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[Illustration: SHAKESPEARE THE BOY]


SHAKESPEARE THE BOY

With Sketches of
The Home and School Life
The Games and Sports, the Manners, Customs
and Folk-Lore of the Time

by

WILLIAM JAMES ROLFE, LITT.D.

[Illustration: (Publisher's colophon)]

With Forty-one Illustrations






London
Chatto & Windus
1897

Copyright, 1896, by Harper & Brothers.

All rights reserved.




PREFACE


Two years ago, at the request of the editors of the _Youth's
Companion_, I wrote for that periodical a series of four familiar
articles on the boyhood of Shakespeare. It was understood at the
time that I might afterwards expand them into a book, and this
plan is carried out in the present volume. The papers have been
carefully revised and enlarged to thrice their original compass,
and a new fifth chapter has been added.

The sources from which I have drawn my material are often mentioned
in the text and the notes. I have been particularly indebted to
Halliwell-Phillipps's _Outlines of the Life of Shakespeare_,
Knight's _Biography of Shakspere_, Furnivall's Introduction to
the "Leopold" edition of Shakespeare, his _Babees Book_, and his
edition of Harrison's _Description of England_, Sidney Lee's
_Stratford-on-Avon_, Strutt's _Sports and Pastimes_, Brand's
_Popular Antiquities_, and Dyer's _Folk-Lore of Shakespeare_.

I hope that the book may serve to give the young folk some glimpses
of rural life in England when Shakespeare was a boy, and also to
help them--and possibly their elders--to a better understanding of
many allusions in his works.

  W. J. R.

  CAMBRIDGE, _June 10, 1896_.




