of the most curious woodcuts in this volume have been derived from his careful drawings of objects now in many instances destroyed by the march of modern innovation. This valuable collection has recently, with as much judgment as liberality, been presented to the Royal Shakespearian Club of Stratford, by the author's son, Henry Caulfield Saunders, Esq., and it is to be hoped that in time all authentic papers relating to Shakespeare will eventually find a place in a Museum consecrated to his memory, to be erected on his patrimonial estate, and near to the spot where he first saw the light.

The Record Offices of London have also furnished much valuable information which has escaped previous enquirers. The want of a diligent spirit of research is here again eminently exhibited. For example, Mr. Collier enters into an elaborate argument to ascertain the year in which Shakespeare purchased New Place, and expresses his opinion that the exact date can never be recovered; but it is certainly most remarkable that no biographer should have been at the pains to take the first process in an enquiry relating to the purchase of property in those days, an inspection of the Index Finium. The date having been brought within narrow limits, a few minutes' search would have discovered the foot of the fine levied upon that occasion. This series of records has preserved several other important particulars respecting the poet and his father never before noticed.

It will be found that, with the aid of the documents discovered in the collections above mentioned, there are very few eras in the history of Shakespeare's life on which

I have not been able to throw some new light; and, with the exception of that little mine of valuable detail, Collier's New Facts, 1835, the present volume contains, I believe, more new information than any biographical work on Shakespeare that has yet appeared. But even with these advantages, the task is one so bold and arduous, if a writer presumes to form his own opinions on subjects treated of by so many abler men, that, in the commencement of this investigation, I entertained the humbler project of publishing my discoveries separately. "When I said I would die a bachelor," says Benedick, "I did not think I should live till I were married." I had quite as little idea of becoming one of Shakespeare's biographers; but the publishers, those arbitrers of the destinies of authors, refused to accept my collections unless presented to the public in a consecutive narrative, and I was obliged to make an essay which, under other circumstances, would probably not have been attempted.

A very few words on the course at length adopted will suffice, for the materials have been arranged in the least presuming form, and no more is attempted beyond placing before the reader an unprejudiced and complete view of The word unpre

every known fact respecting the poet. judiced need not create a smile, however impossible it might appear that impartiality could be wanting in such a matter; but latterly a spirit has arisen amongst a few writers, which would seem to tell us it is little better than sacrilege to believe any evidence affecting in the slightest degree Shakespeare's moral character. Believing this species of refinement to be unnecessary, and not exactly observing

more reason that a good poet must be a man of spotles character than that a bad one must be a villain, I have ventured to submit in every case the best evidence I could obtain, frankly grounding my opinion in every instance on testimony or reasonable probability, uninfluenced by any preconceived notion that what was not favorable was likewise not true, but certainly leaning in most instances to the more honorable interpretation, for Shakespeare's contemporaries have recorded the amiability of his character in terms that cannot be misinterpreted.

All the documents of any importance respecting the Shakespeares are here printed at length, so that the reader will be much better able to judge of their value and importance than if abstracts only were furnished. Their authenticity will also be more evidently perceived, a matter of no small importance, when it is considered how many forgeries of Shakespearian manuscripts have been attempted to be made current, though reference to none of them is made in the following pages.

It would have been no very difficult task to have impugned the accuracy of my predecessors, for here are silently corrected many hundreds of mistakes, some of the greatest magnitude, others merely literal. Indeed, the corrections have been in some instances so overwhelming, that it is scarcely possible all could have been detected. In the course of one short Latin document, there are, in all copies hitherto printed, no less than fifty-seven blunders, so that it is absolutely unreadable, and hence its exact purport has never been mentioned. The recurrence of ad 20. cur. for ad proximam curiam, the MS. reading pa, which has

been taken for ræ, is one out of many examples that night be produced of the singularly small knowledge of records that has been brought to assist in these enquiries. Literal accuracy, I admit, is not to be attained without having free use of the originals, but, in fact, ordinary care has seldom been observed in cases where the MSS. were personally consulted. In the will of Agnes Arden, as printed by Mr. Hunter, which occupies not quite two octavo pages, eightyseven errors have been committed, but these are mostly literal, and do not affect the sense. In the case of any question of authenticity, however, such variations might cause serious inconvenience; and where the subject is susceptible of so many delicate arguments, it is generally best to follow the originals as minutely as possible, except in the refined antiquarian absurdities of retaining the u for v, or imitating the capital letters and punctuation of early scribes.

It must not, however, be supposed that great literal accuracy can be attained in every case, for there has not always been an opportunity for collating the documents in type, and, when they are of much extent, the only possible method of completely avoiding mistakes in a few final or unnecessary letters, is to compare the printed copy letter for letter with the originals. I can only lay claim to great care, and be contented with the reflection that few errors of much importance are likely to have escaped notice, leaving those when discovered to expect the courtesy here exhibited to others. Above all, before such a body of error as that just pointed out is alleged, let me mention that there are duplicate copies of several documents in the Council Chamber at Stratford, differing very materially from each other in

their orthography.

Many of the early accounts of the Chamberlains are found in duplicate, some of them written at greater length, and containing more information than the brief notices entered in the books of the corporation. Whenever a document here printed differs in any great degree from an early copy, it may be safely concluded that another manuscript has been used.

The Latin documents, I fear, will occasionally bid defiance to a correct grammatical construction, nor must the classical scholar expect or desire this in our old legal papers. The language is peculiar, and the intended construction not always clear, although the sense is generally apparent. The terminations are not filled up, for in many cases they might have been interpreted in more ways than one; but I have printed the contractions in extenso, and have left no passage in an unreadable state. The originals have been carefully followed, even when not grammatically accurate. Thus we have priorissa for priorissæ, p. 4; filius Johannes, p. 28; cum pertinentiis jacencium, p. 37; hujus parothia, p. 116, and numerous other instances; but even such barbarous specimens may serve to show the state of knowledge among a certain class of people at the time, and objections might have been raised against their alteration.

In the selection of the woodcuts, the same star of rigid authenticity has throughout been my guide; and great advantage has been derived from the taste of Mr. F. W. Fairholt, F.S.A., to whose careful pencil the reader is indebted for all the illustrations and fac-similes in this work. Nothing has been copied which will not bear the test of the strictest examination, and, as in the literary portion of this