despair of ever being able to obtain any certain intelligence concerning his trade; when, at length, I met with the following entry, in a very ancient manuscript, containing an account of the proceedings in the bailiff's court, which furnished me with the long sought-for information, and ascertains that the trade of our great poet's father was that of a glover. "Stretford, ss. Cur. Phi. et Mariæ Dei gra. &c. secundo et tercio, ibm tent. die Marcurii. videlicet xvij. die Junii, ann. predict. [17 June, 1555,] coram Johni Burbage Ballivo, &c. 66 3 Thomas Siche de Arscotte in com. Wigorn. querit.' versus Johm Shakyspere de Stretford, in Com. Warwic. Glover, in plac. quod reddat ei oct. libras, &c." The tradition that Mr. John Shakspeare was a woolman, or rather a wool-driver, for such was the denomination used at Stratford, in his time, perhaps arose, and certainly derived some little support, from a very slight circumstance. In a window of one of the houses in Stratford, which belonged to him, was formerly a piece of stained glass, now in my possession, on which are painted the arms of the merchant of the staple; and the same arms may be observed 3 Armiscotte, in Worcestershire, was probably the place here meant. I I suppose Arscotte was the usual pronunciation. In the 6th of Elizabeth I find a suit by Richard Hannes of Armyscotte, against John Lord, of Stratford. Arlescote, is a small village near Edghill, in the hundred of Kineton, in Warwickshire; I can find neither Arscote, nor Alescote, in Worcestershire. 4 Barry, Nebule of six argent and gules, on a chief of the second, a lion passant or. on the front of the porch of the chapel at Stratford, built by Sir Hugh Clopton, who was Lord Mayor of London in the time of Henry the Seventh, and a merchant of the staple. But this circumstance, which I formerly mentioned as affording some support to the traditionary tale, must now yield to superior and unquestionable evidence. Expressum facit cessare tacitum, is good sense, as well as good law. This house, as we shall presently see, was purchased by John Shakspeare in 1574, and might have been previously possessed by a dealer in wool; or the stained glass above-mentioned, which, perhaps, in the days of fanaticism and rebellion, was taken out of the ancient chapel of the guild of Stratford, might have been placed there in the middle of the seventeenth century. The trade of a glover, at least in the metropolis, should seem, in the time of Queen Elizabeth, not to have been an unprofitable one; for the demand for this article appears to have been very general. I find there were, at this time, at least five glovers in the town of Stratford, and there may have been others, whose names I have not discovered. Gloves were 5 Thomas Nichols, Gilbert Bradley, John Davies, Richard Radman, John Coxe, and Hyll, were all glovers at Stratford nearly at this period. One or two of them, however, may have been somewhat later. From an accompt made by Richard Hathaway and Wm. Smith, in 1618, it appears that the following seven persons were then glovers in Stratford: George Perry, jun. John Perkins, Henry Hill, Richard Nicholls, John Cawdrey, Augustine Boyse, Michael Hare. Besides these there were at least three other glovers then residing there, viz. John Smith, Robert Butler, and William Shaw, elder brother of Julius Shaw. then a more ornamental part of dress than they are at present; many of them being perfumed, and some decorated with gold. The high-topped gloves of bishops, judges, and others of the graver professions, were frequently trimmed with gold fringe; and on 6 6 their fingers must be deckt with gold, silver, and precious stones, their handes covered with their sweete washed gloves, imbroidered with gold, silver, and what not." Stubbes's Anatomie of Abuses, 8vo. 1583. "Here, hold this glove, this milk-white cheveril glove, "Not quaintly overwrought with curious knots; Cynthia, a collection of Sonnets, by Richard "After that they presented to his Majesty a Greek Testament in folio.... and two pair of Oxford Gloves with deep fringe of gold, the turnovers being wrought with pearl; the cost 61. a pair." Account of King James's Reception at Oxford in 1605, Winwood's Mem. ii. 140. In the wardrobe account of Prince Henry, eldest son of James I. dated Sept. 28, 1607, the following articles occur: "One pair of gloves lined through with velvett, and laid with three gold laces, and gold fringe curled, Ixs. "Two pair of Cordevant gloves, perfumed and laid with broad silver lace, and fringe curled, at 32s. Ixiiijs. "Four pair of staggs leather gloves perfumed and fringed with gold and silver fringe at 16s. [per pair] lxiiijs. "Six pair of plain gloves with coloured tops being very well perfumed, at 6s. [per pair] 36s. "Six pair plain gloves with coloured tops, and some white tops at 3s. "Twelve pair fine gloves stiched, the fingers and the tops white silk and silver, and some trymmed with taffata and reben, at 11s." Archæolog. xi. 93. In Chapman's All Fools, a comedy, 1606, gloves from half a crown to twenty crowns a pair are mentioned. the celebration of weddings, and the presentation of new-year's gifts', gloves were a very costly article. 8 "About the 14th or 15th year of Queen Elizabeth," [1571 or 1572,] says the continuator of Stowe's Annals, "the Right Hon. Edward Vere, Earl of Oxford, came from Italy, and brought with him gloves, sweet bags, a perfumed leather jerkin, and other pleasant things; and that yeare the queene had a payre of perfumed gloves, trimmed onlie with four tuftes or roses of cullored silke "." The chronicler, writing near fifty years after the period mentioned, is not quite accurate as to the time when this fashion was imported; for the Earl of Oxford, as appears from Lord Burleigh's Diary, did not return to England, from his travels in Italy, till the year 1576, which was the 18th year of Elizabeth. This foreign fashion, of perfuming and adorning gloves, was, without doubt, soon imitated by the English; and, accordingly, I find that perfumed gloves were sold in common, in London, only two years afterwards, in 1578' at a subsequent period, the pack of our poet's Autolycus is plentifully furnished with them 2. That a great number of persons followed this occupa 7 In the Manuscript Diary of Edward Alleyn, the player, preserved at Dulwich College, is the following article: “1618. Jan. 1. Given Mr. Austin a pair of gloves, 17. 10s. Od.” 8 Stowe's Annals, published by E. Howes, fol. 1615, p. 868. The paragraph in question was an interpolation by the editor. 9 Murden's State Papers, p. 778. Florio's First Fruites, 4to. 1578. 2 Gloves as sweet as damask roses, Masks for faces, and for noses; Come, buy," &c. VOL. II. .... Winter's Tale, Act IV. Sc. III. G tion, may be collected from a petition presented to the lords of the council, in 1594, by the glovers dwelling within forty miles of London, against the leather-sellers, who, by engrossing the skins used in the manufacture of gloves (which were chiefly those of deer and goats), had so enhanced the price of that commodity, that if some regulation were not made to restrain them, thousands of glovers (it was alleged) would be forced to beg in the streets 3. In the country, gloves of the most ordinary kind were, I find, sold at so low a price as four-pence the pair; but those used by persons of a superior rank were undoubtedly much dearer; and sometimes, on marriages and other occasions, when gloves were intended to be given as presents, the country manufacturers vied with the Londoners in the ornament and expense of this part of dress. The great profits of trade, however, depend rather on an equal and constant sale, than on the caprice of fashion, or the casual demands made on extraordinary and incidental occasions; and in this surer basis of successful commerce, the trade of a glover was not deficient: for, at that period, in the country, and probably in the metropolis too, he furnished his customers with many articles, beside gloves, of more necessary and ordinary use; with leathern hose, aprons, belts, points, jerkins, pouches, wallets, satchels, and purses: each of which, except, perhaps, the last, the lower classes of society had frequent occasion to purchase. 3 Strype's Hist. of London. 4 This appears from various inventories of the effects of dealers in leather at Stratford. |