written what his brother could not understand. His eldest son too, Richard Quiney, who afterwards became a grocer in London, but returned finally to his native town, where he died in 1656, sent his father, whilst he was employed in the metropolis on the business of the corporation, a Latin letter, which, though it had been required as an exercise from his master, it would have been ridiculous to send to one who could not read it *. In the school of Stratford, therefore, we have no reason to suppose that Shakspeare was outstripped by his contemporaries. Even Ben Jonson, who undoubtedly was inclined rather to depreciate than over-rate his rival's literary talents, allows, that he had some Latin. Dr. Farmer, indeed, has proved, by unanswerable arguments, that he was furnished by translations with most of those topicks which for half a century had been urged as indisputable proofs of his erudition. But though his Essay is decisive in this respect, it by no means proves that he had not acquired, at the school of Stratford, a moderate knowledge of Latin, though perhaps he never attained such a mas The writing of Latin letters to their fathers, appears to have been a common exercise enjoined to the scholars of Shakspeare's age. Thus in the Mastive, or Young Whelp of the Old Dogge [a collection of epigrams and satires], 4to. 1615, Signat. D. verso: "Who dares say Doltas speaketh barbarisme, 5" Essay on the Learning of Shakspeare, by the Rev. Richard Farmer, B. D." 8vo. 1767. tery of that language as to read it without the occasional aid of a dictionary. Like many other scholars who have not been thoroughly grounded in the ancient tongues, from desuetude in the progress of life, he probably found them daily more difficult; and hence, doubtless, indolence led him rather to English translations, than the original authors, of whose works he wished to avail himself in his dramatick compositions on which occasion he was certainly too careless minutely to examine whether particular passages were faithfully rendered or not. That such a mind as his was not idle or incurious, and that at this period of his life he perused several of the easier Latin classicks, cannot, I think, reasonably be doubted; though perhaps he never attained a facility of reading those authors with whom he had not been familiarly acquainted at school. From Lilly's Grammar, which we know furnished him with the rudiments of the Latin tongue, and a small manual, entitled Pueriles, See the Dedication prefixed to his Arthur Gorges' Translation of Lucan, by his son Carew Gorges, folio, 1614. "I remember this sentence in my Pueriles, Voluntas ubi desunt vires, est laudanda, &c." From Peele's historical play of Edward I. 4to. 1593, if he did not intend a blunder, Pueriles and Cato's Moral Distichs should seem to have been the same book, with a double title: "It is an old sayde saying I remember I redde it in Catoes Pueriles, that cantabit vacuus," &c. But Drayton mentions them as different: "And when that once Pueriles I had read, Epistle to Henry Reynolds, Esq. Tully's Offices was at that period a common school-book. "Whereunto (says Peacham) I might add Gyges' Ring and his [Tully's] Offices, which booke, let it not seeme contemptible and the Moral Distichs of Cato, he proceeded, as was the fashion of that age, after reading Tully's Offices, to the Eclogues of Baptista Mantuanus 7, and those of Virgil; and from thence, probably, to Cornelius Nepos, some parts of Ovid (whom he has cited in the Taming of the Shrew, and from whom he has taken the motto prefixed to his first publication), and finally, perhaps, to the Æneid of Virgil. Such I imagine was the progress, and the extent of his scholastick attainment. He needed not, however, as Dryden has well observed, "the spectacles of books" to read men; and I have no doubt, that even from his youth he was a curious and diligent observer of the manners and characters, not only of his young associates, but of all around him; a study in which, unquestionably, he took great delight, and pursued with avidity during the whole course of his future life. That his father was compelled by the narrowness of his circumstances, and the want of his son's assistance at home, to withdraw him from school, at least before unto you, because it lyeth tossed and torne in every schoole." Comp. Gent. 4to. 1622, p. 45. Lord Burghley, Peacham tells us, was so fond of Tully's Offices, that he always carried that book in his pocket. Drayton's Epistle, above quoted, furnishes us with the first poetry then put into the hands of learners; Mantuan, and the Eclogues of Virgil. For the method of teaching then adopted by school-masters, see Mount Tabor, or Private Exercises of a Penitent Sinner, 8vo. 1639, p. 10, by R. W. [i. e. R. Wallis,] Esq. The author was, like Shakspeare, born in 1564. 7 Of this author, then very popular, he has quoted the first line in Love's Labour's Lost. year the year 1578, to which period I suppose him to have remained there, though it is asserted by Mr. Rowe, no sufficient proof has been produced. At the free school of Stratford he was entitled to a gratuitous education; and he certainly could be of no great use to his father, before he had attained the fourteenth of his age. He had, it should be remembered, three brothers: Gilbert, who was born in October, 1566, and without doubt derived his Christian name from Gilbert Bradley, a glover, who lived in the same street with John Shakspeare, and who was chosen a burgess on the same day that our poet's father was elected an alderman ; Richard, baptized March 11th, 1573, whose godfather was probably Richard Hill, one of the aldermen of Stratford, and, I believe, related by marriage to his wife; and Edmond, who was baptized May 3, 1580, and, doubtless, derived his baptismal name from his father's friend, Mr. Edmond Lambarte, with whom at that time he appears to have been on amicable terms, though a few months afterwards a breach took place between them. Gilbert, the second son, was little more than two years younger than our poet, and, at the time now under our consideration, was as capable 8 Having found the will of Mr. Richard Hall in the Prerogative Office (which was made May 16, 1590, and proved Feb. 8, 1593-4, in the beginning of which year he died), I hoped to have been able to ascertain this circumstance; but was disappointed. He bequeaths "to every god child that he then had, 12d.," but does not mention any of them specifically by name. On an action on the case being brought in the bailiff's court against our poet's father, by Mr. Nicholas Lane, in Hilary term, 29 Eliz. [1587], Mr. Richard Hill entered into a special bailbond for the appearance of the defendant. of carrying out parcels of gloves for his father (all that a boy could do) as his elder brother. For this purpose, therefore, it was not necessary to impede the progress of the eldest son's education. Instead of being brought home to assist his father in trade, various passages in his works incline me to believe, that our poet's ardent curiosity about that period, led him frequently to attend the court of record, which sat at Stratford once a fortnight; in which the bailiff, with the assistance of the steward, or town clerk, who was always a legal practitioner, heard and determined all causes arising within the jurisdiction of the borough, where the matter in contest did not amount to thirty pounds. In this court the proceedings appear to have been very regular and orderly; they had their appearances, their essoins, their imparlances, their demurrers, their issues knit, and their trials by jury, all in proper form. There were at that time, in Stratford, at least six attorneys who practised in this court, beside Mr. Henry Rogers, the steward or town-clerk ', who was also an attorney. Mr. Henry Rogers was town clerk of Stratford in 1577, and continued to hold that office till Michaelmas, 1586. This officer was called town-clerk at a very early period; Mr. Richard Symons being so described in the account of the proceedings of the leet, October 5, 1554. Afterwards he was called steward, which name he uniformly bore from 1570 to 1610, when Mr. Thomas Greene, a solicitor in chancery, and a relation of our poet, is stated in the chamberlain's account to receive his salary by the name of town-clerk. From that time the two names were indiscriminately used. Sir Hugh Clopton, who filled the office in 1705, signs himself seneschallus. The salary of the office was then 107. a year. |