shareholder in Blackfriars' theatre. Certain it is that he had joined a company of actors very soon after he reached the metropolis, and that in Blackfriars' theatre, which was little else than an enclosed yard with a roof, his first plays were acted. In 1588, Shakspeare appears to have been in London, although whether his wife and family had as yet joined him there is uncertain. This was a great year in the history of the country-the year of the Armada-a year the stirring incidents of which must have deeply affected our poet's imagination-a year when for a season there was but one heart in England, and when round the figure of the British Lion, as, in the language of the poet of "The Armada,” "The parting breeze of eve unroll'd that banner's massive fold, The parting gleam of sunshine kiss'd that haughty scroll of gold,” there rallied a nation of lion-faced men, who, even had the Spanish fleet not been broken by the winds of heaven, would have rolled back invasion, as the chalky cliffs rolled back the waves of the Channel. In the year when Napoleon intended to invade Britain, we were only threatened by one foe-Despotism; but in 1588, Superstition and Slavery had combined their forces, and how high the heart of the author of "Henry V." must have beat as he watched the grim unity of defiance which had bound together all classes of men against the common foe, and the wild enthusiasm which the tidings of their destruction spread over the land. In 1589, the contest between the English Church and the Puritans was running high; and as the stage had abused its privilege by introducing matters connected with religion and politics, a commission was appointed to inquire what companies of actors had offended. On this occasion, the sharers in the Blackfriars' playhouse drew out a document defending themselves. This valuable paper was found at Bridgewaterhouse, by Mr Collyer, and there we find among the shareholders the name, "William Shakspeare." This is important, as proving that the poet was already a man of property and consideration in his own sphere. In 1591 appeared some verses by Spenser, entitled "The Tears of the Muses," in which, while deploring the decay of the stage, he praises certain comedies so highly, that some have supposed him to allude to Shakspeare, and have inferred that Shakspeare had then produced some of his plays. In these verses Spenser calls his great contemporary— "He, the man whom Nature's self had made What a beautiful idea that of Nature wishing to hear the reduplication of her own voice, and creating Shakspeare as her everlasting echo! It is the first and the finest compliment ever paid to our poet. In 1592 and 1593, England was much afflicted by the plague—the theatres were shut, and Shakspeare is supposed to have retired to Stratford. How he spent his time there we know not, but may conjecture him reading and laying in stores for the exigencies of future labours, or sketching out the plan of some of his mighty dramas. Up to this time, it is supposed that he had written "Pericles," the second and third parts of "Henry VI.," and the "Two Gentlemen of Verona." He also this year published and dedicated to Lord Southampton his "Venus and Adonis." A clear field for the exercise of his powers was now left him by the removal of his two most formidable rivals- Robert Greene and Christopher Marlowe. Both were gifted, but imprudent and licentious men. Marlowe was incomparably the higher of the two in genius. Every one has heard of his "mighty line," his " raptures, all air and fire," of what Hazlitt calls his "lust of power, and hunger and thirst after unrighteousness," his noble although imperfect play of "Dr Faustus," and his melancholy end: he was stabbed to death in a low tavern brawl. Greene, in a pamphlet written immediately before his death, insulted both Marlowe and Shakspeare; accusing the one of being an atheist, and the other of "borrowing feathers from his wing."-To this, Shakspeare deigned no reply, but seems to express his forgiveness to the poor unfortunate in the "Midsummer Night's Dream," where he describes "The thrice three Muses mourning for the death Of learning late deceased in beggary." In the end of 1593, the theatres were re-opened, and Shakspeare was summoned from the country to resume his labours. In the midst of these he published his "Rape of Lucrece," and dedicated it, as he had done the "Venus and Adonis," to Lord Southampton, between whom and the poet acquaintance had rapidly ripened into intimate friendship. This young lord seems to have been fond of attending the theatres, and had there met with Shakspeare. He appreciated his genius, and became his munificent patron, on one occasion, it is said, giving him a thousand pounds to enable him to complete a purchase. Whether this sum was or was not given by the patron, it does not seem to have been absolutely required by the poet. His property in the theatre had been steadily growing in value. We have seen him, in 1589, a proprietor in Blackfriars' theatre. Ere four