and play-makers, especially of Shakspeare.* The frequent visits of the bard, and the charms of the landlady, gave birth to the surmises which the succeeding anecdote embodies. Young William Davenant, afterwards Sir William, was then a little school-boy in the town, of about seven or eight years old, and so fond also of Shakspeare, that whenever he heard of his arrival, he would fly from school to see him. One day an old townsman observing the boy running homeward almost out of breath, asked him whither he was posting in that heat and hurry. "to see his god-father Shakspeare." a good boy," said the other, you don't take God's name in vain.”+ He answered, "There's "but have a care The sonnets of Shakspeare proclaim it to have been the misfortune of their author to love where "loving he was much forsworn."‡ Scarcely less pains are taken to proclaim the worthlessness than the beauty of his enchantress; he "Swore her fair, and thought her bright, "While she was black as hell, and dark as night."§ The affair is worth pursuing to its sequel. With a perversity common in the history of love, the lady slighted the poet, and fixed her affec * Athenæ Oxon. + Oldys, on the authority of Pope, who quoted Betterton. tions on a youth of singular beauty, the dear and intimate companion of Shakspeare himself. The participation of the young man in this outrage on love and friendship, is somewhat doubtful, as appears from many passages *, and particularly from the hundred and forty-fourth sonnet, which pretty nearly epitomizes the whole of the hapless tale. ; "Two loves I have of comfort and despair, And being both from me, both to each friend, Yet this shall I ne'er know, but live in doubt, Till my A breach nevertheless ensued between the bard and his better angel. But the pangs of alienation were intolerable, and, in defiance of suspicion and perplexity, Shakspeare received his friend to his bosom, with an attachment, * Sonnets 40. 42. 132-4. 137—145, apparently strengthened by its temporary abruption.* But to resume our account of the family of the bard. Hamnet, his only son, died in 1596, when he was twelve years old. † Judith, the twin child with Hamnet, was married in February, 1615-16, the year of her father's death, to Thomas Queeny, a vintner in Stratford. Their children were Shakspeare, 'who died an infant, and Richard and Thomas, both buried in 1638-9; the former in the twenty-first, the latter in the nineteenth year of his age, without leaving any issue. Their mother, Judith, survived till February 1661-2, when she had attained the advanced age of seventy-seven. ‡ The legacies of the dramatist to this, his youngest, daughter, are extremely inconsiderable. One hundred pounds in discharge of her marriage portion; one hundred and fifty vested in trustees, for the benefit of her and her issue; his "broad silver gilt bowl;" and fifty pounds, as a compensation for the surrender of her interest in a copyhold estate to her sister Su sanna. Susanna, the eldest of the poet's family, married, in June, 1607, Dr. John Hall, a phy↑ Parish Register. * Note Q. Rowe, Strat. Regist. sician settled in Stratford, whom she survived fourteen years. * The causes which led to the marked distinc tion, made in Shakspeare's will, between his two surviving children, are buried in oblivion. The fact alone remains, that while Judith is only remembered by legacies to the amount of three hundred pounds, Susanna is invested with the entire remainder of her father's ample property, excepting a few legacies. His capital dwellinghouse in Stratford, called New Place; two houses in Henley Street; various lands and tenements in, and in the neighbourhood of, Stratford; and his house in Blackfriars; are all specifically given to her. The residue of his estate, after the discharge of his funeral and testamentary expences, is devised to her and her husband, who are likewise nominated the executors of the will. This favorite daughter of Shakspeare died in July, 1649, aged sixty-six, and her tomb-stone recorded her wit, her piety, and her humanity. † Witty above her sexe, but that's not all, Wise to salvation, was good mistress Hall. * Strat. Regist. + Strat. Regist. The verses are not now remaining on the stone, but have been preserved by Dugdale. Then, passenger, hast ne'er a teare, Her love shall live, her mercy spread, It is not to be presumed that the art of writing was among the accomplishments of this lady, as the mark of her sister Judith appears to a deed still extant, accompanied by the explanatory appendage of "Signum Judith Shakspeare." The only child of Dr. and Mrs. Hall was a daughter named Elizabeth. At the time of her grandfather's death, she was eight years of age. His remembrances of her in his will are, a contingent interest in a hundred pounds bequeathed to his daughter Judith and her heirs, and "all his plate t," with the exception of the broad silver and gilt bowl given to her aunt Judith. Elizabeth Hall married a Mr. Thomas Nash. He died in April, 1647; and his widow, after the expiration of two years, was united to Sir John Barnard, of Abington, Northamptonshire, where * Wheeler's Guide to Stratford. Shakspeare bequeathed his plate twice: in the last item of the will, which constitutes Dr. and Mrs. Hall residuary legatees, he gives "all the rest of his goods, chattels, leases, plate, jewels, &c." |