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for near a century, been involved, I now return to the more immediate object of our present inquiries.

Involvere diem nimbi, et nox humida cœlum

Abstulit:

tandem Italiæ fugientes prendimus oras, Jamque novum terræ stupeant lucescere Solem.

6

....

William Shakspeare was born at Stratford upon Avon, probably on Sunday, April the 23d, 1564; and on the 25th was baptized, we may presume, by the Rev. John Breechgirdle", then vicar of that

6 I say 66 probably," because we have no direct evidence for this fact. The Rev. Joseph Greene, who was master of the freeschool at Stratford, several years ago made some extracts from the register of that parish, which he afterwards gave to the late James West, Esq. They were imperfect, and in other respects not quite accurate. In the margin of this paper Mr. Greene has written, opposite the entry relative to our poet's baptism, " Born on the 23d;" but for this, as I conceive, his only authority was the inscription on Shakspeare's tomb-" Obiit año Do'. 1616, ætatis 53, die 23 Ap." which, however, renders the date here assigned for his birth sufficiently probable.

The omitting to mention the day of the child's birth in baptismal registers, is a great defect, as the knowledge of this fact is often of importance.

7 He died at Stratford the following year, and was buried there, June 21, 1565.

The successive vicars of Stratford in our poet's time were,
John Breechgirdle, 27 Feb. 1560-61.

Hygford, 1563. [Qr.]

Henry Heicroft, Jan. 1, 1569-70.

Richard Barton, Feb. 17, 1584.

John Bramhall, 1590.

Richard Bifield, Jan. 23, 1596.

Thomas Rogers, 1604.

Thomas Wilson, May 22, 1619.

parish. The custom of giving a son the baptismal name of his father or paternal grandfather, or in compliment to his mother's father, was not so common in the age of Elizabeth as at present. Not one of John Shakspeare's children were named after him or Mr. Robert Arden. Our poet, I believe, derived his Christian name either from William Smyth, a mercer, and one of the aldermen of Stratford, or William Smith, a haberdasher in the same town, one of whom probably was his godfather; and all his brothers, in like manner, appear to have been named after the persons who stood sponsors for them. Such, I conceive, was then probably the general, as it was certainly a frequent usage; a practice which we seem to have derived from our German ancestors 8. Our author's only son, Hamnet, we find, did not take the Christian name of his father or grandfather, but of that friend who appears to have been his sponsor; and our author's godson, William Walker, whom he has kindly remembered in his will, was not only his godson, but his namesake. In like manner, the baptismal name of young D'Avenant, who was the son of a vintner in Oxford, and born in 1605, was not derived from his father, or any other relation, but from our great dramatick poet, who was his godfather".

Intelligence, 4to.

"It is often seen each of the two

8 See Verstegan's Restitution of Decayed 1605; Epistle to the English Nation, in marg. in Germanie, that either godfather [he means godfathers] at christning giveth his name to his godsonne, and thereof it cometh that many have two proper names, besydes their

surname."

9 Three of Sir Francis Bacon's godsons, to whom he leaves legacies, were christened after him. See his will.

It may be worth observing, that the nativity of our illustrious countryman, of whom England will proudly boast as long as she continues to be a polished nation, took place on the day consecrated to its patron saint, for whom his native town appears to have had particular respect1: a happy presage, as it

' In an ancient account-book which belonged to the wardens of the bridge at Stratford, before the charter of incorporation was granted, I find various articles which ascertain the predilection of our poet's countrymen to the patron saint of England.

In an account made by Richard Cotton and Thomas Gilbard, bridge-wardens, 23 March, 34 Henry VIII. [1542-3] is this item: "Item, payd Whitley for kepynge the Alter, iijs. iijd." and in a subsequent account, evidently relating to the same matter, 36 Henry VIII." Item, payd to Thomas Whitley for kepynge St. George Alter, viijd."

"Item, payd for scowring St. George harnes, [armour,] ijs. 10d." "Primo anno Mariæ reginæ, &c. videlicet decimo quarto die Aprilis, Richard Pers and John Tayler, wardens :

" Item, payd for dressing the Dragon, and for bering the Dragon, and werynge Sent George harnes on holy thursday, ijs. viijd. Payd for gune powder, iiijd. Payd for scowring Sent George harnes, ijs."

