William Camden had finished his "Britannia" by 1617 (commenced in 1597), printed in 1625. He says of Stratford Church: "In the chancel lies William Shakespeare, a native of this place, who has given ample proof of his genius and great abilities in the forty-eight plays he has left behind him."

It is evident that the First Folio, 1623, was _intended_ by his "fellows" at the Globe to stand as their monument to his memory, built of the plays that had become their private property by purchase. The verses that preface it, written by W. Ba.s.se, suggest that Shakespeare should have been buried by Chaucer, Spenser, Beaumont, in the Poets'

Corner of Westminster Abbey. But the author withdraws his wish.

"Sleep, Brave Tragedian, Shakspere, sleep alone Thy unmolested rest, unshared cave Possess as Lord, not tenant to thy grave," etc.

Archy's "Banquet of Jests," printed in 1630, tells of one travelling through Stratford, "a town most remarkable for the birth of famous William Shakespeare." In the same year is said to have been written Milton's memorable epitaph (printed 1632), a n.o.ble testimony from the Puritan genius to the power of his play-acting brother:

"What needs my Shakspere for his honoured bones, The labour of an age in piled stones?

Or that his hallowed reliques should be hid Under a star y-pointing pyramid?

Dear son of memory, great heir of fame, What needst thou such weak witness of thy fame?

Thou, in our wonder and astonishment, Hast built thyself a live-long monument," etc.

By 1651 had already been suggested an annual commemoration of his life in Samuel Sheppard's "Epigram on Shakspere," verse 6:

"Where thy honoured bones do lie, As Statius once to Maro's urn, Thither every year will I Slowly tread and sadly turn."

The State Papers even show the appreciation of his age.[174] But I was pleased to find that the first recorded _student_ of Shakespeare was a woman. On January 21, 1638,[175] Madam Anne Merrick, in the country, wrote to a friend in London that she could not come to town, but "must content herself with the study of Shakespeare and the 'History of Women,'" which seem to have const.i.tuted all her country library. The Judges of King Charles I. reproached him with the _study_ of Shakespeare's Plays.[176]

These records also contain a bookseller's (Mr. Moseley's) account[177]

for books, probably provided to Lord Conway, among which are "Ben Jonson's poems, 6d., Beaumont's poems, 6d., Shakespeare's poems, 1/-,"

etc.

Other references to Shakespeare's works occur in the same records. But as this is not intended as a literary biography, I forbear to reproduce them now.

FOOTNOTES:

[136] Bearley Registers.

[137] Worcester Marriage Licenses.

[138] Francis Throgmorton, son and heir of Sir John Throgmorton, of f.e.c.kenham, to Anne Sutton, alias Dudley, daughter of Sir Edward Sutton, June 3, 1571. See my "Shakespeare's Warwickshire Contemporaries," p.

111.

[139] See July 13, 1895, p. 67.

[140] "Shakespeare's Warwickshire Contemporaries," ii., p. 12. Sir Thomas had no park, and Justice Shallow bore no resemblance to him, etc.

[141] _Ibid._, vi., p. 48; also _Athenaeum_, February 8, 1896, p. 190.

[142] "Shakespeare's Warwickshire Contemporaries," i. Richard Field, Stratford-on-Avon Press.

[143] Greene's "Groatsworth of Wit."

[144] See my articles "The Date of the Sonnets," _Athenaeum_, March 19 and 26, 1898, pp. 374, 403, and "Mr. W. H.," August 4, 1900, p. 154.

[145] Sonnets CX. and CXI.

[146] See my English article (reprinted) "The Earliest Official Record of Shakespeare's Name," "Shakespeare Jahrbuch," vol. x.x.xii., Berlin, 1896.

[147] Declared Accounts, Treasury Chamber, Pipe Office, 542.

[148] August 11, 1596 (Stratford Burial Register).

[149] William Underhill, the Lord of Idlicote (by Barton-on-the-Heath), conveyed New Place to Shakespeare at Easter, 1597, and died in July of that year. His son Fulke died without issue, and his brother Hercules, who succeeded, being under age, did not complete the transfer till 1602.

[150] Meres' "Wit's Treasury," second part of "Wit's Commonwealth."

[151] From the original at the birthplace, Stratford-on-Avon.

[152] Greenway was the Stratford carrier.

[153] State Papers, Dom. Ser., Eliz., cclx. 116.

[154] The Burbage and Benfield Case, the Lord Chamberlain's Papers, 1635, P.R.O. See also Halliwell-Phillipps, "Outlines," i. 312, and Fleay, "Hist. of Stage," p. 325.

[155] See Accounts of Treasurer of the Chamber, etc.

[156] Halliwell-Phillipps, "Outlines," i. 205; ii. 19. Court Rolls of Rowington.

[157] State Papers, Dom. Ser., Eliz., Subsidy List., 1605.

[158] The t.i.tle-page of "Hamlet" (Stat. Reg., July 26, 1602) implies that the company had been travelling to Oxford and Cambridge.

[159] See Dibden's "History of the Edinburgh Stage."

[160] See my own paper on "The Scottish and English Macbeth."--"Transactions of the Royal Society of Literature," 1897.

[161] Rymer's "Foedera," V. xvi. 505.

[162] Nichols's "Progresses of James I.," vol. i.

[163] See Letters and Proclamations in State Papers, Domestic Series, of the time.

[164] Dec. Acc. Treasurer of the Chamber (November, 1603-4).

[165] Halliwell-Phillipps, "Outlines," i. 212.

[166] Ben Jonson's verses, 1623, folio.

[167] Fleay's "Life of Shakespeare," p. 7.

[168] This deed is preserved in the Guildhall Library, and an account of it appears in the _Antiquary_, New Series, iv. 204.

[169] See Dr. Ingleby, "Shakespeare and the Welcombe Enclosures."

[170] Worcester Bishops' Books.

[171] Justice Shallow tells Anne Page that his cousin Slender will maintain her as a gentlewoman: "He will make you a hundred and fifty pounds jointure."--_The Merry Wives of Windsor_, III., 4.