EARLY SIGNS OF GENIUS NOT RECORDED 95

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to his future progress, whatever advantages may have been gained by the removal. Others depict the hardships of his early years in London and the "mean employments" by which he was compelled to earn a living. And so, without the slightest proof, a supposed mode of life unfavourable to success in most of the things in which Shakespeare afterwards excelled is prolonged until, with all his ability, no adequate interval is allowed him to account for the great improvement in his fortunes or the wide knowledge and experience displayed in his earliest known writings. If no recollection of Shakespeare's budding talents had been preserved at Stratford, the absence of any tradition of the exercise of powers that made him famous would not call for remark. We have, however, the tradition related to the enquirer a century afterwards, that "when he kill'd a calfe he would do it in a high style and make a speech," 2 and yet the poet's neighbours do not appear to have known that he possessed any other gift distinguishing him from his fellows.

When Shakespeare had once mastered the rudiments of learning, neither a "bookless neighbourhood" nor any other ordinary disadvantage, such as the scanty leisure enjoyed by an apprentice, would have long delayed some manifestation of his literary proclivities; and those who handed down the tradition of one of his characteristics would not have been slow to observe and appreciate the other. The local fame of these early flights was also quite as likely to have been preserved. Yet if we are to accept even the earlier dates of the departure founded on Rowe's account, it would appear that Shakespeare remained at Stratford-upon-Avon for about eight years after he left school (where he must, at any rate, have learned enough to enable him to give free expression to his thoughts) and, during this long period, evinced no literary tendencies-no sign of his remarkable gifts. With the exception of the Lucy doggerel, which is supposed to have been the immediate cause of

1 Dr. Johnson's Preface, 1765.

2 Aubrey. See also J. O. Halliwell's Folio edition of Shakespeare's Works, 1853, i. 78. 3 Outlines, i. 95.

The modern version of the alleged lampoon is, no doubt, spurious; but the original is generally supposed to have been written in 1585 or 1586.

his flight, there is no indication that he produced anything better worth preserving. The absence of local tradition as to earlier productions suggests the likelihood that he left Stratford before this additional proof of his originality had become as well known as the calf-killing speeches, and that the change was made in 1582 rather than four years later.

Aubrey's account allows ten years for that part of Shakespeare's career which commenced with his departure from Stratford and closed in 1593, when his success was already assured. This may, however, have been attained much earlier, for of his history during the decade we know nothing definitely beyond the baptisms of his children and the traditions of lowly beginnings in London related by Davenant to Betterton, and worthy of consideration, although omitted from Rowe's narrative. In the period between 1582 and 1593 he passed through his novitiate to a good position in the theatre and laid the foundation of a competence that enabled him a few years later to take a prominent place in his native town. These alone were creditable results for the work of ten years, even if he met with none of the difficulties usually encountered by those who have sought fortune in like manner. Although

such dates as 1587 for Venus and Adonis and 1588-9 for Love's Labour's Lost are not founded upon any clear evidence,1 they are probably not far from the truth; and both poem and play must have been preceded by work of great excellence and promise. That the above-named productions were the work of one whose reputed mode of life before the year 1587 gives little assurance of the possession of the necessary qualities, and who, about that time, is supposed to have commenced his career in London imperfectly educated and inexperienced, is open to grave doubt.

1 For supposed dates of Shakespeare's earliest work, see Appendix, No. XXXIII.

FACTS AND CONJECTURES

In the following sketches brief references are made to the main incidents of Shakespeare's personal history. Some further explanations, which have been rendered necessary by my readings of the evidence, together with conjectures based upon them or collected from various sources, are submitted. A separate statement of the facts, which I purpose giving in the next chapter, will bring out the fragmentary nature of the history, and will also serve as a corrective by enabling the reader to avoid the errors frequently caused by accepting conjecture and assumption as that which can be proved. In order to avoid the possibility of taking as fact any of the hypotheses current in the biographies and added to in these pages, it would be well to bear in mind that nothing is known with certainty about the history of Shakespeare's life from the date. of his baptism, April 26th, 1564, to November 27th, 1582, when his marriage licence was granted, and that from the baptism of his children, Hamnet and Judith, on February 2nd, 1584-5, until the year 1593 the only undoubted contemporary reference to his name occurs in a Bill of Complaint,1 dated 1589, in connection with a proposal made in 1587 by John and Mary Shakespeare to John Lambert, son of the original mortgagee of the Asbies estate. Much information as to the history of the Shakespeare and Hathaway families and their connexions has, however, been obtained from deeds relating to small

