THE WINTER'S TALE BY WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE WITH NOTES, ETC., BY T. GEO. WRIGHT INSPECTOR OF SCHOOLS, BRISTOL AND IO FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS BY R. WHEELWRIGHT LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO. 39 PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON NEW YORK AND BOMBAY 11 Sept 28545 822,33 LIFE OF SHAKESPEARE. WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE was born on 22nd or 23rd Aprii, 1564, in the pleasant old country town of Stratford-on-Avon. The name Shakespeare is found pretty frequently in the records of the towns and villages of Warwickshire during the sixteenth century, but not in those of Stratford itself. John Shakespeare, the father of the poet, was the first of the name to settle in the town, and he came thither in 1550, or 1551, from Snitterfield, a village about four miles away to the north-east, where his father Richard was a farmer. John Shakespeare is said to have been a glover, but it appears probable that he also traded in cattle and agricultural produce. He prospered in trade, and in 1557 married Mary Arden, the daughter and heiress of a wealthy yeoman of Wilmecote, a village a few miles away to the north-west. In 1556 he bought a house and garden in Henley Street, and a house with a garden and croft in Greenhill Street. In one of these the future poet was born. Both houses are still standing, and are preserved as a Shakespearean museum. Little is known of Shakespeare's childhood, but in 1568, while John Shakespeare was bailiff of Stratford, the Queen's Players came to the town and received a licence to play. The same thing happened next year, and no doubt the child of five was there with open eyes to see. At seven years of age he was sent to the Free Grammar School of the Holy Cross, a few streets away from his father's house, and it is thought probable that in Love's Labour's Lost, his earliest V |
