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diff --git a/39285-0.txt b/39285-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f01071c --- /dev/null +++ b/39285-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1598 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, William Shakespere, of Stratford-on-Avon, by +Scott Surtees + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: William Shakespere, of Stratford-on-Avon + His Epitaph Unearthed, and the Author of the Plays run to Ground + + +Author: Scott Surtees + + + +Release Date: March 28, 2012 [eBook #39285] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WILLIAM SHAKESPERE, OF +STRATFORD-ON-AVON*** + + +Transcribed from the 1888 Henry Gray edition by David Price, email +ccx074@pglaf.org + + + + + + WILLIAM SHAKESPERE, + OF + STRATFORD-ON-AVON. + + + * * * * * + + His Epitaph Unearthed, + AND THE + Author of the Plays run to Ground. + + * * * * * + + WITH SUPPLEMENT. + + * * * * * + + BY + SCOTT SURTEES. + + * * * * * + + LONDON: + HENRY GRAY, 47, LEICESTER SQUARE. + + 1888. + + * * * * * + + Price in Cloth, 2s. By Post, 2s. 2d. + + * * * * * + + SHAKESPERE’S EPITAPH. + + SHAKESPERE’S EARLY HOME. + + SHAKESPERE’S CHAIRS. + + STRANGE FORM OF MARRIAGE LICENCE. + + SHAKESPERE’S LATER HOME AT NEW PLACE. + + WHO WROTE SHAKESPEARE’S PLAYS? A GUESS AT THE TRUTH. + + MR. DONNELLY AND THE CRYPTOGRAM, WITH SUPPLEMENT AND NOTES ON VARIOUS + SUBJECTS. + + BY + REV. SCOTT SURTEES, + + OF + + Dinsdale-on-Tees. + + + + +CHAPTER I. +WILLIAM SHAKESPERE’S EPITAPHS AND CHAIRS AT STRATFORD-ON-AVON. + + +There is one point above all others which bears strongly against the +theory that William Shakspere, of Stratford-on-Avon, was the author of +the so-called Shakespeare’s Plays, and that is the audacious doggerel +which has been fathered on his memory. William Shakspere, after a +disreputable youth, marrying at 17 or 18 a woman many years older than +himself, whose child was soon after born, the son of a father who could +not write his name, and in debt and difficulty, and who himself (père) +had been within the clutches of the law, found his native place too hot +to hold him, and if the universal tradition on the subject is worth +anything, having a warrant out against him for poaching, “flitted” to +London, became a stage-player, went in for speculation in building a +theatre, laid out his modest earnings judiciously, bought a house in his +native place, another in London “within the precinct of the late Black +Fryers,” retired to New Place, died, and was buried in the church of that +dirty town, in 1616, in the chancel, and his epitaph inscribed at his +request upon his tomb. He appears to have been in the habit of writing +or quoting such, and got the credit for this sort of poetry from his +companions. It is plain from the evidence I produce (p. 7) that in and +about those years it was the custom in London churches to put verses of +questionable merit on monuments and tombs, that it was usual to “crib” or +copy them from some one else, and use them as their own. The instances I +give (and their name is legion) shows this clearly to have been an +every-day practice. The play-actor, with a memory sharpened “by learning +his parts,” had no doubt seen them on the walls of churches during his +residence in London, and was in the habit of repeating and passing off as +his own these doggerel rhymes for the edification and amusement of his +companions and select friends; but when asked to give them an _extempore_ +one (evidently there was a leetle doubt as to his powers of composition), +knocked off one or two much inferior to those his memory had retained (p. +11). What a specimen of their high literary taste and also of his own, +requesting to have such rubbish inscribed upon his grave! No doubt there +were many other such-like epitaphs in churches in London which have been +destroyed or effaced by lapse of time, but these are a sufficient +specimen to show how little variation there is in them, and that mainly +in the spelling. The epitaph on the stone over Shakspere’s grave has +been pressed into the service by a believer in his writings to +prove—first, that he “curst those who should move his bones,” because +that he was fearful that when his renown was acknowledged, his bones +would be moved from their last resting-place in the Stratford that he +loved, to find a grave (they have a monument) in Westminster Abbey! and +secondly, by a non-believer, that when the imposture was found out, they +would be exhumed and cast out to the four winds of heaven! But how about +poor “Virginea _optima vita_ El. 21,” whose Covent Garden grave had on +its surface the same curse “for he that moves my bones”? Did her people +fear that some after-scandal might occur to show that she was no better +than Ann Hathway or Jane Shore, and her ashes be scattered in the swollen +flood of the Fleet stream! or that an unknown princess or poetess +unrecognised, cared not for a niche in Poet’s Corner or a sepulchre +amongst the great ones of the land, should her real self and character +ever be found out! In searching for epitaphs of a similar style I found +the following, which I give as illustrative of what I have mentioned +above. They are extracted from an ancient folio, 1736 A.D., The History +of London, by William Maitland, F.R.S., which gives an account of the +several parishes and churches. + + SARAH WILLIAMS, ob. September, 1680. + + Reader, stand still and spend a tear + Upon the dust that slumbers here; + And when thou readest, instead of me, + Think on the Glass that runs for thee. + + _St. Paul’s_, _Shadwell_. + + JOHN JORDAN, 14th March, 1700. + + Stand, Reader, and spend a tear, + And think on me who now lye here; + And whilest you read the state of me, + Think on the glass that runs for thee. + + _St. Mary_, _Whitechapel_. + + MARY PERKINS, Died A.D. 1703. + + Reader, stand still and spend a tear + Upon the dust that slumbers here; + And when thou readest, instead of me, + Think on the glass that runs for thee. + + _St. Giles-in-the-Fields_. + + Another similar. No Name. _St. Martins-in-the-Fields_. + + MRS. MARY MORLEY. Another similar. _Ratcliff_, 1700 A.D. + + Good friend, for Jesus’ sake forbear, + To dig the dust enclosed here; + Blest be the man that spares these stones, + And curst be he that moves my bones. + + Virginea Optima Vita El., aged 21, ob. 1700 A.D. _St. Paul’s_, + _Covent Garden_. + + When God was pleased (the world unwilling yet), + Helias James, to nature paid his debt; + And here reposes; as he lived he died, + The saying strongly in him verified— + Such life, such death, then a known truth to tell, + He lived a godly life, and died as well. + + _St. Andrew Wardrobe_—_St. Anne’s_, _Blackfriers_, annexed thereto after + the fire. + + JOYCE RICH, 1679, E. daughter of — + + We two within this grave do lye, + Where we do rest together, + Until the Lord doth us awake, + And from the goats us sever. + + _Ratcliff Hamlet_. + + Here lyes the body of WILLIAM WHEATLEY, ob. 10th Nov. 1683. + + Whoever treadeth on this stone, + I pray you tread most neatly; + For underneath the same doth lye, + Your honest friend, William Wheatley. + + _Ratcliff Hamlet_. + + GEORGE CLARK, A.D. 1668. + + If any desire to be me nigh, + Pray let my bones in quiet ly, + Till Christ shall come in cloudy sky, + Who will us all both judge and try. + + EDWARD NORRYS. + + O ye, our friends, yat here pas by, + We beseech you to have us in memory; + Somtym we were as now ye be, + In tym to come ye shall be as we. + + NATHANIEL SPENCER, 1695. + + Pray think on me as you pass by, + As you are now so once was I. + + _St. James_, _Clerkenwell_. + +I have in my possession a Tour through England, by the Rev. R. Warner, in +1801; he gives an account which I have never seen