he gained the office of affeeror, whose duty it was to fix and determine the fines leviable for offences against the bye-laws of the borough. In 1561 he was one of the municipal chamberlains; and in 1564 he was a member of the Common Hall of Stratford. These facts prove that Shakspere's parents were eminently respectable, and at the time of his birth in prosperous circumstances. William Shakspere was baptised on the 26th April 1564, and is supposed to have been born on the 23d, the anniversary of the tutelary saint of England, St. George. In this year the plague raged in Stratford, even from the last day of June to that of December, destroying two hundred and thirty-eight of its inhabitants. John Shakspere appears to have been a good accountant, for he officiated on many occasions as actuary for the corporation, on behalf of the chamberlains; a fact which is illustrative of our Shakspere, who, being a prudent and prosperous man, probably inherited this acquisition from his father. In the year 1565, John Shakspere was elected one of the fourteen aldermen of Stratford, and in 1571 attained the highest dignity by being chosen chief alderman.* The house in Henley Street, Stratford, in which Shakspere is supposed to have been born, is now the property of the British nation. His father was then in the habit of making donations to the poor of the borough. Other proofs of prosperity may be cited. In 1564, we find in "the accompt" rendered by "John Tayler and John Shakspeyr, chamburlens," the following entry: "Item, payd to Shakspeyr, for a pec tymbur, iijs." On January of the same year, 'the chambur is found in arrerage, and ys in det unto John Shakspeyr, 11. 5s. 8d." On 66 The Two Gentlemen of Verona. 29 To quit this digression, however, and to turn again from the pursuit of the alderman's fortunes to the consideration of the works of the dramatist, involving as they do the highest principles of the art in which the son of the woolstapler became the greatest master yet acknowledged by the world. William Shakspere, the poet, wrote his life in his works. Taking what may be called a biological view of these, we may read his life there in its innermost meaning. Thus instructed, with some outward aids, I think that I can fix the chronological succession of his compositions. His first work I apprehend to have been The Two Gentlemen of Verona, probably produced in 1585, that is in the twenty-first year of his age. Three years previously, Shakspere had wedded Anne Hathaway; and, having thus early begun life as a man, we might expect to find but little of the boy in this composition. The practical life had, at any rate, preceded the contemplative with him, and the latter as yet was elementary. It had not yet 30th August 1564, he "payd towards the releefe of the poore" twelve pence; on September 6th, sixpence; on September 27th, again sixpence; and on October 20th, eight pence. In 1565, at a hall holden, we find-"Item: payd to Shakspeyr, for a rest of old det, 31. 2s. 7d." "In this accompt the chamber ys in det unto John Shakspeyr, to be payd unto hym by the next chamburlens, 68. 4d." In 1566, John Shakspere appears, in two precepts of the Stratford Court of Record, of this year's date, as the surety of Richard Hathaway-thus showing an early connexion between the family of Hathaway and of Shakspere. Finally, in 1570, John Shakspere held under William Clopton the tenancy of Ingon Meadow, "a parcel of land" of fourteen acres in extent, for which, with its appurtenances, he paid an annual rent of 81. arrived at full expression; it wanted organism. It wanted more. It was not only inorganic; it was not even thoroughly mechanical. A deficient mechanism runs through the conduct of this 'prentice play. Whatever its shortcomings, however, Shakspere's fortunes probably depended on its success; for in the year which we have attributed to its production, biographers fix the first visit of the poet to London, whither it is supposed he had journeyed to try his luck, and benefit his family; for already he was the father of three children. The nascent artist had incurred responsibilities, which probably he now depended upon his art to enable him to discharge. Whether this play added immediately to his means may be doubted; for the earliest mention of it dates thirteen years later, nine years before which time he had produced the first sketch of his Hamlet. Meanwhile he had become not only an actor and playwright, but a shareholder in the Blackfriars' theatre. Probably to these characters he had added that of the patriot; for in the previous year (1588), the Spanish Armada had threatened his native shores, and been providentially dispersed by a violent tempest. It has been well observed that, in that Armada, superstition and slavery had combined their forces; and that the heart of the future author of Henry V. must have beat high as he watched the grim unity of defiance which had bound together all classes of men in England against the common foe, and the wild enthusiasm which the tidings of their destruction had kindled throughout the length and breadth of the land. First Impressions in London. 31 His mental development, however, had not arrived at this point when The Two Gentlemen of Verona was written. We find in it the first workings of imagination, in connexion with the theme dearest to youth, that of love. It contains references to the first impressions of travel on youthful wanderers who have left home in order to see the world. We may transfer these impressions to Shakspere himself, who, having quitted Avon for the Thames, had commenced his pilgrimage, choosing rather "To see the wonders of the world abroad, Than, living dully sluggardized at home, He had felt he could "not be a perfect man, not being tried and tutored in the world." He thought it good at court to "practise tilts and tournaments, hear sweet discourse, converse with noblemen, and be in eye of every exercise worthy his youth, and”for we need not shrink from applying the conclusion of the quotation also-"nobleness of birth." The spirit of poetry to Shakspere was now as a new birth -a kind of regeneration eminently noble, as true to the intellectual as to the religious man. As it was with Valentine and Proteus, even so was it with their poet; who, however, was more like the former than the latter, since he was then hunting after honour, not love. Love he had gratified at Stratford; in London he had come to win honour. The poet shows in this play as one who had survived, and could therefore sport with, the passion of love. There is none of the tumult of Romeo and Juliet in it; but there is much of gentle courtesy, such as accompanies the limited affections of conventional people. The young dramatist's imagination has not yet wandered far beyond his actual experience, and lingers within the pale of reasonable probability. What of romance there is in the story is borrowed from that of the shepherdess Felismena, contained in the second book of George de Montemayor's Diana, translated by Bartholomew Young in 1598; but which must have been known by some means to Shakspere before, since in that year Meres mentions The Two Gentlemen of Verona as a play generally esteemed; and it is likewise probable that a previous drama on the subject was also in existence.* In the mechanical arrangement of this play, Shakspere invented or adopted a plan of which we have afterwards examples in his greater productions. The third act concludes a cycle of incidents, and a new one commences with the fourth. This arrangement offers many stage facilities, and it was afterwards improved on by Shakspere by an additional contrivance, that of making the first act a complete cycle in itself. Where this is done, the result is a trilogy. Thus, in Othello; the initial act comprises the story of the Moor's marriage, the second and third the success of Iago's plot, and the fourth and fifth acts the sequel and consequences. A similar arrangement may be Mr. P. Cunningham, in his Revel Accounts, mentions a "history," or drama, called Felix and Philiomcna,-the latter being probably a misprint for Philismena." |