Shakespeare's Life and Times

Primary
Documents

1564 - Record of baptism. Shakespeare's baptism is recorded in the parish church of Stratford-upon-Avon dated April 26, 1564. The usual delay between birth and baptism was 3-4 days, making the date of birth most likely April 22 or 23. Since Shakespeare died on April 23, 1616, and the engraving on his monument lists him as aged 53, it is assumed he was born on April 23. At least, that is how scholars in the absence of any other information have been willing to leave it. April 23 is also St. George's day, an appropriate day for the birth of the national poet.

Facsimile of the registry of the baptism of William Shakespeare, from The Works of William Shakespeare, by E. K. Chambers, vol. I, 1901, p. 1.

The entry is in Latin and reads "Gulielmus filius Johannes Shakspere" or, in English, "William son of John Shakspere".

Jonathan Bate in Soul of the Age notes that "There were no more than twenty deaths [noted in the parish register of Holy Trinity Church in Stratford-upon-Avon] in the first half of 1564, well over two hundred in the second...the cause is duly noted in a marginal annotation...hic incepit pestis. Here begins the plague" (pp. 3-4).

The Birth Place in Henley Street, as it appeared in 1762
Taken from J. O. Halliwell-Phillipps, Outlines of the Life of Shakespeare, 1907, p. 32

The Birthplace renedered more fancifully
from Gentleman's Magazine, 1769
Taken from The Works of William Shakespeare ed. E. K. Chambers, 1901, p. 1

1582 - Records of marriage. William Shakespeare was married to Anne Hathaway on (most likely) December 2, 1582. The facts about the marriage, however, raise a few questions. Below is the documentary evidence. For a full explanation, see Shakespeare's Marriage Mysteries.

John Whitgift was the bishop of Worcester from 1577 to 1583, when he was "translated" to the see of Canterbury. Worcester was 21 miles west of Stratford, and the consistory court there the place where a marriage license, issued to a local parish priest, might be obtained. Whitgift's register for the date November 27, 1582 indicates the issuance of a license for marriage between William Shaxpere and Anne Whateley of Temple Grafton. At the time, Shakespeare would have been 18 years old. I reproduce the register entry below in facsimile, from Joseph William Gray, Shakespeare's Marriage, Chapman & Hall, 1905; followed by the context and literal translation from Cartae Shakespeareanae. Note that this is the entry from the Bishop's register, not the license itself, which has not survived.

The next day, November 28, 1582, a marriage bond was entered into by Fulke Sandells and John Rychardson, farmers of Shottery, Anne Hathaway's village. The purpose of the bond was to indemnify the church in case some later lawful impediment is found to the marriage since the banns were only going to be pronounced once, rather than the stipulated three times. The gentlemen in question were friends of the Hathaway family from Shottery, and stood surety for £40. In fact, Sandells seems to have been acting as agent for the Hathaway family, performing the duties of father since Richard Hathaway was recently deceased. Sandells had supervised his will, i.e., acted as trustee, and Rychardson had witnessed it. Richard Hathaway had been married twice. Anne was the firstborn of four children (1556) by his first wife. His first wife's name is unknown, but lived in Temple Grafton. His second wife was named Joan who died about 1600. Richard Hathaway died in September, 1581.

The bond clearly describes intended marriage between William Shakespeare and Anne Hathaway of Stratford. I reproduce it in transcript below, from the Cartae Shakespeareanae, the beginning paragraph in Latin simply states the parties, amounts, date, and officers of the diocese acting as witnesses:

Noverint universi per praesentes nos Fulconem Sandells de Stratford in comitatu Warwici agricolam et Johannem Rychardson ibidem agricolam, teneri et firmiter obligari Ricardo Cosin generoso et Roberto Warmstry notario publico in quadraginta libris bonae et legalis monetae Angliae solvend. eisdem Ricardo et Roberto haered. execut. et assignat. suis ad quam quidem solucionem bene et fideliter faciend. obligamus nos et utrumque nostrum per se pro toto et in solid. haered. executor. et administrator, nostros firmiter per praesentes. sigillis nostris sigillat. Dat 28 die Novem. Anno regni dominae nostrae Eliz. Dei gratia Angliae Franc. at Hiberniae Regime fidei defensor &c. 25.

The condicion of this obligacion ys suche that if herafter there shall not appere any lawfull lett or impediment by reason of any precontract, consanguitie, affinitie or by any other lawfull meanes whatsoever, but that Willm Shagspere one thone partie and Anne Hathwey of Stratford in the dioces of Worcester, maiden, may lawfully solemnize matrimony together, and in the same afterwardes remaine and continew like man and wiffe according unto the lawes in that behalf provided; and moreover if there be not at this present time any action sute quarrell or demaund moved or depending before any judge ecclesiasticall or temporall for and concerning any such lawfull lett or impediment; and moreover if the said Willm do not proceed to solemnization of mariadg with the said Anne Hathwey without the consent of hir frindes And also if the said Willm do upon his owne proper costes and expenses defend and save harmles the right reverend Father in God Lord John Bishop of Worcester and his offycers for licencing them the said Willm and Anne to be maried together with once asking of the bannes of matrimony betwene them and for all other causes which may ensue by reason or occasion therof that then the said obligacion to be void and of none effect or els to stand and abide in full force and vertue.

The bond is signed with the marks of Sandells and Rychardson, who are described as being "de Stratford" but were actually from Shottery. I reproduce the marks below, from Halliwell-Phillipps The Life of William Shakespeare, p. 112:

The chancellor of the diocesan consistory court was Richard Cosin ("Ricardo Cosin") assisted by registrar Robert Warmstry ("Roberto Warmstry"). The effect of the bond was that the marriage might proceed "with once asking of the bannes," as noted above, rather than asking the banns on three succeeding weeks.

1583-84 Birth of Children.

From Daniel Henry Lambert, Cartae Shakespeareanae: Shakespeare Documents; a Chronological Catalogue of Extant Evidence Relating to the Life and Works of William Shakespeare, G. Bell, 1904, p .5:

1592 - Greene's Groats-worth of Wit, from Renascence Editions via the University of Oregon.. Robert Greene's 1592 pamphlet containing the famous "upstart crow" appellation applied to Shakespeare:

From Greene's Groats-worth of Wit, 1592, the first mention in print of Shakespeare as an established London playwright.

"for there is an vpstart Crow, beautified with our feathers, that with his Tygers hart wrapt in a Players hyde, supposes he is as well able to bombast out a blanke verse as the best of you: and being an absolute Iohannes fac totum, is in his owne conceit the onely Shake-scene in a countrey. O that I might intreate your rare wits to be imploied in more profitable courses: & let those Apes imitate your past excellence, and neuer more acquaint them with your admired inuentions. I know the best husband of you all will neuer proue an Usurer, and the kindest of them all will neuer seeke you a kind nurse: yet whilest you may, seeke you better Maisters; for it is pittie men of such rare wits, should be subiect to the pleasure of such rude groomes.
"In this I might insert two more, that both haue writ against these buckram Gentlemen: but let their owne works serue to witnesse against their owne wickednesse, if they perseuere to mainteine any more such peasants. For other new-commers, I leaue them to the mercie of these painted monsters, who (I doubt not) will driue the best minded to despise them: for the rest, it skils not though they make a ieast at them."

Greene addresses his diatribe to three fellow university trained scholars and playwrights ("that spend their wits in making Plaies"). It is assumed that the three are Marlowe (being certainly the most notorious atheist among London playwrights), Nashe and Peele.

The useful information here is that Shakespeare was prominent enough to provoke this sort of jealousy from an established playwright, that he was a newcomer, and that his country mien showed, being called a "rude groom" and "peasant."

Henry Chettle's Kind-Hearts Dreame, the superscription of which contains Chettle's famous apology to (it is usually assumed) Shakespeare and his protestations that he, Chettle, was not the author of the Groats-worth of Wit.

From Chettle's Kind-Hearts Dream, containing his apology to (presumably) Shakespeare for the offense taken in the Groats-worth affair.

Kind-harts Dreame. Conteining five Apparitions, with their Invectives against abuses raigning. Delivered by severall ghosts unto him to be publisht, after Piers Penilesse Post had refused the carriage. Invita Invidia. by H. C. Imprinted at London for William Wright. Date of entry at Stationers' Hall, 8 Dec. 1592.

"About three moneths since died M. Robert Greene, leauing many papers in sundry Booke sellers hands, among others his Groats-worth of wit, in which a letter written to diuers play-makers, is offensiuely by one or two of them taken, and because on the dead they cannot be auenged, they wilfully forge in their conceites a liuing Author: and after tossing it two and fro, no remedy, but it must light on me. How I haue all the time of my conuersing in printing hindred the bitter inueying against schollers, it hath been very well knowne, and how in that I dealt I can sufficiently prooue. With neither of them that take offence was I acquainted, and with one of them I care not if I neuer be: the other, whome at that time I did not so much spare, as since I wish I had, for that as I haue moderated the heate of liuing writers, and might haue vsde my owne discretion (especially in such a case) the Author beeing dead, that I did not, I am as sory, as if the originall fault had beene my fault, because my selfe haue seene his demeanor no lesse ciuill than he exelent in the qualitie he professes: Besides, diuers of worship haue reported, his vprightnes of dealing, which argues his honesty, and his facetious grace in writting, that aprooues his Art."

There is a long tradition in Shakespeare biography of assuming Chettle's apology is addressed to Shakespeare, but it is certainly not certain. See Cartae Shakespeareana No. 16.

1593. The dedication of Venus and Adonis, to Henry Wriothesley, 3rd Earl of Southampton:

The dedication to Venus and Adonis, 1593:

TO THE RIGHT HONORABLE

Henrie Wriothesley, Earle of Southampton,
and Baron of Titchfield.

Right Honourable, I know not how I shall offend in dedicating my unpolisht lines to your Lordship, nor how the worlde will censure mee for choosing so strong a proppe to support so weake a burthen, onelye if your Honour seeme but pleased, I account my selfe highly praised, and vowe to take advantage of all idle houres, till I have honoured you with some graver labour. But if the first heire of my invention prove deformed, I shall be sorie it had so noble a god-father: and never after eare so barren a land, for feare it yeeld me still so bad a harvest, I leave it to your Honourable survey, and your Honor to your hearts content which I wish may alwaies answere your owne wish, and the worlds hopefull expectation.

Your Honors in all dutie,
William Shakespeare.

The work was printed in London by Shakespeare's countryman and friend, Richard Field. It became the most popular, best selling long poem of the Elizabethan age, gaining for its author notoriety as reflected in Meres' Palladis Tamia, John Weever's epigram 22 and the Parnassus plays (for each see below). Refer to one of the following facsimile editions to examine the original:

A facsimile edition of the 1593 1st quarto of Venus and Adonis via the MacPherson Library, University of Victoria, from the Internet Shakespeare Editions.
Shakespears Venus and Adonis, Being a Reproduction in Facsimile of The First Edition 1593 From the Unique Copy in the Malone Collection In The Bodleian Library, ed. Sidney Lee, 1905, from Google Book Search, full text and PDF, 75 pages.
The 1596 3rd (octavo) edition Venus and Adonis from the Rare Book Room (Octavo) from a volume held by The Bodleian Library, University of Oxford. The volume had previously belonged to Malone.

