CHAPTER IX WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE 1564-1616 ENGLISH drama reached its climax in the work of Shakespeare; all that preceded him indicates progress, and all that followed him for two hundred years indicates decline. He lived and wrote in the midst of a brilliant throng of dramatists, mingling in the same experiences and breathing the same inspiring air; but like some snow-capped Alp that thrusts its glittering peak far into the higher heavens, Shakespeare towers above his aspiring companions in unapproachable magnificence. Yet his lofty station was unrecognized. As the shepherds of Admetus knew not Apollo in their midst, the age of Elizabeth knew not that it was entertained by a god. An Unknown The known facts of Shakespeare's life are few and insignificant. The greatest poet in our literature has the briefest biography. Examination of all available contemporary evidence, with painful minuteness, has resulted only in a large accumulation of conjectures and probabilities, and in countless biographies of the man that Shakespeare may have been. But the wonder-worker of the plays still stands in the shadowy background, a silent figure cloaked in impenetrable mystery. The poet we know; the man is hidden in the light of the poet's thought. A few dates in the parish register, a few legal documents connected with the purchase of land, and a few allusions by associates in London are all that is actually recorded of Shakespeare outside his works; and as dramatic writing is objective and essentially impersonal, it is not safe to assume that his voice is heard in that of any one of his characters. William Shakespeare was born in 1564 in Stratford-on-Avon, in the beautiful county of Warwickshire, the "heart of England." He was baptized April 26, and since it was cus Birth and tomary to baptize a child three days after birth, April 23 is accepted as his birthday. His father, John Shakespeare, was a fairly prosperous tradesman, and a man of some distinction, for he held various offices; he was ale-taster, burgess, borough chamberlain, bailiff, and chief alderman. His education was presumably limited, for when signing legal documents he often made his mark, but there is evidence that he could write. The mother, Mary Arden, was the daughter of a wealthy farmer and brought to her husband a considerable inheritance. She could not write her name. It is assumed that the young Shakespeare attended the Education Grammar School of Stratford, because that was the natural thing to do. The quaint old building may yet be seen in which he learned the "small Latin and less Greek" credited to him by his friend Ben Jonson. The usual school course included the principal Latin authors, with rhetoric and logic, and possibly a smattering of Greek. Later he must have acquired a reading knowledge of French and Italian. It is the opinion of Churton Collins, based upon minute examination of his works, that "he could almost certainly read Latin with as much facility as a cultivated Englishman of our own times reads French." And yet he was not a scholar, but knew how to appropriate the finest fruits of scholarship. He was evidently as contemptuous of medieval scholarship, especially formal logic, as was Bacon. A servant of the house of Capulet thus syllogizes: "To move is to stir; and to be valiant is to stand; therefore if thou art moved, thou run'st away." Thus Shakespeare merrily jibed at the learned pedants with his gentle satire. There are undoubtedly reminiscences of the Stratford schoolmasters in the characters of Holofernes, Pinch, and Sir Hugh Evans. Education of A larger part of Shakespeare's early education was obtained from his native surroundings. The life of Warwickshire is fully reproduced in his plays. He was a keen observer, sensitive to the beauty of woods and fields, and interested in every aspect of the life of the common people. In his Environment boyhood he was acquainted with the blacksmith in King John, and saw the sheep-shearing in The Winter's Tale, and at some peasant's hearth first heard Mercutio's description of Queen Mab and other homely folk-lore. We may be sure that he often noted, like Banquo, the habits of the swallows in building their "pendent bed" in some "coign of vantage," and was stirred by gentle thoughts, like Duke Orsino, when listening to the murmuring wind That breathes upon a bank of violets, He learned the good points of a horse, of a foxhound, and of a hunting-hawk. In his father's garden undoubtedly grew all of Perdita's sweet herbs and flowers Hot lavender, mints, savory, marjoram, The marigold, that goes to bed wi' the sun. It is said that every flower mentioned in the plays may be found in or near Stratford. Warwickshire was rich in historic and romantic lore. Near Shakespeare's home were the grand castles of Warwick and Kenilworth, centers of the pomp and pageantry and bloody conflicts of feudalism. He was eleven years old when Leicester entertained Elizabeth at Kenilworth, in 1575, and it is quite likely that the eager-minded boy and his father were in the crowd of country folk that gathered to see the wonderful revelries of that occasion. At about the age of fourteen young Shakespeare was probably withdrawn from school to assist his father, who developed a weakness for lawsuits and otherwise fell into financial difficulties. Tradition says that William became a butcher's apprentice, and that he was a schoolmaster, but Marriage tradition is a poor historian. At eighteen he was married to Anne Hathaway, a woman eight years his senior. From certain passages in his poetry it has been argued that the marriage was unhappy, but the satirical jest about the marriage bond is a common topic of literature and proves nothing; moreover, quite as many passages in his poetry celebrating the felicity of domestic life are as applicable to his own home life. In 1583 a daughter Susanna was baptized, and two years later the baptism of the twins, Hammet and Judith, is recorded. of Traditions and Conjectures Beyond these few facts practically nothing is known about Shakespeare from the date of his baptism to the time when he is first heard of, in 1592, as a successful dramatist in London. But the empty space has been filled with all sorts of legends and conjectures. It is said, for instance, that his A Biography remarkable knowledge of legal terms shows that he was a lawyer's clerk; but on the same kind of evidence he might be entered in almost any of the professions. A tradition which has a truthful look on its face relates that he was prosecuted for deer-stealing by Sir Thomas Lucy of Charlecote, near Stratford, and that, having written a satirical ballad on Sir Thomas in revenge, he was obliged to flee the country to escape the knight's wrath. Into the story is even woven the detail that he was "oft whipt and sometimes imprisoned." There is some confirmation of the story in the character of Justice Shallow, who appears in Henry IV and The Merry Wives of Windsor with the "dozen white luces" on his coat, an allusion to the Lucy coat of arms. But all legends of Shakespeare's youth arose a hundred or more years after his death and are subject to the usual discount on country gossip. Certain it is, however, that about 1585 or 1587 he disappeared from Stratford and saw little of it for the next eleven years. |