alluded to, of a visit +to Stratford-on-Avon. The mention of “cupboard, chair, and +tobacco-stopper” is delightful. Vol. II. p. 272, Topographical Works of +Rev. R. Warner, 1802. “On inquiring for the birth-place of our great +poet, we were not a little surprised to be carried through a small +butcher’s shop into a dirty back room; which, together with a miserable +apartment above stairs, constituted the greater part of the house of his +father, Mr. John Shakespeare, a wool-stapler, in the sixteenth century, +where William was born April 23, 1564. Here are piously preserved the +chair in which he sat, and the cupboard in which he kept his books. A +tobacco-stopper also was shown us, said to be that which he had been +accustomed to use for some years; but as we found this inestimable relic +might have been purchased for 1_s._ 6_d._, and that parts of the chair +and cupboard might be procured upon similar reasonable terms, we were as +much inclined to give credit to their genuineness, as we had felt +ourselves willing to believe the traditions of Guy Earl of Warwick, his +shield, sword, and porridge-pot. Homely as the tenement was, however, we +had much gratification in recollecting that it had been the birth-place +of our great poet, and the scene where the first dawning of his gigantic +intellect was displayed.” + +“Shakespeare, you know, had quietly settled himself in his father’s trade +of a wool-dealer, and to insure greater steadiness in his pursuit of +business, had taken unto himself a wife, the daughter of one Hathaway, in +the neighbourhood of Stratford. Good-nature or incaution, however, led +him into the society of some idle youths, who committed occasional +depredations in the parks of the surrounding gentry. Being detected in a +nocturnal adventure of this kind upon the property of Sir Thomas Lucy, of +Chalcot, near Stratford, he was prosecuted for the offence; and +irritating the prosecutor to a still greater degree of violence, by an +abusive ballad, he was under a necessity of avoiding the effects of the +criminal process, by quitting his business and family at Stratford, and +hiding himself in the Metropolis. Some instances of his poetical +sarcasms are upon record, but local tradition confirms the assertion now +made of their just application. They are written on John Coombe and his +brother Tom, both notorious for penury and usury. The former, in a party +at which Shakespeare was present, had sportively observed, that he +apprehended the poet meant to write his epitaph in case he outlived him, +but as he should lose the benefit of the composition if it were deferred +till his death, he begged it might be done whilst he lived, that he might +admire the tribute, and thank the writer; Shakespeare immediately +presented him with the following lines:— + + Ten in the hundred lies here engrav’d, + Tis a hundred to ten his soul is not sav’d; + If any man ask, ‘Who lies in this tomb?’ + Oh! Oh! quoth the Devil, ’tis my John a Coomb. + +“The epitaph upon the brother, whether called for or not, I cannot say, +is of a similar spirit: + + Thin in beard, and thick in purse, + Never man beloved worse; + He went to the grave with many a curse; + The devil and he had both one nurse. + +“A flat stone, lying on the pavement over the place of his interment, has +this inscription, said to have been written by Shakespeare for his own +monument: + + Good friend, for Jesus’ sake forbeare + To digg the dust encloased heare; + Blest be the man that spares these stones, + And curst be he that moves my bones.” + +There is another also ascribed to him quoted in “Shakspere’s Poetry,” No. +6, Bacon Society Journal, p. 245, which, with the Goliath, makes up the +number to five. + + Epitaph on ELIAS JAMES. [Mark the lost H.] + + When God was pleased, the world unwilling yet, + Elias James to nature paid his debt, + And here reposeth, as he lived he died, + The saying in him strongly verified, + Such life, such death: then the known truth to tell, + He lived a godly lyfe and dyed as well. + +The other account of a visit paid, and chair and relics bought, is taken +from Samuel Ireland, London, 1795, a handsome volume of well-executed +picturesque views of the Avon, and buildings connected with Shakesperian +localities, which are generally made use of without acknowledgment. + +“As such we shall conduct them to the humble cottage in which he first +drew breath, on the 23rd of April, 1564. + +“The annexed sketch of it was made in October, 1792. Part of these +premises which belonged to Shakspeare are still occupied by a descendant +of Joan Harte, sister to our Poet, who pursues the humble occupation of a +butcher. His father Thomas Harte died about a year ago at the age of +sixty-seven. The kitchen of this house has an appearance sufficiently +interesting to command a place in this work, abstracted from its claim to +notice as a relative to the bard. It is a subject very similar to those +that so frequently employed the rare talents of Ostade, and therefore +cannot be deemed unworthy of the pencil of an inferior artist. In the +corner of the chimney stood an old oak chair, which had for a number of +years received nearly as many adorers as the celebrated shrine of the +Lady of Loretto. This relic was purchased in July, 1790, by the Princess +Czartoryska, who made a journey to this place in order to obtain +intelligence relative to Shakspeare; and being told he had often sat in +this chair, she placed herself in it, and expressed an ardent wish to +become a purchaser; but being informed that it was not to be sold at any +price, she left a handsome gratuity to old Mrs. Harte, and left the place +with apparent regret. About four months after, the anxiety of the +Princess could no longer be withheld, and her secretary was despatched +express, as the fit agent, to purchase this treasure at any rate; the sum +of twenty guineas was the price fixed on, and the secretary and chair, +with a proper certificate of its authenticity on stamped paper, set off +in a chaise for London.” . . . + +“In a lower room of the public-house, which is part of the premises +wherein Shakspeare was born, is a curious ancient ornament over the +chimney, relieved in plaster, which, from the date 1606, that was +originally marked on it, was probably put up at the time, and possibly by +the poet himself; although a rude attempt at historic representation, I +have yet thought it worth copying. In 1759 it was repaired and painted +in a variety of colours by the old Mr. Thomas Harte before mentioned, who +assured me the motto then round it had been in the old black-letter, and +dated 1606. The motto runs thus: + + Golith comes with sword and spear, + And David with a sling; + Although Golith rage and sweare, + Down David doth him bring. + +“Mr. Harte, of Stratford, before mentioned, told me there was an old oak +chair, that had always in his remembrance been called Shakspeare’s +courting chair, with a purse that had been likewise his, and handed down +from him to his grand-daughter Lady Barnard, and from her through the +Hathaway family to those of the present day. From the best information I +was able to collect at the time, I was induced to consider this account +as authentic, and from a wish to obtain the smallest trifle appertaining +to our Shakspeare, I became a purchaser of these relics. Of the chair I +have here given a sketch; it is of a date sufficiently ancient to justify +the credibility of its history; and as to farther proof, it must rest on +the traditional opinion and the character of this poor family.” + + + + +CHAPTER II. +SHAKSPERE’S AFTER-RESIDENCE AT STRATFORD-ON-AVON. + + +The nearest _reliable_ authority we have for any story connected with +William Shakspere is the Vicar of Stratford-on-Avon, a man of literary +tastes, who