William 1564-1616 Shakespeare

Connection with the Chamberlain's Company of Actors. —From the reopening of the theatres in the summer of 1594 onwards Shakespeare's status is in many ways clearer. He had certainly become a leading member of the Chamberlain's company by the following winter, when his name appears for the first and only time in the treasurer of the chamber's accounts as one of the recipients of payment for their performances at court ; and there is every reason to suppose that he continued to act with and write for the same associates to the close of his career. The history of the company may be briefly told. At the death of the lord chamberlain on July 22, 1596, it passed under the protec tion of his successor, George, 2nd Lord Hunsdon, and once more became "the Lord Chamberlain's men" when he was appointed to that office on March 17, 1597. James I. on his accession took this company under his patronage as grooms of the chamber, and during the remainder of Shakespeare's connection with the stage they were "the King's men." The records of performances at court show that they were by far the most favoured of the com panies, their nearest rivals being the company known during the reign of Elizabeth as "the Admiral's," and afterwards as "Prince Henry's men." From the summer of 1594 to March 1603 they appear to have played almost continuously in London, although they undertook a provincial tour during the autumn of 1597, when the London theatres were for a short time closed owing to the interference of some of the players in politics. They travelled again during 1603 when the plague was in London, and during at any rate portions of the summers or autumns of most years thereafter. In 1594 they were playing at Newington Butts, and probably afterwards at the Cross Keys in the city. It is natural to suppose that in later years they used the Theatre in Shoreditch, since this was the property of James Burbadge, the father of their principal actor, Richard Burbadge. The Theatre was pulled down in 1598, and, after a short interval during which the com pany may have played at the Curtain, also in Shoreditch, Rich ard Burbadge and his brother Cuthbert rehoused them in the Globe on Bankside, built in part out of the materials of the Theatre. Here the profits of the enterprise were divided between the members of the company as such and the owners of the build ing as "housekeepers," and shares in the "house" were held by Shakespeare and some of his leading "fellows." About 1608 an other playhouse became available for the company in the "pri vate" or winter house of the Blackfriars. This was also the property of the Burbadges, but had previously been leased to a company of boy players. A somewhat similar arrangement as to profits was made.

Shakespeare is reported by Aubrey to have been a good actor, but Adam in As You Like It, and the Ghost in Hamlet indicate the type of part which he played. As a dramatist, however, he was the mainstay of the company for at least some 15 years, during which Ben Jonson, Dekker, Beaumont and Fletcher, and Tourneur also contributed to their repertory. On an average he must have written for them about two plays a year, although his rapidity of production seems to have been greatest during the opening years of the period. He sometimes took his plots from earlier plays, but any theory which represents him as largely a "patcher" of the work of other men, or of his own, is open to grave doubt.

Similarly, while the texts of his plays contain some theatrical interpolations, there is no reason to suppose that they were sub stantially revised by other hands before the Restoration. Occa sionally he may have entered into collaboration, as, for example, at the end of his career, with Fletcher.

Stratford Affairs.

In a worldly sense he clearly flourished, and about 1596, if not earlier, he was able to resume relations as a moneyed man with Stratford-on-Avon. There is no evidence to show whether he had visited the town in the interval, or whether he had brought his wife and family to London. His son Hamnet died and was buried at Stratford in 1596. During the last ten years John Shakespeare's affairs had remained unprosperous. He incurred debts, partly through becoming surety for his brother Henry; and in 1592 his name was included in a list of recusants dwelling at or near Stratford-on-Avon, with a note by the commis sioners that in his case the cause was believed to be the fear of process for debt. There is no reason to doubt this explanation, or to seek a religious motive in John Shakespeare's abstinence from church. William Shakespeare's purse must have made a consider able difference. The prosecutions for debt ceased, and in 1597 a fresh action was brought in Chancery for the recovery of the Wilmcote property from the Lamberts. Like the last, it seems to have been without result. Another step was taken to secure the dignity of the family by an application in the course of 1596 to the heralds for the confirmation of a coat of arms said to have been granted to John Shakespeare while he was bailiff of Strat ford. The bearings were or on a bend sable a spear or steeled argent, the crest a falcon his wings displayed argent supporting a spear or steeled argent, and the motto Non sanz droict. The grant was duly made, and in 1599 there was a further application for leave to impale the arms of Arden, in right of Shakespeare's mother. No use, however, of the Arden arms by the Shake speares can be traced. In 1597 Shakespeare made an important purchase for £6o of the house and gardens of New Place in Chapel street. This was one of the largest houses in Stratford, and its acquisition an obvious triumph for the ex-poacher. Pre sumably John Shakespeare ended his days in peace. A visitor to his shop remembered him as "a merry-cheekt old man" always ready to crack a jest with his son. He died in 1601, and his wife in 1608, and the Henley street houses passed to Shakespeare. Aubrey records that he paid annual visits to Stratford, and there is evidence that he kept in touch with the life of the place. The correspondence of his neighbours, the Quineys, in 1598 con tains an application to him for a loan to Richard Quiney upon a visit to London, and a discussion of possible investments for him in the neighbourhood of Stratford. In 1602 he took, at a rent of 2S. 6d. a year, a copyhold cottage in Chapel lane, perhaps for the use of his gardener. In the same year he invested £320 in the purchase of an estate consisting of 107 acres in the open fields of Old Stratford, together with 20 acres of pasture and common rights; and in 1605 he spent another £440 in the out standing term of a lease of certain tithes in Stratford parish, which brought in an income of about £6o a year.