At the conclusion of this parliament in 1818, Sir Samuel Romilly, after having again been invited to stand for several large constituencies, by any of which he was assured he would be elected, was at length put in nomination for Westminster; and although he was violently opposed by the court on the one side, and by the ultra popular party on the other; although, during the whole of the contest, he was calmly pursuing his professional duties in the Court of Chancery, and never once appeared on the hustings till the conclusion, he was returned at the head of the poll. After his election, he did all in his power to avoid the ceremony of chairing; but on his objections being over-ruled, his greatest pleasure was when, after he had addressed the multitude from the windows of Burlington House, he was able to escape by a back door and walk by the less frequented streets to his home, there to receive congratulations no less hearty, and more congenial to his temper and taste. But he did not live to take his seat. A life of uninterrupted and rarely equalled domestic happiness, and of great success in his professional and political career, was suddenly embittered by the loss of that being, to whom he had been deeply and devotedly attached for above twenty years, and with whom he had ever considered his happiness and prosperity as being indissolubly connected. He sank under this calamity, and mankind was deprived of his services for ever[[6]].
[6]. Strong symptoms of an incipient brain fever showed themselves, and these increased so rapidly as to produce, before they could be checked, a temporary delirium, as most frequently happens in that malady; and in this paroxysm he terminated his existence, November 22, 1818, three days after Lady Romilly’s death.
Romilly was reserved and silent in general society, but affectionate, entertaining, and instructive with his friends; and full of joyousness, humour, and playfulness with his children, and in the bosom of his family. He was endowed with a lively imagination, he was fond of retirement, and was a passionate admirer of the beauties of nature. Indefatigable in his profession and in parliament, he yet found time to keep up with the literature of the day, to write criticisms on the books which he read, to keep a regular diary of his political career, and to compose essays on various branches of the criminal law. His eloquence was of that kind which never fails to make a lasting impression: it was full of earnest conviction and deep sensibility. He was a great master of sarcasm, but he considered it an unfair weapon and rarely employed it. So jealous was he of his independence, that when he was solicitor-general, and one of his nephews was peculiarly anxious to be placed in the Military Academy at Woolwich, he refused to lay himself under any obligation, even for so slight a favour; and the application was never made. Few ever gained so large a portion of public favour, and yet so studiously avoided courting popularity; and no one ever rose higher in the esteem of his political contemporaries. Unsullied in character as a lawyer, as a politician, and as a man, his life, which was prolonged to the age of sixty-one, was a life of happiness and of honour. No statues are erected to his memory; no titles descend to his children; but he has bequeathed a richer, a prouder, and a more lasting inheritance, than any which the world can bestow: the recollection of his virtues is still fresh in the minds of his countrymen, and the sacrifices he made in the cause of humanity will not be forgotten by mankind.
SHAKSPEARE.
The materials which we possess for the biography of Shakspeare are very unsatisfactory. The earliest life is that by the poet Rowe, who, as if aware of its scantiness, merely entitles it ‘Some Account.’ It contains what little the author could collect, when no sources of information were left open but the floating traditions of the theatre after the lapse of nearly a century. Mr. Malone prefixed a new life to his edition, extending to above 500 pages; but he only brings his author to London, and as to his professional progress, adds nothing to Rowe’s meagre tale, except some particles of information previously communicated in notes by himself and Steevens.
William Shakspeare was born at Stratford-upon-Avon in Warwickshire, April 23, 1564. He was one of ten children. His father was a dealer in wool, as it is generally said, but according to Malone, a glover, and alderman in the corporation of Stratford. Our great poet received such education as the lower forms of the Grammar School at Stratford could give him; but he was removed from that establishment at an early age, to serve as clerk in a country attorney’s office. This anecdote of his boyhood receives confirmation from the frequent recurrence of technical law-phrases in his plays; and it has been remarked that he derives none of his allusions from other learned professions. Before he was eighteen years of age he contracted a marriage with Anne Hathaway, a woman some years older than himself, and the daughter of a substantial yeoman in his own neighbourhood. He went to London about 1586, when he was but twenty-two years of age, being obliged, as the common story goes, to fly the country, in consequence of being detected in deer-stealing. This tale is thought to be confirmed by the ridicule cast on his supposed prosecutor, Sir Thomas Lucy, in the character of Justice Shallow, pointed as it is by the
Engraved by E. Scriven.
SHAKSPEARE.
From the Picture in the Possession of His Grace the Duke of Buckingham, at Stowe.
Under the Superintendance of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge.
London, Published by Charles Knight, Ludgate Street. June 1, 1835.
commendation of the “dozen white luces as a good coat.” But as this is the only lawless action which tradition has imputed to one of the most amiable and inoffensive of men, we may perhaps esteem the tale to be the mere gossip of the tiring-room: indeed, Malone has adduced several arguments to prove that it cannot be correctly told. It is not necessary to suppose that Shakspeare was compelled to fly his native town because he came to the metropolis; his emigration is sufficiently accounted for by his father’s falling into distressed circumstances, and being obliged in this very year, 1586, to resign his alderman’s gown on that account. Another traditional anecdote, that Shakspeare’s first employment was to wait at the play-house door, and hold the horses of those who had no servants, is discredited by Mr. Steevens, who says, “That it was once the general custom to ride on horseback to the play I am yet to learn. The most popular of the theatres were on the Bankside; and we are told by the satirical pamphleteers of that time that the usual mode of conveyance to those places of amusement was by water; but not a single writer so much as hints at the custom of riding to them, or at the practice of having horses held during the hours of exhibition. Let it be remembered too, that we receive this tale on no higher authority than that of Cibber’s ‘Lives of the Poets.’”