CONTENTS


                                                        PAGE

  PART I.--HIS NATIVE TOWN AND NEIGHBORHOOD                1

      WARWICKSHIRE                                         3

      WARWICK CASTLE AND SAINT MARY'S CHURCH               4

      WARWICK IN HISTORY                                   8

      GUY OF WARWICK                                       9

      KENILWORTH CASTLE                                   12

      COVENTRY                                            14

      CHARLECOTE HALL                                     19

      STRATFORD-ON-AVON                                   24

      THE EARLY HISTORY OF STRATFORD                      27

      THE STRATFORD GUILD                                 34

      THE STRATFORD CORPORATION                           39

      THE TOPOGRAPHY OF STRATFORD                         43


  PART II.--HIS HOME LIFE                                 47

      THE DWELLING-HOUSES OF THE TIME                     49

      THE HOUSEHOLD FURNITURE                             52

      FOOD AND DRINK                                      57

      THE TRAINING OF CHILDREN                            60

      INDOOR AMUSEMENTS                                   67

      POPULAR BOOKS                                       71

      STORY-TELLING                                       73

      CHRISTENINGS                                        80

      SUPERSTITIONS CONNECTED WITH BIRTH AND BAPTISM      84

      CHARMS AND AMULETS                                  87


  PART III.--AT SCHOOL                                    93

      THE STRATFORD GRAMMAR SCHOOL                        95

      WHAT SHAKESPEARE LEARNT AT SCHOOL                   99

      THE NEGLECT OF ENGLISH                             106

      SCHOOL LIFE IN SHAKESPEARE'S DAY                   110

      SCHOOL MORALS                                      112

      SCHOOL DISCIPLINE                                  113

      WHEN WILLIAM LEFT SCHOOL                           118


  PART IV.--GAMES AND SPORTS                             119

      BOYISH GAMES                                       121

      SWIMMING AND FISHING                               130

      BEAR-BAITING                                       132

      COCK-FIGHTING AND COCK-THROWING                    136

      OTHER CRUEL SPORTS                                 139

      ARCHERY                                            142

      HUNTING                                            145

      FOWLING                                            151

      HAWKING                                            153

      THEATRICAL ENTERTAINMENTS                          160


  PART V.--HOLIDAYS, FESTIVALS, FAIRS, ETC.              165

      SAINT GEORGE'S DAY                                 167

      EASTER                                             172

      THE PERAMBULATION OF THE PARISH                    174

      MAY-DAY AND THE MORRIS-DANCE                       176

      WHITSUNTIDE                                        184

      MIDSUMMER EVE                                      186

      CHRISTMAS                                          190

      SHEEP-SHEARING                                     193

      HARVEST-HOME                                       195

      MARKETS AND FAIRS                                  198

      RURAL OUTINGS                                      207


  NOTES                                                  213

  INDEX                                                  247




ILLUSTRATIONS


  SHAKESPEARE THE BOY                         _Frontispiece_

  THE SHAKESPEARE BIRTHPLACE, ABOUT 1820                   3

  WARWICK CASTLE                                           5

  GATE-HOUSE OF KENILWORTH CASTLE                         13

  COVENTRY CHURCHES AND PAGEANT               _Facing p._ 14

  CHARLECOTE HALL                                         20

  ENTRANCE TO CHARLECOTE HALL                             22

  SIR THOMAS LUCY                                         23

  STRATFORD CHURCH                            _Facing p._ 30

  STRATFORD CHURCH, WEST END                              32

  THE GUILD CHAPEL AND GRAMMAR SCHOOL, STRATFORD          35

  MAP--PLAN OF STRATFORD                                  42

  SHAKESPEARE HOUSE, RESTORED                             49

  ROOM IN WHICH SHAKESPEARE WAS BORN          _Facing p._ 50

  INTERIOR OF ANNE HATHAWAY'S COTTAGE              "      56

  OLD HOUSE IN HIGH STREET                                59

  ANNE HATHAWAY'S COTTAGE                     _Facing p._ 64

  SHILLING OF EDWARD VI.                                  68

  ANCIENT FONT AT STRATFORD                               81

  PORCH, STRATFORD CHURCH                     _Facing p._ 88

  INNER COURT, GRAMMAR SCHOOL                             95

  THE SCHOOL-ROOM AS IT WAS                               97

  DESK SAID TO BE SHAKESPEARE'S                          102

  WALK ON THE BANKS OF THE AVON              _Facing p._ 112

  HIDE-AND-SEEK                                   "      122

  "MORRIS" BOARD                                         130

  FISHING IN THE AVON                        _Facing p._ 132

  THE BEAR GARDEN, LONDON                                133

  GARDEN AT NEW PLACE                        _Facing p._ 146

  ELIZABETH HAWKING                                      155

  BOY WITH HAWK AND HOUNDS                               159

  ITINERANT PLAYERS IN A COUNTRY HALL        _Facing p._ 160

  WILLIAM KEMP DANCING THE MORRIS                        163

  THE BOUNDARY ELM                                       167

  MORRIS-DANCE                               _Facing p._ 178

  CLOPTON HOUSE ON CHRISTMAS EVE                  "      190

  THE FAIR                                        "      200

  INTERIOR OF GRAMMAR SCHOOL, BEFORE THE RESTORATION     225

  CLOPTON MONUMENTS                          _Facing p._ 238

  THE BAR-GATE, SOUTHAMPTON                              242

  ARMS OF JOHN SHAKESPEARE                               251




SHAKESPEARE THE BOY




PART I

HIS NATIVE TOWN AND NEIGHBORHOOD


[Illustration: THE SHAKESPEARE BIRTHPLACE, ABOUT 1820]


WARWICKSHIRE

The county of Warwick was called the heart of England as long ago
as the time of Shakespeare. Indeed, it was his friend, Michael
Drayton, born the year before himself, who first called it so.
In his _Poly-Olbion_ (1613) Drayton refers to his native county
as "That shire which we the heart of England well may call." The
form of the expression seems to imply that it was original with
him. It was doubtless suggested by the central situation of the
county, about equidistant from the eastern, western, and southern
shores of the island; but it is no less appropriate with reference
to its historical, romantic, and poetical associations. Drayton,
whose rhymed geography in the _Poly-Olbion_ is rather prosaic and
tedious, attains a kind of genuine inspiration when, in his 13th
book, he comes to describe

      "Brave Warwick that abroad so long advanced her Bear,
      By her illustrious Earls renowned everywhere;
      Above her neighboring shires which always bore her head."

