they have been taught to reprefent as an affair of general approbation and national concern.

They fay, that Shakspeare came to London without a plan, and finding himself at the door of a theatre, inftinctively ftopped there, and offered himself to be a holder of horfes :-that he was remarkable for his excellent performance of the Ghoft in Hamlet :--that he borrowed nothing from preceding writers :-that all on a fudden he left the ftage, and returned without eclat into his native country that his monument at Stratford is of copper :-that the courtiers of James I. paid feveral compliments to him which are still preserved :that he relieved a widow, who, together with her numerous family, was involved in a ruinous lawfuit that his editors have reftored many paffages in his plays, by the affiftance of the manufcripts he left behind him, &c. &c.

:

Let me not, however, forget the justice due to these ingenious Frenchmen, whose skill and fidelity in the execution of their very difficult undertaking, is only exceeded by fuch a display of candour as would ferve to cover the imperfections of much less elegant and judicious writers. STEEVENS.

STRATFORD REGISTER.

BAPTISMS, MARRIAGES, and BURIALS, of the Shakspeare Family; tranfcribed from the RegisterBooks of the Parish of Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire.4

JONE,5 daughter of John Shakspere, was baptized Sept. 15, 1558.

Margaret, daughter of John Shakspere, was buried April 30, 1563.

WILLIAM, Son of John Shakspere, was baptized April 26, 1564.6

Johanna, daughter of Richard Hathaway, otherwise Gardiner, of Shottery," was baptized May 9, 1566.

An inaccurate and very imperfect lift of the baptifms, &c. of Shakspeare's family was tranfmitted by Mr. Weft about eighteen years ago to Mr. Steevens. The lift now printed I have extracted with great care from the Registers of Stratford; and I truft, it will be found correct. MALONE.

This lady Mr. Weft fuppofed to have married the ancestor of the Harts of Stratford; but he was certainly mistaken. She died probably in her infancy. The wife of Mr. Hart was undoubtedly the fecond Jone, mentioned below. Her fon Michael was born in the latter end of the year 1608, at which time she was above thirty-nine years old. The elder Jone would then have been near fifty. MALONE.

" He was born three days before, April 23, 1564. MALONE. 7 This Richard Hathaway of Shottery was probably the father to Anne Hathaway, our poet's wife. There is no entry of her baptifm, the Regifter not commencing till 1558, two years after she was born. Thomas, the fon of this Richard Hathaway,

Gilbert, fon of John Shakfpere, was baptized Oct. 13, 1566.

8

Jone, daughter of John Shakfpere, was baptized April 15, 1569.

Anne, daughter of Mr. John Shakspere, was baptized Sept. 28, 1571.

Richard, fon of Mr. John Shakspere, was baptized March 11, 1573. [1573-4.]

Anne, danghter of Mr. John Shakspere, was buried April 4, 1579.

Edmund, fon of Mr. John Shakspere, was baptized May 3, 1580.

Sufanna, daughter of WILLIAM SHAKSPERE, Was baptized May 26, 1583.

Elizabeth, daughter of Anthony Shakfpere, of Hampton, was baptized February 10, 1583. [1583-4.]

was baptized at Stratford, April 12, 1569; John, another fon, Feb. 3, 1574; and William, another fon, Nov. 30, 1578.

MALONE.

8 It was common in the age of Queen Elizabeth to give the fame chriftian name to two children fucceffively. (Thus, Mr. Sadler, who was godfather to Shakspeare's fon, had two fons who were baptized by the name of John. See note 1.) This was undoubtedly done in the prefe at inftance. The former Jone having probably died, (though I can find no entry of her burial in the Regifter, nor indeed of many of the other children of John Shakspeare) the name of Jone, a very favourite one in those days, was transferred to another new-born child. This latter Jone married Mr. William Hart, a hatter in Stratford, fome time, as I conjecture, in the year 1599, when the was thirty years old; for her eldeft fon William was baptized there, August 28, 1600. There is no entry of her marriage in the Regifter. MALONE.

9 There was alfo a Mr. Henry Shakspeare settled at HamptonLucy, as appears from the Register of that parish:

1582 Lettice, daughter of Henry Shakspeare, was baptized. 1585-James, fon of Henry Shakspeare, was baptized. 1589 James, fon of Henry Shakspeare, was buried. There was a Thomas Shakspeare fettled at Warwick; for in

John Shakspere and Margery Roberts were married Nov. 25, 1584.

Hamnet' and Judith, fon and daughter of WILLIAM SHAKSPERE, were baptized February 2, 1584. [1584-5.]

