, was a considerable dealer in wool, and had been an officer and bailiff
, was a considerable dealer in wool, and had
been an officer and bailiff (probably high-bailiff or mayor)
of the body corporate of Stratford. He held also the office
of justice of the peace, and at one time, it is said, possessed
lands and tenements to the amount of 500l. the reward of
his grandfather’s faithful and approved services to king
Henry VII. This, however, has been asserted upon very
doubtful authority. Mr. Malone thinks ft it is highly probable that he distinguished himself in Bosworth field on the
side of king Henry, and that he was rewarded for his military services by the bounty of that parsimonious prince,
though not with a grant of lands. No such grant appears
in the chapel of the Rolls, from the beginning to the end
of Henry’s reign.“But whatever may have been his former wealth, it appears to have been
” greatly reduced in the
latter part of his life, as we find, from the books of the
corporation, that in 1579 he was excused the trifling weekly tax of four-pence levied on all the aldermen; and that
in 1586 another alderman was appointed in his room, in
consequence of his declining to attend on the business of
that office. It is even said by Aubrey, a man sufficiently
accurate in facts, although credulous in superstitious narratives and traditions, that he followed for some time the occupation of a butcher, which Mr. Malone thinks not inconsistent with probability. It must have been, however,
at this time, no inconsiderable addition to his difficulties
that he had a family of ten children. His wife was the
daughter and heiress of Robert Arden, of Wellingcote, in
the county of Warwick, who is styled “a gentleman of
worship.
” The family of Arden is very ancient, Robert
Arden of Bromich, esq. being in the list of the gentry of
this county returned by the commissioners in the twelfth
year of king Henry VI. A. D. 1433. Edward Arden was
sheriff of the county in 1568. The woodland part of this
county was anciently called Ardern, afterwards softened to
Arden; and hence the name.
Our illustrious poet was the eldest son, and received his
early education, whether narrow or liberal, at a free school,
probably that founded at Stratford; but from this he appears
to have been soon removed, and placed, according to Mr.
Malone’s opinion, in the office of some country attorney,
or the seneschal of some manor court, where it is highly
probable he picked up those technical law phrases that so
frequently occur in his plays, and could not have been in
common use unless among professional men. Mr. Capell
conjectures that his early marriage prevented his being sent
to some university. It appears, however, as Dr. Farmer
observes, that his early life was incompatible with a course
of education, and it is certain that “his contemporaries,
friends and foes, nay, and himself likewise, agree in his
want of what is usually termed literature.
” It is, indeed,
a strong argument in favour of Shakspeare’s illiterature,
that it was maintained by all his contemporaries, many of
whom have left upon record every merit they could bestow
on him and by his successors, who lived nearest to his
time, when “his memory was green
” and that it has been
denied only by Gildon, Sewell, and others down to Upton,
who could have no means of ascertaining the truth.