Contemporary Notices of Shakespeare. 173 among the best English lyric poets, the best English tragic dramatists, the best English comic dramatists, and the best English elegiac poets. No other poet, with the exception of Drayton, is mentioned so often-Spenser being mentioned but four times. But the tone of respect in which Shakespeare is mentioned is equally striking. Here are one or two of the passages: 'As the Greek tongue is made famous and eloquent by Homer, Hesiod, Euripides, Eschylus, Sophocles, Pindarus, Phocylides, and Aristophanes; and the Latin tongue by Virgil, Ovid, Horace, Silius Italicus, Lucanus, Lucretius, Ausonius, and Claudianus: so the English tongue is mightily enriched, and gorgeously invested in rare ornaments and resplendent habiliments, by Sir Philip Sidney, Spenser, Daniel, Drayton, Warner, Shakespeare, Marlowe, and Chapman. 'As the soul of Euphorbus was thought to live in Pythagoras, so the sweet witty soul of Ovid lives in mellifluous and honey-tongued Shakespeare witness his Venus and Adonis,' his Lucrece,' his sugared sonnets among his private friends, &c. 'As Plautus and Seneca are accounted the best for comedy and tragedy among the Latins, so Shakespeare among the English is the most excellent in both kinds for the stage. For comedy, witness his 'Gentlemen of Verona,' his Errors,' his 'Love's Labour Lost,' his 'Love's Labour Won,' [The play so named by Meres is supposed by some to be a lost play of Shakespeare's; by others to be All's Well that Ends Well; by Mr. Hunter to be the original of the Tempest; while Mr. Craik has recently suggested that it may have been The Taming of the Shrew.] his Midsummer's Night's Dream,' and his Merchant of Venice:' for tragedy, his Richard the Second,' 'Richard the Third,' 'Henry the Fourth,' 'King John,' Titus Andronicus,' and his Romeo and Juliet.' 'As Epius Stolo said that the Muses would speak with Plautus's tongue, if they would speak Latin; so I say that the Muses would speak with Shakespeare's fine-filed phrase, if they would speak English.? Here is Shakespeare, at the age of thirty-four, spoken of by a contemporary as one of the chiefs of English literature generally, and as indubitably the greatest dramatist of the day, in virtue of twelve plays produced prior to that time. Only four, or at most five of these plays had as yet been published, and these anonymously; but Shakespeare's right to these and to the others is assumed by Meres as matter of public notoriety. Nor has Meres made his list complete up to the date at which he wrote. Pericles and the three Parts of Henry VI. are omitted in it. 17, 18, 19, and 20. It is a curious fact, which we do not recol lect to have seen noticed, that the first public exhibition of Shakespeare's name on the title-page of any of his plays immediately followed Meres's mention of him. It is as if the publishers, seeing that Meres had broken the anonymous, had no longer any scruple about doing so either. The following, we believe, is the first instance of the appearance of Shakespeare's name on the title-page of one of his plays. 'A pleasant conceited comedie called Love's Labor Lost. As it was presented before her Highnes this last Christmas, newly corrected and augmented. By W. Shakespere. Imprinted at London by W. W. for Cuthbert Burby: 1598.' Observe that the publisher of this play is the publisher of Meres's book. The example set by him was followed by other publishers, or, at least, by one; and that not in publishing new plays but in republishing old ones. In the same year, 1598, Andrew Wise, who had in the preceding year published Richard II. and Richard III. without the author's name, took the opportunity afforded by the demand for second editions to supply the deficiency. The title-pages in these editions remain the same as before, with the exception that the words 'By William Shake-speare' are inserted in both before the designation of the printer and publisher. When we mention that in the same year, 1598, there was a new edition of the Lucrece, with the author's name and dedication as before, it will be understood why this paragraph should count as four numerically. 21. Let us now go back to Stratford. In the Easter Term of 1597-i.e., some months after the death of Hamnet, and more than a year before the appearance of Meres's book-Shakespeare made a purchase of house-property at Stratford, consisting de uno messagio, duobus horreis, et duobus gardinis, cum pertinentiis' (of one messuage, two barns, and two gardens, with their appurtenances') identified as forming part of the property known as New Place. The seller was one William Underhill; and the price paid was 601. The document proving the conveyance, and with the name Willielmum Shakespeare' flourishing in it, is preserved in the Chapter House, Westminster. So, at the age of thirty-three, Shakespeare was a landlord. 22 and 23. Nor, however he managed to attend both to his Stratford business and to his theatrical business in town, was his connexion with Stratford nominal. From the year 1597 we find him having dealings of a pecuniary kind with the people of Stratford quite as regularly as if he had been residing there. For example, in anoate of corne and malte taken the 4th of 'February, 1597 [1597-8], in the 40th year of the raigne of our Contemporary Notices of Shakespeare. 