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

documents 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, [x] but, owing to the fact that it is moulded in black terra-cotta no satisfactory negative could be obtained; the

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 Jenne, 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 1613, 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 [xi] 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 replied

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.

October 12, 1898.

CONTENTS

I—PARENTAGE AND BIRTH
Distribution of the name of Shakespeare [1]
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—CHILDHOOD, EDUCATION, AND MARRIAGE
The father in municipal office [10]
Brothers and sisters [11]
The father’s financial difficulties [12]
1571-7 Shakespeare’s education [13]
His classical equipment [15]
Shakespeare’s knowledge of the Bible [16]
1575 Queen Elizabeth at Kenilworth [17]
1577 Withdrawal from school [18]
1582, Dec. The poet’s marriage [18]
Richard Hathaway of Shottery [19]
Anne Hathaway [19]
Anne Hathaway’s cottage [19]
The bond against impediments [20]
1583, May Birth of the poet’s daughter Susanna [22]
Formal betrothal probably dispensed with [23]
III—THE FAREWELL TO STRATFORD
Early married life [25]
Poaching at Charlecote [27]
Unwarranted doubts of the tradition [28]
Justice Shallow [29]
1585 The flight from Stratford [29]
IV—ON THE LONDON STAGE
1586 The journey to London [31]
Richard Field, Shakespeare townsman [32]
Theatrical employment [32]
A playhouse servitor [32]
The acting companies [34]
The Lord Chamberlain’s company [35]
Shakespeare, a member of the Lord Chamberlain’s company [36]
The London theatres [36]
Place of residence in London [38]
Actors’ provincial tours [39]
Shakespeare’s alleged travels [40]
In Scotland [41]
In Italy [42]
Shakespeare’s rôles [43]
His alleged scorn of an actor’s calling [45]
V—EARLY DRAMATIC WORK
The period of his 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]
1591 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]
Marlowe’s influence in tragedy [63]
1593 Richard III [63]
1593 Richard II [64]
Shakespeare’s acknowledgments to Marlowe [64]
1593 Titus Andronicus [65]
1594, August The Merchant of Venice [66]
Shylock and Roderigo Lopez [68]
1594 King John [69]
1594, Dec. Comedy of Errors in Gray’s Inn Hall [70]
Early plays doubtfully assigned to Shakespeare [71]
Arden of Feversham (1592) [71]
Edward III [72]
Mucedorus [72]
Faire Em (1592) [73]
VI—THE FIRST APPEAL TO THE READING PUBLIC
1593, April Publication of Venus and Adonis [74]
1594, May Publication of Lucrece [76]
Enthusiastic reception of the poems [78]
Shakespeare and Spenser [79]
Patrons at Court [81]
VII—THE SONNETS AND THEIR LITERARY HISTORY
The vogue of the Elizabethan sonnet [83]
Shakespeare’s first experiments [84]
1594 Majority of his Shakespeare’s 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 ‘group’ [98]
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—THE BORROWED CONCEITS OF THE SONNETS
Slender autobiographical element in Shakespeare’s sonnets [109]
The imitative element [109]
Shakespeare’s claims of immortality for his sonnets a borrowed conceit [113]
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]
IX—THE PATRONAGE OF THE EARL OF SOUTHAMPTON
Biographic fact in the ‘dedicatory’ sonnets [125]
The Earl of Southampton the poet’s sole patron [126]
Rivals in Southampton’s favour [130]
Shakespeare’s fear of another poet [132]
Barnabe Barnes probably the chief rival [133]
Other theories as to the chief rival’s identity [134]
Sonnets of friendship [136]
Extravagances of literary compliment [138]
Patrons habitually addressed in affectionate terms [139]
Direct references to Southampton in the sonnets of friendship [142]
His youthfulness [143]
The evidence of portraits [144]
Sonnet cvii. the last of the series [147]
Allusions to Queen Elizabeth’s death [147]
Allusions 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]
Willobie his Avisa (1594) [155]
Summary of conclusions respecting the sonnets [158]
XI—THE DEVELOPMENT OF DRAMATIC POWER
1594-95 Midsummer Night’s Dream [161]
1595 All’s Well that Ends Well [162]
1595 The Taming of The Shrew [163]
Stratford allusions in the Induction [164]
Wincot [165]
