Enough has been collected from documents of
undoubted value and unquestionable authority,
to fix the outlines of his career and to suggest
the kind and manner of man that he was, or
appeared to be to his contemporaries; nay, such
as he really was, if we may accept the evidence
of his works in corroboration of the external
testimony that is procurable.

It is our design, accordingly, in a brief paper,
to state all that can be fairly cited in aid of
the story of the poet's life; and to bring the
different indices forward in such order, and
place them in such lights, that they may form in
some sort a portrait of the man and a current
critique of his writings.

To begin with his birth. There can be no
doubt that William Shakespeare was the son of
John Shakespeare, a resident of Stratford,
who married Mary, the youngest daughter of
Robert Arden, of Willmecote, in the parish of
Aston Cauntlow, and a descendant of the
Robert Arden who was groom of the chamber to
Henry the Seventh. John was a thriving man,
a respectable woolstapler, who early in life was
enabled to purchase two copyhold houses and
gardens and a croft, and at the age of twenty-
seven became a burgess of the corporation of
Stratford. The year afterwards he was one of
the four constables of Stratford, and in 1559
he gained the office of affeeror, whose duty
it was to fix and determine the fines leviable for
offences against the by-laws of the borough.
In 1561, he was one of the municipal chamberlains;
and in 1564, he was a member of the
Common Hall of Stratford. In the following
year, 1565, he was elected one of the fourteen
Aldermen of Stratford; and in 1571 attained the
highest dignity, by being chosen chief alderman.

The poet, therefore, it is clear, came of a
respectable family. His birthday is supposed to
have happened on the 23rd of April, 1564, the
anniversary of the tutelary saint of England,
St. George. The year 1564 was remarkable
for a plague that raged in Stratford from the
last day of June to that of December, destroying
two hundred and thirty-eight of its inhabitants.
The poet's family, however, seems to
have been spared the visitation. Between the
family of the Shakespeares and that of the
Hathaways an early intimacy subsisted; for
we find, in 1566, two precepts of the Stratford
Court of Record, in which John Shakespeare
appears as the surety of Richard Hathaway.
Into this family Shakespeare married at the
early age of eighteen. His marriage-bond bears
date 28th of November, 1582. The seal of
R. H., probably Richard Hathaway, is appended
to the bond. His wife's name was Anne Hathaway;
and they lived together at Stratford until
1585, and had three children, Susanna, Hamnet,
and Judith. That year Shakespeare quitted his
native town, to push his fortunes in London.
He became attached to the theatre, and had a
house in Southwark, where his brother lived
with him; and it is probable that his wife was
his frequent companion there.

His early attachment to the stage is easily
accounted for. At Stratford he had had frequent
opportunities of witnessing stage plays, and
becoming acquainted with actors. As early as
1569, the Queen's players and the Earl of
Worcester's players visited Stratford and performed
in it; in 1573, the Earl of Leicester's players
received money from the chamberlain of Stratford
for performing; and in 1574, my Lord of
Warwick's players were similarly honoured. In
1575, Queen Elizabeth made her grand historical
visit to Kenilworth Castle, and it is supposed
that William Shakespeare, then eleven years of
age, was present at the festivities. In the same
year we have evidence of his father's continued
prosperity, as he then purchased two freehold
houses. After this, the notices relative to his
fortunes are equivocal; but there is no necessity
for attributing them as some do to his adversity.
The better probability is that John Shakespeare
had turned his attention from commerce to
agriculture, and was living less in the borough,
though still dwelling in the parish, as proprietor
of the lands of Bishopton and Welcombe, which
his son William disposes of by his will under
the designation of his "inheritance."

At the age of fifteen, William Shakespeare
had another opportunity of witnessing a
theatrical performance, for in the year 1579 the
players of Lord Strange and of the Countess of
Essex held dramatic entertainments in Stratford
in the hall of the guild, under the patronage of
the bailiff. Next year, the players of the Earl of
Derby visited Stratford. To these entertainments
in his native town Shakespeare alludes
in his comedy of The Two Gentlemen of Verona
(probably his first dramatic production). There
we find his heroine, Julia, stating:

At Pentecost,
When all our pageants of delight were played,
Our youth got me to play the woman's part,
And I was trimmed in Madam Julia's gown,
Which served me as fit, by all men's judgments,
As if the garment had been made for me;
Therefore I know she is about my height.
And at that time I made her weep agood,
For I did play a lamentable part.
Madam, 'twas Ariadne passioning
For Theseus' perjury and unjust flight;
Which I so lively acted with my tears,
That my poor mistress, moved there withal,
Wept bitterly; and would I might be dead
If I in thought felt not her very sorrow!

As boys then played the part of women on
the English stage, it is possible that
Shakespeare himself had at these festivals played the
very character of Ariadne here described, and
that the two last lines describe his own feelings
on the occasion. The play, too, contains
allusions to the motives which induced the poet, in
common with his heroes, to forsake the indolence
of a home life for strenuous exertion in the broad
highways of the world.

Shakespeare probably brought this comedy
wiih him to London in 1585, and in the next year
composed The Comedy of Errors, which, though
called a comedy, has in it also tragical and
farcical elements; for the work was produced
before drama was distinguished into its different
kinds, and may be accepted as an example of