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to use and exercise the arte and faculty of playing comedies, tragedies, histories, enterludes, moralls, pastorals, stage-plaies, and such other like, as thei have already studied, or hereafter shall use or studie, as well for the recreation of our loving subjects, as for our solace and pleasure, when we shall thinke good to see them, during our pleasure; and the said comedies, trajedies, histories, enterludes, moralls, pastoralls, stage-plaies, and such like, to shew and exercise publiquely to their best commoditie, when the infection of the plague shall decrease, as well within theire now usuall howse called the Globe, within our county of Surrey, as also within anie towne halls, or mout halls, or other convenient places within the liberties and freedome of any other citie, universitie, towne, or borough whatsoever within our said realmes and dominions : willing and commaunding you, and every of you, as you tender our pleasure, not only to permit and suffer them heerin, without any your letts, hinderances, or molestations, during our said pleasure, but also to be ayding or assisting to them yf any wrong be to them offered; and to allowe them such former courtesies, as hathe bene given to men of their place and qualitie; and also what further favour you shall shew to these our servants for our sake, we shall take kindly at your hands. And these our letters shall be your sufficient warrant and discharge in this behalfe.

"Given under our signet at our mannor of Greenewiche, the seavententh day of May in the first yeere of our raigne of England, France, and Ireland, and of Scotland the six and thirtieth."

75

Of the precise period when Shakespeare ceased to act we know no more than of the time when he began. His name last appears in a printed list of the characters attached to Jonson's "Sejanus," published in 1603, and it is thought that he relinquished a profession to which, if the lines in Sonnet cx1.76 express his real sentiments, he was never partial, shortly after the King's Patent was issued.77

In 1604, we find the poet bringing an action in the Court of Record at Stratford against Phillip Rogers for the sum of £1 15s. 10d., the consideration being for "malt" sold and

Among the various contributions purporting to throw light on Shakespeare's career which we owe to Mr. Collier, are two that claim attention at this stage of the biography. The first is a new reading of a letter still preserved at Dulwich College, from Mrs. Alleyn to her husband the actor, then absent on a professional expedition. The letter in question is dated October 20, 1603, and towards the end, where the paper is somewhat decayed, occurs a postscript, one paragraph of which reads thus:

"Aboute a weeke agoe there [cam]e a youthe who saide he was Mr. Frauncis Chalo[ner]s man. ld have borrow[e]d x to

ought have things for [h]is Mr.

Cominge without

I would have

& I bene su .

token

thym

d

and inquire after the fellow and said he had lent hym a horse. I as feare me he gulled hym, thoughe he gulled not The youthe what was a prety youthe and hansom in appayrell, we know not

became

of hym. Mr. Bromffeild commendes hym: hewas heare yesterdaye. Nicke and Jeames be well, and commend them, so dothe Mr. Cooke and his [weife.

In the kyndest sorte, and so once more in the hartiest manner farwelle."

In Mr. Collier's transcript of the letter, as published in his Memoirs of Edward Alleyn, 1841, and in his Life of Shakespeare, 1858, the above extract is exhibited as follows:

"Aboute a weeke a goe there came a youthe who said he was Mr. Francis Chaloner who would have borrowed x. li to have bought things for *** and said he was known unto you, and Mr. Shakespeare of the globe, who came

⚫ said he knewe hym not, only he herde of hym that he was so he was glade we did not lend him

a roge
the monney

Richard Johnes [went] to seeko

and inquire after the fellow, and said he had lent hymn a horse. I feare me he gulled hym, thoughe he gulled not us. The youthe

was a prety youthe, and hansom in appayrell: we knowe not what became

of hym. Mr. Benfield commendes hym; he was heare yesterdaye. Nicke
and Jeames be well, and comend them: so dothe Mr. Cooke and his wiefe
in the kyndest sorte, and so once more in the hartiest manner
farwell."

By what oversight, or from what motive, certain words which by no possibility could ever have formed part of the original were interpolated, and others which are plainly visible were omitted, I will not attempt to conjecture, but as Mr. Collier has deduced from the assumed mention of Mr. Shakespeare of the globe that our poet was in London at the date when this letter was written, it is proper to show that the assumption is unfounded. The other document professes to be a letter, found in the Ellesmero collection, from Daniel the poet to Sir Thomas Egerton, thanking him for his advancement to the office of Master of the Queen's Revels, and which, if genuine, would be of singular interest in relation to the life of Shakespeare (See Appendix). But this letter, long suspected, is now proclaimed to be a forgery.