175 'most gracious Soveraigne Ladie Queen Elizabeth' (the occasion of the inventory being an apprehended scarcity), Shakespeare figures as one of the inhabitants of 'Stratforde Burroughe, Warwick', who had the largest stock. We give the names of the townsmen of the particular ward to which Shakespeare belonged, with the quantities of corn possessed by them respectively. In the same year, at a later date, Mr. Halliwell finds an entry in the town accounts of Stratford, as follows: 'Pd to Mr. Shaxspere for on lod of ston Xd.' Which means, apparently, that repairs are going on about New Place, and that Shakespeare is able to let the town have a cartload of stone from the site, and charges tenpence for it. Tenpence then was about equivalent to half-a-crown or three shillings now; so that the reader may fancy Shakespeare (supposing him then to have been in Stratford) receiving half-a-crown from the town-clerk or the carter in a gentlemanly way, and putting it in his pocket. 24. Probably, however, Shakespeare was not then in Stratford. At least he was not there, but in London, on the 24th of January, 1597-8, when Abraham Sturley, a Stratford man of active habits, wrote a letter to his brother-in-law, Mr. Richard Quiney, then in London on business, in which Shakespeare's name is mentioned. Here is part of the letter 'Most lovinge and belovedd in the Lord: In plaine Englishe we remember u in the Lord, and ourselves unto u. I would write nothing unto u nowe but come home. I pray God send u comfortabli home. This is one speciall remembrance from ur ffather's motion. It seemeth bi him that our countriman, Mr. Shakspere, is willinge to disburse some monei upon some od yarde land or other att Shottri, or neare about us. He [old Quiney] thinketh it a veri fitt patterne to move him [Shakespeare] to deale in the matter of our tithes. Bi the instructions u can geve him thearof and bi the frindes he can make therefore, we thinke it a faire marke for him to shoote att and not unpossible to hitt. It obtained would advance him in deede, and would do us much good. Hoc movere et quantum in te est permovere ne necligas; hoc enim et sibi et nobis maximi erit momenti. (To move this and as far as is in you, to move it through, do not neglect ; for it will be of the greatest moment both to him and to us.')' 25. Nothing apparently came for the present of this shrewd suggestion of old Quiney's that Shakespeare should be urged to invest money in farming the tithes of Stratford; but Sturley and the Quineys have not yet done with their countryman,' the capabilities of whose purse they appreciate so highly. On the 4th of November, 1598, Sturley again writes to his most lovinge brother, Mr. Richard Quinei, att the Bell in Carter Lane, att London,' as follows: 'Ur letter of the 25th of October came to mi handes the last of the same att night [note: it takes six days then for a letter to reach Stratford from London by carrier] per Grenwai; which imported.. and that our countriman, Mr. Wm. Shak., would procure us monei . . . . . wh I well like of, as I shall heare when and whear and how; and I prai let not go that occasion, if it mai sorte to any indifferent conditions.' 26. Quiney, it appears from the above, had written to Sturley on the 25th of October, that Shakespeare would procure money for some purpose of Sturley's and Quiney's, understood between them. Very curiously, a letter from Quiney to Shakespeare of that exact date is extant, asking for a loan of money; and, though Quiney asks the loan personally for himself, it is possible that the money was that alluded to between him and Sturley, and consequently that, before writing to Sturley on the day in question, he had received a favourable answer to his request from Shakespeare. In any case, the letter is perhaps the most interesting personal relic we have of Shakespeare; the original, as it still exists, having certainly once been in those illustrious fingers. Here is a copy : 'Loveinge countreyman, I am bolde of yow, as of a ffrende, craveinge your helpe with XXX li [£30] uppon Mr. Bushells and my securytie, or Mr. Myttens with me. Mr. Rosswell is nott come to London yeate, and I have especiall cawse. Yow shall ffrende me muche in helpeinge me out of all the debettes I owe in London, I thancke God, and muche quiet my mynde, which wolde nott be indebted. I am nowe towardes the Cowrte in hope of answer for the despatche of my buyseness. Yow shall nether loose creddytt nor monney by me, the Lorde wyllinge; and nowe butt perswade yourselfe soe, as I hope, and yow shall nott neede to feare butt with all Contemporary Notices of Shakespeare. 177 hartie thanckfullnes I wyll holde my tyme and content yowr ffreende, and yf we bargaine farther, yow shalbe the paie-master yowrselfe. My tyme biddes me hasten to an ende, and soe I committ thys to yowr care and hope of yowr helpe. I feare I shall nott be backe thys night ffrom the Cowrte. Haste. The Lorde be with yow and with us all, Amen! ffrom the Bell in Carter Lane the 25 October 1598.Yowrs in all kyndeness To my loveinge good ffrend & countreyman Mr. Wm. Shackespere 'RIC. QUYNEY. Did Shakespeare traffic in money-lending? It is not impossible. In this case Quiney writes as if Shakespeare had said something about getting the money from a friend!' 27. To return to literature. In the same year 1598-a year unusually rich in references to Shakespeare-there appeared in print another testimony to Shakespeare's celebrity as a poet. We cite from Mr. Collier's Annals of the Stage the following stanza from Poems in Divers Humours, by Richard Barnefield, published in 1598. After praising Spenser, Daniel, and Drayton, Barnefield proceeds : 'And Shakespeare thou, whose hony-flowing vaine Well may the bodye dye, but fame dies never!' 28. To the next year, 1599, belongs a similar testimony from Weever in his Epigrams-including, however, a reference to Shakespeare's dramas: 'Ad Gulielmum Shakespeare. 'Honie-tongued Shakespeare, when I saw thine issue, Their rosie-tinted features clothed in tissue Some heaven-borne goddesse said to be their mother:- Faire fire-hot Venus charming him to love her; Chaste Lucretia, virgine-like her dresses; Proud lust-stung Tarquine seeking still to prove her; They burn in love, thy children, Shakespeare. Let them: NO. LI. N |