He appears also to have ceased attending the meetings of the Town Council, and even to have had his taxes remitted. In 1579 his daughter Anne died, and in the following year his name appears in several lists of recusants, which circumstance has been held by some to afford evidence of his having either been a Romanist or having become one. At this time the Roman Catholic religion was of course proscribed, and it has been thought by some that his troubles may possibly have arisen in part from his apostasy or belonging to the “old faith.” There is, however, no clear evidence in support of this contention. In 1585 his affairs seem to have gone from bad to worse, for he was deprived of his office of alderman for non–attendance, the record reading “He doth not come to the halles, nor hath he of long time.”
It was a few years later, however, that the crisis in his affairs seems to have been reached, for during this period we learn that he could not attend church for fear of “processe of debt.” In 1597, on account of the success of his son (as some think), there was a distinct recovery in the position of the Shakespeares. And during the year a bill was filed by him in the Court of Chancery against John Lambert, the son of the man to whom his estate of Asbies had been mortgaged in 1578, the object of the action being for its recovery. The argument of John Shakespeare being that though money had been tendered for the release of the property the Lamberts still held it, and refused to resign possession. About the same time, too, a grant of arms was made to him by one Dethick, Garter King–at–Arms. The motto afterwards used by the poet was “Non sanz droict.”
In 1601 Shakespeare’s father died, the fact being recorded in the burial register at Stratford as follows:—
1601, Sept. 8, Mr. Johanes Shakspeare.
Thus ends the record of a life which saw quite its fair share of vicissitudes.
Of Shakespeare’s early life, unfortunately, comparatively little is known. It appears probable, however, that about the year 1571, when he was seven years old, he was sent to the Grammar School founded in 1481 by one Thomas Jolyffe. There is no reason for doubting that he was for some considerable time a scholar there, and learned the “small Latin and less Greek” which was assigned to him by Ben Jonson.
It was whilst he was still a schoolboy that Queen Elizabeth visited the Earl of Leicester at Kenilworth; and thither many from the districts round about flocked to gaze upon her Majesty, and to witness with open–eyed wonder the magnificent pageants which were enacted for her amusement. As Stratford is but thirteen miles distant from Kenilworth by road it appears more than possible that both Shakespeare and his father were amongst the spectators. If this were the case it is probable that the Kenilworth festivities were the first introduction which the future dramatist had to the stage, and that the influence of the scenes he must have witnessed becomes easily traceable in several of his plays.
ABBOTS SALFORD.