Margery, wife of John Shakfpere, was buried Oct. 29, 1587.

the Rolls Chapel I found the inrolment of a deed made in the 44th year of Queen Elizabeth, conveying "to Thomas Shakfpeare of Warwick, yeoman, Sachbroke, alias Bishop-Sach÷ broke, in Com. Warw." MALONE.

Mr. Weft imagined that our poet's only fon was chriftened by the name of Samuel, but he was mistaken. Mr. Hamnet Sadler, who was related, if I mistake not, to the Shakspeare family, appears to have been fponfor for his fon; and his wife, Mrs. Judith Sadler, to have been godmother to Judith, the other twin-child. The name Hamnet is written very diftinctly both in the entry of the baptifm and burial of this child. Hamnet and Hamlet feem to have been confidered as the fame name, and to have been used indifcriminately both in speaking and writing. Thus, this Mr. Hamnet Sadler, who is a witness to Shakspeare's Will, writes his chriftian name, Hamnet; but the fcrivener who drew up the will, writes it Hamlet. There is the fame variation in the Register of Stratford, where the name is fpelt in three or four different ways. Thus, among the baptifms we find, in 1591, "May 26, John, filius Hamletti Sadler;" and in 1583, Sept. 13, Margaret, daughter to Hamlet Sadler." But in 1588, Sept. 20, we find " John, fon to Hamnet Sadler;" in 1596, April 4, we have "Judith, filia Hamnet Sadler;" in 1597-8, "Feb. 3, Wilhelmus, filius Hambnet Sadler;" and in 1599, "April 23, Francis, filius Hamnet Sadler." This Mr. Sadler died in 1624, and the entry of his burial ftands thus: "1624, O&. 26, Hamlet Sadler." So also in that of his wife: " 1623, March 23, Judith, uxor Hamlet Sadler."

66

The name of Hamlet occurs in feveral other entries in the Regifter. Oct. 4, 1576, " Hamlet, fon to Humphry Holdar," was buried; and Sept. 28, 1564," Catharina, uxor Hamoleti Haffal." Mr. Hamlet Smith, formerly of the borough of Stratford, is one of the benefactors annually commemorated there. Our poet's only fon, Hamnet, died in 1596, in the twelfth year of his age. MALONE.

Thomas, fon of Richard Queeny, was baptized Feb, 26, 1588. [1588-9.]

Urfula, daughter of John Shakspere, was baptized March 11, 1588. [1588-9.]

Thomas Greene, alias Shakipere, 4 was buried March 6, 1589. [1589-90.]

He

2 This gentleman married our poet's youngest daughter. had three fifters, Elizabeth, Anne, and Mary, and five brothers; Adrian, born in 1586, Richard, born in 1587, William, born in 1593, John in 1597, and George, baptized April 9, 1600. George was curate of the parish of Stratford, and died of a confumption. He was buried there April 11, 1624. In Doctor Hall's pocket-book is the following entry relative to him; "38, Mr. Quiney, tuffi gravi cum magna phlegmatis copia, et cibi vomitu, feb. lenta debilitatus," &c. The cafe concludes thus: "Anno feq. (no year is mentioned in the cafe, but the preceding cafe is dated 1624,) in hoc malum incidebat. Multa fruftra tentata ;-placide cum Domino dormit. Fuit boni indolis, et pro juveni omnifariam doctus," MALONE.

3 This Urfula, and her brothers, Humphrey and Philip, appear to have been the children of John Shakspeare by Mary, his third wife, though no fuch marriage is entered in the Regifter. I have not been able to learn her furname, or in what church fhe was married. She died in Sept. 1608.

It has been fuggefted to me that the John Shakspeare here mentioned was an elder brother of our poet, (not his father,) born, like Margaret Shakspeare, before the commencement of the Regifter: but had this been the cafe, he probably would have been called John the younger, old Mr. Shakspeare being alive in 1589. I am therefore of opinion that our poet's father was meant, and that he was thrice married. MALONE.

A great many names occur in this Regifter, with an alias, the meaning of which it is not very eafy to afcertain. I fhould have fuppofed that the perfons thus defcribed were illegitimate, and that this Thomas Greene was the fon of one of our poet's kinfmen, by a daughter of Thomas Greene, Efq. a gentleman who refided in Stratford; but that in the Regifter we frequently find the word baftard exprefsly added to the names of the children baptized. Perhaps this latter form was only used in the cafe of fervants, labourers, &c. and the illegitimate offspring of the higher order was more delicately denoted by an alias.

The Rev. Mr. Davenport obferves to me that there are two