abilities during the whole course of that reign. He has been thought too severe and vindictive in the treatment of his rivals and enemies: but the part, which he acted toward the Earl of Essex, seems entirely the result of his duty to his mistress and the nation. It must, however, be confessed, that his behaviour toward the great and unfortunate Sir Walter Ralegh is an imputation upon him, which still remains to be cleared up.' •* He wrote some notes upon Dr. Dee's Discourse on the Reformation of the Calendar.' He married Elizabeth, the sister of the unhappy Brooke Lord Cobham, by whom he had a daughter Frances (married to Henry Clifford, Earl of Cumberland) and an only son William, second Earl of Salisbury. His descendent James, the seventh Earl, was created Marquis of Salisbury, in 1789. * A more elaborate apology for this statesman was addressed, soon after his decease, to King James by Sir Walter Cope. See Gutch's Collectanea Curiosa, Vol. I., from which, as well as from the account of his death in Peck's Desiderata, the ambitious may derive a salutary lesson. From his Secret Correspondence' with James (published by Lord Hailes in 1766) it should be added, the noble editor infers, that he was no less solicitous to maintain his own power, than to settle the succession to Elizabeth.' He left behind him, also, various speeches and memorials highly illustrative of his conduct and character. 296 WILLIAM SHAKSPEARE. [1564-1616.] WILLIAM SHAKSPEARE, the glory of his age and of his country, was born at Stratford upon Avon in Warwickshire, April 23, 1564. In the public records of that town, his family are mentioned as persons of the rank of gentry. His father, John Shakspeare, who was a considerable dealer in wool, being encumbered with a family of ten children, could afford to give his eldest son only a slender education. He had bred him at a free-school, where he acquired a smattering of Latin; but by the narrowness of his circumstances he was compelled to take him home, and thus deprived him of all farther advantage from scholastic instruction. Upon this, he entirely devoted himself to his father's business; and, with a view of settling in the world, married while he was yet very young. His wife was the daughter of one Hatherway, said to have been a substantial yeoman in the neighbourhood of Stratford. In this state of domestic obscurity he continued, till misconduct obliged him to take shelter in London. He had the misfortune to fall into bad company. Among these were some, who made a fre quent practice of deer-stealing, and who engaged him more than once in robbing the park of Sir Thomas Lucy,* of Charlecot near Stratford. He was in consequence treated by that gentleman, as he thought, somewhat too severely; and, in order to revenge himself for his supposed ill-usage, he made a ballad upon him. This, probably the first essay of his poetry, is lost; but it is said to have been so extremely bitter, that it redoubled the persecution against him, and drove him from his business and his family to the metropolis. On arriving in London, without money and without friends, he knew not by what means to support himself. At that time, coaches not being in use, gentlemen were accustomed to ride to the playhouse. Driven to the last necessity, Shakspeare (it is said) attended at the door, and earned a poor subsistence by holding the horses of the audience. Even in that humble station, he was noticed for his extraordinary diligence and punctuality, got speedily more business than he could manage, and was compelled to hire young assistants, who were known long afterward by the name of Shakspeare's boys.' 6 Some of the players, accidentally conversing with him, and finding him possessed of a fund of dramatic talent, introduced him to the company; into whose society he was admitted, though at first in a very humble line of acting, † and upon very low terms. *This Sir Thomas Lucy was, it is said, afterward ridiculed by Shakspeare, under the character of Justice Shallow. + His name is printed (according to the custom of the times) among those of the other players, before some old plays, but without any statement of what characters he sustained; and from the most diligent researches it appears, that his most con |