A life of William Shakespeare ...

Preface

This work is based on the article on Shakespeare which I contributed last year to the fifty-first volume of the ' Dictionary of National Biography.' But the changes and additions which the article has undergone during my revision of it for separate publication are so numerous as to give the book a title to be regarded as an independent venture. In its general aims, however, the present life of Shakespeare endeavours loyally to adhere to the principles that are inherent in the scheme of the ' Dictionary of National Biography.' I have endeavoured to set before my readers a plain and practical narrative of the great dramatist's personal history as concisely as the needs of clearness and completeness would permit. I have sought to provide students of Shakespeare with a full record of the duly attested facts and dates of their master's career. I have avoided merely aesthetic criticism. My estimates of the value of Shakespeare's plays and poems are intended solely to fulfil the obligation that lies on the biographer of indicating

VI WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

succinctly the character of the successive labours, which were woven into the texture of his hero's life. ^Esthetic studies of Shakespeare abound, and to increase their number is a work of supererogation. But Shakespearean literature, as far as it is known to me, still lacks a book that shall supply within a brief compass an exhaustive and well-arranged statement of the facts of Shakespeare's career, achievement, and reputation, that shall reduce conjecture to the smallest dimensions consistent with coherence, and shall give verifiable references to all the original sources of information. After studying Elizabethan literature, history, and bibliography for more than eighteen years, I believed that I might, without exposing myself to a charge of presumption, attempt something in the way of filling this gap, and that I might be able to supply, at least tentatively, a guide-book to Shakespeare's life and work that should be, within its limits, complete and trustworthy. How far my belief was justified the readers of this volume will decide.

I cannot promise my readers any startling revelations. But my researches have enabled me to remove some ambiguities which puzzled my predecessors, and to throw light on one or two topics that have hitherto obscured the course of Shakespeare's career. Particulars that have not been before incorporated in Shakespeare's biography will be found in my treatment of the following subjects : the conditions under which ' Love's Labour's Lost ' and the ' Mer-

PREFACE vii

chant of Venice ' were written ; the references in Shakespeare's plays to his native town and county ; his father's applications to the Heralds' College for coat-armour ; his relations with Ben Jonson and the boy actors in 1601 ; the favour extended to his work by James I and his Court ; the circumstances which led to the publication of the First Folio, and the history of the dramatist's portraits. I have somewhat expanded the notices of Shakespeare's financial affairs which have already appeared in the article in the 1 Dictionary of National Biography,' and a few new facts will be found in my revised estimate of the poet's pecuniary position.

In my treatment of the sonnets I have pursued what I believe to be an original line of investigation. The strictly autobiographical interpretation that critics have of late placed on these poems compelled me, as Shakespeare's biographer, to submit them to a very narrow scrutiny. My conclusion is adverse to the claim of the sonnets to rank as autobiographical documents, but I have felt bound, out of respect to writers from whose views I dissent, to give in detail the evidence on which I base my judgment. Matthew Arnold sagaciously laid down the maxim that ' the criticism which alone can much help us for the future is a criticism which regards Europe as being for intellectual and artistic 1 purposes one great con-

1 Arnold wrote ' spiritual,' but the change of epithet is needful to render the dictum thoroughly pertinent to the topic under consideration.

Vlll WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

federation, bound to a joint action and working to a common result.' It is criticism inspired by this liberalising principle that is especially applicable to the vast sonnet-literature which was produced by Shakespeare and his contemporaries. It is criticism of the type that Arnold recommended that can alone lead to any accurate and profitable conclusion respecting the intention of the vast sonnet-literature of the Elizabethan era. In accordance with Arnold's suggestion, I have studied Shakespeare's sonnets comparatively with those in vogue in England, France, and Italy at the time he wrote. I have endeavoured to learn the view that was taken of such literary endeavours by contemporary critics and readers throughout Europe. My researches have covered a very small portion of the wide field. But I have gone far enough, I think, to justify the conviction that Shakespeare's collection of sonnets has no reasonable title to be regarded as a personal or autobiographical narrative.

