for his entering on a new profession. I have proved, on undeniable evidence, that in March, 29 Eliz., 1587, Shakespeare's father was in prison, for on the 29th day of that month he produced a writ of habeas corpus in the Stratford Court of Record. See pp. 43, 44. Previously to this period, we discover him in transactions which leave no room for doubting that he was in difficulties, or at least in circumstances that placed him in a delicate legal position. Join to this the certainty that these matters would affect his son, with the traditions above related, and reason will be found quite sufficient for Shakespeare's important step of joining the metropolitan players. There is something apologetic in the following: O, for my sake do you with fortune chide, Than publick means, which publick manners breeds.* The best accounts we are possessed of tell us that Shakespeare commenced in a "very mean rank" in the company; according to Dowdall's letter, 1693, he was "received into the playhouse as a serviture," really meaning, I suppose, that Shakespeare was either an "apprentice" to an actor of some standing, or entered the company as an actor of inferior rank. He became no doubt an actor of considerable reputation, although his merits as a writer threw his histrionic abilities into the shade. According to Rowe, "the top of his performance was the Ghost in his own Hamlet," but this statement rests on slender authority, and is undoubtedly an exaggeration, for an early elegy upon Shakespeare alludes to him as "that famous writer and actor." The writer of a life of Shakespeare, published in a work entitled The Lives of the Poets of Great Britain and Ireland,' 12mo. Lond. 1753, gives us another account of the introduction of the great dramatist to the London playhouses. ' I cannot forbear relating a story which Sir William Davenant told Mr. Betterton, who communicated it to Mr. Rowe; Rowe told it Mr. Pope, and Mr. Pope told it to Dr. Newton, the late editor of Milton, and from a gentleman who heard it from him, 'tis here related. Concerning Shakespear's first appearance in the playhouse. When he came to London, he was without money and friends, *Sonnet cxi. Although the sonnets cannot safely be regarded as biographical, they may in some instances be taken as indications of the writer's sentiments. + See an epigram addressed to Mr. John Honyman, in Cokain's Small Poems, 1658, p. 140: On, hopefull youth, and let thy happy strain. and being a stranger, he knew not to whom to apply, nor by what means to support himself. At that time, coaches not being in use, and as gentlemen were accustomed to ride to the playhouse, Shakespear, driven to the last necessity, went to the playhouse door, and pick'd up a little money by taking care of the gentlemen's horses who came to the play; he became eminent even in that profession, and was taken notice of for his diligence and skill in it; he had soon more business than he himself could manage, and at last hired boys under him, who were known by the name of Shakespear's boys. Some of the players, accidentally conversing with him, found him so acute, and master of so fine a conversation, that, struck therewith, they [introduced] and recommended him to the house, in which he was first admitted in a very low station, but he did not long remain so, for he soon distinguished himself, if not as an extraordinary actor, at least as a fine writer. (Vol. i. pp. 130-1.) This anecdote is repeated by Dr. Johnson, with several variations. According According to this authority, Shakespeare became "so conspicuous for his care and readiness" in holding the horses, "that in a short time every man as he alighted called for Will. Shakspeare, and scarcely any other waiter was trusted with a horse while Will. Shakspeare could be had. This was the first dawn of better fortune. Shakspeare, finding more horses put into his hand than he could hold, hired boys to wait under his inspection, who, when Will. Shakspeare was summoned, were immediately to present themselves, I am Shakspeare's boy, sir. In time, Shakspeare found higher employment, but as long as the practice of riding to the playhouse continued, the waiters that held the horses retained the appellation of Shakspeare's boys." It will be observed that the story thus amplified is much more incredible than the original version in the Lives of the Poets,' which may have been obtained from Oldys or Coxeter, part of their MSS. having been used in the compilation of that work. Mr. Collier indignantly rejects the anecdote, alluding solely to the latter account of it. It cannot indeed be said to have been derived from a pure source, and Rowe has no allusion to it; but it is worthy of remark, that the practice of riding to the theatres had long been discontinued, and it is unlikely that a fabri cator of the eighteenth century would have been acquainted with so minute a piece of antiquarian information. It is not till the year 1589 that we procure any certain information respecting Shakespeare in London. About that period, serious complaints had been made, and the players had suffered many obstructions, on account of satirical and political subjects having been introduced into their performances. On some such occasion, the sharers of the Blackfriar's Theatre addressed the following certificate to the Privy Council, and it is one of the most important documents connected with Shakespeare yet discovered. It was found by Mr. Collier in the archives of the Earl of Ellesmere, and published by him in his New Facts regarding the Life of Shakespeare,' 8vo. 1835, p. 11. These are to certifie your right Honorable Lordships that her Majesties poore playeres, James Burbadge, Richard Burbadge, John Laneham, Thomas Greene, Robert Wilson, John Taylor, Anth. Wadeson, Thomas Pope, George Peele, Augustine Phillipps, Nicholas Towley, William Shakespeare, William Kemp, William Johnson, Baptiste Goodale, and Robert Armyn, being all of them sharers in the Blacke Fryers playehouse, have never given cause of displeasure in that they have brought into theire playes maters of state and religion unfitt to bee handled by them or to bee presented before lewde spectators: neither hath anie complaynte in that kinde ever bene preferrde against them or anie of them. Wherefore they trust moste humblie in your Lordships consideration of their former good behaviour, being at all tymes readie and willing to yeelde obedience to any command whatsoever your Lordships in your wisdome may thinke in such cas e meete, &c. Nov. 1589. If the reader will now turn to Dowdall's account that Shakespeare first entered the theatre as a servitor, he will, I think, find here something like a confirmation of that statement. Henslowe has a memorandum in his MS. register, in which he states that he "hiered as a covenaunt servant Willyam Kendall for ij. years, after the statute of Winchester, with ij. single penc, and [he] to geve hym for his sayd servis everi week of his playing in London x.s. and in д? бее з the cuntrie v.s. for the which he covenaunteth for the space of those ij. yeares to be redye at all tymes to play in the howse of the said Philip, and in no other, during the sayd terme." It is most consonant with the customs of the time to suppose that Shakespeare was such a servitor; and, if that were the case, we should naturally expect to find him raised afterwards to the rank of a sharer in the theatre, not a proprietor, but one who shared in the division of the daily profits of the representations. Mr. Collier's important discovery proves that Shakespeare had attained that rank in the Blackfriar's Theatre in November, 1589. Innumerable theories have been propounded as to the precise period when Shakespeare commenced writing for the stage; but no certain information having been procured, and the question being capable of several probable solutions, it shall here be passed over, and left to the reader's own judgment, to be formed from what has just been, and will hereafter be stated. But one of the most valuable facts connected with the history of Shakespeare's plays, although recorded on the testimony of Dryden, has not received that prominent notice which it deserves. Dryden, in his corrected prologue to the first play produced by Charles Davenant, 1677, taking the occasion of asserting that no grand effort in this kind was ever the earliest attempt of a dramatist, refers to the productions of Jonson, Fletcher, and Shakespeare, in these terms: Your Ben and Fletcher, in their first young flight, Did no Volpone, nor no Arbaces write, But hopped about and short excursions made From bough to bough, as if they were afraid, and he proceeds to say, "'tis miracle to see a first good |