years had passed, the company was so prosperous that another theatre, the Globe, required to be built; and in a year or two afterwards, they repaired and extended the original building. Hence our poet was enabled, in 1597, to purchase a tenement in Stratford, called the "New Place"-the best house at the time in his native town, and which he probably bought with the view of an early retreat from his profession. The next year we find one Richard Quiney seeking to borrow from him thirty pounds—a sure evidence that he was known to be in good circumstances. Altogether, next to Shakspeare's genius, his care and caution in the management of his temporal affairs strike us as most remarkable; and had other literary men, along with a twentieth part of his genius, possessed a tithe of his prudence, the half of Disraeli's "Calamities of Authors," and the whole of Emerson's essay on "Prudence" would have remained unwritten. Parsimonious, miserly, speculative in moneymatters, we cannot conceive Shakspeare to have been; but he hated a debt as he hated a dulness, he feared a dungeon as he feared a condemned play, and was actuated-with a far happier result-by the same noble spirit which made Burns indite the stanza d "Not for to hide it in a hedge, What poor creatures a Steele, a Savage, a Macginn, or an Edgar Poe-skulking before their creditors, trembling at every postman's knock, and throwing piles of unopened letters into the fire-seem, compared to the greatest of their tribe-the truly "wise" as well as "gentle" and superlatively gifted "Willy!" Many literary men indeed have, owing to uncontrollable circumstances and misfortunes, been plunged into pecuniary embarrassments at which their honourable pride has revolted; but perhaps the majority have been chiefly to blame themselves. Shakspeare, like all poets, loved his birthplace, but, unlike many poets, he enjoyed frequent opportunities of visiting it. Dante lived latterly and died far from Florence. Byron lived for eight years and died far from England, and from the date of boyhood never saw again the beautiful granite streets of Aberdeen or the blue hills of Braemar. Shelley died in the arms of the Italian sea, not in his native Sussex or in his adopted Marlowe. Coleridge expired in Hampstead, and had not for a long period been near that "Dear native brook, wild streamlet of the west," which he had apostrophised so tenderly. Burns, although he sung "Of a' the airts the wind can blaw, I dearly like the west, For there the bonnie lassie lives, The lassie I lo'e best," for years ere his departure had not seen a leaf of the woods, or heard one murmur of the streams of Coila. But Shakspeare, it is said, visited his birthplace once a-year; the distance was indeed only ninety-three miles from London, but that, in those days, was equivalent to thrice the number now. He was there certainly at the burial of his only son, Hamnet, a child of eleven years, in 1596. He was there in 1607, when his eldest daughter, Susanna, a girl witty above her sex, 1 a true Shakspeare, was married to John Hall, a physicianwas there for the last years of his life-and there he died. His imagination and affections seem never to have strayed from Stratford; and even while in London, he constantly saw "A river flow down the vale of Cheapside " it was the Avon; and woods clustering up the declivity of Ludgate Hill- they were the dear old woods of Charl cote. Queen Elizabeth had shown him many marks of favour, and had, according to the traditional story, encouraged him to write the "Merry Wives," and to show Falstaff in love, James I., on his accession to the throne, continued the patronage, and granted to Shakspeare and his fellow-shareholders a special licence to prosecute their trade in all parts of the kingdom. Shakspeare seems to have frequently acted before James, and his plays were special favourites. In 1597 he had commenced the separate publication of his plays, and continued this practice till 1600, publishing in this way"Richard II.," "Richard III.," "Love's Labour's Lost," "Henry IV.," "Romeo and Juliet," "The Merohant of Venice," "A Midsummer Night's Dream," and "Much Ado About Nothing," but with the last the series stopped for the time. In 1601 he lost his father. In the same year it is supposed that, with a company of players, he visited Scotland-went as far north as Aberdeen, and collected materials for " Macbeth." The evidence for this is not very strong, but we are very much inclined to believe it, and fondly dream that he drew the "blasted heath," the "castle with its pleasant seat," and the "martlet's loved mansionry " from actual realities. It is intolerable to suppose that the greatest of poets never saw a real mountain, and yet there is no evidence that, unless in this journey to Scotland, he ever did. In 1602, he gave £320 for one hundred and seven acres of land, which he attached to his property in the New Place e; and in 1605 he purchased a moiety of the great and small tithes of Stratford for the sum of £440. He had been even |