A LIFE of WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
by SIDNEY LEE.
WITH PORTRAITS AND FACSIMILES
FOURTH EDITION
LONDON SMITH, ELDER, & CO., 15 WATERLOO PLACE 1899
[All rights reserved]
p. ivPrinted November 1898 (First Edition).
Reprinted December 1898 (Second Edition); December 1898 (Third Edition); February 1899 (Fourth Edition).
p. vPREFACE
This work is based on the article on Shakespeare which I contributed last year to the fifty-first volume of the ‘Dictionary of National Biography.’ But the changes and additions which the article has undergone during my revision of it for separate publication are so numerous as to give the book a title to be regarded as an independent venture. In its general aims, however, the present life of Shakespeare endeavours loyally to adhere to the principles that are inherent in the scheme of the ‘Dictionary of National Biography.’ I have endeavoured to set before my readers a plain and practical narrative of the great dramatist’s personal history as concisely as the needs of clearness and completeness would permit. I have sought to provide students of Shakespeare with a full record of the duly attested facts and dates of their master’s career. I have avoided merely æsthetic criticism. My estimates of the value of Shakespeare’s plays and poems are intended solely to fulfil the obligation that lies on the biographer of indicating p. visuccinctly the character of the successive
labours which were woven into the texture of his hero’s life. Æsthetic studies of Shakespeare abound, and to increase their number is a work of supererogation. But Shakespearean literature, as far as it is known to me, still lacks a book that shall supply within a brief compass an exhaustive and well-arranged statement of the facts of Shakespeare’s career, achievement, and reputation, that shall reduce conjecture to the smallest dimensions consistent with coherence, and shall give verifiable references to all the original sources of information. After studying Elizabethan literature, history, and bibliography for more than eighteen years, I believed that I might, without exposing myself to a charge of presumption, attempt something in the way of filling this gap, and that I might be able to supply, at least tentatively, a guide-book to Shakespeare’s life and work that should be, within its limits, complete and trustworthy. How far my belief was justified the readers of this volume will decide.
I cannot promise my readers any startling revelations. But my researches have enabled me to remove some ambiguities which puzzled my predecessors, and to throw light on one or two topics that have hitherto obscured the course of Shakespeare’s career. Particulars that have not been before incorporated in Shakespeare’s biography will be found in my treatment of the following subjects: the conditions under which ‘Love’s Labour’s Lost’ and the p. vii‘Merchant of Venice’ were written; the references in Shakespeare’s plays to his native town and county; his father’s applications to the Heralds’ College for coat-armour; his relations with Ben Jonson and the boy actors in 1601; the favour extended to his work by James I and his Court; the circumstances which led to the publication of the First Folio, and the history of the dramatist’s portraits. I have somewhat expanded the notices of Shakespeare’s financial affairs which have already appeared in the article in the ‘Dictionary of National Biography,’ and a few new facts will be found in my revised estimate
of the poet’s pecuniary position.
In my treatment of the sonnets I have pursued what I believe to be an original line of investigation. The strictly autobiographical interpretation that critics have of late placed on these poems compelled me, as Shakespeare’s biographer, to submit them to a very narrow scrutiny. My conclusion is adverse to the claim of the sonnets to rank as autobiographical documents, but I have felt bound, out of respect to writers from whose views I dissent, to give in detail the evidence on which I base my judgment. Matthew Arnold sagaciously laid down the maxim that ‘the criticism which alone can much help us for the future is a criticism which regards Europe as being, for intellectual and artistic [vii] purposes, one great confederation, p. viiibound to a joint action and working to a common result.’ It is criticism inspired by this liberalising principle that is especially applicable to the vast sonnet-literature which was produced by Shakespeare and his contemporaries. It is criticism of the type that Arnold recommended
that can alone lead to any accurate and profitable conclusion respecting the intention of the vast sonnet-literature of the Elizabethan era. In accordance with Arnold’s suggestion, I have studied Shakespeare’s sonnets comparatively with those in vogue in England, France, and Italy at the time he wrote. I have endeavoured to learn the view that was taken of such literary endeavours by contemporary critics and readers throughout Europe. My researches have covered a very small portion of the wide field. But I have gone far enough, I think, to justify the conviction that Shakespeare’s collection of sonnets has no reasonable title to be regarded as a personal or autobiographical narrative.
