those who wish to prove that he thus acquired his remarkable amount of legal knowledge. But the fact that there was a Thomas Greene, who acted as clerk of the corporation in Shakespeare's native town, who was son to an attorney there, and who wrote once (in a letter still extant) of the poet, as "my cosen Shakespeare," may suffice to account for the latter's familiar acquaintance with law terms, and legal particulars. Not only did Thomas Greene the younger thus claim cousinship with William Shakespeare, but the burial of Thomas Greene the elder was recorded in the parish register under these terms: -"Thomas Greene, alias Shakespeare, March 6, 1590;" and this gives rise to the belief that there must have been some very strong bond of intimacy between the two families; so that it leads to the inevitable conviction that Shakespeare must have spent many an hour in the Greenes' office, where such a mind as his would gather stores of professional knowledge while seeming merely employed in passing a leisure social hour. Whether or not Shakespeare did actually receive emolument from teaching in a school, or working in a lawyer's office, it is pleasant to fancy him employed in either or both honourable occupations, to earn bread for those who were dependent on his exertions, until the following year, 1585; when the birth of two more children-his twin boy and girl, Hamnet and Judith, baptized February 2d-proved that his then sources of revenue were insufficient to maintain his increasing family. Here, be it incidentally recorded, was the time of the imputed deer-stealing prank in Sir Thomas Lucy's grounds of Charlcote; and here also was the time when John Shakespeare ceased to be an alderman. His father's impoverished circumstances, his own inadequate gains, the decided bent of his tastes and talents, together with the instances of his theatrical friends, naturally turned William Shakespeare's thoughts towards the stage as a means of livelihood, and combined to urge him upon the course he pursued. He took the grand step of his life, and went up to London in 1586. Of the following years we possess no record; but we may feel sure that he spent them in qualifying himself for his chosen profession of actor, in preparing his own already-written plays for production, and in altering and adapting such dramas by others as were to be brought out at the playhouse, of which he became part proprietor; for in 1589 his name appears as a sharer in the Blackfriars Theatre; occurring twelfth on the list of sixteen shareholders. From that period began his ever-augmenting prosperity of career, until it culminated in a never-dying glory achieved. Little more than a year had elapsed ere Shakespeare's powers as a dramatist were already laudatorily alluded to by Edmund Spenser, in his "Tears of the Muses;" that poem being first published in 1591. That he had attained a high position in public favour, was not only proved by the eulogium of friends, but by the detractions of envy and malice. An attack by Robert Greene, posthumously produced by Henry Chettle, (but subsequently apologised for in his "Kind-heart's Dream,") made its appearance in 1592. This year the plague visited London, and dramatic performances were suspended; therefore it may have been the occasion when Shakespeare took that journey to Italy, which some of his commentators have conjectured he did, judging from the intimate acquaintance he has shown in some of his plays with local Italian customs, circumstances, and peculiarities. In 1593, when he was twentynine years old, our poet first appeared in print. His "Venus and Adonis" was published under the Author's direction, by a printer named Richard Field-said to have been a Stratford man; and the affectionate hold which his native town and its "old familiar faces" had upon Shakespeare during his metropolitan life, may be deduced from the fact that many of his village-neighbours' names figure in his productions; such, for instance, as Fluellen, Bardolph, Audrey; and more especially Anne,-the name of one of his sisters, and his own wife's name,which so well becomes the pretty yeoman's daughter of Windsor, "Sweet Anne Page.' The first edition of "Lucrece," also brought out at Field's press, was the next publication; and was followed by Spenser's second tribute to Shakespeare in the poem of "Colin Clout's come Home again." In this same year, 1594, it has been supposed that Shakespeare's noble friend and patron, Lord Southampton, made him that munificent present of a thousand pounds. noon. The spring of the subsequent year probably saw the opening of the Globe Theatre on the Bankside. Its building had been commenced on the 22d December 1593, by the leader of the company of actors, Richard Burbage, and was now ready (1595) for giving performances, which usually commenced at three o'clock in the afterIt was a circular wooden edifice; and, being open to the, air, this theatre served for summer representations; while the Playersharers sent in a petition (Shakespeare's name fifth on the list) for leave to repair and enlarge their Blackfriars Theatre for winter performances. In the August of this year, 1596, domestic affliction fell on Shakespeare in his Stratford home; his son Hamnet's burial is registered as having taken place on the 11th of the month; and his parents were in such reduced circumstances that their