tod of wool, for wool-stapling was part of his trade. Perhaps William himself was sent by his mother to buy the groceries for the feast, and stood conning the list as he makes the clown do, in “The Winter’s Tale.”
In the spring-time, too, came the peddler with all his wonders and treasures:
Cypress black as e’ver was crow;
Gloves as sweet as damask roses;
Masks for faces and for noses.”
Those last must have pleased the little boys more than all the rest of the pedidler’s goods. And perhaps it was from this very peddler that Will Shakspere bought the pair of gloves which, after the fashion of the day, he gave to Anne Hathaway at their betrothal.
But the great event of the year in the quiet country town was Stratford “Mop” or statute fair, on the 12th of October, The market-place was filled, as it is to this day, with clowns and mountebanks, wrestlers, and rope-dancers at their “rope-tricks.” Oxen and sheep were roasted whole. A yoaring trade was driven by quack doctors and dentists. All the servants in the country came and stood around to be hired, as the farm-hands and the maids for the farm-houses still do—the carters with a bit of whipcord in their hats; the shepherds with a lock of wool; the laborers with a straw, And next day, we need not doubt, there were many candidates for the town stocks, as there are now for the police court. There were bear-baitings, too, and bull-baitings—those cruel sports which have only been abolished in Warwickshire within the last hundred years. But in Shakspere’s day bear-baiting was a popular and refined amusement. During Queen Elizabcth’s visit to Kenilworth, in 1575, there was a great bear-baiting in her honor, of which a curious and most sickening account still exists. And when Sbakspere went to London his lodgings were close to the bear-garden, or “Bear's College,” at Southwark, whither all London flocked to see the poor beasts tormented and tortured.
There was, however, one amusement which, from his earliest years, must have delighted little Will Shakspere above all others—I mean a visit from the players, That he inherited his love for the drama from his father is more than probable; for it was during the year of John Shakspere’s High Bailiffship that plays are first mentioned in the records at Stratford. According to the custom of the day, when the players belonging to some great nobleman came to a town, they reported themselves to the mayor to get a license for playing. 1f the mayor liked them, or wished to show respect to their master, he would appoint them to play their first play before himself and the Council. This was called the Mayor’s Play, every one coming in free, and the mayor giving the players a reward in money. Between the autumns of 1568 and 1569.
“The Queen’s and the Earl of Worcester’s players visited the town and gave representations before the Council, the former company receiving nine shillings and the latter twelve pence for their first performances.”
And there is little reason to doubt that our little Will, then between five and six years old, was taken to see them by his father, the mayor, as a little boy named Willis was taken at Gloucester that same year, being exactly William Shakspere’s age; and, standing between his father’s knees, Master Will probably there got his first experience of the art in which he was to become the master for all ages. We wonder what that first play was—some quaint, rude drama probably, such as the one little Willis saw at Gloucester, with plenty of princes and fair ladies, and demons with painted masks, and the “Herod” in red gloves, of the “Coventry Mystery” players.
Not only in Stratford, but in most of the towns roundabout, there are various records of players giving performances. When little Will was eleven years old, Queen Elizabeth came on her celebrated visit, in 1575, to Lord Leycester at Kenilworth; and as all the country flocked to see the great show, it is probable that the boy and his father were among the crowds of spectators and saw some of the plays given in the Queen’s honor.
A year or two later, troubles began to multiply at the house in Henley street. John Shakspere got into debt. The farm at Ashbies was mortgaged. His daughter Anne died in 1579; and two years before her death, young William, then thirteen, was taken from school and apprenticed—some accounts say to a butcher—or, as seems more probable, to his own father, to help him in his failing wool-trade.
For the next five years nothing is known about Will Shakspere, Then we find him courting Anne Hathaway in the pretty old brick and timbered cottage at Shottery, its garden all full of roses and rosemary, ”carnations and striped gilly-vors.” A year or two later, he is stealing one of Sir Thomas Lucy’s deer,—writing a lampoon on the worthy justice,—and flying to London from his wrath, to hold horses at the door of the Globe Theater before he joined the Lord Chamberlain’s players, and became known to all posterity as Mr. William Shakspere, Writer of Plays.