1593-94. Willobie His Avisa With An Essay towards its interpretation by CHARLES HUGHES, 1904, notable for its inclusion of Penelope's Complaint, from Google Book Search, full view and PDF. See the Mr. Shakespeare blog for an explanation of Willobie His Avisa which, many scholars believe, makes allusions to Shakespeare and his activities in the Southampton circle around 1593-94.

From Willobie, His Avisa.

"Yet Tarquyne pluckt his glistering grape,
And Shake-speare, paints poore Lucrece rape." ...

"H. W. being sodenly affected with the contagion of a fantasticali fit, at the first sight of A, pyneth a while in secret griefe, at length not able any longer to indure the burning beate of so fervent a humour, bewrayeth the secresy of his disease unto his familiar frend W. S. who not long before had tryed the curtesy of the like passion, and was now newly recovered of the like infection ; yet finding his frend let bloud in the same vaine, he took pleasure for a tyme to see him bleed, & in steed of stopping the issue, he inlargeth the wound, with the sharpe rasor of a willing conceit, perswading him that he thought it a matter very easy to be compassed, & no douht with payne, diligence & some cost in tyme to he obtayned. Thus this miserable comforter comforting his frend with an impossibility, eyther for that he now would secretly laugh at his frends folly, that had given occasion not long before unto others to laugh at his owne, or because he would see whether an other could play his part better then himselfe, & in vewing a far off the course of this loving Comedy, he determined to see whether it would sort to a happier end for this new actor, then it did for the old player" (Cant. XLIIII).

1594. The dedication of The Rape of Lucrece, also to Wriothesley:

The dedication to The Rape of Lucrece, 1594:

TO THE
RIGHT HONOURABLE HENRY WRIOTHESLEY,

EARL OF SOUTHAMPTON AND BARON OF TICHFIELD

The love I dedicate to your Lordship is without end, whereof this pamphlet, without beginning, is but a superfluous moiety. The warrant I have of your honourable disposition, not the worth of my untutored lines, makes it assured of acceptance. What I have done is yours; what I have to do is yours; being part in all I have, devoted yours. Were my worth greater, my duty would show greater; meantime, as it is, it is bound to your Lordship, to whom I wish long life, still lengthened with all happiness.

Your Lordship's in all duty,
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE.

Field printed Shakespeare's next long poem also. The growth in familiarity, eveny intimacy, in comparison with the previous year's dedication to Venus and Adonis is often noted. Many commentators feel it is likely that Shakespeare spent some portion of the time during which the theatres were closed by plague in 1593-94 in the personal service of Southampton, likely at his house in Titchfield. Certainly the Italianate influence of John Florio, Southampton's tutor, can be seen in the play written (in all likelihood) during or shortly after this period, Love's Labour's Lost. Many believe that most of the Sonnets were written between Lucrece and the end of the decade of the 1590s. Because Shakespeare seems to have been intimately associated with Southampton during this period, he is the leading candidate as the young man addressed in the Sonnets. Even if so, and Shakespeare carried on some sort of familiarity with Southampton after 1594, there is no record of association between the two after Southampton's imprisonment consequent to the Essex rebellion of 1601 and the marginal role the Shakespeare's company played in that fiasco (see my blog entry "The Essex Rebellion and the Players" for details).

See one of the following facsimile editions in order to examine the original document.

Shakespeares Lucrece, Being a Reproduction in Facsimile of The First Edition 1594, ed. Sidney Lee, Oxford, 1905, from Google Book Search, full view and PDF, 91 pages.
Lucrece, 1594 edition from the Rare Book Room (Octavo) from a volume held by The Bodleian Library, University of Oxford. "Now at the Bodleian Library, this 1594 quarto of The Rape of Lucrece is the first of seven other Shakespeare quartos inlaid in Edmund Malone’s Volume III..." (Octavo statement of provenance). The volume is mis-dated at the Octavo site as "1598." It should be 1594.
The 1632 edition of The Rape of Lucrece, from the Rare Book Room (Octavo) from a volume held by the University of Edinburgh Library.

The Gesta Grayorum, printed in 1688 from a manuscript apparently passed down from the 1590s is an account of the Christmas revels by the law students at Gray's Inn in 1594. In the text reproduced below the references to the High and Mighty Prince, Henry Prince of Purpoole, our Prince of State, are to the mock prince crowned for the occasion from among the students, a sort of prince of misrule. The document is important for its clear reference to Shakespeare's company--the players--and unmistakable references to Shakespeare's The Comedy of Errors, performed on the night of December 28, 1594 ("Innocents-Day"). The excerpt below is taken from the edition printed for the Malone Society and edited by W. W. Greg at the Internet Archive.

From the Gesta Grayorum:

After their Departure the Throngs and Tumults did somewhat cease, although so much of them continued, as was able to disorder and confound any good Inventions whatsoever. In regard whereof, as also for that the Sports intended were especially for the gracing of the Templarians [i.e., law students from the Inner Temple] it was thought good not to offer any thing of Account, saving Dancing and Revelling with Gentlewomen; and after such Sports, a Comedy of Errors (like to Plautus his Menechmus) was played by the Players. So that Night was begun, and continued to the end, in nothing but Confusion and Errors; whereupon, it was ever afterwards called, The Night of Errors.

This mischanceful Accident forting so ill, to the great prejudice of the rest of our Proceedings, was a great Discouragement and Disparagement to our whole State ; yet it gave occasion to the Lawyers of the Prince's Council, the next Night, after Revels, to read a Commission of Oyer and Terminer, directed to certain Noblemen and Lords of His Highness's Council, and others, that they would enquire, or cause Enquiry to be made of some great Disorders and Abuses lately done and committed within His Highness's Dominions of Purpoole, especially by Sorceries and Inchantments ; and namely, of a great Witchcraft used the Night before, whereby there were great Disorders and Misdemeanours, by Hurly-burlies, Crowds, Errors, Confusions, vain Representations and Shews, to the utter Difcredit of our State and Policy.

The next Night upon this Occasion, we preferred Judgments thick and threefold, which were read publickly by the Clerk of the Crown, being all against a Sorcerer or Conjurer that was supposed to be the Cause of that confused Inconvenience. Therein was contained, How he had caused the Stage to be built, and Scaffolds to be reared to the top of the House, to increase Expectation. Also how he had caused divers Ladies and Gentlewomen, and others of good Condition, to be invited to our Sports; also our dearest Friend, the State of Templaria, to be disgraced, and disappointed of their kind Entertainment, deserved and intended. Also that he caused Throngs and Tumults, Crowds and Outrages, to disturb our whole Proceedings. And Lastly, that he had foisted a Company of base and common Fellows, to make up our Disorders with a Play of Errors and Confusions ; and that that Night had gained to us Discredit, and itself a Nickname of Errors. All which were against the Crown and Dignity of our Sovereign Lord, the Prince of Purpoole.

The illustration above shows the interior of Gray's Inn Hall from Shakespeare's London by Thomas Ordish, 1904, p. 156.

1595. Payments to Kempe, Shakespeare and Burbage representing the Lord Chamberlain's Men.

From Cartae Shakespeareanae: Shakespeare Documents; a Chronological Catalogue of Extant Evidence Relating to the Life and Works of William Shakespeare, by Daniel Henry Lambert, 1904, p. 13.

This is a record of payment for the acting of two comedies or interludes as part of the Christmas festivities before the queen in 1594. The first was acted on St. Stephens day (December 26) and the second on Innocent's day (December 28). The 28th is probably an error because a separate payment is recorded to the Admiral's men for playing that day, and Shakespeare's company seems to have been employed elsewhere that day (see "Gesta Grayorum" above). The troupe received somewhat over 20£ for two presentations.

1595. St. Peter's Complaint by Robert Southwell, the dedication to which is believed by many to be addressed to Shakespeare. See the Mr. Shakespeare blog for an explanation.

From Robert Southwell's dedication to his Saint Peter's Complaint, 1595.

"The Author to His Louing Cosin Master W. S."

1596 - Burial of Hamnet Shakespeare, Shakespeare's only son.

August 11, Hamnet filius William Shakspere.

Hamnet and his twin sister, Judeth, were baptized February 2, 1584-5. He died, just 11 1/2 years later and was buried August 11, 1596 at Stratford, cause unknown. He was the poet's only known son. (Halliwell-Phillipps, The Life of William Shakespeare, p. 31). The twins had been named after the Stratford baker Hamnet (or as it is sometimes given Hamlett) Sadler and his wife Judeth, who undoubtedly stood as godparents. Shakespeare's relationship with Hamnet Sadler lasted a lifetime, because he is remembered in his will with a bequest of 26s 8d in order to purchase a memorial ring--the same bequest left to his fellows Burbage, Heming and Condell (see Sidney Lee, A Life of William Shakespeare, p. 285).

For more on the death of Hamnet Shakespeare see my blog post on this topic.

1596 - Draft of Grant of Arms to John Shakespeare. It is assumed that John Shakespeare's successful London son, William, applied for the grant of arms, since the elder Shakespeare was in no position to do so at this time for financial reasons. Further, it is assumed the arms were granted, since the Shakespeare's adopted them and they become the source of satire among the players.

The illustration is from the second draft of the grant at the Heralds' College. The motto "Non sans droict,' not without right. See Cartae Shakespeareana No. 30 for details and the further draft grant, in 1599, giving the Shakespeares the right to impale their arms with those of Arden.

1597 - Purchase of New Place. New Place, the second greatest house in Stratford, was in a run down condition when purchased by the Poet in April 1597 at what seems a reduced price (£60) from William Underhill. The house had belonged to the Clopton family early in the sixteenth century.

"Inter Willielmum Shakespeare querentem et Willielmum Underhill, generosum, deforciantem, de uno mesuagio, duobus horreis, et duobus gardinis cum pertinentiis in Stratford Super Avon unde placitum conventions summonitum fuit inter eos in eadem curia. Scilicet quod predictusWillielmusUnderbill recognovit predicta tenementa cum pertinentiis esse jus ipsius Willielmi Shakespeare ut illa quse idem Willielmus habet de dono predicti Willielmi Underhill et illa remisit et quietumclamavit de se et hseredibus suis predicto Willielmo Shakespeare et hseredibus suis imperpetuum; et prseterea idem Willielmus Underhill concessit pro se et hseredibus suis quod ipsi warantiz- abunt predicto Willielmo Shakespeare et hseredibus suis predicta tenementa cum pertinentiis imperpetuum: et pro hac recognitione remissione quieta clamantia warantia fine et concordia idem Willielmus Shakespeare dedit predicto Willielmo Underhill sexaginta libras sterlingorum. (Pasch. 39 Eliz.)" [See Cartae Number 32. See also the original of this document at Windows on Warwickshire, where the following note is appended:

"Not all the documentation for this purchase has survived. This document, known technically as an exemplification of a fine, records a fictitious legal action the result of which was Shakespeare's successful acquisition of the property. This was enrolled in the records of the central courts and could be turned up should a dispute later arise, rather like registration today."]

