trait should be recorded with the most scrupulous eare; and then, instead of a deficiency of materials from which to draw a full length portrait of their lives, we should be presented with superabundant stores of anecdote and information.

That SHAKSPEARE was one of that class of men who, in relation to their species, deserve to be termed prodigies of intelligence, must be acknowledged by all to whom nature and education have given the capacity of understanding and appreciating his works. Not only does he stand unrivalled as a dramatic author, but in every quality of poetical composition he may challenge the most renowned competitor. In invention he is scarcely equalled by Homer; and though he seldom attains the suavity and graceful majesty of Maro, he far excels that poet in striking imagery and in originality of conception. Even the genius of Milton, with all the aid which the sublimity of his subject afforded, is not more successful in its boldest flights than the wild and creative fancy of our immortal bard." And what renders him peculiarly an object of admiration, and an apparent anomaly in the poetical world, is the amazing versatility of his powers. He seems to have been the chief favourite of all the Muses; the adopted son of Apollo himself. Whether his aim be to move the passions or to assuage their tumult, to excite pity or rouse indignation; whether he delineates scenes of terror or incidents of pleasure; in fine, whether he wishes to excite grief or joy, to awaken in the breast powerful emotions of anguish or of mirth, he appears to be a perfect master of his inimitable art. Nor does he excel only in commanding and influencing the passions, for in his reflections on men and manners, and on subjects of religion and philosophy, his sentiments are uniformly appropriate, and are delivered with a force of argument not unworthy of the most profound divine, or the most acute and discriminating moralist.

And gentlest beauty. Hence when lightning fires
The arch of heaven, and thunders rock the ground,
When furious whirlwinds rend the howling air,
And ocean, groaning from his lowest bed,
Heaves his tempestuous billows to the sky;
Amid the mighty uproar, while below
The nations tremble, Shakspeare looks abroad
From some high cliff, superior, and enjoys
The elemental war."

Akenside.

The dramatic writings of Shakspeare, are numerous, and are distinguished for the great diversity of characters they include and portray. Some of his plays certainly acquired much popularity during his own life, and were also published by his contemporaries: yet he must have been regardless of posthumous fame, for he neither prepared any of them for the press, nor gave directions concerning their appropriation in his last will. Equally careless as to the praise or censure of critics and biographers, he either neglected to preserve, or destroyed all records, documents, and memoranda, relating to his own life and writings. Hence the laudable curiosity of the present age is unrewarded by facts, and is held in continued and aggravated suspense, as to the peculiarities of his personal actions and pursuits. His writings have occasioned several volumes of comment; and many authors have used them as stilts to publicity. Several also have written conjectures and dissertations on his life: but all have hitherto failed in their design to develope many biographical facts. An extraordinary and astonishing degree of mystery envelopes his name; and it is not without considerable difficulty and doubt that we have drawn up the following narrative, which has been derived from a careful examination of all preceding memoirs, aided by the intelligent communications of the historian of Stratford.

Of Shakspeare's remote and immediate ancestors, scarcely any facts are recorded. Only one solitary document has been found to notify his reputed parents, and to display the condition of his father. This is a "grant, or confirmation of arms," dated 1599, by William Dethick and William Camden, officers of the Heralds' College, empowering John Shakspeare to

After the

impale the arms of Arden with his own. usual preamble, it proceeds:-"Wherefore being solicited, and by credible report informed, that John Shakspeare, now of Stratford-upon-Avon, in the counte of Warwicke, gent. whose parent, great grandfather, and late antecessor, for his faithefull and approved service to the late most prudent prince, King Henry VII. of famous memorie, was advaunced and rewarded with lands and tenements, geven him in those parts of Warwickshere, where they have continewed by some descents in good reputacion and credit; and for that the said John Shakspeare, having maryed the daughter and one of the heyrs of Robert Arden of Wellingcote, in the said countíe, and also produced this his auncient cote of arms heretofore assigned to him, whilest he was her Majesties officer and baylefe of that town; In consideration of the premisses, and for the encouragement of his posteritie, unto whom suche blazon of arms and achevements of inheritance from theyre said mother, by the auncyent custome and lawes of arms, maye lawfully descend: We the said Garter and Clarencieulx have assigned," &c. (here follows a description of the arms) "signifying thereby, that it maye and shalbe lawfull for the said John Shakspeare, gent. to bear and use the same shield of arms, single or impaled, as aforesaid; and that it shalbe lawfull for his children, yssue, and posteryte (lawfully begotten) to beare, use, and quarter, and shew forth the same, with their dewe differences, in all lawfull warlyke facts, and civile use or exercises," &c. By a MS. note to the above grant of arms, John Shakspeare is further stated to possess "lands and tenements in the county of Warwick," valued at 500l. These documents serve to show that he was a man of property and respectability; yet Rowe, Alexander Chalmers, and some other biographers, state that he was poor, or "reduced in the latter part of life," and incapable of supporting his son William at school. They found this opinion on an entry in the books of the corporation of Stratford; whereby it appears, that John Shakspeare and Robert Bruce, in 1579, were excused paying a weekly tax of

