Shakespeare
WILLIAM (1564- 1616), was the son of John Shakespeare , a dealer in agricultural products in the town of Stratford-on-Avon, in Warwickshire, England. John, at the height of his fortune, which was probably improved by his marriage with Mary Arden, the daughter of a well-to-do squire, rose to be bailiff or mayor of the town; but later he seems to have had business reverses.
The birth of William was presumably a few days previous to April 26, 1564, on which day his baptism was registered in the Church of the Holy Trinity in Stratford; and this presumption is strengthened by the statement on the monument over his tomb that at his death on April 23, 1616, he was fifty-two years of age.
We have no documentary evidence as to his education, but we know that there was a free grammar school in the town, and it is safe to infer that the bailiff's son would be sent to it, and would study there the usual Latin authors. There is a tradition that he left school to help his father at about the age of thirteen. When he was a little over eighteen he married Anne Hathaway, who was eight years his senior, and who bore to him a daughter, Susanna, baptized May 26, 1583, and Hamnet and Judith, twins, baptized in February, 1585.
The statement that he went to London in 1586 is only conjecture, and the stories of his acting as callboy in a theater and holding horses at the door are uncertain traditions. We know, however, that by 1592 he had become a playwright of sufficient importance to be attacked by a rival, Robert Greene, for plagiarism.
The language of Greene's attack, which Greene's "Groatsworth of occurs in Witte," implies that Shakespeare was by this time actor as well as author. Henry Chettle, who prepared Greene's book for the press, in the preface to his own "Kind-Harts Dreame," expresses regret for not having removed the offensive passages from Greene's posthumous book, and seems to refer to Shakespeare when he speaks of one of the victims of Greene's spleen as in "demeanour no lesse civill, than he exclent in the qualitie [i. e., profession of acting] he professes. Besides divers of worship have reported his up- SHAKESPEARE rightnes of dealing, which argues his honesty, and his facetious grace in writing, that aprooves his Art ."
In 1593, Shakespeare issued the first publication bearing his name, the poem "Venus and Adonis," dedicated to the Earl of Southampton. This was followed by "Lucrece" in 1594, dedicated to the same nobleman. Seven editions of the first poem and five of the second were published during the poet's lifetime, and complimentary references to them are frequent in the writing of the time.
They are highly wrought re-tellings of the WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE familiar classical stories, vivid and sensuous in description, and fluent and melodious in style. It was through them rather than through his plays that Shakespeare achieved a literary reputation among his contemporaries.
Meantime he had become a member of the Lord Chamberlain's Company of Actors, and at Christmas, 1594, he was one of those chosen to play before Queen Elizabeth at Greenwich.
The Stratford documents again contribute to his family history with the record of the death of his son Hamnet on Aug. 11, 1596. In the same year John Shakespeare applied for a grant of arms to the College of Heralds, and a renewed application in 1599 was successful.
In 1597, the poet bought for sixty pounds, New Place, the largest house in his native town, and there is documentary evidence of a series of real estate SHAKESPEARE and other investments in Stratford and London from this time till 1615. He not infrequently engaged in lawsuits, and letters of townsmen in the Stratford archives contain allusions to him as a man of means with money to lend. The source of this money was the theater with which he was connected not only as author and actor, but also as shareholder. In 1598 two plays were issued with his name on the title page, and in the same year Francis Meres published his "Palladis Tamia," in which he speaks of the "mellifluous and honey-tongued Shakespeare" whom he compares to Ovid, Plautus, and Seneca, mentioning the two poems already described, and the titles of twelve plays.
Meres is only one of many contemporaries to praise the sweetness of Shakespeare's verse, and to show by reference or quotation the growing growing popularity popularity of of his dramas. Writing alone, however, would never have made him a rich man.
During his first decade of playwriting he turned out about two plays a year on the average, for which at current rates he would receive about £10 each, equivalent to some $400 in modern values. Prices rose later, so that in his second decade it is calculated he gained from this source about the equivalent of $1,600 a year. From what is known of the pay of actors at that time, Shakespeare would earn about $100 a year, and a single share in the theater brought in more than £200. It is therefore easy to see how a keen business man, such as the dramatist is shown to have been from the records of his lawsuits, could acquire the comfortable fortune which Shakespeare possessed at his death.