poet-son found support for his own trouble from endeavouring to alleviate theirs. He set himself to aid in redeeming from mortgage his mother's paternallyinherited estate of Asbyes; he applied for a grant of arms to his father; and had made purchase of a dwelling-house and garden at Stratford, called "New Place," (also," The Great House,") to which he brought home his parents, and established them there under his own country roof. It appears that he had had a residence in London, which he always occupied while in the metropolis, since the year 1596; and a letter of an after-date shows this residence to have been situated in Southwark. from her boy-husband's winning and wearing her some twenty years before. In 1602 there is record of a patent granted on the 17th May by James I. to William Shakespeare and his company of players, that they might perform at the Globe Theatre and elsewhere, (Shakespeare's name second on the list ;) and in the same year the now wealthy playwright bought 107 acres of land, adjoining his dwelling at Stratford, for £320. He also became owner of a copyhold tenement there; and made an additional purchase of land for £60 in the following year. It was at this time that Mrs Alleyn (wife to Edward Alleyn, the actor, and founder of Dulwich College) wrote the letter before alluded to, proving the whereabouts of Shakespeare's residence when staying in the metropolis; for she mentions to her husband having seen "Mr Shakespeare of the Globe" in Southwark. The year 1598 witnessed the first acting of Ben Jonson's comedy, "Every Man in his Humour," it is said, through Shakespeare's instrumentality; and we are unwilling to withhold credence from this tradition of Shakespeare's influence generously exerted on behalf of a brother dramatist. There is substantial evidence that on the 25th October 1598 a letter was addressed by a fellow-townsman, one Richard Quiney, to Shakespeare, requesting the loan of £30; a sum sufficiently large to show that the poet was now in affluent circumstances, while the terms in which the request is couched manifest the entire faith the writer reposed in the willingness, as well as ability, of the man he addressed to grant what was asked. The original of this let- 1604 is the probable date of Shakespeare's reter-the only one extant, addressed to Shake-tirement from the stage as an actor; and the lack speare--is preserved in the Shakespeare Museum at Stratford-upon-Avon. of his prudence and discretion in counsel was adverse to the company. His control and presence ceasing, the ill effects were felt; but it is probable that at the age of forty, which he had now attained, Shakespeare felt that he had earned a right to enjoy that comparative leisure and withdrawal from the more active bustle of public life, which most men of ardent natures and imaginative temperaments feel creep over them as they advance in maturity. They have drunk to fulness of the wine of life, its sparkle has been theirs unto dazzling; they would fain taste a calmer and more moderate draught of excitement, savoured in peace and repose. Few have the wisdom to relinquish the cup when actually at their lips, and leave it for the quieter abstinence they instinctively begin to prefer: but Shakespeare was wiser, as well as more greatly gifted, than most men; and he ordained his own life-scheme with no less judgment than he mapped out those of the drama-characters he created. Before 1601 no fewer than twenty-one of Shakespeare's plays had been performed on the stage, namely, "Two Gentlemen of Verona ;" "Love's Labour's Lost;" "Taming of the Shrew;" three parts of "Henry VI.;" "Titus Andronicus;" ;""Midsummer-Night's Dream;" "Hamlet;""Richard II. ;" "Richard III. ;" two parts of " 'Henry IV. ;" "Romeo and Juliet;""King John;" "Henry V. ;" "As You Like It;" "Merchant of Venice;" "All's Well that Ends Well;" "Much Ado about Nothing;" and "Merry Wives of Windsor." While ten of them had found their way into print, in separate quarto form. These ten were, "Love's Labour's Lost;" "Richard II. ;" "Richard III. ;" "Romeo and Juliet ;" two parts of "Henry IV. ;""Henry V.;""Much Ado about Nothing;" "Midsummer Night's Dream;" and "Merchant of Venice." To counterbalance his London triumphs, sorrow came to him at Stratford-upon-Avon this year. His father, John Shakespeare, died; and the The next eight years were spent in various ocburial was recorded as having taken place on the cupations, taking him now to Stratford-upon8th September 1601. One of those incidents also Avon, now to London; now investing £440 in the occurred that seem to be of trivial consequence purchase of a lease of tithes in Stratford, 24th in themselves, yet leave significant trace to those July 1605, (in the indenture of which transaction who observe them in their correlative import. he figures as "William Shakespeare of StratfordThomas Whittington, an old shepherd, (possibly upon-Avon, gentleman;") now receiving a felthe prototype of Corin, "the natural philoso- low-actor's (Augustine Phillips) bequest of a gold pher,") long in the employ of Richard Hathaway, piece worth thirty shillings; now superintending expired; leaving in his will a bequest of forty the first performance of new plays he had written shillings to the poor of Stratford, which sum he since the commencement of the century; (behad placed in the hands of his old master's