WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE THE MAN AND THE ACTOR

(1564-1616)

BY JOHN MALONE

THE life records of the actor-poet Shakespeare are not less ample than those of his contemporaries not in public life. The place of his birth and something of his family are known,- more than can be said of Spenser, Chapman, or Ben Jonson. Though of the marvelous industry of his pen there be only five signatures of his name to witness, yet not that can be said of Sydenham, whose works are the study of all who have a care for the health of men. It is a convincing testimony to the gentle worth and modesty of the man that the earliest notices of his life, except such as are of purely domestic character, are the results of envy and detraction. Had not William Shakespeare been early a victim to that hurt of all true and simplehearted great ones, the sting of venomed slander, the admirers of his incomparable genius had not known how to fix with certainty the first lights of his unfading day.

"He was not of an age but for all time." Shrewd old Ben Jonson never wrote a phrase which contributes more to his own immortality than this, in which he describes Will Shakespeare's greatness, and foretells his everlasting fame. It is one of the evidences of the conviction with which true personal character forces itself upon the mind, that Jonson, who bore such a relation to Shakespeare in the affairs of their every day that he could not help expressing his jealousy during the time the latter lived, was yet willing, after Shakespeare's death, to admit all the truth and greatness of the gentle-minded man against whom, living, he had been willing to practice the art and cunning of a court-favor-seeking rival.

This mighty line" of rare old Ben is true both of the man and of his work. Drama is not an invention: it is innate in the heart of man; it began under the roof-tree of the first family, and its life will last so long as there shall be prattling of children upon the earth.

Knowledge of Shakespeare as a man and an actor is the best starting-point for earnest study of his work. From failure to begin their survey from this point, most of those who have voluminously written about him have floundered into the bogs and quicksand of mistake and misrepresentation.

It is a plain and simple tale:

Born in the year 1564 at or near Stratford-upon-Avon, in Warwickshire, England, he was married in 1582 and had three children, born

within the early years of his wedded life. He left Stratford suddenly, and became an actor and writer of plays famous enough to be noticed by detraction in 1589, and cited amongst the foremost men of letters in England in 1592. He followed the calling of an actor in honor and eminence from early youth until a period as late as three years before his death. He made money and accumulated property both in London and in Stratford; was the companion, associate, and friend of the greatest and wisest men of his day, and was admired and beloved by them. Finally, while yet in active life, he died in the quiet of Stratford in his prime of years and fame, in the year 1616, and was buried there in the chancel of the parish church of the Holy Trinity.

Beyond these facts all that we are told of the man Shakespeare is inference, more or less valuable according to its logical method; yet much do we know by invincible deduction from a strong array of known and recorded facts. What is positively told of him by the living witnesses of his own time may be written within the space of a visiting-card. What may be warrantably offered as logical presumptions from the circumstances of his life and times extend that space to volumes. As with all men, some of the most useful presumptions going to show his character and place in life spring from his family relations.

The natural fortress or dune upon which stands the modern Castle of Warwick was in the Roman time a præsidium or camp of guard, on the wooded frontier beyond which the free Britons had taken refuge. In the time of William of Normandy there was in the possession of this stronghold a certain Turkhill of that free race, called Turkhill of Warwick. He took no part in the contest between Harold and the Norman, and believed, upon the accession of the Conqueror, that he would be allowed to retain his possessions in peace. William, when making his 'Domesday Boke,' set down the fact that nearly all of the property in Warwickshire was held from Turkhill; but sent out his own Earl of Warwick, William of Newburg, and Turkhill was dispossessed of all his holdings, except some inconsiderable properties in what was known as Hemlingford Hundred, in the centre of the forest. To this small estate he retired, relinquishing the name of Warwick; and was thereafter known, himself and his successors, by the name of "Arden," or "of the wood Arden," signifying high or great forest. "This is the forest of Arden;" and Mary Arden, of Turkhill's race, a woman of gentle and loving character,- was the mother of our poet and a careful and devoted spouse to her husband John, called by home people "Shaxper." It was the officers of heraldry who made invention of a punning meaning for this name; which like its woodland neighbor "Shuckborough" came evidently from the old.

British combination of "Shacks" - a word well known to woodmen who use split timber for their shelter-with the term used for a settlement or colony. The shortening of this termination has analogy in the use of "Kesper" for Kexborough in Yorkshire. When John and Mary Shakespeare were married in 1555 or 1556, the father of Mary Shakespeare, Robert Arden of Wilmecot, was a substantial farmer, owning several homesteads; of one of which the father of John Shakespeare, Richard, was tenant.

Upon Robert Arden's death, Mary Shakespeare inherited two of these farms,-one called Asbies, and a smaller one in the little town of Snitterfield. John Shakespeare had given up the life of a husbandman to which he was born; and having entered into business in the market town of Stratford, was at the time of his marriage an active, prudent, and money-making man.

When William, the first son, was born in 1564, the neighborhood of Stratford was afflicted by the plague, and many of the inhabitants were carried away; but that wise Providence which watches the fall of a sparrow sheltered the life of the infant who was to become the greatest poet of our tongue.