In the Appendix (Sections III. and IV.) I have supplied a memoir of Shakespeare’s patron, the Earl of Southampton, and an account of the Earl’s relations with the contemporary world of letters. Apart from Southampton’s association with the sonnets, he promoted Shakespeare’s welfare at an early stage of the dramatist’s career, and I can quote the authority of Malone, who appended a sketch of Southampton’s history to his biography of Shakespeare (in the p. ix‘Variorum’ edition of 1821), for treating a knowledge of Southampton’s life as essential to a full knowledge of Shakespeare’s. I have also printed in the Appendix a detailed statement of the precise circumstances under which Shakespeare’s sonnets were published by Thomas Thorpe in 1609 (Section V.), and a review of the facts that seem to me to confute the popular theory that Shakespeare was a friend and protégé of William Herbert, third Earl of Pembroke, who has been put forward quite unwarrantably as the hero of the sonnets (Sections VI., VII., VIII.) [ix] I have also included in
the Appendix (Sections IX. and X.) a survey of the voluminous sonnet-literature of the Elizabethan poets between 1591 and 1597, with which Shakespeare’s sonnetteering efforts were very closely allied, as well as a bibliographical note on a corresponding feature of French and Italian literature between 1550 and 1600.
Since the publication of the article on Shakespeare in the ‘Dictionary of National Biography,’ I have received from correspondents many criticisms and suggestions which have enabled me to correct some errors. But a few of my correspondents have exhibited so ingenuous a faith in those forged p. xdocuments relating to Shakespeare and forged references to his works, which were promulgated chiefly by John Payne Collier more than half a century ago, that I have attached a list of the misleading records to my chapter on ‘The Sources of Biographical Information’ in the Appendix (Section I.) I believe the list to be fuller than any to be met with elsewhere.
The six illustrations which appear in this volume have been chosen on grounds of practical utility rather than of artistic merit. My reasons for selecting as the frontispiece the newly discovered ‘Droeshout’ painting of Shakespeare (now in the Shakespeare Memorial Gallery at Stratford-on-Avon) can be gathered from the history of the painting and of its discovery which I give on pages 288-90. I have to thank Mr. Edgar Flower and the other members of the Council of the Shakespeare Memorial at Stratford for permission to reproduce the picture. The portrait of Southampton in early life is now at Welbeck Abbey, and the Duke of Portland not only permitted the portrait to be engraved for this volume, but lent me the negative from which the plate has been prepared. The Committee of the Garrick Club gave permission to photograph the interesting bust of Shakespeare in their possession, [x] but, owing to the fact that it is moulded in black terra-cotta no satisfactory negative could be obtained; the p. xiengraving I have used is from a photograph of a
white plaster cast of the original bust, now in the Memorial Gallery at Stratford. The five autographs of Shakespeare’s signature—all that exist of unquestioned authenticity—appear in the three remaining plates. The three signatures on the will have been photographed from the original document at Somerset House, by permission of Sir Francis Jenne, President of the Probate Court; the autograph on the deed of purchase by Shakespeare in 1613 of the house in Blackfriars has been photographed from the original document in the Guildhall Library, by permission of the Library Committee of the City of London; and the autograph on the deed of mortgage relating to the same property, also dated in 1613, has been photographed from the original document in the British Museum, by permission of the Trustees. Shakespeare’s coat-of-arms and motto, which are stamped on the cover of this volume, are copied from the trickings in the margin of the draft-grants of arms now in the Heralds’ College.
The Baroness Burdett-Coutts has kindly given me ample opportunities of examining the two peculiarly interesting and valuable copies of the First Folio [xi] in her possession. Mr. Richard Savage, of Stratford-on-Avon, the Secretary of the Birthplace Trustees, and Mr. W. Salt Brassington, the Librarian of the Shakespeare Memorial at Stratford, have courteously replied p. xiito the many inquiries that I have addressed to them verbally or by letter. Mr. Lionel Cust, the Director of the National Portrait Gallery, has helped me to estimate the authenticity of Shakespeare’s portraits. I have also benefited, while the work has been passing through the press, by the valuable suggestions of my friends the Rev. H. C. Beeching and Mr. W. J. Craig, and I have to thank Mr. Thomas Seccombe for the zealous aid he has rendered me while correcting the final proofs.