We do not know when Shakespeare withdrew from his theatrical activities in London, but there is evidence that he sold out his shares in the theater and retired to his native town several years before his death. We have records of the marriage of his daughter Susanna to a Stratford physician, John Hall, of that of Judith to Thomas Quiney, and of the burial of his mother in 1608. His father was already dead. In January, 1616, he made his will, and on April 23 of the same year died and was buried in the chancel of Stratford Church. Seven years later, two of his fellow actors, Heminge and Condell, collected his plays and published them with much prefatory laudatory matter in the famous "First Folio." About half of them had previously been issued in separate small quarto volumes.
No autograph of any of his works is preserved, but we have six authentic signatures. Our impression of his personal appearance is to be gathered from the crude bust over his grave, and the engraving prefixed to the First Folio. Nu- SHAKESPEARE merous oil paintings have been claimed as authentic likeness, with varying degrees of evidence. These are the main established facts with reference to the life of the greatest of English writers, and considering the status of authorship in his time, they are surprisingly numerous. In the century of his death, many of these facts appear, along with much that is merely traditional or legendary, in biographical and critical collections such as those of Fuller, Aubrey, Phillips, and Langbaine. Among the most important corroborations are the passage in "Timber" by his friend and fellow-dramatist, Ben Jonson, who makes some discriminating criticisms but protests his friendliness, "for I loved the man, and do honor his memory, on this side idolatry, as well as any"; and the splendid eulogy from the same hand in the First Folio. In the light of all this, it is hard to see how men could have doubted the identity of the author of the plays.
To the poems already mentioned are to be added his collection of sonnets. No part of his work has been subjected to so severe a scrutiny in the hope of extracting additional biographical facts. These poems are written in the first person and contain many allusions to a young friend of high station and a "dark lady," but no general agreement has been arrived at about the identity of either.
Indeed, it is by no means certain that the allusions in the poems are to be taken in a strictly historical sense at all, since many of them follow conventions rife in the numerous sonnet sequences produced in the end of the sixteenth century in France and England. This search for biographical data has tended to distract attention from the high poetical value of the sonnets, their superb and concentrated diction, and their splendid imaginative passion.
Shakespeare began his career as a dramatist with collaboration, and the revision and rewriting of other men's work. The result is found in the three parts of "Henry VI.," in "Richard III.," "King John," and in "Titus Andronicus," all of which were completed by 1594. To the same period belong his first experiments in comedy, "Love's Labour's Lost," "The Comedy of Errors," and "The Two Gentlemen of Verona." Of these, the first is a light piece, full of verbal fantasies, with a good deal of social satire. The second is based upon two comedies of situation by Plautus; and the third is a romantic play, the plot of which is founded upon an incident in the Spanish novel of "Diana" by George of Montemayor. Thus in the first few years he tried his hand at all three kinds of drama, SHAKESPEARE -history, tragedy, and comedy, not hesitating to make use of what he could Greene, and Kyd. The second period of his dramatic ac- Greene, and Kyd.
The second period of his dramatic activity may be regarded as extending from 1594 to 1601, and in it he carried to the height his achievement in history and and Juliet," at the beginning of the peand Juliet," at the beginning of the peformer has much in common with his former has much in common with his comedies, and in it he rises to a height of lyric fervor hardly equalled elsewhere. The latter is in comparison lacking in passion, but from the point of view of characterization, is one of his great plays. The comedies of this period begin with the poetic "Midsummer Night's Dream" (1594-5) with its tangled love plot and abundance of delightful fa fancy and hu- (1598) mor; followed by "The Merchant of Venice" (1595-6), in which the building of the plot, the drawing of the characters, and the richness of the dialogue show for the first time almost equal mastery. "The Taming of the Shrew" (1596-7), is a hilarious farce based on an older play.