John Shakespeare, in addition to his business, which was that of a glover and wool merchant, occupied an important position in the government of the borough. In the year 1558 he was appointed to one of the minor offices of his town, and passed through several years of service as an able alderman; until he became on September 4th, 1568, the chief magistrate or High Bailiff of the borough. It was at this period that he obtained from the Herald's Office the right to bear a coat of arms,- a gold shield with a spear in bend impaled with the arms of the family of Arden. The crest assigned him was a falcon holding a spear erect. About the year 1578 he ceased to perform any of the functions of his office of alderman; and finally, in the year 1584, after having been for nearly six years absent from the meetings of the board, though frequently requested to appear, his name was removed from the roll of alderman, and his friend John Sadler was elected in his place. This removal of John Shakespeare from the board of town governors of Stratford, which was in fact a resignation, has been attributed by many writers to a sudden and inexplicable condition of poverty. It was in 1578 that the Oath of Supremacy was enforced upon all persons holding office, and the right to be sworn according to the custom of the borough abrogated. As John Shakespeare was and remained a recusant, it must be concluded that his absence from the board of aldermen was a direct consequence of the prohibition established by law.

That John Shakespeare was a member of that class of persons who desired to practice the old religion, and that he lived in the respect

of his neighbors, under the protection of some one powerful enough to prevent the application of the penal law in its severity, is clearly established by the Warwickshire Book of Recusants' made up by Sir Thomas Lucy and others, the Queen's Commissioners, in 1592.

Traditions must be very carefully studied before being let into the company of facts. About William Shakespeare's youth there are several stories of a very misty kind. When we consider that there were in and around Stratford three other William Shakespeares in his time, but little faith is due to statements made half a century after his death about deer-stealing, lying drunk under roadside trees, and other tales of the simple country folk who but repeated hearsay. Whatever the cause for that single but not ill-natured instance of ridicule of his neighbor, indulged in by the gentle actor who made Justice Shallow and Sir Thomas Lucy twin laughing-stocks, it certainly was not all the memory of a merited punishment for wild and boyish pranks.

In October of the year 1583, John Somerville, a gentleman living at the manor-house of Edston, within three miles of Stratford, was arrested for some inflammatory words uttered by him against Queen Elizabeth. As this was a time when plots were rife in England for the release of Mary Queen of Scots, and the advocacy of her claim to the throne of England, every individual who had any sympathy for her was most jealously watched. Somerville had been known to express himself strongly in favor of the claims of Mary; and when he gave voice to strong language against Queen Elizabeth, he was immediately arrested, sent up to London, and a commission was appointed from the Privy Council to go into Warwickshire for the arrest of all persons related to, or in any way connected with, the Somerville family. Somerville's wife was the daughter of Edward Arden of Park Hall, the head of the family of Shakespeare's mother. This commission held its sittings in Sir Thomas Lucy's house of Charlecote, and Sir Thomas was himself most active in securing the arrest and prosecution of all persons connected with the accused. Amongst others brought before him was a boy, companion or confidential page to Somerville, not mentioned by name in any of the records, but who is referred to as having written down over his own hand an account of the proceedings of the day upon which Somerville was arrested. He must therefore have been a boy of more than common education, and of a family in a condition of life above the common sort. Somerville was about twenty years of age at this time, and was most carefully watched by his family because of his tendency to "midsummer madness." His family preserved a tradition that William Somerville, his brother, who after John's death in prison, while under sentence for treason, became the head of the family,

and was High Sheriff of Warwickshire in 1610,- had an exquisite miniature of Shakespeare painted, which he transmitted to his descendants as a precious heirloom of the affection which existed between himself and our gentle Will. This miniature, the only portrait of Shakespeare which has lawful evidence to support its character, is now in the possession of a gentleman in London. The family, which guarded it sacredly to the opening of this century, has so far passed away that one of the most celebrated of the dormant peerage cases has waited long to put one of the race in possession of the title of Lord Somerville.

From Charlecote, Mrs. Somerville, her sister-in-law Elizabeth, Mary Arden, daughter of Sir George Throckmorton and wife of Edward Arden, with all their servants and dependents, were sent up to London. Edward Arden had been previously taken there, and was hanged at Tyburn on November 23d. Somerville died in Newgate, it was said upon the rack. The others were kept in prison for weary months. Of the household of Mrs. Somerville was one whom Thomas Wilkes, the clerk of the council, writes down "Wm. Chacker."

Our young poet, at this time but nineteen years of age, newly married to a neighbor, Anne Hathaway, and father of an infant daughter, Susanna,- a close kinsman of these Ardens, was liable to be suddenly and most unexpectedly obliged to answer the serious charge of aiding and abetting an overt act of treason; and in consequence of that charge to be sent, through the ministration of Sir Thomas Lucy as committing magistrate of the county, to one of the many prisons in London in which at that time all persons charged with these political offenses were confined, and from which many of them were from time to time taken out to execution. The natural disposition of all persons who were friendly to the family would impel the neighbors and friends on such an occasion to endeavor to cover or hide the real reason; and out of this, some boyish prank, which had perhaps excited the temporary anger of Sir Thomas Lucy, was made the traditionary cause of William Shakespeare · leaving his home at this time.

Evidences of the date of Shakespeare's marriage are entirely inductive. The only fact positively known is, that in February 1582 he made an application to the Bishop of Worcester for a dispensation from the usual publication of the banns, which, upon his giving bond against impediments, was granted; but whether the marriage took place before or after this dispensation, no one at present knows. was common custom at this time, and for long before and after, to marry privately without asking dispensation, and even without going to the parish church or having the marriage registered. The presence. of "old priests," as they were called, who lived in Arden in hiding,

It