THE REVEREND JOSEPH HUNTER ' S NEW ILLUSTRA- TIONS OF SHAKESPEARE.
IF everything else were blotted out of life but the " trade-list " of books, it would be a sufficient record of the marvellous popularity of SHAKESPEARE; not merely from the editions of his works in every form and at every price, but by evidencing the patient and extensive research of which he has been the subject, and the nume- rous publications to which he has given rise, from the single-sheet pamphlet to the bulky volumes far larger than the poems they would illustrate. No other author has ever been the object of so much care ; and perhaps the Scriptures themselves have not had a much wider circulation or more elaborate commentaries, if we look only to the English language and to two centuries of time.
To former efforts, the Reverend JOSEPH HUNTER, the eminent archaeologist, has added some New Illustrations, which are by no means the least judicious or the least agreeable that have appeared upon this national theme. Exhausted as the facts of the subject would seem to have been, the studies of Mr. HUNTER have enabled him to bring forward a good deal of new information both direct and collateral, if they have not altogether carried him into "fresh fields and pastures new." His scrutiny among the Records suggested to him novel channels of inquiry ; and, by means of that peculiarly English institution the Exchequer, he has succeeded in unearthing several curious facts relating to the family of the SHAKESPEARES, and an important one in reference to the poet's town-residence, where he was taxed to the Crown. The author's skill as a palaeographer has induced him to exercise more caution in reading ancient writings than some other inquirers ; and has enabled him to suggest a plau- sible correction in the matter of the armorial bearings, and the half-hinted charge of deception by which the poet's father en- deavoured to rise to the distinction of coat-armour. His general knowledge of genealogy and heraldry, with the modes of in- vestigating them in parish-registers, ecclesiastical courts, the ar- chives of the Heralds, and so forth, gives him some advantage over several modern editors and biographers; and has enabled him to turn up in by-corners several new if not directly important par- ticulars on ground that seemed thoroughly exhausted. The same professional spirit (if we may venture to call it so) has taught him to present the collateral as well as the direct lines of the subject ; and the First Part of the New Illustrations handles the friends and connexions of the family—the HARTS, the COOMBES, the QUINEYS, the NASHES, the HALLS, and the BERNARDS, as well as the ARDENS, whence came the mother of the poet, and the HATHA- WAYS, where he took his wife.
The First Part (to which we are now confining our attention) is entitled "Prolusions Genealogical and Biographical on the Family of Shakespeare, and other Families connected with him" ; and the title accurately indicates the nature of the work. Mr. HUNTER does not aim at exhibiting a complete biography, or handling points that are well established, but at presenting any new facts that he has discovered, or discussing any mooted question. As Most of the facts connected with the life of SHAKESPEARE have, however, been mooted by some one or other, a general idea of Mr. HuNTER's view of the poet's biography may be gained by those who have sufficient knowledge to fill in the features which he slightly touches or passes over. Premising that Mr. HUNTER, where there is any doubt, speaks doubtfully, we may condense his contribution into the following abstract. He thinks the original seat of the SHAKESPEARE family was Coventry, where one of them appears to have been rather too well known about the year 1400 ; but the name was rather common in the Southern parts of Warwickshire, and the adjacent parts of Wor- cester and Gloucester. It is also found at Derby, Mansfield, and London ; but merely, Mr. HUNTER conceives, as that of trans- planted individuals residing for a special purpose. He believes the great-grandfather of the poet was RICHARD " SHAKSPERE" of Wroxhall, who was bailiff to the nuns of the Priory there, an " office of great respectability, and often one of no small local in- fluence." He believes, with MALONE, that the poet's father was the first of the family that settled at Stratford : and be holds., with Mr. KNIGHT, that WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE was a gentleman born, both on the father's side and the mother's ; that his training was that of a respectable family's ; his education liberal, though not to be called learned; and his leaning likely to be rather aristocra- tical than otherwise. Mr. HUNTER cannot explain, but he cannot resist the description of JOHN SHAKESPEARE "glover" in the re- cord of a suit at Stratford : he infers, however, that the trade was limited to his bachelor-days, and thinks that when married to a co- heiress of the Arden family, he lived upon his own and his wife's property, though he might have been what RowE describes him from tradition, a " dealer in wool "—that is a " gentleman farmer." The idea of his having been reduced to poverty, or even straitened in circumstances, Mr. HUNTER repudiates,—beyond that sort of com- mon straitening which arises from a chancery-suit, and from a small country gentleman adopting as a young married man a scale of expense fully equal to his income without reference to the calls of advancing life. This imprudence, if he was guilty of it, and his probable relapse to Popery, sufficiently explain the circumstances from which the decline of his fortune has been inferred. From the facts collected by Mr. HUNTER, it would appear that several of the SHAKESPEARES had "relations" with the Old Church, and must have suffered in pocket by the Reformation.
