VII

THE DEPARTURE FROM STRATFORD

A KNOWLEDGE of the circumstances which induced Shakespeare or his friends to apply for the marriage licence would throw a much-needed light upon an interesting period of his life, and probably help in deciding between the conflicting opinions as to the date of his departure from Stratford. The marriage licence documents do not, however, appear to have been hitherto used for this purpose. The only other reliable domestic memorials of this period, the records of the baptisms of his children, have been employed in support of the theory of a continuous residence in Stratford until the last of those events;1 but they cannot, without further proof, be regarded as establishing it. Although the required information is not given in the licence records at Worcester, the general reasons for granting marriage licences, considered in the light of other evidence, give support to my proposition that the licence was obtained to allow the marriage to take place under conditions such as may have been created by the commencement, in or about November 1582, of Shakespeare's periods of absence from Stratford, or the necessity for a departure hastily decided upon at that time. But, whether or not the true reason for the licence is to be found in one of these alternatives, both are in agreement with the few known facts as well as with the older traditions, except those preserved by Rowe, and they are open to no other objection than that the conclusions to which they lead are at variance with some of the theories based upon his account.

1 Edmond Malone, Plays and Poems of Shakespeare, 1821, p. 121. Outlines, i. 69.

Beyond such authentic notices as are to be found in the Stratford-upon-Avon parish register and the Worcester diocesan records, the principal sources of information as to the history of the first twenty-eight years of Shakespeare's life are confined to traditions, mainly collected during the latter half of the seventeenth century.

The earliest of these, so far as they relate to his first occupations, marriage, departure from Stratford, and other personal matters, are given by the following writers :—

JOHN AUBREY (1626-1697), an antiquary who, probably about 1662, included Stratford-upon-Avon in one of his journeys in search of literary material, and whose observations are recorded in a manuscript which is now in the Ashmolean Museum. The following is taken from Brief Lives,' Chiefly of Contemporaries, set down by John Aubrey between the years 1669 and 1696, Edited from the Author's MSS. by Dr. Andrew Clark, pp. 225–7:

"Mr. William Shakespear was borne at Stratford upon Avon in the county of Warwick. His father was a butcher, and I have been told heretofore by some of the neighbours, that when he was a boy he exercised his father's trade, but when he kill'd a calfe he would doe it in a high style, and make a speech. There was at that time another butcher's son in this towne that was held not at all inferior to him for a naturall witt, his acquaintance and coetanean, but dyed young.? This William being inclined naturally to poetry and acting, came to London, I guesse, about 18; and was an actor at one of the play-houses, and did act exceedingly well (Now B. Johnson was never a good actor but an excellent instructor). He began early to make essayes at dramatique poetry, which at that time was very lowe; and his playes tooke well. He was a handsome, well shap't man: very good company, and of a very readie and pleasant smooth witt. The humour of . . . the constable, in Midsomer-night's Dreame, he happened to take

1 In an edition of Aubrey's notes, dated 1813, i. iv., it is stated that “they were originally designed as memoranda for the use of Anthony à Wood, when composing his Athena Oxoniensis."

2 See J. O. Halliwell, Was Nicholas Ap Roberts that Butcher's Son? 1864.

at Grendon in Bucks-I think it was Midsomer night that he happened to lye there-which is the roade from London to Stratford, and there was living that constable about 1642, when I first came to Oxon: Mr. Josias Howe is of the parish and knew him. Ben Johnson and he did gather humours of men dayly wherever they came. One time as he was at the tavern at Stratford-super-Avon, one Combes, an old rich usurer, was to be buryed, he makes there this extemporary epitaph,Ten in the hundred the devill allowes, = But Combes will have twelve he sweares and vowes; = If any one askes who lies in this tombe; = 'Hoh!' quoth the Devill, Tis my John o' Combe!'-He was wont to goe to his native countrey once a yeare. I thinke I have been told that he left 2 or 300 li. per annum there and thereabout to a sister. Vide his epitaph in Dugdale's Warwickshire. I have heard Sir William Davenant and Mr. Thomas Shadwell (who is counted the best comedian we have now) say that he had a most prodigious witt, and did admire his naturall parts beyond all other dramaticall writers. He was wont to say (B. Johnson's Underwoods) that he 'never blotted out a line in his life'; sayd Ben Johnson, 'I wish he had blotted out a thousand.' His comodies will remaine witt as long as the English tongue is understood, for that he handles mores hominum. Now our present writers reflect so much upon particular persons and coxcombeities, that 20 yeares hence they will not be understood. Though as Ben Johnson sayes of him, that he had but little Latine and lesse Greek, he understood Latine pretty well, for he had been in his younger yeares a schoolmaster in the countrey.-From Mr... Beeston." 1