In the Appendix (Sections in. and iv.) I have supplied a memoir of Shakespeare's patron, the Earl of Southampton, and an account of the Earl's relations with the contemporary world of letters. Apart from Southampton's association with the sonnets, he promoted Shakespeare's welfare at an early stage of the dramatist's career, and I can quote the authority of Malone, who appended a sketch of Southampton's history to his biography of Shakespeare (in the

PREFACE IX

'Variorum' edition of 1821), for treating a knowledge of Southampton's life as essential to a full knowledge of Shakespeare's. I have also printed in the Appendix a detailed statement of the precise circumstances under which Shakespeare's sonnets were published by Thomas Thorpe in 1609 (Section v.), and a review of the facts that seem to me to confute the popular theory that Shakespeare was a friend and protege of William Herbert, third Earl of Pembroke, who has been put-forward quite unwarrantably as the hero of the sonnets (Sections vi., vil, vin.). 1 I have also included in the Appendix (Sections ix. and x.) a survey of the voluminous sonnet-literature of the Elizabethan poets between 1 591 and 1597, with which Shakespeare's sonnetteering efforts were very closely allied, as well as a bibliographical note on a corresponding feature of French and Italian literature between 1550 and 1600.

Since the publication of the article on Shakespeare in the ' Dictionary of National Biography,' I have received from correspondents many criticisms and suggestions which have enabled me to correct some errors. But a few of my correspondents have exhibited so ingenuous a faith in those forged docu-

1 1 have already published portions of the papers on Shakespeare's relations with the Earls of Pembroke and Southampton in the Fort* nightly Review (for February of this year) and in the Cornhill Magazine (for April of this year), and I have to thank the proprietors of those periodicals for permission to reproduce my material in this volume.

X WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

ments relating to Shakespeare and forged references to his works, which were promulgated chiefly by- John Payne Collier more than half a century ago, that I have attached a list of the misleading records to my chapter on 'The Sources of Biographical Information ' in the Appendix (Section i.). I believe the list to be fuller than any to be met with elsewhere.

The six illustrations which appear in this volume have been chosen on grounds of practical utility rather than of artistic merit. My reasons for selecting as the frontispiece the newly discovered ' Droeshout ' painting of Shakespeare (now in the Shakespeare Memorial Gallery at Stratford-on-Avon) can be gathered from the history of the painting and of its discovery which I give on pages 288-90. I have to thank Mr. Edgar Flower and the other members of the Council of the Shakespeare Memorial at Stratford for permission to reproduce the picture. The portrait of Southampton in early life is now at Welbeck Abbey, and the Duke of Portland not only permitted the portrait to be engraved for this volume, but lent me the negative from which the plate has been prepared. The Committee of the Garrick Club gave permission to photograph the interesting bust of Shakespeare in their possession, 1 but, owing to the fact that it is moulded in black terra-cotta, no satisfactory negative could be obtained; the

1 For an account of its history see p. 295.

PREFACE xi

engraving I have used is from a photograph of a white plaster cast of the original bust, now in the Memorial Gallery at Stratford. The five autographs of Shakespeare's signature — all that exist of unquestioned authenticity — appear in the three remaining plates. The three signatures on the will have been photographed from the original document at Somerset House, by permission of Sir Francis Jeune, President of the Probate Court; the autograph on the deed of purchase by Shakespeare in 1613 of the house in Blackfriars has been photographed from the original document in the Guildhall Library, by permission of the Library Committee of the City of London; and the autograph on the deed of mortgage relating to the same property, also dated in 161 3, has been photographed from the original document in the British Museum, by permission of the Trustees. Shakespeare's coat-of-arms and motto, which are stamped on the cover of this volume, are copied from the trickings in the margin of the draft-grants of arms now in the Heralds' College.

