Avon, in the county of Warwickshire, about eight miles from Warwick castle, and sixteen miles from Kenilworth castle, in a small cottage, of obscure parents, and with obscure hopes, Will Shakspeare was born. By that birth Stratford was rendered more famous than all London by its accumulated honors.

From his birth until his eighteenth year, all that can be gathered of the career of Shakspeare, is substantially nothing-that interesting period of existence which exercises so important an influence over all the rest, which is so essential in the formation and comprehension of the character and life of a man, is almost utterly wanting. This circumstance is calculated to impress upon the public mind, the importance of preserving memorials of men and things, with a view to the information and instruction of after ages. Historical Societies, although they may appear to their cotemporaries as unimportant, inasmuch as they for the most part record matters which are familiar to those around them, yet in relation to posterity, their labors may be followed by the most beneficial results. They should therefore be encouraged when it is remembered that the richest lessons of morality and experience are to be derived from past times, and thus

when once lost they are never to be retrieved. And assuredly if there be any portion of history, which should be interesting to man, it is that emphatically which pertains to the character, pursuits and condition of men.

Although less than three centuries have elapsed since the birth of the poet, no more is known of his early history than has been handed down to us of the history of Homer after a lapse of nearly three thousand years. How is this to be accounted for?

First, he was born in Stratford, and he flourished in London, thereby, as it were, dividing and distracting his career, and diminishing the opportunities of lasting or permanent traditions in regard to him.

Secondly. His works were dramatic, almost entirely, and consist therefore more in the exhibition of others than of himself. Indeed the only references to himself are to be found in his sonnets.

But, Thirdly. We presume that there was very little prior to his arrival at manhood, that was deemed worthy of remembrance. His youth, it is obvious, was spent in shallows and in miseries, and if it exhibited any variety it was but the sad variety of wretchedness. Nevertheless, more extensive materials would have remained for his Biographers had he been considered at that time as he was a cen

tury after his death. It is therefore to be inferred that the estimation in which his works were held during his life, afforded no earnest of their future glory and immortality. In support of this idea, it will be found on turning to Baker's Chronicles, a work of great antiquity and value, that, while Berbige and others are spoken of in the most flattering terms, Shakspeare and Jonson are mentioned with comparative coldness. We cannot do better, as it is a salutary commentary upon the vanity and fallacy of fame, than to give at length the summary of the great men of the time of Elizabeth, in the language of the chronicler himself.

The ocean, says he, is not more boundless, than the number of men of note in her time. But though all of them cannot be reckoned, yet some of them must not be omitted; and to begin with statesmen.

An exquisite statesman, for his own ends, was Robert Earl of Leicester, and for his country's good, Sir William Cecil, Lord Burleigh—as also Sir Francis Walsingham, that great underminer of conspirators; famous seamen, were the Earl of Cumberland, the Lord Thomas Howard, afterwards Earl of Suffolk-and of meaner rank, Sir John Hawkins, Sir Walter Raleigh, Cavendish, Preston, Ryman, and to name the worthiest last,

Sir Francis Drake, who, though he were but a short square bodied man, yet his great acts have made the Spaniards believe that he was some goodly personage.

Great commanders by land, were Róbert, Earl of Essex, the Lord Willoughby, the Lord Grey of Wilton, Sir Francis Veer, Sir Roger Williams, and the honor of his family and our English nation, Sir John Norris.

Learned gentlemen and writers, were Sir Thomas Chaloner, employed by Queen Elizabeth as her lieger in Spain, who wrote five books on the restoring of the English Commonwealth, in elegant verses-while, as he said, he lived in a stove in winter, and in a barn in summer. Roger Askam, born in Yorkshire, notably skilful in the Greek and Latin tongues, who had sometimes been schoolmaster to Queen Elizabeth, but taking too great delight in gaming and cock fighting, he both lived and died in mean estate, yet left behind him sundry monuments of wit and industry. But above all, the admirable Sir Philip Sidney, who by writing in a light argument showed how excellently and beyond all comparison, he could have done in a grave.

Learned divines were John Jewell, Bishop of Salisbury, who wrote an apology for the Protestant

doctrine, and died at scarce fifty-five years of age. Richard Hooker, preacher at the Temple, who with too much meekness smothered his great learning, yet hath something discovered it in his five books of Ecclesiastical Discipline. Alexander Knowell, Dean of Paul's, who, forbearing deeper works, set forth a Catechism, according to the doctrine of the English Church.

After such men, it might be thought ridiculous to speak of stage players, but seeing excellency in the meanest things deserves remembering, and Roscius the comedian is recorded in history with such commendation, it may be allowed us to do the like with some of our own nation. Richard Burbige and Edward Allen, two such actors as no age must ever look to see the like, and to make their comedies complete, Richard Tarleton, who, for the part called the clown's part, never had his match, never will have.

For writers of plays, and such as had been players themselves, William Shakspeare and Benjamin Jonson have specially left their names recommended to posterity. Heaven save the mark.

So passes the glory of the world; and this Ben Jonson and Will Shakspeare, are, in our flowing cups, freshly remembered, when death and damned