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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