The " scholarship " or want of scholarship of old Mr. SHAKE- SPEARE our inquirer leaves untouched. He subscribes to the tra- dition of the deer-stealing, and to the satire or lampoon upon Sir THOMAS Lucy as the probable cause of the poet's leaving Strat- ford ; though he seems to despise too much to mention the tale (for it is not a tradition) of the " mean employments" at the theatre-door. He considers the poet's marriage to have been a "very unfortunate match "; but he blames ANNE HATHAWAY rather than WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. The obscurity hanging over his leaving Stratford and coming to London, the inquirer does not attempt to penetrate ; but he agrees with the modern view that his public distinction was attained sooner than it was formerly the fashion to suppose. Mr. HUNTER doubts the authenticity of the papers found by Mr. COLLIER at Bridgewater House, and published in 1835 under the title of New Facts regarding the Life of Shake- speare : * but a " sight of the originals might at once remove any doubt." Surely this could be very easily obtained. Lord FRANCIS EGERTON would scarcely decline permitting a palaeographer like Mr. HUNTER to inspect them.
These are the principal conclusions of the First Part of the New Illustrations, though there are some minor points we have passed. Those who wish to ascertain what they are, as well as to see the minutely-curious process by which the conclusions are established, will do well to consult this very agreeable specimen of archaeology popularized. We will, however, give a few specimens of Mr. HUNTER'S manner.
THE FIRST OF THE FAMILY.
Research or good fortune may hereafter bring to light earlier instances of the name ; but the first that has presented itself to me is of the year in which Thomas Shepeye and Henry Wilkoc were bailiffs of Coventry, which was, I believe, in the reign of Henry the Fourth [1399-1413.] They ac- count into the Exchequer for two shillings for the goods and chattels of Tho- mas Shakespere " mere," (which appears to be an abbreviation of mercerio,) who, being indicted of felony, had fled. No very satisfactory commencement of the history of a family ; but this piece of evidence serves as well as a better to prove the existence of the name, to exhibit something of the quality in which the party lived, and to show that the family, at the beginning of the fifteenth century, were seated in the country in which we find them afterwards living, and in that particular part of it, the Arden district, where the name was after- wards most frequent. Coventry may then be taken as, according to our present knowledge, the original habitat of the Shakespeares ; and it was perhaps among the citizens of that antient city that the name arose which has since been so celebrated.
Mr. HUNTER holds with Mr. COLLIER as to the spelling of the name SHAKESPEARE, in opposition to Mr. KNIGHT'S SHAKSPERE. How was it printed by contemporaries ? and what will nearest re- present the pronunciation ? are, he affirms, the questions. As for written signatures, half the historical names of England would be disguised if we were to follow them ; and for this particular name, here is a choice.
VARIOUS ORTHOGRAPHY OF SHAKESPEARE.
There has been endless variety in the form in which this name has been written. I can vouch for the following forme, all taken from writings of nearly the poet's own age ; and those not the mere scrawls of rude and uneducated persons, but for the most part traced by the pens of professional scribes, or at least by persons who paid as much attention to uniformity of orthography as any of their neighbours: but, in troth, uniformity in the orthography of proper names was in those times not thought of, nor aimed at.
• See Spectator, Vol. VIII. p. 589, 590. Schaksper—Schakesper—Schakespeyr. Shag'Pere-
Shaxper—Slumpere—Shaxpeare—Shaxsper—Shaxspere--Shaxespere. Shakspere—Shakspesr—Shakspeere—Shackspeare— Shackespeare—Shacke- spere—Shakspeyr. Shakesper — Shakespere — Shakeseper — Shakyspere—Shakespire—Shake- speire—Shakespear—Shakaspeare.
THE TOWN-HOUSE.
In the course of any researches of my own, only one document has presented itself which is entirely unknown, containing a notice of Shakespeare during the course of his London life. It shows us, what has hitherto remained undis- covered, in what part of London he had fixed his residence at the period of his life when he was producing the choicest of his works. But this is not all; it shows him dwelling in a parish in which, perhaps above all, we might wish to find him—the parish in which many conspicuous persons have resided, and where, in our day, we find more of old London than in perhaps any other space so contracted. I mean the parish of St. Helen Bishopsgate ; where is Crosby Hall, and where, in the church, are the monuments of Sir John Crosby and Sir Thomas Gresham, and of other worthy citizens, the glory of a former age. We have evidence of the most decisive nature, that on October 1, in the 90th year of Queen Elizabeth, which answers to the year 1598, Shake- speare was one of the inhabitants of this parish, and consequently a near neigh- bour of Crosby Hall. It is an assessment-roll of that date, for levying the first of three entire subsidies which were granted to the Queen in the 39th of her reign. How long before or bow long after he might reside there, we know not ; but his name does not appear in a similar assessment-roll in 1600. I have also searched the registers of the church, in hope to find his name, in vain. This document affords us also some insight into his circumstances; that is, relatively to the neighbours around him, for the principle on which men's property was estimated in these assessment-rolls it is not easy to determine. It is valuable also inasmuch as it gives us the names of those his neighbours, men with whom he mast of necessity have had some intercourse—men at least to whom he would himself be an object of curiosity : among them we find Sir John Spencer, Dr. Richard Taylor, Dr. Peter Turner, Dr. Edward Jordan, all well known physicians—Dr. Cullimore, Robert Honeyivood, and the heads of the wealthy families of Read and Robinson. The Second Part commences an Illustration of SHLKESPEARE'S
Writings; and is to be continued through some more numbers or fasciculi till completed. The character of these annotations is various,—sometimes throwing a light on the literary biography, by endeavouring to establish the date of the composition, or the sources whence the work was derived ; sometimes the Illustrations are critical or emendatory. But we have occupied too much space with the Life now to enter into the Writings.
Previous page