76" O, for my sake do you with Fortune chide,
The guilty goddess of my harmful deeds,
That did not better for my life provide
Than public means which public manners breeds.
Thence comes it that my name receives a brand;
And almost thence my nature is subdu'd
To what it works in, like the dyer's hand."

77 To show "that he continued a member of the com. pany until April 9, 1604," Mr. Collier prints a list of the King's players, appended to a letter from the council to the Lord Mayor of London, where the names are thus enumerated: "Burbadge, Shakespeare, Fletcher, Phillips, Condell, Heminge, Armyn, Slye, Cowley, Hostler, Day.' This list, however, though added on to a genuine doryment, has lately been pronounced a modern fiction. Appendix.

See

delivered at several times. The following year, he made the most considerable purchase he is known to have effected, in buying the tithes of Stratford, Old Stratford, Bishopton and Welcome. Not long subsequently, we are told King James wrote to the poet with his own hand "an amicable letter," 78 and, as Mr. Dyce remarks, "the tradition is, perhaps, indirectly supported by the following entries in the Accounts of the Revels, which prove how highly the dramas of Shakespeare were relished at the court of James :

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The titles of several plays of Shakespeare occur in the Accounts of Lord Harrington, Treasurer of the Chamber to James I. among performances given before Prince Charles, the Lady Elizabeth, and the Prince Palatine Elector, in 1613:

"Paid to John Heminges uppon the councels warrt. dated at Whitehall, xx° die Maii 1613, for presentinge before the Princes Hignes, the La. Elizabeth, and the Prince Pallatyne Elector, fowerteene severall playes, viz. one playe called Filaster, one other call'd the Knotte of Fooles, one other Much Adoe abowte Nothinge, the Mayed's Tragedie, the Merye Dyvell of Edmonton, the Tempest, a Kinge and no Kinge, the Twin's Tragedie, the Winter's Tale, Sir John Falstafe [The Merry Wives of Windsor], the Moore of Venice, the Nobleman, Cæsars Tragedye, and one other called Love lyes a Bleedinge, all wch playes weare played wthin the tyme of this accompte, viz. p. the some of iiij. (xx.) xiij. li. vjs. viijd."s

From a retrospect of the few materials available for tracing the dramatist's career from the time when he is presumed to have left Stratford, we may conjecture him to have arrived in London about the year 1586, and to have joined some theatrical company, to which he remained permanently attached as playwright and actor until 1604. How often and in what characters he performed; 81 where he lived in London; who were his personal friends; what were his habits; what intercourse he maintained with his family; and to what degree he partook of the provincial excursions of his fellows during this period, are points on which it has been shown we have scarcely any reliable information. In about the year just named, his history, I think, reverts to Stratford; where, from the records of the town, he would appear to have then finally retired, and engaged himself actively in agricultural pursuits.82

On June 5th, 1607, Shakespeare's eldest daughter, Susanna, was married to John Hall, a medical practitioner at Stratford. In December of the same year his brother Edmund died, and on the 31st of that month was buried at St. Saviour's, Southwark. As he is entered in the burial register as "a player," he probably belonged to the same company as the poet.

On the 21st of Feb. 1607-8, Elizabeth Hall, the only daughter of John Hall and the poet's daughter Susanna, was baptized at Stratford. A few months later, Shakespeare lost his mother.83

In June of 1609, the records of Stratford show him to have brought an action, and obtained a verdict, against one John Addenbroke, for a debt of £6 and costs. Addenbroke not being

So Rawlinson's Coll. A. 239, Bodleian Lib.

The following verses by Davies in his Scourge of Folly, have been thought to afford some countenance to a shadowy tradition that Shakespeare not unfrequently played in kingly characters :

"To our English Terence, Mr. Will Shakespeare. "Some say, good Will, which I'in sport do sing, Had'st thou not plaid some kingly parts in sport, Thou hadst bin a companion for a king, And beene a king among the meaner sort. "Some others raile; but raile as they thinke fit, Thou hast no rayling, but a raigning wit: And honesty thou sow'st, which they do reape, So to increase their stocke, which they do keepe." The natural interpretation of the second line is that Shakespeare had on some occasions acted royalty in a way to provoke the displeasure of the king. Possibly he had represented James himself upon the stage, and by so doing, given offence. In a letter from John Chamberlaine to Sir R. Winwood, dated Dec. 18th, 1604, the writer states that the king's company had much annoyed the court by acting a play on the subject of the Gowry conspiracy: "The Tragedy of Gowry, with all the action and actors, hath been twice represented by the King's players, with exceeding concourse of all sorts of people.