kept a voluminous journal, and it is he who gives us the +account of “as I have heard, Shakespeare, Drayton, and Ben Jonson had a +merrie meeting, and it seems drank too hard, for Shakespeare died of a +feavour there contracted” (was it at the house in Blackfriars? they are +hardly all likely to have been at Stratford). Also in his Diary, +“Remember to peruse Shakespeare’s plays and bee much versed in them, that +I may not be ignorant in that matter. . . . Whether Dr. Heylin does well +in reckoning up the dramatick poets which have been famous in England to +omit Shakespeare?” Note here that Mr. Ward, although Vicar of the +parish, and a man of high education, was not acquainted with the works of +Shakespeare simply because he had not before realized the point that his +parishioner, whose descendants and relatives lived in humble guise, was +really the illustrious Shakespeare, whose praise was in all mouths, and +that therefore it was not necessary he should be “up in them,” as they +were not the subject of conversation in the town of his birth and youth +and burial, clearly the pressure upon him to get them up came later on +from without. He was not appointed to the Vicarage until 1662. + +Diary of Rev. John Ward, from 1648 to 1679: “I _have heard_ that Mr. +Shakespeare was a natural wit, without any art at all,” and that is +pretty well all the Vicar of his native place heard tell of him as a +writer of these plays. He has nearly as much to say of “Edmund Alline, a +stage-player, who founded the College of Dulwich.” “I have heard that +Mr. Shakespeare was a natural wit without any art at all: hee frequented +the plays all his younger time, but in his elder days lived at Stratford, +and supplied the stage with two plays every year and for itt had an +allowance so large that he spent at the rate of £1000 a year as I have +heard.”—From Diary of Rev. John Ward. How came Shakespeare’s brother +stage-player to be worth thousands, whilst the other’s income saved was +only about £200 or at most £300 a year? Was he the trusted middle man, +or Kemp, or both, in the secret? + + + +Shakespeare’s Plays—Who Wrote them? + + +There is a quaint story printed by the Camden Society—Kemp’s “Nine Daies’ +Wonder,” published 1600. Kemp was one of the leading performers in that +company in which Shakespere had subordinate parts assigned him, and +Edward Alleyne was chief manager. Nash was a friend of his, and his +tract, “An Almond for a Parrot,” is dedicated to him, “Monsieur du +Kempe.” He talks of another great journey, and signifies that he keeps +it dark whether “Rome, Jerusalem, Venice, or any other place at your idle +appoint” (p. 20). One of his letters begins, “My notable Shakerags,” +mentions “a penny poet, whose first making was the miserable stolne story +of Macdoel, or Macdobeth, or Macsomewhat.” In the Returne from +Parnassus—dialogue, “_Phil._ What, M. Kempe, how doth the Emperour of +Germany? _Student_. God save you, M. Kempe: Welcome from dancing the +morrice ‘over the Alpes.’ _Kempe_. Is it not better to _make a foole of +the world as I have done_ than to be fooled of the world as you schollers +are.” There is also that well-known allusion to “our fellow Shakespeare +putting them all down, I and Ben Jonson too, and giving him a purge that +made him beray his credit” (whatever that may mean). Also p. xiv, “The +Travailes of the Three English Brothers, Sir Anthony, Sir Thomas, and Sir +Robert Shirley, as it is now play’d by Her Majesties Servants,” the +following scene is supposed to take place at Venice:—“_Servant_. An +Englishman desires accesse to you. _Sir Anthony_. What is his name? +_Servant_. He calls himself Kempe. _Sir. Ant._ Bid him come in; +Welcome, honest Will, and what good new plays have you?” etc. Nash also +speaks of Kemp as being at Bergamo, and an Englishman from Venice meeting +him there and having a conversation on the “order and maner of our +plays.” These allusions, whether feigned or otherwise, show there were +communications going on between her Majesties players and foreign parts, +which were understood to be connected with “new plays” and “plays of +note.” + +Was there any distant connection between Will Kempe and Sir A. Sherley? +His mother’s name was Anne, daughter of Sir Thomas Kempe, and had three +sons—Thomas, Anthony, and Robert. “No three persons of one family ever +experienced adventures at the same time so uncommon or so interesting” +(from a book “The Sherley Brothers,” by one of the same house, for +Roxburghe Club, Evelyn Philip Shirley). Sir Anthony married a first +cousin of the Earl of Essex, “who had oftentimes to befriend him.” He +was sent on embassies to every quarter of the known world. Was ofttimes +in communication with Burleigh. We hear of him most in Italy, “sent by +Emperor of Germany as ambassador to Morocco”; “hired horses to pass the +Alpes” (see Kemp, p. 16); writes to Anthony Bacon, a friend of Essex (p. +22). It appears that he wrote many letters at this period to his patron +Earl of Essex, Mr. Anthony Bacon, and Mr. Secretary Cecil. He is found +everywhere, sometimes employed as ambassador, sometimes on special +missions, sometimes in questionable ventures. Milan, Venice, where at +one time he seems to have resided for several years, Rome, Persia, +Cyprus, Antioch, Syracuse, Prague, Arabia, Tripoli, Aleppo, Bagdad, +Constantinople, Portugal, Spain. Sir Anthony appears (Annals of the +Shirley Family) with his brother Sir Robert to have always been in debt +and difficulty, “sometimes like to starve for want of bread,” profuse and +extravagant when money was to be had, utterly careless how it was +obtained. Mention is made of “Henry Sherley, kinsman of Mr. James +Sherley, the _play-wright_, and who did also excel him in that faculty.” +Henry Sherley was the author of the following plays never printed: +Spanish Duke of Lerna, Duke of Guise, Gasaldo the country lover (p. 270, +Annals of Shirley Family). Sir Anthony was ever aiming to get reinstated +at Court, and if he had been known to have been mixed up with these +plays, it would have been fatal to his chance with Elizabeth. Clearly he +had something to do with Will Kempe, a member of Alleyn’s company, who +acted the prominent parts in Two Gentlemen of Verona, Merchant of Venice, +etc. Was not “Will Kempe” the go-between the manager and the author? +Was it not necessary, in order to keep the secret, that the MSS. should +not pass from hand to hand, or be entrusted even to the ambassador’s bag? +Lansdowne MSS. 1608, Milan, Sir Anthony Sherley to his sister, Lady +Tracy, “you will say, I should have written; it is true, but there are +such intercepting of my poor papers that before God I dare commit nothing +to paper, and now less than ever.” The extraordinary capacity and +knowledge of languages and familiarity with places and scenery by Sir +Anthony Sherley, especially in Italy, were clearly unequalled. What +share had he in what may be a joint-stock company for the production of +these plays? It is now acknowledged that many of the plays are +translated from Italian plays and other novels. Did he bring this grist +to the mill, find novels and stories, translate them, and forward them by +his trusted kinsman Kempe to others to ship-shape them and fit them for +the stage? May not the name of Sherley have oozed out amongst “the +playwrights,” and thence “_Henry_ Sherley, who excelled in that faculty,” +been spoken of as the man who wrote them. Sir Anthony keeps up his +friendship with Anthony Bacon, whom no doubt he knew in earlier days at +Court. How fond they all were of the name of Anthony. A greater +knowledge of men and manners and languages and the leading men and +courtiers of the day or such a master of travel existed not in his time. +Strange also is it that “The Travailes of the three