WHAT WE REALLY KNOW ABOUT SHAKSPERE.

Evening Post, Volume XXXI, Issue 69, 24 March 1886, Page 2 (Supplement)

WHAT WE REALLY KNOW ABOUT SHAKSPERE.

Mrs. Caroline H. Dall lias brought together in a small volume the most important results of modern research regarding tho life of Shakspere. 'I here has been a popular impression that the post lived a pretty free sort of life, that he ignored a great many moral and social obligations, and was not at all content with his domestic relations. As to this last point, it could hardly be doubted that there was little in common between Shakspere and Anne Hathaway, and there could not be from the nature of the case. The man of genius was yoked to a dull, weak, and petulant woman. He did not desert her, and it is in evidence that he did not fail to 1 support her. It is probable that Shakspere was not a very domestic man. For a considerable part of his life he "was away from home "on the road," as the modern actors have it. Mrs. Dall does not make much of an eflort to show the exact tone and colour of his domestic relations, and evidently does not feel that it is of very great importance. It may be noted that she draws largely on the larger work of Halliwell-Phillips, occasionally taking issue with that author. Shakspere sprung from the yeomanry of Kngland. His ancestors •were reputable. His father was Mayor of Stratford, and was finally allowed a coat-of-arms, a concession never granted in those days except to men of substance and standing. The son was never an obscure man. Mrs. Dall thinks that Miss Delia Bacon would never have ascribed to Bacon the plays of Shakspere had she at the time enjoyed the advantages of the researches of Halliwell-Phillips. "In a time," writes the present author, " when there was no newspaper and no magazine, when the modern interviewer had never been heard of, Dr. Ingleby finds 185 references to Shakspere on record in the century, and fifty-seven of these were made during his lifetime. If omit the testimony of the newspapers and magazines, if we remember how few people of his period could read and write, would Tennyson or Longfellow make a better showing V Many of the stale scandals about Shakspere are now disapproved. He a was thrifty aud altogether prosperous man. A brief reference to Shakspere's father is interesting in this connection. Among his gifts was that of making a fortune. He acquired real estate, and many broad acres were disposed of by his will. In two respects at lease the father resembled hisfamous son: hewasagood busiess manager and he was fond of the drama. It was when he was Mayor that the Queen's players first came to tftratford. In those days when the players entered a town they offered an opening entertainment free to the

people in honour of the chief magistrate, and they then received from him whatever gratuity he thought fit. In this way payment was made by " Mr. Sh-ikspere to the Queen's players," and the l> Earl of Worcester's players." The taste from the drama had doubtless been stimulated by the "Mysteries" performed at Coventry, and the strolling companies of the neighbourhood. At all events, it was strong enough to be inherited, for not only did his son William go upon the stage, but a younger son Edmund ; and one of the sons of his daughter Joan, William Hart, became an actor.