October 12, 1898.
p. xiiiCONTENTS
I—PARENTAGE AND BIRTH
Distribution of the name of Shakespeare
1
The poet’s ancestry
2
The poet’s father
4
His settlement at Stratford
5
The poet’s mother
6
1564, April
The poet’s birth and baptism
8
Alleged birthplace
8
II—CHILDHOOD, EDUCATION, AND MARRIAGE
The father in municipal office
10
Brothers and sisters
11
The father’s financial difficulties
12
1571-7
Shakespeare’s education
13
His classical equipment
15
Shakespeare’s knowledge of the Bible
16
1575
Queen Elizabeth at Kenilworth
17
1577
Withdrawal from school
18
1582, Dec.
The poet’s marriage
18
Richard Hathaway of Shottery
19
Anne Hathaway
19
Anne Hathaway’s cottage
19
The bond against impediments
20
1583, May
Birth of the poet’s daughter Susanna
22
Formal betrothal probably dispensed with
23
p. xivIII—THE FAREWELL TO STRATFORD
Early married life
25
Poaching at Charlecote
27
Unwarranted doubts of the tradition
28
Justice Shallow
29
1585
The flight from Stratford
29
IV—ON THE LONDON STAGE
1586
The journey to London
31
Richard Field, Shakespeare townsman
32
Theatrical employment
32
A playhouse servitor
32
The acting companies
34
The Lord Chamberlain’s company
35
Shakespeare, a member of the Lord Chamberlain’s company
36
The London theatres
36
Place of residence in London
38
Actors’ provincial tours
39
Shakespeare’s alleged travels
40
In Scotland
41
In Italy
42
Shakespeare’s rôles
43
His alleged scorn of an actor’s calling
45
V—EARLY DRAMATIC WORK
The period of his dramatic work, 1591-1611
46
His borrowed plots
47
The revision of plays
47
Chronology of the plays
48
Metrical tests
49
1591
Love’s Labour’s Lost
50
1591
Two Gentlemen of Verona
52
1592
Comedy of Errors
53
1592
Romeo and Juliet
55
1592, March
Henry VI
56
1592, Sept.
Greene’s attack on Shakespeare
57
Chettle’s apology
58
Divided authorship of Henry VI
59
Shakespeare’s coadjutors
60
Shakespeare’s assimilative power
61
Lyly’s influence in comedy
61
Marlowe’s influence in tragedy
63
1593
Richard III
63
1593
Richard II
64
Shakespeare’s acknowledgments to Marlowe
64
1593
Titus Andronicus
65
1594, August
The Merchant of Venice
66
Shylock and Roderigo Lopez
68
1594
King John
69
1594, Dec.
Comedy of Errors in Gray’s Inn Hall
70
Early plays doubtfully assigned to Shakespeare
71
Arden of Feversham (1592)
71
Edward III
72
Mucedorus
72
Faire Em (1592)
73
p. xvVI—THE FIRST APPEAL TO THE READING PUBLIC
1593, April
Publication of Venus and Adonis
74
1594, May
Publication of Lucrece
76
Enthusiastic reception of the poems
78
Shakespeare and Spenser
79
Patrons at Court
81
VII—THE SONNETS AND THEIR LITERARY HISTORY
The vogue of the Elizabethan sonnet
83
Shakespeare’s first experiments
84
1594
Majority of his Shakespeare’s composed
85
Their literary value
87
Circulation in manuscript
88
Their piratical publication in 1609
89
A Lover’s Complaint
91
Thomas Thorpe and ‘Mr. W. H.’