In the account of George Whatley and Robert Pratt, bridgewardens, 8 April, 1 Ed. VI. 1547:

"Payd for scowring Sent George harnes, ijs. viijd.

"Item, to Walter for ridynge Sent George, vid.

"Item to hym that bare the Dragon, iiijd.”

In an account made by John Bell and Edward West, 2 & 3 Ph. & Mar. April 23, 1556:

"Payd to 2 men for berynge the Dragon and Sent George harnes, ijs."

The same custom was long kept up; for in the accompt of Robert Smart and William Wilson, chamberlains, from Michaelmas, 1578, to Michaelmas, 1579, I find—

"pd to William Evans [a smith] for scowring of the George Armour, the vith daye of June, iiijd."

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should seem, that his name and reputation should for ever be united with that of England, and should, to all future time, shed a lustre on the country that had the good fortune to give him birth.

That he was snatched from the world at a time when his faculties were in their full vigour, and before he was "declined into the vale of years," must ever be a subject of deep, but unavailing regret, to the liberal part of mankind. Let us, however, be thankful that this "sweetest child of fancy" did not perish while he yet lay in the cradle. When he was but nine weeks old, the plague, which in that and the preceding year was so fatal to England 2, broke out at Stratford upon Avon, and raged with such violence, between the 30th of June and the last day of December, that two hundred and thirty-eight persons, in that period, were carried to the grave, of which number, probably, two hundred and sixteen died of that malignant distemper 3; and only one of the whole number resided not in Stratford, but in the neighbouring hamlet of Welcombe. The total

2 In the year 1563, between the 1st of August and the last day of December, 20,136 persons died of the plague in London. It broke out again with great violence in August, 1564.

3 From the two hundred and thirty-seven inhabitants of Stratford, who, it appears from the register, were buried in this period, twenty-one are to be subducted, who, it may be presumed, would have died in six months in the ordinary course of nature; for it the five preceding years, reckoning according to the style of tha time, from March 25, 1559, to March 25, 1564, two hundred and twenty-one persons were buried at Stratford, of whom two hundren and ten were townsmen: that is, forty-two died each year, at an average.

number of the inhabitants of Stratford, at that time appears to have been about 1470, and consequently

4 Such appears to have been the number of inhabitants at that time, calculating one in thirty-five to have died annually. I suppose one in thirty-five to have then died in a year on account of the superior mortality in former times from the small-pox, and the ill treatment of other disorders: one in forty would at present be a more just calculation. In the parish of Bookham, in the county of Surrey, in the neighbourhood of which I passed the summer of the year 1788, the inhabitants were numbered, and found to be five hundred. In the preceding year there died there, only eleven persons, that is, one in forty-six. In a country parish in Hampshire, the annual proportion of deaths for ninety years previous to 1774, was found to be one in fifty. See Howlet's Essay on the Population of England and Wales, p. 11.

The baptisms and burials at Stratford during the five years mentioned in the preceding note, compared with the baptisms and burials during five years from 1783 to 1788, confirm the calculation that has been made.

The baptisms from March 25, 1559, to March 25, 1564, were two hundred and seventy-six; i. e. fifty-five per ann. at an average The baptisms from Jan. 1, 1783, to Dec. 31, 1787, were four hundred and seventy-four: i. e. ninety-five per ann. at an average: but of Stratfordians probably only eighty-five.

The burials in five years from March 25, 1559, to March 25, 1564, were, of Stradfordians, two hundred and ten, i. e. forty-two per ann.; which, multiplied by thirty-five, gives 1470, the number of inhabitants stated in the text. If we multiply the average number of the annual baptisms during the same period (i. e. fiftyfive) by twenty-six, the number of inhabitants will be found to have

been 1430.

The burials in five years from Jan. 1, 1783, to Dec. 31, 1787, were four hundred and nine; i. e. per ann. eighty-two; but of Stratfordians only seventy; which number, multiplied by forty, makes the inhabitants of Stratford on Dec. 31, 1787, 2800, nearly double the number in our author's time. In April 1765, they were numbered, and were then found to be 2287.

In 1730, the houses in Stratford (including the old town) were

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