fore 1606, “Troilus and Cressida;” “Othello;' daughter, Anne Shakespeare. This money con"Twelfth Night;' ""Henry VIII. ;” ""Measure fided to the care of the poet's wife, speaks with for Measure;" "Comedy of Errors; ""Lear;" a pleasantly strong effect, in evidence of her and "Macbeth" had appeared ;) now giving his trust-inspiring, kindly, reliable nature; and daughter Susanna in marriage to Dr John Hall, we feel grateful for this piece of mute testimony on the 5th June 1607; now paying the last sad to the sterling moral qualities possessed by duties to his youngest brother, Edmund, who Shakespeare's Anne, as we are irresistibly im- was buried on the 31st December at St Saviour's, pressed with the idea of her personal attractions | Southwark; then being made a grandfather, by the birth of Susanna's child, Elizabeth, baptized 21st February 1608; now piously receiving his mother's latest breath, and seeing her remains consigned to the grave, 9th September, the same year; now performing the part of good friend and neighbour, by standing godfather to a boy named William Walker, on the 16th October, in his native place; now being the object of a letter from Lord Southampton, wherein the nobleman styles Shakespeare "my especial friend;" now planting a mulberry-tree in his Warwickshire garden, while his sonnets were being first printed, on the 20th May 1609. Then we find him engaged in instituting a legal process against John Addenbrook, in the month of March 1610, for the recovery of a small debt; when, the debtor decamping, a writ was issued by the borough court against Thomas Horsley, who had become bail: all of which shows that the poet did not choose to be imposed upon. Then, in 1611, there was a fine levied on the 107 acres of arable land ence. executed his will. There is a legend that Ben Jonson and Drayton took a spring holiday, and paid Shakespeare a visit at his Stratford home; while the hospitable reception he gave to them hastened his end :-if so, there is something not uncongenial in the thought that one of his last acts was entertaining his friends and brother poets, and that his convivial, bounteous nature thus concluded. However this be, William Shakespeare expired 23d April 1616, (the fiftysecond anniversary of his birth,) living evermore afterwards in the love and gratitude of those to whom he bequeathed his immortal thoughts. They are ours, as it were, by his own words :- an urban atmosphere of refinement and accom "My spirit is thine, the better part of me." Not only did William Shakespeare give to the world grander intellectual brain-product than any human being that ever lived, but he passed through life with a harmonious propriety of circumstance and completeness of achievement purchased by William Shakespeare in 1602; and allotted to few. Born in that lovely English his name stands on a list of donations, (dated village, bred in wholesome pursuits, physical 11th September 1611,) contributed by the towns-influences during childhood, and transplanted to and intellectual, dwelling amid rural sights and people of Stratford, for defraying the charge of prosecuting "a bill in Parliament for the better plishment in London when just of age to receive repair of highways," &c. And then, in 1612, we come to the probable period of his quitting Lon-natural poet became the consummate poet. most advantageously this crowning polish, the don entirely, to take up his permanent residence at Stratford; thus fully carrying out his retire-ties amid the fascinations of town attachments; He retained an affectionate regard for home ment from metropolitan excitement. But not inertly did he pass his country exist. We find him to have been one of the plaintiffs in a Chancery suit concerning the lease of tithes bought in 1605; we learn that he purchased a house in Blackfriars for £140, on the 10th March 1613, possibly with some view of convenience to his friends and former fellowactors; we discover that he was active in endeavouring to prevent the enclosure of common land at his native Stratford; we even trace him as being once again in London, when Thomas Greene, clerk of the corporation, sent up to town on this same business, made a note, dated 17th November 1614, wherein he mentions going to see Shakespeare on his arriving there also. Other events, nearly concerning Shakespeare, mark these few years:-On the 4th February 1613, his brother Richard was buried; on the 29th June, of the same year, the Globe Theatre was burned down; and on the 9th July 1614, there was a calamity of the same nature-a fire -at Stratford-upon-Avon. In 1615 there is no especial record; but during the past nine years had appeared "Antony and Cleopatra," "Pericles," "Winter's Tale,' "Tempest," ""Coriolanus," "Timon of Athens," "Julius Cæsar," and "Cymbeline.” In the very opening of the year 1616, Shakespeare seems to have felt some premonitory symptoms of decay and dissolution, for on the 25th January he prepared his will. On the 10th February he married his daughter Judith to Thomas Quiney. And on the 25th March he he fulfilled his duties of son, brother, husband, and father, with consistency and truth; he acquired public favour; he won the love of brother-poets and brother-actors; he secured the admiring esteem and friendship of distin guished noblemen, (counting Henry Wriothesley, Earl of Southampton; William