A indicates the location of the house, F the grounds and garden, where grew the famous mulberry tree. The house eventually made its way back into the Clopton family, who renovated it and added a new front. Sir Hugh Clopton died there in 1751, the year it was purchased by the infamous Rev. Francis Gastrell who pulled down the house and uprooted the mulberry tree. It is pictured below from that time.

From Halliwell-Phillipps, The Life of William Shakespeare, 1848, pp. 165-166.
See also Shakespere's home at New Place, Stratford-upon-Avon: Being a history of the "Great house" built in the reign of King Henry VII, by Sir Hugh Clopton, knight, and subsequently the property of William Shakespere, gent., wherein he lived and died, By John Chippendall Montesquieu Bellew, Published by Virtue brothers and co., 1863.
In 1602 a similar "fine" was entered, this time between William Shakespeare and Hercules Underhill:

"" Inter Willielmum Shakespeare generosum querentem ct Herculem Underhill generosum deforciantem, de uno mesuagio, duobus horreis, duobus gardinis, et duobus pomariis cum pertinentiis, in Stretford-super-Avon; unde placitum convencionis summonitum fuit inter eos in eadem curia, Scilicet quod predictus Hercules recognovit predicta tenementa cum pertinentiis esse jus ipsius Willielmi, ut illa que idem Willielmus habet de dono predicti Herculis, et illa remisit et quieta clamavit de se et beredibus suis predicto Willielmo et heredibus suis in perpetuum; et preterea idem Hercules concessit, pro se et heredibus suis, quod ipsi warantizabunt predicto Willielmo et heredibus suis predicta tenementa cum pertinentiis contra predictum Herculem et heredes suos in perpetuum; et pro hac re cognicione, remissione, quieta clamancia, waranto, fine et concordia idem Willielmus dedit predicto Herculi sexaginta libras sterlingorum," Mich. 44 & 45 Eliz. (See Halliwell-Phillipps, Outlines of the Life of Shakespeare, 3rd edition, 1883, p. 453).

Apparently this was a formality. According to Halliwell-Phillipps, it must have been discovered that Hercules has a residual interest in the party and this fine concluded the transaction so that Shakespeare would own the title clear. The deed to the property has disappeared, so these two surviving "fines" are not completely clear.

1598. Francis Meres's contemporary comments on Shakespeare from Palladis Tamia, published 1598, which lists many of Shakespeare's works to that date, and is invaluable in dating the plays. Thanks to Google Book Search, reprints of the relevant sections of Palladis Tamia are now easily accessible. The Poetrie section of Palladis Tamia can be found in Smith, G. Gregory, Elizabethan Critical Essays, vol. II, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1904. It can also be found in Haslewood, Joseph, et al. Ancient Critical Essays Upon English Poets and Poësy. London: Printed by Harding and Wright for Robert Triphook, 1815, also in full view and PDF from GBS, the relevant passage beginning on p. 147. A transcription in HTML can be found here.

From Francis Meres' Palladis Tamia, listing some of the works of Shakespeare to 1598.

As the soul of Euphorbus was thought to live in Pythagorus, so the sweet, witty soul of Ovid lives in mellifluous & honey-tongued Shakespeare, witness his Venus and Adonis, his Lucrece, his sugared sonnets among his private friends, &c.

As Plautus and Seneca are accounted the best for comedy and tragedy among the Latins, so Shakespeare among the English is the most excellent in both kinds for the stage; for comedy, witness his Gentlemen of Verona, his Errors, his Love Labours Lost, his Love Labours Won, his Midsummer's Night Dream, & his Merchant of Venice; for tragedy, his Richard the 2, Richard the 3, Henry the 4, King John, Titus Andronicus, and his Romeo and Juliet.

As Epius Stolo said that the muses would speak with Plautus' tongue if they would speak Latin, so I say that the muses would speak with Shakespeare's fine-filed phrase, if they would speak English.

1598 - The Quiney Letter. The Quineys and the Shakespeares went way back. In 1568 John Shakespeare was elected high bailiff of Stratford (mayor). When his term expired, he became high alderman and deputy to the new high bailiff, his friend Adrian Quiney (d. 1607). Adrian Quiney was a prosperous mercer and had been one of the original aldermen of Stratford under the charter granted in 1553. His house stood on High Street, very near the house of John Shakespeare on Henley Street. Adrian's son Richard has the distinction of being the only known personal correspondent of William Shakespeare. Only one letter addressed to Shakespeare survives: the Quiney letter.

The mid-1590s were hard times for the residents of Stratford, as they were for most English towns in the midlands. To add to the miseries of malnutrition brought on by poor harvests, heavy rains, and unseasonable cold, Stratford had suffered two disastrous fires. Richard Quiney had been elected bailiff in 1592, and represented Stratford in London every year from 1597 to 1601. In 1598 he had traveled there to petition the Privy Council for relief from the Parliamentary subsidy. He stayed at the Bell, near St. Paul's, from where he wrote the following letter to Shakespeare, asking for a loan of 30£ to cover his own expenses, not those of the town:

Facsimile of the letter:

Transcription of the letter:

Loveinge contreyman, I am bolde of yow, as of a ffrende, craveinge yowr helpe with xxxll uppon Mr. Bushells mid my securytee, or Mr. Myttens with me. Mr. Rosswell is nott come to London as yeate, and I have especiall cawse. Yow shall ffrende me muche in helpeinge me out of all the debettes I owe in London, I thanck God, and muche quiet my mynde, which wolde nott be indebted. I am nowe towardes the Cowrte, in hope of answer for the dispatche of my buysenes. Yow shall nether loose creddytt nor monney by me, the Lorde wyllinge ; and nowe butt perswade yowrselfe soe, as I hope, and yow shall nott need to feare, butt, with all hartie thanckefullnes I wyll holde my tyme, and content yowr ffreende, and yf we bargaine farther, yow shalbe the paie-master yowrselfe. My tyme biddes me hasten to an ende, and soe I committ thys [to] yowr care and hope of yowr helpe. I feare I shall nott be backe thys night ffrom the Cowrte. Haste. The Lorde be with yow and with us all, Amen ! ffrom the Bell in Carter Lane, the 25. October, 1598. Yowrs in all kyndenes,

To my loveinge good ffrend and contreyman
Mr. Wm. Shackespere deliver thees.

Reproduced from J. O. Halliwell-Phillipps, The Life of William Shakespeare, p. 178. Facsimile reproductions of the letter can be found in D. H. Lambert, Cartae Shakespeareanae, following p. 28, and at Your Icons. In both places, it is reproduced courtesy of the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, where it is currently held. The facsimile given above is reproduced from J. O. Halliwell-Phillipps, Outlines of the Life of Shakespeare, 1907, p. 166.

1598 - Shakespeare's name for the first time appears on the title page of a printed play.

The first appearance of Shakespeare's name on the title page of a printed play was the quarto publication of Love's Labour's Lost. The first quarto, and only authoritative text, of Love's Labour's Lost appeared in 1598 with the following title page:

A pleasant conceited comedie called, Loues labors lost. As it was presented before her Highnes this last Christmas. Newly corrected and augmented by W. Shakespere.
Imprinted at London: by W. W. [William White] for Cutbert Burby, 1598.

The W. W. is thought to be William White (d. 1615). Cuthbert Burby (d. 1607) owned the copyright to this play and to Romeo and Juliet, transferred on his death to Nicholas Ling.

Q1 served as the text for the Folio printing, but it has been revised inconsistently, giving rise to a theory of a lost Q0, but there is no other evidence for a lost quarto (except for the "Newly corrected and augmented" tag printer on the Title page of Q1. It is often noted that the stage directions in Q1 are unusually full and descriptive, indicating perhaps an absence from the playhouse and/or a production for non-professionals. Once again, this is only a theory.

Because it is full of inside jokes and parodies, a case has been made for Love's Labour's Lost having been written for a private party, probably involving Southampton and his circle, and later adapted for the stage. It does seem to have strong associations with the Southampton circle, though this theory is by no means universally accepted. Those who advance it usually place the play in about 1593-94, in the period of Venus and Adonis and The Rape of Lucrece, with which it has obvious affinities. A popular theory of Shakespeare's life has him serving as Southampton's secretary or literary assistant during this period of closure of the public playhouses.

Peter Ackroyd in his Shakespeare: The Biography says that LLL is "so highly allusive and ironic that it hardly seems designed for the public playhouses...there has even been speculation that it was first performed in Southampton House or at Titchfield. In a ground plan for Titchfield House there is an upstairs chamber designated as the 'Playhouse Room,' just to the left of the main entrance...it has been variously interpreted as a playful satire upon Southampton and his circle, upon Lord Strange and his supporters, upon Thomas Nashe, upon John Florio, upon Sir Walter Raleigh and the notorious 'school of night.' There are references to a thundering rival poet, George Chapman, and to other Elizabethan notables who are now less well known...and it may indeed refer to all of them."

If indeed the play was acted for the Southampton circle, it must later have been translated to the Theatre repertory. It is known to have been acted before Queen Elizabeth in 1597 (see the text on the title page), and Southampton had it performed for the family of King James at Southampton House in 1605.

What is definitely known is that it appears in the list of Shakespeare's plays in Francis Meres' Palladis Tamia in 1598. It is also (in all likeliehood) referenced in Robert Tofte's Alba, or The Month's Mind of a Melancholy Lover, also published in 1598: "I once did see a play ycleped so," (see Halliwell-Phillipps, Outlines, p. 305. The play was most likely written, therefore, between 1593 and 1597, though may be a revision of a much earlier work.

1599. John Weever (1576 - 1632) published a sonnet, epigram 22, "The fourth weeke" from his Epigrams in the oldest Cut, and newest Fashion, 1599, from C. E. Hughes, The Praise of Shakespeare, 1904, from Google Book Search. Another edition of Epigrammes, Reprinted from the original edition with notes by R. B. McKerrow (1922), can be found at the Internet Archive.

Weever's Fourth weeke, epigramme 22:

Ad Gulielmum Shakespeare

HONEY-TONGUED Shakespeare, when I saw thine issue,
I swore Apollo got them and none other;
Their rosy-tinted features clothed in tissue,
Some heaven-born goddess said to be their mother:
Rose-cheeked Adonis, with his amber tresses,
Fair fire-hot Venus, charming him to love her,
Chaste Lucretia, virgin-like her dresses,
Proud lust-stung Tarquin, seeking still to prove her:
Romeo, Richard; more whose names I know not,
Their sugared tongues, and power attractive beauty
Say they are saints, although that saints they show not,
For thousands vow to them subjective duty :
They burn in love, thy children, Shakespeare het them,
Go, woo thy Muse, more Nymphish brood beget them.

