by the poet's father against John Lambert in the Court of Queen's Bench, 1589. There is no evidence that William was at Stratford at the time of the negotiations. In this same year, 1587, no less than five companies of actors visited Stratford-on-Avon, including the Queen's Players and those of Lord Essex, Leicester, and Stafford. Between the years 1576 and 1587, with the exception of the year 1578, the town was yearly visited by companies. of players.

It may be inferred that these visits of the actors to Stratford stimulated Shakespeare's latent genius for the drama, and so caused him, under stress of circumstances, to seek his fortunes with the London players. According to a well-authenticated tradition, borne out by allusions in his own writings, the direct cause of his leaving Stratford was the well-known poaching incident-the deer-stealing from the park of Sir Thomas Lucy at Charlecote, about four miles from Stratford. "For this" (according to Rowe's account in 1709) "he was prosecuted by that gentleman, as he thought, somewhat too severely; and in order to revenge that ill-usage be made a ballad upon him, and though this, probably the first essay of his poetry, be lost, yet it is said to have been so very bitter that it redoubled the prosecution against him to that degree that he was obliged to leave his business. and family in Warwickshire and shelter himself in London." It is just possible that the lampoon on Lucy may be more or less preserved in the following rather poor verses, recorded by Oldys, on the authority of a very aged gentleman living in the neighbourhood of Stratford, where he died in 1703:—

"A parliament member, a justice of peace,

At home a poor scare-crow, at London an asse:
If lousy is Lucy, as some volk miscall it,
Then Lucy is lousy, whatever befall it:
He thinks himself great,

Yet an ass in his state

We allow by his ears but with asses to mate.
If Lucy is lousy, as some volk miscall it,
Sing lousy Lucy, whatever befall it."

It is noteworthy that Sir Thomas Lucy was a bitter persecutor of those who secretly favoured the old Faith, and acted as Chief Commissioner for the County of Warwick, "touching all such persons as either have been presented, or have been otherwise found out to be Jesuits, seminary priests, fugitives, or recusants

or

vehemently suspected of such." In the second return, dated 1592, John Shakespeare's name is included among nine who "it is said come not to church for fear of proc

ess of debt," but he was possibly under suspicion for some worse fault.

We have no separate information concerning Shakespeare between 1587 and 1592, and we cannot fix with absolute certainty the date of his leaving Stratford; but in all probability it may safely be assigned to 1585-7. He may have been in London at the time of the national mourning for Sir Philip Sidney at the end of 1586, and may even have seen the famous funeral procession. It

should, however, be noted that, so far as the stage was concerned, there was no employment in town for Shakespeare during 1586, when the theatres were closed owing to the prevalence of the plague.

The traditional accounts of his first connection with the theatres are evidently fairly authentic:-In “Aubrey's Lives of Eminent Men" (c. 1680) it is stated that "this Wm. 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." The old parish clerk of Stratford narrated in 1693, being about eighty years old at the time, that "this Shakespeare was formerly in this town apprentice to a butcher, but that he ran from his master to London, and there was received into the play-house as a serviture, and by this means had an opportunity to be what he afterwards proved." Rowe's account (1709) is even more likely :— "He was received into the company then in being, at first, in a very mean rank; but his admirable wit, and the natural turn of it to the stage, soon distinguished him, if not as an extraordinary actor, yet as an excellent writer." In 1753 the compiler of the "Lives of the Poets" states that Shakespeare's "first expedient was to wait at the door of the play-house, and hold the horses of those that had no servants, that they might be ready again after the performance." Rowe does not mention this tradition, though he is said to have received it from Betterton, who heard it from D'Avenant. Dr. Johnson elaborated the story, adding, we know not on what authority, that "he became so conspicuous for his care and readiness that in a short time every man as he alighted called for Will Shakespeare, and scarcely any other waiter was trusted with a horse while Will Shakespeare could be had. This was the first dawn of better fortune. Shakespeare, finding more horses put into his hand than he could hold, hired boys to wait under his inspection, who, when Will Shakespeare was summoned, were immediately to present

themselves: 'I am Shakespeare's boy, sir.' In time Shakespeare found higher employment; but as long as the practice of riding to the play-house continued, the waiters that held the horses retained the appellation of Shakespeare's boys." According to another tradition, recorded by Malone (1780), “his first office in the theatre was that of prompter's attendant."

It is assumed that soon after his arrival in London Shakespeare became connected with one of the two London theatres, viz. "The Theatre," in Shoreditch, built by James Burbage, father of the great actor Richard Burbage, in 1576; or "The Curtain," in Moorfields-the second play-house, built about the same time (the name survives in Curtain Road, Shoreditch: both play-houses were built on sites outside the civic jurisdiction, the City Fathers having no sympathy with stage-plays. In all probability the former was the scene of Shakespeare's earliest activity, in whatever capacity it may have been. Shakespeare may have belonged, from the first, to Lord Leicester's Company, of which we know he soon became an important member, and with which, under various patrons, his dramatic career was to be associated. It is noteworthy that in 1587 the Earl of Leicester's men visited Stratford-on-Avon. In this same year, 1587, when the Admiral's men re-opened after the plague Marlowe's Tamberlaine was among the plays produced by them.

1588. In September of this year the Earl of Leicester died, and his company of actors found a new patron in Ferdinando, Lord Strange, who became Earl of Derby on September 25, 1592.

1589. On August 23, Greene's novel "Menaphon" was entered on the Stationers' Registers, and was soon issued, with a preface by the satirist Tom Nash, containing a reference to "a sort of shifting companions that run through every art and thrive by none to leave the trade of Noverint (i.e. scrivener) whereto they were born,

and busy themselves with the endeavours of art that could scarcely latinize their neck-verse, if they should have need: yet English Seneca, read by candle light, yields many good sentences, Blood in a Beggar, and so forth; if you intreat him fair in a frostie morning, he will afford you whole Hamlets, I should say handfulls of tragical speeches, &c." This is the best evidence we have for the existence of a lost play on "Hamlet" at this early. date its author was almost certainly Thomas Kyd (born 1558, died 1594), famous as the author of "The Spanish Tragedy." In Menaphon Greene indulges in his sarcastic references to Marlowe, which are also found in his Perimedes the Blacksmith (1588). Peele, on the other hand, was held up, in Nash's Preface, as primus verborum artifex. It is clear that at this time Greene regarded Marlowe and Kyd as dangerous rivals; Shakespeare was not yet an object of fear. Greene was chief writer for the Queen's men, Marlowe and Kyd for Lord Pembroke's, Peele was joining Greene's company, leaving the Admiral's.

1591. In this year Florio, subsequently the translator of Montaigne's Essays, published Second Fruites—a book of Italian-English dialogues. A sonnet entitled Phaeton to his friend Florio may possibly have been written by Shakespeare; but there is no direct evidence.

In this year the Queen's players made their last appearance at Court; Lord Strange's men made the first of their many appearances at Court.

"The Troublesome Raigne of King John," the original of King John, was published this year; it was reissued in 1611 as written by " W. Sh.," and in 1622 as by "W. Shakespeare.”

1592. On February 19, Lord Strange's men opened the Rose Theatre on Bankside, erected by Philip Henslowe, theatrical speculator. It would appear that they had generally acted at the Cross Keys, an inn-yard