The Baroness Burdett-Coutts has kindly given me ample opportunities of examining the two peculiarly interesting and valuable copies of the First Folio 1 in her possession. Mr. Richard Savage, of Stratford-on- Avon, the Secretary of the Birthplace Trustees, and Mr. W. Salt Brassington, the Librarian of the Shakespeare Memorial at Stratford, have courteously re-

Xll WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

plied to the many inquiries that I have addressed to them verbally or by letter. Mr. Lionel Cust, the Director of the National Portrait Gallery, has helped me to estimate the authenticity of Shakespeare's portraits. I have also benefited, while the work has been passing through the press, by the valuable suggestions of my friends the Rev. H. C. Beeching and Mr. W. J. Craig, and I have to thank Mr. Thomas Seccombe for the zealous aid he has rendered me while correcting the final proofs.

Distribution of the name

of Shakespeare . . i The poet's ancestry . . 2 The poet's father . . 4 His settlement at Stratford .... 5

The poet's mother . . 6 1564, April. The poet's birth

and baptism ... 8

Alleged birthplace . . 8

II 1575 1577

The father in municipal

1582,

Dec. The poet's marriage office ....

Richard Hathaway of

Brothers and sisters .

Shottery

The father's financial dif-

Anne Hathaway ficulties ....

Anne Hathaway's cott Shakespeare's education tage ....

His classical equipment .

The bond against imped-

Shakespeare's knowledge iments ....

of the Bible .

May. Birth of the poet's

Queen Elizabeth at Kendaughter Susanna ilworth ....

Formal betrothal proba-

Withdrawal from school .

bly dispensed with

XIV

Early married life . . 25 Poaching in Charlecote . 27 Unwarranted doubts of the tradition . . .28

Justice Shallow

The flight from Stratford ,

IV The Journey to London

3 1

The London theatres

Richard Field, Shake-

Place of residence in Lonspeare's townsman

Theatrical employment .

Actors' provincial tours .

A playhouse servitor

Shakespeare's alleged

The acting companies travels ....

The Lord Chamberlain's

In Scotland

4 1 company

In Italy ....

Shakespeare a member of

Shakespeare's roles .

the Lord Chamberlain's

His alleged scorn of an company actor's calling

V

EARLY DRAMATIC WORK

The period of Shakespeare's dramatic work, 1591-1611 . . .46 His borrowed plots . . 47 The revision of plays . 47 Chronology of the plays . 48 Metrical tests . . .49 1591 Love's Labour s Lost . 50

159 1 Two Gentlemen of Verona 52

1592 Comedy of Errors . . 53 1592 Romeo and Juliet . . 55 1592, March. Henry VI . .56 1592, Sept. Greene's attack on

Shakespeare . . -57 Chettle's apology . . 58 Divided authorship of

Henry VI . .59

Shakespeare's coadjutors 60 Shakespeare's assimilative

power . . . .61 Lyly's influence in comedy 61

1593 1593

Marlowe's influence in tragedy ....

Richard III .

Richard II

Shakespeare's acknowledgments to Marlowe .

Titus Andronicus 1594, August. The Merchant of Venice ....

Shylock and Roderigo Lopez .... 1594 King John 1594, Dec. 28. Comedy of Errors in Gray's Inn Hall

Early plays doubtfully assigned to Shakespeare .

Arden of Feversham (1592) ....

Edward III .

Mucedorus

Faire Em (1592)

XV

VI The First Appeal To The Reading Public

1593, April. Publication of Ve-

nus and Adonis . . 74

1594, May. Publication of Lu-

PAGE

Enthusiastic reception of

the poems . . .78 Shakespeare and Spenser 79 Patrons at Court . .81

VII

The vogue of the Elizabethan sonnet . . 83 Shakespeare's first experiments . . . .84 1594 Majority of Shakespeare's

sonnets composed . 85

Their literary value . . 87 Circulation in manuscript 88 Their piratical publication

in 1609 . . . .89 A Lover's Complaint 91

Thomas Thorpe and ' Mr.