English Brothers, Sir +Thomas, Sir Anthony, and Mr. Robert Sherley,” should be presented on the +stage by this same company of which Kempe was a member. How were they +acquainted with them? + +These are all singular coincidences, and as I write I have been perusing +Donnelly, and I find nothing to contradict, but much to back up my +theories. His chapter ix. vol. i. p. 171, also x. and others passim, +might fit Sherley as well as Bacon. (Shylock, p. 224.) Sherley borrows +money wherever he could get credit and at other times spends it freely. + + He lends out money gratis, and brings down + The rate of usance here with us in Venice. + Signior Antonio, many a time and oft + In the Rialto you have rated me + About my monies and my usances. + +Sir Anthony, has he not often “sat on the Rialto”? has he not often +watched the Argosies come “to road”? Has he not had ventures everywhere? +Read over The Merchant of Venice, and say if it could possibly have been +written but by one resident there and half Italian in his knowledge and +familiarity with people and scenes in Italy itself. What is Antonio +everywhere but Anthony “writ new”? See Sonnets, lxxvi.: + + Why write I still all _one_, ever the same, + And keep invention in a noted weed, + That every word doth almost tell my name, + Showing their birth and where they did proceed? + +See also Sonnets passim illustrating and explaining “my papers yellowed +with their age,” “my muse,” “my verse.” + +What are the names of places mentioned? Tripolis, Mexico, England, +Lisbon, Barbary, India, “where his argosies with portly sail,” “the +pageants of the sea.” What in Othello? Cyprus on the brow of the sea +“stand ranks of people and they cry a sail.” May—nay, must have +witnessed it in person. + +The leading qualifications for the author of Shakespeare’s Plays to +possess are summed up on the medallion of Sir Anthony Sherley’s picture, +Antonius Sherleyus Anglus Eques aurati (Annals of the Shirley Family, +second edition, p. 297, “Multorum mores hominum qui vidit et urbes”), and +it was his and his alone to fulfil them to the letter. He must have a +familiarity with sylvan life, its beauties, its copses, and its ferns and +flowers; must have mixed in youthful sports, hawked, _hunted the hare_, +and chased the roe and conies in his father’s park at Wiston (there is an +ancient picture of the Lord of the Manor there, issuing forth on a +sporting expedition, p. 264). He no doubt visited Chartley (Erdeswick’s +Staffordshire). “The park is very large and hath therein red deer, +fallow deer, wild beasts, and swine,” passed on to Tamworth, the ancient +seat of Ferrers family (see Shirley Annals, p. 183). “In the principal +chamber is a very noble chimney piece of dark oak, reaching to the +ceiling, carved with the story of Venus and Adonis, and the arms of +Ferrers and the motto, {20} ‘_only one_.’” May be the young Southampton +was with him there. His education must have been liberal—Oxford, Hart +and All Souls’ Colleges—he was at them both. He must have studied at the +bar and had great legal knowledge—“Inns of Court” gave him that. English +court life, its pageants, its courtiers, he knew them well. Camps he had +commanded at Zutphen. His friends and kinsmen were Essex, Lord +Southampton, the latter to whom he dedicated his Venus and Adonis, had +like himself married a sister Vernon, a cousin of Lord Essex. The +fickleness of sovereigns he had felt, he had in some way offended +Elizabeth, and that spiteful woman never him forgave; she cut off his +kinsman Essex’s head and stole his books. “Two Gentlemen of Verona,” +_Val_ to _Duke_: + + “These banished men that I have kept withal, + Are men endued with worthy qualities, + Forgive them what they have committed here, + And let them be recalled from their exile: + They are reformed, civil, full of good, + And fit for great employment.” + +Sherley Brothers, p. 27, to Sir Cecill, “his whole object being if +possible to conciliate the Queen, and to obtain leave to return to +England. Elizabeth however remained inexorable.”—A.D. 1600. + +P. 34. Venice, “which city remained his head quarters for some +years.”—1601. + +P. 50. A.D. 1605.—“Four months abode in Saphia, kept open house . . .; +to supply his own turn for money he got credit of Jews to take up money, +and pay them in moriscos, but at an excessive rate, almost fifty for an +hundred.” + +All foreign courts, even the Czar of Muscovy, the great Sophi, King of +Morocco, of Persia; well, he had had missions to them, and been of them +and amongst them. A thorough knowledge of a sailor’s life, their own +peculiar phrases and ship-shape ways are his to speak of as a sailor +would; perils by sea and land, he had gone through them all. Languages, +most of them on his mouth-tips dwell (Alls Well that Ends Well, “If there +be here German or Dane, low Dutch, Italian, or French, let him speak to +me”). The habits and the ways, the customs, dresses, manners, laws of +almost every known nation then, he had witnessed, thought on, and had +both an eye-sight and head knowledge of them. Horses, he knew their +points; nightingales (passim), he had listened to their song. + +Among the papers relating to the Low Countries in the S.P.O. is the +following in illustration of Shakespeare’s well-known line, “Saddle white +Surrey to the field,” etc. “A note of all the horses of old store, which +Thomas Underwood acknowledgeth himself to have received since his coming +to your honor’s (Sir H. Sidney) service, June 2, 1589, _e.g._: + + + + Charge. Discharge. +Graie Stanhope given to Sir Roger Williams. +Baie SHURLIE ,, Mr. Ralph Love. +Baie Skipworth ,, The Grooms. +Graie Essex ,, Mr. St. Barbe. +Graie Bingham ,, Sir Philip Sidney. +Pied Markham ,, The French Ambassador. +Dun Sidney ,, Bonham. +Sorrel Bingham ,, Sir Richard Bingham. +Black Stanhope ,, To the cart at Fulham.” + +“Anthony Sherley had a command in the Low Countries among the English +when Sir Philip Sidney was killed” (Wood). “This was before Zutphen in +1586.”—From Sherley Brothers (p. 4). + +“Dispatched with title of Colonel into Brittany under Essex,” 1591 (p. +5). + +Might he not even have heard Essex or Sir Philip Sidney give orders to +saddle his gray charger to the field to-morrow. + +Anthony Sherley and no other was he who wrote these plays. + + + + +CHAPTER III. +MR. DONNELLY’S CRYPTOGRAM. + + +I have waited until I had Mr. Donnelly’s book before me. The marvellous +industry, research and intelligence displayed is simply astounding. I +dare not express an opinion on the subject. But why or wherefore should +Bacon take such an interest in and spend so much ingenuity on Anne +Hathaway and her marriage? It is a strange tale. I have myself been +Commissary for Bishops and held Courts for them; have been for years a +Surrogate for Bishops and Archbishops, and have had now and then to +refuse a license; but I never had or heard of such a case as this, and +should certainly have refused to grant a license to allow “_once_” +publishing the banns to stand for “_thrice_” and to slur over “consent of +parents.” It most probably happened that the banns were published the +first time more or less surreptitiously, and taking the parents by +surprise were not objected to; but if it proceeded to a second “asking,” +they would be forbidden; it is clear there was an objection known to be +hanging up. Turn the bull’s-eye light of common sense unto what was too +common in parishes of old. Who, why, and wherefore did Farmers Sandells +and Rychardson appear upon the scene? They, it may be, held office in +the parish, and had caught hold of a lad who, to save the parish a burden +or one of themselves a scandal, would for a consideration make an “honest +woman of Ann Hathaway.” I myself recollect having a similar case to deal +with on