Epigrammes in the oldest Cut, and newest Fashion.
John Weever. 1599. Fourth Weeke, Epig. 22.

1599. Sir George Buck's encounter with Shakespeare, ca. 1599, and George-a-Green.

Edmund Tilney had been Elizabeth's Master of the Revels, and as such was censor and licensor of all plays, players and playhouses in the realm, but practically, in and around London. "But after the accession of James the First he seems to have had a deputy in his nephew, Sir George Buck, to whom the reversion of the Mastership had been given by Elizabeth in 1597, and confirmed by a patent of James on June 23, 1603" (E. K. Chambers, Notes on the History of the Revels Office Under the Tudors, p. 57). Buck was an avid collector of plays, and often annotated them (see Alan Nelson's "Sir George Buc (1560-1622): the Man who knew Shakespeare.") In his copy of George-a-Green: The Pinner of Wakefield (1599) he wrote:

"Written by ..........a minister, who acted
the pinner's part in it himself. Teste W. Shakespea[re]"

He must have encountered Shakespeare or sought him out to get his theatrical insider's insight into the authorship of the play. The episode is probed in depth in Alan Nelson's "George Buc, William Shakespeare, and the Folger George a Greene" from Shakespeare Quarterly, April 1998.

1598/1601. The Pilgrimage to Parnassus with the Two Parts of The Return from Parnassus: Three Comedies performed in St. John's College Cambridge A.D. MDXCVII-MDCI, Edited from MSS. by the Rev. W. D. Macray, from Google Book Search, full view and PDF, Clarendon, 1886. These are the famous Parnassus plays produced at Cambridge between 1598 and 1601: The Pilgrimage to Parnassus, The Return from Parnassus, Parts 1 and 2. The plays are interesting for their references to Shakespeare and other contemporary authors. In The Return, Part 2 Will Kempe and Richard Burbage appear to attempt to recruit students as actors. Of chief interest are the attitudes of young men, echoing the sonnet by Weever above, toward "Sweete Mr. Shakspeare." The same work can be found at the Internet Archive in many formats.

The Return from Parnassus, Part 1, Act 3, Scene 1

Gullio. Marrie, well remembred! I'le repeat unto you an
enthusiasticall oration wherwith my new mistris' ears were
verie lately made happie. The carriage of my body, by
the reporte of my mistriss, was excellent: I stood stroking
up my haire, which became me very admirably, gave a low
congey at the beginning of each period, made every
sentence end sweetly with an othe. It is the part of an
Oratoure to perswade, and I know not how better than to
conclude with such earnest protestations. Suppose also
that thou wert my mistris, as somtime woodden statues
represent the goddesses; thus I woulde looke amorously,
thus I would pace, thus I would salute thee.

Ingenioso. (It will be my lucke to dye noe other death than
by hearinge of his follies! I feare this speach that's a
comminge will breede a deadly disease in my ears.)

Gullio. Pardon, faire lady, thoughe sicke-thoughted Gullio
maks amaine unto thee, and like a bould-faced sutore '
gins to woo thee.

Ingenioso. (We shall have nothinge but pure Shakspeare
and shreds of poetrie that he hath gathered at the theaters!)

Gullio. Pardon mee, moy mittressa, ast am a gentleman,
the moone in comparison of thy bright hue a meere slutt,
Anthonie's Cleopatra a blacke browde milkmaide, Hellen a
dowdie.

Ingenioso. (Marke, Romeo and Juliet! O monstrous thefta!
I thinke he will runn throughe a whole booke of Samuell
Daniell's!)

Gullio. Thrise fairer than myselfe (—thus I began—)
The gods faire riches, sweete above compare,
Staine to all nimphes, more lovely then a man,
More white and red than doves and roses are!
Nature that made thee with herselfe had strife,
Saith that the worlde hath ending with thy life.

Ingenioso. Sweete Mr. Shakspeare!

Gullio. As I am a scholler, these arms of mine are long
and strong withall,
Thus elms by vines are compast ere they falle.

Ingenioso. Faith, gentleman! youre reading is wonderfull
in our English poetts!

Gullio. Sweet Mistris, I vouchsafe to take some of there
wordes, and applie them to mine owne matters by a
scholasticall invitation.
Report thou, upon thy credit; is not my vayne in courtinge
gallant and honorable ?

Ingenioso. Admirable, sanes compare, never was so mellifluous
a witt joynet to so pure a phrase, such comly gesture,
suche gentlemanlike behaviour.

Gullio. But stay! it's verie true good witts have badd
memories. I had almoste forgotten the cheife pointe. I
cal'd thee out for new year's day approcheth, and wheras
other gallants bestovve Jewells upon there mistrisses (as I
have done whilome) I now count it base to do as the
common people doe ; I will bestowe upon them the precious
stons of my witt, a diamonde of invention, that shall be
above all value and esteeme; therfore, sithens I am
employed in some weightie affayrs of the courte, I will have
thee, Ingenioso, to make them, and when thou hast done I
will peruse, pollish, and correcte them.

Ingenioso. My pen is youre bounden vassall to commande.
But what vayne woulde it please you to have them in ?

Gullio. Not in a vaine veine (prettie, i'faith!): make mee
them in two or three divers vayns, in Chaucer's, Gower's
and Spencer's and Mr. Shakspeare's. Marry, I thinke I
shall entertaine those verses which run like these;
Even as the sunn with purple coloured face
Had tane his laste leave on the weeping morne, &c.
O sweet Mr. Shakspeare! I'le have his picture in my study
at the courte.

Ingenioso. (Take heed, my maisters! he'le kill you with
tediousness ere I can ridd him of the stage!)

Gullio. Come, let us in! I'le eate a bit of phesaunte, and
drincke a cupp of wine in my cellar, and straight to the
courte I'le goe. A Countess and twoo lordes expect mee
to day at dinner; they are my very honorable frendes ; I
muste not disapointe them.

Act 4, Scene 1

Gullio. Stay, man! thou haste a very lecherous witt;
what wordes are these? Though thou comes somwhat neare
my meaninge yet it doth not become my gentle witt to sett
it downe soe plainlye Youe schollers are simple felowes,
men that never came where ladies growe; I that have
spente my life amonge them knowes best what becometh
my pen and theire ladishipps ears. Let mee heare Mr.
Shakspear's veyne.

Ingenioso. Faire Venus, queene of beutie and of love,
Thy red doth stayne the blushinge of the morne,
Thy snowie necke shameth the milkwhite dove,
Thy presence doth this naked worlde adorne;
Gazinge on thee all other nymphes I scorne.
When ere thou dyest slowe shine that Satterday,
Beutie and grace muste sleepe with thee for aye!

Gullio. Noe more! I am one that can judge accordinge
to the proverbe, bovem ex unguibus. Ey marry, Sir, these
have some life in them! Let this duncified worlde esteeme
of Spencer and Chaucer, I'le worshipp sweet Mr. Shakspeare,
and to honoure him will lay his Venus and Adonis under
my pillowe, as wee reade of one (I doe not well remember
his name, but I am sure he was a kinge) slept with Homer
under his bed's heade. Well, I'le bestowe a Frenche crowne
in the faire writinge of them out, and then I'le instructe
thee about the delivery of them. Meanewhile I'le have
thee make an elegant description of my mistris ; liken the
worste part of her to Cynthia; make also a familiar
dialogue betwixt her and myselfe. I'le now in, and correct
these verses.

Ingenioso. Why, who coulde endure this post put into a
sattin sute, this haberdasher of lyes, this bracchidochio, this
ladyemunger, this meere rapier and dagger, this cringer,
this foretopp, but a man that's ordayned to miserie! Well,
madame Pecunia, one more for thy sake will I waite on
this truncke, and with soothinge him upp in time will leave
him a greater foole than I founde him.

In The Return to Parnassus, Part 2, Act 1, Scene 2 where Judicio, the critic, is passing judgment on various of the poetic worthies of the day, we read:

William Shakespeare.
Judicio. Who loues not Adons loue, or Lucrece rape?
His sweeter verse contaynes hart throbbing line,
Could but a grauer subiect him content,
Without loues foolish lazy languishment.

For the Burbage and Kempe scenes see Act 4, Scene 3, where Kempe says:

"Why heres our fellow Shakespeare puts them all downe, I and Ben Jonson too. O that Ben Jonson is a pestilent fellow, he brought up Horace giving the Poets a pill, but our fellow Shakespeare hath given him a purge that made him beray his credit." [Referring to the War of the Theatres]

In Act 4, Scene 4, Burbage goes on to audition students for the part of Richard III.

1602. Diary of John Manningham, of the Middle Temple, and of Bradbourne, Kent, Barrister-at-Law, 1602-1603, ed. John Bruce, J. B. Nichols, 1868, from Google Book Search, full view and PDF, 188 pages. Manningham (d. 1622) was a law student at the Middle Temple and kept this diary during that time. The diary was first noticed for literary purposes by J. Payne Collier, the infamous forger, but it is one of his genuine discoveries and is not suspect. The diary contains two famous passages, one on Twelfth Night, dating the play, and a more famous one on Shakespeare and Burbage. Both are given below. (Note, dates prior to March 25 were given by Manningham as in the previous year, using the old system. They would be in the next year after the reform of the calendar. The first date below, for example, Feb. 1601 we would understand as Feb. 1602, thus the title of the volume as Bruce gives it).

From the Diary of John Manningham:

Febr. 1601

Feb. 2	At our feast wee had a play called " Twelue Night, or What you Will," much like the Commedy of Errores, or Menechmi in Plautus, but most like and neere to that in Italian called Inganni? A good practise in it to make the Steward beleeve his Lady widdowe was in love with him, by counterfeyting a letter as from his Lady in generall termes, telling him what shee liked best in him, and prescribing his gesture in smiling, his apparaile, &c., and then when he came to practise making him beleeue they tooke him to be mad.
March 1601
	Vpon a tyme when Burbidge played Richard III. there was a citizen grone soe farr in liking with him, that before shee went from the play shee appointed him to come that night vnto hir by the name of Richard the Third. Shakespeare ouerhearing their conclusion went before, was intertained and at his game ere Burbidge came. Then message being brought that Richard the Third was at the dore, Shakespeare caused returne to be made that William the Conqueror was before Richard the Third. Shakespeare's name William. (Mr. Touse.)