W. H.' . . . . 91 The form of Shakespeare's

sonnets . . . .95

Their want of continuity . 96

The two ' groups ' .96

Main topics of the first

Main topics of the second 'group' ... 99

The order of the sonnets in the edition of 1640 . 100

Lack of genuine sentiment in Elizabethan sonnets .... 100

Their dependence on French and Italian models . . . .101

Sonnetteers' admissions of insincerity . . , 105

Contemporary censure of sonnetteers' false sentiment .... 106

Shakespeare's scornful allusions to sonnets in his plays .... 108

VIII Slender autobiographical element in Shakespeare's sonnets

The imitative element Shakespeare's claims of immortality for his sonnets a borrowed conceit ....

"3

Conceits in sonnets addressed to a woman . 117

The praise of ' blackness ' 118

The sonnets of vituperation .... 120

Gabriel Harvey's Amorous Odious sonnet . 121

Jodelle's Contr' Amours . 122

XVI

IX The Patronage Of The Earl Of Southampton

Biographic fact in the

' dedicatory ' sonnets .

The Earl of Southampton

the poet's sole patron .

Rivals in Southampton's

favour .

Shakespeare's fear of an

other poet ; Barnabe Barnes probably

the chief rival Other theories as to the

chief rival's identity Sonnets of friendship . 136 Extravagances of literary

compliment . . . 138

• 13°

133 134

Patrons habitually addressed in affectionate terms ....

Direct references to Southampton in the sonnets of friendship .

His youthfulness

The evidence of portraits 144

Sonnet cvii. the last of the series .... 147

Allusions to Queen Elizabeth's death . . . 147

Allusion to Southampton's release from prison . . . . 149

X

THE SUPPOSED STORY OF INTRIGUE IN THE SONNETS

Sonnets of melancholy and self-reproach . .151

The youth's relations with the poet's mistress . 153

Willoble his Aviso.

(1594) • ■ • -155 Summary of conclusions respecting the sonnets . 158

XI 1594-5 Midsummer Night' s

All's Well that Ends Well . . . .162

The Taming of the Shrew 163 Stratford allusions in the Induction . . . 164

Henry IV . . . .167 Falstaff" . . . .169

The Merry Wives of

Windsor , . .171

Essex and the rebellion of

1601 .... 174 Shakespeare's popularity

and influence . . 176 Shakespeare's friendship

with Ben Jonson . . 176 The Mermaid meetings . 177 Meres's eulogy . . . 178 Value of his name to publishers .... 179 The Passionate Pilgrim . 182 The Phoenix and the Turtle . ..:..-. .183

XV11

XII Shakespeare's practical

temperament. . . 185

His father's difficulties . 186

His wife's debt . . . 187

1596-9 The coat of arms . . 188

1597, May 4. The purchase of

New Place . . . 193 1598 Fellow-townsmen appeal

to Shakespeare for aid 195 Shakespeare's financial position before 1599 * . 196

PAGE

Shakespeare's financial

position after 1599 . 200 His later income . . 202 Incomes of fellow-actors . 203 1601-1610 Shakespeare's formation of his estate at Stratford . . . 204 1605 The Stratford tithes . . 205 1600-1609 Recovery of small

XIII 1599 1599 1600 1601

Literary work in 1599 . 207 Much Ado about Nothing 208 As You Like It . . . 209 Twelfth Night . . . 209 Julius Ccesar . . . 211 The strife between adult

actors and boy actors . 213 Shakespeare's references

to the struggle . . 216 Ben Jonson's Poetaster . 217 Shakespeare's alleged partisanship in the theatrical warfare . . . 219

1602 Hamlet .... 221 The problem of its publication .... 222

The First Quarto, 1603 . 222 The Second Quarto, 1604 223 The Folio version, 1623 . 223 Popularity of Hamlet . 224

1603 Troilus and Cressida . 223 Treatment of the theme . 227

1603, March 26. Queen Elizabeth's death . . . 229 James I's patronage . 230

XIV 1604, 1604

Nov. Othello .

Dec. Measure for Me as

1606 1607 ure Macbeth .

