A Shakespeare Anthology

The Man Shakespeare is an enigma. The documents relevant to the life and work of Shakespeare have been described as a Chinese puzzle in which some of the pieces are un-decipherable scraps and several of the most important pieces missing. " No letter of his hand-writing, no record of his conversation, no character of him drawn with any fulness by any con-temporary has been produced," wrote Henry Hallam. True, it is now claimed by some that 147 lines of the manuscript Play of Sir Thomas More in the British Museum are in Shakespeare's handwriting, but experts are divided as to the identity of the hand. Of Shakespeare of Stratford it may truly be said that hardly anything is known. No one has succeeded in making a reliable chronology nor in shaping with firmness his elusive personality. The real Shakespeare is concealed in his works. There alone are to be found the exuberant genius, the deep psychological insight, the beauty and imagery of his poetic imagination.

His father, John Shakespeare, who was a devout Catholic, established himself as a glover in Stratford about 1551. His venture was successful and in 1557 he married Mary Arden, only daughter of Robert Arden of Wilmecote. She, though an heiress to money and properties, was a simple country girl probably unable to read, certainly unable to write, yet her family, though it had fallen upon evil days, was " one of the noblest and oldest in Warwickshire." John Shakespeare's business continued to expand, and in addition to glove-making he would seem to have dealt in corn and hides, to have trafficked in wood and wool and traded as a butcher.

He also interested himself in town affairs and held in succession various municipal offices including that of Chamberlain, yet it seems improbable that he could read and he signed his name with a mark which may still be seen in the Chamberlain's accounts. In 1569 he was elected High Bailiff or Mayor of Stratford. He had risen from tenant farmer through the rank of yeoman to that of " gentleman," and when in 1575 he purchased the property in which he resided in Henley Street, this was the high-water mark of his prosperity. Now his fortunes began to ebb, and in 1586 a distress was issued against his goods. In March, 1587, he was imprisoned and sued out a writ of habeas corpus to obtain his liberty and in the same year he mortgaged the Asbies property, which his wife had inherited from her father, for £40, a transaction which he endeavoured in 1589, and again in 1597, to set aside, but without success. A year or two later he sold his interest in his Snitterfield property for £4, but in spite of these reverses he would seem steadily to have maintained his title and estate.

John Shakespeare had ten children of whom William was probably born on April 22nd or 23d, 1564. The birth is not recorded but the baptism took place on April 26th. Here we enter the region of probabilities. Nothing is known of Shakespeare's boyhood but there can be little doubt that he went for some years to the Free Grammar School of Stratford, the repair of which his father had sponsored during his tenure of office. The course of instruction may be conjectured from the customs of contemporary schools.

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