1603. Gabriel Harvey's marginialia, ca. 1603:

Gabriel Harvey, scholar, intimate friend to Spenser, enemy of Nashe, a man with his hand on the literary pulse of his time, and an inveterate marginal annotator wrote this now famous marginalia in his copy of Speght's Chaucer, which he signed and dated twice, 1598:

And now translated Petrarch, Ariosto, Tasso, & Bartas himself deserue curious comparison with Chaucer, Lidgate, & owre best Inglish, auncient & moderne. Amongst which, the Countesse of Pembrokes Arcadia, & the Faerie Queene ar now freshest in request : & Astrophil, & Amyntas ar none of the idlest pastimes of sum fine humanists. The Earle of Essex much commendes Albions England : and not unworthily for diuerse notable pageants, before, & in the Chronicle. Sum Inglish, & other Histories nowhere more sensibly described, or more inwardly discouered. The Lord Daniel, Mountioy makes the like account of Daniels peece of the Chronicle, touching the Vsurpation of Henrie of Bullingbrooke. which in deede is a fine, sententious, & politique peece of Poetrie: as profitable, as pleasurable. The younger sort takes much delight in Shakespeares Venus, & Adonis : but his Lucrece, & his tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke haue it in them, to please the wiser sort. Or such poets : or better : or none.

Vilia miretur vulgus : mihi flavus Apollo
Pocula Castaliae plena ministret aquae :

quoth Sir Edward Dier, betwene iest, & earnest. Whose written deuises farr excell most of the sonets, and cantos in print. His Amaryllis, & Sir Walter Raleighs Cynthia how fine & sweet inuentions? Excellent matter of emulation for Spencer, Constable, France, Watson, Daniel, Warner, Chapman, Siluester, Shakespeare, & the rest of owr florishing metricians...I have a phansie to Owens new Epigrams, as pithie as elegant, as plesant as sharp, & sumtime as weightie as breife..." (Gabriel Harvey's Marginalia, G. C. Moore Smith, 1913, p. 232-233).

Mention of the work that put Shakespeare on the literary map, Venus and Adonis, could not be avoided, but Harvey is quick to distance himself from Shakespeare's erotic, if mellifluous, poem and stress the opinion among graver critics that Lucrece and Hamlet are worth serious attention. The Latin tag associated with Dier (Sir Edward Dyer 1543-1607 most of whose poetic works are lost was later resurrected (though now forgotten) by Alden Brooks as a Shakespeare authorial candidate--see Will Shakespeare and the Dyers Hand, 1943) is, of course, from Ovid's Amores and serves as the epigraph to Venus and Adonis, the mention of which must have put Harvey in mind of the passage and then by transference of Dyer. [It means, "Let vile people admire vile things; may fair haired Apollo serve me goblets filled with Castalian water", Apollo being the god of poetry, the Castalian springs being sacred to the Muses--see Venus and Adonis in The Norton Shakespeare, ed. Katharine E. Maus]. This piece of marginialia is important as a testimony to the regard with which Shakepseare was held by a very literate contemporary.

The fact that Harvey's Chaucer was signed and dated 1598 does not, of course mean that he knew Hamlet at that date. The annotation could have been made much later and is believed to have been made in 1603.

For more on Harvey's marginalia, and its subsequent history involving Steevens, Malone, Halliwell-Phillipps, and Sidney Lee--all great Shakespeare editors--see "Gabriel Harvey and the Wiser Sort".

1603 - License to Play. King James, upon acceding to the throne, granted warrant (license) to Shakespeare's company, formerly the Lord Chamberlain's Men, now, upon the King's warrant, the King's Men to play anywhere in the kingdom.

Since it is sometimes difficult to find a text of the license granted Shakespeare's company from King James, I reproduce it here, taken from Halliwell-Phillipps, The Life of William Shakespeare, 1848, p. 203. The warrant bears the date May 17, 1603 and takes Shakespeare's company into the king's service as the King's Men, giving them the right to play in their accustomed house and to tour within the realm.

By the King. Right trusty and welbeloved counsellor, we greete you well and will and commaund you, that under our privie seale in your custody for the time being, you cause our letters to be derected to the keeper of our greate seale of England, commaunding him under our said greate seale, he cause our letters to be made patents in forme following. James, by the grace of God, King of England, Scotland, Fraunce and Irland, defendor of the faith, &c., to all justices, maiors, sheriffs, constables, headboroughes, and other our officers and loving subjects, greeting; Know ye, that we of our speciall grace, certaine knowledge, and meere motion, have licenced and authorized, and by these presentes doe licence and authorize, these our servants, Lawrence Fletcher, William Shakespeare, Richard Burbage, Augustine Phillippes, John Hemmings, Henrie Condell, William Sly, Robert Armyn, Richard Cowlye, and the rest of their associats, freely to use and exercise the arte and faculty of playing comedies, tragedies, histories, enterludes, moralls, pastoralls, stage plaies, and such other like, as thei have already studied, or hereafter shall use or studie, as well for the recreation of our loving subjects, as for our solace and pleasure, when we shall thinke good to see them, during our pleasure; and the said comedies, tragedies, histories, enterludes, moralls, pastoralls, stage plaies, and such like, to shew and exercise publiquely to their best commoditie, when the infection of the plague shall decrease, as well within theire now usuall howse called the Globe, within our county of Surrey, as also within anie towne halls, or moat halls, or other convenient places within the liberties and freedome of any other citie, universitie, towne or borough whatsoever within our said realmes and dominions. Willing and commaunding you, and every of you, as you tender our pleasure, not only to permit and suffer them heerin, without any your letts, hinderances, or molestations, during our said pleasure, but also to be ayding or assisting to them yf any wrong be to them offered; and to allowe them such former courtesies, as hathe bene given to men of their place and qualitie, and also what further favour you shall shew to these our servants for our sake we shall take kindly at your hands, and these our letters shall be your sufficient warrant and discharge in this behalfe. Given under our signet at our manner of Greenewiche the seavententh day of May in the first yeere of our raigne of England, France, and Ireland, and of Scotland the six and thirtieth.

For more, see "License to Play" in the Mr. Shakespeare blog.

1603. In 1603 John Davies of Hereford, writing in Microcosmos of "W.S. and R. B.," most likely William Shakespeare and Richard Burbage, praises their qualities while lamenting the "staine" of the stage.

From Microcosmos (1603) in The Complete Works of John Davies of Hereford (15.. - 1618), vol. I, p. 82, ed. A. B. Grosart, 1878.

Players, I loue yee, and your Qualitie,
As ye are Men, that pass-time not abus'd :
And some I loue for 'painting, poesie,
And say fell Fortune cannot be excus'd,
That hath for better uses you refus'd :
Wit, Courage, good-shape, good partes, and all good,
As long as al these goods are no worse us'd,
And though the stage doth staine pure gentle bloud.
Yet generous yee are in minde and moode.

Burbage, in addition to being the period's leading actor, was known as a painter.

1604. In 1604 Antony Scoloker, author of Daiphantus, or The Passions of Love, makes reference to both Shakespeare the author and his popular creation Hamlet.

In 1604 Antony Scoloker published Daiphantus, or The Passions of Love. It can be found repirnted in Some Longer Elizabethan Poems, edited by that pillar of English Renaissance studies, Arthur Henry Bullen (1903). The poem interests us little, but the remarkable thing about it is a reference to both "friendly" Shakespeare himself and his then recent creation Hamlet in the introductory epistle to the reader, which begins, fanciful flush with the printer's art: Scolokerepistle

The epistle to the reader, it turns out, deals with epistles to readers. Eschewing the overwrought first paragraph (that can be read at the source) Scoloker moves on to more interesting matter:

"It [the introductory epistle] should be like the never-too-well-read Arcadia, where the Prose and Verse, Matter and Words, are like his [SIDNEY'S] Mistress's eyes! one still excelling another, and without corrival! or to come home to the vulgar's element, like friendly SHAKE-SPEARE'S Tragedies, where the Comedian rides, when the Tragedian stands on tiptoe. Faith, it should please all, like Prince HAMLET ! But, in sadness, then it were to be feared, he would run mad. In sooth, I will not be moonsick, to please ! nor out of my wits, though I displease all ! What ? Poet ! are you in Passion, or out of Love ? This is as strange as true !" (p. 367)

Scoloker's poem itself also makes reference to Hamlet in the context of the lunacy of love. Here are the verses:

His breath, he thinks the smoke ! his tongue, a coal!
Then runs for bottle-ale to quench his thirst;
Runs to his ink-pot, drinks ! then stops the hole !
And thus grows madder than he was at first.
TASSO he finds, by that of HAMLET thinks
Terms him a madman, then of his inkhorn drinks!

Calls players "fools! The Fool, he judgeth wiseth,
Will learn them action out of Chaucer's Pander,
Proves of their poets bawds, even in the highest,
Then drinks a health! and swears it is no slander."
Puts off his clothes! his shirt he only wears !
Much like mad HAMLET, thus, as Passion tears! (p. 393)

For more, see "Antony Scoloker: Friendly Shakespeare and Mad Hamlet" at the Mr. Shakespeare blog.

1605 - Augustine Phillips' Will. Phillips, Shakespeare's fellow among the King's Men, died in 1605. His will can be found printed in full in J. P. Collier's The History of English Dramatic Poetry to the Time of Shakespeare ; And, Annals of the Stage to the Restoration, London: G. Bell & Sons, 1879. This is the infamous forger John Payne Collier, but the will and the information about Phillips are reliable because they had been previously published and can be found substantiated in other official documents. The biography of Phillips begins on page 321 and the will is reprinted beginning on page 327. The will is worth reading in its entirety, but I reproduce only the passage surrounding the appearance of Shakespeare's name below. Phillips was a generous man, and his care for the poor and his own apprentices is touching.

Item, I geve and bequeathe unto and amongste the hyred men of the company which I am of, which shalbe at the tyme of my decease, the some of fyve pounds of lawfull money of England, to be equally distributed amongste them.
Item, I geve and bequeathe unto my fellowe, William Shakespeare, a thirty shillinge peece in gould; to my fellowe, Henry Condell, one other thirty shillinge peece in gould; to my servaunte, Christopher Beeston, thirty shillings in gould; to my fellowe, Lawrence Fletcher, twenty shillings in gould ; to my fellowe, Robert Armyne, twenty shillings in gould ; to my fellowe, Richard Coweley, twenty shillings in gould ; to my fellowe, Alexander Cook, twenty shillings in gould; to my fellowe, Nicholas Tooley, twenty shillings in gould.
Item, I geve to the preacher, which shall preache at my funerall, the some of twenty shillings.
Item, I geve to Samuell Gilborne, my late apprentice, the some of fortye shillings, and my mouse colloured velvit hose, and a white taffety dublet, a blacke taffety sute, my purple cloke, sword, and dagger, and my base viall.
Item, I geve to James Sands, my apprentice, the some of fortye shillings, and a citterne, a bandore, and a lute, to be paid and delivered unto him at the expiration of his terme of yeres in his indenture of apprenticehood.

Ca. 1610 John Davies of Hereford, a "writing master" (i.e., penmanship teacher) and principally metaphysical/theological poet, wrote this epigrammatic praise to Shakespeare, "To Our English Terence." It was published in 1611 in his The Scourge of Folly. It is the source of the idea that Shakespeare played kingly parts on stage, and clearly draws the parallel between the Roman playwright Terence, and his English counterpart Shakespeare.

From The Scourge of Folly (c. 1610) in The Complete Works of John Davies of Hereford (15.. - 1618), vol. II, p. 26, ed. A. B. Grosart, 1878.