4d. which was levied on the other aldermen. In 1586 his name was erased from the list of corporate members, and another substituted in his place, "because he doth not come to the Halls." These facts, however, are not demonstrative either of poverty or disgrace; for they might arise from personal disputes, or political opinions, which too frequently occur in boroughs. By another memorandum in the Herald's College, and written apparently after the death of the alderman, we are justified in thinking favourably of his circumstances. "As for the Speare in bend, it is a patible difference; and the person to whom it was granted hath borne magistracy, and was justice of peace at Stratford-upon-Avon. He married the daughter and heire of Arderne, and was able to maintain that estate."

In the above documents we do not find any allusion to a second wife, or reference to the decease of the heiress of Arden: yet Malone, and Wheler (in his useful "History of Stratford") assert that JOHN Shakspeare, the presumed father of the poet, was thrice married: 1st. to Arden, daughter and co-heir of Robert Arden, of Wellingcote in Warwickshire, before 1558; 2nd. to Margery Roberts, Nov. 1584; and 3dly, to Mary whose maiden name is not specified, in 1588. Of these marriages we have no other evidence than entries of children, by different mothers, in the Stratford register. These entries, however, merely state names and dates, without particulars. Hence some doubts arise; for if the father of William Shakspeare married a third wife, that ceremony must have occurred within seven months after the decease of the second; and when he applied for the grant of the Arden arms, he is stated in the register to have had three children by this third wife. Yet these children are not alluded to by the college record, nor does it contain any reference to a second or third wife. It is also strange that the armorial coat on the poet's tomb has no quartering, nor is the impalement of the Arden and Shakspeare arms to be found on any public monuments. Rowe, who wrote the earliest account of our poet's life, does not mention the name of his mother.

Thus, is it not extremely probable, that there were two or more persons named John Shakspeare, living at Stratford, or in its immediate vicinity? On this questionable point, however, we must forbear to dilate at present, though it is certainly entitled to particular investigation, in a more extended memoir than can be admitted into this work.

WILLIAM SHAKSPEARE, the pride of England and of nature, first drew breath in the town of Stratfordupon-Avon, in the county of Warwick, on the 23rd day of April, 1564. His juvenile habits and early associations are unknown; but it appears evident from his writings, that he did not receive a very liberal, or as it is commonly called, "learned education." Rowe states, that he was "for some time at a free-school, where it is probable he acquired what Latin he was master of; but that the narrowness of his circumstances, and the want of his assistance at home, forced his father to withdraw him from thence, and unhappily prevented his further proficiency in that language." On this statement Malone remarks, in a note, "I believe that on leaving school, Shakspeare was placed in the office of some country attorney, or the seneschal of some manor court." The principal reason which this laborious commentator urges for his opinion, is the appearance of legal "technical skill" which is manifested in our poet's plays. But whatever doubts there may be as to his employment on leaving school, it is certain that he early entered into the matrimonial condition, for au entry in the Stratford register mentions, that "Susanna, daughter of William Shakspeare, was baptised May 26, 1583," when he was only nineteen years of age. His wife was Anne Hathaway, who is said to have been the "daughter of a substantial yeoman, then residing at the village of Shottery," which is distant about a mile from the town of Stratford. This lady, as may be inferred from the inscription (quoted in the sequel) on her tombstone in the church, was eight years older than her husband, to whom she brought three children, Susanna, Judith, and Hamnet: the two last were twins, and were baptized February 2, 1584-5.