and this, however doubtful, is the only intimation we have of his having applied himself to any regular profession.

Besides Sir Henry Godere, he found a liberal patron and friend in Sir Walter Aston, of Tixhall, in Staffordshire, to whom he gratefully dedicates many of his poems; and Sir Henry, some time before his death, recommended him to the Countess of Bedford. By means of Sir Walter Aston and Sir Roger Aston, he is said to have been employed as a confidential agent in a correspondence between the young king of Scotland and Queen Elizabeth; but this part of his history rests on no very solid foundation. It is more certain that he ren.. dered the services and homage of a poet to King James, being among the first who congratulated him on his accession to the British throne; and even condescended to praise his majesty's poetical talents in a sonnet, of which he was afterwards ashamed. His duty to his king, however, was so ill repaid, that he gave up all hopes of rising at court; and his fable of the Owl, published a year after the coronation, is supposed to glance at persons and incidents connected with his disappointment. He adverts to the same subject, but so obscurely as to convey no information, in the preface to his Poly-olbion. Nor from this time have we any account of his personal history; and can only conjecture, from certain hints in his dedications and prefaces, that although he obtained the additional patronage of Lord Buckurst, and retained the esteem and kind offices of many private friends, he rose to no situation of wealth or eminence, and did not always derive much advantage from his numerous publications. He died Dec. 23, 1631, and was buried in Westminster Abbey. His monument, a tablet of blue marble, with a bust, and some lines by Ben Jonson, was erected at the expense of the Countess of Dorset, in the south aisle. Aubrey attributes the verses to Quarles. His writings are these:

The Harmonie of the Church, containing the spiritual Songs and holy Hymnes of godly Men, Patriarches, and Prophets, all sweetly sounding to the glory of the Highest. 1591.

Idea; the Shepherd's Garland, fashioned in nine Eglogs; and Rowland's Sacrifice to the Nine Muses.

1593.

Mortimeriados: the lamentable Civil Warres of Edward the Second and his Barons. 1596. Published afterwards under the title of the Barons' Wars. England's Heroical Epistles. 1598.

A gratulatorie Poem to the Majestie of K. James. 1603.

The Owle. 1604.

Moses in a Map of his Miracles. 1604.

A Pœan triumphall, composed for the Society of Goldsmiths of London, on

King James's entering the City. 1604.

Poems. 1605.

The Legend of Cromwell.

Poly-Olbion.

The Battle of Agincourt. 1627.

The Muses' Elysium. 1630.

Few men appear to have been more highly respected by his contemporaries; and there is reason to think that he associated on very familiar terms with Jonson, Shakespeare, Selden, and other men of eminence for literary character and personal worth. Meres informs us that Drayton, among scholars, soldiers, poets, and all sorts of people, was helde for a man of virtuous disposition, honest conversation, and well-governed carriage; which," he adds, "is almost miraculous in the declining and corrupt times."

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William Shakespeare was descended from an old Warwickshire family, founded, as the name imports, by some soldier of repute, and numbering others in its course; for we read, in the grant of arms to our poet's father, that "his great-grandfather, for his faithful and

approved service to the late most prudent prince King Henry VII. of famous memory, was advanced and rewarded with lands and tenements, given to him in these parts of Warwickshire, where they have continued, by some descents, in good reputation and credit." There were Shakespeares of old in Ireland also. In the Rotulorum Patentium et Clausorum Cancellaria Hibernia Calendarium is an entry which shows that Thomas Shakespeare was appointed a comptroller of customs in the port of Youghal, in Ireland, in the 51st year of Edward III. On his mother's side, Shakespeare could boast of still older descent; for the Ardens of Wilmcote, one of whom she was, dated back to the Conquest. The immediate position of these representatives of ancient lineages when the son was born, whose fame was destined to surpass in lustre all lineages whatsoever, was unaristocratic enough; for John Shakespeare at that time was settled in a shop at Stratford-on-Avon, where, as wool-stapler, mal:ster, and timber-merchant, he sold, amongst other things, the produce of the farm at Snitterfield, near Stratford, which had come to him with his wife. In this capacity he maintained for a long time a highly-respectable position, fulfilling successively all the municipal dignities, from juryman to high-bailiff, which official climax be attained in 1568. He had eight children, three of whom died vhen quite young. William, the eldest of the sons, was born 23d

was acquired at the free grammar-school in that town, which he entered in 1571, and quitted in 1578; his father, it is supposed, then requiring his services in the conduct of his business, which about that time, from some reason or other, fell into decay. William Shakespeare, however, did not long, if at all, remain engaged in his father's business, though what other occupation he entered upon does not exactly appear. Old Aubrey, who, with entire confidingness, received every thing that every body told him, informs us, almost in the same breath, that when Shakespeare was a boy, he exercised his father's trade" of a butcher" (characteristically adding, "and when he killed a calf, he would doe it in a high style, and make a speech"), and that "he was in his younger years a schoolmaster in the country." A third conjecture is, that he was employed in an attorney's office, a theory which has been made to derive support from the many legal phrases that occur in his plays. Whatever his occipation at this time may have been, he himself appears to have tonsidered its remuneration adequate to the maintenance of a family; hence we find him in 1582, being then eighteen years old, marrying Anne Hathaway, the daughter of a yeoman occupying a cottage,

which still remains, at Shottery, a village near Stratford. Of the three children, two girls and a boy, who were the result of this union, the daughters survived their illustrious parent.

Shakespeare lived at Stratford, somehow or other, several years after his marriage; and then, "being naturally addicted to poetry and

acting, he came up to London," as Aubrey sets forth; his migration being hastened by a scrape in which some deer-poaching frolic involved him. "He had," says Mr. Rowe, "by a misfortune common enough to young fellows, fallen into ill company; and amongst them, some that made a frequent practice of deer-stealing engaged him more than once in robbing a park that belonged to Sir Thomas Lucy, of Charlecote, near Stratford. For this he was prosecuted by that gentleman, as he thought somewhat too severely; and in order to revenge that ill-usage, he made a ballad upon him. And though this, probably the first essay of his poetry, be lost, yet it is said to have been so very bitter, that it redoubled the persecution against him in that degree, that he was obliged to leave his business and family in Warwickshire for some time, and shelter himself in London." His first employment there, according to the popular tradition, was that of horse-holder; the story whereof, derived from Sir Wm. Davenant, runs thus:

"Concerning Shakespeare's first appearance in the play-house, when he came to London, he was without money or friends, 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 play-house, Shakespeare, driven to the last extremity, went to the play-house door, and picked up a little money by taking care of gentlemen's horses who came to the play; he became eminent even in that profession, and was taken notice of for 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 Shakespeare'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 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."

Whether Shakespeare ever fulfilled this humble function is extremely problematical; at all events, he did not long remain outside the theatre, being received into the Blackfriars play-house by its manager, his countyman, Richard Burbage, in the capacity of servitor or apprentice, the nature of which may be seen from the following memorandum in Henslowe's manuscript register, in which he states, that he "hired as a covenant servant William Kendall, for two years, after the statute of Winchester, with two single pence, and he to give him for his said services every week of his playing in London ten shillings, and in the country five shillings, for the which he covenanteth for the space of these two years to be ready at all