To our English Terence Mr. Will : Shake-speare.

EPIG. 159.

SOME say good Will (which I, in sport, do sing)
Had'st thou not plaid some Kingly parts in sport,
Thou hadst bin a companion for a King ;
And, beene a King among the meaner sort.
Some others raile ; but raile as they thinke fit,
Thou hast no rayling, but, a raigning Wit :
And honesty thou sow'st, which they do reape ;
So, to increase their Stocke which they do keepe.

Davies is also probably referring to Shakespeare's Venus and Adonis in Papers Complaint, compil'd in ruthfull Rimes Against the Paper-spoylers of these Times, a 546-line poetic satire appended to The Scourge of Folly. Speaking fancifully in the person of paper, Davies says,

Another (ah Lord helpe) mee vilifies
With Art of Loue, and how to subtilize,
Making lewd Venus, with eternall Lines,
To tye Adonis to her loues designes :
Fine wit is shew'n therein : but finer twere
If not attired in such bawdy Geare.
But be it as it will : the coyest Dames,
In priuate read it for their Closset-games :
For, sooth to say, the Lines so draw them on,
To the venerian speculation,
That will they, nill they (if of flesh they bee)
They will thinke of it, sith loose Thought is free.
And thou (O Poet) that dost pen my Plaint,
Thou art not scot-free from my iust complaint
For, thou hast plaid thy part, with thy rude Pen,
To make vs both ridiculous to men.
(ll.47-62, Complete Works, vol. II, p. 75)

Venus and Adonis was enormously popular in its time, and while other poems of the era dealt with Venus and Adonis, and could be the subject of these lines (see Grosart's note), none could be said, in 1610, to possess "eternall Lines" other than Shakespeare's poem.

1612 - Heywood's Complaint. In 1612 the third edition of The Passionate Pilgrim appeared, printed by William Jaggard. It was attributed to W. Shakespeare, but only two sonnets and three passages from Love's Labour's Lost contained therein were the work of Shakespeare. The rest of the poems were works by Marlowe, Barnfield, Raleigh, and, in the third edition, Heywood, taken from his Troia Britannica. He complained bitterly and publicly in an epistle he appended to his Apologie for Actors, printed later in 1612 by Nicholas Okes, in which he makes reference to Shakespeare's Sonnets and also Shakespeare's reaction to Jaggard's using his name without authorization.

Among the filler in the third edition of The Passionate Pilgrim are several poems by Thomas Heywood, notably including two love epistles translated by Heywood from Ovid's Heroides which were published as part of his Troia Britannica or Great Britain's Troy (1609 - printed by William Jaggard), an epistle of Paris to Helen and one of Helen to Paris which are trumpeted on the title page, a transcription of which is reproduced here from Rolfe's edition of 1906:

THE | PASSIONATE | PILGRIME. | or | Certaine Amorous Sonnets, \ betweene Venus and Adonis, | newly corrected and aug- \ mented. | By W. Shakespere. \ The third Edition. | Whereunto is newly ad- | ded two Loue- Epistles, the first | from Paris to Hellen, and | Hellens answere backe | againe to Paris. \ Printed by W. Iaggard. | 1612.

The title pages of all editions (apparently, since the title page to the first edition is not extant) of The Passionate Pilgrim attribute all the works contained therein to "W. Shakespere." The printer of the orginal Troia Britannica was the same William Jaggard, who, as we will see, answered Heywood so insolently when he was requested to print a list of his errata. With this as background, here is Heywood's epistle to Okes, taken from Literary Blunders: A Chapter in the "History of Human Error" by H. B. Wheatley:

To my approved good Friend, MR. NICHOLAS OKES.

The infinite faults escaped in my booke of Britaines Troy by the negligence of the printer, as the misquotations, mistaking the sillables, misplacing halfe lines, coining of strange and never heard of words, these being without number, when I would have taken a particular account of the errata, the printer answered me, hee would not publish his owne disworkemanship, but rather let his owne fault lye upon the necke of the author. And being fearefull that others of his quality had beene of the same nature and condition, and finding you, on the contrary, so carefull and industrious, so serious and laborious to doe the author all the rights of the presse, I could not choose but gratulate your honest indeavours with this short remembrance. Here, likewise, I must necessarily insert a manifest injury done me in that worke, by taking the two epistles of Paris to Helen, and Helen to Paris, and printing them in a lesse volume under the name of another, which may put the world in opinion I might steale them from him, and hee, to doe himselfe right, hath since published them in his owne name; but as I must acknowledge my lines not worthy his patronage under whom he hath publisht them, so the author, I know, much offended with M. Jaggard (that altogether unknowne to him) presumed to make so bold with his name. These and the like dishonesties I knowe you to bee cleere of ; and I could wish but to bee the happy author of so worthy a worke as I could willingly commit to your care and workmanship.

Yours ever, THOMAS HEYWOOD

Jaggard apparently responded by canceling the title page ascribing the work to Shakespeare, and issuing a new title page without attribution.

We learn from Rolfe that

The Bodleian copy of this edition contains the following note by Malone: "All the poems from Sig. D. 5 were written by Thomas Heywood, who was so offended at Jaggard for printing them under the name of Shakespeare that he has added a postscript to his Apology for Actors, 4to, 1612, on this subject; and Jaggard in consequence of it appears to have printed a new title-page to please Heywood, without the name of Shakespeare in it. The former title-page was no doubt intended to be cancelled, but by some inadvertence they were both prefixed to this copy and I have retained them as a curiosity."

In 1905 Sidney Lee published a facsimile of the 1599 edition of The Passionate Pilgrim, along with an illustration of the two title pages to which Malone refers from the 1612. I reproduce them here.

This copy, at the Bodleian in the Malone collection, of the 1612 title page without Shakespeare's name, is not known to exist anywhere else.

For more on this interesting episode, see my blog post "Thomas Heywood and the Much Offended Mr. Shakespeare."

1612 - John Webster's "To The Reader" prefaced to the quarto edition of The White Devil.

Detraction is the sworne friend to ignorance : for mine owne part I have ever truly cherisht my good opinion of other mens worthy labours; especially of that full and haightned stile of Maister Chapman, the labor'd and understanding workes of Maister Johnson, the no lesse worthy composures of the both worthily excellent Maister Beamont, & Maister Fletcher, and lastly (without wrong last to be named) the right happy and copious industry of M. Shake-speare, M. Decker, & M. Heywood; wishing what I write may be read by their light protesting that, in the strength of mine owne judgement, I know them so worthy, that though I rest silent in my owne worke, yet to most of theirs I dare (without flattery) fix that of Martial:

—non norunt haec monumenta mori.*

[*L. "These memorials do not know how to die."]

1614 - Thomas Greene, Shakespeare's "cosen" consults him regarding an enclosure near Stratford.

1.—Jovis, 17 Nov., my cosen Shakspeare comyng yesterday to towne, I went to see him how he did. He told me that they assured him they ment to inclose noe further than to Gospell Bushe, and so upp straight (leavyng out part of the Dyngles to the Field) to the Gate in Clopton hedge, and take in Salisburyes peece; and that they mean in Aprill to survey the land, and then to gyve satisfaccicn, and not before; and he and Mr. Hall say they think ther will be nothyng done at all.

2.—23 Dec. A hall. Lettres wrytten, one to Mr. Manyring, another to Mr. Shakspear, with almost all the company's handes to eyther. I alsoe wrytte of myself to my cosen Shakspear the coppyes of all our actes, and then also a not of the inconvenyences wold happen by the inclosure.

3.—10 Januarii, 1614. Mr. Manwaryng and his agreement for me with my cosen Shakspeare.

4.—9 Jan. 1614. Mr. Replyngham, 28 Octobris, article with Mr. Shakspear, and then I was putt in by Thursday.

5.—Sept . Mr. Shakspeare told Mr. J. Greene that I was not abble to beare the enclosing of Welcombe.

Halliwell-Phillipps, Outlines of the Life of Shakespeare, 3rd edition, 1883, p. 218.

1615 - Francis Beaumont's verse letter to Ben Jonson:

As early as about 1615, we see Francis Beaumont, in his verse letter to "Mr B:J" (Ben Jonson) refer to Shakespeare as a poet informed by Nature:

Here I would let slip
And from all learning keep these lines as clear
As Shakespeare's best are, which our heirs shall hear
Preachers apt to their auditors to show
How far sometimes a mortal man may go
By the dim light of Nature.

The letter is printed in E. K. Chambers' William Shakespeare: Facts and Problems (Oxford, 1930) in vol. II, p. 224, and has been reprinted several times, most recently in Charles Nicholl's The Lodger Shakespeare (p. 80). It begins a traditional view of Shakespeare as the unlearned, non-scholarly poet; a poet born, not made; one who brings forth his verse from his mother wit, as it were, without studied preparation; in short, "by the dim light of Nature."

For more on Shakespeare's reputation as a "Natural" poet, see my blog post "Natural Shakespeare."

1616. Shakespeare's Will, from the National Archives in the UK, including a transcript of the will, a QuickTime video and other explanatory materials.
Another site which presents The Text of Shakespeare's Will.

"Only six copies of Shakespeare's signature have survived, and this will contains three of them."

For the others, see "The Six Signatures" a post on my Mr. William Shakespeare and the Internet blog with facsimile reproductions of the six authenticated Shakespeare signatures and information on their sources.

Wise, George. The Autograph of William Shakespeare, With Fac Similes of His Signature As Appended to Various Legal Documents; Together with 4000 Ways of Spelling the Name According to English Orthography, from Google Book Search, full view and downloadable PDF, 32 pages. See also E. M. Thompson's Shakespeare's Handwriting: A Study, Clarendon Press, 1916, from GBS in full view and PDF.

1616. Record of burial. Shakespeare's burial is recorded in the parish church register of Stratford-upon-Avon. He died on April 23, 1616, and was buried April 25. It is reproduced in facsimile below.

The facsimile is taken from A Book for Shakespeare Plays and Pageants by Orie Latham Hatcher, 1916, p. 76:

A Summary of Documentary Evidence relating to William Shakespeare.

1616-1623. William Basse's Elegy on Shakespeare, in The Poetical Works of William Basse, ed. R. Warwick Bond, Ellis and Elvy, 1893, from Google Book Search, in full text and PDF. The work is also available from the Internet Archive. This version is from the "Lansdowne MS." The work was written some time between 1616 and 1623, and is echoed in Ben Jonson's famous "To the memory of my beloved, The Author Mr. William Shakespeare and what he hath left us," in the prefatory material to the First Folio.

ELEGY ON SHAKESPEARE,

ON MR. WM. SHAKESPEARE.
HE DYED IN APRILL l6l6.

