The first indisputable fact in Shakespeare's life after leaving school is that of his marriage, which occurred when lie was between eighteen and nineteen years old. The bride, An Hatha way, was about eight years older, as she died August 6, 1623, at the age of sixty-seven. She was the daughter of a farmer in Shottery, village about a mile from Stratford. The house in which he lived was bought in 1892 for preservation as a memorial of the poet. The house in Stratford in which he was born had been similarly secured as a public trust in 1848. The marriage was probably solemnized early in December, 1582, and in one of the neighboring parishes. the rec ords of which have been lost. The date is ap proximately fixed by a bond authorizing the marriage "with once asking of the bans," which is still extant in the Episcopal archives of Worcester, the diocese to which Stratford and Shottery belonged. This bond is dated November 28, 1582. A daughter was born to the young couple the next Slay. She was baptized with the name Susanna on Sunday, May 26, 1583; and twin children, Hamnet and Judith, followed early in 1585 (baptized February 2, 1585), or about two months before their father was twenty one.
Of his life from the date of his marriage to his departure for London nothing further is posi tively known, and the most important tradition of the period is that of his poaching in Sir Thomas Lucy's park at Charlecote, near Strat ford. The strongest argument in its favor is based on the evidence in the plays that Shake speare had a grudge against Lucy, and carica tured him as Justice Shallow in 2 Henry 11'. and The Merry Wires of Windsor. The reference to the 'dozen white Nees' in the latter play (i. 1, 18-22) is palpably meant to suggest the three lutes, or pikes, in the arms of the Lucys; and the manner in which the dialogue dwells on the device indicates that some personal satire was intended. How Shakespeare managed to support his family at this time is doubtful. His father's fortunes were still dwindling, and there were four younger children to be taken care of : Gil bert (born 1566), Joan (1569), Richard (1573), and Edmund (1580). Anne, born in 1571. had died in 1579. The waning of John Shakespeare's fortunes was probably due to the general de pression in business that seems to have affected Stratford at that time.
The date of Shakespeare's leaving Stratford for London cannot be definitely fixed. The poach ing adventure is supposed to have occurred in 1585, and if it drove him from Warwickshire, it was probably in the autumn of that year. The birth of the twins in January, 1585, and the difficulty he finest have had in supporting his increasing family are also iu favor of that date. It was in that year, moreover, that lie came of age, which may have led him to take this serious step in the hope of bettering his fortunes. It is generally agreed that lie left Stratford in 1585 or 1586. What friends or what
employment he found on reaching London we do not know. According to a tradition that cannot be traced further back than -1750, though it is said to have been originally related by Sir Wil liam Davenant a century earlier, his first em ployment in the metropolis was in holding horses at the door of the theatre. Whether it is true or not, we know that the young man soon got into one of the two theatres then established in Lon don—perhaps, as tradition says, in the humble capacity of "prompter's attendant, whose employ ment it was to give the performers notice to be ready to enter" on the stage. Doubtless his abili ties were soon recognized and led to something higher. It could not have been long before he bad begun his career as an actor in small parts and had worked his way up more or less rapidly, but for seven years after he went to London, or from 1585 to 1592, we have no information what ever about him, and tradition is silent except with reference to the very beginning of the period. At last, in 1592, we get a definite reference to him in the literature of the time; and we are indebted for it to the envy and spite of a dis appointed and dying playwright, Robert Greene, who, in the autumn of that year, published a lit tle book entitled Greens Groats-worth of Wit, bought with a Million of Repentance. After re ferring to certain dramatists of the day, Greene turns to the actors, and says: "Yes, trust them not, for there is an upstart crow, beautified with our feathers, that, with his Tygcrs heart Kraut in n Players hide, supposes he is as well able to bombast out a blanke verse as the best of yon; and being an absolute Johannes Factotum, is in his owne conceit the only Shake-scene in a eountrie." The epithet of 'Shake-scene' obvi ously refers to Shakespeare, and the passage im plies that he was both actor and author, and perhaps. as some believe, plagiarist also. The italicized quotation is obviously a parody of '0 tiger's heart wrapp'd in a woman's hide.' in 3 Henry 11. (i. d. 137). an old play in which Greene is assumed to have had a band. and Which was revised by Shakespeare. In December, 1592, Henry Chettle, who had published Greene's pamphlet for him, brought out his own Kind Harts Drrame, in which he refers to Shakespeare thus: "Myselfe have seene his demeanor no less than he exclent in the qualitie he pro fesses; besides, divers of worship have reported his uprightness of dealing, which argues his hon esty, and his facetious [felicitous] grace in writ ing, that approves his art." It is evident from Greene's sneer and Chettle's apology that Shake speare in 1592 was already an actor of some prom inence: that he had begun his career as an author by revising old plays for a new lease of life on the stage; and that he was gaining reputation and making friends.