[424:A] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. xviii. p. 249, 250. Act iii. sc. 4.
[424:B] Ibid. vol. i. p. 128. note 1.
[424:C] "Mr. Jones's informer," observes Mr. Malone, "might have been Mr. Richard Quincy, who lived in London, and died at Stratford in 1656, at the age of 69; or Mr. Thomas Quincy, our poet's son-in-law, who lived, I believe, till 1663, and was twenty-seven years old when his father-in-law died; or some one of the family of Hathaway. Mr. Thomas Hathaway, I believe Shakspeare's brother-in-law, died at Stratford in 1654-5, at the age of 85."—Reed's Shakspeare, vol. i. p. 128. note 1.
[424:D] Reed's Shakspeare, vol. i. p. 129, 130.
[425:A] The Scourge of Folly, by John Davies of Hereford, no date.
CHAPTER II.
SHAKSPEARE COMMENCES A WRITER OF POETRY, PROBABLY ABOUT THE YEAR 1587, BY THE COMPOSITION OF HIS VENUS AND ADONIS—HISTORICAL OUTLINE OF POLITE LITERATURE DURING THE AGE OF SHAKSPEARE.
As the first object of Shakspeare must necessarily have been, from the confined nature of his circumstances, to procure employment, it is highly reasonable to conclude that he at first contented himself with the diligent discharge of those duties which fell to his share as an actor of inferior rank. That these, however, were calculated to absorb, for any length of time, a mind so active, ample, and creative, cannot for a moment be credited; and, indeed, we are warranted, by every fair inference, to assert, that, no sooner did he consider his situation at the theatre of Blackfriars as tolerably secured, than he immediately directed his powers to the cultivation of his favourite art—that of poetry.