all-fours—a farming lad of 19 or 20 and a woman of 29 or 30 near +her confinement, when I felt so strongly on the subject, that before the +marriage ceremony, I asked the intended bridegroom to come into the +vestry to question him as to his being in his sober senses, and if he +understood what was the position he was about to make for himself. + +One error Mr. Donnelly has fallen into when he uses strong language +against William Shakespere for allowing “one quart of sack” (p. 51) to be +sent to his guest. It was a common compliment to send such gifts, and +the omission would have been thought an insult. In Ambrose Barnes’ +Memoirs (p. 244) published by the Surtees Society, Appendix, 1592:—“The +Corporation of Newcastle-on-Tyne paid for 20 lb. of sugar in two loaves +at 18_d._ a lb., 6 bottles of sack, 10 pottles of white wine, 9 pottles +of claret wine, sent as a present to my Lord of Durham as he came +travelling to this town.” Again (p. 427), 1684:—“6_d._ for one pint of +sack when Mr. Shakespeare preached!” Also in Longstaff’s Darlington (p. +239), Churchwardens’ accounts, 1643:—“One quart off wine when Mr. Doughty +preached, 10_d._; one quart wine and one pinte sack when another +gentleman preached, which lay att George Stevenson’s, 1_s._ 8_d._;” 1650, +“six quarts of sacke to the minister that preached when we had not a +minister, 9_s._;” 1666, “one quart of sack bestowed on Mr. Jellett when +he preached, 2_s._ 4_d._; more bestowed on him at Ralph Collings’, when +Mr. Bell was there, 1_s._ 8_d._” + +I know that my friends the public have a strong idea that this subject +has been thoroughly threshed out, and are apt to say and think— + + Shakespere and Bacon are vexation, + Donnelly is as bad, + His Cryptogram it puzzles me, + His Cipher drives me mad. + +Nevertheless, I have an opinion that I have been able to fling a few +novel hints upon the question, and so cast it upon the waters to sink or +swim. + + SCOTT SURTEES. + +DINSDALE-ON-TEES, + _May_ 14, 1888. + + + + +APPENDIX. + + +Banns. + + +Cripp’s Laws of the Church, p. 634.—“Before the time of Pope Innocent +III. there was no solemnization of marriage in the Church: but the man +came to the woman’s house and led her home to his own house, which was +all the ceremony then used. By the customs of the Anglo-Saxons the +marriage ceremony was commonly performed at the house of the bridegroom, +to which the bride had been previously taken.” (p. 638) “It was formerly +the law of this country that marriages celebrated by licence, when either +of the parties was under the age of twenty-one years (not being a widow +or widower), without the consent of the father, or if he were not living, +of the mother or guardians, should be absolutely void.” They must +proceed either by publication of banns or by license. The word banns is +of Saxon origin, and signifies publication or proclamation (Rogers, E. L. +509). This publication for three several Sundays or holidays, unless a +license or faculty had been obtained, was enjoined by Canon Law and by +the rubric “in the time of divine service” (p. 650). . . . For the +avoiding of all fraud and collusion, before such license shall be granted +it shall appear to the judge by the oaths of two sufficient witnesses . . +. that the express consent of the parents or parent is thereunto had and +obtained (Canon 103).” It is singular we find in Francis Bacon’s life, +that he tried to break off the match with Sir John Villiers and Lady +Hatton’s only daughter and heiress, because the mother opposed it, “he +strongly advises that the match be not proceeded in without the consent +of both parents required by religion and the law of God” (Campbell’s Life +of Lord Bacon, p. 138). + +“Spurrings” they are still called in the North of England, where old +customs and our fore-elders’ language linger long. I myself in a parish +in Wensleydale, where they until recently “raced for the garter,” heard +the Clerk, to my astonishment, after I had finished the “spurring” for +the last time of asking, stand up and in broad accent and loud voice sing +out, “God speed them well!” and all the people answered, Amen! It was +not any way ludicrous, but really sounded solemn and a beautiful +benediction from their fellow-parishioners.—(See Atkinson’s Glossary of +Cleveland Dialect, “Spurrings, sb. The publication of banns of marriage: +the being ‘asked’ at Church, an immediate derivative from speer, speir, +even if not directly from Old Norse spyria.”) + +The name of Shakespeare, Laborer, in the neighbourhood of Stratford is +spelt as above in George I. + +“Walter Shakespeare, of Tachbrooke, in the county of Warwicke, laborer, +aged forty yeares or thereabouts, being sworne and examined, deposeth as +follows: + +“To the fourth interrogatory this deponent saith that the cure of the +parish has been neglected by the complainant, and in particular this +deponent’s wife was put by being churched, there being no Divine Service +at Tachbrooke one Sunday since the complainant’s institucion and +induction; and this deponent further says that notice was given that his +wife was to be churched that Sunday, and that this deponent was then and +now is an inhabitant of the parish of Tachbrooke.”—Record Office, 41st +Report, p. 555, 7 George I. Warwick and Stafford Exchequer. + + + + +SUPPLEMENT. + + +See p. 22.—Ante “Anthony Sherley and no other was he who wrote these +plays.” + +Since I wrote the first portion of this pamphlet so much matter has +turned up, showing beyond reasonable doubt that I am right in my +conjecture as to Anthony Sherley, that I am encouraged to bring it also +before the public. “Magna est veritas,” and in due time the leaven will +work its way. + +I had called attention (p. 20) to the Sonnets 135, 136, 105. + + SONNET CV. + + Let not my love be called idolatry, + Nor my beloved as an idle show, + Since all alike my songs and praises be + To _one_, of _one_, still such and ever so. + Kind is my love to-day, to-morrow kind, + Still constant in a wondrous excellence; + Therefore my verse to constancy confin’d, + _One_ thing expressing, leaves out difference. + Fair, kind, and true, varying to other words; + And in this change is my invention spent, + Three themes in _one_, which wondrous scope affords. + Fair, kind, and true, have often liv’d alone + Which three, till now, never kept seat in _one_. + + CXXXV. + + Whoever hath her wish, thou hast thy _will_, + And _will_ to boot, and _will_ in over-plus; + More than enough am I that vex thee still, + To thy sweet _will_ making addition thus. + Wilt thou, whose _will_ is large and spacious, + Not once vouchsafe to hide my _will_ in thine? + Shall _will_ in others seem right gracious, + And in my _will_ no fair acceptance shine? + The sea, all water, yet receives rain still, + And in abundance addeth to his store; + So thou, being rich in _will_, add to thy _will_ + One _will_ of mine, to make thy large _will_ more! + Let no unkind, no fair beseechers kill. + Think all but _one_, and me in that _one Will_. + +and the enigmatical allusions in them to Sherley’s motto “only one.” He +could not write “only one,” as it would have betrayed the author of the +plays, but he shaves as near the wind as he dare, and as he says, Sonnet +lxxvi., which I mentioned (p. 19): + + Why write I still all one, ever the same, + And keep invention in a noted weed, + That every word doth almost tell my name, + Showing their birth and where they did proceed? + +And so it does, when we look behind the scenes. They were written in the +hope that some one like myself would arise, a light in a dark place, to +give honour to whom honour was due, and pluck the jay’s false feathers +from off the crow. The instant you begin to look for it, you will +observe how strangely any-how and oft, in all times and places, in