The verse catches something of the music of the throstle and the
lark, of the woosel "with golden bill" and the nightingale with her
tender strains, as he tells of these Warwickshire birds, and of the
region with "flowery bosom brave" where they breed and warble; but
in Shakespeare the same birds sing with a finer music--more like
that to which we may still listen in the fields and woodlands along
the lazy-winding Avon.


WARWICK CASTLE AND SAINT MARY'S CHURCH.

Warwickshire is the heart of England, and the country within ten
miles or so of the town of Warwick may be called the heart of this
heart. On one side of this circle are Stratford and Shottery and
Wilmcote--the home of Shakespeare's mother--and on the other are
Kenilworth and Coventry.

In Warwick itself is the famous castle of its Earls--"that fairest
monument," as Scott calls it, "of ancient and chivalrous splendor
which yet remains uninjured by time." The earlier description
written by the veracious Dugdale almost two hundred and fifty years
ago might be applied to it to-day. It is still "not only a place
of great strength, but extraordinary delight; with most pleasant
gardens, walls, and thickets such as this part of England can
hardly parallel; so that now it is the most princely seat that is
within the midland parts of this realm."

[Illustration: WARWICK CASTLE]

The castle was old in Shakespeare's day. Cæsar's Tower, so called,
though not built, as tradition alleged, by the mighty Julius, dated
back to an unknown period; and Guy's Tower, named in honor of the
redoubted Guy of Warwick, the hero of many legendary exploits, was
built in 1394. No doubt the general appearance of the buildings
was more ancient in the sixteenth century than it is to-day, for
they had been allowed to become somewhat dilapidated; and it
was not until the reign of James I. that they were repaired and
embellished, at enormous expense, and made the stately fortress
and mansion that Dugdale describes.

But the castle would be no less beautiful for situation, though it
were fallen to ruin like the neighboring Kenilworth. The rock on
which it stands, washed at its base by the Avon, would still be
there, the park would still stretch its woods and glades along the
river, and all the natural attractions of the noble estate would
remain.

We cannot doubt that the youthful Shakespeare was familiar with the
locality. Warwick and Kenilworth were probably the only baronial
castles he had seen before he went to London; and, whatever others
he may have seen later in life, these must have continued to be his
ideal castles as in his boyhood.

It is not likely that he was ever in Scotland, and when he
described the castle of Macbeth the picture in his mind's eye was
doubtless Warwick or Kenilworth, and more likely the former than
the latter; for

      "_This_ castle hath a pleasant seat; the air
      Nimbly and sweetly recommends itself
      Unto our gentle senses. This guest of summer,
      The temple-haunting martlet, does approve,
      By his loved mansionry, that the air
      Smells wooingly here; no jutty, frieze,
      Buttress, nor coign of vantage, but this bird
      Hath made his pendent bed and procreant cradle.
      Where they most breed and haunt I have observed
      The air is delicate."