King Lear

. 241

1608 Timon of Athe?is

1608 Pericles .

1608 Antony and Cleopatra

1609 Cor io I anus

242 243 245 247

XV The placid temper of the latest plays . . . 248

161 1 A Winter 's Tale . .251 16 1 1 The Tempest . . . 252

Fanciful interpretations of

The Te?npest . . .256 Unfinished plays . . 258

The lost play of Cardenio .... 258

The Two Noble Kinsmen .... 259

Henry VIII . . .261

The burning of the Globe Theatre .... 262

XVI THE CLOSE OF LIFE

Plays at Court in 1613 . 264 Actor-friends . . . 264 161 1 Final settlement at Stratford .... 266 Domestic affairs . . 266

1613, March. Purchase of a

house in Blackfriars . 267

1614, Oct. Attempt to enclose

the Stratford common fields .... 269 1616, April 23. Shakespeare's

1616, April 25. Shakespeare's

burial .... 272 The will .... 273 Shakespeare's bequest to

his wife .... 273 Shakespeare's heiress . 275 Legacies to friends . . 276 The tomb in Stratford

Church .... 276 Shakespeare's personal

character . . . 277

XVII Survivors And Descendants

The last descendant . . 282 Shakespeare's brothers, Edmund, Richard, and Gilbert . . . .283

XVIII AUTOGRAPHS, PORTRAITS, AND MEMORIALS poet's the

Spelling of

name .... 284 Autograph signatures . 284 Shakespeare's portraits . 286 The Stratford bust . . 286 The ' Stratford portrait ' . 287 Droeshout's engraving . 287 The ' Droeshout ' painting 288

Later portraits . . . 291

The Chandos portrait . 292

The ' Jansen' portrait . 294

The ' Felton ' portrait . 294

The 'Soest' portrait. . 294

Miniatures . . . 295

The Garrick Club bust . 295

Alleged death-mask . . 296

Memorials in sculpture . 297

Memorials at Stratford . 297

XIX XIX

PAGE

PAGE

Quartos of the poems in

Alexander Pope (1688- the poet's lifetime .

Posthumous quartos oi

Lewis Theobald (1688- the poems

The ' Poems ' of 1640

Sir Thomas Hanmei

Quartos of the plays in the

(1677-1746) .

poet's lifetime

Bishop Warburton (1698-

Posthumous quartos of the plays ....

1623 The First Folio

Edward Capell (1713-

The publishing syndi-

George Steevens (1736-

The prefatory matter

The value of the text

3°7

Edmund Malone (1741-

The order of the plays

The typography

Variorum editions .

Unique copies .

Nineteenth-century edi

The Sheldon copy .

3°9 tors.

3 2 3

Estimated number of ex-

Alexander Dyce (1798- tant copies

Reprints of the First

Howard Staunton (1810-

Folio ....

1632 The Second Folio .

Nikolaus Delius (1813-

1663-4 The Third Folio .

3 2 4

1685 The Fourth Folio .

The Cambridge edition

Eighteenth-century edi-

(1863-1866) .

tors ....

Other nineteenth-centur>

Nicholas Rowe (1674- editions .

XX Views of Shakespeare's

The first appea contemporaries actresses in

Ben Jonson's tribute spearean parts

English opinion between

David Garrick

1779) •

Dryden's view .

John Philip

Restoration adaptations .

(1757-1823) .

English opinion from 1702

Mrs. Sarah onwards

(1755-1831) .

Stratford festivals

Edmund Kean

Shakespeare on the Eng-

1833) ■ • lish stage

Shake-

Kemble

Siddons

334 336 337 337 338

XX

William Charles Macready (1793-1873) • 339 Recent revivals . . . 339 Shakespeare in English

music and art . . 340 Boydell's Shakespeare

gallery . . . .341 Shakespeare in America . 341 Translations . . . 342 Shakespeare in Germany . 342 German translations . . 343 Modern German critics . 345 Shakespeare on the German stage . . .345

Shakespeare in France

Voltaire's strictures .

French critics' gradua emancipation from Vol tairean influence .

Shakespeare on the French stage .

Shakespeare in Italy

In Holland

In Russia .

In Poland.

In Hungary

In other countries .

347 348

XXI General estimate Shakespeare's defects

GENERAL

ESTIMATE

Character of Shakespeare's achievement . 356 Its universal recognition . 357