For a copy of this document, in which William Shakespeare's name occurs, see Outlines, ii. 12.

properties in which they were interested, from diaries, wills, diocesan, parochial, and other registers, and from the municipal records of Stratford-upon-Avon. A knowledge of the conditions under which William Shakespeare's boyhood was passed has been derived, with some approach to the truth, from contemporary accounts of the manners and customs of the people among whom he was brought up, and from a less definite acquaintance with their modes of thought and opinions. All we know about Shakespeare during his earlier years in London is gleaned from the few traditions relating to his circumstances on arriving there and his introduction to the theatre. We have no trustworthy information earlier than 1593, when Venus and Adonis, with its dedication to Lord Southampton, was published. Thenceforth the more frequent references to Shakespeare include notices of the production of his poems and plays, and appreciations of his genius and personal character. There are accounts of business transactions indicative of interest in his native town and of the success which enabled him to raise his family to a higher rank than it had occupied in the days of his father's prosperity. Although his own position during the first twenty-eight years of his life was not sufficiently prominent to ensure a record of even its main incidents, and though he himself has given very little assistance to the biographer, we are now, probably, as well acquainted with his history as with that of most of his literary contemporaries. In dealing with so interesting a personality it is not surprising that the bounds of conjecture have been widely extended, or that common-place incidents, throwing no light upon his works and affording little or no insight into his mind or character, have been eagerly collected.

As to his lineage, we learn from the Stratford-upon-Avon parish register of baptisms that he was the son of John Shakespeare, who is supposed to have been the son of Richard Shakespeare of Snitterfield, a village about four miles distant from Stratford-upon-Avon. Even at this stage we begin to encounter the difficulties which are answerable for many disappointing results in attempting to trace the family pedigrees.

JOHN SHAKESPEARE OF SNITTERFIELD 99

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On February 10th, 1560-1, a bond1 was entered into by John Shakespere and Thomas Nycols, both described as husbandmen of Snitterfield, for the due administration of the estate of Richard Shakspere of that parish. In the memorandum of the grant the administrator is described as his son; so that we have a John Shakespeare who was a husbandman at Snitterfield at the same time that the father of the poet was a member of the corporation of Stratford-upon-Avon, where he is supposed to have traded as a glover, butcher, and dealer in corn and wool from about the year 1551. He is described as a yeoman in the conveyance of the Snitterfield property to Webbe in 1579. It has been suggested that he had a farm at Snitterfield as well as a business at Stratford. This is not unlikely, for agriculture was then, more commonly than now, carried on in combination with other more or less allied trades by dwellers in towns and villages. As the mere occupation of land at Snitterfield would not have entitled the administrator of Richard Shakespeare's estate to be described as of that parish, he was probably the occupier of a farmstead there. The fact that a Stratford man was not proposed as his surety may appear to indicate that Richard Shakespeare's son was more closely connected with the village than with the borough; but, although the poet's father occupied a substantial position at Stratford at the date of the administration, a desire to be identified with what may have been his native parish, in dealing with a matter solely connected with it, might account for this choice of a Snitterfield resident as his surety, as well as for the description found in the bond. In addition to his Stratford establishment, John Shakespeare may therefore have maintained another at Snitterfield as tenant of a house and a part of the farm occupied by Richard Shakespeare. In an indenture dated May 21st, 1560, some messuages and land at Snitterfield, conveyed by Agnes Arden of Wylmcote, Robert's eldest daughter, to Alexander Webb, are described as in the occupation of Richard Shakespere

1 Now at the Probate Registry, Worcester.

2 Testamenta Vetusta Vigorniensia, vol. vi., part i., folio 59a. Probate Registry, Worcester. For a copy of the bond and grant, sce Appendix, No. XXXIV.