But whether the matter or manner be not well handled, or that it be thought unfit that princes should be played on the stage in their life-time, I hear that some great councellors are much displeased with it, and so 'tis thought shall be forbidden."-Winwood's Memorials, &c. 11.41.

82 The copy of a letter discovered by Mr. Collier among the Ellesmere manuscripts, which begins, "My verie honored lord. The manie good offices I have received at your Lordships hands, which ought to make me backward in asking further favors," &c. and is signed with the initials of Lord Southampton, can no longer be admitted as evidence to the contrary, since it is now declared to be a fabrication. See Appendix.

Another document found by Mr. Collier in the same collection, and professing to be the draft of a warrant, January 4th, 1609-10, empowering Daborne, Shakespeare, Field, and Kirkman, to train up a company of juvenile performers; and a third found by him at Dulwich College: "A brief noat taken out of the poores booke, &c., 1609," wherein Shakespeare is assessed for the relief of the poor in Southwark, at 6d. per week, are equally invalid as proof of the poet's continued residence in the metropolis, both being condemned as modern inventions. See Appendix.

Her burial is entered in the register as follows:"1608, Septemb. 9. Mayry Sharpere, Wydowe."

forthcoming, the suit was afterwards prosecuted against Thomas Horneby, the defendant's bail; but with what result is not shown.

At the beginning of 1613, died Richard Shakespeare, the brother to the dramatist, in his fortieth year; of his history we know even less than of the other brother's, Gilbert, whom we have seen effecting a purchase for the poet, and whose signature as witness to a deed is still extant.

In the month of March, 1612-13, Shakespeare bought a house with ground attached, near to the Blackfriars Theatre, "abutting upon a streete leading downe to Pudle Wharffe on the east part, right against the Kinges Majesties Wardrobe." The indenture of conveyance dated the 10th of March, is "Betweene Henry Walker citizein and Minstrel of London, on thone partie, and William Shakespeare of Stratford upon Avon in the countie of Warwick, gentleman, William Johnson citizein and vintener of London, John Jackson and John Hemmyng of London gentlemen, on thother partie."

Local patronage of the drama we find was neither a cause nor a consequence of Shakespeare's retirement to Stratford; on the contrary, theatrical entertainments had for some years been discouraged by the municipal authorities of that borough. So early as 1602, it was ordered 'that there shall be no pleys or enterlewedes played in the chamber, the guildhalle, nor in any parte of the howsse or courte, ffrom hensforward upon payne that whosooever of the baylief, aldermen, and burgesses of this boroughe shall gyve leave or licence thereunto, shall forfeyt for everie offence xs." But this penalty does not seem to have been efficacious, for, on the 7th of February, 1612, the corporation made the following stringent order :

"The inconvenience of plaies being verie seriouslie considered of, with the unlawfullnes, and howe contrarie the sufferance of them is againste the orders hearetofore made, and againste the examples of other well-governed citties and burrowes, the companie heare are contented and theie conclude that the penalty of xs. imposed in Mr. Bakers yeare for breakinge the order, shall from henceforth be xli. upon the breakers of that order, and this to holde until the nexte commen councell, and from thencforth for ever, excepted, that be then finalli revokd and made voide."

One of the best known though least authentic anecdotes of Shakespeare, is that relating to his epitaph on a gentleman named Combe. This story has been variously told; Rowe's version is as follows :-"The latter part of his life was spent, as all men of good sense will wish theirs may be, in ease, retirement, and the conversation of his friends. He had the good fortune to gather an estate equal to his occasion, and, in that, to his wish; and is said to have spent some years before his death at his native Stratford. His pleasurable wit and good nature engaged him in the acquaintance, and entitled him to the friendship, of the gentlemen of the neighbourhood. Amongst them it is a story almost still remembered in that country, that he had a particular intimacy with Mr. Combe, an old gentleman noted thereabouts for his wealth and usury. It happened that in a pleasant conversation amongst their common friends, Mr. Combe told Shakespear in a laughing manner, that he fancied he intended to write his epitaph, if he happened to outlive him; and since he could not know what might be said of him when dead, he desired it might be done immediately. Upon which, Shakespear gave him these

four verses :

Ten in the hundred lies here ingrav'd,
'Tis a hundred to ten, his soul is not sav'd!

