In May, 1583, our poet's wife brought him a daughter, who was named Susanna; a name which she, perhaps, derived from Mrs. Susanna Collins, the wife of Mr. Francis Collins, already mentioned; and, about eighteen months afterwards, she was delivered of twins, a son and a daughter, who were baptized (Feb. 2, 1584-5) by the names of Hamnet and Judith. Shakspeare's friend, Mr. Hamnet Sadler, and his wife, Judith Sadler, were, without doubt, sponsors to these children. Our author's wife does not appear to have ever brought him another child. SECTION VIII. 4 The course of the present narrative now leads us to advert to a circumstance, in our poet's life, of the utmost moment; since to it, if the tradition is to be trusted, we are indebted for his removal from Stratford to London, and for the rich legacy which, in consequence of his connexion with the stage, he afterwards bequeathed to posterity; and, if it be a mere fiction, it is the bounden duty of the historian The ancient register of Billesley is also lost. It is observable, that our poet's grand-daughter was married to her second husband in the church of Billesley (which is but three miles from Stratford); perhaps, in consequence of her grandfather's having been married there. 4 In consequence of a mistake committed by the late Rev. Joseph Green, in making an extract from the register of the parish of Stratford, which he gave to the late Mr. James West, in 1770, our poet's only son was, for a long time, erroneously supposed to have been baptized by the name of Samuel. His true name I recovered from the register. of his life, minutely and explicitly to refute an unfounded calumny. The deviation from truth which the inquiries I have made have enabled me to detect, in several received accounts concerning our poet and his family, which, for a century, have been considered as authentick, did not originally much incline me to place an implicit confidence in the traditionary tale which I am now to relate and a minute examination of it has, by no means, contributed to give it any additional support. I do not, however, mean to shake the credit of all traditionary evidence. There is, certainly, a great difference between traditions; and some are much more worthy of credit than others. Where a tradition has been handed down, by a very industrious and careful inquirer, who has derived it from persons most likely to be accurately informed concerning the fact related, and subjoins his authority, such a species of tradition must always carry great weight along with it. For the tradition which I am now to mention, we have no such authority. Our poet, we are told, at some period in his youth, gave Sir Thomas Lucy, a gentleman who lived about five miles from Stratford, such offence, that he was obliged, on this account, to quit his native country, and to seek a refuge in London. "He had," says Mr. Rowe, "by a misfortune common enough to young fellows, fallen into ill company; and, amongst them, some that made a frequent practice of deer-stealing, engaged him, more than once, in robbing a park that belonged to Sir Thomas Lucy, of Charlecote, near Stratford. For this, he was prosecuted by that gentleman, as he thought, somewhat too severely; and, in order to revenge the ill-usage, he 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, for some time, and shelter himself in London." Such is the tale which was transmitted to Mr. Rowe, near a century after the death of our author. 5 Probably by Mr. Betterton, who made a journey to Stratford, to collect information respecting our poet. In the manuscript papers of the late Mr. Oldys, as Mr. Steevens relates, "it is said that one Boman (according to Chetwood, p. 143, an actor more than half an age on the London theatres '), was unwilling to allow that his associate and contemporary, Betterton, had ever undertaken this journey." This assertion of Mr. Oldys appears to me altogether unworthy of credit, not that I believe he meant to deceive, but he certainly must have misapprehended Mr. Boman. Why any doubt should be insinuated, or entertained, concerning Mr. Betterton's having visited Stratford, after Rowe's positive assertion that he did so, it is not easy to conceive. Mr. Rowe did not go there himself; and how could he have collected the few circumstances relative to Shakspeare and his family, which he has told, if he had not obtained information from some friend, who examined the register of the parish of Stratford, and made personal inquiries on the subject? "Boman," we are told, "was unwilling to believe," &c. But the fact disputed did not require any exercise of his belief. Mr. Boman, who died in 1739, near eighty years old, was married to the daughter of Sir Francis Watson, Bart. the gentleman with whom Betterton joined in an adventure to the East Indies, whose name the writer of Betterton's Life, in the Biographia Britannica, has so studiously concealed. By that unfortunate scheme, Betterton lost above 2000l.; Dr. Ratcliffe, 6000l. ; and Sir Francis Watson, his whole fortune. On his death, soon after the year 1692, Mr. Betterton generously took his daughter under his protection, and There is nothing in which stories of this kind are more deficient than dates. Their relaters seldom descend to such minute particulars, for special good reasons; or rather, most carefully avoid them; and we are generally left, as in the present case, to find out, as we can, the time when the supposed fact happened. Allowing, for a moment, its reality, it cannot, with probability, be supposed to have happened till some years after our poet's marriage, and after his wife had borne him three children; for those children were born and baptized at Stratford. Sir Thomas Lucy, and Sir Fulk Greville, the elder, we shall presently find, were chosen arbitrators, to make an award, in a suit between our poet's friend, Hamnet Sadler, and Ananias Nason (a farmer), in January, 1583-4. At that time, therefore, we may be certain, Sir Thomas Lucy had not exercised any severity against Shakspeare; for, had that been the case, his friend would not have chosen the knight as an arbitrator, or, if he was named by his opponent, have submitted to such a nomination. Mr. Rowe is, I believe, the first person who has mentioned this story in print; but I have found it noticed, with some exaggeration, among the manuscript collections of an industrious and very learned antiquary of the last century, Mr. William Fulman, educated her in his house. Here Boman married her; from which period he continued to live in the most friendly correspondence with Mr. Betterton, and must have known whether he went to Stratford or not. ❝ See an account of him in Wood's Ath. Oxon. ii. 823, edit. 1721. He was born at Penshurst, in Kent, in 1632, and elected which are preserved in the archives of Corpus Christi College, in Oxford. Among Mr. Fulman's various and valuable literary stores, are found some biographical notices concerning the most eminent English poets. His researches appear to have been begun about the year 1670. At his death, which happened in 1688, he bequeathed his papers to his friend, Mr. Richard Davies, of Sandford, in Oxfordshire, rector of Saperton, in Gloucestershire, and archdeacon of Lichfield, who made several additions to the labours of Mr. Fulman; and, on his death, in the year 1707, their united collections were given to the college above-mentioned, by Mr. Wood, executor to Archdeacon Davies. Under the article Shakspeare, Mr. Fulman has left little more than the dates of his birth a scholar of Corpus Christi College in 1647. Being afterwards ejected by the parliamentarian visitors, he became tutor to the children of Mr. Peto, of Chesterton, in Warwickshire, where, for seven years, he found a comfortable retreat during the Usurpation. After the Restoration, he was elected a fellow of Corpus Christi College, and was presented by the president and fellows of his house to the rectory of Moysey Hampton, near Fairford, in Gloucestershire, where he died (" to the reluctancy," says Wood, of many learned men ") June 28, 1688. The Life of Charles the First, which goes under the name of Dr. Richard Perenchief, was compiled from the papers of this learned man. Having, in his youth, been amanuensis to Dr. Hammond, The Whole Duty of Man has been, without sufficient foundation, ascribed to him, among many others. Anthony Wood derived much information from him, as appears by several of his letters to Mr. Fulman; whose biographical collections he much laments that he was not permitted to peruse. 7 This place has been celebrated by Pope : "From Cotswold hills to Saperton's fair dale." |