1597 Henry IV [167]
Falstaff [199]
1597 The Merry Wives of Windsor [171]
1598 Henry V [173]
Essex and the rebellion of 1601 [174]
Shakespeare’s popularity and influence [176]
Shakespeare’s friendship with Ben Jonson [176]
The Mermaid meetings [177]
1598 Meres’s eulogy [178]
Value of his name to publishers [179]
1599 The Passionate Pilgrim [182]
1601 The Phœnix and the Turtle [183]
XII—THE PRACTICAL AFFAIRS OF LIFE
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 appear to Shakespeare for aid [195]
Shakespeare’s financial position before 1599 [196]
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 debts [206]
XIII—MATURITY OF GENIUS
Literary work in 1599 [207]
1599 Much Ado about Nothing [208]
1599 As You Like It [209]
1600 Twelfth Night [209]
1601 Julius Cæsar [211]
The strife between adult actors and boy actors [213]
Shakespeare’s references to the struggle [216]
1601 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 [225]
Treatment of the theme [227]
1603, March 26 Queen Elizabeth’s death [229]
James I’s patronage [230]
XIV—THE HIGHEST THEMES OF TRAGEDY
1604, Nov. Othello [235]
1604, Dec. Measure for Measure [237]
1606 Macbeth [239]
1607 King Lear [241]
1608 Timon of Athens [242]
1608 Pericles [243]
1608 Antony and Cleopatra [245]
1609 Coriolanus [247]
XV—THE LATEST PLAYS
The placid temper of the latest plays [248]
1610 Cymbeline [249]
1611 A Winter’s Tale [251]
1611 The Tempest [252]
Fanciful interpretations of The Tempest [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]
1611 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 23rd. Shakespeare’s death [272]
1616, April 25th. 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
Mrs. Judith Quiney, (1585-1662) [280]
Mrs. Susanna Hall (1583-1649) [281]
The last descendant [282]
Shakespeare’s brothers, Edmund, Richard, and Gilbert [283]
XVIII—AUTOGRAPHS, PORTRAITS, AND MEMORIALS
Spelling of the poet’s 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—BIBLIOGRAPHY
Quartos of the poems in the poet’s lifetime [299]
Posthumous quartos of the poems [300]
The ‘Poems’ of 1640 [300]
Quartos of the plays in the poet’s lifetime [300]
Posthumous quartos of the plays [300]
1623 The First Folio [303]
The publishing syndicate [303]
The prefatory matter [306]
The value of the text [307]
The order of the plays [307]
The typography [308]
Unique copies [308]
The Sheldon copy [309]
Estimated number of extant copies [310]
Reprints of the First Folio [311]
1632 The Second Folio [312]
1663-4 The Third Folio [312]
1685 The Fourth Folio [313]
Eighteenth-century editions [313]
Nicholas Rowe (1674-1718) [314]
Alexander Pope (1688-1744) [315]
Lewis Theobald (1688-1744) [317]
Sir Thomas Hanmer (1677-1746) [317]
Bishop Warburton (1698-1779) [318]
Dr. Johnson (1709-1783) [319]
Edward Capell (1713-1781) [319]
George Steevens (1736-1800) [320]
Edmund Malone (1741-1812) [322]
Variorum editions [322]
Nineteenth-century editors [323]
Alexander Dyce (1798-1869) [323]
Howard Staunton (1810-1874) [324]
Nikolaus Delius (1813-1888) [324]
The Cambridge edition (1863-6) [324]
Other nineteenth-century editions [324]
XX—POSTHUMOUS REPUTATION
Views of Shakespeare’s contemporaries [326]
Ben Jonson tribute [327]
English opinion between 1660 and 1702 [329]
Dryden’s view [330]
Restoration adaptations [331]
English opinion from 1702 onwards [332]
Stratford festivals [334]
Shakespeare on the English stage [334]
The first appearance of actresses in Shakespearean parts [334]
David Garrick (1717-1779) [336]
John Philip Kemble (1757-1823) [337]
Mrs. Sarah Siddons (1755-1831) [337]
Edmund Kean (1787-1833) [338]
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 [347]
Voltaire’s strictures [348]
French critics’ gradual emancipation from Voltairean influence [349]
Shakespeare on the French stage [350]
Shakespeare in Italy [352]
In Holland [354]
In Russia [353]
In Poland [353]
In Hungary [353]
In other countries [354]
XXI—GENERAL ESTIMATES
General estimate [355]
Shakespeare’s defects [355]
Character of Shakespeare’s achievement [356]
Its universal recognition [357]
APPENDIX
I—THE SOURCES OF BIOGRAPHICAL KNOWLEDGE
Contemporary records abundant [361]
First efforts in biography [361]
Biographers of the nineteenth century [362]
Stratford topography [363]
Specialised studies in biography [363]
Epitomes [364]
