For the serious study of Shakespeare's life and times the
Dugdale Society's Minutes and Accounts of the Corporation of Stratford-upon-Avon is invaluable. The late Richard Savage began the transcription and Mr. Edgar Fripp edits the fourth volume running from 1586 to 1592 (H. Milford, 35s.). As the scheme has been enlarged to 'cover " other records," the editor includes documents relating to John Shakespeare's difficulties with his tenant William Burbage. There is also an abstract of a deed recording that in 1592 Shakespeare himself lent £7 to John Clayton, of Bedfordshire. Mr. Fripp, in his interesting though somewhat speculative introduction, implies that the young actor-dramatist was already saving money. In any case,"the more 'we learn about Shakespeare and his family and friends the less credible is the suggestion that he was an illiterate ne'er-do-well who could not possibly have been a great playwright. Yet that suggestion has been recently revived by a learned doctor in defiance of the evidence.
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