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1564. In the Parish Register preserved in the Church of the Holy Trinity, Straford-on-Avon, Warwickshire, is enshrined the following brief record of Shakespeare's nativity-the entry of his baptism, which, it may be assumed, took place during the first week of the child's life:

1564. April 26. Gulielmus filius Johannes Shakspere. A fairly old tradition fixes April 22 or 23 as the poet's birthday; the latter date, the day of St. George, Eng

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(Facsimile of the Registry of Shakespeare's Baptism.)

land's patron saint, is fittingly associated with the birth of England's national poet.

The researches of generations of students have put us in possession of many minute facts connected with Shakespeare's family history, with the environments of his early life, and with the various elements that may have contributed to the fostering of his mighty intellect.

The "Johannes Shakespeare," William Shakespeare's father, mentioned in the entry of baptism, was a person of importance in the borough at the time of the birth of his first son and third child. The son of Richard Shakespeare, a farmer of Snitterfield, a village about three miles distant, he appears to have settled at Stratford about 1551, and to have traded in all sorts of agricultural produce and the like. The municipal books attest his growing prosperity, though the earliest notice, in April 1552, refers to a fine paid by him for having a dirt-heap before his house in Henley Street. Successively "ale-taster," town councillor, one of the four constables of the courtleet, affeeror (i.e. an.assessor of fines for offences not expressly penalised by statute), chamberlain, he attained to the rank of alderman in 1565, head-bailiff in 1568, and chief alderman in 1571.

John Shakespeare's prosperity seems to date from the time of his marriage, in 1557, with Mary, youngest daughter of Robert Arden, a wealthy farmer of Wilmcote, Aston Cantlowe, near Stratford, probably distantly connected with the ancient and distinguished Arden family of Warwickshire. Robert Arden possessed property at Snitterfield, and among his tenants there was Richard Shakespeare, John's father. Mary Arden was the youngest of seven daughters; her father, dying in 1556, left her the chief property at Wilmcote, called Ashbies, extending to fifty-four acres, together with a sum of money; she had also an interest in some property at Snitterfield; with her sister Alice she was appointed executrix of her father's will.

On September 15, 1558, their first child, Joan, was baptised in the church of Holy Trinity; the second, Margaret, on December 2, 1562; both children died in infancy.

Two or three months after the birth of their third child, William, a terrible plague ravaged Stratford.

The birth-place of the poet was in one of two adjoining houses in Henley Street, possibly in the room now shown to reverent pilgrims. Of the two houses upon the

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north side of the street, the one on the east was purchased by John Shakespeare in 1556, but that on the west (though there is nothing connecting it with him before 1575) has been known from time immemorial" as "Shakespeare's Birthplace," perhaps from the circumstance of its being occupied until 1806 by descendants of the poet.

1568-9. As bailiff, John Shakespeare entertained actors at Stratford, the Queen's and Earl of Worcester's companies evidently for the first time in the history of the town.

1571. At the age of seven, according to the custom of the time, William Shakespeare's school-life probably began: he no doubt entered the Free Grammar School at Stratford, known as "the King's New School." The teaching at the school during Shakespeare's schoolcourse was under efficient control; Walter Roche, Fellow of Corpus Christi College, and rector of Clifford, was appointed master in 1570, and Thomas Hunt, curate (and subsequently vicar) of the neighbouring village of Luddington, held the office in 1577.

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Court yard of the Grammar School, Stratford.
(From an engraving by Fairholt.)

1575. Queen Elizabeth visited the Earl of Leicester at Kenilworth. William may have witnessed the Kenilworth festivities; in the next year two accounts were published (cp. Preface to Midsummer Night's Dream).

1577-8. About this time William was removed from school, owing to his father's financial difficulties. Fourteen was the usual age for boys to leave school and commence apprenticeship, if they were not preparing for a scholarly career.

The Stratford records give us the clearest evidence that John Shakespeare's prosperity had come to an end: his attendance at the council meetings became more and more irregular, and he was unable to pay, in 1578, an assessment of fourpence weekly for the relief of the poor levied on the aldermen of the borough, and in 1579 a levy for the purchase of weapons. In the former year he was forced to mortgage "the land in Wilmcote called Ashbies" for £40 to Edmund Lambert, his brother-in-law, to revert if repayment were made before Michaelmas 1580: in the latter year, their interest in the Snitterfield property was sold for £40 to Robert Webbe (Alexander Webbe was the husband of Agnes Arden, Shakespeare's aunt). Towards Michaelmas 1580 John Shakespeare sought to redeem the Wilmcote estate from Edmund Lambert, but his proposal was rejected on the plea that there were other unsecured debts.

On September 6, 1586, John Shakespeare was deprived of his position on the council, on the ground that he "doth not come to the halls when warned, nor hath not done of long time." About this time he lost an action brought against him by one John Brown, and it is reported that "predictus Johannes Shackspere nihil habet unde distringi potest," i.e. "the aforesaid John Shakspeare has no goods on which distraint can be levied."

There were in all eight children born to John Shakespeare: Two daughters who died in infancy; William; Gilbert, baptised October 13, 1566 (living at Stratford in 1609); Joan, baptised April 15, 1569, married William Hart of Stratford (died in 1646); Anne, baptised September 28, 1571 (died in 1579); Richard, baptised March II, 1574 (died at Stratford in 1613); Edmund, baptised May 3, 1580 (became an actor, and died in London in December 1607).

Nothing is definitely known concerning William's occupation on his withdrawal from school. The oldest local tradition seems to point to his being apprenticed to "a

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