Herbert, Earl of Pembroke; and Philip, Earl of Montgomery, among his associates and intimates ;) and he gained the favour and gracious approba. tion of both sovereigns (Elizabeth and James I.) who successively occupied the English throne during his lifetime. He was held in so high veneration by his own fellow-townsmen, that they laid his honoured bones close to the very communion-rails of their church, and erected his monumental effigy within the walls of their chancel; loved as a friend and genial companion by them when alive, reverenced as an ornament to their community in his memory after death. We cannot but believe that this monumental effigy gives us the best transcript of his appearance during the last years of his life, when in ease and retirement; as the portrait of Martin Droeshout, prefixed to the first collected edition of his works in 1623, most likely affords the truest representation of his appearance while in active public metropolitan life. There is a bland fulness of repose in the monumental face and figure, and a compact, energetic, purposeful look about the Droeshout portrait, that seem severally and satisfactorily characteristic of the man at these different periods of his life. Of his person we have these reliable traces; while of his manner we possess certain less direct, but hardly less pertinent vestiges. We may gather from Fuller's illustrative words, and from Ben Jonson's hearty expressions, how Shakespeare looked, moved, and spoke. We may perceive from Beaumont's lines relative to the Mermaid Tavern, how Shakespeare (one of its chief members) contributed his share to social vivacity. Fuller speaks of the "wit-combats" at the jovial meetings there, and says of Shakespeare and Ben Jonson:-" Which two I behold like a Spanish great galleon, and an English man-ofwar: Master Jonson, like the former, was built far higher in learning; solid, but slow in his performances: Shakespeare, with the English manof-war, lesser in bulk, but lighter in sailing, could turn with all tides, tack about, and take advantage of all winds by the quickness of his wit and invention." Ben Jonson's testimony is even still more fervent; and though not more graphic, is yet more personally descriptive. There is a cordial warmth in the words that goes to the heart as we read them: he says:— "I loved the man, and do honour his memory (on this side idolatry) as much as any. He was indeed honest, and of an open and free nature; had an excellent fancy, brave notions, and gentle expressions, wherein he flowed with that facility, that sometimes it was necessary he should be stopped." Stopped! Shakespeare stopped!! But what a picture have we here of the poet's plenary and potential out-pour of idea and utterance! We can never be too grateful to Ben Jonson for penning these few lines, containing so genuine an epitome of Shakespeare's mode of talking. With respect to Shakespeare's acting, there can be little doubt that it was perfection in its way; and Chettle, a contemporary, bore witness that he was "excellent in the quality he professes." His own advice to the players ("Hamlet" iii. 2) shows thorough knowledge and judgment, with practical discrimination. Such capacity to perceive and instruct implies power to fulfil. The fact of his enacting that part of the Ghost, in "Hamlet," is proof positive that he must have had pre-eminent gifts in impersonation; for would the author of that disembodied creation "What things have we seen Done at the Mermaid! heard words that have been Had meant to put his whole wit in a jest." have intrusted its presentment to any one disqualified from rendering it competently, im、 pressively, thrillingly, to an audience gazing breathless on that most awful spiritual presence? That he chose to play the comparatively insignificant part of the faithful old serving-man in "As You Like It," is but another point in confirmation that he chose to have a beautiful subordinate character well filled, while he himself could well fill it; and we feel the force of Coleridge's earnest assertion:-"I am certain that Shakespeare was greater as Adam in 'As You Like It,' than Burbage as Hamlet or Richard III.” With regard to Shakespeare's mode of composition, we have always believed that he constructed many of his greatest things at moments when he was not seated formally with pen, ink, and paper before him, but abroad in the open air, walking, on horseback, alone, or in company, as the case might be. With his richly capacious mind, his fertile imagination, his ever-flowing fancy, and faculty of observation ever open to impression, he must have been perpetually conceiving and shaping those grand images which took immortally-embodied form when he came to pen them down. The evidence contained in those words that occur in the Address prefixed to the Folio of 1623, by his first editors, and former fellow-actors, John Heminge and Henry Condell, affords valuable indication of Shakespeare's power in composition :-" His mind and hand went together; and what he thought he uttered with that easiness, that we have scarce received from him a blot in his papers." Of his actual writing, we have a cherished idea that he himself gives indication of his own precise condition when in the act of putting his thoughts on paper, where he makes Hamlet say - "In my heart there was a kind of fighting, . They had begun the