If any man ask, Who lies in this tomb?
Oh, ho, quoth the devil, 'tis my John-a-Combe.' 84

84 These lines, variously modified, are found in miscellanies long before Shakespeare's time.

"Ten in the hundred lies under this stone,
And a hundred to ten to the divil his gone."
Addit. MS. 15,227. p. 18.

But the sharpness of the satire is said to have stung the man so severely, that he never forgave it."

That the tale is not altogether destitute of foundation we may believe; but Rowe's version is certainly inaccurate. So far from Shakespeare having done what Combe "never forgave," we have the conclusive evidence of Doctors' Commons that Combe testified his cordial feelings towards the poet by a legacy in his will, and that the latter reciprocated the kindness by bequeathing his sword to Thomas Combe, the nephew of John.85 As an act of justice to the memory of John Combe, it should be mentioned that in his will he bequeathed one hundred pounds (equal to five hundred in present money) to be lent to poor tradesmen of Stratford, and in addition, as an immediate legacy, twenty pounds to the poor of that place, together with legacies of five pounds each to the poor of Warwick and of Alcester.

About this period, we find the poet engaged in the unenviable proceedings of a Chancery suit. The action grew out of the share he had purchased of the tithes payable by the land of Stratford, and some other places. The draft of a bill presented by him, Lane, and Greene, is still in existence, but nothing further is known of the litigation. The bill alleges that these three plaintiffs had a joint interest with William Combe and various other persons in the tithes, &c. the whole being held for a term of 87 years, at a reserved rent of £27 13s. 4d. a year, but that the other parties refused to pay their proportion of this annual sum, to the injury of Shakespeare and his fellow-suitors. The draft bill is of interest in one respect; it recites that Shakespeare's income from this portion of his property was "threescore pounds" (equivalent to three hundred in our time) a year.

The same year, 1613, is memorable from the destruction of the Globe Theatre, which was burnt down on the 29th of June. 86 Whether Shakespeare was a loser by the calamity is not known; but it is conjectured that when he finally retired to his native home, he parted with all his interest in theatrical property.

During the next year, Shakespeare was concerned with the corporation of Stratford in opposing a projected enclosure of some common lands. A memorandum relating to this subject, dated 5th Sept. 1614, and headed "Auncient ffreholders in the ffields of old Stratford and Welcombe," contains, among sundry entries, the following item :-"Mr. Shakspeare 4 yard land, noe common nor grownd beyond Gospell-bushe, nor grownd in Sandfield, nor none in Slow-hill

8.

"Here lyes 10 with 100, under this stone,
And 100 to one but to th' divel hees gone."
AS. Sloane, 1489, f. 11.
"Who is this lyes under this hearse?
Ho, ho, quoth the divel, tis my Dr. Pearce."
Ms. Sloane, 14. 89, f. 11.

A double epitaph, said to have been his composition, is
preserved in Dugdale's Visitation of Salop, a MS. in the
Heralds' College. Describing a monument in Tong Church
to the memory of Sir Thomas Stanley, Knight, Dugdale
states that "these following verses were made by William
Shakespeare, the late famous tragedian :

Written upon the east end of this tombe.
"Aske who lyes here, but do not weepe;
He is not dead, he doth but sleepe..
This stony register is for his bones,

His fame is more perpetuall than these stones;
And his own goodness, with himself being gone,
Shall live when earthly monument is none.'

Written upon the west end thereof.

"Not monumentall stone preserves our fame, Nor skye-aspiring piramids cur name.

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The memory of him for whom this stands
Shall outlive marble and defacers' hands:
When all to time's consumption shall be given,
Stanley, for whom this stands, shall stand in heaven."

85 Another tradition, of perhaps equal veracity with that of John Combe's epitaph, was communicated to Malone by a native of Stratford, Life of Shakespeare, p. 500 sqq. to the effect that Shakespeare and some of his companions having accepted the challenge of a party calling themselves the Bedford topers and sippers, to a bout of ale-bibbing, whereat the Stratfordians were overcome, Shakespeare on the occasion composed these lines:

"Piping Pebworth, Dancing Marston,
Haunted Hillborough, and Hungry Grafton,
With Dadging Exhall, Papist Wixford,
Beggarly Broom, and Drunken Bidford."

86 According to some MS. notes in a copy of Stow's Annales (formerly in the possession of Mr. Pickering the bookseller): "The Globe play house on the Bank side in Southwarke was burnt downe to the ground in the yeare 1612 [1613]; and newe built up againe in the year 1613 [1614], at the great charge of King James and many noble men and others." For an account of this accident, see p. 643, Vol. II.

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