91
The form of Shakespeare’s sonnets
95
Their want of continuity
96
The two ‘groups’
96
Main topics of the first ‘group’
98
Main topics of the second ‘group’
99
The order of the sonnets in the edition of 1640
100
Lack of genuine sentiment in Elizabethan sonnets
100
Their dependence on French and Italian models
101
Sonnetteers’ admissions of insincerity
105
Contemporary censure of sonnetteers’ false sentiment
106
Shakespeare’s scornful allusions to sonnets in his plays
108
VIII—THE BORROWED CONCEITS OF THE SONNETS
Slender autobiographical element in Shakespeare’s sonnets
109
The imitative element
109
Shakespeare’s claims of immortality for his sonnets a borrowed conceit
113
Conceits in sonnets addressed to a woman
117
The praise of ‘blackness’
118
The sonnets of vituperation
120
Gabriel Harvey’s Amorous Odious sonnet
121
Jodelle’s Contr’ Amours
122
p. xviIX—THE PATRONAGE OF THE EARL OF SOUTHAMPTON
Biographic fact in the ‘dedicatory’ sonnets
125
The Earl of Southampton the poet’s sole patron
126
Rivals in Southampton’s favour
130
Shakespeare’s fear of another poet
132
Barnabe Barnes probably the chief rival
133
Other theories as to the chief rival’s identity
134
Sonnets of friendship
136
Extravagances of literary compliment
138
Patrons habitually addressed in affectionate terms
139
Direct references to Southampton in the sonnets of friendship
142
His youthfulness
143
The evidence of portraits
144
Sonnet cvii. the last of the series
147
Allusions to Queen Elizabeth’s death
147
Allusions to Southampton’s release from prison
149
X—THE SUPPOSED STORY OF INTRIGUE IN THE SONNETS
Sonnets of melancholy and self-reproach
151
The youth’s relations with the poet’s mistress
153
Willobie his Avisa (1594)
155
Summary of conclusions respecting the sonnets
158
XI—THE DEVELOPMENT OF DRAMATIC POWER
1594-95
Midsummer Night’s Dream
161
1595
All’s Well that Ends Well
162
1595
The Taming of The Shrew
163
Stratford allusions in the Induction
164
Wincot
165
1597
Henry IV
167
Falstaff
199
1597
The Merry Wives of Windsor
171
1598
Henry V
173
Essex and the rebellion of 1601
174
Shakespeare’s popularity and influence
176
Shakespeare’s friendship with Ben Jonson
176
The Mermaid meetings
177
1598
Meres’s eulogy
178
Value of his name to publishers
179
1599
The Passionate Pilgrim
182
1601
The Phœnix and the Turtle
183
p. xviiXII—THE PRACTICAL AFFAIRS OF LIFE
Shakespeare’s practical temperament
185
His father’s difficulties
186
His wife’s debt
187
1596-9
The coat of arms
188
1597, May 4.
The purchase of New Place
193
1598
Fellow-townsmen appear to Shakespeare for aid
195
Shakespeare’s financial position before 1599
196
Shakespeare’s financial position after 1599
200
His later income
202
Incomes of fellow actors
203
1601-1610
Shakespeare’s formation of his estate at Stratford
204
1605
The Stratford tithes
205
1600-1609
Recovery of small debts
206
XIII—MATURITY OF GENIUS
Literary work in 1599
207
1599
Much Ado about Nothing
208
1599
As You Like It
209
1600
Twelfth Night
209
1601
Julius Cæsar
211
The strife between adult actors and boy actors
213
Shakespeare’s references to the struggle
216
1601
Ben Jonson’s Poetaster
217
Shakespeare’s alleged partisanship in the theatrical warfare
219
1602
Hamlet
221
The problem of its publication
222
The First Quarto, 1603
222
The Second Quarto, 1604
223
The Folio version, 1623
223
Popularity of Hamlet
224
1603
Troilus and Cressida
225
Treatment of the theme
227
1603, March 26
Queen Elizabeth’s death
229
James I’s patronage
230
XIV—THE HIGHEST THEMES OF TRAGEDY
1604, Nov.
Othello
235
1604, Dec.
Measure for Measure
237
1606
Macbeth
239
1607
King Lear
241
1608
Timon of Athens
242
1608
Pericles
243
1608
Antony and Cleopatra
245
1609
Coriolanus
247
p. xviiiXV—THE LATEST PLAYS
The placid temper of the latest plays
248
1610
Cymbeline
249
1611
A Winter’s Tale
251
1611
The Tempest
252
Fanciful interpretations of The Tempest
256
Unfinished plays
258
The lost play of Cardenio
258
The Two Noble Kinsmen
259
Henry VIII
261
The burning of the Globe Theatre
262
XVI—THE CLOSE OF LIFE
Plays at Court in 1613
264
Actor-friends
264
1611
Final settlement at Stratford
266
Domestic affairs
266
1613, March
Purchase of a house in Blackfriars
267
1614, Oct.