play;—I sat me down," &c. The eager, half-disjointed, half-hurried lines, so expressive of an ardour tremulous with its desirous haste, strike us with peculiar force of probable meaning in delineating the poet's own mode of writing. In all that relates to him, Shakespeare is interesting in what he said, looked, lived, a source of vivid interest: in what he thought, wrote, and gave the world, a source of interest to the world's ends, and to the end of the world. SHAKESPEARE'S WILL. (EXTRACTED FROM THE REGISTRY OF THE ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY.) Vicesimo quinto die Martii, Anno Regni Domini nostri Jacobi nunc Regis Angliæ, &c., decimo quarto, et Scotia quadragesimo nono, Anno Domini 1616, | years, or any issue of her body, then my will is, and so I devise and bequeath the said hundred and fifty pounds to be set out by my executors and overseers for the best benefit of her and her issue, and the stock not to be paid unto her so In the name of God, Amen. I, William Shake-long as she shall be married and covert baron; speare, of Stratford-upon-Avon, in the county of Warwick, Gent., in perfect health and memory, (God be praised,) do make and ordain this my last will and testament, in manner and form following;-that is to say: but my will is, that she have the consideration yearly paid unto her during her life; and after her decease the said stock and consideration to be paid to her children, if she have any, and if not, to her executors or assigns, she living the First, I commend my soul into the hands of said term after my decease; provided that if such God my Creator, hoping, and assuredly believ-husband as she shall at the end of the said three ing, through the only merits of Jesus Christ my Saviour, to be made partaker of life everlasting; and my body to the earth, whereof it is made. Item, I give and bequeath unto my daughter Judith one hundred and fifty pounds of lawful English money, to be paid unto her in manner and form following: that is to say, one hundred pounds in discharge of her marriage-portion, within one year after my decease, with consideration after the rate of two shillings in the pound for so long time as the same shall be unpaid unto her after my decease; and the fifty pounds residue thereof, upon her surrendering of, or giving of such sufficient security as the overseers of this my will shall like of, to surrender or grant all her estate and right that shall descend or come unto her after my decease, or that she now hath of, in, or to, one copyhold tenement, with the appurtenances, lying and being in Stratford-upon-Avon aforesaid, in the said county of Warwick, being parcel or holden of the manor of Rowington, unto my daughter Susanna Hall, and her heirs for ever. Item, I give and bequeath unto my said daughter Judith one hundred and fifty pounds more, if she, or any issue of her body, be living at the end of three years next ensuing the day of the date of this my will, during which time my executors to pay her consideration from my decease according to the rate aforesaid: and, if she die within the said term, without issue of her body, then my will is, and I do give and bequeath one hundred pounds thereof to my niece, Elizabeth Hall; and the fifty pounds to be set forth by my executors during the life of my sister, Joan Harte, and the use and profit thereof coming, shall be paid to my said sister Joan, and after her decease the said fifty pounds shall remain amongst the children of my said sister, equally to be divided amongst them; but if my said daughter Judith be living at the end of the said three | years be married unto, or at [time] after, do sufficiently assure unto her, and the issue of her body, lands answerable to the portion by this my will given unto her, and to be adjudged so by my executors and overseers, then my will is, that the said hundred and fifty pounds shall be paid to such husband as shall make such assurance, to his own use. Item, I give and bequeath unto my said sister Joan twenty pounds, and all my wearing apparel, to be paid and delivered within one year after my decease; and I do will and devise unto her the house, with the appurtenances, in Stratford, wherein she dwelleth, for her natural life, under the yearly rent of twelvepence. Item, I give and bequeath unto her three sons, William Harte, Harte, and Michael Harte, five pounds a-piece, to be paid within one year after my decease. Item, I give and bequeath unto the said Elizabeth Hall, all my plate that I now have, except my broad silver and gilt boxes, at the date of this my will. Item, I give and bequeath unto the poor of Stratford, aforesaid, ten pounds; to Mr Thomas Combe, my sword; to Thomas Russell, Esq., five pounds; and to Francis Collins, of the borough of Warwick, in the county of Warwick, Gent., thirteen pounds six shillings and eightpence, to be paid within one year after my decease, Item, I give and bequeath to Hamlet [Hamnet] Sadler twenty-six shillings eight pence, to buy him a ring; to William Reynolds, Gent., twenty-six shillings eightpence, to buy him a ring; to my godson William Walker, twenty shillings in gold; to Anthony Nash, Gent., twenty-six shillings eightpence; and to my fellows, John Heminge, Richard Burbage, and Henry Condell, twenty-six shillings eightpence a-piece, to buy them rings. Item, I give, will, bequeath, and devise unto |