season +and out of season, this word “_one_” is wrought into the text of the +plays, sometimes in connection with “_all’s one_”; (he would not write +“only one” straight off, else it would have led, as I said before, to +detection, and so he uses the plural “all” instead of singular “only,” +see Sonnet lxxvi.), and in a much more important position boldly puts it +forward (in Quarto 1608, with the name of Shakespeare) “_All’s one_ or +_one_ of the four plaies in _one_,” called “A Yorkshire Tragedy.” Now +this play with Anthony Sherley’s motto is nothing more nor less than the +story of the ruin of his house; it is hardly disguised under the flimsy +title of “A Yorkshire Tragedy.” It is important to note that of all the +plays this has no _stage names_ to it, simply “Husband and wife.” +Strange! passing strange! Why should Shakespeare care to represent on +the stage the history of the Sherley family and ruin? This same company, +mark, had played it under the name openly of “The Three English +Brothers,” prologue, “Clothing our truth within an argument, fitting the +stage and your attention, yet not so hid but that she may appear to be +herself, even Truth.” This would also fit the “Yorkshire Tragedy.” What +is the substance of the play? It tells the story in blank verse, which +we have almost word for word in prose in “The Sherley Brothers,” viz. +that of Sir Thomas Sherley the elder gambling away his extensive +property. “Elizabeth had seized and sold everything belonging to him +except (Wiston), his wife’s dowry.” “_Wife_: If you suspect a plot in me +to keep my dowry . . . you are a gentleman of many bloods; think on the +state of these _three_ lovely boys (the leash of brothers old Fuller +calls them) . . . Your lands mortgaged, yourself wound into +debts.”—“_Wife_: I see how ruin with a palsy hand begins to shake this +ancient seat to dust . . . beggary of the soul and of the body, as if +some vexed spirit had got his form upon him.” His wife had interest +enough to get him the offer of a place at Court, etc. + +But the writer of Shakespeare’s plays was not content with this, an exact +account, even to _minute_ particulars, of the history of the three +Sherley brothers; just compare that history and this “Yorkshire Tragedy” +play, and then read the same story (Richard II. Act 2, scene 3). + + KING RICHARD II. ACT 2, SCENE 3. + + “O, then, my father, + Will you permit that I shall stand condemn’d, + A wand’ring vagabond; my rights and royalties + Pluck’d from my arms perforce, and given away + To upstart unthrifts? Wherefore was I born? + + * * * * * + + I am deny’d to sue my livery here, + And yet my letters-patent give me leave: + My father’s goods are _all distrained_ and sold; + And these, and _all_, are _all_ amiss employ’d. + What would you have me do? I am a subject + And challenge law: Attornies are deny’d me, + And therefore personally I lay my claim + To my inheritance of free descent. + + ACT 3, SCENE 1. + + _Boling_. “Myself, a prince by fortune of my birth; + Near to the king in blood; and near in love, + Till you did make him misinterpret me, + Have stoop’d my neck under your injuries, + And sigh’d my English breath in foreign clouds, + Eating the bitter bread of banishment: + Whilst you have fed upon my signories, + Dis_park’d_ my parks, and fell’d my forest woods; + From my own windows torn my household coat, + Raz’d out my _impress_, {32} leaving me no sign, + Save men’s opinions and my living blood, + To shew the world I am a gentleman. + This, and much more, much more than twice all this, + Condemns you to the death. See them deliver’d over + To execution and the hand of death.” + + ACT 1, SCENE 3. + + _Boling_. Your will be done: this must my comfort be, + That sun, that warms you here, shall shine on me; + And those his golden beams, to you here lent, + Shall point on me, and gild my banishment. + + _North_. A dearer merit, not so deep a maim + As to be cast forth in the common air, + Have I deserved at your highness’ hand. + The language I have learn’d these forty years, + My native English, now I must forego, etc., etc. + What is my sentence then, but speechless death, + Which robs my native tongue from breathing native breath? + +Does not every thoughtful reader pause over it and say to himself, why +does he bring forward Busby and Green and rate them and sentence them to +death? What for? treason? rebellion? murder? sedition? some rash crime? +No; but for having “disparked” his parks and pulled down “his impress” +(_only one_!), and his “household coat,” and tells us what he would like +to have done to his enemies at Court if he had had the chance, as they +had done when they cut off his patron and his kinsman Essex’s head. Now +to return to the reason why he should have written a play to unfold the +reasons of his family decay. To Cecil from Anthony Sherley, “The worst +sort of the world have taken advantage to lay upon _me_ all sorts of +defamation” (p. 37), and again, and therefore to clear himself, he shows +how it came to pass, and that his father was not in his right senses who +incurred “this great debt” (p. 37, Sherley Brothers). Elizabeth had +actually “_distrained_” upon his father’s goods, had carried off even his +blankets and sheets, chairs and arras hangings, feather beds, and silver +spoons, and left his mother scanty and beggarly supply for her dowry +house, not sufficient for the necessities of everyday life. She had +seized and sold the vast lands and possessions of his ancestors. +(Stemmata Shirleana, Roxburgh Club, p. 251.) “A description of the +Manors sold, all save Wiston dowry.” “In 1578 Sir T. Sherley served the +office of Sheriff for the counties of Surrey and Sussex. He afterwards +became Treasurer at War in the Low Countries, and having fallen under the +displeasure of Queen Elizabeth, and become indebted to the Crown, his +estates and personal effects, with the exception of the Manor of Wiston, +settled on his wife, were seized.” See Lansdowne MSS. Goods seized at +Wiston by Sheriff, 1588. Here again I earnestly request comparison with +the story in the “Yorkshire Tragedy.” Rowland Whyte, “he owed the Queen +more than he was worth; his own doings have undone him.” + + SCENE IV.—HUSBAND—YORKSHIRE TRAGEDY. + + “What is there in three dice to make a man draw thrice three thousand + acres into the compass of a little round table, and with the + gentleman’s palsy in the hand shake out his posterity thieves or + beggars? ’Tis done; I have don ’t i’ faith; terrible, horrible + misery!—How well was I left! Very well, very well. My lands show’d + like a full moon about me; but now the moon’s in the quarter—waning, + waning; and I am mad to think that moon was mine; mine and my + father’s, and my fore-fathers’; generations, generations.—Down goes + the house of us; down, down it sinks. Now is the name a beggar’s; + begs in me. That name, which hundreds of years has made this shire + famous in me and my posterity, runs out.” + +To the Rt. Hon. Sir R. Cecil, Knight, from Anthony Sherley: + + “Arkangell, 1600, June 10. + + “Either the unfairness of the ways or messengers have kept my letters + from you. You have not vouchsafed me _one only_ answer . . . your + honour knoweth the fortunes of my house, and from how great + expectations our sins or disasters brought it both in estate and in + disgrace . . . my purpose was to satisfy the world in myself that I + was too worthy to have the decay of myself laid on me.”