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rather to the actual habit of the mind or nature than to that of which it is supposed to be the result, was formerly employed, in accordance with its proper etymological import, to characterize anything the various component ingredients of which were not so mixed as duly to qualify each other.

p. 252, 1. 20; strike out “In the former sense.” p. 278, 1. 4 from foot: After“ the adjective lightinsert : -There evidently was, however, in that marvellous array in which the whole world of words was marshalled in the mind of Milton :

“So, besides
Mine own that bide upon me, all from me
Shall with a fierce reflux on me redound;
On me, as on their natural centre, light

Heavy.-Par. Lost, x. 741. p. 285: Add to note on If Messala will prefer me to you :-—The sense of the verb to prefer that we have in Shakespeare continued current down to a considerably later date. Thus, Clarendon writes of Lord Cottington: _"

“His mother was a Stafford, nearly allied to Sir Edward Stafford ; ... by whom this gentleman was brought up, ... and by him recommended to Sir Robert Cecil ...; who preferred him to Sir Charles Cornwallis, when he went ambassador into Spain ; where he remained for the space of eleven or twelve years in the condition of Secretary or Agent, without ever returning into England in all that time” (Hist., Book xiii.).

PHILOLOGICAL COMMENTARY,

ETC.

PROLEGOMENA.

I, SHAKESPEARE'S PERSONAL HISTORY.

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE was born at Stratford-uponAvon, in the county of Warwick, in April 1564. His baptism is recorded in the parish register as having taken place on Wednesday the 26th, and the inscription on his tomb makes him to have been in his fiftythird year when he died on the 23rd of April 1616; his birth-day, therefore, cannot have been later than the 23rd. It was more probably some days earlier. It is commonly assumed, nevertheless, to have been the 23rd, which, besides being also the day of his death, is the day dedicated to St. George the Martyr, the patron saint of England.

His father was John Shakespeare ; his mother, Mary Arderne, or Arden. The Ardens were among the oldest of the county gentry; many of the Shakespeares also, who were numerous in Warwickshire, were of good condition. The name in provincial speech was probably sounded Shackspeare or Shacksper ; but even in the poet's own day its more refined or literary

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pronunciation seems to have been the same that now prevails. It was certainly recognized as a combination of the two words Shake and Spear. His own spelling of it, however, in a few instances in which that, our only known fragment of his handwriting, has come down to us, is Shakspere.

John Shakespeare appears to have followed the business of a glover, including no doubt the making of gloves as well as the selling of them. He seems to have fallen latterly into decayed circumstances; but in his better days it is evident that he ranked with the first class of the burgesses of his town. He was for many years an alderman, and twice filled the office of High Bailiff, or chief magistrate. He was also, though perhaps never very wealthy, but rather always a struggling man, possessed of some houses in Stratford, as well as of a small freehold estate acquired by his marriage ; and his connexion with the Arden family would itself bring him consideration. His marriage probably took place in 1557. He lived till 1602, and his wife till 1608. Of eight children, four sons and four daughters, William was the third, but the eldest son.

Shakespeare's father, like the generality of persons of his station in life of that day, appears to have been unable to write his name; all his signature in the books of the corporation is his cross, or mark; but there can be no doubt that the son had a grammarschool education. He was in all probability sent to the free-school of his native town. After he left school it has been thought that he may have spent some time in an attorney's office. But in 1582, when he was only eighteen, he married ; his wife, Anne Hathaway, of Shottery, in the neighbourhood of Strat

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