RENOWNED Spencer lye a thought more nye
To learned Chaucer, and rare Beaumond lye
A little neerer Spenser, to make roome
For Shakespeare in your threefold, fowerfold Tombe.
To lodge all fowre in one bed make a shift
Vntill Doomesdaye, for hardly will a fift
Betwixt ys day and yt by Fate be slayne,
For whom your Curtaines may be drawn againe.
If your precedency in death doth barre
A fourth place in your sacred sepulcher,
Vnder this carued marble of thine owne,
Sleepe, rare Tragoedian, Shakespeare, sleep alone;
Thy unmolested peace, vnshared Caue,
Possesse as Lord, not Tenant, of thy Graue,
That vnto us & others it may be
Honor hereafter to be layde by thee.
WM. BASSE.

For more on the elegy, see my blog post of 9/19/07.

1623. Prefatory materials from the First Folio. I have brought together here, in original spelling, html editions, the dedicatory and prefatory materials from the 1623 First Folio, including:

Epistle Dedicatory to the First Folio.

To the great Variety of Readers, by Heminge and Condell.

To the memory of my beloved, the Author, by Ben Jonson.

Upon the Lines and Life of the Famous Scenic Poet, Master William Shakespeare, by Hugh Holland.

the Table of Contents to the First Folio.

To the memory of the deceased author Master William Shakespeare, by Leonard Digges.

To the memory of M. W. Shakespeare, by James Mabbe.

The Names of the Principal Actors, as given in the First Folio.

Timber or Discoveries Made Upon Men and Matter contains a Ben Jonson reminiscence of Shakespeare quite apart from the one usually quoted in the Folio, where, after all, he was on his best behavior and taking pains to be flattering. Ben, in his cups or otherwise, could be acerbic. The version quoted here is from a facsimile edition at Google Book Search edited by Felix Schelling, 1892. First published in 1641, Dr. Schelling says of its origin, "The date of the composition of the Discoveries cannot be determined with any degree of accuracy ; and it is highly probable, from the nature of the work, that it was written from time to time through a series of years...It is likely that little violence will be done to the truth in assigning the composition of the Discoveries to the last years of the poet's life" (from the section titled "Publication and Date of Composition"—Jonson died in August, 1637). There is also a transcription available from the University of Toronto.

From Ben Jonson's Timber or Discoveries, p. 23

De Shakespeare nostrat[i]. — I remember the players have often mentioned it as an honor to Shakespeare, that in his writing, whatsoever he penned, he never blotted out a line. My answer hath been, " Would he had blotted a thousand," which they thought a malevolent speech. I had not told posterity this but for their ignorance, who chose that circumstance to commend their friend by wherein he most faulted ; and to justify mine own candor, for I loved the man, and do honor his memory on this side idolatry as much as any. He was, indeed, honest, and of an open and free nature ; had an excellent fancy, brave notions, and gentle expressions, wherein he flowed with that facility that sometime it was necessary he should be stopped. "Sufflaminandus erat" as Augustus said of Haterius. His wit was in his own power; would the rule of it had been so too. Many times he fell into those things, could not escape laughter, as when he said in the person of Caesar, one speaking to him: "Caesar, thou dost me wrong." He replied : "Caesar did never wrong but with just cause;" and such like, which were ridiculous. But he redeemed his vices with his virtues. There was ever more in him to be praised than to be pardoned.

It should be noted that it would seem utterly impossible to regard anyone other than Shakespeare of Stratford-upon-Avon as the author of the works, in light of this testimony and Jonson's even more compelling "To the memory of my beloved, the author," among the commendatory verses to the First Folio, but such is the perversity of human nature.

Leonard Digges (1588 - 1635), was an Oxford scholar, translator and poet. See "Leonard Digges, the First Bardolator," post in the Mr. William Shakespeare and the Internet blog reviewing Digges' two commendatory poems, one to the First Folio and one to Benson's 1640 edition of Poems: Written by Wil. Shakespeare, Gent. Digges widowed mother married Thomas Russell, Shakespeare's friend and one of the overseers of his will. His brother was Sir Dudley Digges, an officer of the Virginia Company, and possible the source of information on the shipwreck source for The Tempest. His father was Thomas Digges, the famous Elizabethan scientist, mathematician, and scientific popularizer. His grandfather was Leonard Digges, author of A General Prognostication (1553), a very popular Elizabethan almanac, and Pantometria (1571).

Digges commendatory poem to the First Folio (1623):

To the Memorie of the deceased Authour Maister W. Shakespeare

Shake-speare, at length thy pious fellowes give
The world thy Workes : thy Workes, by which, out-live
Thy Tombe, thy name must when that stone is rent,
And Time dissolves thy Stratford Moniment,
Here we alive shall view thee still. This Booke,
When Brasse and Marble fade, shall make thee looke
Fresh to all Ages : when Posteritie
Shall loath what's new, thinke all is prodegie
That is not Shake-speares; ev'ry Line, each Verse
Here shall revive, redeeme thee from thy Herse.
Nor Fire, nor cankring Age, as Naso said,
Of his, thy wit-fraught Booke shall once invade.
Nor shall I e're beleeve, or thinke thee dead.
(Though mist) untill our bankrout Stage be sped
(Imposible) with some new straine t'out-do
Passions of Juliet, and her Romeo ;
Or till I heare a Scene more nobly take,
Then when thy half-Sword parlying Romans spake.
Till these, till any of thy Volumes rest
Shall with more fire, more feeling be exprest,
Be sure, our Shake-speare, thou canst never dye,
But crown'd with Lawrell, live eternally.

Digges commendatory poem to the 1640 edition of Poems: Written by Wil. Shakespeare, Gent. (1623? - 1635):

Vpon Master W ILLIAM S H A K E S P E A R E,
the Deceased Authour, and his P O E M S .

Poets are borne not made, when I would prove
This truth, the glad rememberance I must love
Of never dying Shakespeare, who alone,
Is argument enough to make that one.
First, that he was a Poet none would doubt,
That heard th’applause of what he sees set out
Imprinted; where thou hast (I will not say
Reader his Workes for to contrive a Play:
To him twas none) the patterne of all wit,
Art without Art unparaleld as yet.
Next Nature onely helpt him, for looke thorow
This whole Booke, thou shalt find he doth not borrow,
One phrase from Greekes, nor Latines imitate,
Nor once from vulgar Languages Translate,
Nor Plagiari-like from others gleane,
Nor begges he from each witty friend a Scene
To peece his Acts with, all that he doth write,
Is pure his owne, plot, language exquisite,
But oh ! what praise more powerfull can we give
The dead, then that by him the Kings men live,
His Players, which should they but have shar’d the Fate,
All else expir’d within the short Termes date;
How could the Globe have prospered, since through want
Of change, the Plaies and Poems had growne scant.
But happy Verse thou shalt be sung and heard,
When hungry quills shall be such honour bard.
Then vanish upstart Writers to each Stage,
You needy Poetasters of this Age,
Where Shakespeare liv’d or spake, Vermine forbeare,
Least with your froth you spot them, come not neere;
But if you needs must write, if poverty
So pinch, that otherwise you starve and die,
On Gods name may the Bull or Cockpit have
Your lame blancke Verse, to keepe you from the grave:
Or let new Fortunes younger brethren see,
What they can picke from your leane industry.
I doe not wonder when you offer at
Blacke-Friers, that you suffer : tis the fate
Of richer veines, prime judgements that have far’d
The worse, with this deceased man compar’d.
So have I seene, when Cesar would appeare,
And on the Stage at half-sword parley were,
Brutus and Cassius : oh how the Audience,
Were ravish’d, with what wonder they went thence,
When some new day they would not brooke a line,
Of tedious (though well laboured ) Catilines;
Sejanus too was irksome, they priz’de more
Honest Iago, or the jealous Moore.
And though the Fox and subtill Alchimist,
Long intermitted could not quite be mist,
Though these have sham’d all the Ancients, and might raise,
Their Authours merit with a crowne of Bayes.
Yet these sometimes, even at a friends desire
Acted, have scarce defrai’d the Seacoale fire
And doore-keepers : when let but Falstaffe come,
Hall, Poines, the rest you scarce shall have a roome
All is so pester’d : let but Beatrice
And Benedicke be seene, loe in a trice
The Cockpit Galleries, Boxes, all are full
To heare Maluoglio that crosse garter’d Gull.
Briefe, there is nothing in his wit fraught Booke,
Whose sound we would not heare, on whose worth looke
Like old coyned gold, whose lines in every page,
Shall passe true currant to succeeding age.
But why doe I dead Sheakspeares praise recite,
Some second Shakespeare must of Shakespeare write;
For me tis needlesse, since an host of men,
Will pay to clap his praise, to free my Pen.

1630. Milton on Shakespeare, blog post to the Mr. Shakespeare companion blog with a discussion of Milton's first published poem, his Epitaph on Shakespeare (1630).

Milton's epitaph on Shakespeare, published in the Second Folio of 1632; Milton's first published poem:

An Epitaph on the admirable Dramaticke Poet, W. Shakespeare

What needs my Shakespeare for his honour'd bones,
The labour of an age in piled stones?
Or that his hallow'd reliques should be hid
Under a star-y-pointing pyramid?
Dear son of memory, great heir of fame,
What need'st thou such weak witness of thy name ?
Thou in our wonder and astonishment
Hast built thyself a live-long monument.
For whilst to th' shame of slow-endeavouring art
Thy easy numbers flow, and that each heart
Hath from the leaves of thy unvalued book
Those Delphic lines with deep impression took,
Then thou our fancy of itself bereaving,
Dost make us marble with too much conceiving;
And so sepulchred in such pomp dost lie,
That kings for such a tomb would wish to die.

Milton also makes reference to Shakespeare, contra "learned" Ben Jonson, in L'Allegro (1631):

Then to the well-trod stage anon,
If Jonson's learned sock be on,
Or sweetest Shakespeare, Fancy's child,
Warble his native wood-notes wild. (131-134)

1635 - Thomas Heywood's mention of Shakespeare among his younger contemporary playwrights.

Hierarchy of the Blessed Angels, a description of which I give here, taken from Collectanea Anglo-Poetica (The Chetham Society, 1878, p. 250):

The Hierarchie of the blessed Angells. Their Names, Orders, and Offices. The fall of Lucifer with his Angells. Written by Tho. Heywood. ... London Printed by Adam Islip 1635. Folio, pp. 639, including frontispiece, introductory matter and index...The Hierarchie of the blessed Angells is a long and very desultory poem of above six hundred pages, in nine books...

It is a long and, to quote Chambers Cyclopaedia, "curious specimen." Among its description of angels and devils the Hierarchie gives a description of various contemporary or near contemporary playwrights with their shortened first names.

Mellifluous Shakespeare, whose enchanting quill
Commanded mirth or passion, was but Will;
And famous Jonson, though his learned pen
Be dipped in Castaly, is still but Ben.
Fletcher and Webster, of that learned pack
None of the meanest, was but Jack;
Dekker but Tom, nor May, nor Middleton,
And he's but now Jack Ford that once was John.

