SHAKESPEARE'S BOYHOOD.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume V, Issue 41, 11 October 1890, Page 3

SHAKESPEARE'S BOYHOOD.

1 HE life which a hoy of Shakespeare's class led in the six teenth century could scarcely have been pleasant. At home he was required to rise at six o’clock, to attend carefully to his toilet ami to brush his clothes. At meals he had to set the table and wait on his parents, before whom he was to laugh and talk only in moderation. When his parents had risen fiom the table he might say his grace and take his own meal. He had to go to bed early ami say prayers morning and evening. The father meanwhile was not sparing in the use of the ro<l, nor was the rod spared at school. The birch was administered with dreadful brutality. I here is extant an historical account of a schoolmaster who ‘in winter would ordinarily, on a cohl morning, whip his hoys even for no other purpose then to get himself a heat.’ And these school masters seemed to have been, as a rule, as incapable as they were cruel. There is reason to believe’ however, that \\ illiam Shakespeare’s schoolmasters, Roche ami Hunt, were superior to the ordinary ones both in learn mg and kindness. A few of the more favoured of the Stratford hoys, after they had left the Grammar School, went to Oxford and Cambridge, but many more of them became apprentices to tiades or went into the service of country gentlemen who lived in the great houses around Stratford. In those days country gentlemen had a sott of superior servants, very different from ordinary lackeys, who shared in their master s sports ami attended him at his meals. They were skilled in wrestling, leaping, running and dancing, and entertained their masters with table talk about sports. 1 hey were paid about £4O a year, and in their master's absence could receive their own* friends in his hall. SI IA K ESP EAR E’S ER IE X I IS. Among these apprentices and servants Shakespeare, no doubt, had many friends. Some of these young men also became actors. Like other towns in England, Stratford was much visited by players. When Shakespeare's fathei was bailifl in 1568 he granted a licence to play in the town to the Queen’s players and the Earl of Worcester’s players. Ihe plays usually given were brief moralities, having a very faint semblance of a plot, such as ‘The Cradle'of Security,’ in which the chief characters were the wicked : ‘ Prince Luxury,’ ‘ The End of the World,’and ‘ The Last Judgement.' A grotesquely painted canvas face, through the open mouth of which a lire was visible, represented hell in the popular view. Sooty faced figures stood for lost souls. these plays were first given before the mayor, when the public were admitted free, but were afterwards performed in the courtyards of various houses and admission was then charged. No doubt Shakespeare as a child was very familiar with them. Hiere were dramatic* entertainments also at the great houses. The semi-diamatic manner in which < t >ueen Elizabeth was received on the occasion of her visit to Lord Leicester at Kenilworth, so near Stratford, may have also had some influence on Shakespeare’s hoy hood. ‘\V hen she first approached the castle on Saturday, the 9th of July, says Mr Lee, ‘asihyl met her, prophesying piospeiity to the government. The porter who opened the gate to her was disguised as Hercules. When she passed a pond in the outer court female figures personating water nymphs ottered her welcome. Next day a display of fire woiks took place. Monday was occupied in hunting, in geniously diversified by a sylvan masque. In whatever direction the Queen rode in the neighbouring country during the ensuing week the villagers ananged similar shows f<>i her delight.'