Here the father appears himself a child, in the beautiful revelation of his faith. Is there any fact to lend even a colour to the theory of his defamers? Look on this picture, and on this! Four years of domestic strife, following an enforced marriage! This would class Shakespeare with Dante, as the man who had been in hell. But how different is our impression of the stricken Florentine, our awe of his ghostly genius, from the notions we have formed of the warm, living sympathies of Shakespeare! It was in a different way that these first years were a time of trial, for such they doubtless were, though the humble position of the poet screens him from view, and veils even his occupation. It is always assumed that he is described by Rowe as following at this time the trade of his father; but Rowe merely says that "he seems to have given entirely into that way of living, which his father proposed to him," which may equally mean that he was a butcher, a woolstapler, or anything else. We receive a fuller revelation from Aubrey, who learnt from "Mr. Beeston" that "he had been in his younger years a schoolmaster in the country." This account, indeed, is confirmed by tradition, which cannot be refused belief, when we receive a like tradition of Homer from nearly a thousand years before the Christian era. As Chios exhibited the hollow tree which formed the rostrum of Homer, so Stratford preserves a lumbering old schooldesk, reputed, on equally doubtful evidence, to have belonged to Shakespeare. It has been surmised that he was employed as assistant in the Free School, where he had once been a pupil; but the corporation records show that in 1585 this post was held by Sir William Gilbert, and we may conclude that he had filled it for at least four years before, for in witnessing the will of Richard Hathaway, in 1581, he signs himself curate of Stratford, so that he was then on the P spot, and in the very position to secure it. Any way, such a situation was not likely to be conferred on one who, whatever his present conduct, had very recently been an indifferent character, and, besides, was justly obnoxious to the powerful family at Charlecote, which, as Master Slender was able to grant the boys "a playing-day," we know exercised a control over the school. In fact, Aubrey implies that he set up a seminary of his own, for which there might well be an opening, as boys were not admitted to the Free School before they had learnt to read, and it was in his younger years" that he was thus engaged. 66 It must have been at this time that he lived near the church, close to his loved Avon, to the Weir Brake, the scene of Midsummer Night's Dream,' and the charnelhouse and churchyard. Wherever it stood, the school was not conducted on the terrorist principles of the day. The pupils of Homer, in that time of patriarchal sternness, might be ruled by awe, and the teacher's rod seems not unsuited to Milton, but Shakespeare can only be connected. with "gentle means and easy tasks." The discipline imposed on himself was of a sterner kind, and never pressed heavier than now; for while every day brought new burdens, he could obtain but the barest subsistence. But this simply made him more considerate for others, and less thoughtful for himself. We can see that the rubs of life never ruffled his temper or bruised his spirit. On the contrary, they softened and chastened him, so that he came to look upon them as wholesome discipline "Sweet are the uses of adversity, Which, like the toad, ugly and venomous, 1 I have been told that he writ the scene of the Ghost in Hamlet at his house, which bordered on the charnel-house and churchyard."— Gildon's Langbaine. 2 Othello,' act iv. 2. 3 As You Like It,' act ii. 1. These touching words give us a history, the history of the darkest, but who shall say the unhappiest, portion of his life? For do they not tell us of privation, borne with courage and patience; of anxiety, soothed by counsel; of care, lightened by sympathy; and of toil, cheered by love? The decline in the fortunes of his family and the increasing pressure on himself, must, as he grew older, have frequently led him to reflect on the smallness of the field open to his exertions in Stratford, and once more directed him to London. True, he had derived little advantage from his first visit to the capital, but it had taught him that he might at least rely on a subsistence, and this was encouragement to venture again. It is always contended that he was in Stratford in 1585, because his twin children were baptized there in that year, but the fact does not sustain the conclusion. Aubrey says that he made a journey to his native town every year, and, as he probably first settled in the capital alone, his children may have been born in his absence, or during one of his annual visits. Certainly he had established himself in London shortly after the birth of his first child, when he was in his twentieth year. 212 XXI. ON THE STAGE. MANY will be astonished by the announcement that Shakespeare began his career as an author before he was twenty years of age, and, indeed, we and, indeed, we might shrink from making it, in face of the criticism it will provoke. But the fact is established by his connection with the Earl of Leicester, now first adduced, and, instead of confusing his history, it will be found to explain much that has hitherto appeared contradictory. Before twenty he was an author-on his road to Fame ! But we must not think that the way did not present obstructions, because they are no longer traceable; for this is the surest proof that he was toiling in obscurity. "There was a man dwelt by a churchyard"-this is all we know, except that it was here he wrote 'Hamlet.' His ramble with the players had given him a perception of dramatic composition, and in the hours unoccupied by his school, it turned his thoughts in that direction, and inspired a wish to give them form. The name afterwards given to his son at the font was derived, perhaps, rather from his first play than from his friend Hamlet Sadler. But we must not think that it was the finished play: it could be only the outline, and rather a prophecy than a performance. He set out for London with this skeleton in his wallet-or it might be but a skull, but the skull was Yorick's. One day it would be turned up, and be recognized by princes. 1 Winter's Tale,' act ii. 1. He commenced the terrible struggle for bread by authorship at the greatest disadvantage; for he knew but the rudiments of learning, and was poor, friendless, and unknown. But he was prepared to suffer, and able to endure, and we shall see him who had once been made reckless by misfortune now draw from his trials constancy and courage. There is a story of the scion of a beggared house leaving his alienated heritage with a vow that it should one day again be his; and in the course of years returning from the subjugation of India to be Lord of Daylesford. Perhaps a kindred resolve swelled the breast of Shakespeare when he started on his present expedition; for he steadily pursued a similar object, and, like Warren Hastings, eventually came back to restore the dignity of his family in his native place. But the task to him was more arduous, while the success was more splendid. No friend secured him an opening; no accidents of fortune favoured his advancement; he owed nothing to interest, opportunity, or collusion. Warren Hastings riveted the chains of millions of slaves, but it was a greater work to humanize millions of freemen; and this is what was accomplished by Shakespeare. This was his mission, and it was worked out, like every mission, in weariness and pain, after many a strong effort and many a silent. failure. The story he has left untold will not rise to our imagination; for it goes further back than we see, and all the action is behind. It is like the Ephesian's picture: we cannot remove the curtain, for nothing but the curtain is there. These blanks too frequently interrupt our history. Shakespeare is like a periodic star, which vanishes for a time, and then reappears in its old position. So we now find him again at the playhouse in Blackfriars, the spot where he was last seen. He sprang on Parnassus from |