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XXX

DOWDALL'S LETTER

THE importance which has been attached to the parish-clerk's alleged communication to Dowdall renders it necessary that the genuineness of the letter to "Mr. Southwell" should be established. On the title page of the book in which Dowdall's anecdotes appear, it is stated that they are "Now first published from the Original Manuscript," and, in the "Advertisement," that "The following Letter, which is now for the first time printed, came into the hands of the publisher upon the dispersion of the papers of the family of Lord De Clifford, which were sold by auction in the year 1834. It is addressed to Mr. Edward Southwell, and is endorsed by him, 'From Mr. Dowdall, Description of several places in Warwickshire.'”1 The editor's name is not given, but Lowndes (p. 2331) states that the book was edited by J. P. Collier. The association of this latter name with the publication of Dowdall's account will somewhat detract from the value of the parish-clerk's anecdote, pending the discovery and verification of the MS., which, I am informed, does not appear in the Sale-catalogues of the De Clifford or Rodd libraries.

The MS. was in the possession of J. O. Halliwell (afterwards Halliwell-Phillipps) in 1853, and a facsimile of a page is given in his folio edition of Shakespeare's works (i. 77) issued at that date. Mr. Marsden J. Perry, of Rhode Island, U.S.A., purchased from the Executors the Shakespearean documents collected by Halliwell-Phillipps; but he informs

1 Traditionary Anecdotes of Shakespeare, Collected in Warwickshire in the year 1693. London, Thomas Rodd, Great Newport Street, 1838.

WHERE IS THE MS.?

251

me that Dowdall's MS. was not included therein. There is just the possibility that the MS. may have been disposed of at one of the sales of portions of the collection which Mr. Perry informs me were held by Messrs. Sotheby & Wilkinson in 1877-9.

My attempts to discover the MS. have been unsuccessful, and as, unfortunately, the facsimile does not give any assurance of the genuineness of the original, reliance cannot be placed upon the information it conveys.

The whole of the inferences drawn from Dowdall's account should therefore be read with the reserve necessary in dealing with traditions the origin of which is doubtful.

XXXI

THE BIDFORD LEGEND

THE origin of this tradition cannot be traced to an earlier date than the middle of the eighteenth century. HalliwellPhillipps gives the following version: "A gentleman who visited Stratford-on-Avon in 1762, relates how the host of the White Lion Inn took him to Bidford 'and showed me in the hedge a crab-tree called Shakespeare's Canopy, because under it our poet slept one night; for he, as well as Ben Johnson, loved a glass for the pleasure of society; and he, having heard much of the men of that village as deep drinkers and merry fellows, one day went over to Bidford to take a cup with them; he enquired of a shepherd for the Bidford drinkers, who replied they were absent, but the Bidford sippers were at home, and, I suppose, continued the sheepkeeper, they will be sufficient for you; and so, indeed, they were; he was forced to take up his lodging under that tree for some hours,' British Magazine for June 1762. This is the only traditional account which is of the slightest value, but a ridiculous amplification of it is narrated by Jordan in a manuscript written about the year 1770."1

The crab-tree under which Shakespeare is supposed to have slept after the carouse formerly stood in the hedge-row of the road leading from Bidford to Stratford. The decayed remains of the tree were removed to Bidford Grange on December 4th, 1824,2 and a sapling was planted, in or about the year 1880, on the south side of the road leading from Bidford to Stratford, and three quarters of a mile from Bidford church.

1 Outlines, ii. 325-8. See also The Gentleman's Magazine, December 1794. 2 C. F. Green, The Legend of the Crab Tree, 1857, p. 18.

XXXII

ENQUIRIES BY AUBREY AND BETTERTON THERE is no authentic record of the visits of Aubrey and Betterton to Stratford-upon-Avon. The date at which Aubrey's visit was made is supposed by Halliwell-Phillipps to have been about the year 1662.1 In a letter to Anthony à Wood, dated June 15th, 1680, Aubrey says: "I have according to your desire putt in writing these Minutes of Lives. . . . 'Tis a taske that I never thought to have undertaken till you imposed it upon me, sayeing that I was fitt for it."2 Aubrey became acquainted with Wood in 1667.

Betterton retired from the stage in 1700. Charles Knight says: "He died in 1710; and, looking at his busy life, it is probable that he did not make this journey into Warwickshire until after his retirement from the theatre. Had he set about these enquiries earlier, there can be little doubt that the 'Life' by Rowe would have contained more precise and satisfactory information, if not fewer idle tales." 8

Halliwell-Phillipps says the visit was made "most likely at some time about the year 1690; "4 "it is hardly likely to have occurred in his declining years, and towards the close of his life he was afflicted with a complaint that must have rendered any of the old modes of travelling exceedingly irksome. He is mentioned, however, as having in 1709 a country house at Reading." 5

1 Outlines, i. x.

2 Letters written by Eminent Persons . . . and Lives of Eminent Men (1813), vol. ii. part i. pp. 197-8.

3 William Shakspere, A Biography, p. 280.

Outlines, i. xii.

5 Outlines, ii. 251, note 8. Malone says that Betterton's visit was made after the year 1700," when he was above seventy years of age." Historical Account of the English Stage.

The following dates indicate the possibilities of communication with Shakespeare's contemporaries or descendants:The poet died at Stratford-upon-Avon on April 23rd, 1616. His sister, Joan Hart, died there in 1646, and his eldest daughter, Susanna Hall, in 1649, having survived her husband fourteen years. Her daughter Elizabeth, who married Thomas Nash, lived at Stratford until 1649, when she married John Barnard, and removed to Abington in Northamptonshire, where she died in February, 1669-70. She was Shakespeare's last lineal descendant. His daughter, Judith Quiney, died at Stratford in February, 1661-2. Shakespeare's godson, William Walker, died at Stratford in March 1679-80. William Castle, the parish clerk who is stated to have given the information to Dowdall, was baptized at Stratford on July 17th, 1614,3 and was buried there on November 19th, 1701. At a vestry meeting held on March 11th, 1697, "William Castle declared that hee was willing to resigne upp his sexton's place." Vestry Minute Book, 1617-1699.

1 Thomas Nash died in 1647.

2 William Walker was baptized at Stratford on October 16th, 1608. An entry in the Stratford parish register records the burial of one "Mr. William Walker" on March 1st, 1679-80.

3 The baptism of a William Castle is recorded on August 10th, 1628; but, as Dowdall says the parish-clerk was above 80 years old in 1693, the earlier date is no doubt correct.

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