Saint Mary's church at Warwick was also standing then--the most
interesting church in Warwickshire next to Holy Trinity at
Stratford. It was burned in 1694, but the beautiful choir and the
magnificent lady chapel, or Beauchamp Chapel, fortunately escaped
the flames, and we see them to-day as Shakespeare doubtless saw
them, except for the monuments that have since been added. _He_
saw in the choir the splendid tomb of Thomas Beauchamp, Earl of
Warwick, and in the adjacent chapel the grander tomb of Richard
Beauchamp, unsurpassed in the kingdom except by that of Henry VII.
in Westminster Abbey. _He_ looked, as we do, on the full-length
figure of the Earl, recumbent in armor of gilded brass, under the
herse of brass hoops also gilt; his hands elevated in prayer, the
garter on his left knee, the swan at his head, the griffin and
bear at his feet. _He_ read, as we read, in the inscription on the
cornice of the sepulchre, how this "most worshipful knight decessed
full christenly the last day of April the year of oure Lord God
1439, he being at that time lieutenant general and governor of the
realm of Fraunce," and how his body was brought to Warwick, and
"laid with full solemn exequies in a fair chest made of stone in
this church" on the 4th day of October--"honoured be God therefor."
And the young Shakespeare looked up, as we do, at the exquisitely
carved stone ceiling, and at the great east window, which still
contains the original glass, now almost four and a half centuries
old, with the portrait of Earl Richard kneeling in armor with
upraised hands.

The tomb of "the noble Impe, Robert of Dudley," who died in 1584,
with the lovely figure of a child seven or eight years old, may
have been seen by Shakespeare when he returned to Stratford in his
latter years, and also the splendid monument of the father of the
"noble imp," Robert Dudley, the great Earl of Leicester, who died
in 1588; but in the poet's youth this famous nobleman was living in
the height of his renown and prosperity at the castle of Kenilworth
five miles away, which we will visit later.


WARWICK IN HISTORY.

Only brief reference can be made here to the important part that
Warwick, or its famous Earl, Richard Neville, the "King-maker,"
played in the English history on which Shakespeare founded several
dramas,--the three Parts of _Henry VI._ and _Richard III._ He is
the most conspicuous personage of those troublous times. He had
already distinguished himself by deeds of bravery in the Scottish
wars, before his marriage with Anne, daughter and heiress of
Richard Beauchamp, made him the most powerful nobleman in the
kingdom. By this alliance he acquired the vast estates of the
Warwick family, and became Earl of Warwick, with the right to hand
down the title to his descendants. The immense revenues from his
patrimony were augmented by the income he derived from his various
high offices in the state; but his wealth was scattered with a
royal liberality. It is said that he daily fed thirty thousand
people at his numerous mansions.

The Lady Anne of _Richard III._, whom the hero of the play wooes in
such novel fashion, was the youngest daughter of the King-maker,
born at Warwick Castle in 1452. Richard says, in his soliloquy at
the end of the first scene of the play:--

              "I'll marry Warwick's youngest daughter.
      What though I kill'd her husband and her father?"

Her husband was Edward, Prince of Wales, son of Henry VI., and was
slain at the battle of Tewkesbury.

The Earl of Warwick who figures in _2 Henry IV._ was the Richard
Beauchamp already mentioned as the father of Anne who became the
wife of the King-maker. He appears again in the play of _Henry V._,
and also in the first scene of _Henry VI._, though he has nothing
to say; and, as some believe, he (and not his son) is the Earl of
Warwick in the rest of the play, in spite of certain historical
difficulties which that theory involves. In _2 Henry IV._ (iii. 1.
66) Shakespeare makes the mistake of calling him "Nevil" instead of
Beauchamp.

The title of the Warwick earls became extinct with the death of the
King-maker on the battle-field of Barnet. It was then bestowed on
George, Duke of Clarence, who was drowned in the butt of wine by
order of his loving brother Richard. It then passed to the young
son of Clarence, who is another character in the play of _Richard
III._ He, like his unfortunate father, was long imprisoned in the
Tower, and ultimately murdered there after the farce of a trial on
account of his alleged complicity in a plot against Henry VII. The
subsequent vicissitudes of the earldom do not appear in the pages
of Shakespeare, and we will not refer to them here.


GUY OF WARWICK.

The dramatist was evidently familiar with the legendary renown of
Warwick as well as its authentic history. Doubtless he had heard
the story of the famous Guy of Warwick in his boyhood; and later
he probably visited "