THOMAS FULLER (1608-1661) The History of the Worthies of England. This was first published in 1662. The date of writing is not known:

"William Shakespeare was born at Stratford-on-Avon in this county, in whom three eminent poets may seem in some sort to be compounded,-1. Martial in the warlike sound of his sur-name, (whence some may conjecture him of a military 'Aubrey's observations on Beeston are given in the Appendix, No. XXIX.

extraction). Hasti-vibrans or Shake-speare.-2. Ovid, the most naturall and witty of all poets, and hence it was that Queen Elizabeth, coming into a grammar-school made this extemporary verse,-Persius a crab-staffe, bawdy Martial, Ovid a fine wag.' -3. Plautus, who was an exact comedian yet never any scholar, as our Shake-speare (if alive), would confess himself. Adde to all these, that though his genius generally was jocular and inclining him to festivity, yet he could (when so disposed), be solemn and serious, as appears by his tragedies; so that Heraclitus himself (I mean if secret and unseen), might afford to smile at his comedies, they were so merry, and Democritus scarce forbear to sigh at his tragedies, they were so mournfull. He was an eminent instance of the truth of that rule, poeta non fit sed nascitur,-one is not made but born a poet. Indeed, his learning was very little; so that, as Cornish diamonds are not polished by any lapidary, but are pointed and smoothed even as they are taken out of the earth, so nature itself was all the art which was used upon him. Many were the wit combates betwixt him and Ben Johnson, which two I behold like a Spanish great gallion and an English man-of-war. Master Johnson (like the former), was built far higher in learning; solid, but slow in his performances. Shake-spear, with the English man-of-war, lesser in bulk, but lighter in sailing, could turn with all tides, tack about and take advantage of all winds, by the quickness of his wit and invention. He died anno Domini 16 and was buried at Stratford-upon-Avon, the town of his nativity."

THE REVD. JOHN WARD, M.A. (1629-1681), Vicar of Stratford-upon-Avon from 1662 to 1681, whose notes were made in a commonplace book, now in the library of the Medical Society of London:

"Shakespear had but 2 daughters, one whereof Mr. Hall, y physitian married, and by her had one daughter, to wit, yo Lady Bernard of Abbingdon. I have heard yt Mr. Shakespear was a natural wit, without any art at all; hee frequented yo plays all his younger time, but in his elder days lived at Stratford and supplied y stage with 2 plays every year, and for yt had

an allowance so large, yt hee spent att y rate of a 1000l. a year as I have heard. Shakespear, Drayton and Ben Johnson had a merrie meeting, and itt seems drank too hard, for Shakespear died of a feavour there contracted. Remember to peruse Shakespear's plays and bee versed in them, that I may not bee ignorant in that matter. This booke was begunne Feb. 14, 1661, and finished April y 25, 1663, at Mr. Brooks, his house in Stratford-uppon-Avon in Warwickshire.”1

THE REVD. WILLIAM FULMAN (1632-1688), Rector of Meysey Hampton, Gloucestershire, from 1669 to 1688. His manuscript is now preserved at Corpus Christi College Oxford. Malone says that after being ejected from this College "by the Parliamentarian visitors he became tutor to the children of Mr Peto of Chesterton Warwickshire where for seven years he found a comfortable retreat. His researches appear to have begun about the year 1670" (Life, 1821. Note on page 120): "William Shakespeare was born at Stratford-upon-Avon in Warwickshire about 1563-4. From an actor of playes he became a composer."

THE REVD. RICHARD DAVIES (... -1708), Rector of Sapperton, Gloucestershire, from March 1695-6 to July 1708,2 is supposed, on good authority, to have made, before 1708, the following additions to Fulman's manuscript:

"Much given to all unluckinesse in stealing venison and Rabbits, particularly from Sir Lucy who had him oft whipt and sometimes imprisoned and at last made him fly his native country to his great advancem1, but his reveng was so great that he is his Justice Clodpate and calls him a great man, and yt in allusion to his name bore three lowses rampant for his arms. . . . He dyed a papist."

Halliwell-Phillipps says: "There is no evidence in the manuscript itself that the interesting additions were made by Davies, but the fact is established by the identity of the hand

1 The above extract has been compared by the Registrar, Mr. W. R. Hall. See also Diary of the Rev. John Ward, A.M., Vicar of Stratford-upon-Avon. Extending from 1648 to 1679. Arranged by Charles Severn, M.D., 1839.

2 I am indebted to the Revd. H. Taylor Cropper, Vicar of Sapperton, for these dates, and to the Librarian of Corpus Christi College for verifying the extracts.