will be surprised at the barrenness of the results herein set forth. The allusions to and records of Shakespeare being, as Mr. Fleay has suggested, curiously sparse, any comparison of the physical bulk of this volume with that of other lives of Shakespeare must be complimentary to me.

Lately people have been questioning the identity of William Shakespeare, the actor, of Stratford, with William Shakespeare, the poet and playwright. Arguments of spelling have had their force, and are not without importance; but from them we can expect little that is definite. Arguments from probability, human and fictitious, merging into arguments of analogy, also lend their weight to the controversy. Even a rival candidate in Lord Verulam has won many adherents. It is chiefly, however, to clarify the atmosphere that the device of this book has been resorted to. Strictly speaking, I have prepared no argument at all, but a tabular view of the ascertained facts,the existing "accepted" facts concerning the two Williams; and, where there is a chance

*I have been of two minds whether to use "unexpurgated" or "expurgated" in the title of this book. Neither is a usual word for such a purpose, and neither wholly expresses what I mean. I have presented the life of Shakespeare unexpurgated in so far as I have included matter commonly omitted (as in the case of the Northumberland Manuscript), hitherto glossed over (as in the case of the Manningham story), or commonly relegated to a footnote (as in the case of the epitaph on Ben Jonson). But in the main I have presented the life of Shakespeare expurgated of all the tissue of surmises, doubts, likelihoods, and other text which tends to obscure the vision of one who is trying to select for himself the known facts and draw for himself his own conclusions.

that the one might be or has been confounded with the other, I have tried to unravel the mystery. I have believed that it is the province of the biographer not to imagine, "portray," or omit, but merely to present and occasionally to explain.

CHAPTER Two.

JOHN SHAKESPEARE IN THE

RECORDS.

In this chapter I have selected only those records of John Shakespeare of Stratford which afford either vital statistics or any mention of William Shakespeare. Very numerous, indeed, are the items concerning John Shakespeare in the local archives, but, as little can be learned from them except the facts and dates of the holding of town offices, loaning and owing money, and so on, it did not seem worth while to reprint them in full. Moreover, it is impossible to be certain that they all refer to the same man. Mr. Halliwell-Phillipps has published an approximately complete list. (1)

1551 (?). John Shakespeare left Snitterfield, his birthplace.

1556. John Shakespeare bought two freehold tenements in Stratford.

1557 (?). John Shakespeare married Mary Arden.

1558. John Shakespeare was baptized.

1562. Margaret Shakespeare was baptized. 1563. Margaret Shakespeare was buried. 1564. William Shakespeare was baptized. 1566. Gilbert Shakespeare was baptized. 1569. Joan Shakespeare was baptized.

1571. Anna Shakespeare was baptized. 1573-4. Richard Shakespeare was baptized. 1579. Anna Shakespeare was buried. 1580. Edmund Shakespeare was baptized. 1596. The draft of a coat-of-arms for John Shakespeare was made. (2)

1599. The coat-of-arms was drafted. (3)

1601. John Shakespeare was buried. (No will has been found, and there is no known record of his grave.)

CHAPTER THREE.

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE IN THE

RECORDS.

For the sake of convenience I have made this arbitrary distinction between "records" and "allusions.". I call "records" all those facts which have been found in parish registers, official archives, and such business correspondence as relates directly to the affairs of Shakespeare. The word "allusions" in this book covers practically everything else naming Shakespeare, except the material in the chapter "Evidences from the Plays and Poems."

Owing to the commonness of the name Shakespeare in Elizabethan times, "the poet has been more than once credited with achievements which rightly belonged to one or other of his numerous contemporaries who were identically named."* It is impossible, at this distance of time, to maintain that all the records in this chapter refer to the same William Shakespeare; and it is equally inadvisable to guess which refer to him and which do not.

1564, April 26. William Shakespeare was baptized at Stratford. (1)

1582, Nov. 27. An entry in the register of the Bishop of Worcester, issuing a license *Sidney Lee, "A Life of William Shakespeare," 1909, p. 2.