Attempt to enclose the Stratford common fields
269
1616, April 23rd.
Shakespeare’s death
272
1616, April 25th.
Shakespeare’s burial
272
The will
273
Shakespeare’s bequest to his wife
273
Shakespeare’s heiress
275
Legacies to friends
276
The tomb in Stratford Church
276
Shakespeare’s personal character
277
XVII—SURVIVORS AND DESCENDANTS
Mrs. Judith Quiney, (1585-1662)
280
Mrs. Susanna Hall (1583-1649)
281
The last descendant
282
Shakespeare’s brothers, Edmund, Richard, and Gilbert
283
XVIII—AUTOGRAPHS, PORTRAITS, AND MEMORIALS
Spelling of the poet’s name
284
Autograph signatures
284
Shakespeare’s portraits
286
The Stratford bust
286
The ‘Stratford portrait’
287
Droeshout’s engraving
287
The ‘Droeshout’ painting
288
Later portraits
291
The Chandos portrait
292
The ‘Jansen’ portrait
294
The ‘Felton’ portrait
294
The ‘Soest’ portrait
294
Miniatures
295
The Garrick Club bust
295
Alleged death-mask
296
Memorials in sculpture
297
Memorials at Stratford
297
p. xixXIX—BIBLIOGRAPHY
Quartos of the poems in the poet’s lifetime
299
Posthumous quartos of the poems
300
The ‘Poems’ of 1640
300
Quartos of the plays in the poet’s lifetime
300
Posthumous quartos of the plays
300
1623
The First Folio
303
The publishing syndicate
303
The prefatory matter
306
The value of the text
307
The order of the plays
307
The typography
308
Unique copies
308
The Sheldon copy
309
Estimated number of extant copies
310
Reprints of the First Folio
311
1632
The Second Folio
312
1663-4
The Third Folio
312
1685
The Fourth Folio
313
Eighteenth-century editions
313
Nicholas Rowe (1674-1718)
314
Alexander Pope (1688-1744)
315
Lewis Theobald (1688-1744)
317
Sir Thomas Hanmer (1677-1746)
317
Bishop Warburton (1698-1779)
318
Dr. Johnson (1709-1783)
319
Edward Capell (1713-1781)
319
George Steevens (1736-1800)
320
Edmund Malone (1741-1812)
322
Variorum editions
322
Nineteenth-century editors
323
Alexander Dyce (1798-1869)
323
Howard Staunton (1810-1874)
324
Nikolaus Delius (1813-1888)
324
The Cambridge edition (1863-6)
324
Other nineteenth-century editions
324
XX—POSTHUMOUS REPUTATION
Views of Shakespeare’s contemporaries
326
Ben Jonson tribute
327
English opinion between 1660 and 1702
329
Dryden’s view
330
Restoration adaptations
331
English opinion from 1702 onwards
332
Stratford festivals
334
Shakespeare on the English stage
334
The first appearance of actresses in Shakespearean parts
334
David Garrick (1717-1779)
336
John Philip Kemble (1757-1823)
337
Mrs. Sarah Siddons (1755-1831)
337
Edmund Kean (1787-1833)
338
p. xxWilliam Charles Macready (1793-1873)
339
Recent revivals
339
Shakespeare in English music and art
340
Boydell’s Shakespeare Gallery
341
Shakespeare in America
341
Translations
342
Shakespeare in Germany
342
German translations
343
Modern German critics
345
Shakespeare on the German stage
345
Shakespeare in France
347
Voltaire’s strictures
348
French critics’ gradual emancipation from Voltairean influence
349
Shakespeare on the French stage
350
Shakespeare in Italy
352
In Holland
354
In Russia
353
In Poland
353
In Hungary
353
In other countries
354
The sample stops here
This is as far as the free sample of A Life of William Shakespeare: with portraits and facsimiles goes
You have read 3 of 27 chapters. Start your trial to keep reading all 27 chapters, tap any word for an instant translation, hear the audio narration, and save your progress across devices.