(Library of the world's best literature, ancient and modern, ed. C. D. Warner, et al, 1897, p. 7349)

Surely the most incidental of verse, but interesting none the less for the grouping. This was published in 1635, and Shakespeare's name is still prominent among those who had lived to be noteworthy (or nearly so) in the Carolinian period, though he had been dead nearly 20 years: Ben Jonson (d.1637), John Fletcher (d. 1625), John Webster (d. 1634), Thomas Dekker (d. 1632), Thomas May (d. 1650), Thomas Middleton (d. 1627), John Ford (d. c. 1640), Shakespeare (d. 1616).

John Aubrey (1626 - 1697) was a seventeenth century antiquarian and writer and member of the Royal Society who gathered materials on the lives of famous Britains and published them as Aubrey's Brief Lives, vol. I and vol. II (from Google Book Search, Clarendon, 1898). He described his writings as "pieces written extempore, on the spur of the moment." They are important because they form a direct link back to those who knew Shakespeare. His principal informants were Christopher Beeston, the son of a member of Shakespeare's company, and William Davenant, playwright and theatrical entrepreneur who, at times, claimed to be the illegitimate son of Shakespeare.

Passages from Aubrey's Brief Lives about Shakespeare:

Shakespeare not a "company keeper":

The more to be admired, quaere—he was not a company keeper; lived in Shorditch; would not be debauched; and if invited to court, was in paine. W. Shakespeare—quaere Mr. Beeston, who knowes most of him from Mr. Lacy. (Vol. I, p. 97)

Davenant's contention:

Sir William Davenant (l6o5/6-1668). Sir William Davenant, knight, Poet Laureate, was borne about the end of February — vide A. Wood's Antiq. Oxon.—baptized 3 of March A.D. i605/6], in ... street in the city of Oxford at the Crowne taverne.

His father was John Davenant, a vintner there, a very grave and discreet citizen: his mother was a very beautifull woman, and of a very good witt, and of conversation extremely agreable. They had three sons, viz. 1, Robert 2, William; and 3, Nicholas (an attorney) : and two handsome daughters...

Mr. William Shakespeare was wont to goe into Warwickshire once a yeare, and did commonly in his journey lye at this house in Oxon. where he was exceedingly respected. I have heard parson Robert (Davenant) say that Mr. W. Shakespeare haz given him a hundred kisses. Now Sir William would sometimes, when he was pleasant over a glasse of wine with his most intimate friends—e. g. Sam. Butler (author of Hudibras), &c.—say, that it seemed to him that he writt with the very spirit that Shakespeare, and scemd contented enough to be thought his son. He would tell them the story as above, in which way his mother had a very light report. (Vol. I, p. 204)

Shakespeare's entry in the Brief Lives:

Mr. William Shakespear was borne at Stratford upon Avon in the county of Warwick. His father was a butcher, and I have been told heretofore by some of the neighbours, that when he was a boy he exercised his father's trade, but when he kill'd a calfe he would doe it in a high style, and make a speech. There was at that time another butcher's son in this towne that was held not at all inferior to him for a naturall witt, his acquaintance and coetanean, but dyed young.

This William being inclined naturally to poetry and acting, came to London, I guesse, about 18; and was an actor at one of the play-houses, and did act exceedingly well (now B. Johnson was never a good actor, but an excellent instructor).

He began early to make essayes at dramatique poetry, which at that time was very lowe ; and his playes tooke well.

He was a handsome, well shap't man: very good company, and of a very readie and pleasant smooth witt.

The humour of ... the constable, in Midsomernight's Dreame, he happened to take at Grendon in Bucks— I thinke it was Midsomer night that he happened to lye there—which is the roade from London to Stratford, and there was living that constable about 1642, when I first came to Oxon : Mr. Josias Howe is of that parish, and knew him. Ben Johnson and he did gather humours of men dayly where ever they came. One time as he was at the tavern at Stratford super Avon, one Combes, an old rich usurer, was to be buryed, he makes there this extemporary epitaph,

Ten in the hundred the Devill allowes,
But Combes will have twelve, he sweares and vowes:
If any one askes who lies in this tombe,
' Hoh !' quoth the Devill, ' Tis my John o Combe.'

He was wont to goe to his native countrey once a yeare. I thinke I have been told that he left 2 or 300 li. per annum there and thereabout to a sister. Vide his epitaph in Dugdale's Warwickshire.

I have heard Sir William Davenant and Mr. Thomas Shadwell (who is counted the best comoedian we have now) say that he had a most prodigious witt, and did admire his naturall parts beyond all other dramaticall writers. He was wont to say (B. Johnson's Underwoods) that he ' never blotted out a line in his life'; sayd Ben: Johnson, ' I wish he had blotted-out a thousand.'

His comoedies will remaine witt as long as the English tongue is understood, for that he handles mores hominum. Now our present writers reflect so much upon particular persons and coxcombeities, that twenty yeares hence they will not be understood.

Though, as Ben: Johnson sayes of him, that he had but little Latine and lesse Greek, he understood Latine pretty well, for he had been in his younger yeares a schoolmaster in the countrey.—from Mr. . . . Beeston (Vol. II, p. 225-227)

1662 - Fuller's History of the Worthies of England

"Many were the wet-combats betwixt him [Shakespeare] and Ben Jonson ; which two I behold like a Spanish great galleon and an English man-of-war : master Jonson (like the former) was built far higher in learning ; solid, but slow, in his performances. Shakespeare, with the English man-of-war, lesser in bulk, but lighter in sailing, could turn with all tides, tack about, and take advantage of all winds, by the quickness of his wit and invention" (vol. III, p. 284).

1709. Nicholas Rowe's Some Acount of the Life &c. of Mr. William Shakespear, prefaced to his 1709 edition of the Works. This is an html edition of the first biography of Shakespeare, prefaced to the first critical edition of the Works. I have retained the original spellings and added explanatory notes. This was the standard Life throughout the Eighteenth Century and is the foundation for all Shakespeare biography.

The
Authorship
"Problem"

Top

Graphic: Prudentia! Dr. Schoenbaum, in his famous Shakespeare's Lives, described the section of his book devoted to anti-Stratfordian authorship ("Part VI: Deviations") as " ...the cruelest endeavor I have ever confronted....The voluminousness of output is matched only by the intrinsic insubstantiality of most of it, two characteristics which together produce an overpowering effect." (Oxford U. Press, 1991, p.449). The "controversy" has spilled over to the web, and here are the best links I could find. However, some of the best biographical resources relating to Shakespeare are mounted at some of these "unorthodox" sites (which is why the links have been placed on this page and not the "Works" page.

The Pro-Shakespeare Authorship Page. Most of us think it manifest that Shakespeare wrote Shakespeare, and think it not worth the effort to argue the point with those who don't. Not so Dave Kathman and Terry Ross. Here is the pro-Avon-man's point of view. One can only marvel at these two fearless adventurers on setting forth.
How We Know That Shakespeare Wrote Shakespeare: The Historical Facts by Tom Reedy and David Kathman. I have placed these two excellent resources first in hopes of saving some oceans of time over this non-issue.
Here is today's main opposing viewpoint from The Shakespeare Oxford Society A very nice site, with some links to interesting information. If you lean towards controversy, check it out. Be aware, if you are a newcomer, though, that Bacon, a consortia of nobles, and even Queen Bes herself have been leading candidates for the authorship prize. These things wax and wane with the fashion.
Alan Nelson's set of links dedicated to the authorship debate. See especially Nelson's Eight Witnesses to Shakespeare.
The gorgeous and fascinating Frontline presentation of The Shakespeare Mystery, and the very lively viewer feedback.
The Case for Shakespeare by Irvin Matus, a substantial and interesting article presenting the orthodox point of view, from Atlantic Unbound. Matus has written a follow up article answering Oxfordian objections in Reply by Matus.
An overview of Shakespeare's Authorship from the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust.
Truth vs. Theory from City Journal, which comes down on the side of the real author.
The Shakespeare Authorship Question by T.L. Hubeart Jr., a brief overview of the standard point of view.
Rogues, Vagabonds & Sturdy Beggars: A Beginners Guide to the Shakespeare Authorship Mystery.
Weighing in on the problem is Randall Barron who has published a book-length treatise on the Internet called The True Shakespeare.
Delia Bacon
Delia Bacon was the originator of the Bacon wrote Shakespeare fallacy, first set forth in The Philosophy of the Plays of Shakspere Unfolded, 1857. The work is available in multiple formats from the Internet Archive. The work is dense, obscure and, well, insane. Believe it or not, the preface to it was written by Nathaniel Hawthorne. More details, by a sad and sympathetic Theodore Bacon, can be found in Delia Bacon, A Biographical Sketch, 1888. After propounding her theory, Delia Bacon lapsed into obscure insanity, confined to a sanatorium where she died in 1859, "believing she was the Holy Ghost."
In 1918 J. Thomas Looney first put forward, in Shakespeare Identified, the idea that the author of Shakespeare's works was the 17th Earl of Oxford, Edward de Vere.
It is not good to encourage this sort of thing, but it must be noted that some of the most interesting people have thought Shakespeare not to have written Shakespeare. Among them Sigmund Freud, Malcolm X, and, in this very enjoyable essay "Is Shakespeare Dead?" Mark Twain.
Since I have included the Twain essay, I might as well (against my better judgment, but for the sake of completeness) include material supporting the Francis Bacon cryptography school of authorship attribution. This site, in spite of its bias, contains a great deal of important, original documentation.
Another similar site goes uner the modest title of the Shakespeare Authorship Information Centre.
Another Baconian site, certainly the most entertaining of all, but....
Further Bacononian dilations: Who wrote the Works?
A Baconian parody (about time, too) from the esteemed Sir Walter Murdoch: A Question Settled.
A case for Marlowe. Carolyn Gage's Meeting the Ghost of Hamlet's Father in On The Issues, the progressive woman's quarterly.
The Many Shakespeares from HistoryNet. A lengthy article (from British Heritage ezine), with sidebars on the Shakespeare monument, the Droeshout portrait, and related Shakespeare links.
The Ghost of Shakespeare. An interesting and provocative summing up, from Harper's Magazine.
Time Magazine weighs in: The Bard's Beard.
Scott, Gray. Signifying Nothing? A Secondary Analysis of the Claremont Authorship Debates, EMLS 12.2.
A web site dedicated to Robin P. Williams' book Sweet Swan of Avon: Did a Woman Write Shakespeare, wherein he argues for Mary Sidney Herbert as the author of some of the works.
St. Edmund's Secret: The Case for Edmund Campion as the Author of Shakespeare. Why not?
The Master of Shakespeare. This is a sales site for the book of the same title, whose thesis is that Fulke Greville authored the Sonnets and attributed them to his townsman. More nonsense.
Much Ado About Something, a PBS Frontline documentary examining the Marlovian theories, notable for its inclusion of an interview with Jonathan Bate who tries to set things straight.
Ashhurst, Richard Lewis. Contemporary Evidence of Shakespeare's Identity, 1903, from Google Book Search, full view and PDF. Righting the wrongs of wild speculators is an old, old story.