Aids to study of plots and text [364]
Concordances [364]
Bibliographies [365]
Critical studies [365]
Shakespearean forgeries [365]
John Jordan (1746-1809) [366]
The Ireland forgeries (1796) [366]
List of forgeries promulgated by Collier and others (1835-1849) [367]
II—THE BACON-SHAKESPEARE CONTROVERSY
Its source [370]
Toby Matthew’s letter of 1621 [371]
Chief exponents of the theory [371]
Its vogue in America [372]
Extent of the literature [372]
Absurdity of the theory [373]
III—THE YOUTHFUL CAREER OF THE EARL OF SOUTHAMPTON
Shakespeare and Southampton [374]
Southampton’s parentage [374]
1573, Oct. 6 Southampton’s birth [375]
His education [375]
Recognition of Southampton’s beauty in youth [377]
His reluctance to marry [378]
Intrigue with Elizabeth Vernon [379]
1598 Southampton’s marriage [379]
1601-3 Southampton’s imprisonment [380]
Later career [380]
1624, Nov. 10 His death [381]
IV—THE EARL OF SOUTHAMPTON AS A LITERARY PATRON
Southampton’s collection of books [382]
References in his letters to poems and plays [382]
His love of the theatre [383]
Poetic adulation [384]
1593 Barnabe Barnes’s sonnet [384]
Tom Nash’s addresses [385]
1595 Gervase Markham’s sonnet [387]
1598 Florio’s address [387]
The congratulations of the poets in 1603 [387]
Elegies on Southampton [389]
V—THE TRUE HISTORY OF THOMAS THORPE AND ‘MR. W. H.’
The publication of the ‘Sonnets’ in 1609 [390]
The text of the dedication [391]
Publishers’ dedications [392]
Thorpe’s early life [393]
His ownership of the manuscript of Marlowe’s Lucan [393]
His dedicatory address to Edward Blount in 1600 [394]
Character of his business [395]
Shakespeare’s sufferings at publishers hands [396]
The use of initials in dedications of Elizabethan and Jacobean books [397]
Frequency of wishes for ‘happiness’ and ‘eternity’ in dedicatory greetings [398]
Five dedications by Thorpe [399]
‘W. H.’ signs dedication of Southwell’s ‘Poems’ [400]
‘W. H.’ and Mr. William Hall [402]
The ‘onlie begetter’ means ‘only procurer’ [403]
VI—‘MR. WILLIAM HERBERT’
Origin of the notion that ‘Mr. W. H.’ stands for William Herbert [406]
The Earl of Pembroke known only as Lord Herbert in youth [407]
Thorpe’s mode of addressing the Earl of Pembroke [408]
VII—SHAKESPEARE AND THE EARL OF PEMBROKE
Shakespeare with the acting company at Wilton in 1603 [411]
The dedication of the First Folio in 1623 [412]
No suggestion in the sonnets of the youth’s identity with Pembroke [413]
Aubrey’s ignorance of any relation between Shakespeare and Pembroke [414]
VIII—THE ‘WILL’ SONNETS
Elizabethan meanings of ‘will’ [416]
Shakespeare’s uses of the word [417]
Shakespeare’s puns on the word [418]
Arbitrary and irregular use of italics by Elizabethan and Jacobean printers [419]
The conceits of Sonnets cxxxv.-vi. interpreted [420]
Sonnet cxxxv [421]
Sonnet cxxxvi [422]
Sonnet cxxxiv [425]
Sonnet cxliii [426]
IX—THE VOGUE OF THE ELIZABETHAN SONNET, 1591-1597
1557 Wyatt’s and Surrey’s Sonnets published [427]
1582 Watson’s Centurie of Love [428]
1591 Sidney’s Astrophel and Stella [428]
I. Collected sonnets of feigned love [429]
1592 Daniel’s Delia [430]
Fame of Daniel’s sonnets [431]
1592 Constable’s Diana [431]
1593 Barnabe Barne’s sonnets [432]
1593 Watson’s Tears of Fancie [433]
1593 Giles Fletcher’s Licia [433]
1593 Lodge’s Phillis [433]
1594 Drayton’s Idea [434]
1594 Percy’s Cœlia [435]
1594 Zepheria [435]
1595 Barnfield’s sonnets to Ganymede [435]
1595 Spenser’s Amoretti [435]
1595 Emaricdulfe [436]
1595 Sir John Davies’s Gullinge Sonnets [436]
1596 Linche’s Diella [437]
1596 Griffin Fidessa [437]
1596 Thomas Campion’s sonnets [437]
1596 William Smith’s Chloris [437]
1597 Robert Tofte’s Laura [438]
Sir William Alexander’s Aurora [438]
Sir Fulke Greville’s Cœlica [438]
Estimate of number of love-sonnets issued between 1591 and 1597 [439]
II. Sonnets to patrons, 1591-1597 [440]
III. Sonnets on philosophy and religion [440]
X—BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE ON THE SONNET IN FRANCE, 1550-1600
Ronsard (1524-1585) and ‘La Pléiade’ [442]
The Italian sonnetteers of the sixteenth century [442]n.
Philippe Desportes (1546-1606) [443]
Chief collections of French sonnets published between 1550 and 1584 [444]
Minor collections of French sonnets published between 1553 and 1605 [444]
INDEX

I—PARENTAGE AND BIRTH