In "The Merry Wives of Windsor" (159 he deals with English provincial middleclass life for the only time in his comedies, and uses as the central figure the dies, and uses as the central figure the three comedies written between 1599 and You Like It," and "Twelfth Night," English romantic comedy is found in its most lish romantic comedy is found in its most to find in any literature so high a techto find in any literature SO high a techtion yielding so much imaginative and intellectual pleasure.
At the same time as these plays were being written, he carried to its highest At the same time as these plays were ard II." (1595) he went on to the two parts of "Henry IV." (1597-8), glorified ard II." (1595) he went on to the two John Falstaff, the greatest of comic creations. In "Henry V." (1599) he produced a play abounding in national spirit, and made of the King the embodiment of the English heroic ideal.
The third period is mainly occupied by tragedy. It opens with the most famous of the English heroic ideal. The third period is mainly occupied by tragedy. It opens with the most famous concentrates his power on the delineation of the prince, and gives us a picture perconcentrates his power on the delineation subtlety and sympathetic appeal. No single work has so roused the interest of men, and about none has so much been written, with the possible exception of Goethe's "Faust." The level reached in "Hamlet" is all but maintained throughwritten, with the possible exception of Goethe's "Faust." The level reached in SHAKESPEARE and terror; in "King Lear" (1605-6) the most terrible of his plays, the forces of tale and raised it to a high level of pity most terrible of his plays, the forces of and terror; in "King Lear" (1605-6) the a fragment of a Scottish chronicle is made to yield an appalling picture of the a fragment of a Scottish chronicle is degradation of a human soul which surlation of Plutarch's "Lives," which supdegradation of a human soul which surrenders to unlawful ambition. The translation of Plutarch's "Lives," which supplied material for "Julius Cæsar," was drawn on again in "Anthony and Cleoand daring and the splendor of its style, most amazing of his plays in its brilliance tragedy of the downfall of a powerful and in "Coriolanus" (1609) the somber tragedy of the downfall of a powerful leader through patrician same source, is only Shakespeare's in grandeur. The so-called comedies of this period grandeur. arrogance.
The so-called comedies of this period lack the gaiety of their predecessors. "Troilus and Cressida" (1601-2) is "All's Well That Ends Well" (1602?) suffers from its plot, in which a capable "All's Well That Ends Well" (1602?) suffers from its plot, plot, in which a capable woman pursues and wins a worthless and unworthy youth. "Measure for Measure" tain backgrounds of a debauched society against which are placed in relief two of the finest and purest of Shakespeare's mon," is in part by another hand. "Cymbeline" (1610) is in plot The fourth and last period contains an historical play, "Henry VIII." (1612), cher, and three "dramatic romances," written in collaboratior with John Flet- cher, and three "dramatic romances," serious comedies in which crime and separation are followed by forgiveness and reunion. They lack the high spirits of the plays of the great period of comedy, but are full of noble poetry and lofty a combination of a story from Boccaccio wisdom. "C and a fragment of British history; "The Winter's Tale" (1611) is based on an ricated from elements of familiar folk- English novel; and "The Tempest" is fabricated from elements of familiar folk- tales of princesses, magicians, and enchanted islands. This, probably the last play Shakespeare wrote alone, and his first comedy, "Love's Labour's Lost," are apparently his only dramas of which the greatest of English imaginative artists of mere inventive originality.
This enumeration, in the order in which on a great variety of kinds of evidence modern scholarship has arranged them as to date, gives some idea of the immense body of work of the highest class produced by Shakespeare; and gives a SHAKESPEARE CONTROVERSY 370 basis for the study of his development as an artist. No short statement can do justice to the many-sidedness of his achievement, the musical quality of his verse, his mastery of language, the brilliance of his dialogue, the variety and profundity of his knowledge of human nature as exhibited in his characters. His work stands unsurpassed among the few greatest expressions of the genius of the race.
SHAKESPEARE-BACON CONTRO- VERSY, a controversy resulting from the SHALLOT were definitely known to have been written both before and after his death. Generally speaking, the controversy has not been supported by any scholar definitely trained for literary investigation, and it is reasonably sure that the theoretical limits within which the controversy has been carried on will never be passed.