."