—The Sherley + Brothers, p. 28. S. P. O. From Sir R. Cecil, 1600. “Her Majesty + has increased her former displeasure towards him so far in respect of + this presumption as by no means she will suffer him to come into the + kingdome; but wholly rejected any such offer” (p. 31). + +The truth is, Elizabeth had been stung in her sorest point. Sherley the +elder was paymaster to the forces in the Low Countries, and his accounts +were deficient. That was never to be passed over. She, who exercised +her ingenuity and talents in cheese-paring, who, whilst waiting for the +coming of the Armada, spent her time in trying whether, if she gave her +sailors fish and oil instead of salt beef, it would not save her a penny +or two a day from each separate mess; who never would victual her ships +or refit them, or give them shot or powder more than enough for the day. +It was owing to the pluck of the half-starved, half-victualled British +sailor in non-repaired ships, and in spite of every disadvantage, that +the victory was won; not with her help, not with her providence, but in +spite of it. Well was it expressed, “Her maddened grasp of passionate +avarice.” Give the devil his due, as we say in the proverb, but don’t +give one iota of credit to that stingiest, and vainest of womenkind. +Ray’s Glossary of words—“Stingy, pinching, sordid, narrow spirited.” +Read all these quotations from Shakespeare’s plays, and compare them line +with line and the lives of Sherley’s brothers, and conviction must +follow. I might just notice that Anthony Sherley’s knowledge of the +localities and people where most scenes of the plays are fixed was +unequalled. He told that which he had seen; he spoke of what he knew. +Whateley on Shakespeare, “The characters which he has drawn are masterly +copies from nature.” + +Now to return to Sonnet 105, which has always been a stumbling block to +commentators, as it clearly was intended to explain some mystery or +enigma connected with the author of the plays. I have never yet noticed +any reasonably satisfactory explanation of this Sonnet. Why even the +person who wrote on the religion of Shakespeare claims it as a sort of +William Shakespeare’s Athanasian creed, and meant to express a belief in +the Trinity, “three in one!” “_All’s one_” I noticed may be met with +often; but as for “_one_,” it crops up everywhere. In a single scene in +a single page you may count in places six “_ones_” (“Henry V.” passim), +in many cases “lugged” in where the sense and context show it would be +far better otherwise, and commentators take trouble to emend it. This is +the key to his broad hint (Sonnet lxxvi.), “Why write I still all +‘_one_,’ ever the same . . . that every word doth almost tell my name.” +But, conjoined with his impress “_one_,” there is also a play upon his +“armories,” the Sherley Trinity of virtues. I find in Lansdowne MSS., +No. 49, leaf 28, which I have verified, “That armories were antiently +introduced to distinguish noble and illustrious families. The house of +Shirley of great estimation, ‘Noble light,’ ‘Gold,’ it cannot be +corrupted, or the value diminished by earth, water, air, or fire. Gold +and sunbeams signifies in virtues, alluding to the Shirley family in +particular, ‘Field of gold,’ faith, charitie, wisdom, and fidelitie, and +many others, all of which their arms are the true emblems.” There are +several pages of this sort in MSS. of British Museum relating to the +Shirley family. May not this be the Trinity of virtues mentioned in that +puzzling Sonnet 105, “Three themes in _one_”? {36} + +If Anthony Sherley did not write the plays and sonnets, why does the +writer chronicle his every movement? (_passim._) Why does he give an +exact account of his family history (Yorkshire Tragedy), their ruin and +his own banishment? Why again in Richard II. Act ii. sc. 3, transforming +it to himself in a figure, give an account of their harsh treatment by +Elizabeth? Why does that same company act the Brothers Sherley on the +stage as well as the Yorkshire Tragedy (quarto W. Shakespeare)? Why in +all other plays but that alone are there _stage_ names, but in this play +when acted (as he wishes it not so to be), a Sherley had interest enough +to get his way? Why are all the scenes of the plays laid at places where +Anthony Sherley tarries? + +Why does Kemp (with “good new plaies”), one of this _same_ company, go to +meet him at places where he is then known to be, “over the Alpes,” +“Venice,” “Emperor of Germany” (Nine Daies’ Wonder). + +Why is it that Shakesperians have been so sure that their claimant must +have had a classical education, that they have searched the records of +Oxford and find no entry? Why do I find “Aula Cervina” Antonius Sherlye, +1579—_equitis aurati_ fil. 14 ann. Hart Hall is thus described by a +contemporary, 1st Elizabeth: “By the advantage of the most famous and +learnedest of tutors he acquired a knowledge not common of the Greek and +Latin tongues, of philosophy, of history, of politicks and other liberal +sciences.”—Would not Shakesperians have been delighted if they could have +this said of the tutors W. Shakespere studied under!! + +Why, as Clement’s Inn is mentioned, are they sure he must have had a +legal training, but can find no mention? Why, when I go to the Library +of the Inner Temple, do I find at once the name and record I want, +covering just the very date I need for my theory? “1583, November, +admitted Inner Temple Sir Anthony Shirley, Wiston, Sussex, the second of +the celebrated brothers, died 1630.” Extract from “Members admitted to +the Inner Temple 1547–1660.” Why is it the writer is so familiar with +the ins and outs, and changes, and intricate governments, and of Italian +states and cities, and their laws and ways? Why does he mention what +puzzles so many commentators, viz. that Bohemia had a sea-board? {38} +Why in everyday talk does he bring in Venetian proverbs and ways of +speech. “Fico,” Heylin, p. 124, “When they intend to scoff a man, are +wont to put their thumb between two of their fingers, saying, ‘Ecco le +Fico.’” This would answer to our “taking a sight.” Must not the +familiar use of this and similar proverbs point to residence? “Basta,” +what a useful word one finds in it when dwelling in Italy. “A Bergomask +dance” (Midsummer Night’s Dream). Who could know, unless resident, that +the Venetians looked down on them as coarse and vulgar? Notice also all +sorts of trifling incidents which prove the writer was a dweller at +Venice, and moved about among the Italian States. Why is he always +harping upon ancient families being ruined, and the hardship of +banishment? Why are all his provincialisms Sussex and south country? +“The many musits through which he goes” (Venus and Adonis). “A hare wee +found musing on her meaze” (Return from Pernassus). Surrey +Provincialisms, G. Leveson Gower, “Meuse, a hole in the hedge made by a +fox, hare, or rabbit, alias a run.” Musit occurs in Two Noble Kinsmen, +III. i. 97. Halliwell has muse and muset. “Maund, a basket” (Ray’s +South Country Glossary). Why does he so accurately, in smallest details, +describe the horrors of a battle-field, the sacking of a town, the +horrible scenes and impossibility of keeping in hand the soldiers? How, +if he had not been present, could he have imagined the meeting in +conclave and settling over night the lines of to-morrow’s battle? What +did either Shakespere or Bacon know of that phase of camp life, of battle +in retreat and advance, the field before and after, prisoners and their +ransom, all true to the letter, of one who had been with Philip Sidney +and knighted on the very field of battle in Brittany by the King of +France, and sent to the Fleet by Elizabeth’s jealousy because he was so +knighted? + + “Have I not heard in my time lions roar? + Have I not heard the sea puffed up with winds + Rage like an angry boar, chafed with sweat? + Have I not heard great ordnance in the field, + And heavens artillery thunder in the skies? + Have I not in a pitched battle heard + Loud ’larums, neighing steeds, and trumpets clang?” + + (Taming of the Shrew.) + +All this had Anthony Sherley heard and seen. Had Bacon? Had John Bull’s +Stratford pet? Then, as for field sports, hunting in every form or +fashion, he describes as none but he and Jorrocks could. (R. S. Surtees, +of Hamsterley, I know, drew all his pictures from originals, and that is +why they hold their own.) The dying hare, “Venus and Adonis,” was there +ever anything more touching? The same repeated, “As You Like It,” Act +II. i. the dying deer, and Jacques weeping over it. + +Unless at home he had had an early introduction to stable and kennel +management, that sort of learning could not be acquired in after-life; +his love for his “crop-eared roan,” the descriptions in so many places of +his devotion to horses and hounds, he knows them all by name. “Taming of +the Shrew,” scene 1, “Huntsman, tender well my hounds;” see also Henry +VI. scene 2. His description of deer and deer hunts shows that he had +watched their habits, couchant and in chase. What a fund of similar +knowledge is there in the Return from Pernassus, _not_ Parnassus, +distinguishing between the names at different seasons of their life, and +also the same of “Roa-bucke,” “rode on a roan gelding,” “the buck broke +gallantly,” and then comes a similar touching description to that of the +death of the hare in the Sonnets, “the hounds seized upon him, he +groaned, and wept, and dyed, in good faith it made me weep too.” The +truth is, when you compare the words and sentiments and expressions with +those in Shakespeare’s plays, {40} you feel that one and the same writer +was author of them both. Recollect that the modern Pernassus was in the +neighbourhood of Bergamo, from whence Kemp had just returned from his +visit to Anthony Sherley (see An Almond for a Parrot), and, as Heylyn +tells us, “Crema,” the inhabitants of, on the destruction “of Parnassus, +a town of Lombardy, where before they lived, were permitted to build +here.” Then it is evident that whoever wrote these plays was a Romanist, +he sneers at Churchmen and Puritans alike, whilst with regard to Friars +and Romanists, he mostly speaks of them with respect. Well, in S. P. O. +there is a letter from one Phillipp employed by Cecil “to intercept +letters and spy out secrets,” dated Rome, 1601: “He (Anthony Sherley) +denyeth himself to have been a Protestant ever since his first being at +Venice, and here also he hath used to frequent confession every seven or +eight days, and upon Easter Eve he did communicate here; upon Easter Day +he dined here in the English Colledge.” + +This will account for the attack on Sir John Oldcastle, egged on by his +Jesuit friends, and his dropping the subject when he found that the wave +of public opinion ran high against him. Last, but not least, we have a +few landmarks of localities. “Burton” and “Wincot” stand out in +eminence. Far and near have they been sought after by Shakesperians, but +from Dan to Beersheba it is all barren; they locate poor Christopher Sly +here, there, and everywhere, or else declare there must be mis-spelling; +as follows is what one of the best and shrewdest of the commentators is +driven to: Steevens: “I suspect we should read Barton Heath. Barton and +Woodmancot, or as it is vulgarly pronounced, Woncot, are both of them in +Gloucestershire, near the residence of Shakespeare’s old enemy Justice +Shallow. Very probably also this fat ale wife might be a real +character.” Dr. Samuel Ireland, 1795: “From the similarity of the name +and the consideration that no such place as Barton Heath has been by any +inquiry of mine discovered in the neighbourhood, I am led to conceive +that Barton Heath, which lies in this county about 18 miles from +Stratford, must have been the spot to which Shakespeare refers. It is +worth hazarding a conjecture to have even a chance of tracing him in any +one of his haunts.” Well, I need not such subterfuges, but go down to +Stanford’s and buy an Ordnance Map of Sussex, and find _both_ places +within an easy reach of Wiston. Names thereabouts seem to be strangely +contracted, Wystoneston=Wiston, St. Botulph’s Bridge=Bootle Bridge, so +also Woodmancote and Edburton; but if that will not please for +Christopher Sly’s residence (when at home?), there is _another Burton +proper_, within a few miles of Wiston; Woodmancote and Edburton are next +parish to Wiston, aye, and joining on “Nightingale” Hill, how fond he was +of them, he gives us even their notes; his father’s woods were as full of +them as his park of deer. There is no question, it appears to me, I +cannot answer, no puzzled point I cannot explain, no stumbling-block to +commentators I cannot take out of their way. Why then not believe me? +“All the world against nothing,” Romeo, III. 5. Although I have run a +dark horse, he has run straight and true, and distanced Bacon, whilst +Shakespere has alike dropped out of both betting and running. {42} +Shakesperians have left their Dagon on the ground and hardly lift the +feather of a quill to raise him up. Their last resource in argument is +(fact) inspiration! in opposition ridicule! As to their other candidate, +that weakly youth never could have been physically equal to have taken +his share in youthful sports. Campbell’s Life of Bacon: “Francis was +sickly and unable to join in the rough sports suited for boys of robust +constitution,” if so he could not have described them so vividly and +true; his poetry, such specimens as we have, is hardly-third rate, his +prose on stilts, his history discredited. Preface to Bacon’s Essays, +1814: “His History of Henry VII. is in these days only consulted by a +few.” Can this be said of his contemporary’s Historical plays? Whilst I +have known those who have taken Bacon up and laid him down, I have hardly +ever known one who after he had put Shakepeare down with reluctance, but +longed for the time to take him up again,—the one interested and +enchanted, the other bored. Never both the product of the same brain, or +writings of the same man. I have told my tale and run my (paper) chase, +and now leave it to my umpires, the British and American readers, to +decide whether, as Stratford has been pulled up and Bacon distanced, I +may not claim from every unprejudiced mind that Sherley has been well +ridden and won in a canter. “De l’audace, de l’audace et encore de +l’audace!” + + THE AUTHOR, + DINSDALE-ON-TEES, + DARLINGTON. + +_August_ 13_th_, 1888. + + * * * * * + + * * * * * + + STEPHEN AUSTIN AND SONS, PRINTERS, HERTFORD. + + + + +Footnotes + + +{20} See Sonnets, 135, 136, 105. + +{32} Motto, “_only one_.” + +{36} There is some meaning unknown in the play everywhere on the word +“_Will_,” also on frequent mention of _Sun_, _Sunbeams_, etc. See +Malone, vol. i. p. 271. In an Eclogue made long since on the death of +Sir Philip Sidney (Davidson’s Poetical Rhapsody, 1602), we find that +celebrated writer lamented in almost every stanza by the name of Willy! +“Willy is dead,” “of Willie’s pipe,” etc., etc., A. Sherley’s friend and +fellow in command at Zutphen = Suid-fen = South fen, or it may be his +brother-in-law, Lord Southampton, to whom he dedicated his early works. + +{38} Freeman’s Geography of Europe—“Ottokar King of Bohemia, the power +of that King for a moment reached the Baltic as well as the +Adriatic.”—Vol. i. p. 319. See also Peter Heylin, 1682, Italy, p. 103. + +{40} Love’s Labour Lost, scene 2, names of deer given same as in +Pernassus—death of the deer. + +{42} See W. Howitt’s Visit to Remarkable Places, 1840, p. 84. + + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WILLIAM SHAKESPERE, OF +STRATFORD-ON-AVON*** + + +******* This file should be named 39285